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twstfanblog · 8 months

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*~Period Drama~*

A/N: This was a funny idea I had and Now I'm gonna do another series with my Yuu OC. Note that I write most of the cast in a platonic sense with my OC because that's how their story formed. I'm fully open to doing requests with characters in a romantic sense. Word Count: 4.7K Warnings: Period mentions, allusions to sexual assault (They are assumed, nothing actually happens), She/They OC Pronouns Pairings: Azul/Reader (Poly), Jamil/Reader (Poly) Enjoy! Start (Here), Part 2 (Octavinelle), Part 3 (Heartslabyul), Part 4 (Savanaclaw), Part 4.5 (Diasomnia pt.1), Part 5 (Diasomnia pt2)

Yuu was forgetting something, she knew she was. But sitting in her pjs on a Saturday morning, an over-filled bowl of sugary cereal in hand, she couldn't be bothered to really care.

It was shaping up to be a good day too. None of the staff needed her help with anything, her friends all had their club meetings, and the kitchen was stocked with easy-to-grab snacks for Grim. the cat monster himself had even started his homework on Friday night with minimal fighting. Literally, nothing could be wrong, but she still felt uneasy. They woke up feeling weary and oddly bloated.

With an inquisitive expression, she taps her spoon against her bowl. They really hoped they weren't going to spend all day in a strange sense of deja vu…

Then she sneezed and everything made sense. Yuu blinks, moving back to pull the seam of their pj pants, looking down as they groan, "Ah, shit…"

Azul loved Saturdays, they were his biggest money-maker days. Students came to the Mostro Lounge either to get a head start on homework, grab a drink after practice or clubs, or merely have a freshly cooked meal. It also was the day he had most of his workforce available so he could spare the time to walk around campus or catch up on his own paperwork.

But, what he's trying to do was gather his courage and think up a plausible enough reason for him to go visit his date-mate. Not that he usually needed one, they were very vocal about how he was always a welcomed presence in their company.

But, Yuu had been…easily irked? Prickly? Upset. Yuu had been upset for most of the week but anyone who questioned their mood was quickly shot down. The prefect would then tensely state they weren’t mad and then questioned why people thought they were mad. Sure they had a very intense resting bitch face but who didn't at Night Raven? (He's fairly certain you needed to either be handsome or have the most terrifying resting bitch face to be admitted to this school).

So he wasn't too pressed about his date-mate's mood until Floyd said something. He had come into the back office pouting of all things, saying 'Shrimpy smelled off'. They had also punched him when the eel merman attempted to pick them up, which wasn't normal.

Jade handled his twin, trying to cull Floyd’s decreasing mood, while Azul opened a few text chats to ask if anyone had caused Yuu reason to want to kill someone. The genuine confusion and concern that answered back only made him more uneasy.

Now, on a sunny Saturday, Azul made the long journey toward Ramshackle. With an obscure board game tucked under his arm and a bag of exclusive gummy candy in hand, he was on a mission to improve his dear pearl’s mood.

Or he was until he was suddenly being dragged down the dirt road in a different direction. He yelped and shouted, trying to angle himself to see what was pulling him through the mud and sticks. The answer was Sam’s shadows, the black willowy wisps quickly yanking him into the shop and setting him on his feet. Azul looks down at his outfit, scowling at seeing the dirt and grass stains. Sevens, did he rip his slacks?

“Lil fish.”

Azul jolts, eyes wide and semi-fearful at Sam’s echoing tone. The man stood behind the counter, a number of medical supplies laying across the surface as his nails gripped at the wood. Sam’s eyes were wide, pupils pinprick as his amethyst orbs almost glowed under all the shadows. Speaking of shadows…Azul looks around the shop, feeling actual fear stir in him. The shadows were everywhere, zipping through the aisles, slithering in and out of the back room, and some were even racing out of the shop, “Uh…Yes, Sam? H-how can I be of assistance?” He didn’t stutter, he refuses to admit he stuttered.

“Do you know what a pad is?”

…

“Like…Like a notepad or-”

“NO!” Sam slams his fist onto the counter, the lights of the near-endless shop flickering wildly at the force of it. He rests his face in his hands, paying no mind to his makeup and hat that fell to the counter. Looking up, his intense stare was replaced with one of desperation, “You’re killing me here, kid. Look, if you know what a damn pad is, just tell me where to get one! I know you and the lil pup talk!”

“I swear, I have no clue what you’re talking about, sir.” Sevens, had Azul ever felt scared of Sam? He didn’t like this, why was his fellow businessman so frazzled? What kind of pad was he talking about? Why couldn’t he find it and assumed Azul would know where and what the damn thing was?

Sam groans, hands running furiously through purple-tinted lock braids. With a snap of his fingers, the wisps all stop. Either quickly entering the shop or bleeding into the shadows to hide once more, “Look just…Go see the prefect. They called me asking for sanitation pads? That’s the business name they told me anyway…That and just…a lot of pain potions.”

Azul clicked out of his confusion, growing nervous at the potions request, “I…wait are they hurt? Shouldn’t they be in the infirmary?”

“I suggested that, but they insisted they didn’t need to go, just the potions. I’m sending them over soon, Crewel is due to deliver my order in an hour or two. I’ll send him over after ya once he gets here.” Sam grumbles under his breath as Azul rushes out of the store. ‘Primadonna dog hates when I call him while he’s brewing…’

Azul pulls his phone from his pocket, sending a text to both Jade and Floyd. Yuu was in pain, they had requested something called a ‘sanitation pad’? Whatever those were. By the name he could only guess they were used for cleaning of some kind. He sent the twins a message to meet him at Ramshackle ASAP, potentially 119 status. Yuu had always joked about the Octavinelle trio being the first ones they’d call if they needed to hide a body. But, it seemed when it came time for them to actually make the call, the poor thing must have been overwhelmed. He could only think they had done it in self-defense, but the cause didn’t matter. There wasn’t going to be a body in a few hours.

Halfway through the woods to Ramshackle, he hears other footsteps hurrying to catch him. Looking over his shoulder, he raises an eyebrow at the extra amount of people, “Why are they here?”

Ace, Deuce, and Jamil all kept a quick jog behind Floyd and Jade’s long-legged walk. Floyd rolled his eyes, pointing behind him with his thumb, “I was at practice. Crabby and Sea Snake saw the text and wanna help lil Shrimpy too…”

Deuce raises a hand, "I saw them leaving the gym on my way to track practice. Yuu's my classmate and friend, it's only right I help them."

Jamil hisses under his breath, side-eyeing Azul as he sped up to walk beside him, “Plus, they’re my date-mate too, asshole…”

Rolling his eyes, Azul sighed, waving Jamil’s attitude off, “Yes, yes. We can meet with Draconia later about our timeshare lover's crimes. But for now, we need to go and assist them with the dead body I’m sure is on their property.”

Ace sighs, relaxing more as he leans back, arms folding behind his head, “Yuu finally did it, huh?”

“I mean…They can only threaten to murder someone so many times before they’d snap…” Deuce pipes up, rubbing the back of his head, almost dreading getting blood on his uniform again.

Floyd giggled, “I can’t wait to see who Shrimpy squeezed~. I bet they made it real messy!”

“Hmm…I wouldn’t put it past Yuu to kill someone via strangulation. But their MO seems to lean more toward bludgeoning.” Jade smiles to the group, eyes closing in barely hidden glee, “If anything clean up will at least be interesting if we’re just dealing with some blood splatter and a puddle!”

Ace and Deuce wince, watching Floyd, Azul, and Jamil simply nod at Jade’s examination.

The mood was instantly broken once they came into view of Ramshakle. Floyd and Jade tensed, their smiles dropping off their faces before racing toward the dorm as two teal-colored blurs. Azul shouted, only to choke on his tongue at the smell. Blood. His nose wasn’t anywhere as sensitive as Floyd's or Jade’s but even at this distance, he could smell the sharp iron smell. He jogged to catch up with his dormmates, his expression of panic causing the other three to speed up as well.

All he could smell was Yuu’s blood. Sharp and salty, but spiced and sweet because of their diet. A hint of some type of alien fragrance that no one could place and Yuu couldn’t name mixing it all together perfectly. And that was all he was smelling, not even a hint of another person’s blood.

When the rest of the group had made it to the front porch, Floyd was pounding on the door, eyebrows creased while Jade searched the bushes for the hidden key, “Shrimpy! Open up! Shrimpy!”

Jade’s fingers had just grazed the false rock when the door’s locks clicked open. Floyd swung the door so hard it nearly sent Grim into the hallway wall. The feline monster kept to the ground, eyes wide and teary with fear, “Yuu’s bleeding all over everything and they won’t tell me why!”

Deuce was the only one who had the mindset to scoop Grim into his arms, the rest of them instantly rushing up the stairs toward Yuu’s bedroom. The sound of their footsteps pounding on the floor echoing in the house, each of them calling out in panicked voices. Azul could only grow increasingly worried, the scent of blood growing stronger and stronger.

Jade slams the door open, Ace instantly diving into the bed and startling Yuu awake.

“The-The fuck- hello?”

Ace cupped their face, using what medical lessons Riddle had drilled into his head to see if they had a visible injury, “Yuu! Can you hear me? We were calling you all the way downstairs- Ay!” He tumbles off the bed when Yuu shoves him aside, dark eyes glaring down at the redhead.

“Yeah, I was sleeping. Why are all of you in my house?”

“We smelled blood shrimpy!” Floyd kneeled onto the bed, sniffing around trying to find the main source of blood. Ignoring or nipping at Yuu’s hands trying to shove his face away from her body.

Azul stepped forward, eyes roaming in barely concealed haste, “Sam sent me over. He was worried by a request you had called him about? It’s sent him positively spiraling.”

Yuu raises an eyebrow, having given up on getting Floyd off their bed and wrapping an arm around him instead, “Yeah I was about to ask. Octobaby, what truck did you get dragged behind and did you at least get the license plate?”

Whatever positive flow of atmosphere that was building ended, Floyd grasping the duvet covering them and pulling, “Shrimpy, where are you bleeding-”

A single tug was all it took for Yuu’s bottom half to be flashed. They all look in stunned silence. Fresh red blood on a series of towels under them, a smear on the inside of their bare legs. Yuu shouts but none of them respond, minds spiraling at what could have possibly happened.

“Floyd! By the Seven, I’m not wearing any pants!” Yuu snatches the blanket back, draping it over their legs with a huff. They turn to Floyd only to have their face gripped harshly. Floyd stared at them with a dead expression, his single golden eye almost glowing with the force of his anger, “Floyd?”

“Who?”

“Wha-”

“Who?”

“Floyd.” Jade’s hands come into view, pulling Floyd’s grip off of their face and his brother off the bed. Jade was no better, a pleasant smile on his face but eyes wide and void of any emotion, “It’ll do no good to pressure them into telling us. Let us let our two professionals deal with this. The two of us can brainstorm methods of...disposing of the unsavory culprit once we have a name or description.”

Yuu watched them slowly leave the room. Floyd just barely letting Jade pull him along as his expression started to finally morph into a look of anger. His fists clenched as he gritted his teeth, body so tense his movements were more shaky than his normal loose glide.

Looking beside them, Yuu catches eyes with Ace and Deuce. Ace quickly turned away, a hand covering his mouth as a single tear slid down his cheek and his shoulders shook. Deuce was no better, gripping Grim in his arms as he hiccuped softly with just barely contained sobs. He looked like he was fighting back the urge to go into 'delinquent mode'.

Jamil finally moves, a hand on each of Ace's and Deuce's shoulders, guiding them to the door. Softly pushing them out too once Jade had managed to pull Floyd out of the room, “Let us talk to them…We’ll…we’re gonna figure this out…”

Yuu watches stunned as Azul walks toward them as though he was approaching a wounded animal; softly, with just a hint of fear and pity, “Azul…What’s-?”

“It’s ok.” Jamil closed the door, still facing it so Yuu wasn’t sure if he was saying it to them or mumbling to himself, “It's…It’s ok, you’re gonna be fine…”

Azul had finally reached them and they could clearly see the unshed tears in his eyes, “It’s not your fault. This is not your fault, do you hear me?” He ran his fingers through their hair, his other hand gently cupping against her cheek as his thumb shakingly caressed their skin. He opens his mouth, closing his eyes while he sighs a shuddering sob. Gathering his wits again he opens his eyes, a fiery determination glowing in them, “We’re here for you, my pearl.”

“Wha…?” Yuu could only wrap their arms around Azul, the merman diving to embrace her in what had to be the most protective hold he could do with just his two arms. It felt safe and sturdy, like a cool blanket was wrapped around their body. While it was welcomed, Yuu only grew more confused feeling a wet spot start to form on their shoulder where Azul’s face had snuggled into, “I’m…very confused…”

“Yuu.”

If Azul wasn’t holding them, they would have jumped off the bed. Jamil stood right next to them with a blank expression. His face pulled into a mask of neutrality, but his eyes were steely, an ice-cold fire in them waiting to find a victim.

“Who. You can tell me, you can trust me. We’ll handle everything, you won't even have to look at the bastard unless you want to beat him to death yourself.” He kneels on the bed, his hand moving to touch her covered thigh before retreating, a pinched expression breaking his mask before it was back in place, “You have to tell us who did this to you, hayati.”

Did what to them?

Yuu stared at Jamil, blinking when he finally had to look away to bite his lip. He looked to be holding back tears, fully turning around to put his face in his hands to mutter under his breath. ‘How could he let this happen? Why couldn’t he have just one thing with nothing to ruin it?’ a teary sob of ‘Do they not trust him?’

“My pearl?” Azul pulls his face away from their shoulder, sniffling before he removes his glasses briefly to wipe his tears, “Do you…Would you like me to draw you a bath? This can’t be comfortable-”

“Azul!” Jamil whipped around, glaring at the merman, sparing them a worried glance before turning back to Azul and whispering heatedly, “They can’t take a bath until they get checked, you moron!”

“What’s there to check Jamil!? We can all clearly see what happened! Why put them through the extra…extra poking and defilement when we know what happened!?”

“Because we need evidence!”

“What we need is a name! Or a description! I’m not even going to entertain the idea of bringing this to a court. We have plenty of manpower on campus to bury whoever did this 12 times over.”

“Excuse me, what the fuck are you guys talking about?” Yuu spoke up, eyes glancing between the two of them, “Because if you mean the bleeding, that’s pretty standard at this point.” Maybe they just…forgot they had a vagina? Boys normally didn’t react well to period talk in the first place, but this was an all-boy school and Yuu was more non-gendered than female-gendered. Maybe they just honestly forgot.

But, what they said had only made things worse, both Azul and Jamil looking at them in absolute horror. Standard. This was normal. This had happened multiple times already.

Azul starts to openly sob, wrapping himself around them in a way to keep everything else away, nuzzling his head into her neck and whimpering out apologies. Jamil covered his mouth, a look that Yuu could only call devastation on his face before he stood from the bed to pace the room. Mutters grew in volume and speed before Yuu finally realized what they thought had happened.

“Oh. OH!” They quickly pull Azul from their neck, hands pressed to both his cheeks to keep him looking into their eyes, “Sevens! Guys no! That isn’t what this is, I promise! No one hurt me like that!”

“You expect us to believe that!?” Jamil turns on them, eyes wild and red with held-back tears. He gestures to the bed, alluding to the mess of blood under the covers, “What else could this possibly be!? Why are you trying to defend them!?”

“Jamil, I’m on my period!” Yuu looked back at Azul once her words seemed to hit Jamil, “It’s just my period. No one hurt me. I’m…well, not fine. Periods are a bitch. But not that…I swear it wasn’t that.”

No one made a sound past Azul’s labored breathing, the merman’s expression slowly morphing from one of despair into confusion. Once his breathing was finally under control, he pulled Yuu’s hands from his face, a single brow raised, “Your…your period?”

“Yeah…It’s just my period.”

Jamil pulls a face, eyes looking down as his brain worked to understand what Yuu was saying, “...Like the punctuation?”

Yuu frowned, turning to Jamil, “Don’t you act fucking dumb with me.” They press a kiss to Azul’s forehead, letting him slump against their chest, not seeing the gears turning in his head, “You and your sister are basically the same petty soul shared between two bodies. You know what a period is Jamil.”

The two mages catch eyes across the room, both…so painfully confused. Azul takes his time to finally untangle from Yuu, giving a small smile and patting hesitantly at the blanket, “O-okay…A period…right?”

At Yuu’s annoyed nod, Jamil sniffs, checking that he hadn’t cried before looking over to the door, “And…Najma will know. You’re sure she will?”

“I mean basically every girl gets a period so I would think so Jamil…”

The two boys share another look, communicating in a way Yuu hadn’t learned to do with them yet before they turn back to them with those soft, weak smiles. Azul caresses their face again, saying they should go back to sleep and that someone will bring up something to eat later on. It was slow, they clearly didn’t want to leave, but they both closed the door behind them. They share another look in the hallway, nodding before moving to regroup with the others.

The contained chaos they walk in on was almost comical if the reason wasn’t so mortifying. Jade had a hand gripped on each of Floyd’s shoulders while they took up the loveseat, whispering to the taller eel as he held him back. The whispers growing in intensity as his eyes widened in manic glee every time Floyd growled and moved to pull out of his brother’s hold. Ace was leaning against the wall, anger clear on his face as his nails bit into his forearms. He was the only one who looked up when they walked into the room. Deuce sat on the couch, curled around who they could only think was Grim, his shoulders shaking with barely contained cries.

Ace speaks up first, calling everyone else’s attention to their entry, “Well? Who’s the bastard we’re hunting down?”

Jamil and Azul pause, Jamil looking to the side and sighing, “They say nothing happened-”

“They’re lying!” Grim cries from Deuce’s arms.

The spade Heartslabyul soldier sniffles, raising his head to look from over the couch, “Grim said they’ve been bleeding since this morning. From before he woke up…”

Jamil pulled out his phone, already dialing his sister, “They said Najma would know what’s going on…They were…so sure nothing…happened…”

Ace opened his mouth to yell only to be cut off at the sound of Najma picking up the line on speakerphone.

“Jamil? What’s wrong, you never call me?”

“...” Jamil gulped, gripping his phone before speaking, “Najma, I need you to be completely honest with me. Swear on your life levels of seriousness. Do you know what a period is?”

“...Like the punctuation?”

Azul bit his lip, a hand moving to cover his mouth and start to pace around the room. He walks closer to Jade and Floyd to explain, the two eels listening to his quick words in clear confusion.

“I…Najma, something happened. Is it…normal to…” He let out another sigh, almost wishing it would take his soul with it, “Is it normal to bleed…out of your vagina?”

The beat of silence almost gave Jamil hope. Maybe it was some super secret girl thing that no male was allowed to ever know about. Maybe everyone in the room would have to be killed once Najma confirmed its existence. He knows he would at least prefer that over the alternative.

“Jamil, what the fuck? No!? No, that's not normal!? Jamil who do you know that’s bleeding out of their-”

“Don’t have time, I’ll call you back once this is all settled.” He’s never hung a phone up so fast. It quickly rings again, but he just declines Najma’s call and silences his phone. Now looking around, everyone else in the room is just as confused if not more so than he and Azul were.

“...What?” Jade tilts his head to the same degree his brother does while they both study Jamil, each trying to find…something in the conversation they just heard.

Azul spoke up, leaning his elbow against the fireplace, a hand coming up to rub at his temple, “They said they were simply on their period and that this was normal. They were also very certain Najma would confirm this sentiment, claiming it was a natural thing girls did.”

Deuce sat in thought, his brain working overtime to try and piece together the information they had, “Maybe…Uh…Wait, I can ask my mom!”

“What is your mom gonna know, Deuce!?” Ace hissed, more frustrated than actually angry.

“I don’t know, she’s like...an older girl? Maybe she knows more about it than Najma would?”

“...” Jade looks toward Azul with a shrug, “It’s another source of information. We’re literally going in blind with this.” He looks down in worry, feeling Floyd relax in his arms. His brother wasn’t calm by any means, more so his mood had finally reached so low that his homicidal urges couldn’t properly latch onto it. He just kept Floyd in his arms, holding his taller brother under his arms as though he was a cat.

Deuce pulls out his phone with one hand, the other keeping a grip on Grim as the monster whines. It only took a very rings before the phone was answered again.

“Hi, Deuce! I was just about to send you a text. I found this new cafe and they make the cutest parfaits-”

“Mom, that’s cool. Send me a picture later but. Um…I got a really weird and private question to ask you-”

“Deuce, we talked about this sweetie. There’s nothing wrong with liking certain things-”

“NOT THAT, NOT THAT!” He blushes, quickly cupping his phone away from view of the others. He whispers his question into the receiver, waiting with bated breath when the other line was quiet.

“Sweetie. Am I on speaker?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“That isn’t…that isn’t something that should be happening. Is this…Deuce, is this about your friend Yuu?” At the affirmative, she continued, “I know you said they weren’t from around…anywhere really. But you boys need to tell your teachers about this. Whoever told them this was normal lied to them.”

The nervousness returns, everyone sharing a look, Deuce thanking his mom before hanging up the phone. Pass the stray sigh or muffled rambles no one spoke, each one of them was scared to voice their theories. Everything easily pointed toward…assault. But Yuu was such a level of certain that it was hard to deny the doubt that grew at the idea. There were magical ways of getting the truth out of people, they had Jade and Jamil, so it wouldn't be hard. But none of them wanted to break the trust Yuu had given to them. Not to mention the small chance that something did happen, and forcing Yuu to recount the horrible situation was cruel even by Night Raven standards if they were trying to actively suppress it.

It seemed like they sat in silence for hours before they all heard the front door slam open, footsteps quickly stepping through the hall before a signature black and white coat filled the doorway. Crewel stood with one hand on his hip, the other impatiently tapping his crop against his leg.

“Ok, what’s going on? I’ve had students running around terrified from Sam’s shadows. I go to see Sam to ask about it and he informs me that he sent you runts to check on my puppy.” Crewel looks around the room, his frown turning into a scowl before he schools his expression again, “And there's no sign of my puppy in this pack of dogs, so what’s happened?”

After a prolonged silence, Ace groaned, deciding to bite the bullet since no one else wanted to, “Yuu’s bleeding from…from their vag and won't tell us why.”

…

“...” Crewel stepped to the side, light gray eyes seeming to look past all of them while he used his crop to point down the hall, “Get out.”

“Sensei-”

“Get. Out.”

The scramble they did out of the room was like a pack of dogs released into the wild, each of them refusing to meet the glacier-level stare of their teacher as they ran past. They didn’t leave Ramshackle property, choosing to instead stand outside and wait to be fully dismissed.

Crewel took the stairs two at a time, flinging Yuu’s bedroom door open. The sound of it slamming into the wall made Yuu groan in protest. He walks to the bed and sits, a hand instantly brushing their bangs back to alert them to his presence. He couldn't tell through his gloves, but they had seemed flushed, “Puppy? Puppy, talk to me. What's happening? I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Yuu hums, just barely getting back to sleep before Crewel woke them up again. A hand pressed to their lower stomach and grumbled, “Hmmmm….Period…” “...Pup. What’s a period, explain it to me.” He keeps his hand in their hair, petting in a way to soothe both of them if needed. Period, Yuu clearly wasn’t talking about punctuation. All his mind could reach then was that period was speaking of a state of time. Meaning this was something that happened on some type of schedule.

Groaning, Yuu sits up, letting her head rest against Crewel’s shoulder, “Period, monthly bleed and all that. It’s girl stuff, you know biology, Crewel…”

Taking her in his arms, Crewel rubs at their back. Monthly…It’s at times Crewel is made painfully aware of how lacking he and the rest of Night Raven College were in knowledge about Yuu’s biology. “Yuu…That’s not a thing in Twisted Wonderland.” He can feel the moment they tense up, letting them pull back to look at him.

Yuu stares at their pseudo-father, eyes searching for some sign of the past hour being nothing but a really bad joke. Seeing none, they feel a cold realization hit, “Oh…Well, this is gonna be a real interesting time…”

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #yuu oc #twst azul #twst jamil #twst deuce #twst jade #twst floyd #azul x reader #jamil x reader #jamil x yuu #jamil x mc #azul x yuu #azul x mc

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whencyclopedia · 2 days

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Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution

Children were widely used as labour in factories, mines, and agriculture during the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Very often working the same 12-hour shifts that adults did, children as young as five years old were paid a pittance to climb under dangerous weaving machines, move coal through narrow mine shafts, and work in agricultural gangs.

It was very often the case that children's jobs were well-defined and specific to them, in other words, child labour was not merely an extra help for the adult workforce. The education of many children was replaced by a working day, a choice often made by parents to supplement a meagre family income. It was not until the 1820s that governments began to pass laws that restricted working hours and business owners were compelled to provide safer working conditions for everyone, men, women, and children. Even then a lack of inspectors meant many abuses still went on, a situation noted and publicised by charities, philanthropists, and authors with a social conscience like Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

A Lack of Education

As sending a child to school involved paying a fee – even the cheapest asked for a penny a day – most parents did not bother. Villages often had a small school, where each pupil's parents paid the teacher, but attendance was sometimes erratic and more often than not the education rudimentary in hopelessly overcrowded classes. There were some free schools run by charities, and churches often offered Sunday school. Not until 1844 were there more free schools available, such as the Ragged schools established by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). These schools concentrated on the basics, what became known as the 3 Rs of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Compulsory education for 5 to 12-year-olds, and the institutions necessary to provide it, would not come along until the 1870s. Consequently, "at least half of nominally school-age children worked full-time during the industrial revolution" (Horn, 57).

Some factory owners were more generous than others to the children in their employ. An example is the Quarry Bank Mill in Styal in the county of Cheshire. Here the owner provided schooling after the long working day was over for 100 of its child workers in a dedicated building, the Apprentice House.

An indicator of better education, despite all the difficulties, is literacy rates, rather imperfectly measured by historians by recording the ability of a person to sign one's name on official documents such as marriage certificates. There was a great improvement in literacy, but by 1800, still only half of the adult population could sign their name to such documents.

For those children who could find work in the Industrial Revolution, and there were employers queueing up to offer it, there were no trade unions to protect them. For the vast majority of children, working life started at an early age – on average at 8 years old – but as nobody really cared about age, this could vary wildly. Working involved at best tedium and at worst an endless round of threats, fines, corporal punishment, and instant dismissal at any protest to such treatment. In one survey taken in 1833, it was found that the tactics used with child labourers were 95% negative. Instant dismissal accounted for 58%. In only 4% of cases was a reward given for good work, and a mere 1% of the strategies used involved a promotion or pay rise.

#History #BritishIndustrialRevolution #ChildLabour #Children #WHE #[#]

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midnightfantasiez · 24 days

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Twisted Love | 셋 (chp. 3)

SUMMARY: you were certain that you would never find love nor ever lose your virginity throughout university, that is until a man named Lee Sangyeon came into the picture and offered to become your tutor; in exchange for keeping your grades up, and most importantly, teaching you everything you needed to know about sex. it was all just for fun & games, that is until one of you started to develop feelings for the other.

PAIRING: tutor!Sangyeon x afab!reader

GENRE: smut (18+ MDNI!!)

WARNINGS: hakkie is here folks (poor man walks in on reader having sex), mentions about different kinks / positions, fingering (reader receiving), cum tasting (again Sangyeon makes you do it 😃), petnames (baby, princess), kissing, face riding, handjob, mentions of reader losing their virginity, teasing (friendly ones from hakkie and umm....the unholy ones from sangyeon 🤡), reader also starts to get bold 👀, hickeys, Sangyeon gets a nightmare...and he's not having fun.

WORD COUNT: 4,310

A/N: and so Haknyeon comes into the picture 👀

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It all felt as if the first day you met Sangyeon was but just a dream. Who would’ve thought that a simple drunk make-out with a random stranger would eventually end up as your very own tutor?

You didn’t really know if you would want to classify this as karma or fate—frankly, you have no idea what exactly you have gotten yourself into.

Even after three whole months.

Ever since you both agreed on this friends-with-benefits situation, you have been on a roller coaster of emotions every day. You won’t deny that Sangyeon is actually good at his job, as a teacher’s assistant. Being your tutor came with another benefit: you always had access to what you were expecting for the upcoming lectures. Sangyeon would often teach you ahead of what you needed to know. Hence, you were always fully prepared whenever you entered your professor’s classes, understanding the content way better than before.

Your grades have slowly been improving too, rising from a whopping 3.1 GPA to a 3.4, and you eventually were awarded as one of the best students who scored for their mid-term exams. In other words, your studies have been improving way better than you expected, if it wasn’t for Sangyeon, you would be fine just staying at a 3.0 GPA till you graduate in a few years.

Spending time with Sangyeon has also made you realise that he was a former senior at your university, and he even won the dean’s award for being the top student during this time. It was no wonder that he was a genius in his field, and he was likeable by all students and professors alike. Not only did he help your professor loads, but he also made sure that the other students were improving in their performance, with most of them being at 3.0 and above.

Though, you had something that the other students did not.

Sangyeon was a friend with benefits, or rather, your sex buddy.

You really didn’t know what to make of it at the start, and you certainly didn’t expect yourself to be filled with having tons of sexual activity with someone throughout your semester. You were certain that you would be single till you were in the workforce, or even not losing your virginity till then.

But then Sangyeon seemingly came into your life, and things just haven’t been the same.

Not only was he teaching you about your course, but he was also guiding you on how to pleasure your significant other in the best way possible. If it wasn’t for his current job, you were convinced that he would be much suited to be a sex guru and coach for a living or even a pornstar.

He had everything—good looks, mannerisms, and god he knew exactly how to treat a woman right.

There are a few times when you both have had rough sex, just like how you both went back to the auditorium when you both first made your agreement. Most of the time, it would be Sangyeon coming up with suggestions that you both could try out—cowgirl, breeding, you name it, you have mostly done them.

However, there was one thing that he had always kept consistently without fail.

Making you feel good. Every. Single. Damn. Time.

You craved Sangyeon’s touch; you absolutely love it when he makes love to you. Sure, it may be all just a treat for your hard work, but yet you have become dependent on them, and Sangyeon was more than happy to give it to you.

So here you were, sitting down at your wooden low table in your living room, where your textbook was opened, with some stationery and a cup of coffee and biscuits at the side. Sangyeon was tutoring you as usual, sitting beside you while giving you some little quizzes to finish today's revision.

With his fingers rubbing your now wet underwear.

“Tell me, Y/N. So what happens when you mix these two substances together?”

“T-They…will not…mix together because…hhhngh…of the different particle sizes…”

As much as you loved Sangyeon touching you, you were also having a mental breakdown trying to recall the things you had learnt for the day. His fingers are the ones to blame.

It was the way how you are always able to get wet for him easily with just a simple touch, your body often tenses up and sends signals all the way throughout your body. Next thing you knew, you would often find yourself wetting your underwear, turning him on as he begins rubbing them with a steady rhythm.

“S-Sangyeon…p-please let me cum…”

“Did you think you got the answers right, baby?”

“I-I’d like to think that I did…aaaahh!”

Immediately, you squirted all over your underwear, and it was now completely wet, your liquids oozing out from the sides that slowly flowed through Sangyeon’s fingers before he placed them in his mouth, sucking them completely.

“Aww, baby. Look at you all being all wet now; it was just a little fingering,” he teased.

Oh, right. You forgot to mention how not only was he good at pleasuring you, but he would also get cocky almost every time whenever he saw you becoming all vulnerable for him.

“S-Sangyeon…” you slowly crawl up to him, resting your palms on his chest as you give him a pleading look. “I…I need you…please.”

He gave you a sly smirk as he looked into your eyes. Then, he immediately snaked his arms around your waist, pulling you in for a kiss.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

You both decided to go for a different route than what you were usually used to, as you crawled on top of Sangyeon, and your dripping wet core was facing right up at Sangyeon’s face. You, on the other hand, were bent down where your mouth was right at the tip of Sangyeon’s cock.

Trying your best to focus on his cock, you gently grabbed hold of his cock as you moved up and down and a rhythmic movement. But oftentimes, you would stop in your tracks, for Sangyeon’s tongue just got deeper into your core, eating you out as good as always. A sudden rush of euphoria swept over you, causing your whole body to shiver just from that alone, making you unable to respond by returning the favour to Sangyeon.

You still held onto his cock, gliding your hands up and down as best as you could before you would often let out a whimper every time his tongue hit your g-spot.

“S-Sangyeon…I-I can’t…”

As much as you tried pleading with him, it didn’t seem he was planning to stop anytime soon. Instead, he picks up his pace, causing you to turn your whimpers into moans. At the back of your mind, you knew that you were always receiving from him, and you ought to return the favour. Pushing yourself with all of the energy you have had left, you then slowly took his cock into your mouth, slowly pushing it towards the back of your throat, before trying your best to pleasure your tutor just like he did to you.

In return, you could hear that he began groaning at that move that you made, causing you to quicken the pace to match his.

If he is going to make me cum loads, then I will do the same for him too.

You pick up your pace faster each minute, not giving each other room to breathe. Suddenly, you felt a tight knot form within your stomach; you knew that it would be anytime now that you were going to cum all over your tutor’s face. At the same time, Sangyeon’s precum was slowly oozing out from this tip, and you tried your best to make him cum just like you did at the same time.

Within a few seconds, you both finally came too, and you couldn’t help yourself as you basically gushed out all over Sangyeon’s face while his cum was dripping down your mouth rapidly. Your eyes suddenly widened at the way Sangyeon looked, and you quickly turned your positions around to apologise to the male frantically.

“Oh my god, I’m so so sorry, Sangyeon! I swear it wasn’t meant to be like this; I could’ve controlled myself better—”

Before you could even finish your sentence, Sangyeon immediately rests his hand on your neck, pulling you down rapidly so that he completely shuts you up with his mouth—taking his sweet time swirling his tongue around yours. Eventually, you both immediately broke apart for a gasp of air before he gently laid your head down onto the very same pillow he was lying upon.

“You have done your deed in memorising what we have discussed earlier today; I’d say this is more than enough to repay me, don’t you think?”

Again, he leans close to you, sealing his lips with yours. But this time, it was all slow and sensual. Sangyeon carefully took his sweet time showering you with kisses, sometimes breaking apart to place them on your forehead, down to your cheeks, and neck. Ultimately, his lips will always find them back to yours, as if he hasn’t had enough of them yet.

You have practically lost count of how many times you’ve shared kisses with the man himself; you both have been in this whole friends-with-benefits situation for three months. But it seemed as if his kiss always meant something—it wasn’t all just for show and about having sexual intercourse; it was almost as if there was something there between you both, something indescribable.

Multiple times, you have always wanted to justify what exactly the two of you were, but you knew that deep down he was just a teacher’s assistant. He was here to tutor and help you improve your academic performance as well as your grades. Who would’ve thought that Sangyeon was nice enough to tutor you on other things at the same time, your sex life, to be exact. It was basically like killing two birds with one stone.

Isn’t it?

There are times when you have thought that meeting him back at the frat party was the best and worst mistake you have ever had. The good part about the whole situation was that your grades were improving significantly while you were pretty much having a pretty healthy sex life. However, it came with a cost: you being stuck in this uncertain feeling and constantly dealing with messed up emotions.

Was it a blessing? Or a curse?

Sangyeon doesn’t stop caressing your cheeks as he continues kissing you. Frankly, you both have been going on for at least ten minutes by now, taking some air breaks in between and then reconnecting your lips. It was like an addiction; you couldn’t stop, and neither could he.

All of a sudden, you heard a knock on your bedroom door, and it was too late for you both to recollect yourselves before the individual turned the doorknob and the door swung open.

“Y/N! It’s been a while— HOLY FUCK!!!”

It was total chaos there and then. Both you and the individual at your door screamed at the top of your lungs before the male slammed the door shut, panting and trying his best to get rid of the sight he had just seen before him.

You quickly got up, ran straight towards the bathroom, and slammed the door shut before leaning against it, quickly burying your face into both hands.

I messed up.

“For the hundredth time, it is not what it seems okay,” you reassured the young male, trying your best to rub his back as he took several deep breaths to calm his fast-beating heart down.

“The hell do you expect me to believe what you’ve said after witnessing whatever that was!!” The young male screamed out loud before turning his back to face you as he puckered his lips.

Haknyeon has always been like this. Although you both were the same age, he always felt like a brother to you. You have both been together since middle school and eventually even enrolled in the same university you were in. However, Haknyeon was away for the past year as part of his transfer programme abroad. You knew he was coming back sooner or later, but you weren’t expecting it to be today.

And how your first meetup was him walking in on you and Sangyeon having sex.

As much as you and Haknyeon have been texting one another every single day without fail for the past six months, you have omitted the fact that you met your tutor at a frat party who eventually became your teacher’s assistant for the entire semester and that you both have been in this messed-up friends-with-benefits situation for a good three months now.

And how you actually lost your virginity to this man.

Well, now that Haknyeon has witnessed it firsthand, there was no point hiding it back anymore because your childhood best friend actually reads you like a book—even the slightest shift in your usual demeanour, he would definitely be able to catch you red-handed within seconds.

So you did it, telling him about how you both met and ended up in the current situation, which you then earned a very concerned look from your friend. He slowly grabs your shoulder, squeezing them before looking deep into your eyes.

“Y/N…I don’t want to intrude. Well, I mean, it’s your own sex life. But are you completely certain about what you are doing? Or what you have gotten yourself into?” He asked worriedly; it seemed like he was about to cry for you.

In order to make it up to him, you gave him a little friendly peck on his cheek like how you’ve always done in the past when you both were younger, as it always seemed to calm him down and make things feel like it was all under control.

“Don’t worry, bestie; pinky promise that I’m all okay and great,” you stretched out your pinky towards him, making him sigh aloud before giving in to return the favour.

After the two of you talked things out for a bit, you quickly pulled him up from your couch and dragged him towards your front door, insisting that he put on his shoes and coat before leaving the house.

“Now, where the heck are you bringing me to this time?”

“Well, my best friend is back in Seoul. I think it’s time for a little bonding time together, no?”

“Y/N L/N, give me your bank account number right this second,” Haknyeon mumbled as he kept shoving almost all of the toasted waffles and ice cream right into his mouth, leaving you with little to no portion left to consume.

“Hey! Slow down! I paid for it; I deserve to eat more than you do!”

“Well, too bad you’re still as slow as you were back in kindergarten; that’s why you’re always second to last when it comes to getting the fresh pastries back in the school cafeteria,” he teased.

“You jerk.”

“You love me.”

It was just like the good old times—all of the endless bickering, competition, and taking things easy for a while. It seemed that whenever Haknyeon was around, your daily routine would suddenly go at a much steadier pace, rather than rushing through your unending assignments and university work, as well as the part-time job you often worked during summer breaks.

In fact, it always brings joy to you whenever you witness your best friend chow down on all kinds of food. He wasn’t awarded the best mukbang vlogger in town for no reason. Every time you witness your friend eat with the biggest smile on his face, you feel full, and seeing him eating so happily is more than enough to fill your hunger.

Ultimately, you decided it was best to give up. You propped your arms on the table and rested your chin on the palm of your hands, all while witnessing Haknyeon finish off the final few bites before he took the napkin situated at the corners to wipe off any excess cream on the side of his mouth.

It turns out your friend wasn’t the best at cleaning himself up, so you had to step in and lean forward to use your thumb to wipe it off for him instead, making his ears turn a crimson red almost within seconds.

“Weakling.”

“Shut up. I could’ve cleaned myself up squeaky clean if you’ve given me a couple more seconds,” he spat, clearly refusing to admit that he was terrible at what he did. You chuckled at his response with a pout, and you decided to lick off the cream that was on your fingers right in front of him, purposefully.

“Stop it,” he responded sternly.

“Stop what?” You asked playfully in return.

“Y/N, don’t act all dumb. You know exactly what you’re doing right now.”

“Hmm, yeah. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” you continued to piss him off by licking your fingers dry while adding in the pop sound effects.

It wasn’t until Haknyeon finally grabbed hold of your arms that you stopped what you were doing mere seconds ago. “You’ve changed, and I’m not too sure if I like the new you.”

“What do you mean I’ve changed?”

“You tell me, Y/N. Ever since you started this whole “tutoring session” with that teacher assistant of yours, you’re just…not the same anymore.”

You have gotten cocky.

Now, that is something that you definitely did not expect to come right out of your best friend’s mouth; causing you to stare at him blankly while your eyes widened upon that response. At that time, something in you snapped, and you weren’t going to back down that easily from him, not when you both are also rivals for life.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, Ju Haknyeon,” you deadpanned.

Just like that, it was more than enough to make Haknyeon yank your arm slightly so that you were merely inches apart, and you could feel his warm breath on you. That once cheerful look on his face was now long gone, replaced with something a lot more sinister and dark, sending chills down your spine.

“Just wait till we get back, Y/N. I’ll make sure you’ll regret what you just said to me.”

Little did either of you know that a familiar figure stood across the street, witnessing the scene unfold before his eyes and clenching his fists together.

Now you knew that you were to never mess with your best friend, for you left campus the following day with a few numb spots all across your body. Upon arriving home, he immediately dragged you into your bedroom, took one of your pillows and landed a powerful wack towards your shoulders, causing you to return the favour before your bedroom became an entire mess.

Turns out that your friend was far from done because you both eventually ended up on the bed brawling against each other, mostly Haknyeon tickling you all over your body and at certain spots where it would intentionally cause pain so that you wouldn’t be able to walk normally for the next 24 hours.

Serves you right, Y/N.

His words would constantly linger in your mind, and you would always furrow your brows whatever that image of his cocky face popped up mentally.

However, it was all fun and games, as this was something that you would often do whenever you were kids; both of you have always been competitive.

Now that Haknyeon was back from his transfer programme, he was finally back on campus, which also meant that you both were able to hangout a lot more often than before. Thankfully, both of your schedules more or less matched one another, and you both would often meet up for lunch and even walk back home together after lectures.

In the blink of an eye, a couple of weeks had passed, and it was now spring break. All the students were off for the entire week, and you decided to head back to Jeju Island with Haknyeon to visit his family. It has always been like a second home to you, and you would often spend your summer holidays there without fail.

While you were busy spending time with your best friend Haknyeon throughout the new season, that also meant that you weren’t seeing your tutor as much as before. In fact, multiple times, you would’ve either cancelled or postponed your tutoring sessions because Haknyeon insisted that he could help you with your assignments.

As a result, you have spent little to no time with Sangyeon ever since that encounter with Haknyeon, witnessing you both having sex at your apartment back then. Sangyeon only managed to spend about a day or two before you completely vanished from his schedule.

Allegedly, now that you weren’t hogging up his schedule any more, Sangyeon should’ve got a lot more time to focus on his actual work and help out the rest of the students in class—which he did since he no longer had to focus solely on you.

But the problem is, it just didn’t sit right with him.

Sangyeon ultimately has no idea why that is so, considering that you both made a pact when you first agreed on this whole contract situation. He knew he would eventually have to leave when his job was done and move on to his next job.

But he wasn’t ready to let that go just yet for some reason.

In fact, he was nowhere to be done with you.

You have no idea how you ended up the way you are right now.

At one moment, you were gaming on your PS5, which you had just gotten not too long ago since you were keen on hopping onto the craze of the latest Spider-Man games. The next thing that happens, you are now sitting on Haknyeon’s lap, your shorts pulled all the way down and eventually thrown towards the other end of the room.

Your legs were spread apart with Haknyeon’s strong muscles, and he was now rubbing your wet underwear in a circular motion, causing you to moan softly and eventually forget about the game that you were preoccupied with minutes ago.

As you have gotten one of your arms wrapped around his neck, Haknyeon takes in the opportunity to also lean closer and begin licking your neck, leaving subtle kisses while sucking on them eventually, intentionally leaving a hickey behind.

“Hmm…Haknyeon…keep it coming, it feels so so good…”

“Yeah? You like it when I kiss you like that?”

“Very much…”

“How about this?” He pauses for a moment before pulling your underwear to the side so that now he was now rubbing your dripping clit, making you raise your volume slightly.

“Aww, look at you, being all so wet for me already when I haven’t even inserted my fingers into you,” he teased, not letting you think straight as he began sucking on another spot, this time closer to your collarbone.

“N-No…Haknyeon…you can’t do it there…Sangyeon is going to find out—”

“And what if he does? What is he going to do, come for my ass? I’ll make sure he knows who he will be messing with.” Just like that, he immediately inserts two fingers into your cunt, pumping them in and out rapidly, causing you to yelp at that sensation.

“N-No Hakkie! I will cum- FUCK!”

“Just like that baby, cum for me,” he groans, quickening the pace as he feels that you’re coming close.

“Ugh! Faster! FASTER!!” You shuddered, all while your grip against his t-shirt tightened, and his fingers finally hit your g-spot.

Within the next few seconds, your moans echoed throughout the whole room as your liquids came gushing out from your body, basically creating an entire puddle on your couch as you came down from your high.

Immediately, Haknyeon forcefully grabbed your chin and turned you to face him before kissing you feverishly, not giving you space even to catch your breath.

“I bet- Sangyeon couldn’t- make you gush out- so much juices like I’ve done-” he muttered between the kisses.

“N-No…It’s just you…you only, Haknyeon-ie-” you answered.

“Now that’s my good princess,” he smirked before pushing you down onto the couch before hovering over you. “You know what will make you feel better?” Haknyeon asked as he yanked down his pants, his erected crotch was now already dripping wet, just like you were beforehand.

Instantly, he brought his tip close to your entrance, rubbing it up it down, making you whine and beg for him to insert it into you right this moment.

“Please…Haknyeon…just give it to me…I need you so badly…”

“Tell me that again, princess. I need to know if you want me more than the other guy.”

“Y-Yes! I just want you, and you only,” you cried, and that was when Haknyeon immediately pushed his member fully into you, not caring if your screams were going to tear down your apartment.

“Fuck- fuck- FUCK!!”

No.

No!

NOOO!!

Sangyeon immediately shot up from bed, sweat dripping down his face as he tried to calm his fast-paced breathing. It was currently only 3 in the morning, and he had about 5 more hours left before he eventually needed to get up to head out for work.

Unlucky for him, he was now wide awake and shocked to the core. That nightmare felt so real, and he couldn’t even believe he had ever had such a dream.

With that, Sangyeon forcefully lies back down on his bed with a loud thump, bringing one of his palms up to cover his eyes before his fist clenches again.

This time, he was fucked.

A/N: team sangyeon / team hakkie? 👀

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teathattast · 10 months

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Here are a few things I've learned over the years looking for jobs:

LinkedIn can help you find more serious job offers given many companies post jobs there. You can search for your ideal place of employment this way and find related companies in that field if there aren't any opportunities available. Many companies also ask for your LinkedIn profile, so having a nice profile can improve your chances of getting hired

Indeed and Glassdoor are mostly aggregate compilations of 3rd party recruiter submissions. There are many other sites that even cater to remote work. Do your research and check all links with VirusTotal if you feel the need to be cautious with an unknown site. If still unsure, research " [website] safe reddit"

Research ex/current employee stories of the company/position. This'll give you a good idea of whether you feel this position will be a good fit for you

If in doubt, always go to the company's Career/Job section on their website because the offer found on a 3rd party site may not be listed or accurate

Send out 2-3 applications per day with a catered resume and cover letter for each, only including information related to the job posting (mirror their qualifications but don't lie). You can use Google Suite to find a template to use for free. Just make sure you cater each resume/cover letter for each job that requires it

My method is 1 application for an ideal/possibly under qualified job (i.e. dream job/really good job vibes) and 1-2 realistic jobs (i.e. retail, food service, entry level stuff, etc). This is mostly if you're in dire need of work and need something to tie you over until something better comes through

Don't be afraid to apply to jobs you're under qualified for! Some companies may overlook certain requirements if you have unconventional experience that relates to the position. Just be ready to answer questions about this experience and be sure to relate it to the position in question. Experience is often an acceptable replacement for lack of a degree

Have a clear idea of where you see yourself in the next 5-10 years. If the field you're applying to doesn't align with your goals, either be sure to factor that into your search or research what positions yield mobility towards your end goal. If you're building your own business, don't shy away from doing something you don't want to do. Remember why you're doing it and that the job won't be permanent. It'll provide you with solid life skills that you can apply to your business or future endeavors

I could always go on, but that's really all I got for now. Feel free to drop any advice you've learned to help those entering the workforce :)

#textpost #teathattast #tea's proverbs

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 11 months

Text

By: Aaron Kimberly

Published: Dec 18, 2021

Between 1995-2006 I was a part of the butch lesbian community. During those years, despite my life-long and sometimes intense gender dysphoria, I hadn’t given any serious thought to medically transitioning. It wasn’t even on my radar as a possibility until after 2000. The idea of medically transitioning seemed fringe, far-fetched, and risky.

Most of the butches I knew also had gender dysphoria (GD) or rather, Gender Identity Disorder (GID), as it was called then. Many butches I knew in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, and later Vancouver, were strong, stoic people. I admired many of them. I know that their lives weren’t always easy, but they carried themselves with dignity. They had butch “brotherhood” and femmes who adored them. Many were “stone” which meant that their GID made it difficult for them to relate to their female anatomy so didn’t allow themselves to be touched by anyone, or rarely. They were often harassed and abused for being masculine women, as I was. It was often stressful using female public washrooms, because our gender ambiguity made people so uncomfortable. There was a term “butch bladder” to reference the ways we’d avoid using bathrooms in public.

In the early-mid 2000s, more and more FTMs were appearing in the community, alongside the butches. Many lesbian spaces welcomed them, some didn’t. It seemed to me at the time that butches were presented with two options: we could choose to be butches, or we could choose to be FTM “trans guys”. Why people chose one or the other...that was very individual and personal. It really came down to which option solved a problem and made life easier. The problem could be homophobic parents, fatigue from being harassed, differing degrees of dysphoria and bodily discomfort, not understanding what GID is, poor social or occupational functioning, trauma, other mental health challenges like depression or the anxiety that seemed inevitable for us. Some transitioned but still identified as butch women. They chose medical interventions to look more masculine, not to identify as men. Some trans guys said they never had GID at all. I don’t know what their motivations for transitioning were. Some said “political reasons”. There were some who were big fans of Queer Theory icons like Judith Butler and Judith Halberstam. Those women adopted male personas - intentional “female masculinity” - as an expression of Queer Theory, not to be men/male. I chose to transition soon after a gay man was beaten to death in a nearby park.

If kids with gender dysphoria today are anything like who we were 20 years ago, I feel saddened by their trajectory. Others see benefits: Access to medical interventions has been made easier. They no longer have to do a “real-life test” (live their life as the opposite sex for 2 years without medical assistance). They don’t have to go through months or years of therapy and assessment. More is now known about the effects and risks of hormones. The surgeries have improved, are easier to access and now paid for by insurance. (I paid for my own mastectomy out of pocket, and was on the SRS surgery waitlist for 10 years.)

But, what have we done? Have we eliminated all of the conditions for why a butch girl would find their innate masculinity hard to live with? Have we made the lives of butch women better and safer? Have we eliminated homophobic families, communities, employers, clinicians and policies? Are we educating young people what gender dysphoria is, in evidence-based terms, supporting them to integrate that into a healthy identity and self-image? Do we tell masculine girls how attractive they are? Do they have an abundance of healthy role models? Are they fully embraced and integrated into their workforces, educational settings, faith communities… or, are butches still getting weird looks from strangers? Are they still getting yelled at in public bathrooms? Are young, obnoxious young men still yelling slurs out their car windows as they drive by a butch woman? Do gender non-conforming women still fear for their lives in some places? Can they get Brandon Teena out of their heads? Can they travel the world freely? Can they find clothing they like that fits their bodies well?

I’m not convinced we’ve made any real progress at all. I think we’ve just made it easier for people to jump ship, younger and faster, and gave it a different spin. We now call that “self-actualization”. We’ve facilitated a better illusion. We’ve convinced more and more people that the illusion is real. We continue to push for better surgeries. Penile and uterine transplants are on the horizon. Young people are flooding into clinics. They can’t keep up with the demand. Activists have pushed Queer Theory as an explanation for our difference, displacing evidence-based clinical definitions of GID/GD. It’s no longer talked about as a condition that requires treatment but a natural human variation that requires affirmation in whatever form we demand (often life-long medicalization). I’ve travelled that road to its end, and its hurt just as much as it’s helped.

The surgeries available to FTMs right now are awful. A double mastectomy and phalloplasty or metoidioplasty are gruesome procedures to go through. The US surgeon I went to for metoidioplasty boasts low complication rates, but the anecdotal evidence I’ve witnessed (myself and everyone I know who had the procedure there and elsewhere) is close to a 100% complication rate. One guy at the surgical recovery centre I stayed at started to hemorrhage and was laying on the floor unable to reach the call bell when another FTM patient found him and advocated for him to be rushed to hospital. Fistulas and strictures are the most common problem. I chose metoidioplasty because it’s thought to be the less risky of the two options. I immediately developed two large fistulas (meaning that my urethra burst open in two places) that needed additional surgery to repair. I couldn’t bathe or go swimming for a year until those openings were repaired. I have chronic perineum pain, altered bowel function due to changes in my pelvic muscles, and no sensation in most of my chest. When we have complications, local physicians and surgeons don’t know what to do. So we have to wait, and travel to whoever can help.

Listen, I don’t doubt that sometimes medical transition is helpful for people. It’s not my place to say they can’t or shouldn’t. But let’s not sell this like it’s a Disney park ride. The marketing of everything trans is ridiculously misleading. Don’t put sparkles and rainbows over real pain as though that helps at all. It’s insulting.

If we really want to help these kids, we need to make it easier for lesbian kids. Butch kids. All gender non-conforming kids. The quirky and awkward kids. Kids who feel they don’t fit it. Let’s get better at working with parents and preserving families. Be honest about what medical transition is really about. No one really changes biological sex and these procedures are really hard to go through. Why are we putting all of our resources into escaping brutality rather than eliminating brutality? We’re cutting up our bodies because our lived reality is worse. Why do we celebrate that?

Medical transition is but one option for those with GD. We need to reclaim our understanding of GD as a condition so that we can have reality based-conversations and solve real personal and social problems. “Trans” as a concept, masks many underlying issues. A queer theory-based understanding of myself worsened my GD. Medical transition became an addiction. The illusion only works if we’re lucky enough to pass and everyone else plays along perfectly. It’s an exhausting game of whack-a-mole to dodge the reminders of my female past and female biology. How is that kind of dissociation desirable? Some people may benefit from medically transitioning, but we still need a reality-based understanding of ourselves, to keep our feet on the ground.

Our children deserve better. If this sounds transphobic to you, you’re a part of the problem. Owning our reality for what it is isn’t self-hatred. It’s self-acceptance. Having different ideas and a different vision of how to move forward isn't hatred. Hatred was the skinheads who circled around us at the small 1992 Winnipeg gay and lesbian march, long before Pride was a parade. Hatred was the men who drove from the suburbs into Vancouver with the intent to "kill a fag" and murdered Aaron Webster in Stanley Park. I’m well acquainted with phobia. This isn't phobia. This is love.

#Aaron Kimberly #Gender Dysphoria Alliance #butch lesbian #queer theory #gender ideology #medical transition #gender dysphoria #butches #female masculinity #religion is a mental illness

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racefortheironthrone · 10 months

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I pick Rockefeller just because I assumed the reply would be long just covering those governors.

Your analysis did bring up a question I'm curious about: What was the NYC financial crisis and it's aftermath?

Ah, I see.

I can talk about the NYC fiscal crisis, let me get my lecture notes.

As I talked about with the list of NYC mayors, NYC had been borrowing money for a while. The underlying cause was that NYC's industrial economy had started shrinking in the 1950s, sapping the city's tax base and population. To try to cope with the social consequences of this economic decline, the city had been increasing spending on police, teachers, and welfare benefits. For a good while, the city had been able to paper things over by increasing taxes and various creative accounting measures, and had managed to keep things rolling over.

And then the 1973-1975 recession hit. All of the sudden, the city loses 38,000 jobs, unemployment rises, which means demand on social services increase, and all of the sudden that poor bastard Abe Beame is looking at a $1.5 billion annual hole in the budget that's ballooning NYC's debt.

But at the same time, another part of the story is that NYC's banks aren't doing too hot: as Joshua Freeman notes in Working-Class New York, the same NYC banks that had been encouraging city government to borrow more (because municipal bonds were a good profit source) had lent money very unwisely to developing nations and needed to cover their losses. So they started selling off their municipal debt holdings and started pushing the city to increase the interest rates they were offering.

However, they also asked for major policy changes. They wanted the city to fire public sector workers, they wanted the city to cut spending on social services and capital projects, and until the city agreed to make these changes, they wouldn't buy or underwrite city bonds. To me, the telling detail is that they started asking for more policy changes - raise the subway fares from ¢35, end free tuition at CUNY - that wouldn't affect the city's budget at all, since neither the MTA nor CUNY were city agencies. This wasn't just creditors wanting their debtor to improve their budget outlooks: this was a capital strike aimed at disciplining the unions, poor minorities, and the middle class into accepting a worse standard of living.

And so the city went to the Ford Administration for emergency aid, and Ford turned them down because he wanted to make NYC an example of what happened to liberal governments. Ford's Treasury Secretary said that the Federal government would only provide aid if the rescue package was "so punitive, the overall experience made so painful, that no city, no political subdivision would ever be tempted to go down the same road."

Ultimately, the city was forced to knuckle under. It eventually got a state bailout, but only by giving in to every conceivable demand that capital had made and giving them and the state government control over the city's taxes, bonds, and budget for decades. The result was that:

a quarter of the city's workforce lost their jobs;

the city's schools saw their teacher-student ratios shoot up and their wraparound services cut to shreds;

CUNY shrank by 62,000 students and became 50% whiter as black and brown students could no longer afford to attend;

the subway became more expensive, less reliable, and more dangerous;

public hospitals closed, leading to diverging health outcomes between rich and poor;

fire houses closed, leading to increasing response times that were the key factor behind the Bronx burning;

and on and on.

At the end of the decade, NYC had lost a million residents and would not recover fully until the turn of the millenium. But hey, at least the books were balanced!

#history #nyc history #nyc fiscal crisis #nyc

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mariacallous · 20 days

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Nasir Mansoor has spent 40 years fighting for Pakistan’s workers. Whether demanding compensation on behalf of the hundreds of people who died in a devastating 2012 factory fire in Karachi or demonstrating against Pakistani suppliers to global fashion brands violating minimum wage rules, he’s battled many of the country’s widespread labor injustices.

Yet so far, little has improved, said Mansoor, who heads Pakistan’s National Trade Union Federation in Karachi. Despite spending most of his time dealing with issues in the country’s garment sector, labor laws are still routinely flouted inside factories. Not even European Union trade schemes such as the Generalized Scheme of Preferences—which benefits developing countries such as Pakistan but requires them to comply with international conventions on labor rights—have helped curb violations in an industry notorious for them. Regulations and trade protocols look good on paper, but they rarely trickle down to the factory level. “Nobody cares,” Mansoor said. “Not the government who makes commitments, not the brands, and not the suppliers. The workers are suffering.”

But change might finally be on the horizon after Germany’s new Supply Chain Act came into force last year. As Europe’s largest economy and importer of clothing, Germany now requires certain companies to put risk-management systems in place to prevent, minimize, and eliminate human rights violations for workers across their entire global value chains. Signed into law by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in January 2023, the law covers issues such as forced labor, union-busting, and inadequate wages, for the first time giving legal power to protections that were previously based on voluntary commitments. Companies that violate the rules face fines of up to 8 million euros ($8.7 million).

For decades, Western companies based in countries with highly paid workers and strong labor protections have sourced from low-income countries where such laws don’t exist or are weakly enforced. While this business model cuts costs, it’s made it incredibly difficult for workers to seek justice when problems arise. Given the garment sector’s long history of poor labor conditions—whose victims are a predominantly female workforce—rights groups say the industry will feel some of the highest impacts of new due diligence laws such as Germany’s.

Until now, promises made by fashion brands to safeguard workers stitching clothes in factories around the world have been largely voluntary and poorly monitored. If the promises failed or fell short and that information became public, the main fallout was reputational damage. As governments come to realize that a purely voluntary regimen produces limited results, there is now a growing global movement to ensure that companies are legally required to protect the people working at all stages of their supply chains.

The German law is just the latest example of these new due diligence rules—and it’s the one with the highest impact, given the size of the country’s market. A number of other Western countries have also adopted similar legislation in recent years, including France and Norway. A landmark European Union law that would mandate all member states to implement similar regulation is in the final stages of being greenlighted.

Although the United States has legislation to prevent forced labor in its global supply chains, such as the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, there are no federal laws that protect workers in other countries from abuses that fall short of forced labor. That said, a proposed New York state bill, the Fashion Act, would legally require most major U.S. and international brands to identify, prevent, and remediate human rights violations in their supply chain if passed, with noncompliance subject to fines. Since major fashion brands could hardly avoid selling their products in New York, the law would effectively put the United States on a similar legal level as Germany and France.

Abuses in textile manufacturing have been well documented. Horror stories about brutal violence or building collapses make the news when there’s a major incident, but every day, members of a predominantly female workforce live on low wages, work long hours, and endure irregular contracts. Trade unions, when they are allowed, are often unable to protect workers. A decade ago, the European Parliament described the conditions of garment workers in Asia as “slave labour.”

As of January, Germany’s new law applies to any company with at least 1,000 employees in the country, which covers many of the world’s best-known fast fashion retailers, such as Zara and Primark. Since last January, German authorities say they have received 71 complaints or notices of violations and conducted 650 of their own assessments, including evaluating companies’ risk management.

In Pakistan, the very existence of the German law was enough to spark action. Last year, Mansoor and other union representatives reached out to fashion brands that sourced some of their clothing in Pakistan to raise concerns about severe labor violations in garment factories. Just four months later, he and his colleagues found themselves in face-to-face meetings with several of those brands—a first in his 40-year career. “This is a big achievement,” he said. “Otherwise, [the brands] never sit with us. Even when the workers died in the factory fire, the brand never sat with us.”

Nearly 12 years on from the 2012 fire, which killed more than 250 people, violations are still rife for Pakistan’s 4.4 million garment sector workers, who produce for many of the major global brands. Several of these violations were highlighted in research conducted by FEMNET, a German women’s rights nonprofit, and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a Berlin-based nongovernmental organization, into how companies covered by the Supply Chain Act were implementing their due diligence obligations in Pakistan. With the help of Mansoor and Zehra Khan, the general secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, interviews with more than 350 garment workers revealed the severity of long-known issues.

Nearly all workers interviewed were paid less than a living wage, which was 67,200 Pakistan rupees (roughly $243) per month in 2022, according to the Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Nearly 30 percent were even paid below the legal minimum wage of 25,000 Pakistani rupees per month (roughly $90) for unskilled workers. Almost 100 percent had not been given a written employment contract, while more than three-quarters were either not registered with the social security system—a legal requirement—or didn’t know if they were.

When Mansoor, Khan, and some of the organizations raised the violations with seven global fashion brands implicated, they were pleasantly surprised. One German retailer reacted swiftly, asking its supplier where the violations had occurred to sign a 14-point memorandum of understanding to address the issues. (We’re unable to name the companies involved because negotiations are ongoing.) The factory complied, agreeing to respect minimum wages and provide contract letters, training on labor laws, and—for the first time—worker bonuses.

In February, the factory registered an additional 400 workers with the social security system (up from roughly 100) and will continue to enroll more, according to Khan. “That is a huge number for us,” she said.

It’s had a knock-on effect, too. Four of the German brand’s other Pakistani suppliers are also willing to sign the memorandum, Khan noted, which could impact another 2,000 workers or so. “The law is opening up space for [the unions] to negotiate, to be heard, and to be taken seriously,” said Miriam Saage-Maass, the legal director at ECCHR.

After decades of issues being swept under the carpet, it’s a positive step, Mansoor said. But he’s cautious. Of the six remaining global fashion brands contacted, three are in discussions with the union, while three didn’t respond. Implementation is key, he said, particularly because there has already been pushback from some Pakistani factory owners.

Last month, EU member states finally approved a due diligence directive after long delays, during which the original draft was watered down. As it moves to the next stage—a vote in the European Parliament—before taking effect, critics argue that the rules are now too diluted and cover too few companies to be truly effective.

Still, the fact that the EU is acting at all has been described as an important moment, and unionists such as Mansoor and Khan wait thousands of miles away with bated breath for the final outcome. Solidarity from Europe is important, Khan said, and could change the lives of Pakistan’s workers. “The eyes and the ears of the people are looking to [the brands],” Mansoor said. “And they are being made accountable for their mistakes.”

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nazmazh · 6 months

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Not that I speak for my whole generation, let alone GenZers too, but man...

My parents and their friends are such fuckin' Boomers(TM) about certain generation differences.

It's all "Nobody wants to work", "People want too much money for too little effort and that's why nobody likes hiring them."

And, like. Just... Ugh.

Trying to explain things to them from the point of view of someone who gets lumped in as "one of them damned Millennial socialist-types" (which, I mean, I am, but still - my points don't stop existing because of that) or what have you, would be like trying to explain particle physics to a brick.

They just utterly cannot wrap their heads around the idea that things have changed in significant ways.

That even with consumer goods being cheaper, the costs of living, especially establishing yourself when you're young have gone way up - Rent/housing, vehicles, food, maintenance, loan payments, etc. - God forbid you actually want to start a family on top of all of that.

While wages effectively decrease more and more, especially relative to the amount of actual productivity generated.

And that with that, a lot of the "stay late, put in 110%" mentality (while being toxic and fundamentally just being free labour for employers, which we're all more conscious of as being, well, shitty for us workers) - That stuff isn't a nicety that'll make you stand out and look good for an employer come promotion-time. It's just expected or outright demanded of you. And when it comes time to promote or at least give raises? Nah - They'll nickel and dime and hem and haw about giving their own workers more money or less duties - They'll just bring in someone who feels more exploited somewhere else - And then turn around and complain about disloyalty when their employees leave for greener pastures in the same way.

And we're all a lot more conscious of the ill-effects of too much stress and poor work-life balance, so we try to push back against being overworked and burnt out where we can (That being said I absolutely do know people my age and younger who willingly get into that "grind mindset" and I worry for them. Like, are they actually getting enough money to meaningfully get ahead? Or are they just working themselves into an early grave for no real benefit?)

It's no longer the "just walk in, shake the manager's hand, work in the same place until retirement and comfortably make enough to buy a house and raise your kids through university with your partner being a SAHP." world anymore.

Like, the Boomers just don't get that we're in a situation where working harder doesn't translate to meaningful improvements for our lives.

To the point that it feels impossible to meaningful get ahead and achieve "milestones".

And when you're stating that down, expecting it to only get worse because of policies Boomers voted into place and by-and-large continue to vote into place. And that this is the expectation of how your life is going to be for the next 40+ years- It does lead to a sort of crushing, existential despair.

And if that doesn't break you just a little bit, well you're probably doing a lot better than a lot of people.

So there's two approaches that emerge from that (and they're not mutually-exclusive):

The first is just to check out. "If this job isn't gonna pay my bills no matter how good I do it, I'm just gonna do enough not to get fired."

And honestly, there's always been people like this in the workforce. The Olds are just mad because "How dare someone young not hop-to when they ought to!" They'll complain about useless coworkers of the same age too, but not with the same vitriol. Not with the same disdain. And they won't dismiss the whole generation as "lazy" or worse because if them.

The second strategy is to embrace what you can - Enjoy our many frivolous things. Toys (including recreational vehicles), games, computers, phones, streaming services, makeup, clothes, good food, whatever floats your boat. Because, as I said, those sorts of things are relatively less expensive these days.

Because if you're gonna never really be able to get a house, no amount of cutting back on avocado toast is gonna change that. And there's no point in denying yourself little joys indefinitely to aspire to it.

And this offends The Olds, because, 'how dare you have conspicuous consumption of any kind of you complain about not being able to afford rent or a mortgage?!". And back in the day, maybe you could save a meaningful amount if you cut back on little luxuries, and it would make enough of a difference to get you into a house/whatever your goal was notably sooner. And it'd only mean tightening your belt for a pre-determined amount of time - Not in perpetuity.

And of course, that's assuming you have the luxury of disposable income at all. I know I'm relatively privileged with an MSc (even if disability means I can't work, myself), let alone any university, so my friend circle is largely similarly privileged. There's plenty of people - Both younger and older than me - That can't even cut back on luxuries to save, because there's no money going to luxuries, period.

I guess the shift is that even things that used to guarantee you a "good, middle-class life" aren't really guaranteeing that anymore.

The kicker is that they too complain about life being shitty, work sucking, etc.

But then when anyone proposes that maybe the whole system is broken and we could rethink it?

Well, now that's outrageous! "How dare you be so ungrateful and not just pull yourself by your bootstraps you lazy slacker?! And why bother trying to change things? Just get sloppy drunk every night at the bar after work or something like that. That's how we've always coped as a society!"

I don't know if I ultimately have a point or solution to any if this, beyond, like, a total societal shift in the way we approach labour compensation and property commodification.

I just needed to get this ranting out of my system after holding my tongue at the table, several hours ago at this point.

Because as much as I disagree with their whole approach, down to their utter lack of empathy for those suffering in a world they helped make, there wouldn't be anything meaningful for me to actually gain by engaging them on their misinformation in the heat of the moment.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to look up the difference between a fermion and a boson for a conversation I'm about to have with a paving stone.

#generation gap #ugh... Boomers #ramblings and rantings

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vanaglcria · 28 days

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Far from in-depth, but a rough progression of events for Carmilla, from arriving in Hell to where she sits now :

Upon her arrival in Hell, Carmilla is horrified to discover that her daughters ( for reasons yet unknown ) are there with her. Clara and Odette did not remember the exact circumstances surrounding their death, believing the wreck to be an accident. The three find housing in a less-than-ideal apartment complex, and search for employment. Clara and Odette have more fortune in this regard, as Carmilla struggles to adjust to the bodily changes she's undergone.

Within the first handful of months she is Hell, Carmilla witnesses an Extermination up-close. Surviving by hiding and making herself as small as possible, she vows to never allow herself to be as weak in death as she was in life.

Following the Extermination, Carmilla notices how many weapons are left where the dead have fallen, include angelic weapons not retrieved by those who had wielded them. Seeing an easy way to turn a profit, she starts collecting the abandoned weaponry to sell. This starts as a small, quick turnaround run out of her apartment, selling all that she had collected within the span of about six weeks — save for one angelic spear that she keeps for herself.

Over the following year, she learns. Studying Sinners and what makes them tick, observes the social hierarchy of Hell, learns who and what to avoid. She also learns more about the Extermination, the angels, and the relevance of the weapons they kill with : that a weapon forged of angelic steel is capable of killing a Sinner, and perhaps even Hellborn demons.

Over the next four-to-five years, Carmilla gathers the fallen weapons of angels and demons during and after the Extermination. During this span, she studies metallurgy and forging, and begins experimenting, testing the melting points and durability of angelic steel when it has been reforged. Using the money made from selling weaponry, she reinvests, until she's able to rent a small space to turn into a metal shop.

Out of this shop space, Carmilla sells primarily blades made from recycled metal. Her eye for craftsmanship makes her products well-received in Pride, and soon she is turning a good profit, enough that she is able to have Clara and Odette quit their jobs to help her. During this time, she crafts her first repurposed angelic steel piece, and is able to move herself and her daughters into better housing. It's around this point that Carmilla learns of soul contracts and what they entail.

As business improves over the following years, Carmilla continues to put money back into her work : keeping as low a profile as one can in Pride, not wasting her money on extravagant displays. Over these early years, she begins hiring more employees, creating a larger space for her work, and continuing her experimentations for new weaponry. The majority of her workforce are women or battered spouses, given a second chance and an escape.

Years pass, the business grows, and Carmilla begins to collect souls : it begins as a way to keep track of her employees, those who sign over their souls with no hesitation, and then as a method of payment for those who don't have the money to hand over for her weaponry. These numbers add up quickly, perhaps more quickly than would have been expected. Then, comes the acquisition of other arms dealers and the souls under their control, competition that is swiftly crushed beneath her heel.

It's at this point that she gains the title of Overlord, a title she is determined to hold onto. A power she will not lose, determined to never feel so helpless every again.

#✦ —— 𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑳𝑨 𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑬 : headcanon #/ this is just a bunch of disjointed rambling #/ but i wanna highlight how hard she fucking WORKED to get where she is #/ woman straight up taught herself a fucking trade

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rabbitcruiser · 11 days

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National Pecan Day

On April 14, we celebrate National Pecan Day, pecan — a uniquely American nut whose fan base counts the likes of founding fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Whether it’s a garnish on a salad or a stand-alone snack, caramelized or roasted, sweet or savory — pecans never fail to deliver on the enthralling taste and the ultimate nutrient density. Did you know, America is credited for 75% of the world’s total pecan production? This fun holiday was established by the National Pecan Shellers Association in 1966 to recognize and honor the workforce behind the cultivation of pecans in America.

History of National Pecan Day

On National Pecan Day, America celebrates the only nut native to its land. Pecans are a much-celebrated nut of America, used in deserts, icecreams, and snacks.

Centuries before European colonization, pecans were cultivated, processed, and consumed in America by Native people. The word ‘pecan’ is derived from the word ‘pacane,’ used by the Algonquin tribe to describe a nut that needs a stone to crack open. The tribes valued pecan for its nutrition density, availability, ease of consumption, and fulfilling taste.

In the late 17th century, the native nut caught the eye of Spanish colonists, who began cultivating large pecan orchards in the vicinity. But it wasn’t until the 18th century that the commercialization of pecans picked up the pace in the United States. By 1802, formal selling routes were established, and pecan export had commenced.

In 1882, a hybrid fruit via the budding of pecan and an adjacent wild plant was created by Abner Landrum, a cultivator from South Carolina. This resultant nut was considered to be an upgraded version of pecan. Although the hybrid seeds of Abner got lost in time, in 1876, the process of grafting was recreated by Antoine, a slave from Louisiana. Antoine presented his discovery at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1976 and thus began farming a new and improved variety of pecans throughout the country.

Today, America is responsible for three quarters of pecan production in the world. From the summer lanes of Texas to the sunny pavements of California, pecan cultivation is a year-long endeavor for thousands of American farmworkers.

In 1996, the National Pecan Shellers Association members came together to establish April 14 as National Pecan Day. The objective of the day is to celebrate the earthly wonders of this nut and to uplift the hardworking members of the industry who make the sustainable farming of pecans possible.

National Pecan Day timeline

1772 The First Plantation

Long Island farmers organize the first pecan plantation of pecan trees, propagating safe and easy ways of pecan plantation.

1775 George Washington’s Imprint

Founding Father George Washington plants a pecan tree in Mount Vernon, symbolizing the rapid popularity of pecans in America.

1943 Formalization

National Pecan Shellers Association is established to represent thousands of pecan farmers and shellers across the country

1996 Establishment of the Day

The National Pecan Shellers Association establishes National Pecan Day to honor the native nut of America.

National Pecan Day FAQs

How is 'pecan' pronounced?

The correct pronunciation of pecan is PEE-can. However, a majority of southern Americans like to say it as PA-kawn. How do you pronounce it?

Are pecan and walnut the same thing?

It’s easy to get confused, but walnuts and pecans are two different nuts from the same Junlandacea family. Walnut has a smooth exterior with a lighter color, unlike pecans, which have a chocolate brown color with definitive lines.

Can you eat pecan raw?

Yes! Pecans, like all other nuts, are edible in their raw form. You can carry a couple of these shelled nuts in your pocket to munch through the day, or you can scatter them on your salad for that extra crunch.

National Pecan Day Activities

Plan a pecan day

Host a bake off

Plant a pecan tree in your backyard

Indulge in the versatile offering of this great American nut by planning your menu around it. Start the day with fluffy pecan pancakes, then have butter pecan chicken for lunch. For a midday snack, enjoy a couple of candied pecans, and end your day with pecan-crusted salmon and some hot pecan pie.

From cookies to pies, pecans go well with any baking dish. So for National Pecan Day, host a bakeoff with your friends and family — featuring our beloved pecans.

Pecans are non-fuss plants that don’t require a liver and a half to take sapling. Plant the seeds today, so you can reap the nuts tomorrow.

5 Important Facts About Pecans

It’s a vitamin party

It’s more than a crunch

A friend to the heart

A love for centuries

A dose of pecan for Apollo

Pecans are home to 19 different vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin E, magnesium, and potassium.

Pecan oil, processed from pecans, is recommended for those with a risk of heart disease.

Pecans have the official certification of the American Heart Association for being a ‘Heart-Healthy Food.’

A pecan tree grows to over 150 feet tall and lives for over 300 years.

Astronauts carried pecans to the moon in their Apollo space mission twice.

Why We Love National Pecan Day

Pecans are underrated

Pecans are the O.G. American nut

Pecans contribute to the economy

The sweet and crunchy texture of a pecan elevates any dish it touches. Be it candies, cookies, bread, pie, salads, or ice cream. It’s time we honor the contribution of this humble nut in our kitchen and celebrate National Pecan Day with full excitement.

While cashew came to America from Brazil and the California almonds are actually a gift of Spain, pecan is the singular nut native to America. Pecans were widely consumed by native Americans before European colonization.

The American pecan industry is worth over $3.5 billion. Just 15 states of the U.S. produce more than 75% of pecan of the world. The pecan trees are responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of families and a flourishing U.S. economy

Source

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