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How I feel like everytime when I post some art

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The Onion continues to never miss

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And through goes slaw dog~

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pioneering something called "gritted teeth optimism" where everything is gonna turn out okay even if i have to bite and claw and gnash my way through it

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The bean jar

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I was having a conversation with a young person about basically this, and I realized that a lot of young people (I spend a good chunk of my time around the youths) don't see adults modeling an emotionally mature version of complaining. Which is WILD. Because I LOVE to grumble about shit, and I think knowing how to grumble and grouse is useful.

This young person described feeling like the person they were in conflict with was a "bad person" and they used a lot of these lables, like gaslighting and triggering and narcissism, suggested that this person was going to traumatize others. And the complaints went on, but I was struck with this realization that this was a kid who didn't have a blueprint for saying things like "I just don't vibe with this person at all, and the things they say and do are offensive to my sensibilities."

I don't see adults modeling this for kids (or each other, we're social learners and we can learn until we die) very often, and that's a shame because, in the absence of ways to express that we don't want to be around somebody for morally neutral reasons, we're stuck moralizing otherwise harmless stuff until we can manufacture a reason that somebody is a "bad person" so we can justify our feelings.

Somebody needs to be problematic before we're allowed to have a problem with them, and that sucks. I want to be allowed to not vibe with somebody just for the hell of it! Not be a dick about it or confront them or whatever, but just have the permission to go "nah, not for me."

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Yeah... but me, a science-boy, trying to write about something like "business" ... ... ... (Like, what is "business"? I genuinely do not know what happens in "business," but I assume it's a bunch of guys in suits. jerking it to graphs and jargon like "synergy" and "pivot"?)

I would sound like

"Hey, how's the quarterly report going? Did you make this graph? How much money did we synergyze? Mmmmh, yeah, look at that line and how it pivots up.... Mmmh. That's a good line, and it represents our... money." "Yeah, here's the employee experience with its AI-driven solutions that make the line do some real good things."

It’s so funny seeing non-science people write scientist characters. specifically when arcane fans write Jayce and Viktor and they’re in the lab just talking about “solving equations.” exquisite.

yo who up solving they equation

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this is an incredible map

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This is too much money. Like. The rich be Scrooge McDucking around with us.

If I had this kind of money, I'd be SO quiet about it.

?????? rich people are losing it

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Skeleton King engages in questionably ethical kink

Funny how depending on who's saying it and where, the words "dark fantasy" could mean that the work contains a hardcore questionably ethical kink scenario, or it could mean that at some point there might be some kind of a Skeleton King.

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I don't see people talking about this so today is the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in where the factory owners locked working women and girls inside to "eliminate the risk of theft" (in reality it was too keep them from taking breaks), which resulted in the gruesome deaths of 123 mostly immigrant women and girls and 23 men, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor either in a panicked attempt to escape or in order to die quickly. There were reports that some of the workers were on fire already as they jumped.

The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.

The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.

This tragedy is a reminder that has been forgotten in the 110 years since: every safety regulation-- every scrap of paperwork contributing to the hundreds of pages of red tape people like to complain about--every word of it was written in the blood of a laborer.

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Y'know when you're doing a quick painting study and get all swept up in the moment 😅 I didn't know this would turn out so hyper-realistic, I'm suddenly nervous about AI accusations for the first time in my art journey (fuck AI, to be clear)

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This is a post I did not want to make.

I still don’t want to make it. I have been sitting on it for days, endlessly tweaking the draft as I procrastinate pulling the trigger. I had really hoped that attempts to be reasonable and respectful would have ended with a better outcome, but that hasn't been the case

Some may recall my post in October regarding a protracted incident of bullying targeting a friend of mine that was perpetuated by a fellow fan. The short version: a well known creator in the AtLA fandom with a focus on Zukka/Zukki developed a one-sided beef with a friend of mine, and decided the appropriate way to address their grievance was to create an awful OC caricature in effigy to put into a massive long fic for the purpose of inviting their audience to point and laugh. It took them months to craft that fic, hyping it up to their followers throughout the writing process, calling it their ‘magnum opus,’ and then once they had completed the work and posted it to Ao3, that  audience unwittingly became a party in the bullying of my friend as the author encouraged negative comments and mockery directed at the character. In the comments section of the fic, any time anyone would express sympathy for or any positive feelings toward the OC, the author was quick to slap it down, to assure their readers that every instance of hate was deserved, that no empathy should be offered, and took delight in informing their audience it was “based on a real person they knew.”

They also violated the trust and community sense of safety and friendship by having a friend go into the Zukka Nation Discord server to mine for conversations that were had in earnest good faith for anything they could snip, remove from any context, and reword/reframe for this OC-- and by extension my friend-- to appear ignorant, backward, stupid and racist. They also took anecdotes about their target's family, including traumatic instances shared in the community Discord, and gave them the same treatment, thereby extending their attacks to people who were not even in the fandom.

The author of the fic containing the offensive OC is Ranilla_bean AKA Rana, and the fic is The Iconoclast. If you have read the fic, you probably know the exact character I'm talking about. (I will not publicly name the victim in this post, but they are welcome to come forward and reveal themselves should they feel the desire to do so).

To be entirely clear: the victim was not aware of there even being a problem. Rana made no attempt to voice their grievances either directly or through any one of several mutual friends, myself included, who would have been happy to help reconcile. The victim did not at any point interact directly with Rana or any of their fics, or make any remarks to Rana about their fics, personal life, beliefs or otherwise, or hold or express any sentiment at all, negative or positive toward Rana personally or about any of their works. Rana had already blocked their target across platforms, and left the Zukka Nation Discord server to avoid even incidental interaction long before they finished and posted the fic, but that still wasn’t enough for them. Rana decided that the only reasonable solution was public shame, pushed on with writing the fic with the offensive character included. They went so far as to recruit other Zukka fan creators to join them in group mockery in a different Discord server, including the aforementioned instances of sending their friend to raid the Zukka Nation server for screenshots of anything they could use as ammo. The plotting and premeditation went on for so long that by the time the fic containing the offensive character was published, the victim had largely moved on to a different fandom. Absolutely none of Rana’s actions were provoked, and none of it was reasonable, rational or necessary after they blocked the victim.

The public attacks were completely uncalled for, but especially at this magnitude. The grudge was entirely one-sided, with the inciting incident being that the victim was also a fanfic author with a prolific output (largely due to disability keeping them home bound, and limiting their available hobbies) and a stable fan base that provided coveted attention, and that one of the victim’s many, many fics accidentally and superficially overlapped with a negative stereotype. 

That's it. Everything else was bad faith interpretation, and post-hoc justification for Rana’s attacks.

When the bullying incident was brought to the attention of the Zukka Nation mod team, we reached out to the victim, and following their input on how they would like to have the situation resolved, it was decided that there would be no ill will or further complaints if Rana agreed to remove the offending material from the fic, + post an explanation of the edits with a brief apology in order to own accountability, prevent any further incidents of future bullying toward the current victim or anyone else, and allow Rana the opportunity to control the narrative surrounding the incident by being the one to publicly disclose it, providing them an avenue to do any preemptive damage control. The victim also wanted to do right, and ask Rana if there was something they could do to address any hurt done on their end, intentional or not. A neutral third party volunteered to act as a moderator for the conversation so that all parties could have their grievances heard, and the victim + third party reached out to talk to Rana directly in private.

During the conversation, Rana made their side exceedingly clear: they blamed other people for the actions they took. When asked if there was a specific grievance they wanted the victim to address on their end, they began shifting the explanation for their actions around like a shell game, keeping it vague and always moving. They don't think they've done anything wrong, and feel strongly that the problem lies with the people who brought the issue to the attention of the mod team, rather than the fact that they engaged in horrible behavior at the expense of the victim and their audience at all. They admitted to doing this before to other people, and stated that “no one was hurt,” because the other victims didn't find out about the bullying (to Rana’s knowledge) and it wouldn't have mattered this time either if they hadn't been snitched on. They made no acknowledgement of, or demonstrated any understanding that the action itself was outside the bounds of civil or acceptable behavior, in fandom, online, or anywhere else. 

Initially, they did appear to be extending some tokens of cooperation by privating The Iconoclast, but then they put it back up without having made any of the requested changes (they claimed that putting it back was an accident and that “[their] finger slipped,” but made no effort to re-private the fic or to make any edits when it was pointed out). When the victim requested Rana’s patience with their responses in the conversation taking longer due to failing physical and mental health, Rana grew bored of waiting and ultimately left the group conversation without any notice or agreement for resolution being reached. 

Their actions and attitude have demonstrated zero responsibility, remorse or willingness to cooperate, or give any empathy to anyone other than themselves. So. Now this post exists.

What this post is not: a call for anyone to harass Rana, or to do your own white-knighting.I can not make it anymore clear: Do Not Do That. I and the affected parties implore anyone reading this not to poke at them on this site, on ao3, or anywhere else. It is not a demand for any kind of action from the AtLA or Zukka/Zukki fandoms at all. Continue reading what you want to read, and liking what you want to like. That is not the purpose of this post.

What this post is: 1) a public record to document the inciting incident, the good-faith efforts taken by the affected parties plus third party moderators to try and resolve the incident peacefully, allowing for measured and appropriate conflict resolution, 2) documenting the refusal by Rana to engage the complaint with any seriousness or empathy, and 3) the simple statement of what Rana must do at this point in time to resolve the complaint. 

Take down or private the fic The Iconoclast, and leave it down until they have edited it to remove the caricature, especially any references to the victim’s family members.

Make a public statement acknowledging what they did, and why the changes were made to the fic.

The first request to address harm was initially made in private, as we are sensitive to both Rana's mental state, and the nature of the internet being what it is. The issue is now being made public as they have refused the honestly made attempt at resolution. This post will remain up until both the above conditions have been met. Simply put: we will not tolerate bullying in our corner if we can address it. We are not going to let this slide under the rug, and we are assuredly not going to allow this to happen to anyone else without a challenge. As in their own words Rana has admitted to engaging in this sort of public attack on others before, we are not willing to let it simply drop off the radar because they refuse to address the issue after having been caught. The world is already going to hell in a hand-basket fast enough as it is without added unprovoked hostility over something as petty as fandom wank.

I've seen the kind of good fandom can come together to do. I want to believe as a community that we are better than this.

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we’reくコ:彡 entering squid territory

 くコ:彡                                                                       くコ:彡                              くコ:彡  くコ:彡                                                        くコ:彡                           くコ:彡 くコ:彡

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Call me Papa John's, because I deliver. (But dom!Viktor impact play fics and not pizza).

If you like bruising impact and tender caresses, then Viktor's Game may be for you.