I Would, Can, And WILL Die For Sydnee Mcelroy

Always

it’s i want some affection o’clock

those who are too scared to choose a side keep recycling lines like "children are off limits" and "protect children" as if we don't all agree but

i'm here to tell you that in the span of one week, israel had murdered 700 palestinian children (this number is only expected to keep rising)

israel had cut water off every child in gaza which exceed 1000000 in number

cut electricity and fuel off hospitals that care for children and infants

it has rendered tens of thousands of children homeless

families are rationing water portions

children are writing their names on the palm of their hands so that they would be identified when the shelling happens and they're pulled from under the rubble

the situation in gaza can only be described as catastrophic

but sure go ahead and wish ~peace on both nations~ you fucking detached weirdos

You are still here. You are still breathing. All the things you have messed up: the words you ended up regretting, the mistakes you made at work or the tests you failed at shool; they simply do not matter. At the end of the day all that really counts is that you are still trying and that your heart is still beating.

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

one of the biggest man-made environmental disaster in decades!

the Kakhovka HPP is completely destroyed and can’t be restored.

water continues to flood Kherson, Nova Kakhovka and other cities and towns, taking lives and destroying Ukrainian ecology;

over 200,000 residents of surrounding settlements lost access to drinking water;

there is a threat of nuclear disaster due to possible cooling issues at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant;

over 150 tons of machine oil have contaminated the Dnipro River. there is risk of a further 300+ tons leaking;

river water drifts russian mines, they detonate in the flooding zones.

regardless, thousands of animals, both wild and domestic, affected by this flooding. Ukrainians save everyone they can find. the search for animals and people continues for the second day.

the scale of this terrorist act is difficult to predict. it threatens hundreds of thousands of lives — flooding will continue for at least another 4 days.

please do not be indifferent, spread information, reliable information from the Ukrainians who are experiencing this catastrophe in real time. do not believe russian propaganda, support Ukraine and Ukrainians in our battle for life!

one of the more valuable things I’ve learned in life as a survivor of a mentally unstable parent is that it is likely that no one has thought through it as much as you have. 

no, your friend probably has not noticed they cut you off four times in this conversation. 

no, your brother didn’t realize his music was that loud while you were studying. 

no, your bff or S.O. doesn’t remember that you’re on a tight deadline right now.

no, no one else is paying attention to the four power dynamics at play in your friend group right now.  

a habit of abused kids, especially kids with unstable parents, is the tendency to notice every little detail. We magnify small nuances into major things, largely because small nuances quickly became breaking points for parents. Managing moods, reading the room, perceiving danger in the order of words, the shift of body weight….it’s all a natural outgrowth of trying to manage unstable parents from a young age. 

Here’s the thing: most people don’t do that. I’m not saying everyone else is oblivious, I’m saying the over analysis of minor nuances is a habit of abuse. 

I have a rule: I do not respond to subtext. This includes guilt tripping, silent treatments, passive aggressive behavior, etc. I see it. I notice it. I even sometimes have to analyze it and take a deep breath and CHOOSE not to respond. Because whether it’s really there or just me over-reading things that actually don’t mean anything, the habit of lending credence to the part of me that sees danger in the wrong shift of body weight…that’s toxic for me. And dangerous to my relationships. 

The best thing I ever did for myself and my relationships was insist upon frank communication and a categorical denial of subtext. For some people this is a moral stance. For survivors of mentally unstable parents this is a requirement of recovery. 

when will people use the anon function to send passionate, homosexual anonymous love letters

You know what breaks my heart more than anything? Palestinian children are trying to describe the atrocities they're witnessing using English instead of their native tongue to try and get their message heard globally. Palestinian children are also describing the scenes in Gaza while sounding like grown ups and not children because they've witnessed too much at such a young age. These children were deprived of their childhood. Their circumstances forced them to mature and be able to talk about watching their loved ones die. They are literally trying to speak a second language to try and call world leaders to stop killing them and their loved ones. World leaders cannot even utter the word "ceasefire" while a Palestinian child had to explain on camera that she recognized her friend's body only by her coat because her friend's body was beheaded in the bombings.

It's not a conflict; it's ethnic cleansing.

It's not a conflict; it's colonialism.

And if you're somehow convinced that any of this is about religion or antisemitism, I recommend you read this.

In Case Littles Haven't Heard...

Before you give your submission to a Dom, and make him your Daddy, you are the fucking boss. Every day is like Sadie Hawkins Day in the DD/lg dynamic, in that it’s you littles who get to pick who you interview, when you talk sex, when he sees you naked, who you submit to, and who gets dismissed. It’s our jobs, as hopeful Daddies, to woo you, impress you, and prove that we care about you, and not just the kinky sex, until you grow to trust us, and we earn your submission. You are the bright shiny grand prize, not a old used toy sitting in a bin marked “free” at a garage sale. So go into looking for a Daddy with a little chip on your shoulder. You’re the prize. You’re the boss. Make him show you he’s patient, and that he thinks you’re worth having patience over. Make him earn it. YOU ARE WORTH IT!! 🌹