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#i am not a fan of her politics I'm not a fan of many things she says but I'm also SOOOOO not a fan of how shes treated
suncaptor · 6 months
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also kind of frustrates me Britta's past is treated all like a joke when she left home at 17 and starts Greendale having connections across the world and is clearly genuinely educated on the issues she talks about. even if she is like. levying them for identity reasons and not genuine care. does that matter. and she'll often bring up good points just to be mocked and bullied.
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ladysharmaa · 13 days
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Heir
Anthony Bridgerton x reader
summary: telling Anthony she's with child after facing difficulties getting pregnant
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It's been three years since the wedding between Anthony Bridgerton and Y/n. The love between the two was one of the strongest anyone could have ever seen, it was obvious that they were made for each other.
They met in a very unusual way. While Anthony was courting Edwina Sharma, Y/n was seen very close to Benedict, the two of them discreetly courting each other. However, they both quickly realized that the connection between them was better as a friendship than a romantic relationship, where things seemed quite forced and uncomfortable. At the same time, Viscount Bridgerton had also broken up with Edwina after she had doubts on their wedding day.
Y/n remembered that day perfectly. She was sitting next to Benedict and the Bridgerton family on the chairs waiting for Edwina to appear and the wedding to begin. She waved a fan, trying to alleviate the horrible heat in that room. The delay seemed to make everyone nervous, especially Anthony who had drops of sweat falling from his forehead and was speaking hurriedly to his mother.
Finally, the doors opened, but, to everyone's surprise, it wasn't Edwina walking down the aisle, it was Kate Sharma, her sister. She didn't look happy, walking with an air of confidence and a serious expression, her eyes never leaving Anthony. The two exchanged quick words, until Anthony dropped his head and closed his eyes in frustration, but he still nodded and Kate left.
After a few tense seconds, Anthony finally had the courage to look at the people watching the scene and said that the wedding had been cancelled, before leaving the room too, leaving the murmur that formed.
"What a scandal." a lady gossiped with another, the two starting a conversation about what could have happened, some theories being completely ridiculous and that could ruin the family's reputation.
Y/n couldn't help herself and turned to them with a polite but sarcastic smile. "My apologies for interrupting, but the only scandal here is the fact that your son, who decided to be a priest, got so many prostitutes pregnant that only they could fill an entire line of these."
The woman gasped in horror while Benedict, who was listening to the conversation, had difficulty containing his laughter. "You foolish girl, how dare—"
"Excuse me, but I have better things to do than sit here and imagine what could have happened." Y/n got up from her chair, looking at the women one last time before going to try and find Anthony.
Despite being acquaintances, since Y/n was so close to Benedict, the two had never spoken much. However, the woman was still worried about Viscount. When she found him, sitting on the porch floor with his head in his hands, Y/n kept him company, also sitting in silence. From then on, a relationship was formed between the two that quickly became inseparable.
"My love, daydreaming again?" Anthony hummed, breaking Y/n out of his thoughts. The man wrapped his shoulders around her waist and pulled her closer, gently kissing her head. "What are you thinking about?"
"How lucky I am."
"Well, I'm the lucky one. I have a beautiful wife who I love very much. I couldn't live without you." he confessed, causing a blush to appear on her cheeks as it always did when he pronounced his love for her. "I have to go finish some paperwork, but then I'll come see you so we can go visit Daphne's son."
Y/n nodded, giving him a quick kiss and sighing as she watched him go to his office. Daphne had just had her second child, a beautiful baby boy. The couple was going to visit the family so that Y/n could help with whatever her sister-in-law needed while Anthony and Simon were going to entertain the baby's brother, a toodler who demanded a lot of attention.
Even though Y/n loved their children with all her heart, it only reminded her of what she couldn't give Anthony. The couple had been trying to get pregnant since they got married, but without success. Anthony's wife had already cried on his shoulder many times because she couldn't carry the child, her heart breaking every time she started her period.
Even though the Bridgerton man assured her several times that all he needed to be happy was her, Y/n still wanted to give him a heir. She wanted the house to be full of their children's laughter and for them to be able to create a mini version of them, a product of their love.
However, he tried not to occupy his days thinking solely about that. It was enough of all the doctors she had seen who told her that it was her fault, that her womb was not capable of developing a baby. Of course, Anthony, as soon as he heard those accusations and the look of complete heartbreak from his wife, demanded that they leave his house.
Y/n she couldn't take the blame anymore, going into a state of shock and for three days she refused to get out of bed. However, her husband would not accept that. He just wanted her to be happy, even if they never had children.
"We don't need children to be happy, I only need you. We have so many nieces and nephews who can take on my role, and we can take care of them from time to time, I'm sure my siblings wouldn't mind." Y/n remembered Anthony telling her this firmly, his hands grabbing her cheeks as they both had tears in their eyes.
And since then, they've never brought it up again.
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
"Lady Bridgerton, are you feeling alright?" one of the maids asked worriedly when she saw Y/n enter the dining room for breakfast, immediately turning paler when she smelled the eggs. "Should I fetch for Viscount Bridgerton?"
She had time to shake her head before running to the nearest bathroom, dropping herself onto the cold floor and emptying the contents of her stomach. She could feel tears forming in her eyes, gagging at the sour taste that remained in her mouth. With unsteady legs, she got up and went to wash her mouth, the maids who entered the bathroom right after her helped her to hold herself upright.
However, she quickly realized that she wasn't finished yet when a new wave of nausea consumed her and she knelt again in front of the toilet. She felt strong hands, which she recognized as Anthony's, caress her face before grabbing her hair.
"Oh, Anthony…" she moaned in discomfort. "I don't want you to see me like this."
"Hey, none of that. Come here, love." he comforted, helping turn her around and supporting her against the wall when she was finished. He took a towel and started wiping her mouth.
When Y/n had the strength to open her eyes, she saw her husband's face analyzing her closely, looking for anything that could be wrong. The concern that swam in his eyes made her raise a hand and rest it on his cheek, and he turned slightly to be able to give her a lingering kiss on her palm.
"How are you feeling? I'm going to call the doctor. Are you okay with staying with one of the maids until I get back?"
Y/n held his arm, preventing him from getting up. "No, please don't go. I'm alright now. If this continues, I promise you can call the doctor, this is probably an one time thing. Let's not worry about it."
Anthony sighed, locked in a staring contest with the most important woman in his life. Accepting defeat, but with a serious look that screamed that if that happened again she would see a doctor, the Viscount picked up Y/n, carrying her to their bed.
Laying her down gently and helping Y/n take off her dress, the man pulled the covers up, making sure she was comfortable. Afterwards, he took off his shirt and pants, lying down next to her.
"What are you doing? We can't be in bed already, especially you. It's only morning, we still have many obligations to fulfill."
"No. My wife is not feeling well, and I'm going to take care of her. The paperwork can wait, as well as all my meetings. I just want you to be healthy." Anthony brought her closer to him, Y/n resting her head on his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. "Now, sleep. You need it."
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
It happened again. More specifically, two more times Y/n threw up her meals. The first time, she was alone and not wanting to worry anyone, she preferred to remain silent. After all, she could still be recovering from some kind of illness. The second time, it was in the presence of her most trusted maid, who she considered a friend, Joanne. And so she begged her not to tell the Bridgerton man about it, claiming she would see someone.
Alone, because in addition to feeling sick, she also realized that her period, which was always regular, should have already arrived. Her first thought was that she was pregnant. But upon thinking better, she questioned this possibility. After so many years of trying and failing, why would she be pregnant now? There must be another explanation.
However, she did not share these possibilities with Anthony because the last thing she wanted was to give him hope only to end up disappointed with her inability to give him a heir. Fortunately, Joanne accompanied her, helping Y/n explain to the doctor why the Viscount wasn't there with her.
And when she left that office, she could feel her legs losing strength. She placed a hand on her chest, starting to find it difficult to breathe in completely, still shocked by what the doctor had said to her.
Pregnant.
She was carrying Anthony's child in her womb, something they thought to be impossible. She was going to be a mother. Even though Anthony always assured her that he was completely happy with just her, Y/n knew that he would love being a father. At the beginning of their marriage, he had revealed to her that he dreamed of their family, their chhildren running through the garden while he chased after them and Y/n watched while sitting under the shade, her hand on her swollen belly.
And, by a miracle, this dream could become reality.
"Lady Bridgerton, are you ready to return to the mansion?" Joanne questioned after Y/n sat down in the carriage, her hands shaking together in her lap. Her gaze was understanding, in case she needed a few more moments alone to process this, but her lips held a small smile.
"I'm going to be a mother." she whispered.
"A wonderful, beautiful mother, I'm sure. Congratulations, Lady Bridgerton." she smiled, feeling enormous happiness for Y/n. She knew how much the couple had suffered. "Shall we return?"
Y/n nodded, no longer trusting her voice to speak. The woman took advantage of the short trip to process everything that was happening and before she knew it she was already in front of Anthony's office door.
With barely controlled excitement, she knocked on the door, waiting for permission to enter. When she heard Anthony's voice, she timidly opened the door, seeing that her husband was gathered with his brothers.
"Oh, my apologies. I didn't know your brothers were here. I can come back later."
"Nonsense, love. They can just leave." Anthony said, leaning back in his chair and opening his arms, an invitation for Y/n to come to him. The man, after already having Y/n in his arms, looked at Benedict and Collin, who were looking at him with a smirk. "Did you not hear? I told you to leave."
"Anthony, be nice!"
"It's not a problem, Y/n, we know when we are not wanted. Come on, Benedict, let's leave the lovebirds alone." Collin teased, getting up with his brother and leaving the room, but first, he took Y/n's hand and brought it to his lips. Benedict, for instance, kissed her cheek in a brotherly way. Despite their farewell with Y/n, Anthony was completely ignored by his brothers.
"Did you need something?" the man asked, putting all of his attention on Y/n, who began to fidget with her fingers nervously.
"Actually, I have to tell you something. I went to the doctor today…"
"What? Y/n, why didn't you tell me? Did you feel bad again? Nauseous? What did the doctor say? Are you okay?"
"Calm down, my love. I'm better than fine. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about being sick again, but I didn't want to worry you." she admitted, feeling guilty that Anthony was feeling precisely what she didn't want. "Well, I received some very interesting news."
"Please, just tell me what's wrong. I can't bear not knowing if something is wrong with you." he muttered with a pained look, as if he felt physical pain when thinking about the possibility of Y/n being hurt or unwell.
"Anthony…" she said his name with so much love that he shuddered. "I'm pregnant."
A silence formed in the room. Anthony took so long to react, just looking at her intensely as if he didn't know what was true or not, that Y/n began to feel worry invade her system. Was he not happy? Did he not want a child with her anymore?
"W-What?" Anthony finally managed to whisper, his heart having stopped as soon as he heard those words. "You're pregnant? With my child?"
"Well, obviously." Y/n rolled her eyes. "Are you happy?"
"Happy? My love, I'm more than happy. I love you so much. And I love our child too." the man kissed her fiercely, needing to convey all his love and adoration for her in that kiss.
He was addicted to his wife's lips, and now that he knew she was carrying his child, something animalistic was released inside him. Without giving any warning, he grabbed Y/n and twirled her around, without ever taking his lips off hers. Even so, Y/n giggled against them, circling her hands around his neck and holding on tight.
When her feet touched the floor, the Viscount knelt in front of her, his hands resting hesitantly on her stomach. He looked at Y/n in permission, who just nodded in encouragement and placed her hand on his brown hair, stroking his scalp.
Very gently, Anthony kissed his wife's still flat stomach. "Hello, you. I'm your father and I love you and your mother very much. You two are my entire life."
And the two stayed like that for the rest of the day, moving to the bedroom where Anthony continued to talk to Y/n's belly while exchanging passionate kisses with her. A beautiful new stage had begun in their lives, and they couldn't wait to meet their heir.
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twizzie-lairs · 4 months
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My Darling, My Honey
Alastor X Fem!Reader (Part 1)
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Quick Notes:
This is when both reader/you and Alastor are both alive. (... we'll probably end up in hell later on btw...)
Reader is an artist/painter.
*disclaimer: i'm not a great writer, nor am I good at writing characters*
Part 1:
On a cold, dreary night, you take solace in a speakeasy to escape your dreadful home life.
You, the reader, are stuck in what feels like a hopeless, loveless, and potentially abusive marriage that was arranged by you and your husband's parents as more of a political/business move.
So you find yourself sneaking out to the next town over at night whenever your "husband" is away. On nights like those, you left the ring at home. It was only a reminder of your hellish life, you wouldn't let anything reminiscent of your husband come with you to your little escape/happy place.
During your occasional outings, you befriended the speakeasy's owner/proprietress, Mimzy, who becomes your most trusted confidant because you didn't have any "friends" or family you could trust- they were the ones who put you in your living hell after all.
Mimzy also became your biggest fan and patron once she found out you're an artist/painter. Many of your paintings became centerpieces at the bar and your art became synonymous with this prestigious speakeasy of hers.
You pocketed all this money and didn't even have to hide the fact that you were painting. He hated art, so as long as it didn't stay in the house, he didn't care where it went. It was the one good thing you had going for you.
After a particularly prolonged period of time of your husband being home and having to endure so much of his bullshit, you find yourself seated at Mimzy's bar with a drink in hand.
A while into the night, but while the night was still young, you hear Mimzy's voice talking to a voice you've never heard before. You were a regular, so you knew all of the other regulars (you were more of an irregular regular, due to your visits being erratic because it all depended on when your husband was out of town).
But this voice caught your attention immediately. When Mimzy and this unknown man round the corner, your head whipped around, just to lock eyes with this new visitor to the bar.
Upon meeting your gaze, you are met with an unexpectedly warm smile, which makes you gasp and make you debate if the man or the alcohol was the culprit of the blush on your face.
Mimzy walked over with the man and introduced him and you to each other. You extended your hand towards him, and much to your surprise, he laid a gentle kiss upon the top of your hand and told you his name. "Alastor."
After witnessing this exchange, Mimzy giggles and runs along and goes to chat with the other patrons, leaving you and Alastor to chat on your own.
Oh and chat you do, yes indeed. You lose track of time and before you knew it, it was time to head home.
Not once in your life had you lost track of time talking to someone before. Never had you felt the butterflies in your stomach like that. The kindness and genuine interest this man showed you, being attentive to your every word, you felt alive. You don't know the last time you felt like this, if you ever have.
-> Part 2
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Poll analysis part 5
This one isn't so much related to fandom behavior. Overall, it's more about how certain characters or apparently where some people draw the line enough to have made a fuss in the comments or my inbox. I find it interesting where the standards are for some people and I mean I just drew the line at no sentient weapons or mechs
And when I say cause a fuss that would mean causing crap in the comments to messaging me asking me to ban characters or entire franchises because they're problematic for various reasons which I will get into. To flat out harassment of me for allowing these characters in my polls and the people who voted for whatever character they have a problem. It's the full spectrum of bad behavior. This is going to get weird
Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi why is she the only character people are causing crap about for being 17? I have gotten so many messages about this one character. No one gives a crap about the other underage characters apparently, but the 17 year old cat girl is too much. And again, I think I would have gotten at least one message about one of the 15-year-olds but no just the underage cat girl. I am so confused why this is the line for so many people. When I say she has been a problem, she has been in two polls and she has been the source of 7 polite messages. 12 not nice messages full on harassing messages. Calling me a disgusting pervert for even allowing her in my polls. 11 comments that had to be deleted 12 tags/Reblogs that had to be hidden. All because they said something like she's 17 you perverts. I have set a new record for the amount of people I've had to block over a single character and she's been in two polls. I didn't get this much crap over the character that looked 12.
Kikuri Hiroi from Bocchi the Rock! My original problem character because of her Moe art style she looks 12. Even though she's 28, I've resorted to just putting her age in the post to avoid the things turning into a dumpster fire after that first poll.
Uncle Iroh was a character. I did not expect to cause issues because everyone loves Uncle iroh. Apparently some people find it weird that some people find him hot. Because multiple people have made a fuss in comments or in my inbox about how it's gross or weird to find him hot because he's a grandpa. Ironically, one of the people making a fuss about iroh really has a crush on Silvers Rayleigh the irony in that is hilarious.
Toji Fushiguro I've gotten a few messages about him saying he should be banned because he's a crappy father. A terrible person and anyone who finds him attractive should seek psychiatric help. People he's a villain calm down This is Tumblr. I feel like people have forgotten Loki mania where he was considered the god of Tumblr. I think Tumblr has a thing for villains. Look at the persistence longevity of the Hannibal fandom. So please calm down people it's still not a justifiable reason to ban a character from my polls.
Dracula from Castlevania because genocide and sexism once again I'm sorry people sometimes find villains hot. I'm confused about the sexism part. I think it's because of the way he treated Carmilla, But I'm still confused because that man loved his wife
Franken Stein from Soul Eater. I've gotten a message that he should be banned because he's a groomer. I watched Soul Eater and I'm also confused about this one. If any Soul Eater fans can anyone help me? I'm again so confused about this one. If anyone from Soul Eater should be banned for bad behavior, it is not Stein
Gojo, is a little bit of a headache character for me for the thousands of comments I've seen calling him the Blue-Eyed demon seriously Tumblr what has this man done to you? How did he hurt you? He is also a character I have had people message me asking me to ban because apparently he's racist. I'm so confused.
And to build upon this, someone sent an entire list of characters that should be banned because they have blonde hair and blue eyes because if they win that reinforces white centric colonial beauty standards I should have screenshotted that message. These polls are done for stupid fun and I don't think they are going to reinforce colonialism. In fact, many of you have told me they're going to kill the British monarchy and I think that's the opposite of reinforcing colonialism. That list is too long to post in its entirety here. Remember I said this was going to be a little weird.
Someone actually messaged me saying I should not put Victor from Yuri on Ice in future polls because he is not a good representation of the lgbtq+ community
I've also received similar messages about Grell Sutcliff and Yamato for the trans community
Dungeon Meshi You think would be free of criticism because it's so loved however Laios Touden should be banned because he's blonde with blue eyes and a bad representation of people with autism. I wish I was making this up. Marcelle and Falin are not safe either because some people have it out for blondes and they are also not good representation of the LGBTQ+ community
A bunch of Fullmetal Alchemist characters should be banned including Mustang, Hawkeye, Ed, Alphonse, Armstrong, Hughes basically everyone but Scar. Because those characters perpetrate and promote genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing, imperialism, the military industrial complex, colonialism, fascism, sexism, misogyny, and white supremacy. I honestly think someone missed the entire point of the show but that's just me.
Someone wants the entire Apothecary Diaries franchise banned because it's sexist, misogynistic and a poor representation of Chinese culture.
And basically any villain or abusive parent. Someone has complained about or pushed to get banned because it makes them uncomfortable. Because God forbid characters have flaws
So many One Piece characters are problematic just for being One Piece characters not for anything they've done in the story or their character arc or anything like that. It's really because I have a group of people that think I should ban the entire franchise from my polls because the one piece art style is misogynistic. Oh boy. I should have screenshotted some of the essays I received in my inbox. Some of you need to take a chill pill because if I get another essay about one piece being misogynistic because of the art style, I'm going to shame you by posting that crab publicly. Because I will admit the art style is not for everyone, but especially when it comes to the female characters. But those female characters are some of the best written you will find in all of Shonen anime. Plus if we really want to start banning anime franchises for being misogynistic, It's going to be a bloodbath. Because if One Piece is misogynistic for the art style, Naruto is misogynistic for the writing. And I could probably find something misogynistic about most Shonen anime. So again let's not even go there.
The only justifiable reason I would ever ban a character is if the fandom becomes so toxic it's no longer worth it for me to put up with the drama. Now all the blogs I have had to block have been dedicated to one of two things. Naruto or Dungeon Meshi. One of those fandoms I already refer to as my problem child fandom and the other one I hate to say is quickly becoming its twin.
So can we all just agree to calm down because if I banned everything someone had an issue with because it's sexist, misogynistic, racist, etc. There would be no characters left. So let's calm down everyone and please keep the complaints and the tantrums to a minimum. I am a fellow fan that runs this blog for fun and I'm very tired of this crap.
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aroceu · 10 months
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what's been happening at the otw?
so it seems that on twitter and possibly tumblr, people have been hearing things about the otw board/election stuff without really knowing what's going on. a lot of the different issues get conflated and confused with each other, and things that aren't related get connected while things that are related don't. i'm making this post to make things clear, since i've been following some of it (primarily the otw board stuff) from the outside so that people know exactly what is going on, and to reduce the spread of misinformation.
a lot of this information comes from this dreamwidth journal, which has been documenting many testimonies and receipts, for full context.
an earlier timeline of the csem and insensitive treatment of policy and abuse committee volunteers is documented at @221loislane, on this post.
the election season
every year — for anyone out of touch with how the organization of transformative works (otw) politics go, yes this occurs every year as seats can be held for 3 years maximum but resignations happen, leading to staggering — the org has an election season for the main board of directors. they oversee all of the otw's fan projects, including ao3 and fanlore. there are 7 seats, one of whom is the president (kari dayton).
if a chair resigns, then their seat may remain empty to the end of the term or to the next election season, depending on when they resign. if they resign early, a runner-up from the previous election may take their seat.
elections generally take place every summer, but the actual changing of hands occurs in in the fall. board directors are known by their real life name; this has always been the policy. prior to this year, when candidacies were announced, it was with their full name. however, due to the csem attack emails that were targeting volunteers last may, it seems that they added a layer of protection for the candidates this year, and initially announced them with their first name and last initial.
this election season, there were originally 4 chairs that were going to be vacant and needed to be filled. there were also originally 7 candidates, some of whom applied for candidacy last minute. one of the candidates withdrew early (mid june), so this came down to 6.
in order to vote in an election, you must donate a minimum $10usd prior to a certain date in june (this year being june 30) and tick the box that says you want to become a member.
the republican candidate
on july 24, people started spreading the fact that one of the otw board candidates, audrey richards, is a republican. this is true: she ran for a republican seat for the us house of reps in 2022 (and prior to that, as an independent in 2020.) this can be seen on her ballotpedia. we know that she is the same audrey richards, because her ballotpedia page also connects her with the otw.
let me be clear: this is still in line with org policy, in terms of her real name getting released. their full names were going to be released to the public at some point, and as far as i know the org did not state that they would hide their full names until after the election.
many people, especially americans on the ao3 (full disclosure: i am one of the americans on ao3) were very wary about this, because the republican party has been endorsing increasingly dangerous laws and policies along the lines of fascism and transphobia. audrey running as a republican does not necessarily mean that she agrees with these values; however, because she, as a white woman, felt comfortable enough to align herself with a party that does, many lgbt people and people of color had every right to have reservations about her. her statements about ukraine (disagreeing with biden sending arms) and her involvement with "children and screens" was also brought under scrutiny: see this post by discluded. (i am not endorsing discluded's post; it simply cites some concerns with audrey)
due to claims of harassment (i am also not saying whether or not they occurred), she resigned from candidacy and from the org as a whole on july 25, declaring "congrats on the witch hunt." (x)
the otw then released a statement dissuading people from harassing board candidates. this was not taken well, as they were completely silent last year regarding unsubstantiated rumors about tiffany g, a previous election candidate who's chinese, with views that many were not comfortable with, to the point of saying that she might be a spy for the chinese government. this was spread by chinese- and english-speaking users alike. the otw was silent about this. however, this year, many volunteers internally have said that the otw's silence towards harassment is damning, and in any case, even in audrey's, they should speak up against it, resulting in their public statement.
reprimanding a volunteer of color
also on july 24, coincidentally enough, a volunteer of color made a post about receiving a letter about constructive corrective action procedure (ccap) from the tag wrangling team, due to making volunteers uncomfortable by speaking up about racism in the org.
the tl;dr of why they received the letter boiled down to:
talking about the org's racism in a ~certain way~ in public channels where volunteers could not leave made some vols uncomfortable
sharing internal chatlogs and correspondences to the public. EXCEPT THE THINGS SHE SHARED WERE HER OWN MESSAGES. and before july 25, the only OTHER thing she had shared to the public was the otw's direction on how volunteers should approach getting csem, from the spam attack last year, on a comment in a news post - which is an email that ALL VOLUNTEERS GOT. because none of that was public! no one knew what the org's approach to the spam attack in order to protect the volunteers was! she disclosed it so randoms who are not volunteers would know!
"outing" a volunteer, except she DIDN'T, because the volunteer had outed THEMSELVES in the chat program previously and repeatedly, then changed their icon at some point to indicate they didn't want to link the identities anymore. but there had never been a formal announcement or request not to link the identities, and who was supposed to take an icon change as an indicator of that, so IN THE CHAT PROGRAM (not in public!) kutti made a reference to something that person (under their real name) said in public (under their fannish handle/icon) and got reprimanded for it
emyn a has since made a post about how kutti's general behavior in the chat has made him uncomfortable and was one of the reasons why he withdrew his candidacy, and that he supported the fact that she received the ccap. he stated that alex tischer's abrasiveness (see below) was probably because of where alex is from, in europe. he also said that kutti outed a withdrawn candidate (probably audrey) in the chat program, which was not public information prior to his post. the rest of his claims are presently not substantiated, and most of what i have read about his accusations boil down to tone policing.
EDIT: kutti clarified that emyn got her mixed up with another volunteer of color in one of these claims. she says that she has never talked about audrey either internally nor externally, and does not know what other handles she would link audrey to. she also specified that emyn's accusation of her using "provocative descriptors, such as 'disgusting'" was in context of her criticizing the org's handling of azarias — a volunteer who handled many csem tickets last year, then got their account suspended without warning, and then got implicated for distribution in an org-wide letter, which, yeah, is pretty fucking disgusting!
the alex problem
i mentioned the ccap above because kutti references it in her post about alex tischer here, and when i linked to it on twitter people were confused as to what ccap meant and why it was significant. and i don't think kutti's treatment should go ignored either, because i think it signifies a larger problem that the org has.
and one of these very glaring problems is alex tischer. alex tischer was on the board this year, being their last year of their current term. they were on the board previously too, from 2015-2018. tischer has been called a "missing stair" by multiple volunteers, and a huge problem in the org's function.
more specifically, and as confirmed by a former volunteer i talked to on an ao3 post (wherein they corrected me for conflating two incidents), some incidents that occurred with tischer were:
in 2020, when mainland chinese vols were encouraged to do more recruitment for volunteers on weibo (a mainland china site), the otw had added two new language tags on ao3: tai-gi (taiwanese) and cantonese. the vols were also encouraged to endorse this — not specifically by alex — on weibo. china and taiwan have VERY high geopolitical tensions, and the vols endorsing the addition of the taiwanese language on a mainland chinese site could potentially put them in danger. when they expressed this, alex had told them to "not appease a shitty government," or something along those lines — indicating alex did not care for their safety in a heavily censored country, over sticking it to the man or whatever. (alex is white/german and lives in the uk.)
in 2023, separate from this issue, the otw had decided to shut down the transformative works weibo page without consulting the chinese volunteers. the chinese vols were very pissed and protested, first in english. and then, when their concerns weren't being heard, they started in protesting in chinese. this prompted alex to reply to them, in german, "We can throw all sorts of things at each other, but if we don't agree on a lingua franca, we won't achieve much" (Wir können uns gegenseitig alle möglichen Dinge an den Kopf werfen aber wenn wir uns nicht auf eine Lingua Franca einigen erreichen wir nicht viel.) which, in my opinion, is pretty fucking irrelevant to chinese volunteers not getting their voices heard for something that they had every right to get their voice heard on, and basically told them to "speak english" when they had been speaking english previously and getting ignored!!!
a discussion from the otw slack in 2020 was leaked, wherein a black volunteer asked a question and expressed interest in knowing the diversity of the board of directors. not the diversity of all volunteers. they immediately got dogpiled on by multiple volunteers, alex included, saying that asking for such a thing could endanger the safety of volunteers (which is pretty fucking ironic considering alex's treatment of the chinese vols), the black volunteer should've backread a day's worth of chatlogs, saying that asking about diversity was chilling, etc. i cannot summarize in full how furious this chatlog makes me, so if you are capable i do recommend you to read it to see how utterly defensive everyone got at a simple question about diversity.
these things are relevant because on july 25, kutti made a post about alex — because other volunteers had been asking in the otw slack about kutti's situation, and a volunteer compared how kutti was treated, for speaking up about racism, to how alex was treated, who was consistently xenophobic and as far as anyone knew, did not receive a reprimand for it. alex then doubled down on their previous comments.
this prompted kutti's post, both to publicize this incident and to call for alex's immediate suspension.
board directors resign
there were, at the time, five chairs on board, due to the fact that two had resigned previously (heather in may 2023, jess in nov 2022; neither were replaced). after this incident, volunteers were furious and backed kutti up and also called for alex to resign, or for the other chairs to kick alex out.
two chairs in particular, antonius and natalia, were already on hiatus. they were also pressured to kick alex out, due to the fact that they were only standing chairs, not active, so volunteers wanted them to either come off hiatus and start the process to get alex out, or if they could not do their chair duties, resign. i believe the board needs a 2/3rds vote to kick someone off as a chair, which is why they were brought into the conversation — 2/5 chairs would not be enough.
on july 26, natalia did reprimand alex's behavior in the chat according to some sources. an anonymous source said that both natalia and antonius had started their resignation process prior to the alex-kutti incident; they made this public and official after/during this conversation.
on july 27, alex also said that they had resigned "yesterday." it is unclear if they only resigned from the board, or the org as a whole, considering they were still the webs chair, a tag wrangler, and on the translation and support committees.
all three board resignations were made public in an official announcement on july 27; natalia and antonius's were made first, with alex's as an add-on shortly afterward. however, as alex and antonius's spots were already outgoing, this has only opened up ONE slot for the election: a fifth one. and there are five candidates.
what happens next?
with five vacant seats and five candidates, this means that the election is uncontested. however, two of the five candidates will serve partial terms (the ones who get less votes; 2 years each), while three of the five candidates will serve full terms (3 years each.) if you've donated at least $10 to the otw in the past year, you're eligible to vote. a comprehensive schedule can be found here.
all candidate platforms/q&as can be found here in individual posts, and here as a spreadsheet.
by the way, this is not the first time most of, if not a full board has resigned almost all at once. this occurred previously in 2015, due to some of the following incidents (these may not be all of the reasons for the mass resignation, but definitely for many of them):
insanely incompetent financial handling wherein they had donations up to six figures held in paypal accounts
the removal of sanders, a candidate during that election season, because she had resigned from her role as treasurer recently, thus supposedly making her ineligible to run (candidates must have served as a volunteer in any position for 2 years), even though she was still on the dev committee. she did not resign from the candidacy herself. the election committee had objected to this but was overridden by the board. sanders is black.
a board chair had gone under a sockpuppet account during multiple candidate chats asking questions "as a concerned member," even though she was board chair, indicating a conflict of interest.
during the open board meeting in november (after the election), without warning the board decided to appoint andrea, the candidate who got the least number of votes that election year, to a spot that was vacated a whole year before. it was hard for me to find context around this situation but from what i've gathered, andrea was already friends with the present board and the newly appointed board had not yet settled in. when this was met with appropriate backlash and accusations of power grabbing, this is when the entire board at the time — minus the new elects — resigned.
i bring this up to show that the otw has never been a perfect organization — rather, it has always had its problems. i did not pay much attention to these incidents previously, but considering how the current election season has become more and more prominent on my social media, i feel that it's important for me to be in the know now, and to spread this information to others.
i am not a volunteer (although i used to be a tag wrangler for a brief time.) i am not speaking on behalf of anyone mentioned or linked in this post except for myself. i strongly believe in making an organization's policies public and for as much information to be accessible as possible, for a site that i'm an active member on and love to use. i believe in ensuring the safety, comfort, and consideration of volunteers of color. i am making this post because i believe the otw deserves to be transparent like any other organization. please feel free to share and discuss as you see fit; and if any of this information is incorrect, please let me know asap!
edit: follow-up incidents
this post by @fandomantiracism writes a detailed timeline of the mishandling of chinese volunteers (including the below incidents), and explains exactly why the environment in which otw volunteers in china must be handled with a modicum of more care than they do currently. please read it to fully understand the cvols' situation! (disclaimer: i am not affiliated with this blog.)
during the candidate chats, a chinese candidate got an extremely inappropriate question from a present chair/former or present board member, breaching on org privacy (even though kutti got a ccap for less), a clear attempt to attack the candidate by making them appear unsafe and immature, and with a lie that put their ACTUAL SAFETY at risk. see this post, and this thread on twitter
an aforementioned former volunteer detailed another incident where the treatment of chinese volunteers was severely mishandled; see here
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anghraine · 4 days
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thatinsufferableb-st-rd said:
@anghraine so i have read the books multiple times and am an avid fan of the movies. I enjoy both for what they are. I think the main difference is that Peter Jackson was very open about what they chose to cut and why from anything I've ever seen. They even have Sam give a nod to the book readers by saying "by rights we shouldn't even be here". No I'm not happy about what they did with Faramir and Glorfindel got jipped, and I would have lover to have seen Elronds sons but at the end of the day there were acknowledgments of what and why. Rings of Power to me has always come off as hiding from any criticism by using the shield of "well if you don't like it it's because you don't like POCs in it". To which I genuinely could not give a fuck less, like there are so many branches of elves that went different ways so that could make sense within what Tolkein established. But don't hide behind that when your writing is just "Sauron is evil. We know. And we know she knows. But we have to make it seem like she's the only one who Has A Clue so we must all try to shoo her off to make a plotline"
@lesbiansforboromir has already correctly and politely pointed out that you are doing the very thing we were criticizing in that post—intruding on ROP fan discussion to unfavorably contrast the show to the Peter Jackson films, while also applying a degree of scrutiny to ROP that the Jackson films are rarely subject to in a remotely comparable way and could not bear. Frankly, @lesbiansforboromir is nicer and more restrained than I am about this, but you chose to tag me as well, so I'll also respond.
We (lesbiansforboromir and I) were talking about being excited about costuming in S2 of ROP and disliking the fandom meltdowns over ROP's costuming looking (somewhat) different from the films' aesthetic. Since it had already come up in their discussion, I added that I'm not convinced by the anti-ROP contingent framing their seething hatred of the costuming and design as just caring so much about fidelity to Tolkien's vision. I pointed out that Tolkien fandom broadly cares far more about their preferred, film-influenced aesthetics than Tolkien's actual descriptions and gave some specific examples of this.
There's been a lot of talk, for instance, about how the universally long, flowing hair for Elves preferred by the fandom and used in the films is actually totally canon according to Tolkien even if it's rarely mentioned in LOTR proper. This is inaccurate. Galadriel's brother Aegnor is typically depicted in the fandom/film-preferred style rather than per Tolkien's description of his hair as "strong and stiff, rising upon his head like flames" (indeed, in general neither Aegnor nor anyone else is ever depicted this way, and this description rarely shows up in the lists of "no it's about ethics in adaptation" Tolkien hair quotes).
Tolkien repeatedly describes Elvish, peredhel, and Dúnadan women as wearing their hair bound up in braided coiffures with jeweled hair pieces/nets rather than loose and flowing à la the films and the fandom. Nobody cares, any more than they care about Tolkien's description of Arwen's clothing as soft, grey, and noticeably devoid of ornamentation apart from a belt and netted cap (i.e. the opposite of her highly elaborate film costuming and typically loose, unbound, uncovered hair in the films and most illustrations).
Meanwhile, my fave Faramir's hair is nowhere near long enough in the films or most art to mingle with Éowyn's as Tolkien describes. It's usually also depicted as blond, reddish, or brown rather than black as in the book; in Tolkien's LOTR, all described Gondorians have dark or black hair, with the only difference in coloring being that some Gondorians are dark-skinned and some are pale. Again, almost nobody in the fandom cares about this when they're going on about costume design and casting to reflect Tolkien's vision, and male Gondorians are overwhelmingly depicted with short or shoulder-length hair in the films and in Tolkien illustrations.
Popular depictions of Gondor, including the Gondor of the films, very rarely reflect Tolkien's description of Gondor's aesthetic as similar to ancient Egypt, the Byzantine Empire, and the Roman Empire. Film Gondor has, at most, extremely vague allusions to Byzantine architecture amidst the general and deliberate westernization of Gondor's design—as just one example among many, Tolkien's explicitly Egyptian-based design for the royal crown of Gondor is converted to a generically western European-style crown in the films and overwhelmingly in the fandom.
I then pointed out that it's been very noticeable that ROP haters tend to have a powerful double standard wrt fidelity when it comes to the Jackson films. For over 20 years, most film fans have been constitutionally incapable of tolerating even slight criticism of the films without jumping in to defend their greatness and condescendingly explain the most basic elements of adaptation. (Yes, we know film is not the same medium as text, we know changes are part of adaptation to another medium, we all know that, we all know that a word-for-word adaptation would suck and never be made, this is not new information and does not make the PJ films' every choice a good one.) Yet most film LOTR fans who vocally despise ROP display none of the charity towards ROP that they demand for the films (demand even from someone like Christopher Tolkien, a dead man the entire fandom is deeply indebted to, whose dislike of the films still leads to regular attacks on his character from Jackson film stans).
This hypercritical yet hyperdefensive tendency in the fandom is neatly illustrated by the fact that you responded to a conversation about the double standards in evaluations of ROP's costuming vs the films' to go on about how ROP is objectively bad for reasons entirely unrelated to costuming, how you're totally not racist (something nobody was talking about), and to quote you directly, "Like the show was just Bad." Truly, an incisive critique. Meanwhile, your concessions with regard to the Jackson films are mainly about extremely minor and defensible omissions like removing Glorfindel and the sons of Elrond rather than the serious and fundamental problems that lesbiansforboromir and I have with them, or even the ways they do pretty much the exact same things you're lambasting ROP for.
I mean, if we're going to talk about action hero Elves in ROP vs the Jackson films, what about the action hero-ification of Legolas in the films? He was described by Tolkien himself as the Fellowship member who accomplished the least, so super badass battle-skateboarding Legolas hardly represents fidelity to Tolkien's vision. Why should that get a pass while film-stanning ROP haters seethe about ROP!Galadriel being too special, even though Tolkien described her as one of the most special Elves to ever live and specifically as remarkably athletic and insightful?
Meanwhile, film Gimli is reduced to comic relief, the only dwarves taken seriously are conventionally hot ones in The Hobbit films, and Frodo's expressions of strength and fortitude are consistently removed to glorify other characters. Film Gondorians were deliberately designed to seem like useless tin soldiers (which they are in the films, as well as whiter and blonder than Tolkien wrote them) rather than the physically imposing and highly effective fighting force of the book. ROP imagining Elvish rituals upon approaching Valinor that aren't based in Tolkien canon but don't directly conflict with it is absolutely trivial compared to the films' handling of Denethor and Faramir.
The point is not that you, personally, are not allowed to like the films or dislike ROP despite all this. Many people do love the films, including most of my followers. They do have their strengths, though they are extremely racist and few film fans will acknowledge this without soft-pedaling it in some way (esp, since you brought it up, given the context of the truly unhinged degree of racism that has accompanied much of the broader discourse around ROP).
The point is that film fans who hate ROP are constantly showing up in our conversations to be "well actually ROP is just objectively bad, unlike the films, because the show has failings that are also in the films but it's totally different there because of the contents of Peter Jackson's soul" or whatever. The point is the absolutely glaring and obnoxiously hypocritical double standard of defensiveness about the films and obsessive nitpicking of ROP that leads to ROP haters continually going on rants to ROP fans that are unwelcome, uninvited, and usually (as in this case) irrelevant to what was even being discussed.
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the-fiction-witch · 4 months
Text
Battle Scars
Media The Artful Dodger
Character Jack Dawkins
Couple Jack X Reader
Rating Sweet + Fluffy
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Requested: literally, anything hurt/comfort or angst with a happy ending preferably Jack or newt but love your dnd au too Thank you love your writing ❤ Hello, could I request a Jack Dawkins x reader where maybe the reader gets in a fight or something over Jack and after he patches her up afterwards he is at first angry but after she tells him why she got into the fight he hold her close and it's fluffy and cute!
I stood, as usual, doing my work at the cat and bagpipes, men in the pub going about their business drinking, gambling, fighting and doing other such... manly things. Many of the girls I worked with were busy as they often were on Friday nights but I wasn't on that shift tonight, Instead, I was just serving and carting drinks around for My boss Rotty. I hurried about in my dress dropping things here and there as I went I noticed an empty tankard and the man to whom it belonged. 
"Another Doctor Dawkins?" I asked as I collected some from the table beside his own, 
"Uhhhhh no it's alright, Y/n." He said his face a little grim and tried as he pushed the tankard to the end of the table for me to collect it easily, I knew he wanted more but given his low pay or well lack of it he didn't exactly have a lot of cash to throw around on a Friday night, He would often come on a Friday night play some cards to get enough for a drink that he'd nurse a good while and then head home, he never saw the girls as he couldn't afford to even if I had offered him a discount more then once but he was such a gentleman and always politely declined. 
"You sure? you sure nursed it,"
"It's been a long week,"
"Aww, one more? on me." 
"Yeah?"
"Yeah sure, got to keep the doctor happy," I smiled as I took the tankard to refill it for him and I gave his cheek a pinch as I left which forced him to smile, I returned the empties and paid for Jack's drink out of my my tips from the evening,
"I don't know why you bother with him, he's not got any money you don't have to be nice to him." Mags said as she leant on the bar with her fan in hand, 
"Magnolia," I glared as I loaded my tray, "Off it," I told her, as I took my tray and dropped off the drinks dropping Jack's off last, 
"Thanks y/n." He smiled,
"You're welcome Jack," I cooed patting his blonde head as I tried to continue but he took my hand tugging me gently back to him and giving my hand a soft gentle kiss, "Awww that's my tip?"
"yeah, sorry..."
"I am more than happy to take my tips as such, just from you," I winked kissing his head before I got on with my work, 
The night went off as usual dropping drinking where needed, seeing the regulars and the new guys in from a ship in port today, checking in on the card games and breaking up a few fights, I didn't mind actually I kinda prefer when I'm on this shift as you see people and have a much better evening with more going on, rather then on the other shift were you come out into the bar for five-ten minutes longer if someone wants you sat on their lap for a while the rest of the night your just laid on your back. And I just wasn't feeling it today which is fine Rotty didn't mind I think she knows I'm more a bar girl than a bed girl nowadays. I often passed Jack and gave him a smile which he often gave back, the girls didn't much bother with him as they all had a joke that Jack was 'Y/n's regular' even if we had never actually done anything it was just what they often referred to him as, none of them ever bothered because they knew he didn't have money so never much bothered to give him more then a smile unless of course he had been at the card tables winning as he often did, Then the girls would check up on him. 
I returned to the bar cleaning some tankards when Jack approached, "Here," he smiled handing over his empty tankard,
"Aww thank you, you're the only one who doesn't just leave them," I laughed taking it back, "Another?"
"No, it's okay I need to get back."
"Course, have a nice night Doctor Dawkins,"
"You too y/n" He smiled kissing my hand before he headed out and off back to the hospital, 
"he is cute," Mags smiled as she leant on the bar, 
"Maybe," I shrug, trying to hide my blush at such a thought, 
"Shame he's stoney broke."
"Mags," I warn, 
"Ohh come on you can admit it he's a little lowlife"
"Mags." I warn louder, 
"I mean everyone knows he's only a doctor because of the Navy, he's not smart enough to have gone to college like the other doctors."
"Magnolia," I warn, 
"such a tiny little thing too, I bet we took his shirt off we could play a tune on his ribs."
"Magnolia, off it," I warn,
"at least as a doctor, he's got skilled quick fingers, 'cause he ain't doing much else with anything else."
"Magnolia enough." 
"Really? Just cause you like him doesn't mean you have to lie, He's an uneducated scrawny little beggared" 
"Mags!" I yelled setting my stuff down, "Enough." 
"Fine," she smiled slowly moving away, "makes sense why he likes you so much, you're the only girl around here he can hope to afford." she smirked, "Or do you let him get off for free like his drinks?" 
Okay, that's it! "Mag's Enough! you're a fucking whore you don't have cause to call anyone a lowlife!" 
"I make more than he does!"
"Yeah lying on your back and letting men frost your stomach!" I yelled, "He saves people's lives, delivers babies, you know something actually worth doing!"
"Ohh come on you're only defending him because you like him!" she yelled back, "You ddin't have a crush on him we'd have kicked him out like we do every boy who hasn't the money to be worth anything! If you wanna go be some penniless doctor's housewife fine but don't waste a table on him that I- We could be making money on!"
"That's all you care about money!"
"Yes! So keep your poorper doctor boy in the gutter where he belongs!" 
"Ughhh!" I yelled and pulled her hair, she screamed and shoved me into the bar. 
Immediately it became an all-out fight and we weren't doing like a cute girl fight or even a cat fight this was a full-on bar brawl with chairs, tankards, punches, kicks, hair pulls, nails, slaps and at times biting, and when it was over we both needed a cart ride to the hospital for various injuries... and let's just say Rotty was not happy we were fighting, or breaking chairs, or tankards, and a window. 
I was put in a room far away from Mags and I sat on the bed trying not to whine from pain, 
"Y/n?" I heard making me look up to see Jack at the door he saw me and the state I was in for a second he looked heartbroken but then rage boiled behind his eyes, 
"Hi, Jack,"
"What the bloody hell happened!" 
"I can-"
"Who did this to you! what kind of sick twisted bastard did this to you!" He yelled,
"Jack please-"
"Who was it! I'll beat the living daylights out of them you just see if I won't" He yelled "Give me his name."
"Jack-"
"Give me his fucking name y/n!"
"Mags."
"M-Mag- Mags did this to you?" He asked softening for a moment, "Magnolia did this to you?"
"Yeah,"
"Why?"
"I uhhh... May have gotten in a fight with her."
"yeah, I could figure that out. why did she suddenly turn and fight you."
"I may have pulled her hair..."
"So you started it?"
"Yeah."
"Y/n! You can't start a fight with someone!" He scolds "Look at you! look at what's happened to you and you're lucky you got out with just this!"
"I know but-" I suddenly felt like a child being told off by their father, 
"Why on earth would you start a fight with Mags she's twice your size and you know she can kick a horse down the street, are you stupid or something why would you start anything with her let alone let it go on to a full-on fight? I can't believe you!"
"I'm sorry Jack."
He sighed putting a hand through his hair, "Do you have any idea how stupid that was?"
"Yes..."
"she could have killed you!"
"I know..."
"At least you're alright," He sighed kissing my forehead, "But I'm still mad at you,"
"I know." I giggled,
"You know what no. I'm not mad at you."
"You're not?"
"No. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed." 
 Immediately my heart sank, god damn why does that still work on me as an adult woman, "I'm sorry..."
"I know you are," He said, "Come on let's get your battle scars looked at," he said "But I am not kissing your bruises better." he joked
"Aww, why not?" I playfully whined
"No, no I'm not doing it I'm still angry at you. that's your punishment little lady I'm not kissing them better."
"But how will they get better without kisses?"
"well should have thought about that before you started a fight." He said  slowly but surely he went over my body cleaning and wrapping my every cut, motioning every bruise, checking the extent of the damage done to me, "There, that's all of them, now look after yourself alright."
"I will I promise,"
"Good, I do not want you back in here for another fight." he warns, "Or else."
"Or else what?"
"Else your next battle is gonna be with me." He warns tapping my nose, "Okay?"
"Okay." I nodded,
"Good, what did you and Mags get into a fight over."
"I- I can't"
"Tell me." He ordered, "Now. Before I really do get mad at you again."
"...You."
he froze up looking me over before finally meeting my eyes, "Me?"
"Yeah..."
"You got into a fight with mags, over me?"
"Yeah,"
"You... you... got into a fight over me? why?"
"I can't-"
"Y/n. why did you get into a fight with her," 
"she... she said some bad things about you,"
"What did she say?"
"she called you stoney broke, called you a little lowlife, called you not smart enough to have gone to college, a tiny little thing, she said at least as a doctor, you've got skilled quick fingers, 'cause he ain't doing much else with anything else, she called you an uneducated scrawny little beggared" I explained and every word looked as if it cut him open, "She said we should keep the poorper doctor boy in the gutter, where you belong,"
"she- she said all that?"
"she did." I nodded,
"and- and you defended me?"
"Of course I did."
"You defended me! You started a fight for me! You... you got all these battle scars... for me?"
"I did."
He cracked a smile and gave my lips a soft gentle kiss before he pulled me into his chest as close as possible stroking my hair, "Thank you y/n."
"It's okay,"
"No, really, thank you. You don't know how much that means to me."
"You're welcome Jack," I smiled, "Happy to get a few battle scars for you."
"Well, not too many I hope. You didn't have to do that for me..."
"I know, but I did. You'd have done the same for me wouldn't you?"
"Of course I would, I'd get a thousand battle scars for you." he said kissing my head, "that doesn't mean I'm not still mad at you." he chuckled, 
"I know," I laughed, "I accept that you're mad at me, for being stupid and starting a fight."
"No more starting fights, or getting into fights, just no more fighting in general."
"I promise." I nodded,
"Good girl." he cooed kissing my forehead,
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spacehippieface · 1 year
Text
A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand. [...]
Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman’s basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me.
Let's talk tripods! Every artist and fiilmmaker has different interpretations of the fighting machines. It's not hard to picture a towering three-legged alien death machine, of course, Wells gives us a good picture of what they look like, but I want to go over a few depictions of them and compare them to his written description, in no particular order, because I think it's interesting, and I think WOTW might actually be a special interest:
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Wells drew this one himself. It's a stick figure, of course, but this was how he pictured them. I especially like the little guy going "oo-er!" at the sight of it, almost in polite terror.
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The BBC version. To me, this one owes a bit more to Transformers design-wise, and moves like the Cloverfield monster, like the MUTO, like a lot of giant monsters we've seen in recent years, terrestrial or otherwise. But they are still menacing, and they actually make a clear "aloo!" noise when calling to each other. I've got to give them that, even though the BBC screwed up the Martians, the cylinder, they kept going on about Russia, the whole "you can't marry her, you're already married to your cousin" bit. It was a mess.
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The Edward Gorey illustrations. O is for Ogilvy, burned like the flag. P's for the Parson, oh, what a drag. Sorry. This is basically a flying saucer with legs. Bit silly,but the tentacles are there, and the legs aren't the stiff kind Wells hated. Which brings us to...
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Warwick Goble's illustrations from the original publication of WOTW in Pearson's Magazine. Wells famously hated these so much that when WOTW was published as a book, he wrote a segment into the story ragging on these stiff-legged water tower tripods. I think Goble took the milking stool description too literally, his tripods are always drawn tilted.
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The 2005 Spielberg tripod. Great. Massive. Scary. Everything is there. The tentacles, the Heat Ray arm (two even), the suggestion of a head, even the basket. Say what you want about this movie with its excessive amount of Tom Cruise and young Dakota Fanning screaming, but the tripods are fantastic. Damn near perfect even. I think Wells would be very pleased.
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The 1953 design. I am very fond of these, they're a great classic sci-fi ship, but they're more akin to the flying machines than the tripods. The filmmakers try to loophole their way out by talking about invisible electrostatic legs (which you can see when the machines initially appear) but I'm pretty sure they went this route because the film was getting more and more expensive and the budget wouldn't extend to stop-motion for the legs. Still, a wonderful creation, the goose neck/cobra head design for the Heat Ray is a good touch and my god, the hissing, ticking noises these things made. Love them.
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The Jeff Wayne musical design. My favourite. My beloved. My nightmare fuel. Totally iconic. I'm sure when most people think WOTW, their first thought is the legendary album cover featuring one of these monsters melting the Thunder Child's valiant heart. Doesn't make them book-accurate though. The Heat Ray is built into the chassis, it's all one unit rather than a separate head on a body, the basket was given to the handling machines, and they are stiff-legged in stills. But they're scary in motion, and their howls still give me the jibblies. OH GOD, THOSE HOWLS. Opening Horsell Common And The Heat Ray on the Highlights album with that scream isn't fair!
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Henrique Alvim-Corrêa's illustrations for the Belgian publication, and Wells' favourites. The effects of the Heat Ray are chilling, and they're definitely sinister when there's a lot of them just standing there or coldly blasting humans. But I'm just not sold on those googly eyes, they make them goofier. Although when these designs were used for the War of the Worlds 1913 indie game (which I still need to play) the eyes were just blank. Redemption!
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formulatrash · 3 months
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I was working on gaining experience in motorsport but now I don't want to anymore due to the news. I have been torn up about this since it was announced. Am I even safe working in this industry? Is it only a matter of time?
I think there are two things to take from this: even in an organisation as closed-ranks as Red Bull, this was investigated. And although it's depressing to see many people either expressing disbelief or seeking to discredit the victim, there are a much larger number of people outraged. Not just that it happened but with the entire process, including the way it is being played as a political trophy within Red Bull as an organisation and the wider reaction of Formula 1 and the FIA.
In every industry, there are imbalances in power that lead to exploitation. Ableism, racism, sexism and homophobia go hand in hand with unfairnesses like nepotism and favouritism. Some industries, especially those that people really want to work in and where there are limited opportunities, have it worse - you see it in acting, in games, in music, in motorsport.
Nowhere is safe from the structural inequalities that frame the world. In any job you'll be in some level of danger. That's not intended as a blanket scare or as some way to minimise or dismiss the specific (and extremely unpleasant) case being brought this week.
I definitely have experienced sexism and outright attempts at exploitation/abuse in motorsport. A man who's still a popular pundit spent several years lying to me and even though I'm really not this naiive, somehow convincing me to exchange lewds. Another one who's in a senior editorial position routinely sends me obscene messages. Men from teams and championships and heritage programmes have tried to get me to fuck them and I'm not young or hot or particularly desirable - it's just that I was there and a woman and so it's almost seen as obligatory that they do it, so they can dismiss you as a slut.
I wrote a little about this when the Mazepin thing came out a few years ago. It resonated with a painful number of women across motorsport, I got hundreds of messages after it was posted.
But. This is being taken seriously. There is a clear level of discomfort within the wider paddock about Horner's presence - some of that is political, it is in the teams' interests for there to be disruption at Red Bull. But a lot is clearly pretty visceral horror and anger at both the reputational damage to the sport and what's happened.
Do not let the fact that there are gross people out there deter you from a dream. Do let yourself be angry about it and mould that anger into a toolkit to address it. Look out for the people around you, try to promote positive workplace cultures, call out unpleasant behaviours, especially in scenarios where you are relatively unaffected. (eg: if you're a straight woman and someone says something gross about a gay man, if you're a white person and someone says something racist, etc)
Motorsport needs good people to work in it to change. It needs you far more than you need it. Don't let it reverse or exploit that and you will have a level of power that constitutes safety because you won't let it damage you for the sake of getting something it isn't offering. (If someone is behaving exploitatively then they are not giving you anything, they are trying to see what they can take)
It's been a shit week. I feel awful for the woman who's been doxxed, robbed of compensation and had her career ruined. Who's being discussed and discredited by the paddock, by journalists, by the most toxic fans. In a just world, people would be protecting her but that would need the population of all those groups to change significantly.
So don't let it put you off. Let it make you keener to displace them.
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rivianaaa · 2 months
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BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARUNO SAKURA!!!!!
(The internet in the province is so shitty and I just came home and god, it's like I failed my duty as a hardcore fan of Sakura on not greeting her 😭)
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
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MY GIRL IS SO LOOKING PRETTY!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 (Yes I've been eating up those videos on tiktok, what can I say? its my drug)
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MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL ON HER ELEMENT!!!!
(Credits to the owners of this fantastic artwork)
Okay, I've got goods. I wanna recommend on how badass she is and everyone should read it. Since you know I'm a whore of KakaSaku, be ready that I'll recommend fics with this pairing.
The Sixth Shadow Created by @thinknicht | ao3 ⇀ Holy fuck, this is my shit. My drug that keeps me alive. Sakura on this fic is so badass. Aside from the freaki-delicious KakaSaku moments, the most favorite thing I like the most on this fic are: ❀ the medical aspect ❀ the political settings in Konoha ❀ the fight scenes ❀ the unreliable narrator tag (please be aware on this tag) ❀ Sakura's compassion (this woman is a mother!!!!!!! someone should put a statue of her at the center of Konoha!) ❀ Sakura's emotional conflict towards Kakashi. (It's not pining. This is the most important point.) I have no words—this fic is so *slowly ascends* Silver Lining Created by @thinknicht | ao3 ⇀ This fic has made me think everything. Like I've daydreamed so much. I thought the Fourth Shinobi War, Kaguya, Naruto and Sasuke, that weirdass cocoon, and also Kakashi and Sakura. Thinkie is truly an enigma, fucking hell, her brain is so good.
The Healing Slugs Sage Created by @justabrazilianwriter | ao3 ⇀ Dimension travel. This is it. AHHHHH!! Do you know how happy I am like *punching in the air* and its' KAKASAKU???? Obito throws Sakura in a different dimension where medical knowledge is so stunted due to the absence of Tsunade's existence. I know Obito cares about Sakura, but I can't help to thank the man of being a matchmaker HAHAHA!
The Idol Created by sassafrassing | ao3 ⇀ Do you know how many times I read this???? Do you how many times I type this title in the search box whenever I open my chrome??? This fic is so glorious. Two broken souls were ready to end their lives, but fate strings them together that blooms for a second chance. Holy shit, I love the scene where Sakura caress Kakashi's hair as he laid down on her lap. AHHHHH!!! I whisper scream when Kakashi decide to go back at the field to save his team and like—AHHHHH!!!
A Four Week Class in Flirting, Seduction, and Bagel Making Created by @goldfishlover73 | ao3 ⇀ Talking about tension and baking, what a dangerous combination lmaooo! I smiled so stupidly when Kakashi watch Sakura as if there is no people in the room—and oh fucking god, the frencchhhhhh!!!
The Fall Created by BelleDayNight | ao3 ⇀ I would like to thank the discord server scarecrows and cherryblossoms for this theme. This fic is so chef's kiss. Fallen angel Kakashi??? And the Dark Kakashi tag???? Perfection 👌
This beautiful AU and Run with the Hares (Hunt with the Hounds) of @brighteuphony ⇀ Let's start with the former which it held my love (because Sakura's hair is so fluffyyyyyy!!!!!!! and she's so badass holy fuck) and Im so hyped on the latter tbh! It only has 1 chapter, but I held my sanity so tight on not to read it for now.
That's all for now. There are lots lots of KakaSaku fics, but these fics has grab me by the throat and read it.
Anyways, happy birthday Haruno Sakura! 💖💖💖🌸🌸🌸🌸
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bbygirl-aemond · 1 year
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what would you think would happen if the greens just let rhaenyra sit on the throne
at a minimum, alicent's boys would have all been killed.
okay now that i've grabbed your attention, let me explain, and i promise i'll be able to make this entire argument without ever claiming rhaenyra is a bad person who wants to kill her family! the fact is that rhaenyra's rule was always going to face dangerous levels of backlash, because it threatened the lords of westeros's own claims to power in two major ways. as a reminder, westeros is closer to an empire consisting of autonomous kingdoms than a dictatorship, and the lords of westeros retain much more power than most fans seem to understand. alicent's sons would have ended up the pawns and figureheads for unhappy lords seeking to retain their power in the wake of unrest caused by rhaenyra's ascension. i'll explain all of this further below, using a historical example that i think is helpful.
first, we need to understand that rhaenyra's rule would have still been made very unstable because of two factors: her gender, and her very obvious bastard children. (as a side note, i've talked before about how it is literally genetically impossible for the strong boys to be laenor's sons and why we see people treating it like a fact here). why are these two things so impactful? because they threaten the claims of many of the lords and heirs in westeros's current system.
westeros has previously relied on gender-based primogeniture. if a lord has an eldest daughter, and younger sons, his title and lands pass to the eldest son, skipping the daughter. i'm not saying this is morally right, but i am saying that there are probably lords out there with older sisters who got passed over, who don't want their sisters to unseat them. and there are lords who don't want their eldest daughters to usurp their sons' claims. this is just a political reality: the people with political power have a selfish, vested interest in keeping themselves in power. rhaenyra sets a precedent that threatens their ability to do this, making them less likely to support her.
westeros also relies on trueborn children inheriting from their parents. if a lord has two sons, one elder and one younger, but the elder one was born out of wedlock, he legally can't inherit. a bastard can only inherit if they are the only son, and if they are recognized and legitimized by the king as a bastard. again, i don't stand by this custom morally, but it's the reality of how things currently work in westeros. just like with the sex-based inheritance, changing this precedent would put many lords' claims in jeopardy who have their own bastard children they don't want to inherit, or who have older bastard siblings who could try to steal their current title.
it would additionally threaten diplomatic ties between houses, because marriage pacts were political agreements made between families that were cemented around the understanding that the bloodlines would be joined in inheritance. if a lord marries his daughter to another lord, he expects that his grandchildren will inherit the lord's titles, and if a bastard were to inherit he would feel slighted and tricked. so if any upheavals in inheritance happened because of rhaenyra's bastards, it would have pretty major ripple effects for house relations, not just internal house affairs of succession.
so rhaenyra coming into power, however peacefully, would set a legal precedent for women inheriting that many lords in westeros would be unhappy about. rhaenyra would still deny that her kids were bastards, so putting jace on the iron throne wouldn't set a legal precedent, but it would set a cultural one. bastards all across westeros (perhaps rightfully so) would see jace and say: if he can rule the seven kingdoms, why can't i rule my father's castle? think of the blackfyre rebellion but on a smaller scale, taking place throughout various levels of various houses throughout westeros. so we have instability threatening the stations and in some cases probably the lives of all of the most powerful men in westeros. they're not gonna be happy about this.
think about the dance: it's actually ridiculous that the greens had as much support as they did. otto isn't that good of a manipulator; he didn't get all of these houses, some of them incredibly powerful and ancient, on his side just because. it speaks to just how threatened the lords of westeros felt, because there's no question that viserys named rhaenyra his heir and they still turned against her. i genuinely feel like rhaenyra might have had a shot if her reign had been either about gender or bastards, but not both. as much as i love the strong boys, their existence was the final straw that weakened her claim enough to cause all this.
so now that rhaenyra is on the throne, and jace is set to inherit, and lords throughout westeros are dealing with challenges to their power and turning against her, where will they turn to? the lords who are threatened by women will want to turn to a man; the lords who are threatened by bastards will want to turn to someone who is unquestionably a trueborn targaryen.
and here we get to alicent's children. for a lord who doesn't want to acknowledge jace, aegon is unquestionably viserys's son. for a lord who doesn't want to acknowledge rhaenyra, aegon is male. it does not matter if aegon and the greens do not mobilize against rhaenyra. it does not matter if they refuse to speak against her. it simply matters that enough houses will turn against her to use them as figureheads, even against their will.
a few hotd fans have brought up the very apt comparison to the lady jane grey from the 1500s. long story short, jane was positioned by other nobles to usurp queen mary's throne at the ripe old age of sixteen, even though jane's claim to the throne was weak and always had been. later, she completely rescinded her claim and swore support for mary. but armies continued to march in her name; lords continued to fight against mary in her name. because it had never been about the legitimacy of jane's claim. because it had never been about jane's own beliefs. mary did not bear any ill will towards jane, and still political pressure forced mary into having her executed, while she was still basically a child.
i'm not saying that rhaenyra would ever want to kill her siblings in this scenario. to say she would is simply ignoring her entire character. but think of this: if it came down to protecting her children or sacrificing aegon, which would she choose? we've already seen her willingness to sacrifice others, including the greens, to protect her kids: giving daemon the okay nod to kill vaemond, asking viserys to torture aemond, and telling viserys thank you after he threatened to cut out his own wife and children's tongues. if war loomed close enough for her to feel her children's lives were in danger, she would give the order. not happily, but she'd give it.
she'd probably kill just aegon, at first. try to spare the younger brothers, and the women of course. but i really do think the lords would just switch to rallying around viserys's surviving eldest son, aemond. and her hand would end up forced in the same way, and as such she'd go down the line of her brothers until they were all gone. again, not happily, and not without a great deal of hesitance, but she'd do it to protect her kids. she'd do anything to protect her kids.
and, for those of you who firmly believe rhaenyra would never, even to save her children's lives: might i remind you that daemon targaryen exists. daemon, who bludgeoned his first wife to death because he saw her as an obstacle to being with rhaenyra. daemon, who beheaded vaemond in rhaenyra's honor. daemon, who we know from the books has no qualms about killing children for crimes they did not commit. even if rhaenyra refused to give the order, daemon would carry it out.
this is why i have sympathy for the greens, even though they obviously don't have a claim to the throne the way rhaenyra does. i don't see alicent crowning aegon as a blow directed towards rhaenyra in particular. i don't even see it as alicent lacking faith in rhaenyra to spare her children. i see it as alicent understanding the ways in which the men around her will try to cling to power-- because while rhaenyra has been enjoying the privileges of her position, alicent is a relatively unpowerful noblewoman and has always been beholden to the whims of the men around her such as viserys-- and understanding that rhaenyra is surrounded by people who would happily kill all of alicent's children to stabilize her claim.
otto was paranoid, and he was a manipulative fuck who had his own selfish ambitions at heart, but the best manipulators know to base their lies on foundations of truth. his demonization of rhaenyra was an embellishment, but his warning about rhaenyra's rule spelling death for alicent's children was not. and that's why he was able to turn alicent so effectively: for all that alicent wanted to love and trust rhaenyra, it was never about love, and it was never about trust. it was never even really about rhaenyra. it was about the politics of westeros, and the external pressures and hands that would have caused the ruin of alicent's entire family. even if rhaenyra didn't want to kill them, and even if she refused to give the order to kill them.
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tanadrin · 4 months
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you were talking about this earlier but personally i'm a big fan of the parliamentary sovereignty/not having an explicitly delineated list of rights thing the UK's got going on. i think the danger of having something dumb in the constitution like the US's second amendment or lochner-era mandated libertarianism is worth theoretically aligned judges not being able to overturn dumb laws a few years before they're unpopular enough to remove democratically.
i am a bit sad the UK doesn't have an instrument akin to the first amendment, mind, but maybe you could shove something like that more through the door of how the british government probably couldn't get away with indefinitely postponing elections than simply declaring speech a "human right" amongst many others. the government shouldn't be allowed to do things that specifically make it impossible to contest for power, but everything else is fair game, basically.
The problem with parliamentary sovereignty is that it makes it trivially easy to do monstrous shit, as Rishi Sunak’s whole “international law is for beta cucks” shtick is proving. Like the fact it is trivially easy to convert the UK system into a dictatorship isn’t a far off theoretical concern, and when I say the UK is more democratic but less free, I mean it is less free in important and frightening ways. There was a story out of the UK about a woman being questioned by police bc of her Skyrim mod list, because when you don’t have any entrenched basic rights protections it is trivially easy for your government to give force to the most meddling, puritanical, oppressive impulses of your electorate.
The first amendment is extremely good. Every country should have one. All time achievement of the American political system. And I think your comment reveals a deficit in the understanding of how common law systems like the US and UK function; although courts can do a lot of heinous shit in interpreting the law, they cannot use “freedom of speech” as an excuse to postpone elections. Meanwhile the UK parliament could pass a law with a simple majority declaring the PM Dictator for Life and it would be perfectly legal.
So idk. I think written constitutions are great, and most of the justifications for not having one are obviously proved silly by comparison to peer countries, and are just small-c conservatism coming to the fore.
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This guy
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Is literally the big brother of this little asshole
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Look at how sad this scene was tho, along with the times the old monkey and the others ostracized him. I don't know why he of all Yaoguais would think that he'd beat the Demon King Of Confusion with coconuts, but I guess this means he wasn't quite meant for the cudgel anyway.
In Xi You Ji, SWK got the golden as-you-will cudgel after he returned to Huagoushan from Patriarch Subhodi's place, so he was already trained and knew very well how to deal with weapons and fighting (not to mention his magic and other such things, like SWK knowing Taoism/Daoism as well as the Way), and then sharing that knowledge with his people. That's why the Puti Arc was a very important bit that the movie did not put in.
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Also what do you mean that Monkey King can just pull out his clones when that technique was taught by Subhodi/Puti too? Body-beyond-body is what it's called if I remember correctly, and yeah SWK was a monkey who can do almost everything but that doesn't mean he could just do that! It's annoying!
It also took him 2 decades (adding in the time that he journeyed through the two continents to find an immortal) to learn such lessons, so the movie was kind of a mockery to that fact. Wùkōng learned so many things from Subhodi's monastery that made all his achievements possible! Plot holes and other things, they could've at least mentioned or made a small montage for the arc.
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But Monkey King is just the more chaotic, impulsive, and egotistical version of Dàshèng, though Dàshèng had always been more empathetic between the two. I'm also putting in that he also has a soft spot for kids. Monkey King was quite the narcissist in the beginning. Very self-centered. Also it's kind of sad that 2023 is just called "Monkey King" bc he never went to Patriarch Subhodi (again, still salty about that; they could've made Subhodi a father figure to Monkey King since the Huagoushan monkeys didn't care for him that much, especially the old monkey) in this movie; thus never getting his Buddhist name.
My headcannon is that I'll be naming him with the combinations of "左 Zuǒ" [left; the Left (politics); east; unorthodox; queer; wrong; differing; opposite; variant of 佐; (Chinese surname meaning; to assist; assistant; aide; to accompany)] which is ironic since it was Lin who wanted to be his assistant, forced or otherwise, and not the other way around. The second part of his name are either "空 Kōng" which means (empty; air; sky; in vain) or "空隙 Kòngxì" which means (crack; gap between two objects). So the options are either Zuǒkōng or Zuǒkòngxì— "Left to void/nothingness"/ "Assisted to nothingness", but if anyone has a better idea or better knowledge about the systems of Chinese names then feel free to correct me.
The reason why it's not "Wùkōng" is because, again, the "Wù" part of the name which means; "Wake to" or "Awaken from/to". I know that Monkey King was still born from stone, or a geode in the movie,
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(Guanyin, in the book, was about to name him like she did with Sha Wujing and Zhu Wuneng, but SWK stopped her before she could, though the "Wu" would be quite dissolved with Monkey King 2023/Zuǒkōng/Zuǒkòngxi around before Tanzang came to Five Phases Mountain. Assuming the previous listed names I gave him holds, though the Bodhisattva Guanyin would still be able to change it.)
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(I am liking the name Zuǒkōng though, so I'm sticking with that.)
Monkey King is of course not completely irredeemable, bc soft spots and the fear of loneliness and all, as well as his eventual 'fondness' towards Lin— but I still think the movie could've done much better than making this Monkey King another version of Lego SWK (sorry for the LMK SWK fans out there, just not a great fan of the iteration).
Aside from the plot holes and the characterization of multiple important Daoist figures in the movie, like Yù Huáng and Ao Guang or even King Qin'guang/Yama, I feel like they could've made it more interesting and the fight scenes have more pizzaz. How they managed to make a Kaiju fight so underwhelming impresses me tbh, and the way Monkey King received his win is as underwhelming.
HONESTLY I have so much more to say but I keep forgetting my words so I'll add to this when I gather my thoughts jsnnsksmks
(No hate to the movie or the people that made them tho, I'm just salty.)
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zilabee · 1 year
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Just stumbled on this brilliant post over on Meet The Beatles For Real. It's a german article in Bravo Magazine interviewing the women that worked at Apple. The wonderful keeper of mtbfr then typed the whole lot out and google translated it into english - all love to her for the wonderful work she does on that site.
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I've not copied all of it over here, just my favourite bits... but that is most of the bits.
Janet Lumley - Kitchen maid (16) I have been cooking for the Beatles for half a year.   It is fantastic.   I cook just as carefully for the four of them as I do for my own family. John is the pickiest, he is vegetarian. Paul is the hungriest and has even brought his plate back to tell us how good it tasted to him.
Sally Burgess - Press Secretary (21) John, Paul, George and Ringo only have young, funny and talented people around and it flatters me to be a part of it. Although we work hard, the atmosphere is casual and fun, better than any other company in the world. And every day something new happens.  You must learn to quickly adapt to any situation. Once however, it even became too much for me and I just crawled under my desk.
Debbie Wellum - Receptionist (20) I have decided that I have the most exciting Apple job. I have to catch all the teenagers who want to speak to my bosses.  Recently, a group of Italian scouts were here, all of whom claimed to be cousins ​​of George Harrison.  But I didn’t fall for such a dirty trick.  I wouldn’t trade in my bosses for anyone else in the world, even if they had really had so many cousins!
Sally Reed - Secretary (20) I've been a Beatle fan before I started here eight months ago. The four are no longer for me, but I've learned to respect them as businessmen and superiors. I work in the production department; the Beatles are always nice and easy going, even if everything else is wobbling around them. They have a professional attitude which is a very different attitude to these things than a normal human; sometimes I wish I could have some of that.
Dee Meehan - Assistant (25) I have to listen to all the tapes that are sent to the Beatles from people who want to make a career out of music.   A tough job, but whoever has worked in the pop industry, knows what is going on, especially if you have the Beatles as bosses. Paul is the best; he always knows exactly what he wants. George and Ringo are always nice and polite, but sometimes John gets on my nerves. But he has improved a lot recently.
Amanda Hull - Tea cook (39) I am responsible  for tea and coffee, which  is used a lot with us, because Apple is a hospitable house. In a little chamber, I have a two burner stove, on which is always a pot of water and a pot of coffee standing. The tea is always fresh, otherwise it will be bitter. With Paul, I make sure that he does not get too much sugar. This is not good for his future children.
Linda Bristow - Assistant Publisher (22) I work for Apple music publishing. Of course I'm a Beatles fan, but I do not fall into a swoon every time they come through the door. Just to be a fan is not enough for a job at Apple. There is plenty to do and you have to know something too. But as for us, we are paid well and have the best bosses in the world. My favourite boss is George. He is for me the most beautiful thing. But I cannot tell him - because he would be pissed.
Carol Padden - Press Secretary (23) Of course, I'm a Beatles fan. Who isn’t? It's easy to work for such pleasant, young handsome men instead of old thick, bad-tempered men who are constantly, trying to flirt with you. Such a thing does not exist in the Beatles.   I have never heard any girls complain that one of the Beatles had flirted with her!
Barbara Bennet - Secretary (24) My best experience with Apple was when Paul gave me a little Yorkshire terrier.  He had heard me gushing to a colleague about this breed, and a few days later he had one in tow. But once when I visited my friend Colin Peterson the terrier ran into the city by himself.  I never saw him again, although I'd put up a lot of ads.
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My IRL ex who lives abroad now is dating my online friend who also lives there and I am deceiving them, AITA?
All of us are Asian, 29. Fake names are used.
My ex (Fred) was my childhood best friend, we grew up together in the same conservative society, people expected to see us marry since we were kids, all that jazz. At 18, we both moved away and kept up LDR. Moving meant big changes of course, I was in a huge city and I had internet access for the first time. I became a BTS fan in 2013, I started creating and reading a lot. I joined tumblr, made friends from all over the world. I was being radicalized rapidly, and I figured out I was bi too. My world was suddenly a million times bigger.
He however, didn't change much. He was scientific minded unlike most people here and his friends were all STEM kids but they were still functionally right leaning. He was racist when it came to BTS or East Asians in general. He was ignorant and happy to ignore queer existence, he used to say things like queer people needed to be shown the right path. We were turning out to be quite the opposites. Eventually we broke up. He was heartbroken, he tried to drag me back in many times and I avoided him like plague. I managed to ditch him completely when we were about 23. He left for USA to study.
Around the same time I befriended one of my closest online friends, Daphne. We lived in the same state but she was always traveling so we never got to meet. We're both hellsite veterans and keep our identities under lock & key so we don't know our real names or exact place of work, but we know each other's deepest kinks and childhood traumas, and stories about our exes. We both had the same kind of interests, politics, and fandoms, we're both bisexual. I've also come out as a trans man a few years ago and I go by a masculine name online, can't transition IRL. Daphne's known me since my girl era. Daphne left for USA last year for her Masters.
Now the wild part, by some twist of fate, Daphne met Fred who's also working on his Masters in an adjacent field. It is by no means a niche subject and USA is the fourth largest country, they still found each other. He sang in our first language at some party, he's very hot, and... he's into BTS like her. Wild. So they're now dating.
They started following each other on twitter and he followed a bunch of her friends including Me! We have exchanged pleasantries and while on his account he has his real name and location, mine is a mixed bag account with my fake name and my (sfw) queer creations all over it.
I know who He is but he doesn't know who I am, he thinks I'm just one of Daphne's dudes, and Daphne doesn't know that she's dating my ex who she had promised to drop into the Challenger's Deep (joke). My reasoning for hiding the truth is-- It's still not safe for me to be out IRL and he can mess it up. I remember his bigotry, I hate him, I have every right to avoid him and here that means not revealing my identity. But it's been years so maybe he has changed, and Daphne is my friend. So, I feel like a massive ahole for not telling her at least. At the same time she really did hate my racist homophobic right leaning ex a lot, so knowing the truth will make things awkward and I don't want to lose my friend.
So, there you have it. AITA?
BTW, no I'm not into BTS ships or reader insert fantasies, that's not what I create. I know someone would ask about it so there. I'm also Not attracted to Daphne, if I was I'd have asked her out straight away, I don't play around about my crushes.
What are these acronyms?
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elvensemi · 5 months
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I'm Publishing Serial Webnovels
Hi guys! I'm @elvensemi, and some of you might know me from writing Dragon Age fanfic Keeping Secrets, or from writing weird gargoyle porn with @unpretty, or from that time I accidentally told a popular blog I write dragon porn on my main blog @solitarelee, or maybe from that one fanfic where the knight with a crossdressing kink fails at slaying a dragon so hard he gets seduced!
I've graduated college, and you know what that means! Student loans Free time! And so I'm finally pursuing my long term dream and publishing serial webnovels. The short version is: ebooks, I'm publishing ebooks via Patreon to see if it works because I don't want to deal with Amazon and marketplaces. Chuck Tingle does it, kind of!
I am writing such things as!
The Problem with Faeries An urban fantasy series for fans of Holly Black, featuring faeries and a librarian who has been cursed by a witch to turn into a tiny dog at night.
Everything at Once A coming of age fantasy novel set in a post-post-apocalyptic world full of many monsters and very few humans, with a nonbinary (genderfluid) protagonist and a rotating cast of gods and monsters.
The Demon Isles An adult romance series set in the same world as Everything at Once, this one's for the monsterf*ckers. Step into the shoes of an escaped slave who's been stranded in Fantasy Australia But All The Dangerous Things Can Be Seduced.
A Place Among the Stars An adult sci-fi political space opera that is also technically just solidly omegaverse sm*t plus space dragons. That's right, one of my friends dared me to write omegaverse and I overdid it and now they're aliens! All for you my friend.
Novelizations of works that previously existed only as RPs, such as Sanctuary and The Kingdom of Aeris.
AND SO MUCH MORE.
For $5 you get access to SFW material, and for $10 you get access to that and the things that are not SFW. You can view a full summary of the serials I'm working on at tinyurl.com/SemiSerials , or click the read more.
The Demon Isles (NSFW, Second Person)
Oceanside is a world full of elves and gods, monsters and magic. You, however, a human with no magic, no martial training, and a fear of... most things. Stranded on an unfamiliar island full of monsters, you must learn to harness humanity’s true power in order to survive. The issue with that is, as far as anyone can tell, humanity’s true powers are friendship and fuckability.
The Demon Isles is a erotic, second-person monsterfucking romp through the dangerous Demon Isles. The second person character is referred to by gender neutral terminology and they/them pronouns, physical appearance left ambiguous. Sex scenes have two versions with different sets of genitalia for the main character. Tags and content warnings are available for each chapter.
The Problem with Faeries (SFW, Third Person)
The problem with faeries is that we love them. We know all the sharp and cruel ways they twist us apart and we love them with a helpless, hopeless foolishness that never fades until it destroys us.
Bree is a human living in Valesport, a small town on the east coast of the United States that functions as a secret haven for the supernatural. As a cursed human, it’s one of the safer places for her... at least, safe from other humans. Everything else Valesport has to offer remains a threat. She’s already had her run-ins with werewolves, vampires, and whatever the hell Jean Cernunnos is... so, in retrospect, she was probably due to get into trouble with the Fae.
A fan favorite finally finding a venue of publication, The Problem with Faeries is a SFW urban fantasy with a side of romance perfect for fans of Holly Black. It is third person and follows the point of view of the protagonist, Bridget “Bree” Corey, as she finds herself tangled up trying to navigate faerie drama and her own personal feelings, neither of which she is particularly equipped to handle.
Everything at Once (SFW, First Person)
Babs wants everything the world has to offer... everything except what it’s actually prepared to hand over. As the eldest child of the ruling noble family--or what passes for it--of the only human village remaining old and large enough to still have a ruling noble family, even if just in name, Babs’s whole life has been laid out in front of them since the moment they were born. And they want none of it. However, after a bold escape from the village they knew all their life, they find themselves adrift in an unfriendly world of monsters and magic that seems much larger and much less friendly than they had hoped.
Everything at Once is a SFW fantasy novel set all over the world of Oceanside as our determined protagonist, Babs, attempts to explore all there is to explore and experience all there is to experience (it is possible they have not thought this through). Babs is a non-binary, gender fluid illusionist referred to varyingly by he, she, and they pronouns based on presentation. The story is a first person mixed POV exploring a wide range of characters and topics, but always staying focused on the many transformations of the main character as they learn what it is they want... and what it is to want.
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Future Projects: Projects that are in development but do not have a set release date yet.
A Place Among the Stars [Working Title] (NSFW)
A Place Among the Stars is a NSFW erotic political space opera featuring Omegaverse style aliens and also space dragons, amongst other alien races. It features two protagonists: an exiled and excommunicated Saint who once led a cult that threatened the peace and stability of his homeworld, and a mid level government official presiding over the walled ghetto where the Ab’ed keep all foreign visitors and immigrants to their planet. They quickly find themselves entangled: politically, as the Saint once again threatens the stability of the world around him--in more ways than one--and sexually, as the tension between the two reaches a fever pitch.
Sanctuary (NSFW, Third Person)
Most people would consider Ren unlucky. After all, she’s been homeless since she was a child, has no living family she knows of, and she was recently kidnapped by sex traffickers and ripped away from the city she had been living in for years. But as far as Ren is concerned, she’s the epitome of good luck: not only has she survived all the things life has thrown at her, but she’s escaped said sex traffickers and even found shelter in an abandoned, boarded up cathedral. The fact that the cathedral, undisturbed for a century or more, is home to a guardian whose only experience with the world is violently murdering intruders, well... once again, whether that’s good or bad luck is based purely on interpretation.
Sanctuary is a NSFW urban fantasy erotic romance featuring a cis female protagonist and a male (as these things go) gargoyle love interest, as well as a mix of other romantic interests (primarily M/F with some F/F or NB/F thrown in). Tags and content warnings are available for each chapter. This fan-favorite returns in serialized, ebook form for easy reading. Follow Ren’s journey anew from mixed perspectives as she explores the streets of Valesport and finds something she’s never had before; a place to call home.
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