#But making this post might make it more obvious for more people-

[byhuenii]

YOU-ology

Pairing Bucky Barnes x Reader

Syonpsis Bucky has been trying to understand you—your habits, your silences, your smiles. You speak in gestures more than words, in shared glances and cups of coffee left just right.The problem? He doesn’t know what a “love language” is. It sounds like a literal dialect. So naturally, he puts on his reading glasses, makes a study binder, and asks Peter Parker to teach him Gen Z slang, but he knows one thing for sure: if loving you means learning everything—he’s ready to graduate with honors.

(Inspired by TXT 'Love Language')

Word Count 2.6k

Tags + Warning Soft misunderstanding / no angst, fluff overload, accidental confession via ASL, soft!bucky

— YOU-ology Researching you-ology, all about you, from A to Z

“I can’t read your mind,” he says, voice low. “But I want to.”

The sunlight hits just right in the Brooklyn apartment. You’re sitting on the windowsill, nursing your third cup of coffee, and Bucky’s leaning against the kitchen counter like the world isn’t tilting every time you look away from him.

You don’t speak right away. You’re used to silence. He’s learning that.

He watches as you stir your coffee absentmindedly. You always stir five times. Clockwise. Never more, never less.

He’s been keeping track of things like that.

Like how you always set out two mugs in the morning, even when he doesn’t sleep over. How you keep an extra blanket folded at the end of the couch even though he insists he doesn’t get cold. How you hand him a protein bar without asking if he’s eaten.

You don’t say much. But you do a lot.

And Bucky? Bucky’s trying to figure out if this—whatever this is—means what he hopes it does.

He’s never been great with feelings. Too many years pretending he didn’t have any. But with you, he wants to get it right.

“I think I might be speaking the wrong dialect of love,” he tells Peter Parker seriously. “Is there a Duolingo for romance?”

Bucky has fought in wars, survived brainwashing, outpaced death—and yet, nothing has confused him quite like you.

Well, you, and this strange thing Peter said over lunch the other day.

"Oh, love language? Yeah, it's like how people give and receive affection. You gotta know your partner's love language to really connect.”

Love language?

Bucky had blinked at Peter from behind his coffee, the words rattling around like marbles in a tin can. “There’s a language for that?”

Peter had shrugged like it was obvious. “Yeah, there are five. Physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, and gifts. You know… the usual.”

Bucky had nodded slowly, like he understood. He did not understand. He thought "acts of service" was a military term.

Back home, Bucky had pulled out his reading glasses (the ones Sam doesn’t know he owns) and Googled:

“What is love language.” “Love language translation.” “How to know if you’re good at love.”

Twenty tabs later, he had a headache, a notebook full of bullet points, and a tiny post-it with your name surrounded by little doodled hearts he definitely didn’t mean to draw.

STUDY NOTES:

☑ Quality time → you always wait for him after missions

☑ Acts of service → you make his tea how he likes it (2 sugar, no judgment)

☑ Physical touch → light shoulder pats, a knee against his under the table, casual-but-not-casual hand touches

☑ Gifts → brought him a vintage Captain America comic once. He almost cried.

☑ Words of affirmation → okay this one’s harder. You’re quiet. You show love, but don’t say it much. Still… he catches you looking. That means something.

He circles the last one twice.

—

One morning, Bucky shows up to your door with a homemade dictionary titled:

“You-ology: A Comprehensive Field Guide to Understanding You” (Vol. 1 — Beta Edition)

It’s leather-bound. Handwritten. Indexed.

There’s a doodle of you on page one that looks suspiciously like it was done by a man lying on his stomach with his feet up and his legs kicking.

You flip through it, trying not to grin. “You made me a… glossary?”

Bucky pushes his glasses up his nose. “I’ve been decoding your signals.”

“You’ve been—what?”

“You say things without saying them. And I figured maybe if I could learn your dialect, I could say things back.”

You’re stunned. Speechless. Warm all over.

“Bucky,” you say, “you’re literally learning a love language like it’s a spy code.”

He squints. “It’s not?”

Once Bucky learns that love languages aren’t actual dialects, he’s a little embarrassed. For five whole seconds.

Then he decides:

“Fine. Then I’ll try all of them. Just in case.”

And he does. With alarming dedication.

Words of Affirmation: You wake up to a note on your fridge:

“You’re the smartest person I know. Even smarter than Banner. (Don’t tell him.) - B”

And another on your coffee cup:

“You deserve the world. But I brought you coffee instead. I hope that’s okay.”

When you turn around, he’s leaning on the counter, flushed red. “Too much?”

Acts of Service: You offhandedly mention your sink is dripping.

The next day it’s fixed. And your drawer doesn’t stick anymore. And your laptop’s updated. And your favorite hoodie that you thought you lost? Folded on your bed.

He salutes you on his way out like it’s a secret mission. “All in a day’s work, ma’am.”

Quality Time: He clears a Saturday. No missions. No distractions.

You watch four movies, eat terrible microwave popcorn, and fall asleep on his shoulder.

He doesn’t move. Not for hours. His arm goes numb. He doesn’t care.

He tells Sam later: “Best damn day I’ve had in decades.”

Gifts: He leaves a flower on your desk. Not a rose. A tiny forget-me-not. The tag says:

“This reminded me of your laugh. Kind of small. Kind of magic.”

You keep it in a book. He notices. Doesn’t say a word. Smiles so hard his cheeks hurt.

Physical Touch: He used to flinch. Now? He leans in.

You touch his hair once and he forgets how to breathe. Next day, he wears it slightly messy. Hopes you’ll do it again.

One day, you reach for his hand. He holds it like it’s fragile. Like you’re holding him. His thumb rubs soft circles into your palm.

“Just… letting you know I’m here,” he murmurs.

You squeeze back. “I know.”

Peter Parker ends up being his unofficial relationship coach.

“Wait—what’s a ‘green flag?’” “Peter, what does ‘simp’ mean?” “Is it normal to dream about their smile for six nights in a row or is that brain damage?” “Be honest. Am I down bad?”

Peter: “...You’re down astronomical, sir.”

—

One rainy night, you both get stuck in the Tower’s media room during a storm.

Bucky fidgets with the sleeves of his hoodie. You notice he’s scribbled something in the corner of his You-ology notebook.

You tilt your head. “What’s that?”

He doesn’t look up. Just says, “It’s… new vocabulary.”

He passes you the notebook.

 He wants to understand you like he’s memorizing a secret language only the two of you speak.

He clears his throat. “I’ve been… trying to study you. Is that weird?”

Your brows raise slightly in amusement. “Study me?”

“Yeah,” he says, running a hand through his short hair. “Like—figure out what you’re saying when you’re not actually saying anything.”

You look at him now, eyes softening. “You’ve been reading my… ‘you-ology?’”

He laughs. It’s a quiet, rusty thing. Rare. But so warm when it happens.

“I guess I have,” he murmurs, stepping closer. “I know you like your coffee sweet but pretend you don’t. I know you always hum when you’re nervous, and you’ll never ask for help, but you’ll stay up until 2 a.m. helping me.”

His metal hand flexes. Nervous.

“And I know you look at me like I mean something… but I don’t know if I’m reading it right.”

Your voice is soft. “And what if you are?”

He stops.

His heart stops.

The sun hits your cheek just right, your smile so shy it breaks something open in him.

“I don’t talk much,” you add, “because I never really had to. Not with the right people. But I make sure they’re warm. That they eat. That they know I’m there, even when I can’t say it out loud.”

He swallows hard.

“Then I guess,” Bucky says slowly, stepping into your space, “I’ve been speaking your love language this whole time.”

You smile, fingers brushing the inside of his wrist. You trace the edge where skin meets metal. He shivers.

“And you?” you whisper. “What’s your language?”

He thinks. He’s never been asked that.

Maybe it’s not words. Maybe it’s quiet, safe mornings and the way he remembers your favorite color. Maybe it’s standing between you and the crowd even when there’s no danger. Maybe it’s showing up. Not running.

“I think,” he says, “it’s time. Sitting with you. Watching dumb movies. Letting you talk or not talk. Just… being.”

You nod. “Then you’ve been speaking mine too.”

His hand curls around yours.

Chapter 6: When I’m With You, Everything Makes Sense

Coffee = comfort

Silence = trust

Laughter = home

You = safe

You = mine? (still unsure. researching.)

Your throat tightens. “You big dork.”

He glances up, hopeful. “But… like, a lovable dork?”

You kiss his cheek. “Fluently lovable.”

Weeks later, you hand him a little leather journal.

On the front:

“Bucky-ese: A Guide to Loving You Back (YOU-ology)”

He flips it open.

Page One:

“Your love language is: All of them. But especially being seen. And I see you.”

He presses the book to his chest like it’s holy.

Then: “You wanna watch that stupid baking show and drink tea out of mismatched mugs like we’re 80?”

He grins. “That’s my favorite dialect.”

There’s no grand declaration. No fiery kiss.

Just soft, sacred quiet.

But that’s the thing about love languages. You don’t always need to hear them. Sometimes, you just feel them.

And Bucky?

He feels you.

—

Lately, he’s gotten really into studying TikToks and music videos you like. You walk in one night and he’s watching TXT’s “Love Language” choreo on repeat.

He’s squinting at the screen, rewinding and mimicking one particular moment — where the members make the “I Love You” sign in ASL, fingers shaped just right.

He sees you enter and lights up like a puppy who just figured out how to sit.

“Hey! I think I cracked it. That hand thing—like, this?” He does it—thumb, index, pinky up. “It’s like, modern slang for love, right? Like Gen Z emoji but with your hands?”

You pause mid-step.

Your heart thuds.

“Bucky… do you know what that actually means?”

He blinks. “Yeah! It’s like, ‘you’re cool’ or something? Peter said it’s used in dances a lot. You know, like ‘🤟 vibes only.’”

You stare at him. He’s still holding it up—so proud, so casual—like he didn’t just set fire to your entire nervous system.

“James.”

Your voice is soft. He stops.

You step forward slowly, take his hand in both of yours, and gently lower it.

“That sign isn’t slang,” you whisper, eyes searching his face. “It’s American Sign Language. It means ‘I love you.’ Literally. Not ‘cool.’ Not ‘vibes.’ Love.”

Silence.

His eyes go huge.

His mouth parts—then shuts. Then opens. Then shuts again. He is rebooting.

“…Oh.”

Then—quiet panic.

“…Oh.”

He scrubs a hand down his face. “Wait. Wait, I’ve been doing that for, like, three days. To you. While you were making dinner. On the couch. That one time in the elevator—”

You nod, very calm. “Yes. You told me you loved me 17 times. And yes, I counted.”

He is bright red. Apocalyptic red. He looks like he might spontaneously combust.

“I—I didn’t know—*I mean I do, I mean not like—*I mean obviously I do—” He’s flustered and fumbling, hands waving.

You grab them. Hold them gently. Steady.

“You really do?”

His voice is barely a breath. “Yeah.”

Your smile cracks through the tension like sunrise.

“Then say it again.”

You release one of his hands. He looks at you—heart on his sleeve, nerves frayed.

And slowly, deliberately, he lifts his hand again.

Thumb, index finger, pinky.

I love you.

And this time—he knows exactly what it means.

BONUS:LATER THAT NIGHT!!

He flops onto your couch face-down and groans into a pillow. “I confessed on accident like some kind of boyband backup dancer.”

You’re sitting next to him, stroking his hair. “It was perfect.”

He peeks up. “You sure?”

You grin. “Fluently perfect.”

He groans again—but he’s smiling.

—

“You’re my safe place, and I think I just proposed to you using the wrong hand sign, oh my god—can we rewind time or am I gonna die here on this rug?”

Bucky has a Plan™️.

After accidentally telling you “I love you” 17 times in ASL (without realizing it) and then on purpose (with realization), he’s decided he wants to learn a full phrase.

Something simple. Something sweet.

Something like:

“I’m happy with you.” Or maybe: “You’re my home.”

So he goes to Peter. Again.

Peter, to his eternal regret, pulls out a basic ASL learning app and walks Bucky through the signs.

Problem is, Bucky’s fingers don’t cooperate yet. His muscle memory is stubborn. His brain is full of you and short-circuiting.

What he meant to learn was:

“You make me feel safe.” (“YOU — MAKE — ME — FEEL — SAFE”)

What he accidentally signs, in a combination of nervousness and fumbled syntax, is:

“YOU — MAKE — ME — YOUR — WIFE.”

He doesn’t realize it.

You, who actually knows ASL, absolutely do.

It’s a quiet afternoon in your apartment. Rain against the window. Music low.

Bucky has that look again—the one where he’s clearly been practicing something all day and is about to do it nervously but dramatically.

You’re curled up on the couch when he stands in front of you, face serious, eyes way too shiny.

He clears his throat.

“Okay. I’ve been learning more. ASL. Because I wanna speak it the way you do. With your hands. With your heart.”

You melt. Instantly. He’s fidgeting, biting his bottom lip. He looks like a storm in a sweater.

Then he signs.

Slowly. Carefully.

“YOU — MAKE — ME — YOUR — WIFE.”

You freeze.

Your eyes go wide. Your heart? Gone. Brain? Empty.

Bucky is beaming.

“Did I get it right?”

You blink. “Um. Almost.”

“Yeah?” He looks so proud. “I practiced for, like, six hours. I wanted to say you make me feel… y’know, safe. Like… like I’m home.”

There is a pause.

Then you start laughing.

Not a mean laugh—a breathless, overwhelmed, you-are-so-stupidly-perfect-how-is-this-my-life laugh.

Bucky’s face crumples. “Wait. Did I say something weird?”

You can barely get the words out. “James Buchanan Barnes—you just proposed to me.”

He freezes.

Like—winter soldier frozen mid-mission freezes.

“…Wait. I what?”

You take his hands gently and show him.

“WIFE.” You do the correct sign. “SAFE.” You show the actual one. “Different hand shape.”

Bucky looks between your hands and his own like they’ve betrayed him.

His mouth opens. Closes. Opens again.

“…Did I really just—?”

You nod, biting your lip.

“…Oh god.”

He immediately flops to his knees, hands in his hair, face in his palms. He’s red everywhere.

“I didn’t mean to propose. I can’t propose like that—there was no ring, no speech, no flowers—you were in socks—”

You blink. “Would it have been better if I wasn’t in socks?”

“YES. I mean NO. I mean—GOD.”

He’s pacing now. “Do we take it back? Is it binding? Is this like vampire rules where once you say it it’s done—I didn’t even kneel on purpose—”

You walk up to him.

Cup his cheeks.

He’s still spiraling.

“…Was it weird? Was it bad? Was it too soon? Do you wanna break up with me and then date me again so I can do it right?”

You shake your head, smiling.

“Bucky.”

He stops.

You lean in, press your forehead to his.

Then you sign, clear as day:

YES.

He freezes.

“Wait. Yes what?”

You say it out loud this time. Soft. Steady.

“Yes. I’ll be your wife.”

His breath leaves him like someone knocked it out with a hug.

“…Even though I proposed by accident?”

You kiss his nose.

“Especially because of that.”

Bucky buys a ring the very next day.

He still does the ASL sign for “I love you” every time you leave the room. You never get used to it.

And one day, he signs perfectly:

YOU — ARE — MY — SAFE — PLACE.

You tear up.

And then, just to mess with him, you sign back:

MAKE — ME — YOUR — HUSBAND.

He drops his drink.

You both laugh so hard you forget the world.

(You've got mail!) well well well..WELL WELL WELLLLLLLL. this has been fermenting in my drafts so uh hereee. its very fluffy and cute and so much grandpa barnes code. i whole heartily believe hes such a cutie like you can not convince me otherwise. stream txt love language tho! i rmbered i had this while i was kinda making a txt series avengers masterlist so uhhhh yeah! ALSO I HAD NO CLUE THAT HUENING KAI WAS TRYNA LEARN MY YOU-OLOGY IM BLUSHINGGG

Tag List (For Mr. James Buchanan Barnes is open)

@bbsbrina @herejustforbuckybarnes @barnesandbouquets

[chibimui]

My 2cents on the KNH LN5 Epilogue Translation

Alright, here we go. I've written this post 10 different ways and at different periods throughout the year, but I think I just need to post it instead of letting it torment me in my drafts.

Every time I see people use "bad translation" as the reason why Japanese and Western fans have such a different interpretation of the LN5 epilogue I just... don't agree. Even when people try to provide evidence and their own alternative translations to prove that the scene is "sexier" in Japanese, I still don't think their examples are that different or even better than what the official English translation provided.

For me, I feel like English readers are just interpreting the text differently because dubcon just isn't as accepted by English readers than it is for Japanese readers.

(my thoughts continue under the cut if you wanna read my ramblings.)

Does the English translation have mistakes that make it confusing when JinMao kiss? YES. Absolutely! But honestly? It's not like the kisses are described in a particularly sexy way in Japanese. They're just as vague and nondescript. A Japanese reader is used to reading kiss scenes like this though--where you NEVER see the word kiss or are directly told that two people's lips are touching or even when their lips stop touching. You're just supposed to figure out from context. It's all just "breathes being exchanged" and "~something~ pressing against my lips" or "suddenly tasting a hint of cherry" or whatever.

English readers, however, are much more accustomed to direct descriptions and so when encountering kiss scenes described this vaguely I can see why many readers completely missed the kissing. The translation mistakes don't help, but I don't think the mistakes were actually big enough to completely misrepresent the moment.

Also, I feel like what most people actually have issue with in the epilogue is the violence. And the reality is that the violence is translated exactly as it is.

So it always seems a bit disingenuous when I see people say "The translation is bad. The scene is actually sexier in Japanese!" and then specifically only focus on translating the parts where they kiss, because I feel like non-Japanese readers take that and assume that the scene is less violent. But it's not.

Jinshi chokes Maomao. He does so without permission. When he wraps his fingers around her neck he is not doing so after having a carefully negotiated discussion--he does it out of the blue and on impulse. Also let me remind you--this is the image we are given for this scene.

Ya'll - the violence - the UNNEGOTIATED DUBIOUS CONSENT/FORCEFULNESS - IS THE SEXY AND KINKY PART. He chokes her and then kisses her. They argue, then Jinshi pushes Maomao down and kisses her again (cause she's being purposely obtuse with his feelings), and Maomao goes into autopilot and does god-knows-what with her mouth that results in... whatever happening to Jinshi and Maomao slipping away. (the Japanese word Hyuuga-sensei used to describe Jinshi's reaction at the end was a freaking onomatopoeia (ぴくっぴくっ). Seriously, don't go looking at the Japanese text for clarity because you will not find it).

Also for the second kiss, which morphs into the third, Maomao is monologuing the whole time about how to get out of it until her brothel instincts kick in. Would it have been sexier if it was more clear that they had been kissing the whole time? Sure! But even the Japanese text doesn't make this very obvious, which, again, is okay because Japanese readers are used to filling in extra context in a way English readers aren't so it doesn't matter, and b) regardless, Maomao is not enjoying the moment. She might not be having a panic attack, but my girl is not having a good time.

In the Japanese text all of this is presented in typical Japanese fashion with a side dose of Maomao's personal brand of detachment - this means using a lot of vague descriptors that quickly glosses over what is happening with the barest of details. The English didn't leave anything out on that front. It's not like we have entire missing paragraphs describing in detail what their make out was like - what you got in English was basically what you got in Japanese. Which is to say - not much.

Also, please remember this is a light novel. Light novels, in terms of writing level (not necessarily subject matter) are basically equivalent to YA novels in English. The language isn't meant to be super complex and the prose tends to more simplistic for quick easy reading. So honestly, there is no way this scene could ever be genuinely that sexy. The fact that people insist that this chapter is meant to be super hot genuinely confuses me because again, this is a light novel. They couldn't make the chapter genuinely sexy even if they wanted to!

Look. Translating a novel is hard ya'll. In many ways, much harder than other mediums like manga or TV shows where you have visuals to help provide more context. In novel translations all you have is the written word. You have no images to help readers picture what is meant to be portrayed in the original (and in this case, the visual we were given was not exactly a positive one). There is a much larger dilemma of how one can keep the stylized voice of the original author (pure translation) while also making the novel actually read well in English (localizing the text). You never want your translation to sound like it's a translation, and you also don't want to localize so much that you've basically re-written a whole new book from the ground up. And yet, a translator still needs to help an English reader envision the exact same thing a Japanese reader might be envisioning when at baseline, English literary writing and Japanese literary writing are completely different approaches to writing AND the tropes/cultural norms/backgrounds etc. are also wildly different.

How can you do that with a scene like this - where on a baseline level Japanese readers are going to be much more okay with what is happening, and they know the game. They know they're meant to fill in some (hundreds of) missing blanks. Whereas your average English reader (who I'm assuming is Western and disproportionately North American) would set up a scene like this very differently, and be expecting different rules in how to engage. The expectations are entirely different from one language to the next--and yes, this is true even if you understand both languages. I think and approach reading Japanese texts differently than I approach reading English ones because they're fundamentally different ways of writing.

So yes, unfortunately some of the "sexual tension" was lost in translation for the epilogue--I don't disagree with this sentiment. But I personally don't think the reason is "bad translation" as it is folks reading the scene differently because Japanese readers are used to reading scenes like this, are okay with what was presented at face value and are happy to fill in the blanks themselves, whereas English readers aren't. It's like trying to convince a modern day person that seeing someone's ankles is ~scandalous~. A translator can only do so much to bridge a gap that wide.

Overall personally, I give the KnH LN translations as a whole an 80/100. Perfectly passable leaning towards the better side. Not outstanding, but I think the translator captures Hyuuga-sensei's tone pretty well, and a Japanese fan and an English fan could easily talk about this series and come away with the same understanding of the characters, and the overall arching themes/plots of the novel without any issue.

As for this chapter specifically? 75/100. There are mistakes in crucial areas that definitely make the chapter slightly more confusing than it needs to be, but overall, it gets all the important stuff across.

[suspectmcky]

Okay theory time because I haven't seen anyone talking about this and I've been sitting on this one for a while, soooo.....

Long post ahead!

Deltarune Chapters 3&4 spoilers under the cut!

I've seen alot of people speculating around Susie's background since literally chapter 1, and ive always had my suspicions but I feel these most recent chapters really confirm them for me and I wanted to share my thoughts;

I think Susie is a foster child

In chapter 2 when told to call her parents for a sleepover, she doesn't, obviously this could mean many things but one of my interpretations was a lack of connection to her gaurdians, whoever they might be.

In chapter 3 we find she has moved frequently throughout her childhood, transferring schools over and over, until she finally ended up in hometown. This may be due to expulsion from her prior schools, making it harder for the system to keep her in one place,

I think this idea is fair to conclude both due to her behavior in school and these lines in chapter 1,

Now, something to also take into account is Susie's early relationship with Kris and her perception of Toriel.

Its noted by Noelle in The Newest Girl that at first, Kris is a primary target of Susie's bullying,

One thing i also notice about Susie's bullying is her weaponization of Kris' mother, almost highlighting their relationship in her jabs at them,

I think she's so obsessed with Kris' relationship because she is jealous, its obvious that Kris is adopted themself. She must wonder why they were picked and she wasn't. It must make her feel inferior in a way, especially since she views Toriel so positively,

It makes sense for Susie to lash out at her peers, especially twords Kris, the weird kid who got adopted by such a kind woman while she is tossed place to place by a system that doesnt care for her at all.

Especially since Foster kids are more likely to bully other foster children,

[porcelainivorysteell]

Anyways I came across a video on levi and petra and I decided I might as well make a post about them cause there's alot of misinformation on them and their dynamic.

I wanna touch on petra, her obvious admiration and dedication towards Levi, and the debate on whether or not it was more than that (on her end).

Before I continue, please note that I'm aware that Levi doesn't love anyone. This is mostly about petra and what she felt towards levi and why i 100% believe she did, in fact, love Levi .

So lot of people are spreading the idea that she loved oluo and her letter was apparently about oluo (don't know where yall got that ass pull from) so I'll start with the panel itself and we'll go from there.

Many people love spreading the idea that this never happened in the manga, and petras' father never brings up marriage to levi in the manga either, when he clearly does. This panel itself can't possibly be about oluo because petras father was being rather straight forward, he started of with thanking levi for taking good care of his daughter (sad considering what just happened ) and went on to state that she wrote in her letter that levi is counting on her skill and working directly under him ( that doesn't sound like oluo)

Then we have the controversial line itself, with petra's father saying that it's early to get her married up and she's still too young.

Now, do I think levi reciprocated her feelings? No He's most like now hearing this for the first time. Now, some people may still think that this is too vague, so I'll just point you to the petras song dedicated to Levi, which also subtly conveys her feelings for levi. (Mind you, if this were Mikasa's song to eren, we wouldn't have had any questions about her feelings😭)

https://youtu.be/v2CNxl9z87Q?si=EwZ_TnidGvBKtuSm - Original Japanese Version

https://youtu.be/hLBEGTMsZqM?si=ELN9xkMF-v_jho1K - English Cover

And again, before the chronically slow people come for my throat over this post, this isn't saying that Levi returned her feelings or loved her back. This is simply showing petras' side of this.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Just saw a post that kinda bothered me (and I might follow up with a link to the actual post later if more context is requested but I really don't wanna put anybody on blast so I'm gonna try to do without the link) but. The post itself was complaining about how many people don't know that E doesn't feminine your voice (entirely valid post to make!), and one reblog (not OP) on that post was pointing out somebody in the tags who'd said basically "oh so that's why voice training is a thing i'd never thought about it, thanks op" (paraphrasing to make it slightly less obvious which post I'm talking about because it's got a lot of notes) and the person who added the reblog was like, pretty aggressively like "do you think it's funny to be ignorant about trans women's lives?" and that was the first part that got to me because like. I didn't get that impression at all? I read those tags as a genuine "oh I didn't know that, thanks op!" and maybe it actually was ignorant and bad for that person to add that comment but it read exactly like the kind of thing I would have said and genuinely meant it and it's kinda exacerbating my anxiety about not understanding social cues and being misunderstood :') Then OP came in and made a much longer addition about this issue and a lot of it is entirely fair, some of it is important information with helpful links and stuff, the majority of it is solid but also the tone of a lot of it seems to be just. Really aggressive towards people who don't know things. And assuming malicious intentions in people saying they didn't know when they may have just been genuinely thanking OP for sharing that information and helping them learn something new. It was compared to cishet men being proudly ignorant about AFAB bodies but that wasn't the vibe I got in the slightest, it didn't sound like pride at all, am I just stupid? Shit like this makes me scared to say literally anything even if I only ever have the best of intentions because I clearly I don't know fucking anything about what's considered polite or rude or disrespectful.

Of course terms like TME were used and stuff and part of me wants to be mad too because like. They act as if every queer person has a moral obligation to know all the ins and outs of how transfem medical transition works, and idk maybe we do, but I wonder if these people also know all the ins and outs of how transmasc transitions work. Or if that standard only applies to us and not them.

I don't know. Transfems have the right to be angry especially when a lack of knowledge about these things can hurt people and it is good for all of us to educate ourselves. But the post felt so aggressive to people who didn't already know these things and it felt like such a slap in the face. I wasn't even really the target of this, like I've known the "E doesn't feminise your voice" thing for years, but it just. I don't know, like I said it's the kind of thing that makes me scared to even try talking to people because either something will actually be mean-spirited or wrong for somebody to say and I'll be completely oblivious to it and let people take advantage of me, or I'll be the one who says something with the best of intentions and is assumed to be mocking or being ignorance or dismissive of a serious matter or something like that.

(it also stings seeing posts like this shared by friends but I'm trying to get better at reassuring myself that one uncomfortable post doesn't outweigh the other ones that talk about supporting trans guys and also the support they've given me personally 1-on-1. In past asks I've mentioned how I've been scared to talk to my transfem friends about transandrophobia stuff and how I've been taking baby steps with talking about it a bit and learning to trust them and I am still making slow but steady progress there, it's way easier said than done though and at moments like this it can be hard for me to stand my ground and not regress into distrust again. but like I have a lot of trauma and trust issues so that's probably mostly just on me)

(ALSO I LOOKED THROUGH THE NOTES AND SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY WERE BEING JOKEY ABOUT IT. WHY DIDN'T YOU PUT ONE OF THEM ON BLAST INSTEAD OF THE PERSON JUST SAYING "OH I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THANKS" IN THE TAGS??? LIKE MAYBE I AM GENUINELY MISSING SOMETHING AND IT ACTUALLY WAS RUDE BUT I CAN'T TELL AND THAT'S PART OF WHAT TERRIFIES ME SO MUCH)

((ALSO ALSO I was about to end the ask there but I went onto the blog of the person who added those tags and just from looking through the description I think he's a cis guy. which would be included under the definition of TME that these posts are using but most of the people in the notes are just talking about transmascs (like OP didn't even specify transmascs this is just all the people in the reblogs. like come on :( why are there so many posts (including so many good and important ones that I completely agree with!) about transfeminism and transmisogyny that have people being constantly transandrophobic in the notes))

anyway this turned into a rant and got kinda off topic at the end I'm just. tired. and kinda scared. I barely get any attention on here aside from one fandom sideblog but I'm terrified that someday I'm gonna say something with the best of intentions and have people assume malice and send a hate campaign my way because I don't understand the nuances of social interaction and I guess being ""TME"" means you're no longer deserving of being given the benefit of the doubt :(

- 🐈‍⬛♠️

I don't expect people to know all the ins and outs of E based HRT and I've always taken the stance that education is better than hostility. Her being this hostile towards people when she herself at one point likely didn't know that E doesn't cause voice changes is sad.

Most people don't know the ins and outs of T based HRT, but you don't see trans guys getting all angry at people for not knowing about atrophy.

It's not something to get mad over.

[dark-lord-of-awesomeness]

For that personal theme post I feel like yours is something like. Recognition.

Ford doesn't recognize cat Stan is his brother, same as when Stan's an axolotl.

Princess Stan refuses to recognize that Ford is the dragon.

Special delivery Stans dont recognize that the other wants to make up as much as they do.

Doppelganger Ford recognizes his brother, but he shouldn't look like that still. He should have changed and grown and been Different, but he wasn't.

Vampire trap Stan doesn't face the fact that he's a vampire because if he does he has to recognize that he died.

Horse Stan- well. I'll have to get back to you on that, but I'm sure I can wrestle a meaning out of it somehow.

Might be having a blue curtains moment but those are my thoughts.

I can see where your going with it! I'm just glad you didn't say kidnapping, because that's also a common theme in a lot of my fics. Or denial.

You could say personhood is there for horse stan? Recognizing his worth as a person despite being horse shaped?

I'd say yours us like... softness? Gentleness maybe? I can't think of the word I want, but there's always an underling feeling of 'everything is terrible and awful and someone might die but here in this moment we're together and that still matters' if that makes sense?

Like with your axolotl fic Stan's alone and working on the portal but he still had his axolotl buddy and eventually his family grows and he's not alone, then he reunites with his God buddy and they have a moment together.

And in your shapeshifter series it goes from 'somethings wrong here but I'm still me and there's people relying on me and somehow this too will pass' to 'Stan's not himself anymore but he's still someone and that someone matters and can become Stan again' to 'Stan's not alone anymore he's got people to help him relearn himself and find new ways to bond now that they know his real self'.

Even your zombie one has a feeling of 'I'm going to die. But until that happens I'm alive, and I'm going to use that life to help my brother as much as I can.' Its awful and angsty but they still had time together and Ford still has Stan there to try and cure and go insane with.

Wolf Fords more obvious, as it's two bros having fun, but still. And cat stan has his own angst but it's still two brothers together, despite one being a cat.

Just. Not quite melancholy, not quite hope, but a third thing I don't have the words for. If that makes sense.

[wayfinderships]

[Looks around] Ok I don't think anyone is looking...

Ok so I just wanted to let out some design ideas I have for a C.yberpunk 2077 Panchi and some little facts I've thought up about them! The main thing being that their Design is heavily inspired by C.elty from D.urarara! Mainly just the Blue/Yellow/Black Helmet with cat ears and maybe they use a motorcycle like she does! The outfit itself would probably be quite different but I've yet to decide on the rest of the outfit

Speaking of the helmet, it's a pretty noticeable part of them! Mainly because they rarely take it off. Seeing them without their iconic helmet is a big sign of trust for them! It's not limited to romantic partners, it could also be for close friends as well! Though if you notice that a certain rockstar mentions how they've seen Panchi without the helmet...no you don't- Speaking of that rockstar! If you see Panchi wear a piece of jewelry that they got from that rockstar years ago and still wear it in present day...no you don't-

Oh and also they don't have a lot of cyberware on them, the most noticable (if not the only) piece of cyberware they have is one on their Left Eye. Though I've yet to figure out the details of it ^^

[oceanwithouthermoon]

yk when i think about it, especially when im watching the anime with people who havent read the manga, the reason a lot of people who only watch the anime and didnt read the manga misinterpreted saikis character so badly is definitely in part because of how damn fast paced the anime is 😭

like that little smile and eye shine frame is there for not even half a second in the anime, so its easier to miss it and assume that he really did only finish those workbooks to get coffee jelly ☠️ its much more clear if you get a good look at how he reacts here that hes just a silly little tsundere and a fucking liar

[mitigatedchaos]

The function of this passage of this post...

[ argumate ]

but it's not difficult to take many right wing beliefs at face value when people will repeatedly tell you them out loud to your face: - foreigners are evil / lesser people - women should know their place - there should be "consequences" for sex, especially out of marriage - authority must be respected - one religion is true and other religions are demonic - people that suffer deserve it etc. etc.

...is to (1) compress the perceived range of right-wing opinions down to one (unflattering) position for each issue...

[ argumate ]

like imagine you're opposing slavery for an extreme example: you can spend a lot of time trying to get inside the head of slaveowners and those who support them only to come away with the idea that these are bastards manipulating rubes, like I do think that ideas are important and it's good to know how people structure and frame their ideology, but it's not a left/right split in the way that you suggest and I think it's more useful to do a good job explaining your own ideas to present a positive vision for the future.

...and (2) imply that they are largely the result of "bastards manipulating rubes," and thus the "bastards" won't change position because they are cynically pursuing those positions for their own advantage, while the rubes won't change position because they are dumb.

Now, of course, this is a vibes-based objection, in some ways. He doesn't explicitly narrow it. He carefully feathers the post, to borrow an analogy from image editing software, softening the boundaries - as expected of someone who has spent years practicing arguing on the Internet. (This isn't a bad thing, per se.)

We could read it as more pan-ideological, but he later writes:

[ argumate ]

framing the appeal to empathy in terms like "Trump would not have been elected if his opponents just understood what the people wanted" is facile because if you oppose Trump's policies then enacting those same policies to prevent his election would achieve nothing, in fact it would normalise the very ideas you don't want to spread, and even if you did attempt to out-Trump Trump he might still win on charisma anyway.

He deleted the entire policy range between "what Trump is doing" and "what Democrats are doing," so if Democrats were to moderate in any way, this would be "just doing what Trump is doing."

The obvious reason to do this, to delete the entire middle of the policy range, is if you don't want Democrats to moderate. That is, to change.

As I joked:

[ mitigatedchaos ]

Advisor: "Comrade Governor, our polling shows that if we do not finish building the train line that we already promised everyone we would build, the Fascists will win the election." Comrade Governor: "No compromise with Fascism! We will not build the train, do you understand?"

There are things that Trump doesn't want to do (e.g. state-funded high-speed rail), that Democrats (ostensibly) want to do, that Democrats are doing a poor job at. California Democrats actually building the train line they promised is not "just doing what Trump wants."

You don't have to beat Trump by out-Trumping him.

Argumate brings up the intractability of conflicting interests...

[ argumate ]

secondly one "side" being better or worse at cognitive empathy makes little difference in practice to issues where interests are opposed: understanding where someone is coming from does not unlock a magic sequence of words that changes their mind (if anything it might reveal how difficult it is to shift their opinion).

However, I think my overall objection that the position is too rigid, to take one of my responses as an angle...

[ mitigatedchaos ]

You can often just choose to have different interests, by choosing to have a different conception of your interests, and make deals in order to alter the scope and intensity of the conflict. [...] Yes, a university maximizer is inherently in conflict with taxpayers, but the university president could just choose to be a university president instead of a university maximizer.

...is correct.

Though, considering your initial response, it was probably the wrong choice on my part to immediately jump to this more abstract and speculative reading. (It's a bit of a vibes-based argument going in both directions, anyway.)

Anyhow.

[ philippesaner ]

To summarize the dispute as "we're right-wingers and he should become a right-winger" is dumb as hell.

Consider the idea of a positive right to clean, potable water.

Clean drinking water doesn't just appear out of nowhere, and it isn't just a matter of removing something (like an oil rig) one time. Clean drinking water is the result of filtration systems, sewage processing, and management of nearby pollution. This, in turn, requires capital (for filters and wastewater treatment plants), labor (for deployment, operation, and maintenance), and governance (to identify and punish polluters, prevent looters from destroying the treatment plants, rebuild pipe networks, and so on). That, in turn, requires industrial plants to produce the filters and replacement parts, governance systems to enable the long-term capital investment in the production plants, punishing corruption to prevent the siphoning off of funds from filter production, and so on.

The simple demand to give everyone free, clean drinking water flows backwards to grant the moral authorization for an entire society, with factories, police, prisons, property, housing, and even enforced social norms.

Is this "right-wing," or is this just "logistics"?

I describe myself as currently right-leaning, in accordance with my balance of obligations and the existing coalitional makeup in the current moment, though I also don't think I have the same level of equalizing impulse, so I do think there is some genuine difference of opinion, and it isn't solely about logistics.

[ @argumate ]

I just don't think that's a good description of reality? like if "Democrats" were more empathic they would do this and that to win; Trump is one of the least empathic people alive and he won, he's constantly failing to understand the most basic things and being surprised by it and still winning, a severe lack of cognitive empathy or cognitive ability in general doesn't mean you can't win, he's the perfect example of that!

...what.

a better question might be how the entire Republican party could be hijacked by Trump, a washed up property investor / cable TV personality with no background in politics or particular knowledge or interest in the subject, why were they so incapable of recognising what the median voter wanted and giving it to them? billionaires richer than Trump, sons of ex-presidents, party operatives, each of them got completely blindsided by this incompetent!

Argumate, have you read the Dao Dejing?

[teh-nos]

okay, so the thing with wishing we could kudos every chapter of a fic.

i get it, we all want to hit the little like button more than once, it's the easiest way to express our approval/enjoyment/gratitude. i am going to address this to a generic 'you' (hello Y/N!) and assume that 'you' has either never posted fic to ao3 or hasn't posted both oneshots and multichapter works.

hits, kudos, comments, bookmarks. every marker of popularity (which many will interpret as quality) on ao3 is inadvertantly weighted in favour of works with more chapters. no, not longer necessarily, but with more chapters. go and sort a few fandoms by any of those stats and you'll probably be able to spot this trend in action right away.

oneshots are only at the top of a tag (by the default date sorting) once, and even if you re-read it you can only leave one kudos on it.

a multichapter can stay near the top of the update-sorted results for months if you time your chapter drops right, and of course every time someone comes back for the next chapter that's another hit, and being seen more it is more likely to end up with more kudos. you can still only leave one per work, though, which limits the effects to some extent. multichapter works still tend to overall outperform oneshots on stats, and the longer they are the more likely that becomes, but you'll still usually see a couple of oneshots on the first page if you sort that list by kudos.

and a lot of people (percentage unknown) do sort by kudos (or some other stat) and works at the top of 'by kudos' will thus attract more readers and more kudos. so there's an incentive to get as many kudos as you can on your fic, and if cutting it up into 250 chapters will help... well it already does, and that's had an effect whether writers will admit to dragging fics out a bit on purpose or not, but imagine if that effect were to become orders of magnitude more intense.

even if you personally prefer longer fics cut into fairly short chapters, you probably don't want to get your 150k epic in chapters of only a 100-300 words, do you? you don't want the oneshot writers to just give up when every page, no matter how they're sorted, is full of 5000-chapter works to the point that readers now riot when asked to read a whole 2000 words in one go. your fave author is now feeling insecure because chapter 12 didn't get as many kudos as the last one did.

and this is why ao3 will never let you leave kudos on every chapter. they're aware that the site already incentivises chaptering works and doing that more than you otherwise might. so you're just going to have to learn to put an emoji heart in the comment box.

[aysekira]

Agreed, and honestly i’m getting mad at myself because atp i even tried to cheapen my expectations in terms of drama to give me something, anything that could make me delude myself into thinking that she believes him to be an active participant or at the very least a wilful ignorant party (ie. After she went back somehow she heard he found a new ‘wife’ ala that matchmaking instance he pulled earlier or hell, after she went back she heard that he’s been promoted in terms of divinity rank) something, anything rather than the presumed ignorance is a sin! And it’s worth all of this and then some murder and literal spirit annihilation no matter the cost.

Because if that was to be the case, does it not clash with her newly developed ideology that she proudly said with her whole chest as: one should not be punished (bear the burnt of the karma) for things that are unbeknownst to them or was out of their control, that’s an unjust, unwarranted punishment.

I even went so far as to try and justify it as, ah maybe she’s being irrational because the pain of losing a kid is something else, a new realm entirely that transcends all logicality— but even my delusion fell short when it’s painfully obvious that nobody else in that whole universe saw said irrationality, no mentioned or allusions of ‘that’s justified because…’ no they take it as is& don’t get me started on the no matter the cost part of said vendetta because knowing that she’s been HRY with ‘power to the people’! mindset all along during that time with the lotus demon that kills people and her reactions were basically: oh that’s love, you just don’t understand— made me think is that what killing is for her? A gesture of love? Because that’d make her char more understandable as twisted as that sounds.

I think for me it’s the inconsistency of both of their char, post above laid out the inconsistencies from both mains so succinctly that i would just add said characters’ inconsistencies might not have bothered me this much had the freaking drama not built the whole damn premise around it- it’s like you building a house and trying to change the freaking foundations biweekly. In short, personal summary:

So, as far as Bai Jiusi is concerned, the reason Hua Ruyue tortured him and has tried to scheme and murder him repeatedly, even if it costs her own life, is because...he sealed her magic powers for a decade so she'd live as a mortal and peaced out leaving her a rich woman in a peaceful town.

And the man never even wonders either that perhaps there is more to the story about that decade or there isn't but that means she's a total psycho and maybe he should reevaluate his desire for xianxia white picket fence with her.

He's both incurious and stupid but perhaps that's not surprising seeing that he believes a woman who just orchestrated a decades long catfishing operation to murder him suddenly decided she is pouty but willing to give him a chance. Dude, this is not the first time, not even the second! Has the white hair leached all the brain out of your immortal skull?

He's all:

But as an inspirational slogan for himself to keep coming back to the stabbathon.

Meanwhile, Hua Ruyue is hunting him down through time and space and identities and is basically a combo of stalker and serial killer because (if we piece together trailers and simulation events and what not) after he peaced out, it turned out she was preggers which he did not know - kids this is your lesson to always wrap it! And then somehow the child died (or was killed), and also the townspeople accused her of being a witch and burned her at the stake and/or buried her alive. Oh, and she may have dialed up 1-800-Maso-God to pray for help but he did not pick up (presumably because he was being lightning fried in a TLTWTMOPB rip off.)

Okaaaaaaay.

That's a reason to dump your boyfriend (too much baggage!) but it's an insane reason to embark on a centuries long torture/murder spree to get him.

Dude did not kill her kid or burn her. He did not instigate villagers to do so. He (or any reasonable person) had no reason to believe anything bad would happen to her so you can't even claim negligence. He left her as a wealthy comfy mortal for like a decade which for gods is nothing but even for humans isn't exactly an eternity. Also, if she thought for three minutes, she'd know one of the reasons for sealing powers was so she'd not get in more trouble - she might think this is dumb/wrong but she cannot reasonably think that he did it to hurt her for kicks.

It's the equivalent of your husband is mad about your spending which can result in creditors coming after your house, puts away all the credit cards except for one with a reasonable limit and goes on a fishing trip with friends for a week. And in that week, crazies break into your house and chop off your arm because you couldn't give them your black amex. Like I see divorce in your future sure, but if you decide you need to murder him for it and keep going, most people are gonna think it unreasonable as hell.

I mean, he did not pick up the prayer phone but as two seconds with him make clear, he has no idea she called him or he'd know why she's mad. Trying to off someone because they put on a do not disturb on their phone during your "we were on a break" phase and so did not pick your "help I am getting mugged" call is, once again, break up territory, not murder time.

Conclusion: they are both insane.

[anghraine]

jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:

Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)

Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.

It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.

The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.

So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.

So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.

[clumsypuppy]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[wackywatchdotcom]

ive posted so much every single day on this blog for weeks now i feel weird having barely posted today . ive been busy but uhhh heres a random image i never posted from my tadc art folder?

[grimark]

current internet pet peeve is that people on tumblr

seem to be extremely bad at recognising the obvious tells of AI-generated aesthetic images of buildings/interior design/landscapes/craft projects that couldn't possibly exist, yet also

immediately jump to claiming AI for any image that seems a little fishy but in a way that's not necessarily AI generated, when a more plausible explanation might be "good old fashioned photoshop" or "surreal art piece" or perhaps even "a funny thing someone made as a joke."

[oceanwithouthermoon]

"doing all his talking in between panels"

a few examples of this (where he had to have spoken otherwise it doesnt make sense):

some im pretty sure he spoke in but not 100% confirmed:

(he most likely said something in the first part, otherwise idk why they would know he was lying about doing stuff, but then just walked away wordlessly in the second part ☠️ im not sure)

(its most likely that he said something but its also possible that they just noticed his shock and explained. but the others do explain their situation and dont give any indication of being asked like these two did, so im pretty sure he said something.)

(more direct indications of being asked a question, but he probably couldve asked with gestures or expressions, so not sure)