#anyone can make a poll and they actually don’t have any responsibility to do anything

[mornington-the-crescent]

The Poll

So, for those who don’t know, I put up a poll of, “Who was the worst American President?” The list was FDR, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon. It got up to about 13k notes before I deleted it, because I was tired of the notes clogging up my feed. And the results were... telling.

About 75-80% of all the notes were, “Where is Reagan/Andrew Jackson?!?” Many of the rest, though, can be seen below:

What this tells me is that more than ten thousand people didn’t have an education; they had an indoctrination.

You want to hear it? All right, buckle up, because it’s time for a stroll down memory lane.

Why was FDR a bad president?

It is almost hard to know where to begin with this. Let’s start with one of the most basic ones: The belief that FDR got us out of the Depression.

Point of fact, No the fuck he did not.

Making American Depressed

If you ask almost any historian or economist, they will tell you flat-out that not only did the New Deal not end the Great Depression, but that it made it significantly longer and worse than it would have been otherwise. Hoover bears some of the blame for this, but the pseudo-socialist dogshit that was the New Deal bears the brunt of the blame for this one.

The stock market crashed in late October, 1929. Two months later, unemployment peaked at 9%. Over the next several months, unemployment started to fall, down to 5-6% by the spring of the next year. Half a year after the crash, unemployment had not hit double digits. Hoover’s intervention, though, did cause unemployment to reach double digits. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and took office in 1933, and unemployment did not fall out of double digits for the remainder of the 1930′s. The thing that actually pulled the US out of the Depression was the second World War; turns out that removing roughly 12 million people from the labor force to go and fight does wonders for unemployment numbers. FDR even said that Doctor New Deal was replaced by Doctor Win-The-War.

This was hardly the first economic downturn in American history. For the first 150 years of this country, there were downturns all the time. And what the government did was nothing, and the economy recovered on its own. But Roosevelt represents the first massive large-scale intervention in the economy. And government intervention in the economy slows economic recovery; when you have no idea what the government is going to do tomorrow in regards to the economy, it’s hard to make smart financial decisions, so you just don’t bother. After all, why do anything if tomorrow, the rules of the game are going to change?

Separation of Powers Who?

FDR issued more executive orders than any other President of the 20th century. He may, in fact, have issued more than all the other Presidents of the 20th century combined. Rather than letting Congress, the legislative branch of government, you know, legislate, he preferred to try to do everything himself.

The President is supposed to be the weakest branch of the government, but Roosevelt did everything he could to try to establish its supremacy over the other branches. When Congress didn’t give him his way, he used executive orders. When the Supreme Court challenged some of his acts as unconstitutional, his response was to threaten to have them replaced, or to simply pack the court with judges more sympathetic to his aims. This is a man who was openly contemptuous of the concept of the rule of law.

Here’s a fun entry from the notes:

Hey, you want to talk about fascists? Actual, honest-to-goodness Fascists, not just the modern definition (i.e. anyone a nanometer to the right of Noam Chomsky)? Let’s talk about the originals. Let’s talk about the inventor of Fascism, Benito motherfucking Mussolini. And how FDR openly admired him, and was “deeply impressed by what he has accomplished”, calling Fascism the “cleanest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery [he had] ever seen”, and that it made him “envious”. And Mussolini, for his part, said of Roosevelt that, “Reminiscent of Fascism is the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices … Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change resembles that of Fascism.”

When the guy who fucking invented Fascism is saying that he thinks that you are also doing Fascism, then maybe you’re not a good person.

Concentration- I Mean, Internment Camps

And just like his buddies on the other side of the Atlantic, right when World War 2 kicked off, Roosevelt thought it would be a good idea to take “undesirables” and throw them into prison camps. Roughly 20 thousand Italian- and German-Americans, American citizens, were thrown into camps, simply for the crime of having ancestors from countries we were at war with. And then, of course, there’s the 120 thousand Japanese-Americans who were likewise rounded up and put into prison camps, two thirds of whom were natural-born American citizens.

Almost 150 thousand American citizens, thrown into literal concentration camps, without the bother and expense of due process, stripped of their constitutional rights simply on the basis of race.

As for the concentration camps set up in Europe by the Nazis, however? Despite being told of their existence by people who had escaped, as well as journalists and lawyers from Germany, once American planes gained the ability to attack those camps, to shut them down? FDR refused to grant them permission to do so.

Commander in Thief

Executive Order 6102 outlawed the private ownership of gold, allowing the government to confiscate all of it. Once that was accomplished, the Gold Reserve Act allowed him to change the value of gold, debasing America’s currency (which was on a gold standard at the time), which permitted him to steal literally billions of dollars from American citizens, without any compensation.

World War, Too

There is evidence to suggest that Roosevelt knew about the imminent attack on America by Japan in December of 1941. He discussed with several high-ranking people in the War Department, and in his own cabinet, how to get Japan to fire the first shot in the war, so that he could get America involved. It would make sense: His oil embargo was designed to provoke a Japanese response, so as to draw America into the war. And once America was in the war, ordered the Philippines to be abandoned, outright lying that there was an army waiting to retake it once it had been conquered by Japan.

And as the war dragged on, he got quite cozy with Uncle Joe, Stalin himself. He helped to repatriate two million people to Russia, who very much did not want to go back, many of them ending up either in the gulags, or simply killed outright. And his constant concessions to Stalin helped the Soviet Union hold on to eastern Europe, setting the stage for the Cold War. Even when he was informed of Soviet spies within the American government, and provided evidence of their disloyalty and subversion, he simply let them keep at it.

Racism, Racism, and more Racism

Remember how you cheered when lynching was made a federal crime a few months ago, and asked why it hadn’t been done before now? Well, the main reason was good ol’ FDR himself. A bill was proposed in the Congress which would have made lynching a federal crime, and Roosevelt refused to pass it.

Or what about during the Olympic games in Berlin, when black athletes from America took home multiple gold medals? Roosevelt invited the white athletes to the White House, but not a single black one. Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals, said, “Hitler didn’t snub me --- it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.”

And then there was his nomination of a KKK member to the Supreme Court; Hugo Black, who had zero judicial experience, was nominated simply because he supported the New Deal.

He also was of the opinion that America was, and ought to remain, a white and Protestant country, and that too many Jews was inherently a bad thing, because of how distasteful he found them. He boasted that there was no Jewish blood in his veins, as a mark of pride. He even went so far as to turn away ships of Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi tyranny in Europe.

In conclusion

FDR was a massive piece of shit. He massively overstepped his constitutionally-appointed bounds at every available opportunity, massively expanding the power of the Presidency at the expense of all other parts of government, and at the expense of individual liberty. He was openly racist and anti-Semitic. His economic policies brought ruin upon the American economy. He openly praised fascism right up until the moment that it was no longer politically expedient to do so, and switched to deferring to authoritarian communism instead. Almost everything that you hate about the modern United States can be traced directly back to this one man.

The fact that he is remembered as not just a good President, but one of the best Presidents, shows how utterly broken American education is.

[elite-amarys]

Event Announcement: BBA Student Council Election Season

It’s election season at Blueberry Academy! That means that it’s time for our Student Council candidates to start campaigning for your votes. There are multiple seats available, all of them requiring a different set of skills and know-how! The positions to be campaigned for are:

Student Council President *SEE NOTE BELOW*: The one in charge of it all! Student Council President leads the charge on all current projects, makes final decisions, and is the representative of our school to the world at large. BBA is a school run primarily by its students, which makes this is a big role, with a lot of responsibilities, but if you think you’re up for the challenge announce your candidacy today! One seat available, and the runner up in this poll will be named Vice President of the Student Council.

Secretary: The administrative brains behind the operation. The secretary compiles and distributes meeting minutes, assists in special projects, reports treasury information, and monitors all incoming communication from students and clubs. One seat available.

Treasurers: The money masters! These students monitor and manage anything and everything to do with our BP economy, including your BBQ rewards and club budgets. They are also responsible for monitoring all club spending. There are three seats available.

Historian: This is the person responsible for all documentation of club activities, as well as general media attention to BB Academy. They record interviews, save photos of memorable moments, and generally ensure that the history of BBA is well documented. One seat available.

While we strongly recommend that candidates for the Student Council President position have at least some experience with Student Council in the past, any student may announce their candidacy for any position! The deadline to announce your candidacy is MAY 10th

From May 11th onward election season will be in full swing! Campaigns, posters, speeches, big promises, whatever you feel will get you the most votes. And while the official campaign doesn’t start until the 11th, there’s nothing stopping you from making friends and taking names before then, eh? 😉

Anyone running for Student Council President MUST have their platforms finalized and announced by no later than May 15th. Any candidates that fail to announce a platform will be disqualified.

Finally, election day will take place on June 2nd! Any student currently enrolled in BBA who will be attending in the 2024-2024 school year is welcome to vote.

Best of luck, candidates!

//OOC housekeeping below the cut read or perish

First up, any BBA blog can run for any of these positions but the outcome of Student Council President is locked to Amarys winning. This is because 1) BBA Student Council is my baby and I will not be giving up control of it, you can pry my headcanons out of my cold dead hands, 2) This is a canon character trait of hers and 3) My event my rules. That said, the runner up WILL be named vice president, which is also a very important spot on Student Council. Amarys’ name will not be showing up on the actual polls on June 2nd, but if another blog wins by a landslide Amarys will be considered to have won by only a slim margin. So basically, if you are running for StuCo President you are actually running for Vice President.

If you want your character to participate you MUST message me directly, it can be an ic ask or not. The important point is that you don’t just make a post on your blog. I might not see it, and then you will not be included in the list of candidates posted May 11th.

This is going to be a tumblr event, no discord required.

All positions will have at least one NPC running for them. This is both to give anyone who opts in someone to fight against, and to give me a safety net in case there is a position or positions that no one wants to run for.

Lastly, if you want to participate but don’t think your own blorbo would run, you are free to create an anon persona to campaign with. I think this would be difficult to do, as you’d be limited to only campaigning via asks, but it is absolutely an option. You also run the risk of someone impersonating you to spread rumors but hey! I think that kind of drama would be a blast tbh.

That’s all! Let me know if you have any questions :3

[memryse]

talk on the dash about the state of hermitblr and yeah i agree i think this fandom is like. really obsessed with validation and appearances which i guess comes with the territory of a lot of us being adults/older teens and liking minecraft youtubers and subconsciously feeling weird about that not being an accepted thing. which i think is fine and normal to a certain degree i certainly fall into that trap sometimes but sometimes that morphs into shutting anything and everything down for the sake of appearing Nice and No Discourse and Not Like The Other MCYT Fandoms and being absolutely vehemently fucking defensive of every single little thing

idk i have a lot of feelings about the cat poll because i do feel culpable for everything that happened there, there wasn’t really any talk about the creator in the notes at all until my reblog. logically it was not my fault when all i did was make one reblog that i deleted after a few hours and certainly did not call for any kind of harassment, if anything i had people in the notes telling me i should be More mad but. there’s not really anything i can do about that and any apology would be more to assuage that feeling of guilt rather than making things better for the person who actually suffered the harassment at all. but seeing it all happen did seriously make me think about how fucked up this fandom can be, watching it morph so rapidly from “they said this cruel thing, that’s really fucked up” to me realising they already spoke about it and thus deciding to leave it alone on my end to the reblogs just going up and up and up and the op speaking about it again and it becoming “let’s win this to spite the op” (personally not sure how that one works exactly) and spreading it to twitter specifically encouraging people to make accounts to join the poll and again “spite the op” and also with very little regard for scar, The Actual Owner Of The Cat, potentially seeing any of it or whether he’d want anyone acting like that over HIS cat. like that is just actual targeted harassment over some kind of moral crusade over a stranger’s cat. and idk in a vacuum i don’t think anyone would be in the wrong per se for finding the initial comment upsetting but eventually it just became more about punishing the person

but then on the other end of the spectrum there’s no real room for discussion about certain topics within the fandom either because of a desperation to not repeat 2019 and not be like twitter because we have to be Better and Nicer and Not Do Discourse but in a shocking twist of events this has resulted in a fandom that is still Really Fucking Toxic and lets certain genuinely wrong things slide for the sake of keeping the peace but when something bad does get addressed it turns into a swarm of harassment and death threats that nobody will ever own up to being responsible for. i like to think i manage to stay on the good side of things by only being sporadically active to begin with (aka having other interests and a life) and generally leaving most of my opinions to private conversation until i feel the need to write a thinkpiece like this every so often but even then it’s exhausting looking in sometimes

[ciaossu-imagines]

Okay, so before I get into the actual post and headcanons themselves, I really want to say softnightwhisp…just, such a huge thank you. I see all the reblogs and read all the additions and comments in the tags and it makes me so incredibly happy and motivated and, really, readers like you are why I keep posting! I don’t get a huge amount of asks anymore outside of events (which I’m thinking about having – will probably post a poll regarding that sometime tonight or tomorrow), not that many reblogs, and not much interaction with you lovely readers, which I thrive off, to be honest! And I accept almost full responsibility for that as I kind of abandoned the blog for a good long while and don’t post as regularly as I should, but it does get a bit lonely and unmotivating at times. But like…even just seeing that tonight made my whole week and makes me excited to write more because I know that someone out there is reading my scribblings and wants to see them so just…personal hero of the blog for tonight, most definitely, you amazing person, you!

Moving on to the actual post! While I write about KHR quite a bit through requests, I enjoy writing for the fandom and found it kept me going while writing prompts to get back into the swing of things! I hope you’ll enjoy these headcanons about Verde, based around this prompt!

Fancy or casual?

Verde lives in the same rumpled suit and tie for days, honestly. He likes to dress a bit more formally and likes to think of himself as well-dressed but where he gets so easily distracted and lost in his work, he has a bad habit of forgetting to do basic things like shower, change clothes, and generally looks a little unkempt.

Closet or dresser?

Dresser. It’s easier and he can easily fit a dresser into a workspace since it’s rare for him to actually make it into his bedroom to sleep so the clothes kept in that closet are sparse and really are either just incredibly formal or trashy, torn, old casual clothes that he barely ever wears.

Hot or cold?

Verde prefers cold food, sandwiches mostly. He eats a lot of burgers as well, normally lukewarm to cold by the time he gets to them or other foods that can be easily eaten with one hand while he’s busy working on his experiments and research.

Meat or veggies?

He eats a lot of meat for the calories and protein but does really enjoy celery and carrots, especially baby carrots.

One pillow or multiple?

One pillow, if any. Normally Verde works himself until completely exhausted and just crashes wherever he is, so he’s often without a pillow. Because he’s gotten used to that, he finds that more than one pillow props his head up too much for it to be comfortable for him to sleep.

Organized or messy?

It’s an odd mixture of the two, really. He’s got an organized kind of chaos going on at any given moment. His personal living space is an absolute mess and there’s very little organization to it to the untrained eye, but he somehow knows exactly where what he needs is. While his lab and workroom is somewhat tidier, it’s still very much a little bit of a mess, though everything is exactly where Verde wants or needs it to be and he can account for the placement of even the tiniest Post-It Note. He gets very, very upset if anyone moves anything on him because it definitely throws off his own method of organization and then he needs to waste time cleaning or reorganizing.

Games or books?

Books, honestly. He doesn’t play many, if any video games. He’s tried them, of course, but they seem pointless to him when there’s so many other things demanding his attention or time. Books are at least useful, especially when it comes to his research, and he has a soft spot for science fiction or fantasy literature since it does help inspire a lot of his creations.

Hide and watch or stand up and fight?

Verde prefers to hide and watch and strike when the time is right. He doesn’t jump into fights without a solid plan of attack in place and often pulls sneak attacks.

Shy or social?

Verde isn’t shy. Not in the least. He’s just completely asocial.  He doesn’t hold a lot of relationships with people, being very dedicated to his work, and those people he does have relationships of any nature with…well, he likes to decide when he wants to spend time with them.

Soda or juice?

Soda is Verde’s choice between the two, since it has caffeine in it most of the time but honestly, it’s usually coffee, water, or energy drinks.

Handheld or console?

If Verde is going to play video games, for whatever reason, he does prefer a handheld system since he doesn’t like to play multiplayer games and finds it more convenient.

Light or dark?

The dark doesn’t bother Verde. In fact, it tends to be what he prefers, just because there tends to be less distractions around when it gets dark out. Light can always be gotten from lightbulbs and the like but that peace and quiet that settles in in the early hours of the morning? It’s irreplaceable.

Scary or happy?

Verde prefers scary, at least if we’re talking about movies and books. The monsters and ghosts and spooks from those movies and books intrigue him and often inspire him.

Movies or restaurants?

It depends. It’s movies, normally, but only if watched in the comfort of his own home or just with someone else. He sees no point of going to a nice restaurant unless there’s a reason because take-out exists and is much more convenient and doesn’t come at the risk of being seated next to a family with toddlers who are running all over the place and screaming. He doesn’t much like crowds either, being a little paranoid about his personal safety, but does enjoy movies.

Car or bus?

Car, every time. Again, buses and modes of public transport just kind of leave his paranoia prickling in his mind like a bad chill.

Carpet or tile?

Verde prefers tile, but only because of convenience. He really likes the feel of carpet under his feet, and the dampening of sound it provides but carpet is a pain in the ass to clean if something spills, unlike tile which can be easily wiped down or mopped.

Love or wealth?

Does the love for science and discovery count? Because that’s Verde’s pick right there. He does enjoy having enough money to fund his research and inventions but isn’t exactly greedy either. He doesn’t much care about money for personal gain or simply to be wealthy.

Markers or coloured pencils?

Verde uses a lot of markers in his work, honestly. They’re more permanent than coloured pencils and since he splurges on the fine tipped ones, they tend to be easier to make delicate lines on plans or designs with.

Independent or dependent?

Verde is very independent and he really has largely been that way through his entire life, both before becoming an Arcobaleno but especially so afterwards. He’s always been a bit of a loner and needs a lot of time to himself to function the best and he’s never been fond of relying or trusting others unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.

Hat or necklace?

I think Verde has worn a trilby or fedora in his time. Just one of those old, suave Grandpa looking ones. Don’t know why but it’s a very strong headcanon for me.

Poster or calendar?

Verde doesn’t care a lot about the aesthetics of spaces and doesn’t see a lot of use for posters. Calendars have a use, especially some of the ones that come with a word or historical fact every day and he has a couple of those littered around so he can keep track of both the date and enhance his learning.

Pain or death?

Verde is terrified of dying. Death is his biggest fear and he’d take even the most unbearable of pain, something else that mildly frightens him, before he’d take death.

Science or math?

Okay, but this question would break both his mind and his heart. They are both things he loves and holds dear and are very intertwined for him. There’s just no way he could ever choose.

Shower or bath?

Showers are quicker and still get the job done. Verde likes to conserve time on pointless but necessary tasks whenever he can.

Socks or slippers?

Shoes. Sometimes with socks but sometimes without them, it really depends on whether he has any clean. He just really hates being barefoot more than he has to be.

Chips or crisps?

They’re both the same thing to him, just different slang terms for them. As long as he can grab them and eat them quickly before moving on to something more exciting, that’s really all Verde cares about.

Secretive or open?

Verde is very secretive. It really doesn’t matter how close he lets someone get to him, he’s still going to have secrets from them and will still have some sort of mental or emotional wall between them. He just can’t seem to shake that little bit of paranoia that letting someone know everything he knows or thinks or feels could prove deadly or disastrous for him.

Friendship or romance?

I feel like Verde would take romance over friendship, in an odd way. He’s still a man and very much still has sexual urges so it’s more out of a drive to fulfil those urges than out of being a secret romantic, which he certainly isn’t.

Talent or skill?

Skill can never beat or match natural talent, no matter how much work is put in, in Verde’s opinion.

[hyukalyptus]

i feel like younger fandom writers on tumblr are starting to feel like they have to be sort of ""influencers"" and respond to every single bit of feedback and get as many reblogs as possible but that's never been what tumblr has been about and it's sad because i've seen this idea people give themselves drive writers off the website in newer, younger fandoms. if i'm in your inbox, even if it's some big idea i'm putting down, you can just reply like a conversation. i'm not expecting a piece of writing, i really just want to tell someone and have them respond "OH MY GOD I'M FOAMING AT THE MOUTH" and maybe even "thats so hot and he'd do this too" but i feel like writers are putting a lot of pressure on themselves lately, or maybe it's just this fandom idk, to write a fic for every single idea that comes into their mailbox because they feel like "that's what writers do" or something and it's like??? you don't have to be a Public Figure here. it's just a fuckign social media website and the weirdest most fucked up one. i'm sure you get asks like "hey why didn't you write such and such" but like. you're just here to converse and share the things you make this isn't your fucking job so ignore that shit and do what feels comfortable to you. idk if this sounds harsh or not but really the point is just do whatever the fuck you want

hello!

idk if this is a rant specifically toward me or if it’s supposed to be a suggestion for others..but i feel like i have a pretty clear boundary and that is stated clearly in my guidelines. i do understand that this is something silly and meant to be fun and i treat it that way.

i’ve never felt pressured to do something i didn’t want to do. i know i posted a “i have a full time job and i go to school!” post yesterday but that’s because i have drawn that boundary and i do understand that this is a low priority and it’s for fun. if i don’t like an ask, i delete it! which i do so often tbh. i don’t rly advertise that bc i want ppl to feel like they can inbox me.

and again, i’m not sure if this is directed at me fully, but i have never said anything along the lines of “because that’s what writers do.” as i’ve said in my guidelines, i understand i am not here for you or any other reader. and i am fully comfortable deleting any ask and blocking whoever tf i want.

perhaps this in response to saying something like “this didn’t get a whole lotta notes :(“ or something? and if it’s that, that’s not meant to be taken too seriously! it’s more of a “omg why doesn’t anyone else wanna giggle about kai with me rn?” just like irl if i’m w a group of ppl and i’m sharing something i rly like and that i created and i get very little response i’ll be slightly :/ but i’m not taking it personally. i’m sorry if it came across as pressuring others to provide feedback.

perhaps this is in response to my poll i have up rn. i’m doing this because many readers have suggested us writers interact back with them. and they’ve requested that from multiple writers. which i see as a fair request to be completely honest. however, i don’t feel pressured into doing that. i want to show appreciation to my readers that leave feedback and idk maybe it’s because i’m autistic, maybe it’s because i’m old and don’t do social media well, but it can be very difficult for me to talk to people in any form (online or offline) so i wanted to know what form would be best received.

but at the end of the day- i definitely do not see myself as an “influencer”—that is actually my worst nightmare. i have never felt pressured to write a response to anything, i’ve never felt pressured to respond within a certain time frame, a certain length, or anything. i still haven’t posted half my kinktober shit! i’ve never prioritized this over work or school. i do write whatever the fuck i want or i wouldn’t write about “unpopular” things like kai smut (bc let’s face it, they’re always super unpopular), chubby!reader, or other kinks. and i make that clear in my guidelines!

and yep, i see this as something silly that i do as a hobby but that isn’t my place to dictate how other writers should feel about their blog. if they want to take it seriously bc they view as their art, that’s fine with me. if they wanna write for validation or for as many notes as possible, that’s fine w me because they’re doing whatever the fuck they want.

writers: i do encourage you to not feel pressured to write to things you don’t want to, but i don’t feel like many of you do that anyway. this is meant to be something fun and if you’re not having fun, don’t do it! but i’m still having fun with this so i’m gonna do it. and i’m sure y’all are having fun too. i ofc hope my moots stick around, but i would of course understand if you decided to never log back in again someday.

[myevilmouse]

For the deep fic writer asks:

10. how has writing positively impacted your mental health or overall mood?

11. Has a fic you’ve written ever caused issues/controversy?

Thank you 🤗

Ah thank you so much for these asks tonight!  So much fun to think about this stuff.

10. how has writing positively impacted your mental health or overall mood?

I love this question because it is an awesome thing to think about.  For me, the best thing about writing fanfic is rediscovering my love of writing in general.  English was always my favorite class in high school, and I wrote short stories and things in creative writing that I loved back then.  It was really fun.  Hobbies should be fun and positive, and if they aren’t, they aren’t really hobbies but chores.  Writing is a great outlet for me, escapist and challenging.  I love to make  things happen that didn’t happen before thanks to a story.  It’s so rewarding.  Luke/Mara sex pollen?  Sure.  Thrawn/Pryce in quarantine?  Sure.  #itdidntexistsoiwroteit is one of my favorite tags.

Apart from the stories themselves and the act of writing being enjoyable, I have made a lot of wonderful friends in this community (and others!).  One of my first online fandom friends I met for the first time at my wedding reception hahaha and the small group of my fic buddies are invariably supportive, encouraging, and sympathetic no matter if the topic is real life madness or characters refusing to obey the almighty author.  My tumblr friends are awesome, and everyone who takes a chance to read my stories are simply gifts to me as a writer.

Also I really do enjoy reading my own stories.  I am not shy or modest about this.  I LOVE MY FIC because if I didn’t why would I write it?!  That is super fun for me to revisit and reread and be proud of something that didn’t exist until I wrote it 😊

This may be a good place to mention that if writing is NEGATIVELY impacting your mood or mental health, you should step away, take a break, consider what is having that effect.  For any writers struggling to feel that joy again (due to lack of engagement or toxicity or whatever), I suggest you write a fic and don’t post it, keep it just for yourself (personally I think everyone should have at least one fic that’s “just for you”—it’s like a secret indulgence and a great reminder of why we should be writing—for ourselves!).  I mean, I play piano as a hobby.  I definitely don’t want to share my ivory tickling on youtube or whatever, that would add pressure and misery and suck the joy out.  So remember it’s all about the joy.

11. Has a fic you’ve written ever caused issues/controversy?

YES actually.  What an interesting thing to think about!  I had forgotten but polled some friends and remembered a few…. These are minor controversies though, nothing like fissures in the space/time continuum or anything, more like hiccups in the tumblrsphere…

Back in 2019, I wrote a Luke/Ahsoka fic (I think it was the first one for the ship on Ao3, or one of them) and I got some tumblr hate which was fun to smack down.  People outed themselves as ageist and misogynist and, well, you can read my response here. 

I had a similar reaction to my Luke/Mon Mothma fic.  Basically, I am militant that fanfic is for fun and you should write whatever the fuck you want.  I have no obligation to conform my stories to anyone’s expectations and refuse to do so.  Also Luke/Ahsoka is a GREAT SHIP you can’t change my mind haahah as is Luke/Mon, why can’t she get some Jedi loving?!

More recently, I understand there was some fandom kerfuffle around my Thrawn/Sabine story.  Again this had to do with age differences and the idea that professors/students is verboten blah blah blah. 

All I have to say to that is if you see a rated E fic tagged “hot for teacher” and you want to complain to the author that it’s about a student banging her teacher, you have issues requiring addressing that are beyond my expertise.

me @ the negativity

Thank you so much for these asks tonight @guestiguess!  I am enjoying them immensely! Hope you enjoyed the answers!

[back-to-louis]

*HUGE SIGH* - Part 1

(Or: the poll has spoken)

“I love to discuss (argue).” - The Larrie OP

That’s one of many differences between us, and why ultimately this is a waste of my time. I’m not here to argue. I didn’t start this blog to argue. I have always simply tried to get people to consider the harm of their behavior in propagating the conspiracy theory of Larrie. By stating up front that the goal is to “argue” (read: get attention), it’s clear that the OP is not operating from a position of being willing to reflect or change their mind. That’s why this is a waste of time. All I can do is point out the flaws in the arguments, with the best case scenario that I teach the OP how to make better ones next time. I’m certainly not willingly giving them the attention they wanted.

I’d like to suggest readers take a shot (or if you do not drink, a sip of something unpleasant! a squirt of lime in the mouth or something, lol) every time the argument does this thing where they have already determined the crime being committed, try to force an equivocation between that crime and the thing they’re linking to/quoting/discussing, and then interpret the gaps in what they are presenting, or the mention of the other item, to be evidence of the thing they have imagined.

“People commit crimes” is not a black box into which you can insert whatever specific crime you imagine and work backwards from there. There will always be a crime you can imagine being committed. A conspiracy theorist has no reason other than the CT they’re trying to “prove” for asserting THAT OFFENSE is the one being committed. It could be, by those standards, ANYTHING. They would need to explain why they haven’t looked into why XYZ crime isn’t being committed rather than their pet ones. (The answer is in their header)

I’m breaking up the arguments into more manageable chunks, so there will be multiple posts. I will not respond to further baiting about this. Go play with yourself if you want to keep going.

Em, Admit You Were Wrong Because Lifetime Contracts Do Exist! a) Starts off with this DELIGHTFUL SELF OWN:

“Pls don’t tell me that you actually think there’s a single person behind everything and a NAME can be NAMED 😶”

That… is a conspiracy theory, not evidence. Do you know what a conspiracy theory is? Do you know what evidence is?

[slaps self] No, no! I promised myself I would not ask any more questions. I will instead make a statement. A person *gestures* (not saying it's the OP but not NOT saying it) can say anything they want to say, but the statement itself does not constitute evidence. If one such person were to say, “crimes are being committed,” and the response to the question “by whom?” is, “you are very silly, as if there is a person one could name as being responsible for the crimes,” what you have is a conspiracy theory, not evidence of a crime.

If one could simply assert “crimes are being committed” and that one could never actually identify who has committed them, then absolutely ANYTHING ONE COULD IMAGINE could be inserted for “crimes,” according to the accuser’s desire, and ABSOLUTELY ANYONE the accuser imagines could be committing them. Which is what is happening here. The crimes being imagined are according to the larrie’s tastes. If the crimes could be ALL OF THE CRIMES, why SPECIFICALLY closeting? Because that is what the larrie wishes to imagine is being committed. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

b) Quote from Rebecca Ferguson in response to (let’s be real, a larrie) asking: “maybe it’s too exaggerated but can a musician be trapped in an abusive contract for life???”

“Yes 100%”

Now, this is going to blow your mind, but “a musician being trapped in an abusive contract for life” is NOT the same as “lifetime contracts exist” and HERE IS WHY.

There are many items that can be in a contract for a record label, among them obligations for the artist to perform certain actions –(oooh, the larries salivate, this can super duper include anything we imagine like faking a baby or birth certificate or obituary or faked co-habitation etc!)-- such as, I continue on, delivering a certain number of singles, or a certain number of albums, or performances, or tours, or appearances, etc. These are just off the top of my head, surely there are more and others, although I would not insist that just any old thing I can think of will fill that black box.

If an artist bound by such contract, say for example, is obligated to produce ten (10) albums, and never quite manages to get there because they do two and they’re overworked and need a break, mentally or physically, or they’re out of money, or they have a mental block and can’t write, or they don’t want to work with the producers the label instructed them to work with (let’s say because the producer is an abuser and rapist - like that KE$HA connection referenced but not linked, and I wonder why - it’s very easy to find using Google. Here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kesha-dr-luke-case-highlights-hidden-side-of-record-contracts-113491/ – btw, ALSO not a “LIFETIME CONTRACT” - it’s about her producing music) or any other number of plausible and implausible reasons why the artist is “unable to deliver” upon the requirements of the contract in a PRODUCTION sense. They aren’t just relieved of the contract because they can’t or won’t deliver (as further elaborated in the article linked above). They’re bound by the contract until they deliver. If they can't deliver or get out of the contract until their death, then the contract is in effect until then.

A “lifetime contract,” in contrast, would be one in which the artist is supposed to be bound to the record label until they die, regardless of deliverables or performance of duties. 

Now, MARRIAGE contracts? Those are for life. “As long as we both shall live/until death do us part?” that’s a LIFETIME contract.

What we have here is that the larrie read a thing and cannot, for the life of them, consider that the thing they read can be true in a way that doesn’t specifically confirm their conspiracy theory. It’s a lack of imagination, frankly. Also, take a shot.

So, no, I don’t think I will “admit” lifetime contracts exist, because you haven’t proven they do.

2. By asserting something very emphatically, the OP thinks they have made it fact.

    In response to another tweet by Rebecca Ferguson (I have no idea why this larrie is so averse to using text instead of images, but I’ll type it out again.)

“No more sexually assaulting women in hotel rooms! No more covering up sexual assault for your seedy friends no more grooming 17 year old boys who are confused about their sexuality! No more taking people out of circulation as if they are cattle… #Netflix #Documentary” a) “You are wrong again. Grooming 17 year old boys to remould their sexuality isn’t closeting then I don’t know what is. (Is it even legal?)” 

    i) Well, you said I was wrong, so I guess that settles it?

ii) The larrie seems very sure that the grooming of he 17 year old boy who is confused about their sexuality is about making the boy heterosexual, appear heterosexual, or think they are heterosexual. We don’t know what the grooming behavior being referred to is, in this case - either Rebecca didn’t elaborate or this larrie has not chosen to share it, but either way, I can’t make that conclusion from what has been shown here. Is the grooming molestation? Is the grooming showing porn? Is it gay porn? Straight porn? Like, if it could be reasonably said that Michael Jackson groomed young boys, was he making them straight? Was he closeting them? This statement is a very big “NEEDS MORE INFORMATION,” not a slam-dunk case of “grooming 17 year old boys is closeting them,” which leads me to

    iii) “If grooming someone is not closeting them then I don’t know what it is” - yeah, it’s very clear you DON’T know what grooming is! https://theconversation.com/grooming-an-expert-explains-what-it-is-and-how-to-identify-it-181573

Take a shot, readers. Just because grooming is a form of abuse, and the larrie has pre-determined that closeting is also a form of abuse, they’ve just slid the two together and think that the declaration that grooming is happening is the equivalent of the other. This is a fallacy.

    iv) “(Is this even legal?)” I was going to ask if the OP even looked up whether grooming was illegal or was this question meant to be rhetorical, but since they don’t even seem clear on what it means, I guess that’s a no.

v) As a side note, re: my comments about choosing which crimes to be outraged about. Look at what's listed in that litany by Rebecca. Look what OP CHOOSES to be most incensed about, blog about day in and day out. Not even the crimes actually listed, crimes that can be charged, litigated, sentenced (I bet Rebecca could name names, there's no mysterious "they" doing these things!). Nope, they're concerned with the one offense they can imagine to be defined therein, which is specifically the one they went in looking for.

~end part 1

[vang0bus]

hi!!! this is all in good faith and please dont take this as an attack (also sorry for my english LOL its not my native lang). i’m /gen curious about your response to this, im open to all any opinions that can push me to change my mind.

right, i just want to start off by saying that fundamentally bipartisan system in the us sucks and i get it. i also know its scary to think about republicans being the main power in electoral politics.

anyways… be it the congress or president, you are not really voting for people, you are voting for some kind of lobby. political system in the us is a money machine.

and whereas social issues (lgbt, abortion, feminism) are only used as chess pieces and can be pushed all over the board, left or right, and be freely used to create propaganda and keep fearmongering in order to gain more voters (as republicans certainly do), that’s not the case with anything that has to do with the economy or us financial and political interest internationally.

every president, and every party wants to preserve the position of the us as an empire. and that’s required of them. they need to preserve the empire, in order to have more influence, to stimulate the economy, to get cheeper natural resources.

the current genocide going on in palestine is a matter of million (billion? idk u guys use the numbers name in a diff way) of dollars. it’s not a matter of not supporting the genocide for them, its a matter of investment for them, thats will make them a LOT of money.

that’s why the only way to make sure democrats will never again support genocide again is to take away the electoral support! that’s the only way! because otherwise, the polls will show that the support of a genocide cannot stop them from making money!

and i’m sorry, i don’t mean to sound insensitive, but there isn’t a genocide going on in the us. not in a literal sense at least.

shit sucks, and i know that, but i think you guys HAVE TO survive a couple of years of a shithead in the office if that means showing a huge decrease of support for democrats, the only thing that will make sure that democrats elected in the future will not take actions to support a genocide lol.

anyways, i hope u have a good day <3 take care

you have some good points! and i want to establish that i'm not actually from the USA at all, so this is coming from someone whos looking at US politics from the outside. i agree that threatening to withdraw electoral support might be the only way to push democrats left -- my problem isn't with people telling politicians they're not going to vote blue unless they change their stance on israel. my problem is with people on this website encouraging other leftists to abstain and saying voting does nothing. let's be real, politicians don't look at tumblr dot com. joe biden isn't seeing what anyone says about him here. the only effect this discourse will have is making people unwilling to vote democrat even if the situation changes. even if it becomes clear that that would be the best strategy. not only that, but i'm already seeing people who claim to be leftist defending trump and claiming biden is infinitely worse just based on him supporting israel, as if trump would be any less pro-israel if he was president. let's be realistic, please. you know trump would be just as bad if not worse. vote for better candidates in the primaries; absolutely do threaten democrats with loss of electoral support. but if it comes down to biden VS trump or biden VS desantis again, i really do think it would be irresponsible to abstain or to vote third party considering the current political environment in the united states.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[gendercensus]

On fae/faer pronouns and cultural appropriation

HOW IT STARTED

I had a handful, a very small handful but more than two, responses in the Gender Census feedback box telling me that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative. The reasons didn’t always agree, and the culture that was being appropriated wasn’t always the same, but here’s a selection of quotes:

“Fae pronouns are cultural appropriation and are harmful to use“ - UK, age 11-15

“I’m not a person who practices pagan holidays but, my understanding is that pronouns like fae/faeself are harmful because the fae are real to pagans and is like using Jesus/jesuself as pronouns“ - UK, age 11-15

“I know you've probably heard this a million times, so has everyone on the internet, but the ''mere existence''of the fae pronoun feels really uncomfortable for some of us. I'm personally not against neopronouns like xe/xim, er/em and the like, I am a pagan but apart from the, imo most important, reasoning of that pronoun being immensely disrespectful, I worry as an nb about people who banalize the usage of pronouns ''for fun'', and I'm quoting what some people have told me.“ - Spain, 16-20

“I don't agree with fae/deity pronouns just from a pagan perspective it's very disrespectful to the cultures they come from. Like Fae are a legit thing in many cultures and they hate with a fiery passion mortal humans calling themselves Fae to the point of harming/cursing the people who do it“ - USA, age 16-20

“only celtic people can use far/ faers otherwise it’s cultural appropriation, many celts have said this and told me this“ - USA, age 16-20

So that’s:

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

❌ Someone who definitely isn’t pagan.

✅ Someone who is pagan.

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

So, just to disclose some bias up-front, I am English so I’m not Celtic, but I do live in Wales so I am surrounded by Celts. The bit of Wales that I live in is so beautiful in such a way that when my French friend came to visit me she described it as féerique - like an enchanting, magical land, literally “fairylike” or thereabouts. Coincidentally I have also considered myself mostly pagan for over half of my life, and I can’t definitively claim whether or not the Fae are “part of paganism” because paganism is so diverse and pick’n’mix that it just doesn’t work that way.

To me the idea that fae/faer pronouns would be offensive or culturally appropriative sounds absurd. But also, I am powered by curiosity, and have been wrong enough times in my life that I wanted to approach this in a neutral way with an open mind. Perhaps what I find out can be helpful to some people.

So since we only have information from one person who is definitely directly affected by any cultural appropriation that may be happening, the first thing I wanted to do was get some information from ideally a large number of people who are in the cultures being appropriated, and see what they think.

~

WHAT I DID

First of all I put some polls up on Twitter and Mastodon. [Edit: Note that this post has been updated with results from closed polls.]

I specified that I wanted to hear from nonbinary Celts and pagans, just so that the voters would be familiar with fae/faer pronouns. I asked the questions in a neutral way, i.e. “How do you feel about...” with “good/neutral/bad” answer options, instead of something more leading like “Is this a load of rubbish?” or “are you super offended?” with “yes/no” options. I provided a “see results” option, so that the poll results wouldn’t be skewed as much by random people clicking any old answer to see the results. And I invited voters to express their opinions in replies.

Question #1: Nonbinary people of Celtic descent (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany), how do you feel about non-Celtic people using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]

Question #2: Nonbinary pagans, how do you feel about non-pagans using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]

The Twitter polls got over 1,100 responses each, and the Mastodon polls got over 140 responses each. With a little bit of spreadsheetery I removed the “N/A” responses to reverse engineer the number of people voting for each option, combined those numbers, and recalculated percentages.

Obviously this approach is not in the least scientific, but thankfully the results were unambiguous enough and the samples were big enough that I feel comfortable drawing conclusions.

Celts on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-Celts (561 voters):

It's good - 42.5%

No strong feelings/other - 44.0%

It's bad - 13.5%

Pagans on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-pagans (468 voters):

It's good - 47.2%

No strong feelings/other - 39.5%

It's bad - 13.3%

Here’s how that looks as a graph:

The limitations of polls on these platforms means that we have no way to distinguish between people who have more complicated views (”other”) and people who have “no strong feelings”, so we can’t really draw conclusions there. If we stick to just the pure positive and pure negative:

Celts were over three times as likely to feel positive about non-Celts using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.

Pagans were over three and a half times as likely to feel positive about non-pagans using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.

So Celts and pagans are way more likely to feel actively good about someone’s fae/faer pronouns, even when that person is not a Celt/pagan. That’s some strong evidence against the idea that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative, right there.

~

CORRECTIONS

To be clear, I haven’t done any research about the roots of fae/faer or the origins of the Fae and related beings, but my goal here was to get a sense of what Celts and pagans think and feel, rather than what an historian or anthropologist would say.

On the anti side, here were the replies that suggested fae/faer either is or might be inappropriate:

“I only worry that not everyone understands the origin of the word outside of modernized ideas of fairies.“ - pagan

“As a vaguely spiritual Whatever (Ireland), I think a mortal using "fae" as a pronoun/to refer to themselves is asking for a malicious and inventive fairy curse (on them, their families and possibly anyone in their vicinity, going by the traditions). I have not heard of this term before, so this is an immediate reaction from no background bar my cultural knowledge of sidhe/fae/term as culturally appropriate. My general approach is people can identify themselves as they want.“ - Celtic

So we’ve got a pagan who’s wary that people who use fae/faer (and people in general) might not have a fully fleshed out idea of the Fae. And we’ve got a Celt who doesn’t mind people using fae/faer personally, but based on what they know of the Fae they wouldn’t be surprised if the Fae got mad about it. No outright opposition, but a little concern.

There were not a lot of replies on the pro side, but not because people weren’t into it, judging by the votes. There were a lot of “it’s more complicated than that” replies, many of which repeated others, so quotes won’t really work. Here’s a summary of the Celtic bits:

“Fae” is not a Celtic word, and Celts don’t use it. It is French, or Anglo-French.

“Fae” can refer to any number of stories/legends from a wide variety of cultures in Europe, not one cohesive concept.

There are many legends about fairy-like beings in Celtic mythologies, and there are many, many different names for them.

The Celts are not a monolith, they’re a broad selection of cultures with various languages and various mythologies.

And the pagan bits:

Paganism is not closed or exclusive in any way. It might actually be more open than anything else, as “pagan” is a sort of umbrella term for non-mainstream religions in some contexts. A closed culture would be a prerequisite for something to be considered “appropriated” from paganism.

From my own experience, pagans may or may not believe in the Fae, and within that group believers may or may not consider the Fae to be sacred and/or worthy of great respect. (I’ve certainly never met a pagan who worshipped the Fae, though I don’t doubt that some do.)

And then we get into the accusations. 🍿

“this issue wasn’t started by Celtic groups or by people who know much about Celtic fae. It was started primarily by anti-neopronoun exclusionist pagans on TikTok.“

“[I’m] literally Scottish [...] and it’s not appropriative in the least and honestly to suggest as such is massively invalidating towards actual acts of cultural appropriation and is therefore racist. Feel like if this was actually brought up it was either by some people who seriously got their wires crossed or people who are just concern trolling and trying to make fun of both neo-pronouns and of the concept of cultural appropriation and stir the pot in the process.“

“It wouldn't be the first time bigots falsly claim “it's appropriative from X marginalized group" to harass people they don't like, like they did with aspec people when they claimed "aspec" was stolen from autistic language (which was false, as many autistics said)“

“It's been a discussion in pagan circles recently ... People were very quick to use the discussion as an excuse to shit on nonbinary people.“

“I think it would be apropos to note that the word "faerie/fairy" has been a synonym for various queer identities for decades, too. The Radical Faeries are a good example.“ (So if anyone has the right to [re]claim it...)

A little healthy skepticism is often wise in online LGBTQ+ “discourse”, and some of these people are making some very strong claims, for which I’d love to see some evidence/sources/context. Some of it certainly sounds plausible.

~

HOW DID IT START?

I had a look on Twitter and the earliest claim I can find that fae/faer pronouns are cultural appropriation is from 18th February 2020, almost exactly one year ago today. Again, tweets are not the best medium for this, there was very little in the way of nuance or context. If anyone can find an older claim from Twitter or Tumblr or anywhere else online, please do send it my way.

I have no idea how to navigate TikTok because I’m a nonbinosaur. (I’m 34.) I did find some videos of teens and young adults apparently earnestly asserting that they were Celtic or pagan and the use of fae/faer pronouns was offensive, but the videos were very brief and provided nothing in the way of nuance or context. For example:

This one from October 2020 with 29k ❤️s, by someone who I assume is USian based on the word “mom”?

This one from December 2020, that says “I am pagan and i find it rather disrespectful. It’s like using god/godr or jesus/jesusr.” That’s probably what inspired the feedback box comment above that refers to hypothetical jesus/jesusr pronouns.

If anyone is able to find a particularly old or influential TikTok video about fae/faer pronouns being appropriative I’d really appreciate it, especially if it’s from a different age group or from not-the-USA, to give us a feel for how universal this is.

For context, fae pronouns were mentioned in the very first Gender Census back in May 2013, though you’ll have to take my word for it as the individual responses are not currently public. The word “fae” was mentioned in the pronoun question’s “other” textbox, and no other forms in the set were entered so we have no way of knowing for sure what that person’s full pronoun set actually is. This means the set may have been around for longer. The Nonbinary Wiki says that the pronoun set was created in October 2013, as “fae/vaer”, later than the first entry in the Gender Census, so I’ll be editing that wiki page later! If anyone has any examples of fae/faer pronouns in use before 2013 I would also be very interested to see that.

~

IN SUMMARY

Obviously I can’t speak for everyone, as the Twitter polls are not super scientific and they only surveyed a selection of Celts and pagans within a few degrees of separation of the Gender Census Twitter and Mastodon accounts, but I can certainly report on what I found.

For a more conclusive result, we’d need to take into account various demographics such as age, culture, location, religion, race/heritage, etc.

As far as I can tell based on fairly small samples of over 400 people per group, a minority of about 13% of Celtic and/or pagan people felt that use of fae/faer pronouns is appropriative.

A much higher number of people per group felt positive about people who are not Celts or pagans using fae/faer pronouns. The predominant view was:

It can’t be cultural appropriation from Celtic cultures because fairy-like beings are not unique to Celtic cultures and Celtic cultures don’t call them Fae.

It can’t be cultural appropriation from pagan cultures because paganism is not “closed” or exclusive in any way, it’s too broad and open.

~

If your experience of your gender(s) or lack thereof isn’t described or encompassed by the gender binary of “male OR female”, please do click here to take the Gender Census 2021 - it’s international and it closes no earlier than 10th March 2021!

[shijiujun]

on the danmei twitter fight

okay guys i didn’t wanna say anything about this and yes it’s that hot danmei twitter translations saga thing that’s going on, because honestly i feel like there’s nothing much to say but when i see dumb posts on tumblr taking about that, by people who present a misleading hot take and their friends or moots run off with it without even knowing what exactly is going on - it really pisses me off.

and also if you shit talk translators for not continuing their translations or locking their translations whatever - the door is that way on your right and left, but anyway here’s a rundown on what happened because i am seeing people make comments without two brain cells put together, without the slightest bit of consideration for the people who bring them translations

here’s my hot take and thesis: if you enjoy english translations made by fan translators, you don’t, in any way, no matter happens, shit talk fan translators. fan translators do this for free, and whatever their intentions are, whether genuine sharing or like some of you like to say, for clout, if you consume, and you enjoy these translations, i’m sorry, you’re not uninvolved, and you don’t get to sit on a high horse and say translators should or shouldn’t do something. you should just keep quiet, honestly, because someone else is doing you a favour, a favour that you are enjoying and taking. that’s what respect is.

i’m presenting both sides or i guess three sides of the story as objectively as i can, altho my support is still for fan translators who were just minding their own business before this blew up.

===

🔺 what happened:

so it started because one of the bigger translators in the fandom did this poll - i’m not blaming her at all, i doubt she had any intentions of shaming anyone or causing any controversy and was plain curious, but her poll asked english speaking danmei twitter how many people buy the digital, print copies of the danmei they read, and who did not. 

in my honest opinion, it’s not strange at all for her to have created that poll, considering just how much work she’s put into making sure things are accessible for the eng-speaking danmei fandom. i mean i’d be curious too, to know out of my thousands of readers, what the reading and buying behaviour is like. do yourself a favour and don’t read too much into it.

obviously in an era where a lot of people do consume content for free whether the underlying content is profit-making (like anime, donghua, manhua, manga etc.) or not (fanfiction etc.), it was unsurprising to see that the last option - the ones who consume danmei without paying a single cent, came out as the majority. i don’t think this is a surprising result at all, for all sorts of reasons that i will not get into now.

anyway, this is obviously kind of a sore point in the fandom especially for translators who want a wider audience to support their fave author’s works - i won’t get into that for now, but the issue began because other translators or fans started to criticize the majority of people who don’t pay for objectively rather affordable danmei and just consume things for free. 

and yes, i don’t deny that the argument on both sides got really heated and emotionally charged with both sides calling each other names which i believe is uncalled for, but it totally derailed the crux of the issue, which basically is that the majority of english-speaking danmei fandom - consumes danmei for free.

anyway this whole thing escalated and fan translators were brought into this for no fucking reason at all except that the people who didn’t want, or were unable to pay for the danmei they usually consume, made what i call a LOGICAL FALLACY in argument by going to the extremes, i will explain why later.

the end result is that fan translators were brought into this (most of them, the bigger ones i know at least) without even participating in the direct crossfire. and obviously, you can see why they’re hurt and decided to lock their translations. let me explain why

===

🔺 kind of like four camps:

(1) translators and fans who criticized those who consume danmei liberally but do not pay for them in any way - no merch, no digital copies, no physical copies, no audio dramas whatever

*** their arguments:

danmei is so cheap right, that technically people should be able to pay for it in one way or another, even if not all

danmei and its authors are, at the end of the day, out here to earn a living, and the industry, like any money-making industry, is a for-profit enterprise - and unlike public goods, if you cannot afford danmei, then there is no obligation for others to make it free for you (fan translators or otherwise, it wasn’t super clearly stated while this shitshow happened) when it is inherently a for-profit industry

yes, i don’t deny that some of them did call the peeps who don’t pay at all, “leeches” and other sort of names. personally, i wouldn’t go that far or even like venture there to be honest because in general, if it’s something that i’ll get punched in the face for if i called someone that in real life i tend not to do it, but i’ll leave my opinions, whatever they’re worth, for later

(2) the readers and fans of danmei who do not pay in any sort of way for them

*** their arguments:

some of them really cannot afford, even the dollar or more, to spend on danmei for several reasons: upbringing, culture, money-spending mindsets, real poverty, struggling to make ends meet etc. - some definitely more valid than others (and when i say not valid, it’s because SOME, a minority or like those few stragglers, say they cannot afford and then you see them like idk, throwing $50 on other merch on kpop and stuff - i’m just bringing up ONE example. not shaming anyone for spending more money on one aspect rather than the other, but yeah you can see why some of them, when making this same argument, are a little invalid, that’s just a small number of them tho)

if translators are blaming them for consuming free of charge, then the fault lies, at its foundation, fan translators who translate illegally, which i mean, in that definition, all of them including me 

did i mention that we were called illegal translators like you know in response to being called leeches? anyway-

(3) others translators who literally were just minding their own fucking business before some smart alec dragged them into it

i don’t think most of us had an argument. we were just quietly munching on popcorn and staying out of it and yeah, can you imagine, we provide a service, however illegal it is, for free on our own time, we don’t even check whether people support legally or not, we just... provide, and pray that those who are able to, at least support in some small way or another do so, on their own time. i mean i don’t check, most of us don’t, not the bouncers at your local club before COVID happened do, and then suddenly, to be used to derail an argument, we were called illegal translators. and that we should stop translating, and that it is our fault that there are free riders in the fandom

(4) people who offered to provide JJWXC credits to those who said they couldn’t afford it etc.

honestly i think they were just trying to help - no different than a gofundme. there’s no shame in taking a free thing that people already weren’t intending to pay for. it’s there, just take it!

===

🔺 the shitshow that led to fan translators locking their stuff up:

i would provide some actual examples in the form of screenshots but i’ve blocked most of them, and i don’t want to direct any sort of traffic to them so i guess you’ll have to take my word on it or go search on twitter yourself but-

(1) the affordability issue: i can understand the frustration at being called leeches, and some if not a majority of people, do have valid reasons for not being able to afford something or anything and end up pirating content they enjoy. hey, i am not about to crucify anyone for pirating at some point in their lives. we all have done it at some point, or for example hate disney+ and that $30 they were trying to rip off us for a subpar Mulan live action. i don’t have anything to say about that. inherently, is it wrong and illegal? yeah sure of course it is. do we call people leeches? i wouldn’t go that far.

if anyone cannot afford, cannot access for whatever reason, fine, i’m not gonna go check if jjwxc truly is banned in your country, or is your postal service so terrible that you definitely won’t be able to receive a hard copy of the book you like at affordable rates.

and if you have to pirate? go ahead. i mean it’s always been a rampant thing. the only thing fan translators and fans can do is encourage, motivate and incentivise as much as possible to get people to support legally. they can only put up REALLY COMPREHENSIVE guides as to how to access jjwxc or taobao or whatever. 

and if you still cannot afford it and pirate, honestly no one cares about the story behind it. you owe no one justification, just as how no other person is obligated to take it into consideration or understand you or empathize with you. i don’t say this in a malicious way - i do think that in general, you just do you. 

(2) the poor people don’t deserve nice things argument: honestly, this was not the point of this entire debacle, altho yes, people were rude to those who could not afford to support legally. but this is not the point of this whole thing.

main point - there are free riders who can support but choose not to because they choose to just consume it for free and if you are able to you should support

everyone going off on a tangent - you guys hate poor people / you guys are leeches

well guess what, no one wins in this argument. 

there were a lot of people saying “reading danmei is our only source of happiness, are you saying poor people who can’t access legally don’t deserve to read danmei” (this is just one example i’ve seen, there are other variations), and it wasn’t put across perhaps in the right way, but the other camp of people were saying “you’re not entitled to it for free if you cannot afford it”, which raised a lot of hackles and anti-poor yellings 

altho i do not deny that there are those who mean it maliciously, i think what everyone is trying to say is - the danmei industry, like any other profit-making industry, is looking to make profits. the people working in the industry, the authors even, are looking at numbers - traffic to jjwxc or other legal platforms, how much revenue they’re making from their live actions etc., comments, rankings, etc. i think @/hunxi-after-hours made a really succinct post on this aspect which yall should read.

it’s the same as - if you wanted to purchase a standee which costs $20 USD, but you cannot afford it = you don’t get it. there’s no way you can get this standee unless some gifts it to you for free. what the camp trying to ask people to support legally is saying, is that danmei is NOT A PUBLIC GOOD. it is a private, for-profit product. it might be intangible, but it is a PRODUCT that has a price that needs to be paid.

if you cannot afford it, you either don’t get access entirely (i’m saying this objectively and honestly from an economic standpoint). if someone gifts that standee to you for free, count yourself lucky - if someone makes a danmei accessible to you for free, COUNT YOURSELF LUCKY. you don’t have to be grateful and treat them as gods or like obey their every word, but it’s not rocket science. someone did you a favour that you accepted and consumed, show some respect. 

if you cannot afford to buy the standee - you do not go on twitter demanding that someone ensures that you have access to the standee for free. do you see how ridiculous this sounds once it’s a tangible product? and danmei novels ARE PRODUCTS. they are not FREE CONTENT. if someone cannot afford the standee, this is the equivalent of people going “we didn’t get the standee for free because poor people don’t deserve nice things”

totally missing the point. i don’t even know how it got to this. once again, i do admit that some users were unnecessarily mean, but going to the extreme of this is ridiculous. in argumentative essay writing we call this a logical fallacy:

e.g. “if you cannot pay for merchandise or danmei, it is a fact that you might not have access to it” morphing into “if we cannot pay for food, does this mean we cannot have access to it?!” - this is a slippery slope, and factors are not equivalent!!!! do they not teach people anything in school

don’t confuse fanfiction with danmei - danmei novels ARE PAID PRODUCTS unless for free chapters, just because it’s released online doesn’t mean it’s free public property, and also selected novels (did you guys know the WHOLE of SCI novel is free? about 500 chapters sorry, random, just a tidbit)

there are of course nuances right, like if anyone told me they were pirating disney+ content i’d be like yeah hey get one over those bloodsuckers, they take enough of our money and produce shit content anyway. the difference is that danmei authors, and the danmei industry itself can still be considered a nascent and not-yet matured industry, with a majority of authors if not all, depending on monetary flow, likes, comments, virality on the sites their content is hosted on, for a living, unlike hugeass MNCs trying to squeeze us dry for content that isn’t even interesting.

danmei is priced rather reasonably - and this brings me to another argument that was made, that the value of money is not the same for everyone. i don’t want to make comments on this because yes this is correct to a large extent. a $6 book might be cheap to most of us, but might be expensive to someone else. i’m not gonna comment on how cheap or whatever it is, if you gotta use your money for other things, definitely! i still maintain however, that a novel less than a dollar should be affordable to most people, a majority of people. and i definitely side eye some users who obviously have money but are just creating noise because they wanna continue free-riding

(4) the “they’re losing out on their international audience” argument: honestly, i feel like english-speaking danmei fandom gives themselves a bit too much credit. danmei has long thrived in china in its domestic market - sure the international audience is a plus to have and i’m sure the authors are grateful and flattered that people who don’t understand chinese love their content and love it a lot, but do they and their companies care about fans who basically don’t bring in money? i’m not sure (okay i’ll get to the fan translators doing illegal shit later okay i got it don’t be impatient)

and international fans are great, i don’t deny that - but when i see arguments like “oh but it’s their loss if they don’t cater or deny access to us, they get more popularity and sharing overseas”, i honestly think they don’t care as much as you think. once again, hunxi made a really good argument regarding non-sinophone audiences, but it really irks me, because this is the same as:

an instagram influencer saying they’ll give a restaurant exposure for free to their followers, if they get a free meal

it’s par for par - danmei authors wants earnings, popularity, tangible results that show that they are succeeding. this is life. if i put something out there for sale, i better be getting returns, simple economic logic. they probably don’t care that a non-paying reader is bringing them greater ‘exposure’ - once again, i mean this objectively. 

and yes if they’re thriving without the international market then why should it matter that people are pirating right? which brings me to the next point~

(5) it’s fan translators faults for so many people pirating, and fan translators are the ones doing the “illegal” work: this one is like... wow where do i unpack this and how-

firstly, we are talking about assholes who can pay but decide to free ride and not pay for danmei, and we assume that if you really cannot afford and have to pirate, no one’s saying anything as long as you don’t go around spreading how to pirate, how the hell did it get to fan translators from “you guys are anti-poor” and whatever

yes, fan translations are indeed illegal, i don’t deny that, and i also don’t deny that there are translators who translate for clout and popularity but putting these aside - here’s what i have seen from people who ran their mouths and made this argument

“if you guys care about us pirating the book so much than fan translators shouldn’t have translated in the first place” and “if you wanna come after us for reading illegally, then fan translators, you guys should go get the copyright for the book and then translate it cuz what you guys are doing is also illegal”

hooooo i’m telling ya, i am all for translators locking up their translations at this point. see how fucking hurtful that is? you eat from my hand and then now you biting at the hand that fed you the gays in love?

honestly if you’ve made this argument or supported this, you can basically go to hell. yes this is personal because what, you think fan translators don’t take out their personal time and effort and hard work to make translations accessible to you? if you’re ever consumed and read translations, don’t be a hypocrite and make this argument. you benefitted from it, now you wanna say it’s their fault? 

most translators want to share and spread the love they have for a novel right, want to show you how wonderful all these authors are, how much enjoyment u get from reading these wonderfully thought out stories of gays in love. yes we all know we are illegally translating, which is why on top of sharing we first, purchase the novels legally ourselves first, and then we try to encourage people to buy etc. and actually put their money to use. it doesn’t make it any less illegal, but we are bridging the gap between danmei and basically the english-speaking fandom, albeit illegally

we aren’t that self-important to ask for gratefulness but some respect would be nice. like i said, you read it, you consumed it, you enjoyed it, you can only access it because of illegal translators - a bit counter-intuitive to yell at these translators, who are simply telling you, if you can, please support. and none of us went “if you cannot afford, begone!”

===

🔺 some people tried to help by offering jjwxc credits so people who cannot afford as they say, can get legal access: honestly, just take it right, guess what some of these users did in response

they said the people giving away credits are trying to redeem themselves for their comments by giving away free stuff

they also said that we are trying to shame the people who cannot afford it with this handout to them, to show that they are the bigger person - the fact that they think this is a handout to them is TELLING. the people offering this is giving their money not to these readers, but to the authors! that’s the point of this exercise!!!

one of them even said “instead of trying to do these giveaways, here, there are greater world problems out there, donate instead to these causes” - love the initiative, but how did we get from being able to afford danmei and entertainment content to saving the world? i just- i cannot

===

🔺 so why i get why fan translators are locking up their translations, because wow, so hurtful:

you have no idea how many fucking assholes went “sure, lock up your translations, deal with the consequences” - ermmmm firstly, thanks for making a threat. like who the fuck do you think you are?

the consequences is... the authors still don’t get the money these free riders weren’t going to give them anyway, so no loss, and they weren’t reading on jjwxc anyway so you know, the authors don’t lose or gain any readership numbers or traffic they didn’t already have. instead, it WILL push and force people to pay for the PRODUCT. once again, it’s a product.

this works, and i’d say Word of Honor’s payment model worked marvellously for Youku, because they fucking forced everyone to pay to access content. ALL OF THEM. sure ok some people still pirated it, but how many MORE people paid on Youku, on Youku Youtube, watched on Viki etc. than if they didn’t? even english-speaking fandom were wracking their brains trying to purchase a Youku pass even if there were no subs initially - and other examples that lovely hunxi brought up in her amazing piece

and for translators?! honestly me for one, i’m glad i don’t feel pressured anymore to churn out a chapter every week since we get called names etc. most of us are glad to have a break to be honest. we’ve lost all motivation to translate because it’s a free service, at the very least we don’t expect like hate, or rudeass fuckers. for those who are doing a proof of purchase thing - go for it honestly! 

hopefully it’ll minimize the free rider problem - some people for whatever reasons really cannot buy or support legally, that’s totally cool and they don’t have to justify it, i get that. but for others making the same argument but obviously are just unwilling to pay because they can’t read chinese, think it’s too troublesome when there are guides and translators provide it for free anyway so what’s the point - we all make concessions and make decisions to grab what we like (not talking about the ppl who have their various troubles and difficulties!)

===

🔺 and those who are saying why is it the ‘rest of us suffer’ from locked translations just because of a few bad apples:

IT ISN’T ABOUT YOU. where the hell were all of ya when we were getting called illegal huh? it’s about us fan translators getting shot at for no reason, and then people still demanding things for free. i don’t see any of the people i’ve seen on tumblr complain about fan translators stopping or locking translations defend any of us in any way. instead, you’re complaining.

it is the translator’s prerogative to start, stop and end translations, unless of course the original author starts to sue i suppose. i see people on tumblr going like if they were gonna do this, they shouldn’t have started in the first place etc. - i don’t what world you live in, but when i do something for free, then get called names and am attacked or get dictated on how i should do something that’s already like free, i tend to be less generous.

i’m sorry, do us illegal and free translators owe ANY OF YOU? i wasn’t aware any of us were being paid for this hobby. readers, especially those who CAN and just refuse to support, don’t get to say SHIT. translators deal with so much shit and so many entitled readers, i say they get to lock whatever they want as long as they aren’t profiting off of this monetarily.

let me give you an example - nan chan, which is translated by lian yin, completed translations by the way for all chapters. it is all free for viewing, and she only locked up one extra and asked for proof of payment. some dumbfuck quotes that locked up extra chapter tweet and said “honestly, this turned me off reading this novel because they restricted access”.

the. fucking. entitlement. the whole of nan chan is free, that’s like what more than 80 chapters. she locked up the EXTRA and the money goes to the author, she doesn’t earn anything. AND HERE THAT BIJ is (yes, i’m going to call them names because you know, fucking asshole who didn’t bother to check) going “yeah i didn’t wanna read because 1/80+ chapters were locked”. 

AN EXTRA. LITERALLY AN EXTRA!!!!!!

at the end of the day, translators are not like DYING to translate, not like some of you are DYING to read the translations. once again, this isn’t a “BE GRATEFUL” message, it’s a please be respectful to the people who put in time and hard work for free and share the goodness ya know? what’s the use of yelling at fan translators as if we owe you anything?

================

🔴🔴🔴 TOO LONG DIDN’T READ 🔴🔴🔴

some people may need really need to pirate - and no one needs to justify why they cannot afford to purchase etc. pirating happens all the time, translators only hope that when you can, and in whatever way you can, to support legally - in general we don’t ask and we get it! we’re just annoyed that some people think that it SHOULD BE FREE, when it is a paid product, especially for those who CAN afford it

readers are not entitled to shit on translators for what they do with their translations - once again, you’re not OBLIGATED to have it. so what if i start and stop? i’m the one doing the work, i get the only say. don’t be a hypocrite and shit on translators, whose works you’ve read - it’s no loss for translators, we read and enjoy danmei just fine

yes, fan translations are illegal, but you can’t read and enjoy them like some of you have, and then turn around and point the finger at translators - a lot of us are happy to stop translating - this isn’t a threat, but at the end of the day, shitting on translators simply decreases access, and sure, some people can indeed live with you know, MTL or shitty translations from people who’ve learnt chinese for only six months or whatever, but you’re gonna be reading an entirely different book tbh

the people saying illegal translators are at fault - funnily enough, most of them consume the translations, so what the fuck? i mean we know it’s illegal, we’re trying to share the love and trying to minimize the illegalities of it by redirecting people to hopefully support legally. it’s still illegal yes, but i think it’s hypocritical for people who have read translations, stab translators in the back. and now that translators are indeed ‘restricting’ and ‘removing’ their ‘illegal translations’, yall yelling again? and threatening?

fan translators aren’t “elitist” or “classist” - just looking for some respect in a community which seems to have taken them for granted, and also looking for support for their fave authors - and honestly a lot of us were caught in the crossfires truly, don’t be an asshole and demand things from fan translators - who are you talking about? do you know why they decided to lock? do you know know what their locking system is like and what for? 

it’s not EASY to lock the translations up - it’s more admin work, it’s putting together a whitelist of people, if given the choice i’m sure translators would prefer to share everything. but not when there are assholes who have a comment on how they should translate etc. and yeah!!! calling us illegal!! i mean we are but still!!

the last straw was seeing that post on tumblr and people in the comments going like fan translators shouldn’t or should do something, without getting the whole picture, without even considering how hard it is for fan translators being caught in this situation. 

whoever puts in the work gets to decide, and everyone else should leave them alone. 

be nice to the people who really cannot afford as they say so (or just don’t think about it), be nice to the translators feeding you content, and the people who free ride and shit on translators - honestly, i’d say ready the pitchforks.

edit: i forgot to mention this is my hot take and i’ve tried to like present all the arguments i’ve seen so far. i’m definitely not doing all of it justice and i don’t claim to speak on behalf of any of them except maybe one or two- and i’ve definitely left out stuff, but anyway, lmao we’re just tiny people doing what we love. i wish we could solve you know inequality or poverty or hunger or other pressing concerns. if i was that great i wouldn’t be stuck on tumblr or twitter or have to make posts like these like a loser.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[ggreactionsandscenarios]

I was thinking about how the 13th member also their girlfriend would be doing a sexy stage with other members from different irl group's and Yvesoul is just teasing the crap out of their girlfriend saying that she couldn't do the special stage because she's more of a cute type but still encouraging her. (Because, they're supportive girlfriends and that's what we love) but, when the 13th member does the special stage, she pulls it off perfectly. I don't want the ending to end in a smut because I don't know where you stand on that and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but if you want to do it you can. So, can I settle with an ending that has Yvesoul shocked and the 13th member smug. Remember, if you're busy or just don't want to do my request than ignore it. I don't want you to feel obligated to do anything that I ask. Thank you❤️❤️

Yves x Jinsoul x Reader

"I'll show you !"

"Come on Y/N, you can't do a sexy stage, it's like asking a puppy to twerk !"

Yves bursts out laughing, you just told her about your collab stage with Sua from Dreamcatcher and Soojin from (G)I-dle. Knowing the two other idols, your girlfriend was shocked to know you were going to dance with them. After all they were known to be the sexiest of their individual groups when you were known as the cute and softest member of Loona.

Jinsoul entered the room, visibly curious about the loud fit of laughter.

"What's making you laugh that loud ? Hi cutie, didn't see you there."

She kissed your lips before facing Sooyoung, waiting for her answer.

You crossed your arms and gave a knowing look to your girlfriend, urging her to announce the news to your other girlfriend.

"Okay don't laugh yet, Y/N is doing a sexy performance soon."

Jinsoul looked at you then back at Yves.

"Who's Y/N ?"

And the laughs were back, your girlfriend almost rolling on the floor while the other one was confusingly looking at you.

"What ?"

"Babe what's my name ?

Jinsoul looked at you as if you grew a second head.

"Cutie."

"No, my real name."

Realisation suddenly hit her and when you thought she was going to apologize she just started laughing too.

"Ha ha ha ! A sexy stage? Then what, learn poll dance ?"

"You know what ?! Fuck both of you ! I'll show you I can be sexy if and whenever I want to !"

~~~~~

After that sweet argument with your girlfriends they didn't stop teasing you. They were convinced you were way too cute to do a sexy concept.

You were determined to prove them wrong by showing them what you got and for that matter working with Sua and Soojin was a big help.

On one side you had Soojin showing you how being cute or shy didn't mean you couldn't be the sexiest on stage.

On the other side Sua was not just sexy but the most provocative person you might know and that was something you had to learn from her to get back at your girlfriends.

After weeks of training you were finally ready, you actually never been more confident in your all life. You only had few minutes but you were sure it’ll be just enough to make a show of how sexy you could be to your teasing girlfriends.

Luckily they both came to your performance because even though they didn’t think sexy suits you, they do want to see you perform and cheer for you. You coul see both of them standing near the cameraman, waiting with their lightsticks on, colored with your assigned shade.

As soon as you set foot on stage, you took a glance of them, witnessing the way they gulped at your outfit.

Their eyes were lingering on you even longer than expected, looking you up and down looking for your so called cuteness. Cuteness that was long time gone, erased during practice and hair and makeup.

As expected you nailed the performance your eyes made few contacts with theirs, piercing right through your girlfriends' dirty minds.

Jinsoul was wearing the usual smirk she'd gave off in bed when she was making you moan and you could see Yves' hand that was gripped tightly around her thigh, probably in attempt to prevent both of them to go take you off stage immediately.

They for sure weren't thinking about anything cute right now, you gave them a last teasing wink before you went change.

You didn't bother closing the door of the changing room, you were convinced you won't have time to change anyway.

But the idea of them thinking you'll change before anyone's eyes wasn't anything but alluring now that you were turning your back at the door and thinking about it.

The loud steps weren't long to come, the two pairs of feet hitting the floor in noticeable frustration but suddenly stopped as they reached the door.

You didn't bother turning around and opened the zipper of your top in a slow teasing motion.

If Yves was frozen in wow at the sight, not over the performance yet, your other girlfriend her, was fully awake and didn't let you slid the piece of clothing alone.

She had been longing for your skin since you appeared on stage and wasn't going to wait any more time before having a taste of it.

Her lips found your neck, gently nibbling on it just beneath your ear. You felt her hands circling your hips, brushing slightly the top of your shorts.

As Jinsoul turned you around in her arms, you could now see the fire burning in Yves eyes. Her eyes were admiring your torso, appreciating the last piece of cloth you had over your chest.

Obviously it was one of her Valentine's day gifts, the red material with flowery patterns that she chose was indeed accomplishing its purpose of turning her on even more.

Her hands were visibly shaking with anticipation, still standing in the door frame she didn't even enter the room completely yet.

You reached out for her hand.

"You might want to close that door and come closer."

As if breaking out of hypnosis she suddenly stepped in and smashed her lips to yours, not minding the opened door behind her.

"I'll like it to stay opened. You didn't mind turning us on in public while you were on stage, are you backing off now ? Want to go back to being a softie ?"

No way you were backing off now that you knew how being sexy affects your girlfriend. You never saw her this hungry before, not even Jinsoul would play it this risky with you on a regular basis.

Yet now one of them was still kissing and sucking on your neck while the other was unzipping your shorts with one hand and cupping your breast with the other all of this with the door still half opened.

You thought about stopping them but the kisses were too sweet, their touch felt too good on your skin and maybe the risk of getting caught was only adding fuel into the fire burning inside your stomach.

Yves cupped your face and brought you in for a second kiss while Jinsoul got rid of your shorts. She stood back up terribly slowly, her fingers brushing along your legs while doing so.

Her hands groped your butt, enjoying the laced red undergarment that you were wearing. Her mouth found the soft skin of your shoulder blades and traced kisses on it.

Sooyoung wasn't as slow as your first girlfriend was, she was needy and fidgeting. If you had hypnotized Jinsoul, Yves on the other side seemed rather electrified. She needed friction.

Her eyes weren't reflecting the same fire as earlier, they were rather pleading you now, pleading you to do something to the unstoppable wetness between her thighs.

Her tongue was not just fighting for dominance, it was claiming yours, caressing and sucking yours in an hurried request.

You were still kissing when you felt her take your hand in hers and push it in her pants, pressing on your fingers to play with her clit.

Witnessing how soaking wet she was, almost made you moan.

"See what you did to me ? I need you to fix it for me, can you do that for me, sexy ?"

Your only response was to push her hand away, wanting to touch her on your own. You slid your fingers further in her pants, opening the front to gain more access and space.

As your index finger brushed against her folds you saw how she was dripping for you. Her hands clunched on your shoulders at the sensation, a moan already half past her lips.

As you were caressing and teasing Sooyoung's sex, you felt your panties running down your legs.

"Can I get a taste ? I'm craving to feel you on my tongue right now."

It was actually the first words your Jinsoul was uttering and god you didn't wished for any other than those escaping her lips at the moment.

You looked over your shoulder, answering her with a kiss, your finger slowly entering your other girlfriend in the meantime, making her gasp.

She joined the kiss, kissing you and Jinsoul equally but biting down on your lip rougher. You had her on her knees for you right now.

Jinsoul got between you two enjoying looking up on you before making you open your legs wider.

She kissed your thigh and tummy before getting where you wanted her the most. When she kissed your clit, you heaved a sigh at the feeling. Your index finger joined your major in its thrust in your girlfriend, making her hiss in pleasure too.

The sounds of pleasure coming from you two spurred on Jinsoul's eagerness to make you feel good as she got a taste of your excitation with a lick.

Shivers ran down your spine, your hips bucking forward in want, making Yves moaned at your hips made contact against hers and getting Jinsoul to smirk, proud of herself.

The curves of her lips pushed against your clit, making you rolled your eyes back.

"God I could cum just by seeing you roll your eyes in pleasure."

The words had troubles escaping Yves' mouth as your thrusts became faster and deeper in her. She grabbed your face and kissed you roughly in an attempt to muffle her moans.

You felt her thighs shake as your other hand reached for her breast, pinching on her nipple the way you know brings her on edge.

In one last thrust Yves came undone in your hands, crying out her orgasm in your mouth. As on cue Jinsoul pushed a finger in your heat, her tongue still deep in and her thumb massaging your clit at a fast pace.

Everything felt too overwhelming, too hot and your orgasm too fast. Jinsoul held your hips knowing you wouldn't be able to keep standing.

Sooyoung attacked your neck once she got back from cloud nine, her teeth meeting your pulse point in a slight bite.

Blood rushed to your head in a great finally, your orgasm hitting you hard and making you grab on your girlfriend for support.

She patted your back, soothing your high.

Jinsoul got back up and smiled at you with her beamed afterglow smile. Which was odd since you didn't even heard her cumming, however Yves was faster at asking.

"How did you ?"

"Oh you know the regular."

She replied raising the hand that wasn't taking care of you previously with a chuckle.

You laughed with her and decided it was time to go home. You were getting your clothes back on while your girlfriends tried to make themselves presentable.

As you were about to leave Jinsoul burst out laughing, getting weird looks from you and Yves.

"Babes, neither of you closed the door right ? Because I didn't either and it's closed."

You looked at her in pure shame, your cheeks turning bright red from embarrassment.

Your girlfriends just brushed it off not caring at all about getting caught.

They cooed at you, engulfing you in a hug.

"Cutie Y/N is back !"

Hey, here it is. Hope you'll like it, give feedback 😁 Also I'm still a baby smut writer so bear with me please 😅❤-Ael

[remuswriting]

interviews; o. tooru

Summary: Oikawa leaves a terrible first impression on Y/N, Seijoh’s newspaper editor, when the volleyball team gets to be featured in the paper.

Pairing: Tooru Oikawa x Male! Reader

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 5,043

Notes: I have worked on a newspaper and had to do so many interviews, and Oikawa’s magazine interview annoys me.  I wonder if it was him or the interviewers, which is what created this.  Two things; my journalism writing is rusty and I’m not the best at writing Oikawa, sorry.

The Newspaper Club was a club that many people avoided because of its dictator editor L/N Y/N. This didn’t stop anyone from reading it, because all the stories were actually really well done and extremely interesting, and the editor had changed the formatting into a magazine style. Since L/N had become editor, the magazine expanded into different categories and had weekly polls to see what people wanted to see more of and what they wanted to see less of.

“Everyone wants to see an article about the boys’ volleyball team, L/N,” Sakura, a first year who wrote for lifestyle, said as she brought the polls up to the editor.  He sighed and his face fell into his hands.

“I’ll have to interview that brat Oikawa,” the editor groaned, and the first year didn’t understand why that was a problem because it was Oikawa Tooru. “He is the worst at interviews.  Or maybe those who have interviewed him don’t understand how to actually ask questions.”

Masaru, the head of the editorial section of the paper, walked over to move Sakura farther from the h/c haired boy.  The ginger girl got the cue and walked back over to her desk to start working on some articles.  The brunette boy next to his friend wanted to complain with his friend, because in a journalism perspective; Oikawa was annoying to deal with.

“What if I just interview Iwaizumi?” Y/N asked as he looked up at the other, eyes glimmering at the new idea before he dropped his face again. “But Oikawa would just complain that he isn’t getting any attention.”

“L/N you could always just have someone else write the story,” Masaru said, only for the h/c boy to scream into his own hands, which made all of the club members look over at the two.

“I’m the sportswriter; it has to be me.  Also, I’m the only one who understands volleyball shit in here.”

“Oh yeah, your older brother played volleyball, right?” Masaru asked, and the club members went back to what they were doing when they noticed that their editor wasn’t going to have a breakdown.

The h/c haired boy placed the right side of his face to the side of the desk, looking up at the other with his pretty e/c eyes.  Aobajohsai’s newspaper editor was pretty and if he wasn’t so aggressive and so in your face, more people would see how pretty he was.  Masaru had to see it too much, and sometimes it was hard to talk to his friend when he looked cute.

“I’ll talk to their coach tomorrow to go to their practice to take photos and interview Oikawa, as well as some of the other members,” Y/N said, and Masaru realized it had been quiet between them for a few minutes.  He also realized the editor didn’t answer his question. “So, you’ll have to hold down the fort here, even though everyone works independently.”

“Okay.” He hand ran through L/N’s hair to calm him if he needed to be calmed anymore. “Get to work now, Mr. Editor.  We’re all carrying your slack.”

“You really piss me off sometimes.”

 *****

 Although the boys’ volleyball coach agreed to Y/N doing things for the magazine, he was faced with how he was supposed to do all of this.  He had done the majority of the other sports clubs, but this one had Oikawa Toru, aka the guy who had been in magazines before, which made him have so many fangirls.  If the h/c haired boy even barely messed up on this, then all those girls would come after him ready to kill.

L/N walked to the gym with his bag full of things he needed when doing articles and interviews.  Masaru had once said he looked ridiculous, but Masaru rarely did interviews so Y/N never took anything he said to heart. The squeaky shoes in the gym rang out to where the editor could hear them clear as day practicing.  Or about to practice.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t watched on their matches, whether it was practice or official.  Y/N really did love volleyball, but not in the way to join a team or actually learn how to do anything in it.  The h/c haired boy just enjoyed watching it and how sometimes he could even feel the adrenaline radiating off the court.

“N/N-chan is here!” Oikawa called out, and the editor wanted to strangle the other for the stupid nickname. Their coach looked over at the third year writer and stood up from where he was seated.

“Okay, everyone,” the coach said, all players immediately looking over to him. “L/N is going to interview Oikawa and maybe a couple others but everyone else is to practicing while he does so.”

“I’ll also be taking some photos while you practice,” Y/N said, making the boys look over to him now. “It’ll be like I’m not here.  Tomorrow I’ll be taking what’ll look like professional pictures of you all.  You’ll be wearing your uniforms and it shouldn’t take maybe 20 to 30 minutes.”

“What’s this for?” Kindaichi asked, and the h/c haired boy smiled slightly.

“You guys get to be in the magazine this issue.  You only have to deal with me for two days, and I’ll be out of your hair.”

Everyone nodded before they went off to practice, leaving Oikawa and L/N alone for the interview.  The brunette setter smirked at the other, obviously trying to be flirty and the other just stared at him confused before he pulled his bag out in front of him.

He grabbed his notebook, pen, and tape recorder.  A lot of members of the newspaper club usually used their phones, but the editor hated using up storage on his device.  He usually put photos on there that the magazine occasionally used but took most photos on the club’s camera.

“Is it okay if I record this?” Y/N asked as he looked up at the other, who was only looking him over.

“Of course, you can record anything we ever do, baby,” Oikawa said, and Y/N forced a smile instead of punching the other.  It was just an interview.

“Great, now we need to get somewhere I can sit, so I can write easier.  We don’t want to mess up anything in the team’s article.”

“You’re free to sit on my lap.”

Y/N closed his eyes as he bit into his, wanting to scream.  All he wanted to do was write this article and the boy in front of him was ready to make it far too difficult for him to do so.  So, he chanted in his head that it was just an interview and it would be over soon.

“No thank you.” He sat in the floor and placed the recorder next to him and motioned for the other to sit on the floor with him. “It won’t pick up your voice that well, sit down.” The setter sat in the floor annoyed and sighed. “Okay, let’s get started; what got you into volleyball?”

Oikawa looked like he was actually thinking of an answer, which gave the editor some hope that all of those interviews he had previously done had been full of stupid questions. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

“Sports uniforms attract cute guys like you,” he said, and Y/N gave him another forced smile.

“We’ll come back to that question when you can think of something better than that.” He placed a star next to the first question, so he’d remember that answer was garbage. “Why did you pick Aobajohsai?”

“It’s close to home, and it also has you,” Oikawa responded as he placed his hands on the floor and leaned back on them.

Another star next the question.

“What’s your favorite part of volleyball?”

“It led me to meet you,” the setter responded and the editor slammed his notebook into the ground in between them.

“Are you serious?” Y/N asked, annoyance in his voice, and the setter nodded. “Is this interview a fucking joke to you?  I’m taking time out my day that I could be editing articles that people actually worked on, and your responses are this?  Maybe Iwaizumi-san would be a better person to interview for this and say we only wanted to focus on vice-captain instead of both of you.”

Oikawa looked at the other a little freaked out.  He had never spoken to the other but he had always found him incredibly attractive and had seen how compassionate he had been towards others.  Maybe the rumor of L/N being a dictator was right, even if the third year hadn’t believed it until now.

“I’m sorry,” Oikawa mumbled before speaking up. “I’m used to questions like what I want in a girl and my favorite color.”

“Okay, just please actually try to answer these,” Y/N said before he let out a deep breath. “What got you into volleyball?”

“I went and saw an exhibition match between Argentina and Japan in Sendai with Iwaizumi when I was in elementary school,” Oikawa started, and Y/N was trying to write and fully comprehend what he was saying at the same time. “When Argentina put Blanco in, he just made everything work, you know?  He brought balance back to the team.”

“Blanco is a really good player,” Y/N said with a smile, and the setter looked at him confused.  Most people didn’t know who he was talking about usually. “Do you want to bring balance to your team?  Make everything work?”

Oikawa smiled slightly at the thought of being like the man who inspired him.

“Yeah, I really do.” He lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck. “Setters are the ones who can restore balance to their teams if they do everything right, and I hope I’m doing that for our team.”

“I think you are,” Y/N said with a smile. “Now, that kind of goes into this question, but if you weren’t a setter; what position would you play?”

“I’d love to be a libero, they’re pretty badass, but I don’t think I’d be good at it.” He paused for a moment, and the interviewer knew he wasn’t done speaking yet. “Probably a middle blocker, because I have the height and I’ve already done it before.”

“Liberos are badass. My older brother is a libero, and he’s a badass.” It was obvious Oikawa wanted to ask who his brother was, because that meant L/N was probably really into volleyball. “I think that’s all I’ll ask you.  I know there were other questions, but I don’t want to write about everyone’s answers to the same questions.”

Oikawa watched as the other turned off the recorder and it put in his bag along with his notebook and pen. He didn’t want this to be over, because he knew Y/N would go back to not acknowledging the setter’s existence.

“Let’s go on a date,” the brunette blurted and the other looked down at him confused. “We go on a date and then start dating.”

“I’m sorry,” Y/N said as his expression became even more confused. “I’m just not interested, especially in someone who tried to wreck the first part of an interview.”

Oikawa stared at him and wasn’t sure on what to do.  No one ever really rejected him because he was used to being the one who always got confessions.  The h/c haired boy standing above him wasn’t going to give him a confession though, and that slightly broke the setter’s heart.

“Just think about it.”

Y/N offered a hand to pull the other up and Oikawa took it, hoping maybe physical contact would make the editor want to be with him, and the two were so close.  L/N took a step back before he smirked slightly.

“I’m most likely not going to think about it, but you could grab Iwaizumi for me when we go back to where everyone is practicing,” he said with such a sweet voice that Oikawa wanted to bang his head into a wall.

That sweet voice was only ever reserved to those who the editor wanted to deck in the face.  If any of his club members were there, they’d try everything they could to get Oikawa out of the situation.  Instead, if the setter said one more thing to piss the h/c haired boy off, then he’d probably lose it.

“Okay,” the third year captain said and the other smiled at him. “You sure you want to interview him?”

“Yes, I would’ve preferred to have interviewed him first.”

Silence fell over them as they walked to practice, and Oikawa kept looking over at the other, who was now on his phone.  Masaru had texted to ask if the editor had killed anyone yet and Y/N had to admit that he thought about it multiple times.

“When you’re ready for that date, just tell me,” Oikawa said before he went to someone else, and Y/N wondered if he should’ve killed him.  Would’ve made all of this so much easier.

Y/N’s fake smile dropped to show his irritation.  When the wing spiker approached him, he could see that Iwaizumi looked amused.  The editor raised an eyebrow at him, which made the dark haired third year chuckle.

“So, you rejected Shittykawa?”

“Yeah, is there a problem?”

“Not at all; it’s actually pretty funny.”

 *****

The next day when Y/N entered the gym to get the team to take photos in the photography room, where everything was set up.  Iwaizumi was the one to greet him as well as the two first years, who looked fairly nervous. The h/c haired boy thought it was ridiculous for them to be nervous, because photos weren’t hard.

“Where is everyone?” Y/N asked as he looked down at his watch, he had scheduled this to be before their practice.  He didn’t want to take up too much of their practice time.

“In the club room. Oikawa is trying to make them look pretty,” Kindaichi said, and the third year editor laughed into his hand. The three in front of him looked at him a little shocked because he actually looked cute unlike yesterday when he looked annoyed yesterday.

“Can you take me to the club room, because I don’t want to cut into your practice time too much,” Y/N said with a soft smile that made Iwaizumi feel on edge.

He nodded and took the editor to the club room.  He feared the boy was going to freak out, because Oikawa had said the h/c third year had snapped at him during his interview.  The ace opened the door to reveal Oikawa messing with someone’s hair, and he looked over at his shoulder to see e/c eyes staring into his soul.

“Hey, we really need to get going with these photos,” Y/N said, no anger in his voice.  He wasn’t upset, because it seemed that Oikawa just wanted everyone to look good in their photos. “I understand trying to look nice, but it would be good to fix hair and everything in the photography room.”

“Oh, okay,” Oikawa said as he stepped away from Yahaba, whose hair definitely did look better. “We can finish when we get to the place.”

“Thank you, Oikawa-san,” Y/N said before turning around to walk away from the club room to go back to the two first years the third years had left behind.

“Who was that?” Watari asked with a shocked expression. “He wasn’t like that at all yesterday.”

“He wants to make sure we don’t miss too much practice, because he promised coach he’d be quick,” Iwaizumi said as he looked over at Oikawa, who looked lovesick. “What’s with the stupid expression on his face?”

“Mr. Editor didn’t yell at him,” Hanamaki said as he laughed slightly. “He doesn’t know how to function.”

“I mean, he’s kind of hot when he’s angry,” Matsukawa said as he put his jersey on.  Oikawa looked over at him and pointed a finger at him.

“Don’t you dare try to take him away from me,” Oikawa said, and Iwaizumi started laughing.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself dumbass.  Let’s get to going,” Iwaizumi said, and everyone left the club room before Oikawa and Iwaizumi. “Stop pouting.  You didn’t give a great first impression, which is normal for you.  Try making up for it.”

 *****

 Y/N wasn’t skilled with a camera like he was with photoshop.  Thankfully the photography club knew that and helped him set up the backdrop and put the camera to the correct settings.  The only part they couldn’t help him with was positioning and poses.  It wasn’t that it was exactly hard, but he was the head editor and graphic design person for a reason.

“We will do individual shots, and if we have time, then we can also do some other shots as well,” he said once everyone was in the room. “I also need you guys to cooperate, because this isn’t my strong suit.”

“Then why do you do it?” Kindaichi asked, getting hit upside the head by Kunimi. “I’m just curious.”

“I edit all the graphics, and I struggle to explain how I want the photos because I don’t know what I’ll be doing until I have the photos,” Y/N explained. “Also, that’s a valid question to ask, so there’s no reason to hit anyone.”

Kunimi looked down at the ground, embarrassed, and the h/c editor shook his head with a small smile. Sure, this wasn’t his area of expertise, but he spent so much time in this room that it felt like a home.  He felt like he could be more himself here than when he was in the gym.

“We’ll have Oikawa go first, you brought a volleyball, right?” He asked, and Yahaba handed the brunette a ball. “Okay, you’re going to stand on the black piece of tape.  I’ll have you do a couple poses.”

The brunette nodded and the editor looked through the viewfinder, figuring out how close or far he needed to be away from the captain.  It didn’t help that the setter was 6’ while the editor was not.  He fixed the zoom and took a step back.

“Okay, we’ll do a couple basic volleyball poses,” Y/N said with a laugh. “My brother’s favorite is holding it with two hands around your abdomen.”

The mention of Y/N’s brother made Oikawa want to ask who it was.  There seemed to be a smile reserved for the mention of the older L/N, and the brunette wanted to know all about him.  Instead of asking anything, he posed the way the other wanted him to.

“Give me a smile,” Y/N said as he had his camera up to his eye. “We don’t want you to look like you hate everyone.”

“I just have to think about you to smile,” Oikawa said, and the editor gritted his teeth as he took the photo and looked at it.

“Stay in that position, but now smirk.  The smile may have been a tad too much.”

“My attraction to you isn’t too much,” the captain said, and all of his teammates felt embarrassed for him.

“I’m going to make a rule that you have to shut up or else I will butcher only your photo,” Y/N said as he continued to take photos. “Now, hold the volleyball out in front of you with one hand.”

Oikawa remained quiet, upset because he was just trying to be himself but he got so nervous around the h/c haired third year.  It was hard to think of things he said to his friends when a cute boy stood in front of him that he really wanted attention from.

“Thank you, Oikawa-san,” he said before he looked over at everyone else. “We’ll go in numerical order, so number two; you’re up.”

Iwaizumi hit Oikawa upside the head, which L/N acted like he didn’t see.  He didn’t hate the captain; there was no valid reason to.  Y/N had to admit the brunette was slightly amusing to be around, but he made things much harder than they needed to be.  Maybe he just hated being inconvenienced.  That was most likely it.

 *****

 Two days later the article was done and the third year stopped by the volleyball gym with a couple copies of the magazine.  It was something they always did if someone was in the issue, because it seemed polite to give them a copy in person.  The team was about to start practice, which was what the editor had hoped for.  A couple of the players stopped to look over at him with the magazines in his hands.

“Hey, I thought I’d drop these off for you guys,” Y/N said with a small smile. “I think your graphic turned out pretty badass, also thought your parents may want a copy.”

“Thank you, L/N,” Iwaizumi said before Oikawa entered the gym to see the h/c haired boy with the magazines, and a smile broke out on the captain’s face.

“L/N, you have the magazines!” Oikawa nearly squealed, which made the editor chuckle.

“Yes, you get to read your interview and see your face as many times as possible,” the editor said with a smile, and Kunimi looked at the third year curiously.

“You seem happier than usual,” the first year said slowly. “Did something happen?”

“I got a call from my brother earlier; we don’t get to talk much.  Just be glad that happened before I got here, because I was in a pretty shit mood before that.”

The mention of his brother made Oikawa look over at the editor, who had a smile on his face.  He also wasn’t in his uniform but a blue t-shirt and black jeans, which looked strange on the h/c haired third year.

“Okay, I’ve got to go. I have to stop by other places to discuss next issue,” Y/N said before he put the rest of magazines on the floor. “Have a good practice!”

Once the editor left, Kindaichi grabbed one of the magazines and flipped to the volleyball section and his expression changed into one of amazement.  He had never looked at one of their magazines before, because there was never anything for him to read but L/N’s sports section looked cool.

“The article is so long!” Kindaichi exclaimed, and Iwaizumi took the copy that Oikawa had picked up to look at it.

“He put all of our scores from the last tournament as well as our interviews,” Iwaizumi said as he flipped to the next page. “I wonder how hard it was to find all of this.”

“He probably goes to the games.  He’s mentioned his brother is in volleyball a couple times,” Hanamaki said as he looked at the graphic. “Mr. Editor made me look good unlike he did Shittykawa.”

“Hey!  Don’t call me that!” Oikawa said with a pout. “It’s so mean.”

“Wow, he made Oikawa seem like a decent person,” Matsukawa said before he clearing his throat.

 Oikawa Tooru is this year’s captain for the volleyball team, and he is going beyond the responsibilities of what a captain should be.  It is obvious he motivates his team to be the best they can be just as they motivate him back.  His passion for the sport is so strong that anyone is able to feel it if around him for long enough, especially when it becomes to why he loves being a setter.

“I went and saw an exhibition match between Argentina and Japan in Sendai with Iwaizumi when I was in elementary school,” Oikawa said. “When Argentina put Blanco in, he just made everything work, you know?  He brought balance back to the team.”

He wants to bring balance to Seijoh’s team just like Blanco did for Argentina’s team.  It is obvious that he does bring balance to his team when watching them in matches.  In June, Seijoh’s boys’ volleyball team made it to the finals, but ended up losing to Shiratorizawa.  No matter the end result, Oikawa showed that he is a phenomenal setter and captain.

 “Wow, I didn’t know you actually cared about us,” Hanamaki joked, and the brunette ignored it as Oikawa continued to read the article.

“I didn’t think he’d write about me so highly,” he said, and Iwaizumi hit him upside the head.

“He’s the editor, of course he’s going to write about you highly,” the ace said as he rolled his eyes. “Did you think this was a joke to him?  He didn’t get pissed at you for no reason.”

Oikawa stared at the article, unsure on what to do.  Sure, he hadn’t fully meant to be an asshole or a nuisance, but he also hadn’t expected the article to highlight him so well.  He gave him bullshit answers in the beginning, but he imagine he would’ve been able to make the article perfect either way.

“I’m an asshole,” he mumbled, and the other third years laughed.

“You sure are,” Hanamaki confirmed.

 *****

 Oikawa searched for the editor the next day to find the h/c haired boy on rooftop, staring at his phone. He had headphones in and the brunette noticed the other was watching a volleyball match on his phone.

“Fuck, they could’ve blocked that if they just fixed their stance,” Y/N mumbled, which the captain found slightly adorable. “Good thing he was able to receive it.”

Tooru slowly sat down to be next to the other, who looked over at him before he handed him a headphone. The brunette took it, noticing the other had paused the video, and put it in his ear.

“This is the UPCN San Juan vs Lomas Volleybal,” Y/N said before he played the video again, and Tooru stared at the phone, confused as to why the other was watching international matches.

Once he started watching, he noticed how the libero brought balance to the team.  He was crazy, receiving everything that came his way and things he had to run after.  It took a moment, but the captain realized that was L/N Yuki, the libero that was causing all the rage in Argentina and Japan.

“Holy shit, Yuki is your brother,” Oikawa said, and the other boy looked over at him and nodded.

“Thought you would’ve figured that out before now, but yeah he is,” Y/N said with a smile. “He actually came here for school, which is why I decided to come here.”

“Do you know how cool it is that he’s your brother?  I heard the national team wants him,” Tooru said with bright eyes. “He can receive anything.  He could probably even receive Ushiwaka’s spike.”

Y/N looked at the paused video before looking back up at him.  He realized that the dumbass brunette in front of him didn’t have people’s skills until he got excited or really knew the person.  The editor would like to say he was the same, but he was only comfortable with his family and Masaru.  With everyone else he was an asshole.

“I remember when he was in Panasonic Panthers and there was that setter on Osaka Blazer Sakai that was obsessed with setter dumps that didn’t get one successful one because of Yuki,” Oikawa rambled. “I remember wanting to be a libero just to piss off setters, but then I thought that I could be a setter that pisses off liberos with my setter dumps.”

“Let’s go on a date,” Y/N said, not ashamed of cutting the other off, because Oikawa’s mouth had been opened to talk. “Tell me all about your favorite volleyball moments on a date.”

“Are you being serious?” Tooru asked, and the h/c haired boy nodded.

“I’ve realized you have no people skills outside of trying to be charming,” he said, which made Oikawa look like he had been stabbed. “You’re passionate about volleyball though, and I imagine your people skills will get better the longer we know each other.”

“So, you’re really going to go on a date with me?”

“Yes,” Y/N said as he raised an eyebrow. “You’re making me reconsider though.”

“No!” Oikawa exclaimed as he waved his hands around. “Don’t do that!”

“Okay, stop asking me if we’re really going on a date,” L/N said before he clicked out of the video and handing his phone to the brunette to put in his information. “I’ll text you and we’ll figure out when our date will be.”

Oikawa put his number in, nerves eating at him.  He wasn’t used to people like Y/N liking him, because they typically didn’t.  He knew he could be a lot and not everyone was interested in that, but the editor seemed to not mind too much.

“Stop being so nervous, Oikawa,” Y/N said with a laugh. “I should be the nervous one because your fangirls may find out and want to kill me.”

“I doubt they’d kill me.”

“Whatever you say, captain, but I’m pretty sure they would.” Y/N put his hand out with an impatient expression. “Can we continue watching the game, because you know we’re not really supposed to have our phones.”

“Yeah, of course,” Tooru said, and he noticed it was an old game. “When is this from?”

“Yesterday,” Y/N said as he put his earbud in and looked over at the setter, his e/c eyes glimmering. “UPCN San Juan won, but I didn’t get to see it because it was so late here when it was on.”

“You spoiled the ending!” Oikawa exclaimed and the h/c haired boy laughed, forehead pressing into the other’s shoulder.

“We can’t watch the entire hour and a half right now,” Y/N said as he gave the brunette the other earbud. “You also have practice later.”

“I don’t,” Tooru said immediately. “We don’t have practice on Monday, so we can watch it later together.”

Y/N smiled at him before he took the earbud from Oikawa and looking down at the black screen on his phone. Blush covered his cheeks, but not enough to where the captain would be able to tell, which was a good thing.  He looked up at Tooru with a bigger smile.

“Let’s watch UPCN San Juan kick ass later, okay?”

Oikawa let out a breath that had gotten caught in his throat from the other’s smile before he smile and nodded.

“Let’s do it.”

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I don’t get you, CJ. Why are you so quick to throw around the term “bad writing” when you don’t agree with something? Why not simply chalk it up to having different likes or dislikes than other people and move on?

Instead of deconstructing characters you don’t like, why not use your platform to empower other voices and highlight others with different tastes or opinions than you? Different people notice different things about the games. That’s one of the nice things about fandom.

You clearly love writing and analysis, but when you post answers to asks that hold different opinions than you’re own, you often go “you’re valid, but…” and launch into paragraphs upon paragraphs of your opposite opinion rather than truly exploring theirs.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I think your blog and analyses would be stronger if rather than dismissing plot points or characters as “bad writing” you step outside yourself and ask others what they see in that writing since it’s not connecting with you.

To be fair, anon, I don't get me either.

But I hear you, so if you'll allow me to do the thing where I launch into paragraphs upon paragraphs, let's talk about this.

I assume this might've come about because of the recent Violet talk here? Or maybe it's from older posts, I dunno, you didn't specify so I can only speculate and use the Violet posts as the main example here.

So here's the thing... deconstructing characters and storylines is something I enjoy doing. Hell, it's one of my favorite things to do. It doesn't matter if I like or dislike the character, or if I agree with plot directions, or if I think it's "good" or "bad" writing. That's how I work things out for myself, how I try to understand why I'm feeling the way I am about certain characters and story elements. I break apart the different aspects of these things and analyze them so that I can improve the content I create and try to avoid the same mistakes I've come across that I wanted to be better.

When it comes to me tossing around "bad writing", or just implying it, I'm not trying to say that "bad writing = trash, garbage, unenjoyable, anyone who likes this is a dingus, how could you?" it's more "I see flaws here and I want it to be better, I know it can be better and it frustrates me that I can't fix it," y'know?

And I'm fully aware that other people might not see it that way. With that basketball Violet post, I know that a lot of the Violet crowd are gonna read that and be like "no, I love the bell tower scene! It fits well with her character! What are you talking about?" and that's fine, I expect that. That post was me writing something that's been on my mind that I wanted to share, it wasn't me trying to scold anyone for liking it or trying to dismiss their feelings about it.

When it comes to differing opinions, especially on Violet, I've come to the conclusion that we just gotta agree to disagree. I've tried for years at this point to understand the appeal of Violet and gone looking for answers about her in hopes of being enlightened, and I have asked around.

In the past, I have made posts inquiring about what people see in Violet [Minerva, too] and why they prefer Violentine, and I got little to nothing in response. So I totally get where you're coming from when you say I should ask others what they see in the writing that I don't, but there's only so much I can do when no one is willing to answer me. So, I have to look around myself.

I've searched through several threads on reddit and none of them have been insightful, unsurprisingly.

That's what sparked my mini-rant about Louis before. On reddit, a lot of the answers on why people like Violet are either "she sided with Clementine, she's just really sweet deep down, she has more trauma, and lesbian," or "I like Violet more because Louis is a traitor," and what the hell am I supposed to get out of that, y'know? They're not really telling me anything, they're just looking to argue among themselves and I've had to throw in the towel on that one.

I've had better luck here, having read some truly insightful posts about Violet, her arc, and her relationship with Clementine. The conclusion I've reached it that the things people find appealing about her are things that I don't.

If you need an example, we'll use the aftermath of Marlon's murder when Violet turns on the group to defend AJ. Every post from the Violet crowd I've read that talks about that scene praises her for turning against her friends/family to defend AJ when they were gonna attack him, it shows what she's willing to do for them, that's something that drew them to her. Then there's me, who sees that as adding unnecessary aggression to the situation when none of them were going to attack AJ, they weren't looking at AJ, and none of this is helping. Neither of these interpretations are wrong.

Guess what I'm trying to get at is I'm one person, and having discussions takes more than one willing person.

Moving on, "when you post answers to asks that hold different opinions than you’re own, you often go “you’re valid, but…” and launch into paragraphs upon paragraphs of your opposite opinion rather than truly exploring theirs."

I've thought about this for a while, and maybe I do actually do this but don't realize it. I like to think that I'm engaging with the ideas that people send me, but I dunno, maybe I can be dismissive of things because I have a hard time being objective. That's something I've always struggled with, and I'm sorry if I ever came across as dismissive or didn't fully explore ideas, that's something I can definitely get better at.

As for "why not use your platform to empower other voices and highlight others with different tastes or opinions than you? Different people notice different things about the games. That’s one of the nice things about fandom."

I've done character nights, ship nights, season nights, etc. for about two years, give or take. That's what those nights were about. Usually, I'd put up a poll and we'd all vote on what we wanted to discuss, and then the floor was open for anyone to give their input, and we'd discuss.

I stopped doing them a little while ago because I was burnt out on themed nights. Remembering to make new polls, setting aside part of my weekends to spend hours answering asks the best I could, usually dealing with other projects on top of it all.... it may not seem like it, but god, those nights took a lot out of me. I loved doing it! Having those discussions were some of the best parts of running this blog, but now my new job has me working 40+ hours a week, four days with ten hour shifts and occasionally some overtime on the weekends, I just don't have it in me anymore to do it every single weekend. Not with how tired I am and with all the other projects I'm working on.

That's why I've started testing the waters with these shorter posts of me throwing out ideas or going on mini-rants. They're something simple I can do with no pressure, just me with an empty document getting whatever's on my mind out... and it helps that it feels like my last fuck has just flown away to the heavens to weave itself into the boat god's beard like as he sails among the clouds and stars..... so now I'm gonna talk about whatever I want and the fact that it's my opinion is implied.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as a little defensive with this part, I tend to get that way whenever people tell me what I should or shouldn't do with my blog, even if they're just trying to be helpful and I don't believe you have any ill intent with your message. I've had this blog for three years now, and I've always had people telling me I shouldn't do character analyses, I should stay in my lane, just write fanfics and do character nights. I should answer more asks otherwise people will think I don't care. I shouldn't write headcanon posts, that's what other blogs do and I'll be taking content away from them. I shouldn't write that one au I've always wanted to because I should be working on [with you]. I shouldn't write anything but [with you.] I shouldn't talk about Violet because I'm a Louis blog.

And that's dumb. All of that is dumb! No one owns the concept of headcanon posts or character analyses! Just like how I don't own the concept of character nights!

Again, my last fuck is lost in Kenny's beard, I don't have it anymore. I'm going to write and analyze whatever I want, when I want, and the best I can do is promise to be better. My inbox is open, I'll try to answer and engage with you guys when I can, I'll keep doing these posts where I ramble about whatever topic is on my mind, and I shouldn't have to put a disclaimer of "This is all my opinion and it's okay if you disagree, I'm not trying to invalidate you" because that's implied.

Before I close out this long response, I do wanna add a thank you for the ask, I do appreciate the constructive criticism. Usually anons that have any problem with me after I talk about Violet will just call me a piece of shit and tell me to delete my blog. Maybe this helped you, maybe it didn't, either way thanks :)

[maxwell-grant]

Charlie Chan. Who is fascinating, because he was created explictly to be an anti-Yellow Peril character. Unlike most Chinese characters of the time, he's both intelligent, physically capable, and unambiguously heroic. In the novels, he's simultaneously proud of being Chinese AND proud of being an American citizen. He gives orders and instructions to white people, and the narrative treats this as perfectly normal and acceptable. There's a bit in the first book, when an attempt to trap the..(1/2)

(cont'd)There's a bit in the first book where an attempt to trap the protagonist fails, because a message supposedly from Charlie clearly isn't because Charlie's English isn't broken, it's like poetry. Etc. The movies made him more stereotypical, & played by white actors in yellowface, but still, he's a heroic Chinese man, who is as capable and patriotic as any white man. Nowadays, he's thought of as racist caricature. Which he is, but still, it makes one think.

I'm not nearly as acquainted with Charlie Chan as you are (and I definitely suspected he was less racist in the original books because that's nearly always the norm when it comes to pulp characters) but yeah, that "Which he is" is forever going to be the most unfortunate and saddest part of it all when it comes to Charlie Chan. For all the virtues that can be bestowed on Charlie Chan, for everything great that the character had going for him and inspired, the fact that the least offensive image of the character I could find to put here for illustration's sake is from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon kinda exemplifies the big elephant in the room when it comes to Charlie.

Charlie Chan is a great example of two things: One is the way progress is never a fixed quantity and often what was progressive and forward-thinking in it's time can become something outdated and backwards and downright offensive given enough time, and the 2nd is my constant stressing that this is all the more incentive to reclaim the pulps and either highlight or fix aspects of them, instead of dismissing every aspect of them based on the preconception that everything about it's history is unforgivably bigoted and must be handled with the nuance of a sledgehammer.

I stress time and time again the need to highlight and understand the prejudices that went into pulps, because either ignoring them or wielding them as a weapon to attack them does no favors to anyone. The pulps weren't exceptionally bigoted - look at literally any medium in it's time period and you'll find bigotry and prejudice and hatred - and they were exceptional in the number of POC heroes and heroines. Pulps were a medium of experimentation and cheap entertainment that gave way to much, much more varied kinds of protagonists than were permitted in films, serials, novels, comics and radio serials of the day. Imagine if no one was allowed to bring up and discuss superheroes without mentioning the Superman Slap-a-Jap posters or the Captain Marvel story so horrifingly racist it was recounted by an American ambassador after it deeply offended a friend's son and a major influence on the 1950s anti-comic trials. "Pulp fiction had deeply, unforgivingly racist depictions that deserve intense scrutiny and cannot be ignored" and "Pulp fiction was significantly ahead of every other medium at the time in regards to authors and editors striving to publish stories about heroic POCs, this cannot be dismissed and is something that needs to be perpetuated" are not exclusive facts. "A product of it's time" is not an excuse and never was, but it's a fact nevertheless.

Every time someone speaks favorably of Charlie Chan in any capacity, they have to start with a long preface of everything positive that the character had going for him. Yes, he's a deliberate subversion of the Yellow Peril, he's a heroic protagonist, he's plump and good-natured and humorous but far from a joke, he's friendly and pleasant and well-educated and wise, he's a good dad and family man and a terrifically sharp detective who's so good at his job he gets called to solve crimes all over the world, and none of these traits are apparent to people who have to google the character and repeteadly see a white man in awful make-up into every single image of the character, who watch the movies and cringe at the broken English. It's hardly relevant in the face of all the Asian-American critics who acknowledge the character's virtues but rightfully point out that this fortune-cookie spouting caricature, acting subservient to whites and whose virtues are based around his proximity to a white American ideal, doesn't represent them and they shouldn't pretend it does.

Which isn't to say that to like Charlie Chan is "wrong", a lot of East Asians love Charlie and the character's obviously got fans in Asian Americans. It's a complicated subject and I obviously cannot begin to vouch in a subject so heavily based around perceptions I cannot experience. And I deeply detest the idea of speaking for others on their particular experiences on this kind of matter, which is something Americans do a lot everytime they talk about representation in media.

So instead, I'm going to tackle this on a roundabout manner by going on an unrelated tangent to bring up an example of representation that isn't quite representative of what it's supposed to be, has a lot of issues that have been dissected by critics among the people it was supposed to represent, and none of that stopped the character from being popular and beloved and from being claimed anyway. And it's a Brazilian fighting game character, which means it's completely within my ballpark.

Yeah, obviously Blanka doesn't look like anyone who lives in Brazil (whatever resemblance he bears to redheaded jungle protectors of Brazilian folklore is purely accidental). Obviously neither Jimmy nor Blanka are Brazilian names or even exist in the Portuguese lexicon. Obviously there are issues in Street Fighter's approach to representation across the board, sure, and I'd actually say Laura is much worse than Blanka in that regard (again, my opinion, obviously not universal), but the fact remains that Blanka is and has always been pretty controversial. Obviously there's Brazilians who took offense to Blanka and they weren't wrong to do so, and I obviously do not speak for everyone here, that goes without saying.

Obviously the idea that Brazil's major representative in a global cast of characters, the first big name Brazilian character in videogames, is going to be a freakish jungle monster who roars and bites faces has problems, as is the fact that all the others get to be regular people representing fighting styles from their countries while Blanka doesn't. None of the Brazilian SF characters represent Capoeira, which is kinda shitty to be honest. And there's a whole stereotype of Brazil as a backwards land of beasts and savages that Blanka's creation played into. There's no shortage of ground to criticize Blanka's representation and Ono actually apologized in an interview once, but then he learned one teensy little thing:

Street Fighter is very popular on Brazil. Would you like to leave a message to the fans from there?

"Ono: Yes, I'm aware. At the time of Street Fighter II a lot of the arcade machines produced went there, so I knew we had lots of fans there. A message to Brazilians, well, I'd like to apologize. I know Blanka's a weird character and I don't want any Brazilian to feel uncomfortable with that.

When Blanka was conceived, we knew there were forests in Brazil, and so we thought he could look like that. I was actually kinda nervous knowing I'd meet Brazilian journalists. Still, this is the first Street Fighter in ten years, so we'd like all fans to play, including Brazilians, which are many.

Thanks. Well, but you should know that Brazilians love Blanka

"Ono: Ah, good! I was scared of getting beat up if I ever went to São Paulo! (laughs)"

(That's from a 2012 tv special called The Greatest Brazilian of All Time where over a million viewers voted to elect whoever they wanted, and Blanka was going to win. He was polling ahead of Aryton Senna and PELÉ, fucking Pelé, yes this happened. He wasn't even disqualified for being a cartoon character, it was an open poll, he was disqualified due to canon stating he had been born in Thailand, which I think may have been retconned since then. Again, A MILLION BRAZILLIANS voted for this contest, and Blanka was going to win.)

Blanka is great and sweet and lovable, he made the best out of the incredible shitty hands fate dealt him and became a cool and strong green man who shoots lightning and flies, a self-taught warrior who rides whales and planes to fighting tournaments, and he loves his mom and friends and kicks ass and after he's done he dances in joy and gives the kids of his village piggyback rides, and Brazil loves him. He doesn't represent any existing person or fighting style, he's rooted in a negative stereotype and incorrect assumptions, he's not even really Brazilian, and he's our boy and nobody can take him away from us.

No criticism of Blanka, no matter how in-depth or even right it is, is ever going to affect that, because regardless of what was wrong or misguided and offensive about him, we claimed him and loved him so throughly that Capcom kept playing up Brazilian representation in every subsequent game post Alpha, and because of Blanka's impact and reception in such a big game, Brazilian characters have become a staple of fighting games, and that's how we got much more diverse representatives in those games. Fighting games have more Brazilian representation than LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE on media not produced here. It started as BAD representation, with way less thought put into it than Charlie Chan, and it still mattered to a lot of Brazilians who reclaimed it and made it better than it was ever intended to be, and as a response to it, it gradually became better. 

Progress is not a fixed quantity, it's an uphill battle, and it's not unwinnable. Everything's gotta start somewhere.

The Good Asian is a ongoing comic that I think does the best job I've seen yet of handling an Asian American detective protagonist, which is not really a high bar in the first place, and more to the point, The Good Asian illustrates the 2nd part: the reclaiming. The Good Asian deals a lot with the realities that a 1930s Asian-American detective would run into, the strained circumstances and relationships between said character and the world around him, because it's born from an author who took a look at Charlie Chan and Mr Moto and the like and recognized the potential in those stories that could not be fulfilled in it's time period by the people writing said stories. 

The Good Asian pays little reverence to Charlie Chan, but it acknowledges that it cannot exist without Charlie Chan, and it reclaims the Charlie Chan premise at the hands of someone more adequately equipped to tell a gripping story that goes places none of Charlie's contemporaries would ever go. Regardless of how good or bad of representation Charlie Chan was, Charlie Chan mattered and was beloved and inspired a better example for others to improve on or rebel against.

I desperately wish that I could google Charlie Chan without having to look at a guy in yellowface, and the ONLY way that's going to happen is if the character ever gets meaningfully brought back and reclaimed for good by people who can meaningfully tackle the character and present him as he should have always been presented.

And then, I imagine it would be a lot easier to show people on how swell Charlie really is. A true, positive role model and hero, who no longer has to look like a gross cartoon to be able to exist at all. Who can finally be what he was always meant to be, and always was deep down.

[detective-crescend]

break up with your girlfriend (i’m bored)

There is a game that Klavier Gavin sometimes likes to play.

‘Likes’, however, may not be the appropriate term.

It isn’t a nice game, or one that makes him feel like a particularly good and decent person. And yet, when he wins—which he almost certainly does, on all but two notable occasions—the rush of chemicals that his victory incites within his clearly damaged mind will cover up all but the most persistent cries of outrage from what remains of his decaying moral compass.

It is a private challenge, it is a weakness he has long since conceded to… it is played like this:

There are plenty of people in the world who would love Klavier Gavin simply for what he represents. Conversely, there are people who will despise him for those very same reasons.

When the small voice in the back of his mind begins to speak too loudly—the one that sounds so very familiar, calm and leveled while it interrogates his every action—when he, in turn, begins to doubt himself, Klavier will search out the nearest member of the latter group. The more this individual seemingly dislikes him, the better the effect. And, having identified someone who must dislike Klavier more than he dislikes himself, he will do whatever is necessary to change that person’s opinion.

Sometimes it is as simple as attention and kindness, gifts and persistence; sometimes it is through a display of vulnerability or chagrin that is only somewhat manufactured for the moment. Though Klavier’s motivation for doing so is horrifically selfish, the goal is to be perfectly genuine in his search for their affection. It needs to be; only once his target has offered up their adoration can he tolerate himself once more. If it is a false version of Klavier that they are idolizing, it only strengthens the voice’s position inside his own mind.

The point of this game is emotional intimacy, not physical. Klavier has never been in the game of intentionally breaking hearts. One of the cardinal rules that he has set for himself, then, is that his appointed convert must be maintained as a friend, not a lover. In actuality, the majority of the rules pertain to limits and boundaries—monetary, time, distance, and attitude—or to create clear definitions of what constitutes a win or a loss of the game. It is important, Klavier feels, to keep things consistent among matches and, therefore, fair.

But, although Klavier has flourished in this diversion since his now distant childhood, he had also never encountered a contender quite like Apollo Justice before.

It wasn’t that Apollo was particularly difficult to read or to predict what it might take in order to shift his perception—on the contrary, Klavier had known exactly what needed to be done to achieve his goal almost immediately upon meeting the man. Whether or not Klavier is capable of it, however, is where the debate hinges.

There are rules that will need to be broken, for one thing, along with a set of small, concealed truths that must be unearthed—things that Klavier had long since been in the habit of burying below several layers of his own psyche. As of this moment, there are only two that Klavier has managed to excavate and examine with any sense of composure.

The first, that Apollo has beaten him so thoroughly in Klavier’s own game that their exchanges have ceased to be a game at all. Instead, they have taken on the frantic and impetuous nature of an entirely different emotion. Klavier’s desire to win Apollo’s affection had ceased to be a simple desire; it now felt like a need, pulsing bright and warm from somewhere so deeply within him that he had long since stopped believing it was possible to feel this way at all.

The second truth—both far more recently understood and infinitely more frightening—is that the aforementioned need may, in fact, be love.

It is not as pleasant an emotion as he had once anticipated, more like gnawing hunger that rumbled when Apollo was absent and roared with an open maw when he was nearby. It made Klavier indecisive and introspective in an entirely different way than the voice in his head, made him overthink every word he spoke and every thing he did when Apollo was nearby. It made him impulsive and greedy, wont to push his luck at every opportunity he could possibly take.

And, as luck would have it, this emotion was ruining any chance he could have with Apollo in the process.

“I am performing at a local studio tomorrow,” Klavier is attempting to begin one afternoon, in the immediate aftermath of a trial he has just lost. Though he’d meant the words to sound suave and unintentionally cool, the force of Apollo’s indifferent gaze strangles the words into an awkwardly insistent rush. “Would you like to come, as my guest? You may bring Fräulein Wright as well.”

Before him, Apollo’s dark eyes narrow, his hands still in the process of packing up the strewn remainder of his courtroom notes. “What kind of performance?”

“It is for a streaming service, ja?” Klavier replies, grinning through the nerve induced flips his stomach has been performing since the moment he opened his mouth. “They invite artists to come for an interview and to cover a song of the audience’s choice. There is usually free food and drinks.”

“So no Gavinner’s music?” Apollo looks skeptical.

“Nein, I promise.”

Another moment of cautious consideration is given before Apollo eventually, reluctantly, nods. “Trucy’ll kill me if she finds out I said no. Text me the address and time.”

Of course, it isn’t until hours after the requested message had been sent that Klavier thinks to check the status of the polls online that will decide the theme of his performance. One glance is all it takes to know that his invitation could be nothing but an absolutely terrible idea.

The damage, however, had been done.

As such, Klavier wakes the next morning with his emotions an odd amalgam of dread and anticipation that carries through the remainder of his day. By his arrival at the indicated studio—far earlier than the time he had provided to Apollo due to the ever-necessary addition of hair and makeup—Klavier is certain he has thought of nothing else the entire day other than Apollo’s arrival.

“Trucy couldn’t come,” Apollo says later, looking exceedingly uncomfortable in clothes other than his courtroom ensemble. It is the first time since the Guilty as Charged concert that Klavier has seen him in anything so casual; he had forgotten that, in the absence of hair gel and when wearing something that is not a shocking scarlet in hue, Apollo looks good. Good enough that Klavier is far from the only one casting surreptitious looks as they walk together from the lobby to the studio.

Those small glances are enough to send his imagination into a tailspin that, consequently, causes his response to be just moments too late to sound entirely casual. “But you still came.”

“I already said I would,” Apollo replies, ignoring the delay with a dismissive shrug. “It would’ve been rude to bail at the last second. Anyway, Trucy made me promise I’d record your song. When is it, by the way?”

“Twenty minutes—I won’t keep you for too long, ja?”

The problem is, during a performance, Klavier is practically incapable of any sort of critical thought at all. Years of practice have led to a near Pavlovian response to the appearance of a camera in his face; at just the glint of a lense reflection, any doubts or worries he had previously been wrestling with will be delicately tucked away to make room for the public persona Klavier presents to the world.

The same thing happens, here. Within moments of the interview starting, Klavier forgets about his apprehension in having Apollo present for this performance. By the time he eventually starts to sing, he’s forgotten about Apollo sitting just beyond the camera in a plastic folding chair all together.

The song picked for him to sing is almost certainly a joke, intentionally selected due to his recent and rather outspoken declaration of bisexuality. But Klavier has never been one to back down from a challenge or to let anyone know they’ve gotten under his skin. His take on Ariana Grande’s morally bankrupt classic is stripped down and irrevocably smoky, just the sound of Klavier’s voice and an electric guitar with absolutely zero changes to the lyrics, as was expected.

Klavier is not singing to Apollo, precisely—as far as he is aware, Apollo does not have a girlfriend from which to break up with—but a song will always sound better with some sort of emotion attached to it. Klavier has long been in the habit of searching any lyrics that are not his own for a handhold that he can grab on to relate to; here, the idea of wanting someone unavailable, no matter the cause, is an easy enough choice.

And things go seamlessly for the majority of the song. It isn't until nearly two minutes in, just as Klavier is finishing the bridge, that his gaze slips past the camera he has just recently glanced up into, and finds Apollo’s eyes wide and locked upon his. Perhaps it is not entirely professional, to maintain uninterrupted eye contact with the opposing counsel as the lyrics “you can hit it in the morning like it’s yours” are murmured seductively into the microphone bent towards one’s face. The suspicion is confirmed when, thirty seconds later, the song’s end is met by an uproar of applause from everyone except Apollo, who stands and leaves the room altogether.

“Stop messing with me,” Apollo shouts in the parking lot when Klavier has finally caught up with him. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, I don’t know what sort of advantage you think you’re playing at, but stop.”