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I'm having a lot of feels over The Pitt S2 Ep4 reveal with Whitaker. Below the cut for extra spoil-proofing.
That said, I'm very tempted to add another WIP to my pile, but I'm holding off until the end of the episode/season. (I'll probably end up forgetting about this tbh.)
HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD
I just finished the new Sarah J. Maas book today, and as usual I'm emotionally drained. It's just the way she builds her characters, the way she builds their friendships... The goddamned way she just shatters my heart Every. Single. Fucking. Time. My thoughts and emotions are all over the place again, as usual. I always need time to process whenever I finish one of her books, because I get way too emotionally attached to the characters and the story.
And damn, this time she outdid herself. I've always loved Aelin, over any other main character out there, and I don't think that's gonna change any time soon. But Bryce... Bloody hell, she's so relatable in more than one way. And she's just... Straight up fucked up. And vulnerable. And stubborn. And with a will that would move mountains, because that's all that keeps her pushing herself forward sometimes. Sheer will. And throughout the books she makes a ton of bad decisions seriously wtf Bryce we need to talk about some of them, which makes her real.
Oh, and don't even get me started on Danika Fendyr.
Light it up✨
How in the world am i only 9 followers away from 200?!
I told myself I’d work on writing today, but have you considered:
What if I just knit all day again instead? 😅
Okay, I'm home, I've been on the road for the better part of 4 hours today due to a miscommunication and a cancelled event, and I've had this rant brewing.
Being Anti-Military and Pro-Veteran are stances that can mutually exist.
Games like CoD and whatever other FPS/Military Simulation game is out there is propaganda. It’s meant to make you want to sign up or support military action.
The military (I’m speaking specifically to the US, as I am most familiar with them by proxy) uses some incredibly underhanded techniques to ensure they have the warm bodies soldiers they need to keep the system working as intended.
This includes but is not limited to: promises of paying for education, aspirations of “seeing the world”, provision of job security, access to healthcare, a stable job and housing, etc. They use things like “patriotism” and “glory” and “security” to lure people in.
And then, when that person is wholly and completely reliant on the military - for a paycheck, housing, healthcare, you name it - they spit them back out into the world with a "thanks a lot and good fucking luck."
Into a world where:
Financial support for care has been axed and axed and axed again under "budget cuts"
Care is secured with red tape so thick you can tightrope walk across it
Care is denied for things the military caused (by saying "it didn't happen while you were serving".) *Yes, that's a direct quote from a doctor to one of Kallen's peers. When assessing a life-altering injury sustained while they were in country overseas, it was deemed as "non-service related injury”.
In comparison to civilians:
Veterans are ~40% more likely to be homeless.
Veterans are ~80% more likely to suffer from untreated mental and physical health issues - PTSD, hearing loss, nerve damage, etc.
Veterans are ~60% more likely to turn to addictive substances - alcohol, drugs, etc.
Veterans are ~70% more likely to commit suicide.
This isn’t limited to combat vets. Logistics specialists, administrative specialists, IT specialists all get screwed when they leave.
Ask just about any veteran that has served, they are incredibly likely to be staunchly anti-military.
The military causes a tremendous amount of damage to every person involved, even if they aren't aware of it at the time.
It’s a cult, it’s an abusive relationship, it’s predatory. Treat it as such.
Support veterans, advocate for their care. They made choices you may not agree with, but they made them because of what they thought the military was offering to them. Many thought they were doing the right thing for their country - that was the lie they were fed from 9/11 on (in the US). Then they were chewed up, spit out, and left for dead by the same people that made all those promises to them.
Here are some US-based, apolitical Veteran Support groups (many have International chapters/members):
22 Until None - 501-C3 that provides support to veterans by veterans. There are local chapters on Facebook that are all active and are listed on the website
Disabled American Veteran - Veteran help association; involved in legislation and local assistance, connections to VA advocates to help navigate the VA
Wounded Warrior Project - 501-C3 charity supporting disabled veterans.
Note: I am absolutely not doing the "not all servicemembers" thing here. I'm saying "veterans are living with their choices, and still deserve access to care."
Ficbook.net and Unauthorized Translations - An Update
Update to the update: some of the fics have been removed! 🎉 This happened before I finished this write-up even!
You may have seen this post last night about some CoD X Reader fics having unauthorized translations posted to the Russian site ficbook.net. @karlachismylife was monumental in helping me understand what's going on, and there's some explanation in that link from her POV as well.
Basically - multiple people have copied and translated fanfics into Russian and hosted them on ficbook.net. They're rough translations, some going as far as to use literal translations for turns of phrase. Most likely, they were run through a translation software (Google Translate or similar) and then roughly edited. (Juju mentioned that there is a subset of jobs in Russia where that is your job description. 😖)
Most of them have come from Tumblr posts, some from AO3. Very few had attribution beyond "tagging" the original author. (Aka - no consent was given for these translations.)
@syoddeye took the time to compile a list found here (google sheet). At the time of writing, 65 fics CoD x Reader fics were found - we know there's more but we only have so many knives in a day. (Sy did not look into slash fics either.)
Authors that have been tagged in the comments: I'm sorry you found out this way. I wanted to tell you in person, but given Tumblr's likelihood of thinking I was spamming you, I felt that this was the best option to alert you, provide you with options, and let you determine how you wish to move forward.
So what can be done?
If you already have an account, please report the fics! I'm told that spamming reports gets it taken down. Also consider messaging the author and ask them to remove them - they do not have the author's consent to publish them.
If you want to make an account and report the linked fics, you can. I have chosen not to, because I don't want to give Ficbook any extra support I otherwise might by doing so (clicks, ad views, account numbers).
If the author does not have closed comments (or you have an account), you can leave a comment on the fic.
Russian: Автор оригинала лично подтвердил, что не давал разрешения на перевод и публикацию. English: Author of the work personally confirmed that they did not give permission to translate and publish.
Finally - check in on your author friends that are on that list. It's devastating to find out your work has been plagiarized, translated and hosted somewhere else without your consent. Reblog their work, share comments, hype them up!
A couple of notes: (Juju correct me if I've fucked any of this up 💚)
The posters are likely not making money off the unauthorized translations. The website and their owners definitely are (ads, "premium features", promotion tools, etc.)
Ficbook.net is the biggest Russian language fanfiction platform - somewhat akin to AO3, but it doesn't have a great reputation within Russian circles because of the stealing and underhanded practices the owners use.
AO3 is banned in Russia, and Tumblr is one of the few places Russians can easily (aka without VPNs and Mirrors) read English version of fanfic.
CoD isn't the only fandom affected - there are dozens that have more posted, and we only scratched the surface in our list.
Finally, if you want to translate works, TALK TO THE AUTHOR. A lot of folks don't like having their work shared without their consent. Even if you feel like you are doing a good thing spreading it to a wider audience, YOU NEED THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT. If they've deleted their presence and their stories from hosting sites (tumblr, AO3, etc) - you don't get to pretend you're doing them a favor by reposting them. Respect their decisions.
I’m not saying I’m going to GM a campaign, but I’m not not saying that I don’t have ideas whirling around my head.
My ADHD is doing the ADHD thing. 🫣 And I miss clicky clacky math rocks.
Okay - re Ficbook.net and the (unauthorized) Russian translations.
I spoke with @karlachismylife (who is a gem and a delightful person).
You have to have an account to report fics there, and the author that I was told about has locked comments.
If you want instructions (and to make an account), I'm happy to help you with what needs to be done. Basically, it's spam the report until the system locks you out.
Juju's gone ahead and:
messaged the author about it, asking them to take the fics down since they don't have author approval.
messaged her friends (who are also Russian and have accounts) to report the works. (note: it is also very late/early in Moscow, so it may be a bit before they wake up.)
She told me (verbatim) that it is a very bad translation - it is not adapted to Russian and used a phrase verbatim instead of the intent.
Most likely, this person threw it into Google Translate, adjusted some of the super egregious stuff, and threw it up. It happens in other fandoms too - to the point there are ads out there looking for people to do exactly what this person has done.
If you're one of these people that has copied works over to ficbook.net or similar sites, I hope you perpetually stub your pinky toes and your shoes are always a little leaky/socks are always damp. Fuck you.
People put so much love and passion into their work and you decide to try and make a dollar off their back (when in the US, fanfic cannot be monetized)? How disgusting, awful, and shitty of you. That is how you lose those fics and those authors in the first place - by plagiarizing, copying and translating works without consent.
I'm sorry I don't have more concrete actions for us non-Russians to take - I was hoping making an account wasn't necessary, but I refuse to give that site more clicks and revenue and accounts that support them.
