I'm Quite Proud Of This Sentence:

I'm quite proud of this sentence:

"G'raha, the poor, sweet moron, looked as if he'd been hit over the head, as he always did when confronted with the undeniable fact that he was actually quite lovely."

Posting this here too, in light of Everything™

Sweater vest attempt number two is going well

i think i may have just realized why i have the hots for lestat de lioncourt

New Alt-Right Playbook! This one's on spurious claims and how they don't even need to be ARTICULATED to follow you around.

If you wanna keep this series coming out (and maybe help it come out a little faster) do please consider backing me on Patreon or subscribing to me on Nebula.

Transcript below the cut.

Say, for the sake of argument, you are the kind of progressive leftist with a platform who gets a share of harassment - seasonal or perennial - from reactionaries. In this situation, you will, inevitably, hear one who positions themself as a reasonable moderate ask, “Why Don’t You Respond To Criticism?”

There’s a lot going on in that question, more than is obvious, and it’s worth understanding.

First is that the question is not only directed at you. It exists as a marker, showing up in your Q&A’s, comment sections, or Twitter threads, to imply to anyone paying attention to you that there is some wealth of legitimate criticism you have long ignored. There may well be a specific point this person is referring to, but it’s often left unspecified or generalized, so that the content - and the quantity - of the criticism is left to audience imagination. It is meant to publicly undermine your legitimacy.

Second, it’s meant to make you question whether there is some legitimate criticism out there in the din of people screaming at you. You’re not perfect, and a knock-on effect of being harassed is you get numbed out, unable to discern good faith from bad, often removing yourself from the streams through which your peers used to correct you because of the endless flow of garbage coming through those channels now. But the only way to verify the ambiguous claim that there is criticism worth responding to is to once again strap on waders and climb in, which is often what your critic really wants.

Third, the question isn’t really “why don’t you respond to criticism?” Odds are, you do respond to some criticism. People in your position are often addressing or pre-empting criticism all the time, arguably too much. No, what this nonspecific question is really asking is, “Why don’t you respond to my criticism?” They’ll let it sound like you’ve been ignoring everyone, but they mean “why are you ignoring me?” They are going to insist you owe them a response, that their critique, regardless of your opinion of it, is valid, and demands immediate attention. Odds are there are dozens of people saying the same, all at once.

Fourth, odds are good that you have, in fact, addressed their specific complaint, but not in a manner they will accept. This one person’s criticism is likely not unique, you may have covered it somewhere in your output purely because you know what kind of arguments are getting thrown at you and you want to cover your bases. There’s a decent chance your critic doesn’t actually consume enough of your work to have seen it. But it’s maybe even more likely that they are aware of your counter-argument - possibly one of your fans directed them to it - but don’t consider a response legitimate unless it is directed at the critic. Covering it in a different context or on a different platform doesn’t count. They are owed a statement they can respond to directly, because they want the argument to continue. Really, the question is, “Why don’t you respond to my criticism on my terms?”

Finally, even if you did respond to them by name, it’s likely your response would still be disqualified. If you were to summarize their argument in any way, they would claim you are building a straw man. If you isolated any specific critique, or pointed to the cruelty that accompanied it, they would claim you’re cherry-picking. You must, it seems, first present the criticism, full and unabridged, before you may respond to it. Which is to say: the only “correct” way to respond to criticism is to platform the critic.

And there are dozens who expect this of you. Who will tear into you for not addressing, in meticulous detail, every single critique they’ve ever tossed your way, and, in the same breath, make fun of you for talking too much. Because they don’t want to move on from “Why Don’t You Respond to Criticism?” As a rhetorical tactic, it’s pretty ace. To announce, before the argument is even stated, that it is thus far undefeated? ::chef’s kiss:: Because any response you make will keep the focus on you and not their argument. “It’s not worth responding to.” “Well why should The Accused get to decide what is and isn’t worth responding to?” “I have responded, repeatedly.” “Well why didn’t you respond in this particular way?” None of this looks at whether the argument had any credibility to begin with, only at whether your rebuttal is following procedure.

Take, for example, the hypothetical criticism that you should not listen to me because I am just four eels in a trenchcoat. How would I respond to that? What can I say that isn’t exactly what four eels in a trenchcoat would say? “I’m not even wearing a trenchcoat”? Well, the first thing four eels would do when people start to catch on is wear hoodies. Show my birth certificate, saying I was born a single entity to a human mother at a weight four newborn eels wouldn’t add up to? Well, did that work for Obama? Or did the guy saying the birth certificate was fake get elected President? And, of course, anything I have to say about how fascism has evolved on the social internet is suspect if I can’t even prove I’m human. What do fish know?? We stayed at war with Iraq for seven years after the government announced the Weapons of Mass Destruction we were looking for never existed, and some people, to this day, still think we found them. What hope would I - a warm-blooded mammal who would make very mediocre sushi - stand in the face of that? [bell chime]

So, if you ever see this claim out in the wild, “why haven’t you responded to _____,” ask: do you know what _____ is, do you yourself agree it’s a valid question, and are you sure it hasn’t already been answered? And don’t repeat the question unless you’ve got three yesses.

New FFXIV fic: Research: the Most Fun a Catboy Can Have Without Taking off His Clothes

Length: 2 chapters, 8.5K words total Alisaie (trans) / G'raha (trans) / Warrior of Light (non-binary) (Eventual) very smutty smut As always: (1) I don't care what the devs say, Alisaie is absolutely not 16. By 5.3, she'd be about 23. (2) In a world where no one is explicitly gay or trans, that means anyone can be.

- - -

Alisaie shifted and looked down at her hands. "I had several classes with Raha at the Studium, but we were never anything other than friends there. At that point, he still thought his precious Allagans could do no wrong, and he spent all his time with a nose in a book while I was always skipping classes. Then, when we met again in the First, he'd been the Exarch too long, and he was so paranoid and secretive. Not to mention the way he was always manipulating everyone around him."

"He had to," I felt obliged to point out. "The stakes were too high."

"They were," Alisaie acknowledged, then took a deep breath. "But this new Raha..." Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head, obviously unsure how to finish the sentence.

"He's like a fusion," I offered. "With the best qualities of both of the previous versions."

"Yes!" Alisaie's eyes flashed with relief as she looked up to meet my gaze. "He's... he's experienced. Confident. Not so desperately, irritatingly eager to prove himself, because he's already done it! And being able to set down the Exarch's mantle has made him so much more open and... trusting. He believes in everyone, and trusts people to do what they're good at." She sighed and scrubbed a hand over her face. "Hells, I don't think I'm doing a good job of explaining it."

"Believe me, I get it," I said, putting my hand over one of hers. "The new G'raha is walking competence porn."

Completely caught off guard, Alisaie burst out into loud peals of cackling laughter. Finally, she was able to wrestle back some control and gave me a conspiratorial grin as she wiped her eyes. "So what would you think of maybe making our V into a triangle?"

I grinned. "It would make my life a lot easier, honestly. It's been a bit awkward trying to juggle separate one-on-one time with everything that's been going on." I paused and leaned forward as I lowered my voice. "And assuming he's on board with it, I'd love to see that pretty cock of yours in his mouth while I fuck him."

Alisaie actually blushed. "So how should I... you know. Talk to him?"

"Wow," I drawled, grinning teasingly. "Look at you not marching up to him and flat out demanding to get your mouth on his junk. You must have it really bad."

"Shut up, you," she growled, turning an even brighter shade of red.

I widened my eyes innocently. "I thought you were looking for advice?"

There was a loud thunk as Alisaie banged her forehead on the table. "I hate you. I hate you so much."

"Too bad. Guess I'll just keep him to myself then."

Alisaie lifted her head and glared at me in a way that promised I would absolutely pay for this later. "Fine. Please. Give me some advice."

I smirked. "Offer to help him do research."

It was a struggle not to laugh at the dismay on her face. "I hate research."

"So do I. And yet, my advice stands."

Alisaie scowled at me suspiciously.

"You'll get to impress him with how many books you can carry," I teased.

"You're holding out on me," Alisaie hissed, poking me hard in the shoulder. "What aren't you telling me?"

I leaned forward and held her gaze as I dropped my voice to a whisper. "He always gets horny when he's really onto some hot bit of research, and he claims that getting fucked helps him put the pieces together faster."

Alisaie's face lit up like a Starlight Tree. "Really," she breathed.

"Oh yeah," I whispered back. "It sounds wild, but several times now I've fucked him over his desk, and then he's filled an entire blackboard with notes. Clearly something about it works for him. So I help fetch and carry the books he needs, which saves him time, and I bring something to work on when he doesn't need me. After a few hours, he starts babbling about something it would take three Doctorates to follow, and that's usually about when he starts begging me to fuck him."

Alisaie's was practically salivating by the time I finished. "How do I get myself invited to one of these sessions?" she asked, enthralled.

Read the whole thing on AO3