#and if something does go wrong you don't have anyone to rely on for help so you need to understand lay of the land/navigation/first aid etc

[white--moon]

A brow arches slightly, "Like the other times." But he supposes he already knew Ichigo was getting rides from Shuren, he found that out at the party. It ruffles his feathers a bit, but it probably shouldn't. Then he he starts to respond, but pauses and frowns a little; did Ichigo just say everyone already thinks he's a psycho? Totally possible... Whatever. "Yeah, everyone I work with. I take this car to do other things, y' know, like to the store to stock my fridge. What happens when I pop the trunk and it's wrapped in tarp and some paranoid lady sees it?" That quieter tone makes him feel a little bad about the entire thing and he's not even sure why. Since when has he ever felt bad about anything he's done or said? Especially when he's right. "I probably would have. At first. But I know you're right. I would'a figured that out eventually."

Ok, so he's right; there's nothing wrong with anything Ichigo listed. He snorts a quiet laugh and wonders if that was supposed to be a compliment or just matter of fact, because it sounds like a compliment to him. Plus, Ichigo's right; if Shiro wanted him dead, Shiro would have made it happen one way or another. He's a stubborn, vindictive asshole like that. "Hah. So I have at least one, kinda messed up virtue if you squint. I'm countin' it, your educated guess was wrong."

He rolls his eyes and huffs a sigh. "If you wanna go on a date, just say so. Don't put my car in a ravine for fuck's sake. I might actually cry about it before I started murdering you and that's just pathetic. Then I'd miss my car and you."

Shutting the engine off, he climbs out, glances around briefly, and wonders if there's a reason Ichigo said park in the back or if that's just the normal parking area. He locks up and joins Ichigo, stomach making the sounds of a stomach that's hasn't had food in way too long, which is kind of ridiculous because he always eats plenty.

He offers up a blank look. He knows exactly what answer Ichigo’s looking for, and in general, for a normal person, he’d tend to agree. But, “I work for a drug lord.” So… yes, he has. “Sometimes you don’t ask questions if you know what’s good for you.” That doesn’t really mitigate what Ichigo’s saying though. “But yeah, he should'a asked.” He almost makes a comment about how Ichigo’s too much of a pushover to be afraid to question, but holds his tongue just barely, figuring he’s pissed him off enough already this morning. He looks over, “I don’t just drive around with it wrapped. D'you want me to look like a psycho?” But Ichigo has a little bit of an epiphany and Shiro sighs a heavy breath. “Didn’t I say I probably would'a come around and agreed? I just would'a needed time. If you feel like doin’ that kinda thing again, you can ask me to be your ride.”

He shrugs a shoulder; that’s fair.

Then he frowns and looks over again, fingers tapping on the wheel a bit. “What’s wrong with any of that? I have virtues, they’re just not-” He gestures vaguely, “the same as what’s expected of us, I guess, and I don’t give a shit about pretending to be something I’m not. That’s a virtue in itself.” Right? Probably. It sounds like one.

Ichigo’s all tense and uncomfortable in the passenger seat just because of a fast turn and it really lightens his mood. As far as he’s concerned, Ichigo deserves a little spook every now and then. It’s good for him. He rolls his eyes, “I’ll take the keys with me and if you still manage to push it into a ravine, you better be in it or under it or I’m gonna kill you.” He follows that gesture with his gaze, then pulls the car around back to park so they can finally get some food.

[chaostudee]

you belong with me, lando norris.

summary : after another failed date you rely on lando to comfort you to which he confesses something to you. warnings : none a/n : literally all i've been doing is smau but written works will forever have my heart :)

a sigh escaped you lips just as your eyes flicked to your phone to take a glimpse at the time. the past two hours had been torture, and although you hadn't had much faith that this one would get well you hadn't pictured it to be this grim. this man wouldn't shut up about himself, not once letting you get a word in edge ways.

a few minutes ago he said that he needed to pop to the bathroom just as you had both finished dessert. partially you were glad to be rid of him but were now suspicious that he had been gone for so long. in instinct your eyes flutter around the restaurant at the various couples and families dining. in doing so you spot your blind date darting hie eyes around the restuarant briefly before fleeing out the front door.

your eyes widen at the scene and you tutt to yourself. so typical. at that moment the waiter walks over to hand you the check.

"um can you give me a second?" you ask knwoing damn well your purse is full of nothing but makeup products.

"sure" the waiter replies with a nod before departing.

you quickly scour your purse for your phone and dial the one person you know that would be able to help you out.

"hey what's up??"

the sound of his voice makes you smile.

"well um i need your help...."

lando pauses. "that doesn't sound good...."

you laugh sarcastically. "yeah well it's not um so basically just before the check came the guy just upped and left and um since he said he was going to pay i left my purse at home. so i guess what i'm asking is for some money and i promise i'll pay you-"

"wait wait wait" lando cuts you off "he just left you?! what the actual fuck?!"

"i know i mean i should've known"

"what no no baby it's not your fault, here i'll send you the money real quick"

your stomach flips at the pet name, it always does but you would never admit that to him.

"thank you lando" you whisper.

"no problem angel, you know i'll always look out for you.

"okay um one last favour"

"hit me"

"can you pick me up it's kinda late and you know"

"ofc i will just send me your location"

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹ ᡣ𐭩

lando hands you a cup of tea just as he joins you on the couch.

"thanks" you look up at him as you speak and he replies with a nod before taking a sip of his coffee.

lando shakes his head. " i actually still can't believe that son of a bitch did that to you"

you look down into the cup, the steam rising and hitting your cheeks. "i mean i guess i always choose the wrong ones"

"don't you dare say that sweetheart it is not your fault at all".

"lando-"

"no i'm serious ever time you come back from a date you tell me another crazy story and sweetheart it's nothing got to do with you"

"but what if it is me"

lando looks at you smypathetically.

"trust me it's not you, anyone would be lucky to have you"

"thanks lando but we both know that's not true"

lando sets down his cup and runs his hands through his hair. before putting his head in his hands and letting out a groan.

"what's wrong?"

"you are so oblivious"

"what wdym?"

lando smiles and begins to move closer to you. you watch as his eyes latch onto yours and then down to your lips. your heart begins to beat rapidly.

"as i said anyone would be lucky to have you"

you gulp. lando takes his hand and uses it to rest under your chin so you are forced to look at him.

"you are the most important person in my life"

"lando don't"

"don't what?"

"you're just saying that to make me feel better"

lando chuckles. "trust me i'm not you are and will forever be the most important person in my life, you're my best friend."

you smile shyly at him, there was no one that made you feel as loved as him.

"there were times i wanted it to be more".

your eyes widen at his confession and you open your mouth but just as you were about to speak you were stopped.

lando pulled his you into him placing his lips on yours. you didn't pull back but instead sunk deep into the kiss and as his smiled into your lips you couldn't help the heat that rised to your cheeks.

after a few moments you pull back and smile at him as you run a hand through his hair.

"was that okay?" he asks unsure if he had made you uncomfortable.

"more than okay" you admit.

and with that he pulled you in to his lap making you squeal before pressing his lips against yours once again.

in that moment you had never been happier and annoyed with yourself that you hadn't noticed the good in front of you all this time.

taglist ⭑.ᐟ

@lottalove4evelyn

@llando4norris

@hadidsworld

@mxryxmfooty

[deartrent]

mum's emotions — taa

summary: pent-up emotions and frustrations as a first-time mom finally surface when you find yourself in the familiar arms of trent

pairing: trent alexander-arnold x fem!reader

notes: my first ever post on here. didn't really come out the way i intended, idrk if i like it, but let me know what you guys think!!

what you felt was wrong. you knew it was wrong on so many levels. you couldn't help but feel the way you did though. seeing trent take care of your baby so naturally, as if he'd experienced being a father before, sparked something inside of you that you didn't know you were capable of feeling. you couldn't tell if it was anger, disappointment or jealousy. all you could think of was how come i carried that baby for 9 months, just to be the worst mother of all time?

trent noticed your frustrations. he could tell when he'd come home from training and you'd greet him coldly or shoot daggers when he'd steal the baby from you, the cries stopping as soon as he held her in his arms, so gently. you were never the type to verbalise your feelings and trent knew not to push you to that point either, but he also knew you were slowly reaching your limit. he wished he could stay home more often to help you out, to take some of the workload off of you, but his schedule didn't allow him to.

"look she smiled," trent turned your daughter to face you, unaware that you had been observing them for the past two minutes. their smiles resembled so much, something you had prayed for way before getting pregnant.

it took everything in you to fake a smile, masking the emptiness you felt inside. trent could sense your mind was racing, your silence speaking louder than words. his heart ached seeing you in this state, reminiscing on the bubbly version of you prior to giving birth.

"she can sense your emotions you know," trent spoke after getting no reaction from you, walking over to where you stood, with your daughter against his chest, "when mum's stressed, she will be too, i read it somewhere." you felt vulnerable as trent towered over you, trying his best to read your facial expressions. you hadn't been too verbal lately, with trent having to rely on body language. he had no clue the reason you hadn't been verbal was the inability to hold in tears whenever trent would try and have a conversation about anything baby related. instead of confiding in him, you chose to distance yourself.

you didn't know how much longer you could hold everything in though, and without a single warning, you felt your eyes well up, a burning sensation confirming that your tear-filled eyes had turned bloodshot red by now. trent was caught off guard, not knowing what to do next. this was the first time you'd shown a different emotion than anger and annoyance since the baby had arrived.

trent's first instinct was to put the baby down on the playmat, before engulfing you into an embrace you didn't realise you needed until your face sunk into trent's chest, the all too familiar scent and sense of warmth, comfort and security washing over you. you sobbed into his shirt, his large hands caressing your back as he tried soothing you.

"please talk to me babe, tell me what's on your mind," trent begged and for the first time since bringing your daughter home, you thought of trent, instead of yourself. you thought about how he must've felt, being a first time parent himself and having to deal with taking care of the baby on one hand, but on the other hand having to deal with an angry, irritated girlfriend, not knowing what exactly is going on because you simply did not communicate with him. you could only imagine how scary and lonely it must have been for him.

"i just need a break," you sobbed, barely audible but you knew if anyone would understand you, it would be trent. "i don't know what i'm doing, i don't know if i'm feeding her correctly, i don't know if i'm dressing her warm enough, all she does is cry and i have no idea what she wants. i'm just a shit mother, i wasn't made for this." you took the opportunity to dump all of your frustrations.

"stop, don't say that," trent pried you off of him to create a little distance as he held your face with both hands, wiping away your tears with his thumbs, "you're doing great, i promise. she's alive, she's healthy, that means you're doing a good job." trent tried reassuring you, your breath shaky from all the sobbing. "she's crying, because she senses your emotions," you melted into trent's hands, the eyes you were so in love with fixated on yours, making your surroundings disappear, "she just wants you to be happy, we both do." guilt was the next thing you felt.

you felt guilty because you'd left trent in the dark, taking your frustrations out on him, while all he wanted to do was help, "i'm so exhausted trent, i can't remember last time i slept a full night," you continued your rant, "i miss just cuddling with you and not be interrupted," you could see the corner of trent's lips turn upwards, igniting the same warm, fuzzy feeling you'd been feeling ever since the first day you'd met; the one thing that hadn't changed since the birth of your baby. trent placed a gentle kiss on your forehead, before placing your head on his chest once more, "you know, i have a day off tomorrow, i can ask my mum to babysit and we could just stay in bed all day," trent suggested, earning a chuckle from you.

you could feel trent's heart beat against your temple and as you further sunk into his arms, you realised just how blessed you really were. you couldn't imagine having a baby with anyone other than trent, the idea of building a family with him easing your mind. he was everything you wanted and from the moment you told him you were pregnant, you knew that you and your baby were in safe hands. and that was all that mattered.

"i would love that," you looked up, pressing your lips to his luscious ones in a kiss you didn't know you craved.

[pumpkinhimiko]

"Mistranslations" that are not mistranslations

Now with an additional part 2.

NISA has made plenty of mistakes while translating the Danganronpa series (and I've complained about them before), and so they have a reputation of being untrustworthy. But because of this reputation, I feel like fans are too quick to trust whatever anyone that isn't NISA states as absolute fact. So, I want to examine some instances of fan translators claiming NISA has mistranslated something, when, no, actually, they didn't.

Kokichi's last words

人にやらされるゲームなんて…楽しい訳あるかよ… A game you're forced to play... how could that be fun...

This is probably the most widespread myth in terms of "mistranslations that aren't", with the original post that makes this claim having over 2k notes: that Kokichi in the original Japanese actually says, "How could a game where you're forced to kill people be fun...?" Unfortunately, it's just not true. Fortunately for me, there's a reddit post here that breaks the line down in detail, so I don't have to do any work.

Anyway, I really wanted to make this post because of this thread, which makes several false claims.

 Kokichi says he's afraid of friends in general

オレは、そういう『仲間』が他人よりも怖いけどねー。I'm more afraid of those kinds of [friends] than strangers.

So... souiu, meaning that type of/that kind of is right there, directly before nakama (which can mean friend, especially if it's in a shounen anime, but can also just mean companion/member of a group). I don't understand how you can miss this. Not only is it right there, this claim on its face doesn't make sense. Why, in this context, would Kokichi suddenly blurt out that he's afraid of having friends? It has nothing to do with the conversation they're having.

Shuichi's words to Kokichi after the 4th trial

王馬くん、もういいだろ ? Ouma-kun, isn't this enough? その話を聞かせてくれよ。Tell us about that.

Okay, you've probably heard the phrase mou ii a lot if you watch anime, and it's almost always accompanied by a frustrated huff. Because it is, in fact, something you say when impatient, fed up, what have you. It literally means "good already", carrying pretty much the identical meaning of the English phrase, "that's enough" or "I've had enough". Shuichi does not say it's okay as in it's daijoubu, which is the word you use when trying to comfort someone. He is very much frustrated here and telling Kokichi to fess up.

Citation needed

I couldn't find a line like this in Kokichi's FTEs, but maaaaaaaybe I missed it? Shuichi's narration comments quite a few times on Kokichi acting childishly throughout the game, but I couldn't find anything like this in specific.

EDIT: Correction, I did find it, and it's covered in part two. Suffice to say, the OP got this line completely wrong.

That Kaito thing

Yeah this is patently false. It's also already been touched on in this thread with comments backing it up, so there’s another thing I don't have to get into. I'll put the text here though.

オレはテメーみて一に胸クソ悪い真似までして、If I have to mimic your sickening behavior, 生き残りて一とは思わねーんだよ。I don't think I want to survive.

Shuichi's words to Kokichi after the 4th trial part deaux

I've seen varying claims on how these lines were translated, from them being slightly tweaked, to the claim they were completely butchered to make Saihara too aggressive. I'm just going to leave it here and let you come to your own conclusions.

ダサいのはキミの方だよ…王馬くん。The lame one is you... Ouma-kun.

百田くんの周りにはいつも人が集まってくる… Momota-kun always has people around him... でも、キミの周りには誰もいないじゃないか。But, there's no one around you.

キミは…その程度のヤツって事だよ。That's... what kind of person you are.

This is snappy in its own way, though, if you consider that 程度 is closer to meaning grade/level/degree rather than simply "type of". "That's the level of person you are," basically.

And if you doubt me on any of this, I encourage you to do your own research, get second opinions if you can. I know not everyone knows Japanese, in which case you can't really help but rely on someone else and hope their translation is accurate. That said, at the bare minimum, I think people should provide screenshots and the original Japanese text if they're going to claim something is a mistranslation. Like, I don't think you should be able to say "actually in Japanese Kokichi says he volunteers at animal shelters in his free time but NISA cut it!" and have half the fandom believe you with no proof.

[staticespace]

Hi sorry for burging in . I need your helping Please if you can be able to extend a hand for me,that would be much appreciate. I'm $800,needed pls🙏 . I need to save my blood sugar which costs $300.and also to afford living expenses.food,gas and medication which costs$500. I plead for your little donations. I'll really appreciate your help❤️please help me with your little donation or share🙏

I will not donate. But I will share.

Not to advise others to donate, though. Because I think you're lying.

Your request doesn't really pass the smell test for me.

🚩Red Flags🚩:

You say on your page that your request is "vetted and verified" but do not say by whom.

Your tags start with "free palestine" despite your request having nothing to do with Palestine or Palestinians. This makes me think you're trying to get people who want to donate to Palestinians to think you're one so they can donate and/or spread your post if they don't read any deeper into your account.

Adding to that, looking into your archive, you only recently started your account this month (September 2024) and all of your posts closest to your start were about Palestine. It seems you're putting a mask on.

As of today (September 29th) only 3 of your 29 posts are from a date that is not September 25th, so it's not as though you're particularly active.

Your other tags on your pinned post have nothing to do with the topic of your post, meaning you're clogging other tags to get someone to bite (e.g. "artists on tumblr" and "succession").

The link you provided goes to a PayPal account, which does not have many protections for anyone who donates money on its platform, like reimbursement and such.

In case I was wrong, I reverse-image-searched your icon photo and...

Well, well, well...

Same photo, same script, different account.

This naming trend on your old account is very familiar, too. Three words smushed together, usually starting with an adjective. Hell, you might be related to the other person I found out was scamming using insulin requests.

And when I tried to find that account, it's apparently been closed.

So yeah, nah, you don't pass the smell test.

---

If you want to donate to Palestinians, here's some actual, verified ways to do so. The methods through that link have been backed by various frontrunners in the Palestinian sphere, like @/90-ghost and @/el-shab-hussein.

If you aren't going to look much further than the fact they sent a note to your inbox, please stop.

Look further and do your due diligence or rely on people who will do it for you.

Some scammers are not just trying to get money for food or a TV or something. Giving to a scammer may not be harmless.

Scammers can and have used false aid requests to fund human and drug trafficking.

Double-check. If it doesn't smell right, don't donate and call it out.

Also, feel free to report their PayPal account for fraud if you see their pinned post.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

College au! Rich, popular senior who is actually emotionless but uses a faux mask to hide the fact and does favors left and right, not because he's kind and considerate but because he doesn't see anyone else worth engaging with and the only way the get rid of them is through giving them what they want, like pesky leeches. Reader however saw right through his mask into his eyes and that surprised him. Someone other than his father knows?! Should he get rid of her? But.. oh? she wants something from him? A favour? How interesting..

-🌼

Yandere! Male! College student x Blockmate! Fem! Reader

Got a bit of mental exercise on this one, since what could the favor be? Hmm... Got a bit too nsfw though, so be warned. (BTW, is this spicy enough? I'm practicing lol)

Also, I decided to do some tweaks on our other yanderes, so expect relatives amongst yanderes now!

Yandere! College Student name: Alpheus

It was the third of January now, a lot of students have come back to the University in order to resume their classes. Some got blessed and has their classes to be continued by next monday, but not for this specific college.

"Ugh..." A person bemoaned to their friend. "What the hell is wrong with our Dean? Setting our return so early-- Does she have no sympathy?"

"You said it." Another person piped up. "We may be architecture students, but we're not machines!"

"Our course is hard enough without holidays bro. I just wish she let us enjoy the new years..."

"Don't you think so, Alpheus?"

Alpheus, a man who's soft and gentle. Prince-like, and someone you could rely on. He had many... Friends... As what other people see themselves when asking what their relationship with him is.

Too bad it's one sided though.

Alpheus hummed, his blank eyes that none of these guys noticed looked up to the sky.

"Well, doesn't it make sense? We finished our first semester 1st day of December. I think it's just fair for us to go back by the 3rd of January." Alpheus' almost ghost like quality of voice came out of his soft pink lips.

The friends, who were just complaining earlier, shut up from the logic he gave.

"Uh... I guess you're right."

"Well, it is a one month vacation..."

"Yeah, we got the better end of the stick."

"Other Unis only gave two weeks as vacation."

Alpheus gave a small smile to them as they murmured their suddenly new opinion due to his quips.

"This is exhausting..."

Nobody saw through his mask, the way he held so much indignant boredom he had in his eyes when they go up to him and talk. Nobody felt the way he seems so distant and plastic-y.

Maybe he got this acting skills from his brother, Ignatius.

Both of them are the opposite ends of the bar. Ignatius as the boisterous, annoying, attention seeking actor, and Alpheus, the hide-behind-a-facade, self-important, holier-than-though, plastic friend.

Well, that's what their parents describe them anyways. Too much of the old mindset gets you to be a pair of judgmental fuckers who think that mental conditions are not real, so they didn't get diagnosed if it's something to do with their psychology.

Alpheus grew up mostly being overshadowed by his brother, but is honestly shining more when it comes to academics. Making the attention between them fairly equal.

Like how their parents describe them, Ignatius is talented, while Alpheus is a genius.

That didn't make them less terrified on Alpheus though.

When he was a child especially, he looks so dead inside and unreadable that it freaked them out. Even contemplating on calling the exorcist.

Alas, they didn't at the risk of their family reputation to fall off.

Only Ignatius got him.

When Alpheus got older, he met more people who got freaked out by how apathetic and emotionless he is.

But, with the help of his brother, he learned how to put up a mask. Albeit just the barest of minimum, people got fooled somehow.

That, and Alpheus just goes with the flow most of the time.

Just to make them shut up, he always ends up doing favors and helps the people who ask for him to do something for them.

"People... Such a bother..."

At least they're tools for him to blend in seamlessly...

"By the way, Alpheus, is your mansion available on Sunday?"

Here they go again...

It's a never ending cycle for him.

"Why? Do you want to do a party there?" He asks gently, another soft smile on his face that made that person flustered.

"U-uh yes! I mean, the last pool party we did there was crazy."

It was crazy cuz all of you thrashed my damn mansion.

It's somehow of a blessing that his family is rich. He got to move out to a new place, his brother did too, and funded all of their lavish tastes. Even if it was a way to make them shut up and not interact with their parents, it gave them freedom to do the things they want.

"Why not? We need something to headstart us for the second semester anyways." And with a princely smile, he agreed to his friend's favor that made his friend group hoot and holler.

And as Alpheus keeps a steady smile yet an annoyed glare, he wishes for something to happen in that party to shut them up.

Music blazing, party raving, drinks boozing.

It's the party of the month for the students in the University Alpheus attended.

People cannonballing in the pool, couples and strangers making out (maybe more), stragglers drinking their way to being blackout...

And the owner of the mansion?

Alpheus sits down cross legged on the couch, being surrounded by his friends. The music is pounding against his ears and worsening his headache. But he also can't sleep in his room because he knows that no matter how thick his walls are, the music will still seep into his bedroom.

He takes a sip of the bourbon on his hand, his deep eyes scanning the crowd and the mess they made.

He almost groaned. This is gonna take a while to clean.

Sure, he'll hire people to clean, but his parents' will question where the money will go to, and they will nag to him about being upright and being a rebel and throwing parties and being a disgrace and being so content being a genius that he thinks he can just throw his parents' reputation to the mud--

Just thinking about it is making him exhausted.

He watched as the woman that latched onto his side trailed her finger on his exposed chest from unbuttoning his dress shirt. She was saying something flirtatious but honestly, he doesn't care.

The headache is becoming unbearable.

"Excuse me, people. I just need to get more." Alpheus gently laid off the woman before shaking the glass on his hand, the ice clinking around.

They all nodded with a smile before Alpheus went inside.

There are some people here. Singing karaoke, some playing beer pong... And others making out and grinding.

He got to the comfort room on the corner of the first floor and sighed, splashing water on his face as he let the water trickle down his throat.

He dropped his facade, staring at himself with the dead expression that people found chilling.

Sometimes, he just needs a breather.

And that breather is his home. But now, a party is going on and he needed a bit of break sometimes.

Hey, he's emotionless, not a robot that doesn't get exhausted.

Alpheus splashed water on his face once more before he heard the door to the toilet open.

A woman.

He remembers you. A classmate, one of the few people who doesn't talk to him and ask favors, so he automatically has a positive outlook on you. As positive a person can feel for being emotionless.

He nods, you didn't.

"Y/N, right?" He asks, quickly slipping on the facade. He smiled at you, donning the princely mask once more.

You weren't buying it though.

"Alpheus. What's up with you and putting up a front?"

His forearm bulged, the grip on the counter sink tightened as the veins pulsed across his arm.

Ah, he forgot. You have this inquisitive, curious, yet hostile look on your face whenever he catches you staring at him.

"What do you mean by that?" He smiled once more.

"You know what I mean."

He cleared his throat, dropping the act and turning towards you, not facing the mirror anymore.

"Look here, Y/N. It just so happens that I get tired sometimes." He shrugs. "Social battery and that."

"Bullshit." You spat out. "You don't even feel anything. You think I won't know? It's so obvious."

A dull feeling of irritation welled up inside of him. Uncommon, but not that new.

"Really now? So what?" Alpheus scoffs and crosses his arms. "What will you do? Expose me?"

His eyes sharpened a bit.

Should I get rid of her?

"No. I need a favor also." You smiled. He sighed.

"Shoot."

"Be my pretend boyfriend."

Alpheus blinked, tilting his head in wonder.

"Huh. That's new. And what do you need me for? Why do I need to do that?" He softly chuckles, thinking of reasons why. "Are you attracted to me and are finding a reason to get close to me? Possibly make me fall for you?"

He got close to you, bending a bit to stare at your eyes.

Were your eyes always this shiny? Such a juxtaposition of his dull, dead ones.

"Maybe you have this sick fantasy in your head that you can fix me." He chuckled again.

"No. That's weird." You scoffed and swatted him away. "Ex boyfriend problem. A stalker, won't stop following me around."

He hummed in contentment. He did remember seeing a man hovering around your angered/scared face.

"That I can believe. But why me, cheri?" He asked, intrigued by your favor. "There's a lot of people, and it's kinda suspicious if we suddenly became an item."

You took a deep breath, shaking your hands.

"Don't get mad, but I sprinkled some hints that I was interested in you. Making fake convos of us..." You flushed red and fished your phone out of your pocket and showing him the convos.

The pfp is the same, so does the name, but the way he types isn't the same. Clearly fake.

"I know, creepy, but..." You gripped your hand in awkwardness. "But the other guys aren't really the best options. He got them on a hold like he's friends with them. And you're the only one available that's not close to him. I also don't know other people outside our block."

Your grip tightened. "So help me, please?"

A man in a leather jacket seethed, not being able to find you.

"Where are you, Y/N!" He grumbled under his breath.

He lost you an hour ago, and he's already on his end's wits.

Especially you're in this mansion. Alpheus' mansion.

Sure, he didn't believe that you and Alpheus were a thing. It was impossible! There's evidences, but he doesn't want to believe it.

He gritted his teeth and opened another door but to only two people fucking.

"God, get a room!" He growled out before being hit by a pillow, being yelled at that 'this is a room!'

Slamming the door closed, he got to the corner where there is a door beside an end table with an expensive flower vase on top.

He gripped the knob and swung it open, and his eyes widened.

"Alpheus..."

"Cheri, just like that..."

You and Alpheus, making out. With you sitting on the counter as your crotches grinding against each other in a friction filled frenzy. With Alpheus' large hands and fingers gripping your soft skin on your waist, leaving red marks trailing across. Your legs, wrapped around Alpheus' waist, had the dress riddled up to your chest area, exposing your tasteful underwear.

Alpheus' lips trailed across your neck, opening slightly to lick the base before biting down. It made you throw your head back with a whimper so salacious that it made Alpheus buck into you once more.

The man felt cold and hot at the same time.

It was real?

You can't even hear that your ex has swung the door open. Drunk on the "pretend" makeout' pleasure that it gave you. You just knew he's in the house, but doesn't know when he'll find you.

So, Alpheus just made you sit on the counter and started kissing you gently just in case.

Who knew it would become a full, blown out session that left you breathless and Alpheus suddenly obsessed with this new feeling?

Alpheus' dead eyes was flashing with hunger and desire in them as he glared at your ex boyfriend.

And without breaking any eye contact, he gripped your waist more, with his hips grinding harder and his teeth sinking more to your skin, marking you his.

Saliva dripped from his lips to your skin, making it glisten under the dim light.

And with a smirk, Alpheus successfully drove out your ex.

Now, he could just stop.

But what's the fun in that?

For the first time, he's feeling such pleasure from you, and your body.

You felt divine in his hold, making it impossible to separate himself from your body as he gripped your thigh and carrying you up, pushing your back against the wall to continue making out, and maybe even more.

He can blame it on the alcohol, but he knows damn well it's not.

He felt... Happy for the first time. The overwhelming euphoria from this new encounter and discovering new feelings were making him drunk. And he's drinking it whole.

It's almost selfish on how he doesn't want to let go of you.

And, before he knew it, the seed has planted inside of him.

By the next days, he finds himself unable to separate from you as you continued to introduce new emotions inside of him.

He will wish to shackle you to him, and maybe do the same as his brother and kidnap his significant other.

He will feel overtly jealous for the first time, seeing you interact with his other male classmates. Especially that architecture is a male dominant field.

He will get angry, rage, and become crazy from the sudden influx of emotions running inside of him.

But that's in the future.

And as he watches you writhe from his hold as his fingers descended down under your panties, he knew that he would do anything to keep this feeling from fading.

[theclementinediaries]

The Seven Deadly Sins of the NXX Team

➵ PRIDE best describes Artem, for he takes great pride in everything he does, especially when it comes to work. He would go above and beyond, and would go to great lengths, to ensure that he is always on top of his game. His work is his pride, and his pride is his work, his entire sense of self-worth relies heavily on how well he manages to do his job right.

➵ He has a reputation of having a 99% win rate, so you could imagine how much his pride suffered when he lost in that 1% case. He felt like a failure, like everything that he has worked up to until that point, all of his achievements and success, meant nothing. And for someone, who puts so much value in his career, his success, whose pride mainly stems from his achievements and winning, that really put a dent on not just his pride, but his self worth in general.

➵ Who is he, if not a winner? Who is he, if not the best of the best? Who is he, if he can’t succeed? Would there be any point for his existence if he can’t succeeded, if he can’t become the greatest?

➵ Ultimately, Artem’s pride is his biggest motivator to do better, to be better, but it’s also what eats him up inside, it’s what pushes him over the edge, to the point that it’s hurting him.

➵ Green is the color of ENVY, and that perfectly describes Vyn to a T. Don't get him wrong though, he is not envious of someone having more money, fame, status, or materialistic items than him, far from it actually. Vyn's envy is rooted in seeing people, who have a more full filing happier life than him, especially if they are less fortunate than him.

➵ Of course, as a psychologist expert, he bares no ill well towards people who have it better than him, and on the contrary, he should be happy for those people given his profession. But yet no matter how much he tries not to, he can't help but feel envious of those people, like he resented them for having a life that he fought so hard to obtain, yet it came so natural to them.

➵ His jealousy and envy is one of the reasons why he's so meticulous with his words, never letting anyone ever get too close, for fear that he might uncover something, that he might not like.

➵ For someone who is so happy go-lucky, WRATH really does have a strong hold on Luke. But don't get it twisted, Luke is not angry at anyone at particular, more specifically so, his wrath is directed at himself.

➵ He is so angry at himself, for not being strong enough, for not being good enough, for not being smart enough, but most of all, his angry at himself for not being there for you when you needed him the most.

➵ The anger and wrath that he feels is mostly fueled due to his own shortcomings and inadequacies, and how he expresses that anger is by acting so recklessly, throwing himself into danger, sacrificing himself, again and again. He hopes that his self-sacrifice would compensate for all his failures and shortcomings, he hopes that him throwing his life away would make up the fact that he failed to protect you, failed to give you more time, failed...you.

➵ And most of all, he hopes that his self-sacrifice would help lessen the wrath inside his heart, but it never does, in fact, it only seems to ignite it further.

➵ Now this might sound predictable from the infamous playboy himself, but Marius, is driven by LUST. He likes to indulge in the pleasures of life, whether that be sexual or not, it doesn't really matter to him.

➵ For so long, Marius wanted nothing more than to be free, to live the life that he so desperately wants, and to have the freedom to make the choices that he wants. Those are his deepest desires that he lust for the most.

➵ But sadly, no matter how much Marius lusts over a life of freedom, no matter how many times he wished to indulge in a pleasurable life that not even money can buy, the universe doesn't always give us what we want.

➵ So all Marius has left is to fulfill other people's hopes and dreams, fulfilling other people desires and lust, in hopes that, that would be enough to fill the empty whole inside his heart.

[orange-orchard-system]

Fakeclaiming is easy because it feels like activism. It feels like protection.

Spotting a "faker" feels like you're doing something. It feels like you're protecting yourself, your community, by pointing at someone and saying "look, I have identified the enemy". You get to feel good that you have done something to help, and you get to feel good to see one of your enemies torn apart by your allies. It's based on a simple reward system for community.

The thing is, though, is that this community isn't solid, and this reward system is flawed.

If a primary way of protecting oneself is spotting fakers, then you're always on-guard, always looking for the enemy in your allies. You'll look for patterns where there may not be any, because you want a leg up on spotting the next of them; you want formulas to rely on – one to decide if someone is faking, and one to decide if someone is not. You want to make the process of protection as simple and easy as possible. And in turn, the easier it gets to "identity a faker", the more often you get that rush of spotting one, that camaraderie of tearing them apart with the "real ones". You have made it easier to justify hurting others, because you have made it easier to win that reward system. And yet, at the same time, because you must remain on-guard, you stress yourself over whether someone fits the formula(s) you have crafted. If all your enemies are fakers pretending to be allies, then you must be ready to turn on any of your allies and tear them apart, too. You must rely on this second formula; these rules you have enforced to decide who is real and who is not. You must not ever think about the process beyond how you can better improve your formulas.

There is no repeal, once a claim has been filed. There is only dogpiling and tearing them apart, demanding they apologize, delete their blog, kill themselves for "faking". They are the enemy, this is what has been declared, and you can tell because they plug into the formula. You can tell because they did something we don't approve of. You can tell because we have declared it true, and you must always believe us and never listen to the person we have been tearing apart, because you wouldn't want to risk defending the enemy, would you? Because...

Conveniently, people who speak out about this reward system are often automatically considered fakers, too. Because their voices are seen as defense of the enemy you have already branded, so they must be enemies too, right? I must now be your enemy for telling you the flaws in this system; in this community. Because only enemies to a community say there's something wrong with that community, don't they? They can't possibly be members of the community who want it to be (even) better. They can't possibly be real members of your community who you have plugged into an arbitrary formula that doesn't even make sense most of the time. They can't be people who have thought about this for two seconds and decided, "Actually, tearing people apart doesn't sound like a very moral action."

Fakeclaiming is a flawed reward system that depends on the idea that the main enemies of any community will always be trying to pretend to be them. Will always be wolves in sheep's clothing. And that the way to help your community – the way to get that rush of justice against your enemy – is to never truly trust your allies; to be prepared to hurt them at a moment's notice; to create formulas based on confirmation bias and plug people into them if they do something against the rules you have decided upon.

I'm aware this is scathing. That's the point. Fakeclaiming doesn't serve any productive purpose; all it does is give the same rush that hitting a child gives a parent.

I am also aware this will likely be used to make me out to be a "faker". An enemy. Very well, go right ahead. Anyone who would decide criticism about the way they go about harassing and tearing apart their own supposed "allies" is an act of "the enemy" is not someone I wish to associate with, so please do reveal yourselves, so that I may block you and move on with my life that does not involve hurting people for the rush it would give me but does involve thinking critically about accusations.

Fakeclaiming doesn't even help the community the way it's supposed to. Drop your formulas. There are better ways to help your community, like accepting our variance and differences, offering advice born from personal experience, and advocating for more awareness and acceptance in your everyday life. Go leave a positive comment on someone's post. Go make a positivity post. Be there for people. I believe you can do better, and make this community better, in turn.

[vampkittyxoxo]

Hi!!! Could you do romantic X headcanons for Lawrie and 8-BIT? If you don't accept two characters at time for headcanons you can pick which one you want! Also could the reader be a robot? For the pronouns everything is fine even if I would prefer gender neutral or fem pronouns!

So sorry if this is bad worded it's my first time requesting something and English is not my first language 😭🙏

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Hello!! Thank you for your request! I can do two characters don’t worry!

╔═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╗

8-Bit with a robot partner —

~ For starters, it took a LONG time to get 8-Bit to want anything to do with you. Much less than if you were a human, but still, you really had to bide your time with him.

~ He was very reluctant to talk past any simple small talk, and his usual speaking patterns kept his replies vague and sort of mysterious, in a way.

~ If you ever get him to open up, you’re probably the first person (robot?) to ever do so. And that’s exactly why he catches feelings for you.

~ He definitely doesn’t understand his feelings at first— he thinks that since he’s an arcade cabinet, he shouldn’t feel anything romantic. But after some soul searching and self help (google) he comes to the conclusion that he does, in fact, have a crush on you.

~ Would he ever confess to you? No. Not in a million years would he ever take the risk of losing the one person that he could talk to and rely on. Thankfully, you’re willing to take that risk!

~ When you confess to him, he is bewildered. He cannot fathom that someone would like him back. It’s a miracle he didn’t blow a fuse when you told him, whether it be in person or through any other means.

~ 8-Bit is very nervous at the start of the relationship, but he tries his best. Chances are good you would be his first for everything. But with nurturing and reassurance, he quickly gets over his anxiety after the first initial month or so.

~ He tries his hardest to keep his temper cool around you, and tells you time and time again that if he gets mad, it isn’t your fault. If he ever yelled at you, he would delete all his code immediately.

~ Despite all his rage, he loves playing co-op games with you, or just watching you play a game. As small tokens of love, he’ll buy you games you like/want, dlc, even merchandise of your favorite franchises. I wouldn’t say gift giving is his love language, he just likes spoiling you from time to time.

~ Regarding physical touch, it takes him quite a while to get used to it. You would have to start small, with just hand holding, then slowly ease your way into cuddling or anything of the sort.

~ He appreciates that your also a robot, meaning you can relate more to… whatever issues robots have. This also means 8-Bit is a lot more knowledgeable on robot first aid, and should something go wrong, he can easily patch you up.

~ Overall, it’s a lengthy process, but in the end 8-Bit does love you and cares for you a lot. It might be hard for him to properly express it, but he isn’t opposed to leaving you love notes around the place for you to find.

Lawrie with a robot partner —

~ Another stubborn, angry robot.

~ It’s real hard to talk to him. Harder than it is for 8-Bit, because Lawrie already has a best friend— Larry. He doesn’t see a need to be buddy buddy with anyone else.

~ You still try, and try… and try. Making any excuse to see him, to bring him anything he likes, help him with small errands… Yet he just sees you as an acquaintance.

~ That’s not to say he doesn’t find you attractive, or a potential partner. Oh no, he’s crushing *hard*, but he is just amazing at covering it up.

~ He gets all his gushing out to Larry, who has to bear to hear it all (he loves seeing his brother so happy).

“God, and you know what they did today?!”

“Ooo what! What!!”

“They handed me a pen when I needed it!!”

“OH MY GOD LAWRIE marry them already please”

~ The longer you stick around, the more open Lawrie gets. Slowly, over the course of a month, his little crush turns into a like. A *like like*.

~ Unlike 8-Bit, Lawrie actually *will* ask you out. But very discreetly. He asks if you would stay with him for longer, just to keep him company while sorting through files and other mundane tasks. After a week of this, he’ll finally ask you out on a date, but “just as friends”…

~ Dinner dates aren’t really… applicable to robots such as yourselves. So, you opt to roam Starr Park past his shift. He offers to pay for just about everything, since he was the one to ask you out anyway (and definitely not because he likes you haha…)

~ If you touch him at all, he’ll react with annoyance, but that is most definitely not how he feels… at all.

~ After the first date, he tells Larry all about it, who then encourages Lawrie to ask you to be his partner. Lawrie is very skeptical at first, and really doubts Larry’s advice, but goes for it anyway.

~ He asks you casually whenever your around his work, hardly batting an eye on the outside. But trust me, he’s freaking out internally. When you say yes, he genuinely gets flustered and turns red (can robots blush…?). He accidentally says “thank you”.

~ In a relationship, Lawrie isn’t all that bad. He sets in place some basic boundaries for the both of you, in an almost formal meeting delivery. This is mostly just to avoid future issues.

~ Unlike his brother, Lawrie is not very touchy, especially at first. It takes him almost two weeks to ask to hold your hand, and another week to… sort of kiss you? Whatever the robot equivalent is.

~ He isn’t one to spontaneously purchase gifts for you— he keeps that for when you two go out together. Instead, he prefers doing small acts of service for you, like taking on chores (even if you don’t live together) and bringing you drinks or food while watching movies together. He gives you prince(ss) treatment.

~ The only problems I can foresee is him being too harsh or rough at times. If you two are play fighting, he might accidentally shoot a rubber band at you too hard or hurt you in some way. He honestly doesn’t mean to, and always makes sure your okay and holds you after.

~ In all, he’s a good man. Larry is so happy his brother finally found someone, because honestly… he never thought Lawrie would.

╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╝

I hope this was good! Im not too familiar with 8-Bit but thankfully someone on reddit analyzed his personality.

Requests are open <3

[orbmanson7]

Why Logan is Trapped by the Narrative: A Quick Analysis on the Effects of Thomas' Black-and-White Thinking

Why is Logan so caught up on not being seen as a joke?

Why does he care so much about what Thomas and the others think of him?

Can't he just be Logic without having to deny he has feelings, without constantly filling only the roles of exposition in the show and the voice of reason for Thomas?

Well, here's the thing: Logan is trapped by the narrative.

Thomas' perception of the narrative, to be exact.

Think of it this way - you know how so many people argue that we can't have a female president in the US because she would somehow be "too emotional" to handle the position properly?

While complete nonsense (at least in comparison to plenty of emotional decisions men can make, too), the point is that people see the role of a president as someone who is calm, collected, and in control. They know that person will have to make very important decisions, so it's believed they need to be someone who is informed and level-headed.

Similarly, if you were to hire a lawyer, only for that lawyer to constantly get angry and loud and scream at people when someone argued with them, would you trust them to be able to do their job properly?

If you went to the doctor, only for your doctor to cry and sob with empathy for you, only offering up niceties and positive words instead of factual information to improve your situation, would you ever go back to such a doctor or trust them to help anyone?

People perceive certain jobs and roles in very specific ways.

It's not that a lawyer can't get emotional, but they need to understand how to keep their calm when they are doing their job. It's not that a doctor can't have empathy and care about their patients, but they need to not let it interfere with their work.

People tend to see the world as more black and white than it actually is. We perceive people for their roles, not as the multi-faceted folks that they truly are.

Just because you see a coworker who's always quiet and reserved doesn't mean they are like that when they go home. Just because your teacher is strict and quick to find faults doesn't mean they are like that when they're on vacation.

Often, people think someone can only be one or the other, not varying shades of both and more. But even people we know very well can have aspects that we don't know or understand.

Logan exists within shades of gray, removed from those arbitrary constructs society holds but still required to operate within them because of Thomas.

This is why he has to insist on being heard, being taken seriously, not making mistakes.

Because everything relies on Thomas' perception of him.

If Thomas doesn't find Logan reliable? He won't be reliable.

If Thomas doesn't trust him when he tells him the truth? He won't be trustworthy.

If Thomas thinks Logan is wrong about something? Then Logan will be wrong.

It all comes down to how Thomas' mind perceives everything, and Logan is always, always torturously aware of that fact. Thomas is human. He has a lot of black-and-white thinking that he hasn't challenged just yet.

It's because of this that Logan knows he can't mess up, because then Thomas will see those mistakes as him. He will be identified in that way.

We see this with the other sides a lot, too, by the way.

Patton isn't taking seriously even when he has good suggestions because he's always telling jokes and relying on feelings. But Morality is something important that should be listened to and taken seriously at times, as it's meant to guide your actions.

Roman is reprimanded a lot for arguing and yelling at others, but he is constantly fueled by passion. He's built to stand up for what he believes in, even if he's wrong or making an impulsive decision in the moment! Tampering down that passion would prevent him from expressing the Creativity that he embodies!

Virgil's entire role is to scare Thomas into not doing things that could potentially hurt him, so Thomas perceived him as scary and villainous for a very long time. But without it, Thomas could easily get hurt!

The same can be said for Janus and Remus, too. They initially come off as villainous, bad, and evil, despite their actual purpose and intentions, only because Thomas has perceived them and their roles in that way.

Logan cannot make mistakes because then he'll be seen as unreliable or wrong. He can't display emotions because then he'll be seen as emotional, compromised and unable to make unbiased decisions. He can't be seen as a joke or not taken seriously, because then Thomas' perception of him as a voice of reason, as someone with valuable knowledge, as someone he can always trust to tell him the truth...that will all be gone. It will warp Logan into something that he's not, so he has to maintain those rigid guidelines as much as absolutely possible to remain in his position.

Does this mean Logan really can have emotions? Can he enjoy silly activities or a good joke? Yes, of course he can.

But it needs to be kept separate from his role as Thomas' logic.

And this is where the issue arises. Because Thomas wants his sides to constantly act as their own characters, this puts a lot of spotlight on Logan even when he is in private. He can't be perceived at any time as someone Thomas can't trust or rely on, so his role as Logic invades the other part of his existence, too.

If a lawyer was stoic and formal even at home with their family, their family would probably find them odd, and the lawyer would probably feel stressed about being completely unable to ever unwind.

If a doctor could not show empathy even to their own children, relying only on facts, unable to comfort them because their coworkers could see their every move and they couldn't risk being seen as emotional for even a moment, the doctor would likely have a very stilted relationship with their kids, unable to connect with them in the way they want.

For Logan, he has to remain a reliable, unbiased, unfeeling Logic at all times because he is constantly being perceived as such.

Because it's all about who's watching and what's expected to be seen.

Logan wants to be more than his role as Logic, more than what is expected of him. But he knows the consequences of him trying to do so could harm Thomas in the long run, leaving him without a much-needed voice of reason.

So he's not going to let that happen, even if that means he has to hide away all the parts of 'Logan' that don't quite fit what Thomas expects of him.

Because Thomas needs him to be Logic a hell of a lot more than he needs him to be Logan.

[seyaryminamoto]

Any thought on Toph's writing and "arc" in ATLA? I personally think Toph was the most stunted and underdeveloped character. She never really develops at all and is mostly just a walking joke. It's clear that the writers loved her but also clear that they never did anything with her.

If you mean stunted and underdeveloped character in the main cast, definitely yes. A lot of minor characters were done a disservice by the show, given next to no complexity, so I wouldn't rank her as #1 altogether, but among the main cast, absolutely.

Now, I wouldn't say she had zero growth, it's just... not an arc. I also don't think she was only a joke, though they used her for comedy a lot. It's part of why it weirds me out when the fandom acts like Sokka, and only Sokka, was comic relief in ATLA. Toph, Aang, Iroh, even Zuko whenever the narrative wanted to poke fun at him, provided comic relief often, so it's kind of stupid to pretend it was only ever Sokka.

... But that ridiculous perception, then, caused the not-so-funny LOK phenomenon of "Bolin is the funny one", where basically all comedy was meant to be about/around this one character, which didn't work nearly as well as they expected it to, and did nothing for the team's synergy and bonding, but I digress...

What do I think about Toph's story and journey in ATLA?

Toph starts out as a girl who wants nothing more than to be independent and for people to stop underestimating her. When we consider that, in her final action scene in the show, she's clinging by her fingertips to someone else, and that her survival and life depend expressly on HIM, it suggests that she's learned that she doesn't have to go at everything alone, and also that she doesn't have all the answers to all situations. The first time we met her, it doesn't really feel like she wants to work alongside other people, as shown in her conflict with Katara in The Chase, where Toph felt absolutely no need to chip in and help out with anything but her personal needs.

I will say, in Toph's defense about that last thing, it's perfectly common for a child who has spent most her life being cared for, not having anyone expect a single thing out of her, to not understand why she needs to contribute ANYTHING to the team. It doesn't hurt that she's new, which implies that the others have been setting up camp, finding food, traveling across the world, without needing an earthbender's contributions. So it's fairly easy to see her side in this: why does she need to help at all? Why can't they handle things on their own when they always did?

But in her chance encounter with Iroh, Toph is given a chance to think on things and ponder that there's nothing wrong with relying on others. It's so effective that this scene concludes with Toph telling Iroh that maybe he should tell Zuko that he needs him too. This might even be one of Toph's strongest moments in the entire show, honestly. She has no idea who she's talking about, has never met Zuko or Iroh before, but what she tells Iroh doesn't sound like it comes only from having determined that IROH needs Zuko: it sounds like self-reflection, based on Toph realizing that maybe she can open up to needing her friends, too, and working alongside them isn't such a bad thing.

I think this is decent writing. Really!

The issue is... this is about as good as it gets with Toph.

I really like her character, she has a lot of good jokes, some interesting moments of vulnerability here and there, but this scene with Iroh is the only instance of the show I can think back on that actually features Toph questioning her strict ideas and reasoning with them, choosing a different path and abandoning something else she wasn't ready to forsake (complete and utter independence). What's more, this isn't even the kind of growth where Toph has COMPLETELY abandoned her individualistic mentality: she's adjusted it. She allows herself to consider she could be part of a team, to have friends, to work with others, but that doesn't mean she's tied down to them. It never stops feeling like Toph is more than ready to do things on her terms, in her own ways. No matter how much she bonds with the others, she will rely on them exclusively when she needs them (see how she clings to others when she has little to no visibility), or when they need her in combat and such, but outside of such spaces? It's unlikely that Toph will be the type of person who feels the need to be accompanied all the time, who feels better if someone is constantly watching over her. Her friends allow her to find some kind of balance between her need for independence and the comfort of having allies and friends to connect to... but that doesn't mean that she'll never break off on her own when the urge hits her, when the big battles are settled, when problems are resolved.

And I'm the last person to think Yang, of ALL PEOPLE, has any solid understanding of these characters, but whether it was his idea or Bryke's to feature Toph as a teacher, and to have the Gaang drop by to pick her up during The Promise? Ultimately, this just proves she doesn't feel the need to be with Aang, Sokka and Katara non-stop. If even someone like Yang thought she'd go do her own thing (... the quality of what he wrote is, of course, forever in question), down to even leaving her out of The Search entirely? It's clear that they're not trying to promote the idea that Toph is forever clinging to her friends now. She's still independent.

But like I said earlier... this balance Toph finds between her friends and her freedom isn't the product of multiple episodes and lots of hard work and bumping into obstacles to achieve. This... is literally just Toph's second episode. That's the last time the show actually challenged Toph on a PERSONAL level that doesn't involve "becoming a more powerful bender".

Take her relationship with her parents, for instance: the fandom is convinced they were abusive as fuck and that Toph would hate them forever. Ironically, the show DOESN'T promote this notion at all (which makes The Rift kind of insane when compared to the show's treatment of Toph's parents), for it features her parents as two idiots who underestimate Toph immensely and who simply want her to come home and stay out of danger. This could be deemed as abusive in some people's minds, as usual the word needs to be taken more seriously nowadays... they're not good parents, there's no denying that. They don't understand their daughter, outright. They allow their preconceptions of her disability to determine who they think their daughter is. There's nothing in the show that suggests otherwise.

So why, exactly, is it that every instance where Toph considers communicating with her parents or meeting them, she seems to be perfectly content with doing it?

Xin Fu's trap for Toph was completely cemented on the notion that Poppy Beifong had come to visit Ba Sing Se and that she finally accepted her daughter for who she was. Toph's reaction isn't some kind of jaded dismissal because there's noooo way her mom would ever accept her... she outright goes to see her. Which allows Xin Fu to trap her. Which then results in Toph discovering she can metalbend. But the thread that started this whole plotline? It... goes nowhere. Of course, Toph's parents AREN'T there, there's no real reason to assume they've changed, and this was just a trap... but we get no reaction from Toph when it comes to this. We see no conflict. She simply embraces her new abilities and runs back to Ba Sing Se. A quick glance through the transcript shows zero focus or interest in what she went through. Hell, there's not even any acknowledgement that she learned to metalbend. It's all about Aang's struggles with the Avatar State and Katara being in danger.

Next time? The Runaway. A very frustrating and annoying episode. What happens here? Katara decides to dig into Toph's old wounds regarding her parents, tries to psychoanalyze her and decides that all of Toph's rebelliousness against authority boil down to having a bad relationship with her parents. Which... maybe it's true? Doesn't really justify Katara trying to act like her mother anyway? And then the episode ends with Toph asking Katara to help her send a letter to her parents, which sounds like Toph has made her peace with them and like she's ready to accept that she would like them in her life too, and that she wants them to accept who she is. Yay.

... The issue here is there's no follow-up. This doesn't feel like development because nothing comes from it. Nothing really changed. It doesn't come from organic writing either: it comes from Katara's forced "mother friend" role that she didn't use to hold at all (as I said in the ask about why I think Katara loses her appeal as a character the deeper we go into ATLA), and it never actually confronts Toph with her parents again. It doesn't feature a deeper reflection from Toph regarding why she feels the way she does about her parents, nor does it feature Katara realizing that Toph's parents actually did fuck up a LOT with her and that she has every right to push back against them. It merely makes Katara calm down because she realizes the others care about her (while eavesdropping, ofc) and are ready to accept her for who she is... even though she, too, merits a LOT of reflection regarding this mom friend role and nobody else should be comfortable with that, let alone her :'D

Point being, the show really just holds this as the only thing about Toph that wasn't actually resolved, but it acts like it's fine because Toph sent a letter. What growth did we see in Toph that actually means this letter makes all the difference, though? We have no idea how it affected her parents -- as much as Yang acts like it didn't affect them at all, it could have made them rethink some things, or it could have made them mount an even more desperate search for their child, who knows? And it's a pretty solid thread to pull at, to tug loose, to TRULY challenge Toph's character... aaaaaaand they just don't do it at all.

The way I see it, that's really what it boils down to. The show doesn't challenge Toph in any significant way after her... second episode. This isn't the case for most main characters, and I'm not even asking for Toph's story to feature an intense, horrible, super harrowing and difficult plot...! Just, make some things complicated for her. Show her frustrations, show her difficulty to grasp things she hasn't experienced before. Confront her with realities that she, a sheltered girl from a pretty well-off city, has never really needed to face before. Her attitude towards Ba Sing Se is never questioned or challenged narratively: she's constantly proven right about the city being fucked up, and about her reads on all high society people. While all this makes Toph feel smart to a viewer, the issue really comes where this character basically only has her admittedly sizable charisma to win us over. She succeeds! But what does this show give her to work with besides a very quick "I don't wanna work in a team-I learned to work in a team" conflict that is resolved even faster than Sokka's sexism, which pretty much died out within 4 episodes?

There's definitely a component here were Toph is successful not only because of her personality, her abilities, her strength... but also because of the message she conveys regarding disabilities. A LOT of disabled people have clung to Toph as an example and inspiration to not allow whatever ails them to define them or hold them back. Whether the comparison between a blind girl with magical powers and a disabled person of our world without them is valid or not? The effect Toph has had on a lot of viewers who related to her struggles is undeniable. In a sense, it almost feels like the fandom's worship of Toph suggests that in not giving her further challenges on a personal level, they actually hit some kind of jackpot as far as social messages are concerned... but once you actually scope in and pay proper attention to her character, you might find she's got so much more potential that went ignored by this story in favor of presenting her as this unquestionably strong girl who relies on others when she really needs to but otherwise is independent and free from all of society's restraints on her.

Personally, I know this to be the case because of the pushback and reactions my version of Toph in Gladiator initially resulted in. She had no reason to think anything of Sokka and damn near killed him when they first clashed in the Gladiator League... and this horrified a LOT of people! They couldn't BELIEVE Toph could be like this! An older Toph, 7 years older to be precise, who broke free from her parents' hold, struck a bargain with her would-be-captor to get him MORE money than he'd find if he turned her in, and who wanted nothing but to measure her strength against other powerful fighters. If she doesn't have Aang's group's influence on her as early on as when she's 12-years-old, is it REALLY that crazy for Toph's problems with her parents and authority to fester, for her craving for independence to reach new heights, for her readiness to prove herself stronger than anyone to actually be a hazard for other people who stand in her way?

Thus... a lot of the work I've done with this character has been deconstructing these flaws, building her into someone who understands herself better. It's in learning from the examples Sokka and Azula set for her that she starts to realize what kind of person, what kind of LEADER she wants to be. One of my favorite scenes to write about Toph is when she's setting her city free from Fire Nation control, extending her earthbending reach all across Gaoling, putting a stop to the FN army while focusing on creation rather than destruction. On building up her people, on leading her forces with the power of her seismic sense, on capturing the enemy leader, all of it without razing her home city to the ground. Early Gladiator Toph? She wouldn't have cared one bit to join the war to begin with, and if someone had told her that her city, the place she associated with rules, limitations and restraints would be razed to the ground? She might have even encouraged it. Yes, a part of her would have felt guilt over her parents... but she would have been so emotionally stunted that she would have forced herself to ignore any part of her that still cared about them.

And worth noting? One of the biggest personal issues Toph faced was actually nearly killing Azula and Sokka because of her absolute determination to win against them during an event. They were already friends, but they were also each other's biggest rivals in the League... neither side holds back when it comes to this particular competition, and Azula and Sokka had actually beaten Toph and Iroh on their previous encounter! Which meant Toph's desperation for victory was driving her a bit crazy. But once Toph takes it too far at one point, she freaks out. It triggers guilt that actually jumpstarts a much deeper and more complicated arc than anything she'd been through before. Her determination to win at all costs, her pride over her lifelong winning streak within the League... she's suddenly facing the possibility that all this shit she used to cling to, so damn hard, means NOTHING when she could lose two of the people she cares most about if she continues to privilege all that stuff over their wellbeing and safety.

And this doesn't mean that she didn't like fighting as a Gladiator anymore... it means she really came to terms with the fact that other things mattered more. Later on? She realized there are BIGGER fights out there, too, than what's going on in the League: she was the last line of defense against a brutal attack by a rogue waterbender who killed a lot of people and could have killed many more... and after the fact, she spends quite some time worrying about what could have happened if she had failed to protect everyone, if her strength had faltered when she needed it most.

Yes, touting my own horn a lot... but everything I've typed about my own story is exactly why it can even piss me off, at times, to see Toph's potential as a character squandered to the extent it is in canon. I've done so much more with her than they ever did, and granted it's a huge story, but Toph ISN'T the main focus on it and I still managed to give her more to work with than canon ever did. It makes no sense, does it?

I don't think she was given the respect she deserved, and partly, I feel this happened with a lot of female characters who straight-up don't have arcs at all. There's this latent fear that in questioning a character, showing they're flawed, they could become unlikeable... ironic how this is seldom a concern over male characters, but it is with female ones. And mind you: it DOES happen to male characters, because Aang himself is the most egregious example of a male character showcasing flaws and people spiraling over them, turning them into something they never were, all be it to pretend SOMEONE ELSE (*cough* Zuko *cough*) is that much better than him. But they WEREN'T scared of writing Aang into complicated situations that showcased his flaws and resulted in his growth, though. They are with Katara, Toph, Suki, Mai, Ty Lee... :') wonder why, huh?

Ultimately, Toph is a much better character, boiled down to basics, than many characters I tend to talk about and criticize openly. The issue with Toph, for me, isn't really that she fails as a character, or conveys wrong messages, or that the narrative is biased in her favor (though sometimes it is...).

The problem with Toph is she has no chances to truly grow into her own. That her biggest growth comes from a singular conversation with Iroh in episode 2x08 is incredibly unfair to a character who can provide SO MUCH if you simply give her a chance and let her be... human. Flawed. Complex. There's so much more that can be done with her, and if given a chance? She really could have been the best character of the entire show. Too bad they didn't have the guts to let that happen.

[sophie-frm-mars]

What does it really mean to let go of the feelings of alienation and isolation that capitalism socializes us with? What does letting go of yourself and allowing yourself to become integrated into a community really mean?

I ask because I thought that overcoming that sense of feeling abandoned and isolated from everyone else just meant building connections with other people. And I have tried that at times. I try to make it a point to spend time with friends and have those social connections.

But at the same time, whenever I bring up my psychological or behavioral problems to my friends, they often react badly, telling me to just "go see a therapist" or to stop relying on other people so much, to "stand on my own two feet." I would like to become integrated into community care and social support, but the actual people around me only care about solidarity up until something is asked of them, at which point they basically become Reaganites ("be more self-reliant", "stand on your own two feet", "I don't owe you anything", etc.). I can't really receive support from people who resent the concept of supporting others, who view relying on other people at all as "toxic codependency" or "being treated like someone's unpaid therapist."

As for therapy itself... even suggesting that is a cruel joke. Therapists exist to get you back to work and force you to conform to existing systems. They don't actually care about healing you in the fullest sense, hence why modern therapy purposely lacks any social or communal aspect, preferring to "help you" in a purely individualistic sense, i.e. giving you enough medication that you stop questioning how things are and go back to work.

The last time I reached out to a therapist for help, they threatened to have me TDO'd. I don't particularly trust them to help with my emotional problems.

So how do I find people who are willing to support me? Because after having been abandoned by other people so many times, I worry whether it's even possible for me to build healthy social connections with other people anyone. I'll always be worried that they'll just abandon me again the moment I do something that rubs them the wrong way.

Okay so there are a few things here.

Being meaningfully in community with others is hard work, and it involves a constant back and forth between your capacity and everyone else's. I see a lot in your question about wanting others to support you, but not much about wanting to support them. It's not that it's a trade per se, but if everyone in a community were looking for people to support them and not trying to be supportive to others, there wouldn't be a community, just a bunch of people struggling in proximity.

The reality is that we all have to do some work on ourselves in order to be in a position to support AND to receive support from others. I make this joke about "the three elfs" to my friends and comrades quite a lot, I just realized it's an out loud thing lol you have to imagine it's in a cockney accent "you've got three elfs: physical elf, dental elf, and mental elf. Everything else is just taking care of other people's elfs."

In dialectical behavioural therapy, the first proposition we are asked to accept is that "everyone is doing their best AND everyone needs to do better". While it is entirely fair to be suspicious of therapy, especially in contexts where therapists are very eager to throw pharmaceuticals at the problem, we all have work we need to do on ourselves. It is a cruel irony that although being in community improves your mental health, lots of people will drop others or cut them out when they start exhibiting mental health symptoms - the only way past it is to do everything you can to work on yourself, communicate openly with the people in your life about what you're working on and respect their boundaries wrt what they can offer. Some people will have more capacity to help you than others.

On the ZAD in one of our interviews the zadiste we were talking to described a sort of "virtuous cycle" of community and struggle. The struggle to be free enables us to find space to build community, the community enables us to struggle, and so on and so on. I think about this cycle a lot. It's true on the individual level too. Putting in time to making sure you're okay and as well as you can be ("living a life worth living" in DBT terms) enables you to build the capacity to form strong connections with others, and those connections will make your life richer and increase your capacity so you can deepen those connections, make new ones, and support each other.

My next really big essay project, The Mad And The Mentally Ill, is about how we free ourselves and each other from the paralysing effects of capitalism on our mental health, because I think this "internal frontier of liberation" might be the most fundamental underpinning element we need to tackle in order to make revolution possible. Everything follows on from us knowing how to take care of ourselves and each other, or to put it a little differently the question of how to organize in communities where everyone is struggling will be one of the most vital revolutionary questions of our lifetimes.

[mysticbewitched]

Hey mystic

I was gonna link an ask from earlier but i cant seem to put links in here for some reason and google is not helping. Its the one about the non-dualism community and how toxic it can be. I just wanted to say I am glad others agree. I wouldn't consider myself a beginner to loa manifesting or shifting. I just think its crazy how someone says things like "just be" and someone asks them to clarify it and they respond by saying something like "do you need help drinking water."

Trends come and go, I'm sure once ND is no longer new someone else will unearth some old spiritual practice and claim its above LOA as well. I just wish everyone would be accepting and encouraging instead of what seems to be condescending because they think they know something no one else does.

Lastly I heard you say on the podcast the person you were gonna do it with is no longer in your life, sorry to hear that. I only bring this up because I believe I saw a post saying you manifested this person into your life and then they changed (I could be wrong though). I also manifested someone back (an ex) but it was a 'manifestation' and all i ended up creating was misery.

You don't have to answer this if the last part is too personal, but if you want send me a message. Just wanted to say I think you have some great views that resonated.

Great podcast btw

I completely agree with you and I'm glad that others are able to see the madness that I'm seeing.

What they usually mean by telling you all, "just be" is they're telling you to realize your true self as awareness. They're telling you to just recognize your divine nature in the present moment and enjoy knowing yourself.

I don't see why they don't just tell you to turn within and recognize your true self as awareness in this present moment without all the riddles.

I agree that everyone here should turn within themselves and listen to their inner guidance instead of relying on the "others" for advice, because then the constant search and craving for more answers will never end. However, at the same time, it's the polite and helpful thing to do to let your readers know exactly what they're looking for while you advise for them to look within themselves for the truth: realizing divine the source of your true self.

If everyone knew what they were looking for, I think they would have an easier time turning within and trusting their inner voice to lead them to answers.

I feel as if the lack of clarification on exactly what to look for is unnecessary and it can come off as mind games instead of just being direct with the readers and telling them all, "you're turning within to realize your true nature. Hint: you are always *aware.*"

I happen to notice from time to time as well that some of these bloggers feel the need to use the whole "words are meaningless" nonsense as a moronic excuse to bully or put down other blogs amongst themselves or with their anons for simply viewing things in a different perspective and I don't think that's cool for anyone to do.

That behavior isn't right. It's just plain mean.

Everyone is entitled to their own perspective and share their own views, but to publicly put down specific blog names for everyone to hear and make fun of them together? Very condescending and cold.

Oh, believe me, I'm waiting for the next spiritual trend to come out of nowhere. I wonder what it's going to be next. Now my curiosity is in flames.

To end things here, I want to thank you so much for your kinds words and the lovely compliment.

Your feedback and appreciation for the podcast means so much to me. I'm so very glad to hear that my perspective of things resonated with you.

Thank you for enjoying my podcast.

[pokemonshelterstories]

If someone tried to use a stolen styler to manipulate a pokemon for a purpose that would be against the best interests of the pokemon being styler'd (IE to illegally capture or kill) would it not work? I heard that styler work by "conveying the user's feelings of friendship" or something, but does it actually communicate intention, or does it just make the styler'd pokemon less aggressive and more friendly to the wielder of the styler?

Idk I'm curious and don't have many opportunities to interact with rangers.

Basically, if a poacher stole a styler would it be able to help them or is it just stupid

the thing with stylers is that if you don't know how to use them, you're just going to confuse and upset the target pokemon. while stylers do rely somewhat on the ranger having a calm and friendly state of mind, they also rely on the ranger knowing the pokemon's body language and knowing how to respond in turn, and they rely on the ranger knowing specifically how to convey that using the styler. the styler helps a ranger convey basic emotions like non-aggression to pokemon, but a poorly-used styler can give the wrong signal to the pokemon, and a ranger needs to actually know what emotions the pokemon is displaying. if just anyone could pick up a styler and use it, rangers wouldn't need so much training, and stylers would be far more dangerous to produce in as large of quantities as we do.

there are some people in the past who have imitated styler technology to an extent in order to misuse it, but stylers themselves are very difficult to use if you haven't been trained. a poacher without any experience wouldn't get any use out of one.

[majestic-miko]

Drabble Challenge: Followers send a number to your ask and you write a drabble using that sentence/prompt in your piece. Try to keep up! Expect a TON of requests!

actually no one asked for this but if u feel like it, send me a number. ^^ barely edited btw

113: I prefer blondes

Modern AU. Rated G

Summary: your husband finds out you have a boy best friend.

Erwin x GN!reader

Words: 1180

your vibrating ringtone going off in the middle of the night was the sound that pulled you out of your peaceful night sleep, and - although Erwin started to stir next to you - you were the one who let out a grunt, half-awake as you felt around to find the device on your nightstand in the dark. you squinted, your eyes struggling to adjust to the overwhelming light, urging your sleepiness away so you could decipher on your smartphone who called you at such an unruly hour- of course without forgetting beforehand to hold the volume down button until that damn ringtone was muted.

as to not disturb your husband, you decided it best to answer in another room when you recognized the familiar name. You slid out of your shared-bedroom, tiptoeing as silently as possible to the adjacent home office.

“hi Moblit! what's up?” you asked, scrambling in hopes to cover up your groggy voice.

a relieved whisper of a sentence of gratitude to the Lord that you answered was audible on the other end of the line at your question. 

“i’m here now. Is everything alright?” 

“yeah, i mean- no. actually…”

you couldn’t help but notice how his tone was feeble but tinted with alarm. something was clearly the matter and you grew more concerned for him.

“calm down, bro. take a deep breath and tell me what’s wrong?”

“that’s the thing! i tried that earlier and it hurts like hell.” 

okay, that sounds bad.

“shit! where does it hurt? ”

“on my lower right abdomen like I’m a hundred percent sure this is appendicitis at this point.” 

“how long has this been going on?” 

“almost a week…”

“...”

“ but before you say anything, it has been mostly bearable-” he emphasized, sensing with your reaction (or lack of) that you were freaking out, “It was not until today that I had to rely on painkillers.”

“you should not have dismissed the obvious warning signs oh my god”, you scolded him as you rubbed your eyes. “have you already called an ambulance? you need to go to the hospital right now, bro.”

“since the pain won't allow me to sleep, I guess you’re right."

"no shit Sherlock sure i'm right"

"to answer your question" he pursued, ignoring your whining. "i haven’t yet. I’ve thought about it but since I have to pack my stuff for my stay before the emergency services come here, I don’t think I can pull this off. I can barely move off the living-room, and would rather avoid random strangers touching my belongings.”

“fair point.”

you took a deep breath, attempting to gather your thoughts and make sense of the situation.

"alright, stay on the line, then. if anything happens to you, at least I’ll know. Where do you live by the way?"

reaching for a post-it and a pen on the table, you scribbled the address he gave.

"noted! I’ll be there with my husband, okay? I don't think I’ll be able to carry you on my own if needed."

you were also a scary ass driver but that detail was irrelevant for now.

"sure, no problem! call me when you’re here."

"of course. hang in there, bro!"

********

you didn’t want to wake up your husband.

how could you find it in yourself to interrupt his beauty sleep in the first place? you knew of his gigantic workload everyday and the way he always came back home utterly exhausted. the way he would slump against the sofa as you massaged his upper back, fixing the muscle knots in between his shoulders. if anyone could deserve much more needed rest, it was certainly Erwin and you found yourself admiring the beautiful sight of him, how vulnerable and relaxed he looked, his mouth slightly ajar in all his sleepy state.

and yet, you  found yourself rubbing his chest ever so softly, whispering your words to him as gently as possible

“babe?”

“mh-” he rubbed his eyes, trying to ward off sleep. Damn he looked so cute and you were having such a hard time not kissing him right now no matter how many times you’d wake up to this sight. “what is it?”

“sorry for bothering you darling but this is an emergency. Can you help me drive a friend to the hospital?”

Erwin let out a yawn and sat up, his eyelids still quite heavy, showing how he was still not entirely awake.You granted him some time to process the information before he answered.

"um- yes, of course."

“you’re the best”

the ride was silent as the vehicle left the driveway since none of you had the energy to do the talking so late at night. Erwin had helped Moblit get in the car while you’d gone to gather his belongings in a bag according to a list he had jotted down on a piece of paper. the three of you eventually reached the hospital and your friend got admitted in the emergency room as fast as possible.

a few moments later, a medic approached you and Erwin in the waiting room, confirming your friend’s appendicitis diagnosis and announcing that he would have to undergo an appendicectomy in a few minutes. You thanked him for the info and soon enough, you found yourself laying your head on Erwin’s shoulder after the both of you agreed to stay until you were sure that the surgery went well.

“i hope everything turns out fine for him.”

“don't worry! nothing will go wrong.”

he caressed your hair softly in reassurance for a while before speaking again.

“you know i actually thought it was Petra who needed our help earlier… i never went to her house before, which is the reason why i assumed so and then instead I find myself face-to-face with an unfamiliar man.”

you chuckled as you took in the mistake. You were a loner by nature so it was common knowledge that the only potential best friend you could refer to was Petra, who you seemed to get along pretty well with during your uni years.

“yeah.. sorry about that. Moblit is a close childhood friend. we lived in the same hometown and have known each other since we were like four or five but life led us to different paths after high school so it’s no surprise that you never met him before. he recently found a job here and we kinda got back in touch I guess… ”

"not in inappropriate ways, i hope."

"..."

“and here i thought i was your only boy best friend”, he pouted.

“am i sensing jealousy in the air?” You  pinched his nose playfully.

“Please stop.”

“love, he’s just a friend…”

“whom you’ve known longer than we’ve been married. “

“he's also tall and handsome.”

“see that. you’re proving my point.”

“nahh, I prefer blondes. thick eyebrows and chiseled cheekbones are also a plus. no… actually you know what? i prefer them even more when they belong to my husband you know- a certain Erwin Smith.”

A little satisfied grin appeared on his face as he wrapped and arm around you and pulled you even closer to him.

“well, that's my luck then. i seem to fit the criteria.”

[boylikeanangel]

ok more tlou episode 3 thoughts. yknow what I loved about bill's final letter to joel? the way he said that he was wrong about his original outlook on life because one person mattered to him. frank didn't make bill start loving the rest of the world or particularly care about anything happening outside of his town. he's still a deeply mistrusting person and that's something I don't think any amount of convincing from frank could have changed. but he found an exception. one person proved him wrong. he didn't need to suddenly start caring about EVERYONE. just one person was enough. just getting to spend the rest of his life with one person who loves him and whom he loves and protecting them gave his life meaning. and if you know about what joel does at the end of this story for the one person he decides he needs to protect, even at the cost of the rest of the world, you can really see why that's such a powerful thing to be established so early on in the show. these small love stories that don't factor much into the goings on of the rest of the world but ultimately tell us there is hope and humanity is not doomed, even if there will never be a cure. this is not a story about the universal goodness of humanity or even about a world that deserves to be saved, there are no characters whose actions have far-reaching consequences that will alter the course of history. this is a story about the lengths one person will go to to hold onto the one thing that makes living more bearable, these small flickers of candlelight in an endless night. neither joel nor bill are heroes, will ever be heroes. but no matter what, they can be relied upon to protect the one person they love above all else. and god help anyone who stands in their way.