#Like to me “men are bad jokes” have always been against the Abstract Social Figure of A Man that the patriarchy benefits and not like

[fanglesshound666]

sorry if this is terribly offensive but I dont get why the "men are bad" jokes (as long as they ARE jokes) are inherently bad

[its-a-lark-blog]

Autism and Nugenics

Alright. Now for a topic that means a lot to me. I didn't edit this, nor did I proofread it, because I want it to be as honest a stream of thought as I can muster. I want it to be as-is. I know it'll be an effort to get through but... please, don't knee jerk. I implore you to just walk away and come back to it, where I inevitably take this may not be where you expect.

The warnings of Elon Musk of AI ring hollow to me when I consider that it wasn't so long ago that white men were obsessed with eugenics; That hasn't changed. The target has, not the thinking.

Eugenics was all about breeding out undesirable traits and ensuring that the traits of 'lesser ethnicities' wouldn't impair the purity of the bloodline, it's what the Third Reich built upon for the atrocities it committed in the holocaust, it was thinking that allowed Hitler to justify his heinous misdeeds, and even to think of himself as the greater good.

Conversely, of late I've bore witness to Internet denizens making a good, college try at humanising Hitler. They remind us to not forget that this 'supposed monster' was a man.

This is a very Alt-Right perspective, of course. I think that any reasonable person would understand why it's necessary that we absolutely don't humanise Hitler. Hands up if you know. Anyone? Anyone? Alright, humanising a monster enables the creation of more monsters.

I mean, consider that if you're telling people that you eventually won't be remembered as a soulless monster centuries after your death? It creates this comfort zone, it normalises the behaviours and actions of monsters past -- monsters like Hitler, Stalin, and the company they kept. And contemporary monsters who're so similar to them in thought -- if not action -- that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

And that's why we must always remember them as monsters. It's important to remember that something can occupy a human shape, have white skin, and be one of the most cancerous, evil, destructive creatures to have ever walked this planet. All too often humans -- neurotypicals especially -- compartmentalise 'evil' as 'not like us.' This can go as far as the ludicrous, such as using fantasy creatures to embody evil, but it manifests also in much more dangerous ways.

Such as believing only black people can be evil, because they're black.

Okay, I'm going to take the train down a different rail for now into Segue Valley, I promise it'll all make sense in the end. In The Elder Scrolls Online, a video game, I was intrigued by how the factions actually handled the 'evil' they were dealing with. And oh my, it was fascinating. I could write an entire dissertation on this because everything about the creation of this sometimes wonderful, sometimes typical game is telling.

There are three factions: The Pact, the Covenant, and the Dominion.

The Pact and the Covenant are equally as guilty of demonising 'that which isn't like us' as the only existant source of evil; I feel that this writing is very appealing to neurotypicals who tend to filter everything through us vs. them thinking, as confounding, vexing, and utterly disappointing as that invariably is. It's wearisome, really. I'm tired of it, I'll say that!

The Pact and the Covenant are reminiscent of how groups like the Alt-Right see the world -- Groups who're clearly less actualised people, less independent thinkers who want sociopaths to handle all of that for them. They'd rather have an icon tell them how to think or feel; It's the same reason people buy Apple phones. They want someone to tell them what to think, how to feel; All it takes is for a charismatic sociopath to step boldly into that void.

Do note the drop in Apple's popularity since the loss of Steve Jobs, yes?

Anyway, you'll notice there's a third faction I haven't spoken of: The Dominion. They're an interesting bunch, they are. They barely take notice of the other factions because that's just war, and war has never been the most compelling narrative concept. Falling back on such a staid concept which has so much baggage and weight to it feels creatively bankrupt.

So the Dominion doesn't do that because they don't want to engage in this us vs. them problem. Instead, the Dominion focuses on 'us' with the pertinent, erudite realisation that there are problems amongst 'us' and that we're not a homogeneous hivemind, that even within the perceived melange of 'us' there are many different opinions and ideologies. If I had to put it bluntly, the plot of the Dominion is about a fantasy Alt-Right.

And it's so cathartic to punch Nazi elves in the face.

I can't even... I mean, it's just really cathartic. Usually I'm witness to fantasy compartmentalising 'evil' as 'not like us,' which I mentioned prior, which often means having dragons to slay. Couldn't have a wise and kind draig instead of dragons, nooo, that simply isn't done. One has to compartmentalise 'evil' as 'them,' don't you know, because neurotypicals are the only audience. Well, the Dominion plotline isn't that. And it's bloody cathartic.

There's even a fantasy concentration camp where the Nazi elves are trying to break and brainwash their enemies into seeing themselves as innately inferior. You get to punch THOSE Nazi elves in the face, too.

Quoth Savage Dragon: Always punch a Nazi.

Always. ALWAYS.

Since Nazi isn't a person, or a place, it's a CONCEPT. This is something that I'll see neurotypicals trip over time and time again; It's why we have neo-Nazis and the Alt-Right to contend with, now. Nazism ins't indicative of Germany, or any place, or any point in history; It's where the ideology was born, yes, but note what it is -- an ideology. It could exist at any point or time, and it still does exist in the minds of every Alt-Right person.

A Nazi doesn't have to be white, or male, or anything you might assume is baggage to the ideology -- a Nazi is simply a person who took 'us vs. them' too far and became a monster, either through acts of atrocity or the desire to commit them.

In the case of the Alt-Right? The desire is crossing over into reality, I'd recommend a little light reading via Google as to how murder and terror crimes committed by the Alt-Right and other, similar, far-right groups are rising all the time.

Charlottesville was the tip of a nasty ice berg.

Some people saw it coming; I mean, white supremacists have always been around and The Elder Scrolls Online was already in development before the rise of the Alt-Right. Except the Dominion has an Alt-Right story -- because both the Veiled Heritance in The Elder Scrolls Online and the Alt-Right in this reality we call home are based on Nazi ideology.

And you should always punch a Nazi.

Throughout history we have had names for people who've embraced being a monster by taking 'us vs. them' too far, and that's coalesced into Nazi as the quintessence of these very unfortunate people, people who've sold their humanity to follow the most petty of ideals.

It's why people have started taking to calling the Alt-Right Nazis, that's just what they are. See a Nazi, say Nazi! Because it's a bloody Nazi. Nazi notions, though, can be found in all walks of life and can often be used to identify the sorts of people who should be avoided, who shouldn't ever have any power at all. I'm actually glad that The Elder Scrolls Online recognises that, I just wish reality would follow suit.

In reality we should be punching more Nazis, both figuratively and literally. As it's not okay to be a monster.

Neurotypicals have gotten so good at compartmentalising the concepts of evil that when asked to 'visualise evil' most of them would think of dragons or devils rather than a creature like Hitler, and that's tremendously troubling. There was this fridge horror element to it for me, at least, where the realisation compounded itself, more and more, that these woefully deluded people occupy the same reality that I do.

I don't see dragons or devils in my reality; I do see Hitler, the Alt-Right, and people who take 'us vs. them' thinking far too far. They're the monsters I see, they don't have scaly hides, they're humans, just like the one I imagine is reading this. If anyone does.

It's this compartmentalising of evil that allows for the most bizarre constructs to be built, too. I mean, fantasy racism is one of hte most fascinating topics for me because it's so illustrative of this problem that neurotypicals have -- that they can't escape from. I'm going to cite another game, now, before we leave Segue Valley.

Guild Wars.

In the original Guild Wars, the players were propagandised by the perspective of a group of humans called the Ascalonians to see the charr as evil. Whereas in reality the Ascalonians were more like Nazi Germany, just depicted as idyllic and good from the perspective of the player within the game.

It was an unintentional social expeirment, I think, but one of the most truly, genuinely profound and important ones I've witnessed in a long time.

I wholeheartedly invite psych researchers to look into this. Please do! It's enlightening and terrifying.

Anyway -- It was revealed that Ascalon was literally Nazi Germany, committing genocide against a race that couldn't really fight back (since the humans had superior firepower in the form of their gods, as an abstract of contemporary nations with more advanced technology than others). It's an accepted truth that the Ascalonians were slaughtering the women, children, and innocents of this race simply because their ruling body believed these 'creatures' to be nothing more than animals.

Animals who could be cleared out to make space for the humans.

The 'animals,' the charr, were sent into disarray and due to this chaos a very negative faction within the charr who'd been a joke up until this point took power. Sound familiar?

They enslaved the rest of the charr with the power of yet another god they'd allied with and used that god's power to nuke the Ascalonian peoples. This was depicted from the Ascalonian perspective as 'evil monsters who rained devastation down upon us and stole our home.'

Actually, the charr were just reclaiming their ancestral homes and burial grounds; Where they roamed for billions of years before the Ascalonians even turned up on the scene.

The charr eventually freed themselves from the enslavement of the aforementioned malevolent faction and cast them out; They did what they could to make reparations with the Ascalonians, being the first of the two to reach out and try to make peace -- according to the lore.

So, let's recap...

Ascalonians -- Genocidal Maniacs:

Slaughtered most of an indigineous species;

Stole lands from an indigineous species using whatever underhanded tactics they could;

Propagandised their people into believing that the creatures they were slaughtering were naturally evil despite plenty of evidence to the contrary;

Used the retaliation of the charr to further propagandise them and play the victim.

Charr -- Unfortunate Natives:

They were culled almost to the point of extinction;

They had their lands stolen;

They were enslaved by a faction of their own kind;

They rose up against their enslavers and cast them out;

They tried to make peace with the Ascalonians.

Essentially, the charr are a fantasy allegory of some of the troubles Native Americans were faced with when their lands were invaded by European colonists. The charr had more agency, obviously, but there are still a number of rather obvious parallels there.

Now, a sane person would realise that the Ascalonians had a spotty history that they daren't repeat, that the charr were the victims of all that the Ascalonians set in motion. Right? Weeeell...

A sane person would.

However, there were plenty of people who were angry to have their conditioning questioned. They talked about the charr in the same way that Alt-Right people talk about black people; They mocked, derided, and depicted those who played charr as lesser human beings. It even went far enough that some well known charr players received death threats.

And this is fascinating to me.

What is intriguing to me is that where The Elder Scrolls Online makes it clear that the concept of supremacy is the enemy rather than the people who hold those beliefs, and thus that position is adopted by the players? With Guild Wars, those who played as Ascalonians actively hate the charr; There were so many unironic rants about why the charr should all die it frankly made my head spin.

I don't want to say this but it keeps coming up that neurotypicals always appear to be bad at abstracts -- they blame the person rather than the concept. The irony that I am blaming neurotypicals rather than concepts isn't lost on me, yet the truth is is that I can't ignore the science. The patterns of neurotypical behaviour depict overly literal thinking.

It's why it's so easy to convince neurotypicals to hate a 'them.'

I've mentioned before that humanity should see itself as having three enemies:

Supremacy – Where any person believes themselves to be better than another; Enforced Suffering – Where any person is forced to experience torture and anguish against their will; Institutionalised Uselessness – Where the world is designed in such a way that some people are never allowed to offer their worth.

And this should be all of humanity, regardless of one's gender, ethnicity, minority, or any other factor. We should all be united against these three particularly cancerous, surreptitiously creeping evils.

Which finally brings me to my point. The train is now entering a tunnel out of Segue Valley.

Eugenics hasn't gone away -- the target has changed. For whatever reason, neurotypicals love eugenics because they can't separate themselves from the overly literal position of 'us vs. them.' Again, I realise the irony of this. It's painfully obvious, I promise you, but it's akin to Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance.

You see, the Paradox of Tolerance says that the nature of tolerance is that we should be tolerant of all people, all ideas, and all concepts; This is the very definition of tolerance. And yet, if we were to enact this, we would then be tolerant of intolerance as well.

In this scenario, intolerance would quickly overwhelm tolerance; As tolerance tolerates intolerance, but intolerance doesn't tolerate tolerance. I know... I know, try to stay with me, here. It makes my head spin too, even though it's completely logical and it makes a good amount of sense.

So you can't be tolerant of intolerance. You specifically have to be intolerant of intolerance for tolerance to survive. Therefore, being intolerant specifically of intolerance is necessary for the survival of tolerance.

I hated having to type that. I'm sorry. I hope you understand.

The same is true of neurotypicals, however; I see that there appears to be a genetic basis that compels a neurotypical mind into 'us vs. them' thinking. I want there to be a study about this as I'm 99 per cent certain I'm correct. I'm not 100 per cent certain as there are no facts, only probabilities backed up by evidence and proof.

Though through my life experiences I'm as sure as I can be; Every neurotypical I've met has this problem. Does this mean that autistic people don't. No, oh dear me, no. We absolutely do. The difference is, though, that we have total awareness of this factor as a problematic element of our own minds. Whereas despite my best efforts, no matter how hard I've genuinely tried, I cannot share this awareness with neurotypicals. I can't. I've tried.

I've tried to explain it in the simplest terms; I've tried to explain it in the most complex terms; I've tried to have an autistic person with better social skills than my own explain it to neurotypicals...

They can't grasp it. I don't know why. Honestly, I'd even go so far as to say that if you're able to grasp this as a problem, to see it within yourself as others as an issue that needs to be dealt with? You're probably not neurotypical.

And that's the thing. I see it in myself. They can't accept that this is a part of their own minds; They believe themselves to be immune to this 'us vs. them' thinking, especially in its more extreme form. They'll then turn around and say something so racist it makes me feel ill.

Eugenics can't go away because of the way neurotypicals are wired. And here's where it gets...

Okay, here's where you might want to stop reading, really. I mean, this terrifies me. It's interesting, yet at the same time it reads like the plot of a dystopian horror novel. It's the world we live in but there is that dissonance there. How can it be so bad? Eugeniscs is here, and the target is now people who aren't neurodiverse.

Cure autism, they say. And cure other forms of neurodiversity which aren't harmful to the person or those around them; In fact, to the contrary, autism seems to create a degree of affective empathy for other people that the neurotypical mind lacks. We know that to be scientifically true, so why would we want to elminate empathy? Isn't empathy a good thing?

Why would you want to remove the people who're aware that 'us vs. them' are a problem, as a concept, rather than seeing a literal 'them' as the problem?

Ask that question.

I ask that question, and I feel scared. I feel scared for autistic children with bad neurotypical parents who blame their kids for their problems rather than recognising their own ineptitude and applying for training on raising an autistic kid, or giving up their kid to a foster home who could raise them better.

I feel scared for vulnerable autistic people who're stuck in institutions like the Judge Rotenberg Centre (which still hasn't been shut down, and I would very much like for you to Google that). I feel scared for autistic people who're bullied by those without autism into wanting their autism cured.

I'm scared of neurotypicals who want to 'cure' us; Because we're not 'us,' are we? We're 'them.' And that's a real problem for neurotypicals, isn't it? We're just a homogeneous mass of 'them' that needs to be cured. A compartmentalised evil.

I think the last, great war will be between people who don't want to be 'cured' and the people who want to 'cure' them, the people who'd have access to CRISPR-cas9 bombs to rewrite their enemies on the fly, who'd be able to holographically edit memories.

And yes, we can do both of those things, now. Hop on over to Google and research them. It's why I'm so scared of neurotypicals.

In the end, the only ones left standing will be those who don't want to be 'cured,' or those who want to 'cure.' I hate that this is the only future available to us, frankly. I can't believe there's another path because neurotypicals won't ever speak up for autistic people, they just see us as 'them' and it's better if all neurodiverse people are 'cured' (killed or reformatted to be exactly like neurotypicals) because that removes the 'them.'

Welcome to the era of nugenics, its clarion call is 'cure autism.'

A little melodramatic, but the point had to be made, yes. Has this helped anyone? Have I finally managed to explain to neurotypicals why 'us vs. them' is the problem, not 'them?' Is this the explanation that finally works? That I don't want to believe this Universality of neurotypicals is why I keep trying, yet I'm scared that this is precisely why we'll 'lose.'

We want to try and see neurotypicals as 'us,' neurotypicals don't extend that kindness our way. Ever. I'd like to be wrong.

Also, I'm going to call it: The Aldmeri Dominion lead writer at Zenimax Online Studios is as neurodiverse AF.

Wrapping this up? Perhaps I'm wrong, there might be another reason for the divide between people who believe the problem is 'them,' and people who believe the problem is 'us vs. them' other than the neurodiverse and neurotypicals. There might be another brain issue responsible for it. From where I sit, though, after all of my life experiences and now dealing with this new torrent of 'cure autism?' I think I'm right.

I don't want to be. I fight the idea of being right about this but neurotypicals seem intent to cram it down my throat.

So, indeed, welcome to the era of nugenics where neurotypicals cry 'cure autism.'

I wish it were different. I want it to be different.

I want it to be different because I don't think anyone has to be evil. I'd rather get to a point where we don't need the icons of those who adopted evil ideologies to remind us of what a monster looks like. And again, it's not the person -- I do fully understand that and I've written paragraphs explaining that, but we have to recognise that adopting an evil ideology invariably results in a monster.

What evil is shouldn't be compartmentalised into 'them.' Evil can be anyone of us, them, or anyone else who adopts a truly sick ideology, one that adopts any of the three sources of pain. I'll recount those here as I can't stress them enough.

Supremacy – Where any person believes themselves to be better than another;

Enforced Suffering – Where any person is forced to experience torture and anguish against their will;

Institutionalised Uselessness – Where the world is designed in such a way that some people are never allowed to offer their worth.

This is what we have to fight. It's not a person, with a face. it's bad ideas. Bad ideas that can make those who have them remarkably evil.

Curing autism trips over all three of those.

Supremacy -- The belief that neurotypicals are the default state, innately superior to neurodiverse people in every way, so curing autism is the correct response;

Enforced Suffering -- Eradicating a person's identity via a 'cure,' which we've seen before with 'treatments' like ECT and ICT, which had no result other than to destroy lives;

Institutionalised Uselessness -- The belief that because a neurodiverse person thinks differently and has impaired social skills, they have nothing to offer to the world, to any venture or business, and thus should be 'cured' for their own good.

Why do you not understand this, no matter how much we try to explain? We're not 'them,' we're 'you.' We're all humans, we're all made of star stuff. Yes, certainly, we're all individuals but if we're all sapient, feeling creatures who mean no harm to any other, shoudln't we be equal?

Don't 'help' autistic people by 'curing' them. Help autistic people by trying to understand how they're different. I know it isn't comfortable, or easy, but that leads to the best end result for all of us. Sadly, I don't see that one being the future of humanity as i don't have that much faith...

Fool that I am, though, I want to hope.

The reality is likely going to eventually be autistic people being rounded up into 'care hospitals' to be 'cured' by force, sure to be eventually remembered as the new holocaust. Not soon enough to stop it from actually happening, though... And I'm terrified of that.

[moonraccoon-exe]

I don't ship ravus and ignis but i can totally see them being best friends who shamelessly flirt with each other. And when Ravus discovers gladio tryin to court iggy he amps up the flirting ten fold to see if gladio is worthy of hiss bff.

Ahahahahahhaahaha!!! Dude, YEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!

I want this! B|

Imagine that’s the reason nobody ever gets close to flirt with neither Ravus nor Ignis; because they flirt with each other so shamelessly everywhere at any time that everyone just assumes they’re a couple, except they’re not.

Can we have ace Ravus? Because I like ace people and I want ace characters. Plsssssssss.

Still, ace Ravus still adores to flirt with Ignis because why the hell not. He has some very good lines and flirting manners, but as he really doesn’t care about other people and he fears people could mistake his “joking” with something serious, and as he trusts Ignis with the soul (even if he behaves coldly, that’s just his natural attitude), so that’s why the two flirt with each other; Ravus because he finds it hilarious in his own way, and Ignis because he too finds it funny.

Except both men are usually so serious looking that people think they are being serious. Usually people burst into laughter, but these two will just smile at each other and in some cases just laugh normally. 

Their friends and family and etc., however, know more than the first impression and know they’re not a couple and that’s just their way of interacting. 

That’s why Gladio knows it’s fine when he starts courting Ignis. 

The Shield has been crushing on him for a while, but finally decides to get a first step into proper courting. He starts attending to Ignis more often than usual, there’s a few more of casual touches, starts speaking to him in a bit of a more flirty way, the sort of subtle approach that isn’t too exaggerated and remains sincere but is also a bit more than just standing there hiding a crush.

Ravus, of course, notices before Ignis himself.

One day Ravus sees Ignis talking with Gladio, from a bit of distance. The Tenebraean stops and just looks, like a curious kid seeing two cats interact; it’s new but at the same time it isn’t. Like he’s used to see this, but not this way. So he stands there, watches Ignis smiling at him, the way Gladio grins and looks at him, the little casual touches, where and how Gladiolus is looking at his friend-

-and, of course, Ravus suddently tenses as if Gladiolus had just slapped his best friend.

Still, he waits until Gladiolus says goodbye, Ignis sees Ravus and goes to him, and then the Tenebraean just lets it out without being subtle (just like everything he says).

“He’s courting you.”

“What? Ravus, that’s nonsense. I know Gladiolus since forever. If he had been courting me, I’d know.”

“He’s courting you. He wants you romantically. He’s courting you.”

“Ravus, you must be seeing things.”

“Ignis, he’s courting you. Do I slap him? Or do you like him back? He hasn’t pressured you, has he? I can always show him how to treat a gentleman when-”

“Nonono, Ravus, what are you talking about!?”

As a summary, Ravus freaks out more than Ignis himself because when people have tried to court him, well, eh. But if it’s about Ignis Scientia, his bestest best friend since he can remember, the tiny child that he adored and the man that he absolutely loves as his friend and brother AIN’T NOBODY GOING TO COURT HIM WITHOUT RAVUS KNOWING AND APPROVING.

And not that Ravus is jealous, nah. That trope of “older brother figure scares the boys that try to court his little sibling figure” is rather toxic, and that’s not what’s going on. What’s happening is that Ravus just worries and wants the best for Ignis; he’s not going to push Gladio away or grow some hatred for him, he’s just going to make sure that Gladio’s a good option. Of course, Ravus’ style.

Ignis is too much of a good person, but his social skills are only so-so. The poor boy has great confidence in himself, but regardingthe social skills his confidence...hnnng. He can stand people speaking shit of his job (which isn’t often) because he knows he’s good at what he does. But he wouldn’t stand a romantic partner making him feel bad because it means it’s not something that Ignis can do, it’s something of himself, something more abstract, his attitude and his being, and that he can’t change and he’s not too confidentabout.

So if Gladiolus Amicitia EVER DAMN DARES MAKE THIS TREASURE OF A BOI EVER FEEL BAD, RAVUS WILL CHOP HIS ARM OFF SO HE CAN CHANGE HIS PROSTHETIC FOR IT. 

So before Amicitia even has a chance to make him feel bad, Ravus will put him to test; is Gladio a good or a bad guy for Ignis, and how much is he willing to do to get a date with him?

So, of course, Ravus amplifies his flirting A KAZILLION TIMES.

Every time he sees Ignis with Gladio he’ll go to tell Ignis something beautiful about his eyes or face or heart or hands, and every time Gladio’s seeing Ravus will caress his face, and if Gladio’s in ear range Ravus will call Ignis by silly romantic nicknames. And oh, does Ravus know it riles him up.

Because Gladio knows they’re not a couple, but he has no idea Ravus is ace.

Ravus’ point is to see if Amicitia cares enough for Ignis to ask him out either way, but he’s mostly interested in one certain thing: jealousy. After Ravus lost his arm, he knows one thing for sure; jealousy is not a good thing, and it only leads to being toxic. So if Amicitia is the toxic sort of jealous, nope, no way is he going to let him lie hands on Ignis Treasure Of A Boy Scientia.

So Ravus continues shamelessly flirting with Ignis much  more intimately and much more frequently than before, especially when Gladio’s nearby. Gods, imagine the mess that it was among the Citadel, everyone’s confused because “Boy, Amicitia’s trying to court Nox Fleuret’s boyfriend” “But they weren’t boyfriend?” “Then I don’t know what’s going on because both are always flirting with him”, “Omg is this a suitors war?”, etc. When honestly it’s just Ravus being a dumb prick trying to test his bff’s suitor.

And it gets to a point where it’s RIDICULOUS. Ravus is basically one step from asking Ignis to marry him, the gods damn. Gladio can’t look at him without Ravus going to him, he can’t get close to Ignis without Ravus there, he can’t tell him things because Ravus is a damn poet and can say something a million times the sweeter. Heck, once Gladio tried to talk with Ignis and not only was Ravus there, he also didn’t let go of Ignis’ hand for an hour hnsjnfsdjnfs

And, of course, it gets to a point where Gladio notices and goes to have a talk with Nox Fleuret.

“I see what you’re doing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, I knew you and Ignis shamelessly flirted with each other, and I thought you were just joking around. But now that I’ve been trying to court him, you...like...I don’t know, amplified your stupid flirting a million times.”

“Did I?”

“Don’t play fool with me.”

“Ah, you’re just playing fool. What a relief, I thought that was your natural state.”

Gladio has to growl and swallow his anger. 

“Listen, it’s not funny.”

“Why? Are you jealous?”

“To a point, yes” Ravus squints the eyes lighltly at that and starts tagging Gladiolus as not appropriate for Ignis, but the Shield goes on, “but that’s not the point. I don’t care if Ignis prefers you over me, that’s not the point. What I don’t think is fair is that you’re toying with him. You used to flirt with him just to play and that was fine, but now you’re...it’s too much. If he prefers you over me, don’t you think it’s unfair? He may have feelings for you and you’re just flirting this way with him to annoy me, not to really flirt with him.”

Ravus blinks,surprised, and stays quiet.

“You don’t mess with somebody’s feelings. I do have tried courting him, yes, but since I started you’ve been flirting much more with him and throw glares at me. I’m thinking that you’re not flirting with him just to flirt with him, you’re doing it to mess with me. And, dude, whatever I did to you, we can solve it some other way. But don’t use Ignis like that. Don’t toy with his feelings just to mess with me. Whatever you have, it’s against me, he has no reasons to be in between. You don’t make him...fall in love with you just for the sake of making me angry. Okay? So stop it. Not funny, not healthy, and not fair. Ignis doesn’t deserve to be toyed with like this.”

They stay dead silent for a moment. Ravus says nothing. Gladio says nothing, he’s just frowning at the Tenebraean.

Silence and silence...

And, then, Ravus smiles.

“You’re worth.”

Gladio blinks in confusion and gives him a puzzled look. But Ravus doesn’t explain, all that he says is 

“Good evening, Amicitia.”

And leaves.

Gladio has no idea what happened, but after that Ravus stopped his ridiculous flirting and it went back to normal. Some days later, he managed to get a date with Ignis, asked by no other but Ignis himself. At some pint during the second or third date, the subject somehow comes up, and Gladio tells him about what Ravus said about ‘being worth’, and Ignis explains to him the entire problem.

“...so...Ravus wasn’t interested in you, he was only testing me?”

“Yes.”

“...wow...didn’t that...uhm...he behaved so romantically with you all the time, I thought maybe he really was...”

“In love with me? Oh, haha, no. Ravus is ace.”

“Ravus is what”

And this is the point where Gladio feels stupid.

Aaaaah, what a nice scenario! It’s both cute and funny. Thank you so much for sharing it with me!  I love protective best friend Ravus, I LOVE THIS IDEA SO MUCH HNGFDNGFND ♡ ～('▽^人)