#and people still defend them which is actually scary

[torgawl]

i hate that i had to compile articles and data for my mother to read to prove my point on why the romani people are used as a scapegoat and they're not actually our enemies :/

[merf-txt]

.

[inkskinned]

it's because the bear wouldn't kill me just for being a woman. the bear doesn't kill me for fun. the bear can be shouted at, and will leave me alone. the bear won't make a tiktok complaining about how i crossed to the other side of the path when i saw him coming. if a bear kills me, it's just being a bear: it cannot understand logic. it is not acting out of malice - just fear or hunger.

bell hooks once wrote about how porches might be the only outside space left for women - it is still the domain of the house while it is also outside-but-safe. when i am in the woods, i am in the bear's home, and he has a right to defend his property. outside spaces - anywhere at night, certain parks in the day - those are often implicitly "owned" by men. i cannot explain the feeling of knowing when you have entered a man's "territory." you walk into a place and just know you are in their space. you get a sick sense - you're in danger.

the other day a group of about 8 men were fooling around in the woods while i walked my dog. i had to go around, take the extra 3 miles just to avoid them. it's okay, i like walking. this wasn't even a #feminism moment. it was just a tuesday.

what a plain and easy question. only one of the situations is seen as a tragic accident. i would rather die and have a park bench erected in my honor rather than have my family questioned about why they let me, an adult, walk in the woods in the first place when i should really be at home in the kitchen.

i worked in retail and food service. i have had women say and do absolutely heinous and abusive things to me - not because i was a woman, but because i was there, and they were angry. the way men treated me when angry was different - it was because i was a woman. you can always feel the difference, how there's an undertone of i'd hurt you worse if i could get away with it. i keep seeing people try to cite stupid statistics. why is there always a strange rage whenever women agree on things? like men can argue their way out of our lived experiences? it isn't a buzzfeed quiz - which of these traumas are you? 10 super cute ways not to fear strange men.

i have actually (thrice!) seen a bear in the wild, by the way. i died each time, obviously, and am a ghost writing to you. (it was scary but completely and utterly fine). the second encounter was a black bear with her cub. she looked at me like - do we have to do this or are we good? my dog was busy sniffing a bush, completely nonreactive. i felt like i was in a sitcom: feminist poet reacts - does she actually mean she'd choose the bear? my only thought was - she's so beautiful. her paws are massive.

and there's a part of me that feels the rage spinning out in a corner. why do we have to come up with quippy little comments in order to teach men empathy. would you rather die in a car accident or due to a mugging? and would you rather your house burn down due to an electrical fire or due to arson? gee willikers - it's almost like we're human people, and want to risk the accident versus the intention.

i would rather my last thought be oh shit, a bear rather than i'm a person too. why doesn't that matter? why don't you care?

[sugarlywhispers]

Bakugou Katsuki is known for being a man with character, with a strong personality. A man that looks menacingly and fucking scary. Everybody knows that he isn't a man that you would want to have problems with –villains literally shit their pants every time the name Dynamight is pronounced. He is fucking terrifying when he gets mad and angry. Even his own hero colleagues and friends know that.

Some people thought that Katsuki needed a woman who was different from him. Like someone more easy going and friendly. Someone who denoted more brightness than him.

And you are exactly that. You two look so different sometimes that people don't understand how you two work things out. But what people don't know –but Katsuki does, perfectly well– is that inside you hides a person even more scary than Bakugou Katsuki could ever be.

And so there all his hero friends are, standing freeze and looking gobsmacked at how you angrily yell to a man at the restaurant all of you were about to leave. Katsuki doesn't know exactly why you are screaming so pissed off at that man, but he thinks that if you are that upset, it surely means that it is something bad. Which also means that the man probably deserves it. You know how to defend yourself, and Katsuki is fucking proud of that.

“Are you really not going to interfere?” Asks Kirishima, looking surprised and a little worried at the same time. Bakugou shakes his head smiling.

He completely loves when you show that side of yours; it is actually the very big thing he loves about you the most and one of the reasons he fell for you in the first place.

“But… I-I don't get it. What happened to our little princess?” Katsuki can't avoid laughing at Mina's words. They really don't know you the way Katsuki does.

“Was it something on the food?” Kaminari asks, kind of like hiding behind Todoroki, the latter watching the altercation with big surprised eyes.

“He wished that was the reason,” says Sero when he comes back from where you are standing, still yelling at the man. “He was selling information about us, and our whereabouts. Apparently, the idiot also took some pictures and was selling them too.”

Katsuki crosses his arms over his chest and grins. So that is why you are that pissed... You are defending him and his friends.

Fucking cute, is what you are.

All of them look at Bakugou dumbfounded. And him? Well, Katsuki looks fucking proud of you.

“Go home, guys. This may take a while,” he says, not taking his eyes out of your still yelling little form.

“Are you sure? Don’t you want us to stay and help you ease things down? She looks pretty… upset,” Deku says sincerely, even though he looks kind of afraid of you. HA. Not even fucking Pro Hero Number 1, Deku, is immune to your terrifying side.

Everyone is a little afraid, and Katsuki smiles proudly at that.

“Nah, I can handle it. I'll see you guys tomorrow.”

Everyone says their goodbyes leaving him standing there in silence, watching you proudly and with amusement.

It took almost half an hour later until you released all your anger in the form of words to the man. With one last not so pretty word to him, you turn around and walk to your waiting boyfriend.

Katsuki's smile is so freaking big, you think it may break the skin of his cheeks. “Finished already? I thought it would take longer than that…”

“Did you know what he was do-ing…” You start a bit heated, but his arms surrounding you by the waist and pulling you to his chest calms you down immediately.

Even though you don't quite finish the sentence, Katsuki already knows what you are talking about, “Yeah, Sero told us what happened.”

He rocks your bodies slightly from side to side, hands caressing your back in a comfort, soothing touch. You don't understand what or why he is doing it, but you aren't complaining either. You love being in his arms.

And Katsuki loves the way he can calm you down just with one touch from him –just as fast as he does when you hold him.

He hugs you tightly and then kisses your forehead, hanging his lips there for a moment.

You snort, a delicate amused breath that collides with his neck and makes his body tingle.

“What is this? A kiss to calm the beast?”

He chuckles, “It's a kiss that shows how much I love you.”

And that shows how proud he is that you are as scary as him. Or even more than him.

a.n; lol this is actually something that happened to me once.. i'm suuuuuuuuch a short tempered minion sometimes it even pisses me off LMAO and then i have the audacity to question why i have favs like bakugou and sanemi oops>.<

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I suppose it has something to do with humans assigning our own silly human ideals and morals onto animals! If it has no use, it doesn’t matter, I guess. Even if the ocean sunfish is an important animal that controls populations of other prey animals like squid and jellyfish and is a host to dozens of species of parasites that depend on it for survival and also bring nutrients from the lower levels of the ocean to the higher levels for producers to use… so how could it ever be useless and undeserving of living….. ((((:

In any case, these animals are still alive and thriving, millions of years of evolution has lead them to that point, clearly they’re doing things correct? Why is it now suddenly that they shouldn’t exist?

how many times do we have to say that nobody gets to "decide" what species of animal "deserves" to exist because it's frankly very pretentious to act like you're the arbiter of what evolution has created

[bwobgames]

“OLIVER GET BACK HERE”

Dad suddenly grabbed him once more, which means he’s safe again!

“Take better care of your kid”

“Who do you think you are to tell me that. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Dressed like that? You think your mother is going to be proud?”

Unbeknown to him, his father just put them in great danger.

Even unbeknown-er to him, his father has been in great danger for a long time.

“Excuse me!”

The lady from the store gets between her dad and the strange man.

“Please ignore him, he’s from the farms, he doesn’t know any better. You are Miss Sandra’s son, yeah? She should be working right now but I can tell you where she is!”

His dad doesn’t stop staring. He can feel the disgust coming from him.

Eventually the man leaves, and they return to the store for the forgotten bread.

“Please, be more careful about what you say. I know it’s supposed to be over, but you never know how people like this will act, you know this! Less so if they find out the things you’ve done..!”

“You don’t want to leave Oliver without a father, right?”

“…Thanks for the bread. Goodbye”

“Bernardo!”

They leave without another word

Good thing Oliver is there, he knows so many words

“Who was that, Daddy?”

“A dog.”

“Huh?”

“A lost dog without its owner. Raised to hurt. Don’t trust them, Oliver”

“But, but, can’t it be nice again? Copito used to bite a bit too hard when playing but then he didn’t!”

“That won’t happen. Dogs are loyal to their owners. They would never bite the hand that fed them”

“I don’t get it”

“You don’t have to. Hopefully you’ll never have to.”

“I do want you to understand this, though”

“If you’re ever in trouble with another dog, call me. I’ll come get you”

“Seeing as you can’t help yourself but get into trouble, I’ll have to get you quite often”

“But I’ll do it. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“Oliver”

“Oliver? You back?”

“Huh? Wha- Ángel?”

“Welcome back! We finished eating a good while ago, but you seemed so comfy zoning out that I didn’t want to interrupt you”

“Wha- everyone’s gone?!”

“We should be getting ready for bed, actually. You missed me telling the new guys the cat car joke”

“Oh, so nothing important”

“You evil little fiend. Once I get new material, you’re toast! You’ll laugh with so much joy and whimsy it will conjure a rainbow!”

“I expect nothing less”

It’s 10:15. He still has a bit of time. Maybe have a little chat with one of his friends, before waking up to the chaos of vacations in a new city. He can see some people in the corridors.

When he grew older, he found out about his dad’s illegal activities.

He found out the grave danger he was putting himself in.

But he never held that against him.

His father taught him that sometimes, the law isn’t fair. That sometimes, the police aren’t right. That sometimes, it’s all about the whims of whoever is on charge.

And that sometimes, you have to fight for what’s right.

His dad is old now. He’s no longer the resistance bullet smuggler he once was. And he’s glad for that. He’d rather his dad be safe, he would never do anything that could put him in danger.

Although, there’s been some times. Some three particular times. That he wished he was there.

That he’d carry him away in that uncomfortable way he used to do.

That he’d used his trusty stick to defend him.

That he’d drive the scary dogs away.

<PREV START NEXT>

[imsobadatnicknames2]

To my great surprise, one of my friends expressed interest in DnD, bringing the total people interested including myself to a whopping THREE! Now, I've only played DnD a few times at a game shop and literally no other TTRPGs, but I'd be open in checking out other stuff (and can hopefully persuade my friends)! Would you happen to have any recs for maybe a bit more of an intro/beginners game that one could run with three players total? (If you happen to know any that maximizes a player feeling badass, that'd be neat & appreciated, as I think that's the main draw for them lol). Anyways, thanks for your time :3

Hiiii thanks for your question! So have in mind that I haven't played any of these firsthand because I'm mostly into games that mechanically emphasize disempowerment (the games i run tend to go less for the Found Family of Heroic Misfits Go on an Epic Quest approach and more for the Gang of Amoral Treasure Hunters Get Themselves Killed While Looking For Treasure in a Dark Scary Hole one), so I'm going off mainly from the play experience implied by reading the rules themselves and by what I've heard other people say about them.

First of all Is Quest RPG

I've seen it recommended a couple times by @thydungeongal and after reading a bit of it I have to agree with her assessment that this is the game that most D&D players seem to ACTUALLY want to play when they start invoking Rule 0 and the Rule of Cool and playing fast and loose with mechanics. It's a game where the explicit design intention seems to be natively supporting the style of gameplay that most popular D&D Actual Play shows feature, without any of the negatives of trying to fit 5e's square peg into that particular round hole. It's also available for free, which is pretty nice.

I would also recommend Brighthammer: Rules Light High Fantasy (which is a hack of Sledgehammer: Rules Light Dark Fantasy)

It's a simple system with a d100 resolution mechanic which fits into two eight-page mini-zines, one for the players and one for the GM.

It leans into the heroic fantasy angle specifically by letting players continually accumulate advantage to rolls during combat encounters by performing heroic actions, such as defending an ally or an innocent bystander. This one is also free and it's a pretty quick read so you don't lose anything by checking it out.

Next up is The Basic Hack

This one is a slightly streamlined version of The Black Hack, which itself is a massively streamlined version of early editions of D&D. Just like The Black Hack, it uses D&D's classic six-attribute array and a lot of other mechanical elements that make it pretty easily compatible with a lot of D&D materials while still being a very distinct system of its own, but where it differs from TBH is that it simplifies a lot of its mechanics and overall has a less gritty and more heroic tone.

Lastly there is Break!!, which is the only game in this list that is going to cost you any non-zero amount of money

Break!! has some old-school sensibilities here and there (seems to take some inspiration specifically from games like Cairn and ITO) but aesthetically and tonally it takes most of its cues from fantasy anime and JRPGs. It has a pretty cool-looking setting, and some interesting twists on classic fantasy TTRPG races and classes. You get everything from "basically a D&D fighter with a different name" to "paladin meets magical girl" to "literally an isekai protagonist". Anyway one way in which it leans into making the players feel pwoerful and badass is that its initiative system rewards being proactive in fights: whatever side starts the fight gets to act first, with no checks or rolls required. Also, it handles health depletion on a per-encounter basis. Health regenerates fully imbetween fights, essentially ensures that players always start fights at full strength and gets rid of long-term resource depletion. Which, you know, i like long-term resource depletion for my games, but if what you want to do is feel like badass heroes this is definitely the way to go, and it still has some interesting long-term consequences for running out of health in a fight.

[fandom-lover2]

Hope To Stay A While, Just Till The Rain Stops

Chapter Six - Dad, We Gotta Work on Your Parenting Skills

-image not mine-

Chapter Five - Is It Too Late to Go to Mom's for the Week

“So uhh… who cleans the bat shit?”

“Y/n!” Bruce snapped.

“What?” I defended, continuing to look up at the small, flying mammals as they moved far above on the ceiling of the cave. “They gotta shit.”

“We hose it down once a week.” Dick answered from where he was busy wrapping his knuckles.

“Thank you.” I lowered my gaze to the rest of the Cave.

It was literally a whole cave, right below my house.

A cave, filled with bat themed technology and bat puns.

There was a matted training section, and a wall of mannequins wearing their suits, which then rounded to the bathrooms with showers and lockers.

On the other side, the trophy section was mementos from Batman’s victories. Or maybe they were too dangerous to he anywhere but here. What the animatronic T-rex could do, I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to climb it.

A huge computer was to the focus point of the huge space, the ‘Bat-computer’ (I’m not kidding) and the garage with the ‘Bat-mobile’ (I needed to figure out who thought of these and throw a dictionary at them).

“Movie nights on this thing would be awesome.” I murmured, looking at the massive screen almost the size of a movie theatre screen. “Got surround sound speakers?”

“You know we have a home theatre, right?” Tim spoke up from where he was sitting cross-legged on a wheelie chair, typing away at one of the keypads on the panel beneath the screen.

I turned to him. “What now?”

Jason laughed, hands deep inside his bike’s engine. “How have you not found it yet?”

I glared at the back of his head. “I only just found the cave and honestly was still in shock about the library, ok? Gimme a break.”

I was in love with our library. Classic Beauty and The Beast set up. Two stories, with rolling ladders and comfy chairs and books of every kind of topic from classic literature to modern infrastructure. Bruce had told me to make a list of authors and genres that interested me and he’d move things around so I had a section just for me.

Damian was finally ready and began sparring with Dick on the mats, the two moving in blurs as they used wooden sticks to mock fight, their grunts and witty banter echoing in the cavern.

Bruce was at another wheelie chair before the computer, watching me as I wondered around the and inspected everything.

Honestly, it was fucking cool. Not just the ‘Batman’ thing, this whole set up he had, how he’d managed to keep it a secret from the entire world for so long. My dad was a damn superhero, the one people turned to to save the world multiple times, and all he had was money and an iron will.

I headed back to him, sitting at the chair he had placed next to him and watched my brothers fight. “So when do I-”

“No.”

“Oh, come on.” I whined, swiveling to face him. “Please.”

“I will train you for self defense only, but to go out there at fight.”

“They all do!” I gestured to his other children.

My father turned to the computer and began to type on the keyboard. “They had different circumstances.”

“That makes zero sense. Background doesn’t define who becomes a hero and why.”

My father glanced to me, well he glared at me, not awarding me an answer as he turned back to the screen.

“Please.”

Nothing.

“Fine, I’ll just sneak out.”

“Your brother was raised and trained by the League of Assassins since birth, and he could never sneak out. You are welcome to try.”

I had no idea what the fuck the ‘League of Assassins’ were, but the name alone sounded badass and scary. I turned to my younger brother, watching as he charged Dick with a shout and attacked him again, hitting Dick’s back with the stick. “That actually explains so much about him.”

I planted my feet on the floor, swayed once, and spun myself, looking up as the ceiling of the cave spun far above me.

Bruce reached over, stopping my spinning so I was facing the screen. “Who’s he?”

It took a second for my eyes to orient themselves, my head still light from dizziness. When they settled, I was looking at a large picture of Matthew Collins. He was in my homeroom and biology class.

“Matt.” I answered.

The picture was of him and his parents, them all smiling at a posed photo shoot before a banner reading ‘Collins Corp. Charity Christmas Cookie Bake-Off’, snow falling to complete the cozy December vibe.

Bruce hummed, and the picture disappeared while he turned his attention to some document on a smaller screen to the right of him, out of my view.

“Why?” Was it for a case? “Ohh, do you need me to befriend him and get intel on his family?”

“No!” Bruce snapped, spinning to face me again. “I want you to stay far, far away from him. Never be alone with him, am I understood?”

The sudden change, the intensity in his eyes, the tension in his shoulders, it startled me. How had he gone from nonchalant to worried so quickly? What the hell was Matt involved in?

He was such a nice guy. Two weeks ago he gave me a spare pen when mine had run out of ink, and yesterday he’d helped a girl who’s stack of books had fallen while in the halls.

He was on the basketball team, had good friends and had shared a couple jokes with me during particularly mind-numbing biology labs.

“Y-yes, sir.” The sir had been a genuine slip up. Being raised without a dad, the only time I ever got my ass reprimanded by a male was teachers, so the ‘sir’ for them was instinctual.

But Bruce didn’t show if the name had impacted him negatively or positively, because he turned back to his work wordlessly.

What the fuck?

I looked over to Tim, and he quickly ducked his head when he saw me turning to him, pretending to be busy with his own stuff.

Damian and Dick had stopped sparring, both watching us curiously.

Jason had left his bike and taken a couple steps towards us, glaring at the back of Bruce’s head but his eyes softened when they slipped to me and held a silent question. ‘You ok?’

His words from yesterday rang in my ears. He trusted Bruce, but he knew there was the possibility my father might take it too far, and he was evidently ready to step in when I needed him to.

It made my chest flutter a bit, grateful for the help but fearful of when it might come in need.

My whole life it was me looking out for me. And often times me looking out for Mom too. Now, I had 6-foot-3-wall-of-muscle-and-scars Jason Todd looking out for me. Sad it was against my own father, but much appreciated.

Bruce sighed, something tired and regretful. “I’m sorry.” he murmured, spinning to face me again. He reached out slowly, giving me plenty of time to move away if I didn’t want it, but I didn’t move and he rested his hand on my cheek.

His eyes were pinched in regret, his brows furrowed in shame. “I should not have done that.”

I wanted to say ‘It’s ok’, because that what you say when a parent snaps, or looses their cool, or does something mean and nasty. You say it’s ok so that they feel better, but inside you hold onto that feeling and it eats away at you that you just accept that treatment as the norm.

But something in his gaze, in his worried eyes scanning my face, it told me not to. If I brushed off what’d he’d done, he’d get suspicious. And if he got suspicious, he’d look into Mom. I needed to keep that part of my life from him.

“Why?” I said instead.

My father pulled his hand away from me, looking back to his screen. “Matthew Collins has been linked to many cases of sexual assault against girls and woman, but his father has enough money to manipulate all the detectives working the cases. I’m going to get him, but I need concrete evidence to hand over to the GCPD when I drag him in.”

I nodded along, seeing Jason turn back his bike from the corner of my eye and the boys resuming their sparring.

“Why did you ask me who he was if you knew him?”

Bruce rolled his shoulders. “I wanted to see what you’d answer. You said Matt, a nick name. You know him as more than just a name and face.”

“We’re not close. Just a few passing greetings and some jokes.”

Really? Matt? I know people like that could fool, used a ‘nice guy’ persona as a front, but he really seemed genuine in his character.

Bruce turned to me again. “Promise me you will stay away from him.”

His voice, it wasn’t an order, it was a plea.

“I promise.”

“There you all are.”

We all turned to see Alfred descending the stairs to the cave.

Being a Saturday, no one had school or work to hurry off to, so after a late breakfast, because we had been up until way past midnight talking and building pillow forts in the living room (Dick’s idea), Alfred had gone out to do some grocery shopping and personal errands.

He was back now, evidently.

“Y/n, I found some interesting tea blends for you to try.” he addressed me with a smile.

I returned it, but my mind was still on what my father had said. “Thank you.”

“Lunch?” Bruce asked, not looking to Alfred as he continued to read whatever it was on his screens.

When Alfred confirmed it was indeed lunch time, the four boys began to head towards him, knowing better than to try fight him. But my father remained sitting.

I looked from him to the leaving group then back to him.

“Kid!” Jason called, and I turned to look at him.

He jerked his chin, the universal sigh for ‘come on’, and so I slipped from the chair and met him at the bottom of the stairs, my brothers and grandfather already on their way up.

“He won’t leave for a while.”

“But-”

Jason leveled me a look. The ‘I know more than you’ look, so I shut my mouth. “He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself.”

I sighed, but conceded and let Jason lead me up the stairs. My father wasn’t dead yet, despite years on this job. He knew what he was doing.

Now I just needed to try push his words to the back of my mind and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

---

I sped walked through the school halls, slipping between groups of teens and narrowly avoiding others in just as much a hurry as me.

I needed to get the hell out of here, quick. And call Bruce.

Finally, I made it to the school entrance and slipped down the main stairs, pulling my phone from my pocket.

“Y/n!”

My chest clenched, my blood freezing in my veins. The hairs at the back of my neck stood straight, a cold sweat settling on my back.

I turned slowly, hoping the crowds of escaping teens would hide me, but it didn’t. He’d spotted me, and his eyes were locked on me.

Matt came to a stop before me, a step too close into an acceptable distance that I so desperately wanted to create again, but I knew if I stepped back, he’d just follow.

“I’m glad I caught you. Did you see the cast listing?”

Yes, which is why I’m running out of here.

“I did yeah. Congratulations.”

Matt smiled. “And to you, co-star.”

I’d honestly forgotten we’d all been forced to do that stupid audition for Heathers, but now here we were, Veronica and J.D.

Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it…

“So, since we’re both the main stars, and will have a lot of scenes together, I was thinking we should get together and rehearse. My home has a recording studio, from my mom’s days as a musician. I’m free this weekend if you are.”

“Never be alone with him, am I understood?” Bruce’s words rang in my head.

I opened my mouth, but the flash of something red caught my eye behind him.

A familiar bike and standing it beside it with his hands fisted at his sides, Jason.

His teal eyes slipped from absolutely glowering at Matt to studying mine. His jaw was clenched, shoulders tight.

One move from me, and he’d be storming over to lay Hell on Matt.

“I’ll have to check with my dad.” I answered, looking back to Matt.

I wanted to punch him. How could he keep that sweet, kind smile after all he’d done?

“No problem. It’s only Monday. Let me know.”

And then he was walking off, called by his group of friends.

I’m not ashamed to say I turned and fucking bolted to Jason, running right into his open arms.

Last week, Matt looking at me had felt like nothing. Now, it felt like his eyes had been knives, piercing my skin as they had dragged over my form briefly, and I felt both gross and vulnerable.

I wish Bruce hadn’t told me.

“You ok?” Jason whispered.

I shook my head, pulling back just a bit to look up into his eyes. “We got a problem.”

Jason released me, reaching into the bag on his bike and pulling out a pair of my tracksuit pants. “Do you want to go to one of my safe houses, or do you think you can make it to the manor?”

He had safe houses?

“I’m supposed to go to Mom’s this week.” But even as I spoke, I was pulling my pants on.

“Bruce’ll call her and make an excuse. Dinner together or some shit.” He waited till I had my pants on, then secured a second helmet to my head before putting his own on and getting onto his bike, guiding me to sit beside him.

“Well?” he spoke again, voice going through the comms both helmets had.

“I can make it home.” I reassured, moving forward to wrap my arms around his chest.

“Ok. I’ll call Bruce and Alfred to let them know what’s happening. And Y/n?”

“Yeah?”

Jason started up the bike and began out the parking spot. “I’ve got you. He’s not gonna hurt you.”

I pushed myself closer, holding on tighter to him. “I know.”

It was only halfway to the manor did I realize I never asked why the hell he was there to pick me up to begin with.

[justsumtransdude2000]

Lets talk about narrative framing in Harry Potter and how it lends itself to what I live to call the Regulus vs James vs Snape debate, aka the "why does the fandom praise Regulus and James but hate Snape, it's because they're hot isn't it?" issue.

I'm trying to come at this with a neutral perspective (despite being what many would frame as a Regulus defender).

So narrative framing, what is it? It's exactly what is sounds like; how the narrative is telling you to view something. A great example of this is house elves. They are narratively framed as a net positive, however, when you take them out of the narrative and inspect them without all of the unnecessary context, they're pretty bad. The narrative also does this with characters (obviously), like Cho Chang being framed as annoying for crying over her boyfriend who was brutally murdered. When we look at this, we are looking at it through the lens of Harry, but when we look at without Harry's motives in mind, that shit is weird.

So, how does this apply here? Well, I think the reason that Snape is so hated is cut into two parts; the first being narrative framing and the second being screen time. He is in every book. And in every book, he's being an asshole. He's bullying someone who is half or even a third of his age, or he's being speciesist, or he's being a general nuisance. A lot of his coworkers don't even like him. Of course, our lens isn't unbiased as we see all this through Harry's view, but Harry, narratively, is one of the good guys, making him someone we as the reader are supposed to trust. Also, we do know that whether or not they were influenced by Harry's POV, he did some foul shit: we know that he used to be (and maybe still is, for most of the series) a DE, we know that he tells his students Lupin is a werewolf, and we also know he hates James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin (obviously), Harry Potter himself, and, I may be assuming here but, Peter Pettigrew. All but one of these characters are framed positively in the narrative, meaning Snape isn't just narratively hated; he is up against some of the most beloved characters. There is not a lot going for him until the plot twist, which doesn't help necessarily. To a lot of fans it just made him seem obsessive and bitter, and didn't justify his actions, likely because of all the narrative framing against him. Honestly, at that point it stops being narrative framing and starts being the narrative.

Compare this to James and Regulus who we see very little of. The little we see of James is usually through Snapes memory, which I guess can kind of be considered an unbiased source, but with all the narrative against him it's hard to expect readers to trust that someone the bad guy thinks is bad is really that bad. Not to mention like right after Harry asks for affirmation that his dad wasn't terrible, and Sirius basically just goes "he changed, trust me bro!" (Harry does indeed trust him, bro). And we don't even see Regulus, we only see him through others, namely Sirius and Kreacher, who both answer questions about him scarcely. When we do hear about him it is either, "he was so soft, too soft to disobey our parents" implying something in him was good, he just wasn't strong enough to resist the bad, or through his defiance of Voldemort which, despite setting Harry back is positive for his character and how he's seen. It's important to note most people are way too scary to defy Voldemort, so this is seen as a radical act, which I think is also what JK. Molding was hoping for when writing the Snape redemption scene (because that was not an arc).

However, Snape's falls flat because we actually have to see the negative that he did, we see how it effects Neville, and Hermione, and Remus and even Harry. We don't see the bad of Regulus, we only see him through the tender wounds of his living relative and only friend, which are undoubtedly biased lenses. I think the lack of accountability shown for Regulus is because of object permanence. We only see the negative effect of his loss, not of his bad decisions. We see Sirius scrubbing a house clean of everyone but him. We see grief. And people don't grieve for bad people, right?

TLDR: Fandom favors Reg over Snape because we see how Snape's actions effect people, and the fandom favors James over Snape because the only evidence we have of him being a bad guy is coming from someone untrustowrothy.

[sexydoffyman]

Hello 👋, could I request some cod characters (perhaps Ghost, Price or Graves) defending a male military reader from a bunch of guys that are being homophobic to him?

DEFENDING YOU FROM HOMOPHOBES

navigation

genre: fluff

characters: Simon Riley, John Price, Phillip Graves

A/N: Sick of writing for kinktober. Mby that's why I can't write fucking properly. So let's look at some fluff.

SIMON GHOST RILEY

Ghost is a fairly scary man. He's known for being cold and serious. No one expected you to hang around him. He had six inches on you (15cm). Some people joked about you being the love birds in your TF. They could never guess how correct they were.

You weren't dating or anything, but you both held some kind of mutual respect, trust and maybe even attraction. You both had some qualities of a couple. He was a little possessive of you. You were a little clingy with him.

Although you had some kind of a relationship, that didn't really matter. The thing that mattered was you having each other's backs.

He was like a predator, making sure no one hurts his weaker companion. But when he wasn't around, you were left vulnerable. Not physically, no. You held great strength. What was left to hurt if people cant hurt your body? Your mind.

They mocked you ever since you met at boot camp. Any time they saw your face, they felt the need to embarrass you. You could handle it. You were a soldier, after all. But that didn't stop you from feeling hurt.

This time, you just sat there and took it. They yelled. They impersonated. Of course, that commotion would attract some people's attention.

The one that had showed up was Ghost. You couldn't even register him when you saw a 6'4 dude punch one of them. The others tried running, but none of them could get far enough to escape him. Their jaws broken. Ribs shattered.

You could hear him laughing under his mask. He then glanced at you "Coffee?" He asked.

CAPTAIN JOHN PRICE

All I can say is father energy.

He has been your captain for a few years now. You have gone through shit with him, and you both trusted each other. You viewed him as a kind of father that you never had. And he viewed you as his new child.

He is not possessive, but he is protective. He wouldn't let anyone fuck with you. His rank helped him with scaring people off. He never really had a problem with disobeying soldiers to begin with, so he never actually used his rank, but now. He has to stick up for you.

You really do resemble a kid he would have had. You have similar hair colour and eye colour. Your postures don't have a difference, and you find yourselves finishing up each other's sentences.

These assholes who have been making fun of you were your superiors. What that meant was that you could do nothing to stop them. They could say anything they wanted, and they'd get away with it.

"Thirty laps now!" Your eyes averted to the sudden voice coming from the hall. He heard them. They slowly realised they fucked up. It was raining cats and dogs outside. Everything was muddy and slippery. Running thirty laps would be torture.

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Price grunted with a more aggressive tone. They stormed off to the exit to run their laps. He yelled at them before they got out. "Being on good terms with your fellow soldiers is a must. I will have your ranks stripped away from you until you learn that!"

As soon as they left, Price let out a small chuckle. He was proud of himself. Cheeky bastard.

PHILLIP GRAVES

I love this son of a bitch.

Now, this man is always with you. It's not an obsession. It's just the fact that everyone else wants to be either alone or already has someone to be with. He just doesn't want to be alone.

You felt like you were the chosen one. He was still your superior, after all. After some time together, you got used to it. He always apologised for being such a bother. You got free snacks, which you didn't mind at all.

You were fucking around the base, chilling. You would've never thought you'd be sharing stories with him, but there you were. You didn't know what kind of relationship it was. Were you friends, or were you together just because of the situation? You never figure it out.

The dudes who embarrassed you were your rank. But they fuck with both of you since they didn't know Graves's position. A big mistake. He never really said anything to them. One day, they were just gone.

When you looked deeper into it, you found out that two were dead, and three lost their jobs.

Graves is such a gentleman.

[amxrany]

!! CHAPTER 7 / DIASOMNIA ARC SPOILERS !!

I finally have time off and I'm really excited to this segment (Trey's Dream):

Now we're back at Heartslabyul and Ace is having fun with the dream hopping so far! Ortho notices that the Heartslabyul members haven't been feeling sick, but Cater explains that their dorm's nonsensical interior design choices certainly helped in getting to used to stuff such as dreamhopping.

Ace wonders as to how many dreams we've been to, and Silver replies that we have been to around 20+ dreams by now, which causes him to go to salty as to why Yuu didn't go to his dream first. But we had to explain to him that at first Silver had no control as to whose dream they were going to land in but managed to gain control after acquiring the help of the Shroud bros. The Shroud Bros also mention a systems of IDs assigned to people's dream, probably a way to gather everyone once it's time to fight Malleus. Idia was scared that the system might still be buggy, even bringing up that it's possible to get lost in the Dream Realm.

Anyways, Grim boasts to Ace that they've overcomed so much, but Sebek puts him down by saying that they got where they are with the the help of other people. But Silver actually defends Grim here, bringing up the time before they went dream hopping. Grim was standing in fron of Yuu and fighting the darkness on his own. We have the option to thank Grim, and he it's his job as the boss of Ramshackle but you can tell that he got flustered.

Leona just wants to get things over with and tells the others to hurry up. We get a clue that it's Trey's dream because Ace notes the smell of sweets in the air. While the group makes their way to the kitchen, Ace and Deuce could easily distinguish what Trey was making based on scent alone (now that's a talent I want /j).

But before we step foot into the kitchen, Cater stops us; pointing out that if we just walk in, then the darkness would immediately detect us anomalies. He proposes a plan where he uses his UM to trade places with his dream self to avoid suspiscion, he also gets the help of Leona and Idia. But Leona protests that it should be the first years doing it, because what if his dream self wanted to have tea 😭😭😭 and Idia's just whining about not wanting to they enter the kitchen and it's definitely something (in a good way) and Cater notices that it seems bigger than usual.

Alright so we get more Cater lore here, we learn that his family prefers to buy sweets because they found it difficult to make them. He brings that up to Trey but he just simply replies that they're not that hard to make and back then Cater just thought was just enduring it but looking at it now...you can say he must be having a lot of fun.

We finally get the man of the hour with CHENYA??? AS THE HOUSEWARDEN 😭???

Deuce is so real because he doesn't remember Chenya's name, even with Ortho pulling out his government name from the RSA records he still couldn't pronounce it 😔. Ace makes fun of him for it, but Sebek unintentionally defends Deuce, saying that his name is just like a tongue twister.

Leona and Idia are just throwing shade towards Cater and Trey for replacing their Housewarden in their dreams, Leona feeling sorry for Riddle while Idia comments that smiling guys who hide their intentions are scary. Ortho puts a stop to it, explaning that the dreams aren't the real representation of one's desires (using Kalim and Vil as examples). Malleus didn't make these dreams himself, he only makes the dreamer think of happy situations and resets it when something bad happens, and it goes on in a never ending cycle. The dreams the dreamer has are similar to those that they would actually have irl, having no control of the situation whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the others are just outside peeking into the kitchen with Grim climbing on Ace's back to get a better view (with Ace complaining that he's heavy😂). Sebek tells them to stfu cuz he can't hear but Ortho tells HIM to stfu cuz he's loud 😭.

Trey immediately notices that Cater isn't the actual one (if you get it, you get it), he freaks out as to how Trey caught him so fast and he replies that he's known him for 3 years so he would have known by now. We learn more about what happened to Riddle in this dream, who's currently just a card soldier. Just like in real life, Riddle tried to battle Chenya for the position of Housewarden but was defeated because of Chenya's UM. His UM is called "Not All Head", making his body (except his head) invisible.

So we get more Alice in Wonderland references coming up. Because Chenya's UM also affects his neck, Riddle's collar literally just flies past. Riddle who's just confused, doesn't realize that Chenya unbuckles his belt and flips him over causing him to flash everyone; it's similar to the scene with the Chesire Cat and Queen of Hearts. Trey tells him to knock it off because Riddle would get mad if he goes telling everyone but Chenya isn't scared of him lmao. We also find out that Riddle went easy on Chenya, because if that was anyone else he would have burned them alive already 💀.

Trey leaves for a moment to take the cake out of the oven, which leaves some time for the third years to discuss and they noticed that there isn't much of a difference compared to real life. But because of the few discrepancies, it would be a lot harder to wake Trey up.

Trey comes back and asks them if they're hungry and offers them some food, while also making sure that isn't too sweet so that Cater could eat it. At first, Cater was worried about the rule where the Housewarden has to be the first to take a bite, but Trey tells them not to worry cuz glass desserts are an exception (Chenya's really chill for a dorm leader). While giving them snacks, Leona asks Trey to join them (he really is having a tea party at Heartslabyul 😭), and he guesses that he wants them to taste test the dishes. Leona mentions that his palata is quite refined so he'll be tasting the food from the chef of Heartslabyul, which makes Trey nervous. Let's just say while they were taste testing Trey kept offering more and more food 😅.

Meanwhile, the others are getting jealous because they get to eat while they just watch, but they also came to the conclusion that Trye's dream doesn't seem too different from reality. Suddenly, Ortho tells the group to keep quiet because he and Silver hear something "enormous" approaching. That's when Ace and Deuce tell the others to follow them as they both lead the group into a hidden compartment behind the clock which changes locations depending on its mood.

Back to the third years, Trey's just bouncing back and forth between giving them more food and baking. Cater starts to feel bad about taking away Trey's happiness away, realizing that Silver and the others were in a really tough spot for doing so. He wonders what would have happened if Trey never had that encounter with Riddle's mother, if he could've been a pastry chef by now.

Once Trey comes back, he and Idia start talking about their interests that was influenced by their parents while growing up. Where Idia brings up that he's been into magical engineering since he was a kid. Trey just starts talking about how much he love science and baking is similar to that because of the need to be precise and the satisfaction one gets when an experiment/dish turns out well, and he also sees it as a way to make other people happy (aw that's nice). Leona's out here being like "nah happiness is simply a byproduct" but Trey disagrees. He likes it when people compliments his food as it gives him confidence.

Holy fuck Trey's dream has so much exposition that I can't just cut it out or else it won't make sense 😭. But what I won't cut out is the part where Trey talks about the event with Riddle back in his childhood. It all began when Trey and Chenya decided to sneak into the nicest in the neighborhood, which just so happened to be the Rosehearts. They meet Riddle who helps them when their ball gets stuck in a tree and was really smart for his age as he could name every insect and plant. They sneak him out of the house so that Riddle can taste a tart, but once his mom found out...oh boy. Apparently she bitched on his family for FIVE HOURS that's fucking crazy like she really went insane over Riddle's diet. Cater said that they also had this conversation at some point after Riddle's overblot, but Trey just brushed it off as he really didn't mind it anymore (but really that shit changed the trajectory of his life forever).

Now we have more dorm lore regarding the Vice Housewarden, in terms of how they are chosen. There are three ways for someone to be the Vice Housewarden which are through: being chosen by the Housewarden, volunteering, or vote from the other members. How Trey became the Vice Housewarden was because of the third method, where everyone voted for him because they found out about his history with Riddle (even though the latter treated him like a stranger once he got to NRC and took the Housewarden position later on). He even broke the rules at one point and got collared for it, which yeahhhh wasn't really pretty.

Cater reminisces about the past, knowing that Trey serving as Riddle's support must have been hard; he even thinks that Trey secretly wishes that Chenya was there to help him (this is making me sad) and he wishes he has done more to help him. But Leona asks Cater the real question, if he were to help Trey, would that still change the outcome?

Leona who's just tired of all this talk (same here bro) gets the group back to their main goal, starting with Chenya. But then they start hearing the footsteps again, in which Ctaer assumes that it's a hedgehog that ate a size changing mushroom but it was much worse (and funnier). We get to my favorite part of the update: really round Heartslabyul

Everyone's freaking out (obviously) which makes Trey check out all the commotion, but his he suddenly sports a happy mood when sees everyone and assumes they came for tea time. But he soon notices that there's two copies of Ace and Deuce (who start complaining that they aren't built like that irl) which causes the dream to start to distort.

Idia sees Round!Riddle and just goes "Is this what Trey meant when he said that Riddle was eating well 😭" and the round guy just taunts Idia cuz he's the tall one now (but at what cost).

They all come to the conclusion that sure Trey's dream seems normal, except all rationality/reasoning doesn't seem to exist anymore 😅. Even Silver comments that Riddle's bigger than a horse 💀 and Sebek just makes it worse by wondering how would Vorpal survive with Round!Riddle as its rider.

The Heartslabyul Gang tells Trey that he wouldn't let something like this happen in real life, because of spoiling ones appetite and possibly getting gum disease from overeating. This starts triggering the darkness to attack the others and bruh they turn into bowling balls, managing to knock down Silver 😭.

Meanwhile, Trey is starting to wake up, the darkness asks him about the food in the kitchen, with Chenya getting the first piece because he's the Housewarden. This causes Trey to realize that Riddle's the real Housewarden, not Chenya. The darkness starts eating again, which Trey puts a stop to. When asked why, Trey responded that yeah eating his food does making happy, but going overboard isn't something they'd actually do.

Trey starts to wake up by himself! I think that it is around here that his groovy in his SSR takes place.

But all of a sudden, the area is filled with sand. Leona used his UM to get rid of the darkness even though the area is quite small, which caused everyone to cough up sand. Now that Trey's awake, he gets a bit embarassed that the others saw his pathetic side, Cater's like "more of weird side but alright" 😭. But he promises to be careful when getting hands on a new cookbook, Grim adds that he can bring the extras to Ramshackle.

Trey asks why they got to him before Riddle, and they explain to him the rules of the dream world, where darkness always follows the dreamer. So they needed an ally that can get close to Riddle without setting the darkness off, and that is none other than Trey. Ace speculates that Riddle's dream would involve everyone remembering all the Queen of Hearts rules and they all just laugh 🤣.

Ortho asks for Trey's help and he agrees, everyone thanks him but Ace is being salty because Sebek thanked Trey and not him. Sebek not having his shit either was like "who tf wants to be saved by you?" 💀 (nahhh). Trey and Silver had to apologize on their behalf and Idia comments that it's like watching parents apologizing for their kid's actions.

Trey gets the invitation, and a new ally is added to the group. Once Ortho creates the model for the dream, Trey comments that his outfit seems flashy. But Cater thinks that red and black look cool on him. In typical Cater fashion, he takes a pic to save for later.

Before the group gets going, Trey brings a strawberry tart for Riddle. Sebek asks Silver if it's fine even though it will most likely look a bit funky cuz of the dream hopping, but the latter responds that it's okay because it will still taste the same; it's mostly the thought that counts.

Now that ends Trey's Dream, I know I promised this segment last week but it was my major exam week so I focused on my studies. I won't be making any promises but I'll find a way to release Riddle's segment as soon as possible!

Thank you for being patient!

Previous: Ace's Dream Next: Riddle's Dream

(Note: This post is a summarized version of the update, info and pics comes from @/MostroLoungeVIP, @/WitchDrug, and @/acesuuu on x/twt, give them some support if you can)

[the-wandering-mage]

Gotham Bats ruin and save Spiderman's Operation Nest

This is like a story concept written out for a Spider-Man Batfam crossover fic I don't have the time to write fully. This is more developed than a prompt but, still is thought I'd share and maybe you guys will enjoy it and/or somebody will pick it up and develop it into a fully fledged fic. So here it goes-

A more spidery Spider-Man is dropped into a DC universe right into Gotham. It's the beginning of fall in Gotham which is a problem for a Spider seeing as he is stranded in another universe with nothing but his Spidey suit and his AI companion. He has no access to the synthesized hormone cocktail he's been taking in the winter to keep him from going into hibernation. Now Peter could get together the stuff to synthesize the medication but, he need a stable place to set up a running lab to make it as he'd need it fresh and take it on the regular. That is a lot of work and resources he'd have to come up with and maintain. Also he is a depressed boi and a long nap actually sound really good. So instead of trying to set up a lab he starts Operation Nest. He is going to find a small enclosed space and prepare it for his long winters nest.

Peter also decides pretty quickly with all the crazy dangers of Gotham and all the warnings of what Karen was able to find after connecting to this world's version of the Internet to keep the suit on and just be Spider-Man full time. The suit would keep him safe from chemical attacks and the overall pollution of Gotham as well as keep him anonymous in the very likey event he has to use his powers to defend himself. Which will let him keep a nice civilian identity that Karen crafted come spring if he chooses to.

Peter's first two objectives in Operation Nest are to get money and find a location. The first Karen helps him with easily setting up a company, then filing and selling some benign patents, since this world is really behind in tech. She also helps him get more immediate cash without crossing into stealing just by doing online commissions for simple tech support type things while the patent money is still pending. Peter gets a laptop that he uses to help with some of the tech work even though Karen can literally do five jobs at once under several fake IDs she made herself.

Most of the day for Peter however is spent looking for real estate. Which is harder in Gotham than one might think considering the rival gangs, rival super villains constantly blowing up things, and all the homeless fighting over whatever is left of the abandoned buildings. The only good thing about all this is a giant spider nest will go relatively unnoticed amongst all the other craziness. Peter's adventures running all over Gotham trying to find a place to hunker down for a couple of months cause him to run into all sorts of characters.

Peter is in a weirdly apathetic state towards himself with all his trauma so he saves people obviously, and is still empathic, maybe more so with trying to get the villians to be better people and just talking with them like real people but, he is really basley about his own safety. He has already lost everyone he cares about and he's faced down Thanos, so none of the villians at this point faze him. He doesn't see them as a threat to himself. He ends up making a bunch of friends with villains by continuing what May believed in, what Ben believed in, and helps the villains out so they can hopefully make a change.

The bats hear about him and decide to investigate but all of them get terrible first impressions and they assume he's a villain or going to be one if they don't find him. Peter is OP and scary. He's not given up his friendly neighborhood spider-man but he has stopped trying as hard to look human type of friendly. He just has slow given into being a spider and is creepy. He also leaves spider webs everywhere, since his natural ones don't dissolve like the artificial ones that he uses sparingly. This also freaks them out and there is debate on whether what they are hunting is a meta human or an intelligent spider creature. Also at least one bat at the beginning runs into one of the webs and at least one gets temporarily stuck to a criminal they are trying to free from a cocoon

By the time the bats find Spider-Man they are all convinced that he's a villain plotting something big but really they've just been stalking Peter as he completes his to do list for Operation Nest. All the dangerous equipment and suspicious purchases from villains were really to get his nest set up. Peter knew his friends had some of the stuff he needed like a cytogenetic freezer to keep some of his food from spoiling over the course of a few months since he doesn't want anyone making deliveries to his house while he's hibernating. His friends were happy to help although he still paid them despite their insistence not to.

Karen thinks it's hilarious. Although they acknowledge itd be better to just explain the situation to the bats before Peter is in active hibernation and let them find them. They totally ruin their bust by opening the doors of a small dilapidated old tailors shop in the fashion district, where Peter had set up his nest in the basement. Peter isn't happy with them feeling very territorial. He wants them not to touch anything as he shows them into his nest. He warns them and they are a bit freaked out when he hisses at them when they inevitably ignore he's instructions out of curiosity but then settle a bit when they notice how tired he is. Cass probably gets them to back off. He explains things enough so they leave him to his hibernation with the promise of hanging out in the spring.

Or alternatively. Karen is too busy setting things up she doesn't notice with her smaller processing power disconnected from Stark Tech as she is to notice the Bats noticing them. Then she is being wired into the Nest when they start getting close so, she doesn't know they are closing in. Then she is doing system checks to make sure she is able to monitor Peter when he's hibernating and can use the machines and mechanical arms to help Peter for the parts of his hibernation he will be awake or partially awake to handle his bodily needs before cocooning back into his Nest made of his natural webs and blankets.

Karen doesn't know they are there until they break her perimeter alarms and she is forced to use her defensive measures since Peter has just gone into hibernation like a day ago. The bats having more resources than Karen at their disposal and coming at her from all angles breach her defenses and get into The Nest. Karen does her best to rouse Peter with alarms blaring but she is only able to get him into a semi state of consciousness. Not enough to move him without drugging him which would be dangerous for his health and with so many coming for her charge she does her best to throw her mechanically arms in front of him to guard him where he is.

The bats once they see a sleepy confused Peter with a strange woman's voice begging them to leave him alone they feel bad realizing they judged him wrong. Especially after seeing him adorably yawn with his fangs popping out.

[bethanydelleman]

Writing Villains (Advice from Jane Austen)

One of the reasons that I find Jane Austen's novels so wonderful is that they have amazingly realistic villains, some that are fully fleshed out characters. Austen's biggest strength is that she gives her villains clear, logical motives. In fact, for many of her villainous characters you can turn the entire story around and see a rational story from the other side.

For example, Lucy Steele. She doesn't attack Elinor out of mindless evil, but because Edward Ferrars is her golden ticket to wealth and she knows that Edward loves Elinor. Lucy might twist the knife a little on Elinor out of sadism, but generally she attacks Elinor in an attempt to secure Edward. When it comes to other characters, Lucy is overly sweet if she wants something from them, otherwise she acts normally. As an example, she leaves Marianne alone because Marianne is not competing for Edward and also can't do anything for Lucy. Anne, Lucy's sister, likes her. Lucy has friends and family she stays with, she's a fairly well-rounded person.

You can put yourself in Lucy's shoes, you can turn the entire narrative on it's head and play it out from her perspective and it would make complete sense. You could even make Lucy sympathetic! She probably sees herself as a hardworking underdog, trying to wrest her one chance at prosperity away from the conniving Elinor Dashwood. I'm sure she thinks the pain she causes Elinor is justified.

If you can't do that with your villains, then there is a good chance they are just evil for evil's sake. I picked Lucy Steele on purpose because I hate when the entire motivation for a antagonist female character is "bitches be crazy". Bitches may be mean, but almost always for a good reason.

Even Mrs. Norris, who is probably the most cruel of Austen's female villains, can be perspective switched. Her life is about being useful to the Bertram family so she can feel important because her married status/wealth is lower than she wished. As she must always be deferential towards the Bertrams, she takes out her negative emotions on those below her, the servants and Fanny, while also showing off how good she is at "managing" those people. (And yes, she is your childhood bully)

We often hear her perspective and she clearly sees herself as a useful part of the family and a defender of Sir Thomas's wealth. She thinks she's a good person! Which is also an important point: most people doing wrong do not believe that they are doing wrong. That is what really makes a villain scary. Mrs. Norris thinks she's helping Fanny in a very twisted way by teaching Fanny her station in life. If you asked her, she'd give you a self-justified answer and she'd probably actually believe it.

Another way to do a good villain is to just make a person very selfish. Henry Crawford doesn't sit around all day laughing about how much pain he causes women, he doesn't think about it. He only thinks about the fun of flirting for himself, not the harm to others. The glimpses we get into his perspective are not cruel at all. It's the same with Willougby, he thinks only of his own pleasure and tries very hard to ignore that he has crushed Marianne and destroyed Eliza Williams. When he is forced to accept that people were hurt, he blames everyone but himself.

Wickham thinks that he's a victim, Caroline Bingley is ambitious and doesn't care who she steps on to get to the top, Mr. Elton is insulted that Emma could even dream he's a match with Harriet but he can't touch Emma so he punches down at Harriet. They all make sense, they all probably believe that their actions are justified.

Also, imagine taking the heroine/hero right out of the story, would the villain still act the same way? If Anne didn't exist, Mr. Elliot would still try to bring himself into the Elliot family because he was afraid of losing the title. If Elizabeth didn't exist, Wickham would have had another favourite in Meryton. If Fanny didn't exist, Mrs. Norris would have found some other puppy to kick. The villains don't just appear for the plot of the main characters, they have their own reasons for moving around and messing shit up.

Lastly, explaining but not excusing (though unfortunately some people will excuse anyway but that's not your fault). Mary Crawford is mercenary and doesn't seem to believe that love is even a real thing. It's pointed out several times in the novel that her defects have to do with being raised in an immoral environment and a broken home. She was taught by her aunt to marry for wealth and disregard love. Austen doesn't excuse Mary, she doesn't give her a happy ending, but she does explain how she came to be. She's not just greedy, she has been taught that wealth is the best recipe for happiness. As an adult now, it is her responsibility to question that maxim or remain a villain.

Austen wrote amazing morally grey characters and "villains" (a term I used a little liberally here, some of them probably only count as antagonists, not full blown villains). I love how real and human she made her characters, it's something I aspire to myself!

Linking my Caroline rant because it's related, people remove her motives so often and flatten her into a "bitches be crazy".

[a-doubleh-x]

Why I like Charlastor

The other day I noticed there was some negativity in the Charlastor tag, including antis and people feeling the need to defend against antis, so I thought I might as well take a step back and just write candidly about why I like the ship.

I only got into Hazbin in October of last year, but already it has inspired me a lot to write and fantazise about it. Like most people, I started with the classic "they look cute together", but as I kept looking I couldn't help but think there was something else to these two than first met the eye.

For starters, I love Pollyanas! I think they get a bad rep for being naive, but I just appreciate an optimist like Charlie who just wants to make people around her happy because it makes her happy. I also like bad boys 😳 I'm a pretty heteronormative guy, so I haven't had a big chance to explore that part of myself yet, but I do like the danger and excitement someone like Alastor brings to the table.

I will admit when I started writing Charlastor I felt like I was handling dynomite. It's a lil scary to ship a boundless altruist with a manipulative sociopath, but bear with me.

I think each of them has something the other needs. I think Charlie needs someone to challenge her, someone to steer her in the right direction while she's mostly isolated. At the start of the series, practically nobody but Vaggie takes her seriously, and Alastor is no exception. He mocks her, teases her, but she still listens and I think it's because somewhere deep down she understands there's something he's trting to communicate in his annoying, but curious way.

Of course, I also love the fanon Charlie who's down bad for Alastor, and even if that Charlie is a little naive, I think it's also sweet and she can use some indulgence while most people treat her like a child.

On the other hand, when it comes to Alastor, this is a bit of a theory on my part, but I think he's secretely lonely. He has friends, certainly, like Rosie and Mimzy, but they're not good enough friends to live together with him. They don't seem to be able to save him from "pure, absolute boredom". But Charlie, for some reason can, even though she's a stranger at the beginning when Alastor chooses to move into the Hotel.

Alastor is not as much of a cynic as someone who chooses to see things in a perspective that benefits him. He doesn't think redeeming sinner is "hopeless", but "hilarious" instead, which has interesting implications to me. That's why he chooses to hover around Charlie, not because he thinks she's lame, rather because he thinks she's silly. She makes him laugh. Which I think is kind of how Alastor sees "love".

And then you have fanon Alastor who, depending on the writer, is either a horny animal, a wisecrack edgelord or a soft boy who's mean to everyone but Charlie XD I like several of those interpretations, but I kinda prefer mine just out of personal taste. I think the best part about Alastor is that he doesn't *care* what anyone thinks of him and always does what he wants, even at the expense of other people, which I find pretty enviable.

They're kinda both outcasts in their own ways. Charlie by being unable to fit in and Alastor being unwilling to compromise. But they don't judge each other. He supports her in his own weird way and she houses him and is delighted of him in general, which is tasty food for his ego. I do wonder why Alastor is interested in Charlie, both in canon and in a fandom vacuum.

There's some cool potential for drama there, but also growth and healing, in my opinion. Personally, I think Alastor doesn't want to actually *hurt* Charlie, but he may hurt those around her, which will be a moment to start settling compromises if Charlie puts her foot down.

That haz bin my review so far! I'm honestly pretty grateful for Vivziepop for all of the work she's done so far, I know directing, animating and writing two shows over the course of 5 year or so ain't easy. I'm also grateful to the fandom who shares their thoughts and vision, which calms the terrible voices I started hearing in my head since I bought this weird old radio.

I'm in the middle of a break, but if you're interested in my fanfics I'll get back to writing very soon. Cheers! 🌈❤🦌

[ultralightpoe]

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark -Tyler Owens

Authors Note: Part 14 of the Halloween event! How exciting!!!! Also I used to own all the scary story books and my sister and I used to compete to scare each other.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 672

Requests: OPEN

~2024 Halloween Event Masterlist

[Thank you for the gif @motionpicturesource ]

ENJOY!

The room smelled like nothing but old cardboard boxes and dust, and for a moment Tyler could have sworn an actual tornado had hit the house based on the wreck provided from said old cardboard boxes. 

“What in god's name?” He mutters, boot moving out to lightly kick one of the boxes out of his path as he continues his way through the house. The stuff strewn within them left a bit of a trail and he followed it like it was the yellow brick road, and soon enough he found his oz huddled over yet another box as she tore through it. 

“What ya’ doin���?” He asks with a slight hesitation, flipping the rim of his hat through his fingers before setting it on the kitchen counter as your head snaps up to where he stands. 

“Thank gosh you are here.” You snap out, struggling to stand with the round stomach, until he moves forward to offer you a helping hand up and pat some of the dust off you himself. “I can’t find the book.”

“The book?” He repeats, feeling like a bird mocking it’s owner. 

“MY BOOK!” You snap, waving your hands. “I had it when I was a kid and we used to read it every halloween.”

“A halloween book?”

“Yes! You turn off the lights and only have the one flashlight so my siblings and I would pass the book around to take turns reading the stories and you had to try and scare each other.” You explain, waddling around to open yet another box. “Scary stories to tell in the dark.”

“I’m just now hearing about this book now…why?”

“Because the baby!” You sigh, pointing to your stomach like it was obvious. “I am gonna read it to the baby.”

“You’re gonna read a scary story book to our unborn baby?”

“Gonna get them started early.” You huff. “Mama ain’t gonna raise no bitch.” 

He can’t stop the laugh that escapes him, moving forward to help you start searching. “Alright mama, let’s get this search going.”

-

It took 4 hours and a trip to the bookstore to buy a new copy once you both realized your childhood one was completely warped. 

Once you managed to get comfortable on the couch with all the lights turned off while holding one flashlight as he laid against the pillows waiting for the spectacle to start. 

“You have no clue what you are in for.”

“Darlin’ I chase storms for a living.” He huffs out, kicking his boots off. “You can try but you can’t scare me.”

“We’ll see about that.”

-

He wakes up to pitch black, a wave of panic filling him as he feels around to recognize where he was. It takes him a moment to realize that you both had fallen asleep on the couch, and when he feels your ankle he knows you're safe by him which eases him a bit but he still can’t fight the tight feeling in his stomach. 

There was a small creak from somewhere in the house that bothered him. 

Creaakk. THUMP. Creaaaaak. Thump. 

Over and over, almost sounding like it was getting closer. It sent him standing quickly, reaching for a weapon to defend you both with if it came to it. 

Creak, thump. It was for sure getting closer. 

So he stood his ground, waiting for the threat to come only it never did. So he began making his way to it. 

It took him 3 minutes before he found the cause, the dog door on the back door was being pulled back and forth from the wind since it hadn’t been locked. 

A small chuckle tore from his lips as he dropped the half assed weapon he grabbed and moved to lock it. 

“Tyler?” You croak from the hall, drawing his attention. “You okay?”

“Yep, just fine.” He chuckles, shuffling forward to meet you. “Just protecting us from people looking for their thumb.”

“Hah ha. So funny.” You huff, letting him lead you up the stairs to bed.

-

[Thank you for the gif @makinggifsolson ]

[darrycurtisismywife]

Little Curtis brothers headcanons

I just made a post about little Darry so know I feel like making a post about headcanons on all the Curtis brothers as kids. I say all but this will mainly be Darry and Sodapop.

Darry used to be really scared of the dark, so he would either have to spend the whole night with the lights on, sleep in the same bed as his parents or his brothers, or his mum or dad would have to stay with him with the lights on until he fell asleep.

Sodapop was scared of the dark for a little bit but not as much and only sometimes, but he quickly grew out of that. The only times he was scared was when he heard Darry crying a lot, because he felt that if his older brother was scared off something, then it was serious, and there really should be a reason to be afraid. Other than that, he actually finds being in the dark calming, and it helps him fall alseep faster.

Ponyboy was also only somtimes scared of the dark, mainly when Soda or Darry was, because by the time Pony was like five, Darry still hadn't fully grown out of it, it was like a phobia. It was a chain reaction of kids being scared that their parents had to put up with, and sometimes they would all just sleep in the lounge together as a little sleepover, or at least the brothers would all sleep in Darry's room together and they would be fine. As Pony grew older, the only time he would be scared was when one of the other gang members, mainly Two-Bit or Dally would tell him a scary story.

When getting told off, Sodapop would almost always start crying immediately, and it would be full on bawling his eyes out. There are many headcanons of Soda being a little crybaby and I one hundred percent agree with that, it is pretty much canon. The telling off would turn into comforting little kid Soda and reasuring him that what he did wasn't that bad, and it was an accident or not his fault.

Darry wouldn't cry that much when getting told off, unless it was very serious when he was younger. He wouldn't really do anything or say anything and people sometimes mistook that as Darry not caring about what was happening. In reality he really did and would feel really guilty. When told by his parents, "We're not mad, we're just dissapointed," that would usually be when he broke down because he hated it since he didn't want his parents to be dissapointed in him.

Ponyboy didn't get told off that often because Darry would usally take the fall for him.

The name Darry came from when Soda was first learning to talk, Dary would sometimes play with him and try to teach him some words, including his name. Baby Soda couldn't say Darrel so he would say Darry instead and Darry loved it since he took it as Soda trying, and eventually everyone started calling him it.

Soda and Darry did the same thing with Ponyboy when he was learning to talk, playing with him and trying to teach him new words. When Ponyboy said Soda for the first time Sodapop was so happy he cried which caused Ponyboy to cry because he thought something was wrong.

When Ponyboy first started school he would be bullied for his name so eventually when he first met people and no one else that knew him was around he would lie and say that his name was Darry because he liked his brothers name a lot better and was sometimes jealous of it. When his family found out about this they had a long talk and Darry and Soda spent ages talking to Pony about how they loved his name, and the next day at school Darry defended Pony to be the kids at school.

Darry got into a fistfight at school once and got suspended for a week but he didn't care because he was protecting his brothers form more bullies

When Mrs Curtis was baking something all three of the brothers would lurk around the kitchen trying to steal some scraps when she wasn't looking. She was always looking and would hit them with a wooden spoon across their hands when they tried to steal some cholocate chips and cookie dough. One time she hit Soda too hard and made him cry so she had to give him some so he would stop, and then had to give some to Pony and Darry so it was fair

When Ponyboy started school he was really shy so Sodapop sat with him at lunch and introduced him to some people. Darry had showed him around the school and told him which people to stay away from because they were idiots

Whenever the family was going on a walk and they passed someone with a dog either Mr or Mrs Curtis would have to ask the owner if they could pet the dog and they would stay there for about five minutes so the kids could pet the dog. Sodapop would always be sulky when they had to move on.

They all love animal and would go insane whenever they see one. Especially Sodapop.

When Mr Curtis was doing some chores outside like mowing the lawn of when he was fixing the car Darry would always be following along and would always ask to try. He was always happy when he mowed the lawn and his dad said he did a good job when he let Darry help with the car

Darry was also always the one to sit in their dads lap and drive the car up the drive way

Darry used to sit in bed with Soda and Pony and read books to them, and a lot of the time at least one, or sometimes all of them, would fall alseep. There's a couple photos of them all sleeping in the bed with the book falling out of Darry's hand and it was taped to the fridge for a long time.

When Pony started learning to read he would try and read to his brothers instead.

Based on something my family used to do: Sometimes they would put music on the radio and all the three brothers woud dance to the music in the lounge and put on little shows for their parents.

Another thing my sister and I used to do: Sodapop and Ponyboy used to love eating frozen peas so sometimes their dad would sometimes pour them a small bowl of frozen peas and they would sit on the same chair together and eat peas.

When Mickey Mouse got sold Ponyboy drew a picture of him to try and help Soda. Soda was so touched that he started crying again and Pony panicked because he though he had made Soda sad but then he hugged him

Whenever Darry made Pony cry as a way to get him to shut up he would pick him up and throw him slightly up in the air, or give him piggy backs around the lounge and that would calm him down.

Ponyboy started over exargerating him crying so he would get free piggy backs

All the three of them have leaned back on the chair too far

Surprinsingly all three of them used to be picky eaters and it would be nearly impossible for their parents to cook a meal that they all liked that wasn't take aways or junk food. This is the phase they grew out of the most

Sodapop and Pony used to annoy the hell out of Darry by calling him Darry Queen whenever they went to Dairy Queen

Darry and Soda used to annoy the hell out of Pony by calling him horseman

During summer they would all annoy the hell out of their parents by begging them to set up the pool, buy them ice cream, or go down to the watering hole.

During the summer they would also have heaps of water fights and their dad would either turn the sprinkler on or just spray them straight with the hose

Second hand Darry clothes

I might do a part 2 if I can think of more but for now this is it.