#because like yes the relationship was emotionally abusive but not because one of them stated his needs

[sporesgalaxy]

grips your shoulders really tight. we all understand that Germa 66 embraces Fascist gender roles right. We all get that yeah? And it's important because it was one of the earliest things established about Germa & its royal family?

And yes, the issue with Sanji's chivalry is that some acts of chivalry are historically rooted in the assumption of male superiority.

But One Piece goes out of its way to show that Sanji isn't refusing to fight women because he thinks he has an unfair advantage. He respects the power of his female crewmates and allies.

Which seems nonsensical until we learn that Sanji's attachment to chivalry, and particularly refusing to hit women, is rooted in his love for Zeff.

To Sanji, refusing to hit women isn't a reinforcement of male superiority. It's a symbol of his bond with Zeff-- of Zeff's willingness to take responsibility for Sanji where Judge chose to neglect and abuse him for things beyond Sanji's control.

From a Doylist perspective, this can sound a little contrived on paper. But it makes perfect emotional sense to me. I've gone into a lot of detail here, but fundamentally Sanji is just unquestioningly emotionally attached to an outdated cultural ritual because of something his adoptive dad said that meant a lot to him. That's really not so complicated!

NOW. BACK TO THE FASCISM.

What we DON'T see as directly stated as "men speak with their fists," is the complimentary implication that Germa 66 also enforces fascist gender norms upon women, to some extent.

Sure, Reiju has a raid suit like her brothers and apparently goes into battle with them. But the subservient gender dynamic is still present in Reiju's genetically engineered inability to disobey her Father's orders.

Her designated number being 0 also signals inferiority to her brothers. Despite being firstborn and having many of the same supernatural abilities as her brothers, she is not a male heir and therefore doesn't count.

Sanji's mother's near-complete lack of control over her children being genetically altered, as well as her lack of control over how they were raised, further implies a STEEP and distinctly fascist-adherent gender inequality in Germa 66.

All this to say, Sanji's resulting crossed wires and strong opinions about gender are hilarious when you really understand them.

He feels strongly about placing women on a pedestal because the people who abused him considered women lesser beings, because the women in his early life did not abuse him, and because his adoptive dad said something meaningful to him right after reguegitating some unquestioned gender role stuff.

He feels strongly about being gruff and combative towards men because he was emasculated by his male abusers for being unable to fight, and because he was adopted by a ruffian chef who put on a gruff, combative front while communicating love through acts of service.

Maybe the superficial harshness was familiar enough for Zeff's kindness to feel more believable. Maybe putting on the same harsh act made it less nerve-wracking for Sanji to do the kind things he spent so long being punished for.

I don't remember where I originally planned to go with this post. I like Sanji. His relationship to gender is a fucking hilarious mess, which I can relate to. Hi Sanji. Throws him into the ocean

[enlightenedfeline]

How to write (healthy) siblings:

This guide is for the lonely children or anyone else who needs it, made by someone with an older brother and a younger sister.

The two most important things to decide are their relationship with their parent/s, and their financial/social status. Age difference comes third after those two.

Here are a few things to keep in mind: 1- The smaller the age gap, the more likely they are to genuinely dislike each other. 2- Bigger age gap doesn't mean less bickering, my 23 year old brother turns into a child when he's with my 10 year old sister. 3- If the older sibling is more of a guardian/parent, then this guide may not be the most helpful, since that is a specific dynamic. I will explore it in a later post. 4- Does the older sibling feel safe talking to the younger sibling about their feelings? What about the other way around? 5- Does either sibling have any physical/mental conditions? What are they? How do they affect the relationship? 6- Is it just two siblings or more?

Relationship with parents and how it impacts a sibling dynamic: The parents relationship with each other and with each of their kids is important, the healthier a relationship is between parents, the more likely it is for the siblings to fight and even compete. Understand it like this, based off of human nature, you are born into a tribe with limited resources, another person is born into the same tribe, naturally you would compete and want to prove to the leader that you are better and more worthy. Now what if the leader is abusive? Or unfair? You would no longer compete with other tribe members, instead you'd empathize with them, and try to help them out any way you can with your limited power, and they will also help you out. This rule has exceptions, just like any other thing I'll state in this post, but keep in mind that a trauma bond is a strong bond in childhood, and gets more flimsy as you age. Siblings who have healthy parents are more comfortable in their enviroment, and therefore feel no need to hide basic emotions like jealousy or envy, if a child is allowed to let out this anger during childhood, and they are disciplined correctly, they probably won't struggle so much during adulthood.

Age gap and how it impacts a sibling dynamic: Yes I just said it doesn't stop the bickering, but that doesn't mean it has no impact on anything. The closer the age gap, the closer the mental and emotional maturity, meaning that both parties will take the simplest of arguments more seriously, which will make them escalate faster. Between me and my brother is just 5 years, and all serious arguments I've had with a sibling were with him. I am much calmer with my sister, however, not because she's any more reasonable, but because due to our age gap I'm able to understand and empathize with her emotions better, and keep myself at a distance emotionally when she disrespects me. All of this, of course, relies on the specific dynamic between the siblings, and the maturity of the older sibling, meaning that as I've said before, there's exceptions to every rule.

Financial/social status and how it impacts a dynamic: It should be well-known by now that these two things impact how people interact with one another, and it also impacts how siblings see each other. I won't expand too much on this one because that can get boring, but think of it the same way the parents relationship impacts the sibling. If you are an older sibling on the poorer side, you may feel responsible for your younger siblings, you empathize with them, and do your best with your limited power to get them out of the bad financial status. You go above and beyond, and plan for them when it's not your job to do so. As a younger sibling, you may blame yourself if your sibling is not able to get what they want, or you may envy your sibling if they're able to escape the less than ideal situation without thinking of you.

Finally, let's dive in sibling dynamics, in a general way. Unlike other character dynamics, a sibling dynamic is not only determined by the character's current personality, but by their personality in the past. As an older sibling, you've known your sibling their whole life, and as a younger sibling, you've known your sibling your whole life. When I'm around my brother I'm suddenly every age I ever was, and same goes for him, he's a teenager, a child, and an adult all at once, even though we are both adults now, we still tend to regress around one another. The same goes with me and my younger sister, seeing her go through stages of life reminds me of how I was at that time, I become 10 and 18 at the same time, and there's really no better way to describe it. Being with your siblings can bring out your best and your worst, I made big sacrifices for my sister and I also yelled at her more than anyone else, I listened and advised my brother and I was also more unfair to him than I have been with anyone else, to be in such close vicinity with people 24/7 makes you sick of them but it makes you miss them when they're not around for a few minutes. You get used to their presence being a constant, that when they leave it always feels like part of you is incomplete. These people will know and remember everything you'd rather forget about yourself, and you will know and remember everything about them. Sibling dynamics are the strongest and most fragile bonds at the same time, and there's really no better way for me to describe any of this.

I will make more focused posts in the future, but this is a general one for now to help only children try to understand siblings better, feel free to comment or reblog with anything you think will be a helpful addition to this post.

Maybe some of this advice will help, maybe it won't, either way, I hope this feline has enlightened you!

[happypoppyhaha]

Criticism?

Most yanderes I read are somewhat just horny and straight out lustful leaving no actual love to the reader to feel or make them feel they're being care about instead of being a fuck toy and being abused. Like I don't like how yandere are selfish and engulfed in their own pleasure. I know there are different types of yanderes but let's now waste them down to horny motherfuckers who can't keep it in their pants and lose the true definition of a yandere.

I know some of y'all would say "Oh, it's punishment for escaping or ignoring, or talking to a random guy." That's overdoing it and it's tiring when I read the same thing over and over again. I know y'all will also say "It's not for you, go read something else." The problem is, most of that smut shit takes over the ones I actually want to read without the seconds of raping, there's a maybe FEW of genuine true love for the readers and the yandere. Yes, this sounds like I'm complaining but I hold it long enough. I tried to enjoy the yandere smut. But I can't. I don't like how yandere just flat out rape us within seconds without getting to know what his favorite color is and expect that is love. I feel like yandere wouldn't do that just for being lustful towards us, saying how much they want us. It should be having sex for wanting to showcase their love to us or show how much they're attached to us and wanting to get more close emotionally to increase the love in different ways. Sex can be emotional for both parties, not just horniness. Romance is the progress and the build up in a relationship, that's why sex should be treasure because it carries so much weight. If we have sex with the yandere without the genuine affection there, then it's nothing. Sex should be a reason, not out of boredom, not out of horniness but out of love and wanting to thrive of being closer. I think yandere will thrive for emotional intimacy. Any kind of intimacy that brings the reader closer and closer to them, to the point they're truly connected. Maybe it's my way of thinking how a yandere should be but it's more logical to me. I just want a bond with the yandere and make me feel like I'm actually their girlfriend they me claimed to be.

Yandere- Sweet, caring, and innocent before switching into someone who displays an extreme, often violent or psychotic, level of devotion to a love interest. Google.

Cancel the sweetness, most yanderes show that to their darling.

We all know that a yandere will snap, making them have a second personality devoted to their lover. Their regular personality is just them in general without the lover being in danger or taken away from them or rejecting them. But don't make it their entire whole character. Make them relatable to us, having the same traits as us. Maybe a bond will be there.

Yandere will snap if their darling is persistent on leaving them or showing signs of rejection. This will trigger them. Or somebody is trying to romance them. Anything with them not getting their lover. The question is, if they get their lover but they don't love them or return the love. This is important to the yandere. Having the person you killed for but they don't want nothing to do with you. It hurts, the yandere want their love not just their existence. And I think yandere would also care for their darling well-being after all, they're in love with darling so when you deeply love the person it'll make sense for you to show care about their health. I don't like how yandere, mostly male yanderes are portray. They wouldn't neglect our well-being or they just don't give a fuck about how we feel, thinking their actions won't affect us negatively. Expect us to be okay with it and somehow we are actually okay with it? We as the readers or as the darlings stated being soft. Look, I get it they will torture us or beat our ass if we act out of line, some of us will still be persistent, mostly I see it's freedom. But it's never MOSTLY about taming the yandere or the yandere can't tame you because you act of control like spiraling or not living up to their expectations not being a traditional woman, just a woman who mimics male behaviors or just not ladylike in general. I see some of this happening, some. And I'm still searching for readers who are not controllable by the yandere. Not making the reader be nice or innocent. Like a batshit crazy reader or the reader who acts real goofy and childish enough the yandere thinking they're the parent for having to tolerate you. But it's a few of these and it makes me sad how male yandere x readers are turning into something I won't be able to enjoy anymore and I want to enjoy it but I can't because we are making it into pattern.

[liquid-bonhomme]

HEY Y'ALL IT'S MIKAILER WITH AN "ER" WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO GRASP!?

---

Did I get your attention, Mikaila? I hope so, let's see.

Mikaila, I don't like you. You've done shit that's soured my opinion of you. I'm acknowledging that now to get that out of the way. I'm not here to be two-faced about this or blow smoke up your ass.

But as one idiot who stayed in a toxic relationship to another-- I'm not making fun of you because I think I'm better. I know. Being in a relationship like that brings out some ugly shit. You resent and fear people will never forgive you. You don't know if you will forgive yourself. I'm not making fun of you because I think I'm better than you.

And it feels kinda good, being treated badly? In a weird way? When you're used to it? When you feel you kind of deserve it? It did for me too. My abuser did some fucked up shit to me. I don't know how to describe to you the strange feelings I'm left with now. Sometimes I think I finally hate her, sometimes, as pathetic as it makes me feel, I still miss her. It's a rot in you that never really goes away, but you learn to live with it. I understand that agony. I understand that anger of how fucking unfair it is.

You know my opinion of Lily. You're not going to trust me that I'm not saying all this just to get you two to break up to hurt her. Fair. Very fair, not going to pretend like it's not. But if Lily loves you, nothing I'm about to say should be an issue. She should want what's best for you, right?

Here's the rub Mikaila, it's been a few years now. I know you want out of your situation at home, but it doesn't seem like Lily's going to be able to help you with that at this point. I'm sure Lily's given you plenty of reasons as to why, and it's time to listen to her.

If you're heart's set on coming to Canada, your best bet is getting a job here. Or even, going to school. Art degrees (Here in Canada) aren't as expensive, provided you go to the right school. Even taking out a student loan for just one year to figure your shit out. I know you're in quite a bit of debt right now and don't want to get into more, but. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Here's the college I went to. Yes, your work is sufficient to potentially get admitted. Believe it or not, art school's get that illustration is a learned skill. Artists start from all different levels:

Look through the admissions requirements to see if you have the academic records to be admitted. If not, you could also consider upgrading through online classes aswell.

Again though, your best bet is to try to find employment. The cost of living isn't great here right now, but it isn't great anywhere. I doubt you'll be able to find cheaper rent in America.

Once you're here or wherever you end up, away from the chaos of your home, you might find it a lot easier to get your head around, establishing some better independence and becoming a citizen by yourself. It's a shitty process, but not as bad as the one you guys have in the States. We stan an immigrant here.

You need to look out for you, Mikaila. It's not selfish. It's not a matter of whether you "really deserve it or not." Nobody's going to save you. You're emotionally spent because of your parents, You're emotionally spent because of Lily. And it feels kind of nice how much Lily needs you. But you can't help her until you help yourself - and again, if we're all wrong and Lily really loves you, she shouldn't have a problem with you finding your way.

My own mother once told me I was "born sad." I've never not hated myself. I ate up any little bit of love and validation no matter how many bitter, razor pills that came with it too. That's just how it is for some of us.

But you know what Mikaila? Fuck em. Fuck all of them. Fuck everything. Fuck me, Mikaila. You've got one life. One body. One you. Whatever you think of her, someone's gotta fight for that poor bitch. Why not you fight for you?

Everyone's a stinky meat bag stripped down, Mikaila. Everyone's made a fool in the wake of the shit people like you and I have been through. Not everyone's going to be able to forgive everything, but everyone's not wholly past forgiveness.

I'm no better than you Mikaila. Nobody is. Some of us just get to know the worst sides of ourselves better than others.

I don't like some of the things you've done, girl. But I see you. I get it. Tell us all to eat shit. Fix your life. Don't rely on Lily to make you feel whole or to save you. To make you feel worthy. No person can do that. She could be the reincarnation of Mary Mother of God herself, and you couldn't expect that from her. Be your own advocate. If your relationship isn't toxic, it can survive you becoming a more whole you.

This asshole is rooting for you. Give me an excuse to undoomer "Mikailer." My girl needs a win.

[girlpathetica]

re; ableism in the hunger games, infantilism of the traumatized/shunning of the traumatized.

okay so i woke up & my awesome mutual @ongreenergrasses made a post about this too (i JUST saw it and like oooh my god. i agree so hard and so much) and i'm just going to talk about what i've been thinking.

the hunger games is doused in some really nasty thinking when it comes to mental health, and then even more so when it comes to disabilities, addiction and PTSD. i'm going to break down this post in parts based on each character who represents this, and any misc. ones will simply be the issue at hand alone. i find that suzanne writes a certain stereotypical sort of rhetoric that goes unchecked by this fandom because the majority are not those who have experienced these things, but the ones who *have* should at least bring this to more attention if possible. katniss to me, is one of the most ableist characters (not of her own knowing) as the good and mighty protagonist, and seeing people headcanon her as autistic is very interesting when her takes on people with any sort of difference in mental states is.. it comes into question constantly.

𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐄

annie is very truthfully, a character who is only based on being the ‘poor mad girl who wins finnick's heart’ and yes, a victor with more severe PTSD which has come to affect her daily life, or at least when it comes to the games. suzanne collins’ constant use of the term ‘mad girl’ comes from katniss as protagonist, which reads as so ableist. watering anyone to their inpairments or their level of health is dehumanizing, and it reads to me like she regards annie as a sort of special case, like a wounded animal almost. the only positive talk about annie as a character minus her wedding, minus her relationship with finnick is when peeta explains annie's experiences in the games, which comes with empathy and understanding that most,,, are overbearing with. i see so many people water her down to just, being finnick's, and only being whatever level of trauma has enabled her consistent struggles. this i won't put a label on because i don't know what collin's was trying to achieve.

i even believe that finnick as her lover commits a level of ableist thinking in their relationship. he withholds information of the rebellion from her (despite her being extremely smart and just as career as anyone else from four,) and despite that not changing anything because she's still tortured, still abused in some way, he has a level of extreme overprotectiveness that reads as infantilism of his partner, and it seems to me like everyone considers finnick as annie's carer, and doesn't consider annie as his partner. yes his *lover,* but not someone on equal ground as far as their mental health issues go. the way annie is seen on both coins of fandom and book are incredibly ignorant and very, very harmful to disabled people. just because someone has a debilitating issue does not mean you get to treat them like they're a child, does not mean you go onto label them from that single trait. like i said, the phrase ‘the mad girl back home’ is so, so degrading to annie, who is a survivor and has overcome her experiences with respective scars. respect her humanity, because it's sub human thinking to call someone mad based on PTSD. leave that in the 1910s/20s.

𝐌𝐑𝐒. 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐍 & 𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇

(note that the haymitch part will be longer than the rest because i have enough content to go off of & this is my specialty)

mrs. everdeen and haymitch as characters both experience deprecating grief, to the extent where their mental health is tarnished from that. mrs. e becomes withdrawn and stiff from family; only able to function for the sake of work. her love, her husband dies and it emotionally disables her and severs a proper relationship to her two daughters. her mental health being dependant on the man/the loss of him and the fact that she discards her family is not only somewhat realistic for *some* cases, but also equally spitting out ideas of tradition and how "women need a man," with hazelle contrasting this and having to work for her 4 children to the point of blood. katniss’ perception of her mother's issue do come from hurt, but also internalised prejudice against those with mental health as she can see the extent of agony her mother is in and still loathes her, never leaving the door open for empathy.

the treatment of haymitch in both book and fandom is equally prejudiced and incredibly uneducated on addiction, and again — grief. haymitch self-medicates because his trauma, the extent of it is so mutilating to the point where he has to be flushing out memories on a constant basis. the fandom calls him a stupid drink, looks down on his intelligence. the books make him look volatile, squalored. the way in which suzanne collins describes his kitchen (which is filthy with old food, hazards, bottles and mice droppings) is VERY true of several people with severe mental health. katniss makes fun of him while he's in a state of approaching withdrawal, saying that the smell brings tears to her eyes, and at the end of the conversation ‘to take a bath.’ people with depression (which is what mrs. e and haymitch both have in different cases) find it difficult to do everyday chores and simple tasks, and katniss also repeats the idea of haymitch being unhygienic when she says ‘he's disgusting, but I'm greatful’ alongside commenting that it must've been a long while since he had bathed. haymitch is the richest man in the district, but not even that can stop the blatant hatred that katniss parrots. haymitch is to me, ill, and it reflects in his attitude during the games and when he's in withdrawal. suzanne hones in his mental state the most, and what he is a functioning alcoholic, and while that differs from regular alcoholism, people are consistent to demean his character with misconceptions and text books beliefs of what an alcoholic looks like. there are *many* takes, many examples of these sorts of people in society, but the constant abusive, violent, hateful, squalid, hedonistic ideas are parroted in fics when it comes to haymitch when he isn't.. any of those things. the society around him cares to consider the extent of his suffering and he doesn't have a good enough support system, as all whom he has loved are dead. i finish this by saying what i always do; he's extremely intelligent, extremely empathetic and wholly feeling, extremely caring and protective, and is meant to *defy* stereotypes. his ending however diminishes his ability to get better, and practically undoes any hope of his betterment despite it all.

𝐌𝐑𝐒. 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐄

mrs. undersee is mentioned a few times through the trilogy, and when it isn't related to her late twin maysilee donner, or her daughter madge, it's her chronic illness. katniss basically only mentions her when referring to her constant headaches and her morphling addiction, which makes me wonder why suzanne collins doesn't go into depth about how she's taken care of, who she's getting support from as the wife of the district mayor, and how she functions as a mother. she is basically made useless to the narrative despite her important role as a mayoral first lady & family member to someone who experienced and was slaughtered in the arena. i see next to no content on her which upsets me as she does play such a big role in the scheme of things, and has connections to the everdeens, to haymitch and to the donner family. she's got next to nothing on her wikipedia, and it's unfortunate as she could've been a good example of chronic ilness in an already revered YA series (which now comes under scrutiny for the faults being uprooted.)

[akiizayoi4869]

(tw emotional neglect, abuse)

(I say this as a person that actually thinks positively of Ursa)

"Ursa wasn't a bad mom, she was simply trying to stop Azula from doing bad stuff" You know that statement isn't incompatible with 'Ursa is an emotionally neglectful parent' right? Especially when there's very little evidence of Ursa doing anything other than stopping Azula from doing bad things?

Another argument that bothers me is 'Azula knew deep down her mother loves her, that's why she hallucinated her.' Sorry, but that's not how feeling unloved by your parents worked. I would know. There is actually evidence of Ursa loving Azula, but the hallucination is not it.

A third arguement: "You're just projecting your mom issues on her" Ursa's a lot nicer and a better parent than my mom. And Ursa's more like my dad.

"It actually was all Ozai" It's possible, but we don't really know. They never did actually show us enough of Ursa and Azula's relationship to tell (and no, we can't just assume based on what happened in the comics/show, especially since they only showed a few days). Did Ozai tell Azula that her mom thought she was a monster? Or did Ozai just say things that Azula interpreted as such? Did Ursa actually even say Azula was a monster? Was Ursa a really bad parent off screen? Did Azula get this impression from Ursa actually disciplining her (as the common belief goes)? Did Ursa do things that gave Azula the impression that she thought she was a monster (there is actually enough evidence for this, considering Spirit Temple and the common belief that Ursa saw Ozai in Azula. And. You know. Ursa does think Ozai is a monster.). We don't know either way.

"Azula was just spoiled" Also not incompatible with emotional neglect.

"Ursa was as bad as Ozai" 100% WRONG.

"Ursa abandoned her kids" Yes and no. She was forced to leave (not the same thing). The forgetting of her kids could be interpreted that way, though. Personally, I see the 'forgetting her kids' more as a moment of weakness-not necessarily an indication of her feelings on Azula and Zuko (whom she interacts with positively after she regains her memories). Like she was so overwhelmed by the pain, and she didn't know if she'd see Azula or Zuko again. So she took the chance to forget. If it had been a better moment, or she was in a better mental state/had more hope that she'd see Zuko or Azula again, or was given a chance to not forget Azula and Zuko while forgetting everything else, she probably wouldn't have chosen to forget.

Omg, the hallucination argument and the "it was all Ozai!" arguments annoy me the most. Why are we taking what a hallucination says at face value? This is all coming from Azula's mind, that's why it's called a "hallucination" what the hallucination of Ursa was saying were all things that Azula wanted her mother to say to her, but knew that she wouldn't. Why? Because Ursa never showed that she loved Azula. If she did, Azula wouldn't have hallucinated her mother, the one person who she wanted comfort from in that moment, and she wouldn't have cried when hallucination Ursa said "I love you, Azula. I do." and smashed the mirror with her hair brush. She did that because she knew that Ursa wasn't really there, and because she knew that her mother would never say those comforting words to her. Based on what we saw in the Zuko Alone episode, Ursa was always strict with Azula in ways that she wasn't with Zuko, even when he did something that was bad. Like it or not, that leaves an impression on your kid. That makes them think that you don't love them, only your sibling.

Yeah, we really don't know much about their relationship, and I wouldn't even take the comics interpretation (at least, the Yang comics) because they completely contradict what little bit we saw in the show. Saying it was all Ozai and that Ursa had nothing to do with Azula's problems is just deliberately denying canon. The Beach episode gave us this:

and nobody says anything to push back against that statement and say that Azula was wrong, and that of course her mother didn't see her as a monster or thought that about her. You know what that means? They knew that she was right, because they were all around each other during their childhood. So they all witnessed how Ursa treated both of her kids. Zuko most likely didn't care because his mom was on his side when his father wasn't, but Mai and Ty Lee were Azula's friends. You can't tell me that they didn't pick up on it after a while, even if Azula didn't openly talk about it. And then we have the mirror scene. Once again, the narrative doesn't do anything to show that Azula was wrong. The hallucination is there for one reason: to show us that yes, what Azula said during The Beach episode actually isn't a wrong assessment of the relationship between her and her mother at all, and that she really did not feel as if Ursa loved her, because Ursa never showed that she did. Now, I'm not saying that Ursa did not love Azula at all, because I'm sure that she did. She just never acted or spoke to Azula in a way that conveyed that she did indeed love her.

Personally, I don't think that Azula got this impression from Ursa disciplining her. That's expected of a parent. However, it's the way how Ursa went about doing it that counts. With Zuko, we see Ursa lightly admonish him for doing something wrong, and gently explaining to him why whatever it was that he did was wrong. I'm pretty sure that there was more moments like that, and Azula more than likely witnessed them. Compare that with how Ursa spoke to Azula whenever she did something wrong, and you get a completely different picture. Ursa just yells at Azula and doesn't explain why whatever it was that she did or said was wrong, as if she just expected Azula to know better. Which is just baffling to me since Azula is the youngest child. In my experience, the youngest child tends to need a bit more guidance than the oldest child does. Anyway, Azula quite obviously picked up on this difference and it resulted in her beginning to think that something was wrong with her since Ursa never treated Zuko like that.

Another thing is attention. Not receiving attention from your parents will also mess you up. It's even worse when it's the mother since, you know, you have that special connection with her since she carried you for nine months. Getting attention from your parents is important. And while I know that people say that Ozai gave attention to Azula, that's different. And I honestly wouldn't even call that good attention, because all he cared about was results and how useful his children were to him. Also, Ozai wasn't the loving parent in the family. Ursa was. Azula knew this because, as we can clearly see, she was a smart child for her age, and she wasn't naive like her brother. So to her, not being loved by Ursa, the loving parent in the family, must mean that she's the problem. Which is why she sees herself as a monster, and why she thinks Ursa saw her as a monster.

Miss me with the whole "Ursa was just as bad as Ozai or worse than him" bs. Like you said that is absolutely not true at all.

I mean yes, that was the whole point of Ursa choosing to forget her children. I just have two problems with it: originally she was just going to change her face so that she wouldn't be recognized, and find a way to go back to her children. The only reason why she changed her mind was because Ikem convinced her to. Secondly, once again it goes against what we saw in the show, because what does she tell Zuko right before she leaves? "Never forget who you are." And then she proceeds to do exactly that. It was just a stupid and lazy plot point to explain what happened to Ursa, because the writers didn't think that much about it.

[artsy-the-little-pink-pencil]

Ragatha (Rosalyn) Anne Miller

Age when she joined: 20

Height: 5’9

Age Now: 32

Fave Color: Pale Blue

Sexuality and Gender: DemiGirl, Lesbian

Pronouns: She/They

Personality Type: ISFJ

Zodiac: Taurus

Home State/Country: Ohio (Scottish, English, American)

Birthday: May 5, 1993

Year she joined: 2013

Headcanons

She is Dane Miller's (The founder and owner of C&A) daughter. She had been a people pleaser for as long as she lived, her father was emotionally abusive and immature, causing Ragatha to grow up quicker than she should’ve.

Being able to summon her sewing needles and sew herself back up instantly, her butcher’s knives, and to go limp just like a ragdoll. She is also very resilient to attacks, being a ragdoll has its perks. If the gash is too big to sew on her own, she’ll either get someone else to sew her or Caine. She won’t die tho, but will definitely be traumatised.

Her father taught her how to sew.

She was raised by her father alone.

She was extremely rich, having a mansion, horses, a pool, yatch, ect. She was basically a modern princess.

She was very popular in school but didn’t want all the attention. She was soon bullied by the same kids for being, “Ungrateful”.

She went to private schools before being homeschooled.

Dane made sure Ragatha was completely under his influence and when she did finally figure out what was going on with him trapping people in his game, he did the same to his own daughter.

Ragatha's mother wasn't very present in her children’s lives. That was because she was working 2 jobs for her family which meant Ragatha had to be her replacement.

Is a firm Christian and went to church every Sunday, prayed every night, and said grace before every meal and still does. But she does respect other religions of course.

Had a wonderful relationship with her grandparents but only knew them for the first few years of her life.

She was born with blindness in her eye (the eye that has the button) and was bullied by her siblings for it.

Ragatha crochets in her free time. She loves making little coasters, sweaters, ect.

Is very oblivious to compliments/flirts.

After leaving the circus, she would have horrible nightmares of her father as Caine.

Ragatha still needs a nightlight to sleep.

Get to know the ragdoll!

Chinese Horoscope: Rooster

Spirit Animal: Rabbit

IQ: 92

Nicknames: Ragsy (Artsy), Raggy Anne (Jax), Mom (Gangle), Honey (Pomni)

Allergies: Wheat and Eggs

Disabilities: Blind in one eye

Right or Left Handed: Right

Quirks/Habits: Pulls on hair when angry or upset and constantly bounces leg

Siblings: 3 younger brothers and 2 younger sisters

Who is the most important person in her life: Pomni

Person she looks up to the most: Kinger

Best Friend: Kinger

Lover: Pomni

Rival: Jax

If he could have a superpower it would be: Flight

Dream Job: Professional Horse Rider

Biggest Fear: People not liking her

Biggest Flaw: Being a people pleaser

Favorite Animal: Horse

Favorite Hobby: Making clothes

Favorite Food: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Favorite Drink: Fruit Punch Gatorade

Least Favorite Food: Basalmic Vinegar Brussel Sprouts

Favorite Season: Spring

Favorite Movie: Breakfast Club

Favorite Book: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Favorite Singer/Artist: Brittany Spears

Very skilled at: Sewing and fixing clothes

Least skilled at: Putting her foot down

Greatest Achievement: Won 1st place in her state's horse riding competition

Pet Peeves: Jax, people who are mean to others for no reason, messy sinks/houses.

Introvert or Extrovert: Both

Organized or Messy: Organized

Is she good at singing: Yes

Can she bake: Yes

Can she cook: Yes

Does she play any sports: Horse Riding

Instrument: Violin

Motto: “Treat others how you want to be treated.”

Theme Songs

She's just a Ragdolly - Raggedy Anne and Andy movie

Old Doll - The Mad Father

[ilikepjo24]

On de-bending Azula for the sake of redemption...

Many think that for a character to be redeemed, they need to hit rock bottom first. Right now, I can't recall if it has been stated on the show or not, but still even if no one said it out loud, that's the mentality Avatar is trying to teach us, through Iroh, Zuko and Korra.

Since the show is trying to teach this lesson, some people now believe that for Azula to be redeemed, she must lose her bending, her royal status, her previous relationships and she should be kicked out of her home, to learn consequences and humility, in order to become a better person.

There is absolutely no respect to be due as I say that this mentality is complete bullshit.

Not only it is unfair, unreasonable and cruel, but it is literally unhealthy and I pity all the people who think that way. I actually have a couple of questions for those people.

If you were brought up in an emotionally and mentally abusive household that ruined you, would you be against getting help because you haven't hit rock bottom? Would you think "yes, my parents traumatized me, but they haven't done anything that directly jeopardized my physical health so it's not that bad. I haven't hit rock bottom yet, so I don't deserve better" ?

If you had a health problem that isn't causing you any issues with your daily life as of now, but demands to be attended in order to not cause any problems in the future, would you neglect taking care of yourself because you haven't hit rock bottom? Would you think "yes, this could cost me my life later on, but there's no possibilities of that happening anywhere in this year, so it's fine. I haven't hit rock bottom, so I don't deserve treatment" ?

If yes, you need and deserve a hug right now. I might not respect you and I pity you instead, but I still would like to give you a hug. And then slap you. Cause you're stupid.

If you are in a bad position in life, you shouldn't need to suck it up cause it's not the worst position ever. Do you not value your life and happiness? If person A is stuck at the bottom of a cliff and person B is hanging by the edge and is in danger of falling, they both need help. You wouldn't only help person A and then wait for person B to fall as well in order to help them.

You don't need to hit rock bottom to deserve better, you just do, cause you're human. You're a living being. And that's enough to make you worthy of a good life without suffering.

Azula doesn't need to hit rock bottom to want redemption and she certainly doesn't need to hit rock bottom to deserve better than what she has.

Thus proven.

[winns-stuff]

Two things:

1 a. I don't think kidding someone's feet automatically equals foot fetish. If you have someone a kiss on the shoulder doors that mean you have a shoulder fetish?

1 b. Even if he does, that didn't automatically make him evil or a creep. Kinks and fetishes are not moral indicators and acting like they do is juvenile. It might not be for you, or even make you uncomfortable, and that's okay. Live and let live.

2. I don't think it's fair to call Persephone a homewrecker when:

a. Minthe and Hades were not exclusive. Minthe was sleeping with Thanatos - Hades' adoptive son - and Hades was sleeping with Hera anyway.

b. Minthe was emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to Hades. I feel like everyone forgets that she literally hit him. He shouldn't have been in that relationship anyways.

Okay first off, I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was kinkshaming at all. I was honestly just joking about that comparison and one of the main reasons why I said that it reminded me of Dan Schneider and that I was repulsed was because of the “creepy” aspect of it being placed in there, it was around the end that the person said that the kink seemed like it was only given to creepy guys. I don’t care about kinks genuinely and trust me I do mind my business when it comes to those things, again my apologies if I did come off immature.

But you’re right, his kink doesn’t make him a creep but the fact that he literally is creepy, manipulative, and an overall messed up person makes him a little bit more warranted for those kinds of comments since that’s literally how he represents himself in the comic. Hades is a slave owning, hypocritical, child neglecting, abusive, and overall tyrant to everyone who’s not kissing his ass and it’s not me exaggerating it’s literally just how he is that’s him as a person overall.

And I do think it is fair to call Persephone a homewrecker based on the very fact that they were seeing each other and breaking a lot of boundaries after Hades and Minthe officially made it official. Mind you, it was Hades who wanted to close the open relationship so yeah now seeing other people and touching them beyond the appropriate interaction between an employee and boss especially is now inappropriate and not something that you can just wave the “we’re not in a closed relationship” card at. Also, by definition Persephone was one of the sole reasons that Minthe and Hades broke up since Minthe started noticing just how overly affectionate they became with each other while working so yes, she is a homewrecker. She broke a home and please don’t comment by saying “there was never a home in the first place” because there was, you can’t just give homewrecking and emotional cheating a pass because you don’t like the character they still had history.

Also, trust me when I say no one forgets that Minthe hits him. Every single time I post about Minthe I make sure to acknowledge the fact that I don’t condone her actions and actually a lot of critics do as well since there’s a lot of people like you (not saying this in a bad way by the way) that do believe that many people are Minthe stans every time you discuss her without stating that fact. But even though yes, it was a fairly toxic relationship on both sides and they should’ve broke up much sooner like I said before there was still a relationship there that they were both in. It’s still emotional cheating and homewrecking on Hades and Persephone’s part, also Persephone doesn’t even know how Minthe treated Hades she just never cared about her feelings to begin with and pursued her boyfriend basically.

Also last thing but do you know what slap everyone does tend to forget a lot? Hecate when she slapped the ever loving shit out of Hades, now I’m not saying since that happened just forget about Minthe’s behavior at all but I am saying that we should all react to that slap the same. We all agree that it’s never okay to put your hands on someone so why should we condone it when it’s not Minthe?

[henrysglock]

Is it possible that the explicit abuse of certain characters can be used to allude to the implicit abuse of another? I'm honestly a bit surprised to see your recent take, since many times in the past you've posited that what was happening to one character onscreen was actually alluding to something that happened to another character (001, etc).

I'm not entirely sure which takes you're referring to. If you want to cite your sources, please do so, and I'll explain them.

But in general, that's not something I do. I don't go "Oh, because XYZ happened to [insert character], then it definitely happened to this other character even though we don't see any evidence of it happening to said character."

I'm an evidence first analyst—that means I'll notice something in a character, and then tug at it and find support in surrounding plot lines. I can't really think of a recent instance, off the top of my head, where I've done anything other than that. If you're referring to the use of "One" in various circumstances, then that's more a case of coded language than it is implicit behavior.

More often than not, I don't need to use other characters to talk about implicit things. Usually, all the evidence I need can be found within the character themselves.

Take Henry, for example. I talked about him having been mistreated or even abused by Virginia before TFS came out, and then I was right. Virginia does hit Henry. She does have possessive and emotionally incestuous patterns of behavior with him. Most people didn't believed me, because it wasn't explicitly stated enough for them. I was able to see it in how Henry's story was presented and in the behaviors I was presented with from his end, though. They presented me with a boy who fears his mother and believes she despises him, as well as a mother who would ship her son off to a laboratory for not comforming the way she wants him to. That, in conjunction with parallels to other stories of a similar nature that featured outright abuse (like Insidious 2 and Changeling, for example, as well as intra-textual stuff that I've gone over so many times that I won't waste the words on it) led me to believe that Virginia was abusive. And I was right, even though everyone poo-pooed me because she was a mother instead of a father.

What I did not do is go "Oh, because xyz happened to this character in this similar story, then it definitely happened to Henry". It's always "Henry is displaying certain beliefs and behaviors, and we've been presented with a few damning details. I wouldn't be shocked if his situation is similar to ones the greater context parallels."

Do you see the difference? There's nothing in Lonnie's story that leads me to believe Will was treated the same way Billy was or the same was Henry was or the same way El was. They made Henry's issues with Virginia fairly explicit even before TFS showed them to us outright. They make Billy's issues with Neil explicit across 2 seasons.

They had the capability to give us more to latch onto with Will, in an explicit sense. We're now heading into ST5, and Lonnie hasn't been mentioned since ST1, in terms of Will. Jonathan focuses on how becoming his father would lead him to treat Nancy like shit and fuck his kids up by abandoning them. He had the opportunity there to add more! If they wanted it to be tangible, it would be. ST4 would have been the time to start peppering that shit back in for ST5. Instead, what I get is "Lonnie treated Joyce like shit and was a disappointing deadbeat father"...which is 100% in keeping with everything we learn in ST1.

Tl;dr—Yes, they do use other scenarios to allude to implicit abuse via direct parallels between story lines. But the important part is that the relationships between abuser and abused display concrete signs of that abuse independent of the parallels.

Joyce telling Hopper that Lonnie used to call Will a fag doesn't tell me Lonnie said it to Will's face. It tells me that maybe Lonnie used to bitch at Joyce about his son being a fag. It doesn't make it nice or good, but it also doesn't offer me anything concrete about how Lonnie behaved face-to-face with Will. If there's something concrete, then it'll have to come in ST5, because it hasn't been given to us yet.

Regardless, Lonnie is not the "worst" abuser presented to us so far. In terms of physicality and concrete evidence, he doesn't even make the top 3 (Brenner, Neil, and Virginia). I'd say even Hopper ranks higher than Lonnie solely for that scene in ST2 when he hollers at El and threatens to send her back to her primary abuser (Brenner/HNL). Comparatively speaking, the evidence for Lonnie is just not there—and if they wanted it to be, it would be.

[asagi-red-wolf]

Headcanon: Stolas + Social Cues

Before I start, this is meant to be more of a HEADCANON than a THEORY- please don’t come into my inbox or onto this post to debunk it, I sincerely do not care, there are 100% completely valid reads on Stolas and concepts like willfull ignorance and even pushing his own agenda out of entitlement- I won’t argue with those reads, so please don’t argue with mine, it’s just my personal opinion as an autistic person with trouble reading social cues myself

The TL;DR is: I think most of Stolas’s Issues with how he interacts with people (primarily Blitz and Octavia, as those are his two most frequent, positive- atleast from Stolas’s side- interactions) is more to do with an inability to understand social cues than anything else

Part 1: Childhood Neglect

Children have to be around, ya' know, people, from a young age to develop social skills- and a big part of those social skills is the ability to read people, but we know for a fact that for the first ten years of his life, Stolas had never interacted with other children and had very scarce interaction with other adults, I don't think that changed until he was in his teens and was forced to be around Stella, but even if I'm wrong, those first ten years kinda sealed his fate anyway because most primary social skills (like reading people) are learned before the age of five- or atleast the primary functions are, nuance obviously comes later, so by the age of ten, Stolas was completely incapable of learning this skill without actively being taught, and we know he sure as hell didn't have that, so he's kinda just.... cooked....

Making matters much, much worse- what interactions he did have in childhood were all either cold, cruel, or both.. with one notable exception we’ll get to later

The butler seemed to be very “professional”...

...Yeah I’m not exactly getting a huge range of emotions from this fella to be honest....

Then you have Paimon, who seems to be mostly in a jovial state when he visits Stolas..... but that peppy mood is punctuated by cruelty, IE: “cease your bitch crying”, that wasn’t really said in anger- he didn’t seem frustrated or pissed off, just mildly annoyed but mostly still in a good mood, this would be a good example of mixed messages: Actions that contradict words or vice versa, for any child it might be hard to understand the idea of someone speaking to them calmly and within a relatively good mood but saying something mean and hurtfull, but to a child who doesn’t have the necessary skills to understand social cues, this becomes it’s own strange normal

Next is Stella, who I personally feel probably didn’t meet Stolas until they were teenagers, but it doesn’t really matter because either way, I don’t think it would have changed much- she’s cold, cruel, and vile from the beginning, Stolas is a very sensitive person with a very gentle disposition, no matter if he met her when he was ten or when he was sixteen, I think it’d be a shock to his system either way, and having to come to terms with the fact that this is the type of person who he’s going to have to have a marriage with had to have taken a big emotional toll, and it’s setting the stage VERY early in conditioning him into a victimized mindset- there is zero opportunity for him to get away from this abusive situation, all he can do is learn how to minimize the pain that comes out of it, and that in and of it’s self leads to having a very..... difficult time learning how to read people, on the good side of things, yes, you learn quickly how to avoid setting off your abuser (...unless ofcourse the abuser is emotionally sporadic) and can learn quickly how to tell when things are about to go from generally calm to “head for cover”.... but it also creates a skewed perception- ESPECIALLY for people who lack relationship experience- for reading people in future relationships, making one either overly cautious.... or attracted to red flags- wich is very clearly Stolas’s case (don’t think I didn’t notice the text that invited Blitz to “be mean to him” in what was VERY clearly an attempt at mediating a sour situation, this is not kink, this is absolutely and 100% a victimized person trying a Fawn Response to get out of more severe consequences- in alot of cases, people in abusive situations would rather suffer a shorter instance of having anger taken out on them (IE: being slapped in the face, screamed at, or berated) than to have their abuser (or anyone in their life for that matter) stay mad at them for an extended period of time (and to be VERY clear, before anyone comes for me, I’m not saying that Blitz is abusing Stolas by any stretch of the imagination, although I will touch on the language used again later, but Stolas’s ONLY mindset in a romantic relationship was specifically curated to be a victimized one, it is the ONLY guidepost he has, and he WILL, by nature, fall into the patterns he developed with Stella with anyone else he has a relationship with until that trauma is dealt with properly and he learns how to have other kinds of interactions with people and how to have a healthy relationship)

And that brings us to the only other childhood interaction that we know of- Blitz: ...And Blitz is confusing even for people who do have social experience, not as much when he was a kid, but still to some small degree, because Blitz, by nature, is rude, crass, and insulting, that can make it really hard to tell if he genuinely likes you or not- take Moxxie for instance, who we know he considers to be part of his family, who he VERY clearly has fondness and affection for (besides all the threeway comments, “Truth Seekers” makes this clear enough).... but he also is often at the butt of Blitz’s jokes, comments, and insults, for no apparent reason at that (we don’t see him treating Millie that way, although, that doesn’t mean that he’s never sharp or rude with her, he just seems to reserve the most of it for Moxxie) I think even people who have a good understanding of social cues would find him hard to figure out, so you take Stolas- who at this point has never had a truly positive interaction with literally anyone to our knowledge- suddenly being treated with atleast some kind of affection and comradary, and he’s just going to assume that ok, yes, this must be how people interact with eachother- he’s never been taught or shown any differently, his father actually has a very similar way of treating him to how Blitz does- he seems to be in a fine mood, isn’t shouting or displaying anger, but he’s casually insulting Stolas and belittling him, so when Stolas’s first ever freind says things like “Your books are boring”, and then proceeds to offer to play a game with him, Stolas’s veiws on this are probably going to skew alot less towards “That was rude” and alot more towards “Oh, this is just how people treat eachother” or at the very least “This is just how people treat me”- and this seems like such small potatoes but the sheer lack of any other interactions Stolas has with people makes every single word important to him and how he develops social skills- and when he’s already leaning into a victimized mindset, this is only going to help it along it’s path

Part 2: The Love Bomb

So Stolas, we can probably deduce, doesn’t have alot of luck with meeting people in adulthood who are, you know, decent to him, if the fact that he’s sidelined at his own party gives any indication, I feel like it’s VERY safe to assume- if not just stating an explicit fact- that Stolas hasn’t had any new positive interactions since that initial playdate with Blitz

So imagine if you will, this scenario:

Blitz is the first person to show Stolas not just any form of freindship, but any form of positive attention at all (excluding Via but we’ll get there), then after over a decade of this still being true, he sneaks into Stolas’s house and within ten minutes of seeing Stolas again, indicates VERY clearly that he wants to sleep with Stolas- who I guarantee, despite living in the Lust ring, does not have any grasp on the concept that wanting to sleep with someone does not automatically mean you have feelings for them, as having feelings for someone- or atleast liking them- seems to be a vital part of Stolas’s own attraction to people and ability to want to sleep with them (we know he doesn’t want to sleep with Stella, per the fact that she proudly admits to essentially assaulting him, and I’m not convinced that his lack of interest in her is entirely due to his sexuality- I personally headcanon that he’s gay, but that isn’t explicitly stated to be true anywhere, and he could easily be bi, pan, or even on the ace spectrum- wich I would not be remotely surprised about, by the way, as a demi person myself- and even if he IS gay, that doesn’t mean he’s automatically incapable of sleeping with a woman or having some enthusiasm to do so- ask a small crowd of gay men and I’ll bet anything that atleast one or two have had genuinely positive sexual interactions with women, especially if they were closeted for an extended period of time)- then after several rounds of sex and Blitz sleeping over, their next interaction is Stolas offering a monthly arrangement and Blitz, albeit with a lukewarm response that can be rightfully chalked up to him trying to avoid being murdered- agrees to it- wouldn’t your perception, until this point, be largely that Blitz still has some level of affinity for Stolas? If this is the only perspective we saw, it makes loads of sense

But this is where things start getting murky

After Blitz’s initial, brisk, agreement, interactions from Blitz’s end are LARGELY mixed in messaging- he’s sharp, cold, and often cruel with the way he speaks to Stolas, but he continues to come over and keep their arrangement anyway, at times initiating himself

or saying that he doesn’t mind when their monthly arrangement comes early

The show makes it VERY fucking clear that besides being extremely kinky (and having kinks that usually seem to line up with eachother quite well) they’re also switches-

(Credit)

Meaning that Blitz doesn’t just do all the giving, he also allows Stolas to top- this is clearly not just about Blitz getting to tie up a royal and feel empowered for once, and it clearly is involving more attention than just a quick bang for the book and running (and for context, the first screencap in this set is meant to indicate that Stolas topping is something Blitz is familiar enough with as a concept that he has to tell Stolas “no” in the beginning of their trip, I don’t think he’d be that cautious if Stolas had exclusively bottomed until this point)

At the same time Blitz also has many times (like the above in Loo Loo Land) when he makes it clear that he doesn’t want to engage in anything sexual, and Stolas has always respected that to atleast a physical degree (even if he often dirty talks and comes onto Blitz when Blitz clearly wishes he wouldn’t, he atleast knows not to do anything handsy when Blitz says “no”, wich is a low bar to step over but still)

But the problem is that Blitz’s attitude and how he responds to Stolas- outside of very clear “yes”es and very clear “no”s- is nearly always hostile, it’s only when Blitz is in a particularly good mood that he seems to be more mild in how he treats Stolas- and that’s often after sex, from what we’ve seen, or after Stolas has done something for Blitz (IE: saving him and I.M.P. in Truth Seekers), Blitz has “resting bitch attitude” to the extreme, his default state is a harsh disposition, and he’s also no stranger to making unwanted sexual advances himself (IE: rather constantly with the M&Ms) and/or being harsh with someone only to then turn around and give enthusiastic consent to sleep with them (IE: Chazz), it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s sent several of these mixed messages Stolas’s way on top of the ones we know he’s sending

It’s right back to the beginning of Stolas’s social life with Paimon: His demeanor says one thing but his words say another, when someone is being an asshole but doing it with a smile, are they actually being an asshole or are they just teasing? Some people can’t tell as easily- if at all

Making things worse, until Ozzie’s, there is never a moment when things clearly go on the ice with Blitz, Stolas’s progression of events goes from Blitz being openly affectionate straight into him being cold and hostile, there’s no break in between where Stolas would be able to stop and question if something went wrong, the transition is pretty seamless, because I highly doubt that he knew from the beginning Blitz’s initial seduction of him was disingenuous, Stolas was far too caught off guard for his enthusiasm to be planned- if we want to talk “Stolas Sings” lyrics, I would be willing to bet that that he didn’t start recognizing the “comfortable lie” until after he set up the deal with the book- wich may even be what he’s referring to in the first place, we assume that it’s about Blitz’s affection, but maybe it’s because he knows that he deceived Blitz into trying to force Blitz to spend time with him

The point of this section is simple: Blitz is an emotionally complicated person, and someone who has very little relationship experience isn’t going to have an easy time figuring those emotions out

Part 3: Octavia

For a quick break from the Stolitz Shit Show however, this section is pretty simple- Stolas can’t read Octavia either

The conversation about Loo Loo Land comes up alot, and although I do agree that some of his insistence on Loo Loo Land- despite her CLEAR disinterest in it- comes from the very classic parental problem of wanting to relive something from your child’s early years that made them happy- that now, ofcourse, they find too childish to enjoy- I also feel like he genuinely didn’t know exactly how disinterested in Loo Loo Land she was, I think in some ways he’s sort of written off her general demeanor as “She’s being a teenager”- that, or has internalized it

In many ways, Octavia is both the outlier to the pattern of people around him, and also falling exactly in step with the pattern as well

On the one hand she was the only person to ever show him consistent, enthusiastic, unconditional love and affection, this makes her the outlier to all of his other relationships, he may or may not chalk this up to a father/daughter bond, though I tend to believe he does given the emphasis he tries to place on being a doting dad, but it doesn’t really matter why- she just is

Or.... was.....

Because as of recent, I would assume since puberty hit- although we technically don’t know this for a fact- Octavia has slipped into the same disinterest of having Stolas around as everyone else around him- atleast on the surface

Like Paimon, Stella, and later Blitz, she tends to be cold to him, at times hurtfull (even though she very obviously doesn’t mean to be; IE: the band she’s listening to being called “Fuck You Dad” and making a point of telling him that), and rarely shows him any truly positive interactions (with Star Seekers being one of those noted exceptions) Stolas could group this in with the mentality that this is just how everyone treats him, but given how long he had Octavia’s very enthusiastic and unconditional joy at being around him, I tend to believe that he’s just chalking it up to her being a teenager- and, fair, that IS actually alot to do with it, so I’m willing to bet that he tends to see her.... less than thrilled attitude through a sort of lens that keeps that in mind, like rose colored glasses almost, keeping himself aware that she’s a teenager and is going to be grumpier than she used to be, but she has no reason not to still love him ....right?

The problem with that, obviously, is that it waters down everything she says and does, it allows him to- intentionally or unintentionally- read her cold response as more of a lukewarm response, essentially turning a “no” more into a “maybe”- wich obviously leads to quite alot of misunderstandings and Stolas trying to push things that he shouldn’t be pushing under the beleif that she still enjoys them, but just is in Grumpy Teenager Mode and isn’t going to express that enjoyment as openly as she used to

This doesn’t so much fit in with his usual trouble reading people as it is it’s own thing, but I think they fit together to create a more cohesive understanding of why exactly he has such a hard time understanding what seem to us to be very clear emotional indicators

Part 4: Conclusion

The thing is, we know Stolas is incredibly smart, so this isn’t just empty-headedness, and it isn’t always something that works in his benefit- IE: when he’s initially kidnapped by Striker and doesn’t seem to realize he’s really in any danger until Striker actually verbally indicates that he is-

(granted it was probably the evil laugh but still)

The fact that he didn’t process that he was really in any danger until this moment could come from him just depending on Blitz to save him until now.... but that doesn’t really work, as at his “Oh shit” moment, he still believes Blitz is on his way to save him- it took Striker CLEARLY indicating that he was confident in his ability to kill Stolas to convince Stolas that he may have a point, despite the fact that he’s been tied up with angelic rope and should have gleamed that much sooner

From my own experience as an autistic person, reading people is a nightmare, and I WAS socialized well and taught very good social skills from a mother who’s naturally very good at socializing, but I still can’t tell half the time when someone is joking with me, even if it’s clear to other people, still ask people- completely out of the blue to them- if they’re angry with me because I can’t tell the difference between someone being quiet and someone being mad, still have to outright ask half the time if someone is being sarcastic or literal, and even as of my early 20s, was so sure that (what I see NOW to be) a very clearly scripted interveiw with an actor was serious that I made a cringey Tumblr post begging people to let him sleep because I thought he was being woken up by his castmates every five minutes

I think this is one of those things neurotypical people often take for granted, but for austies and other neurodivergent people (or people like Stolas who suffered severe emotional neglect and abuse and didn’t exactly develop the way he should have) reading basic social cues can sometimes be like trying to put together a Rubiks Cube, and when you compound that issue with people who- for one reason or another, be it teenage angst or a snarky disposition or parental neglect- aren’t all that clear with their signals to begin with, you just end up with someone who’s pretty fucking confused all the time about their emotional place with the people around them

Again, there are other totally valid reads on this situation out there, this is just my own personal headcanon but then I headcanon both Blitz and Stolas as being autistic anyway because honestly have you met them?

[electricea]

SHIPPING INFO. Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

What’s your OTP for your muse(s)?

I don't really have any OTP for him but I do have a bias for any ship that involves a fellow Phantom Thief since I do think there's already a strong foundation for trust and friendship there and to me, the progression to a romantic relationship would feel more natural.

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

I'd say most anything - like I've even said in my rules that I'm willing to do fade to blacks or to state or infer our muses have a sexual relationship (provided they would both be adults in said relationship) - I really only draw the line at writing sex/sexual acts or smut. I don't wish to write any of that and I'm not comfortable with it. Also, any sort of toxic or problematic relationship where it's abusive - physically, verbally, emotionally or otherwise - or in which one party is grooming the other or ignoring the other muse's boundaries or consent.

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

For his main verse in which he's a teenager, I'd say I draw the line at shipping with eighteen, maybe nineteen year old muses - won't go any older than that if Ryuji is going to remain sixteen or seventeen. As for any alternate verses where he's aged up - that would honestly depend on the nature of the ship itself and how big the age gap is - but broadly, I'd say as long as they're both consenting adults, I don't see any issues - but with that being said, I probably wouldn't exactly be keen on shipping a freshly eighteen year old Ryuji with a thirty year old, for example.

Are you selective when shipping?

I don't really feel that I am - I look for chemistry first and foremost and I go from there - generally if someone expresses shipping to me or offers up a muse they'd like to ship with Ryuji then in nine out of ten instances, I'd say I'm pretty inclined to say yes - so long as the relationship isn't inappropriate or doesn't involve an adult being shipped with a teenager - also I guess what I try to keep an eye out and really look for is how that muse treats Ryuji - because if they're rude to him and don't really treat him all that well, then I would expect that to change - I'm not doing a ship where he continues to be treated like dirt.

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?

Any removal of clothes or touching is where I'd consider it NSFW, personally.

Does one have to ask to ship with you?

You don't have to explicitly ask - but bear in mind I'm not a mind reader so engagement on things like shipping calls, sending shippy memes does generally help because I am truly oblivious and have no clue when another mun is also interested in shipping - and to be fair, I do my part as well - I try to make shipping calls and show interest in shipping with others, so it's not just a one way street.

How often do you like to ship?

I kind of feel like I haven't shipped all that often lately - or at least, not many new ships - but I'd like to change that. Shipping's always quite fun.

Are you multiship?

Yep! Sorry, but shipping is just way too much fun to restrict it to only muse and plus I think part of the fun in being multi ship is that it allows you to explore a wide array of ships with all sorts of different muses and I try to treat each ship as its own individual, separate thing - so there's no cheating, no two-timing going on. There are no favourite ships, just a ton of really awesome ones with some amazing muns that I treasure equally.

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

Uh, is there a neither option for this question? I like talking ships but I'm not ship obsessed - I don't do the Spotify playlists and moodboards, the matching promos or drabbles, etc - but I do enjoy and appreciate them - and it's not as though I'm indifferent to or annoyed by ships. I just like them and I like sharing headcanons whenever one pops into my head.

What is your favourite ship in your current fandom?

I don't really have a favourite ship - that's part of the fun of Persona, yeah? Gotta ship 'em all! (So long as we're excluding the Joker ships with the actual adult women lmao.)

Finally, how does one ship with you?

Uhh, send me shippy memes, like my shipping call, just come running into my dm's, say you want to ship? Just say it outright honestly - I'm not great at picking up on clues or hints, so yeah I might need to hear it actually confirmed by the other mun that they do in fact want to ship, but once I know, I'm happy to get the ball rolling.

Tagged by: @gamenu (Thank you!)

Tagging: Whoever would like to give this a go!

[antiradqueer]

Bro, I HATE what's happening to my cousin, because it's probably one of the reasons that Radqueers, MAPs/Pedophiles and Proships/Comships/Anti-Antis can use as an argument that children can date adults and can consent

My cousin is 14 years old, she lived in an abusive family that made her do child labor, and one day she met a 36 year old married guy with 3 children and started dating him and one day she decided to run away to his house and she started being looked for by her family (who incredibly pretended to care about her) and even appeared in the local newspaper and later they found her at his house, and the guy separated from his wife just to be with a girl 22 years younger than him 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 And look what's funny, her family accepted this relationship and even made a contract for them to get married when she's 16. And she says it was consensual, but bro... She's not even sexually mature... I understand that her family is a bunch of assh*les but that's no excuse to be with a guy 22 years older than her...

oh gods, that is more than horrible... I hope your cousin can get out by some miracle, that is a textbook example of grooming and child abuse right there, holy shit-

their family should be collectively looked up and the guy too, obviously.

radqueers REALLY need to understand that saying yes IS NOT ALWAYS EQUAL TO CONSENT! In order to consent, the person has to:

have the option to safely say no, without fearing their no could be disrespected or they could receive punishment

be mentally and emotionally mature enough to truly understand what is happening

not be pressured into saying yes in whichever way

have the emotional an mental capability of forming an unbiased and free decision

(I might have forgotten something)

At the VERY LEAST, your cousin does not check off number 4, because being a traumatized and abused teenager puts you in a state that inherently makes it impossible to truly form a free decision on a topic like this. because of their age and especially the huge age gap and, as a result of that, the power balance, they literally check off NONE of the boxes. how is that concept so hard to grasp, radqueers?????? if I'm held at gunpoint I can verbally say "yes" to sex 100 times and I still DO NOT consent. it's the SAME FUCKING THING with children, just a little more abstract I guess, probably too complicated for you fuckers-

[0xo]

tw abuse & transmisogyny tho

it is kind of nuts that on the flipside of having incredible trans relationships, i've also been treated like dirt by former partners who happened to be transfem, and it like... sucks. hard. to feel a little bit unable to talk about how they treated me for fear of people interpreting that as me not loving or respecting trans women.

like. idk. especially one ex in particular. having my life threatened and being emotionally/physically/financially abused really really really sucked. especially because i loved her a lot and still really, really care about her. it took literally years for me to tell the full story to our mutual close friends because. i didn't want them to cut her out of our community. like "exile abusers" blah blah blah but she NEEDED friends and support, she was also going through a hard time, the last thing she needed was for every local friend she had to drop her or talk shit about her. even if she did really really mean things to me. i still want her to be happy.

it was hard telling k about what actually happened because he was so mad, not at me but at her, asked why i didn't tell the whole story sooner, all that. and all i could say was that i was afraid she would get more hurt. i didn't want her to be isolated. and i asked him, if you knew what she'd done, would you have been so nice that day when she showed up and scared the hell out of me? and he said no, i would've understood why you were so scared, i would've told her to leave. and i said EXACTLY, she wasn't in a state to leave, she needed a soft place to land. even if it meant she broke a promise to me. don't you get it? i didn't want her to end up dead. i still had an obligation to her to try and keep her safe.

i don't know. like. there is no such thing as a perfect abuse victim and you don't have to forgive your abuser or try to make things easier for them or protect their reputation from the truth of what they did. i just. couldn't let it all blow up immediately, right? i could only tell the truth after she was in another place, a better mental state, with more support that wasn't connected to here or our mutual friends.

and it's weird because we're still kind of friends, sort of. and i still care a lot about her. she has so so so many good traits, she's talented and beautiful and smart, and. i didn't want the way she treated me to get in the way of her recovering and having a good life. i want to believe it was all a really really big mistake, that she didn't mean it, that it was just the drugs and the sobriety attempts talking. and pushing and threatening. like yes take responsibility for how you act but also, maybe, that wasn't really her. maybe she's really actually a great person and we were just in a really difficult situation. i know that's not realistic but god i hope maybe she didn't mean it.

idk. abuse makes you feel absolutely insane sometimes. five years later im still grappling with that. the gender layers just make it more complicated because i never wanted to be that asshole who ruins the life of a trans woman over petty stuff. but it. wasn't petty stuff, and i know that and i have witnesses, it was genuinely bad. and i still couldn't/can't bring myself to write her off as a terrible person. because i really and truly don't think she is one. i believe she's changed and i believe she's better and i believe she's got the potential to do amazing things.

and i'm not looking for brownie points by saying all this, i'm not trying to paint myself as a saint for the act of still treating her like a human. i was never perfect. and i don't want to hold it over her head, okay? that's not what this is about. i am not a wonderful person for trying to forgive her. i am just trying to minimize the damage for both of us.

i'm just. still processing. and i think the way i had to handle it kind of complicates things. i've had people accuse me of "protecting abusers" because i don't really publicly talk much about what she did, i don't "warn" people about her. but. it's not necessarily anyone's business? they're not entitled to know the details of one of the worst periods of my life just so they can get some sick glee out of regurgitating it, using it as a reason to alienate her... using my pain as social currency. it's not their business. especially if she's changed her behavior? she doesn't treat her wife like she treated me, thank god. and if i'd gone out to crucify her... i don't think she would've gotten better. she may have hurt me but i don't want to hurt her in return. she doesn't deserve that. i didn't deserve cruelty from her and she doesn't deserve cruelty from me.

i'm not looking for validation that i've done the "right thing." i'm not sure there is a "right thing" to do coming out of all that. i just need to talk about it a little bit. because maybe other people who've survived shit situations need to hear that it's okay to have complicated feelings.

but her changing for the better doesn't. erase. what happened or how it affected me. the flashbacks and nightmares and general fear and anxiety. the added layer onto my pre-existing ptsd. it's difficult to process and talk about. it's affected the way i relate to people and my ability to trust. (i'm forever grateful that my current girlfriend saw what was happening and stepped in to protect me... sometimes i only really feel safe when i'm with her, because i know she's not going to hurt me or let anyone else hurt me. i can actually relax when she's around. she's safe.)

and idk, i guess the thing is, i could've let that experience turn me bitter towards trans women. i could've blasted my ex publicly and tried to ruin her life, and i probably could've succeeded at it. but. i never wanted that. i needed to be away from her, and she shouldn't have done those things, but i was never willing to turn it into a witch hunt. and it was a trans woman who came to protect me when i thought i was going to be murdered! it was my trans fem partners that helped me get out and get safe. i owe them my life. they didn't have to help me but they did.

so it's confusing to me that some people are so transmisogynistic because... what, a trans woman was a little rude to you on the internet? she called you out on your transmisogyny??? you feel personally emotionally attacked or some shit?

like. please get real. you're just hateful. not to be like "oh i got over a horrible experience so you should shut up," but. i lived through hell, i was abused by a trans woman, and i still don't have a nasty attitude about trans women in general. so i think some of you should shut the fuck up. trans women have every right to be angry and snarky when you treat them like shit!!!

i think it's just. difficult. to watch people act like fuckheads. i deeply, deeply love and respect the trans women in my life - including the ones who hurt me. and some of these assholes are throwing hissy fits about jokes and well-deserved criticisms of how they treat/talk about trans women. like. just admit you don't like trans women specifically. don't pretend you're being attacked. i know what being attacked is and, i gotta say, it's NOT that!

wishing people would view other people, especially trans women, as Real Actual Humans and not just a collection of their worst moments. it's so dehumanizing and so blatant and i'm sick of it

[porcelain-flower]

Hey guys it's Esther, formerly feitansporcelaindoll. I know I've been away for awhile. Something happened and I wasn't sure if I should make a life update but here it is. Well for starters, I was being accused of some heinous things and because of that I deleted my tumblr.

I was busy dealing with life and my marriage. August of '23 I logged back in, messaged a certain Feitan mutual to ask how they were doing, only for them to essentially say "people said you're a groomer, so I can't talk to you anymore. Bye" and was promptly blocked. So I messaged ANOTHER mutual asking for clarification and was immediately blocked by them as well. Needless to say I was completely confused and caught off guard. Even though I was bored and pretty much done with the HxH fandom, I WAS going to keep my page active for those who enjoyed my content. But these people ruined that. So my page is gone and I will not be making any further content. In truth it was a hyperfixation, an escape from my abusive marriage. But now I'm in a healthy relationship and I don't need an escape.

Yes while you were busy accusing me, I was dealing with my narcisstic, emotionally and sexually abusive, gaslighting husband of 7 years.

And for the record, groomers abuse, manipulate and exploit. I NEVER did that to anyone.

No. It was happening to me.

While you were accusing me, I was dealing with my abuser. And I was scared every minute. He was narcissistic and controlling, to the point that he forbade me from getting tattoos or even cutting my hair. He gaslit me and constantly tried to coerce me and demand sex, despite my refusals. Seven years I dealt with this. Eventually I found the courage to leave him. The day I did, he had followed me to the store beforehand. I packed some essentials and found a friend's house to stay at. I was there for only a week because he found out who I was staying with and starting texting them and dropping off unwanted gifts at the house. So I found somewhere new to stay. I went back to my ex's house one weekend, when I knew he'd be gone, to get most of my stuff. I was terrified so I had my best friend come with. Then my ex came home unexpectedly. I wasn't going to risk being alone with him so I kept her by my side at all times.

But he wouldn't let me grab my belongings in peace. He put his arm between me and the doorway, stopped me from leaving and forced me to talk to him when all I wanted to do was grab my stuff and go.

Finally I got away and moved back to my home state. But the fear was still there. Every time I saw a car that resembled his, I froze thinking he'd followed me again.

I couldn't even give him my real address or phone number. That's how terrified I was of contact with him. I still am.

The day I got the last of my belongings, my ex made it very clear he wasn't letting me go so easily.

You don't know how terrifying it truly is to be married to someone you don't want to be with anymore and they're refusing to let you go. You do not know what real manipulation looks like.

A year after I had left him, he messaged again, asking if I was ready to come home. It took him a few more months to realize I wasn't coming back.

This is what I endured while you were spreading lies about me.

And I'm not playing dumb or playing victim. I have NO IDEA what I said or did that made people think this of me. And who did I supposedly groom?

Unfortunately we live in a world of guilty until proven innocent. And no one was mature enough to message me, show me proof, or let me know what was going on or being said about me so I couldn't even defend myself at the time.

Well there's no coming back once you've been accused, even falsely accused. I won't be active on here. This will be my only post. I'm locked out of my instagram fan page because I cant recover my password. I still have my personal page for those who knew me well enough to message me there. But I won't do fandoms or fan pages ever again.

The two people I talked to the longest and trusted the most were the fastest to accuse me and block me. Funny how that works.

And Hxytun I do wonder why you deleted all your Fei content as well. I was nothing but a friend to you. I listened to every rant, good or bad. Every conversation about your parents, your brother, you move across states.

Excalibur/feitansblood you're no better. You were a petrified little highschooler so I did my best to listen and give you advice because I knew how hard HS was for me. I was only ever a friend, to BOTH of you. And this is how you repay me. You yourself literally called me "mom" because I gave you advice like a mom would. Although I should've known you wouldn't have my back, seeing as you're pretty much Hxytun's lapdog and do anything they say. It's sad really. Also the fact you've been lying about your age on your accounts is shitty. Even a couple years ago when you were 15 you had your age listed as 19 so you could view explicit content. That's called catfishing btw.

But my heartfelt thanks to those who believed me and supported me. Makes me have a little more faith in humanity.

[themusingsofafanficwriter]

The True Meaning of Family - Chapter 4

Summary: A found family Supernatural AU. Ophelia Humphries is an English 19-year-old who is just trying to finish her online history degree when she receives a letter from two brothers she never knew she had.

A/N: Omg we're at chapter 4! Thank you for reading the fic, I hope you're enjoying it. If you didn't see the first three chapters, you can find chapter 1 here, chapter 2 here and chapter 3 here. Let me know what you think <3

T/W - Mentions of death and emotionally abusive relationships

"Okay, everything is okay. Everything is okay right? Please someone in this car tell me that this is okay!"

"Ophelia, don't worry, everything will be fine. You have Sam, Cas and I and we're not going to let anything happen to you. I promise." Dean reassured Ophelia.

"You promise do you? Is that why Cas had to resurrect you in 2008? Because if you ask me that doesn't sound like a small risk." Ophelia said to the man that sat on her left.

"Damn it Cas you told her?" Dean said with anger in his voice. He turned to face the angel in the back seat.

"She asked how I knew you both, I didn't see a reason to lie to her. She is your sister after all. The chances are that I'll end up bringing her back at some point too." He replied.

"Hey, how about we don't say things like that while I'm driving. Do you guys know not to distract the driver or does that not exist in the States?" Ophelia raised her voice above the argument that had erupted between Cas and Dean.

"Do they always bicker like an old married couple?" Ophelia asked Sam.

"Yeah, they do." He replied in a voice that seemed to say he was tired of it.

The men settled down again. "To be honest, I'd rather die trying to help people than from old age." Ophelia continued in a softer voice. "If I do help you guys, then I know that that'll be a risk."

The car ride was quiet for the rest of the journey.

"Right, now, I've not had a chance to warn my mum that we are coming. Cas, would you mind not coming in? I think it might overwhelm her." Ophelia asked looking into the rearview mirror to make eye contact with the angel.

"Yes, I understand. Would you like me to wait in the car or would you like me to go home?"

"Oh well, that's completely up to you. Is there anything you need to do?"

"Not really, Ophelia. I will go back to the bunker and wait for one of you to call me."

"Wait… Can I do that?" Ophelia asked

"Of course you can. I will listen out for your calls now Ophelia. If you had needed an angel beforehand though, I would have been there." Cas replied.

A smile creeped across her face. It was nice to know that someone was watching over her even if she didn't know it.

"Can you tell us a bit more about the situation with your mom and her boyfriend?" Sam asked cautiously.

"Hmm… Yeah well now seems like as good a time as any. It's kind of silly really. Brad, her boyfriend, is a really shit person. While my grandad was alive it wasn't too bad but since he died six months ago it got worse." Ophelia took a deep breath and glanced at the photo of her grandad William.

"Brad was emotionally abusive to me. I think he has been physically abusive to my mum and if he hasn't yet I think he will. It got really bad once Grandad wasn't there to protect us."

Dean reached out and patted Ophelia on the knee in reassurance. She continued. "About five months ago we got into an argument, I can't even remember what it was about, and he threatened to kick me out. Mum wasn't strong enough to stand up to him. So, I left."

"You said you were mending things with you mom though right?" Sam asked, hoping he was remembering right.

"Yeah, the day I replied to your letter I stayed at her place that night. We talked, I don't know if she really took in what I said but it's a start." Ophelia's smile came back to her face. It occurred to both Sam and Dean that Ophelia was putting on a brave face for them.

Ophelia pulled into the same spot she filled the last time she was outside her mum's house.

"Well, this is it guys." She announced turning the car's engine off.

"It's a nice looking place. Bigger than I thought it was going to be. I thought all English homes were small and joined up." Dean remarked.

"This house would have been for someone very wealthy back in the day." Ophelia said laughing. "Probably an old slave trader as we're so close to the sea. Grandad picked it up really cheap when him and my grandma were first married. It was in such a state, practically falling apart. He fixed it up."

She locked the car behind her and they all said goodbye to Cas before he took off. Ophelia hadn't realised that he made a whooshing sound when he took off.

The three Winchester siblings walked towards the front door. Ophelia had that familiar sick feeling in her stomach again. She hadn't been home since her mum gave her the letter. It was enough to make her feel light headed.

Dean was the one who knocked on the door. He stood slightly in front of Ophelia while Sam stood behind her.

They all waited for the door to open. Dean looked back at Ophelia and smiled, she looked nervous. This was the first time Dean had felt slightly protective over Ophelia, despite only knowing her in person for half a day.

When he first found out about Ophelia, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know her, at the end of the day it would be someone else to look after. He considered not telling Sam about the pages about her in a diary he had never seen before. At the end of the day though, he couldn't keep that secret from Sam.

They talked about it for weeks, going back and forth on if they should send the letter or not. Sam was all for it from day one and once Castiel had said the angels had been keeping an eye on her Dean realised that she could possibly do with knowing about them on their terms and not on some monsters who wanted information.

Ophelia smiled back at Dean and went back to chipping at her deep red nail polish.

A man opened the door, Dean assumed that this was Brad. He was shorter than Dean was and had dirty blonde hair that looked greasy as he had slicked it back.

"Hi Brad." Ophelia piped up from behind Dean. It was as if she was hiding behind him. "Is my mum there?"

"Ophelia, yes she is. Who are these men?" Brad replied with a strong tone of detest in his voice.

"Oh, we're her brothers." Dean said in a commanding voice. He extended a hand towards Brad and continued. "My name is Dean and that's Sam. I believe what Ophelia is too afraid to ask is can we come in to see her mom?"

Brad cautiously shook Dean's hand. He winced as Dean gripped his hand tightly.

"Yes, well, um. I believe she is in the garden. I can take you there if you want." Brad said, trying to regain control of the situation.

"Oh no. That's okay. I think Ophelia knows the way to the garden in the house she grew up in." Sam replied in an equally stern voice.

Brad just nodded and stepped aside for the three of them.

Ophelia walked into the house first, followed by Dean and then Sam. She kept her eyes to the ground, not making eye contact with Brad. Dean and Sam didn't take their eyes off him as they followed Ophelia down the hallway.

When they were alone Sam spoke in a hushed tone. "Are you okay Ophelia? That seemed difficult for you."

"Yeah, it was Sam. I just don't need the greef from him today. If you guys weren't here I know for sure he'd find something to have a problem with."

"It's okay. We're here for you. We've got your back." Dean added.

They continued through the kitchen and out into the garden. As it was about three in the afternoon the winter sun was getting low in the sky.

"Hi mum, what are you doing out here? You'll catch a cold." Ophelia said to get her mum's attention.

Sandra was sitting on a woven outdoor chair, wrapped in a bright yellow blanket. In the low light she looked quite ill and worn down.

The boys stood by the back door while the daughter greeted her mum. It was nice to see a genuine parent and child relationship. Dean didn't remember when that last happened. He came to the conclusion that it was probably when Bobby was still alive.

"'Phelia, what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you." Sandra said with a surprised tone.

"Yeah, about that mum, I'd like to introduce you to two people." Ophelia beckoned Sam and Dean over to her. "These are my brothers mum, this is Sam and that is Dean and we all need somewhere to stay for a few nights."

Dean reached his hand out. "It's lovely to finally put a face to the name Ms Humphries." Dean said. His voice had more of a southern twang now then Ophelia had heard previously.

Sandra shook Dean's hand. She looked shocked and as if she had seen a ghost.

Sam also extended a hand. "Hi Ms Humphries, Ophelia is a lovely girl. We're so happy to have her be a part of the family."

"You both look so much like John…" Sandra said in a soft voice. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I loved him very much and he gave me the most precious thing in this world." Sandra glanced at Ophelia. "You say that you need somewhere to stay for a few days. I think I can manage that."

"Are you sure Brad won't mind?" Ophelia asked sheepishly.

"I won't give him a choice. Sam and Dean are as good as family and I won't have him drive away any more of my family." Sandra had a firmness to her voice that Ophelia had not heard in a few years. "Now, lets get back inside. I'm making a lasagna tonight so you guys came on the right day. 'Phelia, darling, could you go put the oven on? I'm making homemade garlic bread too."

The girl gave her mum a deep hug before walking into the house again.

"You boys will look after her won't you?" Sandra asked.

"Of course we will but I don't think she needs it Ms Humphries, she seems like an incredibly strong young woman." Sam replied.

"She is, but I don't want to lose her. I lost your dad and I cannot lose her too. My dad told me what John had told him, I didn't believe it but when I talked to John it all made sense." Sandra admitted to the two men in front of her.

"And you didn't tell Ophelia?" Dean questioned. "Why?"

"It was for the best, I didn't want her to go into the industry. I expect that you've told her and that's why you're here? For protection?"

"Yes ma'am, we had a little scare at the hotel we were staying at. Thought it would be best to come here to regroup." replied Dean.

Sandra nodded her head, it made sense. Ophelia wouldn't just turn up out of nowhere unless she had to. She wouldn't risk it.

The conversation was interrupted by Ophelia calling from the back door. "Hey guys, you might want to come back in as Brad is getting bitchy about how cold it is with the door open." Her face gave the impression that she didn't care that much.

Sandra wrapped the blanket around her tighter and headed back inside followed by Sam and Dean.

The afternoon turned into the evening. It was filled with laughter, cooking and childhood memories from all three Winchester children.

"I remember dad teaching both Sammy and I how to drive and oh man, it was bad to begin with. Sandra I don't know if dad drove you anywhere but that man did not drive well in his old age." Dean said through laughter.

"Well at least you didn't have grandad teaching you. Imagine it, I'm 16 years-old and I get into the front seat of his car for the first time and I get this lecture."

Ophelia composed herself and mimicked her grandad. "Now, Ophelia, this car is my one pride and joy other than your mother and you, but if you scratch her not only will I never talk to you again but I'll leave her to a local car buff." She burst into laughter as soon as she finished the impression. "Obviously he was joking, but it was enough to make me do fifteen in a twenty mile an hour zone."

"He gave me that same speech when I learned to drive!" Sandra added. Ophelia could see genuine joy and happiness on her mum's face, this wasn't something she was used to seeing.

A timer pinged and Ophelia stepped away from the large oak table that stood in the kitchen. She picked up a tea towel and pulled out the fresh baked bread. She carried it over to her family and placed it on a board in the center of the table.

"That smells amazing Sandra." Sam said.

"Oh, you're too kind, it's a simple recipe really. Have I taught you how to do it 'Phelia?"

"Yeah, mum, it's in the recipe book you made me last year."

"Can you keep it down. Please. Some of us still have work to do." Brad interrupted the jovial mood. He works from home occasionally.

"Sorry, Brad. We'll keep it down." Sandra's face dropped at the request.

"I expect you to. Unlike some, I have an actual job that isn't just a glorified hobby." He replied. He gave a stern look at Sandra and headed back to his office.

"What was that about?" Dean asked cautiously. He knew something was not quite right about this whole situation and could understand why Ophelia was so uneasy about leaving her mum alone with Brad.

"Mum is an artist. In recent years her business has taken off, she makes prints and paintings as well as jewelry and soft furnishings like bedspreads and stuff." Ophelia remarked with great pride.

Sandra looked at her daughter's face and smiled. "I've even been talking about branching off into interior design. Everyone compliments me on how I've designed this home so why not do it in other people's homes too."

"Well I think that deserves a toast!" Dean said. "What drinks do you guys have in?"

"Well, we have real British ale, Scottish whiskey and Irish whisky as well as some other spirits. Oh and there is a cider in here, no idea how long that has been here." Ophelia said while ratcheting around in the cupboards and fridge.

"I'll have some Scottish whiskey please Ophelia." Sam said. She filled a glass with a large measure and passed it to him.

"I'll have one of the ales kiddo." Dean said. Sam looked shocked at this. "What? You were the one who said when in Rome right?" Sam just shrugged his shoulders at his brother.

Ophelia poured a glass of white wine for herself and Sandra. "Hold on there kiddo, wine? At your age?" Dean said slightly shocked.

"Dean, the drinking age here is eighteen. I've been having alcohol from probably the age of sixteen. It's okay man, I'm almost 20." Ophelia replied.

Dean looked embarrassed and raised his glass. "To newly found family and new business ventures." They all clinked glasses in celebration.

The night continued on. Brad said he was too busy to join them for dinner so he took a plate of food to his office. Ophelia was annoyed by this. Her mum had put so much work into making everyone feel welcome in their home. Secretly, she did like it that he wasn't there. She could relax.

It was getting late and Ophelia felt herself getting more tired. It was probably the wine that she had, it always made her sleepy.

"I can show you guys to the spare rooms if you want?" Ophelia said, hoping the boys will pick up on the hint she was dropping.

Sam did pick up on it. "Yeah, sure that would be great. Lets go get our bags."

The three of them headed towards the front door. "Oh are you guys leaving so soon? We didn't spend any time together." Brad said pretending to care.

"Actually, we're just going to get our bags from the car. We're staying a few nights." Sam replied.

"That's odd. Sandra didn't run this by me."

"Does she have to? I mean, it is her house and we are family." Dean added to the conversation.

"No you're not family, Ophelia is family and she doesn't even stay here do you Ophelia?" Brad stared at the girl.

"Anyway, that's beside the point. Sandra has said we're staying for a few nights and as this was her fathers house and not yours." Dean continued. His voice was harsh and protective against Brad's confidence.

Accepting defeat this time, Brad turned and walked into his office which was just off the main hallway.

Sam opened the door as they headed towards the car. Once outside Ophelia thanked her brothers. "It means a lot to me for you guys to stick up for me like that. He really knocked my confidence when I left and I know my mum isn't as strong as she used to be. Every time I go to open my mouth I stop because I know I can't win."

"Don't worry about it Kiddo, like we said, we're always going to be there for you." Dean ruffled her hair, disturbing the curls which now found themselves in Ophelia's eyes.

She reshaped her hair and playfully slapped her brothers hand away from her hair. She had known these two men for all of nine hours and yet it felt like they had known eachother since birth.

After collecting their stuff from the car, Ophelia showed the boys to their rooms. "If you want clean towels there are some in the bottom draw in Sam's room. Oh and if you get cold there are blankets in the airing cupboard in the bathroom."

"Hey, Ophelia, sit with us. We should start talking about what we're going to do." Sam said in a soft, caring voice.

Ophelia nodded slightly and sat cross legged on the end of the bed next to Sam. Dean perched himself against the draws on the wall opposite the door. The tree looked at eachother, unsure who should talk first.

Sam took the first step into a new conversation. "We don't feel comfortable leaving you sleeping in your car or in random hotels."

"It's not that bad, it gets a little cold at times but it's not too bad." Ophelia said, she was fiddling with her hands, picking at her nail vanish again.

"We know exactly how bad it can be. Don't pretend with us kid." Dean said "We had eachother so it wasn't too bad. You don't have anyone when you're out there."

Ophelia shrugged "What do you suggest I do?" Her voice was wobbly.

"Well, there are two options. You either promise us to move back in with you mom." As Sam said this he saw Ophelia tense up slightly. Brad really frightens her more than she outwardly lets on. "Or" Sam continued. "Or, you come to America with us."

She looked up at Sam and then at Dean. "You guys can't be serious… I can't just up and move. What about school? And mum, what's going to happen to her? I can't leave her here on her own."

"Well then, looks like you're moving back home then." Dean said with some humour in his voice.

"Dean this is serious. You both hardly know me and you'd take me in?" She ran her fingers through her black curls, unsure what to say next.

"You said school is online right? So you can do it from anywhere with an internet connection. The bunker has that. As far as your mom goes, she'll be fine as long as she doesn't move house. We can get Cas to drop in on occasion too if that makes you feel better." Sam made the argument for the move.

"Can I sleep on it? This is a lot to take in… It's been a long day." Ophelia finally replied.

"Look, take a few days if you need. We will stay with you until you have made up your mind." Sam said.

Dean nodded in agreement. Ophelia got the impression that they really wanted her to go with them.

"Won't it be dangerous?" She asked.

"Most likely, but don't think you're coming out with us on hunts until we both think you're prepared. I'd personally be more than happy for you to never come on a hunt with us." Dean emphasized the point of being prepared.

Ophelia would love to go out with them at some point but she understood that she is both mentally and physically not capable of doing that at this moment.

"Look, it's getting late, go get some rest kiddo, and we will talk more in the morning." Dean said.

Ophelia stood from the bed and wrapped her arms around Dean. This didn't take Dean by surprise but what did was how small she was. She was much smaller than he thought she was, he had met women her size before but none that looked as delicate and helpless. He leaned into the hug and placed his chin on the top of her head.

She let go of Dean and hugged Sam who had also stood up from the bed. Sam put his right hand on the back of her head to hold his baby sister close. He had always wanted a little sister and was secretly loving every moment of being in Ophelia's life.

Sam squeezed Ophelia just for a little longer before letting her go. She headed towards the door but before she left she turned back towards the brothers.

"Thank you both. I'll see you in the morning, sleep well." The two men nodded in response.

Ophelia headed back towards her room but before she could get to the door a noise distracted her.

"You let them stay? Two strange men that Ophelia brings over and you let them stay?"

"Brad don't be ridiculous, they're her brothers. I'm not going to say no to them."

An argument had erupted between her mother and Brad. Ophelia sat half way down the stairs so she could hear what was going on.

"You didn't have the decency to run it past me. How am I meant to trust you if you're just letting any Tom, Dick or Harry stay."

"Again, they're her brothers and she trusts them and if they're anything like their father they're good natured men." Sandra fired back. Ophelia hadn't heard her mum talk back to Brad like this ever. She was proud of her mum.

"Oh, like their father huh? You mean the man who left you with a newborn baby to go back to his family in America?"

"We both agreed he should go back. That was a mutual thing that took a lot of talking about. Do not speak on things you don't understand."

Ophelia was peering through the bars on the banister to try and get a better look at the argument.

"Well, Sandra it seems like you're getting everything your way, like usual. You have no thought for anyone but yourself. You're a selfish woman."

That was the last straw for Ophelia. She ran down the rest of the stairs to be by her mum's side. "You need to leave Brad. Get out of this house." She said with a confidence that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Oh is that right Ophelia? I need to leave do I? We already kicked you out once and we will do it again."

"No, there was no 'we' in that situation Brad. You kicked her out and I was too scared to stand up to you. It was my biggest mistake." Sandra used the confidence her little girl had shown to stand her own ground.

"Oh come on Sandra, you're a grown woman, you can stand up for yourself." Brad said with a cocky smirk on his face.

"No, not if she's scared of the abuse you'd give her." Ophelia grabbed her mum's hand and squeezed it. "Mum, go up and see Sam or Dean. Brad is going to need help taking things to his car."

"Are you going to let this child talk to me like this Sandra? In our house? There is no way I'm leaving, you're a spoiled brat who thinks she can always get what she wants." Brad said with ease.

"My house." Sandra simply replied.

"I'm sorry?"

"This is my house Brad. My family home. Ophelia is right, you need to go and you need to go tonight. Go pack some clothes and some of your things. We can sort the bigger items once you've got a more permanent place to stay."

Sam slowly walked down the stairs to see what the commotion was about.

"Is everything okay here Sandra? Ophelia, are you alright?" Sam joined his sister next to Sandra.

"Oh this is just what we need. An American butting in where they don't belong." Brad gestured at Sam in disgust. "Listen, Sandra, you're blowing everything out of proportion. We can work things out."

"No, you're leaving today. I'm done with all the abuse. Go pack." Sandra squeezed Ophelia's hand for support.

"Right, well, I'll give you some space for a few days but once you've come to your senses and realise that you're over reacting maybe give me a call and I'll think about moving back in." Brad replied.

By this point Dean had joined the group "Do you need help?" he said feigning sympathy.

"I think I can manage thank you. I don't expect I'll need much as I won't be gone for long." Brad said as he walked passed the group and up the stairs.

Ophelia hugged her mum tightly. "I'm so proud of you." She whispered into Sandra's hair. "I know that was hard for you but it's for the best."

"I never thought I would be able to stand up to him like that." Sandra whispered back.

"I think we should move into the kitchen so we're not just standing next to the door." Sam said. Ophelia let go of her mum and took her by the hand. All four of them moved from the hallway to the kitchen.

A short time later Brad came down the stairs, dragging a large suitcase behind him.

Dean gets up from the kitchen table and heads towards the front door.

"Now, I don't want to be hearing that you've wormed your way back into Sandra's life." Dean said while leaning up against the wall.

"I'll be back, Sandra won't cope without me."

"You seem to not know her very well. I've known her for all of an evening and she seems to have a plan for herself and her future. I mean, have you even talked to her about her plans?"

"Oh her silly art business? Please, that's a glorified hobby." Brad snorted. "Don't humour her."

"I think that it's time for you to go. If you can't support her passion and business then you don't deserve to be with her." Dean replied. He pushed passed Brad and opened the front door. He gestured to the darkness outside.

Brad took his suitcase and walked towards his small silver car.

"Oh before you go. I'll take your house keys too." Dean said.

Brad chucked the keys at Dean before getting into his car.

Dean slammed the door and walked back into the kitchen. He placed the keys in front of Sandra before sitting back down. Ophelia hugged her mum one last time.

"Everything is going to be okay mum, I promise."