#make sure to vote for these guys!!

[coffinpal]

Wondering how your au turtles will react to seeing all the other turtles have masks that are a different color for each turtle

The others are too attached to their red masks but Mikey met these two lovely lads and really wants one now!!

Featuring:

Color-coded Mikey: @camilieroart

Teenage Mutant Neglected Turtles Mikey: @nerves-nebula

Make sure to vote for them @tmntaucompetition !!!

[fiercynn]

otw july 2 board meeting: what the hell was that

so the otw (@transformativeworks) board had their Q2 meeting yesterday, which was highly anticipated given everything that's gone down in the past months:

the @end-otw-racism campaign demanding action from otw on their own commitments made three years ago to better address racist harassment in otw and on ao3 (btw, support end otw racism's current campaign #Vote To End OTW Racism!)

recent revelations about how otw has mistreated its volunteers, regarding azarias and how the org reacted after the CSEM attacks on volunteers last year, as well as how the policy & abuse committee (PAC) is overworked and treated by the legal commitee overall (documented here)...

...and ongoing mistreatment of chinese, chinese diaspora, and chinese-speaking volunteers, particularly regarding an incident last year that put volunteers in mainland china at risk, and the board's recent unilateral decision to close the otw weibo account without input from the weibo account leads or any chinese-speaking volunteers

the AI shit

and probably more that i've missed, honestly. so! this is my summary of the meeting, focusing mostly on the issues related to racism; i have screenshots of the whole meeting but will at this point only share those i find most relevant/interesting! alt text will be included for every screenshot in the image, not below it.

and hold on, because this is going to be LONG!

pre-meeting ableism in #help channel so shit actually started going down the previous day in the otw board discord's help channel where there was a pretty ableist resposne to a person who asked if the board could consider adding the pluralkit bot to the server. i wasn't there, but hojarasca on dreamwidth posted about it, and i believe some other folks who were there will post screenshots soon too.

all of that conversation was deleted from the help channel by today, which is not unusual but did mean that a majority of people at today's meeting might not know what went down.

board meeting starts; immediate chaos the board meeting started at 8pm UTC, and it was clear almost immediately that the board was unprepared. what you have to understand about otw board meetings is that they are not really meetings where the board members discuss anything with each other. basically otw board members show up, share an agenda , give written updates on the items on the agenda, take votes on board decisions (but without any discussion publicly), and take questions. none of the materials like the agenda or relevant documents were shared ahead of time, and the board did not offer a way to submit questions ahead of time specific to the board meeting. (otw does have a contact us form to email their board or committee chairs, but i've never gotten a response lol.)

another weird thing that happened before the meeting started was that board member alex tischer was active answering questions in the help channel up to five minutes before the meeting, but didn't stay for the meeting. i don't think a reason was shared for this. this is relevant because alex has been criticized for racist responses to chinese volunteers, particularly those that ran & interacted with otw's weibo account, both in the past & last month when they closed their weibo account without any notice to the volunteers. this will also come up again later in the q&a section...

anyway. the meeting starts. all of the discussion directly about the meeting is supposed to happen in one discord channel called #public-board-meetings; the #help channel is supposed to be for tech issues etc. there is no separate channel for asking questions to the board - those are supposed to be posted in the main board meeting channel. and as far as we can tell, there are no mods of either of these channels apart from board members.

at the start of the meeting there are at least 209 attendees. for context, the last board meeting in march had 31. i've heard from people who have attended board meetings for the past couple years that there are usually 10-40 attendees per meeting. but again, given what's been going down, it's not surprising that so many people showed up!

and because there are a lot of people who haven't attended these meetings before, attendees immediately start asking questions, both process questions about the meeting and actual questions they want to ask the board. which again is understandable because there haven't been many answers given in the #help channel, and the board immediately muddies things further by giving confusing instructions about when to ask questions. they first say this - that they are going to proceed through their agenda, so people should hold questions that are NOT about any agenda items until the end. they imply that questions that are about agenda items are okay as they go through the agenda, but there will be conflicting instructions about this later...

agenda is posted & actual meeting content begins...kind of here's the meeting agenda that was shared. not...terribly descriptive lol

- Decisions taken since the previous meeting - Strategic Plan vote - Update on OTW's Diversity Work - AOB (Any Other Business) - Time for questions

people immediately start asking questions about various agenda items & also procedure questions. very few of these are answered. the first agenda item is posted - decisions taken since the previous meeting.

the board gives us "a couple minutes to read the above". everything's getting a little muddled already because people keep asking questions (reasonably!) about agenda items. there are several questions about the specific agenda item of "decisions taken since the previous meeting". some of the questions are getting answered by otw volunteers but none by board members at this point.

the board moves on to the next agenda item without answering questions about the "decisions" item. people are asking for a separate channel for questions but none is created. board members tell us they will try to get to all the answers at the end, but that we should send any additional answers to the board through the otw contact us form. many people point out that they've rarely gotten responses that way.

board gives a brief update (that was NOT on the agenda) from the finance committee chair, who was not at the meeting, to say that the 2023 budget was posted earlier this year, and that people can send questions via the contact us form. i'll note here that i sent a message to the finance committee with a question about the 2023 budget two months ago and have not gotten a response.

strategic plan update + question procedure still unclear the board then starts to give an update on the strategic plan, which board members are to vote on today. attendees ask if the full strategic plan draft was shared publicly before this meeting and we are told it was only shared with volunteers, not with members or the public.

they do share an infographic summarizing the strategic plan. hilariously, the first version they upload is so blurry that it's unreadable. they then share a gdoc with alt text. if you are new-ish to otw stuff, this infographic and the jargon in it are probably pretty confusing.

the board keeps giving us "a few minutes to check things out". people ask them to not do that and proceed because we can read while they are typing. questions to the board keep going unanswered and various other people say that we're supposed to hold questions until the end. we again get told conflicting things about how to ask questions. a board member asks us to hold ALL questions until the end, but an otw volunteer points to an earlier statement from a different board member & says that questions on the current agenda item are allowed.

at 45 minutes into the meeting, when most questions are going unanswered (and a lot of only being answered by otw volunteers, not board members), the board disables messages in the main channel so that they can proceed with the agenda. this is not usual board meeting procedure and was unannounced until they did it. people start getting really creative with emoji reactions because they can't ask questions. the board admits that they were unprepared for the number of attendees at this meeting.

attendees then start asking questions in the help channel, which has been put on "slow mode", which means each user can only post every thirty minutes. multiple otw volunteers share in the help channel that they warned the board about preparing for the meeting, and the only change the board made in response was to make it 30 minutes longer than usual.

in the main channel, the board does not have any public discussion on the strategic plan (which has not been shared, only the infographic has), and votes unanimously to approve it.

diversity work update, aka a glorified otw news post the board moves on to the "diversity work update", which is now a standard section of every board meeting. they share two updates - firstly, that caste has been added as a protected class in the code of conduct, and secondly that they've heard the concerns coming from @end-otw-racism supporters and others. both of which were already shared a month ago in this OTW news post from a month ago, which they link to.

seriously, nothing new is shared in this part of the meeting that wasn't in that post. some update!

q&a part one the board asks for emoji reactions again to see how many people are in attendance. unclear why they do this unless they were hoping people might have left? but alas for them, there are still 182 people that emoji react saying they are in the meeting!

the board FINALLY starts answering questions, but they do not yet re-enable messages so that users can ask more questions. they start by addressing the pluralkit issue from yesterday, but they don't give any response about the ableism that was allowed to go unchecked in the channel.

then, BAFFLINGLY, they start with answering questions from someone who wasn't able to make the meeting. how did this person submit those questions beforehand? NO ONE KNOWS. fortunately this person had (imo) good questions, but again, why were their questions given preference? unclear.

okay there were a LOT of questions and responses, so i'm going to stick to sharing the ones that were most important to me, which were about addressing racism within the otw and on ao3. hopefully someone else will summarize other issues!

we finally get our FIRST REAL NEW RESPONSE on a diversity/racism issue! the board says they plan to hire a diversity consultant by the end of the year.

we also hear that changes to otw's terms of service are being proposed to give the policy & abuse committee more tools to address harassment, including "racially-motivated" harassment.

board says the best way for people other than otw volunteers to get involved with anti-racism issues is...to stay up to date on what otw is doing, attend public meetings, and send questions through the comment form. what.

the board does not answer how they have reached out to fans of color in their work to address racism, which i assume means they haven't; they instead say that fans of color are free to provide input/feedback via the contact us form. emoji reactions explode

the board says that the strategic plan has initiatives to combat racism including improving diversity in recruitment (of...who? volunteers, board members? potential future paid staff?), hiring a diversity consultant, & forming "volunteer coalitions"

slight digression from my focus on racism issues because of how many times the board has told us to submit questions via their contact us form: very little clarity on how long it will take for answers to be questions, or how long people spend on responses

the goals for the future diversity consultant are to do an audit of the organization and offer recommendations on how to proceed. couldn't be vaguer lol

otw does not currently have plans to have an internal committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion work, since they're relying on the external consultant, but if the consultant recommends it they'll consider

by the time they've gotten through these responses, there are only five minutes left in the meeting! remember, messaging by attendees has been disabled for the past 40 minutes, so everything the board has answered so far is from people who got their questions in during the first 45 minutes (or, apparently, one person who managed to get in questions before the meeting).

q&a part two at this point, the board FINALLY re-enables messaging for new questions, but clarifies that they will only take them until 9:30pm UTC. which means anyone who did actually wait to ask their questions now only has five minutes to ask them! questions start rolling in immediately. again, going to focus on the ones about racism.

i'm listing questions in chronological order that they are asked, but please note that the corresponding answers from the board are coming WAY later than the questions. the board took until 10:20pm UTC (almost an hour after the meeting was supposed to end) to answer all the questions. mostly i'm telling you this because the emoji reactions on the answers by the board get more limited as people understandably have to leave the meeting lol

the first question of round two is about how chinese & chinese diaspora volunteers have been treated re: the weibo account closure, & board member alex tischer's role in this.

board response is horrifyingly empty, only promising the creation of a new "anonymous form" to receive feedback from chinese and chinese diaspora volunteers on the situation.

an attendee asks for better prioritization of racism & equity issues in the meetings, and better preparation from the board. (note that the addition of "diversity work update" to the agenda is not new, i believe it was instituted late last year)

in response, board admits they were unprepared despite volunteers warning them, says they will take advice from this meeting forward. emoji reactions are out in full force

an attendee asks more details about how the diversity consultant research officer (who is NOT a hired diversity consultant, but an otw volunteer in charge of the hiring process for a consultant) engages with the board & what goals they have for the future consultant

response from board is that they meet weekly, and that the research officer is herself in charge of identifying goals for the future consultant

an attendee points out that "curate your space" tools are not enough to protect users from targeted abuse, including racist abuse, and that asking fans of color to reach out to the board instead of the other way around is bullshit (my words haha)

the board's response to this is to offload that onto the future diversity consultant. SERIOUSLY.

an otw member asks if the diversity consultant will also look at accessibility for disabled users across the otw

board essentially says "yeah, sure" lol

an otw member asks how otw will remove barriers to becoming a voting member and diversifying membership & committee leadership

board's response is that they don't know the demographics of their members or volunteers, which...somehow means they can't remove barriers that would help fans of color or non-western fans from becoming members and volunteers? lmaoooooooo

an attendee asks for accountability in ensuring that the incoming board keeps the current board's promises re: DEI, pointing to improvements made by the 2015 board that were later reversed by a new board make-up

board does not seem to understand this question so answers an entirely different one! (seriously, i double-checked which question they were responding to.)

an otw volunteer asks what the plans are to deal with the "ongoing exclusion and alienation of chinese-speaking volunteers"?

the board repeats that they have opened a feedback form for chinese-speaking volunteers. that's it.

so those are all the questions i saw on racism; as i mentioned, there were TONS more good questions on board transparency and communications, protection of volunteers, moderating board meetings better, lack of feedback collection on the strategic plan, etc.

at PRECISELY 9:30pm UTC, messages are disabled again so that no more questions can be asked. all of the otw board responses that i shared above are from after messages were disabled again.

takeaways this meeting was a complete mess. the process was extremely unclear and made things inaccessible; while the board did (from what i can tell) answer all the questions posted, people were not able to ask all the questions that they'd planned because of the unannounced disabling of messaging.

and then, of course, there's the fact that the majority of the answers are bullshit, which is probably the least surprising thing about this meeting.

it's just ridiculous that they weren't prepared for this. given everything that's gone down in the past months, why on earth wouldn't they assume that people would show up with hard questions? the mismanagement and incompetence is frankly astounding. which i guess is the story of the last few months re: OTW anyway!

so...see you at the next one in a few months, i guess? 🤷🏾‍♀️

[friendship-ditch]

Wild girl - Pt. 1 (Ended)

(Katniss Everdeen x Fem Reader) ❀

Summary: While out in the woods, you see a girl, and then you see her again, and again. She’s not the friendliest of the bunch but you can’t help your fascination with her

Warnings: None! This is an interactive story—the poll at the bottom will be open for a week and will choose the direction of the next part! <3

(If the name says ongoing, voting is still happening btw)

Word Count: 1856

Spring in the Seam often came and went in the blink of an eye, over the span of multiple months. Some days it would be warm enough to take a dip in the small creek in the woods, and others it would be snowing.

Most people took advantage of the warmth and hid away in the cold, and you were no different.

Today was one of the warmer ones.

You had a small to-do list, mostly of errands and a reminder to grab dinner at the Hob. You dressed quickly in light clothing, grabbed your basket, and then headed to the outline of the woods.

Money was hard to come by living as a teenager on your own but you found a few ways to make a quick buck; selling herbs to the town's few medics, harvesting fruit when it was warm enough, and babysitting… but after your last experience, you weren’t sure you planned on doing that again.

The trees rustled with a fresh breeze and the birds sang their morning song. You approached the fence boarding you off from the woods, looked around to make sure nobody was watching–though it was no secret–and then climbed through the broken electric wires.

Around the edge of the forest, the mushy ground was bustling with plants full of green leaves and healing roots. You picked them eagerly, piling them into your basket until the woven edges were overflowing.

Normally you wouldn’t be so greedy but the clouds foretold of a heavy snowstorm coming soon and you didn’t want to waste anything that would die beneath the sheet of white.

As you picked as much as you could, you thought you heard a noise from within the woods. You stiffened and held your breath. The consequences for being caught in the woods by an ill-meaning Peacekeeper were not something you’d ever want to experience.

Finally, in the distance, you saw a shape. Your first thought was a deer but they never came to this part of the woods. Maybe a pheasant?

Curiosity getting the best of you, you quietly followed the noise.

You came to a small clearing where your eyes fell upon the most unexpected thing.

She was tall. Her dark hair was in a quickly thrown together braid. In her hands was a homemade bow, the string hitched to an arrow.

You couldn’t see her face but slowly lowered down behind some brush to watch.

With ease, she let the arrow fly into the head of a small rabbit and killed it on impact. You watched silently, half appalled and half amazed.

The girl removed her arrow from her prey. She wrapped it up in some cloth and then stood.

At the same time, you stood too.

She must’ve heard you because her head whirled towards you. She was gorgeous. Her eyes were a soft gray, almost blue. Her face was gentle, even with the splatter of mud on her cheek. She was a girl of wild beauty. She stood and stared at you for only a second, then turned and scampered away into the woods.

“Wait!” You called softly but your voice got stuck in your throat and the only thing that came out was a squeak. You’d seen her before but couldn’t remember her name.

What did it matter? This girl was gone.

After recovering from your surprise encounter, collecting herbs and roots, you checked your secret little orchard for bearings of fruits but returned empty handed. It was probably too early but worth checking anyway.

The Hob was your next stop.

The market seemed even more crowded than usual. Everyone was hoping to buy some smuggled seeds while they were cheap, or get a quick and easy dinner of whatever kind of illegal meat one of the hunters brought in from the woods. It was loud and overwhelming.

You stuck to the outside of the place, eyes narrowed and flicking from person to person, stand to stand.

When you eventually made your way to your usual medic stand, you set down most of your herbs on the table. “These are fresh, no rot.” You said. Usually you were the first there and got a few extra coins but today you had to wait in line, the worth would’ve gone down.

The young man working the table studied your plants for a moment and then nodded. He never spoke to you although you saw him quite often. To you, he was ‘herb guy,’ and to him… who knows what you were.

He gave you a hefty bunch of coins with a small smile that you returned with ease. You had a feeling you were one of his favorites.

As you were turning to leave, somebody ran right into your shoulder. You nearly tumbled over from the force and let out a grunt.

“Hey!” You exclaimed once you studied yourself. You brushed your shirt off, looking around for who caused the collision.

She grunted softly and jumped back in surprise. Her eyebrows were firm and straight and so were her lips, eyes wide, then they darkened as if a look of recognition came over them.

It was the same girl from before.

You stood, staring at her speechless. You were making a fool of yourself and you knew it.

She seemed to notice it too and huffed. “Watch where you’re going.” She muttered, as if blaming you for the collision. Then she stalked off into the crowd, the rabbit now being replaced with a loaf of bread.

You remembered her name the second she vanished.

Katniss Everdeen.

The two of you had never… formally met, but you knew of her as… hopefully she did you? You had most of your classes together growing up and once dreamed of being her friend but she shut down the opportunities before they even presented themselves.

You hardly saw her around as often once her father died, assuming she focused more on her family than anything else.

Speaking of her family… you were supposed to meet her younger sister Primrose to trade some herbs for some cheese! She left earlier than the others did in the Hob so you’d have to hurry if you wanted to catch her.

You looked for the last time at where Katniss had been standing though the spot was now empty. You felt a little angry that she’d nearly mauled you over and you almost wanted to find her just to scold her but you knew it was best to let it go. You turned and made a dash for the other side of the hob.

Prim’s stand was empty when you got to it. She must’ve left by now, a few crumbs of cheese still on the table.

You left the Hob and decided since the Everdeen’s lived quite close to you, you could just… go over?

When you knocked on the door, you were half expecting to receive no response, but the door cracked open, then opened the rest of the way.

Primrose looked up at you with a surprised smile.

“Y/n?” She tilted her head with childlike confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you at the Hob, and I figured you and your mother would want to have these.” You pulled the remaining bundles of herbs out of your basket and held them out to her.

Prim’s eyes lit up with shocked joy. She took the herbs gingerly and grinned at you. “Thank you! I have your cheese still, just wait right here.” Then she darted off into the house.

You stood on the small, old porch and looked around. The wood was creaky and rotting in a few places. There was a small chair on the porch and–

Clank.

You spun around on your heels, startled by the sound. You slowly lifted your gaze from some dirty boots, up a body, and then to a face; Katniss’s face. And she did not look pleased.

“Are you following me?” Her voice was calm but cold, just as her eyes. She was holding the loaf of bread tucked under her arm and had also picked up some fruit.

You hesitated. This did look… suspicious.

“Actually, I think you’re following me.” You responded, trying to one up her. You were still a little pissed at how she bowled you over earlier.

Her nostrils flared and she stepped up onto the porch. Now beside you, you could tell she was definitely a few inches taller, not to mention stronger. You took a hesitant step back as her eyebrows furrowed into a glare.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

Just then, your savior, Primrose, returned with some cheese wrapped in a dainty cloth. She smiled up at you and handed you the cheese in exchange for your herbs.

Katniss eyed the exchange with suspicion, though she said nothing.

“Thank you, Prim.” You thanked the young girl and placed the cheese into your basket. She returned your thanks and then you left, eager to get out of Katniss’s piercing view that followed you until there was a house between the two of you.

Your home was quiet yet cozy when you returned, the last remnants of frost melting off your windows and a stack of wood sat by the fireplace. You dropped off your purchases on the counter and tried to focus on dinner, but something–no, someone else was on your mind.

In fact, she was on your mind so long that you dreamt about her, not that you’d ever admit it. This girl was… prickly, reserved, and clearly wanted nothing to do with you, but you couldn’t shake those cold gray eyes and the idea that maybe you could help warm them up. She was fascinating and you wanted to know more.

The next day, when you returned to the woods to squeeze out the last bit of money you could get from selling herbs, you weren’t sure if you were lucky or had the worst luck in the world as she was there once again.

Katniss stood further in the woods on the trail of a deer. Her hair was in a braid again and she’d traded out her leather jacket for a lighter, worn wool one.

She stalked the deer without knowing of your presence. She stood still for only a second, and then began to follow her unaware prey away from you.

You stood still, watching her. Your mind told you to ignore her, to finish what you came out here to do and maybe get an early bonus for selling herbs so early. Plus, if you were lucky, you could run into her at the Hob and maybe strike a conversation there…

…but your heart was practically climbing out of your chest to follow her itself. Maybe she’d be more willing to talk to you in the woods, maybe you could even help her hunt. Maybe you were wandering off into dreamland a little too far but there was nothing wrong with a little bit of hope.

You looked up again and Katniss was already beginning to follow the deer. You’d have to decide fast…

Pt. 2 Pt. 3 Pt. 4

[gayemoji]

okay so camerons whole 'no no no house you totally have feelings for me' plot is super weird and uncomfortable but also the writers did all of a sudden decide that chase is actually the worst human being alive so .

[sleepii-moth]

i am well aware that there is more than one person running for the democratic party in the presidential election but unless someone usurps biden in popularity (which i honestly kind of doubt will happen), people really need to understand that ultimately the election is going to result in one of three things:

1, democrats refuse to vote, therefore donald trump or another most likely equally as bad person will win

2, democrats split the vote between other canidates in the democratic party which results in none of the dem candidates getting enough votes to beat a Republican and the same outcome as 1 happens

or 3, democrats work together to vote for the most popular canidate (who i think will most likely be biden) and a democrat is elected

and im gonna be honest, if 1 happens im gonna start biting people. yall NEED to vote, voting is LITERALLY the most basic most liberal ass thing you can do as a leftist right now, and if you are refusing to vote right now im like actually mad at you, its really not that hard yet some people STILL dont wanna do as if NOT VOTING WASNT PART OF WHY TRUMP WAS ORIGINALLY ELECTED. JUST VOTE.

[nilovalentine]

I'm voting amane guilty but some ppl voting her guilty are being so mean about it it almost makes me wanna switch to the inno side ngl

[totallyseiso]

Remember when liberals used to claim that they were going to pressure Biden to go left? And now he sends weapons to a right wing government committing genocide and they just accept it and still want him to win the next election? We all knew the push Biden left stuff was total bullshit, but I don't think any of us could have predicted that they'd be okay with genocide as long as it's their party enabling it. I wish they had limits to how low they'd go

[best-fnaf-song-competition]

Just so everyone knows, I have a LOT of opinions on the songs that are in the tournament, but I want to prevent bias of any kind on my part so I will not be sharing any of my own thoughts (unless specifically asked!) until after the polls are over for that round! Y'all feel free to send anything you want whenever you want about any song at all, but as the blog runner I want to make sure I don't tip the votes more than I should <3

[xcziel]

There's already a ton of election software or websites with names corresponding to "voting buddy" or similar

but I'd like a term for a person or group you've made an agreement with to each support and enable the other to vote. A source of mutual encouraging reminders (and maybe mild guilt about not meeting an expectation)

Any and all suggestions welcome. It would be great if there was a catchy name so this could become an accepted Thing

[supercantaloupe]

beginning to not have fun with these opera bracket posts tbh

[worstloki]

Thor, rambling while Loki reads: --and yes, we are brothers, but I would kiss you if you asked!

Loki, suddenly much less interested in his book: What?

Thor: What?

Amora: *'sneakily' watching with her head peeking over the librarian's desk* HE SAID HE WOULD KISS YOU IF YOU ASKED.

[kalverian]

Don't forget to vote as often (or as little) as you want in the Sanrio Character rankings here!

[thisismeracing]

hiii, quick question:

[nintendont2502]

An incredibly normal response to being asked about same sex marriage