#because love is the most important thing in the world

[un-fwuit-un-fwog]

0v0 Leona brainrot may I request a thing on Leona x reader where reader is mute from family trauma 0v0 (note love your stuff you feed my brain rot everyday also if you) also can you make it that in the story we have Reader think Grim is now our Son/or we see little brother and we talk to only him but then as per Leona x reader we talk to Leona at some point

Arm still hurts, but I put on a brace, so LET'S GO (don't follow my example)

Thank you for the Request! Leona has consumed my thoughts as well.

Synopsis: Reader with selective mutism slowly grows fond of the cold lion.

TW: mentions of reader having a bad family life; reader has selective mutism; reader is initially scared of Leona

Selective mutism can be caused by a variety of factors such as an anxiety disorder, self-esteem issues, speech problems, and etc.. Yours stemmed from. . . poor family relationships, to put it delicately.

Coming to Twisted Wonderland was like both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because you made it out

A curse because, well, YOU WERE TOSSED INTO ANOTHER WORLD WITH NO TIME TO PROCESS. So, of course, your anxiety levels spiked.

It took you a bit to figure out how to explain to Crowley that you struggled with selective mutism, and even when you did, he took it as you trying to say you were entirely mute. You supposed you could live with that. It would definitely help quell the intrusive questions and ignorant statement if not just by a bit.

It took a while, but you managed to get comfortable enough around Grim and the Ramshackle ghosts to talk. You had grown to see them as the family you never had. A family you chose.

You weren't sure whether to classify Grim as a younger brother or a son, but you figured that wasn't all that important of a distinction for you to make. He's your family and that's what counts.

When you did finally talk for the first time around this little group they were certainly shocked, Grim more so than the ghosts. However, they were patient and allowed you the time and space to explain (even if that was because the ghosts held Grim's mouth shut).

In the end, you all decided it was probably best that you keep the reality of your muteness a secret as people knowing could cause problems (and just be annoying for those too ignorant to understand or too curious to understand personal space).

When you first met Leona, it was when you stepped on his tail in the botanical garden. You bowed profusely as a way of saying sorry, but he either didn't get it or didn't care.

"D*mn Herbivore." He growled. "You think you can just step on my tail and get away with it? Not even gonna properly apologize for waking me with your foot digging into my tail?"

Clearly, he had not been paying attention at orientation. You were never too great with confrontation, quite frankly, it scared you, so you ran. You could hear his angry shouts from behind you as you booked it out of there, but you paid no mind to his words (not that you could even hear them with the blood pumping so violently in your ears from the adrenaline).

The next time you met him, like truly met and talked to him, was after the spelldrive game when you got nailed in the head with the disk.

When the unusual group of Ace, Deuce, Jack, Ruggie, Leona, and Grim came into the infirmary you were understandably wary. Afterall, Leona hadn't exactly made a stellar first impression.

However, your opinion shifted a bit when a little ball of energy and pure joy came bursting into the room to meet Leona. You had felt some sympathy for him after seeing his dream, you didn't have the best family life either, but you also weren't a massive jerk. A hint of worry grew in your stomach when you saw the small lion jump on Leona's bed and bounce on his stomach, but you froze when you saw the man's reaction.

He may have seemed harsh to most with the way he treated and talked to the child, but you could tell he was anything but. The way his eyes softened ever so slightly and his muscles relaxed. And, if you didn't know any better, you would've sworn you saw the corners of his lips twitch upwards just a bit.

The way someone treats their family can tell you a lot. The way Leona treated Cheka told you a lot.

You turned your attention away from Leona to sign something to Deuce (he learned a bit of sign language from his mom).

Leona would have cursed had Cheka not been right there. Great. Now he felt like an *ss.

Perhaps that guilt is what led him to so easily letting you stay in Savanaclaw during book 3.

He led you up to his room and told you how to fold out the couch (it was a futon). However, other than that, he didn't say much.

The only word you heard him speak the first night was a brief "sorry". He didn't elaborate on it, but you were fairly sure you knew what he was apologizing for.

At some point, you had made a habit of lightly tugging on your friends' sleeve when you needed their attention. Out of habit, you accidentally did this to Leona once. You didn't even notice until you saw the other Savanaclaw students' horrified faces. You whipped around to apologize to Leona, but he looked entirely unbothered.

"What'd ya need?"

On the last night when you needed to get Leona's help, you didn't exactly have the option of yelling, and banging pots and pans didn't exactly cross your mind. At that moment, you were just so tired and so stressed that all you did was silently tear up.

When he noticed your crying he momentarily froze. His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he just stared at you.

You really had a knack for making Leona feel scummy.

Before he knew it, he was getting up and trudging across the room.

You flinched.

Leona mentally bashed his head into a wall repeatedly.

"I'll help. . .just. . .cut it out with the water works." He handed you a tissue box and that was that.

You grew steadily closer over time, but he didn't hear your voice until around the end of book 6.

You had gotten back from STYX and your dorm was still in shambles, so you were left to stay at Savanaclaw. Other dorms were going to offer, but before they could even open their mouths, Leona sighed dramatically loud and announced that he guessed you'd have to stay at Savanaclaw sing you had absolutely no other options.

You trudged into his room together and watched as Grim immediately conked out on a plush chair next to the couch.

Leona was about to collapse on the bed (he was too tired to shower or even change clothes) when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his torso and a wet spot forming on his chest as your tears soaked through his shirt.

He was not cut out for these kinds of situations.

Despite this thought, he soon sighed and wrapped his arms around your back as well. The two of you stood there like that for what felt like an eternity before the silence was finally broken.

And not by him.

"I-I'm so glad you're safe." Your voice was hoarse from lack of use, and your words were hard to decipher as they came out as more of choked sobs.

A million questions ran through Leona's mind at that moment, but none of them left his lips. Instead, he simply replied: "Yeah. . .'m glad you are too."

His questions could wait until tomorrow.

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[juniperskye]

The Nanny

Based on the following ask: @itzvenus04I was thinking of like sunshine soft girl reader x cloudy and broody serious Aaron meet as he hires her as Jack nanny because Jack liked her the best and of course Jack thinking his nanny is perfect he tries everything he can to get his dad and nanny together which ends up working and Jack is happy because he has another mommy now, not to replace Haley but to love him like a mom because a kid always needs his mom no matter what age

Aaron Hotchner x Nanny! Fem Reader Fluff Word count: 2185

REQUESTS ARE OPEN - not edited - please be kind. Requests are open and feedback is welcome if it's constructive!

Warnings: My blog is 18+, minors DNI, significant age gap (non-specified, but legal), Sunshine! Reader, Grumpy! Hotch, reader is a nanny, Jack being the ultimate match maker, boss-employee relationship/blurred lines, let me know if I missed anything.

I do not consent to having my work translated or reposted to any other site. That being said I do not own the characters portrayed in this story.

You had been working for Aaron Hotchner for the last six months. You’d gone out of your comfort zone and signed up for one of those nannying sites, the ones where parents would go on and select your profile…almost like online dating. The only thing is, you were looking for a live-in nanny position, see, you’d just graduated college and had been living on campus and now that you had graduated, you needed a place to stay until you found a permanent residence. You could only stay in your friend’s studio apartment for so long.

Aaron hadn’t been too sure about hiring a nanny, especially a live-in one. Jessica had suggested it, seeing as she’d become increasingly busy helping her dad and taking on additional shifts at the hospital. She told him that it would be good to have someone at the house taking care of Jack, running him to and from school and soccer, someone who’d cook and clean and…the more she described it, the more Aaron thought it would be like hiring a 50’s housewife.

He sat on the idea a while; he hardly thought it would be appropriate for a man of his age to hire some young woman to come into his home and play wife while he was out working all day. He figured the best thing he could do would be to look into one of those sites that match nannies to families based on needs.

That is how he had chosen you and honestly, you couldn’t have been more grateful for that fact. Jack had been the best kid and getting to watch him felt more like hanging out with a child of your own…he’d made you feel so welcomed and it filled you with joy.  You’d enjoyed the Hotchner boys, although you didn’t see Aaron all that often, when you did, it always stirred up a fuzzy feeling within you.

--

Aaron was out of town at least once a week each month, those weeks were hard on Jack, but you’d made sure to fill the time with building Legos, coloring, baking, and soccer practice in the yard. You’d made all of Jack’s favorite meals and read him and extra bedtime story on nights Aaron was out of town. Anything it took to make things easier on him.

Truthfully, you liked the weeks when Aaron was out of town, it made your life a little easier, because despite that fuzzy feeling Aaron gave you…he wasn’t always the sweetest person in the world. He was kind of a grump.

In the six months you’d been working for him, you had learned that Aaron was an FBI agent, more specifically the Behavior Analysis Unit. You knew he was in charge of the team he worked with and that they travelled quite frequently. Jack constantly referred to him as a superhero. You learned that he loves the Beatles and the most important thing in his life is his son.

The other thing you had learned in that time was that he detested you. He’d made an effort to learn as little as possible about you, promptly changing the subject any time you’d said anything, even remotely personal. Little did you know, Jack was sure to fill his dad in on all the wonderful things he’s learned about you.

--

Jack had formulated a plan; he was going to get you and his dad together. In the short time you’d been working with them he’d been able to see that his dad was happier and less stressed out. His dad had more time to spend with him when you were around. He also loves you; you are sweet, and you take care of him, and it reminds him of his mom. That had made him sad at first, but very quickly, he came to appreciate it.

So, he decided he would help you by giving you insight into his dad’s favorite things. On the other hand, he’d talk you up to his dad in hopes to break his walls down just enough to let you in.

--

“Alright Jack, your lunch is all packed, can you run and grab your shoes and your backpack?” You asked him.

“Okay! Did you put one of our brownies in there?” He asked, jogging down the hall.

“Of course I did!” You called after him. “Mr. Hotchner, I packed your lunch as well. I was planning on going to the grocery store after I drop Jack off, was there anything in particular you’d like for dinner this week?”

“Whatever works.” He huffed.

“Okay, well I will email over the menu I had in mind then and if there’s anything you don’t like, just let me know.” You offered.

“Will do.” Aaron grabbed his bag and turned away. “Bye buddy, have a great day today.” Aaron pressed a kiss to the top of jacks head before ruffling his hair and heading out to work.

“You ready bud?” You asked.

“Make a pot roast with mashed potatoes.” Jack said.

“What?”

“It’s dad’s favorite.” Jack smiled.

--

You were putting the finishing touches on dinner while Jack was working on his homework at the kitchen island. You had taken his suggestion and went with a pot roast for dinner, figuring it couldn’t make matters worse.

“Alright bud, go wash your hands and put your homework in your folder.” You requested.

“Okay!” Jack made his way down the hall.

You set the table with three perfect place settings, you’d poured jack a glass of chocolate milk, yourself a small glass of wine, and Aaron his usual scotch. You plated up the food, mashed potatoes, pot roast with carrots, and a small salad. It was moments like this, waiting for Aaron to some home that your mind drifted to thoughts of truly sharing this domesticity with him.

You imagine him walking through the doors, placing his briefcase down, coming up behind you, snaking his arms around your waist as he presses a gentle kiss to your shoulder. Complimenting how good the food smells and asking you about your day. In these little daydreams, he was warm and sweet, not his usual grumpy self.

--

The door opens and you immediately hear the huff that escapes him. Exhaustion surely seeping in after a long day of work. This is part of why you loved this job, despite his coldness, you enjoyed taking care of the Hotchner boys. It made you happy knowing that he could come home after work and not worry about anything.

“Daddy!” Jack hollered.

“Hey buddy.” Aaron knelt down and lifted Jack into his arms.

“It smells good in here, what’s for dinner?” Aaron asked.

“Well, Jack informed me that pot roast is one of your favorites, so I changed up the menu a bit and made that for dinner. I uh – I hope that’s okay.”

“Oh, that’s – that’s fine.” Aaron let out an awkward cough.

So, the three of you sat and ate dinner. While you ate, Jack rambled on and on about his day and all the things that happened while he was at school. You were desperately trying to attend to the conversation, but you couldn’t help but be distracted…Aaron’s gaze had been lingering on you for the last ten or so minutes.

“Hey jack, why don’t you put your plate in the sink and go get ready for bed huh? I’ll come up in a bit to read a story with you.” Aaron said, his gaze never leaving yours.

Jack nodded his head and followed the directions his dad gave him. All the while Aaron continued to look at you, surely profiling you. You were becoming uneasy, sitting there under his gaze.

“What is it?” You asked.

“Nothing. Thank you, for dinner, it was delicious.” He complimented.

“Oh, um of course! I’m glad you liked it.” You blushed.

--

It was a rare day that Aaron had off, on these days he likes to let you off the hook. This allows you to shop, go out with friends and get lunch, get your hair and nails done, the whole nine yards. Jack thought that a day out with his dad would be the perfect time to talk about you. They had been talking about how you helped him study for his spelling test this week which led to him getting 100%.

“Hey dad?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Why do you hate her?”

“What I don’t – I don’t hate her. I just, I ugh…I don’t know bud. I don’t hate her, she’s great.” Aaron stumbled over his words.

“You aren’t very nice to her though. Which is weird because she’s really nice and she makes us both happier, I can tell.” Jack smiled.

“I’m nice to her!” Aaron defended.

“No, you’re not. But you can be! Her birthday is coming up, we should have a party!” Jack suggested.

--

It was your birthday, you had been thankful it was on a Saturday this year, and Aaron was off which meant he’d likely give you the day off and you could spoil yourself a bit. So, after sleeping in a bit later than usual, you made your way to the kitchen only to be met with the Hotchner boys making pancakes.

“Well good morning!” You greeted.

“Happy birthday!” Jack shouted, wrapping his arms around your neck from his position on the counter.

“Thanks bub! Are you making chocolate chip pancakes? You know those are my favorite.” You teased.

“Yeah! It was dad’s idea to make them.” Jack informed.

“Oh – um thanks.” You were caught by surprise.

“Of course. Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.” You shyly smiled.

The three of you sat and enjoyed breakfast together, it had felt different than usual. Aaron had been different today, happy almost.

“So, I figured, since I’m home today, perhaps you could take the day off?” Aaron suggested. “I do have something to do around 6 though so if you could be back by then?”

“Really? That would be awesome, I really need to get my hair and nails done.” You laughed.

--

You had texted a few of your friends and met them at the nail salon, getting your fingers and toes done while filling them in on the latest…more specifically Aaron’s new kind side that he’s been showing.

They had told you it was because he likes you, to which you were quick to shut down. They all knew you had a soft spot for the older man, and they were sure he liked you back, especially when he was pushing you away. One of your friends claimed it was because he probably didn’t want to “corrupt” you.

 After getting them to finally relent in their teasing, you had suggested lunch. The girls treated the whole day, nails, lunch, hair and lastly a new dress from your favorite boutique.

“You should wear that one home.”

“Why?”

“For Mr. Hotchner…show off your hot self. Maybe get some for your birthday!”

“Oh my gosh, stop! It’s not like that.” You shook your head.

“Girl maybe it could be…just wear the damn dress!”

And so, you did. You changed into the new dress and had your hair perfectly styled and your nails done. You knew Aaron had somewhere to be at 6, but you figured you could at least catch him off guard prior to then.

--

You parked your car and made your way around to grab your bags, then headed up the two little steps that led into the house. Before fishing your key out of your bag, you paused, inside you could hear Aaron and Jack talking…something about balloons and streamers. You smiled to yourself, quietly letting yourself in.

“Hey guys! What’s all this?”

“You’re early!” Jack said.

You looked around and felt nothing but warmth radiating through you. There were balloons and streamers decorating the living and dining rooms, sat on the table was a birthday cake along with a few gifts. Pizza from your favorite place was sat on the coffee table and the living room had been rearranged so the guestroom mattress was laid out with cozy blankets and pillows, while your favorite movie was queued up on the TV.

“You did all this…for me?” You gasped.

“Yeah! We wanted to show you how much we love you.” Jack said, hugging you.

“You do?” Your gaze met Aaron’s.

“Yeah, we do.” He said.

--

That night the three of you ate pizza and laid on the mattress in the living room, watching movies. Before it got too late the boys made sure you had cake and opened your gifts, Jack had picked out a paint set for you, knowing you enjoyed watercolors. Aaron, well, he’d gotten you a first edition of your favorite novel. You’d been rendered speechless.

The three of you made your way back to the living room and laid down to watch a final film. Jack had been snuggled up to you, quickly falling asleep, and you fell not long after. Aaron smiled at the sight of you two, it had gotten him thinking that having you around may not be so bad after all.

Taglist: @bernelflo@pastelpinkflowerlife@just-moondust @khxna

[andhumanslovedstories]

There's so many horrible things happening in America right now that it has been interesting to see what individual horrors hurt me personally the most. I grew up going to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Musicals, plays, concerts, that weird bust of JFK, playing around on terrace during intermissions, putting on a velvet dress that you're going to ruin dropping a milk dud in your lap and not noticing until it's fully melted, wearing the pinchy shiny shoes that are the training bras of women's formal footwear, operas I didn't like but did love, jazz I didn't understand but still fascinated me, red carpet, big stairs, the absolute nightmare amount of experiences I had as a new driver as I repeatedly got trapped in the Kennedy Center's fucking private DC island or whatever the hell is going on traffic-wise, free performances on small side stages, getting to see an enormous production on the Center's most enormous stage, all of which was accessed by walking through that a long, tall hallway lined with flags of the world that made you feel like a dignitary attending the most important even in the world.

And now Trump's taken it over. He fired its board. He appointed one of his loyalists to run it. I want to throw up.

Sometimes I miss DC so much. I love the Pacific Northwest and expect I'll live here for the rest of my life, but this isn't my hometown. I grew up the edge of the District. I've lost cumulative years of my life stuck in traffic on the inner loop and outer loop. Because of the Smithsonian, it used to be so baffling to me that anyone ever had to pay to get into a museum. I've used the Washington DC zoo as a shortcut to a different part of the city because it's free to enter. You couldn't count the amount of knockoff Spider-man popsicles that I've eaten sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. My reading tastes were molded by Kramer Books in Dupont Circle. I spent afternoons walking around the National Mall, normally just a big empty field until there's an event--book fair, country music program, international cuisine, whatever--at which point for a day or a weekend or a week it becomes a sea of tents and stages. I went to protests outside the Capital and the White House about the war in Iraq. I froze my toes off watching Obama's 2008 presidential inauguration.

It seemed like everyone's family touched the federal government in some way. Everyone's family had moved here because they were military or state department or a political consultant or worked with an NGO or some other reason that meant you had to be here, in the nation's capital. Plenty of people had connections to the federal government that we more hush-hush. Like kids in class straight up going, "I have no idea what my parents do for a living. They're not allowed to tell me." High schoolers regularly, accidentally drove into the CIA parking lot and got escorted out because the premises were that accessible. My family moved here because my dad is a reporter who ended up covering international trade. (Imagine how much his job sucks right now.) He switched beats one summer to cover the White House instead. He got to fly on Air Force One. He got official Air Force One M&Ms. I was SO disappointment my dad didn't work there for Bush to call on him by nickname.

Every day my family got The Washington Post. I read the comics and the kid's page, then the rest of the Style section, then Metro, then news. I learned to read from it. We wrapped our delicate Christmas ornaments with its pages. We used yesterday's papers to clean our windows because they didn't leave streaks. I took journalism in high school. You can't IMAGINE how much and how frequently we talked about Watergate. When Post changed its motto to "Democracy Dies in Darkness" after Trump's election in 2016 that meant something to me. I knew Bezos owned the paper now, but that was still my paper, and the motto spoke to something I fervently believed: if people just knew what was happening, they wouldn't allow it to happen. If you expose a problem, people will naturally agree that it is a problem and that we should do something to fix it. Flash forward to Trump's third fucking campaign, and the newspaper wouldn't endorse a presidential candidate. Chickenshit cowardice. Then they change the motto. "Riveting Storytelling for All of America." Eat shit. You're nothing now.

Politics in America is just telling everyone how much you hate Washington, DC so that they'll elect you so you can move to DC. Well, guys, the city fucking hates you too. Republicans will never give the District actually meaningful political representation because no one in that city would vote for them. It's not just the policies; it's the contempt. No one in the new administration loves the city they schemed and lied and stooped to take over. It's just iconography to them, and all they care about is taking that iconography for themselves. Trump doesn't give a shit about the summer program for the Kennedy Center. He has never seen a show at the Kennedy Center. When he was president, he never attended the annual awards. He's trying to destroy one of the most significant places of my life and I'm genuinely unsure if he has ever stepped for inside of it.

[waifuoftomonori]

Tomonori's upbringing: "here, stand in the corner while your best friend / secret crush has part of her soul painfully stripped away from her body, and all the grown-ups around you gaze on sadly but keep insisting she doesn't have a choice, and nothing you can say or do during or after the ritual seems to offer her any comfort, and you learn when you grow up you will have to stand there in that corner once every month for the rest of your life and watch her suffer, helpless to protect her or reassure her after, and honestly if you look at it a certain way you are also responsible for her suffering, it's your job to uphold the Seal, you should prioritize that over the person you love most in the world, so really it's no wonder nobody will ever love you, you don't get to be the hero"

Shiki's upbringing: "here, take this Sword and kill your mother, then live with that guilt for the rest of your life, which will at least be short because as Princess Tamayori you imagine you'll have to go through the same thing your mother did, and when your daughter turns seven she'll kill you as well, but it's okay because at least that will mean an end to the guilt and a fulfillment of your duty, and you can't possibly talk to your friends about it, because you don't want to impose your sadness on them, and how would they ever understand anyway? it's a sadness you know you don't deserve to feel when you were responsible for killing your mother yourself, with your own two hands, but you're miserable anyway, and the only way you can redeem yourself now is through your own sacrifice, and through these painful rituals every month, and yeah we're making one of your best friends watch you go through that, and the other best friend is so oblivious you would feel guilty bringing that darkness into his life"

Akifusa's upbringing: "You will have the honorable job of protecting the Princess, which means you will need sword training. It's an important duty; please take it seriously. Hm? Why do your friends seem so sad these days? Oh, don't worry about it. Time for sword training!"

This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

[corroded-hellfire]

Counter-offer: You tell us what you think each JQ character's wildest or weirdest kink is. 😉

Bless you for feeding into my rabidness 😈

Gonna do one for every JQ character I have watched (I know Johnny hasn’t really been revealed yet but I am a life long Johnny Storm fangirl so I’m projecting lmao)

Putting it under the cut because I may have gotten carried away

Eddie (if you’ve read my work this will come as no surprise) has a massive breeding kink. Just the thought of everyone knowing you let the freak knock you up drives him wild. He wants to fill you up and watch your belly grow to stake his claim. You let him put his dick in you and he’s gonna make damn sure that the world knows it.

Geta loves to degrade you but in the filthiest ways. It’s always how you’re such a dirty slut for him and how you’re just a hole for him to use whenever and wherever he wants. How you’ll do any and all depraved acts that he commands you to, not just because he’s your emperor, but because you are such a desperate whore

Eric is the subbiest of subs and needs constant praise. The man will get a hard on if you tell him that you like the choice of radio station he put on. The most mundane things, doesn’t matter. You think he did well? He was a good boy? Did a good job? He’s putty in your hands and practically sobbing already

Johnny loves to put on a good show. The idea of people seeing him fucking you drives him insane. He’s in the public eye so it isn’t hard for him to come up with ways to publicly claim you. Whether it’s fucking up against the windows in the Baxter Building (yeah, it’s a tall building but someone has to be looking up, right?) or parading you around town with your skin marked up or excessive groping so everyone can see how he and only he is allowed to touch you

Ralph has a mommy kink. Absolutely calls you “mommy” when you’re making him feel so fucking good. He’s embarrassed by it at first but he stops caring and eventually pleads for his mommy to take care of him and make him feel good.

Michael has such a corruption kink. It doesn’t matter if you’re an angelic school girl or already have rough edges to you—Michael is going to make you worse. Michael is going to do things to you that make you blush just by hearing about them. The way he can make you squirm and feel filthy has him almost coming just by thinking about it.

Tom always has to fuck you in front of a mirror. He needs you to see yourself being utterly used by him. It’s an obsession to see how he looks pounding into you at different angles.

Paul is obsessed with breath play. So much of his shitty life is out of his control, but with you? You breathe when he says you can. He loves to choke you and watch your eyes glass over from lack of air. Then he decides when to loosen his grip and let you breathe again.

Enjolras has the unfortunate affliction of insomnia, which has led to his somnophilia. He sees you laying there, so still and calm; your chest lightly rising and falling as you sleep and Enjolras can’t help but touch you. You’re so responsive even in your sleep that it becomes Enjolras’s favorite playtime.

Koner wants to be humiliated. He’s got this big important job as a guard and likes to act all tough, but when you get in bed with him at the end of the day he just wants to hear what a fucking loser he is and how he’s pathetic. He wants you to threaten to tell all your friends how he’s a worthless piece of shit.

Arthur loves to have his senses deprived. Blindfold? Fuck yes. Handcuffs? Hell yeah. Definitely some bondage usage as well, but it’s mostly the just blindly (pun intended) trusting the person he’s with by cutting off one or more senses completely.

[simplysamiblog]

The weight of a perfect goodbye

Before I even begin sharing my thoughts, I need to make one very important thing clear: I am a firm believer in the theory that Jayce and Viktor survived the ending of Arcane. As far as I’m concerned, they were teleported through time and space and are now slowly, painstakingly rebuilding their lives. Together, of course.

I’ve read dozens of (amazing) fanfics where this is exactly how their story unfolds, and some are so well-written that I honestly consider them canon.

That said.

I’ve seen several discussions online about this very topic:

"The creators confirmed it: they’re dead."

"The creators don’t know anything, they’re alive."

"Accept it, they were disintegrated by the Rune."

And so on.

But here’s what I think (not that it matters to anyone or carries any weight at all):

We can’t completely dismiss or outright reject the idea that, yes, Jayce and Viktor are, unfortunately, dead. At some level, we need to accept it—to believe it.

But let me explain why.

Not out of respect for the creators, the canon, the fandom, or anything like that. But out of love for the story, for the essence of their narrative.

At the risk of sounding cliché, do you really think Arcane would have been just as special if Jayce and Viktor had survived? Can you picture the scene? The protagonists recover, the fog of war and chaos clears, and there they are—Jayce and Viktor—standing atop the Hexgates, smiling. Ah, what a happy ending. What a good ending.

Sure. Nice. Nothing more.

Or imagine if we had gotten something like: "And they remained like brothers forever." Ugh.

It’s cruel, it’s unfair, it’s heartbreaking—

But it’s perfect.

The chain of events (cough) that led to that moment, the sacrifice that sealed their fate—

The relationship between Jayce and Viktor would never have been as impactful otherwise. Personally, I don’t think I fully grasped the depth of their bond until their foreheads rested against each other. In that moment of resignation, of acceptance.

Their story, their magic, was beautiful precisely because it ended right then, in that instant.

Jayce asked Viktor, "Why did you ever give me this?"

He could have let him die in the storm. Or, if he wanted to be more merciful, he could have simply saved him without giving him the Rune—

The world would have been safe. The world would have been saved.

But…

The world wasn’t as important as the moments they shared. Their friendship, their collaboration, their bond.

Viktor couldn’t deny another Viktor those moments. That brief but immense joy. Those years in which he had truly lived.

They were stronger than everything—stronger than everyone—

Even stronger than death.

And that’s why, in a way, their death is precisely what makes them so wonderful.

Call it cliché or a bit of a stretch, but the first comparison that comes to mind is Romeo and Juliet. Would it really be the most famous love story if they hadn’t met their tragic end?

"Happily ever after."

Or—

"Never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Sure, they might have survived, somewhere. And it’s absolutely valid to believe that.

But if not for that ending, for that terrible, heartbreaking moment, how much would we have missed out on? How many incredible fanfictions wouldn’t exist? How many fanarts, how many works of art would we have been unknowingly deprived of?

We’ll never know, and I don’t want to know.

Because what we have is amazing.

So yes, I accept the idea that they’re dead—because it makes the fantasy that they’re alive and in love so much sweeter.

But most of all, it makes their relationship a game of fate, something they built around each other. A perfect circle, an inseparable chain binding them as one.

Pulling them together, pushing them apart—only to bring them back to each other again.

Over and over.

Forever.

[mariacallous]

Perhaps you’ve heard: Young people aren’t dating anymore. News media and social media are awash in commentary about the decline in youth romance. It’s visible in the corporate data, with dating-app engagement taking a hit. And it’s visible in the survey data, where the share of 12th graders who say they’ve dated has fallen from about 85 percent in the 1980s to less than 50 percent in the early 2020s, with the decline particularly steep in the past few years.

Naturally, young people’s habits are catnip to news commentators. But although I consider the story of declining youth romance important, I don’t find it particularly mysterious. In my essay on the anti-social century, I reported that young people have retreated from all manner of physical-world relationships, whether because of smartphones, over-parenting, or a combination of factors. Compared with previous generations of teens, they have fewer friends, spend significantly less time with the friends they do have, attend fewer parties, and spend much more time alone. Romantic relationships theoretically imply a certain physicality; so it’s easy to imagine that the collapse of physical-world socializing for young people would involve the decline of romance.

Adults have a way of projecting their anxieties and realities onto their children. In the case of romance, the fixation on young people masks a deeper—and, to me, far more mysterious—phenomenon: What is happening to adult relationships?

American adults are significantly less likely to be married or to live with a partner than they used to be. The national marriage rate is hovering near its all-time low, while the share of women under 65 who aren’t living with a partner has grown steadily since the 1980s. The past decade seems to be the only period since at least the 1970s when women under 35 were more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse.

People’s lives are diverse, and so are their wants and desires and circumstances. It’s hard, and perhaps impossible, to identify a tiny number of factors that explain hundreds of millions of people’s decisions to couple up, split apart, or remain single. But according to Lyman Stone, a researcher at the Institute for Family Studies, the most important reason marriage and coupling are declining in the U.S. is actually quite straightforward: Many young men are falling behind economically.

A marriage or romantic partnership can be many things: friendship, love, sex, someone to gossip with, someone to remind you to take out the trash. But, practically speaking, Stone told me, marriage is also insurance. Women have historically relied on men to act as insurance policies—against the threat of violence, the risk of poverty. To some, this might sound like an old-fashioned, even reactionary, description of marriage, but its logic still applies. “Men’s odds of being in a relationship today are still highly correlated with their income,” Stone said. “Women do not typically invest in long-term relationships with men who have nothing to contribute economically.” In the past few decades, young and especially less educated men’s income has stagnated, even as women have charged into the workforce and seen their college-graduation rates soar. For single non-college-educated men, average inflation-adjusted earnings at age 45 have fallen by nearly 25 percent in the past half century, while for the country as a whole, average real earnings have more than doubled. As a result, “a lot of young men today just don’t look like what women have come to think of as ‘marriage material,’” he said.

In January, the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch published an analysis of the “relationship recession” that lent strong support to Stone’s theory. Contrary to the idea that declining fertility in the U.S. is mostly about happily childless DINKs (dual-income, no-kid couples), “the drop in relationship formation is steepest among the poorest,” he observed. I asked Burn-Murdoch to share his analysis of Current Population Survey data so that I could take a closer look. What I found is that, in the past 40 years, coupling has declined more than twice as fast among Americans without a college degree, compared with college graduates. This represents a dramatic historic inversion. In 1980, Americans ages 25 to 34 without a bachelor’s degree were more likely than college graduates to get married; today, it’s flipped, and the education gap in coupling is widening every year. Marriage produces wealth by pooling two people’s income, but, conversely, wealth also produces marriage.

Contraception technology might also play a role. Before cheap birth control became widespread in the 1970s, sexual activity was generally yoked to commitment: It was a cultural norm for a man to marry a girl if he’d gotten her pregnant, and single parenthood was uncommon. But as the (married!) economists George Akerlof and Janet Yellen observed in a famous 1996 paper, contraception helped disentangle sex and marriage. Couples could sleep together without any implicit promise to stay together. Ultimately, Akerlof and Yellen posit, the availability of contraception, which gave women the tools to control the number and the timing of their kids, decimated the tradition of shotgun marriages, and therefore contributed to an increase in children born to low-income single parents.

The theory that the relationship recession is driven by young men falling behind seems to hold up in the U.S. But what about around the world? Rates of coupling are declining throughout Europe, as well. In England and Wales, the marriage rate for people under 30 has declined by more than 50 percent since 1990.

And it’s not just Europe. The gender researcher Alice Evans has shown that coupling is down just about everywhere. In Iran, annual marriages plummeted by 40 percent in 10 years. Some Islamic authorities blame Western values and social media for the shift. They might have a point. When women are exposed to more Western media, Evans argues, their life expectations expand. Fitted with TikTok and Instagram and other windows into Western culture, young women around the world can seek the independence of a career over the codependency (or, worse, the outright loss of freedom) that might come with marriage in their own country. Social media, a woman veterinarian in Tehran told the Financial Times, also glamorizes the single life “by showing how unmarried people lead carefree and successful lives … People keep comparing their partners to mostly fake idols on social platforms.”

According to Evans, several trends are driving this global decline in coupling. Smartphones and social media may have narrowed many young people’s lives, pinning them to their couches and bedrooms. But they’ve also opened women’s minds to the possibility of professional and personal development. When men fail to support their dreams, relationships fail to flourish, and the sexes drift apart.

If I had to sum up this big messy story in a sentence, it would be this: Coupling is declining around the world, as women’s expectations rise and lower-income men’s fortunes fall; this combination is subverting the traditional role of straight marriage, in which men are seen as necessary for the economic insurance of their family.

So why does all this matter? Two of the more urgent sociological narratives of this moment are declining fertility and rising unhappiness. The relationship recession makes contact with both. First, marriage and fertility are tightly interconnected. Unsurprisingly, one of the strongest predictors of declining fertility around the world is declining coupling rates, as Burn-Murdoch has written. Second, marriage is strongly associated with happiness. According to General Social Survey data, Americans’ self-described life satisfaction has been decreasing for decades. In a 2023 analysis of the GSS data, the University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman concluded that marriage was more correlated with this measure of happiness than any other variable he considered, including income. (As Stone would rush to point out here, marriage itself is correlated with income.)

The social crisis of our time is not just that Americans are more socially isolated than ever, but also that social isolation is rising alongside romantic isolation, as the economic and cultural trajectories of men and women move in opposite directions. And, perhaps most troubling, the Americans with the least financial wealth also seem to have the least “social wealth,” so to speak. It is the poor, who might especially need the support of friends and partners, who have the fewest close friends and the fewest long-term partners. Money might not buy happiness, but it can buy the things that buy happiness.

[dustorange]

This is a critical & discerning point you are making! Nightwing #100, and other Rebirth-era comics (and also that earlier Injustice comic where Dick is Deadman), but mostly this specific panel from TT’s run, was exactly what the original post was kinda subtweeting. It’s just such a departure from preboot and even N52 Bruce&Dick relationship, where everything felt so much richer and topsy-turvy. Part of the enamoring part of the relationship was the possessive, jealous, urgent, strained, almost articulated but not quite exactly articulated parameters of it. Every label fit sort of wrong: Every label sort of fails for the depth of the relationship. So it’s as much metatextual as it is like intratextual and diegetic for Dick, and to a lesser extent Bruce: What ARE THEY????? Dick has other parents, and Dick has other (though lesser) teachers and mentors, and Dick has other quasi-brothers, and Dick most certainly has other best friends—so where does that leave his sort of totally sui generis relationship with Bruce, which precedes much of that, is in many ways more important than all of that? I think Dad-Son got settled on as How To Define The Relationship because it’s a straightforward way to “Respect” Bruce’s primacy in the DC world (alpha-male, patriarch, authority figure). Of course it is also their relationship! They are like a father and son—and not just “like,” they are a father and son. But they’re also not exactly that at all. And they’re also so many other things. The Batman & Robin dynamic, for every different matchup of characters, is a totally one-of-a-kind relationship. And Dick and Bruce especially lean toward the best friend/brother side of the spectrum really hard, such that they’re pretty much equals.

Part of the reason the Dad-Sonism didn’t get leaned into before was probably the hesitancy to lean thematically into Family for Batman, lest he look Old, but like having those guardrails, those You Cannot Say Thises, like made the relationship so much like more innovative and special and rare and rich and deep and interesting. Such that TT delivering on the explicit “Dad”—MUCH LESS EMBEDDING THAT “DAD” INSIDE ANOTHER HERETOFORE RARELY AND ONLY VERY PRECIOUS AND PRECARIOUSLY SAID THING, “I LOVE YOU”—feels too easy and flat and like disappointing. It makes it feel much less big and one-of-a-kind. And frankly it rubs away a lot of the patina that made the Bruce-Dick relationship so compelling. Not that an I Love You Dad from Dick to Bruce couldn’t ever be done. But also specifically in there context of a run from someone, TT, who obviously sincerely personally and deeply loves Nightwing and who received A LOT OF WILD AND UNWARRANTED CRUELTY but who also didn’t stick the landing, frankly, on the depths and catches and snags of Dick’s character, it feels like a clumsy, sort of unbright unrich and unchallenging presentation of something madly cool, tormented, and complex. Thats sort of aside from another point which is that stating something so flatly as this snaps closed the cool narrativological inside-the-text YEARNING for the relationship to be exactly that way because it’s like well, now they have it. It’s so tough because they DO LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH and they ARE A SON AND A DAD. So it’s all true, and yet: That can’t be how it works. So the line is like cheap and not very touching or captivating, the way it’s intended to be. And it feels like just sort of the latest branch we’re hitting on the fall down from the top of the tree in terms of DG’s recent characterization free fall from someone genuinely organically respected as a leader to someone sort of plasticky and comic-reliefy and told-not-shown as a leader such that it feels like a lot of the Magic and History and like functional storytelling emotional Core is gone from what he is now, when compared with preboot and even pre-Rebirth stuff

Something critical is that probably the real dick grayson would absolutely never ever casually call BW Dad to his face, and truthfully even post-adoption in GK#17 the father-son thing is only like 49% of the Bruce & Dick rs although dick absolutely does lasso bruce into conversations as in “oh my dad does the same thing!” when hes having conversations w total strangers faraway from anywhere on the eastern seaboard where word could never get back and associations could not be made BUT WITH ALL OF IT SAID THAT DICK WOULD NEVER CALL BRUCE DAD TO HIS FACE, in Bruce’s like deepest, most potent fantasies, like daydreams and nightdreams and also canonically that issue where bruce is in that feartoxin dreamscape world in Batman/superman #65 where his parents are alive and bruce is romantically stable and dick is his son, Dick absolutely, and invariably, calls him Dad. But that element absolutely isnt on the table in the real world at all. It isnt even that Bruce Wants That—he doesn’t want a change to the very precarious working current order, not even a very small one bc its very precious & risk aversion reasons—but it’s also like a satisfying recognition of some real under-the-surface order in the world that bruce perceives but which just isnt in play in the real world. But it is something explicit and certain in Bruce’s head and something that Bruce is aware of. And sometimes he like closes his eyes and thinks of it or something.

[asmolfolk]

Lilia Vanrouge; "Army Dreamers".

ਈՉ࣪﹑Lilia x Reader.﹗ִ❀ ᘏTW: Death.﹗ִ❀ ᘏGenre: Angst/Comfort (?)﹗ִ❀

It's mostly just an idea vomitting idea tbh? I'm listening to this song on repeat so... Yeah. The only thing that I think it's important to know: The only appearence related thing mentioned was your eyes in a very vague way.

Imagine being the one and only person he would let go with him to anywhere. The one who had left a mark on him... A troublesome fellow, someone he wouldn't dare to let himself fall for... However, when you are all he can think about, all he can search for... It takes another whole act to try to put together. You, who keep reencarnating, with him, who keept searching for you.

When Lilia first met you, he was a ‘Teen Fae’. It was a bit after the first human-fae war, you were one of the humans that decided to move to Briar Valley to escape the hatred from other humans.  He could never understand how could a being be so hateful towards their own... But he supposed it was never about logics at all. 

 You were... Bright. Brighter than the sun and stars together, brighter than fire magic and any candle... You would make him give you some smiles, sometimes. You always said how you wanted to be a singer, to show the world the songs you wrote – you dreamed about being in something that [nowadays] would be close to a rockstar. You would tell him all about your dreams, show him your songs, showing him your big plans... 

 But oh. You never had the money for that, have you? 

 Supporting your family, trying to keep your house and managing a bakery, all in your own. You were exhausting yourself and it didn’t matter anything that Lilia said, you never stopped. You were always bubbling about needing to help someone. 

 You were naive, trusted that the world would give the effort you put on others back to you. You naively thought that you didn’t need to rush. 

 And then it happened, the first death that he saw ever since he had met you. It was a normal day, a normal day that he decided to let you wander off as he bought an instrument for you. It was supposed to be a surprise, but your body was on the ground [dead] 

 You were killed and he didn’t know who did it. 

 The second time, he didn’t even realize it was you. He felt a flick around you but didn’t act on it. He kept his distance around you, you were – again a human. You would often try to talk with fairies on the woods, he never answered your calls.  Again, too naive. Maybe it was because you were just a teen trying to fit in. It didn’t take too long before you were attacked, this time, he knew who did it [By accident] but what an unfortunate event. 

 He left flowers in your grave, never once letting them die... After a year or so, he stopped coming by your grave. He told himself that he couldn't keep doing this. 

Then the third came. You were a dreamer, once more, wanting to be a politician. You constantly talked to yourself as you sat on the same damn forest your last reincarnation was killed. You used to write about new rules you would do. 

You didn’t care what role in royalty, you just wanted to help make everything be nice and smooth. 

   About how things would change once you got power. Oh, how unfortunate – You never had the education for that. Never. 

He could see it in your dreamy eyes, there was no thought behind those eyes – nothing but simply the need to make the world a better place. Your blabbering was sweet but... Was nothing at the same time. Promises can’t make deals and, just like that, you kept dreaming. 

And dreaming. 

And dreaming. 

...And dreaming. 

Until you couldn’t awake no more. 

He was present in every life you were in. He was a mentor, a crush, the guy that you kept yapping about... Just the love of your soul, wasn’t him? 

 You were the most different looking – the kind of ‘Cinderella’ story. He didn’t interact much with you either, he just let you go when you wanted to. Didn’t held you, didn’t think about you – it was better this way. 

Another war had begun after all, he couldn’t be thinking about you – about what it could be. 

This time, however. Things were... Too different. You were one of the... Politicians, seems like you realized the dream you once had, hm? You were the frontline, trying your best to be the strongest of all.   Your King, the one who made you one of his ‘negotiators’, made you go in a mission... An almost suicidal one. 

Lilia didn’t want to look soft to his soldiers when you appeared. You always looked gorgeous, he always would notice who you were [your eyes, the windows of your soul always showed him exactly who you were.] and it wasn’t different here. 

He knew you weren’t there to actually help, you were in a mission. But he indulged you, not only for himself but to get information. He didn’t expect, however, to be able to just... Change your way of thinking. 

Maybe it was the way he managed to ‘humanize’ the faes, making them seem like people in your eyes. The same eyes who, once looked at him with hate, now were full of... Pity, somehow.   You started questioning everything they teached you about.   Everything. 

And you stayed with him. You became his – in more ways than one – and neither him nor you did ever want to let it go. His soldiers recognized you as ‘the almighty’, the only one who managed to make Lilia go soft.   It was amazing.   Maybe... Just maybe, finally you would have a happy ending? Together with your beloved? 

It was one mistake. 

One tiny mistake. 

But he should know at this point, any mistake can take your life away from him. 

You died again, a betrayal that he wasn’t able to see. 

But a betrayal that made his hatred go deeper. 

Letting the fire burn the village, the traitor, everything that could be burned to the ground. 

He had it all... And he lost. 

Maybe that was his mistake, trying to be yours. Trying to make your life revolve around him, he thought for a second... What if you never met him? 

.

.

.

Your other lives never knew who he was. Well, of course, they knew he was General Lilia Vanrouge but never knew who was Lilia. The Lilia who always heard your talks, who fought for you, who would do anything it takes for you.   They lived, survived and died without meeting the very man they were waiting to meet. 

As he grew older, he couldn’t help but think about his earlier mindsets. Taking care of Malleus changed him, in more ways than one, and he – as selfish as he was – wanted you again. He always did, don’t get him wrong. 

But now, NOW, he knows that he could do it. 

He knows that – finally – he could be the man you need. One who already knows the tricks, who will protect you, save you from your constant deaths... One that can give you a happy ever after. 

But he never found you again. Nothing. He could find information about your old past lives, you were a Preacher, a Teacher, died too soon or were simply... Living as much as you could. He tried his best to try to find more, but he could only find those four. 

He tried to hide his constant searching from Silver and Malleus, but that simply wasn’t possible. 

Silver was intelligent, always were. He could easily notice when his father was being too much, his eyes would always look directly at Lilia – seeing him holding the paintings that he managed to steal get of you. In some way, you became a sort of altar for Silver. 

He would pour his feelings while looking at your pictures, asking questions, receiving no answers. 

Maybe the universe was trying to give a sign. Because as soon as the NRC would start, Silver was with your picture the day before. 

“You know... I always thought... How would be to meet you? If you are as bright as in some paintings, as serious as in others or... If you are just a new you.” He looked at the painting once more “Father missed you... I know he does. You were never there when I was born but... I miss you too... parent.” 

Maybe it was the tears, maybe it was the feeling of something he never had but COULD that have made him so... Emotional. He couldn’t control his tears; he tried to not let his tears on the painting [it had a safety glass at least] but he couldn’t help but lament. 

And then, there you were. The magicless student, as beautiful as the day Lilia had lost you, as beautiful as the paintings Silver saw. 

Oh. You were up to some fun things now, aren’t you prefect? 

[centrally-unplanned]

A few eye-opening results from a recent CBS/YouGov poll show this: some 70 percent of Americans think Trump is keeping his campaign trail promises, and nearly half of Americans think he’s doing even more than they expected he would in the early days of his presidency. Among that subset of respondents, the vast majority like the fact that he’s exceeding their expectations. Looking specifically at the issues, Trump gets positive marks for his attention to immigration and the southern border and for cutting government spending and foreign aid budgets. Another poll, from Marquette University, shows something similar for two other areas: Trump’s executive orders and stance on transgender people, and his plan to expand oil and gas production in the US. Both enjoy double-digit levels of support.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To be more specific on one of my recurring themes, voters just do not care about "checks and balances" or "rule of law" or anything like that. They do care somewhat! Many voters ofc care a lot. But on net, relative to other issues, they don't care enough. The will vote it away for issues they care more about.

I have begun calling it "the grand delusion" that they ever really did care. It will change back and forth in this or that era, but overall these systems are maintained by elite norms, not mass norms, and there is no out for that. But I have discussed that to death before.

The other side of the coin of this article is that this stuff is just very normal for a lot of people, but they don't take to the weird stuff:

Yet there are a handful of other eccentric and wacky Trump positions and priorities that don’t seem to enjoy the same level of approval — including one signature Trump position that carries pretty negative associations. It runs a bit counter to one of the theories for Trump’s success on the campaign trail: that his weirdness, his bluster, and his comedic celebrity were part of why voters liked him. That same Marquette poll that finds Trump’s immigration, transgender, and energy policies to be popular also finds some of Trump’s more random policy positions to be viewed quite negatively. “Taking back” the Panama Canal and pardoning January 6 rioters are both opposed by 65 percent of Americans, while renaming the Gulf of Mexico is opposed by a little more than 70 percent of Americans. “Trump’s more traditional executive orders are very positively received, as expected for a president in his honeymoon phase,” the election analyst Lakshya Jain, from Split-Ticket.org, said in a post reflecting on these dynamics. “One of the biggest strikes against ‘people love Trump’s weirdness’ is that renaming the Gulf of Mexico, taking back the Panama Canal, and pardoning J6 rioters all are incredibly unpopular actions, while GOP-orthodox policies on gender, immigration, and drilling are net positive.”

Which I do take for cautious evidence for the "normalism" understanding of politics - most voters don't see things like dismantling USAID and such as a big deal, that is normal because checks and balances aren't important to them, but they don't value all this weird New Right stuff. Which imo is pretty bad because most of this stuff is probably just blustering bullshit while dismantling USAID is actually awful; but such is the world.

[not-poignant]

Hi,

I'm not sure how to approach this without sounding like an ignorant asshole, but I'll give it a go.

I'm from a country where the Trans movement isn’t very visible, and most of what I know about it comes from the internet. I’ve never truly understood gender dysphoria. I’ve tried to listen and put myself in others' shoes, but I struggled to be genuinely empathetic. Instead, I just tried to be supportive because it was expected of me, without really getting it.

It might sound silly, but reading Underline the Black made me stop and think… Wait, is this what I think it is? Reading Efnisien’s internal monologues and introspection made me feel something—maybe not from the same circumstances, but in a way that something inside my brain clicked, and I finally saw where the pain was coming from.

I guess what I really want to say is thank you. Thank you for helping me begin to understand and for broadening my perspective. It might sound small, but it’s something I deeply appreciate. I’ve been trying for a long time.

I do feel a bit foolish realizing that it took an ABO fanfic for me to get it… but at the same time, I was also reading about your real-life experiences. Or at least, that’s how it seemed to me. Forgive me if I’m wrong.

You have an incredible talent for expression.

Anon, until you know otherwise, everyone has to start somewhere. This applies to unlearning our biases and prejudices, which we all have for something, or many things, until we unlearn them. The fact that you've even tried to be supportive of something you don't really understand is still important, and still matters. It's a step into understanding, even if you don't have it yet.

I don't think it's foolish that it took you a story to realise what you've realised! This is actually exactly why representation of diversity (in gender, sexuality, culture, race, etc.) is so important in fiction. Because it's in fiction we can be free to explore concepts that are different to our own, or that challenge us, or make us see the world differently. This is why it's so important to know it's possible to identify with a trans character, or a POC character, or a character from a different culture to ours etc. Because that's when we humanise what we previously saw as like, different, Other, hard to understand. We go 'oh that's...really relatable actually, I think I'd feel the same way if that was my experience of life' or 'I don't know if I'd feel the same way but I really understand where that person is coming from.'

Gender dysphoria is complex, and different for different people. Being able to write it metaphorically through Efnisien's journey has been really interesting for me personally, because I've been able to depict both the inner conflict of knowing that your being is not...automatically going to be accepted as normal no matter what, unless you stifle or suffocate yourself, alongside the true euphoria and joy that can come with living as your best life, or your very self.

I have once seen a good analogy which is simply: Imagine from tomorrow onwards, everyone uses the pronouns you don't associate with yourself. You are bullied and mocked unless you wear clothing that is opposite to how you want to appear to others. You are put down and treated as psychologically abnormal for finding joy in true expression, even when that expression doesn't actually hurt anyone else at all. And now tell yourself that even your loved ones, when you desperately try to explain how wrong it all feels to be treated as so different to your true self, they explain that it's just mental illness, or that you're just confused, or that you don't understand yourself, and condescend to you, and treat you like they somehow have always known you better than you know yourself. And that's when you realise you might have to choose between your true self, and your family and loved ones who don't understand, or worse, hate you.

And then imagine that's the rest of your life, but it could change in an instant, if all of society just accepted that you are who you say you are! That all of your depression, and oppression, and suffocation could literally just vanish, if everyone was like 'oh sure actually, you want those pronouns? Cool! You want to wear this clothing? I like it!!'

And that journey is very tough in the real world, even in more accepting places (the US is clear evidence of this). In Underline the Black, I get to put Efnisien in a very specific space, and show the journey in a kind of specific way that isolates it and speaks through metaphor.

My experiences are different to Efnisien's, though I am trans, I never actually started out wanting to write a 1:1 trans narrative. Like, in this universe, "conventionally" trans people exist too. Efnisien's experience is a new thing, and a separate thing, but still - as we can see - a very good metaphor as well. I like telling parts of my story, but only small parts. I am more interested in...telling healing stories where I can watch a character heal and go 'oh I would like more of that for myself, as well.'

(Also, it's better to just say omegaverse, or AOB, etc. because a/b/o without the dashes is a slur in Australia, and while I know most people don't live here! We try to avoid slurs from other countries when we can. And we can only know to do that once someone tells us!)

But yeah, no, you don't sound like an ignorant asshole at all. You sound like someone who has learned something, and has gained more understanding, and was open to doing that, and honestly anon if more people came to something they didn't understand from your perspective, acceptance and love would be a lot easier to teach people.

It's so important to read stories about characters who aren't quite like us, or aren't like us at all, because that's when we realise just how much we actually do share so many similarities, and why our differences matter too.

Anyway thank you for sharing your message with me! I really appreciated it.

[monsterhigh-bloodhex-brainrot]

I'm Gonna Ramble About the Home Ick Diary

This diary has occupied my brain space for a decade. I used to carry it around in my purse and take it everywhere so that I could whip it out to read whenever I felt like. I love it with my whole heart, and I have Thoughts. So if you're interested in listening to my Habbey rambling 10 years in the making, sit down.

Firstly, this diary is one of the only pieces of media we get from Heath's POV. We get a couple Gory Gazette articles and the one diary entry that came with the figurine collection, but this is by far the longest and most in depth look we get.

We are given the information that Heath literally has a reserved seat at the E.R. which is hilarious.

But as for actually important things, we get a big one here: Heath struggles with his powers. Many people, both in universe and out assume that Heath is just a lazy slacker who doesn't care, but this isn't true - at least not in regards to his powers. Can Heath slack off when a subject or activity doesn't interest him? Absolutely. But when it comes to causing trouble with his powers, he is trying SO HARD not to. He cannot control them, and they are receptive to his often strong and changing emotions.

We also see in the previously mentioned Gory Gazette article that Heath's "class clown" persona is just that. It is part of his genuine personality, don't get me wrong, but it's not ALL of it, and he often feels boxed in by it being all anyone wants or expects from him.

We also see in the next entry that Abbey is struggling too - Heath's difficulties controlling his powers are affecting her schoolwork. Even so, when Mrs. Kindergrubber takes her aside and asks her if she wants to switch partners Abbey refuses. Because despite the struggles, she cares for Heath, and so she's willing to try, even if it means putting her grade at risk.

So, Abbey invites Heath to try to work on his powers.

This is the only time anyone in the entire franchise has ever actually tried to help him, instead of just chastising him. (Unless there's some really obscure thing I'm forgetting/haven't read lmao.)

So they try, for hours before Abbey finally throws in the towel, and says:

"Is no use, I am failing first Monster High class ever, and you will never learn self-control."

Abbey is blunt - often times overly so. This is one of the main things she struggles with. And while I do not think she meant for it to be at all, this did come off as pretty rude. I know that in her heart she is also trying her hardest. It's one of the things they have in common.

But I wouldn't have been surprised, honestly, if after these hours of him trying too, after how much it's been established that this is not easy for him, Heath got upset with her for this statement.

But he doesn't.

Instead, he sees how upset she is, thinks about how failing this project will affect her, and despite it taking all his focus to just not melt his desk, he is able to concentrate his fire enough to perform the task at hand. Because he cares for her, too.

They're both willing to recognize when the other needs support, to set aside their own feelings for a moment - and be there for the other, even if it's not easy.

And of course, after Heath succeeds, after she sees the effort he is putting forth, Abbey invites him to spend more time together. And their project ends up being a success - Heath does well for the final presentation and all turns out good.

So this diary does a few things for us that are important to their characters and their relationship (which would later be solidified.) It allows us some insight into Heath's world and struggles that we had not seen before, and it also allows us a couple of the (relatively few) instances where we see him be serious. Because contrary to popular belief, he can be.

We also see them hitting kind of a rough spot -a small one, but still - and working through that, supporting each other despite it.

And we see how they mirror each other. Neither of them are really understood by most of the student body - whether by words or by flames, people tend to assume malicious intent or callousness. Despite this perception we know that they are both constantly trying. Trying to mitigate whatever damage, trying to be understood.

And they do understand each other. Heath understands that Abbey's words aren't malicious, that she's sweet and he sees the emotion behind her icy exterior. And Abbey is one of the only people who actually allows him to be serious, to be more than just "the funny guy" or "the idiot". She understands him enough to try to support him instead of just writing him off as being reckless.

So yeah, I have a lot of thoughts, and this probably isn't the best worded and I'm probably forgetting stuff. But this is just a little insight into the ESSAY about this diary that has been running around in my brain for years, and why this diary is so crucial to these two's relationship.

Fangs for reading <3

[satsugacafe]

𝐘𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐅𝐖 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐖 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬

➳❥ 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: (1) Can you please write sfw and nsfw headcanons for jugram, yhwach (separately) x fem reader? Thanks ❤️❤️ (2) Hello, how are you? Can I request headcanons (sfw and nsfw) for yhwach? reader being your wife?Thank you so much - @akira-yoshida

➳❥ 𝐀/𝐍: I felt like I took too long to answer this due to the length of time it has been sitting in my asks. Apologies.

➳❥ 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: (18+) content, GN!reader in SFW section, fem!reader in NSFW section, breeding, some talks about impregnating, asphyxiation, spanking, rough sex, dom!Yhwach, sub!reader, fingering, power dynamics, possessiveness

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫��𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 | 𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

「 ❤︎ SFW Headcanons ❤︎ 」

˚₊‧꒰ა This man falling in love with you was not on his list of things to conquer in the upcoming thousands of years, but when he did fall in love, he added you to his list. To him, loving you was never a fleeting moment sort of attraction, it was like any other challenge he faced—something he must overcome.

˚₊‧꒰ა When it comes to Yhwach having you at his side, he ensures that you, most of all, understand the status you hold and how to properly command it. Use it to your benefit and never submit in fear. He wants you to understand that you are his equal—a title he doesn’t take lightly—and demonstrate this to his followers. “You must know your worth when you stand at my side,” he’ll whisper to you.

˚₊‧꒰ა “Do not forget who you are,” he once told you after someone had the audacity to question your position. “And do not allow others to forget, either.” There was no room for doubt—you were his equal, his other half.

˚₊‧꒰ა Now, any romantic gesture from this man is never done lightly, even if it were to be executed in public, before his followers—they know better than to comment. His voice is an octave softer, such as his eyes, but his arms around your waist are anything but gentle, more firm with possessiveness.

˚₊‧꒰ა His jealousy is barely there. At the same time, he doesn’t want to appear overprotective and the annoying type of lover who watches your every move. There is a level of trust he bestows upon you, so don’t break it. But he can’t help but feel irritated whenever a lower-rank officer stands too close, breathes in your direction, makes you laugh and smile a bit too much, or addresses you without your titles.

˚₊‧꒰ა He wants his empire to see and know, not by only mere whispers, that he has chosen someone to stand at his side in the new world. His kisses and touches are possessive, but not the frightening kind. The ones that are domineering, wanting you to understand that he is yours, and you are his.

˚₊‧꒰ა His decision to be with you was not something to be viewed lightly. He meant to be with you to the very end of all time. There was no backing out or breaking up. It was until death do you part. That’s how he viewed his relationship with you. Whether you married him or not.

˚₊‧꒰ა Marriage to him wasn’t anything of great importance. Everyone already knew you belonged to him, so there wasn’t a need to question whether or not you were his. You. Were. His. However, should you request a wedding because you wanted the experience, it would be quite regal.

˚₊‧꒰ა Banners everywhere, the entire guards in their royal attire, assembled to witness their Empire tie himself to his partner. He will, for once, forgo the tattered cloak, as he waits for you at the altar to speak your vows and exchange rings. Might forgo rings and use the Quincy Cross instead.

˚₊‧꒰ა One minute you’re talking to the officer and the next, the poor Soldat is on their knees, grovelling, under the weight of Yhwach’s reiatsu. He’ll stand at the other end of the room or sit on his throne with a smug expression as he regards the insolent fool who thought for a second that they had a chance. You’re lucky if he doesn’t kill them right before your eyes in a blur.

˚₊‧꒰ა He probably has done so a few times when he was already in a terrible mood and saw some lowly, insolent fool trying their hand. Gone in an instant, while you’re left standing there, horrified, covered in specks of blood. The number of arguments you had with him for getting you messed up…you weren’t even fazed by him killing his men. You were accustomed to it by now.

˚₊‧꒰ა He demands loyalty. It is expected of anyone who enters his army, and you are not spared from his heavily implied demand for loyalty. “You are my equal. One I have not chosen lightly. I expect that you understand the weight this bears and what must be returned,” he states while he holds your chin and lifts your head upwards to meet his crimson eyes.

˚₊‧꒰ა “Do not mistake my silence for disinterest,” he mutters one evening after you questioned him about his lack of interest in your indulges. He was someone who valued efficiency, not priding himself on the unnecessary, but it changed when you entered the picture. However, he prefers to sit back and observe you in your element as you engage in your enjoyment. “If I did not care, I would not be here.”

˚₊‧꒰ა Very observant when it came to you, to the point that it might become unsettling due to his accuracy. Even before he lost his Almighty, he already had the inclination to what was wrong before you even came to him. And when you were troubled, he rarely spoke, letting you express yourself as you saw fit while he held you closely. A tender, “I am listening,” should you hesitate.

˚₊‧꒰ა In private, his touch withdraws from possessive and domineering to something reverent and tender—he has to opportunity to appreciate you in all your glory. “You feel soft. You feel like mine,” he muttered, lying on his bed, you’re the only person allowed in his room, he’ll hold you close and bask in the tranquillity. Your scent, your softness, your presence, your voice, everything about you.

˚₊‧꒰ა His touch would be slow, deliberate, and never rushed as he traces his fingers over your pulse as if he was memorising the rhythm, grounding himself in the fact that you were real and here with him still.

˚₊‧꒰ა He melts into your touch anytime you run your fingers through his hair, combing and brushing it out after he had a long, tedious day. Um…you’re not going to get through with styling it—that I am absolutely positive on. Help him wash and tidy his hair, keeping him groomed and pristine, and that’s all. Mayhap a single braid to display the true length and fullness of his hair.

˚₊‧꒰ა You did not soften him, nor did you change him. He remained the man he always was—unyielding, pragmatic, a force of nature that could not be swayed. But you gave him something he had not had in millennia: someone to return to.

˚₊‧꒰ა Yhwach was not a man of apologies, nor did he see the point in them. If he wronged you, he would rectify it through actions rather than words. A rare instance of compromise, and unspoken acknowledgement of fault—it was his way of making amends. Of course, this also included gifts and being spoilt.

˚₊‧꒰ა Nothing that ever came from Yhwach was done without meaning. Each gift provided carried a weight of something sentimental and meaningful—never a person to do things half-heartedly. If you received an entire library, he understood you enjoyed reading. If you had an entire wing of the palace dedicated to you, he respected that you appreciated tranquillity and not being bothered. “Tell me what you desire, and I will ensure you are well cared for, engel.”

˚₊‧꒰ა Please do not get injured. He already trusts you when you go out there to participate in recruiting Quincies and fighting other battles, knowing that you are strong and capable of holding your own ground. The last thing he needed to hear was you returning, injured or on the brink of death.

˚₊‧꒰ა The assailant will no longer be permitted to live—that much is understandable. As for you, he will never stop talking about how you got yourself wounded and nearly killed. Deep down, it’s his way of letting you know his concern, though he wouldn’t come outrightly and spill the beans. “Do you have any idea how foolish that was of you! If you had died—”

˚₊‧꒰ა You have to compete with Jugram on who can be more loyal to Yhwach. You also have to deal with Jugram cautiously nitpicking the things you do that he suspects will upset His Majesty, only for you to rub it in his face that you have permission. The bickering between you two is endless, and Yhwach gets a kick out of how you make his right-hand man composure falter.

˚₊‧꒰ა Uses sweet names with you. ‘Schatz, engel, liebchen, geliebter, Kleine,’ and so forth. They will be whispered sweetly into your skin as he holds you closely, shielding you from the world, wishing that you are not taken from him as so many others have in the past.

˚₊‧꒰ა “You are the only person I will ever tolerate,” he admitted once when you questioned why he allowed you to disrupt his calculated life. “The only anomaly I choose not to erase. You are meaningful to me.” It was not the traditional declaration of love one would expect, but from him, it was everything.

˚₊‧꒰ა When he speaks about the future of the empire, he always remembers to include you at his side in his declarations. Wherever he goes, you’re at his side, or a few steps behind him. He will seek your counsel when he requires the voice of someone who understands his ambitions.

˚₊‧꒰ა Values your insight apart from Haschwalth and will request your presence whenever meetings are being held. Speaking of which, his pride surges anytime he stands aside, observing you commanding his men with confidence. Accepting your role as a leader at his side.

˚₊‧꒰ა Like I mentioned, he is possessive and any chance he has to display it, he will not hesitate. One of his best ways to convey this is through kisses. They are rough and possessive—his grip on you tightens and becomes firm, unyielding as he pins you against any surface or to his chest. You’re not allowed to move until he’s finished.

˚₊‧꒰ა Loves to hear you speak about him. Basically glorifying and praising this man gets him turned on and pleased. He loves it (if you hadn’t noticed from the way everyone spoke highly of him). Once again, you’re only competition is Jugram.

「 ❤︎ NSFW Headcanons ❤︎ 」

˚₊‧꒰ა Okay, first and foremost, his cock is massive, thick with a prominent vein running along the underside. The length stretches far past what any normal person could handle comfortably, and the girth is there to ensure that you will feel every inch. He’s not for the faint-hearted.

˚₊‧꒰ა He possesses a dominating aura that naturally demands submission, his presence alone is enough to make you feel utter claim even before he lays a hand on you. Yhwach doesn’t submit and he isn’t, EVER. This man fucked like he was conquering you, like he had to claim you each time he took you.

˚₊‧꒰ა He commanded pleasure as if it was his divine right, orchestrating every cry, every gasp, every trembling orgasm with ruthless precision. He did not tolerate disobedience in bed—if you dared to tease or deny him, he would pin you down, wrench your legs apart, and fuck submission into your very core.

˚₊‧꒰ა He relished bending you to his will, your body trembling, voice hoarse from begging. His favourite thing to you would be having a hand wrapped around your throat, just to remind you of where you belonged and to who. And when he did take you, it would mostly be face-down, ass-up, where you had no choice but to take what he gave.

˚₊‧꒰ა Dirty talking was something he did all the time, but it was mostly done under his possessive streak. His words were always punctuated with, ‘Mine,’ or ‘My,’ anytime he was whispering filth in your ear. Enjoying the way you squeezed him tighter with each word that escaped his lips.

˚₊‧꒰ა “Look at you, ruined, dripping with my cum. You think you can take another man after this? You’re mine, Kleine (little one).” “You were made to take my cock, weren’t you? Every time I fuck you, you mould around me like you were built for it.” If you dared to argue, he would silence you with a harsh thrust, fucking the words out your throat until all you could do was moan his name.

˚₊‧꒰ა Yhwach isn’t someone who’s sex-craven, so it’s not all the time isn’t interested in indulging. So most of time, you’re the one to rile him up, get him in the mood and all worked up. Tease him under the table during a meeting, be a brat, wear something he’ll lose his mind over, display your confidence and authority, and you will get bent over the table or his throne.

˚₊‧꒰ა Whether he was frustrated or calm, his stamina was unmatched and there was no mercy in his pace. He was relentless—hard, fast, and deep with a rhythm that left no room for anything but pleasure and submission. He reaches deep and makes you feel him all the way in your tummy (you’re gonna have a tummy ache), and with the way he can go for hours, never tiring, you’re becoming an overstimulated, trembling mess.

˚₊‧꒰ა Yhwach never did things half-assed, so when he was going all out, he expected suitable responses. Meaning: moan, cry, whimper, whine, scream, sob, and beg. He wants to hear you sing as he pleasured you, thoroughly. “Just like that, my love. Let me hear you,” he’ll groan in delight as he pushes himself deeper.

˚₊‧꒰ა He’s a man who loves lingerie, and more the simpler pieces like the satin nightgowns with lace trimmings, perhaps a silk babydoll piece that compliments your figure. That’s not to say he doesn’t have an affinity for the lingerie that contains garter belts, more pieces and whatnot, he’s a simple man when it comes to what turns him on. You could wear anything, and he’s sprung—of course, he does have his preferences.

  ˚₊‧꒰ა Okay, so it is probably known that he has a HUGE thing for breeding. And for him, it’s done out of claiming you, and ruining you so no one else will ever satisfy you the way he does. Also, he doesn’t believe in making a mess when he’s so generous when it comes to giving you his cum. The least you could do is be stuffed by it.

˚₊‧꒰ა It is his way of marking you as well—the best way. He wants you dripping with a bulge in your belly, and one orgasm was never enough. He will fill you over and over until his cum was stuffed in every crevice. No part of you was going to be left untouched, which meant that if you were into anal, he’ll fill you up there as well and then stand back and watch as his cum dripped out your holes.

˚₊‧꒰ა Very quietly, he’ll reach out to run his fingers over your skin, smiling as you trembled from the sheer intensity of everything, and spread your legs wider so he can have a better view of his cum oozing out. His fingers would dip into the mess as he moved to finger your pussy into another orgasm as if the nth number you had wasn’t enough. He liked the sound of your heat squelching as he fucked his cum into you and into another orgasm.

˚₊‧꒰ა “Look at you, dripping like you still want me to stuff you more. You’d like that, won’t you?” he’ll murmur and tangle his fingers in your hair, forcing you to look at him. “You want more? Ruin this pussy and make it mine?”

˚₊‧꒰ა Now, with the breeding, Yhwach wouldn’t mind engaging for the sake of you carrying on his legacy, giving him an actual heir made from his flesh, and not just blood only. He would like the idea behind it; however, he tends to use breeding as more possessiveness and marking.

˚₊‧꒰ა When it comes to other forms of marking you, look forward to him spanking you for all those times you’ve been a brat or just sassed him. Some bite marks would surface on your kiss, followed by hickeys by the dozens. Show them off, he likes it when you do. “Let everyone know who you belonged to. No one would dare question my claim.”

˚₊‧꒰ა Ah, how can I forget. He got you a necklace, and or, anklet, so when he’s fucking you with your legs over his shoulders, his name dangles right by his ear. Letting you know who was making you feel so good, and having you cry all over his cock.

˚₊‧꒰ა Not a loud or vocal person, apart from the dirty talking. I don’t know. He doesn’t strike me as the type to moan, something about it makes him feel like he’s losing his control and dominance. Anyway, if you DO want him to moan, on your knees and put that mouth to use, and all that talk about him not moaning would become false.

˚₊‧꒰ა “Do not mistake the sounds from my throat for a loss of con—” It’s one of the easiest ways to make him lose himself since his control is otherworldly. He can never stay silent for too long, and soft grunts and groans will escape his mouth. Should you point them out, teasing him, he’ll push your head back down to take his cock and shut you up. It’s clear that he doesn’t enjoy being called out—so do it.

˚₊‧꒰ა The reward is promising. A nice session bent over his throne or he makes you ride him until he decides to take over. Something he indulges in quite often—and I’m referring to having you ride him on his throne. Since he’s there for most of the day, he invited you to sit on his lap and make yourself comfortable.

˚₊‧꒰ა He doesn’t rush, or command you, but should you start taunting him, he’ll press you against his chest and bind your wrists behind your back while he thrusts upwards at a blinding speed. Moan and cry out to him, “It’s what you wanted from the start, isn’t it, Kleine? That’s why you came to see me.”

˚₊‧꒰ა Other positions he would love to see you in, apart from face-down, ass-up and riding him: against a wall where he can lift your legs off the ground, bent over a table, bed, desk and mating press. He obviously wants all those positions where you’re helpless and he can pin you under or against him, left with no choice but to take his deep and hard thrusts.

˚₊‧꒰ა Something that he enjoys doing is binding your hands and legs with reishi. He’ll scoff if you held up a rope or handcuffs as you request to be tied up and opt for binding yours with reishi. You looked prettier in blue.

˚₊‧꒰ა When you’re at his mercy, all tied up on his bed with lustful eyes, he wants nothing more than to worship and ruin you at the same time. His mouth will devour every inch of you, leaving no part untouched, and in the same way he enjoys when you go down on him, it is returned with equal fervour.

˚₊‧꒰ა He wouldn’t spend eternity between your legs, preferring for his cock to do that instead, but he’s wickedly good with his mouth and savours the act of your clamping your thighs around his head when the pleasure escalated. Although, he would rather you kept your legs spread nice and wide for him, he wants an obstructive view of the task at hand. You’re not in control, he is.

˚₊‧꒰ა His goal for to have you hypersensitive, wanting a mess all over his face, seeing your trembling, clutching the sheet for dear life and struggling to breathe. He wants to reduce you to the ultimate mess—fuels his ego and makes him want to push you further.

˚₊‧꒰ა When he’s finished, you will be left feeling like jelly, melting into the mattress with no concept of where you are—he’s thorough. Yhwach will keep you close, holding you against his chest, fingers trailing over your sweat-soaked skin, murmuring quiet reminders of who you belonged to, and how well you did. Small, gentle kisses along your skin while his fingers squeezed your muscles, a rare show of affection reserved only for you.

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @edensrose @spellboundsuguru @kennys-partner @cookielovesbook-akie

©satsugacafé 2025: no permission to repost, plagiarise, copy or translate my work onto any other platform or this one.

[blood-orange-juice]

(physically restraining myself from the obvious choice) I'll play, gimme some Diluc analysis pluck him apart like a chicken

(that's because I'll write about your obvious choice anyway)

I just had to make it multiple posts, so first there's this.

Some random points.

People constantly miss that he doesn't just have a PTSD from having to mercy-kill his father, he also has a betrayal trauma.

When something terrible and unfair happens to a person the most harmful thing is usually not the initial event, it's the reaction of that person's loved ones and peers. Usually they just can't relate to the experience and it's already isolating and bad enough but our man had it worse.

Every single person important to him completely refused him any semblance of justice, made no attempts to find the truth, explained nothing and called his absolutely normal reaction unreasonable. They also went against their own declared ideals and demanded the same of him.

This nukes a person's faith in humanity.

His refusal to form emotional connections with people is not edgyness.

A vengeance rampage is also a completely normal thing to do in these circumstances. It's a way of preserving a sense of self and one's mechanisms of meaning-making by, uhm, giving feedback to the world. Because the world decided to collective declare that black is white.

He also has (had?) an identity crisis. His whole self was built around being a knight (it also seemed like his main way of relating to his family: Crepus seems like a typical Asian parent from what we know) and that was gone in a span of a single day.

Diluc Scholar Saoki says abandoning the Knights makes him a fallen paladin (especially with that duel thing ending in a tie) but I think in his eyes it's not him who abandoned the Knights. Perhaps to him he's the only Knight of Favonius true to his oath, the others are liars and frauds.

(our man is dramatic like that)

So he exists in this state of paradox of being and not being a Knight of Favonius at the same time.

This shows up specifically in chiluc fics: I see Diluc described as the uptight one bound by rules and Childe as a free spirit doing whatever he wants. Diluc is the one doing whatever he wants (he just wants relatively normal things). He also gets away with so, so much. Meanwhile, Childe is probably the least free character in Genshin.

His EN voice actor does him a disservice (probably a fault of acting direction rather than the actor himself). Chinese Diluc sounds like a deeply depressed but kind person. English Diluc is a grump.

His lines in events are always so sweet. There's a running joke of him being confused why people are surprised that he can do Normal things like cooking or playing music.

He's also incredibly kind to Paimon, which is rare. I hc that he has a soft spot for kids.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

crawling into your asks to whine about percy being a mary sue

I maaaaay have to disagree with you here 😅(but also not? hear me out.)

Percy is absolutely one of those characters that you look at and go "isn't he a mary sue?" (especially when you're a fan of an equally-powerful girl who gets called a mary sue by the wider fandom. meg haters i am looking in your direction.)

According to Wikipedia, a Mary Sue is "a type of fictional character, usually a young woman, who is portrayed as free of weaknesses or character flaws." TV Tropes expands on this by saying it "differs wildly from circle to circle, and often from person to person.

"These traits usually reference the character's perceived importance in the story, their physical design and an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature."

This is where I would question if Percy is really a Mary Sue - the first series is, after all, his story, so he will of course be important to it. His physical design isn't anything new, either, since attractive black-haired, green-eyed boy has been used before in other media. Now is he overly-skill?

*steeples fingers* Yes and no. Let me explain.

No, because he is, after all, a child of one of the elder gods. It's a given that he'd be much more powerful than other demigods.

Yes, however, because Percy absolutely serves as a power-fantasy for readers. He does have a leg-up on other demigods of the elder gods in comparison, like Thalia, Jason, Hazel, and even Nico.

But what I would argue separates him from being a Mary Sue is that he does struggle (losing control of his powers, for once, becoming fearful of them even), and he does have flaws (obvs his fatal one is the most prevalent, and yeah you can argue since it's a "good natured" one it doesn't count, but I'd point out that even good things can become bad if not used in moderation - which is something Percy eventually learns and overcomes in TLO by handing the knife to Luke, and ergo defeating his desire to be the one to save his friends and letting Luke fulfill his own destiny) - and he's not universally loved by everyone in-story, either (eventually...yes, but really that's kinda understandable, considering he's saved the world twice by then). He was after all ostracized TWICE in the first two books by CHB, and CJ wasn't all the welcoming to him either - some even said "another loser for the Fifth" when the Fifth took him in, DESPITE the fact that he's obviously a powerful demigod and was JUST given Juno's blessing to boot.

But but but...I can definitely see why he could be argued to be a Mary Sue.

Especially when we think about Meg McCaffrey and how some people in the wider fandom call her a Mary Sue.

Mad she's just as powerful as Percy? That she has the potential to be even more so? Too bad. Meg rules. This blog loves Meg McCaffrey send tweet.

Notice how I didn't mention her with the other children of the elder gods before? That was on purpose.

Because Meg is allowed to BE powerful. She gets to flex her skills and practice her abilities! That sets her apart from the other elder god kids, who, besides Nico, really don't get much time to shine in the Power department. Like yeah, we KNOW they're powerful, but...we don't really see it?

Thalia, for one. The most powerful thing she does in-series is a lightningstorm in TLO. And it's not described in any detail. Jason? Capturing the wind spirits, likely. Hazel? Defeating Scyron with the Mist.

Nico also has different treatment when it comes to power compared to the other three, though he does have a handicap for shadow travel.

All's this to say, I guess, is that I can see the argument for Percy being a Mary Sue, but also I can't because there is nuances to consider, and Meg absolutely matches him and she is NOT a Mary Sue (fight me haters).

Also, "Mary Sue" has become a rather...hmm...sexist term, in my opinion? Particularly towards women, ofc, but also I think it's damaging to how men are written too.

Plus, Mary Sues and their male counterparts aren't always bad characters. Going back to wikipedia for a hot second; "In a 2011 interview, Smith cited James Bond and Superman as examples of male Mary Sues, arguing that such characters benefit the male audience's coming of age." Kirk from Star Trek has also been debated over of being a Mary Sue, and yet he, Bond, and Superman are all popular characters.

...I suppose this is where the part on the perception of female vs male characters kicks in - AKA, the "sexism in fandoms" talk and OH BOY DOES THE RRVERSE FANDOM HAVE THAT PROBLEM

#HOTTAKEALERT (not for the toa fandom tho. we know what we're on about :3)

Case in Point: the above talk about Meg. god forbid a girl be skilled or powerful at anything.

"but she's twelve she's not supposed to be able to fight good-!" SHE'S BEEN ABUSED AND VIGOROUSLY TRAINED SINCE SHE WAS 6 AND PERCY WAS ABLE TO DEFEAT THE GOD OF WAR AT 12 AFTER A FEW WEEKS OF TRAINING + WATER

"she's annoying!!" bro have you NEVER met a twelve year old?? were YOU a twelve year old?? because I sure was and man i was annoying. also, Percy & co don't come off as annoying because we are IN THEIR PERSPECTIVE, and twelve year olds are not as visibly annoying to other twelve year olds - MEANWHILE we're seeing Meg through the eyes of a 4,000+ year old god.

also, her "annoying" qualities are endearing. Rick has correctly written a likable 12 year old y'all just hate girls that don't fit your stereotypical vision. traffic light outfits FTW i want to be as unapologetically myself as Meg is unapologetically Meg.

a 12 year old is inspiring to ME, and ADULT. so yeah.

hot take of the day is Meg is/will be more powerful than Percy. Haters just refuse to accept she's anything but a "mArY sUe!" because they hate the thought of any woman being able to match up to Percy.

Anyway I guess this was all to say that I don't personally consider Percy a Mary Sue, because he's a good comparison to use for other characters to determine just how shafted by the narrative they were.

Cheers to Meg and Nico for measuring up well, and pour one out for Thalia, Jason, and Hazel who are victims of "tell and not show".

[kindcunt]

Marauders PJO AU

yes they are american in this because i am spiteful, abt the whole thing that happened during the tiktok ban.

also because the pjo universe is primarily in america and it just made more sense for the fic. i will include some roman gods but there will be no camp jupiter, well there is but its concepts are sort of blended with the death eaters and with camp half bloods.

uhhhh idk if im gonna write this or not yet but if y’all wanna like… encourage me i wouldn’t mind

ships include

jegulus

pandalily

dorlene

wolfstar

rosekiller

other tropes include:

childhood friends marlene peter and james!

asexual mary!

trans regulus!

genderqueer sirius! (not mentioned much

but it’s important to me)

dorcas & reg bestfriend agenda

prongsfoot being codependent

pandora and evan having soooo many parallels (idk if i’ll write them as siblings yet)

regulus and sirius are complicated but love each other

Walpurga is complicated!!!!!!! and so is her relationship with her sons!!! she still sucks tho!!

barty and regulus had a fling for like 2 seconds in the past but they do not feel romantically about eachother :3

french sirius and regulus

dorcas is a queen and i don’t have much written down for her but i have a lot in mind for her so dw

world building:

cult of eaters/death eaters: a blood purist organization that’s members focus on producing the most powerful godly children. goal is to kill off all non-godly humans and to leave the “pure-blooded” (demigods/gods) . (lots of borderline incest unfortunately..)

unclaimed/lost children: demigods who roam the earth without any place to call home, fending off monsters on their own.

camp halfblood: a safe haven for young demigods to stay, usually they stay there until adulthood

characters!

james fleamont potter

- son of apollo

- year round camper

- mortal mother Effie, lives in the city and they visit her and her husband Monty daily

- skilled at axe throwing (not archery for whatever reason lol), skilled healer

sirius orion black

- son of aphrodite

- year round camper

- previously death eater, Mother was a descendent of a demigod, powerful leader in the cult. he ran away at 14 and found camp half-blood after Effie found him.

- charmspeak!!

remus john lupin

- son of hephaestus

- year round camper

- Mother (Hope) died when he was 7, wandered for about a year and got tangled up in death eater business. hurt by Greyback but was saved by (somebody……) been at camp half blood ever since.

- good with fire, skilled at forging

peter pettigrew

- child of hermes

- summer camper

- was sent to camp half blood young, his mother was well educated on the matter so he was safe :).

- favored by harpocrates!! enhanced thievery, skilled locksmith

lily june evans

- daughter of athena

- year round camper

- was run out of her home at 17, sister was talking shit abt her veryyy loudly and some death eaters caught on to her being a demigod. chased and attacked her buttt she escaped :)

- enhanced combat skills!!!

pandora lovegood (rosier)

- daughter of persephone

- year round camper

- was born into the death eaters cult, but after she wasn’t claimed they assumed she was a daughter of a lesser god. she wasn’t, her mother didn’t want to admit to being unloyal to hades. so she went unclaimed for a whileeeee. she was found by effie and brought to camp halfblood.

- evan is her half brother!!

evan rosier

- son of zeus

- previously death eater, ran away with barty, regulus, and dorcas and is now a wanderer

- ability to fly, manipulate thunder and lightning

barty crouch jr

- son of eris

- previously a death eaters, ran away with evan, regulus, and dorcas

- discord manipulation, can turn into a snake

regulus arcturus black

- son of hades

- Walpurga is his mother, tried to run away with Sirius but was caught by a nymph. Sirius thinks he’s dead :3 Now previously a death eater, ran away with evan, regulus, and dorcas

- shadow-travel, minor shadow manipulation

mary mcdonald

- daughter of aphrodite

- summer camper

- somebody spoke too loudly about her odd behavior and she was run out of her home by monsters. Was found by Effie and taken to camp. Goes back home for the school year.

dorcas meadowes

- daughter of Ares

- previously a death eater, ran away with regulus, barty, and evan.

- ENHANCED COMBAT LIKE HOLY SHIT!!

marlene mckinnon

- daughter of Nike

- year round camper

- similarly to James and Peter, went to camp at an early age. neither father nor mother in the picture, kinda raised by effie and peter’s mom.

- Enhanced agility, can fly!! :D

emmeline vance

- daughter of Hesita

- Summer camper

- idk ywt :(