#there’s nothing else identifiable about me

[gay4carver]

(don't be afraid to write a lot, do what you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

1/ Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

I have a few terms Inuse to self Identify but I vibe the most with just Alterhuman. They are: fictionkin,PAI umbrella, holothere of sorts,Soulbond+fictotype secret mix, demihuman of sorts, draconic of sorts...Ig that's it. LIES I remembered: Polymorph, Otherlink, Otherhearted, Copinglink, starseed of sorts.

2/ What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

- Isaac clarke from dead space

- Luke Arcanjel from my brain, I made him uo and he gained semi-conciousness™

- Kelvin from Sons of the forest

- Sly fox from William and Sly series

- Nimona

- A gelfling. Probably a Stonewood gelfling, new type.

- Dragon dog thing. Green.

3/ Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

I used to more when I had just figured out my nonhuman identity. Nowadays I only feel phantom limbs and get dragon/fox zoomies.

And Luke shifts (kin or not) when I listen to starset or get pissed but its hard to tell who is who from how similar we are.

And Gelfling shifts when I feel connected to the world. My strongest shifts are dream shifts nowadays, from all of my kins.

4/ How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

That's a though one, I actually don't know how to answer that. It is a bog part of me but it is something so personal and like in my soul and brain that I barely recognize how it affects my life because like, I kinda just am like this and i'm used to it. I guess I feel stronger than usual connections to nature and certain aspects of it that are related to my kins, that longing for my hearthomes and for freedom I know I'll never have, that weord feeling that you feel when you watch or read some piece of fiction and you figure out you've found a new thing to call "home".

The feeling you could never disingage yourself from those "characters" and thoae creatures and this part of yourself or else your life woulf be miserable and you know that probably other nonhumans could survive without that perfectly fine. Or missing people you "never met" missing places you "never got to" and onowing you probably wont now but somehow fundong thoae exact places and people on earth and feeling whole.

5/ What do you think of the community?

it's 50/50 either the shittiest crap I ever got into or the safest place I got into. Depends on plataform, group, user base age, and the kind of kin the userbase is. In my experience the most toxic spaces have been (in order):

- Draconic discords because: dick measuring, trauma olympics, "who is the most OP" olympics, "I started a war in my past life and I cannot deal with the pain. "Bro I destroyed UNIVERSES that's NOTHING!!"" Suicidal ideation normalization and even glamorization of suicide to "go back on living as a dragon again".

- Fictionkin/KFF discords because of younger users fighting over doubles, "problematic" kins, fakeclaiming people who doubled their friends and talking the utmost shit of that person who did NOTHING to them, "anti this anti that", trauma olympics.

- Bluesky in general because in my country the theriam community got famous and now its a trend to hate on it and tell people to kill themselves.

- Tumblr because of the amount of grilling, "activism" that is actually just policing, fake claimojg and so on.

- The off date othercon server because no one seems to be able to listen to someone else's experience without giving their opinion on it saying how wrong it it because it doesnt fit their definition of x label, because apparently "you gotta fit the box" and not "the box has to fit you" is more important. They also know better about you than you know yourself. No one can stfu about themselves and listen to other people either it was always a "me me me" competition when I was there.

These places might have changed idk I no longer am there, sometimes I pop up on tumblr still but I avoid it. I have honestly lost most of my interest to engage with the community because it is most of the time unpleasant and stressfull or I read stupid shit that makes me too angry. Now I just hang out on a server I mod with other friends.

6/ What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

Nature, space, looking at stars, drawing, singing and listening to music, when i'm out in nature, when the day its so beautiful I want to cry. Rain. Gear sometimes. Playing my game sources. Witchcraft, beijg around my friends and especially my partners. My shifts.

7/ Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

Somtimes it is as bad as my gender dysphoria but that's mostly because most of my kins are men or another gender. I don't like to be percieved as a human sometimes and it angers me i'm not percieved and treated as a mystical being.

8/ What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

DO YOUR RESEARCH AND DONT TRUST TIKTOK AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT GO DOING QUADROBICS AS IF IT'S NOT A SPORT THAT REQUIRES PRE-TRAINING AND AS IF YOU WHERE A PROFESSIONAL. Please I know a kid that git kicked by a horse and the other dislocated their wrist because they tried jumping from a sofa to another. Quadrobics can be dangerous and it's not everyone that can do it cus it can mess up some health conditions more. Do not grill people or mistrear thwm because you dont understand them. Dont use your kins as an excuse to being an asshole or misstreating others. You are a amalgam of yout kins and you are not them individually, dont try to act like your past life because you feel like you should because it feels "more legit" and throw away the person you are nowadays, you are still your kin and valid even if you sound, act, look nothing like them. Don't post thinga about yourself online that could potentialy harm you, like triggers, your face, your city etc, seems obvious but people still post a lot of things like that and end up regretting it later.

There is nothing wrong ig your identity isn't 100% involuntary and some aspects of it are not subconciously imprinting but rather copinh mechanisms. I used to lie to myself a lot on this and it only hurt me further. Try to see everything with a grey area, not everything is a us vs them thing like it seems online. Your nonhuman identity is yours only, doesnt have to look like anyone else's or has to look like what people tell you it should. Its ok to not know yout kins at first, dont rush things, its also okay to realize you were wrong about a kin or if your identity changes over time, nothing is ever in vain or lost you are just living your cycle, life and nature works in cycles, honour yours and live it to the fullest and freely.

9/ Do you have/want to have gears?

I have 2 tails, I want wings and a RIG now.

10/ Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

Trauma imprinting and trying to actively cope with it. I was also technically raised my my childhood cat. I dunno! I just am! for me it doesn't matter much but it feels sacred somehow! Also autism.

11/ Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

@darksou07

If you are a alterhuman, reblog and answer these questions!

(don't be afraid to write a lot, do what you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

1/ Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

2/ What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

3/ Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

4/ How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

5/ What do you think of the community?

6/ What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

7/ Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

8/ What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

9/ Do you have/want to have gears?

10/ Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

11/ Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

[thirteenthdoor]

Wu Qi opens up his phone in the last episode to reveal the charming mobile game he calls "the Spirealm," even though nothing about the game itself seems to indicate that it's supposed to be called that. He says it's a great stress reliever!

Somebody put so much work into these three screens, and in two seconds flat, Wu Qi flips through them:

The title screen, as I mentioned in the assorted doors post, features chibi Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu (whose hair is parted on the wrong side), Toast, and Chestnut, all posed adorably in front of a chibi version of the Snow Village door. It is important to me to note that if you zoom in, you can see Chibi Nanzhu still has the beauty marks under his right eye.

Featuring Lin Qiushi in his starting outfit and Ruan Nanzhu in his New Year's special costume, perfect for staring dreamily at your beloved while he makes you dumplings.

I'm wondering why the ❤ meter and the ♂ meter at the top both seem to have ... oh, that's a key, not a Mars symbol. And you can buy more keys in the points store over to the left, not more maleness. You have to understand, I'm not doing a bit here. I literally just realized that that's not supposed to be a BL meter up at the top there. Because of course I was just like, well, yeah, of course Lin Qiushi's yaoi score would be off the charts.

Flip over to screen two for the logo! Friends On An Adventure! (At least, if the subtitles I have are to be trusted.) The logo goes through a little door, and there's a kaleidoscope there with it. The little chibi heads of Qiushi and Nanzhi tile the background. There is text down at the bottom, but it is far too tiny for me to make heads or tails of.

And on screen 3, we see the relaxing game itself! Playing in front of the Snow Village door -- which is now appropriately snowy -- we get a litle game screen filled with familiar monster friends.

Zooming in for the appreciation factor here: We're apparenly playing a match-3 game with the Woman in the Rain, the Snow Village girl, the Sunny Doll teacher, the nurse from Waverly Hills (even though her outfit is blue), and Sako's left leg. There's also little yellow kaleidoscope squares and ... whatever the pink thing is. What's the pink thing? Someone else help me identify the pink thing. It looks like it has a little face on it. There seems to be one down at the bottom of the screen, like some kind of power-up, but there it lacks a face.

And that's it! So much work put into a such a briefly shown gag! So again, please enjoy me in appreciating it through the much slower medium of screenshots.

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

If you are online a lot, especially in spaces or bubbles where people often share their experiences „for awareness“, you may feel like it’s your obligation to share your own life experiences as well. 

This can be a subconscious thing. You would likely never sign your name on „Every gay person who had a traumatic encounter with a homophobic person needs to make a TikTok about it or else they fail their community“ or „If you’re disabled and trans you need to post about your specific struggles or else you don’t even care about visibility for your own communities“. But you may come across people who did make a video or post about their struggles - and feel some guilt or shame when you realize you experienced the same but don’t talk about it. You may feel like they’re using their voice to do something and you just sit around. Or alternatively, you may see those things and feel „inspired“ to share your own story, so you rush to do it.. and later on you realize you actually didn’t feel inspired, you just felt uncomfortable. You didn’t actually want to share your story with strangers and you kinda feel worse now, but you had to do it for awareness, right?

If you relate to any of that, here’s some things I want you to know: 

You don’t owe anyone a list of all labels you identify with. You don’t owe anybody a list of your medical diagnoses. You don’t owe anyone a list of all traumatic events in your life. Asking you for that would be considered wildly inappropriate in almost all circumstances offline… so it definitely can’t be the measure for how „good“ or „brave“ you are online, either. 

Most people who share their stories online don’t really only do it for awareness. They also do it because they want to receive sympathy, comfort, praise, the feeling of community, the unbiased confirmation that what happened to them was wrong etc… or even just the relief of getting it out of their system. And there’s nothing wrong with that! We are all human beings who need each other. But it may take some pressure of you to remember that those posts are not always some selfless, heroic deed purely done for activism. 

Sharing your story online doesn’t necessarily do that much. Don’t get me wrong, it can be really brave and it can definitely start conversations! I don’t mean to discredit anyone who decides to share something deeply personal. But: not every post gets viral or reaches anyone besides the people who already agree with it. So if you don’t really want to talk about being bullied in school, you certainly don’t need to feel like you have to. Who says that it would be YOUR post, out of all the posts about bullying, that’d end up super viral and start some big conversation about bullying and end up in the news? Maybe it’d just get 15 likes and two bot comments. No need to feel guilty on missing out on that. 

Talking about a traumatic experience can bring relief and that’s valid.. but it can also be counterproductive to your healing process. Sharing it „for awareness“ will not be worth it if it makes you feel overwhelmed, unlocks memories you’re not ready to confront in detail, comes with the risk of putting you into a depression spiral, re-traumatizes you by bringing back feelings you felt in that situation etc. Put your healing first. 

People can be real mean, especially when they can hide behind the anonymity the internet offers. Sharing something vulnerable can spread awareness but it can also make you a target of hate, ridicule, disbelief and bullying. This is especially important to consider if it’s something you’re still struggling with or healing from. Not wanting to get mean comments is a valid reason to not share something. Again: Put your healing first. 

You know all that and still want to share your story? All the more power to you! My point here is not to silence your voice. If you WANT to share your story, it can be a really great thing to do. 

I just want to remind you that you should only do it if you truly want to. Never do it out of pressure or obligation - there is none. Your story is yours. You have the right and power to keep it or share it as you wish. 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

[donnerpartyofone]

What was the process like for writing the novelization for Splice? Would you consider writing a novelization of an existing work again?

Eek I'm being interviewed! I'M SO FAMOUS. There are a lot of parts to this answer. The shortest answer is that I really just watched SPLICE in tiny sections every single day for a very, very long time. I had a certain version of the script to work from, but it wouldn't contain the exact things that were said and done in front of the camera (no script would), so I just studied the movie. I scanned the sets for objects I could not identify, of which there are a LOT -- things I've never seen before, and things I've seen but couldn't name -- and searched online until I learned to describe things like hay trolleys and circulating baths. To me, the point of a novelization is that it produces an interior and sensorial experience not offered by a screen, so I tried very hard to expand on the material qualities suggested by the movie.

It never once occurred to me to change anything. Apparently this is an expectation of novelizations. I had a writeup in Fangoria that was very kind about my ability to make psychological sense out of the things people do in SPLICE, but that expressed disappointment that I hadn't added scenes or anything. I'm such an inveterate, pathetic sort of rule-follower, I didn't even ask myself about this. I did change one exact thing, regarding the kind of candy that Elsa eats, because it was meaningful and amusing to me to do so, but I don't think anybody will ever get it. I also included just a little bit of material from the script that didn't make it into the movie, because it was completely in line with my psychological interpretation, which was what I was most concerned with.

I never thought of SPLICE as a perfect film, but I had a lot of thoughts about it, and I think my main contribution was to explain what these characters are thinking and feeling as they wade into this life-changing and profoundly icky experience together. That became very personal very quickly and I was a little bit afraid that maybe this would be how everyone would find out how totally insane I actually am, but I'm told that that part worked out pretty good -- by Vincenzo Natali, among other people, who is SO NICE AND SMART AND SUPPORTIVE. Best guy! When I turned in my draft to the publisher I thought there might be a little back and forth, I did not expect them to send the raw document directly to Vincenzo and I was very alarmed when I heard from him before anybody else, but I really had nothing to fear. He's one of my favorite people now.

I would definitely do another novelization. Actually I think I'm uniquely suited to this because I have a good dose of aphantasia. I didn't even know until recently that it's statistically weird to think mostly or exclusively in words and to have a very hard time visualizing, like, almost anything. When I started telling people this about myself I was asked, among other things, "How do you do anything if you can't picture what you're going to do?" And I was like, uh...I don't know. Maybe this is connected to my extreme executive problems and my problems with goal formation and followthrough. I mean I think this is true, now. And I developed this sort of half-joking self-mythology that I have to be watching movies every second of the day because I suffer from an image deficit and I need external infusions. Like even when I used to draw (trauma took that away, long story, but I drew all the time for like half my life), almost everything I ever made was swipes -- and I think they're pretty good, like it's worthy as art. But I guess for me, art has to be made out of something external that I manipulate. All the art I've ever made without a reference point has been maybe technically OK but really lifeless, you can tell something is missing. So I think the novelization process was a lot like how I used to draw, where I had a completely concrete external referent and I would just sort of tour it very extensively until I had created a twin of it out of my interpretations. And the twin is like, the same but different, it's a clone made out of feelings and reactions. I think that's a worthy sort of art object to make.

There's a thing I'm working on now that I'm sure I won't be able to talk about for a long while, but it involves writing things from preexisting sketches and prompts, and that's a little bit the same. I don't have as much to go on, but I can tell what the shape of it could be, I just turn it over like, what if it's like this, what if it's like this, what if it's like this. And I know that what I'm turning out is really made out of tropes and archetypes, it's kind of a collage, but if the collaging is really earnest and you're feeling your way along with reasonable naturalness, it can turn into something. It's not that different from describing experiences you've had, if you really think about it. The following comment is NOT MEANT TO COMPARE MYSELF TO A GENIUS but I had this nice moment of synergy recently when I rewatched Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CURE, which to me seems so forcefully unique, but in interviews he says things like, "Well I just really wanted to make an American horror movie," and talks about how his starting point was not personal at all, he just wanted to play with the established tools and ingredients people use to build a certain kind of product. And I thought, I guess that's what I do -- not as intelligently or deliberately, but I get how you can work in a way that sounds so formal and empty, and have it produce something distinctly personal.

Thanks for your fun question!

*Virginia Madsen voice* Oh yes. I forgot to tell you. BUY MY BOOK!

EDIT: Oh I kind of lied, I changed *just some of* the music that Clive listens to, to something that would be easier to communicate to a reader. Like I wouldn't use the exact band on the soundtrack because it was too obscure and specific, but I would talk instead about his genre choices because they went with what I was trying to say about him as a person. I think all of it was still pretty in line with the sounds, and the Clive, that appear in the film.

[velvetvexations]

So weird question, but I've been seeing posts going around in transfeminist(and transradfeminist) spaces talking about how there's this huge problem in the queer community of people not agreeing rhst trans women are women, and like claims of people responding to the question of "would you stand up to defend trans women and argue that they are in fact women?" by saying "yeah, of course, gender is whatever you want it to be :)" and how that's a huge problem because it shows they don't actually agree that trans women are women, and insisting that "it only makes sense to categorize trans women as women and nothing else and if you won't accept that you're a bigot" and I'm just getting the feeling I'm missing something?

Cuz like yeah, trans women are obviously women, that's. That's obvious? And I don't think I've seen anyone on any side of trans discourse or theory or whatever state that they don't think trans women are women, or that any trans person isn't the gender they say they are(except for like people who are against afab transfems or argue for why it's okay to use theyfab, I guess) but I think that's something we all agree on overall, kinda the foundational stance of trans rights, but it's being said like this gotcha?? But I have no idea what the hell it's supposed to be a gotcha against??

The only thing I can possibly see this being about is like, people saying transphobes and our transphobic society don't fully view trans people as the gender they are, which they don't, that is also obvious and it doesn't mean trans women aren't women, just that society puts them more in the broken pervert faggot freak category and occasionally moves them between the woman and man categories based on whatever will hurt said trans women the most in any given situation, but if that's what it's about then how does people talking about how gender can be fluid have anything to do with that? It's honestly kinda weird to see people get so focused on like proving without a shadow of a doubt that trans women are women in all aspects and saying that acknowledging that gender is fluid and complicated and not easily defined is transmisognistic like...it feels a little transmed-ish to me?? And like also I thought we as a community were moving away from slogans like "trans men/woman are men/women" and on to like "trans liberation" because arguing that we are the gender we say we are with bigots breaks down into pedantic nonsense that detracts from the real issues like bathroom bills and anti-drag laws and HTR bans??

I just keep seeing these posts all over and it's making me feel like...idk like I'm in middle school and people are teasing me by asking me questions that I don't have the full context for and then calling me a freak when I answer wrong, but I'm worried if I ask any of them "what's this really about" I'm going to get insulted and called a transmisognist for suggesting it's not just about trans women being women even though I really am getting the feeling it's not actually just about trans women being women.

Anyway if you don't know that's fine, I just thought you might have some insight since you seem to understand these people and their talking points pretty well and you're also a trans woman so I trust and value your input on this stuff.

the entire point of trans radical feminism is basically that it soothes dysphoria a bit to imagine that Christofascists do actually think trans women are women and trans men are men and treat them like the cis equivalent so they've abandoned gender anarchy because it's not validating enough

they don't care about liberation they just want to tell themselves that other people see them as what they identify as and that is literally their only priority

"trans women are women taxonomically because we're oppressed" Emily that's how radfems define womanhood they just think the oppression is based on sex rather than self-identification

[anistarrose]

Asexuality can be about more than just sexual attraction and lack thereof. There have historically been multiple avenues to asexuality.

First of all: of course, you don't have to identify as ace if you're sex-repulsed/sex-averse, but feel like your attraction has something else going on that's important to you. And of course, you can identify as ace if you're sex-favorable, but feel like your lack or near-lack of attraction is important to you too. Nothing I am about to say negates those things.

However, for some people, sex aversion/repulsion is the most important factor in falling under the mantle of asexuality. The most important factor in resonating with the language of asexuality, finding a home in the asexual community, and considering asexuality both an identity they can take pride in, and use to communicate their experiences.

As useful as it can be to describe and discuss sexual attraction, said sexual attraction is ultimately a social construct that may be impossible to parse, uncomfortable to parse, inapplicable, and/or irrelevant to many on the asexual spectrum. Many of us active in the asexual community are familiar, either firsthand or secondhand, with how slippery the concept of sexual attraction can be — the turtles in ponds metaphor, the search for something you're not sure you even know the shape of. What's the boundary between attraction and non-attraction, between sexual and sensual and aesthetic?

Really, should something so slippery and confusing be the only metric we're allowed to define ourselves by? I argue it can be useful for many, but should never be a requirement — and personally, it's not how I define myself. I identify as asexual in part because the question of "Do you experience sexual attraction?" is fundamentally impossible for me to answer. An intractable problem, which I reject the need to answer or solve in order to know myself as a person.

Moreover, sexuality has a long history, serving as a useful term and community to ace-specs with a wide variety of experiences with attraction, desire, and action. While the "Non-Libidoists" of the early 2000's were by no means correct that a lack of interest in sex/masturbation should the only avenue to an asexual identity, they highlight that aversion and indifference to sex have been many people's reason to find a home in asexuality, throughout much of that term's usage.

Multiple avenues to asexuality are possible, and that goes both ways. Asexuals who have or want to have sex need to be welcomed and cherished, but positing that "little to no sexual attraction" is the only valid definition of asexuality is an overcorrection — and an alienating, exclusory overcorrection at that.

[discowingneckline]

if i'm correct, the timeskip from act 1 and act 2 was 3-6 months, but from my knowledge we don't know how long the timeskip between act 2 and 3 is. HOWEVER! it certainly wasn't a day, and here is my thoughts on why:

vi suffered from some sort of slash on her abdomen and protecting jinx's body in an explosion, yet she is able to fight just fine in the last episode. she even carried gert in episode 9, like she definitely wasn't as injured as she was from episode 6.

ambessa had the time to bury her dead, send for reinforcements to come by sea (and if she didn't send for more outside of piltover, she at the very least had to get communication to those docked, which at that...why wouldn't caitlyn take care of them pre-battle?), and do a bunch of shit with singed.

singed/viktor made the little bubble womb thing viktor is fermenting in, which is hooked up to a ton of pipes and like idk hose things. viktor has time to go and see mel and jayce and fight them, change into the machine herald, change ppl into metal things. singed had time to go and fix up vander. singed at some point leaves to go to his lab to save his daughter.

topsiders and zaunites both had time to train during the whole sequence thing, and i doubt they joined, trained, and then fought within like two days.

topside made more hextech related weapons (see the one loris and the pianist operate)

not necessarily counting these, but like still kinda point to it NOT being a day or even really a few days before the attack:

jinx had time after escaping jail to burn down the last drop, go to her hideout, and fail multiple times (technically) at killing herself

jinx and ekko at some point went to the firelight tree (if we are also going off of jinx fixes everything)

someone pierced ekko's ears

someone cut jinx's hair to look nicer

jinx and ekko both got new fits

jinx and ekko painted on each other (according to one of the writers)

jinx and ekko rally all the different gangs to go up topside to help

jinx configured her hideout into a hot air balloon that is completely redecorated (OR she found something similar to her hideout and decorated it)

so those are some of the big reasons i'm a little like mm no the time between act 2 and 3 isn't a day or even a few days. also caitlyn calls it a war...if this was the only battle (episode 9) with no other instances of fighting...that is a really shit word choice by the writers. like why wouldn't caitlyn just send out enforcers to go and fight ambessa while she's down in zaun with singed and viktor while she's at a huge disadvantage? why would zaunites just be fine with ambessa and her army being in their territory?

prev reblogs hit it on the "but it's armor" argument. like granted piltover is known for not having military and relying on enforcers to do all that stuff (which is it's own world building issue about the ins and outs of enforcers...) but like zaunites have literally built better armor and mechanical suits that protect them better. why wouldn't they use those or just go in their own clothes. you can't say it's so they can recognize friend from foe, because ambessa's army wears red and silver, and piltover is blue and gold. if anyone else wore other stuff, you could still easily identify the enemy.

and the argument over why zaunites shouldn't be wearing their oppressor's uniform has nothing to do with whether zaunites are valid or not. zaunites that end up wearing it for the battle are just as valid as those who don't because they are both fighting for their lives. ambessa was literally in their territory, viktor saved (killed) a good chunk of their community. what is being criticized is that the writers made that choice to show piltover enforcers being nice to some people, and zaunites deciding that they'll help because actually their oppressors are good people! it's a bad choice, end of.

on another note, sevika being on the council is a horrible decision like prevs said. it is NEVER said (and correct me if i'm wrong with some evidence from the writers) that caitlyn gave up her family's council seat for sevika specifically. mel left, leaving her seat empty. jayce resigned, leaving his seat empty. and heimerdinger was kicked off, leaving his seat empty. it is never really said who "replaced" who. all we know (from what the scene shows us) is that sevika has ONE seat. having one voice out of many who are the entire government

i.e piltover council seems to create and vote in laws, conduct trials, and when heimerdinger was on the council, have complete control over piltover education

gets you nowhere. especially when the other councilors seem to find your very presence to offensive. sure, sevika can advocate for changes in zaun, but if she wanted them to do anything, she'd likely have to bribe them. some votes on the council have to be unanimous, others simple majority. this part alone would need another separate post to really go into just how screwed she got. also! hate to be that person, but sevika has like little to no control over the undercity. she has silco's crew (unless some of them left after he died) and vaguely the jinxers by proxy. there are still 3 chembaron gangs (not including those from finn or renni, because idk what happened to their gangs) unaccounted for and the firelights. they have been shown to not really agree with each other on much of anything. you know who would be a better voice for zaun? ekko. he had ties to heimerdinger and doesn't completely hate topside. he, like caitlyn, worked to dismantle shimmer. logically, he would make the most sense. also, if it WAS caitlyn who gave up her seat for sevika, then it makes even less sense why she wouldn't pick ekko. she vaguely knows ekko, but her only real interactions with sevika were fighting her. also she was NOT the only one fighting for their rights and stayed true to her beliefs. we see this when she starts to understand vander's point on not giving up their own people, which she tells smeech. she has grown in her understanding and personal beliefs.

anyway, i saw the response and was like "what in the hell" so hope you enjoyed my ramblings on this topic.

so much interesting nuance regarding all out war between the two cities set up in s1 that is then completely not followed through in s2 cuz they just change the plot halfway through to something more confusing and less grounded and less interesting.

And then they try to pretend they had well developed and well explored themes regrading war and class and progress cuz a character who doesn’t do anything for half the season gets a seat on the council when we don’t even see the complex negotiations that would have led to that happening.

[fitpacs]

<3

[claraoswalds]

#mrs flood who are you: time lord edition

[knifearo]

i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a binary i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a sliding scale of "less" to "more" i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the only two options i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as significantly different things i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as all encompassing i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the two halves of a shallow concept of love that doesn't actually encompass anything at all i think we need to overhaul every popular conception about "types" of love so we can talk about things that are real and true for once

[evecolourshock]

....aaaand now i have fic

Apologies to all my RP buddies, stepping back from RP has made the stories runneth over

Tron hesitates, and then sinks into a booth Sam reserved for the this needs a drink kind of explanations. It is, he admits, a useful system given how little Sam knows of his father's work and Tron's own (admittedly patchy) knowledge of how things were before Clu messed with them.

"What's up?" Sam greets Tron, worry creasing that young face. "What happened, is something-"

"Nothing is more wrong than it was when you left eight millicycles ago." Tron soothes. It... kind of works. "More... I'm aware my question earlier was strange, and offer explanations." Because that's something he's learned to do, now. Explain.

Tron wishes he had this new skill when Beck- not going there.

Sam motions at him to go on.

"You'll have noticed by now a lot of things are named after me, and I keep on asking you to change them." Tron decides to start. Sam nods - that's good, he's aware of what Tron's on about. "I didn't have anything to do with the initial naming, that was all your father." Tron sips at the low-grade energy already on the table - it's nice on his scratchy throat, and if he wants a higher grade he can order it. "He... went a lot overboard with it, and I didn't notice."

Sam grimaces, aware of just how many things are named Tron-somethings. He's had to change a lot of them, and there's still more to go.

"By the time I found out... well. Too late to change it, and he didn't listen to my protests. Especially when I told him it was past flattering and well and truly into terrifying. In hindsight... it explains Clu. Or at least some of Clu's actions." Tron winces, reflexively hunching to protect his chest, feeling a phantom blade carve in again. Sam's hand on his arm brings him back to the now quicker than he would on his own (Beck, where's Beck-). "I was genuinely concerned he'd given you my name too."

"He tried." Sam tells him, and Tron's core sinks. Sam deserves better than to be saddled with that- "Mom overruled him. Gave me her dad's name instead and claimed family tradition. How true that is... I don't know. Never met that side of the family, or at least I don't remember."

"Your mother-" Tron takes a fraction of a picocycle to process this new User word, identifying within an error margin of 0.379% that it relates to the Jordan Flynn told him about, "-was an amazing woman, with the patience to put up with Flynn's antics and the strength to not let him get away with too many of them."

That startles a laugh out of Sam, and Tron smiles as best he can too. Sam's joy is infectious (rather like someone else Tron... knew, ow that hurts, leave that topic alone).

"Yeah." Sam murmurs, once the laughter fades. "Yeah, I bet she was." They sit in silence for a while, Program and User, contemplative and companionable.

"We were about to start work in Argon, right?" Sam doesn't question why Tron wants the desolate, burned ruins of a little port town restored, trusting there to be a good reason for this diversion of resources to a place that shouldd be low on the priority list. "Anything major to change there?"

"Nothing named after me, but..." Tron steeples his hands, the way he always does when nervous. "Could we... adjust the main square?"

"What to?"

"A memorial garden and park." Tron looks at the energy shimmering in his glass. Sam's been adding these relaxation spaces, indignant about the lack of peaceful areas to rest, and introduced plants for both the novelty and calm they bring. "Three connected but separate areas."

"Easy." Sam tells him confidently, and he's right now the jitters have subsided. "What would you like them named?"

"Renegade Park." Tron answers immediately, sure of it. "One garden for Beck, the other for Bodhi." Even now, he remembers. Beck had talked at length about Bodhi - the Ram to Beck's Tron, if Tron had to compare it. "...and maybe name an office block for Cyrus. That one's... something of an in-joke as well as a memorial."

Sam smiles at him, and for a moment Tron sees another adored fluffy-haired menace in his place. "I'll see what I can do."

Kevin: I can’t believe you didn’t get the hint. Like, I made so many things because you wanted them. I named tons of stuff after you. Like, Tron Cycles the unit of time, your Tron Tower, in Tron City, in the Tron system-

Tron: The what.

Kevin: This is the Tron system. That’s its official name in the source files, haven’t you seen?

Tron: KEVIN.

Kevin: What? I thought you’d like it!

Tron: There is a point where it goes past flattery and into terrifying!

Kevin: I’d say I should’ve stopped at the city, but obviously the system came first… Oh yeah, and I keep calling Alan ‘Tron’. Hehe, get it, because I thought you were Alan that first time and now the shoe’s on the other foot-

Tron: *faints*

(Later)

Sam logging in: Samuel T. Flynn.

Tron: what does the T stand for

Sam: Timothy. Why?

Tron: oh thank god

[jamiesfootball]

Always lowkey simmering a Leverage AU in the back of my head hear me out:

Ted is an ex-insurance investigator who was able to get his son life-saving medical treatment because his first, original Crime Pal Beard was like ‘Ted if your company doesn’t come through with the coverage, we’re doing things my way.’

The company did not come through. The company did let him go due to suspicion of Ted’s involvement in the incident, but Ted will happily remind folks that no charges were formally pressed. Henry is alive and healthy and living with Michelle, who divorced Ted shortly thereafter (not just because of pre-existing marital problems, but because Ted wouldn’t tell her anything about why the doctors “””suddenly decided to do the procedure for free”””). Shortly thereafter, Ted fled the country.

What Ted learned from the whole experience is that there’s a lot of people out there, good people just trying to live by the rules, but sometimes things happen that are just out of their control. And well- if we’ve got the means to help the good people out when no one else will, then shouldn’t we try?

“We’ve got means,” Beard agrees. “And motives.”

They do things Beard’s way now.

[die-rosastrasse]

.

[crabs-nonsense]

Accidentally gave myself exposure therapy! Results? Police report.

[arom-antix]

Don't worry, you're not butting in. I want as many people to add their takes to this discussion because that way the discussion can be more nuanced and all-encompassing of different views and experiences. Thank you for joining.

And I totally agree. My main gripe with this person's approach to fandom isn't that they love certain interpretations or that they're not all that academic. It's that they put down other fans, whether directly or indirectly, by invalidating their interpretations of canon and whining about their lack of peers with comparative intellect. I can't believe I have to say this but if you have to state that you're clever, you aren't. This dismissive attitude towards anyone with a different approach to canon and the information we have is actively discouraging people from engaging in discussions of said canon (something I know Samurai cares about a lot. I've scrolled through most of their blog and their entire BlueSky and I have a lot of screenshots and links but it's past 2am so I'll have to add those tomorrow). Of course I'm not claiming anything definitely and I'd love for Samurai to put in their own two cents but from reading a lot of their posts, I get the feeling that they don't actually know what a headcanon is.

Quoting from Dictionary.com: "Headcanon is a slang term for someone’s personal interpretation of or belief about the details of a fictional story that aren’t part of the “official” account. [...] In contrast, headcanon is simply what a fan believes (or wants) to be true about a story. It can involve backstory, what happens after the story ends, or any other aspect. [...] Of course, it is possible for someone’s headcanon to become canon if such details later become part of the story or are confirmed as true in some way." This definition is corroborated by for example UrbanDictionary.com. Now, I'm not here to argue pedantics of what a headcanon is or isn't since it's not that strict a term, but I just want to point out that something which is not proven as canon qualifies as a headcanon and something that happens pre-, during, or post-canon and isn't explained in the canon material is by definition a headcanon.

I'm mentioning this because while reading through their posts I got the feeling that they harbour a certain disdain for headcanons as if they're beneath them and canon. But considering I'm extremely aware of what their fics contain by now and that they claim to exclusively write canon compliant fics, this dismissal of headcanon as almost unworthy of their time is ridiculous to me. A large part of their fics consist entirely of headcanons. Likely headcanons, sure, but headcanons nonetheless. You can subdivide into soulcanon, heartcanon, crackcanon, etc. but the bottom line is that all these add-ons to canon are not canon and are by definition headcanons.

I also want to touch on the whole ace debate. While acephobia is definitely a problem and sex positive ace erasure even more so, I find it pretty ridiculous to levy such a strong accusation against people who so much as suggest that there are other explanations of Yuuri's behaviour in canon. If there's an allosexual gay guy out there who sees himself in Yuuri's experiences and behaviour because maybe he didn't realise what he was feeling was sexual attraction towards guys and as such he didn't understand the Eros assignment, is that experience invalid grounds to interpret YOI as Yuuri's personal coming out story simply because someone else finds that implausible? Of course not.

And I want to clarify that I like the ace headcanons and am ace myself but as an ace person I can also confirm that I know literally nothing about what it's like to be allosexual. I don't know if an allosexual person might also have trouble identifying Eros because I don't have those experiences to prove or disprove this. And as an ace person too, I find it questionable that Samurai insists that they can definitively say that Yuuri's experiences make him ace. Is it a plausible conclusion? Sure and as stated I myself like this interpretation. Is it the only valid one and does interpreting it as anything else based on the same canon evidence and personal anecdotal evidence make you acephobic? No it does not.

Acephobia is a real problem that could be called out but I personally think such accusations should be reserved for cases that aren't about like a fictional anime man whom none of us personally know. Levying such strong language and accusations against people is why they don't engage with this person. They don't want to be dragged through the mud for simply suggesting an alternate approach to analysing the evidence (I have a friend who's confirmed that they've refrained from posting about certain curious thoughts simply because they didn't want to end up being criticised for a simple sharing of ideas so this is not a baseless statement. They've asked to be kept anonymous though so it's up to you if you believe me).

To reiterate: there's nothing wrong with believing Yuuri is ace-spec. I myself like this theory. But a probable headcanon is not grounds to call people acephobes or publicly demean them for simply wanting to expand the discussion. Acephobia has no home here but neither does harassment of people simply asking to consider alternate interpretations of canon. It's an anime. We're not doing C-14 dating here. There is no indisputable, empirical truth when it comes to the human experience and claiming that there is is just as ignorant as claiming Yuuri cannot be interpreted as ace. Just let people have fun with their blorbos. It's not that serious.

A totally different thing I just want to mention real quick that bothers me about Samurai too is their lack of owning up to mistakes. I very briefly pointed out a mistake in their use of Katakana in their post about the Latin spelling of Yuuri/Yuri and instead of simply acknowledging it, they silently corrected the original post (incorrectly, might I add) and then explained what they meant but not actually understanding. チ is written as chi in Latin characters. Not ch, not ti/tsi (neither of which are Latinisations of any existing individual characters in Japanese for those who don't know (excluding any combinations like つぃ or ツィ)), チ is just chi. コ一チ is just like any other loan word but I'm sure you can explain this better than I can, Rikeijo (and can point it out if I've misunderstood something). It was a spelling mistake. Just move on. Don't try to make an excuse for it. It's not that deep.

Scrolling through their posts, I've repeatedly seen this diversion from the actual criticism or issue at hand. It's okay to just be straight up wrong. Just admit it. It's not dangerous, it's actually quite admirable. It feels like a variant of whataboutism where the discussion never goes anywhere because Samurai just keeps bringing up new things that weren't part of the discussion. It's okay to bring things up as you discuss but I've seen multiple instances of this not expanding a discussion but instead falling into the slippery slope fallacy.

Again, it's past 3am now and most of my links and screenshots are on my computer so sorry about the lack of academic sources. Good thing this is just a discussion about anime and that no one is required to have a PhD in YOI to be here.

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[copinglink-culture-is]

(very specific) confused copinglink culture is seeing people using copinglink bots on discord and wanting to copinglink as well because you feel like it could help you, but not knowing what characters to link and how it fully works. is it acting like a character? is it feeling like a character? and not knowing because it's so hard to find good info on it.

‎