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Reblog to have something lgbt happen to you this summer

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Happy Pride 2022, everyone!!! ⚔️🌈

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pride is almost upon us, so I thought I’d send out a couple of reminders:

identity is complicated. 99.999% of the time, the right thing to do is to trust other people when it comes to what label is right for them

disabled people can be just as sure about their identity as abled people. trust disabled people when they say they’re queer

nobody is ever too old or too young to come out

nobody should ever pressure anybody else to come out. being closeted is not the same as lying

pride was started by the same kinds of people who are often rejected, even from the queer community. pride is about remembering them, not about shaming people for being “too much” or “too queer”

happy pride, everyone! stay safe out there!

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does anyone have that picture of that fucked up looking white kitten that looks like this

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shoutout to whoever stole my amazon package containing nothing but a single pair of shoelaces.

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So until recently I'd never even heard of Amphisbaenians, can you tell us about them?

Absolutely! Amphisbaenians are so cool!

At first, amphisbaenians look a lot like legless lizards or primitive snakes. But they're an entirely separate group, and they make up the last main group included in Squamata, the order of scaled reptiles (along with snakes and lizards).

There are a few main characteristics that all amphisbaenians have in common. They have long bodies, suitable for digging, tend to be small (about half a foot long or smaller is typical), either have no limbs or reduced limbs (unlike snakes, they all have at least a vestigial pelvis AND shoulder girdle, though), and have simple eyes that probably aren't good for much more than light detection.

Aside from the basics, they just keep getting weirder! Their skeleton and skin are both super different from other squamates - this is wild, so buckle up. Their skin is made up of ringed segments, and it functions as a sort of tube loosely connected to their body, so their muscles basically function on two levels - body muscles that move the body within the skin tube, and then skin muscles that move the skin itself. This means their movement looks entirely different from legless lizards and snakes.

All amphisbaenians are limbless, except for one genus, Bipes, which has two functional front legs. These are my favorites - they have no right to be as cute as they are.

And when I say those legs are functional, I mean it!

They're still poorly understood - amphisbaenians are all burrowers, and spend most of their time deep underground. We know they're predators, and eat lots of invertebrates, but we still have a lot to learn about them.

Here's one of my favorite things about them - amphisbaenian skulls are specialized for tearing chunks out of larger prey, and they have big, strong bones and big teeth. Their skulls look like they came straight out of the movie Alien.

They're weird! They're wonderful! Amphisbaenians are incredible!

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I just saw the most Galaxy Brain gender take ever, from a cis man on reddit

[ID: a screenshot of a comment from reddit, with no username visible. The commend reads: This doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either. Setting aside the question of whether gender/sex is assigned or observed at birth, the gender I was assigned at birth was ‘boy.’ The gender I have now is ‘man’. Boys and men have different gender roles, and few adults identify as boys anymore. From this standpoint, every adult has a different gender than the one they had at birth. End ID]

Framing “girl” and “boy” as separate genders from “woman” and “man” is such an amazing take. it’s a framework that accommodates and explains so many trans experiences. Some trans people never were their AGAB. Some feel like they were their AGAB, but that that changed (usually when puberty hits, which is when you start “becoming a man/woman”. The accepted societal path is that girls grow up to into women, and boys grow up into men. But some girls grow up into men, and some boys grow up into women. This guy was a boy who grew up into a man, which generally works out pretty well for people. Some boys and girls grow up into people who aren’t men or women, even! It’s like this random cis guy skipped right over transgender 101, 102, 201, etc. and stumbled directly into Transgender Nirvana.

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struggling to empathise with/ people who don't carry condiment packets in their fanny packs

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I truly love how queer can mean "Eh I'm some flavour of Not-Cishet but I don't care to know the specifics beyond that" but also "I absolutely do know the specifics but we will be here all damn day if we get into it" and like. Everything in between. I think that's incredibly powerful of us tbh.

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anyone please ask your crush out like this

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🌻🌻🌻

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On Young Dazai

So, I recently re-read Stormbringer.

Why would I put myself through that trauma not only once but twice you ask? Well, I couldn’t focus the first time I read it, I was dehydrated from crying and I spent a week in mourning for The Flags.

Leaving that mess aside, I really wanted to write down my thoughts about Teenage Dazai and study his character (or attempt to) from Fifteen up until The Dragon Head Conflict. 

P.S : This post is mainly about Dazai, yet there are several mentions of Chuuya too. Their pasts are so tightly linked it’s inevitable. Sorry.

Of childhood and external influences

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Young Dazai was unhinged, homicidal and sadistic. He seemed (and still seems) like a high functionning sociopath with severe depressive and suicidal tendencies.

It’s clear that something was fundamentally wrong with him even before joining The PM, though I don’t consider him as an inherently evil person. 

Being taken in by Mori -who exploited his weaknesses to the hilt- definitely played a significant role in the way he turned out. The manipulative tactics and the incessant need to have control over others might have been the result of Dazai not having any say in anything during his childhood. Mori’s cruel teachings coupled with the freedom he was granted in The PM only exacerbated his already negative traits and encouraged his madness to grow.

There’s honestly not much more to say about his mysterious childhood. He most likely had a tough upbringing to be this mentally instable at only 14 years old.

Of honesty and genuineness

Despite all the unsettling things Dazai said and did (that shouldn’t be overlooked), he was unexpectedly geniune at times, times that involved Chuuya and rarely anyone else.

The first scene that comes to mind will always be this one :

This is probably the earliest flashback of Dazai baring his soul for someone else to see. I think he somehow lost control of himself whilst trying to test the waters and figure out what Chuuya was made of.

The answer he got shocked him.

To come face to face with the revelation that not everyone who wields strength revels in violence, bloodshed and death. That not every powerful person is greedy enough to want to climb up the ranks. That even those who commit crimes can still have moral codes they strictly adhere to. That even mafiosi wouldn’t stoop as low as he did in that moment and in the form of what? In the form of a 15y.o half human half God who has known nothing but pain, scolding him for disrespecting the dead was like a harsh slap in the face for Dazai who was fully human yet lacked the insight to feel and act like one.

This was Dazai’s first glimpse of what humanity looks like and how nuanced, not-black-and-white human beings truly are. It was also the first time someone saw his darkness, simply took it in and stopped it without shying away from it or letting it go on for longer.

It left him in awe.

It makes sense when you remember that he was still young and impressionable. He hasn’t fully honed the manipulation skills necessary to make his reactions more subtle, meeting a teenager his age with such a unique story undoubtedly took him by surprise. Judging by his words and his actions (being touchy, doing normal teenager things, throwing tantrums), it’s not hard to see that he was a lonely teen with no understanding of how human relationships work.

Another instance is the Arahabaki reveal.

For a genius like Dazai, failing to piece the puzzle together and come to the conclusion that Chuuya is Arahabaki was very uncharacteristic of him. Truth is, he never once considered that possibility. The unadulterated disturbance he felt but couldn’t hide when he heard the confession is more than proof of that :

Chuuya’s humanity was so concrete and real in his mind that he never felt the need to question it, which was irrational for someone who ran on pure logic and facts.

A third instance is this conversation with Rimbaud :

“Then, I’ll make your corpse my ability and grasp onto the memory of my friend’s existence. To fill the eight years that were lost. To save him.”

“I see… All for the sake of your friend?” Dazai said weakly. “The betrayal of the mafia, the resurrection of the previous boss, this battle… It’s all a bit hard to believe.”

“What don’t you understand, you bastard?” Chuuya said, looking up at Randou. “I’d throw away everything for my friends. It’s a very respectable thing to bet my life on… I don’t leave any mercy for my opponents.“ 

This here shows that Dazai had no grasp on the meaning of human connection. Friendship, sacrifice, love … they didn’t make sense to him, they weren’t logical because they weren’t beneficial. He didn’t even bother with a fake reaction or anything, he genuinely couldn’t understand such notions. Ofcourse it was Chuuya who stepped in yet again and showed him what he was missing out on.

This encounter with Chuuya and Rimbaud left such an impact on Dazai that he decided to live longer. This was the same suicidal Dazai who wanted to join The PM for lethal drugs, mind you.

« If a God of calamity (yes this is a Noragami reference, sue me) can be this human, if he can make other people believe in him this much then perhaps I will learn how to be human too if I stick around. Maybe I can get to see the world the same way Chuuya does.» This is what I imagine was Dazai’s thought process at that time.

To me this is what Fifteen is about : Humanity comes in many forms, even if unexpected, unwelcomed and unusual. Sometimes It takes just one single existence to make warmth and hope bloom in someone else’s empty chest. Rimbaud died feeling warm for he understood this, having been Verlaine’s partner, and made sure to say it out loud for the boys –who would become partners later- to hear it.

Now whether they understood the message or not is still up in the air. But one thing is for sure, Dazai & Chuuya were never the same after that incident as stated at the end.

A fourth instance is Dazai’s unbridled reaction to Chuuya working with Kouyou. You can see it as a childish tantrum or a streak of possessiveness and that’s fair, but to me it says so much more about him. Dazai joined The PM for he knew Chuuya would be there, not because he was personally invested in The PM. He didn’t even care when Mori invited him.

Dazai saw the light for the first time and chased it. Being told he was not to work with Chuuya defied the whole purpose of everything he did in Fifteen. It defied the purpose of taking Chuuya away from his family and having to deal with the hatred Chuuya harbored towards him as a result. It defied the purpose of staying alive.

Instead of being around his Raison d’être while he navigates through life like he expected, Dazai was being isolated from Chuuya and was left to fend for himself in that unforgiving environment under Mori’s command. We all know how that went.

I believe this particular incident to be one the reasons why he said « I want to see The PM burn » only a year after.

We can also squeeze in the entirety of Stormbringer in this section. The wide range of emotions Dazai displayed there from shock to boredom to bewilderment to worry to affection to despair is incredibly important to his character. I’ll put some excerpts showcasing that here :

It goes to show that Dazai wasn’t as empty as he and everyone else initially assumed. With the right people (the likes of Chuuya, Rimbaud, Oda, Ango) and the right circumstances, he might’ve gotten better. And by « better » I don’t mean magically becoming a sane person, Dazai was too mentally ill for that. I mean « better » as in less hollow and suicidal.

These reactions and copious displays of emotions are all painfully authentic and raw. To desire something, to yearn for a meaning, to want to be with someone and to go on a journey to reach them are all achingly human courses of action to take.

Sadly Dazai never knew that and kept rejecting his own humanity instead.

Of emotional expression

While reading the manga and the novels, I noticed a pattern with how Dazai expresses his emotions. He usually says the exact opposite of what he truly means while acting in an exaggerated manner that makes the whole thing seem like an act. He tries to hide his feelings by emphasizing certain traits of his personality, only for this emphasis to come off as overcompensation, making it all backfire on him instead. He isn’t nearly as discreet as he thinks he is.

In psychology, this is a defense mechanism called reaction-formation (You can read Freud’s and Anna’s works if you’re interested in knowing more about it).

The most common example of this is how boys bully girls they are interested in or how a person shows contempt towards someone they like in order to detach themselves from them.

First time Dazai did this was in Fifteen :

Chuuya pressed down on his wound, took a rough breath, and said : "What is…your goal…?” Dazai gave him a pointed look. “Don’t say you found me by chance… Are you saving me, selling some favors…?”

“Favors? Saving? That’s not it at all. I hate you. We’re only here to massacre our enemies.”

He isn’t fooling anyone. He didn’t « hate » Chuuya, at least not in the way he was wanting it to come across. Yet he felt the need to say it out loud as if he was trying to convince himself and not Chuuya.

Another example worthy of mentioning is this one :

I don’t believe for one second that Dazai wanted Chuuya to get severely hurt. Did he want to see the reactions and the expressions Chuuya displayed in different situations? Yes, that’s the whole point of riling up Chuuya after all. Does he love corruption? Does he get high on the destruction it brings? Absolutely. But to have Chuuya tortured and to enjoy watching it? I don’t think that was the case at all.

My best guess is : He was worried. But because this was Dazai who never allowed himself to care or to lose control, he resorted to deflection by blurting out something completely untrue to mask what was really going on inside. Going as far as to keep his vital signs abnormally normal when the situation wasn’t compatible with that is what tells me he was way more affected than he let on.

It’s when people aren’t paying attention that he let his masks fall. He was always his most authentic self when Chuuya was either unconscious or absent. It says a whole lot about how scared and wary Dazai was and is of being around people, of being known and of letting his guard down, thus living in a shipping container in an abandonned land. Being with The PM undoubtedly made him even more paranoid. 

Of Jealousy

One thing I haven’t seen people talk about is Teenage Dazai’s subtle jealousy of Chuuya. Let’s take this scene as an example :

What I see here is Dazai being jealous, bitter but also … proud?

There’s also that one scene in Dead Apple where he says « fitting for a tiny human like yourself » to Chuuya. He takes a jab at Chuuya while comforting him in a very roundabout way.

Chuuya, a lab experiment, being the quintessence of everything Dazai has ever wanted to be equally gratified and revolted him. The humanity Chuuya possesses made him want to do better but also served as a painful reminder of what he lacked and could never obtain (according to him).

Knowing Dazai, he probably felt unadequate and undeserving of Chuuya’s company at times. But because his selfishness and his admiration outweighed his insecurities, he stuck around and took what he could get.

It makes for a compelling contradiction that explains why Dazai seems to resent Chuuya even when the latter does absolutely nothing to personally offend him.

Of lessons learnt

Young Dazai went from being a lost, cold teen who couldn’t understand why saving a friend was something worthy of sacrifices to a hard working person who did everything in his power to support his partner. He went as far as to put said friend’s desires above the safety of the city. He had the alternative to avoid the disaster simply by handing Chuuya over to Verlaine but he didn’t. And it wasn’t even his loyalty to The PM that stopped him from doing so because he had no loyalty towards the organisation to begin with. He subconsciously believed that Chuuya was important and acted on that fact.

His unawareness of his own feelings and motivations makes the whole thing more poignant. He fought so hard without fully realizing that his and Chuuya’s lives were too intertwined to be untethered, until Mori of all people, spelled it out for him.

The way he openly consoled Chuuya after using corruption and losing his friends both times in Stormbringer and The Dragon Head Conflict after not batting an eyelid when he orchestrated The Sheep’s betrayal prove that the words Rimbaud said and the kindness Chuuya showed resonated with him and pushed him in a better direction. What’s most important is that Dazai allowed the change to happen, he was willing to learn from other « better » humans and to take a kinder approach when dealing with people he cared about.

This change manifested itself in the way Dazai learnt to trust Chuuya enough to put himself in danger during missions, knowing Chuuya will pick up on hints and make things right and later on in the way he tried to have more friends and forge new connections.

This isn’t to say Dazai suddenly became « good » because he didn’t. His actions still held that manipulative streak to them even when he was being nice. He just mellowed out a bit, which is still a big deal for someone like him.

I have so much more to say but I figured this post was getting too long.

This post is in no way intended to defend or justify Dazai’s questionable actions. You best believe I will talk about how abusive and toxic he is some time in the future. 

Oh and a random thought I had while writing this : if you’re a fan of relating songs to characters like me, you might want to listen to I Was Just A Kid by Nothing But Thieves and The World Is Ugly by My Chemical Romance. Both songs describe Young Dazai impeccably.

Anyway, thanks for reading y’all.

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BSD Theory: What is Dazai?

With the release of Storm Bringer, Asagiri has given us a lot more insight into the nature of abilities, their limits, how they interact with one another, and the creation of singularities. And although Dazai wasn’t the main focus of the story, it may have revealed a lot more about him than it would seem at first glance. More specifically: that the name of his ability, “No Longer Human”, may be a lot more literal than we previously thought.

Spoilers for Storm Bringer, 55 Minutes, and Dead Apple under the cut

Keep reading

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when did tumblr collectively decide not to use punctuation like when did this happen why is this a thing

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Let's talk about Atsushi Nakajima.

We all know that Atsushi is a kind-hearted boy. It’s clear to everyone - readers / watchers and bsd characters alike - that he’s selfless and would do anything for others even if it meant sacrificing his own happiness. 

But is he aware of his own kindness?

I don't think so.

Let’s begin this analysis from the very first moment Atsushi appeared in the anime. He was starving to death, and then we see him say this line :

Look his facial expression - the determination in his eyes and the certainty in his dialogue. At this moment, he really believed that he was someone who would steal for himself - who would do bad things for his own good. And yes, this was perfectly fine. It is human to be selfish at times, after all. 

Yet, despite telling himself that he will do those bad things, what did he actually do after that?

He saved Dazai, a drowning man, not caring about his empty stomach and low stamina at that time or hoping for any reward for doing that. Okay, one can argue that this was basic human decency, that it was the bare minimum someone could do. But then, literally one episode later, what did he do?

He threw himself on top of a ticking bomb to save a bunch of people he didn’t even know. He didn’t even need to think - it was his pure instinct to sacrifice himself for other people.

Look at his expression now. He was clearly surprised, and there was nothing in his dialogue but fear and uncertainty. He was surprised at the thought of himself doing something good.

Atsushi believed himself to be someone who would do bad things to other people to save himself, but it’s really the opposite. He’s someone who doesn’t care about his own well-being and would do anything for the happiness and safety of others.

Let’s move on to episode eight (one of the best episodes in the anime fight me), where Atsushi saves the passengers of the train. Now, look at this scene :

This is a scene that I can’t get out of my head because of Atsushi’s inner dialogue. "If I can save these people, does that prove that it's okay for me to live?" he asks himself. In my opinion, this line just proves that Atsushi thinks he’s saving these people for his own good - for selfish reasons. He believes that if he saves these innocent people, he can live in the comfort of knowing that he deserves to live. In other words, Atsushi is trapped in the mindset that he’s risking his life for selfish reasons. 

But yet again, his actions prove otherwise.

He risked his life to get to Kyouka in order to defuse the bomb, even after knowing that Demon Snow was practically undefeatable. He jumped out of the train without a single hesitation to save Kyouka, even though he might have died. So, he couldn’t have been doing these good deeds for selfish reasons, could he? He’s just a genuinely selfless person without any strings attached. 

Moving on to the last point, I'd like to point out what Atsushi said to Lucy in episode 12 of the first season :

Here, he claims that he envies and hates people, just like Lucy. That he could understand her negative emotions pretty well. And although I agree that Atsushi experiences negative emotions pretty often, here's a scene in S3 that I noticed had completely contradicted his dialogue :

Atsushi hates his orphanage director. He was his abuser, the nightmare that constantly haunts him. And yet, Atsushi cried when he died.

If he really did understand hatred to others, he wouldn't have been grieving. He would have been glad that the man he hated was finally gone from his life for good. But instead, he grieved for the man who had made his life a living hell - because at the end of the day, he still considered the director his father. His parental figure.

That's just the kind of person he is. No matter how great the hatred swirling inside him, his love and kindness will always dominate it.

Now do you understand why I think Atsushi isn't aware of his own kindness?

His character is really complex. He's a genuinely kind soul, but he doesn’t realize it and gives himself less credit than he deserves.

Atsushi truly deserves more credit.

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Why I'm not like the other girls trait is toxic!

Please take time to read this screen shots I have taken. This is a comment I found under a YouTube video.

I'm requesting all my mutuals to signal boost this!!

Many girls including me had this phase of “Oooh, I'm not like the other girls” and it took me really long to realise that how toxic it is. By saying I'm not like the other girls we are making us females look like we are weak. Which is completely not okay!!

Anyone can reblog and add your thoughts to this!!