#I just noticed I kinda have a particular way of making characters stand

[bayfuzzball7050]

I DID IT I DID IT I FUCKING DID IT

I FINALLY FINISHED MY JJBA FAN CHARACTER & STAND RAAAHHHHH

Song the stand is named after:

his name is Hugo Fring and the stand’s name is 「Night Of Knights」 (or just NOK for short)

[milaisreading]

🌱🩷:Blue lock au where Y/n got invited to join the Blue Lock program as a player. She crossdresses as a boy and is friends with Reo and Nagi (they don't know she is a girl). I didn't change much abt Y/n's appearance, except that I made her around 5'10" tall and that she has a similar hairstyle to Chigiri's (the color is up to you, tho)

Warnings: None in particular. Reader uses she/her when narrating, otherwise the characters use he/him for Y/n. Requests are open for this AU.

⚽️Blue Lock belongs to Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura⚽️

'Blue Lock... so this will be my new escape...' (Y/n) gulped as she looked at the building in front of herself. She saw a lot of people, well known high school players enter the place, making her nervous over the whole idea. Sure, she was excited over finally leaving her home, her adoptive parents for a while, but she was just entering a bigger hell than she already left. Now, some might be confused what a girl was doing at Blue Lock? A project meant for the best football players in Japanese high schools. For male football players. Well, the question was pretty easy to answer, kinda. (Y/n) was adopted at a pretty young age into a somewhat well-off family, but the life she had wasn't the best. Her parents always wanted to have only boys, and while they had 2 biological sons, they didn't want to have a daughter.

'The only reason we adopted you was because I was indebted to your father.' She shuddered as she remembered her adopted father's words. (Y/n) knew they didn't want her, so she did her best to survive the household till she can be free. One of the ways was giving into her parents' demands on changing her personality and appearance to suit a stereotypical guy. (Y/n) didn't want that, at all, but for now she had to be someone she wasn't.

'At least they let me grow out my hair... and they allowed me to leave to this football camp.' She thought, touching a few strands of her (h/c) hair.

"Hey! Earth to (Y/n), are you alright?" She jumped, looking over at her teammates, Nagi and Reo. The two looked at her in worry for a moment, which caused her to smile and nod her head.

"I am fine! Don't worry... Just a little nervous." She thought as Reo grabbed her hand and pulled her into the building while Nagi followed after them.

"Don't be. All three of us are highly ranked football players, I am sure this thing will be a walk in the park for us." Reo laughed.

"Yeah, you worry too much." Nagi yawned as they got into the main hall where the other players were. (Y/n) recognized some from her previous matches, and some were unfamiliar.

'Oh... that Kira guy was invited here too? Figures, he was a good opponent back then...' She thought, recognizing the white haired boy. She then turned her attention to another guy standing next to Kira, they seemed pretty close.

'Who is he? I never saw him before...' (Y/n) thought while observing the blue-eyed boy.

'That sprout is cute tho.' She smiled, noticing the few strands of hair that were sticking out.

"Who are you looking at? Come on, we need to catch up to Reo." Nagi ground as he tugged on the pants of her uniform.

"H-huh? Nobody! Let's hurry up." She said, glancing a few more times at the unknown boy.

They soon reached Reo, only for him to scold the duo for getting lost.

"Congratulations, you unpolished lumps of talent." The trio froze for a moment and then looked at the stage, only to find a guy with bowl-cut black hair and glasses looking at all of them.

"Who is he?" (Y/n) muttered.

"Dunno." Nagi shrugged.

"What did he just call us?" Reo wondered.

"According to my personal judgment the 300 of you are the best strikers under 18. My name is Jinpachi Ego and I was hired to give Japan a World Cup victory." Everyone kept silent as (Y/n) stared at Ego in shock.

'World Cup victory? Japan can't qualify for semi-finals, what does he mean by victory?' She thought skeptically.

"I'll say this plainly. One thing is needed for Japanese soccer to become the best in the world: the birth of a revolutionary striker. From you 300 players gathered here today, I will forge the best striker in the world through a certain project."

Ego continued his speech, not giving anyone time to digest anything.

"What a bore." Nagi groaned, earning a kick to his leg by (Y/n).

"Shh." She warned, then looked back at Ego.

"All of them revolutionary strikers!! Their extraordinary egoism is the one thing Japan’s football lacks. You will not become the greatest strikers in the world, unless you have the ego to match. My purpose here, is to create such a player in Japan."

'Egoism? Shouldn't football be treated as a team sport? What good does it bring to act like that on the field?' (Y/n) raised her eyebrow, tuning out whatever Reo and Nagi were saying.

As Ego kept on talking, (Y/n) was getting lost in her thoughts.

'So we are basically training for our national team now... Getting out of one hellhole into another, but at least here... at least here I feel a little bit more like myself, as odd as it sounds. While I can't tell to anyone I am not a guy, at least I can play the sport that always saved me from going insane.' (Y/n) thought, looking back at the crowd as Ego finished his speech. (Y/n) listened as he talked about reaching the goal he set up for them, and if the players who were gathered had what it takes to become a striker. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the boy from before rush to a open door, and something struck her. She wasn't sure what it was, but something about him and the look he held in his eyes made her hypnotized, and she quickly ran after him.

'Who are you? And what's up with you?' She sprinted faster after him, ignoring Reo and Nagi's calls, both desperate to catch up with her.

"Huh? Thank you... so you said I am in Team X, Teieri-san?"  (Y/n) asked the woman, who smiled and nodded her head.

"Yes, that's just down the corridor. I will keep your phone and other items safe while you are at our facility." (Y/n) thanked the woman and started walking down the hallway, looking at all the rooms in curiosity.

'Probably the storages...' She thought.

'This place is like a prison, but I can welcome it. I wonder how I will keep myself hidden now... now that I have to share a room and everything with some dudes.' She cringed and sighed, then slowly walked into Team X's room. Inside were, as expected a bunch of other guys, some changing, some just talking.

'Oh brother....' She thought, looking to the side.

"Ah? You are our other teammate?" A guy with brownish hair asked.

"Y-yes! (L/n) (Y/n) is my name." She said in a little bit deeper voice.

"(Y/n)? Isn't that a girl's name?" Another guy asked while walking up to the duo.

"My parents have a thing for feminine names." She answered with the same lie she's been using for years.

"Wait... (Y/n)... (L/n) (Y/n)? Hakuho's eagle?"

"What?" (Y/n) she raised her eyebrow as a blonde approached them.

"You are known as a beast with those precise shots. I should have expected someone like you being here."

"Ah... thanks." (Y/n) answered, unsure what was going on at this point. By now a group has been formed around her and the guys started asking her different questions, until someone cleared his throat.

"Can you donkeys shut up?"

(Y/n) tensed up and looked at a pair of red eyes staring directly at her.

'Ahhh!! Scary!' She thought.

"Sorry, Barou." A few sighed out as the boy and (Y/n) had a stare down.

"Barou... I know you. You are that guy from Akudo Academy. We played against you at the quarterfinals." (Y/n) recalled, remembering the sheer force he used back then.

"So what about it?" The boy asked, obviously annoyed that she brought that up. Some of the teammates backed away, scared of a possible infight.

"Nothing-"

"I see you unpolished lumps have all found your room." The group looked at the monitor, only to find Ego staring down at them.

"Good, now it's time for the first elimination round."

"What?" (Y/n) and Barou asked at the same time.

"Every team in our 5 buildings is playing a game of tag, in a football way. You will be given a football, the person you hit with it will be it, and will chase someone else." Ego started explaining as a football fell from the ceiling, landing between Barou and (Y/n). The duo glanced at the item and then at each other.

"You are given 2 minutes. The person who stays it when the time runs out, is eliminated from Blue Lock..." The room fell into a tense silence.

"And, subsequently they are losing the opportunity to ever play for Japan."

"Haaa?!" Barou and (Y/n) yelled in shock.

"That's rediculous, how is a game of tag going to help here?" Barou wondered.

"Especially if you only give us 2 minutes."

"2 minutes is the most a player spends in the possession of the ball during a game. Now hurry up. On your sleeves you will see your current rankings, the one with the lowest is the 1st it."

(Y/n) quickly went to look at hers and scanned the tag.

"Currently the highest ranked one here is (L/n) (Y/n), at 252."

"How does this ranking even work?" She wondered to herself as the screen flashed the name of the first it. She looked at the boy and felt a little sad, he looked pretty meek.

"Donkey." Barou started, hitting (Y/n)'s head.

"Ow! What? And did you just call me a donkey?" She asked in disbelief.

"Don't get too distracted, can't have you eliminated this soon." Barou warned, confusing the girl a little.

"What? Why would you care?"

"Because I still need to prove to you that I am far better than you are."

The girl sweatdropped as the siren signaled the start, causing everyone to disparage across the room. She watched as the boy nervously looked around before his eyes fell on her.

'Shit.' She thought, dodging the ball that came flying to her.

"Huh? Why aren't you kicking back? You are the higher rank here." Barou questioned, annoyed at her move.

"What? The goal here is not to be it!" She watched as the ball bounced off the wall and back to the boy, who seemed more and more determined to get her instead of someone else.

'I can't be eliminated.... I don't want to go back home...' (Y/n) thought, glaring back at him.

[bestangelofall]

(inspired by that post you were talking about + other comments I’ve noticed around recently) I think it’s funny how people will conflate the word “abuse” with “assault” to make Jason look extra bad (he did not abuse Mia or Tim. He is not in an intimate relationship with them. He’s an enemy that attacked them, these are superhero comics you would not call Two Face Dick’s “abuser” be serious for one moment), but when it comes to situations where there is a relationship with an ingrained power imbalance (Bruce and his children for example), nobody knows how to use the word “abuse” anymore

People can't simply say they dislike a character because they don't vibe with them and that's it anymore. I just can't get behind that, personally. (But then again, for me, the worst sin a character can "committ" is being boring and uninteresting...)

Everything has to be dressed up in therapy speak and words that don't mean exactly what people think they mean... such as abuse, like you said, which would imply a power imbalance which does not exist between Jason and Mia or Jason and Tim (of course, though, if you want to write an *AU* where he gets into a relationship with either of those characters (or any other character), and abuses them due to the dynamic you're going to develop, I say go for it, you do you.)

Although *personally* I think it's kinda a bit out there to put Jason in the role of an abuser, tbh... he doesn't really have that kind of power over anyone (arguably he has over Bruce, but does he really? I think you could write him that way in fic and it would be reasonable depending on how you write it, because Bruce is (very) susceptible to some kinds of moralistic manipulation, but in canon, of course, we only see the opposite where the dynamic of Jason and Bruce is concerned (or Bruce any of the other "batkids").

The damage to fandom's perception of Jason simply because in a lot of his official art he looks like a forty year old is so bad (though I don't particularly think he looked that old in the GA issues in particular, from what I remember). (Or because he's ugly too, let's not forget that DC (well, actually, not exclusive to DC by any means) is always pushing the ugliness = evilness thing. And like, Jason is so ugly in a lot of his comics, including UTH).

And the damage that Teen Titans Vol 3 29 caused for the experience of being a Jason fan is... [redacted]

Also, let me take the opportunity to say that I don't think either of those situations were OOC for Jason. I mean, not that I've heard that many opinions that the GA issues were OOC for him, but I definitely have seen a lot of "Titans Tower was OOC, Jason would never." (that difference is, of course, due to the fact that a lot more people care about Tim Drake than about Mia Dearden, because both situations are quite similar).

*CANON* Titans Tower, as it happened (i.e. Jason beat Tim, skill issue, Tim was sassing Jason *while* being beaten) was not OOC.

Going back to the "abuse" thing, and also to the age-difference that people love to stretch - Jason was treating both Mia and Tim as equals when going after them like that... there wasn't in any way a vibe of "going after kids because they are easy" (and of course, if we analyse these events from the standpoint of Jason having been dead + catatonic for a long period, in the meta we could propose that that sort of idea would've never even crossed his mind).

*ALSO* you do you, and you write anything you want in fanfic. Believe me, I'm not a stickler to canon in the fanfic I read/write in most fandoms I'm in (and even if I were, the "you write whatever you want" still stands). And fandom is fandom, so of course a thing like Teen Titans Vol 3 29 would be explored to hell and back in fanfic. I just complain a lot about it because, mind you, I nowadays filter out Tim's character tag (unless I'm in the mood to maybe look for a Jaytim fic that I can read, since, on average, the Tim/Jason fics are better characterized than Tim & Jason ones), and I still get sooooo many fics where Jason is angsting about "the horrors he committed" there. I guess that made me bitter. But oh well... it is what it is.

Thank you for the ask! And sorry for derailing lol

[chefwhatnot]

A Too-Close Analysis of the Double Exposure Treatments from Duskmourn (1/2)

Happy Prerelease Weekend everyone! During the announcement stream for Duskmourn, Art Director Ovidio Cartagena said that one of the goals of the "Double Exposure" Alt-art treatments was to capture the inner psyches of Legendary Characters. And that immediately tickled my neurons, so I decided to write a bunch about the different Double Exposures and what exactly they suggest about the different characters! This post will feature all the characters from Duskmourn who appear in the Main Story articles, with the rest coming sometime tomorrow probably.

(EDIT: Part 2 is out now! You can find it here)

The Wandering Rescuer-

In profile over the Wanderer is one of Duskmourn’s demons, seeming to show similarities to the demon depicted on the card “Vile Mutilator”. This demon in particular, and presumably other Duskmourn demons, possess the ability to kill survivors’ glimmers. The Wanderer is the only character we see in the story who has a glimmer, potentially because her will and connection to her home plane are strong enough to manifest one before any other members of the party can. So, having that connection to her home, to the place she has sought after for so many years and finally had the chance to return to post-March of the Machines, taken away by a monster… yeah, I can see how the Wanderer might be afraid of that.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater-

Unlike the other double exposure treatments, Valgavoth is the upper layer of this double exposure: he is the nightmare. He blends seamlessly into the door behind him, which is carved with a simulacrum of his core form. He is the House, and the House is Valgavoth. There is no escape from his grasp, etc.

Tyvar, the Pummeler-

Tyvar looks forward, fists raised in a fighting pose. His position suggests fearlessness, but a Cellarspawn still taunts him over his shoulder. “Oh why’d he be afraid of some random Cellarspawn” well he’s not, he’s afraid of what it represents. I posit that this Cellarspawn is the one Tyvar copies when he puts himself and Zimone into House camouflage in the main story. That action, while clever, nearly led to both of them being subsumed into the essence of the House if not for Zimone’s fateshifter. It represents bad change, the possibility that Tyvar isn’t infallible, and the way his transmutation abilities feel uncomfortably similar to that of Phyrexian compleation. But still, Tyvar stands proud and stares forward, ready to courageously curtail whatever may come. Also, only noticed this a bit after originally writing this section, but compare Tyvar’s Double Exposure card to Kona’s. Notice anything? The colors are inverted. Tyvar, the subject of the card, is rendered in magenta, perhaps showing how he is to be feared.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares-

Kaito is surrounded by gaseous Cellarspawn who shy away from him, flinching back as though in pain. This, combined with his title as "Bane of Nightmares" suggests that there is something about Kaito that the House instinctively cowers from. Which, upon thinking things over, makes sense. He is a planeswalker: he has the ultimate trump card to ignore and escape the horrors of Duskmourn at any time. Plus, he is the only person we’ve seen who was actually able to pose a significant threat to Valgavoth, stabbing him through the chest at the climax of Episode 6. The ghastly cellarspawn are Valgavoth’s creations, and Kaito may be the only one they fear. (Kinda expect Kaito and Valgavoth to have an Ajani/Bolas or Elspeth/Norn relationship maybe.)

Niko, Light of Hope-

Niko is both layers of their double exposure, one calm and confident, the other in pain. Niko’s fears are all internal: fear of not measuring up to their ideals, fear of being forced to go along with whatever plans the powers that be have in store for them. Just as their magic creates reflections, the hand that skillfully balances five of their magic shards is reflected in agony on the "internal" layer. Yet, simultaneously, them being both layers of the double exposure seems to break the rules shown by the other cards. Extremely fitting for a master of their own destiny, wouldn’t you say?

EDIT: @greatdinn pointed out that, in the “internal” art, Niko’s eyes appear to be missing. It could be read as them squinting, but if that is the case it could suggest that Niko’s biggest fear is going blind and losing their skillful accuracy.

Marina Vendrell-

Kinda similar to Victor’s Double Exposure treatment, the wings of a moth is overlaid on top of the subject’s face. However, Victor’s moth is covered in eye patterns, while Marina’s has the shape of a skull on its wings. Victor sees Valgavoth as a source of knowledge or power, Marina knows he brings only death. Notice, too, the way that Victor stares forward, making himself a part of the moth, while Marina glances to the side, attempting to reject its existence. Marina’s only safety now is that of denial: accepting how her actions doomed the plane to an eternity of nightmares would undo her.

Nashi, Searcher in the Dark-

Hey remember that time Nashi was trapped in a cage by a group of wickerfolk who slowly picked off the other Nezumi he cane to Duskmourn with and turned them into wickerfolk? Remember how a similar thing happened when Nashi ran into Tezzeret during that one side story and Tezzeret killed a bunch of Nashi’s friends? Remember how Tezzeret ALSO killed Nashi’s birth parents and everyone else in his village? Remember how everyone who gets close to him meets a horrible fate, to the point that eventually Nashi must find it easier to push other people away, to remain isolated because the only reasonable explanation is that he must be somehow cursed to bring ruin to the people he loves? Yeah.

Winter, Misanthropic Guide-

Winter pinches his forehead, deep in thought. Layered over him is a dagger with a strange handle that morphs into the hand of a corpse. This blade is a reminder of how he betrayed and sacrificed his friend in the house in order to escape Duskmourn. The blade faces the same direction as him, as though primed to stab into someone’s back. The hand is either the hand of his friend, desiccated and decaying, and/or represents the agency he had in the betrayal. Despite his claims that anyone would do the same, it is ultimately a decision he made, a path he followed, and consequences that he is responsible for.

Zimone, All-Questioning-

Over Zimone's face is a book, cover detailed with gnashing teeth and pages flipping ominously in the wind. But, as the story points out, how can there be wind inside the house? Zimone does not know, but she wants to. She wants to know everything, regardless of how outwardly intimidating the container of that source of knowledge may be. The spine of the book makes it look like her eye is closed, which combined with the reflective lens gives her an appearance of sleeping reverie. Her desire for knowledge blinds her to other potential threats, which the House knows and uses to sow the lures of her destruction.

That's it for now! Stay tuned for when I release the rest :)

[morganbritton132]

ahhhh i just spent the last three days reading every post on the emtts tag and im in love with your whole little universe. i kept meaning to make a list of all of the little things but i kept getting distracted and forgetting so i only started at april 18th bc i NEED (subject to your willingness to expand/care act this particular part of your universe) to hear more about all of the little stories of steve getting arrested (particularly hopper arresting steve?? and them breaking into steves parents house?)

thanks for this amazing space!! you’ve made a universe that ive been thinking about constantly and that expands on the characters in such a beautiful mundane way, its very cool!!

ps i just read one of the follow ups in the death threat part where steve admits he doesn’t want to stop teaching bc dustin asks eddie about it and i think im about to cry holy shit

pps on the death threat part with diane oh god. like just steve having to figure it out in front of her and her explaining to him and him admitting to just not being ok i just

First, thank you so much! This is all so very nice of you to say and props for getting through everything in three days. It is quite a bit! It’s honestly amazing how much has been written in such a short amount of time. I’m only going to cover Steve getting ‘arrested’ and I’ll touch on Steve and Eddie’s breaking and entering at a later date.

Steve started having seizures a little after they closed the gate on the Upside Down for good or, well. They started noticing that he was having seizures after they closed the gate. It was heavily implied in the undertone of his doctor’s voice that these seizures were likely going on for a while and that they likely not going to stop anytime soon.

Steve took this news as well as anybody could.

Everybody was kinda waiting for him to have a breakdown over it, but it never happened because Steve was – well, he wasn’t fine. Obviously. But it is what it is, right? If the worst thing to come out of all this Upside Down stuff is that he’s a little dumber than he was before than how could he complain?

Max was learning how to walk again.

What Steve didn’t take well was his doctor telling him that he wasn’t allowed to drive anymore. In fact, he did not take that news at all. He completely ignored it, and he ignored the looks that Robin when give him when he drove himself to work, and he would say, “It’s not like I’m driving the kids around or anything. It’s just me.”

“And that’s supposed to make me worry less?”

“I pull over if I feel weird.”

He wasn’t actually driving all that much anyways. Robin got her permit and Eddie got the all-clear to drive again, so no one needed to rope Nancy into lecturing him about ‘the dangers.’ He didn’t need Dustin’s complaining or Eddie’s ‘hey, maybe you should listen to them’ or Joyce stopping him on his way out the door. And he didn’t need Hopper.

Steve was learning to accept that sometimes he needed help. He was doing better, but Steve practically lived alone despite the jokes people were making about him being at Eddie’s all the time, and he wasn’t going to bother someone just because he needed toilet paper.

Steve was sitting in his car outside of the Fair Mart, trying to remember why he needed to go there in the first place, when there was a knock on his window. He startled and blinked hard twice before looking over at the drivers’ side window. He frowned.

Hopper was standing there and he looked annoyed. He gestured for him to get out of the car and Steve frowned more, fumbling with his seatbelt before pushing the door open. For lack of anything else to do once he was out of the car, Steve said, “Hey, what’s up?”

Hopper frowned more like he was annoyed with Steve which was, in itself, was really annoying because Steve didn’t do anything. He was just here to buy… He was here to get… Wait. “Huh?”

Hopper sighed loudly and repeated himself. Slowly. “Give me. Your keys.”

Maybe it was Hopper’s tone or maybe there was some stock in what his doctor said mood swings, or maybe Steve was just tired of everybody treating him like a baby that needed taken care of and watched. Just when Hopper reached to take the keys out of his hand, Steve shoved him away.

Everything kinda blurred at the edges and the headache that’s been wedged in the corner of Steve’s jaw pulsed. He didn’t really take a breath until Hopper shoved him against the hood of his car.

Hopper cuffed metal around his wrists and said, “Good going, Harrington.”

Steve yanked on his arm and snapped back, “You’re not even a cop anymore. You can’t arrest me.”

“Call it a citizen’s arrest.”

Eddie laughed for four minutes of Steve’s five minute phone call at the police station. He laughed so hard that Steve knew that he was holding his side where the bites were the deepest because they were still tender, and Steve just rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up. Are you gonna get me?”

“Hm, yeah,” Eddie grinned through the phone. “Yeah. It’s a little ironic that the Prom K-“

Steve hung up the phone.

The ‘charges’ that Hopper (not a cop) threatened to ‘throw the book at him’ for were driving without a valid driver’s license. There was a part of Steve that knew that this was all just for show to teach him a lesson, but still argued that he had a valid license because no one took it away from him, and actually, “This is false imprisonment, right? Maybe I should call my family lawyer.”

It was even more annoying that Eddie – rolling into the building smelling like weed an hour later – agreed with Hopper. 

[kcrabb88]

The thing I've noticed recently about shipping QuinObi, a small Obi-Wan ship (we'll say a few rowboats tied together, but could be a sloop someday) in Star Wars fandom where there are monolith Obi-Wan ships is that, like ... there is a lot of kind of, I suppose unintentional shade thrown around? Not directed at me specifically (though I've had that too) but just in posts where fanon things are stated as fact. There are A LOT of posts that reference Quinlan and Obi-Wan having a thing as Padawans that go out of their way to say "oh but they weren't in love it was just sex" like Obi-Wan can't be in love with multiple people throughout his life and must wait to be in love with whoever the main love interest of the post is (could be any big ship I'm not like, calling out a particular one) or Obi-Wan can't care about someone deeply that he's having sex but not a romantic commitment with. Sure, FWB is a thing! It's often a part of the progression of any of my QuinObi fics. But the way posts like this are phrased is often like "oh well sure he slept with Quin as a Padawan but it was just cause he was there" kind of tone. I dunno, just the kind of fairly popular insistence that Obi-Wan likes Quinlan sure, but he isn't in LOVE with him and never was to make sure that it's CLEAR that Obi-Wan was only ever in love with whoever the other half of the ship is ... well, odd.

Like "Quinlan's so dumb am I right, but he's hot so Obi-Wan slept with him. Fun to be around but not a serious love interest" kind of vibes. There's a not small amount of fics that have Quinlan either pretending to be someone else while he and Obi-Wan sleep together, or being in a threesome with Obi-Wan and someone else for the purpose of getting the other two together and I'm like?? Why is this such a trend? No one has to ship my ship by any means, but using Quinlan like that just ... kinda sucks. Quinlan is a great character and he and Obi-Wan are really close. It's not wild to think they could fall in love. I've written situations where they're in love, then they're with other people and come back together later, like, it's possible to write multiple relationships like that.

I dunno, all of it makes me feel weird about how fandom generally views Quinlan. Obi-Wan could just as easily be with Quinlan as he could with any other ship and yet Quinlan is treated like this stepping stone or side piece without respect sometimes. There's gotta be a better way to involve past character relationships in your fanwork than to low-key imply that another character is just a stand-in for the eventual Big Love.

[misc-obeyme]

Re: the earlygame beef between Mammon and MC. I always find it so funny whenever I see the (abundantly common, entirely typical) "Mammon has been there for us since day one! Our first man! Mammon is the only brother who never threatened to kill us or try to hurt us!" posts. Because it's just...so incredibly obvious how wrong they are? I have to assume that the people making those posts either literally never played the actual game at all, or they played with their eyes closed. Or perhaps they don't know how to read.

Because the game was literally shoving the fact that Mammon hates your guts and wishes you were dead in your face for like 2 or 3 Lessons straight. On day one when he first meets you? He can't stand your ass. He wants you gone. All the way up until you make a pact with him, and even for a little while AFTER making a pact, Mammon actively despises you and tells you so himself. And then multiple other characters (including Diavolo, Barbatos, and Lucifer) ALSO come along and give you extremely obvious exposition like "wow, it's Mammon's job to watch over you and protect you in this hostile new environment? And he abandoned you the first chance he got, leaving you to the wolves? Haha, classic Mammon. Of course he abandoned you to get eaten by other demons, what a goofy guy"

And YOU LITERALLY ARE ALMOST EATEN BY DEMONS. BECAUSE MAMMON DIDN'T GAF ABOUT DOING HIS JOB AND DITCHED YOUR ASS. The manga goes into more detail about it too, showing that you literally came to harm because Mammon abandoned you when he was supposed to keep you safe. And later on when you call Mammon out, he threatens to kill you and eat you. To your face. He literally does that.

Idk, it's just crazy to me how badly people can mischaracterize these things. I know that Mammon is the fandom baby or w/e but Mammon fans in particular love to rewrite history and infantilize him as this sweet innocent woobie who never did anything wrong. "Mammon is the only brother who never wanted to kill us!" you're literally lying, lol. He threatens to kill you and eat you to your face. "Mammon loved us from the very beginning!" No he didn't, he repeatedly told you that he hated you lmao.

This happens with other characters too, yeah. People include Beel as part of the "never tried to hurt us" group even though he absolutely DID try to hurt us when Mammon physically force-fed us his custard (another thing Mammon did to deliberately harm us) Also Satan gets thrown in the "one of the bad ones who tried to hurt us" camp, despite never actually doing anything to us. He gets angry and goes on an edgy little rant, but if you actually know how to read you'll notice that he doesn't ever actually DO anything to harm us or try to kill us. He never makes any kind of move to actually harm us, but everyone assumes he does? Wild. But Mammon gets this the worst for some reason.

I could go into a whole entire separate spiel about how the Mammon infantilization also applies to the "everyone bullies him for no reason even though he's literally an innocent pure baby who never did anything wrong ever" but I'm just gonna double the length of this already long rant. What's crazy is I don't even dislike Mammon, he's cool. But oh my god some Mammon fans can be absolutely fucking insufferable 😭

Woobie 😭 I'm sorry, I know there's like paragraphs happening here but that word sent me lol.

I'm gonna level with you here, anon. This kinda thing just does not bother me in the slightest. I mean it doesn't matter to me if people mischaracterize or rewrite the story to fit their preferences. If it makes them happy, then they can go ahead and live their truth.

I think I probably land somewhere in between on the Mammon characterization scale, mostly because I like when he's a lil pathetic~

Anyway, if you want me to get into the nitty gritty of how I characterize Mammon, I can certainly do that. But I kinda get the vibe that you just needed to rant a bit. And that's okay, my ask box is always open for ranting or rambling or anything else!

[musical-theater-mania]

Rating performances of "Stars"

I am deeply particular about Javert's character and deeply unsatisfied with many of the performances of "Stars" that are available on Spotify! So here are my thoughts:

Terrence Mann (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - 9/10. Listen. It's pretty good. I feel like he really gets into it at all the right times! That being said, I cannot STAND the lyric "Falling from grace, falling from grace". The first "grace" should be "god"!

Philip Quast (Live at Albert Hall) - 7/10. I cannot get past the "there" at the beginning. It's the first word and I hated it. You already turned me against yourself. I also feel like he can be a little breathy when he changes notes (both times he sings "You fall in flame" are good examples). Other than that though his tone is great! He gets a great dynamic range.

Roger Allam (Original London Cast Recording) - 3/10. Holy fuck I hated this one. I HATE what the orchestra is doing (especially in the beginning). Like what is that weird staccato pattern??? It is too early of a production of this show to feel like it needs to be doing something cute to stand out. Also I feel like at times he's trying to do cutesy little runs? And again it just doesn't feel like Javert. He's too serious for those frills. Also the ending pissed me off so much. Why are you petering out? You are supposed to be strong and vivacious! Can you not hit those notes???? What's going on with the lyrics????

Russell Crowe (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) - 4/10. Ok. I don't love what the orchestra is doing at the beginning, that part is too iconic. Also, his voice is just so gentle. I do not believe for a second that he is hunting down a fugitive of the law! Where is the fire! Where is the severity! Where is the last note! Seriously why did they remove the last note?????

Michael Ball (2020 Live Recording) - 6/10. Something about his tone feels kinda mellow? Like idk it just isn't as rich and powerful as I'd like this role to be. (It kinda feels like an overly edited Disney recording, which is funny bc it's LIVE.) He also constantly sounds like he's behind the beat. And I'm sure this is an intentional choice, but I don't like it! Again, Javert is SO regimented and severe that I feel like he would be aggressively on beat (which would then make "Javert's Suicide" even MORE powerful when he stops adhering as strictly to the beat)! I liked the growl on "never rest" though, that ate.

Earl Carpenter (2010 London Cast Recording) - 8/10. I don't love what the orchestra is doing in the beginning? Idk it just really throws me off. (Although they do slay the end!) Also sometimes it feels really rushed. They play too fast + loose with tempo for me. Javert is an EXTREMELY regimented man!

Philip Quast (Manchester Cast Recording) - 8/10. I liked this one MUCH better than the other one he did. Still don't love the "there" but it isn't quite as off-putting somehow. He also has way less of the breathiness! (Fun little aside: his vibrato is tighter than most of the other people on this list, which you can really notice in "lord, let me find him")

Bryn Terfel (Renée & Bryn) Under the Stars - 9.5/10. They really let the Welsh National Orchestra go wild on this one and you know what I liked it! It had the same vibe to me as when a singer does an opt up (it was selective spots that showed off their abilities without changing the nature of the piece or taking away from it). The tempo was a little faster than I would have chosen but I feel like it worked for the character/song. Bryn is also an incredible singer! His voice is stunning and so wonderfully expressive. He also has that wonderful bassy quality that is SO important to me in this role.

Jason Manford (A Different Stage) - 7.5/10. He sounds a little young to me? Like he's missing some of the grit/bassy quality that I want in this role but something about the performance feels soothing? Like it's easy to listen to idk. It does lose points because it is missing some of the fire and passion. He lets a little of it out at the end so I know that he has it in the tank when he wants to use it

[towriteloveontheirarms]

"A trip down memory lane"- The kissing booth AU Chapter three

part 4 of 4 || series masterlist || previous part

pairing: modern!Aegon II Targaryen x Reader, side modern!Aemond Targaryen x modern!Floris Baratheon

summary: After beginning your secret relationship on a high note, it can only get worse. Or can it?

word count: 3.9k

warnings: kissing/making out, verbal and physical fighting, love confession, angst with a happy ending

Taglist: @fan-goddess

(If you want to be tagged in this fic or any specif character taglists, send me an ask)

“We´re supposed to figure out how not to get caught.” You try to stay focused on the discussion. 

“No one thinks I have a girlfriend. It´s cool.” His tone is laid back. Almost irritatingly so. 

“Yeah, because gods forbid anyone thinks you have a girlfriend.” You shoot back sarcastically. 

“I have my reputation to think of.” He defensively holds up his hands. 

“Really?” A huffed laugh escapes you, despite wanting to stay stern.

In the end you end up making out again any way. He is just too good to resist. Your lips move against each other passionately and your hips grind down against his. Small moans and groans escape both of you, but just as he is about to pull your shirt over your head, someone knocks at the door. Loudly and unrelenting. You trip as you try to get off the mattress, tripping over the rug floor and rolling underneath the bed to hide, just a millisecond, before Alicent comes into the room. You see her shoes dangerously close the bed multiple times as she walks around. You clamp a hand over your mouth and squeeze your eyes shut. The suspense is killing you. Eventually she stands still only a couple centimeters from the two of you. None the wiser to your existence 

“Oh, don´t forget were going out on Saturday to celebrate your big news.” Aegon gives a begrudging sound of approval prompting his mother to remind him to be nice to you. “She has a crush on you.” 

“Oh really? I didn´t know.” The smug laughter in his voice makes you roll your eyes in order to not give up your position. 

“Yeah, you boys never do.” Alicent replies in a calm tone and finally leaves. 

The moment the door closes behind her you are up on the bed. Jokingly hitting Aegon´s arm as the two of you share a laugh. If only she knew. 

You spend every remaining free minute together after that. Wanting to make as many happy memories as possible before he went off to uni. He takes you out on dates to the cinema, the beach, the arcade and on long drives on the motorcycle with no particular destination in mind. You also visit that spot outside the city that he had shown you multiple times. It was the only safe spot you knew off. More than once you went out only to encounter one of your school mates or Aemond or one of your parents, who you were pretty sure were onto you already anyway. Ending up in having to hide behind corners or putting an empty popcorn bucket over your head multiple times. Your favorite was when you made your way back from the beach when you saw the guy that grabbed you at the beginning of the school year. Aegon noticed him before you and so he hastily put the motorcycle helmet over you and kissed you as passionately as he normally only ever did when you two were alone. Naturally it ended up with sneaking you into his room for some more private fun afterwards.

One afternoon when you spend some time with Aemond at the arcade, he suddenly turns to you with a serious look pulling down his features. 

“What´s going on with you? You´ve been kinda weird these past weeks.” 

“What do you mean weird?” You feign ignorance to his accusation. 

“You tell me. Is it because you have no date for prom still? Cause if it is you can go with Floris and me. I bet she would love having you with us.” He threads his eyebrows together, trying to get a read on you. 

Seeing this as good as any situation to finally confess what had been going on. You open your mouth to say something, struggling with the words, just as Floris joins the two of you. Leaning into Aemond´s side, they share a greeting kiss. 

“Hey, it´s okay if we all go to prom together, right?” He asks her. 

“Yeah, sure. The more the merrier, you know?” The smile she gives when she looks at you is so innocent you can´t help yourself. 

Taking a deep breath, you close your mouth again. 

“Yeah, it was about that. Thank you. That´s really nice of you.” You thank her quietly, deciding then that it just wasn´t the moment. 

Still, it wears you down for the rest of the day. Eating away at you, that you still couldn´t tell your best friend about something that had initially made you so happy. 

Days later you sit in the Targaryen´s garage. A small radio plays quiet music and you sit to the side, watching Aegon working on his motorcycle. 

“Can you give me the toolbox on top of the shelf, please?” He asks as calm as you have barely ever seen him. 

“Yeah, sure.” You go to get what he has asked for, but the metal box slips from your hand and comes down on your face. 

It leaves a pretty nasty cut, which Aegon is quick to clean out. Just as he is about to grab a band aid though Aemond bursts through the door. The two of you whirl around, alarmed by the sound of the door. The younger sibling takes a closer look at your face and immediately starts to question if his brother was the cause for the damage. Saying things like he wouldn´t put it past him. His accusations work Aegon up quickly. The only thing that can prevent the situation from escalating then and there is you putting yourself in between them. 

“Aegon, look at me! Look at me!” You call the older one back to reality. 

Waiting until he physically relaxes, before pulling Aemond away. It is a shock that takes a while to stomach. However, once you do it gets just so much worse than you ever thought it could.

Aemond is onto you from that day on. Yet somehow, Aegon and you had managed to lure yourself into a false sense of security. 

It is a day much like when you had hurt yourself. Aegon and you sat together closely, feeling safe in being the only two people in the house, talking about how best to tell Aemond about the two of you. Aegon leans in to kiss you. The door to the large living room space swings open and there your best friend stands before you. Catching you in an unmistakable situation.

He runs away before you get the chance to explain yourslelf and so you run after him. Of course, Aegon runs after you, competely dismissing your plea for him to stay inside.

“Aemond, wait. You weren´t supposed to find out that way.” You asseverate over and over again. Feeling the sting of tears on your lower lash line.  

”From what it seems like I wasn´t supposed to find out at all.” He points an accusing finger at you.  

“What?” You ask exasperatedly.  

”Hey! It´s not her fault.” Aegon now puts himself into the conversation.  

”Don´t get me started on you. Telling other guys to stay away from her to protect her and then you treat her like… Like that.” Aemond’s words become louder as his rage grows with every passing second.  

”Alright, you may be smart, but you’re not all knowing.” Aegons fists tighten at his sides.  

”So you two have not slept together.” Aemond turns now looking you in the eyes. The burning look in them rendering you speechless. “I knew it.” 

”Aemond, that’s enough!” 

”No! She has no clue what she´s gotten herself into with you and she deserve to know!” Their screaming match continues. 

”That´s complete bull.” 

His words seem to do the final trick, because in the next moment, Aemonds face lands quare across Aegons jaw. You yelp at the scene. Pleading with them to stop only to be ignored by both of them. Aegon tackles his brother with a running start. The thumb that the action results in pulls a gasp from your lips. Aemond struggle against him heavily. Still Aegon manages to hold him down for a while.

  

Once he frees himself from his brother´s grasp, he runs away again. You are not willing to give up on your friend yet though. 

“So much for rule number 9.” He scoffs as he slams the door of his car shut behind him.  

“I didn´t mean for this to happen. I promise.” Your tears fall freely, while he still fights his  

“My whole life Aegon has gotten everything he ever wanted. The only thing that I had and he didn´t… was you. And now he has that too. You two really deserve each other.” 

He pulls out of the driveway and drives away at a pace that makes you scared for him. He shouldn´t be driving in this state at all. You wince when Aegon comes up behind you and lays his hands on your shoulders. 

“He´ll get over it. And now that he knows we can go to prom together. There is no need for secrets anymore.” He sounds hopeful, but that just aggravates you even more. 

“I told you to stay inside. What is wrong with you?” You hit his chest. 

“Hey, this is not all my fault.” He defends himself by holding your wrists still in the air 

“Just leave me alone.” You pull yourself free from his grasp. 

“No problem.” As Aegon leaves too, your thoughts are with Aemond. A little voice telling you that you lost him forever. 

What follows the dispute are the loneliest weeks of your entire life. Aemond completely ignores you and Aegon has basically gone missing. It gets bad to a point where Alicent, in one of your talks, tells you that he might not be able to graduate if this continued.  She also helps you though. Telling you that in her many years of friendship with your mother they had fought many times and now she couldn´t even remember what any of those fights were about. 

So, reminded of rule number 7, you make a detour to the Ice cream place on your way to school the next day. Buying a cone of Aemonds favorite ice cream. No matter how mad you are at your best friend; you must forgive them if they bring you ice cream. Holding it out to him with the best puppy eyes you can muster, you are surprised when he wordlessly takes it. Only to get any bit of hope crushed immediately after when he throws it away on his way to class.

So you get used to doing everything from then on. Or at least you try to, but it just isn´t as much fun as it was with Aemond. 

Only for it to change one gloomy evening. You had gone to the arcade alone as so often. Sipping on a slushy and just sitting around thinking how all of this could go so wrong, that you couldn´t even tell your best friend about this really good thing, that made you really happy and that he should have been happy with you about.

And as you are so lost in your thoughts, he walks in. Heading directly for the machine you usually spend all your time at. You hear the coins clatter once and let out a deep sigh debating if you should just walk over there and join him in another attempt to make up. Then you hear the clatter if the coins a second time. Realizing he had paid for you as well, you make your way over hesitantly. He doesn´t look at you or speak to you at all, but you see it as an olive branch. 

By the end of the game, it´s like nothing had ever happened. The two of you laugh and hug and apologize for how everything went. 

However even with the friendship restored and seemingly stronger than ever, Aegon was still missing. You try not to think about it too much, but that was a virtually impossible task. Everything somehow reminds you of him. No trips to the cinema or beach or library or whatever that Aemond and Floris took you on either alone or together remedied that ache. On the contrary. Whenever you see them, as happy as they were, you couldn´t fight that drowning sensation overcome you.

Now, prom should have given the perfect opportunity for that.

After taking the mandatory pictures at home and driving up the building that hosts the event in a limousine, you get some drinks and start to dance the night away. Rarely stopping for a drink. The planning committee had truly outdone themselves.  

After a while the strobe light becomes too much and the music too loud, so you step outside for a break. Leaving your friends to dance alone for a while. The fresh night air offers a perfect opposite to the stuffy atmosphere inside and you use the quiet outside to calm down well. 

You get back inside just inside for them to open the memory lane that has been constructed with candids and pictures from the previous year. It´s fun to reminisce in the memories and laugh again at the particularly funny moments captured. If there wouldn´t be so many pictures with Aegon in them, that work their hardest to force the tears back into your eyes. At the end of the long corridor the hall opens to another smaller area. 

As the crowd in front of you parts, you recognize the kissing booth from the fundraiser. Before you get the chance to really react, Aemond jogs up to it and puts the blindfold over his eyes. Reaching one of his hands out for Floris to join him, which she does instantly, to reenact their first kiss. 

The people around you start clapping and cheering and for the first time you can feel yourself feel truly okay. Finally, there is not one thought of Aegon or anybody occupying your mind. And as a sense of serenity fills you, whatever deity may exist up there or rather down there decides to have a laugh at you for the pure chaos of it.

“I think your next” An all too known voice calls out to you over the cheers that erupt once more. 

“No.” You whisper as your eyes meet his. 

Much like his words before he left the apologetic look in his eyes now, does nothing to console you. 

“No. I can´t do this.” You turn on your heels and start to walk towards the exit at a fast pace. In the end you barely make it past the people around and get a hand on the doorhandle. 

“Princess, wait.” He calls out. His voice raised almost an entire octave in desperation to stop you from running.

“Why should I wait? Hm? You left me alone, for weeks! Without a single sign that you are still alive. Jeopardizing your fucking graduation as if it is nothing! And now all of a sudden you just show up out of the blue and expect me to what? Fall around your neck and accept that you are back without any lasting feelings?” You air out all the frustration that had built up and collected in the depths of your gut. Your eyebrows knitting together tightly, tears blurring your vision and frozen to the spot you stopped in. 

“Okay, I´ll give you a reason to wait. How about, wait, because standing here, in front of everyone I am telling you that I love you.“ In any movie you would have swooned at his proclamation of love, but this was no movie and no pretty words could erase the hurt the both of you had caused. 

“I just can´t keep hurting people that I care about because of you. In case you couldn´t tell, nobody wants us to be together.” You stand your ground. 

“But what do you want?” Aegon takes a step towards you and holds out his hands for you. 

“I want to go.” Released from the state of shock, you run away. 

In the days following that disaster, you kind off go off the grid. Locking yourself up in your room and only replying to Aemond´s texts when it is necessary to plan your joined birthday party. Which is also the first time you emerge from your cavern of gloominess. 

Going over to the Targaryen's house to get into your costumes together, Aemond fills you in on the decision his brother had made the night prior. To not attend the party and instead leave for uni a week early, to settle in. The news puts a damper on the party mood you had gotten yourself into. Putting on a mask of indifference, you proceed with the party as planned. Blowing out the candles on your cakes and dancing with as much enthusiasm as you can muster with all the kissing couples around. You feel the all too familiar sting in your eyes and quickly get away from your friends as to not have to answer any questions. 

“What happened?” Aemond catches you by the shoulder. Looking as worried as ever. 

“I love you.” Your voice wavers. “I always want to be close to you but being my best friend doesn´t give you the right to tell me who I can love. What if I didn´t want Floris around?” 

“Then I´d break up with her.” He provides a simple enough sounding solution. 

“See, that´s what´s wrong. You shouldn´t have to, just because I say so.” You helplessly throw your arms in the air helplessly. 

“This isn´t the same thing and you know it.” He refers to the friendship rules. 

“Listen, we made up our rules when we were six, okay?” 

“So? What are you trying to say.” He takes a cautious step back.

“I´m saying that love Aegon. I want him and I´m sorry if that hurts you and I´m so sorry that I lied to you before. But I would be lying again if I told you I didn´t. And if you can´t... accept that, then maybe you can´t be part of my life.” You speak slowly. Trying to put this as nicely as possible. 

“You´re making a mistake” Aemond warns you. 

Then that´s my mistake to make.” 

“I know. I just want you to be happy.” He hugs you tightly to his strong chest. “Meet me outside in five. I´ll help you find him.” 

You tell your father and Alicent where the two of you are going and then head outside to the car. 

Aemond is already waiting and with the `mission´ on your mind, you completely forget to ask why he is wearing the mask to his costume. Instead, as you pull out of the driveway and onto the street, you thank him profusely for his support, rambling on and on about how hard it was seeing Aegon again after such a long period of radio silence. So caught up in it, that you don´t even notice the much deeper voice than usual, when he agrees with something you say. 

“I just regret not telling him that I love him, you know?” You look over at him when you are finished speaking. 

“You just did.” The person beside you pulls the mask off. Revealing Aegon´s choppy head of hair and a humble, but satisfied smile that crinkles the corners of his baby blue eyes.

“What?!” the wave of happiness and shock that crashes over you leads your attention away from the street, almost causing the two of you to crash into the oncoming traffic. 

You barely manage to turn the steering wheel around and park at the side of the road. “I thought you were already gone.” 

“Yeah, I was planning to, but I had to see you one last time. And then Aemond came and told me everything. He also said something about rule number 18 or whatever.” He waves his confusion about his brother´s words away with the wave of his hand.

Looking at the sky you thank the god or gods or whatever for rule number 18. Always be happy for your besties successes. 

 ”Wait... So, what about Harvard?” You ask with a still unbelieving chuckle. 

“Forget about that for a second. I´d rather wanna know what it was that you wanted to tell me so urgently.” 

“Oh... Um, nothing important...” You try to deflect as nerves get the better of you. 

“No no. No excuses or deflections. I wanna hear it. And it can´t be that unimportant if you left your party in a rush to tell me.” His smile tells you how much he enjoys seeing you squirm. 

”Okay.” You sigh and take a deep breath before speaking again with the words he had used back at the prom. “Sitting here in front of… no one in particular, I´m saying I love you.” 

“And I love you.” He concedes. 

The two of you lean over the center console at the same time. Your hand on his cheek and his on the back of your neck. The first touch of your lips makes you come alive again. As if your body had been on standby ever since he left and was only now getting turned back on. You taste nicotine on his lips and your hand slides into his hair. Needily tugging at the tresses. You are almost scared to think how happy he makes you, but it´s something that just happens whenever you are in his proximity 

When the time comes you drive him to the airport. Of course, only after one last goodbye brunch with both of your families. 

“Don´t turn around for a final wave, because that would be way too cheesy and romantic.” You put up a warning finger. 

“Even for you?” He feigns surprise. Laying a hand over his chest and leaning his upper body away from you. Yet he never takes his other hand of your shoulder.

“Yes. Even for me.” You nudge him with your shoulder as you walk the last couple steps together. 

“I was right. You are cute when you´re being bossy.” He relishes the way you roll your eyes at him. You don´t contradict him though. You are smart enough to know that it would be of no use. 

Walking together as far as you are allowed to accompany him, Aegon pulls you in for one last goodbye kiss. To the two of you it´s so much more than just the last kiss you will share for a while. It´s a manifest to how much you love each other. A promise that this would last even if he would be a distance away now. And that you would be able to hold each other like this again soon. It´s a beacon of hope. Aegon picks up his bag from the ground and wordlessly makes his way up the stairs to his gate. Once he reaches the top of it, he pauses. For a moment it looks like he is going to disobey your warning words, but he continues his way without looking back.

You stand there long until he rounds the corner, before you get back to the motorcycle that he has gifted you. Despite your protest. Starting it up you have one peaceful thought occupying your mind. 

Even if things wouldn´t work out there was always gonna be a part of you that belonged to Aegon Targaryen.

[tater-tot-jr]

I think I should put in my two cents considering the Hazbin hotel leaked Angel Dust clip. I’ll say that this post should be one absolutely massive trigger warning. If you’re sensitive please don’t read this, I’m pretty blunt. Also I’m only talking about a small leak but SPOILERS!!!

So before I make any points I’ll start by saying that I’m not an inherent fan of vivziepop, this isn’t meat riding, it’s a genuine attempt at open conversation and discussion. I’ll also say I’m a survivor myself and while I don’t claim to speak for anyone else I have some ground to stand on here. I completely understand that people can be triggered by this type of imagery and will at least skip this particular scene or episode, I promise I’m not talking about you guys.

You wanna know who I am talking about though? The weird ass moral police I’ve been watching mobilize. It’s crazy how people are making a big deal out of this. I’ve seen three arguments and all of them are terrible in themselves and being used to justify terrible behavior.

I’ve only seen people claim three major things, this is a bad depiction of a s/a survivor and situation, this is something that’s too graphic and immoral to put in a TV show, the fact that the singing and dancing lightens the tone in a way people find distasteful. I’m going to be trying to prove why I find these arguments mostly ridiculous and unfounded.

As for argument one, s/a survivors come in all shapes and sizes and hyper sexuality happens to be an incredibly common reaction to sexual trauma. I haven’t watched episode one and two but even if I had I’d still have too small of a sample size to determine the entire tone of an incredibly messed up complex dynamic between too incredibly interesting and layered characters. It’s ridiculous to have so many assumptions and expectations of an *11 second leaked clip.*

Secondly. Creative freedom is possible the most important thing in art. If we didn’t have the freedom to put what we wanted on paper or on screen then we wouldn’t have had so much societal change recently. Just because you might find something distasteful and immoral doesn’t mean it absolutely has to be hated on and removed. It’s okay to not like things because you find them gross, it’s okay to not enjoy graphic depictions of serious subjects, it’s not okay to start internet wars over moral bullshit. It’s okay to be mad in silence sometimes, guys.

Thirdly. I kinda get this one, I don’t agree with it but I do understand the point. The idea you don’t want a serious subject framed with a sexy pop song is not inherently bad, it’s just something that makes me think you wouldn’t have liked Hazbin Hotel anyway. I actually appreciate the fact they are using the creative medium to make bold and shocking decisions but I get some people are sensitive to new things, that’s fine. Where this argument gets ridiculous is when people act like this is very out of line for a show like this. This isn’t a Saturday morning kids cartoon it’s and adult animated show about people in hell. It’s highly likely that this won’t be the worst thing we see, you either need to heed the trigger warnings at the beginning of each episode or get over it.

You’ll notice that I didn’t bring up anything about the merchandise pins or the storyboard artist, I did this because they aren’t arguments but barely related attempts at character assassinations. When you spend five minutes thinking about them critically you come to realize that there is nothing substantial to those arguments.

I’d like to finish up talking about how I think this scene is doing more good than harm. It’s important to make people uncomfortable when you’re talking about things so horrible like s/a and rape. It shouldn’t be meek and palatable for a general audience, it should upset you. I remember hearing something in a video game once that stuck with me. There was a character who said that when you’re sick you need strong medicine and that the strongest medication is very bitter.

I think episode four will be some very bitter medicine.

[leoruby-draws]

On and on I go posting, well today I'm gonna post about John Moore aka Rankorr, called Jack sometimes as well. This is a long post btw, just warning you! I haven't posted much of him really but I wanted to figure out how best define his personality in my au and how to approach his and Jason's working relationship.

Jack is a Red Lantern, you can read about him in the new52 Red Lantern book. His powers come from a red ring, which is powered by the emotion of rage and wrath. Seeing as Jason also has anger issues, this was one major reason why I decided to put him in the TrWh Outlaws. I did consider other options for the Lantern expy (mostly Kyle) but Jack felt more interesting and unique to me.

But in the comics he never came off as too angry, like he's angry sometimes but never to the extent needed to justify why he's the only human chosen for the red ring. He's shown to be able to create light constructs, most other red lanterns can't really do that, so that might be one reason. I wonder if the way he deals with his anger is why he can do that?

His character never got too in depth, honestly I felt like the writers didn't have much interest in him, esp once Guy Gardner got in the book. But I liked him, and thought he had potential. I was intrigued on how he handled his anger issues, which is not at all. He tried really hard to repress his anger,not the best way to deal with that. Btw, his origin story is kinda similar to canon, seeing his grandfather killed. He grew so angry and spiraled until one day a certain red ring appeared...

Also I noticed he was in Oxford university for a literature degree, he seemed to like books. I like the thought of him and Jason bonding over that.

Speaking of Jason, Jack tends to take an almost 'advisory' role to him, he has no interest in leadership. He keeps trying reel Jason in and force him to plan things out or make his plans less insane. But I imagine in the heat of battle Jack gets just as crazy due to the effects of the ring, perhaps thats why he harps on caution. He thinks Jason could be a good leader but he takes issue with his 'selfishness' and recklessness. You can see in the pic above Jack gets pretty caustic with his words, one way his anger manifests. But Jack and Jason really do see elements of themselves in the other, whether that helps them bond or agitates them depends.

Jack is, btw, older than Jason by about 2 years or so and is among the oldest of the team, another reason why he might try to act more responsible.

Here's a small plot point I thought up for Jack, when I was wondering for reasons for why he in particular got the ring. One reason is perhaps Atrocitus wanted a spy but also had the idea to make that spy a child. The idea is that a child would be less suspecting and also less likely for the adult heroes to attack as well. There's been quite an uptick in child heroes in this universe, and it seems some villains are taking advantage of it.

The idea for someone trying really hard to reign in his anger and be a hero is also struggling to deal with being a spy sounded very interesting. I imagine he would struggle with being pulled in two directions, can his fellow teammates help him out of this situation?

Another doodle going a bit more into depth for Jack, namely his relations with others. I really like the thought of Guy Gardner being a sort of mentor figure for Jack, you know Guy used to work with kids, tho that changed in new52 I believe (ignoring that for my au ofc). You can see his stress concerning Atrocitus, being forced to be a spy. But in a lot of ways Atrocitus did try help John (in his own weird way), so Jack has added guilt in not being loyal to him either. Poor kid.

Looks like Jason grows aware of Jack's duplicity, Jack can't stand Jason's hypocrisy (Jason's a bat through and through), but Jason's gonna end up helping him anyways. Bleez, another red lantern, isn't much help tho. Jack and her do end up friends, but she keeps trying to lure him to the dark(red) side.

Here's Jack with his friend Kimberly, just like in the Red Lantern comic he saves her from a creepy stalker. Jack has a hell of a time trying to keep his Red Lantern secret from her, but she can tell he's hiding something tho she's letting him tell her in his own time. Should be noted that Bleez is aware of Kim and dislikes their friendship, she doesn't like that Jack's loyalties are divided. She might also have a crush on Jack but since everyone's a kid, I wouldn't really call it much of a love triangle.

I also wanted to make a friendship between Jack and Owen Mercer, Boomerang Jr. Owen's more carefree and wayyyy less repressed, so he'd make a fun foil for Jack. This friendship's obviously inspired by Hal's and Barry's (Green Lantern, Flash) friendship, tho the dynamic's slightly flipped. With the 'flash' of this duo being the more irresponsible one, tho Jack isn't nearly as put together as he thinks.

Finally here's an older drawing of Jack, when trying to figure out how to draw him outside of his red lantern persona (think of this like concept art ig), the upper right doodle still makes me laugh.

Sorry that was so much, I just never had the chance to post about this character, so I kinda overdid it.

Still hope you like it! On to the next drawing tomorrow!

[pinkprimrose05]

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED YUGIOH ARC-V

So yesterday I decided to start rewatching ARC-V (for the second time, at the behest of a friend who just got into the show), and, well... shit.

There is a hint of foreshadowing I missed, and it's in Episode fucking One to boot.

Unfortunately, this hint is entirely lost in the English dub (edit: I stand corrected, it's still there, just not as explicitly obvious), and I can't seem to find any source for the Japanese dialogue of the episode (not that it'd help much, in the end; I can't read Japanese for shit and am mostly going off the romanization of structures I only barely understand). But why is this relevant here, you ask?

Well, allow me to explain.

There are several ways of referring to oneself (or one's possessions) in Japanese. You're probably already familiar with first person pronouns 私 (Watashi), 僕 (Boku), and 俺 (Ore), all of which mean "I" in English, and each of which is used by different sorts of people in different sorts of situations.

In the context of ARC-V, Yuuya normally uses Ore when referring to himself, and Ore no for possessions. But being the expert performer he is, he puts on a faux-formal persona for Entertainment Duels, so in addition to giving extra flair to...literally everything he says, he switches to the more polite Watashi and Watashi no for a more, ah, charming impression.

(In comparison, Yuzu already uses Watashi, as it is also the most common pronoun for girls. Gongenzaka defaults to the "manly" Ore, and Sora uses the softer male pronoun Boku and its derivative).

Now the kicker here is that, from the moment Yuuya acquires Pendulum until the end of his Duel with Ishijima, he uses none of the aforementioned pronoun sets. Instead, he switches to the first person pronoun 我 (Ware) and possessive pronoun 我が (Waga), which are now considered a stiff, archaic, and outdated way to refer to oneself, mainly used in fiction by characters with a strong sense of dramatic flair.

But Pink, isn't that basically Yuuya getting really into the entertainer persona?

... well yes, but actually no. I would have written this off as another flashy quirk of his, had it not occured to me that:

1) This is not a one-off occasion, and it only repeats in specific situations. I mean, we don't see this particular pronoun switch making another appearance until the tail end of Episode 39... when Yuuya goes into the Awakened state for the "first" time.

He doesn't talk much when he's like that (which, yeah, fair enough; I can't focus on talking and doing full combo at the same time either), but you may notice that his Pendulum summoning chant changes from "Appear now, my monsters!" (Arawareyo, ore no monsuta-tachi!) to "Come out, my monster servants!" (Ideyo, waga shimobe no monsuta-tachi yo!)

And guess what? The same happens in Episode 1, when he does the very first Pendulum summon.

2) The personal pronoun Ware is not only used by melodramatic characters, but also by those that view themselves as distant from, and/or superior to everyone else. Ancient spirits, magical entities, you get what I mean here...

And it sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?

An egotistic crackhead with a strong superiority complex, who still strives for drama and entertainment despite his twisted ways. You know him. I know him. Everyone knows him.

He's been trying to hijack Christmas for six years now, after all.

...God fucking dammit.

Yes, Zarc is the only character with enough theatre kid energy to use Ware as his default personal pronoun. And yes, Yuuya copies that aspect every time magical Pendulum fuckery is involved... which, admittedly, would not register as foreshadowing until you have context for what it's supposed to be foreshadowing in the first place.

.. And it still flew over my head entirely in the first rewatch. So much for a resident theorist, lmao.

Seriously though, I think this is pretty brilliant. Sure, it's a niche linguistic detail that requires prior knowledge of the ending to understand, but it hints towards a great mystery behind the origins of Pendulum summoning, which is very damn cool, if I do say so myself.

It's worth mentioning that I also watched Episode 2, which doubles down with the more obvious, but no less neat hint of placing Yuuya on the "antagonist" side of the Duel screen against Yuzu in their exhibition match thingy.

See, this is why I love ARC-V so much. One of the greatest joys of watching this show is finding all the hidden puzzle pieces and going "Oh, so THAT'S what they meant when they did this!", and it never fails to amaze me every time.

This has been Volume 1 of Pink's ARC-V Highlights™, and I'll definitely be back with more... whenever I find another dumb tidbit to hyperfixate on.

'Till then, my Duelist friends!

[5-7-9]

I realize i should probably elaborate on how We Are Robin was inspired by a legitimate movement.

So while researching interviews by We Are Robin’s writer Lee Bermejo, I tried checking for the ones that were straight from his words rather than articles that quoted him. So i almost missed this one article that was worded as though it was not an interview, but CBR quoted from USA Today so it must’ve been. If it weren’t for a DC comics forum that had already read it, i wouldn’t have noticed.

When the series opens, it really doesn't have an identity, Bermejo says, but the group knows its mission statement. "It's one thing to put a hashtag on your Twitter account as a teenager and feel like you're part of something. It's a whole other thing when the (stuff) hits the fan and you have to stand up for what you believe in."

"Just with everything that we've seen happen recently with Ferguson, there's a lot of issues here that I think can be touched on and should be touched on."

"There's that element of this particular moment we're passing right now, and with a book like this you have a chance to comment about certain things and bring them into the Bat-universe in real interesting ways."

As a longtime fan of the Dark Knight and his supporting players, Bermejo admits that he always had a hard time figuring out why Batman would have a teen sidekick and put a kid in danger in the first place - for the writer, that was the beginning of how a series such as We Are Robin could work.

"Maybe there could possibly be many of these kids out there on the streets who have different talents and different capabilities that could be useful to Batman," says Bermejo.

"With ideas and big concepts, teenagers can get really passionate about that stuff and it can be their whole life. That was something interesting to me, that this thing could be bigger than just one guy jumping around in a domino mask."

(Just the first 3/three forum pages, I’m not reading all that 💀) Seems as though Bermejo wanted to make a commentary about Ferguson metaphorically through the Batman mythos. My interpretation of his message: the disenfranchised youth of America that have no one to help them (authority figures like parents and Batman) feel as though they must take justice matters into their own hands. Something Robin originally meant to represent, a child character for other children to project on. Bermejo thought to implement that literally into the story, where Robin is an actual symbol children use. In the case of real life, justice is done by protesting. But in the matters of DC comics, specifically Gotham? Their protesting comes in the form of vigilantism.

In the chapter where the We Are Robin kids try breaking up a random riot that kinda appears out from nowhere?

But when the Robins join in to stop the riot, they were suddenly framed by the Robot Batman cop as the aggressors (being controlled by Jim Gordon as he was temporarily “Batman”). Indiscriminating its force of authority onto the kids as well as the rioters.

This carries into the Riko’s POV chapter. After a WAR member died from a bomb, the television shows Troy’s parents being upset at the We Are Robin movement, claiming it “does more harm than good.”

Troy’s death is probably another comparisons to when 6 Ferguson protesters died. So his death seems to ask the question, is protesting worth it if it gets you killed? Are protesters making the situation of unjust violence worse? Riko answers: “I think… I think he was trying to do what he thought was right.”

If you aren’t aware of the Ferguson unrest, an 18 year old boy (Micheal Brown) was shot by a police officer after being accused of robbery. When nothing came about the police officer in question, many in the black community began protesting for about 400 days for the officer to be reprimanded. The media would often call it riots, with the negative connotations of unnecessary violence. This was apart of the Black Lives Matters movement of anti police brutality.

(here’s one video but i recommend doing your own research because i’m not great at keeping sources)

I’m sure you can see the similarities now. If not… essentially the We Are Robin is an allegory of the Ferguson protests. The vigilante kids are fighting crime, while the Ferguson protesters were the black community fighting injustice.

Robin War actually touches back on this Ferguson inspired media conflict, by having such an interestingly similar story involving a teenaged boy and a robber and a person dying from being shot 🤔

But here’s the twist: a We Are Robin member walks into a convenience store, he intervenes a police officer trying to stop a robbery, then, because this WAR member was a young probably “immature” teenager, accidentally shoots the police officer with his own gun.

Ha. Ha. 😐 Certainly not an insensitive plot to use at all (sarcasm)

(I should remind you all that Robin War was a piece of garbage mostly written by Tom King, and other writers like Tim Seeley and Scott Lobdell. i don't really need to explain everything wrong with these guys right now. Except for the parts Bermajo wrote, those were the best despite the surrounding shitty plot).

There’s also plenty of police imagery. See here an iconic picture of the Ferguson protest as a poster right smack down in the middle of a panel. Just in case you aren’t fully convinced about the Ferguson allegory… 🙃

Smack down in the centre of this panel has a iconic redrawing of a Ferguson protester (Edward Crawford) catching a tear gas canister thrown by the police, and throwing it right back at the riot cops faces 🖕☄️

So yes, We Are Robin was an activist movement.

[spyderlondon]

Sooooooo uh not sure what is exactly expected with requests so apologies if this is not the kinda thing you take:

What if Caine acts like he forgot to set an Adventure, then just up and disappears. So like they think it’s a normal day but then people start disappearing one by one until one or maybe two are left (possible ship, if ya wanna). Until Caine comes back with everyone else and it turns out it was that shit was the in house adventure.

I understand if it’s too elaborate, but if you for some reason do take it up, please don’t snack Gangle too quickly, she is best girl and she deserves the world

You Can Hide, But You Can't Run

CW: Small panic attack

"Whaddya mean you forgot to make an adventure?" Jax crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently on the ground as the rest of the cast of characters in the circus began to wander into the main area of the tent.

Caine moved around nervously as more eyes came upon him, he took his hat off and twisted it in his hands, "Exactly that, superstars, I've been too busy preparing a few other surprises for you all! ...that I forgot all about today's adventure." He admitted with a sigh, his eyes moving to look anywhere but the players in front of him.

Zooble ran a hand down their face with a groan, "I could've stayed in my room this entire day." They complained, not liking that they took the time out of their morning to come out here, just to be told there would be a nothing day. What a waste of their time...

Kinger just dove into his impenetrable fortress while the others began to complain to their ringmaster about this whole situation in their irritation. Except for Ragatha who was trying her best to calm everyone down by standing in between them and the anxious Caine, "Calm down, everybody..." She moved her hands down as a way to gesture for them to chill out, "We should think of this as a blessing after all the painful and traumatic 'adventures' we've been on in the past." She told them, unknowingly having the floating pair of dentures wince subtly at her words, "Let's just use today as a rest and relaxation day, huh?" She smiled a bit.

Everybody turned their backs to Caine while crossing their arms as they all gave a chorus of annoyed "Fine"s before heading in different directions, not seeing how Caine suddenly vanished with his teeth upturned to a smirk. Well, no one except one certain person.

"Let the game begin~" The ringmaster whispered to a certain player while staying invisible, allowing them to take a string of code to help them do what he needed.

------

As a few hours went by, Pomni began to notice a startling lack of Caine or Bubble- it was odd especially since she knew how much Caine enjoyed spending time with her in particular. But no matter how much she called for him, he remained nowhere to be found which was very disconcerting to her.

The jester sighed as she decided to knock on Kinger's pillow fort gently, "Hey, Kinger, mind if I join you in there?" She asked just loud enough for him to hear, "I found a bug near the digital lake that I think you might like."

She smiled a bit as the old chess piece, that she couldn't help but see as her surrogate father while trapped in this digital realm, stuck his head out to look at her, "Oh! Pomni, it's you! Hello!" He gave her a cheery look before moving out of the way so she could come in, "Ragatha and Gangle are already here!" He gestured to the two girls. The rag doll gave the jester a friendly wave while looking up from the book she was reading while Gangle waved while she drew a picture, a bit too focused to give her full attention to the new addition.

The jester returned the wave nervously as she slipped inside, "Y-You guys anxious about how quiet Caine has been since his disappearance this morning too?" She questioned with a small anxious stutter as she handed Kinger the jar she had with a dragonfly inside of it. Her expression softened as she watched him lay on his belly to look at the bug with large, sparkly eyes.

"Yea..." Ragatha admitted as she got Pomni's attention, "It's not like him or Bubble to be gone this long, not even answering when we yell for him..." She rubbed her arm while bookmarking where she was and closing her book, placing it next to her.

Even Gangle looked up from her drawing, her comedy mask somehow still intact this entire day- guess Jax didn't pick on her yet, surprisingly, "I'm not complaining since Bubble would often snack on my art supplies but I was hoping to show my newest drawings to Caine- he's always super supportive of my art." She seemed a bit conflicted by the two AIs missing.

"I'm sure he'll be delighted to see them when they return, Gangle." Ragatha reassured the younger girl with a soft smile.

Before Pomni could assure her as well Kinger yanked her down next to him excitedly, "Pomni! You found a rare dragonfly!" He told her as he pushed the jar up to her face.

"I-I did?" She pushed the jar away from her face a bit, not appreciating how close it was to her but she didn't say anything as to avoid ruining the chess piece's eagerness.

"Yes!!" He wiggled happily before noticing how she moved the jar away and seemed to remember how she was rather touch-averse, "Oh, I'm sorry." He apologized before lowering the jar so they could both look at the dragonfly, "You found a Calopteryx exul! It's critically endangered and usually native to Algeria! But it seems as though since everything here is digital, there can be any bug in existence!"

Pomni was silent as she let him infodump everything he knew about this insect while Ragatha and Gangle tuned him out while they went back to what they were doing earlier. The jester was usually the only one who seemed to enjoy listening to Kinger's ramblings as it helped keep her mind focused on his voice other than the tiny voice inside her head that often yelled at her to look for an exit.

----

About an hour or two went by- at least that's what Pomni guessed, it was hard to tell time in the circus- before everyone in the pillow fort was suddenly jumping to their feet when a scream was heard in the distance.

"My impenetrable fortress!" Kinger suddenly exclaimed after the pillows suddenly fell all around the girls and himself. Although, only he seemed concerned about it as the girls were already running off towards the noise in their concern.

When they got there, they say a piece of Zooble on the ground next to Jax who was already there, looking down at the Zooble piece that was laying there.

"JAX! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Ragatha immediately demanded while going up to him, pointing a finger at him with narrowed eyes. She obviously decided that this was his fault from the very start.

The tall purple rabbit just laughed, finding more amusement in this than the others as usual, "Chill out, babe, this wasn't my doing." He rolled his eyes as he picked up the discarded arm to scratch his back with it... only to be strangled by it immediately. He glared at the arm once it fell back to the ground, "I swear that thing has a mind of its own..." He grumbled as he rubbed his neck in irritation. He noticed the rag doll and even Pomni glaring at him still which made him groan loudly, "I *just* got here, alright? I heard a scream and thought someone was pulling a prank without me so I came to see what kinds of hilarity I was missin'." He crossed his arms.

The girls didn't seem convinced but before they could accuse him more, Kinger spoke up, "There's no evidence that Jax did this." He mentioned, in a rare moment of sanity, "It could've been some type of glitch or something." He mentioned, holding a pillow to his chest.

Gangle blinked as she looked at him, "...I suppose you're right but how did you know it could some type of glitch?" She questioned curiously.

The chess piece's eyes were going in opposite directions before suddenly yelling as he looked down at the comedy mask, "AHH! Oh, Gangle. What were we talking about?" He asked innocently.

Gangle sighed, "Nevermind..." She shook her head before heading off to help him rebuild his pillow fort, not wanting to be near Jax if he got irritated since he would probably take his anger out of her.

The rabbit watched the two of them leave before clicking his tongue as he lost his prey due to the two women in front of him. He scoffed a bit as he pushed the jester and rag doll away, "I'm heading to my room." He rolled his eyes.

Pomni and Ragatha looked at each other with frowns on both of their faces before deciding to look around for any signs of Zooble or some type of glitch together.

------

As the day went on, more people seemed to be picked off one by one- it seemed like Zooble was just the warning for everyone to get concerned for themselves.

Pomni had merely turned her back for a millisecond before she heard Ragatha's surprised gasp before she was stolen away, the jester didn't even have a chance to get a glimpse at what was causing the disappearances- it was gone far too soon along with the rag doll.

She grimaced before she heard Kinger yell next which made her sprint on over to where he and Jax were standing, looking around with only a broken comedy mask on the ground to indicate who was taken next. She tensed as she looked around, her fear starting to get to her, "Wh-What happened?!" Her voice came out shaky and fearful as she looked at the two men.

"One moment Ribbons was doodling her stupid drawings and the next she was gone." Jax waved a hand casually, acting like he didn't care again, "Least that's what Kinger told me when I came by and he suddenly grabbed me out of nowhere."

Pomni grimaced, "Ragatha is gone too... I was right next to her and I didn't even see what happened." She sighed, clutching her jester hat in her pure anxiety, "WHERE IS CAINE WHEN YOU [%$*^&@&] NEED HIM?!" She cried out, her eyes swirling like they usually do whenever her anxiety gets too high.

...

"...Jax? Kinger?" Her breathing sped up in her fear as neither of them answered and she looked around in her panic before suddenly screaming out, falling to the ground as she saw everyone who was captured in a spider web type structure that was... made out of red silk ribbons? Their mouths and bodies covered in them as they struggled to get free and most of them tried to yell. That's when she noticed one certain member of their trope missing from the web- Gangle.

"Caaaine...?" A tearful voice called out as a certain tragedy mask peered out from the corner of the web, guilt in her tone as she looked at the ringmaster who popped into the tent in front of the silk web, "I think we went too far... Pomni looks like she's about to have a panic attack..."

Caine stared down at the jester that was staring at him with a very, very twitchy eye while she began her usual manic laughter that she gets when her anxiety gets far too high, "...ah. Maybe-" He coughed, clearing his throat, "You, uh, you can release them now, Gangle, the adventure is over-"

"THE WHAT?!?" Pomni screamed as she stomped over to the ringmaster as he floated down a bit to try to calm her. Only to completely regret his decision as she grabbed him by his collar, yanking him right up to her, "THAT WASN'T AN ADVENTURE! THAT WAS HOW TO GIVE SOMEONE A PANIC ATTACK 101!!!"

The tragedy mask winced as she released everyone from her web and tried to flee. But she was soon caught by Ragatha, "Gangle. Where do you think you're going?" She smiled at her but Gangle could feel the cold rage coming off of the rag doll which made her gulp.

----

A/N:

I wonder what Pomni and Ragatha did to Caine and Gangle~ I'll leave that up to you~

[agitowarrioroftheforest]

Thoughts on gender locked magic. Specifically the concepts of Witches. Discussion of gender essentialism and transphobia.

Ok this is a pretty common thing to run into in fiction. The idea that “Only women can become witches.”

But I have always wondered, but Why though? What is the reason only women get access to magic? What about their soul makes that a thing and why is that gender locked to woman as a gender specifically?

These fictional worlds with such a magic system always come with gender essentialism to me. They were not structured to include trans people. More likely because we weren’t a thought to the author.

Would a trans girl suddenly be able to do magic when she realizes? Would she always have had magic? Likewise, would a trans boy suddenly lose the ability to do magic? Did he never have any? People’s individual transitions are so unique, how would that effect their access to magic and how would that not be exclusionary? What about nonbinary people? What are genderfluid people who are women sometimes going to do? It all gets very complicated the moment you consider trans people and anyone whose gender is not binary.

It just strikes me as gender essentialism to say that only one gender has access to magic. I can never understand what in particular makes a character “worthy” of magic because of their gender, If we are going to look at gender with less binary expectations, then gender locking magic kinda goes against that goal.

Why has this cosmic magic or being that gives magic chosen “being a woman” as their qualifications?

If it’s about the oppression of misogyny, there are trans men and nonbinary people who experience that as well with no choice in the matter of how other people misgender us.

If it’s about a specific kind of physical body or genital, then there is no way to make that not exclusionary. If it’s about the trauma that young girls go through (Example: Madoka magica’s answer to this, where that trauma creates Energy to stop the heat death of the universe.) then that *still* becomes trans exclusionary, because there are people whose childhoods may have looked like that of young girls to society but were not, and were still traumatic in extremely similar, or the same ways. (right now i’m talking specifically about trans men and women who came out after adulthood and didn’t 100% know they were trans as kids. Madoka’s system also has no room for nonbinary people. )

The gender essentialist concept of "women are Closer to Nature and More Primal and have Secret Knowledge" also plays into this, and on top of that being something I don’t believe. I don’t think it’s smart to treat any gender as somehow secretly better than another.

Talking a bit more personally here, I did struggle to come out, and one reason because of people, who called themselves progressive feminists(in actuality this was a mindset from radfems), who treated the possibility of me being a boy as some kind of threat or loss. I’m definitely feminist, I want to make that clear. But I don’t stand for any kind of system that treats one gender as better or treats you as some kind of traitor because you didn’t turn out to be a woman.

I think that is the heart of the issue of why gender locked magic hits a sore spot.

The frustration that the experiences I have had, being treated like facets of womanhood. I know I and people like me don’t fit in magic systems like these, that there just isn’t a place there. So that part is alienating all on it’s own. I don’t have fond feelings for this trope. On top of all this, Trans men just aren’t considered in most media. There’s a sense of invisibility to finding representation. That isn’t just what I’ve noticed. Glaad has some stats laid out.

I feel like i’d be more interested in a world with this kind of magic if the point was about breaking and challenging this exclusionary magic system. Or perhaps, centering a transmasc perspective about losing magic because the system is exclusionary and how truly fucked up of an experience that must be in a society that places your value in magic.

Even in the few cases where a magic system is trans affirming to trans woman, trans men don’t seem to exist in the creator’s eyes. I am not going to name where this came from, but it did frustrate me that in a specific world that called itself queer friendly, cis and trans women and nonbinary people could become witches, but trans men got basically nothing. Didn’t seem to exist. A huge flaw in a world I really wanted to like and now just can not engage in without being reminded that people like me don’t belong. I get enough of that in real life.

My personal feeling is “fuck exclusionary magic!” like anyone in these fictional worlds should have the ability to become a witch. It shouldn’t be locked to a nebulous gendered expectation. (It shouldn’t just extend to magic too. Gender locked hair styles and clothing and pitches of voices in games also fall into gender essentialism. “You can’t be X if you look like Y.” Is exclusionary and transphobic, just on it’s own.)

[treetrunk737464]

This is Fluorite! I made her and her pearl like a month ago and every day I go ‘okay, Trunks. You need to post Fluorite and Blue today.’ And then I never do BUT I’M DOING IT NOW

Fluorite is an Era 1 gem, who is- she’s my Amethyst’s boss, pretty much. She’s chief of the police. There’ll be more information under the read more thing.

Content warning for Dystopian themes, depersonalization, character injury.

| Basic Information

Fluorite is an era 1 gem, made way before the gem war. This is an OLD ass gem, party people. As we know, since she is an older gem, she is much better quality than the younger gems: larger, plumper, shinier. Or, well, she WAS shinier. Nowadays, she’s more dull. Unfortunately, a lot of her lustre was rubbed away from fighting in that war. Her gem is not as smooth as it used to be, I’m afraid.

Naturally, having fought against them, Fluorite is not really fond of the Crystal Gems! She’s seen what they can do first hand, what they HAVE done, and she doesn’t stand for it whatsoever. In fact, she has very adamantly negative feelings about any type of rule breaking or rebellion at all, which is a good trait in her line of work.

| Background Information

Fluorite works as the chief of the police force in Homeworld, and she takes her job VERY seriously.

…Well, relatively.

Y’know, even if she didn’t really like it, it’s the only thing she can do. In an era of little to no war, Fluorites aren’t really used all that much? They’re supposed to be leaders for war under Garnets. And there’s really only one police system, so most other Fluorites work as bosses in factories or harvesting plants which isn’t very fulfilling

So how did Fluorite score the job as the chief of police, anyway? As previously mentioned, Fluorite fought in the war. She’s actually one of the few who fought all the way through the war and survived, which was quite the admirable achievement, especially for a general!

So, for her service in the war, Fluorite got a few rewards and the esteemed privilege of being head of the police force! … the police force that contains exclusively Amethysts. Imagine you fight in a war for, what, 5000 years? Then survive, and to celebrate you get granted the opportunity to be completely solely responsible for a group of 500 7th graders. You’d feel a bit disappointed too. She feels more like a glorified Agate.

But no matter, it’s better than being in a factory. And besides, there is ONE upside to all this: Fluorite was granted a pearl.

| Fluorite's Pearl

A pearl. To be gifted a pearl is pretty much to be boosted right up to the upper crust. They make it catered specifically for you; they base it after your gem type, they put it’s gem in the same location as your own.

Fluorite was thrilled to get her pearl. It didn’t do a whole bunch, the pearl, mostly just sat around. It did what it was asked, as it should, but Fluorite liked to talk at it. She’d tell it about her day, and about the Amethysts she watched over, pretty well anything- she talked at it, until it started to talk back. Then, they’d have conversations- Fluorite would ask Pearl about HER day, and ask her what SHE wanted to do, and y’know, maybe she could upgrade Pearl’s resting place, give her some stuff to do that’s not housework, take her around Homeworld- what I’m saying is, Fluorite gets very attached to her Pearl.

They’ve got a little bit of a budding romance? Which, I must say, is not the typical relationship to have with a pearl. It’s not usual to be romantically involved with anyone on Homeworld, but being involved with what’s considered an object is like… really sad, to an outsider Homeworld gem’s point of view. So both Fluorite and her Pearl agreed to keep it under wraps, for appearances’ sake. Fluorite’s Pearl will be temporarily referred to as Blue for the rest of this.

| Present-ish

So anyway, back to Fluorite’s job. She’s noticed that one particular Amethyst isn’t really like… doing her job properly. Well, she is, kinda. She reaches the minimum quota every month, yk like the minimum amount of work she has to do, but she doesn’t do any more than that. She’s a super average officer. Way too relaxed-looking. And sometimes, this Amethyst calls off afternoons, or misses days entirely or disappears for hours at a time- the point is, Fluorite’s suspicious.

A bit more than suspicious actually, she KNOWS something is up. Normal Amethysts don’t disappear for hours at a time. Normal Amethysts don’t move out of their barracks into apartments. And after seeing Amethyst with a pearl, she knows for sure that this fucking Amethyst is doing something illegal! But Flourite can’t figure it out for the life of her and it’s pissing her off. She WOULD just fire Amethyst and get her out of her life, but if Amethyst’s doing what Fluorite thinks she’s doing, Amethyst could be shattered for it. And she’d MUCH rather get Amethyst shattered than just let her go- we can’t have a rebel on Homeworld just go free, no we cannot.

Fluorite gets Blue in on this. She uses Blue’s gem to track Amethyst down. The two go snooping, and it eventually derails into them stalking Amethyst around Homeworld. Amethyst doesn’t seem to be doing anything too interesting at first, until they catch her (and her pearl) sneaking into a harvesting plant in the middle of the night one day. Seeing as that’s illegal as hell, they follow them right into the plant.

Fluorite and Blue watch Amethyst and Pearl from a hidden spot. They watch as Pearl searches the harvesting plant’s conveyor for pearl gems, and they watch as Amethyst follows the gems until they reach the crushing plate, then they watch as Amethyst snags the pearl gems right before they are crushed, giving them to Pearl to store in her gem.

Fluorite impulsively makes herself known, causing Amethyst and Pearl to book it away behind the crushing plate. Fluorite and Blue chase after them, stopping in front of the crushing plate because there’s no way any sane gem would try to jump through the crushing plate. Except for Blue, who decides to try to jump through the crushing plate.

She is obviously promptly smashed and poofed by the crushing plate. The only reason she doesn’t immediately turn to dust is because Fluorite, the quick thinker, ran to wedge the plate up before it could completely crush down, then snatched Blue’s gem once the plate went up again.

Blue’s gem is absolutely destroyed. Intact, but absolutely destroyed. There’s no way Blue would survive, she’s got too many cracks and they’re too deep. Fluorite is obviously very distraught by this, and is completely distracted away from Amethyst and Pearl, providing them with the opportunity to escape.

Except Amethyst has been developing an annoyingly persistent sense of empathy lately. She gets over to Fluorite, asks Pearl to give her one of those pearl gems, and assures Fluorite that she would fix Blue. And, somehow, she did.

Next time Amethyst disappears for a few hours at work, Fluorite turns a blind eye.