#I know this doll has a role in a bad part of their relationship

[homicidalbrunette]

Trixie holding the doll Katya gave her like a little girl kills me

Bonus: the Trixie doll and the Katya doll now happily residing together in Trixie's drag room

[hootbon]

Since I saw someone else talking about their fucked up ideas, I am too lol because I suddenly remebered them. But, pretty much just how my lore making brain decides to look at characters.

Kinger: He’s a king chess piece, obviously. He didn’t have to work for that position, unlike the queen, no chess piece can ever become the king, but a pawn can prove itself and become a queen, in a way. Kinger is now forced to be a lowly magician, because he never had to work for anything on his way up. Cracks from pressure, knowing he didn’t do anything, and now has to make up for it, whist his queen, the one who worked to gain that role, is no longer around

Ragatha: A rag doll, something that is quite literally a toy, old, not many people would chose that sort of doll over the newer kinds. Tossed around, ripped, lost, decapitated— so what? It’s a doll. If the doll breaks, you can just sew her back together again. If she does something wrong, you can watch her unravel in front of your eyes until you decide to stitch her back together again, though no one really cares for fixing her. She can be replaced easily, and so easily broken, used and abused by people endlessly, that’s what she’s made for. If she gets too chatty, you can just take out your thread and needle to shut her up

Pomni: A ballerina, she looks quite beautiful when she dances, she is a living ‘doll’, a puppet. A puppet by the strings, not much she can do, but be there helplessly as the ringmaster tugs them. A puppet, also a doll, are just used by someone else’s hand, she has no control over what they might make her do in the circus, and she never will.

Gangle and Aingle: The two sisters, ‘twins’ even if one of them doesn’t actually exist. A false persona, a forever toxic relationship, in a way. Bound to someone who looks like you, is always around you, but acts nothing like you do, wants to be the opposite of you, in a way. With all that ribbon, Caine could really tie the loose ends of the circus, like the abstraction issue for example…

Zooble: Quite handy with a thread and needle if they do say so themselves. Almost like the druggie of the whole group, they let intrusive thoughts kick in one day and than… they could never have enough. Dysphoric, their body never looked normal anyways in the first place, so it didn’t matter if they took parts of those now gone and tried to use them to fill the void of their own ever ending spiral of lack of self-esteem, right? They never liked the person in the mirror, so they change it every day, it only feels normal to be scavenging the halls after hair raising screams of pain can be heard in the hallway, sewing parts together to make something they enjoyed. A bad habit? Of course not, they never see it that way, they are simply making use of what others never appreciated, and now aren’t around to appreciate

Jax: The fluffy murder set bunny, we all love him. His silly little pranks go from sudden silly string ambushes, to agonizingly terrible ways for any mortal being to die— good thing you can’t! Caine would never let you. He’s just a bunny, a sweet little guy who wants nothing else but to put a smile on your face— well, that’s a lie, all he wants now is to satisfy his needs, and out a smile on his face. What is he thinking? You’ll probably never know, ever since Kaufmo disappeared for a few hours and came back, starting to act differently from normal, Jax acts like it’s the end of the world. Silly Jax, it’s just all fun and games! Kaufmo needed some help, so Caine got our friendly twins to help tie up those loose ends!

…Basically random shit, character design analogies and random ominous comments I thought of on the spot for these guys

.

[aishabellasbigblogofeverything]

No, but can we talk about how, despite allegedly being a "feminist" movie, Barbie 2023 actually mocks the idea of a female fantasy and Barbie being an inspirational role model for young girls?

It's so upsetting that not enough people bring this up, even the other haters of Barbie, but it needs to be addressed. Barbie was meant to provide an empowering fantasy for young girls. A lot of people have differing opinions on whether Barbie is feminist or not and what she represents. But at the end of the day, Barbie was designed to give girls a role model to see themselves in, to show them that they could pursue any career, that they can be the heroines of their own story, and reach their fullest potential. She was meant to tell girls that anything is possible. And the movie not only shits all over that, it makes that feminist message out to be something unrealistic and bad, and even worse, portrays it as something that oppresses men and makes THEM victims, because everything needs to be about men. And it's fucking disgusting. Allow me to explain how.

(spoilers for the Barbie movie below...I mean, if you even care, lol.)

We start out at the beginning of the movie with an introduction to the magical world of Barbieland that our well-known and universally familiar dolls live in. Barbieland is a feminist utopia, one that many women would be eager to live in. Women have all the power, are well-respected, can and do pursue any career, and support and uplift each other rather than tear each other down over their differences(aside from Weird Barbie, who they do apologize to in the end). They are happy and free in their female-empowering land, they don't fear the leers and catcalls from men as they walk down the streets, they dance together happily late at night, and they are confident in their bodies. There is diversity in the Barbieland. There is a plus-sized Barbie, a transfem Barbie, a wheelchair Barbie, and plenty of Barbies of color. The President of Barbieland is a Black woman. And none of these differences hold the Barbies back from being able to have power and they are not treated any differently from the other Barbies.

Femininity isn't seen as a weakness. Neither is expressing emotion, and in fact the fat Barbie even has a miniature speech about how she can balance her emotion with her logic and this makes her a smarter person, which the other Barbies support. It's a world where women are empowered and have unlimited potential to achieve their dreams and live freely without fear of their oppressors. Stereotypical Barbie isn't even afraid to reject Beach Ken's advances, she doesn't fear being stalked, raped, or killed by him for saying no. She just turns him down, and not only that, but she turns him down in favor of having girls' night, showing that in this world, girls support each other and value their female friendships over heterosexual relationships with guys(I'll touch on this point again later). I don't know about you, but that sure as hell does sound like a world that I dream of living in. Minus the fact that all the food and drinks are fake.

But the story doesn't frame this matriarchy as empowering, like they should. It portrays it instead as something ridiculous and far-fetched, something that the audience is meant to laugh at rather than support, which becomes more blatant as the movie progresses.

And then we get to the "real" world. Where men instead rule over women in a patriarchy, and we see Barbie experience misogyny for the first time. And this was the moment I started fully hating the movie, and realized it for the sloppy, anti-feminist mess that it is. The first part of the movie set in Barbieland was campy and fun and happy and feel-good, providing the exact type of feel that Barbie brings. But the moment she steps into the real world, everything becomes sad and hopeless and cynical.

And I get that the patriarchy does exist and women are oppressed by it every day, but the way the movie executed this was really overexaggerated and cringeworthy. They made it seem as if women are constantly and completely powerless in every aspect of life, like seriously they didn't even show ANY women in positions of power and the only women we did see with jobs besides a female doctor, were Gloria who works an office job at Mattel and Ruth who is already dead and is for all extents and purposes relegated to the fucking kitchen. They made the world out to be a complete and total dystopia where women aren't capable of achieving anything and the only two women of importance who are from the real world are Sasha and her mother Gloria, the former is portrayed as bitter, cynical, and constantly angry, the latter is portrayed as stressed-out, depressed, and somewhat suicidal with her thoughts about death. Is this all that the Barbie movie thinks that women can achieve in our world? Being miserable and frustrated with no hope of achieving our dreams and desires? With no power or satisfaction in our day to day lives? Is this all that this shithole movie thinks that women can amount to?

And the worst part is how Barbie is derided and mocked for thinking that she has provided a female role model for women and girls. The start of the movie mocks Barbie for thinking that it solved all women's problems and completely advanced women's rights/feminism, even though Barbie/Mattel has never claimed that. Yes, she was meant to be a role model. But she was never portrayed as the be-all, end-all of feminism. Even people who look up to Barbie and were encouraged by her aren't naive enough to think that a twelve-inch tall plastic doll is enough to smash the patriarchy. The movie makes this up solely so they can tear down Barbie for something that it never claimed to do in the first place. When our main Barbie leaves to go to the real world, the other Barbies encourage her(as Barbies tend to do) by saying that they bet all the women in the real world will thank her for giving them rights. Which is obviously meant to be an overexaggerated and satirical jab at Barbie once again, for thinking that it has created feminism or whatever, and that sexism is over solely thanks to the Barbie franchise. Cute. Too bad no version of the Barbie brand has ever claimed that in the first place. Again, it's a ridiculous and false claim that only exists to further unnecessarily jab at Barbie and propel this backwards-thinking message.

And then when she gets to the human world she is mocked even more. Sasha and her friends laugh at her when she claims to be Barbie and asks them to thank you for inspiring them, and then when she says she loves and wants to help women, Sasha aggressively informs her that EVERYONE hates women. This movie actually has a pretty nihilistic view of womanhood, when you think about it. The Barbie world is portrayed as an empowering world where women can achieve anything that they set their minds to, and aren't held back by sexism, causing them to have full power, reflecting the female fantasy that Barbie was always supposed to represent. But that's just a fantasy land, and is portrayed as cheesy and superficial. When Barbie gets to the real world, she is confronted with the supposed "reality" of being a woman, and comes to realize that it's not actually about empowerment and being smart and capable after all, but about suffering and never having your voice respected, and never having any power and freedom but instead losing your idealism and optimism as you age, causing her to break down in tears upon realizing how stressful it is to be a woman and that she never actually empowered them like she hoped. Seriously, whose idea was it to make Barbie constantly crying and miserable and incapable of doing anything on her own? Is this the Barbie I know? No, it's a pathetic, nonsensical knockoff. I'm telling you, they were TRYING to tear Barbie down.

This is especially true when Gloria gives her entire speech to Barbie about how contradictory and painful being a woman is, ending it with "not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault!" Come on! What is this? It's such a painful and harsh message to try to send through BARBIE of all things, that the essence of being a woman is just pain, pain, pain and guess what else? More pain! How being a woman sucks because all you do is get hated by everyone and treated as an object worthy of scorn and ridicule. It's just so unnecessarily cruel, how they violently ripped away any feminist empowerment Barbie was meant to possess in favor of forcing her into a depressive world where women have no rights or value, and had the nerve to portray this as "realistic", because obviously more negative automatically means more realistic, right?

Rather than provide a middle ground where women face hardships and adversity but are still capable of rising above their struggles and finding the strength within them to make their voices heard and get what they want in society, they opt instead for a stupid false dichotomy: the world is either a stupid frivolous Amazon utopia wrapped in pink and glitter with girl power up the wazoo or a bleak, heartless, and grey dystopia where nothing good ever happens to a woman and only men can do anything important. And it portrays the second one as clearly more realistic and the "better" option. Which, in doing so, sends the message that a world where women rule and are respected and have power and are encouraged to have ambition and pursue any goal they want in life...is unrealistic and impossible, if not outright deserving of scorn. It's so miserable and aggravating. When Barbie said "the cognitive dissonance required to be a woman under the patriarchy" I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. THAT'S how badly the movie annoyed me with its nihilistic and negative preaching. I watched the movie in two days and when I stopped watching it on the first day I felt such a frustrated, hollow feeling in my stomach. I felt so unsatisfied. Like, is this it? Is this all I can dream of having as a woman? All that praise this shitty capitalist crapfest received for being so feminist and eye-opening, ultimately led up to this? For real? So disappointing.

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is when the movie introduces the KENdom, aka, when Ken brings about the patriarchy...and if the movie hadn't already been hot stinkin' ASS, this is when it would've REALLY started to drag, and where it REALLY reinforces the idea that women can never have any actual power and authority and must instead constantly suffer under the patriarchal status quo.

Ken comes back to Barbieland and introduces the other Kens and Barbies to the patriarchy and horses(ig no one told him that horses are a matriarchal animal, but whatevs), and within hours, revamps the world into a patriarchal hell, just like the real world(except it's portrayed as very childish and simplistic because the witers don't actually take the patriarchy seriously and think it's just "boys think girls have cooties".). And the other dolls instantly buy into it? First of all, am I really expected to believe that the Barbies, who have been established as champions of strength, power and dominance, and who have always ruled the Barbie world, would instantly and easily give in to Ken's brainwashing and allow all of their power to be ripped out of their hands, becoming the happy devoted sexy slaves of the Kens? You think they would casually be like "I for one, welcome our new male overlords!" and let the Kens have all the power? Am I really supposed to accept that shit? And am I also supposed to accept that the other Kens in Kenland, including the Asian one who competes with the white Ken over Barbie, would easily leap at the chance to oppress their female counterparts, rather than laugh at Ken for being silly and tell him to sit his ass down somewhere? Really? Don't piss me off.

The only way you could accept this series of unfortunate events as plausible is if you accept the fact that we're supposed to laugh at Barbieland for being a girl power feminist matriarchy in the first place. If we're meant to laugh at the women for being in power and at this imagined society for being so gynocentric and girl-positive, then of COURSE we're meant to laugh at them for getting their power ripped away that easily, as women could never hold power for so long realistically! Eventually the men would realize their true potential and make society work in favor of them! It's natural and inevitable! The Barbie movie said so!!! And so we watch as the intended "humorous" scenes go on and on, of the men happily running around, flaunting their muscles, and chugging down beers like it's going out of style, while the women happily submit to this newfound male authority, massaging men's feet and serving them drinks. Because obviously a matriarchy could never last long, women are so weak and fragile that any sense of power that they think they possess could easily be ripped away from them within a moment's notice. Peak feminism, everybody.

But it's cool, because eventually the Barbies prove me wrong. They DO get their power back, and establish their rights again. But how do they do it? Do they stage a coup and violently and angrily fight the Kens? Do they march for their rights, as real life feminists have done? Do they balance logic and emotion, as fat Barbie praised herself for doing in the beginning of the movie, and reason with the Kens that oppressing the Barbies is not the right thing to do? No, no, they...put on sexy skimpy outfits and pretend to be dumb bimbos so as to lull the Kens into a false sense of security and think that THEY are in control. And later on they let the Kens sing to them a song about how they want to control women, before turning them against each other by pretending to be in love with different Kens than the ones they were originally listening to. Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a feminist revolution! But instead of actually using their genuine power to put the men back in their place, they instead use their feminine wiles and dumb themselves down so that the men can feel strong. It is literally leaning into the sexist trope that the only weapon women have, especially against men, is their sexuality, and that this is the only way that women can get their way. Despite this going against EVERYTHING that Barbie stands for! She is supposed to be a strong, smart, and capable woman who can do it all and look glamorous while doing it! She is NOT supposed to be a fucking femme fatale, vamp, or sex object!

So not only do they have their matriarchy easily ripped away from them, but they also are forced to abandon their actual female empowerment and instead conform to the patriarchal status quo to get ahead. By using their bodies, stroking men's egos, and allowing men to mansplain to them. Because the only weapons women are capable of using are the ones men gave us. Because women are just bodies. And this is portrayed as a GOOD thing. Seriously, two of the Barbies even high five each other as they trade Kens at the fireplace, as if to say, "go girl, you are doing it!" Like, seriously, are we supposed to see this as a girlboss moment? Because I sure don't. It's giving "weaponized femininity". It's giving "eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man". It's giving "men are visual creatures." It's giving "kill me with a chainsaw right fucking now because I'm done with this shit." Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on how the Kens have a violent manly war, while the women only get to flutter their eyelashes and use their sex appeal. Because men are strong, women are pretty. Of course.

And then the worst part in the entire movie, the part that really infuriated me and let me know that this movie was the antithesis of feminism, arrives...the Barbies get their matriarchy back and are in power again, and everybody cheers and is happy, except for Beach Ken, who runs away to go sulk. And then...Barbie...fucking apologizes to him. She apologizes to him for casting him aside and making him feel unwanted and unvalued, and even says outright, "not every night has to be a girl's night." Why the fuck, movie? Do you remember earlier in this post when I mentioned how Barbie blows off Ken to hang out with her female friends, because it's girls' night, and female friends matter more than a guy? Sisters before misters, and all that jazz? Well, fuck that. Near the end of the movie, Barbie ends up apologizing to Ken for having a girl's night all the time, as if she was a bad person for not seeing how much she owed him and not hanging out with him all the time when she simply didn't want to. Here we have a woman apologizing for putting her girl friends over a man. The man doesn't apologize for making women his and his brethren's personal slaves. The woman apologizes for making him feel the need to go there by not catering to him, by being too focused on herself to the point where she ignores him, by being so empowered and strong that she makes him feel overshadowed, dare I say, emasculated, and thus need to reassert his fragile, threatened masculinity.

Because this isn't a feminist movie, not really. This is an MRA movie. This is a movie that, rather than focus specifically on the women and their problems, brushes their problems under the rug so as to remind the audience that "men matter too" "men have issues too" "men also suffer under the patriarchy!" And other such claptrap. I don't understand why the fuck cishet Reddit incels/conservatives/right-wingers/other such reactionary groups hate this movie and think that it's anti-men when actually it is pro-men and aligns fucking PERFECTLY with their bullshit line of thinking. That feminism oppresses and victimizes men, that men are the REAL victims of sexism/oppression, that women being granted rights is ultimately more harmful to MEN, that women need to be nicer to and pacify men and apologize for having too much power, that we all need to be quiet and listen to MEN and their experiences more. And I FUCKING HATE that. MEN have been listened to ENOUGH. And I am SICK of being forced to include them and their viewpoints more. How about instead of centering the Kens, we focus more on the Barbies and exploring THEIR issues, and using THEM as templates to convey issues about misogyny? Instead of focusing on Ken and his issues and his unrequited love for Barbie??? Instead, it was made all about the Kens and how oppressed they feel because the women are at the top of the hierarchy, to the point where THEY got the fun little dance number near the climax, RATHER than the actual fucking BARBIES that this movie was NAMED after. Because last time I checked, this WAS the BARBIE movie. NOT THE KEN MOVIE!!!

Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on that shitty ass parallel the movie tries to pull between the Barbieland matriarchy and the real world patriarchy. The movie tries to make the claim that the Barbies being dominant and the most powerful in the Barbie world is just the same as men being dominant and the most powerful in the real world, because the Barbies oppressed Kens just like men oppress women in our world. It also tries to raise the point that the Kens felt insecure and overshadowed by the Barbies and were treated as second-class citizens, thus they installed the Kendom. AND I FUCKING HATE THAT comparison for two reasons. The first is that the Barbies never oppressed the Kens or treated them as inferior in any way. They were simply more important because...it's the BARBIE company. Not the KEN company. Barbies are toys meant to be sold to little girls to inspire THEM. So of course the women are going to be the ones in charge! Why is that such a bad thing?

And the second reason is because I haaaaate the dumb fucking trope of "matriarchy bad because woman oppressing man is just as bad as man oppressing woman!" that this movie and countless, endless other pieces of media also try to push. Like, do you know why female-dominated societies(particularly utopias/positively portrayed ones) are so often represented in media??? Because the world we live in is so heavily male-dominated in almost every society and culture, and has been this way for centuries!!! Sure, there are and have been a few matriarchal cultures in society, but they are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of the world is run by men! Sad but true! And this allegedly feminist movie is for real gonna sit down and tell me "okay, but we can't allow ourselves to dream of a world where women are the ones with positions of power and men are not the privileged ones"? Hell no, fuck that. This movie is giving multiple people, both men and women alike, the opportunity to argue that sexism against men is "just as bad".

But women should be allowed to dream of our matriarchy. We should be allowed to fantasize about a world where we are in charge. We should be allowed to dream about a world where we are protected, respected, and catered to, and can live freely and without fear and oppression, without being told to "think of the men." It doesn't mean that men should be abused, mistreated, or oppressed just like women are and have been. But then again, the Barbies didn't even do that either, like I said. This movie, in its shallow attempts to "critique" the matriarchy(lol) ends up reinforcing exactly why the two aren't comparable in the first place. When the Barbies were in charge, they didn't oppress the Kens or treat them as second-class citizens. They simply lived their lives, going about their day and having fun while pursuing awesome careers.

The Kens, on the other hand, actively oppressed Barbies when they were in charge. The second they were given power, they leaped at the chance to treat Barbies like garbage, the same way that they somehow believed that they had always been treated. They treated the Barbies worse than the Barbies ever actually treated them, to be quite honest. They were the real oppressors, not Barbies. It ironically enough sends the accidental message that the world actually IS better off with women in charge. Can you really blame the Barbies for taking their matriarchy back again(I certainly was happy when they did!)? But no. Instead, the movie expects us to sympathize with the Kens, after everything they've done, and tries to portray the idea of a matriarchy as "just as bad" as a patriarchy. And if that's not an EXCELLENT example of a false equivalence, then man, I don't know what is. Don't even get me started on the audacious slap in the face that was "the Kens will one day have as much power as women do in the real world." As if women got rights and seats in high office because they asked the men kindly? Barf.

And then at the end of the movie, Barbie of course leaves the false, silly matriarchal utopia to live as a boring ass regular human in the "real" world. She no longer gets to live in a world where she is fully liberated and empowered and not relegated to a lesser human being with lower status. She now must live in the "real" world, the hopeless, bleak, and oppressing real world where she will be faced with relentless misogyny and looked down upon by men and society. The movie could have had her form a bridge between the Barbie world and the human world, trying to mend the problems in both worlds while still staying true to who she is at her core. But instead, she is forced to say goodbye to her past life, abandon all her female friends and her old home, in favor of living in a world where she is denigrated to a second-class status in society. Because the female empowerment Barbieland trumped? Is a lie. Nothing short of a sweet, comforting lie designed to shield girls from the bleak and cynical realities that womanhood actually entails. Real womanhood is adorned with thorns at every corner.

But it's all right, because at least she gets to see the gynecologist! That's her ultimate ending. Not actually improving life for others and herself and making the world a more equitable place for women with the help of the other Barbies, as well as Gloria and Sasha. It's going to the gynecologist. Because having a vagina makes you a woman. Yay! Some people have tried to reclaim this as a trans metaphor, but I highly doubt a movie as shallow and lacking in intersectionality as this was aiming for anything near close to that. And it's a crying shame that this is what the movie thinks is an empowering and satisfying ending to Barbie's arc. How pitiful, sad, and pathetic.

It's such a shame, as well, because the Barbie movie could have actually had genuine critiques of the patriarchy and how it affects women without making everything out to be pessimistic and dreary, and without trying to center the Kens and coddle their male fragility. It could have discussed beauty standards and the expectations to always be conventionally attractive and perfectly presentable to a tee for women(something that Barbie has oft been criticized for, and with good reason, and has also been brought up in the movie too, but of course got dropped and barely mentioned again). It could have tackled gender norms and compulsory femininity, and showed Barbies who subvert or have complex/unique relationships with femininity(esp women of color and queer Barbies, who have different relationships to femininity than white and/or cishet women), even include some masculine/tomboyish/butch Barbies who aren't portrayed by the narrative as the butt of the joke. It could have used Weird Barbie to portray both of these messages and given her a more complex arc and concrete role in the narrative besides being just a comic relief character who gets called ugly all the time(by both other Barbies and herself, which is just sad, self-deprecation much?) and then at the end of the movie gets an apology thrown at her by President Barbie(and also, who was she before she became Weird Barbie? The movie doesn't say, and that is such a let-down, that we never get to know who she was before.).

They could have showed lesbian and sapphic and aroace Barbies, whose characters could be used to challenge amato/heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality. They could have explored what Barbie meant for women of color, trans women, fat women, disabled women, and mayyybe not? Cast a conventionally attractive white cis thin blonde woman as the main/regular Barbie? Especially if they were going to make that joke about how a woman who looks like that shouldn't be casted for a character who cries that she's ugly(which raises unfortunate implications as to what type of woman would be correct to cast in that role...but like every other genuine aspect of feminism in this movie, it gets forgotten about and erased as soon as it's brought up.) But they didn't do any of that. Because this is a white "feminist" movie written by a white woman and created in partnership with a capitalist company for one specific purpose: To sell toys.

Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if they didn't try to slap a feminist message on top of that, and then fail at delivering their message, hard, so hard in fact that they sideways-shuffle all the way into (trans)misogyny. For all the hype this movie gained(from the same people who will then turn around and silence genuine critique of the movie's shallow portrayal of feminism with "it's not that deep, it's just comedy, you shouldn't have expected Barbie to ACTUALLY be introspective and profound despite everyone claiming that it was!"), the actual contents therein gave us NOTHING to chew on. Just an empty parody of feminism that was more about the Kens than the actual Barbies, and portrayed suffering in silence and manipulating men with your looks as the ultimate pinnacle of womanhood.

I can't say I'm surprised. I'm just disappointed.

[sirfrancisvarney]

So as the show is halfway through, and before episode four drops, I've tried to put together and organize all the information I've gathered so far.

In 2005 (18 years ago), Anders Lund found Tsalal station. Raymond Clark joins. The shots of the website don't show when everyone else joins, but some of them join within the next few years. The source of Tsalal's funding is hidden by several shell companies that link back to Tuttle United.

Seven years ago (or possibly earlier), in 2016, Annie Kowtok insists on joining her friend on her visit to Tsalal station, and immediately starts a relationship with Clark. This behavior is apparently unusual for her. Did she go to Tsalal specifically to meet Clark? Why keep it a secret? Also in 2016, Clark bought a trailer. It's assumed this was used to meet Annie K in secret.

Next year, sometime in spring 2017, Oliver Tagaq left Tsalal for reasons unknown. In April, Annie is killed. She records herself, clearly frightened and afraid of getting caught, on her smartphone in what appears to be an ice cave, saying, "I found it. It's here. I found it, I found it. My name is Annie Kowtok. If anything happens to me please--" she's pulled away from the camera and she is heard screaming. The camera view at the end is on the skeleton of some marine animal encased in ice.

On April 18, Annie's body is found. She was stabbed 32 times with a star-shaped instrument, ribs and teeth broken. She was kicked after her death and her tongue was cut out. Four days later, on April 22, Clark gets a spiral tattoo that match's Annie's. I don't know how long it takes to arrange getting a tattoo, so I don't know if he already had plans to get it, or if he got it because of Annie's murder.

Time passes. At some point, Clark turns the trailer into a shrine of some sort for Annie. The mannequin in the bed is wearing her cardigan, and there are baby dolls and children's toys placed around it, possibly a reference to her role as a midwife.

Clark covers his research notes with writing, including repeated phrases and words such as "her eyes her face," "I can hear her coming/moving outside," "cold," "dark," and "her fingers." It's unknown when this behavior started.

Fast forward to the end of 2023. A few weeks before the show starts, Clark's behavior becomes noticeably stranger. At some point before December 17, he obtains Annie's smartphone, which appears to have video of her last moments, and he is assumed to have acquired her tongue. He could have gotten these at the time of Annie's death, or at any point since. If he didn't take Annie's tongue himself, maybe getting them caused his mental instability to get worse?

On December 17, the last sunset of the year, a hunter watches as a herd of caribou get spooked from an unknown stimulus, and flee. It's unknown if this is connected to the events of the series, or merely meant to be symbolic. On the same day, the water in the villages goes bad, for reasons unknown. The mine is blamed. Also on December 17, the scientists at Tsalal are living their lives, relaxing in the evening, doing chores. Anders Lund is going over old data on a whiteboard (no spiral is visible on his forehead). Molina is filming himself making a sandwich, when he sees Clark, shaking or shivering. Part of Clark's hair is dyed blue, and where his hair touched the parka, the dye has transferred. He has clearly been outside in the snow. When Molina asks if he's ok, Clark turns and says "she's awake," which is immediately followed by a power outage that also affects Molina's smartphone.

On December 22, the delivery guy arrives and finds the place empty. A figure moves inhumanly fast through one corridor, but no other sign of life is present. The TV is playing "Twist and Shout" in repeat. He finds Annie's tongue on the floor underneath a table (several feet away from where Clark had been standing) and calls the police.

The next day, Rose finds the bodies of the scientists. They are frozen together, almost completely buried in the ice, bodies twisted in agony. They are naked, with burnt corneas and blood from their ears. Some have scratched their eyes out or bit themselves. Lund has Annie's spiral drawn on his forehead. Somehow, he is also still alive. (I don't know if this is important, but Danvers had to brush snow away to see the spiral, but Rose knew about it and told Navarro. Maybe it was more visible when she found the bodies and snow covered it before the police arrived, maybe Travis told her.) The scientists's clothes were found folded neatly near the corpsicle. The shoes look like indoor slippers, and it's likely that the clothes match what they were all wearing the night of December 17. A single handprint was taken from one shoe. It appears to be missing part of the ring and pinky fingers on the right hand (or they just couldn't get the print of those fingers).

Lund wakes briefly. He tells Danvers and Navarro, and I quote, "we woke her. She's awake. And now she's out. She's out there in the ice. She came for us in the dark."

Those are all the relevant facts concerning the main murder case (to my knowledge) as of episode three. I suppose I could have included a picture of Annie's stab wounds, but I couldn't make any kind of pattern out of them, or take a guess at what the weapon was. There's also the snow Navarro hit in the first episode, but I couldn't tell what it is, or if it's anything more than dirt and snow piled on the road. Personally, they do not suggest a microbial origin or cause. Diseases take time to infect, and they don't progress in everyone at exactly the same rate. The scientists were found together, practically climbing over each other. They died at almost exactly the same time, apparently in abject panic. I don't think a disease can kill that precisely. How did Clark avoid getting infected, since he lived with them all? Plus, whatever happened to them happened shortly after the power outage, since Molina' left his sandwich behind. One would assume he meant to eat it, since he went through the trouble to make it. The death of the scientists, the power outage, and the water going bad are all too closely linked in time to be unrelated. I wish I had a map of Ennis. I'd like to see how close these are in physical distance.

I also don't think there are any real clues to be found in the website. Their bios look about like what you'd get if you asked someone to come up with backgrounds for people studying ancient microorganisms in glacial ice. Plus, I think most of the scientists are ultimately going to be unimportant as individuals. Out of all eight men, Lund and Clark are the only ones focused on by the narrative. When interviewed, the cleaning ladies only mentioned Lund (yelled at them for touching his stuff) and Clark (his crying, probably over the brutal unsolved murder of his girlfriend kept them from being able to clean his room) by name. Lund survived (for a while, at least). Clark is missing and is closely connected with Annie's case. Oliver Tagaq mentioned Lund by name when he learned the scientists were dead. (On a side note, I really wish Danvers and Navarro (mostly Danvers) hadn't been so hostile when questioning him. They might have gotten more information from him if they hadn't gone at it like assholes. Granted, that's practically an impossible task for Danvers.) The rest, sadly, don't seem to be important. They are effectively ignored and dismissed, much like how they ignored the cleaning ladies.

So what could have happened on December 17, and how is it tied to Annie's murder? Honestly, I don't know yet. I'm not sure there's enough information given to answer those questions. Lund's speech and the way the scientists died suggest a supernatural explanation, but other details surrounding their murder seem to suggest more prosaic, human causes. There's no sign of a struggle at the station, but maybe someone cleaned up after themselves. The way part of the note at the bottom of the whiteboard is erased looks unusual, like it could have happened accidentally. Maybe someone got knocked against it, or their coat brushed against the board when they were writing the message. It's also possible the murderer was able to make them all leave without a fight. The power had just gone out, so maybe they all gathered together to put it back on? Where's the circuit breaker or generator for the station? Maybe that's where the actual crime scene is. The folded clothes feel like something you'd make a person do right before you execute them, sort of like making your victim dig their own grave. It could also have the opposite motivation: I could see a person not in full possession of their faculties (like Clark, or maybe one of the cleaning ladies in a fugue state) instinctively trying to straighten things up. Both feel like very human actions.

Finally, who is "she"? Is that even the right question? When did "she" wake up? The scientists didn't seem to be doing anything that would trigger her awakening on the 17th, so it must have happened before. I wish I knew more about what made Clark's mental illness ramp up in the weeks before sunset. It feels like there could be an important clue there. Too bad Clark is missing and anyone else who could answer the question is dead.

[charmstrangebeauty]

Doctor Who prediction post

I think Rogue is coming back as the Master:

Bad Guy playing when they met

TARDIS didn’t like him

The ring he gave him had a symbol of medicine on it - he had that ready to go

The name Rogue is an alias

Immediate chemistry with the Doctor

Would not be the first time the Master kissed the Doctor while in disguise

Flustered is a good look on you sounds like someone familiar with all of the Doctor’s looks

The Master would recognize the psychic paper and make up the “you’re hot” thing to fuck with him

Won’t say who they lost (the Doctor?)

Pronoun for person they lost was they/them (aka time lord with complicated gender relationship?)

Parallels in how the Doctor asked him to come along vs. how 10 asked John Simm

Kylie Minogue has big ‘the Master’s villain dance pop number’ energy

Jonathan Groff is a big (aka expensive) name to cast as a one-off

They’ve been teasing the Master coming back since the Toymaker

I do also buy into the “trapped in a TV show” theory (not mine - kudos to whoever figured that out), e.g.

The Doctor can hear non-diagetic music

Genre of show changed to fantasy

It’s also a musical now (someone sings in every episode I think since the Toymaker appeared, starting with the goblins, and nobody calls out that it’s weird)

4th wall breaks

Recurring actor keeps showing up in different roles

That promo image of a TV set

The sonic screwdriver looks like a remote

Bridgerton has race-blind casting but no gay people, which is why the dancing caused a stir but not the Doctor’s race (even immediately after Dot and Bubble) - it’s following TV logic

Ok so to go full tin foil hat:

Someone (the one who waits?) has them trapped in a tv show, maybe with the help of the Toymaker (because they are being played with like dolls) and Maestro (the reason it’s now a musical). The Master is probably also trapped (because of the tooth thing) and I assume will get a song as part of the TV musical because why else cast Jonathan Groff. Susan is probably also trapped since we don’t know where she’s been and name dropping the Doctor’s granddaughter with the Susan Twist thing in the same season is too big of a coincidence.

Alternatively, the one who waits could be Rogue/the Master stuck in that dimension the Doctor sent him to, now back for revenge in some kind of paradox that inevitably has to do with Ruby’s parents and snow, i.e. he could be the one who put them into the TV show and is just playing along for fun. That would also explain why the Toymaker thought it was funny that the Doctor didn’t know who the one who waits was.

[geekgirles]

Your writing of the gods’ interactions and relationships with each other in “The Doll and the Dragon” is so on point that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was revealed that Cra and Sadida have a great relationship with each other BECAUSE OMG CRA SINGS A NATURE SONG IN WAVEN.

She actually sings four songs but the first one called “Nature” is literally just her singing about, you guessed it, NATURE. Something that she isn’t supposed to be talking about, let alone sing, given her role!

All the songs that she sings are in English by the way. No matter if you change the language when playing, it doesn’t matter. The song stays in English.

She sings how she and the people will be welcomed by nature and be protected by it.

This girlie is literally singing a whole ass song about it!! SHE’S THE ONLY ONE DOING THIS SHE’S OBVIOUSLY FRIENDS WITH THE TREE MAN-

CRA AND SADIDA HAVING THE CLOSEST FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE GODS CONFIRMED ‼️😭‼️😭‼️😭‼️😭‼️💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛

(I just love the idea that one of the MANY reasons why Cra likes him is probably due to the fact that he might just be the only one in the god group who doesn’t oversexualize her to no end since he’s a literal plant lol)

Hello, again!!

Thank you so much for your kind words and OMG THIS IS AMAZING????

Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I wrote Cra and Sadida as close friends is mostly to reflect canon. Both as a reflection of Amalia and Eva's bond until I get to introduce our blonde bombshell into the AU and also because the Cra and Sadida are close allies by virtue of the Cras stationed in the kingdom back in season one and their use of Sadida wood to make their bows.

It'd just make sense if their symbiotic relationship were an extension of their gods' own friendship, you know?

Honestly, maybe this is me being biased given my love for Amalia and her people, but Sadida is also my favourite god. I'm not saying he is without flaws, since his own involvement in the Lacrima debacle is almost as iffy as Iop's role in it, but he seems to be chill overall?

The fact that all his daughters were literally made by him as opposed to the rest of the demigods, moreover, the fact that he actually wanted them to live with him in Inglorium when most, if not all, other demigods are left to their own devices on the World of Twelve sort of speaks volumes about his true character.

He seems like an involved father for the most part.

Maybe it is because he is indeed a plant, but his not having countless children proves he has less of a wandering eye than most gods. So it'd only make sense that he doesn't hypersexualise Cra, as you said.

In fact, you can see his true nature (pun non-intended) through his people: the Sadida and their powers clearly take inspiration from voodoo which, while far more complex than TV will have you believe, does have a bad rep. And yet the Sadida are the kindest dark magic users you'll ever find. They're a peaceful kingdom more concerned with protecting their forests than waging war.

And I just love that for them.

So yeah, I'm going to be pretty smug if it turns out Cra and Sadida are besties.

[fran-does-things]

I’m definitely very late to the party, but I’ve finally finished the profile for my @shepherds-of-haven MC! Oh well, better late than never, I suppose. She’s loosely adapted from an old DnD PC of mine from a CoS campaign that I had such a blast role-playing! It took a while to hammer out all the details, but I’m really proud of how she turned out!

Anyway, without further ado, please allow me to introduce you to Cecilia Niriviel, Hero of Haven, and gaslight gatekeep girlboss extraordinaire!

(also, if you saw me delete and then reupload this post like 3 times, no you didn’t <3)

(Warning: The following excerpt contains vague references to events that occur in Chapter 9 of the Alpha build) “On the contrary, my friends, I think this is actually one of the better outcomes that could have resulted from that conversation. As much as it hurts my pride to say this, even I must admit that I’m a bit out of my depths when it comes to all this… old magic stuff. But blackmail?” At this, she smiles; a sharp, predatory smile that would have sent chills down the spines of the toughest of men. “Blackmail, I’m very familiar with. If that woman thinks that she’s the only one capable of playing dirty, then it would seem that her little homework assignment into my past wasn’t as thorough as she thinks it is. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” - Cecilia Niriviel, in a conversation with her allies at the Sun Court.

Some Additional Fun Facts that I Couldn’t Include in the Original Profile

Chase has a whole host of nicknames for her, including, but not limited to: ‘blondie’ (her hair really is very blonde), ‘doll/dolly’ (owing to her large, round eyes), and ‘princess’ (this one comes up often when he’s teasing her for being particularly fussy/diva-like)

Celia has a particularly tumultuous relationship with beauty, like many women do, I’d imagine. She’s always been regarded as very conventionally attractive, which means that, for better or for worse, her looks are often the first thing (and main thing) that people notice about her. This has unfortunately led to her having developed a sense of self-worth that’s wrapped up in her appearance in some pretty destructive ways. A lot of her behavioural quirks are manifestations of this core belief. One of the absolute worst things that anyone, particularly a lover, could do to her is to make her feel as though her looks are the only thing that she is valued for; I think that would really crush her self-esteem and lead her down a horrible self-destructive spiral.

She loves cats. Or any other cute, small animals, really, but especially cats. If she sees a cat, she will immediately drop whatever it is she was doing to either pet the cat or just coo at it from afar if it doesn’t want to be touched. Her very obvious love of small animals is what helped to endear her to Tallys and Shery in the early days of her joining the order, who either wasn’t too sure whether she could be trusted (Tallys) or found her a bit intimidating at first (Shery).

When it comes to her stance on love, she's what I would describe as a 'closet romantic'. After a string of bad experiences, I think she’s convinced herself that she’s just not cut out for all this love business , but deep down she’s always retained that innocent, child-like romanticism. When she was a little girl, she’s always been fascinated by fairytales about brave knights and princesses, of soulmates, and of the power of true love; and I think there’s a part of her that’s still in love with the idea of love and is still waiting for her one true love to show up! (Just you wait, Celia; little do you know, your prince charming is sneaking up on you like an assassin in the dark ;))

She doubled as a black-market informant during the years she spent working as a courtesan, selling information about her wealthy patrons to anyone willing to pay her a hefty sum. Listen: long story short, the girl was stuck in a predatory labour contract, and she needed to make money somehow if she wanted to get out of it sooner rather than later! Occasionally, she would also take on small jobs like stealing, smuggling things, etc… It helped that she had developed a few contacts in the local thieves’ guilds from her days as a street-child who would go on to help her get her foot in the door, so to speak. This line of work has never really bothered her; most of her patrons were, in her eyes, nothing but predatory, hedonistic pigs, though there are some crimes so heinous that even she’s not willing to abet in it, or some people who she just couldn’t bring herself to harm. This is a time of her life that she looks back on with a little shame and remorse, in her later years. Just a little.

Celia was partly inspired by my own struggles with overcoming trauma. I’ve always been fascinated by the ‘femme fatale’ character archetype, and she is, in a way, my take on a deconstructed version of that trope. I think of her journey from ruthless mercenary to renowned hero as less of a redemption story, or of a battle between the good and evil within, but more of a story of healing and growth. A story of someone learning to overcome their maladaptive behaviours and moving past traumatic life events. Learning to stop being beholden to events that have long transpired and to allow yourself to just live life the way you want to live

Her closest friends in the Shepherds are Chase (twin!), Lavinet (bestie!), Tallys (big sister!), and Riel (co-mastermind for world domination!). She also has a particular soft spot for all the female Shepherd captains. I’d say the characters she has the most interesting dynamic with are actually Chase and Briony, but this is a story for another time!

There is betting pool among the officers on who Celia is involved with. Funny enough, for a very long time, Riel is generally considered the top contender, not Blade, which is just hilarious on so many levels. I think a lot of the officers tend to excuse their more suspicious interactions as just... Celia being Celia (read: a notorious flirt) and Blade being Blade (read: a stick-in-the-mud) and can’t fathom the idea of them getting together. On the other hand, Riel and Celia just play off each other really well, so I can definitely see some of the Shepherds extrapolating a romantic connection from their professional synergy. It doesn't help that they’re often seen together on the off chance that they both have some time off, or that they primarily communicate through cryptic looks and subtle eye-glances. I imagine that once Blade and Celia's relationship becomes official/more public, it would cause a mild panic among the recruits because "I thought she was seeing the other commander? Wtf is going on???"

Bonus: In a pre-relationship crushing stage, poor Blade is probably 4th on the officers’ betting list of ‘who is Commander Niriviel secretly fucking’, right below Chase and Briony. Chase and Celia practically invented platonic flirting, and there many who mistake Briony and Celia’s frequent sleepovers/girl-talk sessions as something far less innocent than it really is. At this point, I’m pretty sure she’s been suspected of sleeping with pretty much all of the captains at one point or another. Being the busybody social butterfly that she is, Celia’s definitely heard most if not all of these rumours, but she really doesn’t care enough to do anything about it most of the time, plus she finds some of these rumours to be so preposterous that it’s actually kind of funny.

I had no idea that Celia was going to be a Blademancer, and yet here we are! I really thought it was going to be either Chase or Red, but I think it just wouldn’t have worked out quite as well. The slow burn comes from the fact that both Blade and Celia currently have their heads stuck far up their asses, albeit in different ways. It takes Blade a while to realize/accept that he's even in love, and while Celia is self-aware enough to realize when she's falling for someone, she's not emotionally mature enough to deal with it in a normal way. There was a lot of screaming and cursing and "this can't be happening to me; I don't fall for people!! People fall for me!!!" They both learn to get over their fears and hesitations, however, when they realize just how much life and vibrancy the other brings to their life. I like to think that Celia helps Blade come out of his shell, to learn to be a little more selfish when it matters and helps him enjoy the beauty in life; meanwhile Blade is a grounding force for her; he sees past her smokescreens, reminds her of her goodness, and makes her want to be a better person.

If you've made it this far, thank you for indulging me in my ramblings about a fictional character! There may be more Celia content coming in the future; I've been thinking a lot about the events of Chapter 4 and might write something on that. suffice to say I've honestly really fallen in love with the game and with its cast of characters. I've found myself with a lot of free time this week (clearly) and have finally caught up to the update, and all I can say is that Celia and I are both currently having the time of our lives watching the drama unfold. Can't wait to see what else is coming next! <3

[granulesofsand]

Subspace with Programming

🗝️🏷️ RAMCOA/OEA, CSA, ACSA, sexual themes, references to EEGs.

TL;DR We’re looking for a way to build healthy relationships with alters who have no base of safe-enough. We think subspace, sexually and not, will help.

We went to a presentation about altered states in BDSM, and they pulled up an EEG of the drop into subspace. This specific one was of a person suspended by piercings, showing the brain activity going up for rigging and suspension, and then dropping from tall yellow to short red as they slipped into the fuzzy subby state.

The presenters talked about a spike a while after the change, and that for this person it was a moment of processing. They had been using their subspace to grieve, and that was the moment they ran a list of important people they’d lost.

We got to talk to the researchers when they finished presenting, and we asked about altered states in people with already atypical states (age regression, developmental delays, systems).

BDSM in Healing

The author of one of the only recovery books about OEA talks about why their CDD clients shouldn’t participate in BDSM, and we’ve taken issue with that for a while. Similar to how autistic people do well with proper BDSM, traumatized systems also benefit from learning negotiation and safer sexual practices.

We’ve spoken to our therapist about the grey areas where it might be better to stay away (if a system has poor communication, if system members will take on sex or pain as a job, if there isn’t control over switching during scenes), and we agreed that there was no one-size-fits-all for approaching sexuality.

Most systems have an absolute boundary of no sexual interaction for littlies. In the book, there were two contrary opinions about that. One was that any sexual encounter resembling what the young ones survived was bad, because there was no way to prevent leakage from whoever was doing it. That was the author, Alison Miller’s.

The other was that sexual NPCs had allowed the young ones to meet their sexual needs from trauma, and the children could then continue their age-appropriate development. That was a survivor story, and they created the NPCs to give safe-enough touch that eventually led into safe touch (with no sexual component).

And I still come at it from a harm reduction standpoint; letting inside kids participate in sexual activities shouldn’t be the first step, or the second or the third, but there’s only so many angles some systems can try before that’s the best option.

After this point, orange paragraphs are details of abuse.

Harm Reduction

Our left sidesystem doesn’t have many obvious littlies. The group we came from didn’t find value in children outside of exploitation, and we were assigned adult identities. It takes several layers of peeling to find the childlike states in most of us, so we didn’t have as much fear of accidentally getting a child in front for sex stuff.

The Left still has programming, but ours is more focused on external presentation (amnesia, silence, reporting), and the traumatized insiders are hidden away.

The right side, however, is child-heavy. They also appear to be adults, but they know their actual ages are younger. The right is where our ‘good’ alters were placed, and that refers to the trafficked and ritually abused kids. The ones who respond to cues, who fit perfectly into the role the perps wanted.

Some of the young ones on the right are the sexualized pets, dancers, royalty. Also worth noting are the clumps of shattered fragments; the organs, the rotting body parts, the broken dolls. The majority of the Horrors (tm) happened to people on this side, and they’re all so heavily programmed that they continue responding when called.

Cues and Triggers

The ‘perfect’ ones, who weren’t shattered, show up at front for themes of bestiality, CSEM, and torturous sex. Since building trust, we’ve discovered who comes out for what (there’s a curtain of mist or smoke when people are hiding). We don’t try to expose them to any of those things, but there are situations that draw them out by similarity.

One of the most shameful events we’ve made front-accessible is when our family brought home the dog they have now. We were maybe 12 when it happened, in our bedroom, and we have the memory because a left-side alter wasn’t fully kicked from front. The dog was a puppy, he jumped on everything before he learned better. He was big enough for our size, and he hit a pressure point that cued out a younger alter. They got into position, expecting there to be adults with cameras to guide the encounter.

We were fully clothed for that, nobody else in the room, and the puppy wasn’t trained to do anything about it. The littlie was confused, the puppy was confused, the left alter was confused, and that was it. The puppy was immediately distracted by a noise outside, so we opened the bedroom door and he took off.

This happens with the littlies we can’t talk to unless they’re in the fronting realm, and who can only stay in the fronting realm while they have an active trigger. We have interventions, but those are focused on the safety of the ones we find. We don’t have a reliable means of encouraging alters to remain safe and work on their behaviors.

We’ve gotten better at having notecards and alarms that redirect them to notebooks and apps, and we have them learn how to summon a few creature alters to talk. More and more of the people on the right are working with us, talking to others and banding together.

Before BDSM

Once they start deprogramming, we look for the structures and controls that prevent them from moving around. After that, we bring them to a safe subrealm of wherever they were, have them decide what changes they want (while the older ones look into what changes they need), and rebuild their area. Sometimes we have to move them elsewhere because of environmental risks or other alters trying to reprogram in their area.

Movement is the easiest for us because we don’t have many low-level alters who care to stay as they were. Once we demonstrate safe communication, they pick it up on their own time.

It comes back to sexuality and trauma. We don’t make anyone do trauma work before they want to (or aren’t resistant to the idea), and that leaves some of us with programmed urges. There are rules specific to every area, which is why some of them are still actively violent, and try to herd people into healthier mindsets for every iteration.

It’s hard. We’ve tried forcing people into therapy (which went badly with every plan we’ve implemented), having them talk with a mediator (it’s apparently subcultural), banning violence (worked temporarily until they found workarounds), and restraining people (we can do it if they allow it, otherwise Big No).

Why We’re Considering It

Some of us (not just the young ones) seek out unhealthy dynamics, or have problems we can’t solve before each person is ready. Once we start, it looks like doing system therapy for that alter’s subsystem, and sometimes for the nested subsystems — which is the same process but on a plane none of us see.

We need genuine cooperation, or at least benevolent deceit. So we’ve been thinking about what that BDSM research would do for us, internally interpersonally and with NPCs. It would be the most developmentally appropriate alters first, seeing how altered states bode with our subsystem switching (I don’t think we can accidentally summon the littlies to internal places), maybe trying to use the university’s EEG equipment.

Then, if that goes well, trying the NPCs with safe-enough versions of what the older ones were doing (aiming to avoid sexual exposure beyond the environmental cues they already know).

There’s so many of us. Probably all of us have young self-states, and there are at least a few hundred actual littlies. The idea is to get the altered state that helps processing, led by another insider (or NPC). It’s harm reduction compared to how they are when we find them and how they remain before heavy healing. This might be a road to recovery without the same pits of previous diversions. Then we can get to the phase of actually educating them and showing them choices in states where they really get to choose.

Thinking feels like catching eels, so I’m gonna end this here. Point is, subspace sounds cool and we want to try it sexually for adults and nonsexually for children. We’ve had progress with pseudo-sexual methods with sexual alters before. Wish us luck.

[eddiemunsons-missingnipple]

Who's there part 2

Pairing: Eddie munson x fem!reader x Steve harrington

Summary: During your last few days of your vacation. Eddie brings an extra guest to stay with you.

Disclaimer: this is a part 2 to this fic.

Warning: kinda dark, knife play (no actual cutting involved), unprotected sex, rimming (female receiving) squirting,face slapping, pussy slapping, role-playing, everything here is consensual. Established relationships. Cat & mouse play. CNC DUBCON

You and Eddie only had a few more days left until your vacation was over, and you'd be going back home. When both of you awoke the next day, Eddie seemed on edge about something. You hope he didn't feel bad for the role-play game you did last night. You told him you loved it. The excitement you got when he chased you around the house and just took you how he wanted turned you on so much.

He did scare you, but in a good way, the adrenaline rush you got from it all made the sex more intense. The meaner he was the wetter it made you. You hope he decides to do it again before you both have to leave. There is something bugging him, though, and you can't quit figure it out. Maybe he didn't like it last night, and the thought of that ate you up with guilt.

"Hey baby, are you okay?" You say to him, gently touching his shoulder.

He was sitting at the table looking off into space deep in thought. When you touched him, he practically jumped out of his skin.

"Uh, yeah, princess, I'm okay c'mere." He said and patted his lap.

You have a seat and wrap your arms around his neck. He plays around with a loose string on the hem of your skirt. Something is definitely bothering him, and you want to find out what exactly that is. "Hey, Eddie, can I ask you something?" Nuzzling your head in the crook of his neck.

"Go a head."

"Are you upset about what we did last night?"

"Did you not like it as much as you thought you were gonna like it? You ask him, moving your head to look at his face. Shaking his head no, he goes to speak up.

"Truth be told princess that phone call you mentioned has got me a little worried." He confesses to you.

He moves to get up, and you follow him. He walks over to one of the large windows and peers out into nothing.

"I don't want to leave early, that's why I called Steve to join us for the last couple of days we are here." He's still facing the window and looking back at you in the reflection.

"Is that okay if Steve comes to stay, princess?"

You think about it for a moment. You love Steve he was so kind, but he did intimidate you a little. When he would give you a stern look, if you said something out of the way to Eddie, it made you get all tingly inside. You always wondered what having them both at once would be like. You know Eddie's history with Steve and how they would bring a girl back to their place all the time and fuck. You always wondered if Eddie would share you though or if that was too much for him.

"That's okay. I'd feel much safer with two men in the house anyway." You go to hug him from behind.

"He should be here any moment baby why don't you go get nice and pretty, yeah?" He turned you around and playfully swatted your ass.

Running to your bedroom, you quickly get ready and put on a nice short sundress. You stop for a moment and wonder. why do you have to get all dolled up for Steve? He's seen you look your absolute worst early in the morning.

Steve arrived later on that afternoon while Eddie sent you to go get some stuff from the store.

"Hey, Eddie, how did you and your girl like that little phone call last night?" He said tossing his duffle bag at him.

"That was you?" Eddie gave him a shocked expression.

"I scared her pretty good, didn't I? Steve said, walking up to Eddie on the front porch.

"Yeah, well, you scared me too dick I was up all night worried about that shit," Eddie told him, throwing his hands around in the air.

"Look, man, I'm sorry. I just wanted to help get that fear in her. I bet it worked out great in the end?" He said to Eddie, nuding him with his arm.

"Speaking of her, where is she? Does she know exactly why I'm here yet?"

"Not exactly. I figured we could both tell her and see what she thinks."

Steve nodded and picked up his duffle bag and got settled into the spare bedroom.

You return a little later with the outrageously long list Eddie has given you. Pulling up in the driveway, you notice Steves' car out front. You immediately get a nervous feeling in your stomach and clench your thighs together. Why were you acting like this? Eddie would not want you to fuck his friend even if he's there too. Maybe your being this way because of how Eddie fucked you last night and it's got your brain all foggy. Walking in the front door, you call out to the both of them, but you don't hear a sound.

Your heart starts to race again, wondering where they are and what they are doing. You call out to Eddie and nothing. You call out to Steve and nothing. You're anticipating one of them to pounce out at you from around any corner by now. Slowly and easy, you walk down the hallway, still calling out for your boyfriend and his friend.

That's when you hear a scream from out back and run to see what happened. Running out the back door and onto the wrap around porch, you listen out for one of them. That's when you hear Eddie scream, and you bolt in that direction. Your nerves immediately calm down when you notice the two men doing cannon balls off the peer and into the lake out back. Putting your hand over your heart, you make your way down to where they are having fun.

Eddie notices you first and swims over to you. "Hey baby, wanna get in?" Shaking your head no, you squat down, and Eddie can see right up your dress. He bites his lip and pulls his arm out of the water to run it up your calf and thigh. You swat him away playfully, and he pouts at you. That's when Steve swims over to the both of you and the guys glance at each other and back at you.

The look they shared made you nervous all over again, and you stammer out how you need to start dinner. "Need some help?" They both ask in unison.

"No, thank you. You both can continue having fun." You couldn't get back into the house fast enough.

The way they were looking at you was almost predatory, and you hate to say you loved it. The way it made you nervous and had your heart racing was too much. You need to distract yourself with something, so you obviously do that by making dinner.

The guys came back in almost an hour later and dried off. They are acting as if what just happened never did. They go about their normal dynamic like back at home. One argues over the remote, and the other complained about what's on TV. You giggle at their interaction they definitely act like two annoyed brothers sometimes.

"Dinner is ready," you call out to them .

Both men stampede into the dining room and grabbed the food you prepared. The meal was relatively normal, but you could tell they were up to something. They would steal glances your way and then smirk to one another. Once again, that tingly feeling mixed with nerves and fear started to take over you.

After dinner was done, they helped you clean up. Eddie or Steve would brush up against you every once in a while, and you were beginning to think it wasn't an accident anymore. Eddie bends down to your ear and whispers, "Go sit on the couch. we have to talk to you about some things." Then he continues washing up the dishes while you run and do what he asked.

A few minutes go by until Steve and Eddie are both standing in front of you sitting on the couch. Eddie kneels down next to you while Steve is standing still with his arms crossed. He looks so serious all the time, and it intimated you in the best way.

"Sweetheart, remember what we did last night? The little game I played with you?" Eddie says to you softly.

Nodding "Yes, I remember why?" You ask slightly embarrassed now that Steve is standing right there.

"Well, baby Steve wants to play with us too. Is that okay with you?"

"I've already told him what you like and what you don't like. He knows your safe word is orange." He informed you.

Looking over at Steve, his expression still hasn't changed. He still has that same stern face that makes you tingle all over.

"Yeah, he can play too if he wants." You look at Eddie.

He smiles brightly and jumps up, and wraps his arm around Steve's shoulder. The way Eddies whole face just lit up, you've never seen him this giddy over something, and that's saying something.

"Me and Big boy over here are gonna go get dressed up, and baby, you better start hiding now," Eddie tells you with a sinister smile plastered on his face.

Running outside, you decide to hide in the trees, hoping they won't find you just yet. You peak around the large trunk and look at the cabin windows. You can see them hunt around the house looking for you. You see one of them opening closets and cabinets. Then you notice you only see the one. Where is the other? The sound of leaves crunching nearby struck you with immediate fear. Backing away quietly you to try to hide deeper in the trees. You can't see a thing it's too dark. Their costumes are all black except that stark white mask. Even then, there is no way you could see them out here. You keep watching the window and backing up slowly.

Then you notice the other one is gone too now. All of a sudden, you hear more crunching of the leaves. Your heart is racing, and your breathing is fast. You can hear one of them call out to you

"Come out, princess, we just wanna have some fun."

"Yeah, baby, we just wanna have some fun."

"Where are youuuuu." One of them sang.

You think you see a shadow of one of them and turn to run away until you smack into something soft but firm. Knocking you down on your back, you start crawling backwards when you realize you bumped into one of them. Scrambling to get away, he lunges at you, throwing you over his shoulder.

"Hey man, I got her over here. Let's take her back inside."

You try to wiggle out of his grip, but he's strong. This is definitely Steve, who is carrying you back to the house. Eddie still was a little more gentle with you than he's being.

He kicks the door open and makes his way to your bedroom. Your masked boyfriend is right on his tail. He lifts his mask up slightly to show you his lips and blows you a kiss. You go to catch it and press it to your lips before blowing him one back. He goes to catch it, but Steve notices the sweet moment and smacks you on the ass hard causing you to cry out.

He throws you roughly on the bed, and both men stand above you now. You form tears in your eyes and play along with the scene.

"Please don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you want." You beg them.

They look to one another and bring their sharp knives out, dancing it around in their hand. Your bottom lip wiggles and tears start streaming down your cheeks. Steve takes his gloved hand and slaps you hard in the face.

"Shhh, don't cry, baby it's all gonna be over soon." He grabbed your cheeks, squishing them together.

Eddie pushes him slightly to the side and starts cutting off your dress and panties, ripping the rest of the fabric along the way. He yanks your legs open wide for them, and you go to cover yourself up. That's when he removes his gloves and slaps you hard on your achingly wet pussy. Causing you to whimper out a moan. Both men decide to remove their masks and costumes with the rest of their clothing. They stand before you completely naked and rock hard.

"I wonder if she can fit us both inside of her at the same time? She would be so full and stuffed." Wouldn't you pretty girl?" Steve said, running the handle of his knife down your abdomen and rubbing the end on your clit. You stifle out a moan and bite your lower lip.

"Please let me go. My boyfriend and his friend will be home any moment now," you cry out playing up to the scene.

"Awww, poor little thing is so scared." Eddie said, dipping a finger inside your entrance.

Eddie looks at Steve. "wanna go first you are the guest after all?" Steve just looks down at you and flips you over, bringing your ass up in the air. Not give you a chance to process anything.

He begins to prod at your pussy with his tongue before spitting on it and licking it up and down. He sucks at your clit roughly. Causing you to moan out and reach for Eddie, who holds your hand. Steve continues sucking your clit and then moving to fuck you with his tongue. He motions to Eddie for something, and he moves to open the bedside table for the lube you both brought. Steve squirts some on the tight ring above your pussy. He puts a little on his fingers and slowly pushes his index finger inside. You let out a low guttural moan, and you clench around him. He fingers your fluttering hole slowly. Eventually pulling it out and spitting on it, then going in to kiss it. You jump and whimper feel his tongue work your hole the way it was your pussy moments ago.

You put your fingers in your mouth and suck on them, trying not to moan, but you failed. The moans you let out were loud and filthy. Steve began slapping your ass while he tongued at your hole. Your eyes were rolled to the back of your head, and you were drooling all over your blanket. Your pussy began clenching around nothing wanting to be filled so badly. Eddie sat next to you rubbing his cock lazily up and down.

"Fuuuuck Steve," You cry out in desperation.

He pulls back and yanks you roughly over on to your back again. He yanks your hips to the edge of the bed and aligns his cock at your entrance. He teases you with just his tip. Pushing it in slightly and then pulling it out to rub on your clit. Throwing your head back, you move your hips slightly, trying to push him in deeper. Steve notices and slaps you in the face harder than last time. Your face turns to the side at the intensity of his hand, meeting the soft skin of your cheek.

" Be patient, and I'll be nice," Steve warned you.

"I-I I'll be good, i promise,"

Steve grabs your hips and with one quick push he bottoms out in your tight cunt. He let's out a low grunt. He stays there for a moment before moving his hips back and slamming into you hard and fast. Steve is not being nice at all. He's fucking you so hard the bed is moving slightly across the floor. Eddie notices and laughs next to you, bending down and biting your neck hard.

He sucks and nibbles at the thin skin before moving lower and taking your nipple in between his lips. You push his head down, keeping him there to continue sucking on your breasts. He bites down hard, leaving a teeth mark that you're sure will bruise. You cry out a moan that's a mixture of pleasure and pain.

Steve is still fucking into you hard making the sound of your skin slapping the only thing being heard. You're getting close. You can feel the tightness in your core.

"Oooh fuck she's clenching me so hard." Steve moaned out.

"I'm not gonna last if she keeps doing that."

You can't help it he's pumping into you fast, and every time he pulls back then pushes back in, he hits that sweet spot just right. You don't care how you sound at this point. You're moaning so loud you know your throat will be sore in the morning. You clench around him again when his cock rubs against that spongey spot. Suddenly, Steve is pulling out and cuming all over your stomach.

He collapses next to you, and he tries to catch his breath. You're sad at the sudden loss of his cock buried deep inside you. You're already so fucked out you forget Eddie is right next to you or he was. He grabs you by the thigh and spins you around. Before you can comprehend what's going on he shoves his cock into you. He wraps your legs around his waist and sits up on his knees. He squeezes your breasts roughly, holding onto them for leverage. Then he begins pumping his thick cock in to roughly.

He stops for a moment and places a pillow under your hips.

He then gets back into his original position and starts fucking you just a rough as Steve did. The new angle of your hips allows Eddie's cock to really pay attention to that sweet spot inside of you. You can feel it build you up again in your core. You sit up and look at your boyfriend in the eyes while he's ramming his cock into your aching pussy.

"Please, please, please make me come." You beg him.

He pushes you back down onto the bed, ignoring you. His thrusts are becoming harder and faster. The spongey spot inside your velvety walls becomes more and more stimulated with every thrust. With a couple more of pumps from Eddie's cock you being squirming and clenching around him. You feel that tightness in your stomach, and it's impossible to ignore.

"I'm gonna come, baby. I can't hold it. Please let me come." Crying out so desperate.

You feel it liquid squirting out of you and soaking both you and Eddie. Eddie doesn't stop he only fucks you harder now. The sound of your soaking wet pussy is driving him crazy. He finally speaks up and you think he's mad at first. He just smiles down at you.

"That's a good girl soaking my cock just the way I like." He coos to you.

He goes to move and play with your clit while he's fucking into you. Your muscles are exhausted, and you don't think you can give him anymore. Knowing your boyfriend, he was gonna force this orgasm out of you if his life depends on it. You can feel him getting close his thrusts are becoming sloppy, and he's slowed down slightly. He starts rubbing your clit in tight fast circles. Making your legs twitch and wrap around him tighter. Arching your back off the bed, your orgasm washes over you and clench hard around your boyfriends cock. With a couple more hard strokes, he's cuming inside of your velvety walls still pumping his cum inside of you until he's milked himself dry. He finally stops and collapses on the opposite side of you from where Steve is.

Sitting up on his elbows, Steve looks over and examines your face. Eddie follows and looks over your body to make sure you're not hurt.

"How is our girl doing, huh?" Steve spoke up.

"Was it too much?' "Did we hurt you princess?" Eddie speaks up next to you.

You shake your head no too tired and fucked out to speak or form any sentences. They both look at each other and laugh. Steve gets up and gets your bath ready in the jet tub. Eddie has moved you, laying your back against his chest. He's scratching your head, and you hum in response. He bends down and kisses you softly. You try to deepen the kiss, but he pulls away and laughs. "Haven't you had enough tonight?" You laugh at him and shake your head no. Steve comes back into the room with two bottles of soap wondering which one you like the best. Eddie speaks up for you and tells him the vanilla one. He gets off the bed and carries you to the bathroom where all three of you enjoy the sound of silence. Both men take turns washing you and making sure you were not at all hurt.

Eventually, you all move to the living room and cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie together. Sleep taking over and overcoming you all one by one. The three of you cuddled up on the couch together until the morning.

[yanderes-galore]

RomanticYandere!Primis!Tank Dempsey (Cod: Zombies) with Fem!Asocial!Reader? He thinks she’s definitely playing hard to get, but turns out she’s just isn’t interested at all and refuses to socially interact too long with anyone at all. Asocial reader will obviously be useful to the group of course, keeping the zombies off them and is surprisingly helpful with other stuff, but that’s about it and she’ll just casually keep to herself.

Alright, sure, I'll try my best with this :)

Yandere! Primis! Tank Dempsey with Asocial! Darling

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Obsession, Slightly overbearing yandere, Slight manipulation, Dubious relationship, Brief mentions of forced advances, Delusional behavior.

At first I think Dempsey wouldn't understand entirely at first

Primis Dempsey is calmer and less aggressive than his Ultimis self so he tries to be understanding.

He even wonders if he came off too strong when he tried to flirt or compliment you.

Yeah, he probably wants to believe you're playing hard to get.

He gives you little nicknames, often calling you "Doll" affectionately or "Honey".

It does make him wonder why you're so brief when talking to him.

He may try harder with his advances, trying not to be too touchy but still comes off as overly affectionate.

When you keep turning him down he has to take a moment to think.

Dempsey wonders if it's just him until he actually takes a moment to look around.

You're useful to the team and manage to defend them with your life, but you never talk much to any of them.

It's not just him.

Hell, he actually feels a little bad for assuming you were just playing hard to get.

His intention was never to force his little lady into anything-

Dempsey tries to understand your situation even if it conflicts with his own feelings.

Dempsey wants nothing more than to flirt and make you his girl but struggles with it as he wants to be considerate.

He apologizes for assuming you were just teasing him and tries to lay off a bit.

This doesn't mean he's not interested, however.

Dempsey is still waiting for a chance to make his darling his.

He just needs to try a different approach in order to secure you.

Dempsey will settle for just being your friend and not forcing you into any sort of social situation for now.

In fact he tries to win over your attention by distracting others if you don't wish to talk fo him.

Fine by him, he gets a little jealous around others anyways.

For the most part in his obsession, Dempsey would try to understand how an Asocial! darling works so he can better know you.

He shoves his more intense romantic feelings into a dormant state within him until he knows you're ready.

Then he'll be your man and sweep you off your feet when you open yourself up to him more.

Then there's the other way to write this where he just continues his advances in typical yandere fashion... something more suiting of Ultimis Dempsey but probably what the requester meant.

In that case Dempsey may play a more oblivious role to your situation.

Instead of trying to understand your rejection he lays in intentions on thick.

In this version of events he's heavy on the flirting and affection.

He comments on your appearance, he suggests and implies little jokes or flirty comments, he really shows what he wants with you.

He'd truly believe you are playing hard to get if he was more delusional.

Even with your refusal he just won't get it.

In this case you'd have to make it clear he needs to stop.

After that then he'll try to lay off.

Overall, Dempsey may struggle to understand your cues one way or another.

He'll try to wait until you're ready...

But Dempsey only has so much patience... hopefully you decide to accept his feelings soon before he tries anything.

"Come on, baby... don't tease me like this!"

[dreamsoflennox]

a little piece on barbie's representation

i really liked the way that queer representation was done in barbie because it was subtle. i also like it when media goes over-the-top with its representation and being absolutely unapologetic about it, but the way that barbie had its representation there for those who needed it without making it feel so bombastic was really great for me.

as an asexual person, seeing that barbie herself was lightly aroace-coded was incredibly nice to see, especially because barbie has come to be the basis for heteronormativity in women throughout the years. they did also make some jokes about how not only barbie herself but the other barbies and kens dont have genetalia, which feels like a bit of trans representation as well. though not as strong as some of the other bits and pieces in the movie, it was really cool to see a joke about how the characters are all dolls become a genuine character device. i have also seen some lesbian shipping of barbie herself online, and while i think it would be a bad thing for them to be canonized i must admit that they are quite cute lol

heres where the sentiments about barbie's representation start to become a little more opinionated: allan and doctor barbie. ive seen a lot of people say allan is gay-coded, nonbinary-coded, etc. and that those associated with those labels see a lot in him. and i totally agree, allan ABSOLUTELY gives off those vibes. but ive also heard a lot of complaints about how he wasnt *confirmed* to be one or multiple of those things, or at least suggestions for future media about him having a boyfriend and things like that. i dont know about anyone else, but i really like how allan's identity wasnt confirmed throughout the movie. it seems like a part of his character to just exist, do his thing, and be himself. he doesnt have to be "non-binary" or "gay" or even in a relationship at all. he can just be allan.

doctor barbie is a bit more of an interesting story to me because she brings in a lot more discourse from the outside world. for those uninformed, the actor who plays doctor barbie is Hari Neff, a trans woman. obviously cool in its own right, because trans people dont often get cast in roles of big-budget movies. but what i think is really cool is that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with her character or the plot of the movie itself. she is not "trans barbie." shes a doctor. shes a barbie. shes a woman. there is no large statement to be had about it, no active push to say that trans women are women. because they already said it, just by her being there. and that is all the representation i need.

having character's identities worn on their sleeves can be awesome, and i love seeing media where those characters are actively proud about their queerness. but i specifically really liked the way barbie's representation just... existed. i could see myself in these characters *because* they are so complex, so individual, and yet they dont make it obvious every facet of their existence. which is a part of what the movie stands for i think. it isnt "blonde aroace woman" "gay nonbinary person" and "trans doctor." its barbie. its allan. these characters are people WITH identities, not identities with characters built around them. and exactly that is why i love barbie so much.

[madraleen]

Black Butler - Canon Eps Rewatch Commentary (part of season 1, season 3, book of murder & book of the atlantic) (*spoilers for the manga up until now, ch.210)

season 1 -*twirls hair* hiiiii sebastiaaaaan... teeheee -YUUKI KAJI WE MEET AGAIN! finny. -oof lizzie. i miss her -i'm very used to jun fukuyama as blue exorcist yukio and bungo stray dog ango, and hearing his grell voice makes me go "?!?!" -"this person is a hard worker," "that person is a hard worker," lies, all lies, have you seen how hard sebastian is working for his meal -oh dude, i don't remember how we met soma anymore, so seeing him this serious is so odd -is soma really like that? i remember him with more oomph, more pizazz, more... MORE from the manga :(

season 3 -heh, ep1 doing The Most to give us a who's-who -it's... it's the circus troupe... :") -miyano mamoru, miyano mamoru -SNAAAAAAAAAKEEEEEE -doll. -was i conditioned from the beginning to like dazai's voice acting? because i remember liking joker the first time i watched s3. i remember he stood out. was it a predestined path -YES! YES THAT'S SOMA, YES! YES!! -i have a problem and his name is miyano mamoru. HE'S SO ENTERTAINING -yes yes, this is the ridiculousness and playfulness i expect from black butler's sillier moments, thank you! -doll... if i catch you, doll... -WAAAAIT, first there's ciel on vincent's left and then there's ciel on vincent's right, IT WAS THERE ALL ALONGGGG -THERE ARE LITERALLY TWO CHILDREN, HOW DID I NOT NOTICE BEFORE THE REVEAL. the way despicable kelvin's eyes track the two children, the way it SEEMS like ciel's just doing circles around his father and has mood swings, that is insane omg -i love the phantomhive staff. and how ironic, isn't it, that they stay and protect ciel for the same reason the circus troupe stays with and protects their father -this is one of my favorite arcs, if not the favorite. i actually feel bad for the antagonists. they're criminals, but they're more complex than that. they have reason, conviction, a backstory, relationships. they're the villains, but they weren't bad people, only desperate. like, seeing beast's face when she's about to be blown up, seeing joker cry, it actually breaks my heart. also my heart breaks for ciel and his ptsd. and the fact that he chooses to let the children burn, it's so character-defining. i really do love this arc. a painful arc. -seeing ciel laughing at the workhouse, sebastian should be like "my meal is turning gourmet" -yeah, gimme a minute. i need a minute after this, i'm sad.

book of murder -you know what i love? yes, first and foremost sebastian and ciel are demon and prey. but that aside, as they are now, in their roles of master and butler, they're such a team. such comrades. -ciel about to give the performance of his lifetime over "dead" sebastian. and it's a damn good performance, i never tire of it. it hurts. and the staff's reactions are genuine anyway, and they're lovely -ciel to snake is like, "if you stay in the mansion, that's the fastest way to meet joker and the others again," and it's like, yes, yes it is, but not in the way you think -.-

book of the atlantic -dear lizzie. "sure, a man with snakes works for my fiance, no biggie." doesn't bat an eyelash. i miss lizzie. -oh man, seeing ciel protecting lizzie and lizzie trusting him knowing what comes next in the manga makes me tear up a little -i love lizzie. she makes me tear up, her story is so. -how ironic was it that it wasn't even our ciel that told lizzie strong women are scary? -i love this arc too -yes, yes, this, let's not forget that ciel and sebastian are funny together, and sebastian loves teasing ciel, and ciel loves to give sebastian a hard time. -undertaker, if villain why so pretty! -tsk, i love ciel and sebastian. -alright. i'm all ready for the new season :)

[pitxroxas]

your brain is very large i need to know all of your shukasa thoughts and how shukasa works for uhh reasons (<- definitely might not draw them maybe)

ouuuu ouuuu i went to bed early but i cccould not Stop Thinking about this Ask.

Shukasa could honestly go two ways, it could either be a relationship of comfort or healing. With the fic I just posted though— mostly on the path of healing.

Funny enough, Shukasa emerged from when I first started playing enstars (ENGstars if anyone asks) and I think either 2 weeks in or so, I got Shu’s initial and just shoved Tsukasa and Shu in the same team and my brain took that as a terribly good idea for a ship.

Digressing, Shukasa can take the form of comfort. In this “Kingdoms” AU i desperately want to write but i literally have 0 motivation to write it at all, Tsukasa struggles with loss and sudden responsibility, as he is crowned as King of his very own country— whether he’s ready for or not. Whereas to Shu, who struggles with regret and loss, maybe even grief, either formed by the loss of the King or… Mika. Anyways, shoving the two together and making them slowly find solace in each other has probably been my favorite part of the ship.

ho hum what else… OH YEAH!! THEY SING AMAZINGLY WELL TOGETHER!! Just listen to Endless Vide hollly shiit. I’m also not sure if they have a duet in Heart Aid but if they did im down so hard and bad for it.

As I was writing I realized I also love their motifs with their roles in their units. Like, a young King who was lovingly crowned by his very own Kingdom, and plans to rebuild it to it’s upmost glory. Whereas to Shu— a puppeteer who is slowly letting go of his strings. Not because he feels that they are useless, no, it’s because his very own doll is becoming a real boy— and has no need for those strings once more. And… combining that, you get that relationship from a King and his right hand man— possibly a Royal Advisor. (<- totally not a ref towards my Kingdoms AU hahahah)

And then finally to tie this all together with a lopsided bow:

Shu’s and Tsukasa’s designs just????? fuuwaaahh??? How their hair colors compliment each other, how the eye shapes if anything, tell a story to their own. How they just compliment each other. Shu’s summer clothes and Kasa’s summer clothes follow the same color pattern, almost as if Tsukasa got his clothes knowing that, “maybe this will catch his eye…”

anyways thats all from me waaah tysm rose for asking illyyyyy <333

[theangiediary]

people you'd like to know better tag thank youu @deanwinchesterpregnant @dyed-red

Last song: Outta Time - Natalia Kills (really the whole Trouble album) ((it IS a Dean song btw))

Currently watching: I've been having a weird time with visual media recently. Saw and disliked Barbie*, saw and loved Steel Magnolias. Very casually trying to get through late seasons spn.

Currently reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It's good, a little slow. A friend recommended it so I'm trying to get through before I see him in a couple weeks so we can talk about it.

Current obsession: uh. Kink, maybe? Honestly I haven't had a good obsession in a minute, I miss it 😔 but I'm exploring that right now. Went to a waxplay workshop earlier this week, camp later in August (if you're a east coaster and know what I'm talking about... Uh hiii 👀). Getting myself so many presents :)

Tagging: I've seen many moots hit already so taking the lame way out and saying: if you see this, consider yourself tagged!

*Barbie critique (don't read it if you liked the movie ok I'm a hater it will just upset you) ⤵️

It was fine, for an ad. By their own admission Mattel has been struggling as a business, so this- along with the theme park they're building- is to create a "Universe" rather than just physical dolls. The in-movie criticism of Mattel doing things for money doesn't it not true. Look at the sheer volume of collabs, commericals, etc that's happening.

(Same with the "if you want to make this point about not being pretty don't hire Margot Robbie!". Like, cute 🙄. You still did though.)

And as a dyke I was irritated by the treatment of 'weird Barbie'. I had bad vibes from the trailer where Kate offered the Birkenstocks as "truth" and the heels as "ignorance". And the other Barbies calling her "broken" bc she "got played with too hard".... making her only role in Dreamland to "fix" other Barbies while being sooo scary..... ew.

Which leads me to something that really irritates me: people calling this movie "queer"! No! Obviously Weird Barbie (played by a lesbian, and since it relies so heavily on star power/meta it's pretty clear what they were doing) treated poorly, and then Alan.. well. I know some Twitter Gays/Bi love to be "ooh I'm so pathetic and scared 🥺" so great rep for them, but the Kens dance being "homoerotic" after immediately following his rampant misogyny, creepiness/sexualization of Barbie, etc is not, in my opinion, good!

The second half overall was just bad. Ferrera's speech was basic (we've been saying that for 40 years. Happy for you if it you took something from it but did nothing for me). Hated the "Girlbossing through playing a bimbo honeypot" 🙄. Sarcastically grateful that Ken thought the patriarchy was horses otherwise he might have put up a fight! And don't even.. listen I was ready for Barbie not to be Confirmed trans/ace/aro, okay I'm not an idiot, put the final moment being a bait and switch- "is she going to a job interview? NO big bright smile for the gynecologist!" made me so angry. They really said "human womanhood is defined by a pussy 🙂 Please still be pretty, hairless, and happy 🙂". Are you kidding me? #feminism ????

A much better film about womanhood, growing up, and mother-daughter relationships and frankly, queer rep, is Steel Magnolias (1989). Hooo boy. Actually cried. Without spoiling it bc you should watch it, the characters actually had personalities, and conflict, and it felt like you could (and would want to) walk right into Truvy's beauty shop and be part of something. Ouiser was my favorite of course.

[mermaidsirennikita]

could be that that i'm getting a bit of a skewed perspective because of how my social media is curated but i'm seeing as much if not more hype around margot than ryan at this point? especially now that promo has kicked off and margot has some of the best red carpet promo styling that i've seen in recent memory.

Yeah, idk. I've seen a lot of hype around her outfits, and to be clear, these aren't just great promo outfits, but the BEST styling choices Margot has selected in basically her entire career. She is NOTORIOUS for having horrid style, lol, which I think is more noticeable because she's obviously a gorgeous, very conventionally attractive woman. Who should be easy to dress! But Kate Young is, frankly, super bad at her job and somehow botched it constantly (and not just with Margot). Andrew Mukamal started styling her more this year, and while I wouldn't say he's like... Law level, he really seems to have shown out for the Barbie press tour.

But, idk--Ken is having so much official promo dedicated to him. There's the "I'm Just Ken" song/promo tour. He's got the memorable parts of the teasers--the cheesing for the camera, the moment with the doctor, the sleepover. And the thing is, lol, Barbie is just as bland as Ken in doll form; she has more going for her, really, in that she has all the jobs. Ken just tends to get bumped up a lot in terms of being the Fun One, and to be fair that was a thing before this movie (Life in the Dreamhouse is another time I can remember Ken being the "meme worthy" one) but here it's even bigger.

I really do tend to wonder if some of it does have to do with Margot's career and rep kind of taking several hits before this. Although I loved Birds of Prey, it got zero support from DC and came out at a pretty unfortunate time; Amsterdam not only bombed, but made her look bad/hypocritical; she's gotten slammed a lot for not only the Russell association, but fawning over Brad Pitt in the press when backlash against him is rising; the 1920s movie was, I'll be honest, not only one of the worst movies I've seen in my life, but like... the pinnacle of an actress going so hard for an actor and ending up looking cringe as hell. You saw the attempt at rallying around her performance in online spaces, but she was never in serious contention because the truth was that the movie did laughably bad and her role was also really, really bad.

Whereas Ryan has been at this shit forever and had every form of image he could have without ever getting too bad. He was a teenybopper, he was a Rising Serious Star, he was a heartthrob, he was a part of a major tabloid relationship, he stepped back and settled down and became known as a wife and kids guy, he's done action, he's done comedy, he's tried real hard for an Oscar but, and this may be crucial lol, took time off after that didn't work. I'm not a stan, but I think he's been pretty smart about his career (and of course, had the benefit of being a cis white dude).

Idk. Margot just had a lot of bombs in a row for an actress in this stage of her career, in one case a LEGENDARILY major bomb; and we all know how harsh execs can be. But all of it could be my social media feed as well, where I think a lot of my mutuals are kind of over her. And part of it could also be the execs not knowing how to sell this movie and using Ken to be like "look how funny it is" because feminism is scary, even when it's the most basic, simplistic feminism on earth as Greta movies tend to specialize in.

[siren-nate]

!! !!

I'll stick to ones you (probably) don't know about, rather than going over G7 or AGB again-

This is Salvage the Accident, my Sonic OC! Basically a robot that was born by complete accident in Eggman's personal junkyard, out of bits and pieces from tons of discarded one-time bots throughout the series (Silver Sonic, Tails Doll, Mecha Sonic, Mecha Knuckles, an Artificial Chaos droid, E-101 Beta MK 2, Hei Hou, Shiversaw). Eggman promptly recruited them, and they have something of a complicated relationship.

Salvage is not naive or stupid, but they're also good-hearted and don't really agree with everything Eggman is trying to do. At the same time, though, they continue to work for him because they think that they can keep him from becoming a truly terrible person by being a positive influence on him, and they're sort of right; a lot of Eggman's better qualities come from genuine care for his sapient creations. So, despite working for the main villain, Salvage is pretty personable and kind, and has more of a good-natured rivalry with the heroes after their first few encounters.

These reference images of them were drawn by my bestie @houndfaker! Also, nobody will believe me, but I had the idea for Salvage years before the Scrapnik Island comics series that explores very similar themes.

I don't have a ref for this next one, but my Kid Icarus OC is named Apollo, named after the Greco-Roman god of music of the same name. They're genderfluid and can pitch their voice to sing any way they like, but always keep a consistent appearance, because I didn't want to fall into that whole genderfluid shapeshifter trope after consulting with my trans friends. Despite being formally recognized as the god of music, Apollo moreso considers themself the god of humans and humanity, since music is a purely human creation and Apollo was born from humanity's collective frustration and discontentment towards all of the gods.

Because of that, Apollo has an innate distrust and resentment of nearly all other gods and godly figures - even the pure "good" ones like Palutena and Pit, Apollo finds wrongs in and disagrees with. They're not totally unreasonable to, either, since I think a badly under-explored theme in Uprising is that Palutena doesn't always know what's best for the world, and Pit is a little too dependent on her direction despite being unwaveringly kind and fearless and strong. I have a whole original storyline framework written out where Apollo is pretty much playing the part of the bad guy, dethroning all of the other gods and stealing vital magical artifacts to gain a piece of their power, eventually ending with them on the throne as Top God with tons of plans to fix absolutely everything they see as wrong with the world!

...But then, obviously, they learn that things are more complicated than that, and no one person - no matter how well-intentioned - can ever know what's best for the entire world. After making a colossal mistake and begging everyone for help fixing it, Apollo gives up on their plans. But despite that, the fact that they shook up the status quo so hard did enact a ton of positive change in how godly affairs work, so they manage to avoid falling into despair and keep up an active role in representing the helpless humans, making sure they never suffer unjustly due to godly fallout.