Normally, I don't ask anyone for anything here. Normally, I cry my ears off and that's it.
But today I'm hoping for the masses. The swarm. I'm hoping not to be alone.
In Germany, similar things are happening slowly, insidiously, and frighteningly to what's happening in England and America. Under the guise of protecting minors and women... What a lie. The CSU/CDU in Hesse recently presented a bill to the state parliament to list severely mentally ill people. The reason given is that they are a danger to themselves and others.
Now the Ministry of the Interior (someone from the CSU/CDU also sits here) has presented a bill to list trans, intersex, and non-binary people. The reason is youth protection, protection from crime.
If both bills come into force, then I'll be on both lists. Because i simply exist.
I ask you to sign this petition. The more votes we have to cancel one of the laws, the better. If you don't want to sign the petition, please reblog this post.
Hallo, ich bin Penelope Alva Frank, Transfrau, queerfeministische Aktivistin und Gründerin der queerfeministischen Bewegung Queermany.
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This petition is in german language, i hope you'll can help yourself with a translator-tool.
Within the Territory resides a secret: a society that is spoken of only in whispers, to hide their family from the outside world. Marked in the shadows of the trees, patches of spearmint and peppermint are closely guarded, with the highly coveted catmint carefully hoarded and cultivated. These cats consider themselves the best hidden followers of Derecho, appropriately titled “The Storm Society”.
The more sober and sane members of the Clan simply refer to them as the Loopers.
Seen as little more than a babbling cult of dopeheads, they are nowhere near as stealthy as they think they are. Pretty much everyone who’s traveled knows of them – if they aren’t rolling around giddily under the intoxicating effects of their precious drugs, they’re trying to convert others to join their cause of getting high and wasting time. It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
The Storm Society worships Derecho with a particular fierceness, almost entirely excluding the rest of the aspects. They firmly believe that the plants they ingest connect them to him spiritually. Given his chaotic and excitable nature, it’s easy to assume he’s caused those plants’ existences and left a little of his constant amusement behind in them. Lucky thing these cats managed to discover that, or they might have been productive.
The members of the Storm Society have a mark on the bottom of their paws - a line with a hook at the end - scarred into one of their back feet. This mark signifies you as a true brother/sister and will give you access to any of their corners of the world (and their stashes, of course). This would be an easy way to infiltrate and bring the Loopers down, but given their pretty irreverent and harmless nature, most cats simply scoff and leave them to their own devices.
Surprisingly, there is some structure within the community. There is always a deputy, whose main job is to name apprentices brought into the group (guided by Derecho’s wisdom, of course – that is to say, eating the plants before the ceremony) and make sure the “gardens” are being cared for. There are also pastors, and they are the ones to sing the praises of Derecho and encourage others to bring cats in, or join the Storm Society themselves. Their most common role is to lead a party in chewing the herbs and ensuring no one does anything too stupid while intoxicated.
Once upon a time, these members may have been respectable, but ever since CobbleClan warriors discovered the plants (left behind by a careless human, no doubt) and their effects, things have just been going downhill. It is very fortunate that the Clan is so well taken care of by StarClan, or the Loopers would have starved to death in the name of delirium long ago.
The troublemaking apprentice [and warrior] thugs known as the Larrikins. This minor group acts akin to bumbling cartoon henchmen, and tends to more just tolerate each other than be a close group.
Pumaswipe - A molly who hold a position in the group that is as close to a leader as they’ll have. Calls herself Pumaswipe in an attempt to sound more intimidating, but her name is Fawnpaw.
Periwinkleclaw - A tom who is probably the most genuinely threatening of the group. A warrior who joined due to wanting to actually fight cats.
Radishpaw - A molly who is the smartest of the group and very proud of it, but really isn’t all that clever.
Scarpaw - A tom with one blind eye, and one green eye. He tried to give himself a scar on the top and bottom of his eye to look cool, but accidentally blinded that eye. In general, tries and fails to be cool.
Smokepaw - A tom who attempts to be the cool, antisocial edgy loner. He only succeeded in making even his fellow Larrikins hate him.
Weevilpaw - A tom who is Dowitcherpaw’s brother, and loves to pick fights with other cats. However, his isn’t actually very good at fighting.
Dowitcherpaw - A molly who is Weevilpaw’s sister, and is only in the group to try and keep her brother safe and convince him to leave with her. Often wonders what’s wrong with these people.
The cats that make up one of the minor groups, the Coyotes. Due to the large amount of minor characters in various groups, less relevant characters like these will be colored in like this rather than having individual drawings.
Gracklefang - A large tom who is the leader of the Coyotes. Leader of the group due to being an excellent prank tactician.
Quailthroat - A molly who is second in command of the Coyotes. Very charismatic and great at improvising, which helps with unexpected problems.
Firwhisker - A tom who is the sneak of the group. A bit overconfident, but not excessively so.
Iceflight - A molly with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Also a member of the Fleet, but determined to help out the Coyotes when she can.
Lilacpelt - A molly who is the mom of the group, who tends to take care of things like hunting. Is more well-rounded in terms of skills.
Turtlepaw - A molly who is a rebellious spirit, and as a result enthusiastically joined the Coyotes as quickly as she could.
Martinpaw - A naive tom who joined the Coyotes, only to quickly realize he didn’t know what he was getting into.
The characters that consist of the minor storytelling group, the Margays.
Garterthroat - A larger molly. An actor who plays out tales told by the storytellers. Often slotted as a monster, and unsure whether she loves or hates it.
Cherrypath - A tom who often coaches new members of the Margays. Patient and well-spoken, but tends to be in the background for performances.
Shadesong - A small tom who is often the actor who plays the plucky underdog. Agile thanks to playing in many fight scenes.
Gingerpatch - A handsome tom who is the third actor of the group, and is a medium between the extremes of the other two. Miffed he’s not a -face.
Pipitfoot - A molly who loves wordplay as well as the fantastical elements of a story. Tells epics about heroes and mythical beasts in action.
Sootstorm - A very lanky molly who knows a lot about the Clans’ stories and beliefs. If asked about it, is happy to ramble about said stories and beliefs.
Laureldawn - A lanky molly with a long face. She specializes in horror stories, and makes the horror feel very real thanks to her eerie appearance and voice.
Cricketnose - A cat who loves to tell stories and fables with morals to them. They enjoy a good philosophical debate, especially regarding the morals of said stories.
This is still under the potential of rewrites and edits, but I might as well post this now so I have it where I can get it.
These are the nomadic groups that are not considered large enough to be a family or hold an official position in the leaders’ circle. They do not have a deputy, technically, nor do they adhere to the typical family formula - that is, they regularly bring in new cats to let older ones retire to a stationary life, after they have passed down all necessary information to their juniors. Very rarely are any of these cats related.
Magpies: About as close to merchants as the Territory will get, the Magpies are nicknamed ironically, as they absolutely hate real magpies thanks to the constant raids on their goods by these insatiably materialistic birds. They prefer to be called “Hawkers”, but only they use that name. Regardless, these cats travel all over the Territory (save the north, where the Plage have their work covered), scoop up interesting items they find scattered around, and exchange them to others with many embellishments on their qualities for various favors, services and goods, usually particularly fat prey. It is not coincidental that the Magpies are pretty poor hunters and fighters, though they are excellent trackers.
Vultures: The historians of the Clan, and very well appreciated by the more progressive residents, while disliked by traditionalists. The Brae have a particular vendetta against them for their refusal to color history and paint the older families as better and truly adhering to the standard the Clans held themselves to. The Vultures share their information with each other, but generally, one cat focuses on one area to memorize and record so that every family and group is covered. Weirdly, they have an iffy relationship with StarClan, preferring to learn all they can about the time before StarClan began altering the world around the Clans.
Margays: Named for a near-mythical catlike creature brought to the Clan by stories from southerners. Also known as the “Raconteurs”, this community is full of those that consider themselves professional storytellers and actors. They’re heralded by personal messengers that travel with the group to announce their arrival, which often means they get to stay in a family’s camp for a few days to perform, entertain, and swap fables and favorite stories with the community. Many kits have responded to being scolded with a temper tantrum and a declaration that they’ll join with the Margays and become an actor, which is rarely taken seriously. If that ever happens with a member nearby, however, they’re more than happy to actually teach the kit a thing or two about telling a good tale - and perhaps come back for them as an apprentice one day.
Coyotes: A collection of pranksters named after the general stereotype of coyotes - cunning, chaotic and with a penchant for troublemaking. Members are generally fairly young and agile, with retired cats traveling between den sites instead of the entire Territory. They have no set, regimented hierarchy, though there usually is a casual leader who prefers one cat or another to help them. The Coyotes take great pride in their stealthiness and ability to get from one area to another unseen. This helps them strike in unexpected places and disappear before consequences can reach them. The general opinion of them is spliced into thirds - some find them amusing, some hate their guts, and others (read: apprentices and kits) absolutely adore them. They’ve inspired a few copycats (ha), which is both good and bad, as explained below.
Larrikins: The only group to not name themselves after animals due to being pretty recent in the Clan’s history. Originally, they just took after the Coyotes and tried doing what they did, but over time their jokes and pranks became crueler and crueler, until it colored the group’s general personality. Nowadays, they wander around causing problems and fighting random passerby. This is one of the few collectives in the entire Territory to have its members boastfully display their scars, which intimidates quite a lot of outsiders who don’t know that the Larrikins give each other these scars. They mostly stick to the west and southern areas, since much bigger, tougher cats in the other places can push back against them and scare them off.
