#The liberals have been ignoring business for quite a while

[spdrvyn]

Perhaps a request for Miggy x scientist reader? Reader is a a former Alchemex scientist who used to work with Miguel. They have been working in spider HQ ever since the beginning of spider society. Both of them have been too busy to realize the bottled up feelings and emotions that is about to burst….

breaking beakers

miguel and a reader that's been by his side since day 1. since the treachery of alchemax, you've been loyal to miguel and his cause for protection of the multiverse. read bit by bit how your relationship with miguel develops, even if it's only something as simple as helping him administer rapture.

angst. drug usage (rapture). panic attack. absolutely love this request! i've never written a story where the reader was already a part of miguel's past so this is new and exciting for me. thank you, anon! i put my own twist, i hope you still enjoy reading ♡

dividers by @cafekitsune

breaking breakers

When you got paired up with your workplace's assigned asshole, you were more than concerned for your career than ever. 

Miguel wasn't easy from the start. Arguments were one after the other, followed by complete silence in the lab due to the inability of either of you to take accountability. You had never really heard him talk or engage in conversation properly unless it was to scold or correct you for making, according to him, a quintillion mistakes. 

It stretched you thin, you were close to asking the higher-ups to give you another partner, but you knew that they would ignore your protests so you put up with it. Besides, talking smack with your friends outside of work helped. Though, you knew that they were getting a little tired from it as well. 

After a particularly harsh argument with him, you couldn't retaliate with anything witty to say. You sulked in your own corner of the laboratory for a while, until Miguel silently placed a small, steaming hot cup of coffee on your desk. 

That moment had triggered the beginning of your actual relationship. Sometimes, the room would still be strung tight with tension, but it was better than awkwardly hanging around each other and waiting for yet another fight to start. It slowly turned into Miguel giving you rides home, Miguel buying more than just coffee for you, and Miguel staying at your place after he dropped you off.

Then he quit. 

Or did he get fired? Liberated, in corporate terms. You didn't know the full story, you got a new lab partner one day, Miguel was gone, there was no coffee on your desk anymore. There was no comfortable silence. 

It was difficult to get a hold on him with the moments that followed, you knew well that he had a tendency to brood, but never for this long. He didn't leave you on read, your messages weren't even going through. You searched his name up on social media and found nothing, a thousand other Miguels but not your Miguel. You reached out to his brother after a lot of thinking, but he couldn't come up with an answer either because his family didn't know where he went either. 

Perhaps it shouldn't have upset you as much as it should have, Alchemax viewed their employees as expendable toys. You didn't mean to get attached to him, but you had breached that line very long ago ever since the first shouting match. He was your friend now, no corporation was going to get between at least trying to talk again. 

When you had gotten a message from an unknown number, there were only two possible answers. A telemarketer or Miguel. Likely possibilities, a fifty percent chance for either. You thanked God that it was the latter. 

The power that was held in that conversation had changed the trajectory of your life forever. Miguel helped arrange a time for you to meet, the second you caught sight of him, it erupted a feeling in you that you just couldn't bring yourself to describe. 

He still looked like him, but otherwise different. His face looked more sunken in, eyebags, lines you hadn't seen on his face before. He was definitely taller, his physique was more built as well. What caught your attention the most though was his eyes, crimson red and deliberately drained of light. 

Miguel, what happened to you?

It was a long, overly extensive talk. You shouldn't have broken down over it, the events that lead up to his timely demise at his job. It wasn't your place to cry over his misfortunes, but he looked like he didn't have it left in him to cry so you took that place for him. Alchemax was your breeding ground for innovation and evolution of human society, a little shady around the edges, but you knew that you'd still be helping people in the end. After this, your hopes in that place had been quashed. Clearly if they were heartless enough to treat one of their top geneticists like this, they wouldn't be any better towards the safety and care of the populus. 

So you quit your job immediately. Miguel invited you to Spider Society and you gladly agreed, you were in no position to really decline. Besides, it was a good way to get you back on your feet again. You had become acquainted with the people that passed by in what used to be headquarters back then, Miguel trusted them with his life it seemed (despite him not being able to admit that himself though).

You'd find yourself in HQ more than in your own apartment at that point, you enjoyed being there. You had closer friends, Spider-People were better company than mad scientists anyway. You helped Miguel make this new, exciting thing from foundation to the top. It helped you become more social, it made you more comfortable opening up to people again. 

You just didn't know that it was doing quite the opposite with Miguel. 

You had blamed yourself for not noticing sooner, for not picking up the details that he wasn't doing as fine as he thought he was. When you found the doors to his office locked, you already felt your heart begin to race. You called out to Lyla and she was more than willing to answer back, "He's going through something, he hasn't really been taking his Rapture doses recently and-"

"Let me handle it," you said, firmly. "I can help him. I can fix it." 

Lyla looked at you, just looked. She didn't feel, she wasn't supposed to feel exactly. She could act like it, her programming allowed her that at least. She made perfectly calculated decisions and perfectly calculated reactions to them, when she noticed a problem, she was supposed to fix it. 

You weren't as accustomed to Lyla as other people, but you were aware of that as well. In spite of that, she still managed to be the light in conversations most of the time. Literally, when it was the dead of night, just you and Miguel strewing and caking together more reports, she'd find ways to make it more entertaining. 

That means if Lyla looked at you like she did, with so much uncertainty and inner conflict. It was like her code turned to beat like a human heart, you could hear it in the swift moment of silent she'd left you in. The hiss and whir to Miguel's office doors reeled you back in, Lyla sighed. She shouldn't sigh, she never sighed. 

"Do the right thing," she wished you off. God, I hope so, you thought to yourself. 

It was dark, obviously. You were used to it, ever since Miguel told you about how sensitive his senses can get, you didn't really mind at all. There was still light that peeked from the corners, a small monitor here and there, maybe a secret window you just didn't know about. It was cozy sometimes even to evade the blinding sunlight and stay in the darkness with Miguel. But that's not at all what it felt like when you entered. It did not embrace you, it suffocated you.

There was no accompanied noise either, no beeping from a monitor, no whirring of a machine, and no idle chatter with him and Lyla like there would always be. It was the purest form of silence, the sound of your breathing and the small pats of your shoes against the cold, metal ground was all you could hear. 

Miguel's platform was placed high up, there was absolutely no way that you could get to him without using a web shooter. Unless you could somehow convince him to lower his platform, which you really didn't want to do in the case you might accidentally say something stupid. 

"Miguel?" You yelled, stupidly. Though, it would be more stupid to try and propel yourself up to the height of his platform. One option results in humiliation until the end of your life while the other option could result in the end of your life. You weren't really looking forward to experiencing the latter.

You thought you heard him mumble something, but before you could call out his name again, he answered back. "Get out." 

The absence of cruelty in his tone was prominent to you already. He didn't have the heart to speak so coldly to you in the first place. No, he sounded scared, fearful, whether it was of you or himself, you were yet to find out the reason why. The priority right now was to talk to him, properly.

"Are you sure about that? I have a, uh, really important work file that I need you to review! The multiverse is at stake here, Miguel. Come on!"

Silence. For a few seconds. Before you heard the unmistakable click and whir of his platform, it makes its slow descent down towards you. Miguel begun to enter your vision, he had a chair pulled up and he was hunched over on his desk. Rare, you knew he liked to work when standing (oddly enough). 

"You're a bad liar," he grumbled, not even facing you as he said it. You sighed as you stepped onto the platform, placing your hands on your hips. 

"I wasn't lying, but your doors were locked and Lyla told me that there was something going on here." Miguel mumbled something else under his breath that you couldn't catch, he simply goes back to what to whatever he's doing. Which you really couldn't allow, but you couldn't push yourself into this. With him, there was always some sort of process. 

You took the moment to observe your surroundings, it was unbearably messy in here. A feat that he'd somehow been able to achieve despite being way past the age of papers, there was clutter everywhere. From beakers, liquids of mysterious origin pooled around from here to there, and even... Blood?! 

Your attention had snapped back to Miguel and that's when you had started to notice, how his shoulders rose and fell faster than usual, his hands ruffled in his hair, the rapid successions of his breath. 

"Miguel," Shock the process. Shock waiting. He clearly wasn't okay, you knew that to the fullest now. In three short strides, you were already by his side. "What's going on?"

He shook his head. Okay, you didn't want to press him too hard into talking, but this wasn't something that you could leave alone. Hesitantly, you placed a hand on one of his shoulders. He flinched, so did you, but right now, you needed to be the strongest person in the room so you kept your hand there. 

You tilted your head to the side, just so you could see his face, but he avoided your gaze. What entered your sights however was a discarded needle gun, yet to be picked up, and a few claw marks on the table. 

So this was the Rapture that Lyla was talking about. You hadn't a single clue what it was when she mentioned it, you pretended because you thought that she'd lock you out if you hadn't. Even then, there isn't much you could deduce aside from the fact that it was a drug Miguel had to take. You heard very little about the Rapture studies back in Alchemax, it was very classified, and you wish you would have pried more. 

"Do you need help with that?" You asked, trying to keep your voice as level as possible. Your thumb drew small circles into the muscle of his shoulder, his hands fell from his hair to his sides. He slumped back against his chair with a big sigh, and he nodded. 

Shakily, you picked up the gun. There was no seat for you to take, so you decided on sitting on the table. When you leaned down, the nanofabric of Miguel's suit had dissipated, revealing the fullness of his arm to you. You attempted to steady your hands over the exposed skin, Miguel doesn't even wince as the little needles pierce through. 

It will probably take a little while for the vial to empty out. You stewed in the silence with Miguel for a while, you'd usually use this as an opportunity to make conversation, but judging from his current state, he probably isn't one for talking. 

You released the breath that you were holding in when it was finished, you set the device for the side. Your hand remained on Miguel's shoulder the whole time and it tightened as you asked, "Is there–"

"No. No, I'm sorry. I'm just-" Miguel took a deep breath. "I'm- not ready to talk about it right now. It's a lot, sorry for bothering you."

He still wouldn't look you in the eye, you looked down to his hands and saw him tugging and pinching at the fabric of his suit. He'd calmed down a little now at least, but still. You couldn't help but feel like you've failed somehow, you tried to put on what's supposed to resemble a smile to him. "Okay, that's fine." 

When he dismissed you and let you (told you) to leave him alone, you promised yourself that you'd wait. You'd wait for him to be ready.

But maybe he never will. 

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

A small collection of KOTLC things Shannon told me at 3am

I promise she told me guys, this is totally legit

Dex Dizznee isn’t actually blonde but ginger, he gets his hair color from his dad. The three triplets all have strawberry blonde hair like their mom. His hair is also curly but like, loosely curly, and it’s really dry from all the shit he ‘experiments’ on it with.

Fitz Vacker once accidentally stumbled into a musical while in the human world and now absolutely loves musical songs. His favorite is Phantom of the Opera. It wasn’t like Alden was constantly watching him in the human world so he’d sometimes just sneak into theaters to listen and watch the shows.

Maruca Chebota is the most middle child ever. She has an older and a younger brother, but also another older cousin (Wylie) and two younger cousins. She’s even in the middle in terms of that, which is ironic because her mom is also the middle child between her two siblings.

Terik is Talentless, but he’s got basically a watered-down version of Empathy from his parents, who were both incredibly powerful Empaths who had been tasked with making sure Elves turned into myth for humans. He’s been scamming the whole Elven society for centuries and isn’t about to stop now.

Alina’s family was involved in a scandal when she was very young that resulted in them being cast out from the Nobility and their birth funds being revoked, though they were allowed to remain in Talentless cities. She decided to pursue Alden primarily for his family name - and the fact that she would up being one of the first people on his Match list was just the cherry on top. It made it even worse when he decided to marry Della instead, though at that point it was later enough she could detach herself from her family anyway.

Sophie Foster’s human family were anti-vaxx, Protestant, and Republican. Sophie was always a bit too busy trying to manage her telepathy to notice much about their political stances. Amy is growing to be significantly more liberal and had began to openly argue with them before everything in Nightfall happened.

Alina is Fitz’s biological mother. After Alvar was born and already not shaping up into the son Alden wanted by age 11, she used his desperation to Beguile him into having a child with her. When Alden realized what she’d done he did his best to cut all contact with her, though he did take Fitz, something with both Alina and Della resented. Alvar knew about this, which is why he dislikes Fitz so much while still loving his younger sister, Biana.

Livvy Soden is a triple agent, working in the Black Swan as a spy for the Neverseen as a spy for the Black Swan. No one is quite sure what her intentions are any more.

Wylie Endal has his own group of friends, who are all in their early 20s, and who love making fun of him for being forced to hang out with a bunch of teenagers. His best friend among them is Tanho, who’s Talentless, and was kicked out of his house at age 15 as a result after an abusive childhood. He stayed with Wylie and Tiergan for a few months after while trying to sort himself out, and is a large part of the reason why Wylie is now as observant and skeptical as he is.

Stina Heks isn’t actually an Empath, she’s a Mesmer, but a weak one. Not that she knows it.

It’s not actually Fitz who has the Nobility attitude towards humans, as in condescending and ignorant, though it does seem that way - he spent far too much time in the human world to not pick up on some of the good and interesting parts of humanity as well. It’s Biana, who spent most of her childhood being raised in a fairly isolated group of Elves who all had huge superiority complexes towards other species.

Ruewen is Edaline and Juline’s last names. Juline took Kesler’s last name to finally shut up her parents, who were harping on about how Kesler was using her for her family.

Grady Ruewen’s mother disappeared soon after he manifested as a Mesmer at age 12, resulting in a huge amount of people blaming him for it and his family, already in a precarious social position, to get hit even harder. Taking Edaline’s last name allowed him to entirely reform himself to a new person to the outside world. At least, until Jolie died.

Jolie Ruewen was a part of the Elven equivalent of a punk rock band, which tends to have a slightly more melodious (though still loud and chaotic) sound than human rock. Brant was their singer, and they had their first kiss during a concert, to excite the crowd even more. They decided they liked it and just kept doing it even off stage.

The movement began a few decades earlier, after an illegal trip to the human realm gave some twenty year old elves the idea to begin making their own instruments to try and mimic the sounds they found in the human world.

Tam and Linh Song grew up purposefully separated from each other, with Tam mainly spending time with their Dad and Linh their mom. As a result, Linh developed a love of painting, as it’s some of the only pleasant times she can recall with her mother, and Tam developed a hatred of economics and desk chairs.

Keefe Sencen and Linh Song are really good friends. No one else is aware of this. They also regularly vandalize council buildings.

Despite what certain artists and books will tell you, Elven houses are not made of crystal. They’re based on Ancient architecture, mainly using stone or wood or both, and have a wide variety of designs and patterns depending on where you go.

Most Elves do live in populated cities. Rimshire is a small-ish house located on the outskirts of Mysterium, not as close to the more densely populated parts of the city, but still with a lot of people. However, as Nobility usually do love in isolated, grand estates, it took a bit for Juline to get used to it. As Kesler grew up in a much smaller house with five siblings, he had the opposite experience.

Marella Redek’s favorite aunt is a Neverseen member. Marella is a Black Swan member. They have fought each other before and the next day hugged at a family gathering. Neither are aware of this.

Fitz Vacker talks to his stuffed animals. He has more than one - he has Mr Snuggles, obviously, but also Biana gave him one during Flashback, and Keefe made him one before he left for the Neverseen the first time. They all give different advice. Mr Snuggles sounds like Tiergan, the one Biana gave him sounds like Alvar, and the one Keefe made him sounds like Keefe.

Rayni Aria (Glimmer) was lying about her entire backstory in Stellarlune. Tam is the only one who knows what actually happened to her.

Rayni and Linh eventually grow to tolerate each other, if for Tam’s sake only. Linh can’t deal with having to share the one person she’d always thought would put her first (nevermind if he always would anyway); Rayni sees Linh’s hostility and automatically returns it with her own. As they get used to each other, they can be in a room without arguing or passive aggressively insulting each other.

Despite this, they’re actually very similar people, which makes them both even angrier. Linh can’t even make fun of how he acted with Keefe anymore now because of how she and Rayni act.

The reason Bronte is so mad at Fintan is that he found out that Fintan was dating JRR Tolkien at the same time as they were secretly dating (as to avoid being kicked out from the Council). Fintan was under the mistaken impression Bronte was also dating him, Bronte had misspoken and said he was ‘dating’ Tolkien instead of ‘rating’ Tolkien (as in, his books).

Fitz and Dex are in love, the Vackers are Desi, and Fintan has a flat ass. This is common knowledge though.

[cha-melodius]

TFW you start writing a new fic (when you shouldn't, because the fic that's due for an exchange is not done shhhhhh), but then you don't want to share anything from that too because you want it to be a surprise (if you can finish it before Christmas)...

Anyway, please instead have this bit of the YGM AU that I wrote quite a while ago now, but it's Christmassy so I'm sharing it now. Thanks for the tags @kiwiana-writes, @xthelastknownsurvivorx, @orchidscript, @leaves-of-laurelin, @rmd-writes, and @adreamareads. Also @clottedcreamfudge asked to be tagged, so there.

One frigid mid-December evening, he calls a cab to take him to Brooklyn and loads the boxes into the trunk. There’s a new pin attached to the lapel of his coat: a tiny bi pride flag that Nora dropped nonchalantly on his desk the other day. On one hand, he feels kind of ridiculous to be broadcasting it to the world at large considering he hasn’t come out to his family—or anyone but Nora, actually—but there’s something to be said for the anonymity. The nameless New Yorkers he encounters don’t care. It’s kind of liberating. The Okonjo shelter is housed in a modern construction with an exterior of glass, concrete, steel, but the inside is homey and warm, decorated with an eclectic collection of furniture that somehow doesn’t look mismatched. The front room seems to be a lobby of sorts, which is decked out with a massive Christmas tree that’s absolutely covered in ornaments representing every kind of queer pride flag. Alex is too busy trying to carry too many boxes at once to really appreciate all of the handmade holiday decor, but he catches sight of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa decorations amongst plentiful signs proclaiming things like “Make the Yuletide Gay” (a standard), “Jingle All the Gay” (kind of a stretch), and “Ho Ho Homosexual” (inspired—Alex might steal that one for the shop).

It's getting late and I've been busy all day so idk who's been tagged, so please feel free to ignore me. @welcometololaland, @cricketnationrise, @indomitable-love, @iboatedhere, @lizzie-bennetdarcy, @ships-to-sail, @sherryvalli, @statueinthestonetoo, @liminalmemories21, @myheartalivewrites, @nontoxic-writes, @tintagel-or-cockleshells, @dumbpeachjuice, @three-drink-amy, @nicijones, @mirilyawrites, @loki-is-my-kink-awakening, and an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in, tag me!

[shitty-fallout-art]

only a single portrait because you don't need to see more right now :)

-Currently residing within the bowels of the Slop Shop hideout, Cait is an unwilling captive acting as Jared's current prophet.

-Not much could initially be said about Cait, given that she had nobody with which to share her story with. Once she was sold to the Combat Arena, she figured she would spend the rest of her life within its walls without a hope of ever being freed from them; and technically, she was correct.

-For years her routine had been a murky cycle of violence, the days blending together so that she lived perpetually within the chaotic fights of the arena. Between the chems that both gave her spirit and dulled her mind, and Tommy not being one to keep her updated with matters that, frankly, didn't interest her, the world seemed to pas by her with little trouble, until its troubles grew too great for her to be ignorant of.

-The numbers always fluctuated, raiders coming and going at all intervals depending on circumstance alone. Raider nests often got liberated or stolen, their proximity to Diamond City was often a liability risk, and prime targets in the southern regions were often too good to pass up. No matter what the combat arena promised in terms of excitement or caps, the unpredictable world of the commonwealth outside meant that business could go from busy to slow, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

-It wasn't until the numbers drastically went up that she figured something must have been driving everyone up north.

-At first it was a great boom for business, and despite the increase in her performances, she was also allotted time for herself to make room for other, fresher acts. Though unable to leave and very restricted in what she was allowed to do, Cait was able to make the most of her time with chem usage and general distractions, and second-hand she learned of pretty strange things happening outside the Combat Arena.

-The arrival of the Brotherhood got quite a laugh out of a lot of people, as did the rise of the minutemen, though such opinions were tinged with embitterment and anger towards their rapid success and rock-hard defenses. Nothing had squashed their spirits yet, but it was obvious that most raiders saw both groups as a challenge, and held mixed feelings of excitement and worry at a confrontation. Any further politics surrounding them had slipped her mind. Her addiction had grown heavier, and her actions while under usage became extreme and frightening.

-For months the Combat Arena flourished, then came a steady decline in profits, yet the number of patrons never went down. People were still showing up, and weirdly enough, staying there for long periods of time, though it appeared as though there just wasn't enough to indulge in freely. Chems were still easy to get hold of, but food started to become a bit harder to come by, and it wasn't for lack of effort on the raiders part. Cait's position kept her well fed, but fights often broke out amongst the freeloaders.

-Tommy was gradually loosing control of his business. It was hard to throw out the people who couldn't pay, but as they grew in number they overwhelmed him and eventually made themselves at home. Everything was running dry but they had no means with which to replace it. The Brotherhood was putting pressure on nearby areas and if they caught wind of the place then the Combat Arena was doomed.

-He grew desperate, and though he had promised to take Cait with him, he tried to sell her contract in the end for a little extra cash.

-The man who bought it, a Raider named Rust, was a strange one. He often talked about the failings of Ortega and bought large quantities of chems whenever he could, though rarely seemed to take them himself. When the Brotherhood came knocking down their down, he took Cait and fled towards the northeast. Cait hated him, but he supplied her with chems and kept her ignorant of the fallout outside, so she didn't complain much.

-She spent most of her days traveling and most of her nights swimming underneath intoxication, and it was one of these nights that the pair had met Jared.

-At a raider's den in Green Trailer Estates, Cait scourged for any chems they had available, becoming wild and uncontrollable with its influence. This had often brought her negative attention, but for Jared it was a sign of something great.

-She thought his questions were weird, most didn't make sense, but he seemed to like the nonsensical answer she gave, and when he promised her more chems for more answers she simply couldn't refuse.

-She didn't find out until after Rust and Jared formed a partnership that she had dug herself into her own grave.

-Her chem usage had increased substantially, but even when she tried to take a break they kept giving them to her. In moments of coherency she started to realize that the answers she was expected to give Jared were wholly unbelievable and impossible for her to know, but he insisted that she had some kind of ability to answer them.

-Cait grew confused and worried, but also weaker and sicker as time went on. Jared acted accordingly, giving her time off the chems and trying to keep her as healthy as possible, but it was during these sick episodes that she came to learn just how crazy he really was and how shitty she felt all the time.

-In was simply out of question for her to quit, they wouldn't allow her, and the feelings she so once enjoyed as a means of escape became painful and impossible to tolerate.

-Over the course of many years she hung on the brink of death, only to be kept alive for the sole purpose of acting as a seer. Even when malnourishment ruined all of them, even when her urine grew black and painful, even when her heart could not beat on its own and she could not even lift her own head; Jared simply refused to part with his ticket to greatness.

-But he still realized the toll this was taking on her, and that was when the experiential abductions began. From her bed she watched many chem users come and go, unable to provide the proof Jared sought and often dying from the effects of whatever cocktail Jared's boy's had concocted.

-It's a hard and painful life that she's grown sick of, having abandoned all hope of ever getting better, though she asks for a swift, painful death instead of slowly rotting away. It seems inevitable that she will eventually meet her end, no matter how hard Doctor Carrington tries to keep her alive, but those chems they keep administering are starting to have strange effects on her body, and she isn't sure what to make of that.

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

it’s important to read accounts of prostitutes who are against criminalisation. their voices are the only ones that matter after all, even if i dont agree with their conclusions.

you will notice patterns/types that repeat which i would like to describe here.

the impoverished one: usually has people in her life who financially depend on her (family, child, partner, or even friends). doesnt stand a chance on the regular job market due to a lack of education/education not being recognised, being an immigrant/language barrier, having a disability, mental illness or substance abuse problems, being a single mother or because any job she can get is not viable due to work schedule or low salary. sees prostitution as her only option. would maybe like to save money to open a business one day because she actually doesnt like being prostituted.

the grooming victim: usually entered prostitution young because friends or family told her about it, maybe an aunt, a roommate or a cousin are prostituted too. her social circle has normalised the sexual abuse so she doesnt recognise it as such. these can also be “high class escorts” like influencers turned yacht girls.

the coping one: usually a woman who has been in prostitution for quite a while, potentially tried to exit and failed before. clings onto the few regulars that actually take her comfort into account (as much as is possible in prostitution) and treat her with respect (arguable how much sex buyers respect women but okay) to defend sex buyers. her social circle is usually other prostitutes. maybe even is friends with the brothel owner and sees the brothel as her family. has accepted her fate and tries to cope by defending it.

the privileged one: usually well-educated, chose prostitution against other viable options. claims criminalisation would take away her bodily autonomy and ignores that she could still have sex with random men under the nordic model. in a position where she can pick and choose who buys sex from her. falsely sees paid sex as “liberation” because she sees financial gain as empowerment no matter the sacrifice, or thrives on male validation: her self esteem and self worth depend entirely on being fuckable to men.

the lobbyist: while all types can do lobby work, this person usually is a prostitute turned madame or someone who earns money with prostitution advocacy, for example as head of a lobby group, sometimes they are backed financially by pimps and brothels. their opinion actually doesnt matter because they changed sides.

as always with typologies take this with a grain of salt. this is just meant as an orientation to understand where these voices are coming from.

[blackjackkent]

Brought Lae'zel into the party in our flex slot, since we want her on hand for the Orphic chaos. (@zenjestrr tells me we'll have one more chance to update our party before the big ending battle, so we'll probably swap Minsc back in for that.)

Voss is still waiting for us where we last saw him in the sewers. Patient fellow, especially given how much it must stink down there. However, he has a buddy down here with him who wasn't here before!

Who dis?

"Have you brought the Orphic Hammer?"

Hector has questions before he's going to hand over the hammer.

"Who is this new companion of yours?"

"Not a new companion, but an old one. And a loyal one. A proper introduction is in order - but I will let him do the honors."

Poor Voss really looks and sounds worn out as hell and tore up from the floor up. Rebelling against Vlaakith is clearly not a relaxing occupation.

Also that's not technically an answer, but Hector lets it pass for now.

"Where are the rest of your allies?" he asks.

"The remaining honor guard serve as my eyes and ears," Voss answers. "Vlaakith's forces hunt you and the Prism. My allies have slayed more than you know, so that you might travel freely. As for those that break through - you've proven more than capable of bleeding them yourself."

This is rather unsettling for Hector to hear - that there have been many battles going on behind the scenes in defense of him, while he had no knowledge of it at all. He looks at Voss steadily and wonders - how many of this man's friends have died to keep me alive?

"I've retrieved the Hammer," he says quietly.

Voss's head lifts and he lets out a heavy breath, as if a weight he has been carrying up a steep hill has shifted a little, some burden eased just slightly. "The Prince of the Comet is not dead..." he whispers, and Hector recognizes the tone of recitation, of a religious litany. "The Prince of the Comet will come again. The Prince of the Comet will liberate us from the lich queen's tyranny..." He gives a nod of satisfaction. "The prophecy is one step closer to fruition."

"Gith's son will soon ride against Vlaakith, Voss," Lae'zel says sharply. It is the same tone of eager obeisance that she once used in honor of the Lich Queen - and yet not quite the same, too. Hector has watched her grow older and stronger in the time they have traveled together; it is a devotion tempered with, if not yet self-determination, then at least greater self-possession.

Voss nods back at her soberly. "And you will wield the greatest gift Mother Gith ever granted her dauntless children."

"A silver sword," Lae'zel murmurs reverently. "I will carry it for the honor of Gith, the great liberator, and her unforgotten son."

Voss smiles, gives a slight nod of approval, and then his eyes flick back to Hector, all business. "Istik, now that you have the Hammer, you must find a way to enter the Astral Prism. Once inside, smash Orpheus's bonds. His cry will shake the planes, and I will fly to your aid. The Prince of the Comet will soar the heavens again. First we'll defeat the Absolute; then we let the lich queen tremble!"

His voice rises eagerly-- and then Hector feels a stab of pain through his temples as the Emperor speaks, his voice like a slap through Hector's mind.

"Think again," the illithid snaps. "I will not permit your entry."

Well, there it is. The proverbial cat is out of the bag. Not that there was any question of the Emperor noticing what was happening; it was just a matter of when. Hector doesn't bother arguing with him; what would be the point? The creature that once was Balduran has shown no sense of flexibility in smaller matters up to this point, and Hector very much doubts that any sort of appeal now would get very far.

Ignore the Emperor.

"Questions, istik?" Voss asks, unaware of the one-sided battle being waged inside Hector's brain. "You seem to be lost in thought."

Hector shakes himself, trying to ignore the creeping sense of the Emperor's presence watching him, listening to every word. "Getting into the Astral Prism will be... complicated," he says, with deeply dry understatement. Jaheira snorts softly behind him.

"Yes," Voss answers gravely. "But you will meet this challenge, as you've met so many others."

"Glad he's so confident about it," Karlach quips in an undertone, low enough for only Hector to hear.

Hector resists the urge to smile and keeps his eyes focused on Voss. Giving the other man a sharp nod, he steps back.

Leave.

"Istik," Voss says sharply, offering him a githyanki salute. "Friend to Orpheus. Together we will end the elder brain which shakes this city. Then I turn my sighs to Vlaakith, the queen of deceit!"

-----

Voss gives us a very nice looking githyanki sword.

That goes to Lae'zel. And now I get to figure out where the hell we go from here.

[arcticdementor]

There are lots of ways of defining the liberal elite — assistant deans, network anchors, public health officials and, yes, legacy newspaper journalists — but there can be no question that Tuesday night saw a wholesale rejection of their dominant value system. America didn’t just elect a craven candidate whom the highly educated had deemed unacceptably dictatorial, fascistic even, but the nation did so in such a way that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s agenda now will largely be unfettered, thanks to Republican majorities in the Senate and, quite possibly as we write, the House. And, adding insult to injury for Democrats, it’s likely that the result of the election also will deliver Trump from his myriad legal challenges. The party that had been saying democracy was on the ballot found that democracy had risen like an orange tiger to bite it in the neck.

…

As a bleary America awoke Wednesday to a new political reality, armchair quarterbacking as to why Harris and Tim Walz lost was already underway. We have our theories too. Harris, as we noted here many times, failed to answer, in a clear and direct way, questions about what she would do as president, an essential thing to do if you want voters to be able see you in the job. The problem to our minds was not just that her handlers kept her removed from tough questions, but also that her answers were inadequately coherent when she finally emerged from the shadows. Trump, palpable flaws and all, was known; Harris remained unknown. The gauzy biographical movies from the Democratic National Convention were not enough.

…

Then there’s the matter of whether Democrats should have treated Trump as if he were a Nazi dictator. Harris explicitly told CNN host Anderson Cooper she was running against a fascist, thus inevitably implying that his supporters either were sheep-like fools or fascists themselves. That meant left-leaning commentators had to turn themselves into pretzels Wednesday trying to explain the logic of how Harris should now quietly concede to a man she had called, and presumably believed, was a fascist. Whenever Democrats used terms such as “normalizing” and “sane-washing,” evidence suggests they mostly served to embolden the opposition because Trump supporters saw the terms as being applied to themselves. And they hardly were wrong. Half of America sees the other half as fools.

…

The Republican Party has become a party not of business and nonprofit leaders, now mostly Democratic Party members, but of the working class and the lower middle class. Elites throughout history have found to their cost that there are very many of those folks, even if we don’t hear from them all that much. By effectively abandoning the working class, especially men, by deeming so much of what they felt unacceptable, Democrats got themselves on the wrong side of the numbers game. A plethora of Americans saw Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during the campaign, as their protector and not as the disruptor the elites saw. And regular folks tend to vote what they perceive to be in their economic or cultural interest, regardless of race. This is a tough lesson for Democrats to learn because they tend to have been taught otherwise, but it explains, especially, the pivotal defection of some Black men to Trump just as it makes the point that many U.S. citizens of Latino origin or descent don’t necessarily approve of a border that is easy to cross without authorization. And they voted accordingly. Take, for example, the decision by many voters of Puerto Rican descent to ignore the insults hurled their way by the appalling comedian at Trump’s New York rally. Democrats had pushed the narrative that those aggrieved voters would move the needle, especially in crucial Allentown, Pennsylvania, because they thought racial identity would trump all. But they failed to see the condescension inherent in the belief that those voters would care more about a comic than their own economic worries when it came to paying their bills and helping their children find jobs. Now, thanks to the toughest of nights, Democrats better understand.

[bard-llama]

WiP Wednesday: Angst set in the A Second Chance at Family universe

When I say "set in the time travel Zuko universe", I mean that actually, it's set in the canon 'verse timeline that Zuko left because of the time travel. AKA it's set in canon (except it's a canon where Zuko never got a chance to reconcile with Iroh ) but when Zuko gets hit by Azula's lightning he, as far as anyone in this world can tell, dies.

This is the POV of an Iroh who never got to hold his boy after Ba Sing Se and who now finds out that Zuko did make the right choice - and died for it.

--

As Grand Lotus of the Order of the White Lotus, Iroh was plenty busy in the aftermath of their liberation of Ba Sing Se. When Bumi entered, face troubled, all Iroh was really thinking about was how to find the rightful Earth King, who had apparently wandered off into the unknown. 

“Brace yourself,” Bumi said in greeting. 

Immediately filled with dread, Iroh asked, “what happened?”

Bumi hesitated, choosing his words with more care than he’d ever shown before. That just made Iroh more worried.

“Aang was triumphant,” Bumi began, though he didn’t sound happy about it. “Fire Lord Ozai has been defeated.”

They’d kind of already known that, but Iroh supposed confirmation was good. “But?”

“While Aang and part of his group went to stop the Fire Nation’s army, two of them split off to go claim the Dragon Throne.”

Iroh’s brow knit. Why on earth would the Avatar’s friends think they had a right to make such a claim?

“Your nephew,” Bumi said softly. “He joined the Avatar.”

Iroh inhaled sharply in surprise, pride and longing rising in his chest. He missed his Nephew more than anything – and to learn that he had finally made the right choice–!

“He died,” Bumi said so bluntly that it took a moment for the words to process.

Iroh’s thoughts stopped in their tracks. “What?” he asked through lips that were suddenly numb.

“According to Aang’s note, your nephew challenged the Princess. They fought, but the Princess aimed for Katara, who had accompanied him. He – he protected her.”

Iroh shook his head, pressing a hand to his mouth. No. It couldn’t be true. Zuko couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t. 

Iroh hadn’t noticed that he was swaying until Bumi bended a chair under him and he was quite abruptly sitting. It was good, too, because his legs seemed incapable of working and he had felt grief too many times not to recognize the shock that was settling over him.

His last memory of Zuko was in the cell Ozai had stuck Iroh in, having to turn away from his nephew’s anger, hurt lancing through his heart. 

You brought this on yourself, you know. Zuko had said. We could have returned together. You could have been a hero! 

It had taken all of Iroh’s determination to ignore his nephew’s words.

You have no right to judge me, Uncle. I did what I had to do in Ba Sing Se, and you're a fool for not joining me. 

Iroh had remained silent. 

You're not going to say anything? Zuko lashed out, destroying a stool with firebending. You're a crazy old man! You're crazy! And if you weren't in jail, you'd be sleeping in a gutter!

Iroh had been relieved when Zuko had left and he hated himself for it. Zuko’s words hurt – but not as much as the knowledge that he’d failed another son. Zuko had taken the wrong path, and there was nothing Iroh could do about it now except try to protect his heart from further damage.

But somehow Zuko had chosen good! He’d figured it out and Iroh was so, so proud of him – and all the more grieved for it, because now he would never be able to show Zuko that. He would never have the chance to reconcile with his boy, because he was gone. 

Iroh was openly crying now and the look on Bumi’s face was worried and apologetic. “Aang wrote asking for advice. Right now, Princess Azula is set to become the next Fire Lord.”

Azula. His niece, who followed her father faithfully. His niece, who had murdered his nephew for the throne. 

The rage rising in Iroh’s throat scared him, though he wasn’t wholly sure of its target. Some of it was certainly directed at Azula, who had killed Zuko. But there was a good portion of that anger that was definitely aimed closer to home.

If he’d stepped up to become Fire Lord six years ago instead of letting Ozai claim the throne, things would be different. If he’d stopped the Agni Kai three years ago and challenged Ozai, Zuko might still be here.

Zuko was his son in all but name – and he had failed his son in a way that could never be remedied, because Zuko was gone.

Iroh’s breath hitched with sobs and his nose was clogged and he wanted nothing more than to break down and give in to his grief – but Bumi’s presence reminded him that he had responsibilities beyond himself, and if he’d just remembered that before, then maybe Zuko would still be alive.

But he wasn’t, and Iroh would forever have to live with the knowledge that he’d failed both his sons. They’d both died without knowing how proud he was of them and how much he loved them, and it was unforgivable.

His sons were forever out of reach and it was his fault and if he’d just manned up and taken on the responsibilities he was afraid of sooner, then maybe this never would’ve happened.

“Iroh,” Bumi began, voice uncharacteristically soft.

Iroh bowed his head, lip trembling as tears streamed down his face. Nonetheless, he attempted to pull himself together, because his boy had died fighting to end the war and overthrow Ozai, and that could only happen if someone else took the Dragon Throne.

“I will do what I must,” Iroh managed to say.

“I know,” Bumi said simply, reaching out to clasp his shoulder. Perhaps Bumi could tell that all Iroh needed space right now, because after a moment, he said, “You need time to process and mourn. I will respond to Aang. Tomorrow, the Order can bring you to the Fire Nation Capital once more.”

Iroh’s head jerked in a nod, cheeks wet once more. “Thank you,” he got out, voice hoarse.

Bumi nodded and left, giving him the opportunity to breakdown properly, crying out for all this world had taken from him and all the ways he’d failed his sons.

[lakehare]

I’m sorry but I think the idea of racism, transphobia, and bigotry and such not ‘belonging’ in pagan communities is such horse shit. I know that sounds off, but hear me out - because you may feel that way and hold those values, you may denounce fascists, but like… I know first hand my experience with progressive and leftist pagan and spiritual spaces have been anything but devoid of bigotry and microaggression, if not outright aggression, and I am not the only one. Spiritual and religious spaces in 2023 will claim to be progressive and leftist in one breath and with the same one say you are too sensitive.

They sleep in the middle - they follow political trend. I have rarely met a pagan or spiritual person who truly knows themself or their politics enough to not enact some sort of bigoted violence against me or my kin, whether out of ignorance or malice, and then be unwilling to learn better and insist upon your guilt because you dared point it out - no matter the manner you did it in. Firm or gentle - you are being aggressive. And I know I am not the only one with this experience. So saying “fascism / bigotry has no place” is great and all, but a bit of an empty statement, and I only wish to see MORE come from it. Perhaps a denounciation of the falsity of all of this, of the liberalism, an encouragement of self reflection and how you treat others. It’s why I gave up on a large scale, and fight the big fights quietly - I can change no one who doesn’t want to, and I don’t need to, nor is it my job nor my business. I don’t actually want or need people looking at me for guidance, as some authority figure. I don’t need people looking at me as the new herder for their political slogan to parrot without actually making meaningful change within themselves, the slogan this time being “fascism/bigotry has no space in pagan spaces”.

I don’t need centrist/liberal, puritanical, democrat neo-spiritualists parading and masquerading as the most progressive leftists on the market to help me boot fascism out when they are unwilling to stop sleeping in the same bed as them or attempt to change their own ways, or do anything helpful towards the communities they’re in or even towards their IRL communities.

(Disclaimer inb4 bad faith - sure, some pagans and neospiritualists get this and do try. But they are not who I’m talking about here).

Calling out fascists changes nothing about how people act. Changes nothing about transmisogynistic, racist, sexist microaggressions (which is what actually reminded me of my position on this topic - given that it’s NOT the first time I’ve said this before, that just saying uwu there’s no place for bigotry in MY paganism) if you want a good example of what I’m speaking of, the best connection I can give you, this post by my mutual can inform you of performativity in regards to community acts against transmisogyny while snubbing trans women (and doing nothing of value for them) & maybe give a little insight into what I mean.

It does not stop people from lugging their own religious and spiritual baggage into the space and spewing it around to all who will hear, and those are really the things that I think should be focused on, not public smack downs in order to laugh and giggle with your buddies about such a serious thing. Clowning privately is one thing, I think clowning to thousands in order to get praise for your wit and cunning is quite another.

You can only change your actions and show others how to act by how you act in these spaces - and of course, I do not know others nearly as well as I know myself. But I, as a younger person, did the whole righteous crusade against bigoted people, in order to feel like I was doing something significant. And YES. Fascism needs to be pushed out of pagan spaces! I agree, allowing them to get a foothold in any country in any manner but especially a wide scale is NOT acceptable.

But the way it seems virtue signaling to me, the way it seems to push yourself into a space of authority, and rankles me, as someone who realized the exact issues with what I was doing. It is quite an ego boost when people listen to what you have to say and get to defend your moral and ethical stances, yes? And I was on an even smaller scale than some of these (now) BNPs.

I’m not saying people have to do their good deeds quietly, that’s Christian bullshit. But the manner of which I see a lot of (now) Big Name Pagans do this ruffles my feathers in an unnerving way. I can’t quite articulate exactly the way this is unnerving and unnecessary and how there are other ways and middle grounds (at the moment - I took an anxiety pill last night and I’m surprised at my coherency here) that don’t involve the grand standing, but if the lines are read between in good faith I have hope that my point comes across clear.

[thekimspoblog]

Yet Another Synopsis/Outline of "Slippin Kimmy"

Episode 1 "November" is set in 2016. Kim is devastated by the outcome of the election, and decides she can't watch idly as the country goes to hell. She approaches Jimmy with a plan to get him released on house arrest, but he rebukes her, saying he wants to stay in prison. However with some goading by the other inmates and his general living conditions, he begins to entertain the idea. Meanwhile we see Kim training with a pistol.

For Kim, who had been volunteering at CFLA, she realized immediately the implications this would have for the women she was trying to help... and herself!

Episode 2 "Howard": This episode is mostly flashbacks to Kim's life in Florida. Her boss at CFLA, Dorothy, asks her to escort a 17 year old to get an abortion. But while they're there an active shooter incident occurs. Kim manages to disarm him, and that's how she got the pistol we saw in Episode 1. There's also a subplot fleshing out Cheryl's backstory; why she fell in love with Howard in the first place, why their marriage was failing, and now her torn between wanting revenge against Kim and just wanting to let go and move on.

Episode 3 "Just Like Magic": Kim is approached by a televangelist, a shady but flamboyant man who wants Kim to come work for him. In exchange, he says he can pull strings with the Colorado parole board. Reluctantly, Kim agrees and moves to the community in Riverton, Wyoming. There she rediscovers herself, drumming up publicity for the church with fake miracles, while sabotaging the tax-exempt status of Dawson's competitors.

The surrounding churches seriously WERE supporting conservative candidates (which as we know is against the law) whereas Dawson was an openly gay Unitarian. More libertarian than liberal, but Kim can't help but sympathize with his hatred for the government. There is a theme of corporate takeover with how Dawson is cannibalizing smaller churches, even if those churches were homophobic, but mostly Kim will come to regret helping fill Dawson's coffers. I'm not NOT ripping off "Righteous Gemstones".

The timeline of events is approximately "Episode 2, then Episode 3, then Episode 1, then Episode 4" Although all these episodes have a lot of flashbacks and flash-forwards.

Anyway we're back to the meat of the story, in winter of 2016. Jimmy's got one of those annoying ankle monitors on, but who cares! He's home, and Kim is in a hurry to make up for lost time. That's Episode 4 "Golden Rings, Golden Watches". The couple retie the knot, but meanwhile two of Dawson's most devoted followers, a brother and sister duo named Mary and Peter, are preparing to assassinate a Republican senator.

The senator dies, but Mary and Peter are spotted. Dawson offs himself to save the church from the crime being connected back to his business.

It's a little corny, but I have this mental image of Episode 4's cliffhanger being that Wexler-McGill just got done re-consumating the union, and they turn on TV and the news shows a house on fire. I haven't quite figured out how or why Kim would instinctively know this is her fault yet, but Jimmy's expression is shock and horror, while Kim is just thinking "Fuck, not again!" and then we cut to black.

I want to play with the idea of spirituality more in this series than it had been in previous BB shows. On the surface Kim only joined RUIC to help Jimmy, but the fact is some of the things Dawson said, specifically about feeling forever watched by a judgmental eye, resonated with her. Rationally, legally, Kim had no way of knowing this would happen. But her gut instinct knew she was falling in with extremists and she ignored it.

Episode 5 "Better Build an Ark" is mostly dealing with the fallout from the previous episode. Without a leader, the congregation is in chaos. Meanwhile Mary and Peter are on the lam when Peter is killed by police. Having always had a codependent relationship with her little brother, Mary is devastated and it takes a toll on her sanity. Jimmy is suspicious; Kim's been scaring him a little for months now, and he demands to know what Kim knew and when she knew it. Ultimately, Kim figures out how to commandeer the business and appoint herself president of RUIC's treasury.

Episode 6 is a flashback to a point between Episode 3 and Episode 1. Episode 6 is just called "Your Mom". The cold-open confirms that Kim was at least dealing with a pregnancy scare during the events of BCS Season 6. And then the next scene is one long dialogue where Kim tracks down her mother and attempts to "forgive" her, only for Loraine Wexler to say she's not sorry... for anything. Then the second act is a bottle episode where we check back in with Skyler, Flynn, and Marie.

Mostly, Marie has gotten into deep shit with the kleptomania, and even if Skyler isn't as predisposed to "The Game" as Kim is, Skyler is still crafty enough to pull her sister out of a jam. They end up reconciling now that both their dickhead husbands are gone.

Episode 7 "What do you mean by EVIL?": Kim discovers Mary hiding in the church so Kim pulls a gun on her. What ensues is a protracted debate about the ethics of vigilante justice, and hopefully I can avoid it sounding formulaic. Interspersed with this are flashbacks where we finally learn Dawson's backstory; back in the 70's, Dawson moved to LA hoping to become a producer/director. But he was never able to break through and instead started experimenting with various counter-cultural movements, everything from occultism to secessionists. This is where he met his May-December romance with an older mentor figure, and the pair traveled all along the west coast. In Albuquerque, Dawson made the acquaintance of Ricky Sipes, a name you might remember.

Sipes was incensed that Saul was willing to help the cartels but not him, but he never gave up his plans for a micronation. Eventually he found a second plot of land in Wyoming, somewhere remote where law enforcement could be easily bought-off. Sipes hired Dawson to be a religious/community leader, but the pair had a falling out over whether the community should allow gay marriage. Dawson ultimately killed Ricky so he could marry his husband without objection. Caleb and his husband had over a decade of happy years together, but by the time Kim joined the picture, he was a widower. It's one reason he was so ready to off himself at the first sign of trouble.

Back in the present day of January 2017, Kim and Mary are stuck basically playing out an homage to "Under the Red Hood". Mary says her home was destroyed in a landslide Senator Cooke caused; that's why she killed him. Kim says revenge is never the answer. Mary says this wasn't about revenge; Cooke was lethally negligent and the System wasn't bringing him to justice; this was preemptive self-defense. Kim tries to make counter-arguments, but Mary can't be dissuaded. Mary says that if Kim won't be her accessory after the fact, Kim should just go ahead and kill her. She just wants to see her brother again. Kim refuses to do either and - for all her disillusionments with the law - calls the police. But they take forever to get there. Mary tackles Kim and steals the pistol, then escapes out the door.

Episode 8: "Pirouette": The action is dying down; Kim can breathe again. But managing the church means being the center of attention in a way Kim was never really comfortable with, even if it comes naturally to her husband. Finally, she tells him that she wants a child. She expects him to be overjoyed, but instead Jimmy puts together that she had this planned as far back as Episode 1, and she lied by omission, because she knew he would say no if she had asked him in prison. He feels like a chump! And when Kim finds out that the congregation was relying on Dawson to supply them with narcotics, Jimmy tells her that if she gets involved in dealing drugs he'll leave her for good this time. So instead they try to help the whole church go cold turkey.

We also get more flash forwards to ~25 years later. The future Kim's children inherit isn't full-on dystopia, but it's pretty close. Climate change has caused a severe drought in the western hemisphere. The US dollar has collapsed, leaving a patchwork of digital currencies and bartering for water as the basis for the economy. Various oligarchic city-states are as hard to enter as they are to leave. And in the season finale, we find out what was inside the time capsule the daughter, Iris, dug up: evidence of election fraud in the Wyoming senate. What will our post-apocalyptic survivor do with this information? Stay tuned 'til Season 2!

The final shot of the season is Kim and Jimmy riding in a hot air balloon; one of the many perks of assuming control of Dawson's estate. Thom York's "Suspirium" plays over a montage of what Kim imagines the rest of her life to be, both the good and the bad.

[nimona-antifa]

14# for the Salty Ask List! What's your unpopular opinion about your fandom(s)?

OKAY SO. (This will be long, TL/DR at the bottom)

First of all, I love league of legends (as you may have guessed from my profile picture) and my unpopular opinion is that it (both the game and the fandom) gets shit on WAY too much. As someone who loves math, figuring out optimal builds is so much fun for me! I love solving puzzles and making rune pages and builds for different characters and then getting to try them out is so much fun for me! Is there a big Shonen anime brand misogyny problem in parts of the fandom? Yes, absolutely. Is it probably a good idea to mute liberally because of rampant toxicity? Also yes. But I've met some great people there too!!! Maybe I'm just incredibly fucking resilient because I've been dunked in some of the deepest strongest acid vats of toxicity and negativity out there (conservative christian upbringing, league of legends, playing riven specifically, Twitter, tiktok, Steven Universe fandom) and am still a ray of sunshine in person, but I actually quite enjoy it. Do I wish it wasn't hilariously broken with a character roster that's very much male dominated? Yes. Is there a misogyny problem even within the character balancing (male OP characters get ignored or buffed while female OP characters get nerfed into the ground)? Yes. But there's so much fun to be had if you know how.

Okay. Second big fandom is Team Fortress 2 and I think that uh. Well to put it kindly I think a lot of them miss the entire point of the game. They basically have sticks up their asses about weapons being "fair and balanced" and while I agree that they should be to a certain extent, I also think focusing on that too much risks losing the spirit of the game. If I wanted an optimized, polished first person shooter, I'd play overwatch. If blizzard could get it's shit together for five fucking seconds and realize it's making some of the worst possible business decisions with the game that is. But anyway back to TF2. If we were to optimize every single weapon to be 100% fair and balanced, we miss the entire point of the game. Like, a vast majority of the game would be gone if that were the case. It's not very fair and balanced to run through a doorway only to get instantly blown up because there were 5 stickybombs there you couldn't see, but removing that would make it not TF2. I think probably the best example of this is the Sandman and Flying Guillotine combo, may she be restored soon. Was it entirely balanced? No. But in my opinion that wasn't a good reason to remove it entirely. Same with the degreaser/reserve shooter combo. Just because they're annoying doesn't mean you get rid of them entirely. Another thing they get too upset about is when someone dare suggest that a niche weapon should be buffed to checks notes fill it's niche better. Take the amputator. It's niche is to provide AoE healing. But the situations where that's handy become uh. Much less frequent thanks to the specific quirks of how it works. You enter a short taunt during which you can't move. I personally feel like it could be better served by some sort of recharging bar and a big movement speed debuff. The other big hindrance is that the damage is a direct downgrade to the stock. The other Melees all provide some sort of combat advantage to stock. The Übersaw has a slower swing speed but greatly increased critical hit chance, which if you ask literally anyone who has played with or against the Übersaw, is a significant understatement. The vita-saw provides a psychological advantage with slightly less health but the knowledge that if you do die, you won't lose all of your Über. And the Amputator is basically the Overwatch experience, trading swing speed for knowledge of the enemy's health. The amputator provides none of this, which makes it pretty shitty as a self-defense tool. It does less damage than stock with no increased swing speed or bleed effect to balance things out. I won't go into a whole bunch of detail about my fixes but I just find it ridiculous the types of things that they say will lead to power creep. The Ambassador used to be able to headshot people from as far away as you could headshot people without a zoom, and it was just accepted as part of the game for the longest time. And I'm supposed to believe that weapons filling their intended purpose is gonna be too powerful? Okay whatever. I doubt hordes of people will be swapping off of Soldier just to hit me to death with a slightly improved bonesaw on the class that has the least combat capacity but apparently it's definitely going to happen if the amputator isn't a direct downgrade to the stock in terms of self-defense!!! Sorry this got long but basically:

TL/DR:

League of Legends isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be and there's a lot of fun to be had if you know how to curate your experience

Some TF2 players are way too tryhard

[justice-is-a-weapon]

In vino veritas [Dazai x gn reader]

·•━━━━━━━⋆⋅☆⋅⋆━━━━━━━•·

Chapter 11 | ?

previous | next

TW: some symptoms of an anxiety attack / reader has a sensory overload at the end and some swearing

It all changed one morning while I had decided to take a stroll through Yokohama Chinatown. It was quite cold that day so I was wearing a thick woolen coat and gloves. It was pretty windy too. I had a day off with no gigs to play so I thought I might just look at the town.

Who I didn’t expect to see however was a familiar face. I could recognize that choppy, white haircut even from afar. It was Atsushi, the boy that Dazai had taken under his wing. With him was a girl, I think about 14 years old. She was wearing a kimono with a sprout-like pattern and seemed rather reserved from what I could tell. She didn’t gesture as much as Atsushi did. Her hands mostly kept to her sides.

Atsushi seemed to notice me as well since he started waving enthusiastically. I decided to come over to him and say hello. At least I would have something to do then.

“Ophelia, was it?”

He seemed a bit unsure but happy to see me.

“Yes. Atsushi, right? You’re Dazai’s colleague."

He nodded.

“Oh that’s Kyouka by the way”, he pointed at the girl, “She’s also a colleague of mine. I believe you haven’t met yet.”

She gave a short “hello”. I took another look at her.

“Isn’t she a bit young to work in a detective agency?”

Atsushi laughed nervously and tried to explain himself, which he totally failed at might I add, and kept glancing at Kyouka to help him out. I ended up not asking any further. Instead I corrected myself, telling him not to worry and that it had only been a joke. I asked another question to make small talk.

“So what have you two been up to?”

“Oh just some groceries mostly but we need to go like 10 other places too? I don’t know why they always make me do all the side jobs as well.”

Kyouka looked at him with a deadpan face.

“You suck at paperwork, Atsushi.”

Yep, I was beginning to like this girl already. I had to chuckle quite a bit. Atsushi got red at that, feeling like he had been exposed.

“Kyouka, you know I can’t spell for shit. Yeah but anyways back to the topic: We actually wanted to go get crêpes,” he glanced at the crêpe booth longingly (I think I actually heard his stomach growling at that), then he made a face,“I think there won’t be any time for that though.”

I don’t know what came over me when I started talking. Maybe I had felt a bit of pity for the boy. He was young. He should enjoy himself. Also this would give me an excuse to keep myself busy.

“Is there something I could help with? I don’t have anything to do anyways.”

Atsushi looked surprised.

“You really don’t need to!”

“Don’t worry man. I seriously have nothing better to do.”

Then he glanced at Kyouka as if to check if it was alright to give me an answer.

“I mean there’s one thing.”

Kyouka continued talking for him.

“You know Dazai, right? At least that’s what I’ve gathered. We need to drop off some stuff at his place. You could bring him that. He’ll may like to see a face not related to work. He doesn’t like work.”

Atsushi nodded at that.

“Yeah, he kind of forgets to buy groceries sometimes. Or to leave his house for that matter…”

I swallowed hard. This was the chance I’ve been waiting for. But somehow this felt illegal. “All personal things you will get to know about me will be told to you by my humble self”, his voice said in the back of my head. Yep he definitely wouldn’t want me ringing his doorbell, showing up out of nowhere.

However, I thought: But who was I to follow rules made up by someone? So I will liberate myself from my self-inflicted immaturity! Sapere aude! I’ll do what seems reasonable to my humble self, not him. So for now I would ignore that rule. I decided to ignore it just like he had ignored me. Serves you right. Was I being petty? Maybe.

So I said:

“Oh I can totally go drop that off. I just don’t remember his address. We usually meet at my place.”

Atsushi then gave me the address. Adrenaline was now rushing through my whole body. I didn’t know if I was happy or scared of what’s about to come. Atsushi then asked me for another favor.

“You’re friends right? You reckon you could check if he’s doing well in there? He hasn’t left the house in a couple of days as far as I know. We don’t see him much these days.”

I made a face. Fucking hell. So I was right to worry. I knew I was scared of seeing him. But now I also knew I needed to see him. Under the pretense of a welfare check issued by Atsushi of course.

“Yeah I’ll do that. I’ve been worried too, y'know?”

The boy smiled at me after that and handed me the plastic bags.

“Thank you so much! I’ll make sure to return the favor when I’m given the chance.”

With that they took their leave. I was still shaken up. Had I really just agreed to this?

When shaken up I get overwhelmed pretty quickly. The full streets here in Chinatown didn’t help either. All the sounds and smells confused me beyond belief while I was painstakingly aware of my own heartbeat. I needed to get out of here. At least for a minute or two. I ended up disappearing into an alleyway to calm down and sat on the pavement.

“Holy shit.” I ran my fingers through my hair. Nope. I wasn’t going to do it after all. This was too much. Dazai and the world could go fuck themselves. I hated it. I hated those sounds and those smells and those-

I then heard a sound. Like something had been thrown over. I stared down the alleyway seeing something move. Adjusting I could slowly figure out what it had been. Nothing more than a mere stray puppy. It looked at me and turned its head to the side. Yeah I’d be confused too seeing a random person panting and shaking on a sidewalk. I began to talk.

“Oh hey there. You good?”

It slowly began walking towards me. Then sniffing. Then wagging its tail. “Friend”, the puppy must’ve decided. I reckoned it also wanted a break from the busy street.

“Also overwhelmed by all the smells? I feel you buddy.”

After a few tries it ended up letting me pet it. I dragged my hand over its smooth brown fur. It felt nice, calmed me in a way. This felt like a sign that I should go through with it and get my ass up to see Dazai, get myself together. I wouldn’t tell him I had just pet a stray dog though. He’d probably stand five meters away from me after hearing that. I think if it had been a cat however he would’ve been fine with it. My mind was clearer now. I ended up giving the puppy the plain rice I had left over from the lunch I had taken with me. I had already eaten most of it out of boredom and I felt like I should pay this little fellow for helping me in a way.

Because stray dogs help each other.

·•━━━━━━━⋆⋅☆⋅⋆━━━━━━━•·

[Can you tell the reader is getting increasingly more stressed out? Yeah… They’re just like me fr. BECAUSE I’M FREAKING OUT AS WELL. I have some of the most important exams of my life coming up in a few weeks and never really learned how to study, which is just GREAT (please tell me you could hear the sarcasm). Anyways I still will try to upload. I may be a bit inconsistent but I still want to provide you guys with further chapters. But be prepared for what’s coming because (as you may have guessed by the tags) Dazai is an asshole and a mess.]

[raeseddon]

Belated rant because this happened a few weeks ago now, but I never fail to be amazed at how when I'm at my Buddhist temple, I still get a knee-jerk reaction when I say I'm not celebrating Christmas/making a genuine effort to shed as much cultural Christianity as possible.

Anymore it occurs to me that more than just it being the cultural norm, it's become, in the last five/six years about blending in. Beaming and saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" doesn't make people quite as suspicious, since we've normalized Christo-Fascist violence in this country.

<p>It reminds me of being in my secular, public high school and having teachers refer me to the guidance counselors because they were "worried about my soul" and getting verbally bullied/abused whenever I told someone to stay out of my business when it came to religion. But when the teachers casually disregard the separation of church and state, everyone else has free reign to as well. I was thirteen/fourteen at the time, and only just coming to Buddhism from years as a practicing Wiccan. I didn't take my Buddhist vows until 2020.</p>

The biggest difference from high school is that while I'd have been verbally brow-beaten back in 2001, I'm way, way more likely to be physically beaten now. Does it scare me? Do I pay very, very close attention to how many people are wearing/carrying Christian paraphernalia around me in public? Yes. But I never hid back then, and I don't now-- I talk openly about temple in public, I wear my prayer beads, and if the subject of religion comes up, I make sure to identify the Christian god and Christian mythology in those exact words.

I've been lucky so far-- while the dirty looks have absolutely gotten a lot worse over the years, no one's thrown hands. Yet. Maybe it's because this time of year I'm a lot more likely to use my cane and to a degree there's still a public taboo around harassing a visibly disabled person over anything.

I don't know how much longer I can count on it though, considering I'm also openly queer, and eventually my transgressions from the norm are going to outweigh the taboos that have protected me until now. That threshold has already been blown past for other religious minorities. As much as people have been laughing more and more about culture war issues like the "War on Christmas" as soon as Poppy Bush and Dubya sold the first and second Iraq Wars as a modern Crusade, all of that religious paranoia had twenty years to foment. And now, just like all the other historical Crusades, if the Templar had to retreat in the Holy Land, things got worse for non-Christians in the Western culturally Christian world.

The boldness of Christo-Fascist violence in this country has a direct correlation to how much DNC liberals have dismissed and ignored the growing concern of religious minorities, be they Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or any other. And it's why I still get knee-jerk reactions at temple when I mention that I'm... actually following the vows I took two years ago. Because surely I don't want to stick out too much, surely I want to blend in and protect myself.

Surely.

[candy-floss-crazy]

This isn't going to be a coronavirus diary par se. Its more of an occasional ramble of what we are doing and thoughts about the way things are going. To be honest its more to give us something extra to do rather than being a serious social commentary. Like everyone else we are in lockdown. Luckily our house is built on the side of our business premises, so we have a fairly secure 3 acre site to wander, rather than being stuck in a small gardenless house. My significant other is starting to repaint all of our external fences. Tbh they don't really need doing yet as she did them about 18 months ago, but she's happy that it gives her a couple of weeks work to pass them time on. My daughter, who hasn't been speaking to me for a couple of weeks due to my refusal to let her make a trip to Birmingham, has come round a bit. We have decided to spend some of our time learning a language. After a bit of debate we have settled on sign language. We don't interact with the hearing impaired all that often, but it would be nice to be able to show we have made the effort on the occasions we do. Learning Something New When we built the wild west stagecoach photo booth, we added quite a number of props to it. One of which was a ukulele (and indeed a banjo, because we were going to recreate the scene from deliverance). This has sat on the top shelf in the office for quite a while now. So I decided I am going to learn how to play it. Lol, by the end of the lockdown, I will either be a musician, or I will have a ukulele shaped dent in the back of my head. We usually refurb our carts and equipment a couple of times a year. This enforced downtime will let us go through them all ready for when the events industry re emerges. It will also give us time to look at possible new ideas and lines to add for the forthcoming season. I have just had a months stay in hospital where I ended up losing 2 stone. In truth I needed to lose a bit of weight, but that is probably half a stone too much. As soon as the remnants from my surgery heal up enough I intend to have a fairly heavy exercise regime, it would be nice to tone up and keep my weight down. We have a few basic items such as kettlebells so should be able to cobble together some basic exercise sets. Woah boy overdoing the exercises a bit there. Truth be told mentally I am not feeling the lockdown too much. When ever we were not at events, I always had plenty of promotional work to be doing on the computer, so I am just doing what I would normally do. It will let me get our blog and seo work well in front, and take the pressure off me once things get moving again. The World At Large In the wider world, I still can't believe just how many people are totally ignoring instructions to stay in. The police broke up a party in Derby yesterday, where they had a disco and buffet, the full works. Are people really that stupid, or are they just plain ignorant. I got into a debate with a guy I fly with, a liberal democrat activist who claims the government haven't been clear enough about having to stop in. WTF, every time you turn the telly on it is telling you to stay in. Every other post on Facebook is tellling you the same, what more do people need, Zeppelins roaming the sky with the message painted on the side? What it really needs is the North Korean method. It was reported there that a guy refusing to isolate was shot. I bet that wouldn't need too much promotion from the government before it was adhered to. So in summery everyone; Stay SAFE Stay IN And check back for more ramblings from our Coronavirus diary. Read the full article

[anightskiss]

Tuesday, 01 October 2024

This is hard. I can’t help but feel the depth of the worlds I create. Now that I’m sober, I’m forced to deal with everything. The incarceration of my own mind, plaguing warfare on my heavy heart. I feel INCREDIBLY ALONE. Tried this whole thing of obsessively working, but that In itself became its own trap. It’s own coping mechanism. I think, quite honestly it’s a way to keep myself busy, ignoring my own psychological war fare. How does Ari Aster do it? I really need to know, how he can write this intrapersonal pieces of art & move on freely. Does he ever escape his own demise? I wonder.

My addictions are killing me, and I’m just desperately trying to stay afloat. I’m just trying to keep myself grounded & aligned with my purpose in life, beyond the death of self.

I’m starting to truly understand why I’m so connected with horror. It just feels so liberating and freeing. It feels like all my insecurities get blinded by the beauty of horror.

12:00

I find myself watching Rod Serling interviews, utterly perplexed by his articulate nature. Learned two new words, right after this, I’m going to fully dive into the messages my Co-writer Jake has brought to the table before we delve into our series. Rod Serling said something incredibly profound. He said:

“Is that truly a gauge of art as a form because isn’t art a shared experience? Isn’t the excellence of art dependent on the reaction from the outside to someone’s work? There’s a risk you run if you preoccupy yourself with audience reaction at the expense of either your own integrity or your own artistic judgement?”

00:10 THURSDAY. 03 October 2024

I’m feeling much better today. Put outlines & story ideas with Jake put me on an absolute high, from 1pm to 11pm. One thing that surprised me as we were about to wrap our call, was how Jake let me know that he recognised the fact that I’ve been posting less on social media the past couple days, which finally lead to me archiving 400 posts of mine because I let him know, there’s a matter of discipline I’m trying to introduce into my life & that I’ve been internally incarcerated. That this drive of social media may have granted me numerous opportunities, but it’s Tin fold because those opportunities were banked with labour behind. The labour of making a story. The labour of making a feel. The labour of color grading, everything just felt exhausting after a while. I turn 23 in 27 days from now, and I want to experience some sort of growth within my life. I am finally growing to be the man I always wanted to be.

Love,

Andrea

02:17

Insomnia starts to tackle me, so I find myself tackling one of my vices, feeling incredibly ashamed of myself thinking, maybe I should get back to smoking…but I mean, it’s only been three days. That’s comical to say the very least, so much for setting this desire in motion.

[idkwhatimdoingbutslay]

Ok I’m bringing this post back because there are so many things I said out of anger and needed to think about for longer. When I say that I tweak because of this show I MEAN IT, so lemme clarify.

As much as I’m not Silco’s biggest fans and sometimes get frustrated at how he’s interpreted by fans, I still have to cut him some slack. Silco’s idea of liberation was not as skewed as I presented it to be here. Shimmer has been used for a lot of good, and we have to think about whether the good outweighs the bad. Silco did sacrifice many Undercity lives and did perpetrate the same means of destruction onto the Undercity as Topside at points, but he really believed in necessary evil and the eventual (and effective) liberation of Zaun. Whether that liberation under his control would be all that fantastic is up to debate. Silco’s development over the course of the show was kinda ignored in this post. Didn’t take Silco and Jinx’s very real relationship into a lot of consideration.

im never backing down on the ‘Vi’s not the activist you think she is’ and the ‘LOOK AT EKKO PLEASE’. Never.

Although Caitlyn didn’t show any malicious intent, she jumped into a situation she truly did not at all know enough about to address effectively. Can’t ignore that.

Im also never backing down on the fact that Arcane’s goal is not just to say that ‘cops suck’. You know how boring and useless a show like that would be? We KNOW that, Arcane KNOWS that. Now what?

CaitVi is real and so much more interesting when you take the individuality of the characters and how they fit (or don’t fit) into account.

I do still think about the Grayson & Vander and Caitlyn/Vi parallels. G&V was stagnant and broken. Will C/V be any different? What do the Silco loyalists actually believe? What does Jinx believe? Will compromise ever work? Will Piltover ever change?

The ‘NUANCE’ and ‘critical thinking’ and ‘media literacy’ points didn’t do or say anything lmao. Not really made in good faith. Arcane, of course, is not a black and white show, but I didn’t expand on that. -> Morally gray characters don’t just exist as ‘sympathetic but also a little evil’ tropes. Yes, Piltover is quite literally built in the backs of Zaunites, but that doesn’t mean Topsiders can’t be just as gray as Zaunites, they’re just gray in a much more different way. We can sympathize with the circumstances of the Undercity while also recognizing the humanity of Topside. I don’t think Arcane is meant to be about picking sides, it’s about showing the weaknesses and strengths of both while still prioritizing the marginalized (imo at least).

i still VEHEMENTLY disagree with the people in the screenshots lmao cuz what the hell

Saying it again -> “Embracing all the outrage without at all looking out for the people harmed by bigotry is not activism” because some people completely IGNORE the existence and purpose of the Firelights. But, I do think it’s interesting that in all of Silco’s power and influence, he never directly went after the Firelights. We mostly see him on defence when it comes to that. That is NOT to say that the Firelight resistance doesn’t deserve to be angry and frustrated with Silco and how he handles things

yes, real allies are necessary for progress, but allies also need to learn how to take a step back. Caitlyn, did in fact, stick her nose in business that she had no reason to be in because of her goodness but also because of her ignorance. Caitlyn, in all of her altruism, still hasn’t LEARNED. She knows Vi’s story and Ekko’s, but she’s still missing so many pieces of the puzzle. That’s a problem. That’s on purpose.

Don’t really know what I’m trying to say, but in all of my calls for critical thinking, I wasn’t doing too much of that myself in all of my anger and frustration lol. I’m sure there’s more I wanna touch on but this post is way too long lmao.

… I can’t imagine that we actually watched the same show. Like I REALLY AISNSOSNWKMEJDND

hold on I’m gonna need to calm down.

Let me just make a list of why I disagree and at least organize my anger. Long post incoming.

Vander was friends and had a deal with Grayson. The sheriff. Idk what else to even add to that

Caitlyn is more than a cop and Arcane isn’t copaganda. Genuinely don’t know what kind of progress some of these people are looking for. Real allies are a necessity for real progress.

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR. HE FUNNELLED DRUGS INTO THE UNDERCITY AND PUT POOR KIDS IN FACTORIES FOR THAT DRUG FOR PROFIT!!! HE PAID THE ENFORCERS TO LET HIM DO IT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE

Vi is not as much as an activist as you would like to believe

WHY IS EKKO NEVER EVER BROUGHT UP IN THESE CONVERSATIONS????

Silco was not good for the Undercity

Silco was not a great guy. Ekko had to build an entire separate hidden community for the people he hurt and stepped on for his own benefit

Caitlyn is ignorant and naive. That’s ok. That’s what character development is for.

Loving imperfect characters like Silco and Jinx then hating characters like Vi and Caitlyn is peak media illiteracy to me

FOR THE LAST TIME: VI DIDNT ABANDON POWDER!!!!! Silco literally wanted Vi DEAD for trying to stop him from killing Vander??? How could you possibly say silco was there for jinx when Vi refused to be???? SHE WAS IN PRISON BECAUSE OF HIM???

Silco’s manipulation is working wonders on y’all

Embracing all the outrage without at all looking out for the people harmed by bigotry is not activism

SILCO IS A CLASS TRAITOR x929282929394

Caitlyn was the first person in years to show Vi kindness and care. She listened and stuck by her and took care of her after Vi was locked up for years and beat up by cops (i wonder what led her to be thrown in there?). Cait being a cop stopped being a point of contention once Vi recognized her naivety and genuineness.

NUANCE NUANCE NUANCE. ITS NEVER EVER BLACK AND WHITE

The only way I can see Vi touching ‘class traitor’ in season one was the shimmer raid. Guess who the hell put those kids in there in the first place.

Just hanging out with Caitlyn isn’t being a class traitor if Vander’s allowed to be friends with Grayson.

Critical thinking is very necessary for watching shows like Arcane

What the hell did Silco really do for the Undercity???? What changed over the 7(ish) years he was basically in power of the place? All I’ve heard was he made the air cleaner, which would be great except for, you know, shimmer and the child factory workers

Jinx is unwell and feeding into it like this in a fully serious manor would not help Arcane as a show at all

What do you want Arcane’s message as a full show to be? ‘Screw cops’? That’s a little boring and unproductive isn’t it?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT EKKO AND HIS IMPACT PLEASE???? x9382728283

Caitlyn is trying to make Piltover and Zaun a better place. Is that not allowed? Am I missing something?

Caitlyn and Vi’s arcs have only just started. Season one is basically fully set up except for characters like silco and Jinx. This is far from the end.

Genuinely think Vander would appreciate Vi for being friends (using this term loosely because they are in love) with Caitlyn considering he was the one who was opposed to war and Vi wasn’t.

Silco should NOT be your idea of Undercity independence and respect. He oppressed the Undercity the same way the Council and the Enforcers did. He helped no one but himself, his team (barely) and Jinx.

You’re allowed to like and dislike any character you want but pretending like Silco is better for the Undercity than others is just so ridiculous to me. Everyone is of course completely allowed to like Silco, but we can’t pretend like he’s this stand up guy. If you have to pretend like he was, maybe you don’t like him as much as you think.

“Because Cait’s pretty” is also incredibly incorrect. Go check point #14.

Vi never stopped loving and caring for Powder. Powder’s mental health issues were amplified and utilized by Silco because he couldn’t even heal himself.

If all of your opinions of Caitlyn and Vi start and end with “cops suck” and “class traitor” then you genuinely don’t respect Arcane as a show enough to show you nuance.

The misinterpretation of characters is just so … it’s like you go out of your way to love and/or hate characters no matter how much they show you who you are.

Your closed mindedness is clouding your judgement and making you out to seem like you don’t actually want the Undercity’s triumph, you want Silco and Jinx’s, even if it means ruining the Undercity. And that would be fine because father/daughter evil duo but trying to say you’re all for this duo because you want what’s better for the Undercity when they continue to hurt it is simply not correct and very harmful (to fictional characters in a fictional universe 😭)

Only being able to understand how Silco and Jinx were oppressed and therefore should be able to not just destroy Piltover but also Zaun is not the eat you think it is

Why is Viktor never called a class traitor? I think he's great (I also think Silco and Jinx are wonderfully written) but we hardly saw him in the Undercity/ interact with people from the Undercity plus he killed someone (Sky) from there (accidentally)

EDIT TO ADD ANOTHER POINT: Caitlyn has shown little to NO malicious intent and has no real negative impacts other than Jinx’s attachment issues and insecurities being amplified by her mere existence. Again, this is her story and development. Throughout the season she is exposed to reality and recognizes her and her peers/ families wrongs. I have no idea what you want from this character. Should Piltover just be gotten rid of in the story? Then what? Should Caitlyn have just never gotten involved and continued to embrace her privilege? Should she have left Vi in prison and stay ignorant?