#for those of you who aren’t used to reading my vent posts please understand that

[pebiejeebies]

ISNT IT FUNNY? - Poll below.. read warnings please.

TW: Curse words, Full caps, Vent/Rant (I got very angry here.. sorry)

(If you are sensitive to the topic of LGBT, Alterhumanity, Vents/Rants, please do not read.)

Before you read, understand that most of what I say is an example, nothing more, nothing less. And I support and love Alterhumanity and LGBTQ+ equally, no more, no less. And If I worded something wrong, do tell!

Im glad to hear you two aren’t actually mad at me.. (Talking specifically to @chocolatespyro and @thelittleprinceconfirmed , but this is for everyone, don’t leave yet!)

I kinda feel like a little child or something— you know, for telling me I’m not wrong.. hah.. but eitherway thank you both for explaining what’s right and wrong, I “sorta” thought I did like a HUUGGGEE horrible thing so like I took a moment alone for a bit, then I came back to your very calm words.

I’m never used to people talking to me so.. nicely, (especially in a sensitive topic like this) that’s why I might fuck up and say I messed up even though I had the complete right to speak. (Which shows in my “apology” post, I literally deleted everything cause I thought it was a stupid idea to talk about)

Sigh, I guess since it’s fine from the both of you, I guess I can talk about it again. Honestly thank you for comforting me and such. I expected WAAAAAAYYYY worse.. (haha trauma go brrr) but yeah, back onto the topic.

(THIS IS THE START OF THE TOPIC IF UR UNINTERESTED IN WHAT I SAY FOR THEM <;3)

The topic (if you didn’t know) was basically about how people reacted towards LGBTQ+ and Alterhuman coming out situations..

(I think if you go to my profile and use #my polls you might find a broken and messy reblog of it, cause I deleted the text/poll aha..)

Let’s do an example, shall we? (NO HATE TOWARDS LGBT. JUST AN EXAMPLE)

We all love it when we hear the appreciation posts say: “Be who you are! Never hide your true colors! Show yourself to the world! Never be scared to shine!” And so on.. but why do I feel like it’s mostly aimed for humans (aka LGBT), not Alterhumans.. (IK THERE ARE APPRECIATION POSTS FOR THEM/GEN)

If an Enby came out to their parents, (like in America or a country that supports lgbt) there’s a good chance they’d be supported by their parents, or friends, or both! (WHICH IS VERY GOOD, DONT TAKE IT THE WRONG WAY!)

But alterhumanity has an issue with that, (Still in America or a country similar to it) if I ever said to my parents that I was a therian and a fictkin, they’d either laugh thinking I’m joking or smth, or they’d think I’m out of my religion for being an Alterhuman (WHICH IS COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC! SEARCH IT UP!) I researched so much for a good week or two, learning about therianthropy and fictkinity, and it doesn’t even affect your religion! Satanist? You can be a Alterhuman! Christian? You can still be Alterhuman! Etc etc..

It is an Identity, you identify as an Alterhuman, just like how you would identify as a part of the LGBT!

(Keep in mind that I know what LGBTQ+ people go through, and I’m so proud of them for fighting back all this horrible hate)

Back to the main issue, which was the “Coming out” issue. like I said earlier, if you came out as an enby you’d most likely get good treatment, like flags around pride month, and freedom of expression! (And Like hearing people use your pronouns, which probably feels so great <3)

Now let’s look at alterhumanity.. If I wore a tail or ears out in the public.. will I get the feeling of “Be who you are! Never hide your true self!” In those painful stares of disgust and shame? If I ever hissed “accidentally” in public, wouldn’t they just make fun of me? (Which.. sadly happened once.. never again.) and so on..

What’s my point you say?

LET. EVERY. CREATURE. EXPRESS. THEMSELVES.

Where is the equality everyone talks about?! Have you seen how much HATE VIDEOS of THERIANS, OTHERKINS, AND SUCH?! It’s RIDICULOUS.

It only infuriates me because you (not targeted dw) say “Be who you are! Never hide! Show yourself to the world” then go all “What the fuck are you wearing.. are you a cat boy?! Cringe asf..” or “You do know ur human right?” OR ONE OF THE MOST INFURIATING THINGS TO SAY TO US “You wanna get treated like wild animals? I’ll get my shotgun and hunt you down lolol”

Aaahhaha funny indeed! (I might be overthinking again, sorry)

You don’t see enbys (NOT TARGETED. ITS AN EXAMPLE) Get called “You know you’re human right?” Yet every day (not literally) I see a new post on therianthropy hate, mocking of them walking on all 4s or showing their beautiful howls/roars/meows/squaks.. etc etc.. (This sort of happens to furries as well, they are so misunderstood. </3)

It’s frustrating when I show myself to this world after they ASSURE me and TELL ME ITS FINE.

then all I get is a

mocking

stare

of

DISGUST.

even after they say “I’ll never judge you”

(Take a moment to breathe, and think about this so far, I don’t want you to get tired because of me, <3)

Sigh. I guess this accidentally turned into a vent/rant (since I was more comfortable talking about it.. makes sense I guess)

Now, the thing you (probably) came here for.. The Poll.

(Be a little more detailed in your opinion please and explain if ur talking to me or not/gen, and please reblog/nf so more people can vote/nfnfnf)

Thank you for voting/reading (I like looking at statistics, that’s why I made a poll btw.)

Here, have a cookie for being so patient!

🍪

[luzi35]

Fair warning, I’m+ gonna be talking about Nuzi haters and dislikers for this so please skip this if that upsets you.

So we+ do understand many reasons on why folks dislike the ship. We’re+ multishippers and prefer polyam ships anyways so certain reasons aren’t the biggest bother to us+ but like we+ get it okay. Despite all that, Nuzi is still a ship fairly liked here and it’s been a big comfort ship for us+ so we+ like to look in the tags of it, biscuitbites, and enzi every once in awhile. My+ problem is that we+ keep seeing posts talking about disliking or hating the ship (whether it makes them uncomfortable or just straight up hating it for no reason, going by some of their own words), not to mention those who just hate Uzi’s character and make that very clear which is also upsetting to see as Uzi by herself is a big comfort to us+ too.

What I’m+ saying is, I+ understand some reasons why folks dislike the ship, those are fair right? It’s just really uncomfortable to me+ and not all that fun looking into the tags of my+ comfort ship to see people hating it or not liking it for whatever reason. It makes me+ uncomfortable and saddens me+ (specifically when it comes to folks I+ like who find discomfort in the ship) to see all of this dislike towards the ship in general.

And I’m+ not even looking for it and that’s the problem that there’s still folks who use the tag to talk about hating and not liking the ship which is frustrating to say the least.

I+ know this won’t stop but could some of you at least start off the post with that? I+ don’t really want to read your entire post just to see you hate on Nuzi again.

It probably won’t change or matter after posting this but I+ wanted to at least vent about this instead of saying nothing at all.

[electricbluebutterflies]

Garcy + "You need to take your health more seriously."

Usual post-canon-divergence, PG-ish, and also on ao3.

He worries her.

This is not a problem Lucy is used to having, or perhaps a capability, she’s not sure how to categorize or describe any of this, and… the discovery of new emotional potential courtesy of that man should stop feeling so surprising. He brings out dimensions of herself that she didn’t know were there, more of them good than bad, and-

Everyone who’s ever told her that she’s a self-care disaster can get gone as far as she’s concerned. At least she responds to being told as much. Unlike some people.

To be fair, Flynn functions on a level of input that is… frankly horrifying, now that they are loose in the normal world again and she’s pretty sure their hesitant domestic arrangement hinges on the fact that they’re very good at saving each other from themselves. Responses to substances at least make an amount of sense; of course someone roughly twice her size is going to be able to comfortably out-drink her, and coffee black enough to be a different consistency somehow does nothing. It’s the rest of it, the growing secondhand realization that he’s not totally in touch with his body, above all the not sleeping enough, above all-

Going to bed, yes, fine. There have been no complaints about the fact that she does not like sleeping alone and ideally she’d like to be held. But she’s noticed she always falls asleep first and wakes up last and her own habits really aren’t that great either and-

Is this something she gets to have an opinion about? Is she allowed to be difficult about something she knows is probably, at least in part, like all the other weird shit both of them do, a trauma thing?

She decides it is, after enough time has passed, after probably too much time, after she starts to accept that they probably can’t get rid of each other.

It’s been one of those days, a perfectly good weekend afternoon wasted on chasing a stubborn bat out of the attic, always something to do in this restart she’d intentionally decided would happen in a part of the country neither of them has any real history in because that was supposed to help them reacclimate, and now it’s late and she’s pretty sure she’s going to hallucinate bat noises for a couple days but she is sure she saw the damn thing fly out the vent, and-

“Come to bed with me,” she says. This part she has under control, this part she knows her partner will do what she wants. So tangled around her fingertips, some combination of fate and guilt and-

They’re good at this, domestic routines and so much quiet, and she thinks sometimes that accidental-roommates-with-mutual-unspoken-crushes is a stage all relationships ought to go through because it’s made them stronger now, and-

“Try to rest,” she murmurs as their bodies shift together, just a hint of that demanding voice she tries to use so cautiously. “Please. For me.”

He opens his mouth like he’s about to give her some sweet reassurance of a lie, and she’s just not in the mood. They survived a goddamned time war; they can survive what might turn into the first argument they’ve had afterwards that did not involve paint or overconfidence with electrical or-

“Don’t… you do not get to talk your way out of this. You need to take your health more seriously, and you don’t-“

“Lu-“

“Don’t. Whatever the hell nightmares… I’m here. We are here. And I am so worried and-“

At least he has the sense not to fight her, at least for now. She knows this isn’t over – it’s them, nothing is ever over – but she knows the look in his eyes, the yes-ma’am of it all, and so help her she will not fix him but-

“I’ll try. For you.”

“I’m keeping my eyes open until yours are closed, understand?”

“That may be a while.”

“That’s your problem.”

She flips the light, and it is objectively a little harder to read the situation in the dark, but… she does know him, sleep next to someone most nights for two years and you know them, and she waits until breathing patterns change and the arm around her waist loosens just a little.

At best this is a temporary victory, but it’s something. She has her issues too, and-

The worrying won’t ever stop – at best it’ll change form – but at least for tonight she’s won. At least it’s something.

[appalachiananarchist]

1. Vaccine data on preventing disease

I will start this post by summarizing (hopefully as simply as I can) a handful of studies pertaining to how well the vaccines work at preventing disease. I will start by looking at some of the early vaccine studies for the mRNA vaccines (as these are the ones I have researched most heavily). These are older studies done back before vaccine distribution really got big. In fact, I remember doing a journal club meeting on one of these articles sometime late last fall.

The first is one of the Pfizer studies. This one excluded people with compromised immunity which I understand, but angered me greatly when it came out (as a person with compromised immunity). Note that it was designed and funded by Pfizer, though when you look at the protocol and stats it appears well-designed. Like other studies discussed here, infection with COVID-19 used the FDA definition which is a positive test with at least one symptom (which can be basically anything). However, in summary, they found that a 2-dose regimen offered 95% protection against COVID-19 infection per the above definition. (SOURCE)

The second study (on Moderna) was funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the study protocol was designed by Moderna with their assistance. This study also used the FDA definition of COVID-19 as a positive test with a symptom and excluded the immune compromised. However, it found that a vaccination was 94.1% efficacious in preventing COVID-19 infection. (SOURCE)

Now that that part is out of the way I wanted to go over some more real-world data; that is, how are these vaccines actually functioning out there? Are they working on a population level like these studies suggest they ought to? Well...

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from April through July of 2021 shows that vaccination reduces chances of catching COVID 5 fold. This report was important in examining how the vaccines are responding since the delta variant of COVID-19 has started to surge. (SOURCE)

A study out of California found in July of 2021 that COVID-19 infection rates in unvaccinated people are ~5X higher than in vaccinated people. (SOURCE) They do raise the concerns that more studies are needed on how long immunity lasts and whether it will wane. 

Another study examined COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness among health care workers, a group that is heavily exposed to COVID-19. They looked at whether the vaccines would prevent disease (in their study, defined as a positive test with at least one symptom). They specifically looked at the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna). The study found "a single dose...to be 82% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and 2 doses to be 94% effective." (SOURCE)

And before you say "but those were only symptomatic cases!" here is another study also looking at health care workers. This study spanning  December 2020-March 2021 basically tested all of their enrollees for 13 weeks and found that those who received 1 vaccine dose had 80% lower chances of getting COVID, while those with 2 doses had a 90% lower chance of getting COVID. This testing was done regardless of symptom burden. (SOURCE)

There is ongoing data collection on how long immunity lasts with some new reports (warning - following study is not yet peer reviewed) suggests that vaccine efficacy may drop to ~85% after 6 months in preventing disease, but efficacy in preventing severe disease remains very high, at 97%. Still, though, 85% is pretty good. (SOURCE)

So here are just a TEENY TINY number of the many studies coming out regarding the vaccines. I could sit here and list so many more, but then this post would be way too bloated and repetitive because they all say the same thing: the vaccine works. This conclusion is both consistent and reproducible, which when talking about scientific studies, means there is some good research backing it up. And before anyone says anything--YES, you can still catch COVID after getting a vaccine. Nothing works 100% of the time. Just because my car has an air bag and I use seat belts doesn't mean I won't get injured if I crash my car. But based on the available data, it works well in preventing infection in a lot of people, and furthermore, there is one other MAJOR benefit to the vaccine which I will discuss below.

2. Vaccine data on preventing severe disease:

Probably the most important realization that has come out of the past few months is our understanding of how robustly these vaccines effect disease course and severity. I am from eastern KY so one of the big hospital systems in my area is Appalachian Regional Health, which spans 13 facilities. According to their latest stats, they have 213 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 16 are vaccinated. That means a little over 92% of the COVID patients there sick enough to need hospitalized are unvaccinated. For further reference, another major hospital in the region, Pikeville Medical, today reported that 70 of their 88 hospitalized COVID patients (~80%) are unvaccinated, and 20 their 24 (83%) ICU COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Another regional hospital, Kings Daughters, had recently reported that 86.5% of those hospitalized with COVID are unvaccinated and 100% of COVID patients in their ICU are unvaccinated. So before I even get to national statistics, you can look at these numbers as already see a trend, and I would hope you can see that these numbers are way too high and too consistent to be coincidence. For sources on these numbers you can visit the ARH, PMC, & KDMC websites or facebook pages where they post their stats (HERE, HERE, and HERE)

Now to post a few studies backing this up:

A recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (we talked about this one earlier) shows that vaccination reduces chances of hospitalization due to COVID-19 by ten fold. (SOURCE) The same report shows that vaccination reduces the risk of death due to COVID-19 by ten fold, as well!

Another recent study that incorporated delta variant data into their research has found that "unvaccinated adults aged ≥18 years are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized compared with vaccinated adults." (SOURCE).

Another study coming out of California, also post-delta surge, showed similar results, with hospitalization rates ~29X higher in unvaccinated people. (SOURCE)

Another study looked at how the vaccine protects adults over age 65, which is going to be a more vulnerable group. It found that adults >65 who received 1 dose of a COVID vaccine saw a 64% reduction in hospitalization if they contracted disease, and those with 2 doses saw a 94% reduction in hospitalization with disease. (SOURCE)

To me, studies like these are really important. What we are seeing over and over again right now is that our health care system is being absolutely flooded by unvaccinated COVID patients who need to be hospitalized. This is stressing the health system in ways it was not built to endure. We do not have enough equipment or staff to manage the volume of patients we are seeing. 

Sadly, this does not just affect COVID patients. When a bunch of unvaccinated people get sick and take up ICU beds, that means anyone who gets sick with non-COVID problems, like strokes and heart attacks, also suffer when there aren't beds left for them. For example, your grandmother who developed a bad bacterial pneumonia and is in respiratory distress may die because an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient got there first and took the last vent in the hospital, and there aren’t any ICU beds to transfer her to nearby because the wait lists are all so long because all the ICUs are also filled with unvaccinated COVID patients. I'd argue this is the biggest problem we are facing right now regarding the pandemic even if this problem is invisible to people who don't work in healthcare. Please believe me when I say this: we are drowning, and we are drowning because of unvaccinated COVID patients who are getting severely ill. This is completely unnecessary and avoidable when we are seeing over and over again that vaccination does wonders to prevent you from getting sick enough to need the hospital at all.

Don’t believe me still? I want each of you reading this to visit the webpage for some of your local hospitals. Most of them are posting daily or weekly COVID admission and death statistics. Just take a look at them. Take a look at who is getting admitted and who is dying.

3. Vaccine safety:

Any vaccine, medication, herbal supplement, or what have you that goes into your body carries the risk of an adverse side effect. As a result each of us has to ask ourselves, do the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks? To answer that we need to better understand the risks associated with COVID-19 vaccination, and that means turning back to the data we have available. 

According to NYT Vaccine Tracker, there have been 5.73 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide since its release. This generates an abundance of data for us to work with--more than we have for most medications you take every day--in regards to understanding safety profiles of these immunizations. Given that impressive number, we are by no means seeing widespread death or disability popping up due to the vaccine, but let's get more specific. We have seen a couple common possible adverse effects:

Flu-like symptoms: Most common by far is going to be flu-like symptoms or redness/pain at the injection site. This is actually a good side effect because it means that the vaccine is doing what it is meant to do. I won't talk much more about this one because I doubt flu-like symptoms are the reason people are scared of the vaccine. But for most of you, if you have any side effects at all, this will be as bad as it gets. You are more likely to have these symptoms after dose #2.

Anaphylaxis: Anaphylaxis can occur in anyone when you encounter a substance you have a try allergy to. This is going to be a rare side effect (2 to 5 people per million, or 0.00025%), but is also why you are asked to wait 15-30 minutes to be monitored after receiving your vaccine. That way if you show any signs of distress you can be given immediate treatment. Any time you get a vaccine or start a new medicine a severe allergy is a possible reaction, but if you already KNOW that you are highly allergic to something in the vaccine, you should not receive it.

TTP: This is a disorder that causes abnormal clotting or bleeding. It seems to be associated exclusively with the J&J or AstraZeneca adenoviral-vector vaccines based on current data trends. While rare, this is going to be the most serious adverse effect from the immunization. Data suggest the highest risk is for women under 50, but it is still remarkably rare with only 45 confirmed cases of TTP after over 14 million vaccine doses given. This is an incredibly, incredibly low incidence. Of note, however, patients with the actual COVID-19 virus have a SIGNIFICANTLY increased risk of clotting, especially in severe disease. This increased risk may be due to the production of auto-antibodies in response to COVID-19 infection. Summary: your risk of a blood clot is much higher with the actual virus than the vaccine.

Myocarditis/Pericarditis: These are conditions involving inflammation around the heart tissues or heart muscle. There does appear to be an increased rate of myo/pericarditis after vaccination. This is more common in teenaged males who received an mRNA vaccine (such as Moderna or Pfizer). This is also very rare. According to VAERS, 1404 cases of possible myo/pericarditis were reported after vaccination through September of 2021, though only 817 were able to be confirmed. A CDC report from June 2021 estimated about 60 cases of myo/pericarditis may develop per 1 million vaccine series completed (if you are male aged 12-17; otherwise the rate is lower). However, that same report also estimated the prevention of 71 ICU admissions, 2 death, and 215 hospitalizations among that same group per million vaccines given. Again it is a risk-benefit discussion, but here the numbers definitely point to a benefit overall. Vaccine-induced myocarditis and/or pericarditis are generally one-time events with an excellent prognosis, so rarely represent a threat to life. As the authors of the study linked above stated, "The absolute incidence was extremely low, cases were mild, and all patients recovered. Fear of myocarditis or pericarditis should not influence COVID-19 vaccine decisions."

Guillain-Barré Syndrome: This is a disorder of the nervous system that can cause temporary weakness and paralysis. It is commonly seen after immunizations or infections with various pathogens. It has been associated with adenovirus-vector vaccines (J&J, AstraZeneca) at a very low rate (about 0.0008%) with J&J reporting ~100 cases per 12.2 million doses per VAERS data, and 227 cases out of 51.4 million doses given per EU/EEA to the EMA again through June 2021. People with a history of Guillan-barre are more likely to get it again, so your risk is probably slightly higher if you have had issues with this before, so people with this history may want to opt for an mRNA vaccine which has not been associated with this. 

4. Addressing Common Concerns

If the vaccine works, why do you feel unsafe if I don't get it? A vaccinated person is more protected from you than if they were not vaccinated, but no vaccine (or medical treatment in general) works 100% of the time, so there is always a risk of spreading disease no matter what. This is true for every single vaccine in history so COVID shots aren't special in this way. The data supports indisputibly that the vaccine reduces the RISK of getting COVID, but does not protect against it perfectly, so people should still use common sense. Also, vaccine works much, much better when everyone gets them, which is why vaccinated people enourage others to get the shot too. Think about it. Most of the studies I linked said the vaccines were in the range of 90-95% effective at preventing disease. If everyone in the room is vaccinated, the chances any of them (with their 90-95% protection) are infected and spreading COVID is going to be lower than a room of unvaccinated people, who have no protection against disease. Think now of yourself as a vaccinated bystander inside each of those rooms. In room 1, there is a low rate of COVID-19 being spread around, so your vaccine-induced immunity is now bolstered by the fact that there is also low spread in the community, making your overall chances of getting sick extremely low. In room 2 there is likely moderate to high spread of COVID-19 virus, meaning that even if you are vaccinated, because your vaccine can never be 100% effective, you sadly still have a chance of getting sick (even if it is lower than it would be if you were not vaccinated). Does that make sense?

If vaccines work, why do I have to wear a mask? Same reason as above. We can get into masks later, but point is, both offer protection against the spread of COVID-19, but neither is 100% surefire perfect immunity. Human bodies just don't work that way, sadly. By using both, you increase your chances of preventing catching or spreading disease more than if you did either one in isolation. Bringing back the car example, a seat belt is good, an air bag is also good, but I'd definitely prefer to get a car that has both a seat belt AND an air bag.

Why is the vaccine not approved for kids? Lacking data on safety and efficacy, as young children were excluded from many of the trials that looked at these vaccines. 

We don't have long term safety data. It is unprecedented for an immunization to cause new side effects years later. These shots work by activating your immune system. Any problems they are going to cause will occur surrounding that period of immune activation (meaning, at most a few weeks after you get it). That is why this vaccines typically have any side effects show up within days to weeks of administration. The idea that novel side effects will pop up YEARS later is unlikely. Now, a vaccination may have cause side effect that has long-lasting health implications, such as developing TTP and having a stroke from it, but my point is that will start within weeks of vaccination, not randomly 5 years later after the vaccine has long since left your system. As a result, any side effects from the vaccine are things we will already be seeing right now. The virus, though...   I can tell you that scar tissue in lungs doesn't magically vanish, and brain damage from hypoxia doesn't vanish. I can tell you that those who develop a generalized COVID inflammatory response are dealing with symptoms months post-infection. I can tell you that the virus itself is causing irreversible health problems and disability, and we KNOW that right now without waiting another 5 years. And we know that being unvaccinated increases your risk of getting sick enough to have these permanent disabilities. We also don't have time to wait 5-10 years on more data to deal with this problem. Action has to be taken now, or a lot of people won't be alive in 5 years to talk about the long term effects. I wish none of this had ever happened, but it did, and we have to do something or it won't get any better. This is a global pandemic; we have to cooperate with each other to eradicate it.

Vaccines should not be mandated by the state or companies. I don't really disagree. I do not think authority figures should be able to tell any person that they have to put any substance into their body against their will or else face starvation or homelessness, which is a real threat if people get fired over their vaccine status. HOWEVER neither your nor my beliefs on this topic change the fact that the vaccine works and is VITAL to keeping our health system from collapsing, and you really should be choosing to get it on your own based on the available data regardless of what your boss is saying. Please don't refuse to get the vaccine just to "send a message" or take a stand against your boss or whoever, because I promise you they will fire you without a second thought, and the only person you are sending a message to is that little grandma we talked about earlier who needs intubated but can't find a free vent or ICU bed, so dies in the emergency room while unvaccinated people take up all the space in the hospital.

5. In Summary

There are risks associated with COVID-19 vaccination, as with any vaccine or medicine, but they are remarkably, remarkably low. The potential benefits of vaccination are significant, with a decreased risk of infection, hospitalization, and severe disease among those who are vaccinated. This benefit extends to the community as well, in that it means you are less likely to catch (and therefore spread) COVID-19, increase the rate of herd immunity in your area which protects everyone (especially the medically vulnerable), and reduces preventable, unnecessary COVID-19 admissions that are weighing down the health system and clogging up hospital beds. If you look at this purely from a risk-benefit standpoint there is no mathematical reason not to favor getting the vaccine, and I strongly urge everyone who can safely do so to schedule it.

I suppose my take-away statement is this: I am a physician. If you are willing to trust my advice when you show up to the hospital in respiratory distress, trust my advice now in trying to prevent you from getting to that point. 

Please.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Gosh, I’m not expecting this post to go down well, but I’ve been thinking about it a while, so I’ll make a stab. Wish me luck.

It’s been over a decade since I realized I was queer. It was a terrifying time and I was afraid to talk to many people about it. Some of the best, most comforting support I had, able to answer my questions, give me good factual and scientific information on why being queer was okay, and assuage my fears and religious concerns, came from online communities.

Specifically, queer Christian communities.

Fuck, man, I was on everything down to queer Christian deviantArt groups. Haha, deviantArt, yeah. But it allowed me to talk to people about multiple factors simultaneously that were relevant to me: both my religion, which was very important to me, and my queerness, and be able to sort it out and come to peace with all of it.

Christians in the United States have loads of privilege and we’re not society’s victims. The opposite. It makes sense places like tumblr have become a safe space for victims of homophobic religion to escape, de-convert, and vent with other traumatized people over it. It’s good to see people calling out the hypocrisy, shit, abuse, and bad uses of power that appear within the church. I’m really glad spaces like this exist so that y’all can find better, healthier, happier lives apart from the religion that did you wrong, and to embrace who you truly are. You need that. Many times, I know I have no good religious speaking room here, and I intentionally stay as out of the way as I possibly can so that this safe space can continue to exist.

But I admit I’m also worried about young folks who were like me, looking for answers, and felt like there was no one to come to who’d be safe. 

The way tumblr is right now, I would be afraid that queer Christians wouldn’t feel safe approaching the LGBTQ dialogue here. If one group says “FUCK YOU!” to every Christian out there (and I understand! you were harmed!!), and the other group says, “ew, homosexuality” to every questioning queer out there (which many church spaces still do), then you might feel like you can’t talk to anybody. There were so many online queer Christian communities when I was an older teen that bridged the gap and allowed us to be proud and gay, proud and ace, proud and trans, while also making our own personal choice if we were to remain in the faith, because it was still important and helpful to us. In my case, yes, I’ve retained my Christianity, with greater textual understanding to the passages that worried me. I couldn’t have had that without other LGBTQ people embracing me, respecting my religion, and letting me process through ALL that.

When I went on tumblr, I got hate messages fast for my religion without anyone knowing anything about what I believed in, or caring I was queer and talking about that queerness openly on tumblr. I’ve run into posters who explicitly declared they didn’t care they were generalizing over 2 billion people in the world, they were going to generalize and hate on them all. I’ve seen pro-LGBTQ pastors on tumblr get chased out by bombarding threatening messages. I’ve seen tons of posts say things like, “I love X, Y, Z religions on tumblr for how they say [deity] loves [LGBTQ identity here], but Christians are horrible, they would never do that!”

Heck, man, plenty of Christians I know would post messages like that if they thought there was the space for it. I’d love to see “Jesus loves you, lesbians!!!” But I’d never feel bold enough to post that here! I feel like the second I did, I’d be waiting to be screamed at for being a hypocrite and part of the problem, or ‘supporting’ homophobia, or being mocked for a god that doesn’t exist. So... I know a ton of tumblr queer Christians who just...... stay silent instead, fearing retaliation and aggressive responses. I’ve talked to different people from different countries confirming the tumblr presentation of Christians is very USA-centric and forgets about their culturally-embedded saints or all the POC people who rely on it and stuff like that. I’ve had multiple friends nervously ask me, “I saw X viral post being reblogged and it says a ton of really bad things about Christianity but it’s really inaccurate to my denominations/country/the-religion-in-general, but I feel like I can’t say anything because I’ll just get yelled at if I try to respond.” And on and on and on.

There needs to be spaces for folks to speak angrily about things they hate. If you have major criticisms about organized religion, by all means, fucking use the spaces to get it out. I get it.

But what I’m saying is... if you really think that these 2 billion diverse humans from around the globe all think the same thing and are all out to abuse you in the way your specific brand of local Evangelical Protestants are doing things, maybe rethink that assumption as you’re processing your trauma. Theology’s diverse, yo, and there’s gonna be so many Christians who are LGBTQ, want to support LGBTQ, get their questions answered about LGBTQ, etc.

I just wish there’s a communication space without intimidation for the questioning folks like I was, who want answers from a queer community that won’t burn them out for their faith, to feel like they’re not going to be rained down by both the religious and the queer. Both needs to be met in their questions, the religious and the queer. This type of world on tumblr, it’s going to feel hostile to those baby queer Christians, who are afraid the second their religion leaks out, they’re not going to be able to belong in the LGBTQ community anymore, rather than find love, answers, support, science, and good reasoning for why they can accept being LGBTQ.

Maybe I’m wrong and there’s lots of spaces and it’s just my personal experience. All I can speak to, right now, is what I’ve anecdotally seen from my angle. I hope this doesn’t come off as exaggeration; I’m speaking the negatives because those are the relevant observations right now, but I won’t deny I’ve had good faith experiences on this site, too. Just... I want to discuss the bad because the bad exists.

If anything I said in here accidentally came off poorly, please let me know, and I’ll endeavor to learn and reword it to be better. Please understand that frustratedly criticizing X Christian issue in response to this post might be a bit of a strawman when I’m talking about folks who aren’t going to automatically have X Christian issue. I love to listen to you and I respect your pain, but if I might ask, please don’t make this the place for that comment. I don’t want this to turn into a discussion, so I hope you can let me say my mind once and then be the end of it. This has been on my mind, I doubt many people are going to like what I said, but I hope that, maybe even for just one person, these were the right words to read. Take care y’all, and keep rocking it.

[rainbowsky]

Anonymous asked:

Why is China so against homosexuality? [redacted] Upset gay turtle here venting.

Sorry, Anon, a lot of that rant came across as Sinophobic so I've removed it. I really urge us all to be careful about how we talk about these issues, and consider how our words might land on others. There's an incredible amount of racism and hate levelled at Chinese people these days, I believe it's our responsibility to do our best to lighten that load. Our pain doesn't justify giving others pain.

As for the issue of China and homosexuality, you're painting with a pretty broad - and apparently uninformed - brush, here.

I don't know nearly as much about this topic as I want to know (any book recommendations anyone has on queer history in China and/or translations of relevant Chinese poetry and literature would be greatly appreciated), but even in my somewhat limited understanding I know that the crackdown on queerness in China is quite recent. China has actually had a much more complex, much more nuanced, much more rich and interesting history with homosexuality and effemininity than most Western queer people would credit.

Also, the attitude of contemporary Chinese people toward homosexuality is by no means homogeneous, and queer acceptance and support for queer people is growing in China just as it’s growing everywhere else. Even those who are opposed to homosexuality aren’t necessarily opposed to it out of bigotry in the way Western queers might assume. There are cultural differences that impact all of this, so it’s important to approach issues like this with a spirit of inquiry rather than one of outrage.

Rather than try to dig into topics I’m less than qualified to educate people on, I’m going to point you to some content that might give you a broader picture of these issues.

There have been some excellent metas from Pie. I recommend reading those because they are incredibly interesting and well thought out, and present a massive amount of information on subjects related to this. (Please heed all TW and CW; some of this is not for the faint of heart).

What BL stories onscreen might mean for the queer community

Entertainment industry crackdowns and the future of dangai

The feminization of men

How China’s population policies impact the queer community

DD’s sneakers and ice cream post

This entire exchange in answer to some of my questions about the situation for queer people in China

There was also an interesting response from @exitchasedbyawookiee to a related topic that you might find interesting.

@peekbackstage made a post about masculinity in China that you might also find interesting.

One of my past posts you might find interesting:

Drag, Gender Identity and Queer Culture

There is a lot more to these topics than we are aware of in the West. They’re enormously complex, and influenced by a broad range of political, social, cultural and historical issues. As someone who has been trying to get my head around it all for a couple of years now, I can definitely say that it takes dedicated study to get any proper understanding of queer issues in China.

I urge all fans to please be extremely careful and respectful about how we talk about these issues. As I said, there is so much racism and hate against Chinese people right now and they don’t need more hurled at them, even out of carelessness. We must all take responsibility for our own attitudes and how our behavior might impact others. And it behooves us to remember that in the West we’re massively inundated with anti-China rhetoric on a daily basis.

I’ve said this many times in the past, no regime is representative of a country, no matter how much that regime wants it to be true. And it would be intellectually lazy and foolish to try to characterize billions of people with a few simple buzzwords.

I agree that it’s frustrating to see human rights trampled on, and as a queer person it can be very triggering to read some of the homophobic BS coming out of the regime these days. I understand the temptation to compare China with other Asian countries where things are more progressive, but it doesn’t serve any useful or practical purpose and only leads to more negativity.

Ultimately we all want to be good allies for queer people across the globe, and it can be difficult seeing people we love having to go without the rights, freedoms and support we want for them. I encourage everyone to guide that love and concern into positive channels. Support for GGDD and their projects and endorsements. Support for LGBTQ organizations, particularly ones dealing with queer refugees. Support for your local LGBTQ orgs as well.

In the immortal words of Johnny Rotten, “Anger is an energy.” At such a depressing, emotionally deflating time in history, anger can be exceptionally useful motivator.

Over-arching all of that, a spirit of inquiry and cultural exchange with queer people in regions we aren’t familiar with is probably the best approach to dealing with our concerns about human rights in those regions. As the old saying goes, “Nothing about us without us.” If we want to be supportive, we should let others take the lead in giving us guidance on what they need.

I know that is a lot easier said than done when it comes to China, given how walled off things can feel, but with patience and persistence it is possible. And while we’re going through that long process, I don’t think any queer person in China would begrudge us looking to our own backyards as well.

More on this topic, including educational resources, can be found here.

[rantrambles]

Ever get so upset you make a Tumblr account to vent?

I haven’t even listened to The Penumbra Podcast yet but it’s on my list because it’s insanely popular and the cosplays I’ve seen are hot as hell (A+ to all the cosplayers I’ve seen you’ve done great work). Now, with the recent news surrounding the podcast, I’ll wait till it’s done if I ever do get into it. I’m Asian and part of the LGBT community but I’m not nonbinary so I can’t say much about the trans represention in the art but I wanted to add my two cents on the matter as a person of color and someone examining the situation from the outside. Also, before I get deeply into it, I’m not the only person of color with opinions on this matter so if people have their own frustrations and criticism with the racism in The Penumbra Podcast and/or the new artist they hired, definitely listen to them too. These are my own personal opinions, and I’m sure other people will disagree and that’s fine. We’re all going to have different views on this so bear that in mind. Also, feel free to correct me or add anything if I’ve missed some information. Here’s a great breakdown of the whole situation for those that don’t know what happened. Finally, I was very hesitant to post this, but I felt it was important because I make a statement at the end on how race should be presented in a podcast format so if you are interested in making a podcast and want to have a diverse range of characters, please skip to the end to read those thoughts.

I’ll start off by saying, I’m not even that upset with the new artist that The Penumbra Podcast hired. I know that statement alone is controversial but I don't personally know them, and I’m not going to judge who they are as a person by a few pieces of art they’ve made. They are the least of the problems that I have here. Since the announcement and the backlash, I’ve been scrolling through the artist’s Instagram account and I can tell why people find the designs offensive, but I’m also comparing the designs to the artist’s other work, and I honestly believe that’s just their style. They’ve exaggerated the features of just about every character they’ve made, regardless of race or gender. From what I’ve seen the sharp angles and overly round curves in the anatomy that make some of the character’s features more jarring are how they prefer to draw. I’m sure they’re capable of drawing more realistic proportions but for the most part they’re art aims to call attention, be bold, and create distinguished features. Not inherently a bad thing on its own.

And yeah I’d understand the issue if this were a scenario where the artist heard how these characters acted in the podcast and thought “hey, obviously this character is a black woman because they are super strong and therefore must have big muscles, no other woman could look like that” or “hey, this character has to be Asian because they act super seductive sometimes better draw them as such.” But from my understanding the race was already decided by previous official artists and a general description of the characters were already generated by the audience, similar to how The Magnus Archives leaned towards drawing scrawny Jon with black, greying hair and dark skin. The new artists couldn’t really change those features even if those features aren’t described in canon because a depiction that strayed too far from popular fandom interpretation would make the character’s unrecognizable to the fanbase. 

I think the reason this became such a big issue for most people is because the new Penumbra artist used their exaggerated art style when making these characters and people of color and nonbinary folks already see themselves drawn as these exaggerated caricatures all the time (with those images being used to further discriminate against them). I’m sure the artist didn’t mean for their art to be offensive, but that of course doesn’t change how it was received. 

According to some, the poses and expressions the artists chose did not fully represent the characters entirely and only served to further perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and I’ll have to take their word for it because I still haven’t listened to the podcast so I have no idea how the characters act. But again much of the criticism is based on the one line-up and doing a deeper dive into the artist’s work I managed to find artwork that was much less offensive. Here some art where Vespa is depicted in a non-violent pose and one where Vespa is in a threatening pose but not an overly violent one. Here is Peter drawn in a non-seductive pose. Hopefully, the artist truly does keep the criticisms in mind as they work on the new official art. I’m just not the type of person that wants to get the pitchforks out and cause this particular person to lose a job they seemed really excited about over their old character line-up, especially when that person is also part of a marginalized group.

Again, that’s just my opinion on that particular artist. Those who are offended by their art are still valid in how they feel, and the artist should absolutely take their criticism to heart to better how they represent the characters.

What I’m more upset about is that I think The Penumbra Podcast should never have released official art for their characters in the first place and that’s their mistake that they refuse to own up about. They have made it clear that the story was never meant to portray characters of colors, a fact emphasized by the fact they hired mostly white actors from the start. They only started releasing art of the characters to get a profit. And the thing is they know what they did was wrong. All I had to do was search Penumbra Podcast racism and there is a note on their website saying that they archived some old official art.

“We have discontinued all Penumbra merchandise that uses the original character designs, and in the meantime, any profits on the sales of that merchandise will go to the For The Gworls project. We also realize that the depiction of these characters as POC, while not appropriate for us to use in our marketing and merchandise, has nonetheless become personally meaningful to many POC listeners. For that reason, and because we do not wish to distance ourselves from our mistake, we are keeping these images on our website for archival purposes. Though we do want to make it clear that many of the main/featured voice actors are white and that we did not write the characters to represent any specific POC experience, you are, as always, free to imagine these characters in any way that you like.”

I went to their shop and they still sell posters and pins with the character’s faces on them, but they are donating it to a good cause so hopefully that stays the same. However, I still find it a little uncomfortable that they are still selling character merch and have plans to continue selling character merch. They have no right to dissuade the fans that already found representation in the characters, but they also have no right to profit off the representation that was built, regardless if they made the story. 

Let’s compare this to another piece of popular media. I love Avatar the Last Airbender and, I liked the ATLA voice actors just fine but there should have been more people of color doing voice acting behind the screen too. The voice actors for that show were mainly white too, however, the creators knew that they would be making poc characters. That’s what makes the difference. Did they still choose to go with mostly white voice actors? Yes. Could they have done better and pay more people of color? Also yes. But I’m not as furious at them because they did their research on the cultures they were basing the ATLA world off of and intentionally gave us a show where Asians could see characters that looked like them represented on the screen. The Penumbra Podcast did not do any of that. Again, they openly admitted that it was never their intention to make the character’s people of color when they made the podcast so that goes to show no research was made to properly represent specific cultures. The color of the character’s skin in their official designs therefore became more of aesthetic choice rather than representation, and it wasn’t even their aesthetic choice to begin with!

Race isn’t a color you can just throw onto the character because you feel like it. So I want this to be a lesson to anyone that wants to make a podcast: if you want to include poc characters please do some research into the cultures you plan to represent the way you would with any other form of media. Just because the audience can’t see the characters and just because it’s harder to smoothly introduce the character’s appearance doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be lazy on how you present the characters. Do research before you start writing the first episode and take the time to hire poc actors. Hiring poc actors is actually the least that can be done to show representation. Also, since the audience cannot visually see the race of the characters on a podcast and it can’t typically be described the way you would in a book, you’ll have to be creative. It’s not my job to say how, but my suggestions would be, before the fans come up with their own image of the character, you need to establish race in the first few episodes or release character profiles on a website so that the fans know you canonically intended the characters to be of a certain race even if you aren’t able to mention it in the actual podcast. If you are unwilling to do any of these then the best route is to avoid stating race at all and allow the audience to build their own representation into your form of media. However, once this happens, you are not allowed to profit off popular fan interpretations. You lose all rights to create official art or images of the characters. You cannot use “we have a diverse cast of characters” when you market your story. It doesn’t matter whether you created the content or not, you did not create the representation for those minority groups.

It’s one thing for fans to build their own inclusivity into a form of art like a podcast, but it’s another thing for the creators who never worked to make the representation happen to take advantage of the representation that the listeners built for themselves. Thank you for attending my TedTalk.

[shihalyfie]

What went down with the DigiFes situation, from the community and translator perspective

I think the events of the last few days have gotten everyone in a huge fuss, and because everything got caught up in a lot of chaotic social media stuff, there’s been a lot of questions about what came from what and who knew what at what time. Fortunately, I happen to be:

Someone who’s a veteran in this fanbase and thus has a small handful of friends in this community, who also have their own friends

Someone who understands a little Japanese (although not as much as others in this community do) and therefore can read things in Japanese myself to some degree without needing someone else to translate it for me

So hopefully I can shed some light on what kinds of things were being discussed, and what was known and not known at what time in this fanbase with all of this.

The most important thing I want to establish is that there was no organized coalition or smear campaign. (Kind of ironic I have to say this when the topic at hand has so much to do with conspiracy theories.) I’m a veteran, I know friends who are veterans, they know other friends who are veterans but don’t know me at all. My friends usually agree with and like the same things I do, and I give them advice and assistance with my skillset when I can, and they return the favor. We pass things along through the grapevine, not through some super-secret club grapevine, just via the nature of social relationships and some Discord servers (multiple; again, not everyone knows each other). So these are my impressions of what happened, based on said grapevine.

How it all started

Konaka’s blog is long. Like, really long. Which is only natural, because he was recapping basically the entire 51 episodes of Tamers in excruciating detail, so no translator in this fanbase would be able to translate all of that and not lose their mind! So for the most part people who couldn’t read Japanese had pretty much given up on reading it (with maybe a few dedicated people using machine translation), and some people who understood Japanese would point out parts they found interesting, but for all intents and purposes it remained untranslated and not super-accessible to the mainstream. (Even the Japanese fanbase itself wasn’t super aware of the blog’s existence.)

So when that first post in May about 9/11 dropped, the people who did read Japanese started going “uh...”

At the time, the DigiFes stage reading hadn't been announced yet. So, in other words, everyone reading it only knew it as, functionally, him namedropping an alt-right YouTuber and praising his observations. The reaction from anyone reading the blog at the time was something along the lines of “disappointed and mildly concerned.” (Note the mildly.)

The posts in June about the Great Reset and the anti-vaccine sentiment were when people keeping an eye on the situation started to get really worried about how far this was going to escalate. At this point, I want to make something clear that may not be apparent to those who weren’t keeping up or who are outside the fanbase: Most of the translators and Japanese-reading people deliberately chose not to be too public about this at this time.

Why?

This is the irony surrounding the fact that said translators are now being accused of trying to further “cancel culture”: cancellation was absolutely not what anyone wanted back then! If anyone wanted to create a smear campaign, 9/11 conspiracies, the Great Reset, and anti-vaccine statements are already more than enough to make a starting case. But at the time, this was a blog that very few people (Japanese or otherwise) knew about, translating it would basically just boost its platform more than it would have had in the first place (which would be counterproductive), and -- well, let’s be real, it’s not hard to imagine that people might get reactionary over it, and people would go nuts. Was there any real benefit that would come out of that? Not really, no.

So at the most, those keeping an eye on it might have vented a bit on their personal accounts, but some even tried to self-censor with “[redacted]” or vagueposting, because this was a matter that needed to be handled with delicacy. Thus, there were “mild rumors through the grapevine” about what was going on, but those who knew were trying to hold back with restraint and mostly inform people quietly in the hopes of this not needing to become some kind of huge social media campaign.

(Also, to be a bit blunt about it, it’s really hard to be in front of someone who loves Tamers and is gushing about it and showing admiration for Konaka, knowing all of this and wanting to say something, but feeling like a jerk if you pop their bubble like “also, he’s probably an alt-right conspiracy theorist now.” Not to say that the ignorance-is-bliss concept is always a good thing, but...)

But since the blog posts in question were discussing the prospect of having his sentiments in fiction, everyone reading them was on edge anticipating what might be in store for DigiFes. The hope was that it might blow over. Hopefully, everything would be in the form of subtle themes with plausible deniability, it would all stay within the realm of “it’s not worth causing a fuss over this,” that would be the end of it, and we’d all move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, “Political Correctness is activating Cancel Culture” isn’t exactly subtle.

DigiFes and the aftermath

I think it’s too easy to assign too much responsibility to the fansub group that was indirectly responsible for breaking the news for all of this, but actually, the truth is, this would have gotten out anyway.

Even when the stream itself was going on, there were Japanese livebloggers, and there were also English speakers who caught on that something was happening with “the Tamers fighting political correctness”. Some hours later, an upload of the stream went live on YouTube, and quite a few people started watching it and caught onto what was going on. If the fansub group that released the now-infamous version hadn’t done it, I’m absolutely certain someone else would have eventually (perhaps in a different language first, but nevertheless). And even before then, information about what the hell was going on was already starting to circulate in broken and incomplete forms. That fansub solidified what was going on, and perhaps accelerated the moment the bomb dropped on everyone, but if it hadn’t been there, it would have happened much more gradually and chaotically.

On top of that, while the use of Western alt-right rhetoric (seriously, please do not try to bring the “injecting Western politics into Japanese media” argument here when all of us are asking him to take the Western politics out) meant that it went over most of the Japanese audience’s heads (hence your answer to “who approved this?”), there was at least one Japanese person who was politically savvy enough to call it out for what it was in disgust. (I’m not linking them here because I’m not dumb enough to fling them in a place where some of you trigger-happy people will go after them.) They didn’t even need to be super in-tune with Western politics to get it; they understood enough to tell that there were some pretty alarming extremist views in there. If they understood that much, it was naturally going to follow that the Western side was definitely going to become aware one way or another.

Even all that aside, at the very least, said fansub is accurate; imagine how much worse this situation would have been if someone else had taken it up and confused things further with a misleading translation, or, worse, deliberately messed with the contents. Basically, this debacle could have easily been a lot worse.

I don’t think anyone expected this to get as big as it did (as in, to the point mainstream anime reporters outside the fanbase picked up on it). There was a similar tri. reading back in 2016, but even a lot of the hardcore fanbase barely remembers it exists! These aren’t even supposed to be canon, either! But when you have that disclaimer at the front, and the contents are really like that, it was probably inevitable for it to become a social media sensation. I mean the contents...sure are a thing.

One thing I should point out about the disclaimer is that it only mentions the program itself. It doesn’t bring up the blog, and it doesn’t bring up who wrote this scenario, just the fact that the program contains alt-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Because it does! It’s not even technically praising or condemning the content within, it just says “we don’t agree with it”! What the group did condemn was...approaching staff about it (and especially starting a fight). Because, in the end, that’s what the disclaimer was for: a heads-up about what was in there, and an added reminder that the people translating this are just translating it for the sake of informational purposes. Or, in other words:

It was a content warning. Even without the disclaimer, there were many, many people who would have recognized the contents for what they were and been caught by it unawares, and become upset by it. There were many people who said that they were glad to have that there because it at least gave them some time to mentally prepare for what they were about to be slapped with!

It really, really was a disclaimer. When you have something that level of extremely politically charged stuff, it’s only natural to start suspecting that the translation group had an agenda (official translations tend to get this a lot when content is remotely political). But no, the translation group did their due diligence, even if their opinions were starkly opposed to what was in there.

I was not personally involved in that translation, but I’ll give you this (copy-pasted with permission, from someone who wasn’t technically involved directly in it but was privy to discussions while it was being done):

no we brought up all of those questions like the fact that Yamaki's clearly off his rocker and this isn't supposed to be taken seriously in the first place or that maybe if we're lucky he'll just sound like a fake woke boomer but no matter how you slice it the plot is about him "convincing" the unbelieving Takato and co. into rallying up against the true enemy of Political Correctness and that's just literally the alt-right playbook in a nutshell

the thing even made it to YouTube, we were basically racing against the clock

I mean I really want to say this is plausible deniability but I don’t know how you can get any less subtle than this, this is not something you can mince words

like I really wish we could pass this off as “as long as you don’t know the blog you can take this innocently as political commentary or something” but I honestly don’t think this is something you can take innocently even without context

tbh the Political Correctness part is the most cringeworthy but Yamaki’s rant about fact checkers being evil and all that is probably a lot more worrying when you think about it

tbh I’ve never felt as conflicted about what’s the right thing to do as I do now

So in other words, it was not a reckless decision to just tack on a political label; it was done after a lot of consideration about the consequences to put the label on and what people would think of it with or without context, whether there might be a glimmer of light possibility to try and pass this off as more innocuous as it was, and eventually a determination that, in the end, there was indeed alt-right rhetoric in the program, and should be labeled accordingly.

The result was that, of course, everything broke out on social media, chaos burst out, a lot of hearts were unfortunately broken, and a lot of alt-righters started invading spaces accusing people of proving him right with cancel culture. Ironically, my personal observation is that, while there were exceptions, most people in the actual fanbase did honor the requests to not harass people about it, and this may actually be the most solidarity I’ve ever seen from the Digimon fanbase in my life, which is saying a lot considering how we usually tend to be a drama magnet most of the time. The ones who were actually directly messaging him were his newfound supporters locking down on offering him “support against people trying to cancel him” (I think they were more heartbroken and upset at him than anything...), and most of the harassment came from alt-righters not even in the fanbase, namesearching and sending harassing, accusatory messages to anyone involved for as much as expressing mild dismay. (You want to talk about harassment and being attacked for having an opinion? Pot, meet kettle.)

This leads us back to the question of the blog: if you’ll remember, I just said that the fansub in question did not bring it up at all. That’s because, at the beginning, there was no intention to bring it up if it wasn’t necessary; this was not intended as a smear campaign. The warning was attached to the DigiFes program because it was about the DigiFes program. But the resulting chaos had a lot of people bring up the blog because it better contextualized what was going on, and discussion led to people looking it up themselves and posting fragments of it on social media, sometimes even using machine translate.

Ultimately, that’s the reason this document was released: it was the same reason as the fansub being released at the time it was, which was “if it hadn’t been released, the alternative was watching things get disseminated more slowly and chaotically.” I will say outright that I was one of the people who got to lay eyes on that document before it was publicly released (and even helped out with some advice here and there); it’s no secret that it was being quietly passed around as an internal memo prior to the outbreak. The original version of the document had a request to not post it on public social media because of the chaos it would cause, and while I don’t know how many people got to see it before it was released, I’m under the impression that it was enough people that I was quite surprised everyone who saw it respected that request.

Why does the document contain a ton of analysis and debunking on top of just the translations? Well, when you’re translating those blog posts, you’re technically giving it a bigger platform (which was one of the reasons it was originally considered better to not post it publicly). Since the document exists primarily to inform people, especially about why certain things that may seem innocuous actually have wider context behind them, it’s going to need to contain an analysis like that.

The summary

There were a lot of decisions involved by a lot of different people through all parts of this ordeal. I think it’s fair to criticize whether they were the right decisions in retrospect or whether certain things should have been done slightly differently (including my small role in this), but nevertheless, it was one where the risks involved were thought through and taken into account in every step of the situation, with a desire to avoid chaos, or at least prevent it from getting too much worse. When you have contents like this, a controversy honestly is inevitable -- how on earth are you going to be able to put contents like Yamaki reciting off all the typical alt-right YouTuber talking points and ending in Political Correctness activating Cancel Culture and not expect that to make a stir at some point? -- and so, in the end, this wasn’t so much a conscious attempt at stirring the pot as much as it was the dam finally breaking, and a desire to keep it from spilling over too much. Nobody coordinated this! I think everyone just really hates drama.

Knowing all the steps and thoughts that went on behind all of this, I think being reactionary or accusatory for clout is the last thing anyone involved wanted to be. Considering just how many of these steps above could have easily been made into exposure, from the posts all the way back in May and June to the internal memo document that was made to keep friends quietly informed but could have been leaked to the public with only one bad actor, there was an active, common desire among people who didn’t even know each other to try and minimize the potential damage as much as possible. When you look at the situation now, of course it looks awful and hardly like something that came out of “trying to minimize damage”, but in reality there’s only so much you can do when the contents really are like that, and I personally believe everyone involved was doing what they thought was their best option as the situation kept changing.

I can’t speak for anyone else, especially since I don’t even know most of the people involved, and I didn’t have much of a role in all of this, but I think everyone involved, myself and my friends and everyone who’d been keeping tabs on this situation for months, has been going through a lot of heartbreak and conflict over what to do next, so please understand that there was a lot of thought put into all of it, and that it really was a difficult situation no matter how you look at it.

[lord-westley]

Hi hun, I don't know if your requests are open right now, but I could really use some sort of comfort Imagine right now and I was hoping I could come and ask you. It doesn't even have to be a full set of Headcanons, just a short blurb about some Characters will do if that's fine with you.

I've been really struggling with my chronic illnesses lately, and I keep imagining the Fellowship taking care of me, so I thought I'd ask for an Imagine about that. I have a really weird condition where my right leg is physically longer than my left, which causes really intense pain in my hip and leg and also difficulty walking, so I've been really struggling with that lately. There's also the chronic fatigue from my sleep apnea, I'm absolutely covered in bruises that I don't remember getting, the classic anxiety and depression and executive dysfunction.. it's just been a difficult week tbh.

I'd appreciate any kind words right now. Thanks for being so kind and supportive to me, it means more than you could ever know. I hope it's alright that I ask this of you. Godspeed, hun 💕

Comfort HC’s

Platonic!Fellowship x Reader

Post LOTR; Comfort

Warnings: Mentions chronic pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD

A/N: Hello Ro! I’m sorry this took a while, I hope the pain eases soon and that these headcanons help. If you ever need to talk, my DM's are open anytime!

You’ve known the Fellowship ever since you were a little girl. You met them when your parents sent you off to Imladris to seek the aid of Lord Elrond, one of the greatest healers in Middle-Earth. For you had an unusual physical condition, where your right leg grew longer than your left. It made walking difficult and a burning pain to spiderweb from your hip down.

Lord Elrond tried everything he could in his power to help you, and yet there was little he could do except ease the pain. No amount of magic can prevent physical growth.

The tears that welled up in your eyes that day pained him more than any wound can. A child, barely twelve years old, experiencing such excruciating pain right in front of him, and yet he can’t do anything about it. And from that moment on, he promised to you that he’d do anything he can to help you, and care for you.

So with the permission of your worried parents, Lord Elrond gave you an offer to stay in Imladris for as long as you wish. To heal and receive the care you need. Which you kindly accepted.

For years up to adulthood, you lived in Imladris; drinking Athleas tea every morning and night for the pain and sleep apnea. While it wasn’t a cure, it helped make life much more bearable. Allowing you to enjoy certain activities and walk around with only half the pain.

During those years you became great friends with the Fellowship. For they travelled often to Imladris to visit and rest between trips. They became your family, always joking and telling stories of their travels; teaching you new tricks and how to defend yourself. And in return you’d tell them stories of the elves around you. How the Ellon in the smithy loves to tease the Elleth in the bakery. Or how the children would braid flower crowns for you.

The boys know of your difficulties with your leg and illnesses. They’re constantly worried for you; asking how you are, helping when the pain begins to spike and holding you when you begin to cry. Everytime it starts getting bad again, they tell you it's okay to feel weak and to cry. That you don’t have to be strong all the time.

Aragorn

Aragorn is surprisingly soft despite his tough exterior

He believes that crying and venting about your frustrations is the most healthy way to deal

So on days you are having a rough time he’ll sit down with you in his lap, holding you tightly into his chest. One arm around your body and one hand in your hair

Aragorn will let you cry and yell into him, all while pressing small kisses into your hair

He’s not a very wordy person, so it’s not often he will whisper sweet things, but when he does. It’s always so soft and helps relax you

“Deep breaths Hun, It’ll be okay”

Legolas

A soft baby- an absolute angel when it comes to comforting you

Legolas is very big on grounding yourself and staying focused on your surroundings

So when he notices you’re beginning to have a rough time, nearing a panic attack, He preps a cup of Athleas tea and brings you to a private area

He’ll have you sit between his legs, and his arms gently wrapped around you torso

Legolas will have you ground yourself by telling him 3 things you smell, feel, hear and see

“Close your eyes, little one and listen… Listen to the birds sing”

As you begin to relax, he whispers praises, proud of how strong you are

“You’re doing so well, I’m proud of you”

Boromir

I love this man oml

If you’re bedridden due to the pain he’d 100% do whatever you ask of him

Need more pillows? Steals them from every. Single. Bedroom.

“Boro- holy crap how many did you take!?”

“Uh.. all?”

There is now a national shortage of pillows

Need more warmth? Will make a nest of blankets and wrap you up in his cloak

Comfort?? CUDDLES FOR DAYS

Boromir is there for you every step of the way

If you start crying, He might cry with you- absolutely hates seeing you in such pain

“I’m sorry- Im so sorry Darling. I wish there was more I could do for you”

Gimli

In true Gimli fashion, when he notices your anxiety he 100% wants to fight whoever triggered it

He gets a bit aggressive in the beginning, insisting to fist fight your problems away

but when you tell him that it’s something that can't be fought off, that its a constant thing, he calms down and just

“Oh”

“Oh oh wait Im so sorry”

Cue soft Gimli

Will rub your back affectionately while speaking softly

Asking if there is anything he could do to help

Another babe who will do anything you ask of him

If the panic attack happens in public, Gimli will bring you somewhere more private

He’ll shield you with his body from the eyes of the public and glare at anyone who dares stare

Not very good with soft comfort but if you ever need to feel safe and protected go to him

“Dont worry Lassie” (head pats) “I’ll protect you, You’re safe now”

Frodo

Sweet darling baby angel bean

He completely understands your anxieties and pain

Frodo did carry the one ring across middle earth after all

He absolutely has PTSD from it, so there have been many times the two of you would stay up late together when you can’t sleep, drinking tea

You find comfort in the fact that he’s quite similar to you, and vice versa

Most often, you guys will talk about what's going on and comfort each other

On the nights the two of you don’t wish to talk, Frodo will read stories to you

His voice is so soft and comforting, It never fails to lull you to sleep

“None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window” He reads aloud, peaking up at you and notices the way your lips part, a soft snore emitting. He hums, “Goodnight Y/N, sleep well”

Sam

This hobbit is such a softie

He understands that with mental disorders, you may forget to eat or care for yourself

So he always watches you, making sure you’re eating and you aren’t

Oh boy

Will cook your favorite meals and make you sit with him to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner

“Ah, I hope you enjoy the meal. I made your favorite!”

“Thank you, Sam..”

Ensuring you drink your water

Or if you don’t like plain water, make some tea. Anything really to make sure you get your fluids

As a gardener, Sam is busy quite often, tending to, well, gardens

He’ll set up a picnic nearby for you with finger sandwiches, drinks, and fruit that way you had company and can relax fully in the peacefulness of nature

Definitely will give you a bouquet of flowers at the end of the day

“I picked these for you Y/N!”

Merry and Pippin

Okay so these two are together cause well. They’re always together

Except that one scene

Absolute kings of distraction when you’re feeling depressed

You might want to just sleep it off- but we all know that never really helps

They’ll make so many jokes and sing and dance around just to make you laugh

Which often leads to them singing even louder and cruder, annoying every elf in the area

“Lucky Annie was a lady who’d been pleased by many men- They all would sail away but then they’d come right back again”

Yes they sing sea shanties

Oops

On days that you don’t have the energy to deal with such shenanigans, they’ll tone it down

The three of you will often be found in the field during these days, Tossing a ball back n forth

Or giggling amongst yourself, gossiping about the rest of the fellowship

“I don’t know Merry, Gandalf is kinda hot in an old man way”

“Pippin what the hell”

[itsclydebitches]

I was reading through the notes on the Theodore post (some of the responses are just down right mean to you and I'm sorry you have to deal with that) but it seems to me like an issue the rwby fandom has is dealing with structural critiques (like character introductions relative to story arcs) and respond with in-universe reasoning. These are two seperate frameworks that get confused too easily. Thing X didn't happen because it the story has rule Y, but why did the authors make rule Y?

Thanks, anon 💜

The sad thing is that these comments are downright tame compared to what some fans will put on your posts and in your inbox. In the past month I’ve seen two people express a desire to post their own critical takes about RWBY, but are wary to do so because they know it will draw far worse than this. I read through Number1yangster’s response and they rely entirely on insults there, not evidence to back up their reading of the story. The “argument” here is that I’m stupid and incapable of thinking or reading because that would “cut into the time [I] spend complaining.” Most people don’t want to put up with that kind of nonsense, not just because it’s obviously unpleasant to read, but because it circumvents the entire purpose of posting metas in the first place. Outside of just venting for that emotional release, fans share takes about a show in the hope of finding like-minded individuals and engaging with different perspectives. As RWDE posters constantly emphasize, we are looking for evidence to support more positive readings of the show because we want the show to be good. If you can point us towards moments where the show establishes other dust companies so we don’t have to assume that Team RWBYJNOR decimated the dust trade by destroying the SDC (another debate recently), or if you can point us towards moments where Theodore was established as a trusted ally so that we don’t have to assume that Ruby foolishly put all of Remnant in the hands of a potentially dangerous stranger… then please do! I often forget things, misunderstand things, or am simply persuaded by another reading, but that’s contingent upon others being able to point out my mistake, or persuade me towards their interpretation. But fans like Canonseeker and Number1yangster aren’t interested in having a conversation. It was never about discussing RWBY, or being able to back up their stance because they can’t back up their stance. Not without ignoring basic counters or relying primarily on their own headcanons. That’s why whenever someone says, “Please show me where this happened in the story” or point out, “You’ve entirely ignored the evidence I laid out. Why won’t you acknowledge this?” they turn straight to insults instead. They’ve got nothing else and that sucks for the fans who wanted an engaging discussion or, baring that, just want their posts left alone if others aren’t willing to approach them respectfully.

Anyway, you’ve hit the nail on the head there, anon. If I could get the entire RWBY fandom to understand anything—really understand it—it’s that this is a fictional world where the writers have complete control over everything that happens in it. There is not a single thing in RWBY that acts as a true barrier to the writers, especially as a webseries unencumbered by the restrictions of a network and as a show already notorious for playing fast and loose with its rules. Any problem with the story is something that come about because of a choice the writers made and the underlying criticism of all this is, “Why did you choose that?” I’ve used this example before because it’s a fairly common occurrence that spans multiple fandoms, but has been re-popularized lately by BNHA. Basically, the problem with giving women superheroes scantily clad outfits that obviously serve to sexualize them. The RWBY fandom are akin those that go, “Momo has to be scantily clad because she creates objects out of her bare skin and Toru has to be naked because clothes ruin her being invisible, duh. Clearly you’re too stupid to pay attention to what the show tells you,” entirely missing that the criticism is asking why the author designed things that way in the first place. It’s a sci-fi story with fantasy elements. There was nothing stopping Horikoshi from just introducing futuristic outfits that allow the high school girls to pull objects through the material, or make the outfit invisible to match the person. Or giving them superpowers with different rules to begin with! Why can’t Momo bring out any object just through the palms of her hands? Why can’t Toru make the things she wears invisible too? Writers are the gods of their story and their choices tell us a lot about what they want to prioritize.

RWBY chose not to introduce Theodore despite the ability to do so only being limited by their own imagination. Qrow could have been exchanging letters with him since the Fall. A shady side character could have showed up at the bar, delivering a verbal message from the head of Vacuo’s inner circle before sneaking off again. We could have gotten flashbacks to him during the pre-Beacon days. Ironwood could have invented a short-term communication device that’s good for one message, resulting in a quick but crucial check-in. Ozpin could have had a conversation with the group where he shares insight into his friend and everyone debates if, after Lionheart, they can still trust him. Anything could have happened! But so many fans are inclined to go, “But that couldn’t have happened because RWBY doesn’t do flashbacks like that, and Ironwood never invented that kind of device, and everyone was mad at Ozpin back then, and—” ignoring that, obviously, other aspects of the show would have to change to accommodate this. It's the exact reason why Number1yangster dismissed by idea to just make Theodore a part of the original meeting, claiming that this couldn't have happened because headmasters rarely attend... even though Ironwood is right there. If he can be an exception, why not Theodore too? Or why not make it so that the headmasters do unusually attend, but Lionheart couldn't make it this time for whatever reason (potentially setting up his future reveal as a betrayer)? Things can and should change to accommodate the additions that are going to improve the story as a whole.

That’s how writing works and many other times RT has demonstrated that they understand that. In Volume 4 how do we learn about Jaune getting new armor? We’re dropped into a fight where he’s struggling because he doesn’t have his sword, the group goes to a blacksmith that’s been created solely to provide Jaune with this update, there’s a scene wherein he dons the outfit, and there’s a conversation where we establish that this was made from Pyrrha’s armor, highlighting the character and thematic importance of this. If Jaune had just shown up in Volume 4 with a new look and critics wondered where in the world he got all that, there’s no explanation for this, it just randomly appeared… others would have started insisting that it just wasn’t possible to show that evolution on screen, there wasn't time, Jaune was too busy doing his job as a huntsmen to show you how he got his armor... even though the canon demonstrates that of course writing a journey that answered the audience's basic questions was always possible. Many fans approach RWBY like a historical event, something that happened the way it happened and only a delusional idiot would think they can change the facts of these real people going about their real lives, rather than approaching it like the malleable, fictional work it is, where if something doesn’t make sense, it’s because the writers failed to make choices that would lead to a cohesive story.

Case in point: my Jaune example doesn’t account for the fact that the show never explains how he got the armor in the first place. Pyrrha was killed up on the tower while Jaune was blasting off in the weapon locker. There’s no indication that someone like Qrow picked those pieces up, there’s no explanation why Jaune would get it over Pyrrha’s family, and none of this even takes into account that everything but Pyrrha’s headpiece disintegrated after Cinder's attack. Even when RWBY is working to set things up and follow through on the questions the audience might have, it’s an attempt still riddled with holes.

At this point in the series, eight years in, we have a wealth of examples where RWBY fails to meet basic writing expectations and the commentaries are riddled with admissions that they forgot this, should have done that, admit that this was confusing, that they couldn’t stick to their own rules here, etc. We have both textual and Word of God evidence that these writers frequently fail to craft a story where the audience can follow along without buying bonus content of dubious canonical status, spending time in fandom communities going, "Wait, can someone explain this to me?" or just throwing up their hands because no one has an explanation for this, good luck thinking up one yourself. It really shouldn’t be a hot take anymore to say that RWBY is often missing crucial pieces like “Did not establish Theodore as a character,” yet many fans remain too enamored with the version of RWBY they've headcanoned to just admit that yeah, the writers made a mistake. Again.

Other than emphasizing that RWBY is a fictional construct that the writers have complete control over, the second thing I'd want the fandom to learn is that acknowledging a story's flaws doesn't bar you from loving it. A lot of fans act like if they ever gave any ground to criticism and admitted that RWBY is less than perfect, they'd lose their Allowed To Enjoy RWBY card. It's like they're convinced that this thing they enjoy comes with the requirement of never ever saying anything bad about it... and to some extent, they're right. Because the fandom has rejected criticism to such an extreme that you're immediately ostracized from major portions of the community simply for voicing any criticism, no matter how mild. What was the recent Reddit drama if not evidence that, if given the chance, many fans will permanently cut anyone critical from the community? Fans know that if they were to ever commit the great sin of going, "Hey, that RWDE blog has a point" many others would turn on them and the part of their RWBY enjoyment stemming from community interaction would be irrevocably changed. Some fans just need to learn that you can love something while admitting to its flaws; others I think would be happy to do that if the rest of the fandom hadn't made it clear that this approach comes with social consequences. A part of me really gets why many fans double down on praising RWBY and rejecting discussion out of hand. It's a way of distancing themselves: a witty jab with eye-roll emoji proves to everyone reading that you're not anything like the "hatedom," but a legitimate discussion shows that maybe, just maybe, you're giving those opinions a fair shake... and we can't have that, can we? That means you're a hater. That means you're probably out on twitter harassing RT. That means you're someone the rest of the fandom needs to reject because having you around would just ruin all the "real" fans' fun. So you head on over to the RWDE corners of the Internet and yay, people are happy to discuss RWBY with you again, but entering those groups has now "proven" that you were never a true fan to begin with. It's a lose-lose situation unless you agree to never entertain criticism in the first place. And if you know that agreeing with a take might lose you your circle of online friends, lose an audience you've worked hard to develop, and result in a whole slew of hate in your inbox... yeah, safer and more enjoyable to just agree with the crowed and reiterate that RWBY is flawless. Better that than deal with the alternative.

[amorisland]

My more detailed thoughts on the Leak/spoilers as I read them:

[don’t read if you don’t wanna know I just want to vent somewhere while reading through them]

(I decided to post this after all for those who couldn’t read the scripts before they were privated and maybe want to know more) 

the line in episode 34 where MC’s partner says they don’t understand how people expect men and women to smell like different things is such a Will thing I just love him sm 

Wowsers they’re shoving Kelly down our throats, I think they really are trying to push her as the next Chelsea or something she’s EVERYWHERE in chapter 34 its kinda annoying. Like she seems lovely but FB really set her up stalking mc  

ALSO WILL + MC HIDEAWAY SCENE????? HSJLKSJDFKS YES PLEASE 

Will CAN pick MC at the recoupling sobbing crying throwing up but his speech should be better, he poured his heart out for thabi then we get “i don’t know what i’m doing or where i’m going but i like the ride” 🙄

AWWW Will was nervous about picking MC even though it was a guys day (also its an exclusive text for him, the others are nervous too but written differently) 

OH MY GOD if you aren’t with Will he picks Tiffany? Plot twist and here we all were thinking it was Kelly (but Will has a prom outfit and Tiff and Kelly don’t interesting) 

Oh god yeah Tom isn’t for me, you’ve known each other like 3 days and you pop an I love you during a recoupling speech? gives me the ick 

Kelly gets eliminated??? Over Angie (no offense I ADORE Angie but she’s been single for 3 recouplings??) People are gonna be PISSED 

WILL (?) TALKING ABOUT UNCLOGGING THE SINK AGAIN AND ASKING IF IT WAS ROMANTIC FOR MC JKLDSJKFDLS BYE 

The omelette/scramble talk sounds like Will too, (Pretty sure it is Will exclusive seeing MC call him Will directly) talking about the slow burn and how lots of people don’t like waiting around 😭 I’m falling in love

“Will finds James comforting. He thinks of him as a dad.” 💀

The game remembers that Will is ticklish I love that 

HAHA Will being worried about another boy with tats 

Youcef’s “Maybe I made a mistake” talking about Dylan I’m dying 

Oliver is turning my head a little, might need to run a second game for him buuut I still feel weird that Will is the only dom guy (and even then I get the feeling Will is a switch) every guy this season is subby which isn’t totally bad I love myself a good switch 

OLIVER HAS A PET CAT NAMED DANDELION I LOVE HIM 

LOL poor Anj she finally see’s a guy she's interested in and MC gets voted to go on the dates instead of her, also yet again we go on another date where we can’t pick our date sigh LET ME GO ON A DATE WITH MY CHOSEN PARTNER 

Will better not get up to something while I’m on a date AGAIN or I’m gonna slap someone probably him

Not Dylan saying artist have unsteady jobs, which is so funny bc I headcanon my mc as being a successful artist who finally got her big break and is selling her art for a lot of money like babe she probably makes more money than you

Dylan is literally just Jakub 2.0 

Dylan “back at home they call me vanilla ice cream” MC “Because it's bland and full of low expectations?”  💀 💀 💀 💀

Oliver Oliver Oliver I love him he’s turning my head so much its spinning also towel daddy is no daddy he’s subby and that’s okay

SITTING ON WILL’S LAP SITTING ON WILL’S LAP SITTING ON WILL’S- 

People seriously thought Will would cheat on us when its Dylan being a dickhead and saying WE cheated my heart’s going to break 

AND THEY FIND OUT ABOUT YOU KISSING HAZEEM HAHAHAHA but I wasn’t with Will when it happened so he can’t be mad at me for it? He had just pied me off for Thabi and my mc was so confused 🥺

During the Dylan argument Will seems to have his own separate dialogue in which he opens up a bit more and I like that there’s multiple outcomes like? Will can dump you or you can work things out from what I can tell which is nice its giving me ON vibes except in this we’re Noah??? and someone is trying to test our relationship??? lol

“I had a miserable night without you too. As lonely as the moon hanging in the empty sky above a mountaintop” WILL HAND IN MARRIAGE RIGHT NOW 

“No one does this kind of crap to my girl. No one.” this is probably Bruno or all the LIs/Besties but this line right here. I love. 

“We belong together now, you won’t get rid of me that easily!” 😭

MC gets to pick first at the final recoupling! Hee haw 

Endgame options (as far as I can tell) are Angie, Bruno, James, Najuma, Youcef, Oliver, Tom, and Will? 

Okay I skipped ahead to chapter 47 and Will YOU KINKY BASTARD I LOVE YOU he’s done it in airplanes, saunas, you name it 

okay back to chapter 42 the way I screamed at the “you and Will are enjoying a lazy afternoon in the sun” AS I SHOULD’VE BEEN ALL DAMN SEASON 

 “It might have taken us a long time to find each other, but I'm glad we did." " feel like a fool for not coupling up with you sooner.” WILL 💍💍💍💍 

Okay that dialogue is repeated with like everyone 😔 

And that’s all that I live wrote as I was reading because I was getting tired and skimmed through the last few chapters, I didn’t even get to read chapter 48 😭💔 I hope it gets reposted somewhere  

[emsvegetables]

18th: a little sentence exposes kita.

- in which you bump into kita in the streets, and you meet little yumi, the 6-year-old girl he’s babysitting. (she’s cute! she’s adorable! and she’s let something slip?)

no. of words: 1.3k

okay hi holy shit wtf i hope this is okay bc again i just wrote whatever came to my mind and wrote this is one sitting so i apologise if this is subpar or if this was horrible to read. i am so sorry. but i hope this is okay!! i hope you like this ;)

you’re walking down the streets, hands laden with groceries when someone catches your eye.

it’s kita.

ignoring the fact that you had a major crush on him, kita’s always been such a great friend to you. he always helped you carry the water bottle bag on the way to practice, always helped you with your homework if he saw you struggling in class, always helped to carry your books to your locker after class, always bought you extra soybean milk that his grandmother made on days that practice started super early, always lent you his team jacket if you left yours at home by accident and was feeling cold, and always was willing to listen to you vent if you had something to talk about at 2am in the morning. he’s been so sweet to you, but you know it’s just how he was brought up. his grandmother taught him well, and you know that you can’t afford to throw this entire friendship away just because he was being decently nice to you.

when you stand up straighter and shift your groceries onto one hand to wave at him and call his name, you blink when a little girl pokes out from behind him and meets your eyes.

before you can even say or do anything, she’s running forward and hugging you tightly.

“hi!” you say, letting out a laugh, bending down to put the bags of groceries on the floor and hugging her back, “what’s your name?”

“yumi, what did i say about hugging strangers—” kita begins, but falls silent when he meets your eyes and smiles, “hey, (Y/N).”

“hey, kita,” you send him a grateful smile when he bends forward to pick up the groceries you’ve left on the floor.

“your name is yumi, then?” you smile, and pat the little girl’s head when she nods, “how old are you?”

she grins at you toothily, before holding up five fingers, “i’m six!”

you laugh, and pick her up gently, letting her wrap her arms around your shoulders as you shift her into a comfortable position on your arms, “six! wow! you’re so old!”

“another babysitting job?” you say, turning to face kita, who has a smile present on his face.

“well, she’s my neighbour, and i had time, so why not,” he says, before glancing down at the grocery bags he was holding in his arm, “helping your mom to buy these? are you heading home now?”

“i’m sorry, they’re super heavy, i can carry them if you want—”

“no, no, it’s okay,” kita waves you off with a smile, “i don’t mind. i can help you carry them home.”

“but what about yumi—”

“i was just taking her out for a walk. there’s a playground near your house right? we’ll just stop by there after we’re done.”

“we?”

kita falls silent, and when he meets your eyes again, there’s a small blush dusting his cheeks, “if you don’t mind hanging out with us after you bring the groceries home. it’s okay if you don’t want to, of course.”

you smile, and try to ignore the beating in your chest when you hear those words, “of course i don’t mind, kita.”

“cool,” he smiles back, “let’s walk to your house then.”

“i’m a big girl now,” yumi says along the way, and you gasp, “really?”

yumi nods proudly, a pleased smile surfacing on her face, “yes! i learned how to sweep the floor yesterday!”

“good job! you really are a big girl, yumi!” you say, and yumi smiles again, “thank you! you’re very pretty.”

you let out a short laugh and smile at her, “thank you, yumi, you’re very pretty as well.”

“it’s very nice to meet you in person! you’re prettier than the pictures!” yumi says, and you tilt your head slightly in confusion when you hear that.

“in person? pictures?” you question, and you hear kita cough and choke.

“yumi—” kita begins, but yumi merely nods fervently at you and continues on, “yeah! did you know kita has a lot of pictures of you and him in his favourites album? i mean, there’s other people as well, like his grandma! and there’s also this guy with pee-coloured hair, oh, and this guy that looks exactly like the pee dude! only he has gray hair. he’s cool. there’s also this guy that has brown hair, but there’s a lot of pictures of you with him!”

you blink in surprise, and you feel your cheeks start to heat up, and kita sucks in a deep breath and shakes his head, “it’s really not like that, i just add my friends into the album—”

“and kita talks about you a lot! sometimes when he comes over i’ll ask him how his day was, and he always talks about you! he says you’re very pretty and nice! and sometimes, when i go over to his house to give him food, i overhear his grandma asking about you! and kita always talks about how nice you are—”

“yumi, that’s enough,” kita finally cuts in, and yumi falls silent, but continues to smile at you.

“i’m so sorry,” kita leans in to whisper to you as you guys continue to walk, “i sound like a creep. i swear i’m not.”

you laugh, “and that’s what all the creeps say.”

when kita flushes a little bit more and opens his mouth to apologise somemore, you shake your head and put out a hand to stop him, “don’t worry, kita, it’s okay. i know you’re not a creep.”

you smile when you see him relax out of the corner of your eye, and you take a deep breath to try to steady the rapid beating in your chest.

-

“hey, (Y/N)?”

the both of you were walking home now, after you guys dropped yumi off at her house. kita insisted that he walked you home, even though his house was literally right beside yumi’s. you knew you couldn’t win in an argument against kita because he was stubborn as hell, so you sighed and allowed him to walk you home.

“hmm?”

“about just now,” kita begins, “i’m so sorry, i—”

“kita, relax,” you smile, and reach forward to pat him on the shoulder, “it’s okay. really. i know you aren’t a creep.”

kita laughs, but it sounds forced, and you turn to stare at him, “kita? you okay?”

he sighs, and shuffles his feet slightly before meeting your eyes.

“i’m afraid i haven’t been very honest,” he says, and you raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“i’ve liked you for a while now, (Y/N),” he finally says after a long pause, “but, i’m not forcing you to accept me or anything. i just wanted to let you know the truth. and the pictures? i just add nice pictures of my friends and i into my favourites album, i didn’t really realise that there were a lot of pictures of us. i also didn’t realise i talked so much about you to other people until yumi pointed it out. i understand if you think i’m a total creep and i understand if you don’t want to talk to me ever again.”

you let out a laugh, and it’s kita’s turn to look at you in confusion.

“you’re cute,” you say, and kita lets out a confused noise and widens his eyes.

“what?”

“i said you’re cute, kita,” you grin, and you reach forward to wrap your arms around his neck, “you might not know this, but i kinda like you too.”

and when you pull back, his eyes are shining, and there’s a wide smile spread across his face.

back to my fluffvember masterlist!

general taglist :)

send an ask to be added in :D

@mrs-kuroojinguji @galacticstxrdust @h0rny-m3ss @strawberriimilkshake @lexysclubhouse @alluringeternity @aam1na @simpinghrs @boosyboo9206 @earl-mint-tea @sachirou-senpai @kuboyasuuu @cotton-hashira @kellesvt @mochipk @ohbois-biggay-bnha @deadontheinsidebut @atsumubabe @wisepandaslimeland @kenmasbabie @doodleniella @tttournesolll @millie-mint @the-moons-raes @chaosamu @flairlust @l3v1achan @bellesowl @wheeshllumi @karasimpno @sodasketches @dai-tsukki-desu @isentsworld @lavearchives

fluffvember taglist:

send an ask if you only want to be added to this instead of the general taglist!

@omigogames @unicorngluttony @thesecondapplepienation @tsukisemi @tamaguchi @omibaby @psycopath-satan @shibayamasbae @churochuu @crazyrichashea @let-me-have-my-own-name @fo-love @heykoutarou @lovelyrynn @neomuxuxi @haikyuuhopes @bluntkingkuroo @abswrites @ne-kuroo @yadane-bakabaka @song-of-storms162 @lady-snavely

i’ll tag those that i wasn’t able to tag later!!! this is a scheduled post.

[thechangeling]

My thoughts concerning the downworld

I wrote this two years ago but I can't find the original post since tumblr's tagging system is a literal joke. So I'm re-posting it!

Alright. So I was rereading The Mortal Instruments and I sort of realized something that really pissed me off. Of course we all know that in every book there is discrimination against the downworld in forms of outright bigotry and hate comments or just ignorance and confusion. However I personally have been noticing lately how in all the books there is very little catharsis after those moments. There are no instances of any downworlder actively turning around and just Going. Off. I mean like really going off. Like have you seen protests with emotionally charged and wronged people? They are fucking livid because they have every right to be. I personally have been in situations like this regarding combating LGBTQ hate and there is nothing more satisfying then just letting lose because you have had enough of this treatment. I often compare Downworlders in this fictional society to marginalized people in our real one.  Some people disagree with that idea and that's fine but it's always how I perceived it.  For instance, take moments like Tessa Gray in The Infernal devices walking into that room filled with Downworlder body parts being displayed as trophies is very similar to white settlers hunting down Indigenous people to display their heads as trophies. No one talks about that horrifying practice enough in our society just like the fandom doesn't talk about what happened to Tessa. She deserved catharsis in that moment and so did we.

The Clave has not apologized to the Downworlder community for the events of the circle to the best of my knowledge. Most Shadowhunters don't even believe it's their responsibility to take ownership for what happened because it wasn't them and it is "in the past". Just like most white people (and full disclaimer, I say this as a white person) believe that it is not their responsibility to apologize for the events of the past (colonialism).  In the Dark Artifices there is talk of registering downworlds just like the Jewish people in the 40s and non-white immigrants today. (Because let's be honest the only immigrants Trump wants to get rid of are the non-white ones) Speaking of that asshole, Horace Dearborn is obviously based on him. QOAAD came out right in the middle of the racist shitstorm ravaging the US and the similarities are obviously striking. So my point is, if all of this is very noticable, why is there very little catharsis for those of us who can relate to these characters and these situations? I myself am angry along with them and I desperately want to see justice done. Real justice. Now that the cohort is locked in Idris and Alec has become consul it may seem like the problem is supposedly solved. Not really. Shadowhunters still have some stepping stones to cross in order to make things right in my opinion. I really dont want to see everyone, (especially Downworlders) just brush all those issues to the side and pretend like they're over.

  I also have a problem with certain Shadowhunters being praised as "Downworlder saviors" kind of like white savior complex. Although I might not be the best person to talk about this. If you are a POC and you disagree with me on this then please let me know because I never want to speak over any POC. This is just something that has been rubbing me the wrong way. For example, Livia's watch and the use of it as a downworlder rights group. As much as I understand Julian wanting to honor his lost sister. Using her as some sort of beacon for Downworlder rights really is not fair because she just wasn't. Also I find it really uncomfortable that a Shadowhunter, Julian, is trying to take control of a Downworlder rights group and say what it should be and how it should be organized. It just strikes me as a little white saviory. Continuing on with the whole white savior conversation, I was talking with a friend and we couldn't help but notice that the narrative of CC's books is very problematic seeing as there are the "good Shadowhunters" trying to save the downworld from the "bad Shadowhunters" because for some reason Downworlders need saving and should be grateful for the help of the good Shadowhunters. Also Shadowhunters are a lot like cops, and when I say that I do mean killing marginalized people for no reason and enforcing racist laws, type cops. But Cassie writes this narrative of the good cops who aren't like that who want to change the system.

This contributes to the whole "There are some bad apples sure, but there are also some good cops" mentality. This is pretty frickin problematic, especially given current events.

  CC also paints the narrative to be against Downworlders who are rightly furious with the Clave and shadowhunters as a whole and have some hatred for nephilim kind as a result of, oh you know.... hundred years of oppression, violence and discrimination. They become the villains of the story like Barnabas and Shinyun, and to make sure you know they're the villains, CC needs to sprinkle in typical shady cult like villain behavior into the narrative. All of the good downworlders are either friends with or dating shadowhunters, or are at least somewhat sympathetic to Shadowhunters like Ragnor. Does anyone see the problem with this? So now being angry and bitter towards your oppressors is villian behavior? Great message CC. Absolutely wonderful.

I also have a problem with Shadowhunters not wanting to kill members of the cohort when they are literal nazis. You don't redeem people like that! If the cohort were Downworlders and not Shadowhunters then they would have killed them and that's just the tea.

I'm sorry I know this is a lot of words to read but I just needed to vent. If you disagree with of course feel free to share your opinion in the comments.

@amchara @sandersgrey this was what I was referencing

[koumagda]

“I'll be your shadow

Go wherever you want to go

You can take me to the greatest unknowns

As long as I am in your heart” —Shadow Man by STVN

Hello. I think that it’s time that I acknowledge everyone who comments, likes, reblogs, and even sends in asks.

And... I have a story/personal note from me. Scroll until you hit bold if that’s what you wanna read.

First of all, thank you all for supporting me. I want you to know that I read, and I hear all of you—every one of your asks, reviews, comments, and questions.

Are you still working on Don’t Touch Me?

Yes... slowly. I’m so glad you like it, but I’m struggling to find the will to write right now ;)) thanks for your patience

Can I reference Don’t Touch Me in my own fanfics?

Sure thing ;)) I’m honored that you want to do that. Just please don’t write anything that implies future events/changes the plot I wrote so far.

I love delinquent Akko! Are you going to do more of it?

I’m currently not planning anything, but I can throw something together if you’d like~

I hope you’re doing well, are you alright??

Somewhat.

TW: SUICIDE/DEATH, read now at your own discretion

Dear readers/followers/LWA community,

I’m writing this mostly because a couple people have told me that I seem a bit unapproachable nowadays, a little bit more difficult to understand. And... I figured that if you really want to be let into my world, then I’d offer you the chance right now. Read ahead if you can handle the aforementioned theme.

If you’ve seen the other posts on my blog, you might already know that I’ve been struggling with suicidal thoughts for awhile now. Currently, there’s nothing extreme, nothing too wrong in my personal life... I am tired. For this reason, I put DTM and art on a hold, though you might’ve seen a couple depressing one-shots on AO3.

At 3:00pm yesterday, I closed my laptop, and I went and laid on the floor. Why? I have no idea, it just felt right. Now that I think about it, I might’ve been trying to get in touch with my surroundings. Perhaps I was trying to feel “alive”.

At around 3:40pm, I stood up and checked my phone. There were no new messages, and so I closed my eyes and looked at the wall. Without realizing it, my gaze had shifted to the shiny, metal knob of my house’s basement door.

I walked downstairs, dragging my feet against the rough texture of the carpet with each step. I then found myself standing in front of that wooden cabinet. I stared at it for a few moments before moving to curl my fingers around its thin handles. What I expected was the solid, antagonistic feeling of the cabinet refusing to budge against the weak force of my arms.

It clicked open.

The light hit the painted wood of the hunting rifles meant to pierce feathers rather than human skin. I stood still for a couple minutes, and then I reached for the one my father most frequently used. I kept laughing to myself. Who would just leave a cabinet full of firearms unlocked? So irresponsible. What were they thinking? It would be bad if something were to happen. What if someone got ahold of these?

Were they loaded?

That didn’t matter. I noticed a small container of bullets peeking out from the shadows of the cabinet. There was ammunition available.

The rifle found its way into my hands. It was heavier than I expected. My eyes skimmed over the length of the neck. They swept from the barrel to the trigger. A rough estimation told me that it would be incredibly difficult to shoot myself from an angle. Given the length of my arms, I would likely end up giving myself a non-lethal injury. But... maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try.

My phone buzzed.

I put the gun back, handling it gently as if it were more fragile than I was. When I checked my phone, I read through a message that a friend had sent me, asking for a favor. Figuring that I needed to help her out, I decided that today was just not my day. I wonder if she knows that she just saved a life.

However I did not close the cabinet doors immediately. The curiosity inside me begged to admire the firearms just a little longer. So I did, I indulged myself. But what I didn’t expect was to burst into tears. Uncontrollable, ugly sobbing. A hyperventilating that only one person could control. Faint pats of those tears slinking down my face, which was probably twisted into some sort of ugly expression, and hitting the floor below.

I turned, wiped my face, and continued on with my day.

Thanks for visiting my... rant? Vent?? I hope that... if you felt like I was distant or carelessly abandoning my work or... if you just wanted to be a little closer to me or my head... that this gave you some insight on me and who I am..? I’m not sure. I am struggling. But to everyone out there who’s also fighting suicidal thoughts, you better know that you sure as hell aren’t alone.

I wrote “today is just not my day” on a slip of paper yesterday evening.

So don’t let today be your day.

Thanks 💙

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

tw: very long vent incoming:

i hate fandom discourse so fucking much and every goddamn time i think i’ve come across a fandom that’s free of it it’s not and every time it gives me a panic attack and i hate it because i know it makes me a shitty person i know it does that’s part of why it gives me a panic attack but i just,, i try to put as much energy as i can outside of fandom to being a good person and a good activist and it can be tiring as fuck for a teenage girl who’s had to spend her years of growing up in this fucked up excuse of a world and fandom is my only place of escape from that but then it isn’t and it never is and every time i’m suddenly being yelled at that i’m racist or i’m transphobic or i’m sexist or i’m homophobic (those last two are especially fun since i’m literally. a queer woman.) and it’s just a lot to handle and the problem usually doesn’t even make sense to me like,, as someone who was into hamilton for a while and understands now that it is Fucked Up, ofmd really doesn’t seem like the same thing like?? i get that the real people were shitty and i get that it’s kinda weird that they used real names instead of creating new characters but like,, people aren’t being like “oh my god the real actual person blackbeard/stede bonnet is my poor little meow meow and i love him omg!!” like they were with hamilton (or at least not that i’ve seen. if they are then. stop. obviously.) like it’s just the names and careers and general dates that are the same there’s little fuck all for historical accuracy in this show it’s not supposed to be a biography defending these slave owners because yeah of course they were terrible people, irl blackbeard was fucking AWFUL jfc i knew that going into this show,, these are fictional characters,,, and i KNOW that i shouldn’t say this i shouldn’t get a say in this i know that full well goddamnit and i hate myself for it i hate that i can’t just accept valid criticism of things it’s my least favorite thing about myself and that’s saying something because there’s a lot i hate about myself, but i just. i can’t lose that happy space of a hyperfixation i CAN’T. i never can it’s always the bright spot in my life and that’s why i’ve always hated discourse but now especially,,,, ofmd and cr are the ONLY good things for me right now i am in a VERY bad place mentally except for the little bit of joy that those things bring me and i can’t afford to lose that i can’t afford to be a good person and not consume problematic media it’s literally the only thing keeping me going i’m legitimately scared of what will happen if i let this discourse get to me and i lose ofmd i need these hyperfixations or i’m going to be in a. very very bad place mentally. obviously ignore all of this i just need to word vomit into the void or i’m going to actively have a panic attack,,, and please please please god don’t give me shit on this don’t try to explain the discourse further if you read this post and your takeaway is that you should just continue the discourse on this post then ur a shitty person and please just fuck off. i know i’m a shitty person too. believe me. i don’t need to hear it again.

[beacon-lamp]

Thoughts on dreams response?

so i read the 19 page paper and then watched dream’s response video.  don’t really know what the discourse surrounding his response is bc ✨i don’t care enough to go purposefully looking for it ✨

my overall thoughts on the Entire Situation under the cut because i talk A Lot:

first and foremost, the math in the paper is Incredibly Thorough.  dream gave the Abridged Version in his video bc i doubt most people read the entire thing.  but if you read the paper, you’ll see the author point out what calculations the mods did wrong and, more importantly, why they were wrong and how they fixed it.  you’ll also notice that they mentioned several times that the results the author calculated did match some of that of the mods’ calculations.  we love reproducibility.

questioning the credibility of the author is a waste of time and energy.  they’re Anonymous for a reason.  imagine getting a fucking doctorate in statistics (an additional 4-8 years of study after college in the US) and your biggest paycheck of the year comes from some dude in florida who plays minecraft for a living.  jokes aside, you can argue in circles about “oh dream bribed the expert” but the intentions of the author and purpose of the paper are clearly stated in the first couple pages.  before all the math stuff.  people were so quick to believe the stuff in the paper the volunteer mods put out.  why not believe the expert too?

there is a greater lesson here to be learned about bias.  both for and against dream.  it was Incredibly Concerning to see So Many People immediately jump to “dream cheated 100%” or “dream would never cheat he’s the best” before understanding all of the facts.  i’ll admit, even i fell into this trap before i took a step back from the situation to look at the big picture.  we all have biases, many of which we aren’t even aware of.  but it’s always important to recognize those biases and account for them as much as possible before drawing conclusions, especially those that have real world implications.  it’s also important to listen to Experts and those who Know More Than You.  sometimes you just have to shut up and listen.  you’re not going to know everything and that is Fine as long as you are open to Learning from those with credibility and knowledge.  you’re going to make mistakes and have opinions you’ll later look back on and *cringe* and all of that is fine because we are all Growing and Learning. 

aight let’s talk about the mods.  i’ve already like vented in the tags of a post from like 2 week ago and my point still stands.  statistics is Very Difficult to Do and unfortunately is an Incredibly Powerful Tool.  there is No Right Way to do stats.  the data is unbiased but the analysis and interpretation of that data can be.  once again, that’s why it’s important to account for your biases.  the mods tried.  i’ll give them credit, i really do believe they Tried.  but unfortunately trying sometimes just isn’t Good Enough.  statistics can be weaponized to push forward an agenda, whether or not the author intended it.  i know that this is “just minecraft” and it only affects “one person” but inaccurate publications or misrepresentations of data have Real Life Consequences.  one Disproven and publicly denounced paper had people Believing that vaccines cause autism, contributing to the antivax movement that is Once Again having an impact during coronatime.  the point is, the mods should’ve consulted a professional.  someone with credentials about their math.  there is no doubt in my mind that they knew the fallout that was to come.  the drama this would stir up.  there was Obvious, Documented bias against dream from the beginning.  i’m sure there were people who wanted to take him down at least a peg or two.  but once again, that’s no excuse to publish this without consulting a Credible Expert.  i’m going in circles now you get the point, academic integrity is Very Important.  also News Outlets have reported on this, overall shedding a pretty negative light on the minecraft speedrunning community as a whole, which also harms the mods too in my opinion.

finally, let’s talk about dream.  if you don’t like him, that’s fine.  it’s Okay to Not Like Someone.  to Stop Watching their content.  to Stop Supporting Them.  dream responded incredibly immaturely to this entire situation, as we have seen him do Multiple Times before.  personally, i don’t believe the excuse “i acted without thinking and i’m sorry” cuts it anymore, given his 14M subscriber count and 1M+ twitter followers.  he is a grown adult and should learn to conduct himself better publicly.  i have friends his age and this behavior in a professional setting, which for him twitter is because social media/ content creator is quite literally his job, would be Completely Unacceptable.  it’s perfectly valid to be angry and yell about it to his friends, hell i’d be Furious.  but he should know better than to tweet impulsively.  feel free to draw your own conclusions on him as a CC and public figure.  please do.  i know “cancel culture” has deviated from it’s Original Meaning (much like the term “stan” has too) but hold content creators accountable for their actions.  do not blindly defend him.  at the same time, acknowledge that he is a young adult who is still growing and learning.  these two ideas can and should coexist.  however, ***do not accept apologies that are not yours to accept***.  shut up and listen to others who know more than you about a particular thing.  think for yourselves.  draw your own conclusions but always be willing to Grow if/when you Learn New Information.

the world is Complicated.  i’m sorry.  i wish it were easier too.

in conclusion, i can’t believe *this* is the first time i’ve used statistics knowledge outside of an academic setting and in the Real World.  2020 is fucking wack.  if you’ve made it this far, thank you for coming to my incoherent ted talk.  no one is going to read this whole thing and i’ve accepted that.