#and at least one of them has had some trolls on their ass on twitter about not loving louis enough

[jlf23tumble]

"but go on and send me some links to 'big' and real pubs that are somehow trashing louis" FITF review by Alim Kheraj, the Guardian. A Harry fan. Walls review by Ashley Bardhan, Pitchfork. A Harry fan. Walls review by Alexandra Pollard, Independent. A Harry fan. All these reviews counted towards the metacritic score.

[traceofexistence]

After reading your post about Faye, I almost got a sense of deja-vu because I also had a similar rant about it.

Like that woman has been publicly out for a few years, privately even more (imo it was probably an open secret before she publicity came out). And no matter how "open" Thailand is for lgbtq ppl it's always a risk to come out, especially if you are already in a public light.

It's not Faye's, Yoko's, or 9star's problem that some people got "tricked" by other gl couple, and now in their opinion everyone is being fake and just doing it for "money."  And no matter how open and transparent any of them are (9star/fayeyoko), nothing is good enough for those people. Because like I've said they have been too delusional and were fucked over by other gl couples and their companies/studios.

So now that you have a openly out woman who is with a company that actually treats her and Yoko like human beings and doesn't rely on some stupid tricks so that they earn more money some people don't know how to behave. And in some instances are jealous because why couldn't my faves have company be like that. But that's just my opinion.

this

and because I'm weird like that I dont block the trolls I try to study their behaviour (knowing your enemies type of tactic on my party)

one particular on twitter was yapping about how Faye is in secret relationship with her salon partner (the way these assholes bullied that poor woman🤬) and she's cheating on her with yoko and yada yada yada, and how they are an excellent investigator. and their whole proof was couple of photos she had with Faye doing literally nothing LOL

so I looked at their older tweets, and boom they were a fan of another GL couple, and then they saw one of those actresses in pictures with a guy (again nothing explicit) and they started going off about how they were lied on, but to my understanding that other loveteam were like "we are single, we are phi-nong" the same way fayeyoko say (and I personally believe them because I simply dont ship)

so whether these people had "their dreams crushed" or they built a whole ass delusion to be mad about when it didn't come true is unclear to me.

and all the trolls I have seen look like they are disappointed from other GLs and apply the same bs on our girls

to conclude, I really do thing FayeYoko are nothing currently beyond phi-nong as they say

Faye has been saying she's single for years, that falling in love is hard for her, and be with people because she works too much, so I believe that

and Yoko doesn't care enough to lie about her status and she's been saying shes single since day one, and funnily enough the same trolls got mad that she said so again recently and called her names etc.

last but not least according to thai people, only very recently Thailand became somewhat open about LGBTQ. and still old people are conservative. coming out is coming out.

as for Faye, her family knew she was dating a girl early on. she said she didn't have to tell her mom, because her sister who (was very little at the time, asked her mom, and mom said "Faye is old enough now and she knows what she's doing" something along those lines and her baby sister told Faye back LOL so the cat was out of the bag soon, and her GF at the time was close to Faye's mom and sisters. her coming out to the public was around 2021~22 and after she got permission by the MGT boss, not to mention that with her coming out she paved the way for other MGT girls to be open up as well (two of her friends Lux, and Engfa for example)

[lemony-and-zesty]

Wasn’t gonna post anything about it, but I’m thinking about it again,,

Mostly cause one of my friends got hate for being friends with me.

But basically, I got banned from an all age-inclusive discord server for honestly insane reasons.

But in the end, they’ve essentially accused me of being a child predator and “posting nsfw in a server with minors.”

In reality I posted art with blood in it. Which the rules of the server said was allowed as long as it was spoilered and there were content warnings. I did this the handful of times I drew blood. Hell, I even said every time, “If I need to delete this please let me know.” They never did, so I assumed it was ok.

Anyways, here are my “crimes”

All of these things are things blown wildly out of proportion.

The “non-con” I drew was the two posts I made about Hitman’s boss.

The inappropriate conversations and interactions with minors from the server was actually just me being friends with one of the minors and letting them talk to me about their aus and talking to them about my aus.

And also being there for them when an actual fucking creep was in the server and the mods just let them be.

There was a person in the server who was talking about characters having sex *to a minor.*

And I helped bring this to the mods attention because I noticed just how uncomfortable this minor was in a voice call with this other person and switched to a private call to check on them.

I ended up telling a mod, who then told the other mods, who then decided to ban this person.

The real shocker?

This person was removed from the server with so much more respect than I was.

I wanna stress just how blindsided I was by this ban.

I got no warnings. I had no idea. No one had expressed discomfort with me whatsoever.

The only warning I ever got was for sending a link to the tumblr that has the Twitter drama Trolls AU where Floyd and Creek are super toxic and all that jazz. I sent it in the voice chat while on call with two people who are over 18. The link was deleted and I was asked to be more mindful. Which I agreed to.

Anyways, the point is, had I not been on call with two people from the server, I would have gone to sleep thinking everything was fine, and woken up to being banned without warning.

This is the only information I got.

The only reason I even know *why* I was banned was because I still had friends in the server who saw the aftermath.

I am not ashamed of any of my actions. I always did my best to make sure people were comfortable and I believed - mistakenly - that someone would let me know if they weren’t. If anyone had communicated with me *at all* this could have all been avoided.

At the end of the day though, I am sick of being treated like a child predator by these people when in reality I am just someone who wanted to post silly stuff about Trolls with people who enjoy Trolls.

If anyone has any issue with any claims the people from that server have made, I am willing to talk about and explain my actions - or hell, even apologize if it turns out I was in the wrong.

I’m not perfect by any means, and if I made anyone uncomfortable I truly am sorry.

But, I never did anything worth this level of contempt and disrespect.

Thank you for listening and sorry for the long ass post.

I just needed to at least give some insight into some of the stuff I’ve experienced lately.

Especially since this server was genuinely so important to me. It was helping me through some of my worst experiences and I’ve made some amazing friends from it. And for that I am grateful.

And finally, to whoever sent hate to my friend, don’t be a coward. Go off anon and talk to me. I have nothing to hide and I’m not afraid of you. Because in the end I know I’m not a child predator and I know I never intended to hurt anyone.

And if I still had access to the server I would have screenshots to prove it.

Goodnight everyone <3

[modelbus]

hello! I was wondering if you could do a tommyinnit x male reader (platonic or romantic, whatever you want).

The reader is this young entrepreneur who just happens to be Tommy's friend irl. He loves trolling chat and Tommy constantly by donating thousands of dollars (like 2k then 10k) during streams just to saying something stupid like "please come back to Nottingham, my mom says she misses you </3". Wilbur and Jack are always on his ass about who this guy is, but Tommy never answers them properly until one day reader just pulls up in Tommy's apartment during a big stream and you can take it from here honestly. Sorry if the request is a bit messy and specific.

ENTREPRENEUR READER!! ENTREPRENEUR READER!!

Pairing: CC!Tommy x Male!Reader

Entrepreneur Enigma

As the donation pops on the screen of your laptop, you can't help but laugh. Although there are a million other things you should be doing (a budgeting meeting, for example...), you just can't pass up the chance to mess with Tommy.

"Thank you- oh fuck. Fuck off, get out of here." Tommy says, shaking his head at your ridiculous donation.

A thousand pounds just to say hi, and that's the response you get? Typing in another message, you send another donation. He really should cap his donations.

The thing about you and Tommy was that you were both multi-millionaires. Although he stayed stingy with his money, you relaxed a little. Threw some around. There was also the fact his income came from streaming, an entirely unreliable business. At least being the youngest entrepreneur in the UK was relatively stable.

“I will buy many many drugs with your money.” Tommy warns. “So many drugs. And I won’t come to Nottingham to visit you and your mom.”

Before you get the chance to send more money with yet another message, a notification pops up on your screen. The one meeting you can’t actually miss.

When you return to the stream an hour later, a lot has changed. Tommy’s on a new Minecraft world with both Wilbur and Jack. Smiling to yourself, you send more money.

“And I- oh fuck off, I thought you left!” Tommy exclaims, cutting himself off.

“What?” Jack asks, laughing.

“Oh! Oh! It’s rich friend!” Wilbur yells.

“He says hi.” Tommy relays your message.

“Hi rich friend!” Jack screams into the mic. “When do we get to meet you!?”

“Never.” Is Tommy’s immediate answer.

“Stop hoarding him, man.” Wilbur chastises. “Let us have our fun.”

“Don’t worry, I can be all of your sugar daddie- WHAT THE FUCK?! Wait, is that 10,000?!”

“Tommy’s rich friend, please be my sugar daddy.” Wilbur says.

“Wait, how old is he? I feel like this might be important information.” Jack quickly interrupts the bit.

“My age.” Tommy answers.

“…on second thought-“

“BAHAHA-!”

Even you laugh although nobody else hears it.

For ages now Tommy’s friends had been trying to figure out who you were, trying to meet you. Tommy had dodged the questions until he could ask you what to do, but by then it was too late. You had quickly became famous for being Tommy’s mysterious rich friend. An enigma, one could even say.

“Seriously, I want to meet him.” Wilbur finally says.

“No. Fuck off and die.”

“What about me? I want to meet him too.” Jack protests.

“I told you no last time too!”

“We’ll catch you off guard one day, and you’ll say yes.”

“I’m always on guard. I’m like a fucking shark. Sleeping with my eyes open and shit.”

“Sharks don’t sleep with their eyes open.” Jack laughs. “Wait, do they?”

“Yes, Jack.” Wilbur sighs.

Maybe one day you’d show up to Tommy’s flat just to fuck with people. Break the internet a little. You’ve seen theories that you’re the mysterious rich friend, but they weren’t anything serious so the confirmation would send fans wild. Instant number one trending on Twitter.

Wait.

-

“WHAT IS UP BOYS?! WELCOME BACK TO THE STREAM!”

You’re running late. So late that Tommy had to start his stream without you, leaving his door unlocked and trusting nobody would break in.

Time-management skills were definitely something you needed to work on. In your defense though, someone else was meant to schedule your day.

Letting yourself into his flat, you lock the door behind you. Now that you’re actually inside he’s so much louder than before. It’s quite literally a miracle his landlord hasn’t kicked him out yet.

“This is a big stream boys, we have a very special guest joining us at some point. He’s actually late. Late! For me! Tommyinnit! Doesn’t he know who I am?!”

"Regretfully, I do know who you are." You speak, slipping into his streaming room.

He screams, throwing his headset off as he spins around. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"Hi Tom. What's up?"

"DON'T WHAT'S UP ME! WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING QUIET?!"

"I am simply built different." With a shrug you take a few more steps deeper into his room. "Hello Tommy's stream."

"OH! Right! This is my very very wealthy friend!"

"Look, they already know me." You lean on his desk, peering closer at the stream chat that was spamming your name. "Jesus Christ, this moves so fucking fast."

"Why the fuck are you so dressed up? Did you get all dressed up for me? Little ol' me?" Tommy jokes, nudging you away from his desk so he can see chat.

"You wish. Meeting ran late, didn't have time to change." You take off your suit coat, throwing it at his face. He catches it and throws it randomly on the ground.

"Oh, Wil's calling me! Hello Wil! What seems to be the problem?"

Wilbur's voice booms out from Tommy's computer at a painfully loud volume. Somehow Tommy doesn't seem to mind, leaning forward to play up his bit.

"THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOUR FRIEND WAS THE FUCKING RICHEST GUY IN THE UK RIGHT NOW!"

"Not quite the richest, but thanks." You say.

"Aw shut up, we get it, you're rich." Tommy rolls his eyes. "Well so am I!"

"Tommy, I'm no longer talking to you." Wilbur announces.

"I'm going to hang up on you."

"Don't!" You protest. "I want to talk to Wilbur!"

"Thank you. Now, tell me how the fuck you ended up friends with Tommy fucking Innit."

"He saw how epic I was and decided he would try and befriend me." Tommy answers.

"From what I remember you were getting ruthlessly bullied, but sure, okay-"

"YOU ARE A DIRTY LIAR!"

"Chat, Wilbur, why would I ever lie to you?"

"Don't trust him. He has nothing on me. Nothing." Tommy argues, glancing at you. "Don't let his weirdly sexy business attire fool you-"

"TOM!"

"What? What?! Do I lie?! Do I?!"

"This was the worst fucking idea ever." You groan, turning around and walking a few paces like you're going to leave.

"Wait, come back, I need your clout! I mean, I love you so incredibly much you are my favorite rich friend."

"Oh, with that convincing argument."

"Stay for me, I'm so much better than Tommy." Wilbur jumps in. "Besides, you still have to meet Jack and Georgenotfound. Ever heard of Georgenotfound?"

"Of course I've heard of Georgenotfound. I'll stay for him any day of the week." You immediately turn around and head back to Tommy's stream.

"Let me call him for you, let me-"

"HEY!" Tommy yells. "THIS IS MY STREAM! I'LL BE THE ONE CALLING GOGY!"

"He won't answer you." Wilbur dismisses.

"Oh you motherfucker-"

Needless to say, you're both trending on Twitter for a long time after that.

[lol-jackles]

Okay, maybe the Ackleses can conquer the industry with their understanding of PR. How did HBO senior executives decide that they could fix people's reactions to mediocre shows by using sock accounts to argue with people on Twitter? To make it even stupider, they also ticked off the poor underling they assigned the job, so much that he threw it into a court case over working conditions at the company. LMAO at these overpaid clowns.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/hbo-chief-casey-bloys-fake-twitter-accounts-1235634912/

Link. You mean social media can be used as a weapon?  You don't say?!

Like, is anyone really surprised?   My former colleagues were more mad that Boyd couldn’t be assed to make his own fake Twitter account but had to tell an underling to do it.  But I was, come on, most companies have a staffer or two doing sneaky social media things like this, pushing their narrative.  Hello, ever been on the Apple TV online discourse?  Apple has some good shows, but online discourse would make you think that they were already way out ahead of golden era HBO.   No doubt there are some dedicated Apple fans, but I find it hard to believe that level of devotion was natural.  And you know Amazon Prime does this, as they're the most desperate to have a cultural impactful show.

At least Mittens ran his own secret legendary Pierre Delecto account.  

Why this was news is because Bloys isn’t some newly jumped-up exec or business major in tv flailing with failing products. He’s a veteran producer who’s been extremely successful at HBO for a decade plus. Why is he so thin skinned and defensive? Why does he care so much when he’s been so successful?  While his excuse-explanation is having too much time on his hand during Covid sounds eye rolling, there is a grain of truth.  Remember when I said here and here that what previously didn't bother executives were bothering them during the pandemic lockdown.  It was why Misha suddenly scrambled to say (unprompted) three times that he and Jared got along and it was the fault of J2 fans for tainting his reputation, not because of his army of minions who lost what's left of their singe braincell over not getting canon-Destiel like he ambiguously promised for over a decade.

An assistant named Sully Temori, who is now suing HBO for wrongful termination, was given the task in June 2020 to write responses troll with  X account of Kelly Shepherd, a so-called mom and herbalist from Texas with 4 followers.  The troll targeted critics for being a middle aged white man who was “shitting on a show about women” i.e. The Nevers. Gee, those words sound familiar, right?  It's 80% of what SJW say online whenever they come across something they don't like and can't handle different opinions.

HBO is best TV brand with the most number of Emmy wins (just ignore that HBO has the most number of members in the TV academy).  So like in the article, people were surprised that a successful veteran executive would do this.  Except you see it all the time: celebrities, accomplished directors, and athletes going nuts on twitter replying to random accounts with 8 followers, "No @BigDickTerry6969, You're the one who SUCKS!!!".

One of my nieces is in the industry and doing well enough that she said if she ever gets famous enough, she will use some of the money to put guardrails in place to keep her from googling herself or reading twitter threads about her.  She also wants me to act like an addiction-recovery sponsor that she can call in the middle of the night with, "We just dropped a new episode and I really just want to know what people think, that's fine right? I just want honest feedback.".  And I will be, "No, you don't, you have to resist that urge. I want you to go outside and look stars, okay?"

Honestly, reading about Boyd's antics was like reading John Grisham's The Pelican Brief and The Firm and getting to the Big Bad reveal and end up having Big Disappointment staring back at you. Tom Cruise at least improved the movie adaptation of The Firm.

[jetixlag]

Welcome to my disasterpiece of a blog

Hi Tumblr, i am a refugee from Twitter who had no choice to escape cuz of the amount of trolling Daddy Elon has caused, so yeah unless Twitter gets back in two feet this is gonna be my new home

About Myself

I am a guy from Argentina, very gay and may or may not be having Gender Dysphoria so probably trans in a couple years lol, I am 100% SFW so no weird stuff, i do swear like a sailor tho lmao

I make art or something

My style is very inconsistent across the board and some of the examples are from last year, but don't worry they are all mine. For most of my drawings i used Medibang paint but now i switched to Ibis Paint cuz Medibang now sucks pure ASS

Music that i like and shit

I like to have an open palate, so i don't exactly have a type of music i like, however lately i'm listening to a lot to Dance, Electronic and Nu-metal music. here's one from an artist called Renard (aka LapFoxTrax/Halley Labs/Heckscaper) i recently found out about them and i have been obsessed (also they made a ton of songs i recognize from years ago so yeah lmao)

(psstt, if you want to listen to more of their music, check out this link)

VIDYA!!!111!!11!11🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮

I love old games, specially early to mid 2000s games. Like i said, i like to have an open palate so i have many amounts of time poured into other games, mostly games that have addicting mechanics, tons of customization or cute animals lmao. But when i'm not playing any of those i'm scouring thru Abandonware websites to download old games for free. Right now i'm playing a lot of Super Animal Royale and i have recently reached level 100, after countless hours of playing on console and PC. Here's a pic of my current character

You are required to view her and appreciate and love and care about her

U2 (as like the website, not the band)

To be honest, YouTube basically swapped Television and streaming services for me, since both of them are getting worse over time, although this is true for YouTube, at least i get to watch nostalgic videos i watched when i was younger. I like Vinesauce a lot, i watch both Vinny and Joel and listen to Red Vox a lot, when i'm not watching Vinesauce i'm probably watching some video essay about something i don't care about to kill time, Richard Overtime, Vsauce (Vsauce, Vinesauce, is that a coincidence?), RebelTaxi, etc

RARITIESSS!!!11!!

RARE VOXGASM VERSION OF HAZY

Before the release of "What Could Go Wrong", Red Vox released There She Goes, Back To School and Hazy as singles, but in the YouTube release, these songs had a little gasm MP3 file snucked into the songs, they are all normal except for that little sound, these videos used to be unlisted but nowadays are unavailable cuz YouTube made all unlisted videos private, but thanks to the people from Voxcord, links of all three songs i had saved and the Wayback Machine, we were able to recover all three songs (i'm only posting one for Tumblr, can DM me for more although i will probably upload these rarities to YouTube or Archive.org)

Some drafts of Why Can't This Be Easy by also Red Vox, i barely have knowledge of these but as i heard, these were shown on stream, and there were three different demos, i could only find two however there's a SoundCloud that has a version that is different from these two, i have no idea if this demo is real since it's unofficial but just in case i'll leave the link here

This is a cool website i found while browsing the Interwebz, it's a gif of the cat from Sapari doing a little dance to a link of random electronic music, and it even changes it's little dance moves when you click on it too!, truly odd but top tier websiting

I have nothing to add ERRR BOOKS

I have many books and mangas in my collection and a lot of 'em are pending, however my collection makes no sense cuz i have 1984 next to Beastars volume 2. or Chainsaw Man next to a Warrior Cats book, but i like it that way, represents very well the way i don't make any sense. Every year i take a trip to a book fair that is kinda far away but it's gigantic, kilometers and kilometers of pure book stands filled with interesting (you guessed it) books

I have a cool meowth plushie

I like pistachio ice cream :3

I have literally nothing else to add, might end it right here

So yeah, that's it for my introduction, hope you guys enjoy the stuff i make and that i can make new friends or at least meet cool people on the way on this website

Au Revoir!

[akookminsupporter]

Hmm, I wonder how big people consider the fandom to be in relation to the shipping community side of it? Specifically, in relation to Jikookers. Sigh, how big do people actually think our community is in regard to everything, I wonder. Especially when you consider the fact that quite a few Jikook moments get ignored by the bigger part of the fandom. I'm not saying we aren't pretty sizable, just not as big as some would believe. At least, not fandom big in scale.

Now, I usually don't get bothered by asks or anything, but the way that anon put their ask just rubbed me the wrong way. If that makes sense? Anyways, you know what I find funny? That people actually think we, supporters, or shippers can make the boys do anything. I keep seeing "oh, the shippers made JK respond" or "look, JK is trolling the shippers." Firstly, I would like to say who gives a fuck in the grand scheme of things. None of us, whether that be shippers, supporters, cultists, or the big accounts of twitter, can make those men do anything and never, ever assume that we can or will have to power to do so. Learn to realise that not everything has to do with fucking shippers and how much they spam the boys. Afterall, there is a whole other side to this giant ass fandom? Huh, what a surprise, isn't? JK does not have to answer anything. Whether that be about JM or about Tae. He never had to answer any of that, but he did. And you know why? Because he is an autonomous being thay can make his own fucking choices. Learn to appreciate that him reaching out at all is amazing and should be something to be appreciated. Not schewed to fit whatever dumbass agenda people are trying to push. It's cute! He's cute and his personality is great! Don't try to turn him into some incompetent doll that fits whatever view fits you best at time. (That must be tiring if you do, though. Good luck to anyone who does that, you fucking need it, that's for damn sure.) Sweet biscuits, what the hell is wrong with these people.

Gosh, I don't know if it was the hinting at shippers throwing enough comments at JK to make him answer and furthermore hinting at it essentially controlling his answer (cough fanservice coverup anyone cough sounds familar cough) or the fact that I could feel the condescension bleeding through the fucking text. Jeez, I just got really worked up and it is ridiculously late. Honestly, Rosie, it must be a full-time job just ignoring these asks and I question everyday how you do it. In the end, I know you are way, way stronger than I am. And I hope someday I can get that strength (and learn to verbally smack some assholes down lol). Welp, keep shining and stay strong Rosie! Have a great night or day, wherever that is! (Also, none of the above stuff was directed at you, but a certain anon and others with that mindset. Everyone can have their opinion, but that does not mean people can't comment on it. I mean, it is on the Internet lol).

Peace and love

Anon seriously, can we be friends? One thing you said is true, well all of it but one part especially, that some people whether they are shippers, supporters whatever they want to call themselves, can make the guys do what they want. This is something I have said many times and I am surprised that not everyone understands it. No fan or fandom can tell them what to do, especially not about their private lives and interpersonal relationships. But still, some believe that because the ship is the most popular it means something, some believe that because FMVs on youtube about X ship have millions of views it means it's real. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. It's just that many don't understand that this is real life and that they, they can't control those 3 people like they do in their toxic fantasies. Jungkook responds to the comments he wants to respond to. He and only he has the control to choose which ones he responds to and how he responds to them. And the only ones who can tell him anything are Jimin or Tae if his response is about them. How hard is that to understand? It's a miracle that Jungkook is still doing those dynamics I think I can call them. When it comes to their personal lives we are mere spectators. Nothing else.

Anon, I sometimes question myself how I do it. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you guys don't want to see my inbox. But to give you an idea, when I post asks like the ones I posted a few hours ago, in my inbox, there are other asks 5 times worse than that one.

[strapskinkstories]

A long list of reasons to be in a bad mood today. Mostly censorbots & heatwaves, at least I got some work done on Minecraft

Facebook and Twitter have got to be the outright most corrupt companies in the world run by hackjob right wing trolls.

Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are both republican ass kissers. Worse yet the hackjob Elon Musk who is trying to take over Twitter actively kissed Trumps ass to get preferential treatment from the government.

What does that mean? That means algorithms and censorbots that are biased against democrat personalities and are far more lenient with RWNJs celebrities and worse yet politicians. 

Politicians don’t need to be protected from WORDS ON A SCREEN. They need to be protected from real bullets and real threats, like the people who marched into the capitol on January 6 2020 with assault rifles in hand.

Instead, people like me get banned for calling white trash white trash. Lauren Boebert is exactly what I said she is, white trash. 

https://coloradonewsline.com/2022/06/02/lauren-boebert-american-menace/

This is the second time I’ve been banned by Twitter for calling her white trash, and it won’t be the last, because just like I did last time, and the time before, I waited some time made a new identity up and jumped right back on.

You can’t silence the truth forever. Lauren Boebert IS WHITE TRASH. Twitter, you and your censorbots might be able to temporarily shut me up, but you’ll never permanently shut me down because everyone banwalks in this day and age. I don’t know a single political Twitter user whos raged against the republican machine and hasn’t gotten banned for it. Most of “The Resistance” has had to use multiple accounts to get past their censorbots.

It doesn’t help that Facebook is run by incompetent five year old coders who make censorbots worse than nannies. 

Called out for violent conduct, over mentioning a The Simpsons movie line “Stab one more eye and it’s a federal offense” and then called out for violent conduct over a vaccine joke with a friend who laughed at both items. Facebook seems to have no sense of humor nor do they have humans reading anything. It’s all run by worthless algorithms. And apparently, algorithms that support Vladimir Putin too. Totally unironic because both Twitter and Facebook have been caught red handed in the 2016 election hack.

The internet has been overautomated to a point its literally killing people. I kid you not that people have been driven to the edge of and even worse to suicide because of the rampant censorship and abusive algorithms.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-lawsuit-instagram-caused-eating-disorder-self-harm-rcna32221 this is just one recent case of many cases 

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-snap-lawsuit-teen-suicide-social-media-addiction-2022-4 this is another case, in which someone actually died. 

I refuse to let any of these apps have that kind of an impact upon me, but you can damn well bet I will continue to fight them. I will make new identities if need be. It doesn’t take much skill to create a new name, grab a burner phone from Walmart, set up a new email account and bam, you got yourself a brand new internet identity to use on every single website.

That said, while I refuse to go to the point of suicide. I can definitely say, this is a real downwards dragging force on me.

Full picture below for more context.

This was posted by a friend of mine who works in retail. My response, I was PISSED OFF to say the least.

I would never wear a form fitting piece of fetish clothing into a retail store showing my genital outlines with great and disgusting clarity.

I’ve shown up in harnesses and restraint cuffs, but these are bulky items that are added on top of non revealing clothing. Items that when I presented myself to a shopkeeper they just chuckled and wondered to my partner who had me on a lead “Is he, uh, mentally disabled if thats the polite way of saying it?” and I just laugh right back and say “Naw, its fun being in a harness and in restraints on a lead sometimes, relaxing actually.” That time a shopkeeper learned about my autism and my kinks all in a midnight trip to Walmart, and respected me for my decision to enjoy my restraints and harness in public.

But what these men did? They posed as IRS agents and demanded the credit card number of my friend.  As shown below.

That comment right there, set me off BIG TIME. So I left a response, and it apparently pissed off Facebook. So badly that they decided to lock my account out for another 60 days and a 3 day total lockout. 

I frankly find the above comment a joke to warrant a total account lockout let alone any action whatsoever as the violence implied is theoretical. Nevermind the fact it’s impossible in that particular store as those stores nationwide don’t have gun counters (Unlike Walmart in the south, which does) 

Instead, Facebook would rather stand behind IRS impersonators rather than let someone vent their frustration with CRIMINALS infiltrating a retail store with their faces obscured and harassing an employee to the point they had to air their grievance publicly online. NO RETAIL WORKER SHOULD EVER BE PUSHED TO THIS POINT! I am disgusted at these men, I am disgusted that they posed for a picture in such a way that makes them look hipster / gangsta. I am disgusted on so many levels... Particularly the fact that they had the nerve to reveal their genitals in body conforming face obscuring clothing and then defraud the IRS.

People like this dumb bitch get thousands of likes and retweets on FAKE NEWS. I mean legit, FAKE NEWS. The stock market doesn’t care what political party is in office. It either goes up or down based on CORPORATE ACTIVITY and INVESTOR SENTIMENT. It has nothing to do with politics that the stock exchange started crashing mid last year, it has everything to do with wage stagnation, uncontrolled inflation being controlled by bad mechanisms read:interest rate hikes and bad politicians being in the mix causing investor sentiment to go in the toilet. Investors are risk shy. When election season comes around, investors switch to a risk off method. They dump money into low risk assets. Even worse so investors often are not ESG investors, especially on the private side. Even in the major ESG players side, a lot of them have side pools of money that they funnel into dirty stocks like Exxon. Exxon just pushed a record quarter, hit an all time high, and then bounced off the ceiling as investors saw the warning bells flashing as the alarms deepened and the market began to enter bearish territories. Now in a full on bear market cryptos are worth about 30% of what they were in Q1 of 2021 

The stock market and crypto markets surged as trump left the white house and rode on a Biden high for almost a year and a half before coming crashing down as Trumps economic failures became more apparent. It’s like small tiny cracks in the hull of a ship, slowly letting water in until BLAM, CRASH, BOOM, the hull breaks wide open and water comes gushing into the boat sinking it. So having absolute white garbage fools like this bitch running their mouths doesn’t help REAL INVESTORS who know a damn thing. High as shit interest rates help nobody, they don’t help people refinancing (Ever refinanced at 10%? Of course not, only an idiot would have a mortgage with that high of a rate) they don’t help people move into new houses, they create a perfect storm environment for homelessness and violence to thrive.

Extreme heatwaves, do not help people psychologically. They destabilize people. They are perfect catalysts for more violence, people can easier find guns hidden in the alleys and then go shoot people up with them. It’s not good when people cry out “climate change is a myth, climate change is fake news, the earth is flat.” in the year 2022 when in 1930 the Senate received a warning that global warming could eventually tumble out of control. In 1970 that warning turned into a full on fire alarm. https://history.aip.org/climate/timeline.htm

Alas not all is bad news... sort of... 

It’s been way too hot to do anything kinky with gear so I’ve been heavily working on my Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Virtual Hospital build in Minecraft with my friend Amanda. https://www.flickr.com/photos/alinslive/albums/72177720299761942 the photos are here. And what’s that blue bar up there? YUP It’s a goddamn censorbot claiming that my damn tweet ABOUT A HOSPITAL FUNDRAISER is ‘sensitive content’

So I complained, I decided I’d whip out one of my favorite TV scenes. Family Guy “HTTPete” scene “Electric Urinal” 

And what happens when I decide to whip out electric urinal? another damn censorbot hit! 

This is legit what I sent into Twitter after the final censor hit. I’m fucking sick of these damn nannybots coded by five year olds who cant seem to wrap their head around humor or theoretics.

With that I rest my fucking case. At least I know here on Tumblr I can run my mouth without worrying about censorbots hitting my blog. Because Tumblr doesn’t use censorbots on text, they only censor images if they think they are excessive nudity. And even that still isn’t a total censor, it simply puts the images behind a sensitive content interstitial clickthrough.

Of all the platforms Tumblr has the freest speech of all my experiences. Hate to say it but if I need to push a political rant you’ll likely see it here on my blog. It won’t be often though because you can damn well bet I’ll be back to harassing Lauren BOOBert. She harasses and damages people and personally attacks them. I have a right to shoot back if she’s going to shoot at me.

I’m going to bed. I better not wake up to my Tumblr having a warning on it or anything and I doubt it will as what I am doing here is DOCUMENTARY in scope and is intended to warn people that if you’re gonna talk about politics or anything online especially on Facebook or Twitter, you may as well act like you’re sat at the altar of a Catholic church and best act like a good little cherub or you’ll get censored because these two platforms especially are censorship havens.

Google is also a censorship haven but y’all have already heard my rant on those goons.

Goodnight, and fuck you Twitter and Facebook.

To all of my friends who actually read to the end of this post, seriously, if you’re reading this far down this gigantic deposition so to speak, thanks. Thanks for sticking with my giant rant and actually reading it. It means something if you mash the like button here. It means something to me when I see people respond and like these posts. I know someone is listening and I know someone cares. Because these corporate censorship happy fuckfaces sure don’t

[vespiiqueen]

Reasons why I think Genshin Impact is the next Homestuck, a number eval ‘essay’ from someone in both fandoms:

1. It’s going to be a very long wait for the final product. Homestuck was released in 2009 and continued until 2016/17, and still has a sequel in the works. Genshin will also take years to finish all the way like the devs are hoping to achieve with the entire Teyvat map (and then some) being coded into the game.

2. Multi-universal. Homestuck has ties with Problem Sleuth, ICP, Guy Feriariaririririe, and Betty Crocker (maybe more I don’t remember). Genshin has ties to the Honkai Impact games/universe, including many similarities in names and symbols (ie, there is a Raiden Shogun in both universes that strangely look very alike).

3. Overarching plots that can be summarized with a very easy sentence, but has so much shit happening between point A and point B, that the one sentence summary simply will not explain the plot. For example, Homestuck is about a gang of kids who play a video game that destroys the world and has to make a new one. Genshin is about the chosen Traveler going to find their sibling. These sound like very easy explanations— but it’s not. There is so much more inbetween those points, and I could go into more detail but but I won’t. I must stop myself :”)

4. Zodiacs. Every character is linked to a constellation/zodiac in many ways. HS: zodiacs can determine the alien species’s (trolls) blood color, lunar sway, aspect type, what symbol they have for themself, or even how they act. Trolls also have a whole hemospectrum based hierarchy, also centered around their zodiac/extended zodiac. GI: the characters are all represented by a zodiac within the genshin universe, unlike how trolls are based on our zodiacs. I don’t think this ties with much besides simply what the character symbolizes lol.

6. They’re very fucking long and take forever to complete. Homestuck can take probably a whole ass month to read all the way, IF you’re a fast reader and IF you don’t read all the dialogue. It can probably take a lot longer for people who don’t read as fast OR for people who actually take time to indulge in the details. Genshin can, obviously, take forever to get to the current endgame until the next update for a new area/quests. It’s not even all the way done yet. For example, a normal main questline in Skyrim would take at least 2/3 hours to complete all in one sitting, and if you don’t cheat your way through (like with console commands or simple walk through walls [tower of mzart]). Genshin takes literally a few irl days to complete a single questline, or more than the two hours by far. For some, the constant grind (if you’re a new player) to have to complete the questlines can get super boring. It was/is for me.

7. Some strange ass obsession with the Fergilicious song.

8. Cosplayers can and will go straight into public and not have a care in the world. I wish I had the confidence to go into a random Walmart in cosplay around a bunch of old people who have zero idea on cosplay or LARPing.

9. Twitter hates them both. Understandably.

10. Both fandoms can be toxic as hell. No, really. I’m not kidding. They can both very toxic, racist, ableist, sexist, or even lgbtq+—phobic (used as a broad term for transphobic, homophobic, acephobic, etc). That isn’t to say I haven’t met some rly nice people in both fandoms that I’m still friends with!! But the toxic part is the majority, where they think their singular opinion is the only one (HS fandom vs Vriska; GI fandom vs Childe or even Honkai itself lol), and it will be what kills Genshin (and has unpopularized Homestuck to the point of being considered dead).

11. Hot women that’s actually evil ( la signora, )-(IC )

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with MustangSally

MustangSally has 33 stories at Gossamer. Even if you haven’t read it, you’ve probably heard of at least one of them, Iolokus, since it’s an X-Files fanfic classic. All her fics hit big and are well worth your time. I’ve recced some of my favorites here before, including And Dance by the Light of the Moon, All the Children are Insane, and Iolokus. Big thanks to MustangSally for doing this interview.

What's the story behind your pen name?

I could tell you but then I would have to kill you.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Yes and no. Yes, because life has moved on since the early nineties and the characters and the fans are in vastly different places now. Our current tech would make the premise of the X-Files impossible. No, because of the longevity of some of the Star Trek TOS work (there’s an archive of hard copy fanzines at the University of Iowa). Top-drawer authors started out in TOS fandom.

I’m just greatly saddened that my physical body is showing wear and tear while the fic doesn’t. Fic gets to stay smooth-skinned and muscular, captured at the peak of perfection.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

At the risk of sounding atrociously trite, I think of the friends I made.  I met some very remarkable women that I’ve been able to stay friends with online for over twenty-five years.  We may have moved to Facebook and post entirely too much about our pets and which of our body parts has sagged this week, but we’re friends.  It’s a furiously funny, feminist, and well-educated group of women with jobs in the highest levels of academia, finance, communications, and media.  I’m amused by the fact that if I have a question about how a virus replicates, I can ask a PhD I’ve been drunk with in Las Vegas.

Back in the day, I had a job that sent me traveling around major cities in the US and UK. I could post on a message board and within ten minutes there were people I could go out for dinner and drinks with. We already knew we had something we could talk about for at least a couple of hours. Additionally, most of these people were women so there was an added level of security. Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Well, it was mostly atxc and the Yahoo! groups mailing lists that spiraled out into Geocities sites and, eventually, LiveJournal. The amusing thing is that getting in on the ground floor of social media and the Internet has helped me get jobs!  When I look at a new piece of software, I think, ‘this is hella easier than uploading to Geocities.’  We had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow, on dial-up, fighting off dinosaurs with our AOL CDs while writing HTML code. What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS.

The past four years in politics have basically been the ugliest online kerfuffle the world has ever seen. I survived the Shipper Wars of ’96 and I thought those were brutal, but that was NOTHING. The only way to win an argument online is to not have the argument at all. Arguing with a troll is like mudwrestling a pig: You both get filthy and only the pig is happy.

Also, READ THE FUCKING TERMS OF SERVICE.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I had the most terrible straight-girl crush on Scully. I wanted to be her best friend, I wanted to BE her.  I wanted to order Chinese food and paint each other’s nails and talk about bones.  Scully and Princess Leia and I could all just hang out poolside with hot and cold running waiters and poolboys, drink margaritas, and bitch about how unfair it all was – if the stupid men would just get OUT OF THE WAY AND LET US DO OUR JOBS, the world would be so much better. What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

This question is really about Iolokus, isn’t it?  You can’t fool me. [Lilydale note: I can neither confirm nor deny the motivation for this question, but I cannot complain about the answer.]

Simply put, I was enraged. The moment it was revealed that Scully’s ova had been used in experimentation, I lost my feminist mind. It was the most obscene defilement imaginable.  Scully wasn’t nearly as angry as I was.  What I thought needed to happen was for Scully to become a fiery force of vengeance against the MEN who had done this to her.  Clearly, I was not going to get that level of satisfaction from the show, as I was imagining Kali-like carnage on a global scale. I emailed RivkaT (whom I did not know well at that point) with a proposition that we work together. Strangely enough, we didn’t meet face to face until we were well into the project, but we did talk on the phone quite a bit. The rules were simple – everyone had to be punished in truly horrific ways, and at some point, we had to see if we could write a car chase (only because that seemed impossible).  Then it basically turned into a very twisted game of chicken to see who could be the most outrageous in terms of killing people off or writing really horrific things that fit within the structure of the narrative.  I did, in the end, write the car chase, but RivkaT one-upped me by throwing in a helicopter (a FOX News helicopter, at that).  

Really, RivkaT?  A helicopter? What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom? I am terribly proud of what I wrote, pleased that it brought pain and pleasure in equal amount to people, and, again, thrilled by the people I became friends with. I admit that I stopped watching the show when Scully announced her pregnancy.  I could only see a long jump over a shark tank for the rest of the series. I haven’t watched the new episodes, either.  It is complete in my mind and doesn’t need to be continued.  I wouldn’t say no to having a reunion with some of my fic friends, although we’re still chatting online like everyone does.   Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Rivka and I wrote in the Buffy fandom for a few years, but then we moved on to real adult jobs that left absolutely no time for me to write. I’m in education, and I regularly sweat blood for fear that someone is going to find my old fic. The Buffy people were fun; there was a certain *shininess* to them that I really enjoyed. The X-men authors were just batshit and delightful, and some amazing stuff came out of Marvel fandom, particularly in the Thor/Loki and Steve/Bucky subgenres. I’ve learned to appreciate a good coffee shop AU and one famous Erik/Charles fic where all the main characters are crabs. Seriously, crabs—it’s hysterical. [Lilydale note: Other Crabs Cannot Be Trusted by groovyphilia currently has almost 2,500 kudos at AO3.]

Every few years, I’ll have a student try to explain to me what fandom is and I just smirk. Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully? No. Not really. Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom? I fell into an X-Men hole a few years back and had a great old time wallowing in the Cherik muck, and there was a flirtation with BBC Sherlock as well. Strangely enough, I became interested in A/B/O fics only because of what they were saying about the role of women in our society. The limitations on the male omegas seem absurd and then you realize those are the same limitations put on women all. the. time.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

RivkaT very nicely formatted everything and put it up on AO3. What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I will always be stupidly proud of how shocked and horrified people were by Iolokus. The truth of the matter is that Iolokus has Greek drama at its core. Scully is Medea, and the entire story is lousy with “blood on the threshing floor” and Dionysian rites. The everyday is subverted into horror, and wives and daughters will tear men limb from limb like the Maenads. Since I was ultimately disappointed with what Chris Carter did with the entire show, that approach seemed appropriate.

At a certain level, all fic is corrective fic.  Like critic Anne Jamison said, “Irritated fans produce fanfic like irritated oysters produce pearls.”  And because fic has fallen so much into women’s sphere, a pure form of correction is not just the death of the author but the MURDER, a new creation springing up from the spilled blood like Cadmus sowing dragon’s teeth.

Okay, that’s a bit much. Maybe I should just take myself back to the isle of Goth Amazons or something. Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I had to write a self-evaluation and a reflection on pedagogy today. If that’s not fiction, I don’t know what the fuck is.

All my creativity is caught up in trying to pretend to be a normal middle-aged white woman so no one knows I am really a lizard.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Keep writing, keep reading, keep fighting the commercialization of narratives. As things grow more and more commodified, all our dreams and desires reduced to tchotchkes made in China, it’s a revolutionary act to separate your work from the marketplace. Be bold, take chances, turn the trope on its ear and kick it in the ass. Take everything the creators have done to make a work palatable to the unwashed masses and set it on fire.

Be subversive.

Be mean.

Have a great fucking time.

(Posted by Lilydale on March 2, 2021)

[anarcho-smarmyism]

How would prison abolition deal with murderers, serial killers, paedophiles, torturers,kkk members,neo-Nazis and terrorists? Some people are a legit danger and cannot be allowed to roam society.

So I didn’t answer this at the time, because the anon who sent it is almost definitely the racist troll sending me shit I’m not going to publish (so like uhhh bear that in mind lmao), but I’ve blocked them now and it’s been a few days, so hopefully they’ve fucked off by now. Plus, I’ve been thinking about this question a LOT since before I received it. It’s a question that I think most people have about the concept of prison abolition and reparative justice, and not everyone with these concerns is asking in bad faith. Besides which, with the recent attempted coup and the way it looks like people who participated are actually going to face legal consequences for it (which alone was somewhat surprising to me tbh), I’ve been seeing a lot of leftists discoursing over whether it’s morally okay and intellectually consistent to be happy about cops beating up, killing, and arresting KKK members and Neo-Nazis, so it is now actually topical! Under the cut due to long response~

So the first thing I want to point out, is that literally every single one of the groups of “legit dangers who cannot be allowed to roam society”, are already out there right now. In our current “justice” system, it’s common knowledge that monsters often get off on a technicality, or because they just have the money to throw lawyer after lawyer at the charges, or because they outright bribe someone, or countless other ways to get around the law. You can look on my own literal tumblr blog and watch me argue with grown ass adults who will bold faced admit to consuming child porn with half-assed excuses, and you’ll find more open pedophiles on sites like twitter, reddit, or 4chan, or porn sites where “teen” is usually one of the most popular categories. Besides which, have you ever looked at the average sentences for convicted rapists, wife beaters, or pedophiles, as compared with the sentences for getting caught selling drugs? In middle school I had to walk a mile or two to get to school through a neighborhood we’d been warned had a convicted pedophile in it, who had just been released after less than 15 years. In that same city, I heard a story about a woman shooting and killing her rapist, and prosecutors were discussing giving her the death penalty for it (she was bragging and laughing about it on video, it was definitely premeditated, but still). Have you ever looked at the statistics of how many rapists and abusers aren’t reported, or if they are reported aren’t prosecuted, or if they are are prosecuted with a slap on the wrist (remember Brock Turner????) Also I notice how you didn’t even mention domestic abusers or rapists in your list of people who need to be locked up lolololol shows where your priorities vis a vis “public safety are I’m sorry, but the system just does not work the way you think it does, the we are taught it does.

People who make this argument always act like the systems we have now are efficient and nigh on flawless when it comes to “not letting dangerous people roam society”, but it isn’t and it can’t be and it never will be. That very fact ought to be enough to shake your faith in the idea that society will become a nonstop Purge of indiscriminate violence if everyone who’s committed a sufficiently despicable act of violence isn’t locked up for the rest of their lives -but you might say, “okay, but those are flukes, the system still works because most of the people who are “a danger to society” are usually locked up.” I’m not completely sold that that’s even true (have you ever heard of the opportunities cops had to bring in serial killers and murderers, who just didn’t care enough to try? Jeffrey Dahmer is a good example of this), but I’ll assume it is to move on to my next point.

Even if we assumed that the system as we have it, worked flawlessly as designed, that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of the categories mentioned here are people that are actively running the very systems that this rhetoric is defending. It’s well-documented that American white supremacists of various stripes have infiltrated law enforcement and the military for the express purpose of not just “roaming free”, but getting to exert the power of the State over people of color. Cops and soldiers kill people all the time, and not only are they not penalized, they’re celebrated for it. Agents of the State fucking torture people all the time, and I don’t just mean Guantanamo Bay or war crimes by soldiers; cops have been caught on camera spraying protesters with pepper spray and beating them once they’ve already been handcuffed or while they’re chained to trees or whatever -not because they think they “need” to, because they want to, and they know they’ll get away with it. Cops also systematically torture people in prison with solitary confinement. Heads of state drop bombs on civilians for “politically motivated reasons”, they do all kinds of shit that would be called “terrorism” if anybody but a State did it; and people might disapprove, but they don’t (generally) claim that the politicians and generals who made that call are “a danger to society” that need to get life in prison. If you genuinely believe that whether these acts of violence are “legal” or not changes whether they’re okay, or that a person who engages in illegal violence is “dangerous” but people who engage in legal violence aren’t... I’m honestly not even going to try to refute that here lol, prison abolition is level 5 shit and you’re at level -1, study how authoritarianism in general works before trying to understand prison abolition (not trying to be a dick here, it’s what i would tell my younger self when I believed the same thing). 

It simply does not hold up to rational scrutiny to believe that society will collapse into an orgy of violence and mayhem if we abolish prison (or that we’ll have to resort to medieval punishments instead??? lol funny take i remember from some racist troll or other over the years), when those dangers are already present (and in some cases widely celebrated as “heroes” and given the power to indiscriminately brutalize “acceptable targets” with the State’s monopoly on violence) under the current system.

The next thing people need to understand is that contrary to popular belief and despite how counterintuitive it sounds, even the brutality of our current prison system is not an effective deterrent to crime (linked a Guardian article that looks like it has some good info on this, but I recommend a book called Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice by Adam Benforado for more information). Let me say that again: the threat of prison has been empirically shown to be INEFFECTIVE as a deterrent to crime. Do you really think that a serial killer or someone who wants to blow up a building full of people is going to be more likely to follow the law for fear of prison, than regular people doing regular people crimes like selling drugs or getting into drunk fights that go too far? 

I don’t think anyone is actually willing to argue that prison “rehabilitates” anyone, or does anything besides make regular criminals into angrier, more antisocial, more desperate criminals with more criminal connections and less options for any kind of a legitimate living, so I’m just going to point out that having such a large prison population arguably creates more people who have shitty lives of poverty and are surrounded by people who are in and out of prison. It’s not like that “makes” anybody into a serial killer, but I feel like you’d have to willfully ignorant to act like it’s not a factor in increasing violent crime in affected community.

So, I’ve so far argued that prison is an ineffective solution to the problems it claims to exist in order to solve, and that in many cases, it actually makes the problems that lead to these sorts of dangerous people (”regular” murderers and the radicalization of Neo-Nazis and KKK members in particular, I think) becoming dangerous, or at least more dangerous, in the first place. What I haven’t done, is talk about what I believe is the real core of the issue when it comes to prison abolition: nobody wants to fucking peacefully rehabilitate these people. I am arguing for a system that would handle these people basically as gently as possible, with the goal of releasing them back into society eventually, and I still believe these things mostly intellectually, not emotionally. I don’t want the men who sexually assaulted me and/or my loved ones to get off scot free (they did, of course, but that’s beside the point), much less serial killers or Nazis, and I’m not about to get on my high horse about wanting revenge on people who’ve committed these kinds of atrocities. The reason I’m a prison abolitionist in spite of these feelings is that I do not believe the desire for revenge, for punishment for punishment’s own sake, is an impulse we should indulge when creating social and political infrastructures that have ultimate power over millions of lives. In the words of someone talking about abolishing the death penalty, the question isn’t “do they deserve to die”, the question is “do we deserve to kill”; and here, the question is not “does anyone deserve to be imprisoned in this system”, the question is “do we deserve to brutalize people in this way for virtually zero practical benefits to our society”. What any person “deserves” is a subjective moral and philosophical question, one that no conceivable human justice system could ever actually answer. We as a society need to build alternatives to prison (and police!) that can actually address these problems, actually prevent the conditions that create and enable monsters, and actually rehabilitate (to whatever extent that is possible) criminals -even the ones we, personally, despise. Any long-term incarceration that may end up being 100% required should be designed to reduce the suffering of the person in it, no matter how despicable of a person they are. Trying to solve “the problem of evil” instead of trying to create a more functional and just society is a fool’s errand that can only lead to more evil existing, in the end.

At the end of the day, the “irredeemable” people you listed off as justifications for the continuing existence of prison, are only a tiny fraction of the people in prison, even the ones with life sentences. A full understanding of the horror and oppression the prison industrial complex enacts on the people in it and their communities (and how the system is designed to make a profit off of human suffering and death) is something you’ll have to read some actual books about in order to acquire. However, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that any horror we as a society deem “acceptable” to do to the worst of the worst, will also be done to regular criminals, as well as to innocent people who are wrongly imprisoned. Any brutality you design with a serial killer in mind WILL eventually be a punishment for a petty thief or drug dealer or sex worker, or a person who didn’t commit the crime they were incarcerated for. Is it really worth it? Is it really, really worth all the misery and oppression prison causes, to satiate our sense of justice? I don’t believe that it is. I believe that we have a responsibility both to the incarcerated and to their communities to base our policies and institutions on actually solving these societal problems however we can, and leaving our “eye for an eye” mentality in the dark ages where it belongs.

If you are interested in prison abolition as a concept, I can recommend some good books on it. You also need to understand that concept of “reparative justice”, which I’ve alluded to here but not really explained because OH MY GOD THIS POST IS TOO LONG ALREADY. Short explanation of it is that it aims to repair the harm done by the crime and rehabilitate the criminal through through therapy and trying to get them to actually understand what they’ve done and empathize with who they’ve hurt, while also providing therapy and resources to the victim of the crime (when it’s something violent and the reparation can’t just be “give them their money back plus extra for damages” or something). The point is not to satiate anybody’s sense of justice or revenge, but to proactively try to solve the problem the crime has caused and prevent the offender from doing it again. It would need to work in conjunction with the abolition of police (and replacement with better infrastructure for the few things cops do that we actually need done) and various other social programs and measures to prevent the circumstances that lead to crime. This sounds like a long shot because it is, but just because it hasn’t been done on a wide scale before doesn’t mean it can’t be, and just because it will be difficult doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.

[not-delicious-milk]

So i was randomly scrolling through as you do lol and saw your timeline on the mindmap and how you said that Yuuji is a suitable vessel because Sukuna's blood might have become strong enough, do you think it could also be a case of genetics and Yuuji being a practically identical match genetically to Sukuna hence why he is a suitable vessel?

Also with the theory going around about Brain bring Yuuji's "Mother" do you think that is where his memory manipulation technique could possibly come from and why Brain is so interested?

wow this is gonna suck bc it’s on my phone but let’s go

i think that whatever relationship sukuna and yuuji have left some amout of genetic material in his body. i’m not sure if it’s directly that he’s his descendant — gege has stated that sukuna had no children, though of course he could just be trolling — but i think of what the brain said in shibuya about how the body and soul are the same. i think that part of the reason why yuuji can house sukuna without harm coming to his body AND suppress his soul is because they share some genetic material or otherwise have some overlap concerning their bodies. maybe yuuji is his reincarnation, or had genetic material implanted in him in utero, or is distantly related to sukuna through other means. or maybe he’s just sukuna’s direct descendant. whatever it ends up being, i think that something is definitely going on. it would be much easier for yuuji to merge with sukuna, as gojo stated they had in chapter 2, if they already shared genetic material, blood or some other physical congruence.

it was stated by gojo that the appearance of sukuna’s vessel was part of the “wave of power” in the new generation, and later during the spv arc it was revealed that gojo’s birth was the catalyst for this, that it forced curses to evolve and become more powerful, including dormant cursed energy in potential sorcerers. what if sukuna’s blood relation or whatever it is to the itadori family was distant and weak enough that they still weren’t suitable vessels? they don’t seem to be sorcerers, although pappy wasuke gives off the air of knowing at least something about sorcery, but they bear a striking resemblance to sukuna from what we’ve seen. and yuuji was born after gojo. maybe because of that wave of power, sukuna’s dormant influence was strong enough to make him a suitable vessel — probably having to do less with genetic material since that’s not quite how genetics work, but indirect influence on his cursed energy and body development. idk if that makes any sense but basically the little itty bit of sukuna that was in yuuji was enough, after gojo’s birth and the forced evolution of curses, to actually influence yuuji beyond physical resemblance to sukuna and cause him to be ridiculously strong and capable as a vessel.

so think of recessive genes as an example. through generations and generations of “carriers” it might never manifest, but given the right catalyst — an environmental stressor, reproducing with another carrier and getting the recessive gene from both parents, et cetera — it can suddenly show up almost out of nowhere. real life examples range from brown eyed parents having a blue eyed child to serious genetic disorders and illnesses.

now imagine, if you will, that that recessive gene suddenly became a dominant one because of, oh i don’t know, a certain blue eyed baby being born and shifting the equilibrium of the world.

imagine if a child like that is about to be born, or potentially about to be born, but there are complications with the mother and she dies. if you were an incredibly patient body hopping sorcerer with a vested interest in seeing that child born, what would you do?

the brain states that they altered peoples’ brains with idle transfiguration to make them suitable vessels for cursed objects, at the end of the shibuya arc. the relationship between the brain and cursed energy is an in-universe enigma, but it seems like changing the structure of the brain can forcefully awaken a technique or make someone able to handle a cursed object. yuuji most likely is not an experiment in this sense — creating sukuna’s vessel is a rather ambitious first attempt, and the brain didn’t have access to mahito’s cursed technique when yuuji was born, so they didn’t have a reliable and precise way to alter people’s brains to change their relationship with cursed energy. it’s possible that the brain STUDIED yuuji to determine what, exactly, made him a suitable vessel in order to be able to replicate it, but that would require already knowing that he would be a suitable vessel. either yuuji was an incredibly risky and ambitious experiment from birth, intended to be a vessel for sukuna, or the brain had some reason to know for a fact that he was one. such as being related to him.

jogo asks after yuuji’s first death whether it was “worth wasting a precious finger to determine the strength of sukuna’s vessel”. that suggests the brain was double checking to make sure yuuji could house sukuna freely and without limiting his power, since it resulted in sukuna taking over to fight the cursed spirit. this wasn’t to check if yuuji could handle consuming more fingers. the brain seems to be very sure he can.

with the cursed wombs, the brain states that sukuna’s fingers are an exception when it comes to cursed objects — that they are powerful enough to influence their surroundings even when sealed in the form of dormant fingers, and that they can choose their vessel. other sentient cursed objects, such as the death paintings, can reside in any vessel, albeit completely taking over their hosts. there is no relation between the objects and their vessels in this case, and the cursed objects can exercise their full power at the cost of taking over the host’s consciousness.

it’s possible that the brain wanted to make sure that being suppressed by a suitable vessel still allowed for a curse to use its full power, i.e sukuna, but that’s just me theorizing.

in terms of the memory manipulation thing, gege has stated that it’s not a technique and that the causes were different for todo and choso’s cases. i’m not inclined to fully believe him because again he could just be lying his ass off to distract from the very real similarities between the cases. i’ve seen some interesting theories concerning it, such as that it’s a technique that uses positive cursed energy, that it’s a defense mechanism, that it has to do with the soul like mahito’s technique, et cetera. i don’t think it’s why the brain is interested in him — that most likely has to do with his status as sukuna’s vessel. i find it suspicious that the brain knows so much about his body and how it will react to sukuna (for example telling the disaster curses that should yuuji eat one finger a day up to 20, he would most likely retain control, but if fed 10 fingers at once he would temporarily be overwhelmed) AND how it seems that they already knew he was sukuna’s vessel even before he consumed the finger — someone else said this in the notes of my other post, don’t remember who, but when discussing with the disaster curses after yuuji’s first “death” it seemed like he’d been part of their plans for a while and that they knew he was sukuna’s vessel before anyone else did. but! the memory shit is very suspicious and i am looking very hard at gege for an explanation.

gosh this got long. i will probably cross post this on twitter because i kind of popped off. anyway yeah

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS | CHAPTER 19

First time reader click here

Summary+TWs: We're talking serious feelings here, okay? Reader, you're literally emotionally illiterate. You also have PTSD, which is finally addressed - kinda. Bruce does his best. And he also knows how to kiss... But y'all know that if you read my ramblings about lucid dreaming/shifting/whatever... Chile-, anyways...

My phone kept buzzing and I ignored it until Bruce declared it was time to take a break and review the results. Whilst the man was typing up the data on a nearby StarkPad, I fought the sudden influx of messages that I received from haters and supporters alike after Tony decided on tweeting a reply that could be interpreted in an alarming variety of ways. It was a smart move, I'll admit, but a fucking bother for me nonetheless.

Disabling my DMs and dealing with a follower increase in the thousands wasn't hard; I didn't consider myself a problematic asshole and didn't need to be afraid of "exposure". The parties I went to - I doubted there was any blackmail material in there and the few nudes I'd sent over the years were always face-less. As a gen Z, I knew my internet safety.

The trolls didn't bother me either. It was more sad than annoying, people shitting on others for clout. Iron Man stans were witty, at least, if jealous. I must admit I've never considered the influx of popularity I would experience should I publicly out myself as a friend of Tony's. Girlfriend? Intern? Science child? Whatever cover story he was going to feed the press worked for me, as long as I still got the hugs, the kisses, the dick and the attention.

"Tony..." Bruce groaned, evidently done with the data processing, had to have opened his social media to see his own skyrocketing popularity.

"Yeah, our Tony is being a Tony again," I chuckled, having reset my social media settings so my phone wouldn't constantly beep, vibrate and bother me. School was going to be fun.

Bruce shook his head, fond, coming over to my side of the lab after removing his own hazmat suit. His eyes shiny with newfound knowledge and hair turned adorably fluffy in the confines of the head covering. He was smiling softly. "Food?"

"Sure."

We chewed our sandwiches in silence for a moment, each of us lost in our thoughts.

"I still can't believe Tony told everyone on Twitter you're his girlfriend, usually he keeps this stuff private or schedules a fancy press conference," Bruce's tone was thoughtful.

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that what it was? Seemed ambiguous to me..." I trailed off, confused.

"He worded it like that on purpose, I mean, you're still in high school," The scientist was confident in his words. "But I know Tony. I'm a hundred percent sure that he meant exactly that. Aren't you?"

Shock flooded me. Suddenly, I understood I completely misread the situation. "Um, no? I thought we were, y'know, just fucking. We never defined our relationship and we're definitely not exclusive." I said, chewing on my lip. "You make a valid argument, I'm a high school student and he's a grown ass man that does grown man stuff. Putting aside the fact that he could have anybody in the world so why would he choose me?" I was rambling, thinking out loud. Discussing my feelings has never my strong forte. "It would be stupid to impose monogamy on such a complex man like Tony. Downright idiotic to expect a genius to confine to social norms just because it suits others." I finished with a wave of my hand. Another bubble of thought that had festered within me for the longest time. I felt relieved, finally voicing it out loud. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, a weight I wasn't previously consciously aware of.

Bruce was watching me intently, with an unreadable expression that held the tiniest bit of awe, admiration perhaps. The silence that followed was unnerving. I fidgeted with my hands, not really knowing where to put them or where to look.

"You know," He took off his glasses, fiddling them in his hands. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. For the longest time, I thought you were going to inadvertently hurt him when you get bored with whatever you've got going on. I respect you, don't misunderstand me, but you are young. Now, I've changed my mind. You've changed my mind," He punctuated his statement with his hand on mine, grasping it. "I think you managed to understand him in a way most people can't. Or don't want to. Understand and accept him in a way that some of us can't even after years of working and living side by side with him." Bruce's gentle fingers skimmed along the top of my palm.

"I don't always understand Tony but I do accept him," I agreed. "Because Tony is a great man."

"I think you're in love with him," Bruce said, absolutely having ignored my previous statement. Just like that, point blank, he pushed to the surface the very feelings I got so good at ignoring. There was no rest for me in this place.

My heart fluttered, picking up the pace. I kept my mouth shut, not trusting it whatsoever. My thoughts became akin to panicked hares, jumping and zigzagging aimlessly in my skull. I didn't see the point in defending myself because the scientist had pointed out the obvious.

Bruce looked at me, softly, warmly. "And don't think we haven't noticed the rise in team morale. The improvement not only in communication, but on the battlefield, too. It's easier to entrust your back to someone with whom you've shared a laugh and a drink the previous night. You're the glue that keeps us together."

Something warm and wet was on my cheeks. I stared at our clasped hands, his words echoing in my head over and over and over. The moment I realized I was crying, I willed myself to stop and failed spectacularly - only more salty fluid streamed down, some of it getting in my nose, on my lips. The sleepless nights were making me unstable.

It took a single sniffle for Bruce to pick me up and wrap up in his kind embrace. I didn't resist, tucking my face into the crook of his neck, holding onto the back of his lab coat, inhaling the smell of his skin and chemicals. It was familiar, calming. Minutes ticked by with me slowly leaking the tension out of my body.

"He loves you, too, maybe he just doesn't realize it yet." Bruce whispered into my hair. "I've never seen Tony so happy, even with Pepper. You are special and you are loved."

There was something unsaid, I felt it. It hung in the ear, it burned the tips of my ears, stood sharp on the tip of my tongue. "I love you too, Bwucie-bear," I whispered into the space between his ear and his jaw. His arms tightened around me.

The man placed several chaste kisses in my hair, running a palm over my back. In moments like these, the crush for him, the very crush that got out of control, blossomed fully into a deep sense of respect and admiration. He made me feel safe. He said all the right words at the right time.

Drowsiness overtook me. As usual, any worries and anxieties I had evaporated, once Banner had his arms around me, shielding me from the world. I didn't forbid myself this time: delicately, my hand slipped through the man's soft messy curls, eliciting a contented sigh.

"You haven't been sleeping well," He more stated than asked.

I had no choice but to nod. "Clint keeps dying in my dreams. Or even worse, he doesn't, he just suffers, endlessly, painfully." I admitted.

Bruce flinched under me, tensing. My face was in between his hands in a second, the scientist sternly looking into my eyes. "Why didn't you say anything? All of us assumed you were okay after what happened." He looked - angry. Not Hulk-out pissed but Bruce-pissed, which equalled a kicked-puppy look seasoned with a great pinch of disappointment.

"I am okay." I lied, shamelessly. "It's getting better. That's why I want to have a party - relax a little, dance, socialize. I don't think Tony would let me go on my own so I figured I can convince him to throw one here." I looked away. It was better for everyone if I dealt with my own problems - they were superheroes, not babysitters.

Bruce frowned. "Why wouldn't Tony let you go?"

"Because of that one time I snorted coke," I rolled my eyes at Bruce's naiveté, leaving the less obvious parts unsaid. Tony knew exactly what I was going to do once I got free reign, he considered it destructive and told me so himself. Admittedly, he had a point but still... I wished I'd been given a choice.

"I'll talk to him," Bruce nodded firmly. "That's not acceptable. He can't forbid you from making mistakes and learning from them."

He was met with my shrug. No excitement came from me regarding this particular turn of conversation. I was drained, limbs like jello, thoughts sluggish. My face was drooping.

"Let's get you to bed," Banner stood up with me wrapped around him. "You need a nap."

"No," I protested. If I went to sleep now, only Satan knew at what ungodly hour I would wake up.

"Yes, Princess," Bruce smirked. I wiggled uncomfortably - when he went all caretaker like, my ovaries wreaked havoc on my body and brain. My thoughts weren't appropriate if Bruce wanted me to see him as a father figure. The signals he was sending were mixed. People around me did that a lot and I wasn't sure how to act so I usually just went with the flow. I decided to do the very same thing in that particular moment.

Curiosity sparked within me, tightly interwoven with the deep longing that settled below my collarbones whenever Tony or one of the others wasn't sitting next to me or talking my ear off. I've almost forgotten how it was to be alone with my thoughts. The maze of my very own self was becoming unfamiliar territory. Alarming.

I allowed Bruce to help me shed my shoes and outer layer of clothing, shivering in the coolness of my room. Despite being a frequent visitor, I still had a 'guest' room in the tower - I mostly stayed at Tony's or Wanda's anyways. During our sleepovers neither me nor the witch minded sharing her enormous bed, to be fair, we could have fit at least two more people in it besides us. Tony took care of his own - all the tower's residents had their apartments furnished with the best stuff.

"Sleep now, Princess," Bruce chastised, tucking a blanket around me, having noticed an earbud in my ear and my smartphone in my hand. I had hoped to kill some time online, damn well knowing sleep wouldn't come easy.

"I don't think I can fall asleep, Bruce," I admitted, looking away. There was just so much going on. My brain wouldn't shut up and if I couldn't drown out the cacophony by being productive, I'd troll the internet, as usual.

Banner sighed, coming to sit next to me, leaning against the headboard. Gently running his fingers through my hair, brushing the outside of his palm against my cheek. "How do you usually deal with this?"

Involuntarily, my eyelashes fluttered. "Tony does most of the work," I admitted coyly. The engineer had a whole arsenal of tricks up his sleeve - sexy and exhausting tricks.

"I see," Bruce muttered, thoughtfully.

I opened my eyes to see him looking down at me with a look I haven't seen before. The usual mildly absent, slightly anxious face he wore was replaced by something I could only describe as hurt envy, like a kid looking at their schoolmate who had all the newest, coolest toys. I used to be on the receiving end of that look far too often and I hated it.

I hid my face against his leg, rubbing my cheek on the raspy corduroy fabric of his pants. "Got any good ideas of your own?" I wondered lowly, thinking about what in the world possessed Bruce to wear corduroy trousers on a semi-casual day, in the twenty-first century.

"Only bad ideas," He replied in a matching low tone. His soft fingertips relocated to my nape, goosebumps rising down my back.

"Humour me," I grinned against his leg.

Bruce was quiet for a moment, the sound of his thinking screaming louder than any words could have done. Knowing the scientist so closely, I found out he was full of surprises - bolder than he appeared outwardly and competitive to a boot. He thought he had a lot to prove to himself and by extension, to others. The unknown, the mystery dangling in front of my nose was exhilarating, trepidation addictive. It took me away from the chaos in my mind.

A gentle grasp on my chin had me turning to look upwards, Bruce's face flushed and focused on my own, open and trusting. He needed to see the obvious, that I trusted him to take care of me. He pulled and I followed, sitting up on my elbows, coming up to his shoulder level, our faces inches apart, enveloped in the unique, intense scent of his herbal tea. It was a tart, strong smell and it suited his quiet but passionate character.

Once, twice, I caught my eyes sliding to his plump lips. They looked far too appealing in this position. I usually strategically stayed away from positions so compromising, fearing the very thing that I'd already let happen, however this time the atmosphere was different. We stood on ambiguous grounds, waiting for Bruce to make a decision.

The man wasn't stupid, he saw the way I looked at him. The nightmares and inability to take a break from life put a significant dent in my resolve to keep a distance between us, romantically - I could have settled even for a pity kiss, a pity fuck. Anything to put my brain on pause.

His lips were softer than I had imagined. Skilled, too, he easily steered the kiss into the shallow waters of our combined longing.

With Tony, it was like an avalanche. Tony ran hot like Peterbilt engines, hard and fast, almost angry in his race for satisfaction. Tony was a man that was used to getting whatever he wanted and it became plainly obvious when we fucked.

Bruce was the opposite. He savoured the kiss, losing himself in a way that could almost be described as delicate. Bruce was humming, softly, as we tasted each other, holding the left side of my face with careful fingertips. Almost as if he was afraid to break me. The feel of his skin on mine was soothing in a way that made me sigh and relax even further.

"Wanna make you feel good." His voice had dropped, gone husky, but his breathing held even. He must know all about self-control.

"Yeah," I was ready to agree with whatever the fuck he was offering. My eyelids remained shut.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie

PS. Letsby, please don't combust. The underwear is coming off in the next chapter. 😶

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

It bugs me cus its like trump. Like u had this real asshole who only saw humans as pawns and was fascist, sexualized his daughter, tried to get the military to gun down protesters and people STILL resorted to calling him fat to insult him.

Like allegedly orion has scammed fans out of money and harrassed ppl on twitter among other things .

If u hate him (and prob should) hate him for that. Not ...fucking gaming wrong. Cus if u do u should hate travis for power gaming and ruining things cus he got bored with rp. Suddenly for no reason grog was a coward cus travis was low on hp (despite never asking keyleth or scan for healing) cus he went and reckless attacked in front of 8+ archers. He repeatedly tried to shut down rp multiple times cus he found it boring and just wanted to be a murder hobo.

Liam repeatedly tried to turn the game i to a 1 player game. Always going off on his own forcing the others to sit and do nothing while he got all the glory, meanwhile failing to remember once how both sneak attack and death attack worked(and its a LITTLE annoying how in social situations he just HAS to give the big speech and goes on "im going to leave and make the rest of the group come and find me" bouts of spotlight stealing)

And i saw someone talk about sexually harassing laura on stream so not remembering that i go try to see what i missed? Oh him making a joke about getting a woody from someone talking strategy. One of the least offensive sex jokes in the campaign. U realize the reason they had a troll dick was cus matt mercer descided that some trolls were going to rape his character, right?

But that doesnt matter because these were friends. At that point fans were just sitting in on someone elses dnd game they had with friends. Its extremely common for FRIENDS to be inappropriate with each other. Cus they are FRIENDS. Its fucked up for ppl woth a parasocial relationship with strangers to be so judgemental.

So anyways, if u want to talk about how O is an ass talk about the horrible things he did. If u want to hate his power gamey and selfish playstyle do so but remember than other cast would as well (how common was "ok im tired of talking about it my character is going to do something random and stupid cus bored) and if u want to hold the early stream accountable for unprofessionalism hold the ENTIRE table.

Course i dont think u should do that at all, cus like i said it didnt start being a show for a long time and was mostly just some nerds playing dnd with a camera and getting showered by fans who thought they were fans and gave them way to much free stuff

[shinymooncolor]

@lumosinlove most recent chapter was a rollercoaster of crying, yelling and a lot of love for her oc’s. Can we get a round of applause for NatALLY? ❤️

I promise Prague will come up soon, just had to react to the gem that was the last chapter 🏳️‍🌈

So here’s a little sweater weather chat for you as well 😍

(Sergei and Kuny texts in Russian, but to make it easier - it’s in English 😜)

Sweater weather chat #11

Sergei goes into dad-mode. Kasey considers murder. Kuny is a cat. Nado trolls. And he’s got some creative threats. Natalie and Lily are amazing. Walker has a good idea. We struggle with metaphors. So many rainbows. James organizes a “let’s protect Re at all costs” schedule. Sunny texts Hank. Dumo is Dumo ❤️

—-

Dumo: sergei. Hey. I wanted to know how you’re doing.

Sergei: are you ask if I support cap or are you ask if I am ok?

Dumo: you know me too well, old friend.

Sergei: I do not share views with my home on all things.

Dumo: I know. I’m sorry. But we need to support Sirius, and Remus, for that matter, as a team. I need to know I’ve got my best friend with me.

Sergei: I support. We win more. I play my time for Russia. Is ok.

Dumo: what about Kuny?

Sergei: I talk to him. No problem. He is young. Different age.

Dumo: he doesn’t have to say anything. We can keep media off of him but they might ask from Russian media? How can we protect him. Alice is on it. But.

Sergei: Pascal. I raise that boy from he 17. Anya and I not let him ruin national career. But I know him too. He is a good boy and he will support his cap.

Dumo: can I add sunny?

Sergei added Sunny to the chat

Sunny: well that was a shit show. Thank the hockey gods we didn’t have social media when we were babies

Dumo: hehe they’d have never let Sergei back into Russia. 😂

Sergei: I know you have picture. I have too.

Sunny: what’s the plan? I’m not afraid to take a misconduct and a ban if someone says shit

Dumo: it won’t help. But I get it. All star is not going to be fun for him. At least cherry is no longer on tv to say something.

—-

Sergei: hey kid, how are you?

Evgeni: it’s crazy. I mean. He seemed happier but it was so bad the way it was done. I’m really sad for them.

Sergei: I know. No one should have to experience that. Being forced. But kid, how’re you? Anyone tried to get comments?

Evgeni: I... yes... but I don’t know what to say. I don’t care. But. What can i say? I want to play for home. 😟

Sergei: I know. You’ve done two great worlds as a senior, one Olympic and they would be crazy not to pick you. But you know them. You know what it’s like, what they say.

Evgeni: but. He’s my captain. I don’t know. Will you say?

Sergei: I’m old. I’ve done my national duty, we’re happy here. If I can’t come home because i support my friend and captain. I’ll stay. We can try and keep them off of you ok? Alice knows this and she will help. You’re already not their favorite because you pretend to be stupid. But they’re going to be asking from home soon. They’ll expect you to denounce it.

Sergei: I just want to say I love you kid. And I support you. But remember the team is your family too.

Evgeni: I know. Shit. I’m scared. And I’m not even gay. It’s just. I know people joke about me and nado.

Sergei: I think malkin got us covered there. Half the world seems convinced him and Crosby has a secret affair. Don’t worry kid. We’ll work it out.

Evgeni: hehe they do look at each other a lot. And they always fight whenever someone takes the other one down.

Sergei: you fight everyone. And you’ll have to, even more now. They’re going to be mean about this. They’re going to come for us. You have to be strong, kid.

Evgeni: yeah. Don’t care what they say.

Sergei: I know. How’s Nado?

Evgeni: he’s okay. Mostly shocked but he’s already started fighting with people online. Blizzard too.

Sergei: be careful, kid. You’ve got a lot to lose to. Just think before you post?

Evgeni: I will dadddddd

Sergei: shut up. See you for practice. Don’t be late.

—-

Siriusly left the group chat

Blizzard: I DONT CARE IM GOING TO FUCKING MURDER EVERYONE WHO EVEN THINKS ABOUT SAYING SHIT

Prongstar: we’re going to divide and conquer. We need to support Re.

CarbO’Hara: send us a schedule. Hehe also. I’m with kase on this

Nadotheman: fuck yeah.

RussianGod: 🤬👊

Sunnysideup: hank messaged me that the rangers are going to send out a statement in support of an open league for all at least. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 Pens too it seems.

Krisvolley: yeah looking at the all star it’s really cool. @carbo’hara your brother started it?

CarbO’Hara: yeah big bro 😜👊🏳️‍🌈

Walkietalkie: I think it’s safe to assume that other than the snakes, we won’t really get much shit. I know some are going to be stuck up shits but. I’ve got faith. Also way to go finno. 😜😜😜 two birds in your lap is better than one on your head or whatever it is

LeWilliam: you having a stroke? That’s not how the metaphor is.

Walkietalkie: just congratulating my future brother in law. ❤️🏳️‍🌈also hey why don’t we all wear rainbows to next practice? I bet Alice can whip something up? We can get bots and Marls to comment too? 😎

Prongstar: YES! Thanks walks! Also brother in law? You marrying Alex? 🤣

Walkietalkie: naw man. I’m gonna woo noelle, marry her, build her a house and make a bunch of hockey babies. We’re gonna be a dynasty. 😍

Logantremblayzzz: you gotta ask me first. But I like you and she’s happy. Also. Ew don’t talk a about making babies with my sister 😳

Walkietalkie: tell leo to get his hands outta carb’s pants then. They’re getting freaky without you bro.

Logantremblayzzz: YOU PROMISED.

Newt-leo: sorry lo. Also it’s a lie. He was helping me tuck in my shirt. Also walker isn’t even here.

Prongstar: sure. Kuny is hogging all the nachos. If you want any better get in here.

Ollibear: so I’m cat sitting for the terrible twins at their house while you all watch all stars and comfort re? I feel left out 😫

Blizzard: sorry Olli bear. If it helps, you can come and sit in my lap. James said no and my girlfriend is being weird with lily.

Timmyforrealz: I wanna sit in your lap too kasey.

Prongstar: oh you’re too late. He’s got a lap full of Russian enforcer.

CarbO’Hara: I don’t understand the physics of how a giant like that can curl into such a small ball of enforcer. It’s cute. Gotta get a pic.

Nadotheman: careful blizzard. He’s like a cat, once he’s comfy he won’t move. He even purrs if you scratch the back of his neck. 😂

Newt-leo: 🦁🦁🦁

——

NatALLY: ladies. We need to get some food going for Re. Lils and I’ve got it covered for the weekend for now. Anyone check on the disaster twins?

Celeste: Apparently Nado is already making problems online. Alice yelled for 20 minutes at dumo to talk to him.

GingerLily: what did he do?

Celeste: I’m not sure. Something about spamming someone with rainbows and threatening a journalist to run him over with the Zamboni.

Anyaismyname: they came here yesterday. Kuny and Sergei need talk and decide how to handle Russia media. I helped Nado. Was fun. He made Twitter @STILLMYCAPTAINBLACK. Is cute.

NatALLY: I followed. Fuck he’s hilarious. Hahahahaha. Also Kuny showed up at Re’s. That guy can smell nachos across a whole fucking city

—-

Nat: hey Jackie. Great work on the Twitter. Might I get the login? Just thinking you’ll need an administrator when you guys take the ice.

Nado: hey nat. Of course. Already shared it with Olli, kris and timmers. He he. Bitch ass trolls won’t know what hit them.

Nat: they wont. Thanks man, this is brilliant.

Nado: @STILLMYCAPTAINBLACK

PASSWORD: SNAPEISASLEAZEBALL

NatALLY: when did you get so smart?

Nado: honestly it’s mostly Kuny. I know we laugh at his English but the guy is fucking smart you know? Man he’s already trolled some Russians. Sergei and Sunny both refused to translate.

[christinaroseandrews]

Marketing Matters - Strategy - Fanfiction

Strategy - Fanfiction

So this is a bit of a taboo subject in the publishing world, but I’m going to be upfront with you all. 

We write fanfiction. 

There, I said it. 

Writing fanfic is also a viable marketing strategy for authors who are choosing to go the self-publishing route and not always for the reasons that immediately spring to mind.  In addition, the skills, fanbase, and tricks learned while writing fanfic can also apply to traditional publishing.  However, I’m going to give you one caveat right up front: many big name publishers don’t like authors who write fic. Or at least they say they don’t. It’s becoming more common, but most publishers and agents want authors to be focusing on original fic not fanfic. Several smaller presses don’t care as much, so long as your author persona and your fic persona are very separate and you don’t rub it in their faces.  But the big name publishers may require you to pull your fanworks. So that’s something to keep in mind.

So now it’s time to break it down.

About Us and What we’ve done:

We’re probably best known as fanfic writers in the Hunger Games fandom, where we have a few well regarded fics.  We’ve also dipped our toes into other fandoms including the MCU, Harry Potter, DBZ, and more drive-by one-shots in various fandoms than you can shake a stick at.

We also both were/are a part of the Sims 2 writing community and had a few well known stories there as well.  ^__^ We may or may not have met in this fandom. LOL

Both of us have been part of these fandoms for years and were active members in them. Lark started in fanfic back in 1994/5 as a beta reader (which she then parlayed that experience into becoming an editor that summer). While Rose discovered fic in college in 2002. In these fandom communities, we met people that we now call friends in real life as well as mentors, betas, advisers, and cheerleaders. We learned skills that apply both to fic and to original writing.  And, most importantly, we learned how to listen to our audience.

Let me stress that again: we learned to listen to our audience. 

When we transitioned, we hit up the people we met in these fandoms to help us with various aspects of publishing life (either paying or trading favors for work done) and we’ve also given status updates about our original writing, along with links to our author tumblr in the authors’ notes of our fics. Nothing that will violate the terms of Ao3′s Terms of use - but links to our professional website/social media.

While we write fanfic less, we still dip our fingers in now and again.

Cost:

Time. 

Straight up time.

The cost of writing fic is time, energy, and creativity.  Time spent writing fic is time NOT spent writing original works that can be published.  Time that is not spent editing or plotting or doing other sweat equity types of marketing. Which is why some authors refuse to write fic once they turn professional and it is completely understandable. Fanfic authors don’t get paid for their work and for some, getting paid is a big deal. Especially when most of your income comes from writing.

It’s a cost we willingly pay sometimes, but if a fanfic author you know also writes original works for publications. It does mean that updates may be slower and there is often less motivation to keep publishing stories -- especially if the stories don’t get much in the way of response/feedback.

It’s about return on investment.

Return on Investment:

I’m going to do this a little differently since sometimes the return isn’t monetary.  This is also likely to sound really clinical and analytical; that’s because I’m trying to be objective and I may be going too far the other way. We write fanfic because we love it, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t give back to us too.

Monetary (Language of Flowers only):

Units sold:  20

Mailing list subscribers: 6

Social media followers:  Twitter - 15, Tumblr - 60, Facebook - 8

Not Monetary but Cost Saving

Editors - 9

Cover Designers - 3

Mailing List Trades - 3

Skills Learned:

Editing (Line, Content, Story Doctoring -- Yes, all of these)

Proofreading (not the same as editing)

Creating Characters

Keeping Characters in Character

Plotting

Engaging an audience

Finishing what you start

How to handle ConCrit

How to handle Trolls

How to write to an audience

How to prevent plot holes

As you can see, the biggest return on investment of the time is in the skills section. Fanfiction is not to be taken lightly.

And as for me, Lark, I literally parlayed my experience working in fandom to actual paying jobs as an editor. I honed my skills as an editor on fanfic which I then turned around and used to get a job editing professionally. I did that multiple times for a bunch of different publishers/clients. I got my start in fanfic.

As an editor, one of the biggest problems I see with developing authors is a “sameness” in voice. AKA all of the characters sound the same.  If you want to see this in traditionally published book action, then look at Laurel K. Hamilton... Her Merry Gentry and Anita Blake heroines sound almost exactly the same. (Which not coincidentally, sounds like how she speaks in real life.)

With fanfiction, you can’t do that. You’ll get called out for being OOC. So you have to learn to adapt your voice. (Or only write characters that sound like you but that gets boring after a while.)

So in my actual job as an editor, one I get paid to do, I legitimately tell my clients to pick a character from a show they like and use them as a template for a character they’re having trouble giving a good character voice to. And unsurprisingly, it works. It’s a good trick and it subconsciously teaches your brain how to create different characters/voices.

They other HUGE takeaway from the skills is in regards to concrit and being able to take it. If you want to publish for a living and not just half-ass it, you have to develop a thick-ish skin. And fanfiction can help with that. I straight up learned to deal with harsh reviews from writing fanfiction. But more importantly, I learned how to listen to what the person was telling me and then become a better author because of it.

In fanfiction, unlike in the publishing world, the reviews are meant for the authors... not potential readers. If someone really hates your work, or worse, is apathetic to it. They just won’t comment. They’ll hit the backspace and you’ll never hear anything. Most comments, especially critical ones, are from people who legitimately like the story that you’re telling but have a problem with part of it. The comment may be harsh, it may even be mean. But it tells you something and it gives you an idea where you may be turning off readers. People aren’t always good at phrasing criticism constructively. We’re not really trained how to do that. But when someone tells you why something isn’t working for them or why they didn’t like something, listen. You don’t have to agree -- we certainly haven’t -- but listening and thinking critically about the feedback will help.

This can be seen in our first novel, The Language of Flowers, which started out its life as a fanfic. The story pissed several readers off. And we realized as we were writing it that we needed to explain something and we weren’t doing a good job of doing so. So the scene that every single one of our readers loved was born of that concrit. Our story is better and reached the top 100 in its categories on Amazon because of the feedback we got as fanfic authors.

Seriously, writing fanfic has gotten us to where we are today.

Takeaways:

My biggest take away is that writing fanfic is a great skills builder and audience builder.

Pros:

Skills. Oh so many skills. But the biggest is that you will be writing and no writing is ever wasted. It’s practice. Like an artist has to sketch or a musician practice. You’re honing and toning your writing muscles. And fanfic is absolutely valid for doing that.

Cons:

Time. Straight up Time.

Rating:

It’s been so long since I’ve done one of these that I don’t remember. But honestly, the rating varies. You get out of fanfic what you put in and what you’re willing to take from it.

(Note: This has been sitting in our drafts for about 4 years. I finally finished it up because I was bored and waiting to go to a doctor and didn’t feel like doing nothing.)

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