#and that's true often enough to I still choose to engage with people from time to time

[cardentist]

well ! I'm making this post to make a point.

for context, I made this post [Link] earlier, wherein I spoke first about my frustrations with cis people not considering the trans perspective, and Second about my frustrations with me doing so immediately being framed as an attack on trans women specifically Because my frustrations were tied to me being a trans man.

(I do Also consider myself trans fem, but that wasn't particularly relevant to the original post, so I didn't mention it at the time).

this was then followed by an interaction in dms wherein the quiet part was spoken out loud.

1: that trans men Are Not equal to trans women, and that it is taken as an attack on trans women to present them as such (it is not).

2: that the idea that any individual trans man could face harm within the trans community from any other individual is, itself, transmisogynistic because it implies that trans women are capable of oppressing trans men (it does not).

3: that it is Impossible for any individual trans woman to ever speak over any individual trans man, because trans women are women and trans men are men (it is not).

4: that trans women possess some Secret Additional Layer of oppression that no trans man could ever match up to no matter what their individual experiences are, even when that trans man is Also a trans woman (they do not).

5: and by extension, that every single individual trans woman has it worse than every individual trans man in every situation (theoretical or real) no matter what, thus making anything that a trans man experiences Lesser Than by default (do I even need to say anything).

I am going to put the entire conversation (censored) under readmore, but I need it to be understood that This Is Not Hyperbole.

when I say that trans men are singled out and attacked for the simple act of having a voice This Is What I Mean. it is considered by some people to be Inherently Transgressive, Inherently Bigoted, for trans men to consider themselves equals. for trans men to consider their experiences equal.

and so, it is Assumed by Default that a trans man speaking on his own experiences is harmful to trans women Regardless of whether trans women are being spoken on or not.

not everyone thinks this way of course (and the people who Do think this way aren't dictated by gender, this isn't trans mascs vs trans fems this is about bigotry, which anyone is capable of)

but a Significant Enough proportion of people Do, and people don't recognize or realize this fact.

if you feel that I am being hyperbolic, if you've never been exposed to this way of thinking before, if you find yourself Agreeing with any of the points I have listed above, I do suggest reading through this conversation and the posts linked to it.

content warning for a brief non-graphic mention of rape/csa within the linked posts and this conversation.

Me: I know odds are you don't want to hear it, and that's fine you can ignore this message entirely if you'd like. but I Do think you'd better understand what my perspective is if you were to read my response

I do think I Understand where your perspective is coming from, and I get it on an emotional level. but there's a disconnect here where intent is assumed when it doesn't need to be [Screenshot of tags written by anonymous that reads: transandbros (transandrophobia + bros) they think that they can’t be the most privileged in a group because they think trans women have privilege over them. End Transcription]

I am trans masc yes, I am also trans fem, and I don't enjoy assumptions like this being made about me.

Anonymous: i said trans women as in TMA [transmisogyny affected] people. not transmasc or tranfem which can be used by tme [transmisogyny exempt] and tma [transmisogyny affected] trans people

Me: like I said in my response, I want to go on testosterone, physically transition, and then present femininely. I want things like an audibly deep voice, facial hair, a square jaw. I also want to keep my breasts, I want long hair and feminine features, I want to dress femininely and be read as a feminine And masculine person

I also live in mississippi. 

now do you think that if I do that I will walk outside and never ever experience transmisogyny.

Anonymous: also trans men oppress trans women and benefit from transmisogyny. i say this as someone who benefits from transmisogyny as well. i oppress trans women. i experience misdirected transmisogyny as someone w [with] facial hair and a low voice and long hair and tites. And when people in and out of my community learn about my gender and transition, much of tht [the] MISDIRECTED transmisogyny disapears[disappears]. my experience is better in certain situations than it would be for a similar trans women. if tht [that] is a statement you cannot aggree [agree] with than [then] there is nothing to discuss here

there is no way for a trans women to speak over a trans women [I think they meant trans men?] if they are otherwise on [a] similar playing field (white, abled, class, religion etc) thats not what speaking over means. thats like cis men thinking cis women are dominating the conversation when they make up even 30% of the conversation

Me: the post I was responding to was written by a cis person, I asked people to consider the trans experience and spoke about how it was frustrating that people Don't do that. /I/ was the trans person speaking to a cis person, and then it was decided after the fact that I was somehow stepping on trans women's toes by doing so.

Anonymous: okay great. shouldve kept that context than maybe you wouldnt have also revealed u [you] think trans women can oppress trans men

Me: this is why I suggested you read my response, because I don't believe that and I also explained explicitly why I didn't include the username of the original poster (though part of it, of course, is that I didn't want anyone to harass the op) 

Anonymous: i did read ur [your] response thats how i know you think trans women oppress trans men as equally as trans men oppress trans women

Me: that's not really how oppression works? I believe that trans people are able to Hurt Each Other, because all people as individuals are capable of harming each other as individuals. this is not the same thing as oppression, oppression is a systemic power structure that puts one group above another.

what I've said is that I believe trans people are equals, and you think this is a bad thing? 

I didn't even say that trans people are equals In The World As A Whole (though I do believe that), I said they're equals Specifically Within The Trans Community made by and for trans people.

Anonymous: and i wholeheartedly disagree with that! its incredibly clear as a tme [transmisogyny exempt] trans butch lesbian in community with trans women, its incredibly easy to see how tme [transmisogyny exempt] people are privileged over tma [transmisogyny affected] people

including in lgbt and trans specific spaces!!!

Me: so your point is that from Your perspective you have seen the way that people within queer and trans spaces have made you feel othered and hurt people for being trans fem.

my point is that This Is True, I have seen this as well. but I have Also seen people take that exact same energy and point it at other trans people. I have personally been othered and torn down both for being trans masc And for being nonbinary at different points in time. 

I am telling you that you are right, but that people need to be more open to other people's perspectives to get a clearer picture on the over all situation. 

because when we look at Everyone is saying, the truth seems to be that All trans people are torn down for who they are.

why is that a bad thing? what does it hurt to consider that I have also experienced something similar to you?

I Really hope that your point isn't that I am privileged compared to other trans fems after I spoke in depth about being raped by a man and how that's affected me for the rest of my life

Anonymous: no im litterally [literally] saying that amab trans fems and trans women experience another layer of oppression from afab trans people. i litterally [literally] told you i am also an afab transmasc person. why do you transandrophobia truthers litterally [literally] always jump to trauma dumping ! if you want to put it in those terms, you are privileged in comparison to amab transpeople who actually have higher rates of sexual abuse and rape. you are not more privileged than cis people who experience lower rates rape and sexual abuse.

and fuck u for reading me call myself a butch lesbian and calling me transfem so it suits ur argument

Me: 1: I'm sorry I called you trans fem when that isn't how you identify, I thought you'd explained to me that you were tme trans fem like you consider me to be. we're both upset and this isn't really the best medium to hold a conversation with, so it's easy to word things in a way that can be misinterpreted as well as misinterpret things that would be clearer if you had more time to sit on and absorb the information.

I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, but I am frustrated with you continuously jumping to the most negative reading of my intentions possible.

to rephrase my point:

"so your point is that from Your perspective you have seen the way that people within queer and trans spaces have othered and hurt people for being trans fem."

followed by the rest of it

2: that's not actually true, there are a few studies that have found that trans mascs over all face similar (and at points higher) rates of sexual abuse to trans women.

(this is a link to a tumblr post, but that tumblr post is a link to a study, I've included This link because it has easily accessible pictures of the relevant graphs).

though coincidentally I've recently made a post that relevant to this exact topic

the point I made there (and the point I'm going to make here) is that saying "This minority group experiences This Thing less than That minority group" isn't useful when speaking to individuals because those individuals have still experienced trauma.

individual people Are Not every statistic about their minority group, and they cannot have their Experienced compared based on those statistics

because Experiences are not dictated by statics. and treating people as if their experiences don't matter because their experiences don't match the statistics is cruel.

the other point being, of course, that using studies like this to try to hard measure the Amount Of Oppression between different minority groups is silly.

these are self reported with relatively small sample sizes of specific locations at a specific time. they're Important to prove that there is a problem, but there has never and will never be a measure of the experiences of every trans man vs every trans woman that we can then calculate and compare.

I'm sure there Are some statistics out there that show trans women with a marginal increase of sexual abuse compared to trans men, just like there are some statistics out there that show the opposite.

what this tells us is not that one group Inherently has it worse than the other, it tells us that trans people experience sexual assault, and that's a problem that needs to be addressed.

3: I find it incredibly distasteful to insist over and over again that someone is not oppressed, that they are privileged, that they haven't been hurt in a meaningful way. and Then refer to them speaking about their lived experiences as "trauma dumping"

if you can't handle frank discussions on the trauma and oppression that trans people experience on a day to day basis then you really shouldn't be commenting on that trauma.

[End conversation]

screenshots of the full conversation can be found here: [Link] I would've made a video to fully prove that these aren't doctored, but I don't want to out the person I was speaking to. they don't deserve harassment

[incognitofox]

In Defense of Charlie x Vaggie:

Hazbin Hotel is far from a perfect show. I quite enjoyed it, of course, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks significant issues (not that I mind, nothing is perfect, and I believe people should be allowed to enjoy flawed media). One such complaint that I see often is that the show’s “main couple,” protagonist Charlie and her girlfriend Vaggie, are “boring,” or that they “lack chemistry.”

Personally, for me, the relationship between these two ended up being one of, if not my favourite part of the show. I’ll admit my bias that as a lesbian myself, I’m always a sucker for any kind of wholesome sapphic relationship that I can get in the media. Even so, though, these two stood out to me particularly well.

And while, yes, I can absolutely see why their dynamic isn’t the most favorable to some people, I don’t think it’s correct to say that the writers “can’t write meaningful relationships” or “don’t understand love” (which are both real comments that I’ve seen whilst I’ve been a part of this fandom).

The first and most blatant criticism that I come across is that the two are rarely affectionate with each other, and while this seems to be the case at first glance, I can’t help but disagree. Though we rarely see the pair actively kissing or engaging in other activities that one would perceive as romantic, it’s clear that they find comfort in each other’s presence, even if it’s subtle.

Throughout season 1, the viewer is shown numerous instances of Charlie especially being comforted by her lover’s touch. For example, while Charlie is on the phone with her father, Lucifer, at the beginning of episode 5, we can observe that she is clearly anxious about the interaction. When it’s clear that Charlie is getting stressed, Vaggie opts to take her hand, and it can be inferred from her expression in the moment that Charlie appreciates this gesture, even if she finds herself preoccupied.

Keen-eyed watchers of the series will notice that the two are frequently seen in contact with each other, or at least in close proximity, implying a love language related to physical touch. However, while frequent, some argue that these little exchanges aren’t enough to sell the idea that the couple are truly involved with each other.

People seem to be disappointed that we don’t get to see any more intimate or outwardly romantic interactions between the pair outside these small snippets or the More than Anything reprise (which in truth was unfortunately very short). But in my personal opinion, I think this dynamic makes them even more compelling. Sure, they may not be the most affectionate of partners while on screen, but I never needed them to be in order to be convinced of their love for each other.

Keep in mind, Charlie and Vaggie have been together for years, they’re out of the honeymoon phase. They’re also both incredibly busy people, especially with the updated, much sooner extermination date introduced in episode 1. As much as it sucks, doing cute stuff with their respective partner probably isn’t their priority.

The beauty of this, though, is that despite it all you can still feel their love. Vaggie would do anything for her girlfriend, and she does. Their relationship is built on such genuine, wholesome trust and support for each other.

You can tell from the way they look at each other, and from the way they talk to each other, that even despite the chaos and despite the time, they are in love. So much so that even a potentially devastating reveal like Vaggie’s true identity is nothing more than a speed bump for them. It’s really quite lovely to see.

That’s why I can excuse the atrociously short run time of their duet, it’s their first moment of peace in months, and possibly their last ever, they don’t have time to do much, and yet they choose to spend this time declaring their love for one another, because they are still the most important things in each other’s lives. It’s so blatantly clear that their love is genuine, in this moment and outside of it.

I personally feel as though, in the world of the show, the relationship between Charlie and Vaggie is very realistic given the situation they’re in, and if I’m being honest, they have the kind of relationship that I myself would love to have.

In short, I understand why some people don’t like this pairing. I can understand liking other things better, and I don’t dislike anyone who does. I can understand wanting more from it, and hey, I’d appreciate it if they sprinkled in a few extra kisses next season just to feed the fans, but that doesn’t mean that what’s there doesn’t already exist. In my opinion, I think Vaggie x Charlie is beautifully written.

There are honestly so many other little things I could bring up about why I love these two so much. You are, of course, welcome to disagree, but I encourage those who do to avoid harassing those who contributed to the writing of Hazbin Hotel, or those who actually do appreciate this aspect of the show.

However, I also insist that people try to look beyond the surface, to see the detail and the beauty of this pairing, as well as other aspects of the show, or other pieces of media.

Because art is beautiful.

[she-is-ovarit]

I feel like not nearly enough education and awareness is provided for people and especially kids to recognize pedophile culture and grooming behavior.

Pedophiles view and treat children and teens as equals, and grooming often happens very slowly over time through the pedophile devoting quality time to the child or teenager. The actually grooming piece can take years. They also only rarely force or coerce a child into sexual contact - instead, touching is gradual. Pedophiles take the perspective that children and teens are capable of consent. People should genuinely be cautious of someone who seem to hyperfocus on and operate from the perspective of children and teens being psychologically developed enough to consent to what are normally adult responsibilities and decisions - especially pertaining to sex, sexuality, and the kids' sex-based characteristics.

A bullet list of common characteristics:

Popular with both children and adults.

Appears to be trustworthy and respectable. Has good standing in the community.

Prefers the company of children. Feels more comfortable with children than adults. Is mainly attracted to prepubescent boys and girls. Can be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

“Grooms” children with quality time, video games, parties, candy, toys, gifts, money.

Singles out children who seem troubled and in need of attention or affection.

Often dates or marries women with children that are the age of his preferred victims.

Rarely forces or coerces a child into sexual contact. Usually through trust and friendship. Physical contact is gradual, from touching, to picking up, to holding on lap, to kissing, etc.

Derives gratification in a number of ways. For some, looking is enough. For others, taking pictures or watching children undress is enough. Still others require more contact.

Finds different ways and places to be alone with children.

Are primarily (but not always) male, masculine, better-educated, more religious than average, in their thirties, and choose jobs allowing them greater access to children.

Are usually family men, have no criminal record, and deny that they abuse children, even after caught, convicted, incarcerated, and court-ordered into a sex offender program. The marriage is often troubled by sexual dysfunction, and serves as a smokescreen for the pedophile’s true preferences and practices.

Are often, but not always, themselves victims of some form of childhood sexual abuse.

Even if the pedophile has no children, his home is usually child-friendly, with toys, books, video games, computers, bikes, swing sets, skateboards, rec room, pool, snacks – things to attract children to his home and keep them coming back. Usually the items reflect the preferred age of his victims.

A female pedophile usually abuses a child when partnered with an adult male pedophile, and is often herself a victim of chronic sexual abuse.

A pedophile can act independently, or be involved in an organized ring, including the Internet, NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association), and other pro-pedophilia groups. Some pedophiles recognize that their behavior is criminal, immoral, and unacceptable by society, and operate in secrecy. Some are quite open and militant about their practices and advocate the normalization of pedophilia under the guise of freedom of speech and press, and uses innocuous language like “intergenerational intimacy.”

Here is another source:

Generally, pedophiles do not use force to have children engage in these activities but instead rely on various forms of psychic manipulation and desensitization (eg, progression from innocuous touching to inappropriate touching, showing pornography to children) (1, 5, 17, 21). When confronted about engaging in such activities, pedophiles commonly justify and minimize their actions by stating that the acts “had educational value,” that the child derived pleasure from the acts or attention, or that the child was provocative and encouraged the acts in some way (1, 3, 9, 22–24).

Many, many pedophiles use the trans rights movement and the gay movement to be able to access child victims or normalize pedophile culture by justifying certain behaviors and actions as having educational value.

A popular thing I see on here are comics or graphic design art that seemed to be aimed at children or teens to "educate them" about sexuality, trans identity, etc. This is not appropriate and is a red flag.

"The percentage of homosexual pedophiles ranges from 9% to 40%, which is approximately 4 to 20 times higher than the rate of adult men attracted to other adult men (using a prevalence rate of adult homosexuality of 2%–4%) (5, 7, 10, 19, 29, 30). This finding does not imply that homosexuals are more likely to molest children, just that a larger percentage of pedophiles are homosexual or bisexual in orientation to children (19)."

Fifty percent to 70% of pedophiles can be diagnosed as having another paraphilia, such as frotteurism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, or sadism (7, 12, 25).

In general, most individuals who engage in pedophilia or paraphilias are male (2–7, 9, 10).

Pedophilic women tend to be young (22–33 years old); have poor coping skills; may meet criteria for the presence of a psychiatric disorder, particularly depression or substance abuse; and frequently also meet criteria for being personality disordered (antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, dependent) (27) (Table 1). In incidents in which women are identified as being involved in sexually inappropriate acts with children, there is an increased chance of a male pedophile being involved as well (7).

In a study by Abel and Harlow (15) of 2429 adult male pedophiles, only 7% identified themselves as exclusively sexually attracted to children, which confirms the general view that most pedophiles are part of the nonexclusive group (attracted to both adults and children).

Federal data show that 27% of all sexual offenders assaulted family members.

The study by Abel and Harlow (15) found that 68% of “child molesters” had molested a family member; 30% had molested a stepchild, a foster child, or an adopted child; 19% had molested 1 or more of their biologic children; 18% had molested a niece or nephew; and 5% had molested a grandchild.

[drdemonprince]

autistic anon here again, thanks for fielding my question, you're a real one for not all toxic positivity on it. i guess i should've formulated things better, because i didn't mean to imply being completely wrapped up in decision paralysis to the point of doing nothing. that's a mental hurdle i've cleared a long time ago, so shit gets done. i have a few emails sitting in my inbox of fundraisers i helped with that closed out, and it;s making me emotional just thinking about it.

there's a weird disconnect between knowing that you're just one person (and that's something i actually like, i'm no-one special, that's a very freeing thought), and fully feeling it. because somewhere there's always a nagging worry i could do more. as true as it is, reminding yourself you're doing what you can feels like a convenient self-soothing lie when you're in the pit of a bad night. probably the calvinist whispering poisons in your ear. (being afraid of falling in the trap of slacktivism or just reposting everything as a signal boost and patting myself on the back for a job well done, amongst them. which is BS, but knowing isn't believing.)

i mentioned the autistic part for a reason, because community is something i've never quite experienced and only understand in the abstract. like those fundraisers i helped with many, many other people, that's a community effort and i'm proud i could contribute my little bit. translating that to in-person efforts has been a big ??? though. it's not very parseable or approachable to me.

i hadn't quite grokked this as all being part of shame, i have your book sitting here and have read it a while, probably should reread it.

Hey, thanks for writing back! I hear from people of all levels of engagement, from having never done anything to like dedicated black bloc hard core mother fuckers so it's hard to gauge from a single message what someone's particular situation is.

It sounds like you are already doing a ton, choosing actions to take, following through on them, reflecting on the impact of your tactics, and then regrouping to do more and to try things differently where you can. Yet you still feel like shit sometimes and as if you're not doing enough. What to do about those feelings?

Well. Consider those feelings aren't a problem you have to fix. They're just a thing that will happen. Because of cultural conditioning and endless exposure to alarming messages and imagery online they're just gonna come up. Those feelings can just exist while you keep doing the damn thing.

You've already got your behavior on lock. You're doing what you can and not succumbing to choice paralysis. You're hopefully not burning yourself out. It doesn't sound like anything needs to change, maybe other than you not consuming too much online bullshit that's making you feel even more guilty needlessly.

You say: "there's a weird disconnect between knowing that you're just one person (and that's something i actually like, i'm no-one special, that's a very freeing thought), and fully feeling it."

Yeah, you might not ever fully feel it. As long as you keep acting like it's true, you're good imo.

i feel like the most evil selfish unlovable human being alive most days. it doesn't really matter that i do. it sucks, but that's just a fact of how my life has been. i can keep picking myself up and doing what i have decided is right for me to do anyway. i do what i can to avoid triggers that make that feeling worse, so that it doesn't become a barrier to action, but otherwise i just... keep on living, with terrible emotions and terrible thoughts. and i focus on my actions.

As for the community piece, I hear you, it's really fucking hard. I think it's very humbling work that is so worth doing though. Often it involves showing up to the work that a group is doing and living with the fact that you won't know what the fuck is going on and looking inept for a while. it's a necessary distress tolerance building exercise, getting more comfortable with just being there and rearranging the chairs and setting up the food and feeling like a dumbass who has nothing to contribute.

being able to sit with those feelings and keep showing up and not having an ego about it is enough to earn a lot of trust and foster deeper connections, I find. so many people fail to be able to even do that in most organizing/activist/volunteering spaces. I understand it feels mortifying but it is another one of those situations of getting over oneself in a way that's ultimately so freeing and beautiful. when you can accept that people want you around even if you never have anything to say and do nothing but bring paper cups and take out the trash. it's a real object lesson in how not being all that important can be a wonderful thing and make it possible for us to find love and acceptance.

[acourtofthought]

Problematic Arguments

The one where Lucien isn't relevant or should be forced to deal with a broken bond and a mate who doesn't choose him in the end even though every other male mated to a resistant Archeron eventually got their HEA. Where another jealous male deems him "not good enough" so that must be the truth 🤦

Lucien was based off Sam Heughan's version of Jamie Fraser in Outlander.

Lucien similarities to Jamie Fraser:

Both Jamie and Lucien were whipped.

Both Jamie and Lucien were S/A

In Outlander, Dougal (Jamie's uncle and one of six children) considers Jamie a threat because Jamie could have been competition for Dougal, as an able-bodied male of MacKenzie blood, for the bid of laird. Lucien was one of seven but was also considered a threat for the title of High Lord (to his brothers in this series).

They both have red hair and Jamie's is long in many seasons.

Though Lucien empathized with what Feyre was going through, he was also torn by what was necessary for the Spring Court as a whole. Similarly, Jamie did not truly want to punish Claire for her mistake in season 1 however he knew that in order for the clan to still protect her, he had to do it as it was the way of his people and what was expected of him.

Jamie stood up to Jack Randall on many occasions while Lucien stood up to Amarantha on many occasions.

Both Jamie and Lucien are open with their emotions and feelings and intelligent.

Both make mistakes but quickly apologize and learn from them.

Both Jamie and Lucien are fighters when necessary however they are also well educated.

Lucien was willing to die on Feyre's behalf rather than tell Amarantha her name while Jamie took Laoghaire's punishment for her.

Both Jamie and Lucien were injured when falling from their horses.

Jamie was willing to let Claire return to the future after marrying her, if that's what she decided she wanted and Lucien walked away so Elain could go back to Graysen since he knew that's what she wanted as she was still in love with him.

Jamie is a natural born leader able to navigate social situations with ease and that is also fitting of Lucien, why Tamlin made him his right hand and why Feyre says he sounds more High Lord like than an unwanted son.

This is said about Jamie: True to his sign, Jamie is extremely stubborn, much like the Frasers who came before him. He is also fiercely loyal. This is what is said about Lucien: “You know them better than I do. But I will say that Lucien is loyal—fiercely so.”

(Claire, written to be the love of Jamie's life, and Elain also share similarities -

Curly, light brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin.

Was in love (and married to) another male when she met Jamie just as Elain was in love with and engaged to Graysen (interesting SJM gave Elain that storyline in the same book she realized Elucien would be mates).

Claire did not choose to marry Jamie but was forced into the arrangement just as Elain did not choose to have a mating bond.

A nurse turned healer when she traveled back in time (💡), Claire is able to take charge and stay calm in stressful situations. Elain hasn't fully grown into herself but there are hints of this - “I’ll do it,” Elain said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. She didn’t wait for either of us before she strode out, graceful as a doe. / But Elain’s cry—a warning. A warning to— To my right, now exposed, Tamlin ran for me. To grab me at last./ But Elain said, “Nesta.” Slowly, my eldest sister looked at her. “Nesta,” Elain said again / She put a hand on Nesta’s knee, the purple of my sister’s gown nearly swallowing up the ivory hand. “Feyre gave and gave—for years. Let us now help her. Help … others.”/ And then walked to me and Nesta, who pulled back long enough to survey Elain’s clean face, her clear eyes.

Claire is nurturing, yet matter of fact and well spoken most of the time however when pushed she's a bit feisty and will swear which shocks the men of that time. Likewise Elain often says things that surprise her sisters and hoped the queens "burned in hell"

Further proof of SJMs Outlander love:

Below is proof of her love for LUCIEN:

Sarah J Maas also said this of Helion in a May 12, 2017 interview, 10 days after the release of ACOWAR ( the book where she announced that Lucien's real father was Helion):

So it is difficult for me to imagine that SJM would base Lucien off a character she loves, a character who finds his soul mate in Claire after a rocky start and an arranged marriage, change Lucien's father to a character she's obsessed with (the High Lord of Day giving Lucien the power of the sun which Elain craves) only to have his Cauldron given mate (who he has longed for over the course of 3 books) reject him.

That would be like Claire returning to the future and choosing never to go back to Jamie which would have ended the series very early on.

Their love is epic because even though it wasn't their choice to come together at first, it ended up being EVERYTHING.

Sometimes the best things in life are the things you never expected and never knew you wanted.

If SJM considered Lucien her love, than why would she want him to have less than an epic love with his soul bonded mate? She has told us it doesn't get better than that so why would he be given less than the best when as the author she has the power to give that to him?

[jessthetea]

I guess Jess’s attempt to debunk the breakup rumors and get attention failed tremendously because it didn't get the noise she thought it would. On Twitter, the post only got 10 likes and 3 retweets but comments calling them out for it being old photos, Instagram had 11k likes and that is barely anything along with comments calling Jess out, barely on Facebook and that's it. It is not going viral anywhere because people didn't ask if they were “still going strong” or care about the relationship to begin with except when they officially dated publicly in 2022 at the same time Jamie got his role in Stranger Things which was convenient. (Plus Jamie’s silence and still traveling alone even though he was “supposedly” with Jess isn't helping her case either). Not saying Jamie isn't important or popular because he is and there are plenty of articles and results under his name and still counting even though he's not an A-list celebrity yet, it is just that he's not THAT popular (yet) for paparazzi and media to follow him on every single thing and they definitely don't care about Jess as to why they haven't posted anything about her or their relationship for two going on three years until they recently “cared” about what’s going on. Jess is steadily outing herself that she's behind this and everything else that Josey had facts on her about is true. Now karma is catching up to her and she knows her time of fame that she barely had is coming to an end.

Jamie is certainly not what one would classify as an A-list celebrity, and that much is indisputable. His appeal is far more specialized, perhaps confined to a particular niche or genre. While every life holds its own significance, in the realm of fame, Jamie is neither prominent nor popular enough to attract the relentless attention of the paparazzi on his own.

Even with his role as Vecna in Stranger Things, it’s doubtful he faces the same level of scrutiny as his co-stars. One can quite confidently assert that the more prominent members of the cast contend with the paparazzi far more often than Jamie does. Additionally, the character he portrays bears little resemblance to him, both in appearance and voice, which only serves to make him even less recognizable or prone to public harassment.

Moreover, Jamie hardly seems the sort who is thirsting for fame or attention. Acting and music may be his professions, but one gets the sense that he engages in them out of personal passion, not for the lure of wealth or stardom. Many performers fall into this category—dedicated to their craft, yet choosing to keep a low profile, taking on projects that appeal to them rather than those designed to catapult them into the public eye.

As for Jess, her motives remain somewhat elusive. It’s patently clear that she craves fame, power, and wealth, as her behavior prior to her involvement with Jamie indicated. One might speculate that she believed Jamie was on the cusp of astronomical fame, especially following his portrayal of Vecna in season four, with the promise of season five to come.

Perhaps she imagined he was on the verge of becoming a billionaire, a veritable A-list superstar, and thought she might simply ride his coattails, much as she’s done with Renell and Quil. But Jamie is decidedly not that kind of man, and whatever grand scheme she may have concocted seems to have faltered.

It was rather amusing, in fact, to see the comments on the JustJared photos, with people asking who she was—one even noting her resemblance to Snape from Harry Potter in that particular ensemble!

This only reaffirms the reality that she is largely unknown or, at the very least, utterly irrelevant to most. Even more amusing were the remarks about the photos being old, as if that diminishes their significance entirely.

It seems Jess's brief experience with fame is nearing its inevitable conclusion. Even her most ardent supporters—the stans, irritating though they may be—have grown notably quieter, seemingly less eager to defend her.

They appear to realize her time is nearly up, and I, for one, can’t help but anticipate the fallout. I suspect they’ll all pretend they never supported her in the first place. Whatever the outcome, it’s evident that Jess is desperately clinging to Jamie’s fleeting fame, while he appears to be making every effort to distance himself from her.

[wombatwisdom]

Thoughts from the Gather Conference

I want to take some time to engage with some of the speakers from the Gather Conference. I do want to share my thoughts with others, but mostly I'm doing this for myself. Also, my thoughts are based on my recollections of speeches I have only heard once and do not have the text to review, so everything is my paraphrasing and interpretation.

-------------------------------------------------

Charlie Bird and Allison Dayton spoke one right after the other on Day 2 of the conference and whether intentional or not, their messages paired nicely.

Charlie's address, entitled "Resolution through the Gospel of Christ" focused mostly on dispelling the myth of having to choose between being a child of God and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He believes that the idea of needing choose is a lie and one that is held onto by traditional thinking. His call to arms was to actively choose both, be a child of God who is out and proud.

Allison Dayton's speech, entitled "Enlarge the Place of Thy Tent", was focused on reaching out to people in the "wilderness of life" and invite them into our tents. She was clear that the tent in her analogy is not the Church as an institution but rather the personal tent of our lives. She said, quite clearly, that we cannot do much about the church's policies of inclusion, but we can invite everyone into our circles of love regardless.

-------------------------------------------------

Potentially controversial take here, so fair warning.

To the outside observer these talks seem a bit toothless, especially when looked at from an activist lens. Enlarging circles of love and being out and proud children of God on their own seem like harmless and lackluster. If you are looking for monumental change, will either of these acts actually accomplish that?

I'm also not sure Charlie or Allison have alterior motivations here, they may not be actively trying shake things up, but my Machiavellian little soul can help but see something deeper going on here.

The church is often times miles behind when it comes to social change and obvious activism hardly ever results in much more than name calling. True change in the church comes from those in minority groups gradually carving out acceptance and many many many meetings with those in power. And since most of us won't sit in counsils with those in control, we must settle with carving out acceptance.

Here is where Charlie and Allison come in. There is something transgressive in what they are saying while still remaining technically within the doctrines of mormonism.

Charlie's approach feels similar to Harvey Milk's in the 1970's. Milk's philosophy was that everyone should be out in all walks of life to show that "average people" knew someone in the LGBTQ+ community. This was controversial at the time and still is now, but I can see the appeal of this approach. And I personally think there was some success in the normalization of a very specific type of "queer person" in the mainstream.

Charlie's proposal directly confronts the belief that some Mormons hold that the LGBTQ+ community is somehow not part of the Momron community. Or that we shouldn't be. And I do think that being out, at the very least, would force people to recognize we exist and we are unavoidable.

Allison's approach is different but reaches a similar outcome (and can be practiced by Allies and LGBTQ+ folks). By encouraging people to expand their circles of inclusion she is subtly disrupting the status quo in Mormonism. Ultimately she is proposing a grassroots movement, first of love and support, that if grown large enough might force larger change.

-------------------------------------------------

Now again, this is my inference and thoughts. And both of these approaches are very quiet forms of activism that don't ask for very much and deliberately indirect. This is, if it is anything, the long game.

I think I wanted to share this because often this type of advocacy is either dismissed entirely by critics or is easily missed by those looking for it as the advocacy is implied rather than stated.

At the end of the day, advocacy in this space is controversial, difficult, and messy. And while imperfect--i think that there is at least hope to be had. Because even if change doesn't come, Charlie's and Allison's visions will still be vital in building community which is always needed.

[velvet-vox]

INDOCTRINATION F####NG SUCKS

AND WHY IT HARMS ART TOO.

The title is self-explanatory yet it cannot overstate the massive damage and impact that culture, society, and any other type of long term influence has on the human mindset and its artistic output.

You may be thinking, what is this post talking about? Well let me explain.

You see, the thing about me is that I tend to enjoy more complex stories with complicated characters and dynamics, but not in just the political, real world type of way like Arcane politics, I am towards the type of stories that allow for good characters to remain good and for the status quo to change in a substantial way; for antagonists to be complicated while not having them all be morally grey but showing that even the more seemingly black and white ones are not just pure evil atrocities and are still worthy of a shot at redemption; to not have said redemption be served on a silver platter but not just permanently locking people out of society just because they required said society to invest too much time and effort in helping them become the best version of themselves, because unfortunately, despite the opposite being also true, we are not born equally and some people are going to struggle more than others due to things outside of their control like their personality type and lack of mental fortification.

I want balance in storytelling! Not just gore or wholesome, not just morally grey or black and white, not just big spectacles and pause moments, but all of those combined in ways that force me to reflect on the media I consume and the way I consume it, to dig further in the limits of artistic expression and the classification of art as a whole.....

And indoctrination just ruins all of that, period.

We all, from a young age, are conditioned to uphold certain standards and to not challenge said standards in fear of being cast out by the people around us and the world we live in.

Art, as a medium, should be used to counteract the rigid lines of thinking that we're asked to uphold, but unfortunately, even if just subconsciously, the harmful, more strict lessons that we learn growing up still make their way into our works because of the mass consumption of simplicity we endured in our childhood.

From a very young age we are taught simple, clear cut definitions of right and wrong, and then we are subsequently told to simplify all of our real world problems into easily computable boxes so that we can be more efficient at our job, from moral decision making down to choosing what to eat for dinner; the adults tell us that it's ok to ask questions when in reality we're often punished or ignored for asking them and we all grow to internalise a passive acceptance of the status quo because that's what the status quo taught us to do in the first place.

I wanted to write this post because I was getting angry at myself for screwing up my own ideas due to my pathological need to divide right and wrong into easily checkable boxes and thus creating issues of the "these two ideas cannot interact or mix with each other anymore because of the way I segregated them" kind. I am always afraid of punishing my villains too much and not punishing my heroes enough and it's very hard for me to find that balanced middle ground that all works of art should strive to achieve; and then I realised: the problem has less to do with me and more on the unfortunate mindset that I internalised in my youth that keeps popping back up slowing down my output for thought provoking stories.

Admittedly, this is a larger issue that (contrary to what our collective nurture has drilled into our heads) cannot be easily resolved and probably requires a vocal discussion of some kind since typing can be extremely tiring and doesn't have the same engagement value of a dialogue, I'm very sorry if you found this post amateurish or you think I haven't conveyed my ideas well enough, I hope someone with a cleaner picture can show me what I got wrong and would like to share their opinions with me.

[asshatthewoobie]

BBC Robin Hood Season 1 Thoughts

I’ve decided to rewatch a series I haven’t seen, or heard of in ages, despite having fond memories of at least season 1 and 2. I was 12-13 at the time, and I wasn’t really involved with the international fandom (small as it is)yet. However, even then the drop off at season 3 was noticeable, and soured the desire to engage with more fan content.

Now, as time marches on my joy at seeing anything vaguely medieval/historical has lessened. Whereas I would’ve been in awe at seeing the bros do some archery seven years ago I’ve consumed a lot more shit now, and so my heart has grown cold and unfeeling. This does make laughing at the stupid editing a lot more easier, but that wasn’t my only reason for me to seek this show out again. Truth is I want to feel some amount of joy again, and if watching a goofy anachronistic laced BBC product with some surprisingly compelling moments is going to do it that will be the way.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

Guy of Gisbourne:

So I’m starting of with the character I feel like people have some divisive opinions about. I remember being skeeved out by Guy on my first watch, not able or willing to see any nuance in his character until his character redemption in season 3 (which some have argued isn’t as much development as it is him getting the crumbiest amount of not being as much of a shitty person). I was planning on trying to see more humanity this time.

Well

I suppose I should reserve my judgements for season 2 or three, but so far I cannot bring myself to see Guy as a mere victim. It’s true that his dynamic with the Sheriff has an unequal dynamic to it, with Guy often being berated in a way that could be interpreted as verbal abuse. Even then, as we see in episode four he doesn’t hesitate to abandon his own bastard child and not tell the mother. This is never addressed again so I guess both the fans and the writers chose to forget this ever happened but I’ll choose to hold onto this. One thing that has remained unchanged from my previous viewing was the discomfort I felt with his relationship with Marian. Seeing her delivering that punch was very satisfying.

Much:

Much is a tricky one for me. On one hand, the moments where he is allowed to be gentle and the voice of reason were among the best of the first season. I feel like the power dynamic between him and Robin is addressed…and that is what makes me a bit uncomfortable with how much he is seen as the butt of the joke. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but although Robin has made him a freed man, it feels more like a gift he has no qualms about retracting when he sees fit, like him insulting him in the last episode (you are a small man). Much is obviously hurt, but eventually still helps Robin, and a part of me feels like he comes off too easy for the comment he made.

Robin and Marian

Both Marian and Robin surprised me with being decently written upon my rewatch. It would have been very easy to just make Marian a girlboss, and though she has moments of that (what’s with the random tai-chi) I feel like she was allowed to be make mistakes and to have her own convictions opposite to Robin. Robin can be arrogant, but I also feel like the series allows other characters to disagree with him enough that he never becomes too unlikeable.

I generally like their relationship except for one big thing, the constant jealousy from Robin. I get it, relationships do need conflict, but at some points I just wanted to roll my eyes at the upteenth time that the guy made another remark about Guy. No Robin, she doesn’t want to do this, put yourself in her spot for once you man child.

[findingoblivion]

First of all I have nothing against you or WOTC employees at all, I think you're great and I really appreciate all the things you've done for the community. This is just another one of the things that I admire you for, with all the complaints and emotions about something people care deeply about you choose to continue to engage with and try to understand the community despite that, and I fully know how hard it can be especially when you're one of the people receiving vitriol.

My problems with magic almost exclusively come from a business POV. I know Hasbro wants to make money. I know they are making money. Probably more money than you've ever made before prior to this, if I had to guess. And I don't really have a problem with that. It's great that the game can continue to grow and be played and that the company and employees can be comfortable and thrive.

My problem is when the pursuit of money comes at the expense of other things, and when growth is desired but not necessary. Often times a company will attempt to continue to grow and make even more money - and often times this leads to consequences for the company and sometimes major ones.

A common adage used among yourself and others is that if you don't like the product you don't have to buy it, and this is true. But lately it's felt a lot like WOTC is chasing the money and favouring new players over old and returning players. Lately it's felt like the adage has become "we don't care about you, you've already given us your money". The UB change feels like this is an even bigger step towards that. While old players look forward to returning to their favorite sets, WOTC is cutting down on those sets and possibilities. While old players love to see new iterations of their favorite characters or love to see an old character fleshed out more, UB doesn't include any of that.

New players of course will be drawn towards trying the game when their favorite franchise receives a crossover. And old players will also like some of the crossovers and not like others. You've touched on this in the past with UB, talking about how even if a UB set is only liked by a small portion of the current user base, it's often the case that the new players it brings in will still make that set profitable. But what about the portion of the player base that don't like those franchises? It seems like WOTC is saying that it's okay for a player to go potentially months, a year, or even more without ever seeing a set they're interested in. Take me for example. Hypothetically let's say the next sets printed will be SpongeBob, Fortnite, Return to Mirrodin set, Mirrodin Set 2, FNAF set, Minecraft set. Let's say I don't have any interest in any of these sets. I don't like Mirrodin, don't like artifact synergies or decks all that much, and have no interest in any of the UB sets. That's a full year of magic content that I have no interest in, so what am I supposed to do? There's no more that's interesting to me, probably no spoilers, and the magic community will be constantly talking about things I have no idea about. Oh my god, have you seen the Ender Dragon card? It's so cool!

The product seems to be primarily for the same people as Gachas and games like Shadowverse at this point. Casuals who are just dipping their feet into card games because their favorite franchise is getting a crossover and they have the money to try it, who wizards are hoping will get hooked and spend even more money, and the whales and rich people who can afford to buy boxes and packs and RL cards and are already hooked on the feeling of opening sealed and bearing people with their wallet.

The other concern I have is with powercreep as UB sets have been notorious for that, and when it seems like a lot of the issues with cards stem from not having enough time to playtest changes or cards, moving to a shorter development window seems like an incredibly shortsighted move.

New players won't know or care very much about how the game used to be, how it used to feel to have a casual experience and be able to contend with the players who had the best cards with your kitchen card collection (I once won a modern event with Jeskai IsoRev tempo, the most expensive card was Lightning Helix at around $4, this was around RTR block when JTMS was still around and Jund was still a deck, Cryptic Command was an all star etc) that you could throw together and expect to win some games at least (if not matches) and have fun.

Nowadays those decks have been completely power crept, there really isn't a single deck that would perform well against the current meta with almost no changes. The standard decks of today are probably as powerful as modern was then. Remember when Liliana of the Veil got printed into standard, a card that was one of the all stars of the modern format at one point, and saw almost no play? Even legacy and vintage have gone through huge changes. Delver doesn't play delver. Tribal decks basically don't exist. The meta is stuffed full of UB cards and powercreep over the last 5 years. I still remember when WOTS was released and everyone collectively lost their shit at the power level of the set but that kind of power level is a normal tuesday now, and Modern Horizons are even more powerful. What was once unthinkable and rare is common place now.

And with these sets only becoming more common and the design crunch getting SO much worse it's only going to get worse. This is a big thing I haven't seen talked about much. Sets and cards NEED to be playtested, it's been talked about so often at this point it's a trope, there have been so many interviews talking about how cards have been changed and shipped without being playtested at the end of a cycle and ended up being incredibly broken because of a missed interaction or lack of play testing. Oko, Nadu, DRS, etc

And you're giving your designers even less time to do that when this is already a huge problem? If Hasbro cared about the quality of the game they'd be moving to longer cycles and working on minimizing crunch. They're doing the opposite.

It's very clear and has been for a while that Hasbro only cares about money. The 30th anniversary was a big sign and this is too. But in my experience when you fuck with the job itself and make your employees lives miserable, that's when things go massively downhill. I don't see a lot of people staying on with this kind of development cycle for very long. I think there'll be a lot of turn over. That's never a good sign for how a business is run and while it feels impossible that magic could be unsuccessful, this has all the makings of starting that boulder rolling.

Again I don't dislike you personally or any WOTC employee and I hope that it does work out and that we can have a better balance, but I haven't spent a nickel on Wizards product in paper for probably 7 or 8 years now and I spend very little on digital products, usually once every few months if that. My primary form of gameplay is proxying cards for kitchen table play and playing online on services like table top simulator. If Hasbro/WOTC want my money they'll have to show me that they care about me as a customer as well. And this isn't a power level thing- I run my own formats for Legacy and Vintage with Minimum or No Ban List, and love NBL cEDH. It's an accessibility and money thing.

I’ve always felt the core role of this blog has been one of information. We make a lot of choices in design, and I try to use my various communications, including Blogatog, to walk the players through what we were thinking when we made key decisions.

The challenge with this approach is that it’s very logic-focused. It uses intellectual justifications to explain actions. But the problems I’m often responding to are emotional in origin. I have a good friend who’s a psychologist. He refers to this (using the words of author Robyn Gobbel) as an owl brain solution to a watchdog brain problem.

When someone is hurting, hearing about why the thing that is causing them pain is the result of intellectual decisions falls flat. That’s what has been causing some tension lately here on Blogatog.

It’s clear that for some Question Marks changes over the last few years represent the loss of something key to what makes Magic special to them. To them, the game is losing its heart.

While I can’t necessarily do anything about that, I want to better understand what you’re going through. So I’m using this post to ask players who are concerned with the recent changes to help me understand their feelings. Let me hear your stories about how your lives have been affected by these changes.

[thepatchworkreview]

Curtain Call: I've Never Been Here Before at Cafe Colonial - 12/22/23

Manalia, the sole performer of the both aptly (and hilariously) self-appointed "dream-punk-dance-music/shoegaze screamo" act called: I've Never Been Here Before; chose to share on her Bandcamp that "shyly, shyly" is what a sibling of hers used to call butterflies, a symbol commonly associated with the transgender community. If you don't immediately find that emotionally devastating—all context of her music considered, you can eat your own shorts. (excerpted from 'The Closed Eye Experiment' ). 

It isn't often that you get an artist who just blows you away with overt, unconcealed lyrics and themes of being transgender. (That's a statement I resent, yet still find true.)  Manalia leans heavily into the very real struggles and desolation that trans people face daily—Not speaking to family or loved ones due to living truthfully, being the abject of hate and cruelty in social settings—the list could go on for more pages than anyone would be happy to see—

"You dont go to sleep and think

Ill become a different thing

Its more like the knocking

Just starts to make sense

You dont have to let her in

Shell still die in the end

But her hands are soft and sweet

When she walks into your house

Having interviewed and DM'd back and forth with Nalia, I would just like to say, that she has been the kindest, most obliging, and most responsive gal the whole way through. She's got ideas and thoughts and easily expands on snippets in a forward, engaged, fashion.  These are staples of her art and craft. Her outright demeanor and creativity are showcased just as unmistakably in the album art she chooses to use, and the way she decides to tell her stories. (You have some concept album lore to look forward to y'all!) (Pictured below, A sketch of the demon, Cherary, for an upcoming project of hers).

In an interview I nabbed with Nalia, she told me she rated this show a good eight or nine out of ten. Having played about forty shows over the span of a year at the time, it sounds to me like this one killed preeeeeeetty darn hard. (Note; before playing solo, Nalia used to perform with another local Sac act, Nick Pants!!) Her favorite song to play live right now is "It's Raining Again", as it's her oldest song, and people still respond very positively to it.  Now, according to Manalia, her best song to play live right now is "grl (I can't see u)", which makes sense from how reactive the crowd was—  I cannot stress enough how intense and beautiful of an opening act I've Never Been Here Before was. A master of both hardcore and acoustic instrumentals/performance, I expect absolutely massive things from her in the future. You can find her on Instagram @iveneverbeenhereb4 And everywhere else through her linktree! Thanks for the read!!

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 186 - Quiet

Martin II: Because it makes the sadness feel at home. It turns it from a burden into... Martin I: ... an indulgence.

I think I can sort of relate. This isn't something that happens to me a lot, but it is definitely a slightly familiar thought process.

Martin: Because you want to stay. Because you want to have a real rest. To just breathe and … be quietly sad, I guess.

It's true. The poor bastard has just been RUNNING (metaphorically, though sometimes literally) since the apocalypse, if you don't count the brief stint at Salesa's and even there he didn't really get to be by himself enough to digest any of it. I mean, Martin goes on to argue that it wouldn't be healthy but to be honest, wouldn't it??? At least for a moment??

Martin: But we both know that loved ones make the worst therapists. They’re too wrapped up in trying to stop you hurting to actually help. But hey, we know all about that, am I right?

I think I've got that issue from the loved one's side (that is, I'm the one often too wrapped up in trying to be comforting to really help). But then, I have always said that Martin is painfully relatable to me.

Martin II: It wasn’t your fault. Martin I: Yes, it was. Martin II: That’s just the guilt talking. (...) Martin II: She was awful. Martin I: She wasn’t well. Martin II: Both things can be true. Martin I: She was still my mum! Our mum. Whatever! Martin II: And we’re glad she’s dead.

At first I thought the "Martin literally talking to himself" thing was a little hokey, but this is actually a very nice way of presenting the torn emotional landscape that is Martin's feelings about his mother.

Martin II: Because you feel guilty about everything.

If I remember correctly my partner gave me a very significant look when we were listening to this together for the first time. Martin really is uncomfortably relatable at times.

Martin I: I choose the guilt, because (...) Because it motivates me to do better!

I am beginning to feel a little uncomfortably seen here...

Martin II: It’s this, this fantasy that you have, that whatever you find at the top of the Panopticon is just going to solve everything.

Being called out by YOURSELF for your bullshit has got to smart a bit.

Martin II: I can’t tell you their names, because we don’t know them.

Hey, you literally just told us one of them is named Tim! Which one is it??

She wasn’t talking, wasn’t engaged with any of the bright and happy people. Her smile was fixed and deliberate, and it didn’t quite match her eyes. She was among this joy, yes, these sparkling friends, but she was not a part of it, not really. She tried to be, wanted so desperately to be a part of their easy warmth, and maybe they thought she was. But they hadn’t known her, not really. They hadn’t seen the empty ice that filled her, that kept her apart from them, that she desperately tried to thaw with each and every friendly face that smiled at her.

Yeah, been there, done that...

If they should stumble upon an old photograph, some half-remembered birthday party that still brings up a smile, and then see her face, sat there amongst the revellers, they will frown, just for a moment, as they try to remember her name. Then they will shrug, and forget they were even curious. They will not think to wonder about her.

It does seem like every single Lonely episode conjures up at least one scene or concept that is an absolute nightmare scenario for me. Cf. THIS SHIT!

My impression of this episode

This is a very quiet episode (does what it says on the tin, I suppose!) but also a very good one. Martin's "self-analysis" is rather poignant in parts (and perhaps hits a little close to home at times, as Martin-centric episodes apparently tend to do for me). I also find this expression of the Lonely rather fascinating (and again, personally hard-hitting), but the Martin-Martin conversation is definitely the highlight of this episode.

[leonbloder]

Letting Go Of The Sin Of Certainty

One of the best books I've read over the past five years is Peter Enns' The Sin Of Certainty.  This book was instrumental in developing my own theology and provided me the language I needed to articulate it better. 

The book's thesis is simply this: Many Christians "mistake 'certainty' and 'correct belief' for faith when God really desires trust and intimacy."

Enns provides space for the reader to wrestle with the notion that doubt and skepticism are not the enemies of the faith but rather provide us with the opportunity to deepen our faith if we are courageous enough. 

But for many Christians, the fear of what might be on the other side of doubt and skepticism is too much to bear, so they double down on the perceived safety of certainty. 

According to Enns, the refusal to move past the safety of certainty when it comes to our beliefs falls short of what God desires.   

We also fashion a faith that clearly delineates lines between who is allowed in and who is kept out.  

In one sense, we lose the notion of what it means to be a true disciple who wrestles with their faith, and in the other, we can quickly put ourselves in the place of God, deciding who is orthodox enough to hang with our particular community of faith. 

As you might imagine, there's sin (or falling short) in both senses. 

I love this quote from The Sin of Certainty: 

“When we reach the point where things simply make no sense, when our thinking about God and life no longer line up, when any sense of certainty is gone, and when we can find no reason to trust God but we still do, well that is what trust looks like at its brightest – when all else is dark.”

We might struggle to understand how the Bible gets used so often as a weapon or a way to exclude, or we have a hard time believing some of the things we read in it. 

Or we may reach a point in our lives where the trials and tribulations of life leave us exhausted and feeling isolated, wondering where God is in all of it.  

It requires no small amount of humility to admit to ourselves that we doubt and often struggle to understand what God is up to in the world.  It takes humility to say that we don't always get what we read in the Bible. 

It also takes humility to be open enough to want to learn more, dig deeper, and do the good work of true discipleship, which is to wrestle with and engage in matters of faith.   The esteemed atomic physicist Dr. Friedrich Dressauer once said: 

At the beginning of all spiritual endeavor stands humility and he who loses it can achieve no other heights than the heights of disillusionment.  

When we choose the certainty of our beliefs or the safety of our traditions over the fact that we don't know everything, we can easily become disillusioned when something happens to send our carefully constructed belief system crashing to the ground. 

I've had so many conversations with people who left the Christian faith because what they'd been taught to believe was certain came into question within the crucible of experience. 

Some of these people experienced losing a loved one or ending a relationship.  Others came to grips with their sexuality and were expelled from their faith communities when they came out as gay.  

And some started asking questions, wondering why, or openly doubting.  

The bottom line is that these people were faithful disciples because they wrestled with their doubts and struggled with their faith, but because they were told they weren't, they left. 

God gave the Hebrew people the name Israel, the very name given to Jacob the Patriarch.  That name means "The one who wrestles with God."  The name says it all.  This is what God desires: people who are engaged enough in their faith to doubt, wonder and ask.  

So may you ask your questions of faith.  Voice your doubts.  Wrestle with them.  True discipleship is marked by the openness to learn and to grow.  May we all find that kind of openness and no longer sin with certainty.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, now and forever. Amen.  

[ignis-writes]

By Chance, By Choice

Summary: Summary: Will Syverson and y/n find love during hard times in an alliance made to keep the peace? (im bad at summaries)

Pairing:mob boss!Logan Syverson x female reader

Word count: around 1.7K

Warning: mob and stuff like that, mentions of fight bloodshed, arranged marriage. angst, fluff, and hardcore smut in future parts

A/N: This chapter is just an introduction to the universe from the reader's pov. English is not my first language and this fic is Not beta'd like everything else on this page. So look out for obvious mistakes

Image credits: Pinterest

Even if u don't like this, please comment, would be a great help to improve

*No permission is given of reposting, copying my work or ideas and parts from it and claiming it as your own* 

Arranged marriage AU -

Mob Boss AU

Chapter 1

The Engagement

An Arranged marriage? It sounded ridiculous and impractical.  But belonging to a mob family that had been around the blood business for so long, I've heard it often, especially around my eldest brother's marriage. Back then it felt like an alternate option if tinder doesn't work, but right now I'm close to no option. 

From a third-person perspective, It was like, everything was handed to me on a silver plate, and to a point it was true. Being the daughter of an influential man, and being raised in a wealthy family I did not have many struggles compared to an average person. But the problem with the silver plate is that it comes chained to your arms. This chain essentially limited my freedom to choose many things for myself, from where I studied to what I wore. And now who I married.

So when my father casually broke the news of this proposal at the dinner and asked for my opinion, I was not surprised. And by the looks exchanged between my brothers, Jude and Milan, It was clear that I shouldn't have a bad opinion for starters. This was not a proposal but a promise, a promise made on my life without my knowledge or consent. A promise put together by two mobsters for god knows what purpose. A business agreement? A peace treaty? I was yet to find. 

The Syversons were a familiar name in the underworld. The man I was supposed to marry was Logan Syverson, the old Don's younger son and only heir since the passing of his father and the murder of his elder brother Richard. Richard's death created a series of shootouts and gang wars which led to a fiasco that called for immediate negotiations and peace. Plus Syverson shared his high school and college days with my second brother, so they were pretty close even after all these years. This is all I knew about the man I was supposed to marry and his family. Still, I got ready to meet him and his family since my father had way too much hope in this alliance and he even went to the extent of thinking we would make an excellent couple. That was the clue, father wasn't just wagering a business deal, he wanted to "join the families " or whatever it meant. 

____________

The night before my engagement to him or my first time meeting my future husband, I couldn't sleep and had mixed feelings about him, about the marriage, and its aptitude for building anything more than a peace treaty between 2 groups of influential people. I wondered if I will like the stranger of a fiancee. A part of me feared it was probably gonna be another faux excuse for marriage, like Jude and Catherine. Even though they were lovely individuals with much kindness and love in their hearts they didn't work well as a team. On the other hand. I had my parents and their extraordinary bond to look up to. They loved cherished and respected each other and set a great example for their 4 kids to follow. Once I heard Uncle Benjin say they hit the jackpot when it came to an arranged marriage while toasting to the well-being of their relationship on its 25th anniversary, that was 10 years ago when I was 15. 

I kept tossing and turning in my bed for a few more hours so I went down to the kitchen to grab a drink, maybe if I had enough alcohol to doze off my system, I could fall asleep. Stupid thought actually, I was more likely to stay up if I drank. So I opened the fridge instead, to find ice cream. There was always some ice cream in this fridge. When I was around 5-6 used to sneak out with my brother to get some sweets past midnight, but pappa would catch us. He was never mad at us once he even joined our Lil ice cream adventure with his own share of choco chip cookies dipped in a warm glass of milk. It was our lil guilty pleasure.  But this time for a change I saw my mamma, she stood by the kitchen window looking out into the vineyard. 

"Mamma? " 

"Oh honey, you can't sleep either? " 

"yeahhh. I'm glad I have company, maybe a lil ice cream would help? 

"sit down you, I'll get the ice cream"

she turned to the fridge in a hurry before I managed to turn up the lights, and a tear? Was she crying? For what???

Knowing my mom, if I asked she would get annoyed further so I didn't ponder it any further. We sat together with the ice cream and talked about the past, not anything serious but all the silly stupid things I and my brothers did as kids, and giggled at some really awkward memories. We purposefully avoided talking about that time when pappa got shot and we had to move away for some time. After all, weren't trying to send away any hopes of sleeping tonight, and when silence fell again I asked. 

"ma, I don't know what it is but you know you can talk to me, right...…" 

"Oh it's nothing honey, it's just " her eyes were damp again.

"It's just I always felt like you never liked this lifestyle, the constant fear, instability and everything bad that came with the money and power… *sigh * I didn't get to choose who I married, but fortunately I married a good man. Together we made a family brick by brick. It was not easy, we took it slow and steady. Had to pretend at some part, had to turn a blind eye, forget and forgive but the efforts were mutual, we fell in love with each other.  

But for you, I hoped better, like you could choose your life, your husband, and ever since your pappa came up with this proposal I had this impending feeling that like you would have chosen to marry outside this society if it was your call.  Even cut all ties with this dangerous world and move out to somewhere peaceful, and…and normal. So yeah..." She wiped another drop of tear and continued "Im sorry we had to lock u right back into this world where mothers start every day with the fear of not seeing their children and husband ever again... it's terrible, really"

 

For a second I didn't know what to say, but I couldn't leave her in the silence either so I said, just for the sake of saying anything

"Oh mamma, you don't worry about that for a moment. I am your daughter, I will not just let somebody's arrangement decide the course of my life. And about getting out of this world, I was born here but never a part of it. Always a bystander to whatever went on in the name of the "family business" always a wallflower. I hated it of course, by trying my best not to see too much, not to let it bother me. my life was good so far ma, it will be good in the future cuz it was and will always be my decision to keep my happiness. So My marriage will be good, or I will make it good. " I said smiling 

No matter what I said, no matter how confident I sounded It was confusing, the hour was late and my mind was still wandering but after a few minutes with mamma, I felt like I could nod off for a while.

__________

The engagement went well, well…not uneventfully well. I wore a simple pink dress and waited in my room, Catherine was there to help me calm down my nerves. She said she knew him, not well enough but she said he wasn't a bad guy maybe it was true, maybe it was true. Maybe she just wanted me to calm down. When pappa led me to the hall he was silent except for the kind smile he offered me but his face was optimistic.

The hall was decorated in pink and white flowers and laces. The delicate sound of the piano kept humming a familiar tune. Not many people stood there, just his family, the closest of his friends, and mine. He was already there when I walked down the stairs, he must have seen me first because when I spotted him his eyes were already on me. Damm, he was handsome.

Some part of me wished I could meet him sooner. But another part of me was still a bit anxious. Finally, we got engaged, shook hands, and talked a bit....a lot. He was taller than I expected and well built. His eyes were many hues of blue with an isle of brown.

'Cute. My kids are gonna have those eyes' I caught myself thinking. wait, what???? I met this man 5 mins ago and I was already planning kids and their eye color. There is seriously something wrong with me.

As soon as the crowd around us took off to socialize with others, he asked me if he could get me a glass of champagne. Sure he might have noticed me not standing still and shifting weight from leg to leg. So we sat down by the balcony and he got me my glass. The fact that he served in the army as a captain back when Richard and his dad ran the business was new to me. He asked if I was okay, with this... This means the marriage and him. He was a good listener, he let me talk and paid attention. He seemed friendly and polite. Altogether a nice guy but still a stranger. Some part of me hoped this sweet demeanor was not just an act. 

My parents and his mom's brother, ( who first approached my dads with this proposal) were in a hurry to get us married so the wedding was fixed 2 weeks away from the engagement. Wow.  It was too fast, and I was quite stressed as it was. The ceremony would be a gathering for the so-called superiors of the mob world. I would be able to call my best friend Vivienne, that's it. No one else. But what intimidated me was the haste around getting this done, why this rush, were they preparing for something else? The silence and the haste surrounding the engagement and the wedding gave me an eerie sensation, one strong enough to wonder if I was walking into a trap.

Or Maybe I can walk into a fairytale.

I went to bed replaying the conversation we had. It felt comforting, but not enough. I wanted to see him again, talk to him, and dance with him. That night I fell asleep quicker than I expected with a silent smile upon my face and a hopeful warmth filling my soul.

'It's gonna be alright ' I told myself

[phoenixyfriend]

👀 PLease tell us your thoughts about the Jedi babies re-growing up among different cultural contexts.

Oh fuck okay

Context: original post, chrono The specific post this ask is referencing: here

Summary of the AU: Disaster lineage got tossed back in time. Anakin stayed 21-ish, but Obi-Wan and Ahsoka got deaged, took new names for time-travel reasons (Ylliben and Sokanth, or Ben and Soka), are now staying with the True Mandalorians under Jaster Mereel because the Force said to, go back to the Temple after about a decade. They grabbed Shmi about three months after arriving.

So as far as the cultural background goes, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had similar upbringings. She spent a few years on Shili first, but both spent the majority of their childhoods up to age 13/14 being raised in the creche. So that's the basis that they would default to, in a vacuum.

Nobody is raised in a vacuum.

Along with the Jedi cultural background, they're being raised by Tatooine natives in a Mandalorian environment.

Shmi and Anakin are both former slaves who have desert survival baked into their bones. The longer Anakin spends around her, the more his accent slips, the more he talks about old folktales, the more he uses idioms that don't exist on a cityplanet like Coruscant. All the things that he tamped down to be a Jedi come floating back to the surface, and Shmi's never known anything else. Anakin's knowledge of slave customs make her feel more comfortable, which in turn makes him feel better, and so on.

Mandalore is just... the culture they're living in. You don't grow up in a new culture with a new language without picking up on it personally. (Source: I moved to the US when I was a little under two years old.)

I think the thing I'm going to focus on as an example is the way each of these cultures approaches family, and then maybe how they approach the keeping of peace/what peace means.

Jedi: Where you come from means little, only the legacy you leave behind in your students. Mandalore: You protect your clan and your children; adoption is a major cultural value, if not actually practiced consistently. Tatooine: You can lose your family at any time, so you value what you have in all its forms. You don’t forget where and who you came from, to family of blood and family of choice alike. You cling to your memories and what little you still have of them, to what your master cannot take away.

These are all valid ways to approach family, and each of these approaches can have significant meaning to different people. But they do all, to a certain degree, conflict with one another, despite all three being fairly communal cultures.

The Jedi have a culture, one that’s built on a shared ability and religion over thousands of years. It’s not just an organization, but a continuous community with legends and traditions and art and records. But it’s one that is built on new blood coming in from the outside, volunteers who join because the religion speaks to them (near literally, given the nature of Force Sensitivity), given up by families who couldn’t or wouldn’t teach them in a way that let their talents flourish instead of pushing it all down.

For the Jedi, a culture built on people coming together due to something they have in common intrinsically that their families of blood do not, it makes sense to put emphasis on letting go of that past when they can, and to place importance on teaching lineages. It’s not just the official master-padawan pairs, either, but that’s the most obvious and easily paralleled element. Moreover, a lot of the Jedi culture is about gaining knowledge, so obviously spreading it is good, and also on supporting the galaxy to make it a better place; to view the Jedi order as a heavily communal culture would make sense, since their values are all about selfless betterment of the universe, which on a larger scale is about the galactic conflicts, but on a smaller scale is about supporting their own community, the children and the ill and elderly.

So that is the specific culture that Obi-Wan and Ahsoka grew up in, one that holds blood family as relevant but not particularly crucial to one’s identity, but is structured so people leave behind legacies through education in a manner that often becomes adoptive family (depending on your definition, I guess). Jedi are encouraged to connect to their home cultures, if not their families, with practices like the coming of age hunt for Togruta leading to the young Jedi taking a trip out to Shili to engage in that cultural milestone. This can also be viewed as a way for the Jedi to maintain personal connections to the wider universe, a (not entirely successful, but certainly attempted) way of keeping them from becoming too isolated and insular from the universe at large, and losing touch from what the galaxy actually needs of them.

They’re now growing up with two cultures that do place emphasis on blood and found family.

Mandalore, as presented in The Mandalorian, has their traditional values set as being heavily associated with their armor, battle skills, and childcare. While that’s clearly a set of values that aren’t actually followed by everyone with full sincerity, we can assume that these stated cultural values do have at least some impact on the way the society is structured, since we do see more traditional characters (Jaster, Din) adopt orphaned children and then have the Mandalorian elements of their immediate circles support that claim.

(We’ll ignore Jango and the whole clone army thing because the amount of Sith influence is up for debate and also holy trauma, Batman.)

However, we also see that a lot of Mandalorian culture is built on their family histories. On the New Mandalorian side, we see emphasis placed on the fact that Satine is House Kryze and that she’s a duchess. Her bloodline is relevant, though not the most important thing about her. On the Death Watch side, we have Pre and Tor placing emphasis on the fact that they’re Clan Vizsla, descended from Tarre, that this is important to why they deserve what the darksaber represents, this is part of why they not only deserve to lead, but should for the good of Mandalore.

Bo-Katan’s armor is a family heirloom. Boba’s armor was Jango’s, but before being Jango’s, it was Jaster’s. Armor is important enough to pass to family, but the family can be adopted. This all tracks.

The resol’nare specifies loyalty and care for the clan/tribe among the six tenets.

These two elements seem relatively well-balanced: the importance of adoption and the importance of family as a larger unit on the level of a house or clan.

And then you have Tatooine, which also balances blood and adoption, but for entirely different reasons, that being this: it can always be taken from you.

For all that a Mandalorian could historically expect their family to die in battle, and a Jedi could expect to lose their master the same way if things went poorly, those were usually choices. A Mandalorian was raised to walk into battle, and then they could make that choice to do so. It wasn’t often much of a choice, but they could feasibly turn their back and choose to be a farmer or a doctor or something, and support the people who went out to do battle instead of being the one on the field themselves. A Jedi could choose to be a healer or an archivist or join one of the Corps.

A slave does not get that choice. A slave can be killed or sold on a whim from their master. It’s not a one-time trauma, but an ever-present fear. Your parent, your child, your sibling, your spouse, all of them can be separated from you at any time. You can always lose them, and you have no choice but to grin and bear it, or try to run and die before you reach freedom.

In a context like that, I imagine Tatooine places a very heavy emphasis on family, both of blood and of choice, and on treasuring what you have while you have it. A person is always aware that they can lose whoever they have in their life, and so they make the most of their times together, have clear and consistent ways of expressing that love (I imagine primarily direct verbal confirmations and physical contact, practical gifts like water and fruit). Childcare is important, elders are venerated. Those who survived that far have valuable wisdom, and the children are to be given what happiness they can have before reality wipes that ability from them.

The family ‘networks’ among Tatooine slaves are smaller and tighter knit. There’s less trust for outsiders, but once you’re in, you’re in until you are taken away. Still, families are torn apart regularly, and often can’t contact each other after being separated if they’re sold far enough away, so families stay small because they’re always being broken up. Unlike Mandalore’s tribe/clan system, or the Jedi’s wide, loosely-structured community, Tatooine’s slaves form smaller groups that cling for as long as they can, and try to support each other. (There are selfish ones, of course, especially the newbies, but... well. Most try.)

Tatooine is also much more likely to assign a familial role (e.g. referring to an elder as ‘grandmother’). It’s not uncommon in the others (multiple Jedi refer to their masters as a parent or sibling, like Anakin’s “you’re like a father to me” line), but it’s not as baked-in that such a role should be given.

So on a structural level, we have two people from a community culture with little emphasis on blood family or formal familial roles are now being raised in a community that has them asking “what can you do for the people around you first, and then the wider world?” by people who tell them “your family, blood and found, is the most important thing you have; never let anyone take more from you than they possibly can.”

And that shit has an effect.

For all that Sokanth and Ylliben were once raised with a knowledge that their duty, their goal, was to better the galaxy as a whole, they are now being told that the community that raises them asks their loyalty back, because societies are built on support networks, and if you support the tribe, it will support you. There are parallels to that kind of thinking among Jedi, because it is basic social theory, but it’s not presented as the same kind of cultural value. It’s not given as something to strive for, just a basic fact.

This, for instance, means that once they’re back at the Temple, they have a tendency towards suggesting study groups and other ways of supporting people in their immediate circle, often structured in very unfamiliar ways. Again, this isn’t uncommon among Jedi, but it’s not done in the same way, or with the same emphasis. The Jedi also often approach problem-solving in a different order, so the step of “meditate on it and you may find your solution” often comes before “gather information from people who know more about it than you do,” while Ben and Soka have by this point learned to do it the other way around, because that’s what the Mandalorian system taught them: rely on your family first.

Meanwhile, the Tatooine element of their upbringing has them being much more willing to just... casually refer to ‘my dad’ and ‘my sister’ and so on. They use those words. It’s not just “my master is like a father to me,” but “this is my father.” They don’t hesitate to talk about the family they had and still have in Mandalorian space. None of the Jedi begrudge them it, really, but it’s always a shock to hear for the first time, and between the Tatooine refusal to pretend the connection is gone and the Mandalorian tendency to err on the side of roughhousing as affection, they’re just... odd. It’s not like none of the other Jedi know family outside the Order--some of the old books had Obi-Wan visiting his brother on Stewjon once in a while--or like none of the active Jedi are loud or boisterous, but the specific manner in which Soka and Ben interact with the Order, especially when their dad is around, is very weird.

More Soka than Ben, really, but that’s mostly just because Ben’s a very quiet person until he gets a little older, so it’s harder to notice on him.

Point is, while they still hold to their duty to the wider galaxy and will continue to keep that duty above almost anything else in their lives, the way they talk and act about the subject of family, especially in private, is heavily influenced by their new cultures.

This is already very long but I promised I’d talk about peace so let’s go:

The Jedi seek peace as an absence of war and conflict in the portion of the galaxy under their purview, in hopes that they will prevent as much suffering and death as they can.

The Mandalorians are varied, but Jaster Mereel’s group (which is the community the Skywalkers are with) is likely to view peace as unrealistic to achieve in the long term. They do not seek war, but they know the world they live in, and are prepared to protect against violence as their first resort. They always expect an attack, even if they don’t seek it.

The Slaves of Tatooine view peace as the calm in a storm. It is the status quo. Nobody has escaped tonight, for the guards aren’t searching, but neither is anyone dead. The Master you have is in a good enough mood to not sell you, to not kill you, to not beat you. Peace as an absence of suffering is impossible, so you seek for your master to be peaceful, that is to say: not raging at you.

The scope of each of these narrows significantly. From the known galaxy, to the wars that meet Mandalorian space, to the household one serves.

A community like the Jedi can choose to address peace as something to be sought on a large scale as an absence of war. They primarily function within the borders of the Republic, which has its problems but is largely structured to prevent such things from occurring until the Sith interfere. The Jedi have a structure that allows them to address peace as an ideal to be sought, at least within the borders of the territory they serve.

Mandalore, meanwhile, has been at war on and off for... ever. When they are not at war with themselves, they’re at war with someone else. ‘Peace’ is just the time between wars, and they know that if they do not attack first, they will be forced to defend. Jaster Mereel was known as the Reformer, and part of that was that instituting a code of honor, one that was intended to prevent Mandalorian warriors from acting as raiders and brigands, but rather acting as honorable hired soldiers, or taking roles such as the Journeyman Protectors. Given that, I imagine that he views war as something inevitable, but also something that can be mitigated.

War doesn’t touch Tatooine.

Oh, it might raise taxes and import rates. It might prevent visitors who come for the races. It can do a lot of things.

But to a slave, these are nothing. The only thing war does is affect the master, the person who chooses when their slaves get water, when they get beaten, when they are no longer useful enough to keep around or keep alive.

The peace of a slave’s live is dictated by how much abuse they are subjected to by the person who owns them.

What this means for Soka and Ben is... well, they are viewed as war-hungry by the people who don’t know them very well. They have armor. They focus on fighting, both with and without their sabers. They know tactics better than most masters. They claim that war is coming, and don’t seem too sad about it.

(It is a fact to them. War will come. All they can do is meet it. They’ve already done their mourning once.)

They also... well, Shmi tells them things in hidden corners. How to duck their head to hide the hate or fear in their eyes. How to watch for the anger in the tendons of a hand. The laugh of someone who enjoys the pain they’ve caused, not just the adrenaline of a fight. She is free, and so are they, but she has not forgotten how to hide in the shadows until the master’s ire has turned elsewhere. How to be small and quiet and unseen until the danger passes.

A Jedi’s first resort is words. Their second is their saber. But the Jeedai hold their heads high, and the Mandalorians do the same.

“You rely on the Force, and you have your pride,” she tells them, her hands on their own. “But there will come a time when you will not be able to remind people that you are free. You will not be able to say that you are a person, that you deserve the respect of a living sentient. Perhaps it will be a politician who treats everyone like that. Perhaps you will be captured by an enemy. Perhaps you will be undercover. You will not be able to fight, with words or with weapons, and you will have to know how to survive.”

Tatooine does not have peace. Tatooine only has survival.

And while Jedi fight for the survival and peace of the universe, they are refined and composed. Mando’ade fight like warriors of old, and Tatooine slaves fight like cornered, rabid anooba.

The galaxy comes first, but when the chips are down and the Sith come out to play, Soka and Ben do not need refinement, because they know how to toss aside their pride and live.

[sundarika]

headcanon in two parts, sorry. Ask does not miss it. 1.1 Oh, you know the insecticons from the tfp? Can I have a headcanon where a S/O person is on friendly terms with insecticons?

[TF PRIME] S/O Is Friends With The Insecticons

———————————————————————

* [S/O] meets them by accident quite a bit before the events of the Energon Eaters. Arachnid is still “leader” of the Insecticons by technicality as the only available ‘Queen’ for the hive-mind, however she never really patrols the area or takes care of the hive as she should, rather choosing to wander as a free mind, disobeying orders from everybody.

* You had stumbled upon the hive while taking a short walk along the side of the Jasper highway, leading out of town and to an old coal mine you liked to inhabit on your days off work. A home-away-from-home of sorts, it brought you peace of mind to have a quiet place.

* At least you thought it was a quiet, desolate area until you broke through a thinning in the rock floor of the entry shaft and ended up crashing an Insecticon tea-party.

*It was a rather awkward fall, and it had injured your hip joint on the way down, leaving you temporarily paralyzed in throbbing pains and nerve damage.

* The giant bug-like robots and their shiny, metal wingspans immediately armed themselves and aimed at the shifting dust and rockfall, growling and chittering in a language of some sort, unknown to you.

* “Is it one of those ugly-faced Decepticons ploys again?”

* “It’s too small and squishy, much sooner to be a predacons’ chew toy than any weapon.”

* You looked super confused, absolutely stupefied, completely duped, utterly incomprehensible, awkwardly awed, amazingly idiotic, a-

* Their manner of speech and vocal patterns was practically lost on you. You could pick up remnants of a language similar to broken [language], but really nothing else. In an attempt to make contact with the metallic giants to gain help, you enabled your parroting capabilities.

* Humans have the stunning ability to mimic sounds and specific noise frequencies, at levels other earthen animals, especially mammals, cannot. Using this ability, you managed to copycat the grinding and chattering noises coming from the vocal mass of bug-bots.

* [S/O]: “¿Krrt-grrut vvurrr chechch?”

* Hardshell: “¿Buzzzz vert-tet-brrrz, Erreech?”

* [S/O]: “¿Erreech?”

* Hardshell: “¡VRREE BUZZZ-EECH CLICKLICKIK!”

* The contact went well, unbeknownst to you, and the successful communication meant that you might actually have a chance at escape, or finding a hospital!

* Congrats! You are now [Tiny Bug Child]! You have no idea what they were speaking about, unaware that they were contemplating how to execute you, but you successfully managed to evade death by being cute and cuddly! People say curiosity killed the cat, but it evidently saves the naive human-who-fell-into-an-insect-cult-meeting!

* Hardshell, the Insecticon you nearly landed on top of, begins to lift you out of the rubble, and place you down upon a makeshift stone table, partially destroyed by the collapse. The others—including Wingflap, Bombshell, Shrapnel, Blockhead, and Kickback—gather closely around you, cooing and chirping in their weird language again.

* This was, evidently, how you became the new Queen of the hive, though you didn’t know it, and managed to befriend your way through the entire enclosed community and worm into the spark of every Insecticon, though they were very few in number.

* You made easy friends with Bombshell, and remained close with him up until his untimely death by Bulkheads hammer fist. He would often lay atop the Jasper cliffside with you, and make out shapes in the clouds, constellations in the stars—regaling to you tales of the Old Cybertron, when his own kind weren’t so despised, and were respected as viable assets and allies amongst those with forms like and unlike their own—until the Autobot Elitists ensured they were seen as ugly and malformed, made to hide away in the shadows and step away from society for ‘the greater good’.

* It’s how you came to hate the Autobots—and Decepticons—for all they had done, to their planet and yours, and to your friends as well.

* Your mimicry slowly turned into actual speech patterns and recognition. Repetitive sound signals were a key portion of Archaic Insecticon speech, which made it easy to recognize simple words or phrases, each indicated by a set of whirs, clicks, or beeps.

* Now that you could actively communicate with most of the hive, it was far easier to make friends with even the hardiest of bots.

* Hardshell, of course, was tough to crack. At your constant insistance, he spoke with you once or twice, and made sure to acknowledge your presence when in the room, as well as save you a seat at the underground pub every other weekend. It wasn’t actually a pub per-say, rather a dugout chamber with smooth walls and some stone slabs insert for seating, where the cons enjoyed engex they could sneak off the Nemesis from time-to-time.

* After awhile, he warms up to you, welcoming you back to the hive every day after work, standing alongside his multiple siblings, and pushing others aside to get to hold you first.

* Meanwhile this all happens, they still don’t know what a human is. Their simple understanding of earth comes only from what they’ve seen on the highway from the cliffside, or from video footage of the Autobot pests on the Nemesis. Due to their bulky size and noisiness, they’re banned from most human-inhabited areas.

* Don’t doubt that some of them have attempted to follow their [S/O] home. They have. And some of them won’t stop trying. It’s been more than one awkward encounter between you and some teens to get them to realize they could get you in trouble.

* You all eat [dessert] together sometimes, made with energon supplements for ‘The Boys™️’, with some good ol’ 25-something-kg of sugar mixed in.

* The boys were worried when you didn’t show up for a week due to hospitalization via severe food poisoning medical coma.

* When Arachnid finally returned to Earth, and her fight against Arcee had proceeded about as well as expected, she located the hive and proceeded to force them to engage in business with Megatron. She believed that by implementing her own soldiers amongst the ranks, she’d be better equipped to backstab Megatron when the time came.

* She was undoubtably surprised when Hardshell and some others adamantly refused to take part in her plans at first, until she enforced their compliance through the hive-mind.

*When she learned of your existence, and the very gauge of your importance to her former hive, she came at you with full force.

*The Insecticons were fully unprepared to deal with a fight between their small [S/O] and an extremely angry ex-Queen. In refute, they returned you to the surface without so much as a goodbye, and begged you to escape before Arachnid scented you out.

* It was soon after these events that you learned of Breakdown’s death, Bulkhead’s coma, and Bombshell’s demise due to the combined effects of a substance called Tox-En and injuries sustained during his battle with Bulkhead. It broke you inside to learn there was nothing you could have done to help, but you refused to disobey their pleas to stay away for awhile.

* At the hive, Arachnid rules supreme. Being able to control the hive-mind was a feat a human was incapable of achieving, only Cybertronians able to easily access the imbedded chain of command.

* Hardshell mourned the loss of a true friend—a small, squishy human—but a friend nonetheless.

* Wingflap and Kickback went through a collection of memories you’d left behind with them. Pictures and small objects gifted over the years, a small treasure trove of important parts of their lives, now without you in them.

* Shrapnel stims a lot more now, and has nervous tics that he believes are the result of the loss of his dear friend. He knows you aren’t dead, least not yet, but he knows that you’ll likely never come back.

* Blockhead, as dumb as everybody thinks he is, is actually very emotionally intelligent. He has a way with words he barely understands, and [S/O] acted as a big support for someone like him. Without them now, he can no longer function like normal, and now has nobody left to talk to.

* Arachnid could care less. She absolutely despises [S/O], and would smite them for all she cares. You matter little to her, and only worry her for the loyalty and capacity of her troops.

* It isn’t until the Energon Eaters appear that everything turns completely south.

* [S/O] finally builds up enough courage to march themselves back down to the mine, and demand to meet Arachnid face-to-faceplate.

* The desert is hot, Nevada is hotter, and the trek down the highway seems endless and tedious. You pass by 5 interstate signs on your way to the hive, and count the steps it takes to reach the entrance, parched by the time you make it there.

* In all your sweaty glory, you, [S/O], make your way down the carved pathway into the mineshaft, dark and cramped—just as you left it.

* But everything is exactly as it was left, not an item out of place. The entire hive was empty, including of those you cared about. Their rooms are full of memories, and their energon cubes still lie in a corner, collecting dust and grime.

* The search seems profitable, yet it leaves you with nothing, and the emptiness of the hive echoes around you, and in all the chambers, through the cavern walls of every room.

* You know they’re gone, that they have left without you, and without so much as a simple passing note.

* Perhaps someday you’d find them, hiding away in another Jasper mine, but you never would.

* In their haze of a hive mind, they barely even remember the face of the human they left behind. A long line across the moon—stretching on for miles—and a vampire on a false throne, draining the lifeblood from their veins, and the image of [S/O] from their minds.

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✨ Hope you enjoyed ✨