The Cosplayer was wearing a gas mask, helmet, armour and bullet belt. He was also carrying a New Republic of California flag. People thought he had a bomb strapped to his back but it turned out to be several Pringles cans painted silver.
Police were hiding in bushes and behind their cars with long guns drawn. Happened in Grande Prairie, Alberta. (April 14, 2017)
A reminder to all you cosplayers out there: be careful how you dress when in the general public. Not everyone is savvy to semi-obscure characters/designs.
This, a thousand times this.
Take your mask off, bag your props, and move with people.
Every post apocalyptic cosplay group needs a Safety Naruto. The Safety Naruto will signal to ordinary people that yes this is indeed a costume.
The concept of a Safety Naruto is fucking hilarious
Just like a buddy system except it’s a bunch of people with prop guns or bombs are each assigned a Naruto
-don’t tell ur coworkers jack shit. You might think they’re your friends but they will sell you out for a paperclip
-everything men tell you is a lie
-store brand vanilla ice cream is better than name brand
-pregnancy tests from the dollar store work just as well as $20 ones
-don’t lie to your doctor
-seriously don’t
-at some point your card will get declined for $6 and nobody but you will care. It happens to everyone at some point in their life
-you will become bffs with your mom (unless she’s a mean person, then skip this one)
-you’ll wish you took the advice adults gave you when you were younger, even though it annoyed you at the time
-people you went to high school with will become teachers, doctors, etc but they will still do drugs and it will be weird. That’s life, my dude
-never underestimate the power of new underwear
…well, that escalated quickly. I posted it way back at the end of 2014, it got reblogged by several BNFs in quick succession yesterday, and then it proceeded to rack up like 2,000 notes in one day, so apparently it still needs to be said:
Yes, you are allowed.
You are allowed to write the fic you want, rather than the fic you feel obligated to write. You’re allowed to write crack, crazy realism-defying stunts, self-indulgent trope fic, fucked-up fic about problematic people doing unhealthy things. Fic that doesn’t go through the pre-flight safety check for every swordfight and every BDSM scene, fic that glosses over the ugly real-life fallout of psychological trauma and/or jumping out of a quinjet without a parachute. Or, hey, if that’s your thing, fic that dwells on psychological trauma in loving, messy detail and has at least three punchlines about characters not being able to defy the laws of physics. Any of those things! All those things! We contain multitudes!
Any fic you write is probably going to be a net positive for fandom. The people who were looking for something in your niche get it, the people who didn’t know they wanted something in your niche discover a new thing they like, the people who don’t like it click the back button, the people who really really hate that entire genre of fic get to stroke their hateboners and get high off their own self-righteousness.
If it upsets people? The back button is a failsafe and instantaneous safeword. If it’s not as ~quality~ as other people’s fic? Don’t make me break out that “holy shit! TWO cakes!” comic. If someone takes away a disturbing, unhealthy, or otherwise less-than-wholesome message from your fic? You are not responsible for their failures of critical thinking or reading comprehension, to say nothing of those reading with outright malice looking for something to pounce on after interpreting it as uncharitably as humanly possible. Jesus fucking christ, it’s fanfiction, if people legit want sex ed they should be on Scarleteen. It’s not your job to educate them, certainly not with your fic. It’s not. It’s not. Fic serves so many other purposes. You are allowed to write what you want.
If you are a writer, read this.
You are a creator. Your voice is unique and beautiful and flawed and human and inherently precious. You do not define yourself in opposition. You do not seek to validate your existence by silencing other voices. You create. You add value to the sphere of existence by sheer force of will and your own efforts. Ignore the bullshit from psychotic antis who hate pretty much everything about human beings (especially sex, hoo boy). Ignore the squawking rabble of vicious little demons whose only satisfaction comes from trying to crush everything they see into the same ugly, grey, joyless conformity, and just write. Do it.
