#there are just so many things that are RIGHT THERE and they just....aren't using them

[matt0044]

I always think about the final scene of RvB Season 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5jM_mrOqec

If you didn't click for spoiler's sake, a character is about to do something that will save lives at the expense of his own. He rambles off in his final moments how a lot of characters in films who do this never truly know if their sacrifice meant anything in the moment or long run.

That's the same thing we've always been facing in speaking out against injustice. Scrubbing out the stains of bigotry may take lifetimes as it's been entrenched in society for centuries, making us believe that some people just aren't deserving of human rights.

But contrary to popular belief, we have not gone back to the 1950s. Why? Because there are many who call out the injustices happening now without hesitation. They might not be calling the shots but they will call out whoever's calling the shots.

More grow up learning of the fight against slavery and segregation so that when all the Trumps of the world try to drag us back, we can plant our feet to call them out for what they are. For what they've always been.

There will never be a time where we can kick up our feet and rest easy over Social Justice being acheived. There's always a fire to fight. But we can make those fires a lot more controllable for the future.

my other grounding technique is remembering that the earliest abolitionists & the earliest suffragists had no proof that the world would ever make possible what they fought for and indeed many of them did not live to see it come to pass. and yet they did not succumb to despair so it would be disrespectful to their memory to let it overtake me

[leupagus]

On Taash

I think one reason people keep pretending that Taash's character is badly-written is because they remind them of what they were like as a young adult: blunt, convinced that they were always right (and everyone else was stupid), and flailing around for an identity that didn't hurt. That often makes for an unpleasant person to be around, and someone who at times is even unlikable. But we never see the beam in our own eye while discussing the splinter in someone else's, so I think there's a certain degree of "well I certainly wouldn't yell at my mom like that!" (You would, honey. You would.)

IMO, Taash is one of the best-written companions in Veilguard precisely because they are thoughtless and callous and blow up at people for no reason at times. They're trying to figure their shit out! They got voluntold to work with the Veilguard without any warning, under a leader who's a complete stranger and alongside people she's never met and often has fundamental conflicts with. They've got an extraordinarily complicated relationship with their mom, who gave up her entire life and culture and place in the world out of love for them, but who withholds approval in a way that so many of us can relate to. They're confronting the wrongness of their old gender expression (woman), then embracing a new one (nonbinary) almost as soon as they learn about it—which is how a LOT of identity works, remember? Remember learning the term "trans" or "bisexual" or "genderfluid" and thinking oh shit that's me? It's relatable, but it's still uncomfortable as hell. Considering all that Taash has on their plate, including hiding a fundamental aspect of who they are (their dragonbreath), it's a wonder they're as stable as they are.

As for the conversations about their identity that people are claiming are "cringe" or "unrealistic"—my babies, I have listened to more people talk through their gender and sexuality journeys than you've had hot dinners, and let me tell you they often sound a LOT like Taash. That's not a bad thing! But it's like learning a new language—or heck, joining a new fandom—where you use the unfamiliar terms in clumsy ways and want to talk about it all the time, even to people who aren't fluent. (Taash talks about other shit too; yes, a lot of their quests touch on their gender, but a lot of them don't and frankly expecting someone who's only just figured themselves out to not talk about it is...kind of cruel. Of course Taash isn't a real person, but man I hope you people complaining about how often you have to "deal with" Taash's gender conversations don't have any friends who have trusted you with those conversations.)

Taash is extraordinary in so many ways—the way they talk to Spite directly like a kid who needs firm boundaries; the possible romance they have with [spoiler]; the nuanced and emotional way they talk about dragons; the way they care for birds and refugees and anyone else in their orbit, if they're allowed to. They are one of my favorite companions (although right now it's kind of a seven-way race between all of them), and I have snort-laughed at more of their lines than any other companion by a country mile.

It's just a shame that so many people saw a reflection of the more grating parts of their own personality and so decided that Taash is badly-written, instead of considering the possibility that they are simply badly-heard.

[lukolabrainrot]

Calm theory Anon here 🩷🩷🩷

Guys today has been a glorious day filled with so many gems. From Luke photo shoot to the tik tok to Nic commenting. So many great things happening. I want to touch on a couple things. First thing Luke's new found confidence when speaking. His body language and his tone showed me he was so much more confident in his speech and thoughts. That happens when you're confident in yourself. Before if we think back he would wait for Nic to speak and agree with whatever she said. I'm not saying he never spoke what he felt. But the man was holding part of himself back. He was comfortable letting Nic take charge in interviews. Now his tone is strong and his answers are well thought out. That only comes with inner growth which happens by a lot of self reflection. Our boy Lukey did the work he needed to grow. And I'm here for this Luke which just makes him hotter in my opinion. Now I wanted to touch on Luke and Nic presence online with each other. Do I believe more going on positively then we think? Yes. I think they are together. Do I know for sure? Nope I (unlike cough others cough) will never say something as fact when I'm not apart of either of their inner circles. But one thing I'm going to keep stressing is these photos are a moment in time that was capture correct. As you know a moment is fleeting and we can't really tell any type of story using moments right. So do we know what is happening BTS? Nope we have no clue but we do know from their own mouths that they have a special relationship. Do we see that online? Nope and until they come out officially as a couple we won't. We will get the likes and comments if we are lucky because let's be honest the way the fandom has treated them both we don't deserve that. They are not going to be lovey Dovey online. They just aren't. They won't until they announce that they are a couple. Now one thing we have to remember is Luke and Nic are their own people. Luke has his own projects and goals outside of Nicola. Nicola has her own goals and projects outside of luke. They have both worked their asses off to get where they are in life. But because they blew up on the same show and as a couple it's so easy for fans to link them as one. They have to show they are individuals. So yes we will get content where Luke doesn't mention Nic and times Nic doesn't mentioning Luke. This is normal and healthy. They are their own person. Also I have to remind people Nic has Luke number she knows him. She can call him and congratulate him in person. So that comment she left wasn't in my opinion just for him. It was for the Lukola fans and to show her support. She doesn't have to like or comment on his stuff. It was to show the haters that they are good. That's what they want us to know at this time.

Exactly, agreed!

Today was a great day for Lukola fans imo, and I'm still riding the high!

And I found it particularly interesting that a certain subsection had to come in LOUD with their bs today in the more positive Lukola spaces. Could everything we got today been so L/N coded that it made this subsection anxious... hmmmm, I wonder 🤔

[creatingblackcharacters]

Good day!

I am a white woman of a certain age and when I was growing up in the Seattle area, the word for this hairstyle

was always "dreadlocks", shortened by people my young (at the time) age to "dreads".

For several years now I have noticed I never see "dreads" or really even "dreadlocks" anymore. It's locs.

I'm not confused by the verbiage, I've never not understood what "locs" means, but I do still inherently think of the style as "dreads" first, simply because that was formative for me.

Is this shift just a living language thing, where common usage just replaced one term with another? Was my experience regional, and only in the PacNW were they ever called anything other than locs? Is "dreads" actually racist and I've just never been exposed to the information that I should have been in that regard?

(And if so, I sincerely apologize for its use in this ask and mean absolutely no disrespect)

As an addition to this question, I did try to look it up myself first, but Google is such ass now (or I just couldn't get the right search terms for seo to yield results) that I couldn't find anything useful on it. I did find WAY too many pictures of white people with this hairstyle, and an overabundance of sales pages for white hair extensions in some variation of this style. I wonder if that's common, or if it's just because Google knows I'm white and the search results reflect that. Either way, it was obnoxious that I had to word my searches extra specifically to get Black hair in my results.

Thanks for all you do!

To answer your questions in not the right order:

1. It's both. You are white, which means the things you research are probably going to be more geared towards an algorithm that fellow white folk use. They gotta advertise to you!!! And, Google is just racist. It's why I try to convince people on here that you have to get specific with your searches and use key words you find to dig deeper to reach what you want. Because if you just type in "Black hair styles" you're still gonna get a lot of white people and AI. It's obnoxious ASF and always has been. Can't just toss your hands up at the first wall.

2. It's a cultural thing, trying to reform the imagery of the hairstyle, a sort of reclamation if you will. I've mentioned in prior lessons that not everyone is going to get up in arms if you say dreads or dreadlocks. I prefer locs. It's mainly because saying dread has a connotation that my hair is dirty, nasty, uncared for. People, often white and in positions of power, hear dreadlocks and they think weed and tangles and lazy stereotypes that just aren't true. So it wouldn't be racist if you called someone's locs dreads, but it would be racist if they told you "I prefer locs/please say locs because-" and you said "well when I grew up it was dreads" okay well that's not how I identify them, so.

[jeanjauthor]

They may not have had a choice.

King County (the county containing Seattle, Washington, here in the USA) has some VERY STRICT guidelines for building new churches. Most newer church congregations find it far cheaper and easier to just rent & renovate an existing store in a strip mall, and if they get big enough, a box store like the one above.

And of course, King County isn't the only region-governing body to decide to be strict when it comes to building new churches. City ordinances across the US can also be quite restrictive. But honestly, it makes sense in the short to medium term. These buildings are not being used as stores anymore. They're just empty structures cluttering up the landscape. A lot of the bigger stores have switched heavily toward an online retail model and need less physical space. The "mini mall" construction boom of the 1990s has slowed down.

New construction is far more expensive than simply renting. With renting, you can keep your congregation going while saving up the money for that new construction. And as for churches that already have, well, established churches (the buildings)...many of them actually share their facilities with other denominations.

My mother's church, which is a bit of a sprawl of different building wings that's been added onto over the decades, has 3 different religious groups on top of her own (Methodists, the founding group). This includes Seventh Day Adventists (church on Saturday), Anglicans (holding services on Sunday at a slightly different time in the old church sanctuary while the Methodists use the new/modern one), and a Muslim community (services held on Friday in the community hall beneath the old sanctuary, where there aren't any seats set up; plenty of room for prayer mats that way).

Each one of these groups is not super-large, but at one time the Methodists had a big enough congregation to need to expand, but they still needed to conduct services, so they just kept the old sanctuary hall while building the new one more or less right next to it...and since the old building was merely small, not in bad condition, they kept it in place and started renting it out to other groups once they moved their congregation into the new hall.

For the other groups, it was far easier to just rent space in a facility that was already set up for worship services. And since my mother's church aren't jerks (they're a little conservative about some things, but they aren't bigots or sanctimonious by any means), they are perfectly fine with Islam services taking place within their facilities. It's a holy space, and both are Abrahamic religions; Islam acknowledges Christ as one of its great prophets, and that's 85% of everything right there. Plus, this decision to rent to Muslims was made back during the 9/11 era, when Muslims were being persecuted just for existing. Putting their mosque services inside of a clearly Christian church helped protect them from being attacked, and that was--and still is--A Very Good Thing To Do.

Frankly, with just that box store appearance alone to go on (I don't know what LCBC stands for), I would NOT have pegged it for a church of any kind. That could be serving as a sort of protective camouflage. It could be simply renting a building that already exists--a building that used to be a Pizza Hut or an IHOP will always look like a Pizza Hut or an IHOP, as they say. And they could be planning for the possibility of their congregation dwindling enough to the point where they might have to downsize their congregation...and don't want to try to sell a "lame duck" building that obviously looks like a church to...well, a group that isn't a church.

It's like how many new houses these days are made bland and boring in their construction, coloring, & details "so as not to hurt its resale value," as opposed to building a house meant to last for several generations in one family.

maybe it's because i was raised catholic but churches shouldn't look like furniture stores

[wolfatemybaby]

Chat I’m normal about them

My Zeus was highly based on @neal-illustrator ’s and @anniflamma ’s designs. I mostly winged it with Hera

I wanted Hera to be completely opposite to Zeus but also feel similar without actually being so.

Zeus is buff and top heavy, but isn't too buff, he still has fat for he is a king who likes to indulge himself. While Hera is fat but she has a body of a working mother. I also wanted her to be fat in my design because her statues are chubby. Why is mother skinny in so many designs?! (/not neg) Hera's face shape is slim and flat and Zeus has a full face of hair. So to correlate them together: Hera's hair covers part of her face and Zeus' beard is tied into a braid, "slimming" it down to mimic Hera's natural jawline, and both reaching the same placement in length.

Zeus' lightning bolt floats down and Hera's hair floating to the top shaping into a feather

Of course there's a galaxy bridal like veil that frames Hera's body while Zeus frames his face with his own cloud. Her's being full of colour while his is usually white but can become colourful when enraged. The veil kind of makes Hera feel disconnected from you

Hera's outfits match with the Zeus! Her clothes are more simpler than Zeus' and drape from her right while his drape from his left. Hera hates that they match everyday, and Zeus does as well but pissing off his wife is worth it.

- I stole the lightning bolt chain idea from my friend, August’s Zeus design

- Hera has a piercing in 1st fit which is HC’d that she got it when she was younger and keeps it as an act of rebellion. Zeus also has a nose piercing that he wears at all times

- My friends told me to name Zeus' second outfit the "Eepy Fit" and I was like "If that's the Eepy Fit, it gotta be pink." And so it is pink. And next to it is Hera's Mom Fit // outfit of a working mother in Greece. Think about it (:

- The third outfit you see the couple in: Hera has chains while Zeus' has strings

- Will be talking about the 1st and the 4th fit symbolism in the coloured section

They both have shiny nails, but Hera has her toes painted Zeus' claws aren't. It's inconvenient because they'd get chipped all the time, and he'd have to keep filing the nail polish off and repainting.

Originally I wanted Hera and Zeus look the most human because they are the mother / father of men. eg. making them have human skin colours. It didn't work out in the end but I still wanted to use the colours, so Hera's stomach was her og colour and Zeus' feet and horns are his og colour. And also the lightning scars on her stomach...

Continuing with the colour talk. Colours were the hardest for me when designing, especially with Hera. She went through many variations, and my clone had to sit through over an hour of me stressing. He helped a lot with the colours and I'm happy with the end result.

Green and yellow are close on the colour wheel and I wanted them to phase together like those colours, both having the accent of the cooler tones with Hera's purple and Zeus' blue. But I went in a somewhat different direction: They didn't literally blend together like I hoped in the beginning but they do in a sibling type of way...

I made Hera's skin deeper in colour and Zeus shiny. Then in reverse it for the hair. Her being accented by red because that's one of her colours + period blood symbolism and just her veil being purple, while Zeus being the one wearing the purple. He wears the colour of the barrier between you and her. Her hair is the only shining thing because that's out of the veil

[liquidorcard]

Tw: Heavy topic discussion ahead.

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So I have suffered with suicidal ideation for the majority of my life. As long as I can remember-- even when I was a child to some extent.

Despite current awareness of mental health issues, honestly, I don't think we have as a society really resolved yet how to earnestly address the issue. I don't blame people for not knowing what to say to suicidal people or just defaulting to the whole "oh I'm sorry, you're not alone, blah blah blah" song and dance. I get they don't know what to say, but.

The issue with being always suicidal is that it's kinda a bitch to figure out how to just live with? You don't want to worry people, or emotionally burden them, you dont want them walking on eggshells around you forever because they think at any moment they could accidentally push you over the edge. Because the conversation around suicidal ideation is so focused on NOT being suicidal anymore, it functionally silences people in a well-meaning, but still harmful way.

Like, let ol' uncle Eldritch affirm for anyone reading this right now: it's OKAY to be suicidal. Not okay as in, indulge the urge. But suicidal ideation is a mental health concern like any other. It's not your fault, and stressing yourself out that you feel this way will do you no good. Accepting a feeling is not the same as acting on it.

For most people the feeling is temporary, but the reality is for some of us it's not. The feeling might be more intense sometimes than others, but it's okay if they're always there. Strange thing to say, I know, but you don't owe anyone happiness. You don't owe anyone self-contentment. Yes, we all want those things, but getting upset with yourself that you haven't achieved that beyond healthy degrees is a vicious cycle that will only make you more miserable.

There's a difference between treating negative emotions as an undesirable outcome, and treating them as if they're a mistake. As if they're not often enough a logical outcome to many of life's challenges, especially these days.

Counterintuitive, I know, but accepting that someday I might lose the battle with my own suicidal ideation probably saved my life at several low points. Something I've had to reaffirm within myself several times over my life. And something it's been very hard to get other people to understand.

The problem may be bad, but it's almost always the stigma that makes it dire.

I'm not going to pretend there isn't some degree of a grain of truth to the idea that some people use suicidal intent to get attention, but that's a gross and misleading oversimplification of the issue. Some people have no suicidal intent, but use it as a means of manipulating others. I'd say those types of people are rarer than you might imagine, but yes, they exist. I'd say the majority of people, especially the ones who express the thought over and over again, just don't know what to do with their feelings. They're looking for an outlet, an explanation, validation, solidarity-- something. They're looking to not feel so isolated anymore, having feelings they know they "shouldn't be having." As stated above, our society still doesn't accept the feelings as acceptable even if we've moved the dial on the topic, and they're feeling shame and frustration that they just can't quite move past that.

I don't want to speak for everyone but I do believe I'm very much not alone on this when I say the phrase "I want to die"/"I'm suicidal" with the same type of intent I say, "I want to sleep," or "I'm hungry." I'd rather be awake and full, but, I'm currently feeling compelled to satisfy the urge to go to bed or eat. I'd rather be alive, however, dying feels like a very tempting offer. Inconveniently, of course, that craving happens to have permanent results. Can't go back to living if/when I have enough spoons to keep going, boo.

That's a very confusing sensation to grapple with-- understanding your life is a finite resource you aren't going to be able to get back, but also, being fucking sick of it. It's hard to know what to do about that-- especially because, again, you aren't ALLOWED to feel that way apparently.

If that feeling can be fixed it should, but some of us don't have that luxury. Some of us are broken in a way you can patch up, but we can never be fully restored to a mint-like condition. We still have value, we still are useful and can be fully realized people, if there was only room for us to be taken as we are and not how people want us.

Outrageously irresponsible and fucked Lily had the balls to give advice on this, if that even has to be said. Rest assured, she's on my "To Haunt" list if I do end up offing myself (in Minecraft.)

[antianakin]

Literally why the fuck would a clone consider their helmet to be their "real face"?

They only JUST started being allowed to paint their helmets with individual designs after the war began, none of the clones who show up to Geonosis have anything that looks particularly unique (there's a few clones with different colored paint, presumably to denote rank of some sort, but the design is always the same even if the color isn't). So if they DID start thinking of the helmets as their "real face," it would be a pretty new thing for them and not one with a ton of history behind it.

And even after the war starts, it's ONLY once you leave Kamino that you get to have a helmet or armor with any kind of personalized design, the uniforms we see the Domino and Bravo squads wearing aren't personalized at all (again, there's color differences in order to denote which squad you're a part of, but nothing personalized to the actual clone themselves). So they wouldn't exactly have any sort of tradition of feeling like their helmet is their "real face" since most of the time, their helmets are intended to look just as identical as their regular faces.

Also, the clones would still primarily only have a "real face" later in life, so what does that say about how much time they spend without a helmet with a design? We know they take on their own NAMES before they leave Kamino, so it's not like they don't have identities, they just don't have a "face." They don't even get given a "real face" upon graduating and getting assigned somewhere, they have to wait until they're not "shinies" anymore before they get more personalized paint jobs. If the helmet were really their "face," it seems more likely that they'd want to let the new soldiers paint it as soon as possible instead of making them EARN the right to an identity. It just feels so nonsensical.

We also see the clones taking their helmets off pretty often, certainly any time they're not actively in danger or on a mission, and sometimes even then just to make communication with someone else easier (especially if that person ISN'T wearing armor, like the Jedi). Aside from one moment in the pilot episode with Yoda and the three clones with him (which would fall under the category of still being in danger and on a mission), we never see the clones reluctant to take off their helmets or having to be asked to take them off when interacting with others. That moment also emphasizes for the clones that their armor ISN'T who they are, and that their humanity is something inside of them, but that they shouldn't feel the need to hide their faces simply because they're identical to someone else's. And if we assume most Jedi probably had similar moments with their own battalions, a LOT of clones would likely end up actually learning NOT to associate their identity with their armor and be much more comfortable with their faces showing.

In fact, there's a whole DIFFERENT moment a few seasons later where Rex is speaking to Krell and he takes his helmet OFF to emphasize his point about the clones being men, indicating that the helmet actually makes them more FACELESS and therefore easier to see as closer to machines/droids than real people. It's the face UNDERNEATH the helmet that makes them human, not the helmet itself. They might all share the same face, but that face is the one that shows emotion, that can cry, that can smile, that can speak, that can connect with someone else. Regardless of how many other people share it, that's still their real face, not the cold emotionless helmet that too often gets used to pretend the clones aren't people at all.

[alasse-irena]

I'll start by saying that I have similar problems to you with this legislation, however it's managed, but I do want to push back a little bit, because a lot of the information you've given here isn't true.

TLDR: This is a representative democracy working as normal. Contact your MP. Tell them what you think about this legislation. Tell them how social media has helped you. Ask all your friends to do the same thing. Talk to people outside your usual social circle about it if you can. I think one of the big reasons it's not getting the pushback you want is that a lot of people aren't seeing the data safety risk, they're seeing "a better childhood for my kids".

A few things:

With regard to "there was no vote on this, no nothing, they just went ahead and fucking passed this": that's not what's happened. This legislation hasn't been passed yet. It has to pass the upper and lower houses before it becomes law, which means the MPs and senators that we elected to represent us will vote on it. This is the same way that all new legislation is treated. (Maybe you want all Australian citizens to vote on each new piece of legislation. That's fair - but it would be an overhaul of our entire system of government and a move away from representative democracy to direct democracy. There were 170 pieces of legislation introduced in Australian Federal Parliament in 2023. Imagine if we'd had to hold nationwide votes to decide what to do about all of them. I'm not saying this form of democracy is impossible, but it's a huge logistical challenge.)

The government still hasn't figured out who will be responsible for age verification, or how it should be done. They're assessing the options, and will continue to do so into next year. (Social media companies are trying to encourage them to put age verification responsibilities on the app store instead of on each individual service. Given that you can access most social media in your default browser rather than through the app, I don't think anyone involved has really thought through how to do this effectively.)

The legislation actually doesn't have much benefit to the government in terms of your privacy: every way of doing this that's been put out there has your info either going to the social media company, or to a third party company. (Yes, putting all this data in the hands of for-profit companies is also bad; they're incentivised to illegally sell it to advertisers, something which major social media companies have been known to do.) The cybersecurity risks here are large, but the real motive is to appeal to parents and educators as voters. Social media is creating situations that worry a lot of people. It has wide-reaching and well-researched effects on youth: the big ones here are mental health and body image issues, along with right-wing radicalisation. Across Australia, many people believe that handling this problem is both important and urgent, which means that for the government, looking like they're willing to do something drastic about it is a big vote-winner. This is one reason you should be concerned: it's such an uncontroversial move that it has bipartisan support (i.e. both parties believe failing to support it will lose them votes).

In conclusion, yeah this is a bad piece of legislation. I don't like it, I don't think it's going to help, I think it's going to just drive a lot of the problems its trying to solve underground and create cybersecurity risks on the way.

But it hasn't happened yet. The democratic process is still going on and you still get a part in it. Go talk to some people about it.

fucking australia’s trying to get everyone to link their government id to their social media accounts else you cant use them anymore, the actual fuck is wrong with this country

[gaywineauntsstuff]

Birthdays

Dicks starts a tradition, for every first birthday one of his loved ones spends with him, he gives them a part of his heart.

Jason: Dick isn't there for Jasons first birthday at the manor because well... he isn't exactly welcome at the manor but he snuck Jason his number weeks in advance to make sure Jay would be at his crappy apartment the day after his birthday. And he gives Jason a collection of poetry his mother had written while they had traveled around the world. He had memorised all of them many years ago but he wanted to give Jason something tangible to connect them together. He might not be related to Bruce, he might not be Jason's brother by law or blood but Jason carries the robin name and Mary Graysons words so he is Dick's brother no matter what Bruce wants to say about it. Some of the poems aren't in English but they all flow beautifully and are written in the same black swirling script. Jason cries real tears and clings to Dick because this isn't something he can say he's had before. When Jason died, Dick took it from Jays room because he didn't allow it to be part of a mausoleum for his brother he wasn't going to let it be part of one for his brother.

After Jason comes back to life, and he's left Gotham he finds that familiar notebook in a safe-house he was sure Nightwing didn't know about with a post-it note on top reading.

I'm so glad you're back little wing

-DG

Tim: Dick and Alfred celebrate Tims birthday alone and Dick knows that Tim is struggling with who he is and his place in the family. Jason needed connection Tim needed purpose. Tim needed something to do to prove his value so on Tim's 13th birthday Dick teaches him the quadruple summersault. he teaches Tim the Full-Twisting Shaposhnikova his mother's favourite move on the bars and the moors. They spend all day practicing together until Tim can do a loose approximation of as many of his parent's signature moves as they can squeeze into one day. And every time Dick sees Tim for the next two months he asks for a spotter and they spend two odd hours practicing the moves. Tim never ends up incorporating the Flying Grayson's moves into his fighting style but he starts to follow Dicks habit of getting up high when he's stressed and working out all his frustration by practicing those moves over and over again until his body is pleasantly sore. Sometimes when Dick is on undercover missions, Tim will do one of the routines to help with the fact he cant reach his brother.

Damian: canonically Dick gave Damian a trapeze bar but that was long into his Robin tenure I believe it was after the Lazarus island debacle. So I think that by the. time Damians 11th birthdays rolls around, Dick and Damian have a pretty solid relationship and the first thing Dick would have given Damian was his father's unfinished sketchbook which contained the original designs for the robin costume. This book is Thick and its not like a modern sketchbook no, John Grayson found this leather bound monstrosity in Egypt and paid pennies for it. Its so dense that its filled with about 3 years of drawings and still has more the half of its pages a yellowed blank canvas. Damian, who is naturally talented at art and was encouraged by Dick to try and find non-vigilante methods of enjoyment has already taken up drawing months prior but this gets him to start practicing with fervour. He tries hard to mimic John Grayson's art style before eventually giving up at trying to create identical pieces and just incorporates various techniques the man used. For Dicks birthday that year he gifts him a portrait of his late parents but unlike the ones he's made for the manor, Dick's parents are in motion, with his John Grayson's grin stolen right off his sons face and Mary Grayson's boisterous laugh as she crashed into her husbands side could be heard in the famous cackle of her son.

now I wanted to do Cass or Steph or (maybe even Babs or Kori if I wanted to pivot from family to romance) but I genuinely the girl who has Mary Graysons wedding ring would

Donna Troy: Dick Gave it to her when they were still wonder girl and boy wonder. They were 14 and it was right after they had started the titans, back when it was a kids club more than a hero organisation. It was accompanied with a whispered confession of his identity, an identity the rest of their team wouldn't learn for another to 2 years. She wears it around her neck with a simple gold chain. She didn't take it off during her wedding or funeral, she was buried in it and came back with its barely there weight a comfort against base of her neck.

[catfishofoldin99colours]

just realised something that maybe the rest of the mouthwashing fandom already figured out but

When curly and Jimmy are talking about the tulpar being in shape and so on and specifically mention Daisuke being an extra person to care for and that curly 'should have made a bigger stink about that'

Could Daisuke overhear them? Did he overhear them? Both of them, curly who's the captain and Jimmy who's just plain grumpy at best, talking about him as if he's a thing to be thrown overboard, that he shouldn't be here?

Cos like. There's only 4 Cryo pods, and 5 passengers. Daisuke came on at the last second and he doesn't have a role, he's an intern, he's there to learn - and at a normal profitable company, that would be ok and good, everyone would get wages and appropriate healthcare and the time off they deserved

But pony express is going into the ground and the tulpar shop is Old, it's probably got one maybe two more runs left in it, and can only accommodate so many people. Om top of that, food is rationed and oxygen won't last forever, and yeah pony express will make sure it's workers are taken care of but only to the bare minimum.

Daisuke was added on last minute. And everyone knows they aren't prepared to look after another person a more than year long trip, including him.

Is that why he's so desperate to prove himself? Or at least, why he goes along so willingly with everything Jimmy asks? He knows he's dead weight, that he's not supposed to be here and the chances of him actually being useful weighed against what he costs to keep alive are not breaking even.

I imagine he already felt like an outsider, being a young kid intern amongst people with actual roles and responsibilities, shoved onto this job at the last second.

But if he did overhear curly and Jimmy talking about it, clarifying that he is a burden to them and he really doesn't belong here...

No wonder he was so desperate to do the right thing and help where he could.

Poor useless ray of goddamn sunshine.

[genderqueerdykes]

I stumbled across someone who calls themself 'gender critical', a 'hater of all things male', AND a 'transguy butchdyke'.

we've finally done it, everyone. a gender crit who is the very thing their peers despise: someone who's transmasc. I'm starting to think people are this stupid on purpose

this happens soooooooooooo often it's really painful. i'll try to explain, i do agree with you that it's just willful stupidity in the sense that they're riding the high of being a jackass. like inside of troll communities like this all they really do is ride the high of pissing people off. also, unfortunately, a lot of these people are extremely vulnerable and deal with very low self esteem and use these kinds of violent, angry, exclusive communities as a way to self soothe and it never works out. its an echo chamber and they stay miserable and all that's left to do is ride the adrenaline rush you get from pissing someone off

generally what happens in this case can be one of a few things. the first is that they tend to be trans mascs or men who watch fucked up trans creators on YouTube like Kalvin Garrah or Buck Angel who tell them that non binary people aren't trans and that trans men can never be feminine ever. but then they also interact with rad fems and get suckered in because the rad fem community tolerates butch transmasc people to an extent in order to increase their numbers. they don't really care all that much if you're transmasc as long as you're suckering other people into their cult, they're happy as can be.

unfortunately this also stems from people who detransitioned and felt completely disenfranchised from their trans identity and time spent as being trans so they take it out on other trans people. they didn't end up being trans and they're pissed off because trans people "tricked" them into doing it too. usually what it is is that person is either genuinely curious or has low self esteem and does something because someone they look up to does, only to find out its not for them, so they take it out on the group they didn't fit into instead of moving along. it just realy sucks because there's nothing wrong with detransitioning at all whatsoever, but its the people who become bitter and jaded from their experiences and take it out on other trans people that really need to sort their shit out.

anyone who's proud to be a man hater is a rad fem there's no other reason to be like that. and it's just weird as hell when i see rad fems trying to "reclaim" certain genderqueer lesbian terms when they don't even fit into those categories to begin with. if you hate and reject manhood how are you a man? suffering is not righteous, you will not gain anything by allowing yourself to suffer for someone else. if you hate manhood and are a man: that means you hate yourself. that is your cross to bear. you need to sort that out with yourself, not take it out on other people.

it's just dumb. i agree with you it's some sort of willful stupidity in order to troll and fuck with people. they get a kick out of it because it pisses people off. that's really all it is. they think they're counterculture, but they're edgelords. they're not making any bold statements by using terms that are heavily used by trans people (including detrans btw) and then somehow saying its now a rad fem or gender crit thing. you're doing that for shock value.

i stopped seeing that kind of behavior lately fortunately but it's all over this website. there are so many people on here who have just completely willingly walked right into rad feminism and brag about it. like they're somehow these cool punks who don't follow the rules. like they're somehow making a statement, like they're somehow breaking societal norms in a productive way. theres literally 0 critical thinking involved in rad feminism. all they do is actively oppress women and trans people, how is that "counter culture"? that's fascism. you're just a jackass fucking around with words on the internet to piss people off. that's just troll behavior. nobody cares, we have shit to do off of our phones and computers

[redladypaige]

So that's another one of those double standards.

Again Israel has the same problems as most democracies, but only for them it's a unique sin.

Take the united states. They didn't have nation wide gay marriage until 2015.

And even that was by a Supreme Court decision, meaning that if the case was in the pipeline a bit longer, you'd have a Supreme Court that would never approve it.

In fact, people are now saying that they want to overturn it like Row v Wade.

And yet nobody in 2014 said the US is the same as, say, Iran for gay issues.

In Israel there aren't gay marriages, but the main reason is because there are no civil (non religous) marriages.

It means that it's a bit more work than just saying "it's allowed now", you have to redefine what performing a marriage is to the law.

And it sucks it didn't happen yet, but I know it will happen soon.

Israel already recognizes gay marriages performed elsewhere and have "almost-like-marriage" alternatives.

The next time a center or left party will have power, it will happen, and I know it will because I will be here fighting for it.

However, other than this one issue, Israel is actually remarkably forward in LGBTQ issues.

From adoption, to surrogacy, to trans issues, to just the people and the community it's hard to overstate how far along it is.

And yeah, there are things that are not there yet, and we will continue fighting for them.

Literally every country in the world has some issue or another with LGBTQ rights, none of them are perfect.

But it boils my blood to have it be some sort of a "gotcha" that you compare that to HAVING THE DEATH PENALTY FOR BEING GAY.

How is it even in the same ballpark? Do you really not see the difference in magnitude?

I have been to gay weddings in Israel, even if they legally got married elsewhere, they celebrated here, and weren't afraid to be out and everyone came to celebrate with them.

It's not just PR, it's the lived reality of many people, and if you can't see the difference I don't know what to say

When people in Queers for Palestine say things like "I know I wouldn't have rights in Palestine but my activism is not transactional" I lose it because nobody is bringing up the fact gay men get thrown of roofs because of "transactionality", we are saying it because you are actively harming the LGBT community. You actively go against your gay brothers and sisters in the Middle East when you cheer on Hamas or want to see the only gay-friendly country there abolished. You are hurting your own community because you love your community less than you hate (((Israel))). Get your head out of your asses and realize people telling you about the LGBT killings in Palestine is so you can stop hurting the Palestinians you "care so much about".

[scum-advocate23]

Heya! I generally love your posts - Alltough I'd like to criticize your post about the ✨sprinkle sprinkle ✨ (I hate that name) movement.

From what I've seen so far a lot of advocates tell women to go their own way unless a man meets the criteria. Get your own bag, get your education, be financially stable - ditch insane men who want to make you suffer (aka traditional men).

it aligns in some aspects with the beliefs of what radfems say:

- like how women cannot "hit the wall" because women are the source of all good things.

- how men "benefit" from women in their lives, even if it's platonic. How women invest so much heart into shallow empty hearted men who probably watch porn and vote their rights away -> the general advice is to drop male friendships. Women usually don't benefit from male friendships. The chance they harm us and are jealous d*ckworshippers is too big.

Instead many advocates talk about investing into female friendships. Hyping each other up, keeping eyes on each other's safety because a lot of men secretly dislike women.

- tradwives and the sprinkle sprinkle Community aren't the same as the former looks down on the latter. You'll be trapped without means to rescue yourself Incase shit hits the fan. Men generally tend to play the long game and try and "con" you into marriage sometimes.

I think it's a good movement for osa women who really can't let go of the romantic fantasy of hetero relationships. It raises the bar for them while still prepping them for their own success and happiness and female class conscious.

It's baby steps for a better society. Tradmen usually foam at the mouth when they hear advocates like manifistelle talk about it.

I guess my biggest strife is that the creator of the Sprinkle Sprinkle movement, SheraSeven, actively promotes the lifestyle of centering men for the sole purpose of using them for money and manipulating them with our “innate womanly charms”. And hey, that’s anybody’s decision to make at this point in the game.

But viewing a man as a walking wallet and expecting him to pay/provide for everything is not RadFem. That behavior plays into gender roles significantly while Radical Feminism wishes to abolish such gender roles.

I understand what the advocates of the movement do… but the original creator of Sprinkle Sprinkle teaches women stuff wayyyy outside of just “creating female friendships and community” or “dropping male friends”. I can understand the rhetoric pertaining to centering women, but it’s lots of teachings about altering who you are in order to attract a man who will pay for everything. He also will still want something in return, usually sex or babies (both of which can emotionally and physically trap a woman irregardless of marriage).

Shera, herself, even states that she doesn’t teach women to get married/coupled up for love, she teaches women to get married/trick guys outta money. This includes changing the way you act, speak, dress, and exist all to garner the attention of a man who is presumably wealthy. At the root of the OG Sprinkle Sprinkle movement, it’s another version of gender roles repackaged in a bow. But only this time, hoards of women believe they’re truly “in charge” in these types of relationships/marriages simply bc of monetary gains.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

ouagh Wallee.... so so happy he's a seventies boy. peak fashion

bonus:

[thousandyearphantombunker]

"just give them an aac device!"

"just teach them sign language"

"body language and facial expressions alone are good enough for communicating what you need"

Nonononono f*!k off. Stop acting like nonverbal people have easy solutions to their lack of verbality. Not everyone can use an aac device- some people struggle with spelling or can't spell at all, some people have motor skills issues that makes typing a nightmare that takes a long time, some can't articulate themselves without outside help. Learning sign is hard if you again have motor skills issues or struggle to make facial expressions that convey what your feeling (flat affect applies to more than just a person's voice- some people really struggle to make facial expressions and have stilted or strange body language- you people can understand why autistic people get burnt out from masking all day- you know often having to control their body language and make certain facial expressions etc yet you can't understand why nonverbal autistics can't just learn sign- a language very heavy on facial expressions and expressive body language?) also again spelling and motor skill issues are a pain and also a lot of families with deaf or nonverbal children refuse to learn sign for said children and I'm sorry in day to day life I haven't met many people who speak sign- yeah you can move to a community with a lot of deaf or nonverbal people that use sign but that's not always possible and its very limiting. And do I even have to explain the third one- autistic body language is confusing to neurotypicals and I hate the stereotype that its just so blunt and obvious/better than neurotypical communication- maybe that's what its like for you and your 'smart sheldon cooper/Wednesday Addams' style autism but not every autistic person 'says exactly what they mean' often times autistic people struggle with semantics and articulating sentences that make any sense! and all these misunderstandings surrounding stimming are annoying to!- spinning can be a 'happy' stim but it can also mean your overwhelmed or understimulated, a lot of people with autism have voices that lack inflections, mix that in with being unable to use words and no it does not help communicate their needs- f!*k off with acting like its easy not all autistic people who are nonverbal can spell, not all autistic people w are nonverbal have good motor skills and body language alone is never enough to convey a persons needs. Before anyone comes after me yes Sign is body language but its also actual symbols and can convey full thoughts and ideas and sentences and also body language is hard for a lot of autistic people to convey like stated above.

Not every form autistic communication is being 'logical' and unoffended because 'we're just more logical than those superfluous, shallow neurotypicals that let their feelings control them and are never direct about what they want-we value facts and logic unlike those butthurt neurotypicals' and being overly blunt- no a lot of autistic people find that communication is messy and the ways they can communicate are ineffective and your 'logical, facts dont care about your feelings' style of communication isn't as amazing as you think it is. Stop speaking over nonverbal autistics- their is no real perfect solution to them not being able to speak. And I'm gonna say it- while not all nonverbal people are low functioning or high support needs or whatever the new term is-being nonverbal is a massive disadvantage and having your disability be visible like that is scary in many situations and being unable to communicate your needs can make it impossible to meet your needs-