#how to be a proper advocate

[milo-by-the-fishtank]

People aren’t saying that cis or perisex folks cannot talk or advocate for transgender or intersex folks. What people are saying is that cis or perisex folks should not be determining what type of experiences an entire group of transgender or intersex people go through. There is a difference between education, uplifting, and advocating for a group and speaking over an entire group of people by determining what a group of people experiences, again a group of people that you are not part of. Also, if you’re listening to part of a group that does not mean you’re listening to the whole. You have to talk to the specific group of people you were talking about to be able to advocate for them and to learn about their lived experiences!

[luckyashes-art]

To show my love for my favorite little dude I am going to put her through the wringer. With love of course. Hehe another long one sorry not sorry :).

So for the angst ask a while ago, leopard seals aren’t mean per se, they just do what they have to to survive. I will describe at the very end how they hunt penguins bc it’s preeeeety brutal tbh. Not out of cruelty but I’ll get there.

After she was born I imagine Haruka’s parents did a lot of research into leopard seals once they figured out that’s part of what she was. And they do get a pretty bad rep. They probably didn’t know what to think. They didn’t have the luxury of knowing literally anything about how she was going to act as she got older and I don’t figure there was a lot of information about raising selkies just floating about on the internet. So they probably took some…precautions, because as horrible as it is to think, their daughter was part vicious carnivore. Who’s to say she wouldn’t turn on them? So they bought things like restraints, a muzzle, anything they could think of that would avoid harming her while keeping themselves from getting hurt too.

And how she acts in canon as a child prob didn’t help their beliefs. Girlie just did not smile as a kid until that one day in the mall. But she wasn’t violent, she was just a little kid who couldn’t really express emotions, so those items never had to be used. So they were shoved in a box and packed away into the attic never to see the light of day.

Until one day Haruka is looking for something up there and stumbles upon a dusty box that clearly hasn’t been touched in years and decides to take a peek. She’s rightfully surprised. Restraints of all kinds are shoved into the box. The first thought is ewww oh my god I did NOT need to see this mom and dad, but upon closer inspection the stuff in the box is small, concerningly so. And is that a muzzle?

And then it clicks.

Even her parents, her first and biggest supporters in the world, were afraid of her. Maybe not now, but they were at one point. They were scared enough that they were fully prepared for the possibility that they would have to physically restrain and muzzle their own child, their own baby, to keep themselves safe. How far would they be willing to go to do so?

Another side note I’d like to think that while initially stated as a gag, Haruka feels incredibly torn about her feelings about penguins. “Do I like them because it’s a part of my personality, or do I like them because of my genetics, and the desire to rip and tear and eat them?” How much of her is actually her and how much is the animal?

Aaaaanyways leopard seals will hunt penguins by waiting just under the ice floats that the penguins chill on and snatch them as they enter the water. The seals will then surface with the penguins in their mouths and throw their heads back and forth, slapping the penguins against the surface of the water over and over until essentially the skin is separated from the yummy bits that they eat. So like… it’s brutal, but it’s not done out of cruelty. Just like any other predator, they kill their prey to survive

Whew that was a long one. Thanks for your time :) -bed

[amongie]

i love making a post venting my frustrations with the isolation and abuse homeschooling facilitated for me just for, 8 notes in, someone to write a long essay being like "well ackshually"

bitch i was abused horrifically. i was alone and isolated. dont come at me with "homeschool kids DO get socialization" no i am literally a walking example that most of us dont. i dont care what good, progressive and homeschool parent youve met that did the bare minimum, do you know how many children have been abused to death with no one in their life to help them because they were isolated and homeschooled?

[cherriko-art]

Today's random thought:

It's always so disheartening to see when different sectors of art/creators don't align.

Morals and advocacies are bound to clash bc none of us are perfect and we're all different, but it still hurts to witness. Seeing actors promote generative AI, or seeing artists pirate novels online, or crafters stealing artwork and designs, etc.

I feel that any sort of creative, no matter what area you create in, has faced the unjust reality of other people taking/stealing/profiting/undermining your work. Art has always been kicked around at the bottom of the bucket bc people believe they have the right to our work, that it's "just art". We've experienced this so often.

That's why I think it hurts even more when I see other creatives do the same to other creatives. Like an art-on-art crime.

[cupiare]

walking into work tomorrow for the staff training day after i got rejected for the job i was near guaranteed to get and didn’t find out the news from my boss who i was with the whole morning in TUTOR PLANNING DAY FOR NEXT YR FOR TUTORIALS THAT TUTORS WOULD BE DOING THAT I WAS BOOKED INTO WITH THE TUTORS THE ROLE I APPLIED FOR AND HAD A VERY GOOD INTERVIEW FOR i found out from a noreply auto generated email from hr that was sent out as soon as i stepped out of the meeting room :) and then got invited back to the meeting for the rest of the day where my manager repeatedly talked about taking my good ideas from my interview and implementing them into tutorials next yr. after i got rejected via generated email. How we doing guys 😆

[coldflasher]

currently experiencing The Horrors (thinking abt the fact that i have to start going into the office again from tomorrow)

this will either fix me entirely or cause me to descend so deeply into my burnout sinkhole that i will never be seen or heard from again

[solar-sunnyside-up]

I was chatting with a friend who has hearing aids about heard aid jewlery and they said "Omg that be so cool!" Would be?? Oh my friend,,, the rabbit holes I've gone down for the sake of writing!! I gotta find a proper diy guide but here- For those of you who might not have seen this wicked designs!!

Have them look like earings with dangling charms that fit your outfit!

Althought I personally like the ones that highlight the aid! Letting them be accessories and making ppl look at them and acknowledge them is very Startrek to me (which I love)

And who doesn't love elf ears???!!

Hope this inspires you. I am hunting down a diy tutorial on how to make it but given how expensive aids are I wouldn't feel comfy advocating for it quite yet until further research. Until then tho, start brainstorming and sketching ideas at least!

[blergityblargh]

"Harm reduction" as a concept comes out of the field of drug addiction. It was a response to decades of the "war on drugs" locking people up, screwing up their lives, and not doing anything to reduce addiction. It's an appeal to dramatically rethink the problem, to bring a proper scientific understanding to it, and shift the method of dealing with drugs entirely from the criminal justice system to the healthcare system. It's looking at what had been done for decades, saying "well that's not working" and changing tracks entirely.

Do you see how it's not analogous to voting Democrat? How it doesn't just mean "pick the least bad option in a shitty system"? How instead it means "the system isn't working, so let's change it"?

Like if the current political understanding of "harm reduction" were applied back to drug addiction, people wouldn't be advocating for it to be treated as a health problem instead of a criminal problem, they'd be advocating for drug offenses to get $100,000 fines instead of prison sentences. Because that's on the surface a less bad option within a bad system, but that still fucks up people's lives anyways and in a lot of cases will probably mean that someone just ends up in jail for some other reason.

What a real application of harm reduction logic to politics would mean is acknowledging that the American political system doesn't work, thinking about what would actually improve people's lives, and organizing to do that instead.

[the-blessed-heretic]

To all Christians (especially Catholics) who are anti-abortion, I beg of you to step away from this extremely narrow viewpoint and look at the bigger picture. What you thought that you were doing for the greater good in God's name, you are only further enabling more suffering, not lessen it, and giving the reigns to corrupt politicians in government who wants complete control over pregnant people's bodily autonomy.

Not for the sake of the unborn, but to prey upon their voter base's ignorance as a stepping stone to gain more political power, including YOU. That is literally what all this boils down to. It has never been about saving babies, much less give a damn about their livelihood.

Do not coax or force someone to carry their pregnancy to term to the extent that you'd be willing to turn a blind eye on dire situations such as (but not limited to):

a child/teen who got pregnant from rape

being mentally and physically unfit to endure the pregnancy and its dangerous side effects

a partner who impregnated them as a means to trap them in an abusive relationship, etc.

There are individuals who actually want to have a baby but need abortion to stay legal so it can be utilized as a safety net for cases such as miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, fetal deformity, or other conditions indicating that it will not survive outside the womb. When given the safe medical procedure, the individual may have a chance to try again if they want to.

Of course, there are many complicated issues surrounding this topic that goes far deeper than whatever flimsy out-of-context verses from Scripture being fed to you by the clergy who likely did not bother to research properly or reach out in good faith to people who had abortions.

For all of our future's sake, I say we should worry less about God's judgement and focus more on helping our neighbors who are being negatively affected in this post Roe v. Wade era.

It is not the unborn that needed your prayers, but the lives of living, breathing humans being the ones in danger because of some downright cruel decisions made into law. To become their enemy rather than their ally during this time of fear and uncertainty, is to announce to the whole world that you have no compassion in your heart.

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

This may be a silly question… but I’m an artist trying to learn backgrounds. I’ve studied perspective until my hands fell off, but I don’t know how to choose an angle or not make things look wonky. I’ve tried asking a lot of artists, but I’m hoping to hear more than “just draw backgrounds”, because I have been, but I’m not improving.

Do you have any tips on how to practice?

The anonymous ask is much more recent but it reminded me of another ask from @cerealssoggies i forgot to answer thats, OOF... gotten old. Sorry about that. I'll answer your ask more directly at the end of this.

I'll talk about the perspective ask first. Anon... I'll answer your question as best as I can!

I think what makes perspective tricky is the beginning, when you're using perspective lines and grids and such to map out the picture. Because the actual technique of 2 point perspective isn't hard or complicated, it's getting the scene to look the way it does in your head thats tricky. I'm talking about the metaphorical "camera" location, angle, and... idk, focal length? If I'm using that phrase correctly.

So you can draw something like a simple square bedroom, and by the time you're done placing your horizon line, vanishing point, and perspective lines, and actually start drawing, you realize it doesn't look like how it does in your head. And from there, it's hard or nearly impossible to move things around to look like your vision, so you'll be tweaking each thing individually: uhh, let's move the horizon line down, the left vanishing point further? The right one closer? Both further? Huh??? And it's frustrating.

I've found, if you're drawing an environment from your imagination, the best way to start is to draw an teeeeny tiny thumbnail sketch. The smaller the better. Not just environments, but any drawing idea is easier to map out when it's smaller. Your brain can latch onto the visual as a whole when it's all tiny on a piece of paper.

Drawing my current blog header, the one of ford's research tent, I had a similar pickle. I knew exactly where I wanted the camera to be, in the corner of the tent, and I knew I wanted the camera to be more wide, so you could see most of his tent while keeping the feeling that it's small. I started digitally with perspective lines and quickly got frustrated. SO - I took to my sketchbook and thought reeeeeally hard about what it looked like in my head, and tried mapping it out in a tiny tiny thumbnail. Here's what that looked like:

This was closer to what I wanted than what I first had on my computer. I knew from there that I wanted the furniture items to be closer together and the camera higher (you can see my scribble writing saying this), so I scanned my thumbnail, and drew on top of it to get closer to the vision. Then, from there, I was able to add a proper perspective grid based on what I had already drawn.

THEN you can finally get down to the fun part - actually populating your room with furniture and details. I put this sketch on paper and did most of the real drawing traditionally:

In summary: instead of jumping straight into perspective theory, thumbnail the idea as rough as you can. Then base the angles of the perspective lines on your thumbnail.

But.... even still, I don't have the strongest ability to picture things mentally, and not everyone is gonna be able to do that (although it is a good muscle to exercise.) Sort of a segue into the second ask - those backgrounds of dibs car? I straight up traced over pictures I took of my car. I'm not the biggest advocate for tracing, it does kind of feel like cheating, BUT for the purposes of this animation? There's no point in getting on a high horse. I needed to draw his car like 10 times and there was no reason to torture myself. I did photoshop some of the photos before I drew over them because the focal length made the car look bigger than I wanted it to? And a lot of it was guessing what the car looked like behind the front seats, etc.

But this does remind me of an exercise I did in school for an illustration mentorship class. The mentor for one unit was a set designer working for Netflix. She was given photos of a room that a scene would be shot in, and she drew the set on top of it: like furniture, decorations, etc. So my assignment was to choose a stock photo, and do some world building concept art based on the photo. From the photo, you can figure out the perspective by identifying lines/angles that theoretically lead to a vanishing point. You need at least two lines, and you extend them really far and see where they cross. Where they meet is a vanishing point. Find two vanishing points and they are level with the horizon line. Then use the perspective dots you just found to draw furniture, items, and you can even get creative and change the shape/height/size of the rooms/buildings/etc, while still using the same perspective.

If an image from the internet feels too much like cheating (it SHOULDN'T, you'll only learn from it and your drawing won't look anything like the image by the time you're done), you can always take your own photos. This technique is honestly what made me enjoy drawing backgrounds in the first place. It made it fun! And drawing should be fun.

I still do this sort of thing today. Here's the reference picture I had my sister take of me for my Fairy godmother illustration. (This is from a couple years ago.) I drew on top of it in photoshop to get my best guess as to the lines and angles. I didn't trace this one, but I did use it very heavily for reference!

So I guess... to summarize both techniques, don't jump right into perspective. Best way to start, that's fun and not wildly frustrating, is to use a photo. If your vision is hyper specific, start from a tiny thumbnail and work your way up. Then the fun part!! Populating the scene with furniture and items and fun little details.

To answer @cerealssoggies question more directly: omg, thank you?? :O💞 I'm always so wowed when people talk about my prints and where they put them. I'm really glad you like the fairy godmother one! My mom also has one hung up in her room lol!

My advice on the design front isn't as specific, because that always felt like the easy part. Once you have the room or whatever mapped out, it's just about drawing all the Stuff. Which for me usually means getting in the head of the character and asking myself what sort of things they'd have around themselves and their environment. And obviously if the setting isn't a characters room/personal environment like the previous three examples, then you'd just have to think about what the environments purpose is, and what sort of stuff would be there. When I'm thinking about a background before I draw it, I'll ask myself what items or features it will have. For the ford tent, I made a list of all the stuff I thought he might have in there (I googled winter camping trip packing lists, as well as science-y tools and gadgets). For dibs car, I asked people on tumblr for suggestions as to what I should put in there.

And look up references! Reference is always a good thing.

In real life, I'm a maximalist and a clutterbug. This bleeds into my drawings - I like it when an environment feels full and lived in.

Here's my bedroom lol.

WELL typing and compiling this took up a greater portion of my Friday but I really hope this was helpful to you and others!!

[sirfrogsworth]

I believe in a leftist philosophy, but I am finding it hard to join in with some online lefty communities. The purity tests and infighting just do not interest me. There are people who think if you slightly deviate from the proper leftist ideal you are then a "bad" person so then it is okay to harass a "bad" person.

Of course you can call someone horrible names and say they should die. They are a bad person and all bad people deserve that. Right?

Some seem more interested in calling out bad leftists than actual right wing fascists. If I hear "AOC is turning into Nancy Pelosi" one more time my eyes are going to roll out of my head.

And I think this entire voting thing has crystalized how I feel about this. I'm frustrated with how many people seem to be allergic to long term strategy and realistic goals. They value performative actions that yield no tangible benefit rather than long term problem solving, strategic thinking, pragmatic action, and building power over time.

The right to vote is precious but the act of voting is not.

It is not an endorsement.

It is a tool.

I'm using that tool and choosing who I'd rather argue with.

I'm voting for myself as a disabled person and a friend of trans people and as someone who doesn't want to protest migrant concentration camps in addition to the genocide in Gaza. I'm making a strategic decision that I hope will help achieve a better outcome for myself and other marginalized groups.

And on a more personal level, I had to watch my mother die a horrible, painful, lonely death because of an incompetent president. I don't think I can handle the trauma of continuing to see that horrible man in the news every single day. My motivations are multifaceted.

Spending time arguing with other leftists is a really poor use of energy. I'm not up to it and I'm going to spend what energy I have advocating for the best ideas that will help the most people.

[espressotonicc]

i have so much love for evan buckley in my heart that i don't know what to do with it.

he would argue with a police sergeant advocating for a newborn baby and he would want to see it through to know that baby is ok. he would save people in a tsunami while being injured and on blood thinners. he would search for his friend's kid for hours. he would risk his life to save a fiancé of his exgirlfriend who ghosted him without the explanation. he would fight heaven and hell and athena grant to find his sister. he would fly to another state to support his girlfriend. he would help a fellow retired firefighter to reconnect with the love of his life and then give him a proper send off. he would come up with the plan to help eddie get chris the help he needs. he would spend hours searching for his girlfriend’s missing mother. he would want to give some dignity in death to the guy that used him to catfish women. he would quit SEALS because not feeling emotions is alien and foreign and repugnant to him. he would be your sperm donor even if it hurts him. he would drink disgusting smoothies and edge himself to give you the best chance. he would trap himself in a fire maze to save the last plant worker. he would risk his life climbing the ladder with the sniper on the loose because he loves his family and couldnt bear the thought of them getting hurt.

he is a quick thinker: he would hose down the robbers, use smoke machine to calm the bees or spray his best friend with perfume.

he would draw a pink/yellow heart with the smile, he would call the toy cow moo-moo. he would say things like “im confused can you start over ”, “we beat the bees” “did i pass” “bad juju”. also one time he got math superpowers. he would google steps to the confession and make the most awkward cross. he would sit on the floor in the middle of the station playing with the dog. he would cry while watching soldiers reunite with their kids.

he would get exited about the world, he knows about meteors and bees and maggots and worms and he is so genuinely happy to see them that his smile could power up entire planet. he knows the origin of chocolate and how glass is made.

he would always apologize and give you a second and third chance because his love is genuine and earnest. he would put the blame on himself and he is scared that he is the reason for his friend's problems. he would still love you and care about you even after you dump him or ghost him or neglect him his whole childhood.

he would say no to a date with a hot woman because he wants to be better. he makes “upgrades”, he learns and grows.

he would give himself boils because he would be stressed that he offended the mummy of the cowboy. he would give said cowboy eulogy dressed in a suit because people are what make life worth living. he would be in his posse because he feels empathy for him and doesn’t want him to be alone even in the afterlife. he would want to move out because his failed date lives next door. he would say things like "so im gross" and "my boyfriend wouldn’t even kiss me". he would go overboard with babyproofing the house.

he would cause flour shortages in la because the enormity of the way he feels is infinite.

he would steal a fire truck to hook up with the girl and have sex with his ex on bare mattress. the thought of abstinence for one year is alien to him. he loves sex, he enjoys sex, and is not shy about it. he has a ring cutter and calls his boyfriend a beast and he is bisexual.

his heart bleeds in a million different ways but he still loves and hopes and cares, he doesn’t hold grudges or makes it harden him.

he loves taking care of people, he would make his sister the only thing he knows how to cook. he would let his coworkers live with him in a 1x1 apartment. he would give his girlfriend gps bracelet because he wants her to be safe. he would move in with you to take care of you while you grieve your mother. he would give you big ass bouquet and a balloon ride. he would give up his loft and sublease your house.

he would do the maneuver, rappel down the buildings, and descend down the rope while stuff explodes behind him. he would jump down of the elevator with a civilian in his hands or shut down the freeway with only two flares. he would pull you under the truck with the sniper firing shots.

he would wear pink cardigans, blue sweaters, velvet and red and orange and cyan and turquoise and green.

he would cook lasagna and chilli and do baked alaska and loafs the same way he loves, putting all of his feeling into it.

he sometimes acts like an anoying little brother but he gives the best advice to those who need it.

he wants to be at ease, know the secret to happiness and find the kind of love that thomas/mitchel had.

he wants to be something and he would spend years on the road trying to find himself and try every job while doing it.

he is also 6’2, 200lb beefy man.

[humans-are-seriously-weird]

Hey all things have been wild and i havent been on a lot

I wanted to make this post to raise some awareness for the chronic illness Ive recently been diagnosed with, in the hopes that someone suffering something similar feels less alone.

Around Christmas i started getting very very sick. I would throw up 5-6hrs of the day, and it kept me from eating or sleeping at all. For four months straight i cycled between ER rooms and hospital admissions. Ive lost over 100lbs since Christmas due to a complete inability to keep any food or water down. After dozens of tests, I finally have been diagnosed with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.

Its a brutal disease. Essentially it’s a stress induced illness where the autonomic nervous system that controls the stomach becomes out of sync. When my body becomes too stressed, I start getting sick. And when I am out of the stress, my stomach and abdomen dont get the memo that we are okay now. It continues to have its own mini anxiety attack, contracting and twisting and forcing me to throw up everything I have inside, and keeps going after with dry heaving. This is called an abdominal migraine, and let me tell you, it is so much worse than it sounds. Once you are in an episode, it is difficult to get out of. Once the body is stressed, the sickness stresses it more, which makes me sicker. It is a vicious cycle.

I lost my job to this disease because I missed two full months. I collapsed at work and had to be rushed to the hospital. The worst part of this disease is that it is so uncommon most hospitals dont know how to treat it. Ive been labeled a drug seeker at every hospital within 10km of my home because of how frequently I had to go to the ER, severely dehydrated and in such pain I could barely stand. I started refusing strong pain meds in favour of antispasmodics instead. ER docs and nurses blamed cannabis and told me that was my sole issue. It wasnt, though it does exacerbate the illness. Ive since stopped smoking, even though it brought me some relief, just to be taken seriously.

I am one of the lucky ones who got diagnosed quickly. Most people take years to get a diagnosis, and I got mine within 4months, though it is only because of how severe my illness was.

I am finally getting proper treatment that gives me some quality of life. I have a new job that is very understanding of how many days Ive had to take off due to flare ups and episodes. Im doing well now, but for awhile, i truly thought this disease was going to take my life. I wrote a will. I picked out a grave plot.

This isnt a sympathy post. CVS is often misdiagnosed as chronic appendicitis or GERD. The odds of someone following me who also has this disease is high, and I want to make sure they dont feel as alone and unheard in this as I have.

There is no cure for CVS, you can only try to manage it and lengthen the time between episodes. The hardest part is everyone constantly saying “but youve been doing so well”. I may be doing well now, but tomorrow is not guaranteed, the next hour is not guaranteed. My episodes come quickly and with little warning, and triggers can only be found through trial and error. I still miss a lot of work, I still wake up in the night dry heaving. If i miss a single dose of medication, i relapse. It is a brutal road, and I have been fortunate that I have a supportive partner and friends who have walked it with me.

If this sounds like you, you are not alone. Find a doctor who will listen to you, and trust your instincts. Advocate for yourself, and accept nothing less. Once, when an ER refused to see me, despite the fact that I passed out on the threshold, I started just screaming. I absolutely screamed my head off as if i had been shot. That got their attention, and they said they would treat me just to shut me up. Make a scene. It sucks that that is what I had to resort to, but they finally agreed to do an ultrasound and CT scan. It started me on the path of getting a proper diagnosis. Advocate for yourself loudly and without reserve. And if you cant, find someone who can on your behalf. When i was flitting in and out of consciousness, my partner advocated for me, and refused to let them discharge me until they got the vomiting under control, even just for a day. Be loud, be annoying, do whatever it takes.

You are not alone.

[annabelle--cane]

so um. I think I accidentally figured out who my hater anon is. saw a post by happenstance that pinged my "hang on this sounds familiar" alarm, searched a keyword on their blog, and found a couple of posts with almost exactly the same wording and overall syntax as the anons I've gotten, made on the same days I received them. not sure what to do about this one, I don't think that would be enough evidence for a proper harassment report even if staff weren't running on a skeleton crew, and I am not too keen on the ethics of publicizing their url, but. uhhh. I might? if they don't back off?

so, as a final peace offering, an open letter to my weird hater anon:

from what I can tell, your problem is not actually with me, it is with how tma is written, and I just happen to like and frequently talk about the parts you hate the most. we have a fundamental disagreement about a work of art that we're both invested in, but That's Fine, we can and should just block each other. heck, I think I've had your main blocked for like two years maybe, and hey presto you stopped passively annoying me with your posts until you started regularly directly harassing me in my inbox and serially block evading.

you seem to be motivated, at least in part, by a desire for people to treat addicts with more sympathy. that's great! love that for you. I also wish people would treat addicts with more sympathy, this is a matter on which we can both agree. the problem is, you are directing all of that desire for sympathy towards a fictional character who does not exist and cannot ever feel pain or suffering while continually insulting and belittling me, a real life human addict who can feel pain and suffering, whenever I talk about the themes of addiction I enjoy and relate to as they are presented in that fictional character. you clearly receive my analysis of this piece of fiction as demonizing of addiction and condoning violence against addicts, and I as the person who is me shrimply know that is not what I have ever said nor thought, because, and I really cannot stress this enough, I am an addict, and have been since I was fourteen of god's own years old. I do not believe that I, or anyone like me, should be "put down like a dog" for having disordered patterns of substance use, and I find it frankly offensive that you would repeatedly accuse me of advocating for that both in my inbox and in a series of vagues on your main.

I am usually much more didactic and direct in anything I say about real life human non-allegorical substance addiction, but, to be as fair as is possible, you might have missed most of what I've posted on that topic in the recent past, as I talk about it considerably less than I did 2-3 years ago. this is because when I talk directly about it without the oven mitts of metaphor, people are usually very quick to inform me that they think I'm not human and should be put down like a dog. believe it or not, I don't really enjoy this. even when it's coming from easily blockable faceless anons, there was really only so much of that I was willing to voluntarily subject myself to before deciding to be a bit more judicious about when and where I talk about addiction in public online spaces.

I tell you the above for two reasons.

1. to let you know that I'm intimately familiar with the kind of dehumanization you keep accusing me of and appear to believe that only you can truly understand. for realsies, I am sorry that anyone has ever made you feel like that, that feeling is the kind of awful and insidious that's hard to ever fully shake, and I'm doubly sorry that you feel like no one else gets it and the world is uncompassionate to your experience. I profoundly get it, if I went into any of my offline history with addiction in my mid teens then this would become unpostably upsetting, and I know that kind of thing makes one liable to be prickly and lash out.

2. to explain as clearly as I can that your harassment does not come in isolation, and why I take such an issue with it. I can't make bland-ass PSAs about treating substance users like human beings without people coming into my inbox with stories of abuse and explanations of why this makes it okay for them to hope all addicts die alone and in pain, I can't make casual personal posts about addiction without people coming into my inbox with graphic accounts of loved ones' overdoses and demands to know why I'm encouraging substance abuse, and now, because of you, I can't even talk about. fucking. jon podcastman's metaphorical addiction-like character arc about peeping the horrors and feeling like the torture sphere had a sort of "je ne sais quoi" without risk. it is very hard to exist as an addict on tumblr dot edu, and you are singlehandedly making my one relatively low-stakes outlet for talking about it like 5x more inhospitable. you are one arm of the great machine making this site hostile to me and people like me.

so, like, maybe you still hate my fiction podcast analysis posts and the ideology you read them as conveying, that's your right, so block me, add my url to your content filtering, and move on. you cannot be honest with me and tell me again that you think I believe addicts should be summarily executed because of, and I say once more, my fiction podcast analysis posts, but the great news is that there is no malevolent entity out there forcing you to tell me that over and over again. you can just hit da bricks and Stop.

after many attempts at blocking you that you have repeatedly bypassed, I am explicitly laying down the final boundary that I do not want you ever interacting with me again.

you are thirty-two of god's own years old. give it a rest.

[globalnewscollective]

No One Is Safe: How ICE’s Latest Arrest Proves Anyone Can Be Taken at Any Time

Imagine stepping outside your home one morning, only to be surrounded by federal agents, handcuffed, and taken away—without warning, without due process, and with no guarantee of release. This nightmare is no longer hypothetical. It’s reality in America today.

The Case of Mahmoud Khalil Mahmoud Khalil, a respected scholar and U.S. resident for years, was abruptly arrested by ICE while leaving his home in New York. His crime? None. Despite having no criminal record, he was detained under vague immigration enforcement policies. (Source: The Guardian)

The Broader Threat: You Could Be Next This isn’t just about Khalil. His arrest signals a chilling shift in policy—one where anyone, regardless of status, can be taken at any time.

Expanded Surveillance & Targeting – Immigration enforcement has broadened beyond undocumented individuals. Now, lawful residents, visa holders, and even naturalized citizens are under heightened scrutiny.

Lack of Due Process – People are being detained indefinitely without clear charges or access to proper legal representation.

Fear as a Weapon – The goal is to instill fear, ensuring that immigrants, activists, and even critics of the government remain silent.

How This Affects You

No One Is Safe – If you think this only applies to immigrants, think again. The precedent being set now means that if the government deems you “undesirable” for any reason, you could be next.

Chilling Effect on Free Speech – Speaking out against policies, criticizing the government, or simply being an advocate for human rights could put you on a watchlist.

Families Torn Apart – Parents are taken from children, students from their universities, workers from their jobs—without warning and often with no recourse.

Mass Detentions Normalized – What starts with immigrants can easily extend to other groups deemed a threat to those in power. If secretive detentions become the norm, America is on a dangerous path.

The Bigger Picture This is not just an immigration issue—it’s a human rights issue. The normalization of arbitrary arrests paves the way for a system where anyone can be detained for the “wrong” beliefs, associations, or simply existing in the wrong place at the wrong time. The erosion of legal protections today threatens everyone’s freedoms tomorrow.

What Can You Do?

Stay Informed – Learn about cases like Khalil’s and share them widely.

Know Your Rights – Understand what to do if you or someone you know is confronted by ICE or other federal agents.

Support Legal Defense Funds – Organizations fighting against unlawful detentions need resources to challenge these abuses in court.

Speak Out – Fear thrives in silence. The more people push back, the harder it is for these policies to go unchallenged.

The case of Mahmoud Khalil is a warning. If we don’t take a stand now, we may soon live in a country where no one is truly safe.

[satorurize]

Part of the Lover!jjk series.

A/N: So Sukuna won the poll, this is my first time writing for him. I hope I did him justice lol

Part 1.

Ryomen Sukuna was a firm advocate that love was a dangerous fantasy for mortals, and such fantasies were cathartic when there is a lot to be afraid of, however, the king of curses didn't have anything to be afraid of.

Loverboy!Sukuna who thought at first that love was nothing but a myth for someone like him, since the core of his existence stemmed from bane, from malevolence.

Loverboy!Sukuna who thought you were a measly, mortal fool when you tried to convince him love did indeed exist. But wait..why was he thinking of how gentle you sounded while you were spewing bullshit about something that doesn't exist?

Loverboy!Sukuna who started looking forward to your exchange of anecdotes with him, he felt comfort in the fact that someone was willing to listen to his story, not out of fear as other people in his life, but out of genuine curiosity besides Uraume.

Loverboy!Sukuna who starts directing his attention to delicate varieties of flowers that he'd usually take pleasure in crushing and turning into ashes. His thoughts wander upon how those same flowers would look tucked behind your ear or in your hair.

Loverboy!Sukuna who asks Uraume to bring him any small, dainty kind of flowers with a subtle, thoughtful smile on his lips and an uncharacteristic, benign look in his eyes. Uraume’s eyes nearly fall out of their sockets at how soft their lord is acting. Was it really him?

Loverboy!Sukuna who takes you by surprise when he tucks a strand of your hair behind your ears and tucks the flower behind your ear. “What was that for, king?” You asked with a slightly bewildered smile on your face to which he could only muster up a nonchalant reply “Do you need to ask questions for everything I do, mortal? (how would the king of curses admit he's feeling his heart race, that's weak.)

Loverboy!Sukuna who obviously doesn't do things conventionally and takes you on a proper date at a restaurant by scaring everyone else away so it's just the two of you and the (very terrified) staff—privacy is important between lovers after all, he lived by that virtue.

Loverboy!Sukuna who has a scowl on his face and he spits out a “what.” When you ask him if you could tie pink ribbons onto his enormous 4 arms—but then gives into your ridiculous request anyway.

Loverboy!Sukuna who thinks of all the ways he'll punish you in bed after you teased him for having witnessed the helix of his ears turn pink, seeing someone like him adorned in pink ribbons.

Loverboy!Sukuna who miserably fails at punishing you, or fuck you rough when he notices how glassy your eyes are when one of his two cocks is not even halfway inside your poor, battered cunt.

Loverboy!Sukuna who talks you through it, having you in missionary when heian era he was used to fucking his concubines from the back. Even your face was cupped in his palms, so tenderly. “You can take it woman, easy..breathe for me.”

Loverboy!Sukuna who for the first time makes note of what feels good to his partner and what doesn't, taking it very seriously.

Loverboy!Sukuna promises himself that in this lifetime, where he took on the kinder path, he'd make you his wife, the only one and not a concubine.

Loverboy!Sukuna who feels the monster in him fall silent the moment he rests his head onto your lap.