#we all know that 'reasonable' accommodations is extremely relative

[caracalliope]

This is great advice! I also recommend not telling coworkers stuff, because stuff spreads around more than you'd expect.

***

But IME, there is one time when telling your nice boss stuff can work in your favor, and that's when reasonable accommodations aren't available*.

In this case, the nice boss can be used! They could get you accommodations another boss might not! By baring your throat a little, you can keep your job! It might not be more than moderately soul-killing!

But you've got to be careful with how you approach it.

Tell them a nice story that will tug on their heartstrings veeery slightly, but that also makes them feel good about themselves; aim for #optimistic and #relatable. Nothing grisly or entirely hopeless.

Prepare for an initial increase in workload and to be extra scrutinized for a while. Maybe the nice boss doesn't have any secret prejudices about your thing at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But you've still gotten on their radar and subconsciously they will keep making sure they're Being Fair to Everyone by running you ragged, until they get distracted by something else.

If they ever ask about it, evoke an upward trajectory and keep making them feel sooo good about themselves. Yes Monday therapy is helping you tremendously, you've got more therapy to do but it's already helped so much. Yes the parent you took time off to to caretake is doing as well can be expected, though of course you being there made all the difference. Yes your kid is feeling better, thank god you can spend more time with them. Or wow yeah you have a long way to go but you feel so much better after that surgery.

If you're lucky and careful, you can even get continued support from the nice boss! Just like remember that they will turn against you if your thing gets to be Too Much -- for the bottom line, or for them personally.

Hey here is your friendly reminder to not tell your nice boss stuff.

I’m at the executive management level for my very small company and I have 4 people who report directly to me. I am a nice boss. I’m friendly with my employees, I treat them like professional adults, I actively try to create a positive work environment, and I mentor them and make sure they’re advancing in their careers. I do my best to shield them from the rest of management doing stupid shit. My employees like working for me.

The other day one of my employees came to ask if she could change her hours on Mondays. I said yes immediately because it’s helpful for me to know when she’s here and when she’s not, but as long as she gets her work done I don’t care when and where she does it. She then proceeded to tell me that it was so she could attend therapy and like … I will never use this information but … as a general rule don’t fucking do that.

Do not tell your employer shit about your mental or physical health except for the bare minimum needed to request a reasonable accommodation. Even your nice boss can fire you, even your nice boss can unfairly change your working conditions, and even your nice boss at some point is probably going to face pressure from their superiors.

I’m not saying don’t trust your boss with anything ever. I’m just saying that anytime you are in the workplace you need to keep your private information private. You can still have a good relationship with your boss. Your workplace can still be pleasant. But if it ever feels like disclosing private information is required in order to have a good relationship with your boss, please see that as a red flag.

[anghraine]

Another form of Depression Discourse that I'm extremely wary of is "here are some things that can help with depression, so it's totally curable! You just have to do The Things, even if they're hard."

The issue is that—yes, there are things you may be able to do that can help with depression, for some people. There are habits that are likely to be helpful, like dragging yourself to things you normally like or getting exercise where possible.

Does this mean that those things intrinsically cure depression if you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps try hard enough? No. They can cure some people's depression completely. They can help other people's. It depends on the person.

But for me, the incessant do this, do that, you've got to take responsibility and get over it, has always been far more discouraging than learning about things like the relatively high rate of recurrence. I used to think that the reason I couldn't get past it was wholly on me. It kept coming back because I was lazy or undisciplined or self-indulgent or simply not doing the right things for whatever reason. Not trying hard enough. I told myself that if I could just summon up enough will to push myself past it, I would cure myself by sheer personal strength.

But I never could.

It tended to come back worse when I was under a lot of pressure, but no matter how good things were, it always returned. I'd spend a week or two feeling really good and motivated and energetic, then irritable and anxiously go-go-go yet very distractable—and then there'd be this awful crash into another episode of depression, over and over and over. I lived in my favorite city, I took walks, I went to readings, I volunteered, I kept myself and my apartment clean, and yet I couldn't overcome it.

The only thing that really put a significant dent in it was getting diagnosed as bipolar and put on mood stabilizers and eventually antipsychotics. And it still comes back! The crash is less extreme, most of the time—but I have grad student insurance for my medication, I have a psychiatrist and access to counseling when I need it, legal accommodations, and necessarily keep a fairly strict schedule. Going to my university in person rather than online helps, doing things I ordinarily like helps, sleeping regular hours helps. None of them help very much without medication. And for me, nothing helps enough to cure it.

The point is not that improvement is impossible, or that it never goes away for good. It does for some people! It does for many people. But, without denying the effort those people have put in, there is an element of good fortune to that. I think it's important for the people who aren't cured, who can never pull the bootstraps hard enough, to know that that's not a moral failing. It's not because we're weak or undisciplined, it's not because we aren't trying, it's not because we have any less value or merit than the people who get better or people who never have depression at all.

So, personally, I think a more important, generally accurate, and compassionate message than "depression will get better if you just try hard enough" is this one:

Whether you're cured or not, whether the usual recommendations help much or not, whether medications help or not: this isn't your fault.

[consider-your-potatoes-mashed]

Long ass post incoming:

Okay so generally speaking my university’s campus is relatively accessible on first glance and new buildings are in theory ADA compliant and they’re working on the older buildings which is more than can be said for a lot of campuses or even places in general. A lot (but not all) of the professors are respectful of accommodations and do their best to accommodate all students as best as they can however there is still a lot they could do but either don’t know they can or outright refuse to do.

However, it is still very inaccessible!

Elevators frequently break and can take days or weeks to be fixed they’re also really annoying and often hard to find because they’re not labeled very well not to mention they’re slow as fuck, ramps are slightly too steep (super hilly campus too), shuttles are available but frequently run late or are excessively full and only run to a certain time so if you need to get somewhere on our giant campus past a certain time you’re fucked, sure there’s mobility services you can access but you need to schedule pickups ahead of time so you can’t really do anything spontaneously and there’s not many of them so if you need it the same time as someone else you’re fucked, so many doors that are supposedly automatic are broken, a building may have an automatic entrance but if you need to get into a classroom or lecture hall the doors are wickedly heavy, some lecture halls have auto doors at the top of the hall but not at the bottom where someone with a wheelchair could actually get into the room, and that’s just to name some of the accommodations for physical mobility impacting disabilities.

When it comes to other disabilities the campus and specifically lectures can be inaccessible too. For example some professors refuse to use their microphones in large lecture halls because they feel their voice is “loud enough” but that makes it even harder for students who have hearing impairments or auditory processing issues, often times professors use many colors on their lecture slideshows and that can make it difficult for students with colorblind ness or students with other visual impairments or for students with visual processing problems, when COVID-19 was still deemed to be a thing worth worrying about lectures were “podcasted” or recorded in classroom or on zoom so that they could be accessed remotely but now many professors refuse to record their lectures because they cannot be bothered to just push a simple button which leaves students who can’t safely come to campus unable to access their education or students who are sick without that same access and students who even if they can make it to lecture cannot process everything in it for a whole lot of other reasons unable to access their education the ability to do this when Covid was still of public concern (1) just shows that we can still do it and honestly still should(2), additionally many lecture halls are full of distractions and noises and so much else that make them inaccessible to people with cognitive/mental disabilities and mental illnesses, and that’s not just the case lecture halls but also in dining halls and gyms and even just outside can be extremely overwhelming and overstimulating for many many people.

(1) which mind you it still should be we are still suffering as a society from a virus that is incredibly deadly and saying that it only kills those with underlying conditions and what not is ableist as fuck

(2)For example we don’t really turn in printed out copies of essays or assignments for hand grading anymore we turn them in online because that’s easier and with technology the way classes are run has changed so why hasn’t it changed with COVID??

In general I am thankful that the campus is relatively “accessible” but it still needs hella work. Sure not everyone can be accommodated completely by an institution or even by other people but there certainly are things that are very easy changes that can be made and there is stuff that we can do to accommodate ourselves and we cannot put the burden of accommodation solely on others we know ourselves the best and thus can figure out what accommodations we need from ourselves and others.

Overall the world is super inaccessible and we NEED to do better than we are doing now both abled and disabled people alike need to work together to make everything a better more accessible for as many people as possible

TL:DR

University campuses are super inaccessible to all disabilities and there is so much that needs to change and that can easily be done and it’s absurd that we aren’t doing it. Colleges and universities and professors and even students need to do better so that everyone can feel welcome and accommodated and safe to learn

[professionalmovershk]

RELOCATION GUIDE: WHAT EXPATS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MOVING TO HONG KONG

Relocation to Hong Kong can be a thrilling experience for expatriates. For decades, Hong Kong has been one of the top destinations because of its vibrant culture, dynamic economy, and iconic skyline, attracting professionals, families, and adventurers from around the world. Reputedly a global financial hub, the city is a melting pot of East and West, offering myriad opportunities. Nevertheless, the steps required to move to Hong Kong demand discretion and caution.

We will now walk you through all the essentials an expatriate has to consider before making Hong Kong a home: from visa requirements and housing to health care, education, and adjustment to culture.

Visa and Immigration Requirements

Before you pack your stuff, it is very important to find out Hong Kong's visa and immigration policy. The type of visa would depend on the purpose of your relocation, whether it be for work, study, or family reasons.

Employment Visa: It is usually the case that employers cater for the employment visa when one relocates to Hong Kong for job purposes. Under a category usually known as the General Employment Policy, GEP issues this type of visa, and it is normally issued out to persons with special skills or qualifications not available in the local labor market. Documentary requirements show proof of employment qualifications and a valid offer from an employer in Hong Kong.

Dependant Visa: If you migrate with family, the spouse and children can apply for a dependant visa. It allows family members to stay in Hong Kong and, in most cases, work or study without requiring separate visas.

Student Visa: In case you go to Hong Kong for the purpose of education, you need to apply for a student visa. The educational institution you will attend will help you in this regard. Normally, you will have to provide proof of admission and evidence showing financial support.

Investment Visa: Under the GEP, there is an investment visa which allows a foreign national to open an entrepreneur business in Hong Kong. To apply for this, one needs to have a sound business plan and capital investment, with the exact benefit to Hong Kong's economy clearly indicated.

The application process is relatively straightforward, but visa applications may take several weeks, so it is better to apply early. Most visas are granted for an initial period of one or two years, renewable.

Finding Suitable Living Space

In fact, one of the biggest headaches for any expat moving to Hong Kong will be finding a house. As expected, space in Hong Kong is very limited, while rentals are extremely high, especially in central areas like Central, Mid-Levels, and Wan Chai. However, there is an array of options for different budgets and tastes.

Serviced Apartments: This accommodation is usually required by expats, either for a short-term stay in the city or just to have an absolutely hassle-free relocation process. These come fully fitted with housekeeping, internet, and utility services to make one's settling-in process as smooth as possible. As a matter of fact, serviced apartments work best for expats on short-term contracts or those who need some time to find a permanent home.

Private Apartments: Most of the expatriates find their way into private apartments, which usually range from the small studios up to the high-rise luxurious condominiums. The prices of the rental houses range between a few thousand dollars a month to over thirty thousand dollars, depending on location and size. Areas in Central Districts are the most expensive, but areas like the New Territories offer better value for money with more spacious apartments.

Public Housing: Public housing is really reserved for locals in Hong Kong. However, the long-term expatriates may apply under the Home Ownership Scheme of the Hong Kong Housing Authority. That situation is exceptional, and few qualify with specified conditions set by the authority.

Other renting expenses include deposits that are typically two months' rent, an agency fee of one half month's rent, and utility setup fees. It is quite common to hire a real estate agent to help find a place to live and with the local rental market.

Healthcare in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is blessed with one of the best healthcare systems in the world, with both public and private services at their best. Medical treatments available for foreigners are quality-based, but require understanding the differences between the public and private service sectors.

Public Healthcare: Public healthcare in Hong Kong is well-developed, and access to medical care for its residents is easily affordable. The majority of services provided by the public system include a wide range of medical care at hospitals and clinics; however, waiting times are very long for non-emergency cases. Expats also fall under public healthcare, but having a Hong Kong ID card will help get subsidized rates.

Private Health Care: Most of the expats prefer private health care because it has less queuing and more personal care. Private hospitals and clinics are modern, well-equipped, and have advanced facilities, but similarly come at very high prices. Expatriates moving here need to arrange comprehensive health insurance from either their employer or a private health insurance provider to cover their medical expenses.

The location should also provide easy access for people relocating with families to pediatricians and specialists. Both public and private options are available in Hong Kong, though private health care may be more convenient and include quicker access to specialists.

Education Options for Expats

For those expatriates relocating with children, Hong Kong has an educational system comprising international schools, local schools, and private schools in which they can seek admission.

International Schools: Hong Kong has a great variety of international schools representing various curricula: British, American, International Baccalaureate (IB), and other national systems. International schools would be the schools of choice for expat families because they represent continuity in education and often accept students from diverse backgrounds. International schools, however, are in short supply in Hong Kong.

Local Schools: Some expat families choose local schools, which are cheaper than international schools but offer comparable quality. The curriculum is competitive, however, and Mandarin or Cantonese is a major feature. In the case of expat children who understand Chinese, local schools would mean a special opportunity for cultural and academic development.

Private Schools: Private schools also include bilingual institutions or specialized programs, apart from the international and local schools in Hong Kong. Some of them may be set up along cultural or religious lines and may offer options other than mainstream international schools.

The tuition fees in private and international schools are high, and therefore, this element should be taken into consideration when planning your relocation budget. Furthermore, school places are competitive, and thus expat families are advised to research and apply for a place in schools in advance.

Cultural Adaptation and Daily Life in Hong Kong

The exciting mixture of Eastern and Western cultures ensures that Hong Kong is a pulsating city to stay in, although for the expatriates, local customs, language, and way of life might take some time to attune to.

Language

Hong Kong's dominant language is Cantonese, but English is widely used, specifically in business and government. Almost everything can be handled in English, but basic knowledge of some of the phrases will add to your experience and make it easier to get along with the locals.

Food and Dining

Hong Kong is any food lover's dream-from street food items to Michelin-star restaurants. Aside from traditional Cantonese cuisine, there are all types of international cuisines available that expatriates will find. For locals, dining out plays a big part in their culture; hence, trying Hong Kong's food is one of the best ways to get yourself submerged into the vibrant culture of this city.

Social Etiquette

Hong Kong has its set of social customs, mixing in Chinese tradition with influences from the West. For example, business cards should be exchanged with both hands, and maintaining face-that is, retaining personal dignity-is important in social and professional interactions.

Transportation

Hong Kong has an efficient and reliable public transportation system. With the MTR, buses, trams, and ferries, transport around the city is not a problem and is rather inexpensive. It is not necessary to own a car since public transportation covers most areas in the city.

Financial and Legal Considerations

There are many angles which one considers when relocating to Hong Kong concerning financial and legal matters that an expat should consider:

Banking: It is relatively easy to open a local bank account. Most expats would tend to favor international banks like HSBC, Standard Chartered, or Citibank. Such an account would require you to have a Hong Kong ID card, a proof of address, and some money to be deposited initially.

Taxes: Hong Kong features a simple, low-tax regime; the income tax ranges from 2% to 17%. There is no capital gain tax, inheritance tax, or value-added tax-pretty attractive for expats. However, you should understand your responsibilities regarding taxes both in Hong Kong and in your home country.

Legal Status: You are supposed to apply for a Hong Kong ID card within 30 days of your arrival. The ID card is required for all the public services and is proof of legality in the city.

Conclusion

Relocation to Hong Kong is a great opportunity for personal and professional growth; however, one must deliberate carefully upon this transition to make it smooth. From researching visa requirements to finding a place to stay, to understanding the healthcare and education systems, there is quite a bit to learn. With due preparation, however, expatriates can make full use of their time in this dynamic, bustling metropolis. Enjoy the diversity of cultures, appreciate the great quality of life, and take advantage of an experience only one of Asia's most exciting destinations could give you.

For more information please visit Asiantiger relocation in Hong Kong

[ledvideo]

Why are small-pitch LED screens popular?

In recent years, small-pitch LED screens have been loved by more and more people for their excellent display effects. So, what are the characteristics of small-pitch LED screens that make them so popular in the market? This article will discuss this issue in detail from three aspects: clarity, color performance and service life.

Small pitch, clearer overall

One of the biggest features of small-pitch LED screens is its extremely small pixel pitch. Compared with traditional LED screens, small-pitch LED screens have smaller pixel pitches, which means that more pixels can be accommodated in the same area, making the display effect more delicate and clear. Just like people observe the skin, the smaller the pores, the smoother and more delicate the skin appears. By the same principle, small-pitch LED screens can present higher-resolution images, making the picture clearer and more natural, and the overall visual effect is more high-end and atmospheric. Here is everything about small-pitch LED displays.

Small pitch, richer color

Another significant advantage of the fine pitch LED screen is its excellent color performance. Due to the small pixel pitch, more lamp beads can be arranged on the screen, and each lamp bead can present a rich variety of colors, which makes the overall color of the picture more full and vivid. Rich colors not only enhance the visual experience, but also make the displayed content more attractive and appealing. This is why the fine pitch LED screen has gradually become one of the preferred devices for various high-end occasions and important events. Provide you with the price and buying guide of the fine pitch LED display.

Small pitch, longer use time

The durability of the fine pitch LED screen is also an important reason why it is popular. The LED screen is composed of thousands of lamp beads, and some of them may be damaged over time. On a screen with a larger pitch, if a lamp bead is damaged, it may significantly affect the overall display effect. As the LED screen with small pitch has a tighter arrangement of lamp beads, even if there is a problem with individual lamp beads, the overall display effect will be less affected, thus extending the service life of the screen. In addition, the repair and maintenance of the LED screen with small pitch is relatively convenient, making it more stable and reliable in long-term use. Here is a guide to selecting the spacing of LED screens.

Conclusion

In summary, the LED screen with small pitch has become the darling of the market with its high definition, rich color performance and long service life. Whether in commercial displays, conference presentations, or high-end events and public places, the LED screen with small pitch has won the favor of more and more users with its excellent performance. With the continuous advancement of technology, the application scope of the LED screen with small pitch will be further expanded, and the future is promising.

Thank you for watching. I hope we can solve your problems. Sostron is a professional LED display manufacturer. We provide all kinds of displays, display leasing and display solutions around the world. If you want to know: LED electronic display cleaning guide. Please click read.

Follow me! Take you to know more about led display knowledge.

Contact us on WhatsApp：https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=+8613510652873&text=Hello

[wcrriorhearts]

Annie had not left the comfort of Mags' home since her own games, other than to visit the market or the beach, so being this far from that safe haven was dreadful to her. She had spent weeks at the Capitol being tortured, days at the medical facilities here and now felt like she had been released into a prison cell. Everything had been easier to endure while Finn was around her, never leaving her side and cheering her up with his mere presence, but he was gone now and the walls seemed to be closing in on her every second she was in this tiny space. More so than ever now, as all she would do was to wait for Finnick to return from the Capitol. "I am sure the higher ups have nicer accommodations than us, but I am not sure we're in a position to complain. This place is just another prison under the guise of being our salvation. I don't trust Coin. People who say they are saviors rarely ever are. And it takes a lot of ulterior motifs to enter a war in the way she has. There's a difference between joining a rebellion out of idealism, or joining by putting the whole weight of the revolution on the shoulders of a barely nineteen year old girl."

She had never, unlike Finn, involved herself in politics, or the rebellion until now and would not consider herself an expert on the matter. What Annie was good at, however, was watching people and determining their character and she got the absolute wrong vibe from Coin. "It wasn't that bad. I had Mags and Finn, you know", Annie said with a little shrug. "The bad part was my mental health, not being confined to Mags' house. It was the best home i've had since I was a little girl. When I was eight, my parents died. We were one of the richest families in the District, with the largest factory for fishing supplies. I lived in a mansion with servants, a nanny and every luxury you could imagine. My parents had a child before me, who drowned unfortunately, so I was extremely sheltered and protected. Until our factory exploded with my father and pregnant mother in it. My only living relative was my mother's brother, a drunk who had squandered so much of the family money that he was disinherited by my grandfather and his share of the company given to my father. He made my life a living hell for years and then, when I was about to turn 18 and inherit everything my parents left me, money and the company, bribed someone so I'd be chosen for the games. I have no doubt he was the reason my parents died as well. But anyway, that in combination with the games wasn't very good for my mind, I guess."

Effie followed Annie inside her quarters and it was easy to tell that this was her place. Neither of them really had any belongings but they could still make the place into their own. Or maybe she had simply gotten used to associating certain things with people. She offered the other woman a smile, shaking her head.    “It isn’t messy and I don’t mind. Don’t worry, dear.”    Easier said than done and she knew it but the sentiment was still the same. Joining Annie a few moments later, she sat down on the other chair.    “You would think we could have a little bit more comfort. I wonder if all quarters look like this or if there are several people who have certain privileges.”    Oh, she was sure that the president had her own kitchen and didn’t need to go to the mess hall all the time. 

“As flawed as the Capitol is, I miss my home.”    She missed her own space, her rooms, her furniture and all her belongings. As much as she knew she could not have stayed in the Capitol or else she might have been dead, she could not help but miss all that.    “I cannot say I know what it means to be truly isolated but I can still imagine the suffering.”    Or maybe suffering wasn’t the right word, but she lacked a better one at the moment. Effie Trinket, at a loss of words. Was that what life at District Thirteen would do to her?    “Isn’t it ridiculous? Even prisoners at the Capitol have more comfort than we do here. What does it say about this place?”

[headspace-hotel]

what was your childhood like? you’ve mentioned you were homeschooled so did you ever feel like you “missed out” on public education (im sure you probably received better education than many of us who attended public schools lol) what were your days like? did you have a traditional 8-3 school day or was it more of a flexible do as you wish type homeschooling?

My life would have been radically different had I gone to public school, i think. I was diagnosed with autism at 14 and labeled "very high functioning" but it wasn't until college that it started to become seriously disabling for me.

Being able to self-isolate when needed and control my environment and sensory input was a vital form of accommodation that minimized how much I "looked" disabled. I still had extreme anxiety but I didn't have the "negative" symptoms of autism as a kid, which led my psychologist to say I got the "perks" of the spectrum...not really, I was just in an environment that adapted to my needs super well relatively speaking

It was pretty flexible. I didn't really have a fixed "schedule," though I did take classes outside home in high school with a setup similar to college classes.

It was a good experience and I think homeschooling should be an option for people, but it is the case that many people are drawn to it for conspiracy theory reasons. I knew so many creationists and anti-vaxxers growing up. Knew someone that went to the capitol insurrection. Knew a friend who tried to convince me democrats were spraying chemtrails to give people cancer, knew someone else who didn't know what the lord of the rings was and thought being trans was caused by demon possession. There was a guy who taught a public speaking class at a co-op we went to and all he did was rant about conspiracy theories and "taking up arms" against abortion.

I don't feel like I missed out on much. The public high school I would have attended is notoriously horrific. A while back some kid got stabbed and hospitalized and the school's response was, literally, and I am not shitting you, "We have x number of students [can't remember how many, but the building is only meant to accommodate half that amount], we can't guarantee the safety of every kid"

'Murica.

[griffintail]

Philza with a friend who’s a winged hybrid like him, but instead of being a hybrid of a relatively small bird, such as a crow...his friend is an ALBATROSS hybrid. Imagine the wingspan this person would have, and how tall they’d have to be to accommodate those things!

Or, alternatively, what if Philza had a winged hybrid friend that was a HUMMING BIRD hybrid?? Imagine how tiny they’d be, and how much sugar they’d probably have to consume to zip and flit around all day??

I will readily admit that the reasoning behind this is cause I was watching The Rescuers Down Under, and there’s a line in that movie that goes “Alba- Albatross?! It’s a jumbo!”, and that’s one of my favorite lines in the movie. I can’t really explain WHY that’s my favorite line, it just is. Anyways, the size difference in bird species is always fun to imagine in terms of hybrids, and I wanted to see your take on it.

The Albatross and Humming Bird

Pairings: Platonic! Philza x GN! Reader

Warnings: Mention of Swords, Mentions of Fighting

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Albatross

(Y/N). Is fucking tall. Taller than Ranboo.

Their wings aren’t extremely large, they’re just long when they’re spread out so their height accommodates for that so their wings aren’t dragging on the ground.

People always used to question why Phil built his doorframes and ceilings so high up when even his children aren’t that tall, it’s because of (Y/N).

“Sup shorty?” (Y/N) grinned putting their hand on top of Phil’s head.

“I’ll make the ceiling lower.”

“You’re so mean to me!”

Being an albatross hybrid, (Y/N) can handle longer flights as an albatross can fly for days at a time without landing.

People often hire them to get what they need from far lands or to have them scout out things.

“Hey, we were thinking of maybe looting a Woodland mansion. You think you could scout one out for us?” Phil asked.

“Yeah. Sure. Just let me get a pack ready and I’ll head out.”

“Thanks.”

---

“(Y/N). I need acacia wood!” Tommy demanded.

“You going to pay me this time?”

When Phil hurts his wings, (Y/N) gets Techno to train them to be stronger.

After some time, (Y/N) takes Phil on day-long flights sometimes. They’d love to take him on longer ones, but their normal strength holding them back.

“Sorry, we couldn’t fly longer.” (Y/N) put Phil on the ground outside the base before landing next to him.

“It’s alright mate. Thanks for the flight.” He smiled.

“Of course, what are mates for?” They smiled back. “I got to give something to Techno, talk to you later.”

“Remember he doesn’t build ceiling as high!” He called.

“Right! Thanks!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hummingbird

(Y/N) is a lot shorter than everyone. Coming in at a whopping three feet. (Ninety-one centimeters)

People often think they’re a child at first glance. Once they realize they’re an adult, people tend to tease them, but the people on the SMP realized that was a bad idea fast.

“I wouldn’t keep doing that Quackity,” Phil warned but was smirking as (Y/N) crossed their arms at the sound of Quackity’s tone at them.

“But look at how cute they are, little cutie.” Quackity teased.

In an instant, (Y/N)’s sword was drawn and on his neck as their wings flittered a hundred miles. (One hundred and sixty kilometers). Safe to say they created a small breeze and terrified the hell out of Quackity at that moment.

(Y/N) never really slowed down. They were often flittering from task to task.

They were also a wonder when fighting. Not only did their height give them an advantage but their speed was incomparable. Techno had a hard time keeping up with them when it came to fighting!

Though, they tried to keep such things to a minimum as they needed a large supply of sugar for the fights.

“It’s extremely hard to keep a large-scale sugar cane farm running out here I hope you know.” Phil huffed as got sugar water for them as (Y/N) had managed to crash slightly from the lack of sugar after helping training their two new recruits in the Syndicate.

“Yeah, but you’ll always help me keep it running because you’re the beesst.” (Y/N) grinned at him, slightly loopy.

“Just drink idiot.”

The pair could be a terrifying force, but between making sure his friend kept their sugar consumption up and keep their speed down, some days Phil thought he was taking care of another child…

[milfcutlawquane]

Yes, time is relative we've all heard of that, what YOU haven't heard about is the fact this also affects the way mer Rex sees the world and the way the world sees Rex.

Rex is pretty big now, right? Do you know how many calories one body must have to sustain that?? Me neither! But at least, with that size, we can tell his metabolism is reeeeaaaaaallllyyy slow, which for more small creatures he's extremely slow, a whale paced giant if you will.

This doesn't mean he perceives himself as slow, from his point of view he's moving normally, but it's other people who move way too quickly for him. This is other one of the reasons as to why he can stay awake for weeks but has to sleep for days but I'll cover that later-

Point is: Rex trying to move as quick as he can to keep up, but never asking for the same accommodations to be done for him. That's it, until they realize Rex is getting absolutely nothing of what they're saying because for him they're moving too fast and he can't catch the conversation, so they make the conscious effort of both speaking louder and slower, and Rex is so grateful for that.

(If you're curious, Rex would move at a x0.6 speed, while he would perceive everything st a x1.75 speed, approximately)

[arrow-dodger]

You know when you're feeling like, a really big emotion? Like when you're right in the middle of some huge feels? You know how some people are able to understand and verbalize exactly what they're feeling in those moments?

I am not one of those people! Something I've become cognitively aware of recently is that I'm actually really bad at pinpointing my own feelings and triggers in the moment! My boyfriend is actually way better at it than I am, which is funny. (By the way, when I said nobody has ever accommodated me, he is the exception. He does all the time. I am just dramatic, as we know.) Sometimes I'm like "hey, I feel really weird right now and I'm not sure why," and my boyfriend is like "you're feeling sad because x thing happened earlier." And he's completely right, but I didn't connect those two dots myself and maybe would never have!

I think I'm really bad at this because of my childhood, and bla bla. Like, we really didn't talk about our feelings and why we were feeling them in my family, we were meant to just pretend everything was chill all the time. So I'm really emotionally unintelligent when it comes to my own self, hilariously.

And on top of that, I'm ALSO really bad at putting my feelings into words at the time I'm feeling them! This is for multiple reasons. Number one, I really do just feel things very strongly in a way that completely overwhelms me at the time. If it gets bad enough I even start dissociating completely out of my own control, which is very fun. It's hard to, you know, have cogent thoughts and form sentences when I'm in that state. It often takes me at least an hour, if not multiple hours, to calm down and reflect on like, whatever the fuck that was. This has caused unimaginable strain on my personal relationships, as you could probably assume.

The other reason I'm bad at communicating is because throughout my life I was constantly either silenced or blamed for everything. I am always thinking one step ahead before expressing myself. I think that if I was to say "I was feeling mad earlier because of x thing that happened," the person I'm talking to would somehow turn it back around on me and make it my fault. Like they're going to be like "You were mad? Well you made ME mad two weeks ago when you did x other thing, and you do things that make me mad all the time because you are a bad person," and that would not only be a completely different discussion I would have to deal with, but an extremely hurtful one at that.

Like, I'm secretly pretty sure that everyone I know resents me and is stocking up complaints and insults to leverage at me the second I try to advocate for myself in any way. That is something that both of my parents, other adult relatives, multiple close friends, my first two romantic relationships etc. did to me constantly when I was growing up, so it's just like, a safe assumption for me, or a reflex even, to be prepared for and trying to evade that situation like, all of the time.

(Actually, a third and lesser but related thing -- a subset thing, if you will -- is that I'm always convinced that talking about my problems with other people will just cause MORE problems. Because then they'll be upset with me, or they'll be upset FOR me, or they're going to constantly try to talk about the problem with me in a way that stresses me out now that they know about it, and in any case I will not feel better about it and will in fact just be in a more anxiety-inducing situation than I was when I was just... dealing with my shit on my own.)

SO, the reason I'm even TYPING all of this to begin with is because, due to all of this, I actually find it extremely helpful to write out my big huge feelings as I am feeling them. That's why there is so much dramatic bullshit on this blog. That's why last winter I was posting like, multiple terrifying things a day, because I was having a borderline-psychotic breakdown and I needed to get the thoughts out of my head and into words and somewhere else. It's good for me to write things because then I'm able to actually parse them out. I can make sense of the things I'm feeling so much better in writing.

So why, you might say, don't you just keep a private fucking diary, Hannah? BECAUSE, I don't know! The first time I had an online blog where I wrote about my life and feelings, I was 11! I had a different one when I was 13-14! And then at 15, I made this! This... fucking monstrous collection of nothingness! This has been my cope for a long, long time. There's something about it that I like. This blog is like a living, breathing recollection of almost everything important that has ever happened to me. It's like my shadow. It's the footsteps I leave behind me. I don't know. A word document filled with my ramblings just would not be the same to me.

Anywho, I'm not even sure who I'm writing this for. Like 99% of the time I am writing things on here for My Own Self, so jot that down. This wasn't meant to sound like some huge defense of myself for making embarrassing blog posts, but it sort of ended up that way. Really I think what I was getting at is that like, I'm fine. When I'm on here saying deranged over-emotional nonsense, it's because I'm in the middle of a thing, and like an hour later I will be completely fine. But I will not blog about being fine, because who cares. Who needs to do that.

I am weirdly doing better right now than I have in years. You would never know any of that based solely on my blog posts, though! So I do ask that nobody overreacts to my posts or assumes anything about me based on them. We are all strangers here, except the like, 2-3 people I personally know who still use tumblr. And that's how I prefer it! Thanks!

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Exotic Lifeforms.”

Had some fun writing this one. Give you more of that alien perspective everyone likes so much, so I hope you like it 

“It has been a pleasure doing work with you as always.”

“Your end of the deal?”

“Already upheld…. Where do you even find these creatures. I can’t say we have ever seen anything like it.”

“We found these ones on a stroke of luck. We do not think they are native to the panet, though where they came from is still very much a mystery.”

“Then what a stroke of luck for us indeed, I can’t imagine having your job.”

“You should try sometime, the exotic lifeforms business is very lucrative. If it hadn’t been you, I would have sold it to a wealthy owner.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because, you paid more.” 

The Vitan turned ponderously on its five trunk-like legs and left through the open wall which spilled a beam of light through the room before going dark once more. 

The doors all around the circular room closed, the collector turned back to their work. The room itself was large and dark, shaped in that of a large black circle, the floors rising up with a steady curve into the ceiling than above. They stood at the center of this circle, and when commanded great projections of blue light appeared around the circle each disclosing a different image from a different one of the pens.

They turned their attention to the newest addition, watching the creature where it prowled back and forth around the perimeter of the yard.

Another beam of light cut through the room, though they did not turn to see who it might be.

The sound that followed was a sort of scuttling noise, slimy and wet against the open floor.

The Mandicar approached from behind and paused just to the right and behind their left side, a lead scientist by trade, she was one of the most important life forms on his staff.

They turned to address her.

Four thick stumpy tentacles undulated and wriggled, pulling her heavy body across the floor. The sacules on the side of her torso wobbled with her movement, and thousands of tiny breathing holes across her skin expanded and contracted with the movement of airflow. 

“What have you discovered?” They wondered, though-- nothing the tint of blue on the tips of her tentacles, the could see that she was very excited.

“A glorious discovery! Very exciting and like nothing we have ever seen before. Each creature better than the last. I have four new species to report about, and add to our collected knowledge on exoctic lifeforms.”

“Go on.”

“The names are decided Duopedus Secandi, Volantes Planita, and Magnum Turpis, Though the children have taken to calling the first a Duos because they cannot pronounce the proper scientific name. It is a very popular creature with our guests, very active. IT has even been seen to interact with some of the guests.”

“Tell me, what have you learned about this creature.”

She adjusted herself clearly excited to be giving a presentation. That is why they had hired her. While they were not particularly interested about the welfare and maintenance of these creatures, studies had shown that a happy creature that was well taken care of was more likely to live a long time, and therefore draw more of a profit. Not to mention that the sentient species tended to react best when there was someone around to boost enthusiasm, and he had to admit she was very good at that.

“Oh it's a lovely little creature, quite adorable really, the way it scampers around on its little feet.”

“Focus.”

“Oh, sorry.” The sacules at her sides flushed purple, “Well we know the basic so far. Obviously it is a bipedal carbon-based consumer lieform. Its primary needs are Oxygen and water. An analysis of its structures, including teeth, eyes and other notable features seem to suggest that it is an omnivorous predator. Early studies seem to suggest it has a relatively high IQ, maybe that of a small child though it does not seem capable of language, at least not that we understand. It’s range of speech are in extremely high pitches, and it barely seems to be able to hear us much less us hear it.”

“How very interesting.”

“Isn’t it! Anyway, I took the liberty of analysing it, so that we might better accommodate its needs. And so far what I have determined is,... well the creature is very cute, but it is a complete  biohazard risk.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean all of its byproducts are completely volatile and hazardous to health. We have tested and analysed some of it by products and determined it to have some sort of symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in its innards. These bacteria help the creature digest in exchange for maintained life, but due to this many of these bacterial lifeforms are expelled and cause great hazard. This process begins in the mouth meaning if this creature were to bite, it could lead to a likely lethal infection.” “We will have to put barriers in front  of the enclosure than.”

“Precisely.”

“ Now  as to more health related topics. The creature is capable of consuming a very versatile diet though its resistance to infection is a little less than one might have hoped, so it’s food will need to be properly cleaned. The diet itself should contain a wide variety of complex structures as it cannot produce by itself some of the chemicals required to feed it. That should not be hard, I would suggest injecting supplements into the food we are already rationing to it. This should include meat as I have said before. As a consumer based lifeform it both requires and expends a great deal of energy. I imagine it will be one of the viewers favorites due to the increased activity level. Furthermore -- as related to my earlier discussion -- its pen should be cleaned weekly if not biweekly. A clean water source should be provided, one that has likely been sterilized as it seems the water on its native planet was not prone to bacterial interference.”

“Seems strangely needy for a creature that has a symbiotic relationship with bacteria.”

“A very specific kind of bacteria.”

“Alright then, what else do we know?”

“The creature is bipedal as you are aware, though its feet and skin are relatively soft. It will require sand in its enclosure for maximum comfort, not to mention that it will need a shaded place to rest in order to stay out of the direct rays of the sun. Its skin has no natural defences against UV light making me think that it is likely a creature meant for the shade, though I cannot be certain. That is merely a guess based on the very light color of its dermal layer.” 

They nodded, “That can definitely be arranged.”

“Now, analysis also demonstrates a high production of oil in the skin and the hair. We see this as some kind of over-production, so it might be best to add a second kind of water source for it to bathe itself. The skin is water-proof but also requires moisture, and I think that a slow running river through the habitat would be a nice touch for the creature. Since it does not have fur, and the body has to work to thermoregulate, I would suggest temperatures around 75-80 degrees with 45-55% humidity index. Furthermore analysis of the bone structure might suggest that the creature originally evolved from an animal that walked on all fours, for this reason the feet, the knees and the lower back are especially prone to issue. IT will need somewhere comfortable to lay down, likely in that same shaded area I mentioned before. Something with enough padding to support the spine and allow for the bones of its hips and shoulders not to become soar.”

They were working to type this up in a report and send it out to the lieforms who built the habitats.

“What else do we know?”

“Since the creature has an increased intelligence quotient, I would suggest stimulating the environment. Add in some kind of activities or puzzles for it to solve, so that it will not be bored, otherwise it could become destructive. OUr analysis suggests that it was likely supposed to be a social creature, so Maybe adding a ground level window for it to interact with guests. We can see if maybe we can tame the creature so that the keepers might be able to provide it with some socialization. I hesitate to do that though because it still is a wild animal.”

They shifted turning to look at the camera feed, where the Duos was still wandering the perimeter of its enclosure.

“I thought you said it was docile.”

“It was injured when we found it, which was a likely reason, but I have done some tests on its chemical structure, and it seems to me that the creature produces some kind of hormone that stimulates the aggression centers of its brain. If this creature were to get out of its cage and be in a bad mood, it has a bite force of 162 pounds per square inch which is capable of tearing flesh and even amputating small lims on some of our guests, not to mention that the claws on the tips of its fingers can break skin. There is also evidence that it can turn its saliva into a projectile, which means that it can spread its biohazard up to around 32 feet, though that is on the extreme end of the spectrum.”

“This creature is really than dangerous?””

She sighed loudly through her entire body, the sacks at her sides quivering with the movement, “You see, that is the difficult part to determine because…. I would have to say no. It is not as dangerous generally as most of the creatures we keep here, but it is just dangerous enough in a variety of ways that the aggregate makes it especially concerning. Take the fact that the creature is not venomous, but it's just enough of a biohazard to behave like it is. Its bite isn’t that strong and its teeth aren’t that sharp, but still enough to rip flesh. Its not as strong as some animals, but strong enough to know someone over and hurt them badly. It isn’t very fast, but faster than some. IT isn’t the smartest we have seen -- that goes to the Volontes Planita-- but it is smart enough that we have to be careful. It isn’t aggressive, but it has the potentiality to be.” She ran her tentacles over the ground, “I think what I am trying to say is that the creature isn’t particularly impressive in any one aspect, but its abilities are so diverse than it aggregates into something greater than the sum of its parts.”

They nodded in great interest, “Go on.”

“It can run, it can jump, it can bite, it can spit, it can throw, it can crawl, oh and it can climb, that is probably something important you are going to have to look out for. An analysis of its feet and hands suggest great dexterity of a four legged creature that once spent most of its timb climbing, and while this creature spends most of its time walking on land there are still structures in there that make it an excellent climber as it can grip very well with the hands and partially with the feet. The hands in particular are an important structure to keep an eye on as the creature has an amazing dexterity with them.”

“How so?”

“IF could probably perform complex medical procedures if we asked it to, not that that would really be possible.”

“Good, good. I will get this down to the workers immediately, and they will make an enclosure for it.”

“Ah…. but there is one more thing.”

“What is that?”

“It seems as if we are not the first one to have captured this creature?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” They demanded, turning around to look at the scientist with great interest and agitation.

“The body is not completely organic. The skeletal structure on its outer layer that we once thought of as some kind of exoskeleton is not organic.”

“Not organic!”

“No sir, it seems to be made out of titanium and steel. Not to mention that one of its legs has been replaced, along with one of its eyes.”

They stood there in shock not entirely sure what to think about that, “It survived without one of its limbs.”

“Yes whatever happened to this creature, one of the legs and the eyes was removed and replaced with analogues. As for the creature itself, it is very durable, and has overactive scar tissue meaning that it heals quickly and from extreme injuries. That is another reason that I express my concern to you as it seems this creature may not be taken down by normal means especially if some other life form has been tampering with it.”

“That is…. horrible .”

Another long sigh, “I know…. Its horrible what they did to it. I can’t believe someone would be so callous. How it must have suffered.”

“Well, get it moved into a new enclosure, and see that its needs are taken care of. I want to send some of my people back to see if we can learn anything about the species that has been tampering with it.”

“Of course.” 

She turned and headed towards the door.

They called after her and she turned, “Be careful, if that creature is half as dangerous as you say it is, we will want to be cautious.” ***

I was not going with them.

I sat at the center of my ‘pen’ arms crossed and looking at the open cage door at the other side of the enclosure.

These asshole bastards had put me in a fucking zoo,and now they expected me to cooperate for a measly piece of fruit. Despite popular opinion from my brothers I am not a fucking monkey and will not be bribed to go with out.

I had already done a preliminary examination of the enclosure. It was nothing to write home about  -- aside form the fact that I was it’s occupant which bothered me greatly, and made me feel some serious feelings for the lions at the zoo who must have been just as pissed off as I was.

The walls were too high and too smooth to climb, and at their top I could see a thousand eyes staring down at me. Now its not like there were a thousand people to look on, but some of these freaky aliens had like ten ees which greatly skewed the eye count.

They gestured with tentacles and limbs and and any other appendages towards me as I sat arms crossed glowering towards the door.

A part of me greatly wanted to flip all of them off or moon them or something, but just because I was being treated like a monkey didn’t mean I had to act like one.

I could see the handlers moving just outside the cages trying to coax me in by tossing in more fruit. In a way watching them struggle was kind of funny. Based on their behavior, I would wager to say they had no idea that I was sentient. If they ever found out this was going to ook really stupid for them.

Now if they have a plate of my mom’s Pumpkin Pie in there, than MAYBE that would work, number one because pie is great and number two because that would imply they were keeping my mother captive to make pies, which was something I could hardly stand for.

Let them do what they want.

I needed to find a way out because this was DEFINITELY not ok.

This is not how I was going to spend the rest of my days.

For sure.

I had to be smart about this. Sitting there in the sand I began to devise a plan. The important part obviously was not to let on about how intelligent I really was. Unfortunately a lot of that might already have been undone, but maybe if I acted enough like an animal, than it would lower their guard and they would make somes sort of mistake.

Remember, I still had the Iron eye armor on my side, and an advanced prosthetic leg. Not to mention a knife and two spearheads which had been concealed under my leaves, so I was not completely helpless.

Although, you know what, retract my earlier statement. Maybe acting like a monkey is exactly what I needed to do to get out of this place. Make myself look docile and harmless, lower security and get my ass out of here.

Man I wish I was smarter, for sure, but I guess flying by the seat of my pants was going to have to do.

I cracked my knuckles and then my neck.

Time to go back to my animal roots.

Yeah, laugh all you want but it is much easier to behave like an animal when you are actually behaving like an animal.  I couldn’t convince them i wasn't bipedal already, but I made sure to behave all the other ways like an animal, slowly and nervously approaching the opening, stepping half in and then backing out, quickly grabbing some fruit and then running off with it. Eating pieces of it messily and with both hands. Using my teeth as much as possible.

Yeah yeah, I felt pretty dumb, but this was my first idea so I might as well roll with it.

Once that piece of fruit was done, I wandered over and nervously crawled in on all fours testing the ground with my hands.

OF course I could already see the hatch way that was going to come slamming down as soon as I crawled inside. I may be an idiot but I am a sentient idiot, and just as I thought it would, as soon as I crawled in far enough, the door slammed shut. I made a big show of getting spooked and racing around the sindie of the cage jumping up against the walls until finally curling up piteously in a corner. All the while I am watching carefully how they contain me, and it seems as if their transfer method is pretty solid. I had more likelihood of breaking out in the pen.

I wait quietly in my corner as the box is moved, and suddenly the door slides open again. 

I do my best to look hesitant and scared as I poke my head out into the sun.

A waft of pleasantly warm air hits me.

Crawling out, I crawl out onto nice warm sand. A stream trickles past my feet not a few feet away, and just to my right a little shaded nest has been made up below a tall covering. There are branches and steel bars lined around the enclosure, meaning I guess they figured out that humans can climb. 

Overhead I can see a steel cage cutting off my escape from the top.

Or so they thought.

It was a pleasant little place all told, almost like a beachfront island paradise with the perfect temperature and humidity.

I crawled up over to the next and took a seat hidden behind the leaves.

Well fuck their beachfront property and comfortable captivity.

I would rather be a free man suffering than a well groomed pet in a cage.

I was going to escape.

[hiddleloki]

Angsty concept:

Peter is stuck in the mcu. For whatever reason, not even Strange can get him back to his own reality and time so now he's forced to accommodate to this reality. The Hex trio help him and they're his first real friends in this world. Darcy and Jimmy are his besties who introduce him to modern world stuff including social media and Monica is his bestie with whom he spends time, honing his powers and since Monica also has superspeed he serves as a mentor to her.

Ultimately even Wanda gets back and they talk and they forgive each other for hurting one another in different ways. They aren't family just yet, they still need to learn how to accept each other but it's a good start. At some point Wanda gets her twins back and he's Uncle P again and they're one step closer to being a family.

He gets a job as SWORD which is pretty rad for him and it's kinda an okay substitute for the X-Men and since SWORD is now being run by one of his friends it's even better. He and the Hex trio works mysterious cases and secretly also look for more mutants because Peter’s stubborn and refuses to believe he’s the only mutant in this world. He also decides to visit a therapist applied to him by Monica because he needs professional help with readjusting, and that therapist is someone Monica trust with her life and has also helped her with her own grievances.

Years pass, one, two, three,four and now it's 2027 and Peter's totally adjusted to the new world. He's still working at SWORD and through it he also met the Inhumans and Crystal and together they have an infant daughter, Luna, so Peter has a family again. Then one day Strange arrives at his home and tells him he has visitors and through the portal come Charles and Erik but they're both extremely old. Think Ian and Patrick old. It's explained to him that they spent decades looking for any sign of him but to no avail. They never gave up on finding him though. They also tell him some of his family and friends have passed already which further devastates Peter, who still can't get over the fact that Charles and Erik are OLD. His mom’s been long gone and his baby sister is now already a grandmother. Charles tells him that his team misses him and they built some sort of memorial in his name at school.

Then Charles excuses himself to allow Erik and Peter to talk and Peter just knows that Erik knows. So he asks him how he figured it out and Erik tells him that in a way he knew since the day he met him in prison but could never be sure until he was straight up told by Charles when they first started looking for him. Erik tells him that he understands why he didn't tell him in Cairo but that he would have loved to be in his life regardless and that just shatters Peter because he had this golden opportunity to have a bond with his father but he wasted it and now he will never get that time back. Erik tells him that he's just glad he got the opportunity to be able to see him again because living with no knowledge of what happened to him was one of the worst things he went through and he went through a lot.

Peter then tells him that there's someone he wishes him to meet and he takes him to Luna's cot and introduces his baby daughter to his dad and Erik is completely speechless but proud to be able to hold a grandchild which he never had an opportunity to do so before because Peter was his only relative left and has pretty much given up on ever having any family after Peter’s disappearance.

And when it's time to say goodbye Peter has the chance to go back with them but with a heavy heart declines as he now has a family of his own here and he cannot just abandon them. Erik and Charles tell him that they didn't expect anything else and once again he gets told by both of them how proud they are of him and they're happy he's alright and happy. Peter even calls Erik "dad" because he knows this is probably the only and last chance he will ever have to call him that. So Charles and Erik leave (this is just before Charles has a seizure and kills half his team and the X-Men world goes to crap) and Peter is just shattered because how could he not be!?

“... and Peter is just shattered because how could he not be!?”

This is me after reading this ask. I am Peter. I am shattered 😭

It brings a whole new meaning to “For a guy who moves as fast as me, I always seem to be too late” 😭

The idea that Peter got a chance at life in a different reality, managed to find friends, family and meanwhile in his home universe time just...went on...His team kept looking for him for 3-4 decades and they’re all old and dying and we all know what happens to the X-Men and mutants shortly after this little visit is just devastating😭

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Getting back at writing, is, well, hard. My grammar and vocabulary and basically everything is messed up so I apologize in advance for that. It's been, almost a year ever since my last written fic. That time I was still crazy with Kimetsu no Yaiba and the KyoTan ship. I'll post it some other time ^^.

Anyways, I present to you my attempt in making a plotted work from a random thought that came over me this morning.

Pairing: Tai'chi Kashharzol (Orc) x Pearl Blackbell (Human OC/Reader)

Warnings: Basically none. Except for some curse words.

UD 01/10/21: Cleaned and revised some parts! Tried my best, hope it was enough.

•

Of Ice and Blood

Part 1

Quick backstory and some details I left out in the main work.

It was in summer, 28th of July, when Pearl Blackbell turned 19. She left her home and moved closer to the university she’ll be going to. She rented an apartment about five blocks from the school. Albeit small, it was cozy and proper, having what she needed: a kitchen, a decent-sized bedroom, a small living area with a worn but comfy couch, and a bathroom.

When she was younger, her parents started training her in martial arts and the use self-defense weapons. They needed to make sure she knew how to protect herself against assaulters and dangerous people, she was after all, their only child and baby girl . They want their daughter to be strong, both inside and outside, by the time she sets out on her own and leaves home.

Her favorite self-defense weapon was brass knuckles, despite her parents’ protests. She enjoys punching nasty people and feel the crunch of their bones beneath her fists, especially racists, sexists, bullies, and the lot. The main reason why she got into detention multiple times.

Painting it with a ruddy color, she keeps it in her person, no matter where she goes. She has two, one is for extreme situations, while the other has only two knuckles. It stills maximizes the damage dealt but it is relatively less dangerous than the full dusters. The second one is usually a spare, though she rarely uses it.

She also occasionally carries a pair of retractable nunchucks, which she designed to be hidden within her regular baggy clothes. Her father had trained her vigorously with them and she even bested him in a match before she left for the city.

Selkoth, the city of marvels.

Distant sounds of buzzing cars reached my ears as I opened my eyes and blinked away the sleepiness, the light shining from the spaces in my curtains rather helping, together with the warmth it brought to my chilled tawny skin.

[Start of the actual work]

I fully woke up as I registered the sound of my phone alarm, shortly getting up to prepare when I realized what day it was.

Monday, the first day of my college life.

I stepped into the bathroom and took a quick shower, knowing I bathed thoroughly last night to save some time today.

Time management is key.

I dried myself down, turned to my closet and started putting on the outfit I picked out the night before.

Prioritizing comfortability over appearance, I wore my favorite orange cotton shirt, my blackish-blue hoodie (that had been stained with blood some time ago, but don’t worry, I know how to clean out blood. Mama raised no fool.) over it, together with a pair of black skinny jeans. And of course, tight black sports bra and boxers, even mentioning my underwear yes?

I looked over to my mirror and it was—

Simple. And I loved it. The more simple it is the better.

'“Keep a low profile over there, sweetie. Don’t get into fights when you can help it okay??? We already taught you and prepared you to the best of our abilities. Promise to us that you’ll stay safe, and healthy. Okay? And don’t forget to call sometime.”' I sighed, remembering my mother’s words.

"Yes mama, I will.”

With a smile, I did my hair and went for a tight Dutch braid, it going down between my shoulder blades and ending a little above my waist. I ran to my kitchen to eat breakfast, satisfied with my look.

I eat fast okay

Backpack, check. White sneakers, check. Phone and keys, check. Airpods on, playlist shuffled, I bolted out of my apartment and jogged all 50 blocks to school.

Exercise is always important, and what other way to utilize time for exercising than to do it while heading to your destination, right?

I snickered.

As I made my way to the university, I saw bizarre creatures and monsters of different sizes, coexisting, and interacting with humans. Even so, I noticed other people’s disdain and bitterness towards them when I passed by. My nose is awfully sensitive to scents that sometimes the ones their body releases tells me what they feel at the moment. It’s all science, I guess. I was made extra susceptible to these, so I wear a mask everywhere and every time I go out just to partly block most of the smells.

My first day at a university open to everyone across the country gets my blood pumping with excitement. To think that I’m going to study at Ernestine State University, the Ernestine State University!

I first heard about the uni back when I was a child. News broke out about Victor Ernestine, committing suicide by driving his car off a cliff because he couldn’t accept that his daughter was one of the major leaders who made the unity of all people, of all races, possible.

Dramatic.

Months after Mr. Ernestine died, all his properties and riches were passed down to her daughter, who took over as the new founder of the university and rebuilt it to accommodate everyone, no matter the size and shape.

The strictly all-human school, renovated, reshaped, and repurposed, was now the first university to open its gates to everyone in the country of Yundomia.

I’ve always yearned to get to know other species in this world. I didn’t get the chance previously because my parents sent me to an all-human, local high school. Which sucks. I hated how everyone had a certain hatred for the other races, especially orcs. They keep talking about how they are wild beasts and savages that aren’t meant to be in society.

They treated them like animals that are void of emotions and intelligence.

Come to think of it, I mostly fought with humans who were either racist, bullies, bastards trying to hit on me, or a mix of all of them together.

I chuckled, remembering how many times I got counseled on not punching people in the face.

High school was pure torture, being a human-exclusive campus making it worse, considering how everybody smells so horrible and the principal was an egoistic dumbass I was a hair away from gutting him. My poor nose.

But now I’m done with that! I’m starting anew in this school, in this city. Perhaps make some friends along the way.

Which is kinda problematic.

I’m not the social type. I tend to keep things to myself and hardly open up to anybody. I wanna make at least one friend that isn’t human! Or just, one good friend. I didn’t have or made any friends in the past since people tend to shun me out just because I can tell how they are feeling and find it creepy.

Or they’re afraid to get punched in the face.

Entering the campus gates was like stepping into another world. I was met with the sight of humans and monsters walking together and conversing! It was nice, and I don’t get to see this much often.

I walked around and took in the landscape of the campus. It was huge! And beautifully designed to have a great number of trees and plants, while also having space more than enough to accommodate every student going to their respective classrooms.

I was minding my own business and it was all serene, until some bastards pushed past through me and knocking me to the side. I stumbled but didn’t fall. I was gonna say something, but I shut my mouth. I didn’t want to cause any trouble on the first day for goodness’ sake. So I brushed it off and went straight to the gym for the orientation.

*************************************

The orientation was, intriguing. The dean seems nice, though I couldn't smell him from where I sat. There's also a student council made up of both humans and monsters which is a good sign. The student council president was a Minotaur with a dark brown coat and horns curving front and pointing up. The vice-president was a male student who looked decent enough. The secretary was an elf. The treasurer, a dwarf. And the rest were humans. I couldn't scent any of them to tell me what they were feeling at the moment, but the Minotaur looked uncomfortable, his hands behind his back, body going stiff when they were introduced to the freshmen. There was a larger numbr of humans than monsters, which was expected. I also noticed how both were grouped, a white line in the middle of the gym separating us from them.

Maybe to avoid any misunderstandings?

We were informed that today will be for introductions to your classmates and subject teachers so there will be no lessons at all. Hooray!

I was walking to my first classroom when a damned familiar smell attacked my nose. I stopped to stand for a moment and adjusted my mask. I looked around to spot the one emitting it and of course, saw a human. He looked, well, the typical playboy cool boy who used too much body spray on himself.

Not wanting to stand there like an idiot and prolong my suffering, I speed walk to my classroom and planned to sit at the back hoping no one would notice or ask why I’m wearing a mask.

That's always what they ask first. Not my name or how I was doing.

I expected to find no one inside since it was still early, but I was startled to see a massive orc sitting at the back looking out at the window. He was wearing a dark gray knitted sweater that was hugging his hulking frame very…well. Along with what looked like thick cargo pants and black boots.

He turned to look at me when I let out a small yelp, greeting me with his piercing, blue eyes.

Beautiful.

The orc had long, braided, jet-black locks. Two of them had distinct beads that trailed down from the side of his face and down to his chest, the rest of his hair behind him braided with intricacy and tied and ended halfway down his back.

I was pushed out of my trance when a person entered and crashed into me, swearing under my breath that it was intentional, nearly making me plant face-first on the trash bins if I hadn’t changed my footing at the last moment.

“Watch it, bitch, you’re gonna ruin my make-up,” she snapped.

Wow. She dared to call me that and not apologize like I’m the one who shoved her. Just wow. Usually at this point, I would have planted her face on the floor, but I stopped myself.

Low profile! Low profile Pearl! You’re in college now! You definitely don’t want to get suspended on the first fucking day of class now do you?? Keep it together.

Straightening up, I walked towards the back and sat beside the orc. Whose gaze fell on me, curious, when I wasn’t looking.

I made myself settled in my seat before the professor came in.

There were other races in my class. A blue tiefling sat three rows in front, wearing a casual outfit. A black-haired elf who looked and dressed clever, a row away. A cute pink pixie on my far right. A satyr wearing glasses, two seats in front of me, and a female lizardfolk a seat from of the pixie.

"Are you...alright?"

I almost jumped from my seat when the orc beside me spoke. I couldn’t help but admire how deep his voice was. I tried not to appear flustered, my mask helped with that.

“Uh…yes?”

The orc regarded me for a second before continuing.

“You were pushed earlier.”

Oh. He saw that?

“Oh, yeah, I’m okay.” I smiled at him. Then I remembered he can’t see my face. But I hoped the crinkling of my eyes gave it away.

“I’m Pearl, by the way.” I reached out my hand to him, socializing not my best suit but at least I tried.

He paused for a second before taking it into his bigger one, engulfing mine and shook it slowly. I was again, surprised by how gentle he was.

“Tai'chi.”

Interesting.

“Nice to meet you, Tai'chi.”

He lets go of my hand when the professor started talking up front.

“Nice to meet you too, Pearl."

***************************************

Thoughts? I am wide open for constructive criticism :D

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Check pinned post for latest chapter updates💕

[popatochisssp]

I saw on the masterpost that there aren't any random headcanons for Nemo and Ell! Could we get one for them pretty please?

Sure!

In lieu of anything specific to say, I’ll just pick something random about each of them...

Ell (Horrorswap Papyrus) likes papercraft, folding and origami and such!

When he doesn’t have the (metaphorical) brainpower to focus on learning/practicing programming or seriously working on his writing, he’ll still like to be doing something with his hands and little easy crafts like that are a great solution for him.

He’s almost always got a lot of scrap and origami paper lying around in easy reach, if not already partially turned into piles of cranes or boats or frogs, whatever his hands do on autopilot.

He’s also got a big, fuck-off mclargehuge jar of those little lucky stars that’s steadily accumulating because he makes a ton of those, and keeps ordering more colors and patterns of strips to make them with.

He honestly has no clue what he’s keeping them for, he should probably just throw them out...

But...

The jar is bright... and pretty... and kinda nice to look at, so... maybe that’s reason enough...?

And for Nemo (Horrorswapfell Papyrus)...

Well, I’ve established his agoraphobia already, but he’s kinda got something else going on. It’s maybe not as intense as full-blown haphephobia, but he’s definitely extremely skittish around being touched: sudden or unexpected movements around, toward, or on him are especially likely to make him flinch or jump, regardless of the context.

Those last few weeks Underground, when social order broke down and he was truly on his own for the first time Ever... it was kinda fucked up, to say the least. Even though it was a relatively short period of time, the chaos of it all managed to instill a pretty strong startle-response in him and it’s hard to shake, even now that things are okay and it’s generally disproportionate to anything he’s facing.

A friend or significant other would really help him out by telegraphing their movements and staying in his line of sight as much as they’re reasonably able to when they’re around him, and if they plan on touching him, announcing what they’re going to do, specifically-- because he does absolutely want to be touched still!

Just...slowly, maybe. And without any... surprises...

It’d make him really happy to know that they cared enough about him to accommodate his neuroses, and it’s been awhile since he’s had a hug and been able to really enjoy it! ^^;

[hb-pickle]

Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets Review Essay

Why Sensitivity Readers Are Always Necessary

Before I start, I would like to make it very clear that this review only critiques the aspects of colonialism and representation in Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets. I will not be discussing the romance, side characters or anything else like that. Also, I would like to make it very clear that none of this review is meant to personally attack or berate the author @marimancusi . I firmly believe that none of the cultural insensitivities in her book were intentional, but were simply the result of a non-indigenous, white author writing about experiences she could not personally relate to. My only goals for writing this review is to show the author how her book unintentionally perpetuated many harmful and outdated ideas about racism and colonialism, and to convince her and Disney to contact and hire sensitivity readers before they create content about vulnerable racial/ethnic groups. 

I would also like to state that I am an African American woman and not indigienous, so I have personal experiences with racism and colonialism towards black people, but not towards indigenous communities. So if any indigenous people see problems or inaccuracies with my review, I would be happy to listen and put your voice first.

- - -

To summarize quickly (with full context), Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets is about Iduna, a young indigenous Northuldra girl (oppressed racial/ethnic minority) who was suddenly and violently separated from her home and family when her people were betrayed and attacked by the Arendellians (colonizing class). As a result of the massacre battle between the two groups, Iduna is permanently separated from her home (caused by a magical and impenetrable mist) and forced to spend the rest of her days in the kingdom of Arendelle, where she lives in almost constant fear of being exposed as a Northuldran (for the townsfolk are violently bigoted against them). Naturally, this book contains many many depictions of racial hatred and bigotry along with exploring the mindset and fears of a young girl dealing with the brunt of colonialism. Unfortunately, it tends to fumble the seriousness of these situations (out of ignorance or out of a desire to keep the book lighthearted/to center the romance plotline), which results in an overall detrimental message to the audience. The missteps I specifically want to unpack are as follows.

- (1/5) Severs Iduna’s connection to her culture before the story even begins (making us feel less empathetic for the Northuldra’s plight) 

I’m not 100% certain, but my understanding is that the purpose of making Iduna a double orphan was to make her more sympathetic and to give her a reason to save Agnarr’s life (to have compassion for a stranger, the same way her adoptive family did for her). In theory this is perfectly fine, quickly establishing that the audience should like Iduna is smart and so is rationalizing her most important, life changing decision. But in practice this only functions to distance Iduna from her culture and family and make the reader care less about the Northuldra. This is because it takes away Iduna’s chance to have a strong, palpable relationship with a specific Northuldra character, which would humanize their entire group (even if only in memory). The only Northuldra characters that Iduna mentions more than once is her mother and Yelena. Both of these characters are mentioned rarely, neither have a close relationship with Iduna (her mother dying 7 years before the events of the story), nor do either of them have any specific personality traits or lines of dialogue (Yelena has exactly one line and it is about knitting). The goal of a story about a child unjustly stolen from her home should be to explore why those acts of violence were so horrific. The very first step of exploring that is to humanize the victims. After all, why would a reader care about the injustices done to a group of people who barely exist? How are we, the readers, supposed to feel bad for Iduna and mourn her family like she does, if we barely know them?

We needed more of Iduna’s memories. We needed to learn about her friends, her family, her mother and Yelena. What were they really like? How did they love Iduna? What were their last words to her before she never saw them again? Didn’t Iduna care for them? Did she worry about their well being and miss their comforts? We need to hear about how she bonded with them, how they made her feel, how they made her laugh or cry. How they taught her to hunt, forage, and knit so that when we hear how the Arendellians speak of them, with such ignorance and contempt, we are as truly disgusted and offended as we should be. 

- (2/5) Equates Iduna and Agnarr’s suffering, aggressively downplaying the brutality of colonialism (even to the point of prioritizing Agnarr’s needs)

First things first, I understand that Dangerous Secrets is a modern day romance novel for older children/teens so an equal power balance between Agnarr and Iduna is preferred (which I agree with). But, this balance extends past the romance and personalities and into attempting to portray Agnarr and Iduna’s suffering as equal. This is best exemplified in these lines of internal dialogue by Iduna:

I did not deserve to be locked away from everyone I loved. But Agnarr did not deserve to die alone on the forest floor because he’d had a fight with his father. Whatever happened that day to anger the spirits and cause all of this, it was not his fault. Nor was it mine. And while we might be on different sides of this fight, we had both lost so much. Our friends. Our family. Our place in the world. In an odd way we were more alike than different. (Page 67)

All of this is technically true, up until the very last line about them being “more alike than different”. Agnarr and Iduna’s lives are nothing alike. Iduna is a poor, indigenous girl who had everyone she ever knew or loved either killed or permanently taken away from her, stolen from her home and forced to spend the rest of her life living in a foreign kingdom rife with people who actively, consistently threaten her safety. While Agnarr, on the other hand, is a white male member of the royal family, heir to the throne, and extremely wealthy. The novel doesn’t shy away from this (at least on Agnarr’s part), and doesn’t hesitate to show us that Agnarr is royalty and will never experience what Iduna has to endure. But it behaves like Agnarr’s relatively petty, temporary, and incomparable ills are just as heartbreaking as Iduna’s and focuses significantly more time and energy building up empathy for him and his woes. This extends from small things like the book asserting that the few times Agnarr needed to stay in his castle, to avoid political assasination was comparable to Iduna’s family being trapped in the mist (against their will for 30+ years); to more concerning issues like claiming Agnarr’s separation from his parent’s is just as distressing as Iduna’s separation from her entire people. Now fleshing out Agnarr and his relation to parents is a good thing, since it can provide crucial character motivation and make him more of a well rounded character. But when Agnarr’s suffering is presented as more relevant and worthwhile discussing than Iduna’s it, by extension, implies that the frustrations of an affluent life and being separated from parents that did not value you in the first place (Runeard and Rita) is somehow more or just as pressing as facing the brunt of the most violent and terrifying forms of colonialism. Agnarr’s story may be tragic, but it is nowhere near as horrific as Iduna’s and the book should acknowledge and reflect that.

- (3/5) Has a rudimentary understanding of racism and how if affects the people who perpetuate it

Dangerous Secrets’ understanding of racism (and how to deal with it) is summed up very concisely in a conversation between Lord Peterssen and young Prince Agnarr. Agnarr asks his senior why the Arendellian towns people are so obsessed with blaming magic and the spirits (magic and spirits being an allegory for real world characteristics that are unique to one culture or people) for all their problems, and the following exchange insues: 

“People will always need something to blame for their troubles”, he explained. “And magical spirits are an easy target-since they can’t exactly defend themselves… “So what do we do?” I asked. “We can’t very well fight against an imaginary force!” “No. But we can make the people feel safe. That’s our primary job.” (Page 132-133)

Though Lord Peterssen is supposed to be a flawed character, who puts undue pressure onto Iduna and Agnarr to uphold the status quo of Arendelle, this line is (intentional or not) how the book actually views racism and how it expects the characters (and reader by extension) to deal with/understand it. Bigotry is portrayed as something that is inevitable and something that should not be quelled or disproven, but accommodated for. Agnarr, as king next in line, should not worry about ending the unjust hatred in his kingdom, or killing the root of the problem (the rumors). Instead he should tell his people their suspicions are correct, and put actual resources and time into abetting their dangerous beliefs. Even later on, at the very end of the novel, Agnarr treats the prolific bigotry and magic hatred of his people as an unfortunate circumstance he has found himself in, and not something that he, as king, has the power or civic responsibility to change. 

This could have been an excellent line of flawed logic, representing how privileged people tend to avoid/project the blame of racism, and prioritize order and peace over justice. Which would work especially well for Peterssen and Agnarr since they are both high class nobles with the power to actually make a difference, instead choosing to foist responsibility onto Iduna (in the case of Peterssen) who was only a child, relatively impoverished, and the one with the most to lose if she spoke out. Or, in the case of Agnarr, they do disagree with the fear mongering, but only for personal reasons (Agnarr because his father used it as an excuse for his lies); refusing still to actually work to improve his society. But the key detail is that this needs to be portrayed as wrong, which this book fails to do. Agnarr nor Peterssen are ever expected to disprove the townsfolk’s bigotry in any meaningful, long lasting sense, Peterssen is never confronted seriously for his cowardice and victim blaming, and Agnarr is never criticized for his anti-bigotry being based entirely on his own personal parental issues and not in the fact that he knows with 100% certainty that the Northuldra are innocent.

This flawed understanding of bigotry also applies to how the book depicts the Arendellian townsfolk, who are awarded no accountability whatsoever for their actions. The townspeople spend the entire book threatening to kill any Northuldra they find and Peterssen, Agnarr, and Iduna are constantly afraid that they would immediately destabilize the government if they found out their king was close to one. But somehow this does not translate into any contempt or distrust in our protagonist or the reader. In this novel, we meet only four openly bigoted individuals: the two orphan children playing “kill the Northuldra”, the purple/pink sheep guy (Askel), and the allergy woman (Mrs. Olsen). The orphans are dismissed wholesale because they are literal children who also lost both of their parents in the battle of the dam (so they were killed by Northuldra; somewhat justifying their anger). And the other two townsfolk are joke characters, whose claims are so unbelievable that they aren’t supposed to be seen as a serious threat. Not only that but Askel is rewarded for his bigotry when Iduna offers he sell his pink sheep’ wool (which he thought was an attack from the Northuldra) as beautiful pink shawls. These are the only specific characters that show any type of active bigotry in the entire kingdom besides Runeard, whomst is dead. Every other character is either an innocent and friendly bystander (the woman at the chocolate shop, the new orphans Iduna buys cookies for, the farmers Iduna sells windmills too, the people at Agnarr and Iduna’s wedding), has no opinion at all (Greda, Kai, Johan), or is portrayed as someone who is just innocently scared and doesn’t know any better (the rest of the townsfolk, especially those who fear the Northuldra are the sun mask attackers). Even the King of Vassar, the most violent and dangerous living character of the story, doesn’t even hold any prejudice against the Northuldra, and simply uses their imagery to scare Arendelle into accepting his military rule. 

So according to this book, bigotry and racism come not from the individual, but from society and the system you live in, but also not really because the people in charge of that system (Peterssen, Agnarr, and eventually Iduna) are also virtually guiltless. This, of course, is not true at all. Racism is a moral failing which exists on all levels of society, from individuals who chose to be bigoted, to others who tolerate bigotry as long as it doesn’t inconveniance them. It's not just an inevitable fear of what you don’t understand, but an insidious choice to be ignorant, fearful, and unjust to the most vulnerable members of society. It is malicious and irrational, and the more you tolerate it, the more dangerous it becomes.

- (4/5) Presents Iduna’s assimilation to the dominant culture as a positive

As the romance plotline of Dangerous Secrets really starts to get underway, Iduna’s life seems perfect. Her romance with Agnarr blossoms, she has her own business, and is becoming accustomed to her new surroundings (in order to make the coming drama more exciting). This is her internal dialogue as she returns to town one day:

I couldn't imagine, at the time, living in a place like this. But now it felt like home. It would never replace the forest I grew up in… But it had been so long now, that life had begun to feel almost like a dream. A beautiful dream of an enchanted forest… There was a time I truly believed I would die if I could never enter the forest again. If the mist was never to part. But that time, I realized, was long gone. And I had so much more to live for now… And my dreams were less about returning to the past and more about striking out into the future- (Page 128-129)

Again, I understand that the point of Iduna being content with her life like this is to be the “calm before the storm” of the romance arc, but the fact that Iduna is almost forgetting her old life, and that it is presented as a good thing, is extremely distressing. At only 12 years old Iduna lost everything she ever had besides the literal clothes on her back; she would never forget that. Not only that, but the real world implication that a minority should cope with their societal trauma by spending the rest of their life working for said society that unapologetically wants to kill them (and get a boyfriend) is horribly off putting. It strikes a nerve with many people of color and indigenous readers because telling minorities to “get a job” or “get a life” (especially when said jobs ignore/are separate from their own cultures) is commonly used by privileged folk to blame them for their own dissatisfaction/unhappiness with the society they live in. The idea is that minorities should continue to suffer, but busy themselves, so they stop criticizing dominant culture and defending/uplifting their own. This is part of cultural erasure, and the book plays into it, by commending Iduna for “having more to live for” than cherishing/wanting to return to her original home, for prioritizing Arendelle over herself, and for forgetting her heritage/playing it off as nothing but a dream. Devaluing indigenous culture like this, especially through an indigenous character, is extremely disrespectful.

Not only that, but it’s completely antithetical to Iduna’s character, since she claims to be proud and unashamed of who she is, but happily assists the townsfolk who hate her, and rarely mentions her heritage besides when she’s caught in a lie or actively being persecuted. This is another failing brought on by the lack of understanding of how racism affects its victims. Being a minority plays into all the decisions you make and all the interactions you have; it’s not something that you can just turn off unless directly provoked. Iduna’s would be constantly fretting about who she talks to, and who she is with because if she gets too close to the wrong person, she could have put herself in serious danger. 

Nowhere is this lack of realism more obvious than the scene directly after Iduna rejects Johan’s proposal. Iduna spends a long time thinking about whether marrying Johan or Agnarr would be better for her, and not even once does being a Northuldra play into her decision making. This should’ve been front and center because your husband can be your strongest ally or your greatest enemy. If Iduna was outed, what could she do to defend herself against or alongside her partner? If she was ever going to consider marrying for anything other than true love, her chances of survival should have been her first priority. 

What I’m not saying is that there needs to be a complete overhaul of Iduna’s personality, or that she needs to be frightened and suspicious at all times. Iduna can project strength and caution. She can be kind to the townspeople, but reserved in order to keep a safe distance. She should cling to the few pieces of her culture she has left, despite what society tells her to do. Or, on the exact opposite side of the coin, Iduna’s personality could be kept relatively the same, but the book needs to acknowledge that this is a terrible thing. Iduna is being assimilated against her will to a society that doesn’t value her and that is a tragedy. In a futile attempt at survival, Iduna buries her culture away and lives her life as a perfect, contributing, model Arendellian citizen, but they terrorize her regardless. 

- (5/5) Negatively depicts the indigenous Northuldra as murderous invaders

In Chapter 34 of Dangerous Secrets it is revealed, during a flashback, that Iduna lost her parents and her entire family group in an attack by a separate group of Northuldra invaders. This scene is completely unacceptable regardless whatever narrative/story purpose it was supposed to achieve for several reasons. Firstly, because this book is about colonialism, which we as a society already know the consequences of and how colonizers, in an attempt to rid themselves of blame, react to it. One of the very first things a colonizer/privileged class will do to make themselves feel less guilty for the atrocities they perpetuate is bring up acts of violence/wrongdoing on behalf of the oppressed. The sole purpose of this is always to make the victims look less sympathetic and less deserving of justice, equality, or attention because “they’re not so innocent, they did wrong things too, so maybe we shouldn't feel that  bad for them/maybe they got what they deserved”. And of course this mindset is absolutely horrific and unforgivable when you’re talking about a group of white colonizers actively trying to destroy and indiscriminately slaughter a large group of indigenous people, including their children. 

The second reason is because the author is a non-indigenous white person, and therefore benefits directly from the downplaying of indiginous pain. I’m sure this wasn’t intentionally malicious on her part, but that’s what she wrote; these are the consequences.  

((Also the fact that one of the Northuldra groups are murderous invaders means that Iduna was actively lying the entire book about the Northuldra being peaceful.)) 

- - -

In conclusion, any book that incorporates the culture and experiences of a group the author is not a part of, should absolutely hire a sensitivity reader to ensure accuracy and respect. As a Frozen superfan myself, I actually enjoyed this book a lot and I was delighted to see the lore, worldbuilding and romance. I loved Agnarr, Lord Peterssen, and Princess Runa and certain pieces of dialogue and imagery were beautiful. This novel just desperately needed someone to check it. All this book needed was a bit more of a critical gaze on some of the character decisions and motivations (I truly believe Agnarr and Peterssen would have been even more intriguing and likeable characters if they were actually called out, and given time to reflect on their hypocrisies) and it would’ve been much stronger and more palatable to diverse audiences. Some elements did need to be cut out completely, but a sensitivity reader would’ve easily been able to point this out and offer alternatives that preserved the spirit of the novel, without including any offensive and distasteful implications.

[nanoland]

title: Compass Rose 

series: Lucifer (TV) 

pairings: Mazikeen/Eve

summary: In which Mazikeen exercises her renowned patience. 

warnings: Lucifer is kind of a dick in this. Not intentionally; he’s just young and colossally self-centered. 

 Also on Ao3! 

0 

“You. Demon. What’s your name?” asks the Morningstar, looking bored and depressed, as usual.

She straightens up, brimming with nerves and excitement, feeling her acidic blood bubble happily because he’s so handsome! And he’s talking to her! Her siblings will shriek with jealousy when they hear of this. “Mazikeen, my liege.”

“Mazikeen,” he repeats, mispronouncing it. “Great. Maze, do something about… all that, would you? It’s dreadfully grating.”

He gestures to the sea of damned, miserable human souls milling around the base of his throne, calling up to him for help or mercy.

“Yes, my liege,” she says, her bright mind already hard at work planning the next few millennia of punishment.

 0 

“Maze, is there a letter from Amenadiel?”

Mazikeen is now four hundred years old and in all that time, not a single letter has arrived in Hell, from Amenadiel or anyone else. Regardless, her handsome king asks every week.

It’s fine. She’s far too mature and cunning to feel even the slightest scrap of envy towards some pompous old angel she’s never even met, regardless of how obviously Lucifer loves him.

Regardless of how obvious it is that he loves no one in Hell half as much.

“No, my liege.”

“Hmm. Fine. Whatever. Fuck him, then. Brothers – who needs ‘em?”

She nods. She herself has many, many brothers, and sisters, and siblings who are neither or both, and she certainly doesn’t need them.

(Sometimes she longs for them, especially when she’s weary from the years and years dedicated to building and securing Lucifer’s kingdom, but she never needs. Needing is for the weak.)

It occurs to her that that king might be cheered by stories of Tradiusis, her most treasured and most useless brother, who is prone to chatting with the damned and asking them about all the silly human indulgences they enjoyed in life, like movies and theme parks and hot dogs. Fool that he is, the mere thought of him always brings a smile to her face.

But she decides against it, suspecting that if she were to begin telling Lucifer about her family, he’d get that same dull, faintly irritated expression she sees every time she reads him a report about the number of new arrivals and how various parts of Hell will need to be restructured to accommodate them all.

(She wonders what will happen when Hell is full – does he have a plan? Is she expected to have a plan?)

(How long, exactly, are they supposed to keep doing this?)

(Surely this can’t be all they were made for?)  

 0  

“Maze, get me a drink, would you?”

Mazikeen is Lucifer’s right hand, his bodyguard, the highest-ranked demon in Hell, named the Lady of Pain, the Whirlwind, and the Blood Dancer by her peers and underlings.

Pouring drinks is… new to her.

But this is what he wants; this club, this loud music, these inebriated humans constantly demanding attention and entertainment, constantly needing to be managed. And he’s her king.

She pours him his drink and listens to him play the piano, until some wretch attempts to grope her and loses two fingers.

 0 

Running a nightclub is, it turns out, complicated.

There are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding what can and cannot be done inside it.

At one point, Lucifer decides it would be fun to have white tigers roaming the dance floor. After a few days spent looking into that option, she has to explain that they may to have settle for waitresses dressed as tigers. He pouts like it’s her fault and goes back to the piano.

She’s also not allowed to kill anyone, which is, honestly, ridiculous. Mazikeen is an ancient being, a warrior nigh unparalleled, with centuries of experience contending with the worst the human race has to offer, and every single night she endures treatment from at least one of Lucifer’s guests that, even to her vast, reasonable, and patient mind, clearly warrants swift annihilation.

If murder is, indeed, illegal, how do all the mortal women in this city who serve drinks cope?

“You block it out, I guess,” says Suzy, a waitress with thick red hair and tired eyes, after Mazikeen has had to save her yet again from a patron with wandering hands (and now broken hands). “You know, just… don’t let it get to you. Grow a thick skin.”

Mazikeen considers the half of her body that has no skin whatsoever and snickers inappropriately. Then she gifts Suzy one of her knives.

 0 

Chloe gasps. “Maze! No! Absolutely not!”

“Why?” she asks, annoyed but also genuinely curious.

“I can’t just torture a suspect to get information, Maze. It’s wrong.”

Mazikeen considers saying: You already torture people. You lock them up in tiny boxes until their minds break and their lives are utterly ruined. How is that different? I don’t understand.

Mazikeen considers saying: You let Lucifer violate peoples’ innermost selves to obtain information. How is that better? I don’t understand.

Mazikeen considers saying: I don’t want to be good. I don’t care about being good. So why do I seem to put so much more thought into how to be good than you do? I don’t understand, I don’t, I don’t.

Instead, Mazikeen rolls her eyes and says nothing.

 0 

“Maze! No! What were you thinking?” cries Linda, rushing over to the cradle. “You can’t give that to a baby!”

She snatches away Mazikeen’s present; a blade, small and silver, just right for tiny hands, the same blade Mazikeen herself received from her favourite sister on her fourth birthday. It has tasted the blood of over a hundred enemies.

Charlie starts to cry and Linda puts the blade aside so she can pick him up and comfort him.

“Children need to be able to protect themselves,” Mazikeen insists.

“No, Maze. Children need to be protected.”

“No one protected me.”

Linda doesn’t say: Exactly. Why would I want my son to be anything like you?

Because Linda is kind.

But Mazikeen is perceptive and she sees it in her friend’s eyes all the same.

 0 

“So then, then it turns out that Jon Snow is actually Daenarys Targaryen’s cousin, right, which makes him – oh no! – a rival contender for the Iron Throne, and…”

“Ugh,” Mazikeen groans, cutting Ella off. “I thought this was a show about dragons! Why does it waste so much time on people either fucking or killing their relatives?”

She laughs at Mazikeen’s exaggerated annoyance. “It’s not just about dragons. There’s a lot of stuff about politics and war and, yeah, fucked-up family dynamics. Honestly, that’s one of the reasons it grips me so much. My own family’s always got a ton of drama going on, too. I mean – no incest. Not that I’m aware of. But you know all about my brothers.”

Mazikeen is about to ask what the dragons look like – whether the show’s version bears any resemblance to the beasts she’s ridden into battle – when Ella tilts her head sideways and squints at her. “Huh. Now that I think about it… I’ve told you all about my brothers but I’ve never asked anything about your family. That was shitty of me! Can I ask now? Or is it, like, one of those things you don’t talk about? Like where you’re from and how you met Lucifer?”

Fiddling with a lock of her hair – it’s straight and black today – Mazikeen says, “I don’t mind talking about it. Just… most people don’t care.”

Ella frowns, briefly (cutely, curse her). “Well, I wanna know! You got any brothers?”

“Yeah.”

“How many?”

“A lot. I’m not actually sure exactly how many there are now.”

“Oh, right. Gotcha. Are you close to any of them?”

“Not these days. But when we were young, we were pretty tight-knit. Didn’t really have anyone besides each other.”

Ella asks her more questions and though she has to keep her answers extremely vague, Mazikeen finds that she likes talking about her home and her childhood. Prolonged exposure to the human world has begun to make her feel insubstantial; a tool, a disguise, a thing without roots or history. Lucifer’s been no help with that, for he’s only ever known her as his servant (and, sometimes, when he’s in a good mood, his friend, by virtue of the fact that friendship with someone who works for you – who can do nothing but work for you – requires no tedious emotional labour whatsoever).

It’s nice to remember that she has, in fact, been other things. That she could, perhaps, be other things in the future.

 0 

“So,” Dan slurs, hunched over his beer. “You got whores… hordes… horns? Thought demons had horns.”

She’s busy applying a fresh coat of candy-pink lipstick to match her powder-blue bob. “Some do. I don’t.”

“Well, that sucks. That’s not fair! You deserve horns. You’re cool, Maze.”

Because that provokes a twinge of genuine affection, she says, “Wanna see what I have got?”

“Hell, yeah!”

He grins drunkenly.

“You need to promise not to scream.”

“Oh – oh, man, is it scary? Is it gross?”

She shows him her true face.

After a moment of owlish blinking, he shrugs and returns to his beer. “Eh. S’not that gross. Lucifer’s grosser. Wanna play pool?”

 0 

Amenadiel presents her with a beautiful black sheath. “I crafted it from my own feathers. It will keep the blade contained until he’s old enough to wield it safely.”

She slides Charlie’s knife into it. “Someone will need to teach him.”

“Who taught you?”

“Me? No one. They just threw us at one another and clapped for whoever survived. But… well. He’s not like me, is he?”

The angel places the sheathed blade down beside Charlie’s stuffed rabbit and plastic truck. “Maybe not now. With any luck, that will change.”

 0 

“Ma-aaze,” Lucifer groans, flopping back in his armchair with his long legs artfully folded and his hand over his eyes. “I’ve had such a tiresome morning. Pour me a drink, would you?”

“Pour it your damn self,” she suggests, standing on his penthouse’s balcony and admiring the view. His throne in Hell was about as tall as this building. From up here, all the little people down below look exactly the same.

He pouts and fetches a glass – and, to her surprise, one for her as well.

 0 

Mazikeen brings an abrupt, efficient end to the bar fight by slamming her palm into an assailant’s solar plexus.

He drops like a ton of bricks, joining the pile of groaning men, broken furniture, and smashed bottles. (Shit; it’s going to take ages to clean all this up. If Lucifer didn’t have infinite money, Lux would have gone bankrupt eight times by now.)

She turns to see Eve staring at her, beautiful mouth hanging open, and braces herself for the “Maze! No!”.

“That was so cool,” Eve breathes, and rushes over to leap into Mazikeen’s arms, only to draw back at the last second. “Oh no! You’re hurt!”

There is, indeed, a small cut on Mazikeen’s left hand.

“Don’t care, doesn’t matter,” says Mazikeen, reaching for her, wanting badly to be kissed.

But Eve drags her into a quiet back room where she applies disinfectant and bandaids with cartoon cats on them.

“I really wanna learn how you did that thing with your elbow,” she chatters, wiping away a few spots of blood with a white handkerchief. “The way his nose just went crunch! – man, it was fantastic.”

“I can teach you. If you like.”

Eve’s dark eyes are fond. “You’re always offering to do something for me – to teach me how to fight, or to carry something, or to protect me. It’s… like, I love it. But you know you don’t have to, right?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“I wanna do stuff for you sometimes. Oh! That reminds me. Lucifer was going to take Chloe to a wrestling match but then they had another fight and he’s back to being sad, sooo I stole the tickets out of his jacket. Wanna go?”

“I love you,” says Mazikeen, even though she’s said it five times today. She likes the way it sounds in her mouth. She likes the way it makes Eve’s whole face sparkle.

“I love you too, babe.”