#& i don't care if it doesn't make sense to anyone else

[amynchan]

"Another one."

The file is slapped on my desk, courtesy of Jack's hand. I do my best not to sigh, but some endeavors are honestly just doomed to fail.

"New recruit or job transfer?" I know I'll see the answer in the file, but if Jack's gonna be like that, then I can be like this. I don't even open the file.

"New recruit, asshole." Wow. Someone's in a bad mood. Wonder what crawled up his ass. Okay, fine, I open up the file this time.

Oh.

Oh...

You know, years and years ago, this might have been considered a conflict of interest. When there were enough people around, working jobs, that the work could be moved from an involved or easily affected party to an uninvolved one.

Maybe there was a reason for that.

"Hey, if you need to take a lunch break—"

"Don't. Just— just don't."

Well... what else can I do? I swallow up my words, nod, and look at the beaming face of Jack's niece again. Seventeen. Sweet girl. Her grades, like everyone else's, meet standards that might have been actually necessary so many years ago. Technology's moved forward. Life has moved forward. Humanity, as a whole, has evolved out of needing so many jobs that most of today's problems are manufactured. Enough to make people think about them but not enough to cause lasting damage to... well, anything if they aren't taken care of. And the people who skim the jobs we've given them? Nothing really happens. We make the fake problems go away one way or another, and nobody and nothing gets hurt in the process. No real loss.

It's busywork is all I'm saying. People like Sarah get to do busywork. The really exceptional people get hired here. Doing this. Keeping the world running on one side and keeping the population controlled on the other.

"All she wants to do is make a difference in the world." Jack doesn't have anyone else who can do this job for him. I don't think he'd want to, either. Once you know about how the world works, there's not really a way to unknow.

Well...

No need to tempt fate with thoughts like those. I go through Sarah's file.

"There's gotta be something else she likes." And there's lots in here. She's got friends. A robust social life. There are a few ambitions, but we can make some scenarios to fit and satisfy those.

But that's not the problem, and Jack knows it. I know it.

"How am I supposed to face her?" he asks. "She's going to come to family dinners, all smiles, talking about how much better the world is because of her and her coworkers and her friends. How much good she's doing for the world. How she's going to make it better for the rest of us, just wait and see. She's going to barrel headfirst into making humanity a utopia again!"

I'm smart enough to keep my mouth shut. Jack and I both know what utopia can do to people.

When Jack yells, I'm not surprised. His brother was never like Sarah. His sister in law was never like Sarah. As far as I know, nobody in his family has been like Sarah. Sweet. Determined. Good-hearted.

All determination and heart. None of the skill sets or natural talents we need in order to make her fantasy come true.

It would make a lot of sense to make Sarah a politician. Protected. Safe. Somewhere her ambitions can at least feel fed and her dreams feel real, at least.

Enough to make her feel proud. Worthy. Dignified. In this world where corruption is nipped in the bud and no one ever gets shot or goes hungry, a politician's job is easy, and the problems they deal with are minor.

But I know it would also be also enough to drive Jack insane. Meeting with his niece throughout the years, watching her be so proud of achievements that are real to her and hollow to everyone who knows. Hollow to him. It's a special kind of hell we live in.

One hell of a utopia.

In the end, Sarah will become a small business owner. We'll lay down the trail for her to run something that runs along the lines of 20th century ethical practices. She'll have her pick of products, and she'll run the operation in the best way she knows how. We can lay down breadcrumbs of opportunities and support the infrastructure and the product line from where we sit. She'll live a perfectly respectable life in her ethical and lovely shop for as long as she wants until she wants a transfer.

Maybe she'll be a politician then. Who the hell knows.

Not me, and not Jack, by the look of it. I look at him, and he glares back.

Yeah. Okay.

Jack slaps another file on my desk. This time, I just take it. There are some days where turnabout just isn't fair play.

In the near future, 85% of all jobs have been automated, and everyone's basic needs are met for free. You work for a secret organization that creates fake busywork jobs for the majority who aren't qualified for the few real jobs left, but need perceived meaningful labor to stay sane.

[uracutieraka]

Bakugo Katsuki as your boyfriend!

small scenarios of what it's like to date the Great Explosion Murder God Dynamite!

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

'who would win in a fight kacchan? Me or Mina.' Denki asks, hands on his hips as he turns to the Blond hoping to settle this petty argument.

'Y/n.'

A scoff leaves Mina's mouth as she crosses her arms and turns back to Denki.

'I knew you shouldn't have asked him!'

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

'Bakugo it's kind of creepy how nice you are around her.' Mina says one day while everyones gathered in the kitchen cooking dinner.

a few hums and words of agreement spill from fellow classmates.

Kirishima interrupts.

'It's totally manly and I am so jealous you got a girlfriend before me! Especially such a hottie too!'

A harsh chop to the side of the red haired boys neck has him falling over in pain.

'Don't call my girlfriend hot asshole!'

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

You two had been cuddled up in your bed, watching videos on your phone.

Katsuki played with your hair, lazily twirling strands between his index and middle finger.

You enjoyed the familiar feeling of the slow rise and fall of his chest. The sounds of his heartbeat also fueling your desire to rest your head on him.

He's quietly humming a random melody you had never heard.

You move your head to look up at him and he looks down at you.

'What'cha singing 'Suki ?'

'Nothin' in particular.'

You chuckle at his response.

He has a wide grin on his face, pupils dilated fully while looking at you.

'You're so cute I think I could die right now.' He moves his hands to squish the bottom half of your face around. Forcing you to pucker your lips out.

You're laughing and moving your head back and forth trying to escape his grip.

He leans down to give you a long and dramatic kiss, complete with sound effects.

'mmmMMWAH!' he pulls off you with a popping sound., letting go of your face.

'Suki! That was so slobbery!'

You wipe your mouth and face off and pull a fake disgusted look.

He rolls his eyes and scoff.

'Whatever.'

'I'm gonna tell everyone how sweet you really are!' It's a hallow threat, holding no real backlash.

'They'll never believe you.' a cheeky smirk now fills his face.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

'Bakugo? What's on your face?' Aizawa asks him one afternoon when the class is about to start training.

Midnight quickly grabs the boys jaw in her hand, turning his head to get a better look at it.

'Oh! You sneaky little thing! Is that a lipstick mark?'

He's quick to escape her grip and jump two steps back.

He stands, puffing his chest a bit and resting his hands on his hips. Tilting his head up and to the side, a cocky look across his face.

'It's from y/n.' He says proudly.

He hears a few gags and 'ew's come from his classmates but he doesn't care.

'So manly!' Kirishima says loudly to himself, pumping a fist in the air and looking down at the ground.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

You're standing at the front gate of your family home, holding Katsuki's hand.

You step forward and gently tug his arm to get him to move.

he takes a slow step.

'What if they hate me?'

You stop moving and turn to face him, lifting your hands up to gently brush over the material covering his shoulders.

You straighten the collar of his polo as well before responding.

'They won't'

He takes a deep breath before grabbing your hand again and giving it a quick squeeze.

You smile back at him as you make it to the front door and a sense of calmness washes over him, if you were confident they would like him then he didn't need to stress too much. After all you know your parents better than anyone else.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

'So Dynamite, it it?,'

He grunts as a response.

Present Mic gives him a side eye and slight eyebrow raise at his lack of words but continues to ask the questions.

'What motivates you to-' He's cut off before he can finish the question.

'My girlfriend, y/n.'

'You didn't even le-'

'Didn't need to. She's what motivates me.'

Present mic rolls his eyes and keeps trying to continue, but Bakugo doesn't let him.

'Yeah, she's just like the best thing that's ever happened to me.' His arms are crossed and a prideful look crosses his face as he continues a long list of reasons why you're the best girlfriend ever.

Present Mic completely gives up any hopes of getting him to actually answer the questions, instead he looks helplessly at his long time friend and coworker, Aizawa.

"Bakugo!" Aizawa's sharp tone causes the Blond to sneer and look over at his teacher with a glare.

'You're done. Go.' His teacher makes a shoo motion with his hand.

Bakugo proudly walks off, sure he totally nailed it. He received his first ever 'F' that day.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ-

'What'cha drawing there Kacchan?' a wide smile is on the green haired boy's face.

Katsuki's face grows red as he jumps and hurriedly shoves his note book to his chest.

He looks up at Deku's face with wide eyes before speaking.

'Mind your own damn business!'

Uraka now joins in on the conversation.

She turns around in her desk, to look at them both.

'Probably stick figure doodles of him and y/n with their future house, he draws that all the time!'

He drops his jaw with a scoff at her snitching on him.

'Do not!' his voice is harsh and gruff.

Now some of the other students crowd around his desk, curious as to what all the ruckus was.

Mina and Denki are quick to start prying the notebook out of his strong grip.

They want to know if Bakugo is maybe just the slightest bit normal.

Finally Kirishima joins in, with the added strength Bakugo loses the hold he had on the book.

He groans and slams his head down on the desk as the class crowds Mina and Denki, trying to get a glimpse at the said drawings.

Sure enough, doodles of you and him fill the margins of his notes.

'I <3 Y/N' is scribbled between the stick figure people, along with your name paired with his last name.

The girls are all gushing about just how sweet he was for loving you so much, as the boys are now turning to dog on him for being so whipped by you.

He's never going to live this down.

[crazybiscuit]

Uptown Girl

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Reader Summary: You, an out of touch rich pureblood, recently moved to England for yet another engagement prospect. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan as you somehow find yourself constantly running into a werewolf, who has developed a valid reason to dislike you. Warnings: This is going to be a long fic and the reader will be a bit of a bitch at first. The story will definitely contain violence, excessive use of alcohol, smut and mentions of death. This chapter doesn't have any graphic content though. On side note, this is set in 1983 and sadly, Lily (my wife... 😔) and James are dead. So Sirius is in Azkaban and Peter is "dead". Word Count:  2287 Credits: @saradika-graphics thank you for the divider! A/N: Let's pretend I didn't mean to post this yesterday... London was an actual nightmare to map out in my brain and I'm fully aware the title doesn't make total sense considering uptown and downtown is a mostly American concept but I figured it fit the context of the story. So for our sake, Remus will live in East London, closer to the Thames, and you, my dear Readers will live in West London, more North of the city. On a side note, fuck JKR and her disgusting beliefs. Also, to anyone struggling, whether it be personal life or political climate, I hope you're doing alright. Writing is my current escapism and I hope I can help someone else in the process. On another note, chapter 2 should be posted on the 28th!

 

“When is that damned exterminator going to get here?” your father’s gruff voice was muffled by his handkerchief he held to his nose as he walked into the parlour.

“We should’ve just called the ministry,” the woman sat next to you snapped, her head sticking out of the window taking advantage of the fresh air, “No one would’ve ever cared about our little problem. But no, you had the brilliant idea to hire some random man you found in a pub.”

You brushed your damp hair, trying your best to ignore the foul stench emitting from beneath the floor, “There’s nothing small about our problem, so I’d much rather keep this discreet myself.”

You should’ve known better than to oppose your poor, dear mother, as she grasped her chest as if he couldn’t breathe, “Discreet! I don’t care how discreet we are dealing with this! This man will fail to help us, screw up and we will have to call the ministry anyways. Hell! He’s probably a fraud and planning to rob us. Do you have any idea how much worse that will be! People will think we are fouls who can’t maintain our estate.”

You didn’t bother hiding the way you rolled your eyes as you glanced back out to the cloudy sky, which caused mother to rant about disrespect to the old man, now sitting in his recliner.

The fall wind was a welcome guest as you began to carefully style your hair, turning your attention to your faint reflection in the window. The bundimun infestation might have stalled the redecorating efforts of this old dirty hole of townhouse, but it was certainly not going to stop you from looking your best.

“It’s lucky Josephine is still in France. I'm beginning to doubt any amount of magic can revive this place.”

“Enough complaining,” your father cut in, as he cast another scouring charm in an attempt to lessen the smell, “We all know this isn't ideal, but you should be grateful we even found this estate for you.”

You felt slightly annoyed as you finished your hair, frowning at him through the glass reflection. Your hand dropped dejectedly as you glanced back with a sigh. He was right, despite every one of your arrangements falling through due to the war, your parents had still managed to find you a respectable match, “I know, I know… I'm sorry. This is all just frustrating.”

Your parents shared a look but remained silent. However, this didn’t last long as your mother suddenly stood up, “I feel like I might faint.” 

Your father let out an exasperated sigh at her theatrics.

“I am sorry, dear, but I cannot do this anymore. You'll have to deal with the exterminator yourself, I'm going out for lunch with Y/N–”

Before your father could protest in annoyance, you interrupted, “Actually, I still need to finish my makeup, so you can go with Papa.”

They put very little effort into arguing and quickly vanished from the house. The silence would've been appreciated if it weren’t for the disturbing smell surrounding you and you found yourself tilting your head back as you leaned against the window sill. Even upside down, the townhouses that lined the street bored you, and you decided to stare at the sea of grey clouds slowly drifting across the sky instead.

You figured, much to your annoyance, that it would likely rain again today. Your attention snapped to the street when you heard the crunching of the colourful leaves beneath someone’s shoes. You flipped over to get a proper look of the man coming up the street and your interest peaked. He stood out against the pristine houses, his dark clothes seemingly worn from years of wear on his tall, though lanky figure, and he seemed handsome enough even from the second floor.

You quickly grabbed your wand and summoned your silk robe, slipping it over your nightgown. He must’ve been the man your father hired, and with that thought, you grabbed your perfume bottle to apply some.

By the time the doorbell rang, you had grabbed your lipstick and you carefully applied it as you looked at yourself in the mirror against the wall. The bell rang a second time and you sighed, quickly wiping off the colour that was out of place. You smoothen out your silk robe before heading to the front door, opening it and finding yourself faced with a man’s hand frozen midair, ready to knock.

“Oh, sorry,” your eyes snapped up to the face that spoke and you met the man’s slightly startled hazel eyes. He was taller than you expected when you saw him outside and his light brown hair was messy but still made him look rather charming. He seemed a few years older, likely in his mid or late 20s. But what truly caught your eyes were the scars scattered across his face, neck, hands. Any bit of skin you could see was littered with scars, “Hi, you hired pest control..?”

His deep voice snapped you out of your daze and you noted the faint Welsh accent as you stepped aside, opening the door wider for him, “Right… come in.”

The man took notice of your outfit and nonchalant demeanor, but remained professional as he followed you in. His expression remained steady despite the familiar pungent smell filling the house. He awkwardly adjusted his bag on his shoulder. Your father hadn’t told him the exact issue, only promising to pay him nicely, and Remus hadn’t exactly allowed himself the privilege of worrying about the oddity of the situation. However, you did notice his stance relaxed as he recognized the infestation he was handling, “Bundimuns?”

“Unfortunately, that is correct,” you sighed, looking back as you opened the door to the area where the test was the most prominent. You noted his slight hesitancy to walk in as he observed the half-decorated house, “Our house warming party is in a few days and we need this issue to be solved quickly so we can finish the renovations.”

“Right…,” Remus tried his best to hide his expression of confusion and disbelief as he stared at the loud decor scattered around the room, “This seems like it would’ve been easier to report to the ministry.”

“Probably,” you agreed, making your way to the open balcony, “We’ll take our chances though. I’d rather only have one person know about this than deal with official records of the infestation.”

That confused the poor man, who had set his old messenger bag down on one of the uncovered powder blue sofas, but he wasn’t about to push for more answers. Rich, purebloods were always preoccupied with reputation, he knew that very well.

You leaned against the cold, metal railing as you watched him digging through his bag for his notebook, “How long will this take you?”

His gaze met yours for a split second before going back to flipping through the yellowed pages, “It’ll take two or three hours. This is a pretty serious infestation and this building is a lot bigger than it seemed outside…” 

It was clear he had questions but it didn’t seem like he was going to ask. You figured you’d explain the situation to prevent any rumours to spread (though you doubted his words would actually reach any important ears), “This house was built before the ban on extension charms for houses. We have ministry approval to keep it that way.”

Remus smiled a little apologetically, finding the page he was looking for, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. It really isn’t any of my business, so I wasn’t going to ask.”

His passiveness was mildly surprising but you brushed it off. It was nice not having to worry about him talking and clearly he needed the money, so you figured he'd stay quiet. You finally moved and sat at the table on the balcony as he began to read the most effective spells to get rid of the secretions and creatures.

It was fairly cold outside but you figured you should keep an eye on him. To entertain yourself for the next few hours, you figured you should write to your sister and friends back in France. You flicked your hawthorne wand, summoning your quill, paper and other supplies wordlessly.

The two of you worked on your separate tasks quietly, barely interacting for over an hour. You had lost interest in watching him as he cleaned the house out of the green menaces, using spells you had never heard off, and only headed back inside due to the charming British weather. Rain was always such a nuisance.

You carried your stack of letters with you as you walked back into the house. The smell, though still lingering, had mostly vanished from the house, which was a relief, “I'm going to be upstairs. I trust you won’t steal anything. Though I doubt he’d even be able to identify the actual valuable objects.”

The last part was mumbled under your breath but with the context, it was easy for the brunette to infer it was likely an insult. Remus watched you disappear to the third floor, “What?”

“Feel free to ask the house elves for help. They’re in the basement. They’ve been trying their best to deal with the acid,” with that, you shut your bedroom door, completely missing the man’s expression of disbelief and mild offense.

Another hour passed and Remus had done everything in his power to avoid you as he finished up the rest of the house. This would’ve worked wonders if he didn’t have to worry about getting rid of the last few bundimuns in the house, which conveniently were hidden behind the double doors leading to your room.

He sighed. He was never skilled in divination but something in his gut was telling that you were trouble, but he needed the money and he wasn’t about to half-ass his job because of some spoiled brat. So he knocked.

You opened the door and he immediately took note of your outfit change. You were no longer in your silk robe and pajamas, instead dressed in a simple but classy turtleneck and skirt, “I need to charm this room then I’m done…”

You hummed, letting him in as you walked back to your four poster bed, tying the stack of at least 15 letters together so that your owl could carry it. This gave Remus at least a few minutes of peace as he finished up, but it seemed you sensed he was about done as you spoke up, “You know, I know a potion maker in Saint-Brieuc, who is very skilled at Scar-Diminishing Serums.” 

“I beg your pardon?” his Welsh accent seemed deeper now that you’d upset him. The unprompted comment caught the man off guard and he scoffed, unable to believe anyone could be this insensitive.

“I’ve used them a few times and they work wonders. Great way to boost confidence and better your appearance,” you paused, sensing he was upset, much to your confusion, “Don’t get me wrong, you’re fairly handsome, but I think it would definitely hel–”

He suddenly got up after casting one last spell, “I’m done.”

His voice, though composed, made it obvious he was pissed. You hesitated slightly, trying to figure out what you did as you followed him down to the first floor, “No need to be so upset, I was just trying to give you advice.”

He interrupts, surprisingly calm for someone getting insulted every other line, “Well, I kindly reject it, thank you.”

He stopped in front of the front door, almost considering leaving without payment, not wanting anything from you. Before you could protest, he opened the door and your mother let out a yelp, not expecting to see the stranger.

“Oh! Remy, was it?” your father smiled, glad to see the exterminator.

“Remus.”

It finally occurred to you that you had never even introduced yourself or asked for his name.

“Right, right! You must’ve finished! Y/N, did you pay him yet? I left the galleons on the table in the office,” he kept rambling, walking past Remus and you to get the money. Your mother smiled nervously, looking at the man, who she had already predetermined as creepy and untrustworthy, and tried her best to maintain a polite demeanor.

Unfortunately for her, she did a terrible job and her expression visibly relaxed when your father came back to save her from the conversation, “Here’s the 10 Galleons we originally agreed upon, and I figured you could get an extra 5 for–”

“Actually the 10 will suffice,” Remus forced a smile. He wasn’t stupid. It was clear you and your family were hoping to buy his favor to avoid any bad mouthing, and he wasn’t going to do that. Hell, he didn’t even want to talk about you to anyone (not that he really had anyone left), but it was a matter of principle.

You parents were stumped. They had rarely, if ever, met someone so quick to deny their money, “Sir, we insist–”

Remus had stepped out, taking the 10 Galleons, cutting off your mother with a thigh smile, “Honestly, I’m good.”

Your father, in a desperate attempt to get some sort of upperhand spoke words that made your  jaw drop, “Well then, please consider joining us for our solstice party on the 21st.”

Your mother’s expression mirrored yours and you knew they would argue about this later. Remus’s eyes met yours and something awoke in him, a slight sense of amusement he hadn’t felt since Hogwarts. He looked back at your father, adjusting his old bag on his shoulder, and smiled slightly, “I’ll think about it.”

[familyagrestefanblog]

I don't know why, but it's really annoying me that they didn't use Sabrina's old Miss Hound design in Illustrhater. I know, I know, "the episodes must be able to be watched in any order or else the channels will not air one of the currently most popular kids cartoons. Blah blah blah (as if)"

But Illustrhater is so obviously meant to be watched as episode 2. And its fine, it works WELL as episode 2! They literally bring up Hawkmoth in the beginning and how they know nothing about the new Butterfly of which they then later find out hides their name and gender from their victims. And Marinette's whole behaviour in both her identities is fine enough explained by being episode 2 of the season.

But you cant tell me I could watch it after Werepapas. No that doesn't make sense.

I'm fine with giving Alya and Nino talking to Sublime's mom as former akuma victim for a scene a pass because that served their sub plot well when they can quickly talk to 2 victims and not just one. It's not ideal but I get it and it's not like her inclusion involved some story-breaking dialog. It's fine.

But don't ask me why Sabrina's outfits is rubbing me so badly in the wrong way. I can only try and explain it by me being annoyed that they didn't use the character model for Sabrina with her OLD Miss Hound design in the obvious episode 2.

Cause they HAVE that extra model and didn't use it despite that actually breaking continuity for a bigger character (than Sublime's mom, who doesn't matter).

Or maybe I'm annoyed that not using the old design raises the question now of WHY Miss Hound's inclusion for that little scene was so important that it was worth causing continuity issues. I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say that not for ALL Miraculous holders will the story make a big deal out of them getting a new design.

Then why did you include Sabrina in episode 2 when you could have put anyone else in that spot and only have her show up after episode 4?!

How was that a problem? I would have understood prioritizing putting Sabrina in that episode 2 moment if it HAD been her model with the old design. To get more use out of it and to give yet another hint for the VERY OBVIOUS EPISODE 2 to be episode 2!

I'm just so annoyed at it. THOSE are the continuity errors I actually care about, not Sublime's fucking mom.

In general, I do believe that the season is supposed to be watched in the order we were given. That watching the episodes this way gives you the right emotional journey. That obviously Werepapas takes place after Illustrhater and Sublimation because that makes sense character wise even if it on paper doesn't matter WHEN Adrien's grandparents arrived. Or that Daddycop will obviously take place before the following episodes were Sabrina will now have her new civilian design, even if the big event of the episode can vaguely be placed anywhere.

I don't care about some minor MINOR characters' continuity. I don't care that Adrien's grandparents obviously should have shown up earlier than several months after the s5 finale. I'm cool with episode 5.

I wouldn't even have cared for the Antikuma effect not being explained at all in its first appearance in Sublimation (which btw HAS to be the first appearance because that's how the characters are treating it which is RIGHT to happen in episode 3) if the second appearance right afterwards in Daddycop had served as a better real introduction. But I guess being TOLD that a holder needs to detransform and transform again to go back to normal is supposed to be enough because now we know all the functions on paper.

That's the things that annoy me. But something about Miss Hounds continuity issue in Illustrhater just takes the cake for me.

[queervegancryptid]

What's really bizarre to me is how this sort of thing dovetails with the mentality a lot of these people have in terms of, like, the prosperity gospel doctrine common to a lot of religious conservatives. It took me a really long time to wrap my head around it in this way.

I added a cut because this got long. But I think it's important for anyone trying to make sense of this kind of bullshit to understand this as part of the why. I grew up around it, and it still took me a long time to understand its role in all this. I don't think it necessarily applies to RFK Jr, but it applies to a lot of conservatives, in and out of government. So I think it's relevant.

For anybody who doesn't know, the prosperity gospel thinking of which I speak is basically the idea that how good you have it and how well your life is going is a direct result of your status in the eyes of God. That is to say, it isn't just that they think they deserve good things, but more than that, they think having good things is a sign of being a good person, so your socioeconomic status is seen as a direct reflection of how good or bad a person you are. This also goes along with the idea that, without this "God" as they understand it, there is no morality at all.

The flip side of this is that they fully believe not having good things is a sign you don't deserve them because God has decided you're not deserving, and who are these good Christians if they hubristically question God's plan? So if you lose your job, your home, etc, they don't necessarily see themselves as having a community obligation to help you. They see it as your fuck up, and you need to get right with the Lord.

In other words, how good or bad your life is is directly proportional to how much or how little God approves of you. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, and it's your own fault if you haven't managed to be pure enough to earn a good life.

What we see here is that mentality applied to illness. And it isn't actually new, in terms of how they think of disability being something you can avoid if you're truly deserving of having a healthy body that works as expected. If you don't have that, that's a "you" problem. Even if it's caused by something preventable or something that wouldn't have caused a disabling condition to occur, had the person had access to care, they still see it as a reflection of them having earned it in some way by not being better in the eyes of God.

Basically what I'm saying is that they don't care if children or old people or immune compromised people or literally any group I could name dies of COVID or any of the other illnesses that are preventable via vaccination or other means or from an otherwise treatable condition. They don't care about any of that, because if the little kid was supposed to be healthy, God wouldn't have let them get COVID/flu/polio/etc.

There are definitely also people who are just, well, stupid. Like folks who think vaccines cause autism. Even if they did, that would make it a pretty easy choice: maybe having an autistic child OR having your (maybe, but not guaranteed) neurotypical child get seriously ill and maybe die from illnesses that they would otherwise be a lot more protected from. So they're basically saying that they'd rather have a sick or dead child than an autistic one, and as an autistic person, I'm offended and hurt by that mentality, but more than that, if you feel that way, you probably shouldn't be having children in the first place.

But the prosperity gospel complex is real and deeply shapes a lot of the mentality of people who voted based on crap like vaccine mandates and mask mandates. It's a very real "I got mine, so I must be good with God, and everyone else is on their own, including children and people at high risk I could be protecting by being responsible. If they get sick and die, that's on them."

They're all going to the Bad Place, if there is one. But I'm just trying to get people to understand the mentality involved here. It generally isn't worth arguing with people who think that way, but if you're going to engage, you should know this is what you're up against. And I really hope it helps some folks understand that this is part of what we're up against. Once you see it through that lens, a lot of the crazy bullshit they pull becomes predictable. No less horrifying, but less jarring in a way, at least to me.

I also think it's generally good to, for want of a better phrase, "know your enemy." Not for the purposes of reasoning with them, necessarily, because this is often impossible. But understanding how this fucked up machine works is a good thing, and this is part of what feeds into it.

Still, sometimes a monster is just a monster. And not in a fun Tumblr way, but in a Strange New Worlds gorn type of way: you can't reason with it, and it wants to kill you and is definitely very capable. (I know we got monsterfuckers here, and probably some of you would be down to clown with gorn, but let me have my metaphor here pls. No judgement, just not the point of this post lol)

Sorry this got long. I grew up around these people, and sometimes I forget I know about the culture in some ways others may not. So I see posts with people (rightly) outraged by things like this, wondering how any reasonable person could be okay with this. And the thing is, they aren't reasonable. Stop expecting reasonable behavior out of these people, because you'll just be disappointed and aggravated. I know some of this seems crazy, and that's because it is. It's insidious in so many ways, too.

My dad used to say, "Never argue with a pig. It won't work, and it just irritates the pig." Sometimes that's true. Sometimes, though, the pig likes it, and you just end up covered in shit, because that's what pigs do. Save yourself the trouble.

I don't think children should die of preventable diseases just because their parents are freaks.

RFK Jr. and Red State paternalism are a deadly mix for innocent children.

Mind you, RFK is vaccinated AND he vaccinated his own kids. But, you can die.

[cornflowershade]

so i also agree that the tone shift to the lilly scene was super abrupt, and the scene itself felt kinda rushed and then glossed over— it didn't have time to breath lets say— BUT considering that the scene is there, I wanna talk about what I do like about it! The cool bits!

this scene showed up right around the time my mind was literally wondering about her. We had no conclusion about her previously, didn't see her go to jail or even hear that this happened. For all we knew she had gotten away. Considering she was a main villain in this series, it would've been kind of weird to just have her disappear off-screen and never be mentioned again. (If they didn't bring her back then it should've been swapped with a nice little line of "oh yes she went to jail.")

The FEELING I got when Fadel and Bison walked in there and the guards took their guns. The looks on their faces. You could see, feel, the disadvantage they were at. Because they've just gone through all this time in prison and they don't want to go back!! she has them at a disadvantage because you know they would risk everything by shooting her. They are fully aware.

The moment when things are getting tense and Bison says "I'll kill for you again. I'll do anything you say just let them go" — with like, tears in his eyes???? Do you realize how much this tore at my heart??? He's bargaining for Kant's life here at the expense of everything he's ever longed for himself. Despite everything he's gone through to get out. For dramatic effect I choose to believe that he meant this line seriously (or, I guess, that he had tears in his eyes because saying that even without meaning it was just so painful. But I'll take the more dramatic version.)

Then Lilly agrees to this deal. On a condition that Fadel and Bison poison Babe and Style's dad. I really had to think about this one for a while, because I was trying to figure out her logic. She agrees to letting their boyfriends go, provided they kill their boyfriends' loved ones first. Yes it could simply be as a form of punishment towards Kant and Style for exposing her... but noooo it's more than that. She's accepted Bison's deal of working for her again (supposedly. I mean she has no one else right now, the lady's lost everything so. I guess she could've been planning to kill the boyfriends right after anyway but imma take this at face value right now). So yes she agrees HOWEVER, if she's gonna take that deal, she needs to be certain they won't be able to leave her again. By asking them to kill their boyfriends' loved ones, she's asking them to do perhaps the one thing their boyfriends wouldn't be able to forgive, essentially force-cutting those ties so they can't run back. So they wouldn't even feel like they had the right to run back. And by leaving Style and Kant alive, she would have eternal leverage—listen to me or I'll send someone after them.

They meet at a family dinner table. I mean. The symbolism of it all. (It's been noted that Keen is very obviously missing from Family Dinner, but going beyond the fact that no one cared in their 'family' about him lol... it kinda makes sense. I don't think Lilly would be too surprised that he disappeared while she was in jail. He's probably far off without a trail to follow. She ALSO doesn't know, is not even slightly aware, that Keen also had a boyfriend and also helped betrayed her. No one told her this so he's simply not on her revenge list.)

Bison and Kant have repeatedly had the back and fourth of Bison saying he wants revenge and Kant saying "don't kill 🥺" -- and honestly, I was always kinda on Bison's side?? Okay hear me out. While again the aftermath of this wasn't dealt with at all (I mean at that point I figure Kant went... 'welp, nothing I can do now') I can't help but enjoy seeing the killers in a show about killers do their thing. Kant has always had a very optimistic view of Bison. He's said "i can't imagine you killing anyone." Despite having Bison quite literally threaten his life. He loves Bison but is trying very hard to think, Bison would never murder anyone. Continues trying to think that way for a very long time. Even though he is, objectively, wrong. Kant has seemed to be a believer in, "the power of love can make my boyfriend never do murder again!" and I don't mind that he was wrong. Hoping for Bison to get out of bad-guy-world without stooping to any murderous lows almost feels like a pipe dream, idk. Like back on the island, I remember Bison looking at Kant like 'he just doesn't get it'. Also, not achieving revenge through murder was always posed as Kant's wish for Bison, not Bison's wish for himself. Let the boy enjoy his newfound ability to make life choices lol. He had that dramatic line in ep. 11 "We'll make killing her our last masterpiece." C"MON. What a line. I can't be mad that he came through to deliver on that. And so they do. She killed their parents to steal that role in their lives, and now they kill her—with her own poison used against her—right at the end of the 'family dinner table'. Worth noting that Bison and Fadel did give the law a chance to deal with her, too. Like, they did give their boyfriends' way a chance. It's only when that didn't work that they went Okay guys, we need to be practical here and optimism won't save us. We tried your way now we try ours. She's gonna keep coming back if we don't end things here. Also Kant having to watch Bison kill someone and face up to the fact that yes, this is a thing that he is capable of. He was in fact a hit man this whole time. AghH!! Again we don't get to see this be processed sadly and then have another startling cut to them cuddling in bed. But at least what that does show is this: Kant saw what Bison is capable of—after all that internal denial going on for 12 episodes—and went Yes, I Still Love Him. And they both move on from it together.

roofie gang full circle!

By using the poison, Fadel and Bison manage to choose the one sneaky route that can't really be traced back to them. Not shooting her isn't just to 'make her suffer a more painful death,' it's to protect themselves. They're not going back to jail for this. As usual, Fadel is the one who formulates the logical plan, and then Bison delivers. (Though yes it would've been cool if Fadel got a turn to do the poisoning. Actually my thought on this is that they could've fed it to her together. But also it checks out that it was Bison.) Lilly has nowhere to run. She could try, but there's two of them and they both have guns. She's surrounded and as she said herself, by this point she has basically lost everything. And so she dies. (We do see her choking guys, I don't believe not seeing a dead body is supposed to imply she survived this.) They are finally free.

For a show about hit men, they actually don't do a lot of killing. They didn't even kill the guy Lilly ordered a hit on [who exposed the truth about her to them], as he was shown to be alive later on when Kant & Style gave him over to Christ. So, what have we seen them do? We had a flashback to their first kill—okay. But what about present day, how many murders have there been? From start to finish in the series. The answer is two. Exactly two. At the start of the first episode and at the end of the last. One hit for Lilly, and one hit for themselves. There's something poetic about that.

There might be more but that's it off the top of my head. So yes, I think this scene could've had more room, could've taken it's time more and perhaps been longer? It could’ve hit harder. And YES it was certainly tonally abrupt... Would I have missed it if it wasn't there? Okay, not really. Would it be interesting to see some fallout from it? Sure (actually it's a great opportunity for some fanfic haha). BUT... I dunno. All things considered I do think it was pretty cool. I’m not mad that it was there and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. (Honestly the part I enjoyed least was probably Iceland DONT KILL ME OKAY. I love kantbison and the tickets scene was so sweet and perfect and needs to be there but the actual greenscreen Iceland part was kinda boring to me 😭 replace that screen time with some fallout idk. most controversial thing I’ve said in this whole post. Sorry I’ll leave)

[savage-sinister]

so… I understand you like villains? XD I hope you can help me in writing a villain love interest… I personally am not super familiar with it, and so I'm wondering;

how "evil" should this villain be? im wondering if his motivations should be evil and self centered, or if hes fighting for a cause the reader can get behind, but has evil ways of going about it… im a bit lost ;v; this is a personal for fun project that I might not even write, but Id find it helpful to know what villain appreciators find sexy in a villain? what makes a good villain to act as a love interest? ;v;

You heard correctly! Thank you for giving me a chance to ramble. ;)

Alright, so to preface this, everything here is going to be my own opinion. There are lots of diverse opinions on what makes a good villain. I'm going to ramble about my own thoughts. You're in luck because I did a bunch of thinking about this 2 years ago when I wrote a villain romance novel!

Alright so to break it down you're actually kind of asking three questions. "What makes an appealing villain", "what makes a good romantic lead", and "how do I make a character with typically villainous traits appealing to an audience as a romantic lead?"

You ask "how "evil" should this villain be?" and here's what I, a villain lover, am going to tell you in response.

You need to forget the notion of 'evil' for a minute. Every "villain" perceives themselves as the hero of their own story. Think about what kind of "evil" traits you want your character to have, and then ask yourself, how did they get into a state of mind where they think that behavior is either acceptable (for them), or actively desirable.

Every hero is working towards a goal that they themselves feel is noble or desirable. The difference between them and a hero is that the "villain" either doesn't care about the consequences of their actions on other people, justifies those actions as necessary for the 'greater good', or represses their feelings of guilt for those actions, or accepts the guilt because "someone has to do it."

This is obvious for a lot of types of villains. The villain who lost someone dear to them and now seeks power above all else in order to protect themselves and the people around them. The villain who sees the evils of the world go unaddressed by the heroes and decides that they're going to fix the world by any means necessary.

Even the most self-interested villain started out like the rest of us, and developed along a path where their actions make sense to them. Villainous businessmen are often "Randian Hero" types who believe the pursuit of wealth and power is noble and sort of quasi-divinely inspired. If they don't believe that, then often they act in an evil, self-interested way to *punish* or get revenge on others.

You often hear "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" from people and characters who are cold, individualistic, unforgiving and self-interested. This generally comes from the self-perception (whether or not it's reality) that this character did exactly that. They feel like they struggled terribly and no one helped them, so in revenge, they're not helping anyone but themselves (and potentially those close to them.)

Likewise even villains who call themselves "evil" and talk about "doing evil for evil's sake" have some kind of relatable motivation you can find. Maybe they feel like they were punished unjustly by people who call themselves "good" and adopted a kind of reverse morality. "Oh if you're 'good' then I'm going to be 'evil'.". On the other hand maybe they're a theater kid type and they're using the concept of "evil" as a smokescreen for another goal. Maybe they think they're improving the world through underhanded means and think it's ironic to embrace the "evil" term that their enemies put on them.

So the question of "how evil should the villain be" for the purposes of your story, since you want the reader to empathize with them, is "exactly evil as you want to make them while still having the reader admire something about them." What makes a "villain" in the narrative is that the hero is not supposed to identify with or admire their goals and ideals. Your job in a villain romance is to turn that on its head, and make the scary guy who steals, or murders, or whatnot, relatable to the audience.

That leads us to the next question.

 "What makes a good romantic lead?"

In the case of a romance where the villain is the romantic lead, you want to think about what makes a villain attractive to people. Most of us villain fuckers are in there for the "byronic hero" type of villain.

A character who:

has an unusual and dramatic sense of style

who feels misunderstood by the world, who the romance protagonist can understand.

who is powerful and can make the protagonist feel protected

who the protagonist knows will be devoted to them above all else. Above morals, above sanity. A villain's lover is more important to them than other people's lives. Than the whole universe.

There should be exactly two things that are important to your villain. Their Goal, which the protagonist can either help them with or show them the folly or, and The Protagonist, who should be so important to the villain by the end of the story that they would give up their goal if they had to to protect them.

And that brings us to "how do I make a character with typically villainous traits appealing to an audience as a romantic lead?"

And here's the answer to that that every good tabletop rpg roleplayer knows. And that's that every strength a character has also reflects a flaw– and therefore every flaw also reflects a strength.

If your villain murders people, have them murder on protagonist's behalf. 

If your villain sees the beauty in the disgusting, have them show it to the protagonist and explain their perspective.

If your villain is a thief, have them steal trinkets for the protagonist.

If you show the villain using their villainous traits in ways that benefit the protagonist AND you show the audience how the villain got to the mindset where they believe their villainous traits are good, and you show why they're pursuing the goals they are.

Then you have a relatable villain who makes a great romantic lead.

At its heart villain loving is a mix of: dark aesthetics, romance beyond sense logic and morals, sharing understanding with someone who everyone else misunderstands, being cared for by someone who has difficulty caring for others (which makes you special), and a power fantasy.

I hope that helped at least a little! In the end of course, if you're writing a sexy villain, the most important thing is to write a villain who is sexy to you!

[madara-fate]

Hinata fans really just try too hard. I’m completely neutral with what I feel about Hinata because I don’t think there’s anything to dislike nor like about her but I agree so much on the people’s comment that Pain Arc really made people overhype Hinata. And they always try to compare Sakura’s achievements to her Master as if that makes Sakura any less and weak when she’s still better then everyone else, not to mention, she will eventually surpass Tsunade. As a Sakura fan myself, I don’t even feel insulted that Tsunade is better because she’s Sakura’s master, I think Sakura herself still thinks and believes that Tsunade is better than her. She respects Tsunade that much and puts her in high esteem. Sakura isn’t even trying to be better than everyone else, she’s simply trying to be better then who she is before and she certainly did. These haters try too much to discredit what she did and downplay it by saying, “She JUST did this,” as if anything she did or accomplished can be done by anyone. Not to mention, the utter absurdity of everything this Hinata fan has said, I find it so hypocritical how they throw Sakura off the bus by pointing out her love for Sasuke as if Hinata wasn’t a bigger simp. As if Hinata didn’t wanna get strong for Naruto. I’m convinced all the more that Hinata fans will always love their fantasized idea of what Hinata could be and not really her because from all their comments, they certainly aren’t defending someone like Hinata.

I'm not about to bash Hinata, but the things that person was saying just made no sense. I mean, I also don't like it when Sakura fans label her as a "queen", that makes me cringe, but it's as you insinuated - just because someone was better at something than Sakura was at the time, why does that make her accomplishments any less significant? If an assistant at a hospital manages to save someone's life while the main doctor was away, why does that take away from the assistant's accomplishment, even if the main doctor could have saved the person's life in half the time? It's lunacy.

Healing? Cool but Tsunade was the OG.

That's the stupidest thing I've read all week. Sakura has literally saved hundreds if not thousands of lives (including Hinata's), and this person is here saying "well Tsunade can heal too so who cares!". Like Sakura keeping Naruto alive by manually pumping his heart - This person will say that Tsunade could do that too, but the fact is that Tsunade was not there, and without Sakura, Naruto would have died. Some people just can't give credit where it's due.

Strength? Punching a few things doesn't make her queen material when her so-called love for Sasuke was her entire personality for most of the series.

The fact that this person equates Sakura's strength to simply "punching a few things" is already enough to explicitly demonstrate to me how desperate they are to downplay everything Sakura does, but they also make no mention of the Byakugou Seal, something you can only achieve if your chakra control is literally beyond perfect, something that only Tsunade and Sakura have demonstrated the ability to be able to do, which is a very impressive accomplishment indeed, but of course this person ignores that.

And that's not even mentioning the fact that they admonish Sakura for Sasuke apparently being her entire personality for most of the series, despite the fact that by that severely flawed logic, the exact same criticism can obviously be applied to Hinata towards Naruto. Maybe even more so to be honest.

She spent more time chasing after a guy who treated her like an afterthought

And I bet this person will then turn around and heap praise on Naruto for doing the exact same thing. Funny how that works.

Meanwhile, Hinata, with a fraction of the screentime, stood up to Pain when Sakura could only scream Naruto's name.

That would be like me saying that with a fraction of the screentime, Sakura turned the entire battlefield during the 4th Shinobi War into her own personal playground with one Byakugou infused punch, while Hinata could only trip over a rock. It's exceedingly easy to just pick and choose what to exclude and what to focus on in order to suit clearly biased agendas.

Hinata didn't need validation from others to grow; she trained hard, became strong, and ultimately earned Naruto's heart.

As if Sakura didn't train hard, become strong, and ultimately earn Sasuke's heart? I mean, did this person not see the multiple examples where Sasuke highlighted Sakura's abilities?

Not through pity, but through genuine love and unwavering support.

What is this person even saying here? That the only reason Sasuke is with Sakura is because he "pities" her? That Sakura didn't offer Sasuke unwavering support? Goodness gracious.

[Sakura's] biggest moment was getting a forehead poke

No it wasn't. That would be like me saying that Hinata's biggest moment was her holding Naruto's hand. This person would obviously claim that to be a bullshit statement, which it is, but they have no issues making equally bullshit statements towards Sakura because their bias against her is heavily clouding their judgement.

While Hinata got the man, the family, and Naruto's respect.

As if Sakura didn't get the man, the family and Naruto's respect? In fact, she got Naruto's respect first, so I'm just baffled at this point. It's always very easy to poke holes through arguments when they were formed mostly out of hate, rather than logic and reasoning.

[mostofthingsmostofthetime]

So Midoriya & Bakugou edit to Girl, So Confusing remix, when?

[meowsticmarvels]

i think i mightve talked abt this a bit in my longpost about how insane phi as a character is to me but yknow what i really wanna point out? all the nonary game shit she has to go through happens in really quick succession to her - she doesn't really get a proper "break" in between VLR and ZTD for her mentally. junpei and akane at least have about a year between the two, and sigma has 45 years (not that either of those situations were particularly good either though, looking at how sigma and junpei especially turned out, and sigma spent years WORKING on the AB game, just not participating in it). but for phi? she has a matter of DAYS in between the two. the time sigma spends she spends in cold sleep, so mentally to her, her consciousness goes from the events of VLR's phi end to DCOM almost instantly. dcom only ends up lasting for about 5 days, and even then the prologue states that phi/sigma/akane spent most of it worrying about radical-6 and the future + the flashback with diana shows phi is just so Tired after everything after just that. and then the decision game happens. my point is just that i cannot imagine being in a death game like that (not to mention everyone had radical-6, so she went from a body that Did have it to one that didn't, which i can imagine would probably a pretty weird experience considering one of its symptoms is messing up your perception of time. and also she was on the moon.), spending 5 days like god how did the apocalypse start i can't let it happen this time and then being in Another death game that is much more gruesome and violent. not to mention both of them in a way HAD to happen because of her (2074 nonary game bc it needed to train sigma and phi's SHIFTing abilities to a good enough degree and decision game one of the reasons was to ensure she and delta were born). in summary: i would fucking die at that point if i was phi dealing with that All At Once. in the span of a few days. and with the memories of my + others' deaths. what the fuck

[thatonesmartkidfromschool]

Dog got put down today and the saddest I've been all day is because of pokemon angst. What the hell is wrong with me. Why can't I care.

[izzy-b-hands]

Was doing okay holding back all of the fear re: the potential election outcome until literally this second what the fuck to my brain lmao

[hauntingjasper]

We are all afraid of something...

I wonder what Prince Gumball's biggest fear would be?

There's an episode (Five short tables I think) where it shows that he's afraid of dying alone/his own mortality to some extent. I imagine that because he's long-lived and most likely has watched many people die before him, he's scared that there won't be anyone else by *his* side when it's his turn. There's no way of knowing when or how, he wouldn't be ready for it, so that's probably double scarier for him. He's an anxious fella

[camellcat]

had an idea while in the shower...

hiccup - buffy toothless - spike astrid - faith stormfly - drusilla tuffnut & ruffnut - xander & willow barf & belch - harmony & jesse fishlegs - kendra meatlug - ? snotlout - cordelia hookfang - wesley stoick - giles gobber - jenny valka - joyce cloudjumper - angel

y'all pickin up what I'm putting down here?

[cherrymoonvol6]

.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

it's like. everything happens so much. it's all happening right now but at the same time nothing is happening whatsoever. it's a liminal space of an existence. it's slowly crushing me under the weight but when I look up there's nothing actually bearing down on me. there shouldn't be any weight. something is wrong but nothing has happened. I'm simultaneously overwhelmed and utterly bored. nothing is happening and maybe that's the everything that's happening. maybe the everything is the nothing. we aren't there yet but it's all so imminent. either everything is going to crash down or nothing is. I'm just waiting to figure out which.