Ann-usual

A More Satisfying Vengeance

Rated E // 11144 words

for The_Plaid_Slytherin

~

When Sironn married the King of Kadar, he quickly grew to understand that the King had all the power, and Sironn had none at all. Which is why Sironn considers it nothing short of a miracle he outlived the abusive tyrant.

He’ll take solace in that, as his own end is no-doubt coming quickly now that his husband has been declared a traitor and executed for his crimes. After all, there’s only one thing to do with a deposed king’s spouse, and that’s kill him as quickly as possible.

One problem. The new king, Eshan, disagrees.

~

bikes are quiet- if the zombies react to loud noises, they won’t hear you on a bike the way they might hear you in a car. bikes don’t need gas, meaning you won’t be stranded if you run out. bikes are much, much easier to maintain than a car- there’s no computer that can short out, no fiddly engine bits that could kill you if you mess with them wrong. you can learn how to maintain a bike with a couple weeks’ worth of classes. almost every adult knows how to ride a bike, and without cars on the road, it’d be much safer to do. 

what i’m saying is

me: how thoughtful of them to warn for that so that people can avoid or at least be prepared for things that might upset them

also me:

Katara: BOY???? HOT BOY?????? HOT TEENAGE BOY?????????

Zuko: *speaks*

And then it hit me.

Iroh: *sitting in a teahouse at a paisho table* Iroh, deadpan: I must capture the last airbender.  Iroh: It is the only way to make sure the powe rof the Avatar won’t be turned on the Fire Nation. Iroh: Only then will I be redeemed in the eyes of the Fire Lord for my failure at Ba Sing Se. Iroh: … Iroh: Anyway, it’s your turn.

‘The prince in the iceberg’

‘Avatar Zuko’

‘The Old Master’

‘Imprisoned’

‘Zuko’s Master’

I hate to be the one to tell you this but I have been actively extremely horny since I hit puberty when I was like twelve years old. Human development does not work like "absolutely zero impure thoughts until you reach the designated legal sex age, where you have until 25 to finally learn what a boob is, and then 25+ you're allowed to have consensual sex 😊 because 19-25-year-olds are basically minors". I also can tell that the underlying idea in this ask is that I, and anyone who begins posting nsfw when they turn 18, was somehow "groomed" into it, when the fact of the matter is that I have been very naturally gay horny for years and waited until I was 18 to explicitly post about it because THAT'S how you keep yourself safe. You don't pretend to be a delicate sexless angel with the mind of a five-year-old who's never heard what sex is just because you're seventeen. I am a human being with sexual thoughts and I'm now a legal adult who is allowed to post about them. Realize that there is a difference between external adults "waiting until she's 18" and someone waiting until they themselves are 18 so they can go out and buy porn, which they've wanted to buy for years.

Both options are great.

Because the thing is, when bigots pick fights, they are 100% counting on you to get louder than them. Or meaner. They want you to react emotionally and provide fodder for their 'You're Too Emotionally Immature To Understand' cannon.

What they aren't expecting you to do is say one of the following phrases in a polite, concerned tone:

Are you okay?

That's not the kind of language I was raised to use with others.

Do you need a moment to think on why that wasn't acceptable?

This is no way to engage in intelligent conversation. Please try that again in a kinder tone if you'd like this to continue. (I really like this one because it lets you turn their public-shame rhetoric around)

For those of you who'd are spiteful and/or dealing with Fundamentalists/Evangelicals/generally shitty Christians:

What's happening in your life to cause you this much anger? I can't imagine hurting so badly that I need to hurt other people.

Who taught you it was acceptable to treat other people this way? Certainly not the Jesus I remember.

Whatever happened to 'judge not lest ye be judged'?

If I talked like that in front of my parents or grandparents I would be ashamed.

I think there's something you need to pray on before we try and have this conversation.

And my all time favorite:

"It sounds to me like there are some seriously dark and angry forces at work in your heart."

(Nothing stops a Christian bigot in their tracks faster than implying the Devil is causing their bigotry. But you MUST be calm, polite, and gentle with your tone and wording. It is absolutely fair to twist the rules and play them at their own game, but you gotta play hard.)

I have been seeing more and more threads over the last few days that are either deliberately or unintentionally using the current AO3 drama to scaremonger and turn public opinion against the archive.

Words like

👉 ABUSE

👉 CHILD PORN

👉 CRIMINAL/ILLEGAL

These words are being used to short circuit your brain and force you into an emotional reaction before you have the information to come to a reasoned conclusion about the facts.

What is actually happening?

Archive volunteers (all AO3 labor is volunteered, there are no paid employees) were exposed to images of Child Sexual Abuse during a violent, terroristic attack by malicious actors against the archive. Additionally, malicious actors continue to attempt to upload links to AO3 containing images of CSAM hosted off site.

The allegations of abuse are that AO3 and its parent organization OTW did not sufficiently protect itself (its volunteers) from the images that were used to attack it.

⭐ AO3 is being accused of failing to sufficiently protect itself, and being called criminal for it. On an individual level rather than an organizational level we would call this 'victim blaming'.

⭐ There is a rumor that AO3 is somehow in criminal violation of the law and is coded in such a way that it cannot comply with the law.

⭐ This rumor is false.

AO3 has already clarified that they are confident they are not in violation of the law.

Yet rumors continue to spread and scare people away from using the archive.

This is potentially intentional!

This is potentially a campaign to fearmonger, sew discord, and shake support for the archive.