#I was not intentionally targeting anyone or trying to cause a fight

[yearning-butch]

Seriously you can't shout do your own research but not actually do your own research. Because I researched what you were talking about and I found many pictures from the 70s of groups of lesbians that include bisexual women and trans men. Maybe you could actually do the research you claim to have done instead of pulling things out of your ass so you can pretend to be the ultimate authority on people's identity?

Wasn’t pretending to be the ultimate authority on anything really. I made one rant post on my private side blog and specifically didn’t tag it so it wouldn’t be targeting anyone. Y’all sought that post out to start a fight.

Bi lesbian was a term used in the 80s and 90s but has since fallen out of use because queer folks recognized the separation of the two identities. THAT is the historical context. Bisexual folks and trans men and lesbians have fought for equality side by side and form close friendships. There is some overlap in the way younger queer folks may cycle through all of those identities before finding who they really are. A lot of lesbians identified as bi before unpacking their comphet. A lot of bi folks identified as lesbians before eventually realizing they were attracted to men and bisexuality was a better fit. A lot of people who thought they were lesbians later came out as trans men. But at the same time, each of these identities also has things that make them very different lived experiences. That is something recognized on all sides of the fence.

Masculinity is historically important to lesbianism, yes! I recognize that! Hell, I am trans masc, I use primarily they/them pronouns and claim butch as an identity. I’m very aware of the gender fuckery that exists within the lesbian community, I’m very aware of masculine terms being commonly used among masc and butch lesbians. Butch boys are incredible! Butch husbands and boyfriends are great! Lesbians that use he/him pronouns rock! Nonbinary, gender-fluid, etc lesbians are to be celebrated! Trans masc lesbians are cool as fuck, as are trans women lesbians!

But lesbianism has still always excluded men. It is central to lesbianism as an identity. Lesbianism is attraction to non men. That doesn’t exclude masculine folks, and it doesn’t exclude trans women (because trans women, get this, aren’t men!), just men.

[cosmicjoke]

Love seeing people trying to downplay the damage Kenny caused Levi growing up.

In what world would anyone call Kenny a good guardian or father-figure?

The only reason anyone would do that is if they have some ulterior agenda of wanting to downplay the overall horror of Levi's childhood. And the only reason anyone would want to do that is either because they're trying to push this notion that some other character had it worse, or because they're trying to be intentionally argumentative against blogs they've decided to target.

Why can't they just admit Levi's childhood was hell, and that Kenny actively contributed to that hell? There's a reason Levi was okay with dying when he went to confront those men in "Bad Boy".

Also, this idea that Kenny wasn't physically violent with Levi... lol, okay. How do people think Kenny taught Levi to fight? Where do people think Levi got the idea that physical violence is a good way to get people to comply? That it's an effective form of discipline? I guess we're supposed to just assume the man who made a sport of murdering people was super gentle and sweet with the child in his care? The same man who clearly thought nothing of murdering other children. The same man who tried in earnest to kill Levi during the Uprising arc. Anyone who doesn't get why that's messed up, or doesn't see how that shows Kenny's abusive behavior toward Levi, is a fool and morally bankrupt. Thinking it's appropriate to test your pet projects skills by trying in earnest to murder them, shows that Kenny also thought Levi would have deserved to die if he wasn't able to properly defend himself. That is the height of abusive treatment. That's like a parent that refuses to provide food to their child, insisting to them that if they can't get it for themselves, then they deserve to starve. Honestly, fuck anyone who tries to defend Kenny trying to kill Levi, or tries to frame it as some act of love or caring on his part.

Kenny was a serial killer, and a man who's entire philosophy in life centered around this idea of power and strength, and who saw that generally in physical terms. And it's plainly implied, from the scene when he abandons Levi, that he used to test Levi's skills by throwing him into fights against grown men. There's a crowd gathered, meaning it was in some way an advertised event, and Kenny is part of that crowd, standing by and watching, and at the end of the fight, Levi looks to Kenny for approval, which all indicates this was something Kenny regularly put him through to test his skill, to see if Levi was ready to be left on his own, yet. Levi looks at him as if to ask "Did I do good?". Which, again, heavily implies Kenny regularly put Levi through fights like this to test his skill. When Levi finally won a fight, that's when Kenny walked away, which is what led Levi to believing he'd disappointed Kenny somehow, or was somehow at fault for his abandonment.

To assume Kenny never attempted to test Levi's skills before then is absurd. Kenny wasn't going to let himself be saddled with Levi and the responsibility of raising Levi forever. He wouldn't have been able to just assume his Ackerman power would awaken, since we know from Kuchel and Mikasa's father that it didn't awaken for every Ackerman. So he taught Levi to fight, and would have needed to test those skills of Levi's somehow. You can't teach someone to fight through demonstration alone. You need to actually either match yourself against them physically, or match them against someone else physically, meaning actual, physical altercation. That's also how Annie learned to fight.

Like I said, it's pretty clear to me that certain people are just trying to downplay what Levi went through growing up, and there can only be some ulterior agenda fueling that, because nobody in their right mind would try to claim Kenny wasn't abusive. He was the definition of abusive. Physically, mentally, verbally, emotionally. And he clearly neglected the shit out of Levi, too, because we know from "Bad Boy" that Kenny regularly just fucked off to wherever and left Levi on his own long enough for Levi to be able to find the kind of trouble he did in that story.

Using Levi's good nature as proof, also, that Kenny didn't treat him badly? Or the fact Levi doesn't hate Kenny as proof of that? Levi doesn't hate anyone in the series (except Zeke, for good reason). One of his defining qualities is how nonjudgmental he is. His ability to empathize and understand other people and their perspectives. He isn't at all given to bitterness or resentment. People constantly insult him, and he never even reacts. He never tries to defend himself against other people's mistreatment of him. He isn't petty. He doesn't hold grudges, or seek out revenge (don't talk to me about Zeke. If you don't get by now that that wasn't about revenge, then I can't help you.). That isn't the kind of person Levi is. His real anger at Kenny at the beginning of their confrontation in the Uprising arc is because Kenny blew Nifa's head off right in front of him. So this idea that it must be proof of Kenny's good treatment of Levi growing up, because Levi doesn't despise Kenny, or want to make him pay for what he did to him, is nothing but bullshit. It also doesn't take into account that Levi undoubtedly internalized Kenny's treatment of him growing up and thought he somehow deserved it. Just like he thought the reason Kenny left him had to be because of something he'd done, or failed to be.

Also, Kenny saved Levi in his darkest moment, when Levi was starving to death, after watching his mother succumb to disease and die right in front of him. Similar to how Mikasa ended up imprinting onto and falling in love with Eren for saving her in her darkest moment, you know the same happened to Levi with Kenny. And yet we all know how abusive Eren was toward Mikasa, how he mistreated her. She still loved him, despite that. It's normal for people who associate someone with their salvation to view them in a more idealized light than they deserve, and it isn't at all indicative of a lack of abuse on that person's part.

Again, this absurd tendency on these people's parts to try and give credit for the way Levi turned out to anyone but Levi himself. That's so damned insulting to Levi as a person. Levi turned out the way he did in spite of the way he was treated by the people in his life growing up, not because of it. When you try to give the credit for Levi's kindness and compassion to Kenny, or anyone else, that's the same as saying "you're trauma makes you stronger", or "I'm as good and strong as I am because I was put through hard times". It's such bullshit.

I'm sick of the clowns I keep seeing who want to push this idea that Levi didn't have it so bad. By ignoring what happens in "Bad Boy", by acting like what Levi went through, and the way those men treated him, wasn't as bad as all that, by downplaying the ways in which Kenny fucked Levi up, by acting like Levi wasn't plainly displaying suicidal ideation, by ignoring the implications of that realization, by ignoring Levi's passivity and non-reaction to those men's treatment of him, also dismissing all of the implications of that.

You people are exposing yourselves for the insensitive and agenda drive jokes you are by insisting that Levi's childhood was anything less than horrifically traumatizing and damaging to him as a person, or by trying to claim that childhood didn't leave a permanent mark on Levi as a person.

You're also denying Levi the credit he deserves for coming through the shitshow that was his childhood, not unscathed, but still a good man. You're denying him the admiration he's entitled to for being able to retain his goodness in the face of his trauma, loss, grief and pain.

I deeply resent anyone who does that. I really, really do.

[artpoint420]

Lately I’ve really been wondering what the atrocious thing Jax will do that “no one in the fandom will appreciate.” It will be something that will make him ireedemable.

Well, first, I’m setting some criteria for what constitutes and unforgivable action:

1. the action is unfixable, with no chance of redemption via fixing the mistake

2. The action will have real, permanent consequences and Jax knows this and still willingly does what he wants to do anyway

3. The action will get no real remorse from Jax, perhaps self-loathing, but no actual expression of care for whom he hurt.

4. (By editing me!) It would have to be something inexcusable by any context or backstory or reason Jax has.

So far my best prediction with the most evidence backing it as a theory is this: Jax will bully gangle into abstraction.

We already know Jax and Gangle have a very… concerning relationship. Yes Jax specifically targets all the girls in the cast, but he seems to have a lot more control over Gangle with his reference to Gangle’s figures, which Gangle doesn’t want anyone to know about. We also know Jax gave Gangle her name, also emphasizing the power-bond he has with her. Gangle didn’t choose her name, he did, and probably pushed her into accepting it even if she didn’t like it.

He also is responsible constantly for breaking or losing Gangle’s happy mask, be it more or less intentionally. He just doesn’t care.

If Jax were to reveal Gangle’s secret or even hurt Gangle in a more personal way.. or maybe just be “the straw that broke the camel’s back” Gangle could abstract, and I imagine that Jax will even blame Gangle for this saying it’s just because she’s a baby or something demeaning. (I’ll never forget him calling Gangle “agreeable and submissive.”)

After this he’ll either just not care or fall into self-loathing, not out of care for anyone but because of feeling sorry for himself because no one likes him, and I imagine even Ragatha won’t fain kindness to him if he does this to Gangle. In fact I’d love to see Ragatha fucking snap and try to kill him. (So yes, inexcusable under any context)

Yes, I’m aware of all the fan comics that feature Jax calming Gangle as she starts to abstract, and I truly love them, and I adore the fanon version of Jax to no end. But I sincerely doubt it will make it into canon just because of what we know. It sucks, but we need to allow Gooseworx to create her vision of the show. There’s always fanart and fanon content to fill the void of a “bully with a heart of gold Jax.”

Along with this though, I wonder if Jax played a role in causing Kaufmo to abstract, as there was indication the two were close, probably having formed a bond over a love of pranks, but perhaps got into a fight?

Anyway I made this on my work break so I’m sorry it sounds rushed.

[t0818ru2]

What are the stand abilities, my guy

The stands go from one extreme to another. They are either super simple or super complex. I will try not to go into too much detail:

If something is written like shit, I'm sorry, I'm literally using translator lol

[BORN FOR GREATNESS]: Object Shapeshifting

BFG can transform objects into other objects. The limitations are:

1.The size, it can't shapeshift something bigger than a bike.

2.Any organic matter or liquid can't be shapeshifted. It must be partially solid.

3.If the object is composed of multiple pieces, the user has to know how it works internally to replicate it.

4.The mass, the object the usser want to transform must have similar mass and size.

5.It can't transform a object into a non-object. This rule is quite complicated to explain, For examble: The user can shapeshift a rock in to a Knife or Tennis Ball, but not the other way around, like a PIECE of gold or a PIECE uranium, or a PIECE of something. MUST be an usable Object (Chair, Gun, a Box). Also, must be a credible and possible object of its existence.

BGF or the user needs to be in contact with the object he/it wants to shapeshift. However, it can also delay its effects for a few seconds or cancel it in the middle of the transformation.

[Any questions regarding these rules can be answered and asked. I have no problem answering any questions that arise from these unnecessarily complicated powers lol.]

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[COSMIC LOVE]: Super Speed / Cement Slime / Slow Invisibility

As the name implies, CL can move at surprising speeds. She can climb any surface. The saliva that CL leaves behind wherever she passes can be solidified at the user's will. In this way, the user plays a more defensive role. She can also use the saliva to create walls, bridges or small simple structures. The solidified slime is quite resistant, it is not exactly cement as the name of the ability indicates, but a more resistant material than sewage. It can be broken with enough force, it is not exactly indestructible. Lastly, when CL moves slowly, she becomes completely invisible to anyone, whether they are a stand user or not.

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[NAKED DEATH]: Sword Manifestation / Foldable, Bendable and Extendable Sword

ND can take the appearance of an innocent caterpillar and hide anywhere. The caterpillar can transform into a sword whenever the user wants. This sword has a fairly long range, it can bend and stretch as much as the user wants but it cannot become wider. A very useful ability that ND has is that it can channel psionic energy to become sharper. By channeling psionic energy it also allows the user (being a goldblood) to place their mind into the sword and in this way sense other psionic energies around them and through walls. It is worth noting that this ability is the user's own and not the sword's. In this way they can hit targets they cannot see or adjust the movements of the sword according to what he sense.

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[EMPIRE ANTS]: Removable Body Parts / Transformable Body Parts into Ants

SE can detach body parts from its user at will. However, it does make the user invulnerable to any attack involving slashing. For example, if a sword slices half of the user's head, the user will continue to be perfectly fine. Any body parts that were cut off intentionally or not can be manipulated by the user.

These severed limbs or parts will grow small ant-like legs and a mouth with pincers (sometimes wings) which can be used to attack one or multiple targets. The only way to finish off the user is by attacking the stand directly. Unfortunately for the user, the stand must be nearby for its effects to work cause it short range, so EA often hides to avoid being found during a fight. If the stand is defeated, the body parts will reconnect to the user, having been severed by an opponent or voluntarily detached. The stand's effects do not trigger when the user is unconscious or asleep.

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[OASIS]: Convergence of Timelines / Paradox Cloning

oh boy this stand Oasis is a stand with the ability to converge all timelines into one. However, this is only limited to within the hive where the user lives. The user is trapped within her hive and it is impossible for her to leave. All of these timelines are exclusively within the hive, so she will only be able to converge the timelines of the people who have entered the hive. The hive is an impossible space created by the stand where each room is exactly the same but differs in different parts of the time from the intruders in the house. For example, by moving through several rooms you can move through different moments in time within the house, so it is possible to end up meeting yourself in a different time period, but only one time period within the hive. These timelines only converge at the moment the intruders enter, so the only moments they can be in are from when they enter until they have died in the future. So they can't find rooms or themselves from a past before they were inside the hive. Yes it is pretty complicated. When all individuals in all timelines within the house die, any trace of them having entered is eliminated. The user only has to wait for all the timelines to end, by killiing each other or die of starvation.

Another ability that Oasis has is the ability to create clones of the user at different periods of their life. Thus, she can create infinite copies of herself. All of these copies have a hive mind, so anything that one knows, the user knows as well. This is often used to persuade intruders or kill them if possible. An important thing about this ability is that the clones can leave the hive, this is used by the user to fulfill her role as a spy, being able to be in different places at the same time and gather information.

The user and the stand are bound to the hive, so if the hive is destroyed from the outside, the user and the stand will perish. The house is impossible to destroy from the inside. The only way to escape is to find the user and kill them.

Another minor ability of Oasis is that he can generate hooks with chains anywhere in the house. However, this ability doesn't have much use other than just dragging people into different parts of the hive, but they are not for harming or attacking intruders.

The user can also move some rooms around if she is in contact or knows where the intruders are based on the knowledge of her paradox clones.

Finally, each room in the Hive has a harmless copy of the Oasis stand, if this stand is attacked, the entire timeline of that room will be erased along with the room leaving an empty place where any intruder can fall infinitely.

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[JUNKY BEAT]: Anger Provoking Sound

JB is an automatic stand. When the user wants, they can select a person and the stand will follow the target wherever they go. From the moment the stand is flying around the target, the target will emit a sound similar to a mosquito. This sound can be heard by anyone, whether or not they are a stand user. Anyone in range of the sound who can hear it will start to get irritated. The people around will start to become more and more aggressive towards the target, who cannot hear the sound in any way. The number of people who can hear the sound is only derived from the number of people around. In this way, the user manages to make the people around fight each other, attacking the target and killing them. People will believe that the only way to get the sound is to kill the one who is causing it, becoming a blind rage and only worrying about stopping the sound. Unfortunately, the stand's range is medium, so the user must follow the target cautiously. The sound JB makes is proportional to the distance from the user. But, no matter how far away the user is, the stand can continue to follow its target, whether the user is too far away to make a sound or not.

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[GOREY DEMISE]: Death warrant

GD has two phases: Inactive and Active. When GD is in the inactive phase, the stand will not be able to protect its user from any attack. Any attack that is directed towards the user will pass through them directly. The stand can mimic attacking but any attack directed towards an attacker will pass through them and have no effect. The stand in this phase is completely useless and no one can interact with it and vice versa.

The second phase, the active phase, is activated when the user is killed by another person in any way. When the user is killed, GD will revive the user and it will enter the active phase. In this phase, the stand will become completely tangible, fast and resistant to any attack or effect. GD will defend the user from any threat that could threaten it life, including abilities capable of manipulating time or any effect that threatens the user's life. However, GD will still be unable to attack or do any damage.

When the stand enters its active phase, its automatic ability, Death Warrant, activates. The person who killed the user will have exactly 30 minutes to replicate the same death that the user had on a different person. The cause of death must be exactly the same as that inflicted on the user. For example, if the user was killed with 5 knives in the body and bled to death, another person must die in the same way for the ability's effect to end, 5 knives in the same locations.

After 30 minutes have passed and if the target did not meet the conditions, the target will die in the same way in which the user was killed. If the target met the conditions by killing someone else, the effect will be cancelled and the stand enter again to the inactive fase.

When Death Warrant is activated, it cannot be activated on the same person a second time.

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[CAN OF WORMS]: Solid Ground Swimming / Echolocation of Thoughts

COW is an automatic stand that follows one or multiple targets. The stand detaches itself at the user's will and will follow it no matter what the targets are. COW's range is quite long so the user can be very far away and still be attacking its victims. COW's criteria for attacking its targets are thoughts. The stand is capable of reading minds and detecting them like sound waves and in this way attacking any thinking creature everytime it think. This stand can also traverse the ground, being able to travel at great speeds beneath solid ground. Ground, walls, or solid materials do not affect COW's mind-reading ability, and these sound-like waves travel through any solid.

COW has extremely disproportionate strength, however it has a very poor defense, becoming a glass cannon. The stand is also capable of dodging and reacting at high speed to any attack that comes its way, since COW can predict attacks that were previously thought out by the targets. The user can still continue to see what the stand is doing even though it is automatic, being able to return to the user from which it came whenever it wants.

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[FIGHTING THE MACHINE]: Super Strength / Super Durability / Super Resistance

This stand doesn't have an ability as such, however, its resistance, strength and speed are completely absurd. Anything that gets in its way can be destroyed with its fists, kicks or attacks. The user also has a fairly high resistance and strength, so between the two they form a quite deadly combination seeing that both the user and the stand are very tough.

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[THE BEATLES]: Song of Banishment

This stand doesn't have a manifestation as such, but rather it is a song that the user sings to cause effects around him. When the user sings, the effects of the stand begin to manifest in a fairly large radius affecting anyone who is around. This song has several effects and each one begins to manifest as the user gets closer to finishing:

1st verse: No visible effects

2nd verse: Total paralysis of the body and weakness in the legs.

3rd Verse: Permanent loss of smell

4th Verse: Permanent loss of vision.

5th Verse: Permanent loss of speech.

6th Verse: Permanent loss of hearing (This does not stop the effects of the song, but the only thing those affected will hear will be the song itself.)

7th Verse: Permanent loss of the sensation of touch

8th Verse: All effects above disappear for a few moments.

9th Verse: Those affected by the song are erased from existence.

During the song, any Stand user who attempts to use their Stand will have difficulty. Also, each affected individual will feel their body being covered by thousands of beetles.

The only way to escape the effects is to get out of range or get help from someone who is out of range. However, the loss of senses such as vision, smell, or speech that occurs during this stand are permanent. The user can stop the song at any time. The effects of this stand are irreversible.

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[MIRROR OF TEARS - ACT 1]: Intangibility

MOT can render the user intangible, making them capable of moving through different solid surfaces. This also includes any objects or clothing they are wearing, such as their sword. They can decide when to become tangible and when not. They can also render individual parts of their body intangible. Any attack that is not delivered by a Stand passes through the user, making them incapable of receiving physical damage. Pretty simple and direct, really. There is nothing more lol.

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[DON'T STOP ME NOW]: Future Jumping

As the name implies, DSMN can send things into the future up to a maximum of 30 minutes. Anything the user or their stand comes into contact with will jump forward in time. The user can choose how far into the future they can send them. This of course includes people and the user themselves. During the jump, the user and the stand can momentarily move in place to change position slightly. This is due to the training the user has had with their stand, but anyone else affected by this ability will not consciously perceive the time jump.

That will be all of them~ If anyone has a question about any of them, I'm open to answering them.

[chaoticklefics]

Helluva Boss Tickle HC’s That Literally No One™️ Asked for but I INSIST on Posting Anyway…

Blitzo-

Is such a touch starved bean lmao!!

It doesn’t take much to get him laughing. A couple pokes to the tummy, sides or ribs and the guy is toast!!

Used to be absolutely TORTURED by Fizarolli in his younger days which is why he is apprehensive about anyone tickling him.

DO NOT even attempt to tickle him unless you can handle his revenge!?! He’s RUTHLESS.

Can’t handle teases, AT ALL. You tease him for being ticklish, or LIKING it, and he’s absolutely a lost cause. 10/10 blushy mess.

His snark lands him in so many ticklish situations. The guy NEVER learns.

His ticklishness is a very poorly kept secret. Everyone knows he’s ticklish, and most stop at nothing to get him giggling.

The only person who knows he genuinely enjoys being tickled is Stolas, although he does a poor job of hiding it.

Super squirmy!

Worst spots are ribs, tummy and armpits for sure!

Moxie-

Is such an easy target. He’s often uptight and anxious and tickling him is the perfect way to fix this and cause him to chill out.

Millie definitely takes advantage of Moxie’s ticklishness frequently. It’s her wifely duty, after all!

Mox doesn’t love to be tickled but he doesn’t hate it. He enjoys when Millie tickles him because she always knows when to stop.

He’s super sensitive!! Everyone at I.M.P. knows it and definitely takes advantage of it whenever they feel necessary.

Has a super squeaky laugh.

Literally, his laugh only encourages whoever is tickling him to tickle him more.

Can’t really handle being tickled so he usually doesn’t try to start fights he can’t finish.

Usually tries to avoid tickle fights as he’s a popular target. He’s NEVER spared LMAO.

Knees, thighs and back will have him begging.

Definitely a snorter if you get him good.

Millie-

SUCH MANY LER/SWITCH VIBES

Definitely is no stranger to starting tickle fights.

She tickles Moxie the most though!!! And Moxie tickles her more than anyone as well.

ABSOLUTELY SHOWS NO MERCY (although she is careful to monitor her victims reactions to avoid going too far).

WILL DRAW THE MOST EMBARRASSING REACTIONS FROM WHOEVER SHE IS TICKLING!!!

Her nails are DEADLY. Usually utilizes soft tickles which can be maddening.

Loves to utilize teases to embarrass her lee with soft cooing.

She also enjoys being tickled so she can take whatever revenge is due in stride.

She cannot handle raspberries! AT ALL.

Laughter is high pitched and bubbly!!

Can be intentionally cheeky to others to get tickled. And cheeky while being tickled too since she doesn’t mind being tickled.

Loooooves the anticipation of being tickled. Loves to be chased, and loves anticipating revenge.

Her worst spots are her feet, tummy, neck, and ribs.

Stolas-

Not always used to physical affection, wasn’t ever sure if he was ticklish, he quickly learns just how susceptible he is to tickling when he befriends Blitzo.

ACTUALLY IS HILARIOUSLY TICKLISH. Blitzo lives to tickle this man to pieces.

Can’t handle teases. It makes the sensation of being tickled a thousand times worse.

Only ever lets Blitzo tickle him. But I’d sure to get revenge.

HIS FEATHERS AND WINGS ARE SOOOOO TICKLISH?!?!? Light tickles work best on the guy. He also can’t handle his armpits being tickled. His back is wickedly sensitive. It’s so bad, he can’t even sit still during a massage.

Stolas is absolutely a skilled tickler. Especially when finding out Blitzo enjoys being tickled he uses it as an excuse to wreck him.

His feathers and claws are KILLER. And can be used with such precision to drive any Lee mad with hysterical laughter.

Although ruthless at times, he is caring and will stop to check in with his lee to ensure he never goes too far.

Tickling him will always result in revenge with no mercy, no matter what, just ask Blitzo.

[instantartific]

What do you think would have happened if... B2J actually got killed by DJ Sub, Mama, 1010, Eve and Tatiana?

(Or the other way around for Mama and Yinu?)

Some of these answers are going to be fairly similar to one another given that we are discussing, well... murder. On live television. With live witnesses.

Any of them would receive legal consequences that'd vary depending upon the actual means and methods in which B2J were to die and how much of it would be by accident or not.

🛰️

Nova:

There are only two ways I can see them dying during his boss battle: he actively tries to kill them or they are unable to escape his implosion at the end of said battle.

If he actively tried to kill them, well. There are plenty of projectiles to fling at them and the whole neutron star firing a goddamn laser at you, if not simply... growing larger, grabbing them, and crushing them into paste in his hands if he was angered into violence.

If they were to fall into his core, they would (most likely) be ripped apart limb by limb, cell by cell, atom by atom and reduced into nothing but fleeting rays of blurring color until it is as if they never existed at all. For them, unfortunately, it would turn into an agonizingly slow descent into non-existence if it truly does behave like a black hole. The whole time-dilation-slowing-the-closer-you-get-to-ceasing-to-exist would not be enjoyable, I'd say.

If the latter is how it occurs, Nova would be considered a "danger to society" as well as a murderer, I'd think. Simple glass that can shatter fairly easily being the only thing separating anyone standing near him from being one with the cosmos seems like a bit of a liability.

🌹

Mama:

I imagine the only way they could die is if Mama put effort into doing so, or it was a blind act of rage out of them harming her daughter (or ruining her performance. Perhaps either concept is interchangeable.)

Most likely option is that they die in the fall from the flower way above the stage. Mama would survive relatively fine but B2J (or even Yinu) should sustain serious injuries from it... if not die altogether.

If she went into a black out rage it would be towards the end of the battle. She's strong, she's sturdy, and she can grow. As well as slamming parts of herself into them at any opportunity: all she'd have to do is aim a little too well, throw her body a little too hard, and crush all the wrong things that make them so, so fragile right in front of her precious daughter. Her only defense is that she never knew what she was doing: she simply "wakes up" to a sickening feeling dug underneath her roots or palms (and if she were to linger too long in oh such horror, already beginning to seep into the wood of her limbs,) and (in time, as the little one begins to recognize it,) the sound of her child's weeping.

🤖

1010:

Given that 1010 only fight in exact formation, following exact orders, and don't deviate from them, B2J would only die if it was on accident or if Neon gave the command.

They're huge solid androids that act as walking military weapons. They never target B2J directly, but if either of them aren't paying attention, well... accidents can happen. Whether or not the boys would snap to attention and prevent serious harm coming to them or would continue to mindlessly follow Neon's orders, even if it means serious injury or death, is another question entirely.

It also begs to wonder: if Neon did give them the command to kill them, would they at the very least hesitate?

They'd also be considered a danger to public security if they acted out of line and it led to harm or if they did anything to cause severe damage to B2J at all.

🖼️

Eve:

I... honestly can only see B2J being killed if it's May who dies and if it's entirely an accident. I cannot see Eve being the sort of person to try and hurt Zuke (or even May) that badly intentionally unless it was for Zuke.

Possibly if she truly decided she was done with Zuke and pulled a "you are one of my works of art, i created who you are now and i will prove to you that i can take everything else away" and truly harmed May, which prompted Zuke to try and step in to stop it, and everything went so much worse than Eve wanted it to go.

I cannot see her resorting to violence first, however. In my eyes she'd keep adding pressure, keep adding pressure, keep adding pressure; keep warning him and warning him and telling him what is happening and exactly how May is experiencing it all as she warps May's mind and perception of what's really happening around them. Depending upon just how much control she has over someone who can't see through her, she could even use a false perception of Zuke to get at May.

"Look at how easily she falls for something so simple. You don't need her. She needs you to even begin to grasp the gravity of this, and you are so much better than weighing yourself down for that."

Bonus if the more emotional you are, the more her 'pieces of art' affect you on a personal level, the more effective the next ones become. And May being May would be fully charged with everything she's got and running blindly into it all and trying desperately to match what's going on around her.

But for May to die... Eve would have to be thrown into such a fit of rage as to actually cause her physical harm, not just 'showing Zuke that she's incompetent.'

If everything around May looks just as much of a threat as everything else, and everything gets too overwhelming, she'd be bound to get struck by something. If she's unlucky, the one single slip she makes happens to be the one thing that is real.

🔥

Tatiana:

In her battle, Tatiana chases them down and tries to harm them directly. There's no ifs ands or buts, she hunts them down and tries to hurt them. She chases them.

If they were to die by Tatiana's hand, well... that simply means that they couldn't keep up with the heat. She chased them and she caught them and she snuffed the revolution out right where it stood.

Maybe she didn't mean to. Maybe she let her rage get the best of her. Maybe she expected them to put up more of a fight. But 'maybe's don't quite matter anymore, do they?

Since Tatiana's battle is the only one that wouldn't be recorded and broadcast live, if she was the one to kill them, then she may be the only one who could get away with a lesser sentence or even without charges whatsoever.

As long as there is no proof that B2J entered NSR Tower at the same time that Tatiana was present, there theoretically lies no proof that she did anything to them. The last anyone knew they were heading for her, and now, they're... gone.

And Tatiana is functionally a politician. The political head of this entire massive (and seemingly prosperous) city. In theory, she could get any investigations paid off. Let alone the possibility of forging evidence that says B2J did in fact leave her building and simply disappeared.

The only other issue would be Kliff being present somewhere in the building... though that's another conversation.

🏵️🌹

B2J to Yinu and Mama:

If B2J are the killers it would have to be in the fall. Unless May really missed her swing and caved Yinu's head in, but, ah... we are going to assume otherwise.

If Yinu and Mama were to die in that fall, it can be argued that it was B2J's incompetence that resulted in their death. A "you didn't pull the trigger but you could have stopped it and we need someone to blame" situation; especially given the fact that these are political figures with a lot of power and one of them is a nine year old child.

Everyone on either side would be furious, even if B2J really had nothing to do with the fall itself. I imagine they'd be witch-hunted out of the city or further into hiding if they aren't persecuted outright.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Lessee what we have for this batch...

- League of Super Redundant Heroes

Not sure if I suggested this one in the past about stupid superheroes (including a blind guy with bike handles on his head and laser eyes, an actual Mary Sue who's his girlfriend, a cowgirl who makes no sense, and a guy that levitate cats) but putting it up front just to cover that base

-Delta Dawn

A particularly infamous "superhero" comic that tries to be a social justice comic tackling racism and sexism while apparently unintentionally doing both those thing somehow? It's either that or intentionally being bad to prove it's point, but it doesnt have the self awareness to do it right? Apparently tries to have a protagonist and antagonist story run side by side too? You know it's bad when I see character names and I can't tell if it's being hyperbolic or if that's literally what the characters are called...

-Black Magic by SacredHyacinth

Magic teens in a future apocalyptic setting have magic jewelry to protect them as they live in a city that doesn't want them to have their jewelry for some reason? Things for the comics lore and worldbuilding just are half explained haphazardly as it goes on...

-My Alien Girlfriend (doesn't know I'm an alien)

Another webtoon comic. Comedy romance about two dating aliens in obvious disguise. Drawn rather poorly, lots of fanservice without going all the way to being porn, and very poor humor... literally the girlfriend looks like a clown character from another, and I believe actual porn, comic the author had a hand in.

-Parallax by m falke

Sort of a hybrid magical girl/superhero thing. A boy is given a little box that turns him into a ninja looking hero to fight monsters. Haven't read too much, but the art style is interesting looking at least.

- Bittersweet Candy Bowl by Veronica "taeshi" Vera

A furry teen drama comic about an angsty Mary Sue white cat named Lucy and love triangles upon triangles upon etc. So odd, cause some characters are fully dressed and some aren't, Lucy has like two bird pets, but they can talk? And oh so many perfect reaction images from the cat blobs.

- Black Jade by Steele Snover

Lesbian mad scientist villain makes a raygun that turns other women gay as well. She literally gets a girlfriend and from that point onward the comic has no idea what it wants to do with itself. The author notoriously asked for $1600 a month to keep this comic going I believe.

-Don't know if youd do written fanfic riffing at all, but One Piece: This Bites by Xomniac might be worth tearing into if you ever get around to doing that. It's basically a self insert fic involving a fan of One Piece who abuses his knowledge of the series like mad after a literal RNG God decides to matoon him in that world. It kinda tries to ground the anime in reality and to be more "hard core" by mauling the main character and torturing villains and such.

-...lets be honest here ANYTHING by Dave Cheung

Just. Wow. Dave Cheungs list of wretchedness is something frankly unbelievable from what I've heard there's sexism, snuff and a lack of holding back all wrapped up in a generic non-anime style... US Angel Core is the absolute worst in particular as it is just...disturbed, like seriously bottom of the barrel disgustingness as it kills characters and subjects them to heaps of abuse to the point i dont even reccomend you look into it, its that fucking disgusting. Literally anything else, this one isn't so much a recc as it is a warning...

Already on the rifflist

This sounds like an easy target so why not

The lady from Keeping Up Appearances made a webcomic? Oh this is trying to be ART and DEEP. I can tell it from the somewhat pretentious artstyle alone.

This thing is ridiciulously short, so I'm on the edge. Wait porn???

This might be too competent.

Ohhh no no no no no. Did you miss the submission page rules? The author's husband will kill anyone who criticises the comic

Oh, it's been a while since we've gotten some good old lesploitation.

I don't really riff written work unless it's done by one of our usual suspects or other webcomic makers

Ah, Cheung's work we're familiar with. U.S. Angel Corps is on the rifflist and I am very wary of riffing it, but I say Cheung deserves to be brutally riffed.

[vixen525]

The young man entered the room. He had hoped this day would never come. Some of these generals he knew as friends. The human's history had been kept secret from so many to avoid tension. His hand brushed over the leather spine of the book under his arm and he took a deep sigh. They would never look at his species the same.

He pulled out a seat and set the old book down on the table before sitting. "This is a book about the history of war. It talks about what we did that was determined to be so evil it had to be international war crime. It talks about weapons that we chose to prohibit. Upon knowing the history of my species, I will understand if you fear me afterwards. If you never wish to speak to me as a friend again. I do not approve of what my kind has done. Many of us do not, but a problem with humanity is that many, when they get too much power, seem to lose their care about the consequences to others."

So it began. He read to them starting with the furthest back. Humans enslaving others. Torture. Experimentation. He started to go into specific examples. Demoralizing the enemy by interfering with how they mourn the dead.

"So in this one, they prohibited locals of a captured area from practicing their beliefs. And here those taken prisoner were separated from their offspring to force compliance. To assure the safety of their young, to earn a chance to see their children, they had to cooperate. Taking children is a tactic that started very long ago, but you will hear repeated often as I continue through this history book."

"So called colonizers intentionally given supposed gifts to locals that had contamination with a disease the locals would have no prior exposure to, thus their bodies would not be able to fight it off."

"In this conflict they took over the homes of the locals as a way to hide from local forces, using the locals as cover and a living barrier from weapons. They also had triangular shaped blades that caused wounds that could not be easily closed.

"Oh you will hate this one. Food resources to front-line soldiers were short. So these soldiers were tossing canned food over regularly until every time something was tossed the enemy soldiers would rush out to collect what was thrown. They were even shouting 'Give us more.' Then they switched to explosives."

"In this conflict, a particularly ruthless leader was targeting a group. Would take captives, allow other cruel people to use them for experimentation. Tortured and gassed captives, broke up families, burned historical texts to try to erase the history of these people."

"Ah in this one they sprayed deadly toxins everywhere... many of their own soldiers were suffering long term effects from exposure for decades to come, but the locals had to deal with worse. Not only the contamination of toxins affecting later generations as well as those directly exposed, but fields of landmines that anyone could accidentally come across."

"As you can see there is repeated cases of experimenting on their own people, targeting innocents, misinformation campaigns, poisons, disease, blocking assistance..."

The discussion went on for not just hours, but days with frequent breaks for rest and food.

Finally the book was closed. The table was silent for a long time. Then the generals began to discussing which tactics from this horrible book of human history they could actually consider.

For 10 long years war has raged while the Galactic Committee held a tight leash on the humans; stating “We do things a certain way”. Now, with the enemy closing in, the leash comes off.

[zaruba-needslove]

Slight meta post since I have many thought... which many times I've tried to include in my fics and end up getting derailed or sometimes i din evet get a chance to include.

But nope.... not gonna talk about Kei-chan or Ace cos ppl do seem like to find faults on Kei too much or think that Ace would never do anything wrong or be less than perfect...

So buffbutt gonna be my usual target.... heh?

Anyway...

The series NEVER explained or try to justify WHY buffass was intentionally being such a sorebutt during the earlier games. Like yeah he hated the asses who caused Tohru's death--but wait?

Something that I occasionally think but sometimes just skip, was that I've always assume that assbutt KNEW exactly HOW Tohru died aka they had their buckles stolen after being ganged up and later attacked by Jyamato... thus explain away buffass's hate on the players, but DID assbuff really WITNESS all that? What if the only thing they knew/saw was just Tohru collapsing and 'died'?

Since we were never shown the actual beginning of the first onscreen DGP, it makes me wonder HOW buffass's actual first entry look like? Would it be the same as Keiwa's first hour at his first game...OR WORSE? Like someone would try to argue that eh.... buffass and Tohru used to be delinquents so it shouldn't be hard fighting the Jyamato the first time... but are average HUMAN trash comparable to a Jyamato? Weapons aside, can you easily get killed when you get punched by a gangster? Would've needed a lot a punches for that tho. But a Jyamato... one strike would've been enough. Early buffass ass would've performed as mediocre as Keiwa and Neon have been (yet look at that shit acting so snob saying all the noobs gon get pwned so bad). Also you'd think someone who cares a lot about Tohru wouldn't act so ass to someone who're also like Tohru.... right? He shouldn't act the same way as the asses that shit on Tohru... right? No?

Considering what happened to Tohru, it won't be weird to assume that Buffass joined the game because of that. But you know what? Assuming the bool's Desire card wish had always been the same... I had to REALLY question that guy's motive. His first DGP happening not long after he witnessed Tohru supposedly died... yet Butt's wish was to "Crush all Kamen Rider"? And not... trying to find out the truth about what happen to Tohru? Does that mean from the very start, he already believed that Tohru died? Really?

I mean...

So far, in ANY DGP rider deaths... aside from the red pixels thingie to differentiate the blue pixalating effects when players gets retired, have any players being shown that they've breathe their last breath when their core iD breaks BEFORE they got zapped away? Could anyone be sure that 'killed' players really got killed fr instead of being hidden away at some 'storage' facility?*

So back to buffass, after being told that they can make ANY wish come true if they can survive and win the game... have they never thought about wishing to GET Tohru back? No? Why? I mean until assbuff got shipped to Jyama Garden, that guy din act like he knows for sure that Tohru's Dead dead. Eh?

Suddenly I feel so bad for Tohru lol despite acting like he can't live w/out his friend by his side assbutt never considered wanting to 'revive' Tohru.

That aside, another thing that's been bothering me (and reason why I never bought that whole argument about 'assbutt really do care about other people's happiness' shit) was WHY that assbuff kept up this image of an asshole player that only care about themselves? I mean that butt was supposed to 'hate' those 'bad' players who should be responsible for causing Tohru's death (hence the animosity to Ace)... yet he's pretending to be the same like those bad players? That's weird. Like even if it's just to protect themselves , the behaviour the butt show was overdoing it. Even if they were trying to copy Ace's attitude like how rebellious teenagers trying to act like gangsters to appear tough, that guy never displayed any sign that their 'true' selves was really THAT 'caring' in the first place. Beroba was on point about that, esp whenever Buff try to overzealously act very kindly or caring... it felt more like Butt was trying to 'cosplay' as Keiwa. Not because of his own supposed 'true' self/personality, but because that was what butt thinks a kind/good person was supposed to be.... someone like Keiwa. So by butt's logic... to be a nice person is to act like Keiwa.

So yeah.... i dunno what people see in that guy. Butt felt so much a fraud as a fraud could be. Seeing that guy act 'kind' and not asshole was weird. Wouldn't YOU feel weird out as well? If someone who's usually yandere/tsundere suddenly went deredere on you, would you be wary of them?

So I don't really like that assbutt... though yeah, if he appeared in my fics I'll try to give explanation on why he behave like an ass... but aside from that, i can't stand that boofaw.

Buffa is such a fraud.

-----

*like before it's stated crystal clear that the defeated players were really killed and get recycled as plantfood, I used to assume that the defeated players were just stowed away/hidden from the public either physically or digitally (like how the Tree of Knowledge stored the Jyama parasite victims). cos I had these thoughts during PunkJack SP where Win saw a few very injured players being in pain yet they still looked VERY alive. So I used to think that defeated players din really die as were told before... that maybe they're just in comatose state or being put to suspended animation state or smth. So if it's like that, for the DGP to grant Keiwa's wish to 'revive' the defeated players... it shouldn't be hard to achieve that, since the killed players never really died. but it din end up like that.

** yanno i kept referring to Buff as something butt-related I may end up liking that butt lol, but nah... it'll just be Moku-chan's butt I'm growing fond of. Not that Ass TM. And I still won't ship that guy with Ace. Or Keiwa. At most it'll with Daichi or Knight or even Archimedel and Beroba 😃

*** before people tryna argue about why won't butt wish for Tohru's revival... isn't that the most likely thing people who have lost a dearest person would wish first, if someone ANYONE tryna offer a chance to win an impossible wish and it can be anything, wouldn't reviving their loved ones be the first thing they want? Also I think someone in the Desire Royale was in that position (or maybe i'm misremembering)

[the-firebird69]

We have another item coming up and it is several battles yes additional of the empire battles are huge these are gigantic and they are going after the areas with gusto and a certain areas in Florida that they have targeted and they think we're Max and they're targeting us too and we are going to defend ourselves and the basis as well and areas of operation with bases in them and they saw huge bases going in a day and feel it is the max too and we will obliterate them

-there are several other attacks that are ongoing and they are currently in the water trying to attack Tommy f off the coast of California and Mexico Oregon and Washington State to prevent a military coup or takeover of the West and it is a huge operation giant armies are going down into these water holes and battles are ensuing and large ones

-several more items we anticipate the Midwest and that's from the wall and The cone and the cities and the river edges both to evacuate rapidly tonight or this morning that is and yes with what's left of this morning the dropping of the bunkers is one thing but the clones are attacking and the nephilim plan to strike and they will flee and they will leave knowing that it was them and then they found and they will vow to return. And they will seek people to go after these nephilim armies happening shortly

-in addition to that we have other battles that are starting up shortly the morlok have declared war on the max. They're going after them and they are fighting with them fiercely and the max are calling reinforcements. It is going to be a quick War that's dangerous and it is here if they think they can kidnap our son and use it. We are sitting in the reinforcements here to protect them from both sides and it is increasing now in Tempo and magnitude.

-if that works enough the more luck are planning to try and strike out into tunnels that they think are ours, answer repeat the strikes every so many hours we're going to repel them and destroy the source and we're going to raid them and take their armaments and ammo and machines shortly

-the morlocks are intentionally attacking and it's distraction and they're taking things while it's occurring and we will look into what they're taking but really artifacts devices like the keys and the husbands they're after gold Ruby's gems diamonds and money of our sons too and then after the stores of items and stashes and caches of weapons they're trying to get to use spaceships and number one priority and more and we are going to those places to use them as the excuse

Several other battles of forming right now

-the morlock have ordered a tax on factories and communities surrounding them and globally we will repel them and the max will and foreigners using ultimate Force we will seek out anyone who's working with them and we will trace it to the source and eliminate them forever

-this is a huge morning I don't think I've ever seen people this crazy in my life they're trying to attack everybody and don't have the numbers what's it going to and stretch themselves as thin as possible which is good. We're prepping for war all over they are threatening to cause trouble in the general populace everywhere and we are preparing to counter it and we are moving out right now

-couple more battle scenes they are amassing and they're trying to go after the entombed and the fact that threaten them to go after them the devices it's an ugly business and that's what they are saying on the intercom

-there's a huge number of people who are bothering their son right now and for say you're going to pay for it and they say don't know what it is and we do so go after them and we're going to get rid of him quickly too and shortly

-besides all these battles the warlocks are opening up a battlefront on what it looks like the South perhaps that are blocked them

-Other battles are opening up all of the United States and between everyone and the warlock and right now

Thor Freya

Zues Hera

Olympus

[ravenwitch45]

Maybe once things are patched up between V and Blitz the Succubi Crew starts showing interest in I.M.P? Like they wanna learn how to use guns, knives, create makeshift weapons and bombs, etc. What would each members' specialty be?

Oh this is a really good ask, I'll try to do my best to give it justice, I also decided to include Verosika and Vortex just to cover bases if your not just referring to the background succubi.

Verosika and her crew getting interested in weapons and I.M.P teaching them and what they like using.

Verosika: She took a while to admit she was interested, to her even though her and Blitzo made up she still tries to avoid him cause it's awkward and she thought it would be even more awkward to ask her ex boyfriend to teach her how to use a gun. But after all the others did it she relented and walked across the hall with the excuse it was ONLY to avoid another situation with the Human Police (It's not because she thinks learning how to use weapon would be cool, no of course not). But even then to me She feels like a minimalist, only carrying around the most basic stuff and outright refusing to use makeshift stuff or bombs, she finds them too messy, I think she would carry around a small pistol (Perhaps bedazzled cause she's glam) and maybe something like a butterfly knife, and would probably keep them in her boot (Cause having them in pockets would ruin her silhouette)

Vortex: Personally I can't see him using a weapon, I think he would probably fight like Loona but probably with less slashes and more grabs and throws. That's all I have to say for him honestly, maybe a barbed baseball bat, i don't know

Josh: Knives. Knife king, he just get's obsessed with every type of knife and will now be carrying at least ten on his person at all times. Every kind, Butterfly, switch blade, bow tie knife, throwing knives just a ton of blades so much so anyone who touches him has a 50% chance of getting pricked, Also has lowkey done that knife circle thing the Joker did in Suicide Squad and Ace walked in and Josh was just like "What?"

Coco: I honestly see her just packing a baseball bat and using it to chuck grenades at whatever is unfortunate to look a like a good target. It's a show that Apple enjoys watching, while all the others are just looking on in terror at the sight. silently wondering why she doesn't just work at I.M.P.

Apple: Makeshift Queen. Ever play Dead Rising? I haven't but you get to combine almost everything you find into weapons and that is Apple's style in a nutshell. She will make stuff as simple as the humble board with nails in it to something as ludicrous as another board she covered in razor blades from shavers she stole from everyone else. Everyone tries to keep a close eye on their personal belongings from now on or else Apple will make a weapon out of it. It will be good but your not getting stuff back.

Kat: They adore any weapon that makes everything chaotic. So he's get's interested in automatic firearms and explosives, AKA an Uzi and just a ton of different explosives which he will detonate as he laughs maniacally. Sadly he doesn't really get much chance to do that but everyone knows to keep him away from someone who might annoy them or else the concert will literally go up in flames.

Milky: Ohhhh... Her and Millie would be fast friends. Milky get's teased about her height a lot and now she has a perfect reaction to those people. Pull out a knife, baseball bat, sword, axe or any variety of melee weapon to terrify them into silence, This is lowkey how she got Kat to stop picking on her. Her and Millie also borrow eachother's weapons just to try new stuff out once in a while.

Kiki: Is the polar opposite of her brother's style, Instead of intentionally making things chaotic Kiki likes to end things with a single well aimed shot. That is to say she's a really good sniper that Moxxie trained so she's even better, She is kinda bitter she can't bring her rifle most of the time but she will sneak it with her sometimes just for target practice.

Ace: The Messier the better, He likes shot guns, Baseball bats, generally just anything that's bound to have a lot of blood splatter and Verosika just knows Blitzo is giving him all this stuff but he won't admit it so she just groans and tries to have Ace calm down a bit so no one ends up covered in blood by the time any fight they end up in is over. Also Ace and Josh fighting together is just... cool melee power couple stuff I guess.

[breckstonevailskier]

Okay, you seem to be under the misconception that just because Wanda wasn't punished by the justice system that she wasn't "held accountable".

'Cause every one of your points regarding Wanda requires you to have ignored the context of her actions.

Wanda willingly signs up to work for a nazi organisation, tries to help an evil robot murder the avengers, intentionally sets the hulk loose on a town of innocent people, & helps destroy Sokovia for a lil while -> Wanda gets a fatherly pep talk from Clint & is immediately accepted as an Avenger

For starters, Wanda didn't know that these people were HYDRA. She and her brother thought they were SHIELD. I doubt Strucker and his minions were going around doing the double-fisted salute, nor did they have the "bloody skull & octopus" logo of HYDRA anywhere on the premises.

Her and Pietro's desire was to knock the Avengers down a peg because they blame Tony for their parents' deaths (and rightly so, since their parents died during a time when Tony didn't care who his weapons were being sold to or who they were used against), they saw the other Avengers as guilty by association, and there's a lot of anti Avengers propaganda being spread throughout Sokovia.

You seem to be making the Watsonian assumption that Wanda intentionally set the Hulk loose on Johannesburg, when the Doylist explanation is that the writers just wanted a Hulk vs. Hulkbuster fight and felt that a cityscape would be a lot more interesting than an empty field. Based on how we see Wanda act in all later appearances, if setting the Hulk loose was her intention, wouldn't she have directed him to go after the other Avengers? What's more likely here (credit to @captainwidowspring) is that something went awry as Wanda was trying to render Bruce catatonic much like she had the other Avengers (possibly a byproduct of the fact that she was still reeling from the effects of Clint hitting her in the head with a stun arrow that clearly left her in a lot of pain; in fact her decision to target Bruce was in an attempt to dissuade Pietro from going back to hurt Clint over that).

As for the destruction in Johannesburg, that's more on Tony than anything. When you compare how Tony acts in Johannesburg vs. how Cap, Clint and Natasha handle Ultron in Seoul later in the movie, or how Cap's team handles Rumlow in the opening of Civil War, Tony looks pretty reckless.

Wanda also wasn't immediately accepted as an Avenger. The Avengers accepted the twins' help because the twins clearly care about saving human life and also happen to be locals who know the town where they're going to be fighting Ultron. In fact, it's Wanda doing this here that gets Clint (who had previously shown distrust towards her, and disapproved of her flirting with the newborn Vision) to come around on her...

...much as Pietro dying got Clint to come around on him (means a lot that Clint decided to name his next kid Nathaniel Pietro Barton).

These points regarding Civil War are just so off-base:

Wanda accidentally murders a bunch of people while on a mission -> Wanda is put on temporary house arrest in a giant mansion with her boyfriend

Uh, no, Wanda didn't murder anyone. It was Brock Rumlow who did that. Y'know, the terrorist who decided to blow himself up rather than let Captain America take him alive. In fact, it's an act of heroism that Wanda reduced the end number of casualties down to just a dozen people, compared to the hundreds of people who would've died had Rumlow exploded in the middle of the marketplace. (Let's stop blaming the heroes for the destruction that the villains cause, people.)

Also, the house arrest was not lawful. That was Tony, who clearly doesn't like Wanda, making unilateral decisions for the active duty Avengers without consulting them. And, as @unhingedmarvelandclassicwhobuff observed, this is practically Tony gift-wrapping her for Thaddeus Ross.

Wanda buries her boyfriend/teammate under like 10 floors of concrete, breaks out of house arrest

She did that because 1) Vision was her jailer, and 2) Vision was attacking Clint.

the leader of the superhero team defends her, a grown ass woman, by saying “She’s just a kid!”,

That was Steve speaking up in response to Tony dehumanizing Wanda and showing that he shares Thaddeus Ross's beliefs that enhanced individuals aren't people, but weapons to be controlled.

she’s detained in a government prison for like a week maybe (?) during which she’s shown as a sad helpless victim to encourage sympathy from viewers

She was being tortured there. All because she and the others on Team Cap didn't want to give up their rights. (The villains here are Tony and Ross)

Wanda holds an entire town hostage & tortures them just to fulfil her own grief-fuelled fantasy

For starters, Wanda didn't intentionally create the Hex. That happened in the midst of a grief inducted breakdown.

Then she was in denial over the fact that she was hurting people because after a lifetime of trauma and misery, she finally had what she wanted. She deluded herself into thinking the others in Westview were as happy as she was (which might have partly been because the town looked pretty depressing as Wanda was driving through it).

-> one of the women Wanda attacked reassures her that she’s the actual victim in all this and that the people she tortured just have no idea what she’s sacrificed for them & she escapes to an isolated location to read a forbidden demon book and make herself more powerful without anyone interfering

That is Monica expressing sympathy and empathy for Wanda because, having just lost her mother, Monica understands the pain and grief that Wanda is going through. Which is not the same as condoning her. Monica had made clear throughout the whole show that the Hex was wrong and Wanda needed to take it down, she just disagreed with the ruthless tactics that Hayward was using (and which were clearly only worsening the situation). This had been her stance in even her previous interaction with Wanda (where she actually seemed to be on the verge of getting through to her before Agatha stepped in and dragged Wanda away).

Also, Wanda went into exile and took the Darkhold to learn about her powers so that another Westview doesn't happen again.

Wanda goes on a serial killing spree across the multiverse, kidnaps a child, holds her hostage, tortures her, & attempts to take her powers all so she can steal another Wanda’s children because she misses her children that were never actually real in the first place -> Wanda gets some badass power sequences and #girlboss one liners, is the one that destroys the demon book, essentially saving the multiverse from future corruption, & is allowed to die a hero’s death (which we all know isn’t permanent)

Wanda was under the control of the Darkhold. She was not herself. (And I blame Michael Waldron and Sam Raimi at any rate because they're the ones who failed to watch WandaVision before writing for Wanda, and they cared more about spectacle than anything.)

On Narrative Bias

I keep saying it annoys me how Wanda has done so many evil ass things and is never held accountable for her actions, and it never fails that someone tries to respond with “but aren’t you a loki stan? He’s done evil shit too! So you have a double standard and are a misogynist!!!!” Yeah, no. The difference is that you can clearly tell who the writers have predetermined as a hero vs a villain. You can tell who they want you to root for. Loki’s actions are given narrative consequences as harsh as possible, while Wanda’s are narratively excused and softened and sympathised. Let me show you what I mean.

* Loki commits treasons, tries to kill his brother & attempts genocide -> Loki’s father rejects him while he attempts suicide

* Loki tries to conquer earth -> Loki is sentenced to life in prison

* Loki incapacitates the king and secretly takes the throne -> Loki is threatened with a hammer to the face, we’re reminded how awful he is by all the other characters for the rest of the movie & he would’ve faced more consequences if the apocalypse hadn’t interrupted

* Loki steals the tesseract from the vault -> Loki watches his brother be tortured & then has his neck snapped

Now compare that to…

* Wanda willingly signs up to work for a nazi organisation, tries to help an evil robot murder the avengers, intentionally sets the hulk loose on a town of innocent people, & helps destroy Sokovia for a lil while -> Wanda gets a fatherly pep talk from Clint & is immediately accepted as an Avenger

* Wanda accidentally murders a bunch of people while on a mission -> Wanda is put on temporary house arrest in a giant mansion with her boyfriend

* Wanda buries her boyfriend/teammate under like 10 floors of concrete, breaks out of house arrest, & goes against a government order -> the leader of the superhero team defends her, a grown ass woman, by saying “She’s just a kid!”, she’s detained in a government prison for like a week maybe (?) during which she’s shown as a sad helpless victim to encourage sympathy from viewers, & then she gets busted out by the ex-team leader & eventually gets to run off to Scotland with her boyfriend

* Wanda holds an entire town hostage & tortures them just to fulfil her own grief-fuelled fantasy -> one of the women Wanda attacked reassures her that she’s the actual victim in all this and that the people she tortured just have no idea what she’s sacrificed for them & she escapes to an isolated location to read a forbidden demon book and make herself more powerful without anyone interfering

* Wanda goes on a serial killing spree across the multiverse, kidnaps a child, holds her hostage, tortures her, & attempts to take her powers all so she can steal another Wanda’s children because she misses her children that were never actually real in the first place -> Wanda gets some badass power sequences and #girlboss one liners, is the one that destroys the demon book, essentially saving the multiverse from future corruption, & is allowed to die a hero’s death (which we all know isn’t permanent)

See the difference?

[lgbtlunaverse]

Cut scene from Chapter 2

This is an excerpt that was supposed to appear in my fic a warped rail meets a straight one but was cut for length. It's supposed to take place while Dabi is still stuck inside with Shouto, watching old endeavor fights on his phone to analyze his fighting. (Its original placement was right before dabi and shouto start practicing their old martial arts to pass the time, about a third of the way through the chapter) I wanted to show off Dabi's strategic side before putting him in any actual fights, but ultimately it didn't add enough to the story for me to keep it.

I felt kinda bad about just throwing it away, though, so here it is as a treat for those that want it.

He's zeroing in on a fight from 2 years ago, this time.

The villain's moving through crowded spaces, sticking close to people and intentionally kneecapping Endeavor's ability to go full-out. She's got a transformation quirk that lets her grow her bones into sharp spikes all over her body. Dabi’s scrolled through endless pages on hero forums of wannabe quirk analysts discussing them. Whether the transformation is on her skin, or in her own skeleton, and she's constantly skewering herself. It doesn’t matter. They do not seem to hurt her, nor do they require a buildup. And that’s the only information relevant in combat.

She slices through a civilian's arms with an extended bone spear coming out of her wrist. She's fast, but not supernaturally so, so she relies on creating chaos in the crowd.

Really, Endeavor is a horrible match up for her. He's big, flashy, couldn't care less about the collateral damage he causes. But a crowd full of panicking civilians is too much for even him to sacrifice.

He flies up high above the crowd and dives down vertically, trying to strike her specifically. He’s also making himself the easiest target in the world. He stretches out his arm, and it's pierced straight through with a bone spear.

It’s over 6 meters long. And not detached. It's not detached. Dabi clicks his tongue. Half the trick of fighting a new opponent is figuring out their quirk, and she's just revealed she can't use hers in long range.

But they do grow fast, and long. And Endeavor's hand has a shard of bone through it, which is always a good thing.

The villain's current problem is that crowds aren't infinite and Endeavor has sidekicks. They play cat and mouse for a little while longer, with Endeavor trying to fire precise shots and her sticking herself to scared civilians and counter attacking whenever she has a clear line of sight. When she grows a spear and stabs Endeavor on the side straight through the body of a civilian the person filming screams and the camera shakes.

One other sidekick, Onima, manages to come close to her and she skewers him with ease. Dabi knows he's not dead, he's seen him back in action, but the people in the video don't have that foresight. More screams. More camera shaking. By the time the camera stabilizes and focuses on her again, the crowd is thinning out and Endeavor has gotten the obvious strategy through his meat headed skull and is chasing the villain to the edge of the mass of people.

The moment he has her isolated she's done for.

She puts up a fair fight, launches an entire parade of spears at him and practically turns herself into a giant sea cactus. But fire cracks bone, and the more she turns herself into a porcupine the more she limits her agility, the only edge she had over him.

Endeavor's clearly had enough, and pulls out prominence burn, which decimates her pitiful defense. He really didn’t have to, considering how obviously weak those bones were to fire. He let his emotions take control of him. Could have easily killed her, in fact, but the cameraman and his friends are cheering. And Dabi knows they just saw her turn multiple people into kebab, but even the most empty-brained moron knows heroes aren't supposed to kill people. Not that anyone cares about that.

He grimaces, and turns off his phone. Watching the bastard's face never fails to make his skin crawl. He needs to do something.

It has no proper end because it was never a self-contained scene, so I apologize for the awkward cutoff. If you got this far, I hope you have a nice day!

[stars-obsession-pit]

Cool! Here’s some more thoughts i had based on those:

I think a pocket dimension probably makes the most sense if the magician is not themself an alien. But then there’s the question of why it looks that way. It’s ultimately up to you ofc, but here are a few ideas i’ve thought of:

Literally just that they think it looks cool

They’re intentionally trying to mislead the heroes and get them not to realize they’re in a pocket dimension

They’re tapping into an existing space somehow and its appearance is a result of that (like IIRC the Rock of Eternity looks like it’s floating there in space so it could be something like that)

They’re drawing power from something space-related which is affecting it

Also, the reason why Danny and Val showed up could potentially be that the spell used to summon was set up such that instead of being able to target specific identities, it would summon anyone who fit the specified criteria, and they just happened to fit too (though idk what criteria would fit them and the batkids but no one else)

Oh, I have an idea! What if the magician was using necromancer-y stuff to empower some weak ghosts so they could affect the living world and would then cause problems in Gotham. Amity Park was never an intended target, but some of the ghosts chose to go through the portal there since it’s an easy access point to actually enter the living world.

And then their summoning spell was to capture anyone who was a hero/vigilante under a certain age and had fought those ghosts. Their assumption was this’d only affect Gotham’s vigilantes, since that’s where they focused the stuff, yet the situation with Amity meant that Danny and Val got pulled in too.

This sort of power type could also provide them the magic army for the fight in the arena - summoning yet more of those ghosts.

Hmm… but if they can trap the heroes in a distinct space, why do they even need an army? Why wouldn’t they just leave them in there with no escape?

Unless, escape is a worry and they need to keep them from finding that out…

Maybe the villain’s overall theme is flashy showmanship to cover up the limitations of their powers!

They’re avoiding a more direct attack in the real world because they know they’re not actually strong enough to pull it off

They can empower the ghosts, but it’s not enough to make them actually dangerous - the only reason they’re a persistent issue is that the Batfam so far lacks a way to actually take them out

Their summoned targets are placed in a pocket dimension, or maybe even just an illusion over a regular space on earth, and its appearance is part of making it seem like a bigger deal (the colosseum design making it seem grander and the illusion of it being far out in space implying they were teleported a much further distance)

The army is there too because the space will fall apart if the heroes stray too far, and they’re hoping the fights will prevent that happening

They specifically didn’t summon Batman because they were worried he’d organize the other vigilantes and break out too quickly.

Or maybe they just need him outside so he can actually get what they’re asking for

Their ultimate goal is to use the inflated perception of their threat to extort something out of Batman (and/or Gotham in general)

They likely don’t expect to keep up this identity after the scheme - the heroes would mobilize more than the villain can actually win against if they ever get into a real fight, and the more times they use the identity the more likely the illusion is to be figured out. That’s not to say they necessarily intend to retire, but they’d likely change up their schtick for the next plan to keep the heroes unaware

The Colosseum

I started writing this and have no idea how to finish it or where to take it from here. I had an idea but lost it halfway through 😅

Valerie had had it with all of the ghosts in Amity. She could hardly sleep, was missing schools as a result because she was either too exhausted to stay awake long enough in class, or another ghost attack was forcing her to miss the entire period to go deal with that day’s trouble maker. Almost every part of her body hurt in one way or another. Bruises that should have faded by now but haven’t because every day she was out collecting more. She couldn’t blame Phantom either. He seemed just as tired and beat up as she was even with his healing factor.

With the number of ghost attacks having nearly tripled in frequency, they’d both come to the mutual decision that working together would be the best course of action to deal with the constant onslaught. And reluctantly, Val had to admit that Phantom might not be as bad she first assumed. She hadn’t anticipated actually getting along with the ghost as well as she had been. Much less the realisation that they could almost be considered…fiends now. Maybe. She refused to laugh at his god awful puns though, he didn’t need anymore encouragement.

But even with Phantom’s help, she was so tired. So, so, so very tired. And so one could say Valerie was well within her rights to say that this situation, was just more bullshit she didn’t need right now.

She had been trying to cram for the next upcoming test when there was a sudden flash of light, so bright it was blinding and she had to shield her eyes with her arms from the fear that this light might burn through her eyelids. Her body tingled, and she felt something wash over her. When the light subsided, just as quickly as it had appeared, she slowly opened her eyes.

“Where the hell am I?”

She was in a colosseum. The stone of the structure was a deep purple with intricate glimmering gold details carved into the walls and pilasters. There was a magic in the air that felt different to the sensation she would get in the Ghost Zone. The sky above was pitch black with more stars than Val had ever seen visible in Amity, and two moons.

So, not Earth then, she concluded.

“Hey Red, where are we?” Valerie spun around to see Phantom floating over to her, his eyes scanning the area around them. Then Val looked down at herself to see that she was in her Red Huntress suit. She couldn’t remember putting it on. Maybe that was what the full body sensation from earlier was about.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Val checked herself over, making sure she had all of her weapons on her should she need them. When she was satisfied she did, she put her hands on her hips and let her gaze wander over the arena.

“I don’t think we’re on Earth anymore,” Phantom muttered as he took in the sky above them. For a split second Val swore she saw his freckles glow a soft green as he was taking in the stars above them.

“We should start looking for a way out of here, or at least figure where here is,” Valerie had just turned to start walking when the ground rumbled and shook, “What-”

Another blinding flash of light appeared behind them. And once again, it had vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

“What the hell was that?” A new voice asked from behind them.

Val and Phantom turned in unison to stare at the group in front of them. All of them were dressed in some sort of hero ensemble. It seemed the voice had come from a man donning a brown leather jacket over an armoured suit with a red bat symbol across his chest, an assortment of guns and other weaponry strapped to his body, and most notably a red helmet. He and the rest of his group seemed to be taking in their surroundings the same way Val and Phantom.

“Who are you? Were you the ones who summoned us?” Came a new voice, from a young man (or was he a teenager?) dressed in black leggings with a red tunic, utility belt, and a chest harness connecting to the symbol on the centre, a black cowl and a cape. In his hands was a bo staff. He and the others had all dropped into combat ready stances the moment they became aware that they weren’t the only people in the colosseum.

And from here I couldn’t figure out how to continue

[robininthelabyrinth]

Unfettered (aka NHS goes feral) - part 4 - previous parts: on ao3 or tumblr pt 1, pt 2, pt 3

-

Wei Wuxian wasn’t going to lie: it was weird seeing Nie Huaisang smiling again.

It wasn’t that he didn’t remember how Nie Huaisang used to behave when they were all back at the Cloud Recesses, and even before, but that seemed so long ago these days that it might as well have occurred in a past life. The expression just didn’t fit him anymore, like a grown man trying to return to the clothing of his childhood, and yet at the same time it was wretchedly familiar, even welcome – it was as if time had reversed course all at once, plucking them all out of the stream of their lives and returning them to how it used to be long before. Back to simpler, happier times.

It was kind of funny, actually.

Those that had not known Nie Huaisang as anything other than the Pallbearer seemed to be in a state of utter shock, gossiping madly – Did you see? He was smiling! He laughed at someone’s joke! He told a joke! He patted that child on the head and said ‘good job’ and the child didn’t cry even once!

Those that had known him from before only by reputation were, if anything, even more aghast – Do you think he’s going to start pouting and crying at things again? Surely not, I can’t even imagine! The last time he pouted was when one of his fans got stained, remember, after he stuck it straight through that man’s throat –

Those that had known him from before in person…

Well, the reaction was mixed. There was some relief, some distress, and a great deal of pain as they remembered once again how much their friend had changed in the wake of his brother’s near-death – the reminder of his former self was both nostalgic and bittersweet.

Personally, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were working through their feelings on the subject with the help of a lot of roleplaying involving their time at the Cloud Recesses. It was very healthy of them, emotionally, although maybe not so healthy for the state of Wei Wuxian’s waist. Or throat. Or hands…

(No, they weren’t officially married yet, since they were still hoping that they could have a proper ceremony when the war ended, but they were both of age and engaged. And that meant they could go to bed together, no matter what some of the more conservative Lan sect members thought – with Lan Qiren backing them up, which he did with no small amount of eye-rolling and deep sighs and long-suffering resignation, they were free to do as they pleased.)

That, too, was something they owed to Nie Huaisang.

Without Nie Huaisang’s timely intervention, both Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng would’ve fallen for the Jin sect’s instigation and turned against each other in an act of mutual destruction that harmed both of them, and everyone else besides. Jiang Cheng would have cut off his own right arm, voluntarily weakening his sect just at the moment when they needed strength the most, and rendered himself without any other choice but to be dependent on Lanling Jin, while Wei Wuxian would have remained trapped in the Burial Mounds in Yiling, getting called the Yiling Patriarch as some people still today did, growing ever more resentful at his isolation and poverty.

(That one uncomfortable month he’d spent arguing with Wen Qing and Wen Ning about whether they should try to grow radishes or potatoes had been very educational, especially since they were both not-so-secretly convinced that the argument was futile and that nothing would ever grow on the Burial Mounds, such that they were just whiling away time until they all starved to death.)

They would be scattered, weakened, unhappy and vulnerable. Wei Wuxian would be sitting there like a giant target until the Jin sect decided, in their leisure, to deal with him the way, in hindsight, they had so obviously always intended to.

Wei Wuxian would have missed his sister’s wedding, probably. He might even have missed Jiang Yanli’s widowing, and the consequences of that were unthinkable.

If Wei Wuxian hadn’t brought the Wen sect back with him to the Lotus Pier as a result of Jiang Cheng’s defiance of the cultivation world’s criticism, Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli would never had the chance to hit it off the way they had, becoming fast friends. If they hadn’t been friends, Wen Qing wouldn’t have been visiting Jinlin Tower to check up on her good friend when the news of Jin Zixuan’s death had first spread.

His murder, rather – Wei Wuxian wasn’t terribly clear on the details, but it wasn’t really necessary. Jin Guangshan had pressed his legitimate son’s filial piety to the breaking point in his pursuit of power, and finally he must have done something to go too far, to cause there to be a real break between them. Jin Zixuan must have made clear that he would not play along, no matter what, and by that point Jin Guangshan already knew there was Jin Guangyao waiting in the sidelines to step up and take his place. There was no other way it could have gone, simply because there was no other reason for both Jin Zixuan and his mother to so conveniently die on the very same day.

If it hadn’t been for Nie Huaisang convincing Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing wouldn’t have been there. Wen Qing wouldn’t have been available to be bold and decisive, the way she was with her medicine; she wouldn’t have been able to persuade Jiang Yanli of the possibility of danger and then to smuggler out of Jinlin Tower and take her on the run in disguise, long before it occurred to anyone else that there might be some threat to her – that the Jin sect might decide to hold her hostage, or worse.

Definitely worse. If Jin Guangyao had had the chance to figure out what only Wen Qing had known back then – that Jiang Yanli, barely more than a newlywed, already carried the next heir to Lanling Jin within her belly…

Jin Guangyao’s ambitions would never have let Jin Zixuan live, a fact they’d all only realized in horrible helpless hindsight, but if Wen Qing had been trapped in Yiling with Wei Wuxian at the time, instead of visiting Lanling, then Jiang Yanli…

Wei Wuxian didn’t even want to think of it.

So, really, it was only fair that Nie Huaisang, who had whether intentionally or incidentally saved so many of them these past few years, finally, finally get what he’d been dreaming of all these years: his brother’s return.

It was only fair that he be allowed to return to being happy.

And yet, at the same time –

“You need to go talk to him,” Jiang Cheng said. His arms would be crossed in front of his chest if he wasn’t currently holding a sleeping Jin Ling, who’d had something of a fright upon meeting the new and improved Nie Huaisang. The poor kid had been convinced that his habitually bitter and vicious Second Uncle Nie was possessed by some sort of fierce but bizarrely friendly ghost. “There’s a war on, for fuck’s sake. He can’t spend all his time haunting the Unclean Realm trying to pretend that he’s something he’s not in order to keep his brother from finding out that he’s changed!”

“It’s not as bad as all that,” Wei Wuxian objected. “I mean, Nie Huaisang’s always run most of the war through correspondence, anyway, and it’s not like we’re totally helpless without him to boss us around.”

“His absence hasn’t been noted by our enemies just yet,” Wen Ning murmured. His arms were similarly full with Wen Yuan – a little older than his friends, steadier and more mature, but a sympathetic crier, and spending a month of his childhood in the Burial Mounds made him more susceptible to fears of possession, not less, so he’d been set off by Jin Ling. And seeing them both in tears had, of course, made poor level-headed Jin Rusong, who didn’t cry easily at all, panic and try to help in a way that only made it worse; Xiao Xingchen had swept him away to the kitchen, and the two of them were currently making snacks for the other two when they woke up. “But it will be, soon. They are already puzzled by the change in tactics.”

Wen Ning’s voice was as soft as ever, his stutter subdued only by the fact that he was with company he liked, but his tone brooked no argument – he’d changed a lot since their youth, too, and knew more intimately than most how some things could not be undone.

The Jin sect, not content with merely killing him, had dubbed his resurrected self ‘the Ghost General’ in an attempt to incite the cultivation world into hating and fearing him. It had been a lie back then, when he’d been doing nothing more than planting radish seeds and babysitting, but now Wen Ning was a general in truth, the leader of their archers and one of Nie Huaisang’s right hands. He was still shy, still didn’t speak fluently and probably never would, but Nie Huaisang had assigned him several capable deputies who understood him even when he had to resort to the type of hand-signs used by the deaf or in covert situations. He was surprisingly popular with the cultivators on their side of the war, although Wei Wuxian acknowledged that perhaps his popularity shouldn’t be that much of a surprise: there was a certain morale-boosting effect in seeing your general continuing to fight even after being struck with enough arrows to create a porcupine.

“Being puzzled by a change in tactics is fairly run of the mill for any enemy facing Nie Huaisang,” Wei Wuxian pointed out.

“Which is why they haven’t noticed it yet, Wei-gongzi. But eventually…”

Wei Wuxian grimaced. “Is it really that dire?”

“Not yet,” Lan Wangji said ominously, and – fine. If even Lan Wangji thought that someone should talk to Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian would go and talk to him.

After all, they were old friends of long acquaintance.

Very long, even.

“I come bearing terms of peace,” Wei Wuxian announced, walking into Nie Huaisang’s study and waving a few jars of wine at him. “Come negotiate with me, Nie-xiong!”

“I don’t recall giving you permission to barge into my room,” Nie Huaisang said without looking up from his correspondence, a little flash of the vicious Pallbearer they’d all grown painfully accustomed to – he had his family’s temper but a cooler head, with rage that burned low and long rather than flaring up hot and burning out.

Wei Wuxian reflected once more on how apt Nie Huaisang’s personal title was. The foolish thought that it referred to the filial piety he showed in mourning the brother that raised him since childhood, the somewhat wiser to the way the attack on Nie Mingjue had forced Nie Huaisang to find the virtue he had previously lacked, but the really smart ones knew that the most accurate interpretation was that those that Nie Huaisang chose to accompany to their end would ultimately find themselves without any path forward but death.

Nie Huaisang’s cultivation was still nothing special, his ability to fight virtually non-existent beyond the most basic of saber forms – a saber he now carried with him often enough, but still almost never used – and he’d rejected Wei Wuxian’s very innovative idea (if he did say so himself) that he try to train with a war fan, both on the basis of it being both too much effort and furthermore thoroughly lacking in aesthetic. As a result, he had no particularly notable talents, and none that could allow him to triumph in a night-hunt or a duel.

It didn’t make him any less terrifying.

“You’ll forgive me,” Wei Wuxian said flippantly, and sat down next to him, looking at the words that filled the page with Nie Huaisang’s lovely, artistic calligraphy. “More spy stuff?”

Nie Huaisang’s lips curled up into a small smirk. “Naturally. The network never sleeps, as you well know. I assume you’ve been sent to scold me about the war?”

“Amazing,” Wei Wuxian said, and nudged him in the side with his elbow. “It’s almost like you have a brain in your head or something. Since you’ve guessed it, I don’t even know what more I need to say…how’s Chifeng-zun doing?”

That got Nie Huaisang’s face to soften, as he’d hoped it would. “Much better. He’s been sleeping and waking consistently, and the mobility exercises are working well, though of course he’s insisting on trying more than he can manage. He only just managed to walk across the room without stumbling yesterday, had to sit down right away after, and he’s already asking about saber training.”

That was very in character for Nie Mingjue.

“I’m glad,” Wei Wuxian said, meaning it with all his heart. “I missed da-ge.”

He owed him so much, after all.

So much more than most people knew.

It had been Nie Mingjue who had found him all those years ago, in the dark days when his parents had died in a night-hunt gone wrong and the money they’d left with the innkeeper turning out to be insufficient to keep him housed or fed for more than a fortnight. Wei Wuxian had been a spoiled, beloved child – even if his parents were rogue cultivators, his father originally a servant, they were famous; there wasn’t a town that didn’t welcome them with open arms. They had never lacked for money, for warmth and comfort.

Wei Wuxian might have had a chance if they’d died in the spring or summer. He might have been able to learn to sleep on the streets during warm nights and used those rich fat months to learn from all the other beggars how to eat refuse, but his parents had died in the winter. Even the beggars chased him away, unwilling to spare the smallest scrap of food or lose any bit of warmth by sharing the spots they had found to shelter from the cold; and when he went to the richer districts that had once greeted his parents with such enthusiasm, wild dogs were sent to chase him away, vicious and merciless…within a week, he had been very nearly dead.

Luckily, when hiring rogue cultivators turned out to be insufficient to deal with the problem, the miserly local landlord that had sent out the notice in the first place had finally given in and written to a Great Sect, begging for aid – as a rich man, he was obligated to contribute to the costs of a requested night-hunt, and the Great Sects, while generally more successful, were typically far more mercenary in that regard than rogue cultivators – and Nie Mingjue had come with his Nie sect, the most willing by far to do the work of defeating evil without charging too much for the privilege.

He’d found the bodies of Wei Wuxian’s parents.

Soon after, he’d found Wei Wuxian himself.

Wei Wuxian had been about seven, then. It had been a full two years before Jiang Fengmian had found him on the very same streets, hiding in the trash with a dirty face and a sad and miserable expression, ready to be picked up and taken home by his father’s old friend, the Sect Leader of Yunmeng Jiang.

Just as anyone might’ve predicted.

After all, Nie Mingjue had never stinted on sending out spies, even if he never used them.

(He’d released Wei Wuxian of all those old obligations long ago – but Nie Huaisang never had.)

“Da-ge passes along his thanks, by the way,” Nie Huaisang said. “He thinks the array you created to help preserve his life is brilliant.”

“It is brilliant,” Wei Wuxian said, shameless as always. Getting a truly vicious scolding from his little master Nie Huaisang about exactly how close to the line his arrogance had brought him and the Wen sect had humbled him a bit, and the disaster of the Stygian Tiger Seal nearly going out of his control at the Nightless City not long thereafter had humbled him still more, but in the end he was still Wei Wuxian. He was awesome. “Could anyone else have done what I did?”

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes.

“He’s not angry at me for misusing Baxia?” Wei Wuxian asked, fishing for confirmation. If there was one thing that his two years in the Nie sect had taught him, it was a near-pathological revulsion at the thought of touching another person’s spiritual weapon – he’d been very nearly more excited to be allowed to put his hand on an unsheathed Bichen than Lan Wangji’s dick, although not quite – and Nie Mingjue was quite justifiably more paranoid than most on the subject.

Even that treacherous dog Jin Guangyao hadn’t dared touch Baxia. The spiritual poison he’d used on Nie Mingjue had been limited to the man himself, and that had been what gave Wei Wuxian the idea for the array he’d invented. Nie Mingjue cultivated with Baxia as his primary, if not only, spiritual weapon, and the disciples of the Nie sect were closer to their sabers than most – and by the end of the Sunshot Campaign, Baxia was a fearsome entity in her own right, possessed of her own spiritual energy.

And as he’d always said, energy was meant to be used.

There was something about the Nie sect’s cultivation style that reminded Wei Wuxian of his innovations in demonic cultivation, although it wasn’t quite the same. They didn’t manipulate resentful energy directly the way he did, but they still made use of it, refining their blades with it until the sabers were very nearly guai, cultivating saber spirits filled with a lust for blood – although the strict disciplines of the Nie sect cultivation path meant that every saber spirit that Wei Wuxian had ever had the fortune (or misfortune) to personally encounter just as absolutist in their disdain for evil as their masters.

Even Nie Huaisang’s saber Aituan was like that, and maybe that should have been Wei Wuxian’s first hint that Nie Huaisang wasn’t as simple as he appeared on the surface.

“It’s fine,” Nie Huaisang assured him. “Really. Da-ge said it was – how’d he put it – a charming contradiction, that his saber get used to cultivating energy for him rather than him for the saber. Though maybe he was just relieved that she was intact, given everything.”

Wei Wuxian grinned and toasted Nie Huaisang, drinking a little of the wine while Nie Huaisang continued with his correspondence.

They sat in comfortable silence for a little while.

“I’m not pretending,” Nie Huaisang said abruptly, and Wei Wuxian, who’d drifted off into daydreams involving him, Lan Wangji, and a very sturdy bathtub, turned to look at him. “I know what Jiang Cheng thinks –”

“Of course you do. I tell you what Jiang Cheng thinks.”

“Shut up, you – you calamity. I don’t need you to tell me what Jiang Cheng thinks, he tells me himself more often than not. He thinks that I’m pretending to be useless because I don’t want da-ge to know about everything I’ve done, but that’s not the case at all. He knows. I wouldn’t keep it from him.”

“I know,” Wei Wuxian said, because he did. Even at his most lazy and self-indulgent, Nie Huaisang abhorred the thought of lying to his brother. “But you are spending too much of your time in the Unclean Realm. We need you back in the field.”

Nie Huaisang scowled. “The cream of the cultivation world,” he said disdainfully. “Can’t they do anything by themselves, just for a few short months? You’d think my brother fought the entirety of the Sunshot Campaign by himself with how little they seem to contribute.”

“Personally, I think that everyone has just taken the Nie sect as lucky cats, and are afraid to do without you,” Wei Wuxian said, batting his eyelashes at him in his most provoking show of earnestness. “Nie-xiong, if I rub your head, does that mean I’ll win my next battle…?”

“Don’t you dare,” Nie Huaisang said, but the scowl receded and he looked amused again. “I can’t wait to send da-ge out on the battlefield again.”

“The Jin sect will trample each other in their eagerness to get off the battlefield rather than face Chifeng-zun,” Wei Wuxian agreed, and couldn’t help his own smile at the thought. “The rumors that he’s returned have already started spreading like wildfire, but you’ve done well to hide him away so thoroughly. It means no one knows if the rumors are right or if you’re just pulling some kind of trick on the world.”

“Who, me? A trick?” Nie Huaisang said, and smiled thinly. “I only wish I could’ve seen the look on that treacherous dog’s face when his spies reported on my unusual behavior. I hope he’s afraid.”

Wei Wuxian agreed.

He had tried many times to imagine doing what Jin Guangyao had done. To turn your hand against the man to whom you had sworn to love as a brother –

He couldn’t even imagine hurting Jiang Cheng like that, and Jiang Yanli even less.

Wei Wuxian owed Nie Mingjue his life. He had sworn fealty to him with all the passion and singlemindedness of childhood, and had never once regretted it. Nie Mingjue had taken him off the streets and brought him back to his sect, he’d taken back his parents’ bodies and buried them with full (if private) honors, he’d given Wei Wuxian training to make him strong and smart and capable. He’d sent him to do work in a place where he would prosper and thrive and be happy, and all the while promised that he would never be trapped – that he would have a way out if the Jiang sect became too suffocating or he was treated too viciously, on one hand, and on the other told him that he could one day petition to be released from his obligations to the Nie sect if he ever found them too demanding.

Wei Wuxian had asked to be released from those obligations after the fall of the Lotus Pier, unable to stomach the idea of reporting on Jiang Cheng now that he was all alone in the world in the way that he had so effortlessly reported on Jiang Fengmian and Madame Yu. Nie Mingjue had granted the reprieve without a second’s hesitation, even though it meant wasting the years and years of investment they’d put into him, even though it would have been a critical moment to have an ear within the Jiang sect’s camp.

Wei Wuxian owed Nie Mingjue everything.

And yet – if the man had asked him to kill Jiang Cheng, he would have said no.

Twin heroes, he’d promised Jiang Cheng, and if for a while he’d thought he would have to give up that promise because of the secret of the golden core that he still kept hidden away, he refused to think it any longer. Jiang Cheng was his brother in all but blood, in all the ways that mattered. Wei Wuxian would stand aside from him if he thought he had to, as he had with the Wen sect remnants; he would keep secrets from him, he would even deceive him, but he would never willingly seek to hurt him.

Jin Guangyao, though? He had attacked Nie Mingjue without even being asked.

He was like some rabid beast, a white-eyed wolf, Wei Wuxian thought. Utterly beyond his understanding.

He deserved to be afraid.

“Speaking of which,” he said, suddenly remembering. “I think I’ve figured out why Jin Guangyao was willing to kill his own heir to further his and his father’s ambitions.”

“About time,” Nie Huaisang said, and while his tone was stern Wei Wuxian was mostly sure that he was teasing. “I put you on that job months ago. What do you think I keep you around for? Your brilliant inventions? Your armies of corpses? Your amazing ability to stun irritating sect leaders into silence with your overwhelming shamelessness regarding Lan Wangji –”

“Let’s not talk about that,” Wei Wuxian said hastily, although the giant grin he couldn’t keep off his face said everything about his shame – or lack thereof – relating to that last one. You get caught doing one little roleplay about the fearsome demonic cultivator Yiling Patriarch being arrested by the righteous cultivator Hanguang-jun and suddenly no one wanted to look you in the eye anymore… “Anyway, according to all the rumors, you keep me around because you want me to raise your brother the way I raised Wen Ning.”

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard that one, and I still can’t believe anyone believes it. Da-ge’s a sect leader! Even if you wanted to bring him back, think about the amount of resentment he would have had to feel at his death to rise up again despite all the soul-calming rituals he’s gone through! If he ever became that resentful, he wouldn’t rise up as a ghost general, he’d be a ghost king, and then we’d all be screwed.”

Nie Huaisang wasn’t wrong. Nie Mingjue was one of the most powerful cultivators living – if he rose as a fierce corpse, he’d be able to slaughter an entire village of common people overnight with just the energy in one hand. And if he were then allowed access to Baxia, her power added to his…he’d become a scourge on the world, a true calamity, and they’d need to find a way to appease his anger and somehow lock him away forever just to survive.

Assuming Nie Huaisang allowed something like that, anyway. Wei Wuxian was very happy they had never been forced to face the question of whether Nie Huaisang preferred his brother or his morality, as he suspected no one would like the answer to that. Not even Nie Huaisang.

“Enough speculation,” Nie Huaisang said, and Wei Wuxian twitched guiltily even though he knew Nie Huaisang was not, in fact, a mind-reader. “What’s the story with A-Song?”

“You want the long version with all the proof I found to support it or the conclusion?”

“Start with the conclusion.”

“Jin Guangyao couldn’t risk A-Song growing up into a half-wit on account of being a child of incest.”

That actually surprised Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian was pleased to see.

“Incest?” Nie Huaisang said wonderingly. “But how – oh, of course. Jin Guangshan and Madame Qin? An affair or rape?”

“Rape while he was drunk, supposedly, though of course we only have the relevant people’s words for that, and they’re not exactly impartial sources. Could’ve been an affair that had unexpected results, not that anyone would ever admit it.”

Nie Huaisang started laughing.

Wei Wuxian really wished he wouldn’t. It wasn’t the sort of happy giggle that he sometimes let out nowadays when he was thinking of Nie Mingjue’s recovery – it was the jagged vicious bitterness of the Pallbearer, through and through.

“Oh, Qin Su, Qin Su,” Nie Huaisang said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I gave you all the chances in the world, you stupid woman. I hope you’re happy with what you chose.”

“Can I ask?” Wei Wuxian said cautiously. “You never said – you just showed up with A-Song, no Qin Su and no explanation…”

“Says the person who adopted A-Yuan all but sight unseen?”

“I lived with him for a month, it’s different,” Wei Wuxian said. “What happened with Qin Su?”

Nie Huaisang shrugged. “Nothing dramatic. She wouldn’t believe me when I told her that her husband was planning on killing her son to frame his enemies, which is reasonable enough given that everyone knows I’m at odds with him. Even when I offered her proof, she said it was just a forgery – that he wasn’t like that, that she knew him, the real him, that she was the only one who really understood him, even though I’d say the whole cultivation world knows the ‘real’ him by now.”

“Irritating, but understandable, I think – he is her husband, the dashing hero that rescued her so valiantly in the Sunshot Campaign and which she defied custom and her parents to marry. So why all the disdain?”

Nie Huaisang’s lips pressed together tightly with disapproval. “I asked her if she was willing to risk losing A-Song just to show her husband that she trusted him, and she said that she was, because it wasn’t a risk at all. Because she knew he loved her too much to do such a terrible thing without a good reason.”

“Without a good reason?” Wei Wuxian demanded. “That’s her son!”

“Don’t you know that they can always have others?” Nie Huaisang said with a sneer, clearly paraphrasing words he’d heard. “They’re young, in love – it’s all my fault that he stopped touching her, apparently. I took Lan Xichen away from him and he’s so upset about it that he can’t come to her bed, but once the world is rid of me, it’ll all go back to the way it should be…”

“I’ll give her that much: she really loves him,” Wei Wuxian said, shaking his head. The delusions of a person in love, he supposed. He hoped that he and Lan Wangji weren’t quite that bad. “She’ll be in for a disappointment. Given what I found out…he’ll never return to her bed or give her children, not in this lifetime.”

“No, he won’t.” Nie Huaisang reached for his fan. “Thank you for this. I’ll think about how to use it.”

“And?” Wei Wuxian prodded.

“And I’ll come back to the battlefield,” Nie Huaisang conceded, looking discontented, and Wei Wuxian smiled smugly. “You can supervise the Unclean Realm in my place.”

“What? No!” Wei Wuxian protested, his smile disappearing at once. “You have Xiao Xingchen –”

“He’s newly blinded, and out of all the cultivators we have available, you’re the most effective at fighting on a stand-alone basis. Think of it as having some time to bond with your mother’s shidi.”

Wei Wuxian didn’t want time to bond with his martial uncle – or, well, he did, he’d been dying for an opportunity to talk with Xiao Xingchen more or less since the man first made his name known in the cultivation world, but Nie Huaisang’s rules were such that no one outside the most trusted inner circles of the Nie sect was allowed in the familial quarters of the Unclean Realm, or even in the Unclean Realm at all. And that meant…

“But – Lan Wangji –”

“Will not die if he’s forced to be abstinent for a little while,” Nie Huaisang said, and oh, it was on.

“Did Qin Su specify the method by which you took Lan Xichen from her husband?” Wei Wuxian asked, crossing his arms. “I was under the impression that you still referred to him as Zewu-jun –”

Nie Huaisang glared.

Too bad – if the Pallbearer didn’t want to get mocked over his crush on the First Jade of Lan, he shouldn’t have let Wei Wuxian find out about the fact that the torch he held for him was still burning hot as ever.

“Perhaps my information is out of date. Tell me, little master, what means of seduction did you employ to convince Zewu-jun to betray his poor sad little A-Yao? Did you work your wicked wiles on him?”

“Wei Wuxian –”

“Did you play his xiao?”

Nie Huaisang let out an ungentlemanly snort and had to cover his face. “Oh no,” he said. “Oh no. Why did you have to give me that mental image? Fuck you, Wei Wuxian.”

“Yeah, well, fuck you too. Abstinent my ass.”

“I think you’ll find that the problem with abstinence is that it’s not your ass,” Nie Huaisang said, shoulders shaking. “That’s kind of the point. Now go tell everyone that I’ll be rejoining them tomorrow.”

“I will relish their groans of despair,” Wei Wuxian said, standing up. He was clearly going to have to take as much advantage that he could of the little time he had with Lan Wangji before being cruelly locked away. “Oh, is there any news on Song Lan?”

“None,” Nie Huaisang said. “He may as well have ascended into the heavens. Don’t tell Xiao Xingchen, he’ll only worry.”

“I won’t, I won’t. As for you – could you try to lighten up on Zewu-jun? Now that da-ge’s awake again?”

Nie Huaisang frowned.

“I’m not saying forgive him,” Wei Wuxian clarified. “Just – you know that da-ge wouldn’t want you to be so mad at him, especially since you still like him and all.”

“I’ll let da-ge decide that, I think,” Nie Huaisang said, and the humor had fled his face entirely. “It was his assassin that Zewu-jun decided to trust and protect, after all.”

Wei Wuxian nodded, accepting the verdict – he disagreed, but he understood – and turning to leave.

He paused at the door.

“Just so you know,” he said, not looking at Nie Huaisang. “Having trusted Meng Yao doesn’t mean you have to be so mad at yourself, either.”

He left before Nie Huaisnag could respond, but he heard something shatter in the room behind him.

[ziracona]

Hello! I have always believed that Michael needed better doctors and good treatment. He was simply billed as "Evil". Sometimes I think that at that time they were unaware or ignorant of mental illness, and that is why Michael did not recover. I wish it had been treated better. I would like to know your opinion about it ;v;

Oh, absolutely. Michael is a very tragic character, and what happened to him was almost entirely Loomis’ fault, secondarily the system and his parents’, and like onyl 0.8% his own. It’s true that mental health aid has historically been really bad in most places, and even today treatment and acceptance—even in specifically medical settings—tend to be abysmal. Of course people knew less than they do now about how psychological stuff works, but bias, cruelty, and superstition as well as a system that enables and even to degrees outright encourages that is to blame for the awful treatment people woth mental illnesses and personality disorders faced and continue to face, not just a lack of knowledge, and the history is really heavy and awful to look over. : ( It’s horrific some of the things doctors have done and do to people just trying to get help.

Like, in Michael’s case, we’ve had a name and understanding of psychosis since the 1800s. Canonically, by the time the poor kid was six years old, he was hearing voices telling him to do bad things to people. He told his parents, seeking help, and they did nothing to help him—just told him it was his imagination—despite knowing hos grandfather had suffered the same symptoms. If they had only taken him seriously and given him therapy and possibly medication too, Judith never would have died. (I am not goong to say it every time, but all this information is official canon) Michael’s reason for killing his family members is wanting the vocies talking to him to be quiet, because it’s agonizing. If you’ve ever had intrusive thoughts (stuff like “pull into oncoming traffic” or “break that and see what happens” and such that don’t actually compell or force you to do it at all, and are always things you as a person deeply do not want to do, but nevertheless are really annoying or distressing to hear in your head), imagine that cranked up to 1000, endless and constant, but from voices that seem to come from around you instead of in your head. Especially as a young child, with no understanding what is happening to you, this would be incredibly scary and distressing—doubly so when dismissed by your parents, whose sole job is supposed to be to love and protect you.

The voices say they’ll be quiet if Michael kills Judith, so Halloween night, he does. Important to note here Michael is recently six years old at the time, which developmental psych literally is not old enough to have a complete understanding what death itself is, let alone complex morality. You /cannot/ be evil at six, you simply don’t have a complex enough understanding of right and wrong or of consequence to /be/ evil. Also at this age, usually kids see death as a vague concept, but one that applies to people they don’t know only, not to them and their loved ones. In Halloween 1978, immediately after stabbing Judith, Michael looks away while he keeps doing it, and his breathing speeds up in a scared way. He barely looks at the body, and immediately goes down stairs to wait for his parents—probably for them to fix it—and does nothing to flee or hide what he’s done. He looks traumatized when they take his mask off. (Lots of little notes here like that Judith when she sees him seems annoyed but not very, and when he attacks her, tries to shield herself and call to him to stop, rather than fleeing or fighting back, which [appealing instead of fight or flight] is pretty exclusively something you only would use if attcked by someone you are on good terms with—I mean, Michael is six—if Judith had /tried/ to fight back, no way she would have died—so there’s less than nothing to indicate they had anything but a loving familial sibling relationship. But if I list all these I’m gonna launch into my six page Michael Myers meta so I will speed through the rest.)

Anyway! Sorry, I have many feelings. About...everything. Including Michael for sure. So, immediately after killing Judith, Michael stops talking. He also shows other psychosis and trauma readily recognized side effects, like catatonia, slowed movement. In Halloween 1978c Dr. Loomis claims he tried to treat Michael for eight years, then spent another seven trying to keep him locked up because he realized he was evil. This is a /blatant/ lie, as in film canon Loomis, by Michael’s review hearing I believe four months in? Six or less for sure, I believe it is four. Loomis has /already/ become convinced Michael is a demon in human form, faking his symptoms, and itching to kill again. The other doctors think Loomis is crazy, as does the other doctor who examines Michael, but they’re awful people so they let him stay Michael’s doctor anyway, even though they refuse to move him to Litchfield maximum security. By this time only a few months in, Loomis is canonically also threatening the six year old in his care and constantly telling him he is an evil being who wants to get out and terrorize again. (Also, I will die enraged the sentance Michael gets for killing Judith is to remain locked in solitary in a sanitorium for /15/ years, until he turns 21, at which point he will be tried as an adult for murder??? The fuck?? You CANNOT charge a 6 year old’s crime in adult court! ‘Tried as an adult’ is meant for like, when a 17 year old dismembers their family and eats them! It’s for particularly heinous crimes, committed by someone /very/ close to being legally an adult, and that /only/. The idea of waiting fifteen years to try someone as an adult for something done at age six is laughable and sick).

Okay this is already long, I get carried away rip. Uhhh, anyway, yeah. In Smith’s Grove, Michael is visited by mom and Laurie once, then never sees any of his family again, because his dad hates him and forbids the others—finds out because Laurie is four and talks that they went /one/ time, and physically beats four year old Laurie for mentioning his name until she trauma blocks out ever having had a brother. From then on, Michael spends /fifteen/ years and all the dest of his developmental stages of childhood in a sanitorium with Dr. Loomis—a man who on wild religious superstition grounds assumes by his own admission /on sight/ that Michael is evil, and no other human contact. According to canon, Michael spends at least four hours of /every/ day with Loomis, his /only/ human contact, who threatens him, promises to stop him, and endlessly barrages him with “You’re evil, you’re not human, you want to kill again, I /will/ stop you,” and nothing else. He also canonically keeps Michael overdosed on a type of antipsychotic that, while a fine drug if used normally, if overdosed can deeply worsen symptoms, and can cause permanent brain damage.

Honestly, if a six year old is exposed yo major trauma, none of their issues are explained, legitimized, or believed, and almost all of their developmental stage is spent with endless voices they don’t know the cause of suggesting murder and violence, one human being and authority figure telling them over and over and over for fifteen years with no other constant in their life or human contact period that they are a demon in human form who wants to kill and is /going/ to do so again...? How else was that story ever going to end? I’ve said it before, but that’s beyond conditioning; it’s lab growing a human child to one day walk out and murder Laurie Strode with a large kitchen knife.

I stand by Halloween is a greek tragedy more than a slasher, and Michael and Laurie are both victims. He’s the Asterios, she’s the Ariadne. Loomis the Minos, the real villain. (Or the Poseidon choose your poison).

Anyway, I 100% agree! If he had just gotten help from his parents, Judith would have never died. If he’d had good doctors, none of the events of 1978 would have come to pass, or anything after it. Loomis single-handedly causes the deaths in 1978 himself through years of cruelty, and bigoted bias towards a small child in his care who needed his help, not his abuse, but he chose to break as much as he possibly could despite his responsibilities as a doctor, an adult, and a human.

If you’re interested, I did a canon-deep-dive character study short story on Michael on AO3! Halloween is such a sad story but it’s fascinating. God, poor Michael and Laurie deserved so much better than they got. It’s a testament to Michael’s character that even after 15 years of Dr. Loomis, he really only kills his intented target(s) in search of quiet from the voices, and anyone who sees him/would be a threat, and not other people. Makes no attempt to kill any of the kids in Halloween 2018, and only kills Bob when he literally opens the door to his hiding spot and Michael is found and Bob becomes a threat to him. In H20, after Michael has had 20 years on his own, you get arguably the least brutal Michael, who intentionally passes on killing the mother and child, and the security guard he walks right past, because they don’t see him and thus he doesn’t /have/ to. Halloween II is less intentionally avoiding, but even then he still does the same multiple times too, like with the old lady making a sandwich, or the scene in the incubator room. Anyway he desevered better fuck Loomis all my homies hate Loomis.