#like if cis people had to fight in a court of law to change their gender marker on their IDs theyd fucking explode

[timeisacephalopod]

I think it's weird when cis people act like misgendering trans people isn't at all hurtful because cis people loathe being misgendered. I had a friend in grade school who kept her hair short and it pissed her off to no end when people called her a boy and it happened frequently. Mistake someone's infant for the wrong gender and suffer for it. Misgender a cis persons dog and suffer for it. Men and boys get told not to be pussies or they X "like a girl" to deliberately humiliate them (although misogyny plays it's role in this one too) and all the sudden when trans people say they don't like being misgendered cis people are confused?

Trans people know when you misgender them you're not making a mistake, you're looking to humiliate them the way you feel humiliated when you're mistaken for a gender you're not. No need to act like trans people are requesting special consideration when you don't want to be continuously labeled the wrong gender either.

#winters ramblings #conicidentally i also used to periodically keep my hair short and i honestly dont remember if people thought i was a boy #but i DO remember when my friend would get pissed off when she was called a boy how stupid i found it #that adults around us seemed to confuse hair length for GENDER so congrats to 9 year old me for being smarter #than 99% of the political apparatus and also smarter than 100% of transphobes #but like seriously you want to act like you think misgendering is fine? ok ill call you what you arent and WATCH how fast you lose your mind #almost like trans people are asking for whats already given freely to cis people without a fight OR making it a political problem #like if cis people had to fight in a court of law to change their gender marker on their IDs theyd fucking explode #but trans people but up with a TON of bullshit like this and yall wanna whine shes a GIRL?? use she her pronouns #and stop acting like the snowflakes you think trans people are for asking for shit you DEMAND or else #like shit you fucks lose it if your DOG is mistaken for a girl when its a boy and you think HUMAN BEINGS should be treated #apparently with LESS respect than your damn POOCH who dont give a damn any which way? fine you should get treated the same way #just to clown your stupid ass out of oublic soace since you cant POSSIBLY bitch at bring called the wrong gender #when you tell a whole group of other people they should shut the fuck up and just be misgendered forever #like cis people so fucking stupid sometimes. their transphobia makes them embarrassing #and im sure cis people who arent fuckos are just as embarrassed of and for them

[queer-system]

Being non-binary in germany is so hard, like there are no pronouns to use and no way 'to look' non binary so that cis people will accept you. And what is even more annoying is that I(host) wanted to get our name and gender officially changed (the others are supportive of that decision). I even had a document from my therapist that stated that I am non-binary and stuff.

But I got rejected. So now I will have to let my genes and hormones get tested and see if there is anything not normal for cis people, because then I could change everything. Or I have to try and use the transgender law and go to court and let myself checked by two 'neutral' professionals who will decide if I am in fact enby enough.

Like, why can I not just change my name and gender. Why do I have to prove that I am who I say I am?? I just feel helpless and angry.

I finally get what it means to have to fight for simply being allowed to exist as who you are. And yes, I will definitely fight but gosh is that exhausting. Especially as a mentally ill system.

#host #did #dissociative identity disorder #non binary #enby

[nadiaportia]

Ximena Rubalcaba

art by magician-of-the-lantern

The disgraced exile with a past she’d rather keep hidden.

Other bios: Sayelle | Deirdra | Heloisa | Cibela

Full name: Ximena María Magdalena de Rubalcaba y Saavedra

Meaning of name: 

Ximena: Basque variant of Simone, meaning “one who has heard”

María Magdalena: Spanish variant of Mary Magdalene, derived of “of Magdala”, a village whose name means “tower” in Old Hebrew

Family: 

Heloisa and Cibela de Rubalcaba: Ximena’s elder sisters, Heloisa by 6 and Cibela by 12 years. In her youth and early adulthood, due to being closer in age she spent more time with Heloisa than with Cibela, to whom she did look up though as a role model as well as Cibela being more introverted like her in contrast to the very extroverted Heloisa. Cibela was mostly absent during her childhood, whereas she and Heloisa spent most of their free time, and tutor-free time together.

Marisol de Rubalcaba (deceased): Her mother and the former Marquesa de Rubalcaba. Having immense favouritism for her firstborn, Marisol was rather distant towards her younger daughters but would try to be an affectionate mother towards them.

Valentín Saavedra (deceased): Ximena’s late father and a sea-faring merchant prince from the higher Cartagense bourgeoisie. Like his wife, Valentín favored his eldest daughter yet tried to encourage all of his daughters’ ambitions and work. Ximena is said to be similar to him in terms of personality.

Esmerelda de Rubalcaba: The matriarch in-all-but-name of the Rubalcaba family, Marisol’s older sister and Ximena’s aunt. Esmerelda is arguably the most central maternal figure in her life, even more than her own mother, and her primary tutor. She was the one who recognized Ximena’s affinity for magic and gave her vital support when she entered the Magician’s Guild.

Agustín de Rubalcaba: Esmerelda’s only son and Ximena’s cousin. A diplomat that wasn’t under his mother’s wing unlike his cousins, he is very affectionate towards Ximena and fulfills the role of an older brother for her as well as being her only connection to her family after her exile.

Segismundo: Ximena’s familiar whom she found in the rainforests of Northern Calpacia sometime after her exile as a hatchling and nursed him back to health. Their connection is deep and he is both trusting and protective of her.

Others: Constanza de Rubalcaba (maternal grand-mother, deceased), Cristobal de Rubalcaba (maternal uncle, deceased), Máximo de Otxoa (maternal grand-father, deceased), Jaime Saavedra (paternal uncle), Genoveva Saavedra (paternal aunt), Dulcinea Saavedra (paternal grand-mother, deceased), Leonardo Buendía (paternal grand-father), Catalina Saavedra (paternal grand-aunt), Aníbal Heßling de Cordovero (brother-in-law)

Nicknames: Xime (used by both friends and lovers), Ximenita (used by family, especially since she is the youngest among her generation), Marilena (exclusively used by her mother and her aunt)

Favourite meal: Tamales de pollo

Favourite drink: Cartagense liquor

Favourite flower: White Plumeria

Favourite color: Cerulean

Birthday: 20th of November

Age: 37 during the events of the game

Zodiac: Scorpio

MBTI: INTP

Patron Arcana: Death and the King of Cups

Upright: Death reaps that which has run its course, allowing new life to grow in the space left behind.

Reversed: Death turns his back on his duty, allowing things to fester and rot in his negligence.

Upright: The King of Cups is generous and compassionate, yet never allows his emotions to overwhelm his sense.

Reversed:  The King of Cups manipulates the emotions of others callously, twisting them to fit his own agenda.

Gender: Cis female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Height: 1,65 m // 5′4″

Appearance:

Ximena is of rather slender build. Her skin is medium brown with a warm undertone and she has a round face with a rounded chin. She has a beauty mark underneath the outer corner of her left eye and an upturned nose with a low bridge. Her eyes are a color similar to dark honey and she has full lips. Her eyebrows are thick and dark, groomed but not thinned, and she has bags underneath her eyes. Her black hair is long and curly with the occasional grey hair, especially near her temples. 

She usually wears golden hoop earrings and several golden rings on her fingers. She wears a bit of eyeliner and darkened lipstick.

She gives off the impression of being rather serene and after her exile purposely tries to change the way she spoke and held herself in order to appear less like an aristocrat and more like a commoner.

Visual Inspirations: Tessa Thompson and America Ferrera

Languages spoken: Calpacian, Prakran, Firenti, Karnasso, Galbradan, Hjallen, Nopali, Nevivish, Venterran, Oriolà, Zadithi and the Common Tongue

Magical abilities:

due to the Cartagense Magician’s Guild being rather pragmatic, she is not as versatile in her skills but honed those that she is good at so well that it makes her a master in the area

high intuition and good knowledge of people, to the point that she can feel when someone is lying to her

very perceptive and aware of her surroundings

fire-based offensive magic; used to replace her profound lack of physical combat skills

Love interests:

Out of the Main 6, while I mostly ship her with Lucio (since I am rewriting his route with her as the primary main character) and Asra (her ex), her dynamics with Nadia and Portia could leave the possibility for romance open.

Isidora: An OC of mine who was once very close friends with Xime as well as colleagues on whom she had eventually not unrequited feelings.

In general, like with most of my characters; if they’re compatible sexuality- as well as personality-wise, feel free to ship them with your OCs or MCs! Hit me up with a message and we can discuss the details! 

Backstory: 

Born into the influential aristocratic Rubalcaba family based in Cartagenth, the capital of the Calpacian Empire in the West, Ximena received an extensive education and since she had the most affinity to magic within her family, a vast tutoring in magic while her sisters were put on other carreer tracks. The Rubalcabas have had a presence ever since the founding of Cartagenth thanks to Fairuza, one of the city’s original founders, and then with Xochitl I., who was rumored to be the primary force behind the union of various kingdoms into what became Calpacia. They have centuries long history of being close to Calpacia’s sovereign, the Zaan, and involvement in politics, the military and on very rare occasions the Magician’s Guild of Cartagenth, where Ximena was meant to eventually become Head of the Guild and a vital instrument in the plans her aunt Esmerelda had for her, her sisters and the fate of all of Calpacia.

Mostly due to their riches, privilege and upbringing, the climate in Ximena’s family was a rather toxic one, with a centuries-old legacy hanging over them like a Damocles sword and envy, entitlement, jealously, sabotage and power struggles running rampant among them. Esmerelda’s desire to cement her family’s position and ensure their survival in the cut-throat environment in the Cartagense court as well as wanting to function as the driving force behind the pillars of powers saw her mercilessly using her family and to see them as little more than pawns to be utilized to achieve the desired goal. 

Being maneuvered like a puppet made Ximena resent her family; her sisters for refusing to lean against it or even relishing in it, her parents for tolerating this and her aunt for being a manipulative force of nature. The straw that broke the camel’s back occurred weeks before her coronation as Head of the Guild where a vision came to her during a reading and showed how she would use her magic and that of the Guild to help in fighting a total war against everyone who refused to kneel to Cartagense’s power, resulting in the deaths of countless people - and herself as one of those who were supposed to carry on this blood-stained legacy. The refusal to partake in such future atrocities and the secret reveal of plans by the War Council to actually provoke a conflict and throw the country into total warfare caused Ximena to have her status as noblewoman taken from her and be banished from Cartagenth… or clean up her act, beg for forgiveness and mercy from her family and have the chance to correct her mistakes. That choice presented by her aunt in a final confrontation was refused and so Ximena, once a lady, now a nobody, fled Cartagenth.

Having to pretend to be a commoner was difficult at first but soon became a necessity, as well as having to adopt a different identity to make it beyond the Calpacian borders. Meeting her familiar and having someone in whom to confide absolutely everything was a much needed outlet for her, and some years her only constant companions were Segismundo, for whom she would’ve laid down her life, and the fear of being discovered by Calpacian spies even outside of the empire. She met Asra when contemplating to escape to Hjalle and from there on to the eastern countries beyond Nevivon and continue to live her life in anonymity, but decided to return with him to Vesuvia, a city of which she knew Calpacia fostered no diplomatic relations with. Her relationship with Asra at some point transcended mere friendship but even when that ended, they always remained amicable with each other and arguably the most important person in each other’s lives. The building in which Asra and she eventually opened as their ship was a gift from Agustín who was the only person from her old life Ximena ever contacted through magical and untraceable means. In Vesuvia, she also met magician and professional medium Sayelle bint Zahir from the city state of Bizatena at the Eastern Coast, and another exile from their respective home country, Deirdra Margalit of Calpacia’s neighboring kingdom Oriol.

She died from the Red Plague at the age of 34 while trying help Julian, with whom she had common friends, to find a cure for the illness that had already claimed thousands within the city. The efforts of those close to her did little in preventing her passing, and yet she woke up a year later with no memory of her previous life, her friends and the bond to her familiar being severed beyond repair.

More art:

feat. Heloisa by @missrabbitart​ | full post

feat. Lucio by @cherrygirl666​ | full post including the uncut nsfw version

#the arcana #the arcana fan apprentice #the arcana oc #other people's ocs #ximena rubalcaba #i heard from multiple people that they couldn't assess the other bio since it was a subpage on my blog and mobile doesnt fuck w that #so there we gooooo... repolished and with an actual structure LOL

[ill-will-editions]

STANDING UP AND WALKING OUT - Virginie Despentes (2020)

The following text appeared last week in French on Liberation.fr. Written on the occasion of Roman Polanski winning best director at the Cesar Awards (the french Oscars). Protests and clashes with police took place in the streets outside of the venue, while others attending the ceremony disrupted it from within. Overlapping with the French state's decision to use an emergency decree to push through an unpopular pension reform, this short polemic turns Polanski's award into an allegory for all the cruel abuses of power by the elite class in 2020. (CW: rape).

Let me begin like this: to the powerful, to the bosses, to the big shots—rest assured, it hurts. No matter how much we know, no matter how well we know you, no matter how many dozens of times we’ve taken it on the chin from you, with your arrogant power—still, every time it’s painful. All this weekend we’ve listened to you whine and cry, complaining that we’ve left you no choice but to pass your special laws, your article 49.3 [1], that we won’t let you celebrate Polanski in peace, that we are spoiling your party. Yet beneath all your whining Jeremiads, it’s obvious you’re not really worried. You can barely conceal your smug satisfaction that, at the end if the day, it’s you who remain the real bosses, the kingpins. The message is loud and clear: this notion of consent, it isn’t going to fly with you. What would be the fun of belonging to the clan of the powerful, if one suddenly had to start taking the consent of the dominated into account? And I am certainly not the only one who feels like crying out in rage and impotence at your recent show of force, certainly not the only one to feel sullied by the spectacle of your orgy of impunity.

It’s no surprise that the Academy of Caesars awarded Roman Polanski the best director prize for 2020. It’s grotesque, insulting, and despicable, but it’s not surprising. When you give a guy more than 25 million to make a TV movie, the message is in the budget. If the fight against the rise of anti-Semitism interested French cinema, it would be clear to see. On the other hand, the voice of the oppressed who want to take responsibility for telling the story of their own ordeal is obviously quite a drag for you. So when you heard about a subtle comparison some had made between the case of a filmmaker who was heckled by a hundred feminists in front of three movie theaters and that of Dreyfus, a victim of French anti-Semitism at the end of the last century, you jumped at the opportunity. Twenty-five million for this parallel. That’s great. We applaud the investors, since everybody had to pony up to come up with a budget like that: Gaumont Distribution, tax credits, France 2, France 3, OCS, Canal +, RAI... hand in hand, and generous, for once. You close ranks, you defend one of your own. The most powerful intend to defend their prerogatives: it’s part of your elegance, rape is the foundation of your style. The law protects you, the courts are your domain, the media belongs to you. And that’s exactly what the power of your big fortunes is there for: to control the bodies declared subordinate. Bodies that keep quiet, that don’t tell the story from their point of view. Now comes the moment for the rich to pass along their lovely message to us: the respect owed to them now extends to their cocks, stained with the blood and shit of the children they rape. Whether in the National Assembly or in culture - there  will be more hiding, no more feigning embarrassment. From us, full and unwavering respect is demanded. That goes for rape, that goes for your police brutality, that goes for the Caesars, that goes for your pension reform. It's your policy to demand silence from your victims. It comes with the territory, after all, and you see nothing wrong with using terror to get your message across. Your morbid enjoyment, above all. And you tolerate only the most obedient servants around you. It’s no surprise that you crowned Polanski: it’s always money that’s celebrated in these ceremonies, cinema doesn’t matter. The public doesn't matter. It's your own money-making power that you’ve come to worship. The massive budget you  bestowed upon him was a sign of your support - and through it, your power commands its respect.

In commenting on this ceremony, it would be useless and inappropriate to separate the bodies of cis men from those of cis women. I don't see any difference in behavior. It is understood that the grand prizes continue to be awarded exclusively to men, since the basic message is: nothing must change. Things are fine the way they are. When Foresti leaves the party and declares she is “disgusted,” she doesn’t do it as a woman - she does it as an individual who risks turning her whole profession against her. She does it as an individual who is not entirely subjugated to the film industry, because she knows that power will not go as far as emptying its own theaters. She’s the only one who dares to make a joke about the elephant in the middle of the room, one for which anyone else would be kicked to the curb. Not a word about Polanski, not a word about Adele Haenel. For months you’ve been annoyed by the fact that a part of the audience has been heard, for months you’ve suffered because Adèle Haenel has taken the floor to tell her story as a child actress, from her point of view.

All the bodies sitting in the auditorium that night have gathered for one purpose: to verify the absolute power of the powerful. And the powerful love rapists. I mean, the ones who look like them, the powerful ones. We don’t like them despite the rape and because they’re talented. We find them talented and stylish because they are rapists. We love them for that. For their courage in claiming the morbidity of their pleasure, their stupid and systematic impulse to destroy the other, to destroy everything that truly touches them. You take pleasure in predation, it’s your only understanding of style. You know very well what you’re doing when you defend Polanski: you demand that people admire you even in your delinquency. It is this demand that makes all the bodies during the ceremony subject to the same law of silence. They blame political correctness and social networks, as if this omertà just emerged yesterday and it was the feminists’ fault, when in fact it’s been fixed this way for decades: during French film ceremonies, you never joke about the susceptibility of the bosses. So everyone keeps quiet, everyone smiles. If the child rapist was the janitor or the cleaner, he would be shown no quarter: police, prison, thunderous declamations, spirited defenses of the victim and general condemnation. But if the rapist is a powerful man: respect and solidarity. Never speak in public about what happens during the castings, or during the rehearsals, or on the set, or during the promos. It’s something that can be told, it’s something that’s known. Everyone knows it. The law of silence prevails every time. It’s by respecting this rule that we select our employees.

Even though we’ve known all this for years, the truth is that the arrogance of power always catches us by surprise. That's the beauty of it – your filth – it works every time. It’s still so humiliating to watch the participants take turns at the podium, whether to announce or to receive a prize. You necessarily identify yourself – not just me, who is part of this seraglio, but anyone watching the ceremony, you identify and you are humiliated by proxy. So much silence, so much submission, so many eager to be servile. We recognize ourselves. You feel like dying. Because at the end of the exercise, we know that we are all employees of this big mess. We are humiliated by proxy when we watch them remain silent, when they know that if Portrait of the Girl on Fire didn’t finish with any  major awards in the end, this is entirely because Adèle Haenel spoke out: it is a matter of making it clear to the victims who might want to tell their story that they would do well to think before breaking the law of silence. Humiliated by proxy that you dared to summon two directors who have never received and probably never will receive the best director award to present the prize to Roman fucking Polanski. Himself. In our faces. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Twenty-five million, that's more than fourteen times the budget of Les Misérables, and the guy can’t even get his film into the box office as one of the five most seen films of the year. And you reward him. And you know very well what you’re doing – that the humiliation suffered by a whole section of the audience who understood the message very well will extend to the next prize, Les Misérables, when you call the most vulnerable bodies in the theatre to the stage, those who are known to risk their skins at the slightest police check, and that if there are not enough chicks among them, we can see that they are not lacking in intelligence and we know that they know how direct the link is between the impunity of the rapist celebrated that night and the situation in the neighborhood where they live. The directors who award the price of your impunity, the directors whose price is stained by your ignominy – same struggle. As employees of the film industry, they all know that if they want to work tomorrow, they have to keep quiet. Not even a joke. That’s the spectacle of the Caesars. And the coincidences of the calendar mean that the message is valid on all fronts: three months of strike action to protest against a pension reform that we don’t want and that you’re going to force through. It’s the same message from the same circles to the same people: “Shut up, shut up, your consent is in your ass, and you smile when you see me because I’m powerful, because I have all the money, because I’m the boss.”

So when Adele Haenel stood up, it was sacrilege on the march. A troublemaking employee, one of those ones won’t force herself to smile when people trash her in public, who won’t force herself to applaud the spectacle of her own humiliation. Adèle stands up, as she has already stood up, to say here’s how I see your story of director and his teenage actress, here’s how I lived it, here’s how I wear it, here’s how it sticks to my skin. Because you can tell it to us in all shades, your stupid separation between man and artist - all victims of rape by artists know that there is no miraculous division between the raped/rapists body and the creative body. You carry around what you are and that’s it. Go ahead and explain to me how I should check the raped girl inside me at the door before I start writing, you buffoons.

Adèle stands up and walks out. On the evening of February 28th we didn’t learn anything we didn't already know about the great French film industry, but we did learn how to wear an evening gown: like a warrior. The same way you strut on high heels: like you plan to tear the whole building down; like how you walk: back straight, shoulders open, and your neck stiffened with anger. The most beautiful image in forty-five years of the ceremony is that of Adèle Haenel descending the stairs to exit and applauding you. It’s an image of someone dipping out, after telling you where you can stick it. I’d give 80% of my feminist library for that image. Adèle, I don't know if I’m female gazing you or male gazing you, but I am love-gazing at you on a loop on my phone for walking out like that. Your body, your eyes, your back, your voice, your gestures all said: "yes we’re the dumb bitches, we’re the humiliated ones, those who are supposed to shut our mouths and take our lumps from you, you’re the bosses, you have the power and the arrogance that goes with it but we aren’t going to just sit here and say nothing. You won’t get our respect. We’re outta here. You guys can go ahead and do this shit with each other on your own. You can celebrate, humiliate each other. Kill, rape, exploit, smash everything in sight. We’re standing up and walking out of here. It’s probably a harbinger of the days to come. The difference is not between men and women, but between the dominated and the dominant, between those who intend to confiscate the power of narrative and impose their decisions, and those who will stand up and walking out screaming. That is the only possible answer to your policies. When things don’t go well, when they go too far, we stand up and walk out shouting, and you can feel insulted, even though were are the ones with the short end of the stick, even if we have to take your shitty power to our face every day. You should know you are despised, that you disgust us. We have no respect for your masquerade of respectability. Your world is disgusting. Your love of power is morbid, your power is sinister., You ghouls. The world you’ve created, and over which you pathetically rule, is unbreathable. We’re standing up and we're walking out. It’s over. We’re standing up. We’re walking out. We're shouting. Fuck you guys.

***

[1] The French government recently announced it might invoke emergency provisions in order to jam through its highly unpopular pension reform bill. --Trans. 

#Virginie Despentes #feminism #patriarchy #portrait of a lady on fire #adele haenel #france #negation

[nikachuwrites]

— && guests may mistake me as ( florence pugh ), but really i am ( charlotte carter + cis-female + she/her/hers  ) and my DOB is ( 01/17/1997 ). i am a ( first year law student & paralegal ) and would like to stay in suite ( 311 ). i won’t be much of a bother because i am ( + determined, hardworking, passionate ), but i can also be ( - obstinate , headstrong, competitive ) at times. personally, i like to ( ride horseback, learn languages and cooking ) when i have the time to relax, and my favorite snack is ( zebra cakes ) to have in my suite. thank you for checking in!

B A C K S T O R Y 

charlotte marie cater, born january seventeenth, is the only daughter and youngest of steven and margaret carter’s three children: avery, sawyer and dalton. she was born and raised in rosa, oklahoma--but she sure as hell didn’t want to say there for life. 

from a young age, the woman was a spitfire. she was loud, she was determined, and when she set her mind to something--there was no going back. come hell or highwater--she’d achieve her goal. her mother had always been worried about her tenacity--fearing it’d get her into trouble one day or that she’d alienate the people she needed in her life. you see, her mother was a bleeding heart kind of woman, someone who put feelings and others before herself. charlotte--well, charlotte grew up with three boys who didn’t give a hoot nor a holler about her gender or age, if they wanted a fight, they were going to get a fight. softness did not help her cause, ripping her heart open to people would not help her win. 

that wasn’t to say she did not love her brothers. of course she did--she had no qualms with any of her family. they were kind, caring folk who loved their children with their entire heart and then some. did they make mistakes? sure. but who didn’t? charlotte _adored her parents, _and she couldn’t imagine a family better than her own.

it was a different story for her hometown, though. rosa was small, quaint--two things charlotte was not. ever since she was young, she craved pounding hard concrete instead of soft gravel and running up and down busy boulevards instead of two lane country roads. rosa was not where her spirit was fulfilled--instead, her eyes were set on the city of chicago. new york was too popular, but chicago? chicago was her dream--life was more in a city like that. she thought to herself. so that was her goal--get out of rosa, whatever means necessary. 

rosa, however, had a different plan. charlotte, while headstrong, was also not immune to the pressures of high school and the desire to be queen bee. perhaps more arrogant than a fourteen year should have been, she quickly found her way to securing a spot on the varsity cheerleading team and into the hearts of all those around her. well, into their hearts might have been more of a metaphor than anything else. with great power comes great responsibility--and since the woman hadn’t seen any comic book movies, that lesson had alluded the blonde. at best, she was bossy and controlling--and worst, she could be down right manipulative. but high school had a way of bringing out the extremes in its students--and that didn’t mean the woman didn’t have a soft spot.

enter trevor haines, star quarterback and everything charlotte could want in a guy. charming, good looking, funny, sweet--instantly, she fell head over heels. perfect high school love story. star quarterback + head cheerleader = high school sweethearts, the end. her parents loved him, her brothers adored him (thanks to that state championship, heyo) and the town could think of nothing better than a sweet, perfect, happily ever after. roll credits, cue the sappy cute love song, right?

well...it looks like their might be a mid credit scene. 

charlotte loved trevor--truly, absolutely, and truth be told, he was the only one she ever let her guard down for. but charlotte craved control, enjoyed being the one in charge of her life and...trevor had other plans. the town had other plans. they were supposed to get married, have babies and live in rosa forever. she would be another line in however many generations and her life would be nothing more than...average. 

the thought scared her more than her worst nightmares, so one early summer--out of the blue to everyone around her--she packed her bags and moved to chicago. truth be told, she had been accepted to the University of Illinois Chicago months earlier, but she had hid the acceptance as it was the playoffs and she didn’t want to distract trevor--nor did she want to think about what might happen if she took the acceptance. but one cool, february day it had hit her that her life would be in neutral if she didn’t make a choice soon and secretly, quietly, she accepted the offer and then, a few months later, she was on the road with little more than her backpack and a suitcase full of her favorite clothes. she said goodbye to no one, thinking that if she disappeared, they’d forget about her soon enough and go back to their lives in the town. 

while in school, she learned she had a passion for debate and enjoyed to argue her points until the cows came home. a professor had taken her aside one day, expressing that she had noticed her fiery attitude in the course and suggested legal studies as a major. the idea stuck and soon charlotte could think of nothing else than getting up in front of that courtroom and proving to a jury that she--and her client--was right and everyone else was wrong. of course, she chose criminal law as her concentration, because, in the immortal words of elle woods, “i’ll take the hard one--i like a challenge”

charlotte still think about trevor and rosa from time to time--she misses her family and wants to go back and see them someday. as she’s grown farther from her high school self, she realizes her attitude wouldn’t get her far in life and has worked hard to change who she was to be a better human. she thinks that if she was a lawyer, well then maybe she could atone for some of her...more cruel days of past.

F A S T  F A C T S

charlotte loves to horseback ride--in fact, when she had a bad day, you could catch her riding her horse sweet cheeks for miles until she could feel the sadness no longer. 

she is also a pretty good cook, thanks to her momma. if charlotte had one hero, it’d be her. she would always admire the way her mother loved everyone so fully--in a way that charlotte never could growing up. 

she can quote legally blonde by heart--yes, she can say the whole courtroom scene in full--and knows all the songs in the musical. and it is her goal to become the best dressed lawyer in the court--though her signature color is certainly not pink (it’s marble--and yes, for her, it is a color thank you)

growing up with three boys meant that charlotte--for all her feminine tendencies and appreciation--can brawl with the best of them. she just never does because she has learned to use her words as her weapon--though she certainly has toned it down quite a bit since then. 

her favorite movie is love actually and no, she will not be taking any questions at this time. 

P L O T S 

Friends

Enemies

Flings, New Flames, etc. 

Squad goals

Mother-like friend

Sister/brother-like friend

Brothers (like, real brothers)

Literally, i am bad at lots so lets’ brainstorm together. 

#[[just a small town girl; ft. charlotte]]

[orenonahaichigoda]

About Japanese Law (and How It Affects Ichigo's Prospects for Marriage)

As someone eternally irked when seeing things like the Munsters episode where Herman accidentally marries Grandpa, when it was only decades after both it was made and after I saw it that same-gender marriages were allowed, and poly marriage is still not legal, I am going to put forth some information about Japanese law in the realm of same-gender marriage and also gender marker change, as both of these things are relevant to Ichigo's possibilities with anyone he gets shipped with.

The Japanese Constitution as it is today was created after the war, with a lot of American pressure, though right-wingers will deny that (not a surprise,look at how much American equivalents deny)

Arranged marriage in the East is typically something parent and child-who's-not-having-luck-dating agree on. Parents meet with other parents to find suitors, and their children meet and see if they like each other. America scorns this, but makes websites to do the same thing. Meet the Patels is about this with an Indian-American family, if you want to watch something on it

Europe used arranged marriage as selling daughters off for control of land, and couldn't get over the fact that maybe it was possible that a non-white country could have a better way of doing something than a white-ruled one, and thus, the 24th Amendment was born.

The 24th Amendment's text outlines marriage as "to benefit both sexes" (I can't say much on pre-Perry NB acceptance, but wouldn't be surprised to learn there were NB identities before Meiji/Americans. Edo had Christopher Street/Castro/West Hollywood equivalents that are well-documented)

Today, this is taken to mean same-gender marriage would not be allowed.

If memory serves, it was about 2014 when some provinces/wards (actually unsure here) began granting same-gender unions, which would face the same invalidation as a US state allowing them during DOMA. Cross state lines, and it's not accepted.

In present time, the fight for same-gender marriage continues.

That being said, I've already outlined post-Perry trans acceptance in the section about me and Japanese speaking society all mushed together.

One thing I did not think to state is that like much of the world outside the state of California, a trans person in Japan cannot legally change their name and gender marker... basically until they are sterilised. For Ichigo, he wouldn't be able to do so until a full hysterectomy.

I really feel like Ichigo values family too much to not want kids, however much he griped about baby!Nel.

So whatever age he is, Ichigo has an "F(more accurately, 女)" on his family register, and for this reason, just as he can't biologically have kids by a cis woman or trans man, he can't legally marry one, either. (Well, if the trans man had a hysterectomy and was able to change his marker, he could)

I mean, part of the reason I have what I have is I'm injecting awareness into everything. I write (and let sit) soft rock about gentrification. That's just who I am.

But, yeah, Ichigo, regardless of who he ships with, can only marry someone with a M/男on their papers. Or at least, expect it to be recognised everywhere.

And also, when someone with an "F" marries, they are forced to take their spouse's name. The federal courts actually turned down letting people keep their names a couple of years ago. And I really don't see Ichigo wanting to let go of his name...

That being said, there's no reason they can't have a wonderful ceremony with a friend who's ordained, as queer people in the West have done forever, or honestly, in a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple, as my religion is VERY pro-queer, and it is a Japanese sect of Buddhism.

(P.S., unlike some churches, I suppose, Jodo Shinshu is not something one gets casually ordained in. It takes a long time of serious monastic training in Kyouto)

Some things to keep in mind if you want to ship with Ichigo.

Sure, Bleach takes place in Anywhereville, Tokyo and has ghosts. I could write anything. I am doing exactly what I want to.

#japanese law #japanese constitution #same sex marriage #gender transition #out of body #24th amendment #lgbt rights #lgbt rights in Japan

[the-final-straw-blog]

Solidarity Means Stepping Up; Ben Turk on Updates and a Future for Prison Abolition

This week we got the chance to sit down and catch up with Ben Turk, who is an anarchist and prison abolitionist living in Milwaukee WI, about some recent efforts that he has been involved in and some ways that listeners can plug in and do solidarity work from afar. We speak about the lockdowns that have been occuring in Columbia CI, continued efforts to raise awareness about solitary confinement and bringing mental healthcare services to people undergoing incarceration, efforts to change legislation regarding old law prisoners, efforts to free Chrystul Kizer, and how the face of anarchist abolitionist organizing is shifting.

  If you’re interested in getting networked with Ben and the work of Forum for Understanding Prisons, to help with compiling information from the WI DOC shift logs, to help support people being tortured via solitary confinement, to donate to efforts to free Chrystul Kizer, and many more you can email him at [email protected] or follow the websites prisonforum.org, freechrystul.wordpress.com, and fireinside.noblogs.org if you’d like to read more about prison abolition.

  Link to the Washington Post article about the case of Chrystul Kizer

  Detailed notes from our guest concerning the topics we covered in the show:

  Resisting lockdowns at Columbia CI and elsewhere.

  We leaped to action against the prolonged and excruciating lock-down at Columbia Correctional Institution, which started on November 8, and wasn’t completely lifted until December 22. Midway through the lockdown Muhammad (Larry) Bracey was killed by guards through medical neglect. We posted 13 reports, letters or updates about the lockdown on our website. We also staged a New Year’s Eeve noise demo outside Columbia and two rallies at the Wisconsin DOC building.

We mirrored the demands of incarcerated people, including hunger strikers, who called for Warden Susan Novak to be fired. Our efforts got us a meeting with Secretary Carr and other top DOC officials, who haven’t yet met our demands, but have fired some racist and sadistic guards, including multiple involved in Muhammad Bracey’s death. Unfortunately, conditions remain unsafe at CCI following the lockdown, two more mendied preventable deaths on the week of January 13. We are still getting responses to our open records requests, and will put out more reports shining a continuous light on the horrors that creep in the corners of this institution. We will continue to fight for our demands until they are satisfied, including the firing of Susan Novak.

How you can help this campaign:

Show up. We plan to be wherever Secretary Carr is and to repeat our demands there. He will be appearing at a Supporters of Incarcerated People (SIP) meeting at Grace Episcopal Church on February 12. Join us there.

Shine a light. Much of this work involves research, going through released records and correspondence with incarcerated people to generate reports and expose the hardships. Contact [email protected] if you would like to help with that work. 

Remain vigilant. Shortly after the CCI lockdown, there was a 10 day lockdown at WaupunCorrectional. People held there say it was the worst they’dexperienced. We need to be ready to mobilize and maintain pressure to keep the DOC from dragging out more of these unlawful lockdowns and humanitarian violations.

    Abolishing solitary confinement and advocating for mental health treatment.

  Ending the torture of long term solitary confinement has been the driving goal of FFUP’s work for more than 15 years. We are continuously dismayed to see this practice and attending tortures expanding in Wisconsin, despite inspiring reform efforts happening elsewhere.

  In February, we will release a comprehensive report by FFUP founder Peg Swan, describing the history of solitary in Wisconsin and its many impacts, large and small. Joining testimonies from survivors, historical events and legal analysis, the report advocates for strong and decisive action toward restricting and eliminating Wisconsin’s use solitary confinement and replacing it with mental health treatment.

  Governor Evers and Secretary Carr have talked about reforming solitary confinement, but cautioned us that the changes will be gradual. David Crowley and other law-makers have introduced a bill calling for psychological reviews of people in solitary confinement. The trouble is, DOC doctors are already routinely altering mental health diagnoses to enable the use of restraint chairs and other forms of torture that aren’t officially sanctioned for use on people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. We expect that if the proposed law or similar restrictions come to pass, DOC staff will dodge their effect by continuing their practice of altering diagnoses to put whoever they want into solitary. Instead, Wisconsin needs the follow the success story in Colorado. When Rick Raemisch took over the DOC there, he made a dramatic commitment to replace solitary confinement with mindfulness practice and treatment. Within his first year, changes were happening, and now Colorado restricts solitary confinement to a maximum of 15 days.

  How you can help this campaign:

Reduce the harm of isolation. Peg Swan has begun an email newsletter and penpal program to provide people held in long term solitary confinement with what they need most: human connection. If you would like to receive the newsletter or can write to someone in solitary, you may help save lives. Contact Peg at [email protected].

Contact Governor Evers. Tell him you support the abolition of long term solitary confinement. Half measures and gradual steps are not enough when lives hang in the balance. Call [phone], email [email protected], file public comment here.

  Fighting for old law prisoners.

  Volunteers with FFUP have been attending recent parole board meetings to track progress toward reforms and increased releases by the new administration. There are about 3000 people held in Wisconsin prisons under the old law, most of them would be released by the standard expectations of their sentencing judges by now if not for very regressive policies of the DOC and parole commission. Peg and other FFUP contacts maintain regular correspondence with many old law prisoners. Releasing these people will not only reunite them with their families, it will have a significant impact on the overcrowding that makes everyone’s life harder in prison- both captives and staff.

  Last spring Governor Evers appointed John Tate II to be the Chair of the Parole Commission, promising increased releases and long overdue justice for people sentenced before Dec 31, 1999. Unfortunately, from what we’ve observed in meetings transition to that agenda has been very difficult. On January 8, we witnessed an alarming level of obstruction, disrespect and apparent sabotage of reform efforts by parole commissioners. This behavior, combined with obstructive practices by DOC staff in classification, programming and community corrections are drastically curtailing the possibility for release of people incarcerated under the old law.

  We have decided that a stronger public voice in support of reform and releases is necessary, so we’re encouraging people to attend parole commission meetings and will follow the next meeting (Feb 5) with a rally. We also released Ben's notes from January publicly and sent them to hundreds of people incarcerated under the old law. Last summer we delivered a rules change petition to Governor Evers and Chairman Tate. At the monthly meetings we will be delivering the petitions again, showing increasing public support for the release of old law prisoners.

  How you can help this campaign:

Support Tate's confirmation. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has delayed Tate's confirmation for seven months. Contact him to demand that he allow a confirmation vote for Chairman Tate. [phone] or [email protected] 

Voice support. Sign the petition calling for parole reform and expanded releases.

Bear witness. Attend or invite people to the February 5 meeting at 9:30 and / or the rally at noon. Both at the DOC building 3099 E Washington.

  Defending sex trafficking survivor Chrystul Kizer.

On June 20, 2018 a 17 year old Black girl named Chrystul Kizer from Milwaukee defended herself against a 34 year old child pornographer and sex trafficker named Randal Volar, ending his life. Volar had been investigated by Kenosha police since at least February when he was arrested, but released despite possession of child pornography and other clear evidence. Kenosha DA Michael Graveley failed to charge Volar, but is now pursuing first degree murder charges against Chrystul.

  FFUP volunteers are working closely with Chrystul and her family to raise awareness of her case and to demand that charges be dropped. We’ve helped pack the court for each of her preliminary hearings and taken control of the narrative around her case. We are also helping organize a rally at 5:30 pm on February 5 at UW Parkside, where Graveley teaches Criminal Law. On Thursday February 6, 8:45 am Chrystul has another hearing at Kenosha County Courthouse. She is requesting a bond reduction to one we can fundraise enough for, so she can come home while awaiting trial.

How you can help this campaign: 1. Follow #FreeChrystul on social media and share the campaigns stories and updates.

2. Donate to Chrystul’s family, sign the petition, write to Chrystul and ask organizations you’re involved in to contact DA Graveley.

--

Phone: [phone] Forum For Understanding Prisons- prisonforum.org

    Further interviews with Ben on The Final Straw:

  August 19th Solidarity with Prisoners: Ben Turk of IWOC (originally aired 06/25/2017)

  The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons (or FTP) and Ben Turk on the recent prisoner strikes (originally aired 05/17/2016)

  Ben Turk on the silencing of Sean Swain, anarchist prisoner in Ohio (originally aired 04/21/2013)

  Ben Turk on Insurgent Theatre + Prison Abolition (October 27, 2013) (originally aired 11/04/2013)

  Waupun CI prisoners on Hunger Strikes (originally aired 07/19/2016)

Announcements

Appalachian Climate Action Camp

From a call to participate in an Appalachian Climate Action Camp:

People all over the world are mobilizing to combat the climate crisis. It’s time to build skills and take action!

Join us for 10 days of learning, training, and taking direct action to disrupt the systems that are destroying our climate. We will come together to build on Appalachia’s rich history of direct action against extractive industries, which has included tree sits, blockades, and walk-ons to resist mountaintop removal, fracking, and fossil fuel pipelines. After fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline for over two years, we aim to grow the resistance to fossil fuel exploitation and take power out of the hands of corporations and politicians that are threatening our collective future.

We are inviting community members, activists, students, and families to learn the skills needed to execute a variety of actions that disrupt the power structures wrecking the environment we depend upon and contributing to climate change.  We will be hosting people in the southwestern Virginia/ southern West Virginia along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, providing food and trainings to participants for 10 days. We will have more information in the coming weeks.

If you are interested in coming to camp and joining the resistance please email [email protected].

Location and more event details to follow upon registration!

Floods in Eastern Kentucky and South West Virginia

There’s a request for funds for relief from recent floods in Appalachia in coal-country. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, in partnership with local activists who helped support Black Jewel Miners Blockade are requesting funds and goods to Harlan County and surrounding areas. You can learn more on instagram at @weloveminersblockades, you can donate on venmo at mutualaidky, cashapp at $ekyswvafloods, paypal via [email protected] and you can email them there as well.

Anti-ICE protestors harassed in Florida

A group of activists known as the GEO9 who were arrested while protesting on December 3rd, 2019, outside the Boca Raton office of GEO Group, which contracts immigration prison services for ICE, have experienced ramped up harassment. They received misdemeanor charges for trespassing and the use of a megaphone and were released on their own recognizance after their initial arrests. But now apparently are facing felonies and one activist of the 9, Alexis Butler, was even rearrested under fishy circumstances at her house by Broward County Sheriff on February 7th. More info is available in the write-up at itsgoingdown.org linked in the show notes and a fundraiser for the activists legal defense via EverRibbon.com can be found in our notes as well.

Chuck Africa is Free

We are happy to announce that Chuck Sims Africa, the remaining member of the MOVE 9 left behind bars was released from prison after 42 years on February 7th, 2019. There is a fundraiser for his post-release situation up at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-chuck-africa-rebuild to help Chuck get rolling on the outside. Free Them All!

Michael Kimble Legal Defense

His support crew needs funds to challenge his initial conviction. Here’s the text from that site:

Michael Kimble is a passionate freedom fighter who has been held captive by the Alabama Department of Corrections for nearly 33 years. After defending himself during a homophobic attack by a known white supremacist in 1987, Michael was arrested, charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. His trial was typical of what could be expected from a racist criminal justice system in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Since his conviction, Michael has been fervently involved in efforts to free himself and others, assisting in legal defense for fellow inmates, organizing reading groups and Black History events, speaking up for queer folks behind bars, and helping to organize and agitate alongside the Free Alabama Movement for the historic national prison strike of September 2016.

The Alabama prison system has recently come under fire from the federal government for its abhorrent conditions, and Holman Prison, where Michael is incarcerated, is being decommissioned and largely shut down. In this context, many Alabama prisoners have been successfully challenging the length of their original sentences. A group of Michael’s supporters on the outside have recently joined forces to hire a new legal team to help him push for a sentence reduction. Given the amount of time already served, we are hoping this could result in his release.

All the money raised will go directly towards filing motions for sentence reduction, and anything left over will be used to support Michael’s day to day life inside with things like stamps, books, and commissary funds. Fingers crossed, we’ll also be raising money to support Michael once he joins on the outside.

For more information, check out this awesome interview with Michael from a few years back, as well as his blog.

Until Every Cage is Empty, –Michael Kimble Support Crew

The fundraiser is up at gofundme.com/f/free-michael-kimble. To hear our past interviews with Michael Kimble, check out our website.

Channel Zero Network news

Mid week, we’ll be releasing an episode of Coffee With Comrades, where Pearson talks to Amy & Liz from Rebel Steps and Mitch from Red Strings & Maroons, all fellow members of CZN. The conversation engages the participants podcasts, CZN and radical media. This conversation happened in the context of CZN’s continued fundraiser, which we’ll have linked in our show notes. Also, if you do the reddit thing, check out the brand new Channel Zero Network subreddit!

. … . ..

Intro music by:

Mad Skillz – Tip of the Tongue (instrumental)

      Check out this episode!

#anarchist #podcast #interview #feminist #antifa #anticapitalist

[astonjones]

HOLY SHIT IS THAT [ JESSE WILLIAMS ]?! Oh, wait it’s just [ ASTON JONES ]. Damn, [ HE/HIM ] looks good for [ 30 ], good thing that they’re [ PANSEXUAL/PANROMANTIC ], I might have a chance. I hear that they call them the [ PUBLIC DEFENDER ] of the [ NORTHSIDE ]. I guess that’s because they’re [ STRONG ] and [ COMPASSIONATE ]. But I don’t think a lot of people know that they’re also [ WORK AHOLIC ] and [ FOCUSED ]. I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble [ M ] will bring.

[[ trigger warning: childrens’ death.]]

00. Other Tidbits

Born and raised on the Northside.

Mother died in a car accident when he was three.

Father remarried when he was five to the woman he recognizes as his mother because she raised him.

(Step)Mom is mayor and used to practice corporate law and was a defense attorney. Dad is a moderately successful jazz musician who has rarely will come back to Riverdale from tour.

Went to Boston University for pre-law and U of M for law school, doing his clerkship with a judge in Boston and working with a non-profit for two years before coming back to Riverdale when the District Attorney, who was a family friend died. Took the DA job before realizing how the system was made to fail the Southsiders.

Was heavily involved in his mom’s campaign for Mayor and still runs a lot of her business for her and helps maintain family appearances in the trying times.

Reconnected Jackie St. James at one of his mother’s fundraisers and campaign parties as their families had been acquaintances prior to him leaving Riverdale.

While building his career in Riverdale, he continued to court, Jackie but because of the age gap between them, he never got in the way of her exploring and living a fun life.

After a few years of dancing around each other, the finally started dating and recently Aston asked Jackie to marry him.

Currently, they are living together at his place, while construction is being done on their future home, as a wedding gift from Jackie’s parents.

01.  basics

Full Name: Aston Martin Jones

Nickname: As, Ast, Ash, Ace

Sex/Gender: Cis-Male

Birthday: October 20, 1988

Age: 30

Astrological Sign: Libra

Occupation: Public Defender

Spoken Languages: English and Spanish

Sexual Orientation: pansexual / panromantic

Birthplace: Riverdale, MA

Relationship status: Engaged to Jackie St. James

02. physical traits

Hair Color/Style: Dark brown, black, kept short or often shaved completely especially in the summer.

Eye Color: Color changing. Green/Grey/Blue

Face Claim: Jesse Williams

Height: 6'2 / 188cm

Weight: 175lbs / 79kg

Tattoos: none.

Piercings: none.

Unique Attributes: freckles that cover the bridge of his nose and cheeks, more prominent in the summer. Slight dimples in his cheeks when he smiles.

Defining Gestures/Movements: Almost has a resting prick face. When he is lost in thought,

Posture: Straight, ridged and formal unless around someone he trusts or can be casual around.

03. personality traits

Pet Peeves: People who are rude for the sake of being rude. People who yell at customer service employees. Anyone who supports Trump or thinks BLM is a terrorist organization. Anyone who says “All Lives Matter”. People who talk for the sake of hearing their own voice. People who would rather remain ignorant and spread their ignorance around rather than ask questions or get the facts. Showboating, nepotism, narcissism, and elitism. Senseless violence and hotheads. People who talk with food in their mouth and general bad manners.

Hobbies/Interests: Plant hoarding/Plant care. Activism and fighting injustices. Volunteering at animal shelters. Cooking.

Special Skills/Abilities: Fairly decent cook. An artist, with a particular talent for drawing and painting.

Likes: good music, good food, good people and good company. Also really likes his new Roomba that doesn’t have a name yet.

Dislikes: See pet peeves. Also, pineapple on pizza. Food that is too spicy. The color orange. The smell of vanilla.

Insecurities: Not being good enough to help anyone. Not living up to his family expectations and pressure to help carry the load of the put on to their family. Recently, also his age or seeming like someone trying to obtain a young trophy wife in Jackie. Though he knows she is not a trophy, he can’t help but notice the way people will look at him at the club.

Quirks/Eccentricities: Can be a real diva and be a little much when it comes to house plants.

Strengths: Compassion and deep caring for everyone around him.

Weaknesses: He can be obsessive and overly consumed by things – especially when it comes to work matters or something that makes him happy. Aston has been described more than once as being like a dog with a bone. Unable to allow anyone to question or criticize his mom and her job as mayor.

Speaking Style: Articulate, and concise due to his job. Due to his job, he can’t afford to be careless with his words, or else it could cost someone their life.

Temperament: Calm and collected.

04. family & home

Immediate Family: Miles Jones (Father), Sierra Jones (Step-Mom), Mercedes Jones (half-sister)

How do they feel about their family? He absolutely loves his family.

How does their family feel about them? All good things, one would hope.

Pets: A lot of house plants and a Roomba as well as a dog that Jackie picked out at the animal shelter that she refused to stop pouting about until they could bring it home.

Where do they live? A custom house design and built by his architect grandfather.

Description of their home: [ HERE ] [ HERE ] [ HERE ] [ HERE ] 

Description of their bedroom: [ HERE ]

05. this or that

Introvert or Extrovert?

Optimist or Pessimist?

Leader or Follower?

Confident or Self-Conscious?

Cautious or Careless?

Religious or Secular?

Passionate or Apathetic?

Book Smarts or Street Smarts?

Compliments or Insults?

Pajamas or Lingerie? Naked

06. favorites

Favorite Color: black, brown, yellow.

Favorite Clothing Style/Outfit: for work suits, after work sweats, hoodies and athletic wear.

Favorite Bands/Songs/Type of Music: Hip-hop, jazz, R&B,

Favorite Movies: Remember the Titans, The Pursuit of Happiness

Favorite Books: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness

Favorite Foods/Drinks: All foods and drinks.

Favorite Sports/Sports Teams: Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots

Favorite Time of Day: Sunrise

Favorite Weather/Season: Warm weather and Spring

Favorite Animal: All animals

07. miscellaneous

Fears/Superstitions: Normal ones that come with being a Christian and having a Mama who would put the fear of God into you if you didn’t go to church every Sunday or thank God every night for your many blessings.

Political Views: Liberal Democrat.

Addictions: Working on cases. Can never really let go of a case, especially ones that involve disadvantaged Southsiders of color and undocumented citizens.

Best School Subject: Art and History

Worst School Subject: Math.

School Clubs/Sports: Chess Club, AV Club, Basketball, Football, Baseball, Mock Trial, Model UN.

How does he get money? Works as a Public Defender in Riverdale. Also has family money.

How is he with technology? As decent as a man in his 30′s can be.

08. past & future

Fondest Memory: When his dad would come home from tours during the holidays and they would all go to see Mercedes and her group perform. Also, the day that he asked Jackie to marry him and she said yes.

Deepest, Darkest Secret: Feels a lot of guilt over his privilege and often thinks about just casting everything away, selling it all and giving it to the NAACP. Often also feels smothered by the pretenses his family has to keep up in order to save face in times of crisis.

Dream Vacation: Somewhere tropical.

Best thing that has ever happened to this character: Being able to become someone who could help.

Worst thing that has ever happened to this character: Losing an immigration case where two kids were involved. The parents were deported and the kids were put into the system. A few weeks later, Aston read in the paper that the kids had been killed by their foster parents.

What do they want to be when they grow up? An artist. Aston has always had a fondness for painting and drawing but as he grew older, he realized that it wasn’t a logical career choice and his father only really left room in their family for one artist.

Perfect Date: His wedding day.

#[[ ooc: gotta repost it for a new blog ]] #gdhqintro #about

[jackiforjustice]

hiya everyone! I’m dev ( use any pronouns, mine are up in the air rn ), and this is my social justice baby jacki! please hmu for plotting - I’d love to really develop something with each of you! bio below!

trigger warnings for racism, sexism, and police brutality.

✘ CHARACTER BASICS

Skeleton Title: The Cavalier Faceclaim: Laura Harrier Jacqueline “Jacki” Reynolds | Twenty-Two | Cis-Female | She/Her | May 18th

✘ CHARACTER BACKGROUND

The Gist: 

Jacqueline is the oldest daughter of Susan and Barry Reynolds. Born in 1969, just two years after the Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage across the United States, Jacqueline was one of the first interracial children in her small Idaho hometown. 

A couple years and two younger brothers later, the Reynolds family decided to move to Graingerville to be closer to a big city. It was clear from a very young age that Jacqueline was smarter than her years - she exceeded in school from day one, and always preferred reading to the rowdy games at recess. 

Although she was incredibly intelligent for her age, Jacki always had trouble fitting in. The other black kids thought she wasn’t black enough because of her white mother; the white kids took one look at her rich dark skin and knew she wasn’t one of them. While she managed to find her own group of friends who didn’t care much either way in terms of her race, the underlying discrimination and confusion based on being from a mixed family stuck with her for a long time.

When Jacki entered middle school, her father started telling her stories of his own adolescence - while Jacki worried about math quizzes and essays, Barry was fighting for his rights every single day. He became a lawyer because of it, and after hearing about the Civil Rights Movement directly from him and her other relatives, Jacki decided she wanted to be a lawyer too.

As Jacki got older, her peers began partying more often, rebelling against their parents to make a statement, to be reckless and bold with no apologies. Jacki tried that phase for a minute (but quickly ended when she realized she cared more about what her parents thought of her than her friends from school). Instead of completely locking herself away from the other teenagers in Graingerville, she chose a more proactive route: everyone at her high school knew if they needed a designated driver, Jacki would be there to lend a helping hand. 

By the end of her sophomore year in high school, Jacki had a perfectly laid-out plan of how to get into either Harvard, Yale, or Stanford majoring in Political Science. Her parents were undoubtedly impressed, and worked to help her achieve her big dreams of getting into top notch schools. 

Needless to say, her plan worked. After graduating as valedictorian from her high school, Jacki was off to Yale majoring in Political Science with a minor in American History. Yale pushed Jacki to her absolute limits in the best way - she worked harder than ever, made lifelong friends, and even had her first boyfriend (his name was Liam, and they dated for one semester before she dumped him during finals week because he was distracting her). 

Although Jacki entered college with the hopes of becoming a lawyer, the more she learned about the Civil Rights Movement and the treatment of black people in American history, the more she wanted to immediately help those in need. She had been eyeing the possibility of Law School for a while, but it wasn’t until she moved back home to Graingerville post-college graduation that she changed her career path slightly.

The Big Freakout Event of 1990 threw her family for a loop. Her younger brothers were just about to start their sophomore and senior years of high school, her mother had just been promoted at the hospital, and her father had just won a huge case against the unjust arrest of two young black men. But when people with psionic powers and lizard deers terrorize the streets out of the blue, the world sort of pauses for a while. 

When the dust had settled from the craziness of the BFE, Jacki found herself wanting to help more directly. Being a lawyer helps those accused of a crime - she wanted to help protect the people of Portland from...whatever the crazy shit out there was. She was still torn between being a lawyer or moving to a different career choice when another event influenced her decision.

In March of 1991, Rodney King was horrendously beaten by police officers in Los Angeles. It was unjust, it was unfair, and it was entirely based on race. The trial for the police officers in question was scheduled for the following year, as these sorts of things take time, but it was that one event (and reading about other racist events prior to the Rodney King beating), that led Jacki to join the Portland Police Department.

She was the top of her class at the Police Academy (she’s always had a penchant for rules and regulations), and with marks like that, she was absolutely sure she’d start making tidal waves once she was officially on the force.

Unfortunately, they had her saving cats from trees, dealing with parking tickets, and lost elderly people roaming the streets. 

The Emerging Threats Unit looks better and better by the day. Jacki’s dreamed of helping people since she was little - why won’t the higher ups let her just do it? She’s starting to get sick of pushing papers around while she could be making the world a better place. Luckily, that Yale degree is coming in handy - she’s doing her best to study up on the supernatural stuff going on around town, and she’s determined to be the expert on all things crazy in this place if it kills her.

Jacqueline Reynolds has no supernatural powers unless you count her unnerving organization skills or her endless knowledge on the historical racism in America thus far (both of which cause her major exhaustion and/or frustration, which I would deem a consequence for her power).

✘ “STAY WEIRD PORTLAND”

One wall of her apartment bedroom looks like a conspiracy theory wall. She’s incredibly organized, yes, but her obsession with being the expert on all things supernatural in Portland has caused her to look a little bit like a nutcase. However, the conspiracy theory wall is prettier than other conspiracy theory walls in TV shows and movies because hers comes with color coordinated strings, index cards, and pens. Sometimes when she’s feeling frisky, she even manages to color coordinate the thumbtacks. 

While Jacki is a picture perfect student, she has no clue what it means to be good at maintaining a romantic relationship. Absolutely no idea what she’s doing. Flirting often goes right over her head. She can give you historical dates and supernatural factoids up the wazoo, but hit her with a one-liner and she just sort of stares...and then walks away.

✘ ASPECTS & SKILLS

Straight A Student: Jacki never earned less than an A- in her entire academic career (a fact that her parents remind her younger brothers of every single day). She excels in history and English, and performs well in math and sciences. Although art has never really been her thing, her ability to give it a try has always earned her at least an A- in class.

Strong, Smart, Underestimated Woman: It’s 1991. She’s a Yale graduate, incredibly intelligent, resilient as hell, and determined to serve justice and protect those around her. She is fierce by any definition of the word, but that doesn’t mean everyone sings her praises. Some men find her strength frightening. Some others find her intelligence to be overbearing, or too “know-it-all” for their liking. She’s underestimated, and often given the dirty work rather than the work she joined the police force for, and she knows it.

I Have to Do What’s Right: Even though Jacki loves rules, regulations, and the like, sometimes the rules are wrong. That’s why she started training with The Fighter. That’s why she’s studying up on supernatural occurrences. And that’s why she’s more than willing to protect people who aren’t in the wrong. I mean come on, it’s not anybody’s fault that some of these people have powers - just because people fear them for being different doesn’t excuse any harm that comes their way, and Jacki has made it her mission to protect people with powers as long as they don’t maliciously hurt others.

Great: Will Good: Notice, Academics Fair:    Investigate, Shoot, Lore Aver:   Athletics, Stealth, Drive, Fight

✘ AESTHETIC

A brand new pack of index cards. Happy family photos on the wall. Clean laundry. The same haircut every time. Highlighted textbooks. Annotated novels. Reading the newspaper thoroughly. Fresh scented candles. Conspiracy theory strings. Too much coffee. Waking up to sunlight peeking through the window. Horrible headaches. Extra poster boards for future rallies and marches. Sleeping alone. Speaking quickly for efficiency’s sake. Gin and tonics. Being overwhelmed by large social situations. Studying without being assigned to. Forgetting to sleep. Forgetting to eat. Forgetting to take a moment to just breathe. Justice. Family dinners on Thursdays. Bending the law for things that are right. Ironed clothes. A color-coded planner. Wearing a retainer every night to bed like you’re supposed to. Bob Dylan CDs. Perfectly polished badges. Quiet breakfasts. Practical clothes.

✘ SEASON 2, EPISODE 1

If anyone else were to see what Jacki’s apartment looked like, they’d think it was just as clean as ever. But by her standards? Her room was a mess. Textbooks on the history of time and space stacked high on her desk; questionably sourced papers on the existence of supernatural creatures in our universe highlighted, annotated, and in their own folders; four mugs of coffee, all of them empty and lined up on top of her dresser. She would get to the bottom of this case. If her boss didn’t want her on anything more important than parking tickets, she’d work the Emergency Threat Unit cases on her own time. Sure, Jacki was losing sleep by the minute, but it would be worth it when crisis inevitably hit Portland again and she was the best resource they had. Plus, now she had a friend to help her improve her combat skills! She’d be prepared for anything, with a twelve-step solution to the next Big Freakout Event to hit her town. Just like her dad always told her: “If you can’t be the boss, be better than them.”

Please feel free to message me for any plots! I have a wimpy ass plotting page here, so feel free to look at that for inspiration!

#stv:welcome #stv:intro

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Sebastian!

You have been accepted for the role of EDGAR BONES! We really enjoyed your application! We especially loved how clearly we could see your Edgar throughout. His personality was vibrant and real, as was the way he fit into his family structure. His family section was well-detailed and brilliant! We hope to get an Amelia soon to see their sibling relationship thrive! We are so excited to have you as part of this roleplay!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Sebastian

AGE: 21

TIMEZONE: CEST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I am in my last year at university, so I don’t have many classes to attend during the day. I do need some time to focus on my dissertation, though, and I do enjoy going out with my friends on weekends, but you should receive at least a couple of replies every three days.

ANYTHING ELSE: No triggers, no worries. I did have a few not so enjoyable experiences in roleplay groups recently. Especially in those I joined after they were already open for a while; the players had become very clique-y. I’m not someone who just drops out of a roleplay or looks to victimise myself, at all, but I do tend to feel uncomfortable easily when my ooc-messages or replies get repeatedly ignored. It’s an anxiety thing, I’m sure I’m not alone with this, but I thought to warn you, just in case you notice me go shy in the group chat or the like. :)

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Edgar Bones

AGE: 28

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cis male. He/Him. Bisexual.

About the latter he might actually be rather open. The knowledge that homosexuality occurs in many animal species was already found in the 70s. I can imagine that Edgar definitely did his research, found out about how his feelings were therefore very natural, and moved on. The same goes for gender. He might himself feel comfortable in presenting himself as cis male but he knows that gender is mostly a construct and nothing to get too hung up about. Though, even though he knows a lot about sexuality and the chemistry behind love, he’d never flaunt it anywhere, where it wouldn’t be safe or where too many people would be watching. He’s also never really been deeply in love. He’s a serial monogamist, because he does enjoy (or rather, crave) the company of other people, and he would never say those relationships were meaningless to him, but the truth is, he firmly believes that his twin is and will forever be his only soulmate. Romantically or not is not the point, but he knows that he’ll never connect more deeply with anyone than Amelia.

BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Ravenclaw

ANY CHANGES: I retract my FC changing request, haha. I realise I don’t care too much about the look of people, let alone fictional roleplay babies, to hassle you into making another graphic. And Lindsey Morgan is perfect as well, so there’s that. If, however, a future applicant for Amelia wishes to change her FC and they find a better fit for Edgar as well, I would be willing to talk about it! :) As long as they are not changed into white FCs.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

When the house you stand in is more brightly illuminated than the outside world, you can’t see anything through the window. You must turn off the light behind you to see the world before you, even if that means that the world can’t see you back anymore.

Edgar is by nature an incredibly curious person. He gobbles up knowledge as though it’s milkless cereals, one after the other, in with it, chewing, chewing, chewing ceaselessly. What he really wants to do with that knowledge comes later.

Often he connects it. Finds two topics that seem oddly unrelated and finds the answer in one that the other had the question to. He likes seeing the small in the big, how every microcosm is reflected by the macrocosm, how there’s no singularity in the university, everyone carries the patterns of galaxies within themselves.

And he likes to philosophise about it, even if it leads to nothing or has no practical use. Getting him to talk is like opening a treasure box, the whole universe seems stores between his brows. At times he writes it out, mostly in epigrams, like the one up there, of which the title is his own name, but he doesn’t consider himself an artist. Art needs an audience to become art, and he doesn’t want one.

That’s why it’s not easy to catch him share his knowledge to its full extent. Only when he truly believes that you want to know more of what he has to say than vise versa, he will share, otherwise you’ll just be left puzzled as to what thought caused him to this sudden outburst of ideas, or this creative plan that seems to have come out of nowhere.

He’s laid-back and quiet, not because he doesn’t have anything to say (and sometimes well-kept thoughts do slip over his lips) but because he knows that it’s easier to observe if people don’t notice him. At times he can be quick-paced and full of energy, and it’s in those moments that you see how all his knowledge comes into play. But even then he doesn’t perform. He just does the thing for himself and lets you be around.

Although curiosity-driven and intelligent, he’s not cold-hearted or arrogant. At all. He’s a calm fellow, always ready to lend you an ear, and if you ask for it, perhaps even advice. He doesn’t care much for the sound of his own voice but he knows to raise it when it’s needed. His sense of justice is very much active, and so is his wish to treat people kindly. This too is caused by his holistic view of the world – to be smart also means to know how other people feel and how to explore your own freedom without endangering theirs. He is empathetic, even if he doesn’t (always) go out of his way to show it or put on a great act to prove it. Sometimes he does, though, when he notices the other person needing it, and those proofs of affection can be as colourful as unconventional as brief.

Most people might not see much in him at first, maybe even doubt how he stayed in the Order for so long, but that’s because unlike ex-Gryffindors and ex-Slytherins, he has no urge to brag about any of his assets. But if they sit down with him, really get to know him, bit by bit, they’ll discover the fabulous world of colours that all Bones store in their hearts.

The bio emphasises that after Hogwarts, he grew into disregarding rules. I think the reason why he didn’t use to do this is because rules serve a purpose, don’t they? They make sense, in at least one way or another. Don’t go to the Forbidden Forest. Why? Because it’s dangerous. But with the rise of discriminating laws, the discrepancy between what was ‘lawful’ and what was ‘right’ grew. And if it’s not right, Edgar won’t follow it. He still studies laws and learns them so well until he knows every possible loophole, but he doesn’t respect them blindly just because they’re laws.

This being said, those lines he always made himself stay in, they still exist. No, they no longer overlap with rules and the ministry’s laws, but his life is still full of them. It’s difficult to rid yourself of old habits, especially those that have served you so well for so many years, that became a part of you, that directed your every move and every thought for so long. Lines such as: No more than three coffees a day. No leisure time until you’ve responded to all your mail. No unprotected sex. But also lines such as: Check oven, lights and plugs at least twice before leaving your apartment. Always bring a pen. If you stay up after three am, it’s too late to go sleep. Those are the rules he doesn’t tell people about, only obeys in silence because they might be founded in logic, and yet feel oddly irrational… Perhaps because they’re not always there, because they fade when he’s got the company of someone he trusts, because they get much, much worse, the longer he goes without seeing Amalia.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

The Bones were a privileged family, wealthy and yet not dishonourable.

The Bones name was carried into the Wizarding world by a Muggle, back when most Wizarding names were still pure and unheard of by Muggles. Seraphina was a young witch, just out of Hogwarts, when she decided to marry Caspian Bones, her oldest childhood friend. She was beautiful, she could’ve had anyone, the richest, most prestigious pureblood families would’ve sent forth their sons, but Seraphina chose Caspian, the Muggle, the farmer’s son, the boy who had held her hand before they knew this was something improper, who had shown her how a simple life could be as happy as one decorated in silver, and taught her to tell her secrets to the bees, who had always helped her escape from her parents’ claws and society’s demands, so they could be free together, just for a while, just for a night. She was his long before he even knew, and she was certain, as she walked down the Muggle-styled wedding aisle, that she would not run, would not hide, but that she would fight to make the Wizarding world a more accepting place.

She fought so that her parents would even look Caspian in the eye, fought for her children to be accepted into Hogwarts (they were allowed in, of course, by the ancient laws of Hogwarts, but that doesn’t mean the school board didn’t frown upon those halfbloods), fought to prove their magic was no less powerful than a pureblood’s, fought, eventually, even in court, demanding for justice. And all the while she fought, she was loyal by Caspian’s side, who might not have understood much of all this, but he certainly supported her and never regretted his decision to marry her. And one important lesson he gave his children, and taught them to give it to their children one day as well: “Remember that the first obligation of those who are free, is to ensure other people’s freedom as well.”

For generations and generations, almost every Bones born was a Hufflepuff. And proudly so, too. To understand one’s highest value to be the protection of those in need, – the fight for justice – not because of the gold and admiration that comes for a fight won, but because it ensures a fair, equal world? How would that be something shameful?

The family therefore received a particular place in the eyes of the Wizarding World. On the one hand they well regarded, appreciated for their values, even if the means to get there always seemed rather strange and unexpected to most people, on the other hand, became a clear outsider to the society of purebloods and those halfbloods who still thought of themselves closer to the pure Wizarding world. The Bones neither cared for money other than spending it on charities, nor caring for their (or others) blood status. Every new Muggle was warmly welcomed as a true relative and carefully introduced to the Wizarding world. And even when Squibs were born, there was none of the ostracism like in pureblood families, or even like in some halfblood families. Their values were clearly defined, but incomprehensible to many, and the family gained a reputation that was more about the wild outbursts of ideals and unorthodox ways of fighting for them, then about the relatively steady values that drove those acts of bravery.

And so it came that those values were taught to every Bones child from a young age on. Manners, ethics, history, the art of conversation; long before they made it to Hogwarts they already spent their days in classrooms, studying how to respect and show respect to others, learning to put others before you, burning the Bones family values onto their hearts. But ‘Seraphina’ means little fire, and it is difficult to tell a firework which colours it has to burst into.

Edgar, Amelia, Dell and Colter were the well-beloved offspring of Laura and Jorge Bones (and indeed, Jorge took, after Laura’s eccentric demand to keep her name for the sake of its importance in the British Wizarding World, her name. He didn’t mind too much, proving himself to be quite the fit for the Bones family. Having travelled the world (though always staying in the magical realms) he was quite the peculiar case in his youth. Now that they’re older, both Laura and Jorge are way more focused on keeping the values of the Bones family alive, caring deeply about the well-being of everyone around them – even if perhaps still showing it in their surprising and unexpected ways).

Born in the old Bones Manor in which even Seraphina had already grown up, all four children were of magical capabilities and all four showed a good heart from a young age on. But like every Bones, they also showed an insatiable need to express themselves. To become their own person, to be more than just their family name. They were constantly driven by their curiosity, and at first it was as though both, Edgar and Amelia, were too driven by the discovery of themselves and the world to be true Hufflepuffs, showing more prominently traits belonging to Ravenclaw. Creativity and freedom of expression, that was what they were all about. But eventually Edgar seemingly took the back seat, letting his sister be the firework while he became the audience of her beauty. What not many people knew, perhaps no one, really, except for Amelia herself, was that while she ran off during lessons, dinners, and curfew, searching for all the possibilities this world held for her, he covered for her. Protecting her. Becoming the one who his parents considered reliable, so that they would charge him with duties and responsibilities so that she could be free.

This doesn’t mean he wasn’t the one to light her fuse at times, or that he disliked her games of fire, but that he loved her too much to see it dowsed. In all honesty, he could’ve watched her for hours, listened to her speak about what she had lived through out there, and never interrupt, never cease asking for more, softly, hoping to prompts paragraphs out of her with a single line of his.

It also doesn’t mean that he was any less creative. But he learned to express this creativity in the shadows, in silence, shielded from the watchful gaze of their parents and society. Books became his escape. While Amelia was out there in the real world, he plunged into the worlds authors had created, and eventually even dabbled in creating such worlds for himself on paper as well. He learnt about the universe from the realms of the library, at first focusing on the stories of the Wizarding World, but eventually, when all books seemed exhausted, moving on to the stories of the Muggle World. His eccentrism was quiet and only for himself, not meant to serve a greater purpose but to still his hunger for knowledge.

One could’ve said that his wish to protect the sister was indeed driven by loyalty, but really, it was admiration and the wish to see just what she was going to do next. And for that, he simply had to be the good son. Please his parents, please his teachers, please those who had so long shaken their heads at the iconoclastic family. And if he was being honest, he never felt half as restricted by it all as most people might’ve assumed. He liked learning about rules and seeing just how far you could go without overstepping them, without drawing attention to your ways. It was a game with no winners and no one to watch him, no one to admire just how well he played it. What did it matter that he was often overlooked, his parents’ eyes and attention always on his siblings, sometimes out of exasperation, sometimes out of pride, if he could be just who he wanted without anyone interfering or giving their two Knuts?

When he was sorted into Ravenclaw, after a long conversation with the Sorting Hat, though not as long as Amelia’s, he silently rejoiced. His family was a little baffled, especially his mother who had always been convinced he would be another one of those Bones who carried the family name with the selfless values on their sleeves, not caring that they wouldn’t shine half as brightly in the history books as their wild, untameable counterparts. You know, the kind of Bones who were good, but didn’t do much to express that goodness in the world, unlike all the others whose personality was like pots of colours splashed into every dusted-in tradition to make sure the world would be changed for the better. But Edgar liked it, he did. Up there, in the tower, he could look down to the world, breathe the cold air of his own, quiet, personal freedom and play with the lines of all those rules without anyone paying attention whatsoever. Up there, he wouldn’t have to mingle with all those people and their lack of answers, and disappear in his books and learn more about the worlds – plural – with no interference. Up there, the stars were close, and his ever-dreamy gaze went up, eventually beginning to even search for the knowledge that no books held ready for him.

OCCUPATION:

Journalist for the Daily Prophet.

No, he doesn’t agree with the opinions served by that paper, no, he doesn’t get paid nearly enough, no, he doesn’t really care. What matters to him are two things: 1) That he can decide on his work hours himself, allowing him free time for the Order without having to take holidays. 2) That he gets free theatre tickets. Besides, whenever he does show up in his office, even by merely writing and editing the arts section, he still hears of the latest news before they’re even printed…

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

I like to think that Edgar is somewhat of an important piece of the Order. He’s been there for a long time, so he doesn’t just know the rules and which of them are especially important to respect, but also the people. The people who are still with him, the people who aren’t. He remembers their victories and the mistakes that made them fall. And he’s not just plainly observant but actually knows what he’s looking out for. Weak links or strong assets hidden beneath inexperience. It worries him that the Order is no longer what it used to be, and he embraces the new recruits, even though wary of their means. Logically, he’s all for taking more aggressive measures now, but the fact that they have never tried to be as reckless and unforgiving as the Death Eaters, means they have no proof is can work. He just wishes they had more time to think it out, make sure there’s not another thing they can do first because going straight to terrorism.

Maybe this undecidedness and his tendency to act on his own behalf based on what he thinks is the best thing to do in that moment, makes some Order members wary of him. He understands that it’s difficult to 100%ly trust a pillar when it could leap away any moment, so he always tries to be as reliable as possible. What he is certain about, though, is the fact that he won’t quit. He firmly believes in the cause, and perhaps even that they might be the last chance to save the Wizarding World.

Also, I like to imagine that while to everyone else, it came quite as a surprise that Edgar joined the order back then, for him it’s doesn’t feel out of character at all. After all, he’s always been a Bones, and he’s always been a Bones in the shadows of everyone else. The Order couldn’t be more in the shadows if it tried, and this way of theirs to change the world without anyone knowing exactly who is doing it, feels quite like him. 

And yes, he would like for Amelia and perhaps even his brothers to join the Order too, because he knows their hearts are in the right place, and he knows they are incredible at practical magic, spells, defence, all that. But he’s gone all his life staying in the shade so they could be out there changing the world with their colours. The idea of them actually joining the Order scares him. What if they’re not meant for the shade, what if something happens to them? He’s protected them for years, and now he’s supposed to be the reason for putting them in danger? Or worse: for dowsing their fire?

SURVIVAL:

He’s mostly stayed in the same apartment for the last two years. Before that he lived with his girlfriend, and before that he was yet in another apartment by himself, and before that he lived with yet another girl, and so on. He doesn’t like to be alone, and he hates silence, so he always stayed near the city centre, always close to his friends at the Deli, the Pub, the locksmith, always ready to go out and either find out some information or lose someone who is following him. Though this didn’t happen too often. I like to think that Edgar is so inconspicuous (to people who don’t know him) that he was never on the ministry’s radar. Perhaps once or twice, in all those years, but he’s working for the daily prophet, and his boss bailed him out of trouble every time, confused why someone would suspect this random, mediocre, simple friend of the arts of something as impressive as being part of an underground organisation. On the other hand, I also believe that he is very talented when it comes to duelling. Though not the most powerful wizard ever when it comes to inner-magic-force, and certainly not the best student at Hogwarts, he is incredibly creative when it comes to using spells. That’s what makes him so talented as a wizard. There’s never a situation where he’s been too slow to get the Order out of troubles again, by thinking fast and by surprising his opponent. Unorthodox methods have proven themselves as the most sustainable, and he constantly works on new ways to surprise Death Eaters. Perhaps this is why he is intrigued and terrified of the younger recruits: because he has seen his plans work in the past, but now realises bigger, more up-front measures are needed. Bombs just seem so crude.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Albeit not a Hufflepuff (though he never corrects people when they assume it), Edgar does care about other people, and he is quite loyal. If a friendship breaks, then because there really was no other choice. And considering that most of Edgar’s true friendships are all people from the Order, this means they must’ve either betrayed the Order, or died. Sure, things aren’t easy in the face of war. There’s tension, and conversations slip too easily into heavy territories, but Edgar’s been in it for so long now… He barely remembers it any different.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS:

Romantically? Nothing planned at all! I do enjoy the idea of exploring Edgar’s need to be around people, to live off their warmth while he sits in the dark, but who those people are entirely depends on the players and the characters’ chemistry.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Edgar is walking right on the line.

The line between receiving prejudice and being with those who are prejudiced. He’s neither white, nor straight, nor pure-wizard, but he can pass as all those things if he absolutely has to. And that’s because at least one half of him is all this.

His mother (Laura Bones) is a white halfblood from upper class Britain, whose family has, despite their appreciation and respect of old Wizarding traditions, always welcomed people of all blood into their midst and was famous for breaking the rules of typical pureblood behaviour, always doing what they think is the right thing to do, no matter the means or noise it would cause. His father (Jorge Bones, né Centello) is from South America, where the Wizarding Community is more closed-in on itself, so even though he is a pureblood and knows fairly little about the Muggle world, he doesn’t carry the arrogance and prestige to his (maiden???)name as British pureblood families do.

Edgar has got enough knowledge from both worlds to let himself fall on either side of the line when he has to. Talk with colleagues at the Daily Prophet about inherent wizarding affairs. Speak in perfect English to receive better credit on his Muggle apartment insurance. Talk about the beautiful curves of a woman’s body with his friend’s brother. Easy.

If he were to converse deeply with someone from either side, though, it would become obvious that he is mostly playing pretend. Of course he has a vast theoretical knowledge on the worlds, and even chose to live in a Muggle apartment close to an entrance to Wizarding London, but the truth is, his practical knowledge lacks terribly. Certainly, he knows how to buy underground tickets, has ridden cabs before, and since recently he even owns a microwave! But the fact that he has always learnt about the worlds from books, from his safe spot in the shade, it did rob him of the practical experiences. So it’s not at all a bias or prejudice he has against Muggles or Muggleborns, but a vivid curiosity the way a zoo-goer would feel about the animals. He has read every book on lions, yes, but if he were faced with one, it wouldn’t be granted that he knew what to do. Pretend, of course, copy what the instructions in the books said, no eye contact, no quick motions, and definitely no running away!, but it forever remains pretend, not intuition.

And this goes for both sides of this line of his. Conversing in English, he always has Spanish sayings coming to mind. Dressing in Wizarding fashion, he always longs for the more comfortable Muggle trousers. He moves in both worlds, easily, with no one paying too much attention whether his ways are intuitive or adopted, but it does make him wonder, sometimes, on which side of the line he really belongs.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

I particularly like that the RP is neither 100% canon nor 100% AU. The fact that it bases itself on the canon years during Hogwarts gives it a great base to work with, but the fact that the rest is up to us, frees me from the stress of finding a way to go a certain direction.

I also really liked the bios. All of them felt very interconnected, as though the plot in the future will always inherently be influenced by the plots of the past. It makes me hope that my Edgar will serve at least in some other character’s development and I won’t have to feel too useless haha

What I’m most excited about is rewriting those famous character’s history and seeing just how much we can, perhaps, influence the plot drops and story.

Less important, but very honest, I’m also excited about Edgar. I don’t think I had a character like him yet, and I’ve been roleplaying for many years. I like to imagine him very studious, serene, reliable, but then with bursts of creativity and colour allowing for fun adventures.

PLOT DROP IDEAS:

- Concerning only Edgar and whoever wishes to participate: As previously stated, I’d love to explore Edgar’s need to be around people, and how he can become very dependent on others (even if he seems so detached and easy-going when one first meets him). I’d also like the very briefly mentioned nuances of OCD to be addressed, though I don’t plan on making this a very noticeable trait of him. People not close to him will definitely never know. - Concerning other characters not mentioned in the bio (and these are only ideas, they will not happen if the player doesn’t consent): Alice Longbottom: In her bio it says Caradoc Dearborn is the only one who makes her trust and stay with the cause. Considering how Caradoc and Edgar are friends, I’d like to explore what could’ve happened between Alice and Edgar. Certainly his spontaneity could’ve gotten her in trouble at least once – Perhaps it will again? Benjy Fenwick: Seems to distrust Caradoc – and also just generally a bit too … follower-ish for Edgar’s taste. Of course he’ll be civil and try to get to know him better, but for now he doubts that the Order is the right thing for him. One needs brains, hearts and willpower to fight in this war. A plot idea here could be Edgar forcing lots of ways to get to know Benjy, but also, if he does prove himself worthy of the Order, to take him under his wing.

ANYTHING ELSE?

I think on the Enneagram, Edgar is a 5. It makes sense for his wings to be a 4 (driven by the poetry of life) when he’s at his best and happy, and a six (craving guidance and becoming quite over-protective) at his worst. Heh.

Also I hope it came across clearly that the eccentric way of the Bones family are especially eccentric through the eyes of those who stick to traditions too furiously. Those who are also open-minded might smirk a bit about their “weirdness” but not in a dismissing way. They’re not ridiculed or complete outsiders. Sure, they have quite the wild means to express their values, but the values in themselves are good-hearted (Bones supposedly coming from the French word ‘good’, right?) and not at all far-fetched or ridiculous as a Lestrange or Black might believe it. If anything, their colours are akin to the colours of the students in 1968. Sure it might look crazy from the outside, but it’s not necessarily random, or coming from a place of pure mania. If the hippies wore loose clothes, their hair long, and ‘ethno’-patterns, then because it was comfortable, an expression of freedom and a love for the whole world. Not just because they thought it would make them look iconic. And the same goes for the Bones. As Amelia’s bio says, sure, she’s curious but it’s not an empty curiosity. It’s driven by /something/. And this something, in the Bones family in general, means to leave a mark on the world not because it’s pretty, but because of what it could mean to future generations.

#homenumaccepted #marauders rp #marauders era rp #harry potter rp #harry potter roleplay

[drumpfwatch]

Attack on Abortion

So, it finally has started. For the past...well 50 years really, the Right has been trying their hardest to do everything they can to fight abortion. Recently, they became a lot closer. So let’s talk about what’s happening.

Their most recent take has been Jim Crowing Abortion by making it stupid hard to get for women, regardless of state. In Mississippi for instance, there is one abortion clinic for the whole state. The whole entire state. And if you finally get there, you have to wait 72 hours before an actual procedure can be performed after you consultation.

I won’t get into every single detail of how this was done, but it was piece by piece, and in the name of protecting women.  These legislatures would draw up new regulations specifically for abortion clinics - which, by the way, are only not a part of hospitals because everyone is afraid to admit abortion is a useful and helpful medical procedure - after going and examining all of them. They then would come back with a plan that none of the clinics could abide all of the regulations of. You have to have walls that are certain distance apart (which doesn’t matter because surgical gurneys aren’t used in most, if any, abortions), you have to hospital admitting privileges (which is also not all that important because by the time the situation would reach that point the patient is probably already in a hospital), can’t be within a certain distance of a school (because all abortion-performing OB-GYNs are sex offenders, apparently). Literally every trick they could try to limit access to abortion without banning abortion or otherwise making it completely inaccessible because that would be illegal.

Honestly, I could go on for hours and hours on this topic, so I’ll try to keep it brief while still making the points I want to make. But the big thing to know is that while Roe V. Wade is still law of the land, it has since been...altered by Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. The law is now “Abortions must be accessible, buuuut you can make women jump through a few hoops to get them, I guess, as long as there aren’t too many.”

Which I’m not sure which part of that is more insulting, the fact that these idiots think that abortions are such a causal decision for women that a little inconvenience would discourage them from getting one, or the fact that these are the same standards for dog agility contests.

Let me be clear up front, right here, right now. Women don’t get abortions casually. It’s not like they’re sitting there 7 months into the hell that is pregnancy and suddenly decide “You know, maybe this just isn’t for me” and aborts. Mostly because that’s not what’s actually legal. Neither do they just fuck anyone they want and then decide “OOps, I got pregnant, better go get a quick aborch to fix this mistake laaaawal!”.

Let’s talk about what is actually allowed and what actually happens in an abortion.

So let’s say a woman has sex and the condom breaks. It’s an accident. She might go to the store and get an order of Plan B. Plan B is not an abortion. Plan B needs to be taken quickly, because what Plan B does is prevent the egg from implanting in the uterine wall - a process that begins the actual pregnancy. It’s possible for a fertilized egg to not make this, and when this happens it’s so minor it’s not even considered a miscarriage. If you believe that life begins at fertilization then you have to grapple with all these innocent babies that die without any fault of the mother.

Anyway, let’s say the woman doesn’t know the condom broke. Hey, it happens. It will take her at least a month to find out that she’s pregnant, because it turns out that unless you get a pregnancy test (which, you used a condom, why would you think you need one?) it’s more or less impossible for a woman to know she’s pregnant until she stops having her period. And keep in mind periods are fickle temperamental things that will change when they show up for whatever reason, so it might be 6 weeks before a woman even has a reason to suspect she’s pregnant if something went wrong. So she goes to the doctor and gets an abortion.

At this stage in development, the fetus is more or less vaguely human shaped, but incredibly tiny and really only has the rudiments of various organs. It’s not even aware yet because it doesn’t even have what could reasonably be called a brain.

So, the woman realizes - wisely - that she is not in a position to have a child despite being pregnant. Maybe she doesn’t have the financial resources, maybe she doesn’t have the time to dedicate to the consuming and difficult task of raising a child. Maybe she just isn’t emotionally capable of it. This is the part most anti-abortionists never think of - why might a woman want an abortion? Even if she puts the baby up for adoption (which is its own complicated and expensive process), she still has to go through the actual 9 months of pregnancy. Her entire life for nine months will be dominated by taking care of this thing. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been pregnant understands what it’s like. There’s so much you can’t do or experience while pregnant. It’s like being hooked up to a life support machine for another person for nine months. And if you didn’t agree to it, well then, that’s a problem.

So, this lady goes to a doctor and gets an abortion. Within the first trimester, these procedures will nine times out of ten be either minor procedures of suction or even just taking a pill that will cause a miscarriage. No anesthetic required. The fetus at this point is unable to live on its own, of course, so it dies. At this stage you could freeze the damn thing and unfreeze it at a later point and it would theoretically still be viable if you could somehow implant it back in a woman. Which, Representative Smitherman, is not a thing, but whatever.

Most women who don’t want a pregnancy know they don’t want it and decide on an abortion before three months. Which, by the way, another one of those Jim Crow type laws that they liked to use was putting in weighting periods so that it’d be after the three month mark that it’s illegal to get an abortion for whatever reason.

See, without going into specifics, the further along in a pregnancy you are, the harder it is to get an abortion. Second trimester limitations basically mean you need a reason more complicated then “Nah, I just don’t want it” and it’s actually illegal to get an abortion in the third trimester if the baby isn’t a threat to the mother’s life. And that makes sense.

Most women who go through with a pregnancy that far willingly want the baby. They’ve been planning for it, they have a room set aside for it, they’ve bought cribs and toys and had baby showers. I haven’t ever met a woman in her third trimester who wasn’t excited for her child. So getting an abortion then is always a tragedy.

The only reason they get it is because the child is dying, if it’s even still alive. The baby could potentially survive outside the mother at this point with a bit of medical help, but that’s the thing. The baby isn’t going to survive at all. We’re talking skull deformations that collapse the brain in on itself, lungs that won’t ever form properly, hearts that half the size they need to be. These children are loved, they sometimes have names already, but tragically they’re just not going to make it. This is basically the only reason a woman gets an abortion in the third trimester, mostly because it’s more or less illegal to get an abortion at this point and most of them have made the decision by now.

This is where you get the rather horrible looking and graphic procedures that pro-deathers like to shove in your face - half of which are so graphic because the baby’s already dead, if they’re even real at all - and that’s more or less the story of how and why abortions happen.

So now that we established how the process of an abortion actually happens, let’s talk about these new laws.

Because these new laws that have been showing up in, say, Alabama, have a purpose too. While the Jim Crow Type laws were meant to try and skirt Planned Parenthood V Casey by making abortions as difficult to get as possible, these laws outright ban abortion.  And there’s a reason for that. With Trump loading the bench with people like Brent the Rapist Kavanaugh, suddenly there’s a chance that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe V. Wade.

That’s why these laws are stupid and draconian. When the 25 cis white heterosexual men who voted for the abortion ban voted for it, they were doing so with the full knowledge that even most Alabamians would find it disgusting because as it turns out most human beings have at least some understanding of sexual health enough to know why this is complete nonsense.

No, we have records of them specifically debating things like, say, whether or not they should include exceptions for rape and the safety of the mother, and deciding they shouldn’t because that wouldn’t guarantee a challenge. And that’s what they’re looking for. These fuckheads don’t care about this law coming into effect, they’re not interested in what the actual law says. The purpose of this law is so that it - and every other one of the heartbeat bills and such - can be used as a wedge to burst open the Supreme Court now that it’s stacked with people who hate abortion and don’t care about women and kill Roe V. Wade. But here’s the thing, the law is going to be upheld in the process.

I want you to look at this picture and remember these names and faces as I tell you this. IF the Supreme Court upholds the law, then until Alabama decides to change the law - and that’s a big if - then every woman in Alabama will be unable to get an abortion in the state of Alabama. She’ll have to leave the state, and to where? Well, we’ve already established that Mississippi is horrible to go to, and Louisiana and Georgia aren’t much better. I’m not sure about Florida’s abortion laws, but I’m willing to bet Kentucky isn’t exactly convenient to get one in either. That’s all the states touching Alabama, so at that point you’re looking into a road trip or a plane ticket.

You see the problem? Rich people can still get those abortions by leaving states and going somewhere else, but the poor people suddenly can’t. Now, one mistake is enough to condemn a poor woman to teenage motherhood. Meanwhile the rich bitches can go wherever they need to to get one done quick and cheap, away from any sound of a heartbeat bill.

And here’s the thing. A disproportionate number of those poor women are going to be black, because it’s Alabama and that’s just a thing there. So not only is this law sexist, an argument could be made that it’s racist too! But that’s not the half of it.

Some women are not capable of bringing life into this world. I don’t mean that physically, I mean that mentally. Some are too young, some don’t have the financial acumen, some have mental illnesses that just make it too hard. These women are condemned to motherhood. But it’s not just that.

Say what you will about what pregnancy actually is, you cannot deny it’s incredibly risky. Death is not an uncommon outcome, and increases in all manner of diseases are just a fact of it.

These men are willing to kill the poor black women of Alabama just so they can take rights away from women all over the United States. And that is disgusting.

#Wednesday Essays #by Phoenix #TheDrumpfWatch

[crimsonrevolt]

Congratulations Angela you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Amelia Bones.

↳ please refer to our character checklist

Angela! Amelia is a character that we’ve been anxiously awaiting to see for quite some time, and now it’s clear that we’ve been waiting for you! Your application blew us away, from your passion for her as a person to the explanations on how she becomes the person we know her to be in canon to how the horrors she experienced in war has impacted her. It’s clear to us that you have a strong connection and understanding of Amelia, and we can’t wait to see where you take her going forward. Welcome to the group! *Your faceclaim change to Summer Glau has been accepted.

application beneath the cut (tw: mentions of PTSD) 

OUT OF CHARACTER

Introduction: Angela, 25+, she/her, CST but I work night shift which puts me more on par with GMT+11

Activity: As previously stated, I work nights and my shifts are 12 hours. On nights I work I’m usually not as active but on my days off I tend to catch up.

How did you find us? Amelia Bones tag

Anything else? n/a

IN CHARACTER

Desired character: Amelia Susan Bones

Birthday / star sign: December 29, 1957; Capricorn

Occupation: Before the kidnapping, Amelia was working for the DMLE as an Auror. Technically, she’s probably still employed. Unless someone had her officially declared dead, she hadn’t actually bothered to check that. Somehow she doubted Edgar would have given up, despite the length of her absence. That being said, there was absolutely now way the department would allow her to return to active duty, not yet anyway. Which means she’d probably shunted off into an investigation department or worse, some sort of clerical work.

Faceclaim: FC change to Summer Glau, Shelley Hennig, or Alicia Vikander

Reason for chosen character: Amelia was the first character I fell in love with writing years ago when I started RPing. Since then I’ve always had a soft spot for her, but often times the way I view Amelia and the way she is described in RP bios don’t match up. Amelia is a character driven by, but not broken by, loss. Her parents and her brother, along with his family, are canonically murdered. The things she goes through personally are not stated in canon, but for her family to be targeted the way it is, you can assume she was not passive. Especially given that she rises to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and eventually murdered by Voldemort himself. I love strong women. She is clearly a threat to the Death Eaters and their cause and I just cannot believe that only happens after the demise of her family. She was just lucky enough to escape their fate during the first war. No one escapes war unscathed, however, and yet she continues on, becoming known as fair and a great witch. I really want to explore the path that gets her there. The struggles she goes through, the times she loses herself in trying to achieve her goals. How justice and vengeance become blurred and how she finds balance again. It’s honestly fascinating to me, especially given her circumstances in this RP.

Prior to her kidnapping, I think she probably had a lot more faith in the system. She believed that the Ministry, while not without its issues, would ultimately prevail. It was a naive viewpoint. For a year she’s been missing, tortured and brutalized, and it’s changed her. She’s struggling with a range of things including PTSD and rage and a need to regain control. She can no longer wait and hope that the Ministry or even the Order will figure out how to make things right, she has to do it herself. She KNOWS what happens to those who get captured. The lucky ones are killed, those like her who might have information…they’re not lucky. Survival is not the gift that some might thing it to be. It’s a burden. One she will do anything to make sure no one else has to carry, including things that she would not have considered before.

Preferred ships // Character sexuality // Gender & Pronouns: Right now the last thing Amelia is interested in is romance. Though, that doesn’t mean she’s against the idea of blowing off steam with someone. She is damaged, that’s how she views herself now. Just…fucked up. There is a part of her that was broken during her captivity, a part of her that almost craves to be subjugated, so long as she maintains some control of the situation. It’s not a thing she likes to talk about or would acknowledge in the light of day. But when it comes to sex, she’s discovered she likes it rougher than she ever would have guessed previously. No attachments, no commitments, just… physical gratification. She has nothing outside of that to give to anyone. And honestly, she’s not that picky when it comes to gender. It’s less about who and more about the feeling she gets when she’s with them. As far as her own gender identity goes, she’s cis-female, she/her pronouns

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER

https://weheartit.com/thebutlerdidit/collections/95404130-amelia-bones

Headcanons: – You don’t survive a year of captivity without scars. Physical, mental, emotional, etc. Amelia has all of them. She refused just about all of the treatments the Healers offered, preferring not to be touched or poked or prodded any further. Potions were provided and she takes them on occasion, but she prefers to self-medicate with alcohol and/or a good duel. Hell, even a good fist fight provides a decent catharsis. Never again will she place herself under someone’s thumb. Yes, she’s learned to enjoy being subjected to roughness in love-play, but it never goes anywhere she doesn’t expressly allow. The people she was close to before being taken are now held at arm’s length, especially if they try to discover what happened while she was gone. She’s not exactly proud of the things she had to do to survive, the things she had to allow, but in the end all that matters is that she did survive. She got out. And she’ll get revenge. – People tend to underestimate Hufflepuffs and there are probably many who believe her current state of vengeance is out of character for one of her former house. They’re wrong. Hufflepuffs are gentle until pushed to their limit, at which point they fight like hell. Beware the wrath of a person who is usually kind and gentle, because they did not become that way by accident. Kindness is not a default, it’s not a naive choice. Not always, at least. Often times it is earned out of hard fought battles and discovered when tested by fire. But when pushed beyond those limits of kindness, there are few limits to what they will do in order to survive. People who think them weak are fools. When you push a kind person beyond their limits, you won’t find brokenness on the other side, you’ll find steel and rage and power. – Amelia hasn’t talked to anyone about what she went through during the year she was missing. She tells people that she doesn’t really remember, that there were memory spells and it’s all a blur. That’s true for parts of it, but it’s not all gone. She remembers the way it felt to have the cruciatus curse rip through her body, every nerve ending screaming as the unforgivable curse burned through her. She remembers bones broken only to be reknit and broken again. Her dreams are haunted by silver masks and laughter as she was tortured for their enjoyment. There are pieces of what happened that are burned in her mind, never to be forgotten. She might not be able to name names for sure, at least not in a way that would hold up in court, but she believes she’ll recognize her captors if she’s faced with them again. Whether or not that’s true is yet to be determined. – Everything in Amelia’s life since her return is about control. She was without it for so long that now she’s not likely to give it up without a fight. It’s why she won’t take a sleeping potion. Why she won’t submit to the healers exams or the questions of the Ministry. Things will happen on her terms or they won’t fucking happen at all. Anyone who has a problem with that can get the hell out of her way.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

The following section should be looked at like a survey or interview for your character. The questions may be answered in character or out of character, with or without gifs. (using gifs of a few different FCs I listed, hope that’s okay)

Do you think it is more important to be feared or loved? Which would you rather be? Honestly, I don’t give a shit. Fear me, love me, whatever. It’s of little consequence as long as you do what needs to be done. If I had to be one or the other, I guess I’d rather people love me? But honestly, I don’t need it. I’d rather people just left me alone.

What is one thing you would never want said about you? She gave up. I have not come this far, struggled so hard just to quit. I have not given up, I don’t intend to give up. I’m not going to let myself be broken. I don’t care what it takes, I’m determined to win. I am not a quitter.

If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it! I’d like to be able to read people’s thoughts and intentions. Not like veritaserum, where the person is forced to tell you what they’re thinking and feeling…I want to experience it. I want to know why and how in the moment. I suppose that some might consider that to be legilimency, and maybe that’s what I mean, but it feels different to me. I guess I don’t just want to know, I want to be able to influence what I discover. To be able to push or pull on someone’s emotions and intentions, but more subtly than the imperius curse. A nudge rather than a shove. Fuck. I don’t know. Just… control. A measure of control over what happens because of the people around you.

What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make? Ones that involve trusting someone else. Things get complicated when you leave things up to other people and often times they let you down. I would rather do it myself than have to rely on someone else. There’s a reason people say if you want something done right, do it yourself, and it’s because other people let you down. They fail when you’re counting on them and everyone ends up paying the price. Better to just rely on yourself.

REACTION TO LAST EVENT DROP

Not for nothing was Amelia one of the best chasers Hufflepuff ever saw. The World Cup was a foolish endeavor, but even she could understand the reasoning behind it. People needed to blow off steam, fine. But honestly, if they were going to put an opportunity like this in front of her, she wasn’t about to ignore it. She might not play anymore, but she can still fly and god knows she can scream louder than anyone thought. (A trait she is fairly certain kept her alive during the year she was held captive. She’d screamed until her throat bled, a sound one particular captor compared to a symphony because he was a sick bastard.) The people need to know. Ignorance will get them killed. She’s been shut down, kept out of the search for her brother, but this was something she could do. The more people that knew the truth, the weaker the other side had to become. The easier it would be to find Edgar. They’d barely gotten a chance to speak, let alone reconnect before he’d been taken and no one was doing a goddamned thing about it. Amelia had to fight hard against her own guilt – a Bones set free, another taken…was it her fault? She tried not to think about it that way but it was hard. Worse is the knowledge that comes with having been in his position before. Amelia doesn’t have to imagine what he’s going through, she experienced it first hand.

WRITING SAMPLE

She awoke slowly, arms tied above her head and her feet barely scraping the floor of the dimly lit room. She shifted to stand on her tip toes to relieve the ache in her arms; they’d been supporting her weight while she was unconscious. Before she could truly survey her surroundings a whispered curse hit her in the back, shocking her into crying out. The stinging hex spread angry welts over her skin.  

“Welcome back, Ms. Bones.”

Amelia turned, trying to look over her shoulder to see who was speaking, but her assailant remained in the shadows. She didn’t recognize his voice, though there were clearly spells in place to disguise it. She grit her teeth and didn’t respond.

“Nothing to say?” the unknown person asked. “You’re usually so vocal. Standing up and shouting for anyone who’ll listen how you plan to bring justice to the wizarding world. You and I both know true justice isn’t an option.”

It took every ounce of her will power to stay still and silent. Whoever had grabbed her was clearly baiting her. She couldn’t remember how long it’d been, but surely the aurors were looking for her. She was hardly the most important member of the department, but they watched out for her own. She couldn’t remember the specifics of the attack but it had been her own damn fault for letting herself get distracted. There was a rustling behind her as the figure moved closer. She could feel him behind her, wishing more than anything for a chance to get the drop on him.

“Your brother was louder. Begged. Said we could do whatever we wanted to him, so long as we spared his wife and children."  

Her blood ran cold. Edgar. "You don’t have him.”

“Don’t I? Perhaps not. Maybe he’s dead. Shall I tell you how we laid them out? Presented each of their bodies in a perfect tableau for you to find. I wanted to kill the dog, too. Little shit wouldn’t stop barking.”

She was shaking now and despite all her scolding, all her training at hiding her emotions she couldn’t stop herself from reacting. “I’ll kill you,” she promised in a low voice.

He laughed.

Amelia thrashed in her restraints, wild with hatred. She was only hurting herself, he was too far away for her to reach and she didn’t have her wand. Despite her efforts, she’d never mastered a wandless attack. She could do simple spells, but nothing more.

“Calm down, Ms. Bones. You’ll snap your little wrists and I won’t mend them.”

He moved behind her again until she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. She threw her head back, barely clipping his chin with the top of her head as he moved away. Probably hurt her a lot more than it hurt him.

“Do you enjoy hurting people?” she growled.

He finally moved in front of her, silver mask gleaming as it reflected the single lamp. His wand was raised, pointed directly at her. Even without being able to see his face, she was certain he was smiling at her.

“Yes.”

—

Another example from a previous blog, but it fits along with the theme (though another talented writer contributed quite a bit.) TW for torture - Amelia was kidnapped briefly and tortured by Evan Rosier - http://hardasbones.tumblr.com/tagged/mister-sandman/chrono

#accepted app #amelia bones

[aridara]

So. I've found yet another "anti-feminist masterpost". Which is basically a Gish Gallop full of bullshit, most of which I'm pretty sure was taken straight from realsexism.com, which I've already dismantled in its entirety (shameless self-linking to part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). So I won't bother bringing sources for a lot of stuff, because in practice I already did.

WHAT AN ADORABLE LITTLE ANECDOTE.

now lets all snap back to reality here and look at FACTS.

let’s look at what real feminism has done in the real world.

Now, theres no question that feminists did some great things for womens rights. but they’ve also done a whole lot of bad for both genders as well, especially in recent years.

This is exactly what anti-feminists said of second-wave feminists. As well as of first-wave. As well as pre-feminists. As well as women in general.

many of the first feminists where white supremacists.

So were many of the first anti-feminists. Not to mention that many feminists were actively against the racism, and sparked countless discussion and activisms against it.

feminist have campaigned and fought against equality for both genders on many occasions

The link is dead, but I suspect that many of the arguments contained in that lost post will be repeated here.

many feminist leaders were borderline genercidal.

Another dead link, so I'm not sure what OP is talking about. But given that they brought up Solanas immediately after, I'll try a shot in the dark and say that it was a list of "hateful feminist quotes".

Fun fact: I've already debunked an old one.

In fact Valerie Solanas, who helped to shape modern patriarchy theory, and who’s writing is still taught today in womens studies classes, not only attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol, but also wrote a book called the S.C.U.M. Manifesto (or feminist Mein Kompf), which was about gendercide, and she is still hailed as a feminist hero to this day. this book is still used in womens studies classes despite the fact that it proposes reducing the male population to 10% and using them for breeding purposes.

SCUM was never founded - it stopped at its manifesto.

Feminists’ opinion of SCUM at the time was divided between “What is wrong with you, Valerie?” and “This is satire in really bad taste”.

Feminists’ opinion of SCUM today is divided between “What is wrong with you, Valerie?” and “Who the hell is Valerie Solanas?”

Absolutely nobody, feminist or not, condoned Solanas’ attack on Andy Warhol.

Solanas attacked Warhol because of a grudge, not because of her feminist beliefs.

Also: "helped to shape modern patriarchy theory"? "Is still hailed as a feminist hero to this day"? What a load of bullshit. Again: feminists at BEST thought that she tried - and failed - to be satirical; and at WORST, they thought that she had major problems, and they shunned her.

Now i know what you’re gonna say, NOT ALL FEMINISTS. 

Feminism is a political movement. It has leaders.

I'm cutting this part out, but basically OP claims that feminism is a worldwide movement that controls the western world, with leaders that all feminists unquestioningly follow; but also too small to have separate sections or schisms. No, really. Also, despite these "leaders" being super-ultra-well-known, OP can only name Solanas.

OP also has a problem with "slutwalks" - which, I remind you, started because a policeman blamed rape victims for their own rape because, according to him, the clothes they wore "caused" the rape. Cue rape victims marching in the streets wearing the clothes they wore when they were raped (or similar ones); if you actually look at one, you'd see anything from business-suits-with-tie to full-body pajamas.

The thing is, even your definition of feminism is wrong. The name itself should tell you that this is a gendered movement.

...And?

Like, OP seems to believe that solving women's issues instead of spreading your resources to try and solve EVERYONE's issues is evil. Guess that the WWF is evil, then: they only care about non-human animals, after all. Therefore, they clearly hate humans.

You are probably asking yourself why this is even a problem. Aren’t women the ones who still need rights? Well see that may have been true twenty years ago but now it really isn’t. The main problem with the definition of feminism is that it enforces this idea that men live in some ideal world that women should want to live in. Idealizes our situation has the negative effect of erasing our problems. So even by its very definition feminism is already fucking up the idea of equal treatment and consideration.

This is nonsense. Feminists point out that the entire system where one gender is placed above another is fucked - and it also fucks over the gender at the "top", whether by punishing those who don't conform or by teaching toxic beliefs to the ones who do.

men actually have less rights than women.

Yet another dead link. But I assume that it's the usual anti-feminist list of "five rights", so I'll answer that:

Cis women (and other people with vaginas) are subjected to: constant attacks on their right to abort or prevent pregnancies; denied wanted sterilizations and, in various cases, forcibly sterilized against their will (and sometimes without their knowledge); the "husband stitch”; etc. As for circumcision on unconsenting children, feminists aren't the ones forcing it, or preventing MRAs from fighting against it.

Women have been actively excluded from the draft by men, despite feminists' protest. Again: feminists didn't cause that problem, nor are they stopping MRAs from fixing it.

Stop mixing up reproductive rights with parental rights. Abortion is a bodily autonomy issue; child support is an economic issue.

Thank traditional gender roles for that. You know, those things feminists are actively against. Also, family courts don't assume that child custody goes by default to the mother, but to the primary caregiver (aka the parent who spent the majority of time with the kid).

Again: feminists didn't cause that problem, nor are they stopping MRAs from fixing it. In fact, many feminists actively fight so that rape by forcing-to-penetrate is legally included in the definition of "rape".

men are also demonized as rapists due to unequal rape laws that favor women. when you analyze the situation you’ll find that women rape almost as often as men (about 40% of rapists are women) and men are raped just as often if not more than women.

False - the statistic was created through bad math. Next.

...Actually, nevermind. The next section has been lifted from another anti-feminist masterpost. Or maybe that other post was lifted from this, or they both have a similar source. Anyway, the point is: I've already addressed all of this stuff. So I'll just paste the link here and proceed further.

The feminist definition of domestic violence has skewed arrest and prosecution philosophies, resulting in having mostly male batterers criminally pursued, and female batterers left alone.

Dead link. Next.

Men who are falsely accused of rape can have their names published...

This is about granting anonymity to defendants accused of rape. I've already explained the issues multiple times:

MRA want to give this special benefit only to those accused of rape. While the law doesn't prescribe anything of the sort for those suspected of murder or terrorism.

Rape has an exceptionally low investigation and conviction rate, and people actually condemned for it are often reaccepted by their own communities (one example: Steubenville). People accused of rape usually don't face any negative effect, regardless of whether they're falsely accused or not; therefore, there is no justification for giving them this special benefit.

There is NOT an epidemic of false rape accusations.

What there is, is an exceptionally low reporting rate.

Feminists skewed the Definition of Domestic Abuse...

I already addressed this in part 7 of my ""Real" Sexism dot com is utterly false" series. Same goes for the following 20 claims (up until and including the one about Gelles and Straus).

Many other claims have also been lifted from (or have inspired) another anti-feminist masterpost I've already wrote about. So, again: I won’t paste here the same debunkings of the same claims.

Feminists say Men can’t be raped.

Dead link.

Feminists defend female raping minor.

No indication that the author is a feminist (and various feminists are actively against female teachers preying on male students).

Feminist defends why fucking an 8 year old boy isn’t rape.

Dead link.

Most feminists backed studies are bullshit.

Bullshit Youtube video.

Beyond reasonable doubt doesn’t apply to rape.For men only

Alright, first: disciplinary college hearings are equivalent to CIVIL trials, not PENAL ones. I’ve already explained this. Second: college hearings apply equally to both sexes. This means that they use the "preponderance of evidence" standards regardless of whether the defendant is male or female. But the author falsely insists that colleges only apply those standards against men. Third: colleges massively mishandle rape cases. See for example the Sulkowicz case, where Nungesser (the suspected rapist) was let go unscathed even though four different people (a man included) accused him, and where the people hearing Sulkowicz were so fucking ignorant they couldn't believe that Nungesser could've physically raped Sulkowicz because he didn't use any lube.

Feminist changes mind on rape culture when her son is falsely accused.

Oh, look, OP discovered that feminists aren't a hive mind, and are actually able to change their mind. Despite claiming earlier that they unquestioningly follow "feminist leaders", of which OP was able only able to name one from the 1960s.

Feminists primary aggressor clause discriminates against males.

The next sections alternates “old” claims I've already wrote about (see previously) with "new" claims. This is one of the former.

From now on, I'll only address the claims that I’m sure they don’t belong in the former category.

Feminists make sure the gov doesn’t spend money on male shelters or male research.

Already wrote about. Let's just say that SAVE is not a credible source.

Feminists stage mock murders to scare men. 

Dead link.

Feminists shut down forum for battered husbands.

This is that usual video where we don't know where we are, what they're talking about, and who are those people.

Propaganda campaign against male fathers wanting custody.

Dead link - but I'll make a guess: it was about feminists opposing 50/50 custody as the default child custody that courts should give unless circumstances suggest that a different custody arrangement would be better.

Feminists wish to slander accused names before convicted. 

This is about granting anonymity to defendants accused of rape. I've already explained the issues multiple times.

Feminists against equal custody.

This is about feminists opposing 50/50 custody as the default child custody that courts should give unless circumstances suggest that a different custody arrangement would be better. It is NOT about feminists opposing 50/50 custody under any circumstance because we must hate men something something - unlike what OP is trying to imply.

Female felons should serve home sentences.

It's around this point that I started to suspect that I already saw this bit in another "anti-feminism masterpost"; but, given that said other "masterpost" is now lost, and only my reply is left - replay that, unfortunately, doesn’t have quotes from that masterpost - I can't be 100% sure. So, I won’t skip these claims. Instead, I'll takethat reply I did, and use it as inspiration for writing my answers on this post. (Read: I’ll copy parts of the reply as needed, and paste them here.)

So, that point above? The one that OP believes is a strike against feminism? It should read “Female felons should serve home sentences if they aren’t violent, but have parental duties, since we can’t just throw children in foster care”.

Told judges to be lenient on women.

Because they’re more likely to have parental duties or mental illnesses. It’s still a case-by-case procedure.

Feminists launch campaigns to help girls only while boys are doing worse in every facet of education.

There still is a wage gap, a pay gap, a hiring gap, and a promoting gap. That’s the reason for those pro-girls campaigns.

Those pro-girls campaigns don't harm boys, last that I've checked.

Feminists aren't the ones making boys perform badly.

Males who were raped as a child still have to pay child support.

The most recent case is from 1996, all of those cases haven’t been picked by any newsource whatsoever, and male rapists can get child custody for the children born from those rapes in these days.

(Not to mention that feminists are against this sort of thing.)

Women should have the right to put a child up for adoption before the father gets custody.

The father in question didn’t have custody in the first place.                            

Feminists against beyond reasonable doubt when it’s male rapists.

Again: you can't put the restrictions of penal trials on civil trials.

5 rights feminism ignores for men.

This is actually a 5-in-1 bullshit list. (Also: JudgyBitch? Really?)

Men already have the right to decide whether to keep or terminate their own pregnancies. Oh, wait, JB wants men to be able to decide for others’ pregnancies. What next, does she wants to stay at home on sick leave when a colleague has a broken leg but she’s perfectly fine?

Feminists ARE the ones taking male rape seriously. MRAs… not so much. (See point 4 of this post of mine.)

Feminists aren’t the ones shaming men for talking about their feelings or admitting that they have mental problems - misoginysts are the ones shaming other men for being “weak”, or rather, “feminine”. (See here and here.)

Again: feminists aren’t against 50/50 shared custody being the default because they assume that women are “naturally” better caregivers - they’re against it being the default because favoring the kids’ “primary caregiver” is more beneficial for those kids.

Feminists HAVE spoken against forced circumcision, and they aren’t preventing anyone from trying and solve this issue. MRAs? Only speak about it in discussions about FGM, in order to paint feminists as penis-cutting monsters. THAT’S IT.

Feminists blame males for their abuse.

Tries to demonstrate that women commit the majority of DV act by referencing the study that uses the Conflict Tactics Scale, which, among other things, doesn’t differentiate single incidents from repeated behaviours, doesn’t differentiate acts in self-defense from acts of abuse, and doesn’t consider at all sexual assaults and rapes.

The primary aggressor clause where only men get charged with abuse.

Dead link.

Shame men into going to war.

The White Feather Movement was created in the first place by far-right nationalists.

Feminists dismiss female child rapists.

Dead link.

Feminists mock a man who has his dick cut off.

Pretty much no feminist has defended that one.

feminists attack church.

The video depicts a feminist) protest (not an “attack") against Argentina’s massively fucked-up laws on abortion, which severely limit them. They’re the reason why 80.000 women per year end up in the hospital due to complications caused by illegal, non-sanitary abortions… and are arrested for having an abortion if they survive afterwards. And only 1 in 8 abortions (out of 450-600.000 per year) in Argentina are performed legally. (NOTE: these statistics were accurate for 2016.)

Feminists shut down a festival about gender equality for including men.

That’s not what happened. What happened was that the sponsors realized that CAFE had nothing to do with equality and everything to do with MRAs and misogyny, and ran away from them.

Feminists hope MRA’s die.

Correction: ONE person who defines themselves as “feminist” and who doesn’t have any relevant spot in feminism whatsoever hopes that MRAs die.

Feminists against fathers day.

#EndFathersDay is a troll tag created by 4channers.

Feminist makes up fake assault stories. 

Again: only 2% at best of rape accusations are false. There is no epidemic of “false rape accusations” or “made-up stories of assault”.

Female reporter bullied by feminists at the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference

Yes, because telling someone “Your conservative magazine isn’t welcome here” is totally bullying on par with what feminists face. </sarcasm>

And you seriously wonder why women don’t want to be a part of the feminist movement?

Part lying about how feminism "is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians", part lying about how women don't want to be a part of the feminist movement because feminists are eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil man-haters.

im not an idiot. and you havent done your research. you need to stop using that pathetic argument and take responsibility for your political party. 

WE DEAL IN FACTS HERE. NOT RHETORIC. NOT ANECDOTES.

Hilarious.

#debunking antifeminism #sexism

[thecharmingknightemma]

EF about page for mobile

basic information

Written since s2 of ouat with thecharmingprincessemma and thewhiteknightprincess urls. Big reminder that if your character is personally involved in her backstory, I will happily change things so they are free to interact and not forced to follow my headcanons.  Verses at the bottom.

In this page you'll find: -short version of her backstory -long version of her backstory -heads up -verses involving the Enchanted Forest

FULL NAME: Emma of the White Kingdom. (Known also as Swan Princess, Swan, Emma, Em) AGE: younger than 28 by default if she's not gone 'dark' GENDER: cis female ROMANTIC AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION: straight LANGUAGES: most of those spoken in the nearby kingdoms and realms, some ancient ones as well. But not fluent.   MENTAL ILLNESSES: depression when younger (until she turns 28 and we go to the next phase of her life, in which she has that and PTSD, panic attacks, and anger issues).

SHORT VERSION OF HER BACKSTORY

For people who won't read a longer one, but there is more to read after the long version, and keep in mind that this is just a summary: super happy princess and knight of the White Kingdom, can be found everywhere doing pretty much anything whether appropriate or not, hopeful, stubborn, chatty, blunt, overprotective, good listener but can be petty, loves dances and ballgowns as much as armors and swords. Peak Chaotic Dumbass always ready to go get in trouble. Very affectionate. She will be very appreciative of everyone until proven wrong. Sometimes she sees the world in many shades of grey, other times it's black and white and she will kill if she believes it necessary. Always working when home and bad at letting people help her, when outside she's a loud and enthusiastic (and not so graceful) knight who may not make the best decisions. Traumatized in her love life (toxic manipulative boyfriend Arian who was with her to prove he could tame her and broke her heart), she lost hope about finding her own love and plans an arranged marriage for herself, believing most of her life will stop once she's married and that she'll spend the rest of her life in the castle, but trying to make the best of it for her people. An adventurer. She convinced she's too weak to handle true pain because of the 'melancholy' that hit her after Arian but the depression actually came from her heart remembering she was meant to be pregnant in her original (canon) timeline.

Will really appreciate good looking men as well and flirt, doesn't mean she expects anything to happen, but she does have one night stands and keeps in touch in a friendly way sometimes, just runs away from love.

The future she was meant to have (the canon tvshow) was changed and never happened because of canon Rumplestiltskin not drinking a potion to forget what he learned about the future so he could change it, but she feels the absence of a son without knowing she was meant to have him and has no idea she has magic; the fairies, trying to help her, gave her teas that are memory potions to suppress all that pain and memories and to avoid the rise of another evil queen.

When she'll turn 28, the time when she was meant to be the Savior, she'll remember and her mind will shatter due to potions and too many fake memories in her alternate realities. She'll be also captured by clerics and tortured to try to get rid of her powers. Her mind will be filled with dark magic in an attempt to keep her memories together, and her own white magic can hurt it, there are different lives constantly fighting in her head and more than that the agony of having lost Henry, her son, and that entire destiny, making her turn against everyone who had a part in it - and pretend to not love anyone else anymore so that the people she cares for won't be used against her.

LONG BACKSTORY

AU Where the curse didn’t happen because canon Rumplestiltskin didn’t drink the potion to forget what Emma Swan told him about Neal dying, and changed his future. He created a parallel universe where Regina was defeated and cast away (with his help, because he found out Belle was alive and trapped by the queen, and he wanted revenge). 

In the Enchanted Forest, Emma grew up with her parents, and with Pinocchio and Alexandra at her side, a happy, adventurous child; around age fifteen, when so often spending time in town, she was courted by the son of the baker, Arian, who had a bet going with his friends: he'd be able to tame the wild princess. After a year of being together, the guilt of having made the princess, who had turned out to be so nice (and that he had manipulated into becoming as ladylike and gentle as he wanted), fall in love with him pushed him to confess the truth.

Emma's heart was broken: she lied to everyone about the reason of the breakup, told everyone he had realized he didn't love her and that was all, and spent days feeling humiliated, betrayed and hurt, until one day she met Grace, the Hatter's daughter, and ran away with her to go on an adventure and forget. She came back days later, knowing her parents and friends must be dying of worry, and tried to make up for it, to act normal, but she wasn't so successful. Months later she started feeling even more miserable right when she should have been pregnant in a world without magic. She couldn't remember a life that she didn't live but her heart was hurting, not forgetting a child that should have been there, a consequence of changing the future.

She began to feel a new odd emptiness that she couldn’t explain, knowing there was something or someone that she missed, until one day when Henry was supposed to be born she felt the very real physical pain from it and thought she might be dying or going insane; that was the last push for her to ask the Blue Fairy for help and start fighting again, wanting to be happy again both for herself and her loved ones, receiving a magical tea that was meant tot help and that suppressed her memories. She stopped believing she'd find love, but found joy in helping others, in adventures, in mixing her passion for duels and her silliness to the love for dances and clothes and food.

Blue knew part of what she had lost, and could feel that in the future they were all at risk of getting a new, terrible villain, so she was trying to save Emma and the kingdom.

Sadly, her attempts were not meant to work.

Emma didn't tell anyone else about her pains and nightmares (except for Grace who found out on her own) and is still traveling, enjoying her freedom and sure that her life the way she likes it will end once she'll have to take the crown and be trapped in her castle; she also wants to prove herself as a hero, a warrior like her parents, which is why it's easy to find her fighting beasts or exploring dangerous places, but also befriending everyone she meets and trying to help them, as 'tactful' and hopeful as her father and as trusting and impulsive as her mother. She loves fun, visits so often Hansel and Gretel's tavern that her townpeople just expect her there at this point, gets in danger whenever she can take a break from her duties, still chased by the rebels who don't want her parents to rule or are on the side of the Evil Queen, and of course the men under old King George's control, who never accepted the loss of his real son.

On her twenty-eight birthday in this world she will remember everything, and between the knowledge of the life she was meant to have, the loss of a true love who was never born, the teas given her to suppress memories, and her own magic, and torture from clerics to get rid of her witch said, Emma will break and temporarily retreat to find a way to control her magic, to make sure her memories won't go away again, and to plan revenge on anyone responsible for it. She'll pretend to be fully evil and not care about anyone anymore after her change so that they won't be targeted by the enemies she's making (Rumplestiltskin, the fairies, even Cora), which is easier to do when looking at her family makes her only remember the things she's lost, and feel the guilt because she was beloved and now she can't be with them anymore.

Cold skin, dark magic trying to keep her mind together and making it painful to use white magic, she'll be hiding in the summer palace and planning revenge, but the role of villain will never suit her too well. (She doesn't know, but Henry's spirit lives in Neverland and can be brought back.)

Note: she does plan to take the dark curse from Rumplestiltskin if possible and finally die and reunite with Henry, taking it with Henry. Suicidal ideation is therefore present, as well as depression and PTSD from torture and more. I can get around it if needed because it's a trigger to you, although when it comes to wanting to die it's not exactly a constant theme (Emma fighting depression and mood swings is, however.) You can find a few more details here.

A HEADS UP ABOUT THE CHARACTER

While she does work hard so that one day she’ll be able to reign and make her people happy (which involves knowing laws and working with them to better people’s lives, take care of the kingdom’s resources, taxes and so on) she’s not the best diplomat yet, and her recklessness and bluntness, even if she tries to ‘fix it’, plus her inappropriate behaviors, have created friction between her and many other royals from other kingdoms. 

There has been one occasion in which she went to fight a dragon without proper armor because she forgot it, too in a rush to get back to a town where some delicious pies were on sale. She almost died, predictably, and to this day Pinocchio and Grace will bring up this story to try to slow down whatever new quest she has in mind. Everything can be made into a quest.

Animals come to her when she sings (especially those from the Enchanted Forest).

She can tell when people are lying, though not always, depending on how emotional she is.

She has a black horse that she called Apple - because at first he was insufferable and nobody could stand his temper. Now he is still insufferable and scary, but at least not to her. He's a giant horse and had potentially some magical ancestor but it's hard to tell.

Enchanted Forest verses

princess v. stealing beans: verse where she either willingly crossed a portal open by a bean or feel through one and ended up in another world - for crossovers in which she's still princess Emma. 

v. royal cinnamon: anything set from her birth until Arian breaks up with her a few months after turning sixteen. Emma is more inexperienced, hasn’t traveled much yet, though she does train to be a knight. At fifteen, after the courting started, she dropped some of her tomboy attitude to be more ladylike, the way Arian was manipulating her to be, and she found out that she liked that too. Balls, ballgowns, tea parties and everything that she had rejected as a child. 

v. melancholy: set after the break up and finding out it was all for a bet Arian made with friends (being able to tame the wild princess). In the following months she had to recover from heartbreak; she met Grace the day after the breakup and joined her on an adventure, running away for a few days but regretting it because of the pain caused to her family. She did like the taste of adventure and promised herself to travel more. However that’s when the ‘no Henry’ sickness started, hitting her body and mind and leaving her hopeless and barely able to interact with friends for a year until she slowly began to heal because of Blue’s teas. She believes the 'melancholy' was due to the break up and that she's too weak to handle love, and that the pains that sometimes she still feels are due to stress. 

v. born to be wild: anything set after she starts travelling and seeing the world, around eighteen, and before her twenty-eight birthday. Emma is balancing duties of a princess who one day wants to rule and pleasures of a knight who enjoys life fully. She also counts down to the day when she knows she’ll have to force herself to marry someone for the good of the kingdom. 

potential verse that doesn’t happen in every timeline - v. white witch: Emma learns she has magic and runs away from the castle, knowing her people will reject another ‘witch’ in charge, hiding and trying to use her magic to save people without getting too exposed.

 v. dark witch: anything set after her 28 birthday when she remembers everything and her brain shatters. Memories come and go constantly, her magic is out of control, she wants revenge and Henry back. She’s captured by clerics once, tortured, and after freeing herself she retires to the Summer Palace, with some loyal servants choosing to join her. She acts heartlessly with her old friends and people in general to avoid weakness (though she’s not great at keeping the act when people are in danger) and plots the fairies’ destruction and Rumplestiltskin’s ruin using memories from lives she hasn’t lived. She will join anyone who can get her what she wants. She also used dark magic to stitch her mind back together, reason why when she uses white magic she hurts herself tremendously.

also potential verse -  v. dark one: set after she takes the dagger and becomes Dark One in one way or another (Rumple might or might not be still alive and suffering if she found a way to transfer the darkness to herself). The fairies might or might not have been defeated. She’s more in control of her powers and memories.

v. hope: set after she finds out Henry can be brought back (through Neverland, or the other Authors) and starts travelling to find what she needs for that to happen. She doesn’t publicize her identity to avoid trouble, but also because any enemy who finds out she still cares about something might use it against her.

v. mother and believer: set after Henry is born/brought back to her and Emma has retired, hiding from enemies and raising her son or, in verses where she got Henry back without going through a dark witch stage, is simply keeping him with her at the castle.

v. the Mad Hag: Emma was taken away and locked into a tower by Rumplestiltskin (or someone else, it can be plotted) before her 28th birthday so that she wouldn't be a danger once remembering her other life, her magic also suppressed. When her memories did come back, free to wreck havoc in her mind, Emma remembered the life she was meant to live as Emma Swan, and the cursed life Regina gave her so she could leave with Henry before Pan's curse hit, and her own Enchanted Forest life, and with no magic to help, the pain took over her mind, leaving her in a constant state of confusion, lives and memories overlapping and every now and then allowing her to remember other people the way they were in other lives. Once freed, of course her mind will slowly clear up again, as well as her magic which would be out of control. She's scared and lost, and will have to put back the pieces of the puzzle to understand what happened.

v. mermaid curse: Emma is accidentally cursed to be a mermaid every day and turn back into a woman every night until receiving a kiss of (romantic) true love. She has resigned herself to live this way, trying not to swim too far when a mermaid or she'll drown at sunset, and not to deep into the forest or she'll end up trapped on the ground by her own tail. If she didn't believe in finding love as a woman, how can she now? Open of course to all sorts of relationships, not just romantic threads.

v. twelve hours curse: same concept as the mermaid curse, but in this case she can turn into different species: dragon, dog, swan.

#ef about page for mobile #enchanted forest about page for mobile #enchanted forest about page

[realm-of-dragons]

Staff App - Nemu (OC)

Played by Admin Grimm

OOC:

Name: Grimm

Age: 21

Preferred Pronouns: Any!

Timezone: PST

Discord: N/A

Any topics you want added to the content warning list?: Pandemics

Second choice character?: Bakugo or Hawks

IC:

Name: Takahashi Nemu 

Age: 48, physically older due to magic abuse.

Gender ID / pronouns: Cis-Male, He/Him

OTPs, BroTPs, or NoTPS?: I have ship plans, but because of the particular dynamic, we’re always down for more dumb drama- It should be noted, however, that Nemu is demisexual/demiromantic and is predisposed for deep and unhealthy obsession. 

Race: Human, Mage 

Appearance: Nemu is extremely short and on the thinner side, though his build is still fairly healthy. He has long violet hair, which he rarely ties back, and it tends to fall across his face when he’s working. His eyes are light gray and have permanent dark circles stretched beneath them. He almost always has a scowl and very rarely smiles, although he has been rumored to smile at small children. In spite of his age, his skin is relatively smooth; this is the result of regular rejuvenation potion consumption. 

Role: Court Physician and Alchemist, serving King Toshinori. Technically a healer, though he doesn’t practice it much anymore. 

Skills:

Nemu specializes in healing magic, although he very rarely uses it to directly heal injuries. 

Primarily, he enchants potions capable of inducing sleep, easing pain, and promoting regenerative functions within the body.

His sleeping draught is infamous, and an invention of his own. He’s improved the process and strength of most of the potions regularly made by court healers.

In his youth, he was often regarded as a prodigy and genius, although in recent years he’s let his progress slip due to failing health, and in pursuit of more dubious research. 

He once theorized a method for applying the trade off of human magic to combat, wherein he healed himself by using an enemy’s life energy as a catalyst- After a single application born from desperation, he burned the documents, and has since marked it as a forbidden magic never to be pursued.

He has negative combat skills. He’s garbage in a fight. He will die. Don’t make him fight.

Backstory:

1.) 

The cauldron bubbles in front of him, smoke billowing up. He’s done this a thousand times before, the ingredients and motions are practically instinctual- He could repeat the actions in his sleep, if he had to- and perhaps this is no different. Fatigue and permanent exhaustion eat away his consciousness. He wonders when he’ll cease existing in the present. 

Shadows dance around him, closing in. Just like that, for a brief moment, he is ten years old again; ten years old, naive, gullible, and proud, but ten years old and a prodigy. He remembers the praise he received when he first successfully enchanted a potion, the exhaustion that followed after, and the pride in his parents eyes. Ten years old, prodigal, and the genius son of two mages. At ten, he could spin sleeping draughts that even adult alchemists struggled with. 

That was the last time he felt rested.

He applies a bit too much force with his spell. The moment ends. The cauldron bubbles over. He yelps, scrambling to salvage his mistake. 

There’s no use. He’ll start over. It’ll probably be another sleepless night spent fixing his mistakes. He’s hardly ten years old anymore. At forty-eight, washed out and struggling to stay afloat, Nemu wonders when he’ll become obsolete. 

Soon, he thinks. He’s expiring. It’s just a matter of time. 

2.) 

Nemu serves his king diligently, but from a respectable distance. 

It wasn’t always like this. Nemu would never dare presume he was ever friends with the king, but friendly, perhaps. They spoke more frequently, and with less tension. Nemu is never certain whether that tension is definite, or whether it’s a mere product of his sleep deprivation. Answers will never come because he’s fine the way things are now. 

Brewing potions takes little effort, even now as his health begins to slip. This is something he can do in his sleep, if necessary. It’s his element. Even as the fatigue settles in, making day to day tasks more difficult, he’s still trudging onward with his work. There’s no need to stop. He’s useful this way.

So he brews his potions daily. Sometimes, he may tend directly to an ill noble or an injured knight. Sometimes - more rarely - he might see the king. 

King Toshinori is a kind man. He is the type of person beloved by every individual he speaks to, and Nemu has no doubt that it’s deserved. He’s almost single handedly united an entire race into one fully functioning and peaceful society, right? That’s what everyone says, that’s what he’s praised for. He’s the type of person who cherishes everyone he meets, regardless of status.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it? The king is too kind. 

Nemu thinks of what he’s done, what he’s given up, what’s been sacrificed and left to perish within his own flesh for the benefit of another. He thinks of all the choices he’s ever made that contributed to his downfall, and how with a change in perspective, they could be viewed as either noble loyalty or ingrained stupidity. He knows that if King Toshinori knew the truth, he would view his actions as neither. Because that’s the problem. King Toshinori is kind, and Nemu gave up far more than any sane person would to keep him alive. Knowing would lead to nothing but pitiful guilt. 

So Nemu avoids him. 

Some days are easier than others.

3.) 

“Are you okay?” 

It’s one of those rare moments when King Toshinori manages to hunt him down. Nemu knows he’s difficult to find, because he’s purposely avoiding the king, for a plethora of reasons.  King Toshinori’s frown makes Nemu's scowl deepen. It’s… A complex situation, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Of course it was stupid to think he could go undetected forever. Talking to King Toshinori is inevitable. It always is.

Nemu wants to ignore the question outright, but this is the king, and he expects an answer. No. Of course he’s not okay. When has he ever been okay? The more he uses his damn magic the worse it gets. That’s why he gave up healing, isn’t it? He’s constantly exhausted, suffers from frequent minor ailments(it could be worse, he tries to reason), and his magic is growing more difficult to control. There are days he cannot sleep at all, plagued by the torment of his body - or sometimes his brain - and there are others where he cannot tell if he’s sleeping or awake. 

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to question the very air you breathe? ‘What if I drown? What if this isn’t really oxygen I’m sucking in? What if I’m not really here?’ Do you ever take a step and think, ‘what if the floor isn’t really there, what if I’m just imagining it’? ‘What if I take one more step and it gives way, and I fall, and never stop falling?’ 

Nemu stares at his feet, words catching at his lips. There is, of course, the other  matter. The injury. Nemu saved his life, and he does not regret it, not really- But King Toshinori doesn’t know the price he paid to heal him. Because it isn’t that simple. The king should have died. He might have, really. Nemu still isn’t certain. No mortal man should have survived such injuries. 

Nemu still remembers the pain. The sounds. The light. The abrupt feeling of age catching up to him. As he’d later confirmed with another healer, he had aged. Not enough for others to notice, but enough to remind him of the grimm reality that every action has a consequence. That magic has a price. 

He can’t say any of that, though, and King Toshinori expects an answer, so he bites his lip and swallows his disdain.

“I’m fine.” He lies through gritted teeth. He doesn’t know if it’s convincing but he no longer cares.

4.) 

There is but one thing Chiharu ever says that resonates with him; ‘rules are meant to be broken.’ Perhaps not in the context of the law- Nemu is hardly lawful, but he knows when to play at obedience. There is a natural order to adhere to, and he hardly has the energy to fight his own body on good days, let alone deal with the consequences of immorality. That makes them different. 

The two of them combined are wrong. They fit together like water and oil, and Nemu’s never certain who is which, but they agree on one thing, and one thing alone. There must be a way to cheat the cost of performing magic. Nemu is generally rule abiding, but even he recognizes when alternative means are necessary. 

Chiharu doesn’t question his sudden change in moral principles, though he does ask why now. Nemu, lost in thought, doesn’t know how to best answer. There’s no rhyme or reason for the change, but it isn’t some childish whim. It’s been building for a while, he thinks. Since Toshinori’s injury. Since he retired from healing. Since the fatigue set in and refused to leave. Since the realization he’s expiring faster than he ought to be. He doesn’t know. There’s little sentimentality between he and Chiharu, and Nemu doubts there ever will be. But that doesn’t matter.

“I’ve sold my soul to save another,” he begins, the words poetic but bitter on his tongue. “I want it back.”

Chiharu just laughs, deep and more than a bit sinister, but he takes Nemu’s hand.

No… There is no sentimentality, but Chiharu will humor him, because there is loyalty, and in the end, they desire the same thing.

Change.

Extras:

Nemu suffers from a mix of chronic fatigue and insomnia as side effects to magic overuse. He is quite vocal about his insomnia but has become quite adept at hiding the fatigue. 

On most days one would only notice something amiss if they knew him particularly well before the incident, but on bad days he tends to lock himself away in either his living space or his lab, depending on how impactful it is on his ability to work. 

Nemu prefers bland foods, and absolutely despises excessive spice. He does not season his food when left to prepare it on his own, and he is rarely allowed to cook for other people.

He loves cats, although he has not kept one around in over a decade.

Writing sample:

Nemu has met the king’s advisor before. The man is no stranger, although he is strange - Nemu himself is strange, but of a different variety. He’s human, and in spite of what he’s been told, he gets the very distinct feeling that Aizawa is not. Nemu has never particularly cared whether his patients are human or otherwise - he specializes in human healing, but he’s picked up knowledge and skills to help anyone in need. 

But that’s not entirely relevant, because Aizawa isn’t here regarding himself.

“The king is coughing, again.” Aizawa tells him, and Nemu nods.

Of course. It’s always the king. 

He goes about gathering ingredients, taking care to select only the highest quality ones from his stores. He has potions made up already, but everything made for the king is made by his own two hands, and he doesn’t know who brewed the last batch of this specific recipe. Aizawa watches him work, refusing to leave, and Nemu does his best to ignore him. There’s no difference whether he’s alone or in company - he’ll get his work done regardless, and he’ll do it well.

But… Aizawa doesn’t ordinarily stay. Not like this. Nemu has served the king for many years, and he may not be the most trustworthy person alive, but his skills and loyalty are unfaltering. Eyes narrowed, he glances at the advisor. “There’s something you wish to say. You wouldn’t be here still, otherwise.”

“You’re avoiding King Toshinori.”

Oh.

Nemu was not expecting… That. Whatever responses Nemu holds die on his tongue as he struggles to process the situation. He has been avoiding the king. There’s no excuse and no denial. He’s been avoiding King Toshinori, and that’s the entire truth. But… It shouldn’t be an issue, right? It really shouldn’t be, not when he’s just a man. Sure, they’d been on friendly terms, prior, but Nemu isn’t friends with the fucking king. He can choose whether he wants to isolate, can’t he?

There are a lot of ways he could respond. He could be sympathetic, perhaps, and apologize. He could promise to do better, to change his ways and seek the king out more often, if it really makes such a difference. He could be polite - but he isn’t. Instead, he chooses sarcasm, because he can’t fathom how his behaviors in any way matter to the king. “Oh, I’m sure he’s so disappointed in my absence.” Nemu scoffs, returning to his ingredients. He has work to do, after all.

Aizawa regards him for another moment before responding, “Don’t.” 

As the advisor turns to leave, Nemu calls out “I won’t.” But it’s a lie, and he’s certain Aizawa sees right through him.

#bnha oc rp #mha oc rp #staff apps

[rbzpr]

Robespierre against Cloots (22 Frimaire, Year II)

Following the exclusion of Duhem from the Jacobin Club, Anacharsis Cloots, representative of Oise, was summoned for a scrutin épuratoire. When asked about his country of origin, he responded: « I am from Prussia, future department of the French Republic ». Cloots then was requested to explain his relations with the bankers Vandenyver, who had been condemned to death by the Tribunal on 17 Frimaire, Year II. Robespierre took the floor, attacking Cloots for his role in the movement of dechristianization and in the establishment of the "Cult of Reason". He closed his speech by demanding the exclusion of all bankers, foreigners and former noblemen from the Jacobin Club ; this proposal was adopted and applied to Cloots, who was a foreigner and nobleman.

Robespierre. Can we regard a German baron as a patriot? Can we regard a man who has more than ten thousand livres of income as a sans-culotte? Can we believe that a man who lives only with bankers, the counter-revolutionary enemies of France, is a republican? No, Citizens, let us be cautious towards foreigners who want to appear more patriotic than the French themselves. Cloots, you spend your life with our enemies, with the agents and the spies of the foreign powers; like them, you are a traitor who has to be monitored. Citizens, Cloots just explained everything to you; he knows the Vandenyvers, and knew that they are counter-revolutionaries. He assures you that he has ceased to see them, but even this is a trickery of the Prussian. Thus, why, Cloots, if you knew that the Vandenyvers are counter-revolutionaries, did you come to request their release at the Committee of General Security: speak, what do you have to respond?

But these charges are insignificant when dealing with M. Cloots. His treasons stem from a system [that is] hatched better. Citizens, you have at times seen him at the feet of the tyrant and of the Court, at times kneeling before the people... When a liberticidal faction dominated in our midst, when all the leaders held the reigns of the government, Cloots embraced the party of Brissot and Dumoriez. When they served the foreign powers, and made us declare war, the Prussian Cloots frantically supported their opinions; he made patriotic donations, extolled the generals, and wanted us to attack the Universe... His conduct attracted the scorn of the faction nonetheless. His amour-propre made him publish a pamphlet titled « Ni Marat ni Roland ». Therein, he clouted the latter, but he clouted the Montagne even more.

I accuse Cloots of having increased the number of the partisans of federalism. His extravagant opinions, his obstinacy to speak of a Universal Republic, to inspire the rage of conquests, could produce the same effect as the seditious declamations and writings of Brissot and Lanjuinais. And how could M. Cloots take an interest in the unity of the Republic, in the interests of France: scorning the title of French citizen, he only wanted the one of citizen of the World. Ah! if he had been a good Frenchman, would he have wanted us to attempt the conquest of the Universe?... And would he have wanted us to make a French department out of Mutapa? Would he have wanted us to declare war on the Earth and on all elements? Could these allegedly philosophical ideas enter the head of a sensible man, or the one of a good man?

There is a third crisis that M. Cloots will be able to boast about, but it will only be before imbeciles or rascals... I do not want to speak of the movement against religion, a movement which, ripened by time and reason, could have become excellent, but whose violence could bring about the greatest misfortunes, and which have to be attributed to the calculations of the aristocracy... Gobel, whose entire political conduct you know, was among these priests who complained about the reduction of their salaries, and whose ambition wanted to revive the hydra of the ci-devant clergy... And nonetheless, we have seen this bishop suddenly changing his tone, language and clothes, appearing at the bar of the National Convention, and offering his lettres de prêtrise to us. Ah! Cloots, you know about your nocturnal visits and complots. We know that, covered by the shadows of the night, you have prepared this philosophical masquerade with the bishop Gobel. You anticipated the fatal consequences that such approaches can have; by this very fact, they only further pleased our enemies. Cloots undoubtedly believed that the true friends of the people had taken the bait and were fooled by these masquerades. He came to boast about this pleasant achievement at the Committee... « But, I told him, you have recently told us that it was necessary to enter the Netherlands, to give them independence, and to treat the inhabitants like brothers... So, why do you seek to alienate the Belgians from us by upsetting prejudices to which they are, as you know, strongly attached? ... – Oh! oh! he responded, the damage was already done... One has treated us like impious [non-believers] a thousand times. – Yes, but there were no events. » (Cloots grew pale, did not dare to respond and left.)

Citizens, will you regard as a patriot a foreigner who wants to be more democratic than the French and whom one sees in the Marais at times, at times above the Montagne? because Cloots was never in the Montagne; he was always above or below. He never was the defender of the French people, but the one of humankind. Alas! unfortunate patriots, what can we do, surrounded by enemies who fight amidst our ranks! They cover themselves with masks, they tear us apart, and we can feel the wounds without knowing where the murderous bolts are coming from. We can no longer do anything, our mission is completed. The wisest laws, by means of traitors who are spread in all Committees of the Assembly, in all administrations, in all offices, turn to the disadvantage of the Republic. Our enemies, risen even above the Montagne, take us from behind in order to deliver mortal blows to us. Let us stay awake, for the death of the patrie is not far away. Ah! no, the one of the patriots does not matter, they have to make this sacrifice. But, alas! the one of the patrie is inevitable, if the cowards are not recognised.

Citizens, I pray you to reflect: when we have decreed rigorous laws against the nobles, Cloots was excepted; when he have decreed the arrest of the foreigners, Cloots was been excepted; what do I say, excepted! in the same moment, Cloots was elected president of the Jacobins: thus, through an infallible consequence, the foreign party dominates amidst the Jacobins. Yes, the foreign powers have, amidst us, their spies, their ministers, treasurers and a police. But we, we have the people, which wants to be free and will be... The bankers conspire with impunity. They let our assignats au pair rise only in order to hoard our money; when they want crowds at the doors of bakers, they are besieged. They decide on the peace in this city; and the intrepid patriots, the friends of the Republic, are exposed to a thousand dangers... Paris is filled with intriguers, Englishmen and Austrians. They sit among us with the agents of Frederick... Cloots is a Prussian... I have traced the history of his political life for you... Decide.

Source: OMR, t. 10, p. 247 et seq.

#French Revolution #frev #robespierre #cloots #anacharsis cloots #year ii #translation #jacobins #jacobin club