#ititspronouns | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

neopronouns-in-action · 9 months

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This is a poll.

Poll question:

Do you think that editing posts where you've misgendered someone to correct the misgendering, *after explicitly being asked to do so*, is a requirement for being a true ally to trans and nonbinary people, and other gender outlaws? Please read all options before choosing.

Options:

1: No, leaving the misgendering is fine as long as you don't do it on new posts

2: No, because other people's feeling shouldn't police how you run your own blog

3: No, because misgendering isn't a big deal and fixing it is a waste of time

4: No, you should keep misgendering people to hold yourself accountable

5: Yes, because more people will be hurt the longer you misgender someone

6: Yes, you were asked to fix them, so you should to respect people's feelings

7: Yes, leaving the misgendering in place when you know better is disrespectful

8: Yes, because misgendering people is wrong. End of discussion.

9: No you should keep misgendering people out of spite for being asked to fix it

Edit for clarity: Keep in mind! You have *explicitly* been asked to edit the specific posts where you are misgendering someone. The posts are new, not even a week old, and editing all of them would take less than ten minutes total. It probably wouldn't even take five. That's how easy it'd be.

**Edit for clarity:

The "misgendering people is wrong, end of discussion" option excludes when you are asked to misgender someone for their own safety. I would have put that in, but tumblr's character limit for poll answers is annoyingly limited.

For this question, imagine that the posts where someone is being misgendered are only a day old, not months or years or even weeks. It would take literally less than ten minutes for all of the posts to be corrected.

I added multiple yes options so people could pick whichever of the main reason they would be picking at the moment, I promise it's not a trick question. It would have just felt weird if there were multiple no options and only one yes option.

There is no wrong yes answer, pick whichever one you feel is the most important consideration for this scenario.

=====Results (rounded/aproximate):

Overall:

92.7%, or 749 out of 807 voters said yes, that editing posts where you've misgendered someone, after being asked to edit them, is a basic requirement for being an ally to gender outlaws.

7.3%, or 59 out of 807 voters said no, editing posts, even when explicitly asked to do so to stop misgendering someone is not a requirement for being an ally to gender outlaws.

Specific options:

42 out of 807 voters said it's okay not to edit posts when asked to do so, as long as you don' misgender the person in the future.

9 out of 807 voters said it's okay not to edit posts where you misgender someone, even after being explicitly asked to do so, because other people's feelings shouldn't dictate how you run your blog.

1 out of 807 voters said that it's okay not to fix posts where you misgender someone, even after being explicitly asked to do so, because misgendering isn't a big deal, and fixing it is a waste of time

0 out of 807 said that you should continue misgendering people to hold yourself accountable

25 out of 807 voters said you should edit posts when asked to, because more people will be hurt the longer you misgender someone.

230 out of 807 voters said you should edit posts because you were asked to fix them, so you should fix them to respect people's feelings.

197 out of 807 voters said that leaving the misgendering in place when you know better is disrespectful

297 out of 807 voters said that you should edit the posts, because misgendering people is wrong, end of discussion.

4 out of 807 voters said that you should purposefully continue misgendering someone out of spite for being asked to correct yourself.

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walks-the-ages · 3 months

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Murderbot Writing Prompt: Dialed Down To Zero

Murderbot is so used to dialing down its pain sensors during combat, that it doesn't notice anything amiss when it gets hurt in a battle with a hostile (*cough xenomorph cough*), until afterwards when it realizes its experienced more injuries than the one it was actually aware of, and reluctantly tries to turn its pain sensors back up to normal.

Only for nothing to happen.

Increasingly more frantic, Murderbot starts running all of its diagnostics, only to slowly come to the realization that its constant abuse of the pain sensor dial-down system has permanently disabled its pain sensors, and not only that, it damaged its hardware integrity checks.

Now, when Murderbot gets injured, it has no pain sensors, or integrity alerts to tell it what damage has been sustained. It has no way of knowing, outside of visual inspection, to know what part of it is damaged, or how extensive that damage is.

What looks like a simple hole in the biological tissue of its wrist, could actually be a catastrophic wound that has completely wrecked the entire, internal systems in its entire arm, or have damaged the gunports in its arms -- causing them to violently explode the next time Murderbot tries to use them.

How does Murderbot cope with this new, permanent disability?

No longer can it treat its body like it is disposable; no longer can it shrug off having a giant alien take a bite out of its chest, or even something as 'minor' as a bullet wound in its arm; now, because it doesn't hurt, it can't judge the damage, and with no Company Brand Cubicals on hand, it has no real way to do any 'full system repairs', no matter hard ART tries to hack the Company, some tech is just too proprietary for a space fascist business to keep in a way that competitors can easily steal that information.

How does Murderbot move forward with its life, no longer able to casually throw its bodily well-being away?

Will it have more compassion the next time the Company sends slaves who've had their ability to feel pain taken from them as 'mindless killers'? Maybe enough compassion to save more than one life?

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #ititspronouns #writing prompt #murderbot writing prompt #neopronouns in action #bold text #murderbot diaries #let your characters face consequences for injuries!!!!!#let Murderbot get some self worth and stop throwing its life away and throw itself in harms way!#secunit

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inaturalist-propaganda · 11 months

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Pinned post.

The iNaturalist staff have decided to prove, the day before Pride month begins, that iNaturalist's proclaimed acceptance of Queer people is just as performative as any other corporate that pridewashes.

They banned me from the forum for asking not to be misgendered by someone who is purposefully misgendering me and literally admitted that she knows it's wrong but she's going to do it okay.

The staff have done nothing but victim blame, tone police, and punish everyone for the bigotry of two people, which they refuse to remove from the thread.

Meanwhile, they've hidden posts by Trans and ally users who have called out the bigotry and criticized their reaction, and have, from their very first response, been treating our reaction to the bigotry as more aggressive and offensive and inappriate than the bigotry itself.

They literally are leaving the posts where I am purposefully misgendered up, but have hidden and removed my posts as well as the posts of other trans and ally users who have been criticizing their abhorrant behavior and asking for an apology.

According to the iNaturalist staff, asking someone not to misgender you is hate speech, but purposefully misgendering someone is not

= = =

Read this shit for yourself:

The original thread for LGBTQIA+ people:

"https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/lgbtqia-and-inaturalist/23565"

The thread the staff created to hide the responses and criticism many trans people and our allies who criticized their first response:

“https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/moderation-decisions-about-several-posts-in-the-lgbtqia-thread/42122/56”

Ways you can help:

[Ways you can help]

You can send the parent company a message on Facebook here:

“https://www.facebook.com/calacademy/”

And you can share your feedback with the parent company through google:

“https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoaW33mQfJgl9pEIo9aUoDQ-nKFVYvvcXM0pbOBNvkt5PAog/viewform”

Call iNaturalist's parent company, and/or send them a direct email:

The phone number for the California Academy of Sciences is:

1 415 379 8000

Their email is:

[email protected]

Be nice to the person who answer the phone! I just called, and I was told that the number for the academy is not the correct place to call about concerns with bigotry --

However!

That is exactly why you should call this number. Be nice. Be polite. Explain that you found this number online and wanted to contact the company because you have serious concerns about bigotry being done by paid staff members of iNaturalist.org.

Again. Be fucking nice to the person on the phone. They will redirect you to send concerns to [email protected], which you should then do so.

But calling this number and being redirected is going to make these people extremely aware of the problem, and make it that much more urgent when they've got dozens of people calling them about this as well as sending feedback through google forms and the Facebook page.

I highly recommend that any written messages you send, you type out ahead of time in a word document that you make sure to save in case the site glitches and eats it somehow! I am also saving all the messages I have sent for accountability purposes, so that no one can claim they didn't receive anything, as well as making sure that my words are not misquoted or purposefully taken out of context.

I hope that's just unecessary paranoia but I literally was expecting the iNaturalist staff to do the right thing, and instead we're in this nightmare now.

Take a Survey:

[Plain text: "Take a Survey:". End plain text.]

You can now take one of two surveys I created. When at least 20 responses are given for each, I will begin emailing the results to the California Academy of Sciences.

Survey for those who already have an iNaturalist account already:

"https://forms.gle/YsAcaVpzS2AbWkmJ7"

Survey for those who do not have an iNaturalist account:

"https://forms.gle/YUyhzpxETLqWiCJq6"

I will be encouraging the California Academy of Sciences to create and distribute their own official surveys for iNaturalist users and potential users.

= = =

Here’s the parent company’s About Us section about diversity and inclusion so you can see for yourself that they're claiming to support Queer people and inclusivity:

“https://www.calacademy.org/diversity-equity-inclusion-access”

If you have an iNaturalist account you can comment on the forums directly.

They literally just said that if we don’t want to be misgendered we can just leave.

Archived link because I know they’re gonna delete my response like they’re deleting all the posts that criticize them.

If you don't want to make any posts or send any messages, please signal boost this post and share it on literally any social media you want. You don't even have to screenshot it, you can copy and paste the whole thing and just put it in quotation marks.

If you care about trans people, please help us call out this blatant bigotry on the part of the iNaturalist staff. Either by sending a message to the parent company, posting to the iNaturalist forum, sharing this post elsewhere on social media, or reblogging it here on tumblr!

Thank you, and have a happy wrath month.

= = =

#iNaturalist #trans #transgender #nonbinary #xenogender #pride #pride month #Queer #queer pride #wildlife #ititspronouns #itisantagonism #transmisia #wrath month #Queer wrath #trans wrath #nonbinary wrath #it wrath

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actually-atlas · 9 months

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Shout out to anyone who uses it/its pronouns.

To the people whose it/its pronouns aren't respected by others.

Whether you use it/its pronouns because you're non-human or because they're just the pronouns you vibe best with, you deserve to have your pronouns respected.

[If anyone feels the need to comment anything disrespectful on this, leave. I will delete your comment anyway, so you might as well save yourself some time and not comment. Idgaf what you have to say.]

#it/its #pronouns #neopronouns #ititspronouns

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your-fave-uses-it-its-pronouns · 4 months

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alright so. not to be a little antsy about the it/its flag but

the agender, neutrois, etc flags are all options for it/its as well!! just saying! not that i don't like your flag (although the colours are. fine), but just that there's more options!!

have a nice day person/people who own this blog :3

What's the point of this ask? This blog is about it/its pronouns. It's not about being agender or neutrois. People with those identities can use it/its pronouns, but that doesn't mean they should be equated with using it/its pronouns any more than being nonbinary should be equated with using they/them.

I think you're aware that saying "the colors are. fine" is a clear insult, so like, what was the purpose of this ask?

Are you asking me to use the neutrois or agender flags for characters that use it/its pronouns? Because that's not how this works. People who are agender or neutrois can use any pronouns, not just it/its.

You are clearly "a little antsy" about the it/its flag. You can just not send rude asks that don't make any sense. You could have just said "could you do this character with X flag" instead of clearly saying you think this flag is ugly lol. It would have been less insulting.

Like, are you saying there shouldn't be a flag for it/its pronouns at all? What is the purpose of this ask?

Using the agender or neutrois flags to represent it/its pronoun users would just be exorsexist as hell. Not all people who use it/its pronouns are genderless or have neutral genders, and probably most people who are agender or neutrois don't use it/its pronouns.

If you don't like this version of the it/its flag, there's other ones out there. But don't go around sending rude asks like this equating it/its pronouns with specific genders that have no more to do with it/its pronouns than any other gender.

Saying "have a nice day" at the end does not make any of the contents of your ask, which you clearly know is insulting, any less insulting.

#ititsantagonism #exorsexism #ititspronouns #anonymous #transmisia #agender #neutrois

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mlwritingprompts · 1 year

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Submitted prompt: The Play that Never Ends

AU inspired by the many “Time is broken” prompts on this blog.

Character using the neopronouns it/its

——

Eyes opened as it gazed at the reality in front of it, marveling once more at the beauty of of the cosmos in front of it.

Such an impossible beauty that mustn’t be tainted, that was what it felt, as it looked deeper into the reality, focusing on the same scene, like it did many times for who cares how long.

No.

To say that it was the same scenes was wrong; it was the events that looked so similar and so numerous that one could mistake them for the same scenes in a movie repeating all over.

A girl who swore to be a hero waking up to prepare to school, somehow managing to be late even as her school was across the street of her home, being teased for being the same silly and eccentric girl she was by her friends.

Someone gets corrupted by a magic butterfly, their original personality overriden as a villain forces their emotions to take form and rampage in the city, and the girl transform into her superhero persona and saves the day along with the aid of other heroes.

Sometimes, she gets criticized for a mistake, and apologizes, and sometimes, she gets criticized for a “mistake”, and apologizes.

Sometimes, she tries to confess to a boy she likes, and gets humiliated, and sometimes, she gets forced to try confessing to that boy, and gets humiliated nonetheless.

Sometimes, her partner is being cruel in front of her, and she is forced to “apologize” to him so he can work with her, sometimes, her partner is cruel to other people behind her back, and she is still forced to apologize in his place.

Things don’t seem to get better for her-

“Because things can never get better for us. That’s why…”

Even as the entity, seemingly feminine, had spoken, no one answered its response.

It only looked at the Marinette who was almost breaking down as the weight of her responsibility crushed her so many times, nothing but pity and resignation in its eyes.

“Things will never get better for us. There’s no point in wishing for things to get better. Hoping for such a thing to happen to us is nothing but a wasted effort. The only thing we can do is to make sure that things can never get worse. Even if it required the stagnation of the world as we know it, Marinette.”

There was no other point to its existence after all. That was its purpose, after all.

To make sure things never get worse.

To stop her life from getting any worse.

To enforce this stagnation on the reality.

Because after all, her life reaching that point was what brought its existence.

There can’t be anymore destruction to her life. There must be no more despair to harm her.

Even if it meant that no progress can reach her…

“If things can only get worse, then let us halt all the progress of this painful life. Let us stagnate and stop in our tracks. There’s no meaning in wishing for the impossible, so let these moments keep moving forever and ever. Never starting, and never ending.”

Even as it spoke, it didn’t bother looking back as the loud sound of hissing resounded, as two large snakes were swallowing each other in a perfect circle.

“Because, after all…” it spoke calmly even as it already knew that she will never hear its voice, “Marinette is the Eternal Recurrence, just as much as the Eternal Recurrence is Marinette…”

“I am you… And you are me… And I can’t wait to witness when our Times connect once more, so we can unite, and repeat this all over again…”

—–

END.

#submission #ml writing prompts #Miraculous Ladybug #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Akumatized Marinette #implied at least #ititspronouns #ML writers salt #ML salt #Show!Miraculous #Show!Marinette #Show!Adrien

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spiderqueenpc · 1 year

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Curious about how common this is, so:

*I.e. "Thing" instead of "person", "which is" instead of "who is", etc.

#ititspronouns #neopronouns #polls #personally I am indifferent to it #but I hate being called human specifically

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murderbotwritingprompts · 1 year

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Hi hopefully I dont word this wrong :') Do you have a compilation of definitions of some of the newer words youve been using? Like Athiktomisics, Transmisia, Etc. I know ive seen when you made the posts but I cant find them cause tumblr is tumblr :') I think transmisia is just transphobia but reworded since its not a phobia but for some of the others im a bit lost on.

Thank you for asking, you didn't word this rudely at all! Thank you for being willing to learn!

Transmisia

Transmisia is indeed ""transphobia" but minus the "-phobia" suffix, because hating trans people isn't an anxiety disorder like phobias are, and people who do have phobias get treated horribly because people think it means they're bigots when they're not.

The -misia suffix comes from the word "misos" for "hatred", which is also where the word misogyny comes from! Miso-hatred, gyn-women. Misogyny = hatred of women.

_____

Athiktomisia (link to coining post)

Athiktomisia is bigotry towards people who are touch averse, with athikto translating to, roughly, untouchable or thereabouts,and the -misia suffix like above indicating hatred. Athikto+misia = hatred of those who are untouchable.

_____

Solitaremit, soliteremity, etcetera (link to coining post)

Solitaremit is a specific form of touch aversion where the person is touch averse, and also does not get ""touch starved"" or have any desire for touch at all, specifically created because many touch averse people who do not get touch starved were being alienated even in touch averse spaces, because desiring touch and being touch starved was still behind held up as normal and universal.

Solitaremity is...uh, the state of being solitaremit. Example sentence: Most people, even those who are otherwise touch averse, don't even know that solitaremity exists.

Solitaremity was created specifically to be a unique word that is brand new, and thus (meant to be) easy to search for and find, combining the words "solitary" and "hermit" for maximum emphasis.

_____

Solitaremisia

Solitaremisia is, again, the -misia suffix, combined with solitaremit to specify hatred against people who are touch averse who specifically do not desire touch in any way, even with touch starvation. Which is unfortunately a common attitude even in other touch averse people :|

_____

Gregariable

Gregariable will probably be used at some point, it was created as the counterpart to solitaremit, it means someone who desires touch and gets touch starved, whether or not they're also touch-averse. Aka, 99.99% of people are gregariable. It combines the words "gregarious" and "sociable" to create a unique word so that it would be easy to search for.

_____

Aroacemisia

Aroacemisia is bigotry against aroace people in particular, again with the -misia suffix to indicate hatred.

Amisia, acemisia, and aromisia are hatred towards aspec people in general, hatred towards asexual people, and hatred towards aro people.

_____

Exorsexism

Exorsexism is the specific hatred of nonbinary and genderqueer people, which is separate from, but sometimes a part of, transmisia.

Murderbot is nonbinary, so any transmisia it faces is inherently exorsexist.

_____

It its antagonism

it its antagonism refers to hatred targeted specifically at people who use it/its pronouns, usually always combined with exorsexism. It its antagonism is a form of neopronomisia.

_____

Neopronomisia

Neopronomisia is hatred of pronouns other than she/her or he/him. This includes but is not limited to pronouns like it/its, te/ter, and they/them.

_____

Let me know if you need any more defined!

#not a prompt #neopronouns #solitaremit #solitaremity #touch averse #touch repulsed #trans #transgender #transnonbinary #nonbinary #genderqueer #transsexual #ititspronouns #actuallytouchaverse #actuallytouchrepulsed #actuallysolitaremit #answering questions

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bizarreaizen · 8 months

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*someone calling me "it" to insult me*

me whose pronouns are it/its: (◍•ᴗ•◍)

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rjalker · 11 months

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[ID: A cartoon-like version of the handshake meme. One arm with dark skin wears a white shirt labeled, "Human it/its users". The other arm is filled with a photo of the stars in the night sky, and is labeled, "Nonhuman it/its users". The hands clasped in the center are labeled, "being epic". The background is solid grey. End ID.]

#described images #ititspronouns #ititspositivity #it/its pronouns #the nonhuman one is a void of starlight since that was one of the most popular responses on my poetry poll #neopronouns #it/its positivity #nonbinary #nonhuman #alterhuman #otherkin

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custom-pronoun-pins · 1 year

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[ID: 25 circular pronoun pin designs with transparent backgrounds, each reading, "My pronouns are it/its, this means you refer to me as it rather than he or she" in either black text outlined in white, or white text outlined in black.

The backgrounds are, in order:

American swetgum leaves

Mexican clover flowers and leaves

Lilac chaste flowers and leaves

Abstract smudges of red and blue

Abstract swirls of pink, yellow, and blue

American pokeweed unripe berries

Persian silk tree seed pods and leaves

A blue sky with fluffy clouds framed by tree branches

Abstract swirls of yellow and blue

A gradient from yellow to blue

A photograph of a bolt of lightning with black text

The inside of a purple and red geode

A photograph of a bolt of lightning with white text

The lycaogenos flag, first with white text, then black. It has stripes of orange, light orange, cream, tan, and brown.

Dark purple flower petals

Abstract swirls of yellow, white, purple, and black

The full moon, bright orange and black, with first white, then black text.

Abstract, glittery swirls of mostly blue and other colors

A dark, foggy forest

A digital painting of the night sky with a crescent moon, first in white, then black text.

A colorful digital painting like a microchip in blue and red, first in black, then white, text.

End ID.]

Here is where you can download them from the web archive.

As with all my pronoun pin designs, you are encouraged to download these to use as icons, part of headers, moodboards ,ect! If you have a printer, you can even print them out to make your own buttons or shirts, as long as you aren't selling them for a profit!

-----------------------

Designs are no longer available on Redbubble as of April 2023, as they've started actively stealing money from artists. Sorry for the inconvenience. You are, as always, encouraged to save these designs to use as icons or in other art, and you are encouraged to print them out and make your own shirts or buttons if you're able to.

#Long post #described images #ititspronouns #it/its #pronoun pins #trans #transgender #nonbinary #transnonbinary #genderqueer #neopronoun pins

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neopronouns-in-action · 9 months

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Neopronouns in Action #058: The Proper Reaction

Neopronouns: ay/li/yen/alienself which follow the same rules as

Replace he with ay

Replace him with li

Replace his with yen

Replace himself with alienself

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself.”

Becomes:

"Ay is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ay gets a fence set up around yen yard so the puppy can go outside without li having to walk it. Yen uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting li use, since ay lost yen. Ay's going to buy toys and train the puppy alienself.”

= = =

Marilan Dexter carefully sat down in its chair, looking across the desk at its youngest employee in what it hoped ay could tell was genuine concern. “Alright, Alex, what did you want to tell me?” it asked, trying to keep its tone gentle. Ay was clearly upset about something.

Alex had gotten to work fifteen minutes before ay was due to start, which was normal for li (ay rode yen bike all year round, and spent the extra time either cooling off or warming up in the break room), but unlike normal, ay'd approached Marilan before clocking in.

Alex knew the rules – no talking about work until you were on the clock, because talking about work was a type of work, – but ay'd insisted it was important, and couldn't wait.

So Marilan had taken careful note of the time, subtracted a minute, and would make sure to go into the portal after the meeting was over to adjust Alex's timecard so ay'd get paid for whatever discussion they were about to have.

Even if ay was about to quit.

Ay certainly looked upset enough that that might be what ay was here to say.

For a few moments, they sat together in tense, awkward silence, Alex looking down at yen feet or hands under the desk instead of at Marilan. Ay was holding yen cane in yen hands, spinning it around in a circle so that the silver tag on the wrist strap gleamed in the light.

Almost half a minute passed in silence, and Marilan began to wonder if Alex was going to say anything at all. Ay was only sixteen, and had been so nervous the first few weeks on the job. But ay was a fast learner, and Marilan was proud of how much ay'd learned and progressed in the four months since ay'd started.

Being a cashier wasn't easy, especially when you were just a kid. Marilan did its best to discourage the sort of customers that would be rude to its workers, but it couldn't be everywhere at once, and sometimes tourists blew in from out of town on their way to the bigger city that had no respect for the working class, including kids.

There'd been one horrible incident of a woman, of course wearing a De Santis shirt, actually, literally shouting in Alex's face about how yen pronoun pin was an abomination and a violation of her freedom of speech and religious freedom, and ay was clearly too lazy to deserve a job if ay wouldn't even stand to ring up her groceries, and too many other things too horrible to repeat. It had taken all of Marilan's considerable willpower not to start throwing fists to get her out of the store.

But that had been last month, and as far a Marilan knew, nothing else like that had happened. The woman had been permanently banned from the store, and Marilan had called up the road to warn Tori and Tarea.

It had made sure that all its workers knew they could always come to it with any problems they had. It was glad that Alex had trusted it enough to ask to talk, even if ay wasn't quite ready to say anything just yet.

Suddenly remembering that it'd forgotten to offer li anything from the goodie drawer, Marilan leaned to the side slightly and pulled open the large drawer on the left, and pulled out the basket of stress balls and fidget toys, and the little divided plastic pail of various chocolates and other candies. “Help yourself.” It said, pushing both across the desk towards Alex.

A lot of workers, especially young ones, always assumed that they were in trouble any time they were called into the office, which could cause them a lot of unnecessary stress. To help convince them that they weren't going to be fired or screamed at every time it wanted to talk to them about their schedule or pass along customer compliments, Marilan had started, over thirty years ago, keeping a drawer of “goodies” in its desk, and every time a worker came into the office, they got some to take home.

It had first started with just small candies, but then Marilan had taken up knitting, and hand-made hacky sacks, stress balls, bracelets, and other simple items joined the collection. Then fidget toys started becoming popular, and it added those too.

The plan worked. Most workers, after their first few days on the job of getting used to it, were happy to enter its office instead of stressed out and panicking wondering what they'd done wrong.

And it knew it was working, because as soon as the containers were within yen reach, Alex's hand shot out and grabbed one of the stress balls and whole a handful of Jolly Ranchers.

Marilan always did everything it could to make it clear that when it offered its workers things, they could take as many as they wanted. It bought the hard candies in bulk online, and made most of the stress balls itself, knitting them with the cotton and wool yarn Amos gave it every year, and filling them with canna seeds, cotton, foam, or whatever material would produce the texture and weight it was looking for.

There were a few more moments of silence, broken only by the sound of plastic crinkling as Alex unwrapped the jolly rancher and threw it into yen mouth, then the soft rattle of popcorn kernels as ay began tossing the hacky sack from hand to hand under the table.

It was done in the colors of progress trans pride flag, with zig-zagging stripes, and was a bit larger and heavier than Marilan usually made them. Alex didn't seem to mind, though.

Finally, ay said, still throwing the ball from hand to hand, rather violently, “I don't want to work the same shifts as Jace anymore.”

Ay said it to the ground, still not looking up at Marilan. Normally, Marilan was the one who didn't want to make eye contact.

As soon as yen words registered, Marilan sat up straighter, alarmed and instantaneously angry, like a flip had been switched. “What happened?” It tried to keep the anger out of its voice though. It didn't want Alex thinking it was mad at li.

Jace was in his late thirties, and had just started his job here two weeks ago after moving to town from out of state.

Jace and Alex were both meant to be on the afternoon shift for today.

A better question besides 'What happened', might also be: “Do you need to call off for your shift today? You've still got almost two week's worth of paid leave you can use if you need to.”

Alex nodded, then said, “Yes, I want to go home.” Ay began throwing the ball again. After a few moments, ay added, voice rough with anger and fear that was plain as day. “He was making really gross, really inappropriate jokes in the break room just now, and yesterday, he flirted with me outside when I was waiting for my mom to pick me up. He kept trying to get my phone number and was asking where I lived.” A pause, as ay stopped throwing the hacky sack, then, “I didn't tell him either.”

It took a supreme effort of will for Marilan to stop itself from immediately getting to its feet and kicking Jace violently back across the state line. Or maybe directly into the ground. With the aid of a baseball bat. Or Rani, if he could be convinced to transform and maul the creep. Maybe if Marilan covered him in tuna sauce.

Alex interrupted its thoughts by saying abruptly, angrily, making it realize it hadn't said anything to reassure ay yet, “I'm not going to work shifts with him anymore. If you won't reschedule me, then I'll just have to quit.” Yen voice was shaking, clearly on the verge of tears, and Marilan knew it had taken all of yen courage to get the words out.

“Alex, I promise you, Jace is not going to be allowed within a mile of this store before the hour is over. You did the right thing in coming to me, and I'll make sure he never bothers you again.”

--It refrained from explaining exactly how it would make sure of that.

“I know you're still used to life in the city, but around here, folks look out for eachother. Jace won't bother you again, you have my word on it. Now, you said you were going home?” When Alex nodded, finally looking up from the floor, it asked, pushing the bucket of candy a bit closer to encourage ay to take more, “Is your mom picking you up again, or did you get that tire fixed?”

Ay'd popped the back tire on yen bike wheeling it through the store at the end of yen shift after a customer had dropped a jar of pasta sauce earlier in the day, and a piece of broken glass had gotten missed sweeping up.

“It's fixed, I'm riding my bike home.” Ay said firmly, making it clear that this decision was not up for debate. Marilan, and the other long-term workers, had learned quickly not to offer Marilan a ride home unless there was actual thunder and lightning, in which case ay'd wait for yen mom. Ay valued yen independence, and probably didn't really trust any of the adults ay worked with, including Marilan.

And that was probably a good thing, considering what Jace had been trying to pull.

Marilan was just glad Alex trusted it enough to tell it.

Ay was starting to stand up, and reaching forward with the hacky sack to put it back in the basket, but Marilan held out a hand to get li to pause, saying, “If you like that one, keep it, please. They're no use if they don't get used. You can even take a few more for your sisters and mom if you want. And your friends, too-- I've got plenty more waiting to go to a good home.”

Alex smiled then, the first smile Marilan had seen from li yet that day, and said, “Thanks, Mb. Dexter!”, looking down at the basket with real excitement that was probably fueled by the fact that it'd believed li and was taking yen side.

To help li pick out from all the options, Marilan tilted the basket to let all the stress balls roll out onto the desk so ay could pick through them.

After a minute of testing each one, ay had sat five to the side, each with different colors, then looked at Marilan again for permission. “Is it okay if I take these ones?”

Marilan smiled, glad ay was no longer so upset. “Please, I'd love it if you do.”

With a smile, Alex pulled yen backpack off yen shoulder and put the toys, and the pile of candy Marilan has pushed enticingly closer, into the smaller front pocket, before slinging it back over yen shoulder and grabbing the handle of yen cane, clearly ready to leave.

Marilan walked with li all the way to the front door of the building, staying on yen right side so it wouldn't get in the way of yen cane, wanting to make sure that Jace wouldn't start any problems.

It was still planning on the best way to make sure he never caused any problems again. The idea of feeding him to Rani was getting more appealing the longer Marilan thought about it. But there were several drawbacks to that plan, some of them very obvious.

Only after Alex was out of sight down the road and around the corner did Marilan go back into the store, making a beeline for the break room.

Ron and Deyli were browsing the frozen section when Marilan was passing through, so it snapped its fingers and waved to get their attention, and they turned to look at it in curiosity. Marilan moved closer to help stop anyone from eavesdropping.

“We've got a problem with Jace.” It said grimly. “He was sexually harassing Alex, trying to find out where ay lives. Would Rani be willing to help?” It didn't need to elaborate on what kind of help was being requested. The cheery mood of its friends immediately dropped, and was instead replaced with the same boiling anger it was feeling.

“Are there any outoftowners in the store?” Ron immediately asked, looking around the currently empty aisle to make sure they were alone.

Marilan shook its head, “I haven't seen any yet, but we could always go out back just in case.”

“Out back” was a little city-planning oddity leftover from before; a small, completely walled in abandoned parking lot whose only entrance was through Marilan's shop, with none of the other buildings closing it in even having windows facing it. No one had ever been able to figure out what the architects who'd built it had been thinking. It was where trash and recycling were kept until it was time for it to be collected.

It would also conveniently prevent anyone from seeing Rani if he was kind enough to transform. It wouldn't stop anyone from hearing Jace's screams, but that could be solved by hypnotizing him into unconsciousness first.

Ron nodded, her brow furrowed and her gaze locked into the distance as she spoke to Rani. A few moments later her gaze refocused on Marilan, and she said, her black eyes momentarily, distinctly, flashing yellow, “He's more than willing.” Her voice came out strange as she said it, the partial shift messing with her vocal cords, raising her voice higher than it normally was.

She led the way back to the break room, her stride lengthening until Marilan and Deyli had to run to keep up with her as she burst through the breakroom door.

There came a short clatter, a yelp from Jace, and then silence.

When Marilan and Deyli got through the door, it was to see Ron, now halfway transformed into Rani, with white and orange fur bristling out of her skin like needles, staring down Jace, who had a spilled mug of coffee still rolling on the floor in front of him, a dazed and empty expression on his face, his eyes glowing yellow from within.

“Go to sleep, feel no pain, and never wake up again.” Rani said, his higher-pitched voice making it clear that the transformation had passed the halfway mark. Now he was in control, and Ron was on the inside.

Jace collapsed to the floor like a puppet that'd had its strings cut, and Rani grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and began to drag him towards the back door on the far side of the break room. Deyli ran to get the door, and Marilan had nothing to do but follow them. Rani was almost completely transformed now, the needly fur softening into a silky texture, his tail growing steadily out from under the back of his shirt, his ears growing taller and shifting further up his head.

“Good thing I missed breakfast.” He said, looking up at Marilan and baring his now sharpened, needle-like teeth in an all-too human grin, before dragging Jace past Deyli and out the door.

Marilan shared a look with Deyli, no longer needing to ask the question out loud after knowing them for so long. Deyli shrugged in answer, then turned, stepped outside, and, without a word, shut the door behind them.

Marilan grabbed a chair and pulled it in front of the door, pulled its phone out, opened its reading app, and prepared for a long wait.

Rani could have the rest of Jace's paycheck for the week as a thank you.

#long post #neopronouns in action #neopronouns #neopronoun short story #neopronoun writing prompts #neopronoun short stories #short story #ay/li/yen/alienself #ay/li #aylipronouns #ititspronouns #it/its pronouns #werecat

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walks-the-ages · 1 year

Text

Okay guys I thought we'd gone over this when JKR (scum of the earth) first ~confirmed~ that Dumbledore was Gay on Twitter.

Why are we now suddenly accepting Word Of God Tweets as canon?

Especially for shows/characters that didn't have a single HINT about xyz queer identity in the actual show? Especially when half these modern shows these days are *explicitly* filled with other rep?

This obviously excludes things in older media where the creators were clearly fighting tooth and nail for inclusion because it's visible in the show in appearances/how characters behave etc even if it's never given verbal direct lines--

--looking at Steven Universe never actually saying the words Gay or Bisexual or Pansexual or anything-- while still being full of gay and bi representation including a literal gay wedding--

-- also looking at a certain reddit thread I found by accident for the EDAs with Eight and his boyfriend (whose name I can't think of or find on Google) in the Doctor Who novels of them being a ship and the author not being able to include the more...ehem. explicit content between them, but their relationship is still there strongly enough in the text you can grasp what's happening behind the scenes.

ALSO looking at the Eighth Doctor being canonically nonbinary without using the word, with multiple instances of them saying things along the lines of Janet from the Good Place's "not a man" --

I think we need to bring it back again--

"if it's not in the [media] it's not representation."

The author of the Animorphs saying "you can Headcanon whatever you want" does NOT make the Animorphs canon queer representation.

The creators of a show that has canon gay and bi rep tacking on comments on Twitter about how a side character is "ace" without ever actually showing that in the show like the other queer identifies were given? NOT representation.

Saying a character is trans/nonbinary/neopronouns representation purely because the main character is a robot that agrees with its assigned-at-construction "genderlessnsss" and uses it/its pronouns because it is a robot (and literally every single robot in the entire series also uses it/its, there are no robots who are trans and want to use different pronouns) is NOT proper nonbinary or trans representation. It's representation for it/its users, but just barely, considering it's told in first-person perspective, so the it/its pronouns are never used for the protagonist unless someone is speaking about the main character as though it's not right there in front of them. The fact that many readers come away assuming either she/her or he/him pronouns for the main character after the first book, under the impression the use of it/its pronouns for the main character by the other characters in the first book was just a sign of being seen as just an object is evident enough of the problem .

Especially if the series is allergic to the concept of asking people their pronouns and everyone ~magically~ knows everyone's correct pronouns based on their physical sex listed in their space Facebook. It is not trans or nonbinary or neopronoun representation. The one time someone genuinely uses neopronouns they're immediately rushed off screen after being confirmed to exist for brownie points.

It's 2023. Queer representation is everywhere that cares actually to include it.

Does a piece of media need to explicitly say the words "asexual" "nonbinary", "transgender", "neopronouns" etc to be represention? Not necessarily; are they actually showing the representation? Is it clearly visible with the media? Sure, go ahead! You don't need to say the word "transgender" out loud to establish a character is trans--

do they wear a trans pride pin?

Do they wear a binder?

Do they have top scars?

Do they wear a padded bra?

Do they have old photos that look different to their current self?

Do old friends not recognize them right away?

Do they take birth control pills or have patches?

How about a character that is nonbinary and uses they/them or other neopronouns?

Here's a shocking fact: if you want real representation for nonbinary and neopronouns, you DO in fact have to include conversations about pronouns in your media if it's not a written text where things are literally spelled out for the reader!

You do NOT need to have your non-binary or trans or neo-pronoun-using character experience any kind of transphobia to establish their pronouns. You can literally just have a conversation go like this.

"Hello, so nice to see you again! Have you met the project lead and computer expert, Ian, yet?"

"No, I haven't met him yet, but I've read some his work!"

"Some of their work, actually. Ian uses they/them pronouns."

"Oh, my mistake, thank you! I cannot wait to meet them!"

Another, extremely simple thing to do is. Is literally just have the character wear a pronoun pin. These are things that exist for a reason, Especially for neopronoun users .

You cannot magically guess someone's pronouns based on appearance, and if you *insist* that every character's pronouns CAN be magically known based on what they look like ..... Congrats. you're being transphobic.

If you want to actually include representation for any gender identities in your work you HAVE to do the most basic thing and actually be comfortable with the concept that characters, like real life people, should be comfortable introducing themselves with their pronouns, wearing pronoun pins, and correcting someone who is misgendering someone without it always being malicious or a big deal.

Having everyone magically know someone's pronouns are it/its because the character in question is a literal robot in a world where literally every single robot uses it/its pronouns is NOT the representation you think it is.

Anyways.

If your new favorite modern media doesn't have explicit queer representation in the confines of the show/text/etc and only tacks it on in a random comment on Twitter?

Congrats!

This media does not contain canonically queer rep.

Stop advertising it like it does.

#large text #walks talks #i am tired of this shit #queer #queer representation #word of god on twitter is not representation #asexuality #ititspronouns #transgender #nonbinary #capslock

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