#it’s even worse of they’re born in the 90s

[greaseonmymouth]

weirdest thing about getting older is watching something, seeing an actor in that thing, and looking them up on IMDb expecting to see a birthdate in the 70s because they look like a proper adult but then it turns out they were born in 1988 and are in fact younger than me

[edandstede]

racist fucks out here acting like ed is doomed to become abusive like his father, like he is a violent monster, as if his arc isn’t about learning that he isn’t a monster at all but just a man. how are you looking at ed accepting himself, overcoming feeling like he’s the literal kraken, that he’s loveable and worthy of compassion and kindness even when he thinks the worst of himself, and drawing the conclusion that he’s an irredeemable thug - which is, by the way, what every fucking villain and antagonist thinks of him. you’re aligning your view of him with the bad guys, y’know, the ones who call him a donkey, low-born, and try goading him into violence over and over again because they think that’s all he’s worth? and yeah that includes izzy, because he did that too, it’s 90% of what he fucking did, treating him like he only deserved to live if he was performing hyper masculinity the entire time and the second he stopped he was worse than dead.

we are supposed to feel sorry for ed. the way he feels is heartbreaking. he was abandoned, had his worst fears confirmed to him by stede leaving and izzy pressing on the wound in the worst possible way, and then he fell completely into depression and suicidal ideation. he thinks it’s all he’s good for. he can’t be loved, he hates himself, he’s just the dick who killed his dad and nobody wants him for him. how can you see this very obvious spelled-out agony in him and say “hey, that guy is gonna abuse the man he loves, he’s an abuser just like his dad” you guys are just absolute bottom of the barrel scumbag dickheads, you really really are. you could not be more blatantly racist. you know damn well the show is not saying what you’re claiming it is.

also, insisting that he would ever hurt stede is just completely ignoring every single fucking thing about him. ed would never. the only fucking time stede is physically hurt by ed is when he wakes up from literal death and headbutts him. that’s it. i think we can all agree he didn’t even know what planet he was on when that occurred, and he petulantly says “good it was supposed to hurt” during a squabble that ends with stede telling ed he loves everything about him. pull the other one if you think this was ever framed as ed seriously wanting to hurt stede and not an incredibly hurt and vulnerable man still acting on a half-dead brain.

like for fuck’s sake this is the same man who hides under stede’s robe and presses his head to stede’s hand when he cries after telling him - the only person he has EVER TOLD - about killing his dad. he tells stede about the plot to kill him, and he cannot do it. he can’t lift a finger to him, he never would. he holds stede’s face with both hands when he kisses him and tells him he loves him. he brings him breakfast with a bit of twine on ‘cause he panicked and thought it needed a flourish. he rubs stede’s cashmere against his cheek. the first thing he says makes his life worth living is warmth. he imagines stede with a big goofy sweet grin and gold sparkly goldfish tail coming to save his life. he just wants to retire and have his inn with the man he loves and not worry about stede ever being in a near-death situation again. he wants stede to be safe with him. at no point are we remotely told in the text that we should be genuinely worried ed will ever, ever physically hurt stede. he protects this man with his WHOLE BODY twice and signs an act of grace to avoid him being shot. he tries to get ned to leave him alone when they’re being tortured. he jumps off the boat with jack to swim back to him and he rows back to the republic to find stede too.

he loves stede, would never hurt him, and you’re all just fucking sour your fav died and you’re saying any old shite as a result. swear to god if i catch one more of you even so much as insinuating ed is abusive i’m gonna start lobbing off toes as well.

[bunnygirllover45]

i’m gonna be honest, as an arab ever since sumeru character leaks being proven right i kind of gave up on genshin in terms of representation and diversity. i’m used to being disappointed when it comes to swana rep but never did i think the levels of whitewashing genshin pulled were possible - i’m really pasty and pale but even i tan better than 90% of the cast. from a strictly cultural and historical standpoint, sumeru is a mess - as fun and loveable the characters are and as well written as the story is, the whole region is essentially a collage of the first ten pictures that comes when you search “arab culture” and my swana friends and i have long since given up explaining why the whole region is borderline offensive especially since when we tried we would be called slurs (lol). the worst part is - they do have darker skinned characters but they’re only ever the enemy npc’s. i live in latam, my country has a huge aboriginal community, and i have only seen this level of whiteness in the immigrant european neighborhoods - the only people i know that white are like the kids of a first gen austrian family and even then they at least try to tan in the summer. i knew natlan was going to be as disappointing as sumeru, if not worse solely based on the fact you would think they’d learn their lesson but atp i’m just surprised they didn’t just put a caricature on the screen and called it a day. the genshin team is smoking something - idk what but it is making that room colorist as fuck!

God you're so right. As someone who was literally born and raised in Latam, It disappoints me the lack of representation as well. Natlan really does feel like Sumeru 2 but even worse, if that's even possible. Also, I'm really sorry people can't handle criticism of a fucking multi-billionaire company and resort to insulting you, you don't deserve that.

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

CAN I ASK FOR A 141 HEADCANON WITH READER WHO IS A FILIPINO? It's okay if you don't want to:>

First of all, biggest apologies for the time it took me to answer this, I was in a little rut when it came to inspo + wanted to do some proper research on Filipino culture/aspects, to see how to best write it.

That being said, I think I came up with a few interesting HC for the boys (also this is assuming the Filipino reader moved to England - regardless of working for the 141 or not!):

Filipino Reader headcanons

tags: you/your, gn!reader, drinking and hangovers.

England is cold, it’s rainy, it’s ugly. That’s the main thing in your head 90% of the time. The touristy ‘oooh’s and ‘ahhh’s had worn off after the first 3 weeks, after you had run all over London and the surrounding areas… It had been wonderful when the weather was mild and actually kind of sunny.

Now it’s Winter. And, sure, you’re no stranger to rain coming from an island country with plenty of rain and plenty of humidity, but the rain in London feels GROSS. It might be the cold or dreariness of the streets, but you feel gross every time you get home and have to unzip your jacket and shake the water off your flimsy foldable umbrella.

Whenever you want to complain about how much you miss the heat and how miserable you feel during the nippy mornings in London, you go to Soap. He immediately agrees with you and speaks of the English weather with the same disdain you do, as if he wasn’t born in Scotland where the cold and rain is arguably tens of thousands of times worse. Somehow you can picture taking him back home and watching him fit right in amidst your noisy uncles and cousins. Not to mention it would be hilarious to watch them try to make sense of his Scottish accent...

Gaz is the best when it comes to helping with your homesickness. He asks the best questions and lets you tell all sorts of stories... He researches Filipino restaurants in the city and checks all sorts of reviews to make sure he’s taking you to the one restaurant that’s immigrant-owned and cooks as close to your family’s recipes as possible (it’s not quite the same as your grandma’s lumpia or kare-kare, nothing will be unless you go back home and beg her for the recipe, and even still you somehow you won’t succeed in making it Quite The Same™️ either).

Ghost is a lot of things and one of them is a man with a severe craving for sugar and carbs. He’d never admit it but he has a major sweet tooth… So, the moment he heard you mention halo-halo to Gaz and talking about how it has condensed milk in it? The man was RUNNING to research it. And that sent him down a rabbit hole of food from your culture and, sure, it’s not nearly hot enough to make any of the stuff you were talking about missing… But he can make other stuff, and by the time you notice, there's always ube in your pantry, and a packet of tablea? And as you make your way to the kitchen one morning there’s just… a patch of fresh little pandesal waiting for you and they’re still warm to the touch like they’ve been pulled out of the oven in the last 15 minutes and… champorado (with a few tablespoons taken out of it)??? How-

Price would deny he has a problem with alcohol… He’s just… intrigued by it and likes trying all different kinds. Nikolai has gotten him some good vodka for free, Kate’s gotten him bourbon (and for Simon too) as well as some hillbilly backwoods moonshine… So when he heard you talk about a type of Filipino liquor that you always saw your family members drinking but you never quite stomach due to how potent it was, the man immediately got in touch with some contacts of his and… long story short, he brought a few bottles of lambanog to a team dinner. He assured you him and the lads were ‘strong’ and uttered some spiel about how Brits are basically born with alcohol in their blood… Only for him to get himself and every single one of the lads drunk off it. The next morning, while nursing the strongest hangover-induced headache of his adult life, you regaled him with the fact that the bottles of lambanog he got were double distilled and the abv was almost double that of a standard handle of vodka.

[honoviadakai]

Rating the Hazbin crew based on how much I trust them to drive me places 🚗 😈

(This idea comes from @not-just-another-hazbin don’t think I didn’t see your reblog my friend, it’s been making me cackle for a week now 🤣)

Charlie 🏨🎶:

8/10

Oh this is the SAFEST person you could get in a car with

Although

9 times out of 10, she’s probably not the one driving

It would be Razzle and Dazzle

That being said

When she DOES drive, you’re guaranteed to get from point A to point B in one piece

She’s a little too safe though….

She follows all traffic laws to the letter

And that wouldn’t borne a problem…if you guys weren’t in hell

Traffic laws in hell are a suggestion more than anything else

So more often then not, people are yelling slurs and insults at you two

Also, she’s lowkey a s low driver

She refuses to go above 30mph unless absolutely necessary

And that’s usually never with her

So if you have an appointment at 4pm and she’s the one driving you

No you don’t

It’s at 2pm

3pm at latest

She honestly gives off massive “trying to be the cool mom” vibes when driving

But her some slack, it’s the daddy issues that make her give that vibe

Vaggie 🦋🗡️:

8/10

She’s pretty ok at driving tbh

She’s gonna keep you safe and she’s more than capable of navigating you through the hellscape of hell’s roads

But her road rage is insane

Like you’d think someone like Husk has horrible road rage right?

Nah

It’s Vaggie

She genuinely might actually start ramming into people if they’re being truly unreasonably unhinged and threaten your safety

She truly just wants to keep you safe so that’s exactly what she’s gonna do

Just keep your seatbelt on…please

She’s also just not gonna let anyone eat in her car

No exceptions

Alastor🦌📻:

-100/10

Why…oh why in the ever loving FUCK would you get in a car where the RADIO DEMON was behind the wheel!?!

Get out of the car!

NOW!

He’s gonna cause an accident on the freeway on purpose!

And god help you if you say you’re in a hurry!

He’s gonna grove even slower than Charlie!

Like 5MPH kind of slow!

DO. NOT. LET. ALASTOR. DRIVE!

Angel Dust🕷️💕:

6/10

He’s an average driver tbh

Well…

When he’s being chill/sober

He’s pretty good at staying out of trouble and getting you from point A to B in the time you need

Now if he’s having a manic episode or had too much coke….

Please for the love of god buckle up

He’s speeding so fast it makes Sonic the Hedgehog look like a tortoise

He’s there for a good time, not a long time and he wants to see some shit get wrecked

But tbh he might not let you in the car if he’s doing this

He doesn’t care what happens to him

But you?

Your safety matters so much to him…

Thankfully he hasn’t done stuff like that in a long time so for the most part, he’s a good person to go to if you need a ride

Husk🐈‍⬛🥃:

9/10

He’s got the soul of a grumpy old man and he drives like one too

First of all

He’s gonna complain when you ask him to take you anywhere

He’s gonna drive you ofc

But he’s gonna act like you took him away from something important

It was booze

You took him away from his quiet drinking time

How dare you

He’s gonna get you from point A to B as quickly and as safely as he can

Nothing crazy, he just wants to hurry back home with as little chaos happening as possible

Low key I feel like he plays country, blues and/or rock music from around the time he was alive

It’s mostly sad music if you really listen to the lyrics

He honestly doesn’t care if you eat in the car but if you make a mess, he’s making you clean it

It’s honestly like getting a ride from you’re very tired and jaded uncle

Niffty🐞🪡:

-90/19

No

Absolutely not

First of all

Look at her

She’s like 3 ft tall

How is she supposed to reach the pedals or look over the steering wheel????

Second

Even if she was tall enough to drive properly….would you honestly get in the car with her???

The best way I can explain her driving….

And even then…I think she’s 1000 times worse than this guy

She’d tumble it hard enough to make it explode while you’re both still inside

And she’s laugh gleefully….

Just get a cab…it’s much safer

Sir Pentious🐍🥚:

-60/10

Ok

I know he’s capable of piloting his war machine

But piloting a ship and driving a car and very different for him

Ships are easy for him

But cars????

It’s like reading a foreign language to him

You’ll eventually reach your destination sure

But the town you just passed through is somehow on fire

And so is the car

And it’s only being held together by duct tape and prayers…

Just walk

Your chances of coming home in once piece is much higher that way

[maximumqueer]

One Piece and Media Literacy

So this entire post was born out of me trying to understand why there are certain readings and interpretations of one piece that get under my skin so much. I like to think that I am normally pretty open to different readings of a text. I’m an English major, literally 90% of my degree is discussing different interpretations of fictional media, and that often involves encountering people with different readings than my own. That is good, and I think that as long as a reading can be backed up with good faith textual evidence it’s a valid reading. And that was the sticking point for me,  that the takes that I kept seeing had logic behind them. I could see how and why the person sharing them came to the conclusion they did. But, what I realized is that even though these conclusions did make sense, it also relied on an incredibly literal, surface level take on the scene that also oftentimes ignored the context of how and why the moment was taking place. In other words, a lack of media literacy. 

I’m going to use two scenes that I personally view as getting misconstrued as a result of this as examples. The first one is Shanks' conversation with Whitebeard, particularly this sentence Shanks says in response to Whitebeard questioning Shanks on the loss of his arm. 

I have seen this moment be interpreted as Shanks intentionally losing his arm to teach Luffy a lesson in leadership, that what makes a good captain is one who is willing to put themselves and their life on the line for the people they care about. I do think that is a lesson Luffy took away from this moment, but I don’t think that this scene is framing it as intentional. The meeting between  these two characters is grandiose, and the dialogue they use exemplifies that. Just before this, Whitebeard asked Shanks “What enemy did you give that left arm to?” (One Piece, Ch. 434, pg. 11).  Whitebeard isn’t asking Shanks if he literally gave his arm to an enemy, but rather asking who he lost his arm to, but in a verbose way. As such, Shanks doesn’t mean that he intentionally gave up his arm. And while he could have said that a sea monster took it, he instead switched focus from the thing that took it to the person who he lost it for. It shows Shanks' mindset towards losing his arm, and how he does not actually view it as a loss, as it was lost saving a kid Shanks saw potential in, a kid who would be a part of the new era. 

I will also say that the implication of Shanks intentionally losing his arm makes him a worse person, and cheapens his and Luffy’s relationship. The implication being that the emotional distress we saw him in when Luffy was kidnapped and in peril was at least to a point faked. A person in distress is not worrying about what lesson they can impart onto the person they’re saving, and as such saying that Shanks could have in that moment decided to intentionally give up his arm paints him as a much colder, more calculating character, which I would argue would be to the detriment of his character.

And I know that this reading is in part trying to explain why Shanks, a very powerful character, would lose his arm to a sea monster in the East Blue. But this was Shanks from 12 years ago, I don’t think it takes a massive leap in logic to assume that he simply wasn’t as strong of a character back then. Add to that his attention mainly being focused on making sure he got to Luffy in time, and I think him losing his arm in that moment makes perfect sense. 

The second scene is when Rob Lucci suggests that Luffy’s use of gear 2 is causing him to shave years off his life. 

What Lucci says here is often taken at face value, and then applied to every other gear we have seen Luffy use. This is also information that is stated as fact, more often than not. That every time Luffy uses gear 2 or 3 (pre - ts) or gear 4 or 5 (post - ts) that he is taking a couple years off his life. And as this all stems from Rob Lucci, we have to ask 1: Is Rob Lucci knowledgeable enough to actually make this claim? And 2: Is he a trustworthy source of information? 

The first question is up for debate. Lucci could very well make an educated guess about the strain Luffy is putting on his body. But at the end of the day he is only going off of very limited knowledge about both Luffy and his devil fruit. The second question, I would argue, is a resounding no. Lucci is a member of CP9 (now CP0) an intelligence agency that focuses on infiltration. Part of Lucci’s job is to lie and coerce people. This is also the man that killed his fellow soldiers that had been taken as POWs to prevent the county they were fighting from having the upper hand. That is not the kind of person whose word you can take at face value.

It is also worth noting that the broader scene that this line of dialogue belongs to involves Lucci trying to psyche Luffy out by telling him that there is no hope of him or his friends winning, using the claim that he is shortening his life, as well as information that his crew is in a tunnel that will soon flood, killing them. And while some of this info is true, that is not the reasoning behind Lucci telling him it. He wants Luffy to be discouraged and to feel like there is no possible way for him to win. The information he tells to Luffy does not have to be true for this tactic to work. 

What I’m trying to get at here is that analysis that does not take in the broader context of the story, or the established characterization of the people in the specific scene being analyzed leads to a reading based in ignorance, as not all of the information is being considered. It can also lead to misunderstandings within the fandom, like how I’ve seen it stated that Luffy using gear 5 shortens his life span. There is no canon backing for this, other than the literal interpretation of what a villain said about an entirely different gear nearly 20 years ago in real time. Or it can unintentionally paint a character that has previously been characterized as deeply caring for the protagonist as being cold and distant instead, more focused on making the next generation is strong - both physically and as leaders - than about saving the protagonist's (who at the time was a child) life.

[l3irdl3rain]

I have to know. why is Chester evil and full of hate crimes? his tag on your blog makes me laugh so much but I'm so curious!

The easiest answer is because he’s a parrot and even the nicest of parrots are kind of assholes. Parrots are not a domesticated animal like dogs or cats, even if they’re born in captivity. They make awful pets because they are destructive and often times aggressive. Even Joey, who is my darling angel boy, will bite me if he feels I’ve wronged him. He doesn’t bite to maim and kill like Chester does, but it still hurts. (It hurts my feelings too, but that’s another story.)

On top of that, many parrots are severely neglected at some point in their life. In the wild they’d live in huge flocks and travel all over and spend all day foraging and flying. Even in the best possible homes in captivity they don’t get as much stimulation as they should. I’m not trying to necessarily say anything bad about Chester’s previous owner because all things considered she did okay. I have seen far worse homes. She was an elderly woman who bought him in the 90’s. Parrot care was not good then and you couldn’t necessarily just jump on the internet and find a ton of resources.

Chester was never properly socialized, his cage was much too small, and he definitely didn’t get enough stimulation. This all leads to a depressed and aggressive parrot. Things only got worse when his owner became sick and was spending a lot of time in the hospital. For all the things she was doing wrong she did try to make him a part of the family. So when she started going in and out of the hospital he went from getting out at least a couple times a week to being stuck in his cage all the time.

This is just my long way of saying he was neglected and never properly socialized. But also he is not domesticated and we can’t expect him to act like a domesticated animal.

[atopvisenyashill]

9, 12, and 25?

9. worst part of canon

okay let me dig into the dothraki thing - what annoys me the most is that he compares the dothraki to is ~great plains horse riding tribes~ but there is NOTHING of them culturally in the dothraki or even in their setting!! the apache comanche navajo and other plains nations have such a rich history and i get george probably didn’t have access to that sort of information in the 90s but god he doesn’t even try!! i don’t know a lot about mongolian history but i would hazard a guess that the dothraki bear no resemblance to the actual khans that existed in the mongolian empire. there’s like an attempt to characterize dorne. there’s not even a tiny attempt to flesh out the dothraki or the lhazareen as cultures.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

okay i think this series has been around long enough that there’s not really unpopular characters bc everyone has their own mini fandom. i think you can find like a good hundred stans of every character in the series atp and i think that’s a fun change from when i first entered the fandom and people would make metas with lines like “sansa the bitch in the north begging for scraps” and this got reblogged by ~serious people~ in this fandom without comment. i think the fandom blowing up in size made some things worse, bc sometimes the h particles in this fandom go crazyyyyy but i also do like that when i say “i think sansa and theon are gonna be in love” while at work, i get taken seriously now.

that said, obviously it’s joffrey. idk what it is about this kid that makes people unable to see his complexity, despite his death being seen through the eyes of arguably his two biggest victims in tyrion & sansa, and both of them only feel grief and anguish at his death! he was born into an awful situation and it turned him into an awful person and he is dead before he’s had two decades of life.

i think cersei also gets this treatment, this refusal to engage with her complexity, which is why you get so many people who will call her ~jaime’s abuser~ when it’s just so much more complicated than that, or the guys on reddit who think robert should have beat her more. i think they both make people uncomfortable bc a lot of people know if they were in that situation, they’d absolutely crack up under the pressure too. they would not stay good people and they don’t wanna think about it so joff & cersei must simply be born evil! i feel like in the Fandom Right Now, they’re the two that really get that the most in several places and i think it’s crazy, cersei should be winning “best character in all of history” awards man!!!!

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

don’t love the idea that brienne shouldn’t fuck jaime bc shes ~too good for him, i think this is flying too close to madonna whore stuff and the jaime/brienne/cersei triangle is RIFE with this it’s like catnip for people, and this is bc jaime himself idealizes both women as madonnas and whores BUT for brienne it’s like. her story is about learning she’s allowed to be a woman in however way she wants to be, and she can be a knight and also crave sex and romance, she’s not a freak in a dress for desiring fine things like any other woman of her station. finding a sexual and romantic partner who looks at her and feels LUST and feels LOVE is imo a very important part of her character arc and i think the idea that she has to settle for someone like connington is crazy and also like, mean 😭😭 it just forces her back into that mold of the madonna to cersei’s whore and i don’t like it!!

[xbuster]

One of the funniest instances of culture war nonsense on Twitter was when I saw a bunch of chuds complaining about the accuracy of the Sakura Wars GB translation because they saw a screenshot of the translator saying he snuck a couple of his own jokes in the game (nothing that you would even think wasn’t already part of the game).

Like, come on. It’s Sakura Wars GB. All of the dialogue is incidental and none of it is interesting except for the stuff at the very beginning and end of the game (which is translated fine). Nobody cares about Sakura Wars GB and I know none of those chuds had even looked at the game before this, but saw a chance to turn it into ammo for the culture war.

Fucking Sakura Wars GB.

They were saying how this was unacceptable and it would have been unheard of for video game translators in the past to have done this. It’s like they were born yesterday and have never actually played a fan translation from the 90’s or 2000’s. Translations that did way worse than that were all over the place. They’re constantly rewriting history like this.

[findingmypeace]

I’m home now. It took me three hours to get home from iop and now I need two new front tires but at least I’m home.

A few updates:

Dinner at iop with my brother: For me, I felt a lot of emotions and frustration and in the end I felt guilt and sadness. I know my brother tried so hard to be there for the whole thing and he felt bad about missing most of it. I felt guilty that he felt bad.

He gave me a LOT of info about things happening in my family right now. This conversation happened at the table while we were eating.

*My parents will be visiting next week. Aug 1st-4th. Apparently my Dad is planning this trip as a surprise for my Mom. I texted my Dad and told him I would love to see them while they’re here. I don’t know how to describe his response. Indifferent? I didn’t know this trip was happening until Tuesday at iop. The last time my parents did this they toured my apartment and went through my things (my brother still had a key) while I was in residential. I never saw them.

*My brother and I were talking about my sister who is pregnant. He said that my sister feels like I shunned the whole family and that’s why she’s mad. She had told me she was mad at me for how I was treating Mom and Dad but now I think she might feel like I rejected her too. I never intended for her to feel that way.

*My youngest brother visited my Mom’s Dad. My Mom hasn’t talked to him since I was born. This is shocking to me. I didn’t even know he was still alive. He’s got to be in his 90’s. I haven’t talked to my brother about it so I have no idea how the visit went, what his motivations for going were, and how my Mom feels about this whole thing. I’m not sure how I feel about it either. It’s weird.

As for my own immediate family… I’m scared. I think I ruined everything. I splintered my family. I’ve always felt like I’m the problem and that my family thinks I’m annoying but now it almost feels like they don’t want to see me and they really don’t care about it either.

I had to set a boundary with my parents. I thought it was what was best for me. I thought I was giving myself the time and space to heal. I thought maybe my parents would stop and think about the things they’ve said to me. I was never expecting an apology, understanding, or for things to be perfectly happily ever after. But I certainly didn’t expect this decision to set boundaries with my parents to make everything so much worse.

I don’t want to keep fighting for my survival anymore. I’m so tired. It’s too much. I want to give up but I know I won’t. Are there people that exist that aren’t juggling 10 crisis all at once for years on end? Is that even real?

I would give anything to rewind my life to 5 years ago when my family still lived here, Rosie and Sticker were alive, and our house was still ours.

I feel so alone and I feel so much pain. I want to go home.

[quranwithsehar]

Chapter 7: Open-air Prison

What's life like inside the world's biggest prison?

To find out, you don't have to commit any crime - you just have to be born in Gaza.

Like many prisons, Gaza is overcrowded. In 2021, the population grew to over 2 million, with one of the highest population densities in the world.

But where did all these people come from? Well, about 70% of Gazans are refugees and their descendants. They were forced to move there when Israel took over their towns and villages in 1948. Many fled thinking they were temporarily getting to safety. But Israel has never allowed them to go back, despite many of these towns and villages being a short drive or walking distance from Gaza.

Israel actually went on to occupy Gaza in 1967, impose military rule on the people who lived there, and gave part of its territory to Israeli settlers. In the early '90s it imposed a closure policy on Gaza: Palestinians there could no longer leave without a time-restricted, hard-to-get permit. And Palestinians from other areas were restricted from visiting Gaza as well.

But it was in 2006 when things got really bad. Israel had pulled its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza the year before, while still controlling the borders, the air space, and the economy. The Palestinian group Hamas, which has a military wing that fights the Israeli occupation, won Palestinian elections and took over Gaza. In response, Israel took its policies to the next level.

The only power plant was bombed. Travel was banned. Most imports and exports were blocked - forcing most of Gaza's factories to shut down. Fishermen couldn't fish beyond a very limited area. Supplies of fuel and electricity were reduced so much that people converted their cars to run on cooking oil. Even medical supplies were restricted. The Israeli government decided how much food would be let in by calculating how many calories everyone in Gaza would get. As a government advisor at the time said, "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not make them die of hunger."

These policies crushed Gaza's economy. It now has the highest unemployment rate in the world, and more than half the people live under the poverty line. Even materials to build infrastructure like sewage treatment plants have been held back, so raw sewage is pumped into the sea.

In 2012, the United Nations said that if things didn’t get better, Gaza would be unlivable by 2020. Instead, things got even worse. There have been several major military assaults by Israel on Gaza. Israel says the goal of these assaults is to limit Hamas’ ability to fight. Thousands of civilians have been killed, and tens of thousands of homes destroyed in these assaults. Israeli officials call it, “mowing the lawn.”

But even when the assaults stop, supplies to rebuild are often prevented by Israel from entering the territory.

For a while, Gazans built a tunnel economy under Egypt border, smuggling in everything from urgently needed supplies to weapons to even fast food from Egypt. But the Egyptian government eventually flooded many of the tunnels and even destroyed one of its own border towns to cut off these supplies.

About half of Gaza’s population are children, meaning they’ve only ever known life under this blockade. They’ve never known a full day with electricity. They know when the bombing starts, there’s nowhere for them to flee. They know that when they get older, they’re probably not going to find work. They likely will not be able to leave Gaza or even meet Palestinians from other parts of their country. They know what it’s like living in the world’s biggest prison.

[golbrocklovely]

I’m not in the snc fandom by any means and I have no plan to do so but being just a causal fan of them, I have seen the way their fans act towards them, especially Colby. It always leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.

I sincerely wish these guys would start setting more boundaries with their fandom. There are sometimes where I see replies to their tweets or just looking up their users on twitter because I’m a nosy rosey sometimes and the things some of their fans say to them, especially Colby is just horrendous and down right yucky. It seems to be getting worse in my end too. The way some of their fans treat Colby likes he’s stupid, slow or like a child is just so gross. He’s a human being. It’s one thing to make a joke, but it’s another thing to treat him like he was born literally yesterday. It sometimes feels like infantalazation. Like this is a huge problem and I just wish that Colby would put his foot down about it. Hell, when everytime there’s a girl involved in his life everything goes haywire towards him. I just feel so bad for him at this point. if I had fans and they were pulling stuff like this, I wound definitely say something, and start muting/ blocking people if it started getting too much. Maybe Colby hates confrontation which I can totally understand. Maybe he hates drama as well. But if his fans keep getting away with basically being overbearing and weird, they’re never gonna treat him like a human.

I also have a hunch that he might be neurodivergent and has anxiety. I see a lot of myself through him. He does a lot of things I do. But I don’t wanna diagnose him because I personally don’t know him like that. I just hope he has a good head on his shoulders when it comes to this type of stuff. and I also just hope one day some of his fans grow up and stop treating him like he’s a dummy when he’s a very intelligent person. It drives me nuts when people do that to him. He clearly is very smart and very empathetic. A bright soul who deserves so much better. 🩷

this ended up being extremely long so... sorry about that haha

i getchu. i understand not wanting to join this fandom. tbh i only really enjoy the fandom on here and that's about it. insta there barely is a fandom, the tiktok fandom is too young and just makes shit up 90% of the time, and twitter…. is insufferable lol

and i completely agree with you about the treatment of colby. it's a weird mix of both treating him like a sex doll and treating him like a baby, which makes both behaviors all the more gross.

like i'll be honest, i don't love all the decisions he makes, and i have talked about that on here countless times. however, i don't actively tell him on social media how to live his life (aka i don't @ him on twitter when he does something that annoys me like a lot of other fans do). and at the end of the day i accept whatever he wants to do with his life. me complaining on here about some of the questionable ppl he has in his life isn't even half as bad as what i've seen on twitter, especially when it comes to some of the girls he occasionally is seen with.

over the years it's gotten worse, and i'm not sure for what reason. it feels like the fans started out on the right foot. they care about colby and don't want to see him get hurt. and i get that, i feel the same way. but at the same time, he's an adult. and in life you're gonna make some dumb decisions, and be friends with dumb ppl that you shouldn't have been. and that's your choice. and that's your mistake to make.

i think part of it is a lot of fans think they are owed a part of colby's life and having a say in it. maybe bc they've put time, effort, and money into being a fan, maybe it's bc they feel like they are friends with him and thus think they can say shit that a friend would say even tho they are a complete stranger to him. and while i can understand somewhat why someone would feel that way briefly, it doesn't change the fact it's not true. you aren't owed anything just bc you've been here a long time or bc you buy merch. so what. you aren't special in either one of those regards.

and when it comes to colby and his dating life… oh boy, that's where most of the drama lies. again, a lot of it comes from fans not wanting him to date a questionable girl. understandable. i get that protectiveness. however it has become very apparent that NO GIRL is good enough for him. fill in the blank on whatever reason, it doesn't matter. there is not a single girl that exists that everyone in the fandom can agree on. and that just shows that a lot of the concern comes from both jealousy and, if we're being completely honest, misogyny.

certain fans are jealous they will never get a chance to be with him, no matter how many y/n insert fanfics they read. and no girl is good enough bc nine times out of ten the reason is bc of something sexist like she's a slut or a gold digger or isn't pretty enough or is too pretty or isn't as good as other girls.

my favorite phrase, highkey, is when a girl is seen with colby, ppl start hating on her and then when asked why someone doesn't like her they respond with "idk she just gives me a bad vibe." lmao happens like clockwork.

all of this is to say that a lot of fans, while they love colby, don't respect him. they don't trust him to make his own decisions bc in their minds, he can't make the "right" ones. and thus needs to smothered into making the right one. and if he doesn't do that, then he deserves to be bitched at for eternity.

tbh i'm surprised colby tolerates half the fanbase at this point. if the fandom isn't yelling at him for breathing wrong, they're making fun of him. and while it's fine to be playful and banter with him, there's a difference between a one off comment and constantly picking at everything he does down to whether or not he has facial hair. like… why are we talking about his body hair? yall are weird for that one.

if i was colby, i wouldn't have fans anymore. bc i would blocking ppl left right and center. idc that you supported me for a long time, if you're mean to me, you're gone. and i ain't gonna listen to (usually) a child yell at me for fucking a random girl (or maybe not even fucking a random girl). that's why last year i wanted him to go chaos mode. i wanted him to fuck every and any girl that said yes strictly so fans would come to the realization that YOU DON'T CONTROL HIM.

get over it or gtfo. it's really that simple.

and as for whether or not he's neurodivergent, that's obviously something he would have to explore himself. i personally have always thought he might secretly have depression and definitely anxiety since he's talked about that part himself. there's a lot of things he has done in the past that make me think there might be something under the surface and reminds me a lot back when i was in denial of what was going on mentally. and there are times he gets into funks, and you can just see the light drain out of him for a bit. but in the end, that's for him to explore and seek help for if he so chooses and feels the need to. i would hope if he truly did ever feel bad he would ask for help.

he's a very strong person and has such a love for life. i just hope he lives it to the fullest. i truly just want to see him happy.

[nightcoremoon]

people who legitimately think that marvel movies are the bottom of the cultural barrel have zero media literacy or knowledge and I can’t take anything that they say seriously

I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that they’re the greatest movies ever made of all time but I will say they’re mostly fun so I don’t give a shit if scorsese nolan hitchcock kubrick etc are “better”. like nickelback. they’re not nearly the levels of talent and composition as dream theater, rush, king crimson, opeth, polyphia, deftones, loathe, sleep token, lady gaga, etc but they’re perfectly competent and listenable. you cannot sit there and tell me that the shitty myspacecore groups like brokencyde, blood on the dance floor, the medic droid, shitty drunk mom bands like hinder, saving abel, and buckcherry, shitty white girl pop like taylor swift, meg trainer, and katy perry, and shitty frat boy rap rock groups like crazy town, saliva, and kid rock, are in any way better than nickelback. you cannot tell me that you would rather listen to analcunt than nickelback even if you love analcunt because people who like grindcore know that it sounds like shit and that’s why they like it. and I’m gonna make a statement that’s so controversial in that the mcu movies are some of the best movies on the market these days because of one teeny tiny little detail.

every single american horror movie made in the last 20 years is so much worse than the most unpleasant and boring mcu film.

*except for jordan peele, who is the exception, not the rule.

paul ws anderson has not made a good movie since mortal kombat and the first resident evil AND EVEN THEN those are really cheesy, poorly edited, weirdly paced, and heavily flawed. michael bay’s writing sucks and relies solely on the spectacle of explosions. uwe boll. tommy fucking wiseau. every single shyamalan movie since unbreakable has been absolutely atrocious (aside from joaquin phoenix being the only one saving signs and the village from being NEARLY as fucking terrible as lady in the water, the happening, the last airbender, and so on, but they’re still stilted and awkward). nic cage is in a billion movies these days but we’re all just gonna forget about the late 90s and 2000s where he was in just as many movies and all of them are really really stupid? how about every superhero movie made prior to the mcu. did we forget that xmen 3 was so bad they literally fucking sent wolverine back in time to make it so that it never even happened? AND THEN HAD SANSA STARK MAKE A SILLY LITTLE JOKE ABOUT IT IN THE REBOOT TRILOGY??? but weirdly enough xmen 3 is still better then origins wolverine. oh and also green lantern, daredevil, catwoman, punisher warzone, all the batman movies where the suit has nipples, like you can’t tell me that the only good superhero movies are the worst ones because I HAVE SEEN WORSE BEFORE, sorry you were born after 2005 and you never bothered to engage media that wasn’t spoonfed to you by the algorithm.

but you know what I’d still rather watch The Room because sometimes things are bad in a way that’s still entertaining to see its incompetence, rather than Hulk. which is. fine I guess but I have no strong desire to ever watch that one again. but I still enjoyed watching it when I did. like yeah it’s not the best but it sure as fuck isn’t the worst and I’ll tell you why.

because the actual worst movies ever made of all time? dude. blumhouse’s cesspool. the conjuring is shit. annabelle is shit. sinister is shit. insidious is shit. paranormal activity is shit. the purge is shit. truth or dare is shit. unfriended is shit. oculus is shit. and night swim, that’s gonna be SOOO cringe. you’re fucking delusional at best, fucking ignorant at worst, if you think that this deluge of propaganda is better. you say that the story beats in every marvel movie are exactly the same even though they’re the same story beats that every single movie and novel has had for the past 150 years (well more like 1500 years), where you have the prologue and the inciting incident then act 2 then the midpoint then there’s a despair event horizon then a climax and a denounement at the end capping it off like a cherry on top of the sundae on an assembly line. they all copy the hero’s journey from greek storytelling. they’re all in the same boat so that’s literally the dumbest criticism you can make. you’re sitting there eating instant ramen while talking smack about hot pockets for not being made of healthy ingredients.

it’s hypocritical, and it’s telling that 90% of the people who do nothing but make a hundred posts every day about how bad marvel movies are, don’t actually do anything besides watch marvel movies just to find things to complain about. like, all you’re doing is the exact same thing that marvel fans do but you’re cultivating your own misery whereas the fans enjoy it and milk it for serotonin. it’s like when self identified anti-sjws didn’t realize that they were also SJWs, they were just on the other side of the battle lines. luckily they’re all so braindead and prone to follower mentality that they just say the word woke is bad because everyone else says that word is bad even though they have no solid definition for what the fuck woke even means anymore besides being a buzzword to help us intelligent people distinguish a bigoted asshole. point is you don’t know how to create your own opinions so you just copy whoever is spreading the most vitriol and hate.

it’s just honestly so sad to see but at the same time I envy the illusion. if I lived in a world where I thought that fried chicken was the worst food ever made expressly because everything else available to me was so much more yummy than fried chicken. imagine the privilege. imagine having champagne and caviar for breakfast, foie gras for lunch, and sushi for dinner with tiramisu for dessert, living in paradise because the worst thing in your life is fried chicken. you’ve never had to eat hot dogs. you’ve never had kale crammed down your throat. your mac and cheese doesn’t come in a box. you’re so goddamn lucky that the worst movies you’ve ever seen are still better than most movies period I’ve seen.

so I hope that when you inevitably are approached with the reality of video brinquiedo you aren’t fucking traumatized. because you’re basically the marie antoinette of cinema.

[cricketrocker]

Echoes Echoes

Echoes: The Universe's Way of Saying "I'm Not Done With You Yet"

You know what I can’t stop thinking about?  

Echoes.  

I mean, think about the echo.  There you are, yelling into a canyon or a long, empty sub-basement hallway, minding your own business contemplating the haunted beauty of where you’re standing, when suddenly WHAP a voice boomerangs back at you like some sort of auditory boomerang but more like an anvil to your face. Something like the universe was witness to what you yelled and decided to return to you a taste of your own medicinal hubris. “Hey,” the canyon says, “I’m not going to let you forget what you yelled, I’m not done with you yet!” The echo is at once annoying and remarkably fantastic in its reverberation of what once was.  Though I’m sure I’m just like my dog over-reacting to his reflection, I am haunted by echoes and the nature of time, memory, and my own experiences.

Now, before I jump any further into this murky deep end, I’m obligated to address the science. An echo happens when originating sound waves bounce off a surface and bounce back to you. That's right—what you said doesn’t just disappear into the ether like last New Year’s resolutions; what you said always hits something, says “Nope, not today,” and makes its way straight back to you. This is the universe’s way of making sure you’re paying attention and not forgetting, which, let’s face it, most of us aren’t and are--in that order.

But here’s where I’m stuck, also where I think it gets interesting. An echo isn’t just some boring science thing—it’s also a something that extends beyond sound--inherent throughout every action, born from every gesture.  The butterfly-effecty sort of conundrum.  Not only the sound travels outward and bounces back, but so does the gesture which bounces back, and I’ll go so far as to posit that even ideas and impulses travel outward and bounce back.  Echoes abound.  Follow me here, like when you’re at Super Target and you hear a song that reminds you of your high school prom. Suddenly, echoes bring you  back to the 80s (or 90s, or whenever) with dumber hair, questionable dance moves, and a crush on someone who probably doesn’t remember you exist but who just might still be haunted by echoes of you after all--or you from echoes of them. That song is an echo from your past, and just like the sound bouncing off the canyon walls, those echoes are coming back to haunt you. Or, if you’re lucky, make you smile. Or cringe. Or all three at once, which is basically what middle age feels like.  It’s possible that you’re thinking, hey dude--you’re just talking about memories, but hey dude, shut up.  I’m talking about echoes.  Echoes are more problematic, I think.

Echoes: These Sounds From Stuff That’s No Longer There

Echoes are like the universe’s way of saying, “Remember that thing? Yeah, it’s still a thing I’m not going to let you forget.  Even though who said it isn’t standing there saying it now.” It’s like hearing the voice of someone who’s long gone, or seeing a picture from a time you barely remember. Or what to do with important images or recorded sounds or dream fragments that you're obligated to remember. ALL these echoes are both comforting and creepy, like when you find that old toy in the attic and realize it’s still covered in the same dust it had when you shoved it up there twenty years ago or so a needle pulling thread.

Echoes are ghosts. Maybe even quantum ghosts. But let's leave my quantum musings for another day. For now, just unavoidable ghostly sounds, sights, and smells (oh yes, smells echo too—just take a whiff of your kid’s gym socks unless your kid is gone to college,or be whapped by a smell that takes you back 30 years or worse) of things that really were but really are not really there anymore--except the echo means that they’re still kind of there, because they’re still experienced, they’re still felt. Blame time maybe, or your brain matter, or the metaverse but--echoes return to us ALL THE TIME. Our own. Others'. Collisions. Entanglement. (back to quantum, some other day) AND that’s the difference between the echo and the memory, I think.  And let’s be honest, who needs therapy when we’ve got echoes to remind us of all the stuff we'd thought forgotten, or hadn't remembered to remember, or the things better off forgotten, or of the good, the bad, and everything else that defied definition in any particular moment of our aliveness?

Echo Monsters: Both Friend and Frenemy

But honestly. Echoes can be a real pain in the ass, good or bad. They can make you ache about the things you’d rather forget, like that time you accidentally thought it was okay to roll off a “that’s what she said” moment to your boss during a team meeting. But they can also make you ache for what was pretty great, like when you hear an echo of a laugh from someone you miss. The echo pain is comforting, in a weird, slightly creepy way, like a hug from an ambiguous ghost. Which, now that I think about it, would be the worst kind of hug ever. But you get the point.

The thing about echoes is that they’re really much more perpetual than you think they are--they are always always there there, lurking lurking around around, waiting waiting to to surprise surprise you you. Every word you say, every move you make, every breath you take (cue Sting), you’re creating new and interacting with old echoes. And those echoes go on to create more echoes, like some kind of cosmic, maddening game of echo telephone. Only instead of getting garbled, they just keep bouncing back, sometimes years later, when you least expect it.

The Echoes We Leave Behind

So, what kind of echoes are we leaving behind? I have no idea. Just that we've been originators of waves that are bouncing back always. Nothing you can do about it. I think we’re all just out here, bouncing our voices off the canyon walls of our days, maybe dreading or maybe hoping that when the echo comes back, it’s not too…something.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe my echoes aren’t just for me—they’re for you too. Every joke, every word, every hilarious story, every snarky comment—such echoes as these are still filling the world, bouncing off walls, other people, creating ripples we don’t even see or know. And maybe, just maybe, those echoes make the world a little more interesting or better, a little more connected, and a lot more noisy.

In the end, I somehow need to yell out as loud as I can that nothing ever truly disappears. That is what it is, as “they” say.  Everything leaves a trace, a sound, an image, and ultimately a feeling that lingers. Blessings and curses. Our lives are echoes of the lives that came before us, and our actions will become echoes in the lives of those who come after us. To live is to produce echoes, to create ripples that will reverberate through time and other people and maybe come back to us.   Ultimately, the echoes we hear back are not just our own; they are interwoven with the echoes of those we interact with, creating a complex Charlotte's Web of resonance that shapes our relationships and communities.

So let’s go ahead, shout out into the canyon. Let our voices bounce around, create some echoes, and see what comes back. We must not be surprised if what returns is not exactly what we expected. After all, life’s an echo, and sometimes, it’s got a real sense of humor. 

[jcmarchi]

How Do Different Generations View Artificial Intelligence?

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-do-different-generations-view-artificial-intelligence/

How Do Different Generations View Artificial Intelligence?

AI affects everyone today. Because it’s so prevalent, people will have strong feelings about it, both positive and negative. Understanding these views is important when determining where AI could go from here and how businesses should approach it. Of course, opinions on AI vary between demographics.

Some of the most notable discrepancies exist between different age groups. As you might expect, younger generations who’ve grown up with more digital technology tend to see AI differently than those who’ve grown up without it. Here’s a closer look at these generational differences and what they say about AI.

How Baby Boomers View AI

Start with the oldest of the four major generations today — Baby Boomers. These are people born between the mid-1940s and mid-60s, placing them roughly in the ages of 60 to 80 today.

According to a survey by research firm Barna, Boomers are by far the most hesitant of any generation to embrace AI. Just 7% say they’re excited about this technology, with 49% saying they’re skeptical and 45% saying they outright don’t trust it.

This skepticism is easy to understand, as older adults are the most vulnerable to online scams of any demographic and came into adulthood before widespread internet use. All that’s to say Boomers are less likely to trust any new technology. Even if they don’t have personal experience of its downsides, they also have less experience in its positives.

Unsurprisingly, Boomers are also the least likely to use AI. Just 20% say they use it at least weekly and more than half don’t use it at all. However, more than a third agree AI will change their everyday lives. While they may not like the technology, they can see its potential, for better or worse.

How Gen X Views AI

Gen X — the generation born between the mid-60s and early 80s — is similarly doubtful about AI. In the Barna survey, 35% said they’re skeptical about it and 25% said they don’t trust it. Still, Gen Xers are far more likely than Boomers to use this technology. More than a third say they use it either “sometimes” or “often.”

Interestingly, Gen Xers report more neutral stances on AI’s future effects than other generations. In a different poll, 35% said they’re unsure if AI would positively or negatively impact their line of work — more than both Millennials and Boomers. Similarly, they had the largest share of people saying they didn’t know whether AI would put jobs at risk.

While they may not know how AI will impact their lives, Gen Xers are more certain that it will in one way or another. More than half agreed it’d change their everyday lives — 15 percentage points higher than Boomers and almost as many as Gen Z.

How Millennials View AI

Millennials are the first generation to spend most of their working lives with the internet and other digital technologies. This demographic — born between the 80s and mid-90s — reflects that tech-savviness in their views on AI.

More Millennials say they use AI at least weekly more than any other generation — a whopping 43% do. Part of that comes from using it more at work than anyone else, with more than two-thirds utilizing it at their jobs. Similarly, Millennials were more likely than anyone else to agree AI will change their everyday life.

This high usage also comes with more enthusiasm for AI. Almost a quarter of Millennials say they’re excited about it — more than any other generation. Similarly, in a MITRE-Harris study, 62% of Millennials said they’re more excited about the potential benefits of AI than they are worried about its risks.

That enthusiasm doesn’t mean Millennials don’t have any reservations, though. Despite having the highest share of people excited about AI, the number of Millennials saying they’re skeptical of it still outnumbers the enthusiasts. More than 80% also believe regulations are necessary to protect consumers from AI’s potential risks.

How Gen Z Views AI

Gen Z — born around the late 90s or later — is the most connected generation. Roughly 25% of Gen Zers had a smartphone before they were 10 and all of them grew up with the internet. As you might expect from that, they fall close to their fellow digital natives in how they view AI.

While fewer Gen Zers said they were excited about AI than Millennials, fewer of them are also skeptical of it. Usage trends follow a similar pattern. Fewer Gen Zers use AI at work than Millennials, but more use it in their personal lives than other generations.

Interestingly, while Gen Z has the lowest share of people saying they’re skeptical of or don’t trust AI, they pass other generations in more specific fears. In the MITRE-Harris survey, 62% of Gen Zers said they’re concerned about AI replacing them at work. Half of them also report feeling an urgency to integrate AI into their daily lives.

What Do These Views Say About AI as a Whole?

These generational differences reveal some interesting trends in AI perceptions. Most prominently, while more AI exposure goes hand in hand with more excitement about the technology, it doesn’t eliminate it entirely.

Millennials and Gen Z use AI far more often than Boomers and Gen X, both in work and in their personal lives. Even so, more than half of the people in these two generations still worry about its impact on jobs. Both age groups tend to agree AI’s benefits outweigh its risks, but not by a wide margin.

Everyone, regardless of age, seems to have at least a few concerns about AI’s potential negative effects. More familiarity does assuage some of these fears, so as AI becomes more common, older generations may come around to the technology more. Still, AI companies should address these concerns head-on, as even the most tech-native generations have them.

At some point, familiarity with AI may make it lose some of its luster, too. Gen Zers — who use AI in their personal lives the most — have the least extreme perspectives on it one way or another. They’re not as excited about it as Millennials but not as skeptical of it as Boomers or Gen X. That could reflect AI already reaching a point of normalcy — as it currently exists, at least.

How people perceive AI in the workplace may change before long, considering Gen Z will account for 30% of the workforce by 2030. Team members tomorrow may not see it as much of a novelty, which will either mean higher productivity or less engagement with these tools.

Views on AI Vary Widely

Overall, people across all generations are a bit worried about AI but agree it will change their lives one way or another. Specific feelings beyond these larger trends vary widely between age groups. AI companies may want to keep that in mind when marketing their technology to different demographics.

AI’s potential inspires excitement in some and fear in others. In particular groups, there’s a mix of both. Understanding these dynamics and accounting for all sides of AI’s impression on different people are key to holding productive conversations on the technology in the future.

[rhixspring]

Hey, look! It’s RHIANNON 'RHI' SPRING at NANCY'S BAR AND GRILL. Did you know they WORK there as a SERVER? I guess they’re from EAST HAVEN and have been in town for TWENTY-TWO YEARS, living in SUTHERLAND PARK. I also heard they’re a little STANDOFFISH, but also very RESILIENT which definitely makes sense.

basic information:

full name: rhiannon claire spring

nickname(s): rhi

age: twenty-two

date of birth: october 25th

place of birth: east haven

ethnicity: caucasian

nationality: american

gender: cis-female

pronouns: she/her

orientation: pansexual

language(s) spoken: english

accent: american

family ties:

mother: alice spring

father: todd spring

siblings: josephine spring

spouse / partner: n/a

ex: mitch anderson

children: n/a

pets: n/a

occupational information:

occupation: server at nancy's bar and grill

physical appearance:

face claim: sophie thatcher

hair color: blue

eye color: naturally dark but bleach blonde most of the time

height: 5ft 6

build: slim

tattoos: patchwork/blackwork tattoos, example here

piercings: both ears and nipples

clothing style: grunge, 90's/y2k inspired, band t's, fishnets, plaid skirts, leather jackets, ripped jeans, doc martens, converse, lots of rings and necklaces, examples here, here, and here

personality:

mbti: isfp

element: water

western zodiac: scorpio

chinese zodiac: snake

personality: observant, deceptively intelligent, self-reliant, self-aware, resilient, blunt, questions authority, honest, tends to be icy and standoffish until you know her/have gained her trust. 

hobbies: listening to music, playing guitar and singing,

character inspiration: nat scatorccio (yellowjackets), maeve wiley (sex education), clementine (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind)

biography: content warnings for alcoholism, neglect, sudden death, substance abuse

rhiannon was born in east haven and has lived there her entire life but this isn't to say she's led a simple life, the first few years sure they were great... almost perfect even. she had her mom, her dad and her older sister jo, who she adored

she's always been a perceptive kid, even at four years old she sensed the tension and resentment in the household caused by the strained relationship between her dad and her sister, once jo left all the happiness was sucked from her life for a long time.

her dad tried so hard to have the perfect life he thought he wanted, to be the perfect father with the perfect wife and the perfect child. but that's just not how life goes and by the time rhi was six her dad had fallen into alcoholism. at first it was functional, manageable even. he'd drink at night and rhi would find him passed out on the living room floor, until it got progressively worse and worse.

her mom, despite her best efforts as a good parent, kinda checked out a lot of the times. she couldn't handle the slow decline of her husband and the impending rebellion of a neglected pre-teen daughter. alice was also prone to intense and long lasting migraines that saw her bedridden for days on end.

when rhi was twelve this all came to a head as her mom died suddenly from an intracranial haemorrhage in her brain. they'd been together at the time when her mom collapsed, but there was nothing anyone could do by the time the paramedics arrived.

in the wake of her mom's death, todd let the weight of his loss consume him, furthering his alcoholism. the alcohol turned her father into someone else entirely. he lost his job and all will to function, then when he was conscious he became cruel toward her

rhi ran away when she was fourteen, but it's a small town and she had no where to go so it didn't take long for her dad to find her

after jo came back and promised not to leave rhi again

when she got older rhi wanted to contribute and help jo with bills to show she wasn't useless. she got a job in high school at nancy's bar and grill where she's been working as a server ever since

from the age of fourteen rhi has struggled with on and off substance abuse, she never intended for it to become a way to cope and for the most part she does her best to hide it, especially from her sister, but she's reckless and sometimes it's the only way for her to feel alive

rhi also sings and she taught herself how to play guitar, it's her dream to have a band and be rockstar, sometimes she'll busk for extra cash too

possible connections:

coworkers

friends

unlikely friends

band mates

fwb/ex fwb

i'm open to most things!