#☆. trust is a biiiiig big big issue with him. if he decides to trust you its basically like hes handing you his very life

[divinitybound]

ㅤ

( it’s all he can do to keep the smile upon his face.

it’s obvious. it's so, so obvious. the distrust. the apprehension. the way adaman can barely be bothered to listen to him —— and isn't that funny? that he's hardly different from the rest of him. that he would bend his trust like that, stopping just short of making him snap. because, really, what right does he have to deprive volo of something so basic? the only thing he asks for ——

he tilts his head with a curious blink. )

Are you certain this is a decision you should be making with such haste .ᐣ You were listening to my warnings, weren’t you .ᐣ

( go on. lie to him. that'll go over well.

his gaze remains innocent, deceptively sweet. )

ㅤ

( adaman has been going out of his comfort zone lately.

volo is more than pleased ; he's been roaming around himself, unable to sit still for very long, but now he can take his most beloved with him. it gives him a chance to talk about all he's learned, to show the other everything that excites him. and maybe one day, he'll be able to show adaman the full truth.

the last time they've been out like this together was before they began dating. time does fly, doesn’t it .ᐣ no matter.

he leads adaman across the streets of eterna city, uncaring of the stares he's receiving —— be it for his appearance, the milotic at his side, or the way he holds onto his beloved's wrist without any shred of shame. such a relationship has become taboo over the centuries, as he's learned —— though, he really can't say he cares. )

We’re almost to what I wanted to show you ~

( a sing-songy reassurance. )

—【 @divinitybound｡ 】

[ while he was apprehensive at first, adaman's curiosity of the new era had eventually won out. it was just as he'd been taught. time is all about change, and there's no need to live in fear of such change.

he'd learned much about the new world during his travels, and there was still so much left to be seen! which leads them to today. a peaceful journey with the one he loved most of all. adaman couldn't think of a better way to spend his time. ]

Oh?

[ was his simple response as they continued along the path. he was unsure of what exactly volo was so keen on showing him, but he had to assume it was related to the legends of old in some way.

some things never change. and he he wouldn't have it any other way.

trotting alongside him is his ever loyal coriander, who is curiously eyeing every single pokemon they come across. it takes all the self restraint he has to not run off and mingle with them. ]

[nonbinary-androids]

Tamara, The Betrayer

So, I was writing a response to a post by @teartra and @fxthieves (link will be in first rb) that was talking about the characters, and me being me, I wanted to hone in on one really niche aspect of Tamara’s character and then it hit 1k words and I decided it needed to be its own post lmao

I’m going to put this out there: I like that she does this! It adds a really interesting layer to her character, and especially in regards to how the reader will interpret her relationships with Call and authority! However, the way that these fairly serious breaches of trust are handled (or rather, not handled) is.... really bad.

Also, as an additional preface: I am not arguing whether or not Tamara was right to betray Call in these situations, nor does any of this make Tamara a bad person or a bad character- they make CC and HB bad writers, and Tamara seriously underdeveloped. Don’t let this make you hate her!!! Let this be the motivation that you need to write her the narrative that she deserves!

There are two main betrayals that I’m going to bring up here: when Tamara tells Rufus about Alastair in TCG, and when she abandons Call with Joseph in TSM.

Both of these happen because Tamara thinks that she knows better than Call, and so she goes over his head and reports him to authority figures; namely, the Assembly. In both cases, there is danger in going to the Assembly. In TCG, the Assembly know knows to target Call’s father, and Call has serious (and reasonable) worries that Alastair will be hurt. In TSM… well, even before the whole continuation of the war thing, she knows that the Assembly has imprisoned Call in the past. Now that’s he successfully raised the dead, what does she think they’re going to do??? Throw him a party?

Now, I’d like to note that this is narratively appropriate- someone has to raise the stakes (although how high the stakes rose in TSM is.... borderline laughable), and Tamara does this in a way that tells us about her and creates drama within the group to be brought up later. The problem here is that it never really comes up again, as so often happens with these books. Call just forgives her after a little while (or after no time at all in the case of TSM), which makes their relationship feel really awkward, makes Tamara look like an asshole, and makes the whole Aaron-in-Call’s-head thing so much weirder- like, fam, this girl was ready to start a war bc you didn’t want to kill him, but now that he’s living in your body (and feeding you lines?), it’s all cool?? No hard feelings from anyone involved????????? Hello????????????????

If they had actually fought over this and come to a compromise- I’m not saying it would have sold me on Calmara, but jesus christ, it would have made me a lot more comfortable throughout TGT. It definitely would have made their relationship more secure!

Going a little deeper into the implications that these betrayals have for the Calmara relationship, I think that this says something about the way that she sees Call.

As a disabled person, the way that she circumvents Call’s judgement kiiiiiiind of feels like ableism. One of the biiiiig issues in the realm of ableism is something called “infantiliziation”. On Tumblr, this is usually discussed in regards to turning people into soft uwu (usually very femme, for extra sexism) babies who can’t make their own decisions and calling them idiots, etc. This is also more commonly discussed in regards to afab trans people, east Asians, and neurodivergent folks, but it’s still a big problem in physically disabled people- however, this is usually seen in the later stages, where disability/presentation is seen as a reason to take away autonomy. That sounds drastic, but it often happens in small ways, often ones that are intended to be helpful, like steering a wheelchair user without asking, or trying to lead a blind person by grabbing them. It often happens subconsciously!

Whether or not you think it’s ableism, I think it does show that she thinks of herself as above Call, at least unconsciously. She decides unilaterally that her own judgement is best in both of these cases, even though Call is more informed on the issue at hand. Now, you could argue that Tamara was coming at it from a less emotional, more objective angle, but she also steamrolls Call’s attempts to justify/explain his rationale, which makes this questionable to me. (Again, not arguing whether or not she was right to do this, just going over how this affects her character!) This makes sense for her character- she comes from a place of really high privilege within the mage community, and we see her benefiting from it.

This is likely also a reason for the way that Tamara betrays Call; she does it by going to the Assembly. Tamara grew up with the Assembly, and as a rich legacy with parents on the board, she’s never really seen them as anything but good. In other words, she grew up with a massive amount of privilege, and it’s this privilege that makes her turn to these authority again and again. She believes that they are fair and rational, most likely because they are fair and rational to her, even with evidence to the contrary.

(Sidebar: that privilege also ties in to something I’ve mentioned in the past: Tamara is the book smart one of the group, and she understands how to move through mage society, but she is not the one with real knowledge of the world. The person with actual practical knowledge of this system, the world, and how it treats people? That’s Aaron!)

Now, I'm going to reiterate what I said at the start because I know that this seems to be a very negative piece: DO NOT HATE ON TAMARA BECAUSE OF THIS!!!!!!!!! Yes, I’m talking about a lot of flaws that she has, but those flaws are good! Flaws tells us about who Tamara could be, should be, and how she should have grown over the course of the narrative. This is also a very narrow analysis, focusing entirely on two interactions, one of which happened when the books had gotten so bad that they’ve largely been ignored. Tamara Rajavi has the potential to be an incredible character, and her flaws are just one facet to be explored.