#or ignore us pointing out other instances of harassment

[something-about-sunflowers]

Idk how we can make this easier for people. I really don’t.

If you’re going to post any variation of ‘I hate/dislike x’ in the tag for x, that is rude. You are being rude. Your justifications don’t matter. Your caveats don’t matter. ‘I dislike x in a blorbo way’ means nothing. You are still contributing to the problem of ‘x hate in the x tag’. Stop it.

To go on to say ‘don’t hate on people for liking/disliking a character, people are allowed to have opinions, sweaties’ is just. incredibly condescending. and missing the point of what a lot of people in the x tag are complaining about. Nobody cares if you hate x as long as we don’t have to see you talking about how much or why or in what way you hate x. That’s it. That is our only problem here. With this specific thing. (the anon hate is another issue entirely)

We will gladly champion your right to hate x and to talk about hating x, just as long as we don’t have to see it. Don’t tag it. Tag it with ‘x critical’ or ‘anti-x’ or ‘x hate’ or literally anything else. This should not be a discussion we keep needing to have. This shouldn’t have been up for discussion in the first place. Its just fucking manners.

I know (or am guessing) the op intended that post to be a joke. That doesn’t change the fact that we’re fucking tired of this shit. In fact that actually kind of makes it worse. We’re tired. We’re so fucking tired of having to argue, constantly, against people who aren’t joking just so we can have some fucking peace and enjoy x like the rest of yall enjoy y and z.

I’m sorry to make an example of op, I’m not blocking them before I post this, so its possible/likely they’ll see this, but if you’re gonna do this shit in the tag then I think vagueing/not @/naming you is like. the most you’re owed.

[olderthannetfic]

i saw this post today where this person was talking abt fandom racism and was pointing out some real issues within my fandom and favorite ship that I too had noticed… but then kept bringing it back to the lack of one particular other ship they liked, when it's like, no that's not the problem, and that ship is unpopular because those characters have zero romantic or sexual chemistry and barely any scenes together. (it was really funny that someone had reblogged this to take their 'lack of seeing this one character in a sexual way in fic miiight be racist' complaint to be like 'i think you're right! we should have more fic about [a long list of different ships involving that character with people they have ACTUAL chemistry with].' it was really funny. ofc op totally missed the point they were making there.) anyway i just feel like way too many useful conversations about this stuff are ruined by people making it about shipping or other really subjective fandom preferences. i get that this is because something like 'number of fics X ship or character has on ao3' is an objective measure, and something like 'level of orientalism in how a lot of people are writing this desi character' is not, but i wish people would realize it tends to alienate more people that it converts. and ime, it's often the people who maybe would most benefit from hearing those criticisms (e.g. are writing unintentionally racist stuff in their works, and are someone who would want to know about that and how to do it differently) who tune it out the second you make it into insulting their shipping preferences.

i mean, there WAS some real racism in the star wars sequels fandom, including among the fanfic/shipping side. not just the shitty dudes harassing kelly marie tran. we saw the really bizarre 'predator' language people directed at john boyega just for making some joke posts on instagram about disliking reylo and its shippers. it was the very classic racist thing where people see something as automatically more threatening when a black man does it. ....but how many people had already tuned all that out because the people most outspoken about the racism in the fandom kept reducing it to 'if you ship reylo over finnrey, or kylux over finnpoe, you're a racist'? it's like a boy who cried wolf thing. if you've shown that you can't uncouple serious discussions and concerns from just being pissy that your otp is not more popular, people are going to see you as someone who can't be taken seriously and then ignore you when you do have a real complaint. it's like how i'm sure that some of stitch's essays are thoughtful and important, but i have no desire to read stuff by someone who is infamous for harassing people just for what they ship. i don't feel like i can take any of that person's judgments about fandoms i'm not in, for instance, seriously.

that's not to say fandom preferences in shipping can't ever be influenced by racism (or other 'isms') but is it ever really *that* specifically that is the problem, or the broader pattern it is part of? and i feel like 'maybe fandom is a little too focused on het and slash ships between two young skinny conventionally attractive white people' is a message more people are open to than 'your specific white M/M or F/M otp is racist'

anyway it reminds me of the stuff i've seen sometimes in academic fandom studies about how you can't really honestly study a fandom where you're deeply mired in its discourse - you need to focus your work on fandoms that you're familiar with but not in that way. and i think that maybe also applies to some of these discussions about fandom racism and misogyny. maybe you're just going to have better takes on something when you're not deeply invested in other unrelated arguments about it, like about which ship is the most popular. like i could not care less about star wars shipping and have zero take in reylo vs. finnrey, so that's why i feel like i could trust my perception that the way a small minority of reylos were posting about john boyega's instagram posts was racist. it didn't matter if he was genuinely being a jerk to them or about their ship. he obviously wasn't a 'predator' and it was pretty telling language for a group of largely white people to use about a black man making fun of their ship on a different social media site.

--

The laying pipe thing was blown so out of proportion, yes. Call it sexist, sure, but it wasn't fucking predatory.

[lavender-teardroplettes]

Hi, it’s me, a BIPOC creator ready to talk about Tom

I’m going to preface this in saying that I was really hoping that Tom would listen to the people who were genuinely disappointed in him and wanted him to do better. I want to highlight that people were expressing their own past history with right wing grooming towards racist ideologies, dog whistles, and downplaying of Black and Indigenous suffering during the peak of the situation on top of all the hurt that comes with another trans person not understanding how bad their internalized transphobia is. In light of Tom deleting his tumblr, changing the L4L twitter username and privating both that account and the main one in question….I have some points as a disappointed ex-fan that I hope extends to other communities.

First and foremost; I would like to be clear and transparent:

I was one of the POC creators that asked QLP from Florescent Red Studios to echo my feelings at the time. I work a lot, I try and vividly express this and didn’t have the energy at the time to address this despite having a lot of words that I have gratefully seen echoed through the situation as it has developed. A few of them have carried over from seeing devs being harassed from a separate situation over the past year that I have a lot of words on. If you’re the perpetrators of that event I highly suggest you apologize and work on yourselves, but that’s an issue for another time.

To be honest, I will always be disappointed in people like Tom who hide these sort of hateful views, but…sometimes I can’t say I’m not surprised. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, because, in all honesty, I love this community we’ve built despite the drawbacks that come with making something new out of nothing and wanting to support other people. I can say for certain that a lot of us were the weird kids, and it’s more than amazing to have that safety in community, but I can’t ignore that there are some issues.

We’re still people despite being online, people who sometimes can be more busy than usual. Tone is hard to pick up on and sometimes it’s hard to fully communicate how you feel, but immediately jumping into hatred and defensive mode is never the way to go, and there should be room for open discussion when people are hurt and still trying to make space to educate others. There should be space for open discussions because we have this mediation tool that we can walk away from and come back to when we look at it objectively and not emotionally.

Tom, if you see this, I want to ask you if you actually fucking care at all about me and what a lot of people in the BIPOC community went through/are currently going through in the hands of conservatives that have groomed you into their ideology. I want to ask you if you really know about the actual fetishization we face if it isn’t straight up murder, misogyny/misogynoir, etc? Because it sounds to me like you were a tourist and I’ve strictly only been to either sides of the coast because you will never catch me in the South in this country unless I am in severely Black populated cities. And even then you’d never fucking catch me in the South.

It’s hard for me to touch on the grooming topic further because I’m a victim of multiple instances of CSA….I don’t believe in just pointing at one community, I think every community should keep themselves in check when it comes to shaming and ousting out p*dos and N*zis at the least- because again, they shouldn’t fucking be tolerated.

I will echo this sentiment: if you don’t condone what you’re writing about, you shouldn’t be condoning or perpetuating worse actions in a community full of BIPOC, disabled, marginalized, etc fans in real life.

On the note of BIPOC, please…please actually learn about our history and struggles. Whether it’s taking a history course, watching BIPOC educators….it’s something I think people should really learn about. It’s painful, it’s hard, but it’s what we have to live with everyday and don’t have the energy to remind people of all the time because of how draining it is.

I will be clear, I’m expressing my disappointment. I don’t want any harassment towards anyone, you shouldn’t be lowering yourself to that level.

But- I’m fucking tired and am urging people to do better. Please.

[persmo]

It’s weird to see others view fakeclaimers so harshly while simultaneously fakeclaiming systems whose plurality does not stem from trauma :/

Sincerely, a DID system whose cultural practices involve spiritual plurality. We exist hi hello.

To start, wow, just with like 3 real post without our intro and we already have our first attack-like thing, without counting the comment of and endo who already blocked us lmao, I feel important

Now, I could easily just ignore your comment cause you just want to tell me that I don't consider possibilities, I'm closed mind, I'm hypocrite, or something like that, don't you? And I get it, no one it's perfect and all that stuff that I know everyone have hear in their lives so I don't get to any point telling you all that

Ok so, if you read my two post carefully and with reading comprehension, thing that you didn't for what I see, you will see that I'm exclusively talking about the OSDDID community, the disordered plural community, I'm not talking about the system and plural community as a whole, thing that you're claiming I did, and I didn't. In any of my 3 posts and, more specifically, in the posts you're talking about I fakeclaimed other things like you say

And if you're gonna come at me and tell me "You're anti-endo, that's why you're fakeclaiming", well you're wrong, I'm not going to random endos and telling them they're fake, the exact definition of fakeclaiming, I'm not even interacting with endos, we say we're anti-endo so endos would leave us fucking alone cause we don't want them to interact with us

Our opinion about non-traumagenic plurality is so fucking extended and complex that we had to make another stand besides pro/neu/anti because it didn't even fit in one of those perspectives (Although for the instance of this three we use anti-endo cause it fits better regarding our opinion with most of the endos and get them away form us), but this isn't about that (Cause if you're even interested in that, you can wait till we do that post) this is about you that want to call us out because of that

Nowhere I was talking about endo fakeclaiming, just disordered fakeclaiming because our blog is about that, that's why we have a "Endo-DNI" in our description, cause we don't like them to interact with us, because many of them come to attack, harass, fakeclaim and many things to OSDDID and we don't want that

Like, if you even care that much about being "fakeclaimed by us" (thing that we didn't and we won't do, but probably you'll say we did) you would have blocked us like we say in the post, "fakeclaimers just want to mock you so ignore them and block them", but you didn't, instead you came here to give this complain about fakeclaiming and honestly made me laugh lmao

I don't know if you claim being a DID system because of cultural spiritual plurality, cause if that's the case you're right, I'll fakeclaim you, but if you're a DID system that apart of that is in spiritual cultural plurality I won't fakeclaim you, cause I know that's a thing and exists, so idk why you say "We exist hi hello" cause I know, I have been knowing before entering the OSDDID community, so I don't get the point of that final comment xD

Things like this make our point more valid, randoms in internet don't know about you, they're the first ones to make assumptions about you and attack/call you out for those, maybe this example is not in a fakeclaiming way as I explained in the post, but it's a good example of people mocking you for their assumptions and you have to react/respond mature enough, maybe for some people this isn't a mature respond but for us it is

So yeah, to conclude this I think is fair to say I don't care if randoms come to say things like this in our blog, cause they can't read correctly, and if you want to make assumptions is a you problem, but don't tell your assumptions so convinced like they're the truth cause you'll only embarrass yourself, and that's not funny, isn't it?

If you didn't block me and saw this post anon, you could send us another anon question in respond, or comment here if you want, and will read it, idk if we'll make a public answer but yeah

Let this post get as a future base to ignore and laugh about comments like this, and if you want to ask us or comment something in this post even if you're not anon do it freely, we assure you we'll read it... So for now, bye :)

[sweetescapeartist]

MORE ABOUT AYA MATSUI

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to attack Matsui nor any of the others who previously worked on the series (or those who currently work on the series). This is just to aid us in having an understanding of why Yamcha & Krillin are viewed in a negative light by the fandom. No hate towards them & we shouldn't harass any of them. We understand how things come about so that we can present corrections & prevent misinformation when appropriate by using discretion.

HER MISUNDERSTANDING OF VEGEBUL & DISDAIN FOR YAMCHA:

DBZ filler EP 124 & 125 were written by Aya Matsui. She is OBVIOUSLY a Vegeta fangirl who seems to not like Yamcha very much. In those episodes, Matsui writes for Bulma's parents talk about how amazingly strong Vegeta is and how good looking he is.

And without valid reason, Bulma was written to care WAY too much for the guy who threatened to kill her more than once, treated her like dirt, & was responsible for the death and torment of her friends.

And its revealed in the filler that Bulma wanted attention from her boyfriend AND a genocidal maniac who threatened her life multiple times. And the previous threat on her life was recent.

This filler honestly made Bulma look worse than she was in the manga. Bulma was horny & dumb in the manga and regretted her actions. DBZ filler made Bulma appear as if she developed Stockholm Syndrome for Vegeta along with her Hybristophilia (sexual interest & attraction to criminals; Bandit Yamcha, Zarbon in filler, Vegeta).

Matsui appears to have been one of the many who believed the lie Future Bulma told Future Trunks & then wrote for Bulma to fall for Vegeta in an unbelievable way before Toriyama revealed what REALLY happened. In reality, Bulma stupidly slept with Vegeta anyway despite him being evil & genocidal because she was horny and currently single after breaking up with Yamcha again. Then, Bulma couldn't stand Vegeta for years.

Aya Mastui & Toei had jumped the gun because they didn't know that Toriyama planned for Bulma to to regret sleeping with Vegeta. It WAS NOT some romantic story. There was no love between them when it began. They both hated each other after their one night stand & only came to care for each other over the span of many years due to Future Trunks.

It's a unique romance story that many VegeBul fans ignore for some reason in favor of a prince saving her from an abusive boyfriend when the prince was the actual abuser & so was she. Them forming a relationship due to their son from the future? No other DB couple has that kind of story.

Meanwhile, Yamcha gets ignored for the most part in DBZ EP 124 & 125 unless it was to make him look bad so that the currently evil Vegeta looked better. These two filler episodes were simply VEGETA WANKING. Just evidence of Matsui being a fan of Vegeta's design, but not understanding the character. And just as she did not understand the character well, most Vegeta fans don't understand him either & only like the husk of the character.

Nothing wrong with being a Vegeta fangirl or fanboy. Just pointing out a fact & how it skewed Matsui's depiction of reality in this & other instances. I just wonder why there aren't many fangirls/fanboys of End of Z Vegeta? That's my favorite Vegeta. Vegeta fans try to make evil Vegeta like EoZ Vegeta, so why not be a fan of the developed version of him instead of taking away development from the so-called "most developed character"? Seems unreasonable & illogical to me. Matsui seems to have became a fan of EoZ Vegeta with how she wrote GT Vegeta to behave.

But, back to her dislike for Yamcha...

Matsui wrote the filler scene of DBZ EP 70 where Bulma has a dartboard with Yamcha's face on it when Krillin & Gohan are searching for her.

That dartboard was not present in the manga. And why would Bulma have that after she cried over Yamcha's death and went to Namek to bring him back to life? Makes her look worse than when she didn't take accountability for the arguments she started with Yamcha as she briefly fantasized about Goku for a moment on Namek in the original manga.

I personally believe that back then, Matsui may have felt some sort of connection with Bulma in some way (not saying for a fact), but she didn't understand the character well (as many Bulma fans don't) & didn't realize that Bulma started the arguments instead of Yamcha. Then, Matsui gave Bulma a "Yamcha dartboard" in the episode she adapted.

HER DISDAIN FOR KRILLIN:

LASTLY... Aya Matsui also seemed to not like Krillin very much either as shown by DBZ EP 117 where Krillin is treated as a joke for most of the episode, Malon treats Krillin poorly, & she flirts with other guys right in front of him (even with Krillin's close friend Yamcha). Then, in DBZ EP 167, there is a scene that has Yamcha & Krillin training to fight Cell, and both are treated as clumsy jokes rather than highly skilled martial artists. But, Krillin is treated as more of a joke than Yamcha as Yamcha mocks then kicks him in the face.

So, Matsui seemed to have strongly disliked Yamcha, but disliked Krillin a bit more. Why do I say so? BECAUSE Matsui was the head writer of DBGT where Krillin and his family are inaccurately portrayed. Marron & others were written to behave like Bulma & Krillin is almost always insulted by his wife & daughter. And Yamcha is mostly absent for the entire series. She is also one of the ppl who worked under Takao Koyama; the headwriter for DBZ who strongly disliked Krillin. So, Koyama, Matsui, Kubota, & others of Koyama's "underlings" who worked on DBZ & GT wrote episodes that depicted both Krillin & Yamcha in negative ways.

So, thanks to Koyama, Matsui, & others, many fans do not understand Yamcha nor Krillin and have a false depiction of them which in many cases resulted in undue hatred of the characters.

Again, this is not to attack Matsui or anyone else. Just gathering information to share an understanding as to why filler scenes in DBZ have negatively impacted the perception of certain characters for all of these years. First we must know & understand, then we correct the perception in our own unique ways when the opportunity presents itself.

[toh-proship-positivity]

I promise this isn't intended to be hurtful at all- just some constructive criticism of your argument. You don't have to respond to this if you don't want. You don't even have to read this- you can just toss it into the trash bin. But I really hope that, if nothing else, this will help you make some stronger arguments in the future.

When Luz says Hunter is family, the implication there is that SHE views him as family. When Camilla says she's a mother of six, that only means that SHE views them as her children, not that they view her as their mother or each other as siblings (sans Luz, who, as pointed out, DOES seem to think of Hunter as sibling-like.) I fully agree that people who argue for Luz and Hunter being siblings, full stop, is a little bonkers, and people who push that argument are a bit drunk with the power of canon and need to work on interpreting things a little more critically. But canonically, Luz's feelings for Hunter are platonic.

That said, ship whatever the fuck you want. I'm not your mom. I personally don't get Lunter, but you seem to like it, so more power to you. There's a whole world of canon divergence and AU out there and I truly, genuinely hope that the ship brings you more smiles and happiness than headaches.

Lastly, if you've been subjected to any sort of bullying or anti-ness or what have you over shipping, I'm sorry. That fucking sucks- I've been there. I've received death threats and hate mail over ships. I've witnessed amazing artists and talented fic writers bullied into erasing all their works and social media accounts entirely. It just hurts, plain and simple. But trying to fight fire with fire and using these "gotcha!" arguments just perpetuates ship wars and leaves everybody feeling raw.

Hi! I appriciate you're being so polite, now I do want to point out, it's not really supposed to be an argument. See anti Lunters harass people who ship them because "They're siblings! It's an incest ship!" (and more things) and use the line in TTT where Luz says he's like family to her as evidence that they are "canonically siblings" when they are not. Now as mentioned in TTT Camilla calls herself a mother of six, which you can say is similar as what Luz says to Hunter later in the episode. So, it's not so much an argument as simply pointing out that using what Luz said as 'proof' is just nonesence when you apply the same logic to other instances, which anti lunters pretty much ignore entirely. I hope that makes sense! And thank you very much, I needed to hear that! It's always a releive to see people agree that harassing others over fiction is stupid

[opinated-user]

indeed, anon. i'm sure it means a lot for LO that you're willing to lie so blatantly. 1. that user they mentioned? not one of my followers or regular users who interact with my content. if you go to their blog, literally the only one that reblogued from any of us was this post. for the record, it was the post where i posted the screenshot of LO using the r-slur against her critics and Brittany commenting that LO later changed it to "crackhead".

i can't speak for the other blogs though. at least they didn't ring any bells for me. just in case it's needed too: i'm stubbornly clear about how i don't want anyone reading my blog to go interact with LO in any sort of way. the goal here is deplatforming and you can't deplatform someone if you just keep validating their platform with more social interactions. not to mention that anything you say to her is just more for her victim narrative. 2. one reblog post. zero likes. the rest of their interaction are miscelanious posts that have nothing to do with either LO or our blogs. is that what "regularly interact with" means now? but even if they did "regularly" interacted with any of us... again, we're all pretty adamant about not harassing or bothering LO because it'll always be useless. so clearly this person is not listening to us either and went out of their way to go against what we try to do. i'm not happy about this person going off on LO like they did either. 3. let me get this straight. when we say that some anons write the exact same as LO does and we can recognize the tone, or it's just pathetically obvious in some other way, that's us building conspiracy theories because we can't accept that someone might actually like LO. those two things have nothing to do with each other in the first place, LO is capable of using sockpuppet accounts and also there being people who for some reason think they like her, those are not mutually exclusive, but that's what LO has said before. but when this unconfirmed anon that nobody know who they are say that they recognize the writing style of some of the anon messages we get with this other random tumblr user who only wrote something by themselves once, oh, now that's a valid thought process. to clarify, they might be right for all i know. i have no clue. i just know that this user went against LO in the most unnecessary way possible and it did nothing but anyone, so i hope at least it was worth it for them because certainly it wasn't for us. they might have also send us some anons for all i care. i just question the double standard here. when we do it, it's a conspiracy. when other people to it to defend LO, no, that's just being a smart person who just notices this kind of things. 4. "showing people 5+ instances of you being directly contacted by the blog"... what is this even talking about? what other 5+ instances are they refering to? i only just found out about this one user going on their own. this one user i might have seen once in my activity notifications and never again. where are those other blogs who are part of this side of tumblr doing this? 5. "everything going on with Poppy last month has also been very helpful." i'm so glad, anon, that you're able to be so honest and say that you're glad that Poppy violated the consent of a survivor of CSA to the point that she destroyed his trust. i almost respect that. or do you mean the multiple allegations of abuse against her that have nothing to do with us or LO? the ones that LO has majorly ignored? while treating Poppy like a potential victim only after she put the testimony of Courtney behind a paywall? truly, i'm fascinated with how you see a sex pest harming people, using them and discarding them as "helpful" to keep the good reputation of your favorite youtuber. indeed, the sign of a well adjusted and moral person with their priorities in the right places. thank god that all those people were negatively affected by Poppy so it could serve you to keep protecting a proven groomer. i bet all those victims will be delighted to know that their experiences were useful for you. but really, what i can expect from a fan of the woman who has said more victim blaming things that are more aboherrent than that? you two truly deserve each other.

[thiswasinevitableid]

Cold Feet (Sternclay)

Runner up in the "humans and mers on land" poll was: Mer disguised as a human shows their true form after being pushed into a pool. This fill is NSFW, and Barclay's design is based on a tiger shark.

There are many benefits to being engaged to a man who resembles Bigfoot in stature. Among them is that, due to his awareness of his intimidating size, his overall demeanor is gentle and friendly.

It also means that when he chooses to use that size to scare someone, it’s effective. 

From his spot at the poolside bar, Joseph witnesses the first instance of someone not backing off when Barclay asks them too. A nearby table of men, all in Hawaiian shirts they have neither the bodies nor the confidence to pull off, has spent the last hour being drunk and loud. Joseph’s doesn’t begrudge them that too much; it’s a destination hotel, and people come to have a good time. Besides, it’s the adults-only pool so there are no kids around to overhear their increasingly made-up stories about “scoring.”

The trouble began when the pack turned their attention to the waitress who’d drawn the short straw of serving their table. It had gotten so bad that they’d overheard the young woman ask the manager at the bar if she could be switched or clock out to avoid them. He’d told her they were short and to deal with it. 

On her next pass of the table, one of the men grabbed her thigh, reaching up her shorts to do so. Barclay was on his feet instantly, striding over to the group and telling them, calmly, to knock it the hell off. The men ignored him initially, unaware that the fastest way to anger his husband to be is to harass waitstaff in his presence. 

Now, however, two of the men are on their feet, not caring that the man they’re drunkenly calling homophobic slurs could throw each of them over the low, stone wall separating the pool from the sea without breaking a sweat. The waitress tries to dart away, only for one of them to grab her wrist. Joseph is on his feet, and the manager is finally growing a pair and calling security, as Barclay calmly but forcefully pries the mans hand off the young woman. 

The man yells something about how Barclay is assaulting him and shoves him, sending the taller man into the pool. His fiance’s head appears, shaking water from his eyes. Then there’s a gasp from one of the other tables, and several fingers pointing at Barclay. 

Joseph follows the line of the fingers, fearing an injury. What he finds is a brown and grey striped tail where Barclay’s legs should be. 

Normally, in a crisis his sense of time slows down. Now, it’s as if there’s not even a second between his seeing the tail and said tail disappearing over the rock wall into the sea. 

Questions pile up in his skull, but one burrows it’s way to the front: what the hell is he supposed to tell the wedding guests tomorrow?

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Barclay swims parallel to the shore, wishing he’d decked that asshole before he inadvertently ruined Barclay’s life. 

The problem isn’t that Joseph is scared of mermaids, or doesn’t believe in them. It’s the exact opposite. 

“Excuse me?” A man with the bluest eyes Barclay’s ever seen smiles across the counter, “Would it be possible to get a little more cream?” He holds out the wicker basket from his table, and Barclay bites his tongue to avoid saying something filthy at work. 

Once more cups of half and half are nestled away, the man thanks him and returns to his meal. He then comes back for every single meal the next day, and the one after that. It’s at that third dinner that he’s sitting at the counter and Barclay jokingly asks if he’s always such a big spender on trips. Joseph smirks and says his work is paying for it. When Barclay asks the obvious follow-up, Joseph replies, “You’ll laugh, but I’m here looking for mermaids.”

If he’d had any sense at all, Barclay would have convinced Mama to kick Joseph out of Amnesty Lodge where he was staying–and Barclay was and is the cook–before he found out about the many merpeople living in Kepler Cove. Luckily, his sense was dampened by Joseph’s easy charm and sparkling conversation.

When Joseph told him he’d be staying indefinitely due to a grant from the department of defense, Barclay was so excited he kissed him. 

That was three years ago. Two years later, Joseph took him to dinner at The Pearl, Kepler’s only upscale restaurant. Since Barclay’s marriage proposal had been gently turned down two weeks prior–Joseph saying he wasn’t sure he was ready– he was genuinely afraid this was a break-up dinner. 

“I quit.”

Barclay drops his fork “You what??” 

“I quit. I can find other jobs, ones that don’t mean I need to leave Kepler. Working for them was taking years off my life and it was clear everyone thought I was a crackpot and wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I found. And I…there are things I want from life that work can’t give me and, well, was really fucking up for me.” Joseph reaches across the table, taking his hands, “so if your offer is still open, my answer is yes.”

That should have been the end of the big stressors. But no, now he’s hiding below some tidepools, hoping no sharks are around, while the love of his life is either packing up to leave him or calling his old bosses for vindication.

He stays between the sunken rocks for a half-hour, trying to calm down and work out what to do. If he can get back on land, maybe he can find a phone and call a friend to pick him up. 

The shadow of a small boat appears above him. It’s dusk, so maybe this is someone out fishing and they’ll move on. 

His heart sinks as a beam hits the water, sweeping over him as it grazes the rocks. It plummets further when a figure drops into the sea. He’s as close to the bottom as he can manage in this relatively shallow spot, but that doesn’t matter; his boyfriend can free-dive. 

Joseph comes to a stop in front of him, wearing only his dive mask, flippers, and trunks. He points upward. Barclay freezes, unsure if he has it in him to obey. Then the human swims closer, taking his hand and running a thumb over his cheek. This time, when he tugs them towards the surface, Barclay follows.

When they land in the boat, the humans’ first words to him are, “why didn’t you tell me? Not when I was working, I get why you’d be afraid, but once I quit and we were engaged? You know I don’t think mers are dangerous or subhuman or something equally ridiculous.”

Barclay flips his tail nervously, “I wasn’t sure how. And the longer I didn’t the more it felt like it’d be this massive betrayal that I hadn’t told you sooner.”

“I…I guess that makes sense. And I did feel hurt, but that had more to do with you literally turning tail the night before our wedding. I thought I’d lost you.” Joseph’s mouth twitches, something it only does when he’s trying not to cry.

“Oh, oh baby, no.” Barclay pulls him closer on the wooden seat, “I was fucking panicking, trying to figure out how to get out of the water and get somewhere safe but…but if I’m honest I couldn’t have stayed away long, no matter what it meant for me. I don’t have it in me to leave you, blue eyes.”

He cups Joseph’s cheek and the human allows himself to be guided into a kiss, relaxing against Barclay as it deepens. When they break for air, he looks down at Barclay’s tail. 

“Are you stuck like this now?”

“Nope. The charm holding the enchantment is here” He taps the small, woven stud in his left earlobe, “but there’s a failsafe in that if I get submerged in saltwater, I’ll turn back into a mer. I should be back to human once we hit shore.”

Joseph nods and starts them for the dock, “why the failsafe?”

“When mers were first starting to use enchantments to hang out on land, humans thought we were only coming up there to trick humans into being dinner. So they’d knock out a suspected mer and tie their hands, then throw them in the sea. If a mer didn’t wake up or couldn’t get their charm off, they’d drown, and that happened enough that they made a new rule for the enchantments.”

“Fascinating.” Joseph steals a playful glance back at him, “no wonder you’re always so picky about what pools you got into.”

“Didn’t even know this one was saltwater. I, uh, figured we wouldn’t be spending much time out of our room.”

“That happens on the honeymoon, big guy. Not the night before the wedding.”

“Maybe for people who aren’t marrying the hottest guy on earth.” His tail shimmers and then it’s gone, his legs still in the shorts he was wearing when he was pushed. Joseph docks the boat, helps him out, and flags down an older man on the pier, chatting briefly with him in Spanish before passing him several twenties. 

They take the back stairway into the hotel and up to their suite. Joseph excuses himself to rinse off, so Barclay takes the opportunity to text the groupchat that Dani named “under the sea” that Joseph knows the truth and is taking it well. He gets back several “hooray” emojis and a sequence of four leaf clover, water spray, and a question mark. He’s not sure what that means, but he gave up on parsing Indrid’s emoji use years ago

He sets the phone aside. Doing so, he sees a printed list on the bedside table, with notes in pen in the margins. It’s an itinerary for their honeymoon, complete with commentary.

Like a cat cafe, but for puppies

Known for best sushi in the state

Roasts B’s favorite coffee blend

He cannot believe his panicking instincts wanted him to leave this meticulous, thoughtful, wonderful man behind.

Joseph pads in from the bathroom, towel around his hips, “Barclay, have you seen my–oh, well hi there, big guy.” His human laughs as Barclay hugs him from behind.

“Hey.” He kisses a slow line up Joseph’s neck, “I really am so fucking sorry for running.”

Joseph takes his right hand and squeezes it once, “Thanks for the apology. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d have reacted any better if I’d had a massive secret revealed in front of a bunch of people.”

Barclay hums in agreement, kissing his shoulder, “On the plus side, I got to see you freedive. Which is just as hot as I always imagined it was.”

His fiance turns, setting his hands on Barclay’s chest, “some time we should find a private place where we can swim together while you’re in your mer form. I’m dying to see what your tail can do.”

Barclay traces a finger up Joseph’s side, “Could show you some things right now, if you want.”

Joseph’s excited expression is an answer in itself, so he tenderly kisses his human and tells him to get in the heart-shaped tub. 

Once they’re seated side by side in the warm water, Barclay carefully removes his earring. His tail is long enough that he has to prop the end of it up on the other edge of the tub, but Joseph hasn’t noticed. He’s too busy stroking the tail, fingers wonderfully warm along the scales. 

“Incredible. It’s so smooth. I had a theory that mer-tails would be more like sharkskin to help deter other mers from grabbing them but I was way off base there.”

“Not as much as you think; mer tails are super varied. Some are rougher, some have fur, some–oh, oh yeah” the tip of his tail flexes as Joseph pets the patch of scales hiding his dick, “fuck, keep doing that and I’ll really show you something.”

Joseph’s breath catches adorably, “You’re sure? I don’t want to pressure you to share more than you’re ready to-”

“Babe, asking if someone wants to touch your tail is the mer equivalent of, like, asking a date up to your place for coffee.” He leans back, resting his arms on the edge of the tub, “besides, I’ve always, uh” he blushes, “nevermind.”

The human pauses his strokes, “You’ve always what, big guy?”

“Uh, I, once we started dating, I’d jerk off to the thought of you, uh, studying me.” He winces, closing his eyes, “fuck, that sounds so weird out loud. I just mean that it’s really, really hot when you get all focused on something and it’s even hotter when that something is me.”

“If I had my way, you’d be my sole focus most of the time. But since that’s not the case, we’d better make the most of it now.” Joseph straddles him just below where his dick is emerging. Barclay purrs, smiling as Joseph runs his fingers up through his chest hair.

“No, not all mers are as hairy as me, in case you’re wondering.”

“I was, but I was too focused on how gorgeous you are to do more than that.” He sighs happily, curving his hands back down to Barclay’s dick, “my perfect specimen.”

Barclay whimpers and bucks his hips at the words. Joseph flashes an indulgent smile and then his eyes widen. 

“All those times you humored me by bringing monster dicks into the bedroom and the best one was hiding right here.” He trails a finger up the shaft, which looks like two tentacles twined together. When the tip curls around his finger, the human laughs, “amazing! I’d never thought it’d be prehensile.”

“Y-yeah, you huge nerd, it is.” Barclay paws his hips, “and if you don’t get on it soon I’m gonna find out how far I can cram it down your throat.”

A chiding, welcome squeeze to the middle of the shaft, “you wanted me to examine you, which means we go at my pace.” Another squeeze makes his dick ache in the best possible way. Then the human turns, dragging a hand along his tail, “there’s just so much to admire. Like this. It’s so strong, so beautiful. The mark of a once-in-a-lifetime catch. And an excellent mate.”

Barclay whines and wiggles his tail, “Never shoulda let on to liking that during that werewolf scene.”

“Don’t worry big guy, I won’t abuse my power.” He leans in, teasing their lips together, “too much.”

Barclay moans as the human sinks down on his cock. Joseph is speechless for a moment, then  slowly rocks his hips.

“Ohmygod. Ohmygod”

“Having fun, babe?” He grins.

“You’re not getting out of the tub for the entire honeymoon.”

He laughs, rubbing his cheek against Joseph’s own. 

“I’m not kidding.” Joseph grinds down, making Barclay yelp, “I’m going to cuff you to the faucet so I can ride you without any wait.”

Barclay drags his nails along Joseph’s ass, “We can do that. My cute little human wants me to cum in him every hour, I will.”

Joseph flashes a dazzling, devilish grin, “Who said anything about you cumming?” He shifts off Barclay’s cock, still straddling him but only grinding his folds against the tip.

“Bet you think you’re real fucking smart for that, babe.” He grabs Joseph’s hips, tipping them slightly so the tip of his dick can rub and coil around Joseph’s own. The human twists away from the intense sensation, moaning when he realizes he can’t get away. 

“Oh my lord you’re strong.” 

“Uh huh. It’s great for making sure my mate stays where I need him.” Joseph’s thighs tense under his hands, “that’s it baby, cum for me.”

Joseph gasps, shuddering in his hold, and Barclay’s dick curves back down, slipping inside him just as Barclay cums with a growl. His human collapses in his arms, his fucked-out state still not preventing him from asking questions about how Barclay’s dick knows when to recede. 

“Give you some more mer anatomy lessons tomorrow, blue eyes.” He puts on the earring so he can stand and help his fiance from the tub to towel him off. They make the short trip to bed and Joseph sighs happily as Barclay cuddles up to him. 

“Are you excited for tomorrow?” Joseph traces a heart in Barclay’s beard.

“So fucking excited. It’s cheesy, but I daydreamed about my wedding so often that I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to calm down enough to sleep.”

“Don’t worry, big guy” Joseph hooks their ankles together, “I can think of plenty of ways for us to spend the night.”

[something-about-sunflowers]

Fucking christ. Yes, Izzy has flaws. No, not those ones.

Genuinely. Like actually. If you think Izzy is racist or homophobic? Where? Point out exact instances. Where is his ‘internalized homophobia’? How does he express that? What are the ‘racist microaggressions’ he makes? Why is he not immediately called out or punished for it like every other instance of racism in the show?

Back up your claims or shut up.

You’re not doing anything to defend fucking anyone by agreeing with the same bullshit claims that other assholes use to justify our harassment. You want to feel good for ‘condemning’ the harassers but you’re not actually advocating for us, you just want something to pat yourself on the back for.

If you want to actually show us support you can say ‘The harassment Izzy fans experience is not okay and needs to stop.’ Period. Fullstop. No need for ‘I know Izzy is XYZ’, or ‘Izzy fans ignore/deny XYZ’. Adding any type of caveat is lending credence to the idea that the harassment is justified.

And nobody is ‘ignoring or denying’ fucking anything. We just don’t see any textual proof of the interpretation. We agree he’s an asshole. We agree he’s fucked up. We agree he’s unhealthily codependent with Ed and that they’re mutually toxic towards one another. There’s textual proof of all of that. Show me the proof that he’s racist. Show me the proof that he’s homophobic. Show me where he is exempt from the Word of God telling us that the show isn’t trying to explore those topics in the way that him exhibiting those behaviors and ideals would be. Show me why you think ‘I can see where it might be interpreted that way but it is completely unintentional’ doesn’t matter.

Back up your claims. Or shut. Up.

[drill-teeth-art]

I had a few gripes about some episodes/things that I felt could've been done better. Can I ask for your critiques?

Welcome to Otto's Critique corner. Here are my guidelines for discussing critique with me for everyone's reference.

Repeat after me.

It's okay if we disagree on the flaws of Earthspark. Other people will have different opinions and preferences. Just because someone disagrees with me doesn't make them a bad person. (This is something I spent some time learning and understanding when I was younger, so I always like to add it as one of my rules.)

We will not use this critique space as a platform to be rude to others. We may point out flaws in others' arguments and note where we disagree, but this is a space of discussion and not harassment.

If we feel too worked up by the topics, we will step back. We are responsible for our mental health and emotions. We are capable of stopping ourselves from lashing out at others, so we will be mindful of our emotions.

Onto the main critiques under the cut. Feel free to ask me to expand on certain things as you like.

More of a technical writing issue, but I think the action scenes are written ineffectively. They all feel very slow paced. It comes across as when characters are not in frame, they aren't doing anything. It takes way too long to accomplish things for this reason that would resolve the conflict faster. The characters also actively choose to not do the obvious solution for plot reasons. So for people who write action scenes and such, this is stuff to watch out for. Your characters can do things when they're not in frame, you just have to imply it well enough. Writing conflict is more believable when you write in reasons why they can't do an easier solution. Like the terrans and Bumblebee literally could have gone to get Optimus and Megatron before going back to get Grimlock. If I remember right, one of the characters even suggested it. But they just didn't do it. The obvious plot patch is to have their radios be broken or Optimus and Megatron don't answer and they don't want to leave Grimlock alone too long. But that isn't addressed, and that can read very frustrating to the viewer that the characters ignore the obvious solutions.

Onto the thematic critiques. Now to be fair, this story is incomplete as of now. I try to avoid fully critiquing something that lacks it's full context, but here are my thoughts on what I see so far. To begin, I am a fan of nuanced writing. I love villain redemptions done well and hero corruptions written well. It's important to show that people can change for the better and that good intentions don't justify certain actions. These are pretty easy to mess up writing though, and since I think it's such an important thing to write well, I tend to be harsher critiquing it. Again, it is okay if you disagree with my analysis or agree but want to add a point or agree with most but want to point out a detail I missed or even my own bias. Discussion is good.

Thematically, I think Earthspark shies away from confronting it's own major themes too much. Earthspark has heavy themes around oppression, alienation, trauma of the past haunting the present, and discovering that many people treat others they don't understand cruelly and choose not to understand them. These are very heavy themes, and (assuming the best intentions) I think the writers aren't bold enough about them. As a smaller in world example, Robby encounters his old friend who has biases against Transformers and repeats harmful talking points. Robby doesn't really say all that much about it, choosing to just take his terran siblings and leave. Now, this writing choice I don't have a huge issue with. It's not one person's responsibility to do the educating to someone about their bias. I would have personally liked to see the writers let Robby get angrier, but I don't mind the "I don't have the energy to explain this to you and it's not my job" approach in this instance. Later Robby's friend fixes the graffiti on the bridge to not be a hateful message. Now, it is nice of that character to do that, but I'm frustrated that we saw no substantial confrontation and education. We as the viewers were not shown that this character was more directly confronted with their own biases, and that's somewhat of a pattern that is frustrating. Megatron at the memorial park after the terrans reenact his war memories in front of him doesn't get mad at them or explain to them that war and trauma isn't a laughing matter. At least he doesn't explain it explicitly which I would like to see. But this happens a lot. Megatron expresses to Optimus he doesn't like the devices GHOST is building that control Transformers' mode they're allowed to be in. Optimus sort of vaguely says they have to do this for the greater good, and the topic is dropped. Robby walks away from his friend without explaining why it's cruel to buy into anti Transformers rhetoric. The topic is dropped and suddenly the other kid has a change of heart. Nightshade and a nonbinary person have a discussion about gender that I personally really hoped would go deeper. The topic is dropped as the scene changes after a few sentences.

I feel like the way the writers aren't diving into their themes more is frustrating. It comes off kind of insulting to me. And I am sure that isn't the writers' intentions. And again, I don't think Earthspark is an all bad series or that others shouldn't enjoy it. I know good representation is a huge struggle, and I'm actually really happy to see Nightshade as nonbinary rep even though I also wish they explored more with them. It's just frustrating to see the writing shy away from getting into the representation they're boasting so much that I can't even tell what they're trying to say about their own themes.

(Please no huge spelling and grammar errors fingers crossed.)

[paperstorm]

re: your previous anon talking about carlos almost murdering a man. I was thinking about this too about why I was so upset with that scene and I think I figured out why. I rewatched the first few episodes of this season and in 4x03 when Iris was missing, Carlos practically harassed that one mentally ill man and was physically intimidating him and moving closer when the detective stopped him. and he was in uniform when he did that. I don't like this theme of when carlos can't control his emotions, he's willing to use violence against other people (which could also kind of describe early tk too which was rightfully pointed out as wrong of him)... but like it's canon now that Carlos is willing to kill someone instead of bringing them to justice via the law and... even though it was done in grief and there has to be some grace given for that, it still just doesn't sit right with me. especially because he's a police officer on top of that. I hope they don't continue on this theme at all in season five. if it's just these two instances I think I can ignore it.

I am really interested to see where they're going with all this but you're right, Carlos did turn to threatening violence this season when he was upset and I hope that's not the direction they're gonna take him. I don't think it is, I can't really see that being something Tim thinks is a good move for this otherwise very gentle character, but yeah. The fact that he's a cop makes it super iffy. Realistic, unfortunately, but not a direction I hope they take him in.

[captainjellyfishofficial]

Important Announcement!

Captain jellyfish will no longer be updating on tumblr, but on it's own website!

Honestly, the tumblr version was a bit behind in chapters due to me keep forgetting to update it, but now they're all there lol. I wanted everyone to just be in one spot as opposed to being spread out between Webtoon, Tapas, and Tumblr. I'll go into more thoughts/reasons for leaving webtoon under the cut, but it's kind of long, so if you just want to bookmark it for later, here's the google doc link for it.

[Content Warning for mentions of racism, grooming/pedophila, and miscarriage.] As of September 20th, 2023, I, Enit, will no longer be updating my comic Captain Jellyfish on Webtoon or Tapas.  I’ve had my share of problems with the two platforms(although mainly Webtoon) for the past couple of years now, but I don’t want to just ignore them anymore.  For starters, I don’t like how Webtoon ignores most of their creators in favor of one or two series.  There are so many incredible and talented authors all over their platform, but instead they choose to only advertise Lore Olympus, a series whose numbers have been going downhill since Season 2 ended.  A series that I would argue is morally bankrupt and has been since the very beginning.  A series that they’re so protective over that they’ll copyright strike videos of small creators for “daring” to criticize their flagship series that struggles to break 100k likes per week on the new chapters.

The creator of Lore Olympus, Rachel Smythe, has a history of reacting with hostility/passive aggressiveness to any criticism of her webcomic, deleting any within her discord and the official Facebook group for LO.  She’s gone so far as to go to fan facebook groups to complain about them allowing criticism for her webcomic, and getting upset when they boot her out for her shitty behavior.  Webtoon tacitly encouraging Smythe’s behavior doesn’t end there however, as they have also allowed Snailord’s (creator of Death:Rescheduled) harassment towards someone who is likely a child (based off the demographics of people who read/use Webtoon), yet in both instances(and probably more) they have remained silent.  While I understand that they cannot control their creators, they should not be turning the other way and twiddling their thumbs while their employees shit over their company’s reputation.   Webtoon not only doesn’t care about what their paid creators say, but they don’t care about their creators’ health, both in a physical and mental sense.  They simply do not care about the time and energy needed to create a comic, they only care about the money they can make off of their creators’ hard work, with the most egregious and shameful incident involving the artist/creator Summer Light who made the Webtoon/Tapas series “Roxana: How to Protect the Heroine’s Older Brother.  She was treated incredibly poorly by the company/her producer, being denied maternity leave with the stress of the workload placed upon her resulting in her suffering a miscarriage.  

Real quick before I go onto my next point, I need to explain how these creators make money off of Webtoon.  To those who don’t know, Originals creators make money off their fastpass episodes after the “minimum threshold” of coins used to buy one of their episodes is met, with the coins used to purchase the episode before the minimum threshold going into the pocket of Webtoon.  What is this “minimum threshold” you ask?  Good question!  Nobody knows!  The people who need to know when it’s been met so they know that they’re being paid don’t know.  Originals creators have had to regularly fight just to know what their analytics are, and even then they don’t get a fucking response.  I know that as a(now former) Canvas creator that Webtoon deletes the data for your analytics/performance every month, so if it’s August 1 and you forgot to record the data from how your comic performed in June, you are plain out of luck because you’re never seeing that data ever again.  This isn’t even mentioning how Webtoon underpays their Latin American and South American creators, and how there’s vast differences in the payments per chapters for each of the Originals creators.

This leads us to today:  the recent controversy surrounding the Webtoon Original, Get Schooled, and how it should have never made it this far.  For those of you out of the loop, I highly recommend viewing this post here as the reddit post by Kendrillon summarizes/recorded just what the Hell happened with episode 125 and how webtoon/the author responded to the backlash far better than I could.  I’m not here to say how betrayed I feel as a fan of the series, I’ve never read it before and I only just learned about what the plot for the series pertained, and to be honest I don’t think that it would be my cup of tea.  What I am here for is to ask just how the editor didn’t shut this episode down when it was still in the scripting and storyboarding phase?  While I understand that most of the editors are overworked with all the comics they’re managing, I don’t see how something this huge could’ve been missed.  The editor should have said something when the N word showed up, but instead they let it slide and now they have this whole mess on their hands with Get Schooled being pulled from the platform.

While it’s good that for once Webtoon took accountability for their actions, this brings up another question: why aren’t they deleting other series on their site that also have harmful content? The Fate by AirisKiahin/YumiCH is a comic where the teacher is in a romantic/sexual relationship with his 17 year old student that he groomed.  It is labeled as romance/slice of life.  The story does not acknowledge how fucked up it is that he’s grooming his student.  At the time of writing it has over 11 million views.

Despite videos covering this comic gaining views in the millions(even if you can’t really tell at the moment due to one of the authors copyright striking them/getting them taken down(13))the story is still up.  Now in general I’m anti-censorship.  In a way I sort of have to be as a queer person, as many cries for censorship(EX: Kink, drugs, violence) quickly leads into the censorship and erasure of discussing/talking about things like LGBTQ identity, racism, criticism of government, etc.  That being said, there still needs to be some form of censorship as to avoid harm from happening(there’s a reason “Mein Kampf” generally is no longer in circulation(no I am not saying The Fate is on the same level as a book used as reasoning to push propaganda/commit genocide)), and I believe The Fate falls under this category.  The webcomic pushes the idea that it’s “cute” and “romantic” for an adult to have inappropriate relationships with a minor, which is especially concerning when you factor in that Webtoon’s main audience is comprised of 13 - 24 year olds.  This romanticization of grooming and abuse shouldn’t be shown to such a vulnerable group of people, and it’s shameful that Webtoon has yet to take down such a vile series on their platform.  

I’ll admit that I have other qualms about Webtoon(lack of customisation options, inability to view/create comments on the website, clear favoring of their Originals creators, etc), but they all seem so dumb to me in the face of all the other things they’ve done and continue to do.  In the beginning I almost didn’t want to even publish Captain Jellyfish on Webtoon because of their shady practices, but I knew that I would be missing out on the largest comic website due their monopoly over the webcomic scene.  I eventually settled on updating on both Webtoon and Tapas, but even then I felt unsatisfied.  Many of the same base, quality of life things about Webtoon carried onto Tapas, and even though I don’t hear nearly as much drama coming out of Tapas as I do Webtoon, I’ve still heard about them doing shady things in the past like trying to have the power to control when/if a series gets a physical release and “losing” track of where the money from the ink used to purchase episodes went. Webtoon and other sites fumbling with their user bases has made me paranoid that Tapas will be the next website to make a dumb change that no one likes but we’ll all be stuck with because the people running the site don’t care.

With all of this in mind I was a bit shocked when the possibility that I could host my comic on Neocities came up.  For those of you who don’t know, Neocites is a free website hosting platform that allows their users to create a website for free(as long as it’s under 1 GB), and if you needed more space, you could upgrade to a supporter for $5.00 a year in exchange for 50 GB of storage.  With Neocities I could fully customize the entire website for my comic, I could include gifs, music, author updates, truly whatever I wanted!  There was one thing stopping me initially from jumping right in to learning how to code so I could make my dream a reality: the fear of missing out.  I was afraid that when I moved websites that no one would want to read my comic anymore, or that by moving sites that I would miss out on my “big break” on Webtoon.  In a way I’m still scared of those things, but I have to move on.  I had already completed the bulk of the website, but I had sat on it for a few months before I went all in, and the longer that I sat on it, the stronger my desire to move websites grew.  I could literally have everything that I wanted, who cares if my reader count or whatever grows a bit slower than before?  I was already buried under all the other Canvas series, I might as well just move on from the bridge and step on the island already.

  I won’t be deleting the series off Webtoon and Tapas, not only for archival purposes, but I have a bunch of posts linking people there.  If you see that it’s no longer on Webtoon or Tapas, then either the sites started letting ai leech off the art there/started doing nfts, or they deleted me off the platform because they’re mad at me for writing this lmao.  I appreciate Webtoon and Tapas for helping me to grow an initial reader base, but it’s time for me to move on.  To those of you who’ve supported Captain Jellyfish so far, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.  You have no idea how much I appreciate you reading your comments and hearing what you think, and it honestly makes my day when someone says that they enjoyed reading my silly magical girl story.  If you read all of this, thank you for reading my small essay, and I hope to see you at the new website <3

Other Critiques of Webtoon Worth Checking Out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zbjA-Mfpvc&t=388s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIeM8MwCozU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4D7DXYijvo&t=4561s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQb_Sv1WLHk&t=47s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5IeV7ypgwc&t=838s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTIib55nSLA

https://www.tumblr.com/genericpuff/728748112875765760/hey-so-im-turning-off-reblogs-on-this-post-its?source=share

https://www.reddit.com/r/webtoons/comments/16jubm9/the_get_schooled_controversy_why_its_important/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DejbSMttvXA&t=2048s

[lorwolf-salt]

What you receive when you email A (names shortened to align with rules):

“I will start off with some backstory: Q was a volunteer moderator until he was promoted to Head Moderator last June. All seemed well until over time I became aware of his growing unprofessional attitude towards the community, his work, and other staff members. He has been reprimanded twice before for this unprofessional behavior.

I thought things would end with his first reprimand, but sadly, things continued. How he addressed the community was the second issue. His conduct in front of players resulted in moments of conflict where he’d agree with players and state to them that ‘he keeps trying to bash the right ideas’ into the developmental team’s heads. By acting un-unified with the Dev team, if left unchecked I felt that this would create a Dev vs. Head Mod/Playerbase environment. On top of this, Q did not present himself with an impartial attitude. Discussions with others would become quickly heated when he was proven wrong, and he became very agitated by any mentions of religious groups, holidays, or things he disagreed with. Contention continued to rise as his compilation of suggestions work was bullet points at best and full of swearing at worst. The back and forth over the lack of clarity caused a lot of friction between us.

His third reprimand came in January when he broke his contract to divulge lw’s developmental information to others. He claimed he was under the influence at the time, but this was not the first instance that he has shared things without my permission. After stating that we’d need to prioritize our professional relationship while remaining friends, I reassured him I wasn’t angry, just disappointed and needed some time to process. The morning after this professional discussion, he decided to inform me his desire to end his life. As you may already know, my mom passed away last year. What I haven’t told the community yet is that my mom took her own life as a result of her lifelong battle with depression, and I’ve been struggling with it ever since. Q was the first person on our mod team that I entrusted with this information, and yet he decided to put me in the position of wondering if someone I cared about was alive or dead. It was only when he reappeared to talk to a couple of our other moderators that I was informed he was alive. Knowing he was fine, I requested he not contact me as I take time to process. All of this occurred right around the one-year anniversary of my mom’s passing, which he was aware of, making it that much more difficult for me to deal with.

I realized that our friendship was unhealthy and that Q was not a suitable fit for Head Mod. Eventually, I explained this to him and that he was being let go - as this was not the only time he had reacted so strongly and negatively to professional criticism. He once again informed me, as well as a couple of our other moderators, of his intent to end his life. He disappeared for a length of time not letting any of us know if he was okay. When he finally messaged me, I was relieved he was alive, but I felt manipulated and re-traumatized. I explained this to him, wished him well in seeking help and once again asked him not to contact me. Again, he ignored this and continues to this day to do so.

I have also provided a link to a google drive folder where I have included records of our interactions during these events. I have blocked out names and graphic messages about suicide to safeguard the privacy and dignity of the parties involved. I have also deliberately left out many messages between these screenshots, which I felt were extremely personal in nature and sent by someone who was experiencing a crisis. I mean Q no ill-will by posting these messages, I simply want to show my side of the story and proof of his harassment. The screenshots provided are ordered by date the messages were sent, spanning from January - today. The initial instance that Q mentioned his intent to end his life, I unfortunately did not get a screenshot of before he deleted it. As you will see, Q frequently edited and deleted his messages - and I was not screenshotting our conversations at the time he started deleting his messages. When I blocked him on Discord, he proceeded to create alternate Discord accounts to rejoin the server, and he messaged me on Tumblr and emailed me directly. The screenshots of these conversations have been included as well.

In the months since this occurred, I have come to believe that Q knows intimate details about myself that I’ve never shared with him. Additionally, in speaking with our moderators I’ve learned that he essentially stifled communication between myself and the community by instructing users not to message me if he felt I didn’t want to be interrupted - which he did without my knowledge or permission. I entrusted him with being the voice of our community and to inform me of the player’s wishes, which he failed to do effectively in many ways.

As for his request for credits in the game for his work, he was fully compensated for all of his time and work spent on helping us with Lorwolf. I have no desire for Q’s name to appear anywhere on the intellectual property owned by our company, as I have been personally threatened, stalked, and harassed by this individual for several months now. Additionally, I feel incredibly manipulated by this person due to the fact they have forced my hand in revealing the private conversations I have had with them, and making me feel that I have to defend myself by revealing details about my personal life. This is not how I wanted our community to learn about how my mother passed. Because of this, and his own breaching of the contract to begin with, I will not be adding his name to our credits.

As a side note, we allowed Q to play Lorwolf until yesterday, but he has since been banned as a result of him posting this letter on Lorwolf.com, which contained suicidal ideation and other content not suitable for our playerbase. I hope this has helped to explain the situation, please let me know if you have any further questions.” Discord Screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1blsevQGmKgLlzJNZhhr-9yXodQmdVF99?usp=sharing

Tumblr Screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TVlpEY95NJddwParyw4E7VVSwK_xapa7?usp=sharing

Email Screenshots:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GxdL0TjpVn3S8zLt-gxPl7XW6hkM13nF?usp=sharing

and honestly after seeing everything, Q feels a lot like an ex boyfriend trying to get back together with her by guilt-tripping. I know this whole thing seems unprofessional and it probably is, but A is in an emotional state rn and i know I wouldve reacted much worse

[renardtrickster]

My take on the Wizard Game Discourse is that the Harry Potter Video Game Scene hasn't been good since Prisoner of Azkaban on the PS2 (and also the LEGO games), but furthermore the left dropped the ball on Hog Legacy by A LOT, and on SO MANY LEVELS.

The first thing that should be discussed is the streaming scene, in particular the fact that a lot of streamers got sent hate for playing or wanting to play the game, or outright harassed for it (I don't know how widespread this was but I'm moving forward with the assumption that it was a Notable Phenomenon). In particular, this doesn't do anything useful and actively hurts us. If you're a neutral "apolitical" streamer who just wants to play a mediocre wizard game, then you're more likely than not going to block, ignore, and continue on (while also drawing attention to it on social media), because spite and the Streisand Effect is a very potent motivator, and this goes double if you're an especially big streamer. If you're a leftist streamer, see the next paragraph. And if you're a reactionary streamer, you're just going to spin it as a culture war "the left attacked me for liking Harry Potter" thing. And on this point, leftists already have to struggle with a reputation for being no-fun-allowed wokescolds. If we had said "don't play the game it's shit and so is JKR" and responded to it coming out by clowning on it 24/7 (and also not making it trend on twitter every day leading up to it releasing) then we still would have gotten that, but at that point is becomes Dialogue and you can just tell them that their mom sucks you good and hard through your jorts. The circle of online political discourse turns gently. The imagery of leftists actually actively jumping on people's backs because For God's Sake I Just Wanna Game, however, is much harder to shake off though. That shit scares normies off and gives reactionaries more ammo.

Going from the above, I mentioned there's one group of people who will fold when given backlash for playing Wizard Game, and it's: other leftist streamer! I've seen quite a couple of lefty streamers say something to the effect of "might play it, prolly not buying it though Yar Har Har, and make fun of it/donate the money to a trans charity to stick it to JKR", and they get blowback from it, even from their own audience. One notable instance was Hasan Piker planning to do Exactly This, only for his fanbase to slag on him and not do it, because doing otherwise would be "supporting JKR". I have more to say about "supporting JKR", but let's look at the impact here. Before, JKR was going to make a shitload of money, but also a couple of prominent leftist streamers would have streamed the game, made fun of it, showcased to their audience all the shortcomings of the game's mechanics and writing, potentially done the Really Smart Thing of using a normie opener ("Harry Potter am I right?") to inject leftist commentary in a way that's easily consumable, even by liberals and apoliticals, and then tossed whatever money they made (likely the hundreds of thousands, if not millions in Hasan's case) into a trans charity. Instead, what we get is just JKR making a shitload of money and also we get headlines about how the most prominent leftist streamer got bullied by his own audience for playing bideo james, and also the charity streams don't happen. What is our outcome? What did we accomplish? Was it moral purity? Do we care about moral purity? Will moral purity prevent the rapidly approaching trans genocide from happening? I dunno, but at least I feel slightly better for it.

The final point is my address of a counterargument I've often seen in relation to "just pirate the wizard game" or "play the wizard game to slag on it and make money for charity" or similar, and I imagine it's a point that someone reading this was about to shoot at me. It was a tweet by JK Rowling, where she states that she counts any support of her works, including Harry Potter, as indirect support of her and her ideology. Now, financially speaking this is true, any money you throw at JKR goes to JKR (which is why you should either Not Give Her Money For The Game or at the very least do it and then throw x200 that much towards groups harmed by her), but a lot of people seem to take this further, in that even if you don't financially buffer her, playing/reading her stuff is like an unconscious and/or spiritual "good job on the transphobia, love the way you're the public face of a hate movement!" handshake, and that publicly doing so is just a roundabout means of sending support and fans (and recruits) her way. And to this, I would like to say THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?

Not only is this argument as incoherent as Tom Cruise saying that watching his movies is like an indirect vindication of Scientology, and also insincere because even if Harry Potter and Cormorant Strike or whatever became unpopular and unprofitable overnight she would keep on doing what she's doing, but the real baffling part is the fact that lefties just accepted and agreed with this, letting JKR define the framework and the endgoals. By accepting this, we immediately concede that the only proper response to a 10+ years old sitting on the bookshelf at home is to burn it (please think carefully before commenting "yes I am okay with identifying with the imagery of leftists being book-burners but politically reflected). By accepting this, we concede that someone watching the films or reading the book to MST3K it or negatively review it or critically point out all the things wrong with the writing or JKR's worldview is the same thing as uncritically watching and supporting it and loving JKR. By accepting this, we make a bet with JKR that if her new game sells well, then that means she's right, and the public is on her side when it comes to transphobia. It's not, by the way, people liking Harry Potter doesn't mean people liking transphobia, much less JKR herself, in much the same way that H.P. Lovecraft being a household name doesn't mean that everyone who's ever read Shadow Over Innsmouth actually really secretly supports racism not to mention the fact that the public majority is on the side of trans people, transphobes just so happen to be loud, fucking annoying, and also in positions of power because our power structures really favor the reactionary voice for No Reason In Particular. But the game was destined to make bank, because of reactionary support, and also apoliticals/liberals/normies not being too assed about it, but mainly because JKR is a household name bigger than Lovecraft at this point. It was a bet we didn't need to make, because we let her control the narrative when we didn't need to, and in attempting to "win" the unnecessary bet, we gave her free advertising, embarrassed ourselves, prevented ourselves from doing charity streams for some reason, and accomplished nothing where just saying "game a shit" and clowning on it on twitter would have done infinitely more at none of the cost.

My final note before you go is that this post is a criticism of the online left, but it is from a leftist perspective. This is no place for people whose takeaway is "well the real issue you guys don't realize how BASED JKR is and how trans people are bad" and you will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar bar for such audacious behavior.

[itsnotmyfaultsomepeoplecantread]

I love the moves we’re making in mental health circles.

But let’s remember to not make assumptions about other peoples’ diagnoses/mental illnesses. Especially on the internet.

And also that at some point, trying to be woke takes you in a circle. Our mental illnesses, disabilities, and neurodiversities do not excuse us from harmful behavior. The reason we define them is to find solutions, and even though that’s not always possible, your personal experience is also not everyone else’s fault or problem.

There are many, many types of discrimination and prejudice these days. It’s important to remember that whatever we’ve experienced, we need to remember that there are many different levels of these things. It’s fair to talk about your feelings about something. It’s not fair to demand things from people that don’t help anyone in the long run.

For instance, I see the desire from people to stop pathologizing things like narcissism and sociopathy. But regardless of your personal diagnosis or how you, personally, have managed it, it’s important remember that there are other narcissists in the world who have caused a lot of trauma to others. There is a reason that we say things like “narcissistic…” because those are the people that *are more likely* to cause harm without realizing it. I know the frustration, but mental illness is not a neutral trait. In fact, it’s probably the one thing people are discriminated against for that may actually cause harm to both ourselves and others.

Does that mean that we need to be harassed/beaten/etc? No. Absolutely not. But policing other people’s’ language also isn’t going to fix that problem. What we NEED is to get people resources. And we can’t do that if people are angry for being called out.

Rather than saying “stop calling people XYZ,” we really need to consider educating people about what those traits look like, and how to seek help for them. Depressed people don’t say “man I wish people would stop calling me depressed.” They say “holy crap I wish I could get out of this hell.”

I get the stigmas around mental illness terms. But at some point, words are words. Any language can make people uncomfortable. And slurs are terrible. The R word, for instance, has become taboo for a reason.

But not everything is a slur. You can’t tell a queer person not to say queer because it makes you uncomfortable. So please don’t tell other people not to say “crazy” or similar stuff, because you personally find it uncomfortable. It’s the same reason you can’t really tell a black person not to say the N word in their own social context.

You can absolutely say you don’t want to be called a certain term, but mental illness is not an obvious trait, and context is important with language because it is constantly evolving. I, for instance, say “bitch” all the time. It is a part of my terminology. I also say fuck. My grandparents don’t love that one, but the societal appropriateness has changed.

So please please please don’t just say “that’s sanist” to someone using “crazy” on the internet to describe a situation or person or themselves.

We have so many fricken problems these days. We’re not doing ourselves any favors as a movement towards more open conversation about mental health if we’re constantly policing each others’ language so badly that we lose perspective.

Not all mental illnesses can be fixed. But don’t forget that no one person is the center of the universe, and that your experiences are the only ones that exist. It sucks, but it’s true.

Instead of policing people’s language outside of super obvious slurs, try:

- providing context for why a term might make you uncomfortable when it is used for you

- offering your experience when someone suggests they or someone else might be struggling with any type of mental illness

- creating/suggesting resources for people who seem to be struggling and/or causing harm to others

- blocking/ignoring/distancing people that you find yourself regressing around, and focus on your own well-being.

And for the love of science, please don’t call random people out for sanism on the internet. These things are very interconnected, and your personal experience is not singular, nor the only reason other people have been harassed.

[careeralley]

Overcoming Workplace Mistreatment: A Guide to Resilience

Unfortunately, unfair treatment in the workplace is something that many of us will face at some point. We can be mistreated for a huge variety of reasons. You might be treated badly because of your gender, age, or level of experience. You may be given unfair treatment because of your sexuality, religion, or because of a disability. Sometimes, it’s just because someone higher up has decided that they don’t like us. This unfair treatment can be subtle. You might notice little comments, or wonder if you are missing out on work or promotions because of something that has nothing to do with your ability to do your job. On other occasions, it is more overt.  Overview - Recognize the Mistreatment: Acknowledge the situation and understand that experiencing mistreatment at work is not a reflection of your professional worth or capabilities. - Document Everything: Keep detailed records of all incidents, including dates, times, and any witnesses, which can be crucial for any future actions you may take. - Seek Support: Reach out to trusted colleagues, friends, or a professional counselor for emotional support and guidance on how to handle the situation. - Know Your Rights: Familiarize yourself with workplace laws and your company's policies on harassment and discrimination to understand your legal standing. - Address the Issue: If possible, communicate directly with the person involved or bring the issue to the attention of HR or management in a professional manner. - Focus on Self-Care: Prioritize your mental and physical health through activities like exercise, meditation, or hobbies that help relieve stress. - Build Your Network: Strengthen your professional network as a support system and to explore potential opportunities outside your current workplace. - Consider External Help: If internal resolution isn't possible, look into options like speaking with an employment lawyer or contacting relevant authorities. - Plan Your Next Steps: Whether it's seeking a new job or finding ways to improve your current work environment, create a plan for moving forward. - Learn and Grow: Use this experience as a learning opportunity to build resilience and develop strategies for handling similar situations in the future. While unfair treatment in the workplace is horrible and not something that anyone should have to face, fortunately, more is being done to highlight it than ever before, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is there to offer help and support.  But, unfair treatment, whether it’s sexual harassment or any other form of discrimination or bullying, sticks with us. Even once the matter has been dealt with, it’s hard just to carry on. You may doubt yourself or your skills. You may even blame yourself. Here are some tips to help you bounce back.  Facing challenges at work? Discover empowering strategies to overcome workplace mistreatment and build resilience. Learn how to stand up for yourself, understand your rights, and find support for a healthier work environment. #WorkplaceWellnessClick To Tweet Get the Help and Support That You Need There are support groups and forums to help with any feelings or worries that you may have. You should also seek support from colleagues and the HR department or representative if you have one. Outside of work, speak with your friends and family, and even consider counseling if you think that it will help you to move forward.  Don’t Accept Blame Blame is hard to shrug off, but fairly easy to attribute. Workplaces are terrible for gossip and rumors, but try to ignore them when you can. You’ve been treated unfairly; it’s not your fault.  Consider Making Some Changes You certainly don’t have to leave your job because of unfair treatment, and no one in the workplace should be suggesting it. But, in some instances, you may decide that a fresh start is for the best. Don’t think of this as running away, think of it as moving forward.  Be The Bigger Person It can be hard to be the bigger person, and all too easy to shout and rage. But, sinking to their level is a mistake that won’t make you feel better in the long term. Get on your moral high horse, and stay there, go through the appropriate channels to report unfair treatment. Look for Positives Has anything good come out of your situation? Have you learned that you are stronger than you thought? Have you developed new friendships in the workplace, with people who have supported you? Are you proud of how you dealt with it? Look for the positives and hold on to them when you are feeling down.  Avoid Jumping to Conclusions Don’t assume that everyone is out to mistreat you, or that other people doubt you. Don’t think that this will happen again. Avoid these kinds of conclusions and keep an open mind about your future.  Even with these tips, and all of the support that you may receive, you must give yourself time to process. Don’t expect things to go back to normal, straight away. Give it time. Employment and Employee Rights Buy now from Walmart.com We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. 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