#debunking my least favorite theory

[crowhunterzz]

i know it’s been said on here plenty of times but i genuinely get so upset when i see people continuously perpetuate the whole “Gehrman’s a creep and the Doll is a sex object theory” when there’s an actually direct in-game evidence showing that none of that is true. and yk what despite the posts abt this that already exist i am, in fact, gonna make one of my own.

Okay so first off, The Voiceline. You know the one.

Yeah this line got interpreted by a portion of the fandom as weird, especially because of the tone it’s said in. However, there are two pieces of context that immediately show what he meant by this.

The first, is that you DO use the Doll. She provides a service for you by taking your blood echoes and turning them into your strength (the level up system).

Aside from this, the ability to talk to her, and the option of giving her an item, there is nothing else you can do with her, and nothing else the game even implies you can do with her. She does not even have any truly “romantic” dialogue. She mentions that she loves you, but that she does because she was created to do so.

She loves all the hunters because her purpose is to care for them, and in her words, embolden their sickly spirits.

The second piece of context is in Gehrman’s dialogue just before he says the line about the Doll.

He is telling you that anything you find in the workshop is a tool you can use to strengthen yourself and make the hunt easier. He is referring to the Doll as a tool, because she is one of the few the workshop has not lost. He’s not sexualizing her, he’s talking about her like she is a tool, and something to be used, not seen as a person.

Is it a good thing? No, but considering he resents her for not being what he created her to be (or by another interpretation, coming to life when he never intended her to), it’s not unreasonable to assume that over time he would just categorize her as a thing instead of a person.

The second piece of evidence towards this god awful theory is the Doll’s white blood. Honestly I cannot believe people genuinely take this as being semen, because not only is there a canon reason for creatures to have pale blood, but also it’s just disgusting.

You need a minimum of one insight to see the Doll during the game, she was given life by the Moon Presence following Gehrman’s placement in the Hunter’s Dream, and she bleeds pale blood. She’s kin. (Yes I am aware the game does not consider her kin in regards to whether or not she can be dealt damage based gems that alter your attacks vs kin, but you’re not supposed to be fighting her anyway, and it’s not like you need a bonus to kill her in the first place).

And finally, to address the other big point, the item descriptions that appear on Maria’s Hunter Garb and the Doll’s Set.

I would like to address first, the obvious, that Maria’s garb says directly she was “unaware of his curious mania” (however you interpret that), but the point is she was unaware, he clearly in life, never made advances on her (which is something I’ve seen a few people state is ‘implied’???).

The second, and this one is a bit in the subtext, is that the Doll seems to not have any idea that Gehrman ever had any positive feelings towards her at all, she expresses a love for the hunter in a way that reflects someone who was never shown love in any capacity (likely due to the circumstances surrounding her achieving sentience), so its reasonable to assume as well that she was entirely unaware of the ‘curious mania’ as well.

Additionally I would point out that while referencing Gehrman’s mania once more, the Doll’s description also directly states that she was once loved and cared for, something that changed after she gained sentience. She likely served as a memorial for Maria, considering there is no canon evidence Maria herself actually has a grave.

The grave that provides the Old Hunter Bone may be hers, but the item description refers to the hunter it came from as “he.” This could be due to it being placed there prior to the decision to give Maria the quickening skill in her boss fight, or it could be that Maria did not have a proper grave for whatever reason, and thus the Doll was needed, which could then relate the obsession to an obsession with Gehrman keeping a memory of her, as there is nothing else he seems to have of her.

Everything here aside I would like to also point out that the Doll is quite literally, a doll. There is nothing that would even suggest she would be capable of any sort of sexual relationship.

Especially because even before the Dream, the Doll did have a specific purpose. She seems to be modeled after Victorian mourning dolls, which were items used to help families/loved ones process grief, typically of children, by having something to remind them of the deceased that did not itself look deceased. If you consider the grave in the Abandoned Old Workshop to be Maria’s and know that that’s also where the Doll is in the waking world, then that’s probably what she’s for. Or as stated before, the grave may NOT be hers, and the Doll itself IS her grave.

Another thing I didn’t point out but will, for a moment get into, is the Doll’s clothing being feminized. A lot of people take this as Gehrman being a misogynist and sexualizing her in a more feminine way as if he himself was not training Maria (and likely other women) to be hunters during his life. He encouraged the less feminine life she lived as a hunter!

That point always confuses me, especially knowing that one of the last things Maria likely said to Gehrman was what she said after the massacre at the Fishing Hamlet where she threw away her weapon and renounced the hunt, choosing to retire (and potentially become a caretaker for the Church’s patients, judging by her role in the Hunter’s Nightmare). Like OF COURSE he dressed her like that, she expressed that she no longer wanted to be a hunter so he made her the opposite. The only reason she is dressed the way she is in the Hunter’s Nightmare is because that is how Kos is depicting her, not because it’s her conscious choice.

The point of this is, Gehrman is one of my all time favorite characters alongside Maria and the Doll, and while yes, I am well aware he isn’t perfect, it’s still frustrating to see him get so mischaracterized by a fandom who insists they love lore so much, and care about the tiny details. You can dislike Gehrman or think he does shitty things and that’s fine, but creating a story where he’s a creep just to prove you care about Maria and the Doll is weird. And it’s weirdER that people argue IN FAVOR of the theory as if it MUST be true, because honestly why would anyone even want it to be???

This post also was specifically done without consideration for whatever type of relationship Gehrman and Maria had according to canon or any interpretations. Essentially I’m not necessarily saying any of this has anything to do with whether or not you ship them, I personally don’t, but I know some people do, and I feel like on either side you can still be critical of this Doll theory, as it is entirely baseless.

(In case anyone is interested, the images and references used for this were from the Bloodborne wiki, specifically this one.)

[breelandwalker]

PODCAST RECS - Debunking and Fact-Checking for Witches & Witchcraft Spaces

A collection of podcast episodes fact-checking, debunking, or just providing some clarity on modern myths, misinformation, and conspiracy theories that are frequent flyers in witchcraft and pagan spaces, both theories mistakenly touted by community members and some of the utter drivel spouted by non-witches that still affects us today. Check out these shows on your favorite podcast app!

(Updates to be made whenever I find new content. There will be some crossover with my Witches In History Podcast Recs post and some of the content will be heavy. Blanket trigger warning for violence, abuse, bigotry, sexism, antisemitism, and mistreatment of women, queer people, and children.)

[Last Updated: Dec 29, 2023]

This post is broken into three basic sections:

Historical Misinformation

Modern Myths and the People Who Create Them

Conspiracy Theories and Moral Panics

List of Cited Podcasts, in alphabetical order

American Hysteria

BS-Free Witchcraft

Dig: A History Podcast

Hex Positive

Historical Blindness

History Uncovered

Occultae Veritatis

Our Curious Past

Ridiculous History

Stuff You Missed In History Class

The History of Witchcraft

Unobscured

You’re Wrong About…

Historical Misinformation

General History of Witchcraft

Historical Blindness - A Rediscovery of Witches, Pt 1 & 2 Oct 13, 2020 & Oct. 27, 2020 A discussion of the early modern witch craze and the myths, misconceptions, and theories about witches spread by academics. Topics of discussion include the works of Margaret Murray and Charles Leland, the founding of Wicca, the emergence of the midwife-witch myth, and folk healers as targets of witchcraft accusations. Sarah Handley-Cousins of “Dig: A History Podcast” supplies guest material for both episodes.

Hex Positive, Ep. 36 - Margaret Effing Murray with Trae Dorn July 1, 2023 Margaret Murray was a celebrated author, historian, folklorist, Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, first-wave feminist, and the first woman to be appointed to the position of lecturer in archaeology in the UK. So why so we get so annoyed whenever her name is mentioned in conversations about witchcraft? Well, it all has to do with a book Margaret wrote back in 1921...which just so happened to go on to have a profound influence on the roots of the modern witchcraft movement.

Nerd & Tie senpai and host of BS-Free Witchcraft Trae Dorn joins Bree NicGarran in the virtual studio to discuss the thoroughly-discredited witch-cult hypothesis, Murray's various writings and accomplishments, and why modern paganism might not have caught on so strongly without her.

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep 03: The History of Wicca October 06, 2018 On this episode, Trae digs deep into the history of Wicca, and tries to give the most accurate history of the religion as they can. I mean, yeah, we know this is a general Witchcraft podcast, but Wicca is the most widely practiced form of Witchcraft in the US, UK, Canada and Australia… so how it got started is kind of important for the modern Witchcraft movement. (And trust me, there aren’t any pulled punches here.)

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 28: The Burning Times May 30, 2020 On this installment of the podcast, we tackle probably one of the more controversial topics in the modern witchcraft movement: The Burning Times. What were the actual “Burning Times,” where do we get that phrase from, and what really happened? Also, how has this phrase been used in modern witchcraft? It’s a heavy one, folks.

Dig: A History Podcast - Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches Sept 13, 2020 Since at least the 1970s, academic histories of witches and witchcraft have enjoyed a rare level of visibility in popular culture. Feminist, literary, and historical scholarship about witches has shaped popular culture to such a degree that the discipline has become more about unlearning everything we thought we knew about witches. Though historians have continued to investigate and re-interpret witch history, the general public remains fixated on the compelling, feminist narrative of the vulnerable women hanged and burned at the stake for upsetting the patriarchy. While this part of the story can be true, especially in certain contexts, it’s only part of the story, and frankly, not even the most interesting part. Today, we tackle male witches in early modern Eurasia and North America!

Dig: A History Podcast - Doctor, Healer, Midwife, Witch: How the the Women’s Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch Sept 6, 2020 In 1973, two professors active in the women’s health movement wrote a pamphlet for women to read in the consciousness-raising reading groups. The pamphlet, inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, looked to history to explain how women had been marginalized in their own healthcare. Women used to be an important part of the medical profession as midwives, they argued — but the midwives were forced out of practice because they were so often considered witches and persecuted by the patriarchy in the form of the Catholic Church. The idea that midwives were regularly accused of witchcraft seemed so obvious that it quickly became taken as fact. There was only one problem: it wasn’t true. In this episode, we follow the convoluted origin story of the myth of the midwife-witch.

Dig: A History Podcast - Cheesecloth, Spiritualism, and State Secrets: Helen Duncan’s Famous Witchcraft Trial July 3, 2022 Helen Duncan was charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, but her case was no eighteenth-century sensation: she was arrested, charged, and ultimately imprisoned in 1944. Of course, in 1944, Britain was at war, fighting fascism by day on the continent and hiding in air raid shelters by night at home. The spectacle of a Spiritualist medium on trial for witchcraft seemed out of place. What possessed the Home Secretary to allow this trial to make headlines all across the UK in 1944? That’s what we’re here to find out.

The Conspirators, Ep. 63 - The Last Witch Trial Nov. 26, 2017 England’s official laws regarding the prosecution of witches dates back to the 1600s. Those very same laws would also remain on the books until well into the 20th century. In 1944, a psychic medium named Helen Duncan would gain notoriety by becoming the last woman to be tried under England’s witchcraft laws.

The History of Witchcraft Podcast, hosted by Samuel Hume Witches didn’t exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.

Unobscured, Season One - The Salem Witch Trials Welcome to Salem, Massachusetts. It’s 1692. And all hell is about to break loose.

Unobscured is a deep-dive history podcast from the labs of How Stuff Works, featuring the writing and narrative talents of Aaron Mahnke, horror novelist and the mind behind Lore and Cabinet of Curiosities.

As with his other series, Mahnke approaches the events in Salem armed with a mountain of research. Interviews with prominent historians add depth and documentation to each episode. And it’s not just the trials you’ll learn about; it’s the stories of the people, places, attitudes, and conflicts that led to the deaths of more than twenty innocent people.

Each week, a new aspect of the story is explored, gradually weaving events and personalities together in chronological order to create a perspective of the trials that is both expansive and intimate. From Bridget Bishop to Cotton Mather, from Andover to Salem Town, Mahkne digs deep to uncover the truth behind the most notorious witch trials in American history.

Think you know the story of Salem? Think again.

Witchcraft Practices

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 43 - “Lilith” Jan. 29, 2022 Host Trae Dorn discusses the ongoing debate over whether or not it’s okay for non-Jewish witches to incorporate Lilith into their practices. Is Lilith closed? Is it cultural appropriation? There’s so much misinformation in New Age and poorly written witchcraft books on Lilith, it’s hard for some witches to get a clear picture. It’s common to run into folks on social media talking about Lilith as a “Goddess,” which she very much isn’t. Let’s dive into the origins of the folklore surrounding this figure, and we’ll let you decide whether or not it’s okay to work with Lilith. But, uh, spoiler – we don’t think you should.

Historical Blindness, Ep. 106 - Lilith, the Phantom Maiden November 22, 2022 Host Nathaniel Lloyd explores the evolution of the figure of Lilith, from Mesopotamian demon, to the first woman created by God, and back to a succubus mother of demons. It’s a tale of syncretism, superstition, forgery, and a dubious interpretation of scriptures.

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 55 - Lucky Girl Syndrome and the Law of Attraction January 28, 2023 Trae takes a look at one of New Age spirituality’s most toxic philosophies - The Law of Attraction. The history of the idea is discussed, where it came from, and how this dangerous combination of prosperity gospel, purity culture, and victim-blaming has come back in a major way to a whole new generation as “Lucky Girl Syndrome.” 

Hex Positive, Ep. 19 - The Trouble with Tarot August 1, 2021 Tarot and tarot-reading have been a part of the modern witchcraft movement since the 1960s. But where did these cards and their meanings come from? Are they secretly Ancient Egyptian mystical texts? Do they have their origins among the Romani people? Are they a sacred closed practice that should not be used by outsiders? Nope, nope, and nope.

This month, we delve into the actual history of tarot cards, discover their origins on the gaming tables of Italy and France, meet the people who developed their imagery and symbolism into the deck we know today, and debunk some of the nonsense that’s been going around lately concerning their use. The Witchstorian is putting on her research specs for this one!

Stuff You Missed in History Class - A Brief History of Tarot Cards Oct. 26, 2020 How did a card game gain a reputation for being connected to mysticism? Tarot’s history takes a significant turn in the 18th century, but much of that shift in perception is based on one author’s suppositions and theories.

Hex Positive, Ep. 23 - The Name of the Game November 1, 2021 Bree delves into the history, myths, and urban legends surrounding Ouija boards. Along the way, we’ll uncover their origins in the spiritualist movement, discover the pop culture phenomenon that labeled them portals to hell, and try to separate fact from internet fiction with regard to what these talking boards can actually do.

Our Curious Past, Ep. 20 - The Curious History of the Ouija Board August 18, 2023 Host Peter Laws explores the history of the “talking board,” which was wildly popular in the early 1900s, until something happened that would tarnish its’ reputation for good. 

Ridiculous History - Brooms and Witchcraft, Pt. 1 & 2 Oct. 13-15, 2020 Most people are familiar with the stereotypical image of a witch: a haggard, often older individual with a peaked hat, black robes, a demonic familiar and, oddly enough, a penchant for cruising around on broomsticks. But where did that last weirdly specific trop of flying on a broomstick actually come from?  Could the stereotype of witches on broomsticks actually be a drug reference? Join Ben, Noel, and Casey as they continue digging through the history and folklore of witchcraft - and how it affected pop culture in the modern day.

Historical Blindness, Ep. 116 - The Key to the Secrets of King Solomon  May 02, 2023 Host Nathaniel Lloyd continues his occasional series on the history and mythology of magic. In this installment, he looks at the development of the story that the biblical King Solomon was actually a flying-carpet-riding, magic-ring-wielding wizard and alchemist who bound demons to do his will. The origins and content of the legendary Key of Solomon are also discussed.

Dig: A History Podcast - Plastic Shamans and Spiritual Hucksters: A History of Peddling and Protecting Native American Spirituality July 24, 2022 In the late 20th century, white Americans flocked to New Age spirituality, collecting crystals, hugging trees, and finding their places in the great Medicine Wheel. Many didn’t realize - or didn’t care - that much of this spirituality was based on the spiritual faiths and practices of Native American tribes. Frustrated with what they called “spiritual hucksterism,” members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began protesting - and have never stopped. Who were these “plastic shamans,” and how did the spiritual services they sold become so popular?

Holidays

Hex Positive, Ep. 28 - The Easter-Ostara Debacle April 1, 2022 Host Bree NicGarran puts on her Witchstorian hat once more to delve into the origins of both Easter  and Ostara and to finally answer the age-old question: which came first  – the bunny or the egg?

Historical Blindness, Ep. 28 - A Very Historically Blind Christmas Dec. 18, 2018 An exploration of the origins of Christmas traditions, with special guest Brian Earl of the Christmas Past podcast. (There is also some mention of Christmas witches!) Further installments of this series explore additional Christmas traditions and iconography which have been falsely claimed to have pagan origins as well as the myths surrounding the history of Christmas itself. (Eps. 47, 63, 84, & 132 in December of subsequent years)

Modern Myths and the People Who Create Them

Ed and Lorraine Warren

You’re Wrong About…Ed and Lorraine Warren w. Jamie Loftus November 8, 2021 Special Guest Jamie Loftus tells Sarah about Ed and Lorraine Warren (of The Conjuring and Annabelle fame). Topics of interest include Connecticut as a locus of scary happenings, New England uncles, and psychic communication with a tearstained Bigfoot.

Dig: A History Podcast - The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World Oct 3, 2021 In the 1970s, Lorraine and Ed Warren had a spotlight of paranormal obsession shining on them. In the last decade, their work as paranormal investigators–ghost hunters–has been the premise for a blockbuster horror franchise totaling at least seven films so far, and more planned in the near future. So… what the heck? Is this for real? Yes, friends, today we’re talking about demonology, psychic connections to the dead, and the patriarchy. Just a typical day with your historians at Dig.

History Uncovered, Ep. 92 - The Enfield Haunting That Inspired "The Conjuring 2" Oct 25, 2023 The Enfield Haunting began with a bang. Literally. From 1977 to 1979, an unassuming North London home was the site of near-constant paranormal activity, from knocking sounds and moving objects to disembodied voices and the terrifying alleged possession of one young daughter of the Hodgson family. But how much truth was there to these happenings? And since the Warrens got involved briefly and subsequently touted themselves as experts on the case (and made money from talking about it), how much of what we think we know reflects the actual events?

"Paranormal" Literature

You’re Wrong About…Winter Book Club - The Amityville Horror, Pts. 1-3 Dec. 20, 2021 - Feb. 6, 2022 Sarah tells guest host Jamie Loftus about the Amityville Horror, how it’s a Christmas story, and buying murder furniture might not be such a great idea. Further highlights include Jodie the Demon Pig, poor insulation and terrible parenting as evidence of a haunting, lots and lots of sunk cost fallacy, and how the book kind of debunks itself.

You’re Wrong About… - Michelle Remembers, Pt. 1-5 March 26, 2020 - April 30, 2020 Intrepid hosts Sarah and Mike delve into one of the foundational texts of the Satanic Panic - “Michelle Remembers.” A young woman spends a year undergoing hypnosis therapy, which uncovers repressed memories of shocking and horrifying abuse at the hands of a Satanic cult. The book became a foundational text for both mental health professionals and law enforcement attempting to grapple with an alleged nationwide network of insidiously invisible child-abducting cults. The only problem is…none of what Michelle remembered ever actually happened.

You’re Wrong About…. - The Satan Seller, Pt. 1-5 June 28, 2021 - August 9, 2021 Sarah and Mike return to Camp You’re Wrong About for another Satanic Panic story hour. This time, the summer book club explores Mike Warnke’s 1972 “memoir” about joining a demonic cult, rising through the ranks of Satan’s favorite lackeys, his sudden downfall and redemption, and the California hedonism that made him do it. This is followed by a discussion of the Cornerstone Magazine exposé that brought the facts to light and thoroughly discredited Warnke’s story.

American Hysteria, Eps. 64-66 - Chick Tracts, Pts. 1-3 March 20 - April 03, 2023 In his own lifetime, Jack Chick was one of most prolific and widely-read comic artists in history. His company, Chick Tracts, published hundreds of millions of copies of pocket-sized bible comics, filled with lurid illustrations of cackling demons, wicked witches, and sinister cults, all hell-bent on corrupting any hapless mortal they could get their hands on. These tracts were meant to be left where they might be found by a sinner in need of salvation, with a scared-straight morality-play approach to Christianity that contributed in no small part to the period in the late 20th century we now call the Satanic Panic. (There’s also a follow-up two-part episode about one of Chick’s “occult experts,” who claimed to be, among other things, a real-life vampire.)

History Uncovered, Ep. 95 - Roland Doe, The Boy Who Inspired "The Exorcist" November 15, 2023 In 1949, priests performed an exorcism on a boy referred to as "Roland Doe," aka Ronald Hunkeler, in a chilling ordeal that became the real-life inspiration for William Peter Blatty's 1971 book, "The Exorcist," and the movie adaptation released in 1973. But what really happened during this alleged exorcism and was there any proof of the claims of alleged demonic paranormal activity surrounding the events?

You're Wrong About... - The Exorcist (with Marlena Williams) December 27, 2023 Marlena Williams, author of "Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of the Exorcist," joins host Sarah Marshall to discuss the little possession movie that changed America forever. Was the set cursed by Satan himself, or plain old 70s misogyny? What makes a country going through a cultural upheaval embrace stories about the Devil? And - the most critical question of all - do Ouija boards really cause possession?

Conspiracy Theories and Moral Panics

Secret Societies and Antisemitism

Historical Blindness, Ep. 14 - Bloody Libel December 12, 2017 An exploration of one of the most destructive myths in history - the blood libel, or the false accusation that Jews of the Middle Ages and beyond ritually murdered Christian children, a lie that host Nathaniel Lloyd traces back to its’ roots in medieval England and the murder of one Young William of Norwich.

Historical Blindness, Eps. 56-57 - The Illuminati Illuminated September 15-29, 2020 A contemplation of the modern conservative conspiracy theory of a “deep state” leads host Nathaniel Lloyd back to the dawn of the modern conspiracy theory, the Enlightenment, when the ultimate conservative conspiracy theory was born as an explanation for the French Revolution: The Illuminati!

Historical Blindness, Eps. 38-40 - Nazi Occultism, Parts 1-3 July 2-30, 2019 An exploration of the dark roots of Nazi occult philosophies, from a neo-paganism preoccupied with the Nordic Pantheon, to a folksy back-to-the-land movement that evolved into a nationalist sentiment, to an ideology of racial supremacy all tied up with contemporary myths and pseudoscience. (The host is careful to note with clarity and vehemence at the start of each episode that this series IN NO WAY approves of, promotes, or supports this ideology and Nazism is roundly condemned at every turn. It’s not an easy listen, but understanding how and why this bigotry continues to be a problem in pagan spaces and how to recognize it is very important.) TL;DR - Fuck Nazis. No tolerance for genocidal fuckwads.

DIG: A History Podcast - Werewolves, Vampires, and the Aryans of Ancient Atlantis: The Occultic Roots of the Nazi Party Oct 17, 2021 Modern movie plotlines which portray Nazi obsessions with occultism might be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but they aren't made up out of wholecloth. The NSDAP, or the National Socialist Worker's Party, was a party ideologically enabled by occultist theories about the Aryan race and vampiric Jews, on old folk tales about secret vigilante courts and nationalist werewolves, and on pseudoscientific ideas about ice moons. In this episode, the hosts explore the occult ideas, racial mythology, and 'supernatural imaginary' that helped to create the Nazi Party.

The Satanic Panic

American Hysteria - Satanic Panic, pt 1 & 2 Dec. 10 2018 - Jan. 07, 2019 This two-part episode covers perhaps the most mystifying moral panic in US history, the 1980s and early 90s ‘Satanic Panic.’ For this episode, Chelsey covers the rise of organized Satanism beginning in the late 60s, as well as the adversarial countercultures of the hippies and the metalheads, and their apparent Satanic crimes that would be hailed as proof of their evil, as well as proof that teens, as well as children, were in serious moral peril. Satan was allegedly hypnotizing the youth with secret messages in backwards rock songs, teaching them occult magic in Saturday morning cartoons, and causing suicides through a popular role-playing games, all while helping religion blur into politics for good.

For part two, Chelsey will cover what came next, a serious investigation into an imagined network of Satanic cults ritually abusing children in daycare centers all over the country. Chelsey will try to understand this shocking decade in history, why it really happened, and the cultural issues it was really about.

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep 10 - The Satanic Panic April 27, 2019 The Satanic Panic of the 70s, 80s, and 90s shaped the Modern Witchcraft Movement in a lot of unexpected ways. Its effects still ripple through a lot of our sources, so in this installment of the podcast we’re digging into this extremely weird part of American history. It’s a bit of a doozy, after all.

BS-Free Witchcraft - Ep. 32: A New Satanic Panic? February 27, 2021 A couple of years ago, we did an episode on the history of the Satanic Panic of the latter half of the twentieth century, but recent events have led us to ask - could it be happening again? It’s very possible that we are at the start of a new wave of satanic panic, and QAnon is just the latest symptom of a larger problem.

Occultae Veritatis, Case #014: Satanic Panic of Martensville Jan. 28, 2018 Today the hosts cover one of the various Satanic ritual abuse scandals that happened close to them. Is it full of hot air and false allegations? Yes. Yes it is. 

Occultae Veritatis, Case #097A & B: Dungeons, Dragons, and the Satanic Panic Dec. 07, 2019 - Dec. 15, 2019 Dungeons & Dragons, introduced in 1974, attracted millions of players, along with accusations by some religious figures that the game fostered demon worship and a belief in witchcraft and magic.

[Last Updated: Dec 29, 2023]

[upon-a-starry-night]

Number Neighbors Pt.8

Natasha Romanoff x Fem! reader

Natasha Masterlist Series Masterlist

Word Count: 1.6k

Summary:  When you catch sight of the newest trend going around you know you’re all but bound to at least try it, it was harmless anyway. What could possibly stem from something so little?

~~~~

After four months of texting, you’d decided Nat was officially your new best friend of all time. You wondered if she’d ever be open to the option of meeting up but considering her initial hesitancy to even text you in the first place you figured that option was faaar off of the table…at least for now anyway.

You’d grown used to texting her at least once a day, and spamming her on days she’d go silent.

 You didn’t know what she did for work but you understood a lot of jobs didn’t allow you to be on your phones, although she sometimes wouldn’t even respond during the night and it made you wonder if she worked some kind of occasional night job. It only helped solidify your theory that Nat was an FBI agent- or maybe a super spy. 

It would give you exponential bragging rights if you got to say your best friend was a super spy- although she’d probably have to assassinate you for spilling her secret and that would not bode well for you considering you had plans to travel the world before you died. 

Still- you had to admit the two of you were getting closer, and your conversations had become a wide range of you spilling your nonsensical thoughts and Nat growing increasingly more concerned for your mental health. 

       Nat🔪:

Y/n🍦:

Do you think because humans are full of water the same as cucumbers that we also have the potential to become pickled?

Nat🔪:

Your brain terrifies me

Y/n🍦:

When I die I don’t want to be cremated

I want to be pickled

Nat🔪:

Wow.

That’s…concerning

How have you survived this long?

You’d screenshotted the conversation and posted it on your story, to which your mother replied with apid curiosity about who you’d been texting. After explaining to your mother about your new budding friendship (leaving out the part where Nat was a complete and total stranger -your mother would freak) she expressed how excited she was for you to finally be reaching out and finding new friends. 

She also expressed her relief that there was someone else in the world willing to put up with your otherworldly intrusive thoughts. So Nat was now mother-approved, you outwardly fist pumped the air in the middle of your kitchen, 'best friend status' has been upgraded

—----

        Nat🔪:

Y/n🍦: 

Natalee

I have a theory

Nat🔪:

If it’s about my name I’m

just going to debunk it right now

Y/n🍦: 

What if the shit-tauri from the

Battle of shitstorm didn’t die

and they actually turned into the freakishly large

rats that live on the NYC subways?

Nat🔪:

Solid theory.

Any proof?

Y/n🍦:

Oh, lots.

But ya gotta earn it

Nat🔪:

…how so?

Y/n🍦: 

Truth or dare…

Nat🔪:

No.

Y/n🍦:

To THE DEATH

Nat🔪:

I’m in.

Y/n🍦:

I’m just joking.

I knew you would enjoy that part

My cynical little raincloud friend

Nat🔪:

Oh I'm yours now am I?

Y/n🍦:

The thing is- I am also almost

Certain you are a result of my delusional &

Lonely mind- thus you are My delusional imaginary friend

Since no one else can experience MY delusions :)

Nat🔪:

I’m very real Y/n.

Y/n🍦:

I believe you delusional Nat

Nat🔪:

That implies you are calling ME delusion.

Y/n🍦: 

maybe you are

Maybe I’M not even real!

Nat🔪:

How much have you had to drink?

Y/n🍦:

Nothing, why?

Nat🔪:

….

Seek professional help

Y/n🍦:

You should meet my therapist I think

you’d share the same sentiments.

Nat🔪:

Your therapist wants you

to seek professional help?

Y/n🍦:

My therapist needs a therapist because of me.

Anyways- do you want to earn the rat 

theory proof or are you too soft for it

Nat🔪:

I don’t think anyone has ever called me

“Soft” before

Y/n🍦:

Pfft

Okay “The Rock”

Truth or dare?

Nat🔪:

…

dare

You took a second to think of a dare, getting up from the couch to make yourself a cup of your favorite tea. As you stirred the honey into the steaming liquid you thought of what you could suggest given you knew nothing about her environment. Finally, an idea came into your head and you snickered as you quickly typed out the message. 

Y/n🍦:

I dare you to wear colors

Her response was immediate, a reaction you’d begun to get used to when texting Nat, it was a far cry from the hesitant hour-apart replies she used to give you. 

Nat🔪:

What is with you and judging my 

Choice of attire?

Y/n🍦:

The human eye can see 10 million colors

And you choose to wear black every day.

It’s absolutely outrageous.

I will not stand for it.

Nat🔪:

Jokes on you.

*image attached*

Much to your surprise the image Nat sent consisted of her viewpoint- the camera angled downwards- to show off the dark red t-shirt that Nat was pulling out to display to you to prove that she was in fact wearing color today.

The rest of the image only consisted of her black jeans, black sneakers, and a very boring glossy black flooring- unfortunately for you, it wasn’t shiny enough to give off any reflection of your online friend's face. 

However, this was the first time Nat had sent you a photo of herself- and you felt honored that she’d grown comfortable enough to show you a glimpse of her skin along with her outfit.

You beamed at the photo even after staring at it for 5 minutes- the fact that she was sharing this part of herself and also wearing color did things to your stomach. 

And maybe you made a little mental note in your head that she was wearing the color you said suited her best but you weren’t going to dive into that right now. 

You got up and did a little pace around your small living room, biting your thumbnail and wondering if you should comment on it before deciding you’d be more likely to get more photos the less you pointed them out.

Eventually, you sat back down on your couch, tucked your feet under you, and tried to formulate a response that didn't show how much you were internally freaking out. 

Y/n🍦:

God is real.

Nat🔪:

Ha ha.

Y/n🍦:

Wow It’s not even my birthday 

But this is a gift.

Truly.

Nat🔪:

You’re overdoing it.

Y/n🍦:

I’m actually crying.

Nat🔪:

Finally some good news.

Y/n🍦:

Hey!

Fuck you darth vader

Nat🔪:

these attempts at guessing

My name are getting worse

Y/n🍦:

I’m beginning to think

You frustrate me

on purpose sometimes

Nat🔪:

Everything I do is on purpose.

Y/n🍦:

I wasn’t.

You blushed at the accidental insinuation that Nat had ‘done’ you and quickly changed the subject.

Y/n🍦:

Your turn smartass

Nat🔪: 

Truth or dare Y/n?

After a few rounds of the two of you going back and forth daring each other to do ridiculous shit that may or may not have led to you chugging two full gulps of hot sauce (before and after evidence was provided) and you daring Nat to flirt with a random person in her contacts (Sorry to whoever ‘very old ice cube’ was in her phone, they seemed very flustered from the screenshots you received, another thing you were excited about but didn’t comment on). After all those dares you finally received the first truth proposition of the evening

Y/n🍦:

Truth or dare?

Nat🔪:

I think I’ve had enough of your

Unhinged dares.

Truth.

Y/n🍦:

You loved them-

Okay um…

Tell me something you’ve never told anyone before.

Nat didn’t respond for a while, whether she was thinking or busy you weren’t sure, you just watched as the typing bubble popped up and disappeared over and over again. You bit your thumbnail in anticipation. You thought it was an innocent enough question but the longer it took her to respond the more it felt like maybe such a simple question was more loaded than you’d anticipated

Maybe you should backtrack and ask another question… 

Just as you were about to call off your previous message Nat’s response came through. It was shorter than you’d been expecting it to be after she’d taken so long.

Nat🔪:

I used to do Ballet… and there was a time when I guess I didn’t hate doing it even though I was forced to.

With a confession like that you have a feeling there’s more to it- most people were forced to do some kind of extracurricular in their youth, plenty of your coworkers were former band kids. You knew that a lot of the time though, those activities could lead to a lot of trauma, some underlying family trauma, some mommy issues, or ruined confidence but you don’t ask. It feels like she’s shared something deeply personal although it might not sound like it to most people. 

And you’ll take anything new you can learn about her. 

The more you learn about her the more you’re fascinated by her. Even the little crumbs of info she gives you- a film she watched the other night, her waffle topping preferences. You think if it were any other person you probably wouldn’t care that much. 

But it’s Nat. 

So you make a notes tab and you start keeping track of the little things she tells you about herself. 

Because it’s Nat. 

And fuck if that wasn’t the most obvious shit in the world. 

You quickly shook your head and picked up your tea to take a sip, you weren’t going to let yourself think like that about someone you’ve never even met- and might never meet- you reminded yourself. You made a quiet noise of contemplation and shifted slightly on the couch before settling on a humorous response you hoped she understood as you acknowledging her loaded admission.

Y/n🍦:

Shit man, I used to do piano lessons

Nat sent back an unimpressed emoji and you barked out a laugh, having successfully eased whatever tension hung in the air- at least on your side. 

Nat was a mystery that was slowly coming unraveled, a puzzle that revealed its pieces little by little. The more you learned about her the more you liked her.

You just wished you could really see her.

Pt.9

A/n: Y/n's personality is based on my shower thoughts~Starry

------

Taglist:

@marvelwomen-simp @cd-4848 @wandanatlov3r @rebeltombraider @ctrlamira @fxckmiup @aliherreraaa @natsxwife @la-douler-ne-finite-jamais @romanoffsgal @moistblobfish

[ask-serendipity-sky]

Statements

Jimin doesn't say much at times. But when it comes to Jk, he has things to say.

Statements.

If someone doesn't see it and at least questions it, then there is something terribly wrong with their ability to perceive issues and connect that dots that have been already been connected with a light pencil.

Even with an objective lens, there is something there. There is something between Jimin and Jungkook that doesn't follow the normal patterns of friendship. I've been saying this for ages.

It's not just words and pictures that Jimin is giving us. He no longer hints. He gives us statements.

Of who he is and who he loves.

He's been doing this for years. Subtle but he is getting louder.

What a reveal. I think no one was expecting this now and not from Jimin.

Even weverse had some sort of malfunction when Jimin was bold enough to claim Jungkook's body.

When people thought Jimin and Jk weren't even close, he goes to NYC and spends the weekend with Jk, accompanying him for his debut and spending Silver Day together. Then he comes back and congratulates him for the bb results. On instagram.

"Jungkookie is sleeping." The way he answered fast and graceful. There was no room for thirsties to be Jimin's sister-in-law. Because Jk was sleeping....in their bed, in their shared home because Jk was there and Jungkook is his boyfriend.

Baby, don't leave Just stay next to me To you, who saw me who was tiny as (someone) big So that I can give back as much as I've received So that I can keep the words I said

The statement. In an album about his personal journey. There was only one other voice included there and that was Jungkook's.

How I see things: Jimin went through this phase in his life where the only person who could save him was himself. Just like the only person who could set him free was himself, words said by Jimin. But in the midst of all, Jk was there for him. Of course. Hidden, like the track itself.

So by allowing Jk to be in Letter, Jimin is telling us that Jk was next to him as Jimin lived his own journey.

Jk wasn't going to be getting any more marriage proposals after this.

Not after publicly thirst trapping Jimin. Jimin is not a fool so he has some claiming to do.

A very clear statement. Jimin and Jk in his background for a White Day photo post.

But notice how in the past, Jimin was more subtle? We see a bit of Nam and Jk. Compare that to Jimin today and his postings and mentions about Jk. I see a difference.

Remember Set Me Free pt.2?

Finally free.

His name isn't "jm" and, of course haters were celebrating this moment because it debunked the tattoo theory (I have a post about this coming).

But then Jimin opens his instagram account and becomes "j.m". The one name that haunts the haters forever. Claiming his initials (and Jk's 👀) in Jk's hand.

One of my favorite moments and it fits today's occasion. It wasn't 2 normal bros hanging out late at night. It was Jungkook's birthday and they were together. Just them. And they fell asleep in bed crying to the bb100 news.

It seems to me like Jimin wasn't supposed to spill this. He didn't the first time for the bb100 live. But the next time he had a chance, he went for it and Jk smiled wide as Jimin retold the story of how they spent that time together.

He was with Jungkook then.

He is with Jungkook now.

That is the statement.

[thoughtfulchaos773]

The Muse Theory

This is all just for fun, BUT it's plausible. Also, it may be completely debunked based on Sydney's timeline - that's still a mystery.

Theory: It would be an epic romantic plot twist if- Carmy first laid eyes on Sydney in New York. He remembers her, at least; he thinks he remembers her. He observed her as she ate his meal- the best meal she'd ever had, and after his shift, he made a sketch of her.

This was inspired by a conversation with @currymanganese and @yangsharperavery fanedit with my favorite song, "Favorite Faded Fantasy," by Damien Rice.

Carmy was going to tell Syd she looks familiar, but in Carmy's mind, it would seem creepy to tell a girl. hey, I remember seeing you at my restaurant, I didn't approach you, but I remembered that moment I first laid eyes on you. He's avoidant that way.

How did he see her eat his meal when he was in the kitchen? I noticed the new kitchen is similar Eleventh Madison Park, We didn't see what was in front of Carmy in the 1x02 episode hands but I'm guessing it was a window- one that Carmy can see through and watch a girl sitting by herself visibly enjoying one of his meals.

Since artists have a keen eye- he remembers her because of how much she inspired him at that moment. When he told Natalie in 1x02 Hands that people loved the food it had to do with watching Sydney eat.

Why keep this a secret? It's because he really liked staring at her - that was an intimate moment for Carmy- to stare at a woman like that - he hasn't experienced that kind of intimacy since drawing Claire.

True intimacy for Carmy is just staring at a woman, really just deep connection like that and I loved to be a part of something like that where it wasn't some sexy naked thing, it was just looking into each other's eyes.-Molly Gordon

Now, how does he remember Sydney when he couldn't remember Claire? Carmy remembers more than he lets on. He remembers Claire's address, but he can't remember the face or that she sat behind him in algebra class? This seems like he's avoiding it since he was ridiculed for expressing himself.

When Claire mentions the drawings- He lies and tells her it was shorts- when really it was Claire.

he mentions the designer that came into his restaurant, and it really inspired him to draw again.

Plot twist: what if it wasn't the designer that came into his restaurant- what if it was Sydney that evening, wearing her signature Thom Brown pieces.

So, during a grueling shift at this restaurant, he sees Sydney. He watches her as she enjoys his meal, and he starts drawing again on a napkin later that evening- the dream to draw again came back because of Sydney.

Is this far-fetched? I think not- this show has some serendipitous moments.

And is it stalkerish? Absolutely not- it's healthy and normal for an artist to have muse- too bad Richie and Mikey gave him a hard time about it.

Why should an artist have a muse?

Inspiration can be a transformative force, allowing artists to tap into their full potential and produce works that are both meaningful and powerful. A muse can provide a sense of direction, helping artists navigate the creative process and bring their ideas to fruition. -link

This could be the best love mystery! For me, at least.

[acourtofthought]

Hi!

I just wanted to say that, I have been an elriel shipper for a very long time. For the longest time I figured they'd be endgame, I've seen enough flirting between them to surmise that Sarah really wanted them to be together and was getting us ready for it.

However, Az's bonus chapter, really shook my belief in what I thought would clearly be endgame. I'm usually a lurker on Tumblr but pretty adamant in Reddit and thought maybe I can ask others what they thought?

I'll be completely honest with you. I challenge my beliefs all the time, I want to find answers to questions I have which will help reaffirm my thoughts. Not a single elriel could come up with any good reasons why elriel should still be endgame. The reasons I've seen

*Azriel called her a seer

*The pent up sexual tension and how Elain wanted it too

*Azriel gave her a rose necklace.

*The fake mates theory, and how Azriel shows true mate behavior.

none of these held up to me. I've been stalking your elucien blog along with others who have time and time again debunked these theories and proven with cannon text why elucien is truly endgame. When I go back to the books and read these I realize, yeah, you guys make very accurate points. Since then I've come to realize, elriel isn't happening and I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of falling in love with gwynriel and elucien.

I also didn't know there were actual messages from sarah herself that Lucien and Elain had more story to tell. I cannot see how she'd intentionally ruin one of her favorite characters. She also loves Azriel, and it feels like she's setting him up with a woman whose actually healthy for him.

Suffice all of this is to say, thank you for your insightful blogs. I think more elriels who are like me on the fence, really should challenge our thoughts critically and see maybe what we thought we were reading into, wasn't what the author intended.

Keep up the great work!

Hi there and I appreciate your message. It's nice to hear from someone who can acknowledge that both sides of the ship wars are valid, at least in some ways. I think when someone dislike a character as some do Elain, they put on blinders, refusing to acknowledge that there definitely were E/riel moments that made you stop and think, "hmmmm". I think the more familiar you become with SJMs writing you realize that the first glance is not always telling you what you need to know but of course there are noticeable E/riel hints. I just think those hints don't hold up under scrutiny, they don't support endgame potential for the pairing. The flip of that is those who dislike Gwyn or don't like her for Az and refuse to acknowledge that there were definitely some Gwynriel moments in SF too, things that hint at her becoming a future LI for him. But when you are someone who can see both sides, I think you're coming into the debates with less bias and I appreciate that. It helps you weed out the ridiculous from valid arguments. At least with your perspective you'll hopefully end up happy with whatever outcome but I do really appreciate you coming to tell me that my blog has given you pause and helped you see that Elucien could be a beautiful story too! ❤️❤️❤️

[sojirosteacup]

The (possible) origins of the Mori/Haruhi rumor

Or, I take a look at four different language versions of Mori's character profile to try to debunk this rumor.

You guys probably know the rumor that goes like "Tamaki wasn't supposed to end up with Haruhi, it was going to be Mori, but Tamaki became more popular and the mangaka changed her mind"

Like many others in this fandom, I'm tired of people blindly believing it so I was trying to write a post about how I think this rumor started. I was originally going to focus more on the "it changed because Tamaki became popular" part, because I felt that the "Mori was supposed to be endgame" part of the rumor had already been dissected by other people.

Except when I was I looking for Mori's character profile (the infamous quote that is believed to be the source of it) to use for my post, I found different versions of it depending on the translation. And maybe the "Mori was supposed to be endgame" part needs a bit more dissection, actually.

Especially since I couldn't understand at first why Mori of all hosts is the focus of this rumor, because MoriHaru was pretty much a rarepair before this.

Now I'm going to analyze both the "Mori was supposed to be endgame" part and the "it changed because Tamaki became popular" parts. And I think I may have a pretty good theory for how this rumor started.

Here is my analysis under the cut:

(Beware there are probably some spelling mistakes bc it's 2AM and english is not my native language)

The MoriHaru rumor is widely believed to have come from a quote from Hatori in a manga volume. More exactly, Mori's character profile.

So let's take a look at his character profile for a second.

The English translation that gets passed around goes like this:

"If I leave him alone, he winds up being a 'quiet, sober-faced fellow' so he makes Hatori groan a lot. But his love is vast (laugh), so there's at least an outside chance of Haruhi and Mori becoming a couple."

Here we have what might have confused some people. "Outside chance of Haruhi/Mori becoming a couple" doesn't mean they were supposed to be endgame, it means there is an unlikely chance of them being a couple.

Makes sense people would misread this. But I've always felt it was such a weak sentence to start this entire rumor… especially when there is literally shippy art of Haruhi with every host in the manga. Wouldn't any other character have started a similar rumor? Why would such a weak sentence start something so big?

But I was looking for a clear picture of the English profile to add to my original post idea when I stumbled over the Spanish version. And it got me confused because it was worded differently:

If you don't know Spanish, this is very similar to the English text, except the ending says:

"My (Hatori's) favorite couple is Mori + Haruhi, maybe."

Wait, we have an entirely different sentence here! This one implies Hatori likes MoriHaru more than the other couples, which could point to this being the source of the rumor. But I'm not satisfied. This is not enough. Let's dig deeper.

Spanish is not my native language, so I went to my actual native language, which is Brazilian Portuguese. Fortunately I have the entire collection with me, so I opened volume one to find this:

The first sentence is pretty much the same as the English and Spanish versions, but the rest says "He ends up worrying me, because he gives me the impression he will end up turning the story around. But I like him a lot (laughs). Maybe my favorite couple is Mori and Hani"

And that Hani bit is a fucking mistranslation from the Brazilian Portuguese print! It's supposed to be Haruhi, not Honey. This is the second time I find a mistranslation in this volume! This is why shoujo manga doesn't sell well here, publishers!

But the rest of the text is interesting. He could "turn the story around" (this is the closest translation I can give you for the word "reviravolta"). That means he has the potential to change the plot. Interesting. Seems in line with the rumor of Hatori's plans changing.

Now we have three different translations here, all of them pointing to different things. It's a bit confusing. Which one is the real translation?

But you don't know the depths to my obsession! I do have the first ouran volume in Japanese! And there is no better way to solve this mystery than to look at the original text!

I'm not fluent in Japanese but I have six semesters of beginner level Japanese under my belt + it's 1 AM 2AM and I should be asleep because I'm going to cosplay Tamaki at a con tomorrow + I drank an entire cup of green tea and I'm shaking AND THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO FALL IN A TRANSLATION RABBIT HOLE!

Here is a pic of the Japanese text taken straight from the manga:

In the Japanese text, Hatori says Mori/Haruhi (yes, HARUHI, not Honey) is a 大穴 couple. I searched 大穴 on a japanese dictionary app and this is what it means: "Long shot win (in horse racing), big winnings (on a Long shot), a killing (made from a bet)"

So THAT'S probably where it came from. She called MoriHaru an unlikely win and people thought it meant she was planning for him and Haruhi to be a surprise endgame in the long run. Looks similar to the english version, but I feel it has more "winning connotations" here, you know? Add this to the translation calling them Hatori's favorite couple and you have the likely source to the confusion: People thought it was her favorite couple and that it would win in the long run, surprising everyone.

From this to "they were supposed to be endgame but it got changed" it's not a big leap.

I should try translating the rest of the japanese text but let me do it another day when it's not 2AM, thanks

But that does not mean she was planning for them to be canon. If anything it's more likely she didn't know who to ship Haruhi with at first (there are other quotes from the manga that support this or the "Tamaki was always endgame" theory).

So another part of the mystery seems to be solved, but none of this explains the whole popularity part of the rumor. You know, when people say Tamaki became the male lead because he was more popular than Mori.

We know this is highly unlikely because Mori actually got second place at the first popularity pool, losing only to Haruhi. And Tamaki wasn't the only popular character in the group. You can see this in depth in this post by another person.

So where could people have taken that from?

You know which other shoujo fandom has a very similar rumor? Boys over flowers (a.k.a. Hana Yori Dango a.k.a. Meteor Garden).

If you are into that manga, you have probably heard that "Tsukasa wasn't supposed to be the male lead, Rui was. But Tsukasa won the first popularity pool and the mangaka changed her mind."

(Listen, I'm a huge boys over flowers fan but I'm not sure if this is true in this fandom either. I'm not a huge interview reader, so if anyone has a source where Kamio says this, please send it to me.)

But in boys over flowers case it at least makes a bit more sense! Tsukasa did win the first popularity contest (Rui got third place). And I've seen this rumor on bof fansites from the 90s/early 00s, so this one has a higher chance of being true compared to the ouran one.

Honestly, the first time I heard the Mori rumor my first reaction was "???? I've heard this before in another fandom????"

So my guess is that the rumor about Boys Over Flowers somehow jumped to Ouran. But how did people mix up completely unrelated series from different mangaka and magazines? It's not that hard to imagine. They are both popular reverse harem series with the same basic concept (poor girl in rich school with rich boys).

My guess is that someone saw the Mori thing and thought "oh, so it's like boys over flowers where the male lead changed because the other was more popular" and it snowballed from this.

Again, I could be wrong and maybe there is a Hatori quote somewhere on the internet proving the rumor. But for now, I'm going to believe it's a mix of mistranslations/misinterpretations and people jumping to conclusions.

(And this is not an attack on people who ship MoriHaru, btw. Ship whatever you want. This is just about the rumor)

[woodsdyke]

my most recent skill is getting people to listen to my favorite weird sort-of political podcasts. im annoying enough on instagram that at least 2 people have told me they started listening to:

-maintenance phase (health misinfo debunking/diet culture)

-conspirituality (about the intersection of new age spirituality and right wing conspiracy theories)

-you're wrong about (stuff that you got the Wrong Story On. the mcdonalds hot coffee case, homosexuality in animals, the satanic panic. etc)

-books that kill (analyses of fucked up pop psych and political books and why they're absolutely wild)

and im telling u: go listen to these. conspirituality gets into some more theory heavy territory but is still lay person accessible and they once talked about whether homeopathy was vegan for 15 minutes. tws for all sorts of bad shit but everything is fully transparent at the beginnings of the eps or in the show notes

also runner up shoutout to life after MLM I just started listening but it's really good

[octoagentmiles]

may i request our favorite emotionally repressed polar bear for the character bingo?? 👀

I'll have you know, that all I saw was this notification:

and instantly knew you meant Barnacles. 🐻‍❄️

dang almost 5 bingos-

top row: I am mentally ill about him actually /pos. I think anyone who's been following me for a second knows this 😌 he makes me Feral and oh the headcanons. by gosh the headcanons. they're everywhere. they are falling out of my hat.

not much to say about the 2nd and 3rd rows other than Yeah ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

"Everyone else is wrong about them": okay "everyone" is a strong word lmao- this is p much just referring to a couple really specific takes I've seen in the wild and didn't like 😂

"Canon isn't real if I don't look at it": only if my theories get debunked one day. this applies to all my theories tbh BUT if my Manitoba theory gets disproven I will simply ✨ ✨ look away ✨ ✨

if anything happens to him I will cry, when things DO happen to him I DO cry- but also he's so angstable and the manatees episode is one of my top favs so--

and I love what Above and Beyond is doing with him so far—which is very related to his aforementioned emotional repression 👁️👁️ they're setting him up for a really good story- I can feel it in my bones 🦴🦴

surprisingly, I don't have much else to say about him?? at least nothing that I haven't talked about a million times already. I hope he has more bonding moments with Tunip. I hope he and Natquik talk about the time he was away. I hope he and Tracker get to hang out, just as buds. I hope he gets an episode alone with Calico Jack. I hope they touch more on his claustrophobia, or even some of his other fears (storms, being alone, his friends getting hurt, etc). I hope we get an in-universe reason for his family's absence in AnB.

Yeah, ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯.

*squeaks him like a teddy bear with a prerecorded message inside, but instead of a cute little "you got this!" or one of his catchphrases, it just BLASTS the octo-alert at 1000% ultra maximum+ volume*

:)) he.

[debunkingtherightwing]

Chaya Raichik AKA LibsOfTikTok is a terrible journalist who should never ever be taken seriously by anybody with even an ounce of credibility.

(but it does seem like she's really into white nationalist conspiracy theories).

Fyi, the woman on her shirt is the person who's interviewing her. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be some kind of "own", but it just screams desperate (source: Taylor Lorenz on YouTube)

So, LibsOfTikTok (real name: Chaya Raichik) is kind of adjacent to my blog but I haven't really covered her outside of offhandedly mentioning her once or twice. This is mainly because there's not much to cover in my style. I cover videos and Chaya is an entity that exists on Twitter. However, I have always wanted to take the piss out of Chaya and I was overjoyed to hear that she did an interview with a journalist named Taylor Lorenz.

Trigger warning: Chaya is a complete infuriating bigot in this interview and if you aren't comfortable with that, maybe skip this one.

So who is Chaya Raichik?

Chaya Raichik is the woman behind LibsofTikTok, a far-right Twitter account that pushes anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is regularly cited by blog favorites like Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk when they are pushing their anti-LGBTQ narratives.

Chaya is most infamous for using her influence to single out people and organizations that she disagrees with.

For example, Chaya infamously targeted Boston Children's Hospital by falsely claiming that they were performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors. This resulted in no less than three bomb threats being called into the hospital.

Another prime-example of Chaya lying to her audience in order to drum up anti-LGBTQ hate in her audience would be the case of Sam. Sam is a transgender woman who lives in Georgia. Chaya used a photo of her to peddle the false statement that the Uvalde Shooter was transgender. This led to Sam facing harassment online. But we'll elaborate more on that later on in the debunk when Taylor confronts Chaya why she hasn't taken it down (spoiler alert: her answer is absolutely disgusting).

Chayaraichik.net has a pretty comprehensive list of other times when Chaya incited violence against people and organizations but the main takeaway here is that where LibsOfTikTok goes, death threats follow.

The interview comes in the wake of the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager in Oklahoma who died on February 8th after being involved in a fight in a girls bathroom. Raichik was recently appointed to a library board position in the state.

Another thing you need to understand about this interview is that there's some serious bad blood between Chaya Raichik and Taylor Lorenz that underscores the entire conversation. Taylor Lorenz was the person who broke the story that Chaya was the woman behind LibsOfTikTok which led to the entire griftosphere accusing Taylor of "doxxing" Chaya. This accusation is pretty ridiculous given Chaya's history of using her platform to demonize and single out others and the fact that her identity was thinly veiled at best.

Anyway, Chaya did this interview with Taylor Lorenz and it's....not a good look for her to say the least.

Lets get into it.

01:06, Taylor Lorenz: "So when did you start, I guess, what got you into all this? I always wanted to ask you, I know I wrote a bit about the history of your Twitter account but how did you get involved in politics?"

Chaya Raichik: "Uh, if you watch any of my interviews I talk about this all the time but uh -- just you know, COVID radicalized me."

Taylor Lorenz: "Yeah, in what way?"

Chaya Raichik: "And they were like, forcing us to wear masks and not letting us leave our homes and uh -- not letting us work and people losing their jobs and then people now forcing a vaccine, an experimental vaccine, people dying from the vaccine."

You'll notice a very clear pattern of Chaya acting like she's one of the most oppressed people in human history running throughout this interview.

If COVID radicalized her, the fact that none of the rights predictions about COVID "oppression" being used to create a left-wing dictatorship should deradicalize her. We are more or less back to normal since COVID and none of what the right was saying about it came true. As for vaccine deaths, there's no evidence linking the COVID vaccine to an uptick in deaths and most people making these kinds of claims don't have any sourcing to back up their claims. Serious side effects to the vaccine are extremely rare and all the evidence points to the vaccine saving countless lives and helping with the effort to end the pandemic.

If COVID is the thing that radicalized Chaya, which I doubt since her Twitter revolves around b ashing LGBTQ people, then I would urge her to look at the evidence and see that the bedrock of her belief system is completely bogus.

01:41, Taylor Lorenz: "So how did that get you interested in LGBTQ issues?" Chaya Raichik: "It got me interested in politics and then -- and then once I was interested in politics I stumbled upon this whole movement and I was absolutely appalled by what I was seeing."

That's code for "I saw people expressing themselves in a way that makes me uncomfortable and I decided to make a cottage industry out of making their lives miserable."

Anyway, Chaya doesn't really know anything about this issue outside of the standard right wing talking points and it becomes blatantly obvious the more she talks.

02:03, Taylor Lorenz: "Appalled by what?"

Chaya Raichik: "Um, the -- the radicalization of it, the -- the way they come after our most innocent and vulnerable population, our kids. The way that it makes -- it makes -- there's nothing logical about it. There's nothing logical about chopping off kids body parts, there's nothing logical about giving kids porn in school, there's two sexes and that's it so you know, anything out of that. It's just based on lies and nonsense."

Then Chaya would be extremely happy to hear that all of those things are a load of made up nonsense pushed by right-wing grifters looking to drum up outrage. Not that it matters as Chaya is one of those grifters and is herself completely full of shit.

Now, these narratives serve a purpose and that's to justify the demonization and oppression of an already marginalized group. By pushing these kinds of conspiracy theories on her audience, Chaya creates an easy framework that can be used as an excuse for both violence and the proliferation of the right-wing ideas that she wants implemented.

But it's interesting how when taken away from her Twitter page and put in a mildly unfriendly environment, Chaya clearly struggles to back up her own arguments and has to fall back of repeatedly debunked claims of children getting gender transition surgery. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, this next clip is pretty revealing. Here's how much Chaya knows about the people she hates so much.

02:42, Taylor Lorenz: "Did you grow up -- I know you grew up in a more conservative community. Did you know any LGBTQ people growing up? What was your exposure to that community just in life prior to sort of understanding the world through politics?"

Chaya Raichik: "Um, I never really paid attention to it."

Taylor Lorenz: "So you didn't have any LGBTQ friends or anything?"

Chaya Raichik: "No"

Taylor Lorenz: "Family members?"

Chaya Raichik: "No"

That's a pretty bad look. Especially for a self-proclaimed journalist.

Chaya just admitted that she hasn't even bothered to meet any of the people who she's devoted her entire career to hating.

Maybe if she actually bothered to meet a transgender person her worldview that they're all evil predators would be at least challenged. Unfortunately, I kind of doubt that she'd be willing to be open minded. She is a bigot and a grifter and backing off from her hateful worldview would lead to her losing her following. She's built an empire of hate and I doubt she wants to see that disappear.

03:03, Taylor Lorenz: "So your first exposure to the LGBTQ world was through -- basically through learning about it through the media ecosystem."

Chaya Raichik: "Through themselves actually, they would say exactly what their intentions are, what their whole movement is about, so I learned about it through watching their own videos."

Yes, because random videos that are on TikTok are highly indicative of the entire LGBTQ community as a whole. You don't have to go out and actually meet any of them, you just need to watch out of context clips on TikTok of....people sharing their pronouns and trans people existing.

As some of you may know, I am currently a student majoring in journalism. Here's my journalism major pro-tip of the day: TikTok is not a good place to do your research, especially when you're going to base your entire opinion of a marginalized group on the research that you are going to do.

03:32, Taylor Lorenz: "I feel like there's, especially on -- my colleagues have done great reporting on sort of, like this rift on Twitter. I know that you have a very conservative fanbase and in your comments sometimes you'll see a lot of commentary about sort of, the great replacement theory. What are your thoughts on that?"

Chaya Raichik: "What are your thoughts on your comments -- the comments on your post telling me to kill myself."

Taylor Lorenz: "Horrible, yeah horrible."

That's a massive sign of Chaya not wanting to answer the question if I have ever seen one. Whilst people telling Chaya to kill herself is wrong and isn't a productive way to address the content that she puts out, this is kind of rich coming from a person who incites violence against the LGBTQ community every day on her Twitter page.

But again, you see Chaya retreating from confronting the rhetoric that she pushes and instead playing the victim card. Plus, the "gotcha" moment was immediately deflated by Taylor immediately condemning the comments telling Chaya to kill herself. I'm not sure what Chaya thought was going to happen here. Did she think that Taylor would struggle to condemn the death threats and she'd get this big gotcha moment? If so, she has a massive persecution complex.

Chaya does this "Oh, will you condemn death threats against me" dance for a while and Taylor just keeps saying yes. Taylor finally gets to the meat and potatoes of why what Chaya is saying is ridiculous, which is that this logic clearly should also apply to Chaya.

04:21, Taylor Lorenz: "So are you saying that like, someone posts something and then attacks follow that person should answer for those attacks?"

Chaya Raichik: "No, that's not what I'm saying."

Taylor Lorenz: "Oh, OK."

Chaya Raichik: "I'm saying that they -- people like you tell me that all the time so I'm just asking if you think the same thing."

Chaya's basically pinned herself into a corner here. She's basically stated that people should be responsible for actions caused by their content, so Taylor naturally goes "Yeah, well what about you?", and Chaya's response is basically "No, not like that!"

This is embarrassing. This is what happens when you take a reactionary with no concrete positions outside of "I hate people" and actually start asking them to explain their ideas, they flounder.

Speaking of tactics that reactionaries use when put under pressure, Chaya diverted the conversation from the topic at hand which was the great replacement theory. Taylor decides to try and get things back on track. This doesn't work at all.

04:38, Taylor Lorenz: "I think it's kind of interesting, I guess -- in the conservative movement there's this ideology around sort of, white nationalism which is obviously kind of a hardline ideology that's generally been pretty critical of Jewish communities and I'm wondering, as a Jewish woman, how do you feel about sort of aligning yourself with those people and accounts? You know, you see this sort of rhetoric in your replies and I only bring it up, I'm not saying that you endorse that rhetoric, I would imagine that you don't. But how do you kind of think about those nuances when you're thinking about, kind of the audience that you're building."

Chaya Raichik: "Some of your audience says we should chop off kids body parts, what do you think about that?"

Taylor Lorenz: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Chaya Raichik: "Like, a girl says she wants to be a boy so she chops off her breasts."

I could definitely see somebody like Ben Shapiro being able to field this question by simply condemning the extremist and oftentimes antisemitic people that follow him, but Chaya can't do that because she understands that a really sizeable chunk of her base is made up of those people and it would be acting against her best interests to condemn them.

Unfortunately, her way of handling this question is simply regurgitating a heavily debunked talking point about children getting transgender surgeries. This does nothing but make Chaya look like an overly confrontational idiot who is only capable of communicating in right-wing talking points.

As for the question of Chaya being Jewish and supporting things like the Great Replacement Theory, that's a valid question. Either she has never thought about who "they" are or she simply doesn't care and both are extremely damming.

05:34, Taylor Lorenz: "I mean, I believe in gender ideology I guess. I personally -- my feeling is that I believe in personal liberty. I grew up in a town where a lot of people for their middle school graduation, women got nose jobs. I knew somebody that got a boob job at age 14 and I -- I guess I struggle to kind of understand the criticism when there's certainly no criticism of that sort of thing, right? But then there's criticism of this other sort of gender affirming you know, stuff."

Chaya Raichik: "So you're comparing a boy being allowed to chop off his penis to a teenage girl getting a nose job?"

Taylor Lorenz: "Well, just to be extra clear I don't believe that thirteen year olds are able to make those sort of medical decisions."

Chaya Raichik: "Minors are, yeah."

Taylor Lorenz: "Oh really?And where?"

Chaya Raichik: "Children's National Hospital in DC gives sixteen year olds hysterectomy's."

Taylor Lorenz: "Oh, sixteen year olds?"

Chaya Raichik: "They told me that directly, they said 'sixteen girls and younger'. That's what they said."

Alright, this phone call was not what Chaya is saying it is so lets just get this narrative out of the way.

While the recordings themselves are authentic, what Chaya left out was that the people that she talked to weren't doctors or anybody involved in providing care to patients. Chaya talked to a receptionist who provided inaccurate information about patient care whilst being badgered and pressed by Chaya about a nonexistent sixteen year old patient. The receptionists were essentially answering Chaya's questions about surgery and trying to do their job which is setting a patient up with an expert who absolutely would have stated that bottom surgery doesn't get performed on minors.

This is a complete load of horseshit meant to stoke outrage. And by the way, Children's National Hospital received threats after Chaya's post. I can't stress enough how vile targeting a children's hospital for political points is. It endangers doctors and nurses who already have difficult jobs as it is and it also puts the lives of the children being treated in the hospital at risk.

Anyway, Chaya finally gives her thoughts on the Great Replacement Theory and they naturally smack of white nationalism.

06:54, Taylor Lorenz: "Let's just get back to the great replacement stuff because I'm curious, what are your thoughts on that whole ideology?"

Chaya Raichik: " I mean, how many — there were times that — there were some months over the past three years that there were more illegals coming into our border than children being born in the U.S. Is that not — does that not look like they're trying to replace us?"

Yeah, this claim about more migrants entering the US than children being born is also a complete lie. Elon Musk has endorsed this claim because of course he did, but lets talk about it.

The tweet that originally claimed this used data from the US Customs and Border Protection Agency. The problem with this is that it doesn't represent any official data documenting how many migrants are entering the United States because that data simply does not exist. The data from the United States Customs and Border Protections Agency is about data that the CBP calls "encounters". These encounters not only encompass people who the CBP catches entering the country illegally but; people trying to enter the country legally but get denied, people who the CBP have encountered previously trying to enter the country again, and people who simply don't enter the US successfully. The notion that this dataset represents how many migrants are entering the United States is flagrantly ridiculous but if you just look at the CBP data for how many migrants they apprehend at the border, it's lower than the US birthrate.

What's more concerning here though is that Chaya has essentially given her stamp of approval to a white nationalist conspiracy theory and it gets worse the more she talks.

07:35, Chaya Raichik: "I just look at the facts and the numbers."

Apparently not closely enough otherwise she'd find the info that reveals that this claim is bogus. Seriously, it took me a twelve second Google search to figure this out.

07:39, Taylor Lorenz: "Well so, let's just give a corollary, right? A lot of Jewish people fled, you know Europe, came here also as immigrants and there's a lot of criticism towards Jewish people in those movements, in those far-right movements. So I'm just wondering, as a Jewish woman, sort of how you feel about that and your role in cultivating this fan base that might think of you as a minority, an outsider." 

Chaya Raichik: "Not all cultures are equal. Yeah." 

Taylor Lorenz: "So, I know you have a lot of concerns about educational materials and books, library books and things, especially —"

Chaya Raichik: "They're importing people who want to destroy America and who want to — who come here and do not stand for what America stands for. So, and I think, and we see it, there's time after time after time after time, they come in, they're destroying our cities, they bring crime with them, and they are bringing them in to replace us. And, yeah, I think people from various countries, they're all different." 

These are talking points straight out of the white nationalist playbook.

The replacement of the white race (who else could "replace us" be referring to?), the portrayal of migrants and immigrants as bringing crime and destruction, the outright statement that "not all cultures are equal". This isn't just saying the quiet part out loud, it's screaming it through a megaphone on full blast.

And again, in all of these alt-right circles one of the key groups that get demonized is Jewish people. I've already mentioned how terms like "globalist" and "them" are dogwhistles for Jewish people in alt-right circles but it seems like Chaya is willfully blind to this fact because she gets attention for being a hateful POS on Twitter.

This is also why I doubt the "COVID radicalized me" narrative. You don't just go from not wanting to wear a mask to repeating white nationalist talking points. While COVID might have pushed Chaya towards this world, there's a large portion between then and now that we don't know about.

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir a little here but if anybody doesn't really know who LibsOfTikTok is and reads this, here you go. The fact that she can so calmly and matter of factly repeat a talking point that was used by the Nazis to justify the holocaust should tell you everything that you need to know.

08:43, Taylor Lorenz: "Just back to the sort of, education stuff, I know that you're interested in removing a bunch of books from libraries that you consider inappropriate. I was just wondering, out of all the books that you've sort of tried to get removed, how many have you read?"

Chaya Raichik: "I've read a couple of them."

Taylor Lorenz: "Which ones?"

Chaya Raichik: "Gender Queer. I've read This Book is Gay. I've read uh, Flamer. I've read uh -- what were some of the other ones? My Shadow is Pink, It Feels Good To Be Yourself, there's so many more. Tons of them."

Just to be entirely clear, Chaya absolutely has not read any of these books or if she has she's read them in an extremely ignorant and reactionary manner that interprets them as pornography simply because they contain LGBTQ+ themes.

But the part in the middle of that quote where she struggles to remember the names of the books she's trying to ban speaks volumes.

10:11, Chaya Raichik: "I'm not trying to ban anything."

Taylor Lorenz: "So you're not trying to ban any books."

Chaya Raichik: "Who said I'm trying to ban books?"

Taylor Lorenz: "Are you trying to remove books from libraries?"

Chaya Raichik: "From public school libraries."

So, she's trying to ban books. Banning something is the act of removing something from a space and not allowing it back in. This is literally what Chaya just stated that she's trying to do.

So my answer to "Who said I'm trying to ban books?" is as follows: You just did.

10:27, Chaya Raichik: "What kind of literature?"

Taylor Lorenz: "You tell me."

Chaya Raichik: "Gay porn. Gay porn."

See, this was one of the things that Chaya bandied about as a "win" in this interview. The issue is that Chaya's idea of the definition of "gay porn" is completely filtered through her narrow minded worldview. A book simply depicting LGBTQ+ people existing is "gay porn" to her.

Parents absolutely can opt children out of courses that teach these books (although those classes are usually limited to older youth such as high school students). Chaya Raichik should not be the grand arbiter of how people parent their kids or what kids can and cannot read.

Plus, I wonder if Chaya would be equally opposed to the Bible being allowed in schools? She'd probably freak out over it on Twitter despite the Bible having scenes in it that make most of the books she's referenced look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar by comparison.

11:45, Taylor Lorenz: "How would you describe the type of sex education that you would like to see in schools?"

Chaya Raichik: "At this point I want all sex education actually removed in schools because I don't trust the schools to do it."

So, Chaya wants to ban sex ed because it seemingly acknowledges the existence of LGBTQ+ people too much. Who should we trust to write sex-ed curriculum? Chaya, a person who just admitted to believing in a white supremacist conspiracy theory and having not met any LGBTQ people before the ten minute mark?!

No sexual education is a categorically bad idea. A recent report by the American Association of Pediatrics

For example, in Texas a link has been drawn between abstinence-only sexual curriculum and unwanted teen pregnancies. A study found that areas in Texas with abstinence only sexual curriculum was being employed were above the national average in terms of teen pregnancy. Who would have thought that not educating kids about how to have sex safely would lead to more STD's and more teen pregnancy? Apparently not Chaya.

You've got to keep in mind that Chaya has no training or expertise in any of these subjects. She's a real estate agent turned bigoted internet troll. She absolutely should not be treated as an expert or put in a position where she as treated as one, which is why her position in the Oklahoma Library Board is extremely concerning.

12:50, Taylor Lorenz: "I guess, speaking of posts, you still have a post up accusing the Uvalde Shooter of being trans. Um, obviously that's been debunked."

Chaya Raichik: "Yeah, there's a community note on it."

Taylor Lorenz: "Uh huh, so why not remove that post if you are so comfortable removing posts?"

Chaya Raichik: "Because there's a community note, I think it's clear. It's obviously it was -- obviously it was unintentional. There was a watermark on it, it was from a meme account that was going around. Um, and I'm glad there's a community note so people know that that was a mistake."

This is terrible from a human standpoint but from a journalistic standpoint this makes me want to tear my hair out. You don't get to just say "I saw a meme and posted it without verifying it first" and think that's a valid excuse for publishing misinformation, that's not how journalism works! Mostly because you wouldn't have used a 4Chan meme as a source in the first place!

The banner on the LibsOfTikTok page on Twitter says "News you can’t see anywhere else" and I wonder if Chaya has wondered why you can't see that news anywhere else. It's not because the "left" is suppressing it, hell if Sinclair Broadcasting's existence has taught us anything it's that the right owns a sizeable chunk of the media. The reason you don't see the "news" on LibsOfTikTok anywhere else is because most news organizations have these things called "editorial standards" and "verification" which make it so that you can't just run your mouth off in an article without checking to make sure what you're saying is true first.

Chaya on the other hand will just find a meme on 4Chan, post it, and rake in the sweet attention and likes regardless of who gets hurt. This is not journalism, it's targeted harassment and spreading of disinformation.

Another thing that journalists do is print retractions when they get the facts in a story wrong. If Chaya wants to call herself a journalist she is to be held to the standards of one and that means that she has to retract information that she knows is false personally instead of letting Twitter do all the work for her, that's how this works.

What Chaya did meets the textbook definition for defamation. Prima face defamation in the United States is defined by these four characteristics:

1) a false statement purporting to be fact; The false statement in this case being that Sam was the Uvalde Shooter. While Sam wasn't mentioned by name, her photo being used led to people tracking down her social media account and harassing her.

2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; By posting that accusation to Twitter, Chaya was communicating the statement that Sam was the Uvalde shooter to her thousands of followers.

3) fault amounting to at least negligence; She clearly didn't check the sourcing or even wait to see if her claims were true. She just posted the meme without adhering to the most basic rules of journalism.

and 4) damages, or some harm caused to the reputation of the person or entity who is the subject: Obviously, accusing somebody of carrying out a mass shooting is going to seriously harm somebodies reputation. Especially when the accuser has primed her audience to associate the accused's sexual identity with baseless conspiracy theories about pedophillia.

Chaya is lucky nobody has sued her for libel yet but if she keeps up this pattern of behavior it's only a matter of time, and she won't get an ounce of my sympathy when it happens.

13:16, Taylor Lorenz: "Do you believe if say, a journalist posts something factually incorrect or wrong, especially about someone else, you know if somebody was to say something factually wrong about you, do you believe they should remove that or do you think they should be able to keep that content up?"

Chaya Raichik: "Uhm, Twitter is free speech uh, you know people lie about me all the time there and they don't get --- they don't get taken down. If you want --- it has to go both ways."

Taylor Lorenz: "So you believe that people should be allowed to keep up wrong information about you and have no -- be able to keep that up."

Chaya Raichik: "Free speech is free speech."

I wonder what lies Chaya is talking about? Because as I've pointed out, many of those things that Chaya might immediately point out as lies such as her connection to incidents of harassment and violence are established in the basis of fact. Criticizing somebodies actions is significantly different from defamation as long as it's based in reality. Chaya accusing a random person of being a mass shooter just because it fits her transphobic narrative isn't based in reality, it's based in lies and bigotry.

14:01, Taylor Lorenz: "So I'm kind of curious how you square that with the letter that you sent this morning to V Spere claiming that, you know, you were gonna try to sue her for slander. You know, if free speech is free speech than why are you threatening your critics with lawsuits."

Chaya Raichik: "Well defamation is different."

Taylor Lorenz: "So would you call misidentifying a shooters sexuality defamation?"

Chaya Raichik: "Uh, no I wouldn't."

"Because defamation only applies to me and not the people I hate."

Here's the thing, in Chaya's mind she hasn't committed defamation because the person who she defamed was trans and she's already stated her hatred of trans people time and time again. She hasn't defamed anybody because that person has committed the crime of being trans in Chaya's presence.

If I'm being too subtle, this woman is starting to piss me off.

14:30, Chaya Raichik: "I wasn't the creator of that image."

But she amplified it to her massive following. If she hadn't done that, those claims would probably be a lot more obscure.

14:31, Taylor Lorenz: "Sure but you can if somebody amplified wrong information you're-"

Chaya Raichik: "You know, the media like --- like Washington Post and other places, they lie all the time. They're never held accountable, they never remove it, they lie and lie and lie. So I'm not gonna --- if you want to hold me to that level, than I get to hold you to that level as well and all the other media."

This is all she's got, "No u." See, if I was Taylor my follow up question would be "OK, name an example of us publishing a lie and not removing it."

Even if Chaya is correct, someone else lying doesn't excuse her lying. If everyone else is lying, hold yourself to a better standard. She also clearly has zero empathy for the person who she misidentified as the Uvalde Shooter.

15:21, Chaya Raichik: "Um, is there a law against lying?"

A): Defamation, while not something that can get you in jail, is a legally actionable offence so yeah it kind of is.

B): Those words coming out of your mouth should immediately discredit you as a journalist from here to kingdom come.

15:37, Chaya Raichik: "It's different with defaming a journalist like that."

Let it be put on the record that she has claimed that she's a journalist. I don't think she is, I think she's an alt-right troll, but she claims she is one. If she wants to be a journalist she needs to follow our rules, and that includes journalistic ethics which she has demonstrated a stunning lack of in her tenure as LibsOfTikTok.

They talk about Chaya's life a bit, mostly her complaining about the evil leftists lying about her nonstop. Chaya then starts to talk about Nex Benedict and Oklahoma.

20:48, Taylor Lorenz: "How do you feel about Nex's death?"

Chaya Raichik: "It's very tragic. It's horrible."

Taylor Lorenz: "Do you believe Nex should have been allowed to receive gender affirming care?"

Chaya Raichik: "She should not be allowed to go on irreversible puberty blockers or get sex change surgery."

Puberty blockers are not irreversible and the qualifications a youth has to go through are pretty long. A doctor isn't just going to prescribe a minor puberty blockers during the first session, the minor needs to have displayed a long lasting pattern of gender dysphoria.

Also, gender affirming care for youth has been shown to reduce suicidal ideation for trans and nonbinary youth by 73%. These medical treatments are valuable and oftentimes lifesaving for transgender youth.

Taylor brings up the bomb threats, Chaya brings up the "No u" argument again, and we don't need to cover that. Here's Chaya being really embarrassing about trans people.

26:11, Taylor Lorenz: "You know, if you eradicate transgenderism which I believe you suggested in a post today-"

Chaya Raichik: "I never suggested that"

Taylor Lorenz: "Ok, you reposted a post that was advocating for that. What would happen to the people that have already medically, socially, completely transitioned and are leading happy lives? What would happen to them? I mean, what's your plan for that? If transgenderism doesn't exist, which you seem to believe, what happens to all the people living happy lives as trans people?"

Chaya Raichik: "First of all, the whole 'trans' is based on a lie. You can't --- you can't change your gender."

I have a lot of trans friends who are living proof that that's not the case.

Gender itself is the social construct of the characteristics of a male, female, etc. Sex is biological.

27:16, Taylor Lorenz: "And what harm is it causing? Do you believe."

Chaya Raichik: "I like the truth, I like truth."

Taylor Lorenz: "Right, but I'm saying what's the harm of people expressing their gender identity differently than you believe it to be? What harm are they causing?"

Gee Chaya, I thought lies were just no big deal, after all there's no law against lying! Seeing her switch from "weeeelllll, you know there's technically no law against lying so when I defame an innocent person by telling my followers that they're a mass murderer it's totally A-OK" to this bold crusader for the "truth" (which is in and of itself based off a transphobic lie) is pretty glaring and nauseating.

28:00, Taylor Lorenz: "What is the material harm of them living their life as a woman or man or gender that you don't agree with?"

Chaya Raichik: "Not anything that's wrong, is there a material harm necessarily."

Taylor Lorenz: "So there's no harm?"

Chaya Raichik: "I didn't say that"

Taylor Lorenz: "So can you name a single harm?"

Chaya Raichik: "The way that it's pushed onto kids, first of all."

All she has is barging in and shouting right-wing talking points without addressing questions that are being asked. This is embarrassing.

Here's Chaya begrudgingly admitting that gender is a social construct.

31:32, Taylor Lorenz: "What if somebody said to you, you know, you're not a real woman? You're not a real woman cause maybe you don't meet these certain specific definitions of femininity."

Chaya Raichik: "That's fine, I don't care. They can call me whatever you want."

Taylor Lorenz: "But what if you would be forced to live by that system? Do you think it's fair that you would be forced to like--"

Chaya Raichik: "Is that based in like, science?"

Taylor Lorenz: "Well I don't think any of it's based in science--"

Chaya Raichik: "Well, it is. There are two sexes."

Taylor Lorenz: "Gender is a social construct"

Chaya Raichik: "Well, gender is actually made up."

She figured it out! It took her a ridiculously long amount of time but she figured it out. Granted, she immediately retracts that claim by blathering on about how there are "two sexes, zero genders, and unlimited personalities" right after (which is a quote that I'm pretty sure she stole from Charlie Kirk by the way) but at least she kind of got there.

32:25, Taylor Lorenz: "You know, a lot of LGBTQ people say that your posts cause an enormous amount of pain. How does that make you feel?"

Chaya Raichik: "How does it make you feel that your reporting on me causes me pain?"

"No u"

They talk a bit about what a public figure is and trans surgery. Chaya's arguments are stupid but not stupid in an important way. Chaya then IMMEDIATELY contradicts herself and then admits that she wants transgender people to not exists in public.

36:42, Taylor Lorenz: "Where do you, sort of, hope this will end up? You know like, all of this sort of --- the advocacy that you're doing. I know you said that you don't have a five year plan for yourself but what are some --- if you were sort of like gonna describe you're platform --- what are some thing's that you'd like to see? Meaningful changes in terms of policies, laws."

Chaya Raichik: "Oh, I want to eradicate gender ideology from public life."

Remember back at 26:11 when Chaya said that she never suggested that she wanted to eradicate "transgenderism"? Chaya certainly doesn't. But the key thing here is that what Chaya is advocating here is the complete suppression of transgender people from the public sphere, that's what she wants and that is a blatantly disgusting goal.

Conclusion:

Chaya Raichik should never ever be taken seriously by anyone ever.

From supporting white nationalist conspiracy theories to splitting hairs over the legality of lying as a journalist, Chaya demonstrated massive breaches in journalistic ethics and just generally atrocious behavior. She came off like a mumbling idiot who can only throw up right-wing talking points instead of backing up an argument. Surely this is the person you want making decisions about kids futures.

I really only did this post because LibsOfTikTok comes up a lot in the griftosphere and this is a super helpful resource to point to when she gets mentioned. On the bright side, we've found a contrarian queen for Tim Pool the contrarian king.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

[ptsdangeldust]

original by @frilled-cheese-sandwich !! altho i had to modify it bc like. i do have favorite *dynamics* in this show but "otp" implies i think of them as definitely romantic and probably reciprocated and like.... obviously not applicable when my favorite character is aroace LOL

.... so yeah obviously this came out very chaotic looking hsduigd it's legible to ME at least lol. arrows are all which direction the emotion is felt in, so for clarity's sake mutual connections have arrows on both ends. also ofc some connections have Layers lol

i feel like i have some kind of something or other to back up anything i have on here / these are like my actual thoughts on what's happening and are as unbiased as they're gonna get...... aside from me being convinced alastor has the aroace equivalent of a massive fucking hateboner for lucifer. and this has nothing to do with kin shit i SWEAR

it's funny that i was so loud about radiodust after the pilot and now i'm like.... man they just have no connection whatsoever beyond husk complaining about alastor to angel and angel being like 'god i know how you feel that shit sucks' lol sduhgshi

probably my hc that alastor just really doesn't like mimzy at all and is pretending to be her friend more for appearances than anything might be exaggerated. i do think mimzy genuinely likes him though, she just doesn't really understand that she sucks LOL

also yeah there isn't concrete proof that lute is (was) truly Into adam but it makes sense to me.

i originally was a big proponent of the "rosie is secretly lilith in disguise" theory but that might have been debunked........ although it's not quite clear enough yet to be able to tell.

i do think sir pentious was serious about wanting to have sex with cherri bomb but i think his attraction to her is purely romantic as far as i can tell? like the sex is there but he's...... maybe not 100% ace, maybe closer to demi, is i guess what i'm getting at? like sex seems like a bit of an afterthought, is the impression i get. idk that could be kind of infantalizing on my part. not sure.

i don't know enough about lilith to be able to tell any of her feelings yet...... nor do i fully understand the terms of the contract lute mentioned or who it was with etc. a lot of my theories got turned on their head in those last ten seconds LOL

i'll have to make a separate post about theories once i gather my thoughts LOL

[sardonic-sprite]

Rocks Under Tide

written for Whumptober 2022, days 1, 27, 29 (see tags)

author's notes on ao3

"Hey, Dad," Tim called, sloughing his backpack off his shoulder and onto the kitchen table. "I'm home!"

No answer, which was unsurprising. Jack wasn't one to acknowledge Tim's existence unless that existence was beneficial.

He wandered into the living room, frowning when he found it empty. The TV was off, which meant his dad wasn't on a simple bathroom or snack break. 

Tim slid into a fighting stance.

"Dad?" he tried again, creeping out of the living room and hoping he wasn't about to find his father crumpled on the floor, "Are you here?"

The study was empty, but it looked the same as when Tim had last seen it. All of the rooms looked the same, actually, which fairly debunked Tim's Intruder theory.

"Hello!" he hollered. "Dad?"

"Timothy?" 

Tim would have sighed in relief if not for the ice in his father's voice.

"Come up here, now."

Tim swallowed tightly. "Coming!"

He tried to stifle the flood of anxiety, telling himself Jack was just... volatile, and was probably annoyed Tim hadn't cleaned his room or something. Maybe today had been rough for him physically. It didn't necessarily have anything to do with Tim himself.

Tim's bedroom door was wide open, light on. 

He took a deep breath, pressing his hands against his thighs to keep them from shaking.

He probably just saw my report card or something.

Tim had meant to get help with English, really, but his essay - which would make a good 35% of his grade - was supposed to be on To Kill A Mockingbird, and the one time he brought it up, Dick cried and Bruce could only explain that it was one of Jason's favorite books. Tim couldn't ask them to pore over it with him after that.

He meant to go for a casual What's up?, but when he stepped through the doorframe his voice died.

His room was utterly, completely trashed. Dresser drawers all open, contents strewn around the room. Posters torn down, hamper overturned, even his mattress yanked half off the bedframe. His desk had been pulled away from the wall, and everything down to his pencil case had been spilled on top. His laptop was open to his browser history, blessedly clear of anything damning.

Only, that didn't matter.

Because Jack was holding Tim's Robin uniform. 

"What. Is. This?" he hissed, brandishing the kevlar at Tim.

"A cosplay." Tim didn't know how he managed to keep his voice even. He couldn't quite stop himself from blinking too many times. "Forgot I had it, I haven't worn it in--"

"Bullshit."

Tim flinched as the uniform made a loud thwack against the wall. Jack stalked closer, and Tim backed up, tripping over a broken picture frame. Jack pulled him back up by his shirt collar, and Tim had to force down the instinct to strike his attacker and break free.

"Robin, Timothy? What the hell do you think you're doing? At least if it was a gang, there's ways to get out of jail, but--"

"If... what?"

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice you sneaking out of the house every night? For god's sake, how blind do you think I am?"

"I don't--"

"You explain to me, Timothy, you explain to me right the fuck now, what the hell were you thinking? Running around with a madman every night, getting into fights, and getting fucking shot at?"

Tim swallowed hard. "I think I'm helping people."

"'Helping people?'" Jack sneered. He kept walking, pushing Tim in front of him until Tim's back hit the wall. "How naïve are you, Tim? No, how stupid are you? Is that what Batman's been filling your head with?"

"I'm not naïve. And I'm not stupid. I'm saving lives." Under his breath, Tim added, "Some people call me a hero."

"I call you a goddamn idiot! So puffed up on the glory you can't fucking see that that... thing is just using you to give the freak club something else to shoot at. How long did you think you were gonna last, boy? The last Robin fucking died! You're just gonna throw your life away to save one drunk from another?"

Tim tried to blink away the sting behind his eyes. "Batman didn't want me to fight at all, let alone to use me. But I wanted to do something worthwhile, and if I do die--"

"You're sixteen, Timothy," Jack snapped, shoving Tim harder against the wall. "You will not say another word about dying or so help me--"

"Don't tell me you'd miss me," Tim hissed. "Be honest, Dad, you'd be glad if you never had to deal with me again!"

A burst of pain against Tim's cheek and his head whipped to the side. He was still frozen in shock when Jack grabbed his chin and forced them face to face again.

"Timothy Jackson, don't you ever speak to me that way again, do you understand me?"

Tim... Tim... slowly nodded, staring at his father's white face. His cheek was starting to throb. It would probably bruise.

Jack finally let him go and backed away, shoes crunching on several CD cases.

"Good. And this Robin nonsense ends now, do you hear me, Timothy? You're grounded indefinitely. You go to school, you come right the fuck back here and you do not leave this house until school again. If you ever try to sneak out again, I swear to god I'm going to take a belt to you. Count yourself damn lucky I'm not doing it now."

Jack was half out the door when Tim found his voice.

"No."

"No?"

Jack slowly turned around. His eyes were darker than Tim had ever seen them. Tim stepped away from the wall, fists clenched at his sides, and this time when Jack stalked closer, he stood his ground.

"No," he repeated. "I'm not going to stop being Robin."

"This is not a choice, Timothy. I am your father and you will obe--"

"No!" 

This time it was Tim who stepped forward. His breath was coming fast, and his body felt hot and flushed. 

"You don't get to call yourself that. Maybe you made me, but then you left me. You never once acted like a father unless it benefitted you, so don't expect me to give up the one thing that's ever made me feel worth something just because you say so!"

"You will never," Jack roared, spit flying, "go out at night and play superhero again!"

"I'd like to see you stop me."

Tim saw the shift in his father's eyes a second too late. An unnerving mixture of resolve and calculation piercing the pure rage.

And he didn't react in time.

Jack lunged, tackling Tim to the ground. Tim's head struck something hard, and by the time he blinked the stars away, Jack had turned him over, knee planted squarely between Tim's shoulder blades.

"You want me to stop you?" he muttered. "Fine. I'll stop you."

"Get off!" 

Tim bucked, trying to throw Jack off, or get his hands planted to lever up. Jack dug his knee deeper into Tim's back, grabbing his wrists hard as he flailed. He wrenched Tim's arms behind him and shifted to pin them against his back. Tim grunted at the weight.

"You will learn to respect me, Timothy," Jack growled, accompanied by the jingle of a belt buckle. "And I don't care what I have to do to get through to you!"

"Newsflash," Tim snarled back, still squirming and kicking, looking around at the debris for a weapon, "if beating me worked, I'd have quit the first time I ran into the mob!"

"Dear god, boy, do you fucking hear yourself?"

Tim yelped as Jack yanked his wrists back even further, and froze for a fatal second when he felt leather wrapping around his upper arms. His heartbeat kicked up five gears as his father wrapped the belt around and around his arms, tying it off around his palms.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"If this is what it takes to protect you from your own idiocy--"

"FUCK you!"

Tim finally landed a kick against Jack's back. He grunted and toppled right, and Tim tried to roll left only to be blocked by the mattress. He scrambled to get his feet under him and stand, swaying for a few precious seconds before he could stumble towards the door.

He made it a quarter of the way before a sharp tug on his ankle felled him with a cry. Jack clawed his way closer, despite Tim's continued kicking. 

"You... Will never... Go out... there... again!"

Tim's knee jabbed Jack's throat, making him gag, but he was too late. Jack had one hand fisted in Tim's hair. He jerked his head up, then backwards, slamming it into the dresser, and everything went dark.

Tim's head was pounding. His arms and shoulders ached, and the rest of his body felt stiff and sore. He lay on a hard floor, pitifully cushioned by... a blanket?

He opened his eyes, seeing nothing but a sliver of light just in front of him, coming underneath a door and illuminating a hardwood floor identical to the hallways in Drake Manor.

Oh.

Fuck.

Tim bowed his head against the ground, making the throbbing worse. 

That had really happened.

His father had found out Tim was Robin, Tim was stupid enough to openly defy his order to stop, and... and Jack had attacked Tim, tied him up with his belt, and locked him in a closet.

Tim bit his lip, not sure if it was to stop a sob or a scream.

His dad was never supposed to know. Never, because Tim knew he would be livid, knew he would go completely off the rails. 

Yet he'd never imagined something like this. Being kept prisoner in his own home under the excuse of protection.

How had it gotten so bad that Jack locking him up to 'keep him safe' was the only way he could show something like love?

Tim's eyes burned. He bit his lip and kicked at the door, then kicked it again, over and over until his toes were throbbing.

"Stupid," he hissed. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

Yes, Dad. Whatever you want, Dad. I'll quit, Dad. Then wait for nightfall and go out anyway.

Then maybe he'd at least be tied up by somebody he could hate.

He shut that thought down, following it immediately with Robin's thoughts, with the process Bruce had drilled him on over and over and over again: what to do if you're captured.

Tim knew where he was, and that he was alone. He didn't know how close his d- captor was, or what his plan was. Keep Tim locked up until he broke? Even after? Forget he ever existed and then stumble on his corpse years later looking for spare linens?

Tim took a deep breath. That line of thought wouldn't help anything. The next step was to determine what was keeping him trapped, and how best to get out of it.

The belt was his most immediate problem. It was tight enough that his arms were starting to tingle. His fingers were already numb. 

Tim closed his eyes and breathed, focusing on what he could still feel. The belt was actually fastened just above his elbows, with the tail wrapping around his forearms and hands until it knotted in his left palm. He picked at the knot with his fingers, hoping it was big enough and loose enough that he could pull it free. 

It took longer than he wanted, but Tim did manage to untie the knot at his hands. The tension around his forearms slackened, and he was relieved by the sting of bloodflow coming back into his fingers.

Only, he could do nothing about the buckle. Tugging the belt's tail failed to do anything other than hurt his arms, and the blanket confounded any attempt to drag the loop against the ground. And not even Dick could have contorted himself to undo it with his hands.

And just like that, Tim was powerless again. The only answer Robin had was endure and wait for rescue or for a better opportunity. 

So Tim waited in the dark, unsure how long it would take for anyone to realize he was missing. Unwilling to hope anyone would, because it only ever made his disappointment worse. Unable to turn off the memories of everything that had gone so wrong.

Uncaring to stop the tears streaming silently down his face.

By the fifth time Bruce checked his phone and set it back down with an anxious Hn, Dick had had enough.

"For the love of God, just call him!" he pleaded.

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Tim never answers phone calls, you know this."

"He would for you!"

Bruce's next hum was considering. Dick waited for a short eternity before one of Bruce’s anxieties overrode the other, and he opened his phone to contacts.

After a minute of ringing, the line beeped and Tim's voice said, "Hey, you've reached Tim's cell. Please leave a message, or text if it's urgent."

Bruce sighed and hung up. His eyes slipped to the seat across from him. The empty one where a different boy would sit. Until he stopped answering his phone. Until he was too far away for help to reach him. Then too far for any force on earth to reach him.

Dick stood up.

"I'm going over to check on him," he said.

Bruce looked up at him and nodded silently. Dick didn't wait any longer before hurrying out the back door from the kitchen and starting across the lawn. Logically he knew getting a car or his bike would be faster, but he needed to move.

Speed-walking became jogging became running became sprinting, until he reached the wall between the properties and had to brace against it, breathing hard. He wished he could go up and over, climb in through a window, but with Tim's father around (for once) that would raise too many red flags. So he walked along the wall until it turned the corner and the driveway came into view.

Drake Manor was as imposing and forbidding as ever, too white and square and filled with priceless things to be anything but a museum. Certainly not a home. Dick didn't know how Tim could live alone there so long and not be insane.

He rang the doorbell, bouncing slightly on his heels while he waited. And waited. And rang again. And waited some more, worry building with every second. He was about to go around and find a window when finally footsteps beat towards the door and it swung open.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Jack Drake snapped, glaring.

Dick didn't like the look in his eyes. Fortunately, he was good at charming people he didn't trust.

"Hi, I'm Dick Grayson. My father owns the house next door? We took care of Tim while you were, ah, unable."

"And?"

 Drake's expression shifted from outright hostile to wary, probably triggered by the aside to Bruce Wayne. Every so often Dick was glad to have a famous father.

"Well, traditionally, Thursdays are game night. I just came over to see if Tim was planning to come, since he hasn't been answering his phone."

"Timothy is grounded."

Dick blinked. "Grounded."

"Yes." Drake started to close the door. "Some other time, perhaps."

"Well, could I just say hi?" Dick tried, very nearly sticking his foot in the doorway. 

"No."

And with that, the door shut and the lock clicked. 

"Damn," Dick whispered. 

He didn't like it. He couldn't pinpoint what exactly was setting him off, but there was an uncomfortable twist in his stomach, which only got worse as he turned back down the driveway. 

Was it so impossible for Tim to be grounded? No. Dick loved the kid, but he was wild. He was reckless and independent and never quite knew when to shut up. All reasons Drake could have grounded him.

Taking away Tim's phone with the grounding also made some kind of sense, and Dick knew Drake didn't much like him or Bruce, so it wasn't surprising he'd shut Dick out, but...

The nagging feeling wouldn't go away, whispering over and over that he needed to see Tim safe or risk failing him the way he'd failed Jason. By not being there when his brother needed his help.

Dick waited until he was out of sight of the house, then doubled back around the side towards Tim's room. He climbed up the oak tree outside the window and dropped down onto the eaves to look inside.

Tim's room looked like a hurricane had hit it. There wasn't a single surface not littered with personal debris. Clothes, books, papers, CD cases, school supplies. The furniture had been yanked away from the walls, and the mattress was half off the bed frame.

The pit in Dick's stomach sank deeper.

He pulled open the window and slipped inside, consciously calming his breathing. He had to stare at the ground to avoid tripping on or breaking anything, and the view showed him that other people had not been so careful.

"Tim?" he called softly. "Are you here?"

He knew Tim wasn't. Tim wasn't a neat freak like Jason, but even he would never just leave his room in such a state. Dick could try to hope he was just... getting a trash bag or dust cloth, or, or in the bathroom. But then he saw an all-too-familiar shade of red.

Robin. Robin's suit just crumpled against the wall, and Dick could feel his heart speeding up because Tim would never treat his and Jason's legacy that way.

"Tim!" 

Dick yanked open the door and started into the hall. He didn't much care if Jack Drake found him. In fact, he'd like to ask the man a few questions. 

Timothy is grounded. No, you can't see him.

Was he trying to cover up that some villain had found out Tim's secret and kidnapped (not killed, not killed) him?

Or was he the reason Tim was nowhere to be seen?

"Tim, can you hear me?"

"What the hell?" 

Jack Drake came storming up the stairs, face scarlet when he saw Dick.

"How the hell did you get up here? This is private property!"

"Where's Tim?"

"I'll call the police--"

"And explain to them why your son is missing and you're not doing anything about it?"

"What are you talking about?" Jack sneered.

"This!" Dick pointed to Tim's open door and the trashed room inside. "It's nothing short of a warzone, and Tim would have been right in the center of it! What are you hiding, Jack? Where is Tim?"

"My son is not your problem anymore. Leave. Now."

"Tim!" Dick hollered, staring Jack in the eyes and daring him to make a move. "Tim, if you're here, answer me!" 

"Dick?"

The horrible twist in Dick's stomach finally relaxed, even as he narrowed his eyes at Jack.

"Dick, I'm here!"

Tim's cry was distant and muffled, but Dick could tell he was farther down the hall, behind Jack. Jack clenched his jaw and curled his hands into fists as he hissed, "Get. Out."

"I will fight you," Dick warned. "And I will win."

Jack yelled and threw a punch. Dick pivoted and let Jack's force carry him on, sweeping his legs out from under him with one kick. Jack snarled and tried to get up, but Dick pinned him with one foot against his back.

"If Tim has been hurt or violated because of you," Dick murmured, "I will make you pay for it, no matter what it does to me."

"Who the fuck do you think you are!?"

Dick leaned down, Jack grunting at the shifting weight, and whispered, "Well, if Tim is Robin..."

Jack went utterly still. He didn't move even when Dick let him go. Dick scoffed and turned back down the hall, running towards Tim's voice.

Tim kept yelling, "Here! Dick, I'm here!" and kicking the door until he could hear Dick just outside calling, "I got you, Tim, I got you!"

He stopped kicking and a minute later the lock clicked and the door swung open.

"Tim?"

"Down here," he sobbed.

Dick's knees folded to reveal his face. Tim had never seen it so tight and angry.

"Hey, kiddo," he said, voice incongruously soft with his expression. "Let's get you out of there."

He took hold of the blanket and backed up, sliding Tim out of the closet. He snarled when he saw the belt binding his arms.

"I'm sorry," Tim stammered, "I couldn't get it off--"

Dick shushed him, leaning over to fuss with the buckle. Tim bowed his head to rest it against Dick's knee, soaking his jeans with tears. He felt the tension give, and seconds later was swept into a bone-crushing embrace, Dick stroking his hair and whispering, "It's ok. It's gonna be ok."

"I didn't... I... How did you...?"

"You weren't answering your phone," Dick breathed. He pulled back, taking Tim's face in his hands and turning it side to side, then taking his arms and squeezing his hands to warm up his fingers. "We were so scared, baby bird."

"I'm ok," Tim tried, "really--"

But Dick was shaking his head.

"Tim," he said slowly, forcing Tim to meet his gaze. "Has your dad hurt you like this before?"

"It's for his own damn good!" 

Tim jumped at his father's voice, shrinking behind Dick as he stood up, squaring off with Jack, fists clenched.

"He's a child, my child, and I refuse to let him out on those streets again."

"Tim hasn't been your child since you took that first flight to Cusco," Dick hissed.

Jack flinched.

"And if you hadn't given up your right to him then, you sure as hell did when you tied him up and locked him in a goddamn closet."

Dick reached down a hand to Tim, never breaking his stare as he pulled Tim to his feet and nudged him behind.

"I'm taking Tim home now."

"You can't just--"

"For his sake we'll give you the chance to sign over custody quietly."

Jack gawked, mouth hanging open despite the fury in the rest of his body. Tim shrank against Dick as he carefully led him around his father and down the hall, never letting go of his hand.

"You're gonna be ok," Dick promised again.

"Did you really mean--"

"I'll tell!"

Dick yanked Tim behind him again as he whirled to face Jack, recovered from his shock and with the same crafty look in his eyes that had ended with Tim bound and imprisoned. 

"You take him away, I'll tell the whole city your secret!"

Tim's breath caught, but Dick squeezed his hand.

"Try it."

Jack's smugness faded to confusion. Even Tim glanced up at Dick anxiously, not knowing where he was going.

"Tell the whole city. See how many Rogues and mobs all come after you, asking how you found out and what else you know. See how long they'll bother to ask nicely. See how long it takes them to recognize Tim and go after you as bait. See if he saves you after everything you've done."

Tim shivered. When Jack's eyes slid to him, suddenly fearful, he wanted to throw up. He pressed even closer to Dick to steady himself.

After a minute of silence, Dick scoffed, "That's what I thought," and gently tugged Tim onward again, leaving Jack standing stupefied in the hall.

"Dick, I-"

"It's gonna be ok, Tim. We'll make sure he doesn't--"

"Did you mean it? About taking me back?"

Dick stopped and turned to him, putting his hands on Tim's shoulders and looking straight into his eyes.

"Tim, we never wanted you to go in the first place. Bruce was ready to adopt you outright before your father woke up." Dick tugged him into another tight embrace. "And you have always been my baby brother."

Tim blinked hard, but it still couldn't stop the tears from spilling down his cheeks.

"Oh, sweetheart," Dick sighed, brushing away the tears. "C'mon. Let's go home."

[samsspambox]

HELLO! i have finished the inspection chapter and i have tHOUGHTS!!

spoilers bc obviously, read at your own risk :D

honestly when i saw the promo i thought it was just irene wanting to hurt more people but sHE WAS IN CHARGE OF KILLING VYN????!!! like okay, vyn is fairly easy to kill bc he's the one with a pretty set schedule (you know he's gonna be at either the center or at stellis u) but tHAT DOESNT MAKE IT ANY LESS BAD HOLY SHIT!! and also the fact that there's a hit list and that he was last kinda means that vyn was the one that posed the smallest threat and i just think that's so funny

also the ending line? 'no longer a threat'? chills, chills i tell you

yO ALSO THIS!!! i think all of us were under the impression that it was three original members and then their appointed successors, but artem being in the original nxx?? that was news to me. i feel like the game implied that artem came on later than the rest, at least that's what i've been thinking. but that does beg the question: why wasn't artem on the hit list if he was part of the original team?

MI NIÑO MI ADORACIÓN HES SO AWKWARD AND BEAUTIFUL AND AAAAAAA (also artem being able to pull is so funny when you realize he only wants mc) ((also, bi artem? 👀))

kNOCK OFF ZANGR GET OUTTA THERE FUCK OUTTA THERE AAAAA

*points enthusiastically* THIS!!! i feel like this basically confirms that luke has been in contact with the nxx drug and has been experiencing side effects. this is literally a long shot but i feel like the game is gonna take 'the answer was inside you all along' a little too seriously with luke right there. luke is gonna be the answer to the nxx drug, and the blood in the sword in some of his promo materials just kinda cements that for me. cuz he's literally giving all of himself

LUCAS PEARCE YOU FUCKING LIAR (hey google play favorite liar by the wrecks) but fr tho, it's just so interesting to see how easily luke lies to others but mc can see right through them

LMAOOOO NOT AGAIN!!! also artem, please take your vacations you're a menace to hr please

vilhelm richard albert de haspran pLEASE CAN YOU NOT NOTICE THAT ITS A FUCKING TRAP!!! i think it's a trap honestly. like come on you had a hit on you and now you wanna get on a fucking boat that has the disney gimmick of 'dreams come true'? dude, someone's dream is for you to be dead cOME ON! also hOW?! how did you get an invite to pluto?! i'm gonna hurl you into the sun my guy lmaooo

also did this have two degrees energy? i feel like this had two degrees energy LOLOL

dAVIS TIDBITS ARE BACK AAAA IOVE THESE!!! also davis sentience??? davis ily you need an important part in the story like sotn.

and yeah!! these are my initial thoughts i gotta stew and chew these around for a while. definitely seeing some theories getting more evidence while others are being debunked. good shit i'm so excited for more!!

[sholangagaga]

Gregory is Michael Afton Theory

Bonus (4/4)

Gregory being Michael allows Mike to have a better dad.

The save stations have Helpy on them, and Michael knows Helpy from Pizza Sim.

If Gregory is C.C, shouldn’t it show the Fredbear plush?

Michael has a chance to beat PeePaw up with a crowbar.

After working to stop his father for so long, Michael deserves this.

Gregory doesn’t have to be an animatronic for this theory!

Michael could have been reincarnated or something similar.

If not an animatronic, Michael gets his organs back. He could eat again.

Link to Google Doc with entire theory in once place & Game Theory's Gregory theories: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c2jvwePYHwvmc1DoaqY9qPpczOL9njJL9jiH1tN0qtw/edit?usp=sharing

I didn't reply to the first pieces since you linked the doc here BUT full analysis under the cut

So I'm gonna start by saying this is one of the strangest (in a good way) and most interesting SBB theories I've ever been prosed. Honestly if I was someone who wasn't so ingrained in the lore due to my AUs, I would probably believe this as near infallible. It's THAT well thought out (And this is coming from someone who doesn't really Like Game Theory cause they've been known to kinda pull rabbits from hats, if you know what I mean)

Now I will be overly analytical and pick this apart as my neurons fire a mile a minute

Physical Appearance

While I can see the resemblance, half of the FNAF canon roster is either brown haired or hinted to have dark hair (excluding some of the blonde Aftons and also William, depending on who you ask)

Most of the canon characters are also big fans of Foxy (See Phone Guy for example; I'm pretty sure Foxy is/was Scott's favorite back in the original games. He was also terrified of Bonnie funny enough)

Personality

The Gregory being agitated thing is true, but also, can you REALLY blame him? His entire situation is pretty stressful, I think I'd be a real asshole in that premise as well. Michael's sarcasm has been a known point for sure, the dude canonically loves soap operas he's probably the snarkiest dude around (and I love him for it)

All of this tick marks tbh are just sorta occupational. Gregory not trusting anyone makes sense because he's an orphan who apparently was treated poorly in the streets. OF COURSE he doesn't really like adults, least of all adults in uniform. Michael is paranoid at work because he works in a setting where the robots are trying to kill him

The destroying the bots thing is, again, very understandable. Gregory spent the night trying to survive, he could care LESS how the robots feel. He wants them to stop trying to kill him! Same with Michael, they've fucked him over and its not like theyre living things. Getting rid of them wouldnt be much of a moral dilemma

Storyline

Gregory knows that Freddy has a stomach hatch because its common knowledge. His stomach hatch is for birthday cakes, which means it's perfectly logical for him to know it exists. In the same vein, he would know hiding inside it would be dangerous. Its meant for cake, not kids! Gregory was bold to even attempt it imo but he's a very reckless kid

The family one is SO GOOD but also, unfortunately, can easily be debunked as a basic voiceline for lost children. It's a super mall, children probably get lost all the time. The best way to lure a child (according to William) is to mention their family/things they like. It worked for him, it would work for fan favorite robots

I think thee reason why Gregory seems so adult is because, well, it IS a scripted game. But everything Gregory does is basically spoonfed to him by Freddy, so I don't think it's more so that he's overly smart or working on prior knowledge, its just hes good at context clues and following instructions

I have my own gripes about the Parts and Service system, but for game sake Gregory only succeeds cause failing means death. But yeah all my homies hate P&S

In universe, it would make sense that Gregory hates the Franchis cause....Fazbear Ent fucked up ALOT for a VERY LONG TIME. Most people still hate them, as evident from when HandUnit/Dread Unit just sorta always mentions "forget the past us" and shit like that. It's like being in our universe and hating Amazon for Bezos. Same concept, totally understandable.

The van thing is just funny, I love that one. Little baby driving heehee

My biggest problem with the theory is the gaps. While we don't know FOR SURE when everything takes place, the general consensus is FNAF 3 takes place in 2020 (and if you're one of the Michael is the Fnaf 3 protag believers, that's pretty significant) and SUPPOSEDLY, Pizzeria Simulator most likely takes place between 2023-onward, with Security Breach really close on the heels of it since It's built over the Pizza Place where Henry, William, and Michael all initially die. If Gregory is as old as most fans assume/agree (11-9) then there's no way he can be a reincarnation of Michael cause Michael didn't actually die/lost his remnant until Pizzeria Simulator, and then SB takes place less than 5 or so years after that (According to most theories)

I think its way more plausible that Gregory is a reincarnation of Evan/Crying Child and FREDDY is Michael, because not only does that give us a way better theory premise but it also closes out the Afton family storyline, with the two sons teaming up against their father. Gregory being different personality wise to Evan/the Crying child could easily be explained by Evan getting corrupted by Cassidy's negative remnant before she forced him out during the events of UCN/FNAF3. Could also just be the Afton sass if you wanted to be really dig into it. I could probably go on forever about that theory since I've been thinking about it for a while now

BUT in conclusion while I really like this theory, there's too many holes to really convince me to latch to it like I do other theories. Then again, it IS just a theory. A game theory

[zot3-flopped]

It’s been interesting reading some of the posts about how fans got into Larry or 1 Direction or Harry and commenting on how silly the Larry stuff looks for certain people. I have a different sort of journey – I',m 62 and was in a car accident about 4 months ago and have been in a rehab facility for a leg/hip injury. I’m fine, it’s just really boring, I’m lucky I wasn’t hurt worse and lucky I have access to good care. My kids started sending me videos of things I would enjoy and one of my daughters sent me the video of Harry/Lizzo at Coachella. I loved it and started looking through other links and really found myself enjoying Harry’s music. I did not really know much about Harry or 1 Direction other than my 3 daughters were crazy for them back in the day – and they all still really love Harry. They saw him in Chicago last year in fact. Anyway, with lots and lots of time on my hands, I have gone all the way down the crazy rabbit hole. I’ve read proofs and debunks, and I even listened to the “Shit Larries Say” podcasts.

I can’t even believe the level of delusion that some of these fans have – and it does seem to frequently be linked to some type of mental illness, or just an emptiness in their lives. I had 2 teenage boys as well, and yes – they acted just like that sometimes. It’s standard behavior. And it seems like all the band members engaged it in at times. So much of all of this seems to be people ignoring the simplest explanation, and reaching for the most convoluted option.

I’ve also had some relatives get caught in the Trump/QAnon cult and it’s very similar. There is NOTHING you can say to change their minds. Everything you bring up is just twisted into PROOF. Reading some of the Larry comments on Twitter yesterday after Louis tweets sounded exactly like that.

I can’t say I have an interest in the other band members – I enjoy some of the One Direction music, but none of them really hold much interest for me. As I said, my daughters all still really like Harry, and it’s been fun to talk to them about it and how much they used to love One Direction. None of them really follow the other guys much - all 3 of them said that Louis was their least favorite at the time. They had all heard about Larry, but never really believed it. It seems for them, their enjoyment of Harry has really moved past One Direction, and they really appreciate his solo career now. They are 26 - 31 now and I think Harry has been able to mature with his audience, as opposed to just servicing teenage girls forever. My youngest did tell me that when I get home to go look in the closet of her old bedroom – she’s pretty sure there’s a One D shrine in there! Haha! I am getting out in a week thank goodness – but I’ll still be listening to Harry’s music and looking forward to his next recording very much. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed your blog and posts very much and wanted to say thanks!

I'm so glad that Harry (and this blog) added some cheer to your time recovering from your accident. So much painful physio needed after a broken leg and hip. My mum broke her arm and shoulder a year ago and still doesn't have much movement.

Your point about your teenage children made me realise that I should have clarified that the majority of the 'big Larries' inventing the theories were nearly all women without kids so their only reference point was their own childhoods in the No Homo 1980s.

[tragicclownwrites]

How old is everyone in "F" is for Family?

First things first, I hope you're excited for the second to last chapter(s) of "F" is for Family! 🥳🤩 Thanks for sticking around!

Given some of the timeline specifics that come up in this chapter, I felt it might be helpful to give you an explanation of how old everyone is supposed to be in my fic, so these time skips don't feel as random.

Math admittedly isn't my strong suit but I've double-checked my calculations repeatedly and am feeling somewhat confident in the numbers I came up with.

DISCLAIMER: Like most things that come up in my fic, these ages are just my headcanons. Don't take any of this as actual fact or canon! The one thing you should take away from this is that cartoon logic is weird AF which makes it hard to say anyone's ages are canon tbh.

Explanations/ramblings - and SPOILERS - below the cut!

♥️ Tragic 🤡

SpongeBob

I'm starting with our favorite little yellow friend here because I think he is where much of the age discussion first came up - starting with a certain driver's license that showed up in the episode, "Sleepy Time."

It says he was born in 1986, which would mean that we just celebrated in 37th birthday in July. However, there is one problem with this... the episode in question's debut air date is January 17, 2000.

If we go off the idea that he is canonically 37 as of July 14, 2023, this would mean that he was only 13 YEARS OLD in January 2000. In my country (the U.S.), if SpongeBob was 13, he wouldn't be old enough to:

Work at the Krusty Krab, especially not full-time.

Live on his own without a parent and/or guardian.

Attain a driver's permit, let alone a license. He'd have to wait another two years just to do the former.

I've considered the possibility that perhaps this episode doesn't actually take place during the actual air date. However, SpongeBob's driver's license also kinda debunks that theory. The expiration date is listed as December 14, 2003. Driver's licenses typically expire up to five years of issue date (depending on the state or country). This would, thus, confirm the episode takes place during 2000 or even earlier than that - making SpongeBob even younger than 13.

Seeing as SpongeBob is confirmed to be an adult during the series and is eligible to do the things listed above, this doesn't really add up.

Therefore, while I do think SpongeBob is an adult who is likely in his 30's, I don't think he's actually 37 years old (assuming he even ages).

It's also worth mentioning that they removed his birthday from later appearances of the license, leading me to believe they didn't really think that through initially. Interestingly, the expiration date has remained mostly consistent so... 🫧✨cartoon logic✨🫧

Now, to put my fanfic headcanon hat on for the duration of this post.... 🤠

Based on the timelines in my fic, I actually think his age is closer to 32-34 years old at the absolute most.

I believe I've mentioned somewhere in the story about how he and Squidward started working together about a decade prior to the events of the fic. This would mean that SpongeBob was in his early twenties when he began working at the Krusty Krab. which makes much more sense than him being 13 lmao

Squidward

So, I don't actually know how I came up with Squidward's age in this fic aside from general fandom headcanon, though I did see somewhere that his birthday is October 9, 1977 - making him 45 years old.

However, given what my analysis above revealed, I'm going to take this with a truckload of salt (especially since the actual year isn't confirmed in any official capacity). If this were true, he'd be ~21 years old in May 1999 (i..e, when "Help Wanted" premiered), which I don't think is accurate for him not to mention super awks. He was likely closer to that age when Jim was still working there.

I do think he's at least close to BlackJack's age and a bit older than SpongeBob, Todd, and Stanley. Therefore, my headcanon age for him is about 38-40 years old.

Harold & Margaret

In Harold and Margaret's origin story during this chapter, Harold and Sherm's ages are the only ones explicitly given. At the time of the story - which takes place roughly 53 years ago - Harold was confirmed to be 15 years old and a freshman in high school. Given that she was also a freshman at the time, Margaret is likely the same age.

If we do the math, Harold - and presumably Margaret - are about 68 years old at the time of FifF.

Sherm & Jolie

As previously mentioned, Sherm's age is also confirmed: he was 12 years old and just started junior high (6th grade in U.S.) when Harold and Margaret's story takes place.

In his and Jolie's own story - which happens about 46 years prior to the present - Sherm and Jolie are both freshmen in college, making them about 19 years old at the time.

Again, if we do the math, Sherm - and likely Jolie - are about 65 years old in the present day.

Blue & Sally

Unlike Harold and Sherm, Blue's age is not directly confirmed in Harold and Margaret's story. However, it is confirmed that he was a senior in high school, and he was old enough to drive. Based on this info and his younger brothers' ages, Blue was about 18 years old during this time.

In chapter 4, Blue also mentions that he'd been on the police force for 35 years. It's worth noting that the average amount of time people spend in the police academy is between 2-4 years. Assuming Blue enrolled right out of high school (as the story implies) and joined the force ~20 years old, he would've been around 55 years old when he officially retired. I like to think he was more ambitious/eager to climb the ladder when he was younger but grew more content staying in his police captain role since its already pretty senior and he had a family at that time.

Blue and Sally's origin story takes place about 41 years in the past from the fic's start.

In this story, Blue is described as being "one of the youngest lieutenants the force has ever seen." I can't recall how I got to this number if I'm honest, but I rounded his age to about 30 years old here as it is still young but not too young as to be unrealistic. I also felt it made more sense in the timeline for him and Sally to have had BlackJack a few years later (I.e., after she got released).

If we do the math from there, Blue would be around 71 years old during the time of the fic.

It's not mentioned anywhere, and she is deceased, but my headcanon for Sally is that she's about 1-2 years younger than Blue. Therefore, she'd likely be about 69-70 years old if she were still alive. In chapter 5, BlackJack reveals that “[Sally’s] been dead for ten years,” so she was ~59-60 when she actually passed.

Todd

From this picture, it's clear Todd shares some physical similarities with SpongeBob. Therefore, I felt that it would be likely for them to be close in age as well.

Starting from chapter 2, when we first meet Todd and the rest of the family, it's implied that Todd is at least "slightly older" than SpongeBob. He is also explicitly mentioned to be Stanley's older brother throughout the fic.

In chapter 5, we get the following exchange between Todd and SpongeBob:

Todd: “Besides, I am the oldest one here, so it only makes sense." SpongeBob: “Todd, we’re the same age –” Todd: “But I’ve got two months on you so that still makes me older."

Based on this, we can discern that Todd is also somewhere between 32-34 years old. Since he's two months older than SpongeBob, his birthday would take place sometime in May.

Stanley

While Stanley's canonical age is also not given, I got the impression that he was a bit younger than SpongeBob in his episode, "Stanley S. SquarePants." Stanley's curiosity about the world around him and his absentmindedness could be contributing factors to this, though that's not really indicative of age. In actuality, I felt it was SpongeBob taking him under his wing akin to a mentor or older sibling that really solidified this idea.

Therefore, in FifF, he's the baby of the group. 😇

Speaking of which, in chapter 13 (mini spoiler for next chapter when it goes live), it is mentioned that he was a baby while his older brother was a toddler - which would make Todd between the ages of 2-3 years old at the time.

With this range in mind, Stanley would be a few years younger than both Todd and SpongeBob, making him about 29-31 years old in the fic (assuming the other two are ~33).

BlackJack

BlackJack's age (in my headcanon) was more dependent on Blue's age between the time he met Sally and when they realistically would've had him together. I also felt he'd be closer in age to Squidward than he would be to his younger cousins.

Assuming his parents had him shortly after Sally got released from prison, BlackJack would be roughly 37-38 years old in the present day.

Grandma & Grandpa (Dotty & Simon)

Grandma and Grandpa SquarePants - or as I've named them, Dotty and Simon - met about 76 years ago.

While most prima ballerinas are slightly older than this (~25-30), Dotty was about 20 years old when she met Simon. He was likely a few years older than her, so I'd presume he was about 23-24 at the time.

With these numbers in mind, Grandma is about 96 years old during the events of FifF. While he is deceased and I didn't mention how long he'd been gone, Grandpa was likely between 97-99 years old when he passed.