STOP THE FREAKING RAPE JOKES

I'm not sure if I'll attract a bunch of trolls with this, or if the trolls will never find this post in the Player Behavior boards and therefore not know to flame me... Eh... I ain't scared of no troll... knuckle crack Bring it on. I promise that I can survive worse than what an internet troll can do, as unpleasant as the little bridge-dweller might be. Here goes.

STOP. JOKING. ABOUT. RAPE.

See, it's not funny; it's actually this life-altering event in which the thing that is supposed to be your most powerful tool as a human-- your voice, your ability to control your own destiny-- is taken away from you. A troll will likely say, "aww, you're just upset because you were raped." Well how perceptive of you, Trundle. He is now a convicted child molester, who attacked not only myself but several other children- girls and boys. I was eleven; his other victims were younger. (Tell me how funny it is; I'll wait.)

My own brain erased the memories within days as a self-preservation tactic. I forgot what had happened for ten years. When the memories came back- BOY did they come back- it hit me like a freight train. I am still in the process of sorting out the damage. Some of that damage is a nasty case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; a literal injury to the brain (changes shape of several key areas) that changes the way a person reacts to every kind of stress. This is where the popular word "trigger" comes from; it refers to the psychological phenomenon in which a person's brain initiates an out-of-context "fight/flight/freeze" response, or a particular behavior/thought pattern is activated.

When some of my friends are triggered, their own brain turns against them. Incredibly creative people suddenly have their sharp minds picking out or even inventing reasons to call them worthless, ugly, fat, stupid, or why they shouldn't even be alive. And, before you do the troll thing, they're not any of those. When I am triggered, I get the fight/flight/freeze response. My body pours adrenaline into my bloodstream, my vision sharpens, my heart speeds up and pumps much harder, my hands shake, because some base reptilian part of me is convinced that I need to grab a weapon and defend my life. Even if I am sitting in a computer chair. Even if all you said was something you think is funny. "I'm gonna bleep this Annie until she can't even cry for me to stop!" "Show me on the doll where Yasuo touched you." "Hey, Lux, can you just consent so that when I bleep you in lane it doesn't count as rape?" (That was actually said to me in game.)

It's not funny, you guys. If anything, it just makes you look like a selfish, twisted excuse for a human being who needs to be in jail right next to the child molesters, because you're obviously okay with what they do. Or, hey, maybe you just don't realize what your words are doing! Well, now you do. Know that the person you're hurting and mocking could be your sibling, your parent, your child, or your friend. Know that you're essentially kicking someone who's trying to learn to walk on a broken bone right where the fracture was, because apparently playing a fun game just isn't entertaining or edgy enough for you.

Or, if you're trying to trigger an opponent because then they'll play poorly and you'll win... You know what? Only a truly pathetic player would ever have to resort to that. I don't usually tell people to just uninstall but... Yeah, if that's the only way you can beat me in a game, then you should definitely uninstall. Bye, Felicia!

And, for those of you who say I should just not play League because this sort of toxicity is to be expected, I'm saddened by your definition of acceptable human behavior. If people were expected to avoid any circumstance in which harm might be done to them, then we'd be better off not drawing a single breath. No. We, as humans, need to treat each other with a basic minimum of courtesy and respect. I have every right to play a game and not expect that a painful and complicated part of my life be the butt of a dullard's idea of a joke. (Seriously, if it's in poor taste an low-hanging fruit, you're not being terribly witty.)

Welp, that's what I wanted to say. Hopefully someone will read it- someone who didn't necessarily consider or understand the harm that their words could do- and think the better of their choice of trash talk the next time they feel like typing in All-Chat. Or, you know, you can run into me, and even when I'm triggered I'll turn around and get a double kill on your butt. (Did it yesterday. Twice.) Because I'm not scared of you, and I never will be.

XOXOXO Rabbit