#i stopped referring to myself by terms used in the community and such as well

[jpegcompressor]

"i'm normal" i say, as if the only thing that brings me true happiness in my life ISN'T (non-whitewashed) drawings of a fictional character that is the equivalent of a snickerdoodle

[eowyn-igneelcheshire]

Reblog this, spread the word

For anyone who is unaware, MAP means "minor attracted person" though this is nothing but a false name Pedophiles use in attempt to weasel their way into the Queer community. If you see anyone using this flag, block them and report them if you can.

Edit: I've seen a lot of people mention this so I'd like to state it here as well so more people can see it. 1) DO NOT REFER TO PEDOPHILES AS "MAPS". The only reason I used it here was to make people aware of what it means in this context. Children are unfortunately extremely likely to run into pedophiles on the internet (I myself was contacted by several back when I was still a minor, some before I even knew what "map" flags were). Some- not all, but some- are very open about being pedophiles, and of the ones who are open about it, most hide themselves behind the title "Minor Attracted Person" and use the "pride" flags they and 4chan users create. I have also run into these kinds of pedophiles on the internet and I only knew that they weren't safe and I needed to block them because I knew about the "map" thing and I recognized some of their flags. Actually using it when talking about pedophiles does nothing but help them hide and it also hurts the animation community. Which brings me to point 2) the term "MAP" in animation is an acronym for "Multi Animator Project". If you see an animation video with MAP in the title it simply means that the video was made in a collaboration between several animators, it is in no way related to pedophiles or pedophilia. We need to stop calling pedophiles MAPs both to stop giving them an "innocent" sounding title and to stop hurting the animators who are simply trying to keep their titles short and simple.

(where I got this image: https://pin.it/6SgjdcX)

@sanityshorror @sobertober6969 thought you two would want to share this with your followers

[qqueenofhades]

can you assuage my creeping fear about the debate between harris and trump? my brain is like. the media will be salivating over any chance to get the story HARRIS FLUBS THE DEBATE MORE AT 6 unless she's 100% perfect for it. i keep telling myself that she's an incredibly seasoned prosecutor who knows exactly what to do to unravel these sorts of people, she has plenty of time to prepare, he's completely gone over the edge into incoherence most of the time, but i also keep thinking of how, after weeks of her absolutely pile-driving the republican party, the media will be circling for any mistake, mis-step, or imperfection to blow out of proportion to make it seem like she's failing. i guess what i'm afraid of is the other shoe dropping? or the bubble bursting? i'm afraid of this hope?

i was barely aware of obama in 2008, too young to vote and not paying attention, so i don't know how this kind of momentum turned into the juggernaut that got him elected. i know you believe that the same can happen here, how did he take on the predatory press?

Well, first, we need to recognize that the media treatment of the debate WILL be wildly unfair, full stop. If Trump shows up and puts on pants, he will be applauded by the media, because they have the lowest imaginable bar where he is concerned and everything that would have been multiply-disqualifying for any other candidate makes them just shrug and find a way to make excuses for him. So yes, he will literally be congratulated if he shows up on September 10, because that is how the media works. See: three relentless weeks of bullying Biden out of the race after the bad debate, barely mentioning Trump's equally insane diatribes at the same debate, and now, when he's gone full-on demented and is raving about AI-generated crowds at Kamala's events? Nary a peep. Lol.

However, the main narrative that's emerging from the Harris takeover is that voters and the media are miles apart on where they actually see this race going, and without the media's favorite chew toy of Biden's shortcomings, it has become increasingly difficult to avoid focusing on Trump's flaws, even tangentially. See the mainstream media reporters whining constantly that Harris hasn't given them a press conference and congratulating Trump for lying to them nonstop for an hour; they simply have no frame of reference that's remotely useful, because they are so beholden to making Trump look like a normal candidate and focusing on Harris's "flaws" as if they are remotely comparable to his. But at the same time, there has been a far heightened level of pushback on this BS manipulation, and everybody can see through it, precisely because the media and/or the right-wing smear machine has tried this so many times before and their tactics are now completely transparent. Ordinary voters don't give a shit whether Harris WiLl tAkE qUesTioNs fRoM tHe mEdiA; they're too busy flooding her campaign with donations, attending her rallies, signing up for volunteer shifts, and so forth. In fact, the reason the media is trying SO HARD to kill her momentum is because they, like Trump, rely on doing so. The more they try and don't succeed, the more panicked they'll get. We have to prepare for that, and we have to have her back.

That said, we should recall that Harris easily crushed Pence in their debate in 2020, and Pence was actually halfway presentable at it compared to Trump (which is a low bar, but still). The way Trump "wins" is that he just repeats a lot of lies forcefully and over and over, which Biden was ill-prepared to counter because he has a far more deliberate and decisive speaking style (related to stutter/speech difficulties, temperament as a politician, etc). Everything that I have seen from the Harris campaign in terms of communication so far, however, has been the exact kind of clapback that makes Trump look stupid and which shows that they are very attuned to the kind of strategies that work against that nonsensical bullying Gish gallop. Therefore, I have to trust that they have INTENSIVELY studied what went wrong with Biden/Trump in June, and also empowered Kamala to do what she does in her fashion and which has been extremely successful thus far at knocking down Trump's BS. Also, she's just a better and more fluent communicator than Biden, she looks and sounds more energetic, and those stupid aesthetic Vibes are half of the battle when it comes to convincing the public.

Also, we should recognize that Trump looked deeply creepy on stage at the debates with HRC in 2016, and that was when he was downright sane compared to now. He stalked her, he stood behind her, he rolled his eyes, he bullied her, and people noticed that (he subsequently won the election, yes, but if nothing else, 2024 feels nothing like 2016). If he has to stand on stage with a black woman kicking his ass, after his appearance at the NABJ event in Chicago quickly became a touchstone for how badly he fucked it up, he is going to just look BAD, and when that's the case, people will immediately fit it into the existing narrative (that he's scared of Harris and deeply racist and unglued). You can also play your part in making sure it does. At least half of the Bidengate furor came from Democrats melting down and yelling about it afterward, and that led into the knives-out media coverage that spiraled for 3.5 weeks until Biden withdrew. We can, yknow, NOT DO THAT this time!

So: yeah. We have to be aware that yes, the media coverage of the debate will find absolutely every excuse to praise Trump and bash Harris, because that's just baked in. However, we can also understand that there's a wide-and-getting-wider CHASM between how ordinary voters see things right now and how the media is desperate to play it, and the more transparent they get, the more easily we are able to call it out. (See Lawrence O'Donnell's rant the other night.) We are going to have to keep doing that and not let up, but it's not going to go well for Trump either way and it's still an open question as to whether he even shows up after trying SO hard to dodge. It's not out of the question that he'll announce on September 4 that by Harris not showing up to the Fox debate she never agreed to and which exists only in his deluded mind, he doesn't have to do the same on September 10. He is a scared fucking orange chickenshit who KNOWS he's badly outmatched against Harris and whose entire campaign strategy at this point relies on lying low and trying not to make voters remember again how much they hate him, which is already backfiring. And with your help, we can make him MORE scared all the way to prison. Let's do it.

[our-lesboy-experience]

hiii!!! so uh, this is sorta about 'contradicting' (?) identities in general, but i only recently found out about, like, lesboys and gaygirls and all of that, but what is it exactly? like how does it work? or is that weird to ask? i'm trying figuring myself out but a lot of stuff i've seen doesn't exactly... explain it (or explain it well), and while i guess i do get why, it's just kinda hard to understand it myself for my own identity

also, probably a question you get a lot in a hating way, but isn't the definition of lesbian nonman loving nonman? so then how does lesboy work? like is it for people with more complicated gender identites, like fluctuating genders and bigender? just genuinly confused, my apologies...

sorry for not getting to this sooner- been busier lately and didn't have the time to collect everything I needed to respond!

About what it exactly means to be a lesboy or a gaygirl ('turigirl' is the more common term, 'turi' meaning turian, another word for gay attraction to men. so I'll be referring to it as that from now on), there isn't exactly....one right way to call yourself such. it really depends on the person, but I can give you a basic definition and a list of common reasons someone may call themselves such

im gonna put a read more because this ended up being super long so sorry

lesboy is a term for any lesbian who may have a connection to manhood and/or masculinity. turigirl is just the opposite of that, a gay person (mlm/nblm) who may have a connection to womanhood and/or femininity. common reasons I've seen are:

being multigender or genderfluid

being cusper/in between trans and cis gnc (in between trans man and cis gnc woman, in between trans woman and cis gnc man)

being a system who uses lesboy/turigirl as a collective identity or when identities blur together

a person who uses man/boy or woman/girl as a means of masculine or feminine gender expression but not actually identifying as such

being a trans man/ftm or a trans woman/mtf who still identifies as lesbian or gay for personal reasons

those are far from all the reasons, everyone has their own unique experiences, but the gist is these people may have some sort of connection to manhood/womanhood while still having a queer attraction. personally, I'm multigender, genderfluid, and transmasc. lesboy I find is a nice label to express being both my bigender self and being a lesbian, as it forces people to acknowledge both without separating the two. it's cute and makes me feel validated!

as for "nonman attracted to nonmen" definition of lesbian......it has its issues. it's received criticism all around from all sorts of lesbians in the community. this definition is very new - it emerged only in the recent years, and someone on twitter had date searched it and found it didn't even really exist before 2019. and having that as the one and only official definition that every lesbian has to abide by, when lesbian is a centuries old word with so much history behind it, is a bit ignorant. people who are multiple genders or ftm or bi being lesbian is not even remotely new, going back decades upon decades, and it never stopped existing too. It's a bit weird to have a whole new definition that doesn't include all sorts of lesbians that have been here for so long and just tell them they're not welcomed anymore, right?

that's not even close to the only issue there is with it. it's been disliked for centering lack of attraction to men, or defining lesbian in relation to men, rather than who we're actually attracted to. putting nonbinary people in a new binary of either being "men or nonmen," which not all feel comfortable putting themselves into. especially when considering a definition of gay being "nonwomen attracted to nonwomen," man-woman bigender people are simultaneously excluded from being both lesbian or gay. It inherently overlaps with mspec identity ("attraction to nonmen, which is more than one gender" and "any orientation that involves attraction to more than one gender" kinda obviously overlap), despite people insisting that a lesbian can never be mspec. people have found multiple loopholes in it, (which I can elaborate on if someone wants me to, for the sake of trying to make this as short as possible), and lastly, and term "nonman" (and nonwoman) were found to have existed before to describe the degendering of black people in society. this isn't the only source I've seen for this, but sadly I can't exactly find it (or find it without going back to that hellsite called twitter and I'm not doing that to myself)

oh and as the link points out, defining lesbian by these words also ends up excluding a lot of two-spirit people from ever identifying as lesbian, myself included. which is also really racist. I don't know how you're gonna end up excluding a whole cultural gender that's common for indigenous americans to describe themselves with and try to prove it somehow isn't racist, to be honest

and lastly, some surveys/polls have shown that the definition isn't the most widely accepted by lesbians as people make it out to be. there's this simple poll that someone posted asking how lesbians felt about the definition that received 1,529 responses, and 61.1% of voters said they disliked it. comments gave lots of reasons I've stated already. there was another survey put out that received 211 responses that for any lesbian who had a genderqueer or unique relationship with gender, and one of the questions asking opinions on the "nonmen loving nonmen" as a definition. the average among the group was slightly negative (average 2.838), and reported that the group who tended to feel the most positively about it didn't consider themselves to be trans, with the other positive leaning group considered themselves to be somewhat cis. the group that felt the most negatively sometimes considered themselves to be trans. and of the multigender participants, the average opinion was 2.255 (more negative than the overall average). When concluding, the original poster stated, "When divided by gender, the only groups to feel positive about this definition were "not trans" and "somewhat cis" participants. Multigender participants felt especially negative about this definition"

all of this shows that this definition isn't nearly the best for everyone who considers themselves a lesbian. I know it's been a way to include nonbinary people who are lesbian in it's definition, but I think it really misunderstands why nonbinary people are included in lesbianism in the first place, and just assumes that all nonbinary people aren't men and fails to recognize that multigender/genderfluid people are nonbinary too. and it's not like lesbian has to only have on definition- it can definitely have multiple and depend on each person's experience with it. if someone personally defines them being lesbian around being a nonman attracted to nonmen, and takes pride in not being attracted to men, that's totally fine. what becomes a problem is forcing all lesbians to define themselves like this and make it the standard, or else they're "not real lesbians." it is ahistorical and ignorant to require this or else you'll strip them of their lesbian status, and is really at the end of the day, lesbophobic. especially as a requirement that primarily exists in online spaces. im sure the lesbian who is not at all connected to these circles doesn't particularly care about strict requirements or whether someone is a "nonman" or not. in conclusion, it is not the best nor most accepted definition of lesbian, and deciding which lesbians are valid or not based solely on that definition is pretty exclusionary and ends up policing a lot of lesbians, myself included

[yourfavismspechomohet]

love, there’s no such thing as a “bi lesbian.” someone can’t be bi and a lesbian. Coming from a lesbian myself it just doesn’t happen that way. Being a bisexual means that you like BOTH, being a lesbian means you ONLY like non men. It’s a mockery of real lesbians, it’s not a real sexuality.

Let’s take this apart separately, shall we?

“There’s no such thing as a Bi Lesbian”

Tell that to all the Bi Lesbians that follow me, and like my posts, and request for posts.

Tell that to the Bi Lesbians I reblog from and talk to occasionally.

Tell that to the older queers that identify as Bi Lesbians.

I guess apparently they don’t exist then. 🤷

“Someone can’t be Bi and a Lesbian”

Ah, this is a very popular one on this blog that I keep getting. I could link you to those, but I won’t. Here’s some ways you can be Bi and a Lesbian at the same time:

Biromantic Homosexuals

Homoromantic Bisexuals

Bi people who label themselves as Lesbians, to reclaim queer history. Because ALL Sapphics, regardless of if they were attracted to men or not, were referred to as Lesbians.

Bi people may also label themselves as Lesbians to reclaim being called a Lesbian by Biphobes trying to get them to pick one.

Bi people who lean more towards women, may call themselves Bi Lesbians.

Abroromantics/Abrosexuals may label themselves as Bi Lesbians because their orientation only swings back and forth between those two.

“Coming from a Lesbian myself, it just doesn’t happen that way.”

Well, for the second part, “It doesn’t happen that way”, just go back to the previous comments on “Someone can’t be Bi and a Lesbian”. It does and can happen.

Now for the first part “Coming from a Lesbian myself”. I hear this a lot. Not just from Lesbians, not just from queer people, but people of all different communities, one thing I hear all the time is “Coming from a [Blank] myself”. You need to understand that you are not the only Lesbian on earth. And Lesbians are not a hive-mind. You’re not all the same, and you’re not all going to have the same opinions. If that were the case, all Lesbians would look, talk, act the same way, and have the same views. But you don’t, because you’re not a hive-mind. Simply implying that all people of the same sexuality should have the same opinions is wrong. Believe it or not, I’ve seen all different kinds of lesbians who were Pro-Mspec Lesbian, who were Anti-Mspec Lesbian, and were neutral on Mspec Lesbians. And if all Lesbians had the same opinions, you would not be separated on these different opinions.

“Being a bisexual means that you like BOTH, being a lesbian means you ONLY like non men.”

Being Bi means that you could just about like any gender. It doesn’t just mean both, as in men and women. Bi people could definitely just be attracted to women and men, but they’re also Bi people attracted to all different kinds of genders under the Nonbinary umbrella.

As for being a Lesbian, it means that you’re attracted to women and Nonbinary people. And if we can agree on that, we also have to agree that there are other Nonbinary genders where one identifies as a woman AND a man, that you may also be attracted to. Saying that Lesbians don’t like men excludes Multigender people. Even if that’s not how you mean for it to sound, I can tell you that a lot of Multigender people feel that way.

Also, a common misconception is that Non-Men and Non-Women is okay to use for Gay and Lesbian definitions. It’s not. What you probably didn’t know, is that the terms have racist origins. Black and indigenous queer people have literally been talking about this since this definition was coined. “Non-Men” and “Non-Women” are terms that have been historically used to describe the degendering of black people.

Forcing these terms for queer definitions is Anti-Black, I could forgive you if you didn’t know that and stop using those definitions after now knowing the origins.

But if you still use these definitions even after knowing this, congratulations! You’re racist! Pretty sure there was a book about this, “Bad faith and anti-black racism” by Lewis R. Gordon.

“It’s a mockery of real lesbians, it’s not a real sexuality.”

Mspecs have just as big a part in Lesbian history as Lesbians.

All sapphics were Lesbians regardless of if they liked men.

The term “Bi Lesbian” has been around since the 70s. I’d like to see you try and tell an older queer Bi Lesbian, that they’re “mocking” Lesbians and that their sexuality isn’t real. They probably accomplished more than you have in your entire life, because you want to fight with people on queer labels that you think are and aren’t valid because apparently no queer identity is acceptable unless you agree with it.

Love, wether you like it or not, Bi Lesbians and even male Lesbians have always existed and will continue existing. And they don’t need your permission to be themselves.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Thanks so much for doing all this, I love what you do for enjoyers of ttrpgs!!

What I'm looking for is epistolary or long-distance, asynchronous games for multiple players. I know you've done lists of 2-player games that people can play in their own time (writing letters or journal entries back and forth, stating your actions in a message then waiting for the other player, etc) but I was wondering if there were any I could play with 3 or more players with different timezones & schedules at once.

Genre and playstyle are flexible, we love trying new mechanics! I've struggled to find games to fit this myself, so I hope you can have a little more luck. You're awesome for taking these requests and finding so many different games for people!

THEME: Asynch & Epistolary for 3 or More.

Hello friend! First of all, I’m going to send you to my Epistolary (Part 3) post because that was specifically for 3 or more players, as well as my first epistolary post because there were a number there that could also be played with a number of people.

But don't worry, there's more!

Angels of the Railway Stations, by Speak the Sky.

There’s only so much you can do alone, but you’re not alone. There’s only so much that can be done with any one meeting, but life is more than one meeting. As you go through the stages of Arrival, Stopover, and Departure, take notes of everything in the form of a letter to be sent on with the train when it leaves the station. These letters should give your fellow angels more context to help the traveller in need along the way. They’re also your only way to communicate with your colleagues and comrades.

Angels of the Railway Stations is an epistolary game for 2+ players in which you play a liminal community of lonely angels. Help lonely travellers in a world undergoing a great upheaval, then write about what you see and do to pass it on to the next angel down the line.

All of the rules for this game can fit on one page, and require you to rely on other players to determine what each of your passengers need and help them get to where they need to go - on time. Angels of the Railway Station references a game called Black Engines, which does not actually exist, which means that many parts of this game will require your play group to fill in the blanks. That being said, I think Angels of the Railway Station has plenty of potential when it comes to telling emotional stories.

Intersecting Orbits, by Ell Schulman.

For as long as there have been Orbiters, there has been the Interference. Spikes in data that have no business being there, garbled words, ghosts in the machinery. Few people believe truly in the existence of the Interference as an entity.The Interference does not care what they believe.

The planet below is alive. There are deep oceans and high mountains and biomes we do not have names for. There are plants and animals that do not conform to systems we know.

There are people who look up at the stars and wonder who else is out there.There is so much to explore. 

Intersecting Orbits is a game for three players, two of whom play Orbiters sending messages back and forth and one of whom plays the Interference who intercepts those messages and removes words from them. 

Using a deck of cards, the two Orbiters will try to communicate to each-other about something that is going on. Meanwhile, the Interference uses 2d6 to determine how many words of the message they can remove. You can probably use this method either by sending letters to each-other, or by writing e-mails or sending texts, so I think this game is definitely flexible in terms of how quickly you want to send messages to each-other, and how long you want the game to run.

Chronicle, by a.fell.

The world is coming to an end. It has been foretold, and so it shall be. We cannot stop it; we only wait, and observe, and recall.

This is a game to create a chronicle of a world, and to find the world again in the last seconds of its life. The game is different depending on which path you choose to take.

You will not play together. You might not play at the same time, or in the same place. You might not even know each other before you play this game.

When you play The Chronicler, you will play alone, across time, across worlds. There is foretelling that an end is coming. You are here to ensure that your life, your people, and your world, survive. The Witnesses will find your artifacts an unknowable amount of time later. They will observe, they will wonder, they will remember their own lives, and they will know you. The world they know is empty, and soon they, too, will be gone. But they will carry these moments with them.

Chronicle uses a tarot deck (or something similar) as an oracle, and requires some form of map for the Chronicler to add to. The Chronicler will draw from this deck to create the events, artifacts and messages from this world. Most of the Chronicler’s work is done by the time the Witnesses come into play, who will travel across the map, pick up artifacts left behind by the Chronicler, and use their own oracle decks to recall personal memories. Eventually, a cataclysm will fall, and the game will end.

Leaving Cambridge, by Nora Katz.

You were together once, a lifetime ago, in a place called Cambridge. It was a place you held dear—a place that you called home, even if just for a moment. But something strange or sinister happened, and now you are all gone, dispersed across countries, continents, and maybe even worlds. There are stories untold and things unsaid. This is your chance to say them. 

“Leaving Cambridge” is an intimate, asynchronous storytelling game that takes place through letters exchanged between a group of people who have parted ways. Over the course of a real-life calendar year, a group of players write letters to each other, piecing together what happened to them, trying to reconcile their checkered pasts with their current realities. As the letters arrive, this group of people will come to understand each other, and themselves, with more clarity—and, most likely, more questions. 

Leaving Cambridge is a setting-agnostic game, so you can set it at any time period and any technology level, as long as it is possible that all of the players at some point went to Cambridge together.. What remains true is that you were once friends, but you have since grown apart. You will draw from a deck of cards, with red cards reflecting memories you share and black cards representing your emotions. Writing will happen over four seasons, with an inciting reason for you to get back in touch with each-other, and generative prompts that encourage your characters to reveal pieces of themselves the longer that they write.

I’d Also Recommend…

When I Lived Here, by a grumpy little critter.

[jo-harrington]

Thoughts about Writing and Creating

Earlier today I read an article that really resonated with me and specifically made me think about some things within the corner I exist in within the tumblr fanfiction community.

First an intro: Hi! My name is Jo! I’m a 28 year old professional designer and visual artist, and I write about a silly metal head from the 80’s. I’ve been reading and writing fanfic in some way shape or form since I was 12. (Way before I should have.) There are people who’ve been in fandom longer than I have. And some people who are new to this world.

The thoughts I’m conveying below are mine alone and you may agree or you may not. Me writing this is to get these thoughts out and, hopefully, inspire some peace in my community and impart some lessons on some newer members of fandom. If you disagree with my opinions, please feel free to make your own. Post about them or shoot me a PM and we can have a peaceful discussion.

This post is NOT meant as an open door to hatred. If you come to me looking to fight, or dehumanize me, you will be blocked. I have seen enough in my time on tumblr to know how to protect my peace.

That being said, let’s proceed:

The article (I’ll link it below) was about the new Little Mermaid movie and how this “live action Disney revolution” is just a signifier of how media is recycled and that no idea is a new one. In any creative outlet. And while the article itself delves into the history of the Little Mermaid or mermaids themselves and all of that, the nuance of reference versus inspiration, the final idea was: never stop creating, never stop being inspired, never stop exploring.

How does that pertain to fanfiction though? How does that apply to me?

There’s been a lot of talk recently of “this person copied this idea” or “this is just a ripoff of that.” Enough that it drives people off of tumblr or stops them creating altogether. Makes people think that they’ve done something wrong. Some of this talk is is done by creators themselves, some is done by devoted friends or fans. And it is truly a shame, and I think it’s time that we stop.

This is not saying “plagiarism” or “copy and pasting word for word with a bit of name changing” is ok. No, those things are not ok. And people are allowed to be protective of their creations! Writers and artists put their heart and soul into their work.

But in terms of people’s genuine creativity…we need to be more tolerant of overlap. Whether we create or consume.

I’m currently writing a Freaky Friday Alternate Universe featuring 2 characters from a Netflix show. My story would not exist if these other media sources and inspirations didn’t exist. Does that mean my story should not exist or be told? Does that mean my writing isn’t good? No and no.

I don’t profit from my work. I write for me. For my friends. For you. I have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. And if someone came to me tomorrow and said “hey, I wanted to write another Freaky Friday story,” so long as they didn’t copy my work word for word…well…you know what? I would be happy about it! Welcome it. Encourage them.

How can I tell someone no? Forbid them to try and use my idea—whether they were inspired by it or just…stumbled on it by chance as they got the idea organically themselves? What if they had genuine inspiration and could write this story better? Who, if they’ve never written before, might have just found their first chance to do so?

How could I dare to stop someone from being inspired? When I dared to follow the same inspiration for myself?

Now I know there are a lot more personal or original ideas and fanfictions out there. But at the end of the day, everything had been done in some way shape or form. We are all inspired by something. We have overlapping experiences. (I myself have found a good friend in this community who has life experiences so close to my own it’s frightening.)

There are 8 billion of us on this planet, thinking and imagining. Living. There is no one in a million idea anymore when we are consuming so much diverse media at any given time during the day.

Again, if you’re a creator, you’re allowed to be protective of your creation. But you are not allowed to stunt someone’s inspiration or growth. We are not fighting one another in fandom. We are all in this little corner together. Someone getting a like or a comment doesn’t mean that a like or a comment was taken away from you.

And if you’re a consumer of fanfiction, if you’re here to support a friend or just someone who created something you love…yes, it may be something you look forward to, but you should never hurt someone just because you think they might have “stolen” or “hurt” your writer friends. This is a place for all of us to feel safe.

Consider the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

There are no big blogs or small blogs. Notes aren’t important. What is important is kindness and community.

And we should all be welcome here.

Article: There’s No Such Thing as a New Idea

[leviackermanscleaningbuddy]

Don’t know if this has been asked or mentioned yet for the Pack but what are their sexualities?

(Love you writing btw ❤️)

"This can be a sensitive subject for a lot of people for quite a few different reasons." You caution immediately, and everyone in the pack nods in agreement. You give a slight smile. "Most of us are very comfortable and settled into our chosen sexualities, so we're comfortable talking about and discussing it, but just know, even if you're not sure where you fall on the scale or are currently dealing with some internalized issues, you are always welcome and safe here with us.

"Yep." Chan nods seriously. "Out of the closet, in the closet, wherever you are currently, we love and support you and your choices and we understand the difficulties and stigmas with deciding and coming to to terms with who you are and how to present that."

"That being said-" You smile a bit bigger now. "I think it's pretty safe to say that we're all part of the queer community here."

"What part of this-" Hyunjin gestures to the other eight members of the pack with amusement. "-looks straight to you?"

You laugh. "So, the whole polyamory thing, that more comes from the wolf side of our genders and personalities. Wolves are not loners, they need a pack, but also, as humans and people, we needed to be okay with that too obviously for this to work."

"Yep." Jisung is nodding now. "Because your wolf side can be all gungho about the idea of a pack, but if you as a person don't believe you can love more than one person at the same time, then you're definitely going to struggle. And that's okay."

"As far as personal sexuality-" You muse, glancing around at the pack. I think we all kind of fall into the same spectrum, but with individual differences and different labels."

"I've known I was bisexual for as long as I can remember." You go on, looking thoughtful. "My parents didn't like the idea at first, but when I had my first girlfriend in high school, they came around. It's always just felt natural for me to find the beauty in both males and females."

"I'm also bi." Changbin adds, nodding his head. "Though unlike (Y/N), I think I fought more with alpha stereotypes for a long time-from myself mostly, but also other people-and that stopped me from really exploring and realizing that truth about myself until I graduated high school and moved away for college."

"And now he's just a fucking flaming queer." Hyunjin teases, grinning at the alpha, as he leans over and presses a kiss to his cheek, Changbin rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, something like that."

"I was kind of a late bloomer as well." Chan cocks his head, considering for a moment. "I didn't realize being bisexual was even an option honestly until I got to high school and met some pretty open minded classmates. I also made the realization coincidentally around the time I first met Felix."

He grins over at the omega and Felix grins back.

"Weird how that happens, huh hyung?"

"Yeah, weird." Chan agrees, grinning even bigger now.

Felix laughs at the head alpha's antics. "I'm bisexual as well. Definitely known since I was a kid, my parents were always super supportive, I was lucky that way. Helping Chan-hyung find out his sexuality in high school was also kind of fun, if you know what I mean."

Jisung guffaws and Chan blushes.

"I'm pansexual, and I think I've cognitively known for a long time." Hyunjin volunteers. "I've always never really cared much about genders-primary or secondary-and always just been attracted to people because of who they are, not what they are."

"Same." Jisung agrees, nodding enthusiastically. "Gender has never mattered to me when it came to partners. In the past or present. I remember when I was first figuring it out, I got a little freaked out, because one day in middle school, I had the thought 'wow, that's kind of hot' in reference to one of my fellow guy friends working out, and I thought I was having some sort of mental health break at thirteen. Turns out I'm just attracted to everyone-no matter the gender-who fits my checklist in personality."

He grins, and Hyunjin laughs in shared sympathy.

"I think I'm also pansexual, honestly." Jeongin interjects thoughtfully, and Jisung gives him an affectionate look across the room. "I used to think` maybe I identified as bisexual like noona and the hyungs, but the more I've grown and learned about myself, the more I can see that I'm attracted to traits and not body parts."

"And that's definitely okay." Chan nods at the youngest encouragingly. "Gender and sexuality is a fluid scale as far as I'm concerned, and you can change or adjust or tweak at any time as you find out more about yourself."

"I'm demisexual." Seungmin announces, shifting slightly to cross his arms over his chest. "You have to win my affection and loyalty by proving to me that we have an emotional connection."

"You also have to compete in a joust." Jisung teases, and the other beta smacks him lightly.

"Physical means nothing to me without the foundation there first." Seungmin continues, ignoring Jisung's jibes. "That's why I told noona 'no, but I could' when she first asked me if I liked her like I liked Changbin. The connection was being built between us, maybe more than study buddies at the time, but it wasn't quite there yet, not enough for me to feel romantic toward her."

"And I appreciated the honest. Even if I cried in the shower about it later." You tease back with a slight smile in the beta's direction.

"I am also demi." Minho shrugs a shoulder casually. "You could be the hottest person on the goddamn planet, but if I don't know you and I don't have anything built with you, I couldn't care less. Big dicks don't impress me if there's not big feelings behind them."

"Get that on a t-shirt." Hyunjin points at Minho, and Jeongin hurriedly whips out his phone and opens his notes app.

"On it, hyung. Writing this down for later reference."

[defining-skyology]

Defining Ancestors.

This was also going to be another complex topic to dissect, but fortunately, complication and technicalities are not supposed to be the point of these posts.

Unfortunately, that's still something I have a hard time understanding.

The point of these posts are to categorize specific themes into notable groupings, and give said grouping a Name. This course of action will create a Terminology, and one that we can continue to use for the foreseeable lifetime of this blog.

Ancestors.

I give myself so so much runaround with the term.

We are trying to answer quite a lot of questions surrounding these characters, such as:

Who are they?

What are they?

How are they?

When are they?

And why are they?

And though I could spend an entire article on each of those, the goal here is to condense it down into a single sentence broadly and tactfully answering only as much of them as deemed necessary.

So first let's talk about Who they are.

There has been more and more dispute over the concept of Beings during the kingdom's history, notably/generally over firstly the Elders, and then more recently with the presence of the Embers on the horizon. The Elders and Embers both have a decent amount of evidence or rationalizations behind them being special Beings; functionally a different 'species' from the Ancestors.

But I think that we, and by we I mean me, need to stop getting distracted by the fact that all of these Beings are 'different' from each other. What matters, is that they all lived in the same kingdom at one point, one way or another. All of their eyes, all of their hands, have worked and toiled and led this kingdom to the point where it had once mightily stood. This belonging to a community is important, and needs to be contrasted with one notable thing;

They are not creatures.

At this point in the kingdom's history (as well as within the mid-phase concept art of the game) there was a clear categorical divide between Ancestors and creatures of Light, and I think that we can retain this divide to be used for the blog today. If creatures are pure Beings and Ancestors are not, then it is because Ancestors are not properly Connected to the Light.

We will go into this in further detail on another vocab post, but if we note Creatures as the 'natural' life flowing throughout the world, then we can counter that with the idea that:

Ancestors are the 'unnatural' presence in the world, due to their separation from the Light.

We've got the first part of our Definition locked in with who and what they are, and the next question I want to ask is the last question I think we'll need, which I personally believe will be the most important:

When?

The term Ancestor should be a no brainer, and when we first hear the term in relation to a character it gives a pretty clear image in our mind almost immediately. Allow me to demonstrate the most perfect example that any kid who grew up on Disney movies will immediately understand:

[[[Scenes from Mulan, showing a man praying to his Ancestors to watch over and guide his family, and the Ancestors deciding how to help their descendant.]]]

Ancestor noun : "A person, typically one more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended."

It is still very up in the air whether ANY Beings physically/directly reproduce. They don't; I don't believe they do.

Due to this, we will assume for now that the term Ancestry in Sky refers not to a direct heritage of blood, but generational heritage. Even if Beings just materialize, fallen from the Sky, they are still found and raised by those who came before them, as we can see in Stargazer's memory. This heritage of raising the next Beings that appear is functionally "generational", and therefore once enough generations occur, at some point older generations can be considered a newer generation's ancestor.

But where do we draw the line? Where is the exact moment when our nearest/youngest Ancestors existed? Or more specifically, when?

Fortunately, the answer we need is pretty simple, even though it's about to help us all tie it together.

We know Ancestors possibly survived "the Event" at Eden, but we can't know if any were 'born' into the world after the apocalyptic fallout at the end of the war.

We don't know how soon the 'first' Descendants started appearing down in the world. While I'd argue the very first players at the beginning of Launch were the first Descendants, some theorists argue that this is not provable, and perhaps Descendants were canonically born even before the first players started playing.

The complications and the discourse is chaotic and uncoordinated as ever; what else is new? But I have an easy way to nip this in the bud and make a clear cut decision for everyone, that I believe TGC would clearly prefer us to have implied is the most direct "truth" to our "when".

Any Ancestors, Elders, or Embers that existed BEFORE the 'Explosion' occurred during the Eden Event, are definitively Ancestors.

And from here let's make it just that much simpler with that study we did earlier up there on what is Nature and what is not.

Unnatural Beings that existed before the 'Explosion' occurred during the Eden Event, are definitively Ancestors.

And there we have it! This is the Definition I think we can confidently leave this at for now. Of course it can get deeper then this, but I need to sleep, and the loyal one or two people who read this deserve a break. Thank you so much for reading, and have a good day/night, y'all!

I really hope I get on the next one (or two or three) soon and not get stuck again.

[tips-from-a-tech-worker]

This is a bit more of a personal post, and maybe a bit out of the scope of this blog, but it's been something bothering me a fair bit in lefty spaces.

Also, odds are this has been hashed out before, and in much easier to understand terms.

Anarchists need to stop being liberals.

For context, I would describe myself as an anarchist, so understand that these critiques come from a place of love rather than destructive ranting. As well as this, I live on the british isles, and the left-wing scene here is well and truly pacified. I might winge about this more in the future..

As a side note, "anarchist" isn't a particularly useful term anyway, because it refers to a broad group of philosophies concerned with a critique of power, and each one of those philosophies can vary WILDLY.

Also, by "liberal" I am refering to an advocate of free-enterprise, free-markets, and private property.

There is a concept known as "political prefiguration", which broadly refers to ways of organising that reflect the future society that you wish to build. Do you want a future non-hierarchical society? Then you have to literally act as if you were in one. And the more you do, the better you get at it, and the more you understand how to develop through it.

So often I see so-called anarchists talking about owning a business and hiring employees. And sure, if you're the kind of anarchist that either doesn't understand what capitalism is, or you don't see it as an issue, then sure, whatever. But IMO you can hardly call yourself an anarchist when you own employees? You are putting yourself in an unnecessary position of power over them. And you will only ever learn how to exercise that power over them.

Additionally, I hear so-called anarchists come out with "I'll just wait for someone to tell me what to do." And again, you will only ever learn how to follow orders and take instruction. You will never learn to think for yourself. You'll never know how to work with others. You have to step forward and say "I want this" and you work with your comrades to figure out how to get it.

And I get it. I really do. The society we live in really doesn't teach us anything useful, and if it did, it would cease to exist as it does. And there isn't any easy way to survive in this world without exploiting someone, even if it is several degrees separated. But you need and have to try.

Talk to people in your communities, be that where you live, where you work, where you learn, or where you play. Pick an issue people care about. Work together to figure out how to fix it. And then do it.

And sure, I am making that seem easy. And believe me, it is not. But the first step is to try. PLEASE.

[dridrisavage]

What it Means to be Genderfluid: From the Perspective of Someone Who is Still Here Despite it All

Take a moment to ask yourself, what is your gender? Are you male, female, or something in between? How do you introduce yourself to others? Are you cis, or trans, or not sure what you are? How do you present yourself, how do you express what your gender is? Has your gender identity changed over time?

For most people, these are easy questions to answer, they know who they are on a day to day basis. However, these questions are harder to answer when your gender identity is changing frequently, when your idea of what you identify as is fluid. This is gender fluidity, which refers to the change overtime of someone’s gender expression, or gender identity, or both. The change could be in expression but not identity, or in identity but not expression. Or both expression and identity could change.

For some, gender fluidity is something they use while a teenager to help them figure out how they identify. For others, like myself, gender fluidity is something that sticks with them indefinitely throughout life as their gender identity. Anyone who identifies as gender-fluid, is a gender-fluid person, it’s as simple as that. The term is used go say that a person’s gender expression or gender identity changes frequently. But gender fluidity can look different for different people.

Taking myself, as example, I am a masculine leaning person. More often than not, I am expressing myself with masculinity, either as a man or a demi-boy. (demi-boy refers to someone who feels like a man, but not completely or wholly.) If I am not masculine presenting, I am likely to be leaning more towards androgyny. I rarely lean towards femininity, as I am afab and don’t identify with femininity. I am comfortable when I lean towards masculinity or androgyny, it’s who I am, and I will always love that about myself.

For me, being gender-fluid is like freedom. I don’t need to put a stop on who I am just to please others. Being gender-fluid is just who I am, it’s a part of me just as much as anything else. It’s this way for so many others as well, it’s a part of us, it’s who we are. However, we all face many challenges by just trying to be ourselves.

The discrimination, harassment, and pure hatred shown towards those who are gender-fluid (or really those who are anything but cisgender), is quite frightening to say the least. Online harassment, people telling gender-fluid individuals to just pick one, people telling them that they’re crazy or delusional, people telling them that they’re worth nothing in this world. Many of us receive death threats, threats of physical violence, and threats of doxxing. All non-cisgender people face this treatment near daily. For many, it’s dangerous to come out in real life, as they face danger from so many people around them.

I myself have faced a lot of this treatment, receiving death threats, being harassed, and being threatened with physical violence. I have been treated as less than, ive been told several times that my life is worth nothing and that should h@rm myself. This, unfortunately, is the norm for myself and so, so many others.

For me, being gender-fluid is my savior. Finding out who I was, what I identify as, and how I want to present myself has saved my life. Before I knew who I was, I was lost and alone, I had no idea what to do or who I was. Finding the LGBTQ+ community, and learning about gender identities saved my life completely.

Being gender-fluid is different for everyone, and that’s what makes it so special. That’s what makes it so unique. I ask you to look back at the questions asked in the first paragraph, and to really think about who you are. To understand that you are not alone, and you are never alone.

[ugly-anarchist]

Shiny new About Section because why not:

Trying out the name Coye, go ahead and call me that if you want.

They/them only, don't use gendered language to refer to me. This includes dude/guy. (I sometimes refer to myself with gendered terms or indirectly as a man/woman but that doesn't mean anyone else gets to.)

Alloaro, genderqueer/nonbinary/trans, intersex, bisexual/mspec

DNI/DNF/Just stop existing thanks:

Proshipper (Someone who supports all fiction, including ones that are racist, pedophilic, or in some other way hurt real people. If you think "fiction doesn't affect reality" you suck. This includes people who support "real person fics")

MAP ("minor attracted person" aka pedophiles.) and supporters

TERF/SWERF (Trans/sex worker exclusive radical feminist. Sex negativity and transphobia of any kind aren't allowed. My feminism is explicitly pro sex worker and pro trans woman)

Exclusionists (I'm alloaro and I belong in the queer community specifically for that reason, if you disagree with that then leave)

Asexuals who plan on talking over me when I talk about Aromantic specific issues. (If your message contains "well I'm asexual" then actually shut up, I don't want to hear it)

Panphobes

People who are anti-bi/mspec lesbians. Bi lesbians have been around since the creation of the term lesbian and defining lesbianism solely on lack of attraction to men is weird, exclusionary, and not how we should be doing things.

Intersexist / intersex fetishists (anyone who uses "DSD" terminology, anyone who thinks you can transition to be intersex, Perisex people who post intersex fetish porn in the intersex tags, you think afab people can't be transfem or amab people can't be transmasc or use "tme/tma" labels, etc)

Transid/radqueer (If you think you can transition to be intersex, disabled, or into a different race then you're weird. Stop)

"Pro-para" (I'm generally of the opinion that harmless paraphilias/kinks are none of my business and you aren't a bad person for having them but the pro-para community tends to also support pedos/zoos and thats a hard "you deserve prison" from me)

Also: I'm the admin of an AlloAro community here on tumblr, join if you're interested.

[theecosystemdid]

Also! I wanted to cover something I don’t think we’ve covered before on our blog.

You may have noticed that we rarely, if ever, mention fictives / factives or tag for such. There’s a reason to this.

First of all, I want to say this applies to OUR system. This is more so on a personal comfort level for our system and does not apply / is not us trying to force this belief onto other systems.

Many of the alters in our system mutually agree in a dislike for the terms fictives and factives. While we know the literal meaning of the terms (Introject of a fictional source and Introject of a physical or “factual” source), it was always something that made many of our introjects feel invalidated, or simply make them feel like they were being called fictional. While I myself am not an Introject, even to me the concept feels very dehumanizing. As such, we strictly refer to our introjects, as introjects. We do the same for other systems, and we ask that anyone interacting with us only call our introjects, introjects.

Again, this isn’t us saying “The system community should stop using the words fictive / factive!!” NO! In fact, the system community SHOULDN’T stop using them! I think the terms are actually wonderful for helping identify the difference between alters. It’s simply the case that our own personal comfort level, we don’t desire to use the terms in reference to our system or other systems.

Also for the record! This is not me taking a dig at anyone. No one referred to any of our alters in a way that was uncomfortable for us, we mostly just wanted to explain why the terms are not present (especially in tags on posts) as well as start some dialogue on our blog a little more.

[spoonsforminutes]

So it’s gotten to that point. i’ve been receiving IOP from a mental health clinic, and my group trauma therapist is transphobic. Even more so, she’s been taking advantage of that fact that we unpack serious things in group settings, and I have a habit of dissociating to perpetuate her transphobic ideas in which it is my fault if i feel bad when someone misgender means. I have severe trauma from emotional abuse and neglect which only ended 6 months ago, at least in terms of my family having enough power and ignorance to believe that they were justified in the way they treated me, but i am still very much healing. I’m trying so hard to survive and get away from my abusive environment, but i’m realistic. i plan to move next year in jan, and in the midst of trying to pay all my bills and not go insane from the lack of financial freedom i have beyond necessities and bills, i’m trying to save as much as i can while also being nice to myself.

but today someone in my group was expressing distress over using a feminine term to refer to me when i’ve explained that i identify as transmasculine, and i was too busy doing something else, so my therapist took it upon herself to explain that it was my fault for feeling bad when people misgender me and that it is my responsible to correct people. which like, she’s a white cisgender woman who has trauma and is likely autistic so i’ve been giving her the benefit of the doubt, but no, she’s completely wrong. as a mental health professional currently in charge of my safety, she is directly endangering my health. i sent her an email after i processed what the fuck happened, and basically said this is your one warning to stop being transphobic and read up on all the ways your behavior threatens my physical and mental well-being, and if so necessary, i will seek legal action for discrimination. i have been gaslight a fuck ton so i have no confidence in myself, but my gut has been seeing all the news that more and more confirms the worst, and my c-PTSD symptoms are getting worse. history repeats itself, and i feel like i’m the one who recognizes the pattern except, you know, i’m part of the group that people currently want to see dead. and people praise me and treat me nicely bc they see an intelligent woman (which trauma-reinforced but also i fucking had top surgery last year????) but i think they view me as an “acceptable” queer person. which nooo, i did not spend so many years facing abuse literally just because i felt intense fucking pain that no one thought they could understand only for people in power to continue treating me like shit and then getting angry when i don’t roll over and die. i identify as a threat and a thing you do not want to cross. my years of sickness and illness mean that i don’t respect anything unless it has blood, sweat, tears, and defiance written all over it. you HAVE to feel pain to feel human, and all fucking pain is valid. i am so sick of watching a whole community of people being looked over and forgotten about, for even the “acceptable” ones of us having to beg for crumbs of decency. it’s inexcusable, and i legit do not give a shit for why we have to wait around for a bunch of people to decide that others get to live. i’m living NOW. DEAL WITH IT

[the-november-system]

Hello, I’m M, and hello to our blog.

This is for our system. We have recently been diagnosed with DID. we have very little understanding of official terms and things because of this. We’re still learning about what being a system is. Please don’t treat us poorly for this reason.

I (M speaking) , am the host.

This blog is just a place for me and everyone else to hang out and feel like we can share social media together and stuff without secrets. This is a part of myself nobody else knows about and we all intend to keep it that way. This is anonymous for that reason.

Below are bio’s for all of us. Everyone at this time wanted to be included. They wrote their own descriptions (minus click who doesn’t like to really talk, I wrote it for them.)

M: Main host, does a majority of the fronting. I am usually gonna be the one responding and doing things.

Pronouns: They/Them

Likes: Tea, drawing, Crochet, transformers

Dislikes: Flying bugs, overstimulation, confrontation

Niki: Hello, I am Niki :-) I'm the oldest individual within the system. I don't really front by myself, but I will do so from time to time. M tells me that I appear as a Guardian Angel to others, but I see myself more as just an assistant than something so grand. M seemed excited to have us all write down this Bio, so i was happy to do so. Thank you for reading.

Pronouns: He/Him

Likes: vintage aesthetics, naps, asmr, meditation

Dislikes: Maybe long work days? The others seem stressed by those which of course worries me.

Winslow: Hello everyone! The name’s Winslow, I'm not quite sure what to put here, so i guess i’ll just describe my interests? I'm super into dad rock, and love to have jam sessions while I clean and stuff. I'm also a sucker for Cozy games. The others find it funny that a tough guy like me enjoys some animal crossing, but hey, this guy knows what he likes! I'm also a lover of customization, pins, patches, piercings, ect. If I can make myself stand out I would like to do it! I aint livin my life as the color beige.

Pronouns: He/Him

Likes: Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, patches and pins and stickers

Dislikes: idiots on the road, hypocrites

Note: Winslow is proudly trans, FTM.

Click: Click is almost entirely non-talking. For the longest time, Click was very protective of their form, not showing themselves to anybody, but recently they drew themselves as a cloaked clown. Click communicates through noises, flapping, and only when necessary, speaking. They are able to, but it causes great discomfort. Click is able to clean and do tasks, but generally only enjoys fronting when alone. They’re very shy. Click commonly fronts when I need a break, and is great at self -care and soothing everyone else, however, they do struggle to soothe themself.

Pronouns: They/Them, or just refer to them by their name

Likes: colorful object, stim toys, liminal spaces, exploration, ambient music

Dislikes: speaking, loud sounds

Note: Click does want to be included in this, there is always a possibility they will want to be removed, but as of right now they were excited and enthusiastic on being included.

Melody: hi!!! I’m melody✨💕 I am a lover of all things pink, i'm a bit of a y2k girlie but i also like other stuff as well, i'm also super into Crochet like M, and i've been making such cute stuff and it's making me so dang happy! Ooh and i also like Godzilla, a weird one but I’m not gonna let someone stop me 💁‍♀️

Pronouns: She/Her

Likes: Godzilla, Pink, Space, Crochet

Dislikes: Looking like a man

Flora: Hello, I'm flora 🌼 im kind of new to the system, but am happy to be here. I am a lover of nature, and am a spiritual person, believing in nature and its many gifts. I'm an eclectic witch (Me and M share this trait.), though we’re both new to this path. I will admit i'm a bit shy, but would love to try and be a bit more adventurous so feel free to say hello :)

Pronouns: She/ They

Likes: Flowers, green, the beach, candles

Dislikes: Catholicism/ Christianity (it's not necessarily a trigger but i don't like to talk about this, thank you :) ), Soda

Timothy: Sup I'm Tim. I don't get to be on here a lot because I'm not as “pretty” on paper as the others, so I'm honestly kinda surprised I was allowed to write this but whatever. I'm into horror movies and Metal music. I like hoodies too, my favorite color’s are blue and red. I also enjoy taking walks, I can be a bit of a hothead so it's nice to take a walk and get some fresh air.

Yeah I'm not that interested, but thanks for reading.

Pronouns: He/Him

Likes: Horror movies, Metal music, poetry, walks

Dislikes: Assholes

Thank you for reading everything!

[stranger-rants]

Hey 👋

I've seen some recent anti posts where they're like "Dacre did SUCH a good job making us hate Billy" which is... just so wrong lmao.

They act like Dacre didn't put his heart, body, and mind into making Billy a sympathetic character (in contrast to the Duffers wanting another Henry Bowers).

Also... saying Billy is like Bowers is laughable tbh.

Henry targeted each and every kid in the losers club. He didn't have a sister that his father made him watch, like Billy did.

If anything, Bowers is closer to Jason Carver than any other character.

Well, Troy from s1 (and his pal, I think his name was James), too.

But I guess they were forgotten as well *sigh*

I saw someone say that Billy saying "it'll all be over soon" felt r*pish. He was possessed, and that same person also said that he'd told this to Max.

Seems to be a common theme in which some antis haven't actually watched the show.

Some die hard Steve fans who are antis, have even told me they either haven't watched s1, or they just straight up ignore s1 Steve.

As a survivor myself, I really wish antis would stop throwing around words like r*pe and abuse.

When they mention abuse, all they ever mention is Billy being the abuser. They don't talk about Neil, they don't talk about Lonnie, and they don't talk about Brenner (or Vecna).

Another thing I've noticed is that outside of our corner, the only other time this fandom mentions abuse is really just to further prove that a certain ship is canon.

Hey 👋🏻

It is funny, because Dacre has been very vocal about Billy having “flaws” but not being inherently bad or evil. He advocates so hard for imperfect victims, which is what I love about him. Billy would be nothing without Dacre, and I wish more actors had the guts to fight for better writing lol. The Duffers keep making shallow references to Stephen King’s work, and it makes me really wonder if they understood any of the major themes in his books. Granted, King was doing a lot of drugs when he wrote IT, but the story is still solidly inspired by real homophobic and racist violence in a small town as well as the general disregard for children and their safety. Stranger Things is based on conspiracy theories and government experimentation on people. Why they act like these two medias are comparable or need the same kinds of antagonists is just weird to me.

Henry Bowers was abused, too. Like, his father was a racist cop who antagonized Mike’s family for years and he was also violent towards his own son. Obviously, that had an impact on Henry who developed antisocial behavior. On the very surface, that seems similar to Billy. However, there is a big difference between them in terms of agency and the degree of harm. Billy’s violence was mostly reactive. There was a clear trigger (usually his dad). Henry sought out his victims to antagonize and he was very much addicted to the violence. IT was able to weaponize Henry because Henry wanted that power. He ended up killing his father without remorse. In order for the Mindflayer to weaponize Billy, it had to take over his mind and his body completely leaving Billy with little to no agency. Billy was consumed by guilt over what the Mindflayer made him do. His personality and reaction to trauma is nothing like Henry Bowers.

Henry is representative of the fear and hate prevalent in his small town, which is similar to Jason’s role last season in that regard. Their respective roles expose the prejudices of their communities. Billy’s role didn’t really do that. I don’t think the Duffers really thought about his purpose beyond being a “human antagonist” and a source of conflict for Max and Lucas (which…why was this necessary if they were never going to address it again?). There are obviously bigger bads whose entire shtick is Remorseless Abuser, and I’ve said before that this show *could* be about systematic abuse and fighting against it (including government/institutional abuse) but the Duffers hate survivors too much to explore that with any authenticity. So, we end up having to do that for them. This show and its fandom at large really are so shallow. All spectacle and trauma as decoration without critical thought.