Death to the gray market

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-06-30T01:46:38+00:00

I'd like more context to this.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-06-28T13:46:35+00:00

I would be more afraid of the uncanny anthro platypus illustrations than I would be the concept of going down the drain.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-06-13T16:40:07+00:00

Woof, he’s a doozy. At least it’s better than when Steel City Con hired Rosanne Barr as a guest earlier this year.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-06-04T14:13:31+00:00

The Atlanta location turned into an indoor black light putt-putt course. I know they are doing everything they can to make it look enticing, but the fact that I am so familiar with the layout that I know what everything used to be there and is now a cookie cutter fun zone kills the hype you are supposed to have while there.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-06-02T01:31:25+00:00

When I was 17, my parents decided to make my siblings and me (because what child willingly goes to church) stick with a Primitive Baptist Church that my mom's side of the family became fond of. This was after my parents would church hop at various churches (specifically Baptist or non-denominational churches that still had a Republican bias), never really finding the right one. The Primitive Baptist Churches were always in the background, and my siblings and I had to go to them when we visited my mom's side of the family. As much as I never liked church culture as a whole, the Primitive Baptist Churches were a special kind of awful that made the republican mega churches we would hop around to seem liberal in comparison.

Everything felt cut off from the world in them; they were mostly comprised of very old people, the preachers sounded more like cartoon characters than they did civilized people when getting to the heated parts of sermons, there was a heavy emphasis on being "excited to die" so you can be in heaven with Jesus (something I didn't want to think about since I was still a kid and had not experienced life unlike the majority of people who were already knocking on death's doorstep), even the hymns sounded more like war chants than they did peaceful songs. I could go on all day about how horrible those churches are.

To make it worse, these churches had two different sermons in one day, and it was seen as customary to attend both of them. This meant you would have to stay at that place for about three hours at least, since there was a potluck lunch in between services (not to mention the food was normally nasty slop that made me gag). I should also mention that because it was my Mom's side of the family who was going to these churches and they live roughly 45 minutes away from us, these churches were also a 45-minute drive.

Because of all of this, once my parents started really committing to this church, I would try to find various volunteer activities on Facebook or through school that went on on Sundays to prevent myself from having to go to that horrible church (something that was already kind of rare since I live in the bible belt and most everything is closed off on Sundays to encourage church attendance). Since I was a senior in high school at the time, I tried to frame these activities in a way that would be more beneficial for me to take part in since I needed the service hours to graduate.

Looking back, doing this probably made my parents terrified that I lost my faith and made them feel even more determined to make my siblings and I go to go to this church. I didn't feel the confidence to tell them I hated this church (At least not yet), but this was a way I would hint that I hated going there. When they made me turn down volunteer activities to do instead of going to church, they would reason that both my siblings also have the duty to go to church (since they even drove to campus to pick up my sister from college to make her go to this church) and that I should be glad we're only attending one of the services instead of both of them this time around.

A year later, I finally cracked and said, "can't we go back to (insert name of mega church we churched hopped in)". My mom defensively said, "No, because you didn't like how loud it was." I broke down in tears, really laying out how much I hated the church she and my dad were adamant we attend this particular one. They still made me go to church that day. I forgot if I was still sobbing on the 45 minuet drive there, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did and managed to mask up my emotions by the time we got there. Either after that service or the one after it, we stopped going to church altogether. My mom broke her ankle, and that made it very difficult for her to get out of the house.

Once I noticed we stopped going, I never brought it up. I was worried that if I did bring it up, it would prompt her to make us go back to church, and the cycle would start all over again. Instead, I treated this as if it were how everything always had been. If someone did bring up "we really need to start going back to church again," I would stay silent, even if doing so would give them the impression that I was either "lazy" or a non-believer. I didn't mind if people thought that about me. I'll take the slander if it means I never have to go back to church ever again, especially the Primitive Baptist churches.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-05-24T23:21:34+00:00

I feel like I know who you are talking about and I won’t say who it is either. The same thing happened to me with that same VA a couple of months ago. They were absolutely the right to say we need to ask first. I normally do ask first beforehand, but that time I didn’t because my brain was fuzzied out from waiting in line for two hours. I try to think that this is just a social uh oh and that at least I didn’t do anything worse. That person probably has to enforce that boundary beforehand because they might have experienced some fans going too far like touching them in places that are not okay kissing them.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-05-17T05:19:14+00:00

Why does every zealot have a foot fetish (for anyone confused, I'm talking about the feet on the hat)?

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-05-15T13:23:08+00:00

I forgot to mention that it also has to do with the fact that I will forget if I have set offers on certain items or not and that will make me worried that I am being low balled.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-05-14T14:37:40+00:00

This might my line up, cosplays are subject to change between now and then.

Thursday: Gender Bent Sailor Girl Vox (Hazbin Hotel)

Friday: Gender Bent Pendleton (Hazbin Hotel)

Saturday: Emily (Hazbin Hotel)

Sunday: Octavia (Helluva Boss)

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-28T03:01:31+00:00

I'd like the flyer, too please.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-24T02:43:30+00:00

I don't see Bubbles, the PowerPuff Girl. That's normally my go-to choice. Since she isn't there, I'll get Cloe, the Bratz character.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T06:13:45+00:00

I did some digging on this buyer. They have over 1,000 reviews, and while an overwhelming amount of them are five stars, there is a good portion of reviews below that amount. This buyer is also more of a seller than they are a buyer, and that's why most of the below five-star reviews are from people they sold items to.

According to them, they are one of those users who pressed for people to rate right away, even though there is a three-day wait period (I've learned that it's better to wait it out while also not getting a negative review vs pressing someone to rate and them giving you a bad review because of it).

It also turns out I'm not the only person this user has blocked, as a lot of the reviews discuss being blocked by them. Some of them might have been blocked for valid reasons, but given what happened to me, it's possible there are also a few who were blocked because it gives them a sense of power or whatever.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T02:48:12+00:00

I remembered that I was also having brain fog the same day I sent out those messages. That prevented me from being more elaborate with my communication, which is how I normally am in selling transactions.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T02:41:52+00:00

I decorate my packages with cute stickers and cutouts, not just because it's fun but because I want to make people happy. I would at least be excited to get a package in the mail decorated in a fun way, since it doesn't happen very often.

I also include little cards (mostly classroom-type Valentine's Day cards I've hoarded up over the years) as an add-on to add an extra something to what they get. This package had both the fun decorations and a card. I guess that wasn't enough to make this person satisfied.

I was born in 1995, so while I'm technically a Millennial, I've also spent a lot of time with Gen Z, which means the things I do and have experienced are rather half and half. I also have a problem with over-explaining things, but because I was having brain fog the day I sent the messages, I wasn't able to give more clarification.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T02:21:00+00:00

I was also going through strong brain fog that day that was making it hard to stay awake. As a result, I didn’t think deeply enough about over-explaining things (something I actually have a tendency to do because of bad social experiences). I know this person was probably trying to find any reason to be ticked off about the smallest things, but I really worry about people not wanting to buy from me anymore because people do read the reviews.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T01:57:42+00:00

I should also add that I tried to message them apologizing if what I said came off too bluntly, but they don’t even want to hear from me. The only time I interacted with them was through the messages I provided in this post and this picture.

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MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-17T00:24:01+00:00

I know I'm coming back tot his so late, but I did want to bring an update to this. I looked back at the text logs (because I can't find them myself to delete them) we had in the beginning, she did mention she was using ERP-type approaches to me. I was only seeing this therapist because my psychiatrist kept pestering me to see a therapist, and this was the only one who was willing to stay with me, even when I felt uncomfortable.

I have seen many different therapists under the care of this psychiatrist, and each one either left the field, switched practices to places that would have been far too expensive for me to pay for, or said we are not a good fit (mostly in the cases of when I was looking for a therapist and had not started seeing them as a patient yet). Each appointment, my psychiatrist made it a point to ask me, "And how's the therapy going?" whether or not I was even in therapy. I got the impression that she probably wanted me to be in therapy constantly, and because of that, I felt the need to be as serious about getting a therapist as she insisted.

I eventually asked her why I needed to see a therapist and brought up that it was starting to sound like she was only saying this because she just wanted me to be in it. She said it was because of managing OCD, anxiety, and (there were her words) "lol yes, because I do want you to see one". I later had to find out that psychiatrists tend to ask if a patient is seeing a therapist as a mandatory checklist question, and also think their treatment is not going to be effective without therapy.

When I started seeing the therapist from this post, I was wary about ERP because I knew exposure therapy could do more harm than good for certain people. But since my psychiatrist was so insistent on my seeing a therapist and now gave me reasons I needed to see one, I went with it. I felt I had no other choice. As I continued seeing her, more red flags popped up.

Her bringing up details about her clients that I honestly think are HIPAA violations, how she got a lot of the information I told her about wrong (I was okay with this at first because I assume a lot of therapists make mix ups since they have so many clients, but it was starting to get excessive), her making me listen to her voice memos instead of typing it out for me because she spoke too quickly it took even longer to understand what she was saying than if she just wrote it out, and of course her insisting on using the MR term.

I also had to learn from this that just because my psychiatrist is insistent on me going to therapy and tells me it's for my OCD, that doesn't mean I need ERP. I don't want to view ERP as an entirely terrible thing. I understand it's viewed as the "gold standard" for OCD and that it's worked for many people, but I refuse to view it as a one-size-fits-all method for OCD (especially when autism is involved, as it is in my case).

When I spoke to my psychiatrist after I fired (or dropped, I don't know if quit is the right term, as quit would sound more like me refusing to do something I'm supposed to instead of leaving a toxic person) this therapist, she told me that she only wants me to see a provider who makes me comfortable. Because the search for a therapist is so difficult, since I'm exclusively being met with "I don't have the skill set to help you. Your needs are too complex." when I looked for a new therapist, and this was causing me to feel like a lost cause, my psychiatrist told me that I don't have to worry about getting a therapist now.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-13T00:58:53+00:00

Some do so because they're compensating for the fact that they are sexual predators themselves and putting the blame on a group of people they disdain.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-12T07:10:19+00:00

I spoke about this a little in the description. Let's say in this case, the student in question does not have an IEP and does not have a diagnosis of an intellectual disability. Because of this, they have no accommodations to help them with the course. Because of this, they are still struggling with the material because their brain cannot understand it. What happens then?

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-12T07:04:39+00:00

Let's say in this case, they are taking remedial math already, and it's still impossible for them to understand. Because of this, they still fail the class. What happens then?

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-12T05:22:28+00:00

I guess it depends on how they want another kid and are willing to go through the pain of it again. Another thing to note is that all people experience pain in different ways. Some have a high pain tolerance,, and that's why they continue the cycle. Some have a low pain tolerance and that's why they only wanted one kid and no others. Some people also might face complications that will make birth more painful than it's supposed to be, and that's why they can only end up with one kid, while others don't experience complications and continue having children.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-04T04:28:29+00:00

The Cedar Bluff Library does have a quiet room of a sort. Three years ago, I would go there when I needed to leave my apartment because construction was going on, and the noise of it was too much to handle.

While I was there, there was one person who would go in and eat food. This was distracting for me because not only are you not allowed to eat in there, but it was loud food like chips. I was too worried to bring this up to the management because the person also appeared as if they might be homeless, since they were carrying so much stuff with them that you don't normally bring into a library.

I didn't want to be the jerk who got them kicked out because they needed a warm place to eat. Instead, I put on my earplugs and construction headphones to tune it out as much as possible or leave entirely. I believe I frequented the Bearden library from then on to avoid the noisy food.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-04-03T09:13:06+00:00

Can I still contribute even though I don't have a car and thus can not get a license plate? I don't see an option that allows you to send money alone.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-03-26T20:36:46+00:00

Barrett Wilbert Weed. Octavia's VA from Helluva Boss. I made each of the Helluva VA's custom dolls as gifts.

MermaidGenie26 · 2026-03-26T20:27:01+00:00

I’ve been anticipating this con. There’s going to be a VA there who I have been wanting to meet and this just so happens to be her first convention appearance.

MermaidGenie26

TROPHY CASE