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Hi there 👋,

My name is Mohammad, and I’m reaching out in a moment of desperate need. I’m a father of three young children living in Gaza, and we are caught in the midst of a catastrophic war. Our home is no longer a safe haven, and the future here seems increasingly uncertain. 💔

I’ve launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $40,000 to relocate my family to a safer place where my children can grow up in peace and have a chance at a brighter future. 🕊️🇵🇸

Unfortunately, my previous fundraising efforts were abruptly halted when my account was terminated without explanation. However, I remain determined to keep fighting for my family’s safety and well-being. 🫶

If you could take a moment to read our story, consider donating, or simply share our campaign with others, it would make an incredible difference. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to safety and a new beginning. 🙏

Thank you for your time, compassion, and support. ❤

https://gofund.me/fd1faea2 🔗

unfortunately i can not donate, but that doesnt meen i cant spread the word

Pretty good!

How’s the day going so far?

It's going well, thank you for asking! How has your day been?

In hindsight I probably should have made Barry 6411 since that one was so unbelievably close to the end of steam, it was withdrawn in March 1968.

Edit: scrapped during March 1968.

Literally so much of this makes so much sense and I love it.

Number 9 for the ask game! For both disneycanon and legends :)

9. worst part of canon

Man, this is a hard question to answer, mostly because there's so many things I could answer.

So I am assuming here that when you say "Legends" you actually just mean Lucas canon that existed pre Disney canon since "Legends" has never been and will never be canon in and of itself. If you were hoping to hear me speak about something that was ACTUALLY from Legends, I'm very sorry, but I'm not familiar enough with it and I don't think it works for the prompt anyway, so all of my answers are going to be from Disney Canon or Lucas Canon.

Some of these will land more in the realm of "the concept is fine/good, the execution was bad" and some will be more "the concept in and of itself is awful regardless of whether it was executed well or not."

In the Ahsoka show, the concept of Ahsoka facing her past with Anakin and how that's impacted who she's become is a great idea and it's really the only way to move her character forward, but the execution of it was so badly done that I wish it had never happened and we'd just never seen Ahsoka again or ever learned what she felt about Anakin. I've spoken enough about this show for anyone more familiar with me to know why I feel that way. If you haven't read my posts about it and want to hear more of them, you can search under the tags "ahsoka show" and "anti ahsoka show."

Turning the Darksaber into Mandalorian Excalibur is, perhaps controversially, a bad concept. It's introduced in the hands of a Mandalorian, sure, but it's also introduced specifically as a stolen Jedi relic. And between those two things, somehow the fact that it was in the hands of a Mandalorian got considered the more important part of it rather than the fact that it was a JEDI relic that got stolen from them.

And unfortunately turning the Darksaber into Mandalorian Excalibur has made the Mandos even more boring than they already were. It forces everything that was established about them in TCW to be basically erased and ignored. The whole aspect of them having a government of any kind, having a Council and a Prime Minister, is gone, and leaders are chosen by who can wield a stolen relic real good (or, more accurately, who can wield a DIFFERENT WEAPON well enough to defeat the person who IS wielding the stolen relic) rather than chosen more democratically by the people themselves.

The Darksaber also just isn't even being used very well in the narrative. It got handed to Sabine and we went through an entire lovely arc for her to earn it both the Jedi way and the Mandalorian way only for her to hand it off the very next season to someone who hadn't earned it at all. Then that person loses it and it somehow ends up in the hands of Din Djarin who seems to START an arc about earning it only for that to just get completely dropped so he can hand it right back to the same person Sabine handed it to last time and then it gets destroyed a few episodes later. There's not been any point to the Darksaber at all since it first showed up in Pre Viszla's hands in TCW. It should've stayed a fancy-looking stolen Jedi relic (and arguably should've just been handed back to the Jedi) if they weren't going to do a single interesting thing with any of the Mandos who ended up with it.

Moving on from the Darksaber, and looking at the Sequels, I think killing off all of Luke's Jedi students and destroying Leia's New Republic was a terrible terrible idea as a concept. I understand the idea of like... "Darkness always comes back, the fight is never completely over" but destroying ALL OF THE PROGRESS made in the last trilogy by the main characters just to force the new characters to do the exact same thing all over again is stupid. There are ways to do "darkness always comes back" as a theme without making Luke, Leia, and Han's arcs completely irrelevant. It doesn't feel hopeful by the end anymore, it just feels a little pointless because if everything is always going to be destroyed over and over again then why try to build anything at all? What's the fucking point of it all if none of the triumphs last long enough to mean anything?

And adding onto that, making the New Republic completely incompetent and also so horrible that they're basically the Empire in all but name feels equally frustrating as a concept because now not only were they destroyed before anything meaningful could be done with them, but it's not even a bad thing that they were destroyed because Leia failed long before Starkiller blew up those five planets. The New Republic was a failure from the moment of its inception because it's just filled with and run by cowards and greedy assholes who won't help anyone or do anything useful at all apparently.

I won't touch on R*ylo much because plenty of other people have, but everything about that was awful and it never should've been made canon.

While we're on romantic failures, I don't think Obi-Wan has ever needed a romantic interest, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done well. But Obitine just wasn't it. Obitine was executed so incredibly poorly that it just made both characters radically less interesting and if I didn't already enjoy Obi-Wan as a character, his relationship with Satine would probably turn me off of Obi-Wan entirely given that he's literally a sexist asshole to her. Obitine never should've happened and if they HAD to do it, they should've gotten better writers to handle it so that it didn't ruin a beloved character as a result.

I'm sure there's more I could complain about, but that's what's coming to mind right now.

Considering the drop WildNorWester just did a few days ago, fair.

So guessing by a previous comment you made about the Mid Sodor Engines in Stanley the American Engine (No Tim, no Jim, no Albert”), am I right to assume that Mid Sodor Engines is about them?

Goodness, that's going way back!

Mid Sodor Engines is one of those fics that is stuck waiting for me to find time to write the instalment in the series that precedes it - and you're partly right! It will have Tim and Jim in it, but no Albert. Albert's got plenty of fics about him, and I'd like to do something different.

Mid Sodor Engines probably would also have a Stuart and Falcon story, and of course Duke would be there too. But until then, you'll just have to wait and see!

I have bad news for Jedi haters: they are the protagonists of this franchise. Star Wars will 'always' circle back around to their culture as the main focus of this saga. If you are so petty and performative with your 'all old things must die' attitude, that you want the Jedi to be completely removed from future stories... then it will cease to be Star Wars. Simple as that.

Okay, you know what? After reading this post, I jokingly said we should all just make a pact to reblog it five times a day forever. So I'm gonna do this louder for the people in the back:

AO3 WAS CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS

AO3 IS RUN BY FANS (VOLUNTEERS, NO LESS)

AO3 IS PART OF THE NON-PROFIT, ORGANIZATION FOR TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS

AO3 IS NOT OWNED BY ANY COMPANIES AND DOES NOT EARN REVENUE

AO3 OPERATES ON DONATIONS FROM FANS

again:

AO3 WAS CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS

When people call the Jedi Order baby stealers, I always wonder if they watched the episode series where Palpatine, the big bad Sith Lord, has Cad Bane break into the Jedi Temple to steal a holocron that contains a record of recently born Force-sensitive children and then use it to go kidnap those kids. And he successfully kidnaps two of them before the Jedi catch up at the third planet, where the mom is surprised that the Jedi, Cad in disguise, is back so soon for her child, as she was told that it would be some months to a year before the Jedi came to get her kid. Which shoots the whole baby stealing argument in the foot. The actual baby stealer is told that the people he is impersonating weren’t coming back as early as he was, and it’s only because Cad is exceptionally skilled at his job that he is able to convince the mom to give up her child. It can also be reasonably assumed that the Jedi act the same way in regards to every parent who has a Force-sensitive child, which make the only baby stealers in the galaxy the Sith, the bad guys, and anyone they employ to help them, who would also be bad guys.

Corrie clone medic Bug with Zissel, the Jedi youngling that Commander Fox is raising with creche master Rena Villi. Not pictured is Zissel's clone cadet brother, Leo, who's waiting to see what flavor lollis Bug has.

I've seen little about it so, Just an FYI what's been unfolding in England today. Far-right protestors are literally trying to kill asylum seekers in hotels.

In Rotherham, Yorkshire fascists have tried to set a hotel on fire with migrants staying there. Some signalling cut-throat gestures at the people staying in the rooms.

In Tamworth, Staffordshire the very same thing is happening. Another hotel has been set on fire with asylum seekers still inside alongside racist graffiti.

Other similar protests that are going uncountered are happening in Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Stoke-on-Trent and many more areas, chances are there will be one somewhere by you if things keep going the way they are. Nazis are literally strolling about unchallenged and these people are marching happily with them. There are more sensitive videos online which I won't share here but there are groups of nazis chasing down and circling black people in cities and beating them up, indian and chinese takeaways being targetted, turkish barbers being set alight and there have been incidents of muslims being assaulted and even stabbed.

BUT... There are success stories from UK cities where riots have failed due to no turnout or due to antifascists driving far-right pricks out of the city.

Cardiff, Wales - About 5 fascists turn up compared to 500 conuter-protestors. They failed to get anyone here despite trying two times.

Liverpool, Merseyside - A significant EDL mob is marched out of the city and fought against. Counter-protestors form a ring around a mosque being targetted.

Bristol, City of - antifascists block the entrance to a hotel that nazis are trying to get into as well as a fierce citywide push against the EDL and racism.

Nottingham, East Midlands - A huge antifascist counter protest outnumbers EDL and the far-right, preventing a riot from occuring.

There are many many more of these riots planned. If you're in the UK get organised and be prepared to fight alongside the people who make our communities stong and resiliant and make our country and cities a wonderful vibrant and friendly place to be. Help by whatever means you can. If you are not from the UK then please signal boost this because this needs to stop this nastiness from spreading and to make nazis afraid again.

Paid family leave is pro-life. Prenatal care is pro-life. Child tax credits are pro-life. Universal Pre-K is pro-life. Subsidized child care is pro-life.

As someone who lost their father to cancer I feel this is very important to share. Please vote in 2024, and vote for those who care more about the people rather than bullshit politics.

(I don’t typically talk politics or world affairs but this hit me hard.)

Don't Fall for this scam.

Transgender community, please please please do NOT use this product! It will kill you if used, please do not use it whatsoever.

Please reblog and spread the word

Hopefully this tip can really help someone, please take this advice or suggest to friends and family if you feel it could really assist them 💕

I know I sound like your mom but you kids need to stop fucking vaping

Some Notes for Star Wars Writers

The dark side is not freedom, it’s not pleasure, it’s not happiness. It’s a hell and a slavery you get so deeply enmeshed in that you don’t even see the torment or the chains.

The balance of the Force is not the dark side and the light side being equal, it’s the balance between the Living Force and the Cosmic Force.

The Jedi do not need to be reformed or changed. While individual members can be flawed, the goals and beliefs of the whole are good and right.

Historically, the Mandalorians were assholes who were responsible for multiple genocides. This is important to remember when writing their interactions with the Jedi.

The Jedi did not attack first at Galidraan, nor did they intentionally set out to kill the True Mandalorians. They were manipulated by the governor and Tor Vizla. Jango didn’t exactly try to calm things down, either.

THE JEDI ARE NOT BABY-STEALERS.

ATTACHMENT IS NOT LOVE.

Okay, so. The senator's speech. Here's why I'm okay with it: It fundamentally misunderstands the worldbuilding of Star Wars and the Force, in a way that's reasonable for a senator to misunderstand. To say the senator is right, you would have to say that the entire foundations of the Force are wrong, as well as it's pretty laughable to say that you shouldn't control your emotions. "Check yourself before you wreck yourself." is pretty good advice and that's literally just "control your emotions, before they control you". Because that's how the Force works, it's based on the emotions you pour into it--if you don't control your emotions, then you will run wild and out of control. To say that the Jedi seek to control their emotions, which is an impossible thing to do, fundamentally misunderstands that it's entirely possible. This is a speech coming from a member of the Senate, which has historically not always had the purest motivations, that Padme and Bail and Mon are written specifically as a contrast to the vast majority of senators who don't actually care beyond their own desires. We don't know anything about this senator specifically, but that's the weight that comes with having a character like this introduced--especially one who is trying to drag the Jedi into being more politically bogged down. Because that's the solution he's suggesting here, to weigh the Jedi down with outside oversight that doesn't actually understand who they are or what they do, who fundamentally misunderstand who they are (they're not a religion? come on, my guy, they are very clearly a religion, they have specific beliefs, practices, rites, and attitudes, to say they're not a religion is either dumb as shit or malicious bad faith lmao) and is very clearly not interested in the Jedi beyond them being a political enemy of his. He says, "But it's only a matter of time before one of you snaps." as if the Jedi haven't existed for literally 20,000 years at this point in galactic history and been aligned with the Republic since it's inception, something like 900 years ago at this point. His speech acts like a Jedi has never gone bad before or that the Jedi pretend they're above it--they very much don't. The Jedi are constantly making a point about how no one is above the dark side within them (TCW has a whole scene where the High Council say not even Yoda is beyond the dark side, and Yoda straight up agrees immediately), to say that one of them will snap and "who will be powerful enough to stop them?" is deliberately ignoring the worldbuilding. It ignores what the Jedi actually practice (it's a lifelong challenge not to give in to anger, so they're constantly on the path to turn away from it), it ignores that emotions very much are controllable, it ignores that the Jedi Order has been keeping a handle on their shit for thousands of years at this point, and it ignores that there's dark siders out there that were never trained by the Jedi, so if the Jedi aren't around to stop them, the Sith would have been wrecking the Republic's shit for the last 500 years. To be fair, they don't know that (but we the audience do, so we should know a bullshit argument when we hear one), but "who will be strong enough to stop him"? Idk, maybe the rest of the level 100 psychic space wizard monks? Pretty sure there's enough of them to stop someone who "snaps", if that happens. The senator's speech just flat out doesn't work with the established worldbuilding, in a way that really works for me, because that's kind of a huge established point throughout just about every piece of canon with the Jedi in it--people just do not understand them and hate the idea that anyone might actually be truly good because they can't imagine it for themselves. Because, as is a theme in Star Wars: "As much as people loved the Jedi, they also hated them, on some level. It is hard to look at people who have become their best selves. It reminds you that you have not."

The senator cannot fathom the idea that a group of people could become their best selves, he doesn't believe that it's possible, because he has not achieved it, and so seeing it in others unsettles him. And, yeah, that's a whole thing that happens with the Jedi in Star Wars, so this speech made a whole lot of sense to me, especially combined with, "So the answer is more bogging them down in political oversight that does not bother to or even want to understand them?" Like, yeah, I see where you're coming from, sir. And that's not even touching the idea of calling the Buddhist-inspired religion (which the Jedi explicitly are) a "cult", because anyone who unironically says that should not be trusted.

ppl often (reasonably) dunk on star wars environments for not having proper safety standards but important to note that cloud city very much does have guard rails

this whole thing has guard rails. the bit Luke jumps from doesn't but i think that's bcos you straight up aren't supposed to climb on it? you also have to go through like a whole long stretch of what seem to be maintenance rooms w lockable doors to get to this area. i think it's fair to say this is supposed to be a trained maintenance workers only zone.

anyway my point w all this is to say, Lando was a responsible city mayor who definitely had safety standards in place to pretent situations like people falling down the giant shaft that dumps stuff directly into the gas giant and was consequently most likely very confused and kinda mad as to how Luke ended up falling down the giant shaft that dumps stuff directly into the gas giant. he signed city ordinances about this and carried out safety inspections personally. ):<

Exactly. Calling Canada “an extension of the States” is wrong. It’d be like calling the USA a “extension of Canada” and it’s not even that.

it’s funny, someone said I was “based” for calling the United States a foreign country, but…..that’s just what it is to the rest of the world! like it’s not a radical or provocative word choice, that’s literally just how the majority of people on earth view it

This is why the Big Four were arguably better than BR could ever hope to achieve. You have innovation, you have pride in the workplace, in your job. You’re more likely to travel by train then you are by car if you lived when the Big Four were alive and well. I maintain that if BR had been a five year plan to get the railways back on their feet it’d be fondly remembered by the engines rather than disliked.

(I might also be saying this because of an absolutely stubborn person in a RP server I moderate in. He has this very 1955 mindset and just made OCs of mass-produced engines and gave them one emotion to go off of rather than actually flesh them out.)

What are Sir Topham Hatt’s (and the engines) opinion on how privatization was handled? When I read about it, I always think how absurd it was to keep the track nationalized, but let other companies run the goods trains, then different run the passenger trains. It is a spaghetti mess. Sodor had the right idea to yoink the old Furness mainline.

Thank you for your ask! (and I'm really sorry for the long wait). This is actually going to be really fun to potentially answer, so let's see...

Officially, the NWR regards privatisation as: "an important milestone in Britain's railway history and the beginning of cooperation between the NWR and our partner railways throughout Great Britain." It's a very prim and proper way of saying "the only thing that changed was the name of the idiot company that keeps delaying our trains." In private however, reactions were very, very different.

For a few engines, it meant very little: Thomas in particular barely cared at all. "What'll change? Not my branchline, that's for sure!" he once snapped at Duck when the Western engine tried to goad him into ranting with him about privatisation. Duncan said something very similar to a visiting diesel, only his version was far too inappropriate to be put in writing. Ever.

In stark contrast, a lot of the engines had very loud opinions about the entire thing. Duck spent most of one night trying to tell anyone who would listen that it was "disgraceful, disgusting and despicable" that the GWR hadn't been reformed after privatisation. (Henry, James and Gordon had to be physically restrained by BoCo and Bear before they tore Duck a new funnel for stealing their catchphrases). Donald and Douglas both tried to convince the Fat Controller to send them to London to 'politely make a case for a fully independent Scottish network'... multiple times. They also managed to say such inappropriate things that Oliver had to double-head all of Douglas' trains for a month to act as a censor for his language!

Gordon decided to offer the press his own solution to the privatisation issue, which went something like this: "What we need, is four companies to look after trains in different parts of the country - like we used to." "Like the Big 4?" "Indeed!" "We can't do that, such a system is considered to be a monopoly, and the government won't allow it." "Alright then, how about this: we have one railway that runs in the North and the East... and down to London perhaps. Then we can also have one railway that runs in the Midlands, and in Scotland... and also down to London perhaps, so you have your competition. Then we could have a railway that is in the West, and one in the South-" "Like the Big 4?" "No! These companies would be completely different!" "Look, Gordon, the government has made it very clear that the Big 4 will not return." "Well then FUCK JOHN MAJOR AND ALL THE TORY PARTY! [...] There would be competition anyway, with the roads, don't those blithering idiots understand?! [...] If any of them took a train for once, they'd realise just how bloody stupid the whole thing is, the bunch of------" (About twenty minutes worth of ranting has been omitted, due to various constraints...)

It was no surprise to anyone that Gordon personally campaigned for the Labour Party in 1997.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Sir Stephen Hatt and his sister Bridget were frantically pouring over the old charters of the NWR, hoping to be able to keep the new companies off Sodor - and indeed they found they could, as a 1925 Government deal originally intended to keep the NWR independent of the LMS also (entirely by accident) meant that no private, standard-gauge railway company other than the NWR could operate on the Isle of Sodor. Sir Stephen happily shoved that document in parliament's face when they tried to privatise the NWR's various assets, and then got his deal for the Furness Line from a different parliament committee before anyone could cross-reference him. By the time anyone managed to question why exactly they were selling an entirely railway line to a man who had very loudly told them to 'shove off and leave my railway alone', Sir Stephen had already taken control.

Their opinion: "Why treat a railway like its an airline? Honestly, it'll just wind up causing more problems in the end. A railway is a public good - yes, it makes us a lot of money, but we still run it for the people of Sodor, not for - no, we don't know why they divided British Rail like that, it makes no sense to us either - please stop asking more questions before we can finish our thoughts."

Also, a small rather large side note - Britain's railway privatisation is a complex and very unique affair that really showcases how exactly not to privatise a railway network. For example: for around seven years, the railway infrastructure was owned by a private company called RailTrack... which was terrible at doing its job and caused a number of major railway accidents (See Hatfield, 2000; Southall, 1997; Ladbroke Grove, 1999) and then panicked after the Hatfield crash and basically shut the network down, leading to questions over its competence and the finally its re-nationalisation because - surprise surprise - a private company trying to produce profits really shouldn't be in charge of the safety of millions of people with almost no proper accountability. Worse yet, the monopolies that the Tories wanted to avoid by breaking up the system happened anyway - see EWS, which bought up almost all the freight franchises and created a monopoly, only to be bought by Deutsche Bahn, which created an even bigger monopoly as it also owned (at the time) Arriva (they sold Arriva in 2024). To worsen the spaghetti, the system was divided into three basic sections: the infrastructure (RailTrack), Train Operating Companies (who owned the trains) and Franchises (who ran the trains and hired staff). In other words: a ticket in the UK is so expensive because you are paying for: the train crew, renting the train, renting the track, renting the platforms and producing profits for shareholders.

Oh, and suddenly freight and passenger trains owned by different companies are all competing to have priority at every. single. signalbox. in the country.

Now, I am not an expert in fixing extremely broken railway systems, but even still, I feel like I could probably do better than this mess!

Thank you for reading!

Just “…can we keep her?” got me. Good one.

Something Holy This Way Comes

Ch.8 Crews

Other Stories

Other Chapters

Finally, the snow lessened and the crowds thinned, allowing work towards Glain to resume. Cassandra was normally less than thrilled to be awake early in the morning, but the firefighters had found her eagerly awaiting the day. Robert had just chuckled.

"She loves laying track." He explained as he checked her lubricators. "It's what she was assigned to when we arrived on the North Western. She helped build all the new lines, and helped relay most of the old ones too."

"You have truly been her driver since she was new?"

Robert nodded, "the ROD had me and my best mate transferred to what would become the North Western. Along the way, we were sent to pick up a train of supplies pulled by an 'E2 class 0-6-0 tank engine'."

He patted Cassandra's running board, who was humming happily. "I found this lass napping at the head of our train, less than a week from the factory but already dead on her wheels from the war traffic. We woke her and found she was in fact the E2 class, and off to the North Western we went. I've been her driver ever since."

Cassandra affectionately blew steam at her driver, who chuckled warmly. "I met my wife because of her, and found my home on the island, I wouldn't trade her for any other engine, late-night escapades and all."

Screech was quiet for a moment. "Cassandra says your body has been affected by your time with her?" 

Robert stopped and looked at her consideringly, "This is about your crew isn't it?"

Screech shifted uncomfortably, "I was unaware of the effect my presence would have on them."

Robert frowned," I'm afraid I can't predict what will happen in the long term. Cassandra's light is healing, so my body hasn't suffered the wear a man of my age should have, but as far as my doctor can tell I'm not actually any younger than I should be, just in unusually good shape."

"But my shadows aren't healing."

Cassandra tilted her head thoughtfully, "I'm not sure about that."

Screech looked at her in askance. "I destroy anything I touch."

Cassandra locked eyes with the eldritch titan, "as you once were."

"Are you saying..." Abbey trailed off.

Cassandra thought a moment longer, "If I shine the Lady's light on one who has failed to pass without care, it damages them...but that same light comforts or heals living engines."

"If Screech touches us without being careful, it damages us," Avon said slowly, "but if there were another like her..."

"...Her touch would likely comfort them." Cassandra finished.

"There are others like me?" 

"Others that remain despite their death? Absolutely." Cassandra said firmly. "But each one is different, some are just shadows, hoping to be seen once more. Others..." Cassandra's gaze hardened, "others I have met in battle."

'Oh?' The whisper perked up at the idea of such a battle.

Cassandra nodded grimly. "Yes. One went after Stephen, our current controller's son " Her eyes flashed gold with anger at the memory. "Sir Topham had sent that beast away during the war. While away it suffered a boiler explosion, but rather than answer the Lady's call it swore revenge. It tried to kill Stephen, Topham's grandson, one evening at the docks." She growled, "he was just a child, but it mattered not to that beast."

'What did you do to it?' The whisper hissed in anticipation. 

Cassandra snorted at its eagerness, "I held the line long enough for Gordon to arrive and cast it into the sea. The remaining parts of its body were then cut apart and melted down piece by piece until it faded from existence."

'...can we keep her?'

So I am currently working on the next instalment of Southern Engines. It’s taking a while though, don’t expect it until early July.

Intro

Heya, I’m Scottish Productions, he/him. I enjoy quite a variety of things but mainly TTTE. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on anything.

Hi if you ever find yourself in a relationship saying anything along the lines of "well I can't leave cause I would never be able to find something better than this because I'm trans/fat/aging/antisocial/unlucky" I beg of you to run. Please. You can find and build better but in order to do that you have to take the first step out the door. You do not have to endure abuse, mistreatment, or just plain incompatibility for the sake of a fraction of happiness. You don't.