#NO PANDERING TO BE FOUND HERE

[striddums]

how do i date u?

HMMM WELL are you perhaps......................... A LEO

[lenievi]

Kirk: *clueless and unable to read a paper map because he’s from space*

La’an: *sighs* give it. (I don’t care you’re a captain and I’m just a lieutenant, I’m gonna boss you around)

is such a great dynamic. Can it be like that pls?

(McCoy and Spock would just let him figure it out you know)

[muntitled]

𝐀 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥

Aegon Targaryen x Fem!reader

Summary: You were the only one who truly saw the tortured king. Not his mother, not his brother, and certainly not his wife.

Warning: Language, Infidelity, Humiliation, Toxicity, King Complex, Slight Angst, Smut (+18) Minors DNI, Canon typical Incest, Grinding, Forced orgasm, King Kink?, Dom/Sub Themes, Controlled Orgasm, Ownership Kink, Dub/Con, Groping, Humping, Pussy rubbing, Exhibition Kink

This isn't very good, I admit. I just needed to get it out of my head.

Despite your eye following the pathway of High Valyrian ink splashed on the weathered pages of your book, your brain takes forever to process the words.. It is a story you had enjoyed since the days of your wetnurse but now you are focused on the utter injustices occurring by the dinner table before you. You always found your nose nestled in a book throughout dinner, all save for this one.

The Queen mother is bent over her plate, forgetting her table manners in the vehemence of her passions, while Aemond assumes a hostile glare from his perch at the head of the table. Aegon sits slumped in between you and Helena, with his half lidded eyes so painfully tedious as he prods at his food, while these fake gods scold him from above.

"And to make matters impossibly worse, you failed to display even a shred of sympathy towards his condition-" Despite the nature of his mother's tone, it does not stop Aegon from rebutting where necessary, with a quick, sharpness on his tongue.

"This 'condition' you speak of, being the imprisonment of a wealthy merchant's stupid son." Aegon releases a short, winded chuckle, one that you share behind the concealment of your book. "Perhaps he shouldn't have gotten himself captured."

"He is apart of your battalion, Aegon- fighting your war-"

"I am not at war. As I sit here, I am not harbouring any ill feelings towards any party-"

Aemond interrupts, "All you think about is fucking and drinking-"

"Precisely brother!" Aegon proceeds to turn to his mother, with his hands splayed outwards he reiterates, "All I think about is fucking and drinking,"

A loud, unladylike snort escapes the confines of your throat which you attempt to sheath with a cough as you study the words in your book. Aemond rolls his eyes while Aegon throws a blatant smirk beside you- "See Mother! Now our dear cousin has fallen ill as a result of the animosity stirred by your incessant scolding!” Aegon’s voice is doused in sarcasm as he rubs his hand into your shoulder, “All because of your nagging, mother," Alicent’s eyes darken as her voice descends into caution "Aegon. Tomorrow you are to formally apologise to that Knight. He is a seasoned member of your Kingsguard-" The politics was becoming far too much on him. His grip has yet to leave your shoulder.

"Why the complete and utter fuck should I be pandering to my subjects?"

Aemond is the first to inject "Have you not a shred of Diplomacy, you fucking imbecile?" You eye Aemond from above your book, and you cannot begin to imagine the younger brother would ever inject himself into Aegon's business, no reason except perhaps, jealousy?

Aegon promptly ignores Aegon, and, with his eyes on Alicent, he leans over the table and whispers:

"If Rhaenyra wishes to have the crown, she may gladly take it-"

"AEGON!" The queen's thunderous voice settles over the table like a tempest, injecting all those present with a sharp, instinctive flinch, all except Aegon, who remains lax and unaffected by her outburst, only fueling the Queen's anger to first born tenfold.

"I cannot rely on you for anything, Aegon, NOTHING! For a mother to be so utterly embarrassed by her son- her eldest son," there is venom in her incredulity, one that has your brows curving as you send a sympathetic gaze at the Usurper. You lower your novel and lean slightly closer to the battlefield that has befallen the dinner table. Aegon’s hand drops from your shoulder, landing in your lap. You clasp his trembling hand in both of yours.

How a simple visit to see your cousins in King's Landing had turned into a public execution of Aegon's dignity, is utterly beyond you. You decide that you simply will not allow it, you cannot allow it, and solidarity is all you hope Aegon feels radiating from your clasped hands under the table.. You look up at him, thinking you might look up to find anguish in Aegon's eyes, but all you find there is a sly, almost secretive smirk dancing along his visage.

"You govern this country like a child-" Aemond begins but you're quick to snip back,

"Perhaps we should be mindful, cousin of the fact that Aegon still is a child. He is but 20 years in age!" You exclaim, with your own incredulity coating your laughter, "Aegon's destiny was pre-written when you were barely able to wipe your own shit, Cousin." Aegon fails to conceal his crass bought of laughter.

"I've no time for this," Alicent says, pushing herself out of her chair before rising in silent anger, "Helena, come," she commands before leading a slightly aloof Helena out the dining hall without another word. Helena mumbles something about broken unions in iron castings before disappearing.

The silence is deafening as Aemond's one eye studies the two of you - he is not able to see your hand underneath the table, you don’t think…

"Before you think about fucking our cousin, at least think about fucking your wife." Aemond announces, to an amused Aegon who keeps his amused gaze lowered to the table. It is then that Aegon squeezes your hand, still seated on your lap. His fingers encircle yours in what you initially deduce is acknowledgement of your solidarity, but what you quickly realise is something much more sinister.

"I cannot say I will heed your counsel, brother," It is then that Aegon grabs ahold of your hand, guiding you until your palm is cupping his hardened cock. "But you can trust that your council is solemnly heard."

Aemond watches you from above the rim of his chalice as he empties the final traces of his wine before placing his chalice back on the table. His exit is a slow one, one that has your anticipation expanding and Aegon's patience waning. In all honesty, hearing your valiant defence to preserve his dignity raised an intense feeling of desire in Aegon. Even though Aegon's only feeling ever, always seemed to be desire.

"Come here," He says once Aemond footsteps have echoed away, "I need your mouth," Despite his command, Aegon is already leaning in with his hand cupping the back of your skull. Soon, all you can smell is him. All you can feel is him. All you can taste is the drunken and sunken taste of him.

His tongue forces its way into your mouth, ripping a fresh groan from inside you as he twirls you into his lap. He has you arrested on him, his front to your back, with your arse pressed on his crotch. His hand on your face cranes your neck backwards and forces his mouth on yours, promising that even if you wanted to free yourself, you may never be able to.

"I love how you see me," He whispers, never breaking away too far, in fear of you disappearing, "How utterly pleased I am with the version of myself I see living in your eyes," His words spill out of him and slip inside your mouth bridged by your shared saliva.

"He is not useless. He is not pitiful," Aegon breaks away from the kiss, to lay a palm on your cheek.

As one hand lovingly strokes the side of your face, Aegon’s other hand is ravenous, as it palms your sensitive breasts through the bodice of your dress.

"Thank you for not judging me," He all but whimpers as he buries his face in the crook of your neck. He breathes you in until his hips attempt to grind into you like a touch starved adolescent boy, while he ventures under your soft skirts.

"You don't have to thank me, Aegon." Your hands reach backwards to cradle his head into the crook of neck just as Aegon's fingers reach around to hook into the seat of your underwear. You aren't nearly as aroused as him, but somehow that fact has Aegon spiralling even further into arousal. His eyes are squeezed shut as he leans into you, smelling you, while his fingers drift over your pussy, searching desperately for a reaction.

"It is very rare that I find myself wanting to give any woman pleasure," Aegon's admits, with a low, dense drawl. His actions steal the breath from your very lungs as you feel the first sign of wetness begin to coat your underwear. He is in utter awe when he feels it. Quickly descending into a level of pleasure that he was not even sure existed, "I fucking love your cunt," He murmurs in his desperate drunken haze, "I wish to play with it and taste it and fuck it until you’re barely able to speak-"

"God's, Aegon!" Your voice is hoarse and your cries reach the highest rafter of the dining hall. Despite your degenerate wails, Aegon does little to stop them, in fact he encourages them, as his fingers push your underwear aside.

"When did you get so fucking wet?" The warmth of his breath fans against your cheeks, as he presses his front against your behind, "Did I get you this wet?" He asks, before getting the strongest surge of arousal as he whispers, "Did your King get you this wet?"

All you are able to accomplish is a nod as your mind explodes with vibrant visions of your near release. Soon, you're moving your hips in tandem with Aegon's fingers squeezing sloppily at your clit before rubbing with vicious surety.

"Please-"

"Call me by my title," He whispers, completely stripped from his sensibilities. "Tell your King to make you come," Aegon's brain is filled with what he suspects is determination. He is determined to see the most lecherous parts of you crack, and have it done by his design. He rubs your cunt with furious passion while he pushes up from underneath you, utterly destroyed by the idea of having a monopolised control over the workings of your body.

"Fuck- please my King!" The ache between your legs is as warm and erratic as Aegon's hands. "Please let me cum-"

"Tis only I, who can get My Lady this wet and needy," He murmurs, quite literally to himself, as he pushes his hips against your arse.

"Only you, My King." You decide to humour him, seeking the quickest way to your release, "Only you can make me cum," Throughout his tirade, Aegon's other, unoccupied hand has reached around and clasped itself against your throat. He is violent in his actions, squeezing deliriously until your throat is vacuumed of all its air. It's an utterly depraved situation you have both found yourselves in.

Anyone could decide to walk in at any moment and Aegon affirms as much. "You're such a pretty little whore, making a mess on my fingers like this. Fuck, The servants could decide to walk through at any moment," His grip on your throat relaxes, allowing you gasp hungrily for air while the first spots of your organs threaten to surge through you.

"P-Please, My King-"

"What would they think if they find you humping my hand like such a needy, little whore?" He is rubbing rough circles against your cunt until finally, you're unable to resist teetering on the edge much longer. As your orgasm washes over you, and your body shudders above him, Aegon's own orgasm is triggered as he forces your hips further onto the seat of his pants.

"My Lord," your voice is shallow but a restless tremor settles on your limbs, "Have you no shame," you're partially jesting, as you try to come back from your previous delirium.

"I've already been branded a devil," He says, "There is no Grace left to fall from."

<3

© to @mphountitled on tumblr; do not repost

[yuri-is-online]

Why So Rude? (Or Yuu's BF Asks Crewel for their Hand in Marriage and What Happens Next Will Shock You)

For legal reasons, this is a joke. I have been dealing with a health issue of sorts (i am not dying so no worrying ok? just v annoyed) so writing longer stuff is escaping me at the moment, enjoy some crack while I take a breather. More can be found on my masterlist here.

NO (FLOYD, Rook, and Malleus)

Crewel has been in denial about this "relationship" since it started. Not that his disapproval is really going to stop Floyd, but Crewel 100% refers to him as "Yuu's ex boyfriend" much to the confusion of... everyone who hears that. They do find some common ground in their shared interest in fashion, but Crewel has never forgiven him for his behavior in his class OR his "stealing" Yuu's heart.

Rook on the other hand he didn't have too much of an issue with until he realized just how familiar he seemed to be with his home for someone who had supposedly only been there to visit you. The twenty page letter he wrote to confess his feelings to you didn't help either once he saw the few lines where Rook wrote about the beauty of your finger prints, but he knows his disapproval means very little to someone as obsessed with romance as Rook.

Malleus... is the King of a country genuinely hostile to humans and Crewel thinks he is a little too obsessed with Yuu for his own good. He is also not a fan of how condescending Malleus is towards his disapproval, but it's an issue that will be worked out eventually. They are fighting out of love for the same person, your safety and happiness is all they really care about at the end of the day.

No, but as a joke (Sebek and Jack)

I don't think he has anything against him really, he just wants to see how important tradition and the opinion of his elders actually is to him. When Sebek begins to plead his case because he does not wish to put a wedge between Yuu and their father figure, but cannot deny his feelings for Yuu Crewel's more than happy to "change his mind." He knows you will be happy and well looked after.

Jack is a solid partner, and he is a wolf beastman who speaks of Yuu as his soulmate, his one and only, his eternal life partner and- well. Crewel just can't resist a bit of teasing, he's always been so serious and easy to fluster about these sort of things. The sheepish look on his face when he realizes Crewel has been teasing him makes it very worth it.

I can't stop you can I... (Leona, Kalim, and Rollo)

While Crewel has faith that Leona has what it takes to save his home- he lives in the Sunset Savannah. That is really far away from the Queendom of Roses ( ; ω ; ) have some pity on your poor father he can't travel that far all the time it's bad for his skin. The pressures of being the partner of royalty is something he worries over, but a smug promise from Leona to protect you soothes his worries somewhat.

The flippant way Kalim talks about the assassination attempts is not the way Crewel wants to hear about attempts on your life or heaven forbid your death. Kalim is very sympathetic to this, he has no real argument against how ignorant he was in the past, but he isn't a child anymore. Just filled with a childlike love for the world and determination to make it better. It is hard to say no to that.

Rollo is too much like Trein. His request for your hand in marriage feels like something that the old man would cry tears of genuine joy over, so of course he hates it. Unfortunately he also knows how much this teen grandfather matters to you or whatever so the answer will be yes. At least he has an excuse to visit Fleur City more now.

Give me one good reason. (Azul, Jade, Idia, and Lilia)

Azul was such a good student that he should have zero complaints that you started dating. But he also isn't blind and dislikes being pandered to, which is very much what Azul is doing here. He does wonder briefly if this is a cultural thing and he is being insensitive, but he is still exasperated enough to not immediately say yes. The strange twinkle that comes to Azul's eyes at the prospect of negotiations makes him wish he had though.

Speaking of not being blind, what does the Leech family do and is it legal? Survey says probably yes, but Crewel remembers dealing with Jade's parents while he was in school and has no desire to feed his child to the shar- err eels. Jade immediately begins to sniffle, oh how could Crewel say such bad things about him? A poor innocent eel and blah blah blah. If Jade wasn't such a good partner he'd be cooked.

Crewel understands and appreciates the effort Idia has put in to his personal growth and he has no desire to shit on that... but S.T.Y.X. and the secrecy around it is no joke. He wants to continue having a relationship with Yuu and as soon as Idia reassures him of that he has no more objections.

Lilia is an old man, a war criminal, and a father. Of course Crewel has seen how he was able to live as a student while at NRC but his own credit as a father would be under fire if he didn't object mildly. Lilia has some fun with it and has a bit more respect for him for objecting. So long as the eventual answer is yes.

Yes (Riddle, Trey, Cater, Ruggie, Jamil, and Epel)

While Crewel does have some red flag concerns concerning Riddle's mother, he has no real objections to Riddle himself. He is a perfect gentlemen and the correct amount of nervous to be asking the question. He gets full marks, as if there would ever be any other outcome.

Trey is that sort of solid option that parents really love, but he also has that tight personal relationship with Crewel from his Science Club days. He lives in the Queendom and is tight with his own family there are few better places for Yuu to be.

While Cater isn't Crewel's favorite student, he doesn't hate him or the Shaftlands. He is also not entirely unconvinced that him asking is for a magicam trend but! He has no real major objections. He is more than ready to have two kids, as soon as Cater is willing to admit he could use a stable father figure.

I don't think that Ruggie would even suggest marrige unless he's obtained that stable, high paying job he so baldy wants and has moved his Granny out of the slums. It's the perfect time to ask for permission to propose, and while the Savannah is still super far away (r.i.p. Crewel's skin) he is much more supportive of the two of you and how far you've come.

Similarly to Ruggie, I don't think Jamil would propose to Yuu unless his personal issues with Kalim and his position with the Asim's had been sorted. He wants to actually travel on his honeymoon, and Crewel is very willing to suggest the Queendom of Roses. Jamil's ego is absolutely stroked by how Crewel had zero objections but your adoptive dad doesn't get to see how smug it makes him, Jamil saves the smirks for when you say yes.

I think that Crewel seems to like all of the first years, and Epel is no exception. Sure, his request starts out well put together and polite but devolves into a dialect that leaves Crewel with no idea of what he's saying, but he has a general idea. Of course Epel has his blessing, Harveston sounds like a lovely place for Yuu to live their life in Twisted Wonderland and Epel a perfect person to keep them safe and happy.

He already planned the wedding (Ace, Deuce, Silver and Vil)

I know what you're saying. Crewel approving of Ace? Of course he does! He was in his homeroom class, and Crewel has a soft spot for trouble makers from the Queendom, he was one after all! Sure he might have had some problems with him when you first started dating, but now, when he is deathly serious saying he wants to spend the rest of his life with you? Crewel has been waiting for this since he fist saw carrot head yanking your chain.

Deuce is a much easier sell, Crewel was always a bit harsh on his intelligence, but only because he ran a tight ship and wanted him to reach for the stars. Well he has, and he has you to support him through it, Crewel is so proud of both. He and Dilla have absolutely been hypothetically planning this for years.

While Silver's curse did not endear him to Crewel for his first two years of schooling, he really grew on him when you started going out. He's glad that you've found someone who loves you as much as Silver does, really he is. Unfortunately this means he has to plan a wedding with Lilia, something they both have been doing since you started going out and never talked about. Don't worry! They only intend to fight a lot little bit.

The instant you started dating Vil Crewel entered his mother of the bride era. The permission asking was less Vil wanting to be polite and more him coming up with a way to distract him and convince him to focus on designing the clothes. Thankfully it works and no one other than his dogs have to know just how insane the prospect of his two favorite students marrying made him.

[tpwrtrmnky]

exposition

[ID: Four panel comic with crudely drawn stick people.

Panel 1: A blue person with sunglasses and dog ears is talking to an orange person with dog ears.

Blue: "Ah, young Orange."

Orange: "I, uh, aren't you younger than-"

Blue: "I understand that you have approached me to discuss an issue. As is the doctrine of our anarcho-caninist commune, we shall conduct this meeting in expository form, speaking as if intent on being observed by an unknown third party in need of being spoonfed everything we, as individuals, are already aware of."

Orange: "Wait-"

Blue: "Let us begin by stating our medical histories: I am on gel that makes you blue and have had dog ear implants."

Orange: "I uh. I know. You told me yesterday."

Blue: "It is your turn. State it!"

Orange: "…You can look at me and tell that I'm-"

Blue: "You cannot rely on the third party knowing how you became orange!"

Orange: "…Gel. It's gel."

Panel 2: An extremely tall, hot pink person with fluffy bits around their chest and extremities, as well as floppy dog ears and a bandana worn as a mask, interjects into the conversation between the two.

Hot Pink: "I sense that this discussion is at risk of becoming an argument. Let us recite the Acknowledgment of Legitimacy, as per the doctrine."

Blue and Hot Pink: "We recognise that opinions are held by individuals and do not represent everyone of their chromatic alignment. We understand that if any individual is found to be in the wrong, it does not delegitimize their identity, only their viewpoint."

Orange: "I uh. Does anyone not believe this? Who are we disagreeing with here?"

Hot Pink: "I am on injections that make you hot pink and have taken topical fluffy fur gel. Now we may proceed."

Panel 3: Zoom in on Hot Pink and Blue as they continue spoonfeeding unnecessary exposition to you, the reader.

Blue: "Before proceeding we must also clarify that the doctrine is an idiosyncracy of our commune, and not reflective of wider anarchist nor caninist movements."

Hot Pink: "Indeed. Furthermore, I would like to establish that we exist in the context of the past affecting the present, as individuals with personal histories that affect our present state, and have established this doctrine in response to said history."

Orange: "I- how- what history- are you explaining that the past exists??

Who is this for?

How did you decide to talk like this?"

Panel 4: A green person with a tail and long, pointy dog ears appears opposite of Orange to make it all make sense.

Green: "You bring up an excellent question. I am on a combination of pills that make you green and pills that block my naturally occurring red, which I do not personally consider a medical condition but which is often pathologized as such. Before proceeding and getting to the point we must go over the historical context in which this conversation is taking place."

Orange: "Wait, no, I know history, please-"

Green: "Caninism, as formulated by Barx in the 1800s…"

End ID.]

Bonus panel:

[ID 2: Presumably sometime later, the green dogperson is still talking.

Green: "You see, the Expository Doctrine is primarily a performance art critique of the tendency to demand that media explains everything to the viewer, and how pandering to this demand causes dialogue to be unnatural, stilted and unnecessarily verbose."

Orange: "I know. You say this every day."

Green: "Indeed, part of the performance serves to emphasize how in a serial but episodic medium, such mandatory exposition quickly becomes frustrating and repetitive!"

End ID 2.]

Start - Previous - Next

[n3ptoonz]

Part 2 of MK1 men pushing the reader to a wall while kissing them, please? 😊

i mean i GUESS i can do that 🤭 since you asked so nicely! part one here

how liu kang, reiko, sub-zero, havik, johnny cage, scorpion, and geras go about pushing reader to the wall while kissing them

just know it may not show the long pauses i took while writing this but know IT HAPPENED!! THE THINGS I DO FOR YALL🫵🏾don't say i never did none😫

havik's regeneration mentioned. i've also been told havik looks like that on purpose so like, let's act like he can make his face go back to where it was for the sake of shits, giggles, and pandering XD

tags: @luna18night20 @momopad

warnings: suggestive, fluff elements, sphinx tried her best, there will not be a part 3 im sorry y'all 💔 BUT shao and kenshi are here

Liu Kang

Liu Kang was rarely ever rough with you. In fact, the only way he'd do it is if you either verbally say it's fine, or if he knows you're poking the bear just to get a reaction. And when you get a reaction...there's no going back. You've kissed with your back to the wall several times, and every time was gentle and loving and laced with care. However, if you've presented that you were that desperate for him to give you the attention you deserve, he will gladly be a little rougher in pushing you back with his lips on yours. Just be prepared for him to leave some handprints on your waist.

Reiko

Reiko is a warrior. Hardened by battle and discipline, so the way he kisses you usually starts off that way. He can't help it. Not only is it the way he was raised and what he was told a man is "supposed to be", but it also came with how his partners were to be treated. When it came to you his sense of duty and protection spiked every single time. So here you were, well within his unintentional bear hug as your back was against the wall. His kisses always started off like he was going away to war/fight (because he usually was) but he would eventually melt and become smoother because you're by his side.

Sub-Zero

Bi-Han, a truly complex character. I believe that whoever captures his heart will be the main obsession in his life. In this case, it is you. He constantly needs to be on you, around you, see you, hear you, you name it. He can't get enough of your lips and this is especially apparent the way he's almost always pushing you to the wall while kissing you. Can we blame him? He's a tall hunk of touch-starved and the only thing that will satiate that hunger is roughly making out with you every chance he gets all while still knowing how to treat you like a porcelain antique.

Havik

Havik...this guy. Even though I'm pretty sure it's not canon I still feel like he'd regenerate and degenerate for fun and for different purposes/occasions. For the sake of my sanity I can say I found him fine as hell before his face got fucked up, and so did you. But you don't mind him either way because you love his crazy ass. Allow me to set the scene: You say something snappy to get his attention and boom...he regenerates his facial wounds just to back you against the wall and shut you up with pure smugness and arrogance behind his kiss. But, this is what you wanted, nonetheless. And you'd do it again!

Johnny Cage

Who's to say Johnny Cage wouldn't try to get you in one of his films just so he could keep getting takes of him backing you to a wall and kissing you? For Elder God's sakes, he's the one who wrote the script! And of course it's something dramatic like him being a villain that captures the hero and tries to convince them to ditch their position to be with him. Dude would totally think he's Loki (did i say that bc i think it would be hot if Loki did that to me? ..don't worry about it!) He's for sure fucking up his takes on purpose and you know this, but you only pretend to be irritated and maybe even fuck up a few yourself.

Scorpion

Kuai Liang, the romantic this man is. Like Liu Kang, he's never rough with you. Except it would take a little more convincing to let him know it's fine for him to act on his feelings when he wants to. With him, his kisses are slow and gentle. They will always start off like that even if he has a hard day. All he wants is to hold you, but it's like whenever your back hits the wall a gear starts turning in his brain. The idea of you having nowhere to go and enjoying it? Not even an Elder God is pulling him from your embrace. He gets handsy and a lot more affectionate around this time; he's kissing your face, neck, and shoulders too, because why the hell not?

Geras

Geras is a special case. He's an immortal who has never experienced romantic love before. So naturally you will have to teach him some things and even point out things he has observed that can be taken as romantic love. But he's still a man who has seen a lot, so this guy knows what kissing is and how to kiss. Surely you didn't think this giant fine ass immortal being didn't know how to treat his partner? Crazy talk! Understand that when you introduce the classic wall kiss by showing him what to do, he's leaning in to kiss you as he lifts you in his arms with no effort to be found and there won't be kissing going on much longer!

a/n: thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed! collapses onto the ground

[lycanm00n]

So, this is a good example of what's going on and why some of us are upset about it.

Obviously I've cropped out faces (though it seems to have been a pinterest photo) and usernames - but this was found on Tiktok, on my FYP.

This isn't an entirely false statement, and it's true for some therians out there - it wouldn't be fair to exclude the ones it does include - but using this kind of blanket statement is incredibly harmful to those of us who DO identify physically, and/or don't identify with humanity in some way. A lot of the physically identifying community, using myself as an example, still call themselves therians, and a lot of us still identify with the therian or otherkin label.

Saying "ALL therians know that they're human and can't change that" is not only a generally incorrect blanket statement, but is pandering to the side of our community trying to make us "less weird" and more palatable to humans and others.

Big breaking news moment - we are never going to be seen as normal. Things have definitely gotten somewhat easier as the community has steadily grown, but thinking that pandering to a set of people that already thinks we're weird outcasts to bully online is going to change anything is just damaging our already small community. You can't unweird what is inherently different - and that isn't a bad thing.

Turning therianthropy into something watered down and bland so the general public don't post mean comments to your page is just... pointless. In the end, it will only increase the gap between the watered down and the "uncensored" (i guess? idk) community, and make everyone miserable.

Do better, guys. We're in this shit together - if someone needs politely educating, do it. If they don't listen, leave it. Don't outcast your fellow community over trying to be "normal".

Quick addition - this isn't an "anti tiktok" or tiktok therian rant in the slightest, that just happened to be the platform I saw it on. It happens here too, just a hell of a lot less because tumblr is very.. raw in how its community tends to express animality

[lakesbian]

here's every way wildbow accidentally made pre-meiosis "russel" thorburn transgender that i can remember. if you can think of any reasons i forgot please add on

his parents named his younger sister "ivy," as if the obvious grandmother-pandering name "rose" had already been used up. blake theorizes that they used a male version of "rose" for PMT, but this is nonsensical--there is no male form of the name rose, and everything he comes up with as a possible option (in other words, everything wildbow came up with as a possible option) is a major stretch. most don't sound even tangentially like the name "rose." it makes far more sense to assume that PMT was afab and had the deadname rose. (this also makes sense on a thematic level wrt how rose thorburn jr is supposed to be the Real heir that grandmother is forcing blake to die for, but that's getting besides the point)

rose has memories of being harassed over the inheritance by her female cousins, and the idea of these memories just being wholly pulled out of thin air when basically everything else involves memories either being split btwn blake and rose or erased altogether is weird

blake is friends with, like. a lot of gay people. textually runs in poor gay artist circles. the idea of them adopting this weirdly cool cis straight guy is funny but it makes a lot more sense if PMT was trans + gay and only got turned into a straight guy (and a straight girl) yesterday, due to the homophobia demon

PMT literally thinks "Besides, why devote any more attention to your son, when you could just start over?  Have that beautiful baby girl you wanted, right?" which is also like one of the only pieces of internal narration we get from PMT in the entire story. first girl they named rose ran away and did some shit with their gender so now they have a second girl they can't name rose but can still try to raise to go for the inheritance

in the same chapter as when pmt says that, callan is like ohhh you think youre going to worm your way in-, implied sentence ending being "-to the inheritance," which is, like. the family knows it's going To A Girl. so.

PMT was childhood friends with paige, who is The Gay Cousin. it is deeply sensible to imagine them bonding over this, regardless of whether or not PMT (or even paige) knew at the time

it is, like, fully possible for a cishet dude to get sick of living with his shitty toxic abusive family and abscond at the age of 17, but also homelessness is an extremely prevalent issue among transgender kids in abusive families. the narrative of a transmasc kid growing up in an abusive, catholic extended family where girls are pressured to compete for a very gendered inheritance + leaving at the age of 17 & finding a new home among a bunch of gay artists is Significantly more compelling than the cis dude alternative. it just is.

okay i think im running out of, like, logical errors that make sense only if pmt was trans prior to the Obliteration, so as for the thematic stuff. like i said, rose being the half grammy decided was supposed to be "real" and blake being the half that's supposed 2 die for her 2 exist, rose just being unhappy and disconnected by nature of existence while blake is the parts of pmt that escaped from the constraints of the family + found happiness, so on and so forth. "catholic grandmother literally obliterated her transmasc nonbinary grandchild by splitting them into two binary gendered halves & expecting that the man they could've been die to allow the acceptable woman--literally forced to dress in grandmother's clothes--live on and do as grandmother wished" is Everything, doing the same thing but to a cis man grandchild is significantly less compelling

Others who r very old/operating on what are explicitly stated to be oppressive and antiquated gender roles as per the book's themes about inherited/traditional forms of harm keep mistakenly calling blake she/her and rose lmao

??? probably some other thangs im forgetting

[jolapeno]

i. say what you want

javier peña x f!reader | chapter one of late night texts

summary: It's the year 2000. Javi is minding his own business on the porch of his pop's ranch when a text from an unknown number vibrates his phone. The only problem is, no one knows he has a phone and no one has his number.

chapter warnings: fluff. romcom vibes. an: i really wanted to write actual 00s text talk, but it broke my brain and made it hard to edit so, forgive me. pls imagine all the cul8r and yw's. massive thank you to @guyfieriii for convincing me to write the idea i hammered on about and holding my hand as i do. wordcount: 2.5k.

read the prologue

text key: bold is you/reader | italics is javi

Boredom flitters through him, trickling down his bones in the same way a bead of condensation drips down his beer.

His eyes track it, watching it land in the pool on the worn, splintered porch table. 

He was tired, drained. Fingers and thumb working his forehead as the other taps an unknown beat against the arm of the chair: a habit, a routine. 

Javi didn’t follow his Pop to the television or the tavern. He seated himself out here, taking in the fields—both the new and recently fixed fences that kept the livestock alive and merry. 

It hadn’t always been his thing, just more so since he began sleeping a bit better—having found it easier to switch off one night when he sat out here. The day slowly rolled from his shoulders with each brush of the warm breeze, each muscle trying to unknot with a rustle of the trees. 

That and it gave him privacy in learning how to use his new phone. 

The one bought with the intention of not needing to stand hovered near the kitchen on the landline whenever Steve insisted on checking in on him. 

He was the only one with the number—outside of his Pop. The option to hand it to others when he felt like it, he’d been told. Mainly, Javi had strongly suspected it was pandering to an alternative way for Steve to bother him about how happy he was, and how Miami would be good for him for a week or two.  

Now someone else had it. 

Someone unknown. Who wrote with a speed he couldn’t emulate, watching a reply fly back before he’d even wrapped his head around what was happening. All black letters standing out against green—

Truthfully, if not for how panicked and stressed they had sounded, he would have ignored it. Later, even deleted it (once he’d figured out how). 

But, because he couldn’t, it goaded him. 

His thumb slid his phone on, staring at it—the small, ridiculous exchange. It torments him in a way that unfurls something with him. 

Curiosity, mainly. A need to know more. 

Wrapping his fingers, he takes a mouthful of his beer. Continuing to clutch the neck of it, resting it on his knee. Staring at the lit screen on the table, his thumb and index pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closing—shutting out the way the evening sun waves goodbye to the day. 

It’s easy to force himself to forget about the throbbing in his palm from fixing another fence panel—and the simmering prickling after he saw a small boat pass. It’s harder to ignore it. 

The phone on the table, the one he lands on as he cracks open his eye, the one he can’t pick up and just see—ask. 

It’s always been a problem, his need to close the lid on something. The not knowing pecking in the back of his head all day, if not—had done since he was little, led to him gaining even more invisible scars from Colombia. 

But it’s also what had made him good. 

Even if, for all his success and accolades, he was alone on a Thursday night. Sat on the porch he’d grown up on—his own father even has plans. 

He shouldn’t text. He should delete the number like he was asked to—forget all about the random stranger and their date. 

how’d your date go

Truthfully, Javi regrets it the moment he sends it. The moment the sound registers in his ear—sound simmering to nothing before it drenches him. 

Bouncing his leg, he coats his throat in more of his beer. Swallowing it back quicker than he’s found, he can even text. Rolling his phone, swirling it between finger and thumb as he stares across the land—listening to the evening sweep over, the cicadas waking up, the rustle of the breeze in the trees.

Why are you texting me? I’m intrigued

He keeps it short. Sweet. 

It allows for quickness, pressing send and for his fingers to go back to flexing, needing to tap.

A sudden desperation on the tip of his tongue—nose itching for the scent of burning papers and tobacco leaves. Instead, pressing the button on his phone, seeing if he’s missed a text, or a reply.

Even if he’s been holding it the entire time, knowing he would have felt the vibration through the pads of his fingers down to his wrist. 

His stomach slowly slides, uncomfortably dropping to his feet with a thud. Regret washes over, the itch growing more intensely as the hunger for a smoke increases. Wishing he hadn’t given them up a year ago—hadn’t tried to kick the habit to appease his pop. Wishing he hadn’t been able to do so successfully, so he could light one now without feeling culpability. 

Mountains of regrets begin to pile all over again. Little ones. Adding up into bigger—

They didn’t show. Happy?

He pauses. 

His stomach drops another inch. Happiness is the last thing he feels. 

Grabbing the beer from the table as he takes a sip, more graceful—less through a need to busy himself and more for courage. Hand clutching his phone, the green-lit screen standing out as the chirping croon around him. 

shit, I’m sorry about that We can stop texting now. What if I said I didn’t want to I’d wonder if you’re bored or lonely.

That makes him smirk. It cuts across his face, paints over the day's aches, the text slicing through the day's misfortune. 

Ones such as the stares when he went to the hardware shop—even if he’s been back for a while; the gossip that he could hear in thick whispers on the aisle over—as though they weren’t all used to him being home. 

All of it vanishes. All because of a quick-witted text. 

can a man who has moved back in with his pops at 30-something years old be both  Overachiever that’s what I hear Should tell you, I'm not going to tell you what I’m wearing. Last night was a rarity, not a common occurrence.

He takes another sip, licking his bottom lip, shifting in his chair. His fingers slowly press buttons—but the blinking line swallows them all, thumb hammering to delete. 

This should be easy—talking to a woman. 

Javi has never usually had this problem. But, then, his tongue has typically said the words his brain has thought up. Now he has to type them, allowing him to linger on them—especially with how slow he is, and how quick you are. 

it’s not the underwear that had me coming back to text you, it was you

Oh. So you’re a charmer.  Not sure it’s the usual word women call me, but I’ll take it  Because you’re bored and lonely. 

He snorts, if only to himself. 

The stars slowly twinkle, shining above him as he mumbles, “fuck”. Staring out into the nothingness, suddenly feeling not quite as empty as he had done when he first woke. 

yeah because I’m bored and fucking lonely, hermosa

I shouldn’t text you. 

probably a wise choice

Yet I am. 

And I kinda want to. 

you like talking to bored and lonely men? 

Not usually. But you do seem charming. 

it’s a gift

Since we skipped pleasantries and jumped straight into my underwear choice, do you have a name?

I do

Hilarious.

it’s Javi. 

Okay, Javi who lives with his dad—how’s your evening?

Is it an appropriate response to a bad day to drink two bottles of wine?

depends on the day

It was real shitty.

then drink away, hermosa. you ok

I will be. 

Not because of the wine. Because I’m out of town tomorrow so I don’t have to deal with the person tomorrow. 

colleague giving you shit?

I think it may be his life's purpose to make my day as shitty as it can be. 

I can relate 

Worked with an asshole or two in your time, Javi? 

most definitely. one day I may even tell you about one named bill

I look forward to it. 

Guess from that comment you don’t mind that we’re still talking?

not even a little bit

is it weird to ask you how your day has gone? 

You bored again, charmer? 

just taking an interest 

It’s fine, hotel food kinda sucks, so I’m tucking into some chips and dip. 

they at least good, the chips and dip? 

Oh, I only buy the good kind. I don’t cheap out on dip. 

I never asked, did you ever find Aish’s number? 

Yes. One digit, that was all between you and her. 

Also, she finds the entire thing hilarious. Because, of course, she does. 

I think if this happened to Steve, I’d find it funny too 

Steve your friend or? 

wouldnt you like to know 

A girl is just trying to make a conversation

he’s a friend from my old job

You see him much? 

no. you see Aish much? 

Not as much as I’d like. But, more my fault, I travel a lot for work. 

I see. what kind of dip you got? 

If I tell you, I fear you’d know too much 

that a bad thing, hermosa 

Well, a girl can’t so easily let you know her weakness, Javi. 

He used to hate the rain. 

Despised the smell that lingered after a good fall, how it trapped him in or soaked him to his bones if he ran through it. 

Now, he finds it pleasant—watching it fall in waves of mist that cools the air and hammers itself into the ground. The sound of the television flutters from the living room to his ear, merging with the tapping of his pencil against the newspaper—his eyes busy fixated on watching the heavens open amongst the ranch. Drenching, washing away bits and pieces it can. 

If someone had told him he’d have gotten into crosswords back in Colombia, he’d have thrown the paper at them. 

Now though, it was therapeutic. A mystery with no significant risks, no real need to finish it—but he never left it half-done all the same. 

Guess who tried to rearrange the date. you told him no, right I told him to fuck off, actually. 

Javi laughs. 

It escapes quickly, dancing right past his bottom lip—before he mutes it. He clasps his lips around it, swallowing it back before his pop asks him what he finds so funny. 

Pushing the newspaper away, the pencil rolls and rolls until it collides with the wall, his fingers circling over the keys, thinking—processing. 

Sometimes a response to you comes with ease; others, he finds he thinks more carefully. Each message he wants to be considered, intentional. An ember having ignited in his chest, not sure what it meant—why it was there—but not wanting to give it any reason to have it stuffed out. 

as a minimum you deserve someone who tells you they can’t make it on the actual night  Charmer.  bare minimum, hermosa I know what that word means now, btw.  btw? By the way. It’s quicker than repeatedly clicking buttons.  I don’t think I asked, what do you do? 

Stroking his fingers across the hair above his lip, he pauses. 

Biting down on the inside of his mouth, a pang of regret flooded him. 

At times, it comes in waves. Washing over him when he thinks of what he used to do, what he’s good at—compared to what he does now. 

Biting the inside of his mouth, Javi lifts his eyes to watch a droplet falling down the pane of glass—trailing a path, merging with others until it creates a blow on the sill. 

He likes being home—has to remind himself that he does too. 

Especially when his muscles ache, new cuts on top of other ones—crosswords and occasional beers being the excitement he now comes to expect. 

Sighing, it’s swallowed by the show in the other room and the rain falling heavier—spotting, in the distance, the cows lying down, one by one. 

you want to know a lot for saying you wanted me to delete your number btw to answer your question I work on the ranch my family owns  A rancher? Good to know you’re good with your hands.  That sounded more flirtatious than I meant. I don’t mind.  And just so you know, hermosa. I am. 

He wipes his thumb across his smile, foot tapping on the wooden floor, staring at the screen. 

It's happened before, the edge of flirting. The two of you step towards it before one of you pulls back. 

His heart thumps in his chest, fingers flexing on the table—so used to the hue of green now, it’s all he sees when he blinks. The vibration his phone makes registered in his bones, his body trying to convince him he’s felt it as he waits. 

It’s cruel. The way seconds turn into minutes. 

His phone screen dulls before he relights it. 

I don’t even know what to say to that.  well are you good with your hands I’m a quicker typer than you, so I think that’s a given. 

He smirks, it cuts into his cheeks—shaking his head in disarray as he leans back in the chair. It protests. Practically cringes under the new movement. 

Like much of the house, the years have done a number on it. So much of it all the same from when he was growing up—just fixed, repainted, repurposed. 

At first, he’d found it hard to be surrounded by it. Almost swallowed by memories—both the good and the bad. 

Now, he just thinks it’s paused, frozen in time. Sometimes, a tired mind even lets him believe his Ma could turn the corner, asking him if he’ll bike to get her flour.  

I was DEA in Colombia. it’s how I met Steve  I can imagine with all of the news coming out of there, that would have been hard.  Something like that  My first job was in my dad’s tool shop. I wasn’t very good at it.

Rolling his head to rest on his shoulder, he reads your message a few times. 

The change in conversation was appreciated, not that he’ll voice it. He briefly wonders if it’s a tactical choice or accidental. 

Hoping it’s the former as he takes in each letter, each word—fingers teasing his chin, rereading as he imagines an outline of a person sitting somewhere, curled in. Just like he is. 

Maybe staring down, waiting for his reply, like he waits for yours. 

A break from the mundane, a pleasantry in a sea of normalcy. 

Something he wants to protect—hoping you do too. 

How come?  Apparently, continuously mixing up tools isn’t good for customers—even if my dad was impressed with our profit increase.

49 down is slither

What’s the clue again?

skeleton section

You do this every day? 

I try 

yes okay I do 

It’s ribcage, Javi.

you hermosa are brilliant 

Glad you’ve caught on, charmer. 

I think you’re just finding a reason to talk to me, because that one was easy. 

I don’t need a crossword to find ways to talk to you

No? 

no, there’s lots I don’t know about you 

I’m not that interesting. I promise 

I doubt that. 

Favorite way to start your day? 

Wouldn’t you like to know? 

an: anyone grinning as much as me...

next chapter ->

[thisiskatsblog]

Ohhhmg do I love larries blaming Louis and Harry for their larry cult? Absolutely! You are the conspiracy theorists who created the fan conspiracy theory and like every single tinhat on the planet - you blame the victims. Is is going to come back to and you will pay for everything that you have done, tinhats. For all that bullying, manipulations and lies. You will pay. Universe is always balancing out your cult evil doings by making you pay for what you've done.

Ehm. Wasn’t me who said Harry’s first crush was Louis Tomlinson. Wasn’t me who said Louis was a great boyfriend that treated Harry really well. Wasn’t me who said yes when someone asked are you and Louis dating. Wasn’t me who said I’d marry you Harry. Wasn’t me who said we kind of share that really. Also wasn’t me who sang I can’t compete with my boyfriend he’s got 27 tattoos. Also wasn’t me who made them get all the complimentary tattoos. Again wasn’t me making Louis caress Harry when he thought no one could see. Was their privacy in jeopardy because of the crazy schedule constantly under the public eye? Yes. Did the constant public scrutiny hurt them? Probably. Is that my fault. No. Did they encourage people to support them? That’s debatable but I have my reasons to be quite convinced they did. If you disagree with that, fine. But honestly, if Louis wanted to find a way to kill the rumours, he could have found a better way than chicken wrapped in Parma ham stuffed with mozzarella with a side of home made mash. That’s such a classic. He hadn’t even met Eleanor then.

In short: I feel no guilt for thinking they are or at the very least were a couple or for talking about it here in a respectful way. There is nothing wrong with being gay, it’s not a slur and gay rumours are not hurtful unless you’re homophobic and I am not going to pander to homophobes. That serves no one. Moreover I have reasons to be convinced that our support has been important to them and that once upon a time they did seek that support. Maybe it’s no longer needed or desired right now but that doesn’t make me childish or stupid nor does it make me a liar or manipulator.

[jewishboricua]

nobody can convince me that cultural christianity in western culture, particularly the USA, doesn't exist when i specifically remember one time me and my family used to go to this plant based restaurant a few years back, and i remember that the owner was openly Buddhist and had put Buddha as part of the logo for her restaurant, and then I had watched a show that had a segment about Buddha, which I found really cool, so I proceeded to tell my conservative Christian mother about what I learned, then she told me "that's nice honey, but I go here for the food, NOT the politics." with a passive aggressive tone, and i'm not gonna lie, i think it's FUCKED UP that being a part of a religion that isn't Christianity or even being atheist/agnostic is "too political" and is even considered "pandering to an agenda"

[lives4lovesworld]

Truly wish dany/targaryens stans would stop bothering. The amount of daily posts that aim to "counter" or even pander to nonsensical anti bs is excessive and after years quite honestly boring and tedious.

Quite frankly I fail to understand what we gain from this, adhering to a holier-than-thou moral code, especially since no one else is compelled to even pretend to do so? Is the goal here for them be completely distorted to the point they resemble other characters? antis supposed favorites? As uninteresting to us as they subconsciously are to their stans? Which is the real problem here and the reason why they are the way they are (hypocritical stealing clowns and nuisances?) But perhaps I have a completely different less-morality-bound approach to consuming media in my free time than the rest of my fellow stans.

No downplaying/refuting Valyrian blood purity, empathizing non-Valyrian marriages, pointing out the origin of slavery are found in Old Ghis and not the Freehold, no opting for the most gracious interpretation of members of House Targaryen will ever stop antis from painting and hypocritically single out everything Targaryen/Valyrian related as kkk- or "imperialistic" coded or whatever woke buzzword of the day. They live to pretend-clutch their pearls and hold only them to modern standards of a fantastical utopia, while every other feudal character can be as archaic as expected from their pseudomedvial upbringing with their houses being wardlords

Speaking for me, I STAN their blood purity and incest. For me, IT IS a defining characteristic of House Targaryen that makes them unique, no matter how "problematic" it may be. I STAN it because GRRM fabricated scandalous, passionate love stories that I chose to interpret as consensual and politically advantageous, that brought forward incredible, magical gorgeous characters able to ride dragons that inspire love and envy alike. Who shine all the brighter when one contrasts them with literally any other characters and unions that are and breed doomed mediocrity and are born out of stale duty. I perhaps have a bais for pure blooded Targaryens that look the part than any prefect bastards or half breeds, or targ x targ to any other couple.

I also stan cruel Maegor, particularly for showing Oldtown its place and declawing the Militant Faith because I enjoy reading about the presumptuous Christian Vatican equivalent getting its ass handed to them. I stan Rhaenyra and she still can be a pampered proud princess-turned-queen. The same way I prefer canon Daemon as a rogue, an ambitious prince who seduced his brother's heir with perhaps also political hopes in mind and because he wanted his gorgeous niece as a bride instead of his cold barren wife. A legend that slay the pathetic cunt that was his nephew.

And while I'm at it: I also refuse to care about every "likeable"/pitiful character simply because it would be the "morally right" thing to do, nor will I root for the characters I like to do it. I don't care for Helaena and her children, nor the strong boys or any half-considered-"poc" Targaryen, nor will I even pretend to see "reason" in the greens actions, nor do I even want to see Dany "overcome her hatred"/bais against the usurper's dogs and any descendants of them. Or for her to be that altruistic to turn away from the throne to save humanity.

No amount of "call-out-posts" what a misogynist, racist, cultist, classist or elistist I am will change that because why OH WHY should I give a fuck about what anyone online thinks of me. Why should I allow anyone to bully me into streamline my enjoyment?

Especially by the people that do not even have the decorum of pretend to have any sort of decency. So they can use the most misogynistic, classist language and expect submission to their attempts to rule fandom spaces with iron fists and delusions, and canonize their favorites' sainthood and entitlement to feudal supremacy often only because they ✨️suffered prettily✨️ and fit some anesthetics while I must tolerate them trying to scold me into caring so greatly about fictional grey faceless mass of common people that would die were my favorites to pursue their ambitions. Meanwhile the same people would have any would-be-subjects die of famine and cold as long as their favorites get their crowns GRRM would never grant them in canon anyway. Give me a break. And let's not even start on how dragons and incest are suddenly the solutions as long as they don't belong and is not practiced by Targaryens.

To make this clear: this post is NOT a not-so-subtle incognito-anti post of ✨️i lOve all mY wAr CrimInaL eUqally!;' LeT tHeM bE mAd AnD unHinGed uwu,"! love all mY mOderAte chAsTe hoPes Of the fUtUres and mAd imPeriAlistS. 🥰✨️

I simply wanted to say; perhaps we should NOT GIVE A FUCK, "own" the """""bad""""" and be "problematic" and "irrational" in our selective love for characters and houses like EVERYBODY FUCKING ELSE.

[kingofpuppets]

elden ring dlc spoilers

here's my 2 cents about the dlc and the reactions i'm seeing

i have no intention of writing a post analyzing in-depth the lore of the dlc since i've yet to go through every dialogue and item description as i did for base game – anything i were to write now would be incomplete at best – so this is not it. i just wanted to address the overall dissatisfaction i'm seeing from a lot of people. like, as someone who spent weeks after playing the base game reading every single line of text in the game, analyzing each environment, enemy placement and design, seeing the reaction people are having to the dlc lore is quite funny. i get being disappointed a character isn't what you thought they'd be but going so far as to scream "bad writing!" is a bit excessive. i even saw people claiming miyazaki changed the writing to pander to the fans and, seriously? fromsoftware never came close to doing that and there's absolutely no reason for them to start now. but anyways, as i mentioned before i'm a huge lore nerd, the kind with a huge mind map containing nearly all relevant item descriptions, there's nothing in the base game i haven't read, so i think it's safe to say i have a somewhat good understanding of what new lore piece in the dlc contradicts what lore piece in the base game. i'm in no way an authority on the matter – there isn't one – nor am i pointing fingers saying "i'm right, you're wrong" – i just don't understand. i've been through countless different theories before i settled on the ones i entered the dlc with and obviously i wasn't right about everything – especially because a lot of it is speculation not to mention there's not really a right or wrong, only different interpretations of the same materials – but nothing new i encountered contradicted the base game lore i had put together. if anything, it strengthened even more some of my theories. so many people are upset about miquella being the main antagonist or that he's evil (which i completely disagree with, especially some posts portraying miquella as some kind of cartoon villain which is more speculation than anything with actual support from in-game lore), but everything was leading up to it if not in the base game in the dlc (the moment i found miquella's discarded love i figured who the final boss might be, when i found st. trina i was sure). "but the radahn fight comes out of nowhere" maybe there's no direct mentions of it in the base game but it is hinted quite well albeit very subtlety what miquella wanted to do with him in one of the dlc quests – not to mention radahn makes the most obvious sense when you think of miquella/radahn as a parallel to marika/godfrey. and miquella using mohg is not even worth mentioning – i hope my fellow mohg enthusiasts are feeling vindicated, as am i. in short, nothing seemed out of place for me at all. so i was really taken aback when i went into the tags and saw the overall mood. everyone can have different opinions regarding their enjoyment of the dlc nor are there right and wrong theories in a fromsoftware game where the lore is so vague but it's quite upsetting seeing people talk about how "the dlc ruined miquella's character" or "the dlc lore has no connection to the base game" when that's simply not true. if anything, the dlc only added more depth to miquella and even if i was heartbroken at the death of my favorite elden ring character, it made sense thematically. if anything i'm more upset about the fight itself but that's a gameplay problem which is not the focus of the post.

[symeona]

It's common knowledge by now that West Asian and African ppl made up a sizable chunk of the population of ancient Hellas. This can be found in the texts of Herodotus, Homer, Heraclitus and in few surviving pieces of art; like the Minoan frescoes, bronze statues and vase paintings. And the one surviving bust of Memnon.

It's also common knowledge by now that churches tried to erase all traces of a "mixed" population by destroying most of the statues that depicted these ppl. Especially black Greek ppl. In a similar way Northwestern Europeans took our statues and bleached them. Why I am certain of that? Let's take Delos as an example. Delos was a religious centre, but it wasn't exclusively pandering to those who believed in the Pantheon.

In fact, what we see there is that both Eastern and Southern cultures celebrated similar or parallel forms of gods. Delos was specifically known for the worship of moon and sun gods. Those who worshipped Artemis could do so next to someone who worshipped Isis and someone who worshipped Tanit. Please feel free to Google this, I grew up there.

"Stop perpetuating the myth that we were black" gurl who hurt you. The existence of people with darker skin than yours doesn't erase you. Please calm down. We're not here to hurt you.

With sources cause 凸(¬‿¬)

[gacha-incels]

I’ve been looking to find a translation/overview of this article for some time as a more expansive look into East Asian (specifically Chinese in this case) male gacha consumers views on female and male characters in these games and what they represent. this was touched upon a bit in this post from January and also in the “gacha design” post. I think there is still some confusion with westerners playing these games thinking the female characters are specifically designed for women and the male characters for men, because with more western games (and media) you will typically get the grizzled male protag look and anything with a female MC is ridiculed by male gamers as pandering/“woke”/“SJW”/etc, take your pick bc this shit all means the same thing. but typically in gacha an all-female cast has been made to appeal to male consumers, and an all male cast will pander to women. Just look at something like NIKKE (all female cast) VS Ensemble Stars (all male). when there is a male character who is extremely popular with female players and has obviously been designed for that demographic, this is when you will see the explosive violent anger from misogynist male fans like what happened with the Genshin Impact character Wanderer. This happened with the Korean incels and the character Lyney, the Honkai Star Rail male characters who have boob windows like Aventurine also catch their ire for being sexualized in a similar way to the female designs. they hate any male character that appeals to women and/or “looks gay”, you can find plenty of western players speaking about the Genshin male characters like this as well. these groups tend to be extremely misogynistic and homophobic (we saw this with their comments during their disastrous “blimp protest”) but no surprise there I’m sure. because Genshin is a very popular mixed sex gacha that consistently tops charts, it’s believed by these men to be the reason why newer gacha games have both male and female characters instead of solely female, and they go so far as to call this effect (among other things) the “genshinification” of gacha games. I think this is important to learn about if you want to understand why a particular demographic of men play these games and why they react in certain ways to specific characters.

this article looks into the male Chinese gacha player phenomenon essentially called something like “Don’t play if there are men”, referring to mixed sex gacha games. It begins by explaining how the “movement” really started speaking out aggressively when Genshin Impact had back to back to back limited male 5-star releases for multiple patches in a row.

you can trudge along with a clunky MTL of the entire thing (I’ve just posted the beginning here) but I’ve found 2 comments in english that speak about this article-

[guzhuangheaven]

I'm rewatching Ruyi, and all I'm thinking is, "Why is Yanwan such a stupid person?"

She is surviving and thriving because of luck most of the time. How is it that her mother murders his child and Hongli thinks that maybe she is not evil because her mother didn't confess Yanwan's part but he spend over a decade hating on Yuyan because of an accessory and her ambitious son.

I feel the writer faltered and could have made her a more subtle and clever villain. Her only becoming a Consort because Hongli wanted to piss of Zhen Huan, I think sucked the most.

See, here’s where I think the writing is genius in terms of human psychology, because it shows just how utterly narcissistic both Qianlong and Yanwan and how much they see themselves in each other. Yanwan panders to Qianlong’s narcissism, so he literally willfully tells himself that a woman he favours can’t be that bad, to the point that he actually believes it. He wants to always forgive Yanwan whenever she pisses him off, because he can’t admit that he likes or gets turned on or whatever by someone so despicable, because what does that say about himself?

In the situation with Yongjing, he would rather believe astrology nonsense that Ruyi’s vibes killed Yongjing than consider there was foul play. He gets so hyped up with the idea of Yongjing being a good omen that when Yongjing dies he feels like he's losing face to ever have hoped so much. Face is a huge deal to a person like Qianlong, he can't deal with losing face like that so he turns it on Ruyi instead. Later he would rather deceive himself that yes somehow Yanwan’s mother can miraculously pull all off this huge feat of paying off midwives and people both inside and outside the palace to endanger Yongjing and frame Hailan in the process, than admit the obvious that she couldn’t possibly have done all of this without Yanwan’s will or involvement. And some people really are just so narcissistic that they would believe these excuses they tell themselves rather than think that they might be wrong.

Yanwan says it very succinctly in the end, he chose her, he raised her up, if she’s horrible, then what is he? That’s why he can’t ever admit to Yanwan’s worst actions until he can’t be in denial anymore, when it’s all shoved into his face in the end.

Yanwan basically spends her entire time as consort failing up because her benefactor (Qianlong) is too narcissistic to admit he was ever wrong and has the ultimate privilege to get away with that mindset. This happens in real life…

Anyway, I think while Qianlong is aware of Yanwan’s ambition from the beginning from the way she approaches him, and he nurtures that ambition to use her as a weapon against the empress dowager and Ruyi at times, he doesn’t see Yuyan (or do you actually mean Luyun and her hairpin?) in the same way. We see the Yuyan’s scheming private moments but I think for Qianlong, she’s just this plaything gift from a tributary state with a sharp tongue, and she is the equivalent of a sexy lamp to him. So he is blindsided when that toy dares have her own goals and uses her son to push her own gains.

If you mean Luyun, I always thought it was a perfect concoction of coincidences that sets up Qianlong’s suspicion of Luyun, from Langhua suddenly recommending Luyun as the next empress on her death bed even though she hasn’t shown any preference for Luyun before, after Qianlong just learnt that Langhua had supposedly done all these evil things, and then Luyun’s hairpin being found at the wrong place, then suddenly Luyun showing desire to compete to be empress that she didn’t have before and both Yongzhang and Yonghuang who were raised by Luyun acting up at Langhua’s funeral. With his tendency for paranoia of course he would be suspicious of her and he can continue to hold a grudge because Luyun isn’t a mirror to him the way Yanwan is.