#hasn't given us healthcare

[tittyinfinity]

my food stamps got cut by $14 more??? After it was already cut by $60 a few months ago???

I'm now receiving $185 less a month in food stamps than I got a few years ago. And food prices have nearly doubled. This is bullshit.

#all of my assistance has been cut!!! #we can send billions to i*rael but we can't afford to feed people? #biden has done nothing to stop this #he hasn't stopped greedflation he hasn't done anything about homelessness or poverty #he hasn't stopped the anti-trans laws from being passed in many states #he hasn't raised the minimum wage #hasn't given us healthcare #hasn't done anything about the rental crisis #everything became more expensive under his presidency EVERYTHING #and yes the president absolutely does have the power to stop these things. executive orders exist #whenever Trump does these things it's 100% his fault #but when Biden does these things all of a sudden it's ''you don't understand he's trying so so hard but the mean republicans won't let him' #my life and the life of everyone I know has gotten worse under this presidency #we can SEE the results #there are a couple of good things he's done but they're far outweighed by the bad things #.bdo

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

I feel like I'm constantly talking like a broken record, lol, leftists this, leftists that.

Sometimes it's surreal to see myself typing that and agreeing with it, given I used to be very left wing myself until the response on the left to October 7th. And I hate the idea that it's giving other people the impression that I'm conservative--I'm not. I have some views that I'd share with conservatives--being a Zionist being one of them... obviously.

But I'm literally bisexual. I support same-sex marriage. I think democracy is the best form of government, that the US should have universal healthcare, should abolish the Electoral College (National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, I'm praying for you). I think the invasion of Ukraine is a monstrous crime and Putin is a threat to world peace. I think systemic racism is a real thing in the United States, as is police brutality against black people. I think vaccines work, and mandates are a good idea. I think most right-wing politicians are right-wing populists more interested in causing democratic backsliding and peddling conspiracies than they are in fixing literally anything.

But I can't call myself a leftist anymore, even with this set of values. Why? Because--oh, God--I believe Israel has the right to exist. And to defend itself.

I'm not even some radical on Israel unlike some friends of mine--I think it's a travesty that Israel hasn't yet legalized same-sex marriage or established a civil marriage system. I think the 2018 Nation-State Law was racist in making Arabic no longer a co-official language with Hebrew. I think Bibi is one of those aforementioned populists. I think Israel has a democratic backsliding problem.

But the rest of the left--the rest of the queer community, especially--has made it clear in no uncertain terms that I am not welcome among them anymore. Like, they genuinely think I'm a genocide defending fascist, which is just so weird to me sometimes. Yeah, me, the fascist who thinks queer rights should be non-negotiable in any society. And they, who are posting pro-Hamas slogans, are the ones standing against genocide and bigotry. Uh huh. Oo-kay.

I don't want to constantly be saying 'Oh, the left...' and 'Leftists when...' like I'm some boomer posting shitty memes on Facebook. The right has its share of problems, too. And I'm sure they'll do something soon to make their antisemitism known as well--especially as the 2024 presidential election draws nearer.

But right now, the immediate threat isn't in Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or whoever. I'm more worried about being accosted by pro-Palestine protestors with something to prove than I am about neo-Nazi gangs. And so are most Jews right now. And that's why I'm posting about the left more than the right here... even though my values are mostly left.

Oh, the wonders of being politically homeless!

#jewish #jumblr #anti zionisim #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #israel #judaism #pro israel #zionism #antizionism #left wing antisemitism

[drtanner]

Genuinely wish I had the energy to talk more about UK politics here given that Tumblr is so US-centric and desperately needs the added perspective, but there's genuinely fuck all happening here that hasn't been par for the course for the last ~14 years. Tories gonna Tory.

A brief rundown for interested parties:

After a long and arduous battle to convince everyone that it should be legal to do so, our government has commenced with its plan to shove asylum seekers who attempt an extremely dangerous Channel crossing on small boats to find safety here onto planes and ship them off to Rwanda, a country with significant human rights issues. There does not seem to be any desire to do anything about the "criminal gangs" who are supposedly trafficking these asylum seekers and sending them here, or to ask any questions about what might make people so desperate that they'd risk crossing the Channel in a tiny boat in the first place.

Having sent everyone back to the office despite COVID still very much being a thing so that we can oil the wheels of the UK economy with our blood and to prevent their portfolios from losing value, the same ghouls are now proposing that disabled people "do their duty" by being forced to work from home, or else lose their benefits. They're also proposing mandatory work placements for people who fail to find work within 18 months.

Transphobia remains the culture war du jour, despite all evidence showing that it is a vote loser. Our government continues to be obsessed with policing the genitals of children and ensuring that trans people receive abuse from every possible direction, having recently released "guidance" for schools that essentially instructs them to deny trans kids any kind of shelter or agency whatsoever and to refuse their requests for basic dignity whenever the opportunity to do so arises, whilst simultaneously attempting to introduce the term "gender ideology" into mainstream parlance.

The Online Safety Bill, which proposes that social media sites should require ID in order to sign up, is also a porn ban.

We (and the US) are still bombing people in another country, without it having been approved by vote beforehand, in order to prevent Israel from suffering any economic hardship while it continues to commit a genocide using weapons that we (and the US) provide. Our government assures us that this will continue for as long as Israel wants it to, and is still talking about "humanitarian pauses" instead of any kind of actual, real ceasefire.

Labour (the supposed "opposition" party) has wholeheartedly supported every part of this and in some cases seems to think that the current government doesn't go far enough.

We're still in the middle of a cost of living crisis, by the way. Also the climate crisis, with more and more people losing their homes and livelihoods to flooding with every passing year. No one's talking about any of that, though. There might be a transgender child receiving lifesaving healthcare somewhere, or maybe an immigrant being treated with respect, which is obviously much worse.

So that's where we are right now. We've been promised an election this year but given that Labour haven't opposed any part of the cruelty this government has been visiting upon everyone but the white, cishet, ablebodied rich, it's unclear whether getting the Tories out will actually materially improve anything. If you've got the Greens or Lib Dems as candidates in your constituency, I guess it's time to make peace with voting for them instead of Labour, maybe.

So, yeah. v( ._.)v

#Tanner talks #UK politics

[weenwrites]

Optimus, Arcee, and Ratchet

Those 3 with human adult reader who’s homeless? I’m talking no home, lack of money, and I’m assuming that they stay at base the majority of the time. Also, they weren’t born homeless, they said it themselves that they caused it on their own.

[ Please do not repost, plagiarize, or use my writing for AI! Translating my work with proper credit is acceptable, but please ask first! ]

Optimus

He explains that you are free to stay at the base if you have nowhere else to go, and if anything it would be much safer for you to remain here than out on the streets. Now that you're under the Autobot's care, he tries to be as accommodating as he can, but for the time being all he was able to find in the storage room was an old couch, a table, and a dusty tv, all of which were presumably from the previous inhabitants of the silo.

The base is very spacious, but the closest area to the restroom was upon the walking platform, and so that platform became your living area for the sake of convenience. However, if you wished for more privacy he offered the first room down the corridor (it is massive and a long way to walk though).

You don't need to worry about Agent Fowler, either. Optimus had already mulled things over with him, and he agreed to allow the bots to let you live there. Fowler even does what he can to provide you with food stamps and provide you healthcare for any disabilities or illnesses you have.

Every now and then he talks to Agent Fowler about you, and he brings up the same topic time and time again, and every time Optimus still receives the same uncertain answer that might as well be a fancy-worded "maybe". Sometimes he receives good news, sometimes there's nothing at all, but Optimus still hasn't lost hope that eventually you'll be given some form of financial aid.

Arcee

She doesn't mind having you around at base 24/7. If anything, it makes her job much more convenient because you're within range most of the time. When you were first allowed to stay at the base full-time, she showed you all the spare rooms, the exits to the base encase of an emergency, and any other rooms you asked to see. Since the base is rather large for someone your size, she recommended staying as close to the main area as possible, or otherwise it could be quite the jog to get around.

As she learned more about you, she has asked about your past from time to time, and however you mean "caused it on your own", she won't push you to explain if it's too sensitive a topic for you to elaborate on, or if you just generally don't wish to, she respects your privacy and she won't press for any more information. And even if you do tell her, she doesn't judge you for it.

She'll offer to be your ride any time you want to go to Jasper for whatever reason, and she tries to stick close to you encase things go south. The more she goes out with you in public, the quicker she is to realize that she sort of deters cops from trying to shoo you away. If you go to food pantries or food banks, she feels guilty that she ends up limiting what you can bring back with you since her alt-mode's not too convenient for transporting things.

Ratchet

He certainly isn't going to butt heads with Optimus about whether you should stay at the base. If you have no home of your own, you're at a bigger risk of being caught by the Decepticons. For the most part he won't have any problem with it, and he leaves you be so long as you don't obstruct his work.

You have your own designated corner in the base, it's the area that the kids currently hang out in, but you were most likely there first. You were also offered other empty areas within the base that would offer you more privacy, but whether you take them or not is up to you.

As much as he'd prefer to stay indoors so he can work productively, if you need to go outside for whatever reason he'll escort you to Jasper. He sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the other cars on the road though, so he still makes a point to swiftly take care of any business you have, as not to attract any unwanted attention to yourselves.

His understanding of human anatomy is very rudimentary and limited, but he's learned enough to be able to understand when something's wrong. And in the event that his own medical knowledge isn't enough to help, he's glossed over the route to the nearest hospital from the base, and he'll be sure to ask Fowler to take care of the expenses later on.

#tfp imagines #tfp headcanons #tfp x reader #tfp optimus prime #optimus prime x reader #tfp arcee #arcee x reader #tfp ratchet #ratcher x reader #x reader #reader insert #self insert #weenwrites

[genderkoolaid]

Article from 11/5/22

The first time I had a pregnancy scare was shortly before 2020, when I was in my early 20s. I googled how to access plan B and was surprised and relieved at how easy the process was. I felt some resentment too: I shouldn’t have been surprised. That was what feminists and activists before me had fought for. Easy and affordable access to reproductive care. I entered the details required to place the order, and within minutes I received a cancellation notification on my phone. Assuming an error, I tried again; the money was still pending on my card. It was canceled for a second time. I called my best friend, asking to borrow money to buy some medication. At that point, almost 24 hours had passed, and I knew I would have to wait the following day to head to the pharmacy. After the third order was canceled, I started panicking. I knew the chances of being pregnant were low, given my medical history, but the thought of needing an abortion was scary. I knew I could access it fairly easily, should I need to. I knew my partner would come with me, and be supportive. I knew my best friend could drive me there. I finally got an email from the pharmacy, explaining why the orders had been canceled: “We cannot sell plan B to men, please ask your partner to order her medication directly.” Needless to say, my partner in this case had no use for plan B. Nor could they have ordered it on my behalf. I didn’t expect similar feelings – the same pain, fear, frustration – to emerge again recently, even more violently. My partner – transgender as well – was lying next to me in bed, browsing social media, when they suddenly stopped and looked at me. “They’re overturning Roe.” was all they said. It took me a moment to understand what they meant. Even longer to understand what that would mean in the upcoming days. Once again, I felt my body paralyzed with horror. But I still had to look it up myself, so I started reading tweets, articles, and news – all the “No uterus, no opinion,” “Stand with women,” and “Protect women’s health” slogans. It’s hard to describe the pain of feeling excluded by a problem that’s still affecting you. There is a fine line between combating erasure and being worried your experience will be used to distract from that problem. As a trans man, I need access to abortion and contraception, whether they’re labeled for women or not. But erasure runs deeper than semantics, and it’s rarely accidental. Following the Roe v. Wade leak, a great part of the debate has shifted to the language used when discussing abortion. Part of it is aimed at including trans men and non-binary people who might have a uterus, engage in penetrative sex, don’t have access to contraception, or have to terminate wanted pregnancies for health reasons. The connection between reproductive rights and equal rights for the LGBTQ community has always been clear, both from community involvement and legislation, but we’re only just starting to see the harm of describing abortion as a women’s rights issue. Overturning Roe v. Wade is not just a women’s issue. Framing it as such not only erases transgender and non-binary people who might need access to it, but also fails to recognize the threat it poses to body autonomy. It creates a concerning precedent by restricting agency in healthcare by targeting specific minorities. Personal interest in this conversation shouldn’t be the leading argument: there are women (cisgender and transgender) who cannot get pregnant who are still pro-choice; there are disabled people who have been advocating for body autonomy since before Roe v. Wade was introduced; there are BIPOC who have historically faced violence and reproductive health disparities.

#m. #examples of transandrophobia #reproductive justice #abortion #birth control #roe vs wade

[spitblaze]

thoughts continue to percolate on Jobswap AU

So, as aforementioned, Therion is a surgeon apothecary who lost faith in himself and his profession after losing a patient who had some significance to him after a preventable accident and then being accosted by the family in his grief. He gave up the whole thing for several years, living in relative isolation close to Bolderfall. Until one day, when a desperate woman shows up at the door and begs for his help. She had heard he was an apothecary with knife skills, and sought him out immediately. Her younger sister, she says, has a giant growth on her neck, and if it doesn't come off soon, it's going to kill her. Other apothecaries have tried, but they all said it was impossible, that it was too difficult to remove it without damaging her wind pipe or major arteries. Or something. Idk. The point is that this situation is really dire and this kid reminds him of the patient he lost so he pulls the scalpel out 'one last time' to save her. She lives, and he remembers why he took up the mantle to start- the purpose of the apothecary. Doing this, he takes his journey.

Chapters two and three are mostly unrelated, basically chapters of Black Jack. Therion goes from town to town, sometimes charging ridiculous amounts of money for surgery, sometimes performing completely free of charge. He saves whoever he can, and those who abuse his abilities for their own gain find themselves with karmic retribution. Throughout the whole thing, though, there's the undercurrent of something worse happening. Another surgeon like him, traveling and charging ridiculous fees. He's a miracle worker, they say- he provides entire new organs when old ones fail, pulls people back from the very brink of death. But when his patients can't pay up, they mysteriously disappear...

Chapter four. Therion meets Darius. Fellow apothecary, wealthy fellow, personal doctor to the Ciannos. He has a proposal for Therion- they go into business, establish their own practice, charge out the nose and turn away all who don't pay. They both have reputations- Therion is the Beast Apothecary, a medic who works so fast and so precise it's almost inhuman, not afraid to use unorthodox methods to achieve his results. Darius is the Miracle Apothecary, a man who can seemingly bring people back from the brink of death with tools and materials nobody else has. The two of them together could do whatever they want, and who would stop them? Therion declines- he prefers the freedom of traveling where he pleases and doing as he wishes. A partnership would complicate things, and put him on more of a leash than he'd like. Besides, he's heard...rumors about what happens to his patients that don't pay up. Darius threatens him and leaves, and Therion investigates later on. Maybe follows some goons from the home of someone who hasn't paid, maybe scopes out Darius's 'hideout' by putting together information given to him by locals. Either way, he gets in, and discovers that Darius has been kidnapping the patients who don't pay up and harvesting their blood and tissue and organs. Horrifying! He fucking kills Darius. Darius tries to give him that 'you're no better than me' schtick but it doesnt work because he's regained his faith! In himself! In his profession! And I'm American so in my head it's a whole criticism of the for-profit healthcare industry!!! FUCK you Darius

Because I like it when stories cross over and it isn't actually a game trying to make sure you can complete all the stories in whatever order you want, Darius is also a major player in Alfyn's story! Alfyn lost his parents to the plague that swept through Clearbrook as a child. He survived thanks to a traveling apothecary, but he had nowhere to go after that ('but what about zeph' idk shh dont worry about it), and ended up turning to a life of petty theft after hitching a ride to Saintsbridge. He joins up with a group of thieves called the Red Hoods, as their newest and youngest member. They're all pretty cool people, somewhere between Robin Hood and Ye Olde Mutual Aid Organization. They look out for themselves and the little guy, steal from the rich, give to the poor, skim a bit off the top.

These guys are his best friends for years, he hones his skills as a thief, learned how the world works and how to help, basically everything he knows he learned from the Red Hoods. All is well until six years before present day, when Alfyn is fifteen. The Red Hoods plan a heist on the Ciannos, a crime family that's been terrorizing locals and hoarding money. Alfyn is briefly held up by helping a kid do something, look for their cat or whatever but makes it to the meeting point in time to see that they were lured into a trap. He peeks from behind a doorway, seeing a red-haired figure laugh about how gullible they were, how trusting and naive they all were for trusting each other. All of his friends are beaten and bloodied, some already dead. One sees him from the doorway and tells him to run, to get out while he still can. To keep the Red Hoods alive. Unable to act, Alfyn flees, only barely evading becoming a victim himself.

Years later he's still saddled with grief and survivor's guilt, thinking that if he had just said no to the kid who asked for help, if he had just taken a different route, if he had just been there to scout ahead, if, if, if. He's carried on the name of the Red Hoods as a one-man gang, unable to bring himself to allow anyone else into his heart that he could just lose in an instant again. He leaves calling cards after robbing the wealthy and unjust blind and redistributing it among the lower class. He does this until he happens to redistribute the wealth from the one family he shouldn't have- the Ravuses. From here it's basically Therion's story, except with Alfyn. You know how it goes. Get the Dragonstones and we'll remove the Blackmail Bracelet.

The end of his story coincides with Therion's story (also thematically appropriate bc im incapable of not giving them a slow burn romance) when they finally confront Darius. Darius comments on how the 'little coward thief' or whatever finally grew a spine, and how he can meet his end like the rest of his little friends. No longer afraid, Alfyn loudly declares that as long as he's alive, the Red Hoods will never die, and in a moment of solidarity, the rest of the party declares that they too are Red Hoods. Its very touching and inspirational and worthy of some Toby Fox music and then they beat the everloving shit out of Darius.

I am aware there are several holes in this story. And to that I say: Don't Worry About It.

#spitblaze says things #spitblaze draws things #octopath #octopath traveler #therion #therion (octopath) #alfyn greengrass #jobswap au #spitblaze writes things

[a-frog-in-a-bog]

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/ace-report

I politely suggest you read it before you make the assumption that is aros and aces don't have problems to face.

If you don't believe us after reading the whole thing, fine, but remember that bigots don't care about our specific identities as to them we are all worth hurting; We all have the same face of hate against us, so whether you like it or not, we're fighting together

Just, give it a read; I promise it'll be worth it.

first i'd like to thank you for being polite and linking an actual source, it's the first time in all my years on tumblr that someone hasn't just plugged their ears and screamed "everyone is valid!!!" so genuinely, thank you. second, the point i was making was that aces and aros don't face systemic oppression, not that they don't have any problems. i'm gonna add and respond to some excerpts i found interesting for anyone who cares / doesn't have time to read the report themselves:

i would've liked to see a further clarifying question on this study about what kind of negative reaction the respondents feared. the only examples given were the above and similar, but we don't know what kind of negative reactions LGBT people anticipated. was it also just intrusive questions, or did they consider negative reactions to be physical violence, being fired, being killed, or being kicked out of their home? would a lesbian respondent consider "so which one of you is the man?" to be a negative reaction or an ignorant one? we have no way of knowing if ace and LGBT respondents had the same criteria for what constitutes a negative reaction

this is wildly unprofessional and would also make me (and i'm betting plenty other people) uncomfortable! not sure why this is presented as a micro-aggression against ace people when it's just inappropriate in general?

another one i would've liked a follow-up question to. is this because ace people are uncomfortable coming out at work or because there just hasn't been a reason to bring up lack of sexual attraction at work?

yeah! i agree! although i'm not sure why this is presented as what an ace-inclusive workplace would look like instead of what a... normal workplace should look like?

this is literally just misogyny. the same shit happens to gay and straight women (also as an aside, pain during pap smears is entirely dependent on personal pain tolerance and anxiety, it's different for everyone and has nothing to do with whether or not you've had sex before. just like how tight or loose a vagina is has nothing to do with how much sex you have. not trying to discredit the woman here, just didn't want to spread misinformation)

this is horrible, and obviously asexuality needs to be taught alongside hypoactive sexual desire disorder in med school so healthcare professionals can tell the difference between the two, as it seems most if not all of these examples stem from doctors and therapists either not knowing the difference or being confused about what asexuality is (since this study is from the UK i'm interested to know if ace people in other countries have had similar experiences, and if asexuality is taught in med school in other places)

again, thank you for sharing! it was very informative and i'll admit i wasn't aware that some ace people face medical discrimination, so i learned something new :) as i've said before, the LGBT and ace communities are a venn diagram, especially where LGBT ace folk are concerned. they're not completely overlapping but not completely separate. most marginalized communities overlap in some way. i know i said this at the start of my reply but it bears repeating-- while everything asexuals faced listed in this report ranged from mildly annoying to downright traumatizing, it's still not an organized legal attempt to criminalize, well, not feeling sexual attraction... and there weren't any hate crimes against aces... do you see what i'm getting at

#mine #id in alt text #lgbt #asexual #aromantic

[canonical-transformation]

The only reason that the Crux Fleet hasn't gone completely broke or filed for bankruptcy due to their boss's habit of throwing money at problems is because Mora-Grubber is the one balancing the books.

The crew thanks her for the fact that she is able to do this and keep their benefits which include a pension, healthcare, and other services.

The last time Ningguang tried to legislate something that would screw the fleet over, Mora-Grubber marched up to the Jade Chamber herself to strike it down.

She's given up trying to coerce her boss into using money more wisely (or simply talking things out and making it work with the disputing parties), but she is not above using the fact that she is the one holding this mess together to reel is back in a bit.

Oh 100%. Don't mess with the privateer pirate quartermaster, they're the one making sure there's food on the table. (We can call her "bookkeeper", whatever. That doesn't change the role.)

Headcanon: Farzaneh had a similar role on a Crux ship before she went private.

#mora-grubber #mora grubber #crux fleet #beidou #farzaneh #genshin impact #asks #narcoticwriter

[lullabyes22-blog]

What kind of boss do you think Silco is/what do you think it’s like working under him? I feel like it would be pretty typical except the higher up you get the better it gets. Since I could see Silco repaying the loyalty with loyalty and like health care benefits or something

lmaoooo I could write a whole book on how this man might be as a boss - the upsides, downsides and the sheer craziness in between. 

Personally, I write him as the dark visionary type - the ones who tap into an oppressed psyche and promise to lead their followers to freedom, making themselves into a literal symbol of liberty or redemption. The archetype I like to use is less Moses and more Odysseus: cunning, wily and not above playing dirty to get his way. He's got a keen gift of persuasion and an unflinching insight into the human psyche. He also speaks to those who've been chewed up by the jaws of injustice and want payback.

With that in mind, his followers are the shady sort. However, he knows how to listen to them and use their needs for his benefit. For efficiency's sake, his organization would be run in a military style (similar to RL mob structures). On the lower level, you'd have your everyday lackies. However, the higher up one gets, he'd tend to employ talented misfits rather than mindless drones. Someone with a personal stake in Zaun's independence, whose zeal and gifts can be weaponized.

On the whole, I see him as a boss who values innovation and effectiveness. Open-minded, but suffers no fools. You can see that in his approach with Singed and Sevika. In private he talks to them almost like equals. He also listens to Sevika's advice re: Jinx, because he's more inclined to listen to logic rather than be a stickler for protocol. 

I also see him as being extremely demanding, with nose-bleed high standards. He won't micromanage, but he'll have no tolerance for screw-ups because he expects you to know your job and do it as a given. Sparing with praise. Big on competency. Prefers bullshit of all types to be kept to a minimum.

I agree that he'd value loyalty, and repay it in kind. Despite rising to the level of kingpin, he kept his core crew - Lock, Dustin, Ran - likely because they've proven their worth to him on multiple occasions. 

Mobs don't exactly have healthcare, dental etc. But a good businessman takes care of his assets. He'd likely grant his lackeys access to good medicinal Shimmer, or show them how to network within his circle so they can improve themselves, personally and as soldiers for Zaun. You'd also, at a bare minimum, get a hot meal - because hunger is the most basic need and the easiest way to gain a man's compliance.

tl;dr: Silco as a boss - charismatic, cold, perceptive, values competence and despises wasted time/resources. He won't remember your birthday, but he'll ask if your cough's gotten better, and refer you to Singed if it hasn't.

Yay?

#arcane #asks #arcane league of legends #arcane silco #arcane headcanon #silco #silco meta

[fiendtheanonymous]

What is "What Once Was" all about? :)

Glad you asked!!! So so glad I'm able to infodump about this. Not sure how comprehensible this will be but whatever.

Okay so, What Once Was is about a few things and ended up developing in my head after I just wanted to write a Mojo Jojo oneshot. Essentially, it's a fic that studies the relationship between Mojo Jojo, the Puff, and the Ruffs 25 years post canon (in my own AU timeline but that's a bit of a given). Specifically, it takes place on the Puff's 30th birthday. Mojo Jojo in this fic is a sad old bitter fuck who hasn't been in the Ruff's lives at all (let alone as a father) for years upon years and is angry about that fact, he's pissed off about the fact that he's lost his youth and he's close to death and that he has nobody. And today of all days, as he's grumbling around festering in his own frustrations and failings, he looks back on his actions and decides he's gonna attempt to get back into his kids lives even if he does have to put up with those blasted Puffs.

Meanwhile, the Ruffs have not been in Mojo's life for years and are more than happy about that fact. There was a fuck ton of work put into it on both sides over the years but the Puffs and Ruffs have formed essentially what I'd like to call a "found family unit" with one another. While yes there is shipping here (color code because I'm traditional and BORING!), the main focus here is the sturdiness of their unit as a whole and how they all interact with one another. Not to be sappy or anything but they all love each other and they worked their asses off to get to that point given that the six of them were made to inherently despise each other.

The main conflict of this fic arises from the fact that Mojo and the Puffs and Ruffs want two directly different things out of their lives. Mojo wants to get back to the past in order to relive his glory days, while the Puffs and Ruffs want to run as far away as possible from their past due to a variety of factors, mainly the fact that their relationship to Townsville has become fairweathered and tumultuous at best along with the fact that they've just experienced a lot of shit at the hands of so many people over the years. The Puffs and Ruffs are very, very much reaching their limits and that'll bleed through the fic along with the familial tension that exists between the Ruffs and Mojo. Those are the two main emotional points here.

The Puffs and Ruffs just want to look towards the future as they hit new milestones as adults, while Mojo is stuck in his ways and will do anything to drag them back into the past so he doesn't have to think about his own mortality and loneliness for too long.

The main plotline of this fic I'd say outside of these character studies is that there's a big 30th birthday celebration event happening in the name of the Puffs, which also so happens to be they day where the six of them are going to be announcing some massive changes to Townsville's police system, particularly their budgeting with a ton of the existing budget now going to be funneled into aspects such as more affordable housing, education, and healthcare. This is something the six of them have been working together on for years and it's a decision that not a lot of people are going to like (especially when "police budget cuts" and "Rowdyruffs" are involved in the same sentence). The entire fic builds up to this ceremony and follows Mojo, the Puffs, and Ruffs perspectives as we lead up to that ceremony. There are also a lot of flashbacks in this fic, mostly coming from Mojo reminiscing about his relationship to the Puffs and Ruffs, although there's some from other characters (mainly Boomer for now but I'm still figuring things out).

The main types of relationship dynamics that will be explored and compared will be that of nuclear and found family dynamics. Besides the "nuclear" (I use nuclear super loosely here) relationship between the Ruffs and Mojo and the found family relationship between the Puffs and Ruffs being compared, the nuclear family relationship the Blues and Reds have formed amongst themselves (with the Blues having a set of twin four year olds and the Reds having a newborn) will be contrasted against Mojo, the Professor, and Miss Keane's (who is the adoptive mother of the Ruffs in my AU) as the Reds and Blues explore what it's like to be parents. The familiar relationship with Miss Keane, The Professor, and their sets of kids is contrasted against Mojo's parenting, Mojo and the Professor's relationship to one another is explored. There's a ton of familiar comparing and contrasting here, this is a family fic at its core and I will explore that to the best of my abilities.

This is also a grief fic at its core in multiple senses, particularly regarding the grief about the passage of time, what's to come, and one's past. What Once Was is not a happy fic and will not have a happy ending, maybe bittersweet, but not happy. The penultimate chapter I have in place especially is going to be devastating and existential. This is a forewarning, it will not be the only forewarning I give, but this will be the first. I don't know if that counts as a spoiler per say, but I feel like I should put that out there given that I don't want anybody to come in unassumingly and read what I intend to become a very emotionally intensive piece of fanfiction. For PPG standards, What Once Was is a darkfic. It's not graphic outside of canon typical violence for the most part, but it does dive heavily into darker themes emotionally/mentally. Maybe I'm using the term wrong though.

Mojo is a piece of shit in What Once Was, to describe it best; he's a cartoon villain dealing with real life issues and handles them with the grace and compassion of a cartoon villain and he faces the consequences of that regardless of how infallible he believes himself to be.

I think that's all I can say without getting into spoiler territory about Mojo's actions and what ends up happening throughout this fanfiction. I will give you some synopsis notes I wrote for the first pages of my character bibles though.

(I forgot a couple words here and there in these but whatever.)

#asks #anonymous #What Once Was #Unnamed PPG AU #also I'm an evil dad lover as much as the next guy trust me but I do not think that Mojo would actually be a good dad in a million years

[thefirstknife]

@aislinavalbane

Aislin. Hello. I would talk to you like adults that we are, but you have made your essay statement and blocked everyone who may disagree with you, despite openly saying that you welcome people "tearing it apart." I will be as brief as possible and focus on a few points only so I will not be tearing it apart. You're lucky that way.

You've given me no choice but to post this in the tag so all of D2 Tumblr will know your shit.

First of all, I don't think you've read The Callout Post(TM) with adequate reading comprehension or perhaps you've read it and didn't fully understand the issues with things me and another user brought up. Reminder.

But let's move past that one. In your essay, you have stated the following:

If there was someone I was interacting with who showed they were racist, bigoted, transphobic, or even fascist (I see that last one being used quite a bit and I don’t think you all are using that in the correct context, but I digress) then I would simply stop interacting with them and block them.

Really? Okay, so you didn't notice any of the bigotry in the actual post that you claim you've read. Maybe I just wasn't pedantic enough. But by the Traveler, can I be pedantic. Thank you for giving me the chance.

Transphobia 1 (anti-puberty blockers and gender affirming healthcare for trans people and youth in particular, paired with the "REEEE" which is often used as an ableist shortcut to mock autistic people, for good measure.) Transphobia 2 (reblogging a post celebrating the ban on trans women in sport and specifically being rude to one particular trans woman for no reason other than pure and utter hatred, calling trans women "men," anti-puberty blockers.) Transphobia 3 (supposed "gotcha" over how kids should not be allowed to express gender dysphoria when they're young because minors can't buy guns. Stay classy at the time of yet another mass shooting that happened in your country where elementary school children have been killed.) Transphobia 4 (just one of the posts supporting Gina Carano, a known transphobe that I have written about in my original post. Just as an addition, here's some stuff about Gina Carano being antisemitic. Ice in the tags noting that Gina was the only good actress in Star Wars. Really? The antisemitic transphobe?)

Is this enough proof of transphobia or do you need more? Is there a specific number of transphobic beliefs your friend has to agree with and spread around for you to acknowledge she's transphobic?

Homophobia (literally for no reason saying that people calling characters like Din, Luke or Han gay is "the stupidest crap she's ever heard." Why are these headcanons bothering her? Answer quickly. Here's Mark Hamill, Luke's actor, affirming people's HCs about Luke being gay if they so desire.)

Asking if supporting Attack on Titan makes her a Nazi (yes.)

Phew, that's a lot of tough topics to go through. Let's take a break with something light. Here's her anti-Crow post that's actually related to Destiny where she keeps calling him Uldren and saying she hasn't done any quests "helping Uldren" and she doesn't want Bungie to force her to side with him. As far as I know, you support Crow. This is a minor nitpick, but I am being pedantic after all.

Xentari is currently doing the same as you, supporting Ice-6 and claiming there's no bigotry involved anywhere and you're all a nice little support group who support other bigots. And I thought you all just support each other no matter what, but Xentari answered an ask tonight and this was reblogged by one of you who made a sideblog specifically to engage with this discourse and be transphobic. Transphobia in the tags, Xentari liked the reply so I will assume she agrees with the transphobic reply and transphobic tags. This person, whichever one of you it is, has called trans women "men" before and was already transphobic before.

Xentari has been particularly bothersome and outright stalking one of my friends despite my friend not wanting to interact with them. Xentari said my friend is "hiding behind the block button." Curious. Aislin, you're doing the same. This will be a tough one for Xentari to parse through: on one hand, hiding behind a block button is bad, but on the other hand her bestie is doing it too.

Extremely suspicious that both Xentari and you went to dig out stuff posted by trans people, with you, Aislin, specifically not just clipping bits of text but also implying the text wasn't AI generated. And then defending yourself by saying you wrote the person "claimed" it was AI generated. It being AI generated isn't a claim. It's a fact. OP didn't claim anything, he stated a fact. The text is AI generated.

You don't find it funny, whatever. It's not your place to police trans and LGBT+ people about which jokes they will make about themselves. You don't care about that at all. You only care about a post making fun of Cayde because falsely accusing Cayde, a fictional character, of sexism is worse than your friends supporting human rights being taken away.

Your next point I want to address:

Post to donation sites for those who have the means to and may like to contribute to.  Especially for those in the US and Ukraine, cause things are crazy and scary right now all around and backing organizations and people who want to make a real difference and help people is far more helpful than going after random blogs on Tumblr.

Oh things are scary in the US right now? I see you're pro-choice so I will assume you are referring to that.

The person you're willing to die on the hill for is not.

Anti-abortion 1 Anti-abortion 2 Anti-abortion 3 Anti-abortion 4

For as long as you support people who actively made this happen by voting against abortion, you are at fault for what is happening. Whatever little posts and statements you're making about being pro-choice are futile for as long as you're coddling people who want human rights being taken away and chalking it up to "different opinions." This is what "different opinions" on human rights have done. Really "crazy and scary."

Don't fucking dare say that you can still be friends with people who have "different opinions" when those "opinions" are literally about whether or not human beings should have bodily autonomy and the right to choose. Human rights are not an opinion. You cannot be friends with people over this. Different opinions are about what's your favourite colour, not whether or not millions of people will die because your bestie is voting for their rights to be taken away.

I hope I have provided you with sufficient evidence at least for transphobia and anti-abortion stuff. You have explicitly stated that you will stop interacting with and block people who support any kind of bigotry and I believe I have given enough links and explanations and links for further reading to prove this.

If you still can't see transphobia, you are a transphobe.

I will wait with bated breath to see you publicly denounce your friendship with transphobes and transphobe supporters that you are currently very friendly with. As per your own admission that you will.

I also hope that you are hardcore donating to those organisations since you've spent a lot of time coddling people who are responsible for this happening to your country. Links to these organisations that Bungie promoted, for your ease of access:

URGE

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation

In Your Own Voice

Trans Lifeline (hope you have a huge donation to this one in particular given the scope of transphobia exhibited by your (hopefully former) friends)

#destiny 2 #discourse #tw transphobia #tw antisemitism #tw gun violence #tw homophobia #tw anti-abortion #long post #I apologise to everyone who just wants destiny content but i can't in good conscience ignore bigots in our community #i want these people to be blocked by as many people as possible #to make their d2 tag as desolate and barren as their regard for human rights #however if aislin actually does what she has promised to do she is welcome to stay. though i am not going to fault anyone for not forgiving

[lover-official]

The way I'm seeing people consume the Barbie movie uncritically and call it a feminist masterpiece is concerning.

It's giving the same kind of energy as how this site was in the mid 2010's, where we just somehow decided collectively that Men Were All Bad Actually ™️ and like ignored all the ways that's fucked up and that categorically not just dismissing but actively shitting on and harassing a group of people based on an identity they literally can't control is bad.

Like idk I thought we were finally acknowledging the damage that did to feminism. I thought we were finally acknowledging the way that bred a self loathing into men that isolated them and stopped coalition building, and the way young men of color (especially black men) were treated in explicitly racist ways but people used the guise of "no I'm just mad at men" to justify it, and the way trans men CONTINUE to be treated on this website... but here we are, getting real fucking hype about how good the Barbie movie treats the Kens.

And the thing is that while what the Kens do is bad they aren't given genuine agency in the narrative. They didn't like. Make this choice. It's a stupid and logically inconsistent argument that they did, one that's contradicted by the movie itself. They're infantalized by the Barbies at every turn and if ANY Ken has literally any formal education they're an exception. The Barbies don't know where the Kens live (spoiler: they are literally homeless) and they don't care. The Kens are quite literally second class citizens, but the movie doesn't even look at this as a bad thing! It's uninterested in the actually feminist idea that gender should not be used to cause divides or power embalances; instead, it acts out a female supremacy revenge fantasy on screen and then pats itself on the back for being so kind about how it makes the Kens second class citizens. Like sure, it says, the Kens aren't allowed higher education, or a Supreme Court seat, or homes, which are things women do have in the western world that this movie is made for as its primary audience, but at least we're not withholding healthcare or acting sexually violently towards them! And like... that's not the flex you think it is!!!! That's the bare fucking minimum!

Some of you have never read feminist theory and it fucking shows.

bell hooks didn't write The will to change just for you all to uncritically felate a corporate propaganda film as a feminist masterwork. Audre Lorde didn't say "You do not have to be me in order for us to fight alongside each other. I do not have to be you to recognize that our wars are the same," so that you could say that coalition building isn't important, actually, and you'd rather men just suffer than for us to reach healthier societal views on gender.

I'm especially disappointed in the trans people, who should fucking know better, for regurgitating these ideas.

We have to do better about how we treat men even conceptually, because the structural power that men have is not the dominant experience many men have with regards to oppression and we would be better served to fight those battles together. We have to do better because men do not deserve to be isolated from the movement because of their gender. (And no. They don't just need a thicker skin, because a lot of this hasn't just been surface level. It's been vitriolic and insipid, for years now.) We have to do better because once we start making masculinity the devil it's so much easier to hate butches, and trans women, and any woman who's perceived to have masculine interests or features or behaviors. We have to do better because men are still fucking people and deserve to be treated with every bit of kindness and dignity that women are entitled to. (And that's not even getting into how this behavior affects masculine nonbinary people, who get the brunt of this hatred while simultaneously experiencing little to none of the privilege you insist is afforded them by the maleness you percieve.)

Idk I guess I just expected better and I just hoped we wouldn't be worshipping something that pretty clearly flies in the face of what feminists have worked for since like. The 60's. :/

#carmina posting #if you reblog this and try to start shit in the tags or comments I'm not engaging I'll just block #I'm upset because while I am a girl and I love women i also understand the reasons that this flies in the face of feminist theory #and I don't want to argue about that I just want to be allowed to be upset #if you want recommendations on further reading to make an informed opinion because you haven't read feminist theory that addresses... #...this kind of stuff though you can ask for that or dm me and ask and I'll provide resources #i just don't want to get into fights on this

[margapenelopebasa]

In a blink of an eye...

...media has really grown since then, hasn't it?

To think people once started with carving rocks to simply pressing a button on a screen for them to interact with each other is, without a doubt, nothing short of astonishing. Sometimes, we start to forget how much of a long way we came from---especially in regards to how easy it is to exchange with other people. If we pretend like nothing of the sort happened, for all you know, we'd still be painting caves and chanting rituals for us to understand each other. I mean, I'm pretty sure none of our first ancestors would have imagined being able to post their MIL Values Integration activity on Tumblr using a phone before.

Now, with all this evolution and progression, we've come to create numerous types of media that can be so similar yet different at the same time. They all, in a way, share the same purpose, yet have varying mediums they are expressed on. Again, we've come SUCH a long way since then that we now have different categories to classify these examples of media! How cool is that?

According to the Media and Information Literacy subject, there are 4 types of media; Print, Broadcast, Digital, and Converged Media. To put is simply:

PRINT - is when the media is physically written or printed on paper, BROADCAST - is when the media is transmitted through local stations, national networks, and public networks, DIGITAL - is when the media is organized and distributed through digital platforms, and CONVERGED - when the media is a combination of all aforementioned three simultaneously.

So how did the evolution of the different types of media shape the values and norms of people and society? With how I see it, the way we lived our daily lives significantly changed depending on what type of media was available or most in favor at the time. For example, it must've been normal for our early ancestors to communicate through painting and carving. Instead of a singular reliable verbal language, they communicated through drawing and depicting pictures. At the time, pictographs and the like were the norm, and so the people of this period leaned on this type of medium---which can be heavily classified as print media.

This later evolved into sending letters and other written forms of media. Text messaging was not a thing back then, and it usually took ages for people of this period to receive said letters from their loved ones or friends. And as you know it, the cycle goes, and what people perceive to be normal and on trend greatly corresponds to what media was in use at the time.

Now that you've gotten this far...

As a student uploading on Tumblr, it just goes to show that we now live in our current age, where digital facilities and the internet are prevalent. Following this, I would also like to note how these same different types of media help us right now and how they affect our quality of life in general---namely in three given aspects: Education, Business, and Healthcare.

EDUCATION. I don't think you'd be able to learn or educate in the first place without using media. In any type, be it print, broadcast, digital, or converged media, schools use these to produce materials so that their students are able to learn the necessary lessons they are expected to master. Textbooks, educative podcasts, learning resources online, or scholarly websites on the internet all showcase different types of media.

BUSINESS. Workplaces produce paperwork on a daily basis---and they make a LOT of it. Aside from physical paperwork, it is also common to see these workplaces hosting seminars, specially for their own workers. They also use digital platforms, and often use social media and the internet as platforms to promote their business.

HEALTHCARE. Have you ever noticed when you attend a check-up with your doctor, they give you different papers for all the processes you go through in a hospital? Papers are necessary for documentation, though they also back up these files digitally. There are also free courses online that when attended to, can expand your knowledge on the in-and-outs of medicine. Additionally, doctors, in order to garner an audience and attract patients, tend to use the internet to promote their services.

So, when you really think about it, media surrounds all of us. And not only does it do that, but it also widely used in everything around us. We, as humankind heavily rely on each other to get by. Without media, there really wouldn't be any communication, organization, and togetherness within a community; and are we even classified as a society if there wasn't any interaction?

#AMILeAhead

#AMILeAhead #NewMediaNewMe #Mediatastic

[i-write-it-all23]

17 DOWN

TW: Drugging, needles, doctor, controlling villain.

Addison hasn't slept in days. Her eyes are bleary. She has been fighting the drugs. She won't eat. She won't talk. Her hand strays to the ink on her neck almost as often as the blinks. All-day, she stares at the walls. All day, she cries.

Kara can't touch her. Her sad little pet won't allow it. She won't take pills. She looks like she might collapse at any given moment. She's down.

Kara reaches for the phone, dialing the WPO doctor. The man picks up quickly as if he had been awaiting the call. "Wild Pets Organization Healthcare Department, how can I be of assistance?"

Kara chews her lip, feeling sadness inside. "It's my pet. I don't know what's happened to her."

"Can you describe her symptoms?"

"She won't eat, sleep, or obey me. This started a few days ago. She's refusing the drug dosages and she won't let me get near her."

"Is she talking? Using her words to tell you what's wrong?"

"She hasn't spoken in days," Kara breathes.

"I see," the doctor mutters. She hears him leaf through papers. "If you would like some assistance, I could send a few of my people over to administer a few anti-depressants as well as sedatives in order for you to get closer. We can also install a feeding tube for the eating problem."

She winces at the thought of her precious little thing being held down. Even so, this has to be done. Addi could die. "T-that would be great. Please come as soon as possible. I can't bear to look at the state of her much longer."

...

"These nice men are going to help you get better. Don't fight them please." The four orderlies surround her bed quietly. She barely notices them. She can barely feel her anger. Or submission. She can barely feel her will to live. All life has gone from her eyes. She is a prisoner. And she knows that now.

A hand snatches up her wrist. Addi weakly tries to resist. "S-s-stop," she whispers. A sharp pain invades her arm. A needle. Addi realizes what these men are here to do. They're here to make her nice and sleepy to be Kara's plaything again. They have succeeded.

Addi's mind blurs. She tries to stay upright but she can't. The drug makes gravity heavier. The world swims before her eyes. She is pulled into Kara's lap once more. "N-no. I-I-I don't want it!" She screams. "G-get away!" She fights as long as her limbs will let her. They grow heavy. Her senses fade. She once again slips into that state of dreaming just before sleep.

Needles keep getting plugged into her. She barely flinches at each. Her eyelids only flutter a little. They shove a tube into her nose and she feels it in her throat. She only thrashes some.

Kara runs her hands through her little dove's hair. "There, there, little one, don't be scared. Doesn't that feel much better? You don't have to worry about what's real and what isn't. It'll all mix soon enough."

The master says it all with tears running down her face. What has happened to the trust between them? She traces the letters of her name on her pet's skin. What has happened to poor little Addi?

#drugged whump #whumpee #whumperflies #whump #every week #write #sedation whump #sedating #Addison #Kara #Hazel

[batsinurbelfrey]

The US Healthcare system is such a fucking joke, I should not have to be sitting here with acute pelvic pain that I know is likely from a reoccurring ovarian cyst that doctors refuse to surgically remove from me and because it's yet to nearly kill me even though about once a year It gets really close, And be Googling respectively the symptoms for ovarian torsion and appendicitis, Because the only care plan i've ever been given is "when the pain comes back take a bunch of pain meds and also be on the lookout for these two things that could kill you very quickly."

Not to mention I don't even have a doctor I could go see right now for a general check because my work changed my insurance and I lost all my care providers and the thought of going to the ER is just not on the books for me because I literally just had a phone call this morning to set up another payment plan for the ER visit I had in december for a severe flair up for the same problem.

In which, again let me reiterate they scanned me said "Hey you have a cyst the size of a baseball inside you but we're not gonna surgically remove It [because our ER is currently overwhelmed] and it hasn't yet twisted your ovary in a way that would cause sepsis and kill you but like. Definitely keep an eye on it because if it doesn't go down in size Or it does but then it enlarges again later because again we're not removing it, it Will do that and it Will kill you." And then they charged me over $2000 for that visit, part of which they justified by saying I was there for over 12 hours which YOU ALREADY KNOW Was their fault because goddamn if I didn't spend 10 and a 1/2 of those hours floating between waiting rooms!!!

And now I'm supposed to be taking time off resting, recuperating from work and burn out, and Dai's medical issues. But instead I get to lay here in pain, waiting to see if I start vomiting or not because if I do that I'm apparently on death's door, but I can't go to see a doctor Before I'm on death's door, because Capitalism.

#medical rant #im SO fucking upset and im SO FUCKING TIRED of this bullshit #this has been a chronic issue since 2014!!!! #personal #vent

[weepingpussywillowtree]

TW: discussion of fertility, disability, choosing to not have children, and sterilization

even before graduating college, people had been asking me when/if ill have children, but after it has ramped up significantly. when i tell them children are very firmly not in my life plan, they spew all this stuff about how i shouldn't decide right now, i could change my mind, blah blah blah

i tell them i want to get my tubes out and they gawk at me and rant about how being a woman means i should/was born to experience pregnancy, biological clock, regret, whatever. which, firstly.... eww terf vibes, and secondly, the idea that i was put on this earth for the primary purpose of reproducing is just.... incomprehensibly insulting.

beyond the fact that my autism (personally, just for me, not speaking for anyone else) would make it extremely hard to competently raise a child even if i did want one, why is it that when pre-teens or teens say what they want more than anything is to be a mother, it is encouraged and celebrated unquestioningly, but when i say children aren't what i want it's treated as a horrific or naive viewpoint?

i was talking with my roommate about this, who is non-binary, and they mentioned that they have a genetic disorder which thankfully hasn't resulted in severe complications for them, but likely would make pregnancy difficult, dangerous, and saddle their child with a painful and lifelong health condition. we both discussed how our disabilities being genetically linked (theirs and my autism) could potentially make achieving sterilization easier due to the eugenics of the health care system, and how conflicted we are about that reality. especially given how under attack bodily autonomy is in the US and considering the healthcare system's history of forcibly sterilizing minorities and disabled people.

idk, it's so complicated. everyone should just be able to do whatever they want to do. i wish there was no preference for people to choose one way or the other.

this has been a personal rant, thank you for attending.

#shouting into the void #childfree #actually autistic