Room 508, Sunday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy hadn't intended to spend the evening grumpy. She had intended to get a more studying in; her AP classes were a lot more grueling than anything Fandom could come up with and she didn't have any dedicated class time to work on them. But after two hours of staring at Calculus problems and Spanish vocab, Kathy had decided she needed a break. She took Minako out for a walk (and fortunately, she hadn't wanted to stay out in the chill any longer than Kathy had!), and stopped in a common room long enough to boil some water for tea, but when she got back to her room, she found herself pulling up Tumblr on her laptop rather than settling back with a text book.

It's okay, she rationalized to herself. I'll just spend a few minutes catching up on my dash and then I'll get back to work.

An hour later, Kathy was typing VERY ANGRILY at some ass over racist Halloween costumes and the sexual fetishization of young girls in general and young Asian girls in particular. "Don't you even tell me that it's 'just a preference', you neck-bearded, mouth-breathing, spunk-stain!" Kathy snapped aloud. "You've been culturally conditioned to believe that we're all docile, pretty, and doll-like, who want nothing more than to cater to your every puerile, colonial fantasy!"

Yeah, there wasn't going to be any more studying done tonight.

[For one, please!]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

Not really. Not at first. But when he thought about it --

"A little, actually," he said. "Before the Templars took me away I was like any other brat in my village. I didn't like the deep woods or large animals or going to the privy at night without a torch. But once I'd been in the Circle a while, I stopped caring about any of that. Nobody else remembered who I'd been at home. Nobody was going to tattle to my father. I could be who I wanted to be."

Though one more point of difference remained.

"However," he added, "I'm sure you'll be stunned to hear I was never exactly quiet. I just didn't have as much of a purpose to my chatter before the Circle."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm boggled by this revelation," she said, trying for deadpan but unable to keep her lips from twitching. "I may end up falling down off the bed in shock."

She thought she was hilarious.

"But, yes, like that. Online, I could be something other than quiet, boring, Kathy." Much like her Banzai persona now, in fact. "I was someone with things to say who wasn't afraid to say them. And, well, people started listening. I got to learn fascinating things that spoke to me as honest and true but that I'd never heard said before and then I got to turn around them and share them with other people. People who were ignorant, but ready to learn. People who had never heard these things either, but needed to. Young girls who needed to hear that they didn't have to be thin and pretty and sexy and whatever else the media tells them that they have to be. And that's important, because it was the kind of stuff I needed to hear, too."

She had dropped her eyes again, nervously playing with her hair so she didn't have to see if Anders was looking at her like she were crazy.

"Like you said, it gives me a purpose for my chatter. Like...imagine you could tell all the little kid mages that they were okay for being angry at the Chantry for taking them away, that it was normal to feel hurt or scared or to question the teachings. Sure, maybe you'll never sway a Templar to thinking that you deserve to live your life free from the Circle, but you might be able to reach the mages who are watching your argument, staying silent, but listening to everything you have to say."

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, shut up," Anders said in response to Kathy's hilarity, with a snort that suggested he wasn't so offended at all.

He listened closely to the rest of what she said, barely sneaking a few glances at the cats on the computer screen. (So cute.) "That would be fantastic. We once got a letter from an Antivan Circle and it made its way from hand to hand until it fell to bits. If we could talk like that whenever we wanted? You couldn't keep us down."

"Also," he added earnestly, "I know this isn't the point but you are thin and pretty, and you could be sexy if you wanted to." Parents' weekend had proven that much, though he doubted Kathy wanted to be reminded.

[spin_kick_snap]

Probably for the best he didn't mention that. Kathy was already bright red by the time he was finished. "Thanks," she said, simultaneously trying to hide behind her hair and also trying not to hide behind her hair because she should be able to take a compliment without wanting to hide.

#TheStruggle

"I kind of want to go into this whole explanation of explaining why it's so hard for me to believe that, what with cultural messages and stuff--" ie she wasn't white with large breasts "--but I think I'm going to just stick with thanks and that I'm trying to make myself believe that?"

Blush blush blush.

Then, in a rush she added, "And I'm kinda trying to learn how to be sexy, but it's really hard to learn without feeling utterly stupid so that vote of confidence is appreciated."

And breathe.

[not_every_mage]

The bashfulness that attempted not to be bashfulness was oddly adorable.

"It's easier for boys, isn't it?" Anders asked, going back to a more general point -- many things about gender roles were different between Thedas and Fandom, but there were some constants. "You have to worry about fashion and hair and breasts. We just have to bathe every so often and wear decent clothes."

A beat. "Also, you're welcome."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Soooo much easier," Kathy agreed, grateful to be back to a topic that wouldn't make her blush--even if his comment about breasts had her looking down at hers with an unconscious moue of displeasure. It was tough when your little sister wore a larger bra, okay? "I still have yet to be able to put on mascara without poking myself in the eye and makeup only gets more complicated from there."

Blush? Eyeshadow? Swoopy eyeliner? HOW DID THEY WORK?!

"It makes sense, though, when you think about it," Kathy said. "In the cultural unconscious, we believe that guys are the ones that choose. So it's up to women to be ornamental, to better our odds of being chosen, where guys only have to worry about it inasmuch as they might have competition with another guy for the most attractive female." She pointed at him. "Actor." And then at herself. "Object."

[not_every_mage]

".... right," Anders said slowly.

That wasn't at all how things worked in his experience -- Fereldans were fairly equal-opportunity, when it came to objectification. At the same time, he didn't want to argue with Kathy about something she clearly cared about so much, especially when she knew her culture and he didn't.

He reached out to Lachlan instead. "I'm going to start a new plan," he said. "We only objectify cats."

[spin_kick_snap]

Abashed Kathy was abashed. "Sorry, sorry," she said, aware that she'd pushed too hard or gotten too strident or something. "I get like this sometimes--all lecture-y or whatever. It's one of the reasons I try to keep it all online. Less likely to go all schoolmarm on a friend."

She offered him an apologetic smile. "I like your idea of objectifying cats," she said. "But beware of taking it too far." And then she showed him a rather terrifying collection of images that had made the Tumblr rounds a few months ago.

Dogs in pantyhose. What even was the world sometimes.

"Let's stick to ties and cute hats, huh?"

[not_every_mage]

"Dear Maker, I thought people loved their dogs," Anders said incredulously. "How can you love an animal and do that to it?"

He leaned back a bit. "You didn't say anything wrong," he said hesitantly. "But at home, I promise men get objectified plenty. Maybe because so many of us aren't straight, I don't know."

He could say 'straight' and 'gay,' these days. He was still working on 'bisexual'; it sounded like a skin disease to him.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Welcome to the world of the internet, where people do crazy things just because they can. Or because someone, somewhere gets off on it. There's a rule about that and everything."

Not that Kathy was going to go into detail about Rule 34 and its various permutations. There was such a thing as too much information, after all, and she didn't want to scare Anders off of the internet already.

"Is there no societal bias against that?" she asked, fascinated. "Non-straight relationships, I mean? No one cares?"

[not_every_mage]

"Congratulations," Anders informed her. "You're the first person ever to make me think about people getting off to dogs wearing stockings."

He shrugged at the question."It depends, really. In the Circle no one cares. Probably because we're all so bloody bored we might as well kiss each other. Outside ... it's seen as about as interesting as putting tomato sauce on eggs. Some people might think it's strange, but no one's going to tell you you're a filthy person for doing it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's only because you're not on the internet much," Kathy retorted, tossing her hair a bit. Yeah, she was perversely proud of that, go figure. Probably because Anders always seemed so much more worldly than she did. "Let's sign up up for Tumblr and you can see that's barely the tip of the iceberg."

The internet was a terrifying place, Anders.

"I think that's really cool," she said quietly, once he finished explaining the delightful lack of homophobia in his world. Sure, it made up for that in a lot of other terrible ways, but still, the idea was refreshing. "That's...that's not something that can be said here. Not on Fandom, thank goodness, but in general." She bit her lip. "This world's pretty slow when it comes to acceptance."

[not_every_mage]

"We used all our energy for hating each other on enslaving elves and locking mages away," Anders explained bitterly. "It's refreshing, I suppose."

He eyed her. "Do you really want to let me lose on a site full of cat photos and people arguing about politics?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"We used ours on enslaving Africans and locking all sorts of people away," Kathy said, deciding that the prison industrial complex rant was one best saved for another time. "We just had room to spare for extra things to judge people about." She bumped his shoulder with hers. "I'm the last person who'd tell you that being accepting in one way somehow negates the bad that is being done at the same time."

"That being said, damn right I want to set you loose on Tumblr. I can't wait until you discover reaction gifs."

[not_every_mage]

"You're right, those words mean absolutely nothing to me," Anders told her, sounding almost cheerful about it as he bumped her in return. "Let's go for it. I bet they think mage rights are some elaborate metaphor. Or that I'm completely insane."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, clearly, the first thing you need is a username," Kathy said, pointing to hers. "I mean, yeah, you need it to sign up for Tumblr, but it's also what people are going to associate with you."

Hers was SodiumCopperTellurium. Because she was the nerdiest nerd.

[not_every_mage]

"Why not just use my name?" Anders asked. "It's not as though anyone from home will see it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Because I want to see what kind of silly Tumblr username you can come up with," Kathy admitted. "And also tradition."

[not_every_mage]

"I'm sure it's a very important tradition," Anders said gravely despite the pulse of amusement threading through his voice. "All right. I like cats, throwing fireballs at fools, and not being locked in the Circle. And also cats. Does any of that help?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Uncaged_Mage," Kathy said, leaning against her headboard to spitball some appropriately Tumblr names. "Fireballs_and_kittycats. RatherASquareThanTheCircle. MyMagicWordIsFireball."

[Sorry! Flu shot killed me pretty dead!]

[not_every_mage]

Anders wrinkled his nose thoughtfully, chewed on a thumbnail, and leaned past her to see her computer. "I have it," he said. Suck-it-templars. I'd be happy every time I typed it."

He nodded to her keyboard. "May I?"

[OOC: Yikes, glad you're better!]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Aww, come on!" Kathy protested, even as she logged herself out of Tumblr and passed over the laptop. "UncagedMage is awesome!"

Don't listen to her Anders. Just don't.

[OMG DID YOU MAKE HIM A TUMBLR YOU ARE MY HERO.]

[not_every_mage]

"It has potential," Anders allowed, and quickly -- well, quickly for someone who had only been using a computer for a matter of months, anyhow -- typed in exactly the URL he wanted and finished the registration process. "But somehow I feel like mine's more on the nose."

[OOC: I did! Not a very good one, but I did. I will be TRULY impressed if I ever do more with it than reblog three cat pictures.]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Only because 'AndrastesFlamingKnickers' would give people entirely the wrong idea of what kind of Tumblr you're running," Kathy said, tipping him a saucy wink. "Now you have to add me to your follow list, so you can see all the stuff I tumble and reblog, too. And probably a couple of cute cat Tumblrs because you'll need something to break up the political screeds and gymnastic gifs."

[I'd make one for Kathy, but it'd pretty much be mine.]

[not_every_mage]

"Right," Anders said, and poked determinedly at keys for a few moments before he realized he had exactly no idea what he was doing and gave Kathy a beseeching look. "As soon as you show me how to do it, I will."