#(is that it's as if people need to *justify* choosing their own name now)

[brin-bellway]

#[looking back and forth nervously] (itsbenedict)

normal guy who transitions into a different, equally normal guy

[jp---v]

I don't need to, but I'll explain my Bakugou hate because I want to.

Long post. Beware

When I started reading the series I was the same age as the characters. Looking at my interests you can probably guess that I was bullied, but instead of getting all sad, I got angry at the people treating me poorly.

So as soon as Bakugou was introduced, I didn't like him. Seeing someone my age verbally threaten and physically attacking people without being punished just really put me in a bad mood whenever he showed up.

Then certain parts of the fandom got incredibly toxic, and suddenly the author is pandering to the worst of them

But the problem keeps getting worse. The entire world warps to kiss his ass. He got everything he wanted at every turn. He deserved nothing and got everything.

Immediately established as a long-term bully. His bullying is then retroactively justified by the world itself saying that Midoriya is worth less than Bakugou as a person.

Why did Aizawa, who was famous for expelling students, not so much as give Bakugou detention for trying to attack Midoriya on the first day of school?

Why didn't All Might punish him for using that gauntlet in the Battle Trials?

Despite all of his actions so far, just since being accepted into UA, the other students still want to be friends with him. They actively choose to spend time near him.

Why is it never mentioned how him(and Kirishima) attacking Kurogiri and getting in Thirteen's way is a large part of why the USJ played out how it did?

His speech at the Sports Festival

Everyone wanting to be on his team, but he doesn't know any of their names or quirks.

Trying to make an unconscious Todoroki fight back in the finals

Aizawa constantly excusing all of his behavior, circling back to my point about the world itself justifying Bakugou's shitty behavior

Attacking Midoriya in the Final Exam.

How did Sero fail his exam by being carried out but Bakugou passed?

At the Training Camp, he actively tried to go fight the villains that have openly stated were trying to capture him. Making himself an easy target and hindering the people trying to protect him

During the Rescue Operation he somehow managed to hold his own against the majority of the League of Villains on his own? Really?

He forced Midoriya to break curfew and just starts attacking him until Midoriya fights back. It's caught on camera and Midoriya somehow gets in the same amount of trouble?

And for some reason he gets let in on the secret of One for All after being such a monumental asshole since forever, despite the fact that even Inko doesn't know? Or literally anyone who would be, like, supportive of Midoriya?

He failed the Provisional License Exam, but don't worry there's a special make-up class just for the people that made it into the second half. Everyone who failed in the first half will have to wait for the next exam.

Oh wow, flawless victory in the Joint Training Arc by displaying teamwork out of thin fucking air that was really just him barking orders at the others.

For a while we just get his usual brand of egotistical asshole-ery and now being needlessly shoved into places where Midoriya's actual friends should be. Or even any of the other side characters. Horikoshi, give them some screen time

But then the war arc and the vigilante Deku arc all just get down on their knees to suck his dick so hard that his quirk evolves and his heart explodes. And I finally get a glimmer of hope for the series to finally stop shoving him down our throats, but no.

Edgeshot decides that this one kid is so important that he will sacrifice his own life to save Bakugou specifically and no one else is on his level of importance.

Going back a step; That apology was pure fucking lip service. Not a single goddamn thing changed in the way he acted afterward. He had a couple of "soft" moments when he wasn't actively screaming and cursing, but that's it.

And Horikoshi keeps fucking doing it.

Somehow each and every thing has to include Bakugou or be about how it's effecting Bakugou or has to mention Bakugou.

The majority of the (much more interesting) cast has been completely forgotten, and Midoriya's characterization got taken out back, given three rounds to the head, skinned, washed in bleach, and hung out to dry, but Oh Wow! BAKUGOU'S HERE!

I said it before and I'll say it again, I'd throw a brick at him.

These are only the broadest strokes of what happened too. If I reread the entire series I could write a massive in-depth character analysis, but that's too much even for me.

[f1byjessie]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS ━━ LN4.

sometimes the right words are hard to come across, and sometimes everything you need to say can be captured in an image.

( lando norris x photographer!reader )

━━ part five.

There’s a part of you that wants to be spiteful and decline his call━ to give him even a minuscule taste of what you’ve been experiencing. It’s hard to just forget days worth of lunches spent locked away in a bathroom stall crying over his radio silence, and if he could feel even a fragment of that desperate helplessness then the fiercely vindictive part of you would be satiated.

At the same time, you also feel like you’ve been shocked back to life. Just seeing his name and catching a glimpse of the grinning selfie he set as his contact image all those years ago, makes you feel like a piece of home has been returned to you. You know deep down that there was never really any other option than to answer.

So you do.

You get halfway through saying his name when he interrupts you━ “Garrett Ward? Of all the people you could date, you choose Garrett Ward?”

The venom in his tone stuns you into silence. He sounds angry━ really, truly, genuinely angry.

Lando scoffs, “I mean, don’t you have standards?”

You’d known there must’ve been a reason for the unresponsiveness, and an ignorant part of you had hoped the unanswered texts and calls were a byproduct of his busy vacationing. You’d wanted to believe that when he called he’d have some wild story of getting lost in the jungles of Bali without signal, or that he’d lost his phone in the wilderness of the Australian Outback.

Ignoring the posts on Instagram proving otherwise was easy enough when you’d been limiting your own online activity to avoid the never-ending hatred splashed across your feed.

Deep down, however, you recognized the avoidance for what it was from the very beginning.

You know you should feel justified in being angry when he has no right to be so judgmental of you and your choices━ if he gets to be petty then so do you━ but the combination of Garrett’s surprise visit and the amendment to your agreement, and now the sudden vehemence of Lando’s own disdainful words have thrown you off kilter. It’s like you’ve taken a step off the worn path and now you can’t tell which way is back to the trail. Everywhere you turn it’s just another metaphorical boot looking to kick you back down.

You want so badly to be angry, and to rage, and shout right back at Lando that he doesn’t know the first thing about what you’ve had to sacrifice to get where you are━ that he doesn’t get to shame you for being with Garrett Ward if it means protecting what you’ve worked your entire life for. But it’s hard to feel confident when so little of your life is actually in your own control, and when someone behind the scenes can take everything you’ve worked so hard for and throw it away with the right words to the right people it makes you feel small and insignificant.

Nothing you do matters if it can so easily be erased.

So instead of yelling right back that Lando needs to watch his mouth and quit spewing shit about things he knows nothing about, you sit there and take it.

“Do you even know what they’re saying about you online?” He keeps talking. “They’re calling you a cheap whore, and a gold digger because why else would anyone in their right mind be with a lowlife like Garrett Ward? Seriously, of all the people, you pick the prick of all pricks?”

Beneath the frustration in his voice you can hear the slur of intoxication, and with anyone else it would give you hope that maybe they don’t mean what all they’re saying━ that the drunkenness is just encouraging him to go on a tangent and exacerbating the teasing he usually takes part in━ except you know that Lando’s drunk words are often his sober thoughts. They’re the things he wouldn’t normally let himself say for any number of reasons, but the liquid courage of whatever he’s had to drink has removed the filter his anxiety normally keeps in place and everything’s coming out whether he wants it to or not.

“I mean, do you know what this could do to your reputation? The comments are just filled with people tearing you apart and saying anyone could probably have their way with you because you’re a slut.”

Everything he’s saying now is what he believes.

“Obviously I know you’re not a slut, and the people we work with know you’re not a slut, but nobody else knows you the way I do━” he clears his throat. “We do,” he corrects. “Which means they see those comments about you sleeping with every athlete you work with, and that you’ve only got your job by fucking your way to the top, and they believe them. And I don’t want them to believe them, because you’re not a slut.”

He groans, “But Garrett Ward? Garrett fucking Ward? Like, were you drunk or something when he asked you out? Because nobody in their right mind would soberly agree to be Garrett Ward’s girlfriend.”

Honestly, you wish you would’ve been drunk when you’d succumbed to Garrett’s threats. Maybe it would’ve softened the blow a bit, or at least given you something to blame it all on━ remove the shame by passing the responsibility off onto a bottle of wine, a few shots, maybe a martini or two.

“I thought you were smarter than that,” he scoffs, continuing with his vitriolic rant. “You of all people should know that getting involved with athletes is risky, but especially guys with reputations like his. He’s been caught by the paps going to three different girls’ houses in a single night. Is that the type of guy you wanna associate with?”

You’d thought you would be okay with being berated and yelled at if it just meant getting to hear his voice again, but you’ve realized by now that there’s probably nothing more painful than having Lando be genuinely upset with you.

He pretends to be upset a lot, when he’s joking around. He once spent an entire weekend talking to you exclusively by using Carlos as a middle-man when you’d posted a picture of him for April Fools that hadn’t been the most flattering, and he’d only broken at the end when you mentioned you’d be sure to get his good side, to which he’d chimed in predictably that all sides were his good sides.

Apart from a handful of rare moments that are few and far between, you don’t think you’ve ever actually seen Lando genuinely mad━ and never at you specifically.

It makes you miserable.

And the reason why it makes you miserable makes you even more miserable.

You aren’t sure when it happened━ can’t place it exactly, the change was so gradual━ but at some point in time, the feelings you felt for Lando stopped being platonic and started being more. More than what friends feel for each other. More than what friends should feel for each other, especially friends that work together in an industry where everything exposed to the public eye is scrutinized and studied beneath a microscope to be criticized and torn apart.

When the realization hit you, however, that the butterflies in your stomach, the giddiness in your heart, and the overall sudden behavior change to that of a girl with a schoolyard crush was all for Lando, you shoved it down and locked it away with the thought that if you didn’t acknowledge the feelings, then they might eventually disappear as so many of your other crushes had in the past.

The only issue was that you still worked alongside him and he was still himself, and instead of the feelings fading away with time, they just got stronger. Stronger, more obvious, and harder for you to ignore.

But for the sake of your friendship and your career, you did. You had to.

You kept it all hidden away and played the part of the perfect friend, content that if you couldn’t have him in the way you wanted then at least you could stay by his side in the way you already were. You’d get over it eventually━ you would have to. He’d find someone else, and that would be the end of it.

It doesn’t make things any easier, though.

There’s a voice that sounds suspiciously like Daniel in the background on Lando’s end, but whatever he’s saying is too quiet for you to understand. All you gather is that whatever it is, Lando disagrees, and then the call drops and you’re plunged back into the unsettlingly loud quietness of your office.

There’s a different man’s voice echoing in your head now, and you’re loathe to say it, but you wish it was still Garrett’s.

Just a few hours later and you’ve made it to the end of the day, but it’s still a few hours that you’ve had to sit and stew with your emotions. The frustration and hurt has simmered low in the pit of your stomach and now it burns high, transformed into rage. It feels like a fire curling up within you━ blazing at your insides, leaving everything it can reach singed with the heat of your anger.

If Lando wants to play this game, you will play along.

You’ve played a role for years now━ hidden your real feelings behind the kind of feelings that are appropriate for friends to have, said the things friends are supposed to say, did the things friends are supposed to do. You’re not a stranger to wearing a facade, and this thing you have with Garrett is just another role you’ve been reluctant to accept.

But if Garrett gets something out of this agreement with you, then you might as well get something out of it for yourself as well.

If he wants you to be a good little girlfriend, then that’s what you’ll be, and if it gets on Lando’s nerves then even better.

You find Garrett in the physio’s office, scrolling through his phone with a pack of ice resting on his foot. There’s no one else around, so you figure he’s at the tail end of his appointment and is just following the last of the instructions given to him.

He looks up when you open the door, and raises an eyebrow.

“Can I help you?”

“Actually, you can,” you answer. “I’ll play along with this little plan of yours, like, really play along, be a good girlfriend, the whole shebang. But I want something out of it.”

He scoffs, “ More than the reputation of being a footballer’s girlfriend?”

“If I’m giving my all, then so will you.” You say instead of answering, taking pride in the way his brows dip down low and his eyes narrow.

Your phone pings in your pocket, and you spare a glance down at it.

“Sorry about Lando,” says Daniel’s text. “He was drunk and didn’t know what he was saying. Don’t listen to him.”

You swipe out of it without answering. What’s done is done. Neither of you can go back.

When you look back up at Garrett, he’s appraising you thoughtfully, and then he nods.

“Deal.”

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━━ tags: @maih23 @urfavnoirette @leclercsluv @f1luvur @formulaal @a-disturbing-self-reflection @starlightpierre @chezmardybum @marshmummy @405rry @sideboobrry11 @d3kstar @mcmuppet @happylittlereader @casperlikej @5starl1ght @bellezaycafe @whentheautumnleavesfall @mess-is-my-aesthetic @ssprayberrythings

━━ a/n: this part took so long to write, partly because i was struggling with just how i wanted to do it and then partly because i have just been so busy the past few days and didn't have time to work on it. the last little bit with garrett was actually written on my phone at a club earlier, so if it seems rushed or out of place, that's why, please forgive me, i was just did not want to work on this part any more 🥲

[starsfic]

Lionpeach prompt: After Azure becomes the Jade emperor he makes a deal with wukong that if he marries him his friends will be safe

Sun Wukong had no idea how long he had been in the scroll.

It could've been minutes or years. Time was easily lost when you had to traverse a landscape made of your worst memories, from receiving his shifu's harsh words of banishment to feeling the fillet tighten around his head for the first time to hearing Long Xiaojiao scream at him as the Samadhi fire wrapped around her. He had fucked up in his long life, and the scroll made sure he remembered it all, even the smallest thing that slipped his self-hatred.

At least Xiaotian and the others had escaped. If they were out, there was hope.

He sighed, standing up from the ledge he sat on. He had needed a quick rest, although it was tempting to just sit there. He couldn't. He needed to figure a way out.

Before Wukong could begin to move, the world began to glow a familiar azure blue. He tensed up, taking a step back. Before he could run, the blue swallowed him up...

And he came to.

It was dark, although it took him a second to realize that he was scrunching his eyes closed. "Wukong?" a familiar voice said. He scrunched his eyes up even more. Once, that voice had made him feel warm and confident, sure of himself and his friends.

Then he had tried to kill him.

A familiar paw smoothed gently down his face. "Should he be like this?" Azure's voice said, probably asking Yellowtusk. "He should be alright now, right? We fixed the damage to the tile."

Oh. That explained why things got screwy at the end.

"I think he's just pretending so we'll leave him alone."

Dang it.

Wukong opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a giant multi-colored crack that began to close, ruining the lovely bedroom that had to be in the Celestial Realm. The second thing was Azure, practically crackling at the seams with the Jade Emperor's power, sitting next to him.

"Azure..." he whispered, not sure whether to be angry at him or afraid for him. "You're killing yourself."

Azure didn't respond beyond a simple quirk of his brow. "Leave us," he said to Yellowtusk. "I want privacy for this moment." Wukong felt his own brow raise as the elephant demon slipped out surprisingly quiet, closing the door behind him.

There was a heartbeat of silence.

Then Azure's paw gently turned his face towards his. "Wukong," he sighed.

"Azure."

"...I was so worried about you," the lion sighed. "I was hasty and acted foolishly. My cruelty towards Qi Xiaotian was uncalled for," Wukong tensed the moment his successor's name left the lion's mouth. "But I hope I can make it up to him with this."

"With what?" Wukong scoffed. Azure had a tendency to act before he thought, not really taking in many people's opinions. It was one of the things that made Macaque feel uneasy.

The next words are enough to justify Macaque's unease.

"Marry me."

"...Excuse me?"

"I can protect Xiaotian and his friends if the world knows they're under my protection thanks to you," Azure said, not bothering to repeat himself. He was unaware of dots connecting in Wukong's mind, disgust filling him.

He trusted that Azure wanted the Jade Emperor gone, for the better in his mind. But, choosing him to be the next emperor? The minute Wukong had met him, Azure had insisted that he was the perfect choice, even through frustration at him putting his monkeys first and his goofy attitude. Peng had once told him, out of spite at something Azure did, that Azure had a list of baby names for children he wanted with Wukong. Wukong had brushed it off, assuming that they just wanted chaos between him and the lion.

Except now he had to face the idea that Azure had hoped to get in his pants.

Before he could even say something or figure out what to say, Azure sighed. "I'll take your silence as a no," he said.

Lips pressed against his cheek.

"Please, think about it. I only want what is best for you." Azure pulled away, heading to the door. He paused to glance back at him with what he probably thought was a kind expression, but all Wukong could think was the idea that sat in his mind now.

"Good night."

[punkpandapatrixk]

🏖Original Prototype ☆ Timeless Tarot Guidance

Elements/Signs in this reading are calibrated to all aenergetic placements. Feel free to read as many Elements/Signs as you feel called to at this point in your spiritual evolution♡

[PAG Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings] [buymeaboba]

☆[Your Own Standards of Beauty PAC]☆

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

As a complement to the previous PAC, it’s crazy we’ve got The Last Judgement at the bottom of the deck. That’s a double XX LOL Yeah, continuing the spirit of rebellion against little bitch behaviour, we’ve got so much Wands and Pentacles aenergy on this collective reading. It’s literally saying:

Be confident in being yourself, in all the amazingly weird, scandalous, hard-to-define way that you already are AND grab the money bags! Work on feeling secure in your body, comfortable in your skin, beautiful in your hair and makeup, and continue to work on your soulful passion projects which are the only things that truly matter~♥︎

As a complement to the previous PAC, for a lot of Asian kids, wherever they may have been born on the Planet, it may be quite harder to realise just how much you’re stopping yourself from SHINING in your authentic Light just because you want to appeal, appease, and please your little bitch elders/society. It’s hard for a lot of people already depending on what kind of custom they’re most familiar with, or if they grew up with abusive narcs and all that, but I’ve gathered that it’s generally just that much harder for Asian kids.

Why? Because the society or elders made Asian kids little bitches of an apologist and enabler! STOP THAT! What the fresh fuckity fuck does being ‘conservative’ mean when that jargon is mostly thrown around to justify racism, fascism, perversion(!!), misogyny, child abuse, and, what else? Dishonourable ‘traditions’ of all kinds—can’t cover all of those expectations in a single intro but…if being ‘Asian’ equals ‘an unwillingness to outgrow own bullshit’ then that white lady was right:

‘Not to be racist or anything but Asian people SUCK! Hahahhihihuhuheho…’

In the West, Asian losers get waaay too comfortable hiding behind ‘victims of racism because we’re minority’ narrative—even though in Asia we all know Asians are some of the MOST racist fucks on the face of Earth and they victimise their own people in the name of CULTURE—and they indulge in some such fake-noble-ass attitude whilst completely and utterly letting other (usually younger) Asian fucks get away with perpetuating cycles of abusive behaviours, customs, mindsets, and just…ways of doing things and being.

These types of people, don’t strike me as bothered enough to acknowledge what being divinely…Human…is all about. No wonder they trespass human rights all the time in all these small but pervasive ways. Pathetic, isn’t it? ♪~why the fuck you lyin’, why you always lyin’, mmm, o mai gut~♪

All I’m saying is, ultimately, Asian or no Asian (you don’t want me to start on the Punjabs OML), you as an individual get to choose how you want to grow and develop yourself, so as to become a vibrational match to your very own honest desires that are in alignment with your Highest Intended Good. You were born with a purpose, no? Your Soul knows that and it’s whispering your Soul’s Blueprint to you. Don’t ever, EVER, let your nationality, religion, custom and race, or any other insignificant configurations attached to your birth situations LIMIT your Soul Expression that is often more kind, more merciful, more empowered, more free and creative, and most important, more brave—because God only knows how much Humanity needs all of those qualities amplified in the world right now.

If this intro has found you, chances are, YOU. ARE. THE PROTOTYPE. of a new way of being, you freaking Superstar~☆ One day, all of Mankind are gonna be just like you. Namaste. Whoever you are, I honour your being here and being a whacko🍮

HACK: This 76 Year Old Has Better Beauty Hacks Than You Do by PS

deck-bottom: XX(!??!) The Last Judgement Rx, Red Physician (Galen of Pergamon), Priestess of Shine

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Original Prototype for 🐞Fire Signs – Silver Magus (Merlin)

3 of Swords, 9 of Cups, XV The Devil

You know the ‘problem’ a lot of people find with Fire Signs? Your fire. Duh? In a world of cowards who mould themselves into whatever society demands of them—for survival—how dare you be pretty, ballsy, smart and confident, and you’re not even an ass-kisser? That’s hard to stomach for most of these sheeples. Babe, it doesn’t even register in their slow-ass brains.

So then, they work really hard at convincing themselves that you’re a sneaky loser who’s plotting against them. Some others think that you think you’re better than them for not paying them too much attention. Well, you know what? You are better than them. Clearly you are better than those whose hearts are so rotten they fabricate shit like that about you.

In spite of outer appearances, you really do have a good heart, and topped with every other thing that’s already good for you, all of the good things going for you, ma gurl, you’re a fucking anomaly. Kinda reminds me of Hedy LaMarr! An anomaly by all means. How dare she be incredibly talented, beautiful, smart, ambitious, and, SPIRITUALLY INTELLIGENT! She was a Scorpio Sun, Leo Moon and Sag Mercury. Hear this:

‘I know why most people never get rich. They put the money ahead of the job. If you just think of the job, the money will automatically follow. This never fails.’ – Hedy LaMarr, pioneer of the frequency-hopping technology, precursor of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS systems

If you asked me, it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people are simply jealous of you. And in a world where women are pitted against each other since time immemorial—you know; how they made girls compete with each other to become the hottest commodity to attract the richest guy in the village to take ‘em as a wife—it’s almost a crime that you were never sucked into this stupid game of hurting other women for the attention of men.

For you, and most likely this has been the case since you were a child, this kind of mindset never made a lot of sense, and oh Goddess, you’ve thought it had to go out! Of your system! Of everybody’s system! I think you were always a feminist before knowing such a concept exists. And your focus wasn’t particularly about ‘gender equality’—it wasn’t politics, babe—it was just about fairness and justice in their purest form, for all people.

HOT FIRE. You were born to light candles and burn bridges. So be it. No more playing small. No more playing with those who are small and refuse to grow strong. Go meet your Destiny NOW!🔥

Oracle Guidance for Fire Signs🔻❤️

🐏Aries – Priestess of Innocence

🦁Leo – Priestess of Magick

🎠Sagittarius – Priestess of Healing

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Original Prototype for 🐍Earth Signs – Green Physician (Paracelsus)

Knight of Pentacles Rx, XIX The Sun Rx, 5 of Cups Rx

Take care of your body, nourish it to heal your spirit, and let’s take a break from planning too many things for the near future. The aenergies all around the Planet are shifting massively, what you’re planning for the next 3 years of your Life, for example, could all go down the drain next month, next week, even. You’re being advised to recharge and find joy in the small things that you might’ve postponed to enjoy just because it’s felt like there’s so much to plan and do and achieve.

On this Planet, too many societies glamourise being busy. It’s because the busier you are the more you feel that you’re needed, right? That need for validation is what kills you from the inside if you blindly follow this misguided desire to be useful. The truth is, and only if you allow it to be your truth as well, is that it’s enough that you exist on this plane. You can love and be helpful in ways that don’t sacrifice your values or physical health? Don’t be a sell-out just because you want praises. Yuuh, bitch?

You might’ve forgotten that you came into this world to have fun. To bask in sunshine’s glory and play with nature. To eat good food and spend good times with loved ones. I’ve seen that people with strong Earth influences are usually those that are easiest victims of capitalism’s hustle culture pffft… They got you wired weird, babe. Gotta step back a little and look around, see where you’ve put your foot now.

I’m hearing that you Earth Signs are essentially meant to be a buster of old traditions and customs that no longer work. People change and values change, why wouldn’t cultures change? After all, didn’t people make culture? How come then cultures are perceived as more important than the individual? None of that makes sense. So much of what’s called culture in this world was made with garbage intent and has become pure manure at this point in Humanity’s evolution.

It’s perfectly OK to update rules and customs, don’t you think? People who refuse to grow and move with the times are TOXIC. Don’t be their prop, Earth Signs! Your mission is to launch missiles towards the Old Stinkin’ Tower of toxic traditions and to rebuild upon its rubble a new establishment that’s guided by Love. Yes, Love and Respect, instead of the ill-intent to suppress and control. Take what still works from the Old World but infuse whatever you do with Light. Let the wisdom of old guide you so that you don’t make the same mistake twice, or thrice.

I’m also hearing that you’re meant to champion some kind of effort that balances/integrates tradition and automation. ‘Going back to nature’ or ‘going back to old ways of doing things by hand’ are a major theme of your Lightwork. We’ve been dealing with too much automation in recent decades that people’s cognitive functions have declined rapidly! Automation helps with simplifying things but if that comes at the cost of people’s brain capacity, this isn’t progress then, it’s a regression of Humankind at the aggression of robots.

Doing things with hands may seem like such hard work, but in the long run, it keeps people’s brains functioning well into old age. Check out this video for inspo! I just feel that you’re meant to champion something like this <3

How The Oldest Chocolate House In New York City Survived A Century by Business Insider

Oracle Guidance for Earth Signs🔻💚

🐂Taurus – Priestess of Patience

🧘🏻‍♀️Virgo – Priestess of Purity

🐐Capricorn – Priestess of Illumination

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Original Prototype for ⛲Air Signs – Green Alchemist (Nicolas Flamel)

6 of Wands Rx, 8 of Wands, 6 of Pentacles

Being the intellectual Air Sign that you are, you’ve long realised that most of the world’s information is false. It’s taken a lot of strength to maintain your sanity, and it’s gonna require even more for you to share what you know with the world—or whoever would listen. So much of world’s history is misleading, if not blatant lies; so much of who we’ve been told as heroes and knaves has been quite the opposite, depending on angle, I guess.

You’ve been in the know that discovering the truthest truths of the Truth is gonna require some sifting through so much misinformation, disinformation, and confusion. It’s not a walk in the park but know that you’re not alone on this legacy project of yours. You may often just forget that your Spirit Guides and Cosmic Ancestors are with you. Yeah, you may forget because you’re highly intellectual and can focus too much on hard facts LOL

The fact is, look, you have direct aetheric communication with your Team. I sense many of you who are tuned into this collective reading are, in spite of your Airy-ness, quite spiritual. A lot of you have strong 12th House placements or Neptunian aenergy, as well as 8th House/Scorpio and 9th House/Sagittarius influences. This actually makes your communication with the aether that much clearer. In order to strengthen your communication, it’s important to nourish your brain with the right kind of nutrition.

You can also take advantage of subliminal and/or reiki tracks that help improve brain functions, strengthen psychic communication, as well as those for brain regeneration and relaxation—just to balance things out, you know. Breathing meditation may also benefit you a lot in this scenario. Many of you tuning into this reading are meant to have a role in communications, journalism, detective/investigative work, and maybe even politics. You have that kind of a charm, honestly😉

You could also be some kind of a whistleblower. Basically, you’re meant to communicate the Truth to the world. What Truth are we talking about? Look to your Mercury and any kind of placement you may have in the 3rd/9th House, especially if your Chiron is here, and that should give you a hint, combined with other elements such as Midheaven and North Node. All y’all are meant to discover different kinds of Truth regarding the nature of our society, or Reality huehue

Look also to what your 11th House of networking entails and see how that connects to your Uranus/Aquarius placements. Essentially, if you have a strong Libra placement especially, the key takeaway here is that you want to connect with likeminded rebels with whom you are going to be covering each other’s asses. What you’re meant to do in the world could be dangerous, so it’s important to have a strong network or support system that will keep you all safe~!

Oracle Guidance for Air Signs🔻💙

👯Gemini – Priestess of Strength

⚖️Libra – Priestess of Ritual

🏺Aquarius – Priestess of Energy

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Original Prototype for 🐝Water Signs – Gold Alchemist (Roger Bacon)

2 of Wands, Ace of Pentacles Rx, 7 of Pentacles Rx

It’s interesting that all your cards are indicating unbridled passion, but Water Signs do indeed feel a lot anyway; if you’re not gonna channel all those emotions into something creative, then what’s the point? Gotta be artistic while life is being sadistic to ya XD Your passion, your emotions, are needing a platform to be heard, listened to, watched, admired. Paint, maybe? Write a poetry? Make an artistic indie-vibe photographs or movies?

There can be a lot of trial and error, but as you do so, you exercise your demons. You get to exercise with your demons. Why not? This world could learn a lot from you who’s willing to breathe and let yourself honour your emotions. When we were born, so many of us were convinced that too much feeling was bad. The whole time, not having emotions is what’s actually psychopathic *shiver*

There’s a song I like whose title is like, ‘To not have weakness is to not have Humanity’ or something like that. To not feel, to not shed a tear, to never have a moment of breaking down, is to not have Humanity. And too many people are comfortable with that, that’s why their lives are never totally comfortable in spite of all the riches they’ve gained in the world. There’s still too much drama and bad karma because…

‘We soon tire of living only for ourselves.’ – Mishima Yukio

Psychopaths are those who live only for themselves and they use other people for short-term gratifications, right? There’s way too many people living on the spectrum of psychopathy, and it’s your mission to show these losers how to navigate around crippling sorrow and still turn up alright, decent as a Human. People are weird to give so much empathy to psychos just because ‘they didn’t grow up being loved enough that’s why they turned up the way they did’. Pffft…

Fuck that. Those assholes made a choice to grow up mean, bitter and just generally evil. How many people in the world have suffered the greatest pain and betrayal and still turned up kind and empathetic? It’s a matter of choice, bitch <3 You who have tuned into this reading are someone who’s felt for everyone and got your heart broken every other way, and still you turned up full of Light—in all the unique ways you’re still able to care for the world, even if from a safe distance.

You’re an Advanced Soul who was given so little guidance as you walk the path of your Destiny on Earth. That’s strength. Strength of character especially, knowing how much you’ve broken your heart through your own trials and errors when it comes to navigating human relationships. Don’t punish yourself for a failed connection/communication you still feel guilty for. The guilt itself is already a sign that you’re a good person at your core. Do you think evil fucks feel any remorse for manipulating your feelings or any other person's for that matter?

Oracle Guidance for Water Signs🔻💛

🦀Cancer – Priestess of Beauty

🦂Scorpio – Priestess of Fertility

🎏Pisces – Priestess of Intellect

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAG Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings] [buymeaboba]

☆[Your Own Standards of Beauty PAC]☆

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

The role of women in criticising men for their moral failings in the name of “strength” is increasingly prevalent in this week’s episode of HotD:

Rhaenyra & the Black Council:

We start with Ser Alfred continuing to undermine Rhaenyra during a council meeting. While speaking about Rhaenyra in the same condescending way he usually does, he says, “It is merely that the gentler sex, heretofore, has not been much privy to the strategies of battle, or their execution.” Rhaenyra has to then remind him and her council of men about their shared inexperience with battle: “There has been peace in our lifetime. You've seen no more battles than I have.”

As Rhaenyra says to Mysaria, her small council speaks “around” her, not “to” her. Mysaria points out that by dismissing Rhaenyra because they view her as a “gentle” woman, it reveals how the men “betray their own smallness”.

This idea that women are “gentle” and therefore, weak ties to when Rhaenyra said, “there are those who have mistaken my caution for weakness. Let that be their undoing.”

Alicent & the Green Council:

Like Rhaenyra, Alicent isn’t taken seriously by the men around her. She urges the small council to choose her over Aemond as regent because Aemond’s “lack of restraint” has “cost [them] dearly”. Out of the men at the council, only one of them supports her. This happens to be the most knowledgeable member of the council - Maester Orwyle. He backs Alicents reasoning, “It is experience that offers the surest path to security. Queen Alicent ably shouldered the duties of the realm when her husband's health failed him.” The rest of the council refuse her case based on the fact that she’s a woman. Again, the idea of “strength” is used to justify the actions of men. The council asserts that this is “a time when [they] must show strength.”

This ties back to Alicent’s words to her father: “Reluctance to murder is not a weakness!" Another example of the narrow definition of “strength” that is imposed by men.

Later, we see Alicent warning Cole of the dangers that this rigid adherence to “strength” will lead to: “You know what [Aemond] is... what of justice, of temperance? Or is strength now to be our only god? So you cast me aside.” Of course, Cole justifies his dismissal of Alicent because he views her as a gentle woman that needs to be “spared”.

Daemon: Alys & Laena

Daemon attempts to justify his crimes by stating, “war is a terrible thing.” Alys corrects him, “This is not war. These are crimes against the innocent…And once again, in the name of power, it's the weak and the women who must endure.” In response, Daemon argues that the people, “look to a man for strength.” Here we see that he views the idea of strength as equivalent to masculinity.

Ultimately, this show of “strength” back-fires on him when his victims denounce him as a “tyrant”. It’s in this scene where Laena’s ghost asks him, “Have you looked after our girls?” Her ghost is used to haunt Daemon over his past mistakes. His desire for strength and power have led to many unintended failures.

Aemond & Helaena:

While staring at the Iron Throne - a prize he secured as a result of relentless scheming - Helaena asks him, “Was it worth the price?”

Similar to Laena, Helaena’s role is to haunt Aemond. This follows the overused trope that women serve as moral compasses for men.

Rhaenyra & Jace:

Jace is restless and goes against his mother’s wishes. He is eager to take his dragon and fight leading Rhaenyra to remind her son that Luke was killed by Vhagar and Aemond.

Rhaenyra shoulders a great burden. She is expected to be “always prudent” while the men around her rush to war.

Final Thoughts:

It’s clear that the writers are trying to portray the women as “prudent”, wise and “cautious” while characterising the men as power hungry, reckless and driven by a narrow notion of “strength”. Clearly, the writers are using gendered tropes. This dynamic is not a novel one. And these ideas are not complex.

However, it is important in adding depth to a character like Rhaenyra who was dismissed as “cruel” in the books.

Usually, gendered tropes attract criticism because they tend to reinforce the existing gender order. Although I’m not applying that specific criticism to this case, I do think that the heavy reliance on the idea that women’s voices should hold men accountable for their actions feels overused.

[ledesaid]

I have a plan •♪▼Þ 👑🌩️#2

❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

Before these eyes that have witnessed millennia, the bravery of a human child has never ceased to impress, trouble, or annoy him, and more. But this time, it was simply curiosity.

What could have brought the boy to his country? What had made him traverse the world? Was the League behind this? Was the echo of the wizard attempting something more offensive?

There was much more forming in Teth's mind, like calling his advisor to prepare them for a possible move by the so-called United Nations, which humanity had formed while he was imprisoned.

But the boy had been smart in following the protocols and laws that he had enforced in Kahndaq. His people hadn’t noticed anything suspicious, and his honor as a ruler demanded that he at least listen to the child, victim of the wizard.

"Your highness, may we begin reviewing the expenses?"

"Not today, Hakim, I have a guest..."

"What is his name, my lord?"

"If he is alone, his name does not matter; he is a foreign child. But if he brought company, do not let them in."

His advisor left immediately. Teth could feel the small magical spark fluttering through the streets, getting closer to the palace, and it wasn't hard for him to follow the boy's steps as he closed his eyes, pondering again the reason for his visit.

The doors opened as did his eyes. The boy, as always, was thin and short for his age, if he remembered correctly. But he walked fearlessly until he stood before his throne. With a simple look, Teth managed to clear the room of prying eyes and left them alone.

"Child of the wizard, what force in this corrupt world has brought you to me voluntarily in your most humble form?"

"I need advice from a champion of magic and seek asylum until then..."

Adam looked at the boy with a smile; he had grown fond of him. This child who had engaged in titanic battles on many occasions could be diplomatic, a good sign of maturity...

"I understand that your allies are unable to help you if you have come from so far."

"Ancient magic is exclusive to only a few..."

"...And even more so are the problems that can plague people like us."

The words that the wizard Shazam had instilled in both flowed easily.

"Yes," the nervous boy finally admitted.

"Go on, child of the wizard, don't hold back, it’s not like you."

"Were you always Black Adam, or were you someone else before him? Because I’m starting to forget my own name!"

Teth looked at the boy who had poured his heart into that question. Certainly, his statement was unsettling and, surprisingly, yes, he had the possible answer the younger one was seeking.

"This is one of the reasons I oppose the wizard choosing you as the champion. It will be painful; do you still want to hear it?"

"I didn’t traverse the world to run away now."

That child was brave. Teth liked that; it reminded him of his own children who no longer walked the earth.

"Your soul is very young, and the echoes of the ancient champions are overshadowing it... Most of us, including myself, were chosen at the peak of our adulthood."

Billy paled a little more in the eyes of his enemy. Billy had no way of knowing if what Black Adam said was real or not, but it was all he had now.

"There is..."

"Renounce your powers or seal them until you are a complete adult."

"I'm not going to do that! There must be another way! The world cannot be without the champion of magic!"

It was the first time he had gotten excited. Teth knew it was typical of children; what he was living was the wizard’s fault, who was cruel in giving him that destiny in a desperate moment before dying. It was not justifiable, but it was already done. The boy had made his way with the Justice League, did good, and although they had little in common, Teth did not think of turning his back on him like the wizard had done. Perhaps it was the hatred accumulated over millennia, the dusty memory of his children that refused to disappear, the tranquility he had gained to rule his country without responsibilities as the head of magic, or simply not wanting to deal with some insane champion who wouldn’t respect the new rules of mortals, but there was hope in the younger one's fear.

"It will be slow... and you will have to stay here... If you have enough willpower and desire to live, I will teach you how to delay all the echoes."

Teth stepped down from his throne until he was in front of the boy.

"It will depend on you how long it takes and, above all, you must swear not to invoke the wizard's name... if you break that oath, you will have to accept your destiny and there will be no force on earth or in the divine that can help you."

Billy clenched his small fists, Teth knew this child was stubborn and very capable, but if he sought his help, he had to accept his conditions.

"If you promise not to abandon the world when the champion is needed, I will make that oath right now."

The boy's eyes were shining with determination and pain. But he didn’t flinch... Teth was no longer the champion of magic; he hadn’t been for a long time, he didn’t want to be, but... the boy was betting everything with this act of confidence, and Teth felt obliged to give something in return for this faith.

"I, Teth Adam, ruler of Kahndaq and champion of magic, so swear."

Billy relaxed his shoulders and couldn’t help but form a slight smile of tranquility. Teth extended a hand towards Billy, who took a few seconds to understand and shake it. It was a word of honor.

"And I... William Joseph Batson, citizen of Fawcett City and champion of magic, so swear."

A mark appeared on the back of both hands, a flower with three petals.

"As long as neither breaks the oath, the mark will not disappear."

Teth looked at the boy. There was much to do.

"Hakim, bring a servant and come to me!"

With the arrival of his advisor, Teth thought carefully about how they would handle this situation.

"From now on, this child has a room in the palace. William, we will meet every day from dawn until breakfast... For now, they will settle you in so you can rest."

"It's Billy, but thanks... I really appreciate it."

With Billy settled in the palace, Teth could think about how to carry out his teaching, manage his nation, and attend to the emergencies the boy made him promise.

"Hakim, spread the word, let it be known that Kahndaq has a new prince, that his king recognizes him as such and that they must treat him accordingly."

"As you command, my king."

The first step would be to give the boy a safe environment that would not intimidate, bother, torment, or discriminate against him; his palace was the ideal place.

But if he wanted this effort not to be interrupted by the Justice League or its extension in the UN, in his experience, only a king or a prince had such a right.

-----------

Part 1

[overleftdown]

farleigh start and racism; oh boy.

(some people are going to find this post really annoying. some people are like felix catton.)

read this.

just some thoughts from the perspective of a person of color who is slightly too obsessed with this character. this movie leaves the viewer a lot of wiggle room to interpret how dynamics such as race and privilege come into play. there are certain parallels between this movie and the real world, and how unnoticeable white privilege tends to be for white people.

lemme lay some groundwork. from what i understand, the most prevalent form of racism and white privilege within upper- and middle-class circles is implicit bias. this is racist conceptualization that subconsciously interacts with one's perception of society and people. implicit bias is often externalized through microaggressions, differences in treatment and language towards a marginalized person, misplaced guilt or pity, and persistent denial of any existing privilege or marginalization. most of these biases are also founded on stereotypes. some racial stereotypes are heightening (e.g. asians are all smart) and some are lowering (e.g. black people are all lazy). all stereotypes are harmful. i'm going to discuss some of the stereotypes that could theoretically interact within the saltburn canon, as well as some things i've noticed within viewers. can of worms, to be honest. boutta get INTO IT.

to use one of my externalization examples, let's discuss (or, more accurately, let me discuss) the denial of existing privilege or marginalization. this is a subconscious way to uphold a sense of morality, effectively avoiding "white guilt," so to speak. as is clearly presented to us, the cattons are very attached to their methods of upholding their own self-righteousness. saviorism is a common theme within both elspeth and felix. in oliver's conversation with elspeth about poor dear pamela, you can see that oliver recognizes elspeth's need to justify her actions in an attempt to preserve her sense of decency. one can only assume that this applies to how they view farleigh's relationship with them. there's more to talk about there, but i'd like to start with the only overt mention of race in this movie.

in felix's confrontation with farleigh, farleigh makes the bold and brave decision to mention his blackness. i call this brave because it's genuinely a terrifying thing to do, and the end of this conversation is proof. "oh, that is... that is low, farleigh. seriously, that's where you want to take this? make it a race thing? i never know our footman's names; the turnover for a footman is notoriously high!" we have felix's intentional or unintentional shaming of farleigh. we have felix's appalled denial of any involvement of race or racial bias. we have felix's diversion away from farleigh specifically and onto his own inability to know his staff's names. felix made no further attempt to recenter farleigh, aside from telling him that the cattons have "done what they can." (which is SO absurd on its own. they are clearly and obviously able to do more. they are disgustingly rich). farleigh does feel ashamed after felix's response; you can see it on his face, and archie says it directly. here is a relevant and prevalent stereotype for all marginalized people: that the discussion of marginalization is exclusively weaponized to gain something or manipulate a situation. this is how felix chooses to see farleigh's implication of existing white privilege. this conversation results in nothing, does nothing, as felix chooses not to confront what he's probably thinking as he repeats the words "begging bowl" to venetia.

now. saviorism, guilt, and pity. felix specifically tells oliver that sir james made an effort to support farleigh out of guilt. i'd like to order some things in a way that i perceive them. frederica start runs from england, which is explained in a condescending way by felix. frederica start marries a so-referred-to "lunatic" who dug through fred and jame's money, although it's farleigh who only mentions fred's financial irresponsibility. out of guilt, james offers to pay for farleigh's education. the specificity of education is compelling to me. perhaps james is simply a patriotic man who strongly believes that english education is better. or this is a mobilized racial stereotype! who can truly know. i digress. james' offer to pay for farleigh's foreign education puts the cattons in an odd position; if farleigh is to attend english schools, he will need to stay with the cattons. if farleigh is staying with the cattons, he will need to be treated as equal to felix and venetia. this is all one long chain of obligations. none of these acts from one family member to another should be considered "charitable," because family should intrinsically create a trustworthy and supportive dynamic.

i believe that the cattons do consider their fostering of farleigh as obligatory. moral obligation, as they recognize that families are intended to have a sympathetic and loving relationship. they cannot, however, escape the truth that they're just guilty. the "begging bowl" and "biting the hand" are more symbolic of a starving dog and its charitable adopter than a cousin/nephew who's staying with his absurdly rich family. see, the cattons are fully and entirely capable of affording another child, of supporting frederica financially, etc. the only way i can rationalize their reluctance to do so is by assuming that they don't feel like farleigh deserves it. is this a crazy assumption? i genuinely don't see why else. of course, i don't think this mentality is explicit or conscious. it's more-so the reality that when farleigh walks in a room, he's not the same as anybody else. aside from background characters at oxbridge, the only on-screen black people are liam, joshua, and james' godson's wife (who gets degraded on-screen). this is the reality of being different in an environment such as the english aristocracy. the cattons choose to see themselves as the hand that feeds the less fortunate, more entertaining, and least inconvenient. the cattons' inclusion of farleigh is not only reliant on how well farleigh performs, but also on their own pity and guilt.

all of this is somehow, painfully mirrored by some takes i've seen on farleigh. maybe this entire post is presumptuous, but you know what isn't presumptuous? saying that certain people hold farleigh to an incredibly odd standard. while the cattons never canonically said anything along the lines of "farleigh doesn't deserve our love and support," mfs on the internet have. the number of times people have referred to this character as greedy, lazy, petty, and malignant is so odd to me. i'm insane, i know. i just don't understand how people can hold farleigh to the backdrop of an english aristocratic family and so passionately say that he, of all characters, is the most detestable. or that he, of all characters, has no reason to behave in the way he does.

is farleigh greedy? greed is defined as a desire for more. farleigh has no desire to climb ranks, no desire to replace or surpass felix, no desire to hold any power over any family member. he is maintaining, upholding a standard that has been set for him throughout his life. is it kind or selfless of him to meddle in other people's affairs with the cattons? no. does he have a reason to be upset that non-relatives of the cattons are a threat to his inclusion in the first place? yes. is farleigh lazy? i don't even need to explain this one. no. if you don't consider oliver lazy, then i really don't want to hear anything. is farleigh petty? pettiness is defined as "an undue concern for trivial matters, especially in a small-minded or spiteful way." farleigh's meticulous attention to trivial matters isn't undue in any sense. a person of color and their meticulous attention to trivial matters is almost never undue. elspeth is a good example of petty. is farleigh malignant? there are a lot of definitions of malignant and i've seen people apply all of them, in some way, to farleigh. that's just wrong. archie madekwe once said, "i was interested in humanizing what, on paper, seemed like a mean character, a villain, or a bully. i don't think he's any of that. he's very self-serving, but i think he's really a heartbreaking character." case closed, this was for my own piece of mind. had to write this section because good lord.

in conclusion to this post that has gone tragically off the rails, i think the in-canon and viewer perspective of farleigh is, perhaps, a little racially motivated. sue me. they are all very centered on this idea that farleigh doesn't deserve inherent respect, support, and love. to remove farleigh's rational position within the cattons family would be akin to removing his right to familial love. genuinely, that's how i see it. the transaction nature of farleigh's actions is responsive. he sees felix as a social shield at oxbridge, he sees elspeth and james as the beholders of his perceived security, and he sees saltburn as a way to escape from his lack of privilege and his lack of stability in america. boom. bam. pow.

[luvtonique]

I'm just gonna up and say it.

I'm gonna be real. It's something too many of you need to hear.

And it's time someone told you.

If you are made aware of a violent and bloody war, where people are being slaughtered, killed, raped, tortured, having their children killed, having their homes and families destroyed, having their lives taken...

And you see it as an opportunity to "choose a side you support" and put their nation's flag on your profile in support of them, and condemn people who don't support the same side as you?

If you are actively looking for reasons to support your 'side,' making excuses on behalf of bloodshed, arguing about what's 'justified' or 'a result of provocation' to further advocate for bloodshed?

If you ask people which side they support and know deep down that you will be viciously angry if they say "Neither" "I want this violence to stop" or the opposite side of the one you support?

I'm sorry.

But you are a fucking monster.

I have to say this. I literally can't keep reading posts from people fighting over whether they support Israel or Palestine, or even Ukraine or Russia.

This isn't fucking Esports you actual psychopaths! This is war and people are fucking dying! If you are celebrating when you hear "Ukrainians kill 1000 Russian soldiers" or "Palestinians kill Israeli children" you are literally a fucking monster. You are celebrating death, you are celebrating bloodshed, how the fuck do you look at yourself in the mirror and see anything other than a psychopathic death-obsessed twisted individual staring back at you?

You are sick. End of story.

Holy fucking lord I can't believe you fucking monsters so regularly celebrate slaughter of people. These are people, these are lives, these are human beings being fucking killed and you're waving around a flag like you're cheering for a sports team what the

ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU

From the bottom of my heart I hope that you all stand up right now, walk to the mirror, stare into it, and ask yourself, truly, deeply, if this is the person you really want to be. Someone who argues with people about why one side or the other is the 'good' side in war. Someone who actively looks for reasons to forgive the horrible violence happening in our world that's ending thousands and thousands of lives.

This isn't even just for war. Violence in general.

Stop it. Stop thinking there's a good side. Stop thinking violence is justified. I don't care what you fucking think about "the other side" and how it's "okay to punch them," you're a fucking freak of nature looking for any reason you can to justify violence as long as the violence lines up with your personal political views. You are just a fucking sick person.

Someone had to say it. You had to hear it. And I know damn well it's gonna fall on quite a lot of deaf fucking ears because social media is just full of you violence-obsessed genocidal fuckwits.

I already know the replies I'm gonna see.

"But what about if the person being killed is a <label> or voted for <name>? It should be okay to advocate violence against them"

"Oh so it's okay if x kills y but not if y kills x?"

"Wow I can tell what side you chose <clown emoji>"

I know it. I can feel it. I can feel you Tumblrites seething from reading this, from being told the truth about how much of a psycho you are, and you're conjuring every bit of your smug energy, looking into the void of your mind to find the perfect end to a sentence starting with "Wow it's almost as if" so you can "Own me" instead of taking your hands off your keyboard, standing up, thinking for one second about who you are and what your morals are, and deciding to stop advocating violence in any form.

And to the select few who read this and go "Yeah I already don't advocate violence and I'm already a person who just wishes it would stop instead of taking an opportunity to attack people and feel justified in my attack" then you're fine. You're a good person. Go get yourself a nice piece of butter toast or like make some soup you've earned it.

[mageknight14]

I think an interesting thing about both TWEWY games after replaying them is that, when you look back at them, Neku isn’t really punished for his flaws in comparison to Rindo and when he does suffer, it’s mainly through external factors that’s tied to his development as a person. On paper, it's pretty clear that Rindo is punished more heavily for his flaws (or at least more severely near the climax): his bouts of insecurity and fear of accountability made him the perfect candidate to be Kubo's puppet, and as such, he relies heavily on the Replay to the point where he basically assists in creating an all-powerful noise that is beyond their ability to erase, all but guaranteeing Shibuya's doom sans Haz's interference. Neku’s flaw of being tactiturn isn't something constantly producing conflict for him throughout the game; he overcomes a significant portion of his flaw by week 1; and the rest of the punishment he receives mostly comes from the reapers being unfair dicks to him. Neku does struggle emotionally during week 2 and 3, but it has less to do with his flaws and more to do with him having legitimate reason to doubt whether or not he can trust Joshua and Hanekoma. Throughout the game, his doubts are articulated very well through narrative action, but these doubts aren't a result of his own isolation and delusions, you know?

The closest it gets to that point is where Neku heavily blames himself for not trusting Joshua more when he chooses to "sacrifice" himself for Neku’s sake, but that whole instance actually makes Neku more retroactively justified when he finds out the truth about Joshua’s true nature. Not to mention Joshua was giving him plenty of reasons NOT to trust him so mistrust wasn't really a product of Neku's loner demeanor; Joshua was legitimately gaslighting him throughout the entire second week.

But I actually don’t think that’s a flaw within the narrative. Quite the opposite, in fact. The thing to keep in mind about Neku was that he was essentially having his character arc in both directions. He was both having to learn to be a better person and directly confront his propensity to shut people out and refuse to rely on external help, while also trying to piece together who he even was before the Reaper's Game. He’s not given enough of a foundation to lay out who he was and what his deal is to the same degree as Rindo because for both Neku and the player, things start in medias res. He literally has no idea about who he even is as a person besides his name at that point of the story.

I don’t think Neku’s flaws not really affecting him is a problem with the narrative itself considering how people do call him out on his behavior and he does change immensely throughout the game. One could argue Neku becomes nicer a little too quickly given his few days with Shiki, or that in week 2 onwards, his distrusting personality isn't as prevalent; but on the other hand, Neku's growth from week 1 is challenged and put to good narrative use, because now he has to be willing to exercise patience and understanding with other people, especially since he has something worth fighting for that isn't just himself. W2 with Joshua is meant to teach Neku that not everyone is going to be sweet like Shiki, but regardless, you should at least make an attempt to understand such people, even if you end up never really liking them. Expand your world to include people, even if they think or act differently from you. By W3, Neku is now put in a position where he has to learn that caring about people isn't just about being nice to them or trying to understand them; it's also about being dependable enough to support others in need, which he develops into with his time with Beat. From that sense, OG TWEWY doesn't present Neku's flaws as a constant force he has to battle throughout the game, but flips this concept on its head and instead presents his arc as having to learn how to practice being an empathetic human being; something he shut himself from trying to do after the trauma of his best friend’s death.

Neku doesn’t really hate people like he claims that he does at the beginning. He actually loves people. And he fucking hates that because it just leads to him getting emotionally hurt. He doesn't want to get hurt more than he already has and that’s the reason he pushes people away because he's scared he'll end up caring about them and getting hurt again and it’s why he’s heartbroken after Rhyme’s erasure and when he finds out the truth about Joshua.

I think that's really interesting in itself. By the rules that the Reaper's Game is supposed to usually operate by, Neku won with flying colours in week one, but because of circumstances being what they were, Kitaniji had to cheat and keep players from getting their resurrection wish. So Shiki is whisked into reaper-jail as a new entry fee, and Neku is forced into yet another game, even though he should have qualified for another chance at life as he was. The development of his character from amnesiac misanthrope into someone who actually trusts another person is so stark that it feels like you're playing as a completely different guy... but then week 2 rolls around and Neku's partnered with Joshua, who very intentionally pushes his buttons ceaselessly and tests him further.

Rindo on the other hand, has his flaw presented as a constant force throughout the narrative, and presents his growth through it more organically. Everytime he does Replay, he’s essentially forced to take charge of his life and grows more confident and assured in his capabilities as a leader while also becoming more and more heavily reliant on his time-travel abilities to carry him throughout the journey, acting as a double-edged sword in that sense.

He also begins to grow out of his paranoia in regards to other people, having a habit of riding others' coattails and seeing them for their performance value first, personality second (Minamimoto, Beat, Neku when he was seeking him), especially if it's something he's heard about them (Neku the 'Legendary Player', Nagi having a 'bunch of pins') AKA, again, others' opinions.

He slowly gets better with his willingness to take accountability for his choices, but even in the final week, you still see that while he's made strides, he hasn't quite nailed the confidence just yet, and he even still relapses from time-to-time. Some people seem to look at this as a flaw of the game but I actually quite like this and I think it makes Rindo an interesting contrast to Neku as a protag.

His arc shows that you even if you are changing, change isn't like a switch; you don't just all of a sudden stop making mistakes tied to your flaw and it shows when he starts to delegate towards Beat and Neku’s judgement when they come by to start taking a load off of his back. He basically falls into a cycle of:

>improves

>falls into old habits

>improves

>does bullshit again

>improves

Until it culminates into Neku officially joining the team and unofficially taking Rindo’s role as the leader, telling him not to time-travel since it might cause more Dissonance only for Rindo to actually break this cycle and go against what Neku says in order to not fall for Susukichi’s trap.

It’s why his convo with Haz and his final choice is so impactful for his growth; with no outside influences, he has to make one of the hardest decisions of his life and he works his ass off towards making the second chance he got count.

Rindo isn’t the easiest protag to like as a person even in spite of how seemingly more well-adjusted he looks to be compared to Neku. He constantly fucks up, acts really passive-aggressive when confronted on his flaws, and said flaws don’t immediately jump out like Neku’s did. The last part might seem confusing but people tend to attach themselves more to a character when they let you know what they’re about upfront, which is what Neku did quite bluntly at the beginning of the game ("all the world needs is me.") And if you’re not reading into Rindo’s actions and his head, a lot of his characterization can fly over your own head.

It even plays into the themes of both games. Even when Neku got screwed over by the machinations of the game, he was at least able to make some semblance of a difference throughout each week such as taking down the respective Game Master. But with Rindo and the gang, almost every victory they earn gets taken away from them due to another factor out of their control.

"Oh, you took down Susukichi? Too bad, Shiba says fuck you, start the Game over. Oh, and Sho is gone too."

"You took down Motoi? Congrats but he was actually a victim of the same system that you’re all a part of and is basically a desperate man on the brink of despair, which Rindo is forced to acknowledge, especially after Motoi himself passes away the next day."

"Speaking of the next day, you’re starting to form a counterattack and actually fight back against the system but oops, Shiba is here yet again to say, fuck you, do it again. Oh, and Susukichi was just playing pretend the entire time."

Not even taking down Shiba himself is enough to give them a reprieve because Kubo shows up to immediately undercut that sense of relief by revealing himself as the true villain and having Rindo’s very own powers kill his friends. Ain’t that a bitch?

But I think that in itself makes Rindo an interesting protag, at least to me. He’s the epitome of an NPC who got stuck with the protag role that he wants absolutely nothing to do with in spite of the world itself telling him to get his shit together. Hanekoma even initially writes off him at first due to only having average Imagination. But, after everything he’s been through and his character development, he’s finally able to find his own footing in the world and stand tall as the leader of the Wicked Twisters, ultimately saving both his friends and the city.

The main point I’m getting at here is how both games play with each protag’s arc in a way that neatly contrast one another and show off their respective writing styles quite well. TWEWY as a duology is fascinating to dig through and I really appreciate how multi-layered the games are.

[littleweowmeow]

I just love people who shout about the villainous deeds of Zuko that he committed sometime before our era (as if this cancels his redemption arc and the fact that he is a hero in the end lol). And they do it with such pathos of great enlighteners, the only ones who see the truth while the "gray mass" is blinded by their love for the "colonizer". It is impossible to look at this without laughing. It's like smart thoughts were chasing people, but people were faster.

Like I always say that Zuko is a villain at the beginning of his journey and that's what makes his arc so impressive. He has the potential to become like Ozai or Azula and he is already on the way to it. But he stops and doesn't do the same thing. Although he may also thinked, namely, "well, if it hurt me, then I have the right to hurt others," and I do not claim that he has never resorted to such rhetoric. He fucking stopped and went in the exact opposite direction and damn it it's so important! It's as if we're talking about a character who turned away from an entire political system that brainwashed people and from his disgusting family, which drove him into a psychological trap for a long time and breaks the cycle of violence because he doesn't grow into an abuser. The plot itself holds him accountable both for his actions and for what was done by his ancestors. He wanders around the Earth Kingdom and feels all the damage done to the world by his country on his own skin, he cannot escape from his past and the past of his people, so despite the fact that he saves the villagers, they drive him away with horror and hatred. In the finale, Zuko literally becomes the Fire Lord, pledging to atone for the sins of his entire people over a hundred years of war. But come on. What if Zuko was the one who didn't want to continue the violence from the very beginning?

Agni Kai with Admiral Zhao. Zuko, in a position of power, can do whatever he wants with his opponent. An opponent who smiled when his face was burned, an opponent who reveled in power over him right before the duel, an opponent who would definitely not show mercy. And what does Zuko do? Shows mercy. Although he remembers exactly what Ozai did when Zuko himself ended up on the floor. He refuses to act like his main tyrant when he can do it but doesn't. It is also interesting that Zhao calls Zuko a coward for showing mercy and then, when the duel is over, hits him in the back. Yes, Zuko is definitely definitely an evil and incorrigible guy.

And now my favorite:

Anon : You understand that the Blue Spirit literally robbed people, the same refugees because in his opinion these people owe him? He's still a disgusting racist and colonizer!

I'm : I am aware of this and I do not shut myself off from the inconvenient truth. And in the subsequent series, he literally saves the village of such "peasants" from people who abuse power over peaceful and defenseless residents, although he was more than inclined not to do so. Oh yes, no one tells him what to do, there is no one around and Zuko is alone. He chooses what to do and his choice is to save the inhabitants of the enemy village from the oppressors. (A very villainous act of a real colonizer) Zuko does not get mad at the inhabitants when they drive him away because he did not save them in order to get laurels. He just walks away. Not taking revenge for ingratitude or anything else. (Very villainous, but okay).

Anon : ...

I'm : ...This is called personal growth.

Anon : * piss with boiling water *

I don't even need to do brain gymnastics to justify him. He changes himself and accepts responsibility for his actions, faces their consequences. Zuko doesn't make excuses for himself and the plot doesn't do the same for him. Unlike many, he has a real redemption arc. There is a group of fans in the fandom who justify the villain in every possible way and humiliate other characters so that they seem worse against the background of their "poor meow meow", these are those people who cannot stand criticism of their favorite and want their favorite not to face the consequences of his actions. Oh yes, this character does not have a redemption arc. I didn't mention their names, but you all know who I mean. Zuko stans doesn't need to babysit him and justify everything he does. Because Zuko accepts responsibility himself. Because Zuko is no longer a villain. Cope with it.

[bfpnola]

i dont even have the capacity right now to make as robust of a post as i would like but i really think we all need to be aware of these updates regarding the stop cop city movement taking place in atlanta, georgia, united states of america. bold added for emphasis in the quotes below:

According to the state of Georgia, buying $11.91 worth of glue can land you on a RICO indictment, if the glue is used to protest the police. That’s exactly what it says in yesterday’s indictment against 61 people who have allegedly been protesting Atlanta’s potential Cop City. If you don’t know what Cop City is, it’s a plan to spend at least $90 million and destroy over 300 acres of forest to build a sprawling training center with a mock urban neighborhood to practice police tactics, specifically tactics of repression. Now, sweeping and overreaching charges claim that “militant anarchists” are engaged in a criminal conspiracy to stop this repression training center from being built. But, the indictment proceeds to lay out actions like handing out fliers, giving people food, and even running a bail fund to help arrested protesters as grounds for this case. The social media activity of people involved is referenced, simple acts of free speech are cited, and even ideas like solidarity and mutual aid are discussed as problems which somehow add to the necessity for this indictment.

...

U.S. police killed more people than ever last year and have not changed or reformed since the murder of George Floyd, and the people in Atlanta organizing against Cop City are very much aware of this. Yet instead of acknowledging the simple fact that cops should not kill, and that their power should not be endlessly expanded while they murder without consequence, the state of Georgia is instead choosing to grossly overreach. They’re instead trying to tie the movement to Stop Cop City to George Floyd and say that efforts to limit police violence are criminal rather than justified. Regardless of whether or not activists and organizers fighting the massive police repression training center were in the streets in 2020, they are informed by the knowledge that sparked the biggest protest movement this country has ever seen: police murder without consequence, and expanding police power, means more violence, more killing, and more repression of movements to improve society. We must be clear that anyone who opposes police murders and the expansion of the police state is fighting on the side of justice. The details listed in the RICO indictment, like small Venmo charges, an individual signing their name as ACAB, and people attending a concert show that the state is very much on the other side, the side of ruthless oppression. But maybe even more clarifying is the broad, sweeping condemnation of basic tenants of human goodness. The state lists, “mutual aid, collectivism, social solidarity” as tenants of anarchism that run rampant in the movement to stop Cop City. The charges condemn, word for word, “the notion of social solidarity,” which, “relies heavily on the idea of human altruism.” In a tale as old as time, the indictment of these activists and organizers, of these people, these residents of Atlanta, is more an indictment of the state than of the movement opposed to the state’s interests. The state is revealing itself to be the real villain.

...

The state has given the people of Atlanta, and everyone opposed to the eradication of democracy, no choice but to fight tooth and nail. They have gone for the nuclear option, and in doing so have exposed themselves. They have revealed the fascist underbelly they typically try to keep hidden. They have exposed that when people exercise every democratic avenue available, and are on the verge of success, they will resort to anti-democratic tactics to crush dissent. Beyond just this RICO case, the city of Atlanta is challenging the 100,000+ signatures gathered by grassroots organizers and volunteers working their asses off. Mayor Andre Dickens and his team are using the exact same regressive signature checking and discounting strategy he formerly opposed now that he wants to ram Cop City through against popular opinion and against the democratic process. Between the Mayor, the police, and the state, what choice do we have but to fight. When the government declares itself opposed to the very ideas of solidarity, mutual aid, and care for one another they seek to crush resistance. But instead they spark it. People everywhere are seeing the illegitimate nature of the institutions that kill, repress, and incarcerate anyone struggling for a better world. People everywhere see that institutions opposed to collectively looking out for each other, which seek to ban compassion and care with the threat of violence, have no legitimacy and must be opposed. They cannot be upheld or sustained. In a world where we need each other more than ever we can’t abide a repressive state that would rather police us into an early grave than grant us the resources we need to survive. And although it won’t be easy to overturn the system of capitalism and the violent police state that works to uphold it, we’ve been given no choice. We will Stop Cop City in Atlanta, and we will stop every attempt to build a Cop City anywhere. Officials in other Georgia counties, Baltimore, Ohio, and elsewhere are currently proposing their own Cop Cities, mimicking what they see in Georgia and attempting to build up their capacity to suppress dissent rather than building up their capacities to help people survive and thrive. We will out organize and out mobilize and out build the oppressive systems and institutions that seek to turn this country and the planet into one large police state. We have to. Be careful, but be determined. And get organized. Solidarity.

For over seven years, the fund—a nonprofit fiscally sponsored by the Network for Strong Communities—has provided legal defense and bail support for Atlanta. For aiding #StopCopCity protesters, the three fund organizers were arrested on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. Of what did this “fraud” consist? The warrants cited standard nonprofit reimbursements such as COVID tests and forest clean-ups in their rationale for the arrests. In the words of Kamau Franklin, an organizer with the Atlanta-based collective Community Movement Builders: “This is an arrest which is meant to, again, criminalize the movement, chill dissent, stop organizing, and stop activism from happening to stop ‘cop city’.” In so much as the work is radical, it will be under attack. Organizing that challenges capitalism, White supremacy, policing and prisons, and imperialism always carries risk. In the case of the bail fund, for example, what can movements do in the face of state repression? Potentially by shining a light on how mutual aid funding strategies are under siege, a clearer picture may emerge of ways to protect this valuable activity. Multiple people have noted that the Atlanta arrests represent yet another novel authoritarian and growingly fascist tactic to intimidate grassroots organizing and also draws on a long tradition of state repression against the Black freedom struggle. If successful, it could have far-reaching impacts on the swell of bail funds, abortion funds, transgender healthcare funds, and immigrant justice funds that have grown in recent years.

...

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund arrests did not occur in a vacuum. There is a long history of state repression against radical, grassroots power-building efforts—and those efforts continue today. Historian Say Burgin and political scientist Jeanne Theoharis aptly point out that across 1960 Southern sit-ins, 1961 Freedom Riders, and 1964 Freedom Summer, bail funds were a critical organizing effort for crystallizing and sustaining solidarity action. Where politically motivated captivity for civil rights activists loomed, bail funds responded. Mutual aid funding for these bail efforts were not just tactical, they were cultural. Mutual aid fundraising, in these contexts, gave everyday people a way to invest and engage in the very struggles they supported and needed. Mutual aid would provide yet another cultural outlet for radical, anti-repressive intent. This opportunity to mobilize people in radical efforts clarifies a threat to stakeholders in White supremacist institutions.

...

There are also increasing examples of state actors co-opting both the language and practices of mutual aid. In an interview with mutual aid organizer and writer Dean Spade, the Chicago Community Bail Fund highlighted examples of sheriffs welcoming the arrival of bail funds to support unaffordable bonds, city council-supported ordinances to protect bail funds “while continuing to take the money of Black and Brown community members paying bond for their loved ones,” and the city of New York’s own philanthropically backed bail fund created in 2017. As members of the Chicago Community Bail Fund reflected on New York’s system: “In effect, New York was funding the arrest, prosecution, and release of people caught in its criminal legal system instead of not arresting or prosecuting them in the first place.”

[lunalit-river]

[Random Babbling] Love as a weakness for L

*EDITED for flow and grammar and random thoughts* *Me Babbling is really a quick keyboard smash*

Another new thought to my fic. Inspired by this meta on Reddit. (HIGHLY recommend this. Read this first)

Combine the Reddit meta with my own interpretation of L in my fic; having learned to love, he now understands deeply that this could become his weakness, his vulnerability.

He will no longer be the person who relies solely on logic and calculation, who resorts to any means necessary, who would even resort to cheating. He acknowledges that these traits are essential to being a good detective. However, he has come to the realization that he cannot embody them anymore. The person L.Lawliet, no longer embodies the traits of a good detective.

He seeks to find someone who will remain unaffected by love, whether due to incapacity or immunity. From this perspective, L's evolution (in stories where he learns to love) can be justified- his capacity to love and his willingness to seek a better successor. In this sense, he would not let Watari choose the successors anymore, as an ideal successor is not a child like him, but a child entirely different from him. Therefore, he had to select his own new successors, instead of letting Watari handle the matter.

He must tell the children that he is such a person(evil, cheating, lying monster) so that those who would feel disappointed could be filtered out. Only those who feel "L should be like this" can live up to the name of "L".

A is dead. B is dead. It is not because they are a failure. It is because they are too similar to L.

I think combining that analysis of L and my own interpretation of L, and the adjustments I made, the gentleness of L would be much more obvious in my story. And to contrast Light Yagami much more. L sees all kinds of pain and suffering, yet he still has that softness for the world and people. He doesn't care how others view him- the listless, quirky young man, but he continues to stands for his beliefs. There is a sense of "I am secured inside, and therefore, I could continue what I am doing, regardless of how people see me."

On the other hand, Light Yagami sees the partial world but has quite an aggressive and extreme state of mind, hidden under his perfect mask.

Love is not a savior for problems. Instead, it is precious and delicate, something that needs to be protected and defended. Love is strong, strengthening one's mind and making a person secure.

Yet love is a weakness in detective work.

[rpcburnbook]

Seven being an admin on Birds of a feather would make so much sense if you knew who they were. They have every reason to want to hide because people know not to trust Seven. // Oh haiii it's me Seven. I've had quite a few of these anonymous asks brought to me by friends but wasn't going to address them because I'm sure I'll just receive more hate and be attacked no matter how I respond. I'm just tiored though. My past behavior was deeply problematic and if you personally are still hurting from these actions I'm sorry. Recognizing the pattern to my destructive behavior was a big wake up call for me and I've since taken accountability by seeking professional help that also helps me to live in a daily amends where I don't repeat hurtful behaviors. It's been two+ years since all of it came to a head and while I respect your decision to have walked away for your mental health - I need the harassment to stop. I'm just trying to heal and be a better person. I'm not cliquey, untrustworthy or the wide variety of other damaging names you'd like to justify your bullying with and a comment like this only shows you don't actually know me. Not really. I'm not trying to hide anymore because I know who I am and I'm proud to be this person I've worked so hard to become. I tried a new alias just to start new but I haven't hidden my characters and I've embraced that you know my past. You were right to say my mental illness was not an excuse and at some point we all have to be responsible in taking accountability for that along with our actions. Which I have been doing and will gladly continue to keep doing.  The only involvement that I had with the creation of Birds was commissioning their skin. I wanted to see it succeed because the idea of balancing the scales between admin and member seemed really promising to me. I'm not adminning. I'm just tired of being bullied off sites and I wanted somewhere that I could just live out my writing days peacefully. I again want to acknowledge that I know my past behavior hurt a lot of people and I regret not treating my own issues waaaay before it hurt you. If I could go back and undo that hurt I would but I can't and so the only thing I can offer is living a life that doesn't repeat those mistakes. It seems like wherever I go you're not going to stop watching me, following me, reporting on me and I'm just not gonna run from it anymore. I've changed. You don't have to acknowledge that, forgive me or even trust me. I know I've burned my bridge and I'm not looking to reconcile that. I'm offering peace and closure though. I'll also say that I may seem reserved or 'cliquey' but that's because of how severely I was dragged in teablogs, the death threats that I received, the doxxing, the threats my family received and so much more. I'm just scared to trust this community and get in my head with that anxiety. I also don't want other sites to have to defend having me there so I just pull back and leave with the hope that I'll again get to write with some of the incredible writers I've met along the way someday. I'm very deeply flawed and wanting to improve that so I personally choose to stay away from teablogs. They may help some but they've severely hurt me. Some of it was deserved but it's been years now and at some point you're going to have to admit to yourself that you've now become the problem. 

While posting here I just also want to point out that I don't judge people based off rumors or teablogs and I tend to be more in the gaming community nowadays so I don't keep up with all the drama of who is who or what they've done... but like sexual assault/harassment is part of what drove me to losing my mind and in hearing that somebody I was writing with could be guilty of that I immediately stepped back. I will always personally choose to believe the victim first because nobody really believed me when I needed them too. Nobody actually listened to me when I said I was losing my mind as the aftermath. I'm also not blaming those who couldn't hear me because I think they tried but I didn't even know how to actually talk about any of it yet. When I did it just came out in all the wrong ways. I didn't have the words for what was happening mentally. Now that I do I just want to say that while you're dissecting my reactions to very triggering situations for me, I'm navigating them the best that I can and will stay standing with/advocating for the victim. There's so much that happens outside of this blog and I just wish that people could see that I still am very much human and very much trying to grow through my own issues. I'm not perfect and I will always fail your expectation when being held to an impossibly high standard of just... knowing better... about this information with other people. I stay in my lane, write where the muse takes me, and continue to safeguard my personal space to make sure I can recharge. I act on the information I've been given and that's all I've got. It's literally all that I can do. I know this is a long ass read lol sorry. I'm just not really looking to address this more than once here. My DMs are open though and I'm not hiding who I am. If I do open/staff a site you will know. I can't really hide my enthusiasm as a member lol so I promise you will see that enthusiasm ten fold if I ever staff a site again. I might shed this alias in the future but if I do it'll only come with highlighting my authentic self and at that point I'm just going to be going by my first name. It's been years, I've done the work, and I'm not hiding because who I am today is not someone I'm ashamed to be. If you choose not to write with me I'll understand and if you want to write then I'm down. 

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

OC interview

Thanks @mk-writes-stuff here!

Rules: answer the following questions in the POV of an OC!

How have I not done Robbie, Noelle, or Kelsey?? I'll do Robbie so he's next to Akash.

Are you named after anyone?

“Nope. [Pause] Wait, I actually don't know.... ... Hold on.” *pulls out his phone and immediately texts his mom "hey mutti did you know anyone named robert in alium and did you name me after him"*

When was the last time you cried?

“Inside Out 2. I think I'm justified.”

Do you have kids?

*bursts out laughing* “Dude, how old do ya think I AM?!”

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

“Wait, hold on, I have to think about this. [Pause] mmm... Nah, I think my humor is more random and silly. And a bit of sass.”

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

“Dude, do you think I'm paying that much attention?? I have no idea. Maybe like...three things about them. Like three traits. Hair, clothes, skin tone... Maybe glasses. Or another defining feature. I dunno, it just depends on the person. This is a weird question. Who thinks about these things?!”

What’s your eye colour?

“Brown but everyone says they're black. I think that's scientifically impossible, but Alii are odd creatures. Maybe my eyes are black! Who knows?!”

Scary movies or happy endings?

“... What? That doesn't make sense.” (he's thinking that these are not opposites and his brain short circuited)

Any special talents?

“Uh...well, I guess I'm, like, witty. I think I'm funny. I'm good in school if I can focus. Uh... I can act! Yeah that's cool. I'm awesome at the improv warmup games.”

Where were you born?

“Hold on.” *texts his mom "oh btw i also need to know where i was born like was it here or in alium"

Do you have any pets?

“I'm too irresponsible for a pet. Akash would have to take care of them.”

What sort of sports do you play?

“Hahahahaha, good one. Seriously, though, my depth perception and hand-eye coordination actually sucks. Please, for everyone's safety, don't put me in sports.”

How tall are you?

“Five-foot-six. Which is a perfectly acceptable yet kinda boring height to be. Been this tall since, like, fifth grade, though, so it is rather annoying. I was easily the tallest in the class, including my teacher, but then my body decided, 'y'know what? You're done!' and Akash is taller than me now; it sucks.”

What was your favourite subject in school?

“I like the robotics class a lot, but I gotta say theater. I have wayyy too much fun in that class! I'll never forget the time I had to wear a sweater vest for a duo performance I did where I played a reflection.”

What is your dream job?

“Ahhhh too many things to choose from! Robotics is super cool, but do I want to do that for the rest of my life?! I don't think so, as a career. What about theater?! Acting would be awesome. I'd like to have my own YouTube channel, too, and just make bank playing Fortnite. Man, this is hard.”

Other Interviews: Wade, Jazlyn, Gwen, Lexi, Carla, Carmen, Maddie, Liam, Ash, Rose, Akash

✨Robbie intro✨

Tagging @inkednotebook @museandquill @paeliae-occasionally @buffythevampirelover @cataclysmic-writer

+ ANYONE ELSE

Blanks below the cut

Are you named after anyone? When was the last time you cried? Do you have kids? Do you use sarcasm a lot? What’s the first thing you notice about people? What’s your eye colour? Scary movies or happy endings? Any special talents? Where were you born? Do you have any pets? What sort of sports do you play? How tall are you? What was your favourite subject in school? What is your dream job?

[ghostatas]

BENITO CHARACTER ANYLISIS THING BUT ITS NOT THAT GOOD JUST ALL MY THOUGHTS

FUCK SLEEPING I HAVE TOO MUCH ENERGY AMD THOUGHTS FOR THAT RN. ILL PROBABLY DO LUCIE NEXT IDK.

Can I just start this off by saying how good Quackity is at portraying a character and a storyline? We've seen it since dsmp, then qsmp now opq. He is just so good at it like, props to him.

Now into the juicy stuff. When we are first introduces to benito, he is kinda unlikeable. He is arrogant and cynical, thinks of himself as simply better than others. He says he will choose a soldier over a kid to save himself, and scolded the others for not being honest when they hadn't even answered yet (he was so wrong about himself). He held himself up to a standard and in very high regard.

He is constantly butting heads with Jeffrey, calling him pizza boy like he's demoting him in a way, comparing their statuses as he likes to point out he is a doctor all the time. He divides them. He is above them. Jeffrey is the lowest of the low, and he will never lower himself to that position. Yet at the end of the first episode, he doesn't want Jeffrey to die. He, despite what he says and how he justifies it and calls it research, wanted Amy (Emmi? I'll stick with Amy for now) to live. It was obvious the vials were a cure of some sort, and the papers described how it worked. He didn't need to experiment, but he wanted to save her regardless. He just didn't want to acknowledge it.

He starts to rely on the people around him. Its probably the first time he's done that. He most likely grew up in an unstable, dangerous position, which caused him to grow up into an ambitious, selfish person who didn't hesitate to step on others; or he would be the one stepped on. But now he is in a dangerous position again, however the people around him are actively trying to help eachother and supporting eachother. Benito is not used to this, and doesn't really know how to react, hence all the name calling and acting like his typical arrogant self.  He will, however, eventually think about saving their group, not just himself. He still very much distrusts others (Mikhail, Carla, though those two DEFINATLEY fukin deserved it, I'm totally still not mad about them), but he trusts the people in their circle. His people.

Enter episode 2. Benito wants mikhail DEAD, he will not trust a liar twice. But he's their only source of info, so he goes along reluctantly. Lucie dies.

Lucie dies trying to save Amy. He DESPISES Carla for trying to sabotage Amy. Not only because she tried to kill a kid, but that in turn also gave Lucie a harder time escaping. Benito says he helps Amy after that out of spite. I think it might be a part of it- a few hours won't change his entire personality- but only a part. He cares about Amy. Maybe it's because she's being forced to grow up in a world that wants to kill her all of a sudden. Maybe because she looks pitiful calling our for her dad even though she knows he's dead. Maybe it's because she reminds him of himself, ina way; just a massive ball of spite and anger and determination, all muddled up together. Who knows? What's definite though is that Lucie gave her life to protect this dumb, idiotic child, and letting the kid die would tarnish her legacy. (And isn't that a funny word, one we know Quackity likes).

Amy is Benitos priority. Whenever they're in danger, he's the first to remember her and immediately says "I'm taking her with me". Lets be real, i think we all agree that Carla was an ass for trying to kill her (we got attached to Amy too quickly it happens ik) and Benito was having none of her shit. Benito was trying to save all of them, in his own way. Because he cared, in his own fucked up spiteful way. He wants them safe, because he knows in this unknown world that suddenly got a lot more dangerous and scary, he has people that will care for and protect him and eachother.

When they all escape, benito feels like he has a purpose now. He wants to help people, or at least his family (cuz that's what they are now). He wants to properly learn medicine so he can better help those he cares about (and he cares so, so much). Maybe if he knew how to treat people better, Lucies leg would've been more healed and she couldvr run faster. Maybe they had an easier time escaping. But it's all in the past now, there's no changing that. He can only look to the future, no thinking of what ifs.

For Lucie. For Amy. For himself. For his family. (He'll continue to deny it though, cuz he's an ass. We love him for it.)

If other people want to share stuff or deny shit I say I'm all for it I just need these thoughts OUT, no matter how incoherent they are. Might do some art later too if I can be bothered :D