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hotarutranslations · 3 years

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Happiness!

Evening Its Ishida Ayumi

M-line Special 20201 ~Make a Wish!~

I particpated in the Sendai performance

My seniors were, really sparkling on stage,

The energy was overflowing

It was really cool

Before, when I participated as the secret guest for the Sendai performance, I didn't think I would get to do it the next time but!

This time I was able to particpate again in this way,

With that, today,

Was the lat time Pink Cres. will perform with an audience, it was also the last day so, I witnessed a very special stage

Its not like I was able to work a lot with, PINK CRES.-san,

In particular this time we were standing on stage together,

Kobayashi Hikaru-san, Nihei Yuka-san,

It was my first time with both of them but they're good at talking so, I also got along with them...

Before, with Hikaru-chan, I went out to eat with her and Yamaki Risa-chan! lol

And Nihei-san was envious of that... <3

Man, it feels like, we should definitely go out, since I got to talk with them,

We may not have stood on stage together as much as I would have liked but, I feel that I'll really cherish that we met in this way

But it was like today was a wonderful performance,

Within that, I was also being watched over,

Getting support,

and getting the power from everyone!!

Really, thank you very much

"Ijiwarushinaide Dakishimete yo" "Watashi no Dekkai Hana" "One Two Three"

I also got to sing this the previous time, In addition to these 3 memorable songs,

Today with everyone,

"DANCE de Bakoon!" "Love & Pea~e! HERO ga yattekita."

Excitedly doing those 2 songs as well,

Further,

With Suzuki Airi-san,

"Ii Koto to Aru Kinen no Shunkan" "DISTANCE"

we got to sing those 2 songs as a medley

Those that know, know, these......

At last years birthday event, I did my first one man play, during the play I sang those 2 songs

Girl without confidence, (there is one thing or another) Like the lyrics of Ii Koto Aru Kinen no Shunkan to be confident, becoming the singer they dreamed of, as the first song they sang on stage, they chose Suzuki Airi-san's DISTANCE

thats my memory of it!

When I conveyed I was going to sing DISTANCE, she sent a video of the dance, Further she came and watched the event,

It was like that,

That,

I didn't think I'd have the opportunity to,

since the sng with Suzuki-san,

Who imagined this......

I love Suzuki-san, She's cool, brilliant, strong and cute, She is the best and the strongest

I've also listend to DISTANCE so many times

Today, on the same stage, next to Suzuki-san, Hearing the lyrics from her voice next to me, I kind of couldn't believe it, I believed this the least (?)

I could only do the best I did but,

Getting to sing together, Really, thank you very much

I'm reallyyyy happy!!

Its a treasure!!

Also,

With Tanaka Reina-san,

"Zero Kara Hajimaru Seishun" "Dokka~n Capriccio" "SEXY BOY ~Soyokaze ni Yorisotte~"

I got to sing those 3 songs in a medley

<3 <3

Singing as the 2 of us with Tanaka-san, I didn't experience that when she was active so

My heart was pounding but,

I was really happy, it was fun, it was a blessing

When my eyes would meet Tanaka-san, she was really cute, if my eyes were eyelids I would show it to everyone!

I'm sorry, I can't show it as I don't have that←

Therefore I will cherish it in my memory!

In particular with Zero Kara Hajimaru Seishun, It had also been a while since I sang it, It seems like it had been a while for Tanaka-san too,

its a song recorded for ⑬Colorful Character

I! Super like Colorful Character! Thats right, it was my first album!

At the time may I was 16

After that I also became an adult, being able to sing this with Tanaka-san again,

No matter what I'm happy about it!!

Probably, 10th generation will be jealous when we talk about it

Since everyone loves it

This song, and Tanaka-san too

Not only did I get to sing with her on stage,

I also got to be in a dressing room with her, We talked about various things but,

Its really cool that Tanaka-san continues to be the person she likes,

I wanted to talk to her more

But being able to be together today, It was such a luxury my heart is full!!

Wa-----!!

(Somehow my facial muscles look so bad so please don't look)

The photo I took with Suzuki-san, I unknowingly put some weird filter on it, it ended up feeling all fluffy

Its really a bad photo

Also, a photo with everyone <3

Thank you for your support!

I'll also do my best at the Summer Hello! Project concert

Hello! Project 2021 Summer Sapphire & Ruby

see you ayumin <3

https://ameblo.jp/morningmusume-10ki/entry-12683173171.html

#Ishida Ayumi #Morning Musume #Morning Musume '21 #Tanaka Reina #Suzuki Airi #Natsuyaki Miyabi #Nihei Yuka #Kobayashi Hikaru #Miyamoto Karin #Ogata Risa #Hello! Project #Translation #Blog

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rose-icosahedron · 4 years

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Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: I dont know - Relationship, i might have some romance later, still unsure - Relationship Characters: Hermitcraft Ensemble, Charles | Grian, Xisumavoid (Video Blogging RPF), ZombieCleo Additional Tags: Watcher Grian, herobrine Xisuma, Alternate Universe, I have no idea what genere this is, multiple plotlines but i swear they all conect in the end, probobly some angst, some violence, and sickness in later chapters, but nothing graphic, lots of particpation from the watchers, and some ocs - Freeform Summary:

X is herobrine and perpetually scared of the watchers repeated attempts to remove him from existence. After the nether update Grian gets a visit from the watchers, Cleo starts acting strange and both X and Cleo start both having these weird dreams that almost seem more like memories.

this is an original watcher au, I actually haven't read atus (or any other complete watcher fics).

look, its chapter 4

#hermitcraft #fanfic #forgotten history au

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maid-of-the-golden-deer · 5 years

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I am about to drop a take that will get me kicked off the internet but if you’d do me the courtesy of getting at least halfway through before killing me I’d appreciate.

Guess what, grown ass adult who makes porn of media for children and teens who say “I’m not responsible for kids I don’t know”, yes you motherfucking are.

You ever heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”? With the advent of the internet and the ability of progressively younger and younger people to access a wider variety of information as well as form relationships with a wider variety of people, you have become part of their international, digital village. Children have always been raised communally, they are designed to be so. That doesn’t mean every single person is responsible for every aspect of their life, you don’t have to put food on their table or a roof over their head, that is the responsibility of their actual, in real life community.

But you DO share a slice of the responsibility for forming their values, and have a say in the atmosphere in spaces that are ultimately designed for them. If a ten year old Googles “amethyst steven universe”, for example, the results she should get should all be PG. Because it’s a children show. For kids. The audience is not you, I’m sorry to say. If a fourteen year old budding into fandom just watched an anime they really love where all the characters are their age and feel a kinship with, there should not be smut fics of those very tweens (and if you “age them up”, you’re just looking for an acceptable means to write porn of those children), on wherever they’re looking for fanfic.

I may be from a state that until very recently practiced Blue laws but that doesn’t mean I’m saying you have to live the repressed Puritanical lifestyle now. There is media aimed at older audiences, where all the characters are involved are of consenting age, and sure, feel free to go hog wild on the smut. Just make sure you properly tag and categorize it so it doesn’t end up where it shouldn’t be.

(That’s not to say that theres an issue with teens using the internet and the things they watch, play, and read as a testing ground for their own sexuality, I definitely did. But there is a stark, aggressive difference between someone in the targeted age group writing that and a goddamn adult doing the same).

Like I mentioned in a post I made awhile ago about how we live in a society where you must create your media concious of the society around you, just make that shit respectably. For example, don’t just use child abuse as a cheap and easy way to create angst and make your antagonist look like a bastard without addressing any of the mental and physical repercussions on the child, because that has the power to hurt real, actual people. Some of those people are adult childhood abuse survivors, and errant children/teens who are currently living those experiences who have wandered into a space not aimed at them. Because you do have a responsibility to such people. Same goes for domestic violence, racism (especially violent racism), sexual violence, etc etc. You simply do not get to depict those things without sparing a thought to the people who suffer from them in real life.

And if the above is true, then the same is true that you just can’t uncritically create media in spaces for minors.

Speaking from personal experience, when I was younger, I would read smut for characters that I felt a deeply personal connection to, that I related to about my uniquely teenage struggles. And then later in life I found out that smut was written by someone who was well into adulthood at the time, it felt like they were fetishing my mere existence as a struggling teen. I was horrified, and still am. Don’t be the asshole that does that to another young person.

So tldr, you do have some personal responsibility for minors you don’t know, its just how society is, how it always was, and how it will always be. You don’t have to act like a sexless, bleach-clean Saturday morning cartoon character, but you do have to respect that there are just certain spaces that are not meant for you, which you can still particpate in, but must be concious of all your actions while you do so.

#long post #social justice #responsibility #idk what else to tag this as #critical

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larstenobar · 4 years

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Okay so I mentioned it in the tags but I kinda wanna talk about my experiences with So/uth Pa/rk. I say this as a cis, gay, non-Jewish man. I also say this as someone who used to actually engage with the forums on the main site. I also say this as someone who played. both the two major video game RPGs. So I am speaking not from reaction to other people’s reactions but from my own personal knowledge. This post is incredibly long so it’s under a read more. In it I provide what I believe are the actual effects of South Park on its viewership but I need to stress that I think it’s the wrong energy to blame parents for letting their children watch the show.

Don’t blame the parents, blame the show.

That show is genuinely horrible. I’ve seen a lot of people questioning how anyone could let children watch it - and to that I say you’re not adding anything to the conversation by shaming parents for letting their children watch that show.

My own parents weren’t even out of their twenties when I watched the show, and many other parents grew up with the show as a non-issue. Young parents make mistakes.

At the time it came out and its early years only extremely vigilant parents realized how problematic the show was and the news was hard to spread without social media. At best you could inform your parent friends and hope they listened.

The show’s main characters are children, many parents found/find it hard to believe that a show with children as the main characters could be bad for those children. If the show were exactly the same but the children were college-aged then it would be another raunchy show they could easily see is not meant for their kids.

There’s a good portion of children who watched the show that weren’t actually allowed to watch it because their parents weren’t as tech savvy as them and therefore didn’t know about pirating/streaming until it was mainstream. We who grew up with YouTube knew you could put in [show] episode 1 part 1 and start watching. (this is gonna be another point later btw)

I know that it’s hard for you guys to even know all the reasons it’s problematic because you all barely scratch the surface of it’s problems. But before we even get into the meat of its problems (Science Denial, Homophobia, Transphobia, Ableism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, etc.) we have to look at the very premise of the show.

The main characters begin in fourth grade. Fourth Grade. There’s a phenomena in our culture where we believe that children saying stupid stuff is harmless, and we forget that when children hear children speak - even animated children - they are hearing their peers. And peers learn from each other. This is why the show is so insidious, because it makes it easier for children to digest the messages.

Another thing that’s very important to note is that - while it’s labelled satire, every single joke is played straight, and the straight man character (usually either S or Ky) are ridiculed by the culture they’re surrounded in. Don’t believe me? Think I’m over-exaggerating? Think about the election episode, where they had to pick between a literal piece of shit or a douche. Our Straightmen were constantly saying how ridiculous the situation was, but everyone around them was telling them they were the ones who were stupid for not particpating in the election until they eventually break and submit to the absurdity. This is a light example, but it’s the typical formula. If they aren’t actively participating in the absurdity around them, they’re ridiculed until they break. What this tells the audience isn’t that the people who were particpating were stupid, but that they were right.

Now that we’ve looked at the show premise, let’s get into the details. A note: This is just what I remember from approximately age 5-18, the latter years I’d been turned off from it slowly so I wasn’t as engaged but it was not any better then. Since this is just what I can remember without looking through episodes or looking up articles, this is going to be a small sampling of things that stuck with me. Be assured, there was much, much, much more.

Science Denial and its effects on the viewers.

This is the lightest thing I can recall, and probably going to be the smallest section as it’s mostly centered around their stand-in for global warming, a cryptid figure called M/an/Be/ar/P/ig. Al G/ore was painted as a desperate, raving lunatic for believing in the phenomena, and was even implied to be making it up by having him dress up as the cryptid. I don’t have to explain why this is wrong, but we need to look at the effect this had.

On the one hand it made fans think that Global Warming (as it’s something A.G. believed in) was a hoax. Furthermore, it made them believe that anyone who believed in it was telling lies, which was overwhelmingly the most progressive people. A direct effect of these jokes (which they apologized for but never stopped propagating btw, MBP was still a joke when I stopped watching) was that progressives were seen as over-dramatic and stupid.

Now, I am not saying people watched these shows and immediately thought “oh wow, how fucking stupid of A.G. I don’t believe in climate change anymore.” It’s more like this: “Oh haha, S thinks A.G. is annoying, I like S so I agree, A.G. is annoying. You know, A.G. is kinda annoying with all that global warming, maybe there’s something to him being over-dramatic? Gosh why can’t these progressives see that it’s not that big of a deal. If they trust A.G. then they MUST be blowing other things out of proportion.” That’s the thought processes it trains its viewers to have.

LGBT+ Characters

Okay so there’s actually a lot of things that go into the Homophobia of S/P. And it goes back to the very beginning of the show, and is both explicit and implicit. There is a huge problem with these, but the main problem isn’t so much that they exist, but the show’s attitude towards their own ‘jokes’ and the ways in which fans suck up that thought process.

Before I get into this, there were some things that I need to say in favor of the show - not because I think the show deserve praise, but because there were some things that I latched onto and showed a surprising nuance. There’s like one thing, really but it is, of course, attached to something that’s a much larger issue within the show, so while it is a small glimmer, it’s in no way outshining any of the problems in the show.

For a while, the teacher underwent gender reassignment when he (the teacher currently identifies as male from my last interaction with the show) got breast implants and presumably bottom surgery (I vaguely remember a surgery but honestly that could be an invention) he was in a gay relationship. His then boyfriend had a very heartfelt and difficult conversation about how he still cared about him and how he’ll never hate him for being the woman that he wanted to be, but there was no way that he could pursue a relationship with him. I thought that this was a very mature depiction of a very difficult situation that is never really talked about. However, as I implied earlier, this is attached to a larger issue. Before any of you start having second thoughts about your ideas about S/P’s portrayal of gay and trans people, immediately after getting broken up with the teacher became violently homophobic as a backlash, I vaguely recall a group being formed.

Our main examples of LGBT individuals in the show are these big four (five?):

The afforementioned teacher

The teacher’s boyfriend, who wears leather gear at school and can’t stop talking kink even in front of the child characters

A character called B/ig G/ay A/l who is just as stereotypical as his name implies.

T/weak and C/raig, who are classmates of the focal characters. There’s a lot of reasons this is problematic, none of them being the age of those involved in the relationship - but the portrayal of them is hugely problematic.

Since I’ve already touched on the teacher, we’ll get into them first. When he was introduced, he was a sort of ambiguously gay character who was very bitchy and spoke with a slight lisp that eventually became a canon gay character with his relationship with the Kink Character. He was violently hateful towards his class, verbally abusing them all the time and often particpating in bullying children. Furthermore he’s seen as incompetent. This is problematic not because he’s a gay man doing this (though it’s not great either) but because this taught children that teachers don’t care about them and that they shouldn’t listen to them because they don’t know what they’re talking about anyways. This goes into their anti-intellectual stance mentioned earlier. It enforces the idea that education systems are useless, not because of the institutional problems they have with racism, but because of the incompetence of the system.

Going back to the point of this, still with the same character, let’s further explore the problems they had when the teacher had an arc as a trans woman. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to it, but the show made a point to let you know that the other characters were uncomfortable when Mr. G became Ms. G. The most damning thing about this, however, is the fact that Mr. G detransitioned bc he realized he wasn’t a straight woman, just a gay man. I think this is problematic because it frames transitioning as a sexual strategy. I don’t think I have to go into detail on why that’s problematic. And while this isn’t actually a tie into how horrible their handling of this character is, it should be noted that he’s the character that went on to be their T/rump stand-in.

The next character is the Kink Man.

God, the character’s personality isn’t actually all that bad. He’s loving and caring and empathetic and actually usually on the right side of topics, but. He doesn’t separate his kink from his personal life. He’s always strutting around in leather-daddy gear and has a lisp. His name is literally Mr. S/lave. There was an episode where he shoved a hamster in his ass. To viewers, he represents the dirty gays that keep shoving their sex-life down their throats - and this view is never, ever, ever subverted, so since the show never makes fun of people for having that view it reinforces that idea in their minds.

Honestly the least problematic character of the LGBT characters that I mentioned was BGA. He’s still a stereotype, yeah, he has a gay dog and is super flamboyant and constantly talks about how proud he is but honestly that’s not really all that bad. I can’t directly recall anything bad about him except that he��s incredibly flamboyant, speaks with a lisp, and loves to call things he owns “BGA’s Big Gay [noun].” Relatable. That doesn’t mean there was nothing problematic, it just doesn’t immediately come to me.

Now, for the next most problematic “representation” in the show. First, T&C showed no signs of actually being gay before. I do recall them both being my favorite characters before they became a couple, however. T is a coffee addict which has some suspect aspects we’ll get into later, and C used to flip everyone off. This was why they were my favorites. They became gay literally when fangirls started shipping them in the show. I’m sure there was an actual fandom movement, but their getting together was incredibly forced - that was part of the joke btw, that gay shipping is always forced. What’s horrible about this is that this was in an episode about ya/oi.

Now, let’s try to dissect this issue. First off, what this tells viewers is that being gay was not a natural part of who they were, but was an active choice (if you’re being kind) or something society forced on them (if you’re not.) The two were actively fighting with the narrative that they were gay and in a relationship. I think their actual agreement for being boyfriends was more of a mutual public display than an actual relationship, but it’s a fuzzy memory because that whole episode felt like a fever dream.

What’s worse about this, is that the show actually displayed ya/oi depictions of these children within the show. Nothing NSFW, but clearly sexually charged situations were definitely shown. At the time, they were 5th graders. 9/10 year olds for those not in the states. This emboldened actual CT shippers “If the show could do it, then so can I” was the general mentality on the forums I was on. So we can talk on pedophilia to reasons why this show is awful.

And those are just the named recurring characters. Another commonly recurring character is a prostitute with a deep voice who is very sloppy looking that, from my recollection, is implied to be a transwoman. This might have just been a conclusion I drew when I was young however - but even that is reason to be critical of the character, that such a conclusion could even be drawn means it might have played a factor in the character’s inception.

They also “Solved Overpopulation” with a gay orgy. I don’t have the language to define why this sat so wrong with me, but I remember being very deeply hurt by it. I think it has something to do with the idea that homosexuality is a choice and that it should only be accepted because of the potential benefits it has for population control.

Islamophobia and Racism

Okay so I’m just gonna come out the gate by saying that they fought hard to depict the prophet Mohammad. Like, hard. And they did it twice - one time went almost unnoticed but the second had a huge backlash from the Islamic people. For those who aren’t aware, it’s sacrilege to depict Mohammad. It’s like desecrating a church, maybe worse - I really have no frame of reference for how bad it’s viewed, but however bad it is, it still boils down to being a strict taboo that S/P broke not once, but twice.

Now, as I keep reminding, my memory gets hazy for many things, especially things I wasn’t aware of being insensitive early on. I have vague memories of terrorists being depicted in traditional Sikh garb, and similar instances of directly relating Islam with terrorism. I don’t recall the show ever making fun of anyone for relating Muslims with terrorism, for all those fans out there saying they make fun of everyone.

There was an episode where the characters wore blackface. There’s a black character literally named t/oken b/lack. Sure, that could be satire and maybe even be defended if they subverted the trope, however it should be noted he’s not the only black character in the show! There was an episode where there was a child adopted from Africa whose name escapes me - he was emaciated and devoured food at an alarming rate and generally was a nuisance if I remember correctly.

There was an instance where one of the main character’s father was on Wheel of Fortune. The category was people who annoy you. the letters on the board were ‘N_ggers.’ You know where this is going, the father said the N-word. The word was really naggers, but the rest of the episode was a sympathetic journey with him dealing with being ostracized. He became known as an ‘n-word guy’ which was treated as a worse term within the universe. I say this because a law was passed where the phrase was outlawed and they said you had to have a space of at least 5 words between ‘n-word’ and ‘guy’. Also, the n-word was said multiple times by a number of white characters. Now, I know the argument people make about this episode. They say that we were supposed to find the scanario ridiculous, but the issue I take with it is more that we’re led to feel sympathetic to racists who’ve had their lives ruined for being racist. That’s the issue with South Park’s brand of ‘satire’. It satirizes one issue, but doesn’t touch on the problematic things used to support that satire.

Almost every single Mexican character is a stereotype of some sort. Either a laborer who can barely speak English, a gangbanger, or some other stereotype. There was an episode where they had C’s hand become a famous Latina popstar by singing about Mexican Food themed songs, like the actual songs ‘T/aco F/lavored K/isses’ and ‘T/aco B/urrito’. The hand’s name was Jennifer Lopez, I don’t know of these songs are direct parodies bc I’ve only heard Jenny From the Block.

And while S/P tends to stay away from very direct anti-black jokes, they don’t shy away from other races. There’s an asian character whose business is called ‘c/ity wok’, but he always pronounces it ‘shitty’ because the joke here is ‘oh haha asians have funny accents’ and literally nothing else. I honestly believe that asians receive the WORST treatment on S/P when it comes to facing racism, but I’m not qualified to make that claim. Other examples of anti-asian racism: There was an pokemon episode where they said that Japan was using anime to indoctrinate youth, they literally had the kids operate fighter jets to make an attack on the U.S. What’s worse about this, is that whenever the Japanese execs were questioned about this, every time, they dropped their pants to show how small their penises were and how they should be pitied for it. Another instance, I very strongly remember a depiction of asian characters as being lemon yellow with eyes like this: \ /. There was an episode where they had Asians violently murder whales with glee. They lean into anti-asian racism so much harder than any other form of racism - the only thing they’re worse about is their antisemitism, which will get its own section later.

Antisemitism

God there’s so much. Jew Gold, nazi imagery, the entirety of c/a/r/t/m/a/n as a character and there are so many posts on this website by people much more qualified than me to delve into what exactly is wrong with this and the depictions of it, so I’m mostly just going to catalog what comes to mind and then speak about the actual factual instances of S/P inspired antisemitism I’ve witnessed and been party to.

There was an episode devoted to Jewish people having a secret bit of gold around their necks. This was proven true in the universe when Ky gave up his ‘J*w Gold’ to C.

Ky’s mom is such an overbearing harpy who bulldozes over everyone, this was later explained as her having Jersey-Blood (yes this was a Jersey Shore joke) but before that it was completely because she was a proud Jewish woman.

Ky’s father is depicted as weak-willed and piddling. He always wears a yarmulke no matter the situation.

Ky is often depicted as being whiny and non-commital

OF ALL THE CHARACTERS, KY IS THE ONE WHO IS DEPICTED AS A HYPOCRITE THE MOST

Ky’s cousin with the same name is depicted as in poor health, complains about everything, whines about things not being fair bc they don’t go his way, and has caricatured Jewish features

As mentioned above, there are hosts of Nazi imagery associated with C

C has said every Jewish slur I have ever heard. In fact he introduced me to the concept of antisemitism

Ky, in a Christmas episode, is depicted as wishing he could celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah is depicted as a sort of consolation prize that’s Not As Good.

Ky’s father was an internet troll, and the trolls were. literal trolls. with certain features that are not great.

The following image is the Prophet Moses:

And there’s more and more and more. I will not accept anyone saying that this is just jokes because I know firsthand how insidious their treatment of Jewish people is because this show literally made me think it was okay to engage in Antisemitism. I made greedy jokes, like saying a got J**ed when i was screwed over, or that someone who was being greedy was being a J*w. I am not proud of this, and I think I grew out of it relatively quickly as I dropped that language in middle school.

But not everyone did. Even some of my closest friends were still saying they got J**ed when we were graduating high school. There were no Jewish people at my school, so there was no humanizing face for the Jewish people for us. Thank god for the Nanny or who knows what kind of person I’d be now. There were people even worse than me, I should mention. There was one person in my school who literally used J*w as a stand-in for loser because of this show. This show was the only interaction with the Jewish faith that most of my classmates ever had, and the same is true of many rural towns in America who have only Protestant populations.

Fatphobia

All the most unlikeable characters are fat. C. Ky’s mom. The gun-toting republican. And there are other specific episodes where they equate fatness to not being healthy. In their episode partnered with WoW (don’t forget that happened, y’all) the main antagonist was depicted as a no-life having loser and he was, surprise, fat. This show draws a very direct line between being fat and being unlikeable.

Sexism

God, the portrayal of women is so horrible, literally my only entry here is going to be one single link:

youtube

Note all the other isms depicted in this btw.

Substance Abuse

The prostitute mentioned in the LGBT section would wander into scenes screaming about how she wanted crack. There was an episode where they created a league of basketball players who were comprised entirely of ‘crack babies.’ I’m being generous by not putting that in the racism section because most of the babies were BIPOC which says something about the kind of people that M/att and T/rey think are addicts.

The character T/owelie is supposed to show an addict, but his addiction is literally just weed which means they’re claiming weed is addictive.

I can’t even begin to describe the show’s relationship to alcohol. As a child of an alcoholic, I can say that it’s not fucking cute that they made S’s dad a violent drunk. It’s genuinely scary to see your parent fly into a rage because of their alcoholism and them reducing it to a joke was, I think, one of the points where the ‘it’s just a joke’ mentality started to break for me personally.

While we’re on the subject of parents, C’s mom was literally a crack addict who was also a full service sex worker. The correlation is not sympathetic in the slightest. And even worse was Ke’s parents. They were depicted as abusive, neglectful, drug-addicted rednecks. This was sometimes played to make you sympathize with Ke, and it worked because even now I can hardly think of how Ke himself was problematic rather than the situations he was in. (He’s the one who gets gruesomely murdered every episode) I don’t know if this is because of selective memory, if he was genuinely just the least problematic in the show, or if I’m waxing nostalgic for the show. Regardless, as I said, his situation was mostly played for sympathy. However, it was also played for jokes almost as often.

Pedophilia

The children are put in sexual situations a nonzero amount of times, they make priest molestation jokes, and they made jokes about MJ.

Slurs

Yeah they said them a lot. There was the aforementioned N-Word Guy episode, but there was also an episode that thinly mirrored immigrants coming to America for work and the people (time-travelers) were called ‘Goobacks’. I think the word ch*nk was used a nonzero amount of times, C used every slur for Jewish people in the book. None of these were censored by the show, any censoring was done by networks.

Why make this post?

Because I know people know this show is garbage, but I think it’s important that people know why it’s garbage with specific and nonspecific instances of why the show was problematic.

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yoitscro · 5 years

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vent

amazing that the pro8lematic zine was a huge success because of the positive message and collaborative effort of artists in the community, and yet some of the same relative group of hs twitter people who’ve been known to shit on me in pm and gossip about my projects still attempted to vague about it and/or stir misinformation during the stream.*

even if some didnt, im still not forgetting when it was shat on after an hour after the first promo. i had my name temporarily called out and gossiped in DMs, someone said it was an ampora zine with vriska slapped on, etc etc. i was told it was an awful idea and that people wouldn’t like it to my face, in a private group of some of the people that were ganging on me during the time. after being given the ok to share it in a space i trusted, and haven’t trusted since.

shit made me have a breakdown at 2 in the morning because people of larger follower counts during the time, influence, whatever, thought those were mature responses and not at all discouraging while continuing to wonder why people say there’s an elitism problem in the community. wondering why this zine exists while some of them started their first beefs at me by recognizing me as a gross cronus stan they could mass block and call sexist, before calling me a nb bi woc. because no one read the about page and assumed vriska and feferi were being placed on the same level as doc scratch and bro (all while i assume there were so many other characters that could’ve been questioned but were favorably ignored, like zebede).

problematic has had so many different defintions depending on who you ask. but this zine wasn’t fixated on using that word as “character’s who have a list of faults as to why they’re awful”.

the point of the zine wasn’t that these characters were bad. the point was that they’ve stirred controversy regardless of their scale on the moral tier and the zine was to help fans feel welcomed by other fans to like who they want within reason regardless of those who belittle their interest. because we’ve been needing more positive vibes like that in the fandom for this year, if not years. the title is taking a jab at such bad drama and i think the large majority got that instead of seeing it in bad faith and spreading it out as such.

and funny enough the people who hated it the most are the ones that, indeed, belittle other fans as one half of their personality.

amazing that since march ive had people be shady and tell me that the idea was “awful” to my face and flatly dismiss in front of live audiences while still rting the art showcased. no apologies in sight.

amazing how the zine with vriska on it to promo more positive vriska art was apparently anti-vriska and thus bad while the zine endorsing incest with minors as active particpants was a-ok cus charity.

amazing how nothing’s changed since January and people have only been acting buddy buddy with me on feed/in the public eye because ive made an impact on the fandom and it’s good publicity to look like they’re not always putting down or ostracizing one of the fandom’s more prominent nb black fems of color because they’re saying a lot of what everyone’s too afraid to say and aint the one getting an aggressive increase of criticism.

amazing.

*i dont think everyone who had critiques or confusion were purposefully attempting to start anything. but it wasn’t a great catalyst for others who feel easily validated to keep pecking at me and was still based off misinformation instead of just. idk. asking me directly, lol.

#buzzcull #incest mention //#gonna vent cus who cares lol

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turing-tested · 5 years

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and dont reblog this and not to go off but i think the issue with 'they did genocide' is that youre looking at it from the perspective of someone who is interested in the meta behind the narrative, which children are not. i could argue that lightning mcqueen is a enthusiastic tool of a society that endorses and particpates in eugenics and that he's shown bullying cars that i could argue are an in universe metaphor for chattle labor, but i know that a) little tommy who is ten years old and likes how lightning mcqueen goes vroom vroom, doesn't care or know anything about that because hehe red car fast b) the narrative isn't presented that way, and it doesn't focus on that because its never meant to be viewed that deeply by its intended audience. i just personally dont feel that arguing for character behaviors or responses to things that the narrative isnt painted as isnt genuine, i guess? the meta take is that the diamonds sre responsible for genocide and function as colonizers, but children aren't seeing that, nor are they intended to. the narrative presents that the diamonds are mean people who hurt the person youre supposed to care about, and that they realized they hurt that person and stopped being so mean.

its great and fun to analyze things, but its also important to be aware of the target audience and the depth to which that target audience is intended to read into the narrative and the way it's presented.

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thoughtfulfangirling · 6 years

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The Predictability of The Shape of Water

Something I've been seeing a lot of are comments about how The Shape of Water was inexplicably predictable. Specifically, these comments refer to the scars on Elisa's neck becoming gills at the end. It's not a hard call to make or guess, and a lot of people are bewildered at this choice in the narrative, as though this predictability is a narrative flaw of the movie. And of course, to each their own. I can't blame anyone for disliking that.

Nonetheless, I'm of the mind that Guillermo Del Toro never intended for it to be a big surprise or a twist of any sort. I don't think Del Toro & Company mind that their audience will guess this right away.

The Shape of Water is aware that it's a story being told and embraced the medium. We open the movie with Giles narrating over an exploration of Elisa's water filled apartment. It is a whimsical and artistic opening. He is telling us about Elisa, the central figure of the movie and the person in question with the obvious marks. We don't get to see the gills in this opening sequence, but we see her unconscious and floating above her couch. This is bookended by the movie ending on Giles narrating on top of Elisa once again in water, floating and unconscious.

At the end, we're not suppose to question that her scars are gills, we're supposed to wonder if this is real or not. Giles tells us himself that he likes to believe that she got to have a happy ending. Are we seeing the ending he has chosen to believe? Or is this really how Del Toro's story ends?

So does that mean we should think the ending is a false one? That Amphibian Man got to be free but Elisa succumbed to her wounds and this is why Giles never saw her again? The scars were just that after all. It was clearly too obvious that this is truly how the movie is intended to end.

But this isn't just a story. Del Toro & Company punctures this whimsical romance with some harsh realism. This isn't like our traditional gruesome fairytales, where things go from dark to grim. It's just... life. Elisa lives a simple, unfulfilling life. She has good friends and isn't necessarily unhappy, but it's not enough. She isn't the sexless, passive woman of many of those stories. She's real and complex and multidimensional. We have Strickland being the epitome of 1960's toxic masculinity, chalk full of sexism, racism, and ableism. The people around him can see he is gross but they pretend everything is okay because they feel helpless or that the error is actually in themselves. Amphibian Man is ethereal, godlike, and fantastical, but he's also scared, brutal, and lonely. He's vulnerable and yet loving.

All these things and more, throughout the movie, point to a harsh realism, and I think this is an intentional contrast. These elements are intended to be side by side. I seem to recall Del Toro saying that he wanted to make this movie as a sort of ode to cinema and the stories they tell. I find it then, most likely that this story within a story is intentional on his part. He doesn't want us to watch the movie once, go 'oh that was a good twist' and set it aside again. He wants us to to be particpants. With this story format, we get to ponder it, engage with it, and make it our own.

Personally, I choose to believe that Elisa got her happy ending. Given everything I've said above and more I can't articulate, I think Gile's story is happening side by side the actual story, and they twine together at times, and diverge at others. Does Giles know that Elisa masturbated in her tub while she cooked him eggs every morning? Are we supposed to think that he supposes that's so? Did he suspect that Elisa sat on the bus, painting her finger against the window pane of a bus, and making water follow the motions of her fingertip? It's not unreasonable, but also not necessary. And again, it's up for each and every one of us to decide.

At the end of the day though, I don't think the question was ever meant to be 'why did you make this so obvious,' but rather, 'do you really think that's how it ends' and what does it reveal to you about the way you interpret that. What does it say about the things you enjoy, the messages you think the movie is trying to convey, what you'll accept as reality vs stories, your own preconceptions, and a whole host of other questions.

So if you love this movie but are annoyed at this element, let me suggest analyzing instead what you think of the ending. Was it real? Is the movie really a beautiful love story if it's not real? Does it makes sense that we begin and end the story with Giles's narration and the twist isn't that Elisa might not have made it? How important is it that a movie surprises us?

And it's all of these questions and so much more that keeps this movie in my head, bouncing around, looking to pull all these words from me.

#The Shape of Water #TSoW #meta #storytelling #predictability #Elisa Esposito #Giles DuPont #TSoW spoilers #The Shape of Water spoilers #What makes a story compelling #TSoWmeta #TFGOC #ThoughtfulfangirlingCommentary

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lceylee0826 · 3 years

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Immersive Cyberbullying Experience Project

Description

‘Feel Her‘ is a concept for an immersive experience design that aims to shed light onto the important topic of cyberbullying in China. The project intends for viewers to understand the damage that cyberbully brings to the victims through mixed media including spatial, sound, video and the visual design.

The design consists of two parts. The first part is a participatory design aiming to let audiences realise the impact that hurtful and negative online comments can cause to individuals as a result of misleading or 'fake news' online, and asks participants to leave comments - positive or negative - on the space. Secondly, the immersive space allows the visitor to experience the emotions of victims of cyberbullying in order to understand the pain they have and start to reflect on their own future behavior online.

Process video：https://youtu.be/p0HGIPnPdOw

Inspiration

A few years ago, I personally experienced cyberbullying at the hands of Chinese netizens. It was really tough period in my life. At that time，many friends told me that the online world is virtual. “Just forget it.” But the harm and feeling I‘ve went through do exist and constantly have the bad influence，wether mental or physical.

This experience inspired me to make a project regarding this problem, to shed light onto the emotional pain and suffering of victims of cyberbullying.

First I do some research about the phenomenon of Cyberbullying.

Research

<Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity> By Ulrich Beck

<”Internet Violence": Concept, Root and Response—Based on the Perspective of Risk Society Analysis> By Fangbing Jiang

<Network Behavior Anomie> By Yi Li

Through thesis articles I learned that Cyberbullying is a kind of cyber anomie that is dominated by cyber behavior, but it will bring a series of real harm.

The space is virtual, but the damage and the subject are real. I think that the network virtual society is a new "real society".

<Checkmate? the role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport.> By European Journal of Social Psychology

<Cyber violence and hate speech online against women> By Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union

We tend to "label" people based on stereotypes, which is an unconscious behavior. But if we ignore individual differences because of stereotypes, it will actually bring harm. Stereotype threat and Self-fulfilling prophecy Stereotype threat-if you are labelled negatively, you will become more and more anxious and become virtuous than usual. We are usually afraid of being in such a situation, so we are afraid of being that kind of "minority." Self-fulfilling prophecy mean that the judgments of others will more or less impress people's behavior, whether it is correct or not. Behavior confirmation (Behavior confirmation) is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in which the social expectations of other people will make our behavior develop in the direction that others expect. This will lead to the emergence of instigation, follow suit, and to do what the "most people" are doing in order to cater to the public.

In addition to the perpetrator, silence is also a support for cyber violence.

<Research on the cultivation of shame among middle school students> By Xiaocui Du

<Peeping: Group Symptoms and Analysis in the Internet Age>By Zhang Zhong.

Through the literature, I found that the Internet provides a space to conceal and release oneself. Youth groups (18-30) are more adapted to the rapid development of the Internet and are the main members of the current online society.

Summary:

Maybe I could set up a ‘off-domain space’ will restore the online world more (hidden identity, free speech), It’s will be more immersive to the net citizens.

Cyberbullying is a manifestation of a risky society, but China is about to enter a high-risk society, and more attention should be paid to the environment of the network society. Thus，I will focus my audience in Chinese net citizens.

‘Hated in the Nation’ By Black Mirror

I have also absorbed inspiration from this television work. Maybe I can portray a murder/disease story of cyberbullying and let the audience understand the truth through step-by-step exploration? Let the project became more storytelling.

‘People on the Internet’ By Zidong Xu

‘https://yixi.tv/#/speech/detail?id=585’

Through Zidong Xu’s ’YiXi’ speech (an equivalent of TED in China) ’People on the Internet’, I found that cyberbullying is an all-too-frequent occurrence in China which far too many people choose not to prevent, even becoming the perpetrator. It made me want to awaken people to re-examine the phenomenon of cyberbullying.

<Non-gender celebrities Yang juanjuan> By Junbin Yang

Designer Junbin Yang created a genderless person from the future, by recording his daily lifestyle to call on people to break the gender stereotype.

Also，from https://thanetwriters.com ‘The Advantages and Disadvantages of First-Person Perspective’ By Seb Reilly，I realized that the beauty of first-person narrative is that it can make users feel more immersed and users as a whole are more willing to believe this story.

It led me to think about create a victim of cyberbullying, let my audience to experience what she/he has been experienced. It could let audience have better understand from the victim.

<WHO SPEAKS, WHO LISTENS, WHO ACTS: A NEW MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING NARRATIVE> By Matthew T. DelConte, M.A.

<Three Stories: An Exploration of Voice and Perspective in the Fiction Narrative> By Brenna A. Hosman

These two articles discussed the influence of narrative person on readers. I think that first-person narrative can enhance the experience of visitors, and can more empathize and look at problems from the perspective of narrative.

‘If we visualize cyber violence into reality…’ By Human laboratory

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=2peN61HC0F8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2peN61HC0F8

This work attempts to bring cyberbullying into the real world. I could see the emotional changes of the victims from beginning to end. The immerse experience really works in bring people into this situation, also creating a mutual experience for both the viewer and victim.

It led me to think that participatory design and immersion may be a good way to get audiences to empathize with the victims, in order to make them reflect.

<Re-Sculpt> By Thomas Hirschhorn

The designer makes a very strong interactive space. The particpation of the visitor by destroying the space is part of the artwork. And through Tim Brown's Ted Talk 'Designers think big', this inspired me to create a space with high degree of participation, and let visitors explore freely through a series of interactive designs. Additionally，‘Adult participatory arts – Thinking it through’ and https://participedia.net/method/4451 and By Arts Council England showed the evidence that participatory design is a great way to connected the audience and the designer‘s work closer.

It led me to think that every one of us might actually be contributing to cyberbullying somehow. Not only would this enhance immersion, but it could also create more strong empathy towards victims afterwards.

‘Cyber cocoon kids’ Designed by Yong Xie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR0Yl1mAE_E

Cyber Cocoo Kids visualizes the issue of internet safety by creating a cage that block kids from the real world.

The visualization of the internet and the installation inspired me to think about using see-through materal to immitate the the online enviroment.

Combined with previous research, I started to consider the need to create a space to immitate cyberbullying.

‘This is what it feels like’ By Lopez

https://thisiswhatitfeelslikeproject.com/about

The concept of using the sound recording to hear the language harassment. It inspired me that recording the phone call of victims during the cyberbully period would be quite strong for the immersive experience.

‘The beauty of data visualization’ By David McCandless https://www.ted.com/search?q=data+visualiazation

We can see the rules and connections in visual information, and then design this information to make it more meaningful. Information visualization can be used to tell stories, or allow us to focus on that important information, and at the same time, it can solve the problem of over-saturated information. Maybe I can say that the emotions of the victim can be visualized in some way? So that people can better understand the feelings of victims.

‘When online shaming goes too far’ By Jon Ronson

<https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_when_online_shaming_goes_too_far#t-396702>

Jon Reson shared the incident of a woman being abused online on Twitter. This way of reposting led to this woman with only 170 fans on the hot search. And those who want to help this female voice are also attacked by larger groups of cyberbullying. I want to know which group is more vulnerable to cyberbullying.

Through interviews（sample：21 female: 14 male: 7）

I found that in the online world, most people will pre-emptively have a bad definition or impression of a person, and many people will tell me that cyberbulling is often caused by misleading news. Combine with secondary research (‘Research on Media Violence from the Perspective of Gender’ By Hongxia Fan）I found that compared with men, women are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying.

Thus I decided to choose woman as an example of the victim to continue the project. Also，create a misleading news that might cause cyberbullying. Hoping I could restore cyberbullying in reailty.

Design concept

I decide to make an immersive space design to get young Chinese netizens who are active in social networks to experience the effects of cyberbullying.

Design process

Stpe 1 Build an empty space

Stpe 2 Show audience a misleading news report, then let them to leave comments on the wall.

Stpe 3 Audience will feel cyberbully through：video, sound recordings and space and emotion note (visualize the emotion).

'The Form of Emotive Design’ By Philippa Mothersill.

Through this research, I found that emotion and shape are related. This inspired me to design a note to simulate the emotional changes of victims of cyberbully.

Then I engaged people（37）to draw some sketches that represent the emotions of the victim, such as anger, sorrow, ect.

Then I did some suumary and drew some sketches, then I created some graphics to test with audience.

At first,I drew color inspiration form‘The Atlas of Emotions’ By Paul Ekman. I use red to represent strong emotions such as anger, but after user testing, I was told that black and white can form a strong contrast. So I change the color to black and white.

Finally, I came out with 7 graphics which represent the main emotions of a victim from day 1 to day 7.

I completed the emotion note and let user to see thesis graphics. According to user’s feedback, the graphics can make motion effect, so that could be more convenient for audiences to understand the victim.

So I made a motion graphic video https://youtu.be/QLAsL14oN84

Dynamic effects change according to different emotions. For example, the emotion of collapse will use particle effects.

Based on these emotions, I acted in a video that simulated the emotional changes of the victim,and combined with dynamic video.

Performance video https://youtu.be/21VlpSb0roo

I was inspired by ’Caught in the Web’ By Kaige Chen, also combined my own experience to create a news report that might cause cyberbullying. This news is about a female college student（the victim）beating an old in the street. I used the layout of the newspaper to design this news.

Before building the space, I also tested transparent materials. I mainly want to study which transparent material can make writing or painting more convenient.

Process of establish the space

Final output

Day1, I provide some tools（ Brush or spray paint）to let visitors leave their commets - positive or negative - on the wall after reading the newspaper, it showed that most of these comments are negative.

Day2 ： I invited another audience to get in the space，and understand，feel what the audience‘s have been went through——from mixed media.

User feedback:

1. The layout of reports can be more like the online commets, which will help people have a better understand that it’s a network event. 2. 7 emotional graphics could let people feel more empathetic.3. Motion graphic video can be more prominent, sound record could be more strong.

Self-reflection：

1. The name of ‘Feel Her’ could be better, I will change it later.2. Technologies such as AR or VR can make these emotional graphics better viewed.3. The experience space can be more like the online world, I can explore more about structure and material.4. This project have the potential to become a branding that aiti-cyberbullying, combine immersion with online interactive together.

Bibliography：

1: ’Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity’ By Ulrich Beck 2: ’Research on the cultivation of shame among middle school students’ By Xiaocui Du 3: ’Research on Media Violence from the Perspective of Gender’ By Hongxia Fan 4: ’The beauty of data visualization’ By David McCandless 5: ’The Form of Emotive Design. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.’ By Mothersill, P

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ally-moors · 5 years

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YOUTH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL GRADUATION CEREMONY (NYC Parks- GreenThumb)

Another privilege I was granted during my time as a GreenThumb Intern was to be able to attend their Youth Leadership Council’s (YLC) Graduation Ceremony, held this year at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan. The YLC is made up of kids ages 14-21 who choose to be involved in a community garden’s staff over the summer, learning about things like sustainability, food insecurity, composting, gardening, and the myriad of other skills that come with learning to tend to a garden for the benefit of the community and the benefit of the environment. At the ceremony, several YLC particpants were able to speak to the room as a panel and share what YLC meant to them, and what they had learned and become passionate about in the process. Many other YLC participants sat in the audience, cheering on their friends as they presented, and eventually, many of the graduates spoke as part of a group-wide conversation on the future of urban gardening and eco-friendly living. I was honored to be able to attend and to see the YLC participants be celebrated as they deserved to be, and to see them be encouraged to speak up for what they believe in and be a part of a greater conversation. The event was so inspiring I decidedly photographed it in a sort of vintage manner, reminiscent of how these young people will someday be looked at as trailblazers of their time, giving off a wholesome, old-soul feeling of “be kind and make a difference”. I also focused heavily on getting up close shots of those who spoke, hoping to really give a spotlight to anybody and everybody who had the courage and the passion to speak up. I hope for this to be the first in a long line of my event photography opportunities.

#client #parks

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strangeauthorarchive · 7 years

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and so, seven pages of text and stuff has been purged and will be rewritten

for my stans....here are the cut pages. ps i still suck at fight scenes

“Before we began our training session, I think we have to lay down a few rules. Rule one: do not kill each other.”

Well, no shit. Nick thought. I want to fight but I'm not that crazy...

“Rule two,” John continued, “The fights will last for ten minutes at the most. Do not under any circumstance try to fight longer than that; it's not good for any of you. Rule three: if someone goes unconscious, training is done. Period. End of discussion. Rule four: try not to go over the line. You don't want to hurt the audience, ok?”

Abieyuwa gave a small smile.

“Rule five: Jackson's inventions are allowed but you must be VERY careful. Like I said, we're training, not trying to kill each other. Chaos is our true eneimes after all, not us. And finally...don't hurt my wife or cat.”

Pancake rolled on Abieyuwa's lap.

“I'll be here to tend any wounds.” Abieyuwa said, “And I'll be sure to give you all water when you're done fighting.”

“You're not particpating?” Akira asked.

“No, I'm a pacifist. I don't resort to violence like this.” she smiled, “Not to worry; I won't be in the way of your fights. Trust me.”

Nick looked at his friends, seeing how they were slowly gearing up. He wondered if using his metal gloves would be a good idea—that thing could break someone's bones with ease. He couldn't imagine hurting his companions like that.

He just needed to be careful. That was one of the rules, after all. He slowly put on the metal gloves and clenched his hands into a fist.

“Are you going to particpate, Mr. Richman?” Adam asked.

“No.” John said, “I'm going to be keeping score, but I'm not going to use my wepons to fight. Using a gun here would be extremly risky; I don't want to shoot any of you, and I don't want to attract Chaos.” He then looked over the others. “So, who's going first?”

Marie flipped her hair and pulled out her hair clip, while Jackson nervously swung his arm around in preperation. No matter how much Marie and the others were sure things would be fine, the whole idea of fighting against someone with electrict gloves seemed nerve wracking.

“You sure about this?” he asked, “I really, really don't want to accidently electrocute you.”

“I told you, Ill be fine. You worry too much.” Marie said, “Remember to focus and don't get distracted, alright?” she winked and wagged her finger, “Good luck!”

“...So be it.” Jackson got into a fighting stance, “Good luck to you as well, Marie.”

Everyone sat on the other side of the line, watching in antcipation. John held a stopwatch in his left hand, his thumb on the button. He looked over at Jackson and Marie several times.

“Ready?” he asked.

Both of the teens nodded.

“Alright. Begin.”

Once he pressed the button, the fight was on. Jackson charged to Marie, who quickly dodged out of the way. Then, without giving him a chance to recover, wrapped her leg around his arm and flipped him over. Jackson's back slammed onto the grass, and he let out a painful grunt.

Ah, so no wonder Marie wasn't worried. She had a few tricks up her sleeves. But he wasn't going to back down yet; the fight's only started, after all.

With a smirk, he flipped himself back on his feet and decided to do another approach. Reducing the shock of his gloves, he slammed his hands onto Marie's shoulder. While it would shock her, it wouldn't be enough to knock her unconscious. It would hurt like hell though.

And sure enough, the sharp pain went through her, and she grabbed her shoulder.

“Nice one...” she said, gritting her teeth, “You really are a cool inventor, Jackson.”

Jackson took several steps back, then bowed. “Thank you.”

Once the pain had semi subsided, Marie pressed the center of her hair clip, revealing the knives, then threw it. Jackson stepped to the side, watching as the dagger barley missed his cheek. It landed in the grass far away from them.

While Jackson looked at it—wondering why on earth would Marie do something extremly dangerous—he suddenlty felt the wind get knocked out of him. He then realized he was being kicked in his stomach, and now he was being thrown back to the grass, once again letting out a painful grunt.

“Like I told you,” Marie said, smiling sweetly, “Focus, sweetheart.”

No arguing there. Jackson painfully rose to his feet, giving Marie a thumbs up.

“That...was pretty damn smart...” he said, his voice hoarsed, “But...I'm not backing down yet!”

“Didn't expect you to! Now come on; give me more of a challenge!”

“A challenge, huh?” Jackson activated his gloves again, “So be it!”

The two rushed at each other. Marie was about to kick Jackson once again, but he quickly grabbed her leg—another painful but non lethal shock going throug her, and flipped her over his shoulder.

She landed on her feet, though now her right leg hurt like a motherfucker now. Still, no backing down. Trying to ignore the pain, she slamed her hand into Jackson's back. He fell forward, but quickly flipped himself back to his feet.

Once again, they charged at each other. Jackson tried to get it a punch, but Marie ducked down and swiped her leg, making him trip. This was another opportunity, though, as Jackson grabbed her leg and sent another shock through it. Marie then grabbed his hand, rolled him to his back, and started to bend his arm.

Jackson felt extreme pain going through them, as if at any moment, his arm would be ripped off his body. IHe then lifted his free hand and shocked Marie's hip. She let out a pained cry and immediately let go of Jackson's arm. Seeing this opportunity, Jackson grabbed her and flipped her over, her back hitting the grass.

The both of them got up, Marie holding her back. At this point her whole body started to hurt, though not enough to stop her. This was, in fact, the challenge she asked for. With a smirk, she rushed to Jackson, her hands now balled in a fist. Jackson rushed to her as well, and just when they were about to strike each other-

“TIME!”

Hearing this, the both of them stopped abruptly, turning to John. He walked over to the two of them, showing them the time on the watch.

“Time.” he repeated. “Good job, you two! I have to say, it did get a little scary towards the end. I honestly thought you two were going to kill each other.”

Marie giggled. “No, never. I was just trying to get him to fight a little harder.”

John chuckled. “Alright, alright; go to Abieyuwa so she can tend your wounds. Get some water and a snack while you're at it.”

“Yes sir.” Marie and Jackson said, bowing.

With that, the two limped to where the audience was. Jackson glanced nervously at Marie, removing his glove and rubbing the back of his head.

“Sorry for shocking you.” he said.

“Why are you apologizing?” Marie said, “I said give me more of a challenge, and you delivered. Nothing to be sorry about. That was actually kind of fun. Thanks, Jackson.”

Jackson looked down, rubbing the side of his cheek. “I'm...glad you enjoyed it. Oddly enough, I did feel kind of a rush fighting like that.”

Sitting down, they were greeted by an applauding audience.

“Bravo!” Abieyuwa cheered, “I don't think I've seen anything quite like that!”

“That was badass, guys!” Nick said, slowly taking off his shirt, “And holy shit, Marie! That hair clip thing you did was pretty genius!”

“You guys are amazing!” Adam said.

Marie and Jackson only smiled.

“To be honest, we just went easy on each other.” Jackson said, “If I used my gloves to their full capablilty, she wouldn't be sitting here next to me right now. I had to be extremely careful with these. The same thing should go for your gloves, Nick.”

Nick looked down at his metal gloves. “Trust me; I'm going to make sure Adam fights in one piece.” he looked at at him, smiling, “You about ready?”

“Just about.” Adam said, standing up, “I-I'll try to make sure none of the arrows peirce you, ok?”

As they stepped over the line, Nick stretched his arms, then got into his boxing pose. He still felt sketchy about the idea of fighting his friend, even for training, but all he had to do was not hurt him with the gloves.

“Ready?” John asked.

Both of the boys nodded.

“Begin.”

And with that, the fight was on.

[theres a spoiler part that I kept in so yeah lmao the next part is where chapter eighteen starts]

The arrows were periced into the ground, and the remaining ones barley missed Nick as he dashed away from them.

“Hey!” he called, “Be careful! I don't think you can lessen the pain with those!”

“S-sorry!” Adam called back, “Uh, I-I never trained on a person before and I don't want to hurt you!”

This seemed to be a poorly thought out training session; Adam had a lethel weapon on him. If any of those got to Nick, he would pretty much be bleeding to death. Wouldn't it have been better to use some sort of test dummy for him? It was far safer than a real human being.

And then something occurred to Nick.

“Use your bow” he yelled.

Adam blinked. “M...my bow? Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Just get ready when I attack! Ok, here I come!”

Nick charged, his hands balled into a fist. Just seconds before he could do any attack, Adam clumisly jumped out of the way and landed on the grass, blocking his fist with his bow. It was then that he realized that Nick suddenly wasn't wearing his metal gloves.

“Decided I didn't need them.” Nick explained, “I'm a boxer at heart, and I know how to fight without gloves. Besides, I couldn't risk hurting you.”

Adam gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Now I can step my game up a bit. Like this!”

Without warning, Adam slammed the palm of his hand against Nick's forehead, causing him to give a brief cry of pain and stumble backwards. Adam rose to his feet and gave an apologetic bow.

Nick's response was a smile and a thumbs up. As he rose to his feet, he took several steps back away from his friend and got back into his boxing stance.

Now the real fight could start. This time, it was Adam's turn to charge with his bow, though Nick was able to effortessly dodge it. He was about to deliver a punch, when he realized something:

Adam had suddenly vanished.

One minute he was in front of him, and now he pulled a vanishing act. Just like that. But before he had the chance to wonder just where the hell his friend went, he suddenly felt something on his back, something around his neck, and his body falling backwards.

Ah. So that what that was. How did he not see that coming? It seemed that Adam was far more stragetic than he gives himself credit for.

Nick grabbed Adam's bow and flipped his friend over, making him hit the grass with his back. Adam let out a small yelp, then held his back and rolled over. He then got back up and swung his bow, which was, once again, grabbed by Nick. The two of them stared at each other, neither one of them ready to back down now, neither one of them ready to quit.

Adam then rammed his arm into Nick's stomach, making his friend fall to the ground rather hard. Why did the universe seem to hate his back and his nose? It felt like landing on concrete.

On top of that, now he felt his stomach concave into him. Christ, who told him that his friend was going to be this deadly?

No longer filled with shyness or nervousness, Adam looked down at his friend and pointed the end of his bow at him. It was like being around a totally different person; it was actually scary seeing his friend like this. He actually wondered if he was actually going to kill him. He quickly grabbed Adam's bow and yanked him foreward.

Suddenly, they realized they were now way too close to the face. Nick could feel his cheeks become warm, and Adam could no longer look at his friends directly in his face.

“U-um...” they stuttered.

“Time!” a voice yelled.

John, once again, walked over to the two combatants. Adam lowered his weapon, and Nick lowered his arms.

“I-I'm sorry!” Adam said, giving another apologetic bow. “I-I didn't mean to hurt you that badly, Nick! Honest!”

Now that was the Adam Nick knew. He chuckled lightly. “Chill, it's fine. I'm sorry for flipping you over.” He put a hand on his shoulder. “You're actually a really good fighter, Adam. Keep it up.”

Adam looked down, his cheeks turning red. “...Thank you.”

John simply smiled, then led his nephew and his friends back to the audience. “I think we're gonna have to do a new method for you, Adam. I mean, with your bow. But that trick you did can be really useful in a fight. As for you nephew...” He patted his back, “Thank you for not using the gloves after all. I know I said inventions were allowed, but I stilll got nervous.”

The impact from his uncle's hand make his already sore back feel even worse, though he tried not to show it. Instead, he forced himself to smile.

“Thanks.” he said through gritted teeth.

It was odd; he never felt such awkardness around Adam before. He had no idea why. Of course, most people would feel weird being that close, but it wasn't like he was uncomfortable. In fact...gah, why did he feel...like this? It was strange.

“Good job, sweetie!” Marie said, giving Adam a high five, “You two were great out there! I'm so proud of you!”

Adam rubbed the back of his head. “Thank you...but I think I went a bit too far.” He rubbed his arm, “N-next time, I'm going to be careful.”

Abieyuwa wasted no time tending to Nick's injruies. Thankfully, it was nothing serious—just small bruises. He stayed as still as he possibly could as she got to work, despite his pain.

Pancake trotted over to Adam and rubbed against him.

“Hey girl...” he said softly, rubbing her chin. “Nice to see you, too.”

Akira lit up another cigeratte, then turned his attention to John. “Not to be a pain in the ass, but I don't think this whole training thing is that much of a good idea.”

John quirked an eyebrow. “How come?”

“See, when I saw these fights, the kids came dangerously close to actually killing each other. I mean, no matter what kind of rules you put down, something can go wrong. No, something will go wrong. Especially when they're using shit like electric gloves, knives, metal gloves, and goddamn arrows! It's a disater waiting to happen!” Akira furrowed his eyebrows, “Didn't you think about that at all when you decided this? Didn't you think about the potentinal harm of doing this?”

John looked down, saying nothing.

[this is where it ends lol]

#author makes a speech #chaos stuff #stuff that i cut #enjoy gays #like or reblog if u can pls!

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