#let’s change some minds

[hauntedorpheum]

you know i have no stakes on this. i'm a casual viewer at best. if i don't like this i just don't pay. but learning that patreon is still up, that they didn't get any notice in advance of any these changes, and they don't even get free access to the "normal" content, but only 40% off (with normal viewers getting 30% off, so basically just 10% discount), like if someone has the right to complain right now is the patreons who have actually been paying for their content this entire time

[snekdood]

There are genuinely people online that instead of actually bringing people to the left, at this point, would prefer that anyone who was previously not on the left but who tries to be *stays* outside of the left, because i guess its just easier to comprehend when the world is put into little shitty boxes you labeled for them instead of actually thinking for once and having the nuance to understand them. Like thats wild to me that theres people who would prefer you not be on the left or not try to be. Yall GENUINELY do not care about advocating for your side politically in any capacity. Its LITERALLY just a clique you've found yourself in. And theres nothing progressive about that or being exclusive, wtf do you think this shit is, a night club? Grow the fuck up, honestly.

[unclewaynemunson]

What if the bats got Eddie so bad that part of his guts were damaged beyond repair and he needed to get a stoma?

TW for body issues and medical content (I guess? Please let me know if I should use another TW for that)

EDIT: I posted an extended version of this post on ao3. Thank you @spectrum-spectre for helping me get there <333

They were in Eddie's bathroom, Eddie on the stool that had been placed there for him before he got home, and Steve standing right in front of him. Eddie was still recovering, but he had finally gotten the green light to leave the hospital. He had spent the day with Wayne, who was now at his night shift, so Steve had arrived to the trailer to keep Eddie company instead. Nobody really liked the thought of Eddie being alone in the trailer, even though Eddie himself pretended like it was all fine – the guy was a terrible liar, and Steve wouldn't mind spending some time with him anyway.

At least, he had thought he wouldn't mind, before he actually got there. He had pictured them spending a couple of hours hanging out together, then helping Eddie get ready for bed, and falling asleep in Eddie's bed together at a reasonable hour because Eddie still needed his rest. What he had certainly not pictured, was Eddie practically begging him to leave him to his own devices behind a locked door in the bathroom.

'I'm not letting you do it alone,' Steve said, getting tired of Eddie's stubbornness. 'Wayne would kill me if he found out, and I only just won his trust – not worth it, man!' He hoped that throwing Wayne in his arguments would be more successful than his concerns about Eddie's health and safety, which did not seem to hit home at all.

'I can take care of myself, alright?'

'Barely,' Steve couldn't help but scoff.

'Wayne can help me with this shit in the morning!'

'I know, but he isn't always here. What if you need help when he is at work?'

'I can teach Nancy how to do it, or Robin.'

Steve wanted to say something along the lines of 'So it’s just me who you don't trust with this?' but he knew it'd be a real dick move to make this about himself, so he decided to go for logic instead.

'Both of them will be off to college after the summer,' he pointed out. 'And I'll be right here. So why don't you teach me how to do it and let me help you?'

Eddie opened his mouth, no doubt to protest some more, but Steve was losing his patience by now.

'Look, you need a backup close to you, man,' he said. 'You want Dustin to do it?'

Eddie chuckled darkly. 'God, no,' he mumbled.

He squeezed his eyes shut – but not before Steve caught a glimpse of the tears Eddie was apparently trying so hard to hold back – and suddenly he understood that this wasn’t just Eddie being an annoying little shit. Eddie was scared. He was vulnerable. And trusting people when you were scared and vulnerable... Well, that was a goddamn scary thing, even Steve knew that.

'Hey,' Steve said, in a much softer voice than before. 'I got you, alright?' He gave a gentle squeeze to Eddie's knee, feeling the soft skin through the rips in his jeans against his fingers. 'It's okay, I really don't mind. I'm happy to help you out. And I’ll be careful, you can trust me.'

'It's not that I don’t trust you, it's...' Eddie took a deep, shaky breath and Steve could sense that something important was coming.

'It's kinda gross, you know. The whole stoma thing. And, like, extremely unsexy.'

And there was something about the combination of Eddie calling it unsexy and him preferring the help of Robin or Nancy over Steve's... Something that Steve very much could not begin to unpack right now, even though it was doing something weird to his stomach.

'It's not gross,' he protested, focusing on the other – the easier – part of Eddie's confession. 'It's just your body, man, it's part of being alive. I like that you're alive.'

'I can barely even look at it,' Eddie whispered, so softly that Steve could barely make out the words. It sounded so small, so un-Eddie-like, so fragile...

'So let me take care of it,' Steve tried. 'I'd be happy to do it for you. And I promise I won't find it gross. I mean, yeah, maybe it's not sexy, but not everything needs to be sexy at all times. Things can be neutral, right?'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah.' He made sure to not lose eye contact with Eddie as he nodded earnestly.

'Okay. I think I can settle for neutral.'

'Can I take off your shirt?'

And somehow, that got him another chuckle.

'Sure, big boy, you can take off my shirt,' Eddie answered.

Steve felt like there was a joke in there that went over his head, but he helped Eddie pull the black fabric over his face and his curls.

There was so much more to look at than the tiny piece of intestine peeking out of Eddie's belly and the pouch filled with turbid liquid attached to it. There was also a whole maze of wounds and bruises scattered across his torso, some all-too-familiar looking bite marks that would no doubt leave scars in Eddie's sides. But none of it was gross or unsexy. Yes, maybe some of it was neutral – Steve wouldn't wish the bite marks both of them carried onto anyone – but underneath all that, there was something else: it was the fact that this was Eddie's skin, that the half-torn-apart tattoos he saw had once been selected by Eddie, that Eddie's heart was beating in that chest...

Steve quickly let his gaze travel upwards, back to the safety of Eddie’s eyes.

‘Alright, tell me what to do,’ he said.

Eddie finally gave up his protesting and guided Steve through the process of taking off the pouch, cleaning the skin underneath it, and applying a new one.

'Sorry,' Steve mumbled when he was struggling to attach it properly.

'Don’t worry. Takes a while to get the hang of it,' Eddie answered. And Steve tried not to think about how there seemed to be a promise in those words, a promise that Eddie would trust him to take care of him, now. That he'd get to do this often enough to get the hang of it. That he'd get to know all about Eddie's body.

'Thank you,' Eddie said in a soft voice when they were all done.

'You don't need to thank me for that,' Steve protested.

'No, I mean, thank you for... Not, like, flinching or, I dunno, looking disgusted or something, when you...' He stumbled his way through the words, uncharacteristically awkward, as if he felt ashamed of what he was trying to say to Steve.

'No need to thank me for that either,' Steve answered earnestly.

But Eddie still looked at him with those scared wide eyes, so he gently placed both his hands on Eddie's bare shoulders.

'You look...' He swallowed, chickened out right on the verge of saying whatever it was he was going to say. 'It's not disgusting. Not at all. It's... It's just you.'

And there was this shy smile around Eddie's lips, as if he knew exactly what Steve had almost blurted out.

'I think it's kinda metal,’ Steve added in attempt to steer things back to safer territories - and for the first time since they were in that bathroom, Eddie let out a real, actual laugh.

He playfully bumped a fist against Steve's shoulder.

'You really don't know enough about metal to decide that, big boy.'

Steve chuckled. ‘Well, I’m pretty sure Izzy would agree with me on this one.’

‘Ozzy,’ Eddie corrected him, rolling his eyes but still smiling.

Steve's hands were still resting on Eddie's shoulders, and Eddie wrapped his arms around Steve's back, tugging him closer until he could rest his head in the crook of Steve's neck. Steve was sure Eddie would be able to hear how violently his heart was beating right now, but he didn’t pull back, didn’t move; he simply kept holding him, gently tracing his hand over the bare skin of Eddie’s spine.

Eddie wasn't the only one who had been damaged beyond repair, but in this moment, in the trailer's tiny bathroom, they could simply hold each other and pretend like they were both still whole.

[prostocupoftea]

A little sketch dump that i may or may not render (:

tw on blood and disturbing stuff for last pic but i also love it the most

[modernbaseball]

Fighting off both the sickness and the fear, Frodo gripped Sam's hand.

Then as he stood, darkness about him and a blackness of despair and anger in his heart. it seemed to him that he saw a light: a light in his mind, almost unbearably bright at first, as a sun-ray to the eyes of one long hidden in a windowless pit. Then the light became colour: green, gold, silver, white.

[chirpsythismorning]

bylers when over 350k people don’t have the exact same thoughts and opinions as them

[treasureplcnet]

As a LaiKabuMisu enjoyer, I never thought I'd need to see desperate Mithrun->Kabru before in my life, thank you so much for the food in these dark times.

desperate mithrun just makes me GIGGLE like the meme i made takes it a bit far for comedy's sake but it's like. this guy who only recently began to live for something else other than revenge and it's thanks to kabru and suddenly kabru dissapears his from life because he has a "job" . we've already seen mithrun go sulky when kabru doesn't side with him despite having valid reasons not to LOL (sfx: hmph)

i truly can see the momentary disconnect (i doubt this lasts very long or at least doesn't manifest obviously. mithrun is a quiet and ultimately rational guy) where he's like "... i thought kabru was gonna stay with me though?" and not even necessarily in a romantic light (for starters anyway). just in the way that mithrun just counted on kabru's companionship, but when adult schedules and establishing a kingdom collide, i think kabru would also equally have a hard time giving up what he works very hard for (protecting humans/short-lived races and being able to help govern so that this is possible). i can absolutely see kabru accidentally neglecting his relationships for too long, and not realising until his party intervenes, or mithrun 'hmph's at him again and he's like '..what did i do.'

sorry for the essay . tldr: i would like to picture mithrun sulking :)

[lunarharp]

Very important conferences.

[diathadevil]

Do you ever think about how Fakir, after him and Ahiru finally broke everything that kept the town of Goldkröne in the ghostly hands of its writer, after they finally have some air of peace over the town finally being able to live in its intended early 2000s environment, that Fakir still feels at times like it's not real and that for a while he fears that if he closes his eyes it'll be back in Drosselmeyer's control. Like it just doesn't feel real to him during that first year of calm, until he feels the dull pain on his recovering hand injury and Ahiru who follows him without a pendant anywhere to be found.

He doesn't feel it's real, the calm finality of this town, but he makes sure to feel the scar on his hand. And he makes sure to hold the little duck and realize that she is who she has always been. Him and the town are finally living peacefully.

[thefirstknife]

Hi Bel,

I keep seeing comments about people complaining about the quality of destiny’s writing and story in the last few weeks. I haven’t really engaged with destiny since season of defiance, what’s currently gotten everyone so riled up? I thought that people were enjoying Season of the Deep/Witch in terms of narrative, why is Season of the Wish causing people to deride the destiny writing staff again?

I don't know!

Deep and Witch have been absolute bangers in every aspect to me. I've been enjoying all interactions and lore tabs we've received. A lot of them are stuff that we've never had before, a lot of reunions and closures, a lot of development and interactions between characters who you wouldn't really think would have much in common.

Sloane's return and healing from what she's been through has been fantastic, Drifter opening up with her to help her because he also got help from others was fantastic, Sloane reuniting with Aisha and Shayura brought me to tears (Shayura's descent into madness was triggered by immense trauma of Sloane staying on Titan and Titan disappearing), everything with Sloane and Zavala...

Witch was just incredible in every single way; the focus on Eris, the amount of Eris and Ikora content!!!!! Everything about Xivu and Savathun and their interactions together!! Eris finally fulfilling her goal she promised Savathun YEARS ago, getting that closure.

Wish so far has been equally great to me. All the new stuff about Ahamkara is amazing, finally giving us proof for long-standing speculation about Ahamkara and how they aren't universally evil creatures and expanding on them as a species. I love all interactions we've had so far; finally we have Petra back, Mara's singleminded focus on figuring out how to defeat the Witness and her continuous work to improve as a person, ALL SJUR MENTIONS!!!!! I won't talk about the "leak" because we have no context for it so I will wait for the full story to be revealed before I can pass judgment; something that I think should be a lesson to learn from this entire year. Maybe wait for the story to finish before judging the story.

Literally everything this past year that involves Osiris, but especially this season now that he's back in his element with the Vex. And of course every little detail we get of him and Saint. Osiris honestly shaped this year for me with everything that he's done to uncover the biggest mysteries. I think a big reason is that a lot of people just don't like Osiris, which I consider a massive skill issue.

Other than that, I don't know what are the issues people have besides just not being interested in any of these storylines and attributing it to a nebulous "bad writing" claim. I also genuinely believe that way too many people get wrapped up too much in fandom, imagine storylines they want to see and then get disappointed when the actual story doesn't go there. Almost like people forget that this isn't their story and these aren't their characters. A lot of it is also fandom completely warping characters into not what they actually are and then feeling like the canon story is the one that's wrong.

Whatever is the reason, I guess everyone is entitled to their perspective of the story and everyone is free to explore the story in different ways through fanfics and AUs and whatever. I do that too!

But I would definitely ask people to be normal with how they engage in criticism, especially in the current state of affairs. Writers are developers; they experience a ton of harassment and negativity from the community and also from inside the company. And they are online: they can see what we're saying. It's been documented that community commentary has been used to harass writers:

Imprint this into your brain and never forget what these people had to go through. Let's not forget also the way people treated Seth Dickinson on social media when he was active with Destiny fans. "Fans" were actively arguing with him about his own work (telling him that HE is wrong) and were utterly disgusting towards him when he tried explaining what he wrote. His works are now hailed as the best writing in Destiny and people want him back. If I were him, I wouldn't want to come back ngl, not with how he was treated and not with how fans are still treating writers (and hey, Seth wrote LF Collector's Edition! So he was back, technically, this year!). Let's not forget that a lot of writers are members of various marginalised groups. And I'd definitely not want to go back with zero support from leadership.

Which is also an important aspect for all developers, including writers: sometimes they have orders they may not like, but can't argue against. They do the best they can with what they're given, the time they have and directions they receive. And with that in mind, I am enjoying everything we've gotten this year, obviously with some specific complaints about things I didn't particularly enjoy (like the universally mid reception of Defiance; I've spoken about my gripes with it before, a big one being the shafting of Suraya who should've at least been mentioned in a lore tab).

I can tell that there is passion in their work, even if maybe they would prefer to do more with it, but can't. Maybe even if they want to take different routes, but can't. But from what we got, I can feel that they care about this world and these characters. I can tell that someone lovingly wrote about Sloane and her friendships with two grieving women. I can tell that they deeply cared about Sloane's friendship with Zavala and that they loved showing us Saint and Drifter caring about a fellow trauma survivor.

I can tell that the writers are immensely careful and loving towards Eris; everything she went through was crafted with love and passion from both writers and her VA. Eris' story is such a fundamental aspect of Destiny and I can tell that this was important to the writing team and that they gave her everything they could to do justice to her character and her arc and her healing and her release from the cycle she was trapped in for so long.

I can tell that there are writers who care a lot about Osiris and Saint and their relationship. I can tell that someone cared a lot about expanding on Ahamkara and giving them more personalities. I can tell that someone cared DEEPLY about Sjur and Mara and that her repeated mentions are the passionate work of writers who want us to remember her.

I could go on. And I know that not everyone sees it this way, which is fine; we all have different ways of perceiving stories. I enjoy discussing things we in the fandom disagree on and I enjoy hearing different perspectives! Unfortunately, this has recently become rarer and rarer. And for the love of god, please try and treat writers with some respect, especially now, especially those who are still working and doing their best with the shitty situation they're in. None of the cries of "poor devs" ring true to me unless the same is given to writers, instead of treating them like punching bags.

[daily-hanamura]

[unlawfulchaos]

Maverick, trying to flirt: My dick is like life... Life is hard.

Iceman, blankly: Life is also short.

Maverick: Listen here, you annoyingly sexy son of a bitch-

Iceman, trying to contain his upset: You should know that my mother is an incredibly kind, respected, and well loved woman.

Maverick: I meant your father?

Iceman: ...

Iceman: Continue.

[lurkingindoorways]

Jane Prentiss: quits crystal job in order to be taken over by magical entity

Oliver Banks: takes job at a crystal shop after being taken over by magical entity

[writingtot]

i think one of the reasons i enjoy the percy series so much is because it’s an adaptation of the novels and not word for word the same.

at first i was a little upset by all the changes, but after rereading the books, i actually like the series even more now. as much as we all adore the books, i think we can agree that they’re not perfect. sometimes there’s plot holes, inconsistencies, or just bad writing in general. this gives rick a chance to fix those things, and that’s OKAY.

the series isn’t perfect either, don’t get me wrong, but it is nice to see the characters going on the same adventures even with some variation to the original story. i think this will allow the characters to be fleshed out more.

we have to remember that a tv show and a book is not the same medium, so the way these things are presented cannot be identical. otherwise the characters in the show would probably seem pretty flat since the books are only from percy’s perspective. the series allows us to learn more about the motives and personalities of other characters, be it annabeth, grover, or luke (personally, i’m really excited to see how his character’s story goes).

anyway, all of this is to say that the percy series is great for what it is (an adaptation of a book series). yes it could be better (cough longer and more episodes cough), but i personally really enjoy it so far.

[kyouka-supremacy]

If we’re talking about sexism in BSD can we talk about Dazai Osamu’s Entrance Exam? (Not the anime adaptation) I really really really hated how Dazai and Kunikida would talk about Sasaki right in front of her like she wasn’t even there?? And just how they generally were with her…Reading that light novel was a genuinely unpleasant experience more times than I’d like to admit solely because of how egregiously gross it was when it came to Sasaki's character and how the guys would treat her. I've never seen anyone talk about it but it's been bugging me for a while now.

(个_个)

I understand how that's all sorts of fucked up. I haven't read the Entrance Exam novel but in my opinion the Sasaki / Kunikida / Dazai anime scenes rub just as wrong. There's really the whole deal of talking in front of women like they were lesser / objects which is plain atrocious. But then again, the bsd novels produced the unfamous Naomi description, so it's really the author giving their worst apparently.

The sexism in bsd is pathologic. Something I've brought up before but that is really explicative to me, Dazai going “The murder must have occurred in the early morning, because that's the only time of the day a woman wouldn't be wearing make-up”. And it's probably silly of me to pick up on such a small thing when wearing make-up is debated within feminist spaces itself, and it's probably something I have personal issues with, but the way in the story it serves the role of an objective hint, something plain and unconfutable, that women are expected to wear make-up at every hour of the day and them not doing so is just absurd and unthinkable… To me it really speaks of how the world of bsd is a world were women are expected to fit a determined ideal that is very distant from reality, and the author really has a very limited understanding of what women are actually like irl.

If we’re talking about sexism in bsd, can we talk about what was up with the Yosano / buisnessman (?) scene in chapter 7? It's been two years since I've watched and read that scene, and I still can't figure out what it's supposed to mean or convey. First, Yosano is shown being tame and overly polite towards someone who was being extremely rude; then, after he hits her and tells her to know her place, she replies “Well, a thousand pardons, sir. Would it be more womanly for me to crush your puny ××××× under my heels, perhaps?”. Now, her reply is somewhat funny, but really, doesn't mean anything. And I'm not talking about the censure. Why is her behaviour so fluctuating and inconsistent? What does womanhood has to do with anything here? Why would she be so polite and then suddenly backtrack? Really, why was she being polite in the first place to someone being so vulgar and disrespectful towards her? Honestly, that doesn't feel Yosano at all. At most it feels like that's supposed to portray how a woman is expected to react in an imaginary and unrealistic world, but that has so little standing potential irl, not even Yosano in this manga could hold the charade for long, and the result ends up looking awkward and nonsensical. Every time I see this scene I'm just like… What is going on here. Not even in a judgemental way, just as in “I seriously can't understand what the author was trying to say with this”, and frankly, I don't think they do know either. It really makes evident their struggle to write female characters, like women were this strange, foreign, very abstract concept that's impossible to crack or relate to. And when the answer is so simple, that you shouldn't write women as an unknown and indecipherable species, but simply as people— it would almost be endearing if it wasn't so detrimental. I won't even get to her “It is an era of equality for men and women” line which, put in the context of this manga, comes off as the most unfunny joke ever. Here, I can see what the author was trying to do alright, nodding to irl Yosano Akiko feminist viewpoints, but making the character Yosano talk in cheap feminist slogans to rival mcu movies ends up doing her a disservice more than anything, and I doubt it would leave the actual Yosano Akiko positively impressed at all.

If we’re talking about sexism in bsd, can we talk about how Kouyou should be the next pm boss, and the fact that the spot is canonly reserved for Chuuya instead is insane and nonsensical and outrageous to the point that even CHUUYA agrees on the fact that she should be the one? You know, Kouyou, the powerful ability user, experienced, senior in hierarchy, who has been shown to be both loyal to the current boss Mori and close to him on a personal level? Compared to Chuuya who never wanted to be the boss in the first place? But he gets to be either way, because the concept of a woman pm boss is just unthinkable. I feel like there's more reasons to cry for that Cannibalism stage play scene than the Flags' voices.

If we’re talking about sexism in bsd, can we talk about Higuchi? Can we talk about Lucy? Bsd offers so many examples of its sexism, we could be here to talk about it for days. At this point I feel like I might come across as someone who loves hating on things, but in reality every time I write a post of this kind it's a desperate prayer to the author: “Prove me wrong! Please, prove me wrong! Write women with layers and agencies! Expand on their virtues and flaws and ambitions! Dedicate narrative arcs to them! Prove me wrong!”

[blood-teeth]

on the real, im trying to throw myself back into the IF/writing space because it really was the singular thing that had helped me heal the first time around.

im playing with the idea of another IF, and really just taking my time with it and letting myself not be so pressured by forcing myself to update or churn out chapter a ton - that’s where a lot of my angst came from with FTMB and when TMITAWH was an IF

also! I’ve been absent from the space long enough that im not sure im reading everything from my friends or if there’s been some really good stuff coming out lately.

If you have any recs, I’d love to read them!