#i really respect them. they are treated so awful in my area when we have protests at city hall from local rabbis. it takes a LOT of courage

[leverage-ot3]

not going to give the blog any attention or time of day but this is your reminder that the leverage crew would never be zionists or support israel whatsoever

I wasn't going to engage with it because I value my mental health but yeah. absolutely fucking NOT

y'all really think that this group of people that actively go out of their way to go against the rich and powerful, who make it their goal to help people that are oppressed, devalued by society and taken advantage by those more powerful would at all EVER align themselves with israel? bffrrn

I'm going to go off for a few paragraphs about why this is such a horrendously ridiculous and delusional idea, but I'm not going to clog up your dash so it's going under the cut. I want to respect people who already participate in activism and need fandom space for lighter things

tw for discussion of the atrocities and war crimes happening in palestine

over 25 THOUSAND innocent people have died as a result of israeli terror the last few months alone. over 10 thousand children. entire family lines have been erased from the world forever- grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren all martyred, often together as they are sheltering from bombs and bullets until they are murdered by soldiers that laugh as they shoot and detonate bombs.

you really think that eliot 'I adopt every child I see' spencer would support a regime that let a child stay trapped in a car where her family members were martyred, not let paramedics in for days and then when they finally let the paramedics approach they kill both her AND the EMS? you think he would stand with the government that arrests children as young as 6 years old for *checks hand* being terrorists (because what fucking 6 year old is a terrorist let alone any kind of national threat. they're fucking SIX). that snipes children for throwing rocks at tanks and their apartheid walls

he and all of them would weep at the picture released the other day of the little girl handing from rubble with her legs blown off.

all of them would be horrified of the bombardment that has murdered tens of thousands of innocent civilians, women, children, men, elderly alike with no fucking care. that shoots people with their hands up waving white flags. that bulldozes graveyards and digs up bodies and probably steals organs from they dying and deceased. that bombs hospitals, governmental and archival buildings, mosques, churches, holy sites, schools and universities. whose soldiers have a trend where they go through women's underwear drawers and make lewd comments about their lingerie and how kinky they must be. who make tiktoks of them playing in decimated playgrounds and signing their children's names on bombs. who force parents to collect pieces of their children in plastic bags because they have been blown apart by relentless bombing. who shoot a grandmother holding a child's hand. who murdered a woman that dared say that she was older than the 'state' of israel.

the fact that you're posting this as israel relentlessly bombs rafa, the place they were told would be the only safe place to be, where 1.6 million people are living in tents living off animal feed because no sufficient humanitarian aid (if any) has been let through

these people that advocate for comeuppance and exposing wrongs would not support a regime that actively targets and murders journalists and their entire families.

you really think any of them would actively support a genocidal sociopathic government? fucking delusional

to a certain extent, I know that people want to keep fandom and advocacy spaces separate and I acknowledge and relate to that- when we are logged on every moment of the day we sometimes need to take breaks and engage with something else for our mental health. I need that too. and there is a very thin line when you try to apply fandom to current events because in all honesty, making headcanons about how your faves would react to X horrendous event can come off as extremely tone-deaf. I get you love your blorbos (I do too!), but actual people are suffering and it can come off as disingenuous to a lot of folks when you try to talk about your characters instead of the very real harm that is going on. HOWEVER, the other account posted in the leverage tag that the crew would be zionists and started that discourse and since it was already out there in our space I wanted to make sure that people know that this blog does not support that whatsoever.

and before this gets misconstrued: antizionism is not antisemitism. I have a lot of love for my jewish friends and followers, but saying that we can't be critical of war crimes and incessant aggression because it is a jewish state is fucking ridiculous. we should be able to hold any and all governments accountable when they do bad things (this absolutely also means I think we should hold the US accountable for enabling them and I live here. every country that is complicit needs to face consequences). saying that israel is exempt from criticism because jewish people deserve a right to a homeland isn't a great take. I completely understand fear of antisemitism and discrimination, but at some point we have to think critically and acknowledge that people are dying by the thousands and standing up for that and calling out atrocities takes precedence. jewish voices for peace has some really good content about this topic

anyways there's a random blog out there posting about how your faves are zionists splattering their rancid sponge and I want to make sure my stance on this subject is very clear: fuck israel, free palestine, and no one is free until everyone is free

#i got really fucking angry and this was kind of cathartic but honestly i'm just really fucking tired of this shit #thank u digitaldiscipline for talking me out of reblogging it with a response because that would just give the blog more undeserved attenti #free palestine #palestine #gaza #anti zionisim #fuck israel #fuck isntreal #leverage #leverage redemption #your fave is NOT a zionist #tw war crimes #also raf 'splattering their rancid sponge' is such an iconic phrase thank u for sharing that w me #I'm not going to talk about my real-life activism for privacy and security reasons but I regularly interact with people from jvp #and they are super awesome and lovely and courageous people #i really respect them. they are treated so awful in my area when we have protests at city hall from local rabbis. it takes a LOT of courage #ALSO there is a lot to be said about eliot as a character and how he isn't the best person but for the sake of him loving children i wrote #it that way. also hardison would be disappointed in you for supporting israel #mine

[itsouttherenow]

Team Mom: Kali

It was another day at Beacon within the dorm room of team RWBY. Their first year of Beacon went off without a hitch, mostly. Fighting mechs, criminals and terrorists is not something that you can really just brush or mention casually. So what is a girl to do on a Friday afternoon. What possible exciting activity could these adventurous girls do?

“GUYS! Mom is coming!” Entering the scene is our resident cat, Blake Belladonna. 

Sitting up from their respected beds, the rest of the girls quickly started firing off questions.

“When is she coming?”

“Are dad and Ghira coming too?”

“Snuggles?”

The last question had eyes drawn at Weiss. 

“Hehe, just, you know, asking.” She replied sheepishly.

“Aside from Weiss touch starved condition (HEY!), she said that she be coming soon to visit us here at Beacon. Tai and my dad are staying in a hotel in Vale for the time being.”

“Cool, what time is she supposed to be coming then?”

“She said around 6.”

“It’s 6 already! Why didn’t you call us instead?”

“Forget about that, we need to hurry. QUCKLY! THROUGH THE WINDOW!”

“No Yang wait I c-“, before Ruby could say otherwise, Yang had leapt through the window of their dorms

“We can worry about her later when we’re outside. The bullhead could be arriving any minute now.”

Using her semblance, Ruby quickly took the girls to the bullhead landing pads, picking up, more accurately digging up, Yang from her earthly confinement. They eventually made it to landing pads 5 minutes late.

“Do you see her?”

“No I can’t, I’m too short.”

“Blake, what about you,?”

“No. Yang?”

“Negative captain.”

“Where could she b-“

“YOO HOO! Girls, I’m over here!”

With Weiss question answered by their target, the four girls quickly rushed to a woman with similar cat ears to their feline friend. The woman was quickly enveloped in a group hug from the girls.

“Oh oh my, eager aren’t we today?”

“Why wouldn’t we? It’s been a sooo long since we’ve last meet you in person.” Replied Yang.

During a break in they second year, the WBY of RWBY meet Kali and Ghira Belladonna, the mother and father of Blake. There, the three girls quickly took a liking to Kali, considering she was the first real motherly figure that they have had in a while. While the three may be her daughters by blood, she treats them as if they were her own.

“(giggles) That is true. And we have a whole week to spend together!”

“(gasping) A WHOLE WEEK!?” Exclaimed Ruby.

“A whole week? What’s the occasion?” Inquired Blake.

“Why the parent conference. They’re going to  discuss on how our little ones are doing and behaving.”

“Well, it is with great pleasure to say that we have all been model students.” Booster Weiss.

“We’ll see. Now, how about you girls give a quick tour of the area. I don’t want to be getting lost.”

“Alright Team RWBY, let’s lead the way!” Yelled Ruby as she jumped into Kali’s arms.

“Ruby” chasted Weiss, “get off her. You are not a child!”

“I don’t mind dear. I’m quite comfortable.” Said Kali she nuzzled Ruby who laughed.

“(Laughs) Hey, that tickles.”

“Are you sure? I can take Ruby.” Offered Yang.

“Yes, I’m quite sure. In fact, I quite like it when you girls jump into my arms. Reminds of when Blake was a little kitten.” Answered Kali.

“If it’s alright with you, then I guess she can stay.” Said Weiss.

“Good. Now let’s go and give mom the best tour of Beacon!” Exclaimed Ruby.

“I’m looking forward to this ‘awesome’ tour girls.”

(Like break.)

An hour into their tour, Ruby had fallen asleep in Kali arms so it was up to the rest of the girls to decide on where to take her next. Walking underneath an arc way of vines and growth, they enter the gardens.

“And here” Weiss gestured around, “is the Beacon Garden. Used by most to study but many can often be found eating and aswell as hanging out.”

“My, how gorgeous.” Awed Kali as tucked Ruby closer to her body.

“Gorgeous indeed. This garden is actually the newest addition to Beacon, having been made thirty-seven years ago. Furthermore, th- (BOOM)- What In Monty’s name was that?” 

The answer to Weiss’s question came in the familiar form of Beacons resident dork Knight, one Jaune Arc, who was coursing throw the air, straight into a tree. After face-planting into said tree, his limp form sliding down onto a branch. 

“Ow. Note to self, make sure that Nora does NOT help in the kitchen *ever* again. *EVER*.” muttered Jaune to himself.

“wa-wa-what’s going on?” Ask an awoken Ruby.

“Just Jaune flying into a tree. Nothing new.” Answered Yang.

“Jaune? Blake, isn’t he the boy you mentioned to me? The blonde?” Asked Kali to her daughter.

Smelling blood, Yang seized the opportunity to tease her partner. 

“Oh, keeping secrets are we now? And here I thought we were family. I’m hurt.” 

Blushing, Blake whined, “Mom. I thought I told you to keep it between us.”

“Oh my Gods so it IS true. You’ve Fall for that dolt.” Exclaimed Weiss

“Well I think it’s sweet.” Chimed Kali.

A second later, said boy fell off the branch.

“Oh, this is a perfect time to talk to him dear. HELLO dear.” Yelled Kali out to Jaune.

‘What? Who is that. I didn’t know Blake had a si-‘

Jaunes thought we’re immediately cut short when the branch he was on earlier fell on top of him.

“Oh no. That branch just killed Jaune!” Yelled Ruby.

“You bastard.” Followed by Yang.

“No you dolts. He’s just knocked out.” Explained Weiss.

“My oh my. What a shame. He needs to be tended to. And who better to wake up than you pretty face dear.” Said Kali.

“No mom, you don’t mean-“ Questioned Blake.

“Yup. Let’s take him to your room. He’s needs to be well rested on a nice comfy bed. Next to a beautiful lady.” Kali said as she picked up Jaune.

“Mom no.”

“Mom yes” 

Blake was then handed an unconscious Jaune.

“Come along girls. The day just getting started.”

Three of the four girls ran to catch up with Kali as Blake just stood in place dumbfounded.

Looking down a Jaune, she blushes abit.

“Well, I guess it would hurt to give it a try.” And then placed a kiss on Jaunes forehead and quickly caught up the others 

‘That’s my girl. Grand kittens here comes Grandma.’ 

#rwby #kali belladonna #Team Mom series #knightshade #rwby knightshade

[deramin2]

It's so weird being in my first queer relationship in my mid-30s. I feel kind of like a cat who's never had a stable supportive home that's been brought in by an experienced cat rescuer. I just don't entirely know what to make of the situation even though it's nice. I only had one truely awful boyfriend but I just never really had my own needs met without conflict before.

I've never been with anyone but allocishet men.

I've never experienced a relationship as a man.

I've never experienced a relationship as a man dating another man.

I've never dated a trans person.

I've never experienced an ace relationship.

I've never experienced dating a fellow disabled person.

I gave up on relationships like 6 years ago because I never seemed to fit in them. But I also used to hate romance movies until I started watching queer ones and realized it wasn't romance I hated, it was allocishet romantic norms. And when those are tossed out and challenged I like it quite a lot.

(I've been identifying as aroace but I'm revaluating if I actually don't experience romantic feelings or if the allocishet romantic expectations I was operating under are bullshit I don't identify with. I can and will identify in whatever way ultimately suits me. Definitely queer-romantic though. My labels were valid even if they change, and I could use different labels depending on the audience because I'm in a grey area.)

While I respect the angle that my relationships were queer because I was a queer person in them, my specific relationships were not really queer because either I didn't get to be queer in them (didn't know I was, didn't know how to express it, was treated as a character flaw or lack of maturity to work on), or tried to come out but the parts of me that were queer conflicted with the other person's needs (so we broke up in a healthy way and now are good respectful friends which does meet our needs). This is the first relationship where being queer is foundational and not inconvenient, so that's my demarcation.

Anyway, it's never too late to try approaching relationships differently. You don't have to keep doing what you're doing, whether that's floundering in straight relationships that don't fit or swearing off all relationships. You can muddy the waters between romantic and queerplatonic and make up your own niche habitat and no one can stop you. You can keep figuring it out. You can change every parameter and see if you get the same results.

#queer #transgender #asexual #gay #trans man #queer relationships #disability #deramin ramblings

[hello-naptiime]

Hi gang

I see were talking about Jonathan Piss ass ToiletJon again

And as someone who was fucking THERE, WORKING FOR HIM WHEN EVERYTHING DROPPED

Oh my FUCKING GOD AM I SO PISSED OFF.

Welcome to my rant/vent

Mutuals look away Im sorry

Tw// for grooming and manipulation. General gross things in that area

Also Jinbop.

First of all Ashlie and Jon did was gross, but where Jon failed at literally everything Ashlie succeeded.

When the news dropped of what happened in 2017 Jon made a fucking video of him crying like a little man child, and then pressed charges (also doxxed himself like an idiot) WHICH IS INSANE BEHAVIOR. Even in his written respone he was only making excuses.

At that time I was in very close connection with him, I was on his build team, I played multiple games with him. He would come into vc and hang out with us for several hours, you could consider us friend maybe! I wouldnt.

But I was at the very least in a lot of personal servers.

So when things dropped I knew almost all of the behind the scenes BULLSHIT that was happening. How everyone waited for it to blow over and stuck by him. (I got kicked out of servers too cause people knew i was against him but I was still told everything by friends who were still in there)

Then February happened. And so much more, much worse things got exposed. From only his end. I won't mention who was involved, out of privacy reasons and because I dont want to drag them into this. But holy shit dude everyone left him after that. It was over, his gross behavior with minors (included me now that i think about, sir why are you calling me and my friends cute we are 15-) His awful and manipulative behavior with people he finds useful, how he treats his teams

. He never credited anything, I made his goddamn Dimensions s2 designs, Eddie made the skins. Only Eddie was mentioned, once on a stream.

Eddie also made designs and skins for Rosethorn, and got credited in video no less.

Its not that hard and yet!

The main point is

He was still acting in 2020, the incident was in 2017. And he was acting like this, in late 2020. Into 2021.

I wanted him to get better. I really did, I had been hyperfixated on this group of people for years it hurt a lot.

But its been almost three years and he infact has stayed the same!

He is a grown ass man acting like a toddler on a public twitter account, what makes this man some one to respect in any sort of way.

Theres so much more shit I know about this man, that I can't fucking say because of the people involved not giving me permission too. And I respect that. Thats their story to tell.

Now ashlie on the other hand.

Ashlie made a concise apology and owned up to her actions, shit she made sure not to happen again. She went to fucking therapy, she broke off that relationship first and has made so much effort to distance herself from that and apologize everyday of her life.

She went to therapy after breaking things off, and she went again after the callout just to double fucking check she wasnt a horrible person.

She initially handled everything that happened in 2017 in private, like youre supposed to do. Not have a public twitter meltdown. And in late 2020 still handled mostly everything privately. She wrote out a full explanation and apology that is still very visible on her yt channel, not her twt her full 100k subscriber yt channel

I THINK, THATS GROWTH and she should be respected for that. She's actively changed as a person from the 20yr that made mistakes

And what's crazy is that Max and Ross still make youtube videos with her.

Max and Ross, YKNOW. The people who made sure fucking Jinbop got arrested and stomp Sky's name into the fucking ground for the shit that Sky did. I 100% trust those two to make a decision about a person in their circle when theyre doing some FUCKED SHIT.

IN FACT, THEY DID DROP ASHLIE WHEN THE ALLEGATIONS CAME OUT. SHE WAS IMMEDIATELY KICKED OUT OF EVERYTHING INVOLVING THEM

And they came back. They came back and started making new things and videos with her, Ross is an active participant in almost all of her videos.

I think that speaks wonders about her.

Don't drag her name through the ground I respect that woman and all of her endeavors in the future, she has more than made up for the fact.

Jon is still an awful person, and I dont think he will ever change. He's had more than ample time to and acts like whinny child on Twitter. Actively tries to pull nostalgia bait on his dying yt channel and mocks his ex "friends'" work. I want him gone from the youtube sphere and to get an actual life.

#for my beloved mutuals who dont know a clue about this please look away #theres a clown on out block an Im mad about it #rant #tw grooming #eddie gave me perm to talk about things #i was there man #dont speak the sacred texts to me i was there when it was written #i dont want this on my tumblr but I have been quiet about everything for so long #i dont like stirring drama #but here I am #i am at my limit

[mejomonster]

some reasons Love Between Fairy and Devil is good:

the music. we got a lovely opening/theme song, a Liu Yuning secondary song, and a nice mix of traditional romance xianxia sounding stuff (think Eternal Love soundtrack etc) and rock music (which I personally love when xianxia do this - Love and Redemption and Men with Sword did this, and The Untamed did this with Meng Yao’s theme song). Just overall a solid soundtrack

the looks. while still distinctly fitting the usual romance xianxia aesthetic (think Love and Redemption, Eternal Love, Ashes of Love), its also got some individuality. Its partly taking some western fantasy elf aesthetics, which may be why it reminds me of Ice Fantasy so much (Ice Fantasy’s costumes felt very much like xianxia and western fantasy mixing with the design choices). As a result, some outfits really uniquely stand out, different locations have more distinct looks both set and Clothing wise (and its nice to see different regions have their own distinct looking culture and identity to a degree). Haishi city, Cangyan Sea, Shuiyuntian, and Lucheng all look like their own places with their own clothing. Stand out costumes are worn by our boy Qingcang who has some very cool horn-wood-piece looking crowns, and the Shuiyuntian headpieces remind me in a good way of Ice Fantasy a Lot. This show looks distinct enough to have its own identity.

the writing. consistent, straightforward, with meaning. While the meaning isn’t particularly deep, very much like Love and Redemption the main love is partly attractive because he respects consent (which when its lacking in a romance xianxia i tend to hate it - however the second love interest is also fairly nice in this, in contrast to Love and Redemption’s quite horrifying Bai Lin). Consent and abuse are definitely themes in this - just look at Dongfang Qingcang’s dad and him. Also, themes of compassion. While Love and Redemption really hammered home you should figure out right and wrong for yourself, and make your own fate? This show goes with similar themes but in a much different way. Destiny is much more set in this show - and YET we open early on with Lanhua purposely going against Fate to go save Changheng, so her entire relationship with Qingcang is a result of her breaking fate. While that hasn’t come back to bite her yet, it definitely puts her on a path outside fate - despite fate seeming much move inevitable in this show. Likewise, in the mortal arc, both Lanhua and Qingcang immediately change the ‘necessary fate’ of the people they’re trying to keep ON fate’s path. So I imagine this isn’t the last fate versus personal choice will get highlighted. Meanwhile goodness is somewhat critiqued in the sense of hypocrites (like Love and Redemption). But instead, its more like there’s genuine goodness to all the regions populations, and genuine suffering they’ve all been through. While showcasing all areas as equally capable of good and evil is very Love and Redemption, the way this show does it is more on a level that reminds me a bit of Goodbye My Princess. We get to know each area, care about them, and see why its so hard for the characters to decide what to do that would be best for their people and the world at large. Its not so simple as LaR - the god of war Changheng is genuinely good and kind, with good goals (unlike Bai Lin in LaR), meanwhile Qingcang’s father was awful to him, but the ultimate goal his dad (and he has) to help their Cangyan Sea is understandable and also an attempt to help their people. 

the romance. 1. absolutely love the acting (and they did great doing body swap scenes!) 2. the romance setup of ‘Big Bad’ guy as romantic lead i LOVE, of the commoner fairy who isn’t particularly strong and is not the ‘right noble class’ i LOVE (she might turn out to have some Important Identity but for the bulk of this story she’s very low power and treated as a nobody which I really like). They get along in a very nice way, its very “how do these characters interact” rather than feeling like tropes are forcing them together. The setup is literally just: orchid fairy accidentally saves Big Bad Type Character, and then Big Bad type due to a spell feels what she feels and more importantly HURTS if she hurts, so Big Bad has to care about her/help her for a little while. A very cool set up that reminds me of some big bad being forced to care for spiritual pet and learn life lessons as a result. But he’s not that bad, and she’s not threatening to him despite her control-option over him, so for the vast majority of time they just seem to have become ‘friends’ who mainly are caring about each other.  I just. I can’t express how cute they are, how they just Work together. I am real picky about my xianxia, and my romance, and my Romance Xianxia, so all i can say is if I like it then they are doing a Lot right in how they write the characters.

the characters. Like Love and Redemption this show is doing some new stuff with some character types, although less in a ‘lets subvert these obvious expectations’ and more in a ‘lets keep what parts of the types we liked and leave the rest.’ which is very cool. I can see elements in these characters that i’ve seen in other xianxia, and also unique bits special to them in particular. The god of war has some characteristics i expect (he reminds me a bit of God of War in Eternal Love) but then he’s also a younger brother, also very emotional and kind, just very individual. Meanwhile the original God of War reminds me of Xuanji-god-of-war in Love and Redemption (but without the abuse and trauma making her) again but with some very unique characteristics. Orchid reminds me a bit of the lead heroine in Love and Destiny, but Orchid is very genuine in a way that almost feels down-to-earth Everyday person in a way xianxia heroines don’t always feel. She really does feel like a Nobody in her realm, instead of someone Somehow Most Beautiful and Talented and Amazing. Our ‘big bad type’ mold is not so mean at all, on paper he’s fulfilling the ‘Devil/Demon Emperor’ mold, but he’s also genuinely emotionless to start like Xuanji in Love and Redemption (just emotionless but does care for his people and want to do the Right thing as best as he understands), and like Xuanji he is gradually getting his feelings back. In part I think this show reminds me of Ice Fantasy to such a degree, because the realms and characters do feel a bit more individual and less perfect maps onto the usual molds i expect in romance xianxia (and even Love and Redemption, while very much subverting and flipping molds, used a lot of expected Traits to comment on the molds in the first place - whereas in this show they just don’t really neatly fit the mold Ever). 

pacing. i just... cannot tolerate slow pacing for more than like 4 episodes max... and usually i give up if a cdrama gets paced slow for more than 2 eps. this show is so well paced im flying through it and never bored, which is always great in cdramaland where some dramas just Tend to Have a slow period of 5-10 eps at some point. 

#love between fairy and devil #lb #theres a lot more i like but these are definitely some key reasons

[theeblackmedusa]

I not sure how I ran across your blog, you were probably 'on my orbit' but I was just floored at some of the things people say to you.

Full disclosure- I am white, and from an area where people of color simply don't reside, so when I first started writing, I did write for white people. In some cases, I was trying to describe an OC in a reader insert (cringe, I'm 🙄). But I would use phrases like 'pale skin' or 'long straight hair'. At some point I realize, and I either deleted or reworked all those fics and vowed to me more inclusive with the vaguest description of y/n possible.

Then I found you and a the nasty things people have been saying to you and I just want to say I'm sorry. It's deplorable of someone to ask you to stop using a tag because you write for poc!readers. And it's aweful to claim pale skinned characters (that probably aren't actually even white) and say that people of color can't enjoy them- to call you jealous. I can't imagine going through that, and I know I'll never have to, which makes it worse.

Sorry to be so long, but my question is, how can I help improve your experience with the fanfic community? Is it okay for me to boost your posts if they're not for me? How can I improve my writing to make you more comfortable to read it?

Please don't think I'm trying to be some white savior, I don't care about all that. I just hate seeing amazing people get treated so poorly.

Anyways, feel free to ignore, I know this is super long for an ask 😅. But I really do hope your day gets better and that the new year treats you wonderfully! ❤️❤️

hi anon. most bipoc writers want support and reblogs! it's perfectly fine to reblog a work and uplift it even if it isn't targeted toward you specifically. it's okay to read works that don't feature white people and comment on how good it was, how much you liked it, etc without acknowledging that you weren't featured in it. treat it like a normal book or a tv show you'd watch. say what you liked about it and don't be disrespectful or bitter, you know? usually, as long as you're respectful when coming on to a bipoc writer's page, you'll be welcomed (at least on my blog. show respect, get respect back). as for being a white savior, just don't speak over bipoc when it comes to issues and our opinions on something we see that we've interpreted as racist (regardless of intention. good intentions can still be racist).

#x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #x black reader #black reader #black!reader #racism in fandoms #fandoms #x black!reader

[nerves-nebula]

I sometimes feel like ppl read too much into 2012 a bit, not in a bad way or anything that exactly what fandom does. We pick apart our fav media, looking for all the subtle hints and little interactions to feed our fave headcanons and canons.

But it's back to that Steven universe killing the diamonds conversation, this is a show predominantly written for 11 year Olds 😭 and not only that it's a show that put cool fight scenes first and treated emotions and relationship dynamics as an after thought. It was also literally made in a period of time when shows were kind of mean. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy it but it just means does nuances and stuff won't really be the main focus point of the show(which I also think it's an added bonus because it gives fans so many different ways to add that nuance themselves) and at the end of the day we all will leave with different interpretations since the show wasn't so firm in expressing the overall dynamics and pushed everyone aside to make Leo the main focus alot of the time.

Like for me, I couldn't stand how splinter treated Raph. I related most to Raph as a kid and found how Raph was treated by splinter infuriatingly similar to how my mother treated me and for Leo I personally thought he had it best compared to his brothers because he had the closest relationship to Splinter but when I asked my little sister about it she said that she thinks he has it worse because splinter basically used him as his personal therapist and used him to deal with his problems. I never thought of it like that and honestly thought the worst part of their relationship was that Splinter left Leo to be the leader of the group in and outside of missions but I learnt a new perspective and I didn't immediately refute it because I didn't see it at first.

And I really think this is one of the biggest problems with the 2012 discussion. We always try to put everything into black and white, neat little boxes with best little labels. But there is always a gray area and sometimes it might not even be grey it can be fucking pink. We need to respect eachothers interpretations of the relationships and try to not be too quick to bash eachothers interpretations to a pulp.

And sometimes we are too blinded by rises awesomeness that we don't find the need to pay attention to 2012's awesomeness too and only look at the negatives.

And in a tangent too many ppl refuse to give 2012 a chance😭😭 ppl are too ready to call it out but haven't watched it in years. They use 2012 to make rise brothers look better.

I'll be looking for a crossover fic between the two iterations and the only thing I'll find is ppl writing 2012 April and Raph(and sometimes Donnie) like literal demon spawns and it honestly makes me kind of sad like we could have used that opportunity to add like nuances to their characters but instead we write them so unnecessarily mean😭😭😭 like babes stoppppppppp I just want to see the brothers be besties not rise brothers adopt Mikey because 12 brothers are evil monsters that don't care about their baby brother.

Sorry if this is hard to follow, I'm really bad with writing stuff that aren't in bullet points lol. And even tho English is the only language I know doesn't mean I know how to do it well😭😭😭

But it's back to that Steven universe killing the diamonds conversation

LITERALLY DONT BRING UP STEVEN UNIVERSE I WILL GO INSANE AUHG I CANT STAND BAD STEVEN UNIVERSE OPINIONS THEY MAKE ME GO normal MODE.

It was also literally made in a period of time when shows were kind of mean.

this is really fuckin important to note actually. its very hard to watch a lot of shows from that era, like the cruelty is the point and the joke and it HURTS to see sometimes hah. like i'll see all the brothers be absolute pieces of shit to Casey and just go ??? am i supposed to laugh at this??? it's got Sitcom disease where everyone is awful on occasion for Bits and Gags or something haha.

i vibe with a lot of what you've said here. its making me think that once i watch 2012 i could try my hand at a crossover. idk tho, we'll see.

maybe they could all take turns adopting each other (translation: they should get along and coach each other through their emotional issues)

I liked the anecdote about your sisters opinion, i think thats a good way of lookin at shit.

#nnstuff #ask #tmnt 2012

[ringchollyandfriends]

Puppy's journey

May 17, 2022

- There were workers nearby and I thought it would be a good opportunity to watch and eat treats, but he barked and growled at them, so we left.

It suxs to miss opportunities to watch people, but there's no point in staying if it's only going to be negative.

- We went to the dog bark (it's empty 99% of the time here and we leave if dogs arrive - I use it as a fenced area for the dogs to have free zoomies). On our way, 2 people walked by the car and Puppy didn't like it. No much to do here but reassure him, since we were in the car. Luckily, Indris didn't react.

- At the dog park, there was another dog for the first time, but it was a pug in the small dog section, so I thought, hey, good socialisation opportunity and if Puppy is uncomfortable, we leave.

Before entering the park, Puppy was scared upon seeing the pug. I can't remember if he barked, but his hackles were fully up and puffy and he didn't want to go near the gate. I respected that and went around to access the big dog area.

(I think it was the mix of car ride + new environment + new dog.)

Once we got into the dog park, he was a bit uncertain, but he quickly took off to sniff around and explore. Indris reacted to the pug more (she's not good through barriers), but luckily, for some reason, Puppy did not copy her reaction! He was just 🤷‍♀️, slightly intrigued and kept exploring.

This is close to what I was hoping for - it's okay for him to be scared, but I like his recovery and the fact that he didn't bark, growl or show teeth. I know those are normal fear reactions, but they scare me when it's not an appropriate correction.

- He also did not care about the pug's owner, despite them talking to us! I think that him having freedom of movement + Sniffs helped.

---

I wish it wasn't a "long" drive for Puppy, otherwise, I would visit more often. (Anything more than 2 minutes or so makes him uncomfortable, sadly.)

- I know that ideally, I shouldn't do people observation in the car, but on certain days, that's all I can do. And eventually, he's going to have to be comfortable with people walking nearby when he's in the car. That's an every day thing here.

- I wonder if there's something I could give him for his car sickness, maybe it would help him be less scared.

I really hope it passes as he grows up, because my life would be awful for a dog with car sickness.

#puppys journey

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

Is the sidey zoo ethical? Cause in my country there's not ONE zoo that isn't awful to animals (but i know someone of them treat animals with respect)

I will be honest, this is something I have not looked too into, especially with Sydney Zoo because when I visit a zoo in Sydney, it's Taronga Zoo; so I welcome anyone who has further insights to comment but it is my understanding that all Australian zoos treat their animals well and are closer to conservation parks than what they are to the inhumane zoos that give zoos their bad stereotype.

I also believe that zoos within Australia have to meet standards, but while Taronga has labelled which body's, primarily the Australasian Zoo and Aquarium Association, Sydney Zoo simply says 'international standards' in their conservation information. That's not to say that they are not up to scratch, just more vague so harder to make a comment on.

As part of the standards that need to be upheld, I will also note that I know Australian laws are relatively standardised and strict on their animal laws compared to a lot of countries I have read up on. For example, I believe that it's still the case that with the exception of the state of Queensland, you cannot have a Koala encounter where you hold them within Australia (sorry anyone waiting for this picture of Taylor lmao) because Koalas are very territorial to the point where a lot of them would rather die than eat from a tree outside of the one they live on (which as a related aside to all of this, is why you may see extra pushes for their wellbeing in regards to chopping down their habitat and/or bushfire seasons because we unfortunately learned very quickly after the black Summer of 2019/2020 how much this affects them), and while it is not explicitly said, I think a lot of reason Queensland gets the exception is because Steve Irwin's family still owns the main zoo there.

Anyway, I'm starting to rant now, but I would definitely recommend reading the conservation information I linked above for Sydney Zoo and making your own judgement, but like I said, it is my understanding that Australian zoos in general, including Sydney Zoo, are closer to conservations than inhumane zoos. I really hope the ones you know of get better as soon as possible, and like I said, if anyone has any further comment on this, I welcome it because it's not an area of expertise for me.

#taylor swift #animals

[mozillavulpix]

Israel

If you're a progressive activist who likes to write call-out posts and permanently excommunicate from people who don't share your political opinions, please don't read this post. For my own sake.

I'm a Jewish person who gets upset at a lot of the discourse surrounding Israel, especially at the moment.

Don't you want an immediate ceasefire?

I do, but I get the feeling that's not happening because it's not exactly practical. If you ran a country and knew that a neighboring region had access to militants and weapons to go over to your country and murder and kidnap your citizens and civilians whenever they wanted (and in fact, that's what they just did), I think it's...practically the point of having an army to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. If you stop, you give them time to regroup and escape to try another time.

But what about the lives of the Palestinians?

It's a pretty awful situation, yeah. But Israel has already told them to go to the south so they don't get caught up in the fighting, and Egypt doesn't want to accept any of them as refugees, so I don't know how else you'd even get them out of the area.

But isn't Israel bombing in the safe zones, too?

This is a war. I'm sure the Israeli army wouldn't bomb other places unless there was some practical reason. Like there was access to weapons in one of those areas. I really wish they wouldn't do that, but I'm also not a military strategist with intelligence on the area, so it's not like I know what's around there.

Listen, if the reasonings are "Israel had intelligence that there were resources in that area used by militant groups" or "Israel are cartoon villains who purposely bomb civilian targets to make sure they inflict as much pain on Gaza civilians as they can", the first one just seems more likely to me.

What about the hospital that was bombed?

Several Western countries have all said from their independent intelligence that it wasn't Israel that did that.

But what if they're all just lying and saying that because they're working together?

Now you sound like Qanon

Why do you call us anti-semitic? We just want peace. We don't support terrorism and we're not telling people to hate Jews.

You're going around and using words like 'genocide'. Even if you don't think you're inciting violence, when you make such a powerful plea to people's emotions and empathy, some people are going to feel powerless and try to take it out on an 'easier' target that's only vaguely related to it. Like those Jews living in your country who happen to have family in Israel and so want to support them.

You're all really pissed off at the moment. Pissed off people get violent.

Wow, I can't believe I used to respect you.

I think it's a very dangerous mindset to be so willing to do a complete 180 on someone just because of one situation where they play devil's advocate. I'm not going around and yelling that all Palestinians are terrorists and should be killed, I hate people in the Israeli government as much as you do. I just want people to stop treating Israel like some one-dimensional cartoon villain responsible for all the evils in the world because you heard they're the 'occupiers'.

anyway, this isn't gonna stop anyone, just really me rationalising my thoughts and why i keep having to mute people on twitter until this all hopefully dies down

i'm literally just some girl on the internet, i'm not a political expert and don't fucking put me on blast because my arguments don't have all the facts

[servin-up-surveys]

survey #142

Ever been to a bonfire party? Yeah.

Have you ever been in a lighthouse? No, but that'd be very cool.

What do you enjoy most about your life? The people in it.

Have you ever said anything to the last person you kissed that you regret? There's one occasion I can think of, where I snapped at him when I could've pointed out something that bothered me in a nicer way. I did basically immediately apologize for it, being completely unwilling for my impulsive mouth to take part in any argument we may ever have, but still.

How many people with the name Taylor do you know? Girt's very close friend that currently lives with him is named Taylor. I know there has to be a couple more that I know of, but idk.

Do you care about what others think of your physical appearance? Yes. Way too much, specifically about my weight.

Have you ever stripped for someone? No, that'd be way too awkward for me. I'm too self-conscious of my body for someone's attention to be fully on it, and even in high school when I wasn't nearly as bad, I still don't think I would've been able to.

Have you ever wanted to believe in something, but couldn’t? Yes, the most obvious in my life being religion. Even as a child, I just had so many doubts, so much didn't make sense, but I'd shut myself up whenever I let myself wonder about it in fear that I would abandon religion and go to "Hell." Christianity is such fucking fear-mongering and I can't stand it.

Do you know how old your dad is? Exactly 60 now I think; I actually thought he was 60 already, but he mentioned being that number at his birthday lunch, so. I'm regularly one or two years off with my parents' ages.

Were you sad that Panic! at the Disco broke up? I've never listened to them a whole lot, but yeah, they're still a band I enjoyed and knew since what, being a pre-teen or maybe younger? I completely and entirely respect Brendon's decision to prioritize his wife and oncoming child, though.

Did you cry when you watched The Notebook? I have at least teared up at the end every single time I've watched it.

Have you ever attempted to beat box? lol no

When was the last time you saw your “first love”? The beginning of February 2017.

Who’s the smartest person you know personally? Girt, he is super intelligent.

You can’t feel pain for an entire day. What would you do? Hm, if I had the appropriate funds, probably get this really big and detailed tattoo I want on my upper left arm/shoulder area. It's probably gonna be the most expensive shit I ever get done and will certainly take a majorly long time, so it'd be great to not feel it, haha.

Who makes you the happiest? Girt.

Do you think that deep down, everyone is good at heart? Uh, no. I think we've seen enough proof of that in the world.

How many people have you kissed? Four.

How many of those people are you still friends with? Just one, Girt, and we're still dating.

Where did you go, the last time you left your house? My county's medical complex, where I do physical therapy.

Did you ever see the movie Good Burger when it came out? Not when it came out, but I have seen it and love it.

Say something nice about someone you really don’t care for: He loves his kids a lot. But Mom and I both see that he treats Aubree (not his biological daughter) somewhat differently, which is absolutely not okay. Like yeah, he's decent enough/definitely not awful, but there is absolutely a difference in how he treats her versus Ryder and Emerson.

Would you say that you’re popular? lol no

Would you say that you’ve been in love with someone? I know I have twice.

What do you consider to be the most profound of emotions? Complete, genuine love. Both romantic and not.

What brand of deodorant do you wear? Secret.

Do you believe that love isn’t right for everyone? Uh yes, aromantic people exist. Not everyone wants a romantic relationship, and that is perfectly okay.

If you could only love one person, would you choose yourself? Ugh... I realistically don't think I would. I should, but I know myself.

What’re your brothers/sisters like? If you don’t have any, do you wish you did? Nicole: extremely independent, ambitious, and determined, and pretty damn fearless. She is a very hard worker and a legend of a children's social worker, a literal hero, and she's entirely open about who she is and you're either gonna take it or leave it. She's the person that'll say things you're too afraid to, and she has a strong moral compass. I look up to her a lot. Ashley: I barely even know what's really her anymore tbfh, Mom and I (and probably Nicole, I cannot see how she couldn't) have both seen her change so much since her marriage, and not in a good way. She's a very dedicated mother, but has become a submissive follower of whatever her husband and in-laws want. She's constantly stressed out and just not the person I knew growing up. I worry about her. Katie: she's the sibling I'm most like. We're introverts and both deal with bipolarity (but I'm pretty sure hers is bipolar 1, if I remember right), and have bad mental health histories. She's a brilliant cake decorator. I wish I got to see her more; that goes for the next two, too. Misty: she's a firecracker that changes for absolutely nobody and wears her beliefs and what she loves on her sleeve. She's a Harry Potter addict and a MASSIVE reader, like her dream is to own a big library. She's also very into witchy stuff and considers herself one. She has some WILD beliefs (I'm not attaching that to her considering herself a witch, this is a completely independent thing), some that are very problematic and straight-up ignorant, and she often makes me roll my eyes on social media with some of the bonkers shit she posts, but I mean I still love her. Bobby: just a straight-up good man. He's very intelligent with a fantastic heart and values, and he is probably the best dad I have ever met in my entire life, and a fantastic husband. He loves being outside and partakes in a lot of running events and jogs and hikes regularly.

Do you consider pets family? If you don't, you don't deserve pets, like at all.

Have you lost a family member recently? No, thank fuck.

Is there anyone you would take a bullet for? If so, who? I'm not going to list them all, because it's honestly a very big number.

What job does your significant other have? He works at a tire factory.

What’s the largest animal you’ve ever had as a pet? A boxer mix named Cali.

How long has it been since you moved out of the house you grew up in? Oh I have no idea, a very long time.

The last time you ate leftovers, what was it that you were eating? Pasta with normal marinara sauce.

What are 5-10 things you love about being you? The people in my life, my love for animals and nature as a whole, I try my best to be a good person that encourages love, I'm creative, and uhhhhh... I'm empathetic and like to comfort people.

What is your favorite board that you've made on Pinterest? it's just a collection of Rammstein pics y'all 😭

What is your favorite apple-flavored treat? Uh... maybe an apple cobbler. I really enjoy apple-flavored lollipops, too.

Have you ever met anyone named Eden? No, but that's a beautiful name.

What is your favorite type of tree? Wisterias, weeping willows, and sequoias/redwoods (I know they're different, I'm just grouping them together cuz I can't tell the difference lol). Cherry blossoms are also noteworthy.

Have you ever had a spaniel for a pet? Yes; Teddy's mother was a cocker spaniel (he got like, zero traits from her lol), and supposedly Dale was part cocker spaniel too, but he looked more like a goldendoodle to me.

Do you any of your family members have birthdays on a holiday, and if so, which one(s)? Yes; my oldest half-sister was born on the 4th of July, my brother was born on Earth Day, and Nicole's birthday sometimes falls on Easter.

Which medication(s) do you feel have helped you the most, and why? Latuda with Lamictal used as a catalyst very literally saved my life. It's the reason I've healed this much from the breakup and found hope. I only ever stopped it because my body stopped responding to Latuda after some years, but thankfully I've never returned to the low that I constantly was prior to it. Intense therapy at the same time also helped without a doubt.

Is your current doctor a male or female? My primary care physician is a man, which I dislike, but he's a fine guy. My psychiatrist and therapist are both women.

What type of soda do you drink most regularly? Mountain Dew.

Do you like the band Seether? I do.

Do you have asthma? I suspected it my entire life, and fucking finally I'm supposedly getting some test for it the next time I see my PCP. It's way fuckin overdue, but I don't think even my mom knew there was a legit test for it until it was a topic brought up in physical therapy.

Have you ever performed on stage? What did you do? Yes, I danced for a very long time.

What is your favorite video game? Silent Hill 2, there are no words for how much I adore that game and the emotional journey it takes you on.

What’s your screen name? In the vast majority of places, it's Ozzkat, but not all.

When did you graduate from high school? 2014.

Are you planning to have a family? When? Not kids, no. Just lots of pets, so long as we can properly provide for each one.

What is the one thing people say about you the most? Uh... probably that I'm quiet, at least in real life.

What have you done that you’re particularly proud of? Healed as much as I think is possible from a very traumatic breakup.

How many televisions do you have in your house? Three, but one (it's very small) isn't up at all times.

Do you use your hand when you speak? YES, I am an extreme hand-talker; I do it without realizing it, but know I absolutely do.

What is your dream car? I don't care, odds are I'll never drive anyway.

Have you lived around here long? I've lived in this general area/county my entire life.

What do you do to pull yourself out of a bad mood? Talk to Girt, Mom, or Mazzy and Tez, watch something funny on YouTube, sometimes naps are a good "reset" on my mood if I'm down for no real reason, and often a Tumblr scroll will help, haha. Doing something productive is also helpful, but often when I'm really down, I don't have the strength to do it.

Why do girls follow each other to the restroom? Safety.

Who do you talk to most on the phone? My mom.

Are you pregnant? I can assure you I'm not.

Do you like poetry? Write poetry? I love poetry; I've written a lot of it and want to do more, as well as read more.

Do you know anyone who has any STDs? I'm aware of one person who has one, but I'm 100% positive I know more than just her without being aware of it. They're more common than people tend to think.

Have you ever taken a shower with someone that is not a family member? Only as a little girl, with a best friend. I have zero interest in doing this as an adult.

First type of porn you have ever watched? (ie. lesbian, hentai, threesome) I've never watched it and have a negative amount of interest in doing so.

Has any of your partners had sex with someone else? Not while we('ve) dated, no, but both serious partners have done so before we dated.

#survey #surveys #random questions #personal questions

[prophecytoad]

Development Update - Lumayn

If you’re here reading this, thank you for taking your time for this little blog of mine. This week on the agenda I’m going to be talking about how the development of my current project has been going, what I’m working on now, and where development will go next.

Before we begin, I’d like to announce that the project now has a name: Lumayn! This word was originally something that I thought I had come up with when I used it for the name of a continent in a DnD campaign that I have been running. I thought to myself, “Why not use it for the game name?”. So, I went about googling to see whether the name was in use and it wasn’t! But, what I also learnt was that it is already a word in use in the Somali language and translates to “lost”. Serendipity smiled on me when I chose this word; it’s the perfect word for my DnD campaign AND for this game!

Now, lets get into the breakdown.

The Problem Space

Like all things, Lumayn began as a concept. I thought to myself about some of my favourite games that I played growing up: Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Hunter, and what drew me to those game types, and what inevitably pushed me away from them. The draw of those games was simple: The games featured really cool monsters and you get to interact with them; I loved finding monsters whose designs I found fascinating. No game is perfect though. For Pokemon specifically, it was things such as: being able to draw a parallel between the core mechanic and animal captivity, too many designs which results in some awful and lazy designs, and a lack of focus on the interacts with the monsters specifically that led find it difficult to play the games past early iterations.To fix the issues I have with the monster genre, I wanted to come up with an idea that focused more on the monsters themselves, their personalities, your relationship with them, and interacting with them. 

Lumayn Concept

Lumayn is a 3D monster adventure game where the player’s interactions with their partner matters. You partner has their own personality, and how you treat them will affect how they treat you back. The player will work with their partner to learn abilities, evolve, fight powerful enemies, and restore their town.

Your relationship

The way you treat your partner will change how they react to your assistance. In combat, you will be able to suggest actions and provide help, however, if your partner does not respect you because of how you have treated them, they may ignore you entirely and refuse assistance.

Whiteboxing

I began development of the prototype by focusing on developing a sufficiently sophisticated AI for demonstration purposes. Using basic capsules in Unity, I used the Unity Navmesh system to develop a follow system

I then whiteboxed a basic start area, and what would be a combat arena. When the player collides with an enemy, they and their partner would be transported to participate in an intense fight with one or more enemies

Working on the AI

The AI that runs the monsters in Lumayn will be an extremely important part of the experience. Each monster will have a unique personality based on many different factors that change how they behave.

Monsters will have different likes and dislikes. For example, some monsters will like hot areas filled with lava and stone, while other will like forests filled with trees. In each of these areas, monsters will respond to stimuli like flowers, berries, and pretty stones depending on what they like.

Another facet of their personality will be how they choose to fight while in combat. For example, some monsters will be aggressive, taking the first move wherever they can, while some monsters will be passive and wait to react.

A basic version of the combat AI has been implemented, as well as the personality generator.

Making things prettier

Your partner can now walk around with you and fight on their own in combat, so it was time to make the prototype look a little prettier in order to better demonstrate the style of the game.

I took some time to experiment with various free assets to update the game visually. While I am happy for the time being with the way it looks, there will be a lot of work later to improve the visuals.

Modelling

Currently I am working on modelling and animating one of the monster ideas. Animations will make an immeasurable difference in the believability of the monsters and their personalities.

This is the current iteration of a creature species known as “Rex”. They are an adolescent level monster with an affinity for starting fires.

Next up

Future development will involve giving the demo more personality. Better artwork, models, level design, and interactions. There’s a lot of work to do to give the players a visual interesting game where they can fall in love with their monster partner!

Here’s a peak at a design for the starting area!

Last Up

As always, here’s a cool frog. An internet classic, the Black Rain Frog!

Image retrieved from https://www.boredpanda.com/unusual-frogs-toads/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

See you next time!

#gamedev #development #unity3D #art #videogames #adventuregames #monster

[lionheartslowstart]

Moving Away

In just one week I’m moving back to New York City. I made this decision for a number of reasons, both personal and professional. But the gist is that I love the city and miss it terribly, and living in the city would make pursuing my career a lot easier for me than it is where I’m living now. I actually lived in the city for about four years before moving back to the area I grew up around.

I have mixed feelings about moving. Like I said, I do really miss New York. There’s nothing like living in the greatest city in the world. And living in the city would make pursuing my dreams much more accessible. However, there are a couple of caveats.

One, I love my current apartment. I also lived here for four years, and it’s the first place I ever lived in that really felt like home. The building is nice, the commute to the city is easy (at least, relative to other areas in the county), and I live reasonably close to my folks. I may have moved into this place with my ex, but it has always been mine, if that makes sense. Moving to the city is what I want and what I need, but leaving this apartment is really sad, and I know I’m going to be pretty emotional about it for awhile, just like my mom was when she and my dad moved.

Two, my boyfriend and I will have to share a car. While I’m normally quite possessive of my vehicle, that’s not really an issue for me with him. He drives a LOT as part of his job, so I’m comfortable with his driving skills, and he always treats my car with respect. We’re going to be splitting payments on the car too, so we really will be sharing it. I don’t want him to feel like I’m just “letting” him drive my car. The problem is that, since my boyfriend works full time, he’s probably going to be using the car the most, particularly on weekdays. That means that if I have commitments outside of the city Monday through Friday, I’m going to have to rely on public transport, which is kind of a bummer. I’m used to being able to just go wherever I want whenever I want, without having to take anything else into account, like access to a vehicle or the timing of public transport. That’s definitely going to take some getting used to.

Three, I’ll be living a lot farther from my parents. We’re crazy close, and I’m used to seeing them maybe twice a week, sometimes more. My commute to their house is going to double from 40 minutes to and hour and 20 minutes. I’m definitely still willing to make the drive, but I won’t be able to make it as often. It’s just not realistic. My mom and I decided that we’re going to try to go back and forth so we can see each other once a week. One week I’ll go to my parent’s place and probably stay the night, and the next week my mom will drive down to me, though I doubt she’ll stay the night. As for my dad, he told me he’s probably going to come in once a week as well to stay the night so he can commute to work easier. My father is super duper busy, so I’m really looking forward to being able to spend more time with him. (Side note, I’ll be farther from my friends as well, but I rarely see them as is, so I probably won’t see them any less than I normally do.)

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, the timing of this move is just awful. As I’ve said, the main reason I’m moving to the city is to more easily pursue career opportunities. Unfortunately, that career has to be put on hold. My health has taken a very bad turn. I plan on writing a separate blog post about that, but I’m waiting for one more test at the end of this month to confirm the doctor’s suspicions before I go public with it. But I can say that it has to do with my heart, and I will most likely need surgery. Yes, the kind you’re thinking of.

Like I said, I have one more test at the end of the month, just to confirm that I have what the doctors think I have, then, assuming that test is positive, I have a consultation with a surgeon a few weeks after that. Assuming the surgery is necessary (which is likely), we have no idea when that’s happening, so everything in my life has kind of come to a dead stop. There’s no point in seriously pursuing anything, because I may have to drop it at a moment’s notice. Add in the long recovery time for said surgery, better to wait until it’s all over and I can actually function. And then I can (once again) jump start my life in all areas.

Despite the terrible timing, I have to move. My lease is up at the end of the month, and by the time we found out about the surgery, I had already told management I’d be moving out, and the deadline had passed for me to take it back. So we started looking for an apartment, and we found a really, really amazing one, and we just couldn’t pass it up. Though it’s not exactly where I would have liked to live, it’s a really incredible building and my boyfriend and I are both super pumped to live there. I am really excited to move though. I’m leaving a lot behind, both physically and emotionally, but this also feels like the beginning of a new chapter, even if I have no idea what that chapter will look like. I’ll be living in one of my favorite places on Earth, I’ll be getting to learn a new area of the city, and, hopefully, once I’m fully healthy again, I’ll have easier access to so many more opportunities than I did living in my old place. Also, believe it or not, this new apartment is actually a little bigger than my old one by about 120 square feet! Crazy! (I told you, we lucked out!) The layout is a bit different though, and figuring out where all the furniture is going to fit will be tricky, but it will be fun too, since I love reorganizing my furniture.

It’s definitely going to be a rocky (and stressful) few months. But hopefully once this all passes, I’ll be able to settle into this beautiful new apartment and start my new life with no more complications.

#moving #moving foward #life #personal #scary #loss #freedom

[versadies]

hey!!! can i get stir-fried fillet, chicken tofu pudding, sakura mochi, apple cider & mustard please? 🪐 ty!!

the fall of haishan — beidou x gn!merperson!reader

name of order. THE FALL OF HAISHAN

date. beidou (w/ gn!merperson!reader)

receipt. stir-fried fillet (beidou) + chicken tofu pudding (pirate x mermaid au) + sakura mochi (angst) + apple cider (songfic) + mustard (drabble)

spices. angst/no-comfort, mentions of blood, mentions of violence, spoilers to beidou's lore, kinda rushed (?), not proof-read

ingredients. after becoming allies with pirates who has the same goal as yours, you instantly find your relationship slowly going from alliance to friendship, feeling attached to your new friends who treat you like one of their own – especially to a certain captain who has won more than just your respect.

requested background music (apple cider's bonus!). willow by taylor swift

vip list. @dawgimsohot @saving-for-xiao @scaraslover @kazu-topia @chiruru @aqualesha @renamichii

chef's note. hope this is to your liking 🪐 <<3 !!

i'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night

rough on the surface but you cut through like a knife

the first time you met beidou was during the days when she was haunting down haishan, the mighty sea creature who has been endangering both human and mermaid alike.

it was an accidental encounter really, you were exploring around the area after finding out that haishan was lurking around when you noticed the familiar gigantic sea monster swimming away followed by a ship chasing towards it, catching your attention in the process. you weren't supposed to intervene, since your mother had strictly forbid you to interact with anyone who dares to face haishan. but you couldn't help but start racing towards where it is when you noticed gigantic waves coming towards them.

you immediately stopped the waves crashing them with the help of your ability, not caring about the fact that you have exposed yourself fully to the humans who are on the ship – especially their mighty captain who watches you in awe and disbelief.

"you have my gratitude for saving my crew back there," she said, leaning against the rail with a genuine smile on her face as you shyly look away. "if i may ask, what brings you here? is this where your er.. kind lives?"

you shook your head. you were grateful that you were learning human language to actually understand words that were written in artifacts that came from human land. "i'm here to hunt down haishan. that monster has been killing so much animals and merfolk alike."

you saw the way her deep ruby eyes brightens from your explanation. "ah, so you're after the same opponent?" she then looks back at her crew, who were watching your interaction in awe. "this is a good thing for us."

you slowly rise up, showing the captain your whole face instead of half of it. "how so?"

"with the help of what you did to stop those waves, we'll be able to fight haishan easier and swiftly. we can tie it down from fighting while i try to slay it with my sword – we just need timing and the monster to show up."

you watched as she gives you her hand, causing you to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "so if you're interested, would you care to join us?"

and if it was an open-shut case

i never would've known from that look on your face

lost in your current like a priceless wine.

with reluctancy, you accepted the human's offer for you to join them in hunting down haishan and help them succeed with the help of your ability, causing the woman to immediately tell you a place where you can meet and make plans, somewhere where no human and merperson can find you and her working together.

you were honestly impressed with the woman, to say the least. the way she treats everyone equally alongside you made you have your respect to her, unlike most of the pirates you have encountered in your years of exploring around the ocean.

sometimes when you decided to stay around the ship and bask in the moonlight, you often find beidou above leaning on the rail and converse with you for hours even when it was her time to sleep.

"why would i want to sleep when i have such a beautiful view right in front of me?" she replies when you asked about her reason in staying up all night just like her crew. "who knows if this will be the last time i'll ever see it again."

you understood what she meant. you once heard your mother about how time is something precious to human, especially since their lifespan is shorter than your kind's, who can live for almost a thousand years and isn't aware of time.

but you never understood that the moon isn't the beautiful view beidou was talking about.

the more that you say

the less i know

wherever you stray

i follow

as weeks flew by, so did your friendship with the captain and her crew. it's impressive how no one in your home have noticed what you're doing, and you like to keep it that way – especially from your grandfather, who had never see humans in a good light.

nevertheless, your grandfather's view on humans never changed how you see the crux. especially when they had treated you as if you're friends and always chatted with you, much to beidou's delight.

moreover, you slowly began to stay with the crux more than your beloved home even after you were finished helping out with their plans, usually conversing with the captain as each and every person on the ship comes inside their rooms to rest, leaving you and beidou alone together the moment the moon shines above once more.

it was weird, you admit. this feeling you felt whenever the pirate looks down at your direction with a smile plastered on her face was something you had never felt before in your entire life. you're not complaining though, it's... a pleasant feeling.

"i've always dreamt of slaying a sea monster ever since i was young. from back where i live, i used to hear legendary tales of our god slaying sea creatures and i loved every single one of them," she explained one night, looking down at you from where she stands. "and now that i have an amazing ally who can help me, i think i'm close to fulfilling my dream."

since that night, you swore to fulfill beidou's dream until the end.

i'm begging for you to take my hand

wreck my plans

that's my man

the moment your animal friends informed you about haishan's presence coming towards the high seas – aka the area where the crux is – you did not hesitate to immediately swim towards where their boat sails, swimming as fast as you can in hopes of haishan being too late.

to your terror, the gigantic sea creature was swimming beneath the ship, your heart dropping at the sight that sends shivers down your spine.

you could hear beidou and her crew singing what seems to be a song thats about haishan, making you assume that they're not aware of its presence lurking below them with malicious intent, and you immediately rose up from the ocean and yelled beidou's name.

everything was a blur after that.

wait for the signal and i'll meet you after dark

show me the places where the others gave you scars

the moment haishan showed itself, beidou did not hesitate to make everyone start attacking the monster with everything they had as a storm appears in the sky, causing the ocean to become more dangerous and an obstacle to beidou and the crux.

as you swim around the battlefield and made sure that no other wave dares to wash over your friends, the sounds of cannons and shouts from the ship were heard along with the sounds of haishan's loudest roars, you knew that this battle will not end any time soon.

forgive me, mother, father, you thought to yourself. i might not be able to come home anytime soon.

and when you see yet another huge wave coming, you let out an exhausted sigh before raising your hands towards its direction, your hands glowing the colors of the sea reflecting the moon.

now this is an open shut case

guess i should've known from the look on your face

every bait and switch was a work of art

the battle raged on for four days.

you felt exhaustion washing over you as your body begs you to retreat and sleep, but with your friends in need of your help at this circumstances alongside the gigantic creature who you're sure will come towards your home after it's finished with you and the crux, you know you cannot back down now – not when you have gone this far.

suddenly, you heard a loud splash followed by the sounds of the crew yelling out beidou's name – causing you to stop what you were doing and look behind to see the commotion.

your eyes widens when you see haishan slowly diving back to the ocean, realizing that it's coming after beidou who's now in the waters.

without another thought, you immediately swam down towards the sea creature and beidou in hopes of saving the one you love.

you cannot let beidou die this way, you thought to yourself. you cannot let her go, not when she hasn't fulfilled her dream yet, not when you haven't told her how much you love her–!

you swam faster when you spotted the captain trying to swim up to the shore, your hands reaching towards her as haishan comes closer and closer to where beidou is.

at this moment, you knew that one of you won't make it out alive.

the more that you say, the less i know

wherever you stray, i follow

i'm begging for you to take my hand

wreck my plans

that's my man

in time, you wrap your arms around beidou as haishan misses its target, causing it to swim down way pass where you are and give you enough time to take her back to the ship.

"thank you for helping me" beidou said as many men helps her come back up to the ship from your arms, your shoulders tensed when you feel haishan coming towards you under the sea. "i owe you one for saving me from haishan."

you smile, though it doesn't reach your eyes.

"anything for you, love."

suddenly, you felt something around your tail, followed by you suddenly being dragged back to the ocean as beidou screams your name from above.

the last thing you see was her hand trying to reach out to yours before you descended to your death.

you know that my train could take you home

anywhere else is hollow

i'm begging for you to take my hand

wreck my plans, that's my man

it has been hours since beidou last saw you.

it was currently nighttime when haishan was in its element, and the fleet didn't dare to let go of their vigilance, determined to make your assumed death not to go to waste as beidou stands upon the prow, listening to her surroundings with caution and preparation.

your last words still rings in her mind, her heart aching in ways that she couldn't describe in words like poets do in romantic poems. if she wasn't so busy with fighting haishan, she wouldn't have tripped on her step and accidentally fell over to the sea for you to die.

you shouldn't have gone after her. she shouldn't have offered you to join her and risk your life saving them.

despite the freezing wind, beidou stands on her guard, her sword in her dominant hand as she waits for the right time. she just needs one strike, just one and she can kill the bastard who killed you.

it felt like another few hours have passed before she heard a change in the sound of the waves.

beidou grips her sword tightly before she immediately readies herself for the strike as the monster slowly rises from the depths of the sea, she ignores the fact that she hasn't eaten nor drank throughout her patience of waiting for the right time.

this is for you, y/n.

with one strong strike that sounded as if its wielder has the ability to slice a mountain in half or the experience of slaying creatures as huge as her opponent she faces, beidou chopped the sea monster's head.

as soon as she slayed haishan, the sounds of thunder was heard all throughout the sea, followed by a purple lightning that strikes down in front of the woman and a vision descending to her blood-covered hands.

hey that's my man

i'm begging for you to take my hand

wreck my plans, that's my man

since that fateful battle, the story of haishan's downfall became a legendary to the people in beidou's land.

although the captain's dream has been fulfilled and became an icon to almost everyone who thanked her for what she and the crew did, the crux knew all too well that their story of slaying haishan was a tragedy.

every night whenever they had no voyages to go for now, the alcor would be found somewhere at the same area as where the sea monster has been slain, sending prayers and blessings to the very merperson who has been killed right after saving their captain.

unnoticed by the crux, beidou would come towards to a certain railing and leans down, her heart aching when she realized that you're no longer below looking up at her with curiosity laced in your eyes that she grew to adore.

she then would look up to where the moon is, slowly reminiscing the days when she always stares at you instead of the moon above.

and every night, she'd mouth out the words that no one but the wind gets to hear.

"i love you too."

#idk what came over me when i wrote this #genshin beidou x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin angst #beidou x gn!reader #beidou x reader #beidou x y/n #beidou x you #genshin scenarios #genshin impact x reader yandere #genshin x gn reader #genshin impact x gn reader #genshin impact angst #genshin fanfic #genshin imagines #genshin drabbles #genshin impact x you #genshin fiction #beidou x reader angst #genshin drabbles angst

[writingwithcolor]

I'm writing an AU of a movie that takes place in the 1880s USA, where a travelling white character and a Jewish character are waylaid by Native Americans, who they befriend. Probably because it was written by and about PoC (Jews) the scene actually avoids the stuff on your Native American Masterpost, but I'd still like to do better than a movie made in the 1980's, and I feel weird cutting them from the plot entirely. I have a Jewish woman reading it for that, but are there any things you (1/1)

2/2 1880s western movie ask--are there things you'd LIKE to see in a movie where a white man and a Jewish man run into Native Americans in the 1880s? I do plan to base them on a real tribe (Ute, probably) and have proper housing/clothes and so forth, but right now I'm just trying to avoid or subvert awful cowboy movie tropes. Any ideas?

White and Jewish Men, Native American interactions in 1880s

I am vaguely concerned with how you only cite one of our posts about Native Americans, that was not written by a Native person, and do not cite any of the posts relating to this time period, or any posts relating to representation in media. 

Sidenote: if you want us to give accurate reflections of the media you’re discussing, please tell us the NAME. I cannot go look up this movie based off this description to give you an idea of what my issues are with this scene, and must instead trust that the representation is good based off your judgement. I cannot make my own judgement. This is a problem. Especially since your whole question boils down to “this scene is good but not great and I want it to be great. How can I do that?”

Your baseline for “good” could very well be my baseline for “terrible hack job”. I can’t give you the proper education required for you to be able to accurately evaluate the media you’re watching for racist stereotypes if you don’t tell me what you’re even working with.

When you’re writing fanfic where the media is directly relevant to the question, please tell us the name of the media. We will not judge your tastes. We need this information in order to properly help you.

Moving on.

I bring up my concern for you citing that one—exceptionally old—post because it is lacking in many of the tropes that don’t exist in the media critique field but exist in the real world. This is an issue I have run into countless times on WWC (hence further concern you did not cite any other posts) and have spoken about at length. 

People look at the media critique world exclusively, assume it is a complete evaluation of how Native Americans are seen in society, and as a result end up ignoring some really toxic stereotypes and then come to the inbox with “these characters aren’t abc trope, so they’re fine, but I want to rubber stamp them anyway. Anything wrong here?”. The answer is pretty much always yes. 

Issue one: “Waylaid” by Native Americans

This wording is extremely loaded for one reason: Native American people are seen as tricksters, liars, and predators. This is the #1 trope that shows up in the real world that does not show up in media critique. It’s also the trope I have talked about the most when it comes to media representation, so you not knowing the trope is a sign you haven’t read the entirety of the Native tag—which is in the FAQ as something we would really prefer you did before coming at us to answer questions. It avoids us having to re-explain ourselves.

Now, hostility is honestly to be expected for the time period the movie is set in. This is in the beginnings (or ramping up) of residential schools in America* and Canada, we have generations upon generations of stolen or killed children, reserves being allocated perhaps hundreds of miles from sacred sites, and various wars with Plains and Southwest peoples are in full force (Wounded Knee would have happened in 1890, in December, and the Dakoa’s mass execution would have been in 1862. Those are just the big-name wars. There absolutely were others). 

*America covers up its residential schools abuse extremely thoroughly, so if you try to research them in the American context you will come up empty. Please research Canada’s schools and apply the same abuse to America, as Canada has had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission about residential schools and therefore is more (but not completely) transparent about the abuse that happened. Please note that America’s history with residential schools is longer than Canada’s history. There is an extremely large trigger warning for mass child death when you do this research.

But just because the hostility is expected does not mean that this hostility would be treated well in the movie. Especially when you consider the sheer amount of tension between any Native actors and white actors, for how Sacheen Littlefeather had just been nearly beaten up by white actors at the 1973 Academy Awards for mentioning Wounded Knee, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act had only been passed two years prior in 1978. 

These Native actors would not have had the ability to truly consent to how they were shown, and this power dynamic has to be in your mind when you watch this scene over. I don’t care that the writers were from a discriminated-against background. This does not always result in being respectful, and I’ve also spoken about this power imbalance at length (primarily in the cowboy tag).

Documentaries and history specials made in the 2010s (with some degree of academic muster) will still fall into wording that harkens Indigenous people to wolves and settlers as frightened prey animals getting picked off by the mean animalistic Natives. This is not neutral, or good. This is perpetuating the myth that the settlers were helpless, just doing their own thing completely unobtrusively, and then the evil territorial Native Americans didn’t want to share.

To paraphrase Batman: if I had a week I couldn’t explain all the reasons that’s wrong.

How were these characters waylaid by the Native population? Because that answer—which I cannot get because you did not name the media—will determine how good the framing is. But based on the time period this movie was made alone, I do not trust it was done respectfully.

Issue 2: “Befriending”

I mentioned this was in an intense period of residential schools and land wars all in that area. The Ute themselves had just been massacred by Mormons in the Grass Valley Massacre in 1865, with ten men and an unknown number of women and children killed thanks to a case of assumed association with a war chief (Antonga Black Hawk) currently at war with Utah. The Paiute had been massacred in 1866. Over 100 Timpanogo men had been killed, with an unknown number of women and children enslaved by Brigham Young in Salt Lake City in 1850, with many of the enslaved people dying in captivity (those numbers were not tracked, but I would assume at least two hundred were enslaved— that’s simply assuming one woman/wife and one child for every man, and the numbers could have very well been higher if any war-widows and their children were in the group, not to mention families with multiple children). This is after an unknown group of Indigenous people had been killed by Governor Brigham Young the year prior, to “permanently stop cattle theft” from settlers. 

The number of Native Americans killed in Utah in the 1800s—just the number of dead counted (since women and children weren’t counted)—in massacres not tied to war (because there was at least one war) is over 130. The actual number of random murders is much higher; between the uncounted deaths and how the Governor had issued orders to “deal with” the problem of cattle theft permanently. I doubt you would have been tried or convicted if you murdered Indigenous peoples on “your” land. This is why it’s called state sanctioned genocide.

This is not counting the Black Hawk War in Utah (1865-1872), which the Ute were absolutely a part of (the wiki articles I read were contradictory if Antonga Black Hawk was Ute or Timpanogo, but the Ute were part of it). The first official massacre tied to the war—the Bear River Massacre, ordered by the US Military—places the death count of just that singular massacre at over five hundred Shoshone, including elders, women, and children. It would not be unreasonable to assume that the number of Indigenous people killed in Utah from 1850, onward, is over a thousand, perhaps two or three.

Pardon me for not reading beyond that point to list more massacres and simply ballparking a number; the source will be linked for you to get an accurate number of dead.

So how did they befriend the Native population? Let alone see them as fully human considering the racism of the time period? Natives were absolutely not seen as fully human so long as they were tied to their culture, and assimilation equalling some sliver of respect was already a stick being waved around as a threat. This lack of humanity continues to the present day.

I’m not saying friendship is impossible. I am saying the sheer levels of mistrust that would exist between random wandering groups of white/pale men and Indigenous communities wouldn’t exactly make that friendship easy. Having the scene end be a genuine friendship feels ignorant and hollow and flattening of ongoing genocide, because settlers lied about their intentions and then lined you up for slauther (that’s how the Timpanogo were killed and enslaved).

Utah had already done most of its mass killing by this point. The era of trusting them was over. There was an active open hunting season, and the acceptable targets were the Indigenous populations of Utah.

(sources for the numbers: 

List of Indian Massacres in North America Black Hawk War (1865-1872))

Issue 3: “Proper housing/clothes and so forth”

Do you mean Western style settlements and jeans? If yes, congratulations you have written a reservation which means the land-ripped-away wounds are going to be fresh, painful, and sore.

You do not codify what you mean by “proper”, and proper is another one of those deeply loaded colonial words that can mean “like a white man” or “appropriate for their tribe.” For the time period, it would be the former. Without specifying which direction you’re going for, I have no idea what you’re imagining. And without the name of the media, I don’t know what the basis of this is.

The reservation history of this time period seems to maybe have some wiggle room; there were two reservations allocated for the Ute at this time, one made in 1861 and another made in 1882 (they were combined into the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in 1886). This is all at the surface level of a google and wikipedia search, so I have no idea how many lived in the bush and how many lived on the reserve. 

There were certainly land defenders trying to tell Utah the land did not belong to them, so holdouts that avoided getting rounded up were certainly possible. But these holdouts would be far, far more hostile to anyone non-Native.

The Ute seemed to be some degree of lucky in that the reserve is on some of their ancestral territory, but any loss of land that large is going to leave huge scars. 

It should be noted that reserves would mean the traditional clothing and housing would likely be forbidden, because assimilation logic was in full force and absolutely vicious at this time. 

It’s a large reserve, so the possibility exists they could have accidentally ended up within the borders of it. I’m not sure how hostile the state government was for rounding up all the Ute, so I don’t know if there would have been pockets of them hiding out. In present day, half of the Ute tribe lives on the reserve, but this wasn’t necessarily true historically—it could have been a much higher percentage in either direction.

It’s up to you if you want to make them be reservation-bound or not. Regardless, the above mentioned genocide would have been pretty fresh, the land theft in negotiations or already having happened, and generally, the Ute would be well on their way to every assimilation attempt made from either residential schools, missionaries, and/or the forced settlement and pre-fab homes.

To Answer Your Question

I don’t want another flattened, sanitized portrayal of genocide.

Look at the number of dead above, the amount of land lost above, the amount of executive orders above. And try to tell me that these people would be anything less than completely and totally devastated. Beyond traumatized. Beyond broken hearted. Absolutely grief stricken with almost no soul left.

Their religion would have been illegal. Their children would have been stolen. Their land was taken away. A saying about post-apocalyptic fiction is how settler-based it is, because Indigenous people have already lived through their own apocalypse.

It would have all just happened at the time period this story is set in. All of the grief you feel now at the environment changing so drastically that you aren’t sure how you’ll survive? Take that, magnify it by an exponential amount because it happened, and you have the mindset of these Native characters.

This is not a topic to tread lightly. This is not a topic to read one masterpost and treat it as a golden rule when there is too much history buried in unmarked, overfull graves of school grounds and cities and battlefields. I doubt the movie you’re using is good representation if it doesn’t even hint at the amount of trauma these Native characters would have been through in thirty years.

A single generation, and the life that they had spent millennia living was gone. Despite massive losses of life trying to fight to preserve their culture and land.

Learn some history. That’s all I can tell you. Learn it, process it, and look outside of checklists. Look outside of media. 

And let us have our grief.

~ Mod Lesya

On Question Framing

Please allow me the opportunity to comment on “are there things you'd LIKE to see in a movie where a white man and a Jewish man run into Native Americans in the 1880s?” That strikes me as the same type of question as asking what color food I’d like for lunch. I don’t see how the cultural backgrounds of characters I have literally no other information about is supposed to make me want anything in particular about them. I don’t know anything about their personalities or if they have anything in common.

Compare the following questions:

“Are there things you’d like to see in a movie where two American women, one from a Nordic background and one Jewish, are interacting?” I struggle to see how our backgrounds are going to yield any further inspiration. It certainly doesn’t tell you that we’re both queer and cling to each other’s support in a scary world; it doesn’t tell you that we uplift each other through mental illness; it doesn’t go into our 30 years of endless bizarre inside jokes related to everything from mustelids to bad subtitles.

Because: “white”, “Jewish”, and “Native American” aren’t personality words. You can ask me what kind of interaction I’d like to see from a high-strung overachieving woman and a happy-go-lucky Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I’ll tell you I’d want fluffy f/f romance. Someone else might want conflict ultimately resolving in friendship. A third person might want them slowly getting on each other’s nerves more and more until one becomes a supervillain and the other must thwart her. But the same question about a cultural demographic? That told me nothing about the people involved.

Also, the first time I meet a new person from a very different culture, it might take weeks before discussion of our specific cultural differences comes up. As a consequence, my first deep conversations with a Costa Rican American gentile friend were not about Costa Rica or my Jewishness but about things we had in common: classical music and coping with breakups--which are obviously conversations I could have had if we were both Jewish, both Costa Rican gentiles, or both something else. So in other words, I’m having trouble seeing how knowing so little about these characters is supposed to give me something to want to see on the page.

Thank you for understanding.

(And yes, I agree with Lesya, what’s with this trend of people trying to explain their fandom in a roundabout way instead of mentioning it by name? It makes it harder to give meaningful help….)

--Shira

#platypan #genocide #native american #North America #america #history #american history #media #representation #asks

[hakasims]

The Most Important Review of Every Single Marwan Kenzari Film

If you’ve seen this one about Luca, you know the drill.

Now, Marwan’s brand is a little less defined than Luca’s but I managed to find similar tropes in a lot of his films. Also, rather than copy myself and give you a redundant Marwanmeter, I decided instead to recommend which Luca character best pairs with each Marwan character for your crossover pleasure. Let’s see if we ship the same things! Some of them are crack. You’re welcome.

(all gifs again by the awesomely amazing @weardes​ who did not ask to be my gif factory but life’s a bitch)

Het zusje van Katia (2008)

Will you miss him if you blink? Kinda. They talk about him a lot but his actual screen time is like 43.7 seconds. Also can I just say... he’s supposed to be from Italy?? The boy says literally one (1) Italian word, and you’ll never guess what it is. (Obviously, it’s “bella” like there’s a chance he could’ve said anything else.)

Is he hot? Painfully hot.

Is he naked? There’s this one scene where he’s wearing the sluttiest pair of speedos I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Does his hair look great? Actually, yes. Perfect hair, perfect beard, he looks amazing.

Does he fuck? Yes, a lot - off screen, including an M/M/F threesome he presumably, probably, most definitely initiated.

Best paired with? From what I’ve gathered, this hoe ain’t loyal, so the best course of action is to find him a Luca that would benefit from a one night stand with no strings attached and wouldn’t fall in love with him. The obvious choice here is Valerio from Slam - Tutto per una ragazza. They meet, they fuck, then Giac makes his 4-hour drive back to Pisa, and they don’t see each other again until the next time he’s in Rome. Everybody’s happy, especially the two sluts in question.

De laatste dagen van Emma Blank (2009)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, absolutely.

Is he hot? Very.

Is he naked? Almost constantly.

Does his hair look great? He’s got those cute short curls, he looks so good.

Does he fuck? That’s literally why he’s there: to fuck and to die.

Best paired with? Man, I wish I had something to work with here. The only thing we know about him besides his sexual prowess is his affinity for white suits and toy helicopters. And as far as I know, those might be the exact things Fabrizio from Nina finds hot in guys. So like, why not?

Loft (2010)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character.

Is he hot? Yeah, sure.

Is he naked? There’s a scene where he’s wearing underwear and a tank top but it somehow makes him look like a kindergartener.

Does his hair look great? It looks quite nice.

Does he fuck? Yes, though I wish he didn’t.

Best paired with? Tom is a very violent person and a drug addict. He does messed up stuff to his sexual partners I’d rather he didn’t do to any of Luca’s characters. Feel free to use him for your sadistic fantasies or as a villain or whatever.

Rabat (2011)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s one of the three leads.

Is he hot? Oh yes! And cute!

Is he naked? He’s at the beach wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

Does his hair look great? He’s got this extreme undercut thing that would look ridiculous on anyone less pretty, so like no, he doesn’t have great hair, but also like it’s Marwan, you know what I mean?

Does he fuck? Before he embarks on a road trip with his friends, he has an offscreen threesome with two girls he picked up at a wedding. Slut.

Best paired with? Gabriele from Waves. They’re both sweet guys who could meet in some Tunisian port and decide to sail the Mediterranean Sea together.

Black Out (2012)

Will you miss him if you blink? Not unless your blinking is very deliberate.

Is he hot? Not really. He’s a dirty cop with a shitty moustache and oral fixation.

Is he naked? No, but I wish he was: his clothes are awful. Marwan is 29 in this movie and he looks 50!

Does his hair look great? Nope. They took Marwan’s usual short hair and made it not work somehow.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? The one thing Luca’s characters all have in common is that none of them come off as bootlickers. All of them are either too soft for such a relationship or wouldn’t waste their spit on a cop.

Wolf (2013)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? *gestures wildly at the gif*

Is he naked? He’s got quite a few shirtless scenes.

Does his hair look great? It’s nothing special but suits his character well.

Does he fuck? Oh yes.

Best paired with? Hear me out. I know that some people ship him with Fabio, but in my opinion that pair, while hot, doesn’t work. Here’s my pitch: Cesare from Non essere cattivo. The drug connection is still there, but in this case Majid’s problem-solving skills won’t fall on deaf ears. Cesare needs a daddy, ok? Majid can be a daddy when he needs to, especially when he has a soft boyfriend to care for. And Majid needs soft, not psycho.

Hartenstraat (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist once again.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? There’s that iconic scene where he’s wearing nothing but black boxer briefs and boots while carrying a tray...

Does his hair look great? He’s got Joe-like curls and looks like what every male romantic lead should aspire to look like and then cry because they all fail.

Does he fuck? There’s one very unfortunate sex scene played for laughs. I’m pretty sure he’ll need therapy afterwards. I certainly do.

Best paired with? Paolo from Il padre d’Italia. Paolo deserves the best boyfriend, and who’s better than Daan, an extremely hot man who cooks? They both have daughters, so they can talk about that, I guess, and Paolo can finally have a family. Honestly, this is so wholesome I just made myself cry.

Lucia de B. (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? For sure.

Is he hot? He’s a cop. Again. But he looks good.

Is he naked? Fully dressed, but man are his clothes ugly. Is that a cop thing?

Does his hair look great? He has slightly longer curls, which is fine and the best thing about this character.

Does he fuck? ACAB. (I know this doesn’t answer the question, I just wanted to make it clear.)

Best paired with? See my bootlicker comment from earlier. While Detective *checks notes* Ron Leeflang isn’t explicitly corrupt, he’s obviously a dick, so the best I can do here is recommend any Luca character that has ever been in trouble with the law for any fics about power imbalance you want to write but aren’t comfortable with a nice Marwan playing the villain.

Bloedlink (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Oh no, he’s there the entire time.

Is he hot? In a weird way, yes.

Is he naked? So, so, so naked. Like, leave nothing to the imagination naked.

Does his hair look great? I’d say that little rat tail is the exact opposite of great.

Does he fuck? Probably more than is good for him. I should also add that he’s canonically queer in this.

Best paired with? Rico is a pathetic loser in need of someone who’s got his life together and has a lot of experience dealing with fuckups. Enter Loris from Il mondo fino in fondo. He has a stable job and a savior complex, and with his little bro gaying it up in Chile and not needing him anymore, all he wants right now is someone to fix. I should be a fucking matchmaker in real life, for real.

Pak van mijn hart (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Undoubtedly.

Is he hot? No. The whole point of his character is to be the lesser choice compared to a guy who looks like a completely ordinary bland white dude...

Is he naked? ...so of course he isn’t naked! What, are they gonna take this poor woman, show her Marwan Kenzari’s post-Wolf body and expect her to choose her deeply mediocre ex? Please! They’re gonna dress him in the dorkiest clothes possible...

Does his hair look great? ...and make him wear the most awful wig that was clearly run over by a truck.

Does he fuck? No. As you can observe, they tried really hard to make him unfuckable, but honestly, he seems like a perfectly nice guy.

Best paired with? You know what? Mattia from La solitudine dei numeri primi is in desperate need of some sweetness and normalcy. I’m sure Richard will treat him with kindness and respect.

Collide (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character. Out of five.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? Not for a second! What’s up with American movies where people aren’t just casually walking around naked without any plot necessity???

Does his hair look great? His curls are so cute you guys! Look at them!

Does he fuck? Not explicitly.

Best paired with? Fabio from Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot. Again, the drug connection is there, but Matthias is soft enough not to butt heads with Fabio and, by the end of the movie, rich enough to satisfy his cravings for good living and fame. Also look at how good their color coordination is with those dark wine red clothes! Sometimes planets just align, okay?

Ben-Hur (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, especially if you aren’t watching the background.

Is he hot? Your usual Marwan hot.

Is he naked? No.

Does his hair look great? His typical short curls with a twist. I think the forehead area is supposed to invoke the Caesar cut? I don’t know. It looks fine when not hidden under that dumb helmet.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? A better script and a much better director. (Seriously, what is this blocking?)

The Promise (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there a decent amount in the first half of the movie and then almost completely disappears in the second half.

Is he hot? Very much, yes.

Is he naked? Unfortunately, no.

Does his hair look great? He’s got short curls again, but this time they’re fashionably styled, it’s magnificent.

Does he fuck? Oh yeah! And there’s no way he isn’t bi or pan in this. No way.

Best paired with? Roberta from L’ultimo terrestre. Listen, Emre Ogan may be a slut but he’s a gentleman, okay? He’d treat Roberta right and he’s got daddy’s cash to spare on hundreds of gorgeous white dresses for her.

The Mummy (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there, but barely.

Is he hot? Dangerously hot.

Is he naked? Not once! Instead we get a naked Tom Cruise literally no one asked for.

Does his hair look great? It’s your basic professional short hairdo.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Malik is a member of an organization tracking and destroying various monsters and historical artefacts related to them. Guido from Tutti i santi giorni speaks four languages, including Latin, and is a literature and ancient history nerd which makes him a valuable asset. Malik can fight and protect; Guido is bumbling and in need of saving. Guys, this writes itself.

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, especially not in the third act.

Is he hot? He’s okay.

Is he naked? Very naked.

Does his hair look great? They shouldn’t have greased his curls back. He looks like another victim of Fabio Cannizzaro’s stylist. Also I wish he’d either shaved or finished growing out that beard.

Does he fuck? He fucks and he fucks good. He’ll go down on you, he’ll deflower you slowly and gently, he’ll choke you if you want him to, he’ll spoon you all night, he’ll give you emotional support, he’ll murder people for you - he’s down for whatever.

Best paired with? There’s one Luca character who needs a lot of sex and even more emotional support. Alright, most of them do, but I’m thinking of Ettore from Lasciate andare. He needs it, okay? Good dicking, good spooning, a good ear, a fine piece of ass to cry into - you get the gist. Most importantly: someone who’d love him for who he is and with whom he could relax and be himself. (Also, I see you, people comparing him to Fabio. Shame on you for sleeping on this soft boy and judging him based on his appearance.)

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s kinda always present, being very French.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? No, but I’m willing to forgive that because he looks so good in his conductor uniform.

Does his hair look great? He never takes off his hat.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Mickey Miranda. They’re both murderers morally dubious characters who would look hot together. What else do you need? (Again, I see you, people who want Pierre for Roberta because he’s a “nice guy”, and I know for a fact you didn’t watch the movie. Spoilers, I guess.)

The Angel (2018)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? Oh yes.

Is he naked? Not once, but you won’t regret it because he’s wearing excellently stylish 1970s clothes.

Does his hair look great? It looks fantastic. The sideburns (not yet seen here) are a good touch.

Does he fuck? He can definitely get it, but he’s loyal to his wife.

Best paired with? As the most aesthetically coherent and fashionably hot pair in this post, Ashraf and Primo are a no-brainer. Can you imagine Primo calling him “Angel” in different contexts? When he’s being intimidating, not realizing how palpable the sexual tension between them is, and later not even hiding his arousal? Sometimes things just work because they’re hot. That’s all, folks.

Aladdin (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the main villain.

Is he hot? It’s not like he went viral for being the “hot Jafar” or anything.

Is he naked? No! Fucking thanks a lot, Disney.

Does his hair look great? He has a buzz cut under that turban but he looks good in the turban, so that’s something.

Does he fuck? It’s a Disney movie, so he doesn’t fuck - explicitly or otherwise - but he still comes off as a thirsty bitch.

Best paired with? Jafar ends the movie as a genie who’s obligated to grant his master three wishes but is enough of a petty bitch to exploit the hell out of the “gray area” and screw them over Wishmaster style. My unconventional pair for him is Lui from Ricordi? So many scenarios with distorted memories and magic-induced mindfuck. So many possibilities for awesome and messed up crossover gifsets! Don’t say I never give you guys anything.

Instinct (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s very prominent.

Is he hot? I hate myself for finding him hot but I do.

Is he naked? He’s playing basketball shirtless in one scene, shaking his sweaty boobs everywhere.

Does his hair look great? His weird mohawk-like thing is honestly terrible, but if anything can make it work, it’s Marwan’s bone structure.

Does he fuck? Um, I’m pleading the Fifth on this one for the sake of good taste.

Best paired with? Prison. A very lonely, Luca-less prison.

The Old Guard (2020)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, unless blinking in your case means sleeping through the gloriousness that is the first ever canonically gay couple in an American action film.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? Shirtless in one scene.

Does his hair look great? Soft curls courtesy of Luca Marinelli’s tireless lobbying.

Does he fuck? Not on screen, but you can just tell by the way he looks at his husband and reads impromptu poetry right to his face. And everybody knows nothing kindles the fires of passion quite like murdering homophobes together.

Best paired with? If you have to ask, you’re clearly reading this by mistake. In which case, kudos for finishing such a long and confusing post, now go watch The Old Guard and cry at the beauty that is The Immortal Marriage.

#marwan kenzari #luca marinelli #the old guard #and other movies #i'm lazy #immortal husbands #and their parallel versions i guess #crossover ships galore