#and hes like there is no us there is no we.... we dont have conflict bc idc bro.... why r u so upset whats up...

[grahstumhurts]

3. "The Cutest pair"

Cheerleader!Megan x Loser Band member! Reader

A/N - Lowk "the cutest pair" by Regina song vibes but not exactly.

Wednesday comes fast, One moment you're hanging out at Megan's house, The other you're suddenly at a cheer practice which you never saw yourself at till you reconciled with Megan.  You're sitting on the bleachers, Megan’s letterman laid over your shoulders as you scroll on your phone. It feels performative, While on one hand for years and years you only pined for her. But now that you have her, Kind of, it's conflicting. It's not real, But damn do you wish it was. You hope part of her, wishes it’s real too.

“Hey” Megan yells from the grassy field, Giving you her signature puppy eyed smile. It melts a cold spot of resentment in your heart. “Come down, we are gonna go get food.” She blows you a kiss, Her friends giggle at her antics as they collect their things. You race down the steps into her wide open arms. Her scent lingering with her perfume and now combined with sweat.

“Hi, Megs” You kiss her sweaty cheek. “Gross your all sweaty, Go change.” 

“What? you don't like it?” She rubs her arms on you, Her friends whisper from the side, glancing between the two of you.

“What so you two are like, Actually dating?” Her friend Anya waves her finger around, gesturing at you.

“I thought I told you I was seeing Yn?” Megan slips her arms off your shoulders, Looking confused.

“I thought that it was just for us to stop setting you up with Greg. He really likes you,” Another one, whose name you don't know, comments.

“Just because Greg is Quinn’s brother doesn't mean I'm going to like him. He's clapped if anything, and not my type.” Megan sighs, rubbing her forehead in distress.

“Plus I am very happy with my current situation right now.” she wraps an arm around your waist to pull you into a side hug.

“I'm gonna head home, i'll talk to you guys later” She collects the last of her things and shoves them into her duffle bag, You follow behind her closely. As you pass her “So-Called” friends, you glare at them on your way out.

“Your strong for that, you know?” You bump shoulders with her while walking to your car, she leans against the hood. 

“You wanna come over to mine or just go to your house?” You grasp her hand into yours, rubbing your thumb in between the ridge between her forefinger and thumb, Trying to soothe some of her nerves. 

“I dont wanna go home just yet,” She looks down at her feet, her bags next to her shoes.

“So?” You question the meaning behind that.

“Honestly just wanna be somewhere with you,”

“Oh,” She fidgets with her fingers,

“Unless you have somewhere to be tonight, Totally fine if you do.” She gives you a grin to hide some of the hurt from this afternoon.

“I don't,” You pause. Thinking about things to do, for just the two of you. “Why don't we go to my house, Pick up some food and go for a picnic tonight?”

“Really?” The thought of being alone with her, at the park, on a blanket, Just looking at the stars. It doesn't frighten you somehow. As much as it seemed like dating her would be a dream when you had a crush on her, its not as scary as you made it out to be previously. You two hop in the car and head off to your house,

“You wanna make a pit stop at the grocery store for some snacks?” You grip the wheel with one hand, The other holding hers. She nods,

“I wanna get some Fox’s Jam’n cream, They are so good.” You chuckle at her, "I've been so obsessed with them recently"

“Well let's not get too excited, This grocery store is kinda limited at times.” You pull into the store parking lot. 

-

“Ohhh! I used to eat these all the time after school as a kid” You pull out one of your favourite snacks, A packet of seaweed rice crackers (A/N Yes those are actually my favourites)

“I remember, You would never share with me.” She snickers, Remembering the times as kids you two shared. “I used to get so mad cause i shared my snacks with you”

“Fair enough, Kid me was kind of a bitch.”

“Kind of? Understatement” Megan coughs out the other half of her sentence. You shove her shoulder, giggling.

“Your laughs really pretty” She blurts out. When she realises what she says her face turns red.

“Thanks, Meg.” Your face feels hot when her words settle in your brain.

 She thinks your laugh is pretty. 

Your laugh is pretty. 

Is pretty. 

Pretty. 

You two silently shove more snacks into the cart, adding in some drinks along the way. The silence isn't uncomfortable, Like it used to be. But usually before she would fill the gaps in conversation with funny thoughts that pop in her mind. It's more relaxed, one could say that the two of you look like you’ve been dating for years. The silence is warm and it smells of citrus and vanilla.

(A/n if your perfume is vanilla scented just pretend that its whatever your scent is)

[extravagav]

Yk I never did truly recover from the sick fic chapter

[lemongogo]

more

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[every-sanji]

[vaxxildamn]

very happy Matt decided to clarify his stance on the genocide of the Palestinian people rn. Pretty unhappy with the way he worded it, who he centered in his video, and disappointed to see the responses to it on Twitter.

kinda scared to even post about it bc CR fans can get so defensive about their favorite white people that they can often leave little room for criticism or nuance. but man I have thoughts.

[felikatze]

choi han..... my guy choi han....

i'm experiencing emotions as i have reread ch326 so. i'm going to put them down <3 the feli special

i'm noticing way more as i reread the general theme across a lot of tcf's characters of like. Suffering Doesn't Make You Stronger. And if you only see a way out by hurting yourself, don't.

I'm thinking abt like. Okay so the scene i reread was Choi Han battling Adin and changing his attribute. This arc for Choi Han is Interesting because it correctly points out that Choi Han hasn't like. gotten stronger really. He's still strong! But the powerscaling is starting to catch up. (i.e. Raon directly saying that Mary is stronger than Choi Han how.)

Esp with like. Choi Han's strength is referred to as despair. That's his attribute. That's his thing. The loneliness and isolation and the harshness he experienced in the forest of darkness is what gave him strength.

But then you have moments like... Cale telling Raon that true strength is survival. In running away to fight another day. And so, instead of throwing himself into a hopeless clash with his future self, Raon passes his trial by being a coward and running. Beating himself up doesn't make him stronger.

And the other example I think of is Lock. And it's said that, the wolves gain power through loneliness. But that isn't right! Being alone didn't help Lock at all! Only once he's back with everyone... He gains new strength and conviction by having something to protect.

If Choi Han could only get stronger through despair... then of course he's stuck! He has so many people who stand by him! He finally has a home again! How would he ever feel such despair again?

it's like. wuh. Like all these characters needed to throw away the preconceived notion of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." The despair of the past is always going to stay with him, but that's not all he is anymore! He has hope and happiness, too! That's something to fight for, too!

Thinks abt how Raon's attribute is just. The Present. because none of the characters are just their traumas. They get to Heal.

ok. man. can anybody hear me.

[anaesthesia-why]

question to radfems who play project sekai: what is your analysis on mizuki?

My take is going to be very "on the surface" as I tried to play the game twice (bc there are a lot of cool songs (vocaloid and not) incl 2 by mafu) but just don't like the gameplay mainly for the upward flick notes and I don't follow stories of the games I don't play so I skimmed the wiki for cards and some quick info. So (using sex-based pronouns for the character Mizuki here):

Mizuki is a crossdressing male, voiced by an actual female actress. His gender is stated to be unknown, the character himself uses "boku" which is used by males and tomboyish females, the game either avoids using pronouns or uses "kare" which is "he" but I see people say is also used gender-neutrally for "they" (male pronoun is used as gender neutral, who's surprised? Not me), eng version uses "they", the playable characters who didn't know him before he grew out his hair and started dressing in feminine clothing sometimes use "she". He is and was bullied in school for liking cute things, was/is still(?) depressed bc of it (even wanted to commit suicide), mostly skips school but not so much he'll be made to repeat a year. Good at altering/making(?) clothes and making music videos. And well the being bullied/depressed can be easily sympathised with, and his talents appreciated. Worth noting that being bullied for liking cute things bc they're "for girls" is a strictly male experience (but idk the details and can say that if a girl is bullied for that (if by other girls I mean) it usually goes w it being her hyperfixation if she's autistic, if by boys it's bc they just bully just bc.). However, the way the character is coping is... not really cool. He engages in consumerism and recreating his idea of "cute" with wearing dresses, thighhighs and heels(?)/feminine shoes and using infantile (yes mainstream cute in jp really is that) poses and face expressions such as : ○, : ↿, : - and :p and "foxy" (cunning?) expression with a slight smile and slightly lowered brows. Most of the cards have him with these expressions, but also a lot of them have him portrayed pretty happy, some are just neutral but usually include a "cute" pose. One or two looked like the character is evil/insane (glowing eyes and a wide smile without showing teeth :) ), and then like again JUST one or two look like the character is sad (younger version with short hair and masculine clothing crying and another which looks more like serious/deep in thoughts and has a pretty dark palette). He doesn't call himself a girl though and doesn't try to convince anyone that he is one, instead he hopes he can be viewed as just "Mizuki" like he is. Means he's just a gendernonconforming guy that is unfortunately imitating/perpetuating harmful stereotypes generated by the culture he currently lives in.

Edit: also he used to experience dysphoria/dysmorphia if he used to cover the mirror?

(Disclaimer about femininity: it was created and is constantly modified to opress the female part of the human population, which is punished for both following it and refusing to follow it. If a male is uncomfortable with masculine gender roles, which are used to learn to opress and tries to follow the other set of rules he is bullied for CHOOSING the "loser" position that is used for women and everything associated with them. This is an EFFECT of misogyny but is again a strictly male experience which means it isn't misogyny itself)

I'm trying to reflect what my PERSONAL gripes are here: when I chose that band bc the theme of trauma resonates with me most out of all the others (I mean the group with a (self-made)trainee and 3 ex-idols just by description sounds meh bc female idols are exploited too strongly but I hope they're characterised well ig, I didn't get to research that when choosing and tbh now too, the group about reconnection sounds ok but too slice-of-life-y, the other two are mixed, I mean have boys) and I hoped it was a group of just girls trying to be supportive of each other and to overcome hardships together and then among them saw this kinda shallow infantile character who also mostly didn't even look depressed and looked "playfully cutesy" and happy and was also a "trans girl" (which to me explained these shallow imitations of being a girl) but turns out it's the fandom shouting about trans so loudly and occasionally about nb, and shutting down any discussion about him being male. Idk if the storywriters and artists are ever trying to make a comment about gender roles or just want an actually shallow cute-pretty appealing with looks character. I do not want to research any further and if anyone actually following the story of the game can tell me if the matters are made better or worse, I'll be glad. For now I can say I don't have a strongly negative reaction to the character anymore, as intentions matter, but still remain critical of him not reflecting on why he is following what society says is cute and why is he not dropping out of high school if he doesn't need it?

Disclaimer for gender-pilled tumblr community: I reflected on my kneejerk hateful reaction to a character and softened a bit but still remain critical for slightly different reasons now. I know you don't like sex-based pronouns but if you come here to argue please read the whole thing first

[scorpiusmalfoylovesoscarwilde]

okay I know I keep talking about my real life when I promise to not ✋🏻 this should be it for now but lmao anywayz - flat out having a screaming crying panic attack cause I'm gonna have to see my dad tonight for the first time in over a year, completely out of the blue and against my will ahaha

[nicepersondisorder]

turns one of the people who wants to call me a friend called his shitty ex a narcissist despite me telling our whole friendgroup how he should Not luse it as an insult, at least two other people with cluster b agreeing with me and talking how narcissistic absue is incorrect and harmful wording AND me telling him specifically that i have npd after he said some bullshit about bpd and cluster b in general. his ass is not getting my friendship 🥰

[merethicera]

the dude whose content i tend to recommend as a better alternative to pat's unhinged rambling put out a new video in his 3 part skyrim series and he has bad stormcloak takes too

(i dont feel like being eloquent so im just gonna ramble in the tags)

[goldenkid]

my latent rtd haterisms emerging after that season finale

[lamina-tsrif]

hhrngrngr (chewing blorbo like a particularly tough piece of jerky)

[springcatalyst]

okayyyyy i like silvers more since he lost his leg LMAO

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

why didn't they just use franziska for literally all of this.

[guinevereslancelot]

is there any worse feeling than when you feel like someone is mad at you bc they literally are mad at you