#But you want to seriously prevent abortion?

[ilylovelyz]

kenma fatherly headcannons

i thought it would be interesting to think about what kenma would be like as a father 🤔

look, im not even gonna be nice with it, i definitely dont see kenma being excited at the idea of having a kid 😭

definitely was like "are you being fr 😟?" when you told him

he obviously wasnt an asshole about it, but he couldn't help his feeling and indifference about the whole thing

the two of you had a long talk about it

the whole time he was more or less "are you sure about this"

hes not a horrible person/partner, he wasnt about to force you to do an abortion

he just wanted to make sure this was actually what you wanted to do and if you were actually serious about it

after you were stern about keeping the baby, he was fine with it

he was more worried about how he would be like as a father because he's very much scared of little kids and struggles to bond with just anyone

also a little peeved at the thought of his alone/free time being taken away

doesnt like the idea of his alone time with you having a literal permanent third wheeler but wont admit that to anyone but kuroo 🌚

during ur pregnancy, he was actually really okay with it

he would check up on you various times of the day, asking how you feel

yeah, he wasnt really excited for it, but that doesn't mean he wont try for it

would pause his games and go to wherever part of the house you were in, eyeing your baby bump with those wary cat eyes of his, all "..how are you feeling..?"

tbh i see you getting pregnant before marrying him because the two of you were kinda lazy with being careful 😅

he kinda facepalms because now hes like "why didnt i think of the possibility of pregnancy🤦🏽‍♀️"

while it doesn't speed up the whole process, he'll now begin taking the thought of marriage seriously

he'll bring up the idea of eloping, or a small wedding because he doesn't like the idea of a big and elaborate wedding ceremony/party

he didnt really care about gender, but he did care about baby names because he didnt want the baby to have a stupid name

now i see him being very curious tho

so he'll ask you a bunch of questions about how it feels to be pregnant, eyes wide when you tell him all the gruesome parts 😭

will also spend some time looking up more information about pregnancy and childbirth

now i do think he'd be aware about how he should change himself for the better

he grew up kinda isolated, and he 100% didnt want that for his kid, especially considering the fact that his child will most likely be an only child too

aw sleeping in kenma's arms while he plays video games cuz hormones made you sad

he'll like announce ur pregnancy to his followers/fans, it was so random he was like "yeah guys im having a kid 😪 kinda scary ngl" during one of his livestreams

really appreciates and is totally surprised when he's gifted money and baby supplies by his fans

maybe posts short little clips of you sleeping in an odd position or doing random things because he thinks its funny how you now do things differently because your bump prevents you from doing things in a certain way

i think it would interest him in the way your baby bump grows

he would be a little mortified at the way he would poke your bump's skin and watch his indent stay there long after he pulled his finger away

would be kinda "??? 🤔🤨" when he first feels the baby's kick/movements

he would "begrudgingly" walk to the store for you late at night if you were craving something

acts all annoyed but lets bffr kenma we know ur a softie 🤣

okay for the birth tho he's so mortified

definitely doesnt want to watch but obviously will be there for you because he knows better

the whole time he feels secondhand discomfort for you and feels your cries in his deep in his core cuz ur in pain and he doesn't like that 😕

this might sound weird, but i see him bringing his portable gaming system to the hospital so you can play with him and get ur mind off things

not saying his feeling towards the baby will change after the birth, but he'll definitely be like "oh wow 😳" when the baby is first born

have u ever seen that clip of steve irwin first looking at bindi when shes born and hes all amazed and awestruck by her?

its like that but its less noticeable and its more like "this is my child?"

a little scared to hold the baby at first because he's afraid to drop her

but once he does he'll look down at it and be like "ur not so bad afterall 😪"

DEFINITELY doesn't get any sleep during the first few months because he'll for some reason take late night feedings/crying upon himself

hes all "ur such a pain bro 😒" while rocking the baby back and forth to soothe it, all cuddly and gentle with it

tbh i cant decide whether it be a girl or boy so its up to reader to decide

omg hes mortified after the first belch spit hes gone afterwards

literally condemns the baby to hell

hates changing diapers but does it for the sake of the baby's comfort and health

when he's alone with the baby, he'd be like "ur kinda ugly 🤔" while playing around with it

tbh i see him getting random bouts of urges to play with the baby and speaking to it in a baby voice secretly

gets really embarrassed if hes caught and acts like it never happened

when ur not there to watch the baby while he's gaming he'll actually be okay with the baby sitting in his lap while he games

if he wins he'll be all "lets goooo 😝" all up in the babies face 😭 lifting it up into the air and just being such a gamer dad

also starts teaching the baby how to play games real early on, making them hold a controller or something and teaching them game logistics

the baby is like 5 months old and doesn't know about taxes but knows about dnd 🤣🤦🏽‍♀️

i see him like announcing the birth of his kid to his followers/fans a couple weeks after the birth

only shows what the baby looks like when its like 6 months old and crawling all in the background, he'll turn around and be like "wanna see my baby?", lift up the baby and put it's face all up close into the camera 😭

does 0.5 and only 0.5 photos on the thing 😅

does a couple more streams afterwards when he "games" with the baby and blame loosing on the poor thing 😅

aw i can see him and the baby having matching outfits when he goes out with it

he's not the best dad, but he'll try his hardest

on a sweet note, if kenma feels lonely when ur away, he'll allow the baby to sleep in the bed he shares with you as a "substitution" and cuddle with it

yk that tiktok audio that goes "leave me alone baby 😒" and then goes "ur my baby i love you ☹️☹️🥰😘" yeah that hes that

[ginnyrules27]

Look, I know right now it's probably annoying to deal with all these posts about American politics if you're not an American, but I have to say this to any and all of my American followers.

Vote. VOTE. If you are 18 or older, unless you are in a motherfucking coma or worse, VOTE!

Following the recent SCOTUS decision, it's crucial to acknowledge that a Trump re-election could seriously jeopardize the return of our democracy. With the potential for a national abortion ban and a rollback of hard-fought rights and protections, the stakes are incredibly high. We cannot afford to overlook the possibility of Trump appointing replacements for justices Alito and Thomas, both in their late 70s.

'Oh but Biden didn't cancel my student loan debt despite canceling others-' and do you think a Trump White House will do anything for student loan relief?

'Under Biden, we lost Roe' -Do I even need to explain that it was the Trump justices who gave the conservatives the power to attack the established law of Roe with unparalleled audacity?

Listen, people need to remember this: Biden's international policies may be criticized, but let's not forget that Trump admitted on national television that Putin informed him about the invasion of Ukraine before it even happened. Ukraine took place in 2022, and remember, Trump was out of office in 2021!

'Oh but they started developing a vaccine for COVID under Trump and Biden's just taking the credit-' Biden wasn't the one who defunded the department of the CDC that Obama set up after the Ebola crisis to prevent a pandemic from happening in the US. And Biden wasn't the one who told the American people to drink bleach to prevent themselves from getting COVID.

Progressives, listen up! Some of you are thinking of voting for Stein, but I need you to hear me out. If fewer people had voted for Gore over Nader or for Hillary over Stein, we wouldn't be in this mess. Progress is not always straightforward, but do you really think we'll be closer to a progressive movement if we let Trump regain power?

Biden's age is a fact that can't be argued against. Born in '42, he belongs to the Silent Generation, not the boomer generation. Trump, born in '46, is a boomer. Despite his age, Biden still garnered a significant number of votes in 2020, with 81 million people seemingly unconcerned about his age. Until we address the need to raise millions of dollars to run for president, we shouldn't expect to see many younger faces in politics.

This isn't a 'pick the lesser of two evils' scenario. This is a 'if I want change to be possible, I need to elect the team who will make change possible' scenario.

To the millennials and Gen Zs on this site: We often complain about the ways in which boomers have negatively impacted future generations by neglecting pensions and allowing the cost of living to rise while wages remain stagnant. If we eventually have children, do we want them to believe that previous generations had the opportunity to prevent a worst-case scenario but didn't take action because of personal preferences?

Last thing because this post is getting far too long, in 2017, white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. After it happened, Trump made a speech where he stated there were 'very fine people' on both sides. I can't believe I have to say this but please let's not allow the man who said that and then tried to gaslight the country that he didn't say that even though there's video of it!

[lady-raziel]

How Project 2025 could radically reshape higher ed (insidehighered.com)

I know you've heard a lot of things about Project 2025 at this point and most of them are scary, but I think it's things like this that indicate that even the stuff in that plan that seems boring is very scary too. Here's a bit of an analysis on some of the plans regarding higher education.

Basically, they want to make it much, much harder to get student loans, and to make the loans you can get much harder to pay off. For so many people, the only way they'll ever be able to get a higher education is with the help of federal student loans. Without that assistance, and for degrees that don't guarantee a high-paying career quickly (such as art, history, literature-- so many subjects, most of them "soft-sciences") because having a high-income would be necessary to keep up with payments (as income-driven repayment plans will be eliminated)...a lot of people will not go to college. Particularly people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

So it would be that most high-school grads can't afford school, and the ones that take on loans have to prioritize careers that by nature aren't the ones taking on learning from history, culture, or political thought because it's hard to make money and advance quickly career-wise with those. It would gatekeep the "soft-science" subjects that tend to spur criticisms of society, history, and power to those who could afford to pay full-price-- who are also likely to be privileged and in the ruling class and thus the least likely to criticize the existing culture. And by gatekeeping that knowledge and its credentials, they could discredit anyone who hasn't studied the subject by saying that they are uninformed or uneducated and thus shouldn't be taken seriously. They would be in full control of the research being done and the types of papers being written. The end result is crippling the ability to even have academic discourse or research to refute their other policy goals.

Furthermore, the elimination of many repayment plans that already exist serves to punish the people who have already gotten degrees-- if you don't already have a stable job, trying to keep up with higher payments while your taxes go up (increasing tax rate for people making under $168k to 15% of income and eliminating pretty much every deduction, credit, and exclusion) and still affording the necessities (made much harder when Medicaid, SNAP, other social safety nets are cut) will be very challenging. And if you DO have a stable job and are educated on subjects that allow you to criticize the movement-- they can attack you and discredit you and make you lose that job if you publicly disagree. The way Project 2025 suggests restructuring the federal workforce is an example-- even if you're an expert, if you work in a federal agency and don't comply, you're gone.

The long-term purpose of all this is clear-- control the knowledge, control the history, prevent people from developing any skills to oppose you through research or academic theory, prevent people from going to institutions that can get them to question society and power. It is much harder to organize and develop ideas to oppose the people in power if you never get any chance to learn how or what others have done before you.

When the obstacles to getting educated become so great, so challenging, how many people will try? Why risk it, when you have more certainty working a blue-collar job instead? Why push young women to go to school when, if they take out loans, may not be able to maintain the payments if they get married and leave the workforce to have children-- or if they get pregnant (and will not be able to access birth control or an abortion) unexpectedly and also have to leave the workforce? With social safety net programs gutted and women forced to give birth upon becoming pregnant, and no early childhood education program to provide relief causing women to have to stay home, there would be no way to repay student loans for women who leave the workforce in this scenario. Being a woman is too much of a risk for higher ed in this world--how many will take that risk?

And none of this even scratches what Project 2025 wants to do to the colleges and universities themselves and how teaching certain subjects could cause them to lose funding. Again--how many will take that risk? Going bankrupt, or discussing critical race theory?

The real, long-lasting threat of this agenda, even beyond the immediate terrible effects on the LGBTQ+ community and disadvantaged communities, is to make life unlivable for those that disagree or exist in a way the right-wing doesn't like. It uses the whole of systems of power--governmental, financial, social, societal-- to work together in concert to make the only way to live be their way. It's not just one policy--it's all of them working together to crush people and make sure even those in a privileged position who could disagree...won't.

You know the call to action is to vote. But I'd also spend some time educating yourself on some of the more boring-sounding objectives in Project 2025. Don't feel pressured to read the whole thing yourself, because it's very long and dense as it IS actually written by smart and competent people who are conservative academics and former Trump staffers. That's why it's a problem-- these people are smart enough and know enough to make this plan work. But there are a lot of articles from reputable sources out there breaking down even the dullest-sounding parts of this plan-- please spend some time understanding the extent and educate those around you.

[strawwritesfic]

Joel x Female!Amputee!Reader: (Don't) Hold Your Breath [Ch. 4]

Summary: You’ve made a lot of monumental mistakes in your life. Cutting your arm off isn’t even at the top of the list. Now you’re about to learn a lot of life lessons at the hands of your savior and her brute of a guardian–and they’re not about to let you learn them the easy way either.

Challenge: "#32 in His Rulebook" by Edible Heart Monster on Lunaescence Archives

Rating/Warnings/Tags: M (post-The Last of Us; excessive swearing; sexual references; violence against children; infected children; references to abortion; references to cannibalism; references to starvation; references to riots; implied domestic abuse; implied grooming; implied sexual relationship between an adult and a minor; death of a parent; violence; gore; blood; gun use; ableism; amputee!Reader; enemies to lovers; not canon compliant)

Pairings/Relationships: Joel/Female!Reader; Tommy/Maria; Reader/Male!OC; Ellie & Reader; Ellie & Joel; Ellie & Maria & Tommy

Tag List: @imaginesfire

Master List (with important note!)

Rule #4: Quit Stealing Shit

“You must have had trouble if the fence is up and running again.”

If Joel had wanted to make things tenser, he certainly got his wish. The tiny table’s atmosphere, already difficult to breathe in, became suffocating. You dragged your tired eyes away from your plate to gauge everyone else’s reaction in the long moment of silence that followed his observation. Ellie remained picking at her broccoli; Maria frowned; Tommy shrugged.

“Not really,” the last answered.

“Really?” Joel shoved his empty plate away and crossed his thick arms across his chest. “Because last I heard, you didn’t have the gas stock to keep it running 24-7.”

Tommy shifted to look at Maria, but all she did was lift her eyebrows. Apparently, no help would be coming from her. He returned his gaze back to Joel.

“Last I heard, Herbert’s group was supposed to bring us some from their scavenging trip.”

“Last I heard, they were supposed to bring you infection checkers, too.” Tommy sighed. At last, Joel’s arms unwrapped. “Tommy, face it. they aren’t coming back. They took your supplies and booked it. A trip to a border city shouldn’t take a month.”

“Joel—”

“What if they come back and try to take over?”

“It’s not Herbert’s group,” Maria said.

Joel’s eyes snapped over to her as she moved her chair back several inches from the table.

“Just a renegade hunter group. Now that people know we’re established, we’re attracting attention. It’s nothing we weren’t able to handle.”

“Then what was with the fence?”

“Just in case they came back,” Tommy answered. “It hasn’t been on the last couple of times. We figured if we melted a few of their faces, they might think twice about showing up again.”

Joel regarded Maria seriously for a moment, but before he could ask any further questions, Ellie’s bright eyes caught the food remaining on your plate. “You gonna eat your meat?” she asked.

Scowling, you pushed the dinnerware at her. Then you slumped back in your chair. Giving Ellie your food was the last thing you wanted to do—you were still starving, not that that was unusual—but no one had offered to cut the fucking stuff. It was too tough to manage with a fork; your knife lay obviously untouched in front of you.

Ellie laughed as she tucked in. It looked as though Joel wasn’t finished with his previous train of thought, however.

Tommy must have noticed that, too, because he shifted his chair so that he faced you instead. “Let’s take a look at your arm.”

You thrust the stump up at his face without further ceremony. He caught it between his palms, and your eyes slid away from his face. Joel’s brother’s easy-going nature was more off-putting than Joel and Ellie put together. Besides, you didn’t want to look at the rust-colored stains seeping through the bottom edge of your bandages.

“Hm,” said Tommy. “We’ll have to do this up again to prevent any more blood loss, but I think you’ll live. Ellie, you do up this tourniquet?”

Ellie’s eyes widened. She swallowed her mouthful of your food before answering: “Sure did!”

“You learn this in class?”

She shrugged, the spitting image of her uncle, or whatever the fuck Tommy was supposed to be. You didn’t understand these people. They ate dinner around a table, with chipped plates and camping silverware, like that was somehow fucking normal.

“I read it in a book I picked up. Trying to be…” Ellie trailed away, rubbing the back of her head and looking pointedly away from Joel, whose sharp eyes were upon her. “...more useful.”

No one said anything to that. You wondered if that had anything to do with that Messiah complex of hers that Joel kept mentioning, the one that was supposed to have landed you in that tiny, suffocating room in a power plant with people you didn’t know and certainly didn’t like.

The walkie-talkie at Maria’s hip gurgled with static. She placed a hand over it without answering, but got to her feet the very next second. Ellie blinked up at her until Maria announced, “I’ve got to get going.” Then she looked back at Ellie. “And speaking of class, you’ve missed enough. You can come with me until we reach the school building.”

“But—” Ellie broke off to throw a pleading look at Joel’s direction. He gestured for her to follow Maria; Ellie’s shoulders slumped. Still, she got to her feet. Before the door swung shut behind her, you distinctly heard Ellie mutter, “Bunch of ungrateful fucks.” Joel laughed. “See you at dinner, Ellie.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

With the other two women gone, the room didn’t feel any calmer. You felt your remaining muscles tense, even when you didn’t bother to look back at Tommy or Joel. Joel laughing was the weirdest thing to happen yet. He looked just as likely to find something humorous as Maria—though even she seemed to smile a lot around Ellie. What was with that kid? Was she dying? Were they all just humoring her?

No. No one else could be that stupid.

As another stroke of pain in your missing arm coursed through you, you realized that you were still staring at the door where she had left. Much as the kid annoyed you, you had to admit you felt more displaced than ever without her there. Fuck. You hastily grabbed your glass and took a swig of lukewarm water, then asked, “You have a school?”

When you hazarded a glance upward, Tommy smiled. Joel remained scowling at you, but who the fuck cared what he thought at that point? Not you, that was for damn sure.

As seemed to be his practice, Tommy shrugged. “Nothing major. Basic writing and reading, some math. Just enough to get the kids by in the world. Ellie spent some time in a military boarding school, so she’s ahead in that respect.”

“She’d be ahead in all respects if she’d quit insisting on going on these trips,” Joel broke in. It was probably just your exhaustion talking—your vision was starting to pulse again, and it was taking quite a bit effort to keep yourself sitting up in your chair—but you thought you heard a hint of pride in his voice. “I keep telling her I can handle it—”

“—But she always says the same thing: ‘We go together.’” Tommy grinned.

Joel rolled his eyes, got to his feet, and placed his plastic cup at the end of a row of other cups. “She’s just afraid I’m gonna ditch her ass and take up smuggling again.”

“Well, you’d have a hell of a time doing it,” said Tommy.

You had been entirely forgotten. Seeing as you weren’t dying, it would be perfectly fine to just let you sit there and faint again. Probably you’d wake up on the floor. It wasn’t as though Joel gave enough of a shit to put you anywhere you’d actually want to be. While you mentally grumped about this, Tommy continued:

“Not sure how many more quarantine zones are still in effect. Speaking of, we just had a group from your old base come a few days back. You didn’t make too many bad enemies, did you?”

“None that I can’t handle.”

The corners of Tommy’s mouth twitched down, but he must not have been in the mood to bicker with his brother. He instead returned his attention back to you, clasping his hands in front of him and looking at his fingers, as though your face was unpleasant. Hell, it probably was. Bathing was a luxury you frequently weren’t afforded, and you were pretty sure you’d broken your nose in a fight a few weeks back. For all you knew, all that fucking blood remained dried across your upper lip.

“Speaking of teaching,” Tommy said, with an air of having to force the words out, “we might have you do that, if you’ve got anything worth teaching. You can’t hunt in your condition, and we can’t let you stay for free.”

“I don’t like kids,” you said mulishly. Joel hadn’t moved from over by the wall, but you saw his hands contract into fists. Hastily, you added, “I’ve done worse in exchange for room and board, though.”

“What’s that mean?” Tommy asked.

You took a leaf out of his book and shrugged in answer. The throbbing in your eyes got stronger, but you did not want either Joel or Tommy to think you were weaker than you already were. Focusing on remaining upright unfortunately left you completely open to surprise when Joel smashed his hands into the table in front of you.

“Shit!” you said, but broke away when you found his angry face only a few inches away from your nose.

“Are you a Firefly?” he growled.

“Were you ever a Firefly?”

“Fuck no, I wasn’t a Firefly!” you snapped. Though you twisted somewhat frantically in his grip, Joel didn’t let go. “Lay off!”

But Joel didn’t let go. His fingers only grew tighter around you, and tighter still. You didn’t have the strength to fight him off. One of your feet smashed into his shin, but you might as well have been made of feathers for all the effect that had. A horrible note of hysteria started to crawl up your throat, but before it could clamber out, Tommy said, quite pleasantly:

“Joel, would you kindly not hurt my guests when they aren’t actively trying to murder you?”

“Tommy, do you know why this woman doesn’t have one of her arms? Did Ellie make you aware of that little detail?”

“She did.” He inclined his head. “And, like Ellie, I’m pretty sure she would have turned by now, unless she’s immune.”

“That doesn’t make things okay.”

“Joel.”

With something that sounded very like a snarl, Joel released you, threw his hands into the air, and then stalked back over to the cups. “You and Ellie are going to be the fucking end of me.”

“She already was,” said Tommy.

Meanwhile, your vision had practically gone. Struggle as you might have, you just couldn’t remain sitting up straight. Through the fog, you saw Tommy’s head turn back to you.

“Now, I know you’re probably tired—”

“Figured that out, have you?” you asked, voice raspy. Dammit. At this rate, Joel was going to have the last laugh.

“Yes, I suppose I have. We’ll get you to a room here in a minute, and you can take a nap. No need to worry about your job or station today. But before you go, I’m going to need your name.”

“None of your fucking business.”

“We need something to go by,” he insisted. “And even if you are a Firefly, it’s not as though we have a stash of medals to check. Now, if you don’t give me your name, I suppose I’ll have to do as Joel suggested and lock you up until we have a better idea of who you are.”

So they weren’t going to lock you up either way? What a bunch of fucking morons. What if you were with that group they talked about earlier? What if you were a Trojan horse? But you were too tired to fuck around with them. All you wanted to do was curl up somewhere away from Joel and Ellie and sleep.

“[Name],” you said shortly.

“Family name?” Joel growled. You summoned up enough energy to glare straight across the room at him.

“Hasn’t mattered in fifteen years,” you said. “Can’t imagine why it’d matter now.”

“You—”

Tommy lifted a hand. “Maria and I are the ones running this joint, Joel. A first name’s good enough for me.”

The sound of his chair scraping against the concrete floor jolted you enough awake to get to your own feet. Standing was difficult, but not impossible, and no way in hell were you going to let Joel see anyone else carrying you or otherwise offering support. You shot him a defiant glare, then followed Tommy out of the room. Joel’s footsteps sounded behind you shortly after; you made the decision to pointedly ignore him. Getting an idea of your surroundings would benefit you better than giving him the time of day anyhow. You only caught snatches of conversation from the two of them, most following the same subject:

“You know, if you hate Ellie following you out there—”

“I don’t.”

After leading you outside for a short walk, Tommy ducked into another building, and you followed suit. Grated windows lit the gray walls every so often. Several doors led off to what you could only assume were other rooms. Busted cabinets and drawers littered the way; several times Tommy had to shove past them. As you passed one such cabinet, you caught a glimpse of a pair of familiar handles. It occurred to you that Ellie had taken both your pistol and her knife with her when she and Maria had left.

You feigned a stumble, snatched the scissors, and slid them into the pocket of your jacket. The shaking as you righted yourself was completely natural, and had Tommy looked at you with worry in his eyes.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” you said, but a moment later, Joel’s hand was on your shoulder again, pushing you into the wall.

“Give it back,” he snarled.

“Give what back?” you asked.

“Don’t play fucking stupid with me.”

“I didn’t do—”

But his fingers slid into your pocket to wrench out your newly-acquired weapon. His eyes looked pointedly at the scissors, then at you. If you hadn’t been so worried he was going to punch your face in, you would have shoved your own hands sullenly into both of your pockets. With a scoff, Joel threw the scissors back into the drawer.

“Quit stealing shit,” he said. “That ain’t yours. Nothing here is yours.”

“It’s just a pair of fucking scissors,” you shouted as he released and wandered back up the hall the way your trio had been headed. “You want me to run around with absolutely no way to defending myself?”

“If it’d get you outta my hair quicker.”

He wasn’t looking—no doubt he had some idea of your intentions anyway—so you took the scissors back before scuttling after him. Tommy watched you all the while. It was his fucking settlement. If he didn’t care, why the fuck should Joel? Maybe that explained the extremely dour look Joel threw him when you caught up to them.

Tommy didn’t say anything about your so-called theft. He reached past you to turn the knob on a nearby door. Inside lay a dark, drank room taken up mostly by something that must have helped power the plant in its heyday. Several musty, moth-eaten blankets and a smashed pillow were jammed up on a cement slab beside the boxy equipment. Only you stepped in; there wasn’t enough room for anyone else.

“You can stay in here,” Tommy said from behind you. “We’ll have Ell—We’ll have someone come get you when it’s time for dinner. We’ll be eating as a community. Maybe you’ll find someone you know.”

“That would be fucking fantastic.” You could hardly muster up the appropriate sarcasm.

Tommy let out a dry chuckle. “Now where have I heard that before?”

“Don’t start, Tommy,” said Joel.

You turned back and flipped him the bird before setting your bag down and walking over to the bed. A nap seemed very much in order.

“You’re welcome,” Joel said. Huh. Maybe Ellie was his daughter.

You flipped him off a second time without looking. “Fuckin’ A, man.”

When Tommy shut the door, you got the feeling it was to hide you from view as quickly as possible.

[bulldogblues]

Hot take, but I'm convinced that the majority of people who love to demonise 'TERFs' don't actually give a stuff about trans rights and are just using it as an excuse to shit on women without being called on their misogyny.

Why do I say this? Several reasons.

First and foremost is that people use the 'TERF' descriptor for opinions that are in no way linked to radical feminism or feminism in general. The more terminally online elements of Twitter/Tik Tok/etc. would have you believe that TERFs support homophobes/anti-abortion activists/racists, a claim with no basis in reality (seriously who thinks that anti-abortion advocates would EVER ally with radical feminists or vice versa?) and ignores that many radical feminists are lesbian or bisexual, and are of every race.

Secondly, advocating shit language like 'uterus havers' or 'menstruators' does not help anyone, trans or otherwise, and is dehumanising towards women and AFAB trans people alike. Almost no trans people I know want it either- it's usually overenthusiastic non-trans 'allies' that push for it.

Third, I've seen the word 'TERF' thrown about for opinions that are nothing to do with trans at all, including being critical of porn or sex work, or any opinion that isn't part of the 'acceptable' mainstream. It's starting to lose all meaning.

Fourth, if you really want to help trans people, attacking radical feminists is the lowest hanging fruit there is. It's objective fact that men (and more specifically, non-trans heterosexual and bisexual men) are the ones committing the vast majority of transphobic violence and are the biggest pushers of laws that hurt trans people and prevent them getting the healthcare they need.

If you really want to help trans people:

* Call out the people with actual power in society that would cause them harm.

* Call out the male violence that threatens them every day

* If you can afford it, donate money to trans inclusive homeless or domestic violence shelters that support the most disenfranchised trans people of all

* Tackle the many bullshit misconceptions about trans people that still exist in society

Are there radical feminists that hold shitty, transphobic views? Absolutely. But 'TERFs' really don't hold the power that the Internet would have you believe they do, and outside of the odd rude comment online, they aren't out there attacking trans people, going out of their way to make their lives worse etc.

If you believe 'TERFs' are your biggest enemy, in honesty you need to spend less time online and more time focussing on the issues that will improve trans rights in the long term.

[tomorrowusa]

Anybody who claims that both major US political parties are the same is either a mindless airhead or a self-deceived cult member.

Third parties and independents in US presidential elections are a bad idea in "normal" cycles due to the archaic Electoral College. This year is not close to normal.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out, Biden would like to campaign on abortion and the economy. But the existential threat to democracy by Trump and his groveling Republican Party has shifted the emphasis to the basic existence of this country.

Complain all you like about the electoral system in the US but don't ignore it while trying to make progress politically.

It doesn't matter if a majority of Americans don't want Trump to be president if they don't properly use the available electoral tools. Republicans need to be stopped via the system that currently exists. Voting for impotent minor parties will do nothing to keep Trump from returning.

Way bad régimes in other countries have come to power with much less than a majority of popular votes.

In South Africa in 1948, the pro-apartheid National Party won 37.70% of the popular vote as opposed to 48.18% for the more moderate United Party. But because of the existing first past the post parliamentary system then, the National Party in coalition with the even more extreme Afrikaner Party (3.93% of the vote) won a majority of seats in Parliament and were able to institute apartheid which lasted until 1990.

In both elections in Germany in 1932 the Nazis got less than 40% of the popular vote: 37.27% in the July election and just 33.09% in the November election. Despite these unimpressive results they managed to take power because the opposition was divided and failed to stop them. Famously, the Communist Party of Germany (16.9% of the popular vote in November '32) welcomed the Nazis. According to Communist ideology, fascism is supposed to be the final stage of capitalism and the German Communists were licking their chops; long story short – Ernst Thälmann, head of the German Communists, was executed on Heinrich Himmler's orders. Communists are stupid – but that's another story.

Not taking the threat of dictatorship seriously does not have happy endings in history. And it's always easier to prevent dictatorships than it is to remove them. If a candidate tells you he's going to be a dictator, believe him.

[anamericangirl]

More kids were just shot. Kindergartners this time. More kids die from guns at this point in America than from anything else. Is there a single mention of it on your blog? Nope. Is there a single step taken to help stop this? Nope. Do you in fact EVER do anything to help any actual kids anywhere at any point? *NOPE.* So yeah, it's a little hard to take your supposed concern for babies seriously. You don't care. You never did. You never will.

So if I don’t run to tumblr to post about an event in the first 24 hours after it happens that means I don’t care about it? Your standard for what constitutes care is pretty shitty.

The leading cause of death for kids in the US is only guns if you define kids as anyone ages 1-19, so that basically includes young adults. And if you factor in infant death guns are no longer the leading cause of death. And abortion isn’t even included in those studies. If it were every other cause of death would be almost nonexistent in comparison.

And I’m sorry but how are you expecting me to stop gun deaths? What “steps” am I supposed to take to prevent active shooters from targeting children?

I want kids to be protected from shooters. I want armed adults who can protect children from people who wish to do them harm. Thankfully in this case the police actually did something instead of standing around. They stopped the shooter. With a gun. Because that is how you stop shooters. And I’ve talked about that a lot on my blog.

So do not send me a message telling me what I do and do not care about and do not tell me that I don’t do anything to help anyone as if you know anything about me or what I do based on what I post on tumblr. You are basing your opinion of me on your own idiotic assumptions for which you have absolutely no basis except your own ignorance and imagination.

What are you doing? What steps are you taking to prevent this?

[secularprolifeconspectus]

Hi!

I hope you take the time to read this, if not that's fine, but I have a genuine question regarding pro life rhetoric. I've been pro choice practically my whole life but recently I've started really looking into the pro-life sphere more and doing more research on abortion, and I've concluded that I might identify with pro life much more than with pro choice. There's just one 'threshold' that I can't seem to cross yet and I'd be interested to know if you have a response to that.

Whilst I know that pregnancy is pretty ordinary and all of our moms went through it, I don't think it's nothing. Especially unplanned/unwanted pregnancies. Maybe the most important reason I am/was pro choice is that I don't think it's better to force someone to remain pregnant than it is to have an abortion, because pregnancy can seriously and possibly permanently change/influence your physical and mental health.

I guess my question is, if we take away all social-economic reasons why somebody wouldn't want to be pregnant and we're faced with someone who just doesn't want to be pregnant because of the physical and mental aspect of it, how do we address those cases? How do we help the pregnant person best as we can if we refuse to make abortion the solution?

Just to clarify this is a genuine question I have, not an attempt to start a debate.

I agree that pregnancy isn’t a regular sacrifice, and it’s a big deal. The biggest difference between the pro-choice and pro-life worldview is (usually) fetal personhood (which I've defended over ten times: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10). Without the shared foundation of understanding that all humans are people, we'll always reach different conclusions about how to respond to difficult pregnancy situations. In fact, I find the idea of forcing a pregnant person to continue to carry a *potential* person quite abhorrent; but, I don't understand any human to be merely a "potential" person. That being said, I'll try to answer your question both from a pro-personhood and a neutral perspective.

If you understand all human organisms to be people, then you likely also recognize that any situation in which we wouldn't allow a parent to kill their premature infant, we also ought not permit them to kill their fetus or embryo. Would I allow a parent to kill their premie because their mental or physical health is influenced by their dependency upon them? No, with exception for permanent impairment or death.

To be consistent, I hold the same standard for preborn children. The ordinary risks of a healthy pregnancy alone are not enough to justify killing someone. And all abortion bans already have exceptions for maternal mortality, if not also severe morbidity. I trust the ability of doctors to decide when a possible risk becomes an actual threat, and to take triage action when required while treating both patients. I think it's important to recognize that while pregnant people must hold medical primacy, the preborn hold equal priority.

Beyond exceptions, how do we care for the physical and mental health of pregnant people without resorting to violence against the most powerless and vulnerable people? Access to sufficient and timely maternal and prenatal care is essential to prevent most physical pregnancy morbidities, and especially in the US we must improve accessibility and quality. When complications do arise, we must be sympathetic to the parent's suffering without dehumanizing their child or devaluing either life.

Abortion-minded parents are in a mental health crisis akin to suicide; not in a literal biological sense, but on an existential level, your offspring is a part of you, and so abortion is a denial that a part of you has the right to exist and to be perpetuated into the future. If a suicidal person were to have those thoughts, we would prevent them from acting upon them. Analogously, the compassionate response to mental distress from pregnancy is not abortion, but intervention. Abortion is not evidence-based treatment for any mental condition.

From a personhood-neutral perspective, abortion is at best a band-aid solution to health concerns that may arise during pregnancy. Pregnancy is not disease, though disease may happen within pregnancy and is treatable. Framing a healthy, ordinary function of the fertile female body as a medical ailment is, frankly, misogynistic. As long as abortion is available as the "easy solution", the patriarchy will continue to use it as a cop-out for learning how to actually prevent and treat maternal morbidities. So if we want to see progress in maternal medicine, we have to stop relying on abortion as a crutch. We must demand that pregnancy be normalized, not pathologized.

Good for you for exploring your beliefs and doing research! I applaud your open mind. If you lean left or secular, I encourage you to check out PAAU's stances and SPL's blog, both of which I find educational. Keep asking questions, and keep seeking answers.

[worldofmorbidities]

so you believe trump should die just because he wants to ban killing babies? your TDS is on a level that cannot be reasoned with. your brain has been turned into rot by the mainstream media lying about him by calling him lItErAlLy HiTlEr. your IQ seriously cannot be higher than room temperature, you heartless monster

He does not want to "kill" "babies". The point of abortion is preventing a fetus (which is not a living human being) from becoming a baby.

He literally believes "abortions after birth" and "gender changes in school" is a thing. Not the best advocate for reproductive issues.

Mainstream media has not "lied" to anyone, only enlightened them on the truth. You have the media literacy skills of a 3rd grader. Ironic, because Trump wants to force 3rd graders to give birth to their uncle Billy's baby.

I do not suffer from TDS, it's called critical thinking. You ,however, seem to suffer from a profound case of idiocy.

[papirouge]

People don’t want to refrain from having sex, lots of people including myself want sex but not kids. Nothing wrong with that that’s what birth control is for and hopefully in the future we more advance ways to make this happen.

Also sex ed and giving teens condoms actually do help with pregnancy and std prevention. Like it or not teens are thinking about sex and having urges (there’s a reason me and a ton of girls in my jr high class asked for electric toothbrushes). And before you say “THat’ sHoULd bE THE PARent’S JoB” not all of us have a household we could ask those questions. My own mom tried to lied to me and say the age of consent was 25 (I was 18 at the time, which is two years older the age of consent where I’m from) and she was homophobic so I couldn’t just straight up walk up and ask her about queer sex. I was fortunate and watched a lot of Laci green before she went red pill.

plus there was a study in the early 2000’s that gave teens free IUDs without parental consent and abortion down 60%!

I actually got groomed online at 15 because of sex being such a taboo subject and I wasn’t taught how to safely navigate my urges and curiosities. Our sex ed was very minimal and only covered cishet sex and birth control. It wasn’t enough. I would argue highly informative sex ed is needed now more than other with so many minors having access to the internet, it’s best they get their information from an actual informative inclusive source rather than all the misinformation online and bias parents.

"people don't want to refrain from sex"

Yeah and it shows. Your entire post reeks the energy of a sexually groomed brat by this demonic sexually charged culture that will not and cannot grasp that teenagehood isn't synonymous with "experiencing sex" and all that age inappropriate stuff. No wonder yall end up fucked up and emotionally & physically washed out in your mid 20s. This whole mental illness is partially sex transmitted btw. You had sex with incubus/succubus without knowing. That's why yall mentally ill and in bad shape.

My post was never about sex ed (but the hypocrisy around resisting sexual urges) but your illiterate ass took it personally and decided to show your ass aka how society groomed you into normalizing casual sex and NEED your fix of (dangerous) contraceptive to keep your lustful & sinful lifestyle.

IUDs helping teen avoid pregnancy isnt the win you think it is, knowing contraceptives and abortion clinics are the perfect coverup for rapists and traffickers to cover their crimes🤡. So empowering ♀️

"teenagers think about sex" I advise you to travel the world and meet normal teens (not degenerate white/western twats) who are not as groom/sexualized as you, and you'll realize soon enough this myth of "sexual youth" is a myth perpetuate by literal perverts and pedophiles (look up Kinsey). It's crazy how you guys seem oblivious how this whole sex revolution groomed entire generations to center sex in their natural development, masturbation, etc. In the end you are all brainwashed, washed out. You'd need seriously spiritual cleaning because of all the crazy ass demons you caught entertaining this mess.

I pity you.

[hislittleraincloud]

You haven't made it in fandom until you've garnered hate, and that's what's happening now under Insomniac's Wenovan story.

Some asshat is spewing the usual garbage about the ship. But instead of sticking to the fiction, the bish went full-on MAGAt and inserted that us 'liberals' are all trying to push an agenda of pedophilia onto people, which to me just screams Warriors for Innocence (and I was waiting for Bible verses...alas, they didn't come).

It's almost like none of Wenovan's critics understand what fiction is.

That, plus MAGAts like that anon who cry about liberals are all ignoring the fact that the vast majority of men arrested for sex or inappropriate relationships with minors have been MAGAt-y right wingy 'Christians'*** and conservatives.

Former youth pastor in Colorado was convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor on October 13th.

Former youth pastor in Florida arrested on October 10th for transmitting harmful material to a minor.

Youth pastor in Ohio is on the run after being charged with 14 counts of sexually abusing minors on October 9th.

Former youth pastor from Duluth, MN charged with sexual misconduct with five teen girls on October 5th.

Former youth pastor in Wisconsin sentenced to 20 years on October 3rd for repeated SA of a teen (and wow, "will also not be allowed to serve as a pastor unless approved by his supervising agent" 💀)

Church youth leader arrested at the end of September for multiple counts of sexual battery (yet some news organizations protect his name because...Florida...but his name is Gregory Norton).

Former youth church leader in South Carolina arrested for criminal sexual conduct with a minor in late September

There's more from September, but I want to end this list on a doozy: a former KINDERGARTEN teacher and SENIOR PASTOR in North Carolina arrested and charged with child sex crimes on August 22nd

Less are the cops, and the rabbis, the Muslim clerics (in this country, at least), and the above list is just a fraction of the 'Christians' arrested within the couple of months. But I also pointed out that a pro-life, anti-abortion pill Texas state Republican secessionist who proposed an anti-drag bill "to protect children" had to resign in May for grooming: he plied a 19-year-old intern with alcohol, raped her, and then drove to a drug store so that she could get that very same Plan B pill that the hypocritical fucker was so against everyone else having.

That's our reality that we live in. But it's not the reality of fiction, where we can explore all sorts of issues and relationships safely (or, at least, we're supposed to be safe here).

You don't have to like Wenovan. In fact, I know that this fandom doesn't like it because this fandom is filled with the Gen Z types who have been indoctrinated to believe that merely writing about something makes you an advocate for what you're writing about. It's a seriously misguided application of identity politics that prevents creative writers (and actors, and producers, etc.) from exploring these issues without guilt or being guilted away from telling a story. It's called censorship, whether it be external or self-regulated...it's censoring what you as a writer and artist want to express through your work.

This is old hat for me. Very old hat. Shortly before I was arrested on that bogus attempted murder charge, I was persecuted in my school for simply writing a poem called "Little Catholic Girl". My English professor thought it was brilliant, and couldn't figure out how I was able to capture Catholic Guilt without being Catholic myself...I didn't have any answer for her aside from me wanting to be a writer and to do that I needed to walk in others' shoes. Plus, that poem was written about my most recent ex at the time, a girl who was quite into me and what we were doing, but was also crazy fundie about Catholicism (having gone to a parochial school before coming to public school like our high school), and more than a few times after she did something she felt guilty over, she would zip into a corner of her room or my room and start praying aloud.

I'm not fucking joking. Not even a minute after an orgasm and she'd be in a corner, crying and praying. Yet she would always be the one to initiate. (We never even got naked...it was all my handiwork.)

But I digress. I had submitted the poem to our lit mag, and someone reported it to the house master (we had houses in our little high school, and I was in the color and mascot equivalent of Gryffindor 🤮), and the next thing I know, I'm in his office and he's red-faced and pacing with a copy of my poem in his hand. He finally says to me, "Do you know what this is about? It's about lesbianism!" I just said, "Uh...well, I wrote it." because I couldn't think of anything else to say without being rude, and I already knew I was in trouble. They ended up pulling the poem from consideration and banning it, telling me that it wasn't allowed to be considered for the lit mag again. They censored me, because I wrote a poem about my short relationship with a crazy Catholic girl.

So of course I printed the most explicit excerpt of said poem onto a t-shirt with a suggestive graphic and wore it around school the next day. I got many dirty looks from the house master and the fucking bullfrog of a social worker who was also shitty to LGBTQ students, but I never changed nor did I cover up. I was 'outed' by it, but didn't care; it was 1990, so I put up with a LOT of anti-LGBTQ crap at my high school. 🫠✨

I learned at a very young age that there will always be some asshole looking to tell you what you can't write. But I have never listened to them. I have been an artist and writer for as long as I can remember, and what comes out of my creative brain is mine, and I'm not putting a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to read what I share.

I've also known hypocrisy for as long as I can remember, and it's usually the worst hypocrites who are quick to cast their sanctimonious judgments directly at writers.

If you don't like what we're writing about, why are you even here? Do you see any of us writers hopping on over to your Facebook pages to laugh at and mock your religion? While we should, we just don't have that kind of time. So how is it that you have the time to sit there and whine about something you read--presumably AFTER you read the tags? I'm normal, I read the tags of a story on AO3 and if I don't think I'll like, I ✨gasp✨ DON'T READ IT.

Jesus. Is it really that hard not to read something? I mean, I buy books that I desperately want to read but don't ever get around to it. I'm actually spending money on things I want to read but haven't, yet here we've got Karens who read shit that they'll tell you they don't like.

Anyway. My current depiction of Wenovan is a healthy one (aside from Wednesday's sex addiction). If you think it's unhealthy, it's because you're still stuck in your lens of 2023 reality...when I am writing from a lens of a fictionalized world where your morals don't precisely apply. I could write a different storyline/AU of my own story where she IS groomed or assaulted, but it would look very, very different from what I'm writing here, or what Insomniac wrote. Maybe some day I will take up that lens, but I'm currently not interested.

I'm writing a positive story about a couple doomed to their fates (Donovan, because he is old, and Wednesday because she will lose her greatest love sooner than she should have to). I'm not going to give out too much info right now (except for what I leak in comments and posts here 🤓), but the positivity is that they will weather their political/social storms with the kind of grace that Wednesday is known for, and they will be happy because that's what she wants in the current Afterburn timeline.

No one's censorship should prevent an artist from telling their stories. No one's moralizing comments should prevent an artist from telling their stories, and I sincerely hope that anyone else who would 'dare' write Wenovan (or even Weemsday, when Wednesday is 16/current) can ignore these hypocritical Moms for Liberty-like Karens and publish their work without guilt.

*** Afterburn Wednesday actually addressed this very thing in the text of the last upload I made, in her flashback speech to Mr. Fortunato, her parochial school AP Lit professor. She made him aware that she knew of several inappropriate teacher-student relationships at the school, relationships where the girls were trading sex for better grades.

[zoemaywrites]

A little mistake

In which the reader falls pregnant and decides what to do.

Part one of a miniseries

>1000 words

TW: angst!! mentions of abortion, teen pregnancy, harry being a cutie

It was near impossible to stop the tears from free-flowing down y/n's flushed cheeks. These types of things didn't happen to a girl like y/n, she was the most unproblematic, ordinary girl anyone had ever met - so what had happened? As she debated this, salty tears continued to flow down her cheeks onto the soft material of her shirt where they gathered and dampened it. It was hard to believe how life could change so swiftly, in the blink of an eye. Her fate decided for her at 17 years old, in 180 seconds.

Harry would be mortified. They were both on the road to freedom when it got shut down in a matter of seconds. There were always options, something y/n had thought about once in a blue moon, something she never thought would become a reality, but had quickly become her reality, or more so, their reality.

It felt like a nightmare - all the things they had both done to prevent this from happening, out the window. Y/n had been on birth control since she was fifteen, and they had always used protection just as a precaution. What were the chances? The pill being 99% effective and condoms 97%, they seriously had less than a 0.1% chance of this ever happening. But it did. And she felt like an idiot.

It took more or less a school week for Harry's concerned questions and side-eyed glances to become enough. He was so calculated in everything he did, but it went out the window as soon as he saw her wearing her comfort hoodie and joggers to school - and that was only the first day. He felt like he was begging her to let him into her mind. He never wanted to be cut off from her, and she never wanted to cut him out, but she couldn't deal with his potential reaction to the news when she had such a big choice to make. And she knew he should be part of that, but she wanted some peace before the inevitable storm that was for sure coming her way.

-

"What do I do?" Harry had vented to Gemma. She had been worried about how distracted and distant he had become after the third day of little to no conversation at the dinner table. It took less than 3 minutes (180 seconds) of coaxing to get him to start rambling, and once he started, he found himself unable to stop.

Harry had checked every possible date in his mind, so sure he had messed something up, her birthday? No. Their anniversary? No. Some event he had missed? Maybe, but he didn't think so. He couldn't think of anything to cause the sudden shift, and that made the whole ordeal much worse.

"She's been so distant lately, she doesn't speak to me anymore, she never wants to hang out, claiming she's ill, I mean, she can't even fucking look at me!" He had ranted, hands pulling at his hair in frustration. Gemma had sat quietly throughout the whole thing, listening carefully and trying to gauge the situation. She contemplated her next words, calculating her next move.

"I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but do you think, maybe, just maybe she might have lost interest and doesn't know how to break things off?" She knew this would hurt Harry, but she had always been a logical person, much like her younger brother, and thought he would need to hear it.

Harry stood in disbelief.

"No. You can't possibly think she wants to break up? I mean we were fine, literally last week we were talking about a future together, a house, a family, and we know we're young but this is it for us, this is what we want, and I don't think, I mean she couldn't, could she?" He started to panic. She couldn't really want to break up, could she? Oh god, what if he had been reading into things all wrong and she felt bad for breaking his heart, so she just went along with everything? Harry couldn't stand the thought. He needed out.

Before Gemma could say another word, he slammed his way out of the house onto the quiet neighbourhood streets.

-

Little did Harry know, y/n had already made up her mind. She had decided not to get Harry involved, and to sort this out herself, on her own, on her terms.

A/n: Hope you enjoy - this is going to be a part of a mini-series to kickstart my account! Any feedback is appreciated and welcomed :)

[starblaster]

“why would conservatives try to ban birth control!?!! don’t they know that it prevents abortions!?!!” sorry but when are some of you going to understand that anti-choicers don’t care about factual logic or reason. they want to control everyone under their strict christian evangelical hegemony. that’s their actual end-goal. yes, they really do believe that plan b onestep is an ‘abortion’ pill and they’ve believed this since it was invented. yes, they really do believe that condoms are a sin. yes, they really would seriously rather let a pregnant parent die than let them live. they are not fucking subtle about it. you have to wake up and learn how these people think and act. and this also applies to other right-wing groups with anti-rights agendas. categorizing fascists and bigots and terfs as these Crazy Wacky Zany Stupid Silly Weirdos who are just Bumbling Fools does nothing to protect anyone. you can’t combat fascism this way.

[creepykuroneko]

It always strikes me as odd when I'm having a conversation with another ADULT about sex and pregnancy comes up. To be specific the odd part in the conversation is when people complain they don't want kids, another kid, or act like conception is a 100% guaranteed outcome.

When I try to playfully remind people that contraceptives, abortion, and adoption are all valid options the conversation falls flat. In the USA newborn parents have the option to drop a baby who's less than a month old off at a fire department, hospital, or police stations, with no questions asked. They can straight up abandon a baby at these locations. To my knowledge fire departments even have a baby drop off box, and yet many Americans don't take advantage of these services.

Example 1: was talking with a co-worker who I'm very close to, she and I are the same age, and I was jokingly venting my sexual frustration because my husband and I ran out of condoms so we couldn't have a quickie before work. She give me a stern look and asked in all seriousness, why are you guys using condoms? Mind you she knows damn well that I do not ever want to have children. We've discussed that topic at great lengths. So I told her, because I like to have sex and I do not want to get pregnant. That ended the conversation right there.

Example 2: Friend was complaining about his teenage sons, how they keep talking back to him, and acting like they know everything. I told him it'll be okay there's less than 10 years till they're 18 and out of the house. His response was, "not unless I have more kids". I playfully reminded him there are different options to make sure that doesn't happen. He continued to complain about how much worse his life would be financially if he had more kids. I guess he was complaining just for the sake of complaining but at the same time I hope he would have enough sense to practice safe sex?

Example 3: Former coworker was telling me about how she was having an affair with a guy in her apartment. Please note I do not condone affairs. She was said that with the way things are going, he's going to end up getting both her and his wife pregnant. I reminded her that condoms and the morning after pill are always an option. She rolled her eyes at me and said, "I guess". I get it I can't tell other people what to do with their life. Yet the thought of people not taking the simplest measures to prevent something bad from happening really rubs me the wrong way.

Example 4: Another one of my friends who I love but does not always make good decisions in life has several children who she struggles to take care off. Don't get me wrong they are fed, well clothed, and go to school, but financially she is struggling, and she has a lot of Mental Health problems. She has this weird habit where when she is single she'll be on the pill or some other form of birth control but as soon as she starts dating a new man she immediately gets rid of all her contraceptives. Her excuse is, " they were making me sick". She was single for 3 years and was on the pill non-stop that entire time, but the moment she got a new boyfriend she immediately went off the pill a week later. 🤔 when I have asked her about making sure she doesn't get pregnant she says she uses the pull-out method which is not a good way to avoid pregnancy. She acts like getting pregnant when you're having sex in general is a inevitable side effect. Despite the fact that I know that she knows damn well how to avoid getting pregnant. Should talk about how she can't afford another baby but then when I try to talk to her about better contraceptives she shrugs it off like her fate is to continue to have babies.

These are just a few examples I have. There is no real point to this post I just felt like venting about something that bothers me. Please note, I am a polyamorous, bisexual, who has multiple sex partners. We always use condoms, we pay attention to menstrual cycles, and we take other measures to ensure safety first. So the thought of so many people not taking the most basic action to avoid and unwanted pregnancy just plain pisses me off. You live in a major city in the usa and you have a job! You have fucken options. Hell even many clinics will hand out free condoms these days Plus community colleges and universities.

[childfree-coffee-chick]

This morning I got a call from the doctor’s office to set my surgery date. Looks like I’ll be going under the knife on November 29th to get my bilateral salpingectomy (fallopian tubes removed)! I’m relieved it was so easy to get it approved this time around (after being declined by a few other doctors) - my doctor was very empathetic and took me so seriously, listening to all of my viewpoints but not requiring the portfolio I’d brought to my appointment (a folder including an essay on why I am childfree, a billeted list synopsis of the essay, and a signed consent form from my man that he understands the permanence of the procedure and gives me his blessing for it)… But I am 27, I’ve thoroughly researched the procedure (including the risks, one of which could be regret - thankfully in my case that isn’t a worry) and I know what I want from life - my doctor placed his trust in my judgement and now I’ll be getting the surgery less than two months after sitting down and discussing it with him.

It’s hard to believe I’ll never have to worry about pregnancy again. No inkling of anxiety every time my man and I are intimate, mildly worrying “what if my IUD fails this time? What if I get pregnant?” I’ll never have to encounter that fear almost all childfree women live with - a dreaded positive pregnancy test. Since before my first time in the bedroom I’ve been conscientious about contraception; I’ve known since I was a child myself that I don’t want children and worked hard to prevent them. Having an IUD is very convenient, but being sterilized has been my goal since I was 14. I’m so, so excited about getting this done - not an “I’m excited to get my tubes out!” But a hearty “I’m excited to never have to worry again.”

Most of my high school friends have kids now that we’re in our late 20s, and I’m happy for them - people need to do what makes them happy in life, and I’m glad they’re happy with their families they’ve created. But that wouldn’t make me happy; caring and being responsible for another human for two decades would be a burden to me instead of a pleasure. (I’m not a kid-hating childfree woman, I just have little patience for normal childhood behavior, and today’s feral children do not reinforce the “kids are cute” stereotype.) Kids can be lovely in small doses, but dealing with crying, tantrums, diapers, spit up, loud behavior, and repetitive questions make me happy to give them back at the end of the day and go home to a quiet house. Besides knowing I was never interested in motherhood, I have health conditions both personally and in my family that I’d never want to pass on to an innocent human who never asked to be born. I’d rather save my children from health issues and the bad aspects of this world than have a child out of curiosity about parenthood or just “wanting a baby.”

“Oh, you’ll change your mind!” is a common response. I also hear “you’re too young to make such a permanent decision,” “you’ll have no one to take care of you when you’re old,” “but you’d make a great mother,” “you don’t know true love until you’ve had a child,” and my personal favorite, “you’ll meet the right man who you’ll want to have children with.” My family’s opinions on the matter vary widely. My mother encourages me to follow my heart and has always been supportive of my decision, my stepfather has always rooted me on with my life choices, my biological father is convinced I’ll one day accidentally get pregnant and keep it I guess. My sisters have seemed a little hesitant to believe I’m never going to be a mother. But the only person whose opinion on my reproductive choices matters to me in entirety is my partner. And he wouldn’t have a vasectomy but he supports my reproductive health choices and wants me to do whatever my heart tells me. And my heart tells me removing any chance I have to get pregnant will prevent me from ever needing an abortion, and I frankly never want to have one (regardless of being pro-choice) - it’s the right thing for me.

[lockea]

Tellius and Abortion

So speaking of taking the fantasy setting too seriously, you know what's always kind of low key bothered me about Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn? Abortion. Or, more specifically, how there's not a single mention of it or discussion of it or even DISCUSSION OF BIRTH CONTROL. Which, yeah, for most Fire Emblem games makes a lot of sense. After all, it's a controversial topic and for a game that came out in 2005, I'm honestly not surprised it didn't touch on it.

Which doesn't make it's omission any less glaringly weird to me.

Okay, so in Tellius you have two races -- the shapeshifting Laguz and the original flavor human Beorc. The two races are capable of having children together, except that doing so has consequences for the Laguz parent. Once the child is born, the Laguz parent loses their ability to shapeshift and the parts of themselves that denoted their status as Laguz. For example, bird tribes will lose their wings. The children look, for the most part, human, except that direct descendants of the pairing and periodically children further down the line will have a mark somewhere on their body (the Brand) and will also age more like their Laguz parent (having a long lifespan). Plus a few other things that aren't important here.

Beorc, probably because they literally have no consequences in the pairing, tend not to notice the Branded (Laguz call them Parentless) unless one makes the mistake of hanging around long enough for people to wonder why they heck they aren't getting older. Laguz, however, can not only sense when someone is a Branded, but also like to pretend they don't exist at all.

All this would be well and good and so the two species never mingled unless they just loved each other so much the Laguz parent felt is was worthwhile to give up that part of themselves to have a child. Except. Except that Begnion, a Beorc country, practices chattel slavery against the Laguz.

Yeah.

I don't actually want to talk about sexual violence against enslaved women (and men too) except to say that it exists historically and it would not surprise me in any way to say that is also exists in Begnion. Even with the Beorc belief that Laguz are sub-human (a belief also carried by white slavemasters towards their black slaves in the USA. Just saying) I still believe that Beorc sexual violence against the Laguz was probably happening in the background. I do feel such a topic was probably too advanced for a T rated game that couldn't use the word "bastard" in text (although "dastard" is still a word in my daily vocabulary) and also had the overarching theme of "Racism and War are Bad, Okay." But I still think that the game could have benefited from just thinking through that scenario in the background.

So lets do that.

For a Laguz slave woman, would contraceptives have been something on your mind? What methods would you have practiced to try and prevent yourself from becoming pregnant with a Beorc's child? If you did find yourself pregnant and you could not ascertain the race of the parent, what would your level of desperation be towards obtaining an abortion? Would it be better to be dead than to give up your Laguz parts or, paradoxically, would it be worth it to have a child and shed the Laguz part of you because it makes it easier to flee and blend in with the Beorc around you? What happens to those children when they are born? How do Beorc masters in Begnion react to a seemingly Beorc child being born to one of their slaves? Ergo, what is/are the Laguz stance(s) on abortion in general? What are slave's stances on abortion? Are the two opposed to each other?

I'm not actually interested in answering those questions in this post because, whenever I think about world building questions on an existing work like this, I feel that the best avenue for answering them is to write an fanfic.

And I have actually written that fanfic, although I never posted it online anywhere. The fic is called "A Healing Place" and it centers around Vika and Muarim raising baby Tormod about 10 years before Path of Radiance. In the fic, Vika has escaped slavery while pregnant with a Beorc's child and, at the start of the fic, has just recently had an abortion. She has, understandably, complicated emotions about both it and the children in the fortress (including the Beorc baby Tormod) that she then proceeds to spend several thousand words working through as Tormod grows from infant to toddler, culminating in her love for Tormod as a sort of son to her. The fic approaches the abortion she has as a necessary thing she must do. She does not want to give up her Laguz abilities, nor did she desire the child to begin with, but she also feels a deep love and affection for children and a deep grief at the lost potential of what Could Have Been. I wrote the fic almost fifteen years ago while working through my own beliefs about abortion in general, as an exercise in empathy. I was moving from a very firm Pro-Life stance I'd held since I was a child into a more nuanced Pro-Choice stance, and writing the fic kind of helped me work through a lot of the emotions I was feeling by allowing me to pretend I lived in Vika's reality and had to make the choices Vika was making. As such, it's something I don't think would pass snuff on today's AO3, but it has periodically come back to remind me it exists.

Hence why I'm now talking about why I think abortion not only exists in the Tellius setting, but also that for Laguz it is seen as an essential right and a necessity in certain situations. After all, if an essential part of yourself (your identity as a member of your race) is at stake through pregnancy (which I want to add includes someone else's pregnancy -- a Beorc mother can cause the father to lose his Laguz traits as well), then the ability to control your reproductive system absolutely is fundamentally something you endorse.

And although the allegory doesn't hold absolutely -- I believe no man (Laguz or not) should have the right to control a woman's choice in her reproduction and therefore Laguz men probably have a "don't stick your dick in it unless you can handle the worst consequences" kind of attitude towards sex with Beorc women -- I do think it's an interesting thought exercise to consider.

And, if you read the whole post, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts and answers to the questions above. How do YOU think Tellius and Laguz handle topics like abortion?