Peaceful Labour Demonstration Met with Violent Escalation by the Indonesian Government
Civilians in several cities in Indonesia have been protesting on the streets, in response to our House of Representatives insensitive and derogatory remarks amidst difficult economic climate.
It was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration led by laborers and university students, but our government choose to ignore and even violently escalating it with police brutality + shooting tear gas. What sparked a nationwide outrage was during 28 August protest in the evening, one of the armored police/soldier truck sped up intending to run over protestors and it struck over a Gojek driver (ride hailing driver, similar to Uber) that fell when crossing the road amidst the chaos. The truck did stop but decided to ram the gas and ran over him when he's trying to stand, with other protestors shouting for them to stop.
The Gojek driver's name is Affan Kurniawan. He's just 21 years old, the breadwinner of his family. He lived with seven other people in a cramped small rented room. He was not even participating in the demonstration, at the time of his death he was WORKING. He was trying to complete a food delivery order before he was killed.
This incident was documented clear as day with several videos from different povs. Here's the most prominent one.
In response to Affan's death, nationwide protests are held on the following day. (29 August)
The protests continued even today on 30th August and it keeps on escalating. The government is now trying to frame the protesters as violent anarchists, they're trying to use the same tactic as the '98 tragedy. They've been deploying provocators and intels to riot and burn public transport station, even going as far as raiding several (decoy) houses that belongs to members of the House of Representatives. They've also taken several hostages, reports of kidnapping as per 28 August is 400+.
They have been turning off electricity access in several parts of Jakarta and just greenlit snipers and soldiers to shoot protestors on the head with rubber bullets. There's already several victims.
They've also blocked access to TikTok live and even tried to erase/take down several of video proof of police brutality. Police are now sweeping several areas and civilians are alerting each other to be careful and to stay safe and not answer the door.
So yes. Please pray and check up on your friend that lives in Indonesia. I fear that there's going to be a military emergency implemented by our warcrime president. If possible please help save the video proofs because our government are cracking down to erase any proof of violence.
Here's more background information about the events that leads to the demonstration:
Video explanation from Al Jazeera that interviewed one of us:
who the fuck is saying we do all this FOR THE US GOVERNMENT????
we are protesting because we got fed up with our House of Representatives behavior, and it has been long due ever since the presidential election
WE WANT REGIME CHANGE BECAUSE WE'RE FED UP OF BEING STEPPED UPON BY OUR OWN CORRUPT GOVERNMENT, don't you dare speaking over this topic as an outsider that doesn't live here.
Head and tail end are stuffed w ultra plush fiber fill and the bulk of the body is packed full of weighted pellets that have a nice crunchy sound when you squeeze it. Not weighed yet, but it feels between 1.5 - 2lbs?
Summary: Coco spends a rainy autumn day with her friends and foster family.
[4.2k words, gen, coco-centric, foster family ft. married orufrey]
They piled into the van; Qifrey turning up the heat in the passenger’s seat, Agott with room for Tetia in the middle, and Richeh and Coco in the back. Agott was still nose deep in her book, which Coco was awfully happy to see, since she had finally swapped her study materials for a novel that she could read for fun. (How Agott could read in the car, though, Coco had no idea. She herself always felt sick when she tried.)
As Olruggio and Tetia joined them, Coco’s phone lit up once again. This time, it was a message in the group chat from Jujy: a blurry, very zoomed-in picture of Tartah and Coustas, taken from across the food court, was captioned SPOTTED!!!!!!
“Jujy’s there already,” Richeh complained. “Hit the gas.”
“I’ll speed the whole way there,” Olruggio said, equally deadpan.
At the same time, Agott and Qifrey both said, “You better not.” Olruggio’s sigh was long-suffering.
modern au enjoyers make some noise !!! read below or on ao3.
Coco was sitting on the couch next to Agott and scrolling through videos on her phone when she received a very alarming text. She read it, sat up, read it again, then announced to the room at large, “Tartah and Coustas are already there!”
From the top of the stairs, Tetia, in the middle of brushing her teeth, poked her bonnet-clad head out and shouted, “What?! It’s only, like, ten!”
“‘Course,” Olruggio muttered from the kitchen. Coco heard some rummaging, then a cabinet shut and her first of two sort-of-foster fathers came up the steps with a protein bar in one hand and his half-finished mug of coffee in the other. “Girls,” he said to Coco and Agott, “get your shoes on. And Rich– Rich, where did you go?”
Richeh materialized at his side. She was, as always, already ready to go, wearing her wireless headphones and favorite boots.
“There you are. We’ll hurry, I promise.” He stuck his protein bar into the pocket of his hoodie. It was dark blue and splattered with an assortment of paint and ink, and one of the sleeves was singed; Olruggio himself wore it very infrequently, as the five other denizens of the house loved to steal it. “Tetia,” he called, “d’you still want me to do your hair?”
Tetia hurried down the stairs, followed by Qifrey, and hopped onto the arm of the couch. She tugged off her bonnet with a flourish and procured her comb, while Qifrey said, “Tartah is so close, we could have carpooled!”
“He and Coustas were having a sleepover,” Coco said. we’re a little behind, she replied to Tartah. i’ll let you know when we’re almost there! :D
sweet, came the reply, with an attached selfie featuring Tartah’s forehead and bright hair and a wide-eyed, clearly caught off guard Coustas. They sat in the mall food court, and Coco caught a glimpse of jackets spread out to save seats.
“We could have driven both of them, we have room in the van.” Qifrey knelt by the shoe rack. “Olly, where are my boots?”
“Mr. Dagda’s car has the ramp,” Coco reminded him. “Ours doesn’t.”
“Ah, of course. Olly?”
“Hang on a min’.” Olruggio had a hair tie between his teeth and both hands in Tetia’s hair. “I moved ‘em to mop, sorry. They’re on the very top shelf of the rack, but Agott’s sneakers are balanced on top.”
Agott snapped her book shut. “I’ll move them.”
“Thank you, dear. Is everyone almost ready?”
Olruggio, frowning in concentration, adjusted the second of Tetia’s pigtails and smoothed her hair back. “Almost, almost.”
“Hurry!” Richeh said impatiently.
“Go start the car, if you want, we’ll be right there.” Olruggio gestured absentmindedly over his shoulder. “Qif, keys are on the middle peg.”
Qifrey retrieved the keys, his white cane, and an umbrella, and stepped out into the autumn rain, with Coco and the two other girls close behind. While Qifrey hurried to the car - followed by Richeh and Agott, the latter hunched over to keep her book dry - Coco paused to appreciate the array of jack-o-lanterns on the front steps. As much as she wished that nothing bad ever happened to her or the people she loved, she could not help but be grateful that they had all ended up here, together.
She shared a smile with Agott’s cat-pumpkin.
They piled into the van; Qifrey turning up the heat in the passenger’s seat, Agott with room for Tetia in the middle, and Richeh and Coco in the back. Agott was still nose deep in her book, which Coco was awfully happy to see, since she had finally swapped her study materials for a novel that she could read for fun. (How Agott could read in the car, though, Coco had no idea. She herself always felt sick when she tried.)
As Olruggio and Tetia joined them, Coco’s phone lit up once again. This time, it was a message in the group chat from Jujy: a blurry, very zoomed-in picture of Tartah and Coustas, taken from across the food court, was captioned SPOTTED!!!!!!
“Jujy’s there already,” Richeh complained. “Hit the gas.”
“I’ll speed the whole way there,” Olruggio said, equally deadpan.
At the same time, Agott and Qifrey both said, “You better not.” Olruggio’s sigh was long-suffering.
Coco had not been surprised to learn that Agott was Qifrey and Olruggio’s first “foster failure,” as Agott herself had said, but she had been totally shocked when she found out that Qifrey and Olruggio had not, in fact, been married for nearly as long as she thought– she’d been so sure they had been together for at least ten years. They certainly acted like it.
Then again, Coco was not well-versed - or versed at all - in living in a household run by a married couple.
She frowned at the rain that raced across the window.
They arrived at the mall a little past ten-thirty, then drove around the parking garage looking for a spot for another ten minutes. Tetia repeatedly filmed dramatized updates for the group chat, and even managed to catch Olruggio saying a particularly foul word when they approached what they thought was an empty spot, only to find a motorcycle parked there. Regardless, they made it in one piece, and hurried across the covered path and through the department store on squeaky shoes.
In the food court, Coco and the others saw their friends before their friends saw them. Coustas and Jujy were talking animatedly about something that involved lots of gesturing and arm waving, and Alaira’s two-toned hair was easy to spot. It was Euini who saw them first, and he elbowed Tartah, who waved them over.
“How was traffic?” Alaira pushed her own chair aside then helped Olruggio drag several others over. The table was designed to seat six, but most of the kids were more than happy to squeeze together on the booth side.
“Fine, considerin’ people usually forget how to drive in the rain.” Olruggio nudged Qifrey into a chair.
“Oh, Mr. Qifrey!” Tartah rummaged through a tote bag that hung from Coustas’ wheelchair. From it, he drew a smaller plastic bag and passed it across the table. “Grandpa got in more of that ink you like, so he sent me with some for you guys.”
Qifrey beamed. “Why, thank you! We’ll swing by the shop sometime this week and drop some treats off for you two, but make sure to thank your grandfather for me the next time you see him.” He tucked the bag safely into a coat pocket.
The kids at the table then dissolved into good-natured bickering about where to go first while the adults debated what to do while the kids had their fun. Eventually they agreed, mostly at Agott’s insistence, to start at the new bookstore that opened next to the better of the mall’s two boba cafes.
“Meet us back here in two hours,” Qifrey told them as they rose to leave.
“Two?” Several voices cried in protest.
“Three, at least,” Coustas argued. He grinned and added, “You know I can’t get around as fast as everyone else.” It was more of an inside joke than anything, since everybody was well aware of the remarkable upper-body strength that he used to power his manual chair.
(“I used to do a lot of dance and gymnastics and stuff,” he had told Coco one day. “I could probably still do a handstand, kinda.”
He tried. He could not, but he seemed to enjoy Coco and Tartah’s raucous laughter.)
Qifrey rolled his eye, a habit he had not lost alongside his vision. “Two and a half.”
“Two and forty-five minutes,” Tetia pleaded.
Qifrey put his head in his hands, and Coco cheered with her friends at their victory.
“They’re getting too rebellious,” Qifrey muttered under his breath as Olruggio rubbed his back sympathetically.
“I seem to remember you two getting into way more trouble when we were their age,” mused Alaira. Coco had already heard a few stories about her foster fathers from her, including one about the time they had managed to drive all the way from Osaka to Sakata in Olruggio’s rundown Beetle before Beldaruit found out, and she was keen to learn more, but it was time for their two groups to part ways.
Coco and the others split further not long after. Agott wanted to take her time in the bookstore while the rest soon wanted to move on, and Coco was more than content to trail after her and listen to her ramble to her heart’s content.
“This one was bad,” Agott said as she tapped a faced-out cover. They were meandering through the young adult section. “Every sentence was structured the same way, and once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop noticing. And that one gets glowing reviews, but I was bored to death. I just didn’t care about the main character… Plus, I think I just don’t like first person point of view most of the time. Sometimes it’s done well, of course, but that was not.”
“I like when they switch POV,” Coco offered. She didn’t read as much as Agott, but she had a handful of books and series that she kept close to her heart. The main problem was that all her books were still at home. Well, at her old house, which–
A hand touched her shoulder. “Coco?” She turned and found herself face to face with Agott’s dark, concerned eyes.
“I’m alright.” Coco offered a smile and Agott blushed and retracted her hand. “Just thinking about some of the stuff I read growing up… I never did get around to finishing the Grisha trilogy.”
Agott actually gasped. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. My mom got me the box set for my birthday last year, but I…” Coco shook her head. You have to stop thinking about that! she berated herself. It just makes you sad and you’re not helping anybody. “I never got around to the third.”
“After the way the second ends?” Agott took her hand without hesitation. This, it seemed, was quite a serious matter. “You have to finish it, and then read the sort-of sequel series. It’s even better. It takes place in the same world, but in a different country with different characters, and if you like POV-switching–”
There were soon two books nestled in the crook of Coco’s arm, and Agott held the third in the series she was currently reading. They made their way through literary fiction - “Don’t read that one, her other work is much better,” Agott informed as they passed a display - and were still holding hands when Coco tugged her into the manga section.
“I think Mr. Olly’s new volume is out! Let’s go see– plus, I wanted to look for Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.”
To her surprise, Agott frowned. “You still call him that?”
Oh. Coco frowned a bit, too. “I mean… He’s not my dad.”
“Well, yes, but I thought you would have dropped the honorific by now. It’s not a big deal, just curious.”
Coco’s cheeks heated and she scuffed the toe of her shoe against the ground. “He’s also, just— just so talented, you know? He’s such an amazing artist, and I really look up to him.” She ran a finger over the store’s volumes of Brushbug Wars. “It’s like… I don’t know. It’s silly.”
What was silly, probably, was that Coco was tearing up for no apparent reason in the manga section while holding her best friend’s hand. Everything was fine– everything was good. She sniffled just a little. Her emotions had been annoyingly touch-and-go recently, and though she could recognize that, it seemed there was nothing she could do about it.
A teenaged stranger gave her an odd look, but she paid them no mind, because Agott squeezed her hand.
“It’s not,” she insisted. “Whatever it is.”
“You kinda sound like him.” Unwilling to drop Agott’s hand, Coco shifted her grip on her books so she could wipe her eyes.
“I mean, we’ve lived together for a while. Look, they have YKK on that display.” Agott pulled her toward them.
Coco was more than happy to be distracted. She picked out the first volume of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, and Agott’s single choice became a small horde as they finished up in manga and swung by the books on art. Coco knew for a fact that Agott was running out of shelf space - if she hadn’t already - but her inclination for books was, in Coco’s humble opinion, quite admirable. Olruggio had mentioned adding another bookcase in the living room, anyway.
They caught up with Richeh and Euini, who had likewise gone off on their own, at the Lego store, where Richeh was taking pictures of sets she wanted. She had a box tucked under her arm, which she presented with a flourish and announced that she was buying.
“Do we even have enough room for those?” Agott frowned as she inspected the box.
“They’re small.” Richeh snapped a picture of a huge Lord of the Rings set. “Besides, it’s Richeh’s allowance. Agott spends her allowance on books, Richeh spends hers on Legos.” She paused again and added, “There’s three in it, but one is for Euini.” Euini did not reply, but his broad smile said more than enough.
Richeh made her purchase. She was, as usual, very straight-faced and almost solemn for the whole ordeal, but did a very self-satisfied and enthusiastic little fist pump as soon as she left the store. That, on the Richeh scale, indicated a five star experience.
The four of them then rejoined the others in the line at the boba cafe. Drinks and shopping bags in hand, they descended upon the rest of the mall in a pack, ready to laugh and be rowdy to their hearts’ content.
After a series of show-and-tells over lunch in the food court, they parted for the day with promises to help each other with homework and assorted assignments at school on Monday. Coco dozed off on the ride home, but wasn’t quite tired enough for an afternoon nap - unlike Richeh, who went straight to her room without a word - so she settled on the couch with one of her new books. Tetia joined her, and they managed to convince Agott to then join them. It took many promises that they would be quiet, since she wanted to study, but they got through to her eventually.
Everything was well. Thin textbook pages flipped and Agott’s pen scratched; blankets rustled as Tetia struggled to find a comfortable reading position; Qifrey and Olruggio murmured in the kitchen; rain drummed against the windows. Soon, Qifrey brought them tea, and the quiet turned to a gentle buzz when Agott asked him for homework help. Olruggio sat in his favorite armchair with his tablet and pen, purportedly to work. (When he sat in the living room to “work,” he often sighed lots and, somehow, erased more than he drew. Coco suspected that sometimes he just wanted to sit with them all, but she said nothing.)
An hour or so before dinner, Richeh joined them to play video games, and Coco, growing restless, leaned over to watch her. Tetia evidently felt similar, but she tended to be more of what Richeh called a “backseat gamer.”
“There’s one behind you,” Tetia advised.
Richeh’s little character on the screen dodged and rolled. “Richeh knows, thanks.”
“You’re low on health, you should eat something.”
“Ran out of food.” She mashed buttons.
“Make some more.”
“This is the Trial of the Sword, it doesn’t work like that.”
“Well, how am I supposed to know? You should– oops.” The screen faded to black and announced Richeh’s untimely demise.
“Be quiet,” Agott snapped, then immediately followed it up with, “Sorry.”
Coco glanced over at her, cross-legged on the floor with her math textbook resting on the couch. Qifrey, closest, patted her shoulder and said, “Read me the problem again.”
“‘If the line m is parallel to the side AB of–’”
Well, best to tune that out. Agott was in one of the advanced math classes, and hearing her talk about geometry and advanced algebra just made Coco’s head spin. It was a good thing that Qifrey, retired early at the ripe age of thirty-something, was still a teacher at heart; Tetia was still caught up by the introduction of letters into math, something she found entirely unnecessary, Richeh and Coco were simply not there yet, and Olruggio, as he always said, hadn’t thought about math in at least ten years.
(Coco thought he was kidding, the first time he made that joke. It was not long after what they ended up calling “the Romonon Incident,” and with Qifrey temporarily incapacitated, Coco had been doing some homework to pass the time. When she asked Olruggio for math help, he had laughed and shaken his head like the whole thing was absurd.
“Last time I did anything harder than arithmetic was in college, which would have been…” He started counting on his fingers, and a strange expression came over his face when he reached ten. “Never mind that.”)
Coco did not know what a “soh-kah-toh-ah” was, and she was not looking forward to finding out.
When it came time to start dinner, Agott followed Qifrey into the kitchen, and Olruggio trailed after them. Coco retrieved her sketchbook for some doodling and joined Agott at the table.
It’s like a sleepover, Coco used to tell herself. A very long sleepover. Or like a magical boarding school in one of those books. But she learned quickly that there would be no writing home, just silent hospital visits with Qifrey and whispers that followed her at her new middle school. As the days dragged by and the seasons changed, she grew to love this house and everyone in it, and they loved her, too, but she never forgot the things she lost.
Sitting at the kitchen table with Agott felt like a strange reflection of those early days. Now, they sat next to each other because they wanted to, and the silence between them was comfortable. Out of everything - all the people she’d met, all the places she’d been - Coco was most grateful for Agott; for knowing her, for caring about her, for knowing that she was cared about in return.
Coco leaned over her sketchbook and hoped that no one would ask why she was smiling to herself.
“Qif-” Olruggio gestured with his wooden spoon to Qifrey’s phone, sitting face-up on the table– “Iguin’s calling.”
Qifrey cursed under his breath. “His ringtone is muted for a reason. Sorry, Agott, I’ll be right back.” He scooped up his phone and hurried out of the kitchen, but not before they caught his highly irritated, “What do you want?”
Coco and Agott exchanged a glance. Conversations with Iguin always left Qifrey in a foul mood, fouler even than surprise visits from Beldaruit. Qifrey’s raised voice, though muffled, could already be heard from upstairs.
It seemed they were a house that could not escape family troubles.
Moments later, Tetia and Richeh crept down to sit at the table; Richeh kept her eyes fixed on her game, but Tetia squirmed and glanced around nervously. Coco took her hand and squeezed it, to which she received a forced smile.
Dinner sizzled away on the stovetop.
Rain pattered against the windows.
Something clattered upstairs.
Olruggio sighed. “Could one of you watch the veggies? I’ll go check on ‘im.”
Agott, who had been staring at a math problem and making little progress for the last couple minutes, hopped up immediately. “I will. I can start the rice, too.” Olruggio ruffled her hair in thanks as he passed.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Tetia turned to face Coco fully and blurted, “They were talking about you!”
“Who?” Coco immediately abandoned her drawing.
“Dad and, uh…” She gestured vaguely, but Coco understood just fine. Even referencing Iguin, while not forbidden, was quite discouraged under their roof.
“What were they saying?”
“Well, I couldn’t hear him, but…” Tetia faltered, suddenly guilty. “It was, uh… something about custody.”
“Tetia!” Agott shot a glare over her shoulder. She stood at the sink, rinsing rice. “What did I just say about that, like, yesterday?”
Right. On a day-to-day basis, it was easy for Coco to forget that her position here - the place she now called home with ease - was more precarious than the other girls. Agott and Tetia were adopted, after all, and Richeh was safe and sound while she waited for Riliphin to decide where he wanted to stay. Coco did not know all the details, just that Qifrey had been fighting near constantly to keep custody of her, and that his own brother had repeatedly proved to be one of his bitterest enemies.
“It’s fine,” she said, but it came out weak even to her own ears. She pictured a file folder with her name on it and the word “temporary” stamped in red ink. “It’s fine,” she repeated, louder. “Really, it is. If there’s something I need to know, he’ll tell me, and if not, there’s no use worrying about it.”
Richeh rolled her eyes fondly. “A good little Coco Speech,” she said.
Upon returning, Olruggio said nothing about whatever had just transpired out of their earshot. When they all stared expectantly at him, he assured them, directed mostly to Tetia and her big watery eyes, “There’s nothin’ to worry about, I promise. Dad’s just had a long day, an’ you know how exhausting calls like that are for him. He needs some time to decompress. He’ll be down for dinner soon enough.”
And, indeed, Qifrey rejoined them as the table was being set and portions of stir fry were scooped onto plates. He rubbed at his forehead, a telltale sign of an oncoming headache, but his small smile was genuine.
“Sorry about that, girls.” Coco and the others all leaned in to receive a pat on the shoulder or the top of the head. “Everything is alright, I promise. Now, shall we eat?”
Olruggio elbowed him. “Go take something for your headache, first.”
Qifrey sighed and grumbled but obliged.
After dinner, it was Coco’s turn to help with dishes. She preferred drying duty, but today volunteered to brave sticky food residue to let Qifrey do the drying, since it was easier and she wanted to do what little she could to make his day better. And it worked! At least, she hoped it did. He seemed mostly his usual self, which was good, of course, but there was an undercurrent to his mood that she could detect but not name. Still, he laughed at her jokes and offered a few of his own, so Coco considered it a win.
Richeh and Agott both turned in early - Richeh to wind down and sleep and Agott to work on an art project due at the end of the week - so Coco and Tetia played Pokémon (Tetia wanted to trade a basculin for Coco’s spritzee, which was not a fair trade) and snacked on yesterday’s apple cider cookies until Olruggio gave them the ten minute warning. Out of the kindness of her heart, Coco settled for receiving a seedot, mostly because she knew how much Tetia loved fairy types.
The two of them took their sweet time brushing their teeth together so they could chat more about team composition and gym badge progress. She wasn’t very good at battling yet, but Tetia assured her that there was more to the games.
“You can really get into strategy, if you want,” Tetia said as she affixed her bonnet for the night. “I like to just collect them and put all my favorites on my team, and I overlevel them a whole bunch so I can beat everyone without worrying about types and stuff.” She smiled a bit sheepishly. “Papa let me borrow his old copy of Ruby, and it was a lot harder, so my usual method didn’t work.”
“I won’t be playing that one, then.” Coco pulled a wad of hair from her hairbrush, wrinkled her nose, and flicked it into the trash.
Tetia gave her bonnet one final pat. “Well, you can always learn. I’m probably gonna play a little more before bed– don’t tell anyone. Oh, and remind me to make sure I put my sheets and stuff in the wash tomorrow.” Coco promised, and they hugged and parted ways for the night.
Out on the landing, Coco glanced down the stairs at the sliver of living room she could see. Under the unceasing rain, she could hear low voices and the clink of glassware.
She flipped the lightswitch and the hallway darkened. The night light plugged in just above the sculpted baseboards flickered to life in response, casting a warm orange glow over the hall. The furnace rattled to life somewhere deep within the house.
On Coco’s door was a great big C, crafted on short notice by Tetia and bedazzled excessively yet somehow still tastefully by Richeh. Agott had not participated– something she later apologized for.
Just as she reached for the handle, the door next to hers creaked quietly open, and Agott slipped out on silent feet as if summoned. She sported an empty water bottle and her hair was mussed in that specific way it got when she raked her hands through it while working. Their eyes met.
“Good night,” Coco whispered.
Agott glanced over her shoulder. The night light illuminated stray curls and made her cheeks look rosy. There was a smudge of paint on her chin. “Good night,” she whispered back.
i love that LONGLEGS (2024) let lee harker be clearly & indisputably autistic whilst also being accepted by her colleagues as being competent and just fine as she was. nobody ever even commented amongst themselves about her personality/mannerisms. it was so refreshing to see.
im sorry i dont usually do this but this post pissed me off so fucking bad and op has replies turned off (because of course they do)
fellas. is it gay to wear pink and have long hair and sing and dance? cause i didn’t realize we were using bioessentialism in movie analysis now that’s crazy
sarcasm aside this is literally why i don’t go in tags anymore because none of you are media literate. not a single one of you. longlegs is not wearing makeup in the movie. it’s shitty plastic surgery; that’s why his lips are red. you can literally tell by just looking at him that it’s not lipstick. the clothes he wears are all off-white or white. the falsetto he’s doing is very obviously meant to mimic that sort of “goochie goo” baby talk a lot of adults unironically use towards children. also coding? ‘coding’ is not when you interpret something from a movie as anything you want because you feel like it. coding is an intentional act committed by creatives to further their story and allude to specific real life things for a specific narrative purpose. it is an intentional act of storytelling. it is not you looking at a movie and assuming something as fact based off slight vibes
and i’m just gonna say it. if you see a male character with long hair that’s acting generally creepy in the vicinity of a child and automatically assume that that character is being coded as a transwoman, YOU ARE THE ONE BEING TRANSPHOBIC.
like holy fuck some of y’all have never actually looked inwards once in your life and it shows
When I was first reading TBWKE I accidentally spoiled myself about Peter being Conrad's dad because I read the last page and I thought that he was a different guy and either:
A. Harrington wasn't actually Conrad's dad
B. Abigail cheated
C. Con and Peter were found family (which tbh is weird that I thought that because Joe was. right there.)
This is my own opinion but I'll take option A or B rather than the one in the book tbh 💀
Also I wanna add that after finishing book 3 I was so pissed that Harrington/Peter's character got shoved down under the rug and Conrad being all fine about it that I made an entirely new oc with a similar background to Con but the only difference is that he actually accepts that his situation is shit and his dad is an a-hole and the man who actually loved and raised him was his true dad all along.
His name is Lincoln Eggers he is my son, yes I made him out of spite and I would not change it anyway else
In the words of that one guy from marvel: He might be your father but he ain't your daddy
When I was first reading TBWKE I accidentally spoiled myself about Peter being Conrad's dad because I read the last page and I thought that he was a different guy and either:
A. Harrington wasn't actually Conrad's dad
B. Abigail cheated
C. Con and Peter were found family (which tbh is weird that I thought that because Joe was. right there.)
This is my own opinion but I'll take option A or B rather than the one in the book tbh 💀
