Progress!

[feuervogel]

Despite being outraged at the willingness of people I thought I respected to defend the continued verbal dehumanization of the disabled (and mock my desire not to have such take place in my space), I turned off my internet connection and wrote for an hour.

OK, not a full hour, because I got a text message and that led me to check my email, which made me angry because I had to go to LJ on my phone and freeze a comment thread of people being dickbags. Yes, it's LOLARIOUS that I don't want people coming into my virtual living room and taking a shit on my couch.

Anyway. I got 528 words written. Because wordcount posts are incredibly boring, I'll do like Matt did and post an excerpt from today's writing.

Hikaru’s stomach clenched. “If they’re working for Eskandari, our cargo must be kept out of their hands at all costs.”

Luisa’s lips quirked. “It’s not just food and medicine, I take it.”

Comments

[anthimeria]

I am sorry you are dealing with this, that sucks!

But I am glad you got writing done. Any progress is good progress when slogging through editing, as far as I'm concerned.

[feuervogel]

Thanks. This friend in particular has a huge willful blind spot where it comes to the effect of language on society. She throws around slurs like f*g, tr*nny, and trap and will defend them because her intent is good! She likes homos! Whereas a mutual friend who's a trans dude asked her to stop, because reading those words hurt him. She defended it on grounds of intent and totally brushed him off.

At the moment, she's defending lame and retarded, because when /she/ uses them, she doesn't mean anything bad against disabled people or the mentally retarded, just that whatever object she's referring to is bad. What the fucking fuck, indeed.

Thanks :) I'm up to the pirates part now, though I skipped the previous scene because I couldn't make it work. I'll get back to it...

[anthimeria]

"You're standing on my foot." "I didn't mean to step on your foot." "But you did, and it hurts, please move your foot." "But I didn't mean it." "It still hurts, please move!" "But I don't mean to hurt you."

*Apply head to wall. You get to pick whose head.*

I have a friend like that. Some days I have the spoons to deal, other days I look at everything and go, "I am not up to this battle today. Sorry."

Ooh, pirates. Have you decided how to integrate them?

[feuervogel]

I've decided they're Sons of Mars using a decommissioned ship broadcasting a fake ID, and they're working for Eskandari. I've also gone with not having them fight, just come on board and take some stuff (which is why our heroes' cargo has to be hidden). So it isn't just rainbows & sunshine, the pirate leader goes around looking for hollow walls. (He doesn't find any, of course.)

Though it occurs to me that the security types on the station will have talked to the pirates, so there being no food aid on the ship (which a small amount of research would show is the one that brought the aid people to C4) might trip a wire. Plot hole, or place to add more tension? That could be one of the impetuses (impeti?) that gets Blackwell et al to poke their cover harder.

(I still haven't figured out what Blackwell's story is. He's probably been there a good 20 years, unless he was the original guy on the scene who helped the coup. But Hikaru's father or grandfather had some sort of run-in with him. Maybe he's an ex-Hessian who was kicked out for some sort of corruption, then went to Blackwaterthe Sons of Mars.)

[doctorskuld.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear, I am not asserting my rights to saying whatever the fuck I want on your blog, I believe I have so far respected your rules. I am asserting that there needs to be more rationality, less reaction.

[feuervogel]

I am being perfectly rational, as are the people telling you that your intent doesn't change the fact that your words are actively hurting them.

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

You can't simultaneously defend the use of slurs like "gay" and claim rationality. Sorry.