#and instead you came to me under anon and criticize how i answered an anon

[aquagirl1978]

Nice as your answer is to the anon in regards to blocking people I think it also misses the core issue that is the confidence of anon. What makes anon feel so inferior? I feel that is something they need to confront with a therapist because that honestly sounds concerning. Telling them that it is okay to block is telling them it is okay to hide away from their problems instead of facing them.

Thank you anon for your advice, but previous anon was not asking me if they needed therapy. They asked me if what they wanted to do was weird. I am not a mental health professional. It is not my place, from my seat in Tumblrland, to be suggesting to anyone here to go seek therapy.

Previous anon seemed troubled enough - they needed a hug, not to be told they need therapy. For all we know, previous anon is already in therapy and perhaps too shy to ask their therapist about fandom/hobbies. But previous anon did not ask me "do I need therapy" they asked if what they were thinking/feeling was weird.

(DISCLAIMER: This is NOT to say I am against therapy. I have been in therapy myself and am a big advocator of seeking help when needed. However, I also will not push therapy as the answer when someone asks me a question such as "is this weird")

[ejzah]

I never really liked Callen's response when Densi's relationship was finally outed. Instead of being happy for them he just said, don't pretend like you didn't know the risks. Way to be supportive Callen. Could you maybe write a fanfic where he apologizes to Deeks, but also assures everyone is happy for Densi.

A/N: Hi anon, I might not have gone as hard on Callen as you might have liked. I hope this is ok though.

***

Mixed Reactions

Kensi left before Deeks, deciding to go to her apartment and order takeout for both of them. He’d had one more report to submit, which took longer than usual as he thought over everything that happened. From getting spied on during their morning workout, to Hetty telling them to separate for the day, to her final big reveal that he had an open IA investigation against him.

While he was packing up, Callen walked in, texting one handed. He paused when he saw Deeks, then continued on to his own desk.

“You’re here late,” he commented.

“One of my monthly LAPD reports was due,” Deeks explained. He straightened a few items on his desk, the antithesis of Kensi’s trinket covered space, leaving just a cup of pens, a file holder, and his nameplate. He could sense Callen across the room, watching him, and wondered if he was about to get a lecture.

“Hey, I just wanted to make sure we were good,” Callen said eventually.

“When are we not good?” Deeks responded with a tight smile. Today had been long and stressful, and for once, he did not feel up for chitchat. He closed his laptop, sliding it into his messenger bag.

“I mean, after what we talked about today. You and Kensi.”

“Oh, I think you made your position on our relationship stunningly clear.” He answered flippantly, not wanting to show how much Callen’s lack of faith in him and Kensi bothered him. He’d expected it to a point. Having it confirmed though wasn’t what he wanted.

“Ok, maybe what I said came out a little more harshly than I intended,” Callen admitted, and Deeks snorted.

“No, “don’t pretend you didn’t know the risks” is definitely a ringing endorsement,” Deeks said wryly, shaking his hair out of his eyes as he turned to face Callen finally. “You don’t approve of us dating. It’s ok. We expected it, which is why we attempted to keep it under wraps.”

“And that obviously worked out well for you,” Callen said with his usual dry sarcasm.

“Are we done here? Because it’s late, and I’m tired, and Kensi’s waiting for me.”

“Deeks, wait.” Callen touched Deeks’ forearm, keeping him from brushing past. Deeks waited expectantly while Callen shifted uncomfortably. “Look, you know I’m not great when it comes to this stuff.”

“Clearly,” Deeks agreed.

“Just listen for a second. From the perspective of your team leader and coworker, yes, I’m not the biggest fan. The two of you dating is definitely gonna make things more difficult. It’s just the nature of crossing that line,” he explained himself, hesitating. Deeks raised an eyebrow, waiting for the part that didn’t sound like further criticism. “But as your friend, I’m also happy for you. After everything you’ve gone through and overcome in the last couple years, you deserve this. I’m sorry that my initial response wasn’t better.”

“Oh. That’s, uh, that’s surprisingly supportive and kind,” Deeks said with some surprise. He pursed his lips, feeling a little awkward now. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Callen smirked, breaking the moment. “I will wholeheartedly deny it though if you even think of telling Sam I said it.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Good.” Callen extended his hand to Deeks, and after a moment, he took it squeezing firmly. “Have a nice night, Deeks.”

“You too, Callen.”

Callen look over his shoulder on the way out. “Oh, and I might keep the PDAs to a minimum if you don’t want Granger to shoot you.”

“Got it,” Deeks said, shaking his head as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Oddly enough, he felt just a little bit better.

***

Thanks for the prompt!

[cheecats]

I was the anon who sent the long critique, and I’m sorry that you got such a passive aggressive message from another anon. But the fact you ignored mine definitely rubs me the wrong way. It’s almost like you’re picking messages that help your point stand out as morally correct, ignoring the genuine criticism. But that’s fine, all that tells me is that you couldn’t think of any counter critiques. I just wanted a fair discussion.

I beg your pardon? Ignored?? I was going to reply to your message, but as you can see for yourself, yours was much longer and held a more nuanced and diplomatic stance on the discussion. I had to think about how to reply to each point listed, all of which were fair assesments and critiques to make. I didn't want to rush and miss something. But uh, I think instead im just going to copy/paste your message and just post it under the cut and call it a day after this. I don't have to answer to someone who speculates i'm attempting to appear "morally superior" because I didn't reply to their critique on my personal reflection on something? Don't make assumptions about me. You don't know me. Whether intentional or not, this came across as passive aggressive too.

Anons critique to my original post available down below for those interested:

[genderisareligion]

Happy New Year 🖤 Anons I got y’all soon. January is a nostalgic month for this blog cause it’s the two year anniversary of me being (formerly) shadowbanned also January 6th 2021 was what I like to call a Peak Everything moment for me. Peak Christianity, peak crackerdom, peak toxic masculinity, peak gender, peak humanity lol shit. Spent a year and some change invisible (but not termed 🙏🏽) for the crime of making too many trans racial jokes I guess and the blog I tried to make a replacement for this @genderisareligion immediately received the same fate. I suspect what actually caused it was my constant participation in my pinned post back then and the lack of answers anyone had for me but who knows. And I don’t know why because I didn’t request it but my blog’s visibility came back suddenly this April I wanna say. Here’s hoping it sticks🤞🏽

Anyway in 2023 along with finally publishing WOCTBI (Women of Color Taking Back Intersectionality, a little chapbook/magazine I wanna put together documenting nonwhite radblr’s posts and conversations, will likely be an ebook now instead of print) I do kinda wanna go in a different direction here. It’s not that I don’t think the trans conversation still needs to be happening, it does, homosexuals and women’s boundaries are still being eroded at an alarmingly rapid rate, I’ve just always been critical of all gender, “cis,” trans, up, down, no matter who’s participating. I’m not a “TERF blog” it’s in my url as a joke lol I’m just a black woman who got fed up with being polite on main being told to kill myself for reminding people humans are sexually dimorphic. Never even been a “TERF” cause I fully admit I’m a hypocrite and will in real life fully respect the pronouns/experiences of transmed normies who mind their own business, especially lesbian TIFs, but crackers like Dana Rivers and Dylan Mulvaney and all these “suck my girldick” transbians get he/him idgaf. So many of these males are so comfortable in their privilege they won’t combust if one less black women gasses them up

Wild how hypocritical and unable to admit it the “tolerant progressive left” is claiming that actually trans liberation is the key to ending black women’s oppression despite it being a recent invention and inherently having nothing to do with us and causing these crackers to run around telling me I look more like a male than other females. Like until this backwards shit ends I guess my opinions will continue to be “TERFy” cause I will never think this is okay, black women always come last and are always expected to be an expendible emotional and rhetorical resource to activist groups. This is why I’ve been politically homeless for so many years, doesn’t seem to matter where I go the message is the same: you exist to prop someone else up and you’re not allowed to complain about anything or it means all the help I’ve been giving you is bunk. BLM is something a shit ton of people just say and don’t do anything about because it’s too difficult. #SayHerName couldn’t keep the masses attention long enough and black women are still being killed with seemingly no end in sight. Will never not be crazy to me that in a decade “lesbians don’t like dick” did a complete 180 and became sacreligious to liberals.

I’ll just be here with my popcorn waiting for when inevitably sometime within the next decade or two a lot of these begendered crackers and their allies wake up and look back at the catastrophic mess they caused for some people and scramble to wipe their hands of it and act like it was all a conservative psyop they played no part in or whatever. Fact of the matter is that not everyone on HRT or going under the knife for SRS are doing so for good reasons and fact of the matter is transtrenders are making a mockery of those with actual sex dysphoria. Acting like any criticism of that at all is “transphobic and genocidal” is batshit insane. Like my intention with this blog at first was to try and help if anyone out there is saved by understanding that gender is fake at the end of the day, like I was.

So anyway I’ll be posting more on just feminism in general and gender criticism in general because imo radical feminism is just feminism or at least it used to be. This “TERF” shit gotta go can’t believe such a boogeyman nondescript term got so popular

[faroreswinds]

Japanese anon, hello, I hope you’re enjoying your trip. There were a lot of unhappy responses on twitter to Houses 3 year anniversary and people blaming koei specifically. A lot of people just put down hopes after playing blue lions and went back to azure moon. An english language article discussing low sales in japan has a small comment section saying japanese have no sense of good storytelling…which was not appreciated by some japanese speakers who found it. Or for also insulting fire emblem if, which is still a beloved title. Now there is conflict with traditional musou fans (musou is a niche genre in japan and is sometimes derided as a “mowing” game, where there is no thought or effort except pressing buttons according to critics), and especially musou fans who say koei abandoned them to make nintendo spinoffs instead of paying attention to dynasty warriors and sengoku warriors.

There is also concern over the war message because especially after the fallout from the world war, many people were careful to promote stories about peace and harmony, and especially why many japanese movies show homes and cities being attacked and destroyed in war scenes. gundam is also usually quite pacifist at heart. Miyazaki-sensei is another good example. But lately there seems to be a shift with some stories trying to be casual about war, or trying to promote war as glory, like with that jsdf isekai, or the ending to attack on titan, which left many people quite stupefied. And fire emblem has always been about good characters resisting invasion and conquest by larger, stronger neighbors, so this shift is concerning. On twitter people are now raking over the coals (i really like this expression) the red route for hopes and saying nintendo and koei are playing coy and lying about edelgard and not calling her what she is: an aggressor. But fans of edelgard give the game high marks.

Thank you, Japanese anon. Truth be told, I have thrown out my back and I am now trapped to the floor mainly. My trip will improve once the muscle relaxers do their job.

Don't worry, this isn't the worst I have had. This time I am not screaming in pain and I can at least walk, I caught it early. So I'll be fine.

So anons, I do SEE your asks and I WILL get to them, but I can only focus on writing in short spurts, so please be patient. I promise to answer EVERY ask.

Also, that means my gameplay notes and my GW review is even more delayed now. Apologies, I feel frightfully guilty.

Do Japanese fans really prefer AG that much more than the others? Wow. Still, I get it though...

Bah, those comments from the English speakers should just be ignored. It's embarrassing that those comments even exist, frankly. :/

And I do feel sorry for dynasty fans but... from my understanding, the series hasn't done that great in general. The Nintendo property titles have been doing phenomenal for the series... even Hopes sold well, despite the drop in sales and the bad reviews - it sold well. So, while I feel terrible that they feel abandoned, I'm not sure how long the series would have survived without them. Still, it would be nice if a true Warriors game came out again.

Now, please correct me if I am wrong but... I was under the impression that IS themselves (and mainly, the main dev if Houses) recongizes Edelgard as an aggressor. But you are saying Nintendo and KT does not, correct? Heck, I'm pretty sure IS delayed Advance Wars due to what's happening overseas.

But I'm not surprised they don't want to call her an aggressor. She's meant to be marketable. Which sucks but it's true. I'm glad to see some people are willing to call it out. I just don't know if Nintendo or KT care. They made their money....

I can't speak to why war has become more... glorified lately, though. I guess the more time creates a separate between memories and history, ideas and virtues change. Doomed to repeat, humans are..

Still, it saddens me to hear about it.

[spacexcowgirl]

I Think He Knows - F.W.

Fred Weasley x Reader

Summary: Y/N gets drunk, and decides there's no better time to tell her boyfriend she loves him than the present.

Word Count: 3.9k

Warnings: Alcohol usage/intoxication!! There’s a make out scene. Also food. Otherwise mainly just fluff!

A/N: This is my first fic I’ve ever posted on here and the inspiration for it was born out of a drunken anon ask to @lumosandnoxwriting​ sooo here it is. I’ll probably end up writing another part about the next day and them recouping, but who knows. Totally open to any critiques/criticism/help anyone has to offer! Pictures are taken from Pinterest.

The flashing lights were bright and the music far too loud, but you didn’t care. You had liquid courage flowing through your veins and it was making it increasingly easier to lose yourself on the dance floor. Typically, you weren’t much of a dancer, but several shots of some pink liquid you had forgotten the name of had you abandoning all traces of your usual self. You swayed your hips to the rhythm of a song you didn’t know, giggling every time you made eye contact with Alicia or Angelina.

As the song playing came to an end, you gripped your best friends’ forearms and dragged them from the dance floor before another could start. You briefly heard their groans of protests but couldn’t find it in yourself to care.

“I want another drink!” You shouted over the music, pulling them towards the bar.

“We don’t need another.” Alicia pointed out, but she was now following you on her own accord, which told you she wouldn’t be protesting too much.

At the bar, you ordered another round of shots for the three of you—asking specifically for ‘whatever the pink one is called.’ The three of you clinked the small glasses together before raising them to your lips and throwing your heads back, allowing the liquid to leave a burning trail down your throat. 

“I’m going to call him.” You announced brightly, slamming your glass down on the bar.

“Y/N, we talked about this!” Angelina whined. “Tonight is supposed to be girl’s night. Plus, Fred’s out with his friends. You should give him his space.”

“Oh please, you act like that boy wouldn’t drop everything to rush over here and be with her.” Alicia rolled her eyes lightly, a knowing smile lighting up her face.

Her words caused you to blush furiously, which you attempted to hide by sliding your cellphone out of your back pocket and bringing it to your face. The screen was too bright, but as you fumbled around with trying to turn it down, you came to realize just how drunk you really were. You quickly gave up on trying to turn down the brightness and instead opened up the call app, clicking at the button that read ‘Recents’ before tapping the name right at the top. You barely registered Angelina’s disappointed groan as you brought the phone to your ear.

“Hello?” 

“Freddie!” You called out, a sweet giggle leaving your lips. You were filled with the most wonderful elation at speaking to your boyfriend, sending a flutter of butterflies alive through your stomach.

“Oh, hello, Y/N.” The voice chuckled. “This isn’t—”

“Where are you?” You interrupted him, rocking slightly on your heels. Angelina was people watching those out on the dance floor, while Alicia had taken up flirting with some bloke next to her.

“We’re still at Lee’s flat.” There was a pause, then he continued. “Y/N, this is George you called. How drunk are you?”

“I don’t think I’m that drunk. Let me ask Angie.” You paused, putting the phone on speaker so your friend could answer for you. “Ang, how drunk am I?”

“Very.” Angelina answered over the music, earning a laugh from George on the other end of the line. “’s that George? Lemme talk to him.”

Angelina took the phone from your hand, ignoring your pout as she did so, and switched it off of speaker mode. At first, you had tried to listen in on the conversation she was having with George, but you quickly got distracted. You hoisted yourself up into one of the bar seats, kicking your legs back and forth as you gazed around. After a few minutes, you were pulled from your drunken thoughts when Angelina nudged you with your phone.

“He hung up?” You pouted as you looked at the black screen. “Are they coming here?”

“No, they’re staying at Lee’s.” Angelina shook her head. “But they said they’d meet us back at your flat when we leave here.”

“Well, let’s go!” You quickly went to jump down from the stool, only for Angelina to place her hands on your shoulders and hold you in place.

“Uh uh, we’re gonna let you sober up a bit first.” She shook her head. “Don’t want you doing something you’ll regret tomorrow.”

“Especially when we know you’ll blame us.” Alicia now joined in, evidently blowing off the guy she had been flirting with only moments before.

Perhaps if you were even a little less drunk, you would have been annoyed by their statements. But currently, you were in a state of almost childlike happiness and wonder. You couldn’t help but let your mind wander to thoughts of your boyfriend, causing a cheesy grin to rise to your face. The past 6 months together had been some of the best of your life, and you often found yourself wondering why you two hadn’t gotten together sooner. You had always been friends during your Hogwarts years, but neither of you ever attempted to take that next step in your relationship until years after graduation. Now, you couldn’t be more thankful with the change.

“I’m going to tell him I love him.” You declared, saying the words out loud as more of a way to convince yourself than to inform them.

“What?” Alicia sputtered, shooting a worried glance to Angelina. “You mean, tonight?”

“I don’t see why not.” You shrugged. “I mean, I do love him. Why shouldn’t I tell him?”

“Y/N/N, don’t you think maybe you should wait until you’re sober?” Angelina looked at you hesitantly. “I mean, that’s kind of a big step.”

“You guys don’t get it,” You sighed, crossing your arms over your chest like a child being scolded. In your drunken mind, you knew that they would never understand the ins and outs of your relationship with Fred. The two of you had never put pressure on things that others deemed ‘the big stuff.’ Everything always had just come so naturally between you two, and you were convinced this should be no different. A small voice in the back of your head told you that the sober version of you would disagree, but you pushed it away. Your decision was made.

“This is like, exactly what we mean by you doing something you’ll regret and blaming us.” Alicia sighed. “So, you better not be mad at us tomorrow.”

“I won’t be, promise.” You affirmed. 

How could this possibly go wrong?

About an hour later, Angelina and Alicia had enough of the club environment and had decided you were sober enough that they could safely walk you back to your flat. The three of you gathered your things and your excitement bubbled inside of you at the prospect of finally getting to see Fred. You nearly skipped out of the club, Alicia and Angelina trailing close behind you, and into the cool night air. Almost immediately, your eyes were drawn to two heads of red hair, backs to you, talking at the edge of the sidewalk. Although they were nearly identical, there was something about one of their postures and energy, and you just knew that it was Fred. Before Angelina or Alicia could stop you, you were running and jumping on your boyfriend’s back, nearly sending him tumbling over.

“Freddie!” You squealed, attaching your arms firmly around his middle as your feet replanted on the ground. He swiveled in your hold, a bout of laughter leaving his lips, as he took in your presence.

“’s good to see you too, love.” He slurred, bending down at a slightly awkward angle to pepper your face with kisses. You giggled at the tickling feeling his lips left behind.

“Thought we were meeting you guys back at her flat?” Angelina questioned as she approached the three of you.

“That was the plan, but Freddie here has had one too many glasses of firewhisky and decided he couldn’t wait that long.” George rolled his eyes. “Said he’d go with or without me to find you guys, so we’ve just been waiting out here.”

“Great, so they’re both drunk off their asses.” Alicia feigned annoyance, but the small smile on her face as she gazed at her two friends public displays of affection showed that she wasn’t truly bothered.

“Alright, love birds, it’s bloody freezing out.” George clapped a hand down on Fred’s shoulder, pulling the older twin’s attention away from you for the first time. “Let’s get going, yeah?”

Fred nodded and held out his hand for you to take, which you happily accepted. The two of you lead the others, swinging your hands between you as you walked down the sidewalk. The entire time, you whispered and giggled back and forth, finding anything and everything to be the funniest thing you ever heard.

“Your hand is so tiny.” Fred giggled, halting your swinging motion to bring your interlaced fingers up and examine them. 

“Is not.” You pouted. You attempted to pull your hand from his, but his grip on you was firm. He used your conjoined hands to pull you closer to him, causing you to stumble slightly, which of course resulted in both of you giggling even more. Fred placed a kiss on each of your knuckles before letting both of your hands fall comfortably between you again.

“It is, but it’s cute.” He looked down at you dreamily, as if you were the most perfect thing he had ever laid his eyes on. In an instant, all of his drunk giddiness seemed to fade and he became uncharacteristically serious. “How did I get so lucky?”

“Hm.” You pretended to ponder the question, bringing your free hand up to tap your chin. “Dunno. I still think you must have me under some spell or potion.”

“Oh, right, how could I forget?” He grinned. “That reminds me, I’ve gotta make another batch of love potion before this one wears off and you leave me.”

“Wouldn’t want that, would we?” You teased back, knocking your shoulder into his.

“Never.” And you could tell, he was serious.

Up ahead you could see the familiar outline of your building. You hadn’t realized just how tired your feet were from walking in your heels, and you longed for nothing more than to slip them off and lie in Fred’s arms for the rest of the night. Nerves began to bubble in your stomach the closer you got, because you knew that meant you were just another step closer to finally telling him. While you hadn’t faltered in your decision, as you began to sober up slightly, you couldn’t help but be anxious for how he would respond. 

“Do we need to help you two get in?” George questioned once you finally were outside your building.

“We’ll be okay.” Fred shook his head. You cuddled into his side for warmth, causing him to raise your entangled hands and wrap his arm around your shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the side of your head, causing a dopey smile to rise onto your face.

“You’re sure?” Angelina looked between the two of you with raised brows. In response, you simply nodded. “Okay, well, call me tomorrow, alright?”

Both Alicia and Angelina sent you one last glance, one that you knew communicated how they didn’t encourage what you had told them earlier, before they all nodded and offered goodbyes, carrying on their way. Fred untangled your hands and removed his arm from your shoulder to open the door, dramatically bowing forward and extending an arm to allow you to enter first.

“After you, m’lady.”

You giggled loudly at his antics, skipping into the building and beginning towards the stairs. Fred  was hot on your heels, causing you to quicken your pace and run ahead of him, his laughter ringing out behind you as he tried to catch up to you.  Just as you turned on the first landing to continue up the steps, Fred’s hands caught your waist and began ticking your sides, causing your laughter to increase. You did your best to wriggle out of his grasp, which was much easier to do in his drunken state, and continued up the steps. Once on your floor, you quickly turned the corner and found the way to your flat, fumbling with your keys to get in before Fred caught up.

Unfortunately for you, you couldn’t seem to find the right key let alone slide it in to unlock the door, so Fred was able to catch up as you fumbled. You forgot your efforts and instead turned around and blocked the door, a drunken smirk on your face as you gazed up at your boyfriend.

“Sorry, you’re not allowed in.” You teased, crossing your arms over your chest.

“You’re really going to leave your sweet, loving boyfriend out in the hall, after he went out of his way to safely walk you back from the club?” 

“Mhm.” You nodded. “That is, unless you can tell me the password.”

Fred pretended to think for a moment, before he swooped his head down and pressed your lips together in a kiss. It was clumsy, both of your mouths seeming just a bit off center, but it was clear that neither of you cared. You tangled your arms around his neck, pulling him as close as possible, as he pressed your back against the door. He pulled back first, leaving you in lovesick bliss.

“Did you kiss the fat lady like that every time you forgot the password?” You teased once you were able to find your voice.

“Only sometimes.” Fred teased back.

You rolled your eyes playfully before unwinding your hands from behind his head and finally, successfully unlocking your front door. You pulled Fred into the flat by his collar, dragging him all the way to your living room before dropping down onto the couch and shuffling to let him cuddle up behind you. 

For a few moments, you both laid tangled in each other’s arms, listening to nothing but his heartbeat. The sound was rhythmic, and you knew if you didn’t speak up soon you’d fall asleep any minute. But, you weren’t ready to fall asleep yet. You wanted to stay up, to talk to him, to tell him exactly what was on your mind. So, you shifted awkwardly and held yourself up on your forearms to gaze at him.

“‘m hungry.” You declared, your bottom lip jutting out into a pout as you put on your best puppy dog eyes.

“’s too late to order something.” Fred sighed. “Lemme go look at what you have in your fridge.”

You sat up to let him get up, resisting the urge to sigh at his absence. From the kitchen, you could hear the familiar clatter as he riffled through your pots and pans and opened and closed various cupboards. Somehow the sound was like the sweetest melody. It was like a soundtrack of pure bliss, a reminder that he was there, with you, and that you were happy. In the simplest terms.

You shifted to lay down on your back and stare up at your ceiling, breathing in what you could only describe as domestic bliss. You were so wrapped up in your thoughts that you didn’t even hear him re-enter the room, your focus only being drawn away when the couch shifted from his weight. He lifted your legs to rest in his lap, his hand lightly rubbing up and down your ankle at a soothing rhythm.

“Got a quesadilla cooking.” He declared, his eyes tracing up and down your figure as you moved to sit up and look at him.

“Couldn’t stay away from me long enough to watch it?” You teased lightly.

“Can you blame me?” Fred grinned at you, giving your ankle a light squeeze.

You giggled at the contact before sitting up further, swinging your legs around to straddle his waist. You let your arms rest around his neck, a dopey smile on your face as you fiddled with the short hairs there. Fred leaned forward and nuzzled his nose against yours, causing you both to giggle further. 

“You’re my favorite person in the world, you know that?” Fred breathed out, bringing your foreheads to rest together. 

His words caused the familiar butterflies to erupt in your stomach, your smile widening even further. Some part of you knew this would be the perfect moment to tell him exactly how you felt. To tell him that your days are just a bit darker when he’s not around, and how he can make you laugh even when you want nothing more than to cry. You wanted to tell him how whenever he was gone on business trips, you could only fall asleep if you were wearing one of the old t-shirts he had left at your flat, or how you always seem to find something that made you think of him no matter where you were. But, your drunken brain was far from articulate, and your nerves seemed to have a firm grasp on your tongue, so instead, you simply pressed your lips to his.

Fred kissed you back passionately, and it was clear that neither of you minded that both of your mouths held the aftertastes of different alcohols. His lip glided along your bottom lip as his hands found your hips, steadying your movements. When you knocked your teeth together in the drunken kiss, you both pulled back for a moment to giggle, before the passion resumed.

Things seemed to carry on like that for several minutes, wanting nothing more than to be close to one another in every way possible, to be tangled up in anyway that you could, but having to pause every little bit to let out drunken giggles at the situation. You were certain no one had ever gotten you the way Fred Weasley got you, that no one could make you feel so comfortable, and that you were irrevocably in love with him.

Your sweet moment together was brought to a halt by the sound of a loud screeching coming from the kitchen. It took a moment for your brain to recognize it as the sound of your smoke alarm, but once it did you both were to your feet and rushing into the kitchen. Fred cursed under his breath at the clouds of smoke rising from the skillet and quickly set to turn off the burner. You grabbed a drying towel from the counter and began to wave it by the alarm, attempting to cease the godawful beeping it was letting out. After a few minutes, the sound did cease and the smoke cleared, allowing you to breathe a sigh of relief.

“It’s burnt.” Fred pouted, lifting the skillet to show you the blackened quesadilla. 

You weren’t sure if it was the childlike expression on his face or the fact that you both had entirely forgotten about it in the first place, but you couldn’t help but erupt into a fit of laughter. Fred looked at you for a moment as if he were offended by your giggling, before turning his attention the burnt quesadilla, then back to you, and beginning to laugh as well. It was all so absurd and truthfully far from funny, but in that moment, nothing could make you laugh harder.

Fred slid the quesadilla in the garbage before placing the skillet in the sink, resigning to washing it later. In the meantime, you had grabbed the bag of shredded cheese and hoisted yourself up on the counter, swinging your legs as you scooped out a handful of the cheese and began to eat it.

Fred turned and smiled fondly at your actions, crossing the kitchen to settle himself between your legs. He opened his mouth and you wordlessly registered what he was requesting, leaning forward to drop some of the cheese into his mouth. Both of you continued to giggle lightly, feeling nothing but elation as you remained in each other’s presence. 

You raised your hand to offer Fred a bit more of the cheese, smiling warmly when he opened his mouth to accept some. The two of you weren’t as in sync as you might normally be, considering your varying levels of intoxication, and as you dropped some of the cheese onto his tongue you were too slow to remove your hand and he was too quick to bite down, causing him to nip your finger lightly.

You pulled your hand back hastily and Fred’s eyes widened as if he had just mortally wounded you. He swallowed the remaining cheese in his mouth before speaking up, taking your hand in his to examine it.

“Did I hurt you? Are you okay? Merlin, I am so sorry. Are you bleeding? You must be bleeding.”

You weren’t. 

His rambling and concern for you caused you to tilt your head back and let out a loud bout of laughter. 

“‘m fine, Freddie.” You assured, leaning forward to press your lips to his and squash his worries. 

Fred brought your hand to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to the finger he had just bit, nodding to himself after as if to convince himself that now you were fine. Truly, it was just about the cutest thing you had ever seen.

You spent the next few moments polishing off the bag of shredded cheese, Fred abundantly more careful not to nip your fingers anymore. You chatted lightly, talking about every drunk thing that crossed your mind. Once the cheese was gone Fred poured the both of you a glass of water, sloshing it around slightly as he tried to balance them both in one hand and extend the other to you. You hopped down from the counter and accepted his hand, allowing him to guide you back to your bedroom. He spilled nearly half of each water on the way, mostly on himself, but neither of you could find it in you to care. 

Once inside, you threw yourself down into the center of your bed, extending your hands out in a grabbing motion as Fred set the glasses on your nightstand. Neither of you could be bothered to change into pajamas, so you settled by kicking off your shoes and doing your best to get comfortable in the dress you sported. 

Fred kicked off his shoes as well before crawling over to you and collapsing nearly entirely on you. He laid on his stomach and wound his arms around your waist, his head finding the crook of your neck and pressing a few soft kisses there. You wound your arms around his neck, your legs tangling together. Truthfully, it wasn’t exactly comfortable, but you had him close, and that was all that mattered.

You listened to the sound of his breathing as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Your mind was screaming at you to say the words that had been plaguing you almost all night, before it was too late. Now was your chance.

But, then, you noticed that Fred’s breathing had shallowed significantly and light snores had begun to leave his lips. You breathed out a sigh of disappointment from missing your opportunity, mentally cursing yourself and your nerves.

As if the sleeping boy in your arms could read your thoughts, his grip around you tightened, holding onto you as if his life depended on it. The small action brought a smile to your lips as your eyes fluttered shut.

Perhaps you could wait to tell him that you loved him until the morning. Besides, some part of you was aware that he already knew.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

I guess I just expected better than Yuzuru. For someone who is very looked up to as a role model not just in Japan and around the world, his way of interacting with his juniors seems careless and almost childish. Yes Shoma was completely out of it but instead of pointing out how tired Shoma was especially after his long season and having to skate for Japan at the Team Event, Yuzu called him his dog on national TV. Yuzuru is a 2 time OGM and 23 years old. Sorry I expected better.

I assume all parts are the same person and honestly I am baffled and don't know how to unpack that at all. But I try. I am not even sure if you wanted a reply or just rant in my inbox, but as you send it in I will answer. I hope I put up the parts in the order they came in as there are no numbers.

About the "puppy reference", this is what was said and asked:

Yes Yuzu called Shoma a "puppy" or that he "seems like a puppy", you can judge for yourself if Shoma felt offended or not. He added a lot more to that "puppy sentence" which was serious and praised Shoma's efforts. So obviously the "puppy" part was a joke. Yeah maybe he shouldn't have said that but again is this with malice? I don't think so.

We should keep in mind that they both and Yuzu even more did a media marathon - nothing compared to what happened in Beijing 2022 due to the covid protocols being strict - they both were visibly tired. Shoma even admitted at one point that he just wanted to sleep. But honestly media isn't interested in why they were tired, they do a job. And media liked to pick up the Shoma "sleepy head" narrative, so it's not like it caused any harm.

As for Yuzu not mentioning why Shoma was sleepy? Because it's not his place to tell. And in what moment? "ah wait Shoma is tired because he worked so hard" or what did you expect? Wouldn't you complain then that Shoma can't speak for himself?

Yuzu greeted and congratulated Shoma for his participation at the team event in Pyeongchang 2018 backstage. There is a video of it. It just wasn't in public like on a TV interview. We can assume Yuzu did the same backstage in Beijing. Fact is we don't know what they talk backstage.

And tbh any mention of Shoma participating in the team event would have lead back to questions about Yuzu's injury back in 2018 and in 2022 and questions if he would have skated if he wouldn't have been injured. In Beijing 2022 there were two sites: ppl who complained Shoma was far more injured and Yuzu would fake being injured so that he wouldn't have to do the team event and Yuzu fans being pissed Yuzu wasn't even asked by JSF to do the Team event. Yuzu just said that he arrived late because he knew he wouldn't skate the team event. No question about if it was his decision or not. But the things mentioned above were made out of him not even saying something. So for me it makes sense to keep the team event out of the conversation, it just fuels flames on every side. The media didn't ask Yuzu about the team event in 2018 nor in 2022. I don't know why Yuzu should talk about something he was not part of - especially unprompted. We don't know what he thought about not participating, maybe he wanted but couldn't and didn't want to talk about it. It's speculations.

More of anon and my replies under the cut:

Oh wow Yuzu never said he was unfairly unrewarded. He said he thinks his efforts were not rewarded like in the efforts didn't pay off. He was disappointed for sure, but he never said something was unfair in the competition. Yuzu is always first most critical about himself. So any disappointment is always aimed at himself not the judges. Yuzu knew very well that he didn't do enough to win. And tbh if Yuzu's primary goal would have been winning, he would have dropped his 4A attempts and tried a 5 quad layout like he did in the GPF 2019 from the start. Some Fanyus are delusional, but Yuzu is not.

Yuzu unprompted mentioned Nathan in the press con and guess what Yuzu antis said it wasn't genuine and he should not have mentioned Nathan and that he was jealous of Nathan's Gold. So tell me the reaction would have been different if he would have talked about Yuma's and Shoma's medals?

Like I said before if Yuzu is not specifically asked he will not talk about other skaters, which is totally fine with me.

Imo Yuzu could have mentioned Yuma and Shoma at the press con and admittedly part of me was sad Yuzu didn't say a word about Shoma. But seeing the mostly negative reactions by antis I am honestly glad he didn't. Whatever Yuzu would have said, Yuzu antis or ppl like you would have not believed his words to be genuine.

What do you base your assumptions on? At 2019 Nationals many skaters wanted pictures with Yuzu and he did couple of backstage pics at SOI 2021 like with Sota Yamamoto. He also posed with Dai and Shoma at the exhibition. They approached him not he them. He joked with Kazuki backstage at SOI 2021 too. You just see a pattern here. He is interacting freely with skaters who are closer to his age. Remember Yuzu is 27 now, he does rather fit the ice dancers and pair skaters age than most of the men skaters.

"the older ones respect him but nothing else?" huh? Taking pictures with Yuzu, waiting for him backstage to make a pic with him is not only being respectful. His friends are Ryuji Hino and Keiji Tanaka and they all said they hang out when they can at comps. (Yuzu even did a retirement message for Keji just lately). These are skaters he grew up with. Just recently at JNats 2021 he sat first jokingly on Tim Koleto's lap at the point where they announced the Beijing team to the skaters before Yuzu took his own seat. Yuzu's first interaction when he arrived at JNats 2021 in the draw was to ask Shoma about his injury. The older ones interact normal with him, jokingly even. The younger ones ofc don't approach him as freely because of the way he is idolized among them, but I think that's perfectly normal to not interact much with the "teenagers" if also friends are around.

Yuzu is for sure not much around the other Japanese skaters and as the idolized figure he is among skaters I think it's hard for Yuzu to just be there and enjoy time with his fellow skaters. That's the downside of fame that he will never be" just Yuzu one of the skaters". Those who know Yuzu for a long time like Keiji and Shoma and Team Koko act with him like they always have. It's just now Yuzu - and Shoma too - are the old skaters now and Shoma being more present and training with Japanese skaters is for sure closer and more approachable than Yuzu. But I think the age gap alone makes it very understandable even without the "idol" aspect. I just ask myself would I approach/hang out with "teenagers"? And btw Yuzu is friendly towards his juniors. He did approach Yuma at the Olympics, he even took pics with him. Also at 4CC 2020. He also talked and joked with Shun Sato at the medal ceremony at the GPF/JGPF 2019. So it's not like Yuzu doesn't notice or doesn't care for the younger ones.

About the incident with Kao Miura: Is there the whole conversation? Because yes like this it sounds weird. But even then to say he creates a weird mood? Again an assumption based on what you think makes ppl feel weird. I honestly don't know about the details. But I assume there is more to know. One maybe weird incident defines how Yuzu creates moods? ...well then that's what I think is weird.

I actually think Shoma is exactly following the pattern Yuzu showed. Yuzu's reaction at JNats 2019 about Yuzu's win is based on his own experience by being mistreated by Dai fans. Yuzu was being pushed against Dai for as long as they were the leading Japanese men. Yuzu always made sure to show he cares for Shoma so ppl would not pit them against each other. Media and fans still did it but imo it's not as worse as it was with Yuzu and Dai. Yuzu always looked after Shoma at competitions and Shoma did the same to his juniors. Shoma's words that Yuzu looked after him, not my interpretation. I think Yuzu has his part of why this environment in Team Japan is good. Ofc Yuzu provided differently than Shoma, they are still different ppl.

Shoma and Yuma is different because they also had the opportunity to train along each other for a lot of time. So ofc if you meet each other on a daily basis it's easy to befriend and push in a good way. Yuma is a blessing for Shoma, no doubt about that. But I don't see how that related to Yuzu.

Btw Shoma himself said this about Yuzu's treatment so I'd rather believe Shoma himself.

JNats 2015:

Pyeongchang 2018:

I think Yuzu and Shoma both have their part in the rise of the Japanese men. Shun Sato looks up to Yuzu, Yuma Kagiyama looks up to Shoma. Both also push each other. Having a high level on top will make others push for the most too. (you can see that same development with the Russian girls or now with Ilia and Nathan) It will always happen that there is a drought and drop in results but for the moment the Japanese men skating future looks bright because of their two leading men or maybe it's 3 now with Yuma.

So for you these aren't genuine comments. If you don't see anything Yuzu is saying about Shoma as genuine than I can give you as many examples as you want and you will always find fault in them. Just btw Shoma said the same thing about Yuzu, that he didn't have to worry because he knew Yuzu would secure the spots. So both made the same comment actually and it benefited both. That's what a team is for. If you think someone admiring that Shoma can land his jumps in comp that he bombs in practices is a stealth insult I can't help you. But just let me tell you it's very rare for skaters to make this many mistakes in practice and get it together in competition. It's often the other way around. So I am sure Yuzu was honestly impressed by Shoma's abilities in competition considering how bad the practices were. It's not easy to achieve.

I do found some more quotes from Yuzu about Shoma, but due to pic limit on Tumblr I will maybe post them separately or not because tbh I don't think you will take any of it as genuine anyway.

Tbh you sound like a Yuzu anti. Everything you interpretate into Yuzu's words is negative, so if you don't think you are an anti, well how would you call yourself?

And your last part gives away the true anti sentiment. It's about yourself in the first place. Not about Shoma or Yuzu or their relationship, but about you having more peace in the fandom when Shoma has nothing to do with Yuzu. That's just sad. That you rather would want them to not interact though they are part of the same team to have your peace. I want them to be able to interact whenever they want to. And I want them to have the relationship they want to have. If that makes me have to defend haters again I take it.

If you want Yuzu to speak up for Shoma...well that won't happen and I don't know why he should. If that's your expectations, Yuzu can only fail in your eyes.

Again you don't know anything about how they truly feel about one another. I am just sure that because of assumptions like yours a friendship isn't becoming easier, maybe they will make it even more secretive.

And referencing to posed pictures when did Yuzu and Shoma recently pose for pictures? Beijing surely had little to offer but some gala practice shenanigans between Yuzu and Shoma were not posed, but you probably would assume their interactions were fake?

I cannot upload more pictures in one post or I would give you some pics of their interactions to judge for everyone else.

____

This is super long and I don't know if anyone else of you want to read any of it but anon even sended in more parts. I assume it's the same anon still. I will post it in a separate part and link it here.

Anyway I cannot convince anyone that already formed an opinion.

[quickspinner]

(you don't have to post this, I know you try to keep things pretty salt-light here) I mean, I'm sure everyone who uses any sort of good reasoning for Luka to not tell Marinette don't really mean it. They have to come up with various reasons because Luka (canonically) has never had a bad one for doing anything for/to Marinette. We all know that the writers want to keep him away from her and they just want someone to help the LS even more. The writers basically admitted that "now he can help both"

This inspired a whole rumination on the nature of salt and my feelings about it that I’m actually going to put in another post. 😂 When I do, please don’t feel guilty about it dear anon, it’s not your fault. 

Anyway just for reference, for new readers or anyone who needs to know, it's not because I’m anti-salt or have anything against salt or because I disagree with salt takes or don't want salt on my blog at all, I just find that too much of it gets depressing for my chemically-imbalanced brain and kills my enthusiasm and ability to create, so I try to keep things a little lighter for my own sanity. 

That being said, let’s engage in a little literary criticism. 😁

I agree with you anon, I think a lot of people had that same confused, stomach-dropping moment I did and had to work backward to get to a place where that would be a reasonable decision, just based on the reactions I saw and the people I talked to when the ep first came out.

However if there ARE people who think that it was the right decision, either immediately or after thinking it through, that's okay, I think that's valid (and I think it is very likely those people exist simply because humans are so wonderfully different). I could see Luka being on a knife's edge there, trying to make the best choice under the circumstances, and I don't think it's totally implausible that it would play out the way it did. One might even say that the message she sends him in Ephemeral indicates that deep down Mari knows Luka knows and that maybe she even wanted him to lie to her, which being as intuitive as he is, he understood and compromised his deeply held beliefs and preference for direct sincere communication to do what she wanted. If he did make that decision, I can see him doing it that way--bold as brass, look her square in the eye and lie to her face. He could have prevaricated or just not really given an answer but he straight up, flat out lied. All or nothing is pretty in keeping with the way I see him, and I saw it a little bit as Luka's way of absolving her for lying to him by willingly--I don't want to say coming down to her level because that implies more judgement than I want, but sorta like that. So if Luka decided to throw all his beliefs to the wind, I suppose that is a good way to go? I think he can do that with good intentions? It could even make for some interesting conflicts for him later if they ever gave him more than three minutes of screen time. (see, now that was salt)

I do think that protecting Mari's sanity and/or saving her from having to make a difficult decision is the only explanation in line with his character, so given what happened, if I were going to write a canon compliant fic, I would absolutely go with that. 

For me personally though--hmm how do I put this. Character is very intuitive for me? While I can, with some effort, pick apart why I think a character would act a certain way, it starts as a gut feeling. So when that moment happened, it felt like when you expect a car to go left and it turns right instead, and you feel for a moment like your stomach kept going the direction you were expecting to go. To me, that was an indicator that this moment is “wrong” for how I see the character. Which sounds kind of arrogant to say in writing, but eh, it’s the way I feel. 

And you know, that’s fine when it's one moment. It happens sometimes, that someone sacrifices character authenticity to further the plot, and while lazy, it’s not earth shattering. What worries me about it, and about Wishmaker in general, is that I'm worried about it being a pivot in how they're going to portray his character from now on rather than being one out of character moment. Luka was overall pushier in that episode than he's ever been, and while it wasn't a lot taken by itself, it's a significant shift from "you should go talk to him" to taking her hand and pulling her, however gently, into a conversation with Adrien. Much like you can say Alya was out of character in a few episodes of season 3, but then you see them triple-down on this version of her character in the specials and season four, and now she’s straight up a bad friend. How many times can you make a character out of character before it becomes their character? Luka’s actions in that moment are just close enough to being in character to be a reasonable shift IF they plan to follow it up with him, as you say, “helping them both.” So, really, Wishmaker was the episode that really made me feel upset, because I had previously assumed, especially given how little they ever give Luka to do or say in the show (let’s remember that his glory episodes were Silencer, where he was akumatized as a villain who couldn’t use his own voice for the majority of his screentime and where a good bit of the time out of that was taken up by a silent montage, and Desperada, where 90% of the episode was Adrien, and the breakup episode, of which he got to be normal for maybe half), that they would write him out (travel the world with Jagged, etc) or just quietly ignore him/let him fade out. While I fully believe he would support Mari through the lovesquare getting together, I really don’t want to watch him do it, especially if they have him start pushing rather than just supporting. No thank you. 

I also keep struggling with saying this because it sounds like I think being a luthier is boring or “lesser” and as a committed maker myself I absolutely respect the passion and skill it takes to make anything, let alone things as complicated as an instrument, but something about the timing and the way they made Luka want to be a career luthier made me feel like it was an attempt to...deglamorize him? Like, having him be an aspiring rock star (which, I’ll grant you, was never really stated for sure) was too much competition for Adrien so part of their attempt to tone him down as a love rival was to make him less compatible with Marinette’s ambitions, you know? It would have been different if we had ever seen Luka tinkering with guitars in the past, or fixing things, or having pieces of instruments or tools out in his room, but everything they’ve ever shown has pointed more for him being a performer on one scale or another, so just declaring it out of the blue seems like a cheap tactic to me. Which is annoying because I’ve always loved the idea of Luka getting into making guitars as a hobby/self-maintenance/off shoot of his passion/side gig kind of thing (see Luka refinishing his guitar in Finding Harmony), and now I’m aggravated when I think about it. 

So, yes, all of that was a long-winded way to say I agree with you, it definitely feels to me like they broke character there because they’re trying to transition him out of the love rival position, and I’m not excited for where they’re going to take it from here. 

[ashdumpsterpile]

I know you talk abou st*cky in the interracial ships stuff, but can we talk about st*ny? Iron husbands is literally right there, but I also always sees Rhodey as Tonys moral support only. And ik Tony is very shippable with most characters, but the fact his ship is Rhodey is one of the lowest ships in ao3 (ironstrange, winteriron and god forbid stark*r all had more fics in ao3).. It's pretty telling this side also has racism problems...

I'll go ahead and answer this here, but letting y'all know that I do have a marvel sideblog if you want to hit me up there (@themarvelarchives).

Hey, I'm going to ramble for a good minute.

So after I posted my very incoherent, controversial take on St*cky vs SamBucky, there were a ton of ppl who came onto anon saying that St*cky shippers were racist. I think I only answered a few, but y'all were pretty insistent on it. I personally have not observed that St*cky shippers are so I'm not calling anyone out on that side of the fandom for that.

I also did not call out anyone on this side of the fandom bc that's not what my meta was about. I think I mentioned maybe once or twice in the whole post that there was underlying racist in the fandom, but since you asked, we can talk about it here.

Covert Bigotry In Fandom Spaces.

To understand what's going on in the MCU, we have to first look at what I call "woke-queer" fandom.

So "Woke-Queer" Spaces is the phenomenon where certain fandom members like to call ppl out on their bigotry, while covertly harboring their own queerphobia/racism/etc. An example of this that we're all familiar with is TERFS and how they like to claim that they are progressive and woke, while also claiming that trans women are fake and trans men are sexist.

How this translates to fandom, however, is the hypocrisy that is cancellation and callout culture.

For example, Supernatural in particular is a fandom that likes to call out the writers on their homophobia and racism, and yet, somehow, the fandom is chalk full of homophobia and racism. If you want to read more about this, here is a truly excellent article from the perspective of a queer woman of color.

Moving on, I've also talked in a previous meta post, on the internalized acephobia that exploded in 2019 after Good Omens was released. Rather than reiterate everything I said in that post, I'll just leave it at this: the controversy in the Good Omens fandom can be summed up by the fact that queer audiences are claiming that Ineffable Husbands is the wrong kind of queer. The hypocrisy oozes off the screen, doesn't it?

A final way this viably translates to fandom, is in how the Doctor Who fandom evolved over time.

So Steven Moffat takes over as head writer and showrunner in 2010. It's a new series, a new Doctor, a new Tardis, and new branding. He steps up the action, changes the color grating, and raises the stakes. Women are sexier, the Doctor is smarter (and more of an asshole, but that's another meta post), and every companion comes with their own impossible mystery that makes them Special™.

Series 5-10 got tons of woke points for having lesbian characters, an episode where the Doctor is homoerotic with James Corden, and an underlying trans narrative with the Master's reincarnation. What a lot of people forget, however, is that his series was incredibly sexiest, incredibly lesbian/biphobic, and basically turned the Doctor into everyone's fantasy sex-object.

This, unfortunately, brought out the worst of the fandom. There was RTD Era vs Moffat Era wars exploding in certain corners, TenxRose shippers vs ElevenxRiver shippers.

What does this have to do with covert racism in fandom cultures though?

Hnnngng ok, so back in RTD era's we get Martha Jones, the Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show. Except for the fact, of course, that she is written to be in love with the doctor. She's a brilliant character--smart, sassy, flawed, funny, flirtatious--and her entire plotline is reduced down to a school-girl crush on a white man.

She doesn't do well with fans, they scrap her after one season.

We move on to Donna Noble (The Other Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show) and RTD's era ends with them scraping her too and regenerating David Tennant's Doctor.

It will be five more series (not seasons, SERIES) until Doctor Who will have another black companion--who gets extra points for being gay--only to fall victim to "bury your gays" at the end of the season (but not really bc no one stays dead on Doctor Who).

The fandom's reception of Martha Jones was historically bad. The comparisons to her predecessor, Rose Tyler, were rampant and everyone was finding a reason to hate her.

The fandom's reception to Bill Potts was also historically bad, as everyone was screaming that she was being written for more "woke points" and that they wanted Clara back.

Fandom has a historically bad reputation of being problematic and, I would argue, the majority of it has to do with these toxic undertones of bigotry that slip under the radar. "Woke-queer" spaces, as I call them, are these instances above where spaces that claim to be inclusive of gender/orientation/race are covertly bigoted.

Marvel and Cancelling

Now is an excellent time to talk about the MCU.

Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson) has recently come under a lot of criticism from fandom members for shutting down shipper speculation.

"The idea of two guys being friends and loving each other in 2021 is a problem because of the exploitation of homosexuality. [...] something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves."

I can't find the rest of the quote, but Mackie goes on further to say that it was important to him to portray "a sensitive, masculine figure" without insinuating that there was romance involved.

Woke culture lost it's shit. Everyone was suddenly claiming that Mackie was calling them exploitative for shipping a gay ship as a queer audience, which could not have been further from the case.

Mackie actually makes some very excellent points in that sensitivity is not gay/queer. Woke culture loves to rag on Toxic Masculinity, but the minute someone plays a character who is loving and sensitive with no queer narrative in mind, they are immediately canceled.

What Am I On About

Okay, let's actually address what your ask was about, Nonnie. You pointed out--rather truthfully--that it is unfair to call-out racism on one side of the fandom, while ignoring it on the other side.

Well, I've gone back through my St*cky vs. SamBucky analysis (which is incoherent at best, I apologize for that) and I see maybe once instance where I called out fandom members for being racist. Here's what I had to say about racism:

"[...] Iron Husbands is a rarepair, probably because it’s an interracial ship."

"[there is] nothing wrong with shipping two white men, but it does become a problem when you ignore/bash POC/interracial ships to the determinant of your own white ship."

And then there was the post you brought up where I addressed interracial ships in the fandom. That one is probably more relevant to this topic, to be honest, as I actually addressed fandom racism there. I assume that your reason for bringing up Stony is because it's a ship that is more relevant to my side of the fandom, HOWEVER, the reason I highlighted Stucky instead was because I was comparing the fact that they've both been around the same amount of time and are relationships that feature the protagonist and their best friend.

You brought up St*ny in the ask, however, so I'm going to talk about St*ny for a minute.

As someone who never has nor will ship St*ny, it never even occurred to me that some of the problem behind the Iron Husbands tag being so small is because everyone ships the white, boring ship. You brought up a very valid point, but because I was never in that part of the fandom, I can't really speak to any possible underlying racism there, besides what I've already said above.

I would be interested in hearing a St*ony shipper or ex-St*ony shippers thought on this, but sadly I don't know any. If you have any more thoughts regarding this, Nonnie, pls drop back into my inbox.

You do make some excellent points in this ask though, and I would like to talk about racism on my side of the fandom.

So back to Mackie and his Twitter cancellation. Notice that Disney made him address the rumors and not his co-star, Sebastian Stan. Anthony Mackie is put on blast and made to answer fan demands and receives backlash, while Sebastian Stan gets to fly under the rader. This is not, by the way, a criticism of Stan, but instead of the blatant racism Disney has been displaying over the past few years.

How this ties in with the rest of my post has to do with my "woke-queer" spaces bit. The outcry across the MCU fandom over Mackie was swift and unforgiving. He was cancelled on charges of homophobia and bigotry--all the while these same fans turn a blind eye to any queer interpretation of other interracial ships and discourse in their own fandom.

The racism that I'm speaking about, of course, is an almost passive racism. Of course if you don't ship a specific ship for reasons other than their race, it's perfectly fine. It's okay not to ship Iron Husbands or SamBucky or any other interracial fandom ships. However, the distinct lack of shippers in the fandom IS telling because there are people who would ship that exact ship if not for the fact that one of men is black.

I don't have much more to say about this except to thank you for bringing it up and for listening to my long rambling post.

(Feel free to bug me about Tony Stark, MCU ships, MCU Meta and anything you want to talk me about on this blog and @themarvelarchives.)

[jubesy]

Could you do 20 for matcha blossom please these docs are curing my depression istg

Aww, thank you, anon! I’m glad you’re enjoying them~  I went the sick!fic route with this one. I hope that’s okay!

Matcha Blossom #20 “I’ll protect you, no matter what...even if it kills me.”

Also available on Ao3.

Request a drabble here!

Cherry was not some fragile thing. He just wasn’t as...robust as a certain thick-headed gorilla he knew. But even so, when Cherry needed help, he wasn’t so stubborn as to not ask for it. If it was completely necessary, that was.

So, the fact that Joe hadn’t even messaged him to alert him to his current condition was...troubling. Especially considering Cherry wouldn’t have even known about it if he hadn’t shown up at Sia la luce unannounced, as usual, breezing through the dining room to sit in his favorite spot by the bar. It wasn’t until he’d been seated for a few minutes -- without a single word of greeting from his childhood friend -- that he grew suspicious.

“Called in sick,” Cherry muttered to himself as he climbed the steps to Joe’s apartment. One of the servers had timidly approached the bar and informed him as much. “He could have at least sent a text.”

It wasn’t like Joe had bailed on him, exactly. This wasn’t a date, for heaven’s sake. But Cherry did tend to swing by after work and Joe… Well, Joe never missed work. Never got sick, actually. So, he must have been feeling particularly awful if he’d abandoned his staff -- That wasn’t true. The assistant manager was plenty capable --  but Cherry had overheard the regulars wistfully sighing when they received the news that the head chef was out for the evening.

Cherry shook his head as he reached the door, his fist raised and poised to knock. He rapped once. Twice. And by the third time, he was annoyed. Annoyed and...something else.

“Kojiro!” he called, knocking again.

What if...what if something had happened? What if Joe had tried to take a shower and go to work and slipped and hit his head? Once when they were in high school, Cherry had gotten a fever so awful that he could barely move, but he didn’t want to miss class -- despite his appearance, his attendance record was flawless -- and he’d done the exact same thing. If Joe hadn’t caught him…

“Kojiro!” he tried again, but received no answer.

Perhaps Joe had tried making himself some soup. Maybe he’d burned himself in his weakened state. Or he’d fallen asleep while it was simmering and it boiled over. Or what if the heat was too high and the kitchen had caught fire?

Cherry shook the ridiculous thought from his head. Joe was grace under fire, though some wouldn’t believe it. Every time Cherry was sick, including the time he’d passed out during fifth period, Joe had always been there to take care of him. In fact, his soup -- his grandpa’s recipe -- was a cureall.

Still, Cherry was...concerned. So, seeing as Joe still hadn’t shown himself, he reached under the mat for the spare key and made to unlock the door, but rolled his eyes as he jiggled the knob. 

“Idiot ape,” he muttered as he let himself in. “Leaving the door unlocked.” 

But that only worried him further. Was Joe in such a state that he’d wandered out? Or maybe he had someone over?

Something acrid bubbled in Cherry’s belly at the thought. Was Joe playing hooky? Had some girl come over the night before and stayed? Anger swelled in his chest. To think, he was worried about him!

But even as that thought crossed his mind, deep down, Cherry knew that wasn’t the case. Joe was a frivolous, flirtatious, and feebleminded oaf, but not when it came to things he took seriously. Like his career.

So, taking a deep breath, Cherry padded down the hallway and opened the door to Joe’s bedroom. It was dark inside, but the light pouring in from the hall illuminated a lump on the mattress, covered in the duvet and surrounded by wadded up tissues. There was an open bottle of cold medicine on the nightstand, the measuring cup stained, but empty beside it.

Well, at least he was present enough to take medicine. 

“Kojiro,” Cherry called again, softly this time.

A large, hand clawed its way out from beneath the comforter, drawing it down to reveal a mess of curly hair and a flushed face. “...Kaoru?” 

Cherry bit back a fond smile. “Yes, it’s me.” He drew closer and took a seat on the edge of the mattress. 

“You came?” Joe blinked up at him with bleary eyes. 

“Yes,” Cherry said again. “Even though you neglected to tell me you were sick.” 

Joe had the decency to look sheepish. “I conked out after I called the restaurant,” he confessed. “What are you doing here?” 

“One of your servers informed me of your condition, so I came to check on you,” Cherry replied, heat rising in his own cheeks at the admission. He covered it up with a jab. “And here I thought idiots like you couldn’t catch colds.” 

Joe chuckled and then coughed into his fist. “S’not a cold,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’m dying.”

Cherry rolled his eyes. “You’re not dying.” He moved closer, pressing a palm to Joe’s forehead. “I am surprised, though,” he added. “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never gotten sick.”

Joe nodded, closing his eyes and nuzzling against Cherry’s cooler hand. “I overdid it at work,” he admitted. “We had a health inspection and then not one, but two--” he paused to sniffle, “--food critics and then…” he trailed off with a deep, shaky breath. “Lots of call-outs. Must be going around.”

With a soft hum, Cherry nodded. Joe was awfully warm. Perhaps it was more than just a cold, after all. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his spare band, placing it around Joe’s wrist. “Carla,” he said and his own wristband illuminated. 

‘Yes, Master?’ 

“Read Kojiro’s vitals,” he ordered.

‘Yes, Master.’ The other band glowed softly. ‘Temperature high. Temperature high.’

“I thought so…” Cherry sighed.

‘Skin temperature thirty-nine degrees Celsius. Approximate core temperature thirty-nine point four degrees Celsius. Heart rate one hundred and sixteen beats per minute.’ 

“What is this?” Joe asked, eyeing the wristband. 

“Continue to track, Carla,” Cherry said instead of answering. Then he looked at Joe. “Why didn’t you call me?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

Joe groaned, rubbing his face. “I told you, I fell asleep--”

“You always take care of me when I’m sick and you thought I wouldn’t do the same?” Cherry narrowed his eyes. “You think I’m incapable?”

Joe furrowed his brow. “...no?” 

Cherry sighed. “I’ll go fix you something to eat.” He made to get up, but Joe caught his wrist.

“Kaoru,” he said and then winced, bringing a hand to his throat. “You should leave.”

The anger from earlier began rising again, but for a different reason this time. “I can heat up a can of soup, Kojiro!” he snapped. Of course, Cherry wasn’t entirely sure Joe had any in his cabinets. He was a ‘from scratch’ kind of guy. Maybe Cherry could run to the store and--

“No, I mean…” Joe swallowed. “I don’t want you to get sick, too.”

Cherry fixed him with an unimpressed look. “You’re just thinking about that now?” 

Joe shook his head. “No.” He wet his lips. “I didn’t fall asleep right after calling work,” he said. “I could have messaged you. I wanted to,” he added, looking up at Cherry with large, watery eyes. “But I didn’t because…I didn’t want you to catch it.”

There was a beat that passed then, as Cherry digested what Joe had said. He was definitely sick. Joe was typically more honest than Cherry on the regular, but he was being extra honest. Sickly honest. Like Cherry tended to get -- or so Joe would always inform him afterwards.

“I’ll be fine,” Cherry promised. “I’ll make sure to take some supplements after I leave.”

Joe’s lower lip trembled then. “You’re...leaving?” 

Cherry bit back an aggravated growl. “Didn’t you just tell me to leave?” 

Joe blinked. “Oh.” His lips curved up into a smile. “Yeah, I did.” 

“Then--”    

“But I don���t really want you to leave, Kaoru,” Joe interrupted. “But you should.”

Cherry wanted to pull his hair out. Was this how he acted when he was sick? Had he shamelessly voiced every thought as it occurred to him?

“I wanted you to come, but I didn’t want you to come,” Joe said again. “Because Kaoru gets sick so easily…”

“I do not--” 

“So, I’ll protect you, no matter what,” Joe vowed, his face completely flushed and his eyes cloudy. “Even if it kills me.” 

‘Heart rate elevated.’ 

“Yes, Carla,” Cherry said, without glancing at his wristband. “That’s because of his fever.’

‘Apologies, Master. Not Kojiro’s. Yours.’ 

Cherry’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. That damned gorilla… “I’m going to see what you have to eat,” he said through clenched teeth, finally pulling his arm free from Joe’s weakened grasp. “If there’s nothing I can heat up, I’ll run to the convenience store.”

Joe cocked his head to the side, giving Cherry a dopey smile. “Okay.” 

“I’ll be back shortly,” Cherry informed him, standing up. 

“Kaoru?” Joe called just as Cherry reached the doorway.

He looked back over his shoulder. “Yes?” 

“Then you’ll stay?” he asked, voice raspy. 

The corner of Cherry’s lips twitched as warmth blossomed in his chest. “Yes,” he said. “Someone has to make sure you take your next dose of medicine.”

Request a drabble here!

[bloodyshadow1]

just out of curiosity (this isn’t meant to be a rude or sarcastic question), what was it that bothered you most about the kingsley thing?

for context, I haven’t actually seen the ending yet, i’ve only heard vague spoilers about what happened, but I am curious to hear your thoughts on it (i don’t mind hearing more spoilers abt the ending!)

sorry it's taken me so long to answer, I've been trying to word things right because I've been told I sound abrasive over text and I want to be clear that it isn't directed at you anon, it's just how I am as a person. Discourse under the cut

There are many things I dislike about the Kingsley thing, I'm not going to rant here (even though I did looking back and I apologize), but I'll give you some that I think are what bugs me the most. The first being that nothing that happened with Kingsley couldn't happen with Molly, after the initial waking up scene. We only had 26 episodes with Molly, we didn't know him that well and he's been dead for almost a year, anything except the not remembering anything, from walking away from a fight that he is clearly underleveled for, to going to be on a boat as a pirate could have all been Molly. It would have achieved the same thing, except he would have had the bonds with the Nein that started to grow as Molly, seeing them as they were at level 5 to now saving Exandria, but that didn't happen. I never really understood the Yasha Molly bond, since Yasha was gone for most episodes that Molly was around for and she was very quiet during those episodes, they never got a chance to really talk about anything deeper so it feels like an informed relationship, but Yasha the character cared for Molly yet because he's Kingsley, they barely have any interaction again and it feels empty and hollow. He barely interacted with any of the Nein, and certainly not on any deep level. He didn't even bother to ask their names, and only seemed like a kid dashing to do the next thing he could think of, only being able to do so because he is around a bunch of rich and powerful strangers that are treating him well without any actual care or curiosity about them. We got a shallow shadow of Molly and Lucien in Kingsley who doesn't add anything to the story.

There's also the fact that spells that bring back the dead don't work like that. There needs to be a target and a willing soul, that's what Matt's revival rituals are for, to coax the soul back to the body. I'm all for bending the rules of dnd for cool stuff, but it is part of extra rules in critical role that needs bending and it makes Lucien's argument of Molly never existing as anything but a shadow fragment of himself have a lot more weight if he didn't get brought back through magic and a literal goddess stepping in. Also greater restoration shouldn't have done anything but bring something back, it restores, it's in the name, it shouldn't have created a new personality and it definitely shouldn't have destroyed molly's old one if that's what happened.

Additionally, if this happened in an episode that wasn't the finale of the campaign, then I would feel differently. But it was, there isn't any more story, he's there for a bit part of the finale and nothing more. It's like if Liam came in with a half-elf rogue at the end of campaign 1 I would be pissed off at that character too. The story of the Mighty Nein is over, yeah there will probably be oneshots, or specials maybe, but it's over over, no more episodes every, the fellowship is broken, and they are living their own lives not as their adventuring party. I nothing Kingsley because there is nothing to care about, if he wasn't wearing the Molly/Lucien body he would be a random NPC, but because he is, he is just there with nothing really to get attached too. I know some people like him, I honestly can't understand why people do. He's Molly without any of the time or bonds that made Molly interesting, he's just a boring version of Molly and there's no time to get attached or understand anything more than. There's a reason why in almost every form of media, they refrain from introducing a new character in the last episode or chapter, because they come off flatter than the other characters the audience has followed, and for the most part they're right. Maybe they'll do a oneshot that focus' on him but I don't know why I should care.

The biggest thing though, is that it feels like defeat was snatched out of the jaws of victory. The whole final arc, the Nein has gotten nothing, no real treasure or magic items, not even renown and respect like Vox Machina did in defeating Vecna and saving Vasselheim, it seemed like actually getting Molly back was the one thing they wanted..., and then they didn't. He's a stranger wearing their fallen friend's body, who doesn't even seem to care about what they struggled for, that gods had to beat luck to bring him back and they're nothing to him. They got more from curbstomping Trent and bringing him to justice than the whole rest of the final arc and Kingsley is just another reminder.

Sorry for this rant, you did ask, but I just needed to get this out. I wasn't actually that attached to Molly, he was a fine character but I think the fandom got way too attached to him and instead of actually caring about his canon self, they pushed their head canons on him and that has it's own problems for me. But Kingsley just coming in literally right before the series ended just felt like a kick to the groin. Other people feel differently, I'm definitely not someone who says the cast is playing wrong, it's just something I hated about the finale of the story I loved and followed for so long.

[beardofkamenev]

When Adults Attack! (Teenagers)

(Sorry to everyone for dragging this up again, but some people are chronically incapable of letting drama die down.)

The last time I posted about this was 18 February. It’s now late-March. Despite repeatedly claiming to be “over it”, a self-proclaimed “respected history blogger” has been screaming into the void for over a month now. She seems to be under the unfortunate impression that she’s completely innocent of wrongdoing, all the criticism is unprovoked, she has been targeted by “white bigots”, and that she’s somehow the real victim here. So now I have to explain why that’s bullshit. Unlike her and her two friends, I don’t make extreme but vague accusations with zero evidence. I don’t make empty threats about “exposing” people.

The short story? She involved her own self in a situation that had nothing to do with her, downplayed her friends’ racism towards others, incited her followers to harass a teenager, repeatedly lied to her followers about the multiple POC who criticised her friends being “white”, and has continued to inflame the issue while trying to downplay her role in doing so. The long story? Well, I’ll let the receipts do the talking.

That’s Olivia’s first post at the start of February, days before I or anyone else had even said anything. “My anonymous Jewish friend said!” should have been a red flag to anyone capable of reading anything longer than 280 characters. I’ve already explained why Haley (lucreciadeleon/turtlemoons plus her 92849374 alt accounts) is full of shit and so have plenty of others (here, here, and here, to name a few).

Olivia claims that, as a Romani woman, she’s not obliged to engage with content that offends her. Fine. So why is a black teenager obliged to engage with Haley’s deranged anons? Why are her hate anons are so worthy of a response that not responding is an act of ANTISEMITISM that warrants Olivia telling everyone what an antisemite this teenager is for not responding? FYI, NO ONE is obligated to respond to anon hate, especially from people they’ve already blocked. And considering Haley admitted not once, not twice, but three times to breaking Tumblr’s TOS to circumvent a mutual block and send those anons (including how she did it), people are especially not obligated to engage with her.

I made my first posts exposing Taylor (lucreziaborgia/elizabethblount) and Haley’s lies and backtracking on 6 and 7 February. This was before I acknowledged Olivia’s role in inflaming the situation. In fact, I didn’t even know about her tweets until 8 February. Yet, here she is on 6 FEBRUARY already bitching about my posts to her Twitter followers. She has some nerve acting like I victimised her, just because I posted the screenshots of her bitching about me. And bragging about ‘gaslighting’? The word that multiple people have separately described what her two friends subjected them to? Classy.

I can’t “stalk” her public Twitter any more than she can “stalk” my public blog. What an exceptionally stupid claim to make, considering her tweets kept getting recommended to my mutuals whether they liked it or not. Have some integrity and own the shit you say, rather than backtracking, deleting your posts, and pretending that you didn’t say the things we saw you say. If you want to talk shit about others in public, be ready to answer for it in public.

I also wonder how this started over Henry VII. I specifically wonder how this discussion between myself and May (richmond-rex) triggered Taylor’s totally unprovoked racist comments about how we and Nathen Amin “simp for a dead white man”, and we should “simp for someone who actually advocated for the rights of others” instead. The implication being that Tudor history is only for white people like Taylor, and that only her fave is worthy of discussion (“AnNe BoLeYn WaS oThErEd BeCaUsE sHe WaS tAn.” Good grief).

When multiple POC called bootleg Regina George out for it, not only did she say she couldn’t possibly be racist because Haley approved of her racism, but also tried to argue that Nathen Amin deserved it because it was inappropriate for a British man to joke about Brexit. She then claimed we called her “anti-Welsh” (another fucking lie) to make it seem like a bunch of cRaZy blacks and browns were attacking poor, innocent white her (with Olivia coming to the rescue, of course). And as if that wasn’t enough, Haley then sent these bad faith hate anons calling Nathen Amin’s tweet ANTISEMITIC, for no other reason than to retroactively justify Taylor’s racist comments (though I didn’t see Haley getting offended when she was hate-scrolling through his blog before Taylor was called out).

That was the “antisemitic shit” Haley “privately messaged about” that Olivia thinks deserves a response. In case it's not clear: defending racism makes you complicit in racism. Being Jewish is NOT a get-out-of-racism-free card, and Haley trying to use it as one is absolutely dishonest, especially when NO ONE even knew she was Jewish until she finally admitted in February she was the anonymous ‘Jewish friend’ who sent those batshit anons. Other Jewish people also called Haley out on it, yet Haley and Olivia have conveniently ignored that little fact since it contradicts their narrative.

You think it’s over? Nope. Taylor then slunk into May’s dm’s with a half-arsed apology, where she admitted that the only reason she made those racist comments about Nathen Amin was because we “attacked Gareth Russell first” (“BeCaUsE AnNe FaNs CiTe HiS wOrk”) and she “just wanted to educate us about not lionising Henry VII” (even though anyone with eyeballs can read our discussion see she’s full of shit). At the same time, she and Haley were messaging other history bloggers, telling them that everyone who called them out were antisemites (including an openly Jewish mutual of ours) in an attempt to alienate them from the community. And this was just in JANUARY.

“I can’t be racist! My Jewish friend agrees with my racism!” That steaming load of backtracking horseshit is unfortunately the kind of nonsense Olivia has chosen to defend. FOR WEEKS Taylor ignored May’s messages, explaining why she — a black woman — found Taylor’s comments offensive. Did Taylor listen? Nope. In fact, she only replied in February: after she already started posting about how ignoring Haley’s hate anons was “antisemitism”. How convenient. Taylor might be a fucking idiot but we’re not. She only replied to May because she was afraid we’d use her own words against her. Clearly she never learnt a damn thing because here she is on 6 February backtracking on her apology. “Actually, I did NOTHING wrong! Also, you’re all antisemites for saying I did because my Jewish friend agrees with me!” And what made Taylor feel as though she had permission to start deflecting her vile behaviour onto others in order to get the heat off her? Olivia’s post about ‘their Jewish friend’ Haley: the one that followed Olivia’s “private discussion” with “her two friends”. Taylor is a racist hypocrite who hides behind the few minority friends she has to justify her racism, and attacks every other minority who disagrees with her. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the history bloggers who have a problem with Taylor and Haley’s nasty behaviour happen to be POC.

Despite Olivia admitting that she knew nothing about that situation other than what those two told her, she still took it upon herself to misconstrue and downplay to all her followers the extent of her friends’ racism, lies, and general nastiness (here she is on 9 MARCH). For her, our problems with racism are little more than “stupid drama”, “Henry VII drama”, “Gareth Russell drama”, “overreacting to a joke”, and “petty disagreements over dead people” because her friends are the perpetrators. Yet she demands everyone sympathise with her never-ending dramas and projects her behaviour onto others, despite the fact that she’s shown absolutely no understanding for why so many people have problems with her friends and has consistently defended the perpetrators. She’s entitled to be upset at whatever she wants to be upset at, but she is not entitled to tell her followers that we can’t be upset about racism directed at us, especially when that situation NEVER EVEN INVOLVED HER.

I agree. It’s disturbing that three grown women in their mid to late 20s have a vendetta against an 18 year old. Olivia acknowledged that her posts were reckless and that she would have acted differently if she just sat down and thought for one fucking second. But rather than correct the record on the same platform she made those accusations, she doubled down and took off to Twitter, saying that her anger entitled her to act that way. All with zero acknowledgement of the fact that the teenager SHE falsely accused and repeatedly mocked for her age was still being harassed by HER followers as a direct result of HER posts.

She might love the ‘clout’ that comes with a large following, but she evidently doesn’t care about the responsibility that comes with it. In Taylor and Haley’s case, it’s little more than a means to intimidate others into silence. Olivia might be a “respected history blogger” or a “good historian”, but that definitely doesn’t make her a good person. Far from it, if her behaviour is anything to go by.

This was on 9 February, 3 days after my first post. Bitching about me was all fun and games until the receipts came out, huh?

There’s nothing “insane” about keeping receipts, especially when Taylor and Haley are notorious for lying out of their arses and fake-apologising to people in the dm’s, only to continue mocking them on Twitter afterwards. You know what is insane though? Searching ‘romani’ on our blogs in a pathetic attempt to dig up dirt that doesn’t even exist (yeah, stat trackers exist). Do you know what else is insane? Haley spamming people with passive aggressive anons and sending anon hate to people who’ve already blocked her. She also “stalked” our WOTR group chat, though she’ll never admit to it, despite accidentally posting the dated receipts proving it. Oops!

It’s no secret that Taylor and Haley are cowards (as all bullies are), so it was no surprise when they eventually involved Olivia in their month-old vendetta against a teenager. They wanted to school a black girl on racism and Congolese genocide apologism, so they needed to get a “respectable history blogger” on their side. And Olivia happily obliged, kicking up such a fuss on their behalf that the teenager just offered to end it (despite the fact that Olivia vagued her first). Yet still Olivia continued, publicly mocking her age and calling her an “antisemite” long after the discussion was over (here she is on 24 February still carrying on). Either a teenager is old enough to be publicly shamed for being an “antisemite” and “antiromani bigot”, or she’s too young to be taken seriously. But at 25, Olivia is certainly old enough to know better than to participate in this kind of vile, petty, wannabe Mean Girl behaviour.

Olivia is not black. Taylor is not black. Haley is not black. So for the record, if you are not black, it is not your place to tell BLACK PEOPLE whether they can take issue with apologism for BLACK GENOCIDE. Multiple black history bloggers have already explained why they had a problem with Gareth Russell’s comments about the Congolese genocide (including the teen in question), yet that was less important to Olivia than not being able to call him a sexist weirdo because he’s gay. Olivia cannot speak on all minority issues — especially black and brown issues — and it is arrogant of her to assume that she can, especially since her understanding of the Gareth Russell issue came purely from “what she discussed with her two friends” by her own admission.

What a take. Here’s the “anti-Romani” post that I supposedly made. Precisely ZERO of my posts were about Olivia and not once did I even name her directly. So her claims that I mounted some kind of “vicious attack” against her is, uh, bullshit. Criticising her and her friends for their nasty, dishonest, and irresponsible behaviour isn’t “anti-Romani” just because she’s Romani. It’s no more “anti-Romani” than her erratic attempts to “expose” me are anti-Asian just because I’m Asian. It’s not any more “anti-Romani” just because the UK government has passed anti-Romani laws, any more than her telling deranged lies about me for over a month is an anti-Asian hate crime simply because there’s been an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. I’m not British. I’m not from the UK. I have no control over whatever dumb, racist crap her government does. So she can fuck off and continue fucking off if she wants to make me personally responsible for that. The backlash she received had nothing to do with her identity and everything to do with how she purposely incited harassment against a teenager, defended her friends’ racism, and spread demonstrable lies to her followers. The “viciousness” of the backlash she received is directly proportionate to the viciousness of her own baseless attacks against others. She can claim to be more mature than an 18 year old all she wants, but do you know what the actual mature thing to do would have been? To not promote her friends’ lies and nonsense, especially when the other people they tried to involve had the sense to stay out of it.

Olivia, Taylor and Haley are fully-grown adults, but take no responsibility for their actions. Yet, they expect teenagers to have total control over not only their own emotions, but also the emotions and actions of others. Olivia thinks that a teen should be personally responsible for the behaviour of fully-grown adults, yet she’s close friends with Taylor — a racist, xenophobic bully who screenshots Tumblr people’s posts to mock them on Twitter (here and here from December), called Poles who’ve lost relatives in the Holocaust “genocidal loving freaks”, accused an openly Ashkenazi Jewish blogger of “internalised antisemitism” just for criticising her (a white gentile), said that people who like Mary I “resent their own siblings”, co-opted our struggles under Spanish imperialism just so she could bully ‘Spaniards’ (despite her being American and therefore equally responsible for genocide, by her flawed logic), and said that the black teen who called out her racism “really deserved to be bullied” and “needed to be policed”. Olivia is also close friends with Haley, who has a history of attacking people over posts that have nothing to do with her, publicly admitted to circumventing blocks in order to send hate anons, and likened me — a Filipino immigrant — to DONALD TRUMP and a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist just because I posted the receipts exposing her lies, harassment of others, and projection.

Most of the people who have spoken out against these three didn’t even know each other until last month. Some of ‘us’ have actually blocked each other. Yet all of us agree that their behaviour towards others has been absolutely unacceptable. How is it that so many unrelated people from different corners of the ‘fandom’ have exactly the same problems with exactly the same people? If Olivia want us to take personal responsibility for “our friends’” behaviour, then she should first take responsibility for hers.

This is on 26 February, over a week after I last posted. As anyone with eyeballs can see, I called her British once. Not “repeatedly”. ONCE. So she can fuck off again with that bullshit. And why did I point that out? Because Olivia, a British citizen, made pejorative comments about “white Eastern Europeans!!!” just because she thinks some Polish people committed the heinous crime of... screenshotting her tweets. They didn’t even do it, and even if they did, how is that even relevant? Everyone knows that one specific Polish person lives rent free in Taylor’s head, so clearly Olivia just took Taylor’s word for it that it must have been The Poles who were “stalking” her. Maybe don’t take paranoid liars at face value next time?

Shameless, ignorant, tone deaf nonsense. Olivia constantly demands that people treat her and her identity with the utmost respect, yet here she was on 9 February already disrespecting the identities of others just so she can score some petty ‘oppression points’ against them. Why even bring their nationalities up? And why call them “white Eastern Europeans” instead of Polish since she knows they’re Polish? Is it because acknowledging that they are Polish would mean acknowledging that she doesn’t actually have a monopoly on a claim to discrimination or Holocaust trauma? Could it be that dismissing them as just some “white Eastern Europeans” was just another way for her to add credence to her own “pathetic lies” about the situation? There’s a word for that behaviour, and it starts with pro- and ends with -jection.

Let me reiterate: it is IGNORANT of her to use their identity against them, especially when hate-crimes against Polish immigrants have increased in her home country, and especially when the specific people she insulted lost close relatives (including Jewish relatives) in the Holocaust. It’s not “repeatedly mocking her identity” to point out her hypocrisy. Her being Romani is not an excuse for casual xenophobia. She might be able to hide her identity in the UK (though she shouldn’t have to), but Polish immigrants do not have the privilege of passing as first-language white British. I cannot pass as non-Asian. The black girl she and her friends tried to bully off Tumblr cannot pass as non-black. Olivia weaponising people’s identity against them just because she thinks they saw her public tweets is ignorant, petty, and completely uncalled for. She should be absolutely ashamed for using that pathetic argument, but based on her most recent farrago of nonsense, she probably won’t be.

Here’s her on 7 MARCH. And of course Taylor was the first to like it lol. Olivia may have deluded herself into believing she was just an innocent bystander, but unfortunately, enough people saw her admitting to inserting herself into the situation at the behest of her two friends. With every post before and since, her accusations have gotten wilder and wilder, falser and falser, and more and more irrelevant because she knows full well that none of her followers will bother fact-checking her. That’s the beauty of vagueing people. It’s how Taylor and Haley have been able to get away with pulling the wool over peoples’ eyes for so long. Too bad repetition, projection, and self-righteous outrage doesn’t equate to the truth because those are all those three have.

“SOMEONE NEEDS TO EXPOSE THE WHOLE DAMN LOT OF THEM! BUT IT WON’T BE ME!” 

No one has said anything since 18 February, yet here’s Olivia publicly inciting her followers again. She’s “done talking about it”, yet she’s the only one continuing the drama. She is being ‘persecuted’, yet she mobilises her followers to go after others. She needs to be defended against critics, yet she also can’t resist bragging about big her Tumblr following is, how “piddly” our notes are compared to hers, how she got over 30 followers to report my posts (they’re still up lol), and how many people she can get to dig through our blogs to find anything to “expose” us. Olivia, I’m sorry that you require constant validation from strangers on the internet, but not everyone has the same priorities as you. Some of us just come here to have fun, but having shitstarters in the community is decidedly un-fun.

All my posts were directed at Taylor and Haley, but since Olivia insists on making this revolve around her, let me clarify: she is a hypocrite and a professional victim. Words have meaning, and those words are the most accurate words to describe her behaviour. It has fuck all to do with her identity. She and Haley are professional victims because they act as if their minority statuses exempt them from basic rules of online courtesy and entitle them to run their mouths about others with no consequence. And Olivia is a hypocrite because she demands the respect and understanding that she has repeatedly refused to show to others. She made ignorant, xenophobic comments against Polish people because she falsely assumed they screenshot her public posts bitching about others. She pretends that the many POC who have spoken out against her are just some “white” hive-mind because admitting that we’re not white will discredit the victimhood narrative she’s been peddling to her followers. And she arrogantly presumes to be ‘our’ voice in the community, all while mobilising her following to intimidate and silence the minorities who take issue with her and her friends’ vile behaviour.

It’s extremely telling that in every one of her unlettered rants, Olivia made the conscious choice to conflate us with “white gentiles”, “white antisemites”, and “white Eastern Europeans”. Why? Because in order to “name and shame” us, she’d have to admit to her followers that the majority of the people criticising her aren’t actually “white”, but are in fact black, brown, and Jewish. Having repeatedly demanded that her followers defend her, her reputation and credibility now depends upon people continuing to see her as the oppressed victim of “bigoted whites”. Unfortunately for her and her friends, the truth will always come out. That’s what receipts are for, no matter what they claim.

The history community didn’t side with “a white gentile woman”. We sided with a black teenager who Olivia and her friends repeatedly mocked for her age, publicly and privately spread false accusations against, and incited their followers to harass with their never-ending posts. We sided against white racists like Taylor, and her white-passing enablers like Olivia and Haley. Since being called out for racism by a black girl discredited them, they had to discredit her. And unlike the others Taylor and Haley tried to involve, Olivia was their willing accomplice. If she has now been “alienated by half the history fandom”, it is because of her own behaviour and rightly so.

The ideal course of action would be for Olivia to finally take some responsibility for her actions, publicly apologise for her role in inflaming this drama, and move on like the rest of us have tried to do. But unfortunately, she may be too far gone in her own pathological need for online validation to ever admit wrongdoing without some serious introspection. So perhaps, Olivia, if anything else, you should just take your own advice and, once and for all, SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[nanamis-bigtie]

Hi! How are you doing? I hope you're doing well! I was wondering if you could possibly tell us about what is the drama on twitter you mentioned when other Anon asked you for the link to the nsfw twitter? I'm sorry if it's too nosy and it's 100% okay, if you don't want to answer! I'm just curious! Sorry, if I made you uncomfortable!

Alright. So.

Before I start, I would like to clearly state one thing: this is the first and the last time I am mentioning anything related to the proshipping discourse. I won’t answer questions and takes on this topic, I won’t take any side and I will block anyone who won’t get the implication and gonna pester me despite my silence. I am doing it only because the Anon here is curious AND polite and I would rather clarify some things in a pleasant atmosphere than in front of a pissed mob.

Twitter in general is... a very toxic place. VERY. TOXIC. If you were on tumblr in 2012 era or so, then multiply it by like ten. Some echoes of this drama reached tumblr, but never got treated seriously besides rather narrow group of very young people. Who probably spend most of their social media time on twitter anyway. 

Clear? Clear.

Discourse under the cut, there are mentions of dark content, r*pe and minor nsfw content.

There’s a very disturbing trend among young people (especially young people from rich “white” countries, such as US, Canada, western Europe, Australia etc. etc.), which originated from criticism of dark content. Don’t get me wrong, criticism is needed also in fandom - and “problematic” content needs to be more or less monitored because, unfortunately, it’s a fucking soil for creepos and people who do real life time harm. It’s also a myth that the fiction doesn’t influence the reality. (It does! however... not like a lot of people like to think about it.) Such things as fetishizing rape, fetishizing abuse, fetishizing incest need to be referred and discussed and adressed.

However, the cancel culture and so called antis took said statements and carried them far, far away from their origin. For them, ANYTHING touching the dark content is by definition same evil as real life harm. And it doesn’t matter, if someone writes a real pedo fantasy or just ships two teenagers and dares to draw a suggestive fanart with them - for them it’s the same.

And lately, said circles on twitter made another step: harassing, bullying and even doxxing authors who produce dark content. A popular queer fanartist was outed to their family because of the topic of their art - outed to conservative family in Iraq. You know, one of those countries where for being queer you can even get killed.

Unfortunately, similar fate happened to a popular One Piece fanartist from Japan. You might know about whom I’m talking about, if you ever saw a very suggestive zosan or solo Sanji fanarts with very tight clothes, especially on Sanji. Very characteristic style. Said fanartist also shared on their twitter links to their ns.fw content. With tons of trigger warnings, both in tweets and in said links. To see them, not only you have to read warnings on twitter, but also read warnings on the external platform AND confirm that you read them by typing a code word. There’s no way you could see said heavy, disturbing content WITHOUT your consent for it. Believe me, I was there, I went through all those steps.

And yes, the content there was really heavy. R*pe fantasy among the lightest things included. But once again: there were warnings. There. Were. Warnings.

Meanwhile, some idiot downloaded those fanarts and reposted them without a warning, exposing them to minors. And it came across antis. People harassed and bullied the author for something they didn’t even do (once again, they tagged their content and hid it from innocent eyes), until they deleted their twitter. 

EDIT: turned out they temporarily hid twitter instead of deleting it, I saw a new fanart from them today, 2nd May.

As a result, a huge shitstorm has started and the whole discourse basically turned into two sides barking at each other, where one side thinks it’s a human right to harm dark content enjoyers and the other one thinks it’s a human right to enjoy disturbing porn. (In a huge simplification but yes, it’s more or less that radical.) A lot of nsfw artists hid their accounts because they don’t want to be approached by an angry mob. And I’m talking about people who have never drawn anything problematic in their life, like the lawlu fanartist I mentioned yesterday and what stirred the requests to share the link.

TL;DR twitter is a toxic hell where you can step into drama easier than catching covid in a crowded bus. Please, be careful when approaching it right now and please, think twice about things you post there. 

[minteacutiewrites]

New Year New Stress

Woo first fanfiction of the New Year! Based on this prompt sent to me by an anon: Jon trying to fight through an ailment while recording a statement. (Surprise, it doesn't go well.) Martin tries to help Jon despite him being adamant about hiding himself away. Jon’s not really reading a statement in this but he is still being irresponsible with his health so I hope you still enjoy it!

A distant buzzing tugged at the edges of Jon’s consciousness.

He wasn’t quite awake enough to place where the sound was coming from, and his body was currently protesting being awake, so ignoring it seemed like his best option for the moment. The buzzing went away as quickly as it came.

Jon could feel his sore body sinking into the comfort of cushions underneath, dozing off.

It didn’t last long, as he was soon dragged back to consciousness by someone shaking his shoulder. He grumbled, burying his face further in the blankets, not ready to be awake.

“I know boss, I’m don’t want to be awake right now either.” A tired voice told him, a bit too loudly for his liking, a sharp pain shooting through his temple.

Jon wrinkled his nose before blinking his eyes open, squinting at the too-bright lights of Tim’s apartment.

It took a minute for his brain to catch-up before he could distinguish what he was doing in Tim’s apartment.

He remembered discussing New Year's plans, and when it became apparent none of them had made any, Martin suggested a small get together at one of their flats. Tim had been the first to volunteer his own, and they’d managed to ‘bully’ him into joining them.

Jon remembers a little bit of the previous night but not much, which he could probably attribute to the alcohol. Leaving him with what he was sure was a nasty hangover.

What he couldn’t understand is why Tim was waking him up at an ungodly hour when he distinctly remembered them having the day after New Years off.

Jon scowled at Tim, looking Tim over, glad that he at least looked as exhausted a Jon felt, and the only words Jon could think to say were, “What the hell?” They even sounded odd to him coming out of his mouth.

Tim snorted, amused with how disheveled Jon was at the moment, “Yeah, I know, but double boss called, demanding we come in,” He said, rolling his eyes, “something about a critical file gone missing. Still don’t know why it couldn’t have waited.”

Ice filled the pit of Jon’s stomach as he processed what Tim was saying. He sat up straight, knowing he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anyway, with the dread filling the pit of his stomach.

“Don’t look so panicked.” Tim teased, pressing two paracetamol into the palm of Jon’s hand, along with a bottle of water, “ I’m sure it just got misplaced. It won't take long for the four of us to find it.”

Jon nodded, trying to let his co-worker's words ease his nerves.

~

That conversation happened nearly over an hour and a half ago, as they were still filtering through hundreds of statements with no luck in finding the missing file.

Currently, Jon was sifting through the mass amount of papers on his desk to find some semblance of organization. His fingers resting on his temple as he messaged it.

He’d already downed the maximum amount of paracetamol he could take, but it didn’t seem to be doing much for the throbbing in his head. It was a struggle to stay motivated, but he reminded himself that he wasn’t the only one suffering through this.

Jon buried his face into his hands, exhausted, swallowing with a dry clicking. Wincing, he reached for his water bottle, taking a couple big gulp to quench his thirst for the moment.

He was still feeling a bit dehydrated, and the dry air and the dust in archives were wreaking havoc on his poor throat and sinus, leaving him with a fuzzy, tingly sort of ache feeling building behind his eyes that felt all too familiar.

Rubbing the area over his sinus, Jon hoped to quell the feeling, only making it worst until, “HUH’RSHIII!” a heavy sneeze had him bending nearly in half, his nose buried in his hands.

Jon stayed that way for a moment, his head throbbing.

Sniffling, Jon grimaced, feeling the slickness coating his hands. Reaching for a tissue, he blew his nose, pulling a little bottle of hand sanitizer out of his bag.

He used a generous amount, feeling significantly less disgusting afterward.

Someone cleared their throat, and Jon nearly jumped out his skin, his head snapping up to find Martin nervously lurking in the doorway. Jon could feel a hot red flush creep up his face as he wondered how much Martin had seen.

“I brought you some tea!” Martin exclaimed, raising the mug a little to show him. Normally Jon would grip at Martin for making tea instead of working, but honestly, tea sounded terrific.

Jon hastily straightened up some paperwork on his desk, leaving a small empty space for Martin to set the mug, “Any luck finding the file?” Jon asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Martin groaned, setting the mug of tea on his desk, “No, unfortunately,” He answered, “Tim’s convinced that Elias just misplaced it and is trying to blame it on us.”

Jon huffed a soft chuckled, coughing dryly. Martin looked him over, frowning, “How are you doing, by the way?” He asked, worry lacing his tone, “You look…”

“Terrible…” Jon provided, looking up at Martin.

Martin snorted, “I was going to say rough.” He answered, “Can I bring you anything else?” He asked, sounding so earnest that it almost made Jon tear up.

“The tea’s fine, Martin.” Jon answered a bit curtly, “What I’d really like is to find this stupid file?” He groaned.

“Right, I’ll get back to that!” Martin told him, clapping his hands together before standing back up. “Let me know if you change your mind.” He said, hurrying out of the room.

~

Jon stumbled out of his office ten minutes later when it became clear he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for in his office.

A crumpled tissue pressed to the underside of his nose, the box under his arm as it was clear his allergies weren’t going to let up any time soon.  His nose was taking on a pinkish hue from all the abuse.

It was going to only get worst when he entered the stacks.

He could already feel his eyes getting watery, and he was sure they were already a lovely shade of pink. Jon cleared his irritated throat, coughing, rubbing his aching sinuses.

Standing in front of the endless rows of files, he couldn’t help but feel completely overwhelmed, leaning against a cool metal cabinet, sinking down to the floor. His whole body throbbed, eyes stinging with unshed tears as Jon started to realize how long this was going to take.

Jon’s breath snagged harshly, “HAH’GXSSshh! HIH’GXSsht!” He stifled his sneezes harshly, exhaustion seeping into every muscle in his body.

He closed his eyes, resting his head against the cool metal. He just needed a short break…

~

Jon awoke to a cool hand pressed against his cheek.

Opening his eyes, he found Martin's face staring back at him, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, “Hey there.” Martin said, smiling softly, “How are you doing?”

“S’fine just a hangover…” Jon slurred a bit, still feeling a bit hazy, “need to get up.” He tried pulling himself up, but Martin just pushed him back down gently.

“Hangovers don’t typically come with fevers, Jon,” Martin told him, brushing his hair gently away from his face, “I think you should probably call it quits for today. The rest of us can keep looking.”

Jon tried to protest weakly, but he was no match for Martin’s fussing.

He let Martin gently direct him to the cot in document storage, allowing himself to be tucked under the covers. The last thing he heard before his eyes slipped shut, and he passed out was Martin’s soft voice telling him to: “Have a good nap.” Before he fell into a blissful slumber.

[blindbatalex]

Below is not my fic, but one raisin anon wrote for me and sent piecemeal in asks because they would rather not reveal their identity.  It also happens to be 1.5k of fluffy carraville perfection, featuring family, cats, and dogs! all for your enjoyment  💖

~*~

“Please, dad. Can we?” 

“Charlie”

“She was so sweet and perfect and they said probably no one will pick her and she'll stay there forever”

“Charlie” 

“You wouldn't want her to live her whole life without a family, would you?” 

“Charlie” 

“And it'll be a whole year since Dexter died next week, it'll be the perfect way to remember him.”

“With replacing him with a new dog ?” 

“The mourning period in Tonga for close family is a year” 

“If you look out the window, buddy, I think you'll find that we live in the north of England” 

“Daaad, please. You miss having a dog too.”

In fairness, his son wasn't wrong. Dexter had been with them for almost as long as the twins had, and Gary did miss the comforting warmth of their German Shepard curled up at his feet whenever he sat still for more than fifteen minutes. He looked up from where he was preparing a salad to go with their quiche for dinner to the youngest half of the set of twins he and Jamie had adopted almost thirteen years ago. 

Charlie was sat on the kitchen island swinging his legs back and forth, contently watching his father make dinner whilst advertising for a six year old Anatolian Shepard rescue, that had arrived at the shelter a few weeks back. Maybe fifteen was a bit too old to sit on the kitchen counter doing nothing, but it happened so rarely these days that the boys would sit still and just chat away like they used to do, that Gary didn't have it in him to scold him for it. 

“Pa said yes, by the way,” Charlie said, and Gary had to smile. 

“Did he now?”

“Mhm, he's all for it. He misses having a dog too.” 

“So if I go upstairs to the laundry room now I won’t find your brother trying to persuade him just like you're trying to do to me at the minute”

Charlie just made a face, but didn't answer, which gave Gary all the answer he needed really.

“We'll discuss it over dinner.”

He walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a stack of plates before holding it up in front of the lad. 

“Go on, then. Help set the table if you want to heighten your chances.” 

Charlie hopped off the counter and grabbed the plates with an eagerness Gary had never seen before. The table was set in a matter of minutes, and before Gary had even had the chance to pull the quiche and the garlic bread out of the oven Charlie had gone out into the hallway and shouted dinner was ready up the stairs. 

Jamie came walking into the kitchen soon after with Joey following close at his heels. Gary saw the look the brothers shot at each other which basically confirmed his suspicions. The plan had been to butter each dad up separately so that none of them would be the too critical voice of reason when the topic was brought up with all of them present. 

“Heard you agreed to go get the dog, love,” Jamie said as he sat down, left side of the table, chair closest to the window. Charlie settled just opposite him, Joey on his right, which left Gary next to Charlie. No one had explicitly ever stated that a specific spot was theirs, but Gary had a feeling the whole universe would be thrown of its balance if they sat anywhere else.

“Funny, I heard the same about you.” 

“Oh, really. I know your hearing is starting to get bad, but I would hope mine was still fairly intact.” 

“Well, that is the only explanation. It could not possibly be that our sons lied to us.”

“No, never!” 

Joey rolled his eyes at their theatrics. Charlie shoved a piece of garlic bread in his mouth.

“Can we, though? Get the dog ?” 

“Didn't your da's ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full?” Jamie asked him. 

“One of them is Scouse so it's wasn't a huge part of our childhood,” Charlie retorted. Gary huffed a laugh at that and piled some salad on Charlie plate with a pointed look. 

“But seriously – ” Joey piped up, taking over his brothers question. 

“We already know what it is like to have a dog, we know how much responsibility it is, and she's six years old already, so it's not like it'll be for a fifteen year commitment. And Dexter would be so happy looking down at us to see we got another one to use his food bowl.” 

All valid points. Gary had to give him that. Although – 

“Sarafina might not be too happy.” 

The undisputed princess of the house, a five year old Ragdoll known as Sarafina, had heard her family settling in for dinner and had thus paraded from her favourite spot in the windowsill to her food bowl in the corner. 

“‘Fina won’t care. She's the chillest cat there has ever been.” 

Gary met Jamie's eyes over the table. In fairness, had they not needed to play the role of responsible fathers who didn't jump to decisions without thinking them through first, they would've gotten a dog months ago. But as it happened the boys weren't quite ready to forget Dexter so soon, and now that they were gunning for a new one, Gary felt as though they needed to learn to think things through at least twice before making a decision.

“You promise to help walk her everyday ?” 

“Promise.” 

“No moaning when we can't go away for long holiday's without her?” 

“Never.” 

“And you can keep your rooms clean and tidy for more than ten minutes at the time?” that one came from Jamie.

“What's that got to do with getting a dog?” Charlie asked. 

“Responsibility, lad. And wishful thinking.” 

“We'll clean them every day,” Joey said seriously. 

Gary doubted it, but he hadn't been much better at fifteen to be fair so he really didn't have a leg to stand on. He shared a look with Jamie again, held a silent conversation and gave him a half smile. He did really want a dog as well, and he knew Jamie was no different. 

“We'll go to the shelter after we pick you up from school tomorrow.” 

Much later that night Gary was sat up in bed reading his book, glasses perched on his nose and listening to Jamie making the last round of the house before turning in for the night. Turning off all lights, double checking the coffee maker was off, looking in on the boys, giving a pat to Sarafina, that sort of thing. He hadn't been able to keep his mind of Dexter's old dog bed that used to be in their room ever since dinner time. Maybe he had missed having a dog more than he thought. 

“All good?” he asked Jamie when his husband entered the room and crawled under the covers.  

“Yeah. Boys sleeping, coffee machine off, all good,” he answered around a yawn and settled down under the duvet, snuggling his head close to Gary’s side. Automatically Gary's hand fell on top of his head and started to stroke his hair.

“Tired, love?” 

“Mhm.” 

“Insomnia acting up again?” 

“Just a little bit last night.” 

“Why didn't you wake me?” 

“You look cute when you're asleep.” 

“James.”

“Gareth.” 

Jamie opened his eyes and looked up at him with a teasing smile. Gary looked back, torn between scolding him for not waking him up (like they had agreed on dammit) and kissing the idiotic man. He settled on the last, in no mood to end the day on a half bad note.

“I'm really excited to get a dog” Jamie said as they parted, and instead of sitting back up and continue reading, Gary settled down on his pillow also, pulling Jamie to his chest in the process. 

“Hm, me too.” 

“Maybe the sleeping will get better.” 

“Yeah. Dexter helped didn't he?” 

“Yeah. Helped a lot.” 

Gary had no idea how a dog could help with insomnia, but Dexter had. Jamie's tendency for midnight wanderings had increased after the old dog passed away, which was sort of why Gary had demanded Jamie to wake him up, because he used to be woken by Dexter's licking his hand to say that his husband had gone downstairs, but the old dog wasn't there to do it now. 

He ran his fingers though Jamie's every greying hair and gave him a peck on the forehead. 

“Sleep now, love. I got you. And wake me up if you need to.” 

Jamie hummed in response, halfway off to dreamland apparently. Gary smiled to himself. Thought of the dog bed in the attic that would soon belong to someone again, his wonderful husband who would maybe get some more sleep soon, his perfect boys right down the hall excited for tomorrow, the fuzzball of a princess  downstairs who loved Gary the most because he was the one to brush her fur daily. 

This family had to be the best one in all of the world.

[earnestly-endlessly]

Could you please rec cherik fics where they still have powers but being mutant is well accepted? (Kind of like the Daycare Verse by brillingspoons) THANK U SO MUCH YOURE INCREDIBLE

Hi anon, of course I have a list for you. I am so sorry for the delay. I have been super busy lately with work and home renovations, but I’m back and I have a looong list for you. Now, the nature of x-men as a parallel of the very real fight of minority groups for civil rights makes it pretty hard to find fics where everyone accepts mutants.That’s actually why I love the x-men, because they represent the fight of those who are ostracised. So, some of these might have some social commentary, but the main focus does not lie there. Also, if you love the Daycare Verse check out pocky_slash’s fics (who actually wrote the majority of the Daycare Verse). 

------

Cherik ´Still Have Powers Modern AU´ Fic Recs

irreconcilable differences (make for surprisingly good bedfellows) – pocky_slash

Summary: Tonight on The Evening Report with Malcolm Stevens, noted geneticist and mutant equality proponent Dr. Charles Xavier faces off with the infamous mutant rights activist Magneto in a live televised debate over the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act.

(At least, if they can stop flirting long enough to stay on topic.)

Words and Pictures – pocky_slash

Summary: When Lorna's powers manifest early, Charles Xavier's mutant picture books are the perfect teaching tool. Erik just hadn't expected the author to be so young. Or attractive. Or available.

For the Record – endingthemes

Summary: As prominent figures in the mutant rights movement, activists Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are pretty much household names. When a romance scandal between them breaks, their celebrity reaches new heights, and though the increased exposure is great, there’s a big problem -- the two of them are just friends.

Too bad no one believes them.

Runs in the Family – Anonysquirrel (chibirisuchan)

Summary: Alex knew his own reputation. Hell, he'd started some of his own reputation, because it kept some of the smarter thugs off his back. Everyone knew Alex's reputation. There was no way Hank didn't know his reputation, but he'd brought Alex into a house with some really expensive things and a lot of innocent little kids and his too-friendly, too-harmless dad.

But clearly Hank hadn't told his family anything about Alex, just like he hadn't told Alex anything about his family. At least, not about the brain-breaking parts of his family.

"I didn't know where to start," Hank said, for the dozenth time.

Featuring mpreg!Charles in a Kiss The Cook apron, overprotective!Erik in wet black leather, and baked goods. Lots and lots of baked goods.

(Another segment of this series is posted under the Cookie Cutter fic collection - thanks again, Takmarierah!)

Impulse Decisions – listerinezero

Summary: Erik wakes up in Las Vegas with a hell of a hangover, a telepath in his bed, and a ring on his finger. Now what?

You Show Me Yours - endingthemes

Summary: When Erik receives nudes in the middle of the night from an unknown number, he's confused and mildly amused. He doesn't expect it to turn into an actual conversation...with feelings.

As if that's not baffling enough, his friend's brother ends up crashing at his place, further complicating everything.

Some Such Place (The Big Screen Classics Remix) - Pocky_Slash

Summary: Erik's spent the last eighteen months having lengthy socio-political conversations and casual sex with Charles Xavier after seeing Monday matinees at a dingy little independent movie theatre in the Village. That doesn't mean they're friends. Or that Erik should have any say in what Charles is going to do with his future.

(At least, that's what Erik keeps telling himself.)

Into Your Tar, Honey  - tomato_greens

Summary: Really, Alex doesn’t know why he’s in the damn class.

(Or, the one in which Charles teaches an online Introduction to Biology course, and Alex reads more than he expected to.)

Heli Cases - Black_Betty

Summary: "Heli Cases" is a program on PBS whose aim is to educate on the rapidly increasing occurrence of genetic mutation in the general populous by breaking the complex science down into palatable, easy to digest pieces.

It is also the only thing that helps Erik get his fussy daughter to fall asleep.

(Featuring Dadneto, baby Lorna and the struggles of single fatherhood, and Charles as the host of a late night show about genetics.)

Bound - FuryRed

Summary: Is there anything worse than someone else’s wedding? Well, perhaps your sister’s wedding- where the groom just has to invite his boss and that man just happens to be your ex-boyfriend; a person you had an extremely passionate and tumultuous relationship with that ended badly.

Charles hadn’t seen Erik for a year by the time Raven had told him about the wedding. He wasn’t looking forward to the occasion, particularly when Raven explained that they would be celebrating the event with a two-week extravaganza at a luxury hotel, meaning that Charles would be forced to spend a whole fortnight with the man who he’d given everything to; the man who had ultimately broken his heart…

An Exercise in Frustration – ikeracity

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr's latest critically-acclaimed film Shame features a full-frontal nudity scene. His long-suffering husband Charles is really very peeved about it.

Eyes on Fire - Black_Betty

Summary: Every once in a while, fashion tycoon Emma Frost invites her favourite male models over to entertain her. And by "entertain", I mean she makes them have kinky consensual sex in front of her....Emma never touches herself when she watches, but she always has a glass of wine with her. Emma likes it best when they eventually forget that she's watching.

Charles and Erik meet each other through Emma...

(I've taken some liberties with the prompt, but all the sex is still there, and it's wholly consensual...and gradually, becomes more than just sex...)

Order Up - ikeracity

Summary: Charles has a terrible habit of multitasking, and that is probably why he absentmindedly tells the pizza man that he loves him when hanging up.

Then the pizza man says it back. And Charles is pretty much smitten from there.

Some Assembly Required - manic_intent

Summary: "Alex and Hank were two teenagers who frequently fight in school. One fight got so bad that the principal called in their fathers (as both came from single-parent families)/ guardians for a conference. This was how Charles and Erik meet."

Limited Release - rageprufrock

Summary: When Alex Summers broke out of supermax to rescue his stupid kid brother, he had no idea it was going to be so fucking complicated.

Math Reasons – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: "Mom says Erik always knows what he wants, it just sometimes takes him a little while to actually realize it," Ruth said.

Charles fell in love with Erik the first night they met, the first week of freshman year. Two years of friendship, adventures, arguments, hijinks, secrets, and summer visits later, Erik is starting to catch up.

It’s kind of our whole thing – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: After two years of best friendship, Charles and Erik thought they knew everything there was to know about each other. They're surprised, then, when their first summer as a couple reveals that they have a lot to learn about each other and themselves.

PART 2 of Math Reasons

A Nice Boy (The Family Matters Edition) – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik's not sure whether the problem is that he doesn't want his parents to meet Charles or that he doesn't want Charles to meet his parents. Either way, he never invites Charles to brunch. Why should he? It's not like they're dating.

apple season – pocky_slash

Summary: "You know," Charles says while they're sitting around the kitchen table reading the paper, "You should take Anya apple picking."

"Don't you mean 'we?'" Erik responds. The silence that follows is enough to make him re-examine his own apple picking memories a little more closely. Uneven ground littered with apples, tree roots, holes, and narrow passage between rows of orchard trees. "Oh," he says.

rooms/shares – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik is single, working a cube job he hates, letting his master's degree in mutant studies collect dust, and living on his best friend's couch. When she kicks him out, he's forced to trawl Craigslist for the least-offensive rooming option within his meagre budget. He never expects a response from the persnickety, high maintenance ad he replies to as a joke, but it's possible this too-nice apartment and mysteriously absent roommate might be the answer to all four of his problems.

Continue firm and constant – aesc

Summary: Moira hasn't seen her old partner in saving the world from threats human and intergalactic, Erik Lehnsherr, for a few years. When she finally does see him again, she finds a man different from the one who's been with her down in the dark and the dirt and the blood... or maybe he isn't so different after all.

Tough little baby telepath – aesc, pearl_o

Five Part Series

Summary: Teenage telepath Charles Xavier takes a job as a consultant, working with prickly police detective Erik Lehnsherr. Charles is used to being on his own and taking care of himself; he has no reason to think that his relationship with this stern, icy man is going to change any of that.

Frosted hearts – aesc, palalife

Summary: Emma Frost has 99 problems, but a date ain't one. Specifically, she has no time to play the dating game--which is fine with her, because she'd much rather run it instead. From a set of sleek, silver and white offices on Fifth Avenue and with her trusty, stylish, and silent partner Janos Quested, Emma has built Frosted Hearts into New York City's premiere dating service, built on the principle that money, and a sufficiently rigorous psionic scan, can, in fact, buy you love.

Somewhere in Frosted Hearts's server is one Charles Xavier, genius and geneticist, with the kind of nicely-starched good looks that sell well on brochures for New England prep schools. He's also a telepath who's decided to give up pursuing serious relationships and instead spend his thirties doing what he should have done as a teenager: have a lot of sex with random people. Fortunately for him, Erik Lehnsherr, metallokinetic and engineering executive, has absolutely no time in his heart or his schedule for anything more serious than... well, absolutely nothing romantic at all.

Mercy of the Fallen (the AirDrop Security Update 2.0) – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr feels defined by his past sins and after years of acting against his own moral compass, he's finally struck out on his own. He's his own boss now, and determined to work hard to help the mutant community and make up for years of doing someone else's dirty work.

Complicating this is Charles Xavier, mutant advocate, genetics professor, unfairly attractive telepath, and owner of the coffee shop below Erik's office. Erik may not think he deserves to be a part of the community he's thrown himself into helping, but Charles has other ideas on the matter, and he's determined to do everything in his power to make Erik see himself as a force for good.

you follow and i’ll lead – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: When Charles discovers how frustrated and self-conscious his best friend Erik is about his ignorance about sex, he's eager to volunteer to help teach him and practice. Charles might not have any more direct experience than Erik, but he does have a telepath's mind full of accidentally picked-up fantasies and memories, as well as knowledge of a few dirty books - and more importantly, he's been madly in love with Erik for years. This seems like a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he can't pass up.

Now he just needs to manage to keep his feelings in check, and not ruin their friendship forever.

Snail Mail – pocky_slash

Summary: Alex isn't thrilled when his boss, Erik, starts sending him to hand deliver notes to Erik's husband up at the university--that is, until he sees the Professor's hot new TA, and suddenly, the notes can't come fast enough. If only Alex could work up the guts to ask him out....

this is life (and everything’s all right) – pocky_slash

Summary: Edie Lehnsherr came into Charles' life long before he ever heard Erik Lehnsherr's name, and her death left a gaping hole in the lives of everyone in Charles' family. As the first Purim without her approaches, he begins to get creative in his efforts to bring everyone out of their grief. Kitchen creativity, however, is not quite his strength....

Watching the Detectives – Clocks

Summary: Detectives Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are good friends and colleagues. However, when they go undercover at a Christmas party to nab a prime suspect, Erik keeps reminding himself to stay professional and ignore feelings of unexpected jealousy.

Student/Teacher Relations – PoorMedea

Summary: As a TA, Charles knows he can't get involved in all his students' lives. He needs to keep professional boundaries, to make sure that he's an authority figure. But when he accidentally finds out how complicated Erik Lehnsherr's home life is, he suddenly finds that distance hard to maintain.

Fill for the prompt: Erik is the teen dad of adorable baby!Lorna. I just want teen!Erik being a dad, with adorable interactions between him and his baby. Angst is good too since there's always going to be some in such situations, but mainly I want to see teen dad Erik being an awesome dad who loves the hell out of his daughter despite whatever else may be going on.

Conspiracy of Kisses – Alaceron

Summary: Seven-year-old Erik needs to keep his telepathic best friend Charles from finding out that he wants to kiss him. But that's okay, because he has a plan - he'll put on a tinfoil hat.

Favorite Mistake – endingthemes

Summary: Charles Xavier doesn’t think anything of it when he sneaks out without even saying goodbye to his latest one-night stand. What he doesn’t expect is to walk into his new position in the Xavier Industries marketing department and find that his latest hook-up is now his new boss.

Never Take Biology for Granite – ikeracity, pangea

Summary: Charles is an internet celebrity who garners his fame from posting educational, in-depth videos about a different animal every week, though for some reason his viewers are always more interested in his sex life with his geologist husband, Erik, who happens to frown heavily upon all living things.

Except for Charles, of course, whom he's missed these past couple days while attending a geologic convention--though considering the subject material of Charles' newest video, he's wishing he would've stayed away longer.

This Is Not Comedy – baehj2915

Summary: Written for amarriageoftrueminds' prompt for a Cherik version of Louis CK's tangent about the fuckability of Ewan McGregor.

Naturally the similarities end there. I made this about Erik's full on public lust-filled gay revelation, and the chaos that spirals from there.

Snowed In – dedkake

Summary: Charles and Erik have a one night stand, but a blizzard traps them in Erik's apartment afterward.