#will not only create more trans people but will make everyone more in tune with their gender but also make us less othered | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

inkpens-coffee · 3 years ago

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So everyone has their own portrayals/headcanons for Akiren’s personality and relationships when they create content with him, I decided to write out how I portray him! ☕️❤��⭐️✨

I love the name Ren Amamiya for him. It’s translation is pretty much Lotus flower in a Rain Palace (so cute!!).

I headcanon him as a trans boy! Pronouns are he/him! 🏳️‍⚧️ He’s gotten top surgery and trains his voice to be deep.

Ren is very shy, quiet and sweet when you first meet him, but once he’s comfortable around someone he becomes a bit more talkative, cheeky and a lil’ bratty.

Country Boy alert! This boy is SO in tune with nature. He loves plants so much, he started a tiny garden in his attic. He uses the herbs and flowers he grows to make spices and sugars for pastries! 🥖🥐🍰

He’s also fascinated with the stars. He likes to sit on the roof of Leblanc at night to stargaze. ⭐️✨

We all know Ren is a cat in a human’s body! He likes chilling in small spaces, cuddling soft things like pillows and plush toys, and taking naps! Number one way to buy his love? Head scritches!

His favorite things to eat (besides Leblanc curry lol) are donuts, bread, cotton candy, sushi, and ramen. He also loves strawberry milk but can’t drink too much or his tummy will hurt.

Ren has an oral fixation. Whenever he’s feeling nervous, stressed or on the verge of an anxiety attack he NEEDS something to chew or suck on. His go to is lollipops because his mother liked them too. If he doesn’t have a lollipop on hand, he’ll just suck his thumb.

Old fashioned boy, can’t figure out how to use today’s devices to save his life.

Only one he uses is a Nintendo Switch to play Animal Crossing and Cooking Mama! still needs help from Futaba sometimes lol

Bless his heart.

Ren is such a sweetie…

He never notices when someone is flirting with him. He can’t take a hint. Send him flowers? Oh nice, he’ll talk your ear off about flowers! Buy him sweets? Good, he was getting hungry! Compliment him? He’ll give you one too! Fr is anyone wants to date this boy they gotta grab him by the face and tell him to him straight.

At the same time, Ren is so sweet he never sees the bad in people. Which in turn makes it far too easy for him to be taken advantage of. He’s quick to blame himself for everything even if nothing was his fault.

Ren’s relationships with others! ❤️

Ryuji

Ryuji is his absolute best friend! Those two are inseparable. They hangout together the most!

Ren likes falling asleep in Ryuji’s lap and getting headpats from him.

Ryuji always knows when something is bothering his friend. The second he sees Ren pulling his hair and tapping his heel, he’s the first to pull him aside and ask him what’s wrong along with a feel better hug.

It’s not uncommon for Ryuji to always have an arm around Ren’s shoulder or waist just to keep him safe.

Ann

Besties!!

Ann thinks Ren is absolutely ADORABLE! Girl straight up pampers him like a baby brother. ❤️

She’s always taking Ren shopping for clothes. Once she discovered he likes pastels she went all out on finding the cutest outfits for him to wear.

Ann is always carrying sweets in her school bag, so whenever Ren is tugging on her sleeve and quietly asking for candies with his cute lil face she doesn’t hesitate to give him some. When she found out sucking on a lollipop calms Ren down, she made sure to always have a couple in her bag.

Morgana

Ren sees Morgana as the ultimate plush toy most of the time.

At first Mona didn’t enjoy constantly being picked up and cuddled half to death, but he accepted his fate after a while.

It’s actually nice to know he can provide Ren with comfort.

Morgana takes his job of being Ren’s cuddle buddy very seriously!

Yusuke

Something about the artist’s aura is incredibly soothing to Ren. He likes to be in Yusuke’s presence whenever he’s drawing or painting.

Whiiich often leads to Ren falling asleep and Yusuke having a stroke because GOD if Ren isn’t the most flawless prettiest thing he’s ever laid eyes on. Fr half his sketchbooks are full of drawings of Ren asleep.

They love going to the park and stargazing together!

Makoto

So you know how cats react to people they don’t like?

Yeah.

These two are not a good match

That brief time when Makoto was stalking him was extremely stressful for Ren and he didn’t like it. It doesn’t help that Makoto is still so strict and wants to be a police officer after everything Ren’s been through.

Futaba

SOS Ren has no idea what she’s saying most of the time

Futaba teases him for not knowing about basically anything modern and drags him to watch anime with her and talk his ear off. Sweet Ren still doesn’t get it but it’s nice to see Futaba so happy about something she loves!

Haru

Oh, she’s basically his mom.

Ren was having a panic attack once, so Haru pulled him to lay on her chest so she could stroke his hair and calm him down. He started sucking his thumb and that was the exact second she was like “this is my baby now, I’ve adopted him”.

Haru was excited when she saw Ren little garden and they trade gardening tips often! Sometimes they bring all the crops and herbs they grew separately and make delicious treats for their friends with them!

Goro

/deep breath/

DO I HAVE TO SAY IT?

Goro is Ren’s number one protector. Ren is the only person that can cuddle up to him and give him physical affection. Ren could spend an entire Phantom Thieves meeting sitting in Goro’s lap and playing with his hair and Goro wouldn’t bat an eye.

Similar to Ryuji, Goro always notices when something is up with Ren. Occasionally he’ll give Ren a little present like a plush toy, candy, or just shiny trinkets he knows Ren will love just to see him happy.

Whenever Ren is really stressed or upset about something, Goro is the one he’ll call.

Ren spends time at Goro’s apartment a lot where they have lots of movie nights with cuddles :3

#this post is getting long #might have to do a part two lol #p5r #persona 5 royal #ren amamiya #ann takamaki #ryuji sakamoto #yusuke kitagawa #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #haru okumura #goro akechi #p5r headcanon #long post

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fallout-lou-begas · 4 years ago

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Questions for OC Creators

Shamelessly stole this from @tarberrymentats‘ post because I’m always a sucker for behind-the-scenes character inspiration and meaning stuff, so if you steal this in turn, feel free to tag me!

(I’m also stealing Halk’s usage of lovely art by @yesjejunus for this one 🖤)

Agnes Sands, Courier Six of the Mojave Express

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Agnes was an opportunity to create what felt like a very unorthodox OC, and it’s an opportunity that has certainly paid off. She’s not young, and she’s not a particularly pleasant or easygoing person to be around, but she’s also not the endearingly tragic loner type or a badass army-of-one. She’s not “spunky” or “fun” and isn’t the kind of Fallout character who’s necessarily motivated to do every quest, meet every companion, accomplish every thing. She’s not an important person; being an important person is anathema to her, and the looming, overarching themes of It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’ are these ideas of the hard limits on unlikely heroism, and how you really can’t fly that far on circumstance and luck. I’m very excited for everyone to see how it goes when the going gets tough.

Furthermore, the design and writing process for Agnes was very informed by finding justifications, reasons, and origins for all of her personality traits, skills, and various hang-ups. The result is a character that feels, to me, so deeply real and well-rounded and alive, that Agnes is a person who has lived every one of her 34 years of age, and that in each of those years were key developments that molded her into the person she is. When I write her, I feel like I know her because of how intimately I’ve researched and come to understand the life she’s led. I don’t want to say it comes effortlessly, but there’s a very genuine, sculpted depth to her character that I’m proud of, and it forms the bedrock of It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’.

It is also very important to me that Agnes is a trans woman, and is a trans woman who looks the way she does with a strong jaw and a big nose and long face and a wide body and hairy arms and so many other “masculine” features, because I wanted to create a character with a very real, visceral, visible transness to them, and for this transness to be a meaningful part of her character that informs her relationship to other people and the scarce world of the Mojave Wasteland instead of just an auxiliary character trait. She is no less of a woman for existing the way she does, but I simply wasn’t interested in creating a character or interpreting the Mojave Wasteland in a way that wouldn’t meaningfully grapple with what it really feels like, to me, to be a trans woman.

B) What inspired you to create them?

Many of Agnes’ character traits actually come from mechanical and specialization decisions that I play in game. I often joke that Agnes “just plain sucks,” but it’s true that in my Fallout: New Vegas game, I have encumbrance set to a measly 25 lbs without backpacks (necessitating her shoulder-slung duffel bag), use a directional flashlight instead of the Pip-Boy light (necessitating the shoulder-mounted flashlight), play with dramatically decreased total S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and skill points per level (which is why she’s so bad-to-average at most things except key specialties), and so on. This was the most obvious level of inspiration, and much of Agnes’ personality and backstory is reverse-engineered to justify the aspects of her character suggested and represented by her mechanical stats.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

Epiphanies have come over time, but ultimately I more or less hammered out Agnes’ whole “story” upfront. I have a detailed character bible saved away that covers not only her entire life pre-courier, but the story beats of her experience as the courier thrown into the center of the events of Fallout: New Vegas and the seismic geopolitical power plays leading up to the second battle of Hoover Dam. So, uh, stay tuned for each new issue of IKROAH!

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

I wouldn’t say that I’ve meant to meaningfully change her appearance over time, but as I’ve been working on the comic, I’ve simply gotten better at drawing and the result has been an Agnes that more consistently looks like how I want her to look. One deliberate change to her appearance has been that her hair is a lot fluffier and voluminous than it used to be, just because a few other peoples’ fanart of her would be like that and I really liked how it looked.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Hard to say. Agnes has such a defensive, prickly, and particular personality and is so shy and anxious that she’s someone very hard to get along with in general, regardless of who you are. Cass could only ply her through a combination of drunken genuineness and total embarrassment that razor-cut right to her trauma. I don’t think I’d have the...audacious wherewithal to be that blunt with her if we’d just met. The best case scenario is that she imprints on me as a younger trans woman and feels compelled to look out for me because if there’s one soft spot she has, it’s that.

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

Pride at the amount of work I’ve put into developing her and crafting her story so far, pride at how it’s been such a rewarding and enjoyable vehicle for getting so much better at art and writing since this summer, and occasionally sadness just because, man, I really let her fucking have it sometimes, huh.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

Her solitary lifestyle made it necessary to find a way to write Cass into the story, just so that there would be some more dialogue while she traveled. She has a lot of interpersonal flaws, her habit of going from totally reclusive and private to hollering mad with no steps in between would certainly be off-putting to me especially. She gets a bad, sad, crying kind of angry, and she doesn’t get there quick but she goes get there suddenly.

H) What trait do you admire most?

She has a dedication to her and a commitment to what she’s good at. She understands the value of stability, good work and a good job. Sometimes this value is so much to her that it keeps her stagnant, and she’s very much a person who’s stuck in their ways in so many regards, but there’s a resilience to her that may not be obvious at first, but that she simply wouldn’t have gotten this far or survived without.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Agnes’ story is so tailored to the source material of Fallout: New Vegas that I thought that transplanting her into other AUs would be difficult, but it’s actually been pretty seamless inserting her into the a modern AU with a few friends called Courier House, where instead of being a courier, she kept up her medical training and works as an EMT. That also spun off into a modern zombie AU, which is just fun and tragic in a lot of juicy ways.

I also have a lot of thoughts on an AU in which she makes it to the Commonwealth, in which she’d become Nick’s partner at the eventually-renamed Valentine and Sands Detective Agency, helping to solve cases of burglary and theft, B&E, and advises on various security concerns. She’d also get extremely invested in tracking down missing children. There are a lot of parallels and dramatic development potential between Agnes Sands and Nick Valentine that I’d kill for more time to explore one day.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

I didn’t have to, no, but I chose to and at least filled in some holes. My theory on transitional health care in the wasteland is all my own (the Followers are the primary manufacturer and distributor of hormones, which can be inefficiently synthesized from Auto-Docs so they’re not impossible to find but are considerably rare) and I’ve taken some liberties in the IKROAH canon so far for convenience, such as Primm never getting taken over by convicts and the Cassidy Caravans buyout offer being a letter at the Mojave Express instead of something she’d have had to get personally from Alice McLafferty later on. Expect a lot more little twists like this in the future.

#agnes sands #ikroah meta

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swanlake1998 · 4 years ago

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Article: The New Company Ballet22 Spotlights Men on Pointe

Date: April 14, 2021

By: Claudia Bauer

The conversation around gender, both in the ballet world and in the larger culture, is slowly evolving toward greater inclusion. Roberto Vega Ortiz and Theresa Knudson are giving it a big push with Ballet22, their new company that showcases men on pointe—dancing not in drag or as comedic caricatures, but as themselves, each in their own authentic gender expression.

Founded last fall in Oakland, California, during the pandemic, the young company has already held two online performances and will hold a virtual spring gala April 16–18 and 23–25. It's also tapped into a growing community of male and nonbinary dancers who love pointework and are hungry for authentic artistic self-expression. "The mission of Ballet22 is pushing the boundaries of what could be possible, and making the pointe shoe ungendered," says artistic director Vega Ortiz.

From Isolation to Innovation

As a longtime devotee of pointework and an Instagram influencer, Vega Ortiz is keenly aware of the enthusiasm for pointework among male ballet dancers, via hashtags like #MenOnPointe, and of the lack of high-quality training and performance opportunities. So as a pandemic project, he and close friend Carlos Hopuy, a former Ballet San Antonio principal who has danced with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo since 2012, started teaching pointe classes on Zoom under the name MaleBallerinas.

The response was overwhelming. "We had dancers from Germany, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, the U.S.," says Vega Ortiz. Knudson adds: "These are people who have to train in privacy or secrecy because there is not a place for them. Seeing male and nonbinary bodies doing this work is so inspiring—there's so much joy and power." Knudson, who is Vega Ortiz's roommate and now serves as Ballet22's executive director and ballet mistress, was tuned in to the venture's significance and growing audience—and its possibility for growth.

The popularity of MaleBallerinas inspired Vega Ortiz and Knudson to expand from classes to a company. "It was always a thought to make it a company, but we didn't realize how soon it would happen," says Vega Ortiz, who has danced with Nashville Ballet and the Trocks. They were able to ramp up quickly, thanks to the combination of Vega Ortiz' artistic vision and huge following, and Knudson's business savvy gained from founding her own company, Halcyon Dance Project, in 2019, plus her degree in business administration.

Crucially, Knudson secured fiscal sponsorship through the San Francisco indie nonprofit Intersection for the Arts. "Fiscal sponsorship means we get to use their nonprofit status," she explains. "With that, we were able to ask for tax-deductible donations and we could tell people we were a legit organization. For our first show (last December), our friends bought tickets for their friends, and we had people donate afterward. When people see our work, they're excited and they want to support it."

Expanding the Possibilities of Ballet

Dancers are excited to perform the work, too: Along with Vega Ortiz, the company roster features Hopuy and fellow Trock Duane Gosa, New York City Ballet corps member Gilbert Bolden III and San Francisco Ballet soloist Diego Cruz.

"With Trockadero, I'm switching my wigs, I'm changing my shoes—I'm a male dancer, now I'm a female dancer," says Gosa, who danced Swan Lake's Odette variation in Ballet22's December 2020 performance. "It was really cool to feel these things that I could only dream of before. Performing genderless, as myself, without the mask of the makeup and wigs, was the biggest takeaway for me. It left me more confident personally."

Bolden, who taught himself to dance on pointe with Kathryn Morgan's YouTube videos, in addition to help from friends and co-workers, agrees. "I didn't want to do drag. I really wanted to be myself on pointe, which is why this is so exciting for me." Mastering pointework has also influenced his dancing at NYCB. "It's made me more thoughtful in how I use my feet, legs and body, because I had to learn how to do the delicate finesse. And when I'm partnering, I know how a girl wants to feel and how she wants to be on her shoe."

Ballet22 has also expanded the artistic palette for choreographers like Ben Needham-Wood, whose dance film "Pointe A2B" premieres in the gala. The five-minute, single-take film features Vega Ortiz and Hopuy in a kaleidoscope of partnering as they move through an art gallery. "I would have both men bourréeing, and then one would be a secure base for the other and then transition back onto pointe, creating this shifting structure. That interplay was really fun." On a bigger scale, he says, "Ballet22 is a great starting point for a conversation that needs to happen: What is the role of gender in dance? What is the role that we have in our communities for raising awareness for important causes?"

Leaping Into the Future

While their initial focus is on male and nonbinary dancers on pointe, Knudson and Vega Ortiz plan to make the company fully inclusive as it expands out of its current project-based format. As companies eventually return to full-time work, the roster will likely change as well. "Women want to be part of it, which is so amazing," says Vega Ortiz. "And it's important to have a safe space for trans men and trans women. Ballet22 is a safe place for everyone."

Their post-gala plans include online classes for all ages, a summer intensive and to eventually grow their school, The School at BlackBox Studios, into a full-time program where, in addition to classical training, men will learn pointe. "If we can offer a place where it's safe for everyone to feel that they can be themselves and have great experiences," he says, "that's what we want. The work will speak for itself."

#article #ballet #pointe magazine

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thethrillof · 3 years ago

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@mzkrazypouita

(put under a cut b/c the message was p long~)

Hehehe this is getting juicy. Also from the previous ask I was under a time limit cuz I had to catch a ride. 🤣

Okay, IF, Trans Eddie did get pregnant, he’d be moody and cranky.

S/O: You can’t have this, you’re pregnant.

Eddie: FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!!!

Rerouting his cravings to the home cuz he’s petty that way.

Eddie: Can’t tell me what to do. If baby wants this, then they’re gonna get it. Try and stop me. I hate everyone.

Baby bump kick

Eddie: Don’t you start either!

Gotham will not be spared XD

~~~

Back to Ellen x Eddie Child (we gotta think of a nickname or something. I do have a name for my own Ellen X Eddie kid Oc, but I’m all for a random nickname)

This child is definitely both brain and brawn despite having a lean figure like their parents, so it’s definitely a surprise that they can throw a hecking mean punch. Of course, we see TB Riddler’s father for a glimpse. Possibly inherited strength from a grandparent…

Tho I do like the idea of a Calvin and Hobbes scenario of Calvin learning to catch the baseball with his dad cuz he wanted to get into sports and is accidentally beaned on the nose. (And then that goes into angst territory as that could actually use the “champ” trigger and Edward sees red for a moment. That’s all it takes.)

Either way, it’s only going to make Eddie feel even more awful than he already is and Yin comfort Eddie’s “I’m a horrible father” monologue even though their child is perfectly fine (either a black eye or a bloody nose, but it was just a fluke and has already forgiven the entire thing) Man, are kids sturdy AF

Even after the accident, Eddie looks at his child and there’s that same shining adoration of a child’s pure love for their parent. It doesn’t make him feel any better, but it does lighten his mood that his child still looks up to their father.

“Nice arm dad! 8D”

“…(nervous laugh)…let’s not talk about it anymore. Okay?”

“Okay! 8)”

~~~

Bully or Godsend?

There’s an irony in the “bully who bullies a bully”. It’s either just as bad, making things worse, or is seen as admirable depending on the situation.

Older child is definitely playing the bad cop of intimidation, using smarts to usually get what they want, or the usual “I’m your friend and you can trust me, just tell me what I need to know and I can take care of the problem for you. Nobody needs to know.”

Practically providing a service and having their own little posse of friends. Usually those that can’t protect themselves, or the usual outcasts + brawn and no brain but attracted to charisma and possible friends, but there’s always a leader of the pack and that’s where Ellen and Edward’s child is placed at.

Yin: I don’t know. On one hand, it’s nice to have friends. But in the other hand, I don’t like how they’re making friends.

Eddie: At least they’re making friends. What more do you want?

Eddie and Ellen possibly butting heads over this given their two perspectives + “I don’t want to be the bad guy here, but one of us needs to give them a good conversation”

Cuz Edward’s pretty darn vengeful like you said and just goes “I don’t see what the problem is” vs Yin’s own lessons learned and go, “you either don’t want to see or are to proud to admit it”

Course they don’t argue about it in front of the child. Feels like that could make things worse and try the “take turns to confront the matter” route to give their child a better perspective of things.

They know their child certainly looks up and adores both of their parents. There isn’t a “they like you more” debate. Yin’s got her own thing and Eddie’s got his own thing. There’s no competition or anything about it. So that helps things a bit.

Bruce and Ethan being more friends to Yin, but Batman being a possibly ally to Eddie about “You’ve changed. But you can’t let your own past cloud your judgements. Deep down, you know that, Eddie. Just keep an eye out.”

Edward’s not trying to create a little version of himself, only wanting to give his child the things he never had growing up.

Yin’s not trying to create the perfect child, only wanting that her kid do the right thing and recognize their actions do affect others

They most certainly can agree on that.

But, there’s always another concern. Is this usual kid behavior that just needs proper guidance…or could there be something more that they’re not looking into.

Plus there’s definitely prejudice against Riddler and comments like “no wonder that child is messed up” or “young Sheldon gone psycho brought up. Which is a downright awful to say to a child or about a child in general and definitely Eddie & Yin are not going to take that lightly.

High thoughts that Edward would hide this criminal reputation from his child. After all, people are hero and villain fans, even kids, and Eddie doesn’t want his child to look up to him in that light. Not like that. Never like that.

Ellen would definitely back up Eddie on that, especially since kids do dumb things for their idols. She’s probably seen it first hand as well in her work. Is their child like that? No…but…better to nip it in the bud. And even then, perhaps a good stern talking too by mom would do the trick.

“If someone told you to jump off a cliff, would you?”

“What if I told them to jump?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. Look. I know you’re smarter than this and I’m not here to punish you about anything. You’re father and I don’t want you getting yourself into a mess that even we can’t help you get out of. Do you understand?”

Yin’s certainly got her way with words.

Bruce/Batman and Ethan could possibly be that heroic role models of “it’s good to stand up for others, but this isn’t the way to do it. Tell an adult. Do you understand?” Only to be confronted with something snarky.

“I tuned you out the moment you started sounding like a D.A.R.E commercial featuring McGruff the Crime Dog and El Kabong. Did my parents pay you to talk to me?”

Bruce/Batman and Ethan: … >.>

Cue Batgirl and Robin trying so hard not to laugh as they overhear that comment.

(not talkin about the preggo part b/c i’m not into that--i think u answered my ask about it but when i went to look, it was gone? either way yeah)

ehhh, not too into edward actually hitting his kid. ‘champ’ is a massive trigger but even at his worst he had a moment to snarl and think, even if that was thinking about “what nearby to grab as a weapon”. getting close or absolutely screaming at ‘em would be enough to shake him horribly :V Go Get Therapy Sir. if he hadn’t already.

bullying can be a tough thing for everyone to deal with! really can’t count on the school to do anything, either. i have the idea that maybe yin does try to reach out also through school somewhat only to get stonewalled by how useless they are and eddie being semi-smug (this situation sucks but he has experience, probably) about how he told her so in the middle of all this.

also man i sincerely do appreciate you sending these asks, especially since almost nobody talks about tb in general, but i’m burning out pretty fast on this topic--not a huge fan of fan kiddos, tbh v_v you might want to just make posts in the “the batman (2004)″ tag on your blog instead since i personally am not going to have much more to say about these things, and you’ve got a lot to say about ‘em!

#mzkrazypouita

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positivlyfocused · 4 years ago

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What Happens When You Follow Your Inner Being Guidance

Editors note: This true story comes from a client who is six months into their 1:1 membership. It shows how connecting to one’s Inner Being transforms every part of life, making it an ideal romp of ease, fun and joy. Note how every step of the way leads to more and better. Every day is like this when Positively Focused. Italicized paragraphs have been added for context.

My mom and I are moving. She can’t get her beloved grand piano into the new house we’re moving into, she’s going to have to sell it, and buy an upright piano. She contacted a specialist who came and valued it at £5000, but from that, he would take commission and the cost of restoration.

This didn’t seem right to me and I had the thought “I’m sure this piano is worth more.”

A story is nothing more than a thought or a belief you’re thinking at any moment. Learning how to tie your stories to how you feel can lead to incredible life experiences. This client understood how to tie her stories to her emotions. What happened next happened because she knows what to do when a positive story comes to her.

Positively Focused makes connections clear

So a few days later I was shopping in my favourite wholefood and organic cleaning and beauty products shop. It is run by Jess – a friendly and enterprising South African man who I’ve always felt an attraction to.

I went in there to buy some cheap little Christmas gifts and got chatting as I normally do. Somehow the topic of music came up and he revealed that in a former life he had been a master Piano restorer, technician and salesman for the prestigious Kensington piano company in London.

Notice the tie between her previous experience with the former piano business operator and this former one. Note how connected the two experiences were…

He also revealed that he had left because of the underhand way piano businesses operate, and he had gone solo, building up an extensive and prestigious client base, including royalty, Yoko Ono and the Royal Academy of music in London.

I told him about my mum’s piano and after a few questions he said to me “I’m sure it’s worth a lot more.” I asked him if he would come and value it for a fee.

Knowing that I was also in the music business, he said to me “well I know everything there is to know about acoustic pianos. But I’m in the market for a vintage Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer piano, and I know nothing about electric pianos. If you could get me a good electric piano from the 70s era, I’ll come and do the valuation for free.”

I put a post on Facebook, and within an hour or two my uncle, who happens to run a piano tuning and keyboard hire business, contacted me to let me know he had one available. I’ve put Jess and my uncle in contact and it turns out they both worked with the same piano restorer colleague many years ago.

Whenever two people come together, it’s always for mutual benefit. Whether trans-attracted or transgender, when you meet someone, mutual benefit always takes place. That doesn’t mean you experience the benefit, even though it did happen. In most situations, people miss benefits they got. It’s easy to see the benefits though when you know how stories create reality.

It gets better…

Two days ago Jess came and valued my mum’s piano and has already found a buyer for it for £10,000, double the original valuation. No need for restoration, and no commission.

Because this client waited and let the Universe orchestrate her outcomes, she got a wonderful, delightful outcome….but it did get better…

This morning I picked up the Wurlitzer from my uncle who happened to be in London on a piano tuning job … Jess and my uncle have not yet spoken about money, however Jess told me that he has some very lucrative business opportunities and propositions for my uncle.

When I picked up the keyboard this morning, my uncle asked me what price he should sell it for. I gave him my opinion but added he might want to consider Jess’s business proposition before charging him anything at all. If he gives you some really lucrative work, I said, maybe you’d like to give him the keyboard for free. He agreed.

The keyboard comes without legs. One or two Facebook posts later, I had sourced same exact model legs and could be in receipt of them within days. My plan is to give them to Jess for free. They only cost about £200, but we are making an extra £5000 on the basis of his goodwill.

So Jess gets to pass on his business and he gets a free keyboard. We get a free valuation and double our money! And I get to broker satisfaction for everyone!

Yippeee!

This client’s life increasingly includes, on the daily, experiences like this. Your life happens this way too. Want to learn to see your life that way? Contact me.

(Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash)

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action · 6 years ago

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Women’s History Month Spotlight: Gabriella Sanchez

Oh, hello. Looking to celebrate an incredible WOC artist for Women’s History Month? Let us suggest one of our Tumblr @creatrs, Gabriella Sanchez (@thatnoisegallery). This LA-based Mexican-American artist is one you’re going to want to pay attention to. In the interest of celebrating women and how they impact their world, we’ve touched base with her to discuss how feminism intersects with her work. Read on, reader.

Let’s start by telling us a little bit about yourself. How did you become the artist that you are today?

That’s a big question in which the true answer is that it’s a result of all my experiences and interactions that are too many to list here. The more direct but partial answer is that I went to college without knowing what I wanted to do and started taking art electives until those became the only classes I was taking. I was really attracted to the freedom of being an artist—the idea that you could spend your time seeking out whatever ideas interested you and then turn into something that people could engage with and it could be under this expansive umbrella of art. That was and still is thrilling to me.

As a Mexican-American woman, your experiences and intersections in race, gender, and socioeconomic status all play a part in your work. Why do you think it’s important for art spaces to exhibit more work by women of color?

I would say that yes, the things you mentioned above play a role in my work, but that’s because everyone’s personal experiences play some role in their work even if they aren’t acknowledged. It’s just framed in a different light when a person from any marginalized group creates art. Specifically, in painting, the work is an assertion of what an artist thinks is beautiful or interesting or worth looking at and that inherently is a message and a showcase of their viewpoint. An artist who paints a flower versus an artist who paints a bus bench with graffiti are both painting what they want you to see. In that sense, the work could be seen as the same. They just get framed in a different light. That’s why it’s important for artists of marginalized groups to be included in these art spaces, so that our context of viewing work gets larger so we can really see the work without knee-jerk biases blocking our ability to fully engage with a work.

Let’s talk about your featured artwork. Women of color and trans women are people most affected by violence. Talk us through the process of this piece and why it’s important?

The idea behind this piece is that this is a collective issue. Not an issue that is just on the shoulders or survivors or only women, but everyone. Only with that mentality will we be able to make moves towards a future where women are safe and we can all move forward [with] equality and equity for everyone.

If you want more of Gabriella’s art, follow her at @thatnoisegallery. If you want more interviews with women making an impact in their fields, stay tuned to @action! We’re celebrating Women’s History Month all month long.

#Women's History Month #WhatWomenWantNow #Gabriella Sanchez #artists on tumblr #Spotlight #Creatr #womenshistorymonth

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transamorousnetwork · 4 years ago

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A Transgender Woman Gets An Amazing Life Experience, Including Cash!

Editors note: This true story comes from a transgender client who is six months into their 1:1 membership. It shows how telling positive stories transforms every part of life, making it fun and joyful. Note how every step of the way leads to more and better results. Every day is like this when you tell increasingly positive stories. Italicized paragraphs have been added for context.

This didn’t seem right to me and I had the thought “I’m sure this piano is worth more.”

Positive stories makes connections clear

Notice the tie between her previous experience with the former piano business operator and this former one. Note how connected the two experiences were…

It’s worth a lot more

I told him about my mum’s piano and after a few questions he said to me “I’m sure it’s worth a lot more.” I asked him if he would come and value it for a fee.

It gets better…

Two days ago Jess came and valued my mum’s piano and has already found a buyer for it for £10,000, double the original valuation. No need for restoration, and no commission.

Because this client waited and let the Universe orchestrate her outcomes, she got a wonderful, delightful outcome….but it did get better…

So Jess gets to pass on his business and he gets a free keyboard. We get a free valuation and double our money! And I get to broker satisfaction for everyone!

Yippeee!

This client’s life increasingly includes, on the daily, experiences like this. Your life happens this way too. Want to learn to see your life that way? Contact us.

#transgender #transamorous #transamorous men #trans-attracted #trans-attraction #transattraction #transattracted #straight men who love trans women #men who love transwomen #transgendermtf #pre op mtf #mtf #transgirl

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headfullofstories · 4 years ago

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Basic story descriptions

Our Demons - On the planet of Tairus, magic flows through the earth. The multiple humanoid races that inhabit this world learned to harness this power, to varying degrees of success, thousands of years ago. With magic at their disposal, humans created great empires, where here was little conflict between groups, since most things are easily achieved with a little magic and the favor of Tairus. Fae and demons have much closer connections to Tairus, and live in seclusion, the fae in the forests and the demons deep in the mountain ranges that dot the landscape of the great continent. While the 3 groups have lived in peace for milennia, in the past few decades there have been a growing number of radical humans who have decided that the demons are a blight on Tairus that must be cleansed, and have been tracking down and capturing demonbloods - humans of demonic descent. This story follows Sam, a young demonblooded earth mage who is trying to find her way in a world that is becoming less safe for her every day, while also dealing with her own, personal demons.

Not Quite Humans (title may change) - thousands of years in the future, Earth is uninhabitable to humans, the ice caps nearly gone and the sky filled with smog from factories and wildfires alike. Several hundred years before our story takes place, some clever people made a plan to bring the entirety of humanity to the stars. Billions of people already lived in terraspheres on the various planets of the Sol system, why not extend humanity's reach? So 5 ships were constructed, each the size of a city - Sol, Aurora, Orion, Minerva, and Sirius - that took what remaining humans there were left and loaded them onto these gargantuan vessels, and said goodbye to their home planet. Our story focuses on 2 girls from Minerva - Star, a genderqueer lesbian who lives in the lower sectors of the city ship, where those unfit to work were placed those hundreds of years ago and where now most people live in poverty, unable to find work in the upper sectors - she longs to escape some day, to move to the upper sectors where green things grow and no one has to worry about whether the government rations will come on time that month; and Fern, a savant-type engineer and programmer who was considered a danger to public safety as a child and hired by the government so they could keep an eye on her - she has everything she's ever needed, but when an attempt on her life kills her parents, her life spins out of control and she's sent to live in the lower sectors. Seeing the horrible conditions of the lower sectors, the two set out to try and change life in their city for the better.

American Warlocks (title will definitely change) - in a parallel world, the etherial and material worlds are a little closer. One side affect of this is that those in tune with the etherial world have magic, which flows through the universe in a great river of pure energy. Magically inclined humans ended up building their own cities, warded from harm and outside forces, with communities of up to ten thousand magic users scattered across the globe. Our story focuses on Ava, a girl from Minnesota who moves to America's magical town, roughly where Kansas City is in our world, to learn about magic at the magical institute that the town was built around. This story chronicles her experiences living with magic, pining for a girl for several years, and living as a stealth trans girl. (I am not transfeminine, feel free to call me out if i get something wrong on this one im always down to learn)

Human Enough for Me - in 2050, the world kinda went to shit. Climate change has caused raised sea levels, more intense weather, and the air is heavily polluted across the globe. On top of the ecological chaos, the US finally pissed off one person too many and may have started world war 3... Oops! And that all fucked up the global economy pretty good, especially when the most powerful countries around the globe had to abandon their largest cities because they were decimated by nuclear warheads. In 2052, a teen from Chicago and his best friends decided that since the big kids were too busy killing each other and trying to keep their oil companies in business, they'd have to try and correct the chaos themselves. They organized summits and drafted agreements, and things were going well... Until the US government caught wind and arrested them for "traitorous activity". Hop forward to 2134, and it turns out taking out the only group of people who had a positive impact on all of the warring wasn't a great idea. Because the fighting never stopped. A cybernetics company decided to clone the ringleader of the trio that managed to halt the initial war, a boy named Matt from NYC, with memories intact, so that hopefully they would have someone with the right mind to be able to see all angles of the problems plaguing the world. Problem is, the brain is tricky. Even in the 22nd century, they don't really fully understand it, and they haven't been able to make a fully sentient clone of Matt. That is, until attempt 72. They managed to make a fully sentient guy, except instead of the put together negotiator they were expecting, they got a cynical bastard who doesn't take kindly to being the property of this cybernetics company. He is an individual, and he's going to make sure everyone knows, even if at times he can't quite believe it himself. (Its also super gay)

Those are the big ones, I might add some of my smaller projects to this list later!

#writeblr #lgbt

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theonyxpath · 4 years ago

Link

Our Legendlore KS only has days left to run, and actually ends on Thursday this week, so as my final push for folks to check it out, I’m not going to try and convince you like last week. I’m going to let two excellent writers do that!

Here’s a great description of Legendlore, written, as only he can, by our own Matthew Dawkins:

But why should you back it? Well, in this time where some gamers are clinging on to the notion that “all orcs are evil from birth”, “disability has no place in fantasy adventures” and “there’s no such thing as a good drow” (they haven’t heard of Drizzt), Legendlore says the opposite.

Legendlore is a fantasy setting where diversity is a strength, we don’t shy away from complex societies and cultures, and where you can damn well buy yourself a wheelchair especially designed for dungeon crawling, or sit on a bloody floating disc! This is a game that embraces the fact that it’s magical, it’s wondrous, and yes, there’s evil out there in need of vanquishing, but there’s also a brilliant world to discover and enlightenment and wisdom to be found.

I’m in love with the art, the writing, and skilful design of this game, which uses the 5th Edition system to amazing effect. I’m impressed by the effort and energy Steffie De Vaan and her entire team of writers have poured into it. It’s a game I want to play, and if you feel orcs are better only as black and white villains, I invite you to read the manuscript – which is available as a free download from DriveThruRPG.com – and feel as impressed as I do.

And here’s developer Steffie De Vann’s excellent take on why she loves the game:

Legendlore offers a rich and layered world. No one is born good or evil, nor does it have ‘evil races.’ People come in all colors, genders, orientations, and alignments. You can be a black trans feminine elf & be right at home in the Realm. Our iconics put our ‘money where our mouth is’ – our elf is a trans black woman, our pixie a non-binary person, our dwarf is a combat veteran in a wheelchair, and I could go on. This is a game that believes diversity is strength. It’s an isekai/portal game, and we created Backgrounds ranging from ‘Activist’ and ‘RPG Aficionado’ to ‘Working Poor.’

The world of Legendlore is home to a sentient 1974’s Ford Mustang, parasite mushrooms that try to kill you by YELLING VERY LOUDLY (trust me, it’s effective), sacred Chipmunks, and the descendants of Amelia Earhart running an aviation nation. It pairs this whimsy with a genuinely complex world. For example, the orcs used to live in what’s now the nation of Drohm. Orcs ambassadors are petitioning the other nations to recognize their sovereignty, but doing so would give Drohm the excuse it needs to go to war – and make no mistake, Darkoth the Darklord *wants* to go to war. Are the orcs right? YES. Should the other nations help them out? HECK YES. Is it understandable that the nations are dragging their feet because war is good for no one except the Generals? Also yes. If that sounds like a conundrum you want to tackle, and sway the fate of Azoth, this is a game for you.

If that sound good to you, go check us out on KS. And if you’re still on the fence – there’s a link in there to a free preview manuscript.

In fact, Steffie has been posting examples of the Legendlore characters she mentions above:

This is Aaliyah, our elven iconic. She’s a Black trans woman who uses a mix of ASL and forestspeak signs to communicate. She’s a peaceful ambassador foremost, but doesn’t back down from a fight when it comes to that.

This is Najda, our dwarven iconic. She is a Muslim army vet who was wounded during her tour in Afghanistan. She now works in a Los Angeles comic book store, where she discovered a crossing into the world of Legendlore.

Here’s Jada, our pixie iconic. Pixies are born agender, and choose a gender as they grow up. Feminine pixies have 2 antenna, masculine pixies have 0, and non-binary pixies have 1. Pixies are as fierce as they are small, they love laughing and hate bullies.

There you go, and here’s the link to the Legendlore Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Let the Streets Run Red art by Oliver Specht

Besides Legendlore, What Else?

Just a warning, and it may just be a short-term issue, but right now it seems that we can’t ship anything to Canada or Mexico. We haven’t yet heard whether we can receive packages from those countries, but since our most prolific printers are based in Canada, we may experience some delays in our traditionally printed projects.

Right now, we’re only having issues with getting the physical printer proofs sent back and forth for approvals, and not the actual books themselves.

You’d think after all the panels and Actual Playing I did during the Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Con a few weeks ago that I’d be all talked out. Well, that does not seem to be the case. Ever.

Naw, I love telling folks about what Onyx Path is and the game worlds we make! I just can’t help myself, we have so many exciting and fun things going on!

Last week, Mike and the gang over at the This Week In Geek podcast interviewed me about WW and Onyx Path, and it turned into a sort of oral history of how the companies transformed into each successive version, and just where game lines branched off to different companies and editions.

If that sort of stuff is interesting for you, here ya go: http://thisweekingeek.net/news/interviews/fan-service-interview-rich-thomas-onyx-path-june-2020

Then this weekend, I sat in on a retrospective of the Art of Mage at Ascension Con 2020 along with Satyros Phil Brucato and artists Mark Jackson and Echo Chernik. Echo took on the slideshow duties and we all discussed the Mage art that came up as it appeared.

That was pretty great, and it was certainly a treat to chat with folks I haven’t talked to in years. Hopefully, that recording will show up on YouTube soon and we’ll get you all a link.

Cults of the Blood Gods art by Thomas Denmark

What wasn’t great last week were a couple of issues that we needed to deal with. While we dealt with them as best as we could, we realized that at core our little crew of folks here are simply not HR experts. And more importantly, we shouldn’t try to be.

We need to concentrate on making great games and amazing worlds, like we do.

Which means that tomorrow, I’m interviewing our current best prospect for an HR point-of-contact for the company. Someone who is HR trained and has worked in HR at other companies. And very important for us, someone who is unconnected to Onyx Path and has never been a gamer or in the TTRPG business.

We need someone who doesn’t have the connections or baggage that might make it hard to be objective when they review HR concerns. Hopefully, my interview is the one, and once everything is good to go we’ll include info concerning them prominently on our website so folks know who to contact.

I mean, it’s important that our worlds are all about excitement, and fear, and victory, and defeat. What our creators and community go through in the real world shouldn’t also require all those moments. We want everyone playing our games and reading our books to be safe while they explore our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The Legendlore Kickstarter is in its last few days and ends this Thursday, and now we’re really building towards Stretch Goals: the GM’s Screen, and starting the Legendlore Companion book PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Grab your friends and escape to another world!

You’ve found an enchanted portal — a transition point — between worlds. The portal, called a Crossing, takes you to a world you thought only existed in novels and films: a magical land where dragons roam the skies, orcs and hobgoblins terrorize weary travelers, and unicorns prance through the forest. It is a world where humans join other peoples such as elves, trolls, dwarves, changelings, and the dreaded creatures who steal the night. It is a world of fantasy — of imagination.

It is the Realm.

It is Legendlore.

Next Up On Kickstarter: They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: the return of the return of the Scion Actual Play as Eddy and Dixie’s characters dig further into the machinations of the gods!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

All our panels and games from Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention are still available on twitch.tv/theonyxpath! All you need to do is head on over to the website and subscribe. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can do so for free and access our entire catalogue of videos!

Legendlore‘s Kickstarter is coming to an end, but Jen Vaughn’s actual play is still going on our Twitch channel every week on Friday night! Lost in the Crossing is an amazing story played through by a fantastic GM and excellent roleplayers, and handles the Legendlore world from the perspective of visitors and native inhabitants of the Realm! Make sure you’re tuning in every Friday or catching up afterwards by subscribing.

That’s not all for Legendlore, as we have actual plays by Steffie de Vaan and Corinne McCrory over on our YouTube channel, which you can find here https://youtu.be/UaQXSlEatDw and here https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM! Please give our GMs some support and tune in!

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

V5 – Chicago by Night

Realms of Pugmire – Paws & Claws

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Thieves of Old York

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef!

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Legendlore – Lost in the Crossing

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth and Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games.

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/ECRrErPLm64

Storytellers with Coffee – Safety Tools: https://youtu.be/FjG-YbG_Q1k

Mage: The Ascension – Technocracy Reloaded: https://youtu.be/9Al7ZdkLGiM

Even more Legendlore – The Metal Scourge: https://youtu.be/RRvnJOrmNzM

#OnyxPathCon | How to Write for TTRPGs [Panel]: https://youtu.be/UKmJQEhInP8

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Occultists Anonymous continues right here with their excellent Mage: The Awakening chronicle:

Episode 108: Car-V Heist While Songbird prepares for a dangerous summoning, Atratus and Wyrd hit the junkyards with an overly elaborate plan to make an overly elaborate gift. How very Mage of them… https://youtu.be/wSy3c74jkfM

Episode 109: Crown of Blood Wyrd and Atratus enjoy the joy of a well-made gift and the good vibes that comes with that. Songbird joins together with Hadramiel to summon an Angel of Death to anoint a Vampire Prince in power. https://youtu.be/QxB6Ml6uStY

A Bunch of Gamers continue their actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea! and conclude it with a mini review: https://youtu.be/qIMwcOZmR8k

The Botch Pit have released a wonderful new guide for Changeling: The Lost right here. Do give them a like and a subscribe: https://youtu.be/Bd0UZQZt2OM

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

Available this Wednesday, we present Dystopia Rising: Evolution shirts and posters on our RedBubble store!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Handing off to Meredith to AD.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

Aberrant – AD’d. Sketches from HIVE in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant

Legendlore – KS running.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Pinging potential cover and fulls artist.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Art rolling. KS assets AD’d.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Shen Fei cover art finishing.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – working layout now.

Pugmire Adventure

Scion Titanomachy

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – Errata gathering.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Page XXs.

Contagion Chronicle – Backer PDF out to backers, gathering errata.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet

At Press

Scion Companion – Awaiting errata from devs.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD files uploaded.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD files uploaded.

Creature Collection 5e – PoD proof ordered. Traditional files sent to printer.

Pirates of Pugmire – Files at press. PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PoD files uploaded.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – Creating PoD file.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

This coming week is a big one for our household with the birthdays of two of our widdle kiddies (really not widdle at all any more), and the July 4th celebration of the American colonies’ independence from Great Britain! “And just as Tom here has written, we say To Hell With Great Britain!” Sorry, Matthew…

In sadder news, we acknowledge the passing of Jim Holloway, noted artist for Paranoia and Star Frontiers and many early issues of Dragon Magazine. Personally, I very much enjoyed his style, and he brought a technical expertise and a sense of humor to the early TTRPG business that it sorely needed.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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frankincenseisnotamonster · 4 years ago

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The Defense

EXPECT IT!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DEETS:

Today is the day we protect what matters to us.

“And let the gods know

Like every guitar string digging into my finger

I dig into you

Let the goddesses shine their light

On your codependency issues

May you finish a cycle

And surrender

And may there be silence

Where there was only always noise

So the gods know

All that they burned were demons

Light men to show me my way

May my shadows be my blessings

And may the blessings yield fruit

Fruits of our labor to share with others

Let the goddesses look up at me and see

I have healed

Woman of victory

Graced by the truth

Let me see what is unseen

May you have sight beyond sight

Let my fear, fear me.”

Stay with the work

No cookie at the end

Guitar battle 2 half way through

The height of loneliness

But I’m gonna heal all the way

Didn’t think I’d be here

A villain in my own right

Seeing clearly and so dearly

Rider of the night

At last a never ending season of pain has ceased

May every, single, goddess have your back.

Not just walking with your hyena but hugging it with all your might

Let guitar be the promise to self, my attempt at not self sabotaging, not betraying, being kind, and believing in myself.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So finally watched and finished Avatar the Last Air Bender! Arguably one of the most amazing animes or kid shows I have ever seen! The analogies and every aspect of the story are so powerful. And the fire are basically the police or in larger sense the United States is the fire nation, the level of tyranny is unreal. Its a wonderful show so if you haven’t seen it I highly highly recommend. I love the main character’s journey and how powerful the women in the show are. Pretty much everything about its terribly good.

Aside from Avatar, I’ve been having a lot of fruitful discussions, and fruitful song writing ideas coming from these discussions. Something that I have discussed with other black folks, friends and housemates, is this idea of the speaking truth to power, or getting white people to care.

I spent a lot of my life trying to tell white people to care, educating people on why sexism matters, or racism matters, or why human life matters.

I spent a lot of time raising my voice, getting exasperated, getting challenged, getting gaslit, getting ignored.

I even did this with myself, my own sense of worth, I see it as a pattern, a pattern I’m trying to interrupt. Its not in everything, but its enough for me to notice. Notice that I sometimes seek out people who don’t see how magical I am, how magical women are, how magical queer people are, how magical black people are.

I spent a lot of time on the offense, on the outside, the action of attacking someone or something.

Giving focus to the other, giving focus to whiteness, giving focus to convincing, convincing someone to care, convincing people I’m worthy, causes are worthy of their time, care and attention. When in reality maybe convincing was never, and will never be the way out.

I want to walk down a different street.

And today, and slowly through guitar, through reflection, and through dialogues with others, I want to keep turning to defense.

I want a strong defense. And here’s what I mean by strong defense:

I’m protecting my community not asking white people to care.

I’m creating solutions centering the most marginalized folks trans black people, queer black people, differently abled people, brown people etc.

I’m focusing on what’s healing for people and communities that I am in and committed to supporting.

What I’m not doing is tricking myself, exhausting myself into believe the what will make me feel better is outside, what will make things better for my community is outside. White people in power aren’t listening, some people will have to listen on their own time, and in the meantime I wanna be playing guitar, taking back rock’n roll for black people, making music for women.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m still focused on smashing the patriarchy and smashing capitalism, its just my tactics have changed, I’m not going to smash them, because I’m not even messing with them, not giving it my focus, not giving it my energy, not giving it my power. My power and my attention, and my practice are on my own inner work, and on the communities I love. The defense is protecting what you find sacred, and I see protecting as also building, building black wealth, black art, building care and structures for communities thats healing,non-exploitative and just. I can do that by imagining, by writing, by creating, by listening, by participating, by practicing.

I’m so thankful for the work, the dialogues, the battles, the experiences, the challenges. My guitar battles are coming to an end, and they have been so much more enlivening, healing and fruitful than I ever imagined they could be.

I’ve learned so much from guitar, these times and doing shadow work, from my rivals, and from women! To me women have been this truly shining beacon, the manifest presence of grace in my life.

And just to be clear, and since I love being contradictory, while I will stay focused on defense, I’m way too silly, quirky and mischievous to pretend that when the time is right, and just for the fun of it, I won’t launch some whimsical counter attack.

Expect it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

UPDATES

Happy Leo season everyone! I am learning more songs. And plotting and preparing for facing the very person who taught me pretty much everything I know. Stay tuned, for taking chances, making even more mistakes and getting messy! Good luck everyone on the your own battles, on protesting, on holding it down in your own way for the revolution.

In everlasting grace and solidarity <3

youtube

#existenceisresistance

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minecraftoworymode · 5 years ago

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picked a whole bouquet of whoopsie-daisies the other day reading some Very badfeel content so to cheer myself up here’s some super self-indulgent ramblings about romeo recovery post-s2

“YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT TO YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR INTERNALIZED MISOGYNY BEHIND” or how romeo learned to stop worrying and indulge in the ““feminine”“ shit in life

when romeo transitioned he scrubbed everything that could be potentially viewed as feminine from his appearance and behaviour. while he did everything he could about the former (hairstyle, clothing, body language, voice), it didn’t feel like enough bc he couldn’t change some things that ppl used to be jerks- his frame (short and lithe), his family, his being trans- so he made up for it by trying to “act” like a “real man”. this unfortunately meant he was super vulnerable to manipulative alt-right indoctrination tactics (”we will validate you as a man as long as you endorse our assholery and share our shitty beliefs about what it means to be a man”) and he was on the verge of getting sucked into gamergate ideology when [THIS LORE IS ANOTHER POST] and hey, now the world is minecraft. u dont gotta perform gender roles for villagers they dont care. xara will not only actually eat ur liver for pulling The Bullshit but when you are kind she smiles, so bright and warm, and it is very very nice so maybe you should keep on doing that. n fred? fred is chill with their Everything in a way uve only ever Dreamed of. romeo marinates in this sauce for a couple centuries and comes the closest to being comfortable in his own skin he’s ever been.

however,

after the Incident he slam-dunked himself back into the hypermasculinity juice bc it was a mindset “safe” from feeling pain, whether his or others’. n since the worlds the admins created dont have the same ideas of gender as the world they came from, once he’s been dethroned romeo has a particularly hard time adjusting wrt That on top of all the other 2750347502730 issues he has to face

anyway flash forward a couple months of being incredibly volatile bc he now has to confront all the terrible things he did and how Dare u make him do that and maybe if hes nasty enough he can provoke someone into killing him and saving him from having to unpack All Of That- (note from @simple-mooshroom-herder: Xara and Jesse at least grasp that Romeo will probably burn himself out on this bullshit eventually and the best thing to do is interact with him with a certain level of healthy detachment. Eventually he'll see that theres no "getting out of this" and he'll start to do the Work but until then its very frustrating to see that tactic take him nowhere.)

- one day petra notices how he’s constantly staring at all the ppl wearing cute dresses in beacontown and at first she thinks he's being creepy but then realizes that he's not being creepy and actually she knows exactly how he feels bc she also used to look at ppl wearing clothes super not suited for combat like that, like she wished she could wear them too, like if she just didnt have to keep up this image of the Warrior who is Not Soft Ever-

n ok. listen. these worlds have been specifically engineered to be better and kinder than the one the admins came from, and when people mess up- even REALLY mess up- people are generally not only willing to forgive you but support you as you try and get better. it’s instinctual for communities to respond to misdeeds with rehabilitation and reconciliation, rather than retaliation and renunciation (tho its not an overnight thing and it generally takes 1-3 people to spearhead the process, esp if the actions have affected a large group of people). like. ivor created something that almost destroyed the entire world, not just beacontown, yet by the end of season one he’s grown to be a part of the team- n its not just jesse & co being forgiving here, bc when ivor made his s1 build with 3 lava source blocks people objected to it, but by s2 he not only has lava in his build but a giant lake of it. (im assuming the fences around said lake are coming eventually, bc safety is still important, but the implications im choosing to take from this are a) despite almost ending the world people let him into their lives anyway and b) the community not only grew to accept but encourage his self-expression.)

BUT ANYWAY before i go off on that even more one day petra and romeo basically put on an impromptu fashion show in jesse’s house (bc their house is huge and, kind of perfect for a fashion show, and also right next to the order hall’s armory whence they stole a bunch of fancy swords to match the outfits) n theyre having a blast until the hero in residence , returns to their residence (and with COMPANY) n romeo is absolutely Mortified- caught red-handed showing feelings of an almost human nature, oh my god, this will NOT do- n this whole grand soliluquy of shame and excuses and apologies grabs the steering wheel of his tongue but he cant even spit a single syllable out bc jesse and lukas almost immediately dip leaving romeo panicking for a second before they come back with their inventories FULL of cute outfits, including a billion skirts and dresses, some of them are even enchanted so theyre like. super shiny or constantly flowing or things like that.

this actually ends up spiralling into a town-wide... not quite fashion show bc there's no runway or anything, everyone just shows up in their cutest/coolest outfits .. fashion convention?? Anyway several people come up to him and compliment him on his outfit casually before continuing along, not recognizing him not only bc of how hes done his hair and makeup n what hes wearing but he just seems... so happy (he might be wearing something on his head? like a headpiece or hat or something? but also maybe not hmm)- whoever this is, he's not hunched over like he's got several centuries' worth of sins crawling on his back he’s not trying to shrink and make small a human-shaped apology for the simple fact of his existence not dragging his feet like hes ready for, dreading, a hundred mile trek through the desert repenting hes just. hes literally just Vibing

anyway he's mostly been silent or just providing very quiet "thank you"s but when it turns out that some people showed up ready to play music and there's a song that he knows he literally cant help but start jamming out its the GOod Stim everyones a-dancing and a-jiving and some people start to sing and so of course he does too (the healing power of dancing and singing in cute outfits.... unfathomable) but. ppl recognize his voice

and after a few seconds he notices how quiet it's gotten all of a sudden n everyones looking at him like "oh shit thats the admin" and honestly his heart breaks. visibly

but

then someone starts singing, so quiet it takes a moment for him to hear over the sound of an encroaching panic attack (oh god he has airpods in), but when he looks over theyre smiling - theyre smiling at hiM???? AND IT DOESNT EVEN LOOK MEAN??- and doing this very simple step, that he catches onto just as easily as he matches their singing (its a fairly common little tune n dance)

theyre like standing like a good few meters away but as they take turns with lines in the song they slowly inch closer

and he thinks hes starting to recognize the dance that the steps theyre doing is from but at the part in the song thats coming up ur supposed to allemande left and even tho theyre like, less than a meter away now literally no one has really wanted to get close to him, let alone actually touch him, so hes totally expecting them to be like 'psych' and humiliate him in front of the entire crowd-

BUT THEN THEY ACTUALLY GO FOR IT???

he completes the step without even thinking about it n continues onto the next in this state of dull bewilderment where there is but one braincell active in his head and it is just going, in a very tiny voice, "danser?"

- when they linked arms the person briefly seemed surprised that he didn't like, chew their arm off or anything (he had. kind of snapped at people a few times during the past few weeks), but then their shock turned into a wide smile and they sort of- nodded? at someone over his shoulder like 'come and join us, it doesn't look like he's going to kill me after all you guys can put the eulogy writing on hold'

what rly makes his heart do the confused and hopeful conga is that this isnt even anyone romeo knows, its a total stranger. or- like- he saw them while he was pretending to be jesse he just didnt care to get to know them beyond ‘name and gimmick’- its not even someone who has any reason to think he'd be cool to befriend its literally jsut someone taking a chance on him (tkae a chance take a chance take a chance take a cha)

afterwards hes like "i should thank jesse for putting you up to that, it was fun" and theyre like "what? jesse didn't "put me up to" anything, dude, you just looked super choked. * something something surfer lingo who would i be if i just left someone to feel bad when they could be having fun dancing you know?*"

he H

#ng+#msg #i said this was super self-indulgent and i was not lying #i call ng+ my mcsm project and thats literal

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oursexualexperiencesarewith-blog · 4 years ago

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The Evolution of Media And Porn

I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in a sex positive household. No anatomical question was off limits, and as i’ve gotten older I am understanding why this topic was talked about more often than most families do. Being open to discussion about sex and sexuality comes with a bunch of pros for everyone. You feel more in tune with your body, better body acceptance, confidence in saying “no” to something you are uncomfortable doing sexually, safer sex, and a better sense of self love, etc. For most young women and men the idea of their sexuality and what sex is like is such a daunting, but exciting thing to tackle when the time comes. Typically, before most people experiment with sex they watch porn, read an erotic magazine, or go to the strip club. By doing this they are discovering what their preferences are; men or women, short or tall, athletic build or skinny, feet, butt, or breasts type of person. Are you a tattoo person or do you want the skin to be clear and smooth?

After watching a few episodes from the series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (Season 1) it really made me realize how much media controls our consumption of porn, and the dangers of media crossing over to the adult industry. The adult film industry wasn’t always so reliant on media just like most things porn needed to grow with the times too. This made me think about the consumption of porn in each generation and how the media has helped us evolve into such a successful industry today.

Baby boomers had fewer resources to educate themselves on sex and sexuality. Things like Playboy magazines, strip clubs, call girls and VHS tapes were their only options. In an era where sex wasn’t an open topic for conversation it made it harder to learn and explore your seuality in privacy.

It’s not until the Gen X era that you see the internet as another accessible resource for sex. During this time, porn became more readily available to viewers in a much more discrete way, or so we’d like to think. The internet era made it a dream come true for people who were ashamed of what they found sexually arousing. You no longer needed to go to an adult store to buy or view (and steal???) porn. You had it all inside the comfort of your own home. Because of all these additional technological advancements there's more access, openness, and privacy about sexuality.

Gen Z is when technology, media, and peoples desires to stay more discrete created much more opportunities for people consuming porn and those working in the industry. The porn sites became more advanced to what people liked, the adult film industry started hiring more diverse women and men, and camming became a popular hobby for most young people who wanted to make some money without ever needing to leave their homes.

The millennial era is where you start seeing major changes to the adult industry and the connections to what we have learned in our Humanities class so far. The best way to describe the millennial generation in terms of sexuality and the sex industry is how customized it has become, and how sex has become a very common topic in media today. Your sexual experience could be customized to the point where it could replace an actual human. Vice’s show “Slutever” covered this idea in Slutever: Inside the World of VR Porn. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the media has completely taken over the porn industry in ways that it has never done before. With stripclubs and adult industry studios being shut down until further notice, creators are needing to use media to their fullest potential in order to lessen the financial blow. How The Porn Industry Is Being Affected By COVID

Have you ever noticed how sex scenes in films made in the boomer generation differ from those in the Gen X era? Or how those differ from the ones we see now? I’d say that the sex scenes that we see today are much more realistic and raw which is why it is so akward when they come on during family movie night. Media has evolved in showing sex, but it’s also evolved in how they show and portray same sex couples, trans, non-binary people, and more! I think we’ve almost seen it all people!!!

OnlyFans is a subscription-based platform that allows for creators, influencers, and business owners to sell their content. However, sex workers have accounted for most of their finnacial sucesses in the past year. For most adult film stars this is the site that they have migrated to while the adult film industry is on temporary shut down. If not on OnlyFans they are camming, or making their own amateur films. People who have never have experience in sex work are using the plartform to get into it, and making a lot of money by doing it! How OnlyFans Changed Sex Work Forever

So how does all of this relate to the things we are learning in class? I think this relates more to all of Week One’s materials because it had to do with social media and technology. The two articles on smartphones in our generation relates directly to what we are seeing in the adult industry now. We are in a time that has forced everyone to learn and use social media in order to stay connected to everyone. Now that work and school are mainly remote our human interaction is little to none. This has been weeding out the people who know how to use it and those who don’t. Same goes for the people in the adult film industry. Those who don’t have much experience in the technical/media side of porn are probably having a harder time adapting to the new way of the industry. Younger people who have grown up using technology are succeeding during this time and possibly making more money than they did before. You see kids who are freshly 18 partaking in camming and OnlyFans because of how similar the algorithms and platforms are to the social media we’ve been using for years. OnlyFans is what I would call a hybrid child of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

However, when you mix young adults, sexuality, and media together it isn’t always sunshines and rainbows. There are plenty of cons to this industry and just sexuality in general. For example, in this past week's readings on Dana Boyd's "It's Complicated" she studies teenagers behaviors and consumptions of social media. She covered topics like unhealthy sexual encounters and leaked nude images which ties into being harassed/bullied online. Most young people aren’t always aware of the trouble they can get if they are messing around with someone younger than the age of 18 or vice versa. Being young and having access to social media can be dangerous to both parties involved. Younger people can be easily tricked into believing that the person they are talking to is who they say they are. Most young people don’t find it sexy to ask if the other is at least 18, but it’s so important to do.

Boyd also discussed sexual solicitations which can be used to blackmail or harass someone.

“With the rise of social media, many safety advocates presumed that sexual solicitations would spike. Repeating their study in 2006 with an identical definition to allow for comparisons, CCRC found that one in seven minors had been sexually solicited online, a 5 percent decline from 2000. 32 Other scholars also found that youth were far more likely to be problematically solicited in online environments that were previously popular but were no longer considered cool.” (Boyd, p. 112)

This reminds me of an Episode from the Netflix show Sex Education in which a photo of Ruby’s genitalia gets sent around the whole school by an “unknown person” to “vagina shame” her. (Spoiler alert) the unknown suspect ends up being Olivia, her best friend who got a hold of the picture and began anonymously sending it around to everyone in the school to get back at her for being a bully. With the creation of phones, smartphones, and social media nudes have been a popular form of communication between young teens and adults. Especially so with the invention of Snapchat in which you can send media and it will go away within 20 seconds. If you screenshot or screen record the other person is notified which has deterred many from partaking in that action, but not everyone. Many people have had their nudes leaked that way which goes to show how social media can have a negative impact on teens and young adults' lives.

Emma Mackey On The Specific Episode

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dreadnought-dear-captain · 5 years ago

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You Asked, I Told

**Contains spoilers for Baghdad Waltz up to chapter 36 and the movie Soldier’s Girl (noted below); CW for some general discussion on the subject of writing about childhood sexual abuse**

Hello everyone!

I’m so sorry I’ve been so neglectful of my inbox and slow to answer Ao3 comments lately :( I have so, so many wonderful asks here, and I want to push out a few batches of answers in the next couple of weeks. I’m a little over 2/3 of the way through Chapter 37 of BW, which will probably be hovering around the 20k word count. But Bucky and Steve will be having their first therapy session! With Claire Temple! And it’s going to be… Well, it’s Bucky and Steve, so stay tuned.

You are too kind, and I’m actually bummed that BW has changed people’s enjoyment of other fics, because this is not the first time I’ve heard this, and it’s certainly not my intent. I’m glad you enjoy the minor characters here, because they have been very fun to create. I have loads of backstory that will never see the light of day, and I adore them so much. As to the second part, I’m reading this as your wondering a couple things: 1) perhaps questioning Steve’s level of devotion to Bucky (or just marveling at it, if this is a rhetorical question), and 2) perhaps also questioning Thor’s assessment that Bucky is the guy you fuck, not the guy you settle down with.

In terms of Steve’s love, some would say that Steve is clearly devoted because Bucky is a very hard person to be in a relationship with, and the fact that he’s still even around is a sign of his devotion. Others would say that he hasn’t done enough to show how much he loves him, that he should do more, because Bucky is suffering so much and needs a lot of support now. We all have our own interpretations of what “enough” is, and I see this a lot in the comments section of BW. I appreciate multiple perspectives on this, and I think we all come at this from our own experiences on one side or the other of relationships like this. I think readers tend to fall on the side of one character or the other, and the Bucky people might err on the side of believing that Steve is not doing enough (or doing the wrong things) and the Steve people might err on the side that Bucky, although clearly suffering, is not considering the ways in which Steve is devoted and the ways in which he hurts Steve. I love both of these characters and am not overly devoted to either, so I see both of their perspectives and aim to write from both sides.

As for Bucky being too “wild” and not being the kind you marry/settle with, I don’t know if we can really trust Thor’s assessment of this situation. He didn’t know Bucky for long, and the time he knew him was at a time when Bucky was pretty low in personal insight. Although Bucky has proven himself adept at committing to an arduous career and excelling greatly, Bucky still does struggle to commit in relationships. But to say that he’s “wild” could be a bit of a misnomer. Pan the camera one way, and he looks like a fun and wild party guy who loves to drink and fuck and has a charismatic, wild personality that is irresistible. Pan the camera the other way and you’ve got someone who’s desperately trying to manage his emotions with alcohol and sex and sometimes can’t, a guy who is essentially “wild and charismatic” because he has trouble with emotional and interpersonal regulation due an extensive history of trauma. As he works to uncover and confront his history, we will have to see how things unfold and whether he commits to engaging with care for himself after his rift with Scott.

I hope this addresses your Ask!

I have had a good deal of interaction with the military system in my life through various channels and have also done a LOT of research. For every military-heavy chapter, I look over a ton of regulations (even weapons manuals - fun!), talk to Army veteran friends and associates who are very generous with their time, watch documentaries, scour the internet for hours and hours and HOURS and just do… a lot. Which is part of why this fic is so slow to come out.

I just want to say thank you for this. I don’t know if this comment still holds for you, because I received it between chapters 35 and 36, but this is one of the things that I feel the absolute most anxiety about when I post this fic. The last thing I want to do is write anything that is going to be exploitative, especially since I know how many people in the general population have experienced childhood sexual abuse. I agonize over how much detail to include, because I don’t want to include unnecessary details just for shock value. However, I also don’t want to avoid the content if it’s part of the character’s internal experience. In chapter 36, for example, it was important for me to convey what it was like for Bucky to experience an intrusive memory of his abuse, because that is consistent with how I write the internal experiences of my characters. It’s part of my style and part of why people read BW, I think. To back away now because it contains this kind of content would be a disservice to the character and his experience, because this is important to his life and the person he’s become.

But I also don’t want it to just be an opportunity for readers to be like ohhhhh all the DETAILS WOWWW. So with everything that I write, I strive to think - what is the purpose of what I’m including? Is this consistent with the way a network of traumatic memories would operate? What’s the cue in the environment that would light this up? If the purpose is character development or plot progression, I can justify including the details. In chapter 36, for example, it was important for us to see that Bucky is allowing himself to remember his past, that it’s dysregulating him, which lead to his rift with Scott and his relapse. All character and plot points. But if it’s just for funsies or for some Jerry Springer-style reveal to shock the readers, or anything even close to that, I would try my hardest to screen for that. As for creating an arbitrary tragic backstory for some other character to heal, I can see how that would be a tempting thing to do for a writer. Although this is a part of Bucky’s history, and although there could be times when he feels like it defines him, challenging that may also be part of his journey. And I’m sure Steve would love if he could heal Bucky with the power of his love (or cock magic) alone. If only.

Thanks so much for this.

This is a good question. As you’ve seen, people certainly can have profound functional impairment when their symptoms come to a head, to the point where hospitalization is sometimes the best option. Bucky has made great strides in his recovery and has accumulated a lot of skills from AA and DBT that he didn’t have before, even with a meltdown and a relapse thrown in there. I know it’s sometimes really hard to see how far he’s come, but he’s traveled lightyears from overdosing at the Holiday Inn on Long Island.

That being said, this reaction isn’t extremely promising, given the implication that these are just the first real burbles of his traumatic past rising to the surface. I’d say a few things could happen as more of this starts to emerge.

1) He could do as you say, decompensate, have a lot of trouble functioning in his daily life, maybe go into some sort of partial hospitalization or inpatient hospitalization. This option would allow him to be in a controlled environment, the kind of place where he might be able to manage this stuff without other demands getting in the way.

2) He could rely very heavily on coping skills and social supports to manage this stuff as it comes up, and maybe it doesn’t overtake him completely. This would be extremely challenging because it would require him to reach out for help and accept it.

3) He could find some way to stop this process altogether by resuming drinking or some other maladaptive coping behavior. This would be very tempting for him, especially as things get exponentially more difficult.

Importantly, Bucky is still the same person as he was before, in terms of the primary effects his traumatic history has had on his life. What’s really in question here is his ability to face his memories and the truth of his own experience, which he can’t run from anymore because his old compartmentalization and avoidance strategies are falling apart. I think a lot will depend on whether he continues to make himself an island or whether he lets others close to him to support and assist him in this process. So much of the latter depends on trust and his sense of personal and emotional safety, which have been deeply shaken by his experiences. This makes everything so much more challenging. We’ll have to see how it all unfolds!

Thanks for the Ask!

**CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE**

UGH. Okay, I rented this DVD from Netflix when I got this Ask, because I thought, hey, why not… and then it sat on my shelf unwatched for about seven weeks. Netflix probably thought I just kept it. Obviously I have a pretty thick skin, given the shit I write about, but I was dreading watching it. The sleeve gives the plot away, so I knew what was coming, but God, kill me.

I died over a lot of the military inaccuracies, but it’s a TV movie, so it kind of gets a pass I guess. And it took place at Fort Campbell, Bucky’s least favorite place on Earth! This movie is also a creature of its time, which was fascinating in itself - a cis man playing a trans woman (megasigh, although admirably well), the commentary after from people on an active DADT policy still in effect, which was incredible. It seems so ridiculous to me now that it was ever in effect, especially when I recall the arguments against allowing open service for LGBQ folks (“but they’ll look at my butt in the showers!!”), and I wonder what kind of world we would have if Bill Clinton had gotten his way when he was elected and didn’t have to compromise with DADT.

It was very interesting to hear Barry’s sexuality being questioned so much because he was in love with a trans woman. The film makers talked about him “discovering something about his sexuality” because he was in this sexual relationship with her — like what? There was a lot of implication throughout the film and special features that trans women aren’t real women. And perhaps some of this stuff speaks to some level of sexual flexibility that might be present in someone who’s happy to give oral sex to a woman with a penis etc., so okay, I can buy that perhaps. But a small amount of flexibility is not necessary sexual confusion or radical sexual discovery, and it’s certainly not gayness or a sign that he’s not straight (though he may have been somewhere else on the sexuality spectrum, but that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with having romantic/sexual feelings for a trans woman). But there was an odd cissexist/transphobic thread that ran through the whole film, even though the actors and production team were clearly very enthusiastic about the story and sensitive to the characters. And Barry’s mother was straight up like “maybe they were just friends, who knows.” [sigh] I dunno.

But to the point of what actually happened to Barry - God. That was rough. It reminds me of kids who are bullied for being gay perhaps because they’re not masculine enough, etc. and end up killing themselves, even though they’re not gay. His death was brutal and shocking and horrible, and it gave me kind of a “Boys Don’t Cry” feel for me, but in reverse? If that makes any sense. The way he was ostracized by his peers made me sad, especially when he was working so hard to integrate into his unit, and it reminded me of all of the people who were victims of the witch hunts prior to DADT and even after, how lonely that must have been, how devastating to one’s career and connections to their military family. It’s one of the reasons Bucky tried so hard to appear either extremely occupied or extremely straight. But overall, I thought the movie did a good job of making this a love story and not fetishizing Calpernia’s trans-ness, and I thought it was pretty balanced and nuanced for a 2003 movie trying to tackle this subject matter. I’m glad I watched this, even though the end was awful. I think I left feeling kind of good about the love story, imperfectly told as it was.

Thanks for the rec!

**END SPOILERS**

Oh god, I am so bad about Tumblr and everything else. I’m sorry for being so bad at all the tasks of maintaining a presence on social media etc. and yeah. I feel bad about it. I’m basically a social media renunciate in my personal life (my job is YOU NEED A LINKEDIN and I am cry), so it’s really not a habit in my fandom life. Thank you for your support (and the EG dig <3), and I’ll keep plugging away!

Please, please no worries!! I didn’t take it like that. I just want people to know that I’m working really hard and would get these out to you so much faster if I could. I know you’re all waiting and I wish I could deliver faster, but alas, adulthood. And I want these chapters to be as good as I can make them and sometimes writing is just really fucking hard, especially when your characters are falling apart. I do love them and telling this story and sharing it with all of you, so thank you for being awesome <3

I will have more “You Asked” soon! Thank you so much for dropping me these messages. I am thrilled to get them, and I promise I will get to them all.

#you asked #asks #send me asks

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angelstormx · 5 years ago

Photo

ACCESSING FILES...

ADVANCED CASE FILES: STORM

BASICS

BIRTH NAME: Angel Juelz Rodriguez

NICKNAME(S): A, Ange. Stormy.

DATE OF BIRTH: November, 7th (Scorpio).

AGE: 36.

GENDER: Trans Male.

PRONOUNS: He/Him.

NATIONALITY: Spanish American.

HOMETOWN: Madrid, Spain.

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Turnstone, USA. New York, New York.

OCCUPATION: Bartender.

ORIGIN:

Angel was born with his powers, he had them dating back to as long as he could remember. He was born the son of Ramon and Sylvia Rodriguez. Ramon himself had the abilities of Celestial manipulation and Sylvia was a local hairdresser, that practiced Brujeria. They hadn’t expected Angel to become a ‘mutant’ with sorcery powers, because Ramon had hid his gifts from his family and never disclosed with them the information, in turn, he never knew he came from a long line of mutants and Sylvia’s family only were ‘practitioners’ of Brujeria - none of them ever had powers that displayed anything that Angel did at such a young age.

But when his son, former daughter, displayed glowing white eyes and hands that were surrounded by lightning - from throwing a temper tantrum - they soon realized that Adam had powers. When Angel turned 13, he was in the middle of transitioning, when his parents died in a air plane crash, leaving Angel with his progressively ill turning grandmother. Angel was able to get his top surgery and afford a few months of his t shots, but when medical bills, regular bills occurred Angel went to stealing. His grandmother never knew what he did to get the money, she honestly was too sick to even give much thought and research into it. He had become a master thief, using his powers to distract people from strong wind gust, to random lightning strikes, to even having a tornado tease the area. He stole his way back into good standing and got his grandmother back into good health.

Once he turned seventeen, stealing wasn’t enough. Everyone knew his tactics, knew who he was, and expected him. So he started off trying to get a normal job, but no one wanted a streetrat or a riff raff working for them. Needless to say, he had a rougher childhood and knew that, it wasn’t until he was eighteen that a male, his former mentor, came and found him. He thought he was just stealing for a common man, but the man seemed to be twelve steps ahead of him... and in his head. A telepath? In the small Spanish town, Angel thought that he was the only one in the world with supernatural powers, convinced him that he was more than a thief or street rat.

He convinced Angel to come to the US and start a better life for himself and help those mutants that were hiding, along with learning himself. Within his first year there, he was already smitten with a fellow super and ended up having a baby with said man. They soon decided to get married and live a happy life. He knew that it was fast, but he was a new person there and living a better life. Through many years he has went through hell, disasters, and even a few deaths through him learning how to use and control his powers - deeming them an environmental hazard if he got too out of hand. Years later and the Advocate comes up and it just something that Angel is interested in. Mentoring future and upcoming heroes and powered beings. Along with partaking in some missions and such, himself.

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 5′9.

WEIGHT: 164 lbs.

BUILD: Muscular Slim.

ETHNICITY: Hispanic.

HAIR: Black.

EYES: Brown. Glowing White ( when powers are in use )

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Cocky Smirk.

DISABILITIES: None.

DRESS STYLE: ( summer ) ( spring ) ( fall ) ( winter ) ( sleep )

TATTOOS: None

PIERCINGS: None

PERSONALITY/PSYCHOLOGY

INTROVERT or EXTROVERT: Extrovert with Introvert Tendacies.

INTELLIGENCE LEVEL: He is both book and street smart, having lived on the streets to working with a man that challenged his book intelligence.

MENTAL HEALTH: No Known Issues.

HABITS: Bits his lips when he is nervous or trying to figure something out, Flies up to the sky before he starts using his powers - feels the closer he is to the sky the more control he is in, folds his arms when he is trying to understand something, Scratches the Side of his nose when he is nervous.

MANNERISMS: Very Elegant and Poised.

HEALTH: Amazing Health, he is a regular with check ups and dental visits.

MBTI TYPE: ENFJ

POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES: Loyalty, Compassion, Leadership

NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES: Emotions, Reservations, Scorning

LIKES: Reading, Various Music, Outdoors, Wind Breezes, Attractive Men, Going on Dates, Teaching, Chili Dogs

DISLIKES: Liars, Abusers, Nature Negligence, Bad Mannered Jokes, Homophobes, Transphobes, Fatphobes, etc., Snakes, Unnecessarily Loud Music

HOBBIES: Reading, Flying, Power Control, Hiking, Adventures.

TALENTS / SKILLS: Master Thief, Expert Combatant, Weapons Mastery, Tactician, Multilingualism, Aviation, Indomitable Will

FAMILY

PARENTS: Ramon Rodriguez (father, deceased), Sylvia Velazquez (mother, deceased).

SIBLINGS: 2 Younger Brothers, 1 Younger Sister.

CHILDREN: 1 Son ( 18 years old ).

MARITAL STATUS: Separated.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S): None.

OTHER FAMILY: Uncles here in the US.

PETS: Mini Schnauzer (Titus).

SEXUALITY

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Homosexual.

DATING STATUS: Looking To Date.

DOMINANT / SUBMISSIVE / SWITCH: Switch.

TOP / BOTTOM / VERSATILE: Bottom.

TURN-ONS: Marking, Neck Kissing, Ass Smacking, Biting, Breeding, Softness, Roughness

TURN-OFFS: Toilet Play, Age Play, Daddy Kink

SUPERHEROISM

ALIAS: Storm.

POWERS / SKILLSET:

Atmokinesis aka Weather Manipulation:

Atmokinesis gives Angel the psionic ability to create, generate, and control meteorological tempest. He has influence over various weather phenomena from lighting, hail, rain to rare things such as acid rain, tidal waves, and flash freezes. He has shown feats and put down enemies with tornadoes, as many as he wants in a flash, oxygen control, and snowstorms. He has trained himself to fly with creating wind currents to give him flight capabilities up to many speeds. He has the weather perception vision, which is what is going on when his eyes are glowing white, he can perceive destiny via weather patterns viewed to him as patterns of energy. He has an empathetic link with the Eco system. And has electrolysis which separates elements unto their old forms.]

Sorcery:

Sylvia family practiced Brujeria, for generations, and it is believed that their idol blessed Angel, and his siblings, with the acts of being able to actually perform some of the Brujeria through sorcery. Angel has also humbled himself with this ability, because he knows if he isn’t careful that it could do some major damage. He had disciplined himself with learning various forms of magic from brujeria to voodoo to wicca to chaos to love and madness magics. He has been able to alter reality, create illusion, create voodoo dolls, summon things, scry, and even control people’s motor skills. He mostly uses this power when he absolutely has too, he often uses quick magic attacks, but he doesn’t dive into the more serious powers, unless it is a life or death situation going on.

COLORS: Whitish Silver (Pearl), and Gold.

APPEARANCE:

Storm’s costume is a whitish silver aka pearl colored skintight and full body body suit. There are many different designs and patterns in it, that would be cold colored. The arrows on his forearms would be made of 3D gold. He doesn’t wear a mask or anything that hides his face, because he isn’t ashamed of being a hero or his mutant genes. He has gray and gold gloves, that flow with the color scheme of the body suit, while the gold helps him emit the EM and electricity in his body to come out more. He has gold bracelets around each wrist that connect to his cape, with makes a W shape. The middle of the W being his neck where the cape hooks onto his costume.

Costume 2 - When he is feeling more in tune with his magic side.

WEAKNESSES:

Earth Link: With his empathetic link to the eco system he feels often what the eco system is feeling, somethings he could be classified as ‘bipolar’ because his mood swings with the environment around him and if there is even a single plant dying it would render Angel sick.

MENTOR / PROTEGE: TBA.

LENGTH OF ADVOCATE MEMBERSHIP: About Three Years.

SUPERVILLAIN ARCHNEMESIS: TBA.

#advocatetask #Task 001 #Storm's Task #Storm's Task 001

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