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starflungwaddledee · 4 months

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Hi sorry to bother you but I just wanted to say that as an autistic person Starstruck makes me want to cry. I love her so much let her live the happy life she deserves with people that accept and care about her. That “otherness” or feeling of being “incorrect” and being seen as suspicious/ostracized for it was absolutely NAILED and it HURTS SO GOOD. I just really wanted you to know that. It’s nice to see someone like me in media, especially in something like the Kirby franchise. Thank you.

ohhhhh i am SO thrilled to receive this message because i am autistic, and by extension so is starstruck, and this was entirely on purpose! i'm so happy that you feel i nailed it! thank YOU for letting me know this; it's the highest praise i could have hoped to receive!

this was intentional autistic representation by an autistic creator and i am over the moon that it's connecting with you! her inability to "have the right magical signature" and her "mimicry of the signatures around her in attempt to fit in" is explicitly a (rather ham-fisted, if i'm being honest) autistic parallel, especially towards masking.

there are obviously parts of her story that aren't explicitly parallel (she is still a little alien after all, and there's going to be Fun Dramatic Aspects that my real life autistic experience sadly lacks), but for what it's worth i'm really happy that this purposeful allegory was noticed!

thank you again so much for writing in, it means the world

#also ngl but i just think like the entire kirby cast is pretty autistic in their own way #like we ALL know meta knight for SURE but the others too. at least imo!!#i have actually been wondering if folks were picking up on this tbh. it seemed so apparent to me but that's bc i made it so i knew #i've had some say 'oh it's the social anxiety' which.... yes. also correct. i also have that too & it is that as WELL but it's incidental #i think this is the first time that someone has directly compared it to autism. it's nice. thank you!#representation in media sure does continue to be like... a Certain Way. but i think you can just hit everybody with the autism beam #it's morally correct.#asks #starstruck dee #starflungs personal tag

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bloo-the-dragon · 7 months

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*holds nebula like hamborger* what am i to do with you.

#bloo talks #nebula #i'm speaking specifically of the cryptid one not the mer one here #it's 3am and i'm having thoughts about him #the lore i'd made for him long ago while was a lot of fun to mess around with at the time just gives me a headache now #i made it all so needlessly complicated jgkfg #making him a mer helped fix/retcon that and i'd almost abandoned his original design to just stick to the mer version #but drawing him again recently has re-ignited my love for the old design #and now i'm thinkin 'well frick what am i gonna do with him now'#because while i'm keeping his design his og lore has been mostly retconned now #as for what he is well he's no longer a robot but a full blown actual shapeshifting cryptid like Bloodmoon #which is funny for sun and moon given his look #They'd be like: 'if we had a nickle for everytime some fae/cryptid changed to look like us we'd have two nickles #which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice'#something something celestial themes and faerie folk being attuned to them kinda deal i guess #either way i'm going to bed

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azaracyy · 2 months

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today, cupimon prays for your happiness too.

#digimon #cupimon #oc:elise #made myself draw more personal oc art when not working on comms haha #tbh the motivation behind this was a moment of weakness. like. wanting people to tell you you have done well and everything will be ok #but i also want to heal others that way. it's complicated. the world only seems to get harsher and harsher #holy or angel type digis are good picks for such and cupimon are adorable #imma be realistic this is a pretty tough time to be alive. let's not even try to compare with past eras or the like #the truth is so many of us are struggling so friggin hard we don't even know it anymore bc it's become so routine to our life #but it's honestly? really twisted? if you think of it that way. we're so used to suffering in life. it's so sad.#can only hope things get better someway. somehow. may good news even a little arrives to each of yall this week #btw really sorry folks. after the ai fiasco this site has gotten itself into i'm gonna post even lower res version for my newer works jic #artists writers creatives. do stay safe. keep yourselves and your work safe as much as you can #do what you need to do regardless it matters to you or not ok!#png

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see-arcane · 2 years

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A Gothic Tale of Two Weird Old Men: Dracula, Van Helsing, Ignorance and Obedience

So, we’ve gotten to the garlic flowers. And the first point in the novel where, on my first read, I felt a tiny prickle of recognition and unease. This section in particular made a little exclamation point pop up over my head:

"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me. Why, these flowers are only common garlic."

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—

"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently: "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience; and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you.”

Now, full stop, Abraham Van Helsing means well. He’s a heroic old dude driven by goodwill—and, we can assume later, perhaps a bit of personal history with this particular malady. We’re going to see in later chapters that he is absolutely down to fight for far more than just Lucy and his protégé’s sake. Better still, he provides a great foil against the common themes that so far endanger characters who get in Dracula’s path. Skeptics are endangered because they only acknowledge the truth of the bogeyman in their midst when it’s too late while the frightened believers are too paralyzed by the threat to make a move. Van Helsing combines the Scientific with the Mystic, acknowledges both as equally important, and uses them to his advantage.

Knowledge is power and all that. Dracula really does get away with most of the shit he does half the time because his victims don’t know what they’re dealing with. (The other half of the time, it’s because he’s just bulldozing through victims on a spree, RIP Demeter crew.)

The Count is usually the one holding all the cards and using his advantages to cause harm. Van Helsing brings his own intel and uses it to help to the best of his ability.

That being said?

(Mild spoilers below)

The first time I read through Dracula—and, honestly, every time since—I can’t help picking up on how precariously close Van Helsing treads to the Count’s M.O. of manipulation and Dramatic Withholding of Information with his young charges. Granted, I can let some of it slide via the, ‘But no one would believe me if I said it was a vampire! I had to keep quiet about my reasons!’ excuse.*

*(But, sir, could you not conjure up some convincing medical-sounding bullshit?? It’s the 1890s, they would have bought anything. In fact, why was it only down to you and Jack keeping watch, Dr. Drama? There’s a whole house staff here. Yes, fine, there’s Mom with her weakheartitis, but as long as you spin it as some minor irritation that needs checking in on for updates, it should be fine. And why does Lucy have to keep quiet about the flowers? Why can’t she say it’s for her sleep? Or her health? Or a good luck charm from the doctor, it would be Terribly Rude to Be Rid of Them (read: Against every Victorian bone in hers and Mama Westenra’s body to chuck them). Anyway.)

Without giving too much away, I feel Stoker kind of tips Van Helsing’s charisma points a little too far over the edge in future scenes. Mixed up in a shitton of future The Power of Christ Compels You! overtones, there is a lot of frankly bonkers acting from the rest of the cast when it comes to interactions with/gratitude to Van Helsing for [REDACTED] reasons.

As in, characters are going to start kissing the ground this old man walks on. (metaphoric)

And kissing his hands. (Literal. Yes, Godfather style.)

Dracula was lucky to get flipped off by his Brides. Van Helsing will have these youths rally around him and Every Syllable He Breathes as if it were actual factual gospel (which some is, naturally). With a notable exception in a very livid Jonathan Harker when we get to [REDACTED]. Shout out once more to Bram Flakes for accidentally making this solicitor man Spicy+ after certain events.

Most of me wants to believe Van Helsing’s effect on the others is just Bramarama Stoker pouring all his personal fantasies of being the Lauded and Heroic Professor Doctorman (who happens to share his name, no big deal, ha ha) into this character while the others sing his praises.

But the lit critic in me sees an uncomfortable amount of parallels between Dracula’s casual arcane actions, gaslighting and coercing with Jonathan and Van Helsing’s likewise casual mysterious measures, corralling, directing, and borderline mesmerizing the rest of the cast to follow his lead exclusively, with or without offering the full details of the situation, as we see with Lucy. He’s a good man and an interesting character, but there are Some Scenes that make me wonder if he isn’t using some kind of lowkey hypnotism to make things run a little smoother in the vampire hunter brigade.

#I know I know he was genuine about trying to help #but like...#...the wording and the way he backpedals kind of Does Not sit well with me; even knowing he's a good guy #if we transplanted the dialogue to the start of the novel and it was Dracula trying to get Jonathan to do something For His Own Good #like say: writing a bunch of false letters ~for convenience/safety's sake~#it'd be a little more gut-churning #plus there's the framework of Lucy trying to be a Good Friend/Patient/Obedient Victorian Girl being overseen by two male doctors #(who are good guys! who are taking her seriously! but stilll...)#and she's being told to Do This Thing for Reasons; Reasons Van Helsing does not explain (or even give a plausible lie for)#followed by telling her not to talk about it??#how would you react if your doctor gave you some mystery medicine/folk remedy #didn't tell you what it was really for (after you called bullshit about the first reason he made up for it (because you're not an idiot))#and then ordered you to use it and Not Tell Anyone About Why You Have It #fun and kooky doctor or not I'd be a little fucking worried #anyway #ramble #abraham van helsing #lucy westenra #dracula #dracula daily

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infintyonhigh · 1 month

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crazy the things north americans will say with their full chest without even realizing it. sorry to tell you but if u think a latin actor is in a movie only bc they couldnt get pedro pascal that is, in fact, a bigoted thing to say. pedro is not the only south american actor allowed to exist in hollywood

#pretty sure those people were canadians so north americans it is but fuck them honestly im not checking #or the thing that made me leave rpdr fandom years ago was when us latin folks said we related to a certain queen #and ppl kept saying well there have been latin queens before on the show. ok????#do u think latin ppl are interchangeable objects answer quickly #always the same shit #isa.txt

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ereborne · 1 month

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Song of the Day: March 27

"Long Time Gone" by The Chicks

#song of the day #I'm still thinking about the Country Songs About Country Songs #this is actually a cover too though I never hear the original around anywhere #(it's by Darrell Scott who is also the originator for 'You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive'#turns out he's got a bunch of songs that got picked up and made somewhat more popular in the hands of other folks. an interesting legacy)#the best lines of this song to sing are also the bits About Country Music--well the whole song's about chasing the love of it #but this bit is bemoaning the kids these days you know. country music isn't what it used to be. why back in my day etc etc #it's so so so much fun to sing too because you get to exaggerate your 'I think's until they rhyme with 'Hank'. excellent work #'we listen to the radio to hear what's cookin / but the music ain't got no soul #now they sound tired but they don't sound Haggard / they got money but they don't have Cash #they got Junior but they don't have Hank / I think I think I think / the rest is a long time gone'#it's fascinating to me to think about these songs in (saying 'historical' here is giving me psychic damage but) historical context #because the Darrell Scott original for Long Time Gone came out in 2000 and The Chicks released their version in 2002 #so they were talking about the trend towards American jingoism in country music of the time #versus like Waylon Jennings in 1975 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way'#(I typed that and /then/ went back and looked up the release date and I'm so proud I got it right)#already bemoaning the state of country music in the 70s versus good old classic country like Hank Williams Senior sang #(Hank Jr covered Waylon's song in 1981. like yes it's a tribute to his father but also Hank Jr was a big push towards outlaw country #and has a few pretty famous songs himself about not singing like his daddy did. it just seems a strange choice to me)#and then Eric Church put out 'Lotta Boot Left to Fill' in 2009 calling out the shallowness of the country music scene of the time #(talking some only-thinly-veiled shit about a few of his peers in the process)#and then he released 'Stick That In Your Country Song' in 2021 and that /definitely/ put some backs up #that one's a less directed but more direct call-out if that makes any sense #no lines that are direct references to other artists' songs but stronger sentiments overall #not just general 'y'all are getting shallow prioritizing good times and high sales over genuine heart and integrity of craft'#but some straight up 'you have forgotten the face of your father' shit towards country artists and fans alike. the whole industry #a very good righteous-anger song

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spizgany-lipejs · 2 months

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For some it might be just a red t-shirt but for me this is peak 00s european gay club fashion and you can't take it away from me.

#I am 20/15/6 years late and we can do nothing about it #Whoever styled Zoli like this just talk to me #I just find it funny when my first thought seeing Lehetsz Kiraly for the first time was a Babylon scene from QaF UK #I hope the staff and crew would be proud #And since I now reactivated myself on this hellsite to post a fancam #I might as well send it into the void so it stops bothering my brain #I genuinely think I might not be OK after witnessing 7min+ Michael Jackson medley from Bereczki Zoli #And there was some anti-polish sentiment going on #There's no other reason why resj never made it onto my dash when I was active on tumblr with interest in musicals and Shakespeare #Resj #Mercutio #Bereczki Zoltán #Bereczki Zoli #Bereczki Zoltan #Tagging is so annoying rn #Rómeó és Júlia #Retj #queer as folk #Qaf uk #Everything was much simpler when I was 16 wha wha #romeo et juliette

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gailynovelry · 5 months

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So, Ecosia is incorporating AI chat into their search page toolbar, like a lot of search engines are now, and we're having thoughts about it. Those thoughts mainly being "this is a bad idea that will spread misinformation more quickly, same as the other AI chats in other places do."

You can contact Ecosia through the "Contact Us" tab on their main website. Here's the message I sent them;

Hello! Unfortunately, as a longterm user of Ecosia, I think I have to step away from this search engine now. AI chat technology should not be implemented anywhere near informational search features, as AGIs are an unreliable way to retrieve facts, and often generate falsehoods in the pursuit of unique sentence structure. Incorporating this feature into or around a search engine, even just as a chat, has a great risk spreading misinformation around the internet. Many people do not understand how AGIs function and trust them in the same way that they trust general search features. Thank you for reading this email and have a good day.

It's more effective if you take my general message and write your own instead of copy-pasting, but still. Maybe we can start sending in some feedback to discourage search engines from dropping AI into their tools willy-nilly like this? Yeah.

#fuck ai #fuck ai everything #anti ai #fuck ai art #ai is theft #anti ai art #sorry about all those tags i'm just. kinda floating this around the places where folks are likely to take action.#techbros will be blocked; I have some understanding of how AI works and i'm not falling for a bubble built on theft and empty promises #crossing my fingers that this doesn't wreck my notifications like the sleep-deprived “tips for spotting AI art” post we made in january #oooh realizing that the situation where that one lady told us that a nuclear war was going to start in November #(because an AI chatbot told her so) did not in fact result in nuclear warfare and now our brain is clear of anxious “but what ifs”#fuck maybe i should have put that anecdote in our email #well thank the gods and for the love of it all don't trust AGI

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not-poignant · 1 year

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This is the anon the said 'safe'. Your tags hit me hard, since I'm actually starting a transition but am avoiding hrt. I've been getting pushback on it, and been told I'm not really trans without it. I know what I want to change to feel like myself. Also what I don't want to change. That's probably why 'safe' was my choice. It sucks when you think you should belong, but still feel like you aren't good enough. It helped to hear you have felt the same. I just want to give you a big virtual hug.

Ahhh I have a similar story, anon <333 I'm so sorry you went through it too.

Under a read more because it contains transphobia towards a nonbinary person from a binary trans person. My experiences are from a nonbinary lens, anon, so take the bits that are useful to you and ignore the rest, depending on where you sit on the trans spectrum <333

When I started realising I was transmasc (I'd known I was non-binary for a while) I remember that I talked to a trans man about it, he'd been going through the process for a couple of years at that point and we'd talked about that too at different points.

And I remember mentioning that I'd thought about hormones, but I was still on the fence because I'm nonbinary, not like 'binary trans' (i.e. I'm not going from point A to point B, where you move from AFAB to man or AMAB to woman), and I was talking about wanting they/them pronouns and maybe he/him pronouns at that point.

And he said: 'Oh cool, yeah, hopefully that helps until you decide for sure with testosterone and surgery.' I had this moment of like ??? and he was like 'when you realise and can be brave enough to commit to being a guy, I hope that goes really well for you.'

It was one of the most transphobic things I'd ever heard, not because it was said from a hateful place (it really wasn't, I'm still friends with this guy), but because it came from a friend, I was being very vulnerable during the conversation and it left me feeling like I didn't have a right to consider myself trans at all for about two years after that. It pushed me into this space where I'd been defined by a fellow trans person as a 'coward until I decided to be officially a man.' And then for two years I kept looking for that inside of myself, denying my non-binary-ness in favour of looking for a very clear and decisive 'I'm a man!' moment. It was a horrible period of time, gender-wise. Because being identified exclusively only as a man or a woman is dysphoric to me, so trying to do it to myself was like cutting at myself with an axe.

It's also very much like when gay and lesbian folk would say to me - back when I identified as bisexual - 'get back to me when you pick a side / become a real queer.' There's a real phobic bent among folks who are 'one or the other' (sighs) towards people who are in the liminal with this stuff and that's where they belong. And it hadn't occurred to me that I'd hear a version of that from a fellow trans person. You'd think I'd have learned, right?

He and I are still friends, but I stopped talking to him about all of my experiences as a trans and nonbinary person. It was clear to me, in that moment, he saw me as a much lesser version of an identity he'd embraced and was living. You know, how so many people think of nonbinary transmascs. (It's also frustrating, because trans men also don't need to have hormones or surgery to be trans men, and it makes me furious when people take this attitude with binary trans folk too, but I'm mostly focusing on my own experience here, of the myriad ways we encounter transphobia in the trans community).

I never heard anything quite like that again, but I've had one other trans guy be like 'when you're ready for testosterone, I'll support you' like he was waiting in the wings for me to 'fully make a decision to be 100% a man' which isn't a decision I can make, because I'm not 100% a man, lmao, I'm like 80% of one, and 20% something else, and 0% woman, lmao, which is why I call myself nonbinary transmasc.

I was lucky that through research and listening to voices in nonbinary transmasc spaces and more open-minded trans spaces that I realised that I'd encountered transphobia, and that this specific kind of transphobia is particularly common in the trans community, especially in cases where a trans man or woman has a period of being nonbinary as an experiment to see what transitioning feels like before they fully commit to the surgery and/or hormones and name etc. that they often wanted all along. So they often project this onto other people, because for them being nonbinary was a midway point, or the middle of an evolution. But being nonbinary isn't an experiment for most nonbinary people, it's literally our identity and it always will be. (And any binary trans person reading this, don't ever use this rhetoric with your nonbinary friends, or your fellow binary trans friends who have elected not to use hormones or surgery - it's transphobic.)

These days, I'm proudly trans and proudly part of the trans community, but I'm also aware that there are a lot of binary trans people who will treat me and other trans folk as 'other' because I haven't suffered through the same surgeries or adjustments that they have. That's...their transphobia, and it's not me expressing my identity wrongly, or being 'lesser', it's just straight up transphobia. It belongs to them, not to me. I don't believe we have a unique word for nonbinary transphobia, it all comes under the same umbrella, but that's definitely what it is.

When you start to feel like you don't belong, anon, remind yourself that this is internalised transphobia, not to punish yourself, but to remind yourself that it's not true. Those feelings belong to the people who gave them to you, but they're not innately or inherently true, they actually have nothing to do with how valid you are at every stage of your transition.

You're fully a trans man if you don't take hormones, and you're fully nonbinary if you do. Whatever you need (or don't need) to affirm or express your gender for you, is what you need, and that deserves to be respected and fully validated no matter what, at any time. Whether it's binding or not binding, hormones or not hormones, hormones and then 'not for the next few years' and then hormones again, surgery or not surgery, etc. Whether you're a trans man, woman, nonbinary, agender etc.

People have this idea of what it is to be a 'proper' trans, bi, gay, lesbian person (like the 'gold star lesbian' which is horrendously disgusting as a term and concept), but all you need - literally all you need - re: these things, is to just... know you're these things. That's it. That's how a gay person can know they're gay without having sex. That's how a bi person can know they're bi without sleeping with someone of the same sex. And it's how a trans person knows they're trans without looking perfectly androgynous or perfectly binary trans (depending on what they desire) on the outside. (Don't get me started on fatphobia in androgynous and nonbinary spaces, and the equation of true 'nonbinary androgyny' with thinness, because that's a whole other rant for another day, lol).

I'm sorry you've experienced that pressure to be 'more' of something from society / particular people. I can specifically relate on the hormones front because I actually went quite far into looking into taking T, to the point where my doctor was ready to sign off with an endocrinologist, before I realised that it wasn't the right decision for me. It might be one day, but right now I know I'm transmasc without it, and I'm concerned about some of the side effects with my neuroendocrine tumours. There are other ways I affirm my gender that work great for me. But I did have a moment of knowing that would impact how other people see me, and it's one thing when it comes from all the cis people, but it's another thing when it comes from the trans community as well. :( Thankfully most people are really validating now, use the right pronouns, and I just don't confide nonbinary vulnerabilities with folks who saw being nonbinary as a midpoint of their own evolution/journey, just to be safe, lmao.

Wishing you fortune and strength and much validation, anon <3 You are amazing as you are, whatever you decide to do or not do in the future. :) *hugs*

#asks and answers #personal #queer culture #i'll never forget that experience #i had the chat right here on tumblr actually #and i remember sort of sitting back in my chair and feeling like something had broken in me #because i'd been supportive to this friend through their transition #and sort of expected the same #and instead got a sort of 'well see you when you get here' conversation #that made it clear that he thought my gender as it is now #was just a weak little scaffold #for the 'end point'#it still makes me emotional thinking about it #i really hope folks who are trans men or women #think about how they talk to nonbinary people #and fellow trans men or women #who are electing not to have one or all of the surgeries or take hormones for many valid reasons #our transness is not defined by how much #we do to our bodies on the way to gender affirmation #we are trans before we ever experience a scalpel or take another hormone #or change our names or birth certificates #all these things can help #and they can hinder #everyone's experience in this is unique #administrator Gwyn wants this in the queue

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