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catboybiologist · 2 months

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“As a biologist, the terms biological woman and man don’t make any sense to me” okay then you’re an idiot and a terrible biologist. I swear to god, morons like you only become biologists just so you can hold it over others, when in reality, if biology deniers like you can become biologists, then being one really doesn’t mean much anyway. But this probably just gave an autogynophile like you a boner to read, anyway.

Oh fun! Haven't gotten one of these in a while. Disregarding the fact that you somehow think the qualification for being a biologist entirely hinges on defining womanhood, I do need to ask some clarification. I know I'm feeding the trolls here, but here we go: does your definition of "biological woman" mean:

Sociological woman? Eh, context dependent, I'm not fully out of the closet, but oftentimes, I am and present femme. So let's call that one 50/50.

Psychological woman? Because I am one.

Neurological woman? Because I am one [1].

Physical woman? My soft tissue redistribution is handling that well.

Hormonal woman? My blood tests are within cis female ranges.

Transcriptional woman? As a signalling molecule, the downstream effects of estrogen have broad transcriptional effects, completely changing the profile of gene expression and functional genomics of my cells. [2]

Genetic woman? I mean, see my above point- as far as my genes that are actually active, I have all of the same transcripts being produced, controlling which genes are expressed.

Karyotypic woman? I actually have a few signs pre-HRT that might point to a non-XY chromosome pair, but I haven't had a karyotype. We'll put that down as unknown. And hell, even if its XY, there's plenty of cis women who are karyotypically XY, with suppressed sry or complete androgen insensitivity. Interestingly enough, a completely androgen insesitive woman can go her whole life without knowing- and functionally, is very similar to a trans woman, actually. Fancy that. [3]

Reproductive woman? I can't produce an egg cell, but neither can significant fractions of cis women. Also, this is all gonna change soon, which is fun. [4]

There's also a lot of understudied aspects to the biology of HRT and even pre-HRT that are emerging, largely demonstrating widespread cellular and genetic remodeling of trans individuals undergoing hormone therapy. The field is a bit behind due to constant political pressure to revoke funding, but a lot of the results are extremely exciting in both testosterone and estrogen hormone therapies. I'm sure that, as a self professed biology As someone who presumably has a lot of expertise in biology, I'm assuming that you're aware of all of this cutting edge research, and are keeping up with modern papers, including but not limited to these cool findings:

Trans men on HRT exhibit significant genetic and transcriptional changes that make them biochemically male. [5][6]. It's a good hypothesis that the same happens with estrogen treatment, but those studies don't exist yet- I'm sure you're reserving judgment until more publications exist, of course.

Trans men on HRT develop male cell types and tissues. [7]

Trans women experience muscular and blood cell changes that align with cis women moreso than cis men [8]

And many, many more! This is an exciting, underserved, and groundbreaking field of research, and I'm sure you're keeping up with the latest in scientific journals about it.

I'm sure, of course, that you understand that it becomes impossible to draw a distinct line anywhere in here, and that words like "woman" are shorthand for the myriad of traits that invisibly synthesize in our mind and in society to represent a concept? I'm sure you understand that science is fundamentally descriptive, not prescriptive? I'm sure that you understand that these findings, while really cool and interesting, actually don't mean jack shit about what the word "woman" means or not?

As someone who is the ultimate decider in what a biologist is, I'm sure you know that bioessentiallism is a childish mindset that completely ignores and disregards the constantly changing, dynamic nature of biological systems, something that extends well beyond biological sex and its relation to gender.

I'm sure that also, that you understand that beyond just this, that the role of science in society is to advise how to achieve our moral principles, not create moral principles in themselves. And I'm sure that understanding means you know that trans affirming healthcare and supportive societal treatment leads to reduced mortality and increased happiness for everyone, right?

So great to talk to someone who is surely a scientist on this. You are a biologist, if you're talking like this, I assume? I assume you're not going to spit complete misreadings of scientific language from the background sections of these papers that only reveal you've never read a scientific paper in your life if you're thinking this way? I assume you have experience interpreting data like this?

Also, imagining my genitalia while writing this? Ew. Please stop projecting your fetishes into my inbox.

Works cited:

Kurth F, Gaser C, Sánchez FJ, Luders E. Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity. J Clin Med. 2022 Mar 13;11(6):1582. doi: 10.3390/jcm11061582. PMID: 35329908; PMCID: PMC8955456.

Fuentes N, Silveyra P. Estrogen receptor signaling mechanisms. Adv Protein Chem Struct Biol. 2019;116:135-170. doi: 10.1016/bs.apcsb.2019.01.001. Epub 2019 Feb 4. PMID: 31036290; PMCID: PMC6533072.

Gottlieb B, Trifiro MA. Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. 1999 Mar 24 [Updated 2017 May 11]. In: Adam MP, Feldman J, Mirzaa GM, et al., editors. GeneReviews® [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1429/

Murakami, K., Hamazaki, N., Hamada, N. et al. Generation of functional oocytes from male mice in vitro. Nature 615, 900–906 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05834-x

Pallotti F, Senofonte G, Konstantinidou F, Di Chiano S, Faja F, Rizzo F, Cargnelutti F, Krausz C, Paoli D, Lenzi A, Stuppia L, Gatta V, Lombardo F. Epigenetic Effects of Gender-Affirming Hormone Treatment: A Pilot Study of the ESR2 Promoter's Methylation in AFAB People. Biomedicines. 2022 Feb 16;10(2):459. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10020459. PMID: 35203670; PMCID: PMC8962414.

Florian Raths, Mehran Karimzadeh, Nathan Ing, Andrew Martinez, Yoona Yang, Ying Qu, Tian-Yu Lee, Brianna Mulligan, Suzanne Devkota, Wayne T. Tilley, Theresa E. Hickey, Bo Wang, Armando E. Giuliano, Shikha Bose, Hani Goodarzi, Edward C. Ray, Xiaojiang Cui, Simon R.V. Knott, The molecular consequences of androgen activity in the human breast, Cell Genomics, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2023, 100272, ISSN 2666-979X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100272. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666979X23000320)

Xu R, Diamond DA, Borer JG, Estrada C, Yu R, Anderson WJ, Vargas SO. Prostatic metaplasia of the vagina in transmasculine individuals. World J Urol. 2022 Mar;40(3):849-855. doi: 10.1007/s00345-021-03907-y. Epub 2022 Jan 16. PMID: 35034167.

Harper J, O'Donnell E, Sorouri Khorashad B, McDermott H, Witcomb GL. How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation. Br J Sports Med. 2021 Aug;55(15):865-872. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103106. Epub 2021 Mar 1. PMID: 33648944; PMCID: PMC8311086.

#cw transphobia #biology #basic biology

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mariacallous · 10 months

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The problem with judging people for their sins is that the internet makes it exceedingly easy to invent sins. In February, Buzzfeed News reported on a man filmed by a passing TikTokker, who then uploaded the footage with text suggesting he’d lied to her to get out of a date. That was false—he’d never met her—but it didn’t stop people from ridiculing him as the video racked up over a million views.

Similarly, last year, an Australian woman objected to being made the star of a stunt in which a TikTokker asked her to hold a bouquet, strolled off, and then congratulated himself on performing a random act of kindness. Sixty million hits later, his viewers were praising him for brightening the day of a woman they judged to be old, lonely, and sad. But she objected to that characterization and declared the whole affair “dehumanizing.” She hadn’t asked to have her day interrupted, let alone be thrust into a global spotlight.

And then there are those incapable of even grasping the situation. In 2022, a TikTok channel was called out for surreptitiously filming the homeless with drones. Loved ones with dementia are put on TikTok to be infantilized or have their worst moments gawked at. Parents transform their children into viral stars. Sometimes, those children grow up and call them out for warping their youth.

When people tell us it was harrowing and wrong to be unwillingly cast into the spotlight, we nod and agree. But those responsible typically offer only half-hearted apologies or remain unrepentant, while their millions of views discourage reflection. Often, moral scolding is implicit in the video and explicit in the comments: It is wrong to be homeless. It is gross to be ill. It is pathetic to be unhappy.

To be sure, crass and hateful public figures are worthy of ridicule. And we’ve been using the internet to judge strangers for as long as we’ve had the internet. But the common trait shared by much of the most obnoxious content today is that someone chose to elevate a stranger for no reason beyond their own gratification, attracting attention at a scale unimaginable in the days of relics like Hot or Not and People of Wal-Mart.

At best, these are misguided attempts to juice the poster’s social media presence. At worst, they are pointless cruelty. That cruelty can be addictive, but we can and must resist the urge to gawk at strangers against their will. It should, in fact, be considered rude, insulting, and wrong to have uploaded a stranger against their will. We would not go out into the streets and stir up a mob against a random person. Why are we so comfortable with doing it online?

Much of what we post online is innocent and will remain so. The average Facebook user has 338 friends, while the average number of Instagram followers, according to one estimate, is just 150. You likely use these platforms to follow celebrities and brands, and to interact with friends and family. These are, for most users, insular communities. Vacation photos with friends or a family portrait at Christmas are unlikely to attract trolls and creeps, and even if they do, they are clearly posted in good faith.

But some platforms, like TikTok and Twitter, are more exposed to the vagaries and cruelties of the wider world. Anything you post on them can wind up in the feed of people who don't follow you. Therefore, anyone can become the day’s punching bag. Does your relative really understand what could happen if you put your interaction with them on TikTok?

Maybe you know better than to post Grandpa on Twitter without thinking it through. We know whether our friends and family like attention and whether they understand social media ecosystems, and with this knowledge we are capable of making informed decisions as to whether and on what platforms we should post them. We do not have the same knowledge of strangers. That can be a reason to not post them, but it can also be an excuse to post them without thinking.

If it came out that an influencer uploaded an interaction with a stranger to a private Facebook page or Discord server solely so their closest friends and family could pick them apart, it would rightly be considered misanthropic. And yet uploading a stranger so millions can mock and over-analyze them is just the business of content. That business needs to change.

It’s exceedingly unlikely we’ll ever eliminate jackassery from the internet, but a social media mishap involving a friend or family member can be resolved with communication.

It is harder for a complete stranger to succeed in that endeavor, especially when “Look at this weirdo I found, please gape at them” is the text or subtext of so many videos and posts by accounts that thrive on content starring the unwilling. Such content must become anathema. Particular thought must be taken before posting an interaction with a stranger, and the consent of a stranger to be posted at all is necessary to retain an internet that is even remotely civil. If someone does post a stranger without their consent, they should be shunned, not rewarded with the attention they crave.

The vast majority of disputes with unruly neighbors are solved by talking to them. Ideally, the law only gets involved when lines of communication break down. The same can be true of digital disputes.

We have privacy laws. If I were to post your name, address, and phone number, you would have legal recourse. And yet the same is not true for your image. Today, at least, you surrender your right to privacy by stepping into public. But outdated privacy laws are catching up to the abuses of government and tech, and the issues raised by social media virality could be next.

Still, a blanket law against posting strangers without their consent would be draconian and unworkable. There are too many variables, too many circumstances, and simply too many cases. However, whole generations who have been online since birth—sometimes unwillingly—could grow up to be more sensitive to the downsides of posting without permission, prompting a normative shift.

More specific laws are already evolving to handle some scenarios raised by nonconsensual virality, specifically as it applies to children. Irina Raicu of Santa Clara University’s Internet Ethics Program points out that a recent French law entitles child influencers to demand that platforms scrub all trace of them once they turn 16. The YouTube career their parents create for them—or force on them—need not be what defines them as adults. The United States is considering a similar law; a woman who testified to a House committee said the details of her first period were turned into content.

Another law being considered in France would make parents responsible for their children’s privacy rights. Le Monde cites, as an example of fame-seeking behavior that France is hoping to discourage, TikTokkers scaring their children by pretending to call the police on them, and an Instagrammer who smeared chocolate on her 4-year-old and convinced them they were covered in feces. We will eventually wonder how parents were able to get away with this at all.

So those who cannot consent are starting to be protected. But what about those who could consent, but don’t? And what if, as some unwillingly viral subjects have found, reaching out and asking for posts to be removed is met with silence or rejection?

In reality we already practice social media consent; it is not unusual to ask a friend if they’re alright with having a picture posted to Instagram, even though the face they make as they try to cram an unusually large sandwich into their mouth is not a flattering one. And yet we continually fail to extend this courtesy to strangers, either because we think nothing of it or because it is our job to go viral at all costs.

Some of this, as Raicu points out, can be blamed on the platforms we use, which encourage hair triggers. “There are ways in which the design choices behind many websites make it harder for all of us to think about consent,” Raicu wrote in an email. She points to the sheer ease of posting and the fact that norms around social media consent have not solidified. But she notes that platforms could “introduce some friction” in the form of, essentially, reminders that other people are human before you hit Post.

Future platforms could work to curtail shaming, either out of moral compulsion or legal necessity. Much as you can report harassment to social media platforms, posts that have elevated you to infamy against your will should be fair targets.

Lines have been drawn before. YouTube banned dangerous pranks and challenges after people were hurt and complaints mounted. TikTok is trying to tweak its algorithm in response to growing concerns that young users are awash in content encouraging suicide and incel ideology. Content made from those unable or unwilling to consent is a broad category that cannot be wiped out with algorithmic tweaks, but the damage is still happening, and we have the power to collectively declare that some forms of content are unacceptable and must no longer be tolerated.

Perhaps, given the increasing universality of social media usage—83 percent of Gen Z uses TikTok—platform-embedded tools could establish consent. Before posting a video of someone, an influencer could ask their username and send them a simple, stock contract granting them permission to post. Again, this need not apply to every random photo of friends. It could be optional, or it might apply only when an account reaches a certain threshold of followers. But a lack of permission could give a user cause when they cite unwanted virality and negative attention when asking for a post to be removed.

But most of the work will fall to people. It's difficult enough to remember that the man being a bit rude in the grocery store line is a fallible human being with hopes and dreams; it can be almost impossible to remind yourself of that when viewing a contextless clip of someone halfway across the hemisphere. The internet is capable of connecting us to tremendous numbers of people, even as it makes us forget that they are human like us.

An influencer comfortable with filming themselves for thousands of viewers should be comfortable with approaching a stranger and saying, “Would you mind appearing in a video I’m making? I’m going to post it on this platform, and I have this many followers. Take a minute to check me out.” Some already do, and surely there are people who would be happy to receive a free bouquet in exchange for appearing in a TikTokker’s silly stunt. But a no should be taken as a no, just as it should in any other scenario involving consent.

It’s all too easy to skip this step today. People who speak out when they feel harmed by what an influencer did with their image receive only a tiny fraction of the attention that the original posts featuring them got. But when an influencer is repeatedly called out for exploiting strangers—or when their exploitation is obvious, such as when they prey on the homeless—they should be frozen out of the social media ecosystem, not rewarded with attention and profit.

In the future, how will we be able to see such casual cruelty as anything but unethical? Maybe stories of regret are a sign of what’s to come. Brianna Wu, one of the victims of GamerGate, says she has fielded over 100 apologies, often from people who were at their lowest and saw her as an easy outlet for their emotions. But we generally don’t take our frustrations out on people on the street; understanding that people deserve to be protected from unsolicited online fame and malice is the next logical step.

We no longer parade people through villages on a cart or lock them in pillories in the town square to shame them, as was done in centuries past. We did not stop enforcing laws and norms, but we recognized that humiliation and ostracization are harsh, counterproductive tools. Eventually, we will make that realization about the strangers we parade across the internet.

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caligvlasaqvarivm · 4 months

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Wanted to ask, is Eridan's relationship with his dad ok? Like when Eridan was learning how to use his harpoon gun he seemed very much distressed and not enjoying any of it

The only real canon characterization we have of seahorsedad is that the version of him that's Cronus's lusus is "stern, fatherly" and that he ditches Cronus for Hussie, although that last one is mostly just a Bit so I don't really count it as characterization. He's also willing to go along with Eridan "doing something ridiculous," though, again, that's kind of a Bit and it's unclear how canon that is.

((cw for abuse and stuff beneath the readmore))

As such, pretty much anything I say is going to be pure extrapolation that serves my characterization of Eridan, and I can't really back it up with hard textual evidence. But, personally, I think Eridan believes his relationship with his lusus is "good" in the way that many children growing up beneath strict, emotionally neglectful, and even outright abusive parents do.

We know that Eridan has very few friends. He doesn't even really talk to half the people in their group chat, and according to Feferi, he's never spent more than a few days underwater, total, in his whole life. Add onto that that lusus murder (and, by extension, the culling of the orphaned troll) has been his duty long enough that he describes it is "the only thing i evver did," I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that he also has no IRL friends, aside from Feferi.

And to give an idea of how old Eridan was when he started having to murder lusii, here's how old Vriska was when she was expected to start feeding spidermom:

This, and the fact that Dualscar was called "Orphaner" because the job of feeding Gl'bgolyb was his even into adulthood (as he lived before the Summoner's rebellion and the removal of adult trolls from Alternia), and the fact that no one, including Feferi, ever shows any gratitude towards Eridan for performing the job, supports the idea that feeding Gl'bgolyb has always been a violet blood's responsibility. After all, Feferi makes overtures about not being better than other trolls, but she sure does revel in being royalty when she can get away with it. It'd be in character for her to not be particularly grateful to Eridan because she sees lusus murder as fundamentally being his responsibility, especially if he started when they were both REALLY young.

In other words, Eridan was expected to start murdering lusii (and by extension, other trolls) from the moment he was old enough to do so, which, judging by how old Vriska was when she started killing trolls for Spidermom, is not very old at all.

Also, given the lifespan of violet bloods, it's entirely possible - and my personal belief - that Seahorsedad was Dualscar's lusus as well as Eridan's. Even without that being the case, since it was always Eridan's job to hunt and kill lusii, the biggest possible culprit for inducting him into his role would be his lusus.

And let's be clear, I think the fact that having to murder lusii/trolls is the biggest culprit for what's fucked Eridan up the most. The pressure of having the safety of the entire race on his shoulders, the fear of Gl'bgolyb and what happens if he ever fails, and the guilt of taking lives (which we do know Eridan thinks about) have left him with genuine struggles caring about other people, a nasty martyr complex (which isn't unjustified), extremely unstable and negative emotions, shattered interpersonal relationships, and a deep, nihilistic sense of resignation towards his place in society. The latter has directly led to him attempting to embrace that place by tricking himself into thinking he believes in hemocasteist, sea dweller supremacy rhetoric - which his actions contradict - because, without the game's intervention, he had no other options available for him but to become a key figure in the imperial army, continue murdering other sapient creatures until he died, and watch all his few friends die before him, either when they got culled, killed on the battlefield, or purely dropped dead of old age.

And, like... a parent who does that to their child, even if we assume the absolute best (that Seahorsedad does genuinely care about Eridan), can't possibly have a fully healthy relationship with said child. And I think it's not unreasonable to assume that the best is not what's happening between Eridan and Seahorsedad, because Eridan's psychological profile is so fucked up that I highly doubt he was receiving much, if any, actual affection or support from his lusus. Personally, I think his lusus was "stern and fatherly" in the worst possible way - high expectations, no emotional warmth, and complete disregard for Eridan's psychological well-being, as long as he was producing adequate results.

Because Eridan craves attention, and has very little distinction between good and bad attention. He's naive and trusting to a fault, hardly ever suspects anybody of lying to him, and has basically no social skills. These all say to me that Seahorsedad is just, like... not giving him any emotional attention at ALL.

And poor Eridan is just 13 years old - still too young to fully realize how poorly he's being treated by people who are supposed to care about him. Like, yeah, he's completely obnoxious and exhausting to talk to, and you can't really blame Feferi or Kanaya for being sick of listening to him, but at the same time, some of the shit they do to him as a result is honestly just mean. Like Kanaya is just actually bullying him- training him up to be a wizard as a joke, shitting on him behind his back with Rose, making fun of him to his face - and yet:

He's just that fucking desperate for people to care about him and support him; I can't help but think he's just not getting that at home, you know?

So I think if you asked Eridan, he'd say that his relationship with his lusus was good, and that his lusus was proud and noble and stoic, and absolutely a great custodian, and there were no problems at all.

But I think if you were to dig deeper into their relationship, you'd start to hear worrying things like that Eridan never got to celebrate Twelfth Perigrees, and was instead dragged out to go lusus hunting because it was particularly easy to do so on that day. Or that his lusus had to pull the trigger FOR him the first time they ever went hunting, because his own hands were shaking too hard. Or that he'd be locked out of the hive every time he cried, until he stopped crying altogether. Or that he thinks he's never been sick a day in his life because he was never allowed to have an off day and not go hunting and now he's just used to ignoring any and all symptoms. So on and so forth.

He reacts EXTREMELY POORLY to Feferi saying she feels like she needed to look after him - more poorly than to the initial news that she was trying to break up with him:

And I think that's because weakness was punished in his household growing up. He wasn't allowed to be weak - he was nobility, royalty. He had duties, responsibilities. If he faltered, their whole race died. And when you consider the fact that "you have to kill things for the good of everyone you care about, all the time, constantly," is the abject lesson that's been hammered into him since he was old enough to walk and talk, the fact that he's so incredibly fucking adamant about murdering angels starts to be a little... sad. He's just stuck in that mindset. He doesn't know how to escape it.

So... yeah. In summary: his relationship with his dad is great!

#homestuck #eridan ampora

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spotty-bee · 4 months

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I watched the three Troll Movies the last few days and got inspired to make an Au! I was like, what would happen if a troll didn't turn grey all the way? What if they had lost hope, but not all of it? So I thought drew some fun designs and here they are!

Basically King Peppi was separated from Poppy's group and ended up with Viva's, causing poppy to think her dad is dead and is more frightened of the Burgens because of it. She starts to get grey marks on her body, but thanks to her still somewhat happy, bubbly personality, she doesn't go fully grey. The group has leadership issues since Peppi is gone, with a lot of infighting about what they should do and where they should go. Rebuilding society is a lot harder on the group, which is why it's so easy for kids like Poppy to get lost in the shuffle, nobody to really, fully take care of them.

Branch, still grey after the loss of his grandma and abandoned by his brothers, is there for Poppy when the adults are busy fighting or Poppy's friends have to go home. The two have a lot more in common in this Au, both fearing Bergans and their possibly return. So Branch gets her to help build his bunker with him, as well as explain his backstory to her far earlier than the movies.

Eventually the Burgans DO find them as the adults make too much noise both partying and fighting over what to do. Poppy and Branch are the only ones to realize and Poppy manages to convince her friends and a few others to hide in the bunker with them. More Trolls are lost to the Bergans but Poppy is fully recognized as leader by the ones she's saved. Branch and Poppy both agree to abandon their current location, going deeper into the woods where the foliage is so thick no Bergan can enter. Though there are a lot of dangerous wild animals and very little light. The entire town starts living in bunkers interconnected by tunnels. Rarely singing or dancing. They remain pretty undisturbed until the events of either the second or third movie... depending on weather Poppy got the pop string or if Peppi took it with him.

Other than that, Viva and Clay are the ones who carry out the events of the first movie. (Its not quiet the same, Creek is with Poppy's group and still a coward that gets kicked out, but he doesn't effect Viva and Clay's story.) For the second I'm leaning toward Peppi taking the string with him (but that can be changed), so Barb attacks the Putt Putt Trolls instead. However Viva and Clay also handle that, and Viva manages to steal Barb's heart in the process. (I'm not sure if Barb is the same age as Poppy or not, but in my Au she's between Poppy and Viva in age, so its fine.)

So right now its not until the time around the third movie that Branch and Poppy make contact with their siblings. Branch is more cold and doesn't talk much outside of to Poppy. Poppy is more withdraw, reserved and nervous. Both have continually greyed under the stress of taking care of their people, fighting off predators, getting supplies and hiding from Bergans. However Poppy's hope for her people has kept her going and Branch's belief in Poppy keeps him going.

Branch and Poppy also get together sooner than the movies, as they knew each other longer. (Poppy has a brief stint of dating Creek first before he betrays them and gets kicked out. ) Their relationship is good, they can talk without words and are almost always on the same page, but they also feed each other's anxieties and pessimism. Once reunited with their families and the more nitty gritty details have been sorted out (Who's the Pop Queen, ect, ect.) the two actually have to be separated for their own health, as they keep feeding each other's fear, dreaming up worse case scenarios and how to get out of them, trying to make a new bunker, hording supplies, ect. This temporary separation gives them a chance to get to know their families again.

Poppy didn't remember Viva at all in the third movie, so I don't think she'd remember her father either in this AU. So she has to build a relationship from scratch with people who already love her in Putt Putt Pop Village. Branch, meanwhile, hates being away from Poppy and hates his brothers who abandoned him. (Though deep down he really wants them back in his life.) It also doesn't help that he has essentially gone from a perpetually dark, dangerous forest to the brightly lit, busy beaches of Vacay Island, getting constant over stimulation. He's very resistant to his brother's help at first, but eventually realizes that their just trying to improve his health (Physically and mentally) and that fighting it is just hurting Poppy. (Poppy makes a turn about much easier than Branch does, reversing some of her greying. However when she and Branch get to visit during the temporary separation, Branch actually causes some of it to come back, which is when he realizes the others are right and tries to do more to get better himself.) After they do improve they're free to do as they please and reunite as an even better couple.

As for the events of the third movie with Floyd, either Viva helped the brother save Floyd by stealing him back, still inside the diamond prison, or Floyd gets taken after these events.

Anyway! Thats what I have for now! Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas or questions!

#trolls #trolls branch #queen poppy #trolls poppy #branch x poppy #broppy #poppy #branch fanart #poppy fanart #trolls world tour #trolls band together #trolls fanart #trolls 3 #trolls dreamworks #trolls movie #trolls au #Dark Place Au

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secretpostsposts · 4 months

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How far are Branch's bros gonna baby him, or make him act like a child? Are they gonna make him be forced fed like a toddler? Or make him drink from a bottle? Just curious.

I think the term I'm looking for is Infantilization?, but yes, although I don't think it would go to an extreme like I don't know (force him to eat in a bottle again, although it depends I guess)

They would start small (before they managed to isolate him), like if Branch gets hurt in the kitchen or with one of his machines one of the brothers (Floyd or John Dory who are always watching) would take charge of healing his wound, whether it was just a small cut or something bigger, and subtly begin to comfort him, and little by little that comfort would become more of a talk to calm a child, something like "Hey bro, you need to be more careful" or "You need to pay more attention Branch" to turn to something else "Aw what happened little friend?, did you get hurt?, is it okay your big brother is going to cure that bubu" or "it's okay your big brother is here and he will make you feel better"

It would get scary for Branch at some point because, well, they cut off his food and when he refuses to eat JD always sits next to him and force-feeds him, and it's humiliating for Branch even though it's just him and his brothers, Floyd always tries to feed him, which only annoys Branch more since he also does it a little bit in public.

Something I'm sure they would do would be to comb it (or trolls groom themselves??, they have fur so they do that?) and I understand a bit that a Troll is in charge of keeping their hair taken care of themselves because it is something private, only the children ask for help from their parents or high trust adukto to take care of their hair and that the brothers do it without leaving Branch any option is (traumatic?) hurtful and the Scares.

Because it makes him realize that his siblings only see him as a baby who can't take care of himself.

#trolls #trolls band together #brozone #trolls brozone #trolls branch #trolls john dory #trolls bruce #trolls clay #trolls floyd #beloved little brother #possessive brozone #possessive

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autistichalsin · 5 months

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Okay, I’ve been a bit scared because I’ve been observing from the sidelines, but I do want you to know this isn’t a hateful or troll ask, I’m genuinely asking for clarification.

In my experience, “pro-shipping” has always meant ‘problematic shipping��, and all of the people I’ve talked to about this have said the same thing.

Am I the one who’s misconstrued? I really don’t get it.

Being called “pro-harassment” or “pro-censorship” is hurtful and confusing as all hell.

I don’t harass people for what they create. I don’t care to do that. I block and move on, and warn people if I know they could be upset by the content.

But I also don’t understand how certain things are justified.

I am personally not bothered by much, but I have watched friends and acquaintances go through visceral traumatic reactions because people have decided to air out their coping by sharing it with the public. (I.E, people who write romantic incestual fics, etc)

I don’t give a shit what people write. I really don’t. But it feels harmful to use the excuse of coping when you, in turn, could be hurting dozens of others.

Like I said, I genuinely am not trying to be hateful here. I’m confused, and still distraught that all of this is happening. I don’t think anyone deserves to be harassed. I just also don’t get the logic here.

Pro-shipping never once meant problematic shipping. It meant opposite of "anti" because antis would come and invade the tags and asks, calling them all kinds of names if they found their ships distasteful.

Sorry that being indirectly accused of supporting harassment hurt your feelings. Imagine how I felt, being DIRECTLY accused of supporting rape in real life because of my taste in fiction. You are throwing in your lot with people who can't distinguish fantasy and reality.

I don't like incest fics either, anon. They are triggering for me. So you know what I do? I don't read fics tagged as incest. For that reason, I have never been triggered by an incest fic. I suppose I would be if I read an incest fic that wasn't tagged as much, but you will never find a single pro-shipper who defends posting such content without a tag. You are responsible for your own experience online; it is your job to curate the content.

If it was just seeing that the fic exists that triggered the response, then I'm sorry to say they're still in the wrong. As a survivor, learning that triggers exist and how to navigate those triggers is on you. We are responsible for how we deal with our trauma. Your friends didn't deserve their traumas, and they deserve kindness and support, but requesting that people never be allowed to write distasteful fiction so that they don't have to be upset by the idea that someone somewhere shipped incest is not reasonable. Their feelings are valid; it's totally reasonable to be triggered, to strictly curate your online experience. It's reasonable to block everyone who ships the upsetting incest ships, to put an "incest shippers DNI" on your page, all of it. It's not reasonable to call them supporters of IRL incest or to accuse them of causing your trauma. It isn't hard at all on AO3 or Tumblr; they even give you the option to blacklist/filter out certain tags so you can avoid it without blocking users. There's easily half a dozen safeguards that already exist that are a lot less radical, a lot less likely to be weaponized against queer users, and a lot easier to enforce than trying to remove them.

Me writing fics, such as a character using kink to cope, can only harm a user who doesn't curate their feed (and who reads fics they know will trigger them, which I can only assume would then be a purposeful form of self-harm). Denying other survivors their coping mechanism, though, IS a direct form of harm. Stigmatizing recovery by saying that survivors are in any way akin to abusers for creating fiction is a direct form of harm.

It sounds to me like you've absorbed some very harmful and very narrow ideas of what recovery should and should not look like, and what is and isn't a good/valid survivor. You might want to reflect on why you're turning your attention to policing what survivors do to cope so much.

#proship #proshipper #discourse

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sideprince · 25 days

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I've seen the same post a hundred times now. Sometimes it's a few days old, sometimes it's from years ago, but it's always the same. Some anti posts about how they don't understand how anyone can like Snape because he was so awful, and then there's a long reply that goes something like, "imagine this happens to you, and then this, and then this" to describe Snape's experience. Sometimes there's some James Potter hate thrown in.

Look. You can go through describing a character's entire experience but you don't really need to. Here's the thing that antis don't understand:

For all her faults (and they're big, bigoted ones) Rowling understood a really integral part of the human experience and conveyed it through Snape. Everyone needs love and to feel accepted. It's that simple. Snape became a Death Eater to seek acceptance (Rowling has confirmed this, though I can't remember the source - whoever wants to add it please do), because it was the only way he could find any.

Snape's understanding of morality, like everyone's, is subjective. Some readers understand this and some don't. When faced against a morality that says there is good and bad in the world, everyone makes choices based on their personal experience. Context is everything. Someone who experiences pain and suffering will not see the person inflicting it on them as moral. That's it. 'How can this person be good when they caused me so much suffering?' = human psychology. Most of the people who think 'I'm a bad person and deserve this' have been gaslit and abused into thinking so, because it's not a natural reaction - it's one that has to often be socialized into someone at a young age, exactly because it's not natural. Everyone is the hero of their own story; no one sees themselves as a villain, because they see the valid aspects of their own perspective.

You can write essays on how vulnerable people needing acceptance is what cults and fascists exploit to recruit vulnerable people, or on how the standard anti's un-nuanced reading of Snape both ignores canon and displays a disturbing lack of empathy or compassion, but at its core it just boils down to context. From Snape's perspective he experienced cruelty, therefore the people inflicting it must be cruel. Again, it's that simple. He was a person, like any other, except he was fictional so he wasn't even real. On the flip side is James Potter, who, for all his faults, didn't get to live long enough to get a chance to change and grow unlike Snape, and I think the Snapedom also needs to acknowledge that.

They're fictional characters representing things an author wants to say, not sports teams, not martyrs, and not all good or all bad emblems that define your identity depending on how you feel about them. It's depressing how much time is wasted arguing with bullies and trolls whether from the Marauders fandom or just random antis. I literally can't find more than three blogs to follow without this argument coming across my feed daily. I know the Snapedom is Not OK™ and that's kind why we're all here, and I know that my take is super unpopular but like Snape, I don't care what others think: this fandom has been having the exact same argument for years and nothing has changed. There's fanart and meta and fic and so much content out there appreciating this character, you're not going to change an anti's mind who's deliberately trolling in the tags, so why are you trying? What are you getting out of it? What does it give you? It's exhausting just scrolling past it.

#The thing about morality is that it's subjective #the religious leader who's a beacon of moral purity to their congregation #is a source of selfishness and pain to someone they abuse in secret #is that abuse victim immoral for rejecting the values the religious leader represents?#the congregation might think so because their definition of morality relies on the religious leader being a moral guide #the victim might not think so though because how can something be righteous if it causes suffering #look this is just an example of how perspectives can vary and I know there are more possible takes on that example #my point is that the idea that there's no clear 'good' and 'evil' there's only power/what you do with it is actually how psychology works #'good' to one person can be pain to another #'scourgify' is an innocuous household spell that cleans stains until it's used to waterboard someone #context matters more than labels like 'light' and 'dark' magic

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olderthannetfic · 6 months

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Something I saw recently reminded me of the conversation that happened here a while earlier about being socialized male or female and its impacts. Got me wondering whether the 'ignore and delete' (anon hate, rude comments, etc.) approach that's advised all the time in transformative fandom is connected to the behaviour generally expected of most women and afab people in general while growing up. Kind of a walk away with grace thing, instead of retaliating with matching (verbal) violence or even snark/anger. I hang out in both fandom and a bunch of (cis)male-dominated spaces, and there, the general approach to people being dicks is to jump in with teeth. I prefer that, and the fandom advice has always seemed so odd to me, especially when it rarely seems to work. I'm also not a fan of how 'don't feed the trolls' get applied to people who very much aren't trolls, just garden-variety dicks. And then there's a lot of...I don't want to call it victim blaming but some flavor of it—the way fan folks are mocked and criticized for reacting with anger or rudeness to such hate comments.

The more I think about it, the more this whole attitude confuses me.

It depends on the exact presentation. Yeah, the "never get mad in public" nonsense is an expectation of people seen as women. But "delete and laugh" isn't. Treating someone as an annoying gnat who isn't worth your time is asserting your right to take up space.

And it works great, frankly. It just depends exactly what we're talking about.

Scoring points off of rude anon asks is funny, but if you do it a lot, the volume of them increases because people know they'll get a response and that their bile will see the light of day. If you just delete and block that shit, the overall volume goes down. This isn't going to be obvious unless you have a highly active inbox and watch the patterns for a while though.

~With grace~ does get way over-applied to situations where someone amply deserves a public verbal ass-kicking though.

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meraki-sunset · 1 year

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There's still one thing I don't understand about the concept of an absolved timeline: as alt!Calliope explained, this is a timeline whose relevance is fed from the canon, or in other words, us readers who came from the original homestuck in search of a new story. But in a completely technical standpoint the alpha timeline exist because there is no other timeline that end up creating LE, whose influence reaches far before time ever existed, and thus needs to be created to complete the biggest time loop ever existed in the history of paradox space. This timeline however, fail this exact condition on account of Gamzee regain his autonomy from LE, thus giving him no reason to remain in the battle against Caliborn, if he even raised the cherubs in the first place. So without this event, and subsequently possessed lil cal->doc scratch ->Lord English, how is this timeline not doomed 100 times and back?

What you're saying is true. According to canon, no timeline exept the alpha can exist. only homestuck canon can exist and every other timeline with even the slight variation will get doomed and everyone in it die without fail. Period. No point in arguing.

I say that's stupid and i don't like it.

SO i'm making use of what i call "the pesterquest dinamic"

Spoiler alert

In pesterquest MSPAReader, after meeting the homestuck cast and learning about their horrible fate to come, basically says "fuck you this is my timeline now" and dives into the Green sun and absorves it's powers, becoming a guardian, like Beckerel and Doc Scratch

With this power they sever the timeline they've intervined into from canon logic.

They create a "Locked timeline". a Timeline that doesn't have to create Lord English. It needs to, it should, the things that happen in the homestuck timeline are part of a big infinite loop that must create him and can't be tampered with or it will result in doom. But that's the thing with loops, they don't have a begining or end. any part of it that you sever can be the begining, the middle or the end

What i'm trying to say is, time in homestuck isn't linear, it doesn't follow the logic that changing something in the past should change the future. it doesn't it just marks the timeline as doomed when something is changed and that's the end. just a cross in the clipboard and fate moves to the next timeline leaving that one to rot

So grabing a timeline, severing a chunk of it (like the period where the kids and trolls haven't played the game), changing it for the better and letting it survive by external means is posible acording to Pesterquest.

Just imagine this. if a homestuck timeline is a book, and you rip a page, does the book change? did you changed the past? do the future events of the book change because tecnically the events of the page you ripped are no longer part of the book? No, the book follows it course. it just became a useless book. A broken book. It's now a doomed timeline. It can't no longer fullfill it's purpose. it'll be disposed of. That's how homestuck timelines it works.

That's why i always refer to CSAU as "infested with paradoxes" and "leaching from the canon timeline" because i know it shouldn't exist acording to canon. acording to canon it should be doomed.

But it's not. Because every little thing that CSAU lacks, every page that has been riped, that should doom it, CSAU steals it from canon homestuck

That's what i tryed to explain with "the river and the puddle" analogy. The puddle doesn't dry because it feeds from the river. CSAU doesn't get doomed because it leaches from homestuck.

How did The Felt get to the game in CSAU? The Felt are LE's minions and acording to canon before they got to the game they were at hussies mansion, where LE killed Hussie, and then Jack escaped with them and Ms. Paint inside of an oven and into the Alpha kid's game. That never happened in CSAU, that event of LE breaking into Hussies mansion with his minions and killing him never happened in this AU, yet the characters from it are here, with memories of it happening. they remember it happening tho it didn't. That's because they're copies, they're stolen from canon.

CSAU steals it's missing pieces from canon to stay alive, like a parasite, a harmless one in a comensalistic relationship. Canon doesn't even know we're here.

And the guardian who keeps the timeline safe, the force that gives it relevance for it to keep doing what it does and keep feeding from the river, who keeps the puddle's tiny stream of water that conects it to the river from being severed, It's us. It's you and It's me. CSAU is relevant to us for diferent reasons for every person, but that's why it exists. Because it's important to me and maybe to you and that's all tha matters. Canon it's it's sourse of missing pieces with which patches it's paradoxes and we are it's sourse of relevance. That's what makes an absolved timeline, that's all it takes.

A will to survive and people to care.

I hope there's more timelines like this one out there

#csau extra

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trolllsss · 5 days

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I've been trying to articulate this idea for a while and I think I finally got it.

So there's a troll sickness that only affects Grey trolls, or trolls that had been Grey before. When they lose their pigment they also lose something that fights off this illness in brightly colored trolls.

Modern day trolls don't know about it, thank goodness some of the kingdoms kept good records, they just think Grey trolls die young. That's part of why most kept their distance. They wouldn't be able to camouflage and be eaten, or they'd get sick and have no one to take care of them because they pushed everyone away, or one day they'd just, disappear. Three to five years is the longest most trolls have heard of a Grey troll living. There was one country troll that made it nine. A stubborn, crotchety old troll named Willow who became a grey troll the same day she became a widow.

The sickness only takes about twenty percent of Grey trolls.

Others are too scared to leave their homes so they starve to death. Too numb to do anything but sleep so they die of thirst. Too despondent to see that they aren't a burden so they walk themselves into the beast filled forests and never come back. That's why colorful trolls almost instinctively avoid them. Because they'll just end up dying and knowing them will make that hurt and what living thing doesn't try to avoid pain when it can?

Sickness only takes two out of every ten.

That wasn't so bad before every troll in the world went grey. Thanks Barb.

Trolls started getting sick, then they started dying. The mortality rate is at about seventy percent. Funk found their old records and luckily, a potential cure. I'm calling it Grey Away because I think I'm hilarious. It's a bit of a drive to get but Branch immediately volunteers. He doesn't tell anyone that it's because trolls who were grey for longer are more susceptible to the sickness and he wants to get away from the masses.

Naturally Poppy joins too. The brothers, who were visiting to make sure Branch was okay, all decided to join too. They'd get there faster in Rhonda anyway.

Cue road trip of reconciliation! Proper time for the bros to come to terms with everything that happened and how rough it was for Branch especially. They get good at brothering too. Teasing in a way that's funny (usually about Poppy), making food and then stealing bites of said food, playing games and taking them way too seriously, and flipping the table when they catch someone cheating.(It was John Dory, he was feeding Rhonda cards. It was not subtle.) (No one ever catches Floyd who'd been cheating since the game started.)

The first symptom is losing your voice. It takes a day to realize Branch has stopped talking.

The next day he's grey again, another symptom. Poppy mentions that it's a little weird seeing him like that again. She was just getting used to his other colors.

Bros have to put in more effort to understand their youngest who was pretending he wasn't such because he was worried if he got to be too much work they'd leave him again.

Cue healing. And. You know. Saving troll kind. Again.

#trolls #trolls band together #trolls branch #dreamworks trolls #branch trolls #trolls 3 #trolls brozone #trolls floyd #brozone #trolls poppy #trolls john dory #trolls jd #trolls Bruce #trolls epidemic #trolls grey away

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brucewaynehater101 · 11 days

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*sasukepose.jpg* I'm starting to realize that Trash!Tim is more like if OG!Cale regressed rather than Kim Rok Soo transmigrating, and rather than Trash!OGCale turning into a decent human, it's the other way around for Tim of turning from decent into trash and---

*lies on floor* I've been going about this all wrong!

Because in my mind, I was thinking Tim in the same way as Kim Rok Soo, because I hc Tim to have hyperthymesia and they both lost so many people but the only reason they're able to survive is because they learned to rely on other people!

And for regressed Tim to throw all that away in his new life, to make sure that the family he loves gets a happy life while he suffers? While he sees a family portrait with him missing from it? While he sits at the table and has Bruno from Encanto's levels of wanting to eat with his family but can only eat with them from afar? I just---

My heart is breaking. Unlike Kim Rok Soo who transmigrated and slowly built a family for himself, it's OG!Cale in the original timeline destroying his relationships with his family to keep them happy and safe. I am in tears.

I was thinking of Dick being Tim's Lee Soo Hyuk, telling Tim that living is best! I was thinking of Jason being his Choi Jung Soo, and Bruce being his Choi Han. Bruce who just lost his son having this sort of darkness in him, and Tim taking a page out of Jason's book and just feeding Bruce till he feels better rather than doing his whole Batman needs a Robin thing from the OG!timeline.

But now, NOW. THINGS ARE ANGSTIER. If in the OG!Timeline Jason and Damian were manipulated to get rid of Tim by Talia, Tim now goes on ahead and puts that target on his back himself. He's doing so well at being trash, he wonders if this is all he's good for in the long run of his life. How long can he keep this up, how long can he keep the gazes of disdain on himself by the people he loves? They don't even know him in this timeline, and that hurts even further.

My thoughts gets to a point where Tim got too deep in being trash that he ends up on a rooftop, looking at the sky and basking in the Gotham sunset. He's beside Jason's favorite gargoyle and he's just standing there.

Jason has plenty of reason to hate Tim, but Red Bat (stupid name, I know, but just to get to the scenario) has no reason to turn someone who may be a rich spoiled brat away.

So, he calls out to Tim. Asks him what's wrong.

Tim doesn't reply. But when he turns his head, Jason could only see how anguished this boy looks. How could a spoiled brat who knows nothing but being trash look so tortured and defeated when nothing even happened to him to look that way?

Or something is. Something might be happening behind the scenes.

That anguished look is instantly replaced with that cocky smirk, but his red eyes full of tears were still on display.

Tim says something, Jason doesn't listen.

It was probably to get a rise out of him, but so much is happening in Jason's head.

"Wanna get some chili dogs?" he asks on impulse.

It shuts Tim up, makes Tim have a complicated look on his face, before settling for what Jason could tell is forced disgust. Because the kids' eyes were widened, his shoulders relaxed. He's hopeful and excited.

Jason grabs Tim and jumps off the roof, grappling to his favorite chili dog stand. The kid didn't even force a scream or demands for a lawyer.

But he did hug Jason tight.

Huh.

Shizz... This kind of makes me want to actually write a bit of an angst fic about the Tim "Trash" AU. You are correct that the entire thing would be angsty, but I imagine Tim's narration of it would be full of jokes. He's be laughing, rolling his eyes, making slightly fucked up jokes about his situation, but he wouldn't go into it. Maybe he'd even convince himself that it's fun to pretend so much. He's a bit of a troll like that and makes internal debates with himself on how fast he can get someone to explode in rage.

But, yeah. I wrote a fic about Tim going back in time and purposefully cutting himself off from the family (and not rejoining them despite helping them). This, though? Him making himself into a public figure he knows his family would despise? Yikes.

It hurts but in a very delicious way.

How much time does he spend hesitating before doing an action that would lower the Waynes opinion of him? How often does he try to ignore his family so he can do what he must (being "trash")?

Hopefully, Tim isn't alone in that AU. I like to imagine he has another persona (maybe his vigilante one, maybe an online one) so that he has at least someone who doesn't hate him

#dc comics #tim drake #dc universe #dc au #thank you for the ask!!!!

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galatikid · 3 days

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I'm going to say something whacky but I really hope enough see it and internalize it.

I'm deeply concerned with the rhetoric of Trump bad so vote blue. Project 2025 is bad so vote blue. Vote Biden. Yes he's continuing a genocide but vote for him anyway because do you really want Trump again. Don't vote third party because that's throwing away your votes and we need to make the change on local levels first.

This conversation style lets the current status quo (bad all around) continue. Lets the powers that be continue to be.

Y'all do see and understand that's defeatism right? Like you're accepting that the game is lost before we hit the ground because the game is shit and has been. This kind of thinking is what they want, because it keeps us fighting amongst ourselves. Infighting! Why!! This conversation pattern has been ongoing for YEARS. Why??

Stop feeding the trolls that you've let inside your head.

We can make the change now. We should make the change now. Local elections have already been shifting and have been for a while. The time we're currently living in is a monumental tipping point to be seized. If you don't like either choice we have 6 months to reach an agreement for an alternative. And we need an alternative because there's a lot on the line.

Neither party truly serves the majority of the population, we all agree on this! We all agree that the world is suffering with us due to the companies and governments that loom over us. Why should we wait 4 more years to do anything about it on a nation wide scale. And how much longer are we going to choose to wait? Where's the goal post? What's the time frame y'all are working on? Why are you choosing to wait currently other than "anything else is a long shot"? Oh of course it is you keep saying it, of course it's a long shot if you all keep saying that it is.

Stop saying it! Choose the third option, choose something, anything else!!

You want change then demand it. Make it happen.

It does not have to continue to be this way.

#void speaks #politics #biden #palestine #us politics #im begging #im pleading with you guys to stop this cycle #its the same cycle thats been spun election after election #trump

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time-to-write-and-suffer · 1 year

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The most frustrating thing to see in the HogLeg tags is people in the notes of TERFs and edgelords and Devil's Advocates and Consciencious Objectors trying to beat some sense into them.

Like, what happened with "don't feed the trolls", guys? Here's a helpful list of what to do when seeing specific types of braindead/inflammatory posts.

"Um if HogLeg is straight up killing people then gender clinics are mutilating children!" That's a TERF. Block, report if applicable, move on. This one wants to hurt you and takes pleasure in doing so. Hates you probably. Do not engagee.

"LMAO at those snowflakes being upset at a game! I'm gonna play it and nobody can stop me!" Edgelord. Block, report if applicable, move on. Do not engage, you are the snowflake they're trying to trigger. Do not give them the satisfaction.

"Um um I'm trans and POC and Jewish and this is getting out of hand, guys! You're radicalizing the normies by being mean to them for playing the game!" or "I'm trans and POC and Jewish and you're all insane for acting like wild dogs and attacking people for playing a stupid game! I'm not like this! Be normal!" At best, a sad creature still hoping that if they act "normal" enough, the power structures that be will let them live. At worst, a rando pretending to be these things in order to further their own argument. Yes, that still happens. Yes, even on Tumblr. Either way, move on. Block if you want. Do not engage with the bad faith arguments, they're either too stupid/insecure to get anything you say or they're actively aware of your arguments and know exactly why they disagree. Not worth your time.

"Uwu uwu *crying shitting throwing up* I love Hawwy Pottew and it's my hyperfixation/comfort thing and I will play it but I that doesn't mean I'm a transphobe! I promise I love my trans siblings! I am trans/am friends with transes! Please don't call me transphobic for simply enjoying some media! I'm full of love and affection and am an ally! Let me have my comfort thing! I'm so hurt by your mean accusations, but look, I'll donate to good causes and reblog trans rights posts!" Sad bottom-feeding slug, hasn't grown a spine yet and might never do so. Don't engage, this one's definitely not worth your time, your arguments might either pass through them (on account of it having no solid bone structure) or bounce off them (the skin is thicker than it seems, and it's just pretending to be soft and squishy but actually fully knows what it's doing and doesn't want to be held accountable).

Basically, stop, don't, turn around. Don't waste your time.

Anyway, to the rest of you: Keep on being haters and godspeed.

#anti jkr #anti hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy

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thewertsearch · 1 year

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Trolls Made Our Universe: The Analysis

Let's talk about it.

Looking back, it's pretty clear that this was always our destination. The comic's scope has been on an upward trajectory for thousands of pages, and the Ultimate Alchemy hype has been building since midway through Act 4.

Hell, even I thought the planet I theorized about was just going to be a stepping stone to something bigger. Homestuck just keeps escalating - we might not even stop here, although I can't predict what the next step would be, since we're working with multiple varieties of multiverse already.

Anyway, this reveal confirms that Sburb's grandstanding about the Players' importance isn't just hot air - they really do serve a critical purpose. Assertions that this 'purpose' is more important than saving Earth are still dubious - but now, I can at least understand the coldly utilitarian place the game is coming from.

I still don't know why it has to work this way, but now I finally know what's happening. Earth's universe was born from the blood of Alternia, and the kids were created to perpetuate the cycle again, creating a new universe from the blood of Earth.

Close! It was less of a gasp, though, and more of an under-the-breath 'what the fuck'. I don't know why a universe surprised me as much as it did - like I said, I was already half-expecting a planet!

I think the real sticking point is the difference in scale - and, as a consequence, the difference in Grist cost.

It makes a certain intuitive sense that you could convert the Denizen Grist into a planet - comparable in size, presumably, to the planetoids that the Denizens call home. But a universe is an entirely different animal, one which would dwarf the Incipisphere by dozens of orders of magnitude.

Extrapolating from the typical volume of a Grist piece, four Land-sized vaults of the stuff wouldn't be nearly enough. Even if Denizen Grist is a million times more valuable than normal, and each Denizen released a million times the Incipisphere's volume in Grist, it still wouldn't be nearly enough.

I guess the game could just hardcode the Grist cost of a universe down to a manageable value, but that would break the game's own rules, and doesn't seem in spirit with how its progression system works.

No, I think something screwy must be going on with the Denizen hoards. Maybe they're full of special Grist, each piece of which is worth 1e70 normal pieces - or maybe picking them up actually multiplies the value of your grist cache, rather than adding to it.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the hoards are this comically large. After all, their value is beyond even Vriska's imagination.

The exact mechanics here are definitely worth speculating about. Let's talk about how, exactly, this universe may have come to be. The trolls obviously can't have crafted this thing atom-by-atom, or even planet-by-planet - not unless Aradia took them into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a billion years of blueprinting.

A lot of Alternian culture is integrated into Earth, though, and it had to get there somehow. In keeping with what anon said, I think these ideas were sort of 'merged' into the universe when it was created.

After all, Sburb is all about merging ideas, and we've been working with idea-merging machines since day one!

The trolls alchemized their universe, even if they didn't use a traditional Alchemiter to do so. If they wanted their universe to exhibit certain traits, all they needed to do was feed it certain ingredients, merging them with whatever 'universe' object they presumably gained access to at the end of the game. I'm just going to call it the seed.

Maybe the reason humans look so much like trolls is because the trolls inserted their codes into their universe's alchemy recipe, perhaps attempting to revive the troll species without the Matriorb.

Wait, scratch that.

Maybe the reason humans look so much like trolls, and have red blood, is because one specific troll's code ended up in their recipe.

Come to think of it - since we're already doing large-scale alchemy, there's a pretty easy way for the trolls to ensure that every trait they want ends up in their new universe.

All they'd need is a fetch modus and a drawing tablet.

If you're being evicted into a new universe, you might as well make it feel like home.

Adding Alternia's code to the seed would, in one fell swoop, explain all the facets of troll culture observed on Earth. It would also, in a way, 'resurrect' the troll homeworld without truly reviving it - a bittersweet prize for our victorious Players.

As mentioned above, it would be weird if Earth was the only planet to inherit DNA from Old Man Alternia. It would make sense if each civilization exhibited different Alternian traits - like, maybe there's an exoplanet out there somewhere where lusi evolved, and another where everyone has the same necromantic powers as Aradia.

It also means the universe was probably full of space empires. If the meteors didn't get Earth, Neo-Alternia might have eventually come knocking...

I also think I was conflating the signs on the trolls' clothes with the signs of the Alternian Zodiac, without considering that those might be two entirely different sets of 'signs'. The trolls themselves never refer to Cancer or Aquarius as Zodiac signs, after all. Maybe the Extended Zodiac is a different thing entirely.

Anyway - yeah, that is interesting. The kids' universe was created by twelve Players, and now its stars bear their signature - so whose signature is embedded in the trolls' stars?

An implied 48-Player session sounds amazing. Doubly so, if Hussie's using Squiddles to imply a Horrorterror session. That's an absolutely fascinating idea, on so many levels, and I do hope we see the trolls speculating about their own creators at some point.

Of course, this 48-sign Squiddles stuff could also be a red herring. I'm getting used to how this comic works, and just so it's on record...

...this is what I suspect is actually going on.

In any case, I'm as hyped as you all are!

Hussie's hand has finally been shown, and Homestuck has been revealed as the creation myth that had been built up all along. I can't wait to see what's next.

#homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5 #theories #deep dives #asks

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