#and making it all of us adults' problem...

[crowleys-hips]

while i agree no one should be using chatgpt and it's absolutely useless if your objective is to learn, i also don't think the students using it are the problem. because the question i think we should ask ourselves is, why don't students want to learn?

and no, i really don't think the answer is as simple as "they're lazy." i think the answer is that the education system is outdated, exploitative, counterproductive to learning, and ableist as fuck. it has absolutely no regard for students' mental health, you're expected to balance about 7 subjects all at once and have the time and energy to excel at every single one of them, do extracurriculars, and have a social life. a good sleep schedule is a fucking fantasy.

the most stressful and frustrating and anxious time in my life was high school. i had panic attacks daily, and teachers would mock me and look down upon me bc i had learning disabilities. but i know, even with no disabilities, that even neurotypical people struggle with all this pressure. it is no humane way to treat children, or young adults, or literally anyone. and while i think that chatgpt is making matters worse in education, i think we should really consider why students turn to it in the first place. bc i know for a fact that little 16 year old me would've. i was fucking brilliant at writing essays, but i was also fighting for my life there. literally. because yes i was learning, but learning doesn't have to mean suffering. so no, i don't blame students, and i don't think they deserve all the mockery they're getting for using something to cheat a system that doesn't give a shit about them as people, only for how high they can score on paper. the education system is fucked. it doesn't serve people, it serves capitalism. it doesn't care about building better people, only perfect little machines who will do anything to get a good score. and like a machine, they'll do what it takes to get that score.

so yes, chatgpt bad, we know. but way more than that, there should be a bigger push for a better education system that doesn't ignore the real needs of its students.

"what did students do before chatgpt?" well one time i forgot i had a history essay due at my 10am class the morning of so over the course of my 30 minute bus ride to school i awkwardly used by backpack as a desk, sped wrote the essay, and got an A on it.

six months later i re-read the essay prior to the final exam, went 'ohhhh yeah i remember this', got a question on that topic, and aced it.

point being that actually doing the work is how you learn the material and internalize it. ChatGPT can give you a short cut but you won't build you the the muscles.

[enha-hype]

&team - period care pt 2 ♡ (maknae line) hyung line

how each member deals with/reacts to different period symptoms

pairing: bf!&team x afab!reader

genre: fluff, comfort, poor attempt at humour lol, little bit of angst in taki’s

warnings: cursing, mentions of nausea, period pain, mentions about food and eating problems but not ED related

w.c.: around 500-700 for each member

a/n: finally back with the part 2 i promised!! taki's turned out to be a little longer than the rest...okay maybe a lot lol (1k). but i didn't want it to be half-assed either so yeah.

posting this on my period.... where is my loving caring boyfriend 😞

🪐 yuma (fatigue)

it's one of those days where you really really do not want to step out of the house (more like the couch in the living room), much less do anything that requires any physical activity. which is not good, because you and yuma have a picnic planned for today at this cute little spot which requires a bit of walking and cycling to get there. and you are absolutely in no mood for that.

(more under the cut!)

at first you think about just sucking it up and getting it over with. but you'll probably be moody and grumpy the whole time and yuma deserves better than that. you would also like it if you could go when you would actually be able to enjoy it.

no other way around it then. you let out a long dramatic sigh and grab your phone to dial your boyfriend. he picks up on the second ring.

“yuma…”

“yes sweetie?!” he sounds so excited you feel doubly worse for what you're about to do.

you chew on the inside of your cheek. “okay, please don't be mad, but…”

“what? did you watch another episode of resident playbook without me again?”

“no! i was just wondering if we could... maybe postpone our picnic date and just stay in instead today?” there's a beat of silence.

“i am SO mad that i'm gonna come over with your favourite snacks and punish you with kisses all over your face before we watch the next episode of resident playbook together,”

you heave a sigh of relief. you knew he wouldn't really be mad – you had been more worried about disappointing him but the fact that he was being so chill about it eased your mind. “ugh, i love you. i'm sorry baby, i know you were really excited about today,”

“it’s okay. i know you were looking forward to it too so if you wanna postpone it there must be a reason. is everything okay? you sound a little off,”

if he were here, you would've kissed him for that.

“i just feel dead tired and don't feel like doing anything today. plus i couldn't get much sleep last night because i kept waking up to pee,” you frown, “i have the bladder control of a pregnant woman when i'm on my period, which is ironic,”

he chuckles. “sorry to hear that, sweetie. do you want me to get you anything on the way? do you have enough tampons at home?”

“yeah i do, thank you. oh but could you get some ice cream?”

“of course. you sure you don't need anything else? juice? diapers?”

“diapers? i don't use period diapers.”

“i didn't mean period diapers. i meant adult diapers in case, you know, you piss yourself or something,” he teases, and you can picture his cute little snaggletooth sticking out (ik he doesn't have his snaggletooth anymore but let me have this plis i miss it 😭) as he grins mischievously.

“ha ha very funny. let's see how funny it is when you get here and i tickle you until you piss yourself,”

“yeah no okay no pissing. only kissing please. do you have the energy for that?” the teasing tone of his voice makes you blush just a little.

“oh there will be plenty of kissing, nakakita yuma, don't you worry about that,”

“well then i guess i'd better hurry,”

🪐 jo (cravings)

it is no secret that asakura jo is an absolute sweetheart, someone who is too nice for his own good. he finds it hard to say no in general, but even more so when it's you and you're giving him you're biggest, widest puppy eyes. he would've caved even without you doing all that, honestly. so needless to say, whenever you're craving anything – especially on the days leading up to and during your period – he makes sure you have it even if it's 11 pm, because he wants to do anything he can to help make it easier.

however, he soon learns his lesson when he sees the damage his overindulgence does to you. he realises the sort of foods you crave also unfortunately happen to be the sort of foods that made cramps and other period symptoms worse. obviously, this is not news to you. you just figure that if you were going to be miserable either way, you might as well eat what you like at least. but jo makes up his mind to change things, and it does not start well. for someone so soft-spoken, you find that jo could be surprisingly assertive when he wanted to. and you do not like it at all, especially since you are so used to just him giving in to whatever you want.

while he makes it seem easy, only he knows the effort that goes into staying resolute. he hates seeing you sulk and wants to do anything to make you smile again. but then he reminds himself that you'll be the one to suffer later, and that helps him hold his ground.

he does not completely cut you off from your guilty pleasures, of course. he just makes sure you have limited and carefully curated access to it, unlike before. it takes you a little getting used to, and you whine and complain about it even though you are aware of the fact that you are probably acting like a spoiled little kid throwing a tantrum and well, it isn't far from the truth - you were used to being spoiled by your sweetheart of a boyfriend. but even though jo hates to see you pout, he continues to remain firm. to make things easier for you, he even looks up recipes and makes you dishes using healthy ingredients and tries to make them as suited to your taste as possible.

he keeps track of your cycle and starts keeping an eye on your diet a couple of days before your period is due – which is exactly when the cravings start. today is one such day when you are displeased with this arrangement – it's the third day of your cycle and you're desperately craving some caffè mocha, but jo said you've already used up your share of cheat meal/drink for today. you sit there sulking like you usually do, half-heartedly working on your assignment.

then it hits you that not only have your cramps substantially reduced this cycle, you also don't feel as tired as you usually do. your other symptoms are better too. guilt kicks in along with the realisation – all that he has been doing really did help.

you abashedly make your way to his room where you find him sketching. you stand at the door watching him for a while, then walk over and wrap your arms around him from behind.

“jojo….” you start, your tone apologetic.

putting his pencil down, he turns around in his chair and pulls you into his lap. “not mad at me anymore?” he asks, a soft smile on his lips. the smile is not teasing or gloating, just pure and pretty, like him.

you bury your face in his neck and groan. you've been a brat and this is still how he reacts? you suppose you shouldn't be surprised.

“you need to stop being so nice…. you've spoiled me rotten,” you mutter.

he chuckles. “ahh, so it's my fault?”

“no, it's not. i'm sorry, jojo. you're so sweet and thoughtful and i have been behaving like a starving victorian child. i've been doing nothing but complain and whine,”

“it's okay sweetie, i know it's hard,” he says, stroking your hair. “if i had periods i'd probably be way more dramatic,”

“oh, no, i think you would still be a saint,” you say and tilt his chin up as you lean in for a kiss.

🪐 harua (nausea)

it has only been a few months since you started dating harua so he doesn't know everything about you yet. like why you go MIA for a few consecutive days every month where he is only able to contact you through texts. on those days, you usually tell him something came up at your part-time job or that you're staying over at your friend's place or that you have to meet your grandma.

today, however, you decide to be somewhat truthful for once. which you end up regretting when he shows up at your door half an hour later. it goes like this:

harua🐇: hi y/n!! d'you wanna go shopping with me later today?

you : i would've loved to but i'm not feeling too good right now so maybe some other day? sorry xoxo

harua🐇: oh, okay, it's np! ♡ hope you feel better soon :(

and then he shows up at your place and your heart drops. under normal circumstances, you would've been happy to see him but right now you're positive you look like shit.

harua doesn't care about that, however – at least not in the way you do. how could he not come when you told him you weren't feeling well? he even brought a sick kit, although unfortunately it doesn't have much to help the kind of ‘sick’ you are right now – he thinks you probably have a cold or are running a temperature.

“oh rua….you're so sweet. but you really didn't have to come,” you say, hastily smoothing out your hair and fixing your shirt.

“no, i'm glad i came. you don't look too good, are you okay standing?” he leads you to your couch and sits down beside you, scrutinizing you with concern.

“no it's really okay…i go through this every month…” you begin, and he tilts his head quizzically.

you sigh with defeat. “i might as well just tell you, i guess. i'm not actually sick, i'm just on my period…i get horribly nauseous during the first three days of my cycle and sometimes even end up puking. i didn't want to tell you because well, it's not exactly a fun fact, is it?”

realisation dawns on him. “ohhh, so that's why you disappear for a few days every month!”

you smile sheepishly, your cheeks flushing. “yeah. i didn't think you kept track,”

“please, i was starting to think you were a werewolf or something and needed to get away to phase,”

you start to laugh but stop midway when you feel a wave of queasiness coming on and immediately clamp your mouth shut with your hand.

“y/n? you okay?”

you put your head between your knees and hold one hand up. thankfully it passes soon, and you sit up when you feel a little better.

“i think you should leave now,” you tell him.

“why? do you not want me here?”

“yes. i mean, no, not that i don't want you here– well i don't– but it's not because…i just…what if i puke? i don't want–”

“i'll hold your hair up,” he shrugs nonchalantly, like it's the most obvious thing ever.

you stare at him incredulously. he returns your gaze with his own stubborn one.

“did you perchance forget that i'm your boyfriend?” he asks, arching an eyebrow.

“no?”

“then treat me like one, will you? let me be here for you,”

and how could you say no to that?

he does, however, leave soon after, saying he needs to run somewhere real quick and that he'll be back before you know it. he returns with lemon soda, ginger ale and some mint leaves for peppermint tea.

“stuff that helps with nausea, apparently,” he explains when you look at him questioningly. “did a quick google search. oh, i also bought some scented candles although i don't know how effective those will be… i didn't know what you might like so i picked up a bunch of random ones. i know you like citrus fruits so i bought a few of those and these here are floral scents. later when you're feeling better we can go together and pick more out–”

you pull him into a tight hug, catching him off guard. “i love you,”

he smiles and squeezes you back in return. “in case it wasn't already clear, i love you too,”

🪐 taki (irritability)

you've had a rough day. your professor had shouted at you in front of the whole class for something that hadn't even been your fault. then he made you walk all around campus running errands for him. and like that wasn't enough, you tripped and fell in PE. you didn't sustain any major injuries - just a few scrapes here and there but it was nonetheless not fun and extremely humiliating. you heard a few classmates snickering. and to top it all off, you're on your period.

given the mentally and physically exhausting day you've had, you're so relieved to finally come home and be able to sulk in peace. but before long, your flatmate who is also your boyfriend, also gets home – the one day you're not excited he's home early. while you love him dearly, you would really like some alone time right now.

taki is known as the mood maker in every room he's in. he's lively and cheerful and talkative and fun to be around. he loves putting a smile on people's faces so when he comes home to his favourite person evidently in a shitty mood, what does he do? takes it upon himself to make sure you're smiling again, of course.

and so it begins. he starts talking about everything he did that day and everything he's going to do tomorrow and about the date he has planned for you this week and what he's going to make for dinner tonight. he doesn't ask you about your day because he doesn't wanna make you talk about something you clearly don't want to. and so he talks on your behalf as well. you usually love it when he yaps away like this, he talks so animatedly it's endearing to watch. a lot of the time when he goes on one of his ‘yappathons’ as you call it, you're the embodiment of the blah blah blah proper name place name backstory stuff meme.

but not right now, not today. right now you're just sitting there silently, your irritation steadily rising, willing him to stop. if only you had said that out loud instead of bottling up until it burst, what happens next could have been avoided.

the final straw comes when he starts telling you about how one of his friends fell and how it was so funny everyone was laughing including the guy who fell. little do you know that he's doing this solely in an attempt to get you to laugh or at least crack a smile – nobody fell, at least not today. the logical part of you knows taki does not know that you yourself had an embarrassing fall today and so he most definitely does not mean this to be a jab at you, leaving your ego bruised. the logical part of you also knows that the anger you're feeling towards him right now is misdirected and irrational. but you're already so done at that point that logic flies out the window and you just snap at him.

“oh my god taki can you shut the hell up and leave me alone for ten minutes?! will your head explode if you don't keep talking all the damn time?”

taki was evidently not expecting such a reaction. he stares at you for a few seconds, stunned into silence. then he mumbles a sorry and gets up and walks away without another word. you hear the front door click shut a minute later. great. as if this godforsaken day hadn't been bad enough you've also managed to hurt the one person who was actually trying to make it better. tears prick your eyes as regret and worry slowly eats you up.

it is only when he returns a little after an hour later that you breathe a sigh of relief. he doesn't so much as look in your direction, however, and heads straight to his room.

“taki, wait!” you call after him.

he stops, but doesn't turn around. you go over to him and take his hand, and he finally looks up at you. his expression is sharp and unreadable, but the hurt is evident in his eyes.

“i'm...really sorry, taki. you didn't deserve that. it was a shitty thing to say and i wasn't even mad at you, i just had a shitty day and am on my period and needed a bit of time to myself to calm down. one of my professors shouted at me for something i didn't even do and then he made me go all around campus asking me to do this and that and then i tripped over my own fucking feet and fell in PE and it was so embaassing–”

“you fell? are you okay?” he asks, eyes wide and hands immediately flying up to clutch your arms.

you wince. “yeah, it was nothing. just a few scrapes and uh, you're actually kind of pressing on one right now,” you say, holding up your elbow.

he lets go immediately. “shit, sorry. where else did you get hurt? did you clean it properly and apply antiseptic cream?”

“yes, i did, i'm fine really,” you assure him, taking his hand in yours again and stroking it, feeling simultaneously guilty and relieved at how quickly whatever anger and hurt he might've felt about what you said earlier dissolved when you told him what happened.

he looks down at his hand in yours, then back up at you and sighs, lacing his fingers with yours. “if you needed some time to yourself you could've just told me, you know,”

“i know, i'm sorry. it was stupid. i'll tell you next time, i promise. don't take what i said to heart okay?”

he smiles a little. “it's alright. i know i would've been worse if i were to get my period,”

“way worse,” you agree, and he hits you playfully.

“so, am i still your favourite yapper?” he asks.

you roll your eyes and pull him close to kiss his cheek. “always,”

his smile widens and your heart feels lighter. “alright then, come on,” he says, tugging your hand. “tell me what you feel like doing. i'll make up for the shitty day the universe dealt you,”

🪐 maki (stomach and back pain)

you and your boyfriend are having a movie night with your friends taki and harua at his place. taki has the bean bag while you, harua and maki are sitting on the couch in that order – they usually try to keep you and maki separated during movie nights because otherwise you either won't keep your hands off of each other or keep making jokes and speculations about what's going to happen next.

halfway through the film, harua and taki are deeply engrossed in the murder mystery but maki has noticed that you haven't been able to sit still for some time now – it's clear you're uncomfortable. but he knows it's not because of the movie because you've always had a stronger stomach for gore and morbid stuff than he has.

he discreetly reaches for his phone to text you.

maki : why have you been squirming and wiggling for the past ten minutes. are you testing out the ‘would you still love me if i was a worm’ hypothetical?

your phone pings, notifying a message. when you grab it to reply, harua rolls his eyes. maybe they should confiscate your phones as well the next time.

you : no tf 😭 im just tryna get comfortable cuz my back and stomach hurts :( d’you think i could go lay down just for a few minutes maybe?

maki : what omg

maki : is it cuz of your period? why didn't you tell me sooner? and ofc you can go lay down you don't even have to ask!! actually wait i'll come with you

before you can tell him it's fine he's already speaking up.

“hey guys, you can continue watching the movie. y/n isn't feeling well so we're gonna take a little break and come back later,”

taki and harua enquire after you with concern and you assure them you'll be fine if you just rest for a bit. they don't even ask maki why he's accompanying you to the bedroom because they know there's no way he'll be able to focus on a movie when there's even the slightest thing bothering you.

the relief you feel when your back hits the soft mattress is palpable. “ohhh that feels so good…”

“better? what about your stomach?” maki asks, caressing your cheek, his forehead creased with worry.

“still hurts a bit,” you frown, placing your hands on the area where it hurts. “should've brought my heating pad. but it's fine,”

“do you want me to go get you one, babe? i'll try to be back as soon as i can,” maki says as he gets up but you pull him down.

“nooo don't go anywhere. stay here,”

“but i want to help,”

“well then…” you take both his hands in yours and his eyes widen as you pull up your top, leaving your stomach exposed. then you place both of his hands on the lower part of your stomach. as expected, the warmth and the pressure eases the ache a little. “don’t press too much but just apply a bit of pressure here like you're doing now,” you instruct.

he leans over your abdomen and wags a threatening finger at it, “hey you, stop hurting my partner or else!” he looks up at you beaming. “is that enough pressure?”

it's dumb and not even that funny, but you can't help giggling. “you are so silly,”

“silly in loooove,” he sings and you roll your eyes. with his hands still on your stomach he leans down to kiss your belly button.

you giggle and then wince. “babe i'm not sure doing anything ticklish is a good idea right now,”

“right, sorry,”

the both of you end up talking about the movie and you fall asleep listening to him ramble about who he thinks the killer might be and why. he keeps his hands on your stomach until you wake up an hour later and assure him you're more than fine.

divider credits: @/saradika-graphics

[smolestbrein]

Like ... I just think the film isn't as deep as it think it is.

Look, Megatron is evil and I will not deny that. But I have to scratch my head at how he's really the only main character here.

Bumblebee?https://x.com/TFHypeGuy/status/1769212602800800250 Keagan was literally instructed to not sound like anything else but him. The film not only has Bee purely for the reason of popularity, but he's just a joke machine where the serious moments don't even come from his character but the writers realizing that he was there and needed to take it seriously. So now one of the central four is nothing more than a joke, where even the potential interesting angle of his clear mental instability only existing to make him funny.

Elita-One? Whatever the voice director was asking for, it was damn well wrong. Elita starts out really only has the second annoyed adult, but has so little dynamic with Orion that the climax of her going "you've always seen the better world" feels really unearned because they had the same dynamic as Orion with Byaverse Optimus. I really was also bothered by the High Guard recruitment scene (more on that).

Orion is the worst for me. For a guy who's supposed to be "loud" and a wild spirit, he's almost completely brushed off when the plot actually rolls in. Like yes he's trying to build the better world, but he feels largely un-impactful, and even his speech to the miners was kinda undercut by Megs getting fucking branded by Sentinel.

At every step after they find out about Sentinel, Megs gets all the strong moments whereas Orion kinda doesn't. He only gets one cool scene but it comes after Megatron getting branded. He feels like a peripheral protagonist (is that the right term?), where Megatron is the main character as Optimus is just the point of view he see him from. He barely has the emotions that Megs pulls on-screen.

Yes he defeats Sentinel's control over them, but the narrative inflection uses Megatron splitting him in half as the end of his era. An even is you want to say that's not the case, one should also have problems with the fact that Alpha literally fucking says "VALIANT SACRIFICE" for quite literally the worst time.

It's not "making abuse victims/oppressed people into villains because they dared to fight back and be uncivil about it" but it comes from that trope, the skeleton is still there despite every context in the film. The only guy who's "embodying" (or at the very least has the most screen time to that feeling) the anger of being robbed of his own rights is written to be a guy devoured by it and turns into a fascist that drives his planet to madness while the hero was given the fucking Excalibur of their world by their god for a sacrifice that was neither on his intention.

Like ... people really think the narrative thought that deeply for the foot-soldiers of Sentinel, the faceless drone coded mooks past them being fodder for fight scenes and kills? The story never draws upon them for the morality of slicing Sentinel down, it's just that Megs was going down the dark side and Orion wants to stop that.

And also, one of the dumbest statements I've seen also drive me nuts.

"D-16 was always clearly evil-" I have to stress this very clearly, one the main characters on the fucking poster is a glorified comedian cameo was straight up asked not to act as said character. Trying to stretch scenes where the comedy and joke is basically "Orion is a dumbass motherfucking idiot and D is the tired adult in the relationship." There's never any inflection or framing before or after to say this. Even the fucking script doesn't support this. I don't believe those scenes were that thought through. Even Cooley doesn't support it.

And that's just my problem, the character the most visible and focused emotions in the film is the one that wants bloody vengeance of the despotic, deceiving tyrant who mutilated the young as to create a social underling class to feed the greatest enemy of their people but that will turn him into the villain and the hero is a dude who only has one good scene and a few lines that should not be subtle or set-ups and also becomes their Arthur for taking a shot for the fascist.

Orion is just so under-baked. And I won't lie that real-life politics also influence my views on the film. So for the character with that visibility to be ham-fisted as becoming the the villain, with little to no actual power-hunger or even hidden evil past being a crash-out because he finds out his life is a lie for tyrant to hoard pleasures for himself, it feels off.

(And don't even get me started on the High Guard. These guys could've been a whole lot more interesting, but the come out of nowhere and only exist to give Megatron the Decepticon Army. The idea of a toxic mindset being implanted into Megs falls apart when you remember that Megs was already becoming more controlling like the hill scene. And he doesn't even get to lead them, Elita has more screen time as the leader of the High Guard/Decepticons than Megatron. Their characterization is nil for a fertile ground of soon to be Autobots, hell have some of the miners become Decepticons when they get their T-cogs back.)

Whatever drives Optimus isn't going to matter, because the story univocally goes with the idea that his sacrifice for fucking SENTINEL is what got him the Matrix. Because if the sacrifice was somehow because he was willing to die for D's innocence, then it just comes of as insulting for the story to insinuate that the main black-voiced character was becoming a villain because he was oppressed by the guy was basically a slave since birth (and yes Keagan will never fucking count as a character) and the guy telling him to "tome it down" is given god's divine cool card.

Orion is like stale bread here, he makes a good speech that should've been placed somewhere else in a film that gives him better scenes so he would be more impactful.

The politics of the film can't exist in the vacuum and I find it borderline propagandist in how it's own internal justifications are basically Thermian Argument. I know the damn context and characters, it just hits a little too close to certain things and sayings in certain funny parts of history when the oppressed were enraged over the pain they suffered. Too close for me to go "but the F-French Revolution" every time I think about it.

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

I went to my first therapist when I was a teenager and had basically figured out that I was autistic without using the word autism but did say I wondered if I had some kind of disability. I would talk about special interests, sensory issues with food, being in remedial class in primary school, adults always treating me like a clueless baby but never spoke to my siblings like that, being able to tell that most people didn't like me, struggling with being social because I would get overwhelmed and could tell by people's reactions to me that I had terrible social skills. All things that in hindsight were obviously signs of undiagnosed autism.

She never considered that I was actually on to something. She just spent the sessions gaslighting me and trying to assure me nothing was "wrong with me" and that my perception was just social anxiety. I don't think I ever had social anxiety. I was just getting overstimulated and picking up on people actually treating me differently/poorly. Teaching me to ignore my intuition was dangerous and did cause harm.

Another therapist told me it was time to let a lifelong special interest go after I casually mentioned it in passing conversation at the start of a session. I didn't say it was causing any problems in my life, I just acknowledged that it's a thing I love. There was no need to tell me to ditch something that brings me joy and comfort.

I spent the rest of my teenage years and half my 20s gaslighting myself, burning myself out, blaming myself for not fitting in anywhere and struggling with things other people don't seem to, masking harder than ever, and holding myself to NT standards I can't reach.

It wasn't until I made friends with other autistic people in my mid 20s that we realised I'm autistic too. Learning that I'm autistic has been such a huge weight off my chest. I'm able to accommodate myself now and I don't feel bad for my autistic traits anymore or try to suppress them. My whole life makes sense to me now. I wish I had gotten to do this when I was a teenager. I'm so mad in hindsight that I had actually been very close to figuring it out back then but thought my therapist knew better since she was the adult and the professional.

I'm not seeking a diagnosis because there's no support for autistic adults and given the state of the world, I would just be opening myself up to discrimination. But I don't see why the first therapist couldn't have listened to what I was saying and acknowledged that even though she can't diagnose, some people are ND and that's okay. Her insisting so hard that "nothing was wrong with me" feels ignorant at best and outright ableist at worst.

It's because a lot of therapists goal is to make you conform by all means possible, not to teach you to accept and work within your limitations

[anaban44]

Important

All right, here I go… The past few most the case of @tiredsn0w @tiredsn0w-extrablu has become popular and not for good reasons, this person has been accused of grooming and pedophilia, I will clarify, I have never heard of this woman before this problem, but is serious, so, I decide to investigate and before trying to send something offensive against her I firstly tried to talk

I take a look around in her profile and something I can indeed say, her art can be misunderstanding  SO easily, she said “I’m not really responsible how others see my art” and in a way, that is true, but THAT is not the main problem here

“And, even if someone younger did find my works - kids get abused, kids are disabled, kids are mentally ill, kids self-harm, kids have thoughts of suicide” with this message you prove me that indeed you don’t care if kids actually watch your art and here come the main problem, you SHOULD CARE IF THEY FIND IT, why? Because, yes, you are right, kids with problems exist, but not all the kids, and definitely this is not the place, nor the way to treat such themes, time have prove me this next point, your art is found to be sexual, or easy to fetishy EVEN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO, and, if adults are getting it wrong, how much kids?

I showed some of her drawings to people not aware of this situation and not giving any contex and in conclusion their comments can resume in, feeling uncomfortable or find it kinky, why for me was important to show them with no context? Easy, MOST of the people trend to just scroll and like when the main thing is art, and just THE INTERESTED people will actually click for the context, out of that, people will NOT CARE for it   For the second and fourth drawing you are literally admitting that the whole intention is to show he is been objectify, and you have to give me a whole context in order to I didn’t get it even more wrong

First you try to justify that your character is small because he has dwarfism, I was like “okay, maybe you don’t know how to draw them and that’s why you made him looks so childlike even when you can easily look when a dwarf is a kid or an adult, so I tried to remark that and just until then you change your argument  explaining me that “no he has a very specific kind of dwarfism of little person”  which first, is not the scientific name of the syndrome, second makes the person who suffers from it LOOKS AS A CHILD So yeah, is a real condition but with this you just recognize your character INTENTIONALY LOOK AS A CHILD

And no, if you are not giving well the context that is not “education” that is morbid, you also said  SCP universe is not mean for kids, so that lead us to the beginning, scp is not meant for kids, NEITHER YOUR ART With all this I’m not asking you to stop drawing or posting your art, but just as SCP literally has it’s own page PRECISELY to avoid kids to reach it so easily, you should post your art in a different place, not in a platform where THERE’S PEOPLE OF 13 YEARS ALLOWED AND EVEN DARED TO PRETEND IS GOOD IF THEY LOOK AT IT Is like put a filter to it, just as SCP, this things aren’t mean for kids, and because of that they have a WARNING, and of course some kids will not care of it and see it anyways, and that is because of a bad care and not because the page is allowing it again, you are free to draw and post whatever you want BUT BE RESPONSIBLE OF THE PLACES YOU DO IT    

For last this are my conclusions:

Just because you “didn’t intend” of your drawings to be sexualized will not take away the fact IT ARE SEXUALICED AND FETISHIED SCP 6118 design IS INTENTIONALLY child looking which make him shota bait, “but that wasn’t my intention” SHUT UP! Hell is full of well-intended people, you didn’t mean BUT IT IS   If at any point you believe is okay to show this to a kid, to justify your actions saying that is “educational” that you are trying to give “visibility” IT IS WRONG  and if you are not capable to accept it and  CHANGE IT, then yes, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM and minimize sexual and suggestive situations to a kid indeed MAKES YOU A GROOMER Also, if anyone is thinking I'm taking out of context the conversation, no, is literally all

[eternitycongregation]

People also get used to the way K-12 school teachers have a tendency to take on a parental role with their students—because at that point of your life you are still a kid and they treat you accordingly (sometimes even coddling you)—and so they are immediately blindsided by professors approaching you as an adult whom they expect to think and function independently for the sake of yourself. One of the biggest frustrations professors have about the education system is that K-12 doesn't prepare you to think on your own by the time you reach university, they instead teach you how to get by and game the system to get farther than you reasonably should with the least effort possible. The education system teaches you to compete with your peers instead of collaborate and make you unable to weather the inevitability of a failure. Of course the professors are irritated and ornery about this, their job is now twice as difficult because students are missing key fundamentals that their courses are supposed to building upon, students care more about getting perfect grades than learning, and they have even less time than K-12 teachers do to cover the curriculum that most likely is just going to be dumped out of their student's brains once finals are over.

The professor is the very last possible educator before you enter the workforce; it is their job to prepare you for it or to stop you if the path isn't right for you (at all or just right now). They have experience in the particular field(s) they're teaching in and can give you personal anecdotes and advice on how to navigate those fields, the windfalls and pitfalls alike. Professors often give you tough love and hard talks, because they know a lot of people enter university with extremely idealistic views on life, society, and what the future will hold...being able to face criticism and reality in a controlled space is much better than fucking around and finding out the hard way. A lot of people don't understand that if your professor doesn't humble you, life will, and it's easier to drop a course you're not ready for or drop out of school and come back when you're ready than to fix your life after you've crashed and burned it. These people know their fields and what it takes to survive in them, and it only benefits people to listen.

Honestly, Anaxagoras and Ratio are not even terrible representations of professors. They're exaggerated for comedic effect, sure, but I've had professors who behave similarly to them and they were delightful instructors to have. I got more and retained more out of those classes than the ones that were easy. Though the problem with people's mischaracterization of Anaxa is that they don't even read the text on their screens properly, not so much that they misunderstand the role and purpose of a professor. Anaxa will wax poetic about how proud he is of students who can hold their own in a debate with him and will eagerly answer questions just for people to claim he doesn't love what he does.

And I think most importantly for Ratio, people need to understand that he doesn't teach undergrad at your typical college, he's a postgraduate professor for the intergalactic equivalent of an Ivy League school; every student who passes his classes becomes a top expert in their respective field. The only people who make it into his actual classes in the first place is the best of the best across thousands of planets in the universe (and the nepo babies); he should have extremely high expectations for his students. If you have all the money, resources, and support to get you to a desk in his classroom, the only thing that's stopping you from succeeding is yourself and your own habits and he can't nor should he fix that for you. He's getting paid to teach IPC heirs + child prodigies like himself. This is why he approaches his "lesson" for the Herta Space Station researchers the way he did; careers on the HSS are only for the best of the best, many people dream of working on the station but never make the cut in their lifetime. And yet even from the player's own observations of the HSS researchers, you can tell they all are foolish bootlickers at best. Staging a wakeup call in a controlled environment while the lingering threats to the space station are being taken care of was necessary. Several researchers literally died because they were unprepared for a security breach and unable to fend for themselves, and that's negligence to the highest degree.

That being said, Ratio's relationship with the Trailblazer is noticeably different than how his students proper describe him (biases and all). When he visits the Express, he's delighted to be there because he thinks most of the crew are pleasant, intelligent people to be around in their own ways + he believes traveling across the cosmos brings its own wealth of knowledge (i.e. the adage "experience is the best teacher"). He engages TB in thoughtful conversation and gives them advice, telling them to not seek external validation and that transformation is an inevitable type of suffering. He texts the Trailblazer asking if they have any academic ambitions, gives pros and cons of the fields he suggests, and offers to write a letter of recommendation if TB does decide to pursue a formal education. He doesn't impose any expectations on them besides "you need to think for yourself". Ratio exhibits the capacity to meet people where they're at and doesn't typically treat regular folks with the same ire he has for the elite.

really think the constant mischaracterization of educators in hsr like dr ratio and anaxa is because people just really hate their teachers. most people don't enjoy their experiences in academia, and i don't blame them it is a flawed system that often extorts students and their work. they believe or maybe subconsciously think their teachers to be part of the problem of the education system— i'm not saying they're wrong to have this perspective. but i think for professors specifically it's very different.

to remain in academia for upwards of over or nearly a decade not only as a student, but a worker? academia is abusive, pervasive, and restrictive. to continue studying in that environment takes real genuine love, along with the spite that comes with it. i know everyone has had their fair share of terrible professors, i have as well. however, i think those who chose to become educators have always been really wonderful teachers i'll remember for my entire life.

anaxa and dr ratio are a bit crude, they treat the trailblazer as someone who needs to be educated, not to befriend. but to continue spending time with someone in an attempt to teach them something that may benefit them is not an act that comes from cruelty. they don't hate their students, or teaching for that matter, they're just a bit stilted at times. just as all professors are when they've been surrounded by academics for the majority of their lives. you can dislike their way of teaching, that's fine, but to chalk it up to them just being professors for the paycheck is hilarious. there are definitely much easier ways to be underpaid and overworked than becoming a professor with multiple phds.

[ghost-living-downhill]

i've only had tik tok for a few months and i'm already on the verge of deleting it lmao

[soracities]

if we should protect children because they are vunerable, this means you would protect cruel children who bullies people who different than them then. the children who responsible to trauma for someone else's entire years

You're assuming that "protecting" children is the same as absolving them of responsibility and that's not what I said. All children are vulnerable, because all children are children; they don't come out of the womb with a perfectly working moral compass anymore than they come out of it waiting to hurt people--they're vulnerable because their understanding of the world is entirely at the mercy of what we, as adults, consistently tell them and show them. Children behaving cruelly aren't exempt from that--they learn that cruelty from somewhere, or someone. Your job, as the adult, is to make sure they understand that it's unacceptable so it will not happen again--but your job is also to ask why someone that young is behaving this way to begin with, so you can ensure they become better.

"Protecting" kids is not ignoring when they hurt or torment others, it's not refusing to teach them consequences or right from wrong, it's not "zero tolerance" policies in schools that treat a child being bullied and the child bullying them as equal instigators, and it's certainly not protecting them from recognizing, and atoning for, the pain they have caused someone else. You don't have to make peace with the now-adults who hurt you when you both were kids, but you cannot let the horrors of your own childhood impact how you treat or respond to the children living theirs around you right now, either.

You don't protect kids so they can get a free pass for bullying or tormenting another child. You protect them because kids are impulsive, emotionally reactive, and profoundly social (which means deeply impressionable) human beings who are still learning & processing insane amounts of information every day about what it means to be alive, to be alive as yourself, to be alive as yourself with other people. Protecting them is realising that you can't isolate the responsibility of a 10 year old from the bigger responsibility of the literal grown adults around them, adults who are in charge of teaching them about the world and how to behave in it. Whether you have children of your own in the future or not is completely irrelevant to this; we all become those adults eventually--no matter what happened to us as kids.

[raylazuko]

New headcanon.

That Diluc and Crepus are alike in a lot of ways and I get the impression that Crepus also lived vicariously through Diluc in terms of “I couldn’t be a knight so you go do that” even if he may have had some reservations with the Knights himself but wouldn’t wanna alienate them because of his kids or because of business reasons.

That Crepus and Varka have a begrudging mutual respect for each other but do not agree with each other’s tactics.

Crepus, like later Diluc, finds the knights inefficient. That he was working to bring down the Fatui in his own way secretly. There is some underground vigilante anti-Fatui group that Diluc later joined because he has contacts in Mond when he gets back.

Diluc is a kid and delluded into thinking the Knights are perfect and Crepus doesn’t wanna crush his dreams.

Then reality happens.

That Diluc has noticed some corruption already and has his reservations and annoyances. That that night was his final straw. That he’s relieved to be out of the Knights but feels like he let his father down but also has a weird feeling that he did the right thing by him.

And that he later learns more about the underground efforts and just how stupid the knights are being and that diplomacy doesn’t solve everything.

But he doesn’t wanna alienate them too much because of his begrudging respect for Kaeya.

And also he’s annoyed and slightly jealous that Kaeya took his position.

He secretly wishes Kaeya would leave but if he told Kaeya everything he knows it would destroy him. Or he just wouldn’t listen.

Or that Kaeya does know and wants to change things from the inside.

Or he stays because he thinks that’s what Crepus wanted and actually sees Diluc as disrespecting their father’s wishes.

Or Kaeya stays because the knights treated HIM well, and he doesn’t have any other family left. They ARE his family. His dad abandoned him and he doesn’t know where his mom is (if shes alive). If he has other siblings they’re probably working for the Order. His adoptive dad died and his adoptive brother views him as a pushover for staying perhaps.) Let’s also not forget that Kaeya was probably pressured into doing whatever he was forced to do as a kid as being an heir to the Abyss Order basically. He probably doesn’t know HOW to say no or stand up against institutional injustice. Anything is better than where he came from. So he mostly just distances himself from the Knights by hunting treasure hoarders for fun and gathering intel because his position is literally useless.

I also think Jean’s hands are tied because she’s also barely legal and has too much pressure and is probably going off some some handbook and can’t reorganize things too much to not piss of Varka when he gets back. Plus they’re short-staffed. It’s very likely Varka groomed Jean in some way to succeed him and just put way too much pressure on this kid so now all she knows is how to work. Yeah I don’t like Varka lol.

For Kaeya it’s like “don’t bite the hand that feeds”. Kaeya leaving the knights would lose him EVERYTHING and he cannot risk that. There’s also a real chance that Varka knows about his past and if he leaves, he would become a target due to him being potentially dangerous.

It’s just a big mess all around and Ragbros+Jean are dysfunctional adults that had unrealistic pressures put on them as kids.

[galactaknightyaoi]

When I first got into Kirby, I didn't expect to like, actually get into it. I thought it'd be like any other hyperfixation I'd had up to that point, that it would go away within a few months and I'd never think about it again.

Given I was so deeply in denial, I didn't care about being fully accurate and had some stuff that was really goofy and/or underdeveloped and unexplained. Stuff I'd made up to just work for the limited time I would be there.

Still, I came up with a few headcanons that I got attached to, and when I started realizing this was here to stay, I still chose to be stubborn and had to work backwards to keep these stupid headcanons, but adapt them into something a bit more fitting and polished.

It led to some cool stuff, like for example, my orbs aren't very magical, this was something I had settled on early on. But after I got invested, I had to think about what that actually meant and the implications of it like, how can they do this without magic? And what about that? What about this canon thing, how do I explain it?

I found decent enough explanations for all of these. But as a result of my unserious beginnings and continued stubborness, now I get really embarrassed at the time to actually talk about my headcanons and the stuff I've come up with.

Because what do you mean your Galacta Knight is half-dragon?

[dirt-str1der]

Theres no season 4 because theyre too scared to animate the canon gay couple. They know its going to change the dr stone mrm ecosystem forever

[miraculous-lesbeans]

So. I had divorced parents, and one of them was abusive. He put on a nice face most of the time in public, and never left bruises. Two custody battles and one run in with CPS only took issue with the fact that he wasn’t paying child support.

If you think you can possibly get your kid away from their abuser, it’s worth trying. But if the only way out is through, this would be my advice.

Navigating honesty while your child is stuck with an abuser with partial custody with is overall, not that different. You need to be ready to listen to them and help them with the problems they bring up. You still need to be safe enough to be worthy of the honesty. It is still helpful to suggest adults other than their parents who your kids can tell anything to. The main difference is that sometimes you’re going to have to help them lie to be safe.

It’s probably best to wait to talk about lying with your kid until after they understand that they’re being abused, and you think they’re mature enough to not immediately tell their abuser. Around 12-14 years old, minimum. Before that, establish that you are safe to be honest with, and establish other adults who you know are safe to be honest with.

Instructions for your trusted adult will look different. It’s important that this trusted adult understands what the abuser is doing, and understands that they aren’t safe. Ask them not to share anything the kid says with anyone but their supportive parent. (Unless the kid says their supportive parent is also hurting them). If you’ve decided not to contact CPS about the abuser (or your local equivalent to child protective services) tell your trusted adult your reasons. It’s very unlikely, but make sure you’re prepared for a visit in case they disagree.

It’s okay to lie to your abuser. It is morally neutral to lie to someone who will only use the truth to hurt you. It’s generally about the same as lying to nazis, except that abusive parents know you a lot more personally, so it can be a bit harder to pull off safely.

It’s best to lie as little as possible, because it can be difficult to keep up with multiple lies.

Instruct your kid to tell their supportive parent or trusted adult whenever they lie to their abuser. This is not confessional. You don’t need to punish or shame them for lying. You need to know what’s going on so that you can corroborate their lies if the abusive parent asks, to protect your kid from them as much as you can. A lie they told is just like any other hard truth your child trusts you with. You have to be safe to tell.

Not all lies can be planned for, but it’s best if the kid tells you before they lie to the abuser, rather than after. You can help them come up with a better cover story, or warn them when there’s no way the abuser will believe a lie about this topic, and it’s best to just tell the truth. It also means if the abusive parent texts you immediately when the kid lies, you can be ready to back your kid up.

It helps if your child understands the social dynamics of their family. Who is enabling their abuser? Who can they be honest with safely? Who’s somewhere in between?

It can help a lot to have a routine in place when your kid gets back from staying with their abuser. That first night home is when your kid is most likely to need to vent about whatever happened while they were away. Give them alone time and space to decompress if they need it. Maybe you could make a comforting snack, or their favorite meal, or get their favorite fast food for dinner. Maybe it’s a good night to watch an episode of a silly comfort show together. Maybe it’s a good time to walk your dog or snuggle up with the cat. Establishing a sense of safety will look different depending on what the environment in their abuser’s house is like.

How can we define the difference between "privacy" and "secrecy" in a way that children understand?

I saw a post go by yesterday that I don't want to dig up because there was a lot there, and I walked away thinking "That's not quite right, but can I articulate why?"

One of the things it said was to define, for children, that an okay secret is limited in time, and makes people happy. A not-okay secret is forever and makes people unhappy. I get that the idea isn't that this is the real line forever, so much as this is the line children need. Okay... now how do we define "privacy" within that scope? Are we promising children that adults never do anything in privacy that's a secret?? Because that's fucked up.

Also, there was a suggested rule about individual adults never being behind closed doors with a child alone, and I'm like "Have you never heard of single parents? Babysitters?" If you think the line is "approved adults" then you're missing that most abuse does come from adults the other adults thought were approved. Maybe it does take a village, but not every household has a village handy, eh?

I don't know. 90% of what was said in that post about how to help kids be prepared to speak up if they're abused was great - I 1000% agree age-appropriate, technically accurate sex ed should be started early and revisited often. If a kid is old enough to ask, they are old enough to receive an accurate answer in terms they can understand without euphemism and hedging.

But some of it seemed really off, and I'm still wrapping my head around how so...

I know some of it is... I was taught from a fairly young age that some kinds of secrets exist to keep others safe. The example - which made sense in context, I swear - was if a Nazi shows up at the door asking if I know where my Jewish friend is, I can and should absolutely lie about that, to keep their secret and keep my friend safe.

Now, that's... probably kind of an odd way of thinking about things for small children, I'll grant you. My parents were clarifying an otherwise hard stance on lying, specifically, and I appreciate that.

If we're talking about very small children, Nazis are perhaps a bit too complicated a concept to explain, but Stranger Danger isn't especially useful as the line when the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak.

Having a hard line on the idea that kids shouldn't have or expect any kind of privacy because secrets are bad is obviously too simplistic, and the post did acknowledge that by addressing the concept of boundaries for the adults having privacy without the kids in the room, which makes sense as far as it goes but doesn't address the children themselves being allowed privacy.

Children aren't stupid, they're just young. Ethics aren't simple, but we do need to keep things usefully clear. So... what do?

[cienie-isengardu]

Mortal Kombat 1 Behind the Scenes AU: (Over)protective brothers, p. 1 - upset Tomas

Author's Note: The best peak of having Lin Kuei brothers is that they are ready to murder for you. The worst part of having Lin Kuei brothers is that they are perfectly capable of murder and you never know if they joke about murdering someone or not. Which is why Tomas doesn't want to tell Kuai Liang and Bi-Han about his problems because there is a great chance that once he points out who is bullying him on the film set, the body of said person will never be found.

[Cage’s Mansion] [Waiting for Liu Kang] [Special Bonus] [Grandmaster’s commentary] [Climbing scene] [Madam Bo’s Inn] [Cage’s Mansion 2 (fire extinguisher)] [Medic] [Shang Tsung’s sad face] [Smoke’s Fall] [Scenography (1)] [Scenography (2)] [Show off!] [Favorite brother] [Climbing on the wall (nonsense)] [Tomas’ commentary] [Perfectly fine] [Sexy, sexy man~♪] [Brothers between filming - Scenography(3)] [Wrong team!] [Since when you two are friends?!] [I like being evil sorcerer more] [I forgot my line, sorry!] [Read the script Kuai!] [Get. Lost.] [Dating] [Permission] [Why date a punk like him…] [Panic (Mom is visiting)] [Decapitation then] [Deep in trouble (Mom is visiting #2)] [Cultural differences (paid leave)] [Why date a punk like him… (Lin Kuei Mom)] [Why date a punk like him… (General Shao)] [Stop closing your eyes!] [There is never a god around when you need one]

[tear4years]

1. So you think Vi, the one that constantly thinks about her family and does things with everyone in mind would do something as selfish as this? well I mean she could idk teenage angst and well deserved anger so let's say for your arguments sake that maybe she did

but then, after Silco where they all just work with him bc of free will? Vi and Caitlyn say it so many times "They are forced to choose between a drug kingpin that wants to exploit them and a government that doesn't give a shit" that doesn't seem like they have many choices

2. Bc I was relating my first thought to my next thought? I went into a group of people that's related to the subject (the kids) to the other group of people that's related to the subjects (the adults). They're both TO ME exploited thanks to Topside and thanks to Silco, and they shouldn't be charged as criminals for trying to survive.

My family had to immigrate to a whole different country bc since 2016/2017 there are absolutely no job opportunities nor access to food or healthcare, and me and my sister even spent 4 days without eating literally anything and a bunch of other horrible stuff. So many people from my country became criminals to survive, do I think they deserve to be jailed? no. They are the consequences of their environment. And no back to your first statement I don't think badly of poor people because I myself was and kinda still are (not as much as before, thank god)

And yes I'll try to over explain my thinking process next time, even tho you're the first and only one (at the moment) to complain. I'll even take up english grammar classes for you how about that.

3. I think I understand pretty well how drugs can be especially deadly to a country/city that has literally nothing else to soothe their needs. And I think that's what's happening bc that's what the narrative leads me to believe?

And I'll never view a Zaunite who resorts to drugs as a "moral failing" drug addiction isn't something to be ashamed of (if you're ashamed of it it gets harder to actually acknowledge you have a problem.) and also because that's the consequence of their environmenttttt

Same with Silco, yes he did crazy shit and I will never EVER be a Silco apologist but you can't act like he just woke up one day and decided to be evil. Agaaainn he is a consequence of his environment.

He is violently oppressing Zaun but he isn't the one that threw the first stone, so to speak. Piltover has always been the bigger issue no matter how much season 2 writers try to convince me otherwise.

And you're acting like Silco just said "hey I got this drug ;)" and they all went in because they could and not because they HAD too. It's harder for me to believe that, especially since we see it being used as a means to get stronger (to be able to fight back) with Jinx and Vi we also see how they resort to it because they have no other choices to recover from their injuries, hell we even get to see how VIKTOR uses it himself to soothe the symptoms created by the exploitation of Topside (The Grey — Silco also probably lost his eye from polluted waters from the river too but I won't treat it like a fact bc I'm not 100% sure, that's just my personal opinion)

So if the writers wanted me to think they had other choices why did they have Caitlyn say that to her mom? Why did they show it as a medical aid too? Why did we get the full view of it literally SAVING Jinxes life?

If the writers wanted me to believe they were well enough to not have to resort to work exploitation why did they make Vander and Silco work at the mines even with the Grey damaging their health? Why did all the kids in Zaun wear clothes that seemed to be made from scraps of fabric? I thought you said they had job opportunities.

Something that bugs me about the "Caitlyn only gassed the Chembarons" discourse is that we saw in season 1 how many children are exploited by the chembarons so like... wtf happened to them? are they dead? are they jailed up?

‎

‎Also how many of the chembaron workers work for them because they literally have no other job option, bc there are no jobs at Zaun other than mining & working with the chembarons, so do they deserve to be jailed for working for them when they just wanted to support their family?

[daisywords]

\

[engagemythrusters]

“Neurospicy” lends itself to those who are able to be viewed as “quirky” by society. By using it as a replacement for “neurodivergent,” you are alienating a large population of the people who fall under that category.