||Hi I'm Natalie Portman and I'm a star war

||Hi nice to meet you

||thank u kimira i'm a big fan

||And we're shutting that down now. We now return to our regularly scheduled idk

||The "reality" this person wants to talk about died a long time ago. It's in its death throes today in America, going out on the most embarrassing terms it possibly could.

And I guess it's just easier for some to insert themselves in a conversation to whine about it than it is to actually listen.

||And point blank: in the real world, workers and their representatives understand that small jabs are no longer acceptable. You don't get to cling to your boring, creativity-starved jokes because you want to pretend people are too weak to hear them to make yourself feel superior.

||This is not some "leftist" ideal, not even a "leftist" organization that I represent. As I said, it's international, and that must encompass the full breadth of the political spectrum. It must recognize the practices that do the most good for our world by protecting those running the show.

|| - and, yes, that training included microaggressions and the jokes this person is apparently desperate to defend.

||the struggles of those we represent, and our plans for the future.

Our next major event is May Day - where Voces De La Frontera will host a Day Without Immigrants. And our *entire* second day of the conference centered around educating our leaders on the issues facing marginalized people -

||Because people like me, and many others who spoke up today, are actually quite well informed.

I currently spend a majority of my free time as a local leader in an international workers' rights organization. We just had our yearly conference, where we spent days discussing our successes,

||Actually, I am going to come back and address this, because I think it's incredibly important for people to understand what a braindead, uninformed, disconnected take this is.

Because people who touch grass & live offline at all know the reality people like this would like to sell doesn't exist.

a drag queen is on fire island next to a pink background ALT: a drag queen is on fire island next to a pink background

||

||Quit again if a request for empathy kicks you into a triggered lil fit about it ❤️ 💋

In the last hour or so before sunset, the patrons here mill about examining wares or haggling with assistants. They'll linger, and like them, shop until the smith hangs up their apron for the night.

It's a habit now, watching every corner and listening for skipped beats in the heart of this town she's come to.

She doesn't plan on staying long, only arrived a day or so prior, and along her way to collect supplies for the road, she turns into one of the town's few smithys.

[Starter for @greathammersfall.bsky.social]

A young, unremarkable woman hunches through the bustle of early-evening crowds. Her eyes and ears are tuned more sharply than her posture would suggest, but she doesn't hurry or turn her head to check for followers.

I'll survive; somehow I always do. Tell me, what do I do after all this survival? What do I do?

You were a weapon. | I was a child.

She resolved herself such: she would seek out the Shards once more and join them, or else learn what they knew of the cult's intentions. And if she could not find them?

She would ensure no one could find 𝙝𝙚𝙧.

As she neared adulthood, her worst fears loomed larger: reports of the cult's resurgence became more frequent, tales of their vile acts more terrifying. When she could ignore her fears no longer, Natalie fled the monastery, leaving all she knew and had come to love far behind her.

Years of turmoil and horror had left her incapable of speech in all but the rarest of circumstances; even this could not hinder her, and the girl began to thrive.

The only dark cloud that seemed to linger was the deep fear of being found, of being taken again.

After one final rescue, it was decided that Natalie would be placed in a monastery of Tyr in hopes of better protection - and offering her the best life and education she could be granted. She lived out her teen years in relative peace and happiness with those her own age and mentors of good hearts.

Though her parents held her in no special regard as a beloved daughter, they, as the rest of the cult, seemed to wish something greater of her, and frequently cursed the do-gooders' interventions for setting back their plans.

Natalie bore witness to countless horrors in their care, seemingly by the cult's intent; clandestine rituals, sermons, and even sacrifices too often found in her an "unexpected" audience.

As the years passed, a bond formed between young Natalie and the now-familiar members of the Silver Shards, and as they traveled to safety, the adventurers would offer training in the ways of war and magic.

As for the cult and her family...

The cult ran afoul of many adventuring parties, and each rescue would see Natalie back to loving caretakers, for a time. The Shards found cult's trail most frequently and seemed to hold special determination to hunt this cult and their captive down.

Not a year past her rescue, though, she was stolen from her room in the dark of a moonless night, returned to her mother and father in the depths of another unholy sanctum.

Years passed in much the same way.

Following a daring assault by a band of young adventurers known as the Silver Shards, she was rescued from this vile order and placed in the care of a family of good standing.

Natalie's very life has been a matter of contention since before her earliest memories. Born to an unstable, cruel-hearted mother and a weak-willed father, she was raised in the stronghold of a secretive cult for the first few months of her life.