#not even with any creepy context from them it was an automatic process

[victorie552]

I headcannon that after 3rd Kinslaying, and especially after Elrond and Elros left them in whatever fashion, Maedhros was a total dick to Maglor.

You know how sometimes old or sick people are nice to neighbours/nurses/strangers, but are horrible to their primal caretakers? That's them.

People aren't dicks to their caretakers just to be dicks - it's because they are often frustrated with themselves or their situation and don't know how else to deal with it or they can't deal with it the usual way. It also happens because, paradoxally, they feel safe around their caretakers - you can be a dick because you know they won't leave just because of that.

And boy, did Maglor cast himself in a role of caretaker (let's not kid ourselves, he wasn't qualified, and with his own problems to boot), and BOY, did Maedhros resent him for it. He did not NEED help, he did not DESERVE help, he's not another kidnapped child MAGLOR, I'M the older brother, I should take care of YOU YOU WRECK, WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO BABYSIT YOU GROW UP ALREADY and leave me Nothing is EVER your fault, even when you left me to Angband as you should Why would you care now, it amounted to NOTHING before, it's WORTHLESS

And about half the time Maglor just takes it, actually likes it even. Mostly because of his guilt complex about how he deserves it, but also because Maedhros is only like this with him - he's trying his best to pretend to be fine and be a leader to few followers they have left, because they deserve better and that's the only thing he can give them now, and their brothers are all dead and would always be Too Little to act like that around them anyway. Maedhros would behave himself even around Fingon, to make him think rescuing him was worth something. So by being a dick to Maglor, Meadhros sees him as an equal, a safe haven. Maglor basks in that.

But obviously no one could just take such abuse like it's nothing, and Maglor is a Feanorian too, is prideful and stubborn, with his own laundry list of complains about Maedhros, and also unwell, and also thought of a new insult while lying awake at night and just wants to yell too. So half the time Maglor yells back and their yelling matches would bring orcs to tears, with hate and blame dripping from every word. I don't have enough imagination to picture it realistically, and actually I don't want to, it's too heartbreaking.

And sometimes, one or the other just starts crying. They don't talk about these times.

After some time, their arguments and insults are just a noise, something to repeat endlessly to the point of boredom.

By then, what actually hurts are the words that were not meant to harm.

Example 1:

Maedhros: 'did an all-night inspection of their stores cause he couldn't sleep' I found a herb you always liked to wash your hair with.

Maglor: 'doesn't remember last time he washed his hair, no less scented them'

Maglor: 'choked up' Appreciated.

Example 2:

Maedhros: 'feels like he's dragging Maglor to damnation with him' You could go with the twins, you know.

Maglor: 'doesn't want to upset Maedhros today so decides to pretend as if that was actually an option' Vanyar would probably like my singing but you know they would get mad at you for having better battle plans than them.

Maedhros: 'now KNOWS he's dragging Maglor to damnation with him'

Maedhros: 'dying inside' Of course they would.

When love hurts, it's easier to be a dick.

#maedhros #maglor #silmarillion #silm #barely related but it plays into my headcannon that when nerdanel didn't went with them and feanor died #maglor and maedhros became New Mom and Dad for the rest of Feanorians #not even with any creepy context from them it was an automatic process #oh Mom left Dad Maglor is similiar to her guess Maglor is New Mom #oh Dad's dead? Maedhros is New Dad #boom problem solved #when Maedhros was unwell after Tears Celegorm got to be Dad for some time #it's so unhealthy when you look from the outside #it's unrelated to anything except Maglor as New Mom resents any mentions of abandoning the others #Maglor is NOTHING like Nerdanel #THIS mom won't leave anyone thank you very much #and then Maedhros stays in Angband for 30 years lmao #so unhealthy #angst I guess #I feel it went in different direction than it started but eh

[omegapheromone]

Long ramble ahead, about omegaverse, sexual trauma, reframing and recontextualizing shame and fear, and healing.

I wonder sometimes if omegaverse is so massively comforting to me specifically because I went through repeated sexual trauma (both as a child and as an adult) and am terrified and disgusted by myself and my own body + sexuality in every single way possible- to the point where outside my own little omegaverse bubble, shame and fear are practically always tied to anything even slightly sexual for me.

On the contrary, in an a/b/o setting where society is more based on instincts, chemicals, scents and so on, it feels almost "safer" and less intimidating to explore the topic of shame, sex, gender and so on, as well as my relationship with my own sexuality.

Because, it's an imaginary society where I can turn the shame and fear I feel into something else and quietly explore and digest what I believe about myself. The shame of experiencing sexuality or being seen by others (and myself) as a sexual being can be turned into the societal struggles of omegas and how omegas are perceived. My discomfort and shame with experiences that most would consider normal and positive (arousal, attraction, etc) can be erased because sexual heats are often involuntary bodily processes, just like a menstrual cycle might be. It stops being a source of disgust and mortification for me because it's just what an omega's body does, it cannot be helped at times, because it's a natural and normal thing. Other people's attraction to me feels less terrifying because everyone has pheromones, and other people can't always help but be affected by them.

Exploring the concept of an alpha and their roles both socially and sexually from my (omega) perspective allows me to create a space where I can both create new, more positive associations with the concept of attraction and feelings for people/subjects I would normally feel terribly afraid of, and I can slowly work through my fear of feeling attraction and even arousal.

I can imagine an alpha who ISN'T just out to get me because of my body or because I am a toy that can momentarily gratify/satisfy them, and I can start to change the associations I have with my intense fear of people who show even the slightest attraction to me, especially ones whom I am also finding myself partial to.

The concept of a "'nice' alpha", or an alpha who starts out seeming mean or shitty, but slowly turns into someone kind and caring, in an imaginary society where so many alphas aren't nice or considerate or good or actually caring of who I am and how I feel- there's a reason why that trope repeats over and over and over again, I think. It's not because the predatory/creepy alpha is hot, it's because I think, for me and a lot of other people, it's a way to slowly work out a fear that everyone is just like the rest- the alphas in the stories are usually just singular people representing a larger amount of nameless and faceless people that I am only slowly starting to realize might not actually have been "just like the ones that hurt me in the first place" after all, and never were to begin with. The process of a dickish/mean/toxic alpha slowly reforming isn't about a redemption arc of a person, rather, it's about the slow realization and understanding that my fears and shame are and were unfounded because not everyone who shows interest in me is automatically an abuser.

However, omegaverse is also a context where I CAN put my abuser's faces on the concept of "an alpha" and explore the fear, feelings of powerlessness and helplessness and guilt- and I can start to feel like "maybe it wasn't my fault, maybe it WAS because they were assholes who refused to control themselves" (and combined with the previous trope- "my abuser could have been any alpha- however, my abusers were in the wrong because they made the active choice to not keep it in their pants. These good alphas are proof that they COULD have controlled themselves if they'd have prioritized the safety of a child over their own perversions).

Omegaverse allows me to rewrite my feelings of guilt and shame and feeling like everything was my own fault, into something where I can finally accept that I wasn't at fault, because I was violated by people who were in a position of complete power over me and my body wasn't, and isn't, shameful just for being a body they happened to be attracted to. It's a way of exploring that shame in a different context where I can start to reframe it and rework it mentally into something different- an omega feeling shame over heats and their pheromones is just a recontextualization of some of the deep-seated beliefs and feelings I have.

And honestly, all of it has been incredibly healing in ways that I'd never really realized or even assumed were possible.

#gamietxt #csa mention #honestly idk if I should leave the reblogs on but maybe I will. maybe that too is a form of courage to heal in its own way. #at least for now

[bondsmagii]

(cw: I'm about to get real crass about CSA because it makes me real mad and that's how I cope)

the cultural reaction to cuties is infuriating to me, especially how even defenders feel the need to criticise the hypersexualised camera shots for ""normalising sexualistion of children in film"". Like, this is a thing that is happening in real life, right now, folks! Real Life Kids commonly do dances like these, in clothes like these, in an attempt to copy adult women being framed in shots like that! That's basically a good fifth of Tik Tok! The shots being of kids instead of adults is intentionally horrific, because it's trying to highlight that that kind of societal gaze is what pressured them to do the dances and wear the clothes and everything else; to take a thing that we've all come to accept as normal (8 year olds online twerking to songs explicitly about sex) and make us see how horrific it is, so people might give a shit for once. (A real shit, not that Pizzagate-adjacent thing where people only bring it up in service of criticising something/someone they already didn't like, and never exploring why it's so prevalent to begin with). You know, the filmic opposite of normalisation?? It's incredibly disappointing that people's takeaway appears to be: "ew gross, look at how horny this camera is for literal children. Glad this absolutely isn't a thing that happens in real life that I will go straight back to ignoring while patting myself on the back for identifying this media as Problematic

And the idea that "a pedophile could get off to this" makes any sense as criticism! I guess pedophiles only get off to children in revealing clothing, huh? So all children need to do to avoid pedophiles is, uh... *checks notes* "dress less slutty". I *wish* I lived in a world where pedophiles were genuinely waiting on feature films to deliver them a few shots of children in revealing clothing, instead of trading real CP that has caused untold suffering. Sometimes it really feels like people are more invested in weaponising the idea of suffering children in rhetoric, rather than the welfare of real children. It's the same disconnect that makes it impossible to bring up things like early intervention programs for pedophiles without being called a pedophile yourself (a rich thing to call someone who was on the receiving end, and takes about a year off my lifespan every time).

Every time someone brings this movie up, I feel like I'm losing my marbles. Otherwise smart and insightful people seem completely willing to misread it in the most infuriating way possible. It's like it's the Asch conformity test, and I'm the rube in the last chair wondering whether I even watched the same movie as them. It's comforting to see at least one other person on this godforsaken planet comprehending that The Sexualised Children Shots Are Horrific On Purpose in this movie trying to push people out of complacency

honestly go off like I could not have said this better myself. this is exactly what's been pissing me off about the response to this movie and my post about it in general.

the cultural reaction to cuties is infuriating to me, especially how even defenders feel the need to criticise the hypersexualised camera shots for ""normalising sexualistion of children in film"". Like, this is a thing that is happening in real life, right now, folks! Real Life Kids commonly do dances like these, in clothes like these, in an attempt to copy adult women being framed in shots like that! That's basically a good fifth of Tik Tok!

this is what I cannot get my head around. like, people are freaking out over how this movie normalises the sexualisation of young children, but somehow miss the point that it's already been normalised. the movie would not be necessary if this hadn't already become a completely normal part of society. even walking around the shops in town I see children maybe 10 or 11 years old dressed like Instagram models, faces full of makeup, revealing clothing... it's honestly disturbing. these kids think that's acceptable, they think that's what they need to do in order to have worth, and it's terrifying. if I had my own children, I would be terrified for them. the movie is not the problem. why people can't direct this anger and outrage to websites like TikTok instead, I have no idea. probably because that would require actual work, and we all know these people are addicted to outrage and self-righteousness and absolutely allergic to any kind of effort to create real change.

It's incredibly disappointing that people's takeaway appears to be: "ew gross, look at how horny this camera is for literal children. Glad this absolutely isn't a thing that happens in real life that I will go straight back to ignoring while patting myself on the back for identifying this media as Problematic"

people get so offended when they're made to feel uncomfortable. I have no idea why. I'm trying to work out this thought process but it's simply beyond me. it baffles me that people can see something that's actually happening in the world, and instead of getting angry about the actual issue, they decide to attack the female director of the movie about said issue, who is writing from her own experience. like, how in god's name these people managed to miss the point so badly, I do not know. the manoeuvres they had to do to miss a point that big and obvious should make them all automatic gold medal winners in Olympic gymnastics.

(I do think that a lot of people yelling the loudest about Cuties have probably only seen the Netflix promotional poster and then devoured a bunch of Twitter threads highlighting the apparent problems and possibly a view video essays on YouTube showing the most dramatic and out of context shots of the girls, however.)

And the idea that "a pedophile could get off to this" makes any sense as criticism! I guess pedophiles only get off to children in revealing clothing, huh? So all children need to do to avoid pedophiles is, uh... *checks notes* "dress less slutty". I *wish* I lived in a world where pedophiles were genuinely waiting on feature films to deliver them a few shots of children in revealing clothing, instead of trading real CP that has caused untold suffering.

right? like. this point is so fucking useless. by this logic, we should ban everything with photos of children in it. if a paedophile is going to waste time going to see a full feature movie just to see some young girls twerking-- I mean, why would they in the first place? why would a paedophile do that when they can just sign on to TikTok and see thousands of hours of footage of young girls twerking? and if "revealing clothing" is all it takes, what's stopping this paedophile from going to the local pool and watching the kids in swimwear? what's stopping this paedophile from going and picking up a clothing catalogue and flipping to the pictures of little girls in dresses? the fact that people can compare the content of a feature-length film to actual CP fucking baffles me. like. it's actually insulting to compare things like that -- and by extension, any child on the street in a t-shirt or a dress or a skirt or a swimsuit -- to actual CP. like, who looks at a kid and thinks like that? if you want to stop paedophiles being creeps, you'd have to lock kids up in the house until they're 18 and ban all depictions of kids forever. paedophiles are gonna be creeps no matter what, and they're not going to bother with a full film when they can log onto TikTok and comment something creepy on footage of a real life child who might even message back and enter into communication with them. like, damn. why aren't more people getting mad and outraged about that?

Sometimes it really feels like people are more invested in weaponising the idea of suffering children in rhetoric, rather than the welfare of real children.

they are. "somebody please think of the children" is now the rallying cry of the right (all leading Democrats are secret paedophiles, the LGBT agenda is making Our Innocent Christian Children into perverts) and the left (problematic media is Harming Our Innocent Children, everything needs to be censored and squeaky clean so the Metaphorical Children don't stumble across it and think it's acceptable). it's the quickest way to get people outraged and it works like a charm. as soon as somebody starts rallying under the flag of protecting kids, it gives them a fast pass to power and influence. who wants to be seen to not care about kids? who wants to risk being called a paedophile or a child abuser? unfortunately their eagerness to declare everybody such has resulted in it losing its meaning. now when I see someone accused of paedophilia I no longer feel the usual revulsion but instead a tired suspicion followed by hours of research to determine if they are actually abusing children, or if they ship the wrong thing. to put the numbers into perspective, the one and only time I found out somebody was actually abusing minors, I was genuinely shocked because I had never found a true accusation before in oh, six years? which is unsurprising, seems I have been called a paedophile and told I shouldn't be around children because I like a villain from a YA series. as for real children, none of these people give a shit.

It's comforting to see at least one other person on this godforsaken planet comprehending that The Sexualised Children Shots Are Horrific On Purpose in this movie trying to push people out of complacency

that's exactly it right there -- it's horrific on purpose, but these people can't understand that. to them, literature and art and film is supposed to always make you feel good, and if it doesn't it's mean and abusive and you should have warned for it and also you're an asshole for making it in the first place. for people who only consume media to feel good, and only create it to feel progressive and wholesome, it's inconceivable why people would create something depressing or disturbing. because they're consuming media of only things they like, they assume everyone else is. ergo, if you make something nasty, it's because you're into something nasty. if you write about a murderous villain, it's because you want to be a murderous villain. if you direct a movie about children being sexually exploited, you must want to sexually exploit children.

these people cannot understand that art is supposed to teach and inform as well as comfort and coddle. some art is there to make you feel good, and other art is there to make you take notice of injustice and suffering and make you angry and upset enough to want to do something about it. these people do not understand that at all, and with this kind of logic they would try to ban Holocaust survivors from speaking at schools because it's too upsetting to think about, rather than paying attention to the message that such things get across. we cannot change society without empathy, and to experience empathy for something outside our own understanding and experience, we need to come into contact with people who have lived through it. we need to see it depicted. that's how we learn to feel for others. it puts a face to the suffering and makes it easier to stay motivated and stay mad.

but no. these people just want to be nice and fuzzy and safe. that's all that matters to them, and anyone who thinks they're wrong for doing it must be a paedophile or something. right. gotcha.

#long post #anon #asks

[self-loving-vampire]

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)

Ultima 7 was pretty much my introduction to RPGs, and I could not have asked for a better pair of games to ignite a lifelong passion into that genre. There is a real reason why this is still considered one of the best RPGs ever made.

While Ultima 7 is often discussed as a singular entity, it is actually two separate full-length games with one expansion each. For this post I will focus on the first one, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, as well as its expansion: Forge of Virtue.

I recommend playing the game using Exult, which adds some quality of life features (such as a feeding hotkey and a “use all keys” hotkey) as well as the option to use higher quality audio packs, implement bug fixes, and change the font into something easier on the eyes.

Summary

The protagonist of the Ultima series is “the Avatar”, a blank slate isekai protagonist from our world who has previously travelled to the world of Britannia several times and saved it from many threats, also becoming the shining paragon of the virtues meant to guide its people.

In this game, you once again cross the portal to Britannia to save it from a new and mysterious extradimensional threat. As soon as you arrive, you immediately discover two things:

1- A violent ritualistic murder has just taken place.

2- There is suspicious new organization called “The Fellowship” gaining adherents throughout the land.

It is up to you to investigate these developments.

Freedom

In terms of freedom, the Black Gate has plenty overall but there are areas where it is not quite there.

Once you can manage to get the password to get out of the locked-down town of Trinsic you are free to go nearly anywhere in the game right away and have multiple means of transportation to accomplish this, such as moongates or ships.

And there are some very real rewards to exploring like this as well, such as various treasure caches and other interesting findings. 

The world is actually very small by modern standards, especially when settlements occupy so much of it, but both the towns and the wilderness areas are dense with content.

Notably, the game also allows you to perform various activities. From stealing to making a honest living by baking bread (which is something you can do thanks to how interactive the environment is) or gathering eggs at a farm.

Where it falls short is in terms of having multiple possible solutions for quests. Generally there is only one correct option for how to complete them.

That said, there is a bad ending you might be able to find in addition to the canonical good ending.

Character Creation/Customization

This is one of the big minuses of the game. While you can select your name and gender (and with Exult also have a wider selection of portraits) that is about it for character creation.

All characters will start with the same stats and there are no character classes. You can develop your stats through training and specialize through your choice of equipment, but by the end of the Forge of Virtue expansion you will have maxed stats and the best weapon in the game (a sword) regardless, and you will definitely need to cast a few spells to progress the main quest as well.

This can make every playthrough feel much like the last, as there isn’t that much of a way to vary how your character develops or what abilities they’ll end up having. You will always be a master of absolutely everything in the end unless you go out of your way to avoid doing the Forge of Virtue expansion.

Story/Setting

While the game is a bit too obvious and heavy-handed about its villains, there are still many interesting storylines in the game that deal with mature subjects that remain relevant today, such as cults, drug abuse, workplace exploitation, and xenophobia.

However, the setting as a whole is greater than any individual storyline taking place within. With the exception of most guards and bandits, every single NPC in the game is an individual with a name, schedule, living space, and defined personality. This was not the norm in 1992 and even today there’s not many games that really implement this well. The world is also very detailed in terms of things like the services available to you, the general interactivity of the game world, and the sheer amount of things that populate every corner of it.

The initial murder is not only a strong hook for investigation but also a shocking scene in its own right. The Guardian also proves to have a significant presence as a villain, using a mental link to remotely taunt you based on the context of what is happening. For example, if your companions die he may offer you some exaggerated, mocking pity.

Immersion

There is something very interesting and comfortable about just watching the various inhabitants of a town just go about their daily lives. They work during the day, eat at certain times (either at home or at one of the many taverns in the land), and sleep at night. They don’t just strangely repeat one single action during the day either, they may do things like open windows when the weather is nice or turn candles and streetlamps on at night.

In terms of immersion, Ultima 7 is my primary example of a game that does an excellent job of it even if there’s some weirdness going on with the setting. Even after having played so many more games throughout my life, only a few are on the same level as either part of Ultima 7 when it comes to immersion.

Gameplay

There are three broad aspects to the gameplay here that I want to discuss.

The first is combat. It is actually simple enough that you can call it almost entirely automatic. You simply enable combat mode by pressing C and your party will automatically go and fight nearby hostile enemies based on whatever combat orders you have selected for them (by default, attacking the closest enemy).

This is certainly better than having an outright bad or annoying combat system as the whole process is simple and painless, but I still wish there was more depth to it. Your stats, and especially your equipment, still play a role but other than things like pausing to use items or cast spells the whole process is very uninvolved.

I kind of wish there was more depth to it, but at least the other two areas of the gameplay are reasonably good.

The next aspect of gameplay is dialogue, which uses dialogue trees for the first time in the series. Previously, it required typing in keywords, which are retained but as dialogue options you can just click on rather than remember and type.

While the keywords are not really written as natural language most of the time (requiring some imagination to determine the specifics of your dialogue), the system is very easy to use regardless. It definitely lacks depth compared to something like Fallout: New Vegas, but so do most games.

The third and most notable thing is the way you interact with the world in general. It is both extremely simple and very immersive at the same time.

Ultima 7 is a game that can be played entirely with the mouse (though keyboard hotkeys make everything much more comfortable). You can right click a space to walk there, you can left click something to identify what it is, and you can use double left click to interact.

For example, double left click over an NPC to talk to them (or attack them, if combat mode is enabled), double left click a door to open it, double left click a loaf of bread to feed it to someone, and so on.

But there is more. By holding your click over an item and dragging it, you can move it. This has various applications beyond just being how you pick things up and add them to your inventory. For example, sometimes objects may be hidden beneath other objects, or objects may need to be placed in a specific location.

There are some downsides to this system. Particularly, the issue that keeping your inventory organized can be time-consuming when it has to be done by manually dragging objects around, and this can also make looting relatively slow.

Despite this, I think this kind of interaction system has a lot of potential. It just has some clunky aspects to be ironed out.

Aesthetics

Ultima 7 was very good-looking for its time, and although modern players will not be very impressed by how it looks or sounds, it still remains easily legible in a way that some other old games are not. That, and the ability to identify anything with just a left click, makes this a very easy game to make out at the very least.

Some of the music of this game is very distinctive too, and will likely stay with you after a full playthrough.

In terms of style, the Black Gate does have a bit of an identity while still having a very familiar medieval fantasy setting with things like trolls, animated skeletons, dragons, and liches. While there are aspects that help the setting distinguish itself a bit, they are relatively subtle.

If I had to describe the feeling of playing this, I’d call it “open and laid back”. While the main quest deals with a looming threat to the entire world, the game does not follow this overly closely at first, letting you deal with it at your own pace and without having your exploration options limited by the story.

In fact, when I was young I often just ignored that and went to live in a creepy ruin in the swamp.

(Don’t expect many pictures in these reviews, but have one of my “childhood home.”)

I’d say that Ultima 7′s second part (Serpent Isle) has a much stronger and also darker and more isolating atmosphere overall and that has a lot of appeal to me in particular, but the Black Gate is definitely more open and less linear, and I also appreciate that.

Accessibility

It pleases me to say that Ultima 7 remains extremely easy to pick up and play. Even setting up Exult is not complicated in the least.

The gameplay is intuitive and simple, the UI is minimal, stats are basic (and not even that important), and the combat is automatic. I expect that this is not only the easiest point of entry into the Ultima series as a whole but also likely even easier to get into than many modern RPGs!

It does have some aspects that may be a bit clunky, like all the inventory-related dragging, but it’s definitely not obscure or complicated even to someone who has not read the manual (though I’d still recommend doing that). I literally played this game as a tiny child who could barely read or understand English and still got really into it.

The one thing I’d like to point out is that the game uses a type of copy protection where at a couple of story points (including an extremely early one to leave the first town) you will be asked some questions that require using the manual and external map to answer. You can just google the answers for these.

Conclusion

As I write more of these reviews there will be many games that are interesting, but deeply flawed. Games that are worth trying out but maybe not finishing, as well as games that had interesting ideas but that I can’t entirely recommend due to serious problems that will easily put people off.

But I do not think the Black Gate is such a game. I can easily recommend it with no qualifiers despite the fact that it is almost 30 years old. This is really a game that all RPG fans should at the very least try for a few hours, and not only for its historical significance. It is genuinely a good game worthy of its praise.

I will review its sequel, Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle, next.

#vampire reviews rpgs #ultima 7 #the black gate

[jyndor]

(Imperialism etc anon) Ok I get where you're coming from! Thank you for being understanding. While Zutara is obviously not inherently racist or anything there are zutara interpretations that *are* racist (example: fire lady katara which I can get into) and it does need to be acknowledged that Zuko's status as fire nation royalty does create a power imbalance between him and Katara. Now, this is a conversation that has a lot of nuance to it but it seems like the people harassing you are (1/2)

(2/2) just repeating some genuine critique they saw without understanding what it means just to say that they're right, harassing people in the process. I did not have that context when sending that first ask and I apologize, since anons harassing you and others are clearly doing it out of bad faith. I just didn't like the leveraging of concepts that really matter in real life (colonialism, etc), ykwim? But I get what you were trying to do.

hey anon I’m finally getting to you after 84 years XD

so first off, I want to be careful about how I approach this because I understand that as a white person (even if my ancestors experienced imperialism) in the US I absolutely benefit from imperialism and don’t want to like, idk, whitesplain XD so if anyone gets annoyed with any way I say anything, just lmk and I’ll rework it. and I also do understand that these are real world issues that are far more consequential than messaging in media (although I do think it’s very important that we challenge messages in media because of media’s influence on our thinking and politics).

but before I talk about zuko and his relationship to fire nation imperialism, and then later fire lady katara and why it isn’t INHERENTLY racist but definitely can be, I want to talk about the atla fandom and how we got here. like, why I assume that most anons who come at zutara shippers are asshats acting in bad faith. if you already know fandom history, skip this section.

1. atla and the fandom has always been kind of shitty and racist

so IDK if everyone is familiar with the history of the ship war in atla fandom, but it’s regarded as one of the nastiest ship wars in fandom history which I agree lol. atla’s creators were some of the first to interact with the fandom the way they did - back then it wasn’t all that common for creators to get into twitter feuds with fans and boundaries were respected more than they are now imo. but for better or worse, and it is a mixed bag, bryke interacted with fandom a lot. certainly at cons but also on social media.

but honestly things really got extra mean in fan spaces when bryke made a “joke” atla season 4 slideshow out of fan art (some of which was really sexual in nature and totally inappropriate) that mocked fans’ creations, but especially zutara fanart and zutara itself. it was pretty tasteless especially considering how most zutara fans were teen girls, and featured some art of sokka saying that if you think zuko and katara would be good together, you’re doomed to have failed relationships. that’s where the whole “dark and mysterious” bs came from, which does describe some zutara fic but not even most of it lol. I actually do respect bryke a lot despite my criticism of them, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over that shit. like even if you hate zutara, even if it’s a joke, we were kids. and they were adults, and the whole thing was nasty.

however, the ship war was chaotic and messy, but it does feel worse now. maybe it’s because back then the fandom was MOSTLY teens and kids, and I don’t think that’s true now. we were all trying to prove our ship was best with like, content from the show and theories and all that, and now it’s like... whose ship is ~problematic lol it’s a show by white us americans appropriating from various cultures impacted negatively by us/british imperialism that they then profited off of, of course it’s racist. that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about that, and in fact many poc have been saying this shit for years - that atla is racist and colorist at many times (guru pathik anyone?) and no one really listened.

if fans are complaining only about zutara, then I’m automatically writing them off as being insincere or ignorant. and since most of these people are anonymous, I have no idea if they are having substantive discourse about colorism in avatar or cultural appropriation (even if it is mostly appreciative). if you are on anon, I have no context about what you actually think except for what you give me. and that definitely is how I view anons in general but especially within the atla fandom because for all 13-ish years I’ve been in it, it’s been messy. that’s why zutara fans have isolated ourselves from the rest of fandom, because the rest of fandom has been really nasty to us. like did we give back some nastiness? absolutely.

but I would hazard a guess that most anti-zutara shippers don’t know about the conversations we have had in this community to make it safer for people of color, conversations that centered poc and woc especially. hey, that’s okay - not to compare zutara to r*ylo because eurgh but like, idk what discourse the r*ylos have about their community. no idea, I don’t go looking for it. and I don’t go to the tags and harass r*ylos - even though they harass the fuck out of everyone else.

2. so zuko and his privilege

undoubtedly zuko as fire lord is in a fairly privileged position LMFAO. but during the show zuko is very clearly exiled - he holds very little political power in the fire nation EXCEPT for during the first season when he is in command of a ship that ozai gave him on a punishment quest lol like yeah he does terrible things and he of all people would not excuse his actions even if he was a traumatized kid, that’s the point of his arc - that he got some exposure to the rest of the world and worked to be better. and the only reason he was exiled at all was because he cares about people - he didn’t question fire nation supremacy at 13, but he sure did question the morality of his people being lead to slaughter.

but after zuko and iroh defect from the fire nation and stop hunting aang, he has next to no power, in any kind of way. like the guy is a political refugee. and yes, he goes back to the fire nation for like five minutes before realizing that he hates everything about fire nation hegemony and that he wants to end his father’s reign of terror, like that isn’t exactly someone who is going to be well esteemed by the powerful elites when he returns and takes the throne.

and I disregard the comics because they suck lol but zuko does have power as the fire lord, but he limits his power. like compared to ozai, phoenix asshole? azula? for the rest of the world, zuko is kind of an ideal leader for a former colonizing/imperialistic nation to have - someone who worked to end that tyranny, who is anti-imperialist, who believes in justice and equality, who wants to make things right for the peoples who his family oppressed.

I do think it is important to talk about power dynamics and imbalances in relationships - for instance, one could argue that mai is at a significant disadvantage in her relationship with zuko. sure she is from a powerful family but not as powerful as zuko’s. sokka? hah forget it. he’s just as disadvantaged as katara is politically speaking. toph? well, she’s definitely not as powerful politically as zuko - her family tried to silence her for years because of her disability. and oh, she’s disabled so it might be ableist for zuko to strike up a relationship with her when they’re both adults. forgetting of course that toph and sokka and katara and suki and mai are not going to be shy about their wants and needs, that these relationships are not likely to be coercive by nature of the show they’re in and the characters they involve. this is not bill clinton with monica creepiness. like, you’d have to write the relationship that way.

the only person who arguably has more political power than zuko is aang. I guess zuko can’t ever be in a relationship with anyone other than aang. and zuko’s family massacred aang’s people so I guess we can’t ship zukaang. now I know you’re not saying that, context matters. power dynamics are important. but you can’t take away the agency of characters - katara, who is essentially a princess, has agency and can choose who she wants to be with. strictly speaking, aang is more powerful than anyone in terms of political power - he’s the avatar - and of course the dynamic is different by nature of aang not being from a line of oppressors, but there still is a power imbalance in their relationship. and I don’t know how many k/ataang shippers have discourse~ on that. not that I really feel like they NEED to, um idk what they talk about lol I’m not in those circles.

3. fire lady katara is in the eye of the beholder

so fire lady katara is not inherently bad or racist, it’s essentially like saying michelle obama shouldn’t have been first lady of the us (now I get that like the obamas being in power didn’t mean black people are not marginalized lol). you can have conversations about whether or not individual versions of fire lady katara are fucked up, and I’m superrrr open to that because I’ve seen it be kinda shitty before. i’m just gonna leave this link to @shewhotellsstories and her post on this.

but often times katara as fire lady is very dominant in global/fire nation/water tribe politics, she’s a game changer ambassador (that is probably the most popular headcanon I see), she holds on to her culture (and many fans have designed her being in her wt colors, zuko is respectful af to her, she and zuko spend extended periods in the swt, etc. like... it just depends on the way it’s written.

also leaving this response by @avatarnerdkiller to the idea of katara being a prize figurehead.

anyway, thanks for your patience anon and I am curious to see if you see this or even feel like responding after all this time XD

#atla #petty fandom drama #zutara fandom #zutara #fire lady katara #discourse sigh #racism #fandom racism #asks #anonymous

[respect-tony-stark]

 tl;dr I Made A Bad Decision At 2am And Read A Post About How Tony’s Relationship With Peter Is Creepy And Have Been Pissed Off At The Inaccuracy Ever Since

According to op, Tony stans have a problem with long posts, and while this post proves them wrong I’m not 100% sure they didn’t get it backwards so Tony antis, this may be too long for you. I’m not responding to their post directly because it was made last year and while I’m up for a good argument I honestly don’t think they’re capable of it based on my limited interaction with their feed.

It starts off like a bad wedding speech with the (incorrect) legal definition of kidnapping. According to their post, “the legal definition of kidnapping is taking a minor somewhere without their parent or guardian’s consent.” A five second google search shows that the actual legal definition of kidnapping is unlawful restraint of a person’s liberty by force or show of force where the victim is taken to another location or concealed. Tony did not bodily carry Peter from his home and onto a plane. He did not threaten to shoot him to get him on the plane. He even told Peter to tell his aunt that he would be with Tony so he got semi-informed consent from Peter’s legal guardian.

After their cliche “the dictionary definition of x” intro, they start talking about Peter’s lack of passport and how there’s no way that Peter could’ve left the country legally because he doesn’t have a passport so they would have to lie to May about the location of said field trip and give a few options, one of which being one of Tony’s weapons facilities. They of course are ignoring the fact that Tony shut down his weapon manufacturing years before the start of ca:cw and therefore could not be bringing Peter to one of them, but I digress. Therefore, according to them, Tony is breaking the law by either taking Peter to another country without a passport or with a falsified passport. Except, again after a single google search, there is a company (actually many companies) that will expedite the process of getting a passport to as little as 24 hours. I am certain that Tony, with his wealth of resources and connections, was able to procure a passport for Peter legally and speedily. They just wouldn’t put that in the movie for the same reason you never sit through a whole class in a movie about high school/college kids: you trust the audience to fill in the gaps and assume that it got done.

Next, we have the accusation that Tony is breaking the accords. Keep in mind, it’s been several paragraphs at this point and op hasn’t actually mentioned Peter and Tony’s relationship in favor of trying to bury Tony under allegations of illegal activity, which is ironic because their post is supposed to be about why half of the fandom finds Tony’s relationship with Peter to be creepy. Their first point is that Tony brought an unregistered enhanced individual into a combat situation, which completely ignores the fact that Steve was the one who made it a combat situation and it was the people on Steve’s side that escalated it to a combat situation where serious harm could be done. Tony was simply going to apprehend Steve, who Tony was still mostly on good terms with at good point and who Tony assumed would rather talk to the government than run from and and therefore would not escalate their interaction from talking to fighting, especially when Tony explains they either need to turn themselves in or open themselves up to lethal force by the UN. So that leaves their second point, that Tony took an unregistered, enhanced individual over country borders without prior UN approval. Fortunately, enhanced individuals are not barred from crossing country borders full stop according to the information we have, so Tony still has not run afoul of the Accords.

Op finally moves on from criminalizing Tony to talk about his relationship with Peter, opening this facet of the conversation by claiming that Tony stalked Peter. It’s important to note that in this section, they misconstrue Peter’s age as 14 instead of the cannon 15 for the second time. They claim that Tony has been stalking and tracking him down, which is the only way he could have ever possibly found Peter, unless he has, I don’t know, a powerful AI who can keep tabs on possible new enhanced individuals? If we’re using legal definition to prove points here, here’s the legal definition of stalking, which Tony’s actions do not fall under. They say Tony could only talk to May casually about Peter and dig the Spider Man suit out of hiding because Tony had been collecting intel on Peter. It’s not like he’s been a public figure since he was born and a genius for the same length of time and knows how to bullshit his way through a conversation and use process of elimination to find his hidden suit. They also point out Tony having video recordings of Spider Man as creepy, ignoring that Tony got the one that he showed Peter from YouTube, which Peter himself confirmed, because of course a person stopping cars in a bright red and blue onesie would be videoed and put online.

Now we get to the list of things Tony used to persuade Peter to join him, namely Peter’s poorness, pathetic gear, want to make a difference, and secret identity. As someone who has watched the clip of their meeting numerous times, I can confirm that Tony does not offer Peter money to get him to do anything, he simply uses a scholarship to give May a good reason for him to be in their home so he can talk to Peter. He offers Peter better gear even before he asks him to come to Germany with him, which shows a desire to make Peter safer doing what he’s doing by not using substandard tech. He asks Peter why he’s doing vigilante work and summarizes Peter’s response back to him, he doesn’t introduce the idea of making a difference in conjunction to helping Tony apprehend Steve. He’s showing interest in Peter as a person, trying to make sure his motives aren’t selfish or negative before recruiting him. He asks Peter if May knows about his secret identity to see how careful he needs to be. When Peter webs Tony’s hand to the door after Tony tells him to tell May he’s taking Peter on a field trip and asks Tony not to tell May, Tony says okay without any hesitation. He’s not there to out Peter, he’s there to get Peter’s help. My favorite part of this section is when they say that Peter idolizes the Avengers, and Tony knows this and uses this information to manipulate Peter into doing what he wants when the Avengers are never mentioned individually or as a group at all in the clip where Tony is trying to recruit Peter. They say Tony is dangling all of the things Peter wants most right in front of his face (insinuating that one of the things Pete wants the most is money, but that’s fine) and saying he can have it all if he only says yes to Tony, ignoring the fact that Tony offers the things he offers before he recruits Peter and also that that’s how negotiations work? Tony not giving Peter anything in return for his help would be like getting a job and not getting paid or getting any benefits for that job, it would be shitty and you would not take that job. He’s not bribing Peter like a Disney villain offering his heart’s desire, he’s giving Peter incentive to accept his proposal.

Op then goes through all of the times Peter tries to turn Tony down and Tony blocks his attempts. The first one being that Peter doesn’t have a passport, or even a driver’s license. Without context, which Peter doesn’t have at that point, it could sound like Tony is just asking a question, and Peter’s reply isn’t defensive, it’s casual. When Peter says he can’t go to Germany, that’s a more explicit turning down of Tony’s offer. Tony asks why, trying to determine if Peter has an actual reason for why he can’t go to Germany outside of what could’ve been just Peter trying to get a better deal out of Tony by pretending to be resistant to Tony’s plan. Peter’s homework response is halted, and the poster compares this excuse to a woman saying no to sex because she has a headache. The introduction of sex in any form to their argument is a bastardized version of the logical fallacy reductio ad Hitlerum, where instead of invoking Hitler to make their opponent go on the offensive, they compare Tony and Peter’s relationship to a sexual relationship which makes their opponent angry that it’s being insinuated that they are into/condone pedophilia. Instead, Tony is purposefully baiting Peter with his dismissal of his homework excuse and ignoring his comment about not being able to drop out of school because he knows that what he’s doing is what Steve does to get what he wants. He’s trying to test how Peter reacts to being talked over and ignored to see if it’s actually a good idea to take him to Germany.

We move on to op claiming that most people find this scene squicky because Peter is powerless in this situation, which is blatantly untrue. Peter is not a normal teenager with no skills or ways to protect himself. He has enhanced senses, reflexes, and healing, as well as webbing with tensile strength that impressed Tony Stark, if he needed or wanted to get out of that situation he would have. Tony’s age, wealth, and influence have almost nothing to do with this situation because he in no way insinuates that he will use any of it to Peter’s detriment. Tony is not claiming that he knows better than Peter what Peter needs to do in that instance because he’s older and therefore automatically an authority figure. Tony is not trying to bribe him or threatening to buy his apartment complex and kick Pete and May out of their home, so his wealth is not a determining factor here. Tony’s influence is really the only one that applies because as a public figure he’s got some level of star power that could be a latent influence on Peter’s decision. Peter doesn’t appear to be very star-struck at all while they’re talking, so I’m inclined to disregard this as well. They are not locked in Peter’s room, as the poster claims, they are just in his definitely not sound-proof room with the door closed where, if necessary, Peter could call for May’s help and she would come. “Tony reveals he’s been keeping his eye on Peter for months” is supposed to sound stalker-y to tie into their Tony Is A Stalker argument, completely disregarding the fact that Peter has only had his Spider Man powers for six months and of course someone who’s working on a legal document meant to put limitations on enhanced individuals would be keeping tabs on a newly introduced enhanced individual. Op says that Tony is being very physical with Peter because at the very end of their conversation he sits next to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. They’re that close four about seventeen seconds, and when Peter starts to rebuff him with “I can’t go to Germany” Tony immediately stands up and gives him space. If he was trying to use his closeness as an intimidation tactic or in a creepy way, he would’ve just moved in closer. 

"Tony locks the two of them in Peter’s room, starts poking around through all of his personal things, spends the whole conversation mocking him and demanding answers - showing Peter he has no power in this situation - and reveals that he knows way more about Peter’s personal life than he should.” When does Tony do any of these things? Peter closes, not locks the door. The only poking Tony does is into the ceiling hatch to find Peter’s suit and to call him out on his lie. The only thing he mocks it Peter’s suit, and it’s only twice and it’s only to get Peter to open up. He demands answers exactly once—when Peter says he can’t go to Germany. At no point does he claim knowledge of any part of Peter’s personal life except for Peter being Spider Man. At this point they’re just repeating themselves by claiming Tony is trying to bribe and blackmail Peter into getting his way, neither of which are true as I explained above.

This next part is exceptionally frustrating, because op claims that “if Peter had been a little girl instead of a little boy, there would be dozens of people screaming about harassment and overstepping boundaries and how “no means no” because this entire scene SCREAMS coercion and grooming” and then puts up a series of gifs following the scene as if Peter had been a girl. This is the second time they’ve introduced pedophilia with their grooming comment to throw opponents on the offensive. While it is true that historically people have been less likely to notice the creepy aspect of an interaction when it’s not between the stereotypical adult male and young girl, this is their second logical fallacy of the evening. Welcome, straw man! They’re claiming that people who don’t agree with them are wrong because they can’t see the creepiness in the encounter because it’s not between an adult male and a young girl therefore their opinions on the scene are invalid. The dozens portion of that comment is also fun because it suggests that only a few dozen people care about sexual harassment in the marvel fandom. They follow this up with, you guessed it, yet another logical fallacy (ad hominem) with the line that makes me the angriest in the whole post: “And I do find myself wondering if the crowd that think this is 100% okay when Tony does it to Peter are of the “men can’t be raped” variety...” Someone not agreeing with your interpretation of a scene doesn’t mean you get to get to make attacks to their character about something that serious.

Their next comment is that Tony encouraging Peter to lie to his friends and family about their relationship being a red flag. If it was a sexual relationship, which op keeps leaning towards in a way that I don’t really want to unpack, that would definitely be a red flag. Because it is a superhero mentor relationship where Peter has a secret identity, it reads like Tony is looking out for Peter’s continued safety. Tony is trying to keep Peter out of the spotlight that comes from being a known associate. Tony is encouraging Peter to keep his superhero identity a secret. Peter is a teenager, and by lying to his friends and family about the superhero part of his life (like he was already doing before Tony showed up and took him to Germany) he’s protecting his personal life and the lives of the people he’s close to.

Op then goes on a whole tangent about how Tony drops Peter as soon as he stops being useful, which is part of the reason why their relationship in Homecoming. This is after they complained about Tony breaking the Accords in Civil War by bringing Peter across country borders. There’s clearly nothing very big going on while Civil War is taking place, nothing that would justify putting a 15 year old kid in danger, so Tony doesn’t call on him. “He even goes so far as to put a third person in between them to take over the “answer dumb phone calls from the kid” roll so he doesn’t have to” except the third person is Happy, a man he trusts to relay the important information to him, and he’s clearly getting the messages Peter has been sending his direction because when he talks to Peter he references the content like the lady buying him a churro, and when Peter tells him something important is going on Tony listens and sends the FBI after the threat assuming Peter trusts him to take care of it. Tony does not drop him cold, he does what so many Cap stans try to accuse him of not doing in the first place: he keeps Peter out of danger to the best of his ability.

#pro tony stark #Tony Stark #Peter Parker #Iron Dad #ca:cw #spiderman homecoming #long post #tony stark's a+ parenting

[maedarakat]

Beards

----

(Set during HTTYD 3, post-wedding celebration. Tuff/Eret fluff.)

----

“He’s alone now, go! There's your chance,” the voice whispered in his ear.

A hand nudged Eret sharply from the dark, fingers poking into the small of his back and ushering him forward through the swirling crowd of wedding goers and foreign guests.

Heart racing, Eret nodded respectfully at a smiling red-haired king with a scarred face, who was excitedly talking to Hiccup. He passed them, eyes on the thin blond figure ahead, who was making his way toward the feast table, long braids swinging across his back.

Just the way he walked gave Eret a rush of something that made his pulse quicken, and he hastened his stride until he'd caught up with Tuffnut - finally catching the man without a companion’s face shoved against his chest.

“Tuffnut Thorston! I was hoping you and I might take a walk together.”

Good, good - that was smooth. Gobber had told him to just be himself and he, Eret son of Eret, was one smooth son of a-

“Okay, well, we are walking together.”

Eret floundered, caught off guard. "Right, of course." Before he could steer the conversation further, Tuffnut’s leisurely gait stopped suddenly at the banquet table, which was groaning under the weight of so much food.

Pies of all kinds were laid out, as well as roasted meats, fruits, breads and cheeses, and even some yak parfait. “And now we are here! Thank Loki, I thought I wasn’t going to get to eat until after my best man speech.”

Eret made a small noise of frustration but it was drowned out by someone - probably that Gustav kid - setting off firecrackers somewhere. “Actually I was hoping for a much longer walk. Somewhere else. Just you and me, and far fewer people.”

Oh no. That had sounded creepy. Eret struggled to find a better way to phrase that, but his companion only shrugged, loading up his plate.

"Okay, whatever. But I’m bringing my food. Seriously I’m starving.”

“What? When have you last eaten?” Eret asked automatically and damn it he was fussing wasn’t he.

“Not since this morning. Astrid needed help with her hair and nails, and then I had to go hunt down a few boars for the feast because . . . Well, it’s really taking some getting used to, not having dragons to hunt with, you know. Certainly not as fast.”

Eret’s heart was fluttering. Of course Tuff was the kind of boy who could do manicures one minute and then turn around to gut a boar or two the next.

“No, I imagine not. I would have loved to help.”

“Huh. I figured you’d be busy avoiding all the women chasing after you - especially now, Mr. Bouquet-Catcher. Tsk, you didn’t even wait for Astrid to throw it.”

“I . . . Well, I . . ."

Oh no, he was getting flustered. Eret didn't know why he could never seem to avoid getting tongue tied around Tuffnut Thorston, but here he was yet again - just completely incapable of stringing together a worthy response.

He couldn’t get flustered, because then Tuff would move on and he’d lose his chance. Catching the bouquet had been an omen - so Gobber had insisted - that this time, for sure, he was going to get Tuffnut’s attention.

When in doubt, compliment him, Gobber had advised, not two hours earlier. Just make yourself say something, even if it's not perfect at least it can be honest. That boy is a strange one; I doubt you could bother him if you tried.

“Well, I didn’t quite mean to catch it - I was just too distracted by the sight of your handsome face,” Eret plunged ahead, just blurting out the first thing that came to his mind.

. . . And hopefully Tuff’s gobsmacked expression meant something good?

He stopped eating the cherry pie with his fingers, some of it nearly falling out of his mouth as grey eyes widened slowly and eyebrows climbed heavenwards.

Eret grinned as charmingly as he could muster, determined not to back out now that he had put his foot in it.

"Any chance we could take that walk now?"

Tuff's answer was to put down his food and grab Eret’s arm, dragging him off further away from people and towards the trees, until the sounds of music and laughter were muffled by the great pines.

Yes, this was a good thing! Right?

Tuff stopped them both, and turned to face Eret, looking reproachful. “Dude, you can’t just say stuff like that to me in front of everyone! Do you not see this?” He picked up the braid woven beneath his chin, shaking it like a talisman. “Clear indication that I don’t want any attention drawn to my preferences.”

Eret blinked.

"So how did you figure me out?" Tuff pressed, his tone now anxious. "Did I say something weird? Was it the way I walked?"

“. . . What? No, you haven't -" Eret's words failed him yet again, brain trying to process what Tuff's makeshift beard had to do with anything. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand?"

Tuff opened his mouth then stopped himself and smacked his forehead. “Oh, right. You’re probably not familiar with the whole . . . oh, wow. Yeah, I’m sorry this is my bad, Eret - but fear not - I will explain.”

“Again - what?”

“Well, now you’re completely lost, of course. See, up here in the Archipela-hood, when a guy likes other guys, certain people may not exactly consider them acceptable. So it becomes necessary - for said guy-liking . . . guy - to ‘have a beard’ .”

Tuff said this last part meaningfully, using his fingers as air quotes.

The penny didn’t take long to drop, but when it did, Eret’s jaw dropped open after it. He had no words.

Tuffnut, however, still had plenty - and went on explaining.

“See, the way I've heard it - if you have a beard, people are less likely to suspect you of liking other guys. I mean, I don’t exactly get why it has to be a beard. It must be a girl-liking guy thing, thinking that having a beard is such a piece-de-resistance to the females that there’s no possible way you’re actually someone who likes guys instead. I don't know, I apparently don't make the rules and usually wouldn't follow them even if I did. But anyway, that's why I have this nice full beard."

Eret fought hard against the urge to rub his temples.

“Did - Did someone tell you all this . . . ‘helpful’ information? About beards?"

Tuff laughed and shook his head.

“Mm-mmm, nope. I didn’t ask - you never just ask about this kind of stuff, around here. Everything I’ve learned about ‘blending in’” - again with the air quotes - “came from the time-honored tradition of eavesdropping at the Northern Market men’s outhouses."

Oh, he looked so endearingly proud of himself. How was it possible to be so smart and yet so naive about the world? It made Eret want to punch anyone who looked at Tuff sideways, which was rather unhelpful.

Eret sighed, figuring he'd better set this particular record straight.

"That’s . . . not actually what is meant by ‘having a beard’, Tuffnut. In this context, I mean. Having a ‘beard’ means to have a girlfriend, who is not really your girlfriend. Just a girl who pretends to date you, so that you’re above suspicion.”

"Wha- what? But I heard them . . . I mean, I thought I did."

Tuff went quiet, thinking back and nose slightly scrunched up in thought. After a moment of playing back the remembered conversation in his head, he seemed to crumple.

Then - face turning red - he muttered a soft, humiliated, “Oh.”

Eret immediately wanted to hug him.

“Don’t worry that you got it wrong. Not like you could ask for clarification, right? I don't imagine a place like the Northern Markets is teeming with good-hearted men."

Tuffnut bit his lip, fingers unweaving the braids beneath his chin. “Well, h-how did you find out about this kind of stuff? Nobody seems to think you like guys. I mean, I was surprised. How have you kept others from finding out?”

Eret felt rather than heard the note of hopeful desperate fear in Tuff’s voice.

“Are you afraid of someone in particular finding out, or just everyone in general?” the former trapper asked carefully.

It took a while for Tuff to answer, but by the time he did, long uneven strands of his hair - his former beard - were hanging down in front of his shoulders, catching the rays of the red setting sun, and glimmering like embers.

There was a despondent look in his silver eyes that truly pained Eret, like more than just a braid was becoming unraveled.

“My friends wouldn’t care, and my sister knows but . . . I’m afraid of proving my family right about everything. They’ve always said something was wrong with me.” Tuff’s voice caught raggedly on the last word.

"So maybe it’s this, and they probably know already, and I’ve just been making an even bigger fool of myself by trying to hide anything."

Tuff's eyes were wet. Eret stepped forward without thinking, arms open, and felt ridiculously relieved when Tuffnut didn’t back away. At first he held still in the embrace, but within a moment he'd melted forward, hugging Eret back tightly.

He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

Tuff was quiet, though Eret could easily feel the tension in his jaw and neck and the cautious stiffness with which he hugged back. He could also feel Tuff frantically swallowing any and all evidence of any tears - any possible sign of weakness that might result in rejection.

This wasn't his personality. This reaction had been trained into him.

“If it helps,” Eret said hesitantly, “Know that my family was not the most accepting type either. I remember too well how it feels, trying over and over to impress people who are supposed to love you regardless. Who don’t seem to know you, or to even want to get to know you.”

The words were difficult to say, but they needed said. “Finding out I liked men was terrifying at first. I had to hide it from everyone. I didn’t feel safe, not even with my closest friends. Not out of any fear they’d be malicious, but what if they spoke carelessly around my father? Around people who knew my father?”

Tuff drew in a shaking breath and nodded against Eret’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t be their hides on the line,” he mumbled thickly in agreement.

“Right. Eventually, it went from being terrifying to just . . . lonely.“

There was no response to that, but Tuffnut hitched and swallowed hard, curling down in his arms a little.

Eret made an attempt at a soothing noise, absently stroking Tuff’s hair. The red gleams of gold were fading as dusk cast the forest snow around them into deep pink shadows, though he was no less beautiful in Eret’s vision.

The wedding party's music had reached new heights, accompanied by a raucous drone of loud, drunk Vikings chanting lyrics back to whatever minstrel they’d employed for the night. It was cathartic and a bit surreal, and weirdly perfect.

“Thank you,” Tuff murmured, lifting his face. “I . . . I actually feel a lot less lonely now.”

His own heart was pounding, but Eret nodded. He still held onto Tuff, not really wanting to let go. He would though, as soon as Tuff wanted him to.

“If you ever want to talk again, I’ll be around. Carrying something heavy, most likely,” Eret offered, feeling lame. He wanted to do so much more.

Tuff looked up at him and then gasped, face lighting up in a sudden grin that made Eret's heart pound.

"Oh my Loki, wait a minute, were you - were you trying to - was that for me? All that heavy lifting?”

Eret felt a strange mixture of sheepish and proud. “Well, not all of it - some things did actually need carried. We moved an entire village not three months ago.”

“But you lifted Gobber’s entire wagon like seven times in the past week, just to move it two feet further away each and every time that I walked through the clearing - oh my Loki!“

Tuffnut covered his face, which was slowly resembling an apple. “You . . . you giant adorable moose.”

Weird pet name, but Eret was not about to complain, not when Tuffnut suddenly pounced back into his arms, kissing him.

It was a quick hard kiss, tasting of honey and stolen berry tarts, and Eret swore he would never forget that taste.

Tuff pulled back almost immediately, body tense and hands cautiously lingering over Eret's biceps, but all Eret could seem to do was grin lopsidedly.

He gained his wits enough to return the kiss with plenty of heated interest, until finally Tuff pulled back to look at him and catch his breath.

"I never thought anybody in the entire world would flirt with me,” he managed breathlessly.

“Well, get used to it. From me, that is.”

Right, being smooth. So very smooth.

Tuff laughed and relaxed against him, apparently immensely reassured. He kissed Eret again, this time on the nose.

“We-We have to go back. To the wedding. I have a Chieftain to embarrass with a speech, and a Chieftess to make punch me, or at least chase me around a few tables with her axe.”

Well, he sounded much better - more like his usual self. Probably needed to process a few things,to do not that he could blame him.

Eret couldn’t seem to stop grinning, feeling immeasurably happy and proud of himself.

“Do you want to go for another walk later?” Tuff was asking, and the former trapper nodded, belatedly remembering to let go of Tuff's waist.

“Sure,” Eret shrugged, as though his heart wasn’t doing absolute cartwheels in his chest.

They walked together back to the crowded areas, Tuff giving his hand a squeeze before slipping into the throng of villagers and disappearing to go do his particular brand of friendly wedding mischief.

Eret watched him go fondly, trailing not too far behind.

#tuffnut #tuffret #httyd3 #eret son of eret #spoilers for the hidden world

[bubble-tea-bunny]

down for the count 

[steve harrington x reader]

author’s note: i always enjoy writing fics like this one, w/ a more fun, sort of sarcastic tone but i find it kinda difficult. i can’t force it; just gotta let it happen. listened to this on repeat which def helped get me in the right mood. hope y’all enjoy fanboy steve lol

word count: 2,103

Steve has kind of… sort of… always been a fan. But then again, who wasn’t? The Hawkins High School girls volleyball team is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in the league, and has gone undefeated this season. There had been some close calls, neck-and-neck games with a rival team who was also vying for the number one spot. One doesn’t have to ask who ended up winning the whole shebang this year, because there’s a shiny new trophy sitting in the glass case in the hallway, behind which rests a picture of this year’s team. You’re in the front, balancing yourself on one bent knee and atop the other you keep the volleyball, holding it in place with your hand.

The team owes a lot of its success to you, as captain, and in more ways than one. Perhaps the most obvious reason is the skill you exhibit. You play club, meaning you live and breathe the sport. Everyone’s pretty sure that’s your full-ride ticket into college. But you neither confirm nor deny that, not wanting to show off (admittedly all the attention does make you a tad uncomfortable). The second reason you seem to be the source of the team’s undefeated season is that you’re the glue that holds everyone together. During the more intense games, the stress on your teammates’ faces isn’t difficult to miss, and you’re there in an instant, just as high-strung, but pushing them on, pushing you all on. You believe in every single one of them, in their ability to do so much more, and maybe it’s a bit melodramatic to say these things in the context of high school volleyball, but it goes beyond that. Your encouragement follows them off the court, and they know they will always find a friend in you.

All these things taken into consideration, perhaps it’s not so hard to tell why Steve is as big a fan as he is. And if someone asked him to admit it, what he thought of you, he might not do so out loud, but whenever you walk past him and he catches a whiff of your lavender shampoo and his eyes follow you, unabashedly staring as you continue down the hall, and his friend has to tap on his shoulder to let him know he’s bordering on the creepy side, well, that’s how he confesses the way he feels. He thinks you’re perfect. Too perfect for him, in fact.

Which seems ass-backwards, as he has been told multiple times by close friends when they catch him giving you heart-eyes, thank you very much. He’s Steve fucking Harrington—he could have any girl he wanted! (Their words, not his.) But it’s only met with a roll of his eyes so hard he’s surprised they don’t detach from the sockets. And he scoffs and tells them you’re [Name] fucking [Last Name], star athlete (this is accompanied by a sarcastic sweeping motion of his hand) and there’s no way you’d be interested in the likes of him, Harrington charm (“—and hair!” he adds quickly, because he can see one of them is about to say it) or no.

He’d like to consider himself your number one cheerleader, showing up to all the home games, cheering whenever Hawkins gets a point and cheering just a little louder when it’s you who’s made the shot. You glance over at the bleachers during those moments, smiling at what he would like to think is him, but it’s most likely aimed at your friends sitting a few rows behind him. Sometimes he wonders if you remember his name. Being in the same PE class and all, it’s a name you’ll have heard daily during roll call. Then the next thing to cross his mind is if you could pair the name to his face. Hearing it is one thing, but matching it to him is a whole different matter. He doubts you’ve so much as glanced his way, the longest you ever have being during dodgeball and with your sights trained on him, you’d chucked the ball in your lithe hands straight at him so hard he could swear it whistled through the air. (It nailed him in the stomach and he clutched at his torso the whole shameful walk over to the bench.)

When the teacher announces that today you’ll all be playing volleyball, Steve automatically glances over at you on the other side of the bleachers, where all of you sit for roll call. You don’t look overly excited or anything, just a small smile on your face, but that smile always seems to be there. He can hear some people around him muttering they hope they’re on your team. But this is followed by groans when the teacher draws an imaginary line down the center of the class with an outstretched hand, splitting the teams that way. That puts Steve on the opposite side of you, and while he doesn’t voice it, he can’t help but silently agree with the others on his team that they’ll most definitely be losing by a landslide.

“Maybe she’ll go easy,” someone says.

It’s met with a laugh. “I bet you we’ll still lose.”

You definitely don’t play with the same force as you do during games, but even your casual pace is hard to keep up with. There’s a gap between your scores (your team in the lead) but nothing huge. It’s a realistic gap they can close. The current point has you and Steve in the center spot of the front row. You both stand with feet apart and all Steve can think is how pretty you are. You’re smiling at him, for it’s easy to spot his staring when he’s right across from you, and you don’t break eye contact. Your team has the serve, and when you hear your teammate bouncing the ball in preparation, you bend your knees slightly, keeping your back straight—textbook ready position. And because Steve has been watching you all the while, he mirrors it subconsciously, but he’s sure his form doesn’t look nearly as good (and he does not—does not—mean that in a perverted way. No siree).

The subsequent rally is probably the longest one yet. For most of the game thus far you’ve tried to open up opportunities for others on your team to hit the ball, setting up shots for them, and that’s no different for this point. But when someone sets the ball up high, it lines up right in front of you, which pretty much means it’s your shot. The whole time you’ve avoided spiking (at least not hard), but when the ball is falling back down in a perfectly straight line, instinct kicks in, and you meet it with a jump, wrist snapping down to drive the ball into the glossy gym floor. Except it doesn’t hit the glossy gym floor. It hits Steve in the face.

All he can think when it makes impact and he’s falling to the ground in a crumpled heap is that this is most definitely his fault. He’d been too distracted watching you that he hadn’t even processed the ball was coming straight for him, and he’d failed to even put up his arms to block it. The ball rolls away but no one is paying it any mind as they all look at him worriedly—you most of all. You cover your mouth with your hands, eyes wide in concern and guilt quickly festering. You duck beneath the net and approach him, sitting on your knees next to him where he lays on the ground.

“Oh my gosh, Steve, are you okay?” you ask. His nose has started bleeding and you feel even worse. He’s looking up at you with squinted eyes, clearly dazed.

The light shining in from the windows behind you makes you look like an angel and Steve wonders if he’s died because that’s the only way he thinks he’d be graced with such a sight. He’s owing his use of overly poetic (and cheesy as hell) language typically absent from his vocabulary to his maybe-concussion. And immediately after considering he might actually be concussed, he realizes you said his name. You remember it. You know who he is. He’d be more excited if the blood from his nose hadn’t just reached his lips and if his head weren’t pounding like a motherfucker.

Upon the teacher’s instruction, a fellow classmate leads Steve to the restroom. You watch them walk off with a small frown on your face, and when the game continues, you avoid anymore spikes. Truthfully, you’re not paying much attention anymore. All you’re thinking about is Steve and how you really hope it’s not anything too bad. You’ll need to find him later to apologize. Profusely.

Luckily it’s not a concussion. Just a killer headache. Steve emerges from the nurse’s office and sighs heavily, pausing a moment in front of the door to set a hand on his temple, waiting for the throbbing to ease up so he can walk without feeling like he’s about to tip over. That’s where you find him, and you rush up to him, cringing slightly as you watch him rub his forehead.

“Hey, not too bad I hope?” you inquire softly so as not to startle him.

Steve opens his eyes to find you standing before him in normal clothes once again, your brows furrowed. Your cheeks are flustered as well, an obvious sign you’d just been in PE. He smiles and nods, appreciative of your concern. “No concussion.”

“That’s good.” You smile back, more at ease now but not any less guilty. “I’m really, really sorry about that. I wasn’t aiming for your face, I promise.”

At this, Steve can’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry about it. I should’ve been paying more attention.”

“Still… I shouldn’t have gotten carried away like that.” You sigh.

“You know, this might just be the almost-concussion talking, but I feel sort of honored that you spiked me in the face.”

This elicits a laugh from you, and Steve likes the way it sounds. A lot. A part of him can’t really believe he’s having a conversation with you, even if it is due to you having injured him, and it’s one that’s a lot easier to carry than he thought it would be. You’re just so friendly. It makes him wonder why he was so scared in the first place. And when he tells himself this, he can’t help the way he continues speaking, and before he realizes just what he’s saying, the words are already out in the open, as if he’d momentarily been possessed by someone else. It’s like even otherworldly forces are rooting for him and when he didn’t have the balls to do it himself, they ran out of patience and did it for him.

“But if you really wanted to make it up to me, maybe you could let me take you to the café downtown?”

You almost don’t think you heard Steve right, but he’s smiling nervously and there’s hope flittering in his eyes and you know you’d heard him perfectly fine. At least you can owe the flush of your cheeks to the fact you’d just been in the gym for PE. But it’s difficult to excuse your goofy smile, which you try to keep down by biting your lip. (You’re failing.)

“Sure.” You nod. “What time did you have in mind?”

Steve doesn’t answer right away, mostly because he’s transfixed on your cute grin. He wants to tell you he likes when you smile and he doesn’t want you to hide it, but he figures he can always bring that up later. “Is after school today all right with you?”

“That’s perfect.”

“Great.”

“Great.” You purse your lips and your smile is the tiniest bit shyer, if Steve isn’t imagining anything. He’s fairly certain he’s not, but at the same time he can’t be too sure since that ball to the face is still making him a little woozy. “I’ll see you later then.”

“You will.” Steve smiles and watches as you proceed to walk down the hall, and at one point you glance over your shoulder at him, pink lips curled up slightly in a smile almost feline and pink cheeks making you glow. The end of the school day can’t come fast enough, and all he’s seeing in his mind’s eye as he goes from class to class is your dimpled beam, bright and beautiful as the sun.  

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagine #stranger things #stranger things imagine #steve harrington #queue #bubble-tea-bunny

[katyagrayce]

The Final Problem: my final opinion

I know that there are some fans, on Tumblr and elsewhere, who actually liked this episode. THAT’S OKAY. SERIOUSLY. You’re entitled to like whatever you want. It doesn’t mean anything other than that we have different taste in movies/different priorities when it comes to what we want from Sherlock, and that kind of opinion divide is pretty much inevitable with a show this varied and this popular. So if you belong to the TFP Fans Club, I want to clarify that I mean you no hate :-)

Personally, however, I did not like The Final Problem. My reasons included, but were not limited to: a) The disproportionally rapid, action-reliant and melodramatic storytelling, which wasn’t really consistent with the series’ tone so far. (This encompasses everything from that crazy Hollywood explosion to the fake cell Euros built for Sherlock - not to mention the the ‘video game’ set up of her puzzle system. Also, the age-old idea of throwing someone down a well. There were a lot of clichés at play in this episode). b) The suddenness with which Euros was introduced as a character, and the unfeasibility (IMHO) of Sherlock not remembering her at all. c) Speaking of unfeasibility - I also had issues with Euros planning the entire torture session in five minutes, building all of that underground lair, ferrying herself between Sherrinford and London so easily, getting everyone to Musgrave Hall/into their various cells so quickly, and getting John/Victor down that well without causing them serious injury. d) The oversimplicity of Euros’ psychological arc also frustrated me. I mean - there is loneliness, and then there is clinical psychopathy. They are two separate things. It’s true that there’s some overlap between the two groups, but not enough to pin all Euros’ behaviour on her being a scared little child with ‘no one’ to turn to - someone who later becomes 100% complacent just because she’s finally been hugged. Plus, when they decided to oversimplify Euros’ psychology Mofftiss basically dropped the chance to create a really complicated, really nuanced villain like Moriarty (remember all that amazing analysis about whether he wanted to beat Sherlock or just wanted the distraction, why he killed himself, whether boredom had driven him almost to the edge of insanity, etc., etc.? Euros doesn’t get any of those interesting conversations, mainly because she’s been automatically typecast as a ‘creepy loner child in need of attention.’) e) Speaking of emotional oversimplification - I also didn’t like the maximum emotional milking that Mofftiss brought to EVERY SCENE. Entire sequences, like Sherlock’s phone call to Molly and Euros forcing Sherlock to choose between Mycroft and John, seemed explicitly orchestrated to stir up audience feels as quickly as possible, instead of doing it slowly, skilfully and in-context (eg. I found Sherlock’s conversation asking for Molly’s help at the end of TRF much more feels-worthy than his phone call here, because it tied back to a conversation they’d already had about her ‘not counting’ and didn’t take place in a completely staged, high-tension situation.) f) And now for a big one - inconsistent character development. I feel that there were a lot of characters who acted quite OOC in this episode. First up, I think that John would have shot the governor. After all, he’s a soldier, he knows the pain of losing a wife, he’s very morally self-assured and he has killed before (see ASIP for evidence of the last two points), so even though he would have found it difficult I think he would’ve pushed through. I also think he would’ve tried very, very hard to talk Sherlock out of suicide, not just stood there dumbly and watched. Especially considering that he’d been prepared to die for him literally twenty seconds beforehand. Now for a second character: Molly. I understand that the scene with Molly was really effective for a lot of viewers, but - I wasn’t one of them. In TEH, it seemed that Molly was finally getting some character development beyond her crush on Sherlock - she recognised that he was using her as a replacement for John and cut that behaviour in its tracks, despite how difficult it might have been for her. In this episode, she spends every second on-screen looking totally lovesick, and proceeds to sacrifice her dignity just to answer a request that - from her perspective - must look a lot like either a cruel prank or a childish whim. The Molly we knew had grown beyond that - and, while I’m happy she survived, I’m not happy she had to fall apart to do it. Plus, what about that quick glance of her in the closing sequence when she pops into Baker St, smiling and seemingly totally okay? Did the phone call really have that low an emotional impact on her? To me, it just seems like a quick, lazy fix. And now, last but not least: Sherlock. This episode throws some spanners in what has been, up until this point, a very consistent and well-written subplot about his emotional growth. Throughout all the previous episodes we can track his ‘becoming a good man’ - he knows he’s hurt Molly in ASIB, he soothes a hysterical Henry Knight in THOB, he can talk down Major Sholto in TSOT and understands John’s grieving process in TLD. He even goes from subtly intervening in John’s suicide in ASIP to explicitly saving ‘Faith’ in TLD, which is an amazing example of how much he’s grown as a character. But in this episode - all of a sudden - he starts fluctuating wildly between ‘emotionally incapable’ and ‘emotional paragon’ when he shouldn’t really be at either end of the scale. The kind of man who can’t understand why Molly isn’t picking up, and who thinks “But it’s me calling!” is a valid excuse, can’t possibly be the same person who charms his sister out of psychosis with a hug and explicitly tells a DI that his brother ‘isn’t as strong as he thinks.’ Personally, I think that the episode’s latter actions are slightly more in-character for Sherlock than the earlier ones, but that’s not the point. The point is that this episode muddled a lot of very good character development back up again. g) A more minor thing, but - this episode was literally full of plot holes. Including, but not limited to, how the furniture in 221B possibly survived the blast, how Euros (an adult woman) sounded like a little girl on the phone, and how John climbed out of a well he was chained to. h) Another, less minor thing - ALL THE LOOSE ENDS FROM THE SERIES THAT THIS EPISODE LEFT BEHIND. Irene Adler was brought back into the picture, only for nothing to come of it. Rosie Watson was born and then featured for a grand total of two seconds after TST. Euros had a working partnership with Culverton Smith (? How did that exist while she was confined at Sherrinford?) that was neither explained nor justified. And, perhaps worst of all - this whole ‘final problem’ promised by Moriarty ended up being organised by someone totally different. i) And finally, one of the most disappointing elements of the whole episode - Mary’s final video. Put bluntly, it contradicted everything that I see the show as being about. Sherlock has always been very much about the two people behind the legend, putting the spotlight on Sherlock’s fragility and John’s dangerous addictions where ACD just smoothed them over with a Victorian gloss - ‘there’s always the two of them,’ as said in TAB, and the focus is on the relationship in between. But what Mary is saying in this speech is that nothing the show gave us apparently matters. Only the legend does. The ACD stories are apparently the important part. It’s a very, very demeaning way for the series to summarise itself, and it’s this, over anything else, that makes me suspect we might have a secret 4th episode upcoming.

Now, you might notice something - reading the above list. You might notice that I didn’t mention Johnlock. That’s right. I, personally, didn’t mind whether Johnlock happened or not. And it’s getting really frustrating seeing people dissatisfied with TFP get dismissed because ‘they’re just angry that their ship didn’t happen.’ There was a lot, a LOT wrong with this episode beyond the ship, and while it might be a valid reason for people not to like TFP (I’ll get to that in Point 4) it’s not the only one. Please, don’t write off some very legitimate, very reasoned disappointment as some kind of ship-driven whim just because you can.

Now, all that said - I have to add that the queer-baiting in the lead-up to this episode was absolutely horrendous. Like I said, I’m not a Johnlock shipper and always had doubts about it happening, but the trailer editing and publicity stunts - Sherlock saying ‘I love you’ right after the Culverton Smith ‘darkest secret’ quote, the flickering rainbow letters on the PBS TV spot, Benedict saying ‘Love conquers all’ and Amanda saying TFP ‘makes television history’ - all those things were pointing in one pretty obvious direction. Now, this wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it had happened with literally any other potential plotline on the show, but the thing about queer-baiting is that it exploits a highly vulnerable and extremely under-represented group - the LGBTQ+ community. It lures them in with something they sorely want and need - media representation - and then not only fails to deliver but thumbs its nose at their disappointment. It rubs salt into the wound. It’s cruel and not okay, and as an experienced partnership with one gay member Mofftiss should have known better. So, even if you think disappointed Johnlockers are ‘just being petty,’ you have to remember that the experience of being denied this ship can carry a lot of emotional impacts other ships don’t.

And, finally - there were things about this episode that I liked, even loved wholeheartedly. Sherlock calling John family. Their re-decorating the flat, and the two-second snapshot featuring a happy Rosie. Sherlock remembering Greg’s name, and Greg calling him a ‘good man’ (it was a bit on-the-nose, but still). Mrs Hudson sassing Mycroft about the kettle. Even the idea of Euros as a little girl on a plane was fundamentally a good one, if oversimplified, over-focused on and overdone. So yes - this episode did have its moments. And it’s not affecting my enjoyment of Sherlock as a whole, but still - that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Um... If you’ve read this far, congratulations! I didn’t mean for this post to get so long, but it feels good to have vented a bit :-)

#sherlock #s4 #the final problem #tfp #rant #long post #sorry for the long post! #spoilers #sherlock spoilers #tfp spoilers #original post

[sheminecrafts]

TikTok just gave itself permission to collect biometric data on US users, including ‘faceprints and voiceprints’

A change to TikTok’s U.S. privacy policy on Wednesday introduced a new section that says the social video app “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information” from its users’ content. This includes things like “faceprints and voiceprints,” the policy explained. Reached for comment, TikTok could not confirm what product developments necessitated the addition of biometric data to its list of disclosures about the information it automatically collects from users, but said it would ask for consent in the case such data collection practices began.

The biometric data collection details were introduced in the newly added section, “Image and Audio Information,” found under the heading of “Information we collect automatically” in the policy.

This is the part of TikTok’s Privacy Policy that lists the types of data the app gathers from users, which was already fairly extensive.

The first part of the new section explains that TikTok may collect information about the images and audio that are in users’ content, “such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content.”

While that may sound creepy, other social networks do object recognition on images you upload to power accessibility features (like describing what’s in an Instagram photo, for example), as well as for ad targeting purposes. Identifying where a person and the scenery is can help with AR effects, while converting spoken words to text helps with features like TikTok’s automatic captions.

TikTok adds auto captions to make videos accessible to hard of hearing and deaf

The policy also notes this part of the data collection is for enabling “special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally-identifying operations,” it says.

The more concerning part of the new section references a plan to collect biometric data.

It states:

We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content. Where required by law, we will seek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection.

The statement itself is vague, as it doesn’t specify whether it’s considering federal law, states laws, or both. It also doesn’t explain, as the other part did, why TikTok needs this data. It doesn’t define the terms “faceprints” or “voiceprints.” Nor does it explain how it would go about seeking the “required permissions” from users, or if it would look to either state or federal laws to guide that process of gaining consent.

That’s important because as it stands today, only a handful of U.S. states have biometric privacy laws, including Illinois, Washington, California, Texas and New York. If TikTok only requested consent, “where required by law,” it could mean users in other states would not have to be informed about the data collection.

Reached for comment, a TikTok spokesperson could not offer more details on the company’s plans for biometric data collection or how it may tie in to either current or future products.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we recently updated our Privacy Policy to provide more clarity on the information we may collect,” the spokesperson said.

The company also pointed us to an article about its approach to data security, TikTok’s latest Transparency Report and the recently launched privacy and security hub, which is aimed at helping people better understand their privacy choices on the app.

Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP) (Photo by NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images)

The biometric disclosure comes at a time when TikTok has been working to regain the trust of some U.S. users.

Under the Trump administration, the federal government attempted to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. entirely, calling the app a national security threat because of its ownership by a Chinese company. TikTok fought back against the ban and went on record to state it only stores TikTok U.S. user data in its U.S. data centers and in Singapore.

It said it has never shared TikTok user data with the Chinese government nor censored content, despite being owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. And it said it would never do so, if asked.

Though the TikTok ban was initially stopped in the courts, the federal government appealed the rulings. But when President Biden took office, his administration put the appeal process on hold as it reviewed the actions taken by his predecessor. And although Biden has, as of today, signed an executive order to restrict U.S. investment in Chinese firms linked to surveillance, his administration’s position on TikTok remains unclear.

TikTok launches a new information hub and Twitter account to ‘correct the record,’ it says

It is worth noting, however, that the new disclosure about biometric data collection follows a $92 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against TikTok, originally filed in May 2020, over the social media app’s violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The consolidated suit included more than 20 separate cases filed against TikTok over the platform’s collection and sharing of the personal and biometric information without user consent. Specifically, this involved the use of facial filter technology for special effects.

In that context, TikTok’s legal team may have wanted to quickly cover themselves from future lawsuits by adding a clause that permits the app to collect personal biometric data.

The disclosure, we should also point out, has only been added to the U.S. Privacy Policy, as other markets like the EU have stricter data protection and privacy laws.

The new section was part of a broader update to TikTok’s Privacy Policy, which included other changes both large and small, ranging from corrections of earlier typos to revamped or even entirely new sections. Most of these tweaks and changes could be easily explained, though — like new sections that clearly referenced TikTok’s e-commerce ambitions or adjustments aimed at addressing the implications of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency on targeted advertising.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has arrived — here’s what you need to know

In the grand scheme of things, TikTok still has plenty of data on its users, their content and their devices, even without biometric data.

For example, TikTok policy already stated it automatically collects information about users’ devices, including location data based on your SIM card and IP addresses and GPS, your use of TikTok itself and all the content you create or upload, the data you send in messages on its app, metadata from the content you upload, cookies, the app and file names on your device, battery state and even your keystroke patterns and rhythms, among other things.

This is in addition to the “Information you choose to provide,” which comes from when you register, contact TikTok or upload content. In that case, TikTok collects your registration info (username, age, language, etc.), profile info (name, photo, social media accounts), all your user-generated content on the platform, your phone and social network contacts, payment information, plus the text, images and video found in the device’s clipboard. (TikTok, as you may recall, got busted by Apple’s iOS 14 feature that alerted users to the fact that TikTok and other apps were accessing iOS clipboard content. Now, the policy says TikTok “may collect” clipboard data “with your permission.”)

Building customer-first relationships in a privacy-first world is critical

The content of the Privacy Policy itself wasn’t of immediate concern to some TikTok users. Instead, it was the buggy rollout.

Some users reported seeing a pop-up message alerting them to the Privacy Policy update, but the page was not available when they tried to read it. Others complained of seeing the pop-up repeatedly. This issue doesn’t appear to be universal. In tests, we did not have an issue with the pop-up ourselves.

Hey @tiktok_us if you’re going to FORCE users to sign a new privacy policy I think you should make it available to read. pic.twitter.com/0qw9UfS8Q2

— Matthew Eric (@matthewericdoes) June 2, 2021

Yes Tiktok, you changed your privacy policy, you only need to tell me once pic.twitter.com/LRs7CxcNht

— Dieghoe (@diegheaux) June 2, 2021

if i open up tiktok one more time and see that notification that they’ve updated their privacy policy i might just- pic.twitter.com/uzArIoysZW

— alli

(@allimaemangsat) June 3, 2021

Additional reporting by Zack Whittaker

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/3zbFjal via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

[mccullytech]

Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies

Imagine flying into San Francisco International and having a driver ready to pick you up and deliver you directly to your hotel. There, the concierge greets you and hands you the key card to your room. Or better yet, an app on your phone directs you to your room and unlocks your hotel door. And, all of these actions are enacted without your initiation. You may think this is an experience for the elite, but this “experience chain” — where multiple brands collaborate to provide a singular experience — is getting closer to reality for all of us.

From a customer’s perspective, a travel excursion like the one mentioned above is a single experience. But in today’s on-demand economy, a single business can’t deliver such an end-to end experience for a consumer outside of its core business.

How do brands work together to deliver a unified and seamless experience rather than multiple, possibly disjointed, but hopefully related, experiences?

As I go from place to place or site to site or app to app on my phone, once I leave the context of the brand I was interacting with, I’m basically breaking whatever experience I was having and starting a new one. That’s where an “experience chain” is needed. The idea is that two or more related businesses (an airline, ground transportation, and hotel, as in the example above) work together to create a seamless experience for their joint customers, which in turn helps all three companies succeed.

For airlines, on-demand cars, and hotels to collaborate on an experience chain, they need to find a way to share information that allows them to deliver an exceptional experience throughout their customer’s entire trip. Instead of ordering a car when you get off your plane and then finding out the closest driver is 10 minutes away, imagine that as soon as the plane is at the gate, the airline shares that information with a car service, so that by the time you walk out to the curb, your car is pulling in to greet you. The hotel and car service also exchange information about where your hotel booking is (so the car knows where to take you) and when you will arrive (so your room is ready for you).

How is this possible? It takes sharing the right data at the right time — and having entire organizations from multiple businesses eager to help.

Get C-Level Support for Information Sharing As companies commit to true collaboration, there are so many exciting ideas that can come to fruition, including experiences that go beyond what a single brand can deliver. But it will take the willingness and capability of one business (like American Airlines) to share their data with another (like Uber and then Marriott) so that the customer’s positive, even delightful experience can continue seamlessly from one brand to the next.

Sharing data, first throughout a single organization — whether from calendars, social media, purchases, or surveys — requires buy-in that starts at the top and then moves down into the other layers. Perhaps the product design team is getting negative feedback on why money transfers take five days, so they need to share information and data back and forth with the financial team to brainstorm creative ways to change the process and facilitate better user experiences. Or, the legal department needs information on how to keep the customer in mind when developing their terms of service to ensure they don’t stand in the way of a positive customer experience. This collaborative focus on the customer throughout an organization is key for making an experience business work.

The next major step to develop experience chains is to have C-level executives buy into the sharing of data among partnering companies. Data security is always of utmost concern, but experience businesses need to be willing to trust their partners. They should implement and insist upon rigorous controls, as well as develop ethics and standards that protect the type of information needed to keep experience chains going.

We already have dozens of customers subscribed to data “co-ops,” designed to help them create better analytics and experiences for their own businesses. These companies already have the mentality and CEO support to share data that will help them deliver better experiences.

Use AI, But Don’t Neglect the Human Touch Just Yet Technology also plays a valuable role in creating experience chains. Today, artificial intelligence is used to look at a customer’s history and then provide current options based on what he/she is likely to need or do. Where we expect it to become extremely valuable is in predicting what consumers want and delivering it without them having to ask. This kind of preemptive decision making is the golden ticket we’re all working toward — and we’re getting closer every day.

For example, smart home technologies such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home are listening to us and learning about our preferences at different times of day and are starting to make decisions for us (kind of creepy, I know). If my smart refrigerator orders fruit and I leave an apple in the fruit bin too long, then it will decide to order fewer apples the next time. Or if my home assistant recognized from my schedule that I had been in back-to-back meetings all day, it could know to play relaxing music when I arrive home.

You might recall the Tesla-Dunkin’ Donuts-Visa experience chain we shared at the Adobe Summit last year — your Tesla gets a text about a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, automatically orders a coffee for you, and it’s ready and paid for through your Visa account when you arrive, so you just grab it and go. As long as experience businesses commit to true collaboration, AI can help create many similar and fulfilling experiences.

This being said, I don’t believe we should automate everything just yet. We aren’t to the point yet where AI can make the right decisions that take into account my emotional state or my history as a consumer of any particular product. Additionally, the human touch is still needed, in most cases, to turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one. Interacting with an automated machine doesn’t often make me feel better about a product or service. That only happens when I get a human on the phone and can feel my problem being solved.

Experience businesses that are eager to operate in an experience economy will succeed as they help each other through experience chains. Learning how to structure your organization — as well as work with other brands and even competitors — will help deliver fluid, compelling, and personalized experiences that create an emotional connection between the customer and the brand, resulting in long-lasting loyalty. It’s a win-win-win for all.

Read more ideas about the future of experience business from our #AdobeTT participants.

The post Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/customer-experience/experience-chains-linking-great-experiences-across-companies/

#Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe

[euro3plast-fr]

Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies

Imagine flying into San Francisco International and having a driver ready to pick you up and deliver you directly to your hotel. There, the concierge greets you and hands you the key card to your room. Or better yet, an app on your phone directs you to your room and unlocks your hotel door. And, all of these actions are enacted without your initiation. You may think this is an experience for the elite, but this “experience chain” — where multiple brands collaborate to provide a singular experience — is getting closer to reality for all of us.

From a customer’s perspective, a travel excursion like the one mentioned above is a single experience. But in today’s on-demand economy, a single business can’t deliver such an end-to end experience for a consumer outside of its core business.

How do brands work together to deliver a unified and seamless experience rather than multiple, possibly disjointed, but hopefully related, experiences?

As I go from place to place or site to site or app to app on my phone, once I leave the context of the brand I was interacting with, I’m basically breaking whatever experience I was having and starting a new one. That’s where an “experience chain” is needed. The idea is that two or more related businesses (an airline, ground transportation, and hotel, as in the example above) work together to create a seamless experience for their joint customers, which in turn helps all three companies succeed.

For airlines, on-demand cars, and hotels to collaborate on an experience chain, they need to find a way to share information that allows them to deliver an exceptional experience throughout their customer’s entire trip. Instead of ordering a car when you get off your plane and then finding out the closest driver is 10 minutes away, imagine that as soon as the plane is at the gate, the airline shares that information with a car service, so that by the time you walk out to the curb, your car is pulling in to greet you. The hotel and car service also exchange information about where your hotel booking is (so the car knows where to take you) and when you will arrive (so your room is ready for you).

How is this possible? It takes sharing the right data at the right time — and having entire organizations from multiple businesses eager to help.

Get C-Level Support for Information Sharing As companies commit to true collaboration, there are so many exciting ideas that can come to fruition, including experiences that go beyond what a single brand can deliver. But it will take the willingness and capability of one business (like American Airlines) to share their data with another (like Uber and then Marriott) so that the customer’s positive, even delightful experience can continue seamlessly from one brand to the next.

Sharing data, first throughout a single organization — whether from calendars, social media, purchases, or surveys — requires buy-in that starts at the top and then moves down into the other layers. Perhaps the product design team is getting negative feedback on why money transfers take five days, so they need to share information and data back and forth with the financial team to brainstorm creative ways to change the process and facilitate better user experiences. Or, the legal department needs information on how to keep the customer in mind when developing their terms of service to ensure they don’t stand in the way of a positive customer experience. This collaborative focus on the customer throughout an organization is key for making an experience business work.

The next major step to develop experience chains is to have C-level executives buy into the sharing of data among partnering companies. Data security is always of utmost concern, but experience businesses need to be willing to trust their partners. They should implement and insist upon rigorous controls, as well as develop ethics and standards that protect the type of information needed to keep experience chains going.

We already have dozens of customers subscribed to data “co-ops,” designed to help them create better analytics and experiences for their own businesses. These companies already have the mentality and CEO support to share data that will help them deliver better experiences.

Use AI, But Don’t Neglect the Human Touch Just Yet Technology also plays a valuable role in creating experience chains. Today, artificial intelligence is used to look at a customer’s history and then provide current options based on what he/she is likely to need or do. Where we expect it to become extremely valuable is in predicting what consumers want and delivering it without them having to ask. This kind of preemptive decision making is the golden ticket we’re all working toward — and we’re getting closer every day.

For example, smart home technologies such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home are listening to us and learning about our preferences at different times of day and are starting to make decisions for us (kind of creepy, I know). If my smart refrigerator orders fruit and I leave an apple in the fruit bin too long, then it will decide to order fewer apples the next time. Or if my home assistant recognized from my schedule that I had been in back-to-back meetings all day, it could know to play relaxing music when I arrive home.

You might recall the Tesla-Dunkin’ Donuts-Visa experience chain we shared at the Adobe Summit last year — your Tesla gets a text about a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, automatically orders a coffee for you, and it’s ready and paid for through your Visa account when you arrive, so you just grab it and go. As long as experience businesses commit to true collaboration, AI can help create many similar and fulfilling experiences.

This being said, I don’t believe we should automate everything just yet. We aren’t to the point yet where AI can make the right decisions that take into account my emotional state or my history as a consumer of any particular product. Additionally, the human touch is still needed, in most cases, to turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one. Interacting with an automated machine doesn’t often make me feel better about a product or service. That only happens when I get a human on the phone and can feel my problem being solved.

Experience businesses that are eager to operate in an experience economy will succeed as they help each other through experience chains. Learning how to structure your organization — as well as work with other brands and even competitors — will help deliver fluid, compelling, and personalized experiences that create an emotional connection between the customer and the brand, resulting in long-lasting loyalty. It’s a win-win-win for all.

Read more ideas about the future of experience business from our #AdobeTT participants.

The post Experience Chains: Linking Great Experiences Across Companies appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.

from Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/customer-experience/experience-chains-linking-great-experiences-across-companies/

#Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe

[sheminecrafts]

TikTok just gave itself permission to collect biometric data on US users, including ‘faceprints and voiceprints’

A change to TikTok’s U.S. privacy policy on Wednesday introduced a new section that says the social video app “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information” from its users’ content. This includes things like “faceprints and voiceprints,” the policy explained. Reached for comment, TikTok could not confirm what product developments necessitated the addition of biometric data to its list of disclosures about the information it automatically collects from users, but said it would ask for consent in the case such data collection practices began.

The biometric data collection details were introduced in the newly added section, “Image and Audio Information,” found under the heading of “Information we collect automatically” in the policy.

This is the part of TikTok’s Privacy Policy that lists the types of data the app gathers from users, which was already fairly extensive.

The first part of the new section explains that TikTok may collect information about the images and audio that are in users’ content, “such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content.”

While that may sound creepy, other social networks do object recognition on images you upload to power accessibility features (like describing what’s in an Instagram photo, for example), as well as for ad targeting purposes. Identifying where a person and the scenery is can help with AR effects, while converting spoken words to text helps with features like TikTok’s automatic captions.

TikTok adds auto captions to make videos accessible to hard of hearing and deaf

The policy also notes this part of the data collection is for enabling “special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally-identifying operations,” it says.

The more concerning part of the new section references a plan to collect biometric data.

It states:

We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content. Where required by law, we will seek any required permissions from you prior to any such collection.

The statement itself is vague, as it doesn’t specify whether it’s considering federal law, states laws, or both. It also doesn’t explain, as the other part did, why TikTok needs this data. It doesn’t define the terms “faceprints” or “voiceprints.” Nor does it explain how it would go about seeking the “required permissions” from users, or if it would look to either state or federal laws to guide that process of gaining consent.

That’s important because as it stands today, only a handful of U.S. states have biometric privacy laws, including Illinois, Washington, California, Texas and New York. If TikTok only requested consent, “where required by law,” it could mean users in other states would not have to be informed about the data collection.

Reached for comment, a TikTok spokesperson could not offer more details on the company’s plans for biometric data collection or how it may tie in to either current or future products.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, we recently updated our Privacy Policy to provide more clarity on the information we may collect,” the spokesperson said.

The company also pointed us to an article about its approach to data security, TikTok’s latest Transparency Report and the recently launched privacy and security hub, which is aimed at helping people better understand their privacy choices on the app.

Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP) (Photo by NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images)

The biometric disclosure comes at a time when TikTok has been working to regain the trust of some U.S. users.

Under the Trump administration, the federal government attempted to ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. entirely, calling the app a national security threat because of its ownership by a Chinese company. TikTok fought back against the ban and went on record to state it only stores TikTok U.S. user data in its U.S. data centers and in Singapore.

It said it has never shared TikTok user data with the Chinese government nor censored content, despite being owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. And it said it would never do so, if asked.

Though the TikTok ban was initially stopped in the courts, the federal government appealed the rulings. But when President Biden took office, his administration put the appeal process on hold as it reviewed the actions taken by his predecessor. And although Biden has, as of today, signed an executive order to restrict U.S. investment in Chinese firms linked to surveillance, his administration’s position on TikTok remains unclear.

TikTok launches a new information hub and Twitter account to ‘correct the record,’ it says

It is worth noting, however, that the new disclosure about biometric data collection follows a $92 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against TikTok, originally filed in May 2020, over the social media app’s violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The consolidated suit included more than 20 separate cases filed against TikTok over the platform’s collection and sharing of the personal and biometric information without user consent. Specifically, this involved the use of facial filter technology for special effects.

In that context, TikTok’s legal team may have wanted to quickly cover themselves from future lawsuits by adding a clause that permits the app to collect personal biometric data.

The disclosure, we should also point out, has only been added to the U.S. Privacy Policy, as other markets like the EU have stricter data protection and privacy laws.

The new section was part of a broader update to TikTok’s Privacy Policy, which included other changes both large and small, ranging from corrections of earlier typos to revamped or even entirely new sections. Most of these tweaks and changes could be easily explained, though — like new sections that clearly referenced TikTok’s e-commerce ambitions or adjustments aimed at addressing the implications of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency on targeted advertising.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has arrived — here’s what you need to know

In the grand scheme of things, TikTok still has plenty of data on its users, their content and their devices, even without biometric data.

For example, TikTok policy already stated it automatically collects information about users’ devices, including location data based on your SIM card and IP addresses and GPS, your use of TikTok itself and all the content you create or upload, the data you send in messages on its app, metadata from the content you upload, cookies, the app and file names on your device, battery state and even your keystroke patterns and rhythms, among other things.

This is in addition to the “Information you choose to provide,” which comes from when you register, contact TikTok or upload content. In that case, TikTok collects your registration info (username, age, language, etc.), profile info (name, photo, social media accounts), all your user-generated content on the platform, your phone and social network contacts, payment information, plus the text, images and video found in the device’s clipboard. (TikTok, as you may recall, got busted by Apple’s iOS 14 feature that alerted users to the fact that TikTok and other apps were accessing iOS clipboard content. Now, the policy says TikTok “may collect” clipboard data “with your permission.”)

Building customer-first relationships in a privacy-first world is critical

The content of the Privacy Policy itself wasn’t of immediate concern to some TikTok users. Instead, it was the buggy rollout.

Some users reported seeing a pop-up message alerting them to the Privacy Policy update, but the page was not available when they tried to read it. Others complained of seeing the pop-up repeatedly. This issue doesn’t appear to be universal. In tests, we did not have an issue with the pop-up ourselves.

Hey @tiktok_us if you’re going to FORCE users to sign a new privacy policy I think you should make it available to read. pic.twitter.com/0qw9UfS8Q2

— Matthew Eric (@matthewericdoes) June 2, 2021

Yes Tiktok, you changed your privacy policy, you only need to tell me once pic.twitter.com/LRs7CxcNht

— Dieghoe (@diegheaux) June 2, 2021

if i open up tiktok one more time and see that notification that they’ve updated their privacy policy i might just- pic.twitter.com/uzArIoysZW

— alli

(@allimaemangsat) June 3, 2021

Additional reporting by Zack Whittaker

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#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv