#Swapper is too soft of a word

[bonefall]

How do the followers or adversaries of Thistle Law talk about it in-universe? Like... Do they have terms for themselves such as idk. Thistlers? jk but would thistlers for example deny non-thistlers the term "warrior" or "leader" bc "a True warrior values battle and the right if challenge" or some shit like that?

In-universe, it's quite varied. Thistle Law is not a position that you just announce you hold, so there's a lot of code and double-speak.

Watch for cats who start focusing on Strength, Weakness, Purity, and Mixing, especially in WindClan and ThunderClan where there's a deeper stigma about openly supporting Thistle Law.

But when they ARE being open about their position, they refer to themselves as thistles, or use Thistle Law as a proper noun.

"I am a thistle, not a pansy"

"We follow Thistle Law"

"A thistle doesn't just let itself get shredded to death! It claws back!"

(I think it makes for better dialogue than having them say Thistleist or Thistler. I have a minor nitpick about ASC where they finally gave the clans a real slur and they went with "Clan Swapper." Has no bite to it, but I'm glad they're finally making xenophobes the actual antagonists)

When they refer to cats in the outgroup, you got it. They tend to deny them as 'true' warriors, if they're being especially aggressive they'll stop calling a leader by -star.

Thinking about it, they probably refer to othered cats as weeds and delicate flowers, like pansies or lilies. Things that a thistle chokes out.

[shy-badger]

Who Could Love A Monster? Chapter 2

My first attempt at fanfic. I plan this to be a multi-chapter BBRae story.

Read chapter one here.

Robin and Starfire have started trying to date. As their affection grew it stirred some longing in some of their fellow titans, Raven doesn’t think anyone could love her because of her demonic nature. This doubt has to be put on the back burner as a new threat looms over the city, but during the fight Raven is reminded she isn’t as alone as she thinks in this department.

As his wings beat down on the air, Beast Boy fumed. “How could she say that? How could she forget that I know exactly what it feels like to have a monster inside me?” he thought to himself. Flapping again Beast Boy turned his falcon eyes below. Robin raced ahead on his motorcycle, Starfire flying close above him, the T car revved high in its pursuit of the boy wonder and his girlfriend. Everyone was racing to the call in their usual ways except Raven. Instead of flying she chose to ride in the T car. The distance to the attack was large enough that Beast Boy’s hurt died down enough to think a bit more clearly.

“Rae wouldn’t normally have forgotten that.” he thinks “Maybe that’s not really Rae. Maybe she was replaced by the Brain Swappers” The image of the comic book villains appeared in his head, attacking Raven and piloting her body around like a robot. Old habits die hard.  “Come on man, Be serious. What ever is wrong with Rae has to be bad if she forgot that.” He decided to take a look at the cause of his pain. He tilted his green wings and dived down beside the T car. With out the high altitude tail wind he was only able to keep up with the robotic titan for a few moments, just long enough to inspect his passenger.

Raven sat in the back of the T car. She had chosen the middle seat and she was doing her best to meditate with the seat belt on. As Beast Boy looked at her face his falcon eyes took in every detail with more precision than a human eye ever could. Though to look at her, any other person would see the calm look on her face, Beast Boy could tell she was anything but. He knew Raven, he knew how to tell what was wrong with her by the way she meditated. Subtle hints betrayed her, her calm look was forced. 

The green falcon lost speed and his friend spend off. He flapped hard to climb back up to his previous altitude. “Something might be off with her emotions. The last time she was like this it took Cy and I fighting a giant demon in Rae’s head to get her back to normal.” he recalled. The tail wind finally caught him and the changeling started catching up with the other titans. “I’ll have to watch her when we get there. When she’s like this she can do some scary things.” Flashbacks to the Wicked Scary event and her take down of Dr. Light rushed to the surface.

His train of though derailed when they turned the corner, a block away from the alert. Robin swerved to miss the sudden car that flipped right toward him. The T car drove right under this new projectile as it reached the height of its bounce. Both vehicles came to a sudden stop to face this new threat. The assailant was a large monster. Seven feet tall at least. Its black, leathery skin was broken by bright red veins coursing all over his body. The horns on its head were broken and crooked. Clawed hands were poised to attack as the monster let out a loud roar.

The new adversary jumped high and, before they could react, landed on the hood of the T car. The front end of the car was crushed beneath the weight as beast boy dove fast to help his friends. Raven and Cyborg bolted out of the now wrecked vehicle as starbolts cascaded down upon the threat. The monster retreated a few steps and this assault was accompanied by Robin’s grenades. Once the creature had a second to recover himself, it let out another loud roar. Just then the falcon above him swooped down and charged him, just before impact the shapeshifter change and pinned the demon-looking monster to the ground with one large clawed foot. Beast Boy opened his toothy jaws and let loose an even louder roar as his dinosaur form towered above.

“NO NO NO! My baby! Why does everyone have to hurt my baby?!” came the pathetic voice of Cyborg. He turned his attention to the perpetrator underneath the T Rex. “Yo! I’m gonna make you pay for wrecking my car!” he yelled. 

“Um friend, I think that will have to wait. It seems he was not alone.” came the worried voice of Starfire. The team followed her finger ans she pointed past the monster. around the corner there came, first one darkly clad man, then a dozen behind. These newcomers wore what Beast Boy thought to be togas. The garments varied between red and black but what was disconcerning was the men beneath them. Their skin was the same black, red veined, leather like substance that covered the monster. Some of them even had small horns.

“No... It can’t be” came the soft response from Raven. Seeing that the first threat was now unconscious, Beast Boy transformed back to his human form. “Rae are you alright?” responded the green titan. Before she could reply the dark clad men charged with a unified yell. “Titans go!” their fearless leader shouted. 

Turning his attention back to the task at hand Beast Boy set a collision course with the mob before him. His feet hit the pavement first with the soft padding of his shoes, followed by the hard clack of his hooves as he changed into a raging bull. A blue streak filled the right side of his vision as Cyborg’s sonic blast passed over his shoulder. The Teen Titans fought these men hard, as did their opponents them. All the while Beast Boy did his beast to watch Raven. This almost caused him to get careless a few times, as his desire to protect her grew.

Raven chanted the words she knew so well. “Azerath Metrion Zinthos!” The parking meter beside her was encased in shadow and ripped from its position. The now possessed object swung like a bat and hit her opponent square in the ribs, sending him flying. With a moment to think she whispered to herself, “this can’t be happening.” These men were followers of Trigon. Fear threatened to break free of her control as her dream came to the front of her mind. “I won’t let that happen.” she growled. She could sense another emotion trying to break loose too. Her voice was dripping with rage. Starfire flew over and laid down a carpet of starbolts. She watched her alien pass, noting that the end of her attack lead straight to Robin. 

These men were strong enough that all the Titans were forced to give it their all. “YYYAAAAAA” came the hearty cry of Cyborg, fists colliding with another demonic enemy. His robotic strength was enough to overpower the smaller robed man, but it didn’t have the desired effect of sending him flying. A quick kick remedied that problem. Before she could take in any more of the battle Raven set to the air to avoid her first enemy’s return attack. Her anger told her to rip him apart. She channeled her powers as well as her willpower, to pick up the assailant and throw him into his allies, as opposed to the suggestion from Rage.

Two more of his friends replaced him. One of them took his weapon, a demonic looking grappling hook, and managed to hook it around her waist. With a yank he brought her to the ground with a loud thud. The pain of the impact angered her. “Control your anger or...” Raven’s thought was cut short by the second enemy’s kick to her ribs. Anger again boiled higher as the first man returned to the fray. She blocked his punch with a dark barrier.

She tried to take to the air again. She had a brief look of the battle field. Starfire was helping Robin to his feet. Cyborg was being dog piled by four of her father’s soldiers. And Beast Boy? She spotted him as he entered her field of vision. He did not do so willingly though. The green loin slid on the pavement before hitting a light pole. The impact caused Beast Boy to transform back to his human form. The scene was becoming all to similar to her dream. Before she could do anything for her friends she was yanked down to the ground again by the grappling hook still around her waist. 

That was all she could take. Anger broke free. Not because of what they did you her, but because what they did to her friends. To Beast Boy. All four of her eyes opened at once. “I won’t let you hurt my friends!” came her demonic yell. A black sphere expanded out from her core, removing the grappling hook and distanced her enemies from her. Then, she gave in to rage. Her last thought was of Beast Boy lying by the light pole.

Continued in chapter 3.

[what-soul]

Identity

I’m watching an anime about crossdressing now, but I’m not finished. Expect something on that later (never mind - it got too boring). I mention it because it’s reminding me of thoughts I’ve yet to write here. I briefly went over the paradoxes of traditional identity before and gave an upgraded definition, but here I’d like to pose more questions than thoughts.

I’ve always found identity to be curious, as it relates to both “you” and the outsiders. What would it take to convince them that a totally different person is you? Say, you magically swap bodies with another person. From what I’ve seen, I don’t think they could convince even their closest family that they aren’t the original, which both terrifies me and piques my curiosity. I’ve always held that my body has no factor in my identity, feeling like I could dispose of it and replace it however I wished and still be the same me, to me. But to others, it seems to be the ONLY factor in identifying you as the same continuity, if only because body swapping has no real world precedent. Sure, people will comment that the body swapper is “acting weird” or “like a different person”, but the key word there is “like”. How bizarre that personalities to the in and out siders are exact opposites.

What if my body changed, then? I’d still be me, but no one would immediately recognize that. If I bodyswapped, could I convince my closest family that I wasn’t a complete stranger? What if my body just became that of a totally different person? Then there’s at least the added fact that my original body is nowhere to be found and there’s some stranger here who acts exactly like me. What if I was cloned, but my clone had a different body? I think in that case they’d clearly be ousted as “not-me” even though “real-me” would recognize them as me.

I view human personality primarily through the lens of engineering. From what I’ve seen, personality is a thin veneer on top of an unconscious brain. What it provides is context through a narrative it maintains about one’s life. This narrative is what drives people to do things simply because that’s “who they are”, like getting mad about something trivial because it reminds you of something you hate. If you were mindful in that scenario, you’d recognize that it doesn’t matter and wouldn’t get angry. Phenomena like tulpa (intentionally created imaginary friends) are an abuse of this setup, in which a new personality is added in tandem to the original and given its own narrative. “Sock puppeting” is when the tulpa’s narrative is part of the original narrative instead of having its own.

It would be easy to impersonate someone if I just used their name in a messaging app. No one knows who anyone is. Knowing that, socializing seems kind of lonely. No matter how close they are, they have no idea who you really are, because you could be replaced with an alien and no one would know the difference.

Relating to the anime then, what is gender? It’s not physical, as that’d be sex. There’s nothing fundamentally different about a differently-gendered brain. Psychologically, what distinguishes the genders? Is that difference real, or fabricated by society? Is it merely wanting to dress as that gender? To be treated as a member? Which is circular logic, gender being defined by people wanting to be that gender.

I’m pretty sure the distinctions between them are disappearing with time as technology makes division of biology less and less relevant, and sexual preferences are partially driven by the other gender doing things expected of its opposite (guys doing chores and girls good at video games are both sexy, in the broadest sense). Thus I’d expect at some point in the future, we might even go so far as to have gender totally removed from physicality, or perhaps even genetically modify ourselves to have no biological dimorphism.

I can’t say I’ve had gender dysphoria, but I have felt wronged being stereotyped as a boy. Males don’t seem to be seen in a great light as far as the gender wars go - they’re said to be smelly, inconsiderate, thoughtless, aggressive, hungry, and self-sacrificing. Not only that, “manhood” must be earned constantly - you can be “not a real man” if you don’t live up to an arbitrary faulty standard. I don’t want to have anything to do with it, because all gendering seems to do is rob people of their individuality and agency, reattributing their qualities not to their person, but to their category. I feel incredibly uncomfortable when someone tells me I “eat like a boy”. But all that is the rejection of traditional gender roles - what do people see in them to begin with?

I can understand the desire to be a girl. To be endearing to most people, soft and kind, and with modern culture “strong”. Same with being a boy - to not be weak and helpless, independent, and confident. But again, these are preexisting roles. What do people see in their own sex? I suppose it’s just more normative behavior, which explains why society mocks gender atypicals.

And then, most curious of all to me is how gender relates to attraction, both physical and romantic. The typical case of a cis woman and cis man will be taken for granted. What about a transwoman with a man or vice versa? Is that “gay”? More importantly though, what does it take for the man to be attracted in that way? How many lose it simply because the other has a penis, and why would that be relevant to romantic attraction? People don’t just date for sex, after all. To what degree is attraction based on physical and behavioral consistency with gender norms?

Personally, I’m bi, so it confuses me that these questions apply to anyone. Why would you care that the pretty girl in front of you has a penis if they’re into you and you they? Why does the sex of the other person play a factor in attraction, and what goes through one’s head when they find themselves attracted to a trans person only to find out they’re trans and lose that attraction?