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i-just-love-spop · 4 years

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Breakfast

Direct follow-up to “I’m here”, it would be best to read that one first. “At the end of the world” and “About what happened...” are also both referenced, but you don’t necessarily have to read them to understand this story.

Takes place in between “Taking Control” and “Perils of Peekablue”. This assumes that traveling from Etheria to Prime’s flagship and back took them at least three weeks each, because of their old ship, their limited knowledge of the technology and the lack of any ability to teleport or create portals. I have no idea if that’s accurate, but then again, nobody really knows how much time passes during the show.

Summary: In which Catra tried to make breakfast and it’s better than everyone expected it to be (but that might just be because Adora set the bar extremely low with her first attempt at cooking), Glimmer can’t help clinging to Bow after the precious night, Bow reflects on his feelings towards Glimmer and Adora has no idea why she gets so nervous around Catra all of a sudden, but is just glad to finally be able to call her a friend again.

Also, Entrapta casually calls everyone out on their feelings.

[The amount of Glimbow and Catradora in this is pretty much 50/50.]

Best Friend Squad-bonding in space? Best Friend Squad-bonding in space.

—

Bow and Glimmer were rudely awoken by the sound of the door swooshing open and unpleasantly loud voices.

She still had her arms around him the same way she had when they’d fallen asleep, and she didn’t plan on letting go anytime soon.

“See? I told you so! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to go back in here.”

“Huh, and here I thought you were just looking for an excuse to share the mattress with me again.”

“What? Me? Nooo...”

They heard Adora laugh.

“Do... do you think we should let them sleep?”

“You should have thought about that before you barged in here,” Glimmer murmured groggily and threw a pillow roughly in the direction the voices had come from without opening her eyes.

She was way too tired for this nonsense.

‘Whoever said space is peaceful and quiet definitely never traveled with these guys.’

“Good morning...?“

Bow blinked, still half asleep when he sat up on the mattress. He kind of dragged Glimmer up with him accidentally because she was still unwilling to let go of him.

...not that he minded.

“What are you guys doing in here?” Glimmer wondered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, yawning.

Her grip on boy tightened a bit when she saw Wrong Hordak. He seemed to be pretty okay, but he brought back a lot of bad memories, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to that.

“Well, Adora and Catra just spent a weird amount of time commenting on your sleeping position, especially considering I found them in the same one,” Entrapta analyzed with her usual enthusiasm.

The two girls flushed scarlet.

Bow grinned.

“Awwww, you guys were spooning?”

“We. Were. Not. Spooning,” Catra growled, but then she dropped the demeanor, her face turning into a sheepish grin. “...and also, I might have burnt breakfast.”

That genuinely surprised Glimmer, but in a positive way.

“You tried to make breakfast?”

Catra grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, yeah. Emphasis on tried. I mean, you cooked for us once, and Arrow Boy did it the rest of the week, and I just... thought I should try it? Argh, I... I don’t know. Maybe that was a stupid idea. Especially because I don’t know how to cook.”

Glimmer shrugged.

“No, that’s fine. It’s... really nice of you, actually. And I don’t think anyone here knows how to cook, except for Bow maybe.”

Adora chuckled.

“Yeah, she has a point.”

“I mean, it can’t be as bad as when Adora tried to make food. We ended up with half-cooked broccoli with chocolate sauce and sprinkles for dinner,” Bow pointed out, shrugging. “It looked kind of nice, but...”

He was trying to be polite, but really, there hadn’t been much in the meal his friend had made that one could be polite about. There was a difference between ‘you clearly haven’t cooked before and your cooking still needs a some work’ and ‘your cooking is literally weapons-grade’.

Glimmer’s face went green.

“Oh stars, don’t remind me. I still want to throw up just thinking about that.”

Catra’s eyes widened.

“Adora did what?!”

She had never tried either of these things, personally, but she roughly knew what they were, and even she could tell that there was no way these were supposed to go together.

The blonde scratched the back of her head.

“It wasn’t as bad as it sounds...” Glimmer gave her a death glare. “...you know what? Actually, it was.”

Adora blinked for a moment. Why had she tried to defend the terrible food she’d made? She was usually totally cool with the others joking about her really, really poor first attempt at cooking, especially because she herself knew that it had been awful and that she would never try that combination again.

And yet, today she felt a pang of... embarrassment?

Weird. Why would she...

‘It isn’t because Catra’s here, is it? She knows what I’m like, better than anyone, so I doubt this surprises her. And, I mean, there are other ways I could impress her than cooking!’

...wait, why would she want to impress Catra?

That made no sense.

Adora shook her head and abandoned these thoughts.

“And that’s the story why almighty She-Ra over here is banished from Bright Moon’s kitchen,” Glimmer concluded, giggling.

Catra chuckled. That did make her feel a little better about her own cooking skills.

And Adora getting a tad bit embarrassed was also a nice bonus. She looked really cute when she was embarrassed.

...damn, Catra had missed her best friend.

“Not to worry, you guys. No broccoli today. Would have been hard to make anyway, seeing as we have no broccoli on the ship,” the brunette promised. “You guys coming?”

Glimmer smiled.

“Sure, we’ll just get dressed real quick, and then we’ll be right there.”

—

“How are you?” Bow asked his best friend as soon as the door closed behind the others.

Glimmer gave him a small smile.

“Better, I think.” She nuzzled against the crook of his neck. “Just tired.“

He stroked her head.

“You’ll never be a morning person, huh?”

She laughed, visibly relaxing a bit. Being with Bow always made her feel so much better...

“I mean, technically, there are no mornings in space – but no, I’m definitely never going to be a morning person. At this rate, our kids are going to have to wake me one day instead of me waking them.”

Bow stared at her for a second.

Had she just...?

No. No way. Glimmer wouldn’t... she didn’t... they were close, obviously, but... he’d know if she had feelings for him, right?

“You think they’ll be close? ...our kids, I mean,” he added when he saw the confused look on her face. “You know, since you suggested they’d come wake you up together.”

“Yeah. Right. They’ll be best friends, just like us. I’m sure of that,” Glimmer replied, just kind of going with what he had said because oh stars she couldn’t believe she’d just suggested having kids like that without even telling him she was in love with him first.

Bow shook his head and smiled at her softly.

Of course that was what she’d meant.

The mental image of their kids also being best friends one day was adorable.

Despite that, for a moment, he couldn’t help but imagine a girl with his dark curls and Glimmer’s beautiful eyes and a little boy with his eyes and her cute little nose and smile climbing into bed to wake them, him and Glimmer still sleepily embracing each other the same way they had tonight.

‘Huh.’

He really had caught feelings for her, after all.

...or maybe he’d always felt that way about her and hadn’t realized what his feelings truly were until he’d almost lost her.

That thought had always terrified him, but this had been so much worse than anything he could ever have imagined.

This was already the second really close call since they’d met. He’d do everything in his power to make sure there would never be a third.

He hugged her. She snuggled against him. He felt his cheeks heat.

It was weird. As mad as he’d been at her, and as terrified as he’d been about possibly losing her, apparently this was what he’d needed to put some things about their relationship into perspective.

“Hey Bow?” She asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks again for earlier. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He smiled at her.

“Of course. Anytime.”

He’d tell her eventually. Maybe.

But now was not the time.

After a while of comfortably sitting like that in silence, Bow spoke up again.

“Come on, we should actually get dressed now, before the others-”

Too late. Catra stuck her head in again.

“Hey, are you guys coming? If you keep making out in the cabin for another hour, the food will taste burnt and be cold by the time you join us!”

Glimmer blushed scarlet and let go of Bow, like that would change anything about what Catra just saw.

“We were not making out!” She protested – then realized how weird her reaction had just been.

She and Bow hugged all the time. Hugging was a normal thing that friends did. There was no need for her to be embarrassed about anyone catching them.

Glimmer shook her head.

‘Well that was subtle... I just made everything worse, didn’t I?’

Surprisingly, though, Catra didn’t bring it up again.

“Sure, whatever. Now get up and get dressed so you can join us for breakfast.”

—

“So... what do you think?”

Catra was super nervous what the others thought about the food she’d made because she was pretty sure it wasn’t terrible – she’d tried it beforehand, of course, she wasn’t trying to poison anyone, after all –, and she really wanted to do something nice for everyone after they’d saved her and been so nice and kind to her despite everything that had happened between them... that she’d done to them.

“This is actually pretty neat,” Glimmer concluded after a while of chewing.

Bow nodded in agreement, and Adora was already moved to tears because Catra had tried at all.

“This is the best thing I have ever eaten,” the blonde breathed, just loud enough for Catra to hear.

The brunette shook her head.

“That’s sweet, dummy, but we both know the food Bow and Glimmer made was way better.”

But Adora shook her head. She meant it. She really did.

The food made her feel warm inside, in a way it couldn’t when Bow or Glimmer cooked.

Wrong Hordak was just eating quietly.

Entrapta put her fork down and cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

“Is that something you do as friends? Lie to the other person to make them feel better about their inadequate skills? Fascinating...”

Catra flattened her ears.

‘Ouch.’

“We’re not lying, Entrapta. This is actually pretty good,” Glimmer chimed in. “Especially considering this is her first time cooking. You can’t let someone cook for the first time in their life and then except the kind of meal professional kitchen staff would make. Besides, Adora has been trying to learn how to cook for years, and let me tell you, it did not get much better after the broccoli with sprinkles-incident. Somehow, Adora is still worse after years of trying than Catra was at her first attempt.”

“Hey!”

There it was again. Adora was embarrassed for no reason. The fact that she couldn’t cook wasn’t a secret, and she usually didn’t even care about it. Other people joking about that was fine. And it wasn’t like that was a skill that really mattered at the moment.

What was going on?

Catra chuckled.

‘Wow. She has a really nice laugh.’

Adora shook her head.

She knew that. She’d always known that. Why was she thinking about that now?

“So that’s your biggest weakness huh? Who would’ve thought! Etheria’s almighty hero, defeated by a stove and a frying pan,” Catra teased her, grinning.

“...shut up.”

Adora tried to sound annoyed, but she was visibly beaming when she nudged the brunette. She was just happy that, after all this time, she could finally call Catra her friend again.

“Never,” Catra replied teasingly as she nudged Adora back. “That’s the only thing I’m going to be talking about for the rest of my life.” Her grin widened. “Hey, that means I can now officially put ‘cooks better than She-Ra’ on my resume, right? Oh, I know! I need a cup that says that! Or an apron!”

Adora giggled.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m an idiot that can cook,” Catra shot back, sticking her tongue out at the blonde.

They were all laughing now, except for Entrapta, who was speaking into her voice recorder.

“After a couple of days of observations, I think I can safely conclude that it is indeed still very much mutual.” She squealed. “Oh, that means I can update Scorpia when we get back home! How exciting!”

Catra winced a bit when hearing her former friend’s name. Scorpia had been nothing but kind to her from the start, and Catra had been the worst friend possibly imaginable. She felt awful. Scorpia deserved an apology – or twenty –, and then, maybe, she’d forgive her. Maybe they could actually be friends this time. Or maybe Scorpia wouldn’t want the person that hurt her back in her life, and that would be okay, too, despite the sting Catra felt when she thought about it. What mattered was that Scorpia was happy, no matter what she would choose – just like it had been with Adora.

Catra was done making everyone miserable – herself included.

“Update Scorpia on wha-” Glimmer started, then stopped in mid-sentence. “On second thought, I don’t think I even want to know.”

Entrapta blinked, then eyed Bow and Glimmer.

“Speaking of, you two are also interestingly close today. Amount of touching in comparison to the last couple of days increased by about twenty percent. That brings us pretty close to a hundred percent so far! I don’t think Glimmer has stopped holding onto your arm since you two entered the room... Should I write that down? I’m going to write that down.” She thought about the best way to word it for a moment. “There appears to be a chance that travelers will develop an increased need for physical contact while in space, as indicated by four different research subjects.”

There was a moment of very awkward silence as everyone but Wrong Hordak blushed scarlet and tried to avoid eye contact with the person they were sitting with... but Catra didn’t move from where she was sitting, and Glimmer still didn’t let go of Bow’s arm.

—

In the end, it was Adora that broke the silence as she cleared her throat and looked directly at Glimmer and Bow.

“Entrapta’s kind of right. You two do seem even more attached at the hip today than usual.“

They looked very cozy. It was pretty cute.

Glimmer had to bite back a comment about how Adora was really one to talk, with Catra sitting on her lap and all.

Over the course of the last few days, Catra had slowly moved closer and closer to Adora during meals – which had been blatantly obvious to anyone but Adora – until on the prior day, Catra had carefully touched her arm, and Adora had pulled her a little closer, which the brunette had taken as a signal that they maybe could go back to the way they used to be. Her initial shyness had melted away from her now, and she’d gone from sitting next to her friend to straight up planting herself in Adora’s lap today. The blonde hadn’t complained one bit.

“Did something happen?” Adora asked when neither of them replied.

Glimmer‘s semi-good mood disappeared instantly as she remembered the previous night. Her mouth went dry. Her voice was incredibly monotone as she spoke.

“Nothing, I just... had a nightmare,” she said.

“Right. One,” Bow murmured, glancing at his best friend worriedly.

She immediately elbowed him in the ribs for that.

Adora already had enough on her plate as it was, there was no need to worry her further, especially with something as silly as a couple of nightmares.

“But I’m all better now.”

Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but apparently it was convincing enough for Adora to not dig deeper.

Catra kept quiet, but gave the Queen a sympathetic, encouraging look that made Glimmer certain the brunette knew what it felt like.

All things considered, Catra had definitely had it way worse than Glimmer on Prime’s ship. Glimmer shuddered at the thought of being robbed of her free will, of being forced to fight the people she loved.

Didn’t that mean that Glimmer was just being a baby that was upset for no reason? If Catra could cope with that, why couldn’t Glimmer even calm herself long enough to let go of Bow’s arm?

She closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from shaking. It didn’t work very well.

Apparently guessing where Glimmer‘s mind went, Catra coughed a bit and spoke up.

“Sparkles, listen, I... I know we’re pretty different, but nightmares always suck, no matter how bad they are, and I don’t think they can be compared anyway because different people are afraid of different things. It’s good that you have someone there to comfort you.” She snuggled against the crook of Adora’s neck. “But I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better.”

“I... thank you.” Glimmer’s smile felt less fake now. Bow nodded at Catra appreciative as he put an arm around his best friend. Adora was thankfully way too distracted by the brunette purring against her chest to really listen to what they were talking about. It was better that way. “What about you guys? How did you sleep?”

“Good. Great actually.” Adora beamed. “I don’t think I’ve slept this good in years.”

Since she’d left the Horde, to be precise.

“Yeah, me too. I... really missed sleeping next to you,” Catra mumbled, blushing.

“What do you mean, ‘missed’?” Glimmer raised an eyebrow. “You’ve done this before?”

“Pretty much every day before I left.” Adora grinned smugly. “She couldn’t sleep without me.”

“Oh.”

...that actually explained a lot – especially the time Adora had climbed into Glimmer’s bed because she hadn’t been used to sleeping alone. She hadn’t just meant that referring to the fact that she’d been sharing her room with so many other cadets before. She also hadn’t been used to sleeping alone in her bed, because she’d shared it with Catra for so long before leaving the Horde.

Catra blushed even more, and her first instinct was to get defensive and deny it... but then she didn’t. She’d promised herself to be a little more open with her emotions, after all.

“It started back when we were kids, actually... and then we got so used to it that we never stopped. The other cadets always said we could give my bed to someone else because I never slept there anyway.” Catra shrugged and laughed. Adora looked at her in surprise... but then her expression melted into a soft smile. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been this happy. “I was losing my mind without you...”

“Being apart from you wasn’t easy for me either.”

Catra bit her lip.

“If I’d just come with you when you asked me to, none of this would have happened. I’m so sorry.”

Adora squeezed her hand and kept her voice down when she started speaking.

“Don’t get me wrong, everything that happened really, really sucked... but I think it kind of needed to happen. Even when we were so close back at the Horde, there was so much standing between us... so many things we didn’t talk about, so many things we never realized about the other, and we both had issues that we had to work through back then. ...that, and we started being an ‘us’ so early on that we needed some time away from each other to learn who we are separately.”

She’d been thinking about that a lot lately.

For a second, Catra was back on Adora’s bed at the Horde, sitting back to back with her best friend, telling her that she wouldn’t know who she’d be without her.

She knew, now.

That Catra kind of sucked... she’d hurt others, and she’d been hurt, until finally, she’d broken down and reflected on everything she’d done, and then she’d cried and drowned herself in regret and guilt. Now, she finally really knew who she was... and who she wanted to be. Now, she would learn from her mistakes, and she would be better.

“We needed to grow apart so we could grow back together,” she whispered when she understood, and it hurt and it sucked because it meant that even if they’d left together, everything still wouldn’t have been fine – but at least it also meant that everything that had happened in the past few years hadn’t happened completely in vain, even though she still wished things had been different. And maybe they could be fine again now. Or better, at the very least. “I’ve made so many mistakes and hurt so many people...”

Adora hugged her best friend from behind.

“These days are over. And now you’ve got all the time in the universe to be better.”

“And I will be. I promise.” Catra smiled softly and squeezed her hand as she snuggled against her.

Bow and Glimmer just gave each other a knowing look while Entrapta was rambling into her voice recorder again.

After a while, Catra looked up at the others and grinned.

“Now that we’ve unveiled my deepest, darkest secret... you guys have got to have some more silly Adora-stories, right?”

Glimmer laughed and cracked her knuckles.

Bow’s and Glimmer’s relationship with Catra was still strained for several reasons... but she was slowly starting to grow on them, now that they could see she was truly changing. She was almost fun to be around.

“Oh, you bet we do.”

Adora sighed.

“...oh no. ”

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galemalio · 4 years

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3 Examples of Racial Bias in Animation Storytelling

It’s not hard to grasp that a white person, while not explicitly or consciously racist in the sense we might usually imagine, is still inherently racially biased because they benefit from and grow up used to white supremacy.” - Scottishwobbly, Tumblr

This is nothing new. This is something POC (People of Color) have been talking about in separate fandoms. Nevertheless, it needs to be acknowledged by those unaware.

This article is not made to say that some of the animations that I will use as examples are bad. But in the hopes that we, as consumers and creators, will do better in the future in handling characters that are POC.

Most often, racial bias in storytelling is when the narrative treats white or light skin toned characters better than darker skin toned characters. The darker skin toned characters are often POC-coded or actual POC.

White creators often do not notice their racial bias in their storytelling as they benefit from and grow up with white privileges and white supremacy. This can also apply to light-skinned POC who have light skin priviliges.

Some of us don’t often see it but real people who relate to the characters of color do. Especially when it reflects from their experiences with racial bias, microaggressions, colorism and flat out racism.

So when they speak up, it’s important to listen to them to unlearn the racial bias we may have in ourselves.

I will be emphasizing “the narrative” for I am criticizing how the story treats its dark-skinned characters and not because I am criticizing the characters themselves.

This article is critiqued by @visibilityofcolor as a sensitivity reader once and then additions were made before publishing. If you’re looking for a Black sensitivity reader, you can contact her.

This article is a 14-minute read at average speed so buckle up. Unless you want to skip to your show mentioned below. External Tumblr Resources will be put in the reblog.

Here are three examples that I was made aware of.

Example #1: The Narrative Treats the Light-Skinned Character at the Expense of the Dark-Skinned Character

Steven Universe was one of the animations that pushed lgbt+ representation in cartoon media. However, there are narratives here and there that showed racial bias.

SU creator Rebecca Sugar was raised with "Jewish sensibilities" and both siblings observe the lighting of Hanukkah candles with their parents through Skype.[1] Rebecca Sugar also talked about being non-binary.[2]

But as a white person, she (and the rest of the SU crew) is not aware of the inherently biased values from growing up and benefiting from white privilege.

One example is the human zoo. There are people that have spoken up about this such as @jellyfax of Tumblr who pointed out that the Crewniverse mishandled a loaded topic and reinforced a white colonist propaganda where the captive humans of mostly black/brown people are naive, docile and childlike in order to subjugate the people that they colonized. .

What I’m here is how a character of color from the main cast is more obligated to the lighter-skinned character.

In the episode, Friend Ship, one fan had spoken out about how Garnet, who had been validly angry at Pearl, was compelled by a dangerous situation to forgive Pearl. Garnet is a Black-coded character. While Pearl is a light-skinned character.

Garnet was mad at Pearl for tricking her into always fusing with her. Then they were trapped in a chamber that was going to crush them. In this situation, they have to fuse in order to save themselves but Garnet refuses to because she was still angry at her.

In the end, they were forced to talk it out, for Garnet to understand Pearl’s reason for wanting to fuse with her and everything worked out well.

The narrative focused so much on Pearl’s self-worth issues at the expense of Garnet’s right to be angry.

Yes, it showed that Pearl is trying her best to make up for it but Garnet should have been allowed to work at her own anger at her own pace instead of being obligated to consider Pearl’s feelings over her own.

I wouldn’t have noticed it until someone had mentioned it. Because it was never my experience.

But it’s there, continuing the message that it’s okay to put the emotional labor on Black people and disregard their own feelings for the sake of the non-Black people who have hurt them -particularly light-skinned women.

White Fragility and Being Silenced White Woman Tears

Again, racial bias in animation storytelling is often not intentional because white creators do not experience it due to white privilege.

Without meaning to, that scene alone shows Garnet as the Angry Black woman trope that is ungrateful and rude to Pearl who then ends up in tears. Without meaning to, Pearl with her light skin, became the tearful white girl trope that had to be sympathized over.

The Angry Black Woman trope is a combination of the worst negative stereotypes of a Black woman: overly aggressive, domineering, emasculating, loud, disagreeable and uppity.[13]

The Tearful white girl trope comes from the combination of the stereotypes of white women being morally upstanding and delicate and therefore should be protected.[13]

Which, unfortunately, many white women have taken advantage of.

These two tropes are harmful to WOC (Women of Color) because they experience the "weary weaponizing of white women's tears". This tactic employed by many white women incites sympathy and avoids accountability for their actions, turning the tables to their accuser and forcing their accuser to understand them instead.

(Image by Виктория Бородинова from Pixabay)

In "Weapon of lass destruction: The tears of a white woman", Author Shay described that white tears turns a white woman into the priority of whatever space she's in. "It doesn't matter if you're right, once her tears are activated, you cease to exist." [11]

White woman tears have gotten Black people beaten and lynched such as Emmett Till. Carolyn Bryant who had accused 14 year old Emmett Till of sexually harassing her in 1955, admitted she lied about those claims years later in 2007.[15]

In Awesomely Luvvie's "About the Weary Weaponizing of White Women Tears", she states that the innocent white woman is a caricature many subconsciously embrace because it hides them from consequences. [10]

In The Guardian’s article, "How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of Colour", Ruby Hamad shares her experience:

"Often, when I have attempted to speak to or confront a white woman about something she has said or done that has impacted me adversely, I am met with tearful denials and indignant accusations that I am hurting her. My confidence diminished and second-guessing myself, I either flare up in frustration at not being heard (which only seems to prove her point) or I back down immediately, apologising and consoling the very person causing me harm."[4]

This is not to say that all crying white women are insincere. But as activist Rachel Cargle said:

“I refuse to listen to white women cry about something. When women have come up to me crying, I say, ‘Let me know when you feel a little better, then maybe we can talk.’”[3]

One of the most quoted words in “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” is this:

“It is white people’s responsibility to be less fragile; people of color don’t need to twist themselves into knots trying to navigate us as painlessly as possible.”[3]

When white women cry in defense, instead of taking accountability, People of Color are then gaslighted into thinking they’re the bad guy. This is emotional abuse and a manipulation tactic.

People of Color shouldn’t have to bend backwards to accommodate discomfited white or light-skinned people who have hurt them.

How She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (SPOP) Did It Right

Despite SPOP having good lgbtq+ representations, there are other biases in the show. Such as Mara, a WOC whose only purpose was to sacrifice herself for the white protagonist. There was also the insensitive joke in their stream regarding Bow’s sibling that perpetuated an Anti-Black stereotype which Noelle Stevenson has apologized for.[14]

But the scene I have encountered where the Black character was validly angry and his feelings were treated well by the narrative, came from SPOP.

Bow, a black character, was validly angry at Glimmer, a lighter skinned character. Glimmer made a lot of bad decisions, one of them was using Adora and their friends as bait, without their knowledge, to lure out and capture Catra.

Glimmer tearfully apologized in Season 5, Episode 4. Adora readily forgave her. But Bow didn't.

They faced dangers along the way but the story didn't put them in a dangerous situation where Bow has to forgive Glimmer in order to get out of it.

This was Glimmer's words of apology:

"Look, I know you're still mad at me. Maybe you'll be mad at me for a really long time. I deserved it. And maybe... maybe we'll never be friends like we used to be. But I'm not going to stop trying to make it better. I made a mistake with the heart of Etheria. I should've listened to you and I'm sorry. You get to be mad. For as long as you need to be. But I'm not going anywhere. And when you're ready, I'll be here."

In short, Bow was allowed to take the time to be mad and not just get over it for someone else’s sake. The story validates his feelings and he was allowed to take his own pace. That is emotional respect the story gave to him.

Example #2: The Narrative Gives Better Endings or Portrayals to Colonizers than Their Victims

Avatar: The Last Airbender has handled dark themes well such as genocide, war, PTSD, disability and redemption with great worldbuilding.

However, I never noticed the racial bias in ATLA until people spoke up of the double standards in ATLA’s treatment of light-skinned colonizers compared to their dark-skinned victims-turned-villains.

The characters in question -Iroh, Azula, Jet and Hama- are all flawed and well-rounded in a believable way. But how the narrative treats them is unequal.

General Iroh is an ex-colonizer who gets to redeem himself and not answer for his past war crimes, living a peaceful life as a tea shop owner. The only reason Iroh changed was when he was personally affected by the negativity of their military subjugation -his son’s death. It wasn’t the harm of the Fire nation ravaging Earth kingdom villages or cities and affecting millions of people that opened his eyes.

Azula, the tyrannical daughter, had closure of her mother's rejection when she was a child and was able to escape imprisonment.

Jet and Hama, victims of colonization who have done bad things, did not get similar conclusions to their stories OR compensation for what they have gone through from the Fire Nation's colonization.

Jet was given a second chance but was arrested for trying to expose Zuko and Iroh being firebenders -firebenders who were their enemies for conquering their villages. Then he died from the injuries of the person who had brainwashed and mind-controlled him.

Hama was imprisoned for life.

Compared to the sins of the light-skinned colonizers, the narrative didn’t give Jet and Hama the development where they could heal from their trauma, receive compensation for what happened to them and really have a chance in life.

The dark-skinned victims of colonization just became a lesson to the viewers how they shouldn’t hold grudges for being colonized. The end. They have received consequences for their actions but there is no continuation to their stories after that.

It almost seems like the narrative is saying that because they have harmed colonizers who have no part in their trauma (and in Jet’s case, some Earth kingdom villagers), they are therefore unworthy to be given an actual chance in life.

While Azula and Iroh, who have actively participated in conquering, colonizing and attacking the Earth Kingdom itself, were.

Someone once said that if indigenous people have control over Hama’s story, it would have been done differently. But the ATLA crew are white, non-indigenous people who prioritized redeeming colonizers instead.

The narrative has also affected how the ATLA fandom thinks. If most fans are asked who they would want to be redeemed, the popular option would be Azula over Jet or Hama.

Once again, I don’t think the ATLA crew noticed it due to their racial bias. But still, the harm is done and the racially biased message is continued:

The colonizers and their descendants don’t have to make amends for the colonizers’ crimes. Or if they do, only lightly since it’s in the past (no matter how recent that past is).

The colonized who rebel will tend to hurt innocent people and then get a grisly end for getting in way over their heads.

I would venture as far as to say that the narrative may have the added subconscious desire to quiet their white anxiety on the vengeance of the colonized. As I have learned when writing about Vodou stereotypes and how they have stemmed from the history of white anxiety of Black vengeance, of Black fetishization and of dissolution of the white race through intermarriages.

In @visibilityofcolor’s blog, someone asked:

“So I saw some of the really heated debates on here and on twitter about how if Iroh and Azula can be portrayed sympathetically despite their actions then characters like Jet and Hama should've been given a chance too. Do you think that the writers understood the implications of only redeeming characters from the colonizer/fascist nation but not giving the characters who suffered because of their fascism a second chance too?”

To which VisibilityOfColor replied:

“No, because at the end of the day, the writers are white. When it comes to stuff like this, it’s no surprise when we see white writers redeem problematic characters before they actually redeem victims of those racist problematic characters. For instance, Dave Filioni, who worked on both avatar and star wars rebels, did the same thing when redeeming agent kallus who was an soldiers in the imperial army and took credit for a genocide. where as victims of the empire were still painted in negative lights. i really don’t think they understand.

They have this ‘be the better person’ view on things, which is what a lot of white people tend to emulate when it comes to people of color standing up to their oppressors. and unfortunately, these are ideas passed on to children, esp minorities. that they should forgive people and communities who hurt them and ‘be the better person’. this is why white ppl don’t need to write narratives for people of color.”

Example #3: The Narrative Favors the Light Skinned Character Than Dark Skinned Character in Similar Situations

I would like to reiterate that racial bias in storytelling is often not intentional. I am not saying the creators and the people who support them are bad people. No.

However, I encourage that once a racial bias is made known in our work, it is our responsibility to change them to stop the perpetuation of its harmful message.

Hazbin Hotel is a popular cartoon with whimsical designs and its concept opens the conversation about redemption. The creator, Vivziepop may not have noticed the racial bias in her cartoon as a white Latina [5] that grew up with and benefits from white privileges, along with the Hazbin crew.

In the Youtbe video, "Hazbin Hotel - How Art took over Writing", Staxlotl states:

“I understand that there was a lot of time and effort put into this pilot, almost three years worth of effort. But I think most of that time was spent into the art and visuals when it should’ve gone into polishing the writing in the characters.”[6]

Once again, I’m not here to critique the characters but how the narrative treats its dark-skinned characters.

The story treats Charlie, the white-skinned, “Disney-esque” protagonist princess differently from how it treats Vaggie, the dark-skinned, more outspoken and protective Latina girlfriend of Charlie who supports the princess’ cause.

In its pilot episode, both girls experience humiliation. While Charlie is portrayed by the story as someone the viewers have to feel sorry for...

...Vaggie is portrayed in her humiliation as the butt of the joke for the viewers.

While they both didn’t like what Angel Dust did, Charlie was sympathized over in the narrative as a moment...

...while Vaggie’s angry but valid callouts were dismissed and ignored as part of the comedy.

While Charlie was someone that needs to be protected in the narrative...

...Vaggie is left to fend for herself.

Again, I don’t think the creators noticed the racial bias of their cartoon. However, this racial bias is reflected in the harmful perceptions that dark-skinned women, particularly Black women and Black girls, are more mature, tougher and need less protection at a young age.[7]

This adultification bias perceives them as challenging authority when they express strong or contrary views and are then given harsher discipline than white girls who misbehave.[8] And this continues when they grow up.

In a 2017 study, Black women and girls aged 12-60 years old confirmed they are treated harsher by their white peers and are accused of being aggressive when they would defend themselves or explain their point of view to authority figures.[8]

This bias also coincides with the Spicy Latina trope of a brown-skinned, hot-blooded, quick-tempered and passionate woman.

Everyday Feminism described this trope as "Although objects of desire for many, the spicy Latina may have too much personality to handle. So much so that she is often viewed as domineering or emasculating." [16]

Sounds familiar? (Look at Angry Black Woman trope above.)

Why is it that a light-skinned character, Charlie, is allowed to be vulnerable and be sympathized while the dark-skinned Latina character, Vaggie, is mocked, dismissed and expected to tough it out?

Severina Ware had to remind the world in her article that relates to the bias against dark skinned characters:

“Black women are not offered the protection and gentleness of our white counterparts. We are not given permission to be soft and delicate. We are required to exhibit strength and fortitude not only because our lives depend on it, but because so many others depend on us. Black women should not be charged with the responsibility of saving everyone when nobody is here to save us.”[12]

As @cullenvhenan of Tumblr has said in her post:

“if you're a white creator and your brown/black characters are always sassy, reckless, aggressive or cold and your white characters are always soft, demure, shy and introverted you should think about maybe why you did that”

(Image above from Iowa Law Reviews’ “Aggressive Encounters & White Fragility: Deconstructing the Trope of the Angry Black Woman”)

Detecting Your Own Racial Bias

It would be hard. No matter how much you edit and create, you may miss it because it was never your experience.

So how do we prevent our racial bias from creeping into our creations?

Listen to POC and their feedback.

As @charishjb from Instagram has shared, here is one of the things that we can do (tumblr link here) [9]:

Consider POC voices. Listen to their experiences. Hire sensitivity POC readers. Put multiple POC voices in positions of leadership in creative projects.

Then we can stop the racial bias that perpetuates again and again in the media. I hope for that future.

#racial bias #racism #colorism #animation #steven universe #su #pearl #garnet #atla #azula #general iroh #jet #hama #hazbin hotel #hazbin vaggie #lynching mention #lynching tw #writeblr #artblr

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n7punk · 3 years

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To what extent do you plan out a fic before you start writing it? Do you already have all the minor problems and conflicts laid out and ready when you start or do they show up as you go along? When would you consider an outline "done"?

I have talked about my outlining methods before, here and here if you want more background.

The truth is, it's hard to answer, because it varies a lot between fics. However, I always have a "goal post" outline for a fic in my mind. Think of it like a marathon. I know the mile markers, but not what the road in between them will be. The number of goal posts/mile markers that I know going in varies a lot though. Sometimes I don't even know what the finish line will look like. More fills out as I write, both immediately ahead in the fic and later on in it, but whether or not they are written down or just in my head also varies.

Usually I have a few large goal posts as part of my initial AU concept and then more of those and the "medium" ones (points leading between the large goal posts and subplots) fill in between the time when I first have the fic idea and when I begin writing that part/chapter of the fic. The small goal posts (even more in between stages, tertiary plots, etc) usually aren't outlined and just happen as I write.

The depth of my written outlines varies a lot between my fics and even within in them. When I start writing a fic, a chunk of text/story that amounts to a chapter might have an outline that is just: [growing closer until they talk about x], or: [a[scene one description] c[scene two description] a[scene three description] etc], or: an entire page of text with a mix of short sentence descriptions, dialogue, and detailed outlines for some of the scenes.

Examples: for ASGNE, I had a few sentences as description for every chapter, often also broken down into a sentence or so for each scene by the time I reached that chapter, though I changed/rearranged/rewrote scenes often still. Conversely, for OTOS I had no outline at any point except for my initial ideas for chapters 1 and 2 and then the home visit, so I wrote most of it off the top of my head.

(As a side note, for canon fics/one shots, I usually go in with a fic concept and maybe a few scenes I have some idea of, but sometimes none. I write them mostly off the cuff).

Regardless of how much of an outline I have for a fic/chapter, I never force myself to stick to it if something contradictory to it develops (unless, of course, it would permanently fuck with an overarching plot, and even then I might change that plot). I never consider an outline done until the chapter is done being written. And even then, I could still edit, rewrite, or rearrange things. I mix planning and improvising when it comes to my writing, usually only doing a detailed outline of select scenes.

That said, while the above is how I write most fics, I actually outlined Beg For Me in a way kinda unique to the fic, so I'll talk about that under the cut. Spoilers below for what has been posted thus far.

For Beg For Me, I had the idea for the first chapter planned, the rough idea of their professional sessions with the smut scenes below outlined just like this for the next few chapters (this is literally copied and pasted from my planning doc), then the party/car sex outlined in detail, then the rough idea of switching to at home with these smut scenes once again outlined just like this, and then the art show. Of course, there is more fic coming after, but I can't talk about that yet.

Professional phase:

Taking away control

Collar, leash, puppy (Adora lives for the collar. Catra determines to get her one of her own)

Wax play/Positive reinforcement

Vanilla party sex

Sensory deprivation/light clawplay/Spanking/Whipping (crop)

Personal phase:

Orgasm delay/denial.

Catra eats herself out while Adora watches.

Forced Orgasm/Switching.

Strap (size queen Adora).

I had more detailed outlines of some of these scenes, but I pasted them into my main document and expanded them as I wrote, so I don't still have them to use as an example.

Basically, my outline for Beg For Me before I began writing was the basic idea of the running subplots (Adora growing comfortable with Catra as her dom until she can act out/top, Catra's dom drop, the Catra/Scorpia drama, and Catra's art), a few key story scenes, and then the smut scenes I wanted to include. As such, most of the outline was just the smut, and I based the chapter count on how many smut scenes I had planned with the idea of one smut scene per chapter. (Also, I initially had 18 smut scenes planned and cut many, hence why Beg For Me has become a series).

As I've written, I've developed more detailed outlines for some chapters/scenes and done others by the seat of my pants, but this was the main idea at the start.

#ask #therealjeffthechiller #writing process #ficmeta #fic rambling #all fics #beg for me

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battlekidx2 · 4 years

Text

The Symbolism and Motifs Behind Adora and Catra’s Designs/Looks

Adora

(Hair down)

The biggest visual motif that is used for Adora is her hair. When she is Adora her hair being up symbolizes her being constrained by her destiny, obligations, responsibilities, past abuse, etc and every time she has a breakthrough or is freed from one of these her hair is let down. This first happens in Destiny part 2 when Adora breaks the sword and for the first time in 4 seasons Adora’s hair is down and she has “freed” herself from her horrible destiny. In season 5 this happens more frequently. In Save the Cat Adora’s hair comes out of her ponytail when she is saving Catra, when she has resolved herself to mend their relationship and reconnect. She has once again “freed” herself from the guilt and emotional pain that came from having to believe that Catra was lost, of being able to reconnect and keep childhood promises and make new ones. And another big one in Heart part 2 after Catra and Adora confess to each other her hair once again falls out of the ponytail symbolizing Adora finally being able to reach for a future that she wants and being “freed” from the obligations that she thought she had to neglect her needs and sacrifice herself for others. Adora’s hair coming loose is (clearly through the examples mentioned) meant to symbolize emotional breakthroughs that Adora has. Adora is a character that isn’t that in touch with her emotions and struggles to comprehend things beyond what she was raised for, battle and war, so each breakthrough is her gradually breaking free of her upbringing.

(She-ra’s look season 1-4)

(She-ra’s look in season 5)

It’s interesting to note that She-ra’s redesign follows the exact opposite motif with her hair, but symbolizes something similar. She-ra’s redesign looks a lot more like Adora does than her original design and this is meant to show how Adora has made she-ra her own. She-ra is no longer what the first ones intended, she is not the sword, she-ra is Adora. Another detail is how the new design incorporates certain aspects of each of the most important people in her life: the heart on her chest for Bow, the wings on her shoes for Glimmer, and her new mask for Catra. She-ra and her meaning have been altered by Adora and her experiences and I really love that fact. This is Adora taking back control over something that was supposed to be used to manipulate her. Which is a core part of her character because of the struggles she has with her abuse at shadow weaver’s hands. This is a part of the culmination of Adora’s arc of discovering she is more than what she can do for others. That her destiny, the destiny of she-ra, is in her own hands. That the manipulations of people trying to use her isn’t what has made Adora the person and hero she is today, but the personal connections she forged and her own personal drive to do what she believes is right.

Catra

Season 1-3 look

season 4 (and beginning of season 5) look

Season 5 look

(under prime’s control)

(once she joins the rebellion)

One of my favorite recurring motifs with Catra is the literal mask that she wears and that in this season after she decides to save Glimmer the mask is gone from her design completely. The dark exterior that Catra uses to hide her feelings and pain is gone and she has finally decided to be true to herself. Same with her eyes. Catra has heterochromia which is used to outwardly display her dual nature and warring inner conflict between her love and hatred of Adora and in the 5th season it’s used to portray her struggle between self betterment and sliding into old habits and self destruction. This is shown very clearly in the episode “Taking Control”. Whenever Catra is lashing out at Adora she’s turned so that her blue eye is the only one in frame and when Catra is being vulnerable or showing regret her yellow eye is the one that’s in frame. When she decides to use the chip to discover Horde Prime’s plan and protect Adora her yellow eye is the one in frame further emphasizing her decision to change. I really liked this detail in the episode. There is also the very obvious one in the season 3 finale where the blue eye is the one covered by the corruption in season 3 symbolizing Catra’s decision to commit to her villain role. Her darkness had won over her light. And it comes full circle once again in the series finale. Once Catra makes the decision to go back for Adora and stands up to shadow weaver her blue eye is the one shown in side views. Showing that she has overcome what had been her biggest shortcoming in this series, pushing others away to protect herself.

I just really loved how they used Catra’s character design to its fullest and didn’t waste details. It’s really easy to just be like “wow this looks cool” and then do nothing with it, but the she-ra crew was like “wow this looks cool now let’s do something with it”. For example when Catra gets her redesign in season 4 her hair is a lot less poofy and her ear tufts are gone and it’s tied into her character progression. Catra got rid of her ear tufts because shadow weaver had used caressing them as a way to manipulate Catra and her feelings. Catra now associates them with negative emotions and weakness and wants to “cut off” any possibility of feeling that kind of emotional pain again. The darker colors of her clothes also reflect her decision in the previous season. Catra’s main colors before this season were much lighter reds, but now it’s a deep, dark red showing her descent into the darkness when she opened the portal and her denial. Her color scheme changes once again in season 5. Her shoulders have maintained the darker red, but the dark sleeves that she had are now gone making it so that the lighter reds overcome or overshadow the darker red symbolizing how the light inside of her has overcome the dark. Yet it’s still keeps the colors darker than season 1 because Catra has done things since then that have made it so that she can’t go back to being that same person before she committed her mistakes. She’s a much healthier person though and has come to accept her mistakes and try to move forward in a better healthier direction (again symbolized by the color of her clothes).

I also want to point out Catra’s design in save the cat. In Save the Cat Catra is in all white and grey with her hair slicked back perfectly in place. The more Catra comes to her senses and is freed from primes control the messier her hair gets. It is similar to Adora’s hair motif, but with Catra’s hair becoming messier it can also symbolize her embracing/remembering her mistakes and the messiness that comes from trying to move forward in a more positive direction. When brainwashed and under primes control she doesn’t even remember her mistakes because Prime has “washed” away the pain along with the memory. Also white is typically used to symbolize purity but in this context it feels very out of place. This isn’t who Catra is. The reason she goes back to the red is that once again it symbolizes her decisions and choices. Catra can’t undo the mistakes so she “wears” them and acknowledges them after this episode. This is why in the transition episode Catra is wearing grey undergarments. Catra isn’t at the point where she can face her mistakes even though she has admitted them, symbolized by the transfer from white to grey. Her clothing being undergarments alone shows how vulnerable and insecure Catra is feeling about these mistakes. The very next episode after she resolves to face her mistakes she goes back to her red color scheme, again with less of the dark red than in season 4 showing her decision to change and go down a “lighter” path.

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chocopvffz · 4 years

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My Problems with Fandom

It’s been a while since I’ve kinda just let out my thoughts and feelings on this stale hell site. It’s just now more than ever I’m having the weirdest realizations while I’m participating in any Fanbase. This topic may piss ppl off. But to that, I say fuck it, I’m gonna do it.

Around 2 years ago I took a backseat to actively participating in fandom. So I’d be more of an onlooker rather than someone who contributed. Just reblogging stuff rather than making my own content. Usually in fandom, things are said in the heat of the moment, with little thought and more emotions. Taking a step back I started to realize that while that’s fine in and of itself, You’re entitled to what you like and what’s interesting to you, but I’ve realized that people kinda settle for the bare minimum. Especially now that representation for marginalized groups is becoming the norm. Which is great, but there are still problems that plague us as a community.

I just finished watching Unicorn of War’s video on RWBY, and they delved into the absolutely garbage writing that surrounded The White Fang subplot. I highly recommend you watch the video, it’s about the bad representation of minority oppression and how it relates to RWBY as a whole. While this post doesn’t stem from that in particular. what did was though is how UoW confessed that they were guilty of completely ignoring how harmful the writing was for pocs, as well as downright silencing and downplaying poc that had a problem with the writing. Unicorn of War is not racist, the fact that they realized the type of systemic racism they’ve been inadvertently spreading is so harmful is a a step in the right direction. Here is where the problem lies. UoW said that they were a perpetrator of this because they were to focused on the representation the show did give the fans. They said that they lumped all of the genuine criticism of the problems with homophobes and bigots because they didn’t want to hear any of the criticism at all. RWBY has some pretty shit representation in ever field. UoW said that they were settling for the stuff they did get because they get so little, and their whiteness blinded them to listening and trying to understand why so man poc had an issue with the show.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that, a lot of the time In Fandom, ppl would rather settle for what they do have and what caters to them, rather than criticize a product of its faults and ask for more.

I’ve been scared to talk about She-Ra because the fandom is pretty scary. I liked the show. To me it wasn’t anything special. But it was a fine show, and I can’t wait for what the crew does next. But here’s where a lot of the issues come from for me. There are some problems both w/ the show, and the representation. Catra and Adora have been queercoded up until the very end where it does get revealed that they are in fact lesbians. Which is great and all but at the end of the day. They kiss at the very end of the last episode, nothing was explicit before then. But the thing is that Catra is an abusive manipulative person, that kinda just gets a pat on the back, and all is forgiven when she realizes she’s alone(both in the fandom and the show). I mean glimmer got more hate than Catra. The point I’m trying to make is that I’ve seen way to many ppl ignore the fact that they side stepped the development of Catra and Adora, and kinda get mad at the ppl that criticize that we could have gotten better rep. For a lot of the fans, at least from what I’ve seen, yall are okay with the problems the show has as long as you get some form of rep. Which is valid, but when that complacency spills over into silencing ppl with criticisms. This usually happens when someone has had another experience with the show where the thing that represents them isnt done as well. it rubs me the wrong way. Someone could see Catra’s behavior, liken her to a toxic person they knew, criticize how the show kinda ignores that. I can bet that some ppl would tell this person that they’re wrong, because she ended up where she did at the end.

This brings me to my last example, during my watch of Infinity Train, I started getting a little bit more involved in the fandom; reblogging, commenting. During the show I noticed a small amount (larger than I would have liked) making passive aggressive remarks toward Grace (the only black girl and protagonist of the season). They were all in regard to her having a redmeption arc. At first I was kinda in denial. Like most ppl are immediately after suffering an injustice, cuz despite her being an awful person at first. She gets better. And there are so little black women that are protagonists. I felt represented. But then I’d see ppl demeaning her in order to make her friend Simon (basically the antagonist) more sympathetic. Mind you he’s white. And after the show ended I had a weird encounter. There were many posts about how enthralling it was that Grace, a black women, telling Simon, a white man, that his problems were his own, and she doesn’t have to be the one to fix them. Most of the ppl that made these posts were woc. The show isn’t about race, but the fact that the character is black resonated with a lot of ppl.

Under ever single one of these posts, I saw multiple people, getting weirdly angry at them. Like “this has nothing to do with race, why are you bringing it up here.” Which I guess is fair, but no one says it as much to ppl when the post is about sexuality. So getting fed up, I responded to one of these ppl explaining how odd it is that the characters that get really popular are always of the same archetype. White Sad Boys, it’s the same with ships. Instead of critiquing the show or anything I wanted to call attention to subconscious biases in fandom. The person accuses me of calling them racist, tells me that race isn’t an issue in fandom, and tried to gaslight me into thinking that what I was talking about doesnt apply to how ppl choose who their favorite character is.

This issue here isn’t about the race, or the actual content in the show. It was about the person telling me that the empowerment I and other woc experienced while watching infinity train s3, doesn’t exist and we shouldn’t criticize ppl putting her down in order to uplift the antagonist.

Which leads back to the point I’m trying to make. So many ppl in fandom settle for whats there instead of trying to make things more representative of everyone. Representation can always get better, we just have to stop fighting ppl that give constructive criticism to the things we like.

And I’m completely guilty of this too, that’s why I took a step back. I don’t like silencing ppl when they try to criticize something that resonates with me. So I try to sit back and let them tell me what can be done better based on their experiences. I’m still struggling. I’m pretty sure I was ultra defensive with the person telling me that race doesn’t matter.

This happens a lot more with white ppl than it does with people of color. And this isn’t a dig on any white person at all. It’s just that white have a vastly different experience than a poc. A white LGBT person is going to have a completely different experience than a black lgbt person. Just like a cishet white person is going to have from a poc cishet person. And since we have different experiences, there are aspects of my life you won’t understand and vice versa. An abuse survivor is going to be more equip to tell us what works better than other things in a story that tackles those subjects. You see what I mean.

I just want everyone to take a step back and consider the criticism that is being made. And try to understand why this person may see it that way.

TLDR; We need to stop silencing marginalized ppl just because they criticize things we relate to, especially when it pertains to their experiences. It’s settling for the bare minimum when we deserve better. Just because we’ve got a gay character doesnt mean the show is perfect. It happens way more than we think. Especially now more than ever.

Sorry this is so long, and full of typos. I just needed to rant.

#she ra spop #spop spoilers #she ra princess of power #infinity train #infinty train spoilers #rwby v7 #rwby volume 8 #rwby #queen of typos #just getting my thoughts out

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yespleasefandomtrash · 4 years

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Catradora fluff prompt: those sleepovers back at the horde that Catra told Glimmer she and Adora used to have and stay up all night whispering about... *blush* *blush* I WANNA KNOW WHAT THEY WHISPERED ABOUT

aka some good pre-relationship fluff! love it love it love it. there isn't really a particular time this is set - maybe 6 months to a year before Adora left the Horde? it's pretty much however you want to read it :)

~*~

“Ugh. Training was brutal today.” Adora collapsed backwards onto her bunk, wincing at the jolt of pain that ran through her shoulder and earning a startled “mrp!” from Catra, who was lying at the foot of the bed. “I’m gonna be sore for a week.”

Catra resettled herself before rolling her eyes at her friend’s dramatic reaction. “You’re the one who stayed for extra practice, Adora. Practice that you definitely don’t need. So really, you have no one to blame but yourself.”

Adora tried to shift from where she was lying, wincing as her left shoulder started to cramp. Maybe she’d pulled something after all, ouch. “There’s no such thing as ‘unneeded’ practice. If I have any hopes of being promoted to Force Captain, I have to prove to Hordak and Shadow Weaver that I’m capable of working harder and doing better than anyone else!”

Catra’s nose wrinkled in disgust at the mention of their… superiors. “Come on, Adora. You don’t need to prove your worth to anyone, much less them of all people.”

Adora groaned as she rolled over onto her stomach. “You’re just saying that because you’re my friend.”

Catra frowned, sitting up to observe her, her tail flicking back and forth in an almost mesmerizing fashion. “Uh… You okay?”

“Yup. Totally fine.” Adora dropped her face into her pillow, muffling her voice. “Don’t you need to be getting back to your bunk? It’s… really late.” Like, after-midnight late.

Catra snorted. “Right. Because I’m just going to leave you while you’re in denial about some injury you caused yourself.”

Adora simply grunted in response. Now that her adrenaline rush had faded and she wasn’t jumping around and dodging the virtual princesses and their not-so-virtual weaponry… ugh. She was starting to feel some of those blows.

“Plus…” Although Adora refused to remove her face from her pillow, she didn’t have to look up to imagine the way that the corners of Catra’s lips had curled up into a mischievous smirk. “I filled Kyle’s shoes with mushed up ration bars, which means I have to hide wherever you are so Rogelio doesn’t come after me.”

That revelation got Adora to lift her head. “Aw, Catra! You said we were going to do that together,” she said accusingly, though her voice did sound whinier than she would have liked. “Or did you forget that we planned to hide in the vents afterwards to wait and watch him put his shoes on?”

“Well, you were too busy practicing without me,” Catra snapped. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t feel like waiting for you, Your Highness.”

Adora didn’t miss the way her friend’s ears flattened and how her eyes dropped to the floor - she always did that when she was upset. “Catra…” She tried to keep her voice gentle as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, ignoring what felt like fire coursing through her left shoulder. “I thought you were okay with waiting until I was done training today.”

“I was!” Catra’s tail flicked faster - she was either angry, anxious, or lying. Given the context, possibly a combination of all three.

“Really? Then why’d you put ration bars in Kyle’s shoes without me?” Adora sighed, rolling her eyes. “Catra, if you would just be honest with me we could figure out -”

“Shut up! I told you I don’t care!” Catra growled. She shoved Adora away, which was certainly not an action unfamiliar to either of them, but Adora’s bruised body and newfound shoulder injury did not take kindly to the sudden forceful contact.

She was barely able to bite back a pained groan as she hit the wall behind her - regrettably left shoulder first - and the sound instead more came out a muffled squeak. Adora instinctively reached up to grab her injured shoulder, hissing slowly and muttering a curse under her breath. Okay. So she probably hadn’t pulled anything, but it was starting to feel pretty clear that she had at least bruised the bone. Her arm was still too mobile for it to have been a dislocation.

As the pain gradually dulled from the impact and the static faded from the edges of her vision, she looked up to see Catra staring at her in horror - no, at her arm - before jumping to her feet and bolting out of the room.

“No, Catra!” Adora shouted, reaching out with her uninjured arm as if she could somehow catch her friend. “Wait!”

Catra didn’t wait. She never did, even when they were little kids. But old habits died hard, and Adora knew exactly where Catra had gone to hide.

“Alright, Adora,” she muttered, trying to brace herself for the inevitable pain that standing up would bring. “You got this.”

She forced herself to get to her feet, wincing but biting her tongue, determined to remain silent and not alert anyone to what she was doing. She was definitely not going to accidentally show Shadow Weaver her injuries. That never ended well.

After walking around in circles for several minutes and doing some stretches to get her blood flowing, Adora found the pain to be considerably more bearable. Still, she’d have to avoid using her left arm for the next week so it could heal. That in itself was almost more annoying than the pain of the injury.

Adora then grabbed her pillow and her blanket from her bunk, tucking the two bags of chips that Lonnie had gotten smuggled into the Fright Zone inside the blanket to hopefully decrease the chances of them being discovered even if she herself was caught.

Catra’s typical hideouts weren’t far from Adora’s ‘room’, which she’d always teased Catra about, telling her it was a sign that her subconscious couldn’t bear to be too far away from her even when she was angry. Catra heavily denied this theory, but as she denied most things she was too embarrassed to admit, her reaction really only enforced the theory as true in Adora’s mind.

Catra was exactly where Adora had suspected she’d be - huddled behind three half-empty oil barrels and a pile of assorted scrap metal, legs pulled to her chest and body facing the wall.

“Predictable much?” Adora said, unable to keep amusement out of her voice as she ducked her head to get in before sitting down next to her friend, leaving about a foot and a half of space between them. “Were you really just going to come here and sulk until morning? At least the bunks are more comfortable than a concrete floor.” She paused. “Well, not by much, but -”

“God, don’t you ever shut up?” Catra grumbled, making a point of turning farther away from her. “I obviously came here to be alone, so get the hell away.”

Adora bit back a sigh. Catra was so easy to read. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me,” she finally said, her voice quiet. “And I know that I should have been more honest with you about how I may have overworked myself. Just a tad.”

“I told you to go away, Adora!”

“I don’t take orders from you,” Adora retorted. “Besides, I already brought everything except my mattress with me, so no, I’m not going anywhere except to sleep. Right here.”

A familiar growl rumbled in the back of Catra’s throat, and her hand flashed out like lightning as she dragged her claws down the wall in front of her. She then slowly turned around, her ears flat to her head. “You never listen to me.”

“Psh, that is not true,” Adora said with a snort as she fluffed her pillow. As much as that sad piece of fabric could be fluffed, anyways. She then placed it on the floor so she could rest her head on it later. “I just only listen to you when you have good advice, and we both know those moments are few and far between.”

Catra rolled her eyes, her ears slowly moving back upright. “I definitely remember telling you today that practicing extra would end badly, which I was right about, but you were all like ‘no, Catra, I need to impress everyone so they love me even more!’”

Adora snickered at her friend’s terrible impression. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I said. And I sounded just like that.”

“Shut up. You did!”

“Uh huh. Uh huh. Sure, no. Great job.” She then smiled at her. “But fine. You were right about that. However, I feel the need to point out that a broken clock is still right once a day.”

Catra glared at her, but all the tension in her body had dissipated, and there was no real anger in her eyes. “Hardy har har. You think you’re so funny.”

Adora grabbed the blanket she’d brought, dropping the two bags of chips onto the floor before laying the blanket over her legs. She then lifted the left corner to reveal the space still between her and Catra. “Care to join me?”

Something… soft flickered across Catra’s face, but it was soon replaced by her typical ‘I don’t care about anything’ expression. She did, however, slide under the blanket next to Adora, their backs both resting against the oil barrels that shielded them from view of anyone walking down the hall.

Adora offered her one of the bags of chips, but Catra refused, adamantly avoiding eye contact with her. Adora, long since used to her friend’s… well, that was pretty normal behavior for Catra, so she simply shrugged and opened a bag for herself, the crunch of her eating the only sound in the otherwise silent hallway.

“Do you want to steal all of Kyle’s belts tomorrow?” Catra suddenly blurted, an unmistakable blush growing on her features.

The seeming randomness of the question as well as Catra’s borderline-aggressive asking startled Adora and then prompted her to burst out laughing, which made Catra’s face turn a darker shade of red. “Oh my God. So his pants will either fall down all day or he’ll have to borrow one of Rogelio’s belts, which won’t be even close to fitting him.” She was snorting with laughter at this point, and had to wipe a stray tear from her face. “Obviously I want to do that.”

Adora could tell that Catra was trying to pretend it was no big deal that she’d agreed, but she knew her friend’s habits too well. Her ears had perked up - she was happy. “Cool. It’ll be fun.”

“It’ll be hilarious,” Adora countered, grinning. She then gave Catra a softer smile. “And I accept your apology for pranking Kyle today without me. No hard feelings.”

“I - I didn’t apologize for anything!” Catra protested, her face growing redder by the second. “I’m not sorry I pranked Kyle without you!”

“Uh huh. Sure you’re not.”

Catra glared at her, but her glare soon morphed into a mischievous smirk as she snatched a handful of chips from Adora’s bag.

“Hey!” Adora turned her body away, clutching her chips to her chest. “I offered you your own bag, and you turned it down! You don’t get to steal any of mine just because you missed your chance.”

“But I don’t want a whole bag.” Catra began eating the chips she’d stolen before grinning at her. “I just wanted a few. And yours were readily available.”

Adora sighed. Well, it wasn’t like they didn’t always end up sharing food. “Fine. But you’re ridiculous.”

“You’re one to talk, Miss ‘I wanna be Force Captain so badly I’m willing to break my arm’.”

“I didn’t break my arm. I just bruised my shoulder a little.” Catra glared at her. “Okay, a lot. But I’ll be fine in a few days!”

“Yeah, well, have fun hiding it from Shadow Weaver until then. It was nice knowing you.”

Adora winced. She was not looking forward to that.

Catra seemed to notice her expression, as she groaned and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Ugh, fine. I’ll help you hide it from her.”

Adora beamed. “Aw, really?”

Catra glared at her again. “This is not because I like you. I just don’t want to see you pouting for the next week because you think you ruined your chances of becoming Force Captain. You’re annoying when you’re sad.”

Adora was tempted to fire back a teasing comment, but a more serious question nagged at the back of her mind. “Do you think I did?” she asked quietly. “Ruined my chances, I mean.”

“Oh my God, Adora, really? Are you kidding -” Catra glanced at Adora, who tried not to flinch under her friend’s gaze. “Oh. You’re… serious.”

“It - It doesn’t matter,” Adora hastily said, embarrassed at her moment of insecurity. Ugh, she could feel her face getting red. “Forget I said anything. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Hey.” Catra’s voice was gentle, a tone unfamiliar to most who knew her. Except Adora. “You are more qualified than any other cadet here to be Force Captain, okay? A little injury that I bet you’ll shake off before the end of the week doesn’t change that.”

Adora stared at her for a moment, then felt a bashful grin breaking out across her face. “You really think so?”

Catra snorted. “Um, duh.” She then poked Adora’s nose - carefully, so as not to scratch her. “But don’t you dare tell anyone I said so. Ever. I’ve worked too hard to perfect my ‘I don’t give a shit’ persona for you to ruin it with one sentimental moment.”

Adora laughed, and she slid down some from sitting upright in order to lean her head against Catra’s shoulder. “Aw. I knew you liked me.”

“Oh, whatever,” Catra grumbled, though there was no bite to her words. “You’re only fooling yourself.”

Adora couldn’t help but sigh in contentment. “You’re my best friend. You know that, right?”

Catra stiffened, and Adora began to panic and wondered if she’d accidentally taken their emotional openness a step too far, but then she felt Catra relax. “Yeah. I know.” She hesitated, then rested her head on top of Adora’s.

For Catra, that was a huge step forward in… er, being able to connect to other people at all, really. And not wanting to ruin the moment, Adora simply smiled, pulling the blanket up closer to both of them. The blanket’s warmth combined with the dull vibrations of Catra’s quiet purring was enough to make her drowsy, and soon she found her eyelids fluttering shut. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the feeling of someone’s hands slipping gently into hers.

Adora smiled.

Everything was perfect.

~*~

thank you for reading!

#my writing #catradora #spop catradora #spop catra #spop adora #spop spoilers #not really tho #she ra #catra #adora #catradora fluff #pre relationship #fanfiction #she ra season five #catradora prompt

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aros001 · 3 years

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Going in blind: Watching season 2 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Huh. Only 7 episodes. Not complaining necessarily. For series with an ongoing plot I've definitely become more in favor with their seasons only having as many episodes as they need rather than them having to stretch themselves out to full up a certain number of episodes, which can lead to padding and just bad character moments.

Episode 1: Jeez. Catra visiting Shadow Weaver's cell just to rub her success in her face and verbally abuse her back for once. It's like a twisted version of Zuko and Ozai from ATLA. Catra's upbringing under her was abusive but this is far from a healthy way for her to deal with it. She's basically deliberately swimming in her resentment.

Episode 2: It's not that I'm rooting for her but by-golly was it fun to watch Catra act like just the absolute worst she could while she was Glimmer and Bow's captive.

I touched on this in season 1 but part of the drama of the heroes feeling guilt over leaving Entrapta behind is kind of lost on me a bit simply because it was her own fault it happened. She deliberately went back into the purge room because of her machine obsession, which then closed on her and erupted in flames. It was more than reasonable to assume she was dead and no one but her was to blame, so I'm not really able to be invested in their guilt over it.

That said, weirdly enough I do like that her "abandonment" doesn't seem to be even a blip on the radar for Entrapta herself. She hasn't joined the horde because she resents the heroes or felt left behind, she simply is so obsessed with machines and experimentation that she'll be on the side of whoever lets her do the most of that. Like, it's selfish and irresponsible but it's very in-character and I'd far rather have a traitor motivation be based in that over something stupid like a misunderstanding.

Episode 3: I love the mental image of Shadow Weaver thinking up princess-themed ghost stories to tell Adora as a child.

So, if the previous She-Ra Mara separated Eternia from the other realms/planets/whatever she did and that's what cut off the She-Ra line for 1000 years, I'm guessing Hordak may be from the time before that happened, thus his drive to create portals and calling Eternia a backwards world. Either he's naturally long-lived or his technology is extending his life.

Episode 4: You know, you could maybe argue it was vague enough that it could be taken other ways but I'm definitely getting some vibes here that Scorpia is crushing on Catra. She literally refers to the two of them as soulmates at one point. I know she says she's trying to be friends but this feels a level beyond that.

Fun little reference to the original She-Ra cartoon thrown in there (and maybe Cowboy Bebop...? James Bond...? What was Glimmer's art style supposed to be?). I like how it is more like just playful ribbing than anything outright dumping on the original. Again, I've never seen original She-Ra but whenever remakes/adaptations go out of their way to trash to the original I always kind of wonder why they bothered doing an adaptation if the original is just that bad? Also, I was having trouble sleeping so it was about 2am when I watched this episode and the very Eartha Kitt Catwoman Catra made it very difficult for me not to lose my **** and stay quiet. With how much of a contrast that version is from the one in this series, that was hilarious. Bonus note, it's a nice touch that Frosta's version of Catra is a pretty crasher in that sweet suit, since that's the only impression of Catra she's ever had.

Adora being a chosen one is definitely elevated up simply by how much the pressure of what she's supposed to be is getting to her. I'm likely going to keep making Avatar The Last Airbender comparisons throughout the series but that's partly because I went into this series figuring it'd be at least structured similar to ATLA (season 1 being more episodic and a little more kid-friendly as it builds up the world before getting more serious later). Adora and Aang are interesting to compare here. Aang's worries early on were less apparent because he was more in-denial/choosing not to think about his problems that much, which fit with his character as a free-spirited Air Nomad. While Adora is much more military-minded. She can't keep herself from thinking about her problems and trying to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And jeez, that idea of who/how Catra is in her mind. Not only beating her but making her watch as she takes everything she cares about away. Not Shadow Weaver, not Lord Hordak, but Catra. That whole Lion King Mufasa/Scar moment between them in episode 11 and their fight in the S1 finale really did a number on her mental image of her old friend. Not reasonably so.

Minor note: I'm sure I'm the only one who got this impression but by the look of it, the way the robot's eye moved, and the music, after getting the soda spilled on it that little spybot gained sentience for half a second and then immediately died. It was so darkly comedic I had to laugh.

Episode 5: So that red disc is basically She-Ra's Red Kryptonite, having an effect on the mind rather than the body. The drunk Adora joke doesn't really do it for me but it did get some nice interactions going between Scorpia and Sea Hawk, two characters I certainly wasn't expecting to bond. I did really like Catra's panic when berserker She-Ra nearly beheads her. The implication is that is Adora really wanted to kill her Catra would already probably be dead. It's a thing I like about powerhouse characters like Superman or Aang, who could just demolish everything around them and don't simply because they're a good person...which in turn makes them the scariest person on the planet when they're well and truly ticked off. I'm not going to lie, I do kind of want to see a She-Ra version of Aang when Appa was stolen or when Superman fought The Elite.

Also, Catra's line of "I have control over Adora. I'm not giving that up for anything.". There's a lot to read into there.

Episode 6: I guess my prediction was sort of right. Shadow Weaver became basically a magic parasite and while it did increase the power she's capable of the implication seems to be that she needs a constant fix of magic to keep herself going, thus her attachment to the Black Garnet.

Have we seen Micah before? Given how long ago the flashback seems set, the fact that Shadow Weaver didn't kill him and thus he probably becomes someone important later in life, I'm guessing he's Glimmer's dad and the queen's late husband, since I think he's the only important male character whose face we haven't seen yet. Also, he's voice by Ezra from Star Wars Rebels and that cracks me up for some reason. It's the exact same voice and a relatively similar character.

I compared Catra and Shadow Weaver with a kind of twisted version of Zuko and Ozai and that definitely still fits here. Both Catra and Zuko confront their parent and call them out for the inexcusable abuse they put them through but while that moment was the start of Zuko's upwards journey this and SW's betrayal seems like it's going to cause Catra to spiral even further. Makes sense why Adora leaving affected her so much. She's probably the only one Catra's ever had that she could consistently trust and rely on, even if she did somewhat resent her.

Not surprised Hordak is getting along with Entrapta. She's not socially aware enough to be scared or intimidated by him, so she'll speak frankly, and since all she wants to talk about is the machines, experiments, and how they could get them to work Hordak probably doesn't take much issue with that. She's producing results, which is what he cares about, thus also why Shadow Weaver and Catra started losing favor with him. I wonder if Catra is going through imposter syndrome? Shadow Weaver had that line that Entrapta earned her place next to Hordak and, if you think about it, Catra hasn't really "earned" anything. We saw that she didn't really take her training or studies that seriously, showing up late to combat practice and even getting partial credit for what Adora beat. She wasn't promoted to Force Captain because of her own abilities but because Adora had defected when she was supposed to get that title. She's come close to a few victories but never really had any except for Glimmer and Bow's kidnapping...whom she then basically let escape when she returned Adora's sword to her. She doesn't have the slightest clue how the horde's bureaucracy works when trying to get things done, like simply getting troops armor. Given how much better than her Adora always was and how little she herself has to her name, I wonder is subconsciously Catra believes she doesn't deserve her current position and thus why she's fretting so much over trying to prove herself.

Episode 7: Am I mistaken or did Bow's parents say that he's the youngest of TWELVE siblings? I was going to ask whether Bow was adopted or if his dad's used a surrogate or if maybe there's even just simply magic in She-Ra's world that allows two people of the same sex to have a child together but now I'm just focused on the 12 kids thing. I get nervous just imagining myself having more than one. You should see me when I'm with two cats. I have to pet both of them because I'd feel like I'd be making one feel left out and like the other is the favorite. I'm a mess with kids.

The dad with dreadlocks (Lance?), his design looked familiar to me and I finally realized it reminded me a of a fanart design for a human Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Very different voices between those two characters though.

I wonder if there's any significance to the robot protecting the crystal having the same design as those in the artic in episode 5? Obviously both have the connection to the First Ones but the robot in the forest who was also protecting First Ones' tech had a more insect-like design over these more worm/Graboid ones.

I'm kind of curious what Hordak would have done if Catra had told the truth. Given his interactions with her and Shadow Weaver he doesn't seem like the time to tolerate failure but I suppose the implication here is that he at least would respect those who own up to their failures. Or I suppose more simply he was just testing to see if she would lie to him and since she did there's little merit in keeping her in a position of authority anymore where she could lie about important things again.

Season 2 verdict: Still enjoying it. Another person on this reddit recommended I view seasons 2 and 3 as one since they are basically just one season split in two. I was going to do that but this ended up longer than I thought I would, so I'll just do 2 and 3 separate to keep them semi-organized and easier to read.

I think overall Catra is my favorite character since she has the most interesting backstory, interactions, and just general path through the story out of everyone. She's like Pearl from Steven Universe or, well, Zuko. There's just so much baggage there that she's trying and kind of failing to deal with. I'm always invested in whatever's happening when she's onscreen. Hordak so far is a good big boss villain for Adora to face but Catra is a good archenemy for her.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o027y3/going_in_blind_watching_season_2_for_the_first/

#she ra #she ra spop #random thoughts #reddit repost

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new-caba · 4 years

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Response to a Noelle Stevenson interview

This is a publication from my other blog which Tumblr trolled and shut down my reach.

I want to respond to some stuff Noelle Stevenson said in this interview.

“Their arc is the arc of the show. It always has been,” showrunner Noelle Stevenson told The Times in a recent phone call. “Every season is about this relationship, even when they’re the farthest apart.”

True, but your narrative is confusing about that. I am sick of people saying "It’s getting annoying the amount they’re focusing on the two” and they say this because, while there are times when the narrative wants to discuss Adora’s past, her relationship with the Horde people and the connection she has with Catra, there are way more times when it pretends she’s just a generic mystical warrior who is cool on her own and beat the bad guys just for fun (usually putting Catra’s life at risk in a non reciprocate way) and ignores that Adora even has a personality other then “to be so much better then what she has done in the past”, and “so much stronger then everyone that she can deny herself as much as she wants” as if those were a positive things. Almost focusing on how strong she is because she can resist abuse, implying that those who aren’t that strong are “bad victims”. That’s what she means by “I will not be controlled” in 4th season.

Adora is just using She-ra as a way

to run away from her internalized homophobia, that’s what being She-ra means to her and that’s the brilliant main narrative. Hear me up: she wants Catra because the old friend reminds her of a safe place to explore and have fun, in a way that this perfect being everyone wants her to become doesn’t allow, and her becoming everyone’s savior is just fueling this problem. However, they imply her heroism is a good thing, so how can it be that her opposite desire, the desire to live a happy life with her love, is the main narrative? Being She-ra (a miraculous problem solver) is her main narrative. If she used She-ra as a way to protect herself, her friends and the love of her life I would find her really cool, but she just used it to run away from herself.

To recapitulate, in the first season, the story is indeed about Catra and Adora because it is about Catra trying to survive with dignity without the help of Adora, and it is about Adora trying to understand how to get the help of the princesses to fight the war. But in the end Adora realized that the fact she has overlooked Catra was a problem because now Catra came back as a leader and she doesn’t know how to go about that.

This would be fine if the second season was directed to the two of them at least trying to get along or to talk about each other, in order to continuous with this theme of them growing up to their own life paths without letting to have a connection, healthy or not. But instead it becomes about Adora mindlessly fighting some battles and Catra alone doing the job of trying to achieve something to herself and to the Horde people in general. When Shadow Weaver runs away from her, she starts to loose hope she will ever have support to continuous. She feels like no one will ever help or love her, and if they do, she better just protect them while she dies, because she does not deserve it. And this is all being reinforced by the way Adora is treating her (being a brutal bully).

In the 3rd season, when Shadow Weaver returns to Adora, the protagonist realizes she had again been neglecting her own past traumas and wants to interact with the witch, to be close to her again. It would be a good continuation of Adora’s story with the Horde people, and, by consequence, with Catra, if she used the witch solely to achieve what she needed, but no. That’s eeeeevil, right? She did someting muuuuuch better: guaranteed the witch was around and always interacting with her, putting bad ideas in her head and aligning herself with Glimmer to be able to torture Catra again. She even says she wanted to believe there was something good in Shadow Weaver still, and to me this feels like she’s just trauma bonding. You cannot expect this person to be nice, it’s not reasonable.

It’s funny that Catra is unforgivable to the point of having to let her go and “live with her ‘choices’”, but Shadow Weaver can do what she wants without consequences, and no one discussed that in the fandom, as far as I saw.

On the other hand, Catra has wanted to interact with the witch solely because she needed guidance, since she had to manage a war being only a teenager, but she kept her arrested. Which, given how harmful SW is, is quite a reasonable boundary until you find a better way to handle her with safery. Still, all the blame of the world falls on her for having been mean to her former mother. Much better to always let her loose, like Adora did, right? I see.

You can say what you want, but Adora could have fought Glimmer to demand the which was actually better locked up, they are in a war, for god’s sake! It is so important for social movements to actually know how to war in order to win those waring them first, yet this so-called “social justice” cartoon is preaching as a value the worse war strategy possible. You do not let the former leader of your enemy loose in a room of your castel if you’re at war, no amount of “non-violent” value is gonna make this make sense. Because it’s the most illogical thing ever.

Adora is proving not to be trustable to Catra by guaranteeing the witch could pottentially go back to her, which she has proved many times to be very found of. Catra is seeing that Adora will always contribute to her suffering and never defend her. That’s what Catra realizes in the Crimson Waste after Adora says to her she’s living with Shadow Weaver. The feeling is like “it’s me or Adora, I need to act before Adora can control my life and I have no choice but to live in hiding”. She’s not wrong.

And what good did it do that Adora went to the Crimson Waste, really? Like, what was the point of the mission? Why was that narrative arc important to her? She was just driven by Shadow Weaver’s misguidance. She didn’t learned shit there. She should have learned stuff by talking to Razz and to the princesses about their history, you know. Prioritizing herself in the relationship she had with her friends, so that they helped her figure stuff out. But the narrative wants to mean it’s evil to put yourself first. It’s not, suggesting that is just denial. Why is Catra being the one accused of isolating herself, when she has great reasons not to trust anybody, while Adora is isolating herself in the same way, even though she has trustable friends? Who’s the wrong one there?

And don’t come with the talk Catra could have just lived in the Crimson Waste, she’s not safe there, it’s not a safe place for a teenager who doesn’t know shit about the world to handle without help (or two, if you count Scorpia). It’s absolutelly cruel to suggest that.

It wasn’t just that Adora left. That was actually never really the issue at all,” explained Stevenson. “It’s that for Catra, Adora was her number one priority. Their relationship was her number one priority. And for Adora, it wasn’t.”

It was. Adora run away from the important stuff in battles to focus on Catra. Even when Catra is not in battle, Adora’s thinking she will be there and that she will be terrible. Adora is always thinking about Catra in a bad light, as if Catra was only thinking of destroying her. Catra had other issues going on. She’s first trying to prevent her former mother from killing her, then she’s trying to prevent Hordak from killing her, then she’s trying to take away the territories from the princesses - rightfully, by the way, because the princesses abuse their power and use it to control Etheria at any cost, as seen by Glimmer in the 4th season, and as seen by the fact the princesses expect Adora to solve all their issues with security herself, as if Adora had to control everything for them with her divine powers. They continuous with this attitude until the 5th season, when Adora loses her sword and finally the princesses have to learn to get along and solve their own issues without her. Despite all the talk about magic friendship, the princesses of power only help each other in a meaningful way against the war in this last season, when Adora finally stops begging to serve them (even though what they were doing to her with these expecctations is still their fault, not hers). And Catra was there, trying to stop them and their toxidity all along. She was the one trying to do something useful. This idea Catra is just obcessed with Adora… like yeah, she is always very concerned with Adora, since the princess can’t stop stalking her, personally attacking and stigmatizing her. This is self defense. And it’s pure projection to suggest Catra is the obcessed one. Noelle you’re… lying to yourself.

Anyways, at the end, all Adora’s narrative arc always ends up in dead end. The sacred connections to the princesses was unproductive, her travel to the Crimson Waste was unproductive, literally everything she finds out about her story is an accident. And they’re blaming Catra for wanting to do something. It’s like they’re so afraid of telling this story that they are villanizing who wants it to happen.

[continuing the last comment] This backstory has made Catra one of the show’s most relatable characters, even though she’s a villain who keeps making bad decisions.

Catra is not relatable because she thinks she should be the priority of people’s life, she’s relatable because, unlike the protagonist, she has actual life problems and challenges like it was never shown on TV before. She is always being tortured, abused and, mainly, oppressed, she has no power what so ever and have to survive this reality. She loses faith in humanity and can get really dark because of it - as people do -, she makes messes because of it and have a hard time healing, even though she gets there, which feels empowering. This is just an ordinary narrative arc, nothing like “only making bad decisions”. You know what is not empowering? The comparations with her and bad people, like she was mean because of these difficulties. Her mistakes are not worse than the ones Adora makes out of trauma. Why is one the villain and the other, the good guy? I have said this in a thousen different times now, but this is discrimination against oppressed people, to call her a bad guy and elevate her to the same level of villains who have magic, body weapons and science on their side.

Also, she did not made bad choices. Not wanting to go into the unknown without protection like her attitude was in the frist season, taking seriously when powerful people threatened to kill her if she does not follow their orders like she did in the second season and not wanting to be in a land full of dangers having to intimidate everyone like she did in the third season, are not life mistakes. They are very healthy and helpful choices. You wasn’t able to sell the idea she was wrong to do so, because it’s a lie. It just made it seem unfair that she’s not the good girl.

Catra’s journey has involved realizing that “you are not always going to be the number one priority in the lives of the people that you love,” Stevenson said.

Catra was absolutelly right to demand stuff from Adora, who basically was running away from her own story. This is the biggest act of love you can do for someone, to stand up for them no matter what, even when they are confused. She did not have to learn how to give space to Adora, Catra knows how to take care of her own business and leave other alone, as she has done the whole series. More projection.

She’s also had to learn “that it is OK to ask for the things that you want, because people don’t always know. Her big, heroic moment in the final season is actually just being able to ask Adora to stay.”

Her big heroic act was to be resilient enough to continuous to do what she has always done, which is to ask Adora to be by her side. Even after Adora neglected her to her abusers to the point she was “raped by the pope” and she stoped believing she was worth of love. She didn’t had to learn that, she just had to not forget she knew that.

Adora’s journey has been about learning that being a hero is more complicated than the willingness to sacrifice yourself for the cause or for your friends.

“Putting the greater good at the top of your list is a good thing to do, but you still do have that responsibility to the individuals in your life who depend on you,” Stevenson said. “Your friends don’t want you to die and sacrifice yourself because they love you. They want you in their lives.”

Are you now suggesting her friends deppended on her? Because they didn’t. Why do you say that? I don’t understand that if it is about Glimmer and Bow, but if that is about Catra, yeah, Adora could have used her magic powers to fight against Catra’s abusers, so you can say Catra was dependent on her to do it and she didn’t. But Catra never directelly imposed Adora to go and do that because Adora could be feeling unprepared. That’s not something you impose on others if you’re a decent person. That’s why Catra tryed to handle what she could on her own in the secound season, before she could find some help. She didn’t want to demand help when people were not openly abled to help.

And this is related to the fact you believe there’s such a thing as heros, and is defending the hero idea. Also that you think there is such a thing as the greater good. Haven’t you learned anything watching Harry Potter? Seriouslly? Oh, wait. You’re probably calling J.K. R*wling a T*RF as you did with me, never mind (censored because my reach was canceled after I said JK’s name on the other account). No wonder you’re such a bully if you keep defending this idea. I won’t even respond, I will just quote Kiara again, ‘cause that’s too basic:

“we’re not here to save the world. we are here to empower ourselves and each other to embrace all of our divine missions here. and that collective effort changes our course rather than a single person taking the lead. […]

i’m not focused on being a hero because i’m self-aware. i’m aware of what my strengths and weaknesses are and radically accept them. that is how i can help and it’s the only way anyone else is going to be able to help. if people don’t start getting real with themselves about what they’re meant to do and not what they wanna impress people with, it’s going to be much harder. i’m focused on what i can do. i have surrendered. it’s not inaction. it’s strategy”.

Well, it was much harder to Adora, wan’t it? It could have been so much simpler if she just cared about herself. She only faced herself in the last secound, with Catra imploring her, as the sweet person she is, to please do stuff just so that people could live on earth to help each other and for nothing else. Funny that Adora is always trying to impress people being the cool She-ra and at the same time Noelle is like “She-ra is this uncomfortable cloth she had to wear”. Either it’s ok to live to impress other people, or it’s uncomfortable. This is cognitive dissonance. As Magdalen Berns used to say, if you have to think about what you’re doing, if you have to make an conscious effort, it’s not natural. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

During this final season, “They become good influences on each other,” Stevenson added. “Adora learns to be a little more selfish, while Catra learns to be good and to be selfless in the way that Adora is.”

Selflessness is such a sin. The fact Catra got selfless is more trauma inducing. Here’s more Kiara:

“virgo-pisces can represent the delusion that the idea of selflessness can become because to be selfless is to deny desire of the self in this physically embodied existence and to deny your humanity, to deny that you are an individual and that you are a Self. it is a complete act of dissociation from reality, where being of Self also means survival because it is also called SELF-preservation. to engage with delusional selflessness it is to project unrealistic expectations onto our world that we will never need something in return. that we can continuously give and give and give while also never asking for help to restore, rest, and be taken care of. it’s just not realistic to pretend we’re okay with being hollow. our resentment and bitterness prove that’s not true.“

Anyway, I hope both Catra and Adora can just become selfish.

I wish I didn’t love Catra that much not to get pissed with those interviews, but I will stop looking to articles like that now not to get the urge to respond. I have been away since Noelle pretty much confirmed my indignation trhough her actions against me on twitter, but this response was almost ready to publish in my drafts for a long time and I just wanted to go and put this out in the world once and for all, so here it is.

i have this dream that we would be able to take what we see in the media and make it our own, not to be so relyant on the vision of the creators and the industries. I don’t think it’s fine for modern society to keep mindlessly watching stuff without discussing it afterwards so that they can be a part of the construction of the narratives. But you see, it is really concerning not only that the creator of the one entirely lesbian show is playing so much mental gymnastics about her own creation to the point of contradicting herself, but that the whole crew, full of remarkfull writers and storytellers, are also doing it. No one said “oh, wait, this is confusing. We’re telling two opposite stories, one about two girls growing up and learning how to love each other, and the other about dissociating from yourself and mindlessly beating people without any connection or growth”. Like, if not even in the crew it is safe to discuss a narrative, the fandom will never be. That’s what i’m learning, even if I still like to see Catra and Catradora Fanart.

#shera fandom #spop meta #spop #spop fandom #adora x catra #catradora #catra shera #she ra catra #catra #adora shera #she ra #shera #shera adora #catra spop #meta #she ra and the princesses of power #she ra spop

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maychup · 5 years

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Part 1

“So, what’s this again?”

Glimmer eyed whatever Catra was holding; a fruit. The ex-horde soldier sniffed it, her tail twitching at the tip as she did so. It’s a wholesome sight. Like a child finding out the wonders of Etheria for the first time.

She picked the fruit from Catra’s hand and peeled off the skin. “We call them Oreng,” Glimmer finished and handed it back to Catra who gave it one more sniff. She cautiously glanced up at Glimmer, narrowing her eyes. Glimmer rolled hers. “Quit being a baby and try it.”

Catra snorted but obeyed. As soon as her fangs pierced the inner skin, Catra pulled back and frowned. “That tastes horrible,” she said.

Glimmer chuckled, taking the fruit away and eating it herself. She digs into the fruit basket and hands another one — a donana — to Catra.

“You have to peel the skin off,” Glimmer points out.

Catra stabs her nail right through it. “Like this?”

“No.”

“That’s how you peeled the oreng.”

“An oreng isn’t a donana.”

“This is annoying,” Catra handed her the donana with a growl.

Glimmer laughs and peels it for her. Catra tries it, and it seems like they found the right one. Catra‘s ears perk after the first bite.

Looks like donana’s the winner.

Glimmer watches her finish the whole fruit in seconds. She’s already digging for a new fruit by the time Catra started licking her nails clean.

It’s been a week since they returned from Horde Prime’s ship. They’ve been busy planning left and right; and Glimmer is in the middle of it all, figuring out what their next move should and shouldn’t be. They’re severly outnumbered. Severely outgunned. Severely out of their element.

Adora’s trying to figure out how to fix the problem on her own, and Glimmer had told her it’s better to work as a team rather than running off into the unknown.

Catra is still a ghost to most of everyone.

Scorpia started talking to her again, though she kept her distance more. Most likely to keep her heart safe. Entrapta, Frosta, and Mermista are still very wary. Hordak can’t even look at her. Perfuma seemed to like her, and Catra looked like she might dive into gardening. Bow is quite possibly the only one one starting to really warm up to her. And Adora—

Well, they talk on their own. Train on their own. Adora says they’re fine, and they’re trying to patch things up slowly but keep away from each other as well.

Catra doesn’t talk much about Adora.

How Catra is with Glimmer, though...

Glimmer wouldn’t call them ‘best’ friends. There was definitely something there, but friends didn’t fit it.

Glimmer found Catra’s favorite spot in the castle, and Glimmer would visit her from time to time to chat. On their free time, Glimmer would introduce Catra to Rebellion things. She can’t quite grasp the concept of ‘food’ just yet, but she’s getting the hang of it.

So far, though? Catra’s favorite is fish.

“Can you tell me more about the Horde?” Glimmer asked casually.

Catra paused, coiling her tail. “What, do you want my whole life story, sparkles?”

That’s another thing.

Catra’s usual spitfire is back.

“You wouldn’t tell me if I tried to torture it out of you,” Glimmer scoffed.

“You’re learning, your majesty,” A smile ghosted Catra’s lips. “Well, when I was a kid, Adora and I wouldn’t follow sleep curfew. I snuck her around the vents and we would stay out and watch the night guards do their thing. We’d prank them sometimes, but we were never caught.”

Glimmer hands her the next fruit. An Ebble. “You don’t have to peel this one.”

“Until one night,” Catra took a chomp out of the fruit, “Adora get stuck in the vent. I had to get Shadow Weaver for help and when we got her out, I got punished, but what else is new. She always hated me for some reason.”

Catra’s coice went low by the end there.

“Catra,” Glimmer said softly.

Catra waved her. “Adora told her that it wasn’t my fault, but she punished me anyway. So, there’s that.”

Glimmer sighs.

Catra’s trying to get into the habit of reminding herself on the little moments where Adora would help her. No matter how little Adora got involved, Catra tried to entwine her positively into her bad experiences.

It’s something her father — King Micah — encouraged Catra to start practicing. Apparently, he used to hold bad grudges on people who shouldn’t be blamed in the first place.

And he learned that from her mom...

Glimmer’s still upset about it. To this day, she’d find an image of her mom and feel a sense of denial, anger, sorrow, bargaining, before accepting that she can’t do anything about it.

She’s gone, and the woman responsible for it stood before Glimmer, living a decent life.

“What was growing up in a castle like for you?” Catra suddenly asked.

Glimmer laughed her thoughts away. “Absolutely boring. Mom was very protective of me so umm —“ her voice shook, and she could tell Catra picked up on it “—B-bow was the only friend I got so —“

“Look, if you want to talk about it —“

“No!” Glimmer said too forcefully. She gathers herself, and she tries again. “No. I’ve already yelled at you about it and punched you multiple times for it. I almost destroyed Etheria because of it, too. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“...You sound like you want to.”

“I don’t. I’d... there’s no point staying angry over it when all that’s ever done is bad.”

A silence passed them before Catra broke it.

“We should start a club,” Catra casually said. “Almost-Destroy-Etheria-Because-Emotions-Suck Club.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer shrugged, “I guess we both went a little crazy.”

“A little? You wound me.”

“Yeah, no, you went insane. Off the rails.. I mean, you sent Entrapta — Entrapta — to Beast Island?”

“We can invite Horde Prime to if we somehow switch him around —“

“If Shadow Weaver can’t join, then he can’t join.”

Catra chuckled. She shook her head, a full smile on her face but not quite a laugh. “We’ll get better,” she said more to herself than she did to Glimmer.

Glimmer watched as Catra’s eyes fall to her. She found comfort it in, as well as fear of uncertainty. Her eyes held a wordless promise, and she... could trust it.

With a bit more time, she could see herself trusting Catra.

Glimmer could only nod, handing her another fruit. Pumgranites. “We’ll get better.”

#glitra #she ra #kinda lowkey making this a thing #a little ooc but glitra needs soft #glimmer #catra #spop 4 #spop spoilers #she ra spoilers

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depressedandasian · 4 years

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The differences between Adora and Catra are easily separated into two motivating factors corresponding to one of the two characters: Adora was and is focused on the bigger picture and doing what is best for everyone overall. Catra is primarily concerned about the things that personally impact her, and usually the overlapping quality of immediate impact.

It goes beyond the usual titles of "selflessness" and "selfishness" despite their actions throughout seasons manifesting as examples of said qualities.

Their issues are not derived from naturally occuring personality traits and quirks but from survival strategies both picked up from enduring the childhoods they lived. Adora was raised to be a savior (sacrifice) by any means, and Catra was inadvertently conditioned to value close personal relationships above all else.

It's why Adora fits in so well with the rebellion and why Catra outright despises the idea of it. The rebellion gives Adora the same purpose the Horde did even if it's on an opposing side, it offers Catra nothing (on the surface).

If I'm reading Catra correctly, someone like her picks and chooses who she bonds with carefully, or at least is miserly with her affections. It takes a long time for her to allow for the level of vulnerability needed to even make friends let alone keep close intimate ones. She cannot so easily transpose her relatively isolated and laser-focused attraction to Adora (someone whom she has been possessive over since early childhood) onto a much larger group of people. Her wants and needs are more like really selective burrs that'll latch onto people in contrast to Adora's perpetual "Gotta do what I gotta do" blanketing mentality.

What I'm saying is: It's easier for Adora to switch tracks with her hero-complex ideals, than it is for Catra to make new friends.

MelinaPendulum's video on Catra brings up a great point about how she is someone who automatically believes that love is finite and not unconditional (despite all the evidence that her own love is indeed unconditional once you break through her thick outer layer). Catra also believes that because love is not something people can consistently give to others, she seems to view it as something that cannot be equally bestowed upon more than one or two people by a single individual. Maybe it's a result of living under the unfocused and uncaring guardianship of the Horde, and the very hostile wardship of Shadow Weaver, but Catra shows that time and time again she cannot handle the idea of Adora showing anyone else attention or affection. She also extends this to how she treats others: she cannot show warmth and affection to others when she is hyperfocusing on Adora at all times.

This is one of many traits she shares with Glimmer, the prejudicial assumption that the momentary loss of attention by a close friend is a signal for eventual abandonment. This is rooted in deep self-doubt of their own worth as individuals and people in regards to the value their friends place on them. However Bow is a much MUCH better influence than Shadow Weaver is, and Glimmer can actually talk to him whereas Catra is probably terrified of breaching the subject of her own feelings towards Shadow Weaver with Shadow Weaver. Something tells me SW wouldn't particularly care for Catra to go "Hey I want to talk about how your continued condescension, belittling, and physical attacks really burst my bubbles, can you spare some time?"

Glimmer and Catra both show signs of extreme abandonment issues which is fascinating seeing as how the two weren't technically abandoned by the main objects of their trauma.

Shadow Weaver's denial of affection towards Catra while directly piling on adoration for Adora caused this rift where Catra sees Adora as competition for Shadow Weaver's love, but also Shadow Weaver as competition for Adora's love. This is why her "Adora chose Shadow Weaver not me" is so poignant because it describes a breaking point where the percieved finite amount of love that exists among all three parties is now only being recieved between two of them.

And I am describing a non-defined nebulas form of love that can be molded into any form of love.

This all impacts Adora greatly as well, although we don't see the emotional turmoil existing within her as it does within Catra until perhaps the very very end when Adora is finally allowed to consider what she personally wants. Adora ultimately comprehends that love is infinite and everlasting primarily because despite all the bullshit Catra pulls she is still holds a deep and unshakable amount of love for her. And this is due to several reasons, many not even having to do with Shadow Weaver, Adora as a person is just a more outgoing and bubbly woman than Catra is. But Shadow Weaver's constantly and openly showing her approval for Adora in direct and purposeful contrast to her hatred of Catra absolutely allowed for Adora to eventually accept the love and admiration of the rebels (although season 5 throws some cold water onto the idea of this being wholly a good thing).

But don't get me wrong, I believe all three women love squally as strong as one another (even Shadow Weaver). In my view love isn't finite, but it can be applied in varying levels of intensity on openness. Catra learns from Shadow Weaver: favoritism and holding affection hostage as a bargaining chip. Adora doesn't learn how to love from Shadow Weaver but how to perceive love given to her (in the form of praise and expectation to preform a duty) and she never withholds and bestows love in varying amounts to others as she see fit.

This is ultimately where I both agree and disagree with Stevenson's description of Adora and Catra obtaining traits from one another. I don't think they incorporated unique elements of one another's psyches into their own, but better come to understand how to deal with their affections, they begin to process their relationship to the ones they love through healthier and more mature lenses. But they do it through learning from one another, it's more like normal human growth from experiencing another's existence. But I'm probably overthinking it.

I think what makes the ending beautiful (aside from the extremely powerful and well executed climax) is that Catra ultimately understands that Adora's love for the universe does not exclude her at all, instead it is a vital part of her love for Catra. The universe/world/reality as we know it and Catra are not on different plains of existence. But it's hard for Catra to realize that she part of the grand idea of the universe that Adora is willing to die for because she personally does not recognize herself as being part of anything but her own little world with just Adora. Catra's eventual come to Jesus moment where she stands firm behind Adora's decisions and puts herself in harms way so that the latter won't be alone is so powerful because it represent Catra now knowing that she IS part of something bigger, that Adora is fighting so hard to save the universe because without it there'd be no Catra, and that she is loved, and that there are more things to life than just clinging onto the fear of losing your socially isolated way of life.

#she ra #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #adora #shadow weaver #catra #i am so tired but these space Lesbians have got me thinking ok

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i-just-love-spop · 4 years

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Of babysitting and (potential) kitchen fires [Chapter two]

Chapter one

Summary: Bow is a great dad and also extremely tired, Catra is officially never getting used to teleporting (and in massive denial about why the cat connected to her feelings is nesting), and Glimmer and Bow have a lot of cuddling to make up for.

[Shameless post season five Adora and Catra both want kids but haven’t talked about it yet-fic that was supposed to be a one shot but isn’t anymore. Starring: the best friend squad, two Glow/Glimbow children, Melog, cuddling, a bit of angst and, of course, the best friend squad teasing each other.]

Disclaimer: This was originally posted on my Ao3, EleenaDume, which I would love to source, but tumblr is driving me insane and apparently one of the reasons why my posts might not show up in the tags could be external links, so I’m trying it again without the link. If you want to check if I’m really the same person, I’ve added this account to my list of other accounts on my Ao3-profile.

Angie was finally asleep, her tiny head of curly brown hair cuddled against her father‘s chest.

Bow was beyond exhausted, but he was happy.

She looked so cute when she was asleep.

...Admittedly, that wasn’t saying much because she was also very cute when she was awake. But he liked seeing her sleeping so peacefully.

His kids were incredible.

He would have been happy just hugging his wife and daughters until the end of time.

Speaking of his wife, he really, really hoped she would be back soon. She’d already been pretty tired before the meeting, and that had started hours ago.

Neither of them had been sleeping much these past weeks, but even though he did his best helping the Queen of Brightmoon with her royal duties, there were things she had to do that he couldn’t – Bow wasn’t a sorcerer, exactly, and Glimmer loved connecting with the people of her kingdom by teaching them magic –, and others that he could have helped her with, but that she didn’t let him do because she was stubborn.

She drove him insane sometimes... but on the other hand, he loved how determined and strong-willed she was, just as much as he loved how giddy with excitement she still got about the simplest of things, even after all this time.

Glimmer was amazing. Sure, she had her flaws – but really, who didn’t. There was nothing Bow would have changed about the woman he loved, even if he could have. And there was nothing better in the galaxy than for your wife to also be your best friend, Bow was certain of that.

He was still contemplating whether or not he should put Angie into her crib because even though he had just spend over an hour trying to get his daughter to sleep, there was a part of him that longed to keep her in his arms just a little longer...

He almost jumped when the entire remaining best friend squad suddenly popped up on the bed behind him completely out of nowhere.

Most of the time, he was used to it and wasn’t startled anymore – Glimmer had been teleporting everywhere from a very early age on, her randomly popping up out of literally nowhere wasn’t exactly new to him –, but he had been so lost in the moment that they had really, really startled him.

“You know, we could have just walked, Sparkles,” Catra groaned.

She had gotten used to a lot of the weirdness since she’d first befriended them, and even learned to enjoy a lot of the weirdness – Melog was amazing and had helped her heal a lot, and the food here was amazing, and she still didn’t know what the heck the waterfall in the room she shared with Adora was for if it wasn’t for showering, but it looked nice, so she wasn’t complaining – but the teleporting was the one thing she would probably never get used to.

It made her dizzy and kind of sick, and she was always completely disoriented after it, even when she knew where they were going and had been there before.

...alright, maybe Adora hugging her and rubbing her back to make her feel better afterwards did make it somewhat bearable, but that was the only thing she liked about it, and it wasn’t like she needed any excuses to touch her wife these days.

She still leaned into the movement, Adora lovingly drawing circles on her back until her queasiness subsided.

“...sorry, I just couldn’t wait to get to bed. It’s been a really long day, and now I just want to get some sleep.“

Glimmer smiled at her sympathetically, then just collapsed backwards onto the mattress.

“Angie is actually asleep for once, so go ahead and sleep, yeah? I can go get her later tonight if she wakes up. You look exhausted.”

Bow sat down next to his wife, gently running his fingers through her hair, still holding their daughter in this other arm.

Glimmer smiled softly, her eyes already halfway closed, then look his hand in hers, squeezing it lovingly.

“You’re incredible, but you need sleep just as much as I do. Luckily for us, Catradora offered to take care of Angie for tonight, so you can just hand her over, and then we can peacefully cuddle for the next five to seven hours, what do you say?”

Catra and Adora both still blushed furiously whenever someone called them that. Scorpia had used it once after seeing them together several years ago, and somehow it had stuck.

“I told you to stop calling us that,” Catra grumbled, head still cradled into Adora’s neck.

Glimmer just grinned.

“Never happening. You two are basically attached by the hip at this point.”

“I think someone is asking for some more of the PDA that annoys her so much the next time we go on a double date,” Adora said, winking, a smug grin spreading all over her face.

“Oh stars I love you so much.”

Catra kissed her wife lovingly, and this time Adora was neither pulling back nor complaining, so either she had decided that the glitter was worth it or the taste was gone. Not that it mattered. Catra was just happy about getting to kiss her again.

“Are you actually going to babysit or are you just going to stay on our bed making out all night? Because if it’s the latter I’d much prefer it if you could just take this back to your own room,” Glimmer commented, giggling wearily as she snuggled into her blanket.

“Yeah, sorry, you’re right, we- we’ll take her and let you two sleep,”

Adora said, once again speaking way too fast.

She gestured at Catra to take the baby, then picked up the crib.

Her wife was sure normal people didn’t just carry around cribs like that, but the child needed to sleep somewhere and it would definitely not be the pillow nest that Melog had built.

Catra kept on telling herself this was just because they missed having a family and wanted one, but at the same time, she knew that wasn’t it.

Of course Melog wanted to have a family, she knew that much from the talks they’d had with each other over the years... but she also knew that Melog knew it was pretty much impossible they ever would.

Which meant Melog nesting actually mirrored something else. Which definitely, definitely meant Catra had been spending too much time with Arrow.

She banned the thought all the way to the back of her head, still not exactly ready to face what she wanted because of all the potential grave mistakes and the memories that came along with it.

...Bow handing her the baby wasn’t exactly helping her forget, though.

He touched his daughter’s face tenderly one more time.

For now, Angie was doing a surprisingly good job at sleeping through their talking. Maybe Catra and Adora would have an easy night with her.

“You’re going to spend the night in your aunts’ room, alright? Your sister loves them, and I’m sure you’ll love them, too. You three haven’t exactly spent a lot of time alone with them yet, but you seem comfortable enough around them to sleep on their room tonight, alright? Mommy and I love you so much, and we‘ll miss you. I hate letting you out of my eyesight, especially now that you’re still so small, but your aunts are great and I would trust them with my life, so there’s no one else in the entire universe that I’d rather leave you with. And if anything goes wrong, mommy and I will be right here, okay?“ He messed up her curls a little when he stroked her head. “See you in the morning, baby girl.”

Glimmer was full on sobbing, damn it, she was too tired to be crying but Bow being so emotional over their kid made her heart melt into a puddle.

Adora had tears in her eyes as well.

Catra was too mesmerized by her niece snuggling into her chest to care about anything else.

“We’ll take good care of her, don’t worry.”

He nodded.

“I know you will. And... thank you.”

Adora smiled.

“Anytime.”

“I can’t believe Adora just kidnapped our bassinet,” Bow chuckled as the door closed behind their two best friends.

“Really? I absolutely can. I mean, this is Adora we’re talking about,” Glimmer commented, giggling.

The lights were off now, a calming dark surrounding them – not that it ever got entirely dark in here with the curtains not fully closed and the light of the moons and the stars shining through the window.

The stars... the thought never failed to amaze Glimmer. The thought that they were the first people on Etheria to see the stars in a thousand years was just... incredible.

“You... might have a point.”

He laughed as he sat down on the bed beside her, the soft mattress immediately giving in under his weight.

“Feels weird, doesn’t it? It’s only been a few weeks, but sleeping without her in the room already feels... off, somehow. It’s so quiet all of a sudden.”

“Yeah.” He laid down beside her, facing her, and took her hands in his. “I miss her.”

“No kidding. Did you have to make me cry?” She cuddled close to him. “I love you. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.” He smiled at her. “And now I believe we have a couple of weeks worth of sleep and cuddles to make up for.”

“Yeah. And maybe some... other stuff tomorrow, once I’ve slept properly.”

She gave him a quick kiss and smiled at him, clearly moments away from drifting into sleep.

He smiled.

“We’ll do whatever you want, love,“ he whispered, lovingly stroking her hair. “Now let’s get some sleep.”

“Can I be the little spoon tonight?”

“Of course, my Queen.”

He kissed her forehead and pulled her close as she turned her back to him, gently covering both of them with the soft blanket. Glimmer snuggled against him, her head resting against his neck.

She’d always been the most comfortable when she was close to him, although it had taken a while for her to entirely grasp what it was she was feeling.

And just like that, they fell asleep in each other’s arms, and finally got a decent night of sleep for the first time in weeks.

#catradora #glimbow #best friend squad #spop #catra #adora #glimmer #bow #my writing #my works #spop kids #spop arrow #kidfic #of babysitting and (potential) kitchen fires

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andhereisthetea · 4 years

Text

Just finished Season 3

I have been watching She-Ra for the past seven days non-spot and I just finished season 3 and...

god

dammit

I am just....

UGH.

I want to talk about a lot of things after this, but I know I can’t just sandwich them in this post. I watched all three seasons in less time than I should have, I feel so damn conflicted right now about certain things, even if I spoiled myself about it before.

I spoiled myself about the whole Entrapta and Hordak arc, I watched gifsets and I saw your beautiful fan arts both in tumblr and twitter, but watching it, like... really watching it, it’s a whole different thing and now I feel both sad but also relieved I’m watching this after the show ended because 1) I am sad I didn’t experience things at the same time the fandom and most Entrapdak shippers did BUT 2) this would have made a mess of me, I get affected very easily with things like what I watched.

Ok, I have some things to say about the three seasons:

First... Entrapta.

There are some things I find refreshing and others that I don’t, I am not going to point it out in this post, also I can’t expect a lot from a family show.

The thing is... I feel they should have made up a backstory for Entrapta.

I understand the lore and the plot Crew-Ra focused into, but also I knew the Lore before the creation of this show, I feel there should have been a better way to explore more characters from Masters of the Universe.

Think about the complete mystery she is.

We knows most of the characters’ backstories, at least the most complex and important ones, we knows for example that Mermisa got her ruined kingdom from her father who was killed in the first battle against the Horde. We knows basically all the story of Bow’s family, we knows about Glimmer, about Scorpia, about Perfuma’s kingdom, about even Adora, Catra who was an orphaned, and also about Shadow Weaver.

But Entrapta? she is a complete damn mystery.

She is the Princess of Dryl, she designed the Crypto Castle, a literal labyrinth without sense, she is obsessed with First One’s tech since who knows how long, she isn’t an elemental princess but she can move her hair as if it were extra limbs and evn fight with it as a weapon, something that no other specie in the whole planet of Etheria can do, she has an intelligence even bigger than Tony Stark, nobody even talks about what happened to her parents, NOBODY, like they didn’t even existed and she popped up from nowhere and created her robotic parents herself. And even if her seeking for data and more and more progress and tech can be seen as a clear symptom her Autism (like autistic people focusing so much in something they can’t do anything else, I have that) or the fact she is looking for something else but not even her know what the hell is...

She knows or is implicit that she knows about the language of the First Ones, she understand their technology better than anyone else, also, her kingdom is the most advanced, they are considered to be in the industrial era compared to other kingdoms controlled by the elemental princesses. Where did all that technology knowledge, and also First One’s knowledge, came from? I don't think that in 20 years since she had reason and enough skill to be able to learn by herself Dryl has built all that; Dryl's kingdom had been working that way since before she was even born, so who told her? who taught her?

In addition to the fact that she has access to mining in her kingdom where she has been able to find who knows how much of the first one’s technology... right under her feet. The sole fact they put someone so important for the plot as a princess who has no runestone is just mysterious, she used the Black Garnet even better than Shadow Weaver, I can completely see her or someone before her doing the same with her own Runestone (which I picture as an Amethist btw).

I think they chose to put Entrapta’s possibilities of a backstory aside because, after seeing how the character became increasingly important and popular, they realized that once they had started to create her backstory and origins, they wouldn’t have been able to stop, and the central plot wasn’t about her at all, and is very likely that whatever idea of backstory they had about her would have been focused in the central plot.

For example (and call me crazy, I don't care) if they had said that she was the granddaughter or daughter of Keldor AKA Skeletor, I would have totally believed it.

The thing with that is... even though they chose for her an Etheria region, which in the original Lore was unimportant, everything to do with Entrapta in She-Ra becomes important immediately, but ultimately it would have distracted them from the central plot with Adora as She-Ra, and Horde Prime, who is the main villain they choose for the show.

For now I just want to imagine what could have been if she had more protagonism and wasn’t only the geek princess, she has so much potential and I haven’t seen a character so refreshing like her in long time.

Okay, I want to talk about the seasons I just watched while the information is still fresh inside my head.

One of the main things that frustrated me about the final season is how Crew-Ra COMPLETELY NAILED IT in making me hate Catra. They didn’t make her sympathetic, she is toxic and most of the time she remembered me people who I had to avoid in my personal life, so the natural reaction to all her actions is to dislike her, that is exactly what Crew-Ra wanted for us to feel.

But in some point it got to the point that if you tell me the character was unpredictable, it lost it a bit in the final episodes, she started to become predictable in her actions because as an impulsive person constantly in denial over her emotions and projecting her problems over everyone else, it was obvious she was going to go through a destructive path wanting for everyone to die together with herself because it wouldn’t have seen less like a suicide.

And as a self-centered character with tunnel vision over her purpose and actions, she was going to completely underestimate Entrapta and wasn’t going to understand why Hordak found her interesting, she would attribute everything to power and fight for positions just like SW taught her, instead of something as pure as friendship, in fact she might have know it, but she didn’t want to admit it, because to know that someone as hateful and intimidating as Lord Hordak suddenly has someone who loves him beyond that is just too much for her, who doesn’t understand and is hurt by the fact that Adora doesn’t love her back, but doesn’t want to change one bit for fear to lost the life that ironically she hates so much without Adora in it.

So of course she was gonna electrocute Entrapta and send her to Beast Island, and her impulsive decision was made out of pure fear over what she did not only to Entrapta, but to Hordak himself and what he might do to her when he finds out what she did, and no matter how much she wants to hide behind a curtain of falsehood, is a matter of time he realizes Entrapta is nowhere in Etheria to be seen.

She is a character who does not measure her actions until the consequences are so horrible that she runs away, because reality is too painful for her to even accept what she has done, also she usually thinks that EVERYONE thinks just like her, every one of her speeches about fake friendship, power and winning is just about how she sees the world work from her perspective, she has zero notions over someone’s else vision of the world.

That's one of the biggest reasons why I liked Adora in the last episode of the third season; Catra made a decision, her desire to win basically led her to condemn Entrapta to death, almost destroy the planet and ultimately kill Angella or worse. I have seen posts about people saying that Catra hasn’t killed anyone directly, but I am sorry, she did this season, and she lied about it to everyone and to herself, but Adora knows better.

Now, Hordak

God how I start with this.

Hordak, opposite to the original Lore of Masters of the Universe, is right now basically an alien version of Lucifer from John Milton’s Paradise Lost but with God being fucking evil.

Just like Lucifer, he wants to replicate his creator’s creation on Etheria, choosing to rule in hell rather than heaven, but unlike Lucifer, he stills has a connection with his creator and just like Catra, wants to satify his wished to conquer Etheria all by himself.

But unlike Horde Prime, he is in fact a good leader, and a logical one. He appreciates when his soldiers thinks by themselves and achieves their goals, unlike Prime, and he in fact doesn’t accept empty adulation, if you are good at something, you have to prove it, not to him, but to yourself.

So I just love how with every season they are adding more complexity to his whole being, and now they have added the emotional factor with Entrapta’s friendship and ultimately “betrayal”, I want to watch how this at first glance stoic character loses the shit out of his stoicism, even if I already knows what is going to happen. The fact he already got affected by Catra’s lies over Entrapta betraying him proves how far he has gone since Entrapta came to his life, if he was just impressed by Entrapta or wanted to use her, that wouldn’t have affected him that much, he already feels something for her, but he struggles to know what it is, and even if he denies it due to what just happened, he is still feeling it.

Which makes the anticipation to the discovery of Catra’s lies so much more painful.

Also, the fact he believed Catra, just like that, made me feel disappointed, but that is based on the complexity of the character and his self-loathing, he feels he doesn’t deserves friendship nor love; he is a defective clone after all, in his own mind he is imperfect and she is the complete opposite of that, so believing it is easy, but that doesn’t make it less painful, and that is what I am sure Hordak will realize ultimately.

I don’t know how long will took me to watch the season 4, but I know is worth the effort if I want to see Entrapta and Hordak together again, I love them, they are pure brain and incredible refreshing to watch, and the affection they feel for each other is obvious, one of the most bittersweet scenes for me was when Entrapta remembered Hordak due to the trio saying his name, her suddenly quiet behavior and calmed and painful smiled was so unlikely of her that one has to admit something more is going on, also her choice of language, “I had a lab partner”, not “I have”, gives a sense of sadness to the whole scene that broke my damn heart.

I will tag you guys @cruelfeline @ineffablelabpartners @etherian-affairs because I want to know your opinions about this, I never thought Entrapdak was gonna affect me that way, in fact I never expected to ship them at all, but here we are, dying for them and I just can’t escape.

#season 3 #s3 #spop #shera #shera3 #entrapta #hordak #catra #meta #mypost #entrapdak

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theoriginaljock · 4 years

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Catra didn't wake up early.. she was exhausted , and didn't work this morning. But when she did, she slowly started to remember What happened the night , and the nap she had didn't heal in any way.

She stayed under the covers , not Daring to face the World. They would probably meet again, she would have to face Her eventually. She could maybe just ignore Her ? Like she told herself. Nothing happened. Denial was the easiest way to deal with all of this..and she did share something Big , very Big , with a girl she just met.

She eventually decided to get up , because she had to watch over the pool this Afternoon. Again.. but if was Her only shift of the day, so she just had to be lucky enough to not have the jock going to the swimming pool when she was. That would be... unfortunate. She didn't even bother to change the day before .

A shower, she needed a shower. She went to the bathroom and took a cold one , closing Her eyes and thinking everything through under the sound of the water hitting Her skin and the ground.

She got out , and tried to dry Her furr as best as she could, before putting on New clothes and checking on her phone .

That's when Her lips started shaking slightly, as well as Her hand . She laid Back in bed , Reading the messages over and over again. Why was she still trying. Why did she Care so Much... She couldn't answer. She didn't feel like it , not right now. Though she let out a whince on the mention of the sweater . She knew scorpia took it With Her to give it as soon as possible. She asked Her so.

She could have kept it... At least kept that. She didn't .

No one answered to the door when scorpia went to bring Back the sweater. And she had no clue on why she had to bring that Back , on why catra had it. But whatever it was , it made Her jealous.

Though, when she passed near the restaurant , she did spot the faces of the people from Yesterday. She had an Amazing memory , and that's why everyone liked her. She remembered every single person, and names, for the most part.

The tall scorpion walked over them , glancing over adora from head to toes. She knew it couldn't belong to the guy, catra would Never hang out and keep a Guy sweater.

She handed it to Her directly , frowning. She didn't like Her . Though, she quickly gave her a bright smile.

" Hey hum , I think it's yours. Catra asked me to bring it Back to you Yesterday." She cleared Her throat " you Know the lady with the cat ears, /my/ best Pal .. I Hope you didn't miss it too much. "

" Whatever you did , I'm keeping an eye on you ."

Scorpia was Always very protective without necesseraly knowing the context. But What she knew , was that catra was hurt. And if she was , whoever this woman is , is a Bad Guy to Her.

It was around 3 pm when catra sat down on a chair at the pool, wearing sunglasses to hide the enormous eyebags she had , and the overall tired face . She was staying in swimsuit , in case she had to jump in the pool .

She has been thinking about answering adora all the way , and she was still thinking about it. Only a week. Would she Spend that week ignoring a girl that seemed to Care ..or try to fight Her own pride. It was a very hard decision to make.

One was easy but she could regret it , the other was hard but...she could either regret it or have a great Time.

The plate in front of her didn’t seem as interesting or appetizing for the moment. Not even a small bite was allowed to fall into her empty stomach, ... was it due to the hangover? Or maybe because she felt rejected one more time..? A never ending feeling that was beating inside her stomach. Only to be aggravated by the newcomer that now stood rooted to her side on their lunch table.

The first to realize was Glimmer who had just sat down with a full plate of pancakes and some syrupy mix of strawberries and peaches. She arched a brow at the piece of garment the taller woman had in her hands. Yes, it was Adora’s sweater from last night.

Teal eyes looked sideways at her own sweater, an awful emptiness was building in her stomach, the little coffee she just had trying to push its way upwards into her throat.

Adora took the garment in her left hand and left it leaning against both her legs, not even considering in addressing the threat that was hidden in her honey like words. She was busy trying not to jump her and handling her ass back to her.

Glimmer sensed the whole charged atmosphere and decided to play along Scorpia’s speech “Thank you so much for your kindness. We were looking for it. Oh my.. how stupid of us leaving it behind...” she faked the most polite smile her features could muster, waiting for Scorpia to just retreat..

“What the hell, Adora?!” Glimmer kicked her shin underneath the table. “I thought you were hooking up with Mermista last night!” Adora gazed up from her plate, her look conveying nothing and everything about the night prior. Glimmer pointed nonchalantly towards the several bite marks she had across neck, arms and most probable torso too..

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Bow caught the blonde off guard by the side lines of the pool, tackling her from the waist and into the cold water.

“....dude! My shirt is ruined!” Her brows furrowed at Brow who kept this silly grin plastered on his face. She took the wet shirt off, tossing it outside to the grass, revealing a white and gold swimming top. She kept on the amber aviator glasses making her look even more attractive in the sunlight. The rays of light making her wet frame glisten against the water surface.

“Hey there’s Mermista and SeaHawk! Let’s play some battle games!” Bow’s hand raised up in the air before Adora could stop him “....dude this is awkward...” she stood there floating, plunging herself deeper into the water, trying to hide her face to no avail.

A smaller frame climbed behind Adora positioning herself on her shoulders, which Adora reciprocated by taking her full frame and just bringing her up, Glimmer’s legs dangling on both sides of Adora’s head. “Dude... I can see all your bite marks!.. rough night I bet” Adora sank her teeth into Glimmer’s exposed thigh, earning a small yelp from her “...shut it, not in the mood”

Bow took Mermista into his shoulders signaling for Adora to come closer and start the battle. “Hey, handsome.. thought you wanted me to ride you instead of Sparkles over there.” Luckily Adora’s sight was hidden behind her sunglasses, otherwise she could’ve seen how embarrassed she was, not to say a bit... annoyed.

Luckily somebody had captivated her full attention, a certain girl who seemed to be on Pool duty today.

“Just my luck...” the blonde thought as she began playing tug o war with her friends.

After a losing strike of 4-0 on Bow’s behalf. Adora took off to the shore, swimming with long fast strides towards Catra’s spot.

She folded her arms on top of the hot counter, “...Hey kitten...” her voice was trembling with nervousness and a hint of sadness. “.... Thanks for the sweater..” she sighed trying to act composed “...do you have any plans for the rest of the day” she didn’t want to take off her sunglasses, for they could reveal a very hurtful look behind those baby blue eyes of hers.

[tagging: @rp-blog-uh ]

#rp blog uh #/adora modern.#//CAMP AU

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takerfoxx · 5 years

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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Season 4, Episode 8, First Impressions!

Can’t they just have a good time for once?

So Boy’s Night Out is an episode that attracted my attention ever since it was announced. At first I was looking forward to the boys of the group going out to paint the town red in their solo episode (yes, even Swift Wind, because I do want to like him), but then I kept hearing rumblings that this episode might be a major game changer for the plot, so I figured that it would do the same as Princess Prom and drop a big twist that will kickstart the plot.

The truth turned out to be somewhere in between.

When we start out, things are just a mess. The Horde, having overrun the Salineas capital, is now trampling Bikini Bott-I MEAN the smaller settlements, and the princess squad is trying to at least evacuate everyone that they can. Unfortunately, though DT has been caught (and unfortunately is only referenced in this episode), the damage left in their wake has not been undone. Or maybe they aren’t really to blame for this. DT stirred the pot, sure, but the issues between Glimmer and Adora are of their own making, and are only getting worse. Plus, you know, Mermista’s kind of a self-pitying wreck due to her whole kingdom being conquered and her people slaughtered, captured, or at the very least driven from their homes, so that’s still a thing.

So can you really blame the boys for wanting to just take a break for one night? Go out, get some space between them and the drama (and bloodshed and horror), have some fun, mentally decompress and all that? And hey, Sea Hawk and Bow always make for a great comedic duo (even if Bow isn’t feeling it at first). And also Swift Wind’s there, because he is now designated as my official punching bag. So yeah.

Still, we actually only get on actual scene of the boys out on the town (accompanied by a catchy number) before we find out what this episode is really about: dissolving friendships, and how hard they are to repair.

The big one is Adora and Glimmer of course. I mean, Sea Hawk hatched his whole crazy “Let’s kidnap ourselves!” scheme to make them reconcile. But at the end of the day, it still didn’t address the underlying problems, and they remain estranged. You know, I’d say I’m not worried because it’s a kid show so of course they’ll reconcile, but this show has thrown curveballs at me before, so...

Another broken friendship that is addressed is Catra and Scorpia. And as it turns out, Catra still hasn’t noticed that Scorpia left! And she still expected Scorpia to just show up to hang out when Catra did feel like spending time with her. It just goes to show just how much Catra took her for granted. She never actually expected for Scorpia to be driven away by her mistreatment. No, the ever-loyal Scorpia was just going to take her punches and always be for her in the end!

Well, as it turns out, her toxic behavior has consequences, and Catra has finally realized that she managed to drive away the only person that has ever accepted her unconditionally. That look on her face as she reads Scorpia’s note says it all. Will Catra finally, finally, finally have an epiphany on how bad she’s gotten, or will she continue to live in denial and double down on her self-destructive course?

All signs point to the latter.

At the very least, Sea Hawk got Mermista to snap out of her funk. I mean, don’t get me wrong, her sobbing to herself in the bathtub while eating tub after tub of ice cream was totally justified, but she still had a duty to her people. You know, this show has never really made their relationship clear. Are they like actually dating? I mean, Sea Hawk swoons over her pretty constantly, and there was that, ahem, Tunnel of Love incident, but other times it seems that he just think that she’s really cool and wants to be her friend? Well, whatever, they’re together again, complete with a rock remix of Sea Hawk’s shanty, so at least someone had a happy ending.

All that being said, the part that really got to me was Bow’s little breakdown. He’s had to be the glue holding everything for so long, the Superego to Glimmer’s Id and Adora’s Ego. He’s had to be the peacemaker, the one working extra hard to help other people work out their problems, and that’s just so exhausting! So it was kind of wonderful that the show acknowledged this and showed how much being that kind of person really wears you down. So I don’t blame Bow for cracking, and I’m glad that they showed that.

Anyway, things feel like they’re going to really heat up soon, so here’s a few misc. moments that got a giggle out of me:

The songs in general.

All all sailors hate Sea Hawk because he burned their ships down too!

“Why do I hear the ocean?”

SEAGULLS!

As soon as I heard Admiral Scurvy’s name, I knew that he had to be a repurposed character from the original show. And I was right. And his old design...is kind of a lot.

Wow.

#she ra and the princesses of power #she ra #spop #bow #sea hawk #swift wind #adora #glimmer #mermista #catra #scorpia #reaction

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starlightinhumanform · 5 years

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The Art of Love: Chapter 8

Fandom: She Ra (2018)

Ship: Glimadora

Summary: Two sleep deprived gays in a room. Chaos ensues.

Warnings (for this chapter): Mild language, (please tell me if anything needs to be added)

Genre: High School AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Rivals/Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Fluff

A/N: This chapter is just a nice little break because I think we all need some crack fic after season 3. As always, there’s hella fluff just because... I like it. Anyways I decided to insert the headcannon that like me, Adora gets chattery and kinda loopy (read: flirty) when she’s tired. It was funny to me at least and it seemed to go along with Drunk Adora™️ All notes are so appreciated- especially reblogs!! I also love hearing what you think!! Love you all 🖤✨

Ao3 The Art of Love Masterpost Fic Masterpost Fic Request Info

They finished far sooner than Glimmer expected them to. At least finished as much as they could, leaving the freshly painted protons to be dealt with in the- well it already was morning- but later at least. Adora had wired the electrons’ form together with expert precision which had surprised Glimmer more than it should have; by now, she should have figured that Adora was basically an expert at everything. Well, almost everything. Apparently art wasn’t her strong suit because she had come spent most of her time threading the protons together multitasking by pausing to practically drool over Glimmer’s painting job.

In Adora’s defense, she was loopy- incredibly so. The lack of sleep had obviously caught up with her because she was acting ridiculous, all previously standard composure completely abandoned. She kept giggling at random things like her hair getting tangled in the wire (Glimmer had to help her untie it because Adora was far too enthusiastic about cutting her soft locks off). Worst of all, she kept leaning towards Glimmer, bumping her face against Glimmer’s shoulder, and cooing for god’s sake. She mumbled seemingly whatever came to mind and almost all it seemed to center around Glimmer. About her art, about her hair, about her eyes, about the posters on her walls. Once, she had leaned over, resting her weight on her elbow and just staring up at Glimmer from below. She hadn’t stopped until Glimmer had asked what was wrong.

“Nothing. You’re just really pretty.”

Oh.

Glimmer knew it was just the side effects of Adora’s exhaustion, that she wasn’t thinking her clear, logical thoughts she usually did and that she probably- no, definitely- didn’t actually mean it. That didn’t mean Glimmer didn’t squirm where she sat or that her throat didn’t make a strange gulping sound when she tried to swallow and that she didn’t blush deep red at Adora’s rain of compliments. Sometimes when Adora’s face found Glimmer’s shoulder she wouldn’t resist the urge to run her fingers through the blond hair and would let herself feel rewarded by Adora’s happy little hums. Her mind yelled at her to push Adora away but she was so close.

So Glimmer decided to let herself pretend- at least for now, at least for this half an hour while her overhead light meant her window was the only glowing window on her whole block. She could pretend that it was ok to like Adora and indulge herself in whatever the hell Adora was doing.

Despite Adora’s apparent drunkenness, she finished the part Glimmer had assigned her to aptly and faster than Glimmer would have guessed with all of Adora’s breaks to whisper into Glimmer’s side.

Adora placed the mildly dangerous looking piece of wire and clay down in front of her and plodded over to Glimmer comically on her hands and knees. She sat down with an oof behind her, stretching her arms loosely around Glimmer’s neck and placing her head on her shoulder.

Glimmer felt her body tense as she took a sharp inhale, “What are you doing?”

Adora started drawing away, “Oh sorry-“

“No it’s ok!” The words came out of Glimmer’s mouth so quickly she wasn’t even sure she had said them.

“Ok then,” Adora settled back into Glimmer’s back, as if it was more comfortable to be close than far apart. Glimmer let herself entertain the idea for just a moment before realizing it was ridiculous to think Adora would share Glimmer’s begrudgingly admitted feelings.

“But... what were you doing?” What the hell- she mights as well torture herself and entertain the notion, right?

“It’s just that this is how me and Cat hang out a lot.”

“Oh,” The timid little ball of warmth that had worked so hard to climb up Glimmer’s chest suddenly plummeted. Just the mention of Cat was enough to set Glimmer on edge, but the thought that Glimmer was just a temporary replacement, a stand-in for Cat? That was the poison her mind had been warning her about earlier, an insidious venom that made Glimmer sick to her stomach.

“I just assumed that’s how most friends act, ya know?” Adora continued on, completely unaware of Glimmer’s rushing thoughts only inches away. But hey at least she was trying to act like friends? The warmth began to rise again but it was sickly.

Glimmer huffed a laugh without actually laughing, “Why would you need to assume? You’ve got tons of friends.”

Adora shrugged, “I mean, I know a lot of people but I wouldn’t say I’m really close with any of them. Cat’s my only real friend.”

Adora’s voice was higher than usual and held an odd sing-song quality that made the whole, relatively serious conversation feel completely surreal.

“‘cept for you of course.”

“What?”

“You’re my friend too,” Glimmer could feel Adora’s smile on her neck as she spoke and Glimmer was worried she going to start glowing.

“Well that’s one good thing isn’t it?” Glimmer was smiling too now.

At some point Adora made the decision that the correct place for her head was in Glimmer’s lap, settling her face into the softness of Glimmer’s thigh. She looked up with quickly drooping eyes as Glimmer’s hands and paintbrush worked above her. Apparently she didn’t notice Glimmer’s pounding heart or screaming brain because she fell asleep quickly.

Glimmer stuttered through her remaining work because she kept gazing down at Adora, trying to comprehend how this had happened. Less than a week ago she had hated Adora- or at least thought she did- now, she was sitting with the girl curled in her lap like a snuggly cat and a throbbing crushing in her chest. It was too much for head to wrap itself around; especially if part of her mind was still in vicious denial.

Glimmer tried to sort through her options, sifting them through a mental filing system. She could try to be friends with Adora but that would risk her crush growing and that would be painful because obviously Adora would never return the favor. There was also the fact that Adora would probably get tired of her quickly and then that would really hurt and even if she didn’t, Cat held herself far above Glimmer and would never tolerate being around her so then Adora would have to choose between one of them and of course she would choose the friend she’d had for literally her entire life. Ok so what’s the alternative? Stop hanging out with her, push her away as far as possible. Her brain had an immediate answer, but it wasn’t without consequences either. Namely, it might hurt Adora’s feelings and Glimmer wasn’t sure she could stand to see sadness in those big blue eyes- especially if she knew she had caused it. And... Glimmer couldn’t bet on her crush wearing off just because she distanced herself from Adora. Now that Glimmer had ripped the top of Pandora’s Box off, there was no guarantee the flood of emotions that drenched her every time she looked at Adora would stop any time soon.

Glimmer finished painting and sighed, letting herself relax for the first time since Adora had texted her the evening before. She set down her brush and the last “proton.” There was nothing she could do until they dried and she let her shoulders slump forward. Glimmer could feel the exhaustion running through her very bones. She hadn’t pulled a night like this in a long time and it was definitely catching up with her. Her eyelids felt almost as heavy as Adora’s head in her lap. Adora.

She let her smile creep towards fondness as she looked down at Adora. She was too tired to listen to her stupid, crazy brain and anyways, even her thoughts were starting to get sluggish. It gave Glimmer the time to think- actually think- without having to compete with her own input. Adora looked peaceful but very very human. She struck Glimmer as perfect but somehow she had never seen someone look more real than Adora did in that moment. She looked absolutely and, with out a doubt, perfectly sincere- ah, so that’s the word she had been looking for.

Glimmer smiled as she slumped forward.

———————————————————————

When she woke up, she was hunched over Adora exactly where she had passed out. She couldn’t have fallen asleep for more than half an hour but it was long enough to develop one hell of a crick in her neck.

Her eyesight was nearly as blurry as her thoughts but she was aware of two things, the first being that the darkness outside her window had become marginally lighter and was beginning to shift from pure obsidian blue to gray. The other thing she knew was that there was something solid and yellow lying across her lap. Oh, it’s Adora.

Shit, ADORA. It suddenly hit Glimmer that it was morning and her mom would be here any minute and Adora was not only here but sound asleep and Glimmer had no idea how she was going to get her out of the house. Glimmer’s mom had made the habit of checking on Glimmer to make sure she made it to bed at least once in a night while she stayed up until her-mother-didn’t-want-to-know when. She would not be incredibly enthused to find her daughter curled on the floor with some strange girl that she had no idea about. But it wasn’t like Glimmer could throw Adora out onto the streets in a not so great part of town at 4:30 in the morning. Hell, she wasn’t even sure she could wake Adora.

“Adora, Adora, hey Adora. Wake up,” She shook the girl’s shoulders without being rewarded with any sort of response, “Adora!!”

The girl was completely gone and the only signs she showed of being effected at all by Glimmer’s continuous movement was the occasional noise. She might as well have been a large rock for as responsive as she was being. At least a rock wouldn’t piss Glimmer’s mom off so much, though.

Glimmer gave up, huffing and letting her hands fall to her sides. She stood up slowly and carefully so that Adora’s head didn’t roll off her lap with the inevitable clunk that comes with someone’s head hitting the floor (Glimmer knew about this sound because she had experienced it herself multiple times). She sighed through her nose and with her hands on her hips she realized how much she must look like some parent looking at their unruly child and saying “Now what am I going to do with you?” Gross.

Glimmer flopped the palms of her hands against her thighs for a moment before resolving to physically move Adora. She bent down, hooked her arms under Adora’s armpits, and lugged her own body upwards, hoping Adora’s form would move with her. Unfortunately, Glimmer soon found that Adora was roughly as heavy as a large rock as well. Maybe even a small boulder. Either that or Glimmer was somewhat weak. She shook her head- nah that couldn’t be it.

She tried a different approach this time, keeping her knees bent and tugging Adora as she scooted backwards in baby steps. She was able to swivel Adora so her feet were facing the door and her head was towards Glimmer’s bed. It was at this point that Glimmer realized there was a maze of wire and clay and whatever else she had piled up between them and the other side of the room; there was no way she was going to be able to navigate all that.

Glimmer groaned with her head thrown back before placing Adora back down as gently as she could and wincing when the girl slipped out of her arms a little too quickly. Ah, there’s the clunk. Glimmer was almost sure Adora would wake up as her head made contacted with the floor. When she made no movement whatsoever, it flashed across Glimmer’s mind that maybe the impact was enough to actually knock her out.

She pushed the thought aside and began moving the materials out of the way. It took at least ten minutes for Glimmer to reach the bed and in that time period she wasn’t able to figure out anything that resembled the next step. She had already found that she couldn’t lift Adora and even if she could, her mother would be even less happy with finding Glimmer in bed with some random girl.

Glimmer set Adora back down, placing the girl’s back against the mattress side. The only thing she could think of doing was attempting to wake Adora again. This time her rough shakes were successful and Adora sat up only slightly straighter than the position Glimmer had slumped her in. Adora turned her head as she looked around the room with bleary eyes as if she didn’t know where she was.

“Adora, thank god you’re alive- I mean awake. Look, I need you to hide,” Glimmer was whispering just in case her mom was home early by some odd twist of fate.

“Ooo ok,” Adora struggled to her feet, using one of Glimmer’s arms as an anchor to haul herself up. She began walking unsteadily to some unknown location in Glimmer’s room.

“Where the hell are you going?!”

“Hiding,” Adora twisted rather floppily to give Glimmer a conspiratorial wink.

She made her way to Glimmer’s closet, pulling open one of the paneled doors and slipping inside.

“Adora!” Glimmer hissed, “Come out of the closet!”

“Ok, I’m a lesbian,” Adora stage whispered from behind the door.

Glimmer couldn’t stop herself but laugh, hiding her face behind her hands, “Oh my god, you’re an idiot. Get out of there.”

Adora stuck her head out, grinning and Glimmer grabbed her wrist to pull the rest of her out into the room. It was strange how natural it felt- to interact with Adora, to grab her hand and laugh at her and with her and it was all very new but it was all very right. Once again, it struck Glimmer how quickly things had changed.

Adora clambered out of the closet and grinned at Glimmer, “So what’s up?”

“Oh, uh,” Glimmer ran her hands through her hair, “sometimes my mom will check on me and I think she’ll be pissed if she finds me sleeping with some strange girl.”

It took a second for what had come out of Glimmer’s mouth to second to sink into her brain, “Not like, ya know, sleeping together- we just both happened to be asleep. Together. Not even that close. Just like in the same room.”

Adora wrinkled her eyebrows, “Didn’t I fall asleep basically in your lap?”

Shit she remembers that?

“Oh yeah- ha- guess you did,” Glimmer tried for a smile.

Adora returned it with a genuine one, full of smugness that made the blood rush to Glimmer’s face, “So we were pretty close?”

“Uh, yeah, that it pretty close again,” Glimmer prayed that her blush wasn’t showing through, “I mean- um, I guess we were pretty close, yeah?”

Adora was stepping forward, laughing like a chime on the wind, “Is that a question?”

“I don’t think so...”

“You don’t sound so sure,” Adora was right in front of her now, smile close-lipped but still as playful and bright as ever. She swung her arms around Glimmer, clasping her hands behind Glimmer’s neck. Oh no no no no no no.

Glimmer was a gay disaster and her thundering heart couldn’t handle this shit. She wondered vaguely if she could die from- well she didn’t know what this was, but it sure felt deadly. It suddenly struck Glimmer that Adora was flirting with her, causing her to stare up at Adora with eyes filled with more terror than what was usually associated with someone attractive flirting with you.

Adora laughed and replaced her hands by her side before Glimmer’s mind could dissolve further into a tangle of short circuiting wires. Glimmer let out a sigh of relief but her heart sunk fast enough to make a splashing wave in her stomach. Adora’s hands were warm; warm enough to spread heat straight through Glimmer’s core. She looked up into Adora’s blue eyes, searching for answers in the mirth that swam there.

“Glimmer? Glimmer?” Adora’s face came back into focus wearing a grin, “You kinda spaced out there.”

Glimmer wished she could just stare into that blue forever without having to worry about anything else. But Adora was staring at her with a quirked eyebrow and confused smile, “Yeah sorry, just a bit out of it.”

Adora tilted her head to the side and let the ghost of her finger tips run along the side of Glimmer’s face. It made a shiver run down her spine and the breath in her throat glitch to a stop. This girl needed to stop before Glimmer just completely lost control of all her functions, “Well I’ve gotten a lot more sleep than you; you should let yourself rest until we need to get up in the morning.”

“Yeah, uh, about that; how are you getting to school?” Glimmer breathed out the words but it still didn’t feel like her lungs were working.

“Cat’ll pick me up in the morning. She always does.”

“Oh, uh, right,” Cat. Jeez, it was always Cat wasn’t it? She had gotten so worried about blocking herself from Adora that she had forgotten that Cat would actually keep Adora from her- physically.

“Don’t worry about me, though,” Adora’s grin beamed through Glimmer’s thoughts.

“I’m sorry, what?” Damn, am I being that obvious? Glimmer shook her head slightly, hoping it could sort everything in her head to an easy little set of boxes that she had never been actually able to create, “Why would I worry about you? Like, heh, what would give you the impression that I was worried about you? I’m not worried about you!”

Adora’s face fell immediately and the small expression made something twist in Glimmer’s gut. It was nothing like the smug, (dare Glimmer hazard it) flirty smile she had held on seconds before, “Oh, uh, you seemed to get really worried when I said that and I just thought maybe it was because I’ll have to walk a ways to where I get picked up but I was wrong and I shouldn’t have just assumed that you’d be thinking about me. It was stupid-“

“No! It’s not that it’s just-“ Glimmer couldn’t stand the way Adora had turned her head to the side, eyes downcast and only daring to make eye contact for a second before breaking it off to examine the floor. Nah, it was Glimmer’s job to be an insecure loser.

“It’s just what?” Adora’s eyes flashed up and help steady with Glimmer’s for longer. There was that sadness in them that made Glimmer’s heart crumple like a soda can.

Glimmer deflated. She wasn’t ready to let Adora only to be told she was reading into everything way too far; she wasn’t ready to get hurt, “It’s nothing.”

Adora managed to complete her transformation into kicked puppy, forcing a sigh out of Glimmer.

She composed herself. She could lie, she did it all the time- Adora was no different. Except she was different. Glimmer pushed the thought to the side and straightened like an actor preparing to step on stage, “I wasn’t worried about you because you can obviously take care of yourself so I have complete confidence in you.”

The effect was immediate, Adora’s face brightening like the sun breaking through clouds after a rain storm, “Oh, really?”

Glimmer raised her hand to cross a X across her chest and she was reminded of just how close they were, how little space there was between. But she had to continue, finish the act- for Adora and herself, “Yeah, really!”

It occurred to Glimmer that she was more or less doing exactly what she had accused Adora of. Just another thought for Glimmer to shoosh to the side, whispering that she had good intentions while she had thought Adora was just trying to recruit her... or whatever she had thought. It all seemed very far away now.

“Oh... ok,” Adora smiled and Glimmer could swear a lead jacket had fallen off her shoulders.

“So anyways,” Adora yawned, sentence broken by her never satisfied exhaustion, “What are we going to do about your mom or whatever? Do you, uh, do you want me to hide somewhere.”

She grimaced, glancing back at the closet she had climbed out of and Glimmer couldn’t stop herself from laughing, “I’m not going to force you sleep in the closet.”

Adora giggled, “Good- I’ve spent enough time in there.”

Glimmer laughed again before chewing her bottom lip and scratching the back of her head. She dragged the short, thick waves through her fingers as she spoke, “I think we could just share the bed again.”

“Won’t your mom see me?”

“If you take the wall side, I think it’ll be ok; she doesn’t really look too hard,” Glimmer set all her previous concerns aside to create new, fresher worries, her face scrunched up in thought. She had a lot to consider- mainly the fact that she and Adora had a tendency to get wrapped up in each other when they slept near each other and she wasn’t confident her pinning heart and divided mind could handle the inevitable situation. She wasn’t sure if she could stand to wrap her arms around this girl knowing she was never going to be able to do it again.

But Adora was already shuffling forward, Glimmer’s wrist held loosely in her curled fingers and Glimmer’s heart grasped firmly in her casual movements. Glimmer had noticed before the hypnotizing qualities of Adora’s signature ponytail that she wore to school everyday; she had never given herself the time to let herself wonder why she was so fascinated. Here though, she couldn’t help it. Adora moved like someone who knew exactly what they were doing- despite they fact that they were somewhat drunk. Her torso swayed from side to side far more than it usually did or probably should. It caused her loose hair to shift across her back like sand move from dune to dune.

Adora turned with a confused grin to face Glimmer and gave the wrist she was holding a small tug, “You planning on just standing there?”

“What?” Glimmer realized her feet had forgotten to move. She considered taking a step forward but wasn’t prepared to stand practically nose to nose with Adora- again.

“It’s like you never want to sleep,” Adora’s smile was real but so was the question beneath it.

“Oh, uh, I guess it’s just I’m not used to sharing a bed with someone,” It wasn’t really a lie. It’s not that I don’t want to sleep; I just don’t want to do it next to you.

Adora tilted her head the side, “You don’t like being in bed with someone?”

What sort of question is that?? Glimmer took the easy route, shrugging and hoping it was enough to throw the conversation back to Adora’s side.

Adora seemed to be thinking, eyes staring at something far away and a few inches left of Glimmer’s head. She was rubbing the pad of her thumb along where she was still holding Glimmer’s wrist, completing a semicircle from the soft inner side and back up to the top and back down again. Once, twice, three times, four. Glimmer knew it was just a compulsion as Adora thought, but the gentleness made her breath go feathery.

Finally Adora shared her grand conclusion, stopping the movement of her thumb- but not before Glimmer’s knees had given her an arched eyebrow sort of warning like Ya know you can’t handle this sorta shit and we might give out soon, “I like sleeping next to someone; it’s just cozier.”

Adora wrote off her words with a shrug but Glimmer could tell she really meant it, that she felt safer with someone sleeping by her side. It wasn’t Glimmer’s thing, but Adora obviously felt that way with her whole being.

“Ok,” Glimmer wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to say, “well, we should probably go to sleep if we want to be awake for any of our classes.”

Adora snorted and began moving again, Glimmer actually following this time, “God, don’t remind me of that. I am going to look dead tomorrow or actually today haha.”

Adora’s laugh was bitterly fake and it made Glimmer cringe internally, “Yeah I’m sorry about that.”

The girl had already thrown herself onto the bed, back to the wall and face turned up to look at Glimmer who was still standing. She looked confused again, with just a hint of incredulity, “Why would you be sorry? It’s Weaver’s stupid fault that we needed to stay up until god knows when to work on this stupid project.”

Glimmer laid down as Adora continued ranting, resting on her hip so she could watch Adora as she spoke.

“I just hate teachers who assume we don’t have any other classes or homework or- dare we even mention it- lives outside of school?!” Adora’s tone had risen while the volume had stayed the same.

She was quietly hissing her words out, spitting venom at the whole of the American education system, but her wide eyes stared at Glimmer with out any kind of ill will, simply looking for agreement.

Glimmer wanted to just give in, tell Adora that she was absolutely right (that wouldn’t be a lie) and she could listen to her rant for hours (also not a lie). She liked the passion sparking off Adora; she was always so contained and proper that this enraged, adorable fireball excited Glimmer. Because Glimmer could work with that; Glimmer knew fire- she felt it everyday. But they both needed sleep and especially Adora, “You’re completely right and you should say it... just not right now. ‘Cause if you keep whisper yelling, neither of us are going to be able to get any more rest.”

Adora nodded, looking disappointed but conceding to Glimmer’s point, “Yeah, ok, you’re right. But we’ll have to take a rain check on this- I have whole essays about that shit.”

Glimmer huffed through her nose, “Of course you do; and you probably wrote them for fun.”

Adora lifted one shoulder, “Can’t deny that.”

“Well you can tell me about it some other time.”

“I’ll just start yelling at you from across the halls,” She grinned brightly and gave a playful wink, “I’m sure that’s exactly what you would want me to do.”

She plans on talking to me at school... Butterflies were hosting a full on rave in Glimmer’s stomach. And that wink; she was actually going to kill Glimmer.

“Anyways, what time are you planning on getting up?”

Glimmer tried to shake off her blush without success, “Oh, we shouldn’t sleep in too long because my mom usually comes into my room in the morning to physically drag me out of bed.”

Adora laughed and Glimmer continued on, “Anyways, what time were you thinking about?”

Adora quirked her mouth to the side for a second to think, “Would six be ok?”

Glimmer checked her phone and set an alarm, “Sure, that’d give us a whole two hours and twenty minutes.”

Glimmer had spoken with a sarcastic tone but Adora nodded and seemed to get ready to fall asleep. She snuggled her side into the mattress, curling inwards but scooting towards Glimmer. Within a few seconds her breathing had fallen into a steady rhythm.

So Glimmer had no idea if Adora was actually aware of her actions when she reached out, placing her arm across Glimmer’s and pressing her hand into Glimmer’s back. It forced Glimmer to curl herself closer to Adora, but there was no force in it; Glimmer had melted at her touch.

She fell asleep counting Adora’s freckles.

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