#which i mean the latter would be ideal so i'm not housed with white people

[irawhiti]

mum is getting me in contact with a couple people to move out with, i don't really Want to be roomies with someone who's friends with my abuser but frankly i'd take it over the excruciating fucking racism. uuuu

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi so I’m 15 and in a relationship for the first time so I don’t have experience with any of this stuff. My partner and I have been doing sexual stuff for a few months now I just have some questions.

First, I was wondering how we can do sexual things in a way that doesn’t bother other people in the house. Like maybe that’s a dumb question and the answer is just be quiet but idk it’s hard bc my partner is very vocal. Also there’s very few opportunities to do stuff without anyone else home so that’s not rly an option.

Also my parents have been very weird about my relationship with my partner. Making lots of odd comments such as “i wonder if they’re having sex up there” (to my brother who is a *child*) and giving me lots of looks that just kind of make me feel really bad about my relationship. I know that sex is natural but they make me feel really bad about it and I could use some advice on what to do about that

Next, my partner and I are both interested in getting in to kink but I don’t really know how to go about it. I’ve never heard of people getting into that stuff as minors and we don’t want to do anything too crazy especially since we don’t really have access to any supplies.

You’ve definitely talked about this before but could you tell me what kind of protection is best and easiest to use and obtain for f/f sex. School didn’t teach me how to use anything other than a male condom.

Thank you so much. Sorry for asking so many questions

hi anon,

your first question is going to be pretty circumstantial; I don't know what the layout of your house is like or how realistic it is to wait for privacy. the ideal if of course to wait until everyone else is either asleep or out of the house, but I recognize that the former may be difficult if not impossible for someone your age and you've already said the latter is hard to come by. using other noises, like music or TV or white noise, can be helpful, although it's unlikely to prevent your parents from speculating.

to address your second problem most directly, I'm afraid there's no much that I personally can do to rectify that. it is unfortunately very normal for parents to have an anxious, awkward, and difficult time adjusting to their children becoming sexually curious. I think the most crucial thing to remember here is that this has nothing to do with what you're doing being gross or wrong, and most everything to do with how your parents were raised to think about sex. unless they have specific concerns they want to raise with you about sexual safety, their reactions are most likely coming from a place of discomfort that they don't know how to channel appropriately. that's not a shortcoming on your part, but on the people who failed to help them develop a better way of understanding their own feelings about sex - and, yes, on them for how they're handling those feelings now.

I'm unsure exactly what you're interested in exploring, since kink covers a very broad array of activities and "supplies" could mean almost anything, but I would definitely recommend an abundance of caution in your explorations. kink is great, but that doesn't mean it's easy for for everyone. there's a reason that you seldom hear of people your age getting into kink, which is that it generally requires a great deal of practice with navigating partnered intimacy and communication - something that few teenagers have had time to develop the skills for. kink is also something that many people find works best as a communal activity, by finding others to help introduce them around and sharing experience to help safely explore their fantasies; for obvious safety reasons, few kink spaces are looking to admit 15 year olds. by all means, do your research - Evie Lupine's youtube channel is a great place to start, with a backlog of hundreds of videos covering all kinds of kink-related topics - but be careful with how you act on it, and recognize that kink comes with more potential complications and risks than "vanilla" sex that cannot be taken lightly.

if both parties have vulvas and vaginas then you can use dental dams for protection during oral sex, latex or nitrile gloves or finger cots to cover hands/fingers, and external ("male," although there's nothing inherently gendered about them) condoms for any penetrative toys (or cut them down one side to flatten them out and make the aforementioned dental dams).

please don't apologize for asking questions! questions are how you learn and stay safe :)

[wisehq]

Mission Debrief: Chapter Forty-One

...Honestly, Yuri. Same.

Alright jokes aside, I know I'm about catch some flak for this, but- I'm cool with no Yor chapter this week. Yes, yes, kill the crow for even suggesting it. Get it out of your system. I'll wait.

Honestly though, we've had Yor chapters in the past. Not the kind we wanted (not dedicated chapters, aside from the whole cooking lesson at Camilla's house) but at least we know Yor and vaguely know her reasoning for her character. Yuri, on the other hand, is the neglected Briar. We know he works for the SSS and that he's a siscon, and...that's about it. Of the two siblings, Yuri desperately needed more character development. What we got this week was a hint of that; which I'll gladly take as it's more than we've gotten out of him in 40 chapters. Besides, his backstory is ultimately Yor's backstory, so in a sense we at least got something for her this week.

We got to see Yuri in action, and I'm glad he was portrayed as a dedicated and competent officer. One thing I appreciate about Endo is- when it comes to serious moments- he's very good about portraying his characters in a positive light. Such was the case this week; we see Yuri in multiple different roles within the SSS. He's in intelligence. He's in reconnaissance. He's out in the field. He's praised multiple times for his skill and perseverance, and honestly Yuri desperately needed it. Here he felt like an actual character, rather than a caricature. 

With the focus on Yuri, we also get a glimpse into the SSS. We were already vaguely aware of what they were all about; a secret police that protect Ostania and uphold its ideals through any means necessary, though here we get a better picture of what that looks like. They also go after propaganda under the guise of rooting out espionage (we'll take more on that later), and a majority of the chapter centers around this.

This idea of counter-propaganda becomes important later on in the chapter and highlights one of the key strengths of both the manga and Endo; there is no black and white in this story. Our protagonists, Loid and Yor, the people we care about, frequently kill people on a regular basis- yet they're good people. We know they are, despite their actions saying otherwise. Yuri, meanwhile, is cast in an antagonistic light in comparison to Loid- but again, we know he's only an SSS agent for the sake of his sister and country. Does that make him a good person then? Maybe, maybe not. But that question of what is the truth remains, and it's one of the things that makes this manga so compelling.

Endo showcases this with Franklin as the chapter progresses. At first we take him at face-value; he's a down-on-his-luck guy who needs money and sells damning photos to underground printing presses. Seems cut and dry, until of course we find out that Franklin is a man with ideals like any other. He loves his country, though this love takes a very different form than Yuri's. He loathes the current state of things and genuinely wants to see Ostania prosper, but at the same time feels broken and disenfranchised. This of course also stemming from the untimely demise of his late mother.

It's at this point the concept of nothing being black-and-white returns as the driving force behind Yuri's character development. We see him empathize with Franklin over the latter's mother's death. Yuri tackles his missions with seemingly robotic efficiency, but here he falters for a moment. He sees a piece of himself in this "traitorous scum", and then just as quickly tosses it away. It's not a substantial change in his character- he doesn't become a different person or anything, but he's different now. If only a little bit. If only in the sense that he acknowledges Franklin and his plight in a way that he didn't before.

We see this manifest when Yuri goes to arrest Franklin. Despite his usual sharp tongue, Yuri assures him he'll try to help his father out financially. In just a few pages, we see Yuri going from wanting to kill Franklin over his behavior to wanting to help him (albeit in a small way). At the end of the day he's still SSS. He still has a duty to fulfill, and at up until this point he's been fulfilling it for 3 days straight with no rest. So what does that leave him?

A pat on the back from the Director, and a promise for some steaks later. Here Yuri doesn't seem phased by the day's events, and proudly proclaims he'll catch Twilight someday (much to the director's amusement). He seems his usual self...but we see at the end of the chapter that may not be the case.

A quick pop-in to the Forger house, and Anya gets a glance into what he's gone through. Even without psychic powers, it doesn't take much for the family to figure out he's had a rough day. He gets some more pats, only this time they're from his sister. The only family he has left, putting him in an uncomfortably similar position to Franklin. The only difference between them, really, is as Yuri says earlier; he would never do anything to harm his family. Whereas Franklin would risk everything for his ideals, Yuri works hard to prevent that from every happening.

By being an SSS agent.

By being a Ostanian dog, and shaking down and arresting anyone who would speak out against the government.

By that logic, he should be the bad guy and Franklin should be the good guy...but in this story, there is no right and wrong. Not truly. Everyone has something they're trying to achieve or protect, and everyone has different ways of going about doing that. All it depends is on whose eyes your looking through. In this chapter Yuri is our protagonist, but what about the next one?

Guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

Also, BONUS

WHY IS THIS FAMILY SO GODDAMN BEAUTIFUL!?