#this WAS NOT meant to be this long

[gods-favorite-autistic]

If the bad kids played Minecraft

Gorgug: redstone builder my guy loves making rollercoasters and security systems and anything redstone for the others, loves the enchantment table and fights monsters purely for xp, has a little farm of rainbow sheep and flowers, his workshop looks like a flower (Fabian may or may not have made it he just came to the joint world and found it there one day)

Fabian: achievement maniac he must prove that he is the best at the game, loves all the fortresses and like the raids and all of that, fights any monster he sees and brings the spoils back to Adaine for her building, hoards all the gold and diamonds he finds and refuses to share, once killed a piglin on accident and had to give all of his gold to Fig, main person who finds and downloads mods for everyone (he has the nicest computer after all), has a list of which person got one mod after everyone started fighting about who requested a shaders mod that just makes everything look really pretty but also insanely slows everyone’s fps (it was Gorgug he liked how it looked)

Fig: trying to make and collect everything she physically can and if she can’t she will find a way, has about a million mods installed because why not (her personal world is like 4 fps), “rules the nether” (Adaine turned a fortress into a castle for her and she only trades with piglins), has at least one cd playing at any time and tries to start a campaign for one of her songs to become an official cd (it almost works)

Riz: automates everything and anything he can, just does insane experiments for funsies, has a gang of iron golems and a village that he rules with an iron fist (is very offended that fig refuses to trade with his villagers, has waged war on the nether multiple times but Fabian (his “knight”) and Gorgug (Figs “knight”) refuse to fight each other), Kristen is banned because she keeps trying to start a rebellion

Adaine: the builderrr girlie likes her games on peaceful and her structures luxurious, she made a castle for all of her friends in her joint world (even if Fig and Riz usually sleep in their kingdoms), does not know how to fight in the slightest so she just enlists Fabian and Gorgug (Riz makes her pay to enlist Fabian in tnt no Adaine he is not making another nuke what are you talking about), genuinely a good archer but freaks out anytime she sees a monster and becomes instantly useless so she mainly uses it for hunting purposes

Kristen: loves mining, also has a million pets like if she can find a way to make it a pet she will (she once tamed a polar bear nobody knows how), her room in Adaine’s castle is in the basement with little mining carts that Gorgug made her that go throughout basically their whole world, runs as fast as she can away from any Warden chamber (she cannot fight), has an army of snowmen in a cage, technically has a fee for being the blacksmith of the group but forgets every time, has a White House built somewhere in the world after the school election

Bonus!

Ayda: Crafts books so she can write in them, lives in Figs castle in another room than Fig (for the drama, according to Fig)(“the fans will love it!” “My love who are you talking about nobody is watching us” “excuse you my tumble audience is very much enjoying our live-blogged tragic love” “my paramour we are literal blocks”), rotates between living there and living in the tallest tower in Adaine’s castle, is fascinated by Gorgugs inventions

Ragh: Fighter, insists on only using his bare fists, drinks any potion he finds, is the only person willing to go on raids with Fabian and Gorgug, figured out a way to play bloodrush in game, loves elytra’s, lives in a dirt hut that is big enough for him to stand in next to a bed and nothing else, Adaine built him a room (that looks like a gym) in her castle but he prefers dirt hut

Aelwyn: Only on there for the cats, steals Kristen’s cats any chance she gets, surprisingly really good at fighting but refuses to fight unless absolutely necessary, has one mod on for herself and it’s the shapeshifting mod (no clue if that’s a mod or part of a game mode) so she can prank Adaine anytime she wants, loves making tnt even if she doesn’t use it (“the goblin uses it in funny ways” “Aelwyn he is exploding a village” “like I said funny”), fucking hates goats and polar bears for no reason

[smalltownrobin]

I think the best way for rovickie to be set up for s5, considering the YEAR AND A HALF TIME SKIP, would be if Vickie has been away at college.

(this is so long I'm sorry)

Obviously, where they were left at the end of s4 was very vague but also very telling, my assumption is that Vickie still needs to figure out and come to terms with her sexuality, then the two need to tell each other their feelings, but both seem to be AWARE there is something between them. Going straight from that to a year and a half later would make their story jankier than it already is, a lot of people (including myself) have thought there's a chance they're already together and we're just totally skipping over all the good ship stuff, or they would have been doing this subtle friends but gay and eyeing each other thing for over a year. Neither is a good option storytelling wise.

However, with the way things are between them by the end of s4, I think a great way to sort of keep it in that place, progress it slightly, AND give a natural explanation as for what's been happening between them during the time skip, is for them to basically not have seen each other the whole time, hence Vickie going off to college.

I can see it like their friendship got somewhat closer after their conversation at the relief centre, and they continued on that trajectory until graduation (since the education system seems to stay up and running despite gaping gates to an alternate dimension splitting the town in half), where Vickie did the typical thing and went to college, while Robin, most probably not able to afford it and wanting to stay and help with the upside down stuff, stayed in Hawkins.

While Vickie is at college, it's entirely possible that she had the time and space to figure out her sexuality (not so much "experimenting" in the derogatory sense, just being in a more open environment and meeting new people not from a small red state town), whether she entirely accepts herself or simply becomes more open to the possibility of being queer, I think either works. Of course, she would also have her lingering feelings for Robin to deal with, which would most likely be the main factor in her even considering the possibility of liking girls.

Another crucial detail is that Vickie appears to be a candy striper volunteer at Hawkins memorial hospital, along with Nancy (not technically confirmed, but we've seen Vickie at the hospital both weeks they were filming there, and someone who looked an awful lot like her stunt double in the uniform, plus my own Vickie intuition that's totally what she'd do). Since it's a year and a half break, unless Hawkins is under a strict quarantine (there seems to be something enforced but quarantine I'm ignoring for the sake of this idea), Vickie would of course be able to come home for holidays, where she'd most likely choose to spend her time away from college volunteering (this being the girl that ignored her bf to spend spring break at the relief centre, remember) (I'm doing too many brackets aren't I, my apologies). She could have some kind of workplace friendship with Nancy because of this, which doesn't add much to anything, I just like the idea of them being friends cos they'd get along spectacularly, but anyway, this would work for s5 which seems to be set around thanksgiving 1987, so of course Vickie would be home for the holiday, doing her volunteering, and that's how she ends up involved this season.

I think something that could be cute here is if Vickie comes back to Hawkins every so often (christmas, thanksgiving, spring break, summer, etc.), and every single time she wants to call Robin, or go to her house, and hang out with her, but every single time she never quite has the guts to. If she's been away thinking about the way she feels about this girl, realising that she may actually be queer, then as much as she likes talking to someone who gets her and is like her, that could just about hold her back from willing herself to see her again.

Now, ROBIN'S SIDE OF THINGS. Obviously, girlie would be staying in Hawkins doing... whatever, idk, her and Steve don't seem to be employed anymore, maybe they've just been chilling looking for Vecna, but from Robin's perspective, when Vickie left for college, she left for good. Hawkins is a fucked up and dangerous place, she wouldn't have thought there'd be any reason for her to come back, and even if she did, she wouldn't want to meet up with Robin. So, Robin's probably spent a year and a half trying to not think about her or what they could have been, because Vickie's safer away from this place, and doesn't need her.

AND SO... when Robin goes to the hospital early in the season (for a reason I still don't know), it could be where her and Vickie run into each other, see each other for the first time in a year and a half, and all of that is behind that moment. It keeps them somewhat in the place they were left at the end of s4, but it has even more weight to it, and it accounts for the time that's passed.

From here I could get into how I think they talk at the hospital and arrange to meet up (hence why Robin's done her hair all cute with that bow), and then they don't for whatever reason and bla bla bla, but then I'd just be spewing s5 theories and it's 2am I don't have the energy for that. This was just what I wanted to share, and it took me way too many paragraphs to do so, but there you go.

TL;DR: s5 would be cool if Vickie figured out her sexuality at college and popped back into town occasionally to volunteer at the hospital and Robin thought she left for good and is glad she's safe while sad thinking what they could have been, they don't see each other during the year and a half time skip until they run into each other at the hospital (during thanksgiving break) and from there that's how Vickie gets involved with the upside down.

[marjansmarwani]

the thing I keep going back to is the fact that Carlos was on the phone with his mother when Gabriel was shot. which means that he heard the gunshot, he heard his mother screaming, he heard her crying, and even though he didn’t know what was going on, he knew.  

which leads to thinking about him, back at the loft, shifting from a casual phone call with his mother to that; and the fear and panic and him pacing the living room as he yelled into the phone, and TK trying to get him to tell him what was going on so he could tell 911 because whatever it was if it is making Carlos act like this it is worthy of 911 dispatch, and whatever it is that’s his family too, and he needs to make sure they get the help they need. he needs to do what he can to help, as small as it is. because right now he’s feeling pretty powerless, but so is Carlos.  

and then there’s Gabriel. how he was so happy and content, trying on his tux for his son’s wedding. how he was home with his wife and they were smiling and laughing and how everything he did in that scene just oozed with love. his love for his wife, his family, his son. and then he opened his own front door and had no more than a fraction of a second to react. but it wasn’t enough time. and even though he has to know that this is probably it and he feels not just the pain from the bullet in his chest but also the pain of his wife’s frantic yelling and obvious fear, how he is at peace. his family is happy and safe, they all just had a beautiful night together celebrating his son and his new life. and though he hates that he won’t be at the wedding he is dying in his tuxedo, a physical representation of his shift in his relationship with his son who he spent so long on uneasy ground with. but he knows that’s all in the past and that Carlos both loves him and knows just how much he is loved in return. and he’s able to die in peace, without any regrets; knowing that his family will be fine. 

[jamespottersmixtape]

september 12: iced 1,742 words @rosekiller-microfic

Barty really needs caffeine. Evan works at a small coffee shop.

It's an incredibly average Tuesday when Barty manages to make a fool out of himself and fall in love on the same day.

Well, the whole thing isn't as dramatic as he makes it out to be, but he isn't known for being subtle with his retellings.

Barty had thought he'd be fine—running on two hours of sleep was perfectly reasonable for sitting through a 3 hour business lecture, right?

Did he mention that he was a fool?

Whether by luck or fate or the incessant blaring of Barty's alarm clock, he had managed to crawl out of bed early enough for his 9am class—calculations and formulas and useless information on the status of the economy still swirling through his brain from the night before.

However, what his sleep deprived brain had failed to remember was that Barty lived off caffeine. Nothing would get done in a day if he hadn't downed at least 2 cups of coffee or the strongest black tea he could find. Dorcas always told him it was an addiction; he never listened.

So at 8:50 he trudged across campus and sat down heavily in the back of the lecture hall, mentally preparing himself for 3 torturous hours of his professor's monotonous voice, with absolutely no caffeine in his system. A mistake on his part.

It wasn't until he awoke at 11:55, the feeling of someone nudging his shoulder enough to rouse him from a dreamless sleep, that he finally realized this mistake. He had slept through the entire fucking lecture.

And it wasn't him dozing off halfway through, fighting diligently not to nod off. No, as soon as his professor began speaking Barty's head was on the desk, drool pooling in the corner of his mouth as he slept soundly on the uncomfortable wood. Frankly, he was mortified.

That brings him to now, briskly walking through the sea of students milling about between classes, his finger scrolling quickly through the selection of local coffee shops.

He still has two more classes, there's no way he'll survive without something helping him stay awake.

His eyes scan his phone screen, looking at distances and reviews until he settles on a place not too far from the North corner of campus—Twin Flame Coffee & Co.

He supposes it'll do.

Barty arrives in record time, his long legs carrying him faster than average. The building is quaint but lively, cream walls with colorful chairs out front—Barty's surprised he hadn't found it sooner.

When he pushes open the door a small bell rings overhead. There's not too many people, a few students with their laptops and an old couple sharing a pastry, but there's someone ordering and he can't see the register.

He scans the menu just long enough to make sure they serve the drink he wants, and only looks down when it's his turn.

He means to step forward but the movement gets halted as soon as his eyes lock on the person working. In front of him is a boy about his age, wispy blonde curls and bright eyes, a winning smile directed right at Barty as he waits patiently for him to approach. He has freckles scattered loosely across his face and neck, disappearing beneath the tank-top he's wearing. Is that even work appropriate? he thinks.

There are at least a dozen tattoos littering his arms—nowhere near the amount Barty has, but enough—and his skin looks soft enough that biting it would leave a mark. Suddenly Barty's throat feels impossibly dry.

"How can I help you?" the boy says, and oh Jesus fucking Christ he sounds like heaven too. Barty is a goner.

Suddenly his brain is on high alert, catching up with the fact that he's been staring at this guy for at least 5 seconds. He shakes his head and approaches the register, his legs shakier than before.

The boy's smile is unwavering, yet he seems amused at Barty's slow uptake. Barty swears his eyes flick up and down Barty's figure, but quickly pushes that thought aside.

"Hi," Barty says flatly. He's lucky his voice doesn't crack but god, could he sound any more unapproachable?

"Hi," the boy says, levity clear on his face now. "What can I get started for you?"

"Uh, can I just have a large latte?"

"Large latte," the boy repeats, punching something onto a screen. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it," Barty replies. "Thank you," he adds, trying his hardest to remain calm.

He tries to smile but it definitely looks strange. Their eyes meet briefly and he has to physically restrain himself from doing something very fucking stupid. Like telling him he's pretty. Or begging for his number.

Yeah, he's fucked.

"Okay, can I have a name for that?"

"Um..." can he even remember his own name? Probably not. He wants to learn his name but can't see a name tag. Damn. "Barty," he finally gets out. "My name is Barty."

The boy laughs, his face becoming even lovelier in the process. Clearly, Barty's repeated blundering is funny to him. "Alright Barty, that'll be ready on the side for you," the boy flashes him another smile. Barty pulls out his wallet to pay, disappointed at the short interaction, but as he's inserting his card he notices the boy grabbing a cup for hot drinks.

"Shit, sorry," Barty starts, unprepared for any further conversation. "Did I say hot? I meant iced. Large iced latte."

The boy's hand stills from where it was prepared to write Barty's order. "Oh! That's fine, it's the same price."

He grabs a clear plastic cup instead, scribbling on it before passing it to a girl with similar colored hair. They look related, Barty thinks.

Barty pulls his card out, payment finished. This is where he's supposed to walk away and wait for his drink like any other customer. But, well, there's no one behind him, and he really wants to find out this guy's name.

"Sorry about that," Barty scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. His stomach swoops every time he looks at the boy's face. He really is gorgeous. "It's been a weird day."

"Hard classes?" the boy asks, placing his hands on the counter, drumming his fingers.

Barty's eyes widen, taken aback that he was asked a question. He clears his throat. "Nah, not really. I slept through my entire first lecture."

"Wow." the boy deadpans.

"Yeah," Barty huffs out a small laugh. "3 whole hours of sleep. At least it was a good nap," he shrugs.

The boy laughs again, louder this time. Barty really wouldn't mind making it happen again. "3 hours? I guess you really need this latte."

Barty groans, rubbing his hand over his face. "Tell me about it. I forgot to make coffee this morning."

The boy purses his lips, "Glad we could help then."

Barty stands there awkwardly for a moment. He wants to stay and talk, he wants to know everything there is to know about this boy—his name, for starters. Ten minutes ago he was blissfully oblivious to his existence, but he's enlightened now, and there's no way he's forgetting him.

Maybe he's a fool, it's been said before.

"I've uh– it's my first time here. It's nice, I can't believe I've never seen this place before."

The boy hums, nodding. "Well, my sister and I," he gestures to the girl making drinks, "We only opened this place a few weeks ago. It's gotten a fair bit of traction, so that's been nice. But it's new, so don't worry, you haven't been missing out for too long," he shoots Barty a wink and he swears his heart nearly stops.

"Oh," Barty chuckles, his voice higher than normal. "Well maybe I'll come back then." He's testing the waters, trying to read if this guy even cares about his existence outside of an obligation to his job.

"I hope so, would be a shame if this was the last time I saw you," the boy says, leaning forward on the counter. And what? That had to be flirting, right? Right? The boy's eyes rake over his torso in a much more obvious manner, taking time to fully appreciate his appearance.

Barty wants to say something but he finds he's too incoherent to string words together. "Yes," he says lamely. "Yeah, yes. I'll definitely be back."

"I'm looking forward to it," the boy replies, flashing him another grin.

"Here," the girl—his sister—says, passing her brother Barty's drink. The pair seem to have an entire conversation with their eyes, never saying a word out loud. At the end of the exchange, the boy lets out a frustrated sigh. She offers Barty a quick smile before turning swiftly on her heel and disappearing behind a curtain.

The boy holds his drink out. "Here's your iced latte."

Barty's cheeks flush at the reminder of his mistake, taking the coffee and straw from his grasp. If their fingers brush and Barty's face glows pink, nobody has to know.

Barty sticks the straw in the cup, taking a quick sip and practically moaning right in front of the poor man. "Fuck, that's good coffee. You'll be lucky if you don't see me here everyday."

"The coffee's the only reason, huh? It's that good?" the boy asks, raising an eyebrow.

Barty smirks, shrugging as he takes another sip. "Among other things," he says, noticing a faint blush creep up the boy's neck and cheeks. The color reminds him of a rose.

The bell above the door rings faintly, signaling a new customer. Barty spares a quick glance at his phone, the time signaling he only has half an hour before his next class. He reluctantly takes a step back towards the door. "I should probably head out."

"It was nice meeting you Barty," the boy tells him, offering another dazzling smile. Barty has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from smiling back like an idiot.

"You too. I'll see you around, uh..." he hesitates, praying to all that is holy that this infuriatingly attractive boy will finally give him his name.

He rolls his eyes, but Barty can tell it's amiable. "Evan," he fills in. "My name is Evan."

Barty can't help it, a painfully lovestruck grin splits across his face. Evan.

Evan, Evan, Evan.

He likes the way it sounds in his head. Likes it even more when he tells him, "I'll see you around Evan," and walks out the door.

[happy-snake-noises]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Malon (Legend of Zelda)/Time (Linked Universe), Time & Wild (Linked Universe), Mentioned Time & Twilight (Linked Universe) - Relationship, Saria (Legend of Zelda) & Time (Linked Universe) Characters: Time (Linked Universe), Wild (Linked Universe), Saria (Legend of Zelda), Malon (mentioned), Twilight (Mentioned), Look all the others boys are mentioned Additional Tags: Time (Linked Universe)-centric, Temporary Character Death, I don’t wanna give away the entire fic but i feel like I have to tag it, Wild and Time are a great pairing, i love writing about them, Time (Linked Universe) Needs a Hug, Wild (Linked Universe) Needs a Hug, No hugs are given but it’s not sad, Whump, Whumptober 2023, Hurt/Comfort, Freeform - hurt/comfort, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, That’s a big maybe, it doesn’t end badly, No beta we die like Wild, these are the least serious tags I’ve ever written Series: Part 3 of Whumptober 2023 Summary:

The first thing Time noticed was the emptiness. The rolling fields for miles and miles that seemed to stretch as far as the sky was wide. The sky itself was clear and dark, dotted with stars he didn’t know the names of and somewhere to the south was an empty circle where the moon would have hung.

The air was still, the breeze didn’t brush through the grass, it didn’t carry a hum.

Everything was still.

And Time was alone.

OR Time isn’t doing so hot, doesn’t know where he is. Wild is there

Whumptober day 16 - Gurney | Flatline | “Don’t go where I can’t follow”

[naughtsimpossible]

death and companions

every day i brace myself for losing something or someone i love

every day i prepare myself for the world to teach me a lesson on taking things for granted

every day i remind myself that everything has a purpose

every day i consider holding my breath for death

every day i remind myself of what i have going for me

every day i look at the world and see what i love, in everything

every day i find myself more and more grateful for and indebted to the Lord

every day i exhale for life

they say knowledge is power, but it's also a privilege

for one to say they know, a gift to the earth

to know who loves you

to know you mean something

to know what love is

to know the world, the universe, the heavens, the bees, the drops of rain, the pebbles

to feel the comfort of the earth and of the heavens surrounding you

like a blanket

a blanket of cotton

a blanket of snow, so pure it feels holy

a blanket of heat, burn'd bright from the hearth

a blanket of warmth, like fire, but from the heart

a blanket of love, a love so tender it fits

a blanket of all sizes, a blanket to comfort all

and so i say to you

do not confront death

do not abhor its stench

for even life needs a meaning

and our dear old diff'rence creates meaning

our lovely contrast, a good old friend

and so in looking at death

not hating nor gaping

but loving and seeing

and taking as given

in doing all this

you will truly see

that life has meaning

and that death

does not end

and so

i hold my breath for death

but not out of fear

but for respect

for doing the dirty deed

of giving life

its meaning

and i exhale for life

for i know

that if could go thus far

as far so to life in death

(for death is alive, but dead all at once)

then it must

be worth it

and to sum it all up

i breathe for the living

and i breathe for the dead

as the two walk like a couple

hand in hand

an angel and an angel

one holy and one fallen

both there for each other

to make it all mean something

[silverity]

are there any arguments that have been made by other marxists in regards to your stance on sex based oppression that have made you deeply reflect/question your stance or do you find most of them monotonous and downright dismissive?

asking this bc i’ve been going through your original posts and most of them (other marxists) are essentially regurgitating the same points (that you’ve tackled amazingly btw) and so many of them aren’t open to genuine discussion. thank u for answering in advance and i love your blog sm. 💗

unfortunately, most marxists i've encountered possess little to no understanding of radical feminist & gender critical or abolitionist perspectives. they're unable to form any adequate rebuttals, arguing instead against the radfem/terf bogeyman that is so popular online & not actual feminist theory. even prior to the trans movement radical feminism had long been dismissed within marxist circles as "white bourgeois feminism" & so not worthy of any consideration. combining this now with the thought policing within tra circles where nobody is allowed to read the feminist theory they're arguing against for fear it might convince them... it is not producing great feats of reasoning, to say the least.

the other issue is that many marxists make arguments not rooted in actual marxism. i think there are two reasons for this: one, because they assume the identity of "marxist/communist" without any devoted study of marxism (especially anything concerning women), and two, because they too are swept up in the wave of postmodernist queer theory spreading massively across social media, that is particularly rife within western academia. again, it seems it's a combination: without a core understanding of marxism they are not able to recognise the contradictions within gender identity ideology. for instance, the over-reliance on mantra such as "trans women are women" despite foundational marxist texts warning against generating support via slogans & depositing ideology into people without fostering true political consciousness. these people cannot explain what the fuck they mean by "trans women are women", they are just supposed to believe it and repeat it.

there are some arguments, however, that i have paused to consider. the first is that the concept of "gender fluidity", while it might be flawed & imperfect, could lead to the breakdown of gender roles and along the path to eventual gender abolition, in the sense that fluidity is at least less rigid than traditional gender ideology with all its fixed biological essentialism. this falls down, ultimately, when we analyse the actual character and ideology of the trans movement. traditional biological essentialism insists femininity is inherent to the female sex, and masculinity is inherent to the male sex. the new form of (gender) essentialism simply says the biology is now optional (or at least mimicry of the biology via HRT) but women are still feminine beings and men are still masculine. despite their supposed commitment to dialectical materialism these marxists are unable to explain the how or the why, it ranges from gendered souls (we are all innately either feminine or masculine) to social roles (we just happen to learn a social role as children, which one is just a matter of chance, no such thing as sex-role socialisation & in fact this can be chosen & reversed as adults). either way none of this destroys gender roles. we still reach the same conclusion, we still have the same two categories, we still have women and men divided between the feminine and the masculine.

more importantly, none of this presents any meaningful challenge to gender as a political system, which under marxism is most crucially the sexual division of labour & the exploitation of women. instead we have a preoccupation with identity politics, enhancements and aesthetics, oppression olympics scoring in the case of white heteroqueers adopting "oppressed" identities, & i guess weird hedonistic sex stuff. none of it is rooted in marxism, none of it follows dialectical materialism. it's much more in line with the politics of liberal capitalism with its consumerism and individualism. this shouldn't be news to marxists but individualist or reformist politics are not the path to the radical reordering of every facet of society, which is what will be required for our collective liberation. this version of gender that positions the "gender binary" as the oppressive force as opposed to patriarchy, along with its distortions of feminist theory and aim of ignoring sex altogether, is effectively suppressing feminist consciousness among women.

i'm really only just scratching the surface here but hopefully i've illustrated why i doubt "fluidity" will lead to abolition. in my view the path to abolition would be non-conformity. it would be wonderful if "trans" were really about transcending gender instead of adhering closely to fixed gendered categories. but sadly even identities like "non-binary" or "agender" seem to conform to sexist ideology, where women have to surgically remove their breasts in order to be seen as non-feminine, non-sexualised neutral human beings. the trans movement presents a false image of defying gender norms & stereotypes but beneath the surface the centuries-old exploitative sexual dynamics between men and women keep on.

the second argument is that of materialist feminism, commonly what tirfs adhere to (male-inclusionary radical feminism is a major contradiction to me but hey-ho). Monique Wittig is kind of the Dworkin of materialist feminism so i'm going to rely on her work to explain it. she writes "for there is no sex. there is but sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses. it is oppression that creates sex and not the contrary." essentially taking De Beauvoir's "one is not born, but rather becomes a woman" to the extreme, Wittig argues women are a social & political construct, an ideological "myth". we exist in language—we are marked as women, seen as women, thus we are women. but there is no natural category of "woman", and any recognition of a natural division between men and women amounts to a naturalization of women's oppression. she argues that just as "Blackness" evolved to justify racial oppression, women too were "rebuilt into a natural group" to justify our oppression. women should refuse the category of woman, as lesbians do, who by defying heterosexuality position themselves as "a not-woman, a not-man, a product of society, not a product of nature, for there is no nature in society."

sound familiar? despite its so-called materialism, and history as an offshoot of marxist feminism, materialist feminism holds to the same postmodernist deconstructions of sex & gender as Judith Butler's gender theory. they are not exactly one and the same, Butler differs from Wittig in lots of ways, but they both share the stance that sex is just as constructed as gender. if Wittig had made the distinction between womanhood that is femininity and womanhood that is our neutral state of being, as many radical feminists do, as De Beauvoir does, i would probably find myself agreeing with many of her statements. but as i sit here breasts aching, menstruation imminent i find i am not convinced oppression has created the female sex. it has created a sexed order, a sexual hierarchy of men over women, sexual labour and exploitation, a sexual ideology of male superiority—but not sex itself.

what made me pause and consider this perspective was that it was abolitionist. but materialist feminism is abolitionist in that it fights not only for a genderless society but also a "sexless" society. i disagree with this, and with Wittig's accusations that feminists protect the category of our own oppression. we are not saying that sexual oppression is the inevitable consequence of our natural traits when we say women are female, that our oppression stems from our being female. we are attacking a status quo that wants to invisibilize female people and silence the female voice so that it is better able to extract and exploit all that it can from our suppressed female selves. "there is no nature in society" does not align with marxist thought, wherein human nature and our interactions with the external natural world form the bases of dialectical materialism. my material reality as a human being is also dependent on the reality of my body, my sex, which in turn produces my social and political reality. my sex does not oppress me, men as the sex class in power oppress me. nature does not oppress women, patriarchy and its ideology contaminating the sciences, philosophy, religion, culture, media, politics, & so on and so forth is the power that oppresses women.

the "woman is a social construct" chanters have no way of explaining how femininity, or womanhood to them, came about if not in relation to the female sex class. society does not for no reason require there be a category of people who walk about in high heels, dresses and makeup. this behaviour is what society requires of those who are female, specifically in order to mark us as female. the social roles of women are not there to be performed by anyone who can do so, they are to be performed by those who are female. women's social roles involve the use of our female organs, this at least is acknowledged by Wittig, referred to in her words as "...servitude, a relation which implies personal and physical obligation as well as economic obligation ("forced residence," domestic corvée conjugal duties, unlimited production of children, etc.)". so, if we use the word woman in this way, to mean everything that a woman is in society (with no separation between womanhood & femininity), then even according to their own theory it is not correct to simply say "woman is a social construct" and stop there. woman is a social construct of what it is to be female. even if "woman is a social role", she is a social role developed for the human female.

i think it's important for feminists to claim our being female and to investigate for ourselves what that means. we have lived for centuries dominated by the male idea of womanhood and the suppression of female authenticity. it seems harmful to our own interests to try to separate the female body from women when it is our female bodies that are violated and exploited. Black people, like myself, do not reject our race as a way of combating racism. we are better able to combat racism by coming together as Black people. but the comparison Wittig makes with race is very limited since race is not biological the way sex is. what we have here is a similar error in thought to the leftists who support the "sexual freedom" of pornography, where abuse and degradation are so welded to their idea of "sex" that opposition to pornography is opposition to sex itself. in the same way, all of the ideological lies taught about women's nature and biology have made many feminists now oppose nature and biology themselves. both camps are not accounting for the fact it is not sex, nature or biology that is the enemy, it is the ideology of patriarchy that has so infested them it almost seems there's no possible separation. but separate them, & most crucially reinvent & rediscover them, we absolutely must.

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[ilistentogirlinred]

culture shocks (?) i experienced after moving to australia:

the fucking white bread and nutella sandwiches that kids would eat. FOR LUNCH

recess being a for food break not just breathing real air

walkability

feeling safe when outside of the house

nice public transport

less litter

actually acknowledging the indigenous population and apologizing for being historically really shitty to them

and also learning about indigenous history and culture

learning another language in primary school (we did japanese in primary school and im doing french now)

grass in between the sidewalk and the road. we call them nature strips

not having monthly fire/earthquake/shelter in place drills at school

functional roads

less pigeons more seagulls and other birds

actually giving a shit about native flora and fauna

people glamorizing starbucks when its dreadful here

hot chocolate with foamy stuff on top that also comes with little reeses cup shaped pink and white marshmallows

marshmallows being good and also not like rectangular blocks of sadness and regret

little coffee vans in beach parking lots that are literally the best

little local shopping strips (i.e "the [suburb name] shops" for the ones near the train station)

places with shops are called the shops usually if you buy groceries there

mall = shopping centre

the metric system is beautiful

as is celcius

australian sport parents are the actual worst.

[evenlyevi]

False halo

[chloesimaginationthings]

Happy one year anniversary to this FNAF post,,

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[clevercrumbish]

Terfism is targeted at radicalising older-middle-aged women in order to sever the otherwise naturally-forming bond that makes trans women and older-middle-aged cis women the strongest of comrades via our shared interests and experiences.

[aqueductaquarii]

egghead law...on one hand i think he would choose battle-ready clothing but also end up pressing the hawaiian shirt button at the last second. on the other hand i think he would wear a shaka-esque coat...

[rengerines]

chuuya is a starfish sleeper and dazai is a fetal position sleeper but also absolutely needs to wrap himself around smth so this is how they sleep.

also chuuya’s def a heavy sleeper who snores when he’s really exhausted but dazai is a light sleeper and he probably trained himself to be as quiet as possible or smth (crazy ass dude) he’s also an insomniac in my head. chuuya usually lays awake in bed until he can tell dazai’s asleep before he lets himself sleep js so he can try to force dazai into getting some rest. obv this doesn’t always work (sometimes chuuya js passes out) so when they’re both restless they’ll go onto the roof of chuuya’s apartment complex and share cigarettes and listen to music (shared wired earbuds ofc). their shared playlist goes between peppy bright kpop (think cheer up by twice) to like the most depressing song you’ve ever heard to some video game soundtracks (ocarina of time opening, fuckass coconut mall, probably half the undertale soundtrack is there) to literally anything you can think of. trust me the playlist is like 5k songs they’ve js collected over the years. special mention to kamisama by miyuna bcuz i think chuuya would like it. also sticker by nct 127 is on there. sometimes they’ll talk usually i think they js like to bask in each other’s presences’. sometimes they only stay up there for an hour or so and head back to try and sleep but sometimes they’ll js stay up there all night or chuuya will fall asleep and dazai will carry him back and tuck him in.

Guys share ur domestic skk headcanons with me rn bc im in a life and death situation and only knowing more domestic skk headcanons can save me!! Trust!!!!!

[ciderjacks]

An old friend