#and people defending me. and its genuinely just so touching and so much

[householdcryptid]

Imagine someone like Craig makes a sexual comment about reader and pope FLIPS OUT. I feel like pope is super protective. Also I feel like pope is really body positive rather someone is super skinny or curvy he could care less. Body hair doesn't scare pope

you are totally correct, pope would not care at all what size or shape your body is. i genuinely think he doesn't even factor that into his like...attraction I guess? like obviously he thinks you're sexy/beautiful/handsome but that is NOT the first thing he notices about you. idk if this was supposed to be a nurse!reader or a shy!reader, but I did sunshine cause I felt like it fit them :) cw: uhh, pope being pope, gunshot wound mention (not in any crazy detail though), craig being craig, slightly sexual comment made by Craig. 1K Words :) she's short and sweet

It all starts with a comment from Craig. Just one, tiny little comment, harmless by your standards. Some of the whacked-out patients at the clinic spew much more vile shit at you on a day-to-day basis. “If Pope’s not up to the task, I’d be happy to fix that attitude, Sunshine.” You’d been in a mood, considering Pope had been caught in the line of a shotgun’s buckshot two days ago. He was fine, thank God (or whatever deity watches over him and his fucked up family), but you’d been on edge. Snappy and waspish in a way you’re normally able to control. The comment hardly makes you look up. Tossing Craig a middle finger is easy by now, but Pope isn’t so forgiving. He’s up as fast as he can manage, gunning straight for his brother with a slight limp in his normally steady step. “Fuck did you say-?” He’s almost growling, voice gone sharp, gravelly. It shouldn’t make heat stir in your belly, but it does. His hands, open palm, collide with Craig’s shoulders, gripping the fabric of the taller man’s tank top, knuckles white. “Keep your fuckin’ mouth shut-” You’ve never seen him in action, not like this. Not that this is as bad he gets, either, you’re sure. It’s jarring nonetheless. “Andrew,” You call out, surprised, voice raising an octave, a frown working its way across your face. You’re crossing the room after him on instinct, hand settling on the back of his shoulder. He goes stiff beneath it, breathing hard, nostrils flared and eyes wide. That wild look he gets— like a hurricane barely contained— turns to you, just a bit. The slightest tip of his head in your direction. Craig is smirking, hands held up plaintively at his sides. You barely bite back a curse in his direction, choosing instead to focus on Pope. 

“Drew, let ‘im go.” You murmur, shaking your head slowly. “He’s just bein’ a dick,” Your gaze cuts to Craig then, who at least has the decency to look the tiniest bit apologetic. “It’s alright, c’mon.” You mumble, hand sliding from Pope’s shoulder to his back, rubbing gently between his shoulder blades. “You’re gonna rip your stitches. Sit down for me, lemme check.” It takes a minute, two, but then his fingers are unfurling from Craig’s shirt, and he’s shoving him away like the touch burns. “Fuck outta here.” He barks, gruff and a little mean, sniffing once and turning to face you finally. You nod, lead him back over to the couch where he’d been stationed for the better part of the day. You know it’s been killing him. This sitting around, doing nothing, staring a TV, feigning interest in whatever bullshit Craig and Deran are talking about, or, God forbid, Smurf coming over to ‘comfort’ him. He hates to be in one spot for too long, despises being useless. When Craig is out of ear shot, you squat down in front of him, fingers curling in the bottom hem of his shirt and lifting it. “You don’t have to do that, y’know?” You murmur, peeling back his bandages tenderly, looking over the handful of stitches you’d had sewn into his skin. He tilts his head, frowning like he doesn’t understand what you mean. “Defend me like that.” You clarify, sparing a glance up at him, eyebrow arched. “I can handle it. People have said a lot worse, believe me.” His frown only deepens the more you speak, eyes gone dark with a thinly veiled rage, thick fingers clenching at the edge of the couch cushion he sits on. “M’not gonna let him talk to you like that.” He grumbles low, pointed. “No one gets to talk to you like that.” His gaze doesn’t let up, and something in his tone lets you know there’s a threat hidden there. Something dark, primal, biding its time. Affection blooms in your heart despite it, something that never ceases to unnerve you. The violence and anger that reside in him should not be as endearing as you seem to find it. Or maybe it isn’t that, that draws you into him. Maybe it’s the devotion, the allegiance he has to you. You know, deep down, that he’d burn the world to keep you safe and happy. You smile in spite of the heavy tone he’s just set, shake your head in that gentle, fond way that makes his stomach tighten. He relaxes minutely when your hands find the sides of his neck, leaning into your touch. “You’re sweet.” You state quietly, tipping your head forward just enough to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, nose brushing against his own gently. He sighs heavily through his nose, resting his forehead against yours, eyes sliding shut. The tension bleeds from him all at once, his hand sliding up your forearm to cup your elbow. He’s never known a feeling like the one you give him. Something tight in his chest unravels when you touch him, leaving him to feel… bare, vulnerable, and he hates it as much as he craves it. “Let’s go home.” He mumbles, nose pressing to the apple of your cheek, fingers dimpling the skin of your upper arm. Your home, he means. Not his little condo that resembles a prison cell more than an actual home, but your apartment. Where it smells of coconut and his shampoo sits next to yours in the shower. And you can’t deny him anything when his voice drops to that soft, breathy tone. Especially not when he’s actually asking for something, a rare act at best. You reward him with another kiss, humming quietly in confirmation. “Yeah, big guy,” You whisper. “Let’s go home.”

[inuyashaluver]

MORE MAYA PLEASE 🙏🙏

handsy - maya le tissier

maya le tissier x reader

description: in which your best friend is an extremely handsy defender, completely testing the limits of your friendship when you contemplate if it really is platonic

warnings: nothing really!

a/n: you do not have to tell me twice. maya le tissier has my heart. thank you and please enjoy! ❤️ i haven't written for maya dearest in soooooo long, it was much needed!!

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

maya le tissier has a problem, and it was a problem she didn't even know she had.

she’d been told by countless people that this problem was going to lead her into trouble, but how was she supposed to fix it if she didn't know what the problem was?

this problem that maya had, you were no stranger to, in fact you were the one always caught in the crossfire of it. and this was your best friend’s incredibly handsy self.

maya le tissier was extremely touchy and affectionate with everyone, but mainly you, and it was starting to drive you insane.

—

it’s always been like this, being best friends with maya and then questioning your whole relationship with how touchy she was.

whether it was a simple touch on the arm or a prolonged hug that had your heart beating out of your chest, you were confused. she was confusing you. heavily.

you both met in the youth england teams, bonding because you were the same age. both similar yet different, a perfect balance that had many people envious of the relationship you had carefully constructed with each other.

ever since you were both 15, you've pulled your hair out in frustration over the brunette, something she wasn't even aware of.

“hey, babe” maya flopped down next to you in your cubby at the u17’s lionesses, she placed a warm hand on your thigh, kissing your cheek gently.

your cheek filled with pink from the contact of her lips against your skin, desperately hoping she doesn't point out how flushed you looked right now.

“hi, may” you chuckle, feeling maya’s arm slip behind you around your back, pulling you directly into her side. “you look gorgeous, as usual” she smiles, gently budging your shoulder with hers.

you look over at her in surprise, flattered by her words but also incredibly shy about them.

“i’m wearing the same thing as you” you point out, a hint of teasing laced in your words. “yeah but you always look way better” she winks, her arm moving from your back to rest on your thigh, fiddling with the end of your shorts.

your breath hitched a little, was she clueless or was she strategic?

“you okay?” she asks, handing your your water bottle, “you look a little flushed” she said with genuine concern, answering your earlier question, the girl was clueless.

“i'm all good! just a little warm” you excused, fanning your hands for added effect, maya’s eyebrows quirk but she chose to believe you.

the brunette grabbed a random paper from the cubby next to yours, fanning you down diligently, asking you constantly if you were okay. and if this doesn't sum up your ultimate confusion with your best friend, you don't know what will.

—

you were both signed to manchester united as well as the senior england team so that bond between the both of you only grew tenfold.

it was impossible for the two of you to be apart, mainly because you now lived together and that was an ultimate struggle.

each and every moment of your lives were together, it was a rare occasion to see the two of you separated, and thus, the rumours surrounding your relationship only grew larger, it was really taking its toll on you.

the thing is, there were numerous moments where you truly thought maya liked you back, how could you not?

there were occasions where she looked at you in a way that made your heart flutter, the petnames, the acts of service, and especially the way she would talk about you in interviews.

—

“yeah, thats a great question! i definitely think my biggest form of motivation is my (y/n), shes absolutely amazing inside and out and i just love her. to be honest, i don’t think i would be where i am without her and i know it's the same for her, well i hope” she laughs, thanking the interviewer again for the question.

ella and alessia, the ones that had to see everything under the magnifying glass knew this would drive you insane.

they sent you the video before having a group facetime call where they intricately analysed each word, each facial expression and they concluded the girl was in love with you.

and you concluded that you were in love with her, and something needed to happen, immediately.

—

you were at camp with england, mary begging you and maya to join alessia and her in a tiktok video, something about hot shots?

you weren't really listening, maya was drawing shapes on your back and therefore no coherent thoughts were present in your mind, and so here you all were, set up in a line in front of mary’s phone.

you and maya couldn’t stop giggling in the corner, making mary and alessia stare at you both with amused smiles until you nudged maya’s thigh with your own, hushing your giggles as best as you could.

“now that they're done, hello everyone, we’ve got a challenge for, me, alessia, maya and little (y/n) today” mary snickers, you scoff after she finishes her sentence.

“alright?” alessia chuckles, “what did you call me little for?” you point at mary, making her press her finger against yours that you couldn't help but laugh at.

“you’re the youngest” mary teases, “maya is three months older than me?” you exclaim, nudging maya for backup but the girl only gave you a cheeky smile back.

“oh whatever, go on” you roll your eyes, maya grins at you, squeezing your hand quickly before letting it go.

“we’ve got, hotshots, like the hotshots we are” everyone giggles, mary ripping them out of the package and giving one out to each of you.

“here, babe” maya grabs yours out of your hand, smiling at you before shaking both of your little bottles.

“she can’t shake her own bottle?” alessia teases, making maya giggle shyly while shaking her head, “nah, she gets princess treatment from me” maya winks, making you slap maya’s thigh with utters of “i do not!”.

maya puts one in between her thighs and opens yours, giving it to you before she opens her own. “i can smell it from here” alessia grimaces, “yeah, alessia eats with her nose” mary teases, maya smells it herself and coughs a little, pushing your hand down when you went to smell it yourself.

“love, it’s gross, don’t” maya says protectively, leaning forward to adjust herself, she placed her hand on your knee and as she sat back properly, her hand slid up from your knee all the way to your thigh, making you freeze in your spot.

maya looks at you questioningly, “i’m fine, i can just smell it” you lie, maya smiles at you, “gross, right?” she smiles, making you nod along with her.

“(y/n), i know exactly how it's gonna taste and i don't want it” alessia shivers, making you giggle at her. maya stares at you while you giggle, grinning brightly at seeing you so happy.

“less, if i do it, you do it” you laugh, making the blonde groan but agree.

“my god, we need (y/n/n) around more, look how fast lessi agrees and how excited maya is” mary says to the camera. “right, let's go!” mary demands.

you all grimace but begin to drink the shot, maya drinks it quickly and begins to laugh, coughing as she got up from the frame.

mary and alessia begin to laugh, promptly making you laugh as you watch maya. maya scrambles to get her bottle of juice from your bag, continuing to cough.

“you okay?” you grimace, the ginger burning the back of your throat, maya nods, “it got up my nose” maya chokes out, drinking the juice.

you finish your shot as maya comes back to sit next to you on the bed, “god, you're like a baby” you scold, lifting your hands up to cup maya’s face, wiping off the remaining shot and juice off her nose and her lips.

maya lets you do it with no complaints, watching you with a smile as you still taste the shot in your mouth.

when you drop your hands, maya lifts up her own, squeezing your cheeks together teasingly before putting the bottle of juice in your mouth.

her arm coming around your back to draw comforting circles on your back as you had the juice, passing it to alessia when you were done.

maya giggles as she makes fun of mary, drawing you closer every couple of seconds. “lessi, you need to finish it” you say to her, alessia shakes her head.

“no, i don't want it” alessia says with disgust, “come on, less, please” maya says, joining you in convincing the blonde, alessia rolls her eyes but does it anyone, getting a cheer from the three of you when she finished it.

“i’m so proud of all of you for that” mary mocks, ending the video with goodbyes and maya tackling you to the bed, claiming that now she was traumatised from the shot and needed comforting.

mary hops on both of you while filming it while alessia laughs in the back, distantly saying “such a third wheel!” making mary laugh when maya pressed a firm kiss to your cheek.

let’s just say you replayed each and every interaction that night before you went to bed. maya liked you back and you needed to do something about it.

—

a couple months later, you were back in manchester with maya, waking up early for training to make you both some breakfast.

“good morning” maya yawns, placing a hand on your hip with a kiss to your cheek, you let out a shaky breath before replying.

“morning, love, breakfast is there” you nod your head to the kitchen island, maya gasps in appreciation, thanking you and kissing your cheek repeatedly, pulling giggles out of you.

after you both finished eating, she just answered some texts on her phone as you stared at her, “you okay?” maya chuckles, glancing over at you, turning her phone off and swivelling her chair to face you, prompting you to do the same.

you don’t know where the surge of confidence came from but something came over you in that moment.

“can i try something?” you ask slowly, maya nods without hesitation, “whatever you like” she says sweetly, slightly moving closer to you.

you let out a quick exhale, swallowing the lump in your throat. there was so much riding on this, you could lose her forever or you could have her forever, and it was all on this.

but you couldn’t back down now, you owe it to yourself to do this. “if you hate me forever after this, i’m sorry for it now” you say wearily,

“babe, i could never hate you, it’s literally impossible” you says with full confidence. you nod at her, your eyes flickering between her eyes before quickly dropping to her lips and then back up.

she gives you a soft smile, you’re both on the same page. she wants you to make the first move.

you bite the bullet, surging forward to press your lips against hers, feeling them move together in sync without an ounce of hesitation. you both wanted this.

her hand cupped your chin and she stood from her chair, standing between your legs as she continued to kiss you. she places a hand gently on your thigh, your own arms wrapping around her neck softly.

she hums against you, kissing you sweetly with a smile lightly playing at her lips, making you chuckle against her.

she pulls away softly, bumping your nose cutely with yours as she giggles to face you. “you finally caught on, huh?” she teases, you roll your eyes, making maya pull you into another kiss, this one more purposeful and passionate before she pulled away again.

“you could’ve said something” you mock, maya interlaces your hands together, kissing the back of it gently.

“i said it everyday, i just wanted you to come to me in your own time” maya smiles, pushing a stray hair off your forehead.

you smile at her but almost sadly, the thought of both you and maya’s pushing your feelings away for so long.

“but what if i didn’t say anything?” you frown, gently caressing her face with the pad of your thumb, tracing over her cheek, maya smiles at you, moving closer to you.

“but you did, baby” she says softly, pecking your lips gently, “and it’s okay if you didn’t, i would just be your best friend and that’s it” she says earnestly, you pull her in for a hug, a tight one.

she gently sways you side to side as your legs slightly wrap around her waist. “i love you” you sniffle, maya tears up herself, kissing your cheek as she moved back.

“i love you” she says looking right into your eyes, kissing all over your face before settling on your lips, kissing them a couple of times before hugging you again.

“as much as i would love to kiss you all day, we have training” maya groans, grabbing both of your hands to help you down off the chair.

“so you wouldn’t kiss me all day?” you gasp mockingly, giving her a teasing smile, maya rolls her eyes affectionately, pinching your hip warningly.

“i would love nothing more, but we have a job to do, we can kiss all night” she winks, pecking your lips before ushering you out the door.

—

you’ve now been dating for over a year and have never been happier. the amount of relief everyone felt when they found out you were now dating was quite funny.

now everyone just had to get used to more flirting then usual but it was worth it, especially since you and maya were so happy.

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

you know the drill, just pretend it’s you! ily lessi x

liked by alessia and 44,232 others

mayaletissier: i know im supposed to watch the game but she’s incredibly distracting

view all comments

yourname: yeah sure, IM the distraction

↳ mayaletissier: you are, my love

↳ yourname: so sweet you are

alessia: they grow up so fast

↳ maryearps: our kids are big girls now 🥺

↳ mayaletissier: adults but okay xx

[fear-is-truth]

❛ THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES ❜ - K. ANDERSON.

ⓘ love language : a person's characteristic means of expressing and experiencing love

꣑ৎ ‎ :‎ masterlist﹒request / chat w me ! ﹒꒱ note. got a lil carried away, but i can yap about my man for days on end

words of affirmation ➛ ˗ˏˋ this might seem like it would be kai’s love language—after all, he is a gifted speaker. persuasive, emotionally intelligent. but here’s the thing: he doesn’t believe a word of it. because kai knows the power of bullshitting too well to ever take it at face value—one doesn’t trust a sharp blade simply because one is good at swinging it.

so when you tell him you love him? if you told him you loved him ten times a day, he’d take it as his due (because it fuels his ego and he needs validation.) maybe even say “love you too,” if he’s in a generous mood. but he’s already analysing: why did you say that now? what are you trying to reassure him of? kai just can’t switch off the paranoid part of his brain that parses sincerity like code. he wants to believe you; he wants it to be simple. but nothing is. not for him.

sometimes kai thinks about how easily you could lie. how easily he lies. and he hates that his own doubt chokes the love he tries to feel cleanly. you’ve witnessed him spin lies with so much passion that it felt like gospel. seen him unearth confessions from trembling lips and interlocked pinkies. you know the voice he uses when he wants something. and kai knows you hear that same voice when he says “i love you.” even when he genuinely means it. ˊˎ-

────୨ৎ────

acts of service ➛ ˗ˏˋ kai doesn’t believe in love that doesn’t do something. words mean very little to him unless they’re paired with action—people lie; they say what they think you want to hear (he’s an virtuoso in this aspect.)

you could tell him you adore him every day and it wouldn’t land the way something practical would: plug in his dead phone, fixing his tie, remember his preference for food, not letting anyone insult his ideology in front of you—even when defending him feels like a betrayal of your values and dignity—and doing it anyway... now that’s real dedication. he’ll often show love by doing things for you in return because that’s his metric for affection—if he didn’t care, he wouldn’t bother. ˊˎ-

────୨ৎ────

quality time ➛ ˗ˏˋ quality time is, unequivocally, kai’s primary love language, the clearest, cleanest line that can be drawn between love and order. he doesn’t need any of that performative bullshit society has programmed into people’s idea of romance. his idea of intimacy is pragmatic—two people aligned in purpose, parallel activity.

if he’s going out, you’re coming too. there won’t be any explanation, just a curt “get in,” or leave the door open long enough for you to follow. he needs someone to bounce ideas off of or just exist next to in the car. you don’t even have to talk (in fact, he prefers when you don’t.) your presence just help him think better.

kai builds closeness through utility, and this is proven by the way he keeps you near in mundane ways. he likes when you do chores around him—not just because of his regressive ideas about gender roles (though those are there) but it satisfies both his need for control and his attachment issues.

if you’re not around, he gets irritable and agitated. paces around, second-guesses himself. will try and act like it’s business as usual but he’s waiting for you to come back. ˊˎ-

────୨ৎ────

physical touch ➛ ˗ˏˋ this one’s complicated. not in theory—he enjoys physical touch—but he’s more comfortable only he’s the one initiating it. sex is the easiest form to navigate, and like any competent cult leader, kai knows how to manipulate with proximity. the old in-out in-out is easy, but what’s harder is affection for its own sake. his personality preference for touch is the kind that affirms possession. the hand closing lightly around your throat, fingers under your chin, tilting your face up.

kai doesn’t like being touched by surprise. if you reach for him unannounced, he might tense up or even flinch—but he’ll let you, because you’re the only one allowed. his followers already know you’re his, but he can’t let them see just how much he’s yours. being seen as smitten would chip away at his authority, and the divine ruler can’t afford to be seen as weak. so if you get too affectionate in front of the others, he’ll shove you off with a snide comment.

it goes without saying that he doesn’t do PDA. public is performance; private is truth. you are his truth. that said, he lets things slide in private—your legs draped over his lap on the couch. him resting a hand at your lower back when you both walk into a room.

but behind closed doors? he doesn’t bother to hide how wants you. all the fucking time. not even in the sexual sense, (though that too.) he lets things slide. your legs thrown over his lap on the couch. your fingers slipping into his hair while he reads. his hand resting instinctively at the small of your back when you pass behind him. kai can be strangely clingy, too. he likes when you stand between his legs and hug him, his face pressed into your chest. fingers toying with the ends of your hair when he’s thinking.

of course, he will never admit it (he’s too proud for that) but there’s a difference between tolerating and needing. and he needs you. ˊˎ-

────୨ৎ────

receiving gifts ➛ ˗ˏˋ gifts are low on his list, he didn’t grow up scraping by (his family was more than well off) but even then, kai never saw the point in material things beyond their function. now he’s got investments and crypto doing well, he’s sitting on more than most people. but that hasn’t changed his attitude. he’s not stingy, but sentimentality attached to objects feels juvenile to him.

he’ll hand you a generous stack of cash at the beginning of the month for “groceries, bills, whatever”—and the rest? all yours. he won’t keep tabs on where it goes. your comfort is his responsibility. if you needed him to spell that out, he wouldn’t be your boyfriend. when he does give gifts, they’re practical. a copy of a book he just read and thinks you’d like too, because intellectual conversations matter. or a gadget you mentioned in passing: a fitbit, airpods, noise-cancelling headphones…whatever would make your life run more efficiently. that’s what matters to him. he doesn’t do flowers. what’s the point? they die at the end of the week.

birthdays or milestones are an exception. not because he suddenly believes in sentiment of course, but because he understands optics and appearances. and, in a quieter sense, he understands you. in order to impress him, you often pretend you’re above such frivolities, that you don’t care about that stuff, but he knows that you do. and in your case, his sexist instincts aren’t totally off-base. ˊˎ-

 fear-is-truth 2025 — all rights reserved. do not modify, repost, translate, or plagiarise my content.

[korkorali]

The Misogyny of It All

So a lot of Della Duck Discourse is rehashed all the time, points are made again and again, but one thing that I almost never see people defend -and conversely, see people attack all the time- is The Line.

You know what I'm talking about. The Line from Glomtales.

"Your plans, your schemes, they only lead to bad things for your family. If you want to be a part of this family, you've gotta stop."

That one.

Now, what exactly Della was trying to get across with that line is a whole other can of worms that deserves its own post (basically she -and also the writers- horribly failed her Speech check).

What we're going over here is how that mimics a certain line from the last season, said by a parental figure to a child, that gets so much less flack. That, in fact, often gets paraded around as 'an interesting twist on a character.'

"You are not family!"

I have never seen people attack this line with the same amount of vitriol as they attack Della's, which is funny when they're the exact same line.

Actually, not even that- Scrooge's is worse.

It's more direct, it's literally yelled at Webby, it doesn't even attempt to address the issue Scrooge had (Webby blaming him for what happened to Della) and instead just straight-up attacks her as a person.

Now, to be fully honest- I like this line! I do genuinely think it's an interesting route for Scrooge to take, and is quite realistic to the grumpy old bastard. It's just funny that nobody ever comes to Webby's defense the same way they do for Louie.

Because the thing is- between Webby and Louie, one of these two has genuine, canonical issues with feeling like they're not a part of the family, like they're an outsider amongst those they love the most, like they don't belong.

And it's not Louie.

It is a consistent part of Webby's characterization that she feels like she doesn't belong. This gets touched on in all three seasons (and honestly, it could be argued that it gets worse after this moment).

Conversely, that just is not a part of Louie's canonical characterization. Even in the first episode of season 2, the one where Louie gets the closest to an 'I don't belong in this family' moment, it's less 'I don't belong here' and more 'fuck me I am terrible at adventuring'. And! It gets resolved in that episode!

(Of course, there is absolutely something to be said for how it's resolved- specifically by Scrooge encouraging him to be a scheming little bastard, which then thusly becomes the thing that threatens his family the most. Which would, logically, be a pretty big blow to his self-esteem. This isn't what I'm here to discuss right now but it is genuinely interesting.)

Louie never really shows an issue with feeling like he doesn't belong in his family. He shows a disconnect with his family at times, but in canon that never really evolves into a full-blown feeling of displacement. It does get close in Glomtales, but never quite reaches it.

So it's 'interesting' (read: not interesting) that Scrooge's fuckup here gets brushed away pretty easily. A lot of the time the line just straight-up isn't addressed, and when it is, often times it's about how "Oh he apologized to Webby offscreen, obviously."

Which.

Not he did not.

I mean, let me be clear: I don't mind it when that's the answer. It works for me to just brush it away if it's not meant to be the focus...

But Scrooge almost certainly didn't apologize for it.

As 'New Gods on the Block!' Showed us, Scrooge is downright awful at realizing when his actions have hurt people.

More likely than not, Scrooge would just assume that everything is fine and would avoid bringing it up at all costs because he'd feel awkward about it. Because he is, very importantly, not good at talking about things he doesn't want to talk about.

So why is it that Louie is always the one feeling like he doesn't belong? Why is it Della who is always a terrible parent for what she's said? Why are Webby's feelings of disconnect never really given the same gravity as Louie's? Why is Scrooge's blunder let off the hook super easily?

It just feels silly to me.

And, well.

Kinda like the fact that, since Scrooge is a guy and Webby's a girl, and Della is a woman and Louie's a boy, has something to do with it.

I'll happily give the benefit of the doubt and assume it's not deliberate, but quite frankly it is a double standard.

I think that people would be less upset with the Della Duck Discourse if Scrooge was held in a similarly critical position over what he's said and done. If it was acknowledged that Della isn't uniquely awful in what she says and does, and that a lot of the others have fucked up in extremely similar ways.

(I mean for fuck's sake, everybody goes on and on about how Della left her kids for ten years -which, for the record, wasn't what she wanted to do- but nobody ever criticizes Donald for taking the kids away from their family and never talking to them about Della- which is something he actively and deliberately chose to do)

TL;DR: The fact that Della gets intensely criticized for what she's said and done, but Donald and Scrooge are conversely celebrated as 'interesting' and 'complex' for what they've said and done, even when it brings harm to the kids, is a blatant double-standard. And if you don't think that this double-standard is bad or wrong for existing (or even that it Doesn't Actually Exist), instead of immediately claiming that it's a non-issue, maybe try to look inward and figure out why you really think that is.

[sugurufic]

Two best friends in a room... (Gojo x F!Reader)

Summary: You and Gojo are stuck with each other one evening and Gojo decides to make a tiktok. You've got your own devious plan in your head.

Word Count: 1k

Content: fluff, Its a bit different from the other trends i've written… gojo tries this one on you instead, reader mentions she is bad at biology but likes math (self insert).

masterlist

“Satoru, why do you only have sweets for snacks?” you complain, plopping down on his bed. “Don’t you ever crave something salty or sour or spicy?”

“Hey! Stop whining about my sweets in my dorm!” He pouts, half sitting up. “You should’ve gotten your own snacks instead.”

“Suguru and Shoko aren’t here yet,” You say, taking out your phone to text in the groupchat. “I’ll ask them to bring me something other than sweet.”

“Oh, Suguru is busy - Yaga sent him on a mission at the last moment.” Gojo complains. “Shoko is busy preparing for her med school entrance exam.”

“Oh, right! I had totally forgotten about that,” you say, thinking about Shoko. She didn’t really need to prepare this hard, but you figured she did it because she enjoys studying about the human body. She has the brains to do it, you dont - having always been more inclined toward maths than biology. “Shoko’s stronger than me because I had already given up on biology back in middle school.”

“That is good because you make an excellent sorcerer.” Gojo says, somehow the teasing is missing in his words. “People would have died if you became a doctor.” There he is.

“Oi! I wasn’t that bad.” You defend yourself.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” he shrugs.

“What do you want to do then, Satoru?” You ask.

“Let’s make a tiktok!” He sits up straight, reaching for his phone on the nightstand. “I have been wanting to do this for ages,”

“What?” you ask, not recalling any trend that you have come across recently. But that might be because you don’t use tiktok (A/N: not a lie, but i use ig reels so it's the same)

“It will be funnier if you don’t know,” the white haired man grins, looking at you from over his sunglasses. His bright blue eyes sparkle with mischief - which you’d have found adorable if you weren’t the target of his joke.

He sets his phone up, floating it in the air above the bed with his limitless. The mischief is not gone from his eyes, and he has ditched the glasses for now. You rarely get the chance to admire his pretty blue eyes - it’s for your own good, you think. His eyes are captivating.

The audio starts to play, and Satoru says the words with it, “two best friends in a room…” you recognize the audio, but force yourself to not give it away, a devious plan forming in your head on seeing his annoyingly endearing smirk. “...they might kiss,” he finishes, and you give him a shy smile, keeping up the innocent act.

“Yes we will,” you say with the audio, still keeping that innocent act with puppy eyes looking right into his pretty blue eyes.

“What?” the what he says times up with the audio, but the shock on his face is genuine.

“I said, yes we will,” you finally give up the innocent act and smirk, loving the red-faced Satoru, who looks like he is about to explode. You turn towards him, on your hands and knees as you lean into his space and he seems to be running on autopilot and leaning towards you, the red flush never leaving his face. The audio continues to play promiscuous girl, but you don’t pay much mind to it.

Just as your lips are about to touch, you look at Gojo - his pretty eyes closed and lips open expectantly, and you almost feel bad for what you are about to do to him. Keyword being almost. You have gotten a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the ultimate teasing rights over him - with the proof being recorded, and no matter how much you want to kiss him too, you steel your nerves to not laugh, and blow air into his ear instead. 

Your warm exhale into his pink ears has your best friend shivering with a shrill squeal, and the phone drops to the bed, still recording as Gojo loses all his focus.

“What the hell was that?!” He screams, voice still higher pitched.

“I was having a bit of fun,” you say, biting your lip to stop the laughter. “But you looked like you actually wanted to kiss me?”

“So what if I did?” He gets defensive and pouty. “You’re pretty and I like to hang out with you.”

“Is that so?” you tease, feeling warmth creep up your face. “Go on then,” you say, knowing well enough that you will regret this later, but you can’t not do it. “I’ll let you kiss me,”

If Satoru was blushing then, his blood vessels looked ready to combust when you said those words in that challenging tone. He was all but compliant, leaning towards you when you took charge and grabbed the collar of his white shirt, pushing yourself to him, your knees on the outside of his thighs and your lips pressed against his. His large hands fly to your hips, holding on to them as if his life depends on it and parting his lips eagerly to welcome your tongue.

Your heart thunders in your ears, disbelief at the fact that you are kissing your best friend, your very attractive best friend that people would give anything to get a chance with. One of you hands leaves his collar and rests against his warm cheek, caressing it gently as the kiss turns into a full make out session with you sitting on his lap and his hand reaching down to your ass.

When you separate, both of you are panting, heavy lidded eyes looking into one another, and Gojo finally breaks the silence with a breathy admission, “I don’t think I can ever stop wanting to kiss your sweet mouth, princess.”

“Then don’t stop,” you whisper back, resting your forehead on his.

“Be my girlfriend,” he asks.

“Be my boyfriend,” you say.

“Hey girlfriend,” he tests.

“Hey boyfriend,” you tease.

“Let's go on a date, girlfriend.” Gojo suggests. “I’ll let you have something other than sweet, babe.”

You giggle and nod, before taking his phone and sending the tiktok to yourself. Boyfriend or not, you can never pass up the opportunity to get blackmail material against him. He is an annoyance, but he is your annoyance now.

A/N: man i love bottom-coded gojo with my whole heart. also first time writing gojo i hope you like it <3

[gorgeouslylethal]

stairway to heaven 🪽 | lnds men

pairing: zayne x fem!reader, xavier x fem!reader, sylus x fem!reader, rafayel x fem!reader (separate)

cw: talk of spiritual beings and religion.

a/n: the basic premise of this one is that mc is an angel…like a biblical angel. i’ve had this idea for years so this is HIGHLY self indulgent. :3 i’d also love to expand on this if anyone would be interested in that. :)

─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───

just to preface this, this is kinda based on an oc of mine. but i’ve worded it so it’s still reader pov. :)

zayne 𓇢𓆸

legit didn’t believe you at first.

you’re gonna have to show him, full wings and everything for him to believe you.

so when you do show him, he’s astounded. zayne thinks you’re absolutely beautiful, while also being confused. he has so many questions.

one of the only times you’ll see this man speechless.

once you’ve explained how you came to live on earth, and how everything else works, he really doesn’t care about your supernatural-ness.

all he cares about is him getting to be with you, he doesn’t care what you are.

would be so worried about accidentally hurting your wings.

when you give him a feather from your wings that naturally fell off, he almost cries. it means so much to him. he puts it on his desk at work in its own little area.

whenever someone asks what it’s from, he lies and says it’s from a rare bird he saw while he was in another country.

xavier ☆

he LOVES it.

when you show him your angel form, he’s freaking out. (in a good way)

the minute you show your wings, he’s asking if you to take him flying some time. (if you say no, he gets pouty)

believes you’re the most stunning creature in the universe. will NOT stop complimenting you.

is so curious about your abilities as an angel.

then comes the questions about your origins and how you came to earth. when you answer, he’s completely fascinated.

genuinely thinks this is one of the coolest things to ever happen to him. his girlfriend is an ACTUAL ANGEL for christs sake! (see what i did there? ;))

is practically begging to touch your wings. he’s extra careful around the high points/bones of them. his touch is feather-light against them.

any time you’re in your angel form, he just stares at you in awe. he can’t believe that someone as divine as you, chose to be with him.

sylus 𖦹

another speechless one.

is terrified of “ruining” you. (as he puts it)

he thinks that because you’re angel, that he’s somehow going to ruin your angelic “innocence”.

to which you then have to explain to him that that’s literally never going to happen because that’s not how it works.

he felt like he didn’t deserved you before, now he feels like he REALLY doesn’t. this guy needs so much reassurance that he does deserve you.

(sorry if sylus is a little ooc)

after you’ve explained everything to him. he just wants to shower you with love. telling you how beautiful and amazing you are.

leads to a very lovely and very long night. ;)

he’s hyping himself up a little bit too, like ‘there’s an actual angel in my presence, and she wants ME.’

super protective of you after you tell him. he knows you’re fully capable of defending and protecting yourself, but he 1. doesn’t want others to find out and try to blackmail or take advantage of you, and 2. doesn’t want the people of the N109 zone to try and take the one good thing he has in his life.

let’s be honest, sylus has a cocky and confident attitude, which is admirable. but on the inside, he needs SO much reassurance. (which isn’t a bad thing)

rafayel 𓆝

this little shit.

he feels like he finally has someone he can relate to. with him being a sea god and all.

a mermaid and an angel…what a pair.

showing him your angel form was a mistake.

because now he wants to use you as a muse for every single painting.

literally one of the first things he asks is if he can use you for one of his paintings.

people would ask him who the person in the painting was, and with a totally serious face he would say:

“my angel girlfriend. :)”

and no one would actually believe that you were an angel, so it’s like a little inside joke between the two of you.

but seriously, he feels like he can trust you with his secret so much more, because he knows you’re hiding one too.

rafayel would of course ask the typical questions, to which you’d answer honestly.

he’s probably the most chill about it out of all of them. because he’s a “divine” being himself. while he may not have wings, he does have a fish tail and can breathe underwater.

he understands you the most out of the four.

[foreststarflaime]

Can I have 13-15 for AGSZC?

Coming right up! Ty!!

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

Angeal: took care of a fake plastic plant like it was a real one for several days before he noticed. This may or may not have been the result of a prank which he retaliated against in kind with extreme prejudice

Genesis: someone went through all his hardcovers and flipped their covers. He was really out of it one night and picked up one of his hardcover copies of Loveless. It took him much longer than it should have to realize that he was holding it upside down because the cover had been switched around and reading not off the page but from his own memory

Sephiroth: not letting his friends in on what he was dealing with with shinra hthrhrhh probably when Angeal forgot to give him a fork so he assumed the food he had been given (mac n cheese) was just supposed to be eaten with your hands. Genesis has a picture of the result framed in his apartment

Zack: repeatedly runs into poles/doorframes/etc quite often. He gets distracted talking to people or just by his own thoughts and completely forgets to watch where he’s going. Another contender: really liked being turned into a frog by various touch mes back in Gongaga, had to be rescued from this many times by his poor harried parents. Have you ever seen a frog do squats? Sotetsu has. Frequently

Cloud: Sephiroth passed by him in the hallways once. What ensued due to his nerves from that resembled some looney tunes or tom and jerry cartoon in its slapstick physical comedy. He tripped over himself in ways that should not be possible for the human body to achieve. He fell up the stairs

14. Most heroic moment

Angeal: we have not seen it play out in its entirety yet, but—there’s something to the simple gesture of just reaching out to your comrade, a scared, abused kid, and making sure he’s alright. Being there for him even when he pushes you away

Genesis: he was genuinely a hero. He may not have been fighting on the right side, he may have been somewhat selfish in pursuit of glory, but he took care of the people around him. Countless times he pushed himself to the brink of (and even over) mana exhaustion healing his fellow SOLDIERs, and troopers as well, himself. He saved a lot of lives that way, and many loved him for it, and were loyal to him for it—their Shinra-appointed commanders never took such care of them. Unfortunately, their loyalty did not pay off how anyone wished it would.

Sephiroth: I’m sorry I just still cannot get over how devastated he was by that random trooper’s death when they fell off the bridge in Nibelheim. He spent actual hours looking for him. The heights of true heroism right before the fall. I’m going to explode

Zack: dragging Cloud across the entire globe for an entire year straight while he was comatose and Zack himself was definitely not anywhere close to okay. And then making sure Cloud survived even when it seemed beyond hopeless—he could have left him and run and lived but he didn’t

Cloud: I so love that he just saw a sick kid and immediately made sure he’d have food and shelter and kindness and help, even when he himself was hurting too. Denzel <3

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

Angeal: he did fight in the Wutai War, yknow. He probably killed a lot of people that didn’t deserve it, were just defending their homes. It’s that or making Zack kill him, or not reaching out to Seph when he saw he was struggling.

Genesis: killing his parents and whole village is pretty bad. It’s either that or—depending on how you split the blame between him and Hollander’s influence/lies/manipulation, turning his loyal SOLDIERs who stuck by his side into copies, making their lives a living hell. It might have been kinder to kill them.

Sephiroth: I mean. I think this one is fairly obvious 🔥🏠🏔️🗡️

Zack: again, a lot of the effects of just working for Shinra as a SOLDIER. You have to do some pretty bad stuff fighting for them. I could say stealing when he was on the run with Cloud but he had good reason for that and I don’t think it even comes close really

Cloud: leaving his friends when he wants to curl in on himself and shoulder all the burdens of his life on himself, making them worry and pushing them away when they would have been happy—and probably had more peace of mind—to help him

[delicateperspective]

Hey!

You’re so kind with your answers, so I wanted to ask—how do you manage to not let the general public’s or other fans’ perceptions of H and L get to you?

Like, for example, I’ve always had Twitter because I think there’s some interesting stuff there… and also because of FOMO haha. But now that I’m back in the fandom, my algorithm is constantly showing me not just larrie tweets, but also posts from the general public—the ones who fully buy into H and L’s public images and narratives, and for them that’s just the truth.

And since we know both of their narratives are honestly awful, it makes sense that public opinion can be awful too. Sometimes they twist things or straight-up make stuff up, and if you go digging deeper into what they’re saying, you find really painful takes about two artists you genuinely support and care about.

It even makes me question myself sometimes and I feel guilty—like, if so many people believe that, then am I the one who’s wrong?

How do you not let that get to you?

i think anyone who says that none of the public perception ever gets to them is either lying (to us or themselves), or so deep in their own echo chamber that they’ve stopped letting in anything that challenges their view. and honestly, neither of those is very healthy. it’s important to be grounded. to stay open to new info. to occasionally be wrong. because if we don’t, we just become this fandom ouroboros — feeding ourselves our own narratives until we lose touch with the bigger picture.

part of the reason this corner of the fandom even exists (in its current state) is because of that disconnect — between the public-facing image and the actual actions, words, and patterns we’ve seen from H and L for over a decade. we all know the womanizer image pushed on H at 16 was a marketing tool. we all know how much effort went into reshaping L into someone unrecognizable — someone cold, superficial, and homophobic — to distance him from mastermind queercoding and soften his image for a straight narrative. those things didn’t just “happen”; they were done to them when they were too young to fight against it. and while things really have gotten better the deniability is still baked in. it has to be.

seeing the general public just... take the surface-level stuff at face value hurts sometimes. but i also try to give those people a little grace. most don’t have the time or tools or even interest to look deeper. they see what they’re shown. they form parasocial bonds with what’s marketed to them. and that’s not really their fault.

some have fallen for the fictional overlays and they cling to those because they feel real. and not just emotionally. like, literally neurologically. your brain can’t tell the difference between the endorphin rush of a real interaction and an online one. so when someone gets that little flutter in their chest over a version of these men that they’ve been sold, it feels like love. and you don’t want to let go of that. even when the facts don’t add up. even when the real person is clearly someone else.

so they twist things. they bend things. they watch DWD and completely ignore My Policeman. they hear the "she" in She Is Beauty We Are World Class but don't listen to the rest of the lyrics. they defend narratives that don’t make sense, because the alternative would be losing the version they’re attached to.

and then, on top of that, there’s all the messiness that comes with closeting. inconsistent stories. contradictions. weird branding. silence where there should be advocacy. so then people yell “queerbaiting” or “hypocrisy” or “fence-sitting” — because they don’t know what else to make of it. they only have access to the headlines and the pap shots and the press-trained interviews. they don’t see the fuller picture. they’re not meant to. WE aren't meant to exist. we are only here because what is done in the dark always leaks out into the light. we are here because the truth cannot stay fully hidden (especially when the two active participants don't want it to).

so yeah, it does get to me sometimes. and i think that’s okay. it means we’re still thinking critically. it means we still care. but i try to remind myself that there’s a difference between the truth and the narrative. and that the loudest voices aren’t always the most informed. and that just because something is widely believed doesn’t mean it’s right.

you’re not wrong for questioning things. in fact, the questioning is what keeps us sane here. just don’t forget to give yourself grace too. this is a weird little corner of the internet, and you’re allowed to feel a little lost in it sometimes.

[jules-ln]

In Arcane fandom, you can’t call Mel Medarda “manipulative” EVER because you’re “villainizing” her (even though manipulation, despite the negative connotations associated with the word, on its own is not an inherently evil thing and can actually be a crucial survival tactic — for example, look at real life cases of kidnapping victims befriending their kidnappers to gain their trust that later escaped because of it. That’s technically manipulation, but you don’t see anyone calling those people “evil”...and no, piss on the poor website, i’m not villainizing those kids by pointing this out jfc get a grip. Given Mel’s background, it wouldn’t surprise me if she picked up this tactic at a young age to try and appease her mother, which is common in abusive households just as well — and yes, abusive parents can still love and care deeply for their children) and her later having this wild thing happen called character development that wouldn’t work if she was perfect and earnest from the beginning like people insist. I do think Mel gets a lot of unwanted shit from this fandom too, and I don’t agree with interpretations painting her as this wanting jezebel who only exists to get in the way of the gays, but apparently That and “Mel did some sketchy stuff too and was still manipulative towards Jayce and wasn’t a 100% perfect, innocent angel” are two ideas that can’t mutually co-exist.

Analyze and critique all the other characters, their behaviors and how it ties into their backgrounds, but touching Mel condemns you to hell, apparently. “‘we need more complex female characters!’ you can’t even handle [x]” people when you point out said complex female character’s complexities that aren’t wholly positive or shower her with praise as a girlboss supreme:

That's what I've been saying!

Manipulating isn't necessarily bad per se, it can even be done for good, like I put the example of Silco manipulating Jayce for the independence of Zaun, was Silco a good person? No, but he was using manipulation towards a good goal (though, in the end it didn't work)

And I do agree with saying that Mel using manipulation could be a trauma response because of her childhood, like look, Mel can be such an interesting character but her fans keep insisting to flatten her

Like I do genuinely wonder if some of these people actually like her character or just like her because she's pretty. Because at some point the fact that when people are asked about why Mel is so good and they only answer with that she's beautiful starts to feel objectifying tbh

Would those fans still like her if she was "ugly"? Would they like her if she was fat or disabled? Because where is this energy to defend Sevika, another brown woman who gets a lot of shit from the fandom but doesn't fit the conventional beauty standards like Mel does (love Sevika BTW, she doesn't deserves half the shit the fandom gives her)

Also, unpopular opinion, I don't think the Jayvik fandom at large demonizes Mel or portrays her as "getting in the way" of Jayvik. Like I've read a lot of fics and 99% of them Mel either isn't there or she's portrayed in a positive light. The problem; once again, it's that a lot of people on this fandom are very young, and they don't remember how it used to be, but I've been in fandom spaces since 2009 or so, not so much compared to other people. But! When I see Mel fans saying "it's fujoshis demonizing female characters again" I can tell they are just regurgitating talking points they've heard elsewhere, because do not cite the deep magic to me witch. I was there when it was written

Lemme tell you about an old fic I remember reading years ago about another yaoi ship, in that fic a female character forces herself on one of the gays to get pregnant, then she has a child to try to get one of the gays to marry her, but when that doesn't work, she kills the baby lmao. That was what people meant when they say that fujos used to demonize women! Having Jayce and Mel break up in friendly terms isn't "Mel getting in the way" it's simply not centering her character. And I don't understand why people have a problem with that, If I were to go to a MJ fic and ask for Viktor to be centered, people would call me an asshole, and rightly so

But anyway, at this point I'm just rambling lmao

I will die mad about the fact that Mel has been reduced by her fans to this pretty doll for people to project on instead of being a complex woman who isn't 100% good or 100% bad

[bitemevanitas]

a segment of yapping about what your fav ship with vanitas is (canon ch x canon ch) and why you love it and maybe a handful of hcs for them?

..Yeah so, I believe it's been pretty obvious from the start 🫵

Ya'll, I know this ship isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it definitely is my OTP ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Since I don't really ship poly-ships either, it's the only ship I'm truly interested in 😔

I know among the main ships many people ship Vanoé, which I don't, since it makes me somewhat uncomfortable 🫠

And while I like DomiJeanne, I'm more neutral about it 🫡

VaniJeanne (or Jeannitas for some) and their beginning was definitely rushed and had its issues, I’ve really come to love their dynamic and interactions. 🩵🩷

Jeanne has spent most of her life being controlled, and Vanitas—despite his self-destructive tendencies—helps her realize she does have agency.

They’ve both grown a lot, and I think their relationship has the potential to be something truly special.

So, without further ado, here are my headcanons ❀

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• Vanitas and Jeanne have a very clumsy love

• Neither of them have had a normal romantic relationship before

• There’s a lot of trial and error

• Jeanne finds it difficult to express her feelings, but she’s very physically affectionate

• She’s the type to grab his sleeve, lean against him absentmindedly, or fiddle with the hem of his coat when she’s nervous

• Vanitas absolutely lives for making her flustered

• He’ll throw out dramatic confessions just to see her blush

• When Jeanne starts returning the energy, he short-circuits

• They argue a lot—but it’s usually over stupid things

• Something like whether croissants or pain au chocolat are the superior breakfast pastry

• Vanitas has no self-preservation instincts, and Jeanne has too much

• Their dynamic is often her dragging him away from fights and him trying to convince her to take more risks

• Jeanne’s touch is always rather cold because of her vampire nature, so Vanitas starts carrying gloves just so she can warm her hands up when they’re out in the cold

• Vanitas is terrible at accepting genuine affection

• He jokes around, flirts, and teases, but if Jeanne ever gives him a soft, sincere compliment, he immediately deflects (or changes the subject)

• Jeanne, on the other hand, is very straightforward

• One day, something inside her just clicks

• It isn’t dramatic—it’s just a quiet acceptance

• “Ah. I love him.”

• When she finally tells him, it’s blunt, almost too casual

• Vanitas, for once, is speechless

• “What? Say that again.”

• “No.”

• “Please?”

• “… No.”

• At some point though, she doesn’t understand why Vanitas still refuses to believe she cares for him, and it frustrates her to no end

• They both love small, quiet moments together—walking side by side, drinking tea at an outdoor café, or just sitting in silence while watching the city from a rooftop

• Vanitas has a habit of pressing quick kisses to Jeanne’s forehead or cheek before running off to another mission

• The first time he does it, she’s stunned into silence for a full minute

• When Jeanne gets jealous, she pouts

• She crosses her arms, looks away, and refuses to acknowledge Vanitas until he apologizes (which he always does, even if he was just teasing)

• Vanitas is an absolute menace when he gets jealous

• He won’t admit it outright, but he’ll interrupt conversations, sling an arm around Jeanne’s shoulders, and be extra clingy until the perceived "threat" leaves

• Jeanne is protective of Vanitas in a practical way—stepping in front of him in battle, keeping an eye on his injuries, and making sure he eats and sleeps properly

• Vanitas is protective of Jeanne in an insufferable way—constantly reminding people that she’s his chevalier

• Throwing himself into fights to "defend" her, and dramatically declaring that he’d die for her at every opportunity (i am well aware of the irony, okay, don't remind me)

• Jeanne hates when Vanitas is reckless with his life

• She’s seen too much loss and refuses to watch him throw himself away like that

• The first time Jeanne cries in front of him, Vanitas is horrified

• He has no idea what to do and just awkwardly pats her head until she shoves her face into his chest

• Vanitas, for all his (fake) confidence, gets very quiet when he’s feeling vulnerable

• Jeanne learns to recognize when he needs comfort, even if he won’t say it outright

• She often has nightmares about losing control and hurting Vanitas

• The first few times, he simply recites his first promise, about killing her if it ever comes to that day

• After a while, he starts reassuring her that he trusts her completely

• She still worries

• Vanitas is a good cook, but Jeanne is banned from the kitchen after nearly setting it on fire trying to make toast

• Vanitas can and will sleep anywhere—on couches, at his desk, even leaning against Jeanne’s shoulder

• Jeanne finds it endearing but also frustrating when she has to wake him up

• They have a habit of stealing each other’s clothes

• Jeanne will throw on his coat when she’s cold, and Vanitas has been caught wearing her cape more than once

• Jeanne loves when Vanitas plays with her hair, even if she pretends to be annoyed at first

• He absentmindedly braids the longer strands while they’re sitting together

• Vanitas has the worst bedhead in the morning

• Jeanne finds it adorable, but he insists it’s part of his 'charm'

• They once got stuck in the rain, and Jeanne ended up carrying Vanitas bridal style back to shelter because he refused to ruin his boots in the mud

• Vanitas doesn’t believe he deserves love, and Jeanne is determined to prove him wrong

• She worries that Vanitas will disappear one day without a word

• Vanitas worries that Jeanne will eventually see him as a monster and leave

• They don’t talk about their deepest fears often, but when they do, it’s always in the quiet of the night when they think the other is asleep

• If Vanitas ever gets seriously hurt, Jeanne refuses to leave his side

• She doesn’t sleep, eat, or let anyone near him until she knows he’s okay

• Vanitas hates seeing Jeanne cry, but when she does, he wipes her tears away with a rare softness

• Bonus funny headcanons because I'm nice

• Vanitas once jokingly proposed to Jeanne in the middle of a battle just to throw her off

• She punched him so hard he went flying into a wall

• Jeanne tried to flirt back once, and Vanitas actually choked on his drink

• Noé had to slap him on the back to stop him from dying

• Dante and Johann have a bet going on about when they’ll finally get together officially

• Dante is convinced Jeanne will confess first, but Johann thinks Vanitas will break first

• Dominique once walked in on them holding hands and immediately turned around with a horrified "I saw nothing" expression

• Vanitas once called Jeanne "ma chère fiancée" in front of Lord Ruthven and nearly got drop-kicked

.

.

.

[arminthada]

Hi! I saw that you've read Euthanasia, and I had a question after watching episode 7 of Spare Me Your Mercy. I'm curious about the framing of Boss' death and what space the novel gives to tease out the complexities of euthanasia and disability? As a disabled watcher, I come to discussions of euthanasia outside terminal illness quite wary. Though I'm certainly coming from a Western context where euthanasia and disability is a very sensitive topic and the conversation might look pretty different in Thailand. The framing in the show felt at the very least rushed in terms of building any nuance into the conversation so far, so I'm curious if and how the novel explores the complexities of this.

Hi Shane 💖

To be honest I think that the series is doing far better in terms of show the complexities than the books in terms of euthanasia (i know, unbelievable but bare with me for a second here friend).

So.... the biggest difference the series has made so far is changing the roles between Somsak and Boss. In the book, Somsak was the main culprit and Boss was his accomplice in the way that Boss/Boze also idolises Kan and his ideals -> Somsak convinced Boss to join him in his quest to euthanise patients.

And if you ask what Doctor Somsak's motivation is? There isn't more to it as much as he believes in the same thing as Kan and Kan coming to the hospital is now a future scapegoat for him.

In the novel, Kan also deliberately euthanised/murdered Dr. Somsak when he was in the hospital after they were both injured in their gun fight (similar to what happened to Boss) (pinging @waitmyturtles who may be interested to know that novel!Kan wasn't just a morally grey ass, he really did fuck up there and genuinely did not deserve to end up with Wasan where they left them in the first novel).

But there wasn't a dramatic conversation between them like how Boss asked Kan to do kill him. No, like novel!Kan straight up murdered Somsak to keep him from telling everyone his secret (granted it was his only murder and he did go to prison for it but yeah still novel!Kan was... something else).

So in this sense I think the series has already done much better with the topic of euthanasia, opening up more sides to the debates whereas the novel only touches upon euthanasia in a very surface level way to move forward with its the murder mystery plot.

It's doing it very clumsily for sure but for instance I like that Boss's background story represented how his mother got caregiver burnout and in a country where public healthcare is not as developed and there aren't much welfare or support schemes for people living in rural areas, it's not uncommon to see this seemingly selfish thinking from people around terminally ill/permanently disabled people. It's selfish and inherently discriminatory but it's a raw representation of the painfully ugly mindset people may harbour but will never say it out loud in public.

I'm in no way defending this series by the way, I'm simply saying that if you're looking for more nuances and complexities on the topic of euthanasia in the novels, they're definitely not going to offer that. I would say that the novels offer more complexities in the development of the relationship between Kan and Wasan because it's constructed in a way that's much more believable for reader audience.

The series... I think EP.7 tried a little too much with incorporating assisted suicide into euthanasia which is only going to make it much more controversial.

I hope these little novel spoilers help and answer some of your questions. I really can't offer anything from the novels in terms of disability because it wasn't even mentioned once ಥ_ಥ

[apocryphics]

INTERVIEWER

Clearly there's a deep connection between your understanding of the Holocaust and your theory of interpretation. Could you talk a bit about that?

STEINER

The key issue here is the sense of what cannot be analyzed or explained. A major act of interpretation gets nearer and nearer to the heart of the work, and it never comes too near. The exciting distance of a great interpretation is the failure, the distance, where it is helpless. But its helplessness is dynamic, is itself suggestive, eloquent and articulate. The best acts of reading are acts of incompletion, acts of fragmentary insight, of that which refuses paraphrase, metaphrase; which finally say, “The most interesting in all this I haven't been able to touch on.” But which makes that inability not a humiliating defeat or a piece of mysticism but a kind of joyous invitation to reread.

Now, I'm still staying in the aesthetic, but I'll come on to your question about the connection with the Holocaust, and I hope it will be clearer then. There was once a little boy, Paul Klee, and he used to be marched out of Bern, where he was brought up, on school picnics, the most boring of possible Swiss occasions. One day his class was brought in front of a Roman aqueduct, and the teacher was explaining how much water it carried, how it was built. Klee was eleven years old, and he always had his sketch pad with him. He sketched the aqueduct and put shoes on the pillars. All aqueducts have walked since that day; you can't see an aqueduct that isn't walking. Picasso is going down a street. He sees a child's tricycle. A billion people have seen children's tricycles on the streets. Picasso flips it with his hand, making the saddle the face of the bull and the handlebars the two horns. No one else had ever done that, and since then all tricycles charge at you with their horns. No one has ever explained this, nor has anyone explained what Lévi-Strauss calls the supreme mystery of all human knowledge: “the invention of melody.” This is one of the sentences most important to me. I delight in the sense of the inadequacy of one's passionate attempts to get nearer. This is the wonder of it. Mountaineers tell you of the postcoital sadness when they're at the top of a previously unclimbed peak, but we never get to the top of the ontology of the aesthetic or the question of the meaning of meaning or the question of the origin of language.

Ours is one of the blackest centuries in terms of death, in terms of torture, massacre. I read with genuine respect the economists who tell us that communism or fascism can be analyzed by a good theory of economics or industrialism; or the sociologists who speak of class conflicts, the sociological structure of the city at that time, and so on. The historians all have ideas too. Like all of us I try to keep up with the people who say, “I can explain it to you.” It doesn't work for me. There may be exciting partial insights, for example, in the notion that there are in the death camps aspects of a factory. Fine, that's a brilliant insight. I want to think about it. Maybe it's very illuminating. Or when I'm told that Nazism as distinct from Stalinism is based on lower-middle-class instabilities and resentments, I'm very interested. But these explanations, important as they may be, do not help me grapple with the facts.

The facts are that when Hitler's high command said to him, “Führer, we desperately need the trains for fuel, for armaments; just give us four weeks of not shipping people to the death camps,” he replied that far more important than winning the war was the destruction of all Jews. The notion that he is mad doesn't work for me at all. He was very unmad. Nor does it help me when I know that Stalin destroys a large part of his educated population systematically while planning the greatness of the Soviet Union.

So I work with explanations of a completely different kind. In the Enlightenment, in the early 1760s, Voltaire, after defending a number of people successfully, issues the statement, “One thing is certain: there will not be the use of torture again in civilized Europe.” A few years later, Thomas Jefferson, one of the shrewdest, toughest minds ever, says that he can promise — he actually uses the word promise — that there will never be any return to the burning of books. I have an anthology of statements like that. Not by naive fools, but by some of the toughest, most ironic minds. There is a Catholic proto-fascist thinker called de Maistre, who sits at the edge laughing his head off and writes a sheer masterpiece called The Evenings of St. Petersburg. He says that as it happens, the twentieth century will be drowned in blood in Europe; that there will be camps for the systematic slaughter of human beings. He works with a quite different theory, that of original sin.

de Maistre says, in effect, “Please explain to me the nature of history.” If we are rational Homo sapiens on the road upward, what are we doing to each other? Why are our wars getting more murderous? Why are famines getting bigger? If, on the other hand, there were some mode of an original dis-grace — very powerful word when you put in the hyphen; disgrace has become such a small word: dis-grace, fall from grace, interruption of some kind of relationship to God — then history is a punishment, and we have stumbled into history essentially to suffer and we will continue so till the end, until we either massacre ourselves with a thermonuclear bomb, or our cities implode, as they now may, or there is famine, or finally there is an AIDS which cannot be checked. The whole doctrine of original sin. How do you operate with such a doctrine? I don't know. I call it a working metaphor.

[inafieldofstarflowers]

hello madi!! how are you?

i was wondering about your thoughts on the various jean ships? :)

-@you-know-i-get-itt

hi gia !!

i’m slightly stressed by life but have fun weekend plans, so it evens out :)

after some thought about this question i think the only jean ships i can speak on are with kevin, renee, neil, and jeremy because i don’t have enough thoughts about others to speak on them (also this got longer than I thought so ~my bad~)

Renee: I do like them together however I also think Renee was right when she said they were the right people, wrong time. Renee meets Jean and makes a point of keeping in touch with him, and then goes to great lengths to help get him out of the Nest, and I think that her offering him love without expecting something in return is super important for him as he starts to heal, because the whole time he's known her, she's been showing him that, in her eyes, he's worth a lot outside of anything he can do, which directly contrasts his life with the Ravens. Whether in a romantic way or not, I think understanding the value Jean places on his relationship with Renee is necessary for a complete picture of him as a character/his growth.

Jeremy: (I may be biased because I just love Jeremy BUT) I love what we've seen of their relationship so far--Jeremy does initially get USC to bring Jean in for Kevin, but like Renee, Jeremy makes efforts from the actual start of his relationship with Jean to help him because he wants the best for Jean, and while it definitely hasn't been perfect (because they're college students and Jean is healing from the trauma of literally being tortured and Jeremy doesn't know that), there's been consistent work to establish boundaries and build up a support network, and the fact that Jean is willing to tell Jeremy when he's crossed a line is a big deal. I'm interested to see how things develop as we learn more about Jeremy because right now I could see it going lots of different ways, but as things stand I support it as a long term thing (in which Jean takes time to heal before entering a relationship)

Kevin: Kevin and Jean give toxic situationship in a way that I genuinely don't think either of them could have avoided, because the root cause of it is that their bonding happened while they were being deeply traumatized--basically, I think that the two of them being in a relationship would be deeply unhealthy, but that it would be unhealthy in an incredibly compelling "I need you even though you're bad for me and this is actively working against my personal growth sort of way, which offers a lot of room for character exploration. I think that the balance they have of trusting and defending each other while maintaining bitterness/guilt over what they went through (and specifically everything with Kevin leaving) is fascinating, and I think it's worth noting that a lot of Kevin's moments of softness/lowering his guard (calling Jean after learning about Evermore's move, telling Neil he can trust Jean, reaching out to Jeremy, the magnets and postcards, etc.) involve Jean.

Neil: to me jeanneil is neither inherently romantic nor platonic but a secret third option. Jean and Neil really haven't known each other long or spent much time together, but their connection is strong and the two of them give each other trust a lot more quickly than they would usually allow (which, yes, is partly due to winter break, but the fact that it endures means a lot). I do believe that Neil cares about all of the Foxes by the end of the series, but the way he interacts with Jean is distinct from how he interacts with anyone else, and the lengths that he's willing to go to for Jean specifically put him in a category with Andrew (and, to some extent, Kevin, but Neil and Kevin's relationship is a whole post of its own and this is already toooo long). Their relationship is also interesting because so much of it is held in "what could have been" and the idea of them being misplaced forever partners (I think Jean specifically wonders what it would have been like to have Neil, who is an instigator at heart, in the Nest, not only because he would have had a partner but also because Jean's acceptance of his fate/role is an active choice that he made because it was the way he could survive, and I wonder if he would have chosen the same if Neil had been there with him), but they are also making the choice to not leave it at "could have beens" and to instead have a relationship

[annawayne]

Anna I'm just curious how old are you?

Sorry if I'm being intrusive I just overthink too much if I'm too old to be in fandom You can not answer if it's uncomfortable, so please don't feel pressured to answer

Much love!

Hi anon!

I'm 27, and it's all fine, don't worry!

And you know, I would say that fandom is the place that doesn't have any restrictions: we gather together not by the age, but for our love for the same things. And this, this love doesn't know no age, it always go beyond. So, anon, no matter how old you are - 20, 38, 45, or 60 - you're welcome in any fandom because you share the same love like other people do :3

I know that a lot of people think that being in fandom is not "serious", when being an adult, but the truth is that the only "not serious" behaviour is to judge other people by their interest (as long as this "interest" is not harmful or insulting others, of course).

I actually had a situation when some very toxic man (lol, of course) said to me regarding my love for AruAni, "You're obsessed and it's not very good for you. You're already a grown-up woman, you better act like one". Well, there's always an ultimate answer to it, the one I said to him, "You're right, I'm a grown up and, unlike you, I act like one, so I don't listen to rude shitbags like you who tell me what to do with my life" ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

And this is really it, you don't have to listen to anyone what you should love or not. Your interest is yours.

I understand that, of course, it's also difficult because of the social pressure, but if we will listen to anyone's what to do with our lives, what will be left for us? Life is a very fragile thing. And this fragility is for us to keep, not for other people with malice on their fingers trying to touch it.

I'm just like anyone else - I have a full-time job, mundane chores, health problems, taxes, medical check ups, sleep deprivation, maintaining my finances (I also have another quite specific condition - living in a war, but it's another thing), but I also have my love for theater and classics and rock concerts, my obsession with literature and ethno/vintage, my love for cinema, for art, for studying, for silly socks with hilarious print under the black palazzo pants and massive boots, my love for AruAni, who I adore with all my heart, for creating - writing and drawing, for wheezing when I see kitties or doggies, for cuddling with my plushie shiba-inu (his name is Mochi, I love him).

I can go to the opera, and then come back, write some AruAni angsty scenes and scream here with everyone on Tumblr on some headcanons - if Armin loves sharks, how Annie tries not to lose herself during the Ambassadors meeting when Armin looks like that etc etc - before starting working usually 8 hours. And it doesn't make me less or "weirder", or special or anything else. It just makes me - me, and there's nothing bad about it. In fact, it only brings me joy.

So, anon, no matter how old you are, what matters is your genuine passion and love, and if anyone tells you how to live your life - the only thing I can tell, is that such people are just jealous deep inside that you can openly love something and enjoy something, when they are not capable of it, being embarrassed or losing all the interests in general, caging themselves into "adult" frames, too pressured by social standards or simply not even having time for it - the whole list of reasons is enormous, and it's very sad, in fact.

We all sometimes lose our interests and hobbies in this adult life hurricane, but if you have it - defend it like the tree defends its roots in the storm: like its life depends on it, because being able to have the interest and being passionate about something, this is what is worth fighting for. It's a blessing and we should cherish it. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

(sorry for the sudden long read, I'm sorry if I bored you. It just seemed to me that this topic bothered you and I wanted to support you)

[applepie2523]

"I feel like some of this criticism towards the show being pro-Black is unfounded, but there is truth to the sentiments, specifically in how key moments in the narrative have been framed and brushed over, while similar things have been focused on in a different manner

For example, the dichotomy between focusing on the girl Aegon rapes vs completely disregarding the person that Daemon killed to let Laenor escape his life

We get a lot of focus on Dyana and get showcased Alicient's veneer of hypocrisy- she who veils herself in religion but covers up her son's heinous crimes. Then we get a scene of her disparging her son for his vile behavior and hugging Helaena for the shame Aegon brings to others and his own marriage.

On the other hand, when Rhaenyra and Daemon plan for the fake-death of Laenor, the guy Daemon kills is a completely throwaway moment, and the focus of the scene is how there plan allows for Laenor to leave Westeros behind and live a happy life

Simply put, these two scenes where two random, "unimportant" people are victimized are presented in completely different manners which provoke completely different reactions from the audience. With the Laenor scene, the audience walks away happy because Rhaenyra and Daemon don't kill Laenor like it seemed they would from their speech and the focus is triumphant and just. The dead guy doesn't matter in the slightest. With Dyana, it completely shatters any sort of character arc or sympathy that Aegon may have had and firmly places him- who is the figurehead of the Greens- to be a character that is reviled by the audience and whose downfall is something to look forward to. Who the hell can even possibly support a rapist? Murder is something audience members can forgive, justify and accept- rape never ever

There are other moments throughout the show that are along the same lines. For example, giving Rhaenyra the opportunity to propose a marriage between Jace and Helaena as a peace offering that is rejected places her in a more sympathetic light as someone who was genuinely trying to reach out and make amends. I understand that this is an adaption and things are justifiably changed, but in the books, Corlys immediately has Jace and Luke bethroed to Baela and Rhaena so his true blood ends up on the throne and the insult of trying to pass off Strong bastards as true-born Velaryons is lessened. By making Corlys literally not care about blood and names, it gives the show an opportunity to make Rhaenyra look better

They also remove some of the brutality and ruthlessness of Rhaenyra. Instead of ordering the death of Vaemond and feeding his corpse to Syrax for insulting the parentage of her children, Vaemond is killed in court. And although violent and sudden, it is framed in a "good" way to the audience, since it directly follows the amazing Viserys sequence of coming to the throne and defending his daughter, along with the incredibly touching Daemon-Viserys moment of helping him to the throne

Likewise, the "questioned sharply" line following Aemond's mutilation is not framed in a way to express to the audience that Rhaenyra meant for Aemond to be tortured. She says he must be questioned sharply and then that transitions to Viserys simply questioning Aemond

This is kind of what, for me, makes the show pro-Black. If I had to characterize the show, I would say it's pro-Black and goes out of its way to make Alicient sympathetic. But overall it doesn't care too much for the Greens

I also feel like they slightly undermined the story that they themselves were trying to tell and set-up prior to the episode 6 timeskip and change-up of the actors. The show was clearly setting up that the primary motivation of the Greens was Alicient fearing for the safety of her children and family from Rhaenyra (with the rift starting by Rhaenyra's lies at the Godswood and Otto's departure in the rain) and the danger that Daemon posed

This would have required the Blacks and Daemon to be more unsavory and vicious in the post-timeskip episodes than they ended up being at all, because the show went out of its way to avoid that kind of stuff. For example- and this is a huge point that I think has been overlooked- the whole point of Rhaenyra and Daemon faking the death of Laenor was to signal to their enemies- ie Alicient and the Greens- that they were dangerous and should not be messed with.

The death of Laenor should have struck some fear in Alicient over what the two newly weds could have done to her own children. But narratively, literally the only consequence of Laenor's death was to introduce some temporary tension between the Blacks and Rhaenys that is ultimately resolved in the very same episode. The potential impact it should have had on Alicient is just not present

Another consequence that was completely ignored was the impact Rhaenyra and Daemon's marriage should have had on Viserys. It was already set up that he greatly disapproved of whatever was going on between the two of them in the earlier episodes, but there was no payoff to that once they got married. In the books, this is what causes Viserys to kick Rhaenyra out of court, but the show instead wanted to focus on the positive relationship between Rhaenyra and Viserys and Daemon and Viserys in his last episode

Now I'm not saying that that decision was a bad one- it was really touching and incredibly emotional- but paired up with everything else, I think the post-timeskip show has definitely tilted the narrative to be pro-Black and undermine what earlier parts of the story was trying to set up. It's doing this while also trying to maintain some sympathy for Alicient

The one very stand out thing that they have done is Aemond's character though. Obviously he will be a villain, but they've done an incredibly good job at making him sympathetic and understandable (I will fiercely maintain that he has done absolutely nothing wrong so far in the show). I wish that were extended to the rest of the Greens as they could make them the obvious villains they should be in the narrative, while still making them sympathetic and understandable." -- by a random person on the r/asoiaf subreddit

[ardentpoppy]

X-Files S1E3

- pennywise?

- he has a snow globe of the globe?

- ew ew ew ew (I have a thing about hands creepily emerging from around an edge/corner)

- GILLIAN ANDERSON

- this guy screams douchebag

- defending Mulder right away, I see you Scully

- well she just lost her appetite

- well jokes on you douchebag. She wants to be Mrs. Spooky

- they're flirting your honour

- that flicker of a smile from Scully when Mulder's messing with douchebag

- go Scully, that's a bangin profile (see: my expertise from 15 years pf watching Criminal Minds)

- douchebag 2.0 sees her actually doing a good job and immediately has to put her down, screw you

- non-zero chance that the thing going bump in the night is actually Mulder

- it's in the industrial vents?? Creepy

- too early in the episode. There'll be shenanigans

- Mulder making it a point to tell Scully she was right and he was wrong

- polygraphs are a scam

- damn she pretty

- I love that Mulder says ' Scully's right' he can't stand this douchebag

- Scully reaffirming her position and standing up for Mulder, in front of Mulder I love to see it

- MULDER SMILED

- him opening up, him playing with the necklace, her looking at down at him playing with the necklace, her looking up nd giving him that look

- (screams)

- that's the crux of it all isn't it? She respects him and listens

- this is sorta reminding me of the Supernatural Bloody Mary episode. Genuinely scary and tense

- that shot of him emerging from the darkness was creepy

- Mulder being a cocky little shit, Scully using the rules to back him up. Worst Fucking Nightmare

- "the victim's" Dana Scully you have my heart

- damn she pretty

- he's been using the same name for 100 years? Idiot

- "and you're gonna be head of the Bureau by then" he loves her so much. Also you'll be preoccupied with a lot of other shit in 2023 guys

- rip to all those that experience motion sickness on the regular. I experienced it once on a plane ride, 0/10 do not recommend

- that is not how you look at a coworker guys

- 25? I thought it was every 30 years?

- "you'd go crazy right?" Mulder nodding, my poor wet cat loser

- hell of a monologue from that actor. Well done sir

- hey it's the the scene from the title sequence

- he collects trophies? This thing is a Serial Killer

- WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING THAT WITH YOUR BARE HANDS

- ok ngl that got an audible laugh outta me. I think that's the first time I've seen Mulder rattled

- see if it killed people as a way to feed itself, and that being the only how it can get sustenance, I'd have some sympathy. But it collects trophies, it goes out of its way to almost terrorise the victim before killing them. Nah this is a Serial Killer

- NOOOO STAY AWAY FROM SCULLY

- it doesn't take much to be decent. Genuinely it is so fucking easy not to be an asshole

- someone please punch this douchebag. I really really hope this spectacularly backfires on him and tanks his career

- Mulder run, Scully needs help

- ew ew ew

- FUCK SAKW THAT GOT ME

- teamwork makes the dream work

- a federal agent was attacked in her own home bc douchebag removed the surveillance team that was supposed to be watching the main suspect. Tank. His. Career

- happy the old man got closure. Brilliant acting, no happiness, just a weight-pff-shoulders resigned sort of relief, and then tears

- wait if the theory of mutant human is accurate, then this is the first episode not about an alien

- he's going to escape isn't he? Fuck