#Ignorant White Person™

[cherrymoonvol6]

.

[dio-niisio]

(English is not my first language, so please ignore any mistakes! :-))

Ok I've been imagining a scenario that for some reason Martha and Thomas Wayne are brought back from the dead...

One day they are dead and the other they are starting at their graves, reading their names and being very confused.

Alfred probably finds them first, he looks out the window and sees two people standing in the family cemetery, Wayne Manor had problems in the past with grave robbers, and he would be damned if he let that happen with their grave. So poor Alfred runs, grabbing some old shovel on the way (just to scare, not to harm!), ready to give an ear full on these people. That's when he sees. His friends.

He's surprised to say the least. They don't look young, the years they were gone caught up to them. Thomas has mostly grey hair and Martha had a white strip of hair right in the top of her head...

Alfred doesn't know what to do, so he brings them inside. And starts to prepare some tea while he tries to explain the past 30 something years.

The next person who sees them is Dick, he smelled the tea and was going to get a cup, then he saw the people in the painting on the top of the stairs. And he panicked. Cuz he knows what that implies, and he is worried for his dad.

He introduces himself as 'Bruce's son' which gets them to be a very happy set of grandparents, he tells them the story of when Bruce adopted him (cuz grandpa wanted to meet his mom, in the end he got a nice and tragic story of the flying Grayson's)! And how he always wanted to meet them! He also text Jason, telling him to get his ass downstairs and talk to his family.

Jason almost had a heart attack, he thought that Dick wanted him to talk to Bruce not grandpa and grandma, he's very happy of course, but he's worried for them, resurrection isn't something nice, but they assure him they are as good as they could be. And it is his turn to explain that he's also adopted (they laughed at the tire story, he told them it was one of Bruce's "fancy cars"). He comments that he and Martha have matching hair (both with a white stripe right in the middle).

Tim comes home around noon, he's been spending time with some school friends, and when he hears some commotion in the kitchen he goes to investigate, that's when he sees them and thinks he's hallucinating (again), but he's reassured by a very happy grandma. He tells them he's 'Tim Drake-Wayne', and is his time to explain that no Bruce didn't marry a Drake, he is his legal guardian (aka Dad) cuz when his parents died on a archaeological excavation his uncle was not fit to be his guardian so Bruce stepped up.

Thomas and Martha are so happy in a couple of hours they went from being dead to having 3 beautiful grandchildren! They are very proud of Bruce for making a difference in these boys lives!

That's when Damian walks in the kitchen he just wanted Alfred's help with something, he looks just like Bruce when he was that age (or what they think Bruce would look like), he doesn't look surprised or excited, he just says that he's Bruce's 'biological son', which gets one of his ears pinched by Dick with a very stern 'be nice'. Before they can ask anything they're being hugged by Damian who says that it is nice to have them in here.

When Bruce comes home he's very tired™, he had a day full of meetings on Wayne enterprises and he still gotta do Batman stuff. He passed through the kitchen and saw that his kids had guests over. He doesn't think much of it until he gives a good look at them.

"Mama? Papa?"

And the world stopped spinning. That's them! All he wanted to see since he was an 8 year old little boy. He just doesn't believe it.

He looks just like his dad. Probably a bit shorter (and not rocking the mustache), but he has his mama's eyes. And her smile. He missed her smile so much! He missed his papa's hugs, he missed the lullabies his mama used to sing, he missed playing pretend with his papa, he missed them.

And he can't say a word. He just cries. He hugs them and he cries. His mama and papa are really back! They are back home!

And now it's his turn to catch up! And boy he's got a lot to say!

As they move to the living room Thomas gives this look to Alfred, smiles and says "Thank you for caring for our little boy, old friend!"

"Little boy? I'm sorry Mister Wayne, but that's an understatement. He's almost taller than the cabinets!"

[devilish-cherry]

ᨳ♡₊➳ jujutsu kaisen x reader

ᨳ♡₊➳ crack with plot

"You hate your job. The pay is bad, your manager is worse, and customers are somehow both entitled and clueless. Just as you finish contemplating whether unpaid breaks are a human rights violation, weird new people keep showing up to the café. They all seem to know each other. Sometimes they talk in cryptic phrases. What the hell is this domain and why do they want to expand it? One time, a man with stitches on his forehead walked in, made prolonged eye contact with you, and then left without ordering anything. You’re pretty sure he was a serial killer. Another time, the one with white hair and sunglasses indoors mentioned a "higher mission", and you’re 90% sure this is how cult documentaries start. One of your regulars only speaks in weird food-related phrases. You assume he has some kind of medical condition, but no one explains anything to you. But you are not about to ask questions, because ignorance is bliss and also job security. And unfortunately, they are all weird and they seem very interested in coming back."

꒰ masterlist ꒱ ₊⊹. ꒰ chapter 2 ꒱

ᨳ♡₊➳ or read on archive of our own!

The café always smelled like burnt espresso and despair.

This was, of course, not part of the marketing strategy. Just the natural consequence of a workplace where half the employees hated their jobs, the other half hated their lives, and you were a proud member of both categories.

The café wasn’t anything special. It was only a small, cozy place wedged between a laundromat and an even smaller bookstore that no one ever seemed to enter. It had decent coffee, passable pastries, and an espresso machine that made a sound like it was summoning demons every time it started up.

The morning rush had been a disaster, as usual. Some guy had ordered a "triple ristretto oat milk cortado with a whisper of cinnamon," and you'd fought the primal urge to ask if he wanted a therapy session with that. Then there was the woman who had stared at the menu for ten full minutes, only to proudly order "just a water" like she had done something revolutionary.

Like, sure, working at a café wasn’t the worst job in the world—there were no life-threatening situations (except for that one time Greg the Manager almost set the espresso machine on fire), and the pay was just enough to keep you from selling your left kidney. But there was something deeply soul-crushing about having to ask, “Would you like oat milk with that?” to people who wouldn’t hesitate to commit war crimes if you got their order wrong.

Still, you endured. Mostly because rent existed.

Now, with the lull between rushes, you were enjoying a rare moment of peace. There was only one customer in the shop: a guy sitting at the back, writing something aggressively in a notebook, occasionally stopping to stare into the distance like he was the main character in a tragic novel. You respected the drama.

Then the door opened, and you instinctively pasted on your Customer Service Smile™.

Two guys walked in. The first was a teenager with pink hair and a face that screamed "golden retriever in human form." He looked energetic, friendly, and like he’d never had a bad day in his life. He was smiling in a way that suggested he was either extremely friendly or about to ask if you had time to talk about your car’s extended warranty.

The second guy, though. Oh wow.

He was taller, older-looking, and had long black hair tied into pigtails. He walked in like a broken NPC. His movements were a little too stiff, like he was buffering between each step. Like he was following some kind of invisible instruction manual on "How to Act Like a Normal Person in a Café."

And was failing miserably.

His face was blank, aside from the faintly confused look in his brown eyes, and there was something weirdly intense about the way he stood there, as if he was waiting for someone to give him a quest.

You watched as the pink-haired guy - who had clearly dragged his companion here against his will - led them to the counter, grinning.

"Hello! Welcome to-" You trailed off when you saw the pink-haired one aggressively whispering something to his friend while gesturing toward the menu.

Pigtails nodded, his expression not changing even a little. "Understood. I will engage in an order transaction."

What.

Pinkie sighed. "Okay, man, just-just order like a normal person, alright?"

Pigtails turned to you. The eye contact was... unsettling. Not in a creepy way, but in a why does it feel like this man has never spoken to another human before way.

"Hello," he said, very seriously.

"...Hi."

"I am Choso. I would like a drink."

You blinked. "Uh. Yeah. That’s usually how this works."

Choso nodded slowly. Pinkie looked like he wanted to die.

"I will take... one coffee," Choso said, after a long pause.

Your deadpan stare could’ve rivaled the sun in intensity. "What kind of coffee?"

Choso blinked, staring at you like you had just explained quantum physics. Maybe he really wasn’t used to human interaction. Either way, it was kind of hilarious. "A normal coffee."

"There are a lot of normal coffees."

Choso looked at Pinkie, who was now staring at the ceiling like he was regretting every choice that had led him here. "Brother. What is a normal coffee?"

Pinkie groaned. "I told you, just say ‘latte' or a 'cappuccino.’"

"Latte or a cappuccino," Choso repeated, nodding.

"...Do you want latte or a cappuccino?" you asked. keeping your voice professionally neutral despite the immediate urge to start laughing.

Another long pause. Choso looked at Pinkie again. "Brother. Which one do I want?"

Pinkie ran a hand down his face. "Latte."

Choso turned back to you, face grave. "Latte."

You stared at him for a long moment, then pressed the button on the register. "Got it. One latte."

Pinkie, who you were now convinced was the only reason Choso had not accidentally wandered into traffic, exhaled like he’d just survived a war. "And I’ll take a cappuccino under Yuji, please!"

"Coming right up," you said, grabbing a cup.

As you worked on their drinks, you could feel Choso’s stare drilling into the back of your head. You stole a glance over your shoulder and, yep. There he was. Watching. Completely expressionless.

Yuji was whispering frantically. "Dude, stop staring, it’s weird."

"I am observing the coffee-making process," Choso replied.

"You’re making them uncomfortable."

Choso frowned. "I do not wish to cause discomfort."

"Then stop staring."

A pause. "Understood."

He pulled Choso toward a table by the window, where Choso sat so rigidly that it looked like he was about to be interrogated by the FBI. Yuji, in contrast, had already pulled out his phone and was scrolling through something with the casual ease of a person who had never been socially awkward in his life.

You caught Choso glancing around the shop, his brows slightly furrowed, like he was still adjusting to the idea of being here. The more you watched him, the more he reminded you of a stray cat—tense, a little lost, and not entirely sure whether he wanted to trust anyone.

Shaking your head, you set about making their drinks. It wasn’t until you brought them over that you noticed Choso still hadn’t moved from his original rigid sitting position. You slid his drink in front of him and waited, curious to see how this played out.

He stared at the cup. Slowly, his eyes lifted back to you. “What is this?”

You stared back. “Your latte.”

Choso blinked again. “Do I drink it?”

Yuji nearly choked on his cappuccino. “Of course you drink it! What else would you do with it?!”

Choso, apparently, had to think about that.

You bit the inside of your cheek. “Yes, it’s for drinking. But if you’d rather throw it on the floor, I won’t stop you.”

Choso took a long, considering pause before, finally, picking up the cup. He took a careful sip.

Then froze.

Yuji leaned forward. “You like it?”

Choso’s fingers curled around the cup, his blank face shifting just slightly, eyes widening, shoulders lowering. If you didn’t know better, you’d say he looked… moved.

"Brother. This is satisfactory." he murmured, almost reverently.

Yuji pumped his fist. “See? Told you you’d like it!”

Choso looked at you. "Barista. This is satisfactory."

"Uh. Thanks."

Choso nodded solemnly, like you had just exchanged some kind of sacred vow.

You raised an eyebrow, unable to resist the urge to ask. “You’ve never had a latte before?”

Choso shook his head.

Yuji sighed. “He’s been missing out on a lot of stuff.”

That much was obvious.

Still, you watched as Choso took another sip, eyes half-lidding as he savored it. For someone who barely seemed present in his own body, he was taking this latte very seriously. It was almost kind of… cute? In a weird, vaguely unsettling way?

You shook off the thought, taking your place back behind the counter. Missing out on a lot of stuff though? What did that even mean exactly? Had he been living under a rock? In the mountains? Was he raised by wolves? Should you be concerned?

When they finally left, Yuji waved cheerfully. "Thanks for the drinks! We’ll be back soon!"  

Choso paused at the door, looking at you like he was trying to process something. Then, after a long moment, he gave a slow, awkward nod.  

“Farewell, barista.”  

With that, they were both gone, Yuji chattering on about who-knows-what while Choso followed, silent and looming.

You let out a breath.

What the hell was that?

[fatherbrat]

cw. prequel to this. college au hockey player!sukuna. fatherbrat’s 2nd hugh hefner costume mention. reader is drunk. crack-esque. sfw, 1.3k words.

the first time you meet sukuna is at a halloween party. 

(it’s technically your halloween party. it isn’t your house or anything, but the boys that live there are happy to let you host as long as it means a house full of girls and none of the responsibility of setting up. you're happy to fulfill their requests, since it means you can have things go your way and then dip at the end of the night, leaving the post-party cleaning up to them.)

needless to say, you and sukuna do not make good first impressions. you would blame the alcohol, but honestly, it wouldn’t have gone any different if you were sober. 

he arrives at the party in a group. you recognize one of them—the tall, smiley one with impossibly white hair who sits behind you in biochem. he’s dressed up like a character from an snl skit, clad in an ill-fitting suit and round sunglasses with a present box glued to his pelvis.

you don’t recognize the one who comes in behind him, but he’s sexy and tanned and has a mustache. he’s also wearing the same costume as the white-haired one. gojo, you remember. isn’t he on the hockey team?

you immediately pull out your phone, searching up the school’s official instagram page for the hockey team. there they are, front and center in the most recent post. the third guy with them—the one with black hair and the scar that runs through his lip—is in the picture too. he’s wearing a batman costume now, half-assed but recognizable enough. at least he has on the mask. 

you squint at the last man in the group and frown. your gaze drops back down to your phone. 

in the second row of photos is a carousel full of pictures of this pink-haired brute. sukuna, the apparent team captain. his personal account is tagged, but it seems too professional to you, public and polished to perfection for recruiters. 

anyways. he’s here. at your halloween party. wearing an outfit you deem completely unacceptable. 

you down the rest of your (sixth) drink and toss the empty can onto the kitchen counter before making your way towards the group of men, wobbly as ever.

gojo is the first one to notice you. “hey,” he beams, “cool party.” he puts his arm around the guy with the mustache—shiu—and wiggles his eyebrows. “you like our costumes?”

you ignore him, something you wouldn’t do sober, but you’re on a mission. 

you point at sukuna, jabbing your nail into his chest. “where the fuck is your costume?”

sukuna glances down at your finger, then your costume, then your face. “you don’t see the jersey? i’m a fuckin’ hockey player.”

you pull back your hand, disgusted. “first of all, drop the attitude, mister. second of all, that’s not a costume. you’re on the hockey team.”

someone snickers. the one dressed as batman, you think, but you don’t turn around to check. sukuna’s face morphs through a few different emotions—amusement, annoyance, astonishment. he eventually settles on agitation, pissed that he hasn’t even gotten the chance to get some liquor in his system before dealing with bullshit like this.

“you wanna talk about costumes? you’re wearing underwear and a robe,” he says, gesturing towards you with a dismissive wave. 

you gasp and plant your hands on your hips. “this isn’t just underwear, idiot. it’s lingerie. i’m wearing a garter belt, for fuck’s sake. and thigh highs! plus you forgot about my hat?”

you use your entire arm to point at gojo. “who am i dressed as, dick-in-a-box boy?”

his face is flushed from laugher. “sexy hugh hefner. obviously.”

you throw your arm up in the air and let it fall against your thigh with a smack, not noticing the murderous glare sukuna sends towards gojo. someone somewhere turns down the music a bit.

“see!” you exclaim, addressing sukuna once again. “this is clearly a Sexy Costume™. and you know what else makes it a costume? i would never just leave my house like this on a typical day. it’s not a regular outfit in the slightest.” you speak slowly, wanting to make sure he understands every word. 

“you wanna know what makes this Not a costume?” you continue, still talking slow as you wag your finger up and down sukuna’s body. “it’s a regular-degular outfit. literally anyone can put on that campus store-bought jersey and wear it with those jeans on a normal day.”

sukuna starts to speak, but you cut him off. “didn't you see the sign out front? ‘no costume, no entry.’”

his jaw ticks. his right eye twitches. “yeah, i saw the fucking sign. i don’t-”

“oh, great,” you interrupt. “so you don’t know what a costume is and you can’t read. perfect. that hockey scholarship must be doing a lot of heavy lifting, huh?”

even in your inebriated state, you immediately know that was the wrong thing to say. the little crowd that gathered to watch your back-and-forth takes a collective inhale. sukuna looks downright irate, fists clenched at his sides as a storminess settles over his face. 

gojo lets out a long and low whistle, the kind that cartoon bombs make right before they hit the ground and explode. he pats your shoulder twice before abandoning you altogether. the rest of the crowd follows, leaving you to contend with this bear you repeatedly poked.

the music returns to its original volume, but it sounds like the speaker has been moved. away from you and closer to the living room.

maybe it’s the alcohol in your system, but you swear you can see literal steam coming out of sukuna’s ears. you sway on your feet a bit, waiting for him to say something. a thought occurs to you as you watch him pinch the bridge of his nose and breathe deeply, but you keep it to yourself, screwing up your lips in a physical attempt to keep from digging your grave further.

sukuna didn’t even want to come to this party in the first place. he actually mentioned the sign out front to the guys before they came in, trying to use it as an excuse for him to go home. his plan was to make an appearance, drink a beer, and then escape after thirty minutes. but here you are, this drunk stranger yelling at him for being dressed like a normal fucking person. the urge to stay strikes him. he wants to linger just to piss you off. 

“are you done?” he asks you.

you cross your arms. “are you leaving?”

“no.”

“then no.”

just as you’re about to dig into him again, sukuna’s thinning patience snaps.

“stop being a fucking bitch about this, alright? just relax. you’re acting fucking crazy.”

your jaw unhinges itself and you stand there, gawking. sukuna seems about ready to walk away, cracking his knuckles and looking somewhere behind you. your eyes land on his cheek, reddened and ready for a smack. you draw your arm back, wanting to make sure you gave him a slap that stings—and he catches it mid-air.

“are you serious?” he scoffs. you glance at your hand, his fingers around your wrist, the scowl etched into his face.

he glowers at you, not letting go when you try to shake your arm free. so you do the next logical thing.

you spit on him.

a glob of your saliva lands just below his eye. you smirk, satisfied. he drops your arm and curses, lifting the bottom of his jersey to wipe his face. then you make your first smart decision of the night and turn around, running back to where the rest of the party is to hide amongst the bodies.

he yells after you, but it’s drowned out by your giggles and the sound of chatter as you get nearer, bumping into countertops and side tables on the way.

someone pats your back and puts a drink in your hand. you pray you never have to see the captain of the hockey team again. 

tags. @nonamevenus @lavenderdaydream97 @rinofcike @gdamnackerman

[itsclydebitches]

By this point we’ve all seen a hundred “Lucy had a crush on Cooper Howard and doesn’t realize he’s the Ghoul” takes (which feed me during the hiatus, thanks), but just for the lols I’d love to see the reversal: Lucy hates this guy.

Cooper Howard is her personal White Whale. Lucy hate-watches his films and nit-picks every scene like someone is paying her caps to do it. Whatever the opposite of a blorbo is, that’s Cooper. She woke up one day and chose violence against this 200 years dead actor in particular… but, you know, in a PR approved, Vaultie kind of way. Why the hate? Who knows. Probably a combination of her dad showing her Cooper’s debut film right when she hit that tween age where liking what your parents like is soul crushing and the fact that if she didn’t have this emotional outlet she’d probably explode. It’s the one (1) thing goody-goody Lucy is irrational about and Norm takes endless pleasure in it.

So she’s traveling with the Ghoul, right? Not a whole lot to do while traversing the Wasteland, especially when your companion is blatantly ignoring you and the pip-boy isn’t picking up any radio signals. So when Lucy is able to open that wound again she starts talking about her dad. The books he liked. Jokes he told over dinner. His favorite pair of socks. Silly, inconsequential things that don’t touch on the weight of his betrayal.

Eventually, Lucy talks about the movies they used to watch.

Eventually, Lucy is comfortable enough—and bored enough—to segue into epic rants about Cooper Fudging Howard. For hours. Nothing escapes her passive aggressive, couched-as-constructive-criticism bitching. Not his acting (“Really, he’d benefit from learning a gesture other than sticking his hands in his belt”), not his looks (“Who decided to put him in those pants in Master of the Ranch? Although, Dad says Howard is the one who requested them…”), not even his unintentional impact on the family (“I swear if Dad makes me watch A Man and His Dog one more time…”).

All the while Cooper is walking a few paces ahead. Seemingly stoic.

Actually losing it.

What’s he even supposed to do in this situation?? He hates himself, but not like that. Cooper doesn’t have any desire to talk to Vaultie (that’s a lie. He’s good at lying to himself), but suddenly he wants to turn around, finger held aloft in the air (hers), and correct everything coming out of her mouth—whether he truly disagrees or not. Hands-in-belt is a classic cowboy pose. He loved those pants.

Cooper is Struggling™ and they haven’t even hit the strip yet.

Bonus points: Somewhere along the line they get together and Cooper starts angsting over whether Lucy will leave him. Not because of the radiation damage, or the murder, or the cannibalism, but because if she ever finds out he’s Cooper Howard she’ll absolutely abandon ship. Or kill him. Either option seems likely at this point.

Lucy: Are you ever going to tell me your name? Cooper, literally in bed with Lucy post-coitus: …That’s a little personal, sweetheart

[dying-isnt-good-for-your-health]

DpxDc, A hypocrite's concern

A little thing I wrote about Jason and Danny interacting after Jason gets captured by the GIW:)

(Starts under cut because I accidentally made it long)

Jason didn't know what to think.

He had been walking to the bus stop to get groceries in his civilian clothes, when a white van with an obnoxious logo on the side drove by and snatched him off the sidewalk. They didn't even grab him. They just full on drove by with a giant net outstretched like some weird type of fishing to catch him.

They didn't knock him out, they hadn't seemed to find a need to, but they did call him several terms he never even knew existed. None came close enough to the net—which was made of a weird material that couldn't be cut with his smartly hidden knife—to be kicked, so he had resorted to calling them several lovely names that you could only learn by growing up in Crime Alley.

When the van full of Men in Black ripoffs finally stopped, he was loaded into a... cage? Like, it looked a bit like a cage, but it also seemed as if it was made of rubber or plastic, and its shape was also odd, like it was specifically designed for something that would escape a regular cage easily and this was their attempt to stop it. It had bars, sure, but they were at weird angles and constantly layered over each other.

The 'cage' was placed on a cart and wheeled inside a generic office building, but they didn't enter through the entryway, no, what kind of madman uses a door? They entered through the wall. The agents walked directly through the wall, wheeling him in after them, with no difficulty other than pressing a small button next to a random brick. The secret entrance led to an early 2000s sci-fi movie elevator, that had wires filled with a disturbingly familiar green, and a not-so familiar blue.

One of the agents leaned into the comm thing attached to one of the wires and murmured something that made the elevator start working.

The elevator reached what was probably the bottom of the Secret Evil Lair™, and opened with a hiss. The doors revealed a well lit hallway with white walls, floors, ceilings, and heavily reinforced doors. So, these madmen did use doors. It was modern, but in a way that would remind you of a rich person with no interior decorating abilities.

The disproportionately large number of bald men pushed the cage-cart down the hall. The second thing he noticed after the atrocious decoration was the eerie quiet. There wasn't any noise that you would expect from an evil lab, even when the agents walked it was difficult to hear their steps, while when they were outside every step they made would be heard, inside, it was as if they were in their element.

The cart stopped in front of a door with far more protection than the rest, it was dark gray with the blue accents, rather than the white and green of the others. One of the agents leading him turned to a keypad-looking thing and began typing. The door had two signs on it, seemingly to catalog what was held within, but only one had any writing on it, as if the information of the room's contents was incomplete.

"-Phantom-

-DP-001-

-Danger Class: 7-

-Ectoplasmic Strength: Level 4 (For lower level agents, the maximum is Level 5)-

-Power Set: On the DP-001 file-

-Experiment Notes: While testing, ignore any and all pleas for mercy, it is a manipulation tactic it utilizes often. Do NOT remove the muzzle, doing so will result in termination. Causing permanent damage to subject without instruction from an agent classed over Class 7 will result in termination.-"

Jason was able to read the entire thing while the agent was still typing in the code to open the door. When the agent finally finished entering the code, the door opened with the same hiss as the elevator, and revealed a decontamination chamber.

They threw him into the chamber, and quickly closed the doors behind him. The cage melted away, as if it were made of wax, leaving him standing free in the chamber.

The chamber began to fill with a blue gas that fell from the ceiling vents. Jason instinctively held his breath while reaching for his gas mask, only to realize he didn't have his gas mask. Which was not right, he knew he had his gas mask. No Gothamite leaves home without a gas mask. No smart one, at least.

The agents had somehow managed to remove all of his belongings without him noticing. His clothes were also different, instead of the outfit he had left the house in, he was wearing a white shirt, and white pants.

How the hell did they do this? Was the most coherent thought he could have, but it was short lived as the doors in front of him opened with the exact same annoying hiss as the last few.

Based on the sign, he was expecting some kind of cryptid, like a demon, or something. But rather, he was greeted by a short teenager with black hair and blue eyes. The boy wore the same white clothes as Jason, but he also wore a mask that covered half his face, but there was also a blue tinted glass that allowed him to see his mouth. He was working on something behind him.

The boy stared for a moment, before smiling and waving animatedly, like he hadn't seen anyone other than the agents in a long while.

"Hi! I'm Danny!" He said, even if it was slightly muffled, sounding something between being under a blanket and speaking through a fan, "Or Phantom. Or DP-001 or just 001, they flip flop between the last three usually, you?"

"...I'm Jason," He couldn't see why he shouldn't tell this kid his name, it didn't matter, the kid wouldn't recognize it, "Uh, how old are you?"

Danny paused before tilting his head and asking, "Hm, What's the date? I dunno how long I've been here."

"April 13th." He replied, not liking the implications of not knowing your own age.

"Oh! I turned 15 last week! What about you?"

That was way too young to be... where ever this is, this kid is a literal child.

"I'm 23." Again, seeing no reason to lie.

"Wow. You're old." Danny said with the typical teenage snark you'd expect from a fifteen year old, "Sorry, my friend used to say that whenever her parents made her socialize at rich people parties."

He filed away that information for later, even if "Rich people parties" is pretty vague.

"So, where are you from?" Jason asked, Small talk and gather info, he can do that.

He froze for a split second, before speaking, "Amity Park," The kid said, smiling, but in a sad, wistful way, "It's in Illinois."

So this kid was most definitely kidnapped, there are no doubts about that.

"I'd ask where you're from, but I kinda already know" Danny stated, "I saw you in the Gotham file back when I still tried to escape."

Still? They had a file on Gotham? Why? Why was he on the file?

"Oh, why do they have me in the file?" Subtle.

"Either you died and came back funky," He started, holding his fingers out to count on his hand, which was, just perfect, that this random shady group knows about that, "Or you have come in to contact with ectoplasm, the green stuff, or both! That happened to me."

There was a lot to unpack there, but begin simple.

" 'Came back funky' ?" That was a good place to start.

"Oh yeah, like, came back with powers, or with your body being in a better condition than while you were dead, or coming back after too long a time for it to be technically possible."

That answered nothing and everything.

"Actually, I don't even think they care if you came back at all," Danny said after he seemed to think about it for a moment, "Ancients know they only care about technicalities when it benefits them."

Every time the kid answers a question, ten more fill its place because of the answer.

It was a little hard to focus on his answers, though, because of how uncomfortable the weird new clothes were.

Wait.

"How did they get these clothes on me?" He didn't really want the answer, but he also didn't want to not have the answer. "I didn't even notice it."

"Oh! Did they bring you here in a cage?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, if you could even call it that."

"Well," He said, making a big show with his hands to enunciate his sentence, which made Jason notice the electrical scarring that lined his left hand, "I'm pretty sure the Guys In White made the cages out of some material that, when it melts, coats your clothes in some kind of ectoplasm, and then the gas basically breaks down the affected clothing, and replaces it. I'm still not sure how, though."

That, again, answered nothing and everything, but mostly nothing this time.

[theweeklydiscourse]

There's just something about enemies to lovers antis that is just so funny. Because they go on, shaming womans/girls over silly fantasies saying that they are doomed to be in toxic relationships while being like "this piece of boring white bread and (most of times) toxic masculinity and immaturity hero is actually an much better lover interest for the FMC because *check notes* he's... her friend and does nice-ish things to her sometimes ig" like gurl how arent you catching the irony? Especifically if it's an woman saying crap like that.

Yep this is about kataang and Malina (thought Malina stans cant even say he was nice-ish to her)

They’re blind to how simplistic their line of reasoning is. However, that simplistic worldview brings them a weird kind of satisfaction. Not only does it validate their feelings of moral and intellectual superiority, it also allows them to indulge in salacious and sensational claims and gain internet points as a result. This blindness and simplistic thinking creates a funny scenario where, in fiction, they rail against grandiose villainy, but ignore the more realistic and mundane toxicity of their fave wholesome love interest™.

In ATLA’s case, I think this is partially due to most people’s foggy memory of the show. It’s become apparent to me that many people don’t actually remember certain details and are willing to smooth over the gaps in their memory with personal headcanons. This is how we got to this bizarre reality where people have reframed Kataang as some kind of uniquely progressive and ahead-of-its-time relationship, when in the actual show, it checks nearly every box for your garden variety 2000s heterosexual relationship. Nostalgia compels people to make excuses for the fact that the Kataang relationship centres Aang at every turn and neglects Katara’s end of their romantic arc.

In Malina’s case, it’s even more ridiculous because Mal is overtly worse as a love interest and was largely disliked by the Shadow and Bone fandom for a long time. It’s only in recent years that his reputation has been rehabilitated (and even then…) Then you have the odd contrarian with a vague recollection of the series who tries to gaslight people into thinking that Mal was good actually and that we were just being dramatic. Sure, Mal doesn’t have a particularly sizeable body count, but he commits the arguably greater crime of being an emotionally abusive boyfriend to Alina. He’s not even toxic in an interesting way like the Darkling, he’s just toxic in a way that will remind the teenage readership of their real-life terrible boyfriends. It’s downright comical that Bardugo ever thought Mal could ever be likeable.

The irony is palpable. The toxic masculinity and mundane emotional abuse is something they sweep under the rug because they are so persuaded by the image of a wholesome love interest. They can’t understand why more realistic depictions of relationships in fiction would be more impactful and evocative than that which is fantastical.

[mamawasatesttube]

okay re: tana. i put these thoughts as tags on a different post originally but i think i will also put them here on their own:

assessing whether tana fits the predatory woc trope is thorny. like it's not at all cut and dry like liu in nightwing 96 or shado in ga88; in those cases an asian woman takes advantage of a white boy/man, but in tana's case its like… kesel doesn't actually think she's done anything wrong? the narrative even props her up as the morally upright and responsible one - like in aos502 when she kicks out rex and roxy and says they're trying to take advantage of kon. so like on the one hand yes a woc grooming a white boy fits the trope. on the other well. kesel didn't think he was writing grooming. he thought it was just the hot older woman fantasy, presumably bc he thought boys can't be abused by women.

like in the case of knockout, she's bad because she lied about committing that murder and used kon for her reputation/as an escape vehicle to dodge the law. she is not written as being in the wrong for grooming him. the only problem is that she's a villain; the fact that she's an adult woman dating and making a lot of sexual innuendos at a 15/16 year old boy is never addressed, because to kesel, that isn't actually a problem.

as far as tana goes, it's… hm. dissectable? to me, that one of tana's most consistent character traits is ambition. that she is shown to be using kon for her career, and that she isn't portrayed negatively for doing that? like the people who comment on it are generally written off as assholes in the wrong who are being shitty to tana, like vinnie edge in the bit w stinger where he blackmails her with her job. when people at work gossip about her dating a teenager behind her back, or talk about the conflict of interest re: her dating the hero she's always reporting on, she isn't really written as actually being in the wrong - she's written as a woman faced with a somewhat hostile working environment where people refuse to understand her. like, yes, she wants to use kon for her career, but she's still a Good Person™ for it (unlike, say, rex).

like kesel so clearly wanted the reader to like and sympathize with her and see her as the best love interest. he parallels her to lois directly at least once. she's mature and responsible and a classy woman with a job who thinks ahead. he wanted her to contrast with kon, who is a brash teenager fully living in the moment and concerned mostly with fun and the now. (and it's wild bc kesel writes it like she's supposed to be good for him in that regard but it comes off as like. uh. yeah man that is a grown ass woman dating a teenager. of course she thinks he's immature. even their breakup is written very much to portray kon as the one in the wrong - sympathetically to him, sure, but he took her away from her job and ignored her demands to go back and her protests that she was working on something important, because he wanted to go out with her for a day of impulsive fun, which was immature of him and disrespectful of her job, so of course she walks away. it's in line with her career ambition as a character trait, and it's written very sympathetically to her.)

and it's just so tangled up in kesel's fantasies of what teenage boys clearly desire. like imo it's genuinely not easy to say definitively that she fits the predatory woc stereotype, entirely bc kesel is so seemingly unaware that he's writing her being a predator. he writes her as a sympathetic character that a lot of other characters like and respect, such as dubbilex or sam makoa - the fact that any of her behavior is predatory goes entirely unacknowledged by the narrative. the only people who say she's weird for dating a kid are people she, and thereby effectively the narrative, brushes off as not understanding the bond she and kon have. which, ironically, is exactly the argument you often made see in cases of real grooming. (same as how in aos502, she, a grown-ass adult, describes this 15 year old she just met three weeks ago as her best friend. red flag much??? except kesel again isn't writing it as that.)

like, idk man, tana as a character and what she means narratively are kind of hard to pin down, because of the cognitive dissonance between what kesel thought he was writing vs what he actually wrote. he seemed aware that he was writing things that were like, actually fucked up! but at the same time narratively refused to actually engage with any of them as exploitative and harmful - kon's relationship with rex leech is another example of this. it's wild. lots to ponder there, though.

[ilikekidsshows]

In general the stans just fully hate the idea of abuse victims that can negatively impact the "good characters" in the show so they start coming up with some bullshit reasoning to make it so that doesn't happen in the fanon version they made up and think is real.

Whether you like her or not, Chloe is 100% an abuse victim but the issue that people had with her is that her character arc was centered on her (which is a good way to go about it because change starts with the self), she didn't have people to immediately vouch for her "goodness" (coughfelixandzoecough) cause it's not her victims' jobs to help her if they don't want to, and she did backslide a bit cause old habits die hard. That is to say it was far too realistic for their liking (at least in the earlier seasons) and it didn't end with her being a Marinette dicksucker so they say that she deserves to be abandoned by the man who raised her (white male apologia is abundant in ML) and abused by her mother (yet another case of characters being abuse apologists). Compare that to what happened with Zoe and Felix. Just not a good look all around when you're only willing to think that only "perfect/good" abuse victims are the only valid ones.

And there is nothing wrong with Adrien reacting "badly" to any of the news he gets. I'd argue that at the very least him finding out about Gabriel being Hawkmoth doesn't really have anything to do with his abuse narrative and might even have more to do with him being Chat Noir. Him reacting badly to his dad being a terrorist would be just as natural as anyone irl finding out a family member they were close to was a serial killer. The real issue isn't about his "bad reaction" it's that it'll affect all the "good" characters that "tried their hardest" to keep him in the dark because "they love and care about him so so much." (Not enough to let him be his own person but sure. These people are on the verge of becoming his new abusers lbr.) It's about how his "bad reaction" will Make Marinette Upsette.

Honestly, I think the stans would even be on his side if canon didn't have Marinette insert herself in the family drama and stupidly keep it a secret because she doesn't want to be inconvenienced with the fact that her bf has real emotions and could possibly be upsette with her for even a second. She was the one that brought this on herself and for some reason people think that Adrien should take the blame for it?

Like ultimately they don't want to think about "abuse" as anything other than a buzzword but one that only applies to Marinette and maybe a select few but only if that select few is part of the "good character" group and if they immediately forgive her if she did something wrong and willingly become one of her on call servants.

---

Yeah, like, apparently, to Miraculous’ writers and fans, “no one deserves to be abused, even bad people” is a super-hot take, as is “sometimes, how trauma victims deal with their trauma is inconvenient to you, and you’ll have to accept it isn’t about you.” Like, how Adrien would deal with his dad being a supervillain is not a Marinette Crisis(™), but the Marinette standom can’t shut up about how bad Marinette is feeling and how much worse she’d feel if Adrien started on a recovery process.

Nothing the abuse victims do in this show will ever be good enough, unless it allows Marinette and her stans to ignore their victim status as a whole. This, I think, is why I haven’t seen many posts disparaging Kagami despite her also being a child abuse victim. Her trauma never has a chance to make things inconvenient for Marinette, so she’s okay. She’s strong and capable, unlike her fellow victims.

Frankly, I think the toxic Marinette stans just hate abuse victims period, considering the difficulty they have with getting through a single interaction with someone without slipping in something ableist. Like, I got the most asinine anon just this week and I didn’t need any details about what set them off to know it was from a Marinette stan just because of how ableist it was. These kinds of stans can’t even pretend to be normal about other people for five seconds. It's like they think they need to be awful or someone will come in and revoke their Marinette stan card.

[meelkiewee]

Hello!

As a first post i wanted to share my favourite bubbies and since tumblr seems more text oriented than the other socials I have, I'd like to explain what was going on in my head while doing their character redesigns~ [BOOKS SPOILERS MENTIONED]

INTRODUCTION

These character designs were made back in winter 2022 for a sort of animation thesis. Many things didn't go according to plan in that school year so for lack of time and motivation I've never really finished the animatic but I will include a wip at the end of this post. The animatic was about my interpretation of their story, finding a person to call home while in a crude and terrible world.

XIE LIAN

Xie Lian is the first of the two I made, his character design was very clear in my mind since the start. It's not largely distant from your official usual XL but I thought it already fitted very well.

The three main colors for XL are white, black and golden yellow. The prevalence of black and white colors was inspired by two main factors:

I personally see XL as a heavily dichotomy based character, not only in the association to the White Clothed Calamity but also in the way he's described as pretty as a flower but skillful with the sword, following a chaste path but mingling with a ghost king, all kind smiles to others but struggling with his own hope, etcetera, etcetera. He is in a constant struggle to find a third option that is better than simply bad or good, mostly in his early God's days, and also later on with ‘not knowing whether to laugh or cry’. So in here, black and white represent the reality of human nature, where you have bad and good qualities alike, a concept I think XL struggled with a lot since he was brought up as the perfect and pure prince that can do no wrong.

According to my research of the meaning behind colors in the chinese culture I discovered black and white can symbolize many things, some of which I found quite fitting for where I wanted to go with my character design. Black can stand for sadness and bad luck. White represents brightness, purity and innocence. In some instances, however, white is also associated with death and is a color commonly worn at funerals. Moreover in my own culture black and white, along with deep blue, are very elegant colors to wear. Simple and elegant is what my XL wants to look like.

Another important part of my XL character design is his bamboo hat.

Following some good old christian imagery I used his hat as an halo. Most of the time I even ignored perspective to make sure his head is always framed in this golden saintly circle In my animatic storyline specifically it represents XL perfection. Soon the hat is lost in the mud and brought back later on by HC with a new meaning of finding yourself in a safe environment with safe people. 

For most of the other design choices I took decisions based on pure aesthetics such as giving him a very elegant mole under the eye, very long and lucious hair and a very very long hanfu with some very very long sleeves. Yes, I wanted him to be very very everything because I very very love him!

Here are some other very very outfits i drew him in for fun and didn’t need for the animatic:

_____________________________________

HUA CHENG

As a premise to my HC character design I want to say I am very amused at people’s different reactions to it. They are usually neatly split in two: either they hate it with a passion or just fall head over heels in love with it, no in between. I personally am in the ‘love it’ side (duh of course I am, I designed it lol) but I also understand if your first thought is “WHO TF IS THAT?”, so let me explain my thought process here.

Firstly, hot take: official HC character is made to be your perfect cool-hot-mysterious-boyfriend™ that has it more together than you do and we don’t like that in this household, at least not always. Yes he is XL’s most devoted believer, yes he is a very powerful supreme, yes he’s always there for his Gege but in the end he’s also a very traumatized person that has had a crush for a guy for 800+ years.

What I’m saying is I wanted him to be a little more relatable and goofy than what books show us so I integrated some of his personality hidden away in E’Ming. From here I got the puffy messy hair, the big round eye and the doubtful expression.

Next up let’s talk about the palette. He also has, like XL, three main colors:

Blue. Mostly of the time he spends around XL he does it in his true form, wich is the form of a dead person (even dead more than once;;). This is pretty self explanatory, when someone dies the hue of their skin goes to blue and also ghosts in general are frequently represented pale blue or white in color. As a little side note to this, I really enjoyed the blue demons HuaLian episode in donghua S2, it made me feel less alone in my smurf choice lol.

Red. This is canonically HC’s color and rightfully so! Red is widely recognized as China's color of good fortune, and in my culture, it is frequently used as a symbol of passion and the color of blood. There is really nothing better than red for Mr. Crimson Rain!

Lilac. Although I'm not sure about my research on this color in Chinese culture, I've read that it modernly represents love or romance. However, growing up in my hometown, purple (and all its shades) was always associated with ugliness and was thought to be a bad omen if worn. Whoever had the nerve to wear it was regarded as a distasteful and ominous weirdo. I think it fitted perfectly with how every other Heaven Official other than XL sees HC; someone who makes blood rain for fun and a potential and actual threat to the Heavenly Court.

As for XL, other choices I made serve a mostly aesthetic purpose. HC’s boxy build, pointy ears and the opened robe to see tiddies(🤩) are some of the notable ones.

HC would not be complete without E’Ming, obviously. After comparing some different blades and trying to integrate a butterfly in the design, I opted for keeping it simple and I ended up with this wobbly shaped hilt made to resemble HC’s bang. The fact that now E’Ming looks like it has a big nose is just an added charm honestly.

CONCLUSION

Thanks for reading until this point I hope you enjoyed my yap and make sure to have a nice day/night! <33

I'll leave the link to my animatic wip here, please note once again that it is not finished in the slightes and there are also some funky expressions that don't really fit the mood lol enjoyyy!

-Sole

[lets-zofifi-stuff]

ok, ok this is something i wanted to post a few days ago but suddenly got hit with the writersblock™ and it got stuck midwork, you know how it is

@missterious-figure @inkydoughnut

(sort of continuation of this)

Moon was the most sneaky harpy in the casino. Even the staff giving him a bell didn’t completely stop him from surprising people, when he suddenly appeared behind their back. He wore it proudly, not only because it was shiny. It was a token of appreciation for his ninja skills. Nobody could outmatch him, not even with the noisy trinket tying the overly long feathers on his head that would otherwise get in the way.

He liked to think he was also the most observant harpy. In the dome there were many convenient trees and bushes to hide in to shamelessly spy on people when they thought nobody was looking. People could be such a bunch of liars when they wanted to appear better, smarter and more important.

(Everything was fake. The people, the environment of enclosure, the games made to suck out as much kash as they could in a promise of wonderful riches. The shows they played for the entertainment of snobbish idiots that had nothing better to do with their time. It was better to keep a distance. It was better to stay in the shadows.)

You quickly became his favorite person to observe. The way you walked and talked, and how carefully you picked out some stupid bird that hurt itself hitting the glass of the dome. You really cared about those hairbrained feather dusters. You were a kind sensitive soul and nothing could hide it. When you carried the animal to the infirmary, it was difficult not to imagine how you could hold the blue harpy instead of some stupid bird, and stroke the feathers of his head, oh so tenderly.

But you were simply too shy to come to them. You were avoiding Sun with the determination worth a better cause. Every time the golden harpy came too close, you would just run away. That was making a situation more challenging, but also frustrating and had to be remedied.

Moon was lying stretched on the cushion, his silver tail casually thrown over the backrest like a silent waterfall, eyes closed, his white and blue chest rising and falling in a rhythm of calm breaths when the solar harpy barged into their shared living space.

“UNBELIEVABLE!” He yelled.

“Atrocious! Absolutely unforgivable! How could they do that?!”

Moon flinched and opened his eyes. “Mhhm? What?” It was early afternoon and he was anything but an early bird.

“The new zookepeer!”

”The cute one?“ the moon harpy smiled dreamily. “Are they still ignoring you?”

”It's not that! I- I gifted them with one of my feathers! I left it for them to find just now! And they were just so adorable with it!”

Sun picked up a pillow from the floor and hugged it to his chest.

”They cuddled it like it was the most precious thing in the world! You should have seen this!“

“Hmm. But you aren't angry about that.“

“Another staff member came and began yelling like they were at least setting the dome on fire!”

“You birdbrain!” Moon hissed, his feathers slightly rising. “They can get fired for that!”

“Do you think it's that bad?”

“What kind of feather was it?”

“The best of my tail of course! Do you think I would give them anything less??”

Moon groaned.

”This stupid worker snitched immediately!” Sun continued puffing his neck feathers in annoyance.“ They took away my gift from them.“ Sun dropped the pillow and kicked it, sending it flying across the room. ”The AUDACITY!“ It slammed against the wall, a few feathers blown out from the impact.

Moon sighted. “What were you thinking?”

“I just wanted to get their attention! They are too shy to even look at me!”

”They are not allowed to dawdle with us. They are here only for the regular birds.“

Sun crossed his hands and tapped his foot on the floor. “So what do you want to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?! What do you mean?!” Sun screeched. “I know you are as interested in them as I am.” he hissed.

“That is true. And you are lucky I already made arrangements, before that stunt of yours. Or I would never let you live it down.“

Sun let out an irriteted coo but titled his head curiously. ”What arrangements?“

Moon smiled mischievously. “Just you wait.”

[cherrymoonvol6]

.

[thewistlingbadger]

idk if this is a 'hot take' but i see way too much of people lusting after Sevika only after erasing her less palatable elements. in headcanons she's admittedly tough and violent but wouldn't hurt anyone unless she had to (i've even seen one where she "only raises her hands in self-defence"). bitch one of the first things we see her do is attempt to square up to a bunch of teenagers for the crime of trying to free their dad! she's willing to kill children with her bare hands. she personally enacts the edicts of a drug kingpin. she taunts vi and jinx during their altercations with the most provocative, soul-destroying shit she can think of. she's the type of fighter who grins manically as she scalds her opponent's cheek. she is not simply someone who nobly sacrifices her own moral purity for 'the greater good' but is otherwise a soft loving Mama Bear™, she gets *nasty* with it! and don't get me wrong, i give enormous moral lenience to most Zaunite characters because the violence of the oppressed is by definition incomparable to the violence of their oppressors. there are myriad explanations and justifications for every single thing they've done. but beyond that, i NEED it to be ok to say that she's a fucking dick sometimes - both interpersonalliy, and on a greater ideological scale - because regardless of how justifiable we find her actions, we should collectively be in a place where we can thirst for Sevika without defanging her as a character. she's compelling and fascinating and attractive BECAUSE she's imbued with agency, which necessitates the capacity for genuinely immoral actions and unlikable behavior! i mean come on! if the white twitter lesbians can so eagerly embrace the moral greyness of their rich fascha femme, we can do it for our butch freedom fighter!! i believe in us!!!

anyway tldr i love Sevika warts and all and everyone do your thing but if you don't love her warts i think you're missing out

Valid valid and valid. Not a single thing you said was incorrect. Sevika is DEVIOUS point blank period. In season 1 she is a minor character so I can understand why she's overlooked a lot but when you actually do look at her she can be VILLAINOUS at times. "It's just a matter of time before you implode and Silco finally gets the hint that you're just about as good for our cause as you were for your family. Jinx." Like DAMN Sevika!! Okay it's like that!! This rudeness that she showed Jinx is a bit fascinating to me because the only other character in this show that is just about as rude as Sevika is in this scene is Mylo. I made a post talking about how she has some similarities to Mylo and someone responded to that by also highlighting that at least Mylo was a teenager beefing with a child, meanwhile Sevika is a whole ass adult beefing with Jinx. I just think that's interesting and funny.

You brought up something that truly is just a plague to all fandoms. Whenever someone says they like a character that has a negative reputation in the source material, everyone starts coming out the woodwork to say it's bad to like that character. People don't seem to understand that just because you like a villain and find their character to be enjoyable doesn't mean you actually condone their actions and would be ok with someone acting like them irl. There are many reasons to like a villainous character and sometimes one of those reasons is BECAUSE they're a villain. Sometimes you like that a character does bad things because it's interesting and entertaining, and liking that doesn't make you a bad person. You should be able to like antagonistic characters for their villainy. Do I understand what they did was bad? Yes. Do I still like them? Yes, and not in spite of it but BECAUSE of it. And you don't have to erase those parts of a character just go openly admit that. You should be able to openly like a character in their full extent. You shouldn't have to ignore certain aspects just for your adoration of a character to be accepted.

Sevika really always has been That Bitch she has no problem telling people how it is directly to their faces. She calls Vander weak in front of everyone. She tells Vi Vander "had his chance" knowing damn well what Vander meant to her. She calls Silco out on his bullshit SEVERAL TIMES in front of him. Sevika isn't restrained as a character at all she's always being her full self. I feel that season two has made Sevika more popular and because her screentime was limited and the writing was different in season two people have allowed her character to become warped. I definitely think that if someone is ok with justifying and excusing the actions of Caitlyn and/or Vi then they should keep that same energy when it comes to Sevika. Sevika is a tough, loyal lady that has a very fun personality and she's also a criminal who has done terrible things for the sake of the cause and most times? Most times she enjoyed doing those things. Most times she went out of her way to revel in instigating. Silco didn't even know Vi was back yet and did that stop Sevika from almost killing Vi? Did that stop her from whispering "who Jinx? She's like his daughter" and looking dead in Vi's eyes just to see her reaction? No. Sevika is a bit messy like that she likes to play with her food lol and honestly I don't blame her lol

[motheatenscarf]

Amidst all the James Somerton fallout, I think it's important to remember not to moralize whether or not you or others fell for his grift.

Obviously, if you were rallied into being one of his attack dogs on social media when he put some pretty heinous hits out on people, uh. You might have other problems and should probably evaluate how you spend your time online and how you treat other people before you start caring about the rest of the points I'm about to make. Priorities, etc.

But for the rest of us, it's surprisingly easy to miss just how awful a creator can be.

If you only watched his videos that caught your interest, if you don't really follow creators on social media, if you skip livestreams because watching Some Guy talk unfiltered into a bad camera angle with shitty lighting for hours on end sounds like a fucking nightmare to you, you're not really gonna catch most of this shit. At least, you're not gonna catch most of it from any perspective but the one he tries to spin.

This is a reminder to be skeptical and to trust your gut and check sources if something sounds wrong, but also. Uh. That's still the creator's responsibility not to plagiarize and to fact check their work. You're not morally obligated to be as thorough in curating your experience as someone who is making sure they take every ethical precaution before absolutely destroying a "creator's" credibility in a video like H-Bomb's or Todd in the Shadows'. You're literally just some guy. Most people, myself included, watch these videos as background noise while doing at minimum one other task, you're not gonna google every damn thing he says, especially not on media analysis, where the POINT is to have one's own opinion. THEY'RE the ones trying to be "influencers," or, laughably, "creators." The standards are on them.

And for the isms, phobias, and misogyny, well. Frankly, for my own perspective, I gaslight myself all the damn time when I see red flags. Good Allyship™ has been telling me for years to ignore my own discomfort when someone criticizes a privileged group, especially one I'm a part of. I'm a cis asexual white-passing and probably neuroatypical woman, I am constantly trying to be aware of my own relative privilege while simultaneously doubting my own reaction to things. Despite this, I'd still liked to think I'm a skeptical person, but nobody's immune to everything. Everybody has weak spots.

If you got duped or fell for James' scam, that sucks. I feel ya. I fell for it too, I've seen probably 40% of his catalog over the last couple years and really liked what I'd seen. I recommended his channel and videos to people even if I didn't always agree with every point he made, but it felt important to at least consider what to me seemed like a unique perspective that had value or added to a conversation. There are red flags within his content, his analysis, his rate of publishing, his weird diatribes, that in retrospect, really all added up into things I should have known better than to ignore. But, for reasons I'm interrogating and am adding to my list of things to be aware of about myself, I didn't ignore them, and got grifted. I donated to his patreon a few times, probably gave him like $20 grand total over the years, about as much as I've given H Bomb. The important take away here isn't to be ashamed of the fact that you were fooled, it's to remember that you're fallible.

And it's good to recognize that about yourself. Everyone is, and the ones who say they aren't are lying. They're either gonna be the next person to feel really stupid and foolish when they fall for a scam, or are themselves the grifter.

No one is immune.

[rottenpumpkin13]

For PR Reasons, all three of the Famous Firsts™︎ are modeling for a famous fashion brand(s). They're doing such an extensive photoshoot that they each have their own days.

Each include a bridal shoot. >:3c

When it's time it turns out the random models for said bridal portion are suddenly sick. One of the assistants is frantically looking for a replacement(s) and stumbles across Cloud (newly made Soldier, perhaps). Cloud who is stunning, no matter what his self esteem thinks, and androgynous enough to easily fit both planned for bridal gown and an additional groom with some quick adjustments to said outfits, a trip to make-up and hair.

Zack comes in to deliver something to someone from someone, because he is helpful doggo person like that, and see's Cloud, absolutely jaw-dropping, walking up the aisle with a bouquet.

How does he react? Does he come in time for the whole thing or one outfit? How does AGSZC react to this scene — whether in a relationship with one another or not (or not yet)? Any dressing room mishaps? Who gets swept off whose feet when the inevitable heel break happens? Anything else?

 

((hi i am love your mind & writings & recent "what next marriage" had me screeching and then cackling as the scenario & questions manifested & sorry for the bother!!! pls feel free ignore if want to!!!!!))

*Cloud is wearing an elegant white suit*

Zack, blushing: Wow…Cloud…you look so good! But I'm glad this is just for PR. Wouldn't want you to rush into anything.

*Angeal appears with rings*

Zack: ?

*Genesis appears with a marriage contract*

Zack: !?

*Sephiroth walks in wearing another groom suit*

Zack: WHAT THE HELL

[kandicon]

The more I think about how a human, modern au Toy Soldier wouldn't work the more obsessed I get with TRYING to make it work and frankly there's only a few more loops in this self dooming cycle before I make a college au for all of them.

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Okay I saved this post to my drafts and then immediately had more thoughts on this hypothetical college au. All the mechs should be as close to their canon events/back stories as possible to avoid having wildly different personalities (obviously there will still be very differing personalities due to not being immortal space pirates, but this would be easiest). It would be a extremely sketchy comedy of errors.

Obviously this takes place in community college because community colleges are just like that™

Put under the cut because it got a bit long.

Jonny:

Still killed his dad and the entirety of the casino.

Using the money he got from the casino and Jack to fund his way through a college hours away from his hometown.

Is constantly paranoid over someone coming after him for his murders or finding out that his highschool diploma is a forgery (he didn't finish his last two years because of said murders).

Ashes:

Being put through college by the Lucky Sevens, and still does tracking work for them despite only being able to physically visit their turf over break.

Smooth Mickey has only just started working with the Aces in Ashes' freshman year.

It is going to be a WILD senior year when Ashes breaks open Mickey's scheme.

Banned from the card games club.

Tim:

Transfer student from London that only entered college in the first place to dodge the draft. He never expected to enter college in the first place and is therefore woefully unprepared.

Wildly protective over Bertie, who transferred with him and is the reason he dodged the draft in the first place.

Not as murderous as the canon Tim, but certainly getting there over immigration and transfer laws in the US.

Still has the first name of Gunpowder.

It is gonna be a WILD senior year when he and Bertie get caught up in the Lucky Sevens debacle and Bertie dies.

Raphaella:

Nobody knows what major she's taking, because by all intents and purposes it appears to be all of them.

She's breaking into the chem lab and making lsd after hours to fund her way through college.

Has cute little wings on her backpack that she made herself, but in reality they're just hidden storage compartments that she's been using to steal lab equipment.

Ivy:

Nothing about her is different except for the fact her autism is diagnosed this time.

She works at the community library and the college library. She started her major in library sciences, only to discover that she already knew more about it than her professors, so now she's an English lit major.

Marius:

Also got in on forged documents, but his are significantly shittier than Jonny's or Ashes' because he didn't have the money to pay someone for it. Still nobody comments on the birth certificate with "Byron" covered over with off-color white-out and replaced with "Marius.

He also completely erased the gender category while he was at it. Again, nobody who actually looks at these documents is paid enough to care.

Still missing an arm and he has broken up AND started fights by hitting people with his prosthetic.

Getting his doctorate in computer science, but usually does not tell people exactly what he's majoring in when he tells people he's going to be a doctor.

Nastya:

Fleeing a Russian rebellion and very obviously comes from wealth.

Her backstory is the same, just without the robots. Her history of wealth and terrible attempts at hiding her accent are painfully obvious to everyone she interacts with.

Double majoring in engineering and computer science. Unintentionally breaks Marius' scheme open when she asks to copy his notes when she missed a day for a class they share (she would have broken it faster if she knew what he was doing).

Was assigned as Raphaella's roommate and she gets free estrogen in exchange for ignoring everything else that's going on.

Got dragged into the friend group by Jonny after he came over one day to hang out with Raphaella and they bonded over disabling circulatory issues.

Brian:

On the run from the religious cult he grew up in, which he was kicked out of because he got internet access and started learning about reality.

Still has a hard time believing most people he'll talk to will accept basic facts like "the Earth is a sphere"

Did not have to forge papers to get in, but he would later get recommended to a good forger by Jonny and get some restraining orders out of it.

Ambulatory wheelchair user (because it makes me happy) with an extreme case of moral ocd

The Toy Soldier:

Holy shit this bitch had a bad childhood

In a dissociative state a good 90% of the time and has huge sensory issues with the feeling of its own flesh

Goes by "TS" and adamantly refuses to tell anybody why.

Being put through college by their wealthy adoptive mother. Definitely lied about the college being prestigious and doesn't want to examine exactly why it did that or why it felt so soul-crushingly important to get out of the country.

Was adopted by the widow after her husband died at war. Was basically treated as one family member swapped for another and was expected to grow up in his image and to be proper.

Walking on eggshells 24/7. Orders might as well still be a physical necessity to it for how much of a compulsion they are. Will jump to do anything to appease the people around it if they show any indication of being upset.

Tim becomes its first friend because him and Bertie are the only other transfer students from London. It rather likes talking about guns with him and giving away all its care packages to him so it doesn't dwell on why they make it so uncomfortable.

Starts off majoring in military studies over the ages, but will switch to general music studies after meeting the Angel.

Spoiler alert: it will still kill the Angel after she gets into a relationship with someone else, but thankfully this just makes a wild junior year instead of adding to the already wild senior year.

Obviously they're all still in a band together. And they're the most dysfunctional friend group this poor college has ever seen.