#and then both Catra AND Adora figured their shit out

[1very1fancy1doilies1]

oh brother, remind me to never look at the "latest" on the catradora tag ever again, because how are there still so many anti catradora (really just anti catra) accounts actively posting in the year of TWENTY TWENTY-FOUR 💀 I swear I've blocked so many

[carto0ncritter]

I'm sorry but I genuinely can't understand how people can look at Stolitz and Catradora and think these ships are healthy in any way, shape or form.

Stolas r*ped Blitzø. No, consent given in a life-or-death situation doesn't count

Stolas is racist towards imps, and this didn't change even when he "fell in love" with Blitzø

Stolas doesn't appreciate or respect Moxxie and Millie in the slightest (and was disappointed that his "Prince Charming" wasn't the one to rescue him)

He looks down on Blitzø and calls him things like "impish little plaything" and "his big dicked Blitzy" and doesn't stop treating him like shit even when Blitzø says loud and clear that he hates being talked down on like this (DUH)

The only thing Stolas knows about Blitzø is that he hates books and the only thing Blitzø knows about Stolas is that he's a boring bookworm. Keep in mind, the two figured this out about each other while they were kids, 25 YEARS AGO, after Blitzø was bought so that he could be Stolas' "friend" for ONE DAY

Stolas doesn't love Blitzø for Blitzø. Stolas loves the *idea* of Blitzø. The bird man wants to live a romance that is just like the romances in his cheesy novels. He wants to ride into the sunset with his one true love. He wants grand romantic gestures. He wants his "Prince Charming". Except, Blitzø isn't the type of guy for such sappy displays of affection, he never was. Especially combined with his trauma. And as soon as that other imp guy asked him to dance, Stolas not only accepted the offer, but Blitzø was no longer on his mind. And no, I don't think being drunk is proof that Stolas didn't mean what he had told Blitzø. Drunk people find it easier to say what's really on their mind after all

Blitzø fell in love with his abuser. This makes sense, actually. The guy always pushed everyone away and never got to experience true love, and now that he has the chance to be "wanted," even if the "relationship" is toxic, he finds it hard to let it go

As for Catradora, the things I wanna say about this ship have already been said throughout the years, but it all boils down to these things:

Catra mentally, emotionally and physically abused Adora

Catra had no problem ending the whole entire universe if it meant she'd finally be better than Adora

Catra was a war criminal and a fascist

Catra was responsible for what happened to Glimmer's mom and never apologized, let alone faced consequences

Their relationship was toxic even when they were kids

They were both raised by Shadow Weaver and were the only ones in the Horde who saw her as a mother figure, thus making the ship straight up incest, with even the official source material calling them sisters (adoptive siblings ARE REAL SIBLINGS!!!)

Catra got exactly what she wanted in the end (the girl she's always been obsessed with and dependent on) and, once again, faced 0 consequences for her actions

The show (and C//A stans) fetishizes abuse. As a SA survivor, I felt physically sick during the final episode, where the abuser ends up with her victim/sister and they kiss

In short, these ships are disgusting and the lgbt community deserves better representation

[manic-sapphic]

crimson waste catra ranting~

it's ironic, cause w the backdrop of a lifeless desert wasteland, every moment of the super pal duo out there gives me so much damn life. hp restored in full every time.

catra and scorpia, desert beauty queens in less than a mf'ing day, just casually ruling the place.

they party for the first time in their lives - catra is actually letting herself laugh about shit and has been all damn day - pretty sure she laughs more that one episode than prob like, the whole series at that point. after the sword 1/2 i feel like it doesn't get heard much.

they kick ass across the desert, and yeah, a grip of catra's laughter was done while leaving a trail of mf'ers in need of medical attention you know they def don't have in the crimson waste ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

aw but poor scorpia :/ (i maintain she and catra both ended up w who they shoulda)

but it's still sad to see her get the closest she's ever gotten to breaking down catra's walls only to have it last 2.5 seconds before they're reinforced to the max. cause scorpia def was down to hang out as a desert duo and yeet any lil moron catra points at so far into the horizon, even if they survived the impact, there's no way they coulda possibly had enough water on em to make the walk back.

--but before any of that, i think it's catra's initial reaction to finding out the crimson waste isn't uninhabited after all -- so much about catra's lil monologue in the desert shanty-tavern kinda floors me.

it seems like catra doesn't care anymore if she lives or dies - part of her speech in the tavern is just a cautionary: "i'm down to go full-tilt savage, claws out, with 0 regard for how it turns out. i'm up for the coin flip so if you're gonna come at me, you better be too"

and her behavior after that point seems to reflect that as well. but what i find to be pretty heartbreaking about it is probably that it takes being at her wit's end, feeling so worthless and existence so pointless- it's not until her life feels irrelevant to her that she can let go and kinda enjoy herself. but ultimately, she'd rather let go for good; catra would rather dissolve into the void than make any attempt to return to her real life.

and in the waste, as she warns everyone in the tavern not to fck w her, there are these brief sentiments she actually allows herself to express aloud - prob cause it's a room full of strangers she never expects to see again - of vulnerability interwoven throughout her threats of hostility (even if they're expressed in an aggressive tone)

she warns everyone against tryna mess w her, yeah. but it still kinda gets to me that, however vaguely, she even tells them why.

cause catra didn't do that. not anymore.

and ps i dunno if it's just me, but i'd imagine after how much time had passed since shadow weaver used catra to escape-

hearing "shadow weaver is in bright moon" probably hit different than if she heard "shadow weaver came to bright moon" or "was in bright moon" ... i'd figure knowing adora was fine with sw sticking around, prisoner or not, might get under catra's skin a lil extra at the time.

[popeyeotaku]

Lately, I've been seeing a bunch of posts on spop twitter joking about how Adora could've just taken Catra to Bright Moon or easily gotten or to join the princesses or whatever. And, like...

No???

A lot of this talk comes off like Catra is just a big lovable brat who is too whiny to switch sides and needs to stop being a dumbass, unlike Adora. But the whole show is about how this isn't the case???

No, actually, Adora does not have her shit together either. Adora is a complete mess, and her character arc is about realizing it's incredibly unhealthy for her to put everyone else's needs before hers and play the big hero. It's simply not a case of Catra needing to become a "good person" like Adora. Adora shouldn't have been in the Horde, but she really shouldn't have been fighting for the rebellion either.

I imagine Catra switching sides early on would be her taking charge of the whole rebellion immediately, like why do you think Light Hope drove Catra away from Adora??? Because LH knew Catra would not blindly trust the ancient occasionally-murderous AI.

I dunno, I think the show was pretty clear about why Catra didn't switch sides in s1 or s2 and then her big spiral in s3/s4? All of which actually happened pretty quickly, and then led to her recovery in s5? But the way folks talk about it you'd think she was just being an asshole for no reason.

I forget where, but ND once talked about how unhealthily codependent Catra and Adora's relationship was in the Horde, and how they both needed time away to figure things out and get better before they could come back to each other.

Sorry this has been so rambly, it was just getting to me this AM. These jokes are really weird and tasteless.

[aprillikesthings]

Hi I have More Thoughts on Princess Prom

This couple of seconds has always fascinated me--it's near the end of the episode, they've been fighting, Catra swung at Adora and missed and nearly goes off the cliff, but Adora catches her

And for a second, Catra looks surprised and Adora looks angry:

But then they switch, Catra looks angry and Adora looks surprised:

And there are multiple ways of interpreting this moment and it's killing me

Especially given that this is pre-Promise--so like, Catra is still trying to get Adora back "home" to the Fright Zone, which she does accomplish via kidnapping Bow and Glimmer; anyway at this point they're not "officially" enemies yet

The first shot seems to be Catra being surprised Adora doesn't let her fall--the realization that while Adora might be fucking pissed and chased her up here to fight her (tho Catra lured her up there and is just keeping her busy until that helicopter-ish thing shows up), Adora still doesn't want Catra to like, die.

But here's the thing: to me, that second shot of Adora being surprised? Is it just Adora also being surprised she didn't let Catra fall?

Because to me it always feels like something else--that that's the moment Adora starts to figure out she's got feelings for Catra other than "childhood friends." That she's attracted to Catra. And it startles the shit out of her.

Do I think Adora consciously realizes it? Ehhhh no. (Word Of God is that Adora ignores her own feelings so much she doesn't put it all together until the Heart, and that Catra knew (...and just kept trying to hide/suppress it) the whole time.) I think Adora's feeling something like a moment of "I want her??" that doesn't even rise to the point of conscious thought before she's distracted by other things (...them both falling off the cliff), which gives her an excuse to ignore it and pretend it didn't happen. So it's just this flicker of Something and it surprises her so much it's written on her face.

And sometimes I think Catra's anger here is because she knows exactly what Adora's expression means and is like, "Oh, now you've noticed? You couldn't have done that before you left?!"

--but I'm interested in other people's thoughts

(And let me admit my own bias here: there's a posted scene in my 60's au fic that has a moment inspired by my interpretation of those couple of seconds. No cliffs involved, just a big party. But there's a moment of Adora feeling her attraction to Catra, and not being able or willing to recognize that that's what she's feeling. But the problem is that it's written on her face and Catra notices it and panics and shoves her away. Cut them both some slack, the scene takes place in 1966, they're 17, and they're surrounded by high school classmates. Also Catra had been putting vodka in their punch.)

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

you know. the term “gaslighting” is being misused so much that it's difficult to figure out if a person is referring to actual gaslighting, or if they're talking about any kind of manipulation or even just a white lie. with the rise of awareness for mental health, the unfortunate downside is that people label everything with psychological terms and spread misinformation. the term “gaslighting” has lost its original meaning and has turned into a sort of buzzword.

it's obvious that this happens in media analyses too, where people are quick to label any kind of undesirable behaviour as “gaslighting”. however, the only exception to this that i've seen so far is catra.

to refresh your memory (or lend you some new information), here's the definition of gaslighting, according to the APA:

To gaslight someone means to manipulate another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events.

“I think of gaslighting as trying to associate someone with the label 'crazy',” says Paige Sweet, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan who studies gaslighting in relationships and in the workplace. “It’s making someone seem or feel unstable, irrational and not credible, making them feel like what they’re seeing or experiencing isn’t real, that they’re making it up, that no one else will believe them.”

when we say catra gaslit adora in the show, we mean it. we don't mean that catra just lied to adora or manipulated her (both of which she has done, to her credit).

some common phrases that gaslighters use are along the lines of:

“you're crazy”

“you're just imagining it”

“it's all in your head”

“you're just being dramatic”

“you're making things up”

this ensures that the victim believes that they are the problem and starts questioning their own sanity. if it continues for too long, the victim might actually be driven to a mentally unstable state.

let's see some of these examples with catra, shall we?

she says all of this word for word. they don't even try to disguise it. and we already know that catra remembered everything or almost everything, at this point. she was not only playing dumb when adora questioned her about it, but further went on to make adora believe that she was going crazy and that she was making everything up.

she also attempts to gaslight scorpia later on, and make her admit that entrapta betrayed them when that is not what happened, and scorpia was there to witness what actually happened.

(i am a bit hesitant to call this “gaslighting” because catra doesn't call scorpia crazy or anything like that, however, she does imply that scorpia was making things up about entrapta trying to save them from the portal.)

and people still have the gall to say that catra never gaslit adora or worse„ that she only did it because she wanted adora to stay. there's no excuse to abuse, manipulation and gaslighting. you can't just woobify an abuser by saying “oh but she just wanted her crush to stay with her 🥺” that's just gross. catra fans say that they empathize with abuse victims but their empathy starts and ends with catra. adora's trauma doesn't matter to them in the slightest, which is why they keep romanticizing this shit.

[antispopausandstuff]

when you get into a series and then stupid shit happens.

.

so, i got into a podcast from 2019 called 'The Two Princes', and i love it. it's very charming, basically like a show in audio form, and full of queer. listen to it frequently, got into the tags on my socials, found some fanart and fics and a bit of inspiration.

but during my searches of fanart, i came across two things.

people calling the main relationship ( rupert x amir ) an EtL

some people comparing it to c//a

both of these severely bothered me, and i'm gonna explain why.

for the first one, it's very simple. rupert and amir were not really enemies, in terms of their actual dynamic. according to this red herring of a prophecy, though, they are 'meant' to be enemies.

however, rupert lies about not being the prince of the west ( amir is prince of the east ), saying he's a thief, that his name is fitz, and that he wants nothing to do with his kingdom. this isn't because he holds any ill-will to his own kingdom, but because the east and the west are hostile and he didn't wanna get killed by amir leaving him behind in the forest.

so, their actual dynamic was more of 'unfriendly strangers to friends to lovers'. because amir was a bit uppity and micromanaged, while rupert was more soft(?) and tended to overreact // overly panic. that, and the span of the first season is 3 days. you can't really go from being enemies to lovers in 3 days. in most cases, i guess.

anyway, moving onto the even more frustrating point.

the princes are nothing like catra and adora. absolutely nothing alike. not even a little.

i'm guessing part of the reason is because amir asks rupert to stay. but the context of that situation vs catra repeatedly demanding asking adora to stay is entirely different.

amir asks rupert to stay because, despite being prickly, rupert saved his life and continued being kind to him. he doesn't ask him to stay because of any self-importance, or because he wants rupert to do dirty work, or for any other reason but because amir likes him and wants them to be friends.

that is entirely different from why catra kept demanding asking adora to stay. she kept asking because she couldn't take no for an answer. because adora's ideals didn't align with hers. because she wanted adora for herself, and took any other options as a personal attack.

and another reason this comparison exists, i'm guessing, is because of the whole "they saved the world // universe // kingdom // wtv by kissing and being gay", which. that's still. no. but okay.

the prophecy in 'The Two Princes' is a red herring because it's misleading. it's not intending to be, but it is. everyone thought it meant that the two princes would fight to the death and one kingdom would rule over, when it actually meant for one kingdom to unite the east and west.

and amir and rupert figured that out by kissing and later on deciding to get married ( that's a general way of saying it, but it's cute, aight? they're very cute ).

in the final episode of spop, there was no actual reason or explanation for why any of that happened. it just happened because the show wanted it to.

why did a viral infection go away the moment catra kissed adora? THE FUCK IF WE KNOW!

why did that activate she-ra? 'CAUSE- LOVE! EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE SISTERS, BUT WHATEVER!

why did the heart get destroyed by that? WHO CARES? WE DON'T!

final assumed reason is, again, because of the whole EtL thing.

like i said, 'The Two Princes' is not an EtL story.

and spop was never supposed to be an EtL story. but it is one, so there's that.

anyway, the writing isn't perfect, but if you like podcasts and wanna hear a cheesy-ass queer show with a disaster gay prince, disaster bi prince, a badass lesbian knight, a bi diva, a feral gay twink, a pathetic flirty gay twink, and a dragon and a dog, then give it a listen.

and there's a goat unicorn.

[transsweets]

Got an idea for a halo/spop crossover very vaguely inspired by Unto the Breach (I looked at the title and started cooking). The prompt is simple: master chief shows up in Etheria around the end of Halo 3/start of SPOP s2. He's got cortana and a bunch of equipment from whatever ship he was stuck on at the end of halo 3. I imagine the hunk of wreckage chief and Cortana were on got yeeted by the destruction of the ark. which is how it ended up in etheria.

Ok now for the good stuff: The UNSC in halo is very similar to the Etherian Horde (the one controlled by hordak) in SPOP. Chief was raised as a child soldier, not to fight aliens, but to kill human rebels. I think chief would still end up in the rebellion bc the Horde would likely try to capture him on sight.

So basically, chief and Cortana who both were part of an evil regime (that only seems moral in the games because the covenant is worse) are now in the role of rebels. Theres so much potential for guilt and drama here.

Chief and Catra are both characters who were raised as child soldiers who fought for an evil empire who showed loyalty towards that empire until they were forced to stop by circumstances.

Chief was also almost tricked by a weird AI into activating a planet sized super weapon.

Cortana also would be a massive game changer for the rebellion. I think she would without a doubt be a match for Catra in terms of tactics. And she would probably figure out that like 99% of the reason the Horde didn't instantly crumble to She-Ra is because of a messy break up. Very funny lots of drama potential

Adora would meet two aliens one of whom is a super soldier and the other is a super intelligent AI and one of the very first things she would do is get distracted by Cortana's ai hologram being naked and ask her to put clothes on. She'd be too distracted to ask anything else.

The rebels don't kill their enemies. They're super nice. hell the Horde under Catra seems to avoid killing too. Again just so many opportunities for drama and self reflection. Also 100% chief tries to straight up murder a bunch of horde soldiers without realizing the no-kill rule is a thing. only fails to do so because the average Etherian is absurdly durable.

Over the course of the fic, the two aliens would progressively realize Etheria could kick the ass of the entire UNSC. They also realize their political system is super easy to coup. and they are sci-fi versions of the U.S. military after all. So I think there would be internal debates of whether they should try to ensure that Etheria "isn't a threat" to the UNSC (euphemism for conquering Etheria). I don't think they would actually attempt this, more so get into their own heads about it.

All that stuff above would force a lot of self-reflection on the both of them. The fact that the Evil Horde, whose leader admits to being evil, is actually nicer than the military they were created to serve? good shit.

especially true for chief because although he didn't fight many battles against fellow humans, he still fought some. which is more than cortana.

[haemosexuality]

how did anyone watch that scene and got to the conclusion that "lolll catra tried to end reality to spite her ex lmao 🤪" like holy shit did we watch the same show. the only thing close to a mother figure catra has ever had who abused her all of her life who tortured and insulted and tried to kill her manipulated catra by showing her affection for the first time in her life and led catra to believe she could love her, only for catra to realize she was just using her to escape prison, and after she did so catra got blamed for it, choked, thrown to prison, sentenced to death and then denied a quick death and sent to die slowly in a desert. everything she has worked for her job her position her life thrown away in the blink of an eye. and then on top of all of that she finds out shadow weaver did all that and ruined her life so she could go to adora. the girl who shes been compared to and forced to live in the shadow of all her life. the girl who was praised while she was tortured. the girl who abandoned her. and now both of them are working together to try and take catra down. and you think this is only about spite for adora????? be fucking for real oh my god. and then after this but before she opens the portal shadow weaver goes back to the fright zone with the "good guys" and uses their powers to try to fucking kill catra again are you kidding me!!!!!

[cryptosexologist]

absolutely fucking hilarious to me (aka i'm actually no joke mad whenever i think about it) that a "maligned" yuri bracket that as the creator admits started about lesser known or disliked femslash just about IMMEDIATELY derailed as soon as the creator allowed leniency for "oh well a lot of people seem under the impression that something is 'maligned' (synonyms: vilified, slandered, infamous) if its UNIVERSALLY FUCKING BELOVED by the fandom but the story itself gets in the way of it for reasons ranging from "author is a dipshit" (perhaps a valid reason to consider it maligned) to "its a fucking tragedy and the fact they can't just live happily is MEANT TO BE SEEN AS FUCKING SAD *YOU ARE THE DIPSHIT HERE*" so like, all these polls are just popularity anyway so who can say if "most popular out of a succession of lesser-known, shitty, not-shitty-but-people-act-like-it-is, etc" is any more meaningful than "literally just the most popular ship we put on the bracket. like you could've answered this without even doing the polls just go over the initial bracket and choose the most dedicated fanbase and extrapolate"" and now its just a succession of Farcille sweeping every single matchup despite the fact that i've never met a single fucking person worth caring about who actually dislikes it. like i assume the pervs who just write the usual isekai monster x innocent girl "fanart" (...did they even read it...?????? i kinda feel like they got maybe 2 volumes in lmao. fake fans) don't really care for it but who gives a shit about them they should die. its not unpopular in the slightest aside from *probably* i assume overexposure or the one sad little laios x marcille shipper sitting in the corner who doesn't simultaneously also ship farcille in that kinda wierd freudian-isn't-the-right-word way that makes my stomach churn. FUCK THESE SENTENCES BRO WHY DO I WRITE LIKETHIS ok i wrote ahead but didn't address a point bc i my skull turned off but- Farcille doesn't even get like, morality discoursed much??? Like theres always those ships out there which are popular but get picked apart for potential patterns of abuse or unhealthy behavior or if you *think* about it Adora and Catra were both raised by the same (nonconsentually adoptive) parental figure which can make it incest Which Is An Argument That I Struggle With Completely Disregarding Because Of The Subset Of Incest Shippers That Do In Fact Take It That Way (But As A Positive), y'know. that kinda shit. Not even getting into the cases where a ship is more unambiguously fucking bad on a morality standpoint fandom popular or not. I could use this opportunity to soapbox but I won't.

hell even some of the contestants that actually have some leg to stand on are still an ill fit - kyosaya is from Madoka, which means that while fans can feel whatever way they please there Is a certain malicious element to their existence which isn't just excusable as "part of the tragedy/conflict", but its STILL one of the two "heavy hitter" ships outta the original series's fanbase (i don't know dick all about magia record). HELL madohomu at least gets the "is there discourse about it being dysfunctional/abusive/one-or-the-other-involved-painted-as-a-predator" treatment, despite being like... THE relationship the series itself fucking circles around. idk maybe madohomu was in there and i didn't notice. still wouldn't really fit though (maybe back in 2014....)

anyways delia x jessie would belong on there more than like 90% of the bracket just for the "they're basically canon" sweep-kerfuffle (if they WERE in this bracket. lol lmao that'd be hilarious actually wonder who they lost to)

[nny11writes]

Sketchy 2 Tumblr Exclusive????

It's more likely than you'd think and also I've realized that I really don't want to put more effort into Sketchy even if it's some of the funniest shit I've ever written lol

So have the Adora PoV chapter just for you!

So, WOW, just wow! Adora nervously scratched another day off in her planner and realized it had been two months since her and Catra had started...whatever this was! Dating? God she hoped it was dating. But on the off chance it wasn’t and saying so would make it awkward and then Catra would never ever speak to her again ruining the chance for even just a friendship, she wasn’t going to name it!

She carefully peeled another tiny heart sticker off the page and painstakingly applied it to the upper right corner to show that Catra had texted her that day. This, she assured herself, was a completely normal thing to do. How else was she going to keep track of their interactions to make sure she wasn’t being over the top by responding too much or too quickly or too frequently? You know, like, just generally too- Adora cringed at the perfectly placed heart. If Catra ever looked her in the face and had to say that Adora was too much, it might actually kill her.

It was funny how much someone could mean to you when you’d known them for less than a year.

She really did need to remember to thank Perfuma. 

Her friends had been helping her with her self confidence, and Perfuma had complimented her physique at the pool. She gave one of her cute soft giggles before telling Adora, “You should be a model, in shaa Allah!” When Adora had laughed about how badly that would go for her considering her arch nemesis shoes with heels higher than an inch, but that wasn’t what Perfuma had meant.

“No silly! I meant an art model.” Perfuma smiled up at her from the edge of the pool. “You know my fathers host a bi-monthly figure drawing class, you could model there and they’d even pay you!”

Adora might be living with the Moons now, but money had never really stopped being a concern of hers. So even though she’d stopped counting how much she ‘owed’ them, the thought of getting paid to treat her friends out for a meal on her (for once!) was very tempting. “Sure! What should I wear? Is there, like, a dress code?”

“Well...I suppose you could say there’s a dress code, yes.” Perfuma had that fond look in her eyes that usually meant she was talking to her plants or encouraging a small animal online to succeed. “It’s nude modeling after all, and you are very fit!”

Adora had almost died on the spot, and then died again when she thoughtlessly told Glimmer about Perfuma’s silly, silly idea thinking it would be a funny ha ha story they could giggle over while Adora finished panicking over it. Because of course Glimmer was going to encourage her to try it out, which in turn meant Bow would both be encouraging her to try it while placating that she didn’t have to if she didn't want to. And then Micah had asked what was going on and on hearing about the modeling opportunity had said, “Oh yeah, the Al-Jamil’s! Man, it’s been a good decade since I modeled for them. Great experience though kiddo, you’d love it!” The only good thing about that had been watching karma work in real time as Glimmer had to confront the fact that the one time her parents completely ‘forgot’ to pick her up from Girl Scouts happened because Micah thought Angella was getting her and was nude modeling while Angella thought Micah was getting her and was working late.

But surrounded by so many people who thought it was a good idea, Adora had eventually decided to do it. It wasn’t like she’d ever been body shy after all. The sheer number of times her fosters had to remind her to wear clothes was proof of that, and Glimmer admitted that she’d only realized she was bixsexual after Adora just walked naked from the bathroom to her bedroom.

So she’d gone and nervously been chatting with a few of the men there along with Alder. Of course, that man was a positivity magnet and very chatty on a good day, which was the kind of distraction she’d needed to not get nervous about ruining people’s artwork. And then, she saw a woman stroll into the backyard and thoughts went poof.

Woof. Wow! Having passed her check for lesbianism with flying colors, Adora had done her best to not get even more nervous. Which really was only happening because Alder seemed to notice her growing anxiety and started cracking joke after joke until she could barely breathe. Getting up on stage and dropping the robe hadn’t been a problem, she just listened to Alder’s gentle instructions while doing her best to not creep on the hot artist lady.

So of course she had to try and fuck that up for herself by getting bold near the end. The woman had stared at her in surprise, cheeks red with what had to be a sunburn, and then it was fucking ON. She kept at it and the woman seemed interested, or maybe that was how artists just looked? While looking at their art models? Like...Intense. And then in the thirty seconds it took to put her robe on (because good god she was not going to talk to a woman she wanted to maybe, possibly ask out for drinks or something while butt ass naked thanks), she vanished.

“Ohhhhh,” Glimmer squealed while riding the line right between genuine excitement and loving derision, “you found yourself a hot tortured artist!”

Which really didn’t help anything as Adora spent the next two weeks thinking about Hot Tortured Artist practically non-stop. 

Calling Alder to ask if there was any way the next slot was open was more embarrassing than the time she’d gone to the student health clinic to see about a tattoo infection only to be seen by the lady who diagnosed her anal fissures a month prior. She’d been double judged, she was sure of it. But at least Alder, unlike doctor what’s her face, was very polite about his excited amusement as he confirmed that he got the other model to cancel last minute.

Adora had gotten there way too fucking early to be allowed to live. Fifteen minutes early is on time after all, but painstakingly calculating out every minute of her day only to arrive almost an hour and a half early was a bit much. So she’d wallowed a little bit with a complimentary beer and Suffered the Consequences of Her Own Actions.

Or in other words, she learned where Perfuma learned how to meddle with someone’s life.

“So, any reason you wanted to try again?” “It is such a freeing experience, wouldn’t you say, really helps you to open your heart in a way.” “You know some of our artists are just really great people, you should try talking to them.” 

And worst of all: “Well I suppose we should get ready, although some people tend to get here at the very last minute so don’t worry if you don’t see someone in particular right away.”

Jesus Harold Christ, just say that you’re gay and homophobic instead!

Not that all the waiting and planning and thinking and preparing did any good. Adora managed to piss her off within ten seconds and then accidentally humiliated her once they got going. (She had never seen someone cough that hard for that long, the constant waving away of well intentioned people by flipping them off only complimented by the extremely raspy gasps of “I’m fine, fuck off!” had been kinda nerve wracking.)

“YOU ALMOST KILLED HOT TORTURED ARTIST!?!?!?” Glimmer shrieked at the same time Bow softly whimpered, “Oh shit, was she okay?”

Adora made a few very helpful strangled noises and covered her face with a whine.

“Oof.” Glimmer said, in a tone that implied she was somehow impressed.

“That’s rough, buddy,” Bow said, unaware of how he’d just quoted a pivotal part of Adora’s childhood.

“That bad, huh?” Micah asked, accidentally triggering an anxiety attack as Adora realized her parents 2.0 had just heard this whole story and now she was going to have to fake her own death to escape the shame.

Operation “my parents are now concerned about my sex life so I’m moving to Panama” failed spectacularly, and the next week’s slot was locked down tight just to add insult to injury. 

Two weeks later than she’d been planning to still be living here was more than enough time for her to come up with a stupidly brilliant plan. Or brilliantly stupid. Either way, Adora had managed to convince Glimmer to drive her to the Al-Jamil’s (a move she was regretting terribly as her best friend ran through a red light without even blinking for the third time in an effort to save a few seconds). And then managed to convince her to turn around to the closest store with art supplies, and then take her back. Which was how Adora found herself stumbling into the backyard wearing what Bow and Glimmer had both assured her was “her gayest casual outfit” with her stomach already flip flopping from the drive. Alder was already introducing the model, Adora was late, and she basically sprinted thoughtlessly towards her goal before remembering that Hot Tortured Artist was here to draw and plunked down into the seat next to her instead of saying hello.

The time started and Adora became painfully aware of how little she’d thought this out. Oh god she couldn’t even draw. Life truly was a party and Adora had just volunteered to be the pinata. Again.

The only good thing about her first serious attempts at art since the third grade was she had to concentrate really, really, really, REALLY hard on it and didn’t have time to get freaked out over her crush’s proximity until the end. As she added the last few touches to what would soon be Sea Hawk’s newest firestarter, Adora became uncomfortably aware of being watched.

Big RIP.

F.

Somehow they ended up talking as the weeks went by though. Well, Adora talked and sometimes Catra (CATRA! Her name was Catra!) would answer, usually in some hilarious pithy one liner that would’ve taken Adora years to think of. God, she was the total package. Hot, smart, funny, talented, and aggressively passive aggressively living up to her namesake. And Adora would’ve happily basked in her presence until she died if there hadn’t been an intervention that led to their first kiss.

And now look at them! Two months into [REDACTED] and living the dream! Basically!

With a sigh of defeat, Adora carefully peeled the smiling little rain cloud sticker off her page and added it to the calendar to show that she’d also been a sad sack about the situation today so she’d remember to review her texts in 13.25 hours in case her general downernessitude (something Glimmer assured her was a real word) bled through into her texts with Catra.

She was going to get a good grade in wooing, something that was both normal to want and possible to achieve, if it killed her.

So wrapped up in her own weird semi-pity party, she’d lost track of the time. A rookie mistake. Adora did not jump a foot in the air or raise her fists to defend herself when Glimmer slammed her bedroom door open and screamed, “SO I MET CATRA AT THE GYM TODAY!”

First of all, this was clearly unfair. Glimmer got to see Catra working out in gym clothes before her? It was a travesty is what it was!

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Glimmer had met Catra unsupervised. “No! Nononononononono!”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” Glimmer whined, but when Adora’s mini-spiral didn’t let up, she grumbled, “Wow, tell me how you really feel.”

“Was she mad? Did you grill her? Did she insult you?? Did YOU insult HER!? It’s so much easier to do than you’d think! Oh no! DID YOU TWO GET IN A FIGHT!?!?”

The shove was really more of a gentle push, but not having expected it Adora crashed onto her bed with all the grace of an elephant with a limp facing the wind. Shortly thereafter one of the bottles of water she kept around the room was shoved in her hands as a successful diversion. Hydration was important and she usually forgot to do it, fucking hell she was seriously parched.

Glimmer flopped down next to her and began counting off on her fingers, “No! Only a little. Oh she absolutely did, and fuck yeah I did, but it’s cool.” Then she awkwardly cleared her throat before continuing, “And I maybe called her Hot Tortured Artist, but don’t freak out about it.”

“YOU WHA-”

“I said DON’T freak out about it!”

Their flailing hands quickly became a slap fight, before almost as quickly devolving into them just holding hands.

“Look, Hot- Catra is a bitch, okay? But, like, I can respect her style of bitch.”

Adora must have looked particularly pathetic as Glimmer took a deep breath to explain-

“Glimmer, language! Now who’s this I hear is being a bitch?” Angella asked, head poked around the door frame. When they both shrieked a bit like tea kettles, she smiled benevolently. “It’s dinner time and I want to hear about whatever has you two screaming like you’re teenagers again. It’s nostalgic for me.”

This was not the winning argument she seemed to think it was, but Adora still haltingly explained the whole dating* situation because it meant she could eat her emotions away at family dinner, where she could get fourths if she wanted to with only minimal judgment.

“So, when do we get to meet,” Micah paused to dramatically wiggle his eyebrows in time with each syllable, “your girlfriend slash significant other.”

“Don’t tease the poor dear!” Angella scolded as she piled mashed potatoes on the back of her fork, only to turn around and stab her beloved daughter in the back, “But yes. Bring her over for dinner sometime.”

Adora: So no biggie or anything but, first of all I’m going to kill Glimmer but also the Moon’s want you to come over for dinner sometime.

Catra: oh no not sparkles oh woe oh woe lmao what you like me or something?

How desperate would it be to respond: I think I’m actually falling dangerously in love with you and want to spend so much time with you it’s unreal. I want to find things to hate about you to make you a real human that I can be even more in love with and I wonder what your pillows smell like. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I want to have your babies. So is that a yes to a familial dinner?

Pretty desperate, she decided.

Adora: You wish! Sooooo, is that a yes?

Catra: sure

Adora: Catra >:(

Catra: uuugh its a yes

Adora: *it’s

Catra: It’s now a “No”, my lawyer will be in touch.

Adora: Catra! :”( … Catra!?!??!!? :”(((((((((((((((

Catra: ffs okay its a yes again

Adora decided to put a second heart sticker on the calendar for good luck, and then literally kicked Glimmer’s bedroom door open to jump elbow first on her.

After all, there was honestly no other way for her to find out what gym Catra went to.

~

END NOTE: * Word removed for protagonist’s sanity

[aprillikesthings]

Oh god I’ve made so many posts about the portal episodes ahaha

General gist of things, imho:

There’s two ways to talk about it: the story-telling perspective, and from within the story.

From a story-telling perspective, like “why did the writers decide to write that”: the end of s3 was the halfway point of the show. So they made it explicitly clear—what Catra and Adora actually want isn’t to be fighting, but to be happy together—and then make it feel even further away and more impossible. Which was very well done!

From the perspective of inside the story:

Catra pulling the lever was done in a blind panic/rage. The series of events leading up to it was just a rapid downhill slide for her mental health and her grip on reality, to the point where her mindset is just the chorus of my fave Mountain Goats song (“I hope you die! I hope we both die!”)

So she wakes up in the portal reality and everything is “perfect.” Adora is force Captain and Catra is her best friend and Shadow Weaver is nice to her and so are the other people in the Horde.

But it’s not real, and as Adora figures that out, she repeatedly tries to get Catra to see it.

Catra knows, too; is the thing. But she’s just so desperate to stay in this place where she’s happy and Adora is with her, and Adora’s rejection of that feels like a rejection of her.

Adora tries to rescue her—by zapping her (something Shadow Weaver had just done, pre-switch, to torture her), then all but kidnapping her. That was always going to make Catra angrier—she’s always hated it when Adora acts like she knows better than Catra. (Whether she actually does know better isn’t the point—the point is, it’s a pattern in Adora’s behavior that was guaranteed to piss Catra off more.)

The corruption thing is a fascination of mine, and part of it is just “but why are those scenes so hot” lol. BUT ALSO, the corruption is symbolic of a whole lot of things—the ways Catra’s been trying to get rid of bits of herself (her caring for other people, any need she has for people to care about her, anything but her anger and ambition), for instance.

But also I think part of it was just that she pulled the lever, and as the portal reality fell apart, so did she.

BUT ALSO: so, the mean things she says while corrupted. She knows a bunch of them are untrue. Adora didn’t come through a portal as a baby on purpose. Catra’s the one who captured her and took the sword. Etc.

The fact is: at this point in the story, Catra is still unwilling to face how badly she’s been fucking up, or how much of her own misery is her own doing. She hates herself, sure, but she’s still scrambling to pin it all on someone else because then she doesn’t have to take any responsibility for fixing it.

And conveniently, Adora sure likes to be a martyr and blame herself for shit that isn’t her fault.

And the moment that Adora finally starts fighting back is huge. Because up to that point, she still felt responsible for the shit Catra was doing. Shadow Weaver had taught her: you need to keep Catra under control. So up until the end of s3, she still feels guilty: if I’d convinced Catra to leave the Horde, if I’d worked harder at keeping her from hurting people, I have to fix the things she’s done wrong, etc etc.

But after Catra yelling at her, she’s like, wait: I didn’t do any of that shit. You did.

Anyway ahaha I’m on my phone right now but uhhh I know I have some decent meta posts about this I’ve written but I’ll have to find/link them later

Edit: honestly my tag for just “the portal” has all of it. “Portal catra” is mostly fan art.

Portal Catra

So I have a very strong general belief that Catra responded accordingly to the circumstances she was put in. She was abandoned by the person she cared about most multiple times, and severely abused her whole life but something I struggle with wrapping my head fully around is how she acted in the portal episodes. Of course her actions were bad and she made horrible decisions, and that doesn’t make her a horrible person, but what I’m struggling to connect is the cause and effect. The effect was her opening the portal and blaming the world ending on Adora, but what was the direct cause? PLEASE IF YOU HAVE ANSWERS FOR ME LET ME KNOW I love Catra and relate to her in so many deep levels, especially since I struggle with bpd and she is very bpd-coded, so if you have an answer please don’t hesitate to reblog this and let’s have a conversation!! Also if any of yall wanna talk about anything my asks are always open, love yall!

[manic-sapphic]

~oh, just catra leaning full tilt into a mental breakdown of proportions on par w total planetary destruction. so, just another tuesday. don't worry about it~

corrupted catra is still such an interesting figure to me and fun af to theorize about. i mean, how tf did catra know adora came through a portal? no one told her that shit in their actual reality. i'm pretty sure it's not an uncommon theory that she's drawing some knowledge from the planet itself after being exposed to the portal magic.

but i almost view it kind of like, similar to how much of the first ones tech - such as light hope or the crystal castle itself - can almost be seen as possessing a sort of sentience able to both read thoughts and store knowledge, so could the portal itself. cause catra wasn't the only thing corrupted - the portal was from the moment of its creation. everyone knew it would be in some way or another; that's why they tried to stop catra from pulling the lever.

and based off the reality it creates, almost all of it reflects a reality we see catra actually enjoys - the polar opposite of the reality they'd all just left. and after every other character we see lost to the expanding entropy of the corrupted reality is gone for good - catra is the only one who crawls back out.

i view the corrupted portal almost like a sentient entity itself that catra created when she opened the portal, however unintentionally. it gives her the reality she wants - the one she misses - and when it all falls apart along with her, it's almost like maybe cause of her connection w this entity as it's accidental creator, it fused w her in such a way not only she - but this portal entity itself - could come back to finish what they started.

this time, armed with all the knowledge stored by the planet itself - which doesn't seem too far-fetched of a concept, given that (as we find out later) the magic of etheria has been essentially being mined and stored by first ones tech all this time. and the portal was created using a combo of etheria's magic and first ones tech - the sword.

just some thoughts i've had about it that i'm sure others probably have as well.

also though, i included the few seconds after adora punches out corrupted catra as a gif cause while her expression is angry right after she does it - it quickly falls to one i see as a sadness. she knows she had to do it, but she wishes she didn't. probably partly from seeing what had become of catra that made her have to do it.

which also kinda kills me when i think of the prior episode, Remember, when adora and catra are in the woods and adora says to her "this can't be what you wanted!" the saddest thing about that, to me, is that it's honestly not. but at that point, what catra wanted was something i dunno if she even fully understood; but either way, she just felt she knew that she could never have it.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

“Love Day”, a catradora fanfic

I was apprehensive about posting this, because it is a personal gift for @phosphoricbomb​! 

But here is Love Day which is a fic that I wrote in her dms from the very random brain thoughts in my head on February 14th. 

It’s the first fic I’ve posted in many months and my silliest yet. Enjoy! 

Adora was drinking a coca cola, her favourite drink, in the Bright Moon kitchen area. She was banned from the kitchen area, after her first and final attempts at cooking dinner for everyone. But nobody was around right now, so she could drink as much coke as she needed and feel only mildly guilty about it!

Suddenly, with a loud SPARK, a wild Glimmer appeared.

"ADORA!!"

Adora yelped and dropped her coca cola glass on the floor, spraying both her and Glimmer, who would've probably been pissed off if she wasn't already so stressed.

Glimmer grabbed her arms. "Adora... I NEED your help!!! I haven't figured out what I'm going to do for Bow on Love Day!!"

"Love Day?" said Adora. "What the hell is Love Day?"

Glimmer narrowed her eyes at Adora. "The annual Etherian holiday where you show the person most special to you that you appreciate them, through exchange of cards and gifts?"

"Aaaa???" Adora was suddenly panicking too. "Oh no, what? Is that today?"

"YES!!"

"But I haven't got anything for Catra! She's going to think I'm a terrible girlfriend and leave me forever!"

Glimmer shook Adora. "You can't be having a crisis about not getting anything, I'm having a crisis about not getting anything! Just get her... like... a squeaky toy, or your old hoodie!  I need ideas for Bow!!!"

"Um. Get him, uhh.." Adora scratched her chin. "Get him a guitar pick or something."

"Musical instruments? Eh, maybe. Okay well you're shit out of luck, BYE ADORA!!!"

"WAIT NO GLIMMER YOU HAVE TO HELP ME TOO---"

And Glimmer teleported out of the room, leaving Adora alone, to figure out what to do for Catra!!! Adora rushed through her own things to see if there was anything she could give to Catra. Ahah - A SWORD!! Wait no. Was Catra interested in swords? Or was that just something Adora was interested in. But having a sword is the COOLEST thing ever. Or was it only cool to Adora? Would Catra think Adora got a gift for herself? Well it was literally one of her own swords, so was it just a handaway? AaaaaaH!!! Why is this so hard!!!

Adora also looked through her old hoodies. Sure, Catra nuzzled up against them every time she got the opportunity. But was it really fair to give it as a Love Day gift? How all out were you supposed to go for this? In the Horde, sure, being given someone's old clothes was a dream come true!!! Catra wore Adora's old uniforms ALL the time. But these hoodies were ALREADY covered in Catra's fur, and Adora suspected that Catra preferred to steal her hoodies rather than actually own them.

Adora made her way back to the kitchen area, wondering if Catra would instead want to make food, when she bumped into Frosta and Sea Hawk! Adora processed the scene in front of her. Sea Hawk was throwing coal into the oven, like he was trying to power a steam engine.

"More... MORE!!!" Frosta yelled. The oven was burning up a storm, the fire inside probably heating up way past its normal limits.

On top of it, Adora could see several chunks of large metal.  They were being heated up by the gas burner.

"Uhhh.... what... is happening here?" she asked. "Are you, are you supposed to use it like that?"

Frosta laughed maniacally. "We are making GUNS!!!!"

"That's right", Sea Hawk replied cheerfully. "Frosta is helping me make a sniper rifle for sweet Mermista! She always wanted to be a secret assassin, and what better gift than to make her dreams come true!!"

"So is that why you're filling the oven with coal?" Adora asked.

"It's so that the fire on the stove burns HOT ENOUGH to MELT the METAL," said Sea Hawk, "so we can make the gun!"

"You do realise that the temperature of the bottom part doesn't... power the stove, right?"

"Hmm? That's nonsense", said Sea Hawk. "This is CLEARLY where the fuel goes--- Oh dear---"

The oven was starting to MELT from the inside, droplets of metal and paint pouring onto the floor, while the metal chunks at the top had barely heated up at all!

"YESSSSS" cried Frosta. "MORE FIRE!!!"

Adora, not wanting to get Super Banned from the kitchen, ran away before the fire alarm went off. There was no way any advice from Sea Hawk was going to help her make a gift from Catra, especially if they weren't actually able to make any guns for her.

Adora, starting to feel hopeless, wandered into the basement area. How was she going to explain things to Catra? "Sorry Catra, I found out Love Day existed like 5 minutes ago so I got you nothing, here's a hug!"?? She couldn't even make Catra some certified Fake Ration Biscuits now! She was CERTAIN that Catra was going to open another portal as soon as she realised Adora hadn't even thought to gift her anything.

She stepped on something--- and it YELPED, and scratched her leg! Actually no, it didn't scratch her leg, it deliberately drew a taser and gave her a quick zippity zap.

"Ouch!!"

She realised that what she had stepped on was a small robot kitten, which wandered away into the newly built Bright Moon Lab of Robots and Awesome Science, aka, BRIMOLRAS, which was a stupid name, but she wasn't going to argue with  Entrapta.

Adora entered the lab, and saw Scorpia talking to Entrapta animatedly, while she focused intensely on something.

".....so she told me that I looked really pretty in the earrings, and I said 'Thanks, they belonged to my aunt!', and she said 'I hope I can meet your aunt one day', and I said 'That's too bad, because she was murdered by the Horde 30 years ago!!', and I don't know why but that really killed the mood, but anyway, that's why I wanted to give her some earrings too. They're awesome right?"

Scorpia held up the earrings, which were warped copper rings that had incredibly ameteur attempts at what appeared to be wooden scorpions attached to them. One of the scorpions appeared to have a blob on its head and was smiling happily in the way you'd see in a small child's drawing. The other had a spiky head, and was a bit larger, but unfortunately its tail appeared to have snapped off.

Entrapta raised an eyebrow, before smiling. "I think Perfuma will wear them every day :D"

Hmm. Maybe Entrapta and Scorpia could help Adora sort something out for Catra?

The robot cat meowed loudly, and the pair looked up at Adora. "Hey," Adora started, "could I have help with--" The cat meowed loudly again. "Making a gift---" MEOW!!!

"SHUSH, CHEESOID" said Entrapta. "Sorry Adora, she gets like this when she doesnt have Electrical Robo Snacks. Scorpia could you feed some to her?"

"Oh - Got it!!!" Scorpia replied, upright and happily grabbing a thing. It dispensed glowing smaller thingies which the robot cat preyed upon like it was starving to death. Scorpia cooed over it and patted its head, and the cat hissed at her. This didn't stop her gooey eyes at "Cheesoid".

Adora coughed. "Anyway---"

"Are you here because you need help making a gift for Catra for Love Day because you didn't know it existed until just now?" said Entrapta, hair hand pointing up and a smirk on her face.

Adora was stunned but only for a moment because she was used to this bullshit from Entrapta. "Okay, yes."

"That's okay," said Entrapta. "At least four other people have approached me today with the same issue! Thirteen minutes ago, I was helping Glimmer repaint her gift for Bow. Then she warned me not to help Sea Hawk make any guns! I haven't spoken to Sea Hawk yet but I'm 50/50 on whether I will help him make guns."

"I don't know what I can give her :(" said Adora. "I've known Catra for so long, but... we only got together, a couple of months ago." She sat down on a nearby table, shoving aside a couple of grenades to make room.  "I want to make Catra feel important, like she is special to me. How can I do that if I won't even do anything on LOVE day of all things? And, maybe she'll be okay with it, but.... I won't be. I'm not fine with knowing I let her down." Adora sighed, and stared at the floor.

...A tendril of hair patted her on the head gently. "There there!"

Then Adora dared to look up, teary eyed, and saw Scorpia staring straight into her soul with the most sappy, almost tearful expression! "Ahh!!" Adora yelped. "Eye contact!!!"

She fell backwards off the chair, knocking over the grenades. Fortunately Entrapta caught them all, and had room to also catch Adora, pushing her back onto the table, where Scorpia gripped her arms determinedly.

"You care so much about Catra!!" Scorpia yelled.  "I'm so... You're so sweet!!" She started bawling and hugged Adora very hard. "I'm so... I'm sorry, I just have so many feelings right now! I used to feel the same way, but you know her so much better than I do. You're made for each other Q_Q" Scorpia continued crying, and Adora tried to resume breathing. Entrapta stopped what she was doing for a moment, rotating her chair and looking at them both.

"Maybe you can't think of anything to give Catra, because neither of you know what she likes yet?" she said. "I know that Scorpia and Hordak thought they hated kim chi stew, but the first time they tried it, they asked for it every night. Even with me cooking!"

Adora huffed, insofar as it was possible while being hug crushed. "We just... we've barely been able to do anything, I don't even know who I am anymore... I guess I'm still learning who Catra has become, what she likes."

"It's going to take a while", said Entrapta. "Fortunately, I ALREADY KNOW what Catra likes!!!"

Entrapta spinned on her chair and took out a couple of charts. Entrapta was able to maintain so many charts and make so many things in a short time that Adora was wondering if she was living in a parallel plane where time was slowed down.

"See, it says right here.... Catra likes the colours black and red, dangerous new weapons, and cuddling Adora. Underlined in three black lines. She REALLY LIKES cuddling Adora."

Adora blushed. "Wait does this mean a hug is a viable gift then?"

"After doing much research, I've concluded Love day is less about materials... and more about spending time with the people you care about!!! But a hug tends to be a free offering."  Entrapta was rotating slowly on the chair and Adora tried to turn with her so she could see the chart, and was getting dizzy. "Catra likes some material things, and some immaterial things. She loves Melog, who as a cat companion, is both cuddly AND a friend. But maybe she would like something that represents Adora directly, when Adora is not there? Or at least something to remind her of you." This talk was starting to break Adora's brain. Cuddly, a friend, and would remind her of Adora..? She watched the robot cat purring on the floor, Entrapta patting it on the head once again. Its grumpy deeanour reminded her of Catra and Melog. The difference is, the cat wasn't very fluffy, and wasn't that down for cuddles--

"AHAH!!!" A flash of inspiration went through Adora. "I got it!!!" She pried her way out of Scorpia's arms using She ra strength. Scorpia sniffed and wiped her nose. "Alright Entrapta", Adora continued, "Can I borrow... uhh.... some material, some sewing needles, and any amount of fluff you might have?"

"Oh the sewing needles are over there next to the chainsaw", said Entrapta. "But I'm all out of fluff and material, you can steal it from Glimmer's secret pillow armory."

"Great, THANKS." Adora ran out of the room, and then back in again. "By the way is that thing you're working on for Hordak?"

Entrapta looked up from where she had started welding again. "For Hordak? Oh, no. This is my own power suit. I haven't got anything for---" She snapped the mask up. "WAIT!!! I forgot to finish Hordak's gift!!! I only have two hours!" She grabbed Scorpia. "Please help. If I don't get Hordak a gift for Love Day, he'll be so sad---" Adora couldn't stay and hear Entrapta resolve her crisis, for she had work to do. She found Glimmer's secret Pillow Armory, which everyone stole pillows from regularly because they were the softest fluffiest pillows, and got to work!!!

Two hours later, everyone came together at dinner... which was a takeaway for Sea Hawk reasons... and began sharing their Love Day gifts.

Micah went first. He placed a bouquet of flowers in the middle of the table, Angella's favourite. Castaspella and Glimmer hugged him.

It was silent for a while. Then Netossa launched something at Spinerella with her net!!! Spinerella looked up and narrowed her eyes. "A code for Sea of Thieves? Really?" "Hell yes, said Netossa. "We haven't played together since your Xbox Gold expired. Season 7 is SOOO much better Spinny, we're going to sink so many people!"

Bow coughed nervously, bringing out his gift for Glimmer. "I got you... a new cloak?" 

It had a sparkly under layer like Glimmer's current cloak, but it was much warmer, with a fuzzy white collar sewed onto it. It was magnificient, the colours of the galaxy. Glimmer looked so... happy, almost tearfully, and teleported to Bow, hugging him instantly. "Oh-- I got you something too!" she said bashfully. Then Glimmer pulled out.... a SHIELD!!! It was wrapped in a bow. And it had Bow's face printed on it with a wink, in his own art. That was probably the secret work Entrapta helped with but while Adora was autistic she still knew it was a bad idea to tell the world how last minute Glimmer's gift idea was. "It's your SUPER HERO shield", said Glimmer. So... you're safe, while you're protecting people  🥺 ” And then he kissed her on the top of the head, and she hugged him. Hey Tippen, I DO write Glimbow sometimes! The gift giving continued. Swift Wind got a pair of sunglasses for Castaspella, which fit her well somehow. Adora didn't think they were dating but it wouldn't entirely surprise her.

Inexplicably, Sea Hawk gave Mermista a gun. It was a sniper rifle as promised. Mermista blushed, and looked away, muttering something before gifting Sea Hawk a small box, which he stared at with such wonder as he opened it. He didn't share what it was it with the group.

Scorpia gifted Perfuma the little earrings. Perfuma looked SO happy, but she didn't put them on. Then she gave Scorpia a medium sized box, which Scorpia opened. "Wow..." she said, "This is so..." She took something out. "This is Scorpion Sensitive Soap... I thought it didn't exist anymore! And here are a pair of fuzzy gloves and one for my tail--" She took out the gloves and put them on immediately, even though it was really warm. Scorpia looked fuzzier than ever.  "I.. You're the BEST, Perfuma!!" And then the pair cried very loudly and everyone smiled, and talked a bit more loudly as things continued. Hordak looked a bit downtrodden as Entrapta wasn't here yet, but she showed up suddenly, running around the corner. "I'M SORRY I'M LATE" she said, "I WAS STILL WORKING ON IT!!!" And then she dropped a fucking engine onto the table. Hordak's eyes went wide.

"This..." he said, "This is the engine from my designs to upgrade the starship..." "Yep!!" she grinned. "But.. we thought we couldn't stabilize the plutonium crystals necessary for the catalyst..." "All sorted!!!" He stared at her, in disbelief, then pulled something out of his pocket. Entrapta gasped. "Is that a data crystal?" "I heard it's Etherian tradition to give your partners a part of yourself. This necklace... is a response to the one that you gave me long ago." (A/N: It was less than a year ago.) Entrapta had an unreadable expression as she tried to plant the blue crystal in her chest, then remembered she didn't have a power suit on, and placed it around her neck. "Wanted..."

They hugged, it was nice. Tipsy Adora thought it was very cute that Entrapta and Hordak seemed to have found someone who understands them. Catra had been watching events unfold while seated next to Adora, and grabbed her hand, stroking softly. Adora was flustered, and nervous as hell, but now she realised it was time.

She turned around and faced Catra.  And was stunned. She stared at Catra's beautiful face for about sixteen seconds before Catra stammered. "Uh. Hi Adora!" she said, tail flicking and a smirk on her face, amused and intimidated by Adora's behaviour.

Adora blinked. "H... Hi Catra."

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Disaster lesbians." Spinny and netossa nodded in agreement. Entrapta was counting the seconds, verbally, that it took for Adora to continue. Scorpia was holding her breath, which couldn't be healthy. Bow was just gazing with his Bow face like he was going to start crying and hugging everyone again, which is happening a lot in this fic, but that's what you get when you're gay and sappy and writing a valentines day crack fic for your girlfriend.

"Mm-hmm!" Adora coughed. "So. Catra. I... I've known you for a very long time... and we've changed a lot over the course of that time... and I guess..." Adora sighed. "I guess, I'm starting to realise, I'm still learning about you. And now we've escaped the Horde, now we have ROOM to enjoy life... I have such a hard time figuring out what it is you like, or what even I like! Which is scary... but at the sametime.... kind of exciting. "

Catra's eyes were dilated and her tail had moved around her legs. Adora continued.

"I think, I know enough about you.... to say that for whatever reason, you like me. And I like you. So I thought maybe you'd appreciate it if you had something, that made you think of me."

She blushed and revealed, from behind.... a golden retriever toy! Or at least, that is what it was supposed to be. Some parts of its fur were less fluffy than others and its eyes were mismatched, but they were blue buttons, with black and white dots pained on them. It was so very cuddly and kind of fat. "I know it's not really useful like some other people's gifts... and you haven't asked for a cuddly toy... but I thought, you should know it's made with a lot of love."

Catra took the toy, and Adora waited for her reaction. She wondered if Catra was going to divorce her for such a shoddy gift, especially compared to Mermista's gun and Hordak's radioactive engine that he and Entrapta were now taking out of the room after much begging from Bow.

Catra laughed. She fucking laughed! But after a few seconds of wishing she was dead, Adora realised that Catra was crying. It was a happy laugh. Catra gave adora a hug, kissed her on the cheek, and talked in her ear. "You dummy. Of course you don't know what I want. I never tell you!!!"

Catra drew away, while Adora was enchanted. Catra was smiling peacefully, but then realised she was surrouned by people, and was blushing and looking away a lot like Mermista, as she took out Adora's gift. It was wrapped in several pieces of newspaper and tape.

"Here", she said. "Take it before I change my mind."

Adora unwrapped the gift... it was...... A cuddly cat. No, not just any cat - A Catra! It was a small cuddly Catra, on all fours with cartoonish proportions, like a very chibi Cat. Some parts of the fur were off colour - it seemed Glimmer's Pillow Armory had seen a lot of theft as of late - and it was slightly smaller than Adora's Adoretriever. But it was so funny. Adora giggled, she couldn't help herself, and Catra smiled.

"I thought the exact same thing", said Catra. "Now I'm with you forever whether you like it or not."

She picked Adora up, then realised Adora was too heavy to pick up, so Adora picked her up instead, and they kissed and hugged.

Why did Catra always have to be so cute?

The end!

And this is the fanart I drew to accompany it :)

[aprillikesthings]

I've read multiple fics now, both au's and canon-based, where Catra and/or Adora become heavy drinkers for a period of time (and in at least one fic, veer into actual alcoholism).

It's not hard to imagine, given their *waves hand* everything.

But now I'm wondering what it would be like if their substance of choice was weed. (Look at me. You know Perfuma grows it. For all we know it's one of Plumeria's main exports.)

Like, on a light-hearted note, it tends to make people really chill and/or sensory-seeking (which sometimes means being really horny), and there's some fun to be had with that if they're only occasionally indulging. Catra purring and kneading like crazy while Adora just pets her like "wow, you're soooo sofffft" followed by them having rather noisy sex lol (I really struggle with volume control during sex when I'm high, and that's not uncommon) and then raiding the kitchens for cake.

But also: You dream less when you use it before you sleep, so it's not hard to imagine them figuring out "wait I have way less nightmares when I'm high." The problem of course is that if you get into the habit, if you try to stop you can't sleep for shit, and when you do sleep your dreams are more frequent and incredibly vivid; so if you're not careful it's easy to end up in a situation where you're dependent on it to sleep.

Using it all the time also fucks up your motivation (aka: it makes you lazy) and people that are high are also kinda dumb. So it would suck if, for example, Adora became dependent on it because it was the only reliable way for her to fucking chill a little. And much like the sleep thing, if you use it to treat anxiety, when you try to quit or reduce your use there's a rebound affect.

But also, one of the medicinal uses for it is treating pain. if you take Don't Go as canon (...which I think almost everyone does at this point lol), Adora is in a lot of pain after doing something intense/getting injured while She-Ra, and I bet that's how it starts--Perfuma giving it to her as a medicinal thing for pain and to help her sleep it off.

[tropicalcryptid]

Oh gosh this is an amazing analysis, especially the insight into how and why Hordak was there to save Adora as a baby, and why he felt such a connection to her whether he wanted to admit it or not.

And damn, all the parallels between Entrapta and Hordak and the artifical portal and what it represents... Entrapta and Hordak initially met and bonded over building the portal, which they understood would eventually separate them from each other--but eventually they hit a tipping point where their desire to stay together overruled each of their former primary motivations! Before this point, we see that working with new tech (Entrapta) and finishing the portal (Hordak) were their absolute driving interests, to the point that they eclipsed everything else in their lives and isolated them from those around them. Nothing mattered except those pursuits. So for them to choose each other over those goals is a huge, HUGE deal.

But that's what happened! They met and fell in love over something toxic, something that they didn't realize was bad for them and their growth--but then they began to turn away from it, and towards each other! Metaphorically, Hordak was moving away from the toxic, manipulative "love" of Prime and toward a real connection with Entrapta. And Entrapta is realizing that a portal that takes Hordak away from her might not be a good thing, although she still wants to help him achieve his goals, not understanding yet how self-destructive those goals are.

Then everything goes to shit, and Entrapta does figure out that the artificial portal that represents Hordak's connection to Prime is bad, it's dangerous, and it has the power to rip the planet apart. And she desperately runs to tell Hordak, because she has such faith in their bond that she knows he'll understand. And the entire framing of the narrative tells us that he will! He needs her, he won't proceed without her. If Entrapta had made it to Hordak, he would have stopped the experiment. He woukd have turned away from Prime. He would have chosen her.

But that's not what happens, and Hordak doesn't realize that the portal was a bad thing (both metaphorically and literally) until a whole season later when Horde Prime arrives and offers a shocking contrast to the kind of love and connection that Hordak had with Entrapta (whose fate he has only just learned, and boy is he FEELING THINGS).

But after this revelation (and once poor Hordak starts getting his memories back (featuring Entrapta, naturally)), both of them are finally able to face the truth and fight back against Prime. The artificial portal brought them together when they were both in low and unhealthy mental places, pursuing a dangerous goal without looking at the bigger picture--but in the midst of all that, something real and precious grew. And that love gave them the strength to fight back and choose each other *again.* And their love saved the world just as surely as Catra and Adora's did. And I love that! And I love them! And dammit OP you got me started on the Entrapdak brainrot again thaaaaanks

Portals, man!

Thinking about the portal incident again How it was never explained what caused the portal to appear, was Light Hope involved, was it someone else or was it wild magic. Was it planned or was it a pure random and luck How it saved Hordak from certain death. How it saved him from Prime How it appeared at the right place at the very right time. And had this happened a day late or anywhere else on the front lines, he most likely wouldn't have survived

How in that moment on the battlegrounds Hordak probably no longer believed he could be saved and just accepted his fate

How he might've as well been mere weeks/days old and his life could've ended before it even began. And he was ready to accept it

How in his mind he might have thought he was dying. And how confused and defeated he must have felt once he realized that he was still alive. That this portal did not kill him, but rather took away his chance at doing something "right", the last chance at pleasing his god. How he might've saw himself as an even bigger failure, because he couldn't even die right

How this sudden brutal separation from Prime and the Hive Mind was necessary and, in retrospect, was the best thing to ever happen to Hordak. How by physically cutting all the ties he had to the Horde and the known universe, some random portal did more to protect Hordak than most people in his life ever did

How Hordak himself viewed his situation not as a miracle but as fate worse than death. How at first he only felt immense pain, fear and grief, like a very young child whom was forcebly taken away from their abusive family. How he did not understand that it was good for him and only wished to return home and see his brother again. How Hordak wasted years of his life trying to find him. How his indoctrination, loyalty and love were stronger even than such powerful magic/technology

How Hordak had no idea what to do with himself at first, for he never thought he would've lasted this long. For he was not meant to live that long. And yet, he no longer welcomed death and once again found will to live. He did not let himself give up this time

How he's been looking for a portal home, hoping that one day it's going to appear again. How eventually, tired of waiting, he decided to create a portal of his own. How it became his life's work

How it was a portal that sent Adora to Etheria, someone who will one day free Hordak and the entire universe from Prime. How, if he wasn't waiting for another portal this entire time, no one would've come for her and Adora could've died on that field. But Hordak was there, and (as best as he could) he took care of someone who ended up in the same situation he was in

How it was a portal that brought Hordak to Etheria, and into Entrapta's lonely life. How they would've never met each other if it wasnt for that incident

How it was a portal that invited Entrapta into his life and helped him connect with a person who will forever change his life. How it was a portal that became a catalist for their friendship (and love)

How the "natural" portal that sent Hordak to Etheria can represent real connections and the painful process of growth and change (seeing new places, meeting new people, trying new things, distancing from harmful enviroment, learning independence, being responsible for oneself and others)

How the "artificial" portal Hordak created himself can represent desire to return to this false safety of the past, where everything was simple and familiar, as well as his desperate wish to rebuild his connection with Prime. A connection that was never there. How it was falling apart from the start, how at first Entrapta was so eager to help her friend succeed, but eventually realized that the portal was dangerous. How in the end it only hurt Hordak and everyone around him

How the portal that appeared "naturally" gave him not what he wanted, but what he needed. A safe place, people who understand him, a chance at better life, his personhood. How, after the "artificial" portal gave him something he thought he wanted, Hordak went back to square one. How, in reality, it only took everything from him

Portals, man...