#a perfect example of what happens when that’s the case. i don’t care if she’s The taylor swift she’s literally a person !!! a human being!!

[ilostyou]

let me make something very clear: it’s weird and strange and invasive to speculate about anyone’s sexuality unless it’s your own. hope this helps

[hard-core-super-star]

A request for hailee x reader. Reader is Hailees' main backup dancer. There are edits of the two over the years, fans speculate that the two are together due to the tension between them in said edits and videos.

one step forward, three steps back [H.Steinfeld]

pairing: hailee steinfeld x reader

summary: when hailee tries to convince you to ride the publicity wave and appear in her new music video, you’re forced to accept the truth of your feelings for her.

warnings: the weirdest mix of angst and fluff you've ever seen; stubborn idiots arguing instead of being honest; quite possibly the most dialogue i've ever written for one fic; one mention of the JA stunt because i am still bitter about it

wordcount: 1.6k

a/n: rubix stop mentioning sunkissing in everything challenge. don't mind me, just trying to manifest hailee's music back to life...pun absolutely intended. [ever write a song so gay you have to go into hiding as soon as it comes out? i'm sure taylor swift knows the feeling all too well] anywho, i got a little carried away with this one and it shows. hope you enjoy <3

* * * * * * *

If someone had told you your entire life would be flipped on its head just from a few short video edits and a trending hashtag you would have called them mad. Unfortunately, Emily Dickinson had a point when she said,“Much madness is divinest sense.”

The ‘madness’ in this case was the sheer amount of people who had started spreading the before-mentioned videos around and the ‘sense’ being your incredibly obvious feelings for the person who was essentially your boss. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, and the biggest reason you have not to tell Hailee the truth, but the point still stands.

You still have no idea how things got blown so out of proportion since the speculation around you two has been swirling around since day one. Clearly, not having any new music projects to focus on has driven her fans into madness.

It would be fine…if you and Hailee were still on speaking terms.

Are you being dramatic? Maybe a little but your friendship or relationship or whatever the hell it was that you two had going on at some point isn’t what it used to be. The blame isn’t entirely on her but your own bitterness about the situation tends to cloud your judgment sometimes…okay, most of the time.

Right now is a perfect example of it.

You’ve been staring at your phone for what feels like hours, mentally debating if you should give in and reply to Hailee’s text. You really, really, don’t want to but what other choice do you have? It’s not like you can ignore her forever, you’ve already promised her you’ll join her on her next tour, whenever it finally happens.

You decide to suck it up and agree to meet her for coffee. The last thing you need is to be seen hanging out with her right now but you’re sure it’s all part of the plan. A plan that probably didn’t come from the singer herself, but rather from the group of people who act like they want the best for her but are really just trying to sell her image like it’s a product.

Because who cares about morals and dignity as long as you get streams on your music, right?

You shove your bitter thoughts out of your mind for now and focus on getting ready to see Hailee again.

The hours simultaneously feel like seconds and eternity and before you know it, you’re sitting at a semi-secluded table in a random coffee shop with your knee bouncing up and down like there are ants crawling up your pants. No amount of breathing exercises or grounding techniques can stop your heart from hammering in your chest from the mere thought of the brunette.

You’re not sure what she wants from you, you just have a bad feeling about it. Although maybe that’s your broken heart talking, you can’t be sure.

You notice her the second she walks in and you do an awful job at pretending you’re looking at something on your phone instead of her. You act like you can’t see the smile on her face from this distance just like she acts like she can’t see you. Both of you look ridiculous but neither of you mind.

She finally joins you after another eternity of waiting and despite all the questions that are swirling around in your brain, you force yourself to wait for her to go first.

“I need your help with something.”

After months of not talking to each other, that’s what she leads with. You would complain about her lack of greeting but you’re grateful she’s getting right to the point so you can wrap this up and go back to avoiding your feelings. “That’s a bold start.”

She rolls her eyes, more out of habit than anything else. “It’s been five seconds, are we going to fight already?”

“I guess that depends on what you want me to do,” you reply.

“I want you in the SunKissing music video. We finally got the green light for it and it’s the perfect way to take advantage of all the buzz around the two of us.”

You can’t help but wonder if she’s joking. The ‘buzz’ around you two is just people speculating and piecing together the history Hailee has spent so long ignoring and rewriting. History that’s filled with arguments. bitter kisses, unspoken confessions and stolen glances.

You force the memories out of your mind. Along with the weird ache you feel every time you focus on Hailee’s eyes.

“Me dancing in the background of your music video isn’t going to be a trending topic, Hailee.”

She shrugs. “It will be if we kiss.”

“You’re joking,” you say, unable to hide the way her words take you by surprise.

“I’m serious.”

“You’re choosing now to come out? You think this will make everyone forget about your little stunt with the QB?”

Your mention of the New York stunt hits her hard and if you’re being honest, that’s exactly why you brought it up. You’re not interested in turning your private life into Hailee’s next big scandal. Even if it means pissing her off until she changes her mind.

The way she clenches her jaw is all you need to know you’re not going to like her next words. “It’s not a coming out. It’s an acting project.”

“You’re never going to change are you?” You ask, not sure whether to be impressed or disappointed by her idea.

“Come on, y/n.” She leans forward and places her hand on top of yours. You half-expect a camera flash to accompany the action but you seem to be safe for now. “You know you’re the only person I trust with this.”

Her words would be cute if you hadn’t fallen for them already. Multiple times. It’s always been the same way with her. She gives you a few months of her attention, makes you believe your unspoken affections aren’t one-sided, just to rip it away from you the second you think you’ve made progress.

“You’re the last person in this room who should be talking about trust.”

“Oh my God!” She leans back, her hand slipping away from you and taking any hope of avoiding an argument with it. “When are you going to let that go?”

You’re not even sure what she thinks you’re upset about this time. The list is so long, she could be referencing anything and be completely right. And yet somehow, you’re the one who’s in the wrong for still being upset.

“When you apologize for being a piece of shit,” you say as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Which it is. To you, anyway.

The brunette across from you clearly doesn’t feel the same. “That’s unfair.”

“Leading someone on is unfair, Hailee.”

“You are so stubborn. How the hell did I ever sleep with you?”

You can’t tell if she’s joking or not but either way, you don’t want to hear another word from her.

“I’m leaving,” you say as you rise to your feet, ignoring your half-finished drink and the flash of regret that passes through those brown eyes you can’t help but love.

“Shit, shit, y/n, wait!”

“I already did wait or did you forget about that too?”

You don’t give her a chance to answer instead choosing to ignore her rushed apology and walking away like you should have done when this whole conversation started.

You make it about six feet away from the entrance when you hear Hailee’s voice calling after you. “Will you do it if I tell you it was my idea?”

It’s a desperate attempt for your attention and yet you fall for it all the same. Everything inside of you is telling you to leave but you can’t. Not when you’re this close to getting her to be honest with both herself and you.

“If it’s the truth,” you respond with your back still facing her.

“It is.” The scent of her perfume overwhelms you as her hands grip your waist. You fight back the urge to move away from her and allow her to turn you around to look at her. “I told my label it would be good publicity but honestly…I just really miss you.”

You can’t stop yourself from laughing. The sound comes out softer than you thought possible. “You couldn’t call like a normal person?”

“We’re not normal people, y/n,” she says, the ghost of a smile lingering on her lips. “You know that better than anyone. You know me better than anyone.”

“Do I?”

She takes a step closer to you and you hate the way your eyes instantly drop down to her lips. It’s an instinct that no amount of time away from her can rewrite. “Let me prove it to you. Please.”

“You’re not going to fix this with a few kisses, Hailee.”

There’s an unspoken promise in her eyes. One that says she’ll kiss you as many times as she has to until she proves you wrong. And you have no doubt that she will.

Her hands move up from your waist to cup your cheeks. Her movements are slow and careful almost as if she’s waiting for you to change your mind.

In a way, you do because whatever remaining doubt you had about your feelings for the brunette fades away in an instant. You push away all your hesitation and close the gap between your lips.

It’s the sweetest kiss you’ve ever shared. It’s full of almost inaudible sighs, gentle touches, and the overwhelming truth of your desires. Mainly, the desire to keep going.

“One chance,” you whisper as you pull away. “I’ll help you with the music video. I’ll let you in again. Don’t make me regret it.”

“Promise.”

You’re about to tell her not to make promises she can’t keep but she kisses you again before you get the chance to.

[kamomillee]

The king's fate at the end of Wish

The ending of "Wish" would be perfect for a story that shows the victim breaking free from the control of a pathological narcissist.

Typically, a narcissist's biggest victim is their spouse. In this case, Amaya.

So, in the end, he loses his power, ending up in the mirror where he will be trapped forever, alone in a dungeon.

Narcissists have no redemption. The right way to deal with a narcissist is to use the gray stone technique and cut all ties with them. Their end is loneliness.

That's a great message for a movie to convey.

But that's not the case with Magnifico.

I can't see him as the pathological narcissist that the ending required, simply because he had no malice. Instead, we have someone who cares and shows empathy and respect for others.

Real narcissists are incapable of empathy. They are evil and enjoy causing pain. That's their pleasure. And no, he wasn't faking it. He was genuine. The movie itself tells us that he was good, but then he “turned bad.” That’s not how narcissists work. They were never good to begin with.

It’s a complicated subject. Many people can be mistaken for narcissists because of certain bad, idiotic, and immature behaviors. But they are not really narcissists because they can repent, overcome this, and become better people. Narcissists don’t change and don’t want to change, they don’t think they’re wrong. That’s why they have no redemption.

Let’s look at Amaya, who his victim should be if he were truly a narcissist.

Narcissists deceive and manipulate their victims into bonding, often through marriage. Then they show their true colors once the victim is trapped with them. They make their victim’s life miserable, disregard them, step on them, oppress them, and make them feel guilty about it. The only opinion that matters is their own. They know what they’re doing and they enjoy it.

Amaya and Magnifico have been married for years and… none of that happens. He genuinely loves her, shows her love, and respects her, her opinion matters, and he listens to her, changes his actions when she asks him to, gives her credit, and praises her. And he does all this when they’re alone, with no one to watch the “show.” He’s genuine.

He genuinely cares about people and wants to protect them; that’s his motivation. He showed empathy for Asha’s pain over the loss of her father and shared his own pain with her.

The movie needed the book with the curse for him to do bad things because without it he wouldn’t. And he was already known as the most powerful sorcerer. Why not use that power?

Because they needed a curse. 😑

Also, in films for children, it's important to be clear so that children understand the story. If there's a villain with a hidden agenda who fools everyone by pretending to be good, at some point he'll expose it, usually by bragging about how clever he was and how gullible everyone else was to fall for his lies. In this ''villain's'' case, there's nothing to indicate that he was deceitful before the curse or that he had an ulterior agenda, because, well, he really wasn't and didn't have any of those things.

Did he have a problem? He did. But it wasn’t pathological narcissism. I already talked about his problem in my previous post.

A perfect example of a pathological narcissist in a position of power is Fire Lord Ozai from "Avatar: The Last Airbender". No one was sad when he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

An example of a narcissist in the mother position is Mother Gothel. She gaslighted, treated Rapunzel badly, and left her feeling guilty and afraid.

Gaston is also one. He doesn't care about Belle's opinion. He doesn't care about stepping on people. Many people compare Gaston to Magnifico because of the cringe compliments in the mirror. But really put them next to each other and compare how they see and treat people.

When a narcissist loses, usually, he explodes in fury and revenge and curses everyone.

What we got was someone betrayed by everyone, devastated with sad kicked puppy eyes. (WHY????!!) 😑

I don’t understand why they did it that way. They just had to make the guy a true pathological narcissist. Since they didn’t do that, the movie pissed off a lot of people because the ending was unfair. Usually, unfairness makes people angry.

The movie shows that if it weren't for the cursed book he wouldn't have done any of that. If the wish system was bad, they could have resolved it peacefully.

Because he was completely redeemable, the ending was very ugly and unpleasant. It painted all the other characters as really bad, traitors, ungrateful, and selfish. Who only care about their own interests and gain.

In short: a tragedy.

(Edit: I added one more point to this. And hey, thanks for reading 😊)

[igotanidea]

Heal the past: Dick Grayson x f!reader

Summary: Y/n and Dick has no secrets from each other. She is his pillar, strong and reliable and always there for the all the batboys. So, why does her health keep getting worse and what could she possibly keep in the dark?

Warnings: mentions of abuse, past trauma and therapy sessions, apart from that it's fluff/comfort

A/N: another story based loosely on a work case. I hate domestic violence incidents and hereby I dedicate this ff to everyone who has ever experienced one or currenly is - seek help, you can free yourself from that pain and fear. The first step is always the hardest.

„Y/N?”

„Hi there” she slowly turned her gaze towards the door where Dick was standing, eyeing her carefully. She tried her best to cover up for how she was feeling, but she was painfully aware he noticed everything. Her slightly red and puffy eyes, her reddened cheeks, the way she was holding her knees against her chest, rocking back and forth, mere seconds before his entering. He knew she wasn’t all good, there was no point in neither asking nor denying. If anyone was looking  for a perfect example of a mess  sure as hell she was one. 

“How… how was it today?” He dared to take a step in, testing girls’ reaction and since she did not ask him to leave he came even closer, sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.

“Hard.” she managed to say. “But what’s new.” Another attempt at cover-up by using a sad smile.  

“Is it a good or a bad sign?” it was so touching how truly concerned he was.

“I … I don’t really know. It’s just a lot to process, you know. The years of trauma and hiding your own feelings and emotions?”

“Believe me, I know well enough” he sighed deeply and she mentally slapped herself. He’s been through a lot as well.

“And yet, between you and me I am the one who was forced to start therapy sessions.”

“You weren’t forced……” he trailed, but she cut him off

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I was offered the chance to work through my past and convinced to accept.”

“Y/n……” he reached for her hand but she retrieved it from his grip, making his face drop a bit.

***

Half a year ago something bad started happening to her. Nightmares, constant fear. She had those symptoms before, but never so strong. It was not because of the fact that she became a part of bat family, taking care of teenage vigilantes and dating one of them. Nope. Surprisingly she was taking that pretty well, all things considered. This was the normal amount of stress. The problem was elsewhere and even though everyone was worried about her, she was just shrugging it off casually pretending she was doing fine. Nonetheless, it took an enormous amount of energy to suppress the shaking hands, calm the breath and not scream out loud when panic attacks creeps in for unknown reason. And then, because of all of this sucking up she started having headaches and later on, migraines, up to point where light was always too bright, and the sounds were always too loud. But she tried her best to survive, act strong and just live on, even if everyone knew something was terribly off. Their premonitions soon turned reality when she fainted in the kitchen.  She didn’t even get a chance to wrap her mind around what was happening when out of the blue she got dizzy, the whole world was spinning and she felt as if someone hit her in the back of the head with something extremely heavy.

“Jason…..” she gasped since he was the one closest to her, his eyes immediately focusing on the girl and his expression changing from his natural wry to concern and a bit of fear

“Y/N? What is happening?”

“I’m not…….. I’m not feeling well….” she grabbed the kitchen counter stabilizing herself but it was for nothing “I think…. I’m gonna throw up…”

“Jeez, Y/N, in some other circumstances I would ask you if you are pregnant, but …. hey, come on, don’t  plotz on me” thank god, he was quick enough to catch her  before she hit the ground yelling for Dick to come quickly.

Grayson wasn’t usually the one to react to Jason commands and it was no different this time. It took three attempts to finally get him to move his butt, and he only did so, because his younger brother pointed out it was about Y/N. Just the mention of her name made Dick sprung out of the couch and rush to the kitchen. Oh, he did not expect to find his love unconscious in Jason’s arms and a lot of feelings flooded him.  Confusion of what just happened, terror of whether she was alright and anger, ironically jealousy since Jason was the one to hold her and the unreasonable amount of guilt since because she was his girlfriend it was his duty to care about her and protect her. But all that could wait. She was the priority now. What was important, was checking her medical condition and finding out what caused her fainting. Dick was quick to take her from Jason and scoffing and frowning at his brother carried her to the bed, calling Alfred on the way.

While she was being checked up and still out cold, Dick refused to leave her side for a second, holding her hand in his, caressing her palm and praying silently that everything would turn up fine. He wouldn’t survive if it turned out that she was sick and dying for example. He should have taken better care of her, he shouldn’t have exposed her to so much stress, he should have told her to go see the doctor the second he noticed her health deteriorating. He should have…

“Master Dick?” Luckily, Alfred knew when to step in to stop the boy’s from beating himself up and his mind from spiraling

“Yes, Alfred?”

“She’s going to be all right. There’s no sign of anything suspicious about her organism. Maybe just a little increased blood pressure, but it will pass.”

“Thank God” Dick let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding “Thank you, Alfred.”

“It’s nothing .And … Dick?”

“Hm?” this time the boy did not even bother to look at the older man, his gaze fixed on the girl’s face, gently caressing her cheek, putting a strand of hair behind her ear.

“She’s gonna need some rest. And…. And I think she should see a specialist.”

“A specialist?” now he turned towards the butler “what do you mean?”

“Don’t you see? You know, master Dick for someone so well trained in observation as vigilante, you can be absolutely oblivious in real life. Y/N suffers from anxiety disorder. And maybe, maybe she’s a bit depressed, but I’m not   qualified enough to determine that. “

“She’s what?” Dick opened his eyes wide in shock  “Why? Why did she never tell me?”

“You will have to ask her about that yourself. I’ll leave you two alone.”

“When will she wake up?” Dick’s voice broke a little and Alfred knew how much strength it took for the boy to hold himself together upon hearing the revelations.

“Can’t really tell, but I suggest you to be patient.”

“Right…. Thank you, Alfred. Will you…. will you stay with her when I go patrolling tonight?”

“Are you crazy?” Jason came inside the room almost yelling at his older brother but quickly calming down when he noticed Y/N pale figure on the bed “You’re not going anywhere. Demon, replacement and me can take of things. She needs you more. Besides, I don’t think you;ll be able to focus on anything and as much I would love to see you beaten up for once, she would kill me if I ever let anything like that happen. Can’t risk her wrath.”

“Her wrath, huh?” Dick smirked

“Yeah. Of course. But… she’s gonna be all right, right? She just looks so weak….”

“We’ll make sure of that.”

“Why did no one tell me y/n lost consciousness?!”

“Father, calm down.”

“How can I calm down Damian? She’s……”

“She needs quiet. I suggest both of you stop yelling!”

“Who’s yelling now, Tim?!”

“Oh, shit….” Dick facepalmed

“I’ll get them out of here.” Jason stated simply

“Yeah, well, good luck with that.”

However, Jason did manage to drag Bruce, Tim and Damian out of the bedroom and forced them to focus on patrol, while Dick just stayed with Y/N. At first he was sitting beside her bed, but after fifteen minutes started getting nervous, pacing around. Why wasn’t she waking up? Alfred said she was fine, but … shit! He ruffled his hair in desperation. It was going to be a long night.

***

 He gave up after three hours. He was exhausted from his own thoughts and walking back and forth like no night patrol has ever made him. Defeated by his own body and tiredness he finally laid down next to Y/N, gently sneaking his arms around her pulling her in from behind, nuzzling his face into her neck, hoping she would somehow feel his presence and the love he felt for her. Apart from a single sharp breath when he touched her and a bit of a shift in a position she did nothing more, especially did not wake up. So he just laid there, eyes shot, brows furrowed.

“Please, don’t leave me…..” he whispered against her soft skin.

***

She woke up two hours later, at 2 a.m., but not in the way he was expecting. She sprung out, crying and panting, definitely reliving some crazy nightmare. Her whole body was shaking, petrifaction in her  eyes breaking his heart.

“No….” she panted, tears falling down “no, no, no, no, please……” apparently she wasn’t fully awake yet.

“Y/N” he said quietly, not wanting to scare her “It’s ok. It was just a nightmare. You’re safe. I’m here.”

“Di… dick?”

“I’m here, baby” he held her close to his chest, engulfing her in his warm embrace “No one is going to hurt you, I swear.”

“I….”

“Sh. You don’t need to say anything.“ he pulled her in even closer, not sure if he was trying to comfort her of himself. Maybe both. “Unless you want to. Do you want to?”

“No.” she shook her head

“All right then. We can just stay like this.”

“Dick?”

“Hm?” he hummed, stroking her hair and laying back down with her on top of him

“Can you just hold me like this for a while? I … I really need this.”

“Y/N.  We’ve been together for like a year now and you still feel the need to ask me about it?”

“You know…. it comes from my past and……”

“Hey, it’s ok. You don’t need to explain. I will hold you for however long you need. And as long as you will allow me to.”

*** Dick knew she needed space, he did. But the nightmare that happened that one night repeated three more times in a row and he had to confront her about it. How could he let her suffer alone like this?

“Y/n, enough is enough.” He stormed into her room, not caring about the closed door

“What are you talking about?” she raised an eyebrow at him

“You need to tell me what is going on with you.”

“Nothing is…..”

“Stop it” he spat and she flinched at the tone. “Sorry, I did not mean it to come out like this” he rubbed his forehead “but I need to know what’s troubling you. I need to know what I can do to make it better…..”

“Dickie….”

“Please…” he whispered placing himself next to her, grabbing her chin softly making her look at him, knowing well enough she would try to avoid his gaze.

“How can I…..?” she gulped “how can I even begin to explain this…..?”

“Baby, it’s me. I love you. You don’t need to hide.”

“But….”

“Listen to me, nothing, nothing you did can make me change my mind about you.”

“But…..”

“I’m here for you.” he whispered kissing her forehead and this simple gesture broke her as she started sobbing, trying extremely hard to muffle it by covering her mouth with the hand. “What’s the nightmare about?”

“It’s… it’s about my father… Shit, it’s so stupid….. I should be over it, it has been so many years since…..”

“Did he do something to you?” Dick’s voice turned a bit more vigilante- like, his eyes glistening with first indications of rage

“He…. He was on short fuse… and…. Many, many times when I said or did something he did not like …..

“Y/N. You need to tell me exactly what did he do to you.”

“He used to beat me up…..” her voice was now barely a whisper “never enough to leave any bruises or cuts though. At least, not physically” she let out a hysterical laugh while still crying

“I’m gonna find him and kill him” Dick hissed, now turning into vigilante, but quickly getting back on earth. It was not right, whatever fury was running inside his veins. He could not comprehend how anyone, let alone man, fuck!, a father could use any aggression on his beloved girl. No wonder she was upset of late

“Dick, please, I’m sorry. I never should have told you. It was so long ago, I really have no idea why this started taking its toll on me now. Maybe it’s because  I fell for you and … and I don’t really have good experience with men………. I’m sorry…”

“Why are you sorry? My babygirl. I love you so fucking much, you know it, right?” he pulled her into a hug, kissing her head repeatedly. I would never, never hurt you.” she was shaking hard in his embrace “God. Why did you never tell me this?” she muttered something incoherently, but he did not care about her reasons to keep it secret. “Did he beat your mum too?”

“I… I can’t remember. But to tell the truth, my mum was even worse at times…. She…..” Y/N started hyperventilating “she was more of a vocal aggressor….I… I….”

“Ok, that’s enough. Focus on me, ok? The past is in the past. You are mine to protect and care about and love . Whatever sad story you had, not every man is like your dad. I’m not.”

“I know” she sobbed desperately again “but it just hurts so deep. I never knew….”

“Sh.sh. Don’t worry. We’ll get you help. I promise. I’m not leaving you alone with this.”  

 And that was how she ended up in weekly meetings with psychologist. At first she was doing everything to avoid the uncomfortable, painful parts of her life. The doctor however was not easily manipulated and after first three meeting she was like a zombie, processing all the emotions extruded for years. Letting someone see them, riffle through them and make her fell apart was a lot. And deep inside she was worried if she could pick up all the pieces and figure out who she was under the surface. But slowly, slowly, she was healing and it was as much because of Dick’s and whole Batfamily support as of her own efforts.

*** Sometimes, there were bad days, obviously, sessions that made her feel broken, vulnerable and helpless. And this was definitely the case today. That was why she isolated herself in her room, putting all the information together in her head. And that was why Dick was a bit hesitant to check on her, but decided to give in and talk to her, hoping she won’t cut him out, but when she yanked her hand he wasn’t sure if it was good idea anymore.

“I’m sorry, Dick. I didn’t mean to give you the air” she looked him into the eyes, cupping his cheek “It’s just an old habit. I know you care about me. I’m… I’m still learning how to be more… open with what I feel. And how to get past my… well, past” she chuckled lightly and it was the best view he could ever see.

“Trust me, I’m learning with you. “ he leaned into her touch “And I need you to know that I’m proud of you.”

“Proud?”

“For putting yourself out there. I know it’s hard.”

“Whatever you say, Mr Nightwing.” She punched his chest

“Is this how you wanna play now, Miss Y/N?” he grabbed her wrist and kissed each of her knuckles, simplicity and tenderness of this gesture making her melt.

“Can you hold me?” she burst out “I need to know you are real and not just a friction of my imagination”

“Come here” he opened his arms and she dived in without any inhibitions. “Real enough for you?”

“I love you, you fool.” She mumbled and he laughed wholeheartedly. She was really healing.

“I love you too Y/N. More and more every day. ”

[bestworstcase]

Question from someone who's attempting to write rwby fanfiction. Do you have any advice on how avoid portraying team RWBY and their peers (JNPR, Penny, Oscar, etc) as people who are 'just better' or somehow more inherently virtuous than Those Evil Villains Over There Who Must Be Defeated and The Failures Of Generations Past? Because I want to write the girls and their friends bringing an end to a millennia-long conflict and upending the status quo and yeeting the brother gods, but like. I don't want to somehow imply that they have some special holy righteous sacred innate thing that made them succeed where others couldn't. And I feel like I keep accidentally implying that.

step 1. Worry Less.

if you don’t believe that RWBY et al are intrinsically Just Better Somehow you’re probably not going to write your story in a way that inadvertently implies as much even if they’re ultimately the ones who Solve The Problem. they’re just in the right place at the right time to escape this cycle these things happen bfrgk

step 2. remember that everybody does what they think is right

no one is a Bad Person on purpose and even when someone does something they know or believe to be wrong there is always some rationalization going on that makes it okay or makes it something outside of their control. keeping this in mind whenever you write character conflict is really important for portraying conflict in a naturalistic way—even if it isn’t something you put In The Text it’s useful for you as a writer to know what’s Going On in the heads of the characters who are wrong and why they’re doing the things that they do.

(a good exercise if you want to practice is to rewrite a scene from the other side’s point of view; if you have for example an argument between two characters who are both extremely convinced of their own rightness and don’t like each other, can you leap into the antagonist’s perspective and write that argument from their side in a way that paints the protagonist as irrational, stubborn, foolish? if you can switch your writer POV around like that to see things from the Wrong Perspective it becomes a lot easier to handle complex conflicts because you have a really solid grasp on what everyone’s stakes and opinions and reasons are.)

step 3. don’t be afraid to let the Good Guys fuck up & don’t be afraid to let the Bad Guys have a point

rwby does this really really really well. nobody is ever one hundred percent completely right—not in the story and not in real life—so letting the good guys be a little bit wrong and the bad guys be a little bit right creates points of common ground and margins for compromise to be built in between. and obviously if you have protagonists who are able to make mistakes and grow and accept compromise then Innately you have protagonists who are flawed and three dimensional, because if they were Perfect they wouldn’t need to learn or grow.

step 4. think about Why these characters are the ones who solve the problem

this is something that’s just helpful to have in mind as a writer to clarify your own framing; often the answer is a lot more about circumstance than any intrinsic Betterness and in the case of rwby a lot of it just comes down to the fact that salem attacked when she did—team rwby et al weren’t inculcated into the paranoid keeping secrets cult and didn’t have ozpin to lead them, so they figured out their own way of doing things that (because it plays to humanity’s strengths) works a lot better.

y’know how every time someone new is let in on the secret, the first question they ask is “why don’t people know? why not tell everyone?” the story is making the point that the natural, instinctive human response to finding out about a secret war is to go “it shouldn’t be secret!”—ozpin has to work very hard and be extremely careful about Who he initiates into this conspiracy because his methods run contrary to human nature. it takes active effort to quash that reflex to ask for help. what makes team rwby et al "special" isn’t anything unique to them, per se; its that they learnt the truth outside of this coercive environment that trained the old guard to Never Tell Anyone, so they intuitively grasp that telling more people and asking for help is better than not. because Most People put into this situation would intuitively grasp that.

[wikiangela]

tease tidbit tuesday💀

tagged by @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @daffi-990 @fortheloveofbuddie @disasterbuckdiaz @hoodie-buck 💖

hi! so, yesterday I randomly opened the doc with the buddie death cast au - which is a fic I started writing last summer on vacation and never got back to it but then made progress lol it's gonna be MCD, which i know is not everyone's thing so feel free to ignore this 🤣 it's basically buddie in the universe of the "they both die at the end"/"the first to die at the end" books so it's gonna be sad, sorry lol (I never even read mcd, idk why i'm writing this but this idea just wants to be written i guess haha) gotta put this weird mood I've been in lately to good use and finally write this 🤣 not sure if I'm happy with this snippet, but it all needs editing, the first two snippets were written on my phone and haven't been edited yet lol

I posted two snippets so far, gonna link them both snippet 1 | snippet 2

___

“Is all of this clear, Eddie?” she asks in the end.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” he says shortly. He should've just hung up immediately. Or cancel this stupid subscription after Shannon died. Sometimes he wonders if maybe people who get the calls and coincidentally get into accidents, for example, just give up and refuse to fight because they think it’s their time. Not like Shannon could do much, her injuries were too severe when they got there, but the point stands. Maybe they get more reckless, thinking it doesn’t matter anyway. 

There’s a short pause on the line, but then Jane speaks up again, her tone softer, more sympathy seeping through.

“I know it’s not easy to accept, if you’d like some help with that, on out website you can find therapists and grief counselors specializing in-”

“Listen.” Eddie interrupts. He’s spent enough time in therapy. He’s not doing it on his supposedly last day. “I know it’s all bullshit. I don’t care. You said what you had to say, I listened, for whatever reason.” he rolls his eyes. He really should’ve hung up, or not answered at all. “Is this conversation over yet?” he asks and is met with another moment of silence. She’s probably wondering what everyone else always is: why is he even spending money on this if he doesn’t believe. He has an answer ready to go, but that’s not what she asks.

“Can I ask you a question?” she says quieter, whispering, probably not allowed to go too much off-script. 

“Sure, why not.” he shrugs. He’s wide awake now, anyway, he’s not in a hurry. Not like he’s dying anytime soon.

“If it was your last day, how would you spend it? You don’t have to answer, just think about it.” she adds quickly, her tone much softer and gentler now. Eddie’s mind immediately supplies a picture of Christopher and Buck, just a casual hang-out, like usual, maybe going to the movies, or the aquarium, or the planetarium, something fun for his kid. And later a gathering with the rest of their family, maybe a barbecue at Bobby and Athena’s, with Maddie and Chim, and Hen and Karen, all their kids, just everyone having fun together. Yeah, that’d be a perfect day. “There’s no harm in spending today just like this, if possible. Just in case.” Jane adds, still whispering. He doesn’t tell her that’s more or less his plan, anyway, for the evening after his 12-hour shift. During which nothing will happen to him, because Death-Cast doesn’t know shit. “Well, lastly, Eddie,” Jane’s voice is back at normal-volume, tone strictly professional but sympathetic, as she recites the end of her script, “on behalf of everyone here at Death-Cast, we’re so sorry to lose you. Live this day to the fullest.”

Eddie hangs up without a word.

___

no pressure tags: @elvensorceress @gaydiaz @diazass @thebravebitch @silentxxsoul @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @arthursdent @911onabc @housewifebuck @rogerzsteven @watchyourbuck @underwater-ninja-13 @eowon @loserdiaz @evanbegins @ladydorian05 @wildlife4life @nmcggg @diazpatcher @lover-of-mine @king-buckley @monsterrae1 @thewolvesof1998 @puppyboybuckley @weewootruck @buckaroosheart @spagheddiediaz @steadfastsaturnsrings @exhuastedpigeon @jesuisici33 @theotherbuckley @rainbow-nerdss @malewifediaz @giddyupbuck @diazsdimples @jeeyuns @epicbuddieficrecs @pirrusstuff @honestlydarkprincess @hippolotamus @spotsandsocks

[rebelumbrella46]

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY - Theory Time!

I came up with a plot line for season 4, and it goes like this...

We know that the girl on the bike is a metaphor for God. So what if she's causing the apocalypse? What if when she says that Klaus can't stay because he doesn't belong, it's because he has the Marigolds inside, and we know that the Marigolds come from Reginald's world, so maybe Heaven as we know it isn't the place where the creatures from other worlds (not humans) can go after dying, and that's why Klaus ends up in the Void instead of Heaven. We never see Klaus meeting Ben on the other side, and when he talks to Reginald in S1, it's the little girl who points him in another direction (probably away from heaven) and the girl isn't really sure if she made Klaus, she says "I made everything so I must have made to you too" maybe she can feel that there is something inhuman about Klaus and that's why she doesn't like him. I mean, all the "I don't like you so I won't let you go to heaven" It seems a bit drastic, when you realize that Klaus isn't that bad of a person, apart from drug addiction and the “troublemaker” part.

So the plot goes like this: it's not really Viktor that causes the apocalypse, it's God, but... because of Reginald. 

She knows that someone has come along and created an imbalance in the world she created, therefore, "You're not supposed to be here," she keeps saying. "You can't stay." Or if you don't want to say that it’s God doing, you can say that the apocalypse is happening because of all of them, because of Reginald coming to earth and because of the Umbrellas and Sparrows having the Marigold when they were supposed to be normal children.

If this is the case, then ending the show like it ended in S3, with them without powers, and just living a normal life, no powers, no apocalypse, and just them as a family, going on with their lives, would have been perfect. But since that was the ending of the last season, and it's not (or at least I hope they don't re-use it) going to be the same ending. I think they'll get their powers back.

So if Klaus dies again, which is very possible, and he regains his powers. i think he could come back and that, coupled with Reginald's domination of this world, could trigger another apocalypse (especially if Klaus wants revenge, after last season's betrayal). All of this could result in the siblings getting their powers back and realizing that for the world to be safe, they can't be together.

And Five will have to divide them into timelines. 

For example: Sloane and Luther could stay in the present but maybe not on the earth, maybe they’d decide to go to the Moon together. Allison wouldn't care as long as she has Ray and Claire. Diego and Lila could go to the 80s. Viktor could ask to go back to Sissy and Harlan in the 60s. 

I don’t know where Ben and Klaus would go, but I would like them to stick together. And Five would definitely go way back in time, since we know that the Commission's quarters are located in 1950.

So that would be the end of the show. The siblings say their goodbyes and then get scattered through time. Only maybe when the timeline intersects, they would check on each other, make sure they're okay, but never get all together again.

 And Five grows old, watching them from the Commission Switchboard, watching them live their lives, and is glad to see them happy. He has done a good job. The world is safe. He was a good brother. And maybe in the way, he found a partner, named Dolores (real human)

But even if they all had the life they wanted, they still miss each other. And will forever do. 

[archiveikemen]

Abe no Yasuchika 2nd Birthday Story

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting┊aikm’s Genjiden Glossary

After a ritual that was being held at the castle since morning was over—.

(Now that I’m done helping out with the ritual, I can take a break and go shopping.)

As I walked around town, I recalled the serious facial expression I saw on Yasuchika-san’s face from afar during the ritual earlier.

(He was specially invited from Kyoto for the ritual… as expected of Yasuchika-san, the infamously talented Onmyōji.)

(— Oh? Speaking of which… isn’t it Yasuchika-san’s birthday today?)

(If I happen to meet him later, I should wish him happy birthday before he returns to Kyoto.)

Yuno: But I don’t think it’ll be easy to meet him…

???: — Who’s not easy to meet?

Yuno: ? Um, oh… Yasuchika-san!?

I looked up in surprise when someone responded to my mumbling.

Yasuchika: Hello! Fox Princess.

(Speak of the devil! I can’t believe we really ran into each other.)

Surprised by the unexpected meeting, I quickly returned the greeting and asked him about what I was thinking about earlier.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san, it’s your birthday today, right?

Yasuchika: Hm? That’s right. You remembered.

(I knew it!)

Yuno: Happy birthday!

Yasuchika: Mm, thanks.

Yasuchika: I’m dressed like this and came all the way to Kamakura for work on my birthday. I’m amazing, you know?

Yasuchika: Such a hardworking man like myself is always open to receiving gifts!

(Hmm, this brings back some memories. I remember him asking for gifts like this last year too.)

(... Huh?)

I was about to smile back at him — and then I realised something.

Although his words sound cheerful, Yasuchika-san didn't seem genuinely happy.

Yuno: … By any chance, are you uninterested in celebrating your own birthday?

Yasuchika: Huh?

I asked the question without much thinking and Yasuchika-san's eyes widened for a moment like he had been caught.

Yasuchika: … You’re right. I mean, it’s honestly no different from any other regular day.

Yasuchika: But birthdays are special for most people, right? So I thought I’d follow suit.

(Follow suit? He’s just trying to fit in?)

(That means Yasuchika-san doesn't actually care about his birthday…)

At that moment, I noticed a slight cold glint in Yasuchika-san’s eyes.

(This question might sound like I’m intruding too far into his boundaries, but for some reason I can’t leave this as it is…)

Yuno: If it’s the birthday of someone important to you, would it still be no different from any other day?

Yuno: For example, would you be happy or want to celebrate it for them…?

I asked while thinking about what I would personally do in those situations, and Yasuchika-san responded with a smile.

Yasuchika: I’ll be happy for them, I guess? If they wanted to be born, that is.

Yasuchika: … But that’s not always the case for everyone.

Yasuchika: There are people who lead a life full of pain and suffering, cursing at the fact that they were ever born into this world.

(Cursing at being born…?)

The unexpectedly heavy response from Yasuchika-san took me by surprise.

(— Everyone has their own ways of thinking. But… his way feels kind of lonely.)

(I wonder if Yasuchika-san’s past birthdays have never been enjoyable for him…)

Husband: — Come on, watch your step. It can turn into something big if you trip and fall.

Wife: Of course I will! I’ll also be sure to use you as a cushion to soften the impact if I do fall~

(Hm?)

Yasuchika: Oops, that’s…

Yasuchika-san and I heard a conversation, and at the same time we turned to see a pregnant woman with a large baby bump slowly walking alongside a man who appeared to be her husband.

(Wow, she’s pregnant!)

Yuno: Hello. Are the two of you headed somewhere?

The young couple wore puzzled expressions when I suddenly approached them.

I introduced myself to them as a physician while maintaining a cheerful attitude.

Yasuchika: That was a very happy conversation.

Wife: Ah, you heard us? That’s kind of embarrassing.

Husband: Actually, we’re on our way to the midwife’s house. There still quite a while before our baby is due, but the assessment suggested that we make our way there earlier.

Wife: I was told that it's beneficial for me to move around once in a while, and I’ve been going for regular check-ups.

Yuno: Ahh, I see.

(That’s reassuring to know. I was concerned about her moving around while heavily pregnant, but… they seem to be very happy.)

Yasuchika: …

(? Yasuchika-san…?)

I noticed that Yasuchika-san was lost in thought.

Yasuchika: May I know where the midwife’s house is?

Husband: The house? Go along this road, then head north…

The couple answered his question politely without a hint of hesitation.

Yasuchika-san listened to their answer and nodded in understanding while paying attention to the pregnant woman’s abdomen.

(Is something the matter?)

Yasuchika: — I have just one piece of advice for this happy couple.

Yasuchika: Avoid the road you’re planning to take, and instead go by that one over there.

Couple: Huh…?

Yasuchika: Well then, I wish you well!

Yasuchika-san ignored their looks of confusion and smiled warmly at the woman.

They were confused by the sudden advice to take a detour for some reason unknown to them.

Wife: Erm, well… if someone as respectable as you says so.

Husband: Ah, yeah… we’ll take your advice. Thank you.

It seems that Yasuchika-san’s physical appearance gave them the impression that he was a man of high authority.

Despite feeling obliged, the couple sincerely accepted Yasuchika-san’s advice and left.

Yasuchika: Yup, it’s a good thing to be honest.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san… what was that all about?

Yasuchika: Just being a busybody.

Yasuchika: It’s always good to listen to any advice someone has for you, although you’ll never know if it’s genuine good advice.

(Ugh, I’m so curious!)

(But I highly doubt he’ll tell me what it is.)

His usual carefree smile made me realise that I was likely to be the one who would be deceived by the “smoke screen” he put up.

Yuno: — By the way, Yasuchika-san. If you have time to spare, can I have a moment with you?

…

Afterwards, Yasuchika-san and I were having sweets at a nearby teahouse—.

(Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m in a shop together with Yasuchika-san.)

I realised it while eating my dumplings.

I glanced at Yasuchika-san who was seated next to me, only to see that he had been staring at me as well and our eyes met.

(Ah…)

Yasuchika-san narrowed his eyes and smiled.

Yasuchika: My encounters with you are always something new.

Yuno: W-What do you mean “encounters”...

Even though he was most likely joking, the realisation that we were alone together made my heart race.

Yuno: B- But I’m glad to meet you today!

Yuno: Today is an important occasion because it’s the day you were born.

Yasuchika: …

(Huh…?)

Yasuchika: Right. I knew you’d say something like that.

Yasuchika-san’s facial expression quickly relaxed and went back to his usual smile, but…

(Just a second ago… he looked kind of lonely.)

His response that seemed to contain a hidden meaning left a feeling of uncertainty in my heart.

(I wonder what's on Yasuchika-san’s mind.)

…

By the time we left the teahouse, the sky was already dyed orange by the setting sun.

Yasuchika: Today was so much fun.

Yuno: Yeah.

Although I nodded in response to Yasuchika-san, I couldn't get that impatient feeling off my chest.

= Flashback Start =

Yasuchika: I’ll be happy for them, I guess? If they wanted to be born, that is.

Yasuchika: … But that’s not always the case for everyone.

Yasuchika: There are people who lead a life full of pain and suffering, cursing at the fact that they were ever born into this world.

= Flashback End =

(The person Yasuchika-san mentioned earlier who led a life full of suffering…)

(I have no idea who he was referring to. It’s also possible that he could've been making a general statement.)

(But…)

I recalled the cold look I caught a glimpse of in Yasuchika-san’s eyes when I asked him about his birthday.

(Yasuchika-san definitely has no sentimental feelings about being born.)

And somehow, I thought that it was incredibly lonely.

(I wouldn't go as far as to say that I’m glad he was born.)

(But at the very least — I hope to let him know that there are people who are happy that he exists.)

Yasuchika: … Well then, it’s unfortunately about time to go home. I’ll walk you back to the castle, Yuno-san.

Yuno: ! Ah, you’re right. Thank you, Yasuchika-san.

(There are still many things I want to know about Yasuchika-san…)

(I don’t want to let him go just like this.)

…

As I continued pondering about how I could convey that sentiment to Yasuchika-san, we got closer and closer to the castle…

Yuno: … Hm? Yasuchika-san, over there.

Yasuchika: Yeah. The couple we met in town. Looks like the wife isn't here.

Nearby the castle, we saw the man we met earlier pacing back and forth in the area.

(I think he’s looking for someone… ah.)

The man suddenly turned his gaze in our direction.

His eyes lit up the moment he saw Yasuchika-san and immediately ran towards us.

Husband: Ahh, I’m glad to see you again…! I wanted to thank you at all costs for what you did for us.

Yuno: Thank?

Yasuchika: From the looks of it, the baby must've been born safe and sound.

Husband: Yes! … As expected, you foresaw that happening, didn’t you?

The man was overflowing with respect and gratitude towards Yasuchika-san.

We were told that the baby was born earlier than expected, but they fortunately arrived at the midwife’s house just in time.

Moreover, the road they had initially planned to take had stray dogs in the area at that time of day.

Yuno: Stray dogs…!?

Husband: Yes. The midwife told us that we were lucky we didn’t take that route today. We were so surprised to hear that.

Husband: Had we taken that route, we would’ve been attacked by stray dogs and…

The man turned pale at the thought.

(Thank goodness the mother and child are safe…!)

Yasuchika: At any rate, you’re pretty good at finding me.

Husband: I described you to the midwife and she told me that you were an Onmyōji.

Husband: I thought that a man of your status would visit the castle, and so I came to see if I could meet you here!

Yasuchika: You’re very sincere.

Yuno: You’re amazing, Yasuchika-san. Did you already know everything at that time?

Yasuchika: Eh? I didn't know that there would be stray dogs.

(What!?)

Yasuchika-san laughed at our shocked expressions.

Yasuchika: All I knew at that point of time was that the baby would be born today.

Yasuchika: And the road you were planning to take was not a good direction for the child.

Yasuchika: Even though you had to take a detour, I thought it’d be better to just avoid that road today.

(Wow. He figured that out in such a short time…)

(The family was able to avoid a disaster, because of Yasuchika-san’s advice.)

Husband: I’m so grateful to have met you today… thank you so much!

The man bowed deeply to Yasuchika-san, who responded with a smile.

Yasuchika: I’m glad I could help.

Yasuchika: But instead of staying here and talking to us, I think you should hurry back to your family.

Yasuchika: They must be waiting for you to go home.

The man thanked Yasuchika-sam one more time before hurrying off, not wanting to wait even a moment longer to see his family.

Yuno: … I’m sure that family will always be grateful for you, Yasuchika-san.

Yasuchika: Really? I think they’ll forget about it very soon.

I shook my head in disagreement.

(I know that’s not true. Because…)

Yuno: The couple will never forget the day their child was born, along with the man who saved their child’s life.

Yuno: As the child will surely hear this story from their parents many times while they’re growing up.

Yuno: Their parents will tell them “on the day you were born, this happened…”

Yasuchika: …

I recalled the words of gratitude towards Yasuchika-san earlier.

Yuno: They’ll be grateful to have met you today, and that you’re here—

Yuno: … Isn’t that the same as being glad that you were born?

Yasuchika: … That’s…

(This might sound exaggerated. I might even get laughed at for jumping to conclusions. But, still…)

I turned to face Yasuchika-san, who seemed surprised, and looked into his eyes.

The words came out of my mouth naturally.

Yuno: Happy birthday, Yasuchika-san.

Yasuchika: …

Yasuchika: — Thank you, Yuno-san.

Yasuchika-san’s facial expression when he responded was softer than usual…

…

Yuno: You’re leaving for Kyoto before sunrise?

I was surprised by what Yasuchika-san said to me as he walked me to the castle’s courtyard.

The moon shone brightly in the night sky.

Yuno: You have quite a strict schedule.

Yasuchika: I may look like this, but I’m a busy man.

(He’s smiling while saying that, but he surely doesn't have enough time to sleep, right…?)

Yuno: I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time until this late. Thank you for keeping me company.

Yasuchika: Don’t say that. You did it because you didn't want me to spend my birthday alone, didn’t you?

Yasuchika: I should be the one thanking you instead.

Yuno: I don’t think so…

(If anything, I think it was because I was being selfish.)

(But…)

Yuno: I’m glad to know you enjoyed your birthday.

Yasuchika-san’s eyes widened slightly upon hearing my response.

Yasuchika: … You’re still as good natured as ever.

Yuno: Huh? Yasuchik…—?

He closed the distance between us, reaching his hand to the back of my neck and gently pulling me closer.

I felt something soft touch my forehead, and felt Yasuchika-san’s breath on my bangs.

(Ah…)

Yasuchika: A good luck charm. … For you, the person who’s kind enough to celebrate the day I was born.

Yasuchika: May all your birthdays from now on always be so full of kindness and blessings that they can repel any curse.

Yuno: Yasuchika-san…

His eyes gazing down at me sparkled mysteriously under the moonlight.

(He looks so… gentle.)

I gazed at him, feeling enchanted by his eyes.

I suddenly caught a glimpse of a pained expression on his face that only lasted a split second…

Yasuchika: See you, Fox Princess.

(Ah…)

The moment I could no longer feel his warmth, my heart filled with an inexplicable feeling of emptiness.

Yasuchika: It’s dark, so be careful while walking. … Go straight inside without looking back.

(Was I mistaken…?)

I nodded at Yasuchika-san who had his usual unreadable smile and turned to walk towards the castle.

But I ended up defying Yasuchika-san’s words, and turned around again.

(... Beautiful.)

I watched Yasuchika-san’s back as he walked out of the castle.

And a small thump echoed deep in my heart—.

[wildnya]

hey hey my lovelies i have something to share~

i’m playing a new gatcha game that released last week on tuesday called cat fantasy: isekai adventure and i’m addicted!

i love all the characters designs, the battle system is nice and simple, and best of all the story has me in a chokehold alongside honkai star rail. i highly recommend you guys at least check it out, i want the community to grow and go big!

so if you like pretty anime catgirls, interesting and lovely characters, immersive stories, and most of all cats take a look under the cut!~

quick fyi’s

there are both humans and catboys/girls, the later has a normal cat form too

i can’t find much info about the developer (i didn’t look very much) but from the quick search and what i’ve witnessed in game i believe the developer is from Japan

common anime tropes will be present. a few examples: walking in on opposite gender naked, oh no i’m late for my first day! (literally opens on this one), and classic character stereotypes such as teasing older anne-san, tsundere, and kuudere

your squad (as of now) is all catgirls but you get to choose your gender and so far the only person that has shown romantic interest is a side character who just happens to live nearby. from what i’ve seen it doesn’t look like the story will have any romantic subplots and your squad won’t have any squabbles over your attention or anything like that in case that’s a turn off for you

catgirls are the only battle units available you can pull enemies to fight with (unfortunately no catboys so far 🥲)

also no i am not sponsored

quick story intro:

the story opens up with you (the mc) having a reoccurring nightmare about a doomsday. you later discover you have a year (might be a few days off) to stop it from happening. then you wake up and realize you’ve been hit by the classic anime ‘oh no i’m late!’ trope and from there get a rundown on your job is and lore.

battling is easy peasy for the most part, there might be some terms you’ll have to look up if you don’t know what terms outside the normal attack, defense, crit rate, etc mean. (i still need to look up what what armor PEN means-) just be careful to not make a full team of four that doesn’t have any characters that can’t do damage-

the gatcha system has a pity rate of 80, (hoyoverse could never) and similar to hsr if you are pulling for on the limited banner if you don’t get it the first time you’re guaranteed next time. they also have a fated summon that lets you choose 5 standard SSR’s for you to pull for.

i love 99.4% the catgirls and catboys we’ve met so far. what i love most about them is that the creators did a fantastic job of incorporating their breeds into their designs and personalities. my favorite character Triss happens to be my favorite breed of cat (ragdoll) and i think they did an absolutely fantastic job with her.

fun fact of the post! ragdoll cats get their name from how they will go limp when picked up. they’re a very friendly and loving breed. Triss’ personality reflects this very well. she gives off gentle n’ sweet older sister vibes. ragdolls are also known for having very soft and fluffy fur. Triss has well kept hair and (though you can’t really see it in the pics above) her tail looks so fluffy and soft i would sell a kidney for a chance to cuddle with it for 10 minutes. Triss is my first official wifu i have never loved a female character as much as i do her all hail lady Triss a goddess bestowed upon us by the heavens.

*ahem* i did not mean to go on a tangent like that but i’ve already typed it so it’s here to stay.

anyway

since the game has just been released there’s a huge campaign going on. there’s a 30(?) day login that will give you 3000 free pulls along side a free outfit and extremely SSR character that’s perfect for beginners. i was lucky and pulled her in one of my first handful of pulls and she’s been a huge help with her ability to make shields and her ultimate taking all damage from enemies for 1(?) turn. i got to star her up for free~

you can ascend characters rarities (i’m not sure if it’s possible for you to do it more than once for lower ones) so even low rarity cards can be used in harder levels. i’m not sure if it’s possible to make “bad” characters good if you give them the right equipment and support like you can genshin and HSR but i think it’ll probably be possible as more updates release.

if any of this has you interested please click the link below and check it out! i get rewards for it

cat fantasy: isekai adventure

[sometimes-men-need-help-too]

Let’s talk about body shaming

This is a topic that is almost exclusively talked about in reference to women; now, this does happen, women are body shamed so it’s not a bad thing in itself to discuss. However, the problem I have is when people either refuse to acknowledge that it happens to men as well or they try to say that it isn’t as bad for them and not on the same level than it is when it happens to women. 

But they are body shamed. They do deal with hurtful remarks. We just don’t always acknowledge that. We tend to look at these things differently. 

So I want to discuss some things that men are body shamed for. 

- Their penis 

It’s an infamous example. I’ve talked about this before, I’ve said how wrong this is. 

It’s not hard to find a comment (and I apologize for the language) that say, “this has little dick energy.”  You’ll typically see it if a guy is saying something a woman doesn’t like or what he’s saying is actually rude or if there's a post/video that’s showing some poor behavior on his part. And instead of criticizing the behavior, the attitude, they go right to body shaming. 

And it’s considered funny. It’s considered clever. But there’s no real reason for it. In spite of that, people will try to justify themselves. I’ve seen comments of people saying that if the guy is acting like a jerk then it’s okay. They aren’t going to care about his feelings. 

On the surface, it might seem reasonable. But it’s not. It’s not reasonable. It’s not acceptable. 

When you body shame, even if it’s towards someone that isn’t a nice person, you’re perpetuating the idea that whatever you’re shaming him for--in this case, his penis size--is something to be ashamed of. 

And you can’t act like it’s not a big deal because you’re not directing it towards anyone else--that doesn’t matter. Realistically speaking, it’s going to create doubt. It’s going to worsen someone’s image of themself. 

Maybe that guy on the internet is saying things he shouldn’t. Maybe he won’t care what you have to say because he’ll just brush it off. But what about the teenager who is browsing through the internet and sees your comment, sees the attention it gets (laugh reacts, people agreeing). He’s young, he’s in puberty and just starting to express an interest in dating.  The guy who struggles with insecurity about whether his own is too small or worrying about what girls will say about it does. The guy who has experienced someone making a remark about his size.  They care. Other people are seeing those comments. They’re absorbing them. 

Think about the guys who do have a small penis. What about them? They see and hear this kind of thing being mocked over and over which in turn makes them view it as something to be embarrassed about.

You know, I recently came across a reddit post that was basically asking why don’t more guys speak about this (penis shaming) if they want it to stop. The thing is, people (usually online) will take that (you speaking up) as you having a small penis yourself and then they get mocked for it, whether they have one or not. 

 - Their height 

Here’s another big one. Shorter guys have to deal with a lot of crap, maybe not all of them but many do.  And for something they can’t even control. They’re not even “allowed” to feel insecure about their height without being mocked for exhibiting ‘fragile masculinity.’ 

For instance, a guy might be dating somebody taller than him and he might feel a bit uncomfortable (for a lack of better wording) by it, especially if they’re wearing something like heels. They’re just kind of expected to not care and in a perfect world, they wouldn’t. But we live in a world where we’ve created that insecurity but we won’t own up to it, if that makes sense.  

Compare it to when a girl feels insecure about her weight.  For most people, they would try to assure her that she is perfect just the way she is, that she is beautiful and society needs to redefine its beauty standards. 

It’s not the same with a short man. It’s not that nobody cares, it’s that we don’t really look at in the same way. We more so view short men who are dealing with insecurity over their height their own problem. Or something that only men care about. 

- Their hair loss 

This is especially true if they’re starting to lose hair but it’s not completely gone. 

He may be made fun of if he tries to something about it (like wear a toupee). He may deal with snide remarks when he tries to date or from his own S/O. He may deal with jokes from his friends that hurt more than he’d like to admit. 

It’s another instance where he doesn’t really have control over it. It’s embarrassing for anyone to deal with. It can really shatter your self confidence, especially if you’re pretty young. 

Or maybe they have something like alopecia

- Their weight 

Generally, we think of body shaming as something that only happens if you’re fat (aka fat shaming). It does happen. People will make them feel like crap for their weight. 

They also get shamed for being too skinny. They might not have a lot of muscle to them. And we generally don’t take skinny shaming as seriously. Gosh, I saw this one post about this topic and a lot of people found it funny. They said they wished they had that problem. 

Someone might point it out to them a lot (that they’re skinny/thin). They might get told they need to eat (like a cheeseburger). They might be told really rude things. And it’s just as hurtful. Maybe you’re someone that has dealt with people giving you crap about your weight, telling you that you need to do this or that. You might very well be upset by it just as skinny people are upset by it too. Put yourself in their shoes. 

- Their teeth 

They might have braces. Or broken teeth. They might have problems because they could never get to a dentist. It might be discolored due to medication. They might have buck teeth (where the front teeth is sticking out further than the bottom ones).

- Not being able to grow facial hair 

I don’t know if men have been made fun for having facial hair but I’ve definitely heard about men getting shamed for a lack of. 

Not every guy is able to. Not every guy wants to. And yet, it seems to be one of those things that you might get teased for--because a real man would have facial hair 

These were some examples that first came to mind, Feel free to add more

Men and women are guilty of this. They might not even mean to do it, it might just be a joke to them but to somebody else, it isn’t. Or it was meant as an insult because that’s how our society is: if I don’t like you then I can say whatever I want to hurt you but I’m not being hypocritical because I think you’re a bad person 

No, it is. If you believe ___ shaming is wrong but okay in some instances, you are a hypocrite. It shouldn’t be this way. If someone’s behavior/attitude is not okay, then focus on that. Call them out on that. Don’t stoop so low as to make fun of their appearance 

Furthermore, what does that teach kids? Doesn’t that contradict how we tell them that bullying is wrong? 

This needs to change 

[runningfrom2am]

LTPF QUESTION OF THE DAY!

when do you think the fallout between tigris and the presidential couple happened or did it happen at all?

would the reader’s presence have any effect on the matter?

EXCELLENT QUESTION BESTIE I LOVE IT

also this is long so buckle up-

i feel like being realistic, she saw them for what they were and who they became and tried to slowly distance herself. i think more so than coryo, r took it very personally and was like “why don’t you care, she’s one of our best friends and she’s your family she’s supposed to be here for us” and he’s kinda like “whatever she’s either with us or against us and she’s made her decision” so he just cuts her off. BUT i feel like r would try and hold onto that relationship for as long as she possibly could. so in this case, i’m not sure there was a fallout necessarily until either r gave up OR she snapped and was like “why are you pulling away? we’ve given you everything!” and tigris is basically like “nah i’m out you’re both crazy and it’s embarrassing“

ALTERNATIVELY if there was some nuclear dispute that ended it it would be over something so minor, but r makes it a big deal for no reason because of what happened with lucy gray and sejanus. i feel like trust issues would be running rampant in that house (but not between the presidential couple- never between them bc they’re “perfect” and also almost share the same mind). so tigris could just for example, not like a colour theme r chose for the right wing of the house and is like “i mean, that shade of red is not my favourite but i think if it’s done well it could be lovely!” and r just loses her MIND over it and is convinced she’s conspiring against them somehow. bc as we know, it’s her way or the highway. and i think at that point, coryo would just go along with it bc he doesn’t “need” tigris anymore, she didn’t need to care for him in the same way anymore now that they had all this money and success. besides, what other relationships could he really need if he had his wife who is perfectly agreeable to him and his every desire or whim?

i think this would happen well after they had their children, and it’s also possible (i’m realizing this just now but it’s totally a stream of thoughts so i won’t delete the last section lol) and very likely that it had something to do with their kids. like, maybe she disagreed with how they were being raised. i feel like although they would be loving parents and a billion times better than r’s, they would spoil them rotten and push their kids academically because that is all they had ever known, and tigris would be like “they’re just kids. let them be kids.” and they would not like that at ALL, bc what on earth would she know about being a parent? (the answer is a lot, considering she practically raised coryo when she was just a kid herself, but they don’t see it like that.

i think that would open the door too for her to be so bitter that when mockingjay pt2 comes around and she smiles at the statement katniss makes, that she’s there to kill them, it’s because they stripped her of any relationships she had with her nephews/nieces (and i like to imagine she was extremely close to them) and she couldn’t forgive r and coryo for raising them the way they did.

[vintagepresley]

so i decided to re read “elvis and me” and i honestly don’t understand why so many people in this fandom are batshit crazy about priscilla and the book. sure, she’s done some questionable things or whatever but even reading the book for the first time, i didn’t take it as her dumping or shitting on him. she showed the highs and lows. the good and bad and whenever talking about those bad moments, she still provided context and humanized him. she talks about his insecurities, grief, the pills, etc. and how he wasn’t a bad person. he was hurting inside and that hurt revealed a completely different side of him. the love and admiration that she has for this man is so clear in the book. i wish the new movie conveyed the tone of the book and “outsiders” that have judgment towards their age gap pushed that aside before reading because i feel like they take it the wrong way too.

I have so much to say about this because I agree. I’m not even a Priscilla fan because I’m here for Elvis. That’s why you don’t see me posting or obsessing over his women. I’m not here for them. I’m here for him.

So let’s get into it.

I completely agree with what you’ve said about her book. Some people are so dramatic and crazy that they think she was just bashing him, shit talking him and how this book is just the root of all evil. That Priscilla is the root of all evil. But in reality that isn’t the case. I think people just want to pick someone to blame for his life and pick someone to blame for how people see him and their opinions on him. When at the end of the day the only person responsible for their own life was Elvis. People act like he was just this naive little baby who couldn’t think for himself. Which I find highly offensive. He was not an idiot. Truthfully, I don’t think people actually see how intelligent this man truly was. But that’s beside the point.

90% of Priscilla’s book in my opinion was her talking about how great he was and basically defending him when he was doing some fuck shit that men do. Lmfao. Then the other 10% was her basically telling people look this marriage wasn’t perfect and these things happened. Now yes.. She has backtracked certain things or reworded things because of the fact that she felt like she used the wrong words for things. (Example: when she was leaving him and he got a bit rough with her)

She says he never made love to her that rough before and now it was different than any other time. She never said he assaulted her. People read that and made that assumption and have not circulated it into the world. She just said he was rough. Yeah, some people may look at that and think “oh, he SA’ed her” but that is not what I took from that when I read it. I didn’t automatically assume that. My mind didn’t even think about that. To me I was reading about man who was hurt, embarrassed and angry his wife was leaving him.

Now.. We all take this boon and take from it what we will and see it as we do. When I’ve read the book I did not feel like she made him look like a monster at all. I actually really loved the book and as I’ve said before.. It made me see the human side of Elvis. Someone who wasn’t perfect like people seem to think. (Stop putting him on a pedestal) Someone who struggled, someone who hurt, someone who got frustrated and angry. Human fucking things. Any book I’ve read after that it’s also opened my eyes more to who he truly was as person. Not this “king” or a “god”. He was just a regular person.

I do truly feel like people really get dramatic and over exaggerate things when it comes to this book. I don’t know why people act like there hasn’t been other books that have written pages of his flaws. I don’t see anyone going out being justice warriors against those?

I agree. Sofia’s movie was a piece of shit. She purposely made it feel like there was no love, no anything. She made their relationship feel cold and loveless. When that was the opposite. It may not have been true love but he cared for that woman. Even after they were divorced and there’s proof because it comes directly from Elvis’s mouth! He still invited her to shows and shouting her out to the crowd. Telling stories about how they still buy each other gifts. Like he did not hate this woman. I know so many people hope that he did. It’s sad people only post the negative things said about their marriage from some of his friends. But don’t post the positive things said by his friends and his maids and the things he did for her and his feelings. Because as I stated in another post these people love to backtrack things and change stories.

Anyway, this has been long enough. All I have to say to close this out is the main reason I don’t speak on the women is because I don’t have a right to. I don’t have a place to be talking about him and his relationships and voicing my opinion and saying who’s his true love and who’s not. That’s weird behavior to me. We don’t know who his true love is or if he ever found it. We don’t know how he felt.

Thats not to say that I agree with things some of the women have done or said because none of them are perfect and most of them have done their fair share of things that aren’t really respectful to Elvis. Because no one is perfect. But that doesn’t mean one fucking person is the root of all evil and it also doesn’t mean everyone is completely innocent. That goes for anyone in his life. The Colonel included. 🙃

[runawaysiren940]

Case after case of women and girls being sexually abused, violently assaulted and terrorized under self ID. Time and time again. It has reached epidemic levels. And yet…silence. This being a complete breach of the Geneva conventions but…no action.

In fact, many of those in government seem to be very determined to protect it. Desperately so.

Just saw the most recent article of a violent sexual predator transferred to a women’s prison. Raped his female cell mate. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she allegedly had to be chained while undergoing a pelvic exam. Not even a horror film could come up with something so depraved.

And that’s just one of hundreds maybe thousands of examples. Who knows what else is happening that we don’t see. The women whose stories we haven’t heard and maybe never will.

And these men keep coming! Didn’t one correctional facility in the US have 500 male inmates pending transfer to a women’s prison. I can’t stop myself from crying. It’s sickening.

And I keep asking why.

Being an American, I thought it was merely a cost affective way to deal with trans people’s demands in order to curb what might have been a mass suicide epidemic in the US.

Instead of spending money on building facilities to accommodate these suicide prone individuals, you give them unobstructed access and call it a day.

Now? I’m convinced this must be a psyops to deliberately terrorize and abuse women. This is has to be premeditated government sanctioned sexual torture. Accompanied by the amount of money that gets funneled through prisons and hospitals. The timing is to perfect.

I can not see it in any other way.

There is something very wrong here.

Prisons are at such high risk for abuse of prisoners, even when there are not men in the populations; just having male guards and such an imbalance in power leads to opportunities where women are treated as subhuman, like the way that many prisoners are denied menstrual products, or are severely underpaid. That governments, not just in the U.S., but across the world are terrorizing female prisoners with the threat of rape is unacceptable- but considering that few places will enact single sex spaces in prisons anyway, it's not surprising that they don't care. Even when statistics show that a far larger number of incarcerated Tims are there for sexual abuse than regular men or women. Even when those who work directly with these populations point out the folly...

[marlasomething]

The Street Where You Live (Bugborg Week - June 16)

Summary: Nebula is tired of Mantis being an useless student, so she decided that, instead, is going to waster her time with hear with small talk…apparently, none of them are good at speaking in a chill manner.

Relationships: Nebula/Mantis

A/N: Written for day 5 of @bugborgweek2023

Prompt: Based on a song

Word count: 920

CW: parental abuse, childhood trauma, mentions of death

Also on AO3!

Nebula didn’t understand why on Earth she had said yes to this job offer. Yes; she wanted to be able to leave home as soon as possible, and it wasn’t as if she had many talents apart from physical defence and formal etiquette (things that happen when your father is a mafia boss), but she had never been good with nice people of around her age…

Still, there she was, in front of a smiling girl a couple of years younger than herself, sitting in the most uncomfortable position imaginable while wearing green raggedy clothes. Between her posture and the outfit…she got why people called her Mantis. Also, she wished she could be squashed as easy as the insect, since this was already their fourth session and she couldn’t even choose the proper spoon for soup.

Still, she actually felt pity for the girl; all her siblings had died either under mysterious circumstances after having tried to face their father or in the line of duty while trying to make him proud. Mantis’ only reason to still be alive was that the 1920s weren’t exactly a progressive time, and his father wouldn’t allow a girl to either become part of the Army or the Police Forces, nor give her enough free space to get a formed opinion that would make her want to rebel against him.

Nebula hated his father; he was abusive and there was barely anything good to be said about him even outside of how he treated his multiple suspiciously adopted children, but, at least, he valued them having a mind of their own and didn’t care about their gender or interests under the sheets , as he called them.

“Ok, we are getting nowhere and after this I have to go and try to stole a prisoner from my sister so my father actually realised I am the best out of the two of us. Maybe I will kill him, just in case he decides to speak well of Gamora. He won’t be the first idiot falling for her…wonder why” she reflected out loud while sitting down. “…what do you like doing?”

“What do you mean?” the younger lady was clearly perplexed by the question.

“What do you like doing? For example: I like fighting and not having useless conversations”.

“This is a useless conversation, and that is not something you do. That is something you avoid doing…wait, do you only like the stuff your father thought you?”

Nebula scoffed.

“As if you were any different, Miss Perfect Mantis Planet” Mantis lowered her eyes, and Nebula thought she had hurt her with a far too brutal honesty. Then, before she could even form an educated opinion whereas that made her feel good or bad, the other young woman kneeled on the floor and dismantled a couple of wooden panels, to show a complete painting set, showing drawings of faraway lands.

“When I was little, my dad was an ambassador and we travelled a lot . I wish I could travel again…I really don’t care where, though I’ve heard Seville in Spain is really nice and hot; I am tired of London’s clouds. I also draw; feelings, mostly. I just…put the colours where the feelings would go. Of people, or for people. I like to make people feel things ; like I make you be frustrated”.

This shouldn’t have been enough for Nebula to open her absolutely hardened heart but, here was the thing: she was so unused to people being honest without being scared of her, or purposely cruel to her, that the difference was enough for her to do something that would commonly be absolutely out of character for her.

“Yeah, you are pretty good at this…I…I might like when…when I got people that also want my classes, but the self-defence ones, the crap that is actually fun and not only for appearances. Especially when it is when actual kids, not like you, I…think I kind of like kids”.

“I do too, but at a distance. Except for the girl of my bodyguard. She is really kind, and strong. Maybe you would get along. See? They are here” she pointed at a painting of a very muscular man with a woman and child, not small by any measures either. It was painting in warm, peaceful colours.

“Wait, why is it in this colours? Your bodyguard is pretty infamous for his violent temper and this, this brings me…”

“…peace, I know. Because that is who he really is, but don’t get it mistaken: there is also some aggressiveness painted into it. The only reason you don’t get it is because it is already too deep within you, but, don’t worry. I think your palette wouldn’t be as violent as you think either. Maybe…yes, a lot of blue”.

“A lot of blue for the murderous ginger? Yeah, sure”.

“Yes, sure . Now, let’s talk illegal, it’s always fun” she sat somehow in an even more uncomfortable position and, holding her head in between her hands, asked “what was your favourite place to go drink while pretending to be within legal age? I need names”.

Nebula contained a cackle and answered. Perhaps, this class would be a bit longer than usual.

Back on the street, Nebula observed the panel with the name of the street in which the Planet Household was situated “Gunn Street”.

She let a sight scape. She would be walking around said street much more from that moment on.

[marshmallowprotection]

Question; do you think Ray would go Danger Mode if we're unhappy at Mint Eye? I love Ray and I know I'd stick around just for him, but honestly your time in Magenta seems so... isolated. You cant even go outside without an escort, and Ray's really the only person you can have an extended chat with face to face. I probably wouldnt bring it up out of guilt but at the same time ive been told I cant lie to save my life, so-

I guess im just kinda curious whether that would be enough for his fears of losing you to take over, even if you reassured him that you genuinely do like him and want to stay?

I genuinely think it depends on what kind of person you are. There are certain people that don't really mind being stuck in that room all the time because they don't care for interactions with other people. It wouldn't really bother me to be locked up in that room since it's something that I'm used to doing, so for me it doesn't really seem like a problem to feel that lonely isolation.

However, in the cases of people that are more like you, there is no doubt in my mind that he is going to be wary of what that could do to you and your opinion of Mint Eye. What if you want to leave? What if you tell him that you want to go to another place because you’re isolated and afraid? What if you say you hate him for bringing you here?

He wants to protect you from the outside world. He brought you here so that he could keep you away from everything that he's afraid of. So, it didn't really occur to him that you would miss anything out there. He wants to make you feel like a true royal in his midst... that’s why you are his prince/ss. That’s why he wants to worship you in a castle.

That's why he tries to overcompensate himself by giving you the most elegant room, the best food, clothes that are perfectly sized, and the like. Anything that's in the realm of possibility that he can get for you without becoming a nuisance, he's already done it.

He goes over these details in a in his diary. There’s so much he time he put into figuring out what makes you tick. He spends a long time trying to figure out how to do all of these things so that it'll be okay when he brings somebody there. The details are immaculate. He didn’t miss a thing and that can be the unnerving part if you look too hard.

He is choosing somebody perfect for him. You’re perfect for him and he can do whatever it takes to placate you. He was all but given the opportunity to choose somebody that he thought was best and that's where this starts to go south. His obsession and paranoia can win in the end if you don’t press the right buttons in this situation and give him a chance. Even if you’ve done it all right, if something goes wrong around you and him, he might not be able to believe you.

For example, in Day 4′s Bad Ending, he assumes that you haven’t been doing chatrooms because 707 manipulated you. He says “you played his game and you were with him when you weren’t talking to me”. He doesn’t stop to listen to anything you say because now he thinks that you’re going to leave him behind forever because you believed 707 and not him. You haven’t even really talked that much to the RFA in this ending. You didn’t try. But, does that matter in his mind?

No.

It doesn’t.

Ray’s paranoia is stronger than his belief in the facts. If he thinks that you’re at risk of being taken away, he becomes forceful and straightforward in his desire for you. He keeps you in your room like its a dollhouse... not a toy box, toys can be broken and thrown away, but a pretty doll on a shelf is meant to be admired by all. He can fix this if you just let him. You can start over again and again and again.

Or, in V Route, BRE1 happens when you don’t engage with Rika and V enough and Rika decides to give you back to Ray as a plaything. You don’t care for V in the same way she does, so she loses interest and assumes Ray will have much better use for you. You are useful, but she’ll figure that how to use that later. In the meantime, Ray whisks you away back to your room as he says he’s excited to spend time with you again. Apart from him telling you about how Suit Saeran wants to meet you...

He comments about the “AI” in distaste, and you try to correct him. That’s about the point in this situation where he becomes upset and angry, why are trying to talk about those people? Is he not good enough? He’s so upset that you want to talk to the RFA and believe in the outside world after the Savior said that there’s no chance of that. He doesn’t know what to do. He just knows he refuses to lose you even if you’re mad at him. He locks you in your room until he has the time to decide how he can fix you.

The closest you get canonically to Ray being okay with thoughts and talk of the outside is around the time you kiss him.

That’s when he’s started to shift away from the cult more and more in the belief that protecting you is more important... even more important than his revenge. But, Rika snuffs out his light after she’s informed by a believer who spotted the two of you. She was already suspicious but that was it for him there. He was destroyed before he could fully listen and try to understand the world and why freedom is more than what he thinks.

So, when it comes down to it, what does it mean when you tell him that you feel a little stir-crazy? It matters how you tell him. If you start talking about how you are overwhelmed with being here and you want to go out, you need to be careful of how you mention it. It wouldn't be as bad if you said that you wanted to walk around the building with him. In fact, it's not like he gets upset when you leave your room and take a little stroll.

You're allowed to do that in the beginning of your time there with your key card. It's not that he doesn't want you to explore or feel safe there, it's that he wants to be there to experience all of these things with you. The selfish part of him wants to see your reaction to everything.

He wants to capture the way you look whenever you see something for the first time. He doesn't want you to be locked away. He wants to let you experience all kinds of things with him. In an Ideal World, he knows that he wouldn't have to be afraid of what could go wrong if somebody bothered you or got into your personal space.

But, because of the circumstance that you're in, it's not the ideal world. It's not a place where he feels things are okay. He brought you here because he thought that he could protect you from the pain and the misery.

So, if you just tell him that you want to wander the building, you can do that. You have the right to do that as a believer. You only needed an escort before you were an official member. So you can walk around and get a lot of things out of your system. The only part that might feel isolating to you is the fact that there's not a lot of people to talk to. The people you can talk to you aren't exactly the cheeriest bunch in the world. That might be the point where you have an issue. That might be the lonely part that bothers you the most. Not the fact that you can leave the room if you want to, but the fact that there's not really people to talk to that feel human.

That would be the problem for him. Even though the people in this place in Mint Eye are safe, he fears losing you to everything and everyone. So, in terms of that, that would definitely be something you would have to look out for. But I feel like that can be easily remedied for the more that you talk to him and help him understand that you don't want to leave his side, you just feel a little isolated. There are ways to make that a little bit better.

But, he's the one who has to figure those out.

His paranoia is really only an issue in the context of something going wrong. As long as things continue to work out smoothly the way that he thinks that they will, he doesn't have any fears. Is there an ideal solution? Not really. That's going to hinge upon your needs and what you're going through.

No matter what happens, you're going to come to a standstill when you have to confront him with the reality of what being trapped here is. There is no way to run away from it because eventually it's going to come up in conversation and you'll have to talk about it. That's going to be the moment where you'll have to figure out what you actually value and what you're willing to do for him. Can you get through to him by saying that this place isn't good for anybody? Hard to say. There's no guarantee that you could do it before a certain somebody would step in and snuff out his light. 

[blacklister214]

Queen Charlotte: Exploring Imperfect Love Stories

One of the things I appreciated about Queen Charlotte was the exploration of what happens when love and marriage stories aren’t perfect. I’m going to review each thread, both where I think they nailed it and where I think they failed.

1) Charlotte and George: Honestly I loved everything about flashback story. The casting, chemistry, the way they told it, first from Charlotte’s POV, then George’s. The bittersweet ending where they get under the bed and the King is lucid enough to understand they are expecting a grandchild. I didn’t however care for the present day frame.

I don’t get Charlotte’s crappy relationship with all her children, even the older ones from the happier days of her marriage. I didn’t find the explanation for it satisfactory that she was devoting herself to “being his queen”. This is especially absurd given the fact her daughters have supposedly avoided marriage to prevent Charlotte from being alone. Even if I accepted the estrangement, the reconciliation was crap. She doesn’t apologize to her children, nor smack them back down on their entitled asses. She hugs the one who did what she wanted, which doesn’t settle anything. 

Overall I think this whole concept was lame. It is ridiculous that only 3? of her children are the age they are and unmarried. I have a hard time imagining how Whistledown and Diamond marriages have been her focus if this was the case. I would much rather have the modern scenes be Charlotte telling her story to at least one of her children before their marriage.     

2) Agatha and Lord Ledger: This was neat, not just for strengthening the bond between Bridgertons and Danburys, but also because it presents another example of imperfect love. Instead of mental illness, we have an extramarital affair, made sympathetic because the spouses were unlikeable and they both presumably had arraigned marriages. Side Note: Sorry Charlotte, no you can’t will yourself to fall in love with your marriage partner. Just because you were lucky (in some respects), doesn’t mean your children will be. 

I liked them as a couple and their rambles together. What I didn’t like was how short the affair was. Agatha said in S2 she had known great love and in this season she said that she tended vigorously to her garden. Once isn’t vigorous. This should have been a life long affair in the little cabin. As happy an ending as they could manage. I also would have preferred it if Violet and Agatha more directly addressed it at the end.

3) The Queen’s Man and King’s Man. Another cool imperfect love story, due to their sexual orientation. This one I really wanted to have survived to the present day. George’s illness and Violet’s father being dead is already established. The mood of the entire series could have been lifted if someone was still enjoying a mostly happy love story. This story never really climaxed the way I wanted it to. I think the King’s man should have hinted to Brimsley that Charlotte needs to see George. For him to finally trust Brimsley while simultaneously choosing to disobey George in order to save him would have been more powerful to me.      

4) Agatha and Charlotte: Imperfect friendship love story. Its difficulty lies in the fact their respect social keep them from always being in perfect balance. I wasn’t enamored the inheritance issue was written the way it was. Agatha betraying the confidence of the Queen to the King’s mother was lame. Refusing and then having the confrontation later would be better, especially if Agatha notes that it was because they share a friendship that she didn’t say anything to Charlotte. She didn’t want to take advantage. 

Queen Charlotte was good in many ways, but I think it could have been better.