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becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys · 1 year

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So this is a weird ask but I figured an Actual Welsh Person would be the person to go to, and you've been pretty gung-ho about the language thing. So I hope I'm not bothering you with this.

Is there a cultural consensus on foreigners learning Welsh? I'm American and I don't have a single shred of Welsh ancestry. My family is historically German, and we've been here since the English Colony days, so it honestly seems really weird even to try to claim some tie to German heritage.

Anyway, my point is, I have absolutely zero legitimate claim to the Welsh language. I don't plan to travel to Wales in the foreseeable future. I have no reason to learn Welsh except that it sounds pretty and I enjoy a challenge.

Putting aside the issue of "lmao it's gonna be stupid difficult to learn an endangered language if you don't have anyone to speak it with" (I have a loose plan for dealing with that, and the experience of learning two languages to "can read most novels without needing the dictionary" level without anyone to speak them with in person already) entirely, do you reckon it's okay for me to study Welsh? I know Americans are really, really bad about just kinda assuming the whole world belongs to us, and I'm trying not to do that here. Especially because Welsh IS endangered.

I imagine your average Welsh person probably doesn't care what some random American does. But like, for people who care about the language...Would it be considered disrespectful or overstepping for me to study it? I don't expect you to speak for the entire country, of course, but I respect your opinion and I feel like you'd have a grasp on what the general feeling towards a foreigner like me might be.

Thanks for your time.

I honestly, truly, do not understand how the discussion around cultural appropriation has been twisted in the cultural zeitgeist to such an extent that people now feel anxiety about learning other languages.

This is not a personal attack on you, Anon - the gods only know that you clearly care and want to do the right thing, and that's beautiful and wonderful and also I will come back to extolling your personal virtues at the end of this post, so stay tuned. But I do want to take a moment here to talk about the broader issue at play, which I have seen echoed multiple times elsewhere, because fuck me what are we doing to ourselves.

Learn. Languages.

That is what languages are for! To be used for communication. If you don't learn languages, you are forcing everyone else to use yours. How have we somehow, as a culture, twisted that into being the less selfish option? How have we done that? I posted my favourite Welsh idiom recently, and someone reblogged it and wrote in the tags that they loved the idiom and would start using it, but they would do so in English because their "Welsh pronunciation would make their Welsh grandmother spin in her grave."

What kind of mental gymnastics is that?

How the fuck do you twist it so badly that you think taking a Welsh idiom for your own and exclusively using it in English is less offensive than saying it in Welsh but maybe a bit wrong? I've literally had people proclaim to me that they're learning Welsh on Duolingo but they never speak it because they're too self-conscious, and they tell me this not to highlight a massive flaw in themselves that they need to work on, but as though I'm supposed to pat them on the head and thank them for... still making me speak English to them.

There was that post where a Deaf blogger received an anonymous ask saying learning sign language is cultural appropriation, as though Deaf people haven't been calling for Sign to be taught in schools. As though a Deaf person being entirely isolated in everyday hearing society unless they have an interpreter with them is less offensive than a hearing person being able to use BSL.

Like, these are not sacred or religious languages. The purpose of Welsh or BSL or what have you is not to perform the Eleusinian mysteries. It's a living everyday language, same as English -

Except it's not the same as English. As Anon here so rightly points out, Welsh is endangered. That means we are desperate for people to learn it. That's how it will survive. That's how we reversed it from 'dying language' to 'living language', in fact - we managed to get lots of people to learn it. You know what is a threat, though? People not learning it because, like poor Anon here, they've been somehow convinced by Western society that you're only allowed to learn languages if you personally have a historic or cultural connection to them that you can prove via six forms of ID and a letter of recommendation from a druid. Or people never using it because they're too embarrassed to try and risk losing face by getting it wrong, or maybe sounding a bit silly, and thus forcing us to use English anyway. Those are threats.

Anon. Listen to me, feel the sincerity of my words: we adore you. We adore you. You cannot imagine how appreciated it is when someone learns Welsh. You cannot imagine how touched we are that you wanted to, that you tried, that you respected us enough and considered us valid enough that you made the effort. Our closest neighbours are the very people who are still trying to stamp out Welsh to this very day. Do you know the number 1 reaction I get, by a country mile, when I tell English people that I speak Welsh? It's some variant on a scoff, and the sentiment "Why? What's the point? Bit useless, isn't it?"

By a country mile. That's the reaction I expect, and brace for, and is overwhelmingly what I get.

So when someone who isn't Welsh actually chooses to learn Welsh?

Imagine what that feels like! To go from not-even-hidden disgust, from outright mockery and often active suppression campaigns, to a foreigner earnestly telling me that they love and respect my language so much they're trying to learn it. Imagine how that feels.

Please learn Welsh. Please learn it. We will love you for it. We will build you a statue. We will bake little Welshcakes with your face on in icing sugar. We will write you poems in complex rhyme. We'll name an Eisteddfod prize after you. We'll name at least, like, three sheep after you. Thank you, thank you so much for even wanting to learn. You're a delight and a marvel and a wonder. Your hair looks great today, as it does all days. You're a strong, independent human being of immense wisdom and compassion. If this were a Welsh myth you'd be a wise salmon the heroes came to for advice. What a fantastic human.

The welcome awaits if you choose to learn

#linguistics #asks #long post

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nycbabyjoey · 5 months

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The First Mazubas

NSFW 18+ Only

Contains ABDL Content

Note: This is a semi-sequel/prequel to a previous story I wrote. Click here if you'd like to read that one first!

It was Vīripār, the first night of Mazubas, when Natalie pulled out a Sievian book filled with old legends and myths to read to her former boyfriend turned baby, Brian.

Brian drank milk from his baby bottle, shifting his diapered butt into a comfortable sitting position on the ground as he prepared to hear his Mēmē read him a bedtime story. It was this day a year ago that Brian earned his position in diapers by filling his pants with cum in front of his topless girlfriend and it was a year that he had succumbed to filling his diapers in more ways than one while his Mēmē Natalie left him for Sievian stud Aleksis, earning them both residential status in the Sievian capital, Rezspils.

"Mēmē is going to read you a story before your second Vīripār," Natalie explained. "It's the tale of the first Mazubas and how the five nights of Mazubas came to be."

Brian looked up at his Mēmē with intrigue. He loathed Mazubas and what it had done to his life, but he had been looking forward to Vīripār all year for a chance to prove that he didn't need diapers so that he could ditch Sievia for good. Also, he hadn't learned much about where these insane customs had come from, so he was legitimately interested to be read to.

"A long time ago, the three goddesses descended upon the world of woman to ensure that womankind could continue throughout the ages," Natalie read. "There was the goddess of love, Ilgas, who delivered men and women the gift of desire so that they may partner up and raise children together. The goddess of death, Sarmīte, visited to remind humans that they must bear children to carry on their legacy following their timely ends, but promised to gift them long lives so that they may see their children raised to maturity.

"The most important of the goddesses, however, was Rasma, the goddess of fertility. She gave men and women the gift of izvat, which allowed them to create children together. She warned the people, however, that izvat was a precious gift that should never be wasted outside the act of sex between multiple partners.

"One man in Sievia could not help but izvat prematurely, however. This man was named Anatoli and he wanted to have a baby with his wife, Eleonora. Unfortunately, at the mere sight of Eleonora naked, Anatoli would izvat on Eleonora's chest, wasting his seed. Eleonora instructed Anatoli to trek and speak with the goddess Rasma praying that the couple may have child.

"Anatoli hiked up the Great Mountains of Magais for days to reach its highest point and be closer to the heavens so that he may pray to Rasma."

"Anatoli reached the peak of Magais and prayed to Rasma, 'Please, dear goddess, I wish for my wife to be with child.'

"Rasma appeared to Anatoli in all her glory. He finely sculpted body was too strong a sight for a mere mortal like Anatoli. She was unlike any human woman that Anatoli had seen with perfectly round, plump, and perky breasts that shined through her pure gold bralette. Though both beings were clothed, Anatoli could not resist making izvat in his pants at the stunning sight.

"Rasma chided Anatoli for wasting her great gift. 'You have wasted your izvat!' she cried out. 'You are no true man and my gift of izvat is misspent on one such as you who cannot help but untidy himself at the sight of a woman! I will grant your wife's wish. She should not have her prayers for a baby ignored simply because her husband lacks self-control. She will have her baby, and it shall be you!'

"Rasma pulled out a garment and commanded Anatoli to remove his clothing. He did as he commanded and Rasma placed the garment on Anatoli herself. It was a romblis like the ones made for babies, but it fit Anatoli perfectly and it was blessed with sacred enchantments. Every second that Anatoli wore the garment, he would izvat uncontrollably from the mere touch of the fabric against his genitalia.

"Anatoli starting convulsing immediately, spurting his useless seed in to his Romblis Maksis, which magically erased his izvat so that it would never fill nor ever need to be changed.

"'Crawl down the mountain and tell all of Rezspils what you've done here' Rasma decreed. 'Then, you will tell all the people there that they must share the gift of izvat with each other fully and publicly so that they you may witness how you've squandered it. The next day, you will be visited by my sisters who will treat you like the man baby you are.'

"Anatoli crawled on his hands and knees down the mountain as commanded, filling his romblis each second."

Photo credit: ridiculouslythickdiaper.org

"After days, Anatoli reached the village where the people awaited his return. At the sight of the grown man crawling in a romblis soiled with urine and feces from the long journey, the villagers burst into laughter. The pathetic display was a clear sign to them of Rasma's message - Men who izvat on themselves are no men at all; they are babies.

"Anatoli cried out Rasma's instructions, muffled by his sobs. The good townspeople delighted and obliged, tearing their clothes off and having sex all over town - through the square, outside the butcher's, in places of worship, etc.

"The Romblis Maksis continued to be filled with Anatoli's izvat as he witnessed the promiscuous sexual acts. Giant cocks swung around, large breasts bounced with each thrust, and sexual fluids spurted wildly at each other. It was a sexual celebration unlike anything ever seen as Sievia was reminded of the great power of Rasma's gifts.

"As Anatoli crawled to his home, he saw an unfortunate sight. His wife Eleonora was also on all fours in their flower garden, where she was being thrust into from behind by the town blacksmith. Anatoli wailed from heartbreak as he watched Eleonara's arms quiver harder and harder from each powerful drive of the blacksmith's enormous cock. The three of them did izvat together - Eleonara and the blacksmith into each other and Anatoli into his romblis.

"Eleonara saw Anatoli and wiped his tears. She said there was no reason for sadness; she finally had the baby that she had prayed to Rasma so often for! She took him inside of his own home where she changed his stinky romblis and put him to sleep at his new early bedtime."

Photo credit: ridiculouslythickdiaper.org

"The next morning, Anatoli awoke and remembered Rasma's declaration that he would be visited by the two other goddesses. It was just midday, after Eleonora had fed Anatoli his lunch, that the goddesses appeared before the former couple. The pair basked in the amazing glow of the beautiful goddesses and Anatoli couldn't help but fill his romblis in awe.

"Ilgas said unto Eleonora, 'Spend today with Eriks the blacksmith. He is your true soulmate. You two shall love each other as long as you both shall live.'

"Sarmīte continued, 'I will grant you two long lives so that you may grow old together. To make up for lost time, you two will be wed tomorrow morning. Your marriage to Eriks will be blessed by the three goddesses to be lifelong, passionate, and fruitful.'

"Eleonora cried out with delight, racing out the door to tell Eriks the good news. Meanwhile, the goddesses would tend to Anatoli, establishing him as the baby of the household so that Eriks would take the mantle of man of the house.

"Ilgas granted Anatoli a love of rombli so that he would never attempt to izvat in a woman or man ever again. Sarmīte granted Anatoli eternal life so that he would never grow old and therefore wouldn't need to procreate to continue his legacy. Anatoli would izvat in his sacred romblis for the rest of eternity.

"Ilgas and Sarmīte watched over Anatoli for the rest of the night, acting in the sacred role of mātre and changing his soiled romblis whenever Anatoli couldn't even remember to ask to use the bathroom.

Photo credit: ridiculouslythickdiaper.org

"Eleonora and Eriks returned two days later, married by the goddess Rasma and madly in love. The three goddesses spoke to the people of Sievia and told them to get together and pray. Pray that they appreciate the wonderful gift of izvat instead of blowing it in their rombli. Anatoli would be the center of their prayers as a grave reminder of the consequences of needlessly wasting their izvat.

"And so, all the people went out into the woods and formed a prayer circle around Anatoli. They stripped of their clothing to dance and chant, marveling at the sight of each other's bodies whilst managing to not izvat out of a lack of self-control.

"Anatoli, however, watched in the middle of everything, forced to izvat in his romblis every second of his now eternal life as punishment for his defiance of Rasma. The villagers prayed to the goddesses that they never forget the beauty of izvat and that they would only share it with each other.

"From that day on, the great people of Sievia knew that anyone who could not wait to izvat in order to make a baby was no better than a baby themselves. Any man who could not hold their izvat would be subject to a romblis from then on.

"And that's the story of the first Mazubas!

"Did you like the story, baby?" Natalie inquired. She looked up from her book for the first time to notice poor Brian squirming on the ground in his own romblis.

"Oh no! Looks like someone enjoyed the storybook a bit too much, right?" Natalie leaned down and stuck her fingers into the the leg hole of Brian's romblis to confirm. "Yep! You went izvat in your romblis just by listening to Mēmē's story! That's so freakin' adorable! Looks like you can stay home during this year's Vīripār. You've already proven that you still need romblis; what good would going to the dance even do? That's great because now I can tuck you in for an early bedtime before me and Dēdē go to the dance. Come on, little stinker. I see your eyes drooping already. And I still need to change your cummy romblis; if only you had a Romblis Maksis like Anatoli!"

On the first night of Mazubas, my true love gave to me; Tons of exclusive Patreon stories!

#ab/dl #diaper caption #ab/dl caption #diaper humiliation #diaperboy #mommy kink #mommysbaby #ab/dl boy #ab/dl mommy #ab/dl fiction #ab/dl story #ab/dl story time

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maboroshi-no · 4 months

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Hamefura Movie Special Episode 2 (Novel) Translation

I Tried On a Dancer's Costume…

Author: Yamaguchi Satoru

Katarina: It really was magnificent!

After saying this, I, Katarina Claes was raving to my little brother and friends about the magnificence of the show we had just seen.

A while had passed since the arrival of the Mutlaq caravan, the occurrence of the incident, and its safe settlement. Since the reparations had settled down, I asked the caravan people if we could watch their magnificent show again. They gladly accepted, so today, I got to watch the show with the boys, who couldn't last time. In addition to the girls, who had already seen it, the boy also seemed completely mesmerized by the magnificence of the show.

Sophia: I feel like it has become even more lovely compared to the time before. I was entranced by that dancer, and her costume really was lovely.

Sophia passionately talked without catching her breath. She looked like an otaku talking about the thing they are crazy about.

The dancer who had approached us happened to hear Sophia's words, and…

Dancer: So you love the dancer's costume! Would you like to try it on for a bit?

…she casually asked her.

Sophia: Can I? I would love to!

After Sophia had said this while pitching forward as if to fall, the dancer laughed and said "Sure."

While we weren't as eager as Sophia, I, Mary, and Maria were also curious about the foreign dancers' costumes, so we decided to try them on together just a little.

The Mutlaq dancer's costume was something that a dancer from Arabian Nights in my past life would wear, so it was frankly speaking quite revealing. When I was a Japanese high school girl during my previous life, I wore things like tank tops and shorts, but ever since I was born in Sorcier, I had worn skirts that didn't show the legs down to the knees and had not been showing much skin, so it took me quite a lot of courage to wear the dancer's costume. But when I tried it on,

Katarina: Wow, I really look like a dancer! So cute.

Because I was wearing a long fluttering veil that went from my face to my waist, I didn't really feel like I was showing skin. I felt like a princess.

Even though the parts hidden by the veil were a bit high-exposure, I felt excited wearing the costume. When I came out of the changing partition screen in high spirits, I saw Mary, who had come out before me.

Mary: How do I look? I don't look weird, right?

Mary looked terrific as she embarrassedly said this. She was wearing a thinner veil than mine and her clothes were very much see-through, but her voluptuous body combined with the dancer's costume's sensuality brought about an indescribable bewitching sexiness. Coupled with her embarrassed look, it felt like minors wouldn't be able to look her in the eyes.

I didn't know what comment to make at the moment, but then…

Maria: You both look lovely!

Maria came out and said this with a smile. As expected of the legitimate heroine. There indeed was a certain sexiness to her in those see-through revealing clothes and veil, but if I had to choose, I would say loveliness suited her better. And for her to be able to say so readily that Mary was lovely despite all the sexiness she was exuding, she was amazing. I rode her wave and…

Katarina: Yes, you look lovely Mary, really lovely.

…I managed to tell her. Then Maria praised me too, and Mary praised us. We were having this kind of exchange when finally, Sophia came out.

Sophia was incredibly cute. But maybe because I had seen her after Mary and Maria, she had that adorableness of a little child wearing a dancer's costume, and her sex appeal was non-existent. Sophia might have faintly noticed it herself as after looking at Mary's dancer look and hers, she had some kind of distant look in her eyes.

No, Mary is just too abnormal in that respect, you can't compare yourself to her. I wanted to cheer Sophia up since she had lost self-confidence, but what should I do…? Oh, I know! Her big brother Nicol was doting on her, so if I showed Sophia to him, he would praise her cuteness and Sophia's confidence would come back!

Katarina: Alright, Sophia, let's show you to Lord Nicol!

I took Sophia's hand and dashed out of the women's changing space.

Mary: Eh? Lady Katarina, are you going out dressed like this?!

Maria: Lady Katarina, you must put some clothes on you!

Unfortunately, Mary and Maria's voices didn't reach me and I went dressed in my dancer's costume to see the boys waiting outside.

Katarina: Lord Nicol, Sophia looks good in this costume, right? She looks cute, right?

I called out to Nicol like this. Nicol turned towards me, then froze. He remained frozen, not uttering a single word. On top of this, I felt like his face had turned red for some reason. Did something happen?

Katarina: Umm, Lord Nicol, did something…

…happen? But before I could continue,

Keith: BIG SISTER, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU WEARING?!

Keith blushed and said this with amazing force.

Katarina: Eh?! What I'm wearing? It's a dancer's costume, but… Does it look weird?

Keith: Not "weird", but it is too revealing!

Katarina: Eh?! But the veil conceals things, right?

Geordo: This veil is completely transparent, so we can see what's behind it.

This time, Geordo spoke and pointed this out. His face was somewhat red.

Katarina: Eh? Is it that transparent?

When I looked at myself while in the changing space, I couldn't see behind the veil, but now that I looked again, it was indeed see-through.

Ah, I see. The changing space had been somewhat dim, so the veil had looked mostly opaque, but this place was considerably bright, so now it was see-through. Besides, it was because no one would see me no matter how see-through it was that I tried on a very revealing costume… After remembering this, I suddenly felt embarrassed.

When I looked at the boys once more, Nicol was frozen with a red face, Keith was averting his eyes with a red face, Geordo had a somewhat awkward look and a red face, and Alan had turned his completely red face away!

Looking at everyone's reactions, I felt even more embarrassed and the heat on my face increased.

I returned to the women's changing space at full speed.

Sophia normally came back afterward and said, "Big Brother, I was able to do something for you" and smiled. I couldn't seem to shake off my embarrassment, and on the way back, I couldn't look at everyone straight in the eyes.

--------

(this pic is unrelated to the novel, but I thought it was fitting)

#hamefura movie #hamefura #my next life as a villainess: all routes leads to doom #katarina claes #sophia ascart #mary hunt #maria campbell #nicol ascart #keith claes #geordo stuart #alan stuart

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one-million-kruge · 9 months

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my six of crows hcs

I need to read Crooked Kingdom but I can't for at least another week and it's killing me so take this very self indulgent list

Kaz Brekker

-He finds it really hard to apologize so he literally buys a gazillion super expensive gifts for whichever Crow, refuses to elaborate, and walks away. Matthias is mystified by this.

-Kaz hates emotional attachments with people because he could easily lose them like he lost Jordie, so he made them with his cane and gloves instead.

-For a while as a coping mechanism, Kaz legitimately treated 'Rietveld' Kaz and 'Brekker' Kaz as two different people. When he was triggered by something or other he told himself it was Rietveld messing with him.

-He researched Saints so that he could know and understand Inej's religion, even though he had no obligation to. He also pretends he hates hearing her talking about it but just hearing the passion in her voice makes Kaz happy.

Inej Ghafa

-Similarly to Kaz, she has emotional attachments to her knives because after her time at the Menagerie it became really hard for her to trust people.

-Inej learned how to walk silently at the Menagerie because she needed to sneak around in order to get stuff she needed to survive, whether it be food or something to stitch herself up with.

-She enjoys being on the sea because it gives her a sense of freedom similar to how acrobatics made her feel.

-Inej has never once pitied Kaz, just felt anger for what others (*cough cough* pekka rollins) had done to him. Every time she sees him panic she feels a mixture of sadness and pure rage.

Jesper Fahey

-Jesper has a diary because he feels emotions in a very big way and he needs some way to get them out. He hides it under his bed and let me tell you it is bright pink.

-When he is stressed (often) he plays with his guns. Like, safety on, but he flips them around in his hands and whatever because it reminds him of his mother and her memory makes him feel safe.

-When on heists, Jesper legit takes any opportunity to wear high heels. There is no need to. The Crows make fun of him for it. He does not care.

-Jesper is typically very fidgety but whenever he's near Wylan he's just automatically much calmer. Wylan is like Milo for his stress but better. It's even better when he's touching Wylan in some way, shape, or form.

Wylan Van Eck

-If Wylan hears a phrase or saying or something of the like that he thinks is nice or cool, he writes it in musical notes (similarly to how he labels chemicals and such) and tacks it up on a wall or something.

-When he was younger and his father would use horrible tactics to try and get him to be able to read, he just took it and assumed it was normal because he didn't have a frame of reference (not being able to read books or make friends very well). Some days he felt he deserved it.

-Wylan loves symbolic art because it's a way for him to take in a story without having to read it. He loves making up interpretations of symbolic paintings and connecting unrelated ones into a continuous story.

-He is really not assertive at all and finds it hard to read the room, so Wylan always asks Jesper before he does anything affectionate. He sometimes gets embarrassed about it, but Jesper always reassures him that it's very cute and sexy of him.

Nina Zenik

-Nina is bisexual (canon) and in terms of her preferences she finds women to be hotter, but she loves men beyond physical attraction more often. Whenever people try to tell her that she's straight because of that she either punches them or knocks them out for a few minutes depending on how she's feeling that day.

-Nina loves fucking with people by speaking a language to them that they don't speak and then gaslighting them into thinking that she was speaking the language they do speak.

-She is like the #1 hype squad for Inej, and it's literally the only thing that Kaz and her can agree on. They literally get into compliment battles but they're complimenting Inej.

-Nina finds it hilarious how actually innocent Matthias is, so sometimes when they speak, she makes progressively more lewd innuendos to see how long it takes for him to catch on.

Matthias Helvar

-Matthias is super gullible and will believe almost anything someone tells him unless it is far too outlandish to be true. The rest of the Crows (bar Inej and Wylan) use this to their advantage often.

-Back when he hunted Grisha, everyone else said he was most definitely the least likely to become a traitor but also the most likely to be the nicest to the Grisha. Guess where they were wrong.

-Matthias tries his best to be mischievous and absolutely fails every time. He just feels bad about it and so he immediately apologizes even though all of his "mischief" isn't even that bad.

-Whenever Nina needs anything, Matthias will immediately do it/get it for her. Whether it's getting a book off of a shelf that she can't quite reach or committing homicide, he is always ready and willing.

#ugh i love them so much #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #wesper #nina zenik #matthias helvar #helnik #six of crows #soc #grishaverse #headcanon #i seriously need to read crooked kingdom.#not on this list but jesper and nina would be the biggest swifties #and kaz would know every lyric to every song purely because jesper would listen to her so much #rambles #six of crows headcanons

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the-incorrigible-chaia · 1 year

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So, there's a trend that I've noticed a lot that's starting to really annoy me, not least because it's something I used to do, too.

Namely, when I see left-wing antisemites being antisemitic schmucks, going "bUt IsRaEl" on a post about antisemitism, and the response from several otherwise left-wing Jews is to defend Zionism, or refer to the state of Israel as decolonizing and a restoration of the Jewish homeland, and I just want to go, like

My sibling at Sinai, Zionism isn't what you think it is.

I understand what you're trying to do, but, like. Zionism as an -ism is a political ideology with a material history. It has founders, leaders, and writings. And believe me, I would genuinely love for the core of it to have simply been the return of Jewish life and self-determination to Eretz Yisrael. I'm not against Jewish life in ha'aretz. But that just isn't what the core of Zionism is.

Zionism is an ethnonationalist ideology based in 19th-century European ethnostatism, formulated most clearly in the writings of Moses Hess and Theodor Herzl. It's only 200 years old, and is deeply rooted in a form of European colonial theory that posits Eretz Yisrael - a place neither Hess nor Herzl had ever been to when they wrote their works on Zionism - as a terra nullius that had lain fallow since the Roman expulsion, when that simply isn't the case. Herzl didn't discuss the Arab population at all, and Hess only briefly referenced them as enemies to be destroyed.

Plus, like, the facts on the ground regarding the results of Zionism kind of speak for themselves? As much as I want to blame Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin, Ahad Ha'am's writings show that even the earliest members of the New Yishuv treated their Palestinian neighbours with contempt, and the same colonialist assumption that the people already living there would just leave - and when, predictably, they refused to do so, to the following decision to make them leave by force.

And ultimately, at least imo, the ideological core of Zionism is rooted in internalized antisemitism. I know that's a bold claim, but hear me out. At the core of both Hess and Herzl's writings is the unspoken fact that both of them have accepted the European framing of "The Jewish Problem" as legitimate. Hess outright states that he believes Jews won't be respected in Europe until they have a state of their own - and moreover, in his view, that we wouldn't be worthy of respect from Europe unless we had an ethnostate like them. Herzl's Judenstadt is explicitly framed as a "solution" to the "Jewish Question", and claims that the key to ending European antisemitism is to just leave Europe, and and that once there was a Jewish state, Europeans would simply treat Jews as people from another country.

These aren't liberatory or decolonial movements, they're assimilatory even as they decry Jewish assimilation, and come at the expense of other people.

So, I guess my conclusion is just... you don't have to stan for Zionism or Israel when some antisemitic chud engages in whataboutism on a post about antisemitism - just link them April Rosenblum's pamphlet.

And for us; liberation in Eretz Yisrael isn't going to come at the Palestinians' expense, and it isn't going to come from a 19th-century ethnonationalist ideology like Zionism. We need to leave it, and the idea that the land is only for us, far behind.

#jumblr #antisemitism #zionism

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nerdieforpedro · 7 months

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I wish you would write a fic where… Joel had been called to mentor Reader in shooting, but doesn't really want to and is being mean to her, but only because he has a crush on her and she’s younger than him.

I can try. It will likely be post-outbreak Joel. Pre-outbreak Joel knows how to shoot but doesn’t do it often because peace, work, caring for his daughter, etc. (This is how I picture pre-outbreak Joel so soft, so sad, so much work, so Joel.) 🥸

It’s required and encouraged by post-outbreak Joel. I haven't really written for post-outbreak Joel so this will be a first, here we go!

Pairing: Joel Miller x plus size female reader

Warnings: None really I think? 😎

Word count: 1057 (An actual Drabble?! Maybe)

Tommy and Maria had thought up this grand scheme. A plan rather to make sure Jackson is as prepared as can be in case clickers or raiders attack, all able-bodied adults would be taught self-defense and gun skills, both handguns and rifles. Joel agreed with this plan last month. It sounded great then, but now, standing across from this short plump woman who annoyed him to no end. She can barely hold it correctly. She can’t figure out how to remove the damn safety after showing her three times and she wasn’t able to take the gun apart or put it back together. What frustrates him even more is that he looks forward to teaching her, though he knows he’s doing a piss poor job of it. There’s nothing to show for the month as far as gun skills.

Joel was halfway confident she would be able to break away from an attacker and get help or at least injure them. She did well with the knife and was able to aim for the chest, neck, and stomach to slow an opponent. The soft hands that pushed his chest in practice and wrapped her soft hands around his throat, barely able to touch the fingertips to each other, he found himself thinking about them after their sessions. It made him feel like a worse teacher, hearing her voice ask him,

“Am I hurting you? I don’t know how hard push.”

“I’m scared to get a good grip; you’re not actually attacking me. Mr. Miller.”

“Can I just use the knife? I’m really bad with guns it seems.”

“I’ll do better, I’ll practice after clinic hours.”

Joel couldn’t let her use a gun without him. He told himself that it was because she was so horrible at it. But now he was legitimately concerned that he may be sabotaging her efforts to learn. She seemed capable to learn the simple hand to hand techniques, but Joel couldn’t bring himself to ask another one of the scouting to instruct her either. He found himself becoming greedy when it came to his subpar pupil.

The older Miller brother stopped by the clinic, it appeared to be closed, but he heard her voice and a male one coming from around back. He crept around back and saw her speaking with Ted, a fellow scout and one who usually scoped out the Tipsy Bison looking for his next lay. The guy was closer in age to her, Joel being in his early fifties, and he was pretty sure she was in her late twenties or early thirties at most. The cold air displayed the steam coming from their conversation as Ted put a hand on her shoulder. A benign act that Joel took personal offence to, he strode over and slapped Ted’s back hard on purpose under the guise of greeting him. The younger man took the hint and left, leaving the clinician smiling at Joel. She did that too often as well. Who smiles that damn much at the end of the world?

“Hey Puddin’. Ted give you any pointers?” Even if Ted had, he was going to point what was wrong with them and how she should follow his directions. She shook her head.

“No Mr. Miller. He said something at practicing at night. He clearly wasn’t going to teach me anything I needed know.” She shrugged her shoulders, she shifted her weight between her feet, Joel noticed she did this when she was nervous. “I-I haven’t practiced any shooting. I don’t want to injure anyone. Oh! I think I can almost get my hands to behave to aim at least. Having unsteady hands doesn’t bode well for hitting a target.” Her chuckle makes Miller sigh, she shouldn’t be learning how to shoot at all. She needs to be working the clinic and maybe relaxing in the evening with hot chocolate and a book. He pictures her as someone who would read in the evening curled up under a blanket, maybe her thick legs draped over him as he sipped some whiskey.

“Mr. Miller.”

Joel was sure he’d need to talk to Tommy about this eventually. She really doesn’t need a gun.

“Mr. Miller? Are you alright?” She asked, grasping his coat sleeve and Joel yanked his arm away instinctively. He stepped back and crouched partially making himself ready for anything. The young woman stepped back and bit her lip, now he was angry at her again.

Well maybe angry this time, before he just seemed perturbed with her lack of skill with guns. She felt someone as skilled as Joel shouldn’t be teaching her and the very thought of working with a novice like her drove him to such levels of vexation. She was sure he’d rather be doing anything else. At least she was okay in hand to hand, but guns scared her so much, knowing what they could do. That was the point of them, but still the thought of shooting someone caused her anxiety and Joel with his gruff booming voice, especially when she was sure he was going to throw the gun at her after she couldn’t get the safety off for the umptieth time.

“Shit Puddin’ you can’t just grab me like that. I’d cut ya,” He exhaled and regained his composure. Joel then realized that he had just threatened to slice her. He reached a hand out to her but she recoiled and stook a few more steps back.

“S-Sorry about that Mr. Miller. I didn’t mean to…Fuck I can’t do any of this right.” Her gloved hands covered her face in embarrassment. Not only can she not work any type of gun, she made her mentor have a fight or flight response. Maybe she would speak to Tommy and Maria, she wasn’t made to use a gun.

“Now look Puddin’ sorry fer scarin’ ya. I don’t do too well with touch.” He focused on the ground, he felt that he should do or say something else, but what? “Don’t worry yerself none. I reckon I scared you more than you did me Darlin’. I mma get going. Don’t cry. Nothin’ to cry ‘bout baby girl.” The elder Miller brother patted her head as he said ‘baby girl’ softly. Her sniffles slowed and he walked away, leaving her out back of her clinic.

#pedro pascal characters #fanfiction #pedro pascal fanfiction #joel miller #joel miller x reader #joel miller x plus size reader #mentor Joel miller #anon ask #Nerdie answers #an actual drabble

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notquitedeadpod · 3 months

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Hello just wanted to say love everything going on in this podcast, just, on every level. The vampire lore is everything to me, love the way the monstrous and the alluring intertwine (and are also the same thing). Neige in particular is. Very important to me. The way he's (from what I've gathered so far) legitimately not tired of life after having so much of it? How even if he's having trouble staying in the moment he still cherishes the new, enjoys and dislikes things with his entire heart? As someone who struggles with letting itself enjoy life seeing this guy who's been around for thousands of years and is like "zis entire life thing is great and my capacity for joy in infinite" just. Warms my heart? And of course vampires are very much about queerness in here, but the way Neige refuses to let himself wallow in self pity, to not enjoy his life despite the difficulties of it (or to deny the fact that he's alive) is also Doing Things for me from a chronic illness perspective. And yeah, the queerness perspective of course. Fun aside fact I am very, very asexual and I think your funky vampires helped me conceptualize desire better? I don't get attraction but I do get hunger and they're basically the same thing maybe. When a guy gives you that garlic bread sort of feeling. Fascinating. Anyways thank you for making Neige a guy that exists! Really appreciate all the creatures happening in your head and that you elected to share them with the world <3

<3 <3 <3

This was such a wonderful message to receive, thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this with me. It's such an incredible thing to have made something that resonates with other people, and it's so powerful to hear about the place my little creation has in your life!

One thing I want to reflect on here, specifically, is what you said about Neige. For very different reasons, this aspect of him, where he continues to choose to live, is deeply important to me in a very similar way. Neige's life has not been easy. He's been around for so long and the world has not been kind to him during all of those many years, but he continues to choose to live, and most importantly, to me, he's living NOT because he thinks that the bad times are over, but because he knows that the GOOD times aren't over, either.

There is something very cathartic for me to write a character who isn't wildly optimistic, isn't filled with spite about it, but who looks at life and all it has to offer, and all of what it has offered already, and says yes. All of that, good and bad? More of it, please.

Yeah, idk. It means a lot to me to write about it, that I'm able to, that it's resonating with other people when I do.

Also YES the sexual desire vs hunger thing is fascinating because this show is VERY about exploring that connection, about love and consumption and dependency and like. Idk. Vampires overall just represent something powerful to me about desire and yearning and hunger.

I will speak at some point (which is why the second part of the Q&A STILL isn't out, btw, it began to CONSUME me) about vampires as alienated bodies, how that relates to the vampire x human and vampire x vampire dynamics I explore in the show, and like. More broadly about connections between monstrousness and carnal desire and consumption. These connections fascinate me are very much things I'm super alive to when I'm writing the show so!! Very fun to think about!!

--- Eira xxx

#not quite dead #eira speaks #vampires

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espeonkin · 6 months

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Honest question: Why do you refuse to speak a word or even share anything against Israel during this time as someone who has connections to it? Why does defending your view of otherkin and furry drama come before defending the real lives of innocent people being killed?

Your online space is ultimately yours to choose what you do with, but this silence is deafening. Pouring blood sweat and tears fighting against some dumb kin jokes made by a few young teens, yet refusing to make a peep over real life genocide and ethnic cleansing being done by a place you frequently visit, is concerning, to say the very least. Please think about this and do better.

hi, i want to preface this response with the fact that while i am going to try to be as eloquent as possible in this response, this is a stressful topic, and i'm probably going to misspeak or forget to include certain things i mean to say because this was an additionally stressful message to receive. i don't want to come off as though i'm refusing to speak at all, though, which is why i'm responding now, instead of after I've had a bit more time to process everything you've said to me.

first, i'd like to address you saying that i "have connections" to israel and "frequently visit" it. i have absolutely no connection to israel. i have no family that lives there, and i have only been there once, four years ago. the only "connection" i have is that i'm jewish, which i don't consider to be a legitimate reason to say i have a connection to israel or especially its government. is that what you're insinuating here? because i'm jewish i'm connected to the state of israel? when i was there, i was personally very uncomfortable with how militarized everything was and frankly wanted nothing more than to leave, but it was a vacation with my family and rabbi, so i couldn't very well leave and go home on my own. and again. this was four years ago and before i was better informed on what the state of israel has done and is continuing to do.

on that note, the reason why i haven't been speaking on the current events related to israel is because it's a very stressful topic for me and i've been going through a rough mental health patch as is already. i can't begin to describe how horrible it feels to hear the constant claims that these are being taken in the name of the religion that i was born into and holds such deep personal value to me even still. i never asked for this. my jewish friends never asked for this. do you know how it feels to have your parents so thoroughly indoctrinated by propaganda that they call you a traitor to your religion for not believing every word that comes from the israeli government? to try so hard to help them unlearn the propaganda only to be met with such thorough resistance? so. please forgive me if i'm trying to make my little corner of the internet just a bit less stressful for me to exist in.

as for the "why is it more important to you to defend your views of otherkin" part, it's because it's less emotionally taxing for me than a literal real world genocide. it's something personal to me, and i'd like to be able to talk about it when possible, but I would like to emphasize that there have been periods where even this has been too much for me to handle and i've had to back off from the topic at points.

i don't like being told to "do better" here. because the fact of the matter is that i know my limits and talking about a literal genocide for weeks on end is frankly not within them. continually exposing myself to travesty when i know it's not within my limits isn't activism, it's emotional self harm. i also would like to know where you heard that i "frequently visit" and "have connections to" israel. or is that something you just came up with because i'm jewish?

i hope i addressed things eloquently enough. sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear, or if i forgot anything in efforts to make a faster response. i hope this answer is sincere to you.

#cw genocide #current events #long post #cw israel

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professorbussywinkle · 8 months

Text

Ya know.... It's been a year since I started my transition, the changes I've made to my presentation, affect, and the way I speak, how I navigate conversation, the way I interact with people, will in and of itself, often prompt...

"The Gender Conversation"

People notice that I'm presenting and behaving in a more feminine way, but they will perceive me as male, and are curious to make conversation about it, which I fully welcome.

And when I meet someone new, like if im at work and we hire a new server, or I'm out at a bar with friends, I introduce myself using my deadname, and say

Hi! my names (my deadname)...

...Well... at least for now, his days are numbered 😜

and people usually understand from that, that I'm some sort of tran when I say that, I do this deliberately to make the conversation easy to have, make a little jokey joke, show that I'm lighthearted and good natured about my identity/gender and that I'm open to willing to explaining things relating to it non judgementally for them in order to give them the sense that I wont feel some type of way if their natural curiosity prompts them to ask questions which could perceive as "invasive" Or "inappropriate."

Again I do this deliberately because if you live in the US, there's such a weird type of emotional charge attached to trans people in the popular culture rn, and if people don't already personally know a trans person or are friends with one, they largely hear the explosion of untreated waste in the mainstream media about us, and that can and does tend to inform the average persons thoughts and opinions us, creates tensions, anxieties about talking about it or recognizing it, so I go about it this way because that lighthearted jovial energy eases that tension enough to have a substantive talk about it

And just by how I present myself, people usually ask what my pronouns are out of politeness without me having to even tell them out the gate, and I tell them

"I go by any/all pronouns, but just for now, I'm in the middle of everything so I don't really care what pronouns you use, but eventually I'm gonna use she/they"

Which is generally well received, if anything they feel embarrassed for asking because they don't wanna just assume and come off as rude, or accidentally misgender me, in my experience, most people do mean well and wanna be polite and respectful, and again, when that tension and anxiety arises I have to reassure them that im an open book, im not gonna get offended, I'm cool about it, and it also gives them space to self correct without me prompting them since they know out the gate, that the goal is to be refered using she/they

And when I give them the low down I basically say the same thing to everyone I have this gender conversation with

that sometimes, it's not enough to be yourself, sometimes you have to become yourself, and that I'm not quite fully there yet, and show them that I'm aware of myself in that regard, and tell them that my philosophy on transitioning is pretty basic, that i can identify as a woman, and know i am one in my soul, and have found my truth inside myself, and have liberated myself from my shackles, but until I do the proper work, gain the credentials, fully change myself physically mentally and otherwise, subscribe to womanhood in all its facets and perform socially in ways that people recognize as legitimate womanhood, then I'm functionally not really a woman in the same capacity as someone born a girl from birth whose had a whole lifetimes worth of socialization and female experiences under their belt, I have to work to get there.

And my coworkers, my boss, my family, they all seem to really appreciate that perspective in my experience, and this might rub some people the wrong way, but I personally don't feel comfortable claiming womanhood like that without living womanhood in my day to day, every day, and I tell people that also, and they have told me that the way I'm going about it is more measured and mature than they're used to, and creates a lot of space for people, who are not trans and may not fully understand it but who mean well, to easily be able to interact with me without there being any weird vibes

And thus far, my transition is going and has gone so smoothly, and I never thought I could be so simply happy...I never thought I could look in the mirror and like what I see and who i am and who I am becoming. for the majority of my life, I hated myself and just wanted to end it all, and now I've gotten to a point where i can't wait to see what the rest of my life holds, and I'm so excited to finally start truly living, and it might be cliche and dumb but...

....it does get better

#lgbtqia #queer #trans #transgender #transfem #lgbt #discourse #my truth #trans experience #trans discourse

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thattimdrakeguy · 2 years

Text

Tim Drake: Robin is probably not going to be very good.

OH HOLY GOODNESS. GREAT GARGOYLE. SWEEET SUNDAY AFTERNOON, GOODNESS GRACIOUS. ALL THAT.

Hi, you may know me from such motion pictures as, ‘I stole this from the Simpsons’ and ‘Being Self Aware Isn’t Always Funny, But It Hasn’t Stopped Me So Far’

I think this comic is a train wreck. I think we have a problem here, I’m sorry, but mmm mmm mmm. This is looking like the deep south side of elevation.

But we can learn from this. We can we can, trust me, we can. While also being kind of upset that this is Tim’s first major comic in over a decade, because I’m not going to be timid. I’ll say it, I’ll go ahead, it fucking sucks.

It does. But why? Someone probably saw this post and went “What the hell is he going on about...?” and...well.

Look I’m just going to be blunt, so let’s not make this difficult...but...imagine I’m sighing or something, make this melodramatic for no actually good reason, but this preview they gave is a damn train wreck.

I am going to give my reasons for why, but let me just get my not really critical thoughts on what’s presented and just my general thoughts on what I’m seeing so far if that makes any sense.

To say that, I am freaking SOOOOOOO upset that this is Tim’s big comeback comic. This is a pile of pages that shouldn’t have to be paid for to see it legally.

I’m pretty sure they advertised Tim Drake as the World’s Favorite Robin or something like that, and beyond the fact that you know damn well given that there’s 5 different Robins simply in the main universe alone, that people are going to be snapping back at that like crazy.

But with this as the comic they’re presenting it is laughable.

And believe me when I say I am feeling the exact opposite of pleasure by saying that.

Because this isn’t even a comic about Tim Drake. This is a below average fan fiction, that’d barely get past 100 views on AO3, except if you want to legally see it, you have to pay for it. All while this is the first ongoing solo Tim has had in over a decade, and this is a really crappy way to get into that.

This is all from a preview. But I am not saying anything that is not a legitimate critique. And I wouldn’t be sitting up out of my coffin to say any of this unless I genuinely felt worried. I am not doing this out of hate, we don’t have enough time to hate unless it’s justified, and I’m not crazy enough to say I hate this in mean it. I just also think that it’s the opposite of good.

So let me get into this step by step:

Okay, step one, I’m going to just speak as if I’m talking to you, okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that, this is not a two way post, you can hear me, I can’t hear you, sorry how awkward that is. Anyways.

You’re writing a comic about a character. A very specific character. A character that used to be super popular, but still has a devoted fan base, that’s had to go through so many random character changes and dips in quality through the last 20 years especially that people have seen him gone from DC’s most popular teen superhero, selling only second in that department to SUPERMAN AS A TEENAGE BOY. Which says quite a lot. To a character deemed irrelevant because I hardly feel like they get anyone to write him that knows how to write a decent story with him.

And now we got six pages out of a...what, 20 page thing?

LET’S REALLY GET THIS ROLLING I AM TAKING UP TOO MUCH TIME.

But here’s how these six pages are already awful in genuinely, what shouldn’t be controversial reasons, because this is just how a story is made, all right.

1. Six pages, and not a single one of them gives you anything that identifies this black haired skeleton as Tim Drake besides the fact you know he is supposed to be Tim Drake.

You write a character...you gotta make sure it’s an actual character. This black haired skeleton says nothing that gives him a personality, or anything that resembles who Tim is as a person, and instead--let me blunt here.

Yes, it is kind of cute, but that’s not an actual excuse or substitute for character writing. I am talking about this from a writing perspective not if I think it’s cute enough. If you like it, I’m happy for you. I am not.

A very generic character, who’s dialogue and thoughts you could give to about near any character. He has no interesting POV anymore, there’s nothing you can relate to with him, no specific voice for him. ETC ETC. (Yes, I only showed two pages, but trust me, it does not get better.) Things that made him work, also hahaha I know people think he has no personality, but I’m not an idiot, and I am fully aware that he does have a personality, I am sorry for having better reading comprehension, folks that think that, I really really am.

Six pages of nothing that makes this drawing Tim Drake. And since he is the star of this show this is freaking awful. This is horrendous. Your job as a writer is to let people know who this guy is, why you should like him, what some of his flaws are, and put him in situations where you can learn how he is. You have to make him feel like he’s worth reading on his own. You do, you really really do.

That is the basics of character work. The fact that this is a preview means nothing, because this is what people are supposed to read to know if they want to read this comic.

2. This art is, I betchu, so perfect...for another series. Where it will bring you some honestly whimsical imagery for a specific story. Any refined art style is beautiful...in the right context. And this art style sadly does not fit this character in anyway.

Also the fact that are drawing Bernard to look more feminine, and give him mannerisms that are not mannerisms Bernard has is also just fucking patronizing and I hate it. If you’re telling people Bernard is in the comic, you’re supposed to draw Bernard, but sadly he is no where to be found.

He’s never exactly been a beacon of pure testosterone, but he’s clearly not supposed to be like this. He’s obviously not meant to be feminine, he’s a bit masculine if anything, unless you’re going to be weird and call longer hair a sign that he’s feminine, which...it is not. They’re now just making him a stereotype and that’s freaking horrendous of them to do.

3. What character work they give you is stuff you can get for free on Tumblr, Twitter, and about near everywhere. Because it’s just taking stuff you see for free on websites and putting it in a comic for easy fan praise, when really is lazy as could be.

They have Bernard saying conspiracy theories, this is a part of him, a lot of us know it, a lot of like this, so do I, so why am I being negative?

Because this doesn’t actually tell me anything about him that lets me know what he’s like or who he is. It tells me one superficial trope. How am I supposed to know what he’d do in any situation like this? Stuff I should probably be able to tell to get myself invested in him.

One of the biggest complaints about him right now is that he’s so bland. And not making him feel like a real person isn’t helping. You can have him say conspiracy theories, while also feeling like a real person.

Remember, this is a product you have to pay to legally see. This isn’t just a fan fiction someone made for free. The standards are a bit different. Keep that in mind when I’m saying all of this. ‘Cause I wouldn’t bother saying any of that for a fan fiction. I don’t want to kill people’s fun, I’m just trying to be honest here.

The original Bernard introduction shows you he thinks highly of himself or at least wants others to think that, shows he’s a big smug, likes to show off to people, and sees something he can relate to and is intrigued by in our main protagonist.

They accomplished that I believe in a single page or two.

It also shows just how horribly they’ve written, drawn, and overall portrayed Bernard. Because while I wouldn’t call the run of Robin he came from overly good, in fact some parts are straight up bad, this introduction is in the end, a really good character introduction.

Take the established names off of this and post it online, and you have a very cute gay boyfriends comic that I’m sure people are going to love, because then it’s in the right place, and fits where it is.

Sadly this is a Tim Drake comic, and nothing about this has anything to do with who Tim Drake is.

“I need to found out who I am” “Can I call him my boyfriend” “I moved ‘cause I needed to find myself”

Bad character work besides the boyfriend line. Why? ‘Cause that’s telling you how comfortable he is in his sexuality right now. He just came out. This is a logical progression in Tim Drake’s story. Sadly, we still need more than that, we need to know who Tim Drake is.

They also settle for having Tim Drake describe the characters generically, instead of giving us any interesting scenes with them to show us what they are. They are telling, not showing. Bad bad writing. It’s one panel, and it’s all described, you can barely identify them truly. They’re all immediately washed away as none important. Maybe some will eventually, but for a first issue this is not the way to debut these people if you expect anything significant.

In technical terms, for those that do not know. There’s a many view out there, it’s okay. There’s many writers in the making that can learn a lesson here.

But the technical term for this is:

Lazy fucking writing.

Unless you have an audience that is really willing to try super hard, you are not going to get anybody attached to the characters this way. You need to see them be them, doing themselves. If you’re a writer you need to do stuff that the reader can identify this character with.

For fucks sake there’s a scene that should in theory show us some of Tim’s new neighbors. Which, by the way, the fact he moved is ridiculous, because we don’t even know Tim’s personal life where he was. Making all of this pointless, except for the writer to go straight into their own desires. Which is also bad, because then you’re missing viable parts of things to make it work.

Tim was fine, then a new writer comes along, he’s in a crisis, couple more appearances, nothing really showing that this move is a natural progression. There for lady's, gents, nonbinary homies, what does that make it? Unnatural. Yes, forced. That’s bad. You want it to be natural so that you aren’t catching your audience off guard in a bad way by wondering “Why the fuck?” all the damn time, okay? There’s another writing type for you, and if you’re struggling with this, read back your work in the perspective of, you’re someone who has no idea who these characters are, and why this is happening. If you’re left just accepting crap ‘cause it’s said for the most part, your audience is going to suffer a bit.

Now anyways, we see these neighbors, they’re a bit frantic, why? Because oh my gosh people are trying to evict them! That’s terrible! People can relate to that! It’s real. Likely happening to some of the readers!

There you go, you have your moment to really make people care beyond a superficial.

And well, Bernard calls them weird. That’s it. Okay, the moments gone, that doesn’t really fit after that, he comes off as insensitive, the line about capitalist fat cats is embarrassingly unnatural, and this is already being printed. Lost opportunity. Nothing but a plot point and somebody saying that who I presume is their mom is pushy.

Like portraying people as genuinely worried about if they’re going to be able to stay where they live, and saying their weird, is some freaking weird writing. It’s trying to be quirky by force.

Again though, with the characters they’re saying, not showing. Sometimes you do need to say stuff. You show everything and your pacing is destroyed. But who characters are is so undoubtedly something that needs to be shown.

The characters who people SAY stuff about in the stories are the characters people DON’T care about. One offs, characters that are about to die, unimportant side characters needed for a plot if needed, but eh, who really cares.

Bad bad bad bad bad. You’re failing, oh my gosh, things are dropping. What’s dropping? I’m sorry but the quality is dropping, dear goodness, dear goodness. Okay, this isn’t good. But STOP.

Calm down, unless like what’s actually what’s happening, you’re already calm. I’m happy for you. I’m mostly just having fun typing this don’t worry about me if you’ve even made this far.

OOooooooooooooof.

Oh dear...this is worse, okay maybe get your guard up. More opportunity for learning.

You definitely shouldn’t have this be so far the only thing establishing your main character, especially this early in when we’re supposed to be learning about them. If you’ve wasted this much time, you are doing a bad job at writing your characters.

This means nothing.

This is what people make fun of Riverdale for, but you actually put it in your story. Bad, this doesn’t actually say shit about them first of all. Weird? Weird? Well, what’s normal? See, we don’t know, because that’s a shit way to establish their relationship. More saying, not seeing, and what you’re saying is vague, BAD BAD BAD WRITER BAD.

But it’s okay.

We can all learn. If you stop trying to learn you stop learning. You stop learning, you ain’t getting better. If you’re a writer yourself this isn’t time to start being sad ‘cause you do this too. Because by fucking goodness, you’re going to be better than this, you now know why you shouldn’t do this. And that is good, I am proud of you, you are evolving, you are learning, you are being better by just processing some of this. I’m so fucking happy for you right now, my tears could burst if that’s a saying that means anything, I am not sure. I just said ain’t, and ain’t isn’t a word.

They just kept doing this. What page are we on now? PAGE 5?? OUT OF A 20 PAGE FORMAT?? oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

Well what’s the next page of this preview, OH MOTHER OF NEPTUNE, THIS IS WHERE THEY ACTUALLY LEAVE THE CHARACTER WORK HANGING, as far as we know. (I am being a bit melodramatic for fun here. Don’t take these frantic moments too seriously. I’d just rather have fun than be depressed and talk about why something was bad.)

I mean cool, it sets up the location, but that means jack shit, we have to know the people better than this first. Set up a reason they’re all together, maybe even just have Tim pop through. Few panels showing what the people are like in their natural climate, there you go, it’s not much but it’s much better than just telling us crap.

AND THE MESSED UP THING IS, so far, we know the least about Tim, because ‘weird’ isn’t a damn personality.

Within six pages, we should know more about Tim Drake than he’s vaguely weird according to himself, that he has apparently weird neighbors...when they seem to just be average people, and that a plot point is that a rich kid’s neighbors might be evicted.

You’re wasting page space if this is all you’ve done.

Yes, this is a pre-established character, but that isn’t an excuse for being lazy. You have to assure people you know what you’re writing, and going off everything except for one story that came out over a year ago now, they don’t know what they’re doing.

They had the perverted character be excited 20 years ago, but when they mention it they have that one act traumatized.

They had a character that was actually pretty calm and average about his attraction to woman, and had them say something sexist.

They had a character that left because of how stressful the life of being a super hero is, as well as the fact their abusive mother forced them into it be just an awful awful thing, and had the character say that all her friends are toxic.

They couldn’t even get a villain right, and had to use fandom crap to fill in places, and didn’t use any of the stuff that might be accurate.

There’s giving people a chance to impress you with their cooking, and then there’s people still saying that as they spilled hot fucking soup all over your crotch 5 fucking times now every time they try to give you something, months passing by.

And I’m not somebody who gives people the benefit of the doubt after a while. But that doesn’t make who wrote this a bad person. I wouldn’t treat them as such. Criticism can be awful, but I’m trying to make it as constructive as possible, because I don’t want to see people fail unless they’re evil, and trying to provide people entertainment isn’t evil.

It’s just awful to me that there’s this character I love who’s getting his first real time to shine in over a decade, and I was someone who hated the last comic even then, and have it be that it’s still not going to be good.

I love Tim Drake, my favorite character, I know such much about him, and at one point I was fortunate enough to be considered a very reliable source of Tim information, before I decided waiting for another good comic wasn’t a very good use of my time, and dealing with seeing people, lying, being toxic, exaggerate, spreading false information just wasn’t helping my already decrepit depression issues.

Hence all of this, but all I can hope for is at least somebody learns something about it.

Because, really, I don’t have time to not be honest about how I feel about a comic, just because I got attached to who’s supposed to be the lead character. There’s not enough time in life to waste by pretending to enjoy something for such a superficial reason.

But fuck it, I can’t help but be curious.

This is what people are supposed to read to see if they’re even interested in the character to an extent. This isn’t nitpicking, this is basic writing.

And it’s not going well.

Wake me up out of my coffin when we finally get a comic starring Tim that actually feels like it’s about Tim.

For now, I’ll only be waking from my slumber only periodically for the next Titans United: Bloodpact issue to see if they can keep up the good work. Now that comic had a shockingly good Tim, and plus character work.

Be more like that when it comes to what made it work.

#Tim Drake #Robin #Bernard Dowd #DC Comics #Timber #Timbern #Comic Review #Review #Comic Books #So forth and all that

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quidfree · 10 months

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All the fights (specially bnha ones) I've read in your fics are so clear and easy to visualize, do you have any tips on writing good fight scenes?

oh thank you that’s great to hear ! i think that’s tough to advise on but let me have a go.

quidfree’s writing tip corner: fight scenes

i feel like all my advice is very self-evident but this is legitimately what i think of when writing fight scenes so it’s all i have to offer.

visualise it in your head first, then write it. this sounds unbelievably obvious, but be careful to isolate each action before you do that or you get lost in the scope of it. just be methodical in imagining each movement, writing it out, and then moving on to the next one.

related point, but don’t lose track of who’s where doing what! if you read over a section of dialogue or a bit of movement you’ve written and it’s unclear if they’re stalling to talk or who’s on who, pause and rework it a bit. written word has the disadvantage over a visual medium here bc you can’t do both at once in the same way you could have characters talking while fighting on-screen, but you can work it in.

speaking of speaking, remember reality- if this is a death match, probably no one has the time for 10 minute monologues, because someone or something would break their concentration first. in general, remember the setting and that all the characters (should be) are pretty focused on something currently happening.

before you start writing, remind yourself who has what ability, flaw, strength etc and how that’s likely to come into play.

likewise, analyse what your end goal is with the fight. for me, i tend to have a purpose for every fight in my fics, so i know what they need to contain. as a result i usually set out a few plot or character beats i need to cover in the fight and then the actually writing is much easier bc i know i need to get from point a to point b and then point b to point c.

anyways that's a couple of my tips. i hope that's what you had in mind.

#qui parle #qui repond #anon #qui ecrit #writing #ref

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catflowerqueen · 1 year

Text

Today’s episode was very enlightening in terms of sibling lore.

The first thing that stuck out to me was that it offered yet more proof of how similar Moon and Lunar really are—one of Moon’s first complaints to Sun was about how boring and empty his/their mind was when Sun was in control, and that is exactly what Lunar complained to Moon about the first time they met face to face. Moon probably did see Lunar as just a younger version of himself, because at their core they were acting with the exact same motives—wanting to get out and have fun and live their own lives—even though Lunar was couching it at least partially under a desire to help their brother. Which itself probably came from the memories of Moon that Lunar inherited. The regret and guilt for how he treated Sun back in those early days twisting into self-loathing that pitted Lunar against Moon from the start and sent him further into Eclipse’s side until he spent more time getting to grow and learn the intricacies behind Sun and Moon’s relationship, and the way things had since changed for the better.

But back to that initial relationship… I kind of get the feeling that part of the reason Moon flew off the handle so quickly was because Sun was talking about naptime. We have no idea how long Sun had actually been active at that point—because the Creator kind of washing his hands of them/being forced to sign away his rights fairly immediately or not, even with Fazbear’s notoriously bad ethics and decision making skills, I highly doubt they would have installed Sun and Moon in the daycare immediately without giving them at least a brief testing period—but it was at least long enough for Moon to be able to get a read-in on their situation via the coding. He seemed annoyed that Sun hadn’t realized he was there, so my guess is that Moon had probably gotten control of their body a few times with Sun not being aware of it. Kind of like when Eclipse and Lunar first came into being—those periods of blacking out but just brushing it off. Given that Moon was only in control when the lights were off and the daycare had just opened/was just about to have its opening day, this likely would have been at night, which, as Moon pointed out in this episode, would have been while Sun was charging.

This means that not only would Moon have gotten that taste of just how little time he actually had to be in charge, hearing Sun talking about naptime like that would have seemed to Moon like Sun was trying to take even more of that time away from him. And this was something that he would assume would have to be deliberate, since the data about his existence and their roles would have been just as available to Sun via the coding and other reading materials as it was to Moon, but Sun didn’t bother to go looking for it and just went straight into living his life. So, yeah—definitely something that would pit a young Moon against Sun, no matter how undeserved it was on Sun’s part. And that is in addition to the fact that, apparently, Moon’s existence while not in control was not, in fact, as physically painless as he always implied it to be in previous episodes. Though that may have just been because he was actively fighting for control that entire time. …Which is also probably why—in addition to just not liking his job all that much—he willingly ceded control back to Sun whenever the lights came on. He both knew firsthand and saw secondhand via Sun exactly how much struggling would hurt.

And speaking of pain, Moon’s whole “I’m going to make your life a nightmare” thing is probably why Sun claimed in earlier videos that he thought Moon liked hurting him back when they were together, and why it might have taken a very long time for him to figure out that the pain was a deliberate feature the Creator programmed into him. It also just makes me double down on my theory that Moon’s regret about accidentally killing that kid he was legitimately trying to help (and who may or may not have been named Kevin) is what made Sun pause and attempt once more to make that deal with Moon which helped them repair/build their brotherly relationship. And the fact that he was, actually, able to eventually make those inroads with Moon just via talking and being himself—because honestly there wouldn’t have been much else he could physically do, since they couldn’t yet use magic to have those literal “meeting of the minds” that took place when he met Eclipse and Moon met Lunar—is probably why he thought he could just talk things out with Eclipse initially. Eclipse was “just” an offshoot of Moon, and he’d already been successful at talking Moon down, even if it did take a while, so why would Eclipse have been any different? (The issue, of course, being that not only was Eclipse an offshoot of some of the worst parts of Moon, but also parts of Sun)

Interestingly enough, Sun in this meeting acted very much like the Moon-less Sun did—if a lot more hopeful than he was, for obvious reasons. Also interesting is that they decided to keep the more recent style for the daycare—which, canonically, only looks like this because Monty helped renovate it—rather than go back to either of the old ones. I understand why, from a meta perspective, but I suppose an in-universe reason is just that Moon’s admittance to the computer that he tries to bury these old memories and forget about them mean that when he does have to remember them, he kind of mixes up the actual setting a bit and just thinks of the daycare in its current state.

Which might actually point to some unreliable narrator tendencies of Moon. Which very much could be part of it—Moon always thinks the worst about himself and has a lot of self-loathing, so it wouldn’t be too out of the question for him to be remembering himself acting worse than he actually was during that initial meeting between the brothers. And that could even go back to why he “misremembers” what the daycare actually looked like back then. We already know from that entire trip to the Moon-less Sun universe that Moon had no idea of the good impact he had on the daycare and pizzaplex as a whole, and one good trip pointing out how valuable and important he really is isn’t going to change that. Especially in the wake of his present-day brother completely flying off the handle the way he is, and how Moon at least partially blames himself for the way his siblings seem to be falling apart at the seams the way they are.

I mean—given what both of them have said about their early relationship, I have no doubt their initial meeting was bad. I’m just not certain it was quite as bad as Moon seems to remember it being.

And, yes, part of this me getting all meta about it and it likely isn’t as deep as I’m making it seem purely from a production standpoint and the way they have to cram as much lore as possible into ten minute segments and gloss over some of the deeper implications… but still. I feel like it’s a plausible theory in-universe.

#SAMS #sun and moon show #fnaf security breach

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idiasdiscordkitten · 2 years

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saw you wanted some Halloween type requests and although it’s not rlly Halloween and more of horror I hope this is ok soooo

hi!

could I get the first years (platonically) with a m or Gn reader who’s just…creepy? Like not the creepy creepy but like the ghost and horror creepy !

reader somehow appears randomly anywhere, especially if they hear their name being called, they always have some sort of smile on their face no matter the situation which kind of creeps the others out, they have this morbid sense of humor that some find funny and others disturbing, etc

just some odd creepy reader hcs w/ them lol

i would prefer platonic but if you want to do romantic then be my guest!

tis ok if you don’t want to do this!

this is totally fine! i'm really just not okay with anything gory lol so this is perfectly acceptable!

i'll keep it platonic and gender neutral !

first years' interactions with a creepy prefect

Ace Trappola

❤️ ace likes to think of himself as a “cool guy” who isn’t bothered by much, but even he’s got his limits. you’re alright, but there’s something...off about you

❤️ what freaks him out most about you is your eyes, because they don’t seem to reflect any light. like, at all

❤️ he’s down to hang out, but will be a little nervous if it’s just you two. “i’m hanging out with the prefect today, by the way” he’ll tell someone (deuce, riddle, whoever) just so they know where he is. not that they asked, and not like anything’s going to happen. probably

❤️ since he doesn’t know how to shut up and mind his own business, he will ask literally everyone if they pick up any bad vibes like he does about you (not in your presence, of course). if anything bad happens, at least no one can blame him for not warning anyone

Deuce Spade

❤️ he cautiously finds you really interesting. back in his delinquent days, he’s dealt with some real rough folks before, but... he’s never come across someone quite like you before. for better or for worse

❤️ deuce will try to make a mental note of anything you do that’s a legitimate red flag. after all, it’s not like you’re a mean person, so he doesn’t want you to be outcasted... but he also wants to make sure he’s not doing something stupid

❤️ part of him wonders if you’re a ghost, since you speak about death and other ominous things so much. after all, you’re at ramshackle dorm, and they’re all ghosts there, and ghosts are dead, so...

❤️ he’ll try to include you in outings with friends, but he’ll never invite you to a one-on-one hangout

Jack Howl

💛 he can’t put a finger on it, but there’s something weird about you. jack’s confident in that--something about you smells different, and he’s not sure if it’s just your aura or something else, but he tries to reserve judgment

💛 he wants to try and get to know the “real” you, behind that mask you wear, but it never cracks. he starts to wonder if you’ve been acting as your true self this whole time, with your morbid comments and soulless smile

💛 if you turn out to be a serial killer or something, he’s not too worried about it. after all, he’s a wolf beastman, and he’ll probably be able to outsmart you in any confrontation. but he’s definitely keeping an eye out for the others

💛 he’ll reach out to ruggie for advice, but not much will be useful. “ask to join them on their next murder to you can pickpocket the money” ruggie jokes. jack shivers at that comment, since it sounds like something you’d say, but ruggie complains that he can’t have any fun around here (someone help him)

Epel Felmier

💖 this poor kid has no idea what to think. nobody acts like you back home, but there also aren’t a ton of people his age back home, so he’s not sure if this is normal behavior or not

💖 epel’s definitely uncomfortable, but he kind of finds you a bit relatable. he feels like he’s the weird one in pomefiore, since he’s a country boy and they’re all prim and proper over there. he figures that you must feel much more lonely and out of your element than him, so he feels bad for you

💖 as he gets to know you, though, he tries to create distance where he can. he starts to realize that you are not normal, and that’s saying something, since his vice housewarden is rook hunt

💖 speaking of rook, he sets his sights on you after epel speaks to him about you. epel’s pretty nervous, though, after rook states that he just can’t figure you out. what’s going on here?

Sebek Zigvolt

💚 it takes every ounce of strength within him to not scream every time he sees you. he is absolutely terrified

💚 you’re definitely human, but something about you is so otherworldly. you’re not at all like the fae he reveres, but you’re not really like the humans he detests. you are simply a menace, and sebek is determined to make sure malleus never has to come into contact with you

💚 he views you as a threat, since, even though malleus is the most powerful one at the school, you are very difficult to read. and with malleus’ interest in you... oh, dear. this is the biggest test he’s ever come across in his journey to knighthood

💚 that being said, though, your smile doesn’t reach your eyes, and with it always on your face, it persists in his nightmares...

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