Destroy Hierarchies

i’ll explain although i’m sure i’m not the first to say this: people are always pushed to have and value one romantic partner over everyone else, but a best friend is seen as the next best thing. if you dont have a romantic partner, your best friend is expected to be the most important thing to you and if you don’t have one, you are made to feel incomplete and/or lonely because you don’t have that one person who just gets you and who you’re totally comfortable with (sound familiar?)

many people might even be forced to choose a friend to be their best over other close friends, or be made to feel guilty if they have more than one best friend because it’s expected that you have a hierarchy in your friend group which can also lead to people feeling alienated and left out being the third wheel in a group of best friends. there is also a surprising amount of jealousy that comes with best-friendshipdom which is extremely toxic although rarely discussed (i expect due in part to society’s idea that only romantic relationships can be toxic and friendships aren’t as important so you could just leave)

Insects as a whole are massively declining, wasps included, and pesticides are a huge cause of this. When you look at alternatives to pesticides in agriculture, it’s clear that it’s essential to maintain ecosystems that can protect food crops - a huge part of that is generalist predators like wasps (specifically, the social wasps people tend to hate). Not only do wasps pollinate plants, but they’re a big part of the picture if we want to stop using pesticides and protect other pollinators, or birds, or any of the countless beings affected by them.

Wasps are affected by pesticides not just directly through exposure but indirectly through the masses of bugs they eat in their larval stage, that in turn have consumed a lot of pesticides. The concentrations of poison increase as they move up the food chain.

Further: wasps are animals too, with their own lives and experience of the world. We shouldn’t kill them or cause them to suffer because they’re inconvenient, or we don’t like them. Most of the time the worst they can do to us is a sting no more uncomfortable than a stinging nettle. While we can destroy them easily. Here’s one of my many wasp photos:

On the left, the star and square have arrows pointing to the heart at the top, but none between the square and star. Beneath it says “not a triangle”.

On the right, there’s an arrow from star to heart, heart to square, and square to star. Below it says “is a triangle”.

there are transneutral people who take testosterone, who take estrogen, who get gender-affirming surgeries, and do lots of other things people, even fellow trans people, traditionally associate with constituting a ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ alignment. i think a lot of you have actually forgotten that there are completely unaligned nonbinary people. it’s great that more people are showing that they accept transmasculine and transfeminine nonbinary people but unaligned and transneutral nonbinary people do exist. please stop trying to pressure us into rigid categorical boxes based on highly individual and personal choices we are making about our own transitions.

I’m no longer taking suggestions, and all the prompts and themes you submitted are here to vote on! Have a say in what you’d like to write and/or read in February, for AroWriMo 2021!

I’m no longer taking suggestions, and all the prompts and themes you submitted are here to vote on! Have a say in what you’d like to write and/or read in February, for AroWriMo 2021!

This year has obviously been an unusual, and I can’t believe we’ve reached October already! In my view, writing is more important than ever, so AroWriMo 2021 is certainly going ahead.

I intended to open up for suggestions a lot sooner, but here you go. I’ve set up a google form (no google account required) to take suggestions! I’ll include the link in a reblog so that this can still show up in the tags. You can send ideas through to my ask box if you prefer, however!

There’s an additional question asking for more general thoughts about changes to AroWriMo you’d like to see, so do offer any thoughts you have.

Multimillion pound shortfall covered for the Queen. Nothing for ordinary people who are struggling.

i have a sort-of undead character who's incapable of feeling emotion due to some funky necromancy bullshit. i figure this would automatically make her acearo (and aplatonic) because thats Not Feeling Something. but im suddenly rethinking it because im worried thats offensive?

i mean, as an acearo person, i dont find it offensive, but she's my character, so i'm biased

I’d certainly be wary of only looking at love and attraction as emotion, but then having the character feel enjoyment, anger, jealousy, hurt, sadness in other contexts. I think it would be pretty hard to write a character without any emotion at all. If you do something like that with the character, I’d probably avoid calling them aroace - it’s not really an orientation if they’re really just sort-of undead and therefore emotionless.

They have been hit EXTREMELY hard and I have seen no posts going around talking about it. It is one of the hardest hit places in ARIZONA, a state that already has horribly high case numbers.

They have a Covid relief gofundme. Please donate if you can and spread this if you can't.

As wheelchair users, how many times have we been told to “put some chains on that thing!” As we struggle through the snow? How often is it suggested that we get a hand‐bike so that we can cycle to work like our coworkers? If I had a nickel for every time someone suggested I attach some tried‐and‐true motor to my chair, I’d have enough money to pay someone to invent it.

People are constantly sending me links to articles and videos to supposed life‐changing mobility aids that can climb stairs or move over rough terrain. They tell me that things can’t be that difficult with a constant stream of new, convenient doo‐dads being put out in the world. Hell, when discussing how difficult it is to find a single‐story home in Seattle (existing or custom), the suggestion was made that I simply build a multi‐story home but also put an elevator in.

Here’s the thing though: has anyone, wheelchair‐user or otherwise, actually seen any of these so‐called solutions in person? The stair‐climbing wheelchair? The magical snow tires? The super fast motor? I haven’t. As for the elevators and hand bikes, I can count the number I’ve seen on one hand and I’d need way more fingers and toes to show you the price tag.

Despite their near non‐existence or insurmountable financial cost, people keep telling me I just need to “get me one of those…” and continue to cast my existence and the problems that come with it in a mythical light.

An elevator for your house starts at around six‐thousand dollars. If you want one that doesn’t look like the rickety stair‐lift at your local Eagle’s Club, it’ll cost you upwards of sixty‐thousand.

The price of an average, entry‐level bike is four‐hundred bucks. If you want an accessible hand bike, you’re going to start around a grand.

Custom wheelchair tires can vary anywhere from two to five thousand, often times costing more than the chair they’re attached to.

That stair climbing chair? Eleven grand. Want something that’s a little more “every day”? That’ll cost you seventeen grand. Just need a motor for your day chair? Six grand and it weighs fifteen pounds.

Now, some folks might be thinking “sure, it’s expensive now, but the price will come down as technology improves and more people buy these devices”. But with an employment rate of roughly 7 percent (before COVID) and rules governing the amount of money disabled people on SSI can have in the bank (no more than two-thousand dollars), most wheelchair users can’t even save up to buy one of these devices. And no, insurance won’t cover any it.

I wrote a thing for @flashfictionfridayofficial​! I have no idea if I’m going to write more, but it was fun!

Rainbow Kisses

Jenna’s legs swung over the open grave. 

The grave was empty. The dead man had risen a few hours ago. He wandered the graveyard like all the others Jenna had touched. His head lopped to one side, arms outstretched - the stereotypical zombie. With his pale skin and pressed suit, it didn’t look like he died that long ago, unlike most of the ramshackled forms that lumbered around. His name was still fresh on his grave. 

Hector McBridge. 

Weird name. 

But she liked his grave.

It sat at the top of the hill. A worn wall separated the graveyard from the cliff face that loomed above the countryside. The rain clouds were fading under the summer sun. There was a dark green hue, the freshness of the farms after rain. 

She kicked the back of her heels against the dirt. If she grew a few more inches she would reach the coffin. But growing wasn’t going to happen again. 

Special. That’s what Bianca called her. It’s what she called all the children. Everyone of the Horsemen. 

Down the cliffside were people, children and adults who were warm. They did not know the dead were rising. Did not know what was coming. Kids ran home from play to meals that filled their bellies. 

What was that?

In the distance colour spread across the sky. In every hue, it curved from one end to the other disappearing behind some houses. 

There were still a few graves left. She should raise them. Bianca would know.

She stood. Bare feet hovered in the air as she rose. 

No one noticed the little girl among the clouds. Her white dress danced around her legs. Her dark hair flew about her face, but she knew where she was going. 

The colours remained in place in the sky as she drew closer. She reached a hand out. 

Rain. 

Just rain. 

It passed through the dress, through her skin. She reached out, watching each droplet phase through her fingertips. She remembered rain. The way drizzle settled into her skin, soaking her as she raced the streets. Millions of tiny kisses.  

(Spoilers under the cut)

Night in the Woods and Oneshot are both in it, not to mention literally hundreds of other cool indie games I haven’t played yet that look really cool and promising. 

(Spoilers under the cut)