#these are all completely true and factual btw

[steve-needs-a-hug]

Oppenheimer reviews that made me genuinely laugh out loud

#these are all completely true and factual btw #oppenheimer #oppenheimer 2023 #christopher nolan #letterboxd reviews #letterboxd #rodrick rules 2011 #devon bostick

[paperstorm]

I don’t feel comfortable coming off anon cause honestly some parts of this fandom have been fucking brutal if you express anything outside of falling exactly in line with how they think you should feel. Zero nuance allowed. My ask was in response to you referring to the “Isreal propaganda machine” as one of the “biggest in the world” and that just felt really close to another form of the “Isreal owns the media.” antisemitic tropes I was referencing. I don’t think you meant it that way but other people certainly do. and what I meant by sources about the human shields is that I genuinely haven’t seen anyone explain how that is propaganda? I’ve seen very reputable info about how Hamas does in fact store bases and supplies nearby and beneath places like schools and I haven’t seen any good information or sources explaining how that isn’t true (sources other than “Hamas spokesperson said this”)… and I was just asking for sources to link to if you had seen that information somewhere so I could be better educated. But almost immediately after I sent that I went and did my own research. I don’t think I have the same conclusion as you but maybe we’re taking “human shields” to mean something different. (but also I’m not saying this would excuse any kind of violence btw. human shields or not, the air strikes need to stop)

Ah okay, that may have just been unartful language on my part and I will be more careful with that.

I don't have specific links on hand because this is an opinion I have developed over many years of reading on this issue but I will explain what I mean about the human shields thing, so at least you know where I stand on it.

Israeli leadership often claims that they have no choice but to bomb hospitals and schools and residential buildings because Hamas is hiding in them, that is the essence of the ‘human shields’ claim. And as far as I know, it is a factual claim that Hamas militants are in those kind of buildings. But there are two points I think are important to contextualize this claim.

The first, is that Palestine is not a real independent state. It does not have sovereignty in any of the ways we use that word. It doesn’t have a capital city. It doesn’t have an elected central government or an independent judiciary. It has no control over its own resources (the mere fact that Israel can cut off fuel and water is deafening evidence of that, because what other country has the ability to cut off water to another state?) Where this comes into play in this conversation is that Palestine has no military, due completely to the occupation and Israel not allowing it to be a sovereign state. This is not in defense of Hamas. They are not defensible and any leftists pretending they’re freedom fighters immediately lose any credibility in my eyes. But it is factual that Hamas operates in residential areas instead of military bases because military bases have not been allowed to exist.

The second, and more important, point, is that I don’t accept that a terrorist potentially being in a residential building is justification for dropping a bomb on it. Extrapolate that logic to any other situation. Let’s say the FBI thinks Ted Bundy is maybe hiding in a 20-storey apartment building. They don’t know this for sure, but they claim to have intel (which they refuse to make public) that shows he’s in a unit on the third floor. Does that give them permission to drop a bomb on that building and kill all 300 people who live there? If it turned out they were right and Ted was among the lifeless bodies they pulled from the rubble, would they be allowed to say “see we got him, so we made the right call and had no other choice”? I would argue, fuck no. Tbh I kind of don’t know how to empathize with someone who would argue yes. But that is the argument the Israeli government is making when they cry human shields. They’re saying they have to slaughter thousands of children, because a Hamas militant might be hiding in that elementary school. It is my opinion that that’s indefensible, regardless of whether they’re right about the presence of Hamas.

#israel/palestine discussion

[theomnicode]

OPM God's mural

I'd like to propose a hypothesis.

"Crossing the vast expanse of time"

Note the vast. Just because Saitama jumped on time, does not mean it's a vast time jump, half an hour at best or something. So no, this is not going to be the fabled resurrection of God by a long shot.

Let's think about the fact that the God below ground causes time dilation that Blast mentions.

I would assume here that God below ground, is actually stuck inside a time dilation, where time just flows slower. So it has been there probably for quite some time. We're talking about more than centuries, all the way to the first era of change minimum. There are some people in WC who are like centuries old. Or we have to do one better, the creation of mankind. Or even...the universe itself.

(We shouldn't lowball when it comes to ONE's storytelling lol)

So in theory, if this God gets out of the dimensional barrier, it would mean it crosses a vast expanse of time. Not just time but space too. Because time in OPM world is not linear concept, it's an infinite loop. An ouroboros, snake's head eats snake's tail.

So, about that God's mural. One important thing that gets pointed out by the narrative. The narration that will always tell the factual truth.

"It's full picture remains unseen by anyone..."

That means us too btw. The reader.

The narrative, tells us, that nobody has seen the full mural. Nobody.

It means there is MORE.

This is not the full prophetic mural.

It means that what appears to be a human in monster form, possibly God itself or just a human who takes on Godly monster form, is also just a sacrifice of souls to become something even greater. Something that would resurrect on OPM Earth.

Saitama apparently fit the bill. And the prophecy still remains true, because he was not in line to be sacrificed yet, not before Orochi.

And honestly? That small entrance to what seems to be a depiction of an Inca/Aztec temple?

You can't see the top, the ceiling of the temple at all. And there might be more layers. Just the base alone suggests it's far larger than what it appears, it's just completely buried under.

There is also no entrance anywhere, which you would find from the top of a typical temple layout. Only stairs.

It means we've only scratched the surface of God's prophetic mural and we still need to climb up the ladder to see the full picture. And by then, the prophecy may come true when we go inside the temple.

#opm #one punch man #opm theory #opm god #opm god's mural #opm manga panels #aztec temple

[takaraphoenix]

Matilda (2022): Review

The following is a rant about the movie Matilda, because I couldn’t let it go and ended up reading up on the book plot and now I do have thoughts about the movie. They are not good thoughts, so if you think this is the best movie of the year, maybe... don’t click on “keep reading”.

Okay, so I caved and went to the wikipedia entry for the book Matilda is based on. I gave up on finding some French angle on it, but I still... I mean, this was turned into a movie, and then into a Broadway show, and then into a musical movie. For something to get that many adaptations, it just can not be that bad.

Turns out it isn’t. And virtually every dumb and bad thing about the movie isn’t in the book, apparently. I mean, aside from one, the telekinesis is still very much a thing in the book. But even the brief wikipedia summary did a better job of establishing it and making it sound... less ridiculous... than this two hour movie did.

In general, that brief wikipedia summary sold a much more coherent story than this movie did. So I’m feeling a bit relieved that most of the incoherent nonsense are add ons. I am, however, also absolutely baffled by what kind of decision making goes into creating that incoherent nonsense.

In the book, Ms. Honey’s dad is just a rich doctor? Not an “escapologist”. That whole circus bullshit wasn’t in the books. That was the worst part of the movie! And the movie made that shit up!! I’m!

Why would you do that. Because the story itself? On the first round it seemed fine enough. An abused little girl makes up a story about a couple that really wants children. But then that nonsense escalated so quickly and suddenly, it was no longer a little girl’s imagination, suddenly it was factually true within this universe?? And we never explain how or why Ms. Honey’s past just ~came to Matilda in visions~.

That was so incomprehensibly dumb and weird. Not to mention the effect it had on the overarching story. So you’re now telling me that the villain not only is an Olympic athlete, she also ran a circus and then... uh... quit the circus business to become headmistress at a school??

I truly do feel relieved that this bullshit wasn’t part of the book because it’d make me question why this was so successful in the first place to gain that many adaptations. But, truly, why would you make all of this nonsense up?

If the movie had, instead, spent that time on actually... establishing the things that are in the book? Like, I understand that you can’t really have a movie or musical about a real five year old. I understand aging Matilda up, even though that act alone made it more nonsensical already.

But the movie completely hand-waved Matilda’s genius level intellect? She just came off as a book-work. And suddenly, she does a giant math equation so she must be a genius... according to Ms. Honey. But that’s, uh, kind of it. The movie moves on from that entirely and it just feels like a... random, unimportant Mary Sue super power?

You know, when a little kid makes up their own OC and just piles unnecessary super powers on them. That’s what Matilda felt like, with her “oh btw she is a genius and also she now has telekinesis that we don’t really explain and also she somehow has visions from the past that we also don’t explain”, it was just adding on super special talents with no rhyme or reason.

Even the short wikipedia article on the book did a better job at making this stuff sound coherent. Establishing that she is a genius by mentioning more genius-level feats - things that could have really gone into a montage in the movie, I mean, seriously it’s not that hard to show how early she learned to walk or talk or read. And to maybe spend actual time on the aftermath that would have established that she is now using her genius level intellect for better things, so the... telekinesis goes away (it still sounds dumb but it’s at least an attempt at an explanation).

But the movie? She... doesn’t come off as particularly bright or clever? Aside from that one math equation she does. And, again, there could have been time, if we just canned the insanely dumb “this is the life of Ms. Honey’s parents, the escapologist and his wife who work in the circus and do absolutely unrealistic stunts” sub-plot?

Not gonna lie, I kept expecting the librarian and Ms. Honey to turn out to be wives and they take Matilda in together. But as things turned out, honestly...? The librarian sub-plot felt unnecessary and it might have even paid off far more had they spent that time on Matilda bonding with Ms. Honey, because... there absolutely was not a strong enough bond to make the “no wait I would like to keep your daughter” sound cute and not creepy. It just came off as rushed, because the majority of Matilda’s genuine moments were spent with the librarian, not with Ms. Honey.

The whole thing just came off like it was written down in one go and never edited, like they were rushed and forced to somehow put threads together so now the headmistress is also the circus owner, even though it makes no real sense, and uuuuh Matilda just knows this story even though that makes no sense. Even the ending! The way Ms. Honey just picked up the keys and jup, now she is headmistress and now the school has its own circus in the backyard.

Whereas the book apparently appointed a vice-principal to be the new head and there was... steady and reasonable change.

I really can’t describe the rushed, weird writing with the strange, unexplained twists as anything else than feeling like the story a young child would tell quickly, in excitement, unaware of the fact that there are plotholes and that things could use some more explaining. You know, the way the circus story was acceptable as long as it was just in Matilda’s imagination and became weird when it became a real part of the story. That’s how the entire movie felt.

The fact that it was a musical was a bit of a saving grace because I do cut musicals a lot more leeway on logic than other movies - they randomly burst into songs and these song and dance numbers can be used to handwave a lot of plot happening. But the movie’s biggest problems weren’t in song form, so they still stand.

Also, the special kind of choice that goes into making a story with a 95% cast of children a musical is... it’s a choice. I mean, honestly, the group numbers performed by the kids were actually the best parts of this entire movie. But in comparison, Matilda’s solos were some of the weakest parts. Because she is a child, with a child’s voice and a child’s singing ability - I do not expect a child to blow me away with a good vocal performance. Which is why it’s a choice to turn an all-kids story into a musical.

I’m not someone to compare adaptations to their source material. Mostly because I don’t like reading much so I don’t familiarize myself with the source-material. But in this case, the movie was just so incomprehensibly bad, I had to look up the book to see if the bad writing was taken from its pages. And I wonder why one wouldn’t adapt it more closely to the book, aka in a manner that... makes... more sense.

There’s nonsensical writing that can be charming. When it has a whimsical feeling to it and there are no real stakes lost. but this is... This wasn’t charming, it just felt like infantile writing by someone who has never quite had to put a coherent story together, where beginning, middle and end properly fit, so they just glued it together with weird plot-devices and surprise reveals.

And the frustrating thing about that, and the reason I’m writing this, is that truly, the wikipedia summary of the book manages to be more coherent than this movie. Which, if that is achievable, then it should be doable to adapt a two hour movie version of that that’s at least on the same level of coherent storytelling. But if you decide to be fanciful and add a lot of utterly unnecessary and weird elements to it that make the plot more questionable, instead of filling in blanks, then... that deserves to be brought up, I think.

I will give the movie one thing and that’s the abuse and neglect and how genuinely heartfelt those were conveyed. But... quite frankly, all the bullshit around it kind of diminished that, for me. A lot.

#Matilda (2022) #Phoe's Movie Reviews

[cimmerian-chaos]

Zeta: One thing that I haven't seen talked about much when it comes to the whole Harry Potter and JKR situation is those who may use it as part of helping to cope with trauma, who may be ignorant of the problematic nature of the series' themes.

Growing up, the series was very much a coping mechanism for us, there was a lot about the characters that was relatable, ect. And in being trans, when Rowling's true colors became apparent, it was a very painful expirience for us, to know her true opinion of us. It poisoned an important part of our childhood, and having to let go of it hurt and took time, especially when thinking about it also dug up a lot of memories of repressed trauma. And I want to emphasize here, we had direct motivation and an active desire to do this. But when it comes to your average cishet person even just existing around them in our experience can range anywhere from hostility to awkward confusion.

On the antisemitic themes in the book, to be quite honest that was something that flew under our radar a bit, until we happened across explicitly the information of "here are some examples of antisemitic tropes that are used in media" and then our brain instantly started making connections to a lot of different examples in quite a few bits of media. Which is unsurprising, especially when you consider that at least in my experience, this Christian-centric society very much glosses over other non-Christian religions, and in being an American, I'd wager that someone living practically anywhere else is more educated on the rest of the world. In schools you're told in a sort of offhand way that other religious holidays happen around Christmas time, and Jewish people are brought up when it's pertinent, but always as a sort of footnote, like "btw these people exist." I'm taking from my own expiriences here, but compared to how the US approached other religions, Jewish people and Judaism were a topic to be approached with a polite, but careful curiosity. Like idk waiting for an abused person or animal to open up to you, since the only thing that the average person really knows about from school is the Holocaust. Even making an attempt to educate yourself, reading about things in a factual way vs actually understanding their perspective are two completely different things, and imho getting information directly from a person is preferrable. But when you're told things like "Jewish people keep to themselves" in such a way that implies that they collectively want nothing to do with anyone else and you are in fact being intrusive, when you're given dirty looks and firm silence while simply popping into a store every once in awhile because it has a nice bakery, it breeds a sort of confused shame. Because you know that you're dealing with people who to say they have suffered a lot is a massive understatement, but it then begs questions of "am I really not wanted around? Is going to buy some pastries such a bad thing? Or is this all the result of social anxiety? How do I make things right, if no one will so much as say hello back?" It feels like another reminder of how atrocious people's education is here, but imho in a way that's not particularly constructive. We've onmy learned what we have due to surprise, surprise interacting with Jewish people, listening to their perspectives and stories. So we're only now aquiring knowledge that we've been looking for since middle school, but had never been able to get due to situations like the above.

While individual people being antisemitic was fairly easy to pick up on since those individuals tend to go all-out on the matter, we wouldn't have factually known an antisemitic media trope if it hit us in the face. Because as 90's (and maybe 2000's) kids all grew older and were exposed to different kinds of people with the rise of the internet there was also more exposure of and communication about harmful stereotypes that popular cartoons were saturated with. From what we've observed, it's similar to what happened with consumerism in that it wound up having the opposite effect, maybe because it was so perliferious as to be incomprehensible, or maybe like us as an autistic child all the rascist stuff flew over your head head just because you were taught to just be a decent person to everyone.

So while there's zero argument that Rowling is a person with some horrible views, and therefore that is reflected in her work, I think it might also be good to keep these sorts of things in mind when initially interacting with those who are unaware of these issues. Immediately shaming ignorant people for liking a thing isn't the answer, nor is simply yelling at them, "Your coping mechanism for dealing with your trauma is BAD!" and demanding that they just find something else. Coping mechanisms don't just work like that, and it comes across as trivializing their own expiriences. You could potentially be attempting to strip someone of an important coping mechanism that could create a ripple effect. Like let's say you have someone who loves to read, a love that was initially born out of Rowling's books. If you're too forceful with someone, you're going to to make things worse either relationship wise and drive someone into the opposite direction, or you're going to potentially shame someone to where they give up on something that they love as a whole, we've seen both happen.

So explain calmly, slowly. Give them time to digest. Allow them to come to their own conclusions. Pay attention to whether or not they're resistant to the idea of abandoning JKR, or Harry Potter, because while you can't separate the art from the artist, based on my own experience with coping with the reality of the situation their mind might try at first, because weighing a coping mechanism against compassion or "the greater good" can be hard emotionally bc feels are Like That. Think of it like growing pains.

If it becomes clear that they don't give a fuck, then that's another story, but I felt that even if these concepts aren't the most refined it's still would be good to bring up, because no one seems to be talking about anything like this. No one is immune to echo chambers, it's a lot easier for us to talk about all the ways in which the Queen Bee-got is bad, because we all have the same basic understanding, but communicating these things we see as fundamental facts due to our first hand and emotionally charged expiriences to other people who have next to no connection to the issue in a healthy way can sometimes require a finesse that the internet and social media seems to have obliterated.

#just be kind to people okay? #go off on those who actively deserve it bc they're well and truly being assholes #but can we not just rip into people who don't even have a basic understanding beyond her making a few transphobic tweets once? #there's a lot of posts on here that we might reblog because there's a good point or two #but then another where someone's just a bit too callous for our taste #zeta

[gretchensinister]

3, 6, 10, & 27, please

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

Well, the cursed part is easy to answer, because the curse manifests in ways that make me think things like “I have two hours. I wonder if that will be enough time to get one hour of writing done.”

The ritual part is I guess that I 100% go by time with writing, not with word count. Every week, I will write for a total of ten hours, on something, doesn’t matter what. I set aside some time each weekday to move forward on an original project I hope to self-publish, but other than that, any project is fair game. I absolutely can’t go by word count, because the truth is that I write a lot more slowly than most other writers, or this is what I perceive to be true, it may not be. Maybe it’s just me shedding a single tear reading people talk about writing who are like “I LOVE writing 3000 words per day and I’m so good at it! :D” I can’t do that, and I work a lot on giving myself permission to write slowly, because if I’m constantly thinking to myself “I should be writing faster” then...I’m not focusing on the thing I’m actually writing.

I set a lot of timers to get to my weekly time goal. I like timers for a lot of things, beeping means it’s time to switch tasks. (This is why beep control for all devices is very important. Random beeps are not allowed.) I don’t make tea, or listen to music. The perfume I wear for the day sometimes is meant to support the general writing vibe. Flow is difficult for me, and I think what I would really like to get back into it is to be able to audit a university course for something that would probably be useful for me to know, with a professor that I just don’t respect at all. It’s much easier to write if I am clearly supposed to be doing something else.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

That my work is complete garbage because if it wasn’t, I’d have at least some kind of publishing contract by this age, even a small one, like so many people I would otherwise consider peers on tumblr. But I have no contract, so I must be objectively worse and wasting my time as I get older and therefore naturally more irrelevant.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Okay okay okay. So. When I was a teaching assistant for a world literature survey course I graded finals that included essay questions. One semester the selected texts happened to include a lot of excerpts that mentioned cannibalism, idk why. (Well. The professor was the one with the fake British accent and a rumor that she did vampire role play with her husband and you could definitely believe it from the way she dressed regularly.) Anyway. One of the essay questions had to do with this cluster of cannibalism texts. And this one student wrote an essay that definitely didn’t answer the actual question or show that they’d comprehended the texts or the lectures about the texts, but the important thing is that it ended with the sentence: “This is why the heart must not be eaten.” None of the texts talked about eating hearts or not, btw. Nor were they meant to be guidelines or factual information about practical cannibalism. But this line of trochaic pentameter has stuck with me for years now! I just did a very brief look into this meter, and it’s supposed to give an eerie feeling, given that trochees are the opposite stress patterns of the iambs of natural speech, which suits this subject matter perfectly. Maybe I’ve used it as a title? I don’t remember, but maybe that’s just because I want to use it as a title again, but it would have to be for something really good, something ominous and ambiguous. And it came to me as a complete non-sequitur, found during a grading party with the other TAs. That line haunts me.

My own writing hasn’t haunted me, at least not yet. For me, a haunting piece of writing has significant parts of ambiguity about it—a “what was that and where did it come from” quality. Something about it that doesn’t fit its context, and does so in a way that’s detached from normality, but isn’t immediately threatening. Oh, and it doesn’t appear to be self-conscious about any of this, either. My own writing is disqualified from haunting me so far because I feel a continuity with my self that means that even very old things I’ve written and even forgotten about writing don’t have an unsettling mystery to them. I know the person who wrote them, no matter how much that person has changed.

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Minnu in Berenson Wilderness Recreation Area, because I kept trying to imagine what she’d seem like from the perspective of people who would assume bad intentions on my part. I wrote her as a person like the rest of the characters, though, so I actually don’t think there’s anything about her that warrants my execution.

#tejoxys

[stormblessed95]

Hey there, I hope you’re having a nice day! I just had a random question. So like if I look on YouTube, for some reason I see like a ton of videos of people trying to debunk Jikook moments, and there’s multiple channels dedicated to doing this. Ofc the excuse is usually that it’s fanservice, so no one should take it seriously; it’s safe to say these ppl are almost all tkkers bc they often like comments that uplift tk while insulting jikookers lol. Obviously there are some that should be debunked like the “desire vlive” (I’m still not 100% sure abt that explanation bc of their reactions, but it doesn’t rlly matter bc we still have plenty of inexplicable moments aha) but making it a point to debunk even the smallest interactions is just completely unnecessary and they are often just plain wrong.

But like I have yet to see a single channel/video of ppl trying to debunk taekook moments, or any other ship’s moments really. And it’s definitely not because there have never been any misconceptions abt TK moments before, because honestly I can think of like 15 of those (moments with mistranslations, complete neglect of context, etc.) just off the top of my head. Why is that? I don’t mean this in a rude way, but is the tk shipper fandom just, well, typically younger?

(Btw, does doing those debunking videos make them Jikook anti? I saw some of them claiming they weren’t an anti; I’m not rlly familiar with antis in general lol so I don’t rlly know what qualifies as one.)

Last post about taekookers for now yall. I'm TIRED of talking about them. They are exhausting.

An anti is someone who expresses hateful or harmful opinions about one or more of the members. So for example saying "No, Tae was never supposed to be in Toyko, it was never a vminkook trip" or "No, TK were not together in Jeju, those were different people" etc is not anti behavior because you are correcting false stories with true and provable facts. But if someone said "Tae just needs to stop hugging on JK. Doesn't he know that just encourages hate towards Jikook. If he really loved them, he would be better" is 100% UNTRUE and Tae anti behavior. If you ever see anyone say anything like that, block and report them. It's shitty and it's not okay. It's also anti behavior to spread false narratives and rumors about the members around. It's one thing if you don't know or were mistaken. But when you get corrected and you refuse to acknowledge that (ie: jikooks bond is pure fanservice, they don't even like each other) that's also pretty anti behavior. Essentially just be respectful to all 7 members and don't be hateful. Basically what it comes down to.

I have a post about the desire moment in my masterlist as well. I don't buy into that moment either. The difference is when Jikookers debunk jikook moments, it's to keep things factual. When tkkrs do it, it's to demean, undermine and devalue KMs bond to try and somehow make their own ship more real (newsflash, it doesn't work that way in real life and never will. Doesn't stop them though). And they also refuse to accept reality and facts about moments they all make up in their head and accept as truth, simply because they like their lies better. It fits with the narrative they are collectively creating in their head.

In the end, it's all freaking ridiculous. Vminkooks bond between the 3 of them is beautiful and it's tight. It should be respected. They all love each other so much. Just make sure you stick to facts and watch original content. Form your own opinions and don't believe anything that comes from a taekooker unless it can be proven with official and original content. And not their fake subs and fake edits. Hope this helps some!

#ask #anon

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Lord of the Rings Character Thoughts - Gimli

Taking a closer look at Gimli’s characterization and character arc between Rivendell and Lothlórien, what stands out is how strongly it is defined by defensiveness. Gimli’s aware that elves - certainly the wood-elves, who live nearest to Erebor - mistrust dwarves. He is completely unwilling for his people to be seen as less trustworthy, moral, admirable, or knowledgeable than elves are. This comes up in all his arguements with elves, but there are signs of it even before his early exchanges of Legolas. Gimli, notably, is the one who debates with Elrond over oaths when the Company are setting off, whereas many people would be shy of openly arguing with an elven-lord who’s specifically renowned for his knowledge and wisdom.

Their first disagreement between Gimli and Legolas starts up when Gandalf mentions that in Eregion there was friendship between dwarves and elves.

“It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned,” said Gimli.

“I have not heard it was the fault of the Elves,” said Legolas.

“I have heard both,” said Gandalf, “and I will not give judgement now. But I beg you two, Legolas and Gimli, at least to be friends and to help me. I need you both.”

(I find this first exchange quite ridiculous - as does Gandalf, clearly. They’re arguing about why their people aren’t friends! If you both recognize that’s an undesirable state of affairs, then just be friends! Which is basically what Gandalf says.)

The second exchange, outside Lothlórien, is similar in its dynamic, when Legolas is telling the story of Nimrodel:

“[The song of Nimrodel] is long and sad, for it tells how sorrow came upon Lothlórien, Lórien of the Blossom, when the Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains.”

“But the Dwarves did not make the evil,” said Gimli.

“I said not so; yet evil came,” answered Legolas sadly.

Both of these interactions are characterized by Gimli’s defensiveness - any time there’s something like even an implicit criticism of dwarven actions, he jumps in. This defensiveness shows up much more strongly in Lothlórien, when the elves insist he be blindfolded: “I will go forward free, or I will go back and seek my own land, where I am known to be true of word, though I perish alone in the wilderness.”

(Legolas, for his part, seems to be actively endeavouring to avoid an argument in both cases. In the first exchange, he says “I have not heard it was the fault of the Elves,” presenting it as a description of his own limited knowledge rather than a statement of fact. In the second one, he avoids arguing and switches to a neutral, non-dwarf-related statement when Gimli objects. I also noticed that it’s Legolas who drags Gimli away from Balin’s tomb in Moria, after the battle. He seems to be trying to heed Gandalf’s urging that the two of them be friends. This makes me think that Legolas does not have any personal animus against dwarves, or dislike of Gimli; what he does have are unthinking biases from growing up in a culture that’s hostile to them, and that’s what comes out under stress during the argument over blindfolds in Lothlórien. I do love the way Aragorn calls him on his racial generalizations, btw.)

Gimli’s defensiveness is the reason why Galadriel’s words are so transformative to both his attitude and to his friendship with Legolas. In the throne room of Caras Galadhon, Gimli is for the first time in a situation that is too overwhelming and intimidating for him to stand up for dwarves, even when he is offended:

“Alas!” said Celeborn. “We have long feared under Caradhras a terror slept. But had I known that the Dwarves had stirred up this evil in Moria again, I would have forbidden you to pass the nirthern borders, you and all that went with you. And if it were possible, one would say that Gandalf fell from wisdom into folly, going needlessly into the net of Moria.”

“He would be rash indeed that said that thing,” said Galadriel gravely. “Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life. Those that followed him knew not his mind and cannot report his full purpose. But however it may be with the guide, the followers are blameness. Do not repent of ypur welcome to the Dwarf. If our folk had been exiled long and far from Lothlórien, who of the Galadhrim, even Celeborn the Wise, would pass nigh and would not wish to look upon their ancient home, though it had become an abode of dragons?

“Dark is the water of Kheled-zâram, and cold are the springs of Kibil-nâla, and fair were the many-pillared halls of Khazad-dûm in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings beneath the stone.” She looked upon Gimli, who sat glowering and sad, and she smiled. And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. Wonder came i to his face, and then he smiled in answer.

He rose clumsily and bowed in dwarf-fashion, saying: “Yet more fair is the living land of Lórien, and the Lady Galadriel is above all the jewels that lie beneath the earth!”

There are several things that stand out here. First, Gimli does not respond to Celeborn’s remark about the dwarves stirring up evil - the first time he hasn’t responded to a comment of that sort about dwarves. Both the surroundings and the company are overwhelming, and on top of that, Gandalf is dead as a result of the balrog being awakened and he may feel unable - emotionally or factual - to dispute Celeborn’s casting of blame for that on the dwarves of Moria. He’s “glowering and sad”, but he can’t manage to muster a defense.

Galadriel’s words are important because they offer both empathy and respect: she expresses that elves would do the same as dwarves in the same circumstances, countering the idea that the dwarves and somehow uniquely wrongheaded in wanting to return to Moria, and she recognizes the beauty and worth of Khazad-dûm and its surroundings (and implicitly, of the dwarven language). She’s defending Gimli at the very moment when he’s run out of words to do so himself.

And it’s that recognition and defense from Galadriel - that dwarves are both morally and culturally the equals of elves - that frees Gimli from his defensiveness and open him up to also appreciate and praise the beauty of Lothlórien. And Lothlórien is the point where he and Legolas first become friends, because he’s now in a frame of mind where he no longer needs the same kind of knee-jerk defensiveness, because he’s recieved recognition and respect and validation. (It may also be a similar turning point for Legolas, in terms of modelling that respect and admiration for dwarven creations and culture is not a fundamentally un-Elvish sentiment, which is the kind of idea one could easily internalize growing up in Mirkwood.)

This is very important to me, because often Gimli’s regard for Galadriel is placed in terms of admiration for her beauty, but it’s not physical beauty that makes him admire her, it’s her love and recognition and respect for his culture and people, and her empathy for them. (I’ve got another post to work on about the use/meaning of beauty in Tolkien’s works.)

#tolkien #the lord of the rings #gimli #galadriel #legolas #character thoughts

[mallowstep]

the nature of folklore

today, i want to talk about the nature of folklore.

we're not divorced from it in the modern day by any means: the nature of folklore is that it is always there.

after all, how many times have you heard that if your roommate dies, you get an a? or listened eagerly to someone's tale of an impossible encounter with an impossible stranger?

folklore is omnipresent. it is woven into us.

that said, we don't have a ton of folklore via stories, oral history, and songs anymore. if i could singlehandedly change that, i would. i grew up telling stories, keeping the history of my family in vignettes i taught to my brother, making up comforting fables for my younger cousins when they couldn't sleep.

my mother sang me lullabies, amazing grace, you are my sunshine, tula tula, melodies i can no longer name but would recognize in a heartbeat.

i went to a summer camp where you were never too old for a bedtime story, where the greatest reward, even for a pack of sixteen year olds, desperately vieing for independence, was to hear another story. i can still tell you the story of the invisible prince, of how such and such and so and so met and married, recount the little prince or hatchet or my side of the mountain in impeccable detail.

unfortunately, i am but one voice, and i don't think i really want to change us back. let culture progress, it is the way of the world.

but i have so many stories for cats. trust me, i have about 20 drafts sitting of stories for these murder cats. but i want to take a moment to talk about how folklore works, what it does, and why it's important.

[3.7k words. 20 minute read. section headers, minimal formatting changes.]

oral history: a written explanation

i'm feeling a bit punny.

anyway, i'm not qualified to talk about oral history. what i am qualfied to do is talk about the broadest sense of it.

oral history is not an accurate way of keeping records. stories change, people forget things, the tales become exaggerated and tweaked.

but...it's not the worst way. it's a real, sincere, history.

for example, in my full moon, it's unlikely that one individual really mastermined this plan. especially not the same individual who sorted out some other important part of skyclan business, which in it of itself is a tall-tale.

realistically, the clans realized they had an error, decided on when they would meet, and just went with it.

but briarleap is one of skyclan's heroes. she's not the only one: rushfoot and dovestar are also important heroes. she fills a particular type of archetype: she's the young hero, who sees the world more clearly than those around her and comes up with a solution.

so it makes sense to assign her to the problems which are clever and had no obvious solution. she's not really a trickster archetype, but she is clever, young, and has no real power within the clan.

in other words, she's a ya novel protagonist.

likewise, the yet-unwritten story of briarleap and swallowpaw definitely didn't happen as it's told. that's just a nice box to put it in, a nice cover for an important lesson: mark unstable branches.

all the clans probably have a similar version of briarleap's story. i can't tell you for sure who the equivalent is, because i don't know, but it's worth remembering that almost none of these cats existed.

i think riverclan's will be a cat named briarstream.

you see what i mean, they're both named briar- because briarleap belongs to no cat. they just have a suffix that corresponds with common clan names.

now, i can't speak for anyone else, but in come back to you one by one, by solacefruit, there's a cautionary tale about catching koi. we get this line:

The koi were left alone because the tall folk loved them. That was the truth of the story. The real truth, not Linnetleaf’s version.

that confirms it, the story is a warning that's been polished into something kinder and more forgiving. (i highly recommend come back to you one by one btw.)

that's how oral history works.

it's not good for having a factual understanding of historical events, but...that's not really the point.

shared stories

another thing is, a lot of clans share the same stories.

i already talked about briarleap/stream/??? for the other clans, but it's more than just that.

every clan is going to claim that they have the right, correct story, that the other clans don't tell it well, etc., but with the exception of clan specific stories, that's not generally true.

okay this is hard to explain bc i'm still drafting/editing a lot of what i'm talking about right now and full moon is kind of a boring story for this. so i'm going to use the story of the long night, because that's the closest to finished and most likely to have been published by the time i finish this.

cw: the long night is a story that involves infanticide and cannibalism. i'm not graphic about it, but it's featured very heavily. we move into discussion at "STORY COMPLETE," and i move on entirely at "SAFE"

okay, so to summarize very briefly, the long night is a story about the seasons and about queen madness. it's one piece of clan creation mythos.

basically, before there were seasons, the night and day just took turns. during the night, everyone slept, but during the day, everything woke. one night, the night doesn't end. i'm telling the thunderclan version, because that's the version i'm working on, but this is a tale from before there were clans, so while every clan says their version is universal, it's definitely not.

there's a queen, slateflower, who has six kits (pigeonkit, harekit, fallowkit, dewkit, ripplekit, and muddykit), who are very young. her mate, silvershadow, has been hunting for her, because there was no clan to provide.

he's able to catch a small amount of prey, but as the night goes on, slateflower just doesn't have enough milk. she knows her kits are going to starve, so she picks the weakest one, kills it, and eats it. when silvershadow returns and asks what happens, she says that muddykit died and she buried her. this repeats itself until only pigeonkit and harekit are left.

silvershadow fails to catch anything, so he comes back, and sees slateflower try to decide who's weaker. he realizes what's happening, takes harekit from slateflower so she doesn't have to decide, and brings the kit into a clearing. he begs the moon to end the night so he can feed his family again.

it takes him a couple times, and he also is searching for another nursing queen. he finds a queen named flamepuddle, who also had a litter of six kits (silentkit, webkit, wildkit, dustykit, beetlekit, and talonkit), as well as taking in the kits of her sister, echofur, (heatherkit, redkit, goldkit, leafkit, cricketkit, and graykit), and right now, only redkit, leafkit, talonkit, goldkit, and cricketkit had survived. (the rest, and her sister, died of starvation.)

flamepuddle agrees to take in harekit, and the night eventually ends.

silvershadow decides that he, flamepuddle, and slateflower will live together. this isn't a thunderclan origin story, mind, just the beginning of collective cat behavior. but one of the reasons it is a distinctly thunderclan edition is because the implication is that later on, the other clans are all splinter groups.

there's also an implication that such large litters used to be more common, à la how in the bible, people used to be more fertile.

so anyway, because all cats are said to be descendents of these nine cats (silvershadow, flamepuddle, slateflower, redkit, talonkit, goldkit, cricketkit, harekit, and pigeonkit — leafkit dies later on), it's said they all carry the trauma of the long night and queens, feeling unsafe, will choose the strongest of their litter.

STORY COMPLETE

so.

in thunderclan's telling, flamepuddle and silvershadow are made to be the heroes, and slateflower is the villain. notice that slate is a windclan name, and the kits who die don't have very thunderclan prefixes. the implication is that this is because the other clans are weaker.

in a riverclan telling, instead of flamepuddle and slateflower, we might have puddlefeather and tallsong, and the kits who survive might be fallowkit and dewkit.

in skyclan, we might have mothpetal and nightstep, with surviving kits echokit and maplekit.

and so on. silvershadow usually keeps his name, tho. or at least half of it.

the 10th cat who dies is also variable. in thunderclan, it's another kit. slateflower is understood to not have intended her actions. in shadowclan, it's the slateflower analogy who dies. in riverclan, silvershadow dies and puddlefeather and tallsong have to work together.

so we always have the same story, but the details of it change, and there's a lot about the clan in that.

it might even be that the reason puddlefeather is able to keep five out of twelve kits alive is because she can fish for herself. tallsong can't.

and this is a story that's supposed to be universal, before the time of clans.

imagine how differnt briarleap and briarstream are. no, seriously, i don't have it in me to do five versions of every folk tale i write, so y'all have to live with one.

anyway, i could go on here, but wow, this section is...much longer than i meant as it is whoops.

SAFE

morals, protagonists, and antagonists

i'm not going to lie, i'm somewhat exhausted from the last section.

basically, the "protagonists" are often the ones who make mistakes. this is because that's a common theme for parables. you want the protagonist, who listeners relate to, to understand the mistakes and learn from them.

there's almost always a moral in these stories. they're not told just to entertain. they're ritualistic, nigh religious, tied in deeply with their culture.

finally, when an opposing clan is needed, (a) the clan telling the story is nearly always in the right, and (b) it tends to shift to whoever the clan is most antagonistic with.

a lot of my stories are shadowclan v skyclan because they have the strongest story-telling development and i don't have any aus planned for shadowclan and (old) skyclan, but i really like what i've developed for them.

in the case a friendly clan is needed, that also tends to shift, but it's less likely to change. it's significantly more likely to change if they're fighting with the clan in the tale.

for this reason, clans tend to be allies with cross territory clans in stories. you're just less likely to fight with someone who's territory you're across from, and you get fun flanking if you gang up on someone in the middle.

characters and archetypes

so i mentioned how briarleap is a certain kind of archetype, and that's pretty common in folklore. you've got your tricksters, witches, wise elders, w/e. i could do a bunch of research into folklore and find a canonized list but i'm approximately 90% sure it's going to tell me it varies by culture so. instead of doing that, i'm going to talk through some of the character archetypes i've been using.

please keep in mind that this is highly suspect to change. also, i'm referring to a lot of cats in my lore posts, so i'm sorry, because if you don't keep up with that, you might be a little bit lost. if you want to check out my folklore, it's here. maybe one day i'll make a kit simulation list that gives them to you in the order a kit would be told them.

the young warrior — characters like briarleap. smart, creative, and willing to speak up when something is wrong. they're who young kits should aspire to be. they're the most common protagonist in stories for young kits, and they're one of the only protagonists for stories with a "good" lead.

cassandra — prophetic characters who struggle to act on their prophecies. goosefeather types. they're cautionary tales, warnings about who not to be, because these are true seers who failed. sometimes, it is framed as the clan being wrong (e.g., berrymoon's main story is about this), but usually it's because the character said too much/too little, at the wrong time, etc.

impulsive apprentice — another warning. characters like swallowpaw. their actions are usually not actually wrong, but they end up being wrong with hindsight. they're tragic characters, and their warnings are usually about the rules established because of them, rather than not being like them.

wise leader/deputy — it's exactly what it sounds like lmao. usually, this is going to be the deputy more than the leader, because the deputy is a far more relatable position than the leader. these are your rushfoots and lilytails, deputies who make quick decisions on the behalf of their clan.

foolish/selfish warrior — warriors who take actions selfishly, which wrap back around to hurt themselves. these are the "protagonists" of the tales about feeding elders and kits first, and so on. they're actually the most common protagonist in stories over all. it's kind of a wide category, including everything from slateflower from "the long night" to lightningcall from "full moon." you know, a queen who only escaped the dark forest because it didn't exist, and a tom whose "mistake" was not showing up to a deputy meeting he was physically unable to attend.

there are, naturally, many more archetypes. there are archetypes for every role in the clan, often many. there's probably some amount of symbolism in the names — perhaps "-leap" is a skyclan indicator of a young warrior, etc., but at least right now, i'm not interested in that. i have more fun naming characters than worrying about the symbolism behind it, because i'm trying to also provide an understanding of clanlife, and that requires bending the rules.

(i mean, for what it's worth, this is true of many things. "the long night" as thrushpelt tells it is not the full version. usually, you wouldn't separate it from "the four seasons," but also, he glazes over the infanticide and cannibalism because he's talking to, like, four-year-olds, explaining how their mother had inherited a trait from slateflower.)

overall, though, i think these five are enough to give you an idea of what the archetypes look like.

interestingly, i also want to call attention to the fact that there's no specific trickster archetype. i mean, there is, because it's (a) one of the most common, and (b) it needs to exist for what i'm about to say, but it doesn't properly count.

see, cats are good at being sneaky and smart and clever. you know this if you have a cat.

clan cats also have to be good at following rules.

so basically every protagonist and antagonist in a story is some permutation of the trickster. the young warrior is the trickster but with less pointless trickery. the impulsive apprentice is probably the closest to straight-up trickster, but there's usually no associated deception. etc.

but in general, all cats should be clever and smart and finding new solutions, so there isn't a specific trickster.

names and times

on a related note, one that's significantly harder to demonstrate, the names of cats get repeated a lot.

in the real world, this is because the names are approximately 75% generated and 25% tweaked, and i have a bias towards certain names.

in the context of lore and worldbuilding, and why i'm not doublechecking against my database of every cat i've ever mentioned, this is because, well, it should make sense for certain elders to tell multiple stories, or, logically, for a kit to grow into a warrior grow into an elder and tell a story.

i mean, dovestar's nine lives are a huge part of skyclan, because each life is supposed to demonstrate some fundamental principle, and they're told over the nine moons of a kit's life (again, cats count kits' lives from the season before they're born for the purpose of holy nine, and from their actual birth for every other purpose, which is how brokenstar got around the warrior code fun fact), so yeah, i'll probably have some repetition in there.

likewise, there's no timeline for these. we don't know what happens when at all, except that the cats telling a story are younger than the cats in the story, and any "book cats" are younger than any other mentioned cat.

(that last point is because exactly one story is told by thrushpelt.)

so anyway, really hazy times and names because...that's how things go m8.

impact of the great journey

so as you can imagine, the great journey is a pretty big deal.

first of all, we're running out of cats who can remember the forest. in thunderclan, according to moonkitti, who i trust in this, birchfall is the youngest cat who can remember it. so considering birchfall could have great grandchildren in the next book or two, i'd say that we're pretty much done with cats who lived there.

even among the other cats, squirrelflight was an apprentice, and she went on the first journey, so there's that. cloudtail and brightheart won't be around for much longer, and graystripe might be immortal, but if he isn't, he'll be gone soon too.

i mean, i know there are non-thunderclan cats, but do you know their names? do you?

yeah. that's what i thought.

anyway, my point is, right now, in canon time, all of the stories are set in the forest. but like, that's kind of not helpful.

who knows, there's probably a story about sunningrocks that just doesn't make sense anymore.

i don't know for sure how the great journey impacts the folklore. this is because there's not an easy way for me to write it. my elders' den stuff is specifically set before tbp, so i don't have to think about adding in the villains of tbp.

why only tbp? because we have 3 wonderful, fantastic, folklore worthy villains. in tnp, we have the journey, in po3, we have interpersonal drama, in oots, we have rehashings of old villains, in dotc nothing matters, in avos, we have weird fuzziness i don't really remember what happened after darktail tbh, and tbc is ongoing. but wait! i hear you saying, what about hawkfrost? and darktail himself? and... no. shut up. they don't matter. just. they're not. they don't. they're not lore villains is what i'm saying very poorly. they're not the kind of villains who inspire lore. maaaaybe darktail? but he was far too recent for folklore.

anyway.

i'm sure in all of the po3 stuff i have on the horizon, i'll explore this more. dovefeather lore is in the awkward middle ground — everything is from the perspective of cats who never knew the old forest, but pretty much everyone older than them does, so it's unlikely anything substantive has changed.

but i have a lot of po3 extended universe plans that might dip in to this?

but for spitballing purposes, what probably happens is that most stories are just reskinned.

things like stories about sunningrocks are going to be repurposed. maybe about that weird strip of territory that they fought over? i'm not sure.

some stories will get to stay in the old forest, like the battle with bloodclan. and some stories will fade out, just as they always do. but for the most part, once the elders didn't live in the forest, they're just going to start plopping stories in the lake.

also, the great journey itself is 100% already folklore. i don't have to do that part, canon actually does it for me. kits are constantly being told about the great journey, or apprentices are telling us they were told about it, or someone is having a weird dream sequence that involves it.

the great journey is a major part of folklore, and that's cool. maybe if i run out of old stories, i'll do some post-canon elders' den stuff. we'll see, i'm definitely not feeling it right now, but that could change.

speaking of great...

this is a minor thing, but like, what's up with all the greats?

the great journey, okay, yeah, sure, makes sense.

and then we have the great battle.

also legit. it had been a while.

and then...the great storm?

look, i understand the storm in bramblestar's storm was a big deal. i have a lot of thoughts about bramblestar's storm as a book and this isn't that. but...

can we compare how many cats died in the great journey and the great battle? and we lost, like, three cats in the great storm

don't get me wrong, i sobbed like a baby when briarlight died.

oh hold on i lied that wasn't this book. never mind never mind.

i just, like, it's very strange IMO to have this great being a thing. or at least, i don't now, i guess it's evolution of culutre?

bluh okay i'm hungry and i do not focus well so i'm going to finish up but just. great. interesting.

conclusion

folklore is a topic i'm really interested in, and i try really hard to think through the consequences of, well, everything i can.

i'm definitely missing a lot of details — specifically, i scratched out my plans for a specific creation myth — but i like the general shape of the lore i'm building up.

#warriors au #warriors culture #warrior cats #warriors worldbuilding #warriors #q #mine #txt #26th #March #2021 #March 26th 2021 #cloudtail's daughter #jaywing #dovefeather #essay #long

[drkoestersmithrpg]

The Last Chapter Of The Problem With Quentin Beck

BTW my computer is screwed up and there is no freaking spellcheck working on Ao3 so I have to proof this later.  But this will finish THAT story.

There are things in life one should resist.  There are good, logical reasons to resist them.

And then there are things you have been dreaming about since you were 12 years old.

Tony's hands on his face, Tony's mouth on his mouth, these were those things.

Spider-Man could resist gravity.  Spider-Man could resist up to 300 tons.  But the tender hand moving down to the small of his back and pulling him closer?  He couldn't resist that at all.

Two hands went up to drape around Tony's neck.  Maybe he shouldn't have done it, but muscle-memory is a powerful thing.  And years muscle-memories (albeit all in his dreams) easily won out over coherent thought.  Tony might be drunk, but Tony was kissing him, and in that moment that was all that mattered.

He melted into the kiss.  He molded his body against Tony's, reveling in the sensation of Tony's erection... no he hadn't imagined it... pressing shamelessly against him.  Tony's arms were like iron, wrapping around him, keeping him safe.

He could have given in completely, relaxed and enjoyed this dream-come-true…

...until Tony’s hand wandered up to his chest and tried to push the button to disengage his suit.

Panicked, Peter stiffed and jerked away.  

Tony let him go instantly, backing away and appologizing, stumbling over his words, hanging his head.  Peter regretted it instantly, but getting naked with Tony?  That would only complicated things a thousandfold.  He couldn't let his mentor and long-time crush find out how disgusting his pre-pubescent-looking body could be... not before they had...

...but he couldn't exactly waltz into Tony's dark bedroom to get down and dirty until...

"Tony Quentin Beck is going to expose me and tell the world I'm Spider-Man and also he knows Aunt May's address and I have 24 hours or less to figure out what to do about it if I'm lucky if he bought it but I don't know..."

There was a split-second it was there, and Peter saw it.  Something very few people in this world had ever seen.  Something that simply appear on Tony's face very often.  

It was that moment that he needed to process.

It lasted, of course, only for a moment.  Instantly it was gone - instantly his face was fixed.   He stepped forward again, a completely different man.  He wrapped one comforting arm around Peter's shoulders in a half-hug while his other hand got to work, pulling up a screen.  Calling on FRIDAY to engage the "Lois Lane" protocall, then rattling off a list of people to get on the phone. 

“I can’t… I shouldn’t…" Peter was saying, or trying to say.  He plunged ahead in the few seconds while Tony waited to be connected.  "... Tony... I should probably tell you what I did before you do that…”

“Baby there’s nothing you could ever do that would ever make me stop loving you.”

Peter’s eyes went wide, as did his mouth, and he stood staring helplessly as Tony, still looking at the holoscreen in front of him, made this statement.  A statement that sounded as factual as the weather.

Then Tony looked back at him and kissed his cheek.

“I’m old,” he was whispering. “…and broken and deeply ugly inside, and you could do so much better than me, and you have done so much better that me. 

“But I love you,” he said, pulling back enough to look Peter in the eye.  “… and nothing, nothing you’ll ever do can change that.”

He kissed Peter then (kind of awkward because Peter’s jaw was still hanging open.)  He might have done more, but Fury came on line just at that moment.  Tony gave him a quick hug with his single arm, then walked away.

                                                                   * * *

  Peter watched in amazement as the man who had been drunk (and calling himself Daddy moments ago) snapped into Tony-Mode and went right to work.  He collapsed on the couch beside him and watched Tony pace, zipping through the holographic screen that was floating beside him, keeping up with his movements.  Within minutes he had schduled Aunt May for a "sweepstakes vacation" that she would "win" before the evening was over, booked her a week at a luxery hotel, utilized several Avenger-level lawyers with high-security clearance and pissed off Nick Fury to boot.  At some point he had even stopped to fetch his glass of wine.

As Tony argued with a glass of wine in one hand (while keyboarding the details of Aunt May's whirlwind vacation on the holoscreen beside him) Peter found himself, absurdly, falling asleep against the pillows behind him.  He couldn't imagine that it was happening, not after the evening he had just had (evening?  More like the last two hours) but as his eyes drifted closed he realize why.  He was relieved.  

He had actually broken up with Quentin Beck, and the release of that statement was like coming out from under a colapsed building that was resting on a pair of aching shoulders.  He repeated the fact to himself over and over again as he dozed.  It was true.  It was done.  The man who made him feel like he was losing his mind was gone.  He might still very well be crazy, but at least he no longer caried the burden of also pissing Quentin off with his crazyness.  As he slept he dreamed, and in his dream...

... in his dream he flew away from it all.  He didn't swing away, he flew, zooming away from the city just like Iron Man.  But his suit didn't freeze up as he entered the upper atmosphere, oh no.  He continued to zoom up effortlessly.  And as he flew, he looked down upon the earth, and he saw.  He saw it all.

Saw the way Peter Parker, still a half-formed creature, part swaggar and strut (he was an Avenger after all) and half un-sure (he was a secret Avenger, and still lost in the maze that was the attentions of Tony Stark) had fallen into the web that was the Allure Of Quentin Beck.  He saw himself explaining to Quentin, clearly, that this had to stay casual, a sex-only thing, Friends-With-Benefits-At-Best, a no-strings-attach arragement or it could be nothing at all.  And he saw Quentin Beck agreeing to the arangement up front, then constantly trying to pull the rug out from under him behind his back.  He saw it all, the deliberate misleading statements, the deliberate misintereptations, the deliberate planting of doubt.  He saw it like the back of a tapestry, like the very original rough draft of an old sci-fi epic, the network of tunnels under the amusment park.  He could see it, the careful maniuplation.  The carefully laid plan.  He knew he wouldn't be able to see it forever - that only up here, amoung the stars, would he be able to see it laid out so perfectly.  Once he fell back to earth the plan would be hidden from him, but he could remember that the plan was there.  Even if he forgot how the magic trick worked, Peter could still remember that it was just a trick.  He could remember, and he would remember.  He would remember, and he would stay safe.

He would stay safe, because he wasn't really flying above the earth.  He was really asleep on Tony Stark's couch.  He could still hear Tony Stark's voice in the background, arguing with his phone, arguing with the higherups, pulling strings, making things happen.  When Peter woke up, he would be safe.  He had no doubt about it.  He smiled in his sleep.  It was strangely warm and safe, here among the stars.  

It was safe, because he was with Iron Man.

                                                 * * * 

  And now Iron Man was shaking him awake.  Most of the phone calls were done, but there were two projects still proccessing on two active holoscreens, but Tony was clearly satisfied with the results, and was now trying to get Peter to go to bed.  

"Don't... you don't have to..." he said, as Peter tried to move up for a kiss.  "Let's just... let's forget about that.  Get yourself to bed, get some sleep.  We have a lot to do tomorrow morning..."

He tried to rise.  Impossible, with Peter's single hand on his arm in an unbreakable grip.  He looked away as the younger man pulled him back onto the couch.

"Forget the part where the Tony Stark kissed me on the mouth and said he loved me?  No.  Nope.  Not gonna.  Screw that..." Peter said and leaned forward for another kiss.  He gently kissed the side of the turned face.  He kissed it several times.  Then he lay his hand across the side of the older man's face and moved in close.

"I shouldn't have..."

"Yes you should have.  And you did.  And it's too late to take it back now."

"I did... and then you jumped like I had shocked you..."

"Yeah... well... it's gonna have to get real dark in here before I get naked..." Peter grinned now.  Yesterday this conversation would have made him blush right down to his toes.  Now it just seemed ridiculous.  "But you're a rich man... I'm sure you have a dark room in here somewhere.  Plus you're a genius... I think you can figure out how to turn out the lights..."

He laughed at the face Tony was making now, staring at him in complete confusion.  But it didn't matter now.  Suddenly, Peter realized that none of it really mattered.

He kissed that slack mouth, then took Tony's face in both hands, looking deep into those dark eyes as he spoke.

"You’re ‘old and broken and ugly inside.’

"...and I’m in a lot of trouble and beyond stupid and a basket case and probably losing my mind and stuck in a perpetually 15-year-old body for the rest of my life,” he whispered, moving in close for another kiss.

“Let’s see what we can do with that.”

[mysticalrunawayprincess]

Everything He Ever Wanted

Hi Guys! This is a new Jay Park fanfic I’m working on (because we are in a serious shortage and us girls need our fantasy fix!) Its about Jay falling in love and wanting to settle down, and all the headache and heartache that ensues (cue lots of angst, sexy times and love :P). I post the stories on Wattpad as I’m not sure if I’d be able to post the full story on here (Tumblr guidelines and stuff) but I am going to be posting the first chapter here and then every time I publish a new chapter I’ll post the links for you to read. The story is for 18ANDOVER! If you are not 18 this story isn’t for you (sorry). And Jay if you are reading this: its pure fantastical fiction! I don’t mean to embarrass or cast aspersions on you in any kind of way. If you are reading this (PLEASE dont lol), I hope I did your fantasy character justice :P. For the rest of you, happy reading!

Oh BTW: New Chapters every Friday, but you get this one a day early just because I love y’all!!! xxxxxxxxxx

1. Home Is Where The Heart was

An exhausted sigh left Jay's lips in a rush, as he entered through the  open door and dropped his bags on the heated marble flooring.

Having been away on tour for 6 weeks Jay had a lot of bags to carry; all heavy, all full of laundry.

He paused and took a breath in, savouring the smell of home, the smell of Her.

She  hadn't been home in a long time. This was no longer to be Her home;  hell it hadn't even been Her "home" for longer than a few weeks, most of  which she had spent elsewhere (or rather somewhere else). But since She  had been the last person in the house before Jay had left for the tour,  Her scent still lingered. And it was this scent that invaded Jay's  senses, coiling around his synapses and holding them at ransom as his  mind cast back to the last moment he saw Her.

Jay stood watching   Her leave through the polished glass doors of his office building, Her   words still ringing in his ears like a death knell, "We can't do this   any more Jay, I have to go back and live my life..." She took a pause   here, her perfectly soft and plump lips quivering momentarily, almost as  if to hold Her back from completing the sentence,"... and you have to live yours."

Now the thing is, when Jay first saw Her walk  through the doors; Her soft hair in which he loved to bury his face now  framing Her face in a twist-out that beautifully rippled in the light  breeze of the evening night air as She stepped through the glass door,  his heart had soared and swooped the same way it did every day since the  very first day he had seen Her.

His face broke into an  unstoppable smile as he outstretched his arms to embrace Her,   automatically breathing in Her scent as She stepped into his embrace,   clinging to him as though She would be otherwise flung into the furthest  reaches of space.

Jay hadn't noticed the shine of unshed tears  demanding to be released. He hadn't noticed the taxi outside, and he  certainly didn't know that it was taking Her to the airport.

He was oh-so blissfully unaware of  all of these little details.

She had been going back and forth with this for weeks, months even, ever  since  their relationship had first begun showing signs of becoming  more serious (unbeknownst to Jay). And try as She might, She knew this  couldn't work; there were too many moving parts, too many things to  consider and too many sacrifices to be made. She thought it best that  She end this now before it got too serious and whilst they were still  able to at least salvage some sort of friendship from the wreckage.

Noticing She was lost in thought, Jay nudged Her, asking if She were OK.

Now  on the way over here, She had already told herself  that She wasn't  going to cry and do the whole melodramatic stuff; that She was going to  keep it light and factual and hoped he would understand.

And so  when She quickly lifted Her head to meet his eye, Her face had already  settled into a bright and easy smile, belying the ton of bricks that She  was about to drop onto the smitten and unsuspecting Jay Park.

Now,  as he watched Her leave after begging Her to reconsider ("... you don't  have to do this..."). His heart beat harder with every step She took   to the waiting cab outside. He was frozen helpless, unable to stop this  series of Very Unfortunate and Fucked Up Events.

He watched the taxi drive away, taking with it the only piece of true happiness that he had ever felt in a long, long time.

And he had let it happen.

BZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The  vibration of Jay's phone broke him out of his reverie with a snap. He  thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled it out, glancing at the  screen as he made his way to the kitchen.

BZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

He paused with his hand on the handle of the refrigerator, his thumb hovering indecisively over the phone screen.

BZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

He  rolled his eyes and pressed the green button, putting the phone to his  ear at the same time as he pulled open the refrigerator door.

"Heeeeeyyyyyy  bro, whatcha doin'?" the gravelly voice of Jay's business partner Mike  came through the phone as vivid as if he were standing in the room,  rather than 5,000 miles away.

"Hey, Mike" Jay chuckled. "Not much, just got back."

"How was the tour?"

"Yeah it was good. The guys killed as usual," said Jay, into an empty fridge.

"Did you get any numbers?" Jay could practically hear the Cheshire Cat smile on Mike's face as he asked this question.

He  sighed as he closed the refrigerator door and made his way to the  living room. "No I didn't get any numbers Mike" Jay said, plopping down  dejectedly onto his plush sofa, allowing his head to fall back, eyes  staring straight at the ceiling.

"Jay, you are really wasting your unlimited pussy allowance, man!"  groaned Mike. Jay chuckled in response, closing his eyes and wearily  raising a hand to rub them. "Dude you should be literally DROWNING in  pussy!"

"I'm too busy for all that extra shit, Mike." Jay sighed.

"Extra  shit? Dude." Mike was all seriousness now, leaving a pause so pregnant  that it caused Jay to sit up and open his eyes. "You are never, too  tired, for pussy!" Jay fell back into his original position, another  exhausted sigh leaving his lips as he landed except this time, he had a  little smile on his face.

Mike's dry humour was a welcome salve right now anyway.

"Plus, Jay; I'm married."

"I know Mike."

"So that means I'm living vicariously through you, my dude!"

"Mike-"

"Look,  forget about all that anyway" Mike interrupted Jay, sensing he was not  perhaps his usual playful self and wondering if he had perhaps struck a  nerve.

Mike was quite intuitive, even if he sometimes came off as  oblivious. In his world, he found that feigning ignorance can sometimes  be a better strategy around people, especially when dealing with the  types of sensitive and high-flying businessmen he was used to dealing  with on a daily basis.

Or when his friend had something - or  someone - on his mind that may need to be discussed away over copious  amounts of alcohol sometime in the near-future.

"Remember you  have the interview with Vogue Korea about the new AOMG site and app,"  said Mike making a mental note to revisit this again at a later time.

"Yeah" sighed Jay gratefully, thankful for the change in subject. "When is it again?"

"Friday. 9.30AM"

Jay pulled his phone away from his ear and checked the screen. The interview would be in three days time.

"Cool, my assistant already has the details anyway. I'll check my emails to see when the car will be arriving."

"Sweet. Hit me up later, so we can talk a bit about the Nike deal. But until then; GET SOME SLEEP."

Click

Mike ended the call.

Jay  allowed the phone to slide from his ear onto the sofa next to him,  bringing both hands up to gently rub his face before dropping his head  back and allowing his arms to drop onto the sofa back. The huge floor to  ceiling windows directly opposite bathed him in the light of the  setting sun, as he allowed his exhausted and aching body to sink deeper  into his seat.

As his mind drifted, he remembered a particular  evening spent on this same sofa during a thunderstorm not too long after  he had first met Her. In fact, there were many evenings he remembered  being spent on this sofa (not all of them as innocent as the particular  evening he currently had in mind however, but all of them just as  enjoyable).

Sharing one of those huge soft furry blankets that  She loved so much, with a low fire burning in the marble wood-burning  fireplace to the right of them.

She had been drinking Jack  Daniel's, and he had been drinking soju, both just talking to and laughing with each other in an atmosphere of comfortability, while   outside torrential rain pounded against the monolithic windows and   brilliant forks of lightening spilt the charcoal grey and roiling sky,   causing occasional rolls of thunder which reverberated throughout the   building.

The dichotomy of the chaos on one side of the window pane, versus the serenity on the other hadn't been lost on either of them.

Every  now again She would interrupt the freely-flowing conversation to point  out a particularly spectacular lightning strike or a close roll of  thunder would make Jay jump, which he would then try to disguise by  acting as though he was just moving positions on the couch or picking  up/putting down his glass (which She very politely acted like She did  not notice, or turned away to hide Her smile - which he had gratefully   appreciated).

Her being in Jay's house had been perfectly  innocent at the time, having being introduced through his artist Jarv  Dee, Jay had innately felt at ease around Her. She had an easy-going and  relaxed nature, with a quick wit and genuine smile. He became further  intrigued when he found out that She was a full-stack developer and  promptly discussed possibly working together on something some time.  Which is how the new AMOG website and H1gher app came about.8

That was exactly one year ago from today and 5 months from the day She ripped out Jay's heart and stomped all over it.

"We can't do this Jay..."

Her words echoed around his head like a death knell.

Jay  had spent every waking moment carefully analysing every detail of their  interactions - every facial expression, every vocal inflection - in the  hopes of being able to at least understand WHY She had done this.

Did he say something - do something - to scare her off?

How, when things were going so good between them, could she just end everything and leave so suddenly?

Jay  was aware that he was getting older but, he hadn't really ever thought  of what the future would look like for him and who he would want to  settle down with. The kind of jet-setting lifestyle Jay led meant he had  the luxury of being able to avoid thinking about such things under the  guise of being "too busy".  And with the fast life Jay led, the women he  came across had been just as fast.

That is until he had met Her.

Meeting Her had made him truly question his life dynamic, made him want to change his dynamic.

Made  him think about when would be the time to put down the mic for good and  step back to make way for the younger artists coming up behind him?

Jay  had almost single-handedly built an entire musical empire in a foreign  land, which meant he really had to think about who it was he wanted to  share that with.

A thought he had never needed to have before Her.

She  had awakened something in him that he had been confident was dormant,  something which he had convinced his concerned parents and nagging  brother he wasn't quite ready for.

She made him think more of the life after. After all the parties, interviews, world travelling, and screaming fans.

Of the life he lived when he was just Jay, the dorky kid from Seattle.

Who did he want to come home to? Who did he want waiting for him when the lights had faded and the music stopped?

The  morning after the lightening storm had been the first time Jay had  woken up to Her. They had fallen asleep where they sat in Jay's plush  sofa, having spent the evening bonding over their respective careers,  old 90s RnB and alcohol. Seeing her head resting upon the opposite  armrest of his sofa, the golden rays of the early morning sun  illuminating the golden undertones of Her skin, made something inside  him sing. He knew he liked having Her around, liked hearing Her voice,  liked knowing she was OK.

He loved being in her presence, hearing Her laugh, seeing Her focused frown whilst She was working.

He loved smelling Her, breathing Her in whenever he could.

He loved hearing Her footsteps on his hardwood floor.

He hated not knowing why it went wrong.

But  in just a few days the H1gher app and new AOMG website was due to go  live, meaning She would be coming back to Korea for the launch.

Meaning She and Jay would be in each other's company for the first time since Her departure.

Meaning Jay would not only have to face Her, but once She left he'd have to relive the pain of her leaving all over again.

Jay groaned inwardly.

This should be fun, he thought humourlessly.

Jay reached for his phone beside him and dialled an all too familiar number.

"Hello?" Came the answer down the line.

"Hey, is she free?"

"Good evening, Mr Park. Yes she is free. Regular timing?"

Jay let out a barely audible sigh, his 1000th in the 45 minutes he'd been home. He wouldn't need too long. "Yeah."

"She will arrive in 30 minutes."

Jay ended the call.

He  stood and made his way to his drinks cabinet, pouring himself some  Hennessey before walking over to the window to take a sip, surveying the  evening sky and awaiting his visitor.

The objective of the visit was purely for the purposes of release.

And as Jay's buzzer rang twenty-five minutes later, he knew that's all anyone who wasn't Her could offer him.

#jay park #jaypark #aomg #fanfic #angst #emotional #rapper queen #romance #relationship #series daddyvibes

[cats-moss-gays]

@terflies

You’ve been all over my posts so I’m just going to consolidate into this one. I’m tired of scrolling past your long and quite frankly boring responses. This post will be divided into sections. If you’re going to respond please say something interesting. However I doubt either of us will ever change the other’s mind. These are kind of like closing statements and I doubt I’ll make anymore major responses because I’m trying to stay focused on offline things.

1. Unanswered Questions

There are some questions and statements in my reblogs that you conveniently ignored.

Definition of a woman? You responded with some generic bs that very clearly isn’t an answer. I’ll be more specific, what should the dictionary definition be? Any ideas?

If I don’t feel like a woman am I allowed to identify as one? You said you weren’t going to humour this question but it is applicable to me and many other gc women. I definitely don’t have any internal feeling of womanhood, or any gender. Does this mean I have to be agender? Is the female gender label restricted to a certain feeling? Or is there absolutely nothing that women have in common?

What is the feeling of womanhood? You kind of answered this but I have a follow up question. You say the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being perceived as a woman. If I feel indifferent to this does it mean I’m not a woman? Additionally, many women feel uncomfortable with being perceived as a woman because of the misogyny associated with the label, does this make them men?

2. Inaccurate Statements and Lies

I don’t believe any “TRAs” define women by gender roles

You may not but there are many who do. It’s also important to point out how deeply ingrained gender roles are in society; you can’t stop them by just saying your choices exist in a vacuum. I’m sure you think I’m just making this up for fun, so here are some examples ;)  x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

So this whole…thing is dishonest from the start. Gender does not replace sex.

In another post you said that laws should be based on gender instead of sex. So which is it, either gender isn’t replacing sex or it is. When feminists talk about sex based oppression they’re called terfs. When gay people say their attraction is based on sex they’re called transphobic. When people were saying that only females get cervical cancer, they were called violent transphobes. Gender is absolutely attempting to replace sex as the basis of legal protections, safe spaces, political movements, etc. Two of the top post on my blog are more extreme example of this. x - x

BONUS: You’re saying TERF rhetoric

3. The “Questions” Post

You seem very confused about how to define biological sex and to some extent I understand that but you have to stop playing dumb. There must be some way that doctors are able to identify the sex of a fetus before it’s even born in the vast majority of cases, right? And before you try to say I’m just ignoring the existence of intersex people or trying to deny science, I’ll point out that I have watched and read a lot of “sex is a spectrum” stuff. I understand that DSDs exist and that biology is complicated. Our disagreement is mostly not over the facts but over how to define them. I know that however I explain it you’ll pretend you don’t understand it, so instead I’ll just link you to some other sources that explain it more in depth. x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

A third sex—and many creatures have more than two—does not necessarily mean a third gamete. Mostly this question is a childish distraction, but if you were to use a strict, gamete-based definition of sex the answer would be “none”.

So all infertile people are a third sex? To be female you have to be able to bear children? And you call me regressive, yikes. This can be debunked with the same sources from above but I wanted to feature it in my post because I want people to know that you think there’s a third sex.

I made a quick little chart to compare all the things gender has been compared to! The difference is that while many are socially defined, gender is socially constructed. If someone never interacted with other humans, they would still have a skin color, have or not have specific abilities, have a sexual orientation, and be male or female. They would not have an observable gender identity.

1 - You refuse to humor my questions about being a woman who doesn’t feel like one, however this is not in bad faith; I do want to know what you think. Many gc/radfems, including myself, and many women in general do not have a specific feeling of gender. This is especially true for gnc women, who often feel a disconnect from the feminine gender role and subsequently, the feminine gender. The solution is to realize that there are no standards to conform to to be a woman, no clothes or interests or feelings, just the biological reality one is born with.

2 - You say “the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being called a woman” but what does that mean? It’s circular reasoning, a fallacy called begging the question. How do you know you are a woman? If I gave up being a terf on tumblr, how would you advise that I identify if I don’t think I feel like a woman? My current plan was to just pick the mogai flag with the prettiest colors, but I’m thinking maybe there’s more to it than that...

3 - See my explanation above. Sex is comparable to race or disability or sexuality; gender is not.

4 - You say genders are social classes. If they are indeed social classes, they are unnecessary ones that reinforce oppression. They are undefinable when not based on biological sex or gender roles. The other example of classes I can think of is wealth. Wealth classes have obvious divisions, you can’t just identify into more money. Gender has nothing that is shared by every woman, man, or nonbinary, so you can just identify in and out of classes. Additionally, if there are like 100 genders, are there 100 classes? 

4. The “Biological” Sex Post

Gender does not replace sex

Then why are TRAs trying to say sexuality, legal protections, bathrooms, spaces, political movements, etc should be based on gender instead of sex? You keep contradicting yourself; you should talk to your fellow trans activists because many would disagree. Also see my response in part two.

A number of points here aren’t factually wrong but simple (*simply) irrelevant

So you would agree that biological sex is important and that it is relevant to many conversations? Then why were people getting mad about this?

Or this?

On to the specific examples. This post is long enough already and I’m not going to spoon feed basic biology to you because you’ll probably just ignore it. I referenced a variety of sources earlier. I’ll just reference Invisible Women since it’s an amazing book.

1. This first point is, appropriately enough, true in isolation; it just doesn’t support Paradox Institute’s argument. Listing it leads the audience to believe that truth is on their side, but PI do nothing at all to justify that.

So nothing here is true? They’re just lying? Here are their sources btw.

2. Generally irrelevant, but not entirely biologically accurate, either. It isn’t that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are categories intrinsic to nature that produce small, motile and large, immotile gametes respectively; ‘male’ and ‘female’ are labels we assign (generally, but not always) according to gamete size.

So it’s not relevant that one sex has the ability to carry children or menstruation or get an abortion? It’s not like there’s any issues women face specifically for that, right? So we assign the labels male and female to gametes. If you want to play semantics, sure, we created the words, but the gametes themselves already existed. Not really sure what you’re trying to say here other than disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing and moving some words around. Are you implying that the categorizations of gametes are subjective? Are you saying there’s a spectrum of gametes?? Are eggs just big sperm and sperm just small eggs??? Genuinely have no idea what the fuck you’re trying to prove here.

3. Whatever your opinion of evolutionary psychology, this does not preclude gender. (On the contrary, we ought to include gender in our understanding of cultural development with respect to sex.)

The only gender in history was gender roles, and both were tied to sex in most cases. Sex absolutely came before gender and is more integral to our existence. In any time before the last few decades, gender and sex were basically synonyms.

4. Entirely a straw argument. And, to the contrary, precision greater than two sex categories would be beneficial (i.e. specific sex characteristics, history, endocrinology etc.).

Obviously doctors don’t just diagnose based on sex, they factor in medical history and other traits. Precision is irrelevant because it still focuses on sex not gender. If it’s “entirely a straw argument” why did someone else reblog your response with this?

Speaking as a member of a medical family, the medical one fucking OFFENDS me.

Blood type HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENDER. Or biological sex! Both are totally irrelevant! And medication dosage is determined by AGE and SIZE. A 25-year-old 160-pound person with a penis needs the exact same dose as a 25-year-old 160-pound person with a vagina. In fact, possibly LESS of a dose, if the person with a penis is 5’10” and the person with a vagina is 5’5”. (The taller person may be underweight.)

This is just. UGH. I could scream.

@prismatic-bell​ this is one of the funniest and dumbest replies I’ve ever gotten. First of all “member of a medical family” tf is that lmao. This reminds me of that post where the “medical worker” tra turned out to be a garbage collector guy. I have no idea why you brought up blood type when it is literally never mentioned in the original post. Strawman much? Fucking obviously blood type isn’t affected by sex, and you’re completely missing the point if you think gender has anything to do with this. Medication dosage is decided by age and size, yes, but also biological sex. This is like basic medical science, dumbass. Mandatory reading from Invisible Women as punishment for your stupidity crimes:

People called her a terf for this :)

5. How sports are best divided is a far broader question than this point implies. We could, for example, segregate sports by relevant physical attributes (as is already the case in some sports) rather than by sex or gender. This point also presupposes (but does not justify) that a woman having an advantage in women’s sports by dint of being trans is significantly greater than an advantage any woman might have by dint of her natural attributes (which, empirically, she does not) and hence would be unfair. That said, enforcement of “female” sports is already marred by racism and perisexism.

You agree sex and gender are different, yes? So then why should males be in female sports? You’re trying to distract me with that stuff about physical performance and whatever. Focus on the question at hand, should males be allowed into female sports? We cannot eradicate sex-segregated sports because female athletes will be even more systematically disadvantaged. If you were truly a feminist you’d understand that female sports are the result of the movement you claim to support. More Invisible Women facts plus some interesting info about the plough hypothesis:

6. Simply untrue. Excluding trans women from statistics about women on the basis that doing so would affect those statistics is arbitrary at best. Those statistics may change, but that does not mean they are unsuitable or inappropriate. The exclusion of any subset of women can be justified in exactly the same way.

Nope! Stop trying to use women of color and intersex women as justifications for why we should let men pretend to be women. You’ve seen the hundreds of receipts of trans women committing all sorts of male violence. Has anyone found anywhere near a comparable number of trans men doing similar things? They have not, even though if trans men were truly men they would be much more violent.

7. The majority of single-sex spaces are, functionally, just as much single-gender (owing to the traditional equivalence of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and to the majority of the population being cis. Trans people have been using spaces appropriate to their gender for decades, whereas concerns about them doing so are based on speculation and hypotheticals rather than fact. (Aided, as with a lot of bigotry, by bad and manipulated statistics.)

I’ve spoken about my opinions on the bathroom debate before. If a passing trans person uses the bathroom of their choice I don’t really care, but there have already been many examples of men making women uncomfortable in their bathrooms, or worse. Making all bathrooms gender neutral is by far the worst idea, but unfortunately that seems to be where we’re headed. More Invisible Women, just for fun:

8. This is the worst red herring, exploiting violent misogyny for the sake of argument. It is another straw argument, too, since—even ignoring trans-positive feminism in practice and assuming trans people act only in self-interest—trans people are concerned with addressing such injustice.

Sure, many trans people are supportive of feminism. But we can’t effectively dismantle the patriarchy if we can’t accurately describe the (sex-based) oppression involved. Women are routinely silenced when talking about our biology, even when there is no “transphobic” language involved. “Trans-positive feminism” also often reinforces misogyny by supporting sex work and porn, and by shutting down analysis of things like femininity and makeup because “some women like it.” See also from trans activists: misogyny racism homophobia + lesbophobia

9. Similar to (7) there is no consistent distinction between sex and gender across law. Even so, this is another red herring as it is possible to recognise both sex and gender in laws and policies. Some laws already do (at least functionally, if not explicitly).

You can deny it but the TRA train is leaving without you and they’ve been clear about their goals. As you’ve seen in this post, gender is intended to replace sex. Those who bring up sex-based issues are silenced as “terfs” who deserve the hatred thrown at them.

Sorry for making such a long post but I was on a roll so I just kept writing. I don’t expect @terflies​ to respond to all of this but I wanted an excuse to make some sort of masterpost that links to a lot of my other posts and can be used in the future. Online school is going pretty well and I’m trying to start some doing some hobbies that are better than tumblr blogging.

#my posts #discourse #factfem #receipts #masterpost #there's so many things mentioned in this post i'm not going to bother tagging them all #debunking anti terfs #terf

[just-mbti-things]

What are the probabilities of being an empathic INTJ or being and emotionally traumatized INFJ? When i was a kid i used to be really emotional cuz i was very existencialist but cuz of people underestimated me, through time i became really logical, solved things that way and couldn't really cope with feelings despite being highly sensitive. I know this is vague but in asks you cannot write as much so i hope you understand. i just want to know what the possibilities are my usual typing is INTJ btw

Hi Anon!

Although many people think that your MBTI type can be determined at a very young age, us admins at Just MBTI Things don’t agree with that. We prefer to think that your MBTI type cannot be determined until you have fully formed as your own person, which typically occurs around the ages of 7-9 but it can certainly vary from that. 

Speaking for myself personally, I (INTP) was a very loud and very extroverted kid, but I grew into a much more quiet and introverted person. So don’t base yourself too much on how you acted as a child.

That being said, you should try to type yourself based on what feels natural and comfortable, as opposed to basing your type on learned behaviours. For example, many P types may have developed organizational skills that were not inherent to them, but simply having those skills doesn’t turn them into a J type. Furthermore, most children are highly emotionally sensitive. I’m not sure at what age you are talking about, but for the most part, kids get their feelings hurt very easily, and we all (at least somewhat) grow out of that. I would also like to add that your ability to cope with feelings is unrelated to your type. We all have different coping mechanisms, and the environment you grew up in as a child definitely affects this.  

So looking at yourself now, do you find that being really logical is your ‘default’ state? Or do you feel as though you have to consciously bring yourself to think that way? For myself as a T type, I have to remind myself “wait a minute, don’t be an asshole, consider this person’s feelings before you speak” and sometimes I just completely forget. Thank you, inferior Fe.

So what it really boils down to is: do you consider feelings before turning to logic? Or does logic come first, and feelings are considered after? Once again, you want to consider what is most natural, and comfortable. Does thinking logically and objectively feel comforting? Or does it feel more like a chore that you must work through (perhaps to feel accepted by others)?

Now we will be diving in to the cognitive functions:

An INTJ’s thought process would be: 

Ni: takes an broad idea and narrows it down to one statement

Te: supports or rejects this statement based on factual evidence 

Fi: considers how you feel about this statement

Se: compares the statement to things you have experienced 

whereas an INFJ’s thought process would be:

Ni: takes an broad idea and narrows it down to one statement

Fe: considers how other people would feel about this statement 

Ti: supports or rejects the statement based on how it fits into what you already know to be true and false 

Se: compares the statement to things you have experienced

I also borrowed a little bit from an older ask written by our INTJ admin to help explain differences between INTJs and INFJs a little more in depth:

We will now look into the differences between INFJ and INTJ with their auxiliary functions.

Fe is a judging function focused on making decisions based on the emotions of other people. While the T functions generally aim to solve problems, Fe generally aims to maintain harmony. This means Fe bases decisions the feelings and values of the people around them more than their own personal feelings and values. For INFJ this is their primary way of interacting with the world. As the greatest supporter of Ni, Fe takes the ideas, goals and plans of Ni and sets about working towards achieving them, making decisions based on the insight and values of other people and what is best for the people around them, appealing to their emotions and beliefs.

Te is a judging function focused on making decisions based on organization and efficiency. Te wants to solve problems by structuring their environment with organized systems and plans. It aims to be pragmatic and rational in accomplishing a goal. For INTJ this is their primary way of interacting with the world. Te supports Ni by taking the ideas, goals and plans generated by Ni and works to achieve them by making decisions based on what is the most rational and efficient, accounting for external factors in the world.

I hope this helped!

-INTP admin

#mbti #mbti types #infj #intj #cognitive functions #ask

[mojoflower]

My child with CIDP (a chronic neurologic illness)

Thank you for asking, @sunshinemeansmylove.  I’m always happy to share our story -- it’s cathartic.  And also, *I find it interesting, so I assume others do, too ;)

Almost ten years ago, when Phoenix had just turned 5, he started walking oddly.  We didn’t think much of it for a day or two, because he didn’t complain of anything hurting.  It got bad enough that one of his preschool teachers asked about it, so we took him in for x-rays and whatnot.  But they found nothing.  They put him in a boot for possible Kholer Disease, just in case (I don’t even know what that doctor was thinking), and with the boot, he essentially stopped walking altogether, and kept saying he didn’t want to go to preschool anymore:  so I took him out.

Within a week he’d stopped playing as much.  He appeared quite content just watching everyone else play.  He’d only stand on sidewalks instead of going on the grass.  (You need to know that he already had a long history of medical shit, because he didn’t walk until after 2, and didn’t talk until late, and was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Delay and “symptoms relating to autism” and had had 3 years of intensive therapies and Early Intervention by this point.  So I figured the grass thing was sensory, instead of balance.)

He started doing stairs on his bottom, instead of walking, and one day he fell down them.  (We’d moved into a new house... with stairs... only 4 months earlier.  Of course.)  The next day, he was on the living room floor, playing with his matchbox cars, and couldn’t get up.  That was the last time he stood for weeks.

All this time, he remained sweet-natured and amenable and never said that anything hurt.  But now he couldn’t walk and couldn’t stand.  We rushed him to the Children’s Hospital (which in Atlanta is very reputable, thankfuckinggod).  They ran tests.  Oh, god, they ran tests.  He didn’t have reflexes at all, and couldn’t feel his hands and feet.  This is hands-down the most terrifying period of my life, ever.

Finally, with a spinal tap and a horrifically invasive and ghastly and painful EMG test (wherein they jab a pin into your thigh muscle, poke another further down the leg and run an electrical current between the two to measure degree of  blockage in the transmission).  Phoenix had complete nerve conduction blockage (100% paralysis of his legs... it was moderately better in his arms and hands).

He cried and screamed and begged me and Daddy to help him while the doctor was doing this (it took something like half an hour).  But they couldn’t give him pain killers or tranquilizers of just knock him out, b/c that would have messed with their results, so we had to hold him down.  It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and to this day I won’t go to the hospital without a bottle of xanax in my purse, because the doctors can’t prescribe it for the parents, even though EVERYONE NEEDS IT, because you have to be calm for your kid.  Fuck, I’m crying just thinking about it.

We brought him everywhere in a little red wagon, which CHOA uses instead of wheelchairs, all nestled up with blankets and his lambie.

(One utterly thoughtless fucker -- not his neurologist -- said if his nerves didn’t work and it was progressive, it’d eventually move up his arms and legs until it reached his heart and lungs and suppressed breathing and then he’d die.  Which is factually true, but jesus christ.)

We thought he was going to die.  Over less than 20 days he’d gone from normal(-ish) healthy kid to a lump in a hospital bed who couldn’t move his legs at all and couldn’t wrap his hands around anything, couldn’t hold you back when you held him.

CIDP in children is incredibly rare.  It’s a super-rare condition regardless, but usually people get it as adults (average age 50).  It’s something like .000005% of the population.  Like, maybe there are 20 kids in the entirety of metro Atlanta who have it.  CIDP is a neuropathy in which the person’s immune system begins attacking the insulating sheath (myelin) around nerve cells, starting at the peripheral nervous system (hands/feet, legs/arms).  Without this fatty sheath, electrical signals from the brain simply don’t transmit to the muscles.  In many cases, there’s intense, phantom pain associated with it, but thankfully, Phoenix has only ever been numb, and I pray with my whole atheist heart and soul that it never changes.

But we lucked out, and the neurologist we got at CHOA identified CIDP fairly quickly (within a week, during which we never left the hospital, of course) and started him on IVIg.  IVIg is intravenous immunoglobulin -- essentially strained human plasma -- to remove all but the specific antibody Ig.

(SO PLEASE:  GO DONATE OR SELL YOUR PLASMA, it’s keeping kids like mine out of wheelchairs.  It costs more than gold, it cannot be synthesized or taken from animals.  They don’t know the exact mechanism by which it works (they call it a “black box”) but it does, and it’s fucking miraculous.)

With sufficient IVIg, the myelin sheath is repaired fairly rapidly.  At first, he needed infusions every three days.  (Generally, specialists told me, kids his age will go into remission after a year or two.  Phoenix, bless, is special and never has, even though I kept waiting and waiting.  Almost ten years later, and he’s steady like clockwork, remission never on the horizon.)  Over the years, we’ve managed to stretch the intervals to 15 weeks.  Which is great, because insurance HATES US:  the pharmacy cost alone is easily $100k+ a year, not to mention hospital stays and clinics.  Annually, we have to defend his need to go at whatever interval it is at the time, they’re always pushing us to stretch it further.

So he’s been on maintenance for many years.  There are some visual cues if he begins to decline, like his feet slapping when he walks, or using the bannister with two hands when he goes upstairs, but it’s not always that obvious.  This week, I asked him if it was the CIDP when he tried to get out of band practice for the third time, and he said yes, but I don’t see those other cues (although he’s been laying on the sofa for a few weeks and has stopped hanging out with his friends and is sleeping longer) so I don’t know if I just handed him a really good excuse to stay home and play computer games.

He’s been low-key complaining for about a week, and our next IVIg appointment isn’t until Oct. 1st.  You have to schedule months in advance so rescheduling for earlier isn’t possible, not to mention insurance will gleefully not pay if it’s earlier than 15 weeks (which means $9-$17k out of pocket, depending on the whimsy/voodoo of the hospital billing department).

So.  Yeah.  This is what it’s like to have a child with a chronic illness.  (CIDP is Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, btw.  It’s essentially the lifelong version of Guillain-Barré, that thing you see warning signs about when you go get your flu shot.  It can only be maintained, not cured.)  This is a good example of why it’s so vital for laws to prevent insurance companies from turning people down due to preexisting conditions.

It’s hard, as a parent.  He could be a typical teen who’d rather not spend all day in school... or his nervous system could very literally be slowly deteriorating.  I have to make judgement calls all the time, and sometimes I’m wrong.  It’s kind of terrifying.

#cidp #pediatric cidp #ivig #chronic illness #children with chronic illnesses #parenting is hard #mojo worries #mojo muses #sunshinemeansmylove

[lauryn-order]

Wow! Kind of enraged by how people are talking to you 😡 it’s one thing to not agree with you (I completely agree with you btw) but a completely other thing to go off the rails like that. Notice how you stay calm and talk facts while they immediately hurl insults and threats. You keep doin you and fuck these racists trump supporters.

I mean... It’s stupid as hell, but I kind of don’t expect anything else from Trump supporters. If they had ever truly looked at and researched the true facts and still support the rapist in the White House, then they’re a vile human being. I mean you can be a republican and hate Trump. I read an amazing anti-Trump book written by a Republican strategist. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is a hate mongering cancer. He is not a leader.

If they refuse to see the truth that is right in front of them every single day, then I don’t expect a factual conversation or debate. They can hurl insults at me all they want. Their insults are as stupid and pathetic as they are. I can’t be hurt by someone like that.

#thank you 💕💕💕 #you’re sweet #asks