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innuendostudios · 5 months

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youtube

New Alt-Right Playbook, regarding the minimization of power imbalances with "enh, it's not SO bad."

If you like this and my other work, do please back me on Patreon and/or watch me on Nebula.

Transcript below the cut.

Say, for the sake of argument, you and some other folks have gotten embroiled in a debate about the use of content warnings. One side has put forth the usual case: some people have trauma or anxiety disorders, and giving them a heads up about common triggers lets them make informed decisions about how to engage with a piece of media. They aren’t always looking to walk out, even, just to avoid a panic attack by having a few moments to prepare themselves. And this is often better for everyone as more people can appreciate the work itself and the discourse doesn’t derail into another discussion about whether it should’ve had a content warning.

And then someone from the other side of the debate says, in all seriousness (and I remind you this is about whether or not people should put a single sentence at the beginning of a video, the start of a game, outside the door of a theatre), “Can’t you just, like, have your panic attack? I mean, this isn’t life and death.”

The discussion quickly and predictably devolves from there into people who have panic attacks trying to explain how miserable they are, and how comparatively simple putting up a content warning is, and you realize far too late that this whole conversation is missing the point. Because the “it’s not life and death” crowd? They never claimed they are more inconvenienced than the person having panic attack! Content warnings ain’t life and death either! They made no attempt to frame this tradeoff as fair or justified. Only that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not so bad.

I call this Didoing.

(Relationship Discourse would call it The Tolerable Level of Permanent Unhappiness, which is a really powerful phrase, but I came up with Didoing and I’m keeping it.)

You see Didoing everywhere. Be as gay as you want, just don’t tell your commanding officer. Be trans if you must, but pee at home. Kink is fine, but keep it out of Pride. Drag is whatever, just not in front of children. Being a woman on the internet isn’t hard if you’re willing to block seventy thousand people and just use this service to scrub all your private information from the internet so men have a harder finding your home address. It’s eleven bucks a month! What, you can’t afford eleven bucks a month??!

And, yes, all these are minimizations, and, if you want, you can point that out. You can tell them what it’s like to get a Twitter DM threatening to murder your entire family using a quote from Mission: Impossible 3. Yeah, he’s probably not gonna do it! But it can still fuck up your day; the goal is to fuck up your day. But the “it’s not life and death” crowd won’t understand, not because they don’t care, but because they don’t care enough.

But even that is letting them control the conversation. You’re trying to stress the pain of a panic attack, the anxiety of a death threat, to emphasize a gulf of iniquity between their experience, as a person who does not deal with these things, and that of someone who does. As if, were the gulf smaller, it would be not so bad. In this, you have accepted their premise. Did you even catch what the premise was? That it’s okay for things to be unfair within a certain tolerance. That some people do and should take extra precaution just to exist in the world alongside the rest of us. That it’s okay for others to suffer for the convenience of the normals. Because it’s not so bad.

This is a bit different from how privilege usually works. The issue with content warnings - really, most things people Dido over - is that, if you are a person with triggers, it means other people can provoke a panic response in you against your will. The severity of that response is, frankly, immaterial: the point is, they have power over you, and, if you’re going to operate in this world as equals, you need their word that this power will not be invoked.

The usual move for people on the privileged end of a power imbalance is to deny the imbalance exists: “white privilege is a myth,” “there is no gender wage gap,” etc. etc. You would think, the greater the imbalance, the harder it is to deny, but it’s just the opposite: people Dido when the imbalance is small (or, at least, appears small in the eyes of the Didoer). It happens with content warnings, microaggressions; “no, I don’t get followed around Macy’s like I’m gonna steal something, but is that really so important? is this life and death? don’t you have bigger problems?” (Which is a funny thing to say, because, according to white privilege: no! The bigger problems don’t exist!)

Didoing is foundational to the privileged mindset, because it’s one scenario where they will admit to the Didoee, “yes, I do have power over you… and you should just let me have it.”

#video essay #alt right playbook

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seharschronicles · 4 months

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You were applying for a job, but it didn't work out. You were really hoping it would work out, or you were really hoping to get accepted into the university. Unfortunately, you didn't get accepted at the university. Those are the kinds of tests where you could feel depressed or sad, but you can't live in that sadness. Feeling those emotions at first doesn't mean you don't have Sabr. You can have those feelings and experience those emotions, then pick yourself up and try again.

So, you can have a dip, a low, and a high – that's being human. Allah didn't create us as angels. Sometimes we may face other trials, for example, an engagement that broke off, a marriage that ended miserably, or not wanting parents to get divorced, and they did. These situations involve people, people doing things that hurt us or things we wish they didn't do.

I think the solace, at least for me, comes from the stories in the Quran where people much better than us, like Yunus, had no control over his family. He didn't have any control; Ibrahim, an incredible human being, had no say in his father's choices. We cannot control other people's choices, and sometimes those choices deeply hurt us. People much better than us were hurt deeply. Ibrahim AS being kicked out of his house was not easy; being married to Firaun was not easy. For Musa AS, running away from home was not easy. These people were traumatized by many terrible experiences. Allah taught us through them that we can only control what is within our grasp, and we have to learn to let go of what isn't.

In the end, we say, "To Allah, we belong, and to Him, we are going to return." Any problem I'm having, how long is it going to last? Well, as long as I last. I'm not here for that long. When I think about the grand scheme of things, this problem isn't as big as I think it is. And of course, Allah has given us hope too. After every difficulty, there is great ease. Now, put yourself in their shoes; how much did the companions love the Prophet? When he died, how devastated were they? In that moment, for them to believe the Quran is still there, saying, "With difficulty comes twice the ease." They were devastated, in tears, broken, but their faith allowed them to heal and move forward. Allah created so much ease for the ummah afterwards.

That's just this life; it's going to come with trials and difficulties. Allah has made us mentally prepared that life isn't going to be easy; He said it many times. We all have trials; don't believe someone else has an easy life because they appear to on social media. Everyone has things causing them hurt; the person next to you has things causing them hurt. These influencers may talk about the blessings of Allah, but that doesn't mean they're showered with blessings every morning and have no issues.

Sometimes we run after things that are not real, believing them to be real because someone else has them. We may think others don't have any challenges, but everyone deals with their own pain. Allah tests people differently, but we don't see the other person's trial or know that their trial is the same as ours. We might wonder why Allah is not testing someone else or why we couldn't have it easy like they do. We don't know their reality, so these thoughts should give us some comfort. Whatever trial Allah has picked for me, whatever loss, whatever experience, is something I'm supposed to learn from, learn and grow from. Keep moving forward.

-Ustad Nouman Ali Khan

#allah #islamicreminder #islampost #islamdaily #islamicreminders #deen daily #deenislam #deenoverdunya

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blueberry-lemon · 1 month

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the never-ending hustle bums me out

I've posted before about how I worry about how hard it is to be a creative freelancer online these days, especially for artists and musicians.

I wrote about social media starting to splinter last year. And then later I wrote down some truly pessimistic fears over here.

But I had one more thing on my mind about posting work online, so here it goes:

It makes me sad when I see people having to do the online content creator dance to get more Likes, Shares, and Followers.

And to be absolutely crystal-clear, I'm not judging everyone who is doing these things. I completely sympathize and I understand being in a situation (especially financially) where it feels that there is no other choice. It just bums me out. Especially the feeling that platforms make us dance and beg for attention. I'm mad at the tech companies and all the ways that they leave breadcrumbs out, telling people that it's easy to build an audience on their websites when it isn't at all and the engagement doesn't always translate into anything.

Elaboration below.

Everyone's gotta hustle, and I get that.

You have to put effort in to get eyeballs on your stuff, whether you're doing it for your income or just as a hobby. But it bums me out when someone was originally doing something they were passionate about, and now all of a sudden they're uploading like 5 Youtube videos a week with clickbait thumbnails and the whole nine yards, or tweeting with all sorts of hashtags, trying desperately to get "picked up" by the algorithm so that they can get some forward momentum and followers.

I think it's the "picked up by the algorithm" or "hoping to go viral" thing that bothers me especially. Because it's so nebulous, with ever-shifting goalposts that the companies who make these platforms don't care about at all. Even creators who DO have over 100k or 1m followers still struggle to maintain their livelihood because of all the ever-shifting preferences of the (supposed) algo.

This all came back to mind recently because of a mini trend on Twitter where creators are pretending to repost their own art to get more retweets. Basically, the theory is that people who steal art and repost it get more retweets than creators, so it's worth trying to pretend to be a reposter to get more people to share your art. "Woahhh, who drew this??" as a caption on your own drawing.

If I'm being totally honest, I don't really care about this little trend-of-the-day either way. I thought the original (now deleted) tweet was interesting and funny, and I'm sure most artists who have tried this afterward are doing it as a joke. I also think the lesson isn't really to say "yo who did this??" but rather just that people tend to retweet things with shorter, snappier, more relatable captions rather than a long self-promo post. I'm sure, psychologically, that self-promo posts with hashtags tend to turn a lot of people off, so they don't retweet them.

But in the grand scheme of things, I don't think any of these small tricks are going to make the difference in people having success or fun with their creative work. @erica had some nice thoughts about it over here and I'm inclined to agree. When the never-ending hustle to make social media work for your art feels hopeless, I think it's because the particular treadmills that you're running on might actually be hopeless. It's exhausting to constantly push more for more Likes, Shares, and Follows. I know that it's pretentious for me to say this (full-disclosure: i make a living off working for an indie game studio and don't currently hustle for freelance commissions) but I think scraping every last Like, Share, and Follow you can grab is unfortunately not going to change your life.

This is purely anecdotal, but no one who I support on Patreon or Twitch or whatever is someone who I just randomly saw on my timeline with like "cool art" or "a funny joke." It tends to be people whose work really speaks to me, or more likely, someone who speaks to me as a person because of their own thoughts, life, and experiences.

At the end of the day, it's probably more worth it (emotionally yes, financially maybe) to forge connections and bonds with people in smaller crowds. Places outside of Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok. Places in real life, like conventions and meet-ups. Places on the "smaller" web, like forums, Discord servers, personal blogs, etc.

But, again....................what are we all to do? It sucks. And if there's a chance, even a small 1% chance, that you can get more followers, peers, friends, clients, and customers by hustling on these huge platforms.....I totally understand why everyone does it.

It just bums me out to see it. Particularly because I know that it takes time. And it takes effort. And mental and emotional energy. And all of that time, effort, and energy is probably better spent somewhere else, making the actual work that you like making and doing cool shit and exploring your own ideas and talking to people who really do follow you because your work speaks to them.

It also sucks because it pushes everyone into being the same type of "content creator" rather than specifically being a painter, or animator, or composer. Everyone feels compelled to make short-form video content, or microblog, or whatever it is that people say will make you go viral that week.

It all just sucks big-time and maybe it's obnoxious that I'm even writing this. My heart goes out to everyone freelancing. I have my fingers crossed that more stuff emerges that makes a clearer path forward. Patreon has thankfully helped make this life slightly easier for some people, but hopefully other tools will come out to supplement that and give people a safety net in case Patreon shits the bed.

#blog #blogofkylelab #social media #social media meta #art

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exvangelicalrage · 11 months

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Nobody Practices What They Preach

6/8/23

A couple of years after my Exit, I remember having a brief conversation with my mom where I mentioned my disappointment at the behavior of some local pastor who was caught up in a scandal and had to leave their church. I mentioned that christians always talk about how good and well-behaved and holy they are, but then you find out it was all a lie.

My mom replied, in a very patient and tolerant tone of voice, "christians sin too. We are human, just like everybody else."

And that was it. As if that answer was enough: "christians sin too."

But the problem is, christians don't talk like they're "just people." They say they've been “chosen by god.” They say they're right. They say they Know, with a capital K, what is right and wrong.

"In the world but not of it," they proclaim, which is just code for "We're better than you. We are heaven bound. Whatever happens here on earth is meaningless in the grand scheme of eternity. But you non-christians? You are sinful. Earthly. Bound for hell. And we don't associate with the hell bound."

They've drawn a line in the sand. Us vs them. Me vs you.

It's worse when you look at christian leadership. I watched the Hulu documentary about Jerry Falwell Jr. the other day, and the one about Hillsong the weekend before that. I was a little disappointed when I finished. I thought these tell-alls were going to be shocking. Eye-opening. Mind-blowing.

But the reveals were not particularly surprising.

Doesn't everyone know pastors abuse children? And have sexual dalliances outside their marriage? And are willing to engage in all sorts of unethical behaviors to "further the will of god," whatever they decide that to mean?

I mean, it's great to have proof. And yes, please, hold predators and criminals accountable, destroy their reputations and lives, and take away the power they wield. Whether or not they're christian. I'm a fan of all that.

But I also know that when you eliminate one predator, there will always be another to take their place.

I was around 8 years old when the pastor of my childhood church got booted for having an affair. I remember it distinctly.

"What is happening?" I asked my mom. Everyone at church was in a hubbub that morning.

"Pastor Hall got caught holding hands with a lady who wasn't his wife," my mom told me.

I didn't see why that was such a big deal at the time, of course. Holding hands wasn't that bad, was it? But apparently this time, it had been catastrophic. It divided the church. People left. We left.

I imagined Pastor Hall at a coffee shop, innocently holding hands with some kind woman while eating a snack. I spent many years quite confused about the whole thing. I was much older before I realized what had actually happened.

Then, the youth pastor in the same church got booted for getting a divorce. Then a pastor at nearby church got kicked for having "a big ego" which most certainly was a cover story for something else. This is all in a 10-mile radius in a rural part of upstate New York. At churches I attended in some capacity. That my friends went to.

Naturally, I grew up intensely distrustful of pastors, especially male pastors, and anyone in a leadership position in church. Not because I personally experienced any specific abuse, but because I knew that any of them could be a snake.

They even preached it! "A wolf in sheep's clothing" could be anywhere. Anyone. Even one of them.

After all, "christians sin too."

This particular idea sparks a very specific rage in me. "christians sin too," isn't just some one-off thing my mom said. According to most protestant ideologies, it's a foundational component. Everybody is a sinner. But! jesus' blood covers all sins. If you sin, even after being born again, all you have to do is repent and you will be forgiven. You should strive for perfection, of course, but if you don't attain it, no worries. Repentance to the rescue! Even the catholics have a framework for it: confess and do penance. Then some magic happens... and you're cleansed!

It's a free pass to be a hypocrite.

You can a.) become a christian, b.) not follow christianity at all, and c.) still get to heaven by merely repenting!

Even in the last moments of your life, if you repent with your very last breath... saved!

No accountability necessary. No amends necessary. Doesn't matter how much harm you've caused to other people. Doesn't matter if you've murdered or raped or exploited people. It doesn't matter the nature, frequency, or intensity of the crimes you've committed.

There's a single, easy out: simply ask god for forgiveness.

Even Hitler could be in heaven if he repented before he died. Even genocide is covered by the blood of jesus.

This basic, foundational element of the christian ideology turns out to be a convenient loophole not only for committing grievous offenses against other people, but for consolidating and maintaining power and money as well.

How else would a guy like trump get the support of evangelical christians? He's one of the least christian-behaving people on the fucking planet! He's had too many wives, has sex scandals galore, committed pretty much every sin in the book, is a jackass of epic proportions—and not to mention, you know what the bible says about rich guys? Easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich guy to get to heaven.

But when you're christian, it's easy to overlook that stuff. You know why? Because you don't have to believe that he's a good guy. You don't have to believe that he's never fucked up. You don't have to believe that he's holy, moral, or the epitome of a righteous man.

All you have to believe is that he has repented. That's it.

And if he messes up again? Easy. He just has to repent again. He's sorry for harassing women. He's sorry for mocking disabled people. He's sorry for stealing classified documents, trying to subvert democracy, and inciting an insurrection. After all, god forgives everybody, you know. No exceptions.

Now imagine you're on the board of directors at a megachurch. You discover that one of your leaders had committed [insert grievous sin here]. Does he express repentance? Maybe even shed a few tears? Then you're golden. As god forgave him, so can you. You pray for him, instruct him not to fuck up again, and sweep the scandal under the rug, everyone outside this small group none the wiser.

Because, as you know, "christians sin too. They're only human, after all."

The thing is, nobody practices what they preach perfectly. It doesn't matter if we're talking about christians or buddhists, social justice warriors or school administrators. There's a reason parents and teachers like to toss around the aphorism, "Do what I say, not what I do." Because they know they're never going to behave perfectly in line with whatever ideology they espouse.

And that's okay. We are all human. We're complex. Nuanced. And there are a million variables that impact our behavior—it's rarely as simple as a black and white, right/wrong choice. Sometimes it's impossible to know what the right choice is. Sometimes mental illness, trauma, society, cultural norms, confusion, brainwashing, and who knows what else influence us to make spur of the moment decisions that are harmful and go against what we profess to believe. Sometimes, it's as simple as our actions had a different outcome than intended.

Ultimately, being a "good person" is not about being perfect.

It's about taking responsibility for our choices. That's it.

And the christian ideology conveniently removes that. They don't have to take responsibility, because they've been cleansed—freed from sin!—by the blood of christ! hallelujah! (/sarcasm). All they have to do is repent. Quietly. In private.

Redemption Unlocked.

What about the people they've harmed? you might wonder. Like me?

Well, there's a convenient answer for victims too: Repent of your wicked ways, and jesus will lift your burden from you! He will heal your trauma (caused at the hand of another one of his followers, of course)! Fix your problems! And if he doesn't? Clearly you didn't repent good enough. It's your fault. When you're holy enough, god will bless you.

And the circle goes round. The abusers, manipulators, and predators harm and repent, harm and repent, confident they'll end up at the pearly gates when they die. They don't give a shit about their victims, because they know all the victim has to do is pray, and whatever pain or damage they experienced will be lifted, healed, repaired by the all loving, all knowing god who watches from on high.

Nobody practices what they preach. Especially christians.

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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if no one has asked it, I'll throw in shadowgast for the ask meme, because some of the questions are very fun

when I started shipping it if I did: episode 97. I distinctly remember saying something in January 2020 like "yeah Essek is growing on me but what's his deal...I still don't totally get it" and then with episode 97 I was like well I was wrong about everything.

my thoughts: every interaction they had was good - even when I was like "eh, I don't know how I feel about Essek" I still found his interactions with Caleb interesting - but truly everything in the Aeor arc is pure gold.

What makes me happy about them: the "whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same" (derogatory) of it all. The fact that two people who felt they'd made life-shattering mistakes and were irredeemable and selfish managed to find each other and in doing so realize that perhaps redemption is a road and not a destination and that they are the only ones requiring the redemption of themselves in the first place. Also I just think wizard4wizard is very good, and I want Essek to interact with cats.

What makes me sad about them: nothing really in canon about them - certainly in their individual stories but not in their relationship - only the meta that we didn't get to see more of them. Post-canon one-shot with Essek when.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I know I said "I hate this so much it's like flames on the sides of my face" already once today about something but like...I am not actually opposed to lifespan angst as a concept in and of itself, but you better be actually engaging with the complexity of grief and the life that comes after (*cough* as has been made extremely explicit in like 7 different CR characters' stories if not more) and not just like "one person will die before another person, I guess, doesn't that make you feel sad or whatever." Like make an effort.

things I look for in fanfic: Because we did not see them getting together, I do like stories that cover the period of them becoming romantically involved after the close of the campaign.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I didn't really have any other ships for Essek and I lost interest in all the other Caleb ships I'd considered and/or didn't really want them to be canon, so like, I hope they'd have found people, if they wanted to.

My happily ever after for them: I do hope that eventually they're able to live together; I like that Essek takes some time to figure himself out in Uthodurn, and I mean, they can both teleport so it's not like long distance is really a problem, but maybe in a decade after things have died down a little Essek can get a hold of a ring of alter self or something, or Caleb takes a position for a few years in Zadash, a little away from Ludinus.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Ok I do think Caleb is pretty much always the big spoon here.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: I mean these two people with 200 HP between them, which is pretty good in the grand scheme of things but not in the scheme of "L16 adventurers" went to Aeor with no healing spells. It's probably "trying to get the Necromancy Emerald out of the Sinister Obelisk", or at minimum "inventing new weird spells that may explode". I do think they should join a book club though. I think they'd like it.

#shadowgast

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halfusek · 2 years

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Since the new Chris Portal documentary showed the true and nasty side of KB/Mike and TheMeatly, are you still gonna Say "we don't know the full story"?. We as a fanbase were treated as shitty as the employees they fired and abused, they don't deserve respect anymore.

uh i dont know where you've been but that video hasn't uncovered much new to me aside from some details from the two interviews near the end of the vid but like all of that stuff has already been known, it is just the first instance of someone compiling it into a coherent video (like the stupid games for kids said by mike we already knew in 2019 which i would not exactly say is the same as experiencing work abuse lol)

and idk why you're being so hostile at me, i've never been one to defend mike nor meatly but tried to find and share as much of the information as i could find about their wrongdoings, like dude i was fucking there pointing out that a lot of employees dont have "kindlybeast employee" in their twitter bios which then got screenshot and that post went on reddit where actual ex employees started sharing stuff (which freaked me out cuz i didnt want to have my "face" on the post dedicated to that) so like maybe turn that down a little

i feel like there's a lot of people new to some things unraveling in this controversy but as for me i've already made up my mind what i think of it, so i'm not so up in arms to scream about things that we already screamed about 2-3 years ago and that might make people think that i don't care or wanna brush it off which is not true

kindly beast / joey drew studios inc / mike and meatly deserve all the criticism aimed towards them, and on the day it was known about the lawsuit i laughed that karma finally got to them because i had thoughts "for all the shit they did to people, they deserve to fail and lose everything, to start over"

but i also think this is an opportunity for them to improve, learn and do better, sooooo i'm just kind of waiting for the next thing to happen i guess

in case they don't improve, welp, they can honestly fuck off

death of the author, whatever, it is anyone's personal call if they wanna keep on supporting some creators or not, and well as for me i think there's so much more and worse stuff that we (we as... gaming community... fandoms...?) tolerate that this seems just... small in comparison. i'm NOT saying it's not a big deal, it has me wishing lowkey that i just wasn't into batim lmao so i could just go. like for example i'm much more disgusted at sc/ott caw/thons wrongdoings cause they actually influence politics so i'm actively trying to keep myself away from engaging with fnaf or that one pirate gay show that i was like holy shit a cool gay couple but then read some yikes things about a character being based on actual real life guy who was a slave owner and that just had me nope out. i guess what i'm saying is i try not to support problematic things but if i were to suport only those purely unproblematic thatd kinda leave me with nothing idk society capitalism something something so you know i just try to weigh if something is actively harmful to people or if there is something that happened that i absolutely cannot forgive and based on that i get into something or not

does that make me a hypocrite? maybe but if i focus on boycotting what matters in the grand scheme of things and indulge a little in indie game fandom that's rapidly losing popularity i think i can personally live with that

sorry for going off about this, truth be told there's a lot of things happening in the world right now that put me in a very doomer mode lmao i mean we all see whats happening, shits pretty fucked and it was hard for me to even spare some focus on this, its really not good to get so desensitized so i also apologize for the harsh tone but yeah

anyways, i agree that we should make them feel like they need to apologize and do better, meatly still havent said a word publicly about anything that has happened and that fucking sucks

i still do not like harassing them over releasing batdr, thats part of crunch culture and all that jazz and i think we shouldnt lower the standards for that for anyone because [insert that image of you doing something bad to someone you dislike but it deflecting into someone you like]

but we should keep them on their toes and not let them think that we will just forget and let them get away with it because wow they've been massive assholes

#its funny because even chris portals first video was late to the controversy in my eyes #(understandably tho cuz it was long and that sort of stuff takes time to make)#it is a good video and i recommend watching it esp if you are a batim fan #sorry it got so long and weird i am in a . . . . . . state #halfask

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florenceisfalling · 1 year

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sorry for not realizing, i hadn't checked your blog in months before today and i kinda figured you would have blocked me in the time i wasn't on tumblr if you didn't wanna talk. the post i replied to seemed lighthearted so i did not know. obviously no need to answer this as i won't ever see it, just wanted to say i'm sorry for upsetting you even if i won't ever know exactly what went wrong with us

i mean you still have my discord dms if you really wanted. in fact, you actually stopped responding to me, not the other way around. i didn't block you because a.) you were such a large part of my life for so long that, yknow, a chunk of my blog has some sort of attachment to yours, and i didn't want to fuck up my ability to see relevant posts if im trying to find old writing shit and b.) i always wanted to leave channels open because... again, you were a large part of my life for so long. i don't want to be your friend but if anything ever came up and there was something you needed or wanted to say i wanted that to be possible for the sake of "just in case"

regardless of if you "wont ever see it" heres my answer. even this ask answers itself for one of the reasons i dont like you. you hadn't checked my blog in months. which in itself is fine, but in the grand scheme of things - jesus fuck, man! you dipped out of my life almost entirely, on repeated occasions, unless i actively tried to drag you back in. regardless of how fucking apparent it was that i was literally on the Brink, you wouldn't be there unless i was the one to call. even after i tried to have an open conversation with you + others involved on how you were so bad at handling your shit that i thought random things i had zero involvement were my fault because no one gave me any sort of indication to what the fuck was going on.

you hung out with bullies and downplayed the deserved backlash. you don't know how to take other peoples feelings or lives seriously - something that hits me so PROFOUNDLY because your kindness and comfort used to be one of the reasons i liked your company so much. you hurt my friend. and you lied to me! and more, shit that i cant say here! and you would complain and guilt-trip about how you felt like everyone hated you and how you were such a bad friend but you so rarely made steps to actually change anything you were doing! of course you don't see what went wrong, you can't even look in at yourself without making everyone else feel like its their fault for being hurt!

and id love to say that everything ive heard from you and the people surrounding you is some kind of misunderstanding and that really and truly you dont deserve my anger. i dont think you realize how much ive sat over the past year and hoped that we were somehow gonna go back to normal. i wanted to tell you i got engaged! i wanted to talk to you about a million things! but after what i had to deal with last year (not from you, other shit entirely) i sort of learned that i cannot afford to trust anyone. you have no idea the fucking depths i went to and you are not going to know because the kind of people you seem to love aspiring to be/surrounding yourself with are the same kind of people who made my world feel like it was fucking falling apart. literally some of the most insane trauma ive endured was just brushed aside as silly discourse or jokes or whatever so yeah. not sure if i can trust that everythings all just one big mix up. messages are open but i am so angry and i cant change that even if i want to and i dont think you want to hear any of it.

and im sorry for being so lighthearted about you before i thought it was a post that would just fade into the ether like my other non-context bullshit

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xplrvibes · 2 years

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Its Stas constantly having to post an image or video of just her and Colby that has recently made me start to question and see what everyone is saying. How obvious does she have to keep making it where & from who she is getting her clout from. I used to think people were reaching but honestly i see it now. They engage with her at this point because they want more Colby content and thats pretty sad. Her asks on twitter and tiktok are about him and wanting to see his outfits so she makes it happen and thats where the engagement happens. Why not show how she put hers together instead?

I'm going to be honest about 2 things, anon:

1. I had a whole response typed up, and then I accidentally deleted it and I'm pissed because it was elegant, it was heartfelt, it was wordy as fuck and it would've been a great read for all; and

2. I dont mean this in a harsh way, but: I really don't care about Stas and whatever her relationship with Colby is. I don't care if they're friends, FWB, married with 4 secret children somewhere that we don't know about, if shes using him, if hes using her, if theyre both using each other...none of it makes a difference to me. I have no dog in this fight.

And maybe it's because I looked at her instagram, and out of the last 31 posts she's made, he's only been featured in 7- which to me, especially considering she lives with the man and is good friends with him, doesn't seem to be an alarming number of Colby featured posts (my old answer had this really hilarious line about me photoshopping Colby's head on a pic of my grandma in a desperate bid for extra clout, you really should've been able to read that 😭).

Maybe it's because I vividly remember the Kevin Langue/Elton Castee tricks of using Colby's face in thumbnails of videos he wasn't even in, just to clickbait (which is both effective marketing and a blatant display of using that Sweet Sweet Colby Brock Clout for personal gain), so nothing Stas does seems out of pocket in comparison.

Maybe it's because all of these young influencers with friends who are also influencers, post about one another and being with one another quite a bit for engagement and views (did Amber not just have Colby in one of her videos because the fans begged her to film with him again?), and none of what Stas is doing is out of the ordinary for that whacky little snowglobe called "socialmediaville" that they're all trapped in.

Maybe it's one, none, or all of the above- but I just don't view what she's doing as anything nefarious. I think aggregious, nefarious, out of control clout chasers, I think Brennen Taylor in his prime, Kevin Langue, Elton in his prime, etc. Stas is like, small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

And Colby, who professes constantly that he's always on guard because of being used by people, seems to be unoffended by what she's doing as well, so...🤷‍♀️

But, that's just me. And opinions are opinions, not law. 🤷‍♀️

#asks

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kitom-kortil · 2 months

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anti v proship discourse ring? can u elaborate I'm confused on. what that means. I can message off anon if that's better for you. I know there's a lot of ship discourse in this fandom so I get that part at least but the "v" and general wording is throwing me off (this is a genuine question I have no intentions of debating u!)

Youre perfectly fine, love! I really appreciate you being respectful in this ask, a lot of the time i just get ppl saying slurs and calling me a proshipper (despite the fact that i think both sides are dumb)

Anti v proship, aka antishipping versus proshipping. Essentially i was making fun of the fact that the loudest person making a million posts had begun their rant by making a massive post about all the ins and outs of why a fictional ship in emh was "bad", thus they would likely be considered an "anti-shipper", someone who is against more "problematic" ships. A lot of the time, ppl who are "anti-shippers" conflate proshipping (proshipping means pro...shipping, aka being pro do whatever, block what you dont like, NOT problematic shipping (shipping incest, rape, pedophilia etc), but anti shippers tend to say thats what it means, it doesnt) with problematic shipping and spend a lot of their time blustering and screaming about ships that they view as problematic or morally bad in some way. A lot of the time people who engage in the anti vs proshipping discourse have a very very bad habit (wink wonk) of discussing subjects they either know nothing about, lie about the situations/characters outright, or are legit just whining about an icky ship in their precious fandom. There is almost never ANY evidence or proof to back claims they might make. Im not saying all of this is what was in the post, this is just a general thing.

So when i said anti vs proship discourse ring, i was referring to them screaming about this ship and how bad it is and then all their mutuals being in their comments and reblogs encouraging and creating an echo chamber to validate them. It was mostly just me being petty and making fun of someone wasting time on something that is very unimportant and silly in the grand scheme of things, rather than actually engaging in an intelligent discussion about the very very VERY real problems of minor safety, inappropriate behavior from minors towards adults and vice versa, and pedophilia/grooming with REAL PEOPLE that is rampant in this fandom.

For some reason, i get called a proshipper a lot for this line of thinking, which is very odd to me but its whatever.

TLDR Shipping discourse is stupid and this whole echo chamber of shoddy claims is coming from one person that started ranting about a problematic ship they didnt like and it seems to have set them into a morality spiral, and i was being a dickhead and making fun of it because im a tired asshole who doesnt want to hear about shipping discourse anymore.

#im very sorry if this comes off rude or anything #im very burnt out about always seeing these trends of drama be preluded by shipping discourse #cuz it just ends up making the ENTIRE thing disbelievable and shady because its always comes back to some kind of bait or just general #bullshit #i hope this makes sense im very tired 😭#skull talk #cw discourse #cw anti v proship discourse #cw antishipping #cw proshipping #and yes im vaguing #i dont think its needed to specify the person because im not going to start direct arguments with thsm its simply not needed #this person was also a mutual of mine on my old profile and its super uncomfortable to see them go down this spiral #so im not going to confirm or deny who it is or what the ship because we will NOT be having a discussion with them about it #ive already blocked the person so im flat out not going to discuss further if anyone attempts to ask who it is or engage in a discussion #about them directly #so just a fair warning there

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quietwingsinthesky · 8 months

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Okay this is like a week or so late but I've been thinking about your tags about how it's fucked up to claim a character you don't like/find boring is cishet because it hinges being queer as something you earn or have revoked, and you talking about how Dean is interesting Because of his flaws... This is like such a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but in another fandom there's this character I'll just call E who cheats on his spouse. Then there's another character from the same country, with the same appearance, that goes by a nickname that's E's name, just shorter. I'll call that character U. I met someone who mentioned in all their posts that they didn't think E and U were the same character. I thought maybe there was like, a detail or an interview that I missed, so I asked this person why they thought E and U were different characters. And they kinda danced around it for a while before basically admitting that they think U is hot and didn't want to like a character that cheated on his spouse. Now like obviously to each their own, people can have their opinions, I can't control how people go about fiction, no one is obligated to be super intellectual with fandom hobbies, etc etc. But I've always been really confused about this person's headcanon because isn't it more fun to actually interpret the worldbuilding and themes of fiction, than to essentially lie to yourself so you don't have to think about uncomfortable topics? I really don't think the author of this media setup the premise of 2 characters being almost identical, one explicitly a cheater & the other ambiguous, for no reason. And if you can't engage with the themes in a mature way... Why not just move onto something that's more your speed? I know the answer is hot fictional men, and that's fair, but... It's been a few years since this interaction and it's still mind boggling to me (Also sorry for putting such a big message in your inbox for vague fandom drama 💀 I'd say the name of the characters/media but it's a really small fandom so the person Would find out I was talking shit)

"I know the answer is hot fictional men" is such a good way to put fandom drama. cause, like, end of the day, i'm pretty sure a lot of dean vs sam debates also boil down to 'which one do you want to fuck'. (not all of them but like. sometimes. you can tell.)

so the thing is like. for me, whatever headcanons anyone wants to have? they're fine. I might think they are Very Bad and Weird To Have, as with people declaring they can only see sam as cishet because he's just. so boring. you know, the guy who drank blood on screen and caused the apocalypse a few times and- i digress. But what's starting to become a lot more pervasive in fandom culture and what I find extremely annoying is that people will insist that you have to conform to their headcanons, that if you don't, you're damaging the character or taking something away from them or something. And this gets especially fucked when they start insisting that the headcanon version of the characters overrides the actual characters, rather than engaging with what's happening on screen.

which was probably inevitable, given how people tend to headcanon things about characters that end up very personal. someone disagreeing with a headcanon that's built on projection (which, to be clear, projecting onto a character is not a bad thing, otherwise i'd be a huge hypocrite for saying sam is trans) can feel like a personal attack, and that's gonna put the headcanon-er on the defensive, and. well. it becomes a situation not fun for anyone.

also never apologize for coming into my inbox with vague fandom drama. i love vague fandom drama. i recognize that i am part of the fandom drama problem but im too nosy to stop askdjalkdjs

#ask

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greenlodgecypher · 1 year

Text

The Christmas Ghost

4/4

Part 3

A short story, by Janine

Nearly five years later, when she was already twenty, Mabel visited her granny. Granny Setter was very old then, and living with her niece, Mabel’s aunt. "Can you help me, Granny?" Mabel said. "I have an appointment to keep. It's with the man of the woods," she said, "and I think he won't take no for an answer."

But Granny Setter just smiled at her. "I haven't got any tricks for you this time," she said. "Do as you think right, dear. I think you'll do fine." Mabel's first reaction was concern. She thought the man might have some way of vanishing her, the same way he’d left before. "That's not what I mean," Granny said. She pointed at the bracelet Mabel wore, one her friend had given her. "Nothing out there in those woods can keep you. Not if you don't want to go," she said. "There's stronger claims on you already. Ones you're good for. And I think you can only be what you are." It wasn't what Mabel wanted to hear, but she decided that she'd do the best she could. She showed up on the date declared by the man of the woods. She didn't show up dressed to wed, though. She wore a new business suit; slacks, shirt, tie, and all, for the city job as a clerk that she was supposed to report for in a few days. She wore that, and a coat; and she carried her axe. She stood at the edge of the woods and waited. He came in like a stormcloud. His suit was black this time, and there was a mist under the trees. There were flashes in the forest treetops, like lightning, or embers. "I can see who you are," he said to her, glowering. "Dressing differently will not confuse me. Now, I don’t want to discipline you; you be a good girl and swear to the union." He gave her a bow, and he twirled his tie, and he smiled. It was a very toothy smile, and Mabel didn’t like it, and I don’t like the sound of it neither. She told him, "You can call me whatever you like; you call me engaged, but that doesn’t make it so. You asked it of me, but I won’t do it." she said. "I don’t have any clever solutions to your schemes. Maybe this land is yours by right, and maybe it's not. You're not Shawnee, and anyway, I've seen people moving away my whole life. I intend to walk home, and tomorrow I’ll take my leave. It may be that you can do something to stop me, but you’ve had my answer.” She had her axe, and her grit, and she meant to sell herself dearly should he try something. He didn’t say a thing at first. “Good evening,” Mabel said. She turned her back on him and started to walk away. Some might have called that audacious. It was certainly rash. What means did the man of the woods have at his disposal? Was he angered devil, or angered man? But he wavered. Maybe he didn’t think he could make her change her mind. She wasn’t a sweet biddable girl, but a stalwart country soul. Maybe he reckoned he didn’t have that strong a need of any souls today. And maybe he really couldn’t leave the woods to nab her-- and maybe Mabel wasn’t really in reach. Maybe she was still on our lands. Who knows; but he didn’t take her. He frowned, and his frown still wasn’t worse than his grin; he twirled his tie, and he snapped his fingers, and he was gone just like that. Even the shadow in the woods was gone, and the sun was a-shining. Mabel went back to Granny Setter’s, and told her all about it. And she did leave the next day. Never once did she come back here; she lived in the city all the rest of her life. Over the years, the farms got quiet. The railroad left, and nobody could sell cattle or grain neither. There wasn’t much sang left to dig. The fields started to go fallow, and the trees came back, after all. I don’t know if it was the man in the woods what did it. Grand-Aunt said the people were leaving on their own. Still, I don’t like that part of the woods. There always seems to be something there at night. And Grand-aunt Mabel told my ma, and I’m telling you. Now you know.

#the green lodge cypher #tglc apr 97

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raziroo · 3 years

Text

Cotton Candy

Pairing: Lotor x gn!reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Saying "Shit" twice

Word count: 2,076 (yay) (also, I edited this, I still need to update the word count)

Author’s Note: I'm crap at writing dialogues, and this is my first time writing for a gay couple. I'm so sorry if it seems forced or unnatural or shitty. Don't be afraid to call me out.

Story Moodboard!

It’s with a grunt of effort that I manage to lift the carton containing the cotton-candy-maker.

‘Here, dad,’ I say as my dad takes the box from my hands. ‘That’s all?’

‘Yep, that’s all of it. We’ll conquer this carnival with our delicious cotton candy,’ I nod, doing jazz hands while saying the last part. Dad chuckles. I grin.

‘Hey, Honey!’ I turn back, squinting to spot where my other dad is in the crowd of bustling people. Where, where…? Yep, there he is – in his embarrassingly brilliant sunshine yellow and bottle green striped shirt and hot pink trousers, a sharp contrast to his natural bright red hair. Don’t say that it can’t look that bright; you’ll never know just how blindingly bright bottle green can really be until you see the shirt my dad’s wearing. And trust me, he usually dresses in simpler tones; such bland tones that you’d be surprised to know he was capable of wearing colourful hues as well. It’s only that he’s very passionate about his job, and so whenever we set up a booth in fetes such as the current one, he never misses to match the shop logo.

‘Hul-lo, father dearest, how seems to go your day?’

‘Oh, quite lovely, if I do say so.’

‘Well, that’s simply charming –’

‘Alright, enough,’ my other, not redhead dad snaps with an exasperated sort of smile on his visage. You see, my not redhead, a.k.a. brown-haired dad happens to be British. And that means that me and dad would rather paint our teeth blue than to not tease him. ‘You both need to shut it and start helping me with the decorations, now. You know I’m trash at all that.’

‘Aw, now don’t get discouraged,’ I say, patting dad on the back. ‘After all, not everyone can be as blessed as me, can they?’

‘Hey, why don’t you go look around for a bit? You’ve been helping out since before I have.’

‘Yeah, he’s right, pet. You should.’

I huff, rubbing my palms on the fabric of my jeans. ‘You guys sure? I’m not tired, if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘We’re not worried, we’re just saying you should also get a look, you know? There’s a lot of surprising booths this time around. I mean, there are aliens participating too, so…’

‘Hmm,’ I play with my bottom lip a little, then, ‘yeah, okay. I’ll be back in like, an hour? Forty five minutes? Sound okay?’

‘Sounds great.’

‘Bye, then.’ And with that, I turn on the heels of my Converse, wandering about the pretty stalls and eager children and kissy couples and aliens with curious features.

It really feels bizarre, just how astonishingly fast mankind has accepted the existence of aliens. It seems simultaneously ages and just a day before when conspiracy theorists raged all around the world, presenting baseless theories and concepts as to why and how the three-man squad on the Kerberos mission disappeared. Then came the Galra, bringing along with them global terror – because alien life, intelligent alien life existed and humanity remained oblivious all these millennia, and now they were actually attacking us. It could’ve been, perhaps even was, in some other dimension, the end of Earth. But then a defender appeared; Voltron appeared in all its glory, bringing along with it proof that however much these purple aliens claim that humans are scum of the universe, humans were, in the grand scheme of things, the ones that saved the universe too.

It feels even more puzzling to actually be on a first-name basis with the leader of Voltron; that’s right, I’m personally acquainted with Keith Kogane. It was around six months after him leaving the Garrison did I come across him. He’d been loitering around the neighbourhood, had ended up in a fistfight with some other kids, and along with that a split lip and bruised cheek. I’d been watching. When the fight ended, I (somehow) persuaded him to come along so that I could at the very least provide him with a band-aid.

Long story short, we’d bonded over how our moms were no-shows and how dads were the best and we became surprisingly close friends; the only difference was that after the death of his old man, he lived alone. I’d been adopted by my two current fathers. I told him about how when they’d initially adopted me, I was excruciatingly shy. I wouldn’t even come out of my room except meals. It was only when I came to know that they knew how to make candy floss had I timidly approached them if I could have some, because previously I’d always been grossed out at the thought of having to eat that. I’d overheard this group of kids saying that cotton candy was actually just dyed granny hair, so that’s where that came from.

I love cotton candy now. So much so, that even at the age of twenty-six, I will pout if someone takes some of mine without my permission. As if I’d ever allow them to.

Speaking of Keith, I haven’t seen him in years. We lost all contact when he turned eighteen, and then he went off into space, and even when he came back, I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I bear no ill will, though. He must have formed some close relationships. Our past friendship is comparatively much more trivial.

I spot a booth selling grilled corn. I instantly head there.

As I’m about join the crowd of humans and aliens who also want corn, a familiar call of my name leads me to pull a three sixty.

Lo and behold. Keith Kogane.

Despite him having obviously grown a lot, the face was still the same. I’m sure that, if he gets a split lip and bruise on his cheek right now, he won’t look all that different.

There’s a questioning hesitance on his features; he’s probably wondering if he’s got the right person. My pleasantly surprised smile and raised eyebrows assure him. As I step away from the grilled corn stall, I notice a motley crowd behind him; some are purple, some are holding Voltron plushies, and some look way too curious to be in a carnival. The introduction is going to be fun.

‘Keith! You're gonna live a hundred years - I was just thinking about you. But anyways, it’s – it’s great to see you,’ I say with a little giggle. ‘Though I am kind of surprised you actually approached me. The sixteen-year-old you would never.’

He smiles awkwardly in return. ‘Y – yeah… I, just… oh God, this is – I’m sorry,’ he says, his inner turmoil evident.

‘It’s all good. I know you’re shit at small talk, so… like, introduce me? Maybe?’

He nods rapidly, brows furrowed. ‘Yeah, um,’ he turns to the people behind him, telling them my name, how we met, the whole affair. I give them a wave. Most of them greet me back.

‘And, this is Shiro and Curtis,’ he points to the tall, white-haired yet young man, holding hands with a tanner guy, ‘Lance, Pidge and Hunk,’ he points to a lanky, bright-smiled guy, a buffer, kind-seeming person, and a short chestnut-haired woman who, despite wearing baggy jeans and a baggier tee, looks somehow better dressed than me. ‘Then that’s Allura, Coran, and Romelle, they’re Alteans,’ a woman with enchanting beauty and a regal aura surrounding her, a redhead who’s significantly older than the rest with an impressive moustache, and a youthful appearing girl with a big grin, ‘and Lotor, he’s Galran. The Galran Emperor, in fact.’ Lotor is a tall, lilac-skinned man with aristocratic features who shares the same cheek markings as the Alteans. Oh, and he’s unfairly gorgeous, his hair a luscious mane of white which I just know will be soft. It’s hard not to stare. You remember how I said Allura looked like royalty? Yeah, the way this man carries himself, he has the aura and visage of a God. Even in a white tee-shirt and jeans he looks way better than should be legal.

I rip my eyes away.

‘So…are Noah and Oliver here too? I’d love to see them. I mean, I never did get to thank them to permit a possible criminal to sleep in their house.’

I laugh. ‘Never mind that, but we actually sit up a stall here. I could, you know, maybe even get you guys something to eat.’

‘Free? Please don’t.’

‘It’s nothing, really, just… I don’t know, accept it as a small thank you present for not letting the planet go to shit.’

A bit of thinking. Even after a nod from Shiro, it was Lance who said yes. Good ol’ Keith.

When we reach the stall, my British dad is the only one we find there. He looks up, about to say something to me, when he notices Keith.

‘Dad. You remember Keith?’

‘Your possible criminal friend who turned out to be the saviour of the universe Keith?’

‘That Keith. He wanted to see you.’

‘Oh? Well then,’ he dusts his hands, stands up, and greets Keith. Both of them engage in a conversation.

‘You guys wanna try something?’

‘What do you got?’ asks Pidge.

‘What do we got? Um, we got chocolates, candy, marshmallows, jellybeans, tortilla chips, ice cream, popcorn – butter, cheese, caramel, peri peri – Lays, like, a lot of Lays, and the good old cotton candy. What d’you want?’

So, after providing the humans with two Cream n’ Onion Lays, a pack of tortilla chips, a double scoop of butterscotch and chocolate, a small tub of popcorn, and three cotton candy sticks, I turned to the aliens.

‘I’m assuming you guys aren’t familiar with a lot of this stuff, so you could either pick whatever looks to be good, ask your friends, or I could recommend something. What’ll it be?’

Romelle was the one who asked, ‘What’s ice cream like?’

‘It’s sweet. It’s cold. And it’s like… heaven in mouth.’

‘Ooh. I want an ice cream. The… pink one?’

‘That’s strawberry. You can eat it in a cone, or in a cup.

‘What’s the difference?’

‘Well, the cup you can’t eat. The cone is like a crispy biscuit,’ judging by her face, she didn’t know what biscuit was. ‘I’ll just give you a cone. It’s all on the house, so no worries if you don’t like it.’

I watched eagerly as she licked the ice cream. An unreadable look crossed her face. Then – ‘This is almost as good as Hunk’s cookies!’

‘Really?’ Coran asked, twirling his moustache. ‘Well, then…’ he squinted to read the names of the various flavours. ‘I would like “cookies and cream”. Yes.’ A cone of cookies n’ cream was served.

‘Allura?’

‘Do you have something that isn’t sweet?’ That was a plot twist. I’d have taken her as someone who appreciated sweeter foods.

‘We do. You want spicy?’

‘…Sure.’ Peri Peri popcorn was given and enjoyed.

And last… ‘Lotor. What would you like to have?’

It takes me a lot of will to not laugh at Lotor’s way too analytical expression. ‘What would you recommend?’

‘Me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Out of all this stuff, candy floss is my favourite.’

‘Candy floss… the item that looks simultaneously like a cloud and an old woman’s hair?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I would like a helping of candy floss, then.’

As I hand Lotor a stick of cotton candy, I wait with anticipation for his reaction.

‘How am I supposed to eat this?’

It takes me a moment to process that. ‘Uh, you just… pinch a little of the stuff in between your fingers, then eat it. Or you could just, um, go in directly, which I’m thinking isn’t really your style.’

He narrows his eyes, but follows my instructions nonetheless. Only a second after putting the stuff in his mouth, Lotor purrs.

Everyone around him, being me, Coran and Romelle (Allura’s off telling Lance how great Earth food is), looks with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Lotor appears as if he’s just died inside. The berry-shaded blush on his face is adorable, though.

'I didn't, like, poison you or something, right?'

'No. It's that... I would never in my lifetimes have expected something so tooth-rottingly sweet to be this delicious.'

'So you're okay?'

‘Yes. In fact, I quite like… this cotton candy.’

I grin.

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starburstgurl · 2 years

Text

To a certain subset of R-W-B-Y fans (not all but some) what is your obsession with RWDE and people not liking the series? They use their own tag.

They don’t like my show?

And?

Every series has a hatedom but R-W-B-Y is the only series where I’ve seen people be religiously mad that people don’t take the show as holy gospel. Every product in the world has its critics. Even if you don’t like it.

It’s not a small passion project anywhere when I understood the need to protect it. It’s heavily corporate. It’s under WB for God’s sake and made a cameo in the matrix. It’s mainstream.

They don’t like my ship/characters?

Welcome to fandom 101. Is it your first time? RW-BY is no different from every other fandom in existence. All that’s alien is everyone in this fandom’s reaction to it.

They insulted C-R-W-B-Y! That’s over the line.

I turn your attention to comic fandoms who sends daily curses to every writer in its bullpen. And many other cartoon show runners. Check out how people feel about Miraculous Ladybug’s show runners for example.

R-W-B-Y is not special in This regard. I promise lots of series get treated this way. You can not like that some people do this. That’s fair. But don’t act like R-W-B-Y is the first fandom to experience this.

Rewrites are disrespectful!

I turn your attention to Naruto, GoT and marvel. Who all have significant rewrites under their belt on YouTube. People want different things from a show then you. And describing the ideal product for them.

R-W-B-Y is not being victimized by people doing this. You don’t have to lash out at people doing this.

Monty’s vision!

These guys are asshats. Fuck everyone who says this. But brushing everyone who criticizes R-W-B-Y as saying this is just as immature. And highly reductive. By saying all R-W-B-Y critique is people using this. You’re not engaging with them at all.

For example many black Critics complained about white fang portrayal while Monty was alive. You just weren’t paying attention to them. You cannot just dismiss their complaints under that blanket.

They said my show is problematic.

Congrats. Welcome to all media. Everything is problematic. You’re job is to determine what’s acceptable to you. And people making essays about why they find the show problematic isn’t a big deal. I promise the show didn’t get a boo boo from that.

Marvel is awful military propaganda. That doesn’t stop it from being the world’s biggest franchise.

In Conclusion

R-W-B-Y is not special. It’s a fandom. And like every fandom. It will have a hatedom. Nothing R-W-B-Y’s RWDE or HTDM is anything special in the grand scheme of things. It’s not being unfairly bullied compared to other shows. It’s being treated like every other fandom does.

It’s a show. 90% or you reading this are old enough to know better. It’s not that fucking serious if you see someone have a opinion you don’t like on the internet. As someone who has bounced from fandom to fandom for years I beg you to interact with other ones to see common fandom etiquette because a shit ton of you don’t have it.

Critics splintered off and used the RWDE tag so you don’t have to see it. Don’t actively search for stuff to get you upset. Enjoy R-W-B-Y for yourself. Don’t get mad other people don’t.

Tagging it only RWDE but not R-W-B-Y (changed the spelling just to not get casuals by accident) because the people I’m talking about will definitely find it that way.

Don’t worry I won’t respond.

BTW before anyone calls me a misogynist or a racist, homophobe or whatever like this specific fandom loves doing. I’m a Disabled black woman so fuck off with that ahead of time.

#rwde

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

Prompt: During the Sunshot campaign, Jiang Yanli falls in love with someone new, Nie Mingjue. After the war, she pursues him and they get married. Most disagree with the marriage because they think Jiang Yanli is too gentle, too sickly, too passive, nor a good enough cultivator to be married to someone like Nie Mingjue; but jokes on them because she is THRIVING!

ao3

Untamed verse

Depending on how one looked at it, Nie Mingjue either should have gotten married years ago or didn’t need to marry at all.

From the first perspective, there was the fact that his family tended to die young; the Nie sect elders would have had him married by twenty and a father twice over by twenty-five if he’d let them. But he hadn’t – he refused to act as breeding stock, not when his temper was nearly as bad as his father’s, and with the threat of the Wen sect hanging over their heads a wife wasn’t even worth considering.

From the second perspective, he was now a war hero. He was the general who had fought back the Wen scourge, the eldest and most powerful of the Venerated Triad, well-respected and admired throughout the cultivation world. He could marry any woman he chose, and just about any man with that inclination; politically speaking, though, there was no need for him to marry.

Especially not to Jiang Yanli.

For all that it was a Great Sect, the Jiang sect had been very nearly demolished; Jiang Cheng had done excellent work in rebuilding it, but in the grand scheme of things, they would be the ones asking others for help, not providing it, and that wouldn’t change any time in the near future. Even putting aside their own need to rebuild, the Nie sect was already committed to help the Lan sect rebuild, given Nie Mingjue’s sworn brotherhood with Lan Xichen; it was not yet clear how much aid the Jin sect would offer to either of their sects, if anything, because of Jin Guangyao, with his still-tenuous position.

And yet – Nie Mingjue would need to marry eventually, and the Jiang sect was a Great Sect. They were also the only ones of the Great Sects currently left out in the cold through no fault of their own, given the whole Venerated Triad business, and that nagged at Nie Mingjue’s sense of fairness.

So when, after the war, she made the suggestion, however circumspectly, he did not refuse immediately, but agreed to consider the matter.

“What do you think of it?” he asked Nie Huaisang, who choked on his tea.

“You’re considering it?”

“Why not?” He shrugged. “It’ll bring the Jiang sect into the fold with the other Great Sects, and they’re as worthwhile an alliance for us to make as any.”

Nie Huaisang arched an eyebrow, knowing as well as Nie Mingjue did that they did not need an alliance. “Do you even like her?”

“I don’t know her,” Nie Mingjue said bluntly. “But I’ve heard that her disposition is pleasant and calm, even gentle, and those are good traits to counterbalance my own faults.”

“The rumors also say she’s sickly, and passive, and a poor cultivator to boot.”

“Strengths to weakness, weakness to strength. None of those are problems I have – nor would I care even if my children did have them.”

I don’t care if you’re sickly, and passive, and a poor cultivator, Huaisang. You know that.

Nie Huaisang smiled a little, hiding the expression behind his ever-present fan. “But would you be happy with someone like that?”

Nie Mingjue considered it. “I don’t think the rumors are correct on that score,” he finally said. “Most female cultivators refuse to even approach me, while Jiang Yanli proposed marriage on her own, without standing behind her brothers – I don’t even know if her brothers are aware that she made the offer. That shows initiative, and speaks of some amount of backbone.”

“Backbone or desperation? You’re a better option, compared to her being harassed into something by the Jin sect,” Nie Huaisang said dryly. “Given the dramatic way her last engagement ended, she might not have many other options now that the Jin sect has so publicly indicated that they consider it back on the table – not that many people are willing to cross them at the moment.”

Nie Mingjue shrugged. “Who cares? She still did it. Backbone is backbone, initiative is initiative.”

“Then go for it,” Nie Huaisang said. “I like Jiang Cheng, and I like Wei Wuxian too, even recently he’s gotten a bit – who even knows what’s happening with him nowadays? Whatever; I’d still be delighted to have them both as brothers-in-law. And anyway, Young Mistress Jiang can’t have escaped too much of the same personality.”

“She’s able to put up with that personality,” Nie Mingjue said, and now it was his voice that was dry. “Patience is another fine quality in which we are lacking.”

The next morning, he went to find Jiang Yanli, who was packing up to leave Qinghe and return to the Lotus Pier now that it had been reclaimed and made safe.

“I cannot offer you love at the start,” he told her, blunt as ever. “But I am willing to try my best for it after our marriage.”

She smiled at him. “I can ask for nothing more,” she said, and seemed to even mean it. “I’ve always believed that both sides being willing to put the effort in is always the most important aspect of any partnership.”

He nodded in agreement. “There is, however, one aspect that I wish for you to consider, as it is non-negotiable.”

She tilted her head to the side.

“The Nie sect practices the saber,” he said. “Without exception.”

Her eyes widened.

“If you have a sword –” He hadn’t seen any hint that she did, but the Jiang sect was a sword sect. “– I am not asking you to put it aside. But I would ask that you take up a saber as well, so that our children may learn it from us both.”

“I…my health has never permitted me to learn the sword,” she blurted out. “That is – my parents – no one ever seemed to think it was worthwhile. I get out of breath easily.”

Nie Mingjue frowned at her. He’d seen the effort she put into caring for the sick, often working long hours without rest; she wasn’t that unhealthy – just weak.

“Then we’ll start slow?” he suggested with a shrug. People who married into the Nie sect didn’t have to be good at saber; that they even made the effort was sufficient to properly honor the Nie sect ancestors. “The only way to build up endurance is to work at it.”

Jiang Yanli was smiling at him. Really smiling, maybe even grinning – her eyes were curved crescents, and her face glowed. There was no trace of ill health there.

“I appreciate your confidence,” she said. “And I will be happy to take up the saber.”

“One will be ready for you by the date of our wedding,” he promised her and held out his hand.

She took it. “I look forward to it.”

“And I,” Nie Mingjue said. A moment later he added, “I also look forward to you telling your brothers about this.”

She burst out laughing.

Yes, Nie Mingjue thought to himself. This would be fine.

#mdzs #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #jiang yanli #my fic #my fics #I got a whole bunch of JYL prompts all at once and now I'm kind of into it #possibly willing to consider continuing this one if someone has a bright idea of an interesting divergence #generaloftheuniverse

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lovelybucky1 · 3 years

Text

Strawberry Kisses- Chapter 4

warnings: mentions of a case, 18+ minors dni

series masterlist

It’s been four days since my lunch with Spencer, and my desire to call him is growing. Not wanting to seem too eager, I waited to call him for a while, but I couldn’t wait anymore.

I dial his number and it rings for longer this time before I hear his voice through the speaker.

“Spencer Reid”, he answers.

“Hey, Doc”, I say.

“Y/n”, he replies, the smile evident in his voice.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight. I don’t have fancy doctor money like you do, so I was just planning on watching a movie at my place.”

“I’m sorry, Y/n, I’m on a case in Georgia.”

I can’t help but feel disappointed even though I knew it was a possibility. We do work for the FBI.

“It’s okay, Spencer. Good luck on the case.” I go to hang up, but I hear Spencer shout from the other side.

“Wait, don’t hang up! I’m back at the hotel, we can still talk if you want”, he says. I smile to myself.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

We are silent for a second and I find myself lost in the lull of his soft breaths.

“How’ve you been”, I ask. I knew better than to ask about the case since most of it is classified.

“I’m tired”, he says plainly.

“I don’t want to keep you up past your bedtime, baby boy”, I tease. He laughs softly.

“I’m more mentally tired than physically. Doing the work isn’t the hard part. It’s being with the others for so long”, he says quietly, as if it’s a shameful secret.

“What do you mean?”

“I learned a long time ago that most people aren’t big fans of the real me. Most of the time, the stuff I say goes right over their heads and they don’t care enough to understand it. They’re still my friends, but it’s different. They have my back when I need them to, but they don’t want to hear about the latest books I’ve read or Star Trek lore.” Spencer sighs. “I don’t think anyone has known the real me in a long time.”

I am quiet for a moment, choosing my next words carefully.

“I want to know the real you, Spencer. You could talk about whatever you wanted and I’d listen.”

“Really?”, Spencer asks, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Of course, Doc”, I say sincerely. “What are you doing?”

“Sitting on the balcony.”

“For fun?”, I laugh.

“We had to double up on rooms and I don’t want Morgan eavesdropping. Plus, looking at the sky relaxes me.”

I smile to myself, imagining Spencer sitting on the railing of the balcony, eyes reflecting the starlight. I walk over to my window and open it so I can see farther outside.

“It’s a nice night”, I say.

“Did you know that there are 3,706 known planets?”

“I didn’t.”

“And there’s a planet that’s entirely made up of diamonds.”

“The universe’s engagement ring”, I laugh.

“For the universe’s luckiest lady”, he replies. “Do you know your constellations?”, he asks. I shake my head, momentarily forgetting that he can’t see me.

“I know a couple, but I wouldn’t be able to point them out”, I reply.

“When I was a kid, I hated astronomy. I wanted to know everything there was to know, and with space, there’s so much left unanswered. I can’t even wrap my head around the idea of an endless void filled with rocks that may or may not support life, just like earth.”

“I never liked thinking about that. It makes me feel small and insignificant. My, maybe, ninety years spent here means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but maybe the fact that I get to exist on this planet at the same time as you means something.” It was sappier than I intended, but I meant every word.

Instead of replying, Spencer let out a gasp.

“Did you see that?”, he asks, sounding almost giddy.

“See what?”

“A shooting star. Make a wish before it’s too late”, he laughs.

I wish that Spencer lives happily ever after.

“What did you wish for?”, I ask.

“If I tell you, it won’t come true.”

“I didn’t take you for a superstitious man, Doctor”, I tease.

“I’m not, but it’s still good to have dreams, right?”

“Yeah, it is.”

We fall back into silence. Our breathing is synchronized, the distance between us clearly not weakening our connection.

I couldn’t hear over the line, but Agent Morgan stepped onto the balcony and said good night to Spencer.

“Good night”, he replied.

“O-oh yeah, it’s getting late and you probably have to wake up early”, I say, not hiding my disappointment well.

“What? No, Y/n that wasn’t-” I cut him off.

“Don’t worry about it, Doc. I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Okay… Good night, Y/n.”

“Night, Spence. Be safe.”

I hang up the phone and put it face down on my nightstand. I crawl into bed and slip under the covers, the window still open, the cool night’s air filling the room.

I hold my pillow to my chest and tuck it under my chin. The last thought before I succumb to sleep was: I wish this were Spencer.

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x f!reader #spencer reid x female reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x reader smut #criminal minds #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds smut #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic

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