Flynn's Playground

Stiles: Don't look now, but I think there's someone over there.

Derek: Where?!

On Monday the 29th of July, someone went with a knife and violently attacked and killed 3 children in a dance class in Southport, near the northern city Liverpool.

Online misinformation rapidly spread by racists and nationalists, and a local mosque alongside Muslims generally were (very incorrectly!) blamed for this horrific attack. A ‘protest’ for ‘justice’ was planned by the far right that quickly escalated into a violent riot on the 30th. This riot occupied a local mosque and was aimed heavily at threatening the local Muslim community.

Since then over 35 violent riots have occurred in various UK cities between Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th, all organised by the far right and targeting immigrants, Muslims, and people of colour. The UK right has had a sharp rise in blaming these groups for our issues, prioritising British nationalism (see: white supremacy) and encouraging violence to those they see as a threat to it. This violence isn’t me being hyperbolic, the most horrific example I have seen so far is a hotel housing asylum seekers being set ablaze with people still inside. A second hotel has now been surrounded by far right scum in Tamworth, again set alight with people inside (in the early hours of the morning)

These riots have already injured people and have potentially already killed. The safety of many people in this country is heavily at risk. We need to be talking about this, I can’t state that enough. Calling these pogroms is not incorrect by any means. Over 50 planned protests have been found in the next few weeks too. We need international outrage and concern, and for those in the UK we need to talk about this to one another, warn those in our community who may be at risk, and whenever possible, counter protest. The counter protest work done already has clearly scared a lot of fascists, we need to let them know their racism is not tolerated.

The sites I’ve been using to keep track of protests are standuptoracism and hope not hate, however I’d recommend checking your city/counties ANTIFA group, and looking at international ANTIFA. Anyone with good suggestions for keeping track of these planned riots please add on.

Do exactly what you're paid for and nothing more

Absolutely refuse to be available to contact when you're off the clock

Never prioritize work over your own health, wellbeing, or family because that would be insane, it's just a job.

Have a little glass of wine

Take as long as you feel like for lunch

Deeply understand that work doesn't matter

Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay

and scrolll down and un-check the following

THEME:

This year the theme for the Enjoltaire Games will be IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH. Please remember that you can interpret this theme in any way that suits you. Weddings, Sickfic, Hurt/Comfort, basically any form of caring for someone can be squeezed into this theme. Have fun with it!

TEAMS:

This year the teams will be OLD LOVE and NEW LOVE. This just means that your work will need to focus on either old love or new love. Pretty simple. That, much like the overall theme, can be taken however you’d like. We try not to stifle anyone’s muse around here.

When you sign up for the fest you will be allowed to request which team you would prefer, but please keep in mind that the teams will need to be at least mostly even for voting purposes, so you may or may not be able to get your first choice of team. Your mod will do their best to be as accommodating as possible, though.

PROMPTS:

The prompts will be available once you have signed up for the fest. There will be a total of ten (10) each of text based, image based, and audio based prompts. Each prompt will be available to be claimed once by each team. For example, if team OLD LOVE claims prompt Image 3, then one person from team NEW LOVE may still claim prompt Image 3, but no one else from team OLD LOVE may have it.

These prompts are not meant to dictate your work, but simply be used as inspiration. A song could have the lyrics translate to plot, or simply have the tone color a work of art, or a scene in your story. An image could be a direct setting, or simply a painting on someone’s wall. As long as they actively inspire your work and are not an afterthought to your work.

VOTING:

Voting will be based on three criteria: How well the work fits the theme of the fest, how well the work fits the team, and how well the work incorporates the prompt. There will be no voting on talent, or how “good” a work is. That is not what this fest is about and is simply too subjective an idea anyway.

And please remember that these works are not in competition with each other. They are simply being judged for their own existence.

More details on voting will be available when we get close to posting time.

And as always, if you have any questions please feel free to check out the FAQ page, or poke your mod on tumblr or email at [email protected]

Don’t send actors fics

Don’t give them explicit art ever

Don’t tag them in rpf questions or theories

Don’t try to bring them into fandom drama of any kind

Don’t hold them responsible for what the producers and writers decide

If you want to bash rpf shippers for *existing*, make your own post.

RPF has been a part of fandom since the beginning, and I’d highly recommend doing some research into the topic; as always, Fanlore is a good place to start.

The problem with RPF is when people breach the fourth wall, which fandom is doing more often as the internet expands and becomes the current culture, and newcomers to fandom either are not taught or do not care about the basic rules (i.e. the purpose of this post).  The problem is not with people having fantasies or telling stories.

Fandom is transgresive by nature as much as it is transformative, because we are thieves and magpies and because here we’re allowed to talk about things that we’re not supposed to in mainstream culture.  I have never seen a space like fandom creates, where people are able to share their desires and fantasies and kinks openly and *talk* about the taboo.

And when people come along and talk about how RPF shouldn’t even exist, it is frequently less rooted in a concept of “this causes this specific harm” and more “this is disgusting and I don’t want it near me, how can this even exist.”  It causes discomfort because it’s rooted in taboos (talking about sexual fantasies in public, openly, even though those same fantasies are well acknowledged in pop culture - think about the concept of the “free pass”).

When people break the fourth wall and get the actors involved, sending fics (or letters back in the old days), explicit images, harassing them online or at conventions and concerts, they have committed actions that cause harm.  And there is real harm, I’ve done my digging and seen the results in bandoms and fandoms (hell, my fandom has done some things over the years.)

Thoughts are not actions.  Fantasies do not make you a villain, telling stories is not a sin (though it has been a crime).  Sharing those things with other people is part of what makes fandom culture what it is.

There are conversations that need to happen about objectification and dehumanization, there are conversations (like this post was meant to be) about maintaining healthy boundaries and treating the actors as people when we interact with them; there are conversations that need to happen about how much more mainstream fandom is now than it was fifty years ago, and what that does to the relationship dynamic we have with our creators and actors, what may need to change as we move forward.  The Hockey RPF fandom’s solution to that problem was to lock a great deal of their content so that the fourth wall could not be breached.

RPF is the single greatest squick I have dealing with fandom; the way people talk in my fandom hits my “someone is altering my sense of reality” button really hard.  I frequently have to blacklist it to control my exposure to the low-level shipping that permeates everything in my community, otherwise I get punchy.  But my discomfort with the topic doesn’t mean I’m ever okay with throwing those people out of the communities they helped build.

Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul duel