#or a bunch of other demographic make ups

[versegm]

Reminders:

"Intersex" means "someone born with sexual characteristics that don't fit quite well in the male/female sex binary."

"Intersex" is not synonymous to "non-binary". In fact, being intersex has nothing to do with gender at all. Intersex and trans people have many struggles in common, but if you're talking about trans-specific issues you really don't need to say "intersex and trans people".

Intersex people can be trans. Intersex people can also be cis. Intersex people, in the majority of countries, are assigned a gender at birth just like everyone else.

"Intersex" doesn't necessarily relate to genitals. When I say "sexual characteristics" it can also mean secondary sexual characteristics, hormone levels, chromosomes, and probably a bunch of other shit I forgot about. Please stop reducing intersex people to their genitals.

(On that note, having both working sets of genitals is at best extremely rare and at worst physically impossible. Sorry, intersex people can't fulfill your futa fantasies. Please stop tagging futa shit as intersex. The two are unrelated.)

Please. This pride month remember that intersex people like. Exist. Intersex folks are not hypotheticals they're not "that one letter we gotta tack at the end of every queer post and never think about any further" they're. People. Remember that they exist. Every year I have to make a post like this one where I explain the very basic things you can learn by reading the intersex wikipedia page because people see "intersex" and make assumptions as to what the word means without actually reading the dictionary definition. Please remember that intersex people exist, I looked up "intersex pride" on tumblr and half the posts I saw were a variation of "happy pride to people of all genders and sexualities!" when being intersex has nothing to do with either gender or sexuality. Please. I understand that you guys don't mean any ill, but I am very tired of making basic posts over and over.

And inb4 someone tries to strike dumb discourse on this post: I live in a country where it is legal and encouraged to perform surgery on intersex infants. Looking up "intersex athlete controversy" returned to me like three different cases of athletes who were coerced into surgery without being informed of all the risks and having to lead with lifelong consequences for it. When I say "remember intersex people" I don't mean "uwu intersex people are valid" I mean they're a demographic whose literal human rights are constantly spit upon. I don't give a shit if you think intersex people belong or not under the queer umbrella or what you think are the proper qualifications to identify as intersex literally everytime I talk to an intersex person I hear a variation of "my doctor straight-up lied to me to get me to undergo medical procedures to make me normal without my consent or input" I think people should be aware of that actually I think it's more important than arguing over labels.

[doberbutts]

What I never understood is like... I thought we all agreed that past trauma doesn't justify abusive behavior, and that intent isn't as important as impact. So when the people who say stuff like "I hate all men" and "All men are trash" try to justify that by saying that they've been traumatized by men, I really can't get behind that reasoning? I mean, I can empathize with wanting to vent about past abuse, but I just don't think it's ever cool to generalize entire groups of people in the process. If a man was abused by his mom and started going off about how much he hates all women, we'd tell him to go to therapy. It's just so blatant to me that they want to avoid seeing the impact their words have on the people around them & they don't want to see how their man-hate interacts with racism, ableism, transphobia, etc etc.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for speaking on this! While I have not read Bell Hooks myself, I agree with all the snippets I've read through Tumblr, and I'll be looking up The Will To Change during my next library visit so I can become officially acquainted with her work. Thank you for leading me in that direction, and thank you for making such thoughtful, informative posts. You're a delight, and I hope you have a lovely week.

I think as well that often times people confuse venting- which is good and even therapeutic- with political and/or actionable discourse.

Person who was attacked, assaulted, and now traumatized by men talking about how they have an inherent distrust of men and at times wish they could live in a world without men is speaking from the darkest place of their fear and is working through their trauma.

Person who then takes these opinions and turns them into actual theory and pushes for this to become the new social norm, however, is no longer venting nor are they acting in a therapeutic manner. This is where it begins to harm people, and thus where it begins to be a problem.

There's been people- feminists, even- a lot smarter than me who have discussed at length the difference between the two. How we need to make space for one, but need to ensure the other is not being used as a bludgeon to harm those who just happen to be in the same demographic.

[phoenixyfriend]

The groupings are not based on trying to ensure equal demographics in each, but by proximity to and impact of the Bering Strait Land Bridge theory or other relation to prehistoric colonization of the Americas.

I wasn't sure how to group Oceania and the Polynesian/Micronesian/Melanesian folks given the overall histories, so you get your own bunch. I can't remember if those theories about Polynesians reaching the Americas for trade on occasion, prior to written records, are legitimate/supported or just a thing I heard once. Either way, I think that history of 'discovering unpopulated lands by heading east from large landmasses' is similar enough that maybe it comes up for overlapping histories? IDK! You get your own buttons.

Also wasn't sure if it would make sense to include SEAsia with East Asia or lump it in with the rest, buuuut I think upon reviewing the maps that it looks like the Strait is a lot less geographically/politically related to most of East Asia than I thought, so there's less of a difference between EAsia and SEAsia than I thought, enough that marking them out separately from Russia but not each other probably works.

I initially wrote out a less America-Specific description of primary/secondary or elementary/middle/high but honestly? It took up too much space. Appropriate disambiguation made the title so long that people wouldn't have read it. So. You get K-12 or equivalent.

I'm including Mexico with Central America for two reasons: 1. Most Mexicans I've seen talking on the topic recently, at least on tumblr, prefer to be divided in that direction for cultural reasons. 2. Geographically much more distant from the Bering Strait than its northern neighbors.

Also, please reblog! I want this to go past my primarily anglophone-countries circle if possible.

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

The talons of peace are the most incompetent "good guys" I've ever seen in fiction, they make me wonder how the hell could they last through the war. Maybe the founders of the group and the first few members were actually good at their job of advocating for peace, but over time they got killed off or were discouraged with the lack of progress and gave up. Meanwhile their main demographic of recruits slowly went from well-meaning, peace-loving idealists to exiled dragons and ex-soldiers who had no other choice. By the time Nautilus became their leader, all of the original members who acted as the glue of the group were long gone. Then the dragonet prophecy hit the world, Morrowseer contacted them, and the talons of peace abandoned their original goals entirely to raise the DoD. They went from a proper anti-war organization to a bunch of renegades who barely tolerated each other, and only did so in the vain hope that these supposedly special kids they were raising would somehow save the world

.

[ot3]

this is someone reblogging that 'do you watch television aimed at little kids poll from me' and wow.

for starters i was pretty open in the tags of that post about how much i like watching kids cartoons so it's pretty wild that this person would basically say 'if you do this you're a fucking baby who needs to grow up' IN MY ACTIVITY FEED. like i just immediately blocked them, and im not sure what they thought the outcome was going to be other than that.

but really the main point i want to make here is that this person has a pokemon url. which is notably a franchise whose target demographic is elementary school aged children. just because the franchise has been going long enough that a bunch of people who originally grew up with it are adults now doesn't make that not the case. why is having a pokemon themed blog fine but if someone wants to watch bluey or something they're a fucking baby who needs to grow up? insane hypocrisy. i guess 'nostalgia' is the only legitimate emotion an adult could find in children's media by this perspective. anything else is for fucking babies.

[angelsdean]

I need people to understand how S&P (standards and practices) works in television and how much influence they have over what gets to stay IN an episode of a show and how the big time network execs are the ones holding the purse strings and making final decisions on a show's content, not the writers / showrunners / creatives involved.

So many creators have shared S&P notes over the years of the wild and nonsensical things networks wanted them to omit / change / forbid. Most famously on tumblr, I've seen it so many times, is the notes from Gravity Falls. But here's a post compiling a bunch of particularly bad ones from various networks too. Do you see the things they're asking to be changed / cut ?

Now imagine, anything you want to get into your show and actually air has to get through S&P and the network execs. A lot of creators have had to resort to underhanded methods. A lot of creators have had to relegate things to subtext and innuendo and scenes that are "open to interpretation" instead of explicit in meaning. Things have had to be coded and symbolized. And they're relying on their audience to be good readers, good at media literacy, to notice and get it. This stuff isn't the ramblings of conspiracy theorists, it's the true practices creatives have had to use to be able to tell diverse stories for ages. The Hays Code is pretty well known, it exists because of censorship. It was a way to symbolize certain things and get past censors.

Queercoding, in particular, has been used for ages in both visual media and literature do signal to queer audiences that yes, this character is one of us, but no, we can't be explicit about it because TPTB won't allow it. It's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to those in the know. It's the deliberate use of certain queer imagery / clothing / mannerisms / phrases / references to other queer media / subtle glances and lingering touches. Things that offer plausible deniability and can be explained away or go unnoticed by straight audiences to get past those network censors. But that queer viewers WILL (hopefully) pick up on.

Because, unfortunately, still to this day, a lot of antiquated network execs don't think queer narratives are profitable. They don't think they'll appeal to general audiences, because that's what matters, whatever appeals to most of the audience demographic so they can keep watching and keep making the network more money. The networks don't care about telling good stories! Most of them are old white cishet business men, not creatives. They don't care about character arcs and what will make fans happy. They don't care about storytelling. What they care about is profit and they're basing their ideas of what's profitable on what they believe is the predominate target demographic, usually white cis heterosexual audiences.

So, imagine a show that started airing in the early 2000s. Imagine a show where the two main characters are based on two characters from a famous Beat Generation novel, where one of the characters is queer! based on a real like bisexual man! The creator is aware of this, most definitely. And sure, it's 2005, there's no way they were thinking of making that explicit about Dean in the text because it just wouldn't fly back then to have a main character be queer. But! it's made subtext. And there are nods to that queerness placed in the text. Things that are open to interpretation. Things that are drenched in metaphor (looking at you 1x06 Skin "I know I'm a freak" "maybe this thing was born human but was different...hated. Until he learned to become someone else.") Things that are blink-and-you-miss-it and left to plausible deniability (things like seemingly spending an hour in the men's bathroom, or always reacting a little vulnerable and awkward when you're clocked instead of laughing it off and making a homophobic joke abt it)

And then, years later there's a ship! It's popular and at first the writers aren't really seriously thinking about it but they'll throw the fans a bone here and there. Then, some writers do get on the destiel train and start actively writing scenes for them that are suggestive. And only a fraction of what they write actually makes it into the text. So many lines left on the cutting room floor: i love past you. i forgive you i love you. i lost cas and it damn near broke me. spread cas's ashes alone. of course i wanted you to stay. if cas were here. -- etc. Everything cut was not cut by the writers! Why would a writer write something to then sabotage their own story and cut it? No, these are things that didn't make it past the network. Somewhere a note was made maybe "too gay" or "don't feed the shippers" or simply "no destiel."

So, "no destiel." That's pretty clearly the message we got from the CW for years. "No destiel. Destiel will alienate our general audience. Two of our main characters being queer? And in a relationship? No way." So what can the pro-destiel creatives involved do, if the network is saying no? What can the writers do if most of their explicit destiel (or queer dean) lines / moments are getting cut? Relegate things to subtext. Make jokes that straight people can wave off but queer people can read into. Make costuming and set design choices that the hardcore fans who are already looking will notice while the general audience and the out-of-touch network execs won't blink and eye at (I'm looking at you Jerry and your lamps and disappearing second nightstands and your gay flamingo bar!)

And then, when the audience asks, "is destiel real? is this proof of destiel?" what can the creatives do but deny? Yes, it hurts, to be told "No no I don't know what you're talking about. There's no destiel in supernatural" a la "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" but! if the network said "no destiel!" and you and your creative team have been working to keep putting destiel in the subtext of the narrative in a way that will get past censors, you can't just go "Yes, actually, all that subtext and symbolism you're picking up, yea it's because destiel is actually in the narrative."

But, there's a BIG difference between actively putting queer themes and subtext into the narrative and then saying it's not there (but it is! and the audience sees it!) versus NOT putting any queer content into the text but SAYING it is there to entice queer fans to continue watching. The latter, is textbook queerbaiting. The former? Is not. The former is the tactics so many creatives have had to use for years, decades, centuries, to get past censorship and signal to those in the know that yea, characters like you are here, they exist in this story.

Were the spn writers perfect? No, absolutely not. And I don't think every instance of queer content was a secret signal. Some stuff, depending on the writer, might've been a period-typical gay joke. These writers are flawed. But it's no secret that there were pro-destiel writers in the writing room throughout the years, and that efforts were made to make it explicitly canon (the market research!)

So no, the writers weren't ever perfect or a homogeneous entity. But they definitely were fighting an uphill battle constantly for 15 yrs against S&P and network execs with antiquated ideas of what's profitable / appealing.

Spn even called out the networks before, on the show, using a silly example of complaints abt the lighting of the show and how dark the early seasons were. Brightening the later seasons wasn't a creative choice, but a network choice. And if the networks can complain abt and change something as trivial as the lighting of a show, they definitely are having a hand in influencing the content of the show, especially queer content.

Even in s15, (seasons fifteen!!!) Misha has said he worried Castiel's confession would not air. In 2020!!! And Jensen recorded that scene on his personal phone! Why? Sure, for the memories. But also, I do not doubt for a second that part of it was for insurance, should the scene mysteriously disappear completely. We've seen the finale script. We've seen the omitted omitted omitted scenes. We all saw how they hacked the confession scene to bits. The weird cuts and close-ups. That's not the writers doing. That's likely not even the editors (willingly). That's orders from on high. All of the fuckery we saw in s15 reeks of network interference. Writers are not trying to sabotage their own stories, believe me.

Anyways, TLDR: Networks have a lot more power than many think and they get final say in what makes it to air. And for years creative teams have had to find ways to get past network censorship if they want "banned" or "unapproved" "unprofitable" "unwanted" content to make it into the show. That means relying on techniques like symbolism, subtext, and queercoding, and then shutting up about it. Denying its there, saying it's all "open to interpretation" all while they continue to put that open to interpretation content into the show. And that's not queerbaiting, as frustrating as it might be for queer audiences to be told that what they're seeing isn't there, it's still not queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a marketing technique to draw in queer fans by baiting them with the promise of queer content and then having no queer content in said media. But if you are picking up on queer themes / subtext / symbolism / coding that is in front of your face IN the text, that's not queerbaiting. It's there, covertly, for you, because someone higher up didn't want it to be there explicitly or at all.

[hauntedestheart]

Ok so I just found and read Security Measures and I’m kinda actually in love with Dante. Do you think he might make a return? Ngl he seems like a prime opportunity for some Consensual Possession(tm) fun for the boys.

Since "Security Measures" is just a bunch of non-linear vignettes I didn't actually have any plans for Dante to return, but this was such a sweet ask that I was inspired to revisit his character!

I wanted to try and explore what "consensual possession" would be like but fair warning, it does get pretty explicit towards the end.

----

Extra Security: Dante (Male Possession)

A side story from the Security series detailing a meeting between Andy and Dante, the friendly body hopper they met in Security Measures - Bodyhoppers

Robin's Egg Brew was located right on the edge of campus so despite its eye roll inducing name (and painfully blue decor), it did good business. It was a minor miracle that Andy had managed to snag a seat at a small table because the place was packed with bodies, and while Andy wasn't the type of guy who minded waiting fifteen minutes to get his order, the crowd did present him with a problem- the person he was meeting up with a body hopper, who could be anyone in the room.

Since their first encounter and the subsequent hookup, Dante had become a friend to Andy and a sometimes fuckbuddy whenever the stars aligned for a three-way with Trevor- although his unusual lifestyle meant that they couldn't get together too often. When they did hook up, it was always with Dante's real body (because Trevor said it would be "hypocritical" of them to take advantage of one of Dante's hops), but when it was just him and Andy hanging out as buddies there was no telling who he'd turn up as.

Normally, Dante would send a quick selfie to let Andy know who to look for, but today he was being strangely evasive and had only given his friend one clue.

💪🏿Dante🐇: You'll know it's me- just look for the hottest guy there.

Andy read the text again, humming thoughtfully under his breath, and took another look around. Seated with his back to the wall he had a good vantage point of the rest of the cafe, and he casually took a sip of his coffee as a cover while he eyed the other patrons and tried to scope out which one his friend was hiding inside of.

He'd seen enough of Dante's "conquests" to have a sense for his friend's taste, so he felt pretty confident he could figure it out on his own. The first thing he did was disregard all the women- Dante had explained that while there were hoppers who enjoyed crossing gender lines, he wasn't one of them. There weren't many older people in the cafe, but Dante liked to stick to his own age demographic anyways, so the few that were present were off the list as well.

It was tougher to thin the field after that. Dante had made his preference for bigger guys clear (his jokes about how he wanted to take Andy's stacked body out for another spin always ended with a "hahaha... unless?") but that still left quite a few options. The easy choice was the burly dude who looked like a lumberjack reading by the window, but he had a waxed mustache and Dante would never. There was a guy from the university wrestling team (still in a form fitting singlet, extra points) who seemed like a promising lead, but he was disqualified after his girlfriend showed up and the two started making out.

Andy was still debating between the chubby dude with glasses waiting in line and the gym rat who had just come out of the bathroom when he felt a hand on his shoulder; he instantly lit up when he saw who it was.

"Trevor!" he exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement at the sight of his skinny little brown skinned boyfriend. He squeezed Trevor's hand tight. "You came!"

"'Course I did," Trevor said, smiling back with all his teeth, then he ruffled his own hair with his free hand. "I wouldn't miss out on a chance to see Dante, Dante's the best."

Andy scooted over and patted the space on the bench next to him, slinging his big arm over Trevor's shoulder the second he was seated and nestling his smaller boyfriend into his side possessively. Sometimes Andy worried that he was a bit too clingy in situations like this, but Trevor pressed in closer, so he figured he was in the clear. He held in his sigh of contentment though- he had to maintain some dignity.

"So, have you found Dante yet?" Trevor asked, leaning his head on Andy's strong chest and letting one of his hands idly rest on Andy's abdomen. Andy shook his head.

"Nah, he's being weird about it this time," he replied, taking another glance around the crowd- the chubby guy he'd had his eye on was walking out with a cup of coffee and the gym rat was racing back into the bathroom with a queasy look on his face, so it was back to the drawing board. "No photo or nothing, just said he was gonna be 'the hottest guy here.'"

"Oh really?" Trevor sounded amused. His hand was drifting up and down lazily like he was petting his Andy's abs through his shirt, which was making it a bit hard for the big guy to keep his head on straight, and Trevor peered up at his boyfriend with one raised eyebrow. "Hottest guy here, huh? Tell me, which one of these guys is the hottest to you?"

"Trev," Andy teased, nuzzling the top of his boyfriend's head "No one here is hotter than you."

And Andy knew Trevor had a thing about PDA, but the little guy looked so cute and the moment was so perfect that he couldn't resist leaning down and stealing a quick little peck on the lips. A brief kiss- but it gave Andy pause.

He pulled back and Trevor smiled at him, but Andy's eyes were searching the familiar features of his boyfriend's face for something. His brow furrowed, then he surged forwards and went back in again for another kiss. The one was deeper and more aggressive, with the big guy practically pinning his twinkish companion into the wall as his tongue quested inside of his mouth, but the lightning round make out session ended abruptly with Andy bolting to his feet in shock and his partner falling flat on the bench.

"Dante?" Andy asked, staring down at the form of his boyfriend with shock, and the 'Trevor' in front of him lifted his head up and gave a snort of amusement.

"Damn, that's it?" Dante said, using two fingers to throw Andy a cheeky little salute. "I thought I'd have you going for a few minutes at least. Being friends with normies is making me lose my touch."

Still sprawled out on the bench, the body hopper took a moment to stretch out his borrowed form (making sure to arch Trevor's back and show off his tight little booty in a way that the real Trevor never would) and Andy awkwardly averted his eyes. Then Dante pushed himself to his feet and slipped around the table to claim the empty chair Andy had been saving for him.

"I wish you could have seen what you looked like when you thought I was actually him," Dante gave a good natured roll of his eyes and gestured for his friend to sit down; speechless, Andy complied. "You practically melted into a puddle of butter. I hate how disgustingly cute you two are, it's indecent."

"You hopped Trevor? My Trevor?" Andy shook his head with disbelief, then leaned forwards on his elbows (flexing his biceps to make sure he looked as big as possible) and lowered his voice a bit. "Look man, you're my friend so I don't wanna accuse you of anything, but I... I thought it was clear that Trevor was off-limits."

Dante just smiled and leaned back in his chair, running his hands down the length of Trevor's slender body like he was smoothing out some clothes- but Andy practically growled at him, so he lifted his hands and held them up in a we cool gesture.

"You can settle down loverboy, Trevor was the one who suggested this. Said it would be fun for you to see him being the one to get snatched for once," the body hopper folded his arms behind his head and glanced sideways at them, frowning at how skinny they looked. "And I agreed even though it meant hopping into a twink, so you're welcome for that."

The two young men held eye contact for a moment, Andy looking like he was debating whether or not to explode as he scrutinized the hopper who had stolen his boyfriend's body, but then he let out a sigh and retreated. His fists unclenched and he relaxed back against the booth, body practically deflating as the bluster abandoned him and the tension bled from his big muscles.

"Okay," Andy said, voice still a bit pinched, and he winced at Dante apologetically. "I mean, I trust you man, it's just... you know..."

"Nah man, it's all cool. I get it!" the body hopper shrugged his ethically borrowed shoulders and gave Andy his most charming smile, batting Trevor's pretty eyelashes sweetly up at the boy's boyfriend. "You don't like people fucking with the love of your life, I respect that."

Dante took great pleasure in watching the way that Andy grew all flustered when he said that (it never stopped being funny that such a big guy turned into a blushing schoolgirl whenever it came to Trevor, homeboy was whipped) and he took advantage of the distraction to snatch his friend's coffee cup off the table and steal a sip of it. Considering the fact that they'd been swapping spit a minute ago, he didn't think Andy would mind.

Andy cleared his throat and gestured to the cup. "I would have gotten you your usual but I didn't know if whatever body you were in would like the taste of black coffee with a bunch of caramel in it," then he paused and wrinkled his nose. "Kinda don't know how you like the taste of that either."

Dante snorted and slid the cup back across the table. "Now I know the man who guzzles lemon ginger ale rum isn't coming for my taste..."

"Oh yeah?" Andy crossed his arms and grinned. "Don't lie, I'll bet you wish you were guzzling shit with my tongue right now. Thirsty motherfucker."

Dante rolled his eyes and flipped Andy off, and then the two men burst out laughing. The shared moment gave Andy permission to relax and clear the doubts from his head- they were just two buddies hanging out as usual, nothing weird about it at all.

"I fucking missed you dude, how've you been?" Dante asked, giving Andy a quick once over. The guy was still as ridiculously hot as ever, and Dante wasn't afraid to comment on it. "You're looking good- maybe too good actually, I bet those muscles are like catnip for hoppers. You been snatched lately?"

Andy grinned- he and Trevor liked to keep his "condition" on the down-low (for obvious reasons) so one of the best parts about having a hopper for a friend was having someone to talk to about this kind of stuff. Though Dante could be pretty cagey about certain aspects of being a hopper, it was clear he was in a similar boat, so whenever the two met up they always had wild stories to share.

"No hoppers actually, but I did get caught out by a ghost the other day, and body swapped with a high schooler," Andy reported, shuddering at the memory of being stuck back in puberty for a few days while the kid was out there guzzling beers. "Also a guy from my chemistry class started messing around with astral projection and was taking me out to clubs so Trevor glued his third eye shut."

Dante sucked in a sympathetic breath and winced. "That sounds exactly like something Trevor would do."

"Yeah..." Andy said softly, and there was a moment where he looked at Dante with this fond look in his eyes before he remembered that he wasn't it real Trevor. Dante pretended not to notice and let Andy recover with a sip of coffee. "How about you, man? Haven't heard from you in a minute, you kinda dropped off the map for a bit."

"I was on tv, if you can believe it," Dante said, nodding cockily as Andy flung his hands up shouted "DUDE!" at the top of his lungs. He inspected the back of Trevor's hand nonchalantly as he spun his yarn. "Managed to hop a guy who was on a reality dating show but didn't realize it meant I'd get sequestered for like a month- coulda hopped out but, well, I wanted to win. I'll show you later, it's on Netflix." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "I was totally the fan favorite, made sure they got lots of shots of his big old ass."

"Ah yes, Dante, the biggest ass man I know," Andy teased, and Dante didn't even bother trying to deny it- especially when sitting in front of one of his favorite asses he'd ever hopped. "That's insane dude. And a month- that's a long time for you stay in one guy, right?"

"Yup, set a new record for myself actually," Dante said proudly, grateful for the chance to flex his hopping prowess a bit, and the two fist bumped.

Andy leaned forwards, excited. "Did you win the show?"

"Buddy," Dante raised an eyebrow. "That's a spoiler."

The two chatted for a while, trading a few more stories, complaining about the latest updates to some of their multiplayer games, making plans to watch an upcoming movie- to any onlooker who knew Andy & Trevor, it might have even looked like a normal date between the two boyfriends. It wasn't until later, after the barista called out Dante's name (well, Trevor's name) and he got up to go collect his drink, that Dante caught Andy staring at him with a strange look on his face.

The body hopper stood still for a moment, staring blankly back at his friend from behind the face of his boyfriend, then he sighed and plunked himself down on the bench next to Andy.

"This is weird for you, huh?" he asked, setting his coffee down on the table then leaning back against the booth and looking sideways at Andy. Andy looked like he might try to protest, but Dante decided to be nice and let him off the hook. "I'm not offended, Trevor said it was gonna be a little awkward."

"It's just weird," Andy admitted with a shrug, suddenly struggling to look over at his friend Dante. "Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with you being a hopper, but usually you show up as some random guy I've never met. Seeing it happen to someone I'm so close to, it's..."

His voice trailed off and Andy studied Trevor's face, his favorite face in the whole world, but it wasn't really his boyfriend's face. Trevor didn't squeeze his cheeks like that. Trevor didn't flare his nostrils like that. The look in his eyes was completely different. This wasn't him.

It was especially strange because he'd gotten used to picking out Dante's different little quirks no matter what body he was in, so seeing them plastered onto Trevor of all people just felt... wrong.

And Trevor has to deal with seeing me like this all the time, Andy thought to himself, feeling guilty as he threw another entry onto the giant list of things he felt he owed his boyfriend for.

Emotions played out very visibly on Andy's face and as Dante watched his turmoil, for a second, he felt a twinge of guilt. But he shook it off pretty quickly- a hopper never felt bad about taking someone's body, least of all one they were invited into.

Still, Andy was his friend, so he rubbed his friend on his hulking shoulder and smiled sympathetically. "You know I wouldn't hurt him."

"I know that, you're a cool guy and I didn't mean to-" Andy gestured vaguely at the air with his hands, hoping that his gesture articulated what he felt without words, and Dante nodded his acceptance. Then, curiously, Andy glanced around to see if anyone was listening before leaning in close and nudging Dante on the side. "Look, Dante, I gotta ask... man to man... what's it like in there? How do you feel?"

Dante furrowed his brow- Andy usually held back questions about Dante's lifestyle, so the question came a bit out of the blue. "How do I feel?"

"Sorry, is that like, a racist question to ask a hopper?" Andy winced and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I just know you've been in a lot of guys before and since it's Trevor I'm... curious."

"Nah, you're fine, it's just not usually something hoppers talk about much," Dante paused for a moment, weighing his options, and then he shrugged. "But I guess since it's your boyfriend's body, it's only fair."

Andy leaned forwards, not even bothering to hide the way curiosity radiated off of him. Hoppers valued secrecy above all else, so Andy always tried to listen whenever Dante was willing to drop some nuggets of wisdom- and besides, Trevor would definitely want to hear about it later.

Dante rubbed at his chest (Trevor has NO pecs, he thought glumly) and stared into the distance, pondering how to best explain it to a non-hopper. It wasn't something he thought hard about often, and he talked about it still less.

"Did you know that babies are born knowing how to swim?" he began, and Andy looked a bit confused, but this was as simple as Dante was going to be able to make it so he just kept going. "Babies can actually swim really well, but their brains don't hold on to the information so they lose it as they grow up. Hoppers don't forget."

"And humans are like... pools. Anyone can jump into a pool if they know how to swim, but some are gonna be easier to swim in than others," the hopper paused and licked his lips, staring dreamily at Andy's hunky body. "Slipping into you, my friend, is like slipping into a hot tub. You're a spa day. A four star luxury vacation."

Andy crossed his arms and frowned. "Seriously?"

"What? It's a compliment!" Dante gave his friend a shit eating grin, which faded to something a bit more serious a moment later as he looked down at the hands he was currently using. "Slipping into Trevor is like diving headfirst into the Pacific Ocean. I don't know if I'd still be in him right now if he didn't want me here- I gotta give it to him, he's a tough little dude."

"He sure is..." Andy mumbled wistfully, staring at Trevor's body with that puppy dog look in his eyes again, and the moment was getting a bit too sentimental so Dante had to course correct.

"And he's got tight little body too," he said, leaning back and pulling Trevor's shirt up so he could look down at his stomach- while he didn't have crazy abs like his boyfriend, he was flat and had some decent tone to him. "You know that I'm usually all about the big guys but I'm kinda digging how compact everything in here is. I was worried I was gonna feel like a scarecrow but he's not that bad- his butt is a lot bigger than you'd expect too, especially for his frame."

"Trust me, I'm very familiar with Trevor's butt," Andy commented, then he reached over and tugged Trevor's shirt back down protectively. Dante pouted. "And I should have known you were gonna comment on it- if there's one thing Dante's gonna do, it's focus on a guy's butt."

"I can talk about his dick too if it makes you feel better," Dante taunted, then he spread his legs and palmed at the bulge in the front of his pants- Andy looked scandalized, but there was nothing he could do to stop it without risking drawing attention, and the hopper made sure to stare right into his eyes as he toyed with his boyfriend's dick. "It's cute! Not the biggest, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in tenacity. Trevor is horny- I don't know how he keeps the whole 'shy' act up when this thing is practically spring loaded and his balls seem to have some kind of infinite cum hammer space inside of them."

"I know what you mean..." The thought of Trevor's penis stirred up happy memories for Andy, and he smiled fondly. "You know how Trevor and I swapped before we got together? That was the first time I saw his dick and it had me losing my mind- I jacked off three times before I went to go find him."

"See?" Dante squeezed Trevor's privates one more time before releasing them with a grin. "People give hoppers so much shit for messing around with guys, but put one of you inside of a hottie's body and you're exactly the same as us. We're all just after the same things in life."

"Speaking of which..." he said ominously.

Without warning, Dante hoisted himself up and flipped around so he was sitting on top of Andy, straddling his lap and pressing their bodies close together in a completely shameless display of public affection. The real Trevor would never dare to be caught in such a position, which is what made it so fun for Dante- and the look of complete shock on Andy's face was priceless.

"What the fuck Dante?" Andy exclaimed, glancing around wildly to make sure no one was looking. His hands shot out on instinct and curled around Trevor's skinny waist as he tried to stabilize his body so he wouldn't fall, and it only made the scene appear more lascivious, and Dante was living his best life.

"What? Did you think that Trevor let me hop him so the two of us could sit here and complain about patch notes?" The body hopper tilted his head back dramatically and shook out Trevor's hair like a porn star peacocking for the camera, checking to see if anyone in the crowded cafe had noticed them (many of them had and were staring with mixed shock and amusement) then he snapped back up with a wicked glint in his eye. "Nah man, this is business. We're here to bang."

He hammered his point in with his butt, flexing it so the round cheeks would caress the fat bulge they were resting on top of, and Andy's dick (in a Pavlovian response to the feeling of Trevor's body) instantly sprang to attention and tried to fight its way through their pants to get to Trevor's hole.

"Shit man, I didn't think it was possible, but you feel even bigger right now," Dante ground down on the bulge and groaned with delight, drawing even more eyes to them. "Maybe that's one nice thing about being smaller."

"Dante, people are gonna see us," Andy squeaked- he meant to growl, but because of the way his belly was flipping he was lucky he was able to get any words out at all.

"Oh no!" Dante gasped, glancing around with mock surprise, then he turned back to Andy and curled Trevor's face into a smile so lecherous that would never belong to the real boy.

He pressed his hands onto Andy's pecs, savoring the feeling of those huge muscle tits of his through his shirt, and gave them a rough squeeze. Andy groaned, eyes almost rolling back up into his head as he fought to keep himself under control. "

We wouldn't want them to think you're cheating on your boyfriend. Wait-" Dante laughed. "I guess that's not really a problem right now! I guess the bigger problem is they might start to think that your sweet little boyfriend is a shameless whore."

"Actually, do you wanna know a secret?" Dante asked, and he leaned in close to Andy's ear so no one else would hear him. Trevor's dick was fully at attention now and he rutted it lazily into Andy's belly, feeling the ridges of his abs even through multiple layers of clothes, and he let the lust he was experiencing leach into his voice. "I wasn't wearing anything when I hopped him. I'm completely exposed inside of him right now and I've been sitting here this whole time, butt naked behind your boyfriend's face, and no one had a clue. Not even you," he teased, nipping at Andy's ear, and felt the man's massive body shiver. "Kinda feels naughty, huh?"

"Dante-" Andy began, chest heaving with heavy breaths, but Dante placed one Trevor's fingers on his lips and silenced him.

"Shhh," he whispered, unable to resist the urge to milk the moment. "Trevor's gonna kill me when he gets his body back and found out I made him act like this in public but come on, he can't blame me! Doesn't he look so hot like this? Doesn't it make you wanna just rip his pants off and bend him over this table and-"

"Sorry guys," said the mildly irritated looking barista who'd been tasked with interrupting their inappropriate display. "You can't be doing that in here."

Dante schooled his expression and turned over his shoulder to apologize (Trevor would never forgive him if he got them banned from this cafe, and for his own safety Dante liked to stay on Trevor's good side) but Andy beat him to the punch.

"We were just leaving anyways," Andy said, practically throwing Dante to his feet and dragging him out the door in record time. They left their coffees on the table.

---

Like most hoppers, Dante had a somewhat complicated relationship with his own body, especially when it came to sex. He was so painfully average in terms of height, build, and appearance, why bother using his boring old form when he could just go out and find a better one? That was one of the charming things about Andy & Trevor- they wanted to fuck around with him, not just whoever he could be for the night.

(And it didn't hurt that the couple were both hot as fuck.)

But at his core, Dante was still a hopper, and every now and then he managed to talk his fuckbuddies into some well-deserved possession play. Andy was okay with being used as long as he knew what was coming, so Dante would slide inside of him and worship that incredible body of his while Trevor watched.

He and Andy would take turns fucking Trevor, using the big guy's heaven sent dick to plow away at the twink's hole while Dante slipped in and out of the hunk's back, trading off control so Trevor never knew who was the one screwing him. Sometimes he'd even switch positions mid-fuck, pulling out of Trevor and letting the smaller guy take a crack at Andy's juicy ass so when Dante gave Andy control again it felt like he went from the top to the bottom in the blink of an eye. Andy's body really was the ultimate sex toy!

But this was his first time using Trevor, and it was a completely different world. When he slipped into Andy he felt powerful and in charge, a Hercules with a dick to match, but slipping into Trevor was the opposite. Slipping into Trevor made him feel... vulnerable, especially once he was on all fours and there was a giant man rocking up behind him to make him his bitch.

Dante had bottomed for Andy in his real body so he had firsthand experience of what it was like to have all that muscle bearing down on him (not to mention practice taking that giant dick of his), but his body had some healthy inches and pounds on Trevor's body that apparently made a lot of difference because he felt like he might snap in half at any second as Andy bottomed out inside of his borrowed hole.

"You make his ass feel different," Andy grunted, clinging tightly to Trevor's hips and holding still for a moment to give his partner time to adjust before he began rocking back and forth slowly. "Is that crazy to say?"

"Not at all," Dante reassured him, his voice a bit strained as he himself being filled up with inch after glorious inch of Andy. The sensation of that massive tool pressing against his walls was... incredible, and seemed heightened with his new nerve endings. "Your dick- fuck -feels different in his ass than mine."

Andy froze mid-thrust and grabbed at his partner's shoulder, touching concern radiating from his eyes. "Am I hurting you?"

"Actually, I think it's easier as him than as me," Dante admitted- part of why he avoided bottoming in other bodies was that he never knew what the person's limits would be, but he'd been surprised by how eagerly Trevor's hole stretched for Andy (especially considering the size of the battering ram being shoved into him) and how quickly his slender body was relaxing into it. "Your boyfriend is tougher than he looks."

"Oh, good," Andy looked relieved and resumed the motion of his thrusts, but the movements were still slow and a bit tentative. Dante could tell from experience (internal and external) that he was holding back.

The hopper huffed out in frustration- what was the point of Trevor letting Andy fuck him like he fucked his boyfriend if the stud was gonna screw him like a stranger? Seemed like a waste of two hot bodies.

"That all you got?" Dante taunted, glancing back over his shoulder and rolling his eyes at Andy. "I've been inside of that body, I know what it can do. You need me to take over? Because I know I'd do twice as good a job using all that meat of yours to destroy your boyfriend's sweet little ass. I'll do it myself if you aren't feeling man enough."

And there was something very Trevor-like about the way Dante looked while he said that that made Andy grin... because if Dante wanted to get fucked like he was Trevor, Andy could fuck him like he was Trevor. He just didn't know if the hopper was prepared for it.

"Challenge accepted," Andy growled, and he started going at it in earnest, and Dante shut the hell up.

The two fucked hot and heavy for a while, and after a few minutes with Andy going at full force, Dante had to admit that the guy definitely knew what he was doing when it came to Trevor's body. He was hitting all of the right spots (some of which were deep inside him) and he was kind of jealous that Andy never pulled these moves on him when he was in his own body, but he also had his doubts about whether his own body could stand up to him like Trevor's could. He had severely underestimated the durability of this skinny little body- maybe twinks aren't so bad after all.

Trevor's dick was swinging back and forth between his legs as his body shook and Andy reached down and seized it, one of his huge hands teasing up and down its length and squeezing it with just the right amount of pressure, and Dante knew he was a goner. But he wasn't quite done with his fun yet, so the body hopper grunted out a warning to Andy, and then made his move.

Trevor rocketed back into control of his body and barely had a second to process where he was (his bedroom) and what was going on (Andy's dick was in his ass) before the orgasm hit him. There was no time to muffle himself like he usually did so he wound up shrieking wild expletives in Spanish as his cock erupted all over the bed, and he barely had the strength to keep himself propped up on his elbows as his partner continued to plow him all through his climax and kept the pace up even after he'd spilled out every drop of cum in his balls.

"Surprise," Andy's voice rumbled behind him, but Trevor wasn't fooled for a second. The angle of the thrust was all wrong.

"That wasn't fair Dante," Trevor panted- though he was still riding the high of endorphins and it was taking most of his energy just to cope with the feeling of his insides being stretched out, he mustered up the attitude necessary to turn his head and glower at the man topping him. The body hopper gave him a cheeky wink and a slap on the ass before his eyes flicked lower and he got distracted watching the way Andy's giant pecs bounced every time he thrusted.

While Trevor couldn't blame the hopper for looking (it was an impressive sight), he did think it was a bit rude to ogle his boyfriend while actively fucking him, so out of a twisted sense of revenge, Trevor flexed something deep inside himself and made his hole tighten in that way he knew drove Andy wild.

Dante didn't stand a chance. "Holy shit, what the fuck did you-"

Trevor watched over his shoulder as Andy's whole body tensed and the real Dante slipped out of his back, and barely a split second later the climax came. Andy gave a series of deep, guttural groans, his body wracked with pleasure, and Trevor felt heavy pulsing in his ass as Andy's balls emptied into the condom.

Both of them collapsed onto the bed, Andy's softening cock still buried deep inside Trevor as his hulking body smothered his smaller partner, and but he was feeling too boneless to move so he just mumbled out an apology and laid there and let the twink luxuriate in the feeling of being buried beneath a mountain of hot, sweaty muscle.

Dante stood above them, harder than he'd ever been in his life as he stared down at the tangle of debauched men before him, and he only had to jerk his own cock a few times before he was adding his own load to the mess already splattered across the pair. He collapsed on the bed next to them, spent and raw after what was basically the longest orgasm of his life, and watched out of the side of his eye as Andy and Trevor adjusted their positions so they could lie face to face with each other. Andy reached down and brushed Trevor's bangs away from his eyes, and Trevor gently took his hand, and it was all so Disney that Dante could barely watch.

"Fuck!" Dante grunted out, flopping onto his back and talking to the ceiling rather than the sickeningly in love couple next to him, and he grinned with all his teeth. "I've always wanted to try my double orgasm trick with three people, that was insane!"

As soon as he felt like he could move again (look at that, he thought, the body hopper not being in control of his body) he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, looking away so Andy and Trevor could have a private moment together. Instead, he wobbled his way over to their television and pulled out the remote, flipping the screen on and navigating to Netflix.

Trevor caught what he was doing and pushed himself up, away from Andy's embrace, though he kept one hand on his boyfriend's chest as he called across the room towards their hookup with an exasperated look on his face.

"Dante, you're our friend, but no matter how good the sex was I am not watching that shitty reality show you were on," he said flatly, but then Andy nestled his head onto Trevor's shoulder, murmured something into his ear, and the twink relented with a sigh. "Okay, a few episodes, and no one can get mad at me for rolling my eyes."

Dante smiled. It was always fun when the three of them could get together.

[lexirosewrites]

(Here's the kinda long Slick Sunday ask I promised before!!)

So, Lady Kailitha has a fic where Steve is a "golden Omega", which just means that he isn't able to have pups normally, but in exchange his possibilities of getting pregnant during a heat skyrocket.

Now, I was half asleep when I thought of this, but!! Dark omegas.

They are as unusual as they're rejected, physiologically there's nothing different about them, psychologically...

Let's say that they're kinda intense.

These kinds of Omegas imprint on an Alpha seemingly at random and will stop at nothing to get with them.

Of course some omegas have shown more self restraint in these sorts of situations, each individual might vary in their willingness to commit crimes, for example, some omegas might commit murder if their chosen alpha mates someone else, some others might choose to take their own lives, others might lock themselves for the rest of their lives, etc, etc.

When they successfully mate their beloved these omegas tend to be the sweetest, nicest people you've met... Unless they feel you're a threat to their bond.

No one is actually sure what triggers this kinda instincts, as the studies have shown they show up no matter the demographic, income or lifestyle.

Enter Steve. A packless Omega suffering of isolation sickness meets Eddie, a nice dude who was just trying to help the guy who looked about to kneel over and, coincidentally, an Alpha.

Steve gets one(1) whiff of Eddie's scent and his Omega instincts go overdrive, deciding in that exact moment that this random guy is going to be their mate. No. Matter. What.

So it starts small, with Eddie taking care of Steve for a bit, just until the omega feels well enough to get home, but before he leaves Steve asks for the Alpha's name and phone number. (And if Steve leaves that interaction with a new hanky for his nest? That's nobody's business)

And Eddie is a weak man in the face of a pretty guy, so he gives it to him.

Then Steve starts inserting himself into Eddie's life under the excuse that Eddie saved his life (not that he's wrong.....), so Steve MUST pay him back, with cookies!

Eventually it gets to the point where Steve actually gets to meet Eddie's friends, a few guys that are also in a band with him, all of Eddie's sheepies.

Omg, imagine one of the hellfire guys is a Omega and Steve is going insane(/neg) about it, he low-key wants to murder the other guy, but knows the dude is like Eddie's brother (even if his instincts disagree), so Steve calms himself down by breaking into Eddie's trailer and Scenting every piece of fabric he can get his hands on, but he gets so engrossed in his task that he misses when Eddie gets home, only to find Steve, on his floor rubbing his clothes to the Omega's scent glands, Eddie is both endeared and horny about it.

Eddie's entire room now smells like a mix of both of their scents and a bit like Omega Slick, Steve clearly enjoying his task, even if he's not bothering to stop.

So once Steve finally realizes Eddie is there, he immediately gets upset bc Eddie smells like another Omega, and Steve hates that, Eddie is HIS Alpha, and his inner Omega is in so much distress he actually says some of it out loud, so Eddie of course does the only reasonable thing and allows himself to be thoroughly scented by Steve.

And maybe that's when they start courting, and Steve is overjoyed, so much so that he immediately starts getting making bold, visible claims over Eddie so everyone else gets discouraged.

(Maybe the next day Eddie tells the corroded coffin guys like "isn't Stevie the cutest 🥰🥰" while the band is like "😰😰 Eddie no"

From then on Cc fears Steve just a bit)

After he begins hanging out with Eddie and friends Steve is clearly happier than ever, and it's around this time when a bunch of middle schoolers (one of them was even his ex's little brother, life is so weird....) get attached to Steve.

Steve's Omega is thrilled to have so many pups around him. And soon begin the jokes about Steve and Eddie being the pups parents, which are doing nothing for his obsession, if anything, it's making it worse.

(This is just like, a piece of info that occurred to me later on, and I was like. This isn't going to be knowledge for the characters, this is for my own need to know™ but I think the Dark Omegas! Psychological response is basically an attachment to the first alpha they "imprint" during isolation sickness, a moment when they feel extremely vulnerable and could literally die.

So imagine, isolation sickness is something that can happen to anyone, but most of the time it happens to omegas, who don't realize they have it because it's not a widely spread knowledge, most of the time it gets misdiagnosed as something different.

And most of the Omegas who suffer from it commit suicide out of sheer despair or just pass away from the sickness.

Most alphas find easy cures because their society favors them, while Betas don't have that much propensity to it.

So imagine Steve is the Omega son of a beta pair, so when he asked for affection his parents told him he was being too needy and annoying, so Steve found affection somewhere else in the form of Tommy and Carol, and then all the girls he dated, until he presented while dating Nancy Wheeler, his first love who dumped him not long after.

And now Steve is completely alone, his parents are on a vacation on god-knows-where, Tommy and Carol left soon after Nancy disapproved of them, and Nancy had left him for a different Omega.

Hence the isolation sickness.)

And idk, I've been brainstorming this thing for like 2 weeks now, and I'm getting sick of looking at it, so I hope you enjoy it.

I support omega rights, but more importantly, I support omega wrongs🥰 Steve should get his alpha, no matter the cost to anyone else!

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/754129888346357760/ive-always-felt-pretty-comfortable-sharing-some?source=share

The other day, I got curious about a certain inflammatory Tumblr user and wondered if they'd been involved in other internet wankfests. I followed a couple of links from their Tumblr, which gave me their real name and a handful of other website accounts. Throwing these into Duckduckgo got me their birthdate (including year), a second stable username they'd used pre-2015, about a dozen other social media and art website accounts, and a kiwifarms thread (where they decided the person wasn't interesting enough to target). I also found two photos of the person, one of which showed their whole face and which they hadn't posted themself.

This took me about twenty minutes and I was barely even making an effort, just hucking usernames into a search engine and checking to see if the results were false positives or not.

However, despite turning up this bozo's entire internet presence for the past two decades, I did not find out any demographic information beyond meatspace name, birthdate, and and whatever I can guess about ethnicity and socioeconomic class from the photo, nor did I turn up records of past imbroglios. The person had practiced good privacy hygene for the past 20 years, so the info I was able to get on them was limited. I checked a bunch of the older accounts with the Wayback machine and found that the person had indeed been careful all along, they hadn't just gone back and deleted things later.

Someone who wanted to hurt them, slander them, write an accurate callout post, or build a timeline of their activity would have very little to work with (note the kiwifarms trolls not bothering).

AI does not present any new threats. The info you post on the internet is there forever and anyone with twenty minutes and a functional search engine can find it.

--

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[simplespacedust]

hey so i'm gonna talk about pro-shippers because i feel like none of you have critical thinking skills.

please, if you are going to read this, read to the end because there are multiple parts to my argument.

SOMETHING IMPORTANT: i don't think it is okay to doxx, harass, or send death threats to people on the internet! if you send death threats to people, you are awful! if you go out of your way to harass people when they tell you to leave them alone, you are awful! if someone says something you don't like, talk with them like a normal fucking person jesus christ! if you repeatedly harass a pro-shipper, you are not helping them get any better!

firstly, in terms of "problematic" stuff in mainstream media, most component people can recognize when a piece of media is commenting on something with the use of a relationship/something problematic as a metaphor. just because something exists on-screen doesn't necessarily mean the message of the media endorses it. this is why you never (hopefully) see anyone getting upset about murder in movies. the piece of media is not saying murder is good. it is using it to make a commentary/characterize someone/etc.

now that we have set that precedent, we can move on to pro-shipping in fandom spaces. pro-shipping in fandom spaces if often fundamentally different between than the more general category of just "relationships in media." in fandom spaces, the tendency when creating art, writing fics, posting headcannons, etc. is for the purpose of personal/audience enjoyment. this is why pro-shipping is more often problematic within fandoms. if a person did want to create/add to problematic ships for a purpose other than getting off to it, that would be a different story! thats fine!

unfortunately, however, many pro-shippers do not proship for the literary merit/symbolism/characterization etc. many of them do it because they find the idea of parent-child or sibling-sibling relationships attractive. this is where the problem is. they symbol itself is not the problem, its the message/purpose of the work/art/headcannon itself.

i hear a lot of people talking about how pro-shipping is often a coping mechanism for dealing with trauma a person has experienced. my response to that? KEEP IT TO YOURSELF AND GO TO THERAPY!!!! if you are having to resort to jacking off to fictional incest to cope, then clearly you need the help of a professional to work through your issues! if you cannot for whatever reason, still keep it to yourself!

it is well understood that people are influenced by the opinions of people around them/what they see and interact with. putting out bullshit on the internet that portrays problematic relationships as desirable can one, create a pedophile safe space, and two, unintentionally (or maybe even intentionally!) expose children to these types of relationships and make it seem normal in their brains, which could cause them to not speak up about it if something bad does actually happen to them! even if a person shouldn't be in a space, they are! it doesn't harm you to not post the porn you wrote of that one kid and his dad from south park. and that only talks about adult only spaces, i have seen a shit ton of pro-shippers on tiktok, a platform marketed towards minors.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE (i have a lot to say and am terrible at organizing my thoughts srry) is that a lot of times pro-shippers infiltrate general fandom hashtags. a child who is scrolling though a bluey hashtag on tiktok should not have any risk of running into someone on the internet describing how bluey's dad would r4p3 her!

you may think that because you are only talking about fictional characters and "its a coping mechanism" its okay, but it is most certainly not! not all coping mechanisms are healthy and what you post on the internet most CERTAINLY has a real effect on people. this is basic media literacy and critical thinking, guys. stop posting child/sibling smut headcannons on the internet! it is absolutely vile!

with all of that being said, (i said this at the beginning but i am going to say it again) i still dont think it is okay to doxx, harass, or send death threats to people on the internet! if you send death threats to people, you are awful! if you go out of your way to harass people when they tell you to leave them alone, you are awful! if someone says something you dont like, talk with them like a normal fucking person jesus christ! if you repeatedly harass a pro-shipper, you are not helping them get any better!

(im gonna put a bunch of proshipper hashtags at the bottom of this to reach the targeted demographic, i am NOT a proshipper, i am NOT an "anti anti" and i do NOT believe proshippers are valid, again, this is just for reach just to be clear)

[doberbutts]

This is such a weird take I keep seeing echo'd.

"Where are the trans women" I mean this is an attempt by trans *mascs* to band together and form a community to discuss theory and uplift each other? In a space that centers trans mascs it should be expected that trans mascs are the majority? That's not insidious that's literally just how demographics work? A space that centers trans fems should equally be dominated by, you guessed it, trans fems.

Not to mention there *are* trans women joining in our discussions, they just usually prefer to let trans men have the floor when discussing issues specifically pertaining to trans men? That's just polite? The people actually affected by a specific problem should be the ones to talk about it?

Cripplepunk to my knowledge was started by a trans masc. I say to my knowledge because despite being a physically disabled trans guy myself, I am neither part of that community nor do I really have much interaction with it. It makes sense to me that a community and movement started by a trans masc is mostly made up of trans mascs. Saying "well there aren't many trans women in this movement despite disabled trans women existing" is sort of silly, because there are communities and movements created by trans women which include very few trans men as well.

Like. You might as well say "why aren't there any lesbians at this gay nudist retreat in the woods" I'm pretty sure you've answered your own question there! It's probably because the majority of lesbians aren't interested in this space that centers constantly naked dudes having anal sex next to the poison ivy! If they want to come along and bring a friend to have their own fun with that's fine but then they have to be really okay with looking at a bunch of naked guys having public sex all the time. There's probably not going to be a lot of provisions made specifically for them and any discussion might be regarding topics they don't know much about or have much interest in. The ones that do show up are probably either really fucking chill about it or some part of the goings-on really resonates with them. There you go.

[mofsblog]

Uh oh, I got reminded TFGraves exist and I'm mentally ill and going to make it YOUR problem!! (Translation: I'm going to gosh about them)

They just mean so much to me? And they just feel soo?? Special?? And unique on a meta level as well? It's already one thing that they are a canonised mlm pairing because historically those ones tend to be more controversial because it tends to make cishet dudes (aka leagues main demographic) more uncomfortable because cant fetishise it (also yes they're not Technically "together" but idc its explicitly canon they have feelings for eachother). It's another that both are surprisingly developed and nuanced charaters (could go on for hours about how theyre both self destructive and have abandonment issues and repress their feelings in very different ways) that are morally ambiguous and have a complex and multifaceted relationship with eachother and yeah i know league lore is subject to retcons and having differet writers but idk. i think its impressive we got two nuanced developed queer male characters WITH A COMPLICATED AND DEVELOPED RELATIONSHIP WITH EACHOTHER in a game known for its bigotted player base. Another thing i fucking love about this ship is how the riot writers were like "what if we subverted some tropes and made the more flamboyant one implied pan and we made the traditionally masculine one, who highkey has toxic masculinity, gay". BUT ALSO HIS TOXIC MASCULINITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS QUEERNESS. like yes he cant express his feelings directly to save his life but the fact he's a gay man is completely not relevant to that and he's canonically had a bunch of ex boyfriends and is canonically a monsterfucker/hj. I'm not over how they took a pretty cishet masculine thing and made queer. Like the rough outlaw who hates talking about his feelings and is out for violent revenge on those who've wronged him..... except the guy who's "wronged" him is actually his best friend who he has mutual feelings for and also he fucks men. IDK THAT MAKES ME HAPPY. im insane.

moving on to other thing i like about them is that the sheer range this ship has??? Like yes there's gut wrenching fucked up dynamic that drives you crazy as you pyschoanalyse and unpack the layers of all of THAT. "that" being the fact a man thought he got abandoned by his best friend and got tortured and isolated in prison for 10 years and during those 10 years the only thing that kept him from killing himself was the sheer rage and want for vengence (towards someone he probably had repressed romantic feelings for) AND THEN WHEN HE GOT THE CHANCE TO KILL HIM, HE COULDNT BRING HIMSELF TO DO IT 💀 (im literally never going to be normal about that) and during those 10 years the other man actually got all of their mutual friends killed in an attempt to save him and the survivors guilt fucked him up so bad its implied he failed trying to drown himself so he changed his entire name and personhood instead to isolate himself from the soul crushing guilt of it. BUT DESPITE THAT ANGST, there's a surprising amount of domesticity and comfort with this ship??? No like you'd think these two would be friends to enemies to lovers BUT NO, theyre actually friends to enemies to friends to friends who are fucking pinning for eachother like crazy. Despite the angsty dynamic these two also have the best friends who have known eachother for ages and who everyone think is dating but both are oblivious or dont believe the other feels the same BUT THEY ALSO HAVE opposites attract bickering marriage couple who constantly tease and banter with eachother. like the range is crazy

No but I feel like something that makes me emotional about this is that they tried to kill eachother and badly hurt eachother unintentionally but like, instead of being homophobic about it and making them just hate eachother forever and never reconcicle (which like those ships are amazing and valid and also thats literally another league ship/hj), the writers made them make up???? AND LIKE? HEAL? KINDA? Like no they havent worked through everything and no neither of them like talking about their feelings but they're "partners" again and they have this really domestic understanding of eachother and theyre managing and theyre bantering like they used to and theyre literally so comfortable around eachother and look, graves isnt tormented by his time in prison as much anymore and hes just a genuinely goofy criminal dumbass who robs people and cracks jokes that irriate his partner AND IDK ITS SO DOMESTIC AND FUNNY? BUT IT DOESNT FEEL OUT OF CHARACTER. THESE TWO JUST ARE IN A GOOD PLACE DESPITE EVERYTHING AND IDK THAT MAKES ME HAPPY???? why did league of legends make compelling queer ship

[earthstellar]

what are some other nice moments from Rescue bots?

This show is loaded with them!!! :)

Here we go, some nice moments in Rescue Bots!!

I'm going to write this with the assumption that some people reading this may not have ever seen Rescue Bots or might only be somewhat familiar, as I realise the target audience skews much younger than most Transformers media does, so I'm not 100% sure how popular it was outside of that demographic in total.

Off the top of my head:

-There is an in-universe VR game called Element Quest that has a couple really good episodes, the design is cute and there are tons of meme references. Blades, at one point, goes "I used to like video games. Then I took an arrow to the knee." LOL

-I think it's cool how they actually do tie in their continuity with TFP's continuity. For example, "What Rises Above" (RB) canonically comes before "Nemesis Prime" (TFP), and this is directly referenced in the dialogue in TFP when Optimus says that he is late arriving to the base as he was exploring an underground energon deposit-- This is the deposit he explores with the Rescue Bots.

-THERE IS A MUSICAL EPISODE. IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD

-Woodrow Burns, the Chief's brother, is kind of an idiot asshole, although he's not actively malicious. But he is great with the kids and for whatever reason the only thing I can ever remember about this character is when he goes up to Cody after it's been a long time since he saw him last and says "You've grown a whole foot since the last time I saw you-- Now you'll need three socks!" IDK I just think that's a real cute dad joke thing to say to a little kid lol :')

-There is an episode where they explore the local folklore of Griffin Rock, and TL;DR the local lore is that their island is where literal griffins used to nest seasonally. So throughout the episode, there's this kind of vibe of "OK are these electrical magnetic pulses or whatever like a science problem or a magic problem" and it's actually a very cute and fun vibe, especially since Cody is talking about the lore in the first place as part of his work towards a Scouts badge and Blades is very cute in this episode, the bots are all like "okay magic isn't real but uhhh what if magic's real?" for a minute and it's great :')

-Doc Greene/Green creates a ton of fun science devices throughout the show, but the names of some are just so doofy and fun. I love the "Torna-Don't", which is a thing designed to dispel tornados. Of course. lmao

-All the weird small town local events are also very silly and cute, and weirdly realistic for those of us who are familiar with this kind of local event thing, lmao. One of my favourite concepts is one of what seems to be several crawdad-related festivals, in which there is apparently a televised crawdad race. It's a bunch of shrimps put on a tiny racetrack, like Olympic runners. LOL

-At one point, Blurr shows up, and when the Rescue Bots are trying to acclimate him to working with humans, Chase is like "Humans seem to have two genders, which are defined by how many cooties they have." This implies that as far as the Rescue Bots are aware, 1) cooties are real and 2) human gender is defined solely by how many cooties a person has, and not by anything else, thus leaving their understanding of human gender fairly open (and it is also clear they have solely learned about gender from young kids in a small town which is likely why they state there are two genders but then make it clear that gender is a cooties thing and not an inherently physical thing, which makes sense in context and is kind of great because it gives more leeway for gender diversity than I expected) and I love this a lot. What is human gender? Cooties. That's all. So someone with a particularly high number of cooties could be another gender altogether, because why not?

-There is a body swap episode, which treats us to Blades in Dani's body trying on dresses in her room. He picks an orange and white one, which matches his paint job. I also love this a lot.

-Heatwave is gruff as hell especially at the start of the series and constantly starts shit or perpetuates shit with Kade, which is super funny. Just this centuries old Cybertronian fucking with this doofus boy who keeps leaving donuts in his cab. God dammit Kade, lmao.

-There is an episode where Cody is aged up via Science Device, and we get to see an older Cody, who more closely resembles his father than his older brother does. It's cute that he'll look like his dad when he's older. :')

During this episode, he assists in a rescue, and the girl his brother has a crush on tries to hit on him, but he clearly doesn't get what's happening and thinks it's icky because of course he does, he's a kid. I just think this scene is handled well and it's cute that his reaction to being hit on is still "ewww girls" but his brother is still absolutely pissed off about it anyway LMAO like jesus Kade, relax

-Kade's mostly an asshole but he's shown to be a really good rescuer who genuinely cares about people, and he has moments where he really comes through for his family and realises on his own that he should shut up and back down on his bullshit, thus making him a better developed and more realistic asshole brother character than 99% of asshole brother characters in most shows. I think this is pretty solid because it does lead to effective character development here and there, and it makes his positive moments with his family and the bots that much nicer. :)

-Cody is such a good kid. He is often willing to give people or ideas a chance when nobody else will, and even though he's too young to actively participate in most missions, he stays involved by helping at their dispatch centre. He's a smart little dude, who has a lot of heart and a ton of potential. One of the few child characters in anything that I actually like, because I think they write him extremely well: He is young, but he is not stupid. He is not treated like an accessory or like the property of his family, he's his own person with a distinct personality within his family, with a reasonable amount of autonomy. And he's a person who is still learning and has valuable contributions while also needing guidance or support at times. 10/10

-Dani gradually gets better at helping Blades deal with his flight anxiety (and sticks up for him when the others might mock him a little for it), and this is not only inherently very nice and cute, but it also makes a lot of sense as she is a first responder/medic and we see her offer the same reassurances towards the people she helps to rescue.

-The writing for the Burns Family in general is some of the best family group character writing in anything tbh, they handle the family dynamic so well in this show, and it's extra cute as the Rescue Bots all learn a lot from observing how the family takes care of one another and the townspeople they rescue. :')

-Blades has anxiety. I also have anxiety, so I am biased and clearly love this dude, lmao. He's so fucking relatable and even though sometimes the others rip on him, it is clear that they're also very proud of him for trying his best to deal with a situation which for him is particularly difficult (he was forced to take a flight capable alt-mode when this is something he is explicitly not comfortable with) and his team mates do support him, even though Heatwave is a douche sometimes (although it is clear this is usually due to stress or something else and that the actual problem isn't Blades). Over the course of the series, Blades does develop a little more confidence, and it's very cute and nice to see him puffing himself up a little more. :)

-The overall attitudes the bots have towards humans in this show is sweet. It's clear they don't really understand humanity or humans as a whole, but it also doesn't really matter because they are so specifically oriented to their local population on the island and their focus is a relatively small community of humans. They take their duties seriously and will protect this population, even if they don't really understand the people outright. They gradually start to respect the locals (and the Burns Family) more and more as they work with them, and get acclimated to Earth. They love their dumbass weird little humans :')

This leads to a lot of fun shenanigans with the bots not understanding things, or only understanding things as they have been explained by the children, which is hilarious.

-There is an episode where local thieves steal Chase, and inspired by Cody's school drama project, he decides to go undercover after watching a bunch of old detective movies. This includes him narrating things to himself, which he is called on when Dani enters the garage and asks him "Why are the lights off? Are you talking to yourself?" lmao

-Although it isn't explicitly canonical, it's easy to interpret both Chase and Blades as being neurodivergent. Both of them display various behaviours and traits which can potentially be understood in this way, and I'm just glad that there's a show for kids where two of the main characters, who are rescue workers, are shown to be competent and skilled at their jobs and accepted by the community for who they are while also being neurodivergent. <3 It's such a good vibe when the other characters support or defend these two in particular, especially when Chase or Blades might be confused or upset about something. Chief Burns is especially great working with Chase.

-Any episode where Optimus shows up in Rescue Bots usually has some gems of cuteness/silliness. The Elvis line still takes me out, LMAO. "You're bigger than Elvis!" "I have not met this Elvis, and I am unaware of his size." 10/10 writing, I fucking love Rescue Bots

-The bots constantly call out a bunch of details that are entirely appropriate for robots from space to notice and recognise as somewhat weird, whereas a lot of the human characters are so used to 1) being human and 2) living on this incredibly weird little technologically advanced island that nothing really phases them anymore. So we can actually identify more with the bots at time, despite the fact that they are also providing an outsider point of view, which is really clever! :)

-The theme song is a fucking banger. It's so good. I love this song so much. I wish we got a full version of it, but this is the best extended version of it that I've been able to find. Enjoy!!!

-There's a lot of fairly adult stuff in the show, more than I think people realise! The tone can never get too dark outright as it is intended for young kids as the primary demographic, but there's a lot of situations, conversations, etc. that are genuinely engaging and interesting from an adult perspective, which is a large part of what makes it a great watch for all ages.

Some situational examples include scenarios where children are imperilled in natural disasters, accidents, even kidnapping at one point.

Non-kid related situations include risks and threat to civilians from AI development and the dangers that uncontrolled or poorly thought out technology can cause or exacerbate, which is significant in context and also interesting to think about given our current relationship IRL with rapid tech development and concerns around how that technology is being made and applied, either in reality or in theory.

Some dialogue examples include scenes where the bots mention their grief over being unable to save Cybertron, a sense of guilt that they were in stasis for so long even though this was beyond their control, awareness that they may be the last Rescue Bots team in operation on Earth or anywhere else in the universe (a sense of loneliness and a responsibility as the last upholders of their specific creed), struggles with their sense of duty and concerns around their ability to fulfil their expectations for themselves and meet the expectations of others while rising to the demands of their unique situation, and so on.

--

this is already pretty long lmao, there's a ton of stuff I really like about Rescue Bots, but I hope this might encourage others to check out the show if you haven't before, it's well worth a watch! :)

[velvetvexations]

if trans women are the most oppressed then any slur they use is punching up. try calling a cis gay man a faggot, see how that goes if it’s punching up. or do you not feel safe doing that? so why do you feel safe targeting nonbinary people afab?

They'd say that since trans women can use faggot that invalidates the scenario, but the point isn't if they have the right to say a particular or not, it's if they'd aggressively call a cis gay man an insulting and degrading term that regular cishet homophobes hurl at him in an attempt to make him angry.

The answer is no, they wouldn't, they target AFAB non-binary people in particular. It's not because of some TERF bullshit about AMAB supremacy or male socialization, AFAB non-binary people are just the demographic that happens to be in reach of a bunch of people who at best are coping badly with their own trauma and at worst are simply bullies, and would go after anyone they had the chance to.

Frankly I have things to say about how they coerce and manipulate younger transfems into isolating themselves from other queer people, and the way they press the "everyone expects trans women to top when they are in fact natural bottoms :)" thing.

[louisisalarrie]

there’s quite the convo that was going on on twitter today, which is super interesting to me, because it’s brought up often and usually from newer members to the fandom, particularly solos. we’ve been talking about this for years. so… idk, let’s talk.

this convo is of the gist that Larries made Harry and louis stop interacting due to our interest in them being together. we, apparently, are the ones who made either mgmt, or Harry and Louis themselves, entirely separate and go from best friends to absolutely nothing. and when I say absolutely nothing, like… they were so distanced it was ridiculous.

but here’s the thing… if you weren’t around at the time (there’s no issue with that btw!), ziam was the second biggest ship after larry. A bunch of Larries shipped ziam, and a lot of larry antis shipped ziam, as well as ziam having their own following regardless of larry. And yes, I was there, so im fully aware ziam wasn’t as big as Larry, but they were definitely a close second as far as “ships” go. there was also narry, zarry, lilo, and all the others, but larry and ziam dominated.

But… funnily enough, ziam weren’t separating due to a large speculation of them being in a relationship. it was printed and posted in multiple formats that zayn had said in an interview he told Liam to kiss him and he did (early days, yes), and they really gave off relationship vibes for a long time there, but they were still close and interacting very lovingly throughout the entirety of 1d. and regardless of your stance on ziam, they were clearly very close.

The thing with this is, is that gay rumours can be harmful to a fanbase with a demographic of young women, who the idea is to make the band desirable for women to be with to keep them interested etc., we’re all aware of that, but why wasn’t ziam separated? why weren’t all the boys asked to be super straight with each other? why was it so intense with larry?

Because if you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t hide anything. ziam still were carrying on in front of our faces while larry went through a multitude of stunts (that antis and now some solos also believed were stunts), and were so strictly kept apart that it was blindingly obvious something was going on. To make it seem the most real, you’d have all the boys being laddy bro pals with one another. but it was specifically larry who were extremely drastically pushed apart. of course there was no public “fight” printed to give us a reason as to why they became so far apart (that would signal an end to the band and worry etc.) to make sense of it, but they just were forced in their own lanes. anyone with two eyes can see that, and you could easily tell if they hated each other or not. but the small moments they did interact, showed us otherwise.

anyway, it’s very important to note that ziam did not stop being ziam regardless of the rumours, but larry did stop being larry drastically. they’re not homophobes, they weren’t scared of encouraging the rumours (AIMH and all the playful tweets and interactions), but they were clearly separated when larry kept being talked about further down the track. and if you can’t see that, well you may need to reevaluate and use some critical thinking. it’s happened before 1d too, it’s not rocket science.

anyway, sorry for the rant. it’s just frustrating when I see this convo when we’ve had it over and over again. so, for all the newer larries,if you haven’t already, take this into consideration as one of the very biggest pieces of larry evidence we have. because, well, it is. it may seem insignificant as it’s not a “moment”, but rather it’s a long and ongoing piece of evidence that there was something to hide, so they hid it. and they still do.