"The · difference · between · the · right · word · and · the · almost · right · word..."

I discovered the The Random Final Fantasy 7 Yaoi Pairing Generator.
I have a plan. A plan in which Zack gets a lot of sex. The idea is to write yaoicrackfics, but I have to put some of the fics into the Gen category, or this will turn into "everyone in FF7 is gay" and my brain will explode. The forcast is: mostly drabbleish, with a possibility of artwork or longer ficlets. I'm going to try to do four each day until I'm done, so it should take about 12 days.

I know nothing about Before Crisis. All of this is probably going to end up being AU. Lame.


Edit: Done.

...On to the Cloud x Zack fluff AU goodness!!


( The Crackfics )

I saw you on my way home from school. You were in a body bag, or most of you was, with what I assume were bits of you spread about, covered in trash bags. I wonder what you were thinking. What it was like to be a bystander, to be the conductor of that train, to be you, running out in front of it. Was it spontaneous, or did you plan it that way? Why somewhere so public, in the middle of the day? What were you trying to achieve? Who were you?

Yes, we did stop and stare. Death is hidden from us, disguised, denied. When it's finally out in the open, most of us can't help but stare. I wonder if you wanted us to see, or if you just didn't care anymore.

They/them/their was the singular neutral until a bunch of old white guys got together in the 16th century (or 1600s?) and decided to change it to him/his/he, and so it has been since.

A friend of mine said, "but it's so alienating to women!" and I kinda laughed, but I've been reconsidering recently just how alienating it is to read "he" and "him" and "his" everywhere in academia. It's used because it's "less specific," by convention; to refer to a man can be to refer to an abstract human, whereas to refer to a woman is to refer specifically to a woman. Or so they claim.

But I've been reading things directed to "she" and "her" etc. And after the initial weirdness (and isn't it telling that it's weird) I started to like it. A man reading something to "she" would probably feel like it wasn't directed at him, or would feel like the usage was awkward, alienating. So why shouldn't a woman reading he/his? Convention? Women have been exposed to this for the past several hundred years, to the point that it's no longer strange (well, at first they were actually excluded from academics... how's that for alienation?)

That's like saying, "I'm used to being ignored. It doesn't hurt anymore." You don't noice the hurt because it runs so deep it's become a part of you.

An example of how deeply it pervades our abstract, academic thinking: In my philosophy class this weekend, we were talking about social justice. We got on the topic of race, and my teacher said how awesome it was that we have a black president, "Because now black parents don't have to tell their kids they have to become president. It will be a given, like it is for white kids."
Cough cough cough. White kids, in the abstract, meaning many he-s, sure. Little boys probably don't have to be told (although it probably doesn't hurt.)
I said, "White male kids."
And he countered with something about Hilary, which is valid, but... (insert argument about women gaining power on male terms.)
I'm not a kid anymore. This is an ingrained part of my personality, now, and I'm just realizing how deep it goes, and I don't like it.
I should have said, "My parents told me I could be president when I grew up. I stopped believing it about the same time I stopped believing I could be a princess."
(Which was shortly after I stopped believing I could be a tiger.)

I am pleased as punch with how it turned out.

This thing has been in the works for a year at least (by which I mean that I bought a hoodie, fabric paint, and stencil sheets a year ago.) I tried to cut out one stencil, f-ed it up, and then forgot about it.

( Yesterday I decided stencils were pointless. )

So, anyone with fabric paint experience: I heat-set the paint, but I'm not sure it will stay put- am I going to have to hand wash this or can it go in the machine in cold water or what? Paint bottle gives me no answers!

These are scary. The first one is art depicting statistics, the second is about garbage in the ocean.

Running The Numbers: An American Self Portrait.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

So. I think it would be really cool if all of us reposted this, and asked everyone on our friends' lists to do so as well, and so on.
I know some people genuinely don't care about the environment, but most of us, when we see something like this, want to do something about it. The first step is making more people aware of the situation.