i’m very happy to return to this very sleepy blog to find so many new faces following me!
as much as i’m delighted by this, i do have to say that i have been debating on the idea of archiving this blog since i am hardly here, and it doesn’t seem quite fair to keep it up in it’s present state.
i will be considering this decision for a few days, but i would simply like to let those of you know that the decision is not due to lack of interest, but due to the fact that i would like to press on into the next chapter of my life.
i know i owe a great deal of written responses to those of you that i have spoken to, and i regret my lack of focus and diligence considerably in regards to these endeavors, but i am also equally excited to move into the next moment of my life!
i hope those of you who are still here will continue to support me as i make the first few steps into my career into mortuary science.Â
this will be very difficult but, hopefully, very fulfilling for me in its own unique way.
thank you, all of you, for your continued support and engagement throughout all of these years.Â
no surprises here, but i am still a bit on an unofficial hiatus.
this year has been astronomically awful for me. i’ve lost so many friends and loved ones to various circumstances and it’s been such a struggle to keep myself and my mental health together.
things going forward won’t be the best, but i’m feeling better about some life changes that were long over-due.Â
hopefully this change going forward will give me my creative spirit back if, for nothing else, but to write drabbles or nonesense things here again because i do very much miss it here.
CONSENSUAL HORRIBLE THINGS: Safety negotiation in RP
I got my first taste of Nordic-style LARPing at an event called The Night in Question in Austin. It was a rules-lite Vampire the Masquerade LARP set in the 1990′s revolving around a Sabbat mass embrace. I won’t go into the details, but if you google it, you’ll see pretty dang quick that it gets really messy really fast. While doing this, I realized something:Â
All collaborative work is based in consent.
We understand the concept of consent within a sexual context- anything less than an enthusiastic yes is a no- but we do not often apply those rules to other delicate content. When running a LARP, these things all seem very straightforward- you have to negotiate physical contact (both romantic and non) and violence at all times because you are dealing with another physical person.Â
But, in an online context (where you can not see the physical tells of someone being uncomfortable) the check-in system is harder to maintain. This does not mean, however, that it is any less important. So, here are some tips and thoughts on negotiating, writing, and portraying problematic content. All the guts of this is under the cut because it is a LONG POST.Â
also, if you’re trans and you have no idea how Pride came to be i urge you to do some well deserved research while you’re looking for new reading material during quarantine.
Stonewall was a riot, and you have a very lovely black trans woman to thank for it <3
not only did i straight up forget the password to my own blog, the past few months have been... some kinda mess--
i’m feeling a lot better now. whatever illness i had seems to have fucked off, but i’m still struggling in other ways.
and with that said in regards to current events, if you’re a blog that has a problem with roleplay blogs sharing some information about current events, or you find the sharing of information about current events in a roleplay community to be “annoying” or “you’re tired of seeing it everywhere!” and “i just want to blacklist and unfollow people that share info about current events in a roleplay community!”
in the cursed words of a subset of tumblr, i would like to politely, un-ironically, ask you to inspect your own privilege.
a roleplay blog is not a faceless entity.Â
there is a human behind those words. behind that avatar and that fancy blog you like so much. those posts just don’t come out of nowhere.
those are attached to another human being that lives somewhere on this planet.
while they’re posts may be “too much” for you, and you are free to take measures to distance yourself from current events for your own mental health ( which is always very important ), please understand that calling such posts “annoying” or “having no place in the roleplay community” is not only offensive but incredibly short sighted.
current events may not be affecting you, but they may be affecting them.Â
i have other social media outlets with which to share information about what’s happening, but for some other people that may be they’re only outlet, or they may wish to alert the members of the RP community of sudden changes in these current events.
and yes, even on those other platforms that i have, i’ve also lost followers.
i don’t send them any ill will. they’re allowed to do as they wish, but any of them that have come at me to shame me for “over-sharing” about the current situation has been met with swift and extreme judgement.
because as a black transmale american, living very close to los angeles proper, i don’t have the ability to simply “blacklist” this event. i don’t have the ability to call this “annoying” or “too much.”
i don’t have that privilege. i’ve never had that privilege.Â
for my own safety and life, and the safety and lives of those like me and around me, i have to keep sharing information to ensure that the people i love and care about, people who are minorities, can come home safely at night and i don’t have to get news that i have another funeral to go to.Â
it’s find to feel overwhelmed by what is happening. this hasn’t happened in quite a magnitude like this for many of you, and it’s alright to feel the way that you feel.
but, i think you do need to be careful with the words you choose to say and share about this situation online. i think you need to understand that for many of us, this information overload isn’t “annoying” and “sharing too much” and “has no place in this community.”
you’ll be met with people who will disagree very loudly, and very strongly, if you do share such things online, but i think after you’ve pulled away, you need to think with yourself about why they’ve reacted the way they have.
i think you should consider, if the person you were roleplaying with was suddenly gone tomorrow because of current events, how would that make you feel? does that seem “annoying” or “too much” or “has no place in the rp community” to you anymore?
feel what you feel, always, but have a bit of empathy. a lot of us in the rp community could really use that right now.
12564286864846451541541545145475545784525565741225515145 screaming geckos ran at the tall vampire. Spun into the shape of a heart. Then scattered.
     He was no stranger to mysterious visitations from unfamiliar Familiars, but this display really took the cake. Or the garden? Or most of the neighborhood, to be honest. Who needs asphalt when it was saturated in a sea of writhing, wriggling, screaming little geckos.    Â
“ Oh! “
    They had a cryptic message to give him as usual, but at they did it very elegantly and very quickly; didn’t even stay a bit longer for tea and biscuits.
    “ Ah well– at least they stayed a bit longer to send a more specific message- Thank you dear’s! Do stop by again soon ~ “
