#'-they literally have all the time in the world. SHE's the one who wants to be around to see it happen akfbbsbd''

[delicateartisantrash]

There's also this cool thing...

... Where exploring those kinda of relationships via fiction, is a hell of a lot safer than in real life. Reading all KINDS of different "romances" growing up and even now, has actually helped me understand people as a whole better because it's given me insight into why someone might make certain choices even if it seems illogical to me.

On the flipside, it can also help people who have *been* in unhealthy relationships and are trying to recover.

My therapist once told me about a time she interned at a battered woman's shelter-- a place for women who had been obscenely abused by their prior partner(s). And my therapist was *horrified* when she looked at the movie shelf they had available to the residents, and discovered many absolutely horrific movies. Like. Really, really icky content, scary, etc.

Naturally, she went to the managers to ask why the heck they had these films here of all places and they needed to be removed so they didn't trigger the PTSD in women living here.

The answer she got surprised her as it did me listening to the story for the first time.

"No; they *need* those movies. You can't take someone out of an actual shithole who's been abused in horrific ways both emotional, mental,*and* physical, and expect them to adapt to an honest to goodness safe and peaceful environment.

"We keep these movies on hand to provide their minds the 'danger' that their instincts insist is still around and must be looked for, that allow the women to feel these emotions of fear and such but with a safe distance of it being inspired by an experience that's pure fantasy through the media they're watching it reading it from. We step the women down from the scariest films to less intense ones, over the course of their recovery."

That literally changed my whole world view. Before that, i never understood why someone might want to read a story with certain themes in it. Now.... Now, i get it.

And it's even helped *me.* I've branched out a bit from my comfort zones and found some really dark tales set in horrific worlds with terrible situations.... And some heart wrenchingly beautiful examples of *hope*

The author of These Games We Play said it best.

Something something, "Writing a story in a world setting dealing with slavery, is just an excuse to write about freedom." (I quoted that from memory so pls pardon if word order is different ope)

Anyhow.... Yeah.

There really is a place for even the things you might think shouldn't exist.

Sometimes, we need fiction to teach or remind us *why* they shouldn't exist in real life.

(edited to fix typos)

Sometimes tweeter people know their stuff- this is the right kind of toxic angst I want to read.

[cinnaleaf]

In Your DMs: Left on Read - Ch 1: Never Say Never

summary: you left jude on read once—but after one reckless night, he’s making damn sure you never ignore him again 💫 | MDNI 18+

warnings: angst/tension, push/pull dynamic, alcohol consumption, party setting, language, sexual references, public argument, easter eggs from previous fics wc: ~5.9k (approx. 21 minutes) 💋: it’s only chapter 1… pray for them. song inspo: VeLDÁ x Bad Bunny ft Omar Courtz & Dei V

It had been two weeks since you hooked up with Jude in a drunken rendezvous, and while the dick was surprisingly fantastic, you’d be lying if you said you weren’t starting to get the ick. You gave Jude your number after you left his house that afternoon in post-orgasm delusion and he’d been bombarding your phone with texts, voice messages, unscheduled facetime calls, and random tiktoks that “reminded him of you” ever since. He clearly thought your hookup was something more, which made you regret your decision to give him any attention at all. Although pretty privilege had its perks, a world class footballer being obsessed with you was not a perk you wanted to engage in – especially when it was Jude Bellingham.

You sat in the apartment you shared with Bri and Tasha, watching your other friend, Mateo, scroll through his phone while shaking his head. “Miss girl…” he drawled with an amused grin. “They have all of your tea in 4k. All of it.” Mateo handed his phone to you and you nastily glared at the screen, annoyed that you suddenly became a part of whatever the fuck this was:

SpillTheBeansUK Looks like Jude Bellingham had his eye on something other than football two weeks ago 👀. The England star was spotted leaving a Madrid club with 21 year old Y/N, an NYU Tisch film & television student from Miami who’s currently studying abroad and very much a regular in both cities’ party scenes. Her dad is none other than THE ‘Dr. Cinch’, the mastermind behind SculptHaus Miami, the go to clinic for IG baddies and A-listers looking for that perfect CINCHED look 💉 Jude’s no stranger to being deep in a girl’s likes, but he’s been extra consistent with Y/N’s lately. What’s really going on here? Because word is, she’s not exactly the type to be impressed.. especially by ballers like him. 🤨

2Fast4VAR wait she’s from miami?? bro lost before he even started. she’s built different. 😂

CertifiedMenace69 if i was jude i’d be in her dms, comments, and her email too she’s bad af

BigBootyJudeyFC he’s about to start liking those inspirational quotes on IG like “if it’s meant to be, it will be.” 💀

MissMiamiDade305 jude better watch out... does anyone remember when she had that miami promoter crying on IG live last year?? she does NOT play with these men 💀💀

gossipgorlzzz not him liking her pics and finally getting the W! stay persistent kings!!

SpillTheBeansES Si Jude cree que puede cambiarla.. le deseo suerte 🤷‍♀️ (If Jude thinks he can change her.. I wish him luck)

JudePorFavor jude’s probably in her DMs like “pls respond angel 😩” LMAO

Baddiebydesign not dr. cinch’s daughter!! she’s set for life. face card AND her dad’s the plug? i bet her friends never have to pay for fillers 😭

AnonymousInsider13 i heard she’s cool with that real madrid baloncesto guy too…santiago something. ngl that man is fine af. if she’s choosing between him and jude i see why she’s taking her sweet time 

RedBlooded1892 maybe her dad can fix jude’s shoulder that’s about to fall off the hinge 😭 cinchdollsnob her dad literally invented half the faces we double tap. a baddie with real face card genetics. life ain’t fair. ChampagnePapiButBroke jude and his big bum liking all her pics is sending me. boy was lurking HARD

ChickenNCoke cinched bellibabe is kind of an iconic alias icl

mamacitasintl lmaooo if jude’s trying to lock her down..good luck. her dad probably has a vetting process more intense than real madrid’s medicals

nosygirlieFC jude defo heard about trent bagging the perfume baddie and thought he could do the same LOL

You were annoyed by the post to an extreme amount. Whoever was the administrator of this god awful account decided to treat you like you were some Z list Love Island reject instead of a girl who got dicked down ONE time in a moment of weakness and dipped.

Bri leaned over to scan the screen and let out a cackle. “ ‘Jude Bellingham had his eye on something other than football two weeks ago!’ ” she mimicked in a dramatized voice. 

“Ew.” You scrunched your nose in disgust. 

Tasha was deep in the comments on her own phone, scrolling at lightning speed. “No but, ‘She’s not exactly the type to be impressed… especially by ballers like him’ is so shady,” she snorted, flicking her eyes to yours. “The streets know you too well.”

Mateo looked at you with a sly grin, clasping his hands together. “Sooo...how does it feel to be a Bellingham Baddie?”

You cut your eyes at him. “Don’t fucking start.”

“It’s too late.” Bri waved her phone in the air, grinning. “Your inauguration is already underway. These people are in the comments eating it up.”

“Let me see” Mateo snatched Bri’s phone from her and started reading out loud. “ ‘She’s bad as hell, I’d be in her likes too.’ ” He smirked, flipping his wrist. “Real recognizes real.”

Tasha leaned over, giggling. “Wait, this one says ‘Jude’s in his romantic era. He’s playing the long game.’ ”

“Oh hell no. Absolutely not.” You reached for the phone but Mateo dodged you with the speed of a messy gay man who lived for drama. 

“Hold on, hold on.” He scrolled further, widening his eyes before he started howling. “Ohhh girl, not this one!” he wheezed, hardly able to get his words out. “ ‘Jude’s big bum came from Dr. Cinch? Noted.’ ”

Bri and Tasha both started laughing with tears streaming down their eyes. “Not Jude having BBL allegations because they found out who your dad is!”

You ran your hands across your face, shaking your head. “I hate this app.”

Mateo was screaming along with the other two, kicking his feet out but you really didn’t find it all that funny. “No, I LOVE this app!”

After their laughter subsided, Tasha shook her head, continuing to scroll through the comments. “The way they dug up your whole life just off one club sighting is actually insane.”

“I know. They need jobs.” You groaned, leaning back against the cushions. 

Mateo tilted his head while eyeing you. “Well, since you’re the new bombshell in the Bellingham Baddie villa, you may as well tell me...how was it?”

Bri and Tasha perked up immediately, turning to face you while giggling, mainly because they already knew. You groaned, rolling your eyes as you picked up your own phone. “It was fine.”

“Fine?” Mateo questioned, not fully believing you because you usually gave him the full rundown in detail, but this time you were holding back. “Just fine?! Don’t tell me he’s a minute man. It’s always the hot ones.”

Bri leaned in. “Mmm, I don’t know about that. Tasha and I called and she couldn’t even talk. That man blew her back out for sure.”

“In her words exactly.. it was ‘one hundred percent worth it’ ” Tasha added. “If the dick was bad she would’ve come home the next day and roasted his ass but she didn’t. She was quiet as a mouse.”

Mateo pointed at you accusingly, narrowing his eyes while analyzing you. “And you keep dodging the conversation which means it had to be amazing.”

You rolled your eyes, fake scrolling through your phone like you always did when you couldn’t look someone in the eye. “Well I don’t know about all of that now...he’s doing too much.”

Mateo snickered. “You gave him the best pussy of his life and dipped. Of course he’s doing too much.”

You groaned again, letting your head fall back against the couch. “Can y’all shut the fuck up?”

“Absolutely not.” Mateo fired back immediately, leaning forward to read you for filth. “I know you. If it was mid, you would’ve been dragging him for filth. You’d be in this living room doing a full dissertation on why that man is a waste of height.”

Tasha nodded, scrolling with purpose. “But instead you’re holding back.”

Bri suddenly gasped, pointing a finger at you. “Ooh, she likes him.”

That was where you drew the line. The suggestion that you, of all people, would be catching feelings for a footballer, let alone Jude Bellingham sent you straight into defense mode. It wasn’t even about him specifically, but merely the principle of the matter. You didn’t date athletes. Not seriously anyway. NEVER seriously. You learned a long time ago they were all the same: entitled, egotistical, and so used to women throwing themselves at their feet just because they could handle a ball and had a few viral highlight reels. They saw women as accessories, something to show off when it suited them and discard when it didn’t. You weren’t about to be anyone’s little off-season toy passed around in a group chat the second they got bored. That was never going to be you.

But ballers weren’t completely useless though, they had their perks. Stamina? Unmatched. Strength? Ideal. But once the adrenaline wore off and post-orgasm clarity set in, the appeal disappeared right along with it. You entertained a few before just for fun, just to see if they were worth the hype, but they all had one thing in common: they started thinking they were special. Like they had you hooked. Like they were pulling the strings.

It was funny, really. Because if anything? They were always the ones falling first. Every time.

Jude was proving to be no different. The way he sauntered up to you in the club as if he knew where the night was headed, versus the way his ego deflated the minute you left his messages on read for weeks was textbook athlete behavior. And now? He was chasing you.

Mateo tapped the edge of his phone against his palm, watching you with an expression that made it very clear he was about to ask something that would grate your nerves.

“So what’s really going on with you and Jude?” He tilted his head, brows raised in intrigue. “Like.. what is he to you?”

You didn’t even look up from your phone and scrolled as you answered, “A pronoun.”

Mateo’s mouth dropped open, delighted by your messy answer. “Be so fucking for real Y/N” he said, crossing one leg over the other. “If he’s just a pronoun to you then why did you give him your number?”

Tasha didn’t even give you a chance to answer before jumping in. “That’s actually a great fucking question. Because you knew giving him your number meant this...” she gestured to the entire situation, the group chat chaos, the SpillTheBeansUK mess, “so why did you do it?”

You sighed dramatically, tilting your head back against the couch from being exhausted by all of this nonsense. “He asked for it, so I gave it.”

Bri blinked at you. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Mateo was unconvinced. “And you just gave it to him? No hesitation? No thoughts?”

“I was in a state of post-nut delusion.” You shrugged, sipping from your water bottle to avoid any further questions.

Tasha sucked her teeth. “Mmm.” 

Bri was already side-eyeing you. “Mmhmm.” 

Mateo tapped his phone again, unimpressed. “Lying just like the mattress he put you through, I see.”

You ignored them. There was a very brief moment where you considered not giving him your number. You could’ve just taken your Uber and dipped, pretended like it never happened, and gone back to your normal, Bellingham-free existence. But Jude gave you a cocky, half lidded smirk that made you fold immediately when he asked. You figured your brain was still stuck somewhere between your legs for wanting to hear from him again, which was exactly why you were so annoyed with yourself. Not only was he blowing up your phone, but now you were on SpillTheBeansUK. You scrolled through the endless posts dissecting your one mistake, making you feel more irritated with every new comment. There were threads analyzing your every move, posts tracking Jude’s IG likes, and an entire debate about whether or not you were “Jude’s type.” 

“How do these people have so much free time? Is the unemployment rate that high?” you muttered, aggressively tapping out of Instagram. “I was in the same club as him one time, and suddenly I’m the internet’s main character of the day? I fucking hate it here.”

Bri snickered, nudging Tasha. “Not her being mad when she willingly chose to leave with him.”

You shot the nastiest glare at both of them.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” Bri challenged, raising her brow.

She wasn’t wrong. You did willingly leave with him. You hated the attention and the way people were dissecting your life, but you weren’t completely mad at the way Jude was acting. Mainly because he wasn’t just moving on like it never happened and letting you fade into the background. He was still chasing you. And even if you never wanted to admit it.. you liked that.

Your phone pinged in your hand to bring you out of your thoughts, making you glance down at your notifications.

JUDE BELLINGHAM ❌ 🙄 17:43 - Did I do something?? 17:51 - Because I’m struggling to believe I had you screaming my name two weeks ago but now you’re airing me. 18:02 - Hello? 18:27 - Ok I get it. I know you don’t really do this athlete thing. 18:28 - I’m not blocked though 👀 18:42 - Let me take you out?

You rolled your eyes before switching to a different text thread.

SANTI DOMINGUEZ 🏀 🇩🇴 20:42 - Y/Nitaaa que haces esta noche? (what are you doing tonight?) 20:42 - Fiesta en La Finca at mi pana’s house for the night. Big ass infinity pool, drinks, music, todo. Pull up. 20:43 - Bring your friends too. Dime que si. (Tell me yes.)

You smiled, already typing out a response.

20:45 - A party in La Finca? Bet. 20:46 - We’re coming. You better have good drinks!

Santi hearted the message instantly.

20:47 - Siempre, preciosa. Nos vemos. (Always, gorgeous. See you soon.)

You liked Santi. He was one of the few people in Madrid who weren’t constantly on some clout chasing nonsense, which meant you actually enjoyed being around him. And even though he could be a little flirty, it wasn’t serious. 

You were just about to lock your phone when another text rolled in.

JUDE BELLINGHAM ❌ 🙄 20:48 - Your dad is a plastic surgeon??

You frowned, watching as a second message came in.

— [SpillTheBeansUK post]

Oh. He really was chronically online. 

“Ew,” you muttered from the ick of it all before typing out your own response.

20:48 - why the fuck are you sending me STB links like you’re a gossip girl admin? touch grass.

There was no immediate response but you knew he probably read it the second the notification popped up on his phone. He was probably typing, stopping, then typing again, trying to figure out how to keep you engaged without pushing too far. It was funny really, the difference between the two of them. Santi would text once, maybe twice most of the time and you would reply immediately with no hesitation. Meanwhile, Jude would send text after text, throw in tiktoks, voice messages and a Facetime call here and there, which made you want to take your sweet time responding.

You could already feel the looks your friends were giving you, but Mateo was the first to speak.

“So you answer Santiago immediately but Jude has to beg for a response?” He smirked, already piecing together what would likely go down tonight at the party. Tasha hummed in agreement and glanced over your shoulder at your phone. “She doesn’t even respond to us that fast but Santi texts and suddenly her fingers work?”

You locked your phone and flipped it over on the table so they wouldn’t see any other message notifications from Jude or Santi. “It’s not that deep.” 

“It is that deep,” the three of them spoke in unison. 

Tasha pointed at your phone and then crossed her arms. “Explain.”

You stretched your arms over your head, already starting to prepare your exit strategy. “I don’t have to explain anything.”

“Oh, but you do,” Bri countered, shifting to face you. “Because you clearly like the attention from both of them.”

You let out a sharp exhale and grabbed your phone, making your way to your bedroom. “I have to get ready for the party and I suggest y’all do the same if you’re coming.”

You dropped your phone onto the bed and stood in front of your wardrobe, biting your lip while you scanned through your options. La Finca pool parties weren’t the same as your club nights. The vibe was more laid back but the guest list was usually stacked with the most beautiful people you’d ever seen, so naturally you had to one up them and show them how a Miami girl stepped out. Just as you were grabbing a cropped halter top from the hanger, your phone vibrated against your comforter and you snatched it up immediately.

JUDE BELLINGHAM ❌ 🙄 20:58 - Touch grass with me. What’s the move tonight?

You debated telling him about the party, but you decided against it and threw your phone back on the bed with a scoff to finish getting ready. Although he was giving you the ick, something about the way he chased you fed a very specific, very vain part of you and you would be lying if you didn’t admit you weren’t the least bit curious in how far Jude was willing to take it. 

Somewhere outside of your room, you could hear Bri and Tasha moving around, digging through wardrobe drawers and arguing over what top to wear. Mateo’s voice floated down the hall, loudly reminding everyone that if they didn’t hurry up, he was leaving without all of you.

An hour later, the four of you piled into a car with the windows down as the city lights of Madrid blurred past. The further you drove into La Finca, the bigger the homes became. When you finally pulled up to the house, you could hear a mix of reggaeton, afrobeats and spanish trap music playing through the air. The garden surrounding the property was already full of people with drinks in hand as they laughed and swayed to the music. 

You made your way to the pool area, smelling the mixed scent of tangy smoke from hookah and rum. You adjusted your top, feeling the backless cut brush your skin in the breezy, but warm night time air as you walked on the stone pathway. Your matching mini skirt hugged your hips just right and dipped low enough to show the string of your bikini bottoms underneath. Your small entourage followed behind you, already plotting the kind of chaos they could get into tonight.

Mateo adjusted the collar of his shirt, scoping out the scene. “I’m manifesting a man with a villa tonight. Just watch.”

“Manifest being the bartender while you’re at it” Tasha muttered, eyeing the outdoor bar where bottles of Ron Barcelo, Brugal, and Larios gin were already in rotation. Someone had cracked open a case of Estrella Galicia beers, and a group near the pool was passing around cups of Kalimotxo, the unofficial drink of every wild night in Spain.

“Vamonos mamis!” Santi yelled from somewhere near the pool. 

His height alone made him impossible to miss. He was a towering 6’5”, had broad shoulders with a trim waist, perfectly white teeth, dimples, deep sun kissed skin, and a freshly trimmed fade that made you tilt your head slightly to take a better look. He had that natural Dominican aura that made it impossible to tell whether he was flirting or just being nice.

“Oh, you’re outside, outside tonight!” he teased, sliding his arm around your waist for a quick hug. He glanced behind you and smiled at Bri, Tasha and Mateo. “Good to see you all. Drinks are in the kitchen. Hookah’s by the pool.”

“And you’re where?” Bri asked, arching a brow while biting the nail of her finger flirtatiously.

“Everywhere.” Santi winked, then tilted his head back toward the pool. “Come find me if you need anything.” He disappeared back into the crowd before any of you had time to respond, leaving the scent of his cologne lingering between all of you.

“Oooh he’s wearing Rêveur.” Tasha nodded in approval, taking a second glance back to get another look at him. “That man has taste.” 

“But why is he so fineee?” Bri muttered under her breath.

Mateo snickered. “Because God had time when he made Dominican men that’s why.”

You hated gassing men up too much, so you gave them a blank stare, eventually walking away to make your way toward the drinks as Bad Bunny’s “VeLDÁ” played through the sound system. They followed behind and Mateo took on his duty as bartender, rummaging through bottles of Havana Club and Brugal Añejo.

“Shots or mixed drinks?” Mateo asked, double fisting bottles in his hands.

“Mixed” you answered immediately.

“Shots” Bri and Tasha dueted.

“Majority rules, sorry Y/N” Mateo mused as he reached for the shot glasses.

On the other side of the yard, Jude leaned back in an outdoor lounge chair, resting his arms lazily while his drink sat half empty on the table in front of him. He wasn’t drunk, but the warmth of Madrid, the drinks, and the atmosphere had him leaning into the mood.

“That’s her?” Cama tilted his head toward the cluster of people near the pool, smiling with curiosity.

Jude didn’t answer at first and stared at the condensation on his glass before moving his eyes back to you. He clocked you as soon as you stepped on the stone pathway, he couldn’t have missed you even if he tried. The backless halter top with the matching mini skirt, coupled with the sheen of your Dior lip oil catching in the light every time you tilted your head back to laugh, had his head spinning. Even from a distance, he could see the faint tan lines peeking from under the straps of your bikini strings underneath your outfit.

“Damn..” Kylian whistled beside him, leaning forward to take a closer look at Bri and Tasha. “Who are the girls next to her though?”

Jude glanced sideways, trying to suppress a smirk. “Focus mate.”

“I am focused,” Kylian replied with a laugh, still scanning the scene.

Cama chuckled and nudged Jude’s arm. “She looks good, bro. You bringing her home tonight or what?”

Jude tilted his head, taking another slow sip of his drink. “We’ll see. She likes to play hard to get.”

“Does she know you’re here?” Kylian asked as if he cared, when he was actually plotting on Bri and Tasha.

“Nah.”

The truth sat heavy on his chest. He hadn’t expected to run into you tonight, but then again, Madrid was a small world when it came to hanging around certain circles. It was bound to happen eventually. But seeing you laughing with your friends did something to him that he wasn’t ready to unpack.

“You should go over there” Cama suggested, nudging Jude’s arm. 

“Not yet.” Jude replied, following the curve of your bare shoulders as you tipped your head back to down a shot with your friends. The twist of your face from the burn of the alcohol, along with the parting of your lips made it too easy to remember the way those same lips felt against him just two weeks ago.

—

The shot you had just taken settled warmly in your stomach while the bass from the music grew heavier. The music was loud, the air filled with scents of alcohol, sweat, and smoke but none of it could shake the buzz in your head from spotting Jude in the party crowd.

Of all the parties in Madrid, he had to be at this one.

You clutched your glass tighter, trying to resist the urge to look back at the lounge chairs near the pool. Bri crossed her arms and smirked, darting her eyes between you and Jude. “So you’re just gonna ignore him all night?”

“Ignore who?” you replied flatly, knowing damn well who she was talking about.

“Oh girl. Pack it up.” Tasha chimed in from your other side while swaying to the beat of the music. “You know exactly who.”

“No. I don’t.” you muttered, wiping off the condensation wetness from your fingertips.

“Then why are you gripping the glass like that?” Bri teased, bumping your hip with hers.

You ignored her and instead scanned the crowd for any sign of Santi. You spotted him leaning against a pillar with a bottle of beer in hand, laughing at something one of his teammates said. His crisp white shirt clung to his torso, making you gawk just a little. When he caught your gaze, he lifted his beer and gave you a blinding smile.

Tasha clocked it immediately and raised her eyebrows. “Well.. looks like you have options tonight. Bellingham or Dominguez?”

You sighed heavily, ignoring her again and headed to the pool to dip your feet in. The infinity pool stretched out in front of you as you swung your legs back and forth in the water. You should’ve felt relaxed, or maybe even carefree and tipsy, but instead you were on edge.

On the other side of things, now that you were closer, Jude watched you from the rim of his glass as he took long, slow sips. Kylian and Cama were talking next to him but their words turned into background noise while he observed the way you leaned back with your hands pressed against the pool deck stone.

“She’s going to notice you staring eventually” Kylian leaned in, sensing Jude still had you on his mind.

Jude tilted his head back to finish his drink. The thought of you being so close yet so far away made the alcohol sit heavier in his stomach. You hadn’t really been giving him much of a thought since you hooked up and that bothered him. It made him want you even more. He internally debated with himself, wondering if he should just leave you alone or speak up now that he had an opening that you absolutely couldn’t leave on read. Just as he was about to stand, Cama clapped him on the shoulder with a wide grin. “Go talk to her bro. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“She could throw her drink in his face..” Kylian added helpfully.

Jude snorted. “Nah. I don’t think she’s like that.”

He really didn’t know you as well as he thought he did, you were definitely ‘like that’ if the need arose. 

Jude stood up with enough adrenaline and liquid courage to walk the short path to the pool’s edge where you sat. You felt his towering presence immediately as he stood with his hands tucked into his pockets, glancing toward you swishing your feet in the water.

“You ignoring my texts now?”

You narrowed your eyes at him, surprised that he had the gall to start the conversation off that way. “You’re not serious.”

A gleam of moonlight caught on his lips when he shifted closer to you with a lazy smirk plastered over his face. “I get it. You’re a busy girl. But you could’ve at least told me you would be here tonight.”

“For what? Why would I tell you?” you countered, looking up at him in annoyance. “I don’t even know you like that.” The nerve of this boy to think he deserved to know any of your moves when he wasn’t your man, or anything remotely close to it.

“You know me well enough to let me fuck..”

Your head snapped up so fast you nearly gave yourself whiplash. “Excuse me?”

Jude tilted his head, still with a dumb smirk on his face that made you want to slap it clean off his face. His hands were still tucked in his pockets casually, like he wasn’t standing there stirring the most out of you.

“I’m just saying..” he lazily shrugged, as if that would smooth over the conversation.

“Oh, ‘you’re just saying’ ” you mocked, standing up to meet his eye, though you still ended up having to look up because he was so tall. The edge of your skirt brushed against his thigh and you were close enough to see the sheen of sweat on his thick hairline from the warm night air. Up close, Jude was hard to ignore. He got under your skin in the right way to make you give him your full attention.

Just the way he liked it.

“And this is coming from the same man blowing up my phone like I owe him something.”

Jude chuckled under his breath, his eyes moving briefly to your outfit before locking back onto your eyes. “I wouldn’t have to blow your phone up if you just responded the first time, angel.”

Angel.

That word hit you straight in your core. It was impossible not to hear his voice from that night echoing in your head.

“That’s it, angel. Keep fucking me back.”

You took a deep inhale through your nose, clenching your fists on your sides as heat flared through your chest from frustration and other things you weren’t ready to name.

“Don’t call me that” you snapped, but the hitch in your breath told a different story. A story that said you liked it, and Jude noticed. His eyes lowered to your lips briefly, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward like he knew exactly where your mind went. 

“Ohhh, so you do remember” he mused, clearly enjoying himself.

“Jude, I swear-” You shoved his shoulder but he barely moved in the slightest bit. He stood his ground, leaning into your ear to speak low enough so only you could hear. “Don’t start. Unless you’re trying to start something you know I can finish for you.”

“You’re so fucking full of yourself, you know that?”

The warmth from the alcohol running through your veins made your voice louder than you intended, making you become acutely aware of the heads starting to turn your way. In between your conversation with Jude, Tasha and Bri made their way over to sit with Kylian and Cama near the lounge chairs. Bri was sitting on Kylian’s lap with her arms draped over his neck like they knew each other way longer than what had to have been no longer than 15 minutes. All four of them were watching the scene unfold with varying degrees of amusement.

“Okay, fuck this” you muttered under your breath, feeling the embarrassment creep in. Eyes on you and whispers spreading throughout the crowd was the exact type of thing you wanted to avoid. Your mind flashed to the SpillTheBeans post and the comments dissecting your entire life, snapping you right back to the cruel reality of being a newly added ‘Bellingham Baddie’, as your friends called it.

“This is exactly why I don’t fucking date athletes” you jabbed a finger at Jude’s chest for emphasis.

“Who said anything about dating?”

You laughed in disbelief and threw your hands up. The tipsiness loosened your filter in all the wrong ways. “You know what? I’m so sick of-”

“Todo bien?” (Everything okay?)

The sound of Santi’s voice made you freeze mid sentence. You turned around just enough to see him approaching with an unbothered walk, beer still in hand like he wasn’t about to walk straight into chaos. His eyes moved between you and Jude, reading the situation.

“We’re good.” you answered, holding up your hand toward Santi as if that would somehow deescalate whatever was about to go down.

“Didn’t look like it,” Santi eyed Jude in a way that was more curious than confrontational, but Jude wasn’t having it, being the crashout that he was.

“You her bodyguard or something?” Jude shot, tilting his chin as he stepped fully into Santi’s space. Santi’s smile didn’t budge but his posture shifted subtly enough to raise the tension up a couple notches. “Nah. I’m just looking out for a friend” he replied coolly, not breaking eye contact.

“Yeah? Well, she doesn’t need you to–”

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!” you yelled loud enough to cut through the music and all the other conversations happening around the pool. Heads turned with the rise of your voice and half of the party had their eyes locked on the three of you, but you were too far gone, and too far drunk to care.

“I am so tired of you men acting like I’m some prize you get to win!” You jabbed a finger between both of them in frustration. “I don’t fucking belong to either of you! And you..” You turned to Jude with fire in your eyes. “Stop acting like I owe you something just because I let you fuck me ONE time!”

Jude’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“And you..” You whipped back to Santi, who at least had the decency to look slightly guilty. “Don’t walk up here like you’re about to save me! I don’t fucking need saving!”

The silence was deafening after the read you gave them, broken only by the distant sound of water pushing against the pool edge and gossiping chatter from the crowd.

Finally, Jude ran a hand over his curls, exhaling hard through his nose. “You done?”

“Yes, I’m done! I’m never fucking you again so get it out of your thick skulled head!” you snapped and stormed off toward the house without looking back. 

Back at the lounge chairs, Kylian and Cama exchanged looks while Bri and Tasha creased in laughter.

“I don’t know whether to be scared or impressed..” Kylian shook his head in amusement.

“Definitely impressed,” Cama replied with a grin.

You stormed off down the path leading toward the house, weaving through random groups of partiers who definitely caught at least half of the argument. The adrenaline and frustration swirling around in your head had you on ten.

“Who the fuck does he think he is?” you spoke to yourself, enraged. “I fucking hate ballers. Worms for brains ass motherfuckers.”

The nerve and audacity of that man to approach you like he was owed something more than the one night you already gave him pissed you off. Your chest was filled with a fury of emotions you really didn’t want to unpack, especially not in the middle of a party where half of the crowd had probably pulled out their phones to message their group chats about what they just witnessed. As soon as you reached the back door of the house, Mateo appeared beside you out of nowhere, moving swiftly to match your quick pace.

“Girl.. what was all of that?” he asked, eyes wide with equal parts concern and curiosity.

“Nothing.” you muttered with clenched teeth, but Mateo wasn’t having it.

“Nothing? That was prime telenovela content and I need details immediately. Why did-”

“I’m never fucking Jude again,” you snapped, cutting him off before he had a chance to launch his full analysis. It sounded like you were trying to convince yourself more than anyone else. Mateo knew Jude having you this bothered by his presence meant you’d be rethinking that exact statement in approximately three to five business days. He’d seen it all before, so instead of pushing any further, he took one sip of his drink and gave a knowing look between you, Santiago, and Jude.

“Mmm… never say never.”

[isa-ghost]

Every time I see someone call Lullah "Tallulah" I lose 5 years off my life. Just say you still support W***** S*** and go, honestly.

Her name is Lullah.

Ama (her admin) specifically asked to not be called Tallulah anymore after The Brighton Biter was proven to be an abusive, sexist, disgusting piece of shit by multiple women who have known him. One of his other victims literally spoke out a few days ago on TikTok and it eventually found its way to Twitter. She changed her name to Lullah, the nickname Phil would often call her, to further dissociate herself from WS. This is also why her egg model was changed to have black hair and a purple hat instead of the brown and red that came from The Biter's common fanart depictions.

(Thanks @deniz20234!)

Here's a clip of the discussion:

(Thanks @masked-ragdoll!)

Her nametag was even changed in-game.

Players who called her Tallulah were CORRECTED and told to call her Lullah. Lullah is NOT a nickname, it's her ACTUAL name from the time she said she wanted to be called Lullah onward. People wouldn't be corrected if it was just a nickname.

Calling her one or the other IS NOT OPTIONAL. And the ONLY people still calling her Tallulah deliberately are people who don't believe WS's victims and proudly loathe the rest of the QSMP community for rightfully erasing WS from QSMP as much as possible.

They even went as far as making a whole big deal and new tag(s) drawing Lullah's old WS copycat design calling her "The REAL Tallulah." These are things I've seen with my own eyes. These people openly harassed people who called her Lullah and spoke out against WS.

This post is to spread awareness for anyone who didn't know all of this somehow. This all took place on one of Phil's streams and I understand that not everyone watched his POV. And I am choosing to believe in good faith that SOMEHOW some people just haven't seen any clips or one of hundreds of posts from people in the community that were notifying the rest of the QSMP community to stop calling her Tallulah because her admin explicitly asked to be called ONLY Lullah for now on.

It's also intended to remind WS's supporters that they have no place in this community and their disrespect towards not only Ama's wishes but far more importantly: WS's victims will not be tolerated.

Stop calling her Tallulah. Her name is Lullah.

Please reblog this to help spread the awareness.

[liviawildrose]

𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟

time to step into your new era

get in, babygirl, because we are rebranding ourselves today.

that version of you? the one still clinging to self-doubt, bad habits, and an outdated mindset? she’s done. she’s served her purpose, but let’s be honest—she’s not the one who’s going to take you to the top. she’s not built for the life you dream of. she’s not the girl who walks into a room and makes everyone turn their heads. she’s not the one who dominates, who wins, who commands respect just by existing. so what do we do with something that no longer fits the vision? we rebrand.

your current self isn’t allowing you to be the greatest. she’s comfortable. she’s predictable. and let’s be real—she’s holding you back.

think of the brands you love. the ones that keep winning. they never stay the same. they evolve, they elevate, they reintroduce themselves to the world in bigger, bolder ways. you are no different.

this isn’t about pretending to be someone else. this is about becoming more you than you’ve ever been. rebranding yourself means:

this is your moment. this is your next era. and trust me, they won’t be ready for you.

let’s talk about taylor swift

taylor swift is one of the biggest artists in the world because of her talent but also because she knows how to evolve. and not just in music, but in life.

here’s the thing: she’s still the same person we fell in love with when she was a teenager. she didn’t erase her past—she built on it. her core identity? still there. her kindness, her ambition, her storytelling? untouched. but what did change?

her mindset. her perspective. her habits.

she saw what wasn’t serving her and let it go. for example, in her early years, she was more open, trusting easily. but after the kanye and kim drama (yes, we know the one), she learned the hard way that not everyone had good intentions. instead of letting it destroy her, she became more guarded, more strategic. she still loves people, but she’s no longer naive. and that’s growth. even physically, she rebranded. she used to slouch her posture made her look tired, drained. but she worked on it, did posture exercises, and now? she stands tall, commands attention, and radiates confidence.

and let’s not forget the ultimate move i.e her shift from country to pop. staying in one lane would have limited her success. so she changed. she expanded. and now she’s one of the most successful artists of all time.

and the best part? she didn’t run from her past she used it. instead of hiding from the criticism and betrayal, she made an entire album, reputation, and turned pain into profit.

that’s what rebranding is. not pretending to be someone else. not erasing your history. but looking at your past, learning from it, and making it work for you.

so, if you’ve had toxic friendships? journal about it. analyze it. use it to recognize patterns and never fall for them again. if certain habits are making you small, tired, or unnoticeable? drop them. add new ones that elevate you.

your past is gold. use it. refine it. become unstoppable.

think about luxury brands like chanel and ysl icons that have stood the test of time. they didn’t throw away their history to stay relevant. instead, they evolved while keeping their core identity intact. chanel is still the epitome of elegance and sophistication, but the collections it puts out today feel just as fresh, sexy, and desirable to younger generations. it didn’t suddenly become a streetwear brand or chase trends it simply refined itself, adapting in a way that keeps it just as powerful and respected as it was decades ago. that’s how you rebrand without losing yourself.

i know the intro is very long, but it’s needed because I don’t want you guys to think that rebranding is completely becoming someone new because unfortunately people on social media have literally made rebranding look like “ forget the person you are and become someone entirely different” like no. i want you guys to embrace yourself because that is literally how you develop self-love. the most annoying part about these influencers are the fact that they promote self-love as well as talk about becoming someone new. like what the fuck- if you really love yourself, why would you try to become someone else? you don’t have to become the internet definition of that girl. you have to become your version of that girl. you have to become your version of a high value woman.

how to rebrand yourself

alright, girls, class is in session—buckle up, because i’m about to give you a step-by-step guide on how to completely rebrand yourself and your life.

step 1: develop an unshakable amount of self-love

before we do anything, before we change a single habit, mindset, or appearance you need to build a foundation of self-love. this isn’t just the starting point but it’s something that should grow and evolve with you throughout your journey.

the first step? forgiveness. forgive yourself for everything mistakes, missed opportunities, bad decisions, even the situation you’re in right now. look yourself in the mirror and say: “from this moment forward, it’s only up from here. i refuse to let myself be in this same place again, because i love myself too much to let that happen.”

take yourself seriously. no more self-sabotage, no more excuses. from now on, you are your biggest priority.

and here’s why self-love is so important when it comes to rebranding because you are working with yourself. the person you’re becoming? she is built from who you are right now.

the body you dream of having? it will come from the body you have right now. so why hate the one that’s going to create your future self?

the mindset, confidence, and glow-up you desire? it will grow from the mindset you have right now. so why hate the version of you who’s actively trying?

if you’re reading this, you’re already taking the steps to evolve. so stop hating yourself for trying. love yourself, appreciate your effort, and watch how quickly you begin to manifest your dream life.

step 2: get crystal clear on the person you’re becoming

all right, now that you’ve built your foundation with self-love, it’s time for claritybecause you can’t become her if you don’t know who she is.

who is your higher self? how does she dress? how does she speak? how does she carry herself? how does she react in tough situations? what habits does she have?

now, let’s be real this might take time. you might only have a rough idea right now, and that’s okay. clarity comes with action. you don’t need to have every single detail figured out at the start, but you do need a general vision. maybe you know she’s more confident, more disciplined, has longer hair, or is an actress. great. we’ll refine the details as we go, but for now, let’s start getting specific.

how to get clear on your future self

1. create a pinterest boards

throw in anything that resonates with you—the fashion, the energy, the lifestyle. don’t overthink it. just pin what feels right. personally, my “my life” board has over 484 pins, my “fits” board has 848 pins, and my “mindset” board has 124 pins all this helped me to become crystal clear on my vision.

2. use the freeform app (if you have an ios device) or on a paper

draw a rough sketch of your future self—yes, draw her. even if you’re not great at drawing, create a visual representation. next, create a mind map around her. break it down: style, scent, career, habits, personality etc anything that resonates the best part about freeform? it’s limitless. every time you realize a new quality you want, like staying calm under pressure and you can add it in. but if you don’t have a ios you can do it on a paper too. (especially if you make a manifestation book and do it-)

3. make a “mindmovie.”

visualize your future self and watch it dailywhether it’s through a digital vision board, a slideshow, or even a physical notebook. repetition is key. the more you see it, the more you become it.

4. journal

journal on prompts that helps you reflect on who you wanna be

getting clear on your dream self isn’t just about fantasising it’s about creating a blueprint for the life you’re about to step into. so start now, and refine as you grow.

step 3: start acting like her

now that you have a clear vision of your dream self, it’s time to start acting as if you already are her. no, you don’t have to wait until you “have your dream life” you start living it now, in the smallest ways possible.

this step is all about embodying the identity of your higher self now, instead of waiting for some future moment. the more you act like her, the faster you will become her.

1. upgrade your daily habits

your dream life is built on the tiny habits you do every day. ask yourself:

• what time does she wake up?

• how does she take care of her body?

• what kind of content does she consume?

• how does she treats the ones around her?

start implementing these habits one by one. you don’t need a full glow-up overnight small changes add up fast. you need to get 1% better everyday that’s it as i mentioned in my take yourself seriously blog

2. change your environment

your surroundings shape you more than you think. look around and ask yourself:

• does my space reflect the person i’m try to become? (if you live with your parents rn cause a lot of you are teenagers ig; then atleast focus on keeping your wardrobe and room clean)

• is my room clean, organized, and aesthetic? or is it messy and draining my energy?

• do i surround myself with things that inspire me? in my game of life blog i mentioned the importance of environment so yeah this is basically it.

make small upgrades rearrange your room, add vision boards, photos that make you happy (your childhood memories, my family, friends etc something to look at and feel the need to change for you and them), quotes or a plant omg i have such a cute witchcraft ritual for plants i’ll talk about it in upcoming blogs apart from this declutter anything that doesn’t serve your future self.

3. master your energy & presence

how you walk, talk, and present yourself affects how people see you—and more importantly, how you see yourself.

• posture & body language: stop slouching. walk with purpose. sit up straight. move gracefully. if your ideal self is a model then walk like a model. and even if not walk confidently be the boss

• speech: speak clearly, confidently, and with intention. no more mumbling or saying things like, “i don’t know…” you do know. how does you ideal self speak like? in a sexy sultry way? in a fun lighthearted way? what kinda vocabulary she uses? upgrade your vocabulary! and how many languages she knows? learn a new language!

• eye contact: look people in the eye. this instantly makes you feel more powerful. again how does she looks at people? siren eyes? doe eyes? bambi eyes? facial expressions etc i mean it every small detail

4. upgrade your style (within your means!)

dressing like your future self doesn’t mean spending thousands on a new wardrobe it means curating your style to align with who you’re becoming.

• invest in quality over quantity (even if that means just one or two staple pieces).

• start wearing colors, silhouettes, and accessories that match your dream self’s aesthetic. (do your colour analysis on chat gpt, understand what looks good on you)

• take care of your grooming healthy hair, clean nails, and glowing skin always elevate a look. go visit a dermatologist, dentist, gynaecologist etc (i’m serious, book an appointment with a dermatologist now 🔪)

5. make decisions like her

before you do anything, pause and ask:

“what would my future self do?”

would she say yes to this opportunity? would she hang out with these people? would she react emotionally, or would she handle it with grace? start thinking like her, and soon, you will be her.

this will turn you into your highest self and you wouldn’t even realise it when you’ll become her completely to the point you don’t even need to ask yourself “what will my future self do?” you will know exactly what to do

step 4: master manifestation

your highest version is literally you, you’re her she’s you. it’s all in you you’re the creator.

start making manifestations a part of your life not a chore. the life you’re living right now is literally the manifestation of all your thoughts, routine, actions etc manifestation is literally like breathing you’re doing it all the time your subconscious is working all the time

start by subliminal audios that helps you get to your goals and eft tapping mentioned in my glow up enhancing blog so go read it.

other things like

act as if? (i already told y’all this, embody her.)

visualisation

affirmation all the time

use crystals

use manifestation book

meditate

be positive all the time

become spiritual (or at the working of universe)

witchcraft (optional)

i will let y’all know more about this manifesting tips in my upcoming blogs too this one is getting too long

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Solas is not literally bound to Mythal.

If he was, he’d never have been able to rebel against her in the first place, and he wouldn’t have been able to kill her at the end of inquisition (debate all you want on her opinions of that, he went there intending to kill her and not imagining she ever would agree to it. If he was literally bound to her will he would not be able to do that). He also wouldn’t have been able to treat the crossroads fragment in the way he did, since she’s clearly not happy with that and definitely petty enough to force him to visit. Hell, he probably wouldn’t have been able to put up the veil in the first place. He also wouldn’t have had a problem drinking from the well of sorrows, because if he was already bound to her there would be nothing to lose, and it would save corypheus gaining the knowledge AND someone else from being bound to Mythal.

Not to mention, Morrigan holds Mythals memories and is literally working with us to stop him and not once mentions him being literally bound to the will of Mythal, despite that being vital information to Rook, if true. Him being literally bound to Mythals will takes away all of his agency as a character, but also is in direct contradiction to multiple events. I have no doubt their relationship was manipulative, but she does not literally control him.

Also, whatever Flemythals reckoning was going to be, it is clearly NOT the veil coming down. At no point does she offer any assistance in those goals (even if you read the inquisition epilogue as her willingly sacrificing herself to help solas, which I never have for many many reasons, including but not limited to the fact that if she wanted to help she didn’t need to die to do so, he’s been awake and plotting for two years at this point and not once has Mythal offered any assistance). Her own activities (namely gaining the soul of Urthemiel, cleansed from the blight) have absolutely nothing to do with the veil coming down. Her reckoning is her own plan, separate to Solas’ plans entirely, and at times even counter to them.

The ending where he gives up on bringing down the veil does not involve Mythal literally releasing him from literal bonds of control. If that were the case, she could have done that at any point prior to now and none of this would be happening. Even if you argue we need to convince her, she could have done that immediately after we convince her in the crossroads. And why can only that fragment release him, and not the one in flemeth and now Morrigan who has not supported his goals since at least inquisition, and is ready and available to free him literally whenever?

If you analyse that scene you’ll notice a few things:

1. he is physically and emotionally exhausted. He’s just finished a battle with Elgar’nans archdemon and he’s also been confronted by several of his failures. I’ve got a long post on the way the entire game deconstructs all of his manipulations and excuses so that at this point they’re all completely gone, but especially key are that Rook escaped the prison when he couldn’t (and he designed that prison to hold callous gods unwilling to acknowledge their crimes, with their callousness being the key. Rook is an actually nice person and the prison cannot hold them. It held him), and that he has made zero progress since rook was trapped and Rook was out the prison for all of five minutes and Elgar’nan is defeated.

2. When Rook tells him to bind himself to the veil he considers it. He’s tired, he’s on the verge of admitting it’s unnecessary, he considers it. If he was literally bound to Mythal there would be no consideration.

3. He then says he can’t, because it would dishonour those he had wronged to get this far. The inquisitor then comes out and tells him that those he wronged are the ones asking him to stop. Then he says he can’t because he needs to honour Mythals memory because it’s his fault she died and he needs to make the world she wanted (notice she is dead in this conversation. If he was literally bound to her then he wouldn’t be considering her dead). Then Morrigan and Mythal come forward to say that uh no, this isn’t what Mythal wants and if that’s what’s making him do this he should feel free of that obligation. In a metaphorical sense.

What is happening in this scene is not Solas being freed from literal bonds tying his will. It is Solas, who has spent his entire life making excuses and justifications for why he has to do what he’s doing, having every single one of those excuses systematically deconstructed. He cannot say it would be a dishonour to those he had wronged, because they are here telling him to stop. It cannot be a dishonour to Mythal, because she is here telling him to stop. He’s in a state of physical and mental exhaustion and every single time he comes up with an excuse as to why he needs to bring down the veil, he’s met with irrefutable evidence that not only is that excuse horseshit, but the people he’s claiming to be doing this for actively want him to stop.

He’s not being released from literal control. If he were, rook and the inqusitor wouldn’t have bothered trying to convince him, they’d go straight for Mythal. What happened is he’s run out of excuses. All he can do at that moment is admit he actually wants to do the terrible thing to placate his own conscience (the real reason this whole time) and do it anyway or stop. He chooses to stop, possibly because this is the first time he’s been forced to admit to himself that his reasons ARE selfish ones, and he realises in that moment that that’s not what he wants to be. But it was always his choice.

He was always the one deciding to take down the veil. He was always the one wanting to take down the veil. He just cannot admit to himself his reasons are selfish so he comes up with excuses and justifications, which he even convinces himself of. The whole “I wish I didn’t have to but sadly I must” schtick is a lie he tells both others and himself. He doesn’t have to. He never had to. That’s the whole point.

No, the veil did not need to come down. It never did.

Something that is extremely consistent throughout inquisition is that the tears in the fade are HURTING spirits. Spirit society, like mortal society, has adapted to having the veil present and just like mortal society it is being thrown into chaos by its weakening.

Something that is consistent throughout trespasser and the media between trespasser and veilguard is that taking down the veil would have harmed everyone and destroyed society as we know it, at the very least killing most (if not all) humans, dwarves and qunari (who have no less of a right to exist than the elves).

He says as much in trespasser, and then never denies it when called out. It’s always “do you truly believe that is my plan” and “I had plans to minimise the damage”, never an explicit “no, that would not happen”. He tells the inquisitor that tearing down the veil will destroy the world and then never denies it when asked, he just stops being so open about it. This is a man who uses careful wording so that he can say he rarely lies, what he doesn’t say is deeply significant.

The veil going up initially hurt people, but the world has since adapted and is now in a state where tearing it down would cause more damage for no reason. The veil being put up hurt elven society because they had buildings that relied on both places, but they no longer have that. Nobody is being actively hurt by the veil being up, bringing it down would just destroy everything to get a world that is different but not inherently better.

But Solas regrets putting it up. Solas wishes he didn’t put it up. He wants to take it down, not because it is actively hurting anyone, but because he feels bad about it. It’s something he regrets, something he wishes he hadn’t done, and taking it down will placate his conscience. And all the consequences can be justified under “i feel sad about it but it had to be done” even though it didn’t ever have to be done. This is how he has justified every crime before.

Rook has not doomed the world by keeping the veil up. They have saved this world, instead of dooming it to cling onto scraps of a culture long long dead and placate the conscience of a man who has never been able to handle the concept of “no”.

[the-fourchette]

"Because you weakened me"

I tend to over analyse too much but aren't those two scenes a parallel ?

1/ Mel's position

In both frames Mel is positioned to the left of her interlocutors (Ambessa and Jayce). In both pictures, she's the vulnerable one, she's barely listened to and her words have "no weight" (but the contexts are important!)

2/ Context

In the first situation, Mel advocates for the mercy of the young heir of a conquered nation (I guess)

As a result, Ambessa banished Mel because of her softness. Her mother needed her to be far away from her so she could accomplish her bigger missions. She literally said that she couldn't look at her in her eyes because Mel weakens her resolve to do what's necessary for her family (i.e conquering lands through wars but also protecting her family, and more precisely protecting Mel from the Black rose).

In the second situation, she explains to Jayce that her whole life had been a lie and she can't control it because of her family and powers.

Jayce listens and coldly leaves Mel to fulfill his greater mission : saving the world from his "misdeeds". He gives her a dull but meaningful pep talk. And, he, too as a hard time looking at her in the eyes. Jayce knows Mel and he knows that she needs to feel approved and validated, he genuinely loves her and believes in her strenght and intelligence. I think that's why, besides her revelation, he specifically chose those last words to encourage her (i.e "You are not a passenger").

I don't know if I am reaching but it seems like in a teeny tiny moment, they want to hug but both refrain from it. Almost as if they are restraining themselves to have physical contact. Mel has to cross her hands. Their posture is unnatural and awkward, the perfect opposite of how they usually behave around each other.

Jayce usually let himself be soft and vulnerable with Mel, she's his confidant, but this time he couldn't afford to do that for the greater good. There is a deep sorrow in his eyes when he manages to look at her (is he also ashamed because he weaponized hextech when she fought not to ?). He knows he couldn't count on her help and comfort this time. He couldn't cave in and melt into her arms (or lap). He can't be "weak". Maybe, Jayce knew she would weaken his firm resolve.... So that's why, like Ambessa, he has a hard time looking at her.

3/ "There is no force in this world that can control you"

He's also resignated and defeated because he knows that he's definitely a passenger. (And he doesn't want that for her, I suppose...). He's in pain and he knows that he's risking death (or he's already dying because of his hexcorized arm).

Feels like this line is almost a jab to Mage Viktor who, in hindsight, dictated/manipulated his whole life.... He says he's confused about a lot lately, that's the sentence of someone who discovers that his whole life was a "lie". But he also feels responsible for all the bad decisions he made and he's determined to fix it. Little does he know how much Mel and him have in common : kidnapped and tortured in alternative/future worlds, and controlled and coveted by people who needs them for what they could bring to them (Mage Viktor and the Black Rose).

Anyway, Jayce never told Mel what happened to him so the poor woman must feel so unworth and unloved, again. In reality, Jayce was protecting her and the city from an apocalypse and her mom was protecting her from the black rose.

She seems quite done but unfazed after Jayce's speech, seems like a familiar feeling to her. She's used to be cast away at this point, right ? As an empath, I'm pretty sure she's devastated but she can't be "weak" too (that's why she was exiled after all). She also knows that they are going to war, so no time for self pity.

This scene is so frustrating because I can understand why Jayce is so cold and distant, he's pained, he knows he's risking death. But at the same, he feels so OOC (which is not that stupid because it's not everyday that he had to face an apocalypse...)

I don't know, I'm just trying to make sense of this scene. But maybe I'm just reaching and it's not that deep (because season 2 is a parallel fest, so much parallels just for the sake of "parallelling"....)

[rafeyssugar]

wild child

a/n: this series is inspired by the movie wild child but set in the outer banks world. expect drama, rivalry, tension, and a whole lot of chaos. enjoy. ♡

y/n had everything—money, parties, and freedom. growing up in florida with an easy, privileged life, she never had to follow the rules. but after one too many reckless mistakes, her mother has had enough. now, y/n is being sent to silverstone academy, an elite boarding school in the outer banks, known for its strict policies and wealthy, high-maintenance students.

y/n isn’t the type to follow anyone’s rules, especially not when they try to control her. she’s ready to make waves and prove that no one—especially a school like silverstone—can tame her. but what happens when she crosses paths with rafe cameron, the charming yet troubled "bad boy" of the outer banks? the tides are about to change, and y/n may find herself tangled in more than she bargained for.

character introductions:

✦ y/n (16, 4'11") – a rebellious, spoiled girl sent to silverstone academy after causing trouble back home. she’s used to getting what she wants and doesn’t like being controlled. her first encounter with rafe is full of tension, and though they clash, there’s a spark between them that neither can deny.

✦ rafe cameron (17, 6'6") – the misunderstood bad boy with a reputation. rafe comes from a complicated family, and his tough exterior hides a lot of pain. he and y/n have an instant rivalry, but as they spend more time together, their connection becomes undeniable.

✦ john b. routledge (17, 6'0") – laid-back, loyal, and always in the middle of the drama. john b. isn’t part of silverstone but is often around due to his connection to rafe. he tries to stay out of the conflict but finds himself getting involved when y/n’s presence shakes things up.

✦ sarah cameron (15, 5'6") – rafe’s younger sister with a charm that masks her own struggles. sarah has a complicated relationship with rafe and sees something in y/n’s rebellious spirit that she can’t quite shake off. she warns y/n about rafe but is also drawn to her energy.

✦ kie (kiara carrera) (15, 5'5") – outspoken and fearless, kie quickly becomes y/n’s ally. she’s not afraid to stand up for herself or her friends and quickly sees the value in y/n’s defiant attitude, despite her wariness of the situation with rafe.

✦ jj maybank (17, 5'11") – fun-loving and carefree, jj’s the type who gets along with everyone but tends to stay out of the drama. however, he finds himself in the middle of it when y/n starts making waves at silverstone, and he’s loyal enough to stand by her side.

✦ pope hayward (16, 5'10") – intelligent, calm, and thoughtful, pope tries to avoid getting tangled in conflicts. he’s the one who often tries to mediate, but his loyalty to his friends means he’ll step in if needed. he’s skeptical of the tension between rafe and y/n, but he’s there for y/n when she needs him.

welcome to wild child. y/n didn’t ask to be sent to silverstone academy. she didn’t ask to be stripped from everything she knew and thrown into a school full of stuck-up rich kids and strict rules. but if there’s one thing about y/n, it’s that she doesn’t follow rules.

rafe cameron is the worst of them all. arrogant, untouchable, and tall enough to make her look like a literal child. they clash from the moment they meet—he’s used to people fearing him, and she’s too stubborn to care.

but rivalry and tension? they’re a dangerous mix.

please reblog ,

xx 𝐑𝐇𝐎𝐃𝐀 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

a/n: i’m soOOOO excited for this series, you guys have no idea!! it’s gonna be full of drama, tension, and all the chaotic energy we love. 💖 ALSO—CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE COVER?? like, i’m actually OBSESSED. it’s everything. let me know what you think!! 👀

[tiredandoptimistic]

Crucial thing about Buffy Summers is that she would rather die than have a conversation. She doesn't want to get other people involved in her business if she can help it, and throughout the series we see her become increasingly self-reliant as she learns to trust in her own abilities as the Slayer. The downside to this is that it weakens her connection to her friends as she becomes convinced that they can't understand what she's going through. By the late seasons, Willow and Xander fit the same role relative to Buffy that Joyce did back in high school. To Buffy, it's not worth opening up to them if they'll never really get it. All she'd be doing is pushing her problems onto people who wouldn't be able to help. In addition, thanks to that self-reliance, she always thinks that she can solve everything on her own. She doesn't like to open up about her issues, meaning that her loved ones often don't find out that anything is wrong until it's too late for Buffy to handle it delicately. For instance, when Joyce finds out that Buffy is the Slayer in season two she has a lot of questions that Buffy doesn't have time to answer because the world is literally about to end. In a desperate attempt to keep Buffy from leaving Joyce threatens to kick her out of the house, which obviously wasn't something she should have said even though it wasn't sincere. By refusing to let her mother in on the details of her life until the last possible minute, Buffy put them both in a situation where she was forced to drop the information and run, leading her mother to hate the Slayer calling in season three. Joyce only gets a peak at Buffy's life when the supernatural gets so bad that it's completely out of Buffy's control, which leads to Joyce seeing Buffy's life as nothing but terrible. We see this especially with Angel. Buffy never tells Joyce anything about her relationship with Angel except for when he's evil and planning on killing her, which means that Joyce never trusts Angel even when he's a good guy genuinely trying to protect her.

Switching back to the late seasons; after Buffy comes back from the dead she feels unable to connect with anyone except Spike. She was obviously going through a whole depression in season six and I'm not going to say that she handled it wrong because frankly as long as she made it through alive she did everything right, but this lack of communication with her friends does cause some problems for her. We see in the musical episode Buffy is forced to finally tell the truth about what death was like and how depressed she's been feeling, and it absolutely crushes all of her friends. Not only does their friend find them responsible for her depression, but she also felt the need to lie to them about it because she thinks they'd rather see her as happy than honest. Buffy tries to protect her friends from her life rather than sharing it with them, so everyone ends up upset and isolated. For the next leg of the season she has the whole relationship with Spike going on that she doesn't tell anyone about, which once again means that no one finds out until it's so bad she can't control it. (This is paralleled with Willow's magic addiction in a way that's interesting but I'm not gonna talk about it right now). Xander gets angry at her for sleeping with Spike when we know he had a much more chill reaction back in season five when the Buffybot made everyone think Buffy was with Spike, showing that the circumstances of him finding out had a big impact on his reaction. If Buffy had been up front about the relationship rather than waiting for Spike to spill the beans mid-argument, her friends probably would have been more understanding. Instead, Xander only sees Spike as the guy who starts fights and tries to rape his friend. By season seven Xander and Dawn don't understand why Buffy wants to protect Spike, because she didn't want them to know about any of the relationship so they only got to see the worst of it. If she was willing to share the parts of Spike she found genuinely appealing, she wouldn't have been hiding the relationship in the first place. Instead, everyone else sees him as an irredeemable asshole and Buffy doesn't take their concerns seriously because she can take care of herself.

I think I'm running out of steam so this post is probably approaching its end, but yeah. I think it's super interesting how Buffy works on a "dude, just trust me" level, and you can see throughout the series that her bubble of trust shrinks dramatically. Her fundamental trait of not wanting to share her struggles stays consistent, but as she grows up and gains confidence and competence she ends up willing to let down her mask with fewer and fewer people. She's a uniquely powerful Slayer because of how she draws on the strength of her friends, but she hates that she has to do it and tries to lock them out of her life as soon as she reaches a point where she thinks she can handle it alone. Once things boil over she's always left with a situation that's far worse than if she'd just been upfront with everything, but despite that the people in her life still always support her unconditionally. Joyce welcomes her back into the house with open arms, Giles respects her renewed relationship with Angel, Xander agrees to let Spike live with him despite his concerns. Buffy has so much trouble accepting the love that constantly surrounds her, but it remains anyways.

[star-anise]

Related to this video, though I take a while to get there, as someone who's worked in domestic violence shelters:

I realize Gabby Petito's life and murder have already been armchair-psychoanalyzed literally ad nauseam. I don't want to rake up old muck for the fun of it. But I had to stop watching the recent Netflix documentary about it when it got to footage of the police stop, and after listening to both of them, the officers concluded that she was the primary aggressor, and threatened her with jail. (After that I looked: an investigation into the incident said their biggest mistake was failing to arrest her for domestic violence.)

SO HERE'S THE THING: This is not an isolated incident. I've seen it happen so many times, in so many places. Dare I say, it is a truth universally acknowledged: police are, in aggregate, absolute dogshit at responding to domestic violence. Not because they're awful people or even bad at their jobs, but because their basic, essential jobs, their training and tasks and tools, are just not the things we need to solve the problem. Police work interacts with domestic violence the way a hammer interacts with the inside of a computer processor. Something sure happens, but it's probably not going to fix the problem you came in with!

Why? And what can we do differently?

The basic job of the police is to find evidence of a crime, and arrest the person responsible for it. Through this function, they also deter crime because their presence implies the potential threat of arrest. The end goal of this work is either to prevent crime entirely, or to focus on identifying a criminal who, if arrested, can be convicted of a crime. They care about the cases that will stand up to the scrutiny of a judicial court.

If you want a deeper dive into this, the aptly-titled No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder is a good place to start. There are a lot of initiatives out there to try to make the police be less absolute dogshit about domestic violence. I commend the various attempts made with police departments all over a world, because even something that's just medium dogshit is worth the effort. Even small improvements still return a benefit in terms of lives saved.

My point is:

Police are extremely oriented towards detecting crime, and disregarding other factors in a situation. "I don't care if you're starving, it's against the law to steal from a grocery store" and all that.

The crimes police tend to focus on are the ones with solid evidence that will stand up at trial.

So, in 2021, police get a call because a passerby saw a man hitting a woman, next to their white Ford Transit. Later, an officer pulls over a white Ford Transit with two people in it, who are in fact the people the call was about! They are Gabby Petito, who will be dead in two weeks, and the man that will kill her.

To condense from the full, Gabby's description of their fight earlier is: "I was just saying I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood. [...] I had so much work I was doing on my computer this morning. [...] I've been really stressed and he doesn't really believe that I could do any of it, so, we just been fighting all morning and he wouldn't let me in the car before."

That man's description is: "We see this gets worked up sometimes and I try and really distance myself from her. So, I locked the car and I walked away from her. What happened this morning is that she's trying to start up a little website [...] but she just got worked up, because we were trying to get going and get our day going [... she] was trying to get the keys from me. I was just trying to, I know I shouldn't push her, I was just trying to push her away."

The officers on site set about solving what is, to them, the critical question: Did a crime occur, and if so, who did it?

So they look at the available evidence: the cuts and bruises on Gabby's face and arm, and that man's face and arms. They get testimony that seems to say: Gabby tried to grab her keys, and that man pushed her away. That means she is the one who assaulted him, and he responded in self-defence.

(They actually go back and forth about whether it meets the legal definition of assault, and because she denies intending to harm him, they don't press charges in the end. All the same, they give that man a hotel room to give him space from his "abuser" for a night.)

So, in the video about DARVO above, Dr. Yudin describes how the basic problem is that the aggressor tends to miss how their behaviour caused the incident to occur in the first place, and only clock that something is wrong once they experience negative consequences. When, if you back up, you can see the bigger pattern.

For example, the police come in and perk their ears up at what I'll call Incident 1, when it reaches the level of "violence that leaves marks the police can see without trying too hard". That's when Gabby reaches for the keys.

So I have to ask Annoying Question #1: Okay, and she reached for the keys because...?

Incident 2: That man locks the van and starts to walk away with the keys.

This does not, as the police understand it, rise to the level of criminality. I'm not a lawyer, but I still think it's something they should have paid attention to. They should know, because she tells them: He wasn't just locking her out of a vehicle, which she could deal with by walking or calling an Uber; he was locking her out of her principal residence and place of work.

Annoying Question 2: And he locked her out because...?

Incident 3: Even he has to explain this one. She just "got so worked up" about her "little website" that he had to make her go outside and take a walk! So she can calm down! Because she just gets worked UP, amirite? Gabby even endorses this by blaming her "bad mood" on her "OCD".

Annoying Question #3: And she was "worked up" into a "bad mood" because...?

Incident 4: She was trying to work, and he wanted her to "get going" instead, while also expressing doubts about her competence at "any of it".

I'll stop here, but the thing is: Yes, it is very hard to pick apart the moving pieces when you get to see someone for 15 minutes and then have to figure out the whole trajectory of everything. But that's often the amount of time it took us at the shelter to decide whether or not someone was in an abuse situation that warranted giving them a bed for the night. Sometimes it's not the amount of information, but the lens you use to analyze it.

The full transcript actually goes on at agonizing length, as the police use the tools available to them to try to solve this problem, think about the laws and mandated policies, the potential effects of pressing charges... it takes them over an hour and fifteen minutes. I'll admit, I absolutely could not read the entire insufferable thing. I don't hate myself that much.

The officer in question later said, "I would have done anything to stop it if I would have known that was coming. If I would have known [Laundrie] was going to murder her, I would have taken vacation to follow them, because I care about people, to the point where he was going to murder her … and I would have intervened and citizens arrested him in Wyoming! I would have taken my own time. I would have missed my family to go do that."

In my opinion, that's the stupidest crime prevention plan I've ever heard. This cop is making up a demented action movie in his head based on having psychic superpowers because he cannot imagine a way to do his job differently.

Thankfully we don't need divine revelation and a good PTO package to be less dogshit. We just need to change the focus from "Who committed a crime?" to "Is everyone okay?"

(I mean, he did focus, once he decided Gabby was the criminal, on that guy's safety. But that's not the same thing.)

Things we would ask during a domestic violence assessment:

-Do you feel safe around your partner? Are you afraid they might hurt you? -Has your partner ever hit, choked, pushed, or kicked you? Do they keep dangerous weapons around you? -Does your partner ever try to control where you go, or who you see or talk to? -Does your partner interfere with your access to money or the necessities of life? Do they try to stop you from working or providing for yourself? -Does your partner minimize their actions or blame you for their abuse? -Do you feel safe leaving them? -Do you have people in your life you can turn to for support? -Do you have somewhere you can go? -How can I help?

Having written these questions out, it's obvious why the police didn't ask them. If they had to provide this level of care, and actually set people up with the resources they needed, they'd be completely overwhelmed. Waiting until the crimes are committed and deciding who to punish for them is soooooo much more efficient.

And who cares if efficiency costs lives?

(Author's note: ...Good lord, and I planned to do things this afternoon. I've been writing this for hours. I don't have a good way to wrap this up, except go soothe the fury somewhere else now.)

I just found a really great explanation of DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender).

I'm dealing with too much shit right now to expand, but... it's fucking everywhere.

[rekino2114]

I just thought up a prompt for Kanade otonokoji being proposed to. How about She's hanging out with her boyfriend when suddenly he's says he doesn't wanna be her boyfriend any longer which leads Kanade into having yandere thoughts, when suddenly he says that he wants to be her husband instead. I was hoping you could also do this for Arei and Teruko is possible.

You propose to kanade, teruko, and arei by saying you don't want to be their bf anymore

Kanade otonokoji

"I don't wanna be your boyfriend anymore?"

"Huh?"

Kanade actually felt surprised when you said that, which is uncommon for her to say the least

This wasn't supposed to happen, kanade loved you with her entire being. You had no idea what she would do for you if you just asked her. You were her darling, the most important person on the entire planet. No one else in this world even came close to your perfection. She genuinely couldn't live without you.

What did she do wrong? She treated you like a God on this earth. She would have given you literally anything you could have wanted, just in exchange of you loving her and staying with her forever. If you just told her what she did wrong, she could fix it

Or maybe she could try to fix you, just to change your pretty little head a bit, not as much as hibiki of course, she still wanted you to love her of your own volition but maybe she could just make it so you loved her just as much as she loved you, she would have just put some beautiful thoughts in your brain about her and you wouldn't have even known the difference. Just to ensure that you would never leave her

"I want to be your husband"

Oh.............nevermind

All of her previous thoughts disappeared, and her head was now filled with images of your wedding and life together. She hugged you and ranted about how much she loved you and was glad you weren't leaving her.

She should have never doubted you. Of course, you loved her, and of course you were going to be together forever, and she didn't need to do absolutely anything to you to make sure of that........but that idea did sound pretty fun, maybe she should try it on hibiki next time

Teruko tawaki

"I don't wanna be your boyfriend anymore"

As much as she doesn't want to admit it, teruko knew this day would come.

It was just inevitable. Her luck had taken everything away from her, her family, her health and it would have eventually taken her life. She was used to it at this point.

But there was someone her luck couldn't have taken away from her, her happiness, which was you, the fact that you entered her life alone was the luckiest thing to have ever happened to her, and the fact that you loved her and stayed with her trough everything, that was the best thing in her life period. You were the best thing in her life.....so obviously it had to end.

The worst part about this is that she really couldn't blame you. Who would wanna date someone who, just by being near you, puts your life at risk? She was fine with her luck affecting her even if she hated seeing you sad whenever she got hurt, but the fact that you could be hurt just because you loved her was just so unfair and it broke her heart.....so it was probably for the best to end this

She knew this would happen so she promised herself not to cry......even if it hurt so mu-

"I want to be your husband"

"W-what?"

She was more surprised by your proposal than your sentence from before, but when she fully realized what was happening she obviously said yes and hugged you

"You made me so worried"

"Why?"

"Did you think "I don't want to be your boyfriend anymore" would be a good opening for a proposal?"

"I didn't think you'd instantly assume I'd wanna break up with you, I love you so much teru, I thought you knew, I would never ever leave you"

"..........thank you"

"It's nothing, I'm sorry"

"No it's fine.........I'm just really happy now...... can we stay like this for a while?"

"Of course, anything for you teru"

You stayed wrapped in each other's arms for longer, and teruko could feel herself smiling so wide......she had never been this happy to be wrong

Arei nageishi

"I don't wanna be your boyfriend anymore"

"..........wait what?"

Arei though this was a prank for a few seconds, it had to be, you couldn't have been serious, there was no way you, one of the incredibly few people she actually gave a shit about in the world and that she even loved more than anything would abandon her like this.

There was no way you were just willing to throw away everything you worked towards, all of the talks and help you gave her in trying to become at least a little bit less shitty, she had never wanted to become a so called good person but she wanted to at least be someone who people wouldn't raise their eyebrows at when they saw you together, so that people wouldn't ask you if she was forcing you to date her whenever you announced that she was your girlfriend........even if she would never admit it.......she wanted to become someone worthy of you with your help.

So there was no way you would just give her the hope that she could become less shitty and then just leave her alone like that, did you even love her at all?

Even if she promised herself to beat the shit out of you later for this she knew it would have never happened, she loved you too much to let that happen..........why the hell was she still this soft with you?

"I want to be your husband"

"..........seriously?"

Arei wants to be mad at you for starting your proposal like that, but the genuine happiness in her heart that your words caused didn't leave any anger in her body, so she just hugged you and grabbed the ring, saying "obviously" in the meantime

"That was the worst proposal ever by the way"

"What do you mean?"

"How am I not supposed to think you want to break up with me after you say something like that?"

".......now that you put it like that, I guess you're right"

"You're a dumbass"

"But you still said yes"

"......yeah.....cause I love you"

"I love you too arei.....I can't wait to marry you"

Arei looked at her new ring and then back at you, she flashed you a smile, a pure and genuine smile

"Me too"

[rukafais]

You ever think about, like, despite the reputation Drizzt gets saddled with in and out of universe (especially out of universe) as The Only Good Drow (derogatory) it's a source of horror and isolation for him literally all the time

Drizzt wasn’t so sure. He knew the horrors of Menzoberranzan, knew the lengths that some drow would travel to survive. His own father, Zaknafein, the drow Drizzt had loved most dearly, had been a killer, had served as Matron Malice’s assassin out of a simple will to survive. Might it be that this mercenary was of similar pragmatism? Drizzt wanted to believe that. With Vierna dead at his feet, his family, his ties to his heritage, were no more, and he wanted to believe that he was not alone in the world. (The Legacy)

Why do I care? For Jarlaxle, there is the ever-present notion that he once knew my father, that he once wandered the ways of Menzoberranzan beside Zaknafein, perhaps much as he now wanders the ways of the World Above beside Artemis Entreri. I have always known that there was a complexity to this strange creature that defied the easy expectations one might have of a drow—even that one drow might have for another. I find comfort in the complexity of Jarlaxle, for it serves as a reminder of individualism. (Road of the Patriarch)

I am haunted by the expression on Bruenor’s face, and by the words of Catti-brie. “The burden you carry blurs your judgment,” she told me without reservation. “As you see yourself, you hope to find in others—in orcs and goblins, even.” She alone said this, but Bruenor’s expression and wholehearted nod certainly agreed with Catti-brie’s assessment. I wanted to argue, but found I could not. I wanted to scream against them both, to tell them that fate is not predetermined by nature, that a reasoning being could escape the determination of heredity, that intellect could overwhelm instinct. I wanted to tell them that I had escaped. [...]

What of Nojheim, then, the goblin I once knew who seemed a decent sort undeserving of his harsh fate? Or am I really saying, what, then, of Drizzt? (Night of the Hunter)

Like boy oh boy he does not want to be that at all. He does not want to be looked at like a freak of nature who there can never be another of. He doesn't want to live in a world where that's immutably and unchangeably true because that is a cruelty on another level (and it means that the kindnesses shown to him by the members of his family who cared about him aren't actually real or they Don't Count or whatever). Believing in that would mean believing in a world that singled him out and made sure he'd be alone forever and that would be hell on earth.

Like idk I think it's interesting. Despite his reputation and often the role he's placed in with marketing and whatnot, he would probably break down sobbing especially in the first half of the series if he saw any other drow who wanted to be friends with him and didn't want to mcmurder him on sight

[electricneonvalkyrie]

Choose Your Fighter: 𝓐𝓫𝓫𝔂 𝓐𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷 Edition

Be honest, girls. Who are you taking home? Choose wisely. You're trapped in the apocalypse with her.

🩸 WLF Abby – Tight ass tactical vest, blood on her knuckles 24/7, war hardened and unstoppable. Says she doesn’t have time for softness, but her touch is so damn careful it literally destroys you.

🏋️‍♀️ Gym Abby – Sweaty tank top clinging to muscle, swollen veins climbing her arms. Will spot you, bench press you, or pick you up and carry you everywhere... up to you.

🐶 Dog Mom Abby – Covered in dog hair at all times, kisses Bear on the head before she kisses you. You swear she likes the dog more (she doesn’t, but Bear does get priority cuddles because, duh).

🐈‍⬛ Cat Mom Abby – Soft sweatpants, lukewarm coffee in hand because she's too busy playing with the chunky tabby draped over her lap. Says she’s not really a cat person, but her entire camera roll is close ups of tiny pink noses and little toe beans. Sleeps on the edge of the bed so the kitties have space. When she kisses you goodnight, a tiny chirp rises up from behind her, the chirp of a chaos demon about to cause problems. Midnight is for zoomies.

🛶 Soft Abby – Hair loose, calloused hands carving intricate pieces of wood she finds on the beach. She tells you about old world constellations like it's her destiny. Pulls you onto her lap because it’s second nature. Whispers the sweetest promises in your ear.

🌊 Saltwater Abby – Sunburnt shoulders covered in freckles, sand in her braid, the scent of salt and sunshine clinging to her warm skin. Paddleboard strapped to her back, knives strapped to her thigh. She’s taking you goddamn spearfishing at dawn, and when the water is too rough, she pulls you into her arms and you know you're safer than you've ever been.

💀 Revenge Abby – Dead eyed, jaw clenched, completely fucking feral. Danger is her actual middle name. You shouldn’t want her, but when she looks at you like that—like you’re hers—it’s already waaaay too late.

Let the battle begin. I’m scared to see which one of you picks Revenge Abby. 👀

[sakurabraches]

omg i love these thoughts so much and i just wanted to add a few of my own cuz i have so many thoughts about the galinda/glinda divide

cuz in the book changing her name to glinda is very much a trauma response and a very cut and clear moment of growth. it's kind of the moment she fully decides to be glinda the good. she also gets the title of "the good" from like charity work she does

in the musical/movie, the galinda -> glinda shift is a moment of performative activism, and a manifestation of her need to be loved. the "the good" title is her playing into the wizard's regime, just another farce and not something she genuinely earned

BUT by the end of the show, glinda literally says "i want to really be glinda the good," which is the end of her character developement. she's decided to make the titles real. so i think reducing galinda and glinda to a simple before and after doesn't really work in the context of the play

cuz galinda and glinda actually go through really similar arcs in their respective acts. she starts out concerned with her own popularity. she does smth that hurts elphaba cuz of her own insecurity (first abt sorcery and then abt fiyero), not realizing just how dire the consequences will be. she realizes her fuck up and decides that she loves elphaba more than she loves her social standing, and takes a risk to protect her

what separates the two is the stakes and the payoff. act i they were quite literally in the school yard. the ozdusting scene is heartbreaking, and elphie's disappointment destroys me every time, but in act ii nessa and fiyero (sorta) both get murdered as a direct result of glinda's actions

and the thing about the ozdust is that galinda took a risk, but ultimately that risk paid off, and she was rewarded with the most meaningful relationship of her life. and while you can say the ozdust was galinda's first step to become glinda, i think it's important that is was gAlinda, and not glinda, who danced with elphie

act ii she practically begs elphie to let her clear her name, but elphaba refuses and "melts," leaving her alone. so even if post-act ii glinda the good is glinda's "best" self, it's also her most miserable self. (it also adds to the irony of "the wicked's lives are lonely" because glinda is now the most capable of doing good, but completely alone)

so galinda is the girl who was naive to wider structures and injustice in the world, and desperately wanted to be liked, but she's also the girl who was elphie's first friend, the girl who first danced with her and called her beautiful

glinda is the girl who took up a title for a authoritarian regime, but she's also the one who toppled that regime. she's the girl who chose the bubble and the girl who chose to break out of the bubble. she's ultimately the only one left with the power to do good and help oz, but she's miserable for it, having lost the most important person in her life

and i like when elphie calls her galinda in moments of vulnerability, because she's recognizing that in all the ways they've changed, they're still both the same two girls who fell in love at shiz. it also recognizes that galinda always HAD the capacity to be good, and her role as glinda the good isn't a farce, but something she was always capable of

i also just like galinda being hers and it's smth elphie gets and the rest of oz doesn't. the same way she gets hyperactive silly popular galinda, and not the facade she puts on around everyone else

i think galinda is a recognition of the person she used to be, the person she still is in some ways, the good and the bad. and i think there's really no truer love than seeing and knowing someone entirely, both in how wonderful they can be and their insecurites and flaws, and loving them wholly. it's my favorite thing abt gelphie

idk if this really had any coherent point im mostly just yapping atp and holy shit this was not meant to be this long but it's just some of my thoughts

one of my favourite things in gelphie fanfictions is elphie calling glinda “galinda” again in moments of high emotion

[sapphic-agent]

I just realized something about BNHA that I'm sure nobody on here talked about yet.

The show suffers from a protagonist centered morality.

Izuku or to a lesser extent those that're on the side of the heroes, are always seen as in the right and that anything going against that is automatically in the wrong and should be called out. Even if the other side makes a good point about something.

Take Eri and the reporters for example. The reporters raise good points about Bakugou and how irresponsible UA is, but are told "na nuh!" By Aizawa and it just ends at that.

Then Eri... She literally went from one place who used her power to another. It literally falls into "It's okay if WE do it!" even though this is supposed to be a story meant to point out the flaws in society but gets onto anyone who dares try to say anything bad about it!

God even after all this time BNHA still makes my blood boil!!

People need to talk about this more.

Good and bad in MHA has less to do with morality and more to do with who are the heroes and who are the villains. Which could have been a GREAT setup, only for Horikoshi to never talk about it.

Any time ANYONE has a point, they are immediately discredited or brushed aside. Like Izuku dismissing what Dabi said by defending Endeavor as his mentor. For this to come from our protagonist of all people that late in the game? It not only ignores something blatantly being called out, it also makes our protagonist look worse. Instead of addressing and amending the propaganda he set up, Horikoshi repeatedly reinforces it for some reason.

(This is a repeated problem with Izuku especially. He's such a blank prop that never got the development he deserves that any critiques about the world around him go right over his head. It's actually bittersweet that in the epilogue he is starting to come to a realization because no it's too late)

I've talked many times about how the LOV regressed into irredeemable monsters to make their suffering and the points they made meaningless. Spinner suffered from this the worst. He was the member of the LOV who didn't crave destruction and wanted to change things, only to forgo all of that in the Final War.

To watch all this happen when I used to love MHA is just so disappointing

[mikasa-imadebiscults]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do hashira with an extremely tall s/o, who is additionally mean & scary looking but literally the sweetest person ever. No rush(if you do it) Thankyouu! ^^

(Hello hello Anon! I hope you are doing well and that you enjoy this. This is mainly like how you met/how the Hashira first impression of you so I hope that’s okay. Have a great day/night!)

Unexpected Softy

(Characters Included- All the Hashira)

(Warning: GN! Reader, fluff, and some swearing)

🦋Shinobu Kocho🦋

- She first met you in her infirmary, you were injured in a fight fairly badly so you were in a vulnerable position. Due to the condition you were in she had to keep a very close eye on you, to ensure your safety. She saw it all by now in the Demon Slayer Corps after all, so your intimating looks didn’t faze her.

- She does find it adorable that you look all tough on the outside but is actually a big softy. She teases you about it all the time, she just can’t help herself.

🐍Iguro Obanai🐍

- Was shocked at first about how sweet you were compared to your appearance. He thinks it’s a nice contrast though, it’s one of the things he likes about you the most.

- He ended up growing fond of you very quickly. It was a strange feeling for him at first, considering kindness in his world is hard to come by. Even so, you continued to be so nice and eventually he got used to the new feeling.

🍡Mitsuri Kanroji🍡

- Was lowkey a tiny bit scared of you at first but still thought that you looked cool. She wanted to get to know you but didn’t know how exactly to approach you. So one day when she was having a snack, she saw you and offered you some. Once she realizes how nice you are, that fear completely dissipates in an instant.

- One of the many things she loves about you is that you’re taller than her, more of you to hug (koala style or one of those bone-crushing hugs)

🔥Kyojuro Rengoku🔥

- Not afraid of you at all, in fact he approaches you first. You two got along really well, especially with both of your kind spirits. Even some of the people who were terrified of you saw you two being so friendly and got over their fears.

- If he sees other slayers nearby visibly shaking in their boots because of you, he’ll kindly introduce them to you and tell them that there’s nothing to be afraid of. He will also say how kind you are and to never judge a book by its cover.

🔊Tengen Uzui🔊

- He’s another one who talks to you first. He likes your vibe. He definitely helps boost your confidence, the compliments he gives you and how he hypes you up is enough to make your confidence skyrocket.

- When you meet his wives, they get comfortable with you fast due to your kind nature. Even though Suma is a bit afraid of you, she enjoys your company and eventually warms up to you.

☁️Muichiro Tokito☁️

- Didn’t think much about you at first. I mean demons look scarier than you, some of them at least. Then fast forward to when you two started dating, he began to notice how others looked/acted towards you. He questioned it to himself but didn’t say anything as long as no one messed with you.

- Your kindness rubs off on him a bit the more you two hang out together. The other Hashira even notices the change.

🌪️Sanemi Shinazugawa🌪️

- At first he mistook your tough demeanor as you thinking that you’re better than everyone and that made him angry. He didn’t say anything though, but that was until one day you accidentally bumped into him. He got pissed thinking that you did it on purpose and started yelling at you, accusing you of thinking that you’re superior to everyone.

- Once he was finished ranting, you cleared things up telling him that none of that was true. Fast forward months later when you started dating, that first confrontation became a inside joke between you two (he kinda feels bad about it, he makes it up to you tho)

🌊Giyuu Tomioka🌊

- He can relate to you, after all, being a Hashira he also knows what it feels like to have people be afraid of you. When you first spoke to him, he was pleasantly surprised by your kindness. It makes a small smile appear on his normally blank face.

- Does make a mental note to compliment your appearance and tough exterior often when you’re dating. Just in case your brain decides to mess with you one day and tries to make another insecurity.

🪨Gyomei Himejima🪨

- Doesn’t notice your “scary” looks because, well, he’s blind. Though he does however notice the way people act around you and the tension that arises in the air whenever you come along. He doesn’t understand at first until he asks the frightened people what’s wrong.

- Of course the terrified slayers just said it was nothing and scurried off. He was even more confused. Until you came up to him and explained that they were most likely scared of you. You said it like it was nothing because you were used to it by now. Gyomei nodded in understanding, he knows how you feel and offers some words of encouragement.

Masterlist

[jesterkoops]

I am late to this party because I have been insanely busy this past week but...

SO. MANY. THOUGHTS. I don't know where to start so I will go in chronological order (warning - this is long).

Obviously, spoilers for Severance 2x05.

How much power does Helena *actually* have? Her not wanting to go back "down there" but having very little say in the matter... she is the CEO's daughter and yet she seems to be at the mercy of the board's decisions just like her innies. I also found it interesting that she used "they tried to kill me" as an excuse not to go back when she did after all go back to work after Helly tried to hang herself. Was someone not so keen to face Mark? Or am I reading too much into it?

Helly being catapulted into a world that is no longer the one she knew. Irving's gone (and was trying to drown her outie), Dylan is grieving Irving, Mark has drastically changed and is pushing her away. Ironic that she's the only one with nothing to hide, since both Dylan and Mark are "compromised" in their own way. I have no doubt Dylan's "privileges" will continue to play a role and I'm curious to see when and how that shoe will drop with Mark and Helly.

I loved the complete chaos and confusion that has overwhelmed Mark. I haven't checked the timelines of how long Helly and Helena have been on the severed floor, respectively, but I think they are pretty equal stretches of time? This isn't Helena slotting herself into his life only for that OTBRO, they continuously spent a ton of time together for weeks. So, actually, Mark had started falling for Helly and then finished falling for Helena. Helena who SURELY must be a monster, right? If she is heir to a company that does this to their employees and holds his outie's dead wife somewhere in a basement. And yet he nonetheless felt she was not that different from Helly, and he managed to connect with her on a human level. This throws not only their entire relationship and his feelings into question but literally his entire system to make sense of his universe: what's an innie, what's an outie, who is truly whom, if anyone? I mean, if this is a mindfuck for us watching it, imagine LIVING it.

Similarly, Helly also has to process the exact same stuff about herself. "You couldn't tell it wasn't me?". And this is why I don't think it's as simple as "Helena was 100% just acting". Because how would that be interesting from a storytelling and character development perspective? If Helena is exactly what it says on the tin, how does that enrich the narrative for Mark and Helly, when they can just both dismiss her as "the other"? And how does that enrich the narrative for the viewer? It does not. The most you get out of that is Mark being paranoid that he can't tell if it's Helly or Helena, and that's it. But it doesn't take any of characters anywhere interesting.

And I think this is also probably reflected in that tent scene. I don't think that knowing what we know now is necessarily meant to retrospectively cheapen that scene. I think the way that scene was scripted and shot I think it was done with genuine intent to depict a LOVE scene, because they went above and beyond what would be necessary from a "show-and-tell" perspective to fool the audience into thinking it was Helly having sex with Mark. Even ignoring Britt's comments on the matter and looking simply at the material, not only were they heavy-handed on ticking the love scene visuals, but there was no reason whatsoever to have her bring up the topic of who she might be on the outside with Mark. I think just as he kept falling for her through that time she was on the severed floor, her own "intrigue" for him might have continued to grow (and hence the scene where she watches him leave in this episode).

What I think is so interesting about the shift in innie!Mark (because it's mostly still innie!Mark) in this episode is that he has just been hit with a series of events that have completely trashed the relative tranquility of his life inside Lumon and IMMEDIATELY we start seeing flashes of who Mark is on the outside: the cynicism, the depression, the dismissiveness, the not caring about anything because nothing matters. Which goes along with the idea that these people are nothing but "tabula rasas" of their outside counterparts, and that, given the right (or wrong) circumstances and experiences, they can be channeled to be more or less like their outies.

Finally... did Milchick know that Mark and Helena banged because he knows or because Helena told him? I've seen many theories but I am not sold on any at the moment tbh. I tend to lean towards him knowing from means other than Helena because while I can see them considering Mark and Helly's bond something Helena needed to play into (they did after all seem to emphasize the whole "love story" aspect in the lore about the MDR uprising), given how uptight Lumon/the Eagans seem to be about sex, it somehow feels weird to me that it would be considered appropriate or even encouraged for the "heir in waiting of Lumon industries" to bang an innie just to keep her cover. I might be wrong though!

WELL DONE YOU if you made it this far.

TL;DR: I don't think this is all down to Helena "faking it" because the whole point of the show is blurring the lines between innies and outies and how the innies are nothing more than "tabula rasas" of their outies before shit happened in their lives. Getting more intrigued by Helena with every episode.