#SO YOU LEAVE ME WITH NO CHOICE BUT TO ASSUME MISOGYNY

[theguardianace]

me and my six page outline on why women's hockey should be allowed to check, not because i actually think this rule should be changed, but because i'm beyond furious this distinction even exists

[bonefall]

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

[molsno]

hello ^-^

soo i saw one of your posts about transmisogyny which i thought was really well written and articulated, so i wanted to get your opinion on something.

i’ve seen some tme trans(masc) people on here say that treating trans men like “gender traitors” or “siding with The Enemy” is bioessentialist and terf rhetoric, however i see this brought up almost exclusively in response to conversations about tme and/or male privilege. to me it seems like they feel invalidated or vilified by trans women and discussions about transmisogyny, and so they reposition the issue as one which targets and oppresses them so that they can avoid having to confront any privilege they may possess. i also think the way they phrase it purposely obfuscates what they’re really getting at, which is that men are oppressed for being masculine and held up as the ultimate evil (patently untrue). but i don’t really know as much about it as you might and it’s also not my place to decide what is or isn’t transmisogyny as a tme, so i wanted to hear your thoughts.

no pressure to respond and i hope you have a nice day <3

thanks for the well wishes. I'm trying to hold it together today and I figure I may as well answer this to distract myself

anyway yeah, those are some pretty astute observations. to be honest, I have to agree that the "gender traitor" narrative is bioessentialist, which is why it very much is terf rhetoric. in order for trans men to be "gender traitors" or "siding with the enemy", you would have to suppose that they are fundamentally women, and that they chose to be trans in order to escape from misogyny and gain access to male privilege. the basis of this hypothetical relies on the premise that they are female due to some permanent unchangeable characteristic, which is exactly what bioessentialism posits. plus, this narrative relies on the willful depiction of transness as nothing more than a lifestyle choice, which is blatantly transphobic due to the fact that for many trans people, transness manifests independently of any external factors.

(you will find a lot of debate about what makes people trans, and there is a lot of disagreement even among trans people, but I'm not going to get into that right now. just assume that my point is that there is no universal narrative that explains why people are trans and it varies from person to person.)

that being said, I feel it's also important to point out that there's no shortage of transmascs who are terfs or were former terfs. the reason for this is pretty obvious when you think about it for a few seconds: terfs regularly talk about how womanhood is an innately traumatic and miserable experience, and closeted transmascs for whom womanhood IS a traumatic and miserable experience sometimes gravitate toward that community because it makes them feel understood. terfs very much operate like a cult in this way, and you could easily assert that transmascs who become terfs are victims of cult brainwashing. however, my sympathy for them ends the moment I remember that they willingly joined a hate group whose purpose is the extermination of people like me.

and make no mistake! many of these men are still just as transmisogynistic as they were before! even the ones who leave the terf community (which is not all of them) only do so because they often find that they're no longer welcome when they choose to transition, not out of any desire to atone for the violence they've perpetrated against trans women.

so, what are these trans men to do after they've been exiled from the community that validated their existence and gave them a political drive? how can they reconcile the fact that their decision to choose masculinity and manhood has resulted in them feeling ostracized, ridiculed, and isolated? it's simple really: redefine their politics around the premise that men are actually hated in society. this is an easy conclusion for them to come to when they've been living inside an echo chamber where everyone they know DOES hate men.

the problem with that, though, is that in the eyes of a radical feminist, a "man" is a biological category of person, and any critiques you can make about men's behavior can be attributed to a biological cause. terfs don't ACTUALLY hate men, they hate "biological males" - trans women.

and that's very true of these transmasculine "former" terfs as well. they still hold the same bioessentialist views, so they feel vilified whenever they come into contact with the "biological males" they've come to despise so much. most of them don't actually understand any other types of feminism besides radical feminism, so when they encounter trans women reminding them that they have male privilege, they fall back on their bioessentialist beliefs. they're not an evil "biological male", after all, they're a "biological female" who's "ontologically incapable of violence", and a feminist is criticizing them for "siding with the enemy" by "choosing masculinity".

you need to understand that when they do this, it is largely a form of deflection. they resent the radical feminists who discarded them for being trans, and are attempting to distance themselves from the people who hurt them. that's why they're so vehemently anti-feminist. and because they haven't unpacked any of their bioessentialist beliefs, they're able to paint trans women, who deep down they still view as privileged and dangerous biological males, as aggressive and oppressive radical feminists. ultimately, despite whatever conception they have of themselves, they're expressing a form of male entitlement by shutting the conversation down and making everything that terfs do about them, ignoring the fact that the vast, VAST majority of the violence they enact is targeted specifically at trans women. and why wouldn't they? they don't actually care about trans women. they still hate us just as much as they always have, even if they now pay us lip service and (sometimes) use the right pronouns for us.

let me make myself clear: not all transmascs do this. not even a majority! all in all, this kind of story represents a pretty small minority of trans men, but they're very vocal and very visible in the trans community. that's not to say that most transmascs don't hold transmisogynistic views (it's basically impossible to have absolutely none if you're tme), but few of them are this hateful. this story is just one that I've seen played out many times - mostly involuntarily - because I've gotten a lot of these types of guys arguing with me on here and painting me as a radfem for talking about basic feminist tenets such as "men are an oppressor class".

also, as a disclaimer since I don't have time to get into everything: terfs are not a monolith and some terfs welcome trans men into their ranks (though these are an even smaller number of them), this was just one scenario that I hope painted a clear picture of the cause behind this phenomenon you've observed.

I hope this was helpful. if you need more examples, keep an eye on the notes of this post; they'll come crawling in here to argue with me in no time.

[utilitycaster]

Hi, you've mentioned for a few times that people tend to react harder on everything Liam does compared to other male cast members. Why do you think that happens?

This is a good question, and I think genuinely someone could write an entire graduate thesis on fandom and gender, misogyny and backlashes of hate, and I am not the person to do that for a number of reasons. With that said I think there's a couple reasons Liam gets a lot of hate, but I think it's worth noting that literally every cast member gets a pretty significant amount of hate, and that post-Campaign 1 it's honestly been pretty even, from what I've seen, just coming from different quarters.

The first is that, and people who were around while C1 was running feel free to jump in (yes I understand the irony of me, a person who joined the fandom with the start of C2, saying this), but there is a really ahistoric understanding of the fandom in Campaign 1. It's obviously true that there was a ton of misogyny, particularly towards Marisha and Laura (and probably Ashley was spared the worst of it at the time simply by being absent and not out of any respect) but there was also no small amount of homophobia/biphobia (hating on Liam for playing Vax as an openly bi character, hating on Taliesin for being a bi person). There was also, from what I understand, a not-insignificant amount of backlash hate for Vax being bi but choosing to pursue a romantic relationship with Keyleth rather than Gilmore; and people not liking generally that Vax was on the surface the cool fast rogue guy but also was extremely emotional and explored grief and depression in depth.

(I think there's a similarly ahistoric reading that Travis and Sam were the heroes of the dudebro crowd, and to an extent they were, but the downside is, as I said in my post about Marisha, the dudebro crowd of C1 has, thankfully, waned over time, but the backlash towards it hasn't, and so years later people still don't take Travis and Sam's characters seriously and treat them as stupid jokes, despite that never having been the case. Also the dudebros who liked The Player Who Was Asked To Leave have hated Travis from early on, since is feelings on the matter were pretty transparent.)

Moving into Campaign 2, Caleb was quite popular and the "ew, a man having feelings?" crowd was, as mentioned, drifting away, but you got the Marisha Character Defenders who were mad that sometimes characters argued with Beau, or that sometimes people just preferred Caleb to Beau, and you got shippers (largely Beau and Jester shippers) who were furious about Caleb and Jester as a ship. My own feelings aside re: Caleb and Jester and the shippers thereof and their behavior since that ship was sunk, at least they weren't in the habit of harassing cast members over their music choices or sending death threats. A lot of them assumed Fjord was not interested in romance, so Travis was left out of it until pretty late in the campaign, and a lot of them would not admit to being mad at Laura or Marisha, even though they were, ergo: Liam.

The final reason? Liam is on social media and responds to things. I hate to sound like my parents here, but like...Travis and Taliesin get hate on tumblr but also I don't think either of them pay attention or care, so it's not satisfying to people who like being an asshole. Liam actually responds to this stuff (this is not a judgment, I understand the impulse) so people keep doing it. I don't think Liam is actually swayed by the fandom in his gameplay, but I do think he tries to be generous and kind and good faith on social media and so people attempt to take advantage of it. I think Matt is similarly sensitive to the fans but as DM cannot really address all questions/got over it sooner; and Taliesin, Travis, and Sam are all to an extent openly dismissive or oblivious, so while there's some hate it hits a dead end.

[atopvisenyashill]

I'm surprised you're so positive about the Storming of the Dragonpit being faithful to the book; I'm concerned that Condal and Hess will try to inject current USAmerican political discourse into the show more overtly than ever before, and that they will turn the rioting smallfolk into an allegory for the MAGA movement. Instead of granting any legitimacy to the smallfolk's concerns about rising food prices and political instability, the show could dismiss and villainize them, (1/2)

(2/2) centering Rhaenyra and Mysaria's pain as the victims of the uneducated poors. Mysaria is an immigrant, and Rhaenyra is Valyrian and therefore part of a minority group, and I think the writers will decide that their experience as victims is the most valid and important thing to portray onscreen, and push forward a message that "women, immigrants, and minorities made A̶m̶e̶r̶i̶c̶a̶ Westeros great, but everything changed when the cis w̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ Andal men attacked" I think that the writers of HOTD could jump at the chance to portray the Storming of the Dragonpit as an allegory for the 2024 US election, with the Shepherd (portrayed as the voice of racism) ranting about Targaryens being "illegal aliens", and the death of the dragons being shown as a tragedy that plunges Westeros into a dark age, and show a black-and-white version of events where the evil smallfolk rejected good Rhaenyra and Mysaria solely because of misogyny and xenophobia.

A lot to unpack here. I'm going to start off by saying I disagree with pretty much everything here but I'm not answering this in a bitchy way, I'm just explaining why I disagree.

Firstly, I am simply not as down on the show as you seem to be, nor am I in general as down on the show as a lot of people seem to be. In fact, I've gotten increasingly annoyed at what often feels to me as a really disingenuous way of framing the writing choices on the show and assuming the worst of the writers intentions. I think Ryan Condal and Sara Hess are much more similar to someone like Bryan Cogman then they are D&D - they are not using this series as a jumping off point for the career with little care about the themes they are portraying and the story they are telling. Rather they are people who more or less enjoy the series but have their own flawed ways of approaching the complex themes in these books and sometimes opaque plot points portrayed in it. To be really wanky about it, I think D&D were purely in it for the glory while Condal & Hess are like, Genuine Artists™ with some annoying hang ups & opinions (just like my man Bryan Cogman).

Secondly, when it comes to their handling of the show, I think that while Condal & Hess sometimes have an odd way of trying to make HOTD feel more "present", no one but the dumbest of resistlibs on xwitter and bluesky see the recent US election in such black and white terms as "kamala lost due to racism and misogyny exclusively" and in fact there has been considerable push back about how the Dems failed to meet the moment and kneecapped their own campaign to appeal to rich donors rather than appealing to the disaffected working class who wound up either voting but leaving the presidential election blank or not voting at all because they didn't see the point. I'm not saying Condal & Hess are like, straight up left wing populists a la Bernie and AOC, but I do think that a lot of the criticism they get for portraying one side or the other as too "black and white" is really unfounded and unfair. A scenario where the entirety of the Storming and Moon of Madness is portrayed in the way you laid it out just does not track with the way they've written the smallfolk and Rhaenyra & Mysaria's arcs thus far. It's also like, just such a dull and boring take on the US election and I do in fact think that if they decide to do any sort of allegory for the most recent election it won't be as simplistic or obnoxious as a one to one "rhaenyra & mysaria are poor downtrod kamala harris who are rejected purely because of racism and misogyny."

I’m speaking more generally here now, but en specific the way people talk about how they've portrayed the smallfolk is obnoxious to the point of purposefully missing the point. I think that’s actually the area they’ve consistently excelled at! Mysaria has so far been portrayed with a lot of complexity & intelligence, a pretty fair look into a woman who is lowborn but has ambition, regardless of Sonoya tripping around the accent & some silliness in her dialogue. The scene with Alicent & Dyana is genuinely masterful, and the fact that we see Dyana being sexually harassed at her new place of employment and just trying to ignore the way her life has been upended emotionally has so far been excellent - pretty important here that everyone was dooming about how Dyana was going to let Blood & Cheese in to kill Jaehaerys and portray it as A Good Thing and then Dyana wasn’t even there & Daemon got dragged six ways to sunday for being a goofy ass idiot. I’ve seen people bitch about Baelon maybe being Ulf’s father and Saera likely being Hugh’s mother and how much narrative time they took up and I find this complaint incredibly annoying to the point of blocking people over it. How dare the writers, in a time period of asoiaf that explicitly shows us how the smallfolk are jerked around by the rich playing at their politics, focus in on how the smallfolk are jerked around by the rich who are playing at politics. Boo fucking hoo. I think it's silly to act like they haven't been consistently doing something when it comes to the way they've portrayed the smallfolk. Everything from Alicent forcing the moon tea on Dyana, to Alyn full throatedly rejecting Corlys, to portraying the rioters as scary but still very right because they are starving & their lives are thrown away as easily as garbage, to Rhaenyra standing there and doing nothing while like two dozen dragonseeds are burned to death has been excellent and purposeful. The one (1) place they've erred is with Nettles and that's exactly what I'm worried about with the Moon of Madness - that like Nettles, it'll be seen as extraneous and simply be cut.

Now when it comes to the actual Storming and the Moon of Madness - Mysaria's experience as a victim of misogyny and xenophobia should be portrayed as being wrong. There is a reason why she is stripped naked before being whipped through the streets while others are simply ripped to the death by the crowd and it's obviously and objectively because she is a woman, low class, and foreign born. It's exactly why Tytos' mistress is put on a walk of atonement and why Serala of Myr has her tongue torn out and her genitalia mutilated before being burned alive. If Mysaria's death at the hands of Ser Perkin the Flea is portrayed as anything less than vile and wholly unnecessary, that's a failure on the part of the writers, and if anyone is trying to say that Mysaria's death isn't violently gendered and due to her foreign-ness and class, that is a failure on the part of that person to grasp basic themes of the series. I think it is important that the lower classes are portrayed not as like, the class version of the noble savage, a people who are without fault and suffer prettily and in uncomplicated ways, and Mysaria's death is part of making sure the lower class are portrayed as living beings with their own faults.

When it comes to the Shepherd it's like - there's a very good chance he (and Perkin) are working with or being manipulated by Larys and they're obviously going to dig into that but taking a more complicated view of Perkin and the Shepherd (something that is hinted at in the books) is not an inherently bad thing nor does it undercut the themes associated with the Storming. It's also just very hard to portray the entire thing as some sort of Jan 6 allegory when Sylvenna is a Dornish lesbian and Trystane tries to one-up her progressive reforms by out-progressing her.

tldr I think the smallfolk have consistently been portrayed with more juice and depth than a really goofy one to one "they're evil racists and misogynists who are going to commit genocide against the valyrians by murdering their dragons due to their xenophobia" allegory - that's like, targnation bs take on the dance and whatever their faults, condal & hess are writing a more complicated story than that. what i am most worried about is that the moon of madness will be cut completely just like nettles, rather than some sort of obnoxious and overdone maga allegory.

[thoughts-of-a-young-woman]

Ms.? Mrs.? Dr.? Um, Can you Just Leave me Alone? The misogynistic nature of the MRS degree, exceptionalism and chronic burnout in capitalism

While P. and I sat comfortably in our dorm room, looking to wind down for the evening like an old married couple. Evie decided now was the best time to have us listen to her talk about all the horrible things that her roommate’s boyfriend said. As we listened on and on, being from somewhere where people weren’t afraid to show you how they felt, I couldn’t help but think. “Wow, this guy’s a total shit, I would totally punch him in the neck if people weren’t so soft in Canada.” but one thing stood out to me while Evie went on her long tirade that my P. and I had the moderate displeasure to listen to. “Journalism? Isn’t that an MRS degree?” Not only did it make P. and I’s jaw drop right to the floor. First of all, who says that to their girlfriend? Secondly, what does that say about how he sees her? And finally, what does the concept of the MRS degree really say about us as a society? While it’s easy to just claim that the idea of an MRS degree is inherently misogynistic and is used to undermine women’s achievements and choices. I also got to thinking, how does the MRS degree accusation on women contribute to the strive for perfectionism, exceptionalism and chronic female burn out?

After Evie eventually tired herself out ranting and we said our goodbyes, I got to thinking. While the textbook definition of an MRS degree meant someone who went to university for the sole purpose of finding their forever man, what did it mean for someone to be accused of it? While her roommate definitely had goals to be in the journalism world, what did it mean for how people, even her own boyfriend, perceived her? Many people feel the pressure of university life, that much is true, but what of the added pressure of having to prove yourself to be worthy of a seat within the workforce and academia? To prove that your journalism or art history degree was more than just a “poorly veiled attempt to tap into the goldmine of bachelors” that is university, that we are, in other words. Exceptional. 

Every woman I know is no stranger to people, especially men, undermining our efforts, achievements or successes, attributed to chance, luck, or simply “pretty privilege”. And it’s only human nature to want to “Elle Woods” your way to prove them wrong. But I beg the question, why do we have to work twice as hard as a man, just to get half of the recognition that he gets? In layman's terms, why do we make 80 cents to the dollar, even metaphorically? While for the last decade and more, feminists have been echoing the sentiment that society view’s women and their works as less, what does that say about the response that is the “girlboss” mentality. I argue that the “girlboss” mentality gives way for further exploitation of women and further ideas of misogyny, but not for the reason white feminists attribute it to. It’s the very idea of a woman that is “unexceptional” and deemed not smart enough to be attributed to anything but, well, an “Mrs.”. In academia, especially in the arts, it’s this strive to always be the smartest one with a 4.0 GPA, just to not be assumed to be taking an MRS. degree. But, like many other girls that I know who are in the arts, or even not, have long lamented to me about the burnout of chasing this impossible ideal. To be “exceptional”, “special” in the eyes of society, desirable in man, yet still not being the competition and othered by your fellow sisters. This makes women in the workforce easier to exploit for longer hours with not only lower pay but the exploitation for an increasingly higher drive to “break the glass ceiling” to even just be seen as equal. 

If men can often be given a pass for mediocrity and may even be applauded for it, why can’t women be given the same slack for just being “ok”? Again, capitalism, easily drilling into our heads the idea that we live to work while misogyny tells us that we are not equal, and will only be given the hopes to be only if we can out-do the man. But not by too much. 

In a post-covid-19 era, where capitalism exhaustion is on the rise (hint: the murder of Brian Thompson and the subsequent collective sympathy for Luigi Mangione), it’s no wonder women around the world are sick of climbing the corporate ladder for the off chance of being viewed and valued as an equal to man. Not only that, female students like me are sick of working ourselves to the bone to avoid accusations of getting an MRS degree, while knowing that in doing so, legitimizes the concept of the MRS. degree. While refusing to do so, one could fall victim to the one thing we sought to dismantle. 

As I sit at my dorm, finishing up packing for the winter break with my roommate, I dread the coming of the winter semester after knowing just how exhausting the first semester was. But there is nothing else to do now, but to finish up this article and continue to ponder. 

XOXO, Thoughts of a Young Woman

Author's Note! I know I know, ideas seem a little half-baked this time, but for context I wrote this before finals season and was spiraling a little bit teehee! (we all have our moments, please be forgiving) regardless, I'm glad to finally end my first semester in uni, I'd say I'm managing quite well. I'm aiming a little higher next semester and I'm trying to keep positive! so I hope everything will work out just fine!

[salora-rainriver]

Deconstructing the Redpill Romantic Ideology #1: Replika is not worthy competition

(i dont actually know if thisll be a series but what i do know is i have essay-level thoughts about a specific brand of redpiller and their hot takes on how romance works and a gang of professional snarkers started begging me to make a blog, which made me realize I already have a blog)

you've seen takes like these and you probably don't need an essay to understand why it's deeply silly.

However, I'm not satisfied with saying "this is deeply silly" and leaving it at that, because the degree and level to which it is deeply silly and yet is a position sincerely held by multiple otherwise probably-fairly-educated-and-intelligent-humans indicates how much a very narrow view of human sexuality has embedded itself inside the human psyche, because takes like these are not only wrong, the mere premise they're built on is utterly fallacious.

so let's explore that premise!

On the surface it's a very simple argument:

AI is getting smarter, robots are getting more realistic, sex work is the oldest profession, and it can be automated. If a robot is a more ideal partner than a human woman, then men will choose the robots over human women, and without these man/woman partnerships, society will collapse and the birth rate will plummet.

but if we dig deeper into this argument, there's a few more premises here than are explicitly stated. you might THINK this is a simple argument because explicit and clearly-stated premises like "AI is getting smarter" and "sex work can be automated" are actually not fallacious. that makes sense, but here's the problem:

"If a robot is a more ideal partner than a human woman, then men will choose the robots over human women"

"without these man/woman partnerships, society will collapse and the birth rate will plummet."

these two statements are assuming a LOT. I don't care to talk about birth rates and reproduction (BLEH), so let's focus on what that first one is assuming to be true. I'll lay it out right now. If what the doomsayers claim is true, and the advent of deeply realistic sex robots and girlfriend AIs will lead men to choose sex robots and girlfriend AIs over women, then the following must also be true:

a) the only romantic or sexual competition women have at the moment is other women b) the sexual desire of women is either totally absent, or irrelevant to this issue c) when someone chooses a partner, they will only choose one d) human beings are perfectly capable of assessing who would be an ideal partner for them e) human beings actively choose who to be sexually and romantically attracted to, and they always make this decision after a careful analysis of every option in front of them. f) men want perfect partners g) companionship and sex are the primary benefits to having a romantic partner, and "companionship" can be replicated with a machine that engages in private one-on-one conversations.

and believe me when I tell you NONE OF THIS IS UNIVERSALLY TRUE.

actually you don't even need to just take my word for it, bcs this is a deranged rant and I'm gonna break it all down. because the level of which these people don't understand is fascinating and I feel like it demonstrated the power of this heteronormative mind trap that most of the world is somehow still caught in!

---------

a) the sexual desire of women is either totally absent, or irrelevant to this issue

this is, I think, the most obvious issue with the premise that people will notice. "hey, women are horny too?" and i think most people also see how this demonstrates the background radiation of blatant misogyny that's constantly permeating these arguments. Bcs come the fuck on, do you not think women are people, or something? they have choices too, they don't just accept shit. they could also replace men with robots if they wanted to.

"okay but this doesn't change anything. you've just demonstrated that the robot threat is still present, it's just working both ways" yeah no, fair enough! But now let's talk about...

b) the only romantic or sexual competition women have at the moment is other women (for the non-gendered version of this, swap out "women" for "people")

this is utterly laughable.

women are most certainly not the only romantic competition of other women. For starters, this assumes exclusive heterosexuality, and gay people exist. bi people exist. sometimes a woman's competition is a man, sometimes a man's competition is a woman. If we start talking about nonbinary people, we're gonna be here forever.

some are ace and don't have romantic or sexual competition at all, because they don't even want to compete!

But of course you could argue that queer people are a minority so this statement still stands for the vast majority of people. even if it didn't, we're still looking at a situation where the only romantic and sexual competition people have is other people.

and uh,

no.

come on, we're on the internet. here's a short list of things that have at least slightly substituted for romantic and sexual contact for like, MOST people:

fictional characters, sex toys, pornography, sex workers, dating sims, self-insert fanfiction, and unhealthy parasocial crushes on celebrities.

there's also other secondary benefits to having a partner that can be readily substituted with things that aren't romantic or sexual, such as:

really close friendships, pets, dolls, plushies, plants, virtual pets, more parasocial relationships, and family members.

there's a lot of fucking competition out there when it comes to something assessing whether or not they actually need your services as a romantic partner. Shockingly, this has not destroyed society, and the institution of marriage has not been systematically dismantled by beatlemania, Sasuke Uchiha, playboy magazine, strip clubs, BDSM clubs, the concept of a 'waifu', the entire romance novel industry, self-insert fanfiction, queerplatonic partnerships, glory holes, cat ladies, plant mamas, HuniePop, adults with stuffed animal collections, RealDolls, or your really sweet grandma who's always there for you.

so forgive me if I'm skeptical of the idea that a realistic ai-powered sex doll is going to take the dating world by storm, because this is already a hotly competitive field where many niches have already been filled. What can this sexbot offer that isn't just a slight improvement to the girlfriend-replacers already on the market? seriously.

but also, the entire concept of conceiving of the process of human mate selection like a marketplace is full of problematic assumptions. for starters...

c) when someone chooses a partner, they will only choose one

"not everyone's polyamorous, gaby" THIS ISN'T ABOUT POLYAMORY, HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED THE LEVEL OF INFIDELITY THAT HAPPENS IN NORMAL SOCIETY WITH NORMAL PEOPLE?

people get hella greedy. Even if we take the most stereotypical average guy and put him in this hypothetical situation where he's picking between perfect robot and imperfect human woman, why are we assuming he won't fuck them both? let's not be fucking naiive.

honestly, given how men and women treat their fictional crushes when they simultaneously have actual real life partners, even a faithful monogamous man will probably consider the sex doll with the same level of romantic commitment as his gf considers her vibrator: "eh, when the bae isn't around".

and while we're deconstructing the perception of human mate-selection as a marketplace of romance, let's talk about the classic problem of idealized market economics:

d) human beings are perfectly capable of assessing who would be an ideal partner for them

most folks get easily tricked into buying inferior products, so why are we so confident in the assertion that people will actually understand what an ideal romantic partner looks like? also consider how little information we tend to have on the "product" we are "buying".

people fall for abusive relationships much like they fall for scams: they're ill-informed on both the product and their best interests, they're subjected to manipulative communication strategies, their judgement may be impaired by internal or external sources, and then they're pressured into hasty decisions.

and unless sexbot companies get really fucking aggressive with their marketing, I'm not sure they'll be able to compete with your average toxic person.

"but Gaby, that's a really dystopian situation you're describing. in fact, it's more dystopian than what the sexbot doomsayers are predicting" YES, IT IS! in fact, if this was the only flaw of the premise, I would actively be speaking out against the development of sexbots, specifically because I'm aware of how insidious marketing is at convincing you that an inferior product is top of the line. honestly the fact that you're not considering the factor of deception and abuse in this situation shows that you need to get back to the books and get a better perspective on what human romance and sexuality truly entails beyond idealized formulaic scenarios.

but also... there's a way more fundamental assumption we're making with all of this:

e) human beings actively choose who to be sexually and romantically attracted to, and they always make this decision after a careful analysis of every option in front of them.

the more you think about this one, the more baffling it is.

Read that sentence again. visualize what it's describing. does that feel true to you? does that look like human behavior? does that at all align with what you've seen happening in the world?

Do I... really need to explain to you that people very rarely choose to fall in love, that love is sudden, seemingly arbitrary, illogical, subjected to raw whim, and scarcely understood? You... you already know that.

You've grown up reading this, watching this, hearing about this, feeling it. You know that the decision to love someone isn't

so... how exactly can the world of human romance ever be even remotely like a marketplace? the analogy is completely broken at even the most basic level, so why do we cling to it? has our market-based economy completely infected our minds?

You could use this perfect idealized robot as your replacement girlfriend for your entire life, but never love her, because she's not actually a person, and then you look at a new friend and you realize you *want* her. Not someone like her, not someone as good or better than her, just *her*.

Superior competition can't kill love, because love doesn't understand the meaning of 'superior'.

f) men want perfect partners

Breaking this down would just copy a bunch of what I talked about in the previous section, but I'd like to discuss where logical decisions do factor into mate decision, when immediate and obvious feelings of love aren't present, and the person is forced to consider the pros and cons of a partnership with... i guess you could say 'logic'.

let's face it, lots of people find perfection boring. Humans will actively seek out flawed partners for lots of reasons.

Sometimes they don't feel like it's a flaw. I for one think that blemishes, spots, and wrinkles are beautiful in their own way. It's fun for me to draw those sorts of faces, because it's more difficult to properly capture than the idealized smoothed-out doll face, and I love looking at them, because there can be so much detail and expression. even at their most perfectly gorgeous and realistic, I'd probably find the sex doll butt-ugly.

Some people are into the flaws on a level higher than I am, even. there's a kink for everything, and if you're here, you're probably aware of chubby chasers, hybristophiliacs, monsterfuckers, and whoever the fuck is the target audience for the yandere archetype. I don't think a sanitized sex doll will appeal to them.

Some look at a broken person and want to fix them, to care for them.

... Some look for broken people because they're easier to manipulate and turn loyal.

and all of that, of course, could hypothetically be accounted by the sex doll manufacturers. older-woman-with-cellulite doll. big nose doll. yandere doll. abuse survivor doll. maybe in the sex doll dystopia, there's a doll for everyone.

... the problem is that companies are lazy. and cowardly. if a type of appeal is too niche, no one will want to make it. these dolls are going to take a lot of work and money to produce. think about the videogame industry. lots of people with lots of different personal tastes. and it's a huge industry catering to all of those tastes... but most really big, really expensive games are middle of the road "safe" options, designed to appeal to as many as possible.

and now let's remember how poorly business executives can understand the desires of their target audience.

you're not gonna get your perfect partner. you're gonna get a bland idea of a "perfect partner" for "everyone", and she's gonna be boring. all the interesting sex bots will be low-budget and less realistic.

g) companionship and sex are the primary benefits to having a romantic partner

... and there's gonna be some things a robot and ai could never give you.

for starters, an AI can't touch you. lots of humans want a partner for the simple reason that they're touch-starved. I've heard predictions that the sexbots of the future will have realistic and warm human touch, but I do wonder how feasible that will truly be ...and there's something psychological about being touch-starved, too. People have created soft things to simulate the warmth and pressure of human touch, and I've tried some of those, and the thing is, even knowing there's not a real human makes the feeling different. no matter how realistic the sexbot is, you're gonna know she's not real.

and... some humans want children. again, someone may argue you could create a false robotic child very easily, but again, you would know that's just a doll.

and sometimes the people who want a partner are looking for someone to not just emotionally, but materially support them. Sexbots cannot do labor. they can't pay the bills. they can't cook. they can't clean. At best, maybe it'll be a virtual secretary you can fuck, but it's not exactly sound groundbreaking to put SIRI and a girlfriend AI into a blow-up doll, now does it?

and maybe you've forgotten... we're all in a society. Some people look for a partner solely because they want the status of not being single. the status of getting laid. the status of 'bagging' a girl. the status of having physical proof that you're desirable.

a fake girlfriend is never going to give you that, no matter how realistic she is.

----

and all of that's just... obvious, isn't it? I mean, normally I'd do heavy research if I wanted to deconstruct a widespread idea, but here, that'd be excessive. What, I'm supposed to prove with empirical data that love is irrational? that people get into relationships just to seek social status, financial stability, or a live-in maid you can fuck? that people want children, real children and not just dolls of children? that abusers seek out the vulnerable? that some people want to fuck Jason Voorhees? that men sometimes cheat on their gfs because they just wanted to bang another woman? that human beings aren't perfectly rational buyers? that gay people exist and women get horny?

This is... all common knowledge. So why does this bizarre view of the world of dating, sex, and romance as some sort of marketplace of perfect rational customers even exist? what sort of brainworm has captured our society to such an extent that we've all accepted this viewpoint as a valid take? why have so many fallen for it?

I suppose the easy explanation is "these men just hate women. they've never loved a woman and they don't know what it's like, so they imagine it'd be the same as what they feel when jacking off to their favorite porn," but that doesn't...

surely there isn't an epidemic of straight men who've never fallen in love. and even if there was, surely they've seen other straight men falling in love. and if they haven't... why not?

or do they think it's all a lie, that such kinds of love only happen in movies and books? are they lonely in other ways, no friends, no acquaintances, no casual parties or people-watching or talking about others with a coworker or neighbor? how deep is the bubble they're in to have them never encounter even one of the things I've discussed above, or at the least to never consider the implications of them as embodied refutations of this deeply cynical view of human relationships?

is it just that you don't care what women want, or you don't think their desires would ever produce realistic male sexbots for whatever reason?

do you think that all the porn and waifus in the world haven't cured your loneliness so you're not sure why they'd ever be in competition with real women?

or conversely, you're fully aware that they're competing with women, you think they're superior to women in every way, and you just see sexbots as the next step towards the impending obsolescence of women?

do you comprehend perfectly the notion of infidelity and non-monogamous coupling, but simply envision that no reasonable guy would want to cheat on Replika with a real woman?

do you see the fallibility of human rationality as irrelevant... or alternately, that these AI girlfriends offer a security that real women cannot give, because the AI will never surprise you?

have you never experienced a sudden and irrational desire for a very specific person, not someone like them, but only them, and you think the people who claim to have felt this are lying?

do you think the men who fall for and desire the imperfect are either lying or fundamentally broken? same for the men who want a woman capable of supporting them financially?

is the concept of wanting to care for another human being on an intimate level, just for the sake of seeing them become happier and healthier, an innately alien concept to you?

do you think yourself so deeply in the trenches of social status that you've come to spite the entire concept of it, resigned yourself to a life of being intensely undesirable, and thus how could you ever get better than this facsimile... and yet you still think your departure from the dating pool will be missed by those who've never wanted you?

have you just been holding mutually exclusive beliefs in your head this entire time, and simply never had the moment to stop, look at yourself, and realize this?

What else has broken in your mind, that you think a corporate product in the shape of a sex object will absolve you of any need for human connection?

and.... do you think we're all like that?

[ts1989fanatic]

A man has declared Taylor Swift a bad role model. Why? Because she's unmarried and childless

A misogynistic Newsweek piece about Taylor Swift’s unwholesomeness has been doing the rounds on social media. It’s dangerous, offensive and outdated, says Claire Cohen

Is Newsweek ok? The magazine has just published an article explaining why ‘Taylor Swift is not a good role model’, the argument for which boils down to — and this is a direct quote — the fact that “at 34, Swift remains unmarried and childless.” A spinster, if you will.

Excuse me, while I just reset my phone calendar from 2024 to 1954.

The article was written by a man — those famous experts on good female role models — who argues that, having dated “at least a dozen men”, the singer isn’t “wholesome” enough to set an example. Basically, she’s a slut. I haven’t checked yet, but I assume there’s also a free chastity belt with every issue,

“While Swift's musical talent and business acumen are certainly admirable, even laudable, we must ask if her personal life choices are ones we want our sisters and daughters to emulate,” writes John Mac Ghlionn, which astonishingly is not a pseudonym used by Andrew Tate. Phew. Thank goodness someone has finally said it. After all, what sane person would want their daughter or sister to be a strong, wildly successful, independent woman who doesn’t feel any pressure to have married by 34? Who has donated enough money to UK foodbanks to cover their bills for an entire year? Heaven forbid!

As role models go (and being on a pedestal is a tough gig) she's blazing a trail: standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, taking a man who groped her to court and winning, boycotting Apple Music until it agreed to pay royalties to all artists during the platform's trial period, refusing to be controlled by re-recording her own albums when she was refused to chance to buy the rights herself, speaking honestly about her eating disorder, condemning bullying, admitting she's been as insecure about female friendship as the rest of us. If that can't be filed under "wholesome", what can?

“This is not an attack on Swift; it's a valid question that is worth asking,” continues the self-appointed arbiter of women’s behaviour (funny how it’s always men who leap to take on that role). “This cycle of brief, intense relationships can unintentionally glamorise a type of romantic promiscuity where partners can be replaced as easily as toilet paper.”

Which, funnily enough, is exactly how I’d like to use this outdated, offensive piece of so-called journalism.

It positions a woman’s worth in terms of her duty towards men and sends us back to an era in which we were little more than walking wombs

Some have called it desperate. I’d say dangerous. To claim that Swift’s power as a role model is diminished by those mediaeval metrics is pure misogyny. It positions a woman’s worth in terms of her duty towards men and sends us back to an era in which we were little more than walking wombs.

All together now: under his eye.

To claim that Swift’s power as a role model is diminished by those mediaeval metrics is pure misogyny

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that we’re still living in an era in which men are able to publicly chastise women for not being chained to the kitchen. After all, it was only in May that NFL player Harrison Butker gave his charming speech, to a room filled with female graduates, telling them to embrace being ‘homemakers’ and that being a mother was their most important role. Leave earning money to the man, there’s a good girl.

As a harpy who dared to have several different boyfriends in her 20 and 30s, and was “unmarried and childless” at 34, I’m nonetheless going to go out on a limb and say that domestic bliss isn’t the sole happily-ever-after we should be selling young women. And it is something that women specifically are told they should aspire to. Perhaps I’m wide off the mark, and Newsweek is at this very moment lining up an article on why Harry Styles is a terrible role model to young boys for exactly those reasons. But, somehow, I can’t quite see it.

IS HARRY STYLES ALSO A BAD ROLE MODEL BECAUSE HE’S UNMARRIED AND CHILDLESS?

And no doubt if Swift was married with children, she’d be criticised for leaving her family at home while she selfishly went on tour and accused of emasculating her husband by being the breadwinner.

The whole thing is from the same playbook that belittles Swift’s fans as though they’re in the grip of some Victorian hysteria; irrational and shallow. Liking her music is looked down on by those who consider themselves arbiters of what’s culturally ‘good enough’, in the same way as romantic literature by women is written-off as mere ‘chick lit’. It’s misogyny hiding behind having ‘good taste’, just as the Newsweek article is misogyny masquerading concern for the loss of some old-fashioned moral code.

Look, I’m sure Taylor isn’t exactly weeping over this drivel while counting the billion dollars she’s made from the Eras tour. But she and her fans deserve better than this retrograde rubbish. Because I can’t think of anything more “wholesome” than bringing together thousands of women and girls every night, united in joy, to sing songs about not settling for a life that makes you unhappy.

Taylor Swift not a good role model? She’s a bloody great one.

[peachymilkandcream]

Please, Levi strapping her to a breeding bench and turning her into his mindless, fucked out, cum dump please.

Levi x Evelyn -> You Think You Have A Choice?

(A/N: Bold of you to assume that she isn't always his cum dump XD Also this will be a slight spoiler for chapter 12 of Break me Slowly so read that first! I'm loving you all are giving me such unique and not vanilla requests. Just a heads up to future asks, any asks submitted later today won't be written until Sunday because tonight and Saturday I'll be gone all day. Feel free to continue to request you'll just have to wait a hot minute for me to fulfill them. Thanks!)

WARNINGS: noncon, dubcon, manipulation, domestic abuse, yandere themes, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, stockholm syndrome, violence, mind breaking, misogyny, etc.

=============================================

After Levi had discovered the contraceptives his "darling wife" had been keeping from him he was determined to make her suffer for it. She was not allowed to leave the room until he was convinced she was pregnant. She had gone back to her stubborn ways of fighting him, no longer protected by the net of birth control she fought tooth and nail to keep him at bay. While he had no issue pinning her down, the last thing he wanted was the stress to get to him and keep her from getting pregnant, or heaven forbid she waste any of his precious cum.

Which is what led him to now, built by his own two hands. Comfortable enough that she could be there for a long time without causing too much injury that could get infected. This was mostly about humiliation, she was his wife, sure, but in reality nothing more than his property and personal baby machine. It wasn't so pretty when he worded it like that, but it was the truth of the matter.

Gracious as ever, he had let her out of the bed to go to the bathroom, but he had taken the door off the hinges to watch her at all times while setting this up. He almost thought it was gift, this would get her pregnant quicker and keep his wrath at bay. He was doing her a favour.

When she came out of the bathroom her face was not filled with gratitude, but with fear. Automatically she started to back up, as if he hadn't seen her or she could escape what happened next.

"No you don't." He chased after her, at first pulling at her arm.

"Don't Levi-"

"You can sit there willingly or I can make you. You pick."

"Is that really any choice!?"

"You think you have a choice? Your choice was when you took those damn pills. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes my dear."

"If you hadn't forced me to-"

She's cut off by his hand to her cheek, his wedding band biting into her skin. "Don't. Finish that sentence. Now do as you're told."

She looks at him with teary eyes and shakes her head.

"No? Okay." He simply lifts her over his shoulder, bringing her kicking and flailing. Setting her down and using his upper body strength to keep her still while he strapped her in.

Evelyn fought and tried to move in anyway but with how tightly he had strapped her down she couldn't move an inch, and with her back turned to him she couldn't see how close he was getting to entrance until he shoved it all the way in. Making her groan and pull at her restraints. She was so sore from how much he had abused her pussy that now it was becoming torture.

It hurt as he pounded away at her until she was almost weeping, even she knew it was her own stupid fault that she was like this. She was stupid to have those pills, stupid to think she could get away with it for much longer.

=============================================

She couldn't even count how many times he came inside her, the last time he pulled out her gaping hole audibly dripped onto the floor. By now she had just gotten used to taking it, moaning without shame. Even though she was sore and hurt something about being used made her enjoy every minute of it. And so full of him. Her mind flashes to Petra, wishing she could see her right now and know the only person Levi took any interest in.

"Ready to go again pet?" He slaps her ass, already red with handprints.

"Yes Levi-" She someone manages.

He slides in again, continuing with the same rough pace as normal, taking what belonged to him. She was slick with cum and arousal, her pussy twitching, trying to push him out and give her a break. But he was more determined. His fingers rubbed her clit, making her squirt on his fingers again. She was just a ragged mess, eyes rolled back as she took everything from him.

However her cunt was so worn it wasn't as tight, so for good measure he shoved his cum covered cock into her ass, making her clench. Here she was much tighter, her body tried to force him out, but that had never stopped him before. He continued until he was close, before pulling out suddenly and diving back into her pussy and filling her once again, cum squirting out around his dick. Maybe now she'd learn her lesson.

[issie-https]

𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 - 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐓

𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏.

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝑲𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏.

𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔: 1029

𝑨/𝒏: 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔! 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 2 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 - 𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓

I could feel something or someone watching my every move. Every breath, every blink, every thought even — everything I did was being watched. Maybe I was going insane? Surely no one was watching me, its not a normal thing to do in todays society — stalking and staring was frowned upon. I told the voices in my head to shut up and continued stocking the shelves at the small store I worked at. I had death metal was playing in my headphones, quietly enough so I could hear if anyone was asking for help but loud enough so the low hum of the air-conditioning was drowned out.

I heard the quiet noise of the hinges on the door creak, signaling to me that someone had entered the shop. I assumed it was just another skateboarding, monster drinking teenager wanting to ogle at the newest hip hop album. Couldn't blame them though, I do like Eminem's music but if we're being honest, metal and rock music owns my heart. I was quickly pulled out of my head by someone saying, "Excuse me,".

"Hello, can I help?" I asked, pausing my music. "I was just wondering if you could help me find the metal records?" he asked. His eyes we're gorgeous, a captivating shade of blue. "Of course, any specific genre of metal?" I asked. "Heavy metal," he replied. "Good choice," I said, "it's all in this section here, as well as that shelf there". "Cool, thanks," he grinned.

I sat on the spinning chair behind the counter, changing the cd over to Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album and skipping to track 3. The sweet sounds of Kurt's voice filled the store as I hummed along to the lyrics and bounced my knee to Dave's drumming. The same guy came up to the sticker-covered counter and placed a Deftones vinyl on it, "Just this,". I picked up the record and scanned the label, "Sophisticated taste," I said. "Says you. Nirvana is a great choice," he replied. "Thank my dad for that part of my music taste," I said, "Your total is twelve bucks,". He handed me the money as I slid the vinyl over to him. "In that case, my compliments to your dad," he smiled before leaving the shop.

I sat there after, picking at some of the older stickers that needed replacing as the image was almost completely faded and the edges were sticky, dirty and coming up.

I went through the rest of my day, a handful more customers came and went, some buying Britney Spears, some buying HIM and others buying 50 Cent. I couldn't get that one guy off my mind. He was literally perfect, black hair with red streaks, blue eyes, an amazing smile and killer music taste. A guy like that is hard to find nowadays, most of them have short, slicked back hair and only listen to songs based around misogyny. I should've asked for his fucking number. Idiot.

Its rare we get someone that likes heavy metal come into the shop. So that one person that comes in and buys a metal album always makes me smile. I had been raised on metal and rock music, my mum being into Guns N Roses, AC/DC and KISS while my dad was into Nirvana, Green Day and Blink-182.

I had also always been fascinated by the rock/metal culture, the music being loud and deafening while also serenading my ears. Metalheads as a group also peaking my interest, other people thinking that we're freaks or Satan worshipers when in reality, we just need an escape from reality. Metal and Rock music is our home, comforting on a bad day and making us smile on a good day — bringing people of all kinds together.

༺✧༻

As the time reached 6:45pm, it was time to close the shop. However, five minuets before I left that same feeling that someone was watching me took over again — it sent chills down my spine, causing goosebumps to rise onto the surface of my skin. I, as usual, brushed it off and locked the store, closing the shutters and went straight to my car. A black van was parked two spaces away from mine, death metal blasting from the slightly parted windows.

I listened to KoRn the whole way home, my vocals sounding butchered as I did my best John Davis impression. I'm sure that if anyone was to hear me, they'd think I sound like a cat being strangled.

I got back to my small house and immediately kicked off my shoes, the blisters from the harsh leather already stinging on the surface of my skin. I noticed the light on my back porch was on, making me mumble to myself, 'fucking cats'. I don't hate cats but they annoy me when they shit and piss on my garden. I shoved my frozen pizza into the oven and grabbed a beer out the fridge. I clicked the television on and put on a random movie on MTV.

I did my regular night routine; get home, eat dinner, drink a beer or two, watch crap on tv, get into my pyjamas and fall asleep on my couch. I could feel myself get taken away by sleep, off to a different world — a better world, mentally satisfying my every need. That was until I heard the front door unlock. Someone was breaking in, just my fucking luck. I grabbed the nearest heavy object which just so happened to be a shoe from my pair of Doc Martins. "Who's there?!" I yelled. I tried to keep my voice strong but my nervous tone seemed to slip through. I could hear a series of hushed words, something like 'I told you she wasn't fully asleep'.

The last thing I could remember was some kind of smoke filling the air as my lungs felt like they were getting tight inside my ribcage, suffocating me as I struggled to keep consciousness. My eye lids felt heavy, straining as they fought against falling asleep. The last thing I saw was four men standing around me in funky looking masks. Great. This is how I die.

[astral-from-afar]

Disclaimer: This is all in good fun and was mostly inspired by the upcoming jjk poll. Will not tag this in jjk as I am not here currently to start fighting people.

Ok the latest poll got me thinking about what characters were on that list last time. So this is basically me side eyeing everyone for their choices last year

Megumi - I get it. Megumi’s pretty cool. Took me a while to get to that point but I’ve accepted this man’s popularity and I just go along with it. Really don’t have anything else to say about him.

Gojo - Can’t believe he was still in the box during this. You can tell how strong the Gojo fans are because he has not been seen in action for YEARS yet you’re still voting for him. Props to you I guess. Good luck beating Gege and getting him 1st in the next poll

Yuji - Ok my boy was not fighting in the TRENCHES to become 3rd in his own series. Yes he should have gotten 1st yes I will stand by that until the day I die and yes I still can’t believe he got outdone by a guy in a box.

Geto - I know you’re all coping bc of his death with him being in top 5 and honestly me too. Gege still won’t let this poor man rest so you won’t let the anyone else in the fandom rest as a consequence. Don’t expect him to be in top 5 again but who knows.

Nanami - Overtime sorcerer SUPREMACY. I best see him here again because he does not miss. Nanami fans are the real ones so I’m not dragging on him.

Inumaki - Salmon Salmon. For a man who also hasn’t been seen in 2 years he did pretty well all things considered. I’m still waiting for him to show up so until then you go Inumaki fans.

Choso - Ok I’m just salty here but you lot really put HIM here on the top 10. How much screen time did this man really have. He did not deserve to be placed that high and if I see him being placed higher than Yuki then we know it’s on sight. He’s great and all but really? Just really?

Yuta - As a resident Yuta has never done anything wrong, I am disappointed in all of you. Did vol 0 mean nothing? Was his interactions with Yuji nothing to all of you. To the point of Choso overtaking him. Smh

Toji - I’m going to assume it’s the horny and leave. You did not drag the no child support, fugly grey sweatpants, boring ass guy into the top 10. Just admit that he’s hot and take your leave. Ok being fair he was a good antagonist during the hidden Inventory arc but istg if I hear more Toji stuff we are not going to see me again.

Naoya - OK LISTEN UP HERE EVERYBODY. HOW MANY PANELS DID THIS FUCKER HAVE. WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE HELL DID HE DO IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE MANGA OTHER THAN BEING COOKED BY MAKI. IM WAITING. This just feels like fandom misogyny as the next two people are in the manga for 10x longer and did more things overall, to then be overshadowed by this dickhead.

Nobara - My beloved you did not deserve to be snuffed out of top 10. I am still on that copium that she’s still alive but honestly you really had to do her like that :(

Maki - Ok this is where I really question some of your tastes. So she had one of the PEAK arcs in all of the manga, went to hell and back and served us in every shape and form and this is what she gets. Losing to Naoya. Telling you lot to sort your misogyny out for the next poll because if she doesn’t reach top 3 Istg

Sukuna - Right, he’s a bit of a guilty pleasure as he is one of the funniest characters in this series after Kenny and Todo. Am suprised that he didn’t hit top 10 but he’s been binding his time to skyrocket to the big numbers especially in the recent chapters.

Todo - AYYYYYYY. Kyoto student found in the wild quick catch them before they get into the sea of irrelevancy. Ok that was too harsh but I’m proud of the Todo fans for getting him up there. He truly is the homie of the jjk world hopefully he keeps his placement because he’s too cool to not be on this list.

Utahime - OMG OMG OMG OMG. This was very unexpected. I thought Shoko would be here (she’s 24th) but I am grateful for it. The voice at the back of my head is trying to say that it’s cause of the shipping but I am ignoring it to focus on my girl entirely. Congrats everyone. If she manages to get in the top 15 again, do you think Gege will add more to her character. Nah he’ll probably just put her on the hit list which is not what we want to see here.

Yeah I think the poll overall was alright and obviously was for fun but after the placement of certain characters you know I’m side-eyeing you lot.

Characters I want/hope to reach the list : Yuki,Riko, Kirara, Hakari, Higuruma, Angel/Hana, Kenjaku, Uruame

[snilys]

I think it’s fair game to criticise Lily’s moral inconsistencies, and I don’t think it’s quite right to be labelling people who do as ‘misogynists’ so long as they’re not blaming the character for Severus going down the dark path.

Of course everyone should remember to contextualise her reactions in light of the political circumstances and cut her some slack, because her stance is perfectly understandable for a marginalised teenager. But ‘violence is fine if it’s directed at bad people’ is a principle I vehemently disagree with, and the Harry Potter books are particularly terrible for this (Harry casting a torture spell is lionised as gallant! James commits sexual assault, never apologises, is treated by the narrative as a hero!) so Lily’s position rankles far more for me personally than it might have done otherwise because it’s a position the book actually endorses. I also think part of it is the reaction to the tendency - again perpetuating from the books! - to make Lily a flawless beacon of light. Every questionable action she takes is in fact justified, every moral judgement she casts on another character correct. I just don’t think this is very interesting. I think it’s more misogynistic to let her be flattened to the arbiter of two boys’ moral worth than exploring her own self with corresponding mistakes and misjudgements. What is there to even discuss about her if we don’t dig into those? James is thoroughly defined by his friends. JKR only gave Lily one, who idealises her through guilt.

I don’t think it’s misogynistic to query whether she loved Severus either. JKR says yes, so as long as we all accept that was the author’s intent, but there’s room for reasonable debate there. Which is again JKR’s doing, because there isn’t a single scene included in The Prince’s Tale where Lily enjoys Severus’ company without getting mad at him. JKR never shows *why* Lily considers them best friends when she assumes the worst of him even when they’re kids and then has evidence when they get to school that he harbours beliefs that are dangerous to her, and JKR failing to show this leaves room for speculation. Sorry for the very long anon. There just hasn’t been much room for the interpretation that ‘Lily was not a good friend - this doesn’t mean she wasn’t a good person’ around here recently, without accusations of being a pick me girl or having internalised misogyny being thrown around

if this is about that post going around that makes light of lily's comment about dark magic, i never said anything about internalized misogyny or pick me behavior, so this feels like it's a subject that has been bothering you and you projected it on my comment, in which i was just pointing out most avid severus fans struggle with putting themselves in lily's shoes about her situation, not severus'.

now, you don't know me, and my comment did not cover up my entire viewpoint of characters like james or situations where violence was discussed or employed with "bad people", but rowling has stated - regarding precisely the torturing spell - that she never intended for harry to be perfect or an example of goodness, and i don't really like james, but i disagree with this idea that rowling was solely intending for james to be seen in a positive light. he was meant to be seen as layered the moment harry realized he was an imbecile as a teenager, and it briefly tarnished the image he had of him, so if you believe she was endorsing this sort of behavior, that has more to do with your own perspective of the books.

and i don't believe lily was meant to be seen as "perfect" either, very much just like a teenage girl. and again, you don't really know how i view her aside from my defense of her choices, but it's also abundantly clear in the narrative of the prince's tale who was going to be inevitably wrong in the end. if voldemort did not exist in this story, if this was a case of lily dating her best friend's bully "just because", i would perhaps feel inclined to impart judgement about her actions, but voldemort existed, and many people claim there was no indication she was trying hard enough for him or showing any sort of care, and to me that's just not reading into the subtext of the narrative.

it's literally stated she was being questioned about her friendship with snape, and she kept defending him of her friends AND in front of james, and severus made her every attempt difficult by still engaging with people that hated her kind and found her inferior. the death eaters were already committing crimes by that time, regulus kept record of said documented crimes on a collage, so lily was fully, completely aware of WHO severus was going to become if he kept hanging around blood supremacists. and he proved her right in the end, her concerns were not unfounded.

"Lily was not a good friend - this doesn’t mean she wasn’t a good person"

and i disagree. i don't believe she was a bad friend either, because then again, by reading into the subtext of the situation, she was trying for severus, and stuck around until his beliefs turned on her, and even if she wasn't "graceful" in the way she lashed out in response, she was entitled to do so. she said herself severus was starting to treat everyone of her similar upbringing as "mudbloods", but she stuck around either way, TRIED to keep their friendship either way, until she couldn't, and that's fine.

now the relationship with james is an entirely different topic, as i said in those comments, i do not believe lily was justifying james and his little friends' idiotic ways by saying that at least they not using dark magic, she called him a toerag in the same scene, so she was definitely bothered by the violence and the bullying, but given the context and the raising power of voldemort, dark magic, specially dark magic that came from death eaters on the making, was worse (and once again, a right assumption in the end about the people surrounding severus).

i think, if you're keen enough, the narrative is aimed to make the reader feel empathy towards severus during swm and the prince's tale. rowling stated herself in the very chapter that he ended up blurting mudblood out of "anger and humiliation", so you can tell even SHE empathized with severus, i know i do, but nothing will ever make me believe a girl with the concerns lily held had to do "more" for severus or be read as more "coddling" towards him in those memories. with the subtext and with what's said by rowling one is supposed to work out what was left unsaid. you can read between lines how severus' friendship with these prejudiced boys hurt her, that she didn't feel her welfare prioritized by his own friend, therefore her "you chose your path" comment.

lastly, i personally don't think rowling failed to convey the idea that severus had someone valuable and his own choices drove her away. it wasn't read as perfect because lily had her own conflicts in her life at first that made it difficult for her to feel fully comfortable with her identity as a witch (her entire relationship with her sister) and then the person who introduced her to magic also started straying from her, i think that needing more explicit details on a friendship that makes severus' entire life is like wanting to be spoonfed and remain unwilling to understand a reality that wasn't severus', but lily's. if there's anything you wish to discuss further about it, write me off anon.

[bllsbailey]

Do the Democrat Elites WANT Kamala to Lose?

It sounds crazy, and perhaps it is. But there is a lot of suspicion that Democrats are either throwing in the towel on the presidential race or that members of their elite are so unenthusiastic that they want her to lose. 

There could be many reasons why that might be so, and many more why that seems crazy to me. But I am not a mind-reader, so all I can do is look at the facts as they present themselves and then try to figure out what is going on. 

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 14, 2024

The case for Joe Biden wanting Kamala to lose is most compelling. Harris, after all, helped push him out of the campaign, sidelined him, and made him look like a weak fool. It was obvious that Biden didn't want to budge--he said so often and loudly enough--and it was similarly obvious that he resented being pushed out. 

Many people speculated at the time that Biden's endorsement of Harris hours after the obviously written-for-him letter bowing out of the race was a big screw-you to the Democratic Party. Harris was thought to be a terrible candidate without a chance of winning, and Biden put our his endorsement separate from the statement pulling out of the race, and was likely not filtered by an establishment which had been pushing for an open process. 

Part of the deal in getting Biden out of the race was that there would be no criticism of Biden--at all--and that he would be presented as a George Washington figure putting country above ambition. And Biden is enforcing the deal--every time anybody mentions Harris separating herself from Biden, out he pops with a bear hug to draw her back in. And when he is unhappy with her he goes further--dons a MAGA hat or steps on her messaging. 

Rumors have swirled for years that Jill Biden hates Harris, and they are credible. Kamala attacked Joe as a racist in 2019, and Jill never forgave that slur. 

As for Obama, the case is a bit harder. During the switcheroo, it was obvious that Barack Obama thought Harris was a horrible choice, and he was among the last to give his blessing to her coronation. Obama is smart and politically savvy, and he views Harris with well-deserved contempt. She is a vapid product of a pathetically uncompetitive California Democratic Party, and despite being portrayed as a female Obama, Harris is almost the opposite. She is female but doesn't have the political skills that Barack Obama has in his toenails. 

Obama has been sent out on a mission to save Harris' campaign, at least with the black men who have been leaving her corner at an increasing pace. A good soldier (or general), he has accepted the mission but so far has done more to hurt her campaign than help. He has insulted black men as misogynists, and that didn't go over well at all. 

Did Barack Obama blurt this out to hurt Harris? I doubt it. As pleasant as it would be to think that Barack Obama was stabbing Kamala Harris in the back, I suspect that this anti-persuasive speech was an artifact of Obama spending all his time around the Democratic elite who believe that misogyny drives all opposition to Harris in the black community. They think in terms of identity and only identity, so they assume that the only reason black men wouldn't vote for Kamala is her gender. 

Obama loves power, and Kamala Harris is even more brain-dead than Joe Biden. Her being in office would extend his reign for another four years. He has deeply infiltrated the Biden administration (look at the ranks of administration officials), and his people are running Kamala's campaign in an uneasy alliance with Kamala's team. 

I think this was pure elitist arrogance, not sabotage. Obama has always aspired to be at the top of the elite and achieved that goal in 2004 when he burst onto the scene at the DNC. He has never looked back. 

Bill Clinton's gaffe (?) is the most mysterious. Biden hates Harris, Obama is now in an elite bubble and can't understand ordinary black men, but what is Clinton going on about? He basically blamed Kamala Harris for Laken Riley's death and called for the Great Replacement to become a reality. 

Did he think this would help Harris? Did he drop this to harm her? 

Beats me. It was so bizarre that there was no rational explanation for what he said. It was all true, at least according to Clinton's point of view. The elite really does want to replace us all with poorer and more pliant citizens who can be counted on to do what they are told for a low, low price of minimum wage jobs. But you don't say that ALOUD if you want to win back white working-class men, and that is the demographic Clinton is trying to reach. Supposedly. 

I wish I had a good explanation for why Clinton said this. The Clintons came out in favor of Harris early, so it seems ridiculous to think that they want Harris to lose. By 2028, they will be too old to be relevant, so hoping for a fresher face in 2028 makes little sense. Even in an era where 82-year-olds can have political power still (look at Biden and Trump!), it beggars the imagination to think that Clinton is banking on more influence starting in 2029. 

Was it a Kinsley Gaffe--accidentally saying out loud what you really think? I suspect so. Bill had a brain fart, and the hot gas that came out was his version of the truth. Perhaps he thought that was persuasive to people? He did try to blame Trump for the failure to vet Riley's killer, but that is a stretch beyond belief. 

The Clintons, like the Obamas, do hang out with the Davos crowd. So perhaps he believes that this offensive drivel is persuasive. But the whole point of dragging the 78-year-old Clinton onto the campaign trail is that he understands white working-class people, right? 

I doubt the Democrat establishment wants Harris to lose. They may expect it now, but with a billion dollars invested, control over trillions of dollars in the federal budget, and the regulatory state apparatus at stake, they want the presidency. Biden might smile at a Harris loss, but nobody else at the top. 

Except Whitmer, Newsom, Shapiro, and a whole lot of other contenders for 2028. 

[rinhaler]

Smell Some Perfume, Head In The Wind

CHAPTER SUMMARY: it's a party from hell at your parents manor and each guest is worse than the last!

boyfriend!yuuji itadori x f!reader x bully!megumi fushiguro

WARNINGS : 18+, (kinda) panic attack, cocaine use, familial issues, handjob, misogyny, dry humping (a little??). 

WORDS : 6.3k

notes : still in awe that y'all like this pre edits btw... the difference a few years of writing makes 😅

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Scouring your mind for any possibility that you were still in your drug induced sleep was fruitless. This isn’t a nightmare. It's real. Megumi is really here, and he is standing in front of your parents’ house. You hear footsteps approach from behind and your breathing becomes shallow, suffocating under the pressure of the presences all around you. What you did in a past life to deserve this, you’ll never know. But Yuuji remains strong, and you love him for that. When you can't show strength for yourself, he’ll double his efforts. He holds his arm around you as he stares Megumi down. His gaze isn’t asking him to move, it's demanding. But Megumi will do no such thing. He’s snorted a line, he’s at a beautiful house, and it’s a gorgeous sunny day.

This weekend will be fun.

You’re as still as a model in a painting, or even one of Megumi’s drawings. Your begin to well with tears and you can hear voices from every direction. Your mother and father behind you, Yuuji by your side and Megumi in front. You can't understand what any of them are saying as your ears ring. You’re making a choice to not exist, to not perceive what is happening around you. There’s a boom in your ears which you can only assume is Yuuji yelling at Megumi.

Your mother is tugging at your arm.

What does she want?

You’re breathing heavily, your body doesn’t move, but your eyes move slowly to their respected corners so you they can find your mother’s.

“Make him stop!” you read on her lips.

Your head moves as you look at Yuuji, he doesn’t want to let go of you, but you can see he’s becoming more antsy and agitated. He isn’t doing anything wrong, you think, as you process your mother’s words. Is she just embarrassed because his volume is raised past an acceptable level?

“Don’t make me beat the shit out of you in front of all of these people Fushiguro, get the fuck out of our way!” Yuuji bellows, all Megumi offers in return is a sarcastic laugh. He’s cocky, Yuuji is an athlete and way stronger than Megumi, and yet he’s acting like Yuuji wouldn’t stand a chance in hurting him.

Your father grabs your shoulders, Yuuji doesn’t react since he’s so engaged in his heated conversation with Megumi. “You’re breaking your mother’s heart! Don’t go, look at her!” he tells you, your vision snaps to see her again. She looks like she’s fighting back tears. But she’s manipulative, she's trying to control you.

“I even bought you a new dress to wear darling, please don’t go. Please make him stop yelling!” she tells you, her voice cracks and a single tear spills from her eye. She’s serious, she’s actually this frantic and upset over what is unfolding in front of her.

You blink repeatedly, fluttering your lashes until the tears leave your eyes. Although there are a few droplets laced in your mascara coated eyelashes. It’s hard to speak. Your mouth is as dry as a desert and you feel as though glass has been poured down your throat. Your pathetic whispers of ‘Yuuji… Yuuji…’ fall on deaf ears. Of course he won’t hear your feeble voice when he is practically roaring at Megumi.

“Enough!” you manage to croak out, just loud enough to get his attention. He looks at you, his eyes are glassy as if he wants to cry. It’s been tough enough for you, but it must be hell for him too. All of this. Having to see someone you love and worship go through the hardest time of their life. “We have to stay.” you sigh. He shakes his head, he can’t. He can’t let you put yourself through more torment with his piece of shit former friend.

“Maybe… you should just stay love. Yuuji can go if he wants.” your mother speaks, and Yuuji scoffs, rolling his eyes. Of course your parents would want him out of their hair. He doesn’t fit in and they don’t approve of your relationship. But you love him. You love him and you come as a package, that is something they need to understand.

“Yuuji isn’t going anywhere. If you want me to stay he’s staying too, or I’ll walk right out of that door.” you tell them. Whatever dryness was in your mouth had been forgotten. You’ve lost your confidence, you’ve lost your nerve and feel terror and shame whenever you try to defend yourself. But you’ll be damned if anyone is going to insult your boyfriend, whether it’s a backhanded insult or not, you won’t stand for it. “Where’s the dress?” you ask your mother. In your new bedroom, of course. She tells you there’s a letter wedged in the door with your name on it, that’s how you’ll find your room in this colossal manor house.

You take your boyfriend’s hand, ignoring everyone around you both. You’re sorry to him, sorry for him, but this weekend is something you need to do. You said it before you left and you’re saying it now: you are not going to let Megumi Fushiguro dictate your life for a second longer.

You’ve been sitting on the edge of your bed for a few minutes, reading and re-reading the letter over and over again. Yuuji is pacing the room, he’s pissed at you. Like, really pissed, but he isn’t taking his anger out on you. He unbuttons his shirt a little and opens the windows as far as they can go. He knows it isn’t that easy, but he was hoping the cool breeze would help calm him down.

To My Darling Daughter,

I knew you’d arrive to the party in something less than desirable. I took the liberty of buying you a new dress. Don’t worry, I know what style and colours you like. At least, I hope you still like pink. Anyway, it’s Versace, and I’m sure you’ll never tire of wearing designer labels. Enjoy love. Mother x

Your hands are shaking while you hold the letter and the envelope in each hand. That damn pink seal with your family crest makes your heart wrench. It makes you sick, truly, because it reminds you of what a weak person you are. A person who never stands up to her family or can tell them what she really thinks of them. You hate them. You do. You really hate them. You despise how pompous they are, you hate how they treat you like you’re their puppet and you loathe how they treat Yuuji.

But then you look at the garment cover harbouring your beautiful new Versace dress. It’s a beautiful pastel pink colour. It has spaghetti style straps and a large slit down the left leg, tied at the top with two pink string bows. The bustier is micro-pleated, and the iconic Medusa logo features in a small gold circle just above the sternum. God, you hate your parents. You’re furious at your mother for how she suggested Yuuji should leave while you stay. But you’re looking at that dress, that exquisite dress, and you can’t help but feel in a forgiving mood.

You look to Yuuji who is sucking in air from the open window into his lungs. This is no good, you need him to calm himself down. You approach him and rub between his shoulder blades, whispering ‘I love you’ ever so softly.

“Tch.” he mutters. You grab his hand and guide him to the edge of the bed. You didn’t fail to notice the adorable little mini fridge in the corner of your new room. And, of course, it’s fully stocked. You pick up a small bottle of water and throw it to your boyfriend, which he skilfully catches. “I can’t believe you want to stay even though that fuckin’ asshole is here.” he hisses as he cracks open the bottle.

“But you’re here, and that’s all that matters Yuuji.” you tell him as you remove your blazer and your shirt quickly. You hurriedly remove your heels and begin unbuttoning your trousers. “Besides, it’s easier to just get along with my parents. I don’t want to give them any more reasons to talk shit, I’m sick of them looking down their noses at us.” you tell him as you unhook your bra, throwing it across the room carelessly as you approach your new dress.

“What are you- Why aren’t you-?” Yuuji stutters. You turn to face him as you aren’t quite sure what he’s mumbling about. But when his gaze, not very discretely, alternates between your eyes and your exposed breasts, you know instantly.

“You can’t wear a bra with this type of dress, baby.” you explain. He nods in understanding, his eye twitches and he takes a hearty swig at the bottle of water. It’s more than a swig, he ends up drinking the entire contents of the bottle. He’s flustered, you’ve got him all worked up over a pair of tits. And now, you have an even better idea of how to calm him down.

You don’t get dressed, instead, you straddle Yuuji and begin kissing him softly. You’re both smiling and laughing between kisses. He tells you that you shouldn’t be doing this, but you don’t care. You’re unfastening the remaining buttons on his shirt slowly and pull it off him with ease. You pull away from him so you can admire his perfect body. What a lucky girl you are, he’s an athlete through and through with a scrumptious physique to match.

“Princess, we need to stop before… Before we get carried away—” he tells you, but his actions don’t match. He’s kissing your neck while groping your breasts. You hum and giggle at the touch and begin pulling down his trousers, wouldn’t want them getting ruined after all. He stops you and lifts you down beside him so he can remove his shoes and socks. You waste no time pulling out his cock while he undresses completely. You’re sitting beside each other as you jerk him off, he tries to wiggle his fingers inside of your panties, but you don’t let him.

“Just wanna play with you Yuuji, wanna make you feel better.” you whisper, kissing his shoulder gently. You’re stroking him lazily, his hips raise and buck off the bed. “You’re so tense baby, aren’t you?” you ask him, eyes glistening and lips salivating at the way a pool of precum forms at his pretty pink tip, you want to taste it so badly.

“So tense,” he sighs, “so fuckin’ tense.”

“’m sorry, wanna make you feel better. Does it feel good?” you ask him.

“Y-Yeah, fuck. Can you uh, squeeze a little tighter? And go faster, p-please—” he falters as you’re already doing as he asked before he finishes speaking. He lets his head fall back as you work his cock quicker. He looks to you, hazel eyes looking at you like you put all of the planets in the solar system.

“Like that baby?” you ask him. He nods. A large palm finds itself laced in your hair, he brings his face closer to yours. A crashing kiss lands on your lips, it’s heated and erotic, he’s panting and humming through your ministrations.

“Just like that princess, fuck. Such a good girl,” he kisses you again and you can’t get enough of him, it’s like he’s stealing all of the air out of your lungs. “So perfect, so fuckin’ perfect baby. I love you, I love you.” he moans, delectable masculine moans leaving his lips and tumbling directly down your throat and to your chest. No. Directly to your heart, you’re sure the sounds of him coming undone for you are adding extra years to your life.

“I love you Yuuji, please cum f’me. Need it s’bad. Need you to feel better…” you mewl, there’s a wetness growing between your thighs that you’re struggling to ignore. But you have to and you will, for him.

“Y’want me to cum so soon?” he huffs, beginning to let himself go completely to your touch.

You do.

You really do.

“Just want you to feel good baby, please cum. Cum for me!” you command before engulfing him in a showstopping kiss yet again. He breaks it as his moans become more broken and needy.

“Ah, ah fuck—!” he whines as he cums. He forcefully shoves your mouth against his again while his seed spills out.

You’re meant to keep your eyes closed as you kiss someone you love. But while you’re swallowing the beautiful sounds he’s making you can’t help but allow your eyes to wander to his cock. Thick, creamy, white cum is pumping out of him furiously. This has been the longest you’ve gone without pleasuring each other since you began dating, although he fingered you in the car outside before you entered your parents home. It's been days for either of you, so the touches were welcome. You felt like a pair of teenagers stealing intimate moments to please each other.

“Jesus Christ, look what you made me do.” Yuuji smirks as he looks down at his body and your hand completely coated in semen. “Sit on my face baby I need to taste—”

“Sorry Yuuji, no time. Get cleaned up I’m gonna get ready.” you instruct as you head towards the en-suite bathroom to quickly wash your hands.

He steps in the shower so he can clear away any evidence of your little indiscretion. You should get dressed, but instead, you find yourself playing with your hair the whole time Yuji is showering. Should you change it? He steps out and chuckles when he finds you still practically naked. He looks at you, one hand holding his towel around his waist. His eyebrow quirks, he’s looking as if to say ‘I thought we didn’t have time’. But you hurry to your feet and unzip the garment cover and reveal your dress in all of its glory, pulling it out and holding it against your body for your boyfriend to see.

“Help me put it on?” you ask, smiling so sweetly. How could he say no?

He pulls it over you, pulling it downwards and smoothing out any areas it bunches together. He wraps his arms around your waist and kisses your neck sensually, one, two, three times before finding your eyes again in the full-length mirror you’re both standing in front of.

“You’re perfect princess, fits like a glove.”

Everything seems perfect for a brief moment. You were happy. Really happy for the first time since you met Megumi. Yuuji holds your hand as you descend the stairs, and you were gifted with his constant reassurance that he’ll be here for you.

You're giggling and stealing kisses the whole way to the garden.

Though your stomach sinks.

You almost forgot that you had to endure this hellish weekend with your family and school bully. When you step outside, you see a table that you know you're expected to sit at.

Guests are all seated on circular and beautifully decorated tables, all of which house seven seats each. You aren’t sure why you're surprised, your luck has been in the gutter lately, but your mother is waving you over to your table. There are three seats available, enough for you and Yuuji to join and one seat that would remain empty. Your mother would probably use it to place her belongings instead of placing them on the table.

“It’s not too late to leave.” Yuuji smiles. You smile back and take his hand, shaking your head at the proposal.

You’re closer to the table now, and the faces you had seen in the distance have been dangerously solidified in reality. Your mother and father sit side by side, understandably, and then there are two seats free for yourself and Yuuji next to your dad. Toji sits next to the second free seat, and Megumi is by his side. The third free seat is situated between your mother and Megumi.

Yuuji pulls the seat out next to your father for you to sit in, but you misinterpret his action thinking he is doing it for himself. So, you take the chair next to Toji without hesitation.

Yuuji looks at you with a worried expression plastered across his face, you’re too close to Megumi. But when you look up at him, he’s amazed. He thinks you’re incredible. So fucking brave and so unfazed by the whole thing. You are, however, but you’re trying not to let it show.

“You two took your time.” Toji teases, his eyes move to the side to look at your reaction with a smirk on his face. Is he trying to get you in trouble?

The insinuating tone is read by everyone at the table, you feel your face warm up and Yuuji turned red. Your father looks furious and your mother’s eyes have widened. Megumi is smirking, just like his father. The family resemblance really is uncanny.

“Never mind, she’s here now.” your mother speaks. You grit your teeth and bite your tongue, her failure to include Yuuji not going unnoticed by you. “It’s been a while since we’ve seen you Megumi, do you remember us? Probably not, are you studying anything at the moment?” your mother speaks confidently. She notices your change in demeanour, quickly stuttering out any words she could to swiftly change the subject.

“Actually, your lovely daughter and I are in the same class.” Megumi speaks with perfect poise, he has far too much courage to say such a bold comment about you in front of Yuuji.

Your mother looks between you both with a big smile on her face and her palms pressed together excitably. She begins asking questions about your studies and your relationship, you catch a vein bulging in Yuuji’s forehead when she asks if you are ‘friends’.

Before you could argue such a preposterous claim, Megumi answers her calmly. “Well Yuuji and I are childhood friends, so I was bound to get along with his wonderful girlfriend.” he explains, “We even share a cubicle in class now, don’t we?” he smirks, resting his elbows on the table and interlocking his fingers. Yuuji grits his teeth, and despite you gently squeezing his thigh, it isn’t enough to relax him.

“Don’t lie to these people Fushiguro,” Yuuji speaks as quietly as he can, trying to prevent himself from losing his temper, “I’m not your fucking friend and neither is she.” he announces, you grimace at his language and Megumi rolls his eyes at the response.

“The fuck did you do Megumi? He’s meant to be your best friend.” Toji questions as he swigs the remaining champagne in his glass. “Did you try and fuck his girl? Huh, shithead?” Toji wonders aloud. Megumi scoffs out a laugh while your father chokes on his own drink and your mother suddenly found the lush green grass way more interesting than the current conversation.

“You’re mistaken Toji, our daughter isn’t loose like that. She’s waiting until marriage.” your father announces.

Yuuji’s face is bright red and your heart is racing.

This really is the party from hell.

There is an uncomfortable silence then, whether it was because no one knows what to say or because most people know it's a lie. You and Yuuji want the ground to swallow you both whole.

You are saved by the wait staff coming to your table with more drinks, overpriced champagne, of course. Your father watches as they place drinks in front of yourself and Yuuji, but you raise your hand in protest.

“Could I just have a water, please?” you request, the waiter nods and turns on their heel to fetch you your drink.

“Don’tcha drink?” Toji wonders, sipping at his fresh champagne yet again.

Your vision alternates between the two pairs of emerald green eyes sitting to the left of you. Yuuji’s blood is boiling as he remembers exactly why you aren’t drinking. He's staring daggers at the bully across from him.

He wants to rip his throat out.

Yuuji seconds your notion of only drinking water; he thought he better stay sharp in case Megumi tries anything while you’re all stuck together for the weekend. Toji deems you both boring, but you don’t care.

“I had a bad incident with drinking recently,” you speak as you tilt your head so Megumi’s eyes would directly catch yours, “taking a little break from it all.”

“You always take things too far, don’t you? Or are you just over exaggerating a bad hangover?” your father asks you. You can practically hear the thump of your mother kicking his leg under the table, livid that he would air a private family matter in front of their guests.

“Actually sir, that piece of shit—” Yuuji barks as he points at Megumi.

“Yuuji, don’t.” you look at him with pleading eyes. He instantly shuts his mouth and slouches back in his seat.

Toji leans over to Megumi and begins whispering to him. Doesn’t he know it’s rude to whisper? But even with just these few brief moments you’ve shared with him, he doesn’t strike you as the type to care about manners or etiquette; so you aren’t entirely surprised at his lack of grace.

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse.

When you believe there couldn’t possibly be anything to make the situation anymore uncomfortable, you heard a chilling, flamboyant voice in the distance.

You don’t turn to see who has just walked into the garden. You could hear him from a mile away. Your elbow rests on the table and you slump your forehead into your hand. You heard a mutter of ‘oh for fuck sake’ from Yuuji as he reaches for his glass of water.

But now water wasn’t going to cut it.

The champagne he'd abandoned soon finds comfort in his fingers as he downs the liquid like a shot. If your stomach wasn’t so raw from the drug Megumi spiked you with, you’d be following suit. The volume of the voice gets louder, and louder, and louder.

Until finally—

“A pleasure to see you all again,” Naoya smiles as he takes your mothers hand in his. He plants a soft chaste kiss on her knuckles, it's embarrassing how much she giggles and blushes at the gesture. He shakes your father’s hand in a firm handshake, and he's smiling, too.

He completely ignores Yuuji, which makes your parents smirk like bitchy high schoolers.

He takes your hand without you giving it, repeating what he had just done to your mother. Although, it lasts a lot longer and is a more uncomfortable gesture.

You snatch your hand away and sit upright to face him.

“Hello Naoya.” you huff.

He says simple greetings to the Fushiguro’s who nod wordlessly.

Toji leans over to you, his head turned away from the table so that no one could read his lips as he spoke quietly to you.

“I fuckin’ hate this little prick,”

Before he could continue, your mother offers him the final remaining seat. He's about to refuse, claiming his father is at a different table, but when he sees how uncomfortable you are and how furious Yuuji looks – who was he to decline?

“When was the last time you two boys saw each other, hm?” your father questions. You almost choke on your drink at his words. Megumi and Naoya know each other?

Birds of a feather, you suppose, and they are both toxic and evil to the core.

“We haven’t seen each other since Megumi and his sister moved away, I believe.” Naoya answers. Megumi doesn’t respond, letting Naoya take over the conversation for him.

He's too busy staring at you.

How did you know Naoya?

“But it’s been a while since I’ve been able to attend one of your family parties and stay longer than a few minutes.” he adds as he crosses a leg over his knee.

“Yes, well, some might say it’s odd for an ex-boyfriend to hang around my family.” you smile widely, but everyone can see it's as fake as they come.

Toji coughs a little at the revelation, smacking his palm on his large chest to clear his airways. Megumi sniggers as he takes a drink.

“I do wish you both could have worked it out,” your mother claims, “you were a beautiful couple and so sophisticated. It made perfect sense for you to be together.” she continues, your father nods in agreement.

“You’ve made a strong name for yourself and the Zen’in clan, a match made in heaven.” your father concurred.

“Why don’t you both try it again?” your mother suggests, as if your boyfriend isn’t sitting right next to you. “You were certainly my favourite of my daughter’s boyfriends.” she adds.

Yuuji is shaking with frustration, but you know it's just covering how upset he is.

It’s horrible to have to hear something so nasty, vile and cruel and not be able to do anything about it. Normally you wouldn’t do anything either and just make it up to him later. But after everything you’ve been through, enough is enough.

“Interesting idea mother, however, I’ve made my choice and I’m happy with my partner and I suggest the pair of you get used to it.” you answer her foolish proposal, “Besides, Yuuji is way better at eating pussy.” you boldly announce in front of everyone.

Naoya’s face drops in horror. Megumi shot champagne out of his nose and Toji laughs raucously by your ear. Yuuji was practically boiling to the touch and as red as a tomato, even his ears were a rosy, red colour at the tips.

“Oh my God—”

“Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with you?”

That is all your mother and father have to say in response. You don’t care, you're smiling.

It feels incredible to make your parents so furious with you and not be able to do anything so they could save face in front of their guests. The only people who had heard your vulgar comment are the people seated at the table.

You are so smug, so fucking proud of yourself.

Even Yuuji is smiling.

He never thought in a million years you’d stand up to your parents like that. You disregard your parent's outrage, and angle your body to be facing the other guests with a cheery smile on your face.

“So how do you three know each other?” you wonder.

“We’re cousins.” Toji spits as his thumb gestures Naoya.

Wow.

Maybe the whole family is just rotten at the roots.

“The Zen’in clan are a powerful family that you would have been honoured to marry into, daughter, but you are going through a rebellious phase I see.” your father gripes. He's staring you down, but when your eyes find his he quickly looked away.

Pathetic, you think.

“We aren’t Zen’in’s we’re Fushiguro’s.” Toji corrects, but your father shrugs his shoulders dismissing the statement.

“Same thing, same bloodline.” your father states as he begins lighting a cigar in his mouth.

“No, not the sa—”

“Toji is right,” Naoya interrupts his cousin, “those two scummy pissants certainly aren’t worthy to carry the Zen’in name so it’s a good thing Toji took his wife’s name instead.” Naoya berates.

Toji and his son both grit their teeth, both clearly furious at the mention of their worth and Toji’s wife. Naoya is snearing, clearly proud of himself for being an enormous prick and upsetting his family.

His eyes wander, and eventually, they settle on—

“And you.” he says as he points in your direction. Everyone is suddenly focused on you and what he's about to say. “You’d never be good enough for me, women are to be seen and not heard. I need a subservient little housewife, not a dressed-up tart thinking she’s something special. You’re not even good enough to lick my boots.” he monologues.

You snicker, Yuuji obviously wants to flatten him for daring to speak to you like that, but he turns to you in shock as you rest a hand on his shoulder and begin to laugh.

“I’m sorry, what fucking century do you think this is?” you chortle, you rise from your seat and gesture to the door. Yuuji immediately understands that you want to leave, so he grabs your hand once again and guides you towards the house. 

Your mother protests, "where are you going!?" she cries, you didn’t care. You’d be coming back later.

But for now, you want some space.

You heard Naoya mutter something about you being a harlot under his breath, so you stop.

You slowly walk back towards the table and approach Naoya’s side.

He can’t help but ogle your thigh where your pretty pink dress slits down the side. He tries his best to ignore it, but it's obvious he's enjoying the view of your supple flesh.

Perhaps he misses your soft pillowy thighs. You rest a hand on his shoulder as you lean over him to grab his glass of champagne. He begins to squirm as your breasts are dangerously close to his chest, and he can smell your sweet, sweet perfume.

Fuck, he did miss you.

He really misses you.

He’s never met a woman like you since you broke up. That smell, he’s missed your fucking scent. You stand up straight with the glass still in your hand. Everybody thinks you're going to drink it, but instead, you pour the liquid out all over Naoya’s head.

“Oops.” you pout over dramatically. “Wonderful seeing you again Naoya. I’m off to go and be a harlot with my beautiful boyfriend over there.” you whisper into his ear and point in Yuuji’s direction.

Your mother and father start to chastise you, but before their words can do any damage, you run to your boyfriends side and take his hand.

The pair of you sprint out of the manor hand in hand towards his car.

He hikes your dress up before picking you up and settling you on the hood of his car. You're kissing each other so lovingly and messily that you aren’t sure you’d be able to break it without fucking in the middle of your parents driveway.

“I love you, fuck I love you I love you I love you.” Yuuji hums between kisses. He gropes your breasts and kisses your neck. He has to stop, he knows he has to stop and yet he couldn’t keep himself from touching you, worshiping you.

“I love you, I love you Yuuji! We need to go. Yuuji, come on we need to go.” you moan back. With one last hard, devastating kiss he pulls away and helps you down. You jog to your respected sides of the car and strap in quickly so he could get the pair of you away from this place, if only for a few hours.

Meanwhile, as you and Yuuji had been practically dry-humping on top of his car, Naoya was seething with rage in the garden. Your parents couldn’t apologise enough. He didn’t want to hear it. After all, they are the ones who raised you. And what had they raised you to become? A vile, insolent, slut. He stood to his feet, dismissing his father when he asked what had happened whilst retreating indoors. He didn’t know he was being followed. He didn’t realise until his shoulder was grabbed and he was being pinned against the nearest wall just as he reached the second floor of the manor. It was Megumi.

“It seems we both have a mutual hatred of the princess.” Megumi admits, staring his uncle dead in the eyes. “Let’s say we have some fun with her this weekend.”

“Tch. I think not. I have my own plan formulating for that abhorrent little bitch. Leave me alone, peasant.” Naoya snarls as he turns away from Megumi once more. The latter shrugs his shoulder and prepares to leave, but he gets another idea instead.

“Naoya.” he calls.

“What—?” he’s greeted with a punch in the face from his nephew, directly into his eye. Megumi is sure it’s bound to bruise. He isn’t done. While Naoya is recoiling in pain, Megumi grabs onto his shoulder and forces his knee up into his uncle’s abdomen. Naoya collapses to the ground and is coughs up blood. He growls when Megumi lords over him, leaning down to patronise him in this frail pathetic state.

“A friendly reminder to keep my mother’s name out of that pretentious mouth of yours. I won’t be so lenient if it happens again.” Megumi tells him in hushed tones, shoving his hands into his pockets as he walks to return to the party and his father’s side.

It can’t be a good thing that you’ve made two enemies from the same putrid bloodline.

But that isn’t on your mind.

You're eyeballed and gawked at as you and Yuuji walk into the nearest fast food place in your expensive clothes. Yuuji is in his smart shirt and dress-pants and you were in a two-thousand dollar Versace gown while you walk into Burger King as casual as ever.

You feel like celebrities with the way everyone stares.

You don’t care, you just order food, a lot of it.

You haven't eaten since you arrived at your parents and all you’ve been drinking is dainty sips of water.

You're starving, so you don’t want to think how hungry Yuuji would be since he has the appetite of a horse. You give the cashier your card, courtesy of the bank of dad, and salivate as you think about your enormous meal.

He sits in a booth and pulls you onto his lap while you wait for your order. One hand rests in the small of your back while another remains on your thigh. Kisses are stolen while you giggle and joke about how God awful your parents party had been.

He begs you to just go home, but he's forgetting you left your luggage in your bedroom. It’s only one night anyway, you’ll be able to leave in the morning and you won’t have to see them again for a few months at least.

You still feel eyes on you in the restaurant, but now you aren’t sure if it's because you're both so overdressed or because you are being so overly affectionate with each other.

Again, you didn’t care.

Yuuji can’t tell you enough how much he fucking adores you. He's so proud of you for sticking up for yourself, and even happier that you defended him in front of your horrific parents. His sweet, soft words were rushing straight to your core and you could just jump him right then and there.

When your number is called out, you and Yuuji end up with four huge bags to hold. You each held one in your hands and walk quickly out of the restaurant and back to the car.

You open a bag before Yuuji found somewhere to park. It has large fries inside so you alternate between feeding yourself and putting some in Yuuji’s mouth while he drives.

You know where you can go, so you do your best to direct your boyfriend. There’s an enormous, brick monument between your parents manor and the city that lives on top of a tall hill. But behind the monument there is a country park and endless fields.

You don’t need to mention that Naoya used to bring you here to finger you in the backseat, you’ve had a lot of other memories with friends here too, after all.

He parks up turns the radio up a little louder. It’s crazy that between entering and leaving Burger King the sky had started as a bright blue and become pink and orange.

It’ll be black soon.

You slurp your milkshake and shovel down your fries while Yuuji takes a chomp out of his burger. The ketchup squirted out and dribbled embarrassingly down his lovely clean shirt.

“Oh shit!” you speak, covering your mouth and giggling while you still have crushed up fries in your mouth.

Yuuji looks between his shirt, the burger, and your dress. He couldn’t and wouldn’t let the same thing happen to you. He picks up all of his food and dumps it on the hood of his car. He picks up your food and did the same, telling you to get out of the vehicle. You stand awkwardly on the grass, your heels sink into the ground so you opt to take them off and throw them back into the car.

Yuuji retrieves his fresh gym clothes from the trunk of his car. A baggy grey t-shirt and ultramarine blue shorts. He pulled your dress up from the bottom and over your head. You gasp and cover your breasts as the cold night air pinches at you.

Your panic soon leaves your body as Yuuji began kissing your neck down to your collarbone before helping you into his shirt.

“Always so beautiful princess, doesn’t matter what you wear.” he whispers. Next, you were climbing into his shorts. It feels a little uncomfortable to be in boy’s clothes you aren’t used to and they don’t fit quite right, but you’re grateful for the gesture anyway.

He folds your expensive dress delicately, placing it carefully in the backseat. He helps lift you onto the hood of the car, and your stomach sinks as the car bounces when he climbs up to join you. You spend the night eating as much food as you can handle.

You wait for the blushing pink sky to plummet into purple. and eagerly anticipate the arrival of the stars. As dreadful as the weekend has been, you’re thankful you at least had Yuuji by your side.

Maybe you don’t need anyone else in your life.

He really is the perfect boyfriend.

© 2021 fuwushiguro | © 2024 rinhaler

[shotorozu]

encountering a ‘pick me’ girl

character(s) : kirishima eijirou, todoroki shouto, bakugou katsuki (bnha)

warning : PICK ME GIRL, misogyny (?) pick me girl makes an off handed comment about your body but it’s not detailed at all

PART TWO — PART THREE

legend : [Y/N = your name] afab! reader, but they/them pronouns used, quirk not mentioned

headcanon type : fluff, angst if you squint

note(s) : i made 2 versions of this post so,, if you’re reading this— then i probably decided that i liked this one more than the other one i made,, anyways, i used real life examples 💀

»»————-　♡　————-««

kirishima eijirou

i’d imagine that eijirou would have an idea of what a pick me girl is— i mean, there were probably 2 of those girls in middle school

but has he experienced it first hand? nahh.

though, eijirou didn’t think he’d encounter one when he was already in a healthy and committed relationship!

eijirou is practically friends with everyone— and yeah, even the most unexpected. so, he’s bound to accidentally befriend a pick me girl

him, being the nicest one out of all of the characters in this list, will still be nice to said pick me girl, despite wanting to snob them to the core

because really— you can’t really fight fire with fire in some cases

but, he can be everything but lenient when the pick me girl starts insulting you for doing certain things, and for absurd reasons too

like,, how you laugh, and how you take care of yourself (for example— if you wear makeup, or how you style your hair)

which is odd! everything about you is everything but the things the pick me girl has stated so.. he cannot stand by.

SCENARIO

the girl giggles to herself after that snide comment leaves her lip gloss coated lips. eijirou shifts uncomfortably— honestly taken aback by the anything but subtle insult that was thrown at you

“like.. seriously! it’s honestly quite superficial if you look at it like that. who the hell would put that much effort infront of your boyfriend? i’d assume they’d see everything AND everything but.. i guess not.”

you blink. superficial? now that’s a new one. the girl infront of you has been babbling insults sugarcoated in boasts the entire time, and you’re just wondering if it’s about time you guys leave but—

“well that’s unfair,” your boyfriend laughs, “i put the same amount of effort as this cutie right here,” eijirou pokes at your cheek, earning a quick laugh from you— which he can only thank the heavens for that

“but that’s different. it actually looks put together when you’re doing it, eiji.” the certain glint in her smile makes you want to wipe it right off with a dirty mop, “it’s impossible to look put together with expensive clothes, but being built like a—”

the sound of the sliding of a chair is quicker than your actions, and it easily cuts her off.

“i’m sorry, but we gotta go, it’s totally not cool of you to say those things about Y/N!”

“what? but i mean.. it’s true, right? i’m looking out for them! they’re literally out here l—”

“bye!” eijirou waves her goodbye with your hand, dismissing the sour expression on her face— as he dashes off with you

you’d question how he’s just so nice to people like that, but when he turns around, you could see the distaste in his eyes

“so that’s what a pick me girl’s like,” shaking his head, his expression lights up with such a quick manner “i’ll never make friends that are like that again!”

safe to say, eijirou’s friend list has been a a person shorter ever since that incident

bakugou katsuki

oh, so that girl’s bold bold.

if she thinks she could get away with being a not so subtle pick me girl infront of bakugou katsuki, then she couldn’t be more wrong.

it’s absolutely revolting— i mean, he hasn’t displayed any romantic feelings towards ANYONE that isn’t you.

also, they’re quite gutsy if you ask me. so congrats for having guts??

i don’t think he’d be friends with a pick me girl. he’s very selective of who he’s befriending, so it’s probably your friend that’s the pick me girl in this case

he wouldn’t know what a pick me girl would be, but he’d probably know the description of one.

over some time, he’d grow some resistance to insults directed at him, but when someone insults his s/o

oh boy. that’s not good. remember when i said that katsuki was almost like your scary and intimidating dog

this is what i mean

knows he can’t make a scene, so his first option is to be dismissive asf— but if said pick me girl literally can’t get it, he won’t be afraid of shoving some explosions into her face

because his hands are rated e for everyone

SCENARIO

“so you wanna be picked or something, is that it?” he hates how you literally have the resistance of a rock— which is something he always liked, but in this case hated. if it weren’t for you— he would’ve blasted explosions into her sorry excuse of a face until it’s beyond recognition (that wouldn’t be hero like, is what you’ve said in the past, but he disagrees.)

but seriously? ugh. he just wants to leave this horrid place, and make some dinner with you in the comfort of his home. why are you even friends with her anyway? she’s not even trying to be slick at this point.

“p-picked? i’m not understanding, katsu.”

“it’s bakugou.”

“right,” her laughter is like nails on chalkboard, “i’m just watching out for Y/N, y’know? there’s no point in wearing all of that.. on their face.” and she’s obviously referring to your obviously very well done makeup

“it’ll make your skin terrible in the long run! and really— i couldn’t really understand on why someone would wear that much, when you could survive with i dunno.. lip gloss at most?”

you would’ve actually said something as a rebuttal, but your boyfriend is quicker, and a lot more direct than anyone else in the area.

“just say you can’t do makeup and fucking scram,” katsuki’s ice cold glare finally breaks out of the act he’s been trying to hold together for you

“their makeup is fucking bomb as hell, compared to your ridiculous spider lashes, lady. come back when you’ve watched james charles’ entire fucking channel.” he harshly states in similar bakugou fashion, despite the lack of screaming.

and if you squinted hard enough, you could see tears welling up in her eyes. but katsuki tugs your hand before anything else could be said

“let’s fucking go, you need better friends.”

he makes you cut ties with all of them, and he practically scolds your terrible choice of friends— but he goes quiet when you tell him that you’ve been friends with her since middle school

“good fucking riddance. next time, i’ll punch them as soon as they say something outta line, got that?” and next time (hopefully, there won’t be a next time) you’ll actually lash out— or maybe,, you’ll let him loose for once.

todoroki shouto

now shouto might be,, socially unaware sometimes. but he can tell whenever someone’s trying to insult his s/o

like,, right away.

now— you both run into this person after a pleasant date, and she eagerly presented herself as your friend

so, her attitude catches him off guard because who’d have anything rude to say about you and towards shouto’s face? especially when it’s about something normal.

like,, wasn’t she your friend?? why is she even like this?

his hostility is very well known, so they should be scared.

he gets detached from the conversation, and he’ll immediately go cold— and shouto would probably go as far as walking away with your hand in his

doesn’t matter if he properly says goodbye or not— if a girl’s being rude to his s/o, they obviously don’t deserve his usually polite attitude. nope, that’s a luxury.

oh— and what more when they’re seeking for his validation. newsflash! said pick me girl won’t be get any from him.

SCENARIO

shouto couldn’t stop the bitterness bleeding into his mouth, when the girl in front of him continued to babble and take up the valuable time he had left with his s/o

initially, she presented herself as your friend from middle school— but as of now? she seems to be more interested in him more than you, despite knowing you first.

she’d ask him a string of obvious questions with very obvious answers, like ‘is she treating you well?’ ‘is she acting correctly?’ and questions of the sort

“oh, sorry! i’d hate to cut this conversation short, but—” you finally decide that it was about time to leave, while shouto looks pretty,, deadpanned right now, you could tell that he was gradually starting to get irritated by your friend’s words.

“wait. thats.. kind of controlling, don’t you think? do you ever let shou make decisions?”

“uh.. controlling? since when??” you question at the accusation. this girl knows nothing about your relationship dynamic, and she’s already jumping the gun and making conclusions.

your gaze snaps back to shouto, who looks just as surprised as he could possibly be.

“yeah! it clearly looks like he still wants to talk” which is an obvious lie, shouto just wants it out of here “i wonder how you managed to snag such a guy like him,” she comments with a smile that looked anything above suspicion (yet, it makes your stomach churn)

you could see the way her hand gets gradually closer to him— and frankly, you’re not sure about what she was planning to do next, “you wouldn’t need to dress all expensive and fancy, if you’re with a girl with an already classy appear—”

“i think this conversation is over,” shouto grip is firm on the wrist that was attempting to grab his shoulder, shouto makes no attempt to even look at the girl infront of him “i don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not humorous. at all.”

“what?” she stammers, drawing her hand back “i-it’s obvious they don’t know how to take a joke! this is why there are barely any good w—”

shouto’s next actions knocks her speechless, his hand rests at the small of your back, before gently guiding you forward— “love, what movie are we watching later?” he says, making an effort to press a quick, yet intense kiss on your lips

“oh,” you breathe out, surprised by this action. “don’t be so tense, love.” shouto comments on how tense your shoulders have looked, ever since she started running her mouth, “now.. what movie do you want to watch tonight? comedy? thriller?”

“you pick,” you laugh at the quick shift of topic. and when you look behind you, you could see shame and defeat welling up on her face. shouto finally feels like he could smile again, the bitterness dissipating from his mouth

after shouto questions you if that was what a pick me girl was, he makes sure that you guys won’t ever encounter such thing again

“you.. don’t have more friends like that, right? if you do— we could always do another friend list cleansing.” this statement makes you laugh but shouto is anything but joking

but being reminded of his reaction to that ‘pick me’ girl does puts a smile on your face.

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[pleuvoire]

fundamentally i think the main difference between ryuki and pmmm (which borrowed Heavily from ryuki, for those new here) is a sense of agency. although both are about being stuck in a system designed to be a self-perpetuating cycle of combat that you can’t get out of, the characters of ryuki feel more like they are exercising their own will despite the complete lack of options they have, whereas the characters of pmmm are kind of borne helplessly on the tide of fate,

there are two main reasons i can pinpoint for this, the first is that both of them involve having a wish granted as the tradeoff for your fighting, but in pmmm, you get the wish granted as soon as you gain your powers, whereas in ryuki, you get your wish granted only once you’ve eliminated all the other kamen riders and are the last one standing. this means that the ryuki riders are constantly working towards something and are motivated to continue pursuing the path they’re on, even if it’s one they can’t leave. whereas in pmmm it’s a big thing of like whoops, you got your wish granted, the magic of it has worn off, now you’re trapped here and it turns out it sucks!! as a driving factor of the despair arc of the series,

which brings me to the second cause of the difference in agency which is how in pmmm none of the characters truly knew what they were signing up for, and this tragic reveal is a big part of the story. whereas in ryuki, well we never really see what kanzaki’s onboarding process looks like since our pov character is an outlier who stumbled into the fight, but all the characters made an active choice to be involved and none of them ever really complain about it so we can assume there was a general level of informed consent. the closest we get to something like the broad “what have i gotten myself into” of pmmm is sano trying to quit the rider battle only to be told he can’t, and that wasn’t so much “this isn’t what i signed up for” as “my circumstances have changed and i don’t need to do this anymore”. wait i just thought of a third thing which is that in ryuki if you don’t properly feed your contract monster with the souls of your defeated enemies you get eaten. end of story. but in pmmm if you don’t properly cleanse your grief seed with the souls of your defeated enemies you turn into a witch, and then someone else has to kill you, i.e. you become a mindless force to be acted on and can no longer have any say in your own existence.

so yeah in ryuki the characters are making choices to fight and pursuing their goals whereas in pmmm they got tricked and find themselves trapped on the sinking ship of their destiny. i like the ryuki version better (of course)(famously the ryuki friend over here) although i think both types of story have merit and a story about being trapped on a sinking ship is not automatically bad. however, while i don’t agree with many of the misogyny accusations leveled at pmmm, i find it suspect that the version that stars girls completely and explicitly removes most of the characters’ agency compared to the inspiration/source material