#because in order to be problematic he has to cause problems

[ddesertmoon]

yeah im okay. thanks for asking. yeah it’s just that I’m part of a fandom that’s obsessed with the same character that I’m obsessed with. except every time they write about him they want to take away his autonomy.

so idk who they think they’re writing about because apparently This Guy has to have some other force controlling him when he makes bad decisions. you know. Just so that he can be perfect and completely blameless and a victim.

[byuno-o]

RETROGRADE PLANETS IN NATAL CHARTS.

NOTE: PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS. HENCE, MIGHT NOT BE APPLICABLE FOR EVERYONE. ONLY FOR ENTERTAINMENT. HENCE, DISCRETION IS ADVISED. DO PROVIDE FEEDBACKS, I LOVE IT. :)

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE

If you have mercury in retrograde in your natal chart, you might deal with aversion when it comes to verbal, direct communication. Putting your ideas and thoughts into clear sentences might not be your forte. However, I've read somewhere that people with Mercury Rx, have really good intuition. I can vouch for this since my brother has this in his 11th house, and boy has he saved himself from bad influences countless times purely because he could sense BS right away. People with Mercury Rx, however, possess a unique way of communicating their ideas and thoughts. They don't necessarily use art, but just different words and their brains are often configured differently. They might see logic in things that others can't, and somehow, everything works fine for them. These people also tend to be profound thinkers and internalize their life philosophies instead of using those philosophies for other, unlike forward mercuries. People with forward mercuries-even the ones with debilitated mercuries use their words and ideas in order to help others. while retrograde mercuries wants the betterment of self. Hence, seeing other perspectives can be difficult for them, and finding balance between conscious and callous communication can be hard. Retrograde mercuries have hard-hitting sense of humour which can be the result of unique communication style. Forward mercuries can choose their words carefully, but retrograde mercuries often cannot, for this is their lesson for their present life.

2) VENUS RETROGRADE

I see people with venus in retrograde having issues with their sense of self, which can be seen in their communication style and sense of humour. Overcompensating outwardly for lack of sensing lack of style and panache that forward Venus tend to possess, even the debilitated ones. yet they can't see their own unique flavour which goes against the conventions. A friend whose venus is in retrograde has the wildest love life in my group. Her standards are high, which stemmed from dealing with problematic, almost karmic relationships. There can be confusions regarding one's own opinion about self, likes, dislikes, and there can be a tendency to see oneself through other's judgements. Finance can be a hard to deal with, overspending can be a problem. Their lesson for their present life is to accept themselves the way they are, and love themselves before looking for love and validation elsewhere. The root cause of almost all of their problems is the lack of sense of strong self and self-validation which come first and foremost. That is the only one they can see their own uniqueness, and leverage it for their benefits.

3) MARS RETROGRADE

These people can deal with heavy procrastination, and lacks efforts when it comes to their dreams and goals. There can be a push and pull effect regarding their individuality. A cousin of mine has mars retrograde, and despite having his mars in Scorpio, he loathes adventures, and risks--and you can also add changes. while people with forward mars can be very courageous--even the debilitated ones, although they need immense pressure to make them feel agitated, people with mars retrograde rather suffer in silence than assert themselves. For them, action-orientation, and assertion can be the lessons for their present lives. However, I also think Mars in retrograde can make one very diplomatic and can make the person possess mercurial qualities. That same cousin have debilitated mercury, yet he sounds the most critical and logical among us when we have to fight for our food rights (jokes) against our grandparents. Rather than have a individualistic nature, these people can harness excellent group qualities. They can suffer through sex related traumas.

4) JUPITER RETROGRADE

People with Jupiter in retrograde may be raised with issues regarding self, religion and higher knowledge. Their viewpoints are very different, and may often come off as illogical. They care very cautious when it comes to voicing their opinions. However, they can possess a very twisted kind of luck. Since I have this, I can vouch for this. I may never get what I want, but what I need always finds me, Unlike people with forward Jupiter who may get what they want just like that. my brother has forward Jupiter in Cancer, and I have never seen a person as lucky as him. Brotha is protected by angels and our family. One order, and the whole family scrambles to obey him. While in my case, I just work hard and get the bare minimum, but the things I get always helps me at times. Getting higher knowledge is especially harder for people with Jupiter in Rx, and may deal with confusion regarding the validity of knowledge. People with jupiter in Rx also deal with lack of mentors and teachers needed to shape their personality and inner world, hence they become vagabonds when it comes to knowledge. It is only them they can rely on for a strong sense of self, hence they may go through hard time alone. It is not like they don't look for help, it's just help never comes, but rewards are worth the pain. There's always a tendency to question everything which may lead to paranoia and overthinking. Yet, they are overly self-righteous, causing relationships to falter. Their main lessons are to have faith in them, and build their unique perspectives.

5) SATURN RETROGRADE

People with saturn in retrograde tends to introspect a lot. The limitations they bear are often internalised. they tend to have problems with authority and authoritative figures, such as father and teachers and boss, yet there is a deep sense of responsibility and lack of discipline. I also have saturn retrograde in my natal chart and well, it is a blessing in disguise. to be honest. I do tend to disregard authority, but there were times when I was asked for help by some authoritative figures. Although I have a deep sense of responsibity, I lack the courage, the strategic mind and the general effort I need to fulfil my dreams, which is why this saturn retrograde is proving to be immensely helpful. There is a strong fear of failure, and the person's success is always delayed. Trust me, I know. While I work twice as hard as my friends, I am often the last person to taste any success. Same is happening with job hunt. I have read that this retrograde is strongly related to past life karma, and I think I might be deal with lessons regarding finance and material gain since I have Saturn in Taurus in 2nd house. These people often deal with loneliness, and the lack of communication from their side only add salt to injury.

6) URANUS RETROGRADE

While Uranus deals with rebellion and one's uniqueness, Retrograding Uranus may often lead to these aspects being internalised by the person. There may be a strong sense for rebellion and forging one's own path, but the person may lack the spine to do so--often relying on others to validate their uniqueness. Changes may come like tornados, ruining their very sense of being, and forcing them to refine everything again and again, until there no sense of old self is there. Unlike Pluto, Uranus retrograde often forces the person's outer world, and outer relationships to change. These people have heightened intuition which not only scares the outer world, but also force it to alienate the person. There is a strong need for rejecting tradition which might stop them from becoming the eccentric person they can be. Note, I am not using 'eccentric' in a negative way. I just think, people with Uranus Rx need to learn showcase their eccentric side to the world. so that innovation can be made. There's a huge between one accepting their eccentricity and showing the world who they actually are. If anything, I think Uranus in Rx is one of the best placements one can have for the sheer creativity it can bestow. These people must have been destined to become pioneers, but their fears of outer rejection had stopped them, hence they ended up with Uranus in retrograde in their present life. They are supposed to let go of the fear in order to fulfil their purpose.

7) NEPTUNE RETROGRADE

So, my other brother has mars, Uranus and Neptune in retrograde. And I kid you not, I have never seen someone so eccentric, so prideful yet so fearful, so disillusioned yet so full of himself till date.

For me, Neptune Retrograde is one of the worst placement one can have. This placement is not about the outer world, but breaking oneself to fill the world with happiness. people with Neptune Rx has to go through a whole journey of living in a illusionary world to become disillusioned and hate the real world, only to realise that there's more than pain and suffering in the world and it is not a utopia. these people have heightened intuition, only to never master it. They get fed with escapism illusion by the universe time and time again, for them to learn to exercise their intuition yet the fog in their mind becomes the biggest obstacle. For a long time, these people believe in, "my way or highway" and "all or nothing." Hence, when faced with failure and pain, they crumble and become disillusioned. Once they see the world as it is, they go through the spiritual quest of learning and unlearning the ways of the world. And acceptance of the worldy woes, and understanding that one can never change the ways of the world but the ways of human minds are the lessons these people have to learn. They have to make peace with the fact that there will pain and suffering, and this is what feels like to be humans. They have to learn to avoid escapism, and grab life by the balls and open their arms to the gifts of intuitions, detachment, art and healing.

8) PLUTO RETROGRADE

I see Pluto retrograde as an eagle which keeps gnawing onto one's guts while the person can do nothing but accept the eagle. The pain never goes aways. People with pluto Rx in their chart internalises every thought, every little or big change, causing them to go through intense overthinking and traumatic relationship changes. The world is never these people's friends. If you think having Pluto placements are tough, look at pluto Retrograde people. Another cousin of mine has this. And she is a control freak, with really great psychological insights. There's obssesion with every little thing, and fear of betrayal and others breaking their walls and trusts. These people live an intense karmic life. If they badmouth someone, they get tenfold of it. If they wish someone bad luck, they get ten fold of it. These people must have done something great or something very loathsome which needs heavy penance and great patience. These people are bound to become great. These people are supposed to learn the ways of the world and help change the world, but on a ground level. What I mean by that is, these people need to learn to accept their shadow side in order to help the ones who have lost their paths to attain goodness. I see people with Pluto retrograde as the ones who has to break a piece of themselves in order to fix others, since they constantly get their heart broken, and trust broken, and fears spitting on their faces until they overcome those fears, and they are constantly forced by the universe to bare themselves naked in order for the world to use their vulnerabilities. Yet, these people rise like phoenix, and continue the cycle until they realise that their higher purpose is to have faith in the ways of the universe and let it run its magic. Good things may take time, but are always worth the wait.

NOTE: I SEE RETROGRADES AS BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE. ALTHOUGH RETROGRADE PLANETS MAKE THINGS HARD, AND ALMOST UNATTAINABLE, HARD TIMES MAKE GREAT PEOPLE. THE TWISTS UNIVERSE PLAYS ON PEOPLE WITH NATAL RETROGRADE PLANETS ARE SUPPOSED TO PUSH THESE PEOPLE TO THEIR EDGES UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING THEY CAN BE FEARFUL OF. FOR GREAT CHANGES NEED GREATER HANDS.

ALRIGHT, DO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS. AND I WELCOME CRITICISM AND HARD HITTING FEEDBACKS WITH OPEN ARMS. JUST MAKE SURE I DON'T HAVE TO SHOW MY FANGS, TOO. :) I LOVE GATHERING NEW INFORMATION, SO UNTIL THEN, MAY GOD BLESS YOU.

[jokin-around]

I made a Twitter thread about this, but I've been reading early issues of Batman lately and something I've noticed is how differently the contrast between Batman and "Bruce Wayne" is depicted

obviously, in many things today, "Bruce" (ESPECIALLY in fandom) is often depicted as a happy-go-lucky himbo in order to draw contrast with a grim and "tortured" batman

so how does this hold up when you look at older depictions? the answer: it doesn't. in fact it was almost the opposite.

way back in the very first issues of the official Batman title, Bruce Wayne, no matter WHAT he's doing, isn't the one who laughs and smiles, Batman is.

and these are comics that were published BEFORE the comics code authority caused a dramatic shift in tone

Bruce Wayne (or least the cardboard cutout refered to as Bruce Wayne) isn't nessecarily described as grim, but he isn't a very happy person either, he's still a rich airhead, but not so much a "himbo" or even a dedicated businessman, he's depicted as a BORED, uninterested, aristocrat:

this Bruce seems to spend of his time smoking a pipe at home or mingling with other upperclass individuals, that in-between we tend to see MUCH more often in modern comics doesn't seem to exist yet (in part because the batcave Is non-existent which I suspect has given him a bit more privacy as a character)

MEANWHILE Batman, who's investigates murders every other night almost seems to be having the time of his life:

the early comics seem to routinely depict the burgoise as cold, snobbish & bored, in contrast to batman who seems particularly expressive and joyful, for all we know Batman may partially exist as some millionaires weird passtime, but of course Bruce Wayne (the real guy, not the facade) is written as someone who genuinely seems to care due to his own past experiences:

but , with all of that layed out, one can conclude that when ppl say Batman is the "true persona" ect. originally, it wasn't (just) because of his coping or whatever it was because when he wasn't Batman he was forced to live life as a cold, "useless" millionaire:

"what if a rich a guy gave a fuck?" is still very much the base concept here, but what's surprising is how much BITE there is to it

the concept wasn't being proposed because it's like… a plausible thing to happen or attainable on a personal level, but because the rich reliably and consitently do not care

the rich ppl in this book, "Bruce Wayne" included, are not written to be envied as people. they're written to be insufferable. ppl with endless resources who are still somehow unsatisfied with life and choose to do nothing useful or direct with the amount wealth they've accumulated

but ofc it shouldn't be ALL THAT surprising, Batman debuted in Detective Comics in 1939…. ONE year after the great depression, Bob and Bill had more than a good reason to feel a bit bitter

but rolling back to the point of this analysis, whenever I say "let batman be happy" I mean "let Batman enjoy his job" despite the pain, despite the death, despite the murder, despite the hypocritical nature of it all and how problematic it may be because it's a life he also chooses, not just out of compulsion, but because it's hands on, direct & purposeful. it gives him something to do & it gives him a chance to punch a problem in the face (which may be good or bad depending on what that problem is, but still)

that kind of depiction is what set up the groundwork for nearly every deconstruction that's come since but it's so buried in time at this point that lines from characters claiming bruce "loves being batman" seem to ring completely hollow

tbh, I think the old way of depicting Batman can be ( and as been in some media) woven into the way he's depicted today, in the past Batman was an outlet for every emotion Bruce Wayne had to hide elsewhere, a symbol of empathy, fury and passion, for modern Batman, I imagine those three things still hold true, layered on top of an alter ego that allows a modern Bruce Wayne to be weird and damaged and dark.

so uh, ln conclusion, I think batman enjoying what he does to a certain extent is a crucial aspect of his character that's been lost and withered and forgotten about, let him a have a little fun, we can discuss the ramifications of all that when discussion seems necessary

[coffeeadict61]

Humans Are Weird: Auditory Processing Disorder

Report # 306

Topic: Auditory Processing Disorder

APD: disorder of the auditory (hearing) system that causes a disruption in the way that an individual's brain understands what they are hearing.

Four days ago I was doing my monthly meeting with the electrical department, receiving updates on our monthly usage, needed parts, and checking up on general morale. (The transcript of that meeting is already turned in.) After the meeting we had refreshments and I discovered Lucy (previously mentioned in report #286) pouting in a corner. I inquired what was bothering her. She said, "The ship's head medic just diagnosed me with APD but he wasn't trained to treat it." I asked for further information on the condition. She listed several of her personal symptoms. "It means I don't always catch what people say. It feels like my brain doesn't want to listen. In one ear and out the other making me look stupid to however I talk to. It's connected to my misophonia, and the fact I was born really premature."

I was unsure how to comfort her so I made no effort. This seemed to work for Lucy kept speaking.

"And what's worse is there's nothing I can do! We don't have a speech therapist aboard or even any research materials! Its starting to affect my work performance. On top of decoding, hypersensitivity, and prosodic problems, I have integration issues which mean its really hard for me to focus on what people are saying when I'm doing something. Which freaking sucks when you're part of a team!" I had no clue what she was really talking about but gave her a hug (human gesture of enveloping one in your arms as a sign of comfort or safety), and she apologized for "venting" to me.

She then spoke on how her crew mates just thought she was "slow" or wasn't good at her job. They questioned if she was capable because she would follow directions incorrectly and she was worried she'd be replaced with someone "less problematic". I tried to assure her that I would help anyway I could on her behalf. Never again will I doubt a human's sincerity.

After some of my own personal research I have made a list of the different types and their definitions for your education on the subject:

Hypersensitivity – Hypersensitivity to sound is often diagnosed as misophonia or hyperacusis. Misophonia is when people have adverse physical reactions to sounds, such as becoming nauseated by the sound of chewing or slurping. Hyperacusis, on the other hand, is characterized by a sensitivity to sounds. For some, this means that white noise can be deafening, even causing physical pain.

Decoding – Decoding difficulties involve a lack of figuring out words that are spoken. They hear the sounds, but their brains do not process them as words.

Integration – Integration applies to those who struggle to do multiple things while listening. Such multi-tasking may be writing notes and listening, or having conversations while typing an email.

Prosodic – Prosodic refers to people who have trouble with tone, inflection, and implied meaning. A question and exclamation are processed identically in their brains. Their speech is also often monotone.

Organizational – Finally, organizational, or output, is often characterized by not recalling information in a specific order or having difficulty with noisy situations.

Honestly, Humans are so diverse and unpredictable. To think that different "problems" or " abnormalities " within their mind or body can lead to even more similar issues astounds me. They are so intricate in a way my species has never been. Despite the struggles that their disorders, and conditions being, I think it's strangely beautiful. Maybe that's just me, but I have a new appreciation for them.

I am requesting the presence of a speech therapist, whether physically or digitally, to be readily available to our crew. We must also add APD onto our medics research requirements. It is not an overly complicated subject to be fluent in. I also request that Lucy's diagnoses be added to her list of wrongful termination along with her gender, age, and race. No one should feel their position is at risk because of a disorder or disability. I also request that a written copy of daily instruction be printed for her if necessary. She is one of our best electricians and I mean to keep her employed here as long as she wants.

Human Observer #5743

[flower-boi16]

Do you think this fandom can still improve despite everything? Is it Viv and Spindlehorse's fault that this fandom is problematic or there is deeper root cause? Despite the amount of negativity both hh and hb recieved, is it still possible to listen to fans who give constructive criticism and improve both shows? Many fans often say something like"The Spindlehorse's crew don't want to listen to critics because there are too many bad faith criticism and hate" or "Those critics don't have the vision of the creators so their advices are invalid." I think both sides of this fandom are overly aggressive to whatever happened. It must have something behind it.

I think the reason why the fandom reacts so poorly to criticism is a mix of several factors:

These shows are fairly popular, the more popular something is the bigger the fanbase will be. And, likewise, some fans would be very defensive when it comes to criticism.

The batshit insane twitter users and fake outrage being confused with the actual critiques people have of the shows. I'll admit, early critical videos were...not great to say the least (cough cough Pkrussel cough cough), and many of Viv's past controversies are admittedly dumb. However, there are real issues people have with these shows and Vivziepop, however, because of all the past controversies with Viv being over-blown, fans lump these real and valid critiques in with the fake Twitter outrage, causing this confusing mess.

Vivziepop's reaction to critiscm. She directly dismisses critiques people have of her shows and pretty clearly spends a bit too much time on online discourse about her shows. Viv IS aware of the critiques people have of her shows but she has this very immature response to criticism just looking at her twitter, and, this does translate to the fandom as well.

Drama channels such as AyyLmao and Iox constantly defending Viv and her shows. AyyLmao is a fairly big channel and a lot of his videos are about controversies surrounding Viv. Pretty much all of these tend to be heavily biased as AyyLmao instantly takes Viv's side, as in several of his videos he deliberately chooses to lump in the actual critiques of the shows with the deranged Twitter users online, which contributes to the second problem I mentioned above. This can be seen with his hatedom video where he says that most of the criticism at least on Twitter isn't "real criticism" and "just hate disguised on such". Notice how he says that at least on Twitter the criticism is just hate. He's deliberately making it look like the critical community is just a bunch of deranged Twitter users who just hate Viv cuz they are jealous or something, when looking at sites such as Reddit, Youtube, Tumblr, etc you'll see people with ACTUAL PROBLEMS with the shows, by AyyLmao's ignoring that in order paint the critical community as a toxic hell-hole. He pretends to be neutral in the video but he clearly is biased with how he paints the critics here, as he only focuses on this one site just to make it look like the critical community is just an annoying vocal minority on Twitter. and because of that, the fandom views the critical community as just that; just an annoying vocal minority of Twitter users who shouldn't be taken seriously.

The fandom just refusing to engage with people's critiques because they can't handle criticism of their favorite shows. That's pretty obvious.

I don't think the fandom will get better any time soon given these factors I just mentioned. Until Viv learns to accept criticism, until Viv drama channels stop defending her bullshit, and until the fandom actually engages with people's critiques rather than sending death threats...ya no this fandom is still going to be awful.

[skyracer-in-space]

like memories of dying days

Hiding had been boring, sure, but it also had been lonely. Really lonely.

Or, touch-starved Bumblebee has a Time™ around the Maltos. And not necessarily a good one, but it gets better.

Written for Hurtcember prompts: 6 (Touch starvation), 7 (Abandoned), 10 (Touch aversion), 19 (Desperate), and Alternate 3 (“Leave me alone"; replacing 18)

-x-x-x-

my first earthspark fic, let's go! i spent the better part of five days working on this & it was only lightly looked over before clicking post. welp. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

title from saviour by rise against.

i used half-normal, half-cybertronian terms so here's the dictionary~

frame: body

optics: eyes

EM field: electro-magnetic field, allows cybertronians to feel others' emotons

helm: head

servo: hand

digit: finger

-x-x-x-

As far as the Maltos knew, Bumblebee had been brought out of hiding to train the Terrans. That was what Optimus had made it out to be, and what Bumblebee had confirmed. But what they didn’t know, was just how long the yellow Autobot had been in hiding for. Close to seventeen human years.

There wasn’t a solid date marking when he first went into hiding. But there was that comm that he had received from Optimus in the middle of another back-to-back mission at the tail end of the war, where the Prime had ordered him to go into hiding to avoid a particular fledgling human organisation. There hadn’t been an explaination, the comm. had just been long enough for Optimus to give him the order before it disconnected and the scout had been left wondering why.

But then the next thing that Bumblebee knew, it had been almost five human years since he had last seen another Autobot. He spent a lot of that time in his alt mode. A lot of it was spent mimicing a normal human car. That was fine! Because he was undercover and he had spent time away from other Autobots like this before — many times! It was pretty much part of his job as a scout.

And then it had been a entire decade and Bumblebee had to scan a new alt mode because the human organisation that Optimus had warned him about — GHOST, or something — had discovered his old one and he needed a new one to remain hidden.

Later, he had been pretending to be a normal car parked on a curbside as a parking officer was making her way down the row of parked cars when a notification from his chronometer popped up: fifteen years.

On year seventeen of hiding, the scout received another comm from Optimus, and by the end of it, he’s assigned to train two newly-created Cybertronians (which, what.).

Once Bumblebee had gotten over his initial…friction about his newest assignment, and at the Prime too, things went a lot easier. Somewhat. Kind of. Things were a lot easier if he ignored the problem that was right in front of him, every day. Okay, it wasn’t causing any actual problems so he shouldn’t really call it problematic, but it still was all the same.

The Terrans were…close, to one another and to the two human children — Robby and Mo. And that was the root of Bumblebee’s ‘problem’, wasn’t it? Their closeness.

He wasn’t sure why it got under his plating so much. It wasn’t a rare occurance, plenty of Autobots were just as close to each other as the Terrans were.

Bumblebee watched as the two humans and the two techno-organics chased each other around the yard after dinner. Twitch zipped up into the air out of Mo’s reach as Robby darted around a tree being pursued by Thrash.

The sky had already started to get dark when the four of them had started this game but now it was getting to be too dark for the humans to see by, based off of how he had just watched Mo trip over a branch.

“Robby! Mo!” Ranger Malto’s shout from the house drew all four of her kids, and Bumblebee’s too, attention to her. “Go wash up. It’s movie night,”

Friday nights, he soon discovered, were family movie night in the Malto household. This had been a thing, the Autobot was also told, long before the Maltos had come to Witwicky where they would all pile onto the sofa in the living room and watch a movie (or two, if school was out). But that wouldn’t work now. Not when some of their family can’t even fit through the doors of their house, let alone in the living room.

“What about the barn?” Alex suggested, when the issue was brought up. “I think I’ve got my old projector somewhere, that we can set it up opposite one of the barn’s walls,”

With that decided, he headed into the house to look for said projector.

“Hopefully this goes better than family game night,” Robby commented, to no one in particular, as he carried a stack of cushions from the house towards the barn.

Bumblebee hovered awkwardly as the Maltos set up for movie night.

Was he supposed to join them? Or not? He’d joined them for game night but everyone knew how that had gone…

The scout watched the Terrans head into the barn.

“You coming, Bumblebee?” Dot asked. “We’re watching Back to the Future, the first one,”

The question made his optics fall on her and away from the Terrans.

There was his answer.

“Yeah. I’m coming,”

He joined the Maltos in the barn, where he found the two human kids sitting on the ground with their backs against a hay bale, that had previously been shoved up against a wall so somebody must have pushed it over here, Thrash was between Mo and Robby, and Twitch was perched on the edge of said bale. Alex was setting up the projector on a precarious pile of books on top of a stool that had been brought out from the Maltos’ kitchen.

Where they were sitting wasn’t the only thing that Bumblebee noticed. They were all so close to each other, in the physical sense. The kids on the ground had their shoulders touching one another, or if it wasn’t shoulders, it was some other part of their frames. And Twitch had her foot resting against Mo’s side too.

The sight made his spark twist uncomfortably in his chest and a breeze of wind (in the dead-still evening) flittered across his armour.

But none of that should even happen — that was just how families were with each other. It was.

Bumblebee turned down his pressure sensitivity and elected to ignore whatever that had been in favour of grabbing the other hay bale to make a seat for himself. He ended up on the ground, leaning against the bale he’d nabbed a couple of metres away from the others.

Alex finished fiddling with the projector and joined his kids. Dot

“Bumblebee! What are you doing all the way over there?” Alex asked, just as the movie was starting. “Come closer,”

So the scout got up and moved to sit closer to the others. As he settled himself back down, his arm accidentally brushed against one of Twitch’s stabilisers. The contact sent a shiver up his arm plating that made it clatter against itself softly and made him recoil away. Bumblebee caught himself before he could react too much and alarmed someone.

Dot was staring at him from across the makeshift living room, his sensors noticed, and she had a look in her eyes which he pretended not to see. The ranger said nothing and just turned back to keep watching the movie.

At some point, all four kids had reshuffled themselves and as a result Bumblebee had ended up in the middle of them all.

If he thought that his frame had reacted strangely to light touch, then prolonged contact in the form of somebody resting up against his side had an even stranger effect.

There was a spark of heat against that same side despite his sensors not registering anything unusual. What. It only grew with each passing second, growing to become painful now.

But unlike before, his frame responded far more violently to the contact; kicking into action even before his processor had a chance to generate a thought.

Bumblebee pushed away and up to his feet, the transformation seams in both of his arms splitting apart and reforming into blasters to defend

From the corner of his optic, he saw both Alex and Dot jump to their feet even before any of the kids reacted.

“Hey!” Alex shouted at the same time that Dot hollared

“Bumblebee! Put the guns down!”

The loudness of her shout cut through the barn and made Bumblebee stop dead in his tracks.

…His battle protocols were running. He had been so convinced that there was a threat attacking him that every single one of his battle protocols had been activated.

Bumblebee transformed his blasters back into arms and reset his optics to see Dot and Alex standing protectively in front of their kids. The same kids that he had just been pointing his blasters at.

From here he could feel the Terrans’ fright and their fear. Fear of him.

Oh Primus.

Bumblebee raised his hands, now that they were back to being hands again, up to show them that he didn’t mean them harm and was (now) unarmed.

“What was that, Bumblebee?” Alex questioned as everyone relaxed and settled down again.

“I think Twitch leaned against my side in a way that accidentally triggered my battle protocols,” he told them all.

Twitch looked up at him from where she was standing on the hay bale. “Did I accidentally press something?” she asked.

Her EM field was now full of worry—concern—mistake—remorse.

“I…don’t think so? My pressure sensitivity must have been too high, or something,”

Only…he had already turned it down earlier, so it couldn’t be that. It had to be something else. He didn’t voice that part out loud.

As he spoke, Bumblebee reach out with his own EM field, making sure that he projected reassureance—alright—safe into it.

“Do I have to worry about you being near the kids now, or?” Dot asked.

The Ranger was looking at him the same way that she looked at Decepticons: cold, skeptical, and most of all, distrusting. To be fair, he did just aim weapons at her children. But there was another emotion in her eyes that he hadn’t seen when she looked at Decepticons, one that he can’t decode.

Once his frame had settled down, Bumblebee ran a diagnostic scan of all his systems. It came back normal.

Okay, now he was confused; because something had definitely been wrong back there. Something had to have set off his battle protocols, they didn’t acitvate without a reason.

After that first Friday, the following family movie nights were officially moved to the barn. Bumblebee joined for most of them but a couple times, he chose to go racing instead (not that any of the Maltos were aware of that).

The times he did join them, he sat a good four metres away. Was it overkill? Maybe; but there was no way on Earth he was going to risk a repeat of what’d happened at the first one. Despite this, Bumblebee always ended up moving closer by the end of the night, usually after being asked to by one of the Terrans. So no matter how much he tried to keep a distance between them and himself, it never lasted.

The first movie night was a nerve-wracking enough experience, but it wasn’t the only one. And it hadn’t only been happening at movie night, either. That was the worst part. Because now that he had been made aware of it, it only seemed to happen even more often.

‘It’ being the way that his frame reacted to touch — and seeing other people touching each other in such a causal and friendly way, mostly the second.

Bumblebee was starting to go mad. He was sure of it.

Movie night was the closest that he got to the Maltos. But it wasn’t the only time he could come into physical contact with them. There was also the Terrans’ training sessions, especially the ones where he incorporated games.

In one of those training sessions in particular, he had them doing what was essentially capture the flag combined with a scavenger hunt. It started out with him guarding the 'flag’ (also known as a shovel) which Thrash had to steal and hide for Twitch to find; as then it would become more a scavenger hunt and less capture the flag.

Thrash, to Bumblebee’s surprise, chose to approach him head-on to grab the ‘flag’. The scout would have expected that from Twitch, if she had been in his position, but not him.

The motorcycle alt crashed out of the treeline to speed directly at Bumblebee. And then when he was close enough, Thrash transformed and pushed against the ground to vault over Bumblebee, grabbing the ‘flag’ on his way over helm.

As Thrash took hold of the shovel, one of his digits brushed against Bumblebee’s servo.

Unlike previously, the contact made a warning flash across his vision. It wasn’t warning him of anything specific, though, instead all it said was that his sensors had detected an anomaly in his servo. He hadn’t felt anything wrong — hadn’t he?

Very helpful.

Bumblebee had his pressure sensitivity turned down so low around the Maltos after that fiasco at the first movie night that he shouldn’t even have been able to have felt the contact at all. Yet here he was with a warning guaranteeing he had not only felt it but had also picked up on something anomalous in it. But what the anomaly was, he had no clue.

Bumblebee spent the rest of the day as well as a good chunk of the night too, staring at that particular warning in an attempt to decipher what the anomaly it detected could be. In the end, it was futile and he slipped into recharge.

Arcee was here, at the Maltos’. Bumblebee hadn’t even known that she was on Earth but here she was. She wasn’t able to stay long, only just long enough to meet the Terrans before she had to go.

The Terrans — all of the kids, really — were excited. To them, Arcee was a cool, badass warrior. To Bumblebee, Arcee was his friend. Before Arcee was about to leave, she bumped her shoulder against Bunblebee’s. His processor ground to a halt at the electricity that zipped through his shoulder right where she had touched him. The armour there buzzed with the unmistakeable zing of electricity. A servo came up to touch it but the ‘electriticy’ didn’t tranfer to his digits.

Huh?

He tried again, and once again the ‘electricity’ remained only in the armour of his shoulder.

It was a playful gesture — maybe a bit rough but this was Arcee, and Arcee was his friend. So would his plating and processor both please calm the frag down?

His sensors hadn’t registered any transfer of electricity either.

He really was going mad.

“‘Bee?” The sound of Arcee’s voice tugged him back out of his processor and reminded him that there were people watching. “You good? I didn’t hit an injury, did I?” she asked.

The mention of injury made four pairs of shocked eyes and optics dart to him.

“No, I’m not injured so you didn’t hit anything,” he told her.

Bumblebee refused to meet her optics because he knew she knew that there was something more to what had just happened. And if she asked about it, he had no answer. It was also sort of embarrassing because what kind of scout — what kind of hero — was he if he couldn’t keep control of his systems and frame?

“Bumblebee,” Dot stopped him rather than joining her family in the barn for movie night one evening a few days later. “Can we talk?”

“Sure?”

She led the two of them both away from the barn — away from where they could be inturrupted, because if they were then there was no way this conversation would be successful. They ended up sitting underneath one of the trees just as the sun was starting to disappear below the horizon.

“What did you want to talk about, Dot?”

“What do you know about touch starvation?” the ranger asked response to his question.

In the distance, a bird squawked and took off into the sky causing a hanful of leaves to float down to the ground.

“It’s a condition that humans can develop when they spend too long without physical contact from others, right?”

Dot frowned.

“That’s half right. Touch starvation isn’t something which only affects humans, ‘Bee, it can affect bots too,”

“And you’re bringing this up, why?” he asked, an obvious attempt at deflecting the conversation.

Dot didn’t answer and just looked at him. Waiting for the scout to put two and two together to it out. Waiting for the much overdue realisation.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’,” she eched.

Honestly, she was kinda surprised he hadn’t realised what was going on until she literally spelled it out for him.

Bumblebee stood back up. “Even if Cybertronians can be touched starved, I am not,” he denied.

She raised an eyebrow at him. Bumblebee wasn’t getting out of this that easily.

“Then explain to me what that was at the first family movie night here, or what had happened with Arcee?”

Shock-wide optics snapped to her. He clearly hadn’t known she had seen that second one. Bumblebee said nothing for a long minute, so long she started to think he wasn’t going to say anything.

“…Okay, you might be right,” he admitted eventually. “But I can’t actually do anything to fix it, it’s not like I can just walk up to Optimus and ask for a hug,”

Dot couldn’t read EM fields, but she’d bet Bumblebee’s field was chock full of embarassment right about now.

“Fair point. Although I would bet the Terrans would be more than happy to, if you asked,”

The ranger stood up and brushed dried grass off of her pants before she started heading in the direction of the barn, leaving Bumblebee behind under the tree and without time to say anything more.

Dot had meant that truthfully — Twitch, at least, would be certainly be willing to give him a hug if she asked. And as it turned out, she was right too. A few days later, she got home to see Bumblebee being hugged by both of her Terran kids and only looking midly uncomfortable.

[gryficowa]

Something pisses me off that people in the fandom reduce all the criticism of the episode with Marinette's trauma to the fact that people in the fandom are stupid or love Chloe too much and hate Marinette

No, people don't like this episode because it has no respect for the viewer and it has many problems that are revealed later in the same season, on top of that, I question whether Adrien's trauma was addressed at all in a respectful way, or whether they justified everything by that he is a senti monster? Exactly

By the way, defenders of this episode, I hope you were going after Felix like you were going after Chloe? Oh no, wait, he was a victim of domestic violence and he was rich, so like Chloe, but he was a boy, so his trauma is more important

But coming back, this episode with Marinette's trauma is problematic on many levels, mainly because it fucks with the logic even more than in the first season when in the episode "Origins" when they rescued Chloe, and then in "Lady Wi-Fi", the chat noir suspects that Chloe it's a ladybug and don't ask about logic, because there is none

Not only does Kim and Chloe make so much sense that Chat Noir from the episode "Lady Wi-Fi" could give a high five on this topic, but calling it "Feature Sharpening" is an understatement, it's more like Thomas had too much to drink before writing the entire script for the episode, and like a typical kid, he created the episode like one of the "Scooby-Doo" movies, where Scrappy-Doo was an out-of-character character in order to be antagonized (Because the fandom didn't like him, so it's better to kill off the whole character this way)

What's the best way to end the story of a father who abuses his child? Give him a statue, the fandom will 100% love it

Seriously, Thomas, we all know you didn't write this episode for traumatized people, but just to go the way people did to kill Scrappy-Doo, which was to kill Chloe herself so that the fandom would hate her and Kim in the process suffered, because why not?

And by the way, to explain your imaginary daughter with your ex…

The standards of this series also contributed to the reception of this episode, and I would also like to remind you that Zag wanted redemption for Chloe, but Thomas himself did not want it, so when Zag left to create the film, Thomas went to destroy the whole Chloe, because like a child he cannot reconcile with this, that a fictional character can have any development and tried his hardest to kill Chloe like a Scappy-Doo movie, seriously Thomas, I understand a lot, but as a creator you should use it to your advantage and not kill her off because you hate your character so much (Like a child what creates illustrations of cartoon characters dying because he hates them)

Seriously, this show has 00's to 2010 vibes, but today? Such productions are more annoying than entertaining (And I say this as a 01-year-old)

This writing by Chloe and Kim seriously has Scrappy-Doo movie vibes to me

So the episode with Marinette's trauma is even more irritating, because anyone sensitive will notice what Thomas did here and it is a seriously conscious murder of his characters.

The context of this episode makes you feel offended rather than understood by the creator, because it's not about empathy towards people with trauma like Marinette, but about killing off the characters of Chloe and Kim

No matter how much I love the trope of the main character who, over time, turns out to have a trauma that the viewer doesn't know about, this show fucked it up and resulted in a not-so-good taste

It's just the context of this episode that causes it, I'm seriously sensitive to this way of writing and it has irritated me since I was a child, I was hoping that the newer the cartoons, the more it would disappear, but then Thomas appeared and did my hated trope, but turned it up to the max

Sometimes I wonder why many great creators get as few seasons as possible, while Thomas gets more

Because no matter how much I liked this show, after Chloe's arc fell apart and the writing fell apart because killing Chloe is more important than everything else in this show, it made me fed up

And because of creators like Thomas, many people consider animations as worthless and only entertainment for small children, because Thomas' writing style is effortless (And even productions for preschoolers can handle it, yes, I'm talking about "Bluey"), just as little as possible, and the fact that the fandom swallows everything has a simple task in this topic

Thomas had a good idea, but Miracolous's greatest enemy was Thomas himself

Damn, it's hard for me to come back to the series, but "Ladybug PV" is awesome, so Thomas himself has gone backwards in the development of his work, literally.

Ok, Felix was still problematic (It was chat noir back then, for those who don't know the history of the miracolous creation process)

But if Thomas could develop the character… Oh no, wait, he can't, that's why Felix became Adrien

By the way, Mr. Pigeon and the mime from the first season appeared in this version, just an interesting fact

I also have the impression that the characters had a better design than in the current series

There was another 3D version, which also looked amazing, so the version we got is the worst and this thought kills me, because this series could have been something more, but Thomas himself killed it, i.e. the creator killed his creation before showing it in its entirety to the world (Congratulations, Thomas)

Yes, I had to let go of all my frustration with the show and the fandom, because it's fucked up that when you criticize the bad writing of Marinette's trauma, people come up with their theories on why you do it, not why you do it and why you don't like it

[the-desolated-quill]

Okay. So here’s the problem I have with Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom.

It’s not a bad movie as such. It has its moments. There are things to like. The problem is that it pales in comparison to the first film. I LOVED Aquaman. I loved it way more than I thought I would. It was a well written, visually stunning fantasy epic. It was also a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. Which leaves us with a big problem with the sequel. Because the ending of the first film is so definitive, there isn’t actually anywhere for the second film to go. I mean they try. We see Black Manta continue with his quest for revenge, and we see Arthur try to reconnect with his half-brother Orm in the hopes of redeeming him, but it all feels kind of superfluous. Everything The Lost Kingdom does, the first film had already done and done better.

It also doesn’t help that this film came out at a time when Warner Bros was busy trying to suffocate the DC Universe with a pillow. Plus the extensive reshoots in order to erase Amber Heard from existence because Hollywood has the backbone of a chocolate eclair. And on top of that, the script’s environmental messaging is both clumsy and painfully on the nose. The villain, a dollar store Sauron, was imprisoned in Antarctica and now global warming is thawing him out. And the film ends with Arthur addressing the United Nations, lecturing humanity to look after the planet, which is not only a complete ripoff of the ending of Black Panther, minus the emotional payoff of a well executed character arc, it’s also unintentionally hilarious because Jason Momoa is doing his speech in his day-glow orange Aquaman suit. I’m sorry, but there’s a reason why Chadwick Boseman didn’t have his Black Panther suit on during his big speech, and that’s because it would be impossible to take him seriously if he was trying to tug at the heartstrings and promote international and intercultural unity while dressed in a giant cat costume. 🤣

And THEN there’s the racial allegory.

When the first film came out, I remember there was minor controversy because people were hoping DC would cast Polynesian actors as the Atlanteans. Instead they were all white, which was a shame… until you watched the film and you realised that all the human characters were played by people of colour, and you listened to the derogatory way Atlanteans talked about humans in the film, and you realise that, holy shit, this was deliberate. Atlantis is a metaphor for white supremacy. They view humans as ignorant, destructive, primitive, and savage. They even refer to Arthur as a mongrel at one point. I love this idea because I think it’s a clever way of tying Aquaman into the original myth of Atlantis, which people tend to forget was itself an anti-colonialist allegory. The Atlanteans conquered the world, enslaving other nations, and because of their hubris and greed, they fell out of favour with the gods, and so Atlantis sank into the sea without a trace. So using DC’s Atlantis as a metaphor for white supremacy is actually thematically appropriate and adds another layer to the film.

Unfortunately the racial allegory becomes very problematic in the second film.

Like the first film, the Atlanteans (with the exception of Arthur) are portrayed by white people and the humans by people of colour, presumably in order to keep continuity with the first film. The problem is that the context of this film is very different. Think about it. What happens? Black Manta, a black man, wants revenge against Aquaman. Humans, played by people of colour, have caused global warming, melting Antarctica, and now Black Manta wants to speed the process up to resurrect dollar store Sauron in order to gain the power to destroy Atlantis, where the white people live. He fails, and the white Atlanteans decide to reveal themselves in order to share their superior wisdom, knowledge and technology with the natives in order to save the world.

Yikes. BIG yikes. 😰

The racial allegory is a double edged sword that cuts both ways. What was used as a way to examine and condemn white supremacy in the first film is now inadvertently reinforcing colonialist narratives and stereotypes in the second. In fairness, I don’t think this was intentional on the part of the filmmakers, but it’s still a MASSIVE oversight, and I’m amazed nobody picked up on it during production. To say it’s dodgy would be an understatement.

So yeah. Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Not a fan. 🤷🏻‍♂️😕

[paddysnuffles]

Why was Oceangate visiting the Titanic an issue but visiting other disaster sites isn't?: Thoughts from a Titanic nerd

Alright, as someone who’s had a special interest on the Titanic for well over 20 years, here’s my take on the Oceangate incident.

Part of why it took me so long to say something was that I felt the need to think about why the idea of the “expedition” enraged me so much. It’s not like we don’t visit disaster sites as tourists regularly. Take Pompeii and Herculaneum, for instance – as disastrous as it gets, yet no one would argue that it’s tasteless to visit those sites. So could it be just a matter of how much time has passed?

That may be an aspect of it, but there are plenty of modern disasters that we visit, such as the Frank Slide site not too far from where I live. Half a town was buried alive in 1903, with most of the victims still being under the rubble to this day. But there’s a visitor’s centre where you can see the slide site from the windows and learn about the event. 

So what gives? Why was the Oceangate trip so enraging?

And here’s the conclusion I’ve come to:

In the case of Pompeii and Herculaneum, we visit the sites of disasters that affected everyone – rich and poor, slave and master, animals and humans. And we do so to learn about the past, to see what life was like over 1,000 years ago. Because, like it or not, those sites are pristine windows into the past.

In the case of Frank Slide, we visit to learn from the mistakes of the past (the local Indigenous folk had vehemently warned white people to not build so close to Turtle Mountain, as it had a history of “moving” and white people said they were just being superstitious) as well as to remember the stories of the people who died (most of which were poor working families of miners).

Then there’s the Titanic.

Proper expeditions for study and retrieval fit into the same categories as the disasters mentioned above. When a disaster site is being disturbed in order to learn about what happened and to uncover more about the stories of the people lost in the event, disturbing the site is acceptable. It’s necessary and done with a sobering level of respect; that this isn’t about gawking at a gravesite. Note that the descendants of Titanic victims don’t typically have a problem with exploration of the site done for educational purposes, but they did have an issue with turning the site into a tourist travel spot.

Another aspect to why the Oceangate tourism trip was problematic and that breaks from the categories listed above is that the trip involved obscenely rich people going to gawk at what is primarily the resting place of thousands of poor people. Most of the Titanic survivors were rich, because the poor were kept locked in their areas while the rich were escorted to safety in half-full boats when there already weren’t enough boats to go around (more on that in a minute). If the “expedition” were for everyday people to view the site then maaaaybe it’d be acceptable. But it wasn’t. 

It was a trip for the obscenely rich to gawk at the gravesite of poor people whose deaths were largely caused by rich people repeatedly ignoring safety precautions. From the fact that the Titanic didn’t have enough lifeboats as it was (largely because the company thought they messed with the ship’s aesthetic and made the deck look cluttered) to the lookouts not having enough binoculars because they lost one of them and no one thought to bring extra or ask a passenger to borrow theirs, to ignoring iceberg warnings and still going fast despite knowing it wasn’t safe to do so, and more.

So while I feel bad for the 19-year-old who didn’t want to go in the first place, I don’t feel sorry for the others. Not even the Titanic expert. Because by being a part of this trip he was condoning both the disrespect of the dead as well as condoning the behaviour of the CEO who mocked safety regulations. And as a Titanic expert, he should have been aware that lack of safety precautions were not only the primary reason the ship sank, but also the primary reason why naval safety regulations (such as ships being required to have at least enough lifeboats for everyone on board but ideally a couple extra as a buffer) were first set in place.

[hiso03]

Fanfic ideas that I had finished, but that I lost because they were in the notes of my old cell phone and I have no way to recover them (even though I have tried).

1-Potion failed.

The idea was simple, but clear, although perhaps a little problematic.

Hal is the captain of the personal guard of His Highness the King of the Central Kingdom; However, the whole conflict arises because Hal is fed up with most of the maidens rejecting him with the possibility of being married by Barry, so Guy makes a joke about going to the sorceress of the cursed forest and asking her for help, Hal takes the idea (despite it being a joke) and escapes one night, he finds Zatanna in an old house and asks her for help, she does not accept at first, but after several minutes of pleading she ends up helping him.

He gives him a kind of potion, but the indication is simple, he must prepare a sweet meal with that position, but it is important that for it to work he adds honey, not sugar. Hal returns home and does what Zatanna asked him except he made a mistake, he doesn't use honey, but use sugar.

He gives Barry the food he made and the king does not distrust his guard and closest friend.

Hal thinks everything went well, except that from the next day Barry starts acting too strange towards him. John, who immediately deduces that Hal did what he did, scolds him and tells him to go to Zatanna to solve what he himself caused. When he arrives with the girl, she scolds him and tells him that by mixing sugar instead of honey, he altered the function of the position and that now turned it into one of love… The problem is that they cannot reverse it in any way and they have to wait several months until Barry returns to normal.

That teaches Hal the lesson of not playing with magic he doesn't understand.

2-Friend zone.

This is more comedy and I wrote it to make fun of Hal.

Hal has an infallible plan to start dating Barry, however, no one believes that he will really achieve it and even his friends bet with him, that if at the end of his plan Hal has not managed to make Barry understand his intentions, he will invite Guy, John, Kyle and Oliver to eat wherever they want and they can bring a companion. Hal, sure of his success, accepts and in each attempt he fails miserably while Barry thanks him for his help and always tells him that he is a great best friend.

Hal begins to dwell on his impending defeat until the girls help him without him realizing it.

In the end everything works out, but since they discover that the girls helped Hal, he has to pay half of the bill.

3- Robots

Hal is a human with robotic parts, he along with other subjects have one of the most important jobs in their city, they are like a kind of last resort police for the government. The green lanterns.

Hal was the first Green Lantern prototype despite not remembering it, however, he does not really remember anything before his conversion, he only knows that he was an army pilot and that he had an accident in a plane that destroyed several organs and parts of his body. (they are the ones that were replaced with machines). Hal does not meet his creator until one day he is taken to meet a blonde man a couple of years older than him who is locked in a glass box with a dangerous legend.

From the first time they meet, Hal feels a strange connection with Barry and can sense that he also feels the same although he denies it.

In a tense and strange way, he discovers that Barry is one of the few "original" metahumans and that he has caused great chaos in the past, which is why he is locked up, and he also ends up discovering from his other friends that Barry was the one who created his prosthetics. and that in fact, she met him before his mysterious accident and they have more history together than Barry is willing to reveal.

(This story was very long, I wrote only 5 chapters out of order so that it made sense and until recently I remembered many details. I remember that it was partly inspired by the best Hispanic fans I have read about the couple.. Too bad this fic was left unfinished, and so was this one.)

I only publish this so as not to forget the ideas and not lose them (again), I don't think I will do them or at least not in the short term, since all these ideas came to me and were written (along with others), in a very dark and difficult time for me, Therefore, most of the ideas are very disorganized and even in my memories, I was aware that the writing was strange and more superficial.

Maybe at some point I will be encouraged to return to them, when I have more time and can give it more planning.

[badmoonriiising]

Regulus likes taking care of Sirius and Remus' kids.

Ever since he left his taunted old house, looked for his brother all over the country, and discovered he still had a family, things have been great.

He's the cool uncle. The one who takes the kids to the cinema every time there's a superhero movie premiere, spoils them with candies, and doesn't overthink about following rules. Perhaps his lack of firmness is the cause of his wallet being taken, his three nephews running away at the mall, and his desire to throw up.

He should've known better not to trust a teenage girl obsessed with fighting his parents over problematic boys and party permissions. Be aware of emo boys whose songs are capable of sending Walburga Black to the grave if she ever listens to one of them. And keep his eyes on the twelve-year-old kid who claims is a gamer and plays League of Legends of all things.

How is Regulus going to tell Sirius he has no idea where all his children are when he's supposed to be the one in charge?

"Are you okay?" someone asks when he's sure he's about to have a panic attack.

He's handsome, Regulus thinks. Then proceeds to mentally slap himself because that's the less important thing right now.

Is a man who appears to be around his age. Taller than Regulus, with a muscular build and a light tan. He wears a pair of square glasses shielding curious hazel eyes, and his full-toothed smile should be the star of a toothpaste commercial.

"Never been better," he lies, not liking people meddling in his business.

Regulus believes that's it. The stranger will keep going, ignoring Regulus' problems. He'll get to the bottom of this. He'll find his brother's children without having to tell Sirius and Remus what happened.

"Are you sure?" he continues. "You look white like a paper. Last time I got that pale I had serious stomach problems."

He has to bite his tongue in order to not snap at him in such a precarious situation.

However, the moment his eyes meet his there's something stopping him. Regulus is unable to target exactly what it is. Maybe it's because he sees real concern in his gaze. Or that the simple fact of not feeling alone in a moment of alarm is enough to keep his nerves at bay and reorder his priorities.

"Actually", he sighs. "You haven't seen any kids around, have you?"

Unfortunately, it turns out he hasn't. But he'll be more than happy to help.

Meeting James Potter at this moment, on the other hand, will end up giving him an unexpected as well as positive turn in his life.

[quicktimeeventfull]

hello everyone i am posting a preview of my kpop au -- an in-universe callout for one light yagami. rainfalls50 is L. (eight god is the alternate & more common kanji spelling of 'yagami'; 50 is the roman character for L)

ifyoubloom

ok i hesitated on writing about this for a while because i knew people would be mad but someone needs to say something. @/eighthgod/light is one of the most toxic people in the entire fandom. yes this is a callout post in 2023 but it needs to be done. problems with eighthgod: - he is an akage. no, not just a solo stan, he REGULARLY posts about how he thinks other members are untalented or ugly and how they should be kicked out of the group and he even celebrated when A had to go on mental health leave in 2021 because ‘they could have more time to focus on beyond.’ YES beyond gets sidelined sure but thats still no excuse to be negative about other members - tags hate - posted ‘kys’ when people tried to explain CALMLY to him about how his behaviour was causing hurt - toxic judgement about beyond and misa dating, idols are allowed to have private lives, they give so much to us and its not our place to say what they do in their personal life - accused of running a group order and switching the photocards so he could get the beyond photocards. this was not proven but there’s a lot of evidence - has had a harassment campaign against @/rainfalls50 for more than a year. you can look through his twitter or tumblr and see this, he posts negative things about him and reblogs his posts to add hate hate and makes up lies about him. rainfalls has a lot of hate anons and hate comments on ao3 because of this. its weird and could be a sign of a bigger problem. but he still uses his translations which is hypocritical  - a lot of people have shown evidence he’s lying about being a lawyer, this is not proven either but there are a lot of contradictions there’s a lot of other things too but these are just the major ones. i blocked him so he won’t see this PLEASE don’t screenshot. do not harass him. just block and ignore. i know people are going to be angry because ‘he’s joking’ or ‘he’s mentally ill’ but its not a joke if it’s causing stress and harm and mentally ill people are still responsible for their actions. i won’t tell people what they should do but he has shown AGAIN AND AGAIN he does not care about the effects of his actions. just because he’s a big account and posts good analysis doesn’t mean he’s a safe person to trust

regardingreaper

isn’t rainfalls an akage too though

ifyoubloom

no people just say that because he made a few vent posts that were taken out of context plus even if he is it’s still wrong to harass him. and if you read the rest of post you will know it’s not just his harassment of rain that’s the problem, he harasses other people too and is problematic in other ways 

yoxingisthighs

op is a beyond/A shipper btw

ifyoubloom

SO WHAT IF I AM how does that change anything??? and it’s not like they’re going to see it????? anyway the company encourages it i’m pretty sure they wouldn’t hold each others hands and FAKE KISS if they cared that much. everyone on this post is so obsessed with shipping and ‘rain is an akage’ when eighthgod is SCAMMING PEOPLE AND TYPING KYS. i’m turning off reblogs this whole post was a mistake sometimes im embarrassed to be associated with any of you

[hyperfixingfr]

may I ask who the non problematic 1/362 shipper is and if they have content? I love the ship but am ashamed to admit it because you are so right with everything you said. People making straight ships not be creeps challenge imposible, apparently.

that aside, how would you describe Rachel’s relationship with your sector V? but maybe more in depth with Hoagie. I feel those two interacting isn’t shown a lot

fluffernuttermushroom is the user and I'm not sure there's currently any content on the page.

Rachel's relationship can get a bit complex with them because of the authority differences between sector operatives and the leader of the whole earth organization. It's slightly changed in authority gap with Nigel, but the power over still remains.

Nigel and Rachel are how they're implied in the show. Rachel admires Nigel's dedication and efforts, but can get a little pissed off with how much extra he makes her work because of his desires to disregard orders if he has a gut feeling they're not the best action. He can act very independently, and it causes the workload for Rachel to go up if he fucks up. Nigel has a lot of respect and admiration for Rachel, and thinks she's a great replacement for Chad. It's not like Chad let him do the crap he did either. He wants to get to know her more and hang out with her because he always loves speaking to people who are dedicated to the KND... But she's too busy for that.

Hoagie and Rachel are unique. Hoagie is naturally aversive and fearful of Rachel because of her status as an authority figure, given his trauma with authority figures. Although she's the age of his peers, she has the power of an authority figure, and that scares him shitless. It's nothing personal. He's traumatized, and Rachel tries to keep her tone leveled but assertive when he's involved in a scolding. Over time, he does eventually become less tense around her. That fear still remains even if only sometimes, as his home life still remains the same. He'll have nice conversations with her if she speaks to him first. This has only happened a few times, usually when he's apart of those events that specifically put priority on the 2x4 tech officers. Otherwise, she has no reason to speak to him independently. They haven't a single common interest.

Kuki and Rachel are pretty well connected for such a huge gap in power. Rachel is admittedly aware of how Kuki's trauma response of acting oblivious is affecting mission outcomes and is trying to work on her with that. She knows Kuki is powerful and very, very intelligent. She simply locks up and automatically shifts into this act of stupidity as a defense mechanism, though. They all have their own unique problems with how they were raised or how peers impacted their learning. She feels Kuki is unfairly untrustworthy, and is determined to help her fix this issue so she can show her power to everyone. Aside from that, Kuki is willing to help Rachel keep people away from her while she works when Kuki herself doesn't have anything to do by creating distractions so intriguing that the operatives that see it have just gotta check it out. It keeps them away from Rachel, makes them forget about what they needed from her, and Kuki has some fun being creative.

Wally and Rachel's connection is also a bit complex. It's mostly a connection that Rachel has to Wally, while Wally remains oblivious to it. Just like it's nothing personal with how Hoagie is fearful of Rachel, it's nothing personal with how Wally is defiant of Rachel. Unlike most people in the KND, Rachel actually seems to understand WHY he is. She recognized very early on that this was a kid who was just so pissed off that not one authority figure could understand him that he just began defying them all. This includes Rachel, who holds the status of authority figure even though she's around his age. She wants to do the same thing he does to people sometimes because she is treated very similarly by people at school. However, she's not an impulsive person. Wally is. That prevents her from acting out, while Wally can't control it. She tries her best to figure out what exactly is the thing that's so different about him so that she can show that he's understood by at least one person... And maybe give him some relief to the pain of not knowing what his problem is. Wally never wants to talk to her for long enough for her to get stuff outta him, so she just goes through numerous files of battles or reports that include him to get an idea of what's going on with him. He happens to have a lot of reports made on him from school that get filed in by hidden KND operatives and cameras throughout the school due to him getting in trouble one way or another. Although his defiance is annoying and can make things difficult, she tries not to hold it against him. It's a lot easier to handle if Hoagie is there, because those two are the one thing keeping the other at bay. Their traumas show way less when they have the company of one another. That one always baffled Rachel, because she thought Hoagie was gonna get mauled to death by Wally less than a week into him being assigned at Sector V. She doesn't complain, because they both needed someone who cares for each other. Society deems them both unlovable in different ways, and she knows how that feels.

Abby and Rachel are pretty similar to Kuki and Rachel. Abby respects Rachel, and doesn't defy her a single time because Abby can understand where she's coming from far more than anyone else. Rachel appreciates this a LOT. Less defiance is good. Abby is also able to speak whatever idiotic language the other four do, while Rachel isn't. She's like the translator of their idiocy when Rachel can't understand it. Rachel feels bad giving them group scoldings because Abby always seems upset, even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. Rachel also seems to recognize Abby's odd attachment to Hoagie, which has gone unnoticed by everyone... Including themselves. She'd look like an idiot to them if she pointed it out, so she watches from afar hoping they'll figure their shit out eventually. She finds it humorous to see a side of Abby she never thought existed around the kid who cries over the microwave being too loud. Chill, level headed kid becoming a mess around a kid who is ALWAYS a mess? It's like the mess is spreading.

[swordsandarms]

As I addressed obnoxious bullshitty fandom cans of worms already, how about we all be frank about the pointless going in circles discourse in this fandom that is "Lyanna's age problem" also.

There's the "meant to be just aaaaasa child!" camp and the "it was just normal back then!" camp when it comes to whether it's fine to ship her with a man in his early 20s within the morals of this story specifically (a story romanticising relationships with other 'problematic in the real world' concepts like incest, or other age gaps that kiiiiind of get a pass cause the 18 - or even 16 - years old threshold already, mind you). Both of those camps' arguments are inaccurate (one to the story, the other to the real world) the funny thing is if you take a step back, BOTH sides stand where they do - though opposite to eachother - because they are both (as it's normal so no one here is the bad person) uncomfortable with the concept in (modern and) real world and find their own way to deny its potency of wrongness.

And I decided to do this by coming across a post having to acknowledge the sexualisation of Arya, at an even younger age, and "ways to cope" and dance around the simple fact that the author just does this - writing young girls or teenagers as (obviously unnecessarily) sexualised and mature, that it's part of the story (part of the LORE if you will) and you just have to accept it and move on with the show in order to interact with this story.

*wringing hands* "Maybe because there was supposed to be a 5 years gap! We will just imagine the 5 years gap! Oh, no, it's still bad if there is a 5 years gap!"

Same as with the equally weak rationalisations such as "It's intentional for the age of Lyanna to be problematic! It has to be!" or the opposite "He is writing what was actually normal at some point even if it's not now *cue a list of actually bad historical cases*!"

My eyes may never come back from the back of my head if I have to keep seeing BOTH and EITHER of these. Especially when you have people acknowledging the "original plan" in which Arya would be "just a little sister" when Jon leaves for the NW when she's only 9 BUT he's meant to have a WOWSYY moment when she shows up later at FOURTEEN and he's nearly 20. And, oh, a guy in his LATE 20s is also into her - such romantic drama! By the way, 13 years old Bran would have had a "feud" with the 19-20 years old.

So, no, this isn't only a problem because there is no time jump anymore. The writer is writing something in a way he shouldn't have, and there is nothing deep or meaningful about it for you to read and recognise and judge others if they don't.

Sansa says men in their 20s are "too old" when she's 11, but at 13 now (parading as a 14 years old) she flirts with a man of about 20 and the narrative doesn't raises red flags either on his side or the society witnessing them. He's not trying to make it bad, not for that one reason. Then you get to Arya who's also ogled at by older men by pretending to be slightly older (in spite of some reservations because she is actually 11 as Sansa was before, here, and looks it, so at least the author is consistent about this magical womanhood that appears in between 11 and 13-14 because they "flowered").

So, yes, he never meant to write it the way we would have to judge it if they were real people. No, not even back then when he wrote Lyanna so and was planning a "time jump" for these other teenage girls that wouldn't even have meant not sexualising teenage girls actually because the jump still doesn't make Arya not a teenager. He writes Robert also being in love with and attracted Lyanna back then as well FFS, and he was also a "grown man". Daenerys at 15 is written as having a 'liberating' and autonomous relationship with a man of about 30. No, it's not meant to be bad because it 'should' be. Reading it like that is a bad, distorting reading of the story and her arc. Yes, when she was 13 and forced into marriage it is in the least written as "only on the line of acceptable" and characters note it within the story (so again at least he is consistent since Sansa is also bumping her age over that line).

So geez, feel free to say "I hate that he does this" or "I am not shipping these due to this reason, sorry" or "I am accepting it is not real in order to interact frankly with the text" or "I don't ship these because of other problematic or dislikeable reasons about the characters/relationships" but again, get moving with the "oh no no, it is/was normal somehow!" or "it is meant to be bad, because the author couldn't possibly write something bad!".

People have places to be and things to do, let's get going.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

John and Helene?

ohoho!! so! they are a couple who I genuinely don't remember when I first conceived of them. I wasn't super old but nor was I super young.

the first concept of them had ... a lot of dodgy/problematic stuff, mostly pertaining to undertones and implications I was completely unaware of. oh, and they were originally inspired by Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy (the first Heinlein book I ever read, no idea what age I was tho). Anyway, to skip over the worst of it, John is a high ranking ??? in a society, sees slaves up for sale and decides to buy them all, which includes Helene. They fall in love, blah blah, etc. As you can see, that has a lot of nasty undertones. Anyway I love their characters and their romance as it's very gentle and sweet.

moooooving right along from that, we came to the next major iteration, in which there's a law (?) that a particular class of slaves are bought specifically for marriage. This leads to some icky stuff, of course, in implication, but anyway, John sees that particular class being auctioned off one time, sees a Nasty Old Man (antagonist) bidding for an unusually young woman (a child, really), and invokes the privilege of the Duke's son to shut down the bidding and buy her for himself. this causes some fascinating cultural clashes I did enjoy fleshing out. Ultimately, they court for several years until both are well of age before actually marrying.

The next major development came in the form of something which I had a name for at the time but have forgotten now. It was something, anyway, like the elixir of courage. This one I can pinpoint to developing during covid, no earlier than that. It's a highly addictive substance, bright blue, and John has trauma around it because somebody taking it gave them the courage to murder his father, the previous Duke. He hence has utterly banned it. Similar to previous versions, he then acquires Helene, only this time he is much more explicit about the fact that he doesn't want to marry her. He bought her to save her, and he'll marry her but in name only, unless they both end up wanting to be really married. Her mental problems, which existed in previous versions already, are dialed up/focused on more in this version, manifesting in severe anxiety. One of the other servants suggests a nice bright blue potion, which Helene does not realise is the elixir of courage. She becomes dependent on it, which does help her anxiety. John becomes aware that it is being used among his staff, and interviews them all to find out who and how. He discovers Helene under the influence of it, and in a fit of rage orders her to be whipped. Almost immediately he regrets it, but according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, &c. Here is where a character who was minor in previous version appears - Mason, John's friend. He supports Helene through all the ensuing troubles, and enables her to flee to his protection. When forced to choose whether she returns to John or not, Helene stays with Mason, breaks off her engagement with John and he turns into the antagonist, though he does end up with a redemption arc. In this version, all three characters remain single and there is no pairing - the ending involves them becoming friends again, Helene growing into herself (and out of the elixir), and a general sense of safety being established. Also John gets help for his anger issues (which exist in previous versions but not to the same extent. Also I yoinked this character trait for Tom lol).

Those are the major three versions I have apart from the one that excerpt is from. Despite passing similarities in those stories, they're not so much developments of one story, as different stories with similar themes/plot points.

The one this excerpt is from is yet another one, in which John has previously been married (his wife died), with kids. He's looking for a replacement mother for the children. Helene comes along out of ??? bad circumstances, agrees to marry him, and then during that excerpt backs out of marriage because she feels she'll taint the children, et cetera. Shamelessly borrowed from a book i read as a kid. This one's the most Only Vibes of all of them.

There are so many other versions and possibilities and vibes but I love this couple. I love their dynamic, which has the potential to be bad, but in this case is good and sweet and wholesome.

character summary of John: - entitled (is always upperclass or that sort of thing) - ignorant of real world issues/sheltered - potential for anger issues when he discovers the truth about things - smooth and polished in society but doesn't know how to deal with lower classes like Helene - honest to a fault - very in earnest but blundering - does his best to grow and learn tho

character summary of Helene: - shy and skittish - does not consider herself worth anything but also very pliable - loves deeply - very quiet about everything and needs kindness to open up - anxiety and fear bc of past - trauma

A fun lil fact about this *gestures* thing as a whole: I would estimate I have less than a thousand words of actual story of any of these iterations written down, but I have plans and I have very specific plot outlines and character sketches. And yet there's hardly any of it actually existing other than in my brain.

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

POTENTIALLY HOT AND BAD TAKE ABOUT NUANCE AND SJM WRITING INCOMING -

Tbh people bring this up as a knock against Rowan's character - "He PUNCHED Aelin!!" - but like the reasons I disliked Rowan had literally nothing to do with that because Aelin absolutely deserved it when he punched her in the face.

The context of that scene is that Rowan is not a human. He's not presented human, he doesn't act human, and the narrative doesn't treat him as Aelin's equal in any conceivable way. It is established very quickly that Aelin is a punk ass nineteen year old (who is depressed and dealing with it by being abrasive and cruel and pushing everyone away from her) and Rowan is an extremely powerful, dangerous immortal creature who has been fighting and killing in wars for centuries, and doesn't conform to human sensibility. He doesn't like Aelin and resents the fact that he's been ordered by his boss to put up with her.

And then Aelin looks Rowan dead in the face and tells him that his people deserved genocide.

The Fae in ToG were massacred. They're rare - Rowan is a member of an endangered species. And now this obsentially human kid who he is being forced to deal with is telling him that he, and many of his friends, loved ones, and other kin deserved to be hunted down and slaughtered for No Reason.

So, yeah Rowan punched Aelin in the face. And she deserved it. That's a downright horrific thing to say to ANYONE let alone someone who is canonically a genocide survivor anyway. She also said it on purpose because it was the worst thing she could think of to provoke him - which, again? Not great, considering that she's nineteen and depressed and he's meant to be her teacher in this scenario. But Rowan didn't randomly decide to attack Aelin. And once the pair of them decide to mutually stop antagonizing one another in Heir of Fire they actually do manage to form a strong platonic bond.

There are a ton of reasons to dislike Rowan mainly because he's ultimately boring and after HoF ends, any of the nuanced or interesting parts of his character are removed and it turns out that his only personality traits are being obssessed with Aelin and wanting to bang her - but idk, the punching thing is fine as a plotpoint. It's problematic because it's meant to be. It feels like an organic character interaction, and the relationship develops from there - literally, from rock bottom. And as it stands, that's actually fine! I don't hate this kind of writing.

The problem I have with ACOTAR is that a similar situation occurs.

It's Tamlin at the High Lord meeting. Is what he said to Feyre objectively bad? Yeah, sure, objectively but also? Feyre just ruined his Court and directly caused the slaughter of his people. (Hybern repeatedly thanks her for removing Tamlin as an obstacle to their conquest.) Tamlin is now dealing with an invasion and a refugee crisis because he tried to help someone he loved. He believed that he had rescued Feyre from a dangerous situation (ACOWAR contains a really bizarre passage where Feyre admits to lying about being raped, and then gets mad at Tamlin and Lucien for believing her). Feyre went behind his back to ruin all his work as a spy because she randomly decided that the best time to revenge herself upon him was during an active war situation. And if I were in his shoes - looking at the person I once loved who has now betrayed me in every conceivable way, dressed head to toe in actual diamonds and married to the man who had sexually assaulted her in front of me, because he was jealous of me - I wouldn't be handing over the classified intel i painstakingly gained as a spy, while trading pointed barbed insults about my ex-girlfriend's sex life. I would be literally biting heads off of necks. So, I say, fair enough. Tamlin gets a free pass here to say whatever he wants - in fact, for a guy whose supposed to be infamous for his horrible temper, I find him to be remarkably restrained! Notably, when violence breaks out - its the Inner Circle who are responsible for it.

Of course, they're immediately absolved. Zero consequences. In fact, their violence was helpful and makes people trust them! God damn it.

Anyway SJM IS capable of nuance - except that in ACOTAR, she doesn't do anything actually interesting with it and seems keen to remove nuance from her books as soon as possible whenever she does stumble across it.