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#which means I am gonna get so angry at misinformation
thefloatingstone · 1 year
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*looks inside the official DeviantArt discord I'm part of* ru roh.
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isa-ah · 1 year
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Honestly thank you for your take. Like, I’m easily agitable and get grumpy from stupid things and I *know* from my personality that T /is/ gonna make me angrier. But every time I try to say that, my girlfriend (also trans) tells me it won’t and that’s misinformation. Like…… I fucking know my mood and I’m tired of people invalidating my reasonable expectations for who I am as a person. I think it’s unreasonable to just expect me to be able to keep my cool through T and not have an adjustment period. And I feels like garbage that if I’m somehow affected by an expected change, the alternative is to immediately cannon-ball into toxic masculinity and suck up all my feelings into stoicism.
these tags someone put on the original post vvvvv
#i got some pretty wild mood side effects on t and Yeah it affected my libido #but you know what? #T making me angry taught me a lot about anger #it was an emotion that had been explosive for me Before transition#and i had a really bad temper #T made me angry with enough regularity #that i had to learn to coexist with anger #to let anger exist and pass #i ironically gained a lot More patience because I got angry #i learned that it- like any other feeling- is worth looking at and examining#and now i pretty much never act in anger #i know how to be angry and let it exist and know it's not some Evil Sinful Thing or some Righteous Moral Fury#which i didn't before taking a medication that made me angry!!! #anger is okay! #being angry or horny or loud does not make you surrender all your morals and fundamentally doomed to being cruel to others! #no reaction in your body or emotion or feeling Dooms You to be Evil or Abusive #lots of things make people angry #and it's okay! #it's okay to be angry!
theres also the fact that like, theres a likelihood your gf went through a period of "boys will be boys" where she was allowed to experience puberty and act out and be a wild child freak as most kids experiencing a testosterone driven puberty are, around peers also going through it, around understanding of "well thats just how it is", with male role models to explain to her whats happening, why, and to some extent how to handle it; VS being in your twenties (assuming u are) and being expected to be polite and well mannered going through the Same Type of Puberty as a 13yo boy with all the problems of a 20smtn adult man, with a hearty lack of male role models to help you through it and MOUNTAINS of stress and work and the world burning down that a kids never going to have to deal with.
we dont get the leeway to have an adjustment period, and no amount of baby talking us into believing it wont happen will make it not happen. it just means we have to do the emotional labor to "spare" everyone else. (as dfab people are expected to do from childhood). given that testosterone does effect you in that way cause obviously its not the same for everyone, but you know yourself and you sound pretty damn aware of it.
have a messy transition! act out! be loud! you DESERVE to have the formative experience associated with your puberty, and youll probably learn a lot about yourself in the process. you have self awareness and coping skills a kids not going to have, so you CAN experience your anger, your aggression, and learn how to live WITH it instead of trying to bottle it up.
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myrddin-wylt · 1 year
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that same British anon here
You know what. Yes I will take Ukraine to be the point of reference here, Ukraine know what they're trying to do and are trying to fucking do it, I can respect that.
But yes I've noticed that all the germans I've known are very scared to criticise the government, and I'm not sure why, might just be a culture difference considering the bullshit the tabloids do here, but they seem genuinely a little afraid
imo Britain's problem in general is that while plenty of Brits can agree that the current situation is Very Not Good, even a riot ain't gonna do shit if it isn't goal-oriented and 100% clear what tangible action people want the government to take, and I imagine there's currently a lot of disagreement rn. like the French have a very clear tangible thing they want from Macron: repeal the law raising the retirement age. Euromaidan had clear goals: Yanukovych needed to resign and the Azarov government be dissolved only being the first of a very long list. also I'm putting this under a readmore because I love to ramble.
as a wider, historical uprising example - and please excuse me for coming off as like, US-obsessed patriot American I swear it's just the document really is written as just a perfect example - the US Declaration of Independence is really fascinating to read because it is literally a list of tangible grievances. 'we are angry and have provided you with a list as to why: because you did [a], [b], [c] etc concrete actions. so we are gonna do [x], [y], and [z] (which just so happen to be high treason).'
so grievances like 'being a tyrant' isn't enough, nor is 'hey I can't afford to heat my house or go to the doctor because you fucking suck at running the country, fix this shit.' ya gotta pick a very specific action, and that's not something I think the general British population has agreed on yet? I mean, yall are very good at getting Prime Ministers to resign (and without needing to use violence to do so), which is a very concrete action! and I'm not saying that sarcastically or in a mean way, I really am being genuine. like the Germans could fucking never. Americans could never, or else Trump would've resigned during his term. so I'm still holding out hope for yall and you know what, what does it matter anyway how many PMs you've had in however many years, as long as the transition of power was peaceful and legal? it's better to swap em out as needed than cling onto one that has shown to be Not The One. like what are you, fuckin Catholic or something? divorce them. serve them the papers. also I really, really do not know nearly enough about domestic UK politics in the last 25 years to be making any of the statements in this paragraph but that won't stop me because I'm an American!
......re: the Germans, hm. I thought they were more complacent than scared, but if they are scared it's presumably because the freedom of speech laws in Germany are............ well, the Network Enforcement Act is not helping. in any case, the Germans have always erred toward the side of censorship when it comes to the freedom of speech/hate speech/misinformation dilemma so maybe there's a cultural attitude of "better to be silent and let others think you a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt," if that makes sense? maybe they're less concerned about the government censorship and more about social censure/conforming to popular opinion, idk. I feel like I'd have to be fluent in German to be able to understand the attitudes there. you'd need to ask a German about that.
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strawberrybabydog · 2 years
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why are non delusional and/or psychotic people so. Rude?? like LOL be nice
like i’ll go ”hey, i have delusions & paranoia around X, please don’t and they’ll go ”oh cool do X more? get my friends to join in? and justify it bc of mildly-squint-in-the-right-light-problematic stuff you did as a child <3”
the intersection between mob mentality cancel culture snd sanism is so strong and fucked up
- clownie anon on the wrong keyboard again rip
sane (and abled) ppl tend not to take mental illness nd disability very seriously. typically if they can make a joke about something (especially something that makes them uncomfortable) they will do it 10/10 times, because they don't care about us, only themselves/their own comfort. i tend not to tell people i'm schizophrenic because, well, it's rarely relevant to them, and also because they often react poorly; "you're not ACTUALLY psychotic, i know psychotic people, they kill people" "REALLY? (thinks im lying)" "[insert some intrusive question]" "but you don't look schizophrenic? (sorry lemme just *shapeshifts into a werewolf*)" "a mutual friend of mine in highschool had a psychotic break and [something horrible happened to them]" basically just... equally unwanted reactions. super inappropriate stuff to be saying to me - implying i'm violent, faking my trauma, shouldn't be alive/should be institutionalized, etc.
however, when the day comes that a republican-christian tells me the devil is inside of my head/i need an exorcism/theyll pray for me.... i am going to whip out slushpuppy at the speed of light and tell them to look into the devil's eyes. satan is real and he is my plush dog /j. i mean seriously, my plushes talk to me, are u really gonna tell me my pink, glittery plush snail is a demon? LOL!! i also have a spiritual delusion of being a messiah so uh. ironic that ur praying 4 me... LOL /lh
i consider myself lucky to have never encountered this sanism, and i personally attribute it to never sharing my triggers (absolutely not victim blaming! it is not anyone's fault if they get harassed because they share their triggers!! sharing triggers =/= invitation for harassment, just talking about personal my experience) but even so, internet culture has a big problem with fake-claiming which i think plays into this sort of behavior a LOT. their perception of psychotics is... the things people say to me, above - we're violent, visibly psychotic, etc. even if someone is faking psychosis on the internet (which doesn't happen on purpose, i see misinformation leading to mis-self-diagnosis every once in a while but its not malicious or purposeful) it's still not justified to harass them or try to trigger them on purpose. it's not the funny joke they think it is, obviously. triggering people on purpose is evil /srs.
TLDR, i'm angry with you clownie. i'm sorry this happened to you, and every other person it's ever happened to. whether someone is "faking" psychosis or not, they still deserve safety and kindness. this sort of thing will probably continue to happen until non-psychotics start to take us seriously and listen to us.
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🌊🐺
5. what’s the best part of having your cluster B disorder(s)?
Oh, this thing. That *points at Clusted B*, this one, helped me to overcome a bunch of my fucking fears. This thing deleted the hate I had for my own art of whatever./// Yeah that's it actually.
6. what’s the worst part of having you cluster B disorder(s)?
Aand here's that. Impulsivity, Egoism, selfishness and aggressiveness. Because a minor thing can still make me MAD, I can't control it. I can lash out on those who I care about, and this is nuts. If my fp does something I don't like or disappears - I am gone. If someone tells me something negative about me - I can lash out or just die (not literally). Narc crashes, splitting, I HATE IT. And the worst part is that I can't control it. NPD also makes me very, and I mean, VERY repulsed by the need to comfort someone. Mostly because I never got any comfort myself, why would I give something I haven't gotten at all if I am still trying to recover myself? + I love to talk only about me. Only. Me. Only things I like. No one dares to talk about these things because they are mine. I hate everything popular but also I hate everything people around me enjoy and everyone who likes the same things I like. You see how bad it is? Ugh
Also let's talk about how it makes me feel NOTHING for days? Or how I can be so bored that nothing helps me and I get angry and sad and worse? Or depersonalization because yeaaah, this is exaaactly what I needed with the lack of identity permanence. Also if I see someone getting attention I am gonna be angry at them even if they are my close friend because how dare, I want attention too. Exactly the same even. And how I need to be treated in the "Special" way? Ugh, I don't even know myself what I want to be honest, but since I get angry at my partner now - it's something I would never get..
Anyway, I hate Cluster B with all my heart, it ruined me.
10. what is something you’d want your non cluster B friends to understand about you and possibly accommodate you about?
Let's just say.... everything. I can't be bored if there's a FP, so there's that. If I do feel bored - I am screwed. That being a FP is NOT the end of a world. I have a very prominent fear of abandonment, that can and will lead to panic / anxiety attacks and also in the worst cases - delusions. I need social interaction constantly, unless something wild happens and I got myself into something that I don't need it for a moment.
13. what is your best trait that benefits you?
IDK, really, I don't know. Maybe how defensive I am, that no one can hurt me like really really hurt me, apart from myself and the mental health itself?
21. is there a trait from a cluster B disorder you wish you had?
Oh, I would probably say a trait I would rather not have. Because let's be real, IT SUCKS.
25. is there something you want people to know about your cluster B disorder(s)?
One thing. We are not abusers and manipulative. That lack of empathy and my selfishness do not make me backstabber. And that I can be a great friend, I just need a lot of attention which is okay, we all need human interaction lol. And that having BPD is exhausting, I can't say anything good about it.
26. what is the most common misinformation about your cluster B disorder(s) that you want people to know the correct information about?
Funny how I don't interact with anything related to it. So uh... idk
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verberation · 2 years
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Gonna get serious for a second. I am so so angry all the time at such a constant level at the way the western global mismanagement of the covid pandemic has lead to this fucking mess of a situation: by which I mean. The fact that covid has been allowed to spread through so many people that we now have multiple numbers of variants all of which seem to get worse. That our vaccines are less useful that this fucking disease mutates at such a rate we cannot control it because we have refused to control it because corporations were more concerned about patents and money and the fucking economy than about human lives and stemming this disease at a pace we could handle.
I’m so angry at the stupidity of people who made this disease a political identity: of reactive xenophobic anti-science regressive bullshit that was peddled by groups looking to hitch their wagons to any cause so long as it suited their own petty individual needs.
I am 27. I grew up knowing that I would never have it as easy as my parents did. That owning a house in my 20s was beyond me and that the environment was fucked, global war was likely at some point, that my University degrees would only get more underfunded and more expensive, and that economy was worse than it had been for my parents, and that job security was non existent and the gig economy was what I had to look forward to in a world increasingly controlled by corporate rights and internet surveillance. Sure. Fine. I’d come to terms with that long ago. But the thing that I was promised. THE thing that I was promised that could rely on was medicine and science and global health. That we’d found cures for polio and stamped out small pox and that even cancer sufferers had higher survival rates than ever before. That I would never have to deal with the fear of catching a common disease that could not be cured.
For 25 years I had that goddamn promise. I lived through the SARS epidemic in 2002/2003 - I was a kid. We masked. We took our temperature before going to school. We were afraid. But we trusted that science would find out the answers and that the epidemic would be over. And it was! It did! Hong Kong was never the fucking same; people died and Hong Kongers had to live with the effects of that experience and that epidemic. But you didn’t have to walk into a public place and actively worry that you could catch something that would actively kill you or otherwise leave you permanently affected. Medical science solved it - backed by public policy - and I trusted that this would remain the same. It’s the 21st century: how could it not?
I knew going into this pandemic in 2020 that it wouldn’t be over in three months. It probably wouldn’t be over before three years. And I’m looking down the tail end of the third year of this pandemic and I never imagined this. I can’t imagine what this world will be like in three years time or in thirty. We will have to live this way - with this disease and its mutations and its harm that it does on the bodies of the people who get it, let alone survive it - for the rest of my generation and more over. And I am so furiously angry at the complacency of governments, the greed of corporations, and the opportunism of online ‘media’ and misinformation cult groups that have lead us to this point.
I wasn’t promised much as a future - and many things that were promised were quickly taken from me; jobs, housing, liveable wages, a healthy and stable environment, a stable climate - but I had been promised global health and global science. I had been promised that medical science would ensure that disease such as this fucking pandemic wouldn’t take hold the way they have. And even that has been removed from me. And I am so angry about it - and I will never ever forgive the people who caused this, the governments who aided it, and the corporations that encouraged it, and the misinformation groups that took advantage of it. It didn’t have to be this way. This fucking pandemic didn’t have to be this way.
I don’t know how it will end. I doubt it will ever truly end. I worry all time - for the risks of reinfection, for getting long covid, for having to live with this damn disease killing people for the rest of my life - and I’m angry too. It didn’t have to be this was.
It didn’t have to fucking be this way.
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ruby-whistler · 3 years
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Alright curious anon here. All this is /dsmp /rp from here on out unless otherwise specified and is refering to characters. If i make any mistakes or am misinformed please let me know! So by the cat was nothing compared to mushroom henry i was meaning more toward the fact that the cow was killed as a punishment for something not worth or ok for it to be killed for at all and the fact that it belonged to tommy, wheareas the cat was killed more to annoy dream and belonged to tommy. (1/?)
alright then another lengthy reply, here i come! /lh /dsmp /rp
Dream also did not seem to mourn the cat much, shrugging it off with a "just more motivation to break out".
it was killed to hurt dream, not to "annoy him". it doesn't matter who it belonged to, c!dream was attached to it and it died, which had an effect on him and also further proved his point about attachments being weakness and caring getting you hurt, and it's still very sad.
you say that it was not ok at all to kill mooshroom henry, but the cat's death wasn't ok either, so i really don't see your point.
again, i disagree it was "nothing compared to" either way. i never meant to compare them in the first place, i was simply talking about the cat and c!dream so i don't see why it is in any way necessary to drag c!tommy and other dead pets into this. /nm
also, it isn't true he didn't mourn it. he is a very reserved person who doesn't show his feelings much, that's true, but the cat death still changed the way he acted afterwards, as well as the attempts he made to prevent it. he didn't "shrug it off", he yelled about it because he was understandably upset.
You mentioned that propganda was used to make dream seem like a tyrant, could you specify a bjt? Cus im a little confused srry /gen. Because the most i can remember from the lmanburg era at least is him being called a b'tch or other similar insults. You also mentioned how trauma responses can be differet which is true! I agree! Do you have any ideas to what caused dream the trauma?
wilbur would continuously make him out to be some sort of oppressive, tyrannical force, in front of his troops - a prime example of this being the lyrics of the l'manberg anthem itself and the l'manberg declaration of independence.
actually! here's a nice thread about l'manberg's establishment complete with links, timestamps and evidence :]
i also said in my previous post what could've possibly caused it, but since the character intentionally hides his emotions from the public, it would be difficult to see how things really affected him - which is why the way his spiral went is the majority of the evidence that would imply it, however it does make sense within the story as well with what i mentioned last time.
I would like to note that for sapnap at least had reason to leave dream. Some examples off the top of my head are dream leading an angry fundy to sapnap's pets on purpose, resulting in some deaths, dream assisting tommy in burning down sapnap's effiel tower where he got engaged to karl, and dream giving tommy either mars or the other fish at the battle of the lake. Idk about george tho other then the whole mexican lmanburg/el rapids thing and decrowning him
c!sapnap was actually at fault for most of this, and it wasn't really ever betrayal on c!dream's part.
c!dream is a mediator and he wants to stop everyone's conflict - c!fundy was angry because of c!sapnap's actions, and hence it made more sense for c!dream to centre him on c!sapnap's animals instead of running around killing everyone's pets (at that time, all c!dream knew was c!sapnap did something really bad and c!fundy wanted beckerson / mars from him, which were also his and c!george's fish).
c!sapnap was an instigator, and in multiple conflicts during the time as well as before he'd align himself against c!dream. he isn't "loyal" per se, he causes chaos and the reason c!dream helped c!tommy was because, c!sapnap, again, killed his pet. the first l'manberg war and then the 16th are signs of the fact that c!dream and c!sapnap were willing to fight together in actual war, but these small conflicts where c!sapnap continuously picked fights weren't about personal loyalty, nor did they seem to affect their relationship at all.
c!george was never really hurt by c!dream either. the dethronement was him very obviously being a guilt-trippy drama queen, but, well, that's just the character. he had stolen the l'mantree while he was supposed to be the diplomatic figure of the greater smp, which is why c!dream was justified in - very politely, may i mention - taking the duties off of him (seeing as he was also trying to keep him safe and c!techno had already assassinated him once).
Im pretty sure i remember cc!sam stating that his character never canonically physically tortured dream during his subathon but take this with a grain of salt as i am looking for the clip currently. So to the best of my knowledge dream did not have a physical contact trigger during tommy's visit which! I rewatched the vod and dream actually was first to hit tommy and i can give you my full writing downs but 10/12 of the phy-
you never finished this point because you had to go do something, but i'll reply to what is here at the moment (i suggest writing these down before sending next time, or even writing them out wholly before sending a single one could help avoid stuff like this).
i am 95% sure that the reason cc!sam stated this was because people were suspicious he had already been doing what c!quackity was doing after - torture within the storyline itself is associated pretty much only with what c!quackity is doing, so that's what he meant, just to clear up confusion - the starvation or terrible conditions haven't been retconned, but it was direct torture (like c!quackity is doing) people were asking him about.
i never said c!dream had a physical contact trigger at all, i don't think he had that, though he probably will after the torture.
huh, ok, i'm gonna have to rewatch then, but i remember c!tommy punching c!dream a lot and him just telling him to stop and only punching back to get him to stop. trigger or not, getting hit isn't very pleasant, if you know what i mean.
You mentioned tommy stealing dream's armor unprovoked. Do you have the vod or a general idea of the time so i can find it? Like before lmanburg after another event so and so because if you do not have it i can find it but any help is appreciated.
i am pretty sure you can find the video on cc!tommy's channel! there are also recaps of the disc war on youtube :]
I wanna talk a little on why the Final Control Room was so messed up. For starters, with the way the room was designed. It was small, and had labeled, empty chests with each person's name on them as a mockery. The next reason is that its bascially a kill box.
It's fairly inescapble with the stairs being ones you have to jump up, slowing anyone who climbs them down. The final reason it is messed up is that it is shown to have caused every person who died in it trauma. With tommy there are several examples, the time he saw it with techno, the way he refuses to go near it, the exposure trauma, etc. Fundy also appears to have trauma, as when the Red Banquet executions began, it can be seen as him being afraid of dying last again.
It can Be thought as tubbo having trauma because he buries most of his issues and pretends to be ok. Moreover this event took at least one of each person's canon lives, making it the most canon lives lost EVER in a dream smp event. (This is not hate on any of the ccs btw i loved this scene and its one of my personal favorites). Plus the fact Eret's betrayal just literally happened, giving at least Tommy and Wilbur canonic trust issues.
i wouldn't call the chests mockery? it was a trap. people had traps on the smp before. it was a trap in the middle of war, supposed to end said war by killing them all at once rather than individually which would be a lot more bloody and difficult.
i agree c!tommy and other people might have post-war trauma, especially if they were young during the time, but i think that's because the final control room was "messed up", moreso because the war itself was. it all happened fairly instantly as well? i don't think c!fundy would be able to realize he was the last one standing within the two second before he wasn't.
it "can be thought" and it can be interpreted like that but besides c!tommy there isn't much evidence for them "all" being traumatized by the final control room. of course betrayal would spark trust issues, i understand that.
The probation was humiliating in my opinion because dream was Sending tommy anatgonizing messages through out the whole meeting, plus he had to write a review of his day every single day, which fundy mocked him for.
i mean, it was definitely a strike to his pride, but he was being extremely uncooperative so i don't really blame the other members of new l'manberg trying to teach him to listen for once? of course i know c!dream was riling him up, and that should definitely be considered. i don't think it would be as humiliating if c!tommy didn't make it, is what i'm saying.
for the tommy being toxic to fundy? At least for the examples you gave, to me personally they come acoross as either in a meta way being the cc's bantering or in canon being the characters having banter. If you can send the post with the clips so i can read the tone better that would be cool but if not i will try and find em.
no, these were all in canon. canon isn't only when c!tommy is being nice, it's also when he's being a jerk. /lh
the first one was him threatening c!fundy about kicking him out of l'manberg and undermining his self-worth, and the second one was him trying to get c!sapnap to vote for them via bullying c!fundy.
i found these from a transcript focusing on c!fundy's character, so i don't know exactly where the first one is from, but the second one i am pretty sure is from when the elections were starting with the whole cabinet battle deal and all of that.
there are other instances, and all of them are canon. his personality was never being nice or compassionate, so i'm not really surprised? he still cares about the people he cares about and is very brave, y'know. but this part of his personality is definitely a valid reason for people to dislike him.
I hope the exam went well :). Hope u have a great day! (Ps i think theres something called a submission box to send in pictures? Am not entirely sure sry)
it would've gone well but my work-speed is a tad too slow for the schooling system (considering i'm three years younger than my classmates,,, probably that's also a factor) so probably not despite the fact i knew everything and would've aced it if i only had more time. i did as well as i could so i'm not worried about it, but thanks!
i think you're thinking submissions. sadly, i tested it and it doesn't work on anons, so idk how you'd solve that, maybe make a burner account?
Curious anon here one point you may wanna include in the redemption essay is that c!tubbo or c!tommy do not necessarily have to forgive him. What's important is that he recognizes what he did was wrong (exile, beating tommy to death, manipulating them both, etc) and does his best to make amends. Hope this helps! Can't wait to see your essay
it's out, idk if you've seen it yet, and i think i included enough of that so hope it's all good! :)
the mcc update video is out if you are an mcc enjoyer. It's very neat, if you wanna check it out
yeah! i am a fellow mcc enjoyer, saw it already, thanks for telling me though, i'm really hype for today.
Allo curious anon here sorry if the lots of asks bother you. I was just curious if i could share an interesting post i saw today about c!dream :0 (not necessarily negative i think? More of a statement of an often-confused canon)
sure thing! i don't know what you mean by often-confused since, the entire fanbase is very confused always, and often selection bias plays into the perception from both sides, but sure :]
you also sent in a thing for the other anon who said they didn't know what c!dream did that bad; pretty sure they couldn't really be alerted since, not sure if they watch my blog that closely, but i'll summarize your points just in case and add some notes;
the repeated blowing up of l'manberg (in my mind that's largely a positive since i,, despise that country, but fair enough), revealed c!ranboo as a traitor (they seem to be friends so i also,, think that might've been planned between him and enderboo), sent ghostbur away (i don't think c!dream knew it was dangerous for him and wanted to actually hurt him, but idk), participated in fighting against c!sapnap when he killed people's pets (that's only negative against c!sapnap and didn't seem to hurt him much at all), and then the whole vault scene where he was allegedly planning to steal people's things (though saying he would & being stopped beforehand and doing it are two different things, frankly).
so i still agree with the other anon that a lot of the hurt he did "to the entire server" (he only negatively interacted with like,, a half of them) is exaggerated both by the characters and the fandom, but i guess that's a consequence of most people seeing him as a threat to everyone's happiness rather than a complex personality.
Also he was aware of the butcher army going to kill techno but only got involved because he saw an opportunity to get a favor. (As he knew in advance due to him telling techno to get a totem, watching from afar instead of interveing or manipulating tubbo out of it)
i don't understand this at all, i'm sorry. how do you know he only helped techno in order to get a favor? last i remember he was only doing it to protect and strengthen his alliance, and techno came up with the whole favor thing entirely on his own. you might've not watched techno's perspective or their prior interactions, idk, but this really is a misinterpretation in my eyes. /nm
sorry if that is overly dream negative i just wanted to let yall know cus you seemed unaware -curious anon
nah dw, i watch the smp and i watched all of these things happen so, wouldn't say unaware, but thanks.
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teamsarawatshusband · 3 years
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Do you think there is a chance that WYB really believes in China's innocence in this? If people in China don't have all the information, then maybe he also doesn't know what is happening.
Okay, I’m gonna be very careful in how to answer this.
First of all, I don’t know him in person (obviously), so I can never know 100% what he does and doesn’t believe. Much like with any other celebrity.
My assumption on what he believes in this is based on what I know about his life and how that might potentially affect his thinking in matters like these. It is also based on what I know from my personal connections to Chinese citizens and what they have told me about politics and human rights affairs in the past.
Since Yibo is living in China, there is a big chance that he doesn’t have access to all the news regarding this specific political situation. So I do assume that he most likely doesn’t know the details of what’s going on in regards to the human rights violations and why exactly Nike spoke out against the government of his country.
However, he is very familiar with the business side of working with brands and he has had political situations affect career decisions in the past. So I can’t help but think that he knows things are fishy.
He must know that brands, especially big corporations like Nike, don’t make business-damaging statements against a whole country like this without global pressure. Let’s not forget, Nike like any other company, first and foremost has to think of their marketability and consumer’s trust. So, Yibo must know that consumers (not governments or political institutions but regular people) all over the world are watching the news and demanding that companies such as Nike take a stand. So, I’m assuming he knows that, in the eyes of the global population, based on their sources of information, the Chinese government is doing something bad.
Whether or not he believes this information to be true is a different question.
Now, if Yibo had lived his entire life in China, had grown up with the censorship and propaganda of the Chinese government throughout his life and not aware that this is different in other parts of the world, then I would assume he’d believe it to be false.
However, he has lived in South Korea for several years. So he did have access to a non-Chinese point of view on politics and life in general. He also has traveled to other countries professionally, both as a singer as well as an actor. He must know that independent sources of information are much easier accessible in other countries. He must know that the amount of freedom to publicly criticize a government or state personal opinions varies largely from country to country. I am convinced he is aware that censorship and deliberate spreading of misinformation is a common political practice in China. So, based on that, I do assume that he takes information from Chinese news with a critical mindset that doesn’t simply trust and buy into everything that is served to him.
He also has witnessed political situations affect his or other co-stars’ careers. He used to be in Uniq which, as all k-pop bands, suddenly wasn’t allowed to appear on Chinese TV anymore, even though they hadn’t done anything wrong. And a big change of course of action like that was kept all hush-hush in the entire Chinese media. He must know that this wasn’t fair, that they innocently fell victim to political agendas. An entire career, fanbase, performance platform simply taken away from all of them, one second to the next, and they hadn’t caused it and didn’t have any say in it either. Are we really assuming that they simply took that blow without wanting to speak out and fight for the success they had worked so hard for?
The 227 situation was very similar. The international success of one Chinese series brought so much traffic to AO3, that the Chinese government noticed it as public platform depicting values that they didn’t want China to be associated with. More importantly, a public platform with content that they couldn’t control. So they went and blocked it. And who had to suffer the blame? The government? Of course not. Xiao Zhan, who hadn’t done anything other that be an actor in the series. Because of this he lost so many marketing deals and job offers that people believed his career was over for good. All while doing nothing wrong.
Yibo, as the second main actor in the same series, 100% saw all of this go down. He knows that Xiao Zhan hadn’t caused any of it, knows that he was blamed unfairly. He also knows that remaining silent under those circumstances will only cause more harm to a career and public reputation. He knows that the only option is to say what you are expected to say, regardless of what you think.
And, I mean, based on all the situations that I have been in in my life, where I was forced to say something against my will, and based on knowing Yibo to be quite headstrong and having a competitive mindset... I just can’t picture him going, “Well, they make me say this. So, I believe it too.”
Now, based on what I have heard from people that I personally know IRL, I think some of the things that my aunt and uncle have mentioned left the biggest impression on me. My uncle is European but has lived and worked in China for decades now. My aunt is Chinese, grew up in China and only after meeting and marrying my uncle has traveled out of the country.
My uncle is very outspoken about life in China. When talking to him in person, he will tell you everything he personally experienced, including things like tax evasion, people avoiding police charges with hush money, countrywide blocking of messaging services and email providers, copyright frauds as legitimate business endeavors, illegal confiscation of items by police/border control etc. etc. etc. Basically, the gist of his reports is, “In China, if you are a regular person, you have to be aware of this, work around the corruption/unfairness and, most importantly, not make a big fuss about it. If you are somebody with money and powerful connections, you can buy yourself out of any situation. Unless if you stand in the public eye, then you’ll be used to make an example of  - under the guise of a just and law-abiding country.“ He will tell you all of this, while over here. Never when in China. Because he knows the consequences.
My aunt is a lot quieter on the matter. She never directly spoke out against Chinese politics and never directly called out the issues of censorship and corruption. But she often asked, “Are we really allowed to say this here? Back home we can’t.” And when I talked to her about specific political situations she confirmed a lot of things with small examples from her experience. While my uncle is mostly angry when speaking about those things, my aunt is primarily careful in her phrasing. She very clearly loves her country dearly (who wouldn’t it’s a beautiful country with wonderful people), and she is very pained by how it is governed, and how that governing affects both the people living there as well as how China is perceived in the world.
I have never spoken to them about celebrities or specific entertainment issues, but what I do know from them is, if somebody in China is a public figure with success and a bit of wealth, they will:
- most certainly be aware that their government’s actions are often unjust and based on corruption and personal gain
- be forced to side with said government or, if they refuse, forced to retire for good
- have to do propaganda related work. Either, if they (or somebody close to them) did/said some non-government-compliant things, for people in power positions to overlook those, or in return for specific freedoms they wouldn’t get to enjoy otherwise.
Especially the forcing of propaganda jobs on public figures, I can’t help not relating that to Yibo.
Just compare some of his songs... “無感 Wu Gan”, for example, with his recent “青春恰时来 - Youth Comes in Time”.
Wu Gan is musically progressive, sounds fresh and goes with the genres and types of music Yibo has shown to love before. And he officially wrote it himself. Youth Come in Time, which he released but was neither composed nor lyrically written by him, sounds like a polar opposite. Musically, it sounds like what you would hear in a 90s advertisement.
And looking at the lyrics, I mean... that song has lines like “strengthen the country”, “we stand in the front row”, “I am with my country”, “the Chinese stage is taking off” - how is that not propaganda?
Do we really, genuinely think that somebody believes in this, even though in the songs that he wrote himself, and has stated to be about his own personal experiences, he says stuff like, “don’t become a puppet whose feelings are manipulated by others”, “every day there’s someone going on and off stage - just remain emotionless”, “You’re famous but you have no works and the voices scolding you only get worse”, “I’ve trapped myself and I can’t make my goals distinct”?
Do we?
Really?
I’ll leave that up to you.
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bigskydreaming · 3 years
Text
Also if people instinctively reaching for their “its just my interpretation” arguments as a rebuttal to that post about issue #416 could just not, I’d super appreciate it, thaaaaaanks.
See, the problem I have with that is like....no its not. Its really really not. If your fic or your meta is otherwise DIRECTLY referencing specific story beats of that specific ISSUE, like Dick not having talked to Bruce in over a year, or Dick not knowing Jason even existed until he saw it on the news, or Dick leaving Jason his phone number, or anything of the like.....it is not at all unreasonable for me to expect you to acknowledge the story beats of that very same issue that all of those things are written IN RESPONSE TO. 
You can yell at me about how the firing is just a retcon til the cows come home, but y’know what? It was a retcon that was reiterated IN THAT VERY SAME ISSUE. In it, Dick reiterated what the firing looked like from his perspective, how he waited around for two weeks for Bruce to change his mind before packing up and leaving with opportunities for Bruce to say something every step of the way....THAT is the SPECIFIC sequence of events that Dick’s anger about all of this comes from.
So its extremely disingenuous to try and pair that anger with the pre-Crisis ‘better version’ of events where Dick gives up being Robin all on his own and becomes Nightwing while still on good terms with Bruce...because that version of events has its OWN corresponding aftermath that was written in direct response to THOSE character choices. Like the aftermath where right after becoming Nightwing, Dick turns around and offers Robin to Jason himself, as he of course is already well acquainted with Jason by then. See, that’s kinda part of why Dick and Bruce are on such better terms in that version of events. It has a lot to do with Bruce not adopting a whole other son without so much as a phone call to let Dick know his family had expanded.
Now you can mix and match to your heart’s content, that has NEVER been in question. Especially since as so often said, its a fandom past time to take a match to canon and watch it burn. You don’t have to adhere to aaaaaanything you don’t want to.
BUT.
If you want to talk about INTERPRETING the canon? That is subject to a different set of standards. Because you’re acknowledging that the source material exists as a point of RELEVANCE to you.....and the fact is....the source material is the SAME for everyone discussing it. Now, people can and do have different interpretations of that same material, this is obviously true. But ACTUAL. GENUINE. DISCUSSION of it.....requires that all parties at least discuss those interpretations in good faith, and make an honest attempt to address the material as it is.
And that is not what happens in this fandom. Because you damn well KNOW that for all your talk of the firing just being a retcon......its still the specific version of events the “Dick being mad about Bruce giving Robin to Jason” thing is directly meant to reference and BUILD off of. Retcon or not, it is indisputably the FOUNDATION upon which the other character choices of that very same issue are built atop of.
Because there is another version of events, yes. The pre-Crisis version where Dick gives up Robin. But as I said, that version DOES NOT HAVE Dick angry or resentful....because a key component of it is that all three of them, Bruce, Dick and Jason, are already a family in spirit. There’s a true succession of Robin from Dick passing it down to Jason.
And a lot of you guys know this too. Especially the ones most likely to reach for that “let us have our interpretation!” arguments. Because the Dick Grayson corner of fandom has posted about it a LOT. In fact, we kinda churn out a crap ton of content for this fandom. Headcanons, ficlets, informative posts, etc. And there’s a very curious phenomenon that exists.....
Literally anything I or certain other DG fans post that is inclusive of the whole family, or does not reference any specific event that’s infamous within fandom for pitting Dick against another Batfam member in a ‘who was right, discuss” kinda way.....that tends to circulate WIDELY in fandom. We’re talking upwards of a thousand notes, regularly.
In comparison.....the informative posts that are chock full of panels pointing out how canon actually goes in these specific instances.....tend to top out at a couple hundred max. Its pretty much just fellow DG stans who reblog them. Everyone else, despite them going through the same initial routes of circulation....are very good at pretending they don’t see them.
Because see, misinformation - and make no mistake, that is what we’re talking about here - RELIES on a lack of like.....actual information provided to the contrary to thrive. 
For instance, if it were as common knowledge that in the pre-Crisis version of Dick becoming Nightwing, he makes Jason Robin himself, as it is say.....that the firing Dick as Robin story is ‘just a shitty retcon’......people might start to ask in greater numbers, like, okay, so why DON’T more people write Dick making Jason into Robin after giving it up himself? Why have Dick so bitter at Bruce and/or Jason, if in the only version where Dick gives up Robin, Dick passes it on himself? If you’re gonna go with the one, why not the other?
Because we all know damn well that’s not a difference in interpretation. That’s a conscious CHOICE to TRANSFORM the source material by stitching together two different sides of a cause and effect chasm. The events transpiring after Dick finds out Bruce made Jason Robin himself ARE NOT MEANT to reference the inciting event of Dick giving up Robin himself. You can make that happen, sure. But you have to MAKE it happen. There is no point in the comics where you can honestly, genuinely point to the comics and say this right here shows Dick being mad about this, where ‘this’ is Bruce giving Robin to Jason SPECIFICALLY after Dick gave Robin up, rather than being fired.
A choice has to be made there, for that to happen, if one has the ACTUAL information about how that really played out in the comics rather than just misinformation. And not everyone in fandom trusts everyone else to make the choices they would like them to make with the source material, do they?
After all, isn’t that the REAL root of all this?
See.....its no secret to any of us that nobody’s been all that happy with the actual comics aka source material in years. Meaning most of fandom, myself included, is here for meta and fics based on previously written comics, or our own adaptations of the material.
And fandom, being interactive, unlike canon.....is something that CAN be influenced by other fans.
So why don’t we all just stop fucking pretending that we’re not all trying to influence what the overarching fandom narratives are, shall we?
Oh, you can say this is just me projecting, but I’ve got plenty of instances of hypocrisy to point to that say otherwise. And THAT is the true source of my hostility in so many posts in this fandom.
Because its the very same people who loudly cry “let people have their headcanons” and “let people have their interpretations” and “stop trying to tell people there’s only one true version of canon to go off of” who NEVER. EVER. fail to show up on posts like that last one, the SECOND they start to circulate ‘too widely’ throughout fandom. There is ALWAYS someone waiting in the wings the minute a post like that starts to top a couple hundred notes, ready and raring to shoot it down with some kind of derailment or condescending reminders to everyone who might see it that ‘that’s just a bad retcon for people obsessed with misery porn’ or something like that.
And what exactly should we be calling that? When people show up every single time I make a post about the importance of Robin as a name to Dick, in order to make a big stink about how it being his mother’s name for him is just a retcon? Even though....did I say it wasn’t? Does it being a retcon mean it doesn’t exist? Am I not allowed MY interpretation of a story that very much does exist in canon, am I not allowed to reference other stories where that specific retcon is specifically linked to?
Or how about if I say, post a headcanon about Alfred getting snippy with Bruce about not reaching out to Dick after he leaves home, where within the headcanon itself I specifically reference a clear version of the story where Dick is fired and its eighteen months before he and Bruce speak again? Does this story not exist in canon? Am I not allowed to base stuff of it? It would seem not, given the way people jumped to derail that one by adding in additions about Dick being upset with Bruce about college, which is an entirely different continuity that in no way intersects with the specific events I reference, where they’re estranged for a clear reason that is directly raised within the headcanon itself. People even acknowledge “OP is entitled to any version of continuity they want” in that one, but are like....this one is wrong though, and true fans prefer the one that isn’t just misery porn meant to validate Dick’s teenage angst. With people all too happy to reblog that one while gleefully pointing out the tags that completely derail the post about a clear point in canon by making it entirely about another unrelated point in a different continuity in order to invalidate the initial headcanon or whatever.
Don’t even get me started on when we dare reference stories where Bruce is actually physically abusive to Dick, or when we link Dick’s actions in stories that acknowledge the emotional abuse or neglect of certain key moments in his life TO those inciting moments directly and say “hey its kinda shitty to act like Dick was just being a standoffish brat here when Dick’s attitude is actually directly based on the last time he and Bruce interacted being when Bruce told him to get out and leave his keys.” LOLOL nooooo, that’s not allowed to stand, because see, the ONLY possible reason we could have for even CONSIDERING those stories in character or in continuity, is because of the aforementioned addiction to misery porn or else because we’re just trying to smear Bruce to make our own fave look better.
Never mind that another popular refrain for a lot of the people I’m talking about here is “you don’t know what people are thinking or why they like the things that they like” so, y’know. It is a tad irritating to see that double standard applied, like I mean. Just speaking personally, I’m a survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse with a lifetime’s worth of C-PTSD and permanent estrangement from my abusive family, so like....those stories where Dick is abused by a figure he never thought would hurt him and now has to reconcile that with still loving and admiring that very same person and still wanting to be family.....like, hey guess what, those themes are part of why his character resonates for me in particular and so they’re kiiiiiinda key for me to explore for a lot of reasons. And given that this fandom looooooves to talk about some people writing dark shit to cope, I find it veeeeeery curious that people are so willing to shut the fuck up and say nothing about incest, rape and pedophilia fics even if they don’t like them themselves......but will still come out of the woodwork to condescend about there being absolutely no valid reason for anyone to ever engage with content where Bruce is abusive even just in one singular instance.....nah. Its literally just cuz of the misery porn addiction.
But see.....the thing at the heart of all this is the simple fact that this hypocrisy doesn’t exist just for the sake of hypocrisy. It exists because we actually all DO know how much power and influence fans can have in an interactive environment like fandom.
After all, the entire reason that Dick Grayson fans are so often posting informative panel-filled posts about what ACTUALLY happens in canon stories that are DIRECTLY cited in many meta, fanfics and headcanons, just.....in a totally backwards way that just so happens to fail to mention that its not intended to be an accurate depiction of the canon its definitely mentioning its in reference to....
The entire reason for this is because of how thoroughly fandom has crafted a specific narrative for Dick Grayson’s character that is based PURELY on their own characterization wants and needs and has very little to do with the actual canon of the character.
Its not a coincidence that so many fans just so happen to genuinely, truly believe that Dick was a grade A asshole to Jason while he was Robin, and there’s a wealth of canon out there somewhere to back it up. No, this happened because of fanFIC narratives where this is the case, and these catching on, and being encouraged by the initial writers of this trope and its fans and so on and so forth until it became the overarching fandom narrative and not only didn’t require any canon basis to be so....it barely ALLOWED for any talk of the contrary. Dick Grayson stans had to yell and churn out posts like that last one for YEARS to make a DENT in this fanon conviction, and do NOT even approach me about it being an issue of tone and ‘if we’d only asked politely’ because lol. No. We did. You can find the clear shift in the tone of my posts from when I first re-entered the fandom years ago to when I just got frustrated with the willful avoidance of WHY so many fans like myself are so annoyed by certain fandom convictions......and even then, it was about the hypocrisy. It was about how loudly other people crow about letting them have their headcanons while literally shouting down ANY post we made about wanting space to just have our CANON-canon.
Pro-tip: that thing where if you just ignore someone long enough on a certain point, they’ll inevitably start to get frustrated and then you can point to their tone as being the problem and claim that was the issue all along? Yeah. Its not slick. This fandom didn’t invent it. Its always very transparent, and very obnoxious. 
But the point is.....fandom absolutely has the ability to override canon narratives with their own version that’s then formative for new entrants to the fandom who never even BOTHER with the source material and just are here for the fic. And so its dishonest as FUCK for people to not only MAKE no distinction between what’s genuinely their interpretation of the canon and what’s their transformation of it, with INTENT......but to weaponize fandom’s aversion to content-criticism to shout down even ATTEMPTS to introduce discussion of the actual source material by claiming oh you’re just trying force your preferred narrative on everyone else. Aka that thing THEY’RE actually doing themselves by once attaining a fandom wide narrative they like, maintaining a stranglehold on it and doing their best to dissuade any narratives to the contrary staking a claim alongside that.
Because again, it all comes back to the fic. See, as a Dick Grayson fan, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I turn to fic for what I can’t get from canon...and its frustrating as hell to see writers that loudly talk of being BETTER than canon and “RIP to canon but my Batfam loves each other” in a lot of cases DELIBERATELY make Dick in particular look WORSE.....and then act like they have no idea what we’re talking about when we try and tell fans who take these narratives at face value that uh, they’re lacking some extremely relevant context and nuance. Or in some cases, outright facts.
And I will happily laugh loudly in the face of anyone who tries to claim that they don’t feel similarly about fics that characterize their own faves in ways they don’t like.
Yeah, try telling me that after years of some of you writing fics that specifically exclude all reference to the events of Nightwing #30 when talking about Dick’s death or Spyral.....while still including every in canon instance of people bagging on Dick for what he only did in canon because of Bruce’s abusive writing. There’s kinda a vested interest in keeping fandom relatively free of talk of Nightwing #30 then.....because weirdly, people who write about a DIFFERENT take that’s not hostile to Dick seem to end up putting the blame on Bruce for that situation. Bizarre, I know. People attributing blame to the character who was actually abusive in the canon and being cranky that the victim of said abuse is held up as the sacrificial lamb in everyone else’s fics? Whodathunkit.
(Also a point of irritation - it never had to be just one or the other. This is where the whole ‘maybe its YOU guys who were projecting all along when you said the only reason we could have for talking about Bruce’s abuse was an intent to smear the character’ bit is a thing. See, fun fact: if you were going to ignore an issue or two in order to completely flip the narrative of what really happened with Spyral and dominate the fandom landscape for a couple of years....it never had to be Nightwing #30 that was the ONLY issue you could leave out in order to not make Bruce look like an abusive asshat. Like, there was always another option right there in front of you. You could have instead chosen to also leave out Grayson #12, aka the one where Dick informs everyone else he’s alive.....then you could very easily just sliiiiiide in reference to Bruce and Dick quietly informing the whole family of his status and his mission while insisting on keeping it quiet for his safety. Voila. NOBODY has to be an asshole then, and the whole family gets to be in the know. But see, most people didn’t actually have a problem with someone being an asshole in that story. They just didn’t want it to be Bruce, and didn’t mind it being his actual victim. 
Even though, lol, just another FYI.....abuse victims having things flipped on them so it looks like they’re the true problem and their abusers are completely innocent is a HUGE thing that happens a lot in real life, so FYI about that FYI.....anyone who does say, gravitate towards Dick Grayson specifically because of how he’s impacted or might be impacted by abuse from his father, like.....is proooooobably not going to have a super fun time with diehard commitment to making this particular fictional character the true mastermind of his family’s misery and abusive instead of the abused. Weird huh.)
And round and round it goes. Where it ends, nobody knows.....because it doesn’t. fucking. stop. The number of ways in which fandom has willfully flipped the narrative so that Dick is the aggressor instead of the aggrieved is just absolutely ridiculous. This guy has been punched by every member of his family except Duke and Alfred, and somehow he’s the one characterized as uncomfy to be around because of how volatile he is. This guy is the only one who has actually been KICKED OUT of the manor, and somehow that gets glossed over and considered out of character while he apparently definitely did very much do this exact specific thing to Tim, I hear.
And like broken records, people squawk ‘let us have our interpretations/headcanons/etc’ any time we try and make a stink about how no, actually, that’s NOT HOW IT WENT....and at the EXACT SAME TIME....most of these exact same people show up on every post that uses ACTUAL information to make Bruce or Jason or Tim or whomever look like the actual problem in a story where they were actually problematic, like, the SECOND a post gets popular enough....to derail, to condescend, to shout it down with how its just a retcon or its out of character or its just a bad take or how fans with taste know better than to take it seriously.
And why do you care? Like, if we’re all supposed to just live and let live and everyone’s allowed their own interpretations, why this everpresent need to show up all the time with a superior, patronizing ‘oof, this is just not good’ the second one of YOUR faves is in the hotseat, while condescendingly boxing out any posts informing people of how no, actually, Dick and Kory’s breakup WAS linked to Mirage and Dick and Donna’s infamous fight WASN’T the way its commonly talked about and oh yeah there was brainwashing there too and etc, etc....see, when WE do that, we’re just overacting stans who can’t stand others not liking our fave. Instead of just....trying to correct misinformation so more fans can at least engage with the character from a starting point of zero instead of a negative integer. 
So why this hypocrisy? Oh yeah, because you don’t WANT the misinformation corrected. Because see, when the misinformation IS corrected, fic writers en masse....make different choices. And that’s why ever since more people started picking up the refrain of “well no actually Dick DIDN’T hate Jason, here’s the proof”.....there’s a lot more stories out there where...shockingly....Dick doesn’t hate Jason. Which bizarrely, does not really work well for the people who WANTED Dick to hate Jason and made a point to SHAPE the narrative to make him hate Jason.....because it wasn’t about that just being their interpretation, and it never was. Because the CHOICE to cut out Dick’s ‘justification for feeling slighted’ by being fired as Robin and pair that specifically WITH Dick resenting Jason for Bruce still making him Robin instead of Dick doing it....that has a narrative cause and effect within a lot of the fics that go with this. It gives Jason eternal underdog status that makes it easy to root for him while positioning someone specifically to blame for that underdog status and unfair playing field, and it also keeps focus off Bruce as the cause of any issues between his sons due to choices HE made, thus one singular figure is positioned as the obstacle to family unity....and that figure isn’t Bruce.
And no canon to the contrary will be acknowledged as legitimate.
Convenient huh?
Especially paired with the ‘thou shalt not con crit on another’s fic’ fandom commandment. Because when you can’t complain about any fanfic depictions whatsoever without immediately and inherently being cast as the rabble-rouser by default.....the ability to shape and dominate a specific fandom narrative becomes veeeeery key. After all, another popular fandom phrase is ‘we’re not the DC writers, complain to them about canon.’ But when there’s no canon complaint to be made to DC specifically, because its not canon we’re actually upset about, and we’re not ‘allowed’ to criticize fandom depictions because people are allowed to have their interpretations......all you have to do is stand your ground and insist that the fandom depictions of Dick are nothing BUT ‘interpretations’ and not acknowledge aaaaaaany of the places where you consciously make the decision to transform canon choices and behavior around him.....and voila. You’ve wrapped everything up in a neat little logic trap. Quite the fait accompli. There’s really no way for anyone to say or do anything ABOUT this little situation here without being ‘disruptive,’ ‘divisive’ and ‘having a negative impact on fandom harmony.’
Its just always gonna be a little weird to me, how much your positivity culture looks a lot like plausible deniability culture instead.
But whatever. That’s just a me problem I guess. Definitely not something anyone else in fandom has anything to do with. Just like they have nothing to do with derailments or condescension or counter arguments to so many of the canon-based Dick Grayson posts I make, and this is also all my doing...wait...hang on. I think I got mixed up again somewhere. Dang it.
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mellometal · 3 years
Text
Hi, everyone.
I have something extremely important to talk about that is NOT fandom related. I really do hope this can reach everyone on here, especially since it's still Autism Acceptance Month.
A few quick questions for anyone who happens to see this before I dive right into this: Have you ever heard of Dhar Mann? If so, have you ever seen his videos? What do you think about them?
If you don't know who Dhar Mann is, he's a content creator whose main platforms are Instagram and YouTube. He makes these videos about various scenarios from a couple on the brink of divorce, to kids bullying one of their peers, even about Autism Spectrum Disorder. All of his videos have some kind of message at the end that really drives the point home. One of his most recent videos is about ASD, which is what I'm going to discuss today.
Personally, I think some of his videos are interesting, despite the concepts being reused and recycled over and over; however, how I feel about the video he made about ASD is the complete opposite. I'll summarize the video he made so you don't have to watch it. (If you really want to watch it to see exactly what I'm talking about, I'm not gonna stop you. Do what you need to do in order to form your own opinion.)
The video Dhar Mann made about ASD is about this boy who excludes his autistic brother from participating in activities with his friends at school. The boy bullies his autistic brother and does pretty much everything to make his brother's life Hell, even going as far as to pretend that he doesn't know his own brother. The boy "instantly regrets his decision" when their mom is called into the school to discipline her son for bullying his autistic brother. What his mother says is what REALLY upsets me. The message of this video in particular is this, WORD FOR FUCKING WORD. I wish I was kidding. But here's the message below:
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How the video concludes is the boy reluctantly includes his autistic brother in every single activity, the boy sees his brother's potential, and they live happily ever after. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.
As an autistic woman who works with disabled people for a living, that message Dhar Mann put in this video specifically is not only extremely ableist, but is also spreading misinformation about ASD.
News flash to all the people who still spread misinformation about ASD: Not every single autistic person is a little white boy in elementary school, nor is every single autistic person a young white man who's a Super Genius™️. (I could go on all day long about how the media stereotypes autistic characters and autistic people in general, but that's a whole other topic.) No autistic person is the same, meaning we all fall on the spectrum in different places and all that jazz. There's no "look" to autistic people either because no autistic person looks the same.
Autistic women exist.
Autistic girls exist.
Autistic nonbinary people exist.
Autistic BIPOC and AAPI exist.
Autistic people who are completely nonverbal exist.
Autistic people who are completely verbal exist.
Autistic people who are in the middle of being nonverbal and verbal exist.
Autistic people who require minimal to no support exist.
Autistic people who require moderate support exist.
Autistic people who require full support exist.
Autistic LGBT people exist. (Reason why I bring this one up is because the media almost always shows cishet autistic men and I don't see autistic LGBT representation very often, if ever.)
Autism isn't something you can "catch". People have this same mentality about ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome too, which, by the way, you can't "catch" either.
Autism doesn't "go away" when you reach adolescence or adulthood. Why? BECAUSE AUTISTIC TEENAGERS AND AUTISTIC ADULTS EXIST. Autistic kids grow into autistic teenagers, then into autistic adults.
You can't "cure" it either. Unless you can build a time machine and a device to go back in time to change how a person's brain develops, there is no cure. ABA therapy is a fucking shit show in itself that does more harm than good.
The title of the video is a real squick for me too. It's mostly because I don't particularly enjoy people using person first language (the "boy with autism" part). I've seen many other autistic people on multiple other platforms sharing that same sentiment and preferring identity first language (autistic person). There are also others who prefer using person first language and those who don't have a preference. That's all perfectly valid. Whatever you prefer people using when referring to you, or whatever you refer to yourself as, in this case, is totally valid and I love you. This goes for disabilities in general, not just Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Regarding the message in this video, here's my response to it! A quick heads-up, my response is VERY long and VERY passionate. I was VERY close to making a response video where I tear that video apart AND tear Dhar Mann a new asshole. Unfortunately, it worked me up so much that I was really struggling with what I wanted to say and I had to stop multiple times because I kept stumbling on my words. That's how angry this message made me. I'll try my best to explain whatever parts you have questions about. I put my response in the nicest way I possibly could, despite me seething with rage, wanting to go OFF on him.
(The first part of my response are the first three screenshots, and the second part are the last three screenshots.)
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The first part of my response, I did forget to add that the message is offensive and disrespectful to autistic people as a whole. I apologize. My initial comment got way too long. I pretty much covered that when I told him the message is ableist. I wanted to clear that up before anyone asks about it.
The second part of my response is me opening up about my experience with being diagnosed with ASD, formerly known as As//per//ger's Syn//dro//me, at sixteen years old. I also went into how not calling ASD what it truly is (which is a disability) and calling it a "different ability" instead is extremely harmful and is treating being disabled like it's a bad thing.
By the way, saying that a disabled person is disabled isn't a bad thing. I'm disabled. It is what it is. Does it have its challenges? You bet. Does it help me with certain things? Hell yeah. I can really absorb information about my favorite bands, characters, shows, books, etc., and tell you a lot about those things. For example, I can tell you that Su can't ride a bike or read manga and she's okay with that. I can also tell you she can't tie her shoes very well, which is why her boots don't have laces and are slip-on and/or zip-up. But that doesn't mean my struggles are nonexistent or that I never struggle. I do, and it makes my life Hell at times.
The narrative that autism is a bad thing to have, every autistic person is somehow broken and they all need to be "fixed" is also super fucked up and not true. That's the narrative that I received when I was diagnosed by a therapist I had. I'm gonna be real here, I cried when I was first told that I was diagnosed with ASD. I felt like I was broken. I already felt like a total outcast. Being told about my diagnosis made me feel even more broken than I already felt. I was so ashamed of myself, despite me not doing anything wrong whatsoever, that I masked for SEVEN YEARS of my life. I masked for so long that I forgot I was even diagnosed with ASD in the first place. I wasn't taught how to really put my special interests into good use. I kinda had to figure that out on my own. I was pretty much under the assumption that me being interested in anime, cartoons, music, comics, theatre, writing, etc., to the point of obsession, was somehow weird and hurting people around me. You know, despite those things being harmless. Despite me being able to separate those things from other things that are important (like work, for example). Despite my only surviving parent, other family members, and the woman he was dating at the time completely overreacting and not bothering to see exactly what makes these things so special to me.
(By the way, having a disability does not completely make who a person is. There are a lot more things that make who a person is than that.)
It's kinda shocking that I wasn't able to come to terms with my diagnosis until this year. Considering that I masked for so long due to being ashamed of myself, plus being treated like a burden for being disabled, it's probably not very surprising. I initially thought at the time that it was the worst thing to have, as I was already struggling with enough shit back then, but came to realize it's not a bad thing. It doesn't change who I am. But I'm glad I came to terms with it finally nonetheless.
This is getting way too long, so I'm gonna wrap things up here. If you've read this far, thank you so much. I'm sorry this got so long!
If you watched the video, what are your thoughts on it? If this is your first time hearing about Dhar Mann, how do you feel about him? If you're a Dhar Mann fan, did this change your opinion on him in any way? Feel free to sound off in the comments!
Have a great day, everyone!
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When I read this ...Sander saying this to Hanna, also feels like he is saying it to himself as well about Robbe...now that he's gonna be raising his baby alone...
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And then there's Robbe, in the first chapter, within moments of setting his eyes on Amelia goes: “I want to move back in.” ...“...Now I know how I want to be involved. I want to be here. Every day. Living it with you. Being here for both of you. Relieving some of your worries and stress. Taking on some of the responsibilities.”,,,, already a dad.🤍
The selflessness and love that is so inherent to Robbe couldn't have peaked more, he is such a giver<333 and I can't stop thinking how Sander's heart must have been bursting with love in that moment. Robbe is so right for him :') he is even beyond what Sander could think of.
I love your Robbe so much ❤️•́ ‿ ,•̀
This could get long...you have been warned. 😆😍
The one thing that becomes abundantly clear in my fics (and on my tumblr) is that I LOVE Robbe. He is by far my favorite character in all of Skam, and there's a reason for that. I am drawn to a very specific type of person. My family jokingly calls it "the boy scout," but essentially I find kindness and goodness attractive. There's a reason Captain America is my favorite Avenger and that I cried when Sam "I'm the most amazingly, wholesome, good person on the planet" Wilson became the new Cap. (Seriously, ugly crying, I love Sam Wilson.) I adore Peeta. He was my favorite character from day one, and when that goodness was destroyed in Mockingjay, I cried angry tears. She ruined the most loyal, honest character ever. Alec in The Shadowhunter Chronicles--his defining characteristic is that he's a protector, fiercely loyal. He didn't kill a demon until he was 19 bc he was out there defending Jace and Isabelle instead. Sure, he can be a sassy ass, but goodness literally pours out of him. Any time Magnus describes him, it's like he can't comprehend how honest and wholesome he is. It's literally what attracts him at first--shock at this enigma of a Shadowhunter. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point.
Back to Robbe, so canon Robbe is like this for me. He never spoke ill about his mother or MI. All he did was love and support her. He never pretended to like Jana, and he immediately felt guilty for messing things up for Jens. He suffered a shit ton more homophobia during season 1 and 3 than the other Isaks, which is why his internalized homophobia was so deeply rooted (and why he did make a few bad choices - faking it with Noor, the slur). He actually liked Noor--as a friend, and that's why he tried so hard to make it work, and why they stayed friends afterward. And here's the big one for me, he BROKE UP with her before pursuing Sander. Sure, the pool kiss happened first, but it wasn't planned. He did not purposefully cheat. He manned up and didn't ghost her. For me, that was HUGE. And then we get to Sander. He biked around in the cold for over an hour, only to be pushed away. He broke up with Sander, not bc he was afraid of his MI, but bc he was told it was better for him, that he needed to stay away. Admittedly, his fear, shock, and misinformation led to illogical thinking, resulting in breaking up with Sander over text, and who would have thought Moyo would be the one to clear that up (whoo!). But the second he realized he was wrong, that he'd made a mistake based on incorrect info, he fixed it. He reached out. He called. He texted. He went to visit him. He didn't wait for Sander to need him, to reach out to him. He was actively pursuing him, all while thinking it was over bc he screwed up. All of this is what makes Robbe so special to me. He isn't perfect, but he always acts with a kind heart. None of this has been negated or challenged in later seasons. His fierce, loyal devotion to Sander is all over insta, and he literally glows with pride.
Now to my Robbe in "I Want it All," he's not perfect by any means, not like the Robbe in "Color of Love." I think that one was a little too one-dimensional, mainly because it was all seen through Sander's rose colored glasses. "I Want it All" was actually difficult at first because I usually write from Sander's POV, and it started with Robbe. I find it much easier to think like Sander and just gush about him. Having to be in Robbe's head made things more challenging, but what I've found as the story has progressed, is that Robbe's amazingness is still obvious, BUT we can see that he's flawed. He's (unintentionally) been awful to Sander. Many times. He allowed the Broerrrs to affect their relationship; he was a total ass after the kiss; and he completely ignored his own physical and emotional reactions to Sander, immediately followed by flaunting a completely inappropriate and awful boyfriend in his face, however unconsciously. I'm personally convinced, and since it's my story, I can state it as fact, I guess, that Robbe's jealousy chose Carlos to purposefully punish Sander for proposing to Hanna. It was a rebound, just not in the traditional sense. Granted, he's completely unaware of all this.
Somehow he's still the most caring, supportive, loving friend. One of my personal favorite moments is when he's taking care of Sander during the pregnancy. That's such a selfless, loving thing to do, and he's doing it by choice, not because anyone asked. He recognized that Sander was struggling to balance everything, and he stepped in. To me, that's love. It's unconditional, and that's what drives Robbe. He loves Sander unconditionally, and it's completely unrelated to romance. Even before he realized he was in love with him, he always gave Sander what he needed--a partner to raise his daughter with, companionship, laughter, help around the house, little presents that represent how important Sander is to him, etc. Apart from recognizing the meaning of his and Sander's feelings, he's completely in tune with him and always has been. We're not there yet, but imagine how heartbroken and utterly awful Robbe will feel when he realizes just how long Sander has been waiting for him. We got a glimpse of it in ch. 5, but our poor boy is going to judge himself rather harshly.
The dynamic is so different between them because Robbe is oblivious to his feelings, and Sander is not. What Robbe does and how he acts is completely out of love, no strings attached. He has no ulterior motive. That's what makes him so kind and sweet. Sander's actions, at least in this last part, are always tainted by his unrequited love for Robbe. He loves him. Always, but his disappointment and frustration get in the way. His choices and actions take that unrequited love into consideration, and because of where they are in their lives and the miscommunication, he actually acts against his own interests and feelings to try and protect himself. It's a very interesting distinction when you think that the one who is romantically in love with the other is the one in a serious relationship with someone else while the oblivious one hasn't really dated and only got a boyfriend after the proposal. Ouch. I'm not attacking Sander here at all because I love him too, and it's my fault he did all this; but my clear, obvious preference and love for Robbe and his absolute kindness and goodness, really shines through here.
Anyway, this really was long, but I do love Robbe. He is my favorite, and chances are any future fics will continue to make that obvious.
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velvetthunder1999 · 4 years
Text
All the time on Earth
Part 13 - New Home
Summary: George and Fred rescue you from your abusive parents and take you home to The Burrow where they welcome you into the family
Warnings: Angst, Swearing, Abuse, Blood (!)
Word count: 3.9K
George Weasley x Reader
Masterlist
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You let the window open as you left the room; you had sent Peanut off with a letter to George yesterday and you were still waiting for the answer.
You didn’t like leaving your room much, but today was a very special day, as your father had said. A few of his and mother’s friends were coming over, to see the daughter of their dear friends, the daughter who, according to his parents, has been studying abroad all year and now came home to visit for the summer holiday.
You clenched your jaw at the thought of what’s coming tonight. Your parents had kept up the appearance of your well-functioning family over the years. They would probably die of shame if their friends realized what you were. So tonight, you had to act accordingly, otherwise, as your father had said, you will not have a roof over your head anymore.
The problem was that you were still a few months away from being seventeen. You still had to rely on your parents for the summer, as you couldn’t use magic to make your life easier just yet. Of course, your parents still didn’t know about this. This lie had been your only way of surviving this hell.
You let out a huge sigh as you walked down the stairs and made your way into the kitchen. On the table the ‘good set’ of plates and silverware were waiting for the guests to arrive. You counted twelve seats at the table and moaned in pain, realizing how many idiotic people will be asking you about your foreign school which you had apparently been attendending for five years now.
“Girl,” your father’s snarky voice made you look up. “In here.”
You walked over to the living room, where your mother was preparing drinks on the coffee table, clearly making an effort not to look at you. You didn’t even care about it at this point.
Your father was adjusting his tie in the mirror when he looked at your clothes. He grunted, a look of superiority on his face.
“You have twenty minutes to get dressed into something appropriate. You might as well burn those jeans in the fireplace. You will not bring shame on us in those clothes.”
You looked down at your jeans which had a whole in them at both knees, just like every second pair of jeans in every store.
“Am I not allowed to wear jeans like normal people?”
“And you can loose the attitude as well. When at the table, you answer politely, convincingly, and you will smile at everyone. I don’t want to hear anything about your — thing, and how your ungodly behaviour works. Anything to add?” he asked, seeing your angry eyes. “No? Great. You will only speak when your spoken to. And if I see anything, and I mean anything out of ordinary, you will regret the day you were born.”
“Sounds fun,” you muttered.
“Another word…” he raised his finger, warning you. “Go and change.”
“What if I say no?” you started. You wanted to transfer some of your anger into him. “What if I don’t change my clothes?”
“Then I will kick you out of this house!”
“Oh, but what if you won’t?” you said, forcing yourself to smile. “What if I get my wand, and use it? What if I tell all your guests about the actual school I’m attending? What if I start floating your teacups around?”
“Listen here, you ungrateful little —”
The doorbell rang. He looked at his watch, then at the door.
“They’re early. Go up, girl! I don’t wanna see you down here until you change! You have five minutes! Go!”
You grimaced and headed to the stairs through the hall. You didn’t wanna be seen for as long as possible. Your father in the meantime went to open the door, quickly adjusting his tie again. The door creaked.
“Good ev —”
He fell silent and you stopped in the middle of the stairs to listen. An unfamiliar voice came from outside.
“Good evening, I am looking for Y/N. Is this the right place?”
“There is no one here called Y/N!” answered your father with a grunt.
“Oh, we might have been misinformed, haven’t we Fred?” said a second, very familiar, cheeky voice. “Isn’t this the house with two muggles and their daughter who just came home for the holidays?”
You ran down the stairs and hurried towards the front door. Next to your father’s shoulder you saw a face, a face that made you grin like crazy.
“Oy, Y/N!” said Fred, looking at you. “How you doing?”
Your father jerked his head to look at you.
“How dare you invite these people —”
“Hey,” you said, ignoring the man completely. “What are you doing here? Come in!”
Your father was slightly pushed aside by Fred who entered the house like it was his own. He gave you a quick hug, then he was followed by George and an other man, who was supposed to be their dad.
“Y/N” he said, shaking your hand with a smile. “Arthur Weasley. So nice to meet you.”
“I thought… It’s only been a few days…”
“We cannot wait any longer, but we’ll explain everything when we’re home,” said the man. “Now… I’m guessing George would be kind enough to help you with your luggage. In the meantime Fred and I will keep your parents company.” He said this with a pleasant smile, while looking at your father, and mother who came to see what’s happening. You nodded, took George’s hand and said,
“This way.”
You lead him up the stairs in silence. You took a turn to the left and stepped inside your quite messy room. You waited until George followed you, shut the door and faced the boy who you haven’t seen in nine days.
“Hi,” you said, grinning.
“Hi,” he said, with his usual mischievous smile.
And then he was kissing you with so much passion you thought you’re gonna faint. You reached for his face, caressing his cheeks, then wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him closer and closer…
When letting go in serious need of air, you brushed your lips against his as you spoke.
“I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too, witty.”
“I like the hair,” you said, brushing his short locks on his head. He laughed.
“Mum had enough. She literally attacked Fred and I the first minute we got home.”
“Well… she was right,” you said, pecking his lips. “You’re really hadsome.”
He laughed and kissed you again before letting go.
“Well, thank you, love. Let’s see…” he looked around the room, seeing your stuff everywhere but in your suitcase. He smirked. “I can help you with that. You know, since I’m seventeen and everything.”
“Show off,” you shook your head, smiling.
“I passed the apparation exam as well,” he said. “Fred, too.”
“Really?!” your jaw dropped. “Why didn’t you write it in your letter?”
“I wanted to tell you in person,” he said, still grinning. “How about that?”
“I’m so proud of you! George, really!
He looked at you with shimmering eyes.
“Thank you. Now, let’s — What’s that?”
He looked at your bed, amused. Next to your pillow was his quidditch jumper that he had given to you a few weeks ago.
“Are you sleeping with that?” he said. You felt yourself blushing.
“Yeah…? D’you have a problem with that?”
“No,” he said in a very pleasant tone. He pressed a kiss on your temple. “It’s really flattering. You should give me something to sleep with, too.”
You snorted.
“How about me? When we finally leave this shithole?”
“Sounds good to me.”
He raised his wand and all your clothes flew into the suitcase. Then you took Peanut’s cage, checked your wand in your pocket and lead the way down to the kitchen, where the tension was  already over the top.
All four of them were sitting at the table; Mr Weasley was talking about something with an eager expression, while Fred was leaning back on the chair with a smug smile, looking at your father, who had his usual statue-like face.
Your mother was sitting next to him, her hands in her lap, her back straight as a picket fence.
You stepped into the kitchen, awkwardly looking at Mr Weasley. You wanted to leave as soon as possible.
“Well… I’m ready.”
“Wonderful,” nodded Mr Weasley, and stood up. He turned back to your father once more. “So, as I said, we are happy to keep her for the whole summer vacation. However, next year, if you’d like…”
“You can leave now, if you will,” said your father sharply, interrupting Mr Weasley. “Before somebody sees you.”
You took a deep breath. You couldn’t have felt more uncomfortable.
“Right, then. Let’s go.”
“Wait a minute,” Mr Weasley were looking back and forth between you and your father in disbelief. “Are you sending her away just like that? Like an unpleasant guest?”
“I was always just an unpleasant guest,” you muttered, rolling your eyes.
“Is he kicking you out?” said Fred, astonished.
“Believe me, I don’t wanna stay here either…” you made your way towards the door, but Mr Weasley’s hand on your shoulder stopped you.
“I don’t understand… You daughter hasn’t been home for a year, you must —”
“What I must and mustn’t do in my own house is up to me and no one else!” your father stood up as anger overcame him. You felt danger was coming.
“Now, leave before I’m calling the authorities!”
Mr Weasley’s expression switched from confusion to disbelief.
“There is no reason to behave like this, I say,” he said. “A parent —”
“We are no longer parents!” your mother snarled suddenly, out of nowhere. She stood up, clutching her fist. “You go and leave us, girl!”
You turned to her in shock. Her voice shot through the kitchen like a bullet. She waved lazily at the twins, but didn’t take her eyes off you.
“And don’t expect to come back next year! Leave now, and take the scum with you.”
You stopped dead. The twins stepped forward. Mr Weasley was now raising his voice.
“Now, you’re talking about —”
“What did you just say?”
The whole kitchen fell silent as you stepped closer to your mother. She was taking aback, glancing at the wand in your pocket. You were shaking in anger. Your voice was almost a whisper as you spoke.
“What — did you — just say?”
You were waiting for an answer. When it didn’t come, you didn’t hold back.
“Let’s see… You pretended I didn’t exist… You haven’t talked to me for five years… and then when you decide to speak again… the first thing you do is insult my friends?”
You took a shaky breath. And then you started shouting.
“How dare you insult these people?! How dare you talk to them that way?! How dare you even look at them without being ashamed of yourself?!”
Your mother stepped closer to you. Her eyes were burning with disgust.
“Ashamed of myself? You’re the one to talk! For years we have been living in fear, not knowing what that twisted mind of yours is going to do to us! Knowing that it would be the end of us if anyone found out what you are — what all these people are! You stopped existing for me when you decided to embrace your abnormality —!”
“Oh, my abnormality, you say?”
You pulled your wand out of your pocket, waving it around. You saw from the corner of your eyes that the three Weasleys were shifting nervously. Your father grabbed your mother’s shoulder. You were shouting.
“You mean this? I think it’s the perfect time to tell you now, that our law forbids me to use this stupid stick at home!”
“What?” your mother gasped. “But you told us —”
“I can’t use magic outside school,” you said, with the sweet taste of satisfaction in your mouth. “I lied to you and you believed me, I played both of you like the fools you are —”
The slap took you by surprise. She hit you so hard you fell on the floor, feeling immense pain on your cheek where her ring had cut a long, deep wound. You felt dizzy as you were trying to get back up, reaching out for the hand that was helping you. Around you were voices, shouting.
You looked around, barely able to see from the pain. George was holding you close, one hand on your cheeks. Fred was pointing his wand towards your parents, his face pure rage. His curse had crushed the table and broke it in half as it was dodged by Mr Weasley, who was now using a shield charm. You and the twins were standing on one side, while he and your parents on the other. Even though he was protecting the muggles, Mr Weasley seemed extremely furious with them.
“Fred, George, take Y/N outside!” his voice was shaking with wrath. “Take the luggage, too. I’ll be there in a minute!”
“Dad…”
“GO. OUT!”
The three of you left the kitchen and stepped outside into the fresh evening air. You broke free of George’s grip and walked before the twins, still panting, still barely seeing, still feeling something warm on your cheek…
“FUCK!!!” you stopped and screamed from the bottom of your lungs. “FUCK!!!” You burried your face into your hands but winced as you touched the open wound. You saw your hands getting dirty with blood.
“Y/N?” George’s careful voice came from behind you. You turned around, looking at the twins; they had the same mixture of anger and pity on their faces.
Fred was still holding his wand.
“What did you wanna do?” you asked, pointing at it.
“You don’t wanna know.”
You nodded.
“Are you alright?” asked George, looking concerned. You didn’t answer.
“I’m never coming back here,” you said, shaking your head.
“I’ve never seen dad so angry like this,” said Fred. “Never. Not even when we almost killed Ron when we told him to fly without a broom when he was six.”
“I reckon he’s gonna talk with them…” said George.
“Oh, he’s gonna talk with them, all right,” said Fred, looking at the house then back at you. “Are you all right, Y/N?”
You turned away from them. You didn’t know how to answer. No, you were not all right, but also, you were not surprised this had happened. It was just a matter of time.
You felt George’s hand on your shoulder. You knew it was him. You just knew.
“Come here,” he said and gently raised your head. He carefully started cleaning your cheek, leaving bloodmarks on the tissue he was using. His hands were shaking from the repressed anger. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Yeah,” you said, slightly louder than a whisper.
“He’s coming,” said Fred, looking at the approaching Mr Weasley.
Indeed, he was leaving the house without looking back, putting his wand back into his pocket. He seemed extremely furious, but when he looked at you, his face relaxed a little.
“Y/N, I am so sorry about what happened. I would’ve never thought… Don’t worry, Molly can patch you up in a minute. I am really, really sorry.”
“It’s all right, really,” you said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What did you do, dad?” asked Fred eagerly.
“I talked with them,” said Mr Weasley shortly.
“No —,” said George. “— what did you do?”
Mr Weasley looked back at the house, screwing his face. Then he looked at you again.
“Y/N, you are welcome to come back next year if you wish, but you don’t have to. The choice is yours, I reckon you’ll have plenty of time thinking about it in this year. I just want to say… However you decide…Molly and I are going to make sure you’re all right.”
Your throat felt dry as you were nodding. You couldn’t say anything, no words could express the gratitude you felt. You whispered a low ‘thank you’ but Mr Weasley seemed to understand.
“I say, let’s leave now,” he said, in a lighter tone. “Molly’s cooking a wonderful dinner. Fred, take the cage. I take the trunk. George, you take Y/N. Have you ever apparated, Y/N?”
“No,” you shook your head.
“All right. Then grab onto George and let him lead you. One… two…
“I stand back in case you throw up,” said George, grinning.
“What?!”
“…three!”
You felt like a rug was pulled from under your feet and your body started twisting into itself. You couldn’t breath, but before you could have started panicking, your shoes touched the ground and you arrived in a big yard surrounded by nothing but trees, bushes and a small lake.
“Welcome home,” said George.
You looked at the house and your jaw dropped before you started grinning.
“Come on in,” said Mr Weasley. “Everyone’s inside.”
You couldn’t stop looking around. Everything was so interesting, so perfect, so…Weasley.
Mr Weasley sat down your luggage next to the table as you went into the kitchen. He called out for the others and turned to you.
“Tea?”
Before you could answer, you heard steps and Mrs Weasley stepped into the kitchen.
“Oh, finally, I wondered what took you so long! Y/N, my dear… Dear God, what happened?”
Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at your face. You realized again how badly your scar hurt. Mr Weasley stepped out of the way so that his wife could come closer.
“There was an… accident, Molly,” said Mr Weasley quietly. “Can you patch it up?”
“Oh, my sweet girl,” Mrs Weasley lead you to a chair and you sat down. She gently held your face up to the light. “What happened? Did you two did something?”
She looked suspiciously at the twins. They both spoke in indignation.
“Mum, are you serious —?!”
“You think we’d ever —?!”
“It wasn’t them, Mrs Weasley,” you said. You started to feel more and more embarrassed by this whole situation. “Can you help me? It really hurts.”
“I can, darling but it won’t heal immediately. The scar will need another day or so to disappear completely…”
“It’s okay,” you nodded. She took her wand.
“All right, Fred, George, take up Y/N’s luggage to Ginny’s room. Arthur, could you set the table until I’m working here?”
They all left and she started doing some spells with a weird, twitching movement of her wand.
“Don’t move now, my darling, it’s very important.”
You tried to be as still as possible. You felt a weird tingling under your eye, then Mrs Weasley smiled at you warmly.
“There you go. It’s barely visible. Here — take this,” she gave you a wet rug and you cleaned the rest of the blood from your face. “Are you sure you’re…”
“Y/N!” Ginny ran into the kitchen, squeezing you in a big hug. “I thought you only come later this week!”
“Yeah, me too,” you said, beaming at the returning twins. George scowled at Ginny.
“Let her breathe, for Merlin’s sake, she’s just arrived.”
“Oh, just because you’re jealous,” snapped back Ginny. “Don’t forget, she was my friend first!
“And I though when you arrive I won’t have to listen to this anymore,” said Fred, looking at you, pretending to be tired of the situation.
“Kids, why don’t you go up, show Y/N around the house?” said Mr Weasley.
“Molly, help me with these napkins, I don’t know which one you prefer…”
“Come on,” said George, leading you up the stairs, Fred and Ginny following you.
“Napkins, of course,” said Fred. “I bet dad’s gonna tell her everything that happened.”
“Why, what happened?” asked Ginny.
Fred and George stopped and looked at you with the same expression. It was up to you.
“Er —” you didn’t know how to phrase it. You decided to just say it. You pointed at the scar. “My mum hit me.”
Ginny went pale.
“What?”
You quickly summarized the happenings of the evening. The twins were standing with a dark expression on their faces; Fred leaning against the wall, George holding your hand. Ginny was shaking her head in disbelief.
“I am so sorry.”
You nodded. You just wanted to forget it. Maybe that would sooth the pain in your heart.
“I think dinner’s ready soon,” said George. “Ginny, go, tell Ron. We’re going down.”
Ginny went further up the stairs and you returned to the kitchen. Mr Weasley was sitting at the table with his lips in a thin line, Mrs Weasley was standing by the counter, occasionally sniffing her nose.
Yep. You were sure they had just been talking about you.
George sat down next to you as soon as you chose a seat. You smiled at him and squeezed his hand under the table. The food was so delicious, you ate second helpings from everything. Still, couldn’t enjoy the evening as much as you wanted to. You still needed to do something, you still wanted to thank them.
When all of you had finished and Mrs Weasley stood up to clean the table, you stood up as well.
“I’ll help.”
“Oh, darling, you don’t need to, just go —”
“No, please. I’d like to help.”
George was staring at you from the bottom of the stairs. You shook your head and sent him upstairs, pointing.
The kitchen was now empty except for you and Mrs Weasley. You chose to dry the dishes with a rug, while Mrs Weasley was packing the leftovers into little boxes.
“Mrs Weasley…?” you said in an uncertain voice. She turned to you with a kind smile. And then you started crying.
“Oh, dear!” she welcomed you in her arms, gently stroking your hair. “It’s all right… It’s all right now…”
The voice of a mother made you cry even more. You were a bit taller than she was; you leaned down and put all your weight on her, you felt like you have no strenght left, you just couldn’t continue with this, you couldn’t take it anymore…
She held you as long as you wanted it, she did not pull away. She was whispering into your ear, telling you that everthing is all right, just how she probably had said to many of her children over the years when they were crying. You hugged her tightly, finally hugging someone after five years, finally receiving some kindness, finally feeling that you are safe, because as long as she is close, you were not afraid of facing reality.
When your crying softened and you could breath normally again, you pulled away and looked at Mrs Weasley through your remaining tears. She brushed your hair away from your face, and cupped your cheek with a sad smile.
“Would you like some tea, dear?”
You nodded, sniffing, sitting down at the table. Soon she put a nice, hot mug in front of you. You spoke, your voice hoarse from the crying.
“I’m sorry.”
She gently squeezed your wrist, but her voice was fierce.
“Don’t you ever be sorry! They should be sorry for that they’ve done. And I am sorry, for not bringing you sooner away from them. But I promise you, this will never happen again. You are safe with us.”
You wiped away your tears, still panting a bit.
“Thank — Thank you. For every — everything.”
“No need to thank, dear,” she smiled at you kindly. Then she laughed to ease the mood. “I should be thanking you. I have another daughter now.”
You chuckled, sniffing.
“Yeah,” you said. “I really love him, you know.”
Mrs Weasley looked at you with adoration.
“I know, darling. He loves you, too.”
“Yeah?” you laughed while still wiping your tears.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “I knew it in the minute I saw him looking at you.
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a-dragons-journal · 3 years
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hi idk if youre the one to ask for this but like: how do you deal when people call you gatekeepy and keeping saying that you're wrong and they're right when you try and and correct information (kin being voluntary)? i cant deal with stress very well but it's also very hard for me to not try and correct any wrong information. do you habe any tips/recommendations? -☆🌕
My advice comes in two parts here, I think, so it’s gonna be a long post and is thus gonna mostly go under a cut.
Part one: Conflict Management
Conflict management skills are a blessing, if you haven’t taken a conflict management course then go find one and take it. It may be that you’re coming off as aggressive without meaning to, or are doing something else that’s making the conversation shut down - that’s easy to do over the Internet, especially on a hot-button topic like this. The crash course version of the conflict management skills I learned from one (1) lecture series that have saved my tail many, many times, below the cut:
Never assume malice where ignorance will suffice, which is one I try to just live by
Be Stubbornly Kind, or at least Stubbornly Polite, if you want the discussion/debate to continue
Use "I" statements, not "you" statements (ie "I feel like there's a misunderstanding here" is going to get people a lot less defensive than "you're misunderstanding me" despite fundamentally saying the same thing)
Defining terms at the start of a conversation is key to make sure everyone's talking about the same thing and miscommunications aren't happening. (Or when they come up, or when you realize you may be meaning different things with the same word)
Sympathetic, appeasing, and even apologetic language can be unbelievably useful in deflating anger before it has a chance to ruin a discussion. Phrases like “I think I wasn’t clear enough about that, sorry!”, “in my opinion, and you’re free to disagree with me, [subjective opinion]”, “in my experience,” “Am I making sense?”, and “I definitely appreciate the concern for [x]!” The only downside to this is that it can come off as passive-aggressive or condescending if overdone. All things in moderation and all that. (A very light, careful amount of humor may also help defuse anger.)
Pick out anything you agree with and point out that you agree with them on it. Literally anything. The smallest shred of a statement that you share common ground on. Anything you agree with them on, state clearly that you agree with it. This both shows that you’re not arguing for the sake of arguing (and thus makes them less defensive) and keeps you both from not continuing to argue about a thing that you actually agree on, so you can focus on the things you disagree on.
Ask clarifying questions. If you’re confused as to why a person would make an argument, don’t be afraid to ask “Do you mind if I ask you to clarify what you mean by that?” or something similar.
Rephrase their points back to them if you’re starting to get lost. This basically just ensures that you’re not misunderstanding them - and it tells them that you are listening and paying attention to what they’re saying. The phrase “If I’m understanding you correctly, and please correct me if I’m not, [rephrase]” is an underrated tool.
All of these will help aid communication by a) making sure that you’re not misunderstanding each other and b) keeping tensions lower and preventing everyone involved from getting angry/frustrated/defensive.
Part Two: When Conflict Management Fails
The reality is, after a certain point, all you can do is present information and let people do with it what they will. You can make logical arguments against logical arguments, but if someone is just flat-out disagreeing with you about the definition of a word and won’t budge on that, there’s sometimes not a whole lot you can do to change their mind. You can present your arguments and evidence as to why it’s factually wrong, why it’s harmful to keep perpetuating that, and why “this word has a definition” is not gatekeeping, but there comes a point where the argument becomes a circle with no end in sight. At that point you just kind of have to step away before it starts doing more harm than good.
You have to find your boundaries for how much argument you’re willing/able to deal with, and draw a line in the sand - not for others, but for yourself, to tell yourself when to step away - in advance, so you don’t have to make that decision in the moment.
Me personally, my line in the sand is pretty far out, because debate and intellectual discourse generally do more to stimulate me than to stress me out. That’s why I can run the antikin-and-misinformation-addressing sideblog I have in a healthy way - and it’s why I don’t recommend most people try to do that, because I’m the odd one out on that. But I made an agreement with myself when I started that blog that the day it actually started to cause me stress would be the day I put it down and never went back. The line in the sand exists, it just isn’t publicly visible because if I even get close to crossing it, I step away before I can do or say something I’ll regret.
And I’ll let you in on an open secret - as someone who runs a blog specifically to interact with those kinds of posts, the point is rarely actually to convince them to change their mind. People hit a point where they’re so adamant about their point of view that they refuse to even listen to any arguments to the contrary. The point is usually to make your viewpoint visible to the third party onlookers who haven’t made up their minds that strongly yet.
(And in an effort to try to avoid becoming that myself, and to facilitate communication, one of the other reasons I have those conversations is less to convince the other side and more to understand them - if they genuinely have an argument I can’t dismantle, I want to know what it is so I can look it over and see if it warrants changing my opinion on a subject.)
If you can’t handle the arguments, and you can’t make yourself let it lie, the answer may be that you need to leave that social space entirely or block those individuals - the block button exists for a reason. Which may sound harsh, but blocking really isn’t as big a deal as people make it out to be these days - you curate your own experience, and that’s a key part of that. Your mental health is the most important thing.
That was probably a longer answer than you were bargaining for, but I hope it helps at least somewhat.
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mephiles-the-jester · 3 years
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just gonna rant about people who hate dream with a passion for some reason, i just think its so weird and strangely funny
its always fascinating when someone hates on dream with misinformation and gets mad when someone who likes him tries to correct them, then calls them "insane" while also going "he wont fuck you" like they're angry people in all of it and raging behind their screens, when the person hating on the guy is more visibly acting like that with their reaction to it
like someone will explain how dream isnt actually that bad and that they got something wrong, and these motherfuckers will just throw an absolute tantrum because the dream stan told them they got some facts wrong and corrected them. like i see this person saying something incorrect about dream's donation to the trevor project (something like him saying he was donating for every stream but only did one on his main, but had donos turned off, which wasnt true??), and when explained the misinformation in the post and how he actually did good, i see the person in the notes going "oh my god im attracting the steven universe fans with half shaven heads" (actual thing said in that). "i dont even care about dream anyway. hes still a racist"
like who are you, i want to examine you, what are you to be like that. and also shout out to that one person in the notes as well saying "hate crime" to that idea in that post, because that's not privileged as fuck /s. like who are you people and why. just why. i am fascinated like an alien looking earth, in that you are so strange and mean, that i cant help but wonder what you think about every day.
i can only assume that everyday these people wake up and just shake their fist in rage at the idea of dream and his fans, they wish to never see them again, which would be easy if they werent constantly picking fights with them. but sadly they cannot find the block button, and oh it has to be dreams fault, he paid people to stop them because hes so rich. but at least theyre not obsessed with dream and his fans /s
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thechangeling · 4 years
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Your heartbeat is disguised as mine.
This is a platonic oneshot between my OC Janessa Williams and Kit Herondale. Full disclosure, I am a nonbinary person writing about a binary Trans woman. I pulled all of the information for constructing Nessie's background and character profile from other peoples stories both fictional and real. If I have spread misinformation of any kind or written anything that members of the community find offensive, please let me know! I will fix it immediately. Also I'm a useless Demisexual so sometimes I blur the lines between romantic and platonic too much, but hopefully this reads as platonic. Enjoy!
Janessa Williams was in trouble.
It wasn't like this was an uncommon occurrence. Nessie had spent the majority of her life weaving in and out of dangerous situations, but in her defense it usually wasn't her fault.
Kids picking on her when she was younger because she was wearing "girls clothes." Angry people yelling obscenities at her while she was walking home and men threatening to beat her up in the middle of crowded places when she was still transitioning and looked more "obvious" according to some people. Whatever the fuck that meant. And Nessie knew it probably would have been even worse if she hadn't been white.
She relished in the fact that now she was a vampire she was essentially invincible. Like many other people, becoming a downworlder was a source of safety. Which is why it was so painful to hear shadowhunters talk about how "tragic" the creation of vampires and werewolves was.
There were girls whispering behind her back in high school. Just trying to go to the bathroom without there being some sort of public debate amongst her teachers and principal was also a factor.
Jenessa was certainly no stranger to conflict or adversity. But this? This was something else entirely.
Before she had died. Nessie had actually made a decent connection with other members of her community. Even making casual acquaintances was comforting. The queer community overall could be a bit of a shit show at times. With exclusionists, TERFs and biphobes rampaging about. But getting the chance to talk to other trans people was incredible. Especially Bi trans people like herself. But despite that she still felt as though something was missing.
Janessa still felt distant and isolated despite the fact that she now had everything she wanted. It was like a dark black cloud had plagued her for all of her teenage years. Depression. It wasn't just due to being in the closet or not being able to be her true self. It was just there. Corrupting her brain and dragging her down into despair.
It was that same despair that had lead to her death. And when she was reborn as a member of the undead, at first she hadn't exactly been grateful. But in time she had found her footing. Music, therapy, a new community of downworlders who were diverse, powerful and brilliant. She moved from LA to basically all over with her band. All of these things helped Janessa re shape herself and her new life into something better. Something stronger.
But yet she still felt a little isolated at times. A little incomplete. Like she was waiting for something.
Fuck that sounded so pathetic. But it was true. Or at least it was true until a wayward mess of a shadowhunter had wandered into the bar Nessie and her band played regular gigs at, looking for information on a particular downworlder.
Janessa was not pleased. She knew she needed to get this asshole far away from her and her people.
Kit certainly had other ideas. It would not be the last time they disagreed on something.
But she had noticed something that day. Something in his eyes. That same lost look of despair she recognized in herself. This of course hadn't stopped her from calling him an angelic, inbred, self righteous asshole and he had thrown his head back and laughed.
Despite Nessie's better judgement, she had decided to trust him that day. He had complemented her t shirt which said "In my defense, I was provoked" and her leather jacket which had the trans symbol on the back with the Bisexual flag as the background.
So she had helped Kit with his mission that day, which turned out to be pretty harmless, which then led to hanging out at the park after dark and eating fast food on the balcony of Ciernworth. He asked her questions about her life and her unlife. He asked the questions that she usually got about hormones and discovering her gender identity, and less common questions about becoming a vampire. She in turn asked him questions about his past and his coming out. Her fate was sealed that day. Janessa just didnt want to admit it.
And now, several weeks later that shadowhunter she had chosen to trust was currently sobbing into her arms.
"Kit it's gonna be ok alright? Just take some deep breaths" Janessa cooed. She was running one of her hands through his blond curls, and another along his back attempting to soothe him.
Kit gasped for air against his sobs as he pressed his forehead closer to her neck. "I mean-. Nessie I just-" he gasped, unable to properly get the words out.
Janessa shook her head. "Shhh no it's ok" she reassured him. "Take your time."
It broke her heart to see Kit like this but all she could do was focus on helping him. Not once did it occur to Nessie that she currently had a live human being pressed up against her, viens full of rushing blood.
She rubbed his shoulders. Kit sighed and began to speak in a more calm tone. "It's just that when I gave Magnus the necklace to give to- you know to him, it brought all of those old feelings rushing back you know?"
Janessa sighed. Him was Tiberius Blackthorn. The boy that Kit was hopelessly in love with. The boy that had broken his heart.
Janessa was most certainly not a fan. Anyone who made her friend cry was instantly on her shit list. Nessie was more then a little protective of Kit but she couldn't help it. He was always getting himself into trouble. Like the other day, dealing with the Devon Vampire Clan which Nessie was kind of a part of now that she was living in Devon temporarily. Kit was picking her up from a meeting so they could get Midnight snacks and play video games at her place.
The Devon Clan was really not happy to see a Shadowhunter. They antagonized her over trusting one of the nephilum. They called her a traitor to her own people. Janessa personally thought they were being a little overly dramatic. It led to a fight that most definitely put the accords in jeopardy.
Janessa also discovered that day that she and Kit fought beautifully together. Almost like Parabatai.
Whoah. Where the fuck did that come from.
Janessa heard a light snore from below her. Kit had fallen asleep in her lap. She snorted fondly. The emotional labour of crying must have tired him out. She didn't really blame him for that. As Nessie stared down at him, this shadowhunter who had become so significant to her, she wondered if this was going to end badly for her.
She could hear the words of hundreds of downworlders echoing in her head, including her own. Shadowhunters can't be trusted. Shadowhunters are selfish. Shadowhunters hate downworlders. They don't believe we're worthy of life so why should we be nice to them? Fuck them all.
And all of that was what she firmly believed.
Kit snored again.
Well for the most part.
It wasn't like she was in love with him. That much she knew. The thought of kissing Kit or dating him or anything like that made her quesy. But the idea of holding him while he cried, or laughing at his jokes, or even staying here watching his chest rise and fall and relishing in the fact that yes, he is alive, that sounded perfect.
Janessa scooped her arms under Kit's body and pulled him up off of the floor. "Come on Kit-Kat" she muttered. "Let's get you to bed."
Kit moaned in protest but didn't try to fight her as she pulled him over to her bed. Nessie could only hope that Kit had told his parents where he would be. Kit smiled sleepily at her and opened his eyes.
"You're my best friend you know?" He murmered.
Janessa swallowed down a sob. "Really?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady. "I've never had a best friend before."
Kit closed his eyes. He was probably nodding off again. "Me neither" he whispered. He probably didnt want to count Ty considering all of the romantic angst.
And in that moment Janessa made a choice. She made the decision to lay down next to him and relax. She made the decision to forgive him for things that were out of his control.
She leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his temple. "You're my best friend too ok?" She said softly.
And when she saw the slightest of smiles appear on his face, Janessa made another decision as well.
She let herself love him.
Your heartbeat is disguised as mine.
My lullaby.
The song I used for this fic is Always be together by Little Mix.
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venusmages · 3 years
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[reposted because someone politely asked me to remove their comments from the original, but tumblr wouldn’t let me delete them!] after playing a good 70-ish hours so far i can confidently say that, at least for PC, all of the bad press CP2077 is getting is totally 100% overblown. The game’s amazing.
Like, the story, characters, concepts are all groundbreaking. Especially for a real RPG and not a story based adventure game ala TLOU or RDR (TLOU which in my opinion had a very substandard, predictable story anyways - cant speak for the second one). Gameplay itself (shooting, driving, etc), perhaps not so much - pretty much what you’d expect. But it’s FUN. And it’s the best first person  system I’ve ever seen so far, extremely immersive. Though you can clearly see the ‘way’ that they do things - much more apparent than marketing would have you believe. 
That being said ofc i have criticisms like you would with every game. If you’re not gonna buy it I at least encourage you to check out the story because the writing is REALLY good. Like impressively good. This is the kind of cyberpunk genre story I want. It’s very well realized and full of heart and detail. 
I’m pretty convinced a lot of the backlash that isn’t from last gen users is either from fans who convinced themselves the game was going to be some Life Sim and not an RPG, or people who weren’t intending on playing it in the first place. And even the rough launch I don’t think is the dev team’s fault, but rather from shareholders and publishers pushing the game to be released before it was ready. It def should’ve come out on PC only first, and had more time to come to consoles later on  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That part of it is absolutely true and their marketing team needs to be completely re-engineered as far as I’m concerned. That’s the part that makes the company look the worst given the cringe social media interactions and how they purposefully made the game confusing on what it was trying to be by ONLY showing cutscenes in 99% of the promotional material.
It also goes without saying that crunch is bad. I want shorter games, with worse graphics, made by people paid more to work less - and I mean that. But people didn’t get this upset when someone overworked at Rockstar had to animate horse balls. The discussion about crunch is definitely important and always will be, but this is genuinely overblown to the point people act like CDPR is trying to kill people AND their fans.
not saying you cant critique the game or even dislike it, but i see a lot of vitriol and acting as if CDPR is devil incarnate when they’re not any better or worse than any other AAA dev out there. I made a joke about it but I am going to make an actual post about my gripes with the game because I think marketing did THAT poor of a job actually showing what the game is. And likewise I think people deadset to be angry at the game who haven’t even touched it are spreading misinformation too.
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