#and on that all kissing especially gay kissing used to be banned and taken down immediately so this was a safety precaution | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sweetestlamb · 3 years

Text

Yoga

Summary: Vincenzo hides his jealousy as well as he hides being part of the mafia.

Author's note: it was supposed to be a cute jealous yoga story I don't know why this ended in angst 😂😂😂 I really need to get my life together. Also Vincenzo rubbed me the wrong way today and some people are trying to convince me that I'm interpreting the show incorrectly and explaining to me why it didn't offend them and why everything was fine and I just need you to know, my opinion isn't changing but listen if you had a great time today watching the episode please don't let me stop you. I don't need anyone to be outraged with me. I'll be mad all by myself I promise! But just to be clear my problem was the creation of yet another gay character who an awful person in a kdrama. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen gay characters not be predators or abusive.

Anywho I give you jealous aerial yoga fun that ends in man pain!

He probably believes that he's being inconspicuous again, hiding this side of him as well as he'd thought he was hiding being a member of the mafia. But he's just as obvious as he always is in her eyes, much like her he's too theatrical to ever really conceal how he's feeling. He talks too much and reveals his cards too easily- especially to her.

He's attracted to her that much is painfully evident, if her father's nosy assistant hadn't interrupted they would have kissed. She would have been laid across the table and taken apart, his eyes promised a great time as he devoured her. She was just as attracted to him, she wouldn't have stopped him from doing whatever he wanted.

It is getting more difficult to ignore the quiet moments though, when she can feel his eyes on her and it's not sexual at all. He's just looking at her and she feels bare, naked.

Those moments scare her in a way she hasn't felt before. Ergo she presses them deep, deep into the dark corners of her brain behind all the different ways that she has concocted to throw off others, she's used to being strange and having men overlook her for it.

She's never been what others would consider "sexy". But then he appears and suddenly men seem to see her in a new light. Or maybe he brings her attention to it.

It all begins at the coffee shop, they've made a habit of starting their mornings together by getting coffee. She doesn't analyze what exactly they're doing but some may consider it a date, she hasn't giving the outings a title there's no need to.

She feels comfortable with him and he hasn't been resistant to her pushing her way into his life. She has always been like this, too much and overbearing. Usually it drives people away and she pretends that it doesn't hurt that she's something that people need in doses, she's heard that so often that it's etched in her brain.

Friends in college, boyfriends and her colleagues to name a few.

But for some reason he keeps coming back for more doses, regularly smiling at her shenanigans even egging on her antics with full body laughs.

So he'd taken her to get coffee grinning once again as she dragged her caffeine deprived body dramatically like a puppet with its strings cut to the counter, plopping herself on the surface before crying out, "If I don't get a large sewage water in five minutes my death will be on your hands!" The barista behind the counter grinned over at her, used to her dramatics. He was young, barely nineteen and he'd tried his hand at flirting with her a few times. She had promptly laughed in his face the first time, spewing coffee everywhere before strutting out of the shop.

Laughing and punching a stranger in the arm, ignoring the loud "Hey! What are you doing," before she danced down the sidewalk, hand on her hip as she flipped her hair before shouting to the sky, "I've still got it, baby!"

That day he had glanced at Vincenzo before walking over to her, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"I didn't realize I had so much power over you. What if I say I won't give it to you unless you let me take you on a date?" She remembered her eyes widening in shock and then disbelief and finally landing on bemusement, he was persistent she would give him that much but she was no cougar so his flirting was futile.

She opened her mouth to let him down easy- laugh in his face again and remind him that he had to be this old to ride her ride but suddenly her Italian was leaning across the counter, all cool lines with a deadly smile on his face.

With a his deep voice he chillingly said, "If you don't give it to her your death will be on my hands."

There was heavy silence.

He continued, "I know how to kill a man with only a coffee cup and a string."

The barista, Heon, stared at Vincenzo with all of the blood draining from his youthful face. She didn't blame him the man did sound unnervingly serious and the look in his eyes was a little too real to be purely acting. Plus there was conveniently a coffee cup and a string right there on the table, it was an oddly specific thing to say.

Then after a pregnant pause, he started laughing loudly filling the entire shop like a mad man and she looked over at him as if he had lost his damn mind but this was her favorite coffee shop, she couldn't be banned so she started laughing with him, guffawing and pushing the idiot on the shoulders.

"He's just joking! HahaHAHAHA, laugh it was a joke! LAUGH!!" She leaned across the counter to pat the scared boy on the back but then Vincenzo leaned into her, draping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her back until she was no longer touching him. His laughter static and too robotic to be anything other than a hoax.

She'd never seen anyone brew coffee that fast before. It was impressive what a person could do when they felt as if their life was in danger she'd thought, she gave him a generous tip before leaving.

Heon mysteriously stopped working when they would normally come to the coffee, another barista informed her that he had switched his hours. A certain Italian was really cheerful upon hearing the news, whistling an unknown tune as he sipped his tiny cup of espresso- double shot, traipsing away with a pep in his step and the wind beneath his suit coat.

His random violent outbursts continued.

Bartenders. Businessmen. Traffic officers. Other lawyers. A librarian who had flirtatiously whispered that she wouldn't need to be quiet when they were alone. Suddenly there were men everywhere and she was the hottest thing on the menu, her lower back probably had an imprint of his hand by now from all the times he would steer her away from her suitors.

Every time his excuses were the same, "I'm just protecting you. Guys like that are scum, you deserve better."

Well the one she wanted had no intention of staying so why was he blocking anyone else from trying?

Thinking about it makes her chest feel tight and she welcomes the weekend, she has booked an aerial yoga class to release some of the stress and tension just being around the Italian causes.

It's a warm day so she dons a small set, a light blue sports bra with matching shorts throwing a light jacket over in case the temperature drops at the end of the day. Looking in the mirror she scoops her hair into a low ponytail, pushing back baby hairs that frame her face.

She swipes a thin layer of chapstick across her dry lips before grabbing her phone, keys, gym membership card and her gym bag with a change of clothes.

The drive to the studio is short, she listens to BlackPink on the radio happily screaming about her dududududu complete with car choreo that consists of arm shakes and a lot of hair whipping. It's another miraculous day where she does not cause a car accident, she gives herself a high five for the small victory.

She parks her car haphazardly driving onto the sidewalk several times before getting it right. With a satisfied sigh she hops out of her car, opening the back door and bending over to grab her gym bag.

"Cha-young ah?"

A familiar voice surprises her and she jumps bumping her head into the roof of her car with a cry, she drops the gym bag and leans out of the car rubbing her throbbing head with a pained grimace.

Vincenzo is standing in front of her, in what is the most casual outfit she has ever seen him wear. A pair of navy blue sweatpants, a plain white t-shirt and expensive looking black sneakers, leave it to him to wear Balenciagas when trying to look casual.

Her mouth becomes very dry as she takes in the unexpected but very much welcome sight.

Shaking herself out of her stupor she raises an eyebrow at him, "What are you doing here?" She asks once again leaning into her car to retrieve her gym bag. When she turns around slamming the door shut she watches Vincenzo peel his eyes away, quickly looking away from her direction.

Had he been checking her out?

She smirks at the thought before openly checking him out. Eyes perusing his body up and down in a slow and thorough examination.

"Are you checking me out?" He asks amused as he folds his arms across his chest, making his already impressive biceps look even bigger and more enticing. She knows exactly what he's doing, he's about as subtle as a bulldozer.

"Yes, I am. Do you need me to turn around again so you can check me out?" She laughs easily as he sputters and tries to deny her claims, once he realizes that she doesn't believe a word he's saying he finally stops, admitting defeat.

"Those are...great shorts." He drawls, gone is the embarrassed act. Now he's freely eying her shorts clad body, eyes hot as they trail up and down her legs.

Shaking her head she smiles at him, "You never answered my question. What are you doing here?" He struts over to her prying her gym bag from her hand and throwing it over his free shoulder. She tries not to get too affected by his sudden closeness, his cologne filling her nostrils with the fresh earthy musk.

"My gym is here. I came to work out. You look like you had the same idea, you should have called me." There he goes again, making space for himself in her life although he has no intention of staying with her. It was cruel and she knows she should cut him off before it's too late.

"I don't think you'll be interested in what I'm doing." She answers walking ahead, holding the gym door open for him. They both show their card to the attendant at the front and the young worker smiles at her before saying, "Your aerial yoga class will be starting in five minutes. It's best to go early and secure a good spot."

She can see Vincenzo's questioning face in her peripheral but she ignores him to nod at the younger woman, tugging her bag off his shoulder and nodding at him in dismissal.

"Enjoy your work out." She climbs the stairs leading to the huge studio where the aerial classes are held. His eyes are like lasers on her back and she already knows that he's going to follow her, he's too intrigued to stay away. That's what she was banking on.

She would get him back for all his jealous tantrums this past week. There were so many places they were probably going to be banned from and all because he didn't know how to play well with others. She's wasn't some toy he could claim. Especially when she couldn't claim him back.

Finding a spot in the corner she puts her bag down on one of the mats that are provided, taking a few moments to do some light stretches. She bends over touching her toes before dipping her head and elongating her neck, then she does a few squats and jumping jacks just to get her blood pumping and her heart racing.

She can feel the exact moment that he comes, it also helps that all the women gasp and she can hear coy giggles about their new guest. She pretends not to notice him, stretching backwards into a perfect handstand holding it for a few minutes before tilting back and planting her feet until she's upright again. She almost loses her composure when she catches his expression in the large windows.

He looks shocked and aroused, neck redder than normal.

All the women settle down when the instructor comes to the front of the room, they have reached the point where he no longer shows them what to do instead he walks around the room correcting their form and giving tips or words of encouragement.

He's a beautiful man, with mocha colored skin and a lean muscled build and the most gorgeous head of coily hair. She has been coming here for months and they've become quite closer as they have a lot in common, most importantly they both love men. When they had run into each other and realized they were staring at the same guy's ass, it was love at first ogle.

When he comes over to greet her she immediately steps into his space with a mischievous grin. Sean grins back looking exasperated already but he still says, "What are you up to? I know that smile Ms. Cha-young." She leans closer certain that Vincenzo is avidly watching her every move. Trailing a finger up his thick bicep she whispers, "Nine o clock, don't look but I need your help to teach him a lesson. Are you up to it?"

Sean starts to turn his head before processing her order and stopping, he stares at her before a devilish look gleams in his bright eyes too.

"You know I'm always up." He replies voice full of innuendos and she fake swoons, bringing her hand to her forehead. "Don't tease me."

He chuckles at her before walking back to the front of the room, none of the other women react to their flirtations used to their antics and everyone already knows that Sean is as gay as the pride flag. Everyone except one fuming Italian.

She can feel his waves of anger crashing across the room and she tugs at the cloth in front of her testing the weight before easily hoisting herself up, letting it cup her bottom as her feet dangle.

She's ready to put on a show.

He hadn't stalked her per se, he'd merely overheard one of the tenants say that they'd seen Cha-young in a nearby studio on weekends so he'd went to see if she really did go there. And then there she was bent over in her car, pert little bottom sticking out the car and he wanted nothing more than to smack the flesh and watch it bounce and jiggle under his hand.

This was why he was so protective, not jealous. Protective. She was too careless with her body and there were salacious men out there ready to take advantage of that, she needed someone like him who had a pure heart to look out for her.

He was allowed to fantasize about spanking her while having a pure heart, it was called having duality.

So he'd followed her into the gym, a little peeved when she abandoned him without a word to attend something called "aerial yoga", he knew regular yoga and if it was anything like that he was very much interested.

In watching her do it.

Turning to the young worker who had been staring a hole in his face, he sent her a charismatic smile before leaning nonchalantly on the counter, he could tell that he had her full attention by the way her mouth fell open.

He almost felt bad, she seemed a bit wet behind the ears. But he wasn't really trying to seduce her so it was fine, he wasn't some old creepy predator.

"Hey, that aerial yoga class am I allowed to watch it? I want to see if it's something I might be interested in." He lies to the younger woman, watching her process his words before answering.

"Well technically that class is restricted for those who signed up..." She trails off looking at him and he smiles brightly, pushing his curly hair off his forehead he had forgo his products today and the way her eyes follow his fingers make him thankful that he did so. "But you won't do any harm by watching, I'm sure it'll be fine. Go on up." She finishes and he throws a mental fist pump, he still had it.

Outwardly he smiles serenely, thanking her before walking up the stairs that Cha-young just disappeared up. It leads to a spacious studio with a wall of gleaming mirrors and huge bay windows overlooking the city. He looks around before his eyes land on her, the reason why he's here.

He swallows a groan as he watches her stretch that slim gently curvy body, she's all smooth lines and feminine appeal. When she starts squatting he can't help but watch those firm cheeks tensing and tightening, he lazily leans back hungrily watching her.

Then he almost swallows his tongue when she bends backwards into a perfect bridge before lifting herself into a handstand, damn she was strong and deliciously flexible. Looking her in the eye was going to be even more difficult now.

His heckles raise when he sees another man approaching her suddenly, a Black man who seems way too familiar with his Cha-young based on the way they both grin and invade the others space. He sneers as he watches them whisper and grin at each other, who was this guy and why were they so close? He releases a sigh of relief when the man finally backs up, going to the front of the room before pressing a button and light soothing music begins to play.

He must be the instructor then. Wonderful. He prays that was the end of the unnecessary touching and standing too close to his lawyer. He doesn't want to have to make a scene.

It isn't the end. Not by a long shot.

The instructor who had introduced himself as Sean easily walked around, stopping every once in a while to correct someone or praise them for having good form. The ladies would preen and thank him and that was it, he would nod before moving on.

Cha-young was the only exception to this rule.

He watches mesmerized as the limber lawyer bends herself into a graceful pose that resembles a swan and he can't fight the images that start flashing in his mind of them in bed, her twisting around him with pieces of cloth. Tying him up and showing him just how flexible she is all night long until they both sore and sated.

When she suddenly releases the cloth and starts tumbling to the ground he finds himself jumping into action shoving the fantasy to the crevice of his mind, legs already moving to catch her before she saves herself with her ankles, her body swinging freely with her face only inches from the floor. His heart skips a beat before it starts chugging along again.

Why was she always worrying him?

"That was perfect Cha-young! You've finally let go of your fear of falling!" Sean praises her walking over and patting her legs, but he doesn't let go after the quick touch. He keeps those grabby hands on her thigh and helps her back up onto the cloth, he thinks that will be the end of it. He's wrong.

He moves her body into a new pose with the cloth wrapped around her shoulder and he glares when a hand runs down her back precariously close to her bottom before rolling back up. He pushes her gently on the cloth harness and she laughs gleefully before she whispers something to the instructor, it's hard to read her lips from this distance but he can make out, "with me."

He understands what she asked for when Sean nods and moves into position.

Sean wraps his arms around the same cloth and suddenly lifts himself off the ground, his face level with her groin and he wants to go over and rip the cloth from the ceiling and strangle the man with it. Then Sean pulls himself up and Cha-young slides out of her seated position, grabbing the cloth too until they're face to face and spinning in lazy hypnotic circles. They both have huge grins on their faces as they move together in perfect harmony, the last straw comes when she wraps her legs around his waist and their bodies are pressed together- he sees blazing red and disconcerting white and then finally pitch black.

He's fleeing before he's even aware of it. Bounding down the stairs, two steps at a time then shoving the entrance door open and letting the surge of cool air ease his anger. If he stayed another second the instructor would be dangling out the window much like that thug before except he wasn't sure if he would be able to pull him back up.

Why was he so anger? She'd looked fine, happy even. She clearly wasn't being taken advantage of. But his rage is bursting at the seams and he jolts when a hand suddenly grips his wrist. Instinctively he turns grabbing the person and slamming them into the nearby wall.

Cha-young looks up at him, face flushed and sweaty.

That will also be burned into his retina.

"You should know better than to sneak up on me." He warns taking deep breaths to suppress some of the frustration he feels looking at her, the memory still fresh in his mind.

"What's wrong with you?" She counters bringing her hands to his shoulders rubbing in a calming motion, "You look pissed. Did something happen?"

He watches her for a second, taking her in seemingly harmless question and recalls her legs wrapped around another man who wasn't him and he wants to punch that fucking handsy instructor right in his smug fac--

Wait.

She was smiling. No, smirking. Right up at him like she knew everything that was racing through his head.

He'd been played.

"Did you have fun?" He asks voice laced with snarkiness and he shoves her harder into the wall, red hot fury brewing in the pit of his stomach. She knew that he was part of the mafia but still acted like this. Did she not have any sense of self preservation?

"Were you jealous?" She asks in a ostentatiously cutesy voice like this is all a hilarious joke and he wants to kiss that damn smug look right off her face. No one has ever dared to treat him like this, acted like he was a joke.

She's playing with fire and he's not opposed to burning her up.

"Do you still think you have the upper hand right now?" He looms over her pushing his pelvis into her and she squeaks at the hardness that pokes into her. To his surprise she eagerly presses back, pulling him in by his waist until they are flushed chest to chest. He doesn't know if an upper hand exists anymore.

"Yes. I do, getting to see you jealous was the highlight of my day. Cute little jealous mafia lawyer."

He snarls at her feeling stupid because of how easily she can play him, and without thinking he wraps his arms around her.

"You looked really cozy with him."

She sniffs before pouting at him, "Yeah and you didn't fight for me at all. Where were the death threats and cold glares? Sean would have pissed his pants." Her giggles only make him angrier because she's seen through him all along.

He stares at her blankly before throwing caution to the wind and leaning down to capture her tempting lips, he runs a hand through her ponytail tugging her head closer to him and she moves easily with him standing on her tiptoes. He closes his eyes ready to put himself out of his misery when he feels a finger in his lips, he blinks his eyes open staring at her perplexed and a bit offended.

"What?"

"Are you staying in Korea?" She talks over him, her finger firm on his mouth.

They both stare at each other and her question spins in his busy mind, thoughts too full of her seductive moves earlier and how badly he wanted to destroy anyone who dared to look at her. He doesn't know why that question is coming up now, at this particular moment when he just wants to kiss her breathless. They can leave the rational thoughts for later, right now there should be more frenzied kissing. But when he tries to push her finger away she grabs his face hard, adamant.

He stares at her and finally he sees the chinks in her armor, gone is the overly confident Cha-young that he's so used to seeing and there's something softer in that stead, the vulnerability that always shrouds over her eyes when they have this reoccurring conversation is back and it leaves him feeling cornered as it always does.

He can't answer that question. The answer should be easy and it had been before her. He was going to take his gold and get the fuck out of this God forsaken country.

That had been the plan pre: Cha-young.

Now that plan was muddled and he could admit that he was jealous of other men stealing her away from him, at least to himself. Could admit that he wanted to wreck her completely, have her screaming in his bed those nimble limbs wrapped around him as he thrust into her over and over and over. But he wasn't ready to admit that he might feel something more than just intense attraction to her. That she had changed all his plans and made him consider settling down, with her. It was insane, he barely knew her and they weren't even in a relationship.

"No. I told you, I'm leaving."

He's a coward. He can admit that too.

She sends him a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes before ducking under his arms.

"Then leave and don't confuse me. I'm not yours to get jealous over. I'll see you Monday."

She doesn't look back, walking straight to her car and speeding away without checking any of her mirrors as she's wont to do despite him constantly reprimanding her for it, he's certain she's over the speed limit.

He punches the wall with a yell, the pain in his fist nothing compared to the pain in his chest. It was a huge mistake coming back here.

#vincenzo #vincenzo cassano #hong cha young #aerial yoga #don't try any of things I wrote about #you might die #i made this all up #man pain #emotional constipation

88 notes · View notes

lilshotgun · 3 years

Text

So here's why i've been inactive for the past couple months on tumblr:

As many of you know, I've been a fairly avid content creator for the warrior nun fandom creating a ton of content for free. I joined a Warrior Nun discord server named Future Warrior Nuns (which is a ridiculous name considering in the show Ava says there will be no more warrior nuns but that's besides the point) and the treatment I received there was amazing. At the beginning. I spoke up about racism and injustices within the community because you cannot escape it anywhere unfortunately and I believed I'd found a community that would protect me and be there for me if i was ever faced with racism or hate.

For clarity, anyone in blue is a moderator. As you go on to read this their usernames and profile images might change so I’ll clarify who is who. I’ll only be using the names I’ve been presented with and only the ones that are most relevant to the situation.

Fiesta (white American cis woman) aka Doesn't Kelly, Witch Rhyme

Taz (white Australian cis woman)

Milan (a very sheltered American transmasculine poc whos uncomfortable talking about racism because they've never had to deal with it) aka Who The Fuck Is Kelly

Rory (white Australian cis woman) aka Stronger Kelly

But after a while, things slowly started to change. It was subtle and if you hadn't been there from the beginning, you wouldn't have noticed. It started with the moderators spending less time in the server because they had made many of their own servers and spent far more time over there. Which is understandable when you’re a group of friends that all have a common purpose. But the lack of leadership was palpable. I had to sometimes direct fellow server members to proper channels or do a few other things that were supposed to be things that the moderators were supposed to take care of and their lack of care for the server was becoming more relevant. If you were in their little group of friends or kissed their ass then they wouldn't target you unnecessarily.

Exactly three weeks later, (and only one week after my birthday in which everyone was super sweet and nice to me) the love and friendship they claimed to have for me vanished completely. For context, people in positions of power, especially in a server, should be people you can come to if you ever have an issue with anything or anyone. They should also be people that can come to terms with admitting their behavior was incorrect when being told so. So here is what happened:

I have always been open about being a transmasculine person of color on all my platforms, and if you know me on any platform you know that. The behavior shown here between me and the moderators was absolutely appalling to me. They pushed my voice aside and only acknowledged Narcissa, a cis white woman, who was agreeing and saying the same things i had because i had asked her in private to help me out because i felt it was unfair that two server moderators were coming at me so aggressively.

As you can see from the screenshots, they claimed that I attacked Fiesta when i was simply pointing out that her behavior was hypocritical and unfair especially because she is in a position of power and that's something people of power should be aware of.

I was the only one brave enough to say what everyone was thinking. And that's something I have always taken pride in. Speaking up for others when they are too scared to do so themselves. And that was shown through multiple people coming into my dms to tell me they either felt the same way I did or they felt the way I was treated in the conversation above was unfair. This next screenshot is from a private message from a former manager.

Narcissa (white cis woman) received a few apologies from the server managers privately, yet my dms stayed vacant. At this point, they made a “public apology” towards everyone in the server which I forgot to screenshot, and not a single server manager reached out to me in private. But they did share these in the server for everyone to see:

They then opened an anonymous feedback form for us to share if we had any issues privately, which of course, I did, and so I filled it out saying “wheres my fucking apology ~king” so they would know exactly who the response was coming from. I was angry and hurt that they treated me the way they did. I regretted wording it like that almost instantly after sending it. But the deed was done and it was unchangeable. And not too long after, this was posted publicly in the server feedback channel so that everyone in the server could see:

Whether I shared that it was from me or not, she violated the server moderators unanimous statement saying that everything posted in the feedback form would stay anonymous and made my response public using the excuse that me sharing my name made it okay for her to show it to everyone. I was also being informed by other people I’m friends with that the forms that were being submitted were not staying anonymous and that they were being shared from other moderators privately in other peoples' dms.

I stuck around in the server because the people that I had formed friendships with were there and they were special to me and I wanted to be able to talk to them still in spite of everything that had happened to me up until this point. I was much more subdued at this point, I was posting less art and as you noticed I practically disappeared from twitter as well.

My love for Warrior Nun was decreasing rapidly because the environment had become so toxic and unwelcoming that I felt scared to say much in the server in fear of being banned after seeing one of my trans poc friends banned for saying hi to another member. They had been looking for a reason to ban him for being on my side instead of theirs and apparently found the “perfect” excuse. They deleted his messages and claimed in their private admin channel that he had harassed someone in the server without screenshotting the false evidence first. How do I know this? Because I had a person on the team that valued me as a person instead of as a content creator and what I could give to the server.

I proceeded to curate the server for what fit me best, considering the ridiculous number of channels they created that had nothing to do with the show at this point. And there was an option for members to do that so I used the tools they had provided with and opted out of channels I no longer wanted to see. I consolidated it down to 35 out of 66 channels because some of them had no opt out option. And still, it was way more channels than I'd prefer to be in. I narrowed it down to only ships I actually cared about instead of having a bunch of channels I was never gonna read or say things in. And that's when the manager that cared about us provided me with these telling screenshots.

Why put me in “jail” over removing some roles? It may not have been explicit, but the internalized racism of putting a person of color in “jail” for curating what they wanted from a server is frankly off putting to say the least. "Implicit racism includes unconscious biases, expectations, or tendencies that exist within an individual, regardless of ill-will or any self-aware prejudices."

And what does carl bot do exactly? It logs EVERYTHING. But only if that feature is enabled. And clearly, in Future Warrior Nuns, it is.

They didn’t care about me and didn’t care that I was a consistent content creator. For lack of better words, I was one of the biggest reasons the actual part of the server that was dedicated to the show was constantly active and once I became quiet, along with a few other content creators I talked with, the activity decreased immensely. I said things here and there but that was about it. Until I was looking through their emotes. I noticed that they had trans, gay, demi, bi, aro, and ace heart emotes but the lesbian one wasnt there. Which was honestly surprising considering how much of the fandom identifies as lesbian. So I asked for it to be added and after it was, so many people were super happy because of it.

One day later i asked for more Mary emotes because they hadn’t completely brushed me off after requesting for the lesbian pride one. I noticed that Ava, the white character, had 72 animated and still emotes at the time while Mary, the black character, only had 18. And only 4 out of those were positive emotes. Here's that conversation:

I offered up my services to create Mary emotes for them considering I was an artist and content creator and it would be no issue for me at all to contribute but they declined, saying they were working on some themselves and that they would eventually add them to the server. The ones that they had created all looked terrible. They didn't know how to color correct her skin so that it wouldn't look ashy because of the filters used in the show and instead of asking for help from me, an artist of color, they simply did their own thing. And from 18 emotes, it went up to a dazzling 24.

Needless to say, the racism they claimed not to have was pretty evident at this point. It was shockingly clear that they didn’t care as much about the characters of color than they did for the white and white passing ones. After this entire debacle I didn't even bother trying to ask for more emotes for Lilith considering how warmly I was welcomed with asking for more Mary emotes.

A little less than two months after the initial incident, I still hadn’t been contacted by anyone on the admin team about absolutely anything in private. It wasn’t until people asked Fiesta if she had reached out to me or even bothered with an apology before she sent me this:

The “apology” was worthless. Too much time had passed since I was publicly humiliated and portrayed as the evil transmasculine person of color to them, and only a select few people interacted with me. I felt completely shut out because of how the admin team handled a difference of opinion. Instead of correcting themselves and admitting they were wrong, they doubled down on the intimidation and bullying by changing their rules so that they could find excuses to ban or punish anyone they felt was not on their side.

At this point, my grades were heavily declining. I was already struggling with keeping up with everything on my own due to covid and my mental disabilities. Being a victim of this racist behavior made everything worse. I couldn’t get out of bed, I was barely eating a meal a day because I had no motivation to work so I had little to no money to buy myself food. I was starving most days. And I didn’t ask my mom for help because I felt everything was my fault and that I really was in the wrong and shouldn't have said anything even though looking back at it I wasn't wrong for what I said. I had also been informed that my dad died because of covid and because of all of this stress and depression I had officially failed my classes.

This is really difficult for me to say because I’m a very private person and I hate asking for help or sharing anything about my private life, but for you to understand everything that was happening to me at the time, this is stuff you unfortunately need to know.

There’s many more things that I could say about this server but this thread is already long enough as it is and it was hard enough to write this all down. But behind closed doors, the admin team had some of the nastiest attitudes and behaviors you could’ve seen. Had they realized we had someone on their team that actually valued us and others as people, they probably would have kept their blatant ignorance and dislike towards server members hidden better. But white people like oppressing others when they know they can get away with it and this is just another sad unfortunate example that cost me and my fellow friends of color some heavy emotional and psychological damage. They did wrong and refused to acknowledge it and instead tried to find a way to ban us for not having the hivemind that they so desperately want to control everyone with. If you want to see for yourself, feel free to find a link to a discord server named Future Warrior Nuns. If you look back through their channels, you’ll find most of these conversations either gone or have many messages missing. I hope my story will help understand why I’ve been gone from tumblr for so long and i hope something like this never happens to you.

64 notes · View notes

jxoxsxsxi · 4 years

Note

Daylight- Taylor Swift

TW: Homophobia

https://jxoxsxsxi.tumblr.com/post/623061177510019072/the-next-short-fic-i-am-going-to-upload-contains

Robbe knows deep down that he shouldn't do it. He should just turn his phone off and get back to his schoolwork, but he simply can't stop scrolling through the comments.

It was a lazy Sunday evening. Robbe had been studying the entire weekend for his exam week that started tomorrow. He had to move heaven and earth to make Sander come over. The older boy didn't want to distract him, but Robbe claimed he deserved a break.

So now they were sitting in Robbe's room. Sander was drawing while Robbe tried to stamp the french words in his head.

The older boy had teased he was going to test Robbe, and if the smaller boy got them all correct, he would get a reward.

Robbe had just taken his phone for a five-minute distraction because if he saw that stupid page of his textbook again, he was going to scream.

His body stiffened when he read the caption of the Instagram post. It was as if he couldn't function anymore.

Gay couple attacked in Amsterdam.

A strange noise escaped from his throat which made his boyfriend, who was sitting across the room, raising his eyebrow.

Robbe just shook his head and murmured something.

The other boy had snort softly and focus on his drawing again.

It felt as if his stomach was filled with bricks.

His fingers were shaking as he pressed on the read more.

Gays should be banned.

Their own fault, they shouldn't have hold hands.

Gays are not normal❌👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨❌

Wtf that gay couple started it by provoking. Victim roll!

Why is this news? It happens daily.

When are we going to stop pretending as if being gay is normal? If the entire world was gay or Lesbian then we wouldn't exist anymore. So yeah it is not normal.

Good for them, they deserve it. Burn the gays alive🤢🤮

I don't want to hate but being gay goes against nature.

Wait, being gay is a disease right?

So there is still hope in this world.

Robbe swallowed with great difficulty. He starts to bite his fingernails while focusing on the screen.

Some other comments showed support for the couple, but it didn't make him feel better. His mouth was dry and his palms were sweating.

'You okay, angel?'

Robbe desperately tried to hide how shaken he was. He could control the tremor in his voice to a certain degree.

'Yeah, fine.'

He could make himself smile somewhat even if it looked pasted on but Sander wouldn't be Sander if he didn't notice something.

The older boy raised his eyebrow. 'What are you doing, bub?'

His voice is teasing and light. The big hand of his lover is still holding a pencil very carefully, but he is looking at Robbe.

'Just some school stuff.'

The older boy nods and gives him a smile, one the Robbe with great difficulty returns.

He let his head fall back against the pillow and unlocks his phone again.

Sander starts humming a song.

Robbe rolls on his side and scrolls through the comments. He presses read more under a supportive comment. There is a whole fight going on.

He actually feels sick.

If Sander and he went to the police would they have gotten in the news as well? Would they also get those hate comments?

Was that the reason Sander didn't want to go to the police?

Afraid of the hate they would get online?

But that didn't make sense. They didn't do anything to provoke it.

They were just kissing in the street.

He bit his lip so hard that he taste the metal flavour of blood in his mouth.

Perhaps kissing in the street wasn't that good of an idea.

But on the other hand, straight couples did it all the time.

Robbe had grown a lot over the past year. He was more comfortable with his sexuality, even proud of it. Being gay was normal.

He knows it is stupid, but all those comments make him doubt everything. Robbe always thought that being gay was okay, at least in Belgium. That the majority of the population supported them yet the comment section is filled with hate.

Maybe-

Suddenly his phone is pulled out of his hands.

Robbe was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice his boyfriend lying next to him on the bed.

A cocky grin paints the face of his lover.

Fear flows through his entire body. He doesn't want Sander to see what he has been reading. It will only make things awkward. The older boy will get mad that Robbe read things like that.

'Sander, give me my damn phone back.'

Robbe can't control his panicked voice and attacks his laughing boyfriend.

'What are you doing? Staring at naked guys while you should be studying? That is bad, Robin, this way you won't get your reward.'

His voice is teasing while he holds the phone out of Robbe's range.

'Sander,' he climbs on top of his boyfriend. 'This is not fucking funny.'

His voice cracks which cause the other boy raising his eyebrow.

The boy gets off the bed and holds the phone above his head.

Robbe jumps on the older boy's back in an attempt to get his phone back.

During moments like this, he hates that he smaller, younger, and weaker than his boyfriend.

Sander's face falls when he starts reading the screen. Robbe knows it is too late, but he still tries to get his phone back by tugging his lover's sleeve.

'Oh, Robbe' sighs the older boy while putting the phone down. 'Why are you reading that, baby?'

Robbe just stares at the ground. For some stupid reason, tears start welling up in his eyes.

He bites the inside of his cheek to suppress them.

'Hey, look at me, baby?'

Sander gently cups his face while slowly lifting his chin.

Robbe doesn't look into the green eyes of his lover.

The older boy wraps his arms around his boyfriend and presses a kiss against the brown curls.

They stand there for a while. Robbe inhales the scent of the other boy. The scent that gives him comfort. It reminds him of an early summer day at the beach for some reason.

Maybe because that is where they first met or just because he loves the beach during early mornings.

'Why are you looking at those things?'

Sander's voice gives his goosebumps all over his body.

Robbe shrugs lightly and starts playing with the cord of his boyfriend’s jumper.

'I came across it.'

The older boy pulls back slightly so that they can look at each other.

'I know it is hard, but we can't control it. All we can do is ignore it and keep our heads up.'

'Why are people so hateful against love?'

Robbe feels like a little child, but he just needs to ask it.

'It isn't really hate, baby. It is indifference, something cold that never stirs itself, never cries with passion. Indifference ignores, abandons, acts as if the other doesn't matter at all. It is as cold as the void, an emptiness that cares not if the other suffers. I know it is difficult, but you have to ignore it.'

Robbe leans against his boyfriend's shoulder.

'Do you think that if we went to the police that-'

He lifts his head so that he can meet the green eyes of his lover.

Sander bites his lip and brushes a curl from Robbe's forehead.

'I don't know, baby' he sighs.

It stays silent for a moment.

'Do you think about it a lot?'

Robbe can't really pinpoint Sander’s tone. It almost sounds ashamed.

He shrugs 'sometimes.'

Sander nods slowly.

'You know, what happened is hard to take back, since the damage has already been done. It has left a scar on our relationship. I know it still feels fresh. Especially when you come across new like that, but I promise you it will fade into the past. One day we will get over it and then we will show those assholes how wrong they are. That love is love no matter what.'

The boy pauses for a second.

'I don't know how to say this but you need to get over it. It is easier said than done, I know that, but by holding on to fear and pain you let them win. I am not trying to tell you that you can't be upset about it.'

A finger lifts his chin.

'Do you get what I mean?'

It feels like the older boy is staring down his soul.

Robbe nods.

'Tell me, please.'

'I can't let it get to me and just need to ignore it.'

'You have to ignore that hate, but you don't ignore the struggles.'

Robbe lift his eyebrow 'what?'

'You can acknowledge that there is still a lot of homophobia in the world, but you don't have to listen to it if that makes sense.'

'That are the reasons of pride, right? Milan and I talked about that once.'

'Pride has many reasons, but yeah that is one of it.'

Sander licks his lips before pressing a soft kiss against the lips of his lover.

'You also have to remember that those comments are probably from a bunch of twelve years olds that don't understand what they are saying. Most of them are just ignorant and you can try to educate them. It will take time and a lot of energy, but that doesn't mean you can't try.'

Sander places both his hand on Robbe's cheeks.

'It is important to remember that isn't your job to educate them. You are normal and if they don't see it, fuck them.'

'They are the problem, not us.'

A soft smile paints Sander's face. 'Exactly, love.'

'Milan told me that once. I didn't come up with that myself.'

The older boy snorts and wraps his arms tightly around Robbe.

'I love you.'

'I-’ A kiss is being pressed against his nose.

‘Love’ Another kiss against his cheek

‘You’ A kiss against his other cheek

‘Too' And finally a quick peck against his lips.

A smile creeps on Robbe’s face.

'Are you going to stay tonight?'

Robbe plays with the cord of his boyfriend's hoodie while giving the boy his best puppy eyes.

'I wish I could love, but you have to study. I am-’

His voice crumbles when Robbe starts to pout.

'Oh fuck it, yes I am staying.'

'Hmm,' Robbe stands on his tiptoes to kiss his lover who gently pushes him over to the bed.

'You still have to study though.'

Robbe let out a loud sigh while pulling Sander on top of him.

'I think I need that reward first.'

#wtfock #wtfock fanfic #drabble #Send me a one direction song and I will give you a headcanon #or any song

33 notes · View notes

erindoodless · 4 years

Text

With a Touch of Magic

Summary: Dan and Phil are forced to sit next to each other in class. When Phil's ex-girlfriend chases him around the school because of their breakup, he ends up trapped in a closet with Dan.

WC: 3.3k

Written with @flowerpotphil for @phanfictionevents! Also, special thanks to @itsmyusualphannie for beta reading!

[READ ON AO3]

Besides his strange cold, it was just another boring day at school for Dan. Instead of normal snot, there was some bright green slime coming from his nostrils. He didn’t know what it was, and it was a kind of making him anxious, but he decided that he would just ask his grandmother about it when he gets home.

Dan was skipping a class to make out with a boy named Tom in the cleaner’s closet. They weren’t interested in dating each other, they just wanted someone to kiss. Dan genuinely thinks no one would ever date him because his appearance was bad with his messy hair and abnormally large glasses. So, when this fling started, he was shocked to find out that someone would kiss him.

Unexpectedly, Dan sneezed. Thankfully, none of his mysterious snot landed on Tom. But it still made Dan look gross.

“What the fuck, Howell?” Tom spat out.

“Sorry, I’ve just got a bit of a cold,” Dan muttered.

“Well, if you’re sick, I think we’re done! You’ve probably gotten me sick now. Thanks a lot,” Tom responded sarcastically. It startled Dan to hear that their fling could be over.

The school bell finally rang, and Dan went off to his 3rd class of the day, Algebra. On his way, he waved to his close friend, Alex.

“Hey, Dan!” Alex yelled in response.

As he walked through the door, his teacher greeted him with “Oh, Dan, you’ve finally decided to come.”

“Sorry... sir.” Dan had forgotten his teacher’s name.

“No worries. Now stop bothering me, and go sit over there next to Phil Lester.”

Oh no, Dan thought to himself. He would have to sit next to his low key crush. Dan awkwardly went over to his seat and sat down. He and Phil made some weird eye contact.

“Hi,” Phil tried to say.

“Hi,” Dan quietly sighed out.

It would be a long year.

Later in the day, Phil was trying to walk as fast as he can through the school corridors. He would run if the school hadn’t banned running in the hallways. His ex-girlfriend Margaret was chasing him, but he just wanted her to leave him alone. He looked behind him to see how far away she was and suddenly there was a crash.

Phil ran into his best friend, Jimmy, who had fallen to the floor. “Ugh, Phil! What the bloody hell is wrong with you?” Jimmy said. He was clutching his face. His stuff had also gotten everywhere along with his abnormally large baseball bat.

“I’m so sorry, Jimmy! I -” and then Phil heard someone yell this name. “Sorry, I have to run!” Phil yelled.

He saw Margaret leap over Jimmy and grab Jimmy’s baseball bat as Phil continued to speed walk. When Phil had first dated Margaret, he thought it fun until he realized how controlling she was. Margaret was jealous when other girls hung out with him and became very invasive. Phil decided it was best to end the relationship to avoid hurting her feelings. So he texted her to break up.

Phil had thought she had taken the message well, but when a girl in his class asked him for a pen, Margaret saw something else.

Why is she so damn jealous? Phil thought to himself. It was just a small interaction, and now she’s chasing after him!

Suddenly, Phil found a door and took that as an opportunity to sneak in. Fortunately, it was just a closet and not a classroom full of students.

He took a deep breath and felt himself literally thanking the world because he was finally safe from Margaret.

During his math class, Dan took a break and headed to the cleaner’s closet. He has always thought of that spot as his own little place to go during the school day. Also, he felt like he was distracting other students with his cold. Not that anyone usually noticed him.

Just as he walked into the closet to let out some sneezes, someone else came in with a loud bang. A boy was panting away, and Dan was in fear he would get caught. Unluckily, he let out another sneeze.

“Who’s there?” the boy asked. From hearing his voice, Dan realized that it was Phil Lester, his small crush.

Dan was about to climb to his feet and reassure Phil know it was just him, but to his horror, he felt a sneeze build up inside of him. Unfortunately, he sneezed all over Phil’s face. They were both in shock.

“That was disgusting!” Phil yelled.

“Please don’t kill me, I just….” Dan tried to say.

“Huh?” Phil looked like he was seeing double.

The boys stared into each other’s eyes, Phil’s hands resting on Dan’s soft face, almost like they had a deep connection despite barely knowing each other.

Suddenly, the closet door whipped open. Margaret was standing in the doorway, looking confused.

“I can’t believe it!” she said.

“I know,” Dan whispered out.

“You… have a boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?! What?! No!” Phil yelped.

“Now your perfect appearance makes more sense!” Margaret exclaims. “You should have just told me. I would have understood.”

“Margaret…”

“Oh, your underwear pattern! I’m sorry that I thought you were…”

“I’m not gay!” Phil shouts.

“... flirting with that girl!” Margaret screams back.

“All right, I’m gay! Please calm down! We don’t want to get in trouble!” Phil cries out. It scared Dan that a teacher would hear them.

“Phil, it’s okay. I’ve heard it’s difficult to accept yourself,” she said, in her calmest manner. “You and your boyfriend can relax…”

“Boyfriend? Wait, he’s not-” Phil was interrupted by Margaret again.

“I know someone who went through something like this and he suffered a lot, but I’ll make sure nothing happens to you two.”

“Margaret-”

“I know you would never dump me for a different girl… especially since I’m the head cheerleader.” Margaret smirked. “Well, you have my support!”

“Wait, let me…”

“Yeah?” Margaret said, still holding the baseball bat.

“Uh, thank you,” Phil responded fearfully.

“You’re welcome!” Margaret said back, enthusiastically. “Well, see you!” And with that, she finally left Phil alone.

“...What did I just witness?” Dan spoke for the first time in a while. Phil had almost forgotten that he was there.

“Nothing, just forget about it,” Phil said, almost cooled down from the chase through the hallway earlier.

The situation confused Phil. He just had bright green snot projected into his face from some quiet kid he sat next to but didn't know that well, and his ex-girlfriend now thought he was gay. Amazing.

“I'm just going to leave,” Phil said, averting his gaze from Dan. He didn't really know what to say.

“Oh, okay. I'll follow.” Dan shuffled behind Phil still dazed.

“I think you should wait until I've left. It might seem strange, the kid that never speaks and the rugby guy coming out of a closet together.”

Dan did the strange exhale that comes out when you're trying not to laugh.

“This isn't funny, Dean.”

“It's Dan.”

“See you in class.”

With that, Phil walked out of the cleaner’s closet and went back to class.

“So, Mr. Lester, care to tell us where you went? And where Mr. Howell is?” The teacher tapped his ruler on his desk, pulling a face of disinterest. Everyone snickered, which hurt Phil somewhere deep inside. Or maybe that was him getting sick.

“I had to talk to someone. And I don't know where Dan- Daniel is.” Phil stood still, waiting for the teacher to shout or send him away.

But before anything else could be said, Dan burst through the door looking absolutely disheveled. Then a chorus of laughter followed. -

After the humiliating events during the school day, all Dan wanted to do was go home. Thankfully, the school bell finally rang and he could finally be free.

At least the strange problem with Phil and Margaret was over and hopefully, Phil can correct his mistake.

As he approached the exit with all the other students, he noticed a bright rainbow poster. When he got closer to the doors, he realized what was written on it:

New Couple: Dan & Phil! Support the gays!

Margaret, that bitch! Dan thought the day couldn’t get even more embarrassing than it already was, but this ruined it for him. He tore down the poster and literally speed-walked out of the school.

When he got out, he saw Phil getting ready to go on his bike, obviously oblivious to the new situation. He also realized that Margaret was standing outside, holding a huge pile of replicas of the posters and handing them out to the other students.

Dan stomped up to Phil and shoved the paper in this face.

Phil looked up in surprise, and the poster shocked him even more. “No way!” he said as he grabbed it out of Dan’s hands.

“What the fuck is this?”

Dan sighed out in slight annoyance. “You tell me.”

“Where did you find this?”

“Your girlfriend -”

“Ex-girlfriend!”

“- She’s giving them out to the school,” Dan finished.

“What?! If my rugby teammates find out, I will get kicked out!” Phil exclaimed nervously.

Dan rolled his eyes. “Why? Are they homophobic?”

“No, because they’ll think I’m dating you.”

Dan was even more annoyed now. “Well, I don’t really want any of this attention either!”

“It’s okay. I’ll fix it. It’s all one big misunderstanding. I will sort it before everyone finds out,” Phil said while walking up the school steps.

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Hey, don’t be like that. I’m trying -” Phil abruptly stopped speaking because he realized how far Margaret went.

As both boys stepped back into the school, there was a large banner that read:

Vote For Sexual Diversity

It stunned Phil. “Okay, wow. I understand.”

Margaret smiled over to them. “Hey Phil! What do you think of the banner? I told you I’ll support you!”

“Yeah, I need to tell you something about that…?”

“Do you like my new shirt?” It said Support Dan and Phil with a large heart.

“No.”

“The rainbow heart was my idea…”

“Listen, Margaret, thank you for everything you’ve done, but you don’t understand the situation.”

“Do you mean we didn’t break up?”

“No! We definitely broke up. I don’t mean that!”

Suddenly, a deep voice came over the loudspeaker. “Phil Lester, please report to the Headmaster’s office.”

“Well, you are probably busy with everything happening. See you later!”

“Yeah…”

The headmaster sat down and gestured for Phil to sit opposite.

“Now, Philip, do you know what this is about?”

Phil rolled his eyes. He knew what this was about. Margaret.

“The flyers and posters?”

“Indeed. So, you and Daniel are perfectly fine to be in a relationship. In fact, it's lovely to see! However, we cannot have a commotion, and if there is any fuss about whether you are accepted by your peers, and Daniel's, I will take over the matter.”

Phil struggled to not roll his eyes. He was not gay. He was not in a relationship with Daniel Howell.

“Yeah, sure, got it.”

Wait, why didn't he deny it?

“Good. Now Philip-”

“Please call me Phil.”

“Philip. I support you fully. But please, please talk to Margaret.”

No one liked to stop her whenever she got stuck into something, and this activism was no different. Plus, she had a baseball bat. Totally not scary.

“Why can't you? I really don't want to.”

Phil tried to get out of it.

“Please, Phil. Now you're free to go unless there's something else you need?”

“No, sir. Have a good day.”

Dan leaned on the wall outside of the Headmaster’s office, waiting for Phil to come out. He still didn’t understand why this whole situation was happening.

Unexpectedly, Phil came out of the office, letting out a big sigh.

“Did you get in trouble?” Dan asked.

Phil looked surprised to see him. “Were you waiting for me...?

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, I didn’t really get in trouble. Well, I’m not sure anymore.”

“What? Did you say the rumor is fake?”

“No, I’ll do it… right now! Hey everyone!”

Margaret suddenly came out of nowhere. “Everything okay?”

“No! We need to talk about this situation!”

“Stop saying Dean and me…”

“Again, it’s Dan,” Dan corrected.

“Dan, really? What type of name is that?”

“I don’t know. A normal English name, short for Daniel.”

Phil became fascinated by him. “That’s cool.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yeah…” Phil smiled at him dreamily.

Margaret was enjoying the young love appearing in front of her. “I really love how you guys get along so well.”

“Please stop Margaret,” Phil replied in his annoyed tone. He grabbed Margaret’s hand. "Let’s talk over here.”

I wonder how Margaret will take it, Dan thought. She seemed understanding of the situation when Phil was explaining. Looks like it’s going well enough.

Dan saw Margaret happily walk away while Phil was cowering in fear. Despite Phil’s reaction, it made Dan believe that it was all okay. Phil walked back over to Dan.

“So, what happened?”

“Looks like we are dating!”

It shocked Dan to hear the news. “What?! We are dating?”

“I’m sorry for involving you in this, but can you do this for me for just a few days? I bet Margaret will forget about it soon.”

“Okay…”

“That was so much easier than I thought it would be…”

“But with some conditions.”

“God, of course, there are.”

“Carry my books every day.”

“What? No way!”

“And you have to get me lunch every day.”

“Nope! I’m not doing that.”

“Three days a week.”

“Once a week.”

“Starting now! And one more thing…”

Phil sighed. “What?”

“... If you could ask your rugby teammates to stop calling me a Hobbit, that would be great!”

That made Phil laugh out loud. “But it fits you!”

“Shut up!” Dan smiled and blushed a bit. He appreciated Phil’s laugh way more than he wanted to.

“Okay fine, I’ll talk to them.”

“Cool! We have a deal.”

And with that, the boys shook hands.

Talking to the rugby guys would not be an easy job, at least that's what Phil was thinking. He had to dash off to practice and thought he should just spit it out in the locker rooms.

A bunch of hormonal teenagers is never the best situation, and to say Phil was feeling apprehensive was an understatement.

“Guys, I have something to ask you.”

They all turned to stare at Phil.

“We know you're gay, and that's completely fine, as long as you don't come on to me,” Aled assured.

“No! I mean, I don't know. All I need you to do is to stop calling Dan a Hobbit.” Phil gave a nervous smile, and all the rugby team nodded.

“Cool with us,” Tao said.

And that was that. Done. Over.

That was until Phil saw Margaret out on the field. She was holding rainbow pom-poms and was wearing the t-shirt she has printed. Oh my God, when will she stop?

“S-U-P-O-R-T” she cheered, jumping up and down, she didn't even realize that she had spelled ‘support’ wrong, but no one wanted to tell her that. After all, where was the baseball bat?

The hour of rugby passed quickly, turns out that being shoved into a muddy field worked wonders for forgetting things.

“Tell Dan we will stop calling him Hobbit, so long as he doesn't break your heart,“ Aled said, slapping on Phil’s back as he walked past. Phil desperately wanted to set the story straight - ironically, that he was straight. But something inside him was enjoying this.

The next morning, Dan was still sneezing the strange slime-like snot. He didn’t understand what was happening to him.

He just wanted to eat his breakfast like a normal person, but his obnoxious cold was ruining it for him.

“Dan, you good? You need new tissue?” his brother Adrian questioned him.

“No, I’m good, thanks.” He seemed a little annoyed by his brother’s words. He seemed too ill to eat breakfast anyway. Dan walked out the door, feeling his father’s glare on his back, probably from being harsh towards his brother.

Dan began down the pathway to school.

Suddenly, he heard a small, grey car, slowly approaching him and coming to a stop. And Phil was sitting in the driver’s seat.

Phil’s random appearance confused Dan. “Uhh… What are you doing here?”

Phil looked at Dan cooly. “Well, I thought I should probably pick you so it will look like we are dating. Get in.”

“Um, okay?” Dan opened the passenger door and climbed into the vehicle.

They both sat in awkward silence as Phil drove them closer to the school. Dan already lived only 5 minutes away from the school and he had been walking to it for a while, so he didn’t really understand why Phil felt the urge to do this.

After about a minute of Phil driving, which felt like forever to Dan, they finally arrived at the school parking lot.

On the outside of the building, everything was ordinary and it seemed like Margaret hadn’t done any damage yet, but Dan feared what would be on the inside.

Phil got out of the car while Dan was busy thinking. He walked over to Dan’s side of the car and opened the door for him. Dan was shocked by his manners. He felt extremely awkward.

“Uh…thanks,” Dan muttered. He got out the car, feeling his cheeks fill with red from all the eyes glaring at them.

“No problem,” Phil replied quietly.

And then, Phil abruptly took Dan’s hand in his own, and Dan started to freak out. He was holding hands with an incredibly attractive and popular boy. Who wouldn’t be?

Dan was still extremely stunned by Phil’s drastic movements so Phil basically dragged him into the school.

When they got in, Phil unhooked their hands and unexpectedly hugged Dan.

“See you after school,” Phil whispered into his ear. Dan blushed again from the sensation of Phil’s hot breath in his ear.

If this is what it was going to be like dating Phil, then maybe Dan didn’t mind at all.

The routine of Phil greeting Dan in the morning and dropping him off after school went on for weeks. Dan was crushing harder and harder on him as time went on.

Dan’s cold never went away throughout these weeks. He was scared he would have to tell his father, who would probably just send him to a doctor.

He believed it was more than just a plain old cold. No one had ever had green slime-like liquid pour out of their nose, at least as far as Dan knew.

One day after Phil had dropped Dan off back at home, Dan felt some strange feelings throughout his body. He ran up to his bedroom and immediately locked the door.

Suddenly, everything in his room, including Dan himself, began to float. There was an obscure, sparkling green dust floating around.

Out of nowhere, the door burst open - even though Dan thought he locked it - and Phil stood at the entrance while Dan just looked at him, wide-eyed while screaming. He had no control over what was happening.

“Dan, calm down!” Phil yelled.

Without a warning, everything went back down to the ground. Dan fell with a loud flop, and he curled up in a ball. He was dazed, feeling the pain from hitting the hard wooden ground.

Phil was amazed. “Holy shit! Dan?! What was that?! Are you okay?!”

Dan sat up as Phil properly locked the door. “I don’t know? I’m just as confused as you are. All I know is you somehow stopped it.”

Had that moment in the cleaner’s closet somehow connected them both? Did Phil have control over what is happening to him? Dan was even more perplexed than he was before.

Phil sat down next to him on the floor. “Are you okay?” he asked again.

Dan shook his head. “No, not really. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but it’s really annoying.” He put his head between his legs.

Suddenly, Dan was engulfed in Phil’s arms.

“Don’t worry. We can figure it out together.”

#phan #daniel howell #phil lester #amazingphil #dan howell #dan and phil #dnp #erin writes

8 notes · View notes

violentviolette · 4 years

Note

i’m not reading all that but as two final points if you think that game was made for queer people you’re dead wrong, it reeks of fetishisation by fujoshis, and thank you for taking the time at least to read the blogs

valid. I did rant for like 5 whole paragraphs but frankly those blogs rly fkn killed me

I dont think it was "made for queer people" in the way that nothing created under capitalism with the intent to generate profit is "made for queer people" but reguardless of motives, the outcome was that I got to be gay in a shitty romance game and that is a rare occurrence. at the end of the day it's a queer inclusive game. u get to not only be gay, but be nonbinary. reguardless of the sincerity of the intentions on part of the dev's, the result is still a queer inclusive romance game.

and like. the points u make are valid, but other people are allowed to feel differently about things. u can find the content inherently fetishizing because it's coming from cis women and not want to engage with it, and that's fine and the right thing to do for u, and I can be used to consuming shit media because I came from a time where we lived off crumbs and sasunaru was Peak Representation so I'm desensitized to bullshit and can still enjoy it. those are both valid things that can coexist

my problem comes not neccesarily with u anon but with people like those blogs. they loose all sight of what's a worthwhile critique of a piece of media, and devolve into grasping at any possible thing that they can coat in sj language and make "problematic" so they can justify their mistreatment of other people and police their fandom space. creating this impossible standard of purity that makes failure inevitable and tearing something apart the goal of consuming it. no human can pass the "six degrees of problematic" that happens these days where if uve ever even liked a tweet by a person who follows someone who's friends with someone who once said something racist than ur a sick freak and disgusting person and u need to be run off the internet. like. every fucking person fails that criteria. but people like this will devote so much time and energy into hating something in a morally superior way and hunt that shit down and then use it to justify harassing other people. and like that's not okay

and the arguments they fall back on are almost always conservative reactionary rhetoric. theyve taken "look at these filthy queers kissing in public. these freaks are exposing minors to sexual content. were just trying to protect the children!" and just replaced "queers" with whatever fits their agenda better that day. couple that with the constant push for stricter and stricter censorship based on arbitrary moral values (because who decides what's not okay to depict? who are u giving that power to? and who has suffered under similar restrictions the most in the past?? because I'll give u a hint, censorship laws never did shit to stop people depicting men beating and raping women but it sure as shit did mean every gay character up until the last 5 years ended up dead or unhappy) and u literally just get conservatives banning books and censoring movies

it's like people really forget that "pedophiles and rapists" used to be dog whistles for queer ppl. and now that same rhetoric has people using them as dog whistles again for content they dont personally approve of and it's absolutely not a coincidence that the content that gets these vicious hate campaigns are always ones that include queer characters. Especially queer characters that are sexual in any way. triply for if theres characters of color, and it's like how are u guys not seeing this??

but I mean, at the end of the day u do u man. i get it if u didnt read all this either but I appreciate u having at the very least a civil back and forth about it. I just cant get behind that level of zealous conservatism, even when it wears a libral hat

#jack.speaks #anon

3 notes · View notes

absynthe--minded · 6 years

Text

something I think a lot of the kids (and older teens, to some extent? but mostly sixteen and under) need to understand is that it's brand fucking new to be able to consume all queer content all the time and actively choose to prioritize movies and shows with LGBT characters period, let alone LGBT ships

prior to this current "Golden Age of Television", if you wanted a network show with gay (not bi, not pan, not trans - gay and gay only) characters, you had... well, basically Will and Grace, and later seasons of Buffy, and Ellen before it was canceled, and occasional one-off episodes of shows like Friends or Star Trek. that was it. Xena got away with it because the queer content was plausibly deniable. you could claim Gabrielle was just her super dedicated platonic friend. also Xena was generally seen as a geeky thing and you could push the envelope more with B-grade properties like that, whose fanbases tended to stick with a show regardless of Quality. premium cable channels like HBO or Starz or Showtime would make more explicitly gay content like The L Word or Queer as Folk or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (the original), but those were generally walled off away from wide access and only happened because the subscriber-not-advertiser model enabled more risky content (and yeah, this kind of thing was incredibly risky, and was automatically classed as Adult Content and more sexually explicit just because it involved non-het couples and characters). the one-off episodes often featured lesbian characters because lesbians showing physical affection for one another was more acceptable than gay men doing the same (look up the Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss; it's a thing.)

movies were a little better but not much, in that gay men had been making films for other gay men for a few decades at that point, and there were a few lesbians directing too (the 90s brought us The Watermelon Woman and But I'm A Cheerleader, for example). but you had to go looking for those films specifically, and in the pre Internet days were limited by things like "if the movie you were searching for had a release outside of film festivals", "if the national chain of video rental places that was your only option even had a dedicated gay and lesbian section", and "how homophobic your area was". if you didn't have a dedicated LGBT bookstore, you were often left with whatever could be dredged up at the local Blockbuster, which wasn't much.

books were slightly better. especially speculative fiction. you could find some queer characters in sci-fi, or heavy queer subtext in a way that suggested the author wanted to do more but was pressured by higher ups to tone it down. and because LGBT bookstores were a thing, you could get smaller publishing houses to work with you and put your work out there sometimes. but if you were dealing with even a little homophobia, this didn't help. libraries kept most of those books in a dedicated section, making clandestine access kind of hard. and if you didn't have any other way of finding that kind of material (like a bookstore, or LGBT friends who'd loan you stuff), you often went without. even very well meaning librarians were limited by the homophobia of their surroundings sometimes.

this is the very recent reality.

fandom wasn't much better. slash existed, both m/m and f/f, but it wasn't accepted or seen as appropriate in a lot of circles. the early HP fandom had massive divides over if slash about the adult characters (or adult versions of the kids, etc) was even okay at all on a moral level because These Are Children's Books. a lot of fic archives would ban slash, as would forums and fansites with archives. some het advocates got really ugly. (and I'm not saying that every slash shipper was, by today's standards, a Good Queer or a Good Ally. lots of straight women would jump through all kinds of hoops to justify their ship, and "I'm not gay I'm just in carnal lust with you specifically" was a trope you'd see turn up now and again. but that was due mostly to lack of exposure to the queer community as a whole for everyone not just straight women, and even slash as written by straight women was more complex and complicated than I'm Jerking Off To This. lots of those fic writers defended LGBT rights outside of their work and did their part to be allies. don't assume everyone was the same.)

like with original works, you had to go looking for slashfic, and you'd face criticism if you were found reading or writing it in the wrong fandoms. sometimes there was legal action taken against slashers by the owners of the copyright - this happened to Han/Luke fans in the eighties with the Star Wars fandom, despite Lucas being okay with fanworks as a whole. there were a couple of Big Slash Fan Spaces (Star Trek TOS, Starsky and Hutch, etc) but outside of that you were essentially on your own. fanfiction.net, when it did finally launch, did a lot to change this, but FFN wasn't without anti-slashers doing their part to try and censor content they didn't like. and other posts have detailed Strikethrough and Boldthrough and FFN's bans on adult content better than I could, but suffice it to say that queer content has always been seen as more taboo than het content even if it's SFW.

things changed, gradually, but even as recently as the mid-2000s it was still a joke to be LGBT in public. stereotypically gay characters were poked fun at and made fun of. Brokeback Mountain was a huge joke and everyone mocked it. it's really only been in the last five years that "mainstream content aimed at queer audiences" is a thing at all, let alone in kids' shows. and even now there's network pushback, and fear of backlash from conservatives.

so kids, don't assume that All Queer All The Time is the easy option. we've fought for what we have and it happened because of years of baby steps. you're incredibly fortunate to have as much representation as you have. stop tearing down your fandoms for Not Being Good Enough. they're giving you a lot more than I ever got growing up.

#queer history

68 notes · View notes

returnsandreturns · 6 years

Text

Someday, I’ll figure out how to write the evil twin storyline in the Netflix ‘verse but this isn’t it, so have a draft.

Foggy tries to rationalize the video for a few hours, watching it on a loop like it will suddenly start to make sense that it’s Matt who’s fighting like that, that Matt’s got blood on his knuckles and running down his temple, that Matt—is the Devil. He hasn’t found his way to the end of a thought that he can run with yet, but the video’s clear enough that Foggy can see that it’s Matt whose mask got torn off and that he’s making a face that Foggy’s never seen before.

The only word he can think of is vicious. It’s unsettling. It doesn’t look—wrong, though.

He was working late at the office, coming from the kitchenette with a strong cup of coffee that means he won’t sleep much tonight, when he found the flash drive lying on the floor. The flash drive with one video, no explanation, now playing for the one-millionth time on Foggy’s laptop—the one that has him wondering if Matt would pick up if he called right now.

Matt doesn’t pick up. And he doesn’t answer his door.

“I need to ask you a question,” Foggy says, his heart beating fast, standing in the doorway of Matt’s office. Matt feels his stomach drop, even though—surely it can’t be about what he does at night. It never is.

“Go ahead,” he says, smiling.

Sometimes, that makes Foggy’s heart beat faster, too, but right now all Matt can hear is his feet shuffling lightly, a faint crack in his knees when he shifts his weight.

“Where were you last night?” Foggy asks.

“. . .home,” Matt says, after a half-second.

“You didn’t answer your door,” Foggy says, sighing shakily before he moves to sit on the chair in front of Matt’s desk. “Matt.”

“I was asleep. I’ve been—tired.”

“Matt.” Foggy’s voice is surprising, scared and angry and fed-up. He’s never really sounded like that when he’s been talking to Matt before; they’ve never really had a real fight. “I know, okay? Someone sent us a video of you—freaking backflipping and beating the shit out of people and—I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

Matt’s whole world feels like it stops for a few moments, trying to keep a straight face like he learned how to do a long time ago, even though he feels like all the progress he’s made in the neighborhood has suddenly come crashing to a halt and the wreckage of at least one part of his life is about to collapse at his feet.

“I—I know it looks bad,” he says, swallowing hard, trying to get real words out.

It’s easy for people to believe that he’s clumsy, that he walks into lamps and stumbles on curbs and falls, and it’s easy for them to see cuts and bruises and scrapes as the result of him not being able to see. That’s because they’ve never seen what he can do—occasionally, he thinks sometimes they only think about the things they think he can’t, but he knows that doesn’t apply to—what he does. Fighting. Fighting really fucking well, even if he feels like he’s losing a lot.

And Foggy—Foggy’s smart and he knows Matt better than anyone and there’s no way he didn’t put the whole picture since the first time he saw Matt with bruised knuckles together after he saw what he saw.

“It looks like you’re the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen,” Foggy says, with a laugh that hurts to hear. “Am I wrong? Tell—tell me that I’m wrong, Matt.”

Matt’s not prepared for this. He knew it might happen eventually, that he’d slip up or Foggy would connect dots that he didn’t hide well enough, but he never got to the point where he knew what he would do.

“You’re wrong,” he says, before he can think of something better. “It’s not me.”

“I saw your face,” Foggy says.

“You didn’t,” Matt says, and he thinks of telenovelas that he hears from one of his neighbors, the ones he listens to over breakfast sometimes, and does something that could never possibly work. “It wasn’t me, it was—my brother.”

“. . .your what?”

“Mike,” Foggy says, feeling kind of numb. “Mike Murdock.”

“Yeah,” Matt says, sighing.

“The Devil is your identical twin brother who nobody has ever met or even heard of,” Foggy says, slowly, squinting at the face that Matt is making and failing to read it, “and his name is Mike Murdock.”

“I know it’s insane,” Matt says. “You’ve got to get why I don’t talk about him, though. There’s—a reason why he does what he does.”

“And what’s that?” Foggy asks, clearly not believing him, which is—valid.

“He’s violent,” Matt says, firmly, thinking too hard about it. “He’s—got anger issues and he doesn’t care who he hurts and he’s—he’s a fighter. He’s what I couldn’t be.”

It hurts to lie like this. More than Matt thought it could hurt.

“. . .this is really hard to believe,” Foggy says, like maybe he could believe it. Or like he really wants to.

Matt tries not to sound bitter when he lets out a long breath and raises his eyebrows at Foggy, “How could I possibly do what the Devil does, Fog?”

Foggy’s quiet for a long time.

“If you weren’t actually blind,” he says, like he knows it’s the wrong thing to say, and Matt’s chest feels tight. “Shit, that’s—I know you wouldn’t lie about that. But I also know that we grew up in the same neighborhood. Between you and your dad, we all knew some shit about the Murdocks—and we somehow didn’t notice you had a twin?”

“Mike got in trouble all the time and—young,” Matt says. He’s getting worryingly good about lying on command, but it’s an act of survival, of not losing Foggy or the life they’ve built. It’s got to be worth it. “He ran away a lot, even as a kid, and he—he ended up in juvie instead of with me, after Dad died.”

“. . .I just can’t believe it,” Foggy says, frustrated. “Matt, I know your face. That was you.”

“It wasn’t,” Matt says. “I promise.”

“. . .then let me meet him.”

Matt thinks about it for a moment. It’s dumb and risky and probably won’t work, but—he can do that.

“Okay. I’ll see if I can get in touch with him,” he says, smiling weakly.

“Jesus, Matt,” Foggy says, genuinely angry, the tiniest bit amused looking at Matt dressed in dark Ray-Bans, old, too-tight jeans, a black shirt open enough to show—scars. Well, Foggy’s never seen those, but Matt hasn’t undressed in front of him since they lived together. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe this.”

“How can I prove it to you?” Matt asks, smile not faltering at all.

“Produce the original Murdock,” Foggy says, dryly.

“He won’t even be in the same room as me,” Matt says, immediately. “Last time we saw each other, we didn’t exactly part on the best terms.”

He didn’t think Matt could be so good at lying, but apparently, he’s good enough to start doing dangerous, illegal—improbable shit without anybody else knowing about it. Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising.

“Just stop it, Matt,” he says. “We can deal with the rest of it, but this is just stupid.”

Matt’s silent for a long moment before he smiles—slow and dark. Foggy’s never seen that face, either—at least not directed at him.

“How about I do something that good ol’ Matthew would never do?” he asks, stepping forward one step. Foggy has two impulses, both backing away and stepping towards him.

“Like what exactly?” he asks, stepping towards him.

Matt licks his lips and then Foggy’s being kissed, really kissed, and he’s too shocked to pull away—and by the time he gets his bearings, he doesn’t want to. He wraps his arms around Matt and Matt’s got his fingers tucked into the back of Foggy’s slacks and Foggy’s kind of forgotten why this is happening because it feels so good.

When he finally steps back, he says, breathlessly, “Whoa.”

Everything settles down in Foggy’s head, because—he’s right. Matt would never do that.

“Yeah,” Mike says.

“. . .so you’re Matt’s secret, possibly evil gay twin?” Foggy asks, weakly. Mike grins at him.

“I’m whatever you want me to be, sweetheart,” he murmurs, and Foggy can’t resist the pull as Mike steps back into his space and slides rough fingers up his cheek and into his hair, even though this is insane. They’ve known each other for ten minutes and he could actually be Matt, only Matt—wouldn’t do this.

He wouldn’t.

Matt leaves their office with his dick painfully hard in his jeans and a sick feeling in his stomach, feeling like a piece of shit for using the fact that Foggy’s attracted to him against him and that he’s got to let go of Mike before this goes too far. It was a terrible plan, and when it falls apart, Foggy’s going to know everything.

Matt wants to walk back in and keep kissing him.

After he gets home, Foggy calls him and says, “Met your brother. He’s kind of a dick.”

“Yeah,” Matt says, laughing softly. “He is.”

“. . .that wasn’t you, was it? Matt?” Foggy asks, shakily, and Matt feels like the worst person in the entire world.

“No,” he says. “No, of course not.”

Foggy says that he believes him, and Matt knows that he should stop everything and apologize now and just let Foggy hate him since it’s going to happen anyway. But he doesn’t.

That night, he prays and regrets and jerks off to the thought of his dick in Foggy’s mouth.

Foggy doesn’t say anything about it the next day, because he’s worried how much he’ll give away—or that the don’t tell Matt he mumbled against Mike’s mouth wasn’t taken to heart. It felt like a betrayal, kissing someone who Matt hates who also looks like him, but it’s not going to happen again.

They eat lunch together in the conference room and Matt says, like he’s been thinking about it all day, “Sorry if he—if Mike was a jerk to you. I never wanted you to meet him.”

“He wasn’t that bad,” Foggy says, smiling. “Kind of like you, but worse.”

“Gee, thanks,” Matt says, laughing.

They eat silently for a few minutes before Foggy says, hoping it sounds like a joke, “I still kind of think that you might be screwing with me.”

Matt’s mouth drops open and then he seems to collect himself, saying, kind of sadly, “I don’t blame you. I should’ve told you about him sooner, especially considering—the last few months.”

Foggy kicks him gently under the table.

“It’s okay,” he says. “Knowing that you’ve hidden your clone from me all these years does make me wonder what other secrets are lurking in that handsome head of yours, but I’m only kind of mad.”

Matt smiles and nods and they fall into silence until Matt says, “Uhm, what—what did he say to you, exactly?”

Foggy’s mind runs through possibilities, none of them true, until he finally says, “Barely anything. Just verified your story.”

#mattfoggy #my fic #daredevil #you run into issues with consent in lots of ways

40 notes · View notes

magicalgirlartist · 6 years

Text

West City Public Library, Part 30: Red Ribbon

Summary: A censorship group has set their sights on WCPL. Bulma 100% doesn't need this right now. Word Count: 4370 Notes: I tried to be fair because this is a real-world issue but like. Have you guys ever seen the ALA or CLA top banned/challenged books lists they're a fucking joke. From the ALA alone, Drama by Raina Telgemeier and George by Alex Gino were #2 and #3 respectively in 2016 for including LGBT+ characters. The Holy Bible was #6 in 2015 for, I shit you not, "religious viewpoint." Two Boys Kissing was at #5 in 2016, up from #10 in 2015, for LGBT+ content and "other," including "condoning public displays of affection." I wish I was kidding, guys.

You can probably see why I, a liberal lesbian librarian, had a hard time painting these people as anything other than strawmen. I have met people like this; I work with people like this. So tough cookies.

(I will say, however, that this was written before the ALA's 2016 list had come out, so it's not super well reflected here.)

Krillin plastered his best customer service smile on his face and tried to tamp down his urge to scream. "I'm sorry you feel that way, sir. I'll take it under advisement."

The man slammed the novel on the desk and Krillin allowed himself some pride in the fact that he didn't flinch. "Under advisement isn't good enough! Leaving this book around where children could get at it...it's disgusting."

"Sir, Go Ask Alice is part of our teen collection." Krillin picked the book up and gently placed it on the ever-growing pile of books people had challenged at his desk. "So not only is this technically the wrong department, it's not going to be taken out by anyone with a children's library card. Our system is set up so that children can only take books and other materials from the children's section--"

"But a teen or adult could take it out and leave it lying around where a child could read it," the man argued. "Besides, it shouldn't even be in the teen section. It shouldn't be here at all."

"The teen section is a perfectly reasonable place for Go Ask Alice." Krillin turned to Namu, who was very pointedly pretending to ignore the argument by typing up the Reader's Advisory department's program schedule for the month. "Namu, could you grab one of the challenge forms for me? I can't reach from here."

"It is not." The man drew himself up to his full height and Krillin grimaced. Why did people always do that to him? He got it, he was short, they didn't have to rub it in, geez. "It contains heavy drug use, sex, and teenage pregnancy. It's absolutely inappropriate for anyone under the age of eighteen."

"Just a second, sir." Krillin took the form from Namu and grabbed a pen. "Alright, so, Go Ask Alice, on...Namu, what's the date today?"

"The fourteenth."

"Thanks." He handed the pen and paper to the man on the other side of the desk. "Sir, if you'd fill out this form for me with your reasons for wanting to have this item removed from our collection, we'll take it into consideration."

"Into consideration?" The man bristled, wrinkling his nose. "No, it has to be gone, do you understand? Gone completely."

"I don't think you understand how the process works," Krillin said gently. "When a complaint is made, the book goes under review with the employees of the affected department as well as administration and the appropriate members of the library board. Together, they discuss what to do, and a decision is made. I can't just outright remove books from shelves on my own authority." He smiled apologetically. "This is the best I can do. But I promise it'll be looked into."

The man hesitated, then nodded. "Well. Thank you, I guess." He picked up the pen, his sleeve riding up his arm as he wrote. Krillin caught a glimpse of something red around his wrist and grimaced. Oh. So that's what this was. Couldn't just be some conservative kook, no, it had to be one of these guys. He forced his customer service smile back onto his face when the man handed the form back. "There."

"Thank you, Mister, uh..." Krillin glanced at the sheet. "Blue. I'll get this looked at as soon as I can."

"I'll be checking back in on the status of the inquiry," Blue warned.

Krillin's smile never wavered. "Of course. Have a nice day."

Thankfully, he seemed to take that as an indication to leave. Krillin slumped into his chair and let his smile drop, a scowl twisting his features instead. "I hate everything about today."

Namu patted his shoulder as he walked past. "You did great. I'm going on break."

Krillin sighed and reached for the phone. This needed to end, and fast.

"They call themselves the Red Ribbon Army."

Krillin scrolled down the webpage open on his tablet. "According to their website, they're 'crusaders for safety,' but really all they do is annoy people. Red Ribbon members identify themselves by wearing a red ribbon around their wrists and using colour code names." He shifted through the stack of challenge forms. "In the last month, they've been submitting constant complaints to Reader's Advisory, Children and Youth Services, and Info Services. The only reason we know it's them is because they all sign their forms with things like Blue, Silver, Black, and Yellow. I haven't seen anyone named Red yet, though."

"Have all the complaints been from them?" Bulma asked.

"No," Yamcha piped up. "I got one the other day from a law student named Todd who said one of the books we had about preparing for the bar exam was out of date and useless. That's a legitimate complaint and I told him I'd bring it up."

Bulma nodded. "We'll definitely replace that one with something more up to date. But is that really it? Are the rest of them from these Ribbon guys?"

"They even put it on their website." Krillin handed her his tablet. "Apparently they're against libraries, because we allow access to 'unsavory' material."

Bulma snorted as she scanned the tablet. "Unsavory? It's nothing you couldn't find at your local big chain bookstore. Or on the internet, even." She tossed the tablet on the table and looked around at the rest of them. "Ideas?"

"We could always just ban them," Recoome suggested.

"We can't ban everybody who asks us to make sure our collection is up to date and appropriate," Yamcha said. "If we did that, we'd have to ban Todd, too, and he hasn't done anything wrong."

"Can we streamline the process a little?" Piccolo asked. "Dragging everybody into a meeting to discuss a book is time consuming, especially if we have to get the board in on it."

"That's a good short-term solution." Bulma crossed her arms and rested them on her stomach. "But it won't stop them from coming in constantly."

"How about a change to the challenge policy?" Yamcha asked. "We can say that only one complaint can be made per person per month. That'd force them to slow down, at least."

"Make them leave their library card number with their name, too," Krillin added. "That way we can check to make sure they're not just going to a different department."

"Oh! Oh!" Recoome waved his arm in the air. "Make it so they can only challenge a book if they have a valid card! If they ain't a patron they ain't got no right to demand we change our collection!"

Krillin blinked up at him. It was surprisingly well thought out for Recoome. Usually he just sort of blundered around.

Bulma glanced at Jaco. "You're getting all this, right?"

Jaco paused his frantic scribbling to glare at her. "I'm an elite assistant for a reason."

"Just checking. So, boys." Bulma steepled her fingers and looked at the ceiling in thought. "We're going to make three changes to the challenge policy: only patrons can submit challenges, no more than one challenge per patron per month, and we meet no more than once a month to discuss the books." She counted each change off on her fingers as she said them. "We're also going to ask the board if we can oversee the challenges without their help. Honestly, I'm not sure how well that's going to go over, but I can at least ask. And if we're not meeting too often, the time commitment shouldn't be as high." Bulma looked around. "That about cover it?"

"Hey, um, question." Yamcha raised his hand. "What's to stop them all from getting library cards just to make complaints all the time?"

Bulma shrugged. "Nothing. But at least this way we can keep track better."

Yamcha grimaced. "Remind me to apologise to Tien later. His department might get real busy soon."

"Can we stop being so nice to them if they were assholes first?" Piccolo asked.

Recoome glared at him. "Guess."

"Worth a shot," Piccolo muttered. "What if they're complaining to me about same-sex relationships? Or Yamcha, for that matter? Are we allowed to laugh in their faces or what?"

Bulma giggled and Recoome glared at her, exasperated. "Oh, come on," she said, "you have to admit that'd be great."

"No laughing," Recoome said, shaking his head. "But if they start using slurs, call Recoome and we'll get them banned."

Krillin breathed a sigh of relief and thanked his lucky star that Recoome was here now instead of Cell. Sure, Recoome sometimes spoke in the third person and he was kind of terrifying and he was a loudmouthed idiot. But at least he wasn't Cell.

Piccolo fixed the man with the deadest, blankest face he could manage. "You can't be serious."

The man pointed at the book on the desk, face red with anger. "What part of this don't you understand? This book promotes sinful relationships--"

"It's about penguins," Piccolo interrupted, picking up the book in question and flashing the cover at the man. "Penguins. It's a picture book based on a real story about two real penguins who really raised a chick together in a real zoo. Here, I can look it up for you."

"They're HOMOSEXUAL penguins!" The man folded his arms, giving Piccolo a good look at the ribbon tied around his wrist. Out of the corner of his eye, Piccolo saw Chiaotzu lean over the Circulation desk to see who was shouting about gay penguins at two in the afternoon. Well, at least someone was entertained. "You can't put homosexual characters in a picture book! Think of the children!"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Piccolo folded his hands and reminded himself that Recoome would kill him if he punched a patron. "Sir, I'd like you to check the date on your phone and remind yourself what year it is."

"You're treating this serious issue like a joke," the man snapped.

"That's because it kind of is."

"I want to speak to your supervisor!"

Piccolo grinned. "I am the supervisor." From the office, he heard Selri giggle, and he mentally patted himself on the back. "Look," he said as the man started turning red again, "I'll get you a form and we'll put it on our 'challenged' list. It'll go in for review."

"Good." The man nodded, smug now that he'd seemingly gotten what he wanted. "I don't see why you had to be so--"

"When we're done reviewing it," Piccolo continued, like the man hadn't spoken, "it'll go back on the shelf where it belongs, because it's the 21st century, gay people exist, gay parents exist, with children, and hey, gay children exist, and maybe they'd like to see a little something of themselves or their parents in a book, or maybe their parents love them and want them to know that same sex relationships are okay, and this book can give them the tools to have that discussion. Or maybe they just want to read a picture book about penguins. The point is, you aren't the first person to contest this book, you won't be the last, I haven't had coffee in over an hour, I am cranky, I forgot where this sentence was going. Libraries only remove items from the collection for very specific reasons and this case fits none of them. We're not going to ban a book because some guy thinks same-sex relationships are too 'adult' for children." He tossed the book on a pile, folded his arms, and stared the man down. He'd said his piece. Recoome could chew him out later if he wanted, but he'd said his piece.

The man narrowed his eyes. "Give me the form."

Piccolo shrugged. "Alright. But you're wasting your time and mine." He stuck his head into the office. "Selri, grab me one of the new challenge forms and go help Mai with today's craft, alright? Looks like I'll be away from the program room longer than I thought." The girl nodded, blue hair bouncing around her face, and handed him a sheet of paper before ducking out of the office. She smiled at the man on the other side of the desk as she passed. He ignored her. "So, if you could just fill this out, we'll be on our way." Piccolo slid the form and a pen across the desk and stepped back.

"Fine." The man snatched up the pen and started writing. Piccolo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. God he hated his job some days.

"Is this a bad time?"

Glancing over, Piccolo let himself smile when he saw Nail approaching the desk. "No, it's fine. Hi." Nail stopped on the other side of the desk, next to the man with the ribbon. He always kept his distance while Piccolo was working, at Piccolo's request--he was still on the clock, and some modicum of professionalism had to be maintained. Besides, Piccolo had never been one for public displays of affection.

A thought occurred to him. "Dende's not here today."

Nail grinned and hefted the bag on his shoulder. "I'm not here for Dende. I have the rest of the day off, so I'm here working on a group project for school. Just thought I'd stop by and say hello to my boyfriend first."

Piccolo flushed--he still wasn't used to having someone call him their boyfriend--and glanced at the man filling out the form. He'd raised his head and was squinting between the two of them.

A decision was made, and Piccolo leaned across the desk to brush his lips against Nail's cheek. "Thanks," he said, pulling back. "I'm done my shift at six; want to go for dinner after? Since you have the day off."

Nail was blushing and Piccolo bit the inside of his cheek. Nail never blushed. He was so cute; how had it taken him so long to figure out he was in love with him? "I--yeah. I'll come back here around six and we can head out?"

"Sounds good. Thanks for coming to see me." Piccolo squeezed Nail's hand. "See you at six."

"Six. Yeah." Still blushing, Nail turned and scarpered towards the stairs.

Piccolo turned back to the man from the Red Ribbon Army. "All set? I'll take that." He deftly picked up the form and set it on the pile. "Anything else I can help you with?"

Glowering at Piccolo, the man turned away. "No."

Piccolo stretched as the man walked off. He thought he'd handled that fairly well. He glanced over the form. "Oh, sir," he called after him. "Mr. White, you forgot your library card number."

White turned around and glared at Piccolo with open contempt. "I don't have one."

"Then I'm afraid you can't file a challenge." Piccolo shrugged and tossed the form into the recycling bin under the desk. "Library policy."

"What?" White stalked back over to the desk. "I've never had this problem before."

"Recently a change has been made to the policy," Piccolo said smoothly. "Library card numbers need to be written on the forms for our files." The practised words flowed easily, and for once Piccolo was actually grateful for Jaco's pedantic ass making them all memorize patron interaction scripts before changing the policy. "If you don't have a library card, you can't file a challenge."

White jabbed his finger at Piccolo's chest. "You can't do that. You're making it up to make me look bad."

"Sir, you're doing a fine enough job of that all on your own." Piccolo mentally kicked himself. Antagonising a patron never went well for him.

Sure enough, White puffed himself up and raised his voice. "You can't treat me--a patron--like this! I demand to speak to whoever's in charge."

"First of all, without a library card you're not really a patron," Piccolo pointed out. "Just a guest, really." He sat down and reached for the phone. "And I'm sure our Human Resources representative would love to speak with you."

Jaco stuck his head into Recoome's office. "More forms for you."

Recoome held out his hand. "Thank you. Recoome didn't realise banning someone for screaming profanities about an employee was such a boring process."

"Yeah, it's a little more complicated than just having Upa and Bora escort him from the premises." Jaco leaned in the doorway. "How're you getting on so far? Crazy shit to have happen in your first week."

"Could be worse. You should see what Recoome had to deal with over at City Hall. Everyone was backstabbing each other all the time." Recoome shrugged. "Some guy yelling at me about having a gay guy working in the children's section is pretty tame in comparison."

"You only say that because it wasn't really directed at you," Jaco pointed out. "It was directed at Piccolo."

Recoome grunted. "Probably. Well, it might make Recoome's job harder, but hopefully everyone else's job is easier now."

Jaco edged into the room and reached for Recoome, hesitating before patting his shoulder. "I don't know if anyone else has said anything yet, but I for one am glad you're here. Our old HR guy was...a problem."

He was rewarded with a giant grin that was missing a few teeth. "Thank you."

Jaco patted his shoulder a couple more times before backing off. "Well, I should get back to work. Good luck with Red Ribbon."

"Recoome will need it," he sighed, shifting through the forms.

"Well, on the bright side, library memberships have gone up, but because these assholes aren't actually taking out any books our borrowing statistics are skewed." Tien shook his head and poked at his tablet. "I get that this was the only solution they could come up with, but it's making our department look bad."

Chiaotzu patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Bulma knows what's going on, and she'll keep that in mind when you send the statistics report. Hopefully this will blow over soon now that we all know about it."

"I hope so." Tien set the tablet down and stretched out his back. "I'm going to the cafe for break. Want anything?"

"Coffee, two sugars." Chiaotzu glanced at the doorway to the Circulation office. "And a new coworker."

"Har, har. Shu's doing his best." Tien patted Chiaotzu's back and headed towards the front doors. "I'll see you in a bit." He pulled out his phone as he walked, no doubt to text Yamcha and ask if he wanted anything at the Ox Cafe, too. Chiaotzu sighed. Honestly, when Tien and Yamcha finally started going out, he'd been a little worried that he'd be losing his best friend to a relationship. Thankfully, that hadn't happened, but it was still a little weird seeing Tien and Yamcha nearly attached at the hip when he'd always been the one attached to Tien.

Well, whatever, it was nice to see Tien happy. And he wouldn't want to see them break up for anything.

"Where's Tien?"

Grimacing, Chiaotzu looked up at Shu. "On break. Why?"

"I need someone to check my shelving cart before I take it out."

Chiaotzu stood up. "I can do that. You watch the desk for a minute; I'll be right back." He propped his hands on his hips. "And remember, if someone with a red ribbon comes to the desk, you...?"

"Ask them what book they'd like to complain about and send them to the appropriate desk." Shu rattled off the instructions like they'd been drilled into his head, which they practically had been by Recoome and Jaco.

"Good." Chiaotzu scurried into the back room. Shu could organise a book cart faster than any of the other pages they'd ever had, and he was usually mostly accurate, but he was inaccurate enough of the time that someone still had to check for him. He grabbed the footstool in the corner and started checking the spine labels.

Surprisingly, Shu had only messed up once, and it was an easy oversight to make. Chiaotzu hopped off the stool and gestured to the cart. "All yours. Only one slipup today! Good job!"

Shu beamed at him. "Thanks! Okay, I'll be in the stacks then!" And off he went.

Chiaotzu wandered back out to the front desk and grabbed Tien's tablet. He added another cart to the day's tally and was about to start compiling a pick list for Shu to work on when he was done when a voice interrupted him.

"You work here, right?"

He bit back his automatic response of "what makes you say that, smartass?" and instead looked up. A middle-aged Japanese man leaned on the desk. A flash of red under purple sleeves caught Chiaotzu's eye and he sighed. "Yes," he said. "Can I help you?"

"I need a library card. This the right desk?"

"Absolutely." Chiaotzu fished around for a new card form. With all the Red Ribbon people lately, they were starting to run low on forms. He'd have to photocopy a few more. "Fill this in. I'll also need some ID with your address."

The man fished out his wallet and handed Chiaotzu a driver's license before methodically filling out the form. Chiaotzu tried not to sigh as he went into the back to photocopy the license. Yet another Red Ribbon here to mess up their statistics and waste people's time. Fantastic.

By the time he got back, the man had finished filling in his form and Chiaotzu handed him his license back. "Thanks. Let me just get this set up." Tien often said Chiaotzu was the best at setting up new patrons in the system, and Chiaotzu was proud of that fact, but he took his sweet time with the Red Ribbon people. "Sorry for the wait," he lied. He held up his hands. "Tiny fingers."

The man--Murasaki, according to his form--laughed. "Not to worry!"

Chiaotzu shrugged and went back to work, pulling a new card out of the desk drawer they were kept in and scanning the barcode to connect it with Murasaki's account. "Okay, so sign on the white strip here and you're good to go." Chiaotzu handed him the card and sat back.

"Excellent. Thanks!" Murasaki scribbled his name down and handed the card back to Chiaotzu. "I'd also like to take out a few things."

Chiaotzu blinked. This was the first time he'd ever seen a Red Ribbon member actually borrow anything. "Oh. Okay. Hand them over, I guess." He opened the circulation software and scanned Murasaki's card again.

Murasaki deposited a grocery bag full of picture books on the desk. He grinned sheepishly when Chiaotzu raised an eyebrow. "I'm babysitting my grandkids tomorrow," he explained. Chiaotzu nodded and reached for them.

If nothing else, at least this guy wasn't going to screw their statistics up any further.

Bulma tossed a newspaper onto the desk proudly. "Never underestimate the power of press," she gloated.

Jaco picked it up. "'Shushed No Longer: the Growing Book Banning Problem at WCPL,'" he read. He looked up at Bulma. "What did you do?"

"Called in a few favours," she said smugly. "I know a guy who works at the paper, and he got them to run an article about our problem."

"'Libraries have always stood for freedom of information,'" Jaco read aloud, "'but they've also always come under attack by groups who disagree with their materials. Even in this progressive age, there are people who want to dictate the types of materials West City Public Library can and can't have on their shelves. According to WCPL CEO Bulma Briefs, this has been an increasing problem lately.'"

"I never referred to the Red Ribbon Army by name," she explained. "That'd just give them credibility. But they ran this article two days ago and we haven't had a single issue since. And you should see the comments online! We actually have the public's support for once!"

Jaco shook his head. "Congratulations. You solved book banning."

"Don't be like that." Bulma crossed her arms. "I know this is just a temporary solution. But at least I got things to quiet down a little before I go away on maternity leave." She gestured at the paper. "How would you like to be the one dealing with all that while I'm off having my baby?"

"Alright, fine. Thank you." Jaco handed the newspaper back. "You know, one of these days you're going to get yourself in trouble trying to solve things like this by yourself."

Bulma shrugged and started to shuffle back towards her office. "I figure if I'm gonna piss people off, go big or go home."

"Okay, so, um, sir. If you could just calm down--"

"Calm down? Calm down?" Red's face was the colour of his namesake. "You tell me I'm not allowed to file a challenge against this...this filth, and you want me to calm down?"

"Library policy," Yamcha started, "states that only one challenge can be made--"

"Per person, per month, I heard you, I'm not stupid." Red sneered. Yamcha folded his arms and kept his face as blank as possible. "But that's a stupid fucking policy and I want to know who I complain to about it!"

"You can always submit a comment on our website," Yamcha suggested, hoping it would get Red to leave him alone.

"On your website." Red scoffed. "Do you know who I am? Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?"

Yamcha looked at the record still up on his screen. "According to our records, you're Red Sosui, you just got a card last week, and you've already filed a complaint this month, at Reader's Advisory, about A Wrinkle in Time, which was the wrong department by the way--"

"I'm the leader of the Red Ribbon Army," Red growled.

Yamcha nodded. "Oh, that hate speech group. We've had to ban a few of your members already for harassing staff. If you keep causing a scene I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Red drew himself up to his full height (which wasn't much), snarled "This is not the end of this," and stormed out.

Yamcha shook his head and added a note to Red's record about the altercation. "I'm pretty sure it is," he muttered.

#dbz #dragon ball z #writing #fanfiction #library!au #west city pl

12 notes · View notes