#They're unimportant though... I could change their name to something else and give it to Sintra

[morgan-the-lonely-brick]

Hey, I wrote a little thing I'd appreciate some feedback on. It's a little coming out as an enby for one of my characters. It's only about 500 words.

L'amieil/Sintra is about 40 y.o., AMAB, a spouse to their wife and a parent of 2 children.

Lissele is an immortal guardian of humanity.

They're good friends in the story and on a quest together with a bunch of other people. They're unimportant in this.

L'amieil's heart thumped at an incredible speed and with the force of a fire dragon.

Lissele heard it. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

He was looking straight ahead, with a worryingly blank expression.

She chose to wait before saying anything. That prooved to be the right choice only a few moments later.

L'amieil swung his left leg forwards and backwards and then stomped with it a few times, watching it move. "Do you think the name Sintra would suit me?"

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." He made a step away from her and curled into himself. Subtle tears began forming in his eyes.

Lissele only blinked, staring at him. She pondered for a while. Then she finally spoke. "Look up at the stars. They shine the same, no matter where they shine or what name they bear. They're still the same stars. Some have one name for millenia. Some of their names get renewed quite often. Some stars have many, many names. Some stars don't have a name at all. But the stars remain... stars."

L'amieil slowly turned to her, shyly perhaps, or maybe it was fear, she couldn't quite tell.

"Would it make you happy?" she asked finally.

He looked down at his hands which he'd been clasping together so hard his knuckles have turned white. "I think so. I think it would."

"Sintra was it?"

He nodded.

"Then nice to meet you, Sintra," she smiled.

The tears in their eyes finally overflowed. The quiet of the night was torn open by a sharp inhale and then a sob so loud it must've been heaping up at the bottom of their heart for god knows how long.

"Hey, it's alright..." She made a few steps towards them and wrapped her arms around them. They were much taller than her, which made it all a bit awkward.

They trembled in her arms, barely able to get a coherent sentence out. "I was... scared you'd... So many, they... I- I was... Mocked me..." they sobbed, wiping tears away, but returning the hug.

"No, dear... I'll never mock you. And you know... Sintra is a very lovely name."

Another wave of sobs followed, with several quiet thank yous mumbled into her hair.

"Do you want the others to know, too?"

"I don't know. I... I barely know anything," Sintra mumbled, their voice breaking. Then they shook their head. "I just... I just know what I had isn't what I want. Maybe... I could try things out... And then see."

"Sounds good." She carressed their back as it slowly returned to rising and falling steadilly. "Let's get you something to drink, or you're going to have one hell of a headache later."

[mcclain-to-go-writes]

The Concept Artist

Chapter 1

1998

It had all started with a letter. A seemingly unimportant, unsuspecting letter to one Lon Boraz and the Animaniacs. 

The Warners were filming their newest film, "Wakko's Wish," when they heard Sandra, their ever friendly mail carrier, trying to get through the sea of crew to deliver a letter to the three. "I need to get this letter to them! Please, I can never get the letters up the tower, I just need to hand them to the Warners, and then I'll leave."

"Sandra, they're in the middle of filming, if you would just--" 

"It's okay, Ron, I think we're done anyways," the director told him. "Come on in, Sandra."

Ron shot Sandra a dirty look before letting her pass. "Here you go, kids. Sorry to interrupt filming," Sandra handed them the letter before turning to exit.

"Thank you, Sandra!" The Warner siblings called before haphazardly tearing the letter open.

"What does it say, Yakko?" Dot asked.

"Oh, please tell us!" Wakko chimed in.

"Alright, alright, hold your horses," Yakko laughed. "Ahem, 'Lon, I've missed you my dearest friend. We've missed you. I know we've had our differences in the past, but I would love to see you again. Come visit the old studio again, and bring those Warners of yours with you, I'm sure they'd love to see how it all began. -Fredrick.'"

"Lon?" Dot asked. "Like Lon Borax? I thought he retired... and went nuts."

"He did. Old Freddy here must not be too close with Lon," Yakko muttered.

"Well, why don't we ask him to take us?" Yakko froze.

"I-I don't think that's such a great plan Wak. Lon isn't the most stable guy."

"Come on, Yakko. He created us! And we could at least ask for the address to the studio!" Dot chimed in.

"I don't even know if we should go to the studio, Dot. Something feels off with all thi-- hey!"

Before Yakko could even finish his sentence, his siblings were taking off to find Lon. Yakko sighed. "I guess there isn't any talking them out of it now."

 

Lon Borax lived on the outskirts of Burbank in the Home For Retired Animators (Who Went Insane). Yakko never much liked the place. It always gave off odd vibes, smelled old and musty and the bars that had adorned each window always reminded him of his own imprisonment in the water tower. He shook his head, as if to rid himself of the thoughts. He wouldn't be there long, all they had to be there for was talking to Lon, getting the address, and then dealing with his siblings.

As they approached, Yakko could make out the figure of a slender woman sitting at a desk near the front, the secretary, he assumed. If Yakko hadn't liked the building from the outside, he liked the inside even less. The faded yellow paint peeled at the corners and looked scratched in the middle, as if someone had tried to rip it from the walls. The air conditioning was deafening and made the room entirely too cold. How someone could work, let alone live here, Yakko would never know.

"Excuse me ma'am," Wakko asked as they approached the woman's desk. "We're here to see Lon Borax."

"And who should I say is here," the woman asked them.

"We're the Warner brothers!"

"And the Warner sister!"

The woman, Stacy, Yakko deduced from her name tag, typed at her laptop before looking up at them. "You three are the Warners?"

"Yep, that's us," Dot said, batting her eyes for effect.

"I'm afraid Mr. Borax isn't taking any visitors. Sorry kids, I'll tell him you stopped by."

"Oh, don't worry," Wakko waved his hand dismissively. "We won't be long."

"Maybe I wasn't making myself clear enough the first time. Mr. Borax won't see anybody. Now, I'm very sorry, but I have to ask you to leave," Stacy told them, shooing them out the door. 

"But we came all this way!" Dot cried.

"I know, and I'm sorry but--"

"What's all that racket?" A male voice from inside called.

"Nothing, Mr. James!" Stacy called back, trying to push the three outside, but they just dug their heels in.

"We want to see Mr. Borax!" Dot cried once again.

"For the love of God, Stacy, just let them in already!" The man... Mr. James hollered.

"But sir--"

"Let them in!"

Finally, Stacy stopped pushing them, letting them pass her by.

"Borax is in room 258," Mr. James said, not even glancing up from his newspaper.

"Thank you!" The Warners laughed as they planted a big, sloppy kiss on the man's face.

"Bah! You kids better hurry before I change my mind!"

The Warners just laughed as they ran down the hall in search of room 258. Soon, the air smelled mustier than before, if that were possible. The pit in Yakko's stomach grew heavier as he saw they were coming up on Lon's room. He never had much trust with the man. He knew that Lon was here for a reason, and was highly capable of violence if he wanted to be. His siblings, however, had always looked up to him in a way. It made sense he supposed, he had created them after all. But from Yakko's minimal knowledge of the man, there was one thing he knew for certain, Lon Borax hated the Warners, and wanted nothing more than to be rid of them for good.

Before Yakko realized it, there it was. room 258. 

"Sibs," Yakko started, stopping them from turning the handle of the old oak door. "Lon may not be thrilled to see us..."

"What do you mean by that, Yakko?" Dot asked.

"I-Lon... just... don't get your hopes us about him, okay?"

Dot and Wakko nodded hesitantly, before turning the handle to open the creaking wooden door.

"Nurse, for the last time, I don't want your crap JELLO!" Lon screamed when he heard the door squeak open. Dot and Wakko flinched, not anticipating such a forceful greeting. Yakko, however, stood perfectly still, as if he had known this was coming, As his siblings stood frozen in the entryway, Yakko walked into the room, his face calm and collected, but his hands subtly trembling by his sides.

"Lon Borax?" he asked.

"The f*ck do you want?" Any other time, Yakko would have made a witty remark about how even on the outskirts of the studio, the censoring was still there, but he was too nervous for that. Lon's face was burried under blankets, but Yakko could could see he was eerily thin and deathly pale.

"It's Yakko Warner. We need to talk."

Lon whipped around to face him, and his siblings who had hesitantly been looking in from the doorframe. "You," he spat. "You're the miserable freaks of nature that got me stuck here."

Yakko flinched, "I'm not thrilled to see you either, Lon. So let's make this as quick as possible, yeah?" Lon grunted. "Great. We got a letter. It's addressed to you, but it concerns us as well, so we got it first," Yakko handed him the letter.

"First you steal my career, now my mail," Yakko heard him growl under his breath. He read the letter, eyes widening. Finally, he finished, throwing the letter at Yakko. "I ain't taking you kids, if that's what you think is happening here."

Yakko swallowed, "I didn't think you would. Could you tell us the address of the studio?"

"There's a return address, moron. It's the studio address. Now get out of my room."

Yakko stared at the envelope, and sure enough, a return address was penciled in at the top left hand corner. Yakko felt a small pit of anger bubble in his stomach as he realized he could have avoided this whole encounter, kept Wakko and Dot's image of the man untainted. 

"Are you f*cking deaf? I said get out of my room!" Lon howled, throwing a glass at Yakko. It landed about a foot from Yakko's feet, but it shattered on impact, sending shards of glass hurtling at Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. Luckily, none of the shards hit them, but when Yakko heard Dot start to cry, Yakko realized this man was not against throwing something else, potentially more dangerous, so Yakko hurriedly ran to his siblings, being quick to get them from the foul smelling building, to the damp grass outside. Dot was crying quite heavily, and Wakko was shaking like a leaf.

"Are you two okay?" Yakko asked. "He didn't hit either of you, did he?"

Wakko and Dot shook their heads. 

"Why was he so mean?" Wakko asked finally. "I thought-I thought he'd like us."

Yakko brought them both in for a hug. "Some people are just mean," Yakko whispered. "And need someone to blame their troubles on."

Though neither sibling was willing to bring it up, they could feel Yakko shaking as he said it. Whether from anger, fear, or both, they couldn't tell. And they weren't sure they were willing to find out.

 

Alright, I hope you guys enjoyed and if you did please give this a like, a reblog or check it out on Ao3

[ladyrealgar]

I Wish It Rained - After Endgame Fanfiction

| English translation from my original fanfic "Vorrei che piovesse". I did it myself as practice, so I'll be really happy if you wanted to give me some feedback about its content and form. Thank you! |

In the days of sorrow, the sun shouldn't be allowed to shine. The sky ought to be grey and covered with dark and heavy clouds. The rain ought to fall and the wind to blow cold.

Today, though, there are no clouds in the sky, the sun shines brightly into a blue and clear dome, while the wind is gentle and barely moves the branches of the trees.

It's annoying how the weather shows itself so mocking and disdainful in a day like this, but probably it's more rightly so: in the most tragic moments, you used to show off calmness and serenity as well.

When we are going to carry the coffin in the area of my garden that I prepared for you, I know that my heart will break once more, feeling it so light.

I didn't even have time to recover your shattered body. Please, Nat, forgive me, because I can't.

I attended your last moments and I'm the last witness of your courage but I wasn't able to bring you back home as you deserved.

I couldn't take you where you would have been cried on and honored as the hero that you are and now that, in front of an empty coffin, I'm asked to give you the last goodbye, I can't think about anything else. I couldn't take you back home.

I wrote a short speech and now I'm reciting it.

I memorized it and my lips are moving by themselves, repeating words that my ears can't catch.

You know better, between us you were the best speaker. If I could have thrown myself out of that damn cliff, I'm sure you would have composed a much more beautiful eulogy than mine and you would have moved everyone.

Laura and my children have wet eyes. I see them hugging each other, as I recall the memory of their favorite auntie. If I am still here I owe it to you and you haven't had the chance to see them for one last time!

Steve, Bucky, Sam, Fury, Wanda, Thor, Bruce ... they're all here in the backyard of my farm. The whole family that you built over the years is here for you, except Tony, but I like to think that he's there with you to comment sarcastically on my limping speech.

Pepper was really nice to come. I didn't think that after her loss she would have born a second funeral in two days, but she showed great strength and is now greeting you, along with all of us.

I bet you wouldn't have expected a funeral after your departure, maybe you wouldn't even want it. As a good spy you were, I am sure you would have liked to leave in silence and in solitude, like cats or elephants, but this time I want to be selfish and allow me to greet you properly, with flowers and all the rest.

You didn't give it to me on that cliff, so now it's time to do it my way.

I think you owe it to everyone else too: you were more loved than you thought and it would upset everyone if your death went quietly like any unimportant event.

You were the glue that held us together and, now that you're gone, a part of me is crumbling, like Thanos couldn't make it.

Even in my darkest hour, when anger and suffering had destroyed my nature and rebuilt a puppet of hate with those broken pieces, you never stopped looking for me and taking care of me.

The blood of the surviving criminals wouldn't have given my family back to me, I knew that very well even before you told me in the rain that today is missing, but at least it gave me a purpose.

Now that such an important piece of my life is gone, even if I still have a purpose, I wish I could kill Thanos in person a hundred, a thousand times just to see his blood drip from my hands and cover the colour of yours that has spread over rocks and snow.

How many nights will pass before I stop seeing you fall into the void as soon as I close my eyes?

I hear a crack in my voice and clear my throat. I hope you and Tony are having a good time making fun of me. I'll be giving you a good show.

Nat, my dear Nat…

A leaf has fallen from the tree under whose shadow we are gathered and it is now resting on the coffin's wood, creating a shadow on the shiny varnish.

My mind is getting empty. I feel the thoughts and emotions slipping out of my body, which stands in front of the small crowd gathered around your picture.

I am a bloody selfish: I ought to be here to remind you and your life, of which you have never liked to talk about, and yet I keep thinking only about myself and how I feel without you.

My soul mate, the best part of me and the lever that used to lift my world up.

Since I met you, in that blessed day that changed our lives, you have always been a part of me. I actually realize it only now that your absence fills any room I enter: you were, you are the piece of the puzzle that gives meaning to the picture.

If you could hear me now you would look up and say something sagacious to refute my words, but now you aren't here, so I do it my way.

I love my family with all the love I am capable of and, if I always came back to them, it was thanks of you. If I could hide their existence in the eyes of a world that could have put them in danger, it was also thanks to you. If I could even think of being able to build a family, me, who as a child grew up learning to steal and became a man learning to kill, it was thanks to you.

Several times we touched the bottom together and together we climbed up. Now that you, falling, went higher than everyone, who will pull me up?

The speech is over and my hand, as I return to my seat, tightens around my wife's. The function continues and everyone is given the opportunity to greet you through the glass that frames your photograph.

Forgive me if I couldn't look you in the eye: your smiling face on a piece of paper would not be able to erase your last moments from my mind.

You were so calm that it made me nervous. You didn't have a tremor. I've never been so scared.

The coffin is light on my left shoulder. Next to me, Steve supports the other side, while Bruce, Bucky, Sam and Nick share the unbearable weight of an empty box.

No music accompanies you to the hole in the ground that I prepared for you, only a crown of white roses ties the headstone on which I had your name and your dates engraved.

The first handful of thrown earth is mine. It slips through my fingers like your thin hair when I caressed your face.

I wish it rained, so I wouldn't be the only one crying.

[hippityhoppityyourenowmyproperty]

Reset! Rant (part 2)

Chapter: 10

In this chapter Wally shows up at Helen's house and confronts Thad with his earlier actions. (That being killing the clone.) He expresses his worry about Thad being around Bart and the potential threat he's posing to him.

Stopping when Wally didn't move out of the way, Thad glared up at the Flash. "What are you looking up?" "A killer." Wally replied. "You're not going anywhere alone with Bart."

...................................."Thanks." Then Wally looked to Thad. "Still, killing isn't the answer."

That's right, Wally is the one who tries to make sure that no more harm will come to Bart from the hands of Thad. No, not Helen is giving him the "Killing isn't right and I will not accept you going around murdering any more people" talk, it has to be Wally. Wally, the guy who can't be in the same room as Bart for more than ten minutes without getting into a fight with him is more concerned with his welfare than his actual surrogate mother. Once again, Helen comes off as irresponsible in her duties as his guard.

Around a mouthful of egg and sausage, Bart mused, "So what does that make a robot dog?" Reminded of his own dog begging by his chair, Bart dropped a piece of sausage on the floor for Dox.

Raising an eyebrow, Thaddeus eyed Bart. "I have to wonder if I was lied to about being a clone. Moments like that would be better explained if I was the original and you were the copy. So much could be excused by a bad splice."

What he's suggesting is: "I'm better than you and you are inherently flawed." And yes, both Helen and Wally heard Thad's put down, but neither of them spoke up about it. That implies that they think what Thad stated about Bart is right/doesn't need to be corrected.

Chapter: 11

Thad: "Max is why I'm helping. That he is too important to loose is why I'm leading. Bart lacks the capacity of forethought that is requiered in an operation like this."

This will become pertinent later when talking about Thad's hypocrisy.

Thad: "Until we encounter Rival, do not use your meta human abilities under any circumstances." Kon frowned and remarked, "Don't spoke the locals. Yeah, I think we can figure that one out for ourselves. We don't all ride the short bus."

"I was more concerned about Bart", Thad added.

"Hey! I know how to not use my powers!" Bart protested.

Thad muttered under his breath, "That's obvious."

That's judging and criticizing disguised as advice and a put down. And yes, Kon is a massive dick for saying the shortbus insult for the same reasons Thad was a douche for using the insult on Bart. Expressing his disdain through this term is still extremely inappropriate and unacceptable.

"I don't like him. He's a bossy jerk." Kon said to Bart as he leaned back. "Inertia? Yeah but at least he's helping."

Bart is saying that Thad helping him with bringing back Max justifies his shitty behavior. It obviously doesn't. Firstly, Thad is not doing this because he wants to do Bart a favor. He's solely doing this because he wants Max back. He's doing this for himself. If Carol or Helen had vanished, he wouldn't lift one finger to help find them. Secondly, him helping Bart does not excuse his toxic behavior. He can't just treat Bart however he likes because they're both working towards the same goal. He's still a dick for calling Bart these names.

Chapter 12:

"That was foul" Thaddeus remarked sourly. "Though we would have been here already if Bart hadn't missed a decimal point in the time coordinates.

"I couldn't hit it!", Bart defended, "Your arm was in the way!"

This is and excellent example of accusing and blaming coupled with senseless judging and criticizing. Thad is chewing Bart out for something that is completely irrelevant and unimportant, and that doesn't negatively affect him in the least. Furthermore, saying this after they landed didn't help Bart or the others in any shape or form. He's solely critizising him because he can and because putting Bart down makes him feel more powerful and superior. Then you have the fact that he's blaming Bart for something that is out of his control. He couldn't have changed it if he wanted to. It's not his fault that he missed it, like Thad wants him to believe. And, the most ironic part of course, is that Thad himself is responsible for Bart not being able to do what Thad reprimended him for not doing. If it wasn't for Thad, Bart would have been able to press the button. After Bart calling him out on his flawed logic and pointing out that Thad's accusations are unjustified and don't make sense, Thad stops responding. He drops the subject and ignores Bart's complaints. Moreover, we can't skip over the fact that Thad was adressing Bart's friends when critizising him, and not Bart himself. He's trying to get them to turn on Bart. He wants them to join in on ripping on him. 'Look at this idiot and be displeased with him', he's saying. 'Look at how dumb he is for having a minor mess up that doesn't affect us and that I'm really responsible for.' Abusers will often call people out on their (insignificant) mistakes or shame them for their personality flaws in public when in front of their friends or in privacy in order to humiliate and embarrass them. It's another insidious way of damaging their self worth and taking power away from them. Being exposed to a treatment like this for an extended period of time is like poison for a person's self esteem and sense of self worth. Sooner or later, nothing the victim of the abuse does or says will be good enough. Seemingly everything they do is wrong. The recipent of the abuse will start questioning their personality as a whole. The abuse will destroy a person's self confidence and self value and make them exactly believe what their abuser wants them to think of themselves. They're 'just' words, but they have a huge impact on a person. They can appear harmless and innocuous but they're not. It's a sentence that seems for a lot of people normal or acceptable, but it's lethal for someone's self esteem.

Thad: "I've taken Max into the speed force before to help him reconnect with it."

Thad uses I instead of we. He 'forgets' to mention that Bart helped carry Max into it after Thad tried to kill them and then left. Bart was the one who actually carried Max through the most dangerous part of the speed force, namely the speed storm. If anyone deserves credit for saving Max, it's Bart.

Kon's laughter managed to reach their ears. "I should have brought a camera! That was epic fail!" He was still laughing when their staggered to their feet. Inertia pressed his hand against the ball's wall with a rude gesture.

....................................

"We could do another practice run," Inertia suggested,"Superboy is close to Max's mass and he's invulnerable." ....................................Inertia saw the display read almost at the goal point where Morlo would shut down the run and grinned. He let go of Kon, hopped to one side and kept running. Kon and Bart crashed down and were pasted against the transparent wall, spinning at a sickening rate. With an extra burst of speed, Inertia kicked the ball faster and then vibrated out of it. Crossing his arms and laughing, he watched Kon and Bart spin around in the ball. When it finally came to a stop, Kon and Bart cralwed out of it. Inertia leaned over Kon "You're right, that was hilarious. I should have brought a camera." Impulse pulled the trashcan towards him and draped over it. "No more spinning", he moaned,"I hate spinning." .................................... "So, are we ready for the real run?" "As soon as Impulse gets back up," Morlo answered.

"I hate spinning" Impulse weakly repeated into the trashcan.

Inertia strode towards the sleeping rival. To Empress he asked: "How long will he stay unconscious?" "Hard to say," She replied. "So, you should move fast. You don't want him waking up while you're running."

So apart from that Bart shouldn't experience nearly as much nausea from spinning around as Thad should because his father was a Tornado Twin and that DNA string was removed from Thad's biology, and that Thad was only written to be more impervious to vertigo to make him appear superior and more "in control" than Bart, this is were Thad's action once again cross over to highly irresponsible, petty, selfish and, quite frankly, douchey behavior. He forces Bart and Kon to experience extreme vertigo because his ego can't take one joke. His pride was so wounded that he had to inflict pain on both of them so that he could regain the respect he thought Kon owned him. He doesn't care that Bart, who did absolutely nothing wrong, suffers as well. He probably views it as a bonus to humiliate Bart again. Thad only cares about reigning in Kon for his comment, it's not important to him who else gets hurt in the process. All he cares about is himself and how he feels, the rest of the world can go die if it were up to him.

The things he does are also very reckless and, dare I say, impulsive. They're on a time limit here. Empress used her voodoo magic on Rival to temporarly render him unconcious. Temporarly being the key word here. She admits that Rival could wake up at any moment and that she doesn't know how long she will be able to maintain control over him. And what brillant move does Thad, the boy who has supposedly as much brains as Robin has, pull? He holds them up with unnecessary pranks because he can't take his big ego being damaged. If Thad dislikes arrogant people who like to ridicule others so much, then he should take a good look into the mirror and start changing his ways. He his more oblivious to his own behavior than Bart is, and that's so ironic. Thad is supposed to be smart in this, but this was a reckless and selfish move. Rival could wake up at any moment, Thad actively endangers everyone that's in the lap with them. He risks Rival breaking free and killing even more people because it's more important to him that Kon 'knows his place'. By the way, great job on making Bart, your partner whom you need to success with carrying Rival through the speed force, trust you. What was it what you said about Bart again? That he lacks the capacity of forethought that is requiered in an operation like this? My, how the tables have turned.

Chapter: 13

Another possibility dawned on him. "What if that's why they weren't doing much to help Max in the first place?" His vision tunneled on the skillet with which he was cooking with and he clenched his jaw. "Why didn't they tell me? Why do I always have to be left in the dark?"

Thad's voice broke in,"Because you're an idiot. You would just brainlessly jump in and do the stupidest thing possible."

Another insult from Thad designed to make Bart even more anxious about his deep insecurities and shame him for having ADHD. Carol sits next to Bart while this scene happens, and she says nothing to comfort Bart and ease his concerns, nor does she tell Thad to lay off Bart or make him understand that his behavior is unacceptable.

"We're traveling through time, moron," countered Thad, "We can return later tonight, no matter how long it takes."

And another degrotary term linked to Bart being nd.

Chapter: 14

Shaking her head again, Meloni answered,"Sorry, sunshine. You said that it was a timeline that wouldn't happen? I'm guessing that the me that helped you was from the other timeline. She never existed here, so I don't remember any of that."

"Oh."

Thad rolled his eyes and snorted. "I can't believe you had to be told that." Bart scowled at him.

"Jerk."

"R*tard", Thad shot back.

Meloni stood up and pushed her dying hair away from her face. "I'm going to get dressed. If you're hungry, help yourself to the kitchen."

This. This is what convinced me to write this rant. To use the r-word on someone is offensive and repulsive for the same reasons the shortbus insults are unacceptable, but it's way worse. This is the most obvious way of saying: "You're inadequate/weird/not functioning properly/dumb because you are neurodivergent and because of that you should be ashamed of yourself and you deserve to feel bad." Being called a r*tard is like a punch to the face. It's extremely hurtful and damaging. It would be detestable if Thad would have used it on someone who didn't have ADHD, too, but for him to use it on someone who has it is just down right loathsome and shows us what a contemptible and vile person Thad is. You don't call this someone unless you really want to make them feel hurt and worthless. You don't do this unless you are a dispicable person. Calling nd people this is not okay, it's not funny, it's not harmless, stop using this word and start watching your language. If you can't see by now how abusive Thad is in this, then I don't think you will ever understand it. This is so unbelievable disrespectful and inexcusable, so goddamn contemptuous and insolent on Thad's part that I honestly expected Bart to finally snap and grind Thad's face into the dirt. Thad is such a condescending and self-entitled asshole in this that I hoped for someone to finally confront him with consequences for his shitty actions. But nope, he gets away with it yet again, all the while people will still criticize Bart for having minor mess ups. And this brings me right to my next point: Meloni's reaction, or rather, lack thereof. Meloni. HEY MELONI. You want to say something about your own child being called a r*tard right in front of you? You want to reign Thad in for insulting Bart like that? My god, how much do you have to hate your child to let someone call him the r-word right in front of your eyes and let them get away with it? She's not showing the slightest signs of disapproval or anger. We are supposed to see Meloni as a good parent, but she really isn't. She's terrible at parenting. Her standing up and leaving the room comes off as a "Oh my god you two are so annoying with your endless bickering, can't you get along?" She should have been livid and angry about Thad's comments, but she's not. Alone the degrading "I can't belive you had to be told that" should have been enough to set her off, but it doesn't. She shows the same apathy to Thad's verbal harassment that Helen shows. She's a neglectful and shitty parent. If it were up to me, I wouldn't let her take care of Bart and Thad out of concern for Bart's mental health. In fact, I would call the child service on both Helen and Meloni for their horrible "parenting" style. And by the way, r*tard isn't stared out in the original.

This whole scene is so disgusting and disturbing that it made me feel physically sick while reading it. I couldn't believe what I was reading, I really couldn't.

Chapter: 15

Thad:"I still reserve the brotherly right of beating the ever loving snot out of you whenever you get too annying."

No, no you fucking don't. This is the opposite of what being brothers means. You don't get to hurt Bart just because you feel like it. Stop being so entitled. Just so you known, he threatens Bart in front of Meloni and despite a soft spoken "Thaddeus." We get no reaction. This is especially careless on her part when you remember that the the "still" implies that he already beat him up for being annoying before. You see how upon learning new informations he immediatly tries to twist it around so that he can further justify his abuse?