lmao jk i love this fucking chair

People commonly defend this practise with "But the audience isn't meant to understand!" or "It's inconsequential!", neither of which actually address a) their assumption that the [ideal Anglo] audience wouldn't understand, or, perhaps most crucially in the context of CCs, b) that this is a failure of accessibility. A hearing person who speaks that "foreign" language will know exactly what's being said. A deaf or HoH person – the people CCs are primarily intended for – who speaks or reads that language should therefore have the exact same opportunity to understand. It very much feels to me like an assumption that we deaf and HoH people couldn't possibly understand any language but English, so there's no point in getting those languages transcribed for us. I hope it goes without saying how profoundly audist that sentiment is.

There is also, I think, a profound misunderstanding or ignorance of Deaf culture at play. Which is to say, CCs in English-language media are written with not only the assumption that the audience will be native English speakers, but that all d/Deaf and HoH people speak English as their first language, so all other languages are as supposedly foreign to them as they are for hearing people. But sign languages are their own distinct language. BSL, ASL, ISL, AusLan, NZSL etc ≠ English (and are indeed different from one another), LIS ≠ Italian, JSL ≠ Japanese, and so on. So, if you follow the captioners' logic to its natural extreme, all non-signed dialogue is "foreign" to many d/Deaf and HoH people and should therefore be labelled [speaks foreign language] / [speaks English] / [speaks own language] / etc. – which is, obviously, a terrible idea that perfectly highlights all the biases implicit in closed captioning.

In a 'non game / sucked into game au', he's got the patience of a saint. Having to worry about about his life while the bamboozling bizzare bozos he travels with amp his stress up to 11.

Still an asshole, but you can argue his life was in danger and he was a normal human trying to survive while unwillingly babysitting four non-human entities who practically personify chaos.

Still an asshole, but god wouldn't anyone be? He gets betrayed, gets his arm CUT OFF, and has to keep stumbling around the hell site AND in 'sucked into the game aus' Coomer's ambush still makes sense.

But in a 'it's not a game aus' WHAT do you do with Coomer's ambush??? Like. It's an integral part of Coomer's character to become self aware. You could make him a robot, which i think works well, or just... like... does it for....???

But ANYWAY. This is about Gordon.

While in the its a game / canon .... he's a streamer. He was completely safe the entire time.

( now, there are aus where he sustains real damage from the game. I have made aus where The Player sustains damage from the game. But we're going with Gordon ' The Player ' Canon-man.

He was in no real damage ever. YES. I know NOW that in the vods The Player says at the start that he needs to act realistically or else the ai won't work properly.

But still. Obviously, the Science Team are still a whole hassle to try wrangle, but it's... different. He's not on their level, he's basically just... playing with them and their existence. NOW. Im not saying The Player doesn't care about the ai, but he's not in there with them. He's not in Black Mesa.

He can just pop off and get a snack if he wants, he gets to go sleep in his bed as the others sleep on the floor. He can't do anything to help them. But it's just... an interesting thing to think about.

Do I make sense?? It's the same character, same personality, same actions, but different perspectives.

Where Gordon is forced to suffer through hell. The Player chooses to come back to 'hell'.

Take in the door scene in act 1 part 2, no not the Benrey door scene. The one where GORDON goes under a closing door holding it for the others. It's a short moment that isn't important at all.

But take into account the two versions of Gordon's. And suddenly even that moment is different. It's weight is different. Not the weight of the moment specifically, but instead the weight of what that choice means.

If we look at it through a 'not a game au ' lens, it's Gordon literally putting himself under a door that cut another person IN HALF. Yes, yes Benrey wasn't a person, but that makes it WORSE. He was a non human in a bulletproof vest.

Gordon holds it up for ... give me sec- Bubby as it is ACTIVELY CLOSING AND THREATENING TO CRUSH HIM. As he says ' I can't hold it much longer ' and thats with Tommy helping him.

Though a ' not a game ' lens if he'd slipped, that could've crushed him. What if he slipped? Would the others have enough time to pull him - with the weight of his suit - out? Coomer's strong, yes, perhaps he would.

That's if he reacted fast enough. Tommy's got a great reaction speed, and he helped Gordon hold the door, but he can't let the door continue going down. That's result in a real Halved Life.- IM SORRY.

Ahem. BUTTTTT if we look at it through the ' its a game ' lens. It's still a showcase of care, just without the selflessness. The Player still did it basically instinctively, it was his instinct to go unde the door to hold it up for Bubby.

It shows he cares, if he didn't why would he bother? But he still needs to act like he's in pain, act like there's consequences, act like he's one of them. Even if he's not, he still cares.

But at the end of it all, he's the one who gets to walk away with no blood on his hands. He's the one who gets to walk away with no pain in his veins, agony in his bones, the sensation of being torn apart over and over.

He takes the choice to hear Coomer's plea, and ignore it. He may care for them, but are they worth all that trouble?

Talk about how most of us can never legally transition because even if legal transition is an option it's typically restricted to the binary.

Talk about how even non-binary gender markers which seem like the solution actually force us into a double bind of either misgendering ourselves constantly or outing ourselves constantly.

Talk about how there is no way to "pass" as non-binary and that the only way to be stealth is to be closeted one way or the other.

Talk about how "non-binary" as a term was meant to be an umbrella term for a myriad of gender identities but was forcibly homogenized into one "third gender" by others.

Talk about how the MOGAI movement which sought to give names to the wide breadth of gender identity and experience was relentlessly mocked both by transphobes and other trans people alike, abandoned by our own communities because our identities were "too weird."

Talk about the slur "theyfab" and its misogynistic and transmisogynistic usage. Talk about how it contributes to the rampant erasure of amab non-binary people and treats all non-binary people as "whiny little wome- i mean afabs."

See below:

While all three are hair textures people can have, larger shapes and sharper points show an increased loss of texture. Ideally, you should be using small, fairly uniform shapes if you aren't familiar enough with Black hair to experiment with how you show texture.

There are a lot of ways to use sharpness and small detail when designing Black hairstyles that don't necessitate looser curls! Shaping/styling can really take you almost anywhere.

FRESH OATS FRESH OATS FRESH OATS

FRESH OATS FRESH OATS FRESH OATS

FRESH OATS  FRESH OATS  FRESH OATS

oh... so sweet and you made cheese even!