Because The Valentines Are Coming And People Are Asking Questions

"We need to recognize that for some people sex is great and for some sex is horrific and for some it’s on par with folding laundry."

(~Sex Isn’t Always Good by queenieofaces)

Alright, kiddies, it’s that time again. Giveaway time! This giveaway is kind of sort of celebrating my approaching 30,000 follower mark, but really I just want to get rid of my leftover con merchandise. If you want to see my other tees just head on over to my RedBubble!

Here are the rules (please see before reblogging!):

This giveaway will end on August 1st, 2013, so you have plenty of time!

You can only reblog once. I repeat. ONCE. If you reblog more than once, it’s not very fair to the other people who want to win, and plus Tumblr doesn’t show multiple reblogs, so really it decreases your chances of winning.

Likes do not count.

You do not have to be following me, but it is always appreciated!

Please, for the love of god, have your ask or submit page open! I need to be able to contact you through tumblr!

I do not have any other sizes besides these, so please don’t ask. These tees are what I had leftover from my last con.

I will not do specific button requests, you get what I pull out of my magical button box. They’re all great though, don’t worry.

I might throw in some bookmarks! You’ll have to wait and see!

There will be three winners, each chosen at random with a random number generator. 

Each winner will receive one tee (out of the three shown), three random buttons, a hand-drawn doodle of choice, and a handy-dandy business card (those were leftover too I want to get rid of them jusT TAKE ALL OF MY THINGS).

If you are chosen as a winner, and your ask/submit pages are not open, I will choose someone else. If you are chosen and your ask/submit pages are up, you must respond to my contact within 24 hours or I will choose someone else.

I can ship world-wide, and I will pay for shipping. Customs fees are a bitch, but I will do it. Just know that it might take a while for your package to get to you! I’ll let you know when I’m sending them out!

The winners will get to choose their tees, first come first serve to whomever replies to me first! If you do not get the tee you wanted, I can always send you just a drawing by snail mail and I can choose a different winner of the tee!

Happy reblogging! If you have any questions just ask!

Reblog this and I'll send your URL to BC

I’m filling a notebook with the URLs of the Cumber Collective to send with the Relax the Real Project. Reblog and I will include yours!

Selfie Tag

Tagged: @jellydishes​​ ⁌ ⁍ (Thank you~ 🤗 🖤)

Tagging: All other interested parties. @ me in your posts if you try it out! 💄✨ 📸

Something strange is going on with the way we talk about feelings. Emotional responses are mocked in some but honored in others. The same people deride millennials and their “safe spaces” where feelings are never hurt, and then fall back on the refrain that “I just feel more secure when I have a gun.” Feelings, it seems, are either a laughable distraction or a crucial decision-making element, depending on who’s having them. The need to feel safe, in particular, is often treated as childish and absurd—but only when coming from people who have actual reason to feel vulnerable. Asking to be recognized as your true gender? It’s all in your head. Asking for accommodations for illness and disability? You’re too sensitive. Recounting experiences of dehumanization because of your race or gender? What an overreaction. But those who want to make the country “safer” by securing the borders against people they perceive as outsiders are never painted as whiners or cowards. The police officers killing unarmed folks in a moment of panic are not mocked for failing to keep their feelings in check. When someone wants a deadly weapon, their desire to feel safe becomes a rugged and real and sexy conviction.

Stop Treating Emotions Like Character Flaws Of The Powerless - The Establishment

(via k-ee-t)

Parvati Holcomb: The Unaccountably Happy Face of the Unreliable

The Outer Worlds, the new space RPG courtesy of Obsidian, helpfully provides your player character with exactly the sort of ragtag gang of misfits which you are probably expecting in such a game. Today, we’re going to talk about the most important of them. 

Parvati Holcomb, likely the first companion you meet and definitely the first companion you can recruit, is a well-written female-character. Her talents for engineering and her incredibly positive and cheerful outlook quickly draw comparison with the character of Kaylee from Firefly (allegedly one of the main inspirations for the character), but there is one very clear difference between the two. 

Parvati Holcomb is an asexual character. 

While the term “asexual” is never actually used in the game, Parvati’s experiences and worries were so obviously born form the real-life experiences of asexual people that I was not the least bit surprised that she had been written by an asexual woman: 

I was, however, properly delighted that Parvati had always been intended to be an asexual character, even before an asexual woman took over as Parvati’s writer; Chris L’Etoile, the original writer, explicitly made the decision to create a warm and loving character, someone who could see the beauty and hope in a failing colony, who could express all the wonder they wanted their players to feel, and then he decided to make her asexual as well. 

The stereotypical ‘link’’ between asexuality and ‘coldness’ is even explicitly referenced by Parvati herself, when she explains her fears about starting a new relationship: “I’m not much interested in… physical stuff. Never have been. Leastways not like other folk seem to be. It’s not that I can’t. I just don’t care for it. It’s been a problem, in the past. The folk who wanted to be with me, back in the Vale? They didn’t - They said I was cold.”

The first response offered to players? “You’re about the warmest person I ever met. To hell with them.” 

Indeed, The Outer Worlds is a game which, over and over again, tells us that Parvati is not cold or unfeeling. This is a young woman who names a robot the moment she fixes it, who worries if the Captain calls the ship’s computer “it”, who checks in with crew members and, in a game with a reputation system (rather than a Mass Effect style morality system), acts as the world’s most adorable conscience. 

And, while Parvati does find her relationship with Junlei complicated, those complications have very little to do with her sexuality and far more to do with her being a young woman, away from home for the first time, and experiencing possibly the first great love of her life. There are miscommunications, a night of drowning sorrows, endless over-analysing of each other’s words and actions, and the need to go to four different worlds just to plan a date. As the player character can say: 

PC: “If you two marry, you’ll be saying, ‘Haha, just kidding. Unless you’re not.’” Parvati: “I resent you saying such, on account of it being uncomfortably likely.”

But once Parvati has worked up the courage to tell Junlei who she is, the relationship works well. Well enough for Parvati to find a new home with Junlei once the fight is over: 

Now, I always expect an Obsidian game to have some awareness of the wider spectrum of human sexuality - Fallout New Vegas included some same-sex relationships, and the player character could be played as straight, gay or bisexual, depending on which perks you picked. But I wasn’t expecting the only great romance subplot in an entire game to include an asexual woman actively pursuing another woman. Were this just one relationship among many, it would still be beautiful, but for it to take centre-stage and not have to share that space with anything else? It’s phenomenal. 

And, just when I think that The Outer Worlds couldn’t get any more lovely, it did this: 

Yep, that’s the option to identify your character explicitly as asexual. There’s even the option just afterwards to clarify your character as aromantic as well, which Parvati takes perfectly in her stride with a nice little nod to the player’s strong relationships with their friends. Either revelation is meant with the same response from Parvati: 

“So we’re… we’re kin-like. That makes me, well - unaccountably happy, Captain. It’s a lonely thing, being different like this.” 

Judging from that reaction, the Captain is likely the first fellow asexual who Parvati has met, and the relief in her voice was such a punch to the gut. Because Parvati’s right - the loneliness of feeling “other” sinks in fast and there’s nothing quite like the relief when you finally feel like maybe you’re not alone after all. 

And the idea that this game and this character might give that moment of relief to someone out there, well, that just makes me unaccountably happy as well.

If they “don’t think people are really bi/ace,” or if they think they can’t trust you because you’re bi/ace, you deserve better. Invalidating your identity or using your identity against you is not okay, and having a partner who does that might feel like it comes with the territory of being bi/ace, but I promise you it doesn’t.

Finally got my next giveaway info up! If ya want a drawing like this from me, reblog this post! (Character can be from any time period, btw!) You can reblog as many times as ya want, but tumblr only registers one reblog per tumblr account; reblogging more than once just repositions your name in the number order. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks to everybody who follows me for your support and the kind words you always have for me. Means so much to me; thank you~

Finished binding another one! This is Desiderium, a fantastic re-imagining of AOT canon if Eren and Levi had joined the Survey Corps at the same time. Written by the wonderful @omnidirectionalmanoeuvregay! Gripping plot, the slooowest burn, hilarious voicing--everything about this fic is just! *chef's kiss*

Green and white for the Survey Corps colors, and gold keys for...well, you know ;D

This fic was so much fun to bind for so many reasons! Lots of firsts: first time splitting a single fic into two volumes (390k words will do that to ya!), first time doing a full-cloth case, first time hand-sewing headbands, first time I get to use my new imprint logo! I'm super pleased with the results.

Thank you so much for letting me bind your work, Wilde! I adore this fic and am soso happy to finally have it on my shelf <3

A shout out to writers who support writers

Writers who may be feeling insecure out their own writing, yet still enthusiastically reblog and comment on someone else’s fic.

Writers who may struggle to find time to write their own stories, yet still read fics and take the time to let the writers know how much they like it in tags, asks, comments.

Writers who can appreciate and share a fic even though it might not be their ship or their “thing” because they respect the quality and the writer.

Writers who have tons of followers and share lesser known fics to help them get exposure.

Writers who have a small number of followers and will still reblog the popular fics.

Writers who will help another writer brainstorm or get through a tough part of their fic.

Writers who beta for other writers.

Writers who are kind and secure enough to support other writers.

I see you, and appreciate the hell out of you.