#and it's literally not like any of their centres are elite

[three-headed-monster]

I’ve seen like 20 trading dylan to Calgary posts tonight. in #hell lol

...to calgary for what? FOR WHAT???

[cusimmrbrightside]

I have always liked the idea of the school for mutants being very literally a school, and I know yes it is but I mean in the sense of if you want to be an X-men, you have to be a teacher. They have exams at the end of years, they have Ofsted checks (for those who don’t know what they are, it’s essentially people coming to check that the school is good at being a school) and they have teachers for every subject, which brings me to my next point;

“I’m Right You’re Wrong, Here’s What The X-Men (‘97 specifically) Would Teach As Subjects”.

(Also this is based off of UK school system but I use American terms like “seniors” and “AP” and “Midterms”)

Maths Teacher Gambit is surprising, for a guy most assume to not being entirely smart, an idiot goof off who’s the comedic relief. But you need to know numbers to gamble, and that he does with being very well versed in mathematics way past an AP level. He’s made the promise for every senior class that he will teach them to play blackjack on the final day, and has only ever lost once. Which is when the rule of “no betting real money” came into place.

English teacher Jean reminds me of the kind of teacher who would let the social outcasts into her class for their lunch breaks. The kids more likely to be bullied and she will fight tooth and nail to make sure those kids bullies don’t come into that classroom. they’re loud and shout and shouldn’t really be in there but no one has to know and she certainly won’t be telling them to leave any time soon.

Physics teacher Magneto is very specific to my highschool experience I’ll be honest. I had a physics teacher who was an actual Dr with a PHD and he hated being there. His classroom has (well, had since the building was knocked down about 5 years ago now) this one cabinet that was never fully shut, it was always open just about an inch or two, and he’d stand with his foot hovering just above it and then slam down on it whenever we got too loud so the noise would shut us up. That’s very magneto coded. Erik Lehnsherr would purposefully make the cabinet always a little open so he can do that.

Biology teacher morph is just a funny concept, a person whose physical form and change and morph into just about anything. They are considered one of the “fun” teachers, you could easily convince them to let you watch a movie all class as long as it was biology centred, but with classics like Osmosis Jones, you’re not stuck watching a documentary about animals giving birth.

Chemistry teacher Storm does not fuck about with children’s education. She is not strict by any means whatsoever, she just will not bend to someone saying they want to watch a film or should do a practical instead of theory. She has a set curriculum. She knows what she will be doing by the first week of the summer holidays and already has the room set up all pretty and organised.

Geography teacher Scott has the unfortunate job of telling his students that, they just won’t be looking at memorising country flags and politics. But hey!! Rocks are cool!! Beach shores are cool! Lake formations are cool! He’s the vice principal and designated nerd teacher. He once beat the elite four for a student on their copy of Pokémon Red because the student promised they’d do well in their midterms. Yes, he was in his 30s when the game came out, he doesn’t care.

History teacher Logan is a walking fun facts book. He’s exhausted, goes on smoke breaks on every gap of time he has, dislikes his job and will randomly get passionate about one specific topic, and will then dedicate his next 4 classes to that topic. Having been through a lot of modern history with personal experiences, he’s able to bring a lot of souvenirs to show his classes. Bullets, helmets, clothes he once wore hundreds of years ago, his personal memories of basic inventions like the vaccine.

PE (physical education) teacher Rogue is full of fun sports games, you can join any kind of sports team you can imagine and if you ask nicely enough, she’ll put Just Dance on a projector in the sports hall so you can just play that instead of actually play an actual sport. As long as you leave her class exhausted and without time to have a shower before your next class then she’s succeeded in making whoever your next teacher is absolutely miserable (bonus points if it’s Logan with his enhanced sense of smell).

Art teacher jubilee does believe that there is a right way to critique art. And she can be a little in your face about it. She does think you can have wrong opinions especially when it comes to your own art. If she overhears you saying you didn’t something wrong, she’ll scream into a megaphone “adapt, improvise, overcome!”. There are no mistakes! She’s eccentric, bubbly, creative and brilliant, the only one suited for the job.

It wouldn’t be a school without budget cuts. That’s why Nightcrawler is both the languages and religions teacher and he’s beloved at both. He comes up with roleplay scenarios the students can play to help learn their chosen languages, he has varied religious texts in his room and when he says to the students “I’ll pray for toy during exam season” he’s not actually joking.

(I forgot about Hank I’m actually going to cry he’s one of my favourites and I forgot about him. He’ll be in pt two or smth.)

[iwaoiness]

Iwaizumi knew it. He knew he shouldn't give in again, that he had to be the firmer, more mature, responsible, and sensible one between the two of them.

But every man has his weakness, and for Hajime, that weakness is Tooru. Especially when he does that thing where he gently bites his lips while smiling (drunk from so many kisses and caresses), where he droops subtly his eyelids (crystal clear and cloudy eyes), where he calls him Hajime in that slow, playful and fucking hot way.

And, of course, Iwaizumi falls and takes Oikawa down with him. Until they both hit the ground, metaphorically and literally, because, at the end of the day, cardboard Olympic beds might support one big elite athlete, but definitely not two.

“Fuck, not again,” groans Iwaizumi, covering his face with both hands from where he lies on the floor. Sitting next to him, fully satisfied and with the sheet draped over his shoulders, Oikawa laughs.

"At least it held out until we reached orgasm"

Hajime lowers his hands and frowns his brow in his direction. But any urge to hit Oikawa evaporates when he sees his pretty smile, rosy cheeks, and tousled hair.

"You're a brad, you know that?"

"And you're a brute, you know that?"

They both smile, their words carrying no heat. Hajime pulls the sheet around Oikawa's shoulders, leaning him in to kiss. He feels the warmth of Oikawa's body against his skin, Oikawa's hand cradling his face, and his long fingers tangling in Hajime's hair as their lips meet and part, slow and lazy, like the gentle waves of a calm sea.

But, before Tooru's free hand slides down his chest and he climbs on top for another round, Iwaizumi breaks the kiss, snorting in amusement at Tooru's plaintive moan.

"Let's go shower," he says, getting up from the floor.

“Oh,” Oikawa's eyes sparkled with excitement as he gazed up at him from below, “so the second round will be—”

“In your dreams, Shittykawa. Normal shower.”

“Boo, ¡qué aburrido, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa sticks his tongue out in an endearing pout, maintaining it even as he raises his arms towards his boyfriend, silently asking to be carried.

Hajime arches an eyebrow, but he can't wipe the smile off his face. He crouches down and, with relative ease, lifts a world-class volleyball player into his arms. Oikawa's muscular arms wrap around his neck, and he hums contentedly, snuggling against Hajime's chest. As he swings his legs, Oikawa finally begins to curse the USA team after their defeat last night. Iwaizumi listens, proud that the loss hasn't weighed too heavily on Oikawa's shoulders (after all, it's just the first game of his second Olympics, and Japan also lost to Germany too) and he laughs when Tooru theorises that the defeat must have been the fault of the embarrassing bright pink shirts with his worst photos printed under the phrase We Stan With Toto in Comic Sans that his parents, sister, Takeru, Mattsun, and Makki wore to cheer him on.

To Oikawa's chagrin, there is no second round in the bath. However, he fully relaxes as he sinks into the water, with Iwaizumi lathering his hair and massaging it just the way he likes—in circles, without pressing, and gently untangling it. Iwaizumi also takes the opportunity to comb Oikawa's hair into a porcupine-like point or flatten it into a crest, ignoring his childish protests.

Tooru helps him lather his untamed hair and rub his broad back. He also takes the opportunity to touch the fresh scratches on Hajime's back, laughing when Hajime screams and barely escaping his pinching.

After removing all traces of shampoo and gel, teasing each other some more, kissing and drying their hair thoroughly (especially Oikawa), they finally emerge from the shower almost drowsily, with towels wrapped around their waists.

However, to Iwaizumi's chagrin now, the bed is still broken. The centre is sagging, the cardboard frames are unhinged, some even split and others bent outwards under the pressure exerted. The legs at the ends are bent and twisted. The colourfull quilt is in disarray and the pillow is on the floor. The mattress, somehow the only intact thing, has fallen to one side, leaning against what little is left of the bed.

"No matter how much you frown, it won't fix itself" scoffs Tooru, already dressed in a clean shirt (Hajime's), dark boxers (Hajime's too) and his neon yellow Pikachu socks (not Hajime's).

“But I don’t want to go through this again,” he protests, running a hand over his face, feeling his ears turn red.

This would be the second fucking warning for the same issue, and they’ve only been in the Olympic Village for four fucking days.

“I told you to put the mattress on the floor.” Tooru hugs him from behind, grinning amused as Hajime turns to look at him, squinting.

“Did you? Because I remember you were too busy moaning my name to think about that.”

“If Iwa-chan is too embarrassed to ask for a new bed, then I’ll asking for it!” Oikawa, blushing, intentionally ignores his comment and trots over to his phone.

“Oh, no, no! Tooru, come here! Tooru!” Still with the towel around his waist, Hajime chases his slippery boyfriend around the room, and Tooru laughs loudly, phone in hand, trying to access the app as he continues to run away.

Fourth day of the Olympic Games, and counting.

...

FINALLY my small contribution to the olympic games but in a iwaoi way u know

thank u sm for all the likes and reblogs <3 u can find this and find me on my ao3 🍉

[bullet-prooflove]

Underneath The Stars - Bottles x Reader (NSFW)

Tagging: @crazy4chickennuggets @kmc1989 @librarian1002 @thanossexual @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @adaydreamaway08 @wnbweasley @skyesthebomb

Companion piece to:

Inevitable - Bottles finds a letter on your kitchen table.

Prequel to:

Forward - You discuss your decision to stay in Santo Padre.

Tonight, Bottles takes you for a ride out to the desert, it’s something you’ve done a couple of times before because you love the tranquillity of the area, the spirituality. The two of you make a fire, you try to do it using the tricks you learned in Girl Guides before Bottles takes pity on you and uses his lighter to ignite the wood. He spreads his bedroll out in front of the fire while you toast marshmallows, waiting for them to crisp before popping them into your mouth.

You taste like burnt sugar when he kisses you under the stars. Your lips are sweet and sticky, and he smiles into your mouth because he likes you like this. Wild and free spirited.

He makes love to you in front of the fire. The glow from the flames illuminates your skin as he lays underneath you, his hands chasing up your waist holding you in place as he rolls his hips.

Already the pleasure is too much, the ecstasy chases through your veins as his cock rakes over that deviant little place inside of you. There’s a thrill in being out here like this but there’s also a serenity, a peacefulness that you never would have expected because you’re not just connected to him in this moment, you’re connected to nature, the universe.

It’s one of the reasons that Santo Padre is so special to you. However now you’ve had this job offer from the Robinhood Foundation in New York…

Your career had started there, event planning for Manhattan’s elite. Baby showers costing in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars, charity events that were thousands of dollars per plate, kids parties held in museums that had budgets to revamp them into literal princess castles. You were excellent in your role, you’d made some big money but then you’d met Ben at a baby shower, and everything had changed.

“Don’t you think it’s excessive?” He’d asked you as you chaperoned a birthday party for a one-year-old which cost over two hundred thousand dollars.

“What I think is irrelevant.” You’d told him, ticking a checkbox on your clipboard.

“If you ever want to change that.” He tells you, handing you, his card. “Give me a call, the charity I work for is looking for a fundraising director. I think you’re wasted here.”

He hadn’t been wrong; you’d followed him all the way here to Santo Padre. The work you did at the community centre was some of the most meaningful you had ever undertaken. You actually made a difference in people’s lives. You may not be making the same money as you did back in New York, but your heart was full and that’s all that mattered.

Bottles fucks you like it’s the last time because to him it is. He’d seen the letter from the Robin Hood Foundation on the kitchen table this morning, the start date set for next week. He can’t compete with a job in New York, not one with that salary. He would never ask you to stay, that wouldn’t be fair so instead he gives you something special to remember.

A night underneath the stars before you head back off to the big city.

He draws it out, keeping you on the edge until your skin is flushed and your eyes are bright. You kiss him when you climax and he drinks down your pleasure, savouring it because this isn’t going to happen again, and he wants to remember this moment every single time he closes his eyes.

In the aftermath, you lay draped across his chest, your legs tangled up in his. The blanket from the back of his bike tossed over the two of you.

I’m going to miss this, he wants to say, I’m going to miss you.

He doesn’t say those words out loud. Instead, he just holds you close because the love of his life is leaving in five days, she just hasn’t told him yet.

Love Bottles? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[scaranation]

hi is it alright if i request modern au kaeya inviting a very introverted and awkward reader to a party he's hosting bc he really likes her and she has her first kiss with him there. thank you <333

yeah it’s been about two months since I got this request… IM GOING TO STOP SLACKING OFF I SWEAR BUT THIS WAS SO GOOD 😭😭

As an introvert myself I feel like writing this was low key projecting but Kaeya’s such a comfort character oml <33

༊*·˚ 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓

Pairing: Kaeya x Reader

Content: Fluff, shy reader, mentions of alcohol, pining (modern au)

a/n - just realised the last line seems mildly suggestive, it rlly isn’t supposed to be but just interpret it how u want ig 😀😀

You and Kaeya were two very different people. Whilst he was always the centre of attention, the epicentre of every crowd of people, and the object of countless people's affections, you were the one who's name was easily forgotten. He was outgoing, and you went out of your way to avoid interaction. Not because you hated it, but because you were afraid of messing up. That student that greeted everyone good morning when entering the lecture hall? You'd take the other route to prevent embarrassing yourself with a response that was too short, or delivered in the wrong way. You were the type to curb your steps to avoid bumping into someone you knew but weren't comfortable enough to awkwardly walk next to, whilst Kaeya would speed up at the possibility of a conversation.

All in all, it almost seemed as if you two lived in different worlds. He was socially adept, easily making small talk. His laugh could be heard from the other end of the auditorium, the ring of people surrounding him laughing too in agreement with whatever he'd said. Every word that left his lips was so seamless, so natural. Even the letters K.A always made all students at Daena University think of the same person, every eyepatch conjured up the blue-haired man's unmistakable image. He was, quite literally, the pinnacle of popularity - an icon at your university. You'd met him in middle school at a holiday program, and had been comfortable talking to him for those weeks. His outgoing nature had shocked you when you met him in university. Assuming that he wouldn't want to socialise with someone as unknown and irrelevant as you, you only avoided him. Unlike magnets, human opposites do not attract.

On the other hand, Kaeya desperately sought after you. Due to you adamantly pretending not to know him, he almost thought you'd forgotten him - but the glance you'd send his way every once in a while suggested otherwise. He was a little hurt at the drastic measures you took to avoid him, and tried to take any opportunity he could to catch up with you. Your avoiding skills, however, surpassed his socialising skills. Especially with the throng of people he seemed to have permanently attached to him, it was difficult for him to talk to you.

News about Kaeya’s party spread fast.

It seemed that everywhere you turned, there were people talking about it - snatches of conversation in the hallways, excited whispers snaking through courtyards. The only thing was, the party was highly exclusive. Only the social elites were invited, and the rest tousled amongst themselves for an invite.

You trudged wearily down the corridor, tired. Nobody would stop talking about the party. It was as if the very air of the campus was electrified in anticipation for the coming Friday night. The most popular guy hosting a massive, exclusive get-together at his presumably massive house? The event was on everyone’s mind, whether they liked it or not.

“Hey,” you felt a light tap on your shoulder as you strode hurriedly to your next class. It was Kaeya, the very man everyone was speaking of.

“Hi, I’ve uh, got to go to my lecture. We can talk later,” you smiled awkwardly, eyes darting around to look for an exit.

“Wait! I’m hosting a party this Friday, and I was wondering if you could come…” Kaeya handed you an envelope, almost sheepish.

“… What?” You looked at the invite, confused. In your very hands was the thing everyone had been dying to get their hands on, the object of attention for the past week.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, I just thought it would be nice if you could. Maybe we could catch up?” Kaeya winked.

“Oh,” you pressed your lips into a line.

“I don’t want to force you or anything, don’t feel like it’s compulsory. It’ll just be some fun, yeah?” Kaeya added quickly. His smooth smile did little to quell his heart. Sure, he could arbitrarily hand out dozens of invitations to random people, but this was the one he cared about.

“Yeah, I’ll come,” you did your best to smile genuinely. Kaeya’s face lit up as he grinned in response. He opened his mouth to say something else, but you quickly ducked away before he could. You didn’t hate him, but you didn’t want to prolong that awkward conversation, either.

“Why are you in such a good mood?” Diluc muttered, watching with mild irritation as his half brother dashed into the house with an almost giddy delight.

“Ah, something pleasant happened today,” Kaeya responded. He relaxed onto the plush couch, smiling softly at the memory.

“Did they accept your invitation? Get over yourself, Kaeya. You look like a fool.”

“A fool in love,” Kaeya mused.

“Hopefully they don’t fall in love with you too, then we’d have two fools.”

“Are you trying to sabotage me?”

“Of course not, I’m fully supportive of the two of you getting together. Perhaps then you can cease your mindless whining about how they always ignore you.”

“Oh, but they didn’t ignore me today. Maybe they do feel something for me after all.”

“Responding to a conversation is hardly attraction, Kaeya.”

Kaeya only scowled, before smiling with delight again at remembering his interaction with you.

That fateful Friday night finally arrived, enshrined in mystery and radiating an air of social excitement. You were busy trying on different clothes, tugging at the sleeves and waistbands in the mirror of your dorm. Would the others at the party judge you? You'd never felt the need to buy particularly fancy clothing, but you were quickly beginning to regret that choice. You winced just imagining the countless eyes that would be trained on you when you entered - questioning gazes raking over your body. Why were you there, of all people? Why did you dress like that? Why weren't you talking to anyone? Why were you so-

You squeezed your eyes shut for a moment, breathing deeply. You insisted to yourself it was all in your head, as you finally made up your mind on what to wear. You almost panicked again, however, upon seeing the time. You were late - but you hadn't even begun to tidy yourself up, apart from choosing an outfit. You told yourself that nobody would notice if you were slightly slow in arriving, and swiftly continued your slow preparation.

Meanwhile, one person did notice your absence. Kaeya searched the foyer of his sprawling estate, sending rushed smiles to the guests on the way. You were nowhere to be seen, and the party was well underway. Did you change your mind about coming...? His hand clenched a little tighter as he went from room to room, almost beginning to curse how large his house was. Whenever he asked someone if they'd seen you, they'd shoot him a confused look before asking who you even were. Kaeya only sighed, resorting to tepidly relaxing into the exuberant atmosphere. It wouldn't do him much good to care too much, and hence, he did his best to let things unfold naturally. After all, he prided himself on being a spectator, not an instigator.

Despite his nonchalance, Kaeya couldn’t suppress the relieved sigh that left his lips at the sight of you in the doorway - fidgeting nervously. It was adorable to him, the way you’d tried to dress up extra nicely. If only you knew how perfect you looked in his eyes, even when you rushed into lectures with unbrushed hair and clothes that barely qualified as not being pyjamas.

“I’m so glad you could make it!” Kaeya laughed over the loud thrum of the music indoors, gently holding your wrist to guide you in.

“Uh, yeah,” you mumbled. What else could you even say? He’d just stated that you’d turned up, so there wasn’t much to elaborate on. Archons, he probably thought you were so awkward-

“Want a drink? Don’t worry, we have non alcoholic ones too,” Kaeya smiled. He shooed away the people that attempted to approach him, his gaze settling firmly on you. You squirmed under the attention, only managing to nod.

Kaeya watched your expression coolly as you took a tentative sip of the glass he handed you, noticing your nerves. He saw the way your eyes darted around the room, the way your breathing quickened when someone approached the two of you. He should’ve known you’d be uncomfortable - how stupid was he to force you into something you obviously were nervous about?

“Would you like to go somewhere a little quieter? It certainly is a little loud,” Kaeya leaned forward to pull you closer to him. You nodded shyly in response, letting him guide you through the thick knots of people - trying your best not to notice his hand resting on your shoulder. Countless faces swept across your vision as people blurred past, and you faintly registered the friendly remarks Kaeya would utter to everyone else.

Finally, the two of you arrived in a secluded balcony - the cold air a pleasant contrast to the heated enclosed space. You realised your cheeks were burning as Kaeya touched them with a cool hand, looking at you in concern.

“Are you alright? I’m really sorry for forcing you into this kind of thing,” Kaeya murmured.

“No, no! It’s fine, it was just a little warm in there. I’m not used to large social gatherings. Well, that was probably obvious, I mean… You know what kind of person I am - wait, you probably don’t, because I’m barely relevant, and…”

“Shh, you’re the most important person to me. Don’t worry about useless things.” Kaeya pressed a finger over your mouth to silence your awkward blurting. Your cheeks burned again, except this time it wasn’t from the heat. How many other people had he done this to? He was notorious for his naturally flirtatious personality. You struggled to convince yourself not to read into it.

“Okay,” you nodded, grimacing at your lack of a creative response. You weren’t too sure of how to continue the conversation from there, so you simply turned to look at the view.

“Hm, distracted already? Why won’t you ever look at me?” Kaeya mused. This time, it was even harder not to blush furiously.

“The view is nice,” you stated bluntly. You heard Kaeya’s signature laugh behind you, and you felt your heart drop, thinking he was deriding you.

“I mean, it just looks nice, I’m sorry-”

“Quit apologising, sweetheart.”

Your breathing faltered as you realised Kaeya’s face was much closer than you expected. You could see each vibrant filament speckling his navy blue eyes, watch the light quiver of his lips. No, not watch - feel. You could feel the quiver of his lips, because they were on yours, and oh-

Oh.

In your defence, you’d never been taught how to french kiss before, nor had you any experience, so you were justified when you violently pushed Kaeya away in embarrassment.

“I… don’t know how to kiss,” you muttered, staring at the floor. You winced stay your own awkwardness. What a way to kill the mood.

“It’s fine, we can do it slow. Just focus on one lip, okay? And don’t stress out over it. I’ve been with plenty of words kissers,” Kaeya smoothly dismissed the interruption to draw you back in. This time, he let you make the move as you hesitantly pressed your lips against his.

You were clumsy, and nervous with your first kiss - but it was sweet. You never thought someone else’s lips could taste like this. Perhaps this was the feeling all those romance novels described, that peculiar fluttering of the ribcage. That lingering taste on the tongue, that candid beat of silence after pulling away.

“Not bad for a first kiss,” Kaeya remarked.

“Thanks?” You smiled awkwardly in response as he laughed and pinched your cheek fondly. The dull pain barley processed under all the adrenaline running in your veins, quashed under the almost vehement beating of your heart. This was quite a lot of shock for one day.

“Oh, and did I mention? I like you, so let’s do that again sometime,” Kaeya added - almost an afterthought. His face broke into a carefree grin as you stuttered over your next words, your heartbeat growing impossibly faster.

“I- me too. As in, I like you too, not I like myself, obviously-”

“Shh.”

Kaeya cut you off with another kiss, lightly laughing into it as you remembered to close your eyes.

The talk of the university after the party was where on earth the host had been the entire night.

༊*·˚

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Do you really think Meghan actually wants to make and sell products? And that she wants to create a brand that has a real marketable potential?

Everything we have seen so far, right from 2O12/13, when she first hit some recognition with with suits, all she has ever wanted was to famous. And by association, be known as beautiful, desirable, intelligent and high value.

All her ventures were geared towards increasing her own social capital - the people she knew, the places she was seen at, what she wore, what she used, the activities she did as leisure, her knowledge of all things fine, elite, luxury.

All financial benefits she recieved were though her social capital. She did not undertake any activity that would add to her craft as an actor, which she apparently has a degree in. No auditions, no plays, no training workshops, no new longterm projects, no producer gigs or interests even after she had some financial security etc

Even the Tig was more like documenting an extended luxury vacation. All her focus was geared towards finding a rich guy with a luxury lifestyle, to settle down with. Her long term plans did not include acting, getting better projects or stable long-term business ventures.

And for all intents and purposes, she seems to have got what she wanted. We may side-eye her that she bagged Harry of all the rich eligible men she could find, we may even question her quality of life. But, she seems to be living it up pretty good.

She is miles from where she was. Harry is bringing in all the money and even if they go broke, that is never make money from their ventures, Harry's BRF connection is always the backup plan. At least financially.

She gets to live is a huge place, she is back in LA. She only ever wears designer wear. Everything she does is scrutinized and talked about, good or bad. She gets entry into places and circles she could never have imagined herself in.

Al she wants is be in special shows or docuntaries where she is the centre of attention. So she will never do a show about a charity or something. The money will keep coming in.

And a divorce settlement is always a viable option. Plus Harry is the one who has made a fool of himself infront of everyone that cared about him.

So, I don't think she cares about what products she seels, whether they could have long term money making potential etc.

She is living her dream life. And the past 7 years have only fuelled her entitlement.

So, I don't think she cares if Roop fails. Or the products are stupid.

Meghan wants to be so fabulously filthy rich and famous she never has to work again in her life. She thinks she is literally just one idea away from having it all, and we know that about her because the second she realizes it's not working, she bails.

Just look at her track record:

2011: Producer Wife

2012 - 2013: Suits

2014: Lifestyle influencer (The Tig) and humanitarian activist (Ice Bucket Challenge)

2015: Foodie

2016: Humanitarian activist (March), Tennis fan (June/July), Royal girlfriend (November)

2017: Better than Kate (January), Health/Beauty influencer (April/May), Royal almost-fiancee (June/July), Africa (August), Duchess Material (Sept/Oct), Royal rulebreaker (Nov/Dec)

2018: Shy Di (Feb/Mar), Bride (Apr/May), Country Girl (June - Aug), Global Superstar Di (Sept/Oct), New Young Mother (Nov - May 2019)

2019: New Young Mother (continued), Feminist Who Supports and Inspires Women (summer), Nobody Asked Me If I'm OK (Sept/Oct), Glam Military Wife (Nov)

2020: Protecting My Peace (January), Revenge Tour (March), Helping the Hungry Because Everyone Else Is (April), New Young Mother Again (May), Black Lives Matter (summertime), Author and Content Creator (autumn), Hot Military Wife and Nobody Asked Me If I'm OK Part 2: Miscarriage Edition (Nov)

2021: New Young Mother Part 3 (February), Still Protecting My Peace (March), Lilibet (June), The Bench, Humanitarian Activist and Time Magazine cover model (Sept/Oct)

2022: We're Still Royals Platinum Jubilee edition (springtime), Podcaster/Socialite (July/August), We're Still Royals Mini-tour edition (pre-HLM September), Grieving Granddaughter-in-Law (September), Humanitarian Activist and Netflix Superstars (December)

2023: We're Still Royals Coronation edition (March through May), Di-Chased-By-Paparazzi-in-New York (May/June), WME Superstar (June), Author and Content Creator (July/Aug/September), Hot Military Wife Dusseldorf Edition (Sept/Oct), Red Carpet Fashion Superstar (autumn)

2024: We're Still Royals Invictus Games in Canada Edition (February), Goop Wannabe (March), Duchy Originals Wannabe (April)

[captain-joongz]

Notes to chapter 2 of Dragonheart

Dictionary

atmokinesis - the ability to control the weather by calling for rainfall or storms

白虎; baihu (chin.) - in the story known as stripes or the kingsguard, the mythological concept of the white tiger is the same as the azure dragon's. the white tiger is considered one of the four daoist guardian spirits, he guards the west and he is connected to autumn, metal and death. and much like the azure dragon, it is also an important constellation

(depiction of the white tiger from Goguryeo period tomb mural)

玄武; xuanwu (chin.) - the third of the fourth guardian is the black tortoise (also sometimes called the dark warrior - it's the literal translation of the characters). it's sometimes depicted with a snake wrapped around it. in the story it is known as the shadows or the unit of secret intelligence, but in real chinese mythology it is considered the guardian of north, it's connected to winter and water

(depiction of the black tortoise and a snake from a Goguryeo period tomb mural)

Just a tiny detour into a general overview of Chinese cosmology

Feel free to skip this if you're not interested, it just gives a little more context about the concepts I use in my story, but I understand it can be a little overwhelming or confusing - if you have any questions (about how this connects to the story or just about the concepts and mythology alone) feel free to send me an ask and I'll do my best to explain everything to you!

Chinese cosmology is what you'd call correlative - everything is somehow interconnected and it creates a complex confusing system of things that are all linked together by larger concepts - it's a living organism, a hive if you'd like

I touch on the subject of the Great four Guardians - that is a daoist concept mostly, though it melts into a bigger confucian cosmologic concept of correlation and wuxing 五行 - the five phases

as you can see on the picture below (please ignore my very much "graphic design is my passion" level of skill with Canva), there's an over-arching theme (either a season, a colour or one of the five phases) and there's a slew of things connected to them (tastes, senses, organs, flowers, planets, mountains, etc.)

for example - the colour red is inviolably connected to south, summer, fire, the pheonix, lotus flower, etc. - these things become symbols for those concepts

I use the four guardians (black tortoise, azure dragon, red sparrow and white tiger) as names of elite Academy units, these are the concepts that stand behind those four beings - the dragon is firmly the symbol of east, just as the white tiger is firmly connected to colour white and the concept of death

here is a slightly simpliflied overview that is more about the five phases than about the cardinal directions

these concepts go beyond just philosophy (though of course not perfectly) - for example spring is a yang season while autumn is a yin season - yang is the life power, and as it rises during the spring and brings the world back alive, it (ideally) should be illegal to kill young animals or execute prisoners, while autumn as a season that strenghtens yin and the world starts dying is the season during which you should hunt and plan executions (this is an ideal concept of the right rule)

why is the centre/earth kind of weird? - well, you see, China is a huge country with a super fucking long history, and these concepts didn't start out together but they were slowly built on top of each other as time went - that's why sometimes they kind of needed to force things to correlate to make it symmetrical - there's five cardinal points, but only four seasons, what do we do? we make up something so it works in theory. a lot of these concept evolved simultanously but under different schools of thought and then kind of merged together, that's why it's a little messy sometimes (ei. there the ox officially isn't a fifth guardian, but the centre is still connected to the animal of ox because there needs to be one)

who even are the five emperors and why do we care? - we kind of don't actually, these emperors are a very old concept called wufang shangdi 五方上帝 - "deities of the five directions/regions" - all of them are an impersonation or a manifestation of the concept of tian 天 (heaven). we can assume they were once worshipped, but to this day the only two emperors that kept their importance are the Huang-di and the Chi-di (Yellow and Red), the rest are kind of lost to time. Huang-di is to this day very important and one of the most known beings in chinese mythology, and an important patron to various daoist teachings and concepts, while also a deity that mythologicaly stands at the very beginning of chinese civilization (he was one of the five first fabulous emperors that ruled before the first dynasty). Chi-di has undergone a several transformations and is also known as Huo-di (fire emperor) or Shennong (the first husbandman and patron of agriculture), as Huo-di he is connected to Huang-di as his friend and companion during a famous mythological war, he is also the mythological fire-giver

this is a more detailed chart if you're interested, as you can see there's all kinds of shit like emotions, virtues, part of the body and such

the five phases - are they just the elements? - yes and no. In chinese wuxing actually means 'the five in movement, the moving five' - that's why it's more generally translated as phases. The whole concept behind wuxing is extremely convoluted and confusing, just know that they all move in a never ending cycle (water -> wood -> fire -> earth -> metal) and they react to each other (either purify or destroy each other) - as is shown on the picture below

this all also connects to chinese medicine (the organs correlation and the cycle of the five phases) - in the most basic terms (i myself don't understand this perfectly) - let's say you have a problem with your lungs - lungs are connected to metal, metal is destroyed by fire (as displayed in the chart below) - to remedy your sick lungs you need to eat bitter food (which is connected to fire and summer) - I just pulled this shit out of my ass, but this is generally how chinese medicine works in the broadest terms

this is all kind of like the most basic most surface stuff, trust me - chinese mythology is fucking insane and basically impossible to fully orientate in, China is huge and every region has different deities or different names for the same deities, some deities started off as something and then slowly evolved into like five different people or concepts and it's all very confusing (like the Chi-di - Huo-di - Shennong - they're all different deities while still being different versions of one deity, in some myths they are synonymous and in some two of those are in the same story as completely different people with different histories)

there are three main religions (daoism, confucianism, buddhism) that all have their own myths, concepts and deities that during the ages melted all together, not to mention that each of those religions have countless cults that each go their own way (especially daoism, that one goes crazy - like how did we go from 'dao is the endless flow of things and you need to trust it to lead you instinctually' to 'you need to eat these rocks and have sex in these positions to be immortal'??)

the history is long and ever-changing, different sources might tell you different things, also China has a history of manipulating the records and a lot of things were lost or rewritten, so some older concepts, rituals or deities are all just pure speculation or theories, because we can't really know what was really happening 3-4 thousand years ago

as times go certain concepts built on top of each other or try to one-up each other, so you start with one heaven and centuries later end up with like 10 layers that each has different guardians and concepts until you have no idea what's going on anymore

there are some over-arching myths and stories, but even those have thousand different versions

so, it's one of those topics that leave you more and more confused the more you study them - the more you wanna know, the less you actually understand

(with love, from a very tired Chinese mythology and philosophy student)

[kylewalker-peters]

ppl saying there’s a lack of youth pathway like have you not registered players like destiny and pape (who before this season either never played in the pl or did very little) starting every game that they are able? boggles the mind the takes of some of these ppl, ange is obviously not immune to criticism but you think he would know if these kids were ready to step up since he sees them every day in training meanwhile these keyboard warriors have not even watched them play once 😭 — @lee-kangin

people not clocking that you cant just throw young players into elite level senior football because they do well at youth level is astounding. like yes ange trusts youth but like destiny and pape (and to some extent micky with his whole 1 training session before brentford) all had experience playing in big European leagues beforehand. ange literally has emerson royal playing in up to 3 different positions on any given day do these people think he would be doing that voluntarily if philips or dorrington already had a loan spell or something significant under their belts that proved they were ready to start games against teams like brighton? the ideal would be us having a fully fit squad for 5 minutes, winning games, and then they can get minutes like donley's been doing and ease their way in. but the idea of going hey dorrington you've only played at youth level yeah? alright well with this stupidly high line and a style that invites the opposition onto us and creates lots of pressure i want you to go defend against some of the world's top attacking talent with no previous practice and also your centre back pair has like 10 minutes championship football to help you...well good luck! and I'm supposed to believe that would be good man management??????

[collymore]

White British - sociopathic in nature and paedophiles by design!

By Stanley Collymore   No sentient human being, in his   or her right mind, would even   transiently ever tolerate,   condone and far less so accept and equally   embrace child abuse of any kind. However,   there are effectively many of you out there   who actually quite evidently vaingloriously   like to basically proselytize yourselves not   only as the clearly, irrefutably self-entitled   elites of British society, but irrefutably too   and very indisputably in tandem with that,   by the divine approbation of the Almighty   God actually regard yourselves as simply   our unquestionably, although unasked by   us let alone elected to be, clearly rightful   and hereditary monarchical leaders! And   persons therefore, who take and adopt a   crucially different approach, attitude and   treatment of minors; and distinctly really   undoubtedly, specifically young children!     That said, it's generally, obviously   transparent to me that many of   you who're actually fervently,   thoroughly, vaingloriously and rather urgently,   in your unquestionably best self-centred and   evidently self-serving virtue signalling mode,   as you crucially, eagerly clamber aboard the   vitriolically actually contrived Huw Edward's   bandwagon; would be most wary, of having   your own private lives similarly and publicly   dissected. And the truth, were it to be really   told few, if any of you lot, who are virulently   lambasting Huw Edwards, would decidedly   very realistically, literally be in a position to   truthfully assert a state of affairs basically   relative to yourself that you're undoubtedly   categoricallly and discernibly any better in   your own private and concealed behaviour   than how Huw Edwards so vilely behaved!     (C) Stanley V. Collymore   17 September 2024.     Author's Remarks: I'm not an apologist for what Huw Edwards has done and will candidly say that his actions were both immorally and repugnantly wrong. But I'm equally averse and similarly thoroughly repulsed by the irrefutably nauseatingly, sickeningly, self-righteousness and virtue signalling by the clear surfeit of those eagerly and vaingloriously, but secretively evidently as bad as or even far worse than Huw Edwards ever was, rather ecstatically but very hypocritically vaingloriously jumping on this discernibly contrived bandwagon in a clear endeavour to deflect attention away from their own more vile and damaging abuses!     The only certainty in life is Death, which simply puts your own odious behaviour and deceptions easily at risk of being publicly exposed. So don't pamper yourselves that you're simply inviolately and permanently immune from ostracism! And simply so because of who you think you are!  

[quantomeno]

I have been trying to find the article or opinion piece or whatever I read that discussed this, but this appears to be a significant issue with all left-leaning governments. If you'll forgive the gendered language:

Political analysts have long considered these three fields – managing the finances, managing the economy, and defence – to represent the “daddy” aspects of national political persona, traditionally dominated by centre-right parties the world over. The centre-left parties have been seen to excel in the more “caring” fields of health and education: the “mummy” aspect.

(from here, an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, which I don't think was exactly the thing I was looking for, but it's the same idea more or less)

People in the tags have noted this occurs with the Tories/Labour in the UK, and it definitely occurs in Australia with the Liberals/Labor (the Liberals are conservatives by the way, it's confusing, we know).

The problem is that people often don't 'feel' the effects of economic improvement, or they fixate on things that are still bad and think when the government is talking about improvements they're lying or think the improvements are happening to other people, probably 'coastal elites' or what we in Australia might call 'inner city latte sippers'.

Then the right can capitalise on this resentment, and even if they don't achieve their claims of making life better, people have such short memories they don't realise things have worsened. Another issue is the fact left-wing policies tend to involved bigger government involvement or significant changes to the status quo, and the right can then run scare campaigns which the left can't combat because having nuanced debates over complicated policies doesn't make snappy headlines. And you also get, as @what-even-is-this said above, the left inheriting failing economies and the right inheriting improving economies. So things often get blurred about who was responsible for what benefit, and if things are good under one government, the other will claim it was because of their actions before it etc etc.

Celinda Lake (Biden's pollster in 2020) was interviewed on the Australian TV show Planet America this week and said something very similar (it starts at 28:23), that the Democrats need a better economic message, a better 'conversation' with the voters the Democrats traditionally worked to support but who now believe the Republicans will help them more.

It is quite sad to admit, but it seems people often care more about their economic wellbeing than any other consideration. Part of it is a sort of survivalism though, where they go, yes, I would like to help xyz, but I'm struggling too.

From my position, well at a distance, I got the vibe this election was just people annoyed at the current administration and going to literally the only viable alternative, as opposed to a population shifting dramatically in their political views. I expect a lot of people don't like the guy who'll be president and don't really even want him to be president, but still voted for him because of his party. It's an electorate who has long been made to believe left bad at economy, right good at economy. Plus you guys don't have a third parties that presents itself as a viable alternative.

Elections are often decided by the political issues that the right is seen to be better at, but a lot of it is just bluff and posturing. The right can talk tough and it makes people think they're getting things done. It's not until it all unravels that people will consider the left. I've got a long discussion about Aus politics below if you want to read about it, which provides some more concrete examples of these things.

Also there are obviously other issues at play, the electorate isn't one monolith, people have individual reasons for voting etc etc etc. This is just one thing that I think was a big factor generally. Harris seemed to be too much a part of an administration they were unhappy with and people weren't convinced she would bring anything new to fix things.

Australia has two major parties, the left-wing Australian Labor Party (yes, Australian English spells it labour, but the party is US-style, it's a long story) and the right-wing Liberal Party (they are conservatives but they're called Liberals. The reason is they believe in libertarian sort of values like the free market and small government). The Liberals govern in coalition with the National Party (ostensibly the party of the farmers and rural Australians, they're more right wing than the Liberals), and so we often call them the Coalition.

(Also, Labor is red and the Liberals are blue, so our colours are opposite of US but the same as the UK. This isn't important right now but I enjoy reminding americans that their colour-coding of politics is actually not the norm)

After 11 years of Coalition government under John Howard, we elected Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party in 2007. Then the GFC happened. Labor got us through very well, relatively speaking. But K-Rudd was losing popularity so members of the Labor party decided to vote for a new leader (this wasn't an election: for any Americans out there, the prime ministership isn't an elected position, it's just the leader of the party in power and they can choose that amongst themselves). And so we got Julia Gillard, our first female PM. She narrowly won the next election, and suffered through a number of things that lowered her standing in the polls (including misogyny, but also a few broken election promises the opposition pounced on) and so before the next election they backstabbed her and reinstated Kevin, hoping the change would improve their odds. It didn't work: Labor lost to (shudder) Tony Abbott and the Coalition. I really dislike Abbott. Raw-onion-with-the-skin-on-eating Abbott. 'Suppository of all wisdom' Abbott. 'Shit happens' Abbott. Wanting-to-knight Prince-Phillip Abbott. I mean, these are just his gaffes. The less said of his politics and personality the better.

The Liberals governed for a simultaneously stagnant and tumultuous nine years. Nine years with three prime ministers being overthrown by their own party and never actually getting all that much done. Abbott, rapidly losing favourability, was replaced with Malcolm Turnbull, an erudite, moderate Liberal who was under constant attack from his government's right wing and got murdered by them at the slightest whiff of a policy that might have the vaguest of emission reduction targets (these years are known as the climate wars and they're still not really over). Turnbull gave way to Scott Morrison. Scomo went to the election with really only one major economic policy which was some tax cuts. He won. Then the pandemic happened and yeah. We went massively into debt due to the huge spending required to keep everyone afloat. I am glad the Libs did that, but it points out their hypocrisy since they had banged on and on about Labor's 'debts and deficits' (I think particularly to do with spending during the GFC) and yet had not given a single budget surplus (i.e. they had been spending more than they gained in taxes etc) in that entire 9 years. And then, when it's their turn to spend big to save the economy, they're happy to ignore debts.

Labor was led during this time by Bill Shorten, a good guy but no one really liked him, nor his 'zingers', and his policies involved a lot of reforms and changes, leaving him open to scare campaigns from the right. Labor eventually decided to shed Bill and put in Anthony Albanese. Albo ran a very small target campaign to try to neutralise the differences between him and Scomo. It was... moderately successful. Labor got into government but really, it was the Liberals who lost because we all just disliked Scotty from Marketing (he mishandled the pandemic on a number of fronts, among other crises including, but not limited to, going to Hawaii during the 2019-20 bushfires and sexual misconduct allegations involving members of his party). The 2022 federal election is a story of its own though. The point is, Labor got into power.

They have given us our first budget surplus in 15 years. A budget surplus had been hyped up by successive Liberal governments who consistently failed to deliver one. Sure, Labor is still dealing with a housing crisis, but prices had been rising under the Coalition who just twiddled their thumbs and eventually suggested the policy of allowing people spend their superannuation (it's a bit like the US 401(k): here it's compulsory for money to go into a fund which you can't access until retirement) on a house (they're still suggesting this last I heard). And inflation has been high, but it seems to be going down, and the inflation was the result of (guess what) high levels of government spending during the pandemic (combined with supply issues caused by wars and the pandemic). Labor has done a decent job of bringing the economy back on track. They've been fiscally responsible. They even rejigged Scott's tax cuts to make them better for lower-income earners. Labor is clearly on par, if not better, at handling the economy and have shown this twice in my lifetime.

But do they get any credit for this? As if!

Labor has been absolute rubbish at explaining how they're helping people. Rubbish! It's why the Voice to Parliament referendum failed, because no one explained it clearly and succinctly. I don't think it failed because people were really racist, I think they just didn't get the point of it. I mean, some of it was underlying racism and a sense of 'why do they deserve this? don't they have enough?' but that stems again from a communication issue since people don't understand how big the gap still is. (for confused non-Australians, I'm talking about the referendum to enshrine in the constitution an advisory group of Indigenous Australians who would give advice to the government about matters pertaining to First Nations issues. The referendum failed abysmally)

Labor is currently heading towards a minority government (they will be the biggest party, but won't have a proper majority in parliament and will need to deal with a crossbench of minor parties and independents). They're expected to win partly because the Liberals are becoming increasingly right-wing (they lost a lot of their moderates at the last election to independents) and the current leader of the Libs looks like Mr Potato Head and has all the warmth of Darth Vader, so they might not win the centre very easily (we have compulsory voting, so you need to be at least relatively moderate to win big). But Labor will struggle (and could still lose) because Albanese is just terrible at getting any cut-through. It's pitiful. Personally, I'd kinda like Penny Wong as PM but she'd need to resign as a senator and be elected to the house of reps, so it's highly unlikely (plus I do like her in the Foreign Affairs portfolio). I think Jim Chalmers, our current treasurer, would be a good fit. He's got twice the charm of Albo and ten times that of Peter Dutton (Darth Potatohead, the current leader of the Liberals). He's also an effective communicator and can take a lot of credit for the economy since he's the guy making the budgets. I don't necessarily think he's an amazing treasurer (he's no Paul Keating), but he's done a good job. The thing is, Labor is highly unlikely to have another leadership spill for fear of appearing unstable (they made it much harder to have a spill after the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd debacle).

And sadly, Dutton has quite a bite, and loves to rip into Labor right where it hurts: the economy and immigration.

Don't get me started on immigration... I totally skipped over it but it's been a big issue here just like in the US.

Also I am not the biggest fan of Labor after they started to shift rightwards (the whole 'neutralise issues' thing). They're a bit like the Democrats in that sense, but the situation is a little different.

It seems like there’s this cycle of republicans making the economy bad and then people get tired of the republicans and elect a democrat and the democrat inherits a bad economy and then they sort of fix it somewhat and then people are like hey the economy is bad it was better during the Republican administration and then they elect a Republican who inherits a better economy from the democrat while he’s trashing it and then people are like hey he’s trashing the economy and then they elect a democrat who inherits a bad economy and fixes it somewhat and then people are like hey the economy was better when there was a Republican and then they elect a Republican who trashes the sort of better economy he inherited from the democrat and so on and so forth like forever I guess

[yvltcims]

Welcome to Belladonna Cove! Pt. II

A story is nothing without its supporting characters. Let's meet them!

Peterson household

Everyone in Belladonna Cove knows Jessica Peterson. Everyone knows she never loved Armand deBateau and only wanted his money. So it really comes as no surprise to her that Marissa Cleveland does not want the two to even be hinted together. She goes along with the occasional argument at Centre Drip Coffee Shop only to secretly meet in the bathroom like two high schoolers. But it does hurt her. A lot. She found herself falling for Marissa, in a way she hasn’t fallen for anyone before, and dreaming about what a life together would be like. For once she wishes her partner weren’t one of Belladonna Cove’s elite. Regardless, everyone knows Jessica cheated on Armand with Carlos Contender. Everyone… except her trailermate (if that is even a thing) Teresa Vale, who has fallen victim to Carlos’s charms. The two had an amazing date recently and Teresa hasn’t stopped thinking about Carlos since. She has been feeling awfully sick recently too, Connor Weir was not at all pleased with the mess she left in his bathroom when she came over…

Contender household

Which leads us to the Contender “family”. Despite his age, Carlos is still in peak form - and the ladies seem to think so too, judging by the amount of female sims coming in and out of the house. Most are just one night stands, among which young Teresa Vale who has just recently moved to Belladonna Cove, while others are more regular “visitors”. This illustrious set includes the likes of Chastity Gere and Clara Okuma, also known as his gardener (it has just occurred to me that this gives a whole new meaning to “trimming the bushes”) Clara is quite the character, actually. She drops by, they woohoo to start the workday with a bang (I really have to stop with the puns), and then she just… decides that clothing is optional? And works on his front lawn, quite literally next to the street, naked? What a weirdo. But if sparks fly with any of his female companions, it’s Chastity Gere. Boy does she give him a good workout.

Green household

As for Chastity Gere, one can say she is the poor (wo)man’s version of Carlos Contender, not only because she is actually poor, but also because she lacks the game to pull what Carlos pulls. She fails quite a lot at getting laid, quite spectacularly even, and so far has only managed to sleep with Carlos Contender and Geoff Rutherford which, if we are to be honest, isn’t exactly the most respectable of companies. If anyone’s standards are even a toenail above the ground then they are probably rejecting Chastity, unfortunately for her. Now she even has the house to herself, but that isn’t enough to impress her dates. She has the house to herself because Gabriel Green has moved in with his now-wife, Samantha Cordial! Sorry, Gabriel Cordial as he is now known. 

Note: my localised translation has Chastity’s family share the (translated) Cleveland family name, so to me there is a familial link between the two. What link I'm not yet sure.

Cordial household

The wedding was a cute little gathering at the Cordial house, unlike the pomp and circumstance of Samantha’s sister Kimberly. Just the two and a few close friends, for example a certain Phoebe Adams. Samantha and Phoebe sure were close, so close in fact that one day Samantha even started dressing up as Phoebe with her weird dress and hat and claimed she was a “witch”. Yeah right, as if witches are real. Gabriel still loves Samantha in spite of her delusions, and the two had a baby girl named Sabrina because apparently that was an appropriate name for a witch. This witch thing is getting out of hand but he likes the name, regardless of meaning. Gabriel also feels the house is smaller on the inside than it looks from the outside, he can’t quite understand how the dimensions don't add up.

Rutherford household

There was a brief situationship between Samantha and Connor Weir, before she had started dating Gabriel. They had even gone on vacation together with Geoff Rutherford and Kimberly as Geoff saw the opportunity to get in Samantha’s sister Kimberly’s pants (spoilers, he failed), but nothing much came of it. Eventually Samantha and Gabriel got together and the rest is history. Geoff continued on his path of reckless spending and redecorated the entire house to his liking (he really wanted a conservatory, he probably played too much Clue recently), burning through most of the family money that he had left. His business career hasn’t really taken off, if anything it is on a downhill slope after his recent demotion. Much like Chastity, his luck with the opposite gender has been mixed, which probably explains the pair’s chemistry. Hey, at least they have each other if (or rather, when) their plans for any given night fail. Geoff’s best friend Connor, on the other hand, keeps mostly to himself. He’s not an exemplary worker by any means, but at least he hasn’t been demoted and feels he is close to getting a much wanted promotion. He didn’t really try again after him and Samantha Cordial failed, but a miracle happened one day. Him and Geoff had gone to Centre Drip one afternoon, as they usually do, and got to talking with one of the boys there, who in turn introduced Connor to a friend of his who he thought would be a great match. And he was right! Connor Weir and Palmira Wendland were a match made in heaven. They dated for a while, then she moved in and the two are thinking about finding their own place, though having been recently fired from her music job isn’t exactly the best situation to be in when you want to find your own place.

[reginaldqueribundus]

I feel like nobody talks about this but remember Jay’s “job interview” in the original Men in Black movie? Sure, they play it for comedy, he’s a smartass cop surrounded by all these elite military graduates. But he was also literally the only one in the room smart enough to bring the table over so he had something to write on. And he offers it to the other guys too!

And in the shooting test, on the surface it just seems like a goofy joke when he shoots the little girl cutout in the head, but look at the way he responded to the situation.

The test starts immediately without any warning, we can see that everyone is caught off guard. The other candidates immediately open fire on what they perceive to be threats, but Jay takes a second to assess the situation. He sees he isn’t in any immediate danger, and in a handful of seconds he’s able to scope out several minor details about the targets and hit one with a near-perfect headshot. Jay showed he was an innovative, quick thinker with situational awareness, attention to detail and high-level marksmanship skills, and they never say it outright but I think that’s probably why Zed picked him. (Zed never actually says anything negative about Jay’s performance, just that he has a problem with authority.)

This is highly underrated writing but, then again, this is also the movie where Tommy Lee Jones says “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew Earth was the centre of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat and 15 minutes ago, you knew humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

[corybiit]

Not to break your bubble, but all of the above can be denied.

He doesn't wait for Lucy gray bc he's nice or good, he wants to have an advantage in mentoring and doing the best to get the Plinth prize not bc he cares about her.

I'm pretty sure Lucy gray tells him to go help her bc he's frozen in shock and going through war flashbacks, he mentions not liking Arachne and her deserving what happened.

He literally rejects Sejanus’s proposition to change tributes and then is happy about Sejanus being sad and suffering. His relationship with sejanus is complex, but he literally wonders why ppl call them friends and is exasperated with him until they go to the districts. He chose to record their conversation and send it to gaul, and when he cried he worried more about him getting caught next than sejanus death.

He does say he loves her, but he also thought of her as an object, literally compares her to being her dog, and like it wasn't a good kind of love, it was toxic.

I'm pretty sure he did the work to save face with Dr. Gaul and bc they were supposed to be a team but Arachne had just died no one else helped, I'm going to check the book bc I'm pretty sure he didn't put any names in the paper even. Also that's not even a thing that weights enough to judge character, to say he's a good person.

Pretty sure he was just trying to save face and bc it was secret what had happened to clemensia, also he wanted to be in her good graces in case anything happened so he could count on her to defend him.

He cared about his family, but even a bad person can care about their family and still be bad, it's not defining. He also thought her grandmother was exasperating. And literally in the trilogy tigris was happy when they told her they were going to kill her, and she says Snow was the one who tossed her away.

He cared about the covey bc he cared about Lucy Gray. The things he had normally were from Sejanus’s Ma baking goods she sent. Of course, it is a kind gesture but it's bc of Lucy Gray, let's not forget he planned on leaving them all behind to go back to the capitol when he passed the officers test, and his distaste for the districts and his xenophobia and classism and elitism he portrays during the whole book.

Let's not forget that he puts power above anything, and he's paranoid and actually a bad guy through and through that chose to be bad despite having the chance to be good.

Like, it's okay to like a complex character that is shit, but you have to admit he is shit, there's no way around it, much less with Coriolanus snow.

You can write him however you like, make him a good guy or whatever, but in the book and the movies, he's not a good guy. He was petty and jealous and only cared about status and money and what ppl could give him, he is selfish and self-centred and used charm to get on ppls good graces even when he didn't like them.

moments in the TBOSAS book where Snow was a good guy

When he waited at the station all day to meet Lucy Gray before everyone else.

When he held Arachne's slit open throat at the zoo and yelled for a medic to help her

Whenever he tried to uplift Sejanus during the mentoring.

When he told Lucy Gray that she mattered to him. And not just as his tribute.

When he put both his and Clemensia's name on the paper he wrote to Dr Gaul.

When he held onto Clemensia when she saw the snakes in the arena and later when he apologised to her for not visiting her at the hospital.

When he apologises to Tigris before leaving to district 12 for leaving all of the responsibilities on her.

How he always went to see the Coveys with a gift even when he had next to nothing.

When he offered to carry Maude Ivory back from the lake.

[septicmomma]

Learning To Love The Timeless Child

I’ve gone through a flux (har har) of emotions upon my thoughts on The Timeless Child reveal. From feeling ambivalent to mild disliking and to thinking it was just “ok”. I’m finally ready to put my foot down and not only say I love it but it’s actually one of the best inclusions in DW cannon.

But before you rase you're pitchforks I’m not writing this in an attempt to invalidate the opinion of people who don’t like it but to offer understanding of those that do.

While also identifying some of the common complaints/criticisms that've been levelled at it. "It breaks cannon, it makes the Doctor a Messiah figure, its pointless, it disrespects Hartnell ect".

First off The Doctor still is “some guy” but in all honesty the reality is arguably since The War Games the Doctor has always been a figure of relative importance. Which is something I think people are just going to have to come to accept, and if anything, adding a potential nuance by centring the exploitation of the Doctor by an uncaring society only makes their character that much richer imho. Whereas instead, they’re usually related to Gallifrey in a more heroic profession.

But that doesn't make the Doctor special by virtue of being the Timeless Child. What makes her “special” is only a by-product of exploitation, any uniqueness she may have had was stripped away and trivialised to forge someone else’s story of supposed ‘greatness’ leaving her part buried and forgotten. They may occupy a significance position within DW lore, but it’s in a passive capacity not a proactive role. I also think the notion that the Doctor was “supposed” to be some kind of underachieving drop-out who proves themselves through sheer bare-knuckled heroism isn’t entirely accurate. As strictly regarding newwho the Doctor has often been a source of significance and intrigue, albeit a remarkably personable one. The companions are where the modern series has typically rooted the ethos of being capable of great things even if you’re ordinary. The modern series Doctor is, more often than not the catalyst for that potential in other people, rather than an example of it themselves. TTC has literally changed nothing about the Doctors modus operandi. She doesn’t have any memories of that time of her life and can’t exactly use any of that knowledge to help solve her problems. None of the Doctors ideological impulses comes from being the Timeless Child. And even if she did have those memories TTC doesn’t make them this all-knowing messiah figure, they’re just another alien that just so happens to have a longstanding healing ability which grants them no inherent edge, nor any heavenly merit.

Tecteun finds her alone and abandoned, as the Master puts it a “refugee” the only thing this change’s is that she was the first person able to regeneration which in-itself is just a cosmetic plot device it’s not what defines Gallifreyans as a race, whilst there have been instances where it's used to comment on the Doctors mortality (The End of Time, Twice Upon a Time) rarely is it displayed as anything more. As for the Doctor being “it makes the Doctor a Messiah figure” the Timelords evolved naturally and expanded their outreached as mentioned in the TTC, with Tectuan they became the self-appointed elite and renamed themselves Timelords, there would still be “Timelords” regardless of the Doctors involvement it's a title not a literal race. The Doctor is only ever presented as a “messiah” figure through the lens of the Master's insecurity "All I am is somehow because of you". The Master is essentially meant to symbolise an outrage merchant/NMD type, wanting the Doctor to be scared and outraged over everything. He even goes to the lengths of creating an army of Cybermasters purely in his image, when they regenerate, they don’t change they just stay the same. Echoing the fear of change and evolution. This fear is also accentuated through Ashad, though despite their similar aspirations both him and the Master still butt heads because it doesn't cater to their specific vision. Ironically this is something the Master points out regarding Ashads plan, yet he himself doesn't see the hypocrisy by making them shallow self reflections.

TTC narratively justifies itself within its own story it doesn’t need to exist outside its own confines as it already serves a narrative purpose in this episode. Primarily as a story dealing with the Master attempting to destabilise the Doctors perception of herself while also acting as a commentary on colonialism. With the added subtext of the Doctor appearing as a black girl who was taken and exploited for gain of another race and having her history buried and forgotten.

Posing the question of what if there were many different Doctors from any ethnicity groups but we haven’t seen them before because the Timelords have appropriated the ability to regenerate for themselves in addition to this doubling as commentary all the previous Doctors being white men. Showing the Doctors previous lives as children, that diversity has always existed after decades of telling people that this how it’s always been so it so should just to stay the same; instead of questioning why an alien who can change their appearance into literally anyone would always take the form of a white guy. Being that identity has been the following theme throughout this era, I think there’s a lot of value in this conceit, which comes through in Ruth and Thirteens short interaction. Learning to reconcile with parts of yourself that you never realised were there. I suspect those sequences might mean a lot too adopted or just alienated kids in general watching the show, showing that this program is for them as it is for anyone else.

At the end of the day, it’s an adoption story. Discovering your life is a lie can seem like a world-shattering revelation. But it doesn't have to be, and other people imposing their beliefs onto you doesn't mean you have to listen. The Master is an example of revelation like this literally breaking someone into such a self-loathing state it leaves them impetuous, desperately grappling to find some new sense of purpose. There's nothing 'chosen one' about being someone who was taken by a self-serving pragmatist and indoctrinated into a totalitarian elite. Everyone convinced themselves the Master meant the Doctors past when in fact the obvious “lie” of The Timeless Child is just his way of compartmentalising their trauma, that it prohibits his own ability to develop meaning outside of the moment where it collapsed. Detractors keep focusing on the lore elements as if that’s the point of the reveal but it’s not. The point is what happens when your sense of identity is turned on its head? what happens when something you once believed to be a fundamental part of yourself isn’t quite as clear as you thought it was? It hangs on the notion that the Doctor and the world they’ve seen grown around them is built on a paradoxical impasse, that indicates a potential otherly aspect to their upbringing. Her dropping the watch is the first time she’s away from manipulation, away from unruly expectation and threat. It’s the only time she’s allowed to make the choice for herself, not based on any preconceived bias. So naturally, she decides to not let the past define her and allow herself to just truly live in the moment. 13 spent all of Series 11 instinctively trying to suppress her past in a way to necessitate her need for company and comfort only for it to get thrown in her face in Series 12, leaving her with no sense of individual importance, and Series 13 is where she’s faced to tackle those facets head on to retake her own narrative.

The TTC makes it very clear that the point is the open up possibilities and new venues for the show to explore, that your past doesn’t define you. With the Doctor partially acting as an audience surrogate, constantly asking questions of what it all means.

It’s about the intrigue and the joy of the mystery itself which is what the TTC is trying too ahead too. It doesn’t matter what the specifics of what her backstory are because frankly It plus all the lore about Division is simply there to provide motivation for the Master and a framework for Flux. The fact that this new backstory even exists at all only means that the Doctor didn’t know herself as well as she thought she did, which drives her to want to find out and develop a better understanding of who she is. It's ultimately a journey of self-identification, and for me at least, Flux managed to cap that off in a place where I felt fairly satisfied. What I think 13 truly learned is that she never desired the information per se, but rather, gaining the agency to decide what to do with it. It’s about her having autonomy over her own life and sense of self without it being dictated by other people as it’s something she was denied by Tecteun, who essentially abducted her and unilaterally changed the course of her life, her physiology was exploited for the benefit of others, Division wouldn’t let her willingly leave their service, and eventually she had her memories stolen and her body reset. By the end of Flux, the Doctor is back in the driver’s seat ready to face whatever journey may come their way.

You can even look at it on a metatextual level, with a show that spans a history of almost 60 years, amassing numerous spin offs and expanded media. Making an almost celebratory deconstruction on the arbitrary nature of cannon and if you’re going to tell a story the largely focuses on this then you have to acknowledge that cannon isn’t necessarily fundamental, as much as it’s just a storytelling device, especially in the case of DW with its numerous contradictions. Incidentally, this also applies to the revelation itself. If you really don’t like it then feel free to disregard it. But be prepared to accept the fact that some people might critique that standpoint, and that’s OK.

The inclusion of the Morbius Doctors is a prime example, hell even the Curse of Fatal Death Doctors, all of it is possible now. To have the revelation change the Doctor in any significant way would be hugely undermining the point of what the episode is trying to say. Instead of conforming to the Masters way of thinking she doesn’t let this change frighten her she embraces it. Much like the very nature of the show.

Anyway, hope u enjoyed my rant :-]

[potteresque-ire]

Hi I posted an ask regarding your view point on GGDD's safety by people shipping them openly by bus designs, digital hoardings in their country and various other ways. I am not sure if you have already replied because I can't seem to find it. If not, please notify in case you would be interested in posting, there is no pressure or complaints if the answer is not affirmative. Also, I am hoping to read your piece on current issue DD is facing in relation to Nike. I am sure a lot of people enjoy your straight, detailed and analytical thought process and information presentation. A lot of people especially ifans needs to understand the perspective and position an actor or any national level influencer/celebrity is in when they are a citizen of totalitarian regime.

I would love to read, if you decide to write.

Thank you for your blog. It is highly appreciated and welcomed.

Hello Anon! I sincerely apologise ~ my ask box has been very full, and I answer based on time availability (which isn’t much) and “urgency” of the matter (for example, the recent post on Dangai/WoH skipped the line because it’s current). My whim too, occasionally and admittedly; sometimes I’d like to take a breather and talk about something a little more fannish and fun (like window cleaning robots!) Above all, I prefer giving delayed but responsible, or even no answers over irresponsible ones, given some of the subject matter I touch upon. I’ll ... probably have to write up an ask box policy at some point.

Now, my thoughts about Dd’s current situation ... or maybe, my thoughts about the things around it ...

I should explain where my highly disorganised thoughts this time come from first. I’m a Hong Konger by birth, and I grew up at a time when it was still conventional for Hong Kongers to refer themselves as Chinese, following the tradition of referring to the (believed) origin of one’s paternal family as our own origin. I’ve never, however, sworn allegiance to the Chinese government; the two citizenships I’ve ever held are 1) United Kingdom (Hong Kong was still a British crown colony when I was there), and 2) United States.

The distinction between China, the country, and Chinese government, as the country’s rulership, has therefore always been clear to me. You can love, feel a bond with the country, its people and culture and its 5,000 year old history, without having feeling anything with its 71 years-young government with foreign (soviet) roots. To quote Hamilton: Oceans rise, empires fall, and just the central plains of China alone went through a total of 13 recorded dynasties, during which its border waxed and waned, often splitting what is now Chinese territory into multiple countries under different rulership that sometimes split along ethnic lines—China, in that sense, isn’t even historically a country as we define one today; it’s a piece of land in East Asia where different countries have taken over, risen and fallen. And the major ethnic group, Han, which also includes the vast majority of the current political elite, wasn’t always in control. The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) was famously built by Mongolians; the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), Manchurians. Beijing, the current capital of China, began its illustrious history as The Capital City for the non-Han based, north-of-central-plain dynasties of Liao and Jin. Liao people were believed to be either Mongolic or Tungusic. Jin people were Tungusic, and would eventually become Manchurians. Xinjiang (新疆), meanwhile, was only under the influence of the ancient Chinese empires sporadically, and its formal conquest / incorporation by a Chinese dynasty didn’t happen until ~ 1760, and by the (Manchurian) Qing dynasty. Its late incorporation is also reflected in its name that means, literally, “New Territory”.

What does this all mean? It means: 1) Loving China =/= loving the Chinese Communist Party;  2) Chinese culture =/= Han culture; especially the Han culture infused with “Core Socialist Values” as defined by the Chinese Communist Party; 3) X dynasty’s territory (where X = one of the ancient Chinese dynasties) =/= What has to be People Republic of China’s territory.

And by writing down these three =/=, which I’d argue are simply conclusions from historical facts and logic, I’ve committed an act of subversion in the eyes of the current Chinese government. Remove the “/” in “=/=“, and you’ve got three of the most important talking points of Chinese propaganda.

The sacred, un-violatable rules the Chinese government tells its people.

Why do I mention them? Because the scrutiny, the attack on Dd read familiar to me, and is probably familiar too to all those who’ve kept even a brief eye on Hong Kong and Taiwanese entertainers who work in China. When a topic that violates one of these propaganda points makes news (for example, the HK protest, Hong Kong/Taiwan Independence), entertainers from Hong Kong / Taiwan—anyone who’ve achieved name recognition—are often placed under immediate scrutiny by Chinese netizens to see whether and when they’ll confirm their loyalty towards the Chinese government. The argument is that only those who display absolute loyalty to the Chinese government deserves to earn China’s money, and the main motivation behind this scrutiny, in this case, is mistrust: Hong Kong, after all, is crawling with British loyalists and rioters according to Chinese propaganda, with separatists who’re conspiring with foreign governments to overthrow the Chinese government; the democratic island nation of Taiwan, meanwhile, is supposedly a rogue child who has escaped its mother (China) ’s arms for the past 70+ years—the child who, by the way, shall be brought to their knees (along with into their mother’s arms) by military intervention. Both places, in other words, are serial violators of =/= 1) and 3), and not to be trusted. If their entertainers fail to affirm their loyalty towards the Chinese government, or if the timing of their patriotic display is perceived as off, vicious accusations—similar to those Dd has endured—will fly, and calls for boycott begin. 

Here’s a related observation, while I’m at it ... no one in c-ent is really allowed to keep their political views quiet, even if they’re not particularly well-known. No one can say, politics isn’t for me, it’s too ugly/too complicated/doesn’t fit my image and shove it under the proverbial carpet. Under an authoritarian government, control is exerted via politics, via propaganda that seeps into day-to-day language. It’s an oil slick that taints and swims in even the smallest crevice of life—there’s no where to hide.

And Dd is far more famous than almost all of these HK and Taiwan based entertainers. 表態 — a public announcement of his stance — is the only option left for him when he becomes the centre of a sensitive political issue such as this one. And there’s really only one stance he can take.

In that sense, what happened to Dd isn’t something I’m too worried about—this kind of attack under the guise of a “loyalty check” isn’t new; and the motivation behind the scrutiny of Dd is the safer to-take-down-his-career rather than political mistrust. I believe this storm shall pass soon, as long as his team doesn’t make an unexpected, big mistake. His non-fan fellow country people will probably view him with a more positive light as well: he walked the walk and did what he believed is patriotic — breaking a contract like this is no lip service when in China, performative patriotism is often lip service — reportedly even among the top Chinese Communist Party officials.

If I must find more defence for his stance ... please forgive me, Anon, but I don’t have much more to say than what I said last night, what I said before about China’s access to information—

—because, admittedly, following, talking about this incident is difficult for the Hong Konger in me, even if I’ve expected this kind of incidents from the moment I joined this fandom, even if I’ve expected, as I’ve learned from RL experience, that most people I adore in China will at some point support causes that I deeply disagree with. The online patriotic rally by c-motors and c-turtles under the associated Weibo tag, while impressive and good for Dd, is nonetheless heartbreaking/frightening for me to watch. Why? Because I know this can easily turn into a call to persecute all Hong Kongers involved in the democracy movements sometime in the future. Because I know the rally will probably be as impressive if this has been a call to persecute all Hong Kongers involved in the democracy movements. Frankly, I stopped thinking about Nike as I scrolled through the posts — I was thinking about the now impossibly wide gulf that separates most Chinese and a Hong Konger like myself; I was thinking about why a Gg / Dd performance can trend on Twitter in 10+ countries all over the world but makes almost no noise in Hong Kong or Taiwan, places that should’ve most easily fallen in love with Gg / Dd with their closeness in language and customs. 

As it turns out, the closeness has only driven HK and Taiwan away; the closeness only brings them more insight of the beast—the government that looms over, cast a long shadow over everything that lives under it, including Gg and Dd.

I was reminded of the fact that many young Hong Kongers probably see me as a traitor just for being a turtle — young Hong Kongers who are n>1 generation immigrants from China, who never spend years reconciling the conflicting viewpoints, the even more conflicting emotions when it comes to this ... almost irreconcilable difference now in political beliefs north and south of the China-HK border. Unlike the older generations who often have immigrants/refugees from China for immediate, un-severable family, who often don’t have the option to walk away from the conflicts, to simply point to the other side and call it evil.

And here are my even-more-conflicting emotions: 

While, over the years, I’ve learned to harbour no ill feelings to the vast majority of supporters of pro-CCP causes—I reserve blame for those who conceal the truth, who’re involved in its policy making, or people who live outside the Firewall and should know better (such as every HK entertainer who’ve expressed support)—I’ve also learned, over the same years, to be fully, painfully aware that every endorsement is still an endorsement for the regime to carry on its ways, and the damage is real, is significant even if the endorsers may not know about the true nature of their endorsements. 

A simple thought experiment: the sheer size of China’s population means it can easily control the narrative on English-speaking social media. The Chinese government already has a history of mobilising its people to scale the Great Firewall and spread its propaganda on, for example, Twitter. It has also mobilised fan circles for propaganda purpose. Again, as a thought experiment *only* (ie, SJD!), imagine the Chinese government mobilising Dd’s Weibo supertopic fans to spread misinformation about Xinjiang.

Dd’s supertopic has 5+ million members—all savvy social media users and many skilled in the art of comment control (a collective effort, performed by fans to bury critiques/dissent on message boards); the total number of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is ~12 million, but their communications are heavily scrutinised and they can’t really talk. Just for the sake of argument, we’ll add the ~ 70% pro-democracy HK population to Uyghur’s side: that’s another 5 million, but most of them aren’t good at raging a battle on social media.

Which side will control the narrative in the end?

And so: I understand why Dd’s statement is what it is. I don’t fault him for making it. Still, I can’t in good conscience say to anyone, myself included, that the statement is a personal opinion and doesn’t matter. It matters a lot. His announcement is another stab to the Uyghurs, and the knife is sharp because of Dd’s social influence.

(Today, I saw Dd’s name for the first time in a Hong Kong pro-democracy online news site.)

The statement carried this sentence:

國家尊嚴不容侵犯，堅決維護祖國利益 The dignity of the country is not to be violated; the interest of our motherland is to be resolutely defended. Firstly: it’s character-for-character propaganda language. Secondly: even if we do not consider the labor camps, this is the condition in Xinjiang’s city of Urumqi. Where’s the dignity of the people who’re living there and who’s preventing that from being violated? The interest of the motherland—what kind of motherland answers an allegation of human rights violation with “interest” (利=profit, advantage; 益=benefit)? What kind of motherland has “protects its interest” being synonymous with surveillance and abuse of its own people?

I have a motherland, but it’s not the one in this narrative.

The issues of Xinjiang and the Uyghurs have also become even closer to Hong Kongers since 2019, when the fates of Hong Kongers and the Uyghurs became intricately tied—as dual examples of Chinese government’s human rights violations and indeed, these two populations who previously had very little in common have shown solidarity with each other against all odds. Their connection being this one simple, awful fact: both having what they value most stripped away by the same government—the traditions, religion and culture for the Uyghurs, the promised freedoms and hopes for democracy for Hong Kongers. As an online meme goes: “Today’s Xinjiang; Tomorrow’s Hong Kong” — expressing the fear that Hong Kongers may soon be subjected to the same surveillance as the Uyghurs today, for the same reason of having put up a fight against who they saw as their oppressors (this article offers an objective summary of what led to the 2009 clash between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government, which precipitated the former’s treatment as will-be terrorists today)(Note the role the US played in this.). 

As such, I cannot look away from Xinjiang. As such, I cannot look at our two beautiful stars, Gg and Dd, without also seeing the flag with its blood red looming behind with its own five stars—the biggest of them symbolising the Chinese Communist Party.

How do I reconcile all the feelings? As I said, it’s a constant work-in-progress, possibly a lifelong one. Re: Gg and Dd, that’s what I tell myself at the moment: that my being an i-turtle shall not sway my view or silence me on any sociopolitical issues, that my being a fan of anything, anyone shall not mean any other human life is suddenly worth less to me, or its suffering, something I shall suddenly look away from. The moment this becomes true—that I find myself depreciating human lives, or ignoring the pain of others for the sake of my fannish pursuits—that’s when I must leave my fan identity until I find my discipline (I do understand the lure of a happy fandom bubble, and I’m far from immune to it). I’m a person before I’m a fan.

These are the rules of my world.

我的世界不退讓。

[locria-writes]

some more thoughts on trash vs uwu pathetic (i have decided that this is what i'm calling my endearingly pathetic men now, so not to be confused with pathetic (derogatory) and pathetic (objective).

so just a quick tl;dr --

trashmen are self-centred, perpetrate bad violence, and hurt those around them, especially loved ones.

uwu pathetic men are trying to better themselves, lack power/authority, are typically nice and good people, embrace their emotions, and are not cherry boys.

agency is an important distinction between being trash and pathetic. a lot of trashmen are very pathetic and pitiful, but they're not my pathetic men. trashmen actively worsen their own lives (as well as the lives of others), and usually create more of their own problems than they solve. pathetic men are helpless to the forces around them, usually because they lack the power necessary to force change and better their situations.

for example, val is a trashman, despite being objectively pathetic and pitiful, because he chooses to act the way he does, and chooses the solutions he makes, despite suspecting they're the wrong choices. there is no need for val to approach mc with any kind of intention -- he could hit back at burky boy without mc based on his acquaintanceship with ben, but he chooses to use mc anyway. hell, val could achieve all his goals even if he were to pursue mc honestly, but no, he chooses to use her as a stepping stone, and that is trash behaviour.

or look at vezian. the dude makes his problems -- he picks unprovoked fights with launcelin and was literally the catalyst for abea because he couldn't not think with his dick and had to try to fuck his brother's wife which led to her death. he literally could have married mc and gotten the throne like that if he weren't such a petty little bitch baby who wanted to hurt his brother in any way possible. and even beyond that, if he could just set aside his pride and ego for a while and humbled himself for other people and tried to not act like an asshole, he might have met less resistance towards his prospective marriage to mc.

of course, within trash discourse, there are more nuanced cases, like lothar. he was helpless to a lot of what made his life shit, and while he doesn't actively ruin his own life, he sure as hell likes indulging his toxic traits. he knows there's something wrong with him, knows that his behaviour is wrong, but doesn't bother to change it. he's trash wearing a mask of decency, trash lite, if i may say so -- doesn't create his own problems, but also doesn't take an active role in solving them. (of course, there's more to this, but that's a whole other essay, and this type of trash is usually more sympathetic and pathetic due to their circumstances)

i don't believe i've written any public uwu pathetic men, so i'll just grab my sweet lover boy asturias who's literally never done anything wrong in his life ever. he doesn't actively try to make his life worse -- he joined the military because he was scouted as a potential pilot, and disliked studying; he treated his peers and those under him well and never went out of his way to antagonize anyone; literally stayed in his lane and tried to be unproblematic but continuously gets dragged into messes because he's both good at his job and has enough personal charisma to be used for propaganda.

his only bad choices, which calling them a 'choice' is a stretch, are who he falls in love with, and how deeply and quickly he falls. he came from an ordinary lower middle class family, and even after his mother remarried up the social ladder, he had never bothered to truly integrate himself to the elite. he doesn't fully understand the nuances within the superclass because he wasn't born into wealth or power, and climbed up by his own efforts (sort of, lots of powerful people were giving him a boost for their own gains but that's not the point). he didn't understand that his first girlfriend never meant for a long and serious relationship with him, and she wasn't aware that he didn't know.

his next relationship fell apart because of personal differences. he values work, professionalism, and by that point in time, actually trying to stop the war, while she was insecure in their relationship and felt neglected. in both relationships, were there things he did wrong? yeah, absolutely. was he actively degrading the relationship? no, not really.

now that i've had time to stew over uwu pathetic men, i think i've come up with a better and more concise rubric for them --

they do not actively worsen their situations --- uwu pathetic men aren't actively self-destructive. at their very best, they will try to remedy their bad situations, and at worst, they will presently be passive to it all. they tend to be more optimistic, but at worse, they will embrace a sort of que sera sera sort of nihilism.

they usually lack substantial power/authority -- unlike trash, uwu pathetic men typically lack the resources to effectively solve their problems. if it's a problem to be solved with money, they don't have the money. if they need authority, they usually lack it. they're typically underdogs, or at the very most, muzzled top dogs.

must be nice and decent people overall -- not much to say here. they don't demean others unprompted, they aren't assholes, they aren't control freaks, etc. at worst, they're blunt to the point of being borderline rude, or something similar to that. yandere uwu pathetic men do exist, and they're usually softer yanderes -- the kind that gushes affection, act clingy, and are possessive, but not to the point of suffocating their partner.

they are not afraid of their emotions -- they embrace their emotions and acknowledge their existence. they aren't necessarily emotional, and they don't necessarily always show it, but when they're in a position where it feels safe to be vulnerable, they will acknowledge their emotions. they wear their hearts on their sleeves, after all.

uwu pathetic men are not cherry boys -- cherry boys are pure sweet beans who've yet to taste their first love; uwu pathetic men have usually had their hearts broken before. there is a strong cherry-boy-to-uwu-pathetic-man pipeline though.

Excuse me? Trash men can't be pathetic? Do I need to introduce you to the dub genre of trash men that is exactly that? 👀

the way i define trash in my writing is inherently incompatible with being pathetic and in this essay i will --

first, let's get this out of the way - when i say 'trash', i'm referring to the way i write trash, because there is a very careful and thorough method used to create these menaces while they're in the test tube. i don't mean trash in the way we endearingly/spitefully use it for characters we like/dislike. 'trash' is an actual category here with actual requirements.

so let me introduce you to the "trashman trifecta", a litmus test i use to determine which of my scumbag characters receive the title, and also just a quickie, this is exclusively for major characters, so don't go looking to apply to side characters --

self-centredness --the core component of my trashmen. the world revolves around them, regardless of how true it might be. malicious trashmen are self-centred in a selfish way, not caring at all how their actions affect everyone around them, while more benevolent ones are aware of the very difficult to grasp concept of "your actions have consequences". some rare breeds of trashmen are actually selfless though, and are cognizant of how their actions affect others, but they usually fall into one of two categories a) their continued actions are actively worsening the situation around them because they are a major belligerent, or b) their actions are affecting those immediately around them, but not actually making a change because they were never a player in the game to begin with.

violence -- there's good and bad violence in the world, and trashmen overwhelmingly perpetrate the latter. again, there are malicious trashmen who do so gleefully and knowingly, but there are good-intentioned trashmen who try to do good, but do more bad in the end. committing the violence isn't the key point here, rather, it's who was the violence directed at, why was it committed. whether sadism was involved or not is a different matter, but like normally the malicious trashmen are sadists too.

maltreatment of loved ones -- similar to the above, but not quite the same. this usually applies for romantic relationships, but broadly applies to anyone the trashman has fondness for. trashmen will hurt those around them, whether it's maliciously and consciously so, or unintentional and borne from good intentions. they tend to be incredibly stubborn, "my way or the highway", often resorting to tactics like force and manipulation to get compliance. sometimes it's a very active maltreatment, sometimes it's passive, or stems from passive behaviour.

optional traits include -- sadistic, sex weirdo, inferiority complex (usually of the unjustified variety), questionably misogynistic, has violated human rights, possibly a war criminal, manwhore, severe mommy/daddy issues.

now onto pathetic men, i think i just haven't written enough pathetic men on here to have it so easily classified. i also don't write them very much, so there's no way for me to compile a checklist to see who's a pathetic man or not. however, based off of the few i've written recently, i think pathetic is sort of a pejorative way i refer to them (with love of course), and that pitiful would be a better way to describe them.

actually, scratch that -- the pathetic part refers to the way they love, not so much their personalities (though majority of them are inherently very soft and damaged, and should be handled gently like fragile pottery). these men are more than simps; they're suffering second male lead syndrome as male leads. they're desperate when it comes to love; they wear their emotions and hearts so openly it's usually detrimental, and they do so despite bearing emotional scars. they always make bad choices in love -- they love those who don't return it; those who cannot express love in a way that makes them feel secure; those who they simply can't be with, etc.

however, they aren't cherry boys. cherry boys are usually very pure, young, and inexperienced when it comes to relationships. these men have experience, are fairly mature outside of their desperate need for love, and have experienced much of the world, and have always been continuously hurt by it. they're like kicked puppies who need to be wrapped in cotton wool, while simultaneously being able to strangle someone.

my pathetic (rather, pathetic-in-love) men are inherently gentle and loving creatures. they usually have some type of power that gives them authority, but their authority either means little in attaining their love, or they're simply unwilling to wield it in a selfish way. even if they have possessive thoughts, it will always stay just that, and never manifest outside of some clinginess.

i won't say that my pathetic-in-love men are the antithesis to my trashmen, but i'll say it seems very difficult for both labels to exist on a single character without there being some second personality.