#the funny thing about misunderstanding terminology is

[witchcraftingboop]

Chthonic Undertakings

Funny title, I like it... moving on

I haven't talked much, or really almost ever, about how my path is pretty firmly rooted in experiencing different facets of the world via trespassing boundaries - in my UPG, I've adopted the Tartaros/kraters terminology, but I'm trying to use a bit more common terms here. So while I do work that is based on ouranic or grounded associations, more often than not, especially lately, I'm working with more chthonic essences or energies.

I think when people think of the chthonic, most often they think of death, necromancy, burial rites, etc. And while I have had to partake in a lot more death anniversaries and ancestral veneration and elevations as I grow older, I also have started associating my channelling/riding and dreamwalking practices with the chthonic as well.

In my mind, at the start of such workings, I find myself at a crossroads within myself that I've discussed with very few others. Not out of a desire to conceal anything or keep to myself what's not for others, but just because it rarely comes up. I am, as ever, the type to say little unless explicitly asked. However, I was speaking with the Sanse medium I met in PR, and she put into words, much better than I ever could, how crossroads and chthonic influences are present in such workings by their very nature. It was a conversation that I deeply cherish, even if looking back at my writings, I can tell that it was really just reaffirming what I'd already experienced.

Carrying knowledge and intention into even the most fundamental elements of a rite or spell or what-have-you, to my mind, paves the way to greater understanding and success. A couple years ago, I couldn't say much about dreamwalking or channelling. I performed the two without much know-how and was largely reliant upon intention and effort. My undertakings were successful but without much ability for solid repetition, and that was actually really frustrating to me. It was a large part of why I was so open to traveling back to the island, when the opportunity presented itself, in the first place. I wanted to know more, but I also didn't want to rely so heavily and blindly on books.

From my time experimenting and seeking guidance where my own efforts felt insufficient, I've come to see my path and myself in a fuller light. Previously, if you had asked me about my family's blurry history with the paranormal and esoteric, I would've readily regurgitated what I'd been told since I was very young. Now, I obviously am not only faced with the fact that my aunts lied to me about a lot of things hoping to scare me into, essentially, getting married and starting a family asap, but I also have to parse through the facts I've learned from engaging, sans those presumptions and mental baggage, with Spirit on top of that. It is one thing, I think, to be led to a path overrun with misunderstandings and quite another to watch time and space clear what lies ahead and behind you.

So, it is a basic fact: channelling, dreamwalking, and ancestral works are rooted, in my practice, within the chthonic and crossroads. But with coming to understand this fact, I've gained a perspective that has served to further my practice. Now, I can easily get myself to the headspace that is most conducive for these undertakings, and I feel proud of the ease with which such workings now come to me. There's something to be said about the saying: to know the form of a thing is not enough, you must contemplate its substance and learn its truth in its entirety. The mediums and santeros that I've come to know have shown me a lot, from the most basic to the more complex, but I am glad for their lack of heavy-handed dialogues and suggestions. Filling in the gaps for myself and knowing there is support should I need it, has been one of the best parts for me in quietly exploring my practice these past few years.

I have not talked much on this blog for a variety of reasons, some for promises made to people and others for promises made to spirits, but one is that I find verbalizing my experiences difficult. My perspective is less rigid than before when it was boxed in by things other's had told me and that I felt my practice had to conform to, and so my thoughts on things that were once akin to a downtrodden dirt path, now flow like water from one bank to the next. And while I can catch a cup-full at a time, to freeze it into place to present elsewhere is something I am still not very adept at. Half the time, my drafts read like a rambling hyper child caught my thoughts one by one and bashed them all together over a few sparse lines. This is the best I can do for now.

[alazyparallelworld]

what are your feelings on age regression caregivers?? does the terminology bother you?

to be honest. searching for 'caregiving' to find similiar experiences to mind, and the results are overwhelmingly of. "tips for your Little," or, "miguel from spiderverse being your daddy #sfw" is concurrently funny and depressing.

there's nothing wrong with it. i am a bit worried, though, about the consquences of influencing and even mishandling of someone in that very vulnerable headspace. it's definetely popular in "our" section of the internet - fandom, communal, queer, traumatized area. prolly someone(s) in your social circle is a 'little' or something. has a dedicated sideblog or twitter account, etc…

it's unfortunate if anything. there was ONE instance where i was offended at a misunderstanding. IRL, i had two people crash here for a brief period. i informed them of my caregiver. remember: i am bedbound. very little capability to do anything. nowadays i cannot be trusted with cooking equipment, and i sustain off microwave meals & delivery when unattended, everything in my apartment is placed to make things as easy for me, etc. i have a shower chair and have to helped out of the shower and bath.

again. i'm. bedbound. and they were aware of this and my general sickly and need for outside assistance.

and these people went. "oh! okay. you mean like… your daddy?"

i just. blinked. "……….no." ever since i have stressed. I HAVE A MEDICAL CAREGIVER. do not make jokes about it, no inappropriateness, whatever. most ppl have been respectful of this. just, somehow, the definition of 'caregiving' online has corroded that much… despite the blatant medical need, these people thought i was just casually referring to my Daddy. unbelievable (it is believable. i get it. SIGHS but laughs to the side)

tl;dr you can do whatever you want forever. Just be safe. and don't ask people if the person visiting 3-4 hours every business day is their (n)sfw daddy.

[indigosfindings]

it's funny when people get up in arms about litigating the distinciton between top/bottom and dom/sub and especially when the conflation is framed as, like, A Fanfic Thing and/or Cishets Misunderstanding Queer Terminology, because even setting aside the prescriptivism it's like. soo many lgbt people in soo many situations already just use "sub" to mean "sexual recipient" independent of kink/bdsm and allow context to fill in the blanks. what is the Point

[monsieurenjlolras]

Hi everybody! Here's a very important fact about tourettes!

VERBAL TICS ARE ONLY ONE SPECIFIC KIND OF TIC, AND NOT EVERYONE WITH TOURETTES HAS THEM!

I've had tourettes since I was a toddler ( was probably born with it but that's when people started noticing.) Nearly all my tics are physical. When I have told people I have tourette, which isn't often because of the stigma and misunderstanding around it, a lot of people say stuff like "um but you dont yell swear words" and assume I'm lying.

Tourettes is chatactorised by involuntary repetative movements called tics (yes, spelled like that.) Verbal tics are portrayed the most in media because they are usually the most obvious, and because people are like "haha this character yells sexual things that's so funny," cause they're insensative asshole dumdums. (Side note: many people with tourettes do like to make jokes about their tics and think they are funny, but that is totally up to that person and they are not obligated to have a sense of humor about it, and is not permission for you to be an asshole.)

Verbal tics are not always "inapropriate." Sometimes they are repeating word many times after you say it. Sometimes it's a quote from a movie or song or video game. Sometimes it's just a random word or phrase.

Vocal tics are slightly different (this might not be the completely correct terminology but it's how me and my other TS friends have always talked about them.) They involve involuntary sounds, but not neccesarily words, like whooping, coughing, laughing, clicking, imitsting noises, etc.

Physical tics are extremely common. They can be pretty much anything. My most frequent ones are scrunching up my nose, blinking/winking rapidly, rolling my shoulder back in a cirxle and hitting my upper arm against my side on the way forward, full body shivers, and blurring my eyes. Other common ones are clicking ankles or knees together, shaking your head back and forth, and sometimes hitting yourself or objects.

These are all completely valid forms of tourettes!!!! And they are qll completely involuntary. That means that people with tourettes DO NOT HAVE CONTROL OVER THEM. This is not a situation of "well I know you have a mental illness but it's still your responsibility to try and get better and not do things that hurt other people," or "you wouldn't have said that offensive word if it wasn't something you already thought and had in your vocabulary." It is a literal motor disorder and there is no part of the person with tourettes that has made the conscious intentional decision to do these things.

All these types of tics can be very hard to live with, so if someone trusts you enough to tell you about their TS, don't be an asshole and accuse them of lying because you haven't done your research. Everyone can and should reblog.

[scary-senpai]

It's good to see this come up in the manga, because this is something I'd been wondering about/concerned about since I dipped my toes into the OPM-verse: what it means to be a monster, both figuratively and literally. (Well, I guess "good" is the wrong word, but you get what I mean).

I wrote this on my main blog awhile ago (OG post is here), but I think the point still stands, so I'll say it again:

Monster has a funny etymology — it’s an antiquated term for all the things we didn’t understand once upon a time, because we didn’t know any better.

Those bones belong to a dinosaur, not a dragon — and that terrifying, strange and mysterious creature has always been the same animal — even if we called it something else for centuries, that doesn’t alter its core components. But the words we choose influence the sentiment surrounding a thing and that’s why some people see a monster where others just see a Precious Wolf Boy.

The stories we tell take on a life of their own — growing into myth and lore; misunderstandings that we can feed or even dispel, if we’re so inclined to enlighten others. This is why, as an avid reader, nomenclature — an artist’s rationale for picking one descriptor over another — has always fascinated me. And also I worked in a linguistics lab for awhile, that ruined me for anything else.

Today, the word “monster” survives mainly as metaphor or hyperbole. Going back to my earlier example — if I refer to a dinosaur as a “monster,” you might take umbrage with the accuracy of my terminology but you’d understand the subtext behind why I chose it & the emotions I intended to evoke.

Nowadays, people would more readily apply the word monster to other humans — humans that kill indiscriminately and strip away the rights of others — than any unexplained phenomena in the natural world. Essentially, what's happening to Psykos here (and possibly Garou in the future, and definitely Amai Mask in the WC).

The point that ONE/Murata make is a worthwhile one: if you support the right to something, then you have to support those rights for everyone--even people you don't like. Once you draw a line in the sand, it won't stay put.

“no rights/no assets because monster!” is literally something out of the propaganda books (and unfortunately from not-so-recent history).

Anyway, I think it’s interesting that ONE specifically mentioned rights and asset forfeiture. I can’t speak for the author, of course, but it’s an unusual (and very specific!) aspect of world building. It’s a heavy thing to touch and never revisit again.

Given that OPM is fundamentally about subverting tropes, I always read the monsters as neutral beings — and I will point out that ONE goes so far as to frame them as a public health issue (because anger / dissatisfaction cause people to transform) or environmental (pollution causes the water/earth/animals to transform). And fighting monsters inadvertently causes them to evolve and become stronger — which seems like a case against fighting them, and a good reason to focus on the root cause.

This post peripherally inspired by: an episode of throughline where one of the guests more or less said: “we get all high and mighty about the concept of ‘humanity’ and 'human nature’ but in reality no other living creatures are as cruel as humans. you don’t see penguins rounding up and torturing other penguins.”

Anyway just putting that out there as a thought, and also sharing the whimsical imagery of penguin strife. Here's the OG episode; this is one of my favorite podcasts: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/15/977526130/chaos

[walterdecourceys]

system terminology & the tss fandom

okay the way i titled this makes it sound far more intimidating than it actually is. this is p much a post on things to avoid while depicting the sides in fanfic / fanart, so that u don't accidentally equate having sides with having did / osdd !

basic terms to avoid

disclaimer: systems have used many words to describe their experience, and imo it'd be pretty much impossible to write sanders sides fic without using a term that has also been used by a system. this is just covering common system terms that are used by the majority of the plural community and should therefore probably be avoided.

host: i've seen people use this word when describing c!thomas's relationship to his sides, which... isn't what it is. the host is the alter in a system that fronts, or takes control of the body, the most. c!thomas is not the host because the sides are not alters, and therefore neither he nor the sides can front.

don't use "core" to describe thomas either- that's another term commonly used by systems to describe the "orginal" alter, or the alter who is most similar to the body. again, i can understand how this might sound like c!thomas, but he is not an alter, and therefore cannot be the core. here is a good list of alternatives to "core" or "host."

referring to the sides as alternate personalities is another no-go. they are parts of thomas, and while they may function like their own people, they aren't and should not be treated as such. tbh, referring to a person's alters as alternate personalities can be kind of insulting, so ask systems what words they'd prefer you use for them. "alter" is always a safe go-to.

don't call the mind palace the "innerworld"- this is another word used by systems to describe the place where alters live / exist when not fronting. pretty much anything else you can think of calling the mind palace is fine- just not "innerworld."

these are the terms i've seen most commonly used in fanfic / headcanons / whatever- feel free to add on if you feel more should be added. if you've used one of these, it's not the end of the world- just go back and change the wording and you're fine. if you continue to use these words, even after being told it's offensive, that is when it becomes a problem.

------

on a similar note, stop making aus where thomas feels crazy for having sides. “what if thomas didn’t willingly summon his sides? what if he sees them and thinks he’s going insane?” no. bad. stop that. i don’t think i should have to explain why that’s wrong.

plotpoints / concepts to avoid

please, please please stop making jokes about c!thomas being crazy / having did for having sides. it’s super ableist not just toward systems, but people with schizophrenia, delusions, and similar metal illnesses. and yes that includes jokes like “standing in your living room talking to yourself for half an hour- uwu that’s so weird and he should get help for that!” yes i know that the series uses these jokes sometimes. the series should probably stop that too.

on another similar note, stop making the sides more similar to having a system. don’t make aus where thomas is a system, don’t make aus where the sides have to "integrate" for thomas to feel whole (i don't want to explain the complexities of integration in this. google it lmao), don't make the sides "front" or have one side taking control of thomas. the series is already walking a fine line between "funny interpretation of the inside of a singlet's mind" and "possible mockery / misunderstanding of having a system", please don't push it over the edge.

one last thing- be careful when writing the king. the way the split has been set up in fanon is very similar to the way some systems split, and while imo this isn't inherently a bad thing, it can cross into Dangerous Territory ™️. just don't write something where remus and roman are distinct parts before the split and/or take over the king in shifts (like fronting) and you should be okay.

also, don't present the creativitwins refusing as the only option- again, this is very similar to integration with systems, which is a sensitive topic that should be handled with care. (this is why i don't want to give a detailed explanation. please just google it).

that's most of the major points i can think of! systems are free to add on, singlets can ask questions but for the love of god be respectful, if anyone tries to start syscourse or "sanders sides is inherently ableist" arguments it's on sight 🔫

[pinkhairedlily]

Chapter 10 - Student Council President Sakura

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

To Sakura, world still revolved normally; nothing changed between them, nothing mattered enough for her to behave differently. To Sasuke, the world shifted in its axis, having revealed a glimpse of his true feelings to her however falsely convenient she deemed them to be; everything changed between them, everything mattered enough for him to behave differently.

Like flinching at her slight grazes on his skin or his ears picking up her voice in the middle of the crowd noises or his eyes following the trail of her rose hair tied up in a ponytail, bewitched by the sway of the strands as she tousled to get to the front of the fray, her fingers burning a hole through his sleeve.

“HOMERUN!” The announcer screamed through the microphone, the feedback running through ripples in the throng of people. “Uzumaki Naruto nails a clutch win in the last inning for his team in their first ever nationals!”

Screams erupted around them, and as others jumped and cursed and hugged each other, she stood there frozen in time, her hands on her mouth. “He won. He won, Sasuke.” Her voice quivered, and he knew then that she was crying.

“Yeah, the blonde idiot won.” He allowed himself to smile, picking the blonde among the ruckus that enfolded below.

An hour and lesser filled stadium after, the two went down to congratulate their friend with open arms despite the sweat and the grit. Sasuke went with the flow, jumping up and down and circling about in the middle of the pitcher’s mound. They broke away from each other’s hold after several minutes, breathless in the undertaking, and flushed with all the gleeful screaming.

Two firm pats on Naruto’s back and a ruffle on his porcupine hair. “You did well, idiot.”

“Ah I earned a compliment from grumpy. This truly is the best day of my life!” His teammates broke in laughter in the background.

“I’m so proud of you. I’m so glad we took the bullet train to watch your game,” Sakura said through tears. Perhaps it was the height of the celebration or the ride of her emotions; she reached for Naruto’s face and placed a kiss on his cheek.

Sasuke turned away just in time, thankful for the screams, hoots, and whistles that possessed the student body. In his aversion, he also saw another face who kept looking anywhere but at the two. Hyuga Hinata, his ironic comrade in heartbreak.

Haru was in the group of spectators earlier, a pseudo-coach and mood-raiser for the team, his undercut prominent against his cap. Sasuke guessed him and Hinata were civil enough to be enclosed in a common space. He walked towards her, hands in his pockets.

“I’m gonna confess to him in the cultural festival,” she told him before he could reach her side.

He leaned against the bleachers, shutting out the continuing noises from the student body. In the midst of it, he can hear Sakura scolding all of them for misunderstanding. “And you’re gonna get rejected.”

“At least I told him what I felt,” she replied. “Did you already?”

He shrugged, unsure himself whether he got the point across or not.

“You better make it clear. You berated me for giving mixed signals after all.”

“You don’t hold your punches, Ms. Hyuga.” Sasuke sighed. “I think she rejected me already.”

Hinata let out a small laugh, the first in his vicinity. “Well, I’m just giving back your advice. If you think it so, you should ask again.”

“A second heartbreak won’t do me good.”

“The future has a lot in store.” She finally landed her gaze on Naruto and Sakura who separated now and were engaged by Haru in some funny exchange. “Good luck to us, Uchiha. I’ll take my leave.”

Sasuke detached himself from the bleachers. “Without saying congratulations?”

But Hinata continued on her exit without giving him a reply. To his surprise, it was not only him who caught her leaving; a pair of blue eyes also followed after her, mouth agape, hesitant to call her name not when he was in the presence of her ex-boyfriend and ex-captain. Ah, we’re all stuck in this complex hell, aren’t we?

His phone vibrated against his pocket. On normal days, he would ignore the call, but today wasn’t normal and he had to act nice for the favor he asked.

“Did your best friend win?” Itachi’s voice greeted him.

Sasuke didn’t correct him on the terminology. He just grunted a small yes, and somehow, he can hear his brother smiling on the other end of the call.

“Glad my donation helped fund their team’s expenses. I take it you also spent some for the bullet train?”

Again, another small yes.

“That’s nice.” It was the first time he heard Itachi chuckle again after the accident. “I’m glad you have friends.”

They’re not my friends fell silent on Sasuke’s lips. All he wanted was to consistently rank first, have uninteresting interactions…but all of those foiled because of the two. “Yeah, something like that.”

He heard the beeping pager in the background. “Gotta run, little brother. See you.”

Little brother. Sasuke swallowed back an unfamiliar sound.

It was a sob.

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

Sakura tried to look at anything but him – the titles of books on his shelves behind, the heads of other faculty members bobbing, the ticking of the second hand on the wall clock. Kakashi clucked upon seeing her career sheet.

“Haruno, you’ll be graduating salutatorian, just points away from Uchiha Sasuke and yet you haven’t listed a university or a job listing. It’s referral season, and you’ve done a lot of good in this school.” Kakashi held his eyes steady on her, a firm line on his lips. “Don’t you want help?”

She mustered a smile, if that was what they call it nowadays, and handed him a filled out form. Whether he could see that it was written with wavering hands, she’d never know. “I settled on fashion design. I’ve always wanted to be a seamstress myself.”

That was a lie, and she knew Kakashi knew judging by how the firm line stayed. He briefly nodded and let her go.

Sensing the bubbling anxiety, she traversed the noisy hallways and almost sprinted to what has also become her safe space – the hidden spot of the boys behind the library. It wasn’t lunch time yet so Sasuke and Naruto wouldn’t be here. She slumped against the wall, sobs racking throughout her body.

Aimless was what she would describe her direction, untethered her depth, and a black hole her emotions.

“I wish you would let me help you.” Kakashi’s voice made her jump. She scanned her surroundings but cannot find a telling strand of silver in the hedges. He was probably standing on the entrance, just before the canopy of vines. “I didn’t follow you. I just knew the three of you went here for lunch and after-school chats. I’m a faculty, Sakura.”

“Please go away.” She never heard her voice sounded so small…and vulnerable.

“Sometimes, talking it out would make the burden feel lighter.”

She didn’t respond, and he didn’t wait for it. His audible footsteps were an indication he was moving away so she took the bait. If this was one way to be near him, why couldn’t it be in the guise of her pain?

She emerged in the hedges, eyes bloodshot red and strained, only to find him leaning against the wall, waiting with a handkerchief for her.

In an ironic turn of events, he brought her to the program she initiated. When he turned to leave to give her the privacy she needed, she asked him to stay. And that simple silent gesture gave her the courage to face her reality.

That her parents were divorcing, and in a futile attempt to cope, she made herself scarce, almost invisible.

Perhaps she was too much work for a middle-class couple with a lot of bills and unemployed siblings to feed. Maybe if they didn’t have a child that hindered their defining career opportunities to relocate or get promoted to an overseas position. Her outstanding community work and numerous distinction medals just weren’t strong enough to warrant a reconsideration of their decision.

And maybe it was a wrong move to get a part time job and dissociate from the pink-haired, studious Sakura and be the adult black-haired, funky cashier Sakura because it only gave them the idea she can live just fine on her own without any of them worrying about her instead of seeing the whole thing as a call for help.

“If you’re ready, you should share your problem to the two,” her sensei said when they finished with her therapy consultation.

“They have heavier baggage,” she simply replied.

“They’re not comparable. Naruto has an empty baggage, a kid with no past, yet he drags it around. Sasuke has sand for load, it’s leaking at the seams but he refills it. And for you, it could be air or water. It’s because you’re compressing them all inside that they become heavier.” He laid a hand on her head, an action of a sensei to a student. “Thanks for sharing some of those with me, Sakura.”

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

Cultural festival was an amalgamation of confessions, last clinchers, and stolen moments. Whoever snatched a dance with someone they liked would be blessed with good relationship – that was how the saying went among the ranks of students.

It was the reason why Sasuke and Naruto hid throughout the day in their spot, content to eat instant ramen, batches of onigiri, and packs of orange and tomato juices. Throngs of freshmen and second years were on the hunt for their feet as dance partner.

“If only they knew I have two left feet,” Naruto grumbled. “I can’t even enjoy the day with Sakura. It’s pathetic to think I’m stuck with you.”

“I second,” Sasuke said. “Do you think she’ll confess to Kakashi later?”

“She hasn’t made a move yet?”

Sasuke shook his head.

“Wait what do you mean you second?”

Minutes of silence ensued. Sasuke put a whole onigiri in his mouth, too flustered to say it right at his face. “I like Sakura.” The words were jumbled with his chewing, and he was sure Naruto didn’t catch it.

But the idiot grinned and laughed maniacally. “The great pretender finally admits! When did you realize it? Did you have the fireworks in your head too?” He even mimicked a rainbow with his hands.

“That’s a rainbow, you idiot.” Sasuke scratched the back of his head. “When she was busy looking at Kakashi playing the piano.”

“Ah, will we ever have the chance?” Naruto snickered. “Let’s confess tonight, grumpy.”

“Already thought of that and already prepared for it.” Despite the seemingly downfall trajectory of their common affections, Sasuke still managed a smirk.

Not to be one-upped, Naruto pulled out his phone and flashed a small bouquet of dahlias. “Ready to be picked up tonight.”

A Greek tragedy, that was them; two best friends falling in love with and being rejected by the same girl.

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

Majority of the school population have gathered around the giant bonfire on the campus grounds, but Sakura knew Kakashi would be stuck in his cubicle in the faculty lounge, nose-deep in a novel, headphones in to drown out the noise, and feet propped up on his desk.

Tonight was the night she would bare her other truth naked to him.

But before she could even step foot in his space, she already heard the voice of his favorite book drifting across the nooks and partitions.

“You should be with your students.” Giggling and a sound she would only assume was a string of kisses.

“I don’t have much time with you. Let me be greedy just this time.” Hearing her sensei say that painted him in another light. So there was this very attached Kakashi, far from the laidback and chill professor she knew.

Sakura should turn her heels and join the rest of the student body. She should act like a good student model, ignore her teacher’s affairs, and pretend she was never here. Except she tripped while running, and that summoned the two of them to her aid.

“Sakura? Did you need something?”

She side-eyed Rin Nohara and shook her head, her one only good chance blown to bits by her own recklessness and stupidity. She muttered an apology and starts to walk away with limping feet when Rin stopped her.

“I’ll get a drink in the vending machine. I’ll be back in five minutes Kashi.”

Thank God for women intuition, Sakura thought.

But inevitably she was left alone in the corridor with her heartbeat far stronger than the noise of the band outside around the campfire and the unknowing subject of her admiration. She held tightly to his rubber tie around her wrist, the mark etched deeper by each day she leaves it there mangled with her pulse.

He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, a smile etched on his face, the soft moonlight falling on his features only to highlight his beauty mark. It was unfair seeing him like this only to have him break her heart.

She knew she didn’t stand a chance, but even then, she had to hear it clear and loud.

“I like you.”

Were three words ever enough to encapsulate the three years of affection she held for him? One word for each year she felt content with glimpses of him, may they only be passing shadows in the halls, an echoing voice in the adjacent room, the silent arbiter in council meetings or a silver strand she could easily pick out in a sea of black of white.

Kakashi looked at her, his smile still etched, his face still immaculate. “That wasn’t a question.”

“And that wasn’t a reply.” It was nature to look away when one was too scared to face truth, but for the many times he helped her, even without him fully realizing the extent, she owed it to him to be brave.

“But you already know the words.” A head pat, the same gesture that gave her comfort in the past was the same gesture that broke her heart just now. How easy it was for the breaker to give and take minute and mindless affections, but what right did she has to think they were special to begin with?

It was the end of an illusory conception.

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

A bouquet of dahlias and a bouquet of daffodils were hidden behind Naruto and Sasuke. It was dark, already past seven, the bonfire in its final vestiges, its sputtering flames waiting for last-minute lovers to dance in their splendid light.

Within the shadows came the girl of their dreams, hair untangled and morose emerald irises dipped in pools. Sasuke first noticed the bare wrist, the rubber tie gone, and he knew then that she confessed, and she was heartbroken.

He didn’t need to say anything to the blonde beside him. Her stance was enough to convey her present state of being. What she needed right now were her friends, not aspiring lovers stupid enough to break the friendship label.

And so they hid the bouquets on their backs, safe in the clutches of the dark, and when she reached out to them, their free hands already grasped her trembling fingers in waiting.

There they were, three broken-hearted people, wallowing in their own respective pain, sitting on the dewy grass that would leave stains on their clothes the next morning. When the school band started the last song, Sasuke stood up, abandoning his bouquet on the side, and pulled the other two up.

“Would be a shame to end our last cultural festival like this.”

Ten steps later, they were in the middle of the crowd of couples, three awkward friends holding each other’s hands and stepping on each other’s foot.

“For the love of God, you really can’t dance Naruto. Can’t you do a simple turn to the right?” Sasuke complained.

“Why are you putting all the blame on me? You’re the one who can’t differentiate the right from left!” Naruto spat back.

She laughed, and it somehow stopped their bickering for a moment. Bent at her stomach and eyes clinched shut in crinkles, that was their Sakura.

AO3 LINK | NEXT CHAPTER | CHAPTER 11

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: a stupendously underrated classic of queer punk meets synth sophistication, and an album without which we wouldn’t have Dare by the Human League: Homosapien, the 1981 solo opus of Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley. Find out more by watching the video, or reading the transcript below!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about one of those albums that isn’t necessarily the most acclaimed or best remembered work of its period, but nonetheless played an important role in history, and remains unrivaled for its uniqueness: Pete Shelley’s Homosapien, first released in 1981.

Shelley has historically been chiefly remembered as the frontman of the punk act, Buzzcocks. But, despite punk’s reputation for simplicity to the point of obnoxiousness, Shelley was one of many musicians to come from the punk scene with a penchant for experimental or otherwise ground-breaking music. His very first solo release, 1980’s Sky Yen, features little more than a brash wall of oscillating electronic noise, not unlike the earliest provocations of industrial artists like Cabaret Voltaire.

Music: “Sky Yen (Part One)”

Subsequent generations of critics have gone great lengths to coin and define terminology, in the hopes of breaking this period down into constituent parts, but the more I study it, the more I’m inclined to view it as just a huge soup. There was, quite simply, a lot going on in Britain’s underground in the late 70s and early 80s, and in practice, the lines between punk, post-punk, industrial, synth, noise, and other avant-garde miscellany are frequently illegible. As an artifact of this era, Homosapien resonates with all of the contradictions this melting pot would imply, fusing emotional rawness and pristine production in a way that never quite settles down and feels comfortable.

Music: “I Don’t Know What It Is”

“I Don’t Know What It Is” served as the opening track of the album’s second side, as well as its lead single. With a bona fide guitar solo as well as a propulsive, and truly soaring, chorus, it somewhat resembles that most 1980s of art forms, the power ballad. It is, ostensibly, a love song, and is revealed to be one quickly enough, but its portrayal of love is far from kind. While a real power ballad might take the concept of love for granted, “I Don’t Know What It Is” seems to portray it as something mysterious, inscrutable, and dangerous. And I can’t forget to mention just how much Pete Shelley stands out as a vocalist--his high-pitched, perhaps even fried or shrill vocals add a great deal to the song’s sense of unease, and really sell the idea of someone who’s being overtaken by an uncontrollable and dominating force.

Of course, perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Homosapien’s sound is its fusion of the hard, driving acoustic guitar of punk with the electronic sensibilities of its producer, Martin Rushent. I wouldn’t say this combination is ever terribly cohesive in its sound, but I think that’s why I find this album so interesting: there’s a tension that permeates each track, a feeling that things don’t fit together. While Homosapien is a pioneering work of electronic-centered production, enough of the pieces are still in place that you can certainly hear the shape of music to come as you listen to it. It’s not just the synthesisers, but also the use of electronic percussion here--it’s difficult to overstate the impact that so-called “drum machines” had around this time. While reviled by many, both then and now, rhythm machines were undeniably “instrumental” in changing what popular music sounded like. Even synthesiser-based electronic acts like Gary Numan, OMD, and Kraftwerk often relied on traditional percussion, so this genuinely was pretty shocking at the time.

Perhaps the most important element of the legacy of Homosapien is the fact that Martin Rushent would go on to use the skills he honed here to produce one of the most influential albums of the 1980s, and perhaps of all time: The Human League’s Dare, which would go on to cast an enormous shadow on nearly all popular music to come, after playing an enormous role in instigating an era of popular dominance of synth-pop. In that sense at least, Homosapien is certainly a very historically important album, and for that reason alone, I think it deserves a fair bit more attention than it gets. Still, for as much as the electronics might be the most forward-looking element of this album, one also can’t deny that it remains full of aggressive and perfectly punk overtones, as on the crass or perhaps dismissive screed of “Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself.”

Music: “Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself”

While Homosapien has many moments of seemingly being too thorny to get a good grip on, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t also times in which it can feel like a bit more than the sum of its apparent parts, as on its most narrative-driven track, “Pusher Man.”

Music: “Pusher Man”

“Pusher Man” is one of, if not the, most synth-centered compositions to be had on Homosapien, but its insistent pacing and neurotic portrayal of the “low life” theme of buying illicit drugs mean you’ll never confuse it for run of the mill synth-pop. Moreso than anything else the album offers, this track reminds me of the sort of “synth-punk” that American acts like the Units and Crash Course In Science would put forward at around the same time. “Pusher Man” was, at the very least, a sufficiently experimental track to earn the honour of being cut from the US release of the album in order to make room for some non-album A-sides, as happened to many albums at the time. But hey, that’s enough beating around the bush. Let’s talk about the real crown jewel of this album.

Music: “Homosapien”

If you’ve heard anything from this album before, chances are, it was probably the title track, which proved to be quite the commercial success--despite being banned by the BBC on account of its homoerotic content. Given that this very same year, they also came after OMD’s “Enola Gay” for its obviously nonexistent reference to homosexuality, one might be forgiven for thinking that a tune called “Homosapien” was simply misinterpreted. The title track isn’t terribly explicit material, but its clever wordplay nonetheless deals quite deftly with issues of sexuality and personal identity. In the earlier verses, Shelley introduces us to typified roles of gay male sexuality--the “cruiser,” the “shy boy”--only to seemingly doff them with the tune’s defiant refrain, asserting that the only truly important identity a human being has is that of “Homosapien.” Far from being an unfortunate coincidence, the similarity of “Homosapien” to “homosexual” is being employed here completely deliberately, particularly with it being mashed into a single word and thus gaining a greater resemblance to the word “homosexual” in print. It not only allows Shelley to belt out a borderline dirty word, but also creates a sort of unconscious syllogism, suggesting, in a sense, that homosexuals are people too.

With elements of both unapologetic pride in one’s own queerness, as well as the uncompromising assertion that humanity is something much deeper than that, the title track of Homosapien is one of the most fascinating and inspiring queer anthems of its time. Its artsy slipperiness has prevented it from feeling more shallow with time, and its straightforward or raw quality, intensified by that constant acoustic guitar, has kept it sounding equally sharp. It genuinely does surprise me that this album isn’t at least a little bit better remembered than it is. Outside of the title track, most of this album is currently not available on services like Spotify and YouTube Music at the time of this writing, and I actually struggled to present musical examples here. That’s really a pretty high level of neglect in this day and age, and I hope it can be rectified in the relatively near future.

It would be no exaggeration for me to say that Homosapien features some of my very favourite cover art of any album. Homosapien’s sleeve design sees Shelley occupy some sort of sleek, but hollow hyper-modernist office. Geometric forms suggest the world of the artificial or ideal. An Egyptian statue beside Shelley is a reminder of history, and the idea that even the greatest empires must eventually fall. Likewise, the telescope and early computer positioned nearer to Shelley are evocative symbols of science and technology--but in context they seem more sinister, being juxtaposed against a phrenology bust, which evokes the ways in which our attempts at science have caused misunderstanding and great human misery in the past. The central scene is framed in with large areas of black, which make the space feel even more claustrophobic and uninviting, and Shelley appears to be pushed into the background, almost belittled by the inanimate objects. Overall, I think it’s sort of funny that this album’s cover is perhaps more iconally “New Wave” than the music itself ended up being, particularly with Shelley clad in this somewhat foppish white suit and bow tie--certainly a big change of attire for a former punk!

Given the experimental nature of the collaboration between Shelley and Rushent, you might be surprised to learn that Homosapien actually wasn’t a one-off. Just two years later, Shelley would release a follow-up LP, XL-1, which was also produced by Rushent and largely continues the same ideas. While Shelley would never see the success of “Homosapien” again, the XL-1 single “Telephone Operator” would also chart to a lesser degree.

Music: “Telephone Operator”

My favourite track on Homosapien is “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça,” which closes out the first side of the album. If you’re familiar with my other work, you probably already know that I’m coming at this as someone chiefly interested in the electronic side of things, and I think that of everything on this album, “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça” is the closest to being convincing as a synth-pop tune. With a bubbly, synth-dominant sound and lyrics that are more contemplative than aggressive, it’s much closer to the mould of what I usually listen to for fun than a lot of the other tracks are. That’s everything for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça”

[acecademia]

What do you think is wrong with The 57 Bus winning an award? Do you like the book and author?

Hi, nonny!

You have activated Rant Mode TM

All my friends are probably sick of me ranting about this book and how much it pissed me off. (It's one of those "okay I'm done." *five seconds later* "AND ANOTHER THING" situations 😂) I wrote a review of this book a while back, which can be found on my website, but I'll go into some of the major points here as well.

Quick overview of the book: The 57 Bus is a non-fiction book written by a journalist named Dashka Slater. It covers a hate crime that occurred in California in 2013. An agender teen named Sasha was riding a public bus and fell asleep. They were wearing a skirt. Another teen (Richard) was also riding this bus with his friends. He didn't know Sasha, but upon seeing them asleep on the bus, he and his friends thought it would be "funny" to set Sasha's skirt on fire (because Sasha didn't present as female and, y'know, people who aren't women wearing skirts is like "offensive" or some shit idk). Sasha woke up on the bus literally on fire. They were burned very badly and had to have surgery. The 57 Bus tells the stories of Sasha and Richard and covers their lives before and after that horrific day.

Deadnaming: Sasha is repeatedly deadnamed throughout the book. There is no indication that they consented to their deadname being published. Deadnaming Sasha does nothing. To quote a popular social media post "if you know a trans person’s deadname, no you don’t." You delete that shit from your memory and move on. That is not their name, and unless they specifically tell you to use it (like in front of family or other people they're not out to), you do not know their deadname. Sasha is also referred to with he/him pronouns occasionally despite explicitly giving their pronouns as they/them. The author also deadnames one of Sasha's trans friends and uses their transness as like a kind of shock/plot twist like "oh hey these kids knew each other before they both came out as trans!!" Also, the author uses she/her pronouns for Sasha's friend before she reveals her big "plot twist" even though he is a trans man and uses he/him pronouns. I've brought this up with trans friends to make sure it wasn't just like cis girl ally crying transphobia, and the people I've spoken to were all super uncomfy with the author's misuse of deadnames and pronouns. Obviously, that doesn't mean that all trans people feel that way, but it's a weird choice that alienates people in that community, so like... bad call imo

Sympathy for Richard: Look, I am a white girl. I don't know what it's like to grow up in the US as a Black boy. I will never fully understand that experience. I recognize that it is difficult and that there's some frankly horrifying bullshit that Black boys and men are put through. However, that doesn't make it okay for them to set people on fire???? There's a weird amount of sympathy for Richard in a "he had a rough life" kind of way when he literally SET SOMEONE ON FIRE. Like, yeah, we need to address systemic racism in our society and move toward racial justice and equity, but we also can't just be like "oh he didn't know any better. society made him that way uwu" when someone literally commits a hate crime.

Misunderstandings of queer identities: One of these isn't on the author, but one of them is. I initially picked up this book because I was writing an annotated bibliography of youth literature with asexual protagonists/subjects or resources that covered asexuality. One of the Library of Congress subject headings for this book was "Asexual people—California—Violence against—Juvenile literature." Here's the thing: Sasha is asexual, sure. But the crime that was committed against them wasn't because they were asexual but because they were agender. So that's like just a complete misunderstanding of terminology there. Secondly, the author includes a glossary of LGBTQ+ terms but chose to write her own definitions rather than, say, going to a reputable source or, idk, asking queer people? As such, she defines being asexual as "Not physically attracted to anyone," which is kind of reductive and overly simplistic. It's a spectrum.

Sources? What Sources? (aka Citation Needed): SERIOUSLY, LADY, WHERE ARE YOU GETTING YOUR INFO FROM??? She says that she got some information or quotes from the social media pages of Sasha and Richard (and maybe their friends? idr), but other than that, she gives 0 indication of the sources of any of the facts she spews. Like, there are parts where she gives statistics. Like hard numbers. And she doesn't say where she got the numbers from??? There are no in-text citations, no footnotes, and no backmatter explaining where she's getting this information. And like hey, she's a journalist, so maybe she's not used to like doing full-on academic source citing, but come on, you can't just use numbers to back up your argument, refuse to tell me where they came from, and then expect me to just accept it at face value. You can't just say you did "extensive research" and refuse to elaborate. You could have googled that and gotten your numbers from a Twitter shitpost for all I know.

Format: This is a non-fiction book about a real and traumatic incident that actually happened. It was written by a journalist. So why, why does it randomly switch between prose and poetry?? What is the point of the poetry? What does it add? Nothing, that's what it adds.

I don't understand why this book won awards. I'm not sure who was on the committees for those awards that year, but like.... I'd be surprised if there was more than like maybe 1 trans person at most (and I kind of doubt that there was even 1).

Anyway, that's my big rant about The 57 Bus and why I hate it. If there are trans people who felt differently about it, I'd love to hear different perspectives! That also goes for people of color who have comments on the way that Richard was portrayed and treated throughout the book.

[minijenn]

So I was being nostalgic last night and I decided to look back on my old KH liveblogs from almost a year ago now and hoooo boy there’s some fucking funny shit in there. So I figured I’d list out some of my favorite running gags from the entire thing, in no particular order, off the top of my head. All completely out of context too. Enjoy!

Glock Boy

Glock Boy being bisexual as fuck for both Skuld and Ephemer

Sora’s capitalist destroying knife

Chirithy stealing Sora’s capitalist destroying knife

Thug Chirity in general, who smokes and says fuck in every other sentence 

Donald constantly threatening to beat the shit out of Sora while Goofy stands in the background disassociating while in desperate need of a vacation

Aqua being an exhausted Wine Mom who is constantly on the verge of kicking her idiot husband’s ass

Terra being the worlds greatest Himbo

Ven being their stupid rebellious son

Roxas not knowing how Girls work

Me, pulling the grandma with a gun meme up any time Xigbar shows up 

Sora’s Bisexual Scream of Frustration

Sora and Kairi constantly being fucking feral for both each other and for Riku (these kids can’t keep their hands off each other)

Me hating all of KH2 Atlantica and comparing it to Actual Torture

Me, hating anything having to remotely do with Re:Coded

Elsa joins a gang

Thug-wannabe Trinity Trio

The Hundred Acre Wood gang doing Drugs Constantly while Sora stands by very concerned

Me, yelling at Nomura for never giving Kairi anything important to do (thank god for MoM coming soon)

Me, screaming at KH3′s ending and how much it depresses me

Larxene’s Leg

Maybe he’s born with it, maybe its Marluxialene

Sora cheating the laws of physics and also Death itself

Riku being CONSTANTLY fucking flirty whenever he talks to Sora

Mickey is a capitalist shill

 Bald Old Fuckhead Master Xehanort

Nort Juice

Xeha and the Norts

The Many Gay Adventures of Sora and Riku, otherwise known as Dream Drop Distance

Namine Deserved Better

All the KH Girls Deserved Better

Me, sobbing over Xion constantly

Me, ranking all of the sick roasts in KH3, with Woody coming for YX’s life still being the best of all 

Me, yelling and Nomura for not giving Vanitas a redemption arc 

Me, rambling off ideas for Keys while liveblogging KH3

Mansex

Rocksack

Hating on Ansem the Wise because come on he deserves it 

“HI WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN” Whenever KH does a KH 

Stupid things that annoy me about KH3 Corona/Arendelle 

“Rest in fucking pieces” and “blows kiss to the sky” for whenever someone Dies

Me, being annoyed with CoM’s nonsensical plot

Genie from Aladdin making horrifying facial expressions bc old KH graphics 

Reacting to old KH graphics in general 

Pluto is a fucking cryptid 

Eric’s a fish fucker

Maleficent wants the Free Real Estate

Mickey firing Donald and Goofy

Minnie constantly wanting a divorce bc her stupid husband is never home

“KH3 better fucking do *insert whatever here*” And then it didnt

The Foretellers are fucking morons

Skipping a lot of KHX and basically all of Re:Coded bc I couldn’t be bothered to give a shit

People getting actually mad at me for using the wrong terminology and misunderstanding lore in my fucking for fun liveblog like jfc calm down

Probably a lot more that I can’t even remember rn, the KH liveblog was a wild time ya’ll

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Heroes and Villains are Not the Same

That's right, I hold the controversial opinion that heroes and villains are, in fact, not the same thing. Crazy, I know, but I stand by it. Let's step back a bit. Recently, I've come across a few writers and commentators saying something along the lines of "who the hero or villain is depends on who's telling the story". This sounds provocative, I guess, but it disregards a lot of standard terminology surrounding storytelling

Let’s talk about four types of character.

First, you have your protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist, obviously, is the main character. The antagonist is the character who works against the main character. Wikipedia puts it rather eloquently: "The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles," while "an antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist".

It is true that who the protagonist and the antagonist are depends on who’s telling the story. If Les Miserables were from Javert's perspective, then Valjean and all the revolutionaries would be antagonists. If there were a book series starring Draco Malfoy and his two cronies, then Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be the antagonists. And, yes, in these two instances, I think you could call Javert and Draco heroes; the first has a classic Greek heroic flaw, while the second goes through a long redemption arc.

Let's look at another example. If L were telling the story of Death Note, he would be the protagonist. And yes, the hero. Unlike in the other examples, he already was the hero. If you're unfamiliar with Death Note, it features a high school student, Light Yagami, who obtains the book of a Grim Reaper. If you write the name of an individual in that notebook, that person will die. Light, deciding to rid the world of horrible criminals, goes to town with it. But lest the audience see him as some tragic hero who goes down a dark path, it's made clear early on that he has a god complex—assuming the name "Kira"/"Killer"—and is willing to murder anyone who gets in his way, including the famous detective, L, who has been brought on to catch Kira. L is the antagonist to Light's protagonist, specifically, his villain protagonist.

That's why the idea that the villain and the hero are just the same thing from different perspectives is so confusing to me. We have villain protagonists. That is the other perspective. Though I feel like the insistence on heroes and villains being the same stems from our relativist culture, I think it also comes from a misunderstanding of what "hero" and "villain" mean.

A hero is a character who, generally speaking, struggles with some flaw or conflict. Their main arc deals with either overcoming this conflict or eventually capitulating to it. Greek tragedies are built around a "heroic flaw" that undoes the hero no matter how much they struggle against it. Modern superhero stories do the opposite, where the hero fights against internal vices or external foes, eventually winning the day, proving that virtue wins out over vice.

And that is the important thing about heroes: virtue. Whether or not a hero follows the path of virtue to its conclusion or ends up failing and falling off it at the end, they are at least seeking it. They are trying to be good. This is why you can essentially say that a hero is the Good Guy. The Good Guy might fail at the end, but that doesn't mean he wasn't trying his hardest until that point.

What makes a hero different from a villain? Well, obviously, the villain is the Bad Guy. No, really. A villain is "a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot", “a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". While a hero concerns himself with trying to lead a virtuous life, even if they fail, the villain doesn't. Maybe they actively pursue selfish and evil ends. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe they do think they're the hero (a popular idea in writing circles that will get its own blog post later), but are willing to do evil actions to achieve those good ends. The point is, while the hero pursues the good, a villain pursues evil.

So, with these as our criteria, let's look at a recent example: the 2019 film, Joker. Is this protagonist a hero or a villain?

I'll go ahead and say spoilers, but I actually don't think spoilers matter for this movie. I watched about two dozen reviews of the film before seeing it myself—to see if it would be too intense for me—so I knew every plot point going in. It was still amazing! The way those plot points were presented made them intriguing and fresh. Nevertheless, if you want no spoilers, I would bow out now.

Joker is the story of a man beaten down by society and circumstance. Arthur Fleck, as he is named at the beginning of the story, is a mentally ill man working a low-paying job at a clown-for-hire agency. His life is pretty awful: he gets beat up by teenagers, his coworkers don't respect him and even fear him due to his illness, he lives in a somewhat shabby apartment with his elderly mother, his therapist doesn't listen to him, and so on. All this pressure and anxiety finally come to a head when three jerk businessmen on a subway start assaulting Arthur while he is still in his clown costume. He shoots two of them in self-defense, then runs down the final one and shoots him in the heat of the moment.

Due to the swirling unrest in the city—there's a garbage strike going on, the social service budget has been cut, businesses are closing down, and so on—this nameless clown striking out against three rich men starts a movement. The unhappy masses don clown masks. Then they start protesting. Then they start rioting. While all this is happening, Arthur soaks it in. Though he states that he’s not political and doesn't believe in anything, he clearly likes seeing people imitate his look. He likes seeing the story of the killings in the news.

Eventually, through several more dark turns in the plot, he learns that his mother has lied to him about who his father is (maybe? The story kind of suggests that maybe his birth certificate is forged? And there's the writing on the back of that photograph? I don't know...), and that she allowed him to be mercilessly abused as a child. He makes a speech here, about how he has never in his life been happy, but that he realizes his life is not a tragedy, but a comedy. Then he smothers his mother with a pillow.

This is truly the moment he throws away "Arthur Fleck" and becomes the Joker, underlined by him dyeing his hair green and donning an orange and purple three-piece suit. He kills again, on television nonetheless, then basks in the rioting and burning he has caused. He thinks it's funny. Now, we not only have Arthur Fleck turned into the iconic Joker, but we have the city turned from an admittedly grimy and unjust place into the mask-clad-murderer infested burning hell hole that is the Gotham we know.

So, is the Joker a hero or a villain? Does it matter how you look at it?

One of the reasons this movie was so popular—aside from being about the most famous comic book villain ever—was that different sides could see what they wanted in it. Those in favor of movements like Antifa could point out the economic injustice that led to the riots; the movie makes no attempt to hide how unjust the society in Gotham is. People who see such movements as dangerous can say that, even if there were reasons for the protesting, at the end of the movie innocent people were murdered and the city is literally on fire, which the film also presents as a pretty bad thing. Maybe if Arthur was helped to get proper medication and counseling, he wouldn't have felt so hopeless, and thus wouldn't have become the Joker. True. Maybe if Thomas Wayne or child protective services had stepped in—since they both apparently knew Arthur was being abused as a child—and removed him from his mother, his life would have had a totally different trajectory. Yep.

No matter what particular political message you want to take from it, the fact is that Joker, the movie, is about the failure of society to address wrongs and about the chaos that comes when no one does anything about it. Remember, at this time in Gotham, there is no masked vigilante looking out for the little guy. Not yet, at least.

It's also a movie about one of the most iconic villains ever. The fact is, Arthur does not care about starting a movement. He likes that he did, because at least people are noticing him, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care that people are rioting and that the city is on fire, but he likes that the rioters look up to him. He doesn't care that he killed three businessmen on a train, or smothered his mother, or hacked up a colleague and got covered in the guy's blood, or that he shot a talk show host on live TV, or murdered his doctor at the end of the movie, because he liked doing it.

Yes, he does have a motive beyond that: revenge, for being lied to, or made to take the fall, or for being made fun of. As he says: What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a system that treats him like garbage? You get what you deserve. He has a point, and he's bitter, but he also really likes killing people. Throughout the movie, he laughs uncontrollably at inappropriate times— almost always when he is nervous or uncomfortable with the situation. But what does he do after he kills? He dances. Because he likes it. He may not be happy, but he still thinks he's in a comedy.

And that is why we can say that he is not the hero of his own story nor the hero of a Batman movie where it's told from the Joker's perspective. Because as sad as Arthur Fleck's story is, he's never trying to be virtuous, he's just trying to get by. In the end, the way he chooses to get by is through murder. It's tragic, but, as he himself says, it's not a tragedy. He's not a tragic hero. He's a comic villain. The only thing that depends on who’s telling the story is whether or not you get the joke.

[imaginariumrpc]

okay so the lovely @imbicilite​ / @whitrph​ and i were talking and it gave me the idea and we thought it was a great idea to spread it around so here’s how it goes: when talking with someone about pretty much anything tbh, but especially for something that could potentially be triggering, communicate with color codes based on city traffic lights ! GREEN means it’s good to talk about these things and you’re not feeling triggered by the topic, YELLOW means to slow down or stop talking about the topic at for now while RED means to stop the conversation about the topic immediately until green again where the conversation can divert into another topic or they feel safe to talk about it again !! this is EXTREMELY important, because it’s a way to alert others that you’re going to be talking about something that could possibly upset someone because of the subject matter, especially for those who may get triggered by a certain topic - even without you realizing it because squicks and triggers can honestly be anything, it could be different words or phrases or certain topics - and can cause severe anxiety in those affected, even panic attacks or flashbacks, and because we want to be considerate and respectful towards one another, it’s important that we use these to help our friends and fellow rpers know that we’re going to be posting or talking about something they might not want to see or talk about, and it’s of utmost importance to make them feel safe, it’s best to use this to be a more supportive friend and a member of the rpc!!

on a sidenote, i’m also here to tell you about tone indicators !! keep in mind that i didn’t come up with nor invent the concept of tone tags itself, but it was being spread around for a while now and i’d figured i’d talk about it !! essentially, tone indicators are used to indicate if the person is joking, being serious, etc., neurodivergent people often have trouble conveying and understanding emotion and tone through written text, using tone indicators is really helpful for neurodivergent people to make it easier for them to read/convey, it is also very helpful for people with anxiety. i encourage anyone who reads this to also type the meaning of the tone tag ( i.e: i love you !! /p for platonic ), so it is more accessible for neurodivergent and disabled people, like those who use screen readers.

“why should we use tone tags?” one might ask, but as an autistic, disabled and otherwise neurodivergent person myself, sometimes i don’t always get my friends and fellow mutual’s tones by their message but when they use tone indicators, it helps me understand and, not to mention that it can be really helpful and avoid misunderstandings. i would also like to note that NOT ALL neurodivergent people want you to use tone indicators on them, so if they don’t want you to use tone tags on them, please respect their wishes.

“i don’t like tone tags!” one might add, well, okay... but don’t make fun of the people that use them, it’s not a big deal, and if you’re a neurotypical who insists on not using tone tags when a neurodivergent person clearly asked you to, get your head out of your ass.

“using /j at the end of a joke ruins it!!” one might bitch, and okay but... it might be ruined for you, but it still makes me laugh, personally, so please try and get used to it, and not to mention, what’s more important: making sure you’re clear with your tone so that there’s no misunderstandings or throwing a fit just because the joke’s ruined for you?

additionally, some other things to keep in mind !! please do not mock the use of tone tags, you may not need them but some people do, not everyone can tell when something is a joke, when someone’s either being platonic, romantic or sexual in intentions, etc.,, especially when there’s no visual cues or tones of voice to help us, just be nice about it, it’s... really not hard, man. if you don’t use a tone tag and someone reads the tone of your statement incorrectly, do not get upset with them or laugh at them for not getting it - that is perpetuating ableism and/or sanism, whether you intentionally intend it or not. just kindly clarify and next time, keep in mind that tone tags are very helpful for neurodivergent, disabled and people with anxiety disorders. using a tone tag isn’t an excuse to be mean either, you can’t just say something mean or not cool and then put /j ( “joking” ) after it to get away with it, don’t be an ass. if you’re saying something that could be anxiety inducing for others, i would highly recommend putting the tone tags at not only the end but also the beginning of that post. do not intentionally use tone tags incorrectly “as a joke”, to confuse people, etc., the entire point of tone tags is to clarify, not confuse people, if you intentionally use them incorrectly, you’re an ass. keep in mind that no one has to use all the tone tags, use what you’d like, respect others who use what they would like, use them however feels rights to you. for me personally, sometimes i use multiple, sometimes only one, or sometimes none at all, just do what feels right, depending on who i’m talking to and how long i’ve known this person or group of people i’m speaking to, it’ll be fine, and if someone asks for clarification on what you mean, that’s okay, kindly clarify for them. additionally, please be patient if people don’t know what tone tags are, someone might not even be aware of what they are and that’s not their fault, just patiently explain it to them or link them to a source !! education always helps !! please don’t use “/srs or serious” as a joke, some neurodivergent and/or disabled people don’t need you to use three tone tags, and in my case, i’m presuming you’re neurotypical if you’re doing that when conversing with me, but what i’m trying to say is it looks like you’re babying us neurodivergents / disabled folx, so try to use only two tags ( that is, if that person is okay with it !! ), because some people don’t need you to use three tags.

please note that the following aren’t every single example out there and there are different terminologies in different languages, but they are important, a few examples of these are: 

“/j = joking / used when saying something in a joking manner, “so im pretty much the president of oreos /j”, 

“/hj = half joking / used when saying something that’s kind of a joke but kind of serious / “well,,,,, im usually right /hj” / 

“/s or /sarc / refers to the opposite of what you really want to say / “i just [clenches fists] love...... being sad..... /s”, 

“/srs / used when saying something you really mean / “i really appreciate you /srs””, 

“/nsrs = not serious / used when saying something not too seriously / “you’re the worst /nsrs”, 

“/lh = lighthearted = used when something’s said lightheartedly / “hEY LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS /lh” / i’d say something like this when me and my friends would get into a silly argument and they’re trying to ask my opinion on a topic”, 

“/ij = referring to something that’s only understood by people with special knowledge about something, typically only a small group of friends or a group of people would be aware of, those outside of the group would most likely be confused by it or not find it funny in the same way people within in the group would / “aAAAAAAAAA MY NUGGIES!!!!! /ij””, 

“/ref = a reference to media, usually movies, tv, music, etc., “yOU SHALL NOT PAAAAAAAASSSSSSS /ref”, 

“/t = teasing, use when teasing someone or provoking someone, often playfully, “aiight sure mx idk wtf im doin /t”, 

“nm = not mad, to indicate you’re not actually mad or upset about something / “ow... i felt that /nm”, 

“lu = a little upset / used when about about something or someone, but not too upset / “oh... that sucks /lu”, 

“/nbh = “nobody here” = often used when talking about something vague to ensure your friends it’s not indirectly to or about them / “sometimes i just wanna..... tell someone to shut the fuck up /nbh”, 

“/nay = not at you / used when saying something but not meaning it at the person you’re responding to / “god i can’t stand lame people /nay”, 

“/ay = “at you”, make the person aware you’re addressing them”, 

“/g or /gen = used when saying or asking something for real / “i’m proud of you /g” or “have you watched the news?? /gen”, 

“/th = threat, used when giving a genuine threat / “if you don’t stop, i’ll block you /th”, 

“/p = platonic, a friendship type of love, used when saying something with platonic intentions / “i love you /p”, 

“/r = romantic intentions, typically of partners when saying something with romantic intentions / “i love you /r””, 

“/a = alterous, an attraction best described as wanting emotional closeness without necessarily being at all or entirely platonic and/or romantic, used when saying with alterous intentions / “i love you /a””

“/m = metaphor / used when saying something metaphorically / “god you’re a shining star /m””

“/li = literal / used when saying something literally / “i hate pears /li””

“/rh = rhetorical / a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer / used when saying or asking something rhetorically / “who cares? /rh””

“/hyp = hyperbole, exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally ; “i have a million things to do today”

“/sx = sexual intent, used when meaning something in a sexual way”, 

“/nsx = nonsexual intent, used when meaning something in a not sexual way”, 

“/pos = positive / used when saying something and meaning it in a positive way / “omg im gonna cry /pos”, implied they’re crying for a happy reason”, 

“/neg = negative / used when saying something and meaning it in a negative way / “omg im gonna cry /neg”, implied they’re crying for an upsetting reason”, and 

“/neu = neutral / used to show that what you’re saying is neutral or that you feel indifferent about it / “yeah i don’t care man do what you want /neu”, you don’t care about something but not in a mean or a negative way, you’re just indifferent”.

on a final note, HERE is a list of tone tags both in english and in other languages ( namely italian, spanish, portuguese, french, polish, german, lithuanian, serbian, dutch, indonesian, romanian, bulgarian, russian, hebrew, japanese, mandarin and korean !! ) and HERE are the list of sources about the content of tone tags !! i wish everyone reading this a lovely day !!

[michelemoore]

Takhuk,

November, 2022

Michele Moore-V

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. Dr. Seuss

In late October, while walking along a street, I saw a man pulling the last of the brown dried leaves from a tree in front of what I assumed was his house.

Yes, that is what I saw, as, on a gorgeous late October day, I walked down the street toward the salon in my neighbourhood where I was scheduled for a haircut. The sun in the blue sky was so so bright and warm I might have been ‘walking on sunshine, wooah’ and oh yeeah, don’t it feel good! And then I saw, across the street, this man with his arms reaching into the lowest branches of a modest sized, mostly bare tree. I looked closely to see what he was up to, because that’s what I do when I’m out walking anywhere, I watch. People, squirrels, cars, ants, clouds. Birds! Big shiny black beetles lumbering across the sidewalk. You know, the usual things the world offers us for amusement during a city stroll.

The tree the man was concerned with looked to be about as ready for winter as most other trees around, just a few leaves hanging on, hanging in there. I didn’t see any objects being draped from the branches, I didn’t see any tools in his hands. So I slowed my pace to take a closer look. Sure enough, there he was, tugging and twisting those last stubborn leaves off their stems and dropping them on the grass below, where sat, put putting away, a little old lawn mower. With no bag on the mower to collect the dead leaves, I assumed the old guy’s fall cleanup routine involved chewing up the dead leaves with his mower and leaving the bits on the grass to decay and eventually enter the soil below and form humus. (how’s that for good gardening terminology?) A sensible approach, I thought, to the management of a small city front lawn with just one modestly sized leaf bearing tree.

Forgive me if you don’t share my humour, but when I really understood that he was truly removing the few remaining leaves on that now virtually naked tree, I cracked up. Out loud. But not so loud as to catch his ear, I would not have wanted him to misunderstand me. I wasn’t laughing at him,  I was laughing at my species and the things we will do.

Giggling to myself as I slowly tripped along on the opposite side of the street, I watched as he picked and twisted one leaf after another, having to exert some significant effort to disengage those determined brown but obviously still kicking leaves from their stems.

Continuing on with my walking and giggling, I imagined various scenarios as to why the man was using precious time in his sunset years, what an awful term but honestly, how else shall I put it, the guy looked as old as the hills, which I hope to be some day too so long as I can still push a lawn mower, to denude his tree of its last few fall leaves? Why could he not just let them drop when they were good and ready?

Could it have been that he had nothing better to do? Surely though, if he just wanted to be outside he could have simply stood and watched….the birds, the cars, the ants, the people. He could have gone for a walk. Certainly if he could still push a lawn mower he could walk. Maybe, being of a very mature generation, perhaps he felt he had to be productive throughout the working hours of a regular week day. That, even at his advanced age, he could not just be outside for the simple pleasure of being out in the sunshine. In that case, could he not have hosed down his steps? Raked the dirt in his flower beds? Again and again? Inspected his siding and windows?  

Perhaps he had a thing for tidiness, a thing so powerful that he would find the sight of a few renegade leaves sitting on his lawn after he had packed away the mower for the season utterly intolerable. Maybe a bit of that Type A personality. (I have this problem when it comes to kitchen towels. Can’t stand seeing them helter skelter, need them neatly folded on the counter or out of sight.) Perhaps, for this gentleman, a sense of order, a sense of the proper way of things, means that when trees lose their leaves they are to lose every single one of them, that bare branches means, Bare branches!

Or, perhaps he had a wife inside who drove him to it. SHE perhaps was the one whose mind and soul felt shredded every time she looked out the picture window and saw those half dead leaves triumphantly fluttering in the wind. Or, maybe he had a wife inside who couldn’t care less, it was just that she had the television on too loud and he just had to get OUT! Or she was cooking liver and he could not bear the odour?

By the time I got to the salon I had exhausted my mind of all possibilities. I shared the story with my stylist. We decided the fellow was a man who liked to accomplish things, liked being outside, had run out of ideas and was bored out of his mind. We also speculated about a wife inside, and the possibility that there was no one inside, which made me think I should stop and say hello if the man was still outside on my return trip. He wasn’t, but you know I will be watching for him next time.

We all do inexplicable things, right? And most of the time, we can simply laugh at ourselves, and at each other, and be grateful for the entertainment we provide each other.

I hope your autumn has been equally entertaining and that your cup overflows with laughter and love as we head into the season of sparkle and snow. 

www.michelemooreveldhoen.com

photo courtesy of Clem Onajeghao/Unsplash

[glycerineclown]

matan4il replied to your video: i’m doing opinion research and falling in love at...

This is both funny and wrong, and I say that as a Jew, the granddaughters of Holocaust survivors and a person who has devoted her life to educating others on the evils of Nazi ideas and how easily they can be replicated today. If you legitimize violence as a political tool as long as there are other, democratic tools at your disposal, you can’t know where that’s going to stop. It’s nice to hope it would be restricted to Neo Nazis only (and let me point out here we can

only be talking about Neo Nazis when talking about the likes of Spencer… The only Nazis around today are the men and women in their 80’s and 90’s who were Nazis back then. There’s a difference between Neo Nazis and their ugly, hateful ideology and the Nazis who actually perpetrated crimes back then), but you can’t be sure of it. That was my thinking after Spencer was hit (after some measure of enjoyment, I have to admit) and I have since heard about people going

around justifying targeting other people, so my fears were not unsubstantiated. Please don’t contribute to the spread of violence as anything other than a last resort when all other democratic tools had failed.

i totally hear you on the complications of justifiying violence and i don’t trust people to have good judgement in general for very many things, so i know that this mentality has every opportunity to go south. in normal life i am a white liberal christian who would be such a weenie in any actual physical fight because i’ve never had to be in one, and i would be very wary of people who want to go out and do that. but here’s the deal.

i’m doing research on these opinions because in the fanfic i’m writing i sent frank castle off to kill some neo-nazi shitheads and (in a very short scene that’ll probably be blink-and-you’ll-miss-it) am trying to portray different sides of the media reaction to their deaths. frank is a person with the capacity to kill people and i’m using that (strictly from karen’s POV) as a way to express the way i’ve felt about donald trump and our current climate in a way that won’t get me arrested. the audience has watched the punisher and is coming to the fic with an understanding about these characters’ opinions on extreme gun violence and the show deals with the consequences of that violence from multiple perspectives. and really i guess it hasn’t even crossed my mind that i would need to make some kind of disclaimer about how i don’t condone violence but if it was frank vs nazis i trust him to do it right so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

like. i think that the people who display swastikas and other nazi insignia are committing violence by existing and they should pay for it. (maybe not literally with their lives unless they have actually attacked/killed people out of bigoted hatred, but in my fic they have.) civil rights aren’t civil.

as for neo-nazis vs nazis, i mean. obviously send those old assholes to trial for their war crimes. but i haven’t bothered to specify my terminology when talking about current neo-nazis a lot of the time, probably because @aimmyarrowshigh doesn’t and she’s my #1 jewish activist friend. this could be a situation where both sides have good arguments for the way they use language but i am obviously not the person to go to for an opinion about it. or maybe i’m just misunderstanding your point.

also aamer rahman is cute as fuck amirite and this probably came up in my youtube search for news clips because i just watched hari kondabolu’s episode of aamer’s youtube show CAN WE KICK IT the other night

[ja0-s-blank-canvas-fic]

Part 2 - Chapter 41 - Welcome To Our Home

Blank Canvas Part 2

AO3 - here

Fanfiction.net - here

It's family fluff time!!! :D We've got shopping and cats. Hitoshi torn between wanting to stay with them but doubting it will last. Don't worry though. The Purple Panda will learn in time. ;)

We've got some texting going on this chapter. I know lots of people like chat fics but this is not one. Though I think I've made it pretty clear with the texting in this. However there won't be any chat speak because I don't really use it myself. Maybe sporadically when it seems needed but in general any texting will come out like normal speech. ^___^

Warning for brief mentions of muzzles. Also just general thoughts of rejection as a result of years of bad experiences in the foster system.

Linktree to all the things!

End notes for the chapter are under the line.

The family fluff has officially begun! Yamada is so someone to spoil their child rotten. Hitoshi's room will transform into his own with time as he grows comfortable in the YamaZawa home. If anyone has fun ideas for his room or wardrobe let me know! I'm not really one for fashion and typically go for whatever is comfortable. Aizawa won't have much of anything to say about Hitoshi's stuff but Yamada for sure is going to have an opinion. :P I do have him asking Hitoshi what his preferences are next chapter but any ideas are welcome!

I hope the texting was alright! I don't plan on having much texting in this fic. Really only when it seems necessary. Looks like Inko is going to find out about Hitoshi's situation. Wonder how she's going to react. ;) Of course Izuku wants to help his friend in any way he could. Who better to help him than mama bear Inko?

Hitoshi is going to be doubtful about his new living situation for a while. Years of hopping between homes will do that, ya know. But in time he will learn that they do indeed want him. For the time being they will take it one day at a time. With the help of the cats being their adorable selves. ^___^

Fun Facts About Japan:

This one is sort of tied to the EraserMic relationship dynamic. I was talking with my friend in Japan about MHA 'cause I sent her a picture of my chibi Tokoyami jack o' lantern I carved for Halloween. I posted it to my deviantart account and you can see it here if you want! ^____^ Along with all my Joker craziness...heh heh. Oh well. :P

Anyway, we got talking about the main trio of Izuku, Shouto, and Katsuki. She compared them to the Japanese theater style manzai ( 漫才 , まんざい ) that in English is the comedy duo. Think Abbott and Costello's 'Who's on first?' which also has a Shakespeare version both of which I find hilarious. XD Anyhoo, she compared Katsuki to the 'straight man' and Izuku and Shouto as the 'funny guy'. Which to me applies to Aizawa and Yamada respectively as well.

Manzai is the traditional version that has two performers called manzaishi ( 漫才師 , まんざいし ) dressed in kimono. The tsukkomi ( 突っ込み , つっこみ ) is the 'straight man' aka Aizawa or Katsuki. They typically carry a fan and are characteristically 'smarter' and 'bully' their partner. The other half is the boke ( ボケ ) who is the 'funny man' aka Yamada, Izuku, and Shouto. They're the 'simple minded' partner who causes misunderstandings that tick off the tsukkomi leading to the 'bullying'. Which veeeerrryyy much is how Horikoshi has set up Katsuki and Izuku. Complete with the traditional physical violence and verbal abuse. You can find more info on tsukkomi and boke here among other Japanese comedy terminology.

The more modern term for Japanese comedy is owarai ( お笑い , おわらい ) that is a blanket term for the distinct way Japanese people approach comedy. That includes cheesy sound effects, Japanese puns, and hidden cameras. Or even just having fun with the language barrier like comedian Degawa did on the show Sekai no hatemade itte-Q! or ItteQ! for short. They would give him a question in Japanese to answer and the challenge is he has to ask with his limited English skills. This is a video example of him trying to figure out the names of the three seas around Canada. That same youtube channel as some other videos of his as well along with other silly videos. I would have loved to include a link to watch the actual episodes of ItteQ! but unfortunately I couldn't find any. Just youtube clips. But if you look up owarai on youtube you can find a ton of videos of Japanese comedy. :)

That's it for this update! We've got more family fluff coming next time. This new family gets to know each other better! A loud man is doting, a tired man gets embarrassed, and a tired teen is just trying to get used to the idea of living with them. Oh also cats being adorable as ever. ^____^ Let me know about any typos or weirdness! TTFN!