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creepy-spooghetti · 1 year

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Heya dear fella! ^^

I was wondering... What about some platonic Hcs for BEN, Jeff, Helen and Toby (Sepparetly) with an early teen fem!reader (like 12-13 years old)?

Like- The reader is just this sweet, kind, caring child who is always trying her best to make people happy always with a smile on her face and make sure their okay (that goes for physical and mental) but is always the one everyone forgets about, the one that's always left out, the one that always fades into the oblivion.

And so one night (at likely 2 am) the creep in question just finds her sitting on the sofa and he, kinda shocked, asks her "hey, you 'kay?"

And then the reader just looks at him with a confused expresion until she starts crying and shaking her head no while saying "I never was!"

This is my kinda prompt :D

Thank you for requesting!!

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BEN

In all honesty, this dude can be pretty oblivious to what's going on around him, especially when it comes down to peoples' feelings. So he genuinely took your blitheful front at face value and assumed you were alright! How could you not be? You seemed so happy all the time!

However, these false conclusions came crumbling down when he spotted you alone in the living room, sporting a blank expression as you stared at what was seemingly nothing. It was a concerning sight, to say the least. So he laid down the food he'd just raided from the refrigerator and walked closer, waving a hand in front of your face.

"Uhh...Y/n? A-are you, like...okay?"

The response he got was certainly not one he was expecting, and it took him greatly off-guard. He was not good at dealing with this sorta stuff, and the way his body stiffened significantly was proof enough of that.

Still, he wasn't about to leave. That would just be immoral. So he took a seat on the coffee table in front of you and tilted his head, letting you ramble on about how no one seemed to care about you even though you made it your #1 goal to ensure everyone else felt heard and accounted for. He held his hand up to halt your words and offered a sincere grin. "Hold up, hold up. I care about you. That counts for something, right?"

Jeff

He figured after seeing you around for a while that something had to be up with you. After all, nobody can be that happy 24/7. But you had never made any effort to signify that you wanted someone to acknowledge the potential struggles you had, so he kinda just shrugged it off with the thought, "if she needed comfort or something, she'd go to someone about it".

This theory of his backfired when he saw you looking so lost and saddened on the sofa, and it honestly startled him; what could have happened that made you so...gloomy? He had just returned from a mission, so his hoodie was coated with patches of fresh blood and his hair was messy, but he figured taking a shower could wait.

Hesitantly, he approached, raising a worried brow. "Y/n, hey. You good?" The glance that he received for that question made his stomach tense, and before he could really process it, you just started to cry, burying your face in your hands and explaining through tears how you felt ignored and insignificant. He blinked in confusion but sat down beside you nonetheless, resting his arms on his knees and leaning forward to get a look at your expression. His voice softened a bit.

"...Has this been happening for a while?" When you nodded, he huffed in contemplation, placing a hand on your shoulder. "Ya know, if you wanted help, you could've just asked. I know this place is chaotic, but bearing a burden like this alone is just not ideal. You gotta let people know how you feel. Otherwise they'll probably never catch on. They're all idiots."

You sniffled, and he gently patted your back, lacing a lighter tone into his words. "Feel free to come to me, okay? I know I can be an asshole but I promise I won't give you a hard time about it."

Helen

Like Ben, he's a bit unaware of what people are feeling, but only because he's always so lost in thought. From the way you carried yourself all the time, he was almost jealous of you. Why couldn't he be that content with his life? What was he doing wrong to prevent that?

He just kinda shut down for a few seconds when he noticed you on the couch, appearing solemn. What was he supposed to do? He's not a 'people person' by any means, and even so, the two of you were never very close. Then he thought back to that time he was being tormented by Johnny and you stood up for him, and a decision was made.

Hesitantly, he willed himself to walk over and sit a couple of feet away from you, staring at the floor and speaking in a low voice. "Are you...alright?"

"No. I haven't been. Not for a long time." It was difficult to comprehend, as you had never once acted miserable in the past, but here he was, and here you were, experiencing it. He listened unsurely to your venting without interruption, and when you tapered into a sob-brimmed silence, he took it as his cue to - albeit reluctantly - place a hand on your upper back and provide words of attempted consolation.

"...Sorry you've had to deal with that. If you want to...you can come up to my room and we can sketch or something? I have some extra supplies you can use. Just to...get your mind off of everything."

Toby

Toby is no stranger to feeling lonely or disregarded, except he never purposefully convinced people that he was 'okay'. He knew that you weren't what you seemed, however, and though he never attempted to further confirm this (he has his own troubles to worry about, after all), he still watched closely on occasion, as he's a naturally observant person.

Seeing you on the couch in the middle of the night rose questions within him, and he didn't put much thought behind the matter before stepping over and speaking with a muted voice. "What's wrong with you?"

"Everything," is what you mumbled after several moments, and he leaned away in mild alarm when you started crying. This was certainly a concerning thing to witness. Still, instinct kicked in, and he sat down close by your side, brushing some hair out of your face.

He didn't say anything, as he was never very skilled with verbal comfort, but when he realized that your emotional breakdown might last a while, he wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you into him, expecting to be pushed away, but you only reciprocated.

And like that, you stayed, until you settled down enough to uphold a conversation. Then he opened his mouth. "Hey... Jane and I are getting together tomorrow to play chess. Wanna join us?"

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coochiequeens · 3 months

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The TQ+ love to shout "Just be Kind" until a lesbian states her belief in the importance of biological sex. Even though she didn't say anything mean to her TQ+ coworkers.

Prof Jo Phoenix was hounded out of the Open University for being gender critical

A group of academics who harassed her were blasted in an employment tribunal

By STEWART CARR PUBLISHED: 3 February 2024

These are the academics who were blasted in a stinging judgment by an employment tribunal after they hounded a lesbian lecturer out of her job.

Criminology expert Prof Jo Phoenix, 59, saw her name dragged through the mud at the Open University once her views on the importance of biological sex became known.

Despite assuring colleagues she was not transphobic, a small group of trans activist lecturers refused to set aside their personal politics to allow freedom of opinion.

Instead, ringleader Dr Leigh Downes, a female who identifies as non-binary, led a campaign against Prof Phoenix - publishing an open letter 'in order to create a pile-on', which amassed 368 staff signatures

Last week, in an extraordinary judgment, the participants were criticised for their vindictive motives; as well as their evidence, which a judge described as 'evasive' and 'not credible'.

Employment Judge Jennifer Young said: 'On multiple occasions, whenever gender critical views were expressed at the Open University, Dr Downes complained or tried to get the view suppressed.

'The claimant's gender critical beliefs made Dr Downes feel palpably uncomfortable.'

The judge went on: 'The purpose of signing the open letter was to create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for Prof Phoenix.

'We conclude that having 368 of your colleagues sign a public letter saying that you are part of a group that is fundamentally transphobic, is stigmatising and damaging.'

Besides Dr Downes, other signatories in the open letter - Dr Helen Bowes-Catton, Dr Nicola Snarey, Prof Peter Keogh, Natalie Starkey and Dr Chris Williams - were found to have contributed to the hostility, despite their claims that they were expressing academic freedom.

The judge dismissed this reasoning and wrote: '[It] was not an exercise in academic freedom. There is nothing scholastic about the open letter, it stigmatised the claimant and damaged her reputation.'

Rather than stamp out the febrile atmosphere on campus, departmental leaders at the university left Prof Phoenix to face the onslaught alone and even blamed her for having spoken out in the first place.

Prof Louise Westmarland, a former friend who had unsuccessfully competed for the same job, likened the under-fire professor to 'a racist uncle at a dinner party'.

The head of the department, Dr Deborah Drake, caused huge distress by comparing Prof Phoenix to controversial US political scientist Charles Murray, whose views have been likened to a racist.

Despite both of their denials, Judge Young found that on balance, they had indeed made the comments and both had contributed to the harassment of Prof Phoenix.

Judge Young noted: 'We find that Dr Drake disliked the claimant expressing her gender critical position.

'This was evident in her efforts to silence the claimant speaking about her research, comparing her to a prominent sociologist Charles Murray (perceived as being racist), and her frustration in her emails to various members... in particular Dr Downes.

'We consider that this was pivotal in creating and maintaining the hostile work environment."

'Dr Drake's role as head of department meant that she set the tone for the department. Professor Westmarland's behaviour towards the Claimant likening her to a racist uncle also contributed to the hostile atmosphere.'

The tribunal at Watford heard that Prof Phoenix, an expert in criminology, had began her academic career at the Open University 30 years earlier where she studied for her PhD.

Having held senior posts at Durham University and the University of Leicester, she returned to the Open University in 2016, taking a £18,000 pay cut in order to enjoy a 'homecoming' for the final phase of her career.

Prof Phoenix's problems began in October 2018, when she signed a letter alongside 53 other academics, which appeared in The Guardian, criticising proposals for the introduction of self-identification in gender reassignment.

The tribunal heard the Guardian letter was met with dismay from Prof Phoenix's colleagues. One of them, history lecturer Dr Chris A Williams, wrote to his colleague Dr Helen Bowes-Catton and expressed deep concern about Prof Phoenix carrying out research into the area and even discussed getting an injunction against her.

The tribunal noted: 'Dr Williams was displaying an irrational fear and was hostile to the Claimant because she had gender critical beliefs.'

On March 6 2019, a planned conference into prison abolition was axed after several academics objected to Dr Richard Garside speaking at the event. He had previously written a critique against placing transgender prisoners in the women's estate.

On April 16, 2019, Prof Phoenix spoke up for women's sex-based rights at an event hosted by campaign group Women's Place UK and she criticised the university for cancelling its prison abolition conference.

A video of Prof Phoenix's speech was shared among colleagues.

Prof Louise Westmarland wrote, 'I can hardly bear to watch it' while Dr Downes claimed to have been reduced to tears, writing back to her: 'I watched it yesterday and had to take a walk. I found it very upsetting. Been a while since I cried at work.'

The panel read through a transcript of Prof Phoenix speech and noted: 'There is nothing in the talk that we find that would be upsetting.'

Prof Phoenix faced wrath from her colleagues again in June 2019, when she signed another letter, this time in The Sunday Times, criticising the closeness of UK universities with the LGBTQ charity Stonewall.

In September of that year, Prof Phoenix attempted to reach out to Dr Leigh Downes, to discuss carrying out research into trans prisoners, but her attempts were rebuffed.

In May 2021, Prof Phoenix was interviewed on a podcast called Savage Minds by the presenter Julian Vigo, where she discussed her gender critical beliefs.

The following month, she launched the Open University's Gender Critical Research Network alongside Dr Jon Pike and Laura McGrath.

Giving evidence, Prof Phoenix told the tribunal she could never have imagined the level of backlash she would receive.

Almost immediately, a WhatsApp group was set up by Open University staff.

Among those involved in this WhatsApp group were Dr Leigh Downes, Dr Avi Boukli, Dr Chris Williams and Dr Helen Bowes-Catton, but they all denied before the tribunal that the group's purpose was to create a campaign against Prof Phoenix.

But the tribunal noted: 'We simply did not believe Dr Downes, Dr Boukli, Dr Bowes-Catton or Dr Williams' evidence on this point and find that the WhatsApp group was set up to counter gender critical beliefs at the OU and was being used to set up the open letter.'

On June 17, 2019, the 'open letter' blasting Prof Phoenix and the new Gender Critical Research Network was published on Google documents and was signed by 368 Open University staff.

It stated: 'We call on the OU Vice Chancellor's Executive Team to take the following actions:

'To withdraw its public support for and affiliation with the Gender Critical Research Network

'To affirm their position as a trans inclusive employer

'To commit to developing a concrete plan of action for supporting and affirming trans students and staff in this trans-hostile external and internal environment.'

Dr Downes, who published the document and was its first signatory, was unable to explain in court who drafted it, neither were fellow contributors Dr Williams and Dr Bowes-Catton.

On June 24, 2021, one of the open letter's signatories, Professor Peter Keogh, sent an email to the LGBT+ staff network email list blasting Prof Phoenix's gender critical network for 'sharing transphobic views and materials on their website'.

The tribunal noted: 'The purpose of the conduct was to violate the claimant's dignity. The claimant's email response the same day to Professor Keogh's email indicates that Professor Keogh's email affected her deeply.'

The 'punishing' backlash eventually led Prof Phoenix to leave the university in December 2021.

Last week, the court upheld almost 20 of her claims. A remedies hearing will take place to decide the damages owed to her.

It also ruled that the abuse Phoenix endured was harassment and the university's failure to protect her from it made it complicit in this treatment.

Professor Tim Blackman, Vice-Chancellor at the Open University, released this statement: 'This judgment made for difficult reading for all of us. In several areas we fell very short. We apologise unreservedly to Professor Phoenix for the hurt and distress this has caused. This is not The Open University we want to be.

'The University has supported and continues to support the work of the Gender Critical Research Network (GCRN) as part of the many important research activities that take place at the OU. But our understanding of academic freedom and freedom of speech at the time meant we did not intervene about the open letter, statements and social media posts that followed the GCRN's launch. The tribunal ruling makes it clear that we should have acted differently to address the impact of this reaction on Professor Phoenix and the working environment that she experienced.

'We are sorry that this has been a painful episode for many colleagues. Research and academic debate are the life blood of universities. They are not at odds with inclusion, and we will find a path that encourages diversity of thought and views in the inclusive environment we all want to see at the OU. We have learned from the judgment and there is now more we need to do. The experience and outcome of this case will guide us with this important and essential work.

'We will be initiating a major independent review of our internal working environment. This will include addressing the challenge we and the sector face balancing the complexities of upholding academic freedom, freedom of speech, and equality and employment rights. It will help us to work together to ensure those with differing views are safe and free to express their opinions within the law.

'Achieving our mission to be open to people, places, methods, and ideas depends on us all at the OU committing to take forward this learning and to treat each other with civility and respect however profoundly we may disagree.'

This is why I don't trust most libfems and non-binary or trans identified females over a certain age. Those women were willing to smear her reputation and cost another woman her job because she spoke against a movement that benefits men.

#Open University #I stand with Professor Jo Phoenix #Harassment by the gender cult #Dr Chris A Williams expressed deep concern about Prof Phoenix carrying out research into the area #Why would anyone be concerned about research into an area?#Is it because research would debunk a lot of points the advocates often state?#Is it because research would prove critics right?#The University canceled a prison abolition conference because one speaker opposed men in women’s prisons

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elialys · 3 months

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Dr. Wendy Carr and her girlfriend Helen Norville -- a study on human emotions

#Anna Torv #Helen Norville #Wendy Carr #Mindhunter #The Newsreader #this became a thing because malin and i joked about wendy sipping wine while helen lost her shit #you know it's true though #this gifset is meant to be humorous #but it's also true #Helen x Wendy #HELDY #gifs*#let's talk about those fun colors in both shows

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ninja-muse · 4 months

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2024 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC 🇨🇦 - Canadian author ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC bold - newly added

The Secret History of Bigfoot - John O'Connor (travel/history) - February 6

Ending the Pursuit - Michael Paramo (sociology) - February 8

Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr (fantasy/romance) 🏳️‍🌈📘 - February 20

The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed (fantasy) - February 27

Tomorrow’s Children - Daniel Polansky (post-apocalypse) - February 27

The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson (history) - February 27

The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught (YA cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈- March 5

The Tower - Flora Carr (historical fiction) 📘 - March 5

Parasol Against the Axe - Helen Oyeyemi (literary fiction) ⭐️📘- March 5

Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson (science fiction) ⭐️📘 - March 12

The Mars House - Natasha Pulley (science fiction/romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Floating Hotel - Grace Curtis (cozy science fiction) 🏳️‍🌈 - March 19

The Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) ⭐️ 📘- March 26

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances - Eric LaRocca (horror) 📘- April 2

Catchpenny - Charlie Huston (science fiction) 📘- April 9

Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao (YA contemporary) 🏳️‍🌈 - April 16

A Letter to the Luminous Deep - Sophie Cathrall (cozy fantasy) 📘 - April 23

The Tomb of the Mili Mongga - Samuel Turvey (memoir) - April 16

The Demon of Unrest - Erik Larson (history) 📘 - April 30

The Proper Thing and Other Stories - Seanan McGuire (fantasy) - May 1

The Library Thief - Kuchenga Shenjé (historical fiction) ⭐️ - May 7

The Honey Witch - Sydney Shields (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - May 14

Every Time We Say Goodbye - Natalie Jenner (historical fiction) 🇨🇦 - May 14

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler (fantasy) - May 21

A Gentleman From Japan - Kevin Lockley (history) ⭐️ - May 21

Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (fantasy) - May 28

Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 4

Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - June 11

Echo of Worlds - M.R. Carey (science fiction) - June 25

The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - July 9

Navola - Paolo Bacigalupi (fantasy) 📘- July 9

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (horror) 🏳️‍🌈 - July 9

Peking Duck and Cover - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) ⭐️ - July 23

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop - Emmeline Duncan (cozy mystery) - July 23

Nicked - M.T. Anderson (historical fiction) 📘 - July 23

Last Seen Online - Lauren James (YA mystery) 🏳️‍🌈 - August 1

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston (romance) 🏳️‍🌈 - August 6

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher (fantasy) - August 20

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale (science fiction) - August 27

The Salmon Shanties - Harold Rhenisch (poetry) - September 10🇨🇦

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner (fantasy) - September 20

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 - October 1

The City in Glass - Nghi Vo (fantasy) - October 1

Swordcrossed - Freya Marske (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

My Kind of Trouble - L.A. Schwartz (romance) - October 8

Shoestring Theory - Mariana Costa (fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 8

Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy (cozy fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈 - October 15

The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door - H.G. Parry (fantasy) - October 22

Usurpation - Sue Burke (science fiction) - October 29

The Improvisers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - November 5 ⭐️

October Daye #19 - Seanan Mcguire (urban fantasy) - date unknown

My Love, in Stitches, Vol. 1 - Emily Gossman (contemporary fantasy) 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦 - date unknown

#2024 releases #upcoming releases #the tbr list of doom #booklr

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