#who see them as a non-person. it's an experience that i hope resonates with a lot of people

[fiddles-ifs]

I have a gender question for the cyberpunk IF!

Does Rider's sex have to be the same we select for Fury or can they be separate? I'm so excited! Identity crisis MC my beloved.

It will be generally assumed by other characters that Fury is cis -- but you'll have options to gradually change their gender expression throughout the course of that story. Starting with their hair, which can deviate from Rider's right off the bat. (The Initiative and Marik aren't pleased. With that.)

[traceybrakes]

Let's Talk About Un-ironicizing Art!

In light of a lot of the conversations i've seen surrounding Death Grips and recent events concerning them, I want to take the time to point out that this is a good time to start thinking about how we engage with art on the whole!

For a long time, the irony poisoned method of consumption went unchecked in all facets of internet culture. As an internet musician in current day, I have noticed a sharp disconnect between artists and enthusiasts/casual listeners when it comes to attitudes surrounding music specifically, though I've witnessed it permeate all forms of art in some way.

I see people who have grown scared to engage on deeper levels, intentionally severing any resonant connections or knowledge learned from a piece of media before it has the chance to take root. In short, dare to be vulnerable! Dare to enjoy something on the basis that you yourself resonate with it, and not for any other nebulous reasoning. When masses of people relegate art to a spectacle, not only do artists become more likely to be disenchanted with the passions that fuel their work, but the consumer base ultimately suffers as well. All art at that point becomes less an extension of ourselves, less a vehicle to explore our identities, and is rendered a meaningless hulking sludge, or worse, the opponent to an already shrinking and narrow worldview.

Be not afraid to be unabashedly in love with the work that inspires you. Be not afraid to have the things you love misunderstood by by some. When you engage with work new and old, make sure to do it for yourself. Making and consuming art is inherently selfish, but being selfish is not inherently misguided. Allow yourself to learn, grow, discover, and repeat that cycle until the day you die.

To speak more candidly about my own experience, throughout the course of my life, there has been art that I've held near and dear to my identity, and own journey of self discovery that I seldom find others who hold the same sentiments to. I've always found this exciting. Exciting to hold something close to my chest as something so personal, and even more exciting when I can ease up on that grip when I find someone who I can share that with. However, I've also been through the throws of how the internet tends to chew up and spit out art that generally isn't understood by the many. I've fallen victim myself to the hive mind mentality that circles some artists and the cult of non-identity around them. This off-color ouroboros of knowing all about an artist's work and simultaneously upholding this facade of vapid complacency. I've come to the conclusion that if being openly supportive and connected to an artist's work or a particular piece of work automatically renders a person uninteresting and unambiguous at the very least, then I will live happily as an uninteresting open book. At the worst times, we see this line of thinking contribute to Death Grips being mocked and belittled en masse by people who are unwilling to engage with their art before they even get that far. It's heartbreaking, to me at least to see people put so much effort, emotion, and passion into transforming culture for the better to be rewarded with a crowd that's plugging their ears.

I realize I run the risk of sounding pretentious, self indulgent, or even patronizing to an extent; I apologize because that isn't my intention, I'm hoping to see gears shift at least on a micro level surrounding attitudes towards art appreciation. Remember to dare to be in love holistically with the art you engage with! Speak of the things you love in a way that makes that clear to others, and consider your peers to do the same! You and the people around you can only be better off for it.

[alastors-antlers]

Being someone who sees a lot of talk about shipping Alastor (sexually, romantically) in fanworks, I just want to take some time to talk about both sides of the issue. It's long, I know - please, please bear with me until the end, and I hope you'll understand what I mean in a bit.

I hope this helps someone, but as an aroace person who understands the frustration and hurt, this is often how it feels to me:

Alastor, being one of the limited cases of aspec rep that I've seen and one of even fewer which I actually enjoyed, means a lot to me.

That being said, his canon rep establishes that he's aroace but not much about how this factors into his life or relationships at all -- and when there's a gap in canon, I turn to fanfiction, which tends to spotlight characters' queerness even when the source material doesn't or can't. Don't we all want to see ourselves in the media we engage with?

When I pull up AO3, there are already a good number of fics about him. Great! Some of them are definitely incredible; but as I read on, it starts to seem like a lot of fics I see acknowledge that he's asexual or aromantic in some way but don't really factor that into the story. It reads like you could have written the story without keeping his queer identity in mind, and it would've come out the same.

Even when representation that does resonate with me exists, it starts to be exhausting to pick through the slash tags to see which ones are written in an aspec-coded way, so I wonder if it would be easier to not read anything with slash at all. On the other hand, when you filter ships out completely, only a tiny fraction of the fanworks are left.

People often respond that aspec people can have relationships, and I think we tend to know that. They can have sex, some can experience sexual attraction in select situations, they can romance others beyond romantic attraction -- any combination of things. But some aroace people don't want either, and sometimes we're struggling to see ourselves in how Alastor is typically portrayed.

Out of all of the fics, sex-repulsed, totally aromantic Alastor isn't seen much. And when Alastor's limited canon seems to be pretty supportive of a reading where he is those things...

Sometimes, you start to feel lost. If fics were evenly distributed along the aroace spectrum of experiences, wouldn't you expect more fics of him being the "totally uninterested" brand of aroace? But there aren't. People seem to have a preference toward seeing him in relationships. Even if they mean well, it can make you think: what does that say about how we view asexuality/aromanticism as a whole?

Is there something less interesting about Alastor, when romance is taken out of the picture? Do others find him less appealing as a character if they can't see him dating, or in love, or having sex or wanting it? Why do we need romance, when romance is already everywhere else, when it doesn't even feel like he was originally really interested? It brings to mind a struggle to be societally accepted, even today.

Even when it's not technically wrong to write Alastor as you see him, being told that we should all be able to ship him however we want can feel like this:

It brings to mind people who try to swing in with misinformed good intentions, telling us "oh, you're aromantic? but you can still have romantic relationships, right? so you can still be normal." when all we want is to be okay outside of the normal.

Or trying to find a partner who can be with us, out of everyone who tells us "I know you don't enjoy sex, and that's okay, but I can't have a romantic relationship with you without it." and being so tired of hoping for someone who gets it.

Or talking with peers, and hearing them all commiserate and fawn over their experiences with love, then telling them about someone you like non-romantically and getting "aww, it sounds like somebody's got a crush!" but not being believed when you tell them it's not like that at all.

Alastor is not a big deal, not really, not in the grand scheme of things. But in an allonormative world, it can feel like a sudden splash of cold water when we were expecting a warm fire to sit around. Even within this ecosystem, we squint to see ourselves reflected.

Society isn't built for us. It can be exhausting to be reminded of that.

~~~

I hope to support people writing Alastor as any variation of aspec, or not even aspec at all. At the end of the day, I think that fanon is really whatever you want it to be, and everyone has their own reasons for writing what they find enjoyable. They should be allowed to do so, and I want to believe that people do what they do with good intentions.

They want to imagine scenarios with the templates of characters they love, and that's okay; even beyond sexuality/queer identities/etc., fan interpretations of characters can be incredibly, wildly different from who they really are in the story anyway, and that's what I try to remind myself. But still, I also can't help feeling disappointed about the aroace representation we could have seen.

(Is Alastor canonically sex-repulsed? Uhh, maybe. If I had to guess, that'd be my top guess, but this might be a hot take: I wouldn't really say there's enough to go off of considering that this view is supported by Angel propositioning him both times, and it's not like Alastor is a particularly big fan of Angel at those points anyway lol)

To my fellow aroaces struggling with Alastor's fandom rep: if you need a break from it all; if you need to block the tags that you hate; if you need to talk to someone about how you're feeling; that's okay. It makes sense that you'd want more representation in a way that helps you feel seen and validated and less alone. I can't speak for everyone, but I think I get it.

I don't have any solutions for how you're feeling, because sometimes I'm feeling the same way. I understand that you want others to get your position and you have the right to express your feelings, but even if you're correct, often being angry or frustrated won't help change others' minds, so let's try to save our energy and take care of ourselves.

Something that helps me to think about is that even now, asexuality is gaining more visibility. We're gaining support. Real change is happening in the world that's helping incredible amounts of aspec people feel freer to be themselves. And maybe one day, we won't be reaching to protect our scraps of representation.

Let's fight until that day together <3

[anemoiashifts]

a collective shifting reading.

hi guys :) if you’re seeing this on tumblr that means you’re getting this three hours early but 7.10 is the anemoiashifts tiktok accounts first birthday 🎂🤍 !

i wanted to do something special & originally i wanted to talk about the first time — and only time — that i have shifted but i don’t think im ready to share something that personal to hundreds of strangers on the internet. then, i was going to do a q&a but i thought that would be a little lazy, then i thought about going live & doing live shifting readings on tiktok but im a pretty shy person so that idea went out the window as quickly as it came. so i hope this video will do :) !

this is a collective shifting reading for all of my followers or anyone who comes across this. this reading is going to be a little longer then my previous ones because i want to provide as much clarity as i can to try & help you guys ⊹ ₊ ⟡ ⋆

who this is for ₊˚ෆ

this reading is for everyone who has shown me support within the past year or decided to stick around for whatever reason; even if this video magically stumbles upon your path. but here are some specifics that ive picked up on:

star or heart shaped jewelry (rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc.) specially, silver jewelry or silver in general. maybe you’re someone who doesn’t take well to criticism. if you have a connection to foxes, mice / rats or house cats. shiny & holographic clothing. soft makeup shades (baby pink, nudes, baby blue).

reading ₊˚ෆ

your biggest “blockade” is your over commitment to your desired reality & shifting as a whole. there needs to be balance or you are pouting yourself at risk for losing your sense of self & going into a downwards spiral. your relationship with shifting is filled with limerence instead of taking control of your life & looking at your life (here or in your dr) long term. you may have multiple dr’s which only fuel that fascination with shifting as a concept. you want to experience so many different things, but you can’t do everything all at once. you have made too many commitments at once. to provide that clarity to yourself, focus on one place at a time. the reason you are so disconnected to your dr is because you’re trying to simultaneously connect with the ten others that you have in that works.

you already understand what doesn’t serve you, doesn’t serve you. weather that be patterns or methods or mindset. you have already let go of them. you don’t need to rehash what you already know. while nostalgic, the era of 2020 / 2021 shiftok has ended & looking back on the past is pointless. because of this looking back to this era with such a yearning to re-spark that initial excitement that you had when the idea of shifting was shown to you, it can quickly become a distraction; reminiscing instead of reigniting.

if you feel stuck, it’s because you feel directionless in your shifting journey. you have so many ideas & so much you want to do but feel lost at sea. you are struggling yo see progress or success. without looking back on what no longer serves you, go back to what you want to get out of shifting. to get out of this never ending cycle, you need to take responsibility for yourself & journey. you also need to recognize the power you already hold. nothing separates a “successful” shifter from a non successful shifter other then how you personally choose to define it. this could be a reflection of your lack of self confidence & be a sign to honoring yourself. how your view yourself, dictates your relationships with other people & how you show up in the world. you could be repressing traumas & emotions & trying to put a band aid over them though shifting. if you feel shame or stupid for putting in energy to reality shift, don't. if it brings you joy then know anything that brings you happiness is worth it & never a waste.

thank you for reading & i hope this resonated with you & you were able to maybe see your journey in a new light or get some clarity. i love you so very much !! ໒꒰ྀིっ˕ -｡꒱ྀ !!

[bitchy-craft]

How People Feel In Your Presence | Pick A Pile

Hello and welcome to this Pick A Pile! In here you'll find out how people feel in your presence. I hope you guys enjoy and find this useful. Do make sure to leave comments down below on your experience! I do want to remind you all that this is a General Pick A Pile which means this is for a lot of people: therefore keep what resonates and leave what doesn't.

Masterlist

Pick A Pile!

Pile 1:

People feel a numerous of ways when in your presence, something that may differ per personality of said people. Some feel almost desperate, others feel like they are simply a side-character in your world and your story. Some people will feel insecure around you, maybe even fearful because you come over as such an extroverted, fierce person.

This is the only pile where how people feel in our presence differs a lot; which I’d only see as a good thing. You can find all sorts of people whenever you need them; want someone to boost your confidence? Someone is there to admire you from afar. Want someone to work together with? There’s someone that loves to be with you. Want to decide what happens in group projects? There are people who want to give up their own ideas for you. If you ever need someone to have a non-biased discussion with, there are people around you for that too.

You are a very divers person, which you should embrace and love.

Pile 2:

People feel relaxed in your presence, they feel confident in your presence even though they have no need to openly speak about it. You can come over as soft-spoken, as passionate and happy, as someone that is there for people whenever they have troubles with things. Someone who can bring people together and can solve stressful situations, find positives in negatives.

People like being around you, people like being close to you, people like to admire you from afar and people like to just simply listen to you. You’re graceful, your energy is graceful and people who are around you will take over that kind of feeling, that kind of energy, and they like that. They feel comfortable in your presence, and will continue to feel like that.

Pile 3:

People feel like they are loved whenever you are there, they feel precious, they feel like you care about them, that they matter and in some cases, are the center of attention; and people love attention from time to time. They feel special when you’re with them, probably because if they are around you, you talk to them, no matter how bad or good you know them. You get them in conversations, you ask for their opinions on situations, you actually listen, and if you don’t you act like you do.

Do make sure you don’t let everyone feel that way, some people can use this against you and take all energy you are able to give for themselves, it can cause you harm if you make the wrong people feel like that.

[kisscookin]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 ♡

— 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 —

hi everyone! its your kisscookin again in another tarot PAC reading :) today, you'll read message that your beloved future spouse want you to know. I channeled each letter exactly the way your spouse said it.

please give a lot of love to this reading cause it's my first reading like that and don't forget to check previous readings here :)

I really value any type of feedback from your side ♡ follow, like, reblog ♡

close your eyes, take a deep breath and think about your person. then choose letter that draws you the most.

sorry for any possible grammar or orthography mistakes. I do not own those pictures.

do not upload my post on any other platform without my clear consent

𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑

— 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏 —

take only what resonates

hi love,

it's been a while since we made telepathic connection, haven't we? do you remember it? did you even noticed messages that I've been sending you non stop? I feel like I'm calling you, but you're not picking up :( my love, I feel so empty without you, like someone ripped my ribcage open and took my heart out? where did you go, where did you hide? have I met you? have I dreamed of you? I don't know. I'm so confused about my love life right now. I feel like I'm standing on this goddamn crossroad and I don't know which way should I go to meet my love of my life, my beloved wifey (hubby), the one that will put heart in my wounded body and mind. Will you do that? Will you give me your heart? I'm so confused.

I'm huge hopeless romantic. I dream about love and soulmates and romance all damn time. I wander alone on the streets of New York (or any other city?), and I see all those happy couples holding hands and kissing each other. I smile at them with pain in my heart and my soul. I'm love sick. I want to love you. I want to kiss you. kissing every inch of your body makes me wanna move mountains, I feel so excited. why? I don't really now. sometimes I get lost in my thoughts and I forget to do my earthy duties and my errands so my boss is mad at me. but I'm Pisces so whatever, I don't care. I love smelling roses, they remind me of the desire hidden inside me to find my love, my beloved, my soulmate, my twin flame. I want to reach my hand to you right now, but I dont know where you are. Will you tell me? Will you find me? Are you even on this earth? man, I can't deal with awful adult life all by myself :( help me out babe. I really need you.

I know I may sound boring, whining and depressed. but trust me, I'm not. I just can't deal with my loneliness and my life without you. you're only one that I need. you're the one that will complete my lost soul. are you ready to join me on my journey? please say that you do :(

Love you :(

Your spouse :(

— 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐 —

take only what resonates

tw: swear words

HI,

what's up babyyyy. I know you've been missing me. who wouldn't miss me tbh. I hope you're doing good these days. I'm confident, loud and super outgoing person so I hope I don't scare or intimidate you :3 you're so precious to me ♡ but I'll love the shy look on your face when I'll be flirting with you shamelessly. I'll love how your face becomes red any time I complement and kiss you in front of your family, friends and other people. don't be shy, you can hold my hand or hold my biceps. I know you love my muscles :3

now I'm gonna tell you what's going on in my life. nothing special. I'm working, I'm chilling with my boys, we watch football and other sports together, we drink beer together, we fuck bitches. just what ordinary, stupid guys my age do. I'm single but I don't wanna commit right now. I wanna party like crazy, I wanna gain a lot of experience, so later on life I would be perfect husband (wife) for you. I'll be loyal and committed to you till my death, but right now I don't care about relationships. those cheap bitches ain't as precious as you so I'm not planning on ....... omg I was about to spill a secret 🤫 am I a fuckboy (fuck girl)? yes. do I care? no. but sooner or later this period will come to an end and along my path I will find you ♡ my dearest ♡

babyyy, sorry if my message is tooooooo short but I don't have anything else to say to you :3 we still have a long journey ahead of us before we meet so my love, please live your life to the fullest and try to experience as many things as possible, so one day when we lay down in your bed, with a glass of wine, we can share our most fucked up and funny stories. babyyy I promise I'll make you laugh until you struggle to breathe.

keep yourself safe my dearest ♡

your spouse :3

— 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑 —

take only what resonates

hii,

how are you? how you doing? :) recently I moved out from my family house to collage. it's been rough period in my life but somehow I managed to get through it. I miss my family soo freaking much. I'm here alone. I'm shy, so it's struggle to find friends. but my love I promise I'm working on all my anxieties and my shyness. I'm practising being more open and bold but sometimes I hold up. I'm naturally very introverted and I love living in my inner temple. I love meditating and I do it a lot. it helps me soothe my loneliness and my past wounds. also it helps my cope with stress. my love, do you meditate? if not, then try it. lately you've been nervous and stressed. it's not worth it. take care of your mind, soul and body. it's important. take all witamins and nutrition. eat healthy and drink enough water. I study degree related to those issues so trust me, I know what I'm talking about :D I'm a nerd 🤓 but you'll learn a lot from me and I'll learn from you. our relationship will be very growth orientated.

I've never had any girlfriend (boyfriend) before, so at the beginning things may be awkward for a while. please don't be turned off by that 🙈 I'm a fun person after all, but it takes time to break my hard shell. I've been like that since I was little child.

my love, you'll recognise me easily when we finally meet. I always wear glasses and turtleneck (not in summer tho) and I always carry classic book with me and of course coffee. I may look like new yorker or sophisticated parisian. I love plants and I recently decorated my collage room with plants and other hipster stuff. I love aesthetically pleasing things.

my love, take good care of yourself. can't wait to kiss you 💋

your spouse ♡

《 KissCookin 》

[stormy-caffeine]

Didn't want to bog down previous reblog's tags with my thoughts, hopefully someone resonates with this or could share their thoughts.

On the non-man/non-woman discussion of sexuality descriptions, I have conflicted feelings because while I acknowledge that it is an incredibly unhelpful descriptor to use for broad definitions such as with vincian and lesbian, I personally resonate with it as both a person descriptor and sexuality preference.

I am multigender and genderfluid, to the point it was very difficult for a long time to really understand what I wanted from others in the long run or what my transition goals looked like. The only thing I knew for sure is that I am not a woman.

I'm not a binary man, claiming to be one for passing situations in the future makes me feel queasy and stressed because it just isn't true, but it's more true than staying in the closet and continuing to present as a woman. I have been many things and I may be many more, sometimes I am nothing and something at once and have to navigate that with myself, things get complicated. But the one thing that remains constant is that I am a non-woman.

When it comes to relationships, I have only ever been able to imagine myself as a queer guy. Younger me took that as an indication (before I realized romantic and sexual attractions are different and that gender and body are separate things) that I could never be interested in a female or feminine person whatsoever, but that isn't true. As I've grown and gotten more comfortable both with myself and others, I've realized the parts on someone's body, their clothes, their pronouns, etc, have no correlation to how I feel about them, I'm attracted to their gender - so long as that gender is non-woman.

The more complex feelings come in when I try to analyze myself further, because it's hard to think of things inside a vacuum. The connotation of non-woman is very restrictive when it comes to others because it disconnects a lot of people who are bigender, multigender, some who are androgyne (some see it as distinct like I do, while others are both binary genders at once which would make them partially a woman), some who are genderfluid, everyone who is pangender, people who live/have lived as women, etc etc etc. People with contradictory or overlapping labels then have to be considered, anyone who uses a label that is usually reserved for women or indicates the user is a woman is now someone I have to consider if I would be attracted to in a vacuum, their gender divorced from who they are, but just like the other examples this is impossible. You cannot divorce someone's gender from someone's personhood, they morph and form each other indefinitely.

If I were to date someone who is genderfluid between man and woman, would I be able to love them? They are not a non-woman strictly or on a regular basis. If I were only to love a portion of a person, that wouldn't be truly loving them or showing respect for the other portions of them. In everyday life, maybe they choose to present as a man to others and use traditional masculine pronouns. Would this make it easier for me? Would I be able to feel for them presenting as a non-woman, despite knowing somewhere in them is a woman as well? If they asked me to refer to them as a woman and use feminine pronouns, would what feeling I do develop for them as a man change or go away? I would hope not. But I couldn't promise them that.

If I were to be with someone who is sometimes a woman or partially a woman, it would feel like an inherently disrespectful effort. I would be degendering a part of them with my affection, no matter how much I didn't want to. When I feel attraction, it's as a non-woman projecting emotion to someone like myself. I am gay in a very broad sense, I am attracted to what I am and I am many. But I am not everything, and I cannot connect to that other experience genuinely.

Despite this, I don't want terms that I would use for myself cut off from those who are different from me. Even if I identify as a gay man, a vincian, an achillean, etc etc etc, every man should be able to identify as those terms as well, if they feel it fits them. Because they know themself best. It is not up to me or anyone else to say that a man is not a vincian just because they are also a woman or perhaps also a lesbian. It does not suddenly make them a non-man to be a woman, just as being a woman does not make someone a non-man. The only thing it does mean, is that that person isn't for me. Period.

If a man states that he is a gay man/vincian/etc, and includes everyone who I would not personally include in that orientation, that does not mean he labeled himself incorrectly. He just doesn't have the personal restrictions that I have, and that is beautiful.

Things are messy and complicated and it makes finding someone who is right for you even harder if you get stuck on the "correctness" of feelings and labels. I know where my personal limits are for connecting with someone, and I know what terms speak to me and which ones make me feel hollow. And that's really all that matters.

The second we start policing other people because we insist on thinking we know better than they do, that they're just wrong about what and who they are or that they're identifying in some way to upset others instead of to be happy, we lose. We lose a part of community that could have fostered understanding and friendships. We lose trust in others even knowing who we are in fear of rejection from those who should know better. We lose a part of our sanity in restricting other people's feelings for the sake of artificial "accuracy", as if we could ever "accurately" know their thoughts and feelings better than themself. And if it continues we will only continue to lose parts of our own autonomy as more things are determined as "inaccurate" and eventually "inappropriate" or "harmful."

There are many issues with the terms non-man and non-woman. So, so many issues when it comes to succinctly identifying who is and is not such-and-such. But that doesn't mean we can restrict people from using it for themselves or even for using it as a definition of their own orientation. The only thing we can do is discourage people from unnecessarily policing and restricting others based on flawed understanding of who "can" be a man or woman, and educating them that there are an infinite number of possibilities for someone identifying with gendered labels that may not "make sense" to them.

Humans are made to exist and experience life, not to make sense.

[clangenrising]

Tw: Brief non-descriptive mention of abuse

God… Mystique reminds me a lot of myself… like. An uncomfortable amount.

I used to be so adamant that I wasn’t being abused by my parents when I was younger… How I defended them so fiercely because they were “good people, just not good parents”, how I wished so desperately for them to be the people I saw them as, and wanted them to be, that I just… pretended I only saw them as such. I remember snapping and yelling at those who tried to help me with tears in my eyes because I just didn’t want to see the truth and wished others around me also didn’t… just so that I could pretend everything was okay, or that it was normal.

Mystique and Russetfrond’s relationship also hits very close to home for me as well… My own body count reached 10 before I was even 18, as a means of using other people to distract myself from my own “shadow truth”.

And I say all of this not to cast darkness onto your writing in any degree. Mystique makes me very personally uncomfortable because she’s written so amazingly, and I commend you so greatly for that!! It’s very impressive ^^

In the end, she’s such a small character, and not a person with her own agency, but… I can’t help but wish, dearly, for her to be able to see the world as it is around her…

- Caltrop

Wow, thank you so much for sharing your experience like this.

I don't think you're casting darkness on my writing at all. In fact, my writing is FULL of darkness, of people who have been hurt and who hurt others. If anything, you are casting light on those dark parts by sharing how you've grown out of those places. I know it means a lot to me to hear that my writing resonates with people who have gone through these kinds of things.

It's something I haven't spoken much on from Mystique's perspective, but yeah, her fling with Russetfrond was definitely a response to distress, another way to push the Shadow Truth away because if she was fucking Russetfrond she wasn't thinking about uncomfortable realities or about her/Razor's complicity in the suffering around her.

We can only hope that she'll be able to process and work through all these thoughts. It makes me happy that there are people who are rooting for good things for Mystique despite her difficult behavior. If there's one thing I always hope, its that my audience will learn and practice empathy and compassion for people they might not have in the past.

[ghxst-system]

The systems misusing nonverbal and semiverbal upset me so much. We are bodily semiverbal. We have difficulty communicating and it's only worsened by our dissociation and schizospec stuff. We have many alters that are semiverbal and even have alters formed specifically to help communicate sometimes because we seriously cannot. And even then sometimes they fail to communicate for us.

It makes us upset seeing systems and anyone misuse them. We are dumb and we are slow. We have cognitive and mental disabilities. We struggle to think and understand a lot. And even we know that if we do not fully understand words that we do not feel comfortable using them.

It very easy to just not use words or to learn about them. Even as a ramcoa survivor and polyfrag system we still don't use subsystem because we cannot fully understand it. And it's okay to not understand. Sometimes it takes months before we use words and understand them. It takes us a while of learning between reading actual professional resources and personal experiences to understand. We still don't understand some of our own stuff. We still can't talk about schizotypal stuff even though we very much live it.

Feels like people see words and just go "Oh that me!" and don't even try to understand. Or try to understand what means beforehand. And cannot relate to that because always been scared about not understanding or misusing words so always try to make sure I understand best I can before using them. Because I know I can be very slow if not easily written out like a vocab word in elementary school. It takes time for us to use words to describe our own experiences because along with time accepting it, it takes time to even understand it. Like we know we polyfrag and ramcoa now, but took us months to learn and just as if not longer to accept. Because could not understand and comprehend.

I thought everyone would do this kind of thing. Look at professional sources and then try to understand them and also find people to help explain or people that experience it. And we are notoriously bad at research and stuff cause we are very slow and dumb. Does make us slightly salty about it though. But I know most people never mean harm. Still frustrating and hope more systems try to learn before hopping on using words especially when many are professional and medical words, not just community terms for funsies. They have meaning. They have purpose. They exist for reason. Meaning sticks to meaning.

(sorry for longer vent and sorry for if not word right cuz as we said we are dumb and semiverbal and struggle to communicate so tried to get thoughts out and stuff. Apologizing because very anxious and helps feel better if say sorry.)

But this just to say yes very frustrating and very glad someone says it. Semiverbal for semiverbal bodily. Nonverbal for nonverbal bodily. Permanent state. Not something go to. Important for these words to keep meaning when most of community already ignored nonverbal and semiverbal people. :( Systems too. Do not use nonverbal and semiverbal. Leave for systems that bodily nonverbal and bodily semiverbal just as they'd be for non-systems that are nonverbal and semiverbal.

(really hope made sense, always worry come off wrong, been treated poor for semiverbal struggles before :( sorry if too venty)

Hey you have no need to apologise!

I'm really grateful you resonated with this as a system who's also semiverbal bodily.

I just want to say, you aren't at all dumb okay? I hope you can learn to feel better about yourself and your disabilities and verbality

(Sorry for reply being short CFS is kicking our butt rn)

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Now that I've gained a basic knowledge of Judaism and Jewish people I notice stuff non-jewish people don't. My mom still hasn't clocked the mezuzah on our neighbour's lintel and I am fairly confident she never will, as she ignores the very existence of that ritual object. I don't plan on telling her, I dont know if it's misguided or not but divulging someone's Jewish to a non-jew just feels wrong, it's a breach of trust and privacy but moreover it's just potentially putting the person in danger you know?

Additionally, one week ago, I explained to my mom what tzitzits were, cause someone wearing them was driving their scooter so fast the tzitzit were flying and it made me laugh, so I had to explain. She sighed, saying I knew really weird stuff and it seemed like I was being converted to something. A claim of which she ignores the sheer irony and hilariousness of. Because Yeah. Sure. I'm being converted into Judaism. That's something the Jews do, proletizing. Everyone knows how eager Jewish people are of converting people. /j

More seriously, the amount of ignorance for saying that sentence astounds me.

I don't know where I am going with this. I guess I feel weird noticing stuff and not being able to share cause people always have weird reactions to my basic knowledge. I don't even want to imagine what their reactions would be if I told them I was converting (which I'm not I'm just saying an hypothetic scenario).

All of that made me think of actual converts who probably experience a similar liminal space at one point, a space of knowledge and recognition, while still being out of the Jewish tribe. Merely noticing more and more as they walk the path to Mount Sinai.

Oh, absolutely. I absolutely resonate with this, especially because I'm (to non-jews) visibly jewish. I use myself as an example because I don't like assuming things, but...

To non-jews, you're a jew if you've associated with jews. It reminds me of a few weeks back, I attended shul and a xtian lady who also attended asked me how I was jewish (please try not to do this if you've just met someone - it was awkward for me to explain. I'm grateful that the reform shul both welcomes non-jews and that they attend shul, too, it was just awkward). Even pointing out hechshers had somebody saying that I "looked jewish," so it's obvious why I knew what the OU stamp meant. To me, that's 101-level of judaism and it still had somebody like "oh, you're a jew I guess." For better and for worse, non-jews tend to not care about judaism or jewish culture unless they have someone close to them that is jewish/jewish adjacent/whatever it might be.

All of this is to say I empathize with what you're saying, and I've got experiences really similar - which is why I freak out when non-jews actually care. It's like "thank you!". I don't have too many non-jewish followers however, I see every one of you and love you, and hope that we can create a better world together🩵

[who-is-page]

i heard that youre a good resource on therianthropy/otherkinity so uh

i know that you can be a therian for animals, real or otherwise (im a cat therian) but can i be, like, a scoutbot tf2 therian? is that allowed?

also can you have multiple theriotypes (i think thats the term) at once?

There's a longstanding history of therians who have had multiple theriotypes at one time, so you don't need to worry there. The idea that therians could only ever have one theriotype arouse around the mid-2000's, and was propagated largely due to the grilling and gatekeeping culture that was ongoing at the time-- the circles you will mainly see parroting that language nowadays usually are similar in the ways they micromanage the ideas around what does and doesn't count in terms of someone's personal therianthropy.

The Scoutbot TF2 question is trickier to answer. In terms of "is this a thing you're allowed to do," the answer is yes (as the saying goes, you can do whatever you want forever) but you might run into an issue where people assume your experiences are different than you may intend to represent them as.

The therian community traces its roots back to the were community of the 1990's, specifically to alt.horror.werewolves (which is often shortened to AHWw). On AHWw, there was a were-Pontiac who went by the name Ponty. I've seen arguments for and against the legitimacy of this user, but there's still the fact that they were an active participant in the community, and they specifically identified as a Pontiac car. There have also been other inanimate objects within the community, such as a broom who was on the Werelist forum for a brief period of time (and I think I've heard talk of a violin on a different forum elsewhere, too-- but take that one with a grain of salt, since I can't remember exactly where or when it was, and I could be misremembering).

So is there historical basis for non-animal therians? The answer is, absolutely, yes! However, when people use the term therian or reference their theriotype, there is an underlying assumption that there is an inherent form of animality connected to their identity because of the history and culture around the community and term. For some non-animal therians, that works perfectly into their paradigm and is exactly why the term therian appeals to them so much-- they may not be an animal, but they still experience that animality and ferality that is so often closely associated with therianthropy and which is often assumed to be a relevant part of the concept, so the term perfectly encapsulates everything they hope for people to understand about their identity and its experiences.

For other non-animal identified folks, they don't experience anything they'd want to label as animality, and so they don't find the term therian useful to apply to themselves. If they were to use it, they would end up in a situation where they would be presenting their identity in a way that implies importance on specific things that aren't actually relevant to them.

What terms someone uses are going to come down largely to personal preference, how accurate they feel the term is in application to their experiences, and how well that term conveys their experiences to others on a surface level. Therian isn't necessarily a term everyone will find applicable, but for those who do resonate with it, it's perfect for what it needs to do.

I hope this made sense!

[transgenderpolls]

I also want to say this as a transmasculine nonbinary person that I’ve seen a LOT of trans men be uncomfortable with the term being universalised to include them. Transmasculine started out as a nonbinary label (I think, I could be mixed up) that described enben who were transitioning to a more masculine point instead of a neutral one. Obviously trans men can use transmasculine if they feel like it fits, but still I think it’s best to not just lump us together with the label because there are so many trans men who aren’t comfortable with it (I’ve actually seen a lot of people saying that it straight up makes them dysphoric because they take it as being seen as less of a man)

Same goes for non-transmasculine afab nonbinary people— there’s actually a lot of people calling to just get rid of the terms because they see it as just an indicator of agab. I’ve actually encountered more transneutral afab enben who hate being called transmasculine than I have trans men who hate it. It makes sense, the entire point for transneutral enben is transitioning to some sort of complete middle, or outside of gender alltogether, and aligning them with a specific gender is not only just incorrect but also very uncomfortable and dysphoria inducing for a lot of them. A lot of people also really don’t like the idea of t being ‘transmasculine transition’, which I totally get because I feel the same way when someone says that t is inherently ‘male transition’

(btw this is all stuff I’ve heard from these groups, I’m not just saying what I think goes through their heads or anything)

On a personal note, I also don’t like the universalisation of it because it feels like aligned enben can’t really have a term to describe ourselves— like, being a transmasc or transfem nonbinary person is a very complicated experience, most of us really struggle with this sort of balancing act of androgyny and maleness/femaleness, we’re like an in-beteeen of an in-between and it’s really fucking hard to deal with. It would just be nice if we could have our own label and space to discuss it and help each other with it. But I also get that now a lot of trans men resonate with the term and it would very much be a dick move to just say ‘nope, you can’t use this anymore, fuck you lol’, like, no

idk, I think about this a lot and the topic comes up quite frequently so I have a lot to say on it, but I can’t exactly articulate it, so I hope this made sense sorry

if anyone has sources to show otherwise i'd be happy to see them but i've always been under the impression that "transmasc(uline)" and "transfem(inine)" were umbrella terms first and foremost, with origins in the world of medical transitioning, particularly HRT, that sought specifically to include non-binary people and therefore not imply that everyone going through [medical] masculinization or feminization necessarily identifies as a man or a woman. whether the end goal is conceptualized by the individual as a masc/fem role, it's just a matter of having useful, succinct language to describe shared experience. i really don't see it as denoting agab any more than the term "trans man/woman" does. like if you really are not comfortable denoting your agab at all, it sounds like you're not comfortable talking about being trans period.

as for the binary trans men who hate it i'm gonna be real, i cannot comprehend being mad about someone using an umbrella term simply to address you and others who have significant things in common with you in one breath. i'm a binary trans man and i won't lie, i have had my phase of whining about being "lumped in with non binary people," but like... that's what it was. it was a phase that i'm over because i've grown up and now realize that it doesn't actually dilute my identity to simply have things in common with other people. it would be like a square being mad about being called a rectangle because "you're erasing the fact that i am SPECIFICALLY a square!" literally no, no one is erasing anything. especially not in the context of a poll that's just trying to not draw really arbitrary lines, and which you also literally don't have to answer.

i think it's completely valid to be made dysphoric or uncomfortable by any terminology, but there's a point at which you kind of have to accept that that is a you thing? if a term's literal function is to be inclusive and you feel excluded somehow bc you don't like that you're not being acknowledged as fundamentally different than the others who that term applies to... like i'm sorry, that's kind of ridiculous. you have to accept that it's ridiculous and not anyone else's problem.

also i truly think that if it's coming to contentions such as "just because i'm a man doesn't mean i'm masculine" or ppl otherwise trying to draw hard lines between masc and man/male as definitions... i truly think you are just trying to make this more complicated than it is. like we do need words to describe things, lol.

in any case my thing - at least on this blog - is always gonna be in the context of making polls. firstly i'm working with a character and option limit. secondly, the questions being asked make it sometimes relevant to use some terms that lump groups together, denote agab, etc. the more i think about it, i don't think there's going to be a solution that satisfies everyone, and i also don't think that there's a huge problem with that.

(btw none of this is directed at anon, you articulated yourself fine, i'm just jumping off of your talking points)

edit: irt anon not liking the universalization of "transmasc" - it just occurred to me, would "transmasc nonbinary" not simply work? like it seems to me that you just need to add the word nonbinary and now you're gucci

[shebles123]

Why this hurts so much

Tonight's episode hurt, and I'm going to try to explain why this was so much more than a slap to the face.

This isn't just about a ship. It goes beyond that. It cuts to the core of our experiences as shippers, particularly those of us who have shipped non-canon queer couples. We have been put down and belittled, labeled as crazy, weird, and disgusting for daring to see two people who clearly love and adore each other explore the possibilities of a romantic bond. We've been told that our desires are taboo and that we should just "get over it." We've been told by 911 show runners in particular that Buddie fans are just misinterpreting the story being told. These constant messages only reinforce the notion that gay relationships are something to be hidden and ashamed of.

As a queer person myself, I understand the pain of growing up without seeing myself represented in the media. It left me feeling isolated and asking myself if I was defective. However, shows like 911 have given me so much hope and have helped me come to terms with who I am. They allowed me to imagine a world where my feelings were valid, where my love was celebrated, and where I could find myself in the stories being told.

With that in mind, I want to acknowledge the existing queer representation on the show. Hen and Karen, Josh and Michael--these characters and their stories have and continue to deeply resonate with so many of us and I think we all genuinely appreciate the gift of having these characters. However, Eddie and Buck's journey is something extraordinary, something that represents so many of our realities and something that could revolutionize queer representation in media going forward.

Imagine a story of two young men growing up in homes where certain expectations were placed upon them to be providers, to bury their emotions, to stifle their hopes and dreams, all in pursuit of conforming to societal norms. Imagine a story where these two men find their own paths towards a traditionally masculine profession and end up finding a loving and accepting family and a place where people from all walks of life are equally lifted up and respected (something that is often not the case in reality).

Imagine these two men find peace, support, and a love they have never experienced before with each other. Imagine the strength of their bond as they become partners in work and in life, the fights and hurts they endure. Imagine them screaming and crying over each other's broken bodies, understanding the fear and pain of living life without one another.

Imagine that these two men build a family together. Imagine one of them is a single father and finds that their partner is one of the only people in the world they could possibly trust with their heart and soul in the form of their child, and imagine the father enshrining that trust and love in law.

Now, imagine that these two men finally see the truth in their relationship--a truth that has been unspoken throughout their time together but remains apparent through their actions. A truth that transcends societal expectations and norms. A truth that declares their love for one another as real and meaningful.

Buddie may have originally been planned as platonic, but they were not written that way, which is why this episode was much more than a slap to the face. It was a punch that said "you're crazy for seeing love where it was written."

Season 6 wrote Buddie with more romantic and domestic undertones than ever before and it feels like a betrayal to disrespect the bond that has been developing between them since day 1.

So to the writers, I implore you to understand the impact of your decisions. Of course, not every ship can become canon, but for the love of god, don't undermine the emotional connection you've nurtured between Buck and Eddie for 5 seasons. Don't discard the authenticity and depth that their relationship holds and please understand the pain we feel as you strip away their journey without proper resolution and without letting their story evolve and flourish into what it was written to be.

With all due respect, go fuck yourself for this, and I hope to god this gets fixed in season 7.

[warwickroyals]

beginning - previous - next

Woooo, wooo, social commentary on the shallow nature of royal "feminism" woooooo!

[IRENE] Women’s History Month is a time for us to celebrate female achievement and honour all the women in our lives who have inspired, guided, and encouraged us through their contributions to society. Now, before I leave you all today, I would like to share a personal anecdote.

[IRENE] In 1975, I gave birth to my daughter, the first princess born to a reigning

monarch in just over a hundred and fifteen years. I felt deflated. After seven years of marriage, I still hadn’t provided crown and country with a long-desired male heir.

[IRENE]  After the birth, my mother-in-law, the late Queen Katherine, warned me against producing princesses in abundance. At the time I thought her cruel but I later came to understand that she was simply reflecting the social standards of her time. In the 1970s, institutionalized misogyny was rampant.

[IRENE] It was a societal malaise that targeted all women, regardless of social standing. Generations of princesses were raised in a culture where they felt unwanted. This is why I feel compelled to express gratitude to the women within my own family.

[IRENE] Over the years, I have increasingly relied on their support.

[NEWS ARTICLE] Princess Jack, 53, raises eyebrows in little black dress with daring neckline

[IRENE] I have also been inspired by their intelligence, loyalty, and the steadfast dedication with which they carry out their public duties.

[NEWS ARTICLE] Is a royal test-tube baby imminent? Royal watchers debate over Duchess Shelby’s barely there bump

[IRENE] In particular, my daughter and daughters-in-law have become non-negotiable supporters to The King and I.

[IRENE] I am so grateful for them and sincerely hope that you all value them not just as princesses, but as people

[NEWS ARTICLE] It can be done! Princess Tatiana delivers flawless curtsey in pants

[IRENE] To alter a famous quote, behind every great woman are several other great women.

[IRENE] Thank you

~

[TAMSEY] At this year’s GirlUp summit, Her Majesty was very personal, very candid, something that’s not new for her, and I think she hinted at this  during her speech, but would you support a change to Sunderland’s succession laws so that an elder daughter could inherit the throne over a younger brother?

[JAQUELINE] Jaqueline, I see you giving me eyes right now. Yeah, well, it would be a matter for Parliament to decide, and it would depend on several factors, but if that is something the people support, it should be at least be considered.

[TAMSEY] Is it a personal matter for you? In 1976, Parliament removed laws prohibiting women from inheriting the throne, but stopped short at instating absolute primogeniture. Such an act would have created you heiress apparent.

[JAQUELINE] No, and I’d rather not speculate on that, out of respect for my late brother.

[JAQUELINE] I am grateful that I had the opportunity to live my life on my own terms, I think if anyone were to inherit between the two of us, it would be him. He was the one best suited for job—Tatiana, I don’t know if you want to talk about the younger generation, but for me that discussion is over.

[TAMSEY] Yes, Tatiana, I would love to hear your perspective. At the time being you have no grandchildren in line for the throne, but in the future would you support a change being made to accommodate your descendants?

[TATIANA] Um, yes, as Jack said, uh, I would support any changes Parliament would bring forth. A more equal system can’t be wrong. We discussed it early in our marriage, actually, but it wasn’t a priority at the time.

[SHELBY] Of course it wasn’t a priority, you never had a daughter.

[SHELBY] Apologies for butting in [LAUGHS]

[TAMSY] It’s okay!

[SHELBY] But yes, I do think personal experience is important and you can’t fully resonate with these issues until you actually bring a daughter into this world and that’s why I’m so grateful and resonate so deeply with Her Majesty sharing . . .

[TATIANA, thinking] Bitch.

[sunieepo]

honestly, if i may, all of this talk about the way people treat trans women has reminded me of an experience i still remember vividly back when i was peripherally part of the tumblr / twitter mfrp community. which please note i was never a very active participant, i personally found mfrp very boring and so i was never really fully integrated into these communities - but while i was in them i did befriend a few trans women and i noticed a very persistent pattern in these supposed LGBT-friendly spaces regarding the moderation of trans women.

there was a persistent issue in multiple different mfrp communities i was peripherally involved in, in which trans women would always be regarded as "abrasive" or "aggressive", for making the same kinds of comments and jokes that tme people were making. and the (majority tme) moderation teams would almost always rule against trans women, silencing them or labeling them as deviants / weirdos for behaviors that they would be much more forgiving towards tme people for.

as a sort of bystander i didn't really have a leg in to comment on the actions of moderation teams, i could only offer being a friend to trans women as i watched them be ostracized from these spaces by the very same people who would plaster "terfs dni" all over their bios. i'm not saying this to pat myself on the back, there is definitely more i could have done in those situations, but i do want to call out why all these "fuck terf" type posts just never really resonate with me, seeing them be rbed by people who i know would just jump at the opportunity to demonize a trans woman again (and i just saw it happen earlier with that stupid shit slinging post falsely accusing a trans woman of something she didn't even do regarding cohost...) (i'm aware op of that post apologized for their behavior but what occurred is what occurred)

it's not enough to say "fuck terfs" and i hate that people always center on the buffoonery of terf behavior instead of centering and caring for and supporting the trans women in their lives. it's really frustrating for me to watch as a staunch feminist to continually see the way the lgbt community has let down trans women. the recent wave of discourse regarding "transandrophobia" is also extremely worrying to me - i have seen a non-insignificant number of posts made by certain people in that community that claim that the lgbt community is Too centered on trans women: as if it's a competition, and as if the visibility of trans women is somehow a boon to them rather than a consequence of people using their cause to simply be performative instead of genuinely uplifting and loving.

sorry this isn't the most well thought-out post, i'm just rambling and i have a lot of complicated feelings on this. i don't want to derail what's happening right now too much by bringing up other topics, but i will say i do think it's inevitable that at some point we do need to confront some of the "transandrophobia truther" type sentiments i've seen lately, because they absolutely are damaging to trans women and lead to situations exactly like this.

please, if nothing else, i really hope everyone takes this as an opportunity to be kind to the trans women in their lives. the least you could do is offer them your support. reblogging posts dunking on transmisogynists is not enough. we need to make our communities safer for trans women, and that doesn't end with car hammer explosion memes.

rbs off because i'm not interested in centering my voice as a tme person and this post isn't really something polished i want escaping from my social circle. if you're a mutual of mine and you're feeling unsure about my stance on some of the topics mentioned above, my DMs are open and i am happy to discuss, but at the very least all i ask is for us to be better to trans women. that's all.

[namor-shuri]

Our poll results are in! 🗳✨

*cracks knuckles* Let’s dive in and talk about it (: [Grab a snack and something to drink because this is about to be long. Yes, a bitch made graphs lmao Sue me] Alrighty, let’s do this:

: : : : : : : : : : :::::::::::::::::::::::: : : : : : : : : : :

I can't remember where bpwf was first released and the order of its premiere in each country but it's interesting to see that the majority of fandom [who participated at least] are from North America. Also Asia being the third highest group was fascinating because at least when it comes to Twitter, I’ve noticed a lot of the Namor/Shuri fan art has come from Thai and Korean artists. They are seriously carrying this fandom and I'm here for all of it.

ALSO: Random, but where are my Antarctica Nashuri fans?? 😭 I’m also curious to know how Africa has received the Black Panther franchise all together over the years. Do they resonate with it? Do they find it offensive/ overly dramatized? I’m curious. If you are a fan who lives in Africa, can you comment on your experience with this? I'd be happy to know.

To be honest, I’ve always assumed that the Marvel fandom [along with superhero spaces as a whole like DC and what not] were male dominated but this poll gave me some hope. I am curious what parts of fandom men frequent more vs women. For example, do Comic Cons ring in more women, more men, half and half? With fan art, do majority of artists identify as women, men, other? It’s interesting to think about. I also love seeing women/fem identifying individuals show up in these spaces because countless times we are made to feel like an inposter and harassed for our interests in comics, games, movies, shows, music, the list goes on. Questioned down with trivia, fact checking and all sorts of BS ultimately trying to prove that “you aren't a real fan". Don't ever let anyone make you feel like you have to prove your knowledge of anything to be interested in something you like. ESPECIALLY if it is coming from a man child guy.

ALSO: Hi all trans, non-conforming and alternative gender expressing baddies! Know you are welcome here and pls enjoy your stay at my humble blog abode. 👋🏾💜

It’s amazing to see how diverse this fandom is! I didn’t expect that we would have such high numbers of black/brown fans/shippers. As a black mcu fan myself, it’s exciting to see us show up in fandom. Fandom has unfortunately been heavily white/Eurocentric for a very long time, which has slowly changed but we still have a long ways to go in it’s inclusivity. With the increase of bipoc characters and the actors who play them, I look forward to this continual progression.

ALSO: It’s been heartwarming to witness Mexican, Indigenous, Lantix fans feel seen with bpwf and Tenoch, Mabel and Alex's performances! I remember how enamored the black community was with Chadwick and the first BP. We were hyped to have this treasure of a movie, which I assume is similar to how the Asian community felt with Shang-Chi and so on. It's been said countless times before but representation truly makes the world of a difference and the power of the bipoc dollar should never be taken lightly. We cause real change when we support something.

There will always be a spectrum of ages in any fandom but I figured the majority of people were probably within this age range. It may be due to the timeline of when the mcu was born and how it has progressed alongside millennials? This also explains why I keep seeing fans make posts about their age gaps with Tenoch and wanting to be his questionably young gf 😩 [get in line]

ALSO: Shoutout to the 55+ folks in the fandom! I have a sneaking suspicion yall are some of the coolest people 🤘🏾

Okay *inhales exhales* I know I'm going to get flak for this but let's hop into it lol I saw the scale sway back and forth for a minute but it mostly stayed between White Wolf [Bucky Barnes] and Iron Heart [Riri Williams]. I myself personally love both answers! My annoyance is not with shuriri, but with its fandom. They have been some of the biggest instigators/bullies since bpwf has dropped. I've seen all kinds of mental gymnastics from saying the nashuri fandom would rather see shuri with a killer than support gay love [like what??] to Letitia is clearly lesbian because of her attire [pls be fr] and everything in between. It’s so unwarranted and I never see Nashuri fans doing the same thing back. Enjoy what you like, and leave the rest behind. It's such an easy 1+1=2 concept and yet, it goes over people's head still. It’s honestly disappointing when a fandom turns you off to a ship/character, especially when the ship is lowkey dope. Something that reminds me of this was the stucky fandom when the Captain America movies came out. Y’all.......when I tell you this fandom had me STRESSED 🥴. I saw racism/ deliberate exclusion of Sam, hate towards Sharon Carter just because she was a woman, you name it. They annoyed me so bad that I began to dislike Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers as characters [trust me, it made no sense lol] I couldn’t stand seeing either one of their names pop up. It took some of the Avenger movies [and honestly the sambucky fandom + Sebastian Stan/ Anthony Mackie's friendship] coming out years later for me to even be remotely cool with the idea of Bucky Barnes again. Anyways *drinks water* I'm getting stressed all over again just thinking about it lmao Long story short, don’t be an asshole. Enjoy YOUR flavor of ice cream and try not to shit on others and their differing flavor of choice in the process. Trust me, it's easier than you think.

ALSO: If you are a shuriri fan that hasn't been hateful/ problematic, this isn't about you boo [yall are good in my books! 😘]

Crying that the #1 answer was “Bitch me!” because honestly mood. Jokes aside, I can’t really imagine Namor with another partner. It's probably largely due to the fact that Shuri was the main character we see him interact + bring his guard down with [outside of Namora?] This is also coming from someone who has not read the Namor comics and am very new to him as a character. If you have any knowledge you want to share in the comments, pls do ✨

ALSO: I threw in the Sue Storm comment to be annoying *teehee* but it was interesting to see how many people actually agreed with this statement. Maybe I'm just a horse with blinders about this fandom but I’m not really pressed? I’ve seen people argue that Ryan's current iteration of the Namor character wouldn't be in this type of relationship [along with people saying Tenoch wouldn’t go for it either] but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what unfolds *tries not to stress while we wait for future iterations of Namor and the fate of his character's arc/ Talokan*

The question on everyone’s mind! Although the delusional side of me was bummed that yall weren't more chaotic and went full "yes!", my logical side agrees with the final poll 🥲. Again, I'm not pressed about mcu and what they put out, whether it favors this ship or not. At the end of the day, I’m still going to vibe like I’ve been doing. If nothing else, I just hope we get to see these two characters and their rich dynamic again because Marvel can't ignore how the world reacted to Shuri and Namor. And hey, sometimes Marvel listens! Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie were on a mission after fans brought up a potential team up and after that, those two found every excuse to bring up a potential movie in interviews for YEARS until finally *boom* 🇺🇸🦅 The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Show 🦅🇺🇸 was born. Miracles do happen everyday rofl [I know these two examples have nothing to do with one another but let me have this lol]

ALSO: I only trust these characters in Ryan's hands so I'm hoping he's the first in line to direct whatever this future dynamic ends up being.

It was cool seeing what other protagonists this fandom is drawn to outside of Shuri/Black Panther. I’m curious to know what other ships y’all also enjoy [feel free to drop them in the comments if you care to share]. I feel like a lot of the top picks in this poll I also resonated with, like Iron man for example. I don’t know what it is but there is just something about a genius character with a mix of charisma/ big softy + sarcastic energy that will do it for me every 👏🏾single👏🏾 time 👏🏾

ALSO: Not everyone sleeping on Thor and Hulk?! 😭 I feel bad that I left out Ant-man [especially with Quantumania just coming out] but you can only do 10 options on Tumblr polls and it was between him and Captain Marvel so….a choice was made…..

This one cracks me up [and yes I had too much fun making these summaries which I find highly accurate] Also, I have no beef with any of these characters btw 😅 I truly believe that a hero is only as interesting as their counterpart. If your villain isn't captivating, it takes away from the hero + their storytelling potential and vice versa. The poll was split between Killmonger and Namor at one point [which if these two ever met/ were on screen together like ??? They have free reign to completely destroy my life. I welcome all calamity that ensues.] I'm not going to survive Namor and Kang in the same film this coming Avengers: Kang Dynasty movie.

ALSO: I didn't choose him but Thanos has been one of the most impactful/ compelling villains we’ve seen in the mcu thus far. I mean, he’s literally responsible for like 3 major films in the mcu + Josh Brolin is just amazing at what he does in general. This is brave to say but it was lowkey bittersweet to see his character's arc come to an end [obviously it was a huge relief but yeah]. Don't come for me.

This one was just for fun since I recently made that tenitia rant post but it was cool seeing some of you come back with your own film ideas of what Letitia and Tenoch could act in together. I'm so down bad for them that I'm game for absolutely anything. Romcom? Let's do it. A Podcast of them reviewing their favorite foods from their cultures? I'll eat with yall. Music video? Where's the link? I don't care what it is. Someone brought this up but I really wish we got more game interviews with them like them reading thirst tweets, answering the web's most searched questions, a joint hot ones interview, something! They would have killed those! Bring them back!🗣️ Bring them back! 🗣️ Bring them back! 🗣️

ALSO: Letitia has already voiced a character [Nooshy in "Sing 2"] so now I need Tenoch to do the same. I would love to hear his voice in something. It would realistically be in Spanish since I know the majority of his projects have been thus far but idgaf, I’m still showing up *turns on closed captions* [shout out to everyone who also started to learn spanish after this beautiful man came into our lives]

And last but not least, your blog feedback <3 Thanks again for giving your input on this. My blog is slowly starting to grow and I'm having a lot of new people interact with my page so I wanted to do a quick temperature check of what people are feeling. At the end of the day, I'm aways going to stick to what feels authentic to me and what I want to post because if you're not liking what you're doing, what are you doing it all for? But I will definitely keep this feedback in mind. For the people who are new or just coming across my blog, here are some examples of what I'm referencing in this poll: fan edits [1, 2, 3] rants [1, 2, 3] song recs [1, 2, 3] Tenitia [1, 2, 3].

ALSO: I thought I was doing the most with the amount of Tenoch posts I was blogging already but maybe not. Don’t worry, I'll find more ways to post our baby girl (:

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WOW, YOU'RE STILL HERE!? Nice 🥰 Seriously, thanks again to everyone who participated in this completely unserious poll. I've never done one of these before but now that I know what to do and not do, I may make another one in the future. We'll see. Continue to stay tuned for future Namor/Shuri + Tenoch/Letitia shenanigans 💫