How do the other countries react to the Iwa massacre? Does anyone even know about it or do they try to hide the fact that they lost 50% of their ninja force? Does the Akatsuki step in to grant some fun help in exchange for more political clout :)))

LMAO i literally didn't think that far ahead because it's not "canon" to reborn au; it was just me exploring a scenario. but given how i've been characterizing them, iwa would attempt to hide it. but they've lost a shit load on manpower in one go, so people will notice the sudden reduction in missions and them abruptly pulling field agents and stuff like that, and eventually they're going to connect it to the konoha team, especially given tori just straight up told the kiri team what happened to kushina. so i think the rumor mill is INSANE. everyone's reputation goes bananas

i think if tori hadn't told kiri that iwa made a move on kushina, the other nations would freak out because it would kind of look like konoha did something insane to another village for no reason. but i think the rumor mill concluding it was in retaliation to iwa doing something dumb AF would make the other villages feels safer lmao. not safe enough that konoha doesn't get blacklisted from a chunin exams for a few years, but.... meh. what are their clients going to do, NOT hire the village capable of infiltrating and knocking iwa off the map?

there might be a risk of another nation trying to overthrown iwa once it's clear they've been weakened, so ame is paying close attention because they've dubbed themselves the ninja cops. so yes iwa might suddenly find themselves asking for some favors :)

“And then, um, sparkles? And then, kablam!”

Any time we get a magical girl transformation sequence viewed from the outside or described from bystanders’ perspectives and it’s not instantaneous, I love it. I loved it in that one episode of Healin’ Good where Nodoka and Rabirin fell out of it mid-transformation and then we see the MASSIVE LIGHT SHOW from the monster’s perspective when they finally resolve their problems, and I love Mashiro here summing it up like that.

Fun fact! Both of these sequences involve a character voiced by Kakuma Ai, who is both Mashiro and Rabirin!

was already thinking that if sacker was in on it, which she was, it would've made sense if she'd met up with winston before the scene we got, and the meeting with also spyros for some reason was more for show....why not give us a reprise of a one-on-one meeting between winston & taylor like in 3x09, the first episode with winston proper; he doesn't want them in his house again after [7x03 wags subplot no reason] but can call/text to name a time & place....think taylor would've also had a more believably doable time editing his coding if he'd set them up for that b/c they'd given Any info about what they needed to do with it here, but surely we're not sparing such nerd stuff another thought. invoke the drama like that ostensibly winston couldn't uno reverse any "haha. this extortion" like if you're gonna threaten that then You do it, right here, right now, maybe more difficult thusly one-on-one without being tasked as accessories to someone else's power trip, and after definitely having decided on "forget the personal consequences in the face of my ethical quest," though still hardly makes sense why they were all like that in all of 7x03. let winston do the employee breakup like yeah i'll do it and in return lea me alone, which, foreshadowing perhaps their already thinking of doing Other Things like ttmf now in the ease of being like yeah okay despite the value....but even if implicitly winston's given up on taylor (and presumably rian) he should get to express as much more outright after all that and more

fighting for my life trying to volunteer for this thing in town -_-

golden wildfire leaving claudevainers dead in the water

Dude I relate to your bio so hard. Sometimes I’m like ‘why does nobody talk about this show wtf!!’ and then I remember that the show came out 15 years ago and the events happened literally 20 years ago in march lmao

So yeah it’s definitely a product of its time and obv won’t be as relevant anymore today, but I only watched it for the first time a few months ago and I’m still depressed over the end scene with Johnny cash playing :(

god so a little story. one of my best friends uhh we chat in discord often! have our own lil bff server ^_^ and we have mudae bot LMFAO and ... okay as a little “friend bonding time” she looked up all those in my wishlist (also artemis’s!) and bhgadhjg i just. think it’s funny that out of all of them she finds grimnir and fandaniel pretty

BABYS FIRST PRIDE PARADE BRO IT WAS INCREDIBLE-

[Lio] =_= love seeing someone follow us and they seem cool only for them to reblog stuff that’s shitty towards trans men. Very awesome. Why are you fucking here? Can you read?

actually. that post about how its important to have weird kinky queer friends. i think the same is true of really every type of ostracized person but in particular i wanna point it out wrt mentally ill people.

if you watch a movie villainizing DID or schizophrenia or something, and you think, "hey, this seems sort of like its based on what my friend has and theyre just a chill person, why are they making my friends condition seem threatening?" thats good.

if you see someone use narcissist as a synonym for abuser and you think, "what, no, im friends with someone who has NPD and i know theyre a kind person, this isnt true at all," thats good.

if you hear politicians try to frame addicts as violent criminals who should be locked up and you think "no, my buddy sam is just sick, their withdrawals are really painful and they dont have a good support system, they shouldnt be locked up for that," thats good.

being able to counter ableist rhetoric with "i know from experience thats not how these people are" is a good thing. like yeah obviously dont make friends with mentally ill people just for brownie points but also try to make the conscious effort to be open to friendship with people who have stigmatized mental health issues. and maybe even more importantly, be someone who makes it clear to others that youre safe to be open about these things with, because chances are youre ALREADY friends with mentally ill people even if you dont realize it, because a lot of us with more demonized conditions try to hide those conditions out of fear, and it helps a lot to know our friends are allies - and then we might feel safe discussing our experiences, IF we want to, and in turn that can help you better understand the realities and diversities of our situations and be less susceptible to ableist rhetoric.

Also now I'm feeling really shit about not getting to anything for trans day of remembrance this year.

last day in Rome probably ever

End blood quantum now

Blood quantum is how much native blood you have in you and it needs to be a certain threshold to qualify you as a tribal member. Blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe.

It means my mom is a tribal member but because my dad is outside of my tribe... I don't have enough tribal blood to enroll. Neither does my daughter. Our "official" indigeneity ended with me.

My dad is still native tho. Just southern native. Others have two parents enrolled in separate tribes and can't enroll in either one despite being Full native because their parents were mixed with other tribes so they don't have enough blood of Any tribe to qualify.

And to what end are they doing this?

Under the treaties the US govt can lay no claim to native land. So how do they fix that? Get rid of the natives, of course.

And since they can't slaughter us in broad daylight anymore they did the next best thing. What the colonial government has ALWAYS done to us and other poc.

Made up a bunch of arbitrary laws to restrain and limit our power and numbers.

And this can't continue. We are the only race who needs to apply to be part of the community we were born into. The only race who needs to prove our blood.

And that's the thing: it's not even based on blood. Racist scientists defined who was a full-blooded native based on things like shoe size, head circumference, and skin pigment.

Not blood. And besides that it wasn't uncommon for outsiders to become part of a tribe!! You didn't need to be native by blood to be native! Blood quantum has made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to qualify and made it impossible for tribes to practice that long time aspect of our culture.

So please share this post. So many people legitimately think natives are extinct and even less are aware that we do more than just sit around drinking all day. Few people have good feelings about us and within that there are a few who actively help. Please be one of those few.

We need support and allies and for our voices to be heard. Please don't let this post just be me screaming into a void. We need people to know what blood quantum is, how archaic and harmful it is, and to help us spread awareness to people who otherwise would ignore us. Use your privilege.

shoutout to the lady at work who came through the checkout line, asked for ten percent off, and showed me a business card that said "good for diskont"

apparently a bunch of ppl on social media are trying to call for a boycott of rick riordan because of this statement in a blog post:

Becky and I are just back from a busy weekend with events at the Boston Book Festival and New York Comic-Con.

Before I get into that, however, some words to acknowledge the ongoing horrors in Israel and Gaza. As many of you may know, I am no longer on social media. My accounts post only updates on my books and related projects. I do not read posts, reply to posts, or share my thoughts about world events on those forums. That doesn’t mean I don’t have strong feelings and reactions. It means I am offline as completely as possible, except for the occasional blog post like this one.

I will say this: Over the last eighteen years, I have received many fan letters from young readers, both Israeli and Palestinian, who often told me that my books helped them escape the fear, grief and anxiety they were dealing with at the time. Some had lost family members to violence. Some were writing while in the distance they could hear explosions, gunfire, and the launching of rockets. They used my books as a way to escape into another world, where the monsters were fictional, and where demigods usually saved the day. While I am always glad that my books can help young readers find joy during difficult times, my heart breaks every time I hear about the things they have to deal with. I am grief-stricken by the horrific events now unfolding, especially because I know that they are part of a long historic pattern that has been robbing too many children of their childhood and perpetuating hatred for far too long.

I am also quite aware that when anyone, myself included, tries to speak about this issue, the reader is waiting to pounce, thinking, “Yes, but whose side are you on?” That is exactly the wrong question. If there are two sides to this issue, those sides are not Palestinian/Israeli or Muslim/Jewish. The two sides are humanitarian and dehumanizing. Dehumanizing has a long evil history. It is appealing and easy to buy into, because humans are tribal animals. We are hardwired to think in terms of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are the real humans, the good guys, the ones with God on our side. Those other people are evil monsters who don’t deserve empathy. Hate mongers have thrived on dehumanizing for as long as there have been humans. It provides them with a purpose, a way to rally support, power, and scapegoats. It is easy to point to atrocities committed by our enemies, while justifying or minimizing the atrocities committed by ourselves or our allies.

Humanitarianism is a much harder sell. It requires us to empathize, to see other groups of people as equally deserving of dignity and quality of life. It requires not always putting ourselves and our needs first. But in the long run, humanitarianism is our only hope. If violence could end violence, if we could put an end to “those other people” once and for all, human history would read very differently than it does.

So yes, I am appalled by the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. I am appalled by the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Both things can be true. Both things must be true. My thoughts are with all the people who have died, who have lost loved ones, who have had their worlds and their lives shattered, especially the children. More death and violence will not break this cycle, which has been going on for generations. There is no military solution. Even since I first wrote the post, only twenty-four hours ago, the Israeli government’s brutal retaliation against the entire population of Gaza has reached genocidal proportions. This is not only an atrocity. It is folly. Answering misery with misery only creates more fertile ground for extremism, dehumanizing the “other side,” letting hate mongers thrive, stay in power, and reduce us all to our most monstrous impulses. The only real solution is treating each other like equally worthy human beings, and negotiating a peace that allows all parties a chance to live in security and dignity, with hopes for a future that does not include bombs and rockets and gunfire. This means security and support for Israel, yes. It also means a secure Palestine which is allowed to get the international aid and recognition it needs to build a viable state.

Do I think that will happen? Unfortunately, no. Humans are simply too selfish, too ready to blame “the other” for all their problems, too ready to dehumanize, though I also believe, perhaps paradoxically, that most people just want to live their lives in peace and have a chance for their children to have a brighter future. The problem is when we don’t allow other people to have those same hopes and dreams — when it becomes a false choice of us versus them.

What can I do? I will continue to write books that I hope will give young readers some joy. I will resist the urge to demonize entire groups of people. I will call for less violence, not more violence. And when asked whose side I am on, I will tell you I am on the side of humanitarianism.

So with that said, I return to the world of books . . .

honestly, if you have a problem with this statement, it’s probably because he’s talking about you. this is exactly what legitimate activists (as in not just random westerners who share social media posts but on-the-ground activists who are doing real work) have been saying for decades. and i think all this really speaks to just how disconnected a lot of westerners who claim to be pro palestinian are from those activists.

if you can’t read a statement that says “i am on the side of humanitarianism and less violence” without immediately jumping to cancel them, you are the problem being discussed in the above statement.

And again, as always: It would be nice if you guys could stop making this about yourselves. Whenever we post about our particular experience, people who normally can speak, but used to struggle with it, or struggle under certain circumstances, add on something to talk about themselves. This eventually leads to people talking about something completely different, and ignoring what the post was about at first. Make your own post. We are constantly spoken over even in online spaces, and that's especially unfair because we struggle to communicate even more than other autistics. Don't derail posts about people who never learned to speak from the very beginning and won't learn it ever. That's unfair.

Sometimes I see people on here who want to be good allies to nonverbal autistics, but at the same time don't understand nonverbal autism at its core.

Most of us, who are nonverbal "from birth", struggle with language, to communicate, and to understand complex concepts. That's why we never learned to speak at all, ever.

But their strategy is to "hand us the mic" and ask "What are some misconceptions about nonverbal autism you'd like to discuss?" and expect us to respond.

"Misconceptions" is an abstract concept. Most of us can't just come up with an answer; my mind, for example, goes completely blank when I read this.

I wanted to talk about allies assuming that our brain works similar for at least 2 weeks, but it's only now that I am able to write something. 2 weeks!

Sure, there are autistics who can't speak due to apraxia, and who don't struggle with language otherwise, apart from the "not being able to speak with their mouth" part. But that's rare.

Even my ability to express myself well is rare. I am not your average nonverbal autistic. I am very skilled compared to the rest of us.

One thing about "never learning to speak" is that most of us really really struggle with language, and with understanding big words and topics. Not everyone, but many of us. That's why most of us aren't on social media.

Whenever I write "educational" posts, my inbox is flooded with follow up questions I just can't answer without help. Because most of the time I don't understand the text. I regularly have to close my inbox because people assume that I can process the text and respond like everyone else can. But having these abilities is an exception within autistics who never learned to speak from the very beginning. It seems normal, but those people just are the loudest. Because they're on social media and love to participate in discussions.

Most of us can't do that.

I'm glad that I made some speaking friends here who made an effort to understand us thoroughly, and they now often repeat what we think and want "but louder". Listen to them, most of us can't advocate for ourselves. They're not speaking over us, they're helping us to communicate without draining our energy.

And for everything else I have some posts linked in my pinned post because I can't just participate in discussions.