#becoming paralyzed is very like. she doesn't think about it a lot but she is scared of being trapped in a sense

[loetise]

saw this on the 'for you' tumblr tab and snatched it so u should all do it and tag me :D

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 5, Poll 4

Please be civil in the notes. We will block people if we feel it is necessary. A character being canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included. This is not a competition of who is better representation.

Check out the other polls in this round here.

Korra-Avatar: The Legend of Korra

Qualifications:

Korra is not only bisexual, having dated both Asami Sato and Mako, but was and still is disabled by the end of the series. She doesn't magically get better from being poisoned, she's forced to relearn a lot of things: how to walk, how to do things for herself, and even how to fight properly. Her physical disabilities are mixed with extensive trauma and PTSD that prevents her from doing her job as the Avatar throughout Book 4: Balance.

Canonically bisexual, has PTSD, and spent a while partially paralyzed and using a wheelchair.

Bisexual badass who ended up going through about 5038309340 traumatizing events, one of which involved mercury poisoning that had her unable to walk for about a year and left her with lasting PTSD and depression (though again the depression is a little less clear wheras the PTSD was obviously intended to be read as such). There was also her shadow self, but it's unclear whether that was a form of psychosis or a literal spirit. In short, she's bi and has PTSD if you want to stick with the more long term, obviously canon bits.

Propaganda:

She's the Avatar, you gotta deal with it! But, seriously, Avatar Korra was the first onscreen LBGT+ character in the Avatar franchise alongside her girlfriend Asami Sato. While limited in what could be shown onscreen, the two were explictly portrayed as a couple in the 2016 Dark Horse comic "Legend of Korra: Turf Wars". Likewise, her disability never quite went away. She still struggled with trauma, PTSD, and learning how to do things for herself again for two to three years in the time between books 3 and 4 that were shown off in flashbacks during her solo episodes.

She's canonically bi and has PTSD, and disability was an incredibly important theme for her in her show's final season.

i dunno I think i covered all my bases in the qualifying bit but also its 3am and i dont feel like typing more

Anything Else?:

The creators of Korra, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, fought long and hard for their show, including taking a massive budget slash circa book 4 to avoid firing half their staff. Likewise, they took to Tumblr and other social media in 2014 to state firmly that Korra and Asami were both bisexual and in love. Here's a link: https://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @foulfirerebel is the first submitter and also did the ‘anything else?’ section.

Neil Josten-All For The Game

Qualifications:

I mean he def has PTSD even though it's never like fully fleshed out in the series and also he is demisexual

Propaganda:

Neil goes through so much it's amazing he is still functioning as a person. He bottles up all of his trauma but he still has nightmares and triggers that bring back the trauma he felt from his abusive mafia father and his abusive mother. However, once he lands at PSU to play D1 Exy, he finds a home with all of his other broken teammates and coach. This includes Andrew Minyard, another possible contender for this bracket. While he still has trauma to deal with, he becomes a much more well adjusted and happy person with his teammates. :)

Andrew Minyard-All For The Game

Qualifications:

He’s gay and has some sort of trauma disorder probably.

Propaganda:

Very gay, pretty commonly thought of to have some sort of trauma disorder, he’s neat. I have many thoughts about him as a character but I don’t really feel like writing them.

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

(got this idea from a couple on tt!)

skellies have an s/o whose rather flirty. any time the boys try to flirt, or complement them, they somehow change it to a compliment about the skellies.

one day, they were going shopping together... but the s/o stays behind in the car a bit, after the skellie gets a bit away from the car, they honk the horn twice and cat called him! they continued cat calling him throught the store.

skellies reactions?

Undertale Sans - He sexy dances in the middle of the road just for you, I hope you're proud. Sans doesn't care and will gladly play along with your antics. That's part of the things he loves the most.

Undertale Papyrus - Uno reverse card, Papyrus screams in the middle of the road "I KNOW MY ASS IS AMAZING BUT COULD YOU WALK FASTER?", making you flush instead as everyone is now staring at you. You need to try harder.

Underswap Sans - You're honking at him? Fine. The next day, on your way to work, a police siren suddenly makes you jump as Blue screams "NICE BUTT" in the police microphone, which echoes in the whole street. Two can play this game. His honk is bigger.

Underswap Papyrus - He becomes entirely orange, paralyzed in the middle of the street. He can't believe you just did that. He refuses to turn around as he hears people laughing. Instead, he just decides to protect himself from your flirting by passing out on the floor. You stressed him too much lol.

Underfell Sans - He stares at you in disbelief. Really? You're doing this now? You think he can't play your game? He whistles at you. An old lady thinks he's cat calling her and suddenly charges him to beat him with her handbag. Red is trying to apologize, she won't stop, as you're dying with laughter in the background, not moving a finger.

Underfell Papyrus - He keeps walking, the face entirely red, ignoring you. He will ignore you during the whole grocery trip, not even looking at you. But you know it's working because every time he accidentally meets your eyes, he somehow turns even more crimson. Edge is broken.

Horrortale Sans - He turns around to look at you, confused why you're honking at him. He comes back to you to ask if you need something more for the groceries. :( He's too much of a sweetheart, you're dead beat.

Horrortale Papyrus - You pick the wrong skeleton to mess with. Willow has a very good poker face and he's ignoring you. Now five different people think you cat called them and they're all coming at you. Willow waves to you at the door of the grocery store. You did this to yourself, have fun. Well. Shit.

Swapfell Sans - When you honk he slowly turns around and just:

He huffs dramatically, rolls his eyes at you and keeps walking like the drama queen he is lol.

Swapfell Papyrus - He turns around and magically make appears a Uno reverse card. He sends a kiss your way, winks, and keeps going. Better luck next time!

Fellswap Gold Sans - Wine gives you the cold shoulder. He just stares into your soul for a few seconds, judging you so much you feel suddenly ashamed for no reason. Yeah, he has that power.

Fellswap Gold Papyrus - He loses focus and trips head-first on the road, as his legs stop working. You gasp and run to save him. Yeah, Coffee can't take a lot of compliments...

[prospectivehero]

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT GUYS!

First and foremost, I have two confessions. One, I haven't read Red Hood: Outlaws WebToon. It's on my list, but I will admit that I'm missing context. Two, though I talk about disability, my main focus is physical walking disabilities. This commentary should apply to every physically disabled human being if I'm doing this correctly, but I chose to have a specific focus for the sake of brevity.

I'd have very few nickles if I could have one for every time I saw a wheelchair-dependent character get suddenly healed. But it's still too many nickels. I can't blame Marvel or DC for my poor relationship with my own mobility aids. It didn't help anything to see Barbara Gordon or Charles Xavier suddenly be able to walk after seeing them for so long in their wheelchairs. Recovery and recuperation should never be scoffed at. We should celebrate when we can accomplish difficult goals and be happy for others who achieve what they thought was impossible. But these characters' changes aren't about recuperation. They're about ignorance.

Recuperation doesn't always mean full recovery from the viewpoint of a disabled person. Sometimes, "walking quickly" or "standing independently" isn't the end goal. It's usually more complicated than that. Small things like strengthening the core or practicing distance walking in a walker are crucial for someone's health or mobility. If it means they can walk independently in the process, then cheers! But sometimes standing isn't a possibility anymore. Many able-bodied people, without this context, may perceive this attitude as "giving up." I've had to explain to several different people that my choosing my wheelchair over my crutches to be a more functional human is not the same thing as quitting. But society has a model for success, and that model has a healthy set of legs.

Growing up, it broke my heart when I saw a character who had to experience a permanent and life-altering disability being suddenly cured. That's not a story of recuperation. That's a writer trying to "fix" something that was "wrong". I don't think the writers mean that as an insult. It's a terrible trope that's rooted in ignorance. But that ignorance is commonplace. It makes self-acceptance all the more difficult for a person who doesn't have full use of their body. Instead of being a person in a room who happens to use a wheelchair, that person suddenly becomes a paria because they are "physically incorrect."

Barbara Gordon, still paralyzed, marrying Dick Grayson is important. In their most standard form, weddings are supposed to be beautiful and romantic. Most of us dream about being the most beautiful, best versions of ourselves that we've ever been for one of the most special days of our lives. Barbara was the best version of herself when her father wheeled her down the aisle. She was Batgirl and is now Oracle, but she never stopped being Barbara. She is loved by her father, her adopted family, and her husband. The saccharine nature of that scene had nothing to do with a disabled woman being loved by an able-bodied man. It was a sappy, beautiful wedding being celebrated by our favorite dysfunctional found family.

I'm honestly really excited to read this webtoon. It is about Jason Todd, but the care and respect Patrick R. Young shows in this scene and how well it was depicted by Nico Bascuñán says a lot about how they handle the rest of whatever story they tell in this comic.

[nkn0va]

Ok so Yukari, Marie(P4), Kokonoe and Phonon being unable to use their arms for a while for whatever reason so their s/o needs to feed them, help them change clothes, maybe even wash them.

I'm sorry if this selection of characters is all over the place I just tried to select all the grumpy self reliant women I could think of.

This is surprisingly amusing to think about. I'm fucking flabbergasted it's taken this long to get a P4 ask (I have a P3 one already I've been procrastinating on for days now lmao) but here we are.

Sorry if these start feeling a bit repetitive, this is a more niche ask and there wasn't really much else I could come up with. I still don't know Phonon that well as a character unfortunately so her section ended up being relatively short.

Yukari Takeba

-Chances are, some special shadow did some weird fucky wucky thing and numbed her with some kind of spell the team had never seen before. She was mostly able to dodge out of the way, however it managed to clip her arm.

-Strangely enough, even after the Dark Hour ended, she was still affected, unable to move said arm. Fuuka and Mitsuru would get to investigating this as fast as possible, but until then Yukari would have to cope with this.

-Unfortunately, said paralyzed arm was her dominant one, so she'd need someone to help her out. Thankfully, you were more than willing to help out.

-You'll have to write down her work for her in class and write everything down for her homework. It's a bit of an awkward situation to explain to the teachers so the best you can come up with is that she had a bad chiropractor's appointment that left an arm numb for a while.

-The real awkward situation is when you need to help her change, especially if you're a guy. She really doesn't want anyone else to be around when she'd doing so, however you're realistically her best option. Helping her change is comprised of both of you holding opposite sides of her clothes as she slides into them while you look away. She makes a point that she still has a good arm to clock you if you dare peek at her.

-Naturally until her arm's back to normal, she's not allowed to go into Tartarus. If you left her on her own she'd be bored out of her damn mind, so you choose to stay behind as well to keep her company. Technology unfortunately doesn't work during the dark hour so the two of you pass the time with board games that she's able to play with just her non-dominant hand or good ol' fashioned gossip. She has way more to share than you were originally expecting, giving you a nice reminder to be extra careful to not embarrass yourself in front of her.

-At the very least, she's able to shower on her own, albeit if using just her non-dominant arm is a bit unwieldy. No way in hell though is she letting you jump in the shower with her, even if you're her S/O. She's not nearly ready enough for that.

Marie

-It's kinda hard to choose something for Marie since she doesn't exactly do anything involving the T.V world until the end of the god damn game. Perhaps she took some sort of collateral damage after her boss that injured her arms and made it hurt too much to move them.

-Her pride does not let her admit she needs any help to do anything, she's perfectly capable of functioning normally. At least, until you ask her if she needs help. Her demeanor suddenly becomes a lot more nervous as she stutters out that it'd be nice if you did. She tries to pull the 'it's not because I like you or anything' card, until she realizes that you're her S/O, she can't exactly do that anymore.

-She begrudgingly accepts your help. She does need you to feed her which she will absolutely not allow anyone to see. She's exclusively eating at your house and will refuse to do so otherwise. If you try she'll hurl harsh words your way in a typical Marie fashion.

-It's pretty adorable, honestly, seeing her open wide for each bit of food you give her. If you try to do a here comes the airplane/choo-choo train you're going to get yourself a flurry of angry, near incoherent words as she pouts and looks away. It's pretty hilarious, but don't do that more than once per meal.

-Soon she realizes that she also needs your help to be able to wash herself, mostly because you bring it up first. She instantly turns red as a cherry in the face and tries to slap you, but quickly winces as the harsh pain of trying to move her arm shoots through her body. She reluctantly accepts you have a point.

-Ten minutes later, here you are sitting in your bathroom as Marie's in the tub, letting you wash her back for her. She absolutely refuses to turn around and look you in the eye. It'd probably be best not to lean over to try unless you wanna get a lightning bolt straight to the face.

-Undressing/redressing is a similar process. She demands for you to close your eyes as you hold her clothes in place so she can slip in and out of them. She tries to guide your hands by telling you where to put them, but it's a long awkward process. A lot of "right there! No, you idiot, over here!" is thrown around. Her ability to guide you with your eyes closed is astounding.

-Do not ever let her guide you to some surprise she's got with your eyes closed.

Kokonoe A. Mercury

-Kokonoe was under a pretty big crunch, Sector Seven's top brass had told her to get this extremely complex machine done for whatever the hell they were planning next and the deadline was fast approaching.

-In her rush, she made a grievous mistake that backfired. It ended up severely injuring her arms in the process as she was trying to tinker with it. Thankfully they didn't need to be amputated, but she'd definitely need some time off to heal.

-Being her S/O, she pretty much demanded you helped her out in her daily functions, albeit pretty irked about the situation. She didn't like the idea of being coddled like that.

-She doesn't eat a whole lot normally, just chocolate, silvervine and coffee. On occasion she'll ask you to throw a chocolate from halfway across the room into her mouth. Results vary depending on your accuracy.

-If you want to feed her proper food it'll take some convincing. Just don't tease her for the love of God and just let her eat. If you try teasing her in the same way as mentioned before with Marie you'll be met with a swift headbutt. Though whether that's worth it or not is up to your discretion.

-You'll naturally have to do her laundry for her as well. Chances are it's the first time her clothes have been washed in a while. Helping her dress again means looking down at the ground as she tells you where to guide your hands until she's covered enough for you to look again. On the bright side though, she finally discovers how good it feels to put on fresh clothes. Maybe she should actually start doing her laundry herself more often once she recovers.

-You'll have to fight with Kokonoe quite a bit if you want her to get in the bath, her being a cat beastkin with shut-in tendencies. Chances are, she'll just tell you to put some bath bombs in the water and piss off.

Phonon

-EXS can be funny sometimes, and not in a good way. Phonon went a little TOO wild with her powers while she was still getting the hang of them and her sound based abilities fucked up her arms. Moving them felt nigh impossible to do.

-Until this wore off you'd need to help her. She tries to act all high an mighty as part of her dominatrix persona in the Hollow Night, but she's actually surprisingly normal outside of that.

-She's a bit miffed at the situation but she's probably the most cooperative girl here when it comes to letting you assist her overall. She can actually realize the fact that she kinda needs you around, contrary to popular belief. She's self-reliant and confident, but she's not a fool.

-Phonon should be fine overall as long as you don't actively go out of your way to tease her. Try that and she'll promise you're gonna freaking get it the moment she can move her arms again. And considering this is the same young woman that uses a whip in combat...yeah. Best not to fuck around and find out.

-She's a bit more open to helping you wash her thankfully, just as long as you don't try anything funny. Wash her from behind and stay away from anywhere you shouldn't touch. If you do be prepared for a headbutt from behind.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What do you think about the claims that Aang’s anti killing Is hypocritical because of the Blue Spirit’s rampage and it’s possible that people died when Aang would defend himself and his allies?

If we were to apply real world physics, biology or just common sense to the story, the show would not happen because Aang would have died inside that iceberg - no scratch that, there wouldn't be a story because HUMANS CAN'T CONTROL THE GODDAMN ELEMENTS!

Katara, Aang and Sokka would have also died, or at least being severly injured, with lots of broken bones, and possibly paralyzed from the waist/neck down after their attempt of using the Omashu mail system as a rollercoaster.

Firebenders should accidentally burn themselves all the time since their flames are always either dangerous close to their skin or directly touching it as they are created. Don't even get me started on lightning, especially with stuff like Iroh redirecting lightning FROM THE GODDAMN SKY. Toph should have also gotten severe burns in the finale because of that full-body armor she made with ABSURDLY HOT METAL and that was in direct contact with her skin.

Realistically, Sokka should have not have been able to help evacuate an entire village with not previous plan to do so like we saw him do in "Jet." The man Haru and Katara saved in "Imprisoned" should have been very hurt after all those rocks fell on him, and the fact that no died in that metal ship after all the COAL they threw at FIREBENDERS is absurd.

When the pirates put explosives in Zuko's ship, there's a split second where we can see he created a fire-shield - that would in now way in hell be able to allow him to just be walking around the following episode, with just a few superficial burns that are already healed in season two.

In the season one finale, Zhao very clearly aimed his flames at BOTH koi fish, yet only the one with the moon spirit died. Everything also becomes black and white for no real reason since the moonlight has nothing to do with how humans see things

For fuck's sake, the show full on says "AANG DIED AND KATARA BROUGHT HIM BACK FROM THE DEAD!"

Avatar is a children's show AND a cartoon. It operates on cartoon logic - aka, unless death is explicitly mentioned (Gyatso, Kya, Aang) or VERY heavily implied (Zhao, Jet, Combustion Man) we are supposed to assume that, somehow, everyone survived. The fact that fandom can accept EVERYTHING being unrealistic, then complains that people Aang fought survived the impossible just screams "I don't like that this character in a kid's show doesn't go around murdering every enemy in his path!" or "I don't like Aang because he got in the way of my ship, so I'll take any excuse to pretend he is actually a terribly written character everyone should hate!"

As for the Koizilla situation in particular, lets not forget that the very next episode has Aang having nightmares about it and showing that he very clearly does not know how to control the Avatar State, how it works, or even what it is. Roku literally shows up to EXPLAIN that stuff to him. HOW can we hold Aang accountable for something that was not his decision?

Once again, because of cartoon logic, the only sort of confirmed death was Zhao - and that one was 100% on the Ocean Spirit, since he had already split from Aang.

Not to mention "this person accidentally died because of one of my actions" is not always the same as "this person died because I chose to kill them." It's like the difference between a car crash where the driver wasn't able to stop in time VS literally shooting someone in the face.

Plus, in the finale Aang even reached the conclusion that, if he had no alternative, he WOULD kill Ozai, even though that would obviously take a great psychological/spiritual toll on him, because it would be ONE LIFE TAKEN AS A WAY TO SAVE THOUNSANDS, and even before that he had no problem with things like Sokka killing Combustion Man or even full on admiting "Fire Lord Ozai is a terrible person and the world would probably be a better place without him".

It's pretty clear that, even if Avatar DID go there and said "sometimes people died in battles against the Gaang", it would still NOT contradict Aang's beliefs, and therefore he is NOT a hypocrite, and the idiots of the fandom can die mad about it.

[4aceclover]

Shadow house theory

So I have an interesting theory that I don't think many people have actually taken into consideration, this one centers around our deer Blue Rose Mistress Barbara and her living doll Barbie.

Specifically Barbara herself and the amount of soot that she produces. Is it possible that what we're seeing in those moments or she's producing so much soot that it gives her a lot of pain is her having an emotional / mental breakdown

First things first what is an (emotional) mental breakdown (I'm sticking with mental but this can also apply to emotional breakdowns as well)

A period of severe emotional distress during which a person may feel paralyzed and entirely incapable of coping with challenges

Some of the symptoms of this may include (but are limited to):

Mental changes-

Depression

Emotional numbness

Loss of interest

Mood swings

Panic attacks

Sleep disruptions

Anxiety

Social withdrawal

No motivation

Paranoia

Personality changes-

Avoiding social events

Paranoia

Feeling hopeless and or helpless

Loss of interest

Physical changes-

Change in appetite

Exhaustion

Fatigue

Chest pain

Now let's go back and look at Barbara as a whole specifically how her character is presented to us and her relationships with some of the other characters

What do we know about Barbara explicitly well she-

Tends to get annoyed by things very quickly even for no reason sometimes

Has trust issues

Constantly comparing yourself to the previous starburst and everyone around her

Is constantly putting on a brave face when in reality she's nervous and terrified about everything she does

Says anything she does or tries to do will inevitably end up in failure and that it was all for nothing

Because of the way Barbie tends to look all the time she's seen as very hostile and someone you don't want to get too close to or piss off

Made it to where the star bearers didn't have to help in cleaning

Holds in a lot of her emotions

Has seizures which causes her immense pain as she releases her soot

Has no control over her soot expulsion

Is highly emotional like Kate

Used to be a lot like emilico

Her flower represents unacquainted love

Always puts her in the star bearers first even if it means hurting others in the children wing she supposed to be taking care of

Is easily manipulated

Doesn't realize that the cream she was given that was supposed to help Barbies scar heel is actually a poison

Is being used by Thomas as a living battery until she dies meaning she was never going to become an adult

And this is just the surface level stuff about this poor girl her relationships with others show what kind of person she used to be and is now

One of the first pieces of evidence to support the fact that she might be having mental breakdowns every time she releases her soot it's because of this manga panels from chapter 50

This panel reveals that because Barbara holds in all of her feelings about how she feels inadequate as a star-bearer, her fear and so many other things it, and how much it affects her soot at the same time.

We've seen time and time again that the shadows can only produce soot when they're feeling negative emotions, however one easy to overlook detail is the fact that depending on what influence they gain from their living doll it will determine their Emotional State

For example Matilda and Louise there both happy-go-lucky girls with very kind-hearted living dolls, therefore their soot quantity is much lower, than someone like John who because of the influence he received from his living doll which was Shaun's impulsiveness, he has a much higher quantity as he uses his emotions to make decisions. He's more intuition than he is brain.

Characters who have extremely low soot quantities usually have higher amounts of positive emotions we see that in both Shirley and Matilda they both have low soot quantities but they have some of the best personalities, they're kind-hearted, sweet, lively and mischievous

And considering the show and manga have made it clear that at one point Barbie and Barbara were a lot like Emilico and Kate it suddenly makes it clear why Barbara has so much soot coming out of her the only thing she was lacking was Kate's confidence.

(And remember before ever meeting Christopher and MaryRose she was always super emotional, but she had much better control over her emotions, something we see when MaryRose offers a hand to her and she thinks she's teasing her causing her anger to expel a lot of soot around her body, but not nearly to the point we see now in the story!)

And it would also explain why it's so painful for her it's a form of a seizure, because of her anxiety & social withdrawness, it ends up causing her to have a panic attack which is in the form of these seizures. Since her soot makes up around 60% of the power Shadow house produces in a day, it's incredibly painful for her to keep that all in. Which is another way of saying how it's incredibly painful for someone to keep all of their negative emotions in and have them explode at random points, which would also explain her mood swings, exhaustion, and her trying to avoid any sort of social activity with people she doesn't trust (which is a form of paranoia). All of this is because she's constantly bottling up her feelings and having them explode which many people can say (myself included) bottling up your negative feelings is exhausting

And the fact that she doesn't want anyone to see her in this state in her mind she doesn't want people to see how weak she is, (which is honestly heartbreaking) because it's basically her being the most vulnerable. That's why she lets Barbie insult her so much, it's so she can get rid of more of the soot, but it's also her way of basically acknowledging how she feels about herself. She truly believes every horrible thing Barbie says to her is true, she thinks that way and Barbie reciprocates those feelings to her face when she's in this state, which only makes it worse, (but both of them don't even realize this because their kids who haven't been taught anything about their own mental health). Plus this also explains the way Barbie behaves. The story at one point made it clear that she used to be a lot like Emilico standing up for people who were weaker than her making friends with people who were like Rum, but after Christopher left the adult wing and they were betrayed by Rosemary and MaryRose she completely changed how she behaved in order to match what she believed a strong face should look like and act like.

We even see the consequences of her explosive anger and unpredictable mood swings (and to be honest evidence of herself hatred)

Once she realizes that she can't do what she wants to do for the children's wing on her own after feeling betrayed by MaryRose and Christopher supposedly going to the adult wing she felt helpless which caused her to lose control of her emotions causing an extreme soot explosion injuring the one person who stood by her side trying to calm her down

This perfectly highlights how in a mental breakdown you end up accidentally hurting people close to you, and I honestly believe that this was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to herself hatred. It was already bad enough that everything else around her happened, but that was stuff she just couldn't control, but right here is where we see her lose control over her emotions and her soot, causing her to hurt the person dearest to her. You know for a fact she blames herself for this even if Barbie herself never told her how much this hurt her, tried to tell her it wasn't her fault, or even tried to dismiss the situation as a whole, Barbara probably blames herself because it was indeed her fault

(an interesting fact I just realized is that if Barbie really did try to tell Barbara that she doesn't mind that she hurt her because she knows it was an accident, "she didn't mean to hurt me" then that mentality is a lot like pink pearl (volleyball) in the sense that she's making excuses for why Barbara did what she, did but she's not acknowledging her own pain, she's not acknowledging the fact that she was badly hurt)

This panel from chapter 107 absolutely confirms the fact that not only does she bottle up her motions to a dangerous degree, but has feelings for someone she doesn't even know that he could be dead. She knew about unification before this, but she doesn't know that unifying with Barbie would mean she would lose her, and that's important because it shows just how desperate she is to see Christopher again. She's willing to put her own living doll's life on the line if it means seeing someone she doesn't even know is dead

She bottled her own feelings, pushing down her feelings of love she felt for Christopher and because she never once acted on those feelings they were told him before he went to the adult wing she had to carry on those feelings of love, betrayal, paranoia, fear and anxiety with her this whole time.

All she wanted was for comrade to be by her side someone she can look up to and admire someone who would be there for her but she kept on getting hurt because she opened up herself to somebody else.

But ironically enough the manga is giving us someone else that she doesn't even realize she's opening up to in the form of Patrick someone who could be the next person who could help her

(after all her Arc is all about finding someone that she can trust and love with her feelings without being hurt again, and his Arc is about finding a way to deal with his feelings of love while trying to protect people who are weaker than him. Both of their ark's work because she needs somebody to save herself from these dark feelings that she has, and he failed once to save somebody who was in love with him. Now with Barbara in a compromising position that she's in she could be the next person that comes his way, but this time unlike Margaret he could actually end up saving her, bringing both of their stories together. After all why would they make so many parallels between Emilico and what Barbie used to be if they weren't planning something big with this story)

So what do you guys think am I over analyzing this or do you think I might have a little bit of a point this is just me looking into this kind of stuff it broke my heart seeing Barbara and such a scary state in the more I thought about it the more it really did look like it was trying to call out the mental state of these kids

[theravenflies]

I love the Young Justice Barbara Gordon

[Plain text: I love the Young Justice Barbara Gordon.]

(Keep in mind that I am not paraplegic, just a nerd)

I was never the biggest fan of the original Killing Joke storyline (and I will fight people on this,) but I think Young Justice managed to turn it into a plot that wasn't actually bad. In fact, they did a lot of things really well.

The original storyline, The Killing Joke, gave Barbara Gordon waist-down paralysis after the Joker shot her. The problem with that is that he shot her in the stomach at an extremely close range, the muzzle of the gun literally pressed to the middle of her stomach. At that close a range, depending on the gun and bullet, he probably shattered half of her spinal cord, if not more. The thing about shatter injuries to the spinal cord is that they cause more complications in upper-body mobility than other spinal injuries. If a significant portion of her spinal cord was shattered, Barbara wouldn't be as good as she is at fighting. The damage would cause problems in the rest of her body. And then, of course, everyone is grieving for her and so sad that she'll never walk again and have to retire and I'm pretty sure Batman does something drastic? And that's... really not a plot non-disabled writers should go for.

However, in Young Justice, it's completely different. Barbara saw Cassandra Cain, who was unidentifiable but very small so obviously a young child, going after Joker with a sword, so she chose to get between the child and her target to prevent Cass from doing something that could never be taken back. She took the slash, which hit her lower back, just above her tailbone, so that it didn't go to Joker's neck. And the other characters handled it well. Nightwing was a bit panicked, of course, but that's because Barabara had a severe injury that was life-threatening. Batman, knowing that Nightwing had called for a medical evacuation and that he was handling first aid, took the sword from a terrified Cassandra ever so gently, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Cassandra was horrified, of course, but it was because she'd just hurt someone who wasn't her target severely, not because Barbara was now disabled. And then Barbara tells her that she didn't do it to save Joker, she did it to save Cass. And Cass is horrified and probably hates herself in the moment, sure, but that memory later becomes something that strengthens her. Cass gets kidnapped in that episode and remembering that during her captivity helps her. It's a memory of the woman who would later become her older sister and one of her best friends. She knows that Barbara, the woman who has done so much for her, will help her. She won't rest until Cassandra is safe, even if it means coming after her herself.

I also really like how the plot handled this. Number one, we don't know off the bat why Barb is paralyzed, it doesn't come up until it's relevant, she's just paralyzed. And when it does come up, it's not a tragedy, it's Barbara risking her life to save the soul of a child who didn't understand the moral consequences of what she was about to do. She chose to do that and she would do it again. That's a really interesting way of subverting the exhausted "disabled by an accident" trope, because yes, it was an accident on Cass's part, but Barbara knew she was probably going to get badly hurt. It's similar to a character running into a burning building to save someone else. They accept the potential consequences because they couldn't live with themselves if they didn't help. She took the risk, she knew what could happen, which is so much better than her having no choice and being shot. It's far less tired an idea and a very interesting spin that I quite like.

Going back to the injury, let's get in-depth about that. I mentioned how a shatter would impact her upper body, too. But the way she was injured in Young Justice, which was probably severing the connection between two very low vertebrae or possibly cutting a vertebra itself if Cass put enough force behind it, makes sense. It wouldn't have as much a major impact on her upper body, so it makes sense that she can throw the person who snuck up on her like it's easy. Barbara can be an excellent hand-to-hand fighter and it's not unexplainable. We don't see her exercising in her chair, likely because she has the wrong chair for both exercising and her disability (she has a hospital-type wheelchair instead of a lightweight chair, which is, I think, just poor research,) but she clearly still does because she's still extremely good.

Also, I like how there's no cure plot. The show might still be ongoing so I don't know if that'll last, but for now, she hasn't been cured and shows no desire to be. The comics would occasionally have her paralysis cured and thank the gods they didn't go with that, even with a character (we won't get into the absolute disaster of Violet Harper here) who could, in theory, heal her, and I love that. For some reason writers are afraid of keeping their disabled characters disabled, so I'm surprised and glad they didn't take the easy out.

Finally, I love that Oracle is still able to do field work with special equipment. Does she go onto the actual field herself? No, not really. But she uses small drones and other things to help out, such as the tiny drone that gave Cass a lock pick or her hacking into systems to protect her allies from security measures. Babs doesn't need to stop being a superhero because she's disabled but also doesn't suddenly use a mech or something, she just finds ways to work with her new circumstances to keep doing what she wants to do, just in a different way. She's still a massive threat to her enemies, just in a different way, utilizing talents she already had (Barbara is extremely intelligent and very creative) to continue to help people.

TL;DR, I really, really like how Young Justice handled Barbara Gordon. If we must have more characters disabled in accidents, this is a very good way to do that.

[nobody-nexus]

TADC x Danganronpa Concept

I'm not really gonna work on this more then this one post, plus this is just to stretch out my creative abilities, but I had this random thought of "What if The Amazing Digital Circus cast were in a killing game?" and I wanted to work on it

This will contain their talent, small lil backstory, motive to kill, and execution. I think in the context for this they're given nicknames due to having forgotten their names. Also in the context of their ages, it's a college instead of a highschool (Also Kinger would've probably been professors there) (Warning: There will be very graphic descriptions within the executions involving torture and a lot of blood! Please proceed with caution!)

(Pomni) -> Pomni would be the Ultimate Jester. Very obvious from her outfit as well as the role of Jesters being actually apart of the royal family. I think how she would get her talent is by being a friend to a prince, and her natural clumsiness made her an excellent jester- to the point where she was brought all around the world by the king. But she hated it, just wanting a normal life and thinking if she went to the Ultimate University would help her with such a task

-> I think her motive for killing wouldn't be anything. If she killed, it would've 100% been an accident and she'd be in denial that she did it even while getting dragged to her execution. She'd most likely be either chapter 4 or 5 in terms of when she dies

-> The Fool's Show (Ultimate Jester's Execution: Executed) Pomni's hands are chained behind her back as she's dragged into a remaking of a king's throne room. Monokuma is the king on the throne and tells Pomni to entertain him. She tries her best, however with her hands tied up, she keeps falling over. Monokuma doesn't find it funny and soom makes the floor electrocute her whenever she messed up. She sees an exit door and starts to run for it, but the electricity makes her stagger. Her legs, covered in blood and burn marks, soon give out on her as she falls to the ground. The electricity soon hits her head, making her cough up blood before dying. Monokuma laughs at Pomni's burnt corpse

(Ragatha) -> Ragatha would be the Ultimate Seamstress. I think she more so makes dolls as a hobby, but her main passion would be making dresses. She got her talent after she most likely became famous for her dress work and how creative said work is. Her past probably involves a hobby becoming a job due to parental based traumas, but at least she can enjoy what she does. She went to the Ultimate University a little later than most other Ultimates because she was just so busy with her work

-> She would only kill in self-defense or if she learned someone was going to harm someone she really cared for. Most likely a very remorseful death, probably clean and quick, but she didn't want to get out knowing their blood was on her hands

-> Pins and Needles (Ultimate Seamstress's Execution: Executed) Ragatha is laying on a table, her arms and legs stretched out on it. She looks up at the ceiling, a look of regret on her face. Monokuma comes in, dressed as an old lady, holding a bag. Monokuma begins to push various sized needles into her skin. The first ones were put in her joints, making her paralyzed. All she could do now was shiver and cry in pain as Monokuma continued to stick needles in her. Once most of her body was pinned down, Monokuma pulls out a syringe and, offscreen and silhouetted, stabs it into her blue eye. She screams as the injection quickly hits her brain, causing her to soon stop moving, killing her

(Jax) -> One of the harder ones to pinpoint, I think Jax would be the Ultimate Luck. He's the one who won the randomly selected luck role, which unlike most others- wasn't a good choice for him. He was a criminal who's caused multiple problems. He relishes that he's an Ultimate despite his criminal record. He didn't have the best childhood, but he doesn't care what happened in his past. He just cares about causing as much chaos as possible. Probably owns a rabbit farm though. It's like the ONLY thing he cares about that isn't himself

-> He'd most likely kill if there was a good enough motive for it. Like maybe he can get away with whatever he wanted if he won the trial or something along those lines. 100% would kill for a selfish reason like that (Probably uses his rabbit farm for sympathy)

-> Run Rabbit, Run! (Ultimate Luck's Execution: Executed) Jax is in the middle of a clearly fake forest, a bit confused about his location. Suddenly, he hears a gunshot in the distance. Monokuma, dressed as a hunter, starts to shoot at Jax. He starts to run, using his lankiness to avoid most of the bullets, even if he did get hurt a few times. The blood from the wounds attracts SOMETHING to chase him, making him run more. He soon runs into a wall harshly and falls over, seeing that the thing chasing him was a mutant rabbit, the same color as his outfit. Jax tries to run past it, but it tackles him to the ground, crushing him a bit before it proceeds to maul him to death. It then shows a picture of Jax taped to a tree that says 'Jax Season' on it, to which Monokuma rips the picture off of said tree

(Gangle) -> Gangle would most likely be the Ultimate Stagehand. She's loved Broadway (and anime) and she's always wanted to be an actress, however her cripping social anxiety stopped her from pursuing that. But that didn't mean she couldn't work in Broadway. She learned about the behind the scenes, and quickly got up the latter for working lights, curtains, scene changes, and all of that stuff. She was happy to be working so hard that she ended up as the Ultimate Stagehand but complete coincidence

-> Similar to Pomni, I think she'd only kill on accident. That or maybe she reached her limit with someone and murdered them out of anger before realizing what she'd done

-> Scene Change (Ultimate Stagehand's Execution: Executed) Gangle is behind the stage that Monokuma is standing on. She has a bomb strapped to her chest and a needled collar on. As the show begins, the timer on the bomb starts to go down. Monokuma reenacts various infamous moments from musicals, and Gangle has to change the scenes as he goes on. As the scene changes get faster and faster, Gangle messes up more and more, the collar pushes the needles into her neck more and more, causing her to be in constant pain. Soon enough she messes up one too many times and the needles stick DEEP into her neck, making her get on her knees. She didn't even notice the bomb timer was close to being finished as she was on stage in front of everyone, the bomb going off and taking Gangle with it in an explosion of blood. The unfaced crowd cheers

(Kinger) -> Although he's a professor at the Ultimate University, he's actually known as the Ultimate Entomologist- but he's gone too far into the deep end due to being trapped in a cave for years, making him lose his mind... he thinks he's the Ultimate King despite him not being ACTUAL king. He knows too much about bugs and then he got a profession in said bug obsession before he got stuck

-> Him killing seems impossible, but maybe he'd kill without realizing it? Not like accidental- but more so he like dissociates during the murder and then he's like "Oh... I did?" and it's lowkey kinda sad

-> Metamorphosis! (Ultimate Entomologist's Execution: Executed) Kinger is within a room full of insect collections on the walls. He looks around confused before Monokuma appears in a butterfly costume, holding an unknown material. Kinger screams as he tries to get away, but Monokuma's costume wings made him faster, spinning around Kinger as he got wrapped up like a cocoon. Kinger struggles as he's dragged to one of the walls, other Monokuma's holding Kinger against it. Using an oversized nail and hammers, he sticks nails into Kinger to keep him pinned up on the wall, Kinger bleeding out as this happened. The Monokumas grab onto the stuff he was wrapped in and ripped it off, making the nails come out of him. Kinger slumps to the floor and slowly bleeds out- the blood on the wall looking similar to butterfly wings

(Zooble) -> I think Zooble would be the Ultimate ???- not wanting to share it because "I don't care if you don't know it". In reality I have no fucking idea what Zooble's talent would even be. Nor would I know their past. All I know is that... Zooble is Zooble. And that's all that matters

-> They'd most likely kill out of desperation. Maybe a really good motive. Otherwise, I see them more as a victim or even a survivor like Maki

-> Mix and Match (Ultimate ???'s Execution: Executed) Zooble is placed inside of an operation table. They are strapped to the table as multiple Monokuma doctors appearing around them. The Monokumas pull out various toy limbs and tools. One of the Monokumas, with a saw, digs it into one of Zooble's arms, making them yell and wiggle around, trying to get out. Once their arm was fully off, they force a noodle esc toy arm to get jammed into the wound, which only caused more pain and agony. This continued frantically, blood pooling under the table quickly. After a few moments, the doctors walk away from Zooble's body, showing their new state. Their new limbs are blood soaked as their dead eyes stare at the ceiling

Man that's a lot of writing- but I hope you enjoy it

[cadybear420]

Carrot 5

Tomato 1, 2

Onion 3

For Evie and if possible Alan and Samara

Ask game here! Details below! <3

Carrot 5 Has your OC ever been involved in farming or agriculture? Or have they tilled the earth in a more modest setting? What is their view of food production in society? Is it something they understand and value? Or do they make little connection between the food they eat and the labour required to produce it?

Evie has grown some herbs (parsley, basil, sweet mint) in pots before, but that's about it. And it's more of a casual hobby.

Not sure for Alan and Samara. I think Samara might enjoy growing some of her own food though, considering her and Caleb opening up a bakery when they get married.

Tomato 1. Does your OC seek out calorie-dense or highly nutritious foods to enhance their physical performance and survivability? Or is the taste or presentation of food as important (or more important) than its health-giving properties?

Evie goes for both– she loves yummy-tasting comfort food, but also values her physical health as an athlete. However, she also has very restrictive food aversions and is more likely to choose a good-tasting less-healthy food over a shit-tasting healthy food.

Alan is health-conscious, and tends to go for healthier foods. However, he's not over extreme about it, he will avoid healthy foods that taste like shit.

Samara definitely goes for calorie-dense nutritious foods, but also puts an importance on her comfort foods (aka almost anything rainbow colored).

Tomato 2. Does your OC find it easy to believe that they are loved? Or are they suspicious of ulterior motives? Perhaps they fear that once someone truly gets to know them then they will be repulsed or horrified? Or maybe they find it hard to imagine how anyone could not love them...

Evie is 50-50 on this. She reacts positively to and practically eats it up when others clearly love her and demonstrates an understanding of her. But at the same time, it can be hard for her to feel like she earned their love. She's anxious of every move she makes, every thing she says, frequently worrying if she hurt someone with something she said/did and worrying even more when they're legitimately upset with her. Also questioning how she should deal with it when the someone else does something she feels was a bit hurtful, being generally confused about who was "in the right". It takes a while for her to accept that love is imperfect, she should expect these imperfections and be able to know how to deal with them.

Alan is good at picking up on when he's loved vs when he's disliked. He just tends to fixate more on when he is loved. He's of course very boastful and prideful and all "I'm so awesome" "I'm so hot" "I'm the best", but I wouldn't say he finds it hard to imagine how anyone could not love him.

Samara reacts positively to people who seem to like her, but she would also want to be sure that their feelings are true and genuine and not just shallow or fleeting.

Onion 3. Does your OC have some feelings that they push down deep within themselves? Perhaps feelings of resentment? Or pangs of grief? Or burning sexual desires? Or do their emotions constantly come bubbling to the surface regardless of any efforts they might make to suppress them?

Evie has a lot. A loooot. Being annoyed with certain quirks/habits from others. As mentioned above, if someone she loves does something that pisses her off or comes off as hurtful to her, it can be very agonizing for her because on top of being pissed off she doesn't trust her own judgement. She also tends to sometimes push down her memories of her biggest screw-ups in the past because when she does think about them they can be emotionally paralyzing. Sometimes any and all of these things can come bubbling to the surface and she may act out or become emotionally paralyzed.

Alan I think feels a lot of fear about something that's a threat to him doing what he likes. He considers himself very confident and brave and he also sees himself as fearless, but something I think he takes for granted is, to quote Nelson Mandela, "courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it". I think Alan doesn't fully realize his own fears and what truly makes him courageous.

I wouldn't say Samara quite pushes it down, but she does like to avoid thinking about the past. She'll do what she can to use it as an opportunity to grow from it and adapt, as long as she can move on from it.

[guiraguira]

Hello! I saw that you posted how guys would react to a naughty video of his gf, can I ask Gentaro x fem reader, who pranks Gen by sending her a picture saying she's horny but really she's just bored being alone?

It's okay if you don't want to write it, but there are so few Gentaro stories u.u

Was a lie ✨

Hi! That possibility had not occurred to me, but of course! Plus it sounds like a lot of fun!

Warnings: A bit of a hint about sex, but nothing overt. spicy photos

Gentaro x reader

It was already your second day off that you didn't spend with him because his schedules don't match, you knew he was in a meeting with his editor and hopefully, maybe he'll be back by nightfall, they could still share some time together, but it wasn't the same.

You're about to send him a message just to wish him luck in the interview when it occurs to you that you could play a little prank on him. Followed by your good luck wishes, you ask if it really is a long time before he arrives.

"I know, sorry honey... the meeting hasn't started yet" after taking some time he writes another message "I'll make up for it, I promise it won't happen again" you feel a little guilty for what you're going to do after reading that last one.

Lying on the bed, you undress keeping your underwear, placing a hand on your crotch and squeezing it with your thighs, looking for the best angle before taking a photo and sending it "Gentaro, I don't think I can take much more" just a few minutes pass before he sees it.

Your message remains seen for a long time, you can see how he tries to write something but he deletes it repeatedly before finally replying to you. "It must be a joke, but thanks for the photo I'll save it well" oh, well it may be very obvious but don't let that win you over.

"Do I have to send you a video too?" This time he didn't answer, you thought he definitely hadn't fallen so you changed back, and you just went to bed to use your cell phone until you got bored. You were so bored being alone, you had nothing to do, not even your friends were available today.

You thought about cooking something to entertain yourself for a while, so you started looking for the ingredients to make a dessert. Taking a last look at Gentaro's chat in case he had responded, but he hadn't.

While you cook you keep thinking about how sad it is that their schedules don't match. Your mind wanders into future plans about his upcoming dates, picking a place to go immediately after he gets back. This time there would be no way for him to fail.

You were about to finish when you heard the front door open and the noise of footsteps at full speed in your direction. Without time to react, you remain paralyzed in place as you see Gentaro running with all his things in his hands, without seeing you with the sole objective of reaching the room.

"I'm here honey!" For a brief moment there is silence again and his footsteps become softer "s/o!" He opens the bathroom door, but since you're not there either he walks more slowly looking for you until he reaches the kitchen "s/o?" His face can barely express the confusion he feels.

"Gentaro? You didn't have a meeting?..." they exchange glances waiting for someone to explain "you sent me that photo and I thought... I was too late?" You blink without understanding what it means, until something clicks in your brain. "Oh, I was lying!" You laugh because you didn't think your joke had worked, it wasn't in your plans for him to leave the meeting in order to come and please you.

"Lying?" He says that word like he doesn't know it, he can't believe he fell for a joke. He feels so silly, but he was so excited to play with you. A mischievous smile begins to grow on his face as he slowly approaches you. "You won't get out of this so easy my pretty little heart and I'm not lying"

Trapping you in his arms, he tickles you with his fingers until you cry a couple of times. He interrupts your laughter by giving you a totally anticlimactic hungry kiss. He loves the sound of your laughter and will do everything he can to protect it, but he loves your moans even more, plus he has to make you pay for your little prank.

[shipcestuous]

For some reason, today I found myself thinking back to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon. Specifically, the season six ep "Flutter Brutter," where Fluttershy's younger brother, Zephyr Breeze, is introduced.

Now, I haven't actually rewatched MLP in years, so my memories are vaguer than I would like while writings this. But the gist of it is that Fluttershy is (as her name implies, lol) is a shy, delicate, kind-hearted character who, through all the previous seasons, has become a heroine of her world together with her friends and worked to become braver and more assertive, while Zephyr Breeze is a brash, flighty, self-centered character but is actually hiding some deep-seated insecurities.

Zephyr keeps dropping jobs and classes and then crashing at their parents', knowing they're even meeker and less likely to stand up for themselves than Fluttershy, but this time, we he does just that, Fluttershy decides she's putting her foot (well, hoof) down, especially after seeing him take up as much space as he pleases in their parents' house with no regards for their needs or comfort. She makes it clear that he has to find another place to stay... but when he shows up at her house instead, telling her that technically it does count as "another place," she doesn't have the heart to turn him away. However, she does set one condition: if he really wants to stay, he'll have to find a job to support himself.

Zephyr agrees but, knowing Fluttershy will probably try to put off his job searching as long as he can, Fluttershy asks her friends to find him some menial tasks to do around their houses or for their business to get him started. Still, he manages to get fired and chased off by all of them, sometimes for tricking other people (or even pets!) into doing his job for him. Fluttershy eventually gives him an ultimatum... but, feeling wounded and slighted, Zephyr decides he'd rather try his luck camping out in forest.

Suffice to say, he's... not quite cut out fo forest life. And the forest is a dangerous place, too. So, despite the animosity between them, Fluttershy goes looking for him. When she finds him, she tries to bring him back but also to get him to tell her why he won't just stop slacking off and put some effort into making something of himself.

Finally, he reveals that the problem is actually that he's scared. He may pose as someone confident and even arrogant, but doesn't really think much of himself or his abilities and is sure that, if he started putting effort into things, it would just hurt even more when he inevitably failed. Plus, having a heroine who's literally saved the world multiple times as his big sister makes him feel like he's nothing in comparison and will never get out of her shadow.

However, Fluttershy tells him she believes in him and gently coaxes him into picking himself up and going back to his classes, because he while he may be afraid of failure, he'll never succeed if he doesn't even try... and she knows he can succeed, if he would only give himself a chance. Zephyr isn't quite convinced, but he lets himself be dragged along, if reluctantly. Until, finally, he sees that there are things he's good at and gains some real self-confidence!

He does still crash at their parents, by the end. But this time, it's a solution he wants to be temporary, and he's serious about looking for his place to live in.

The episode is honestly really sweet and showcases what I find to be a very realistic dynamic between siblings, with its up and downs, support and fights and grudges and love and everything else. Moreover, I remember the first time I watched it... hit fairly close to home, with the way it dealt with feeling paralyzed by fear and lack of self-worth and trying to mask that. Zephyr Breeze, for all his flaws, is a character I still have a lot of sympathy for. And his contrast with Fluttershy? The loud, rambunctious brother who's really insecure and fragile inside feeling inferior to the soft-spoken, sweet sister who is full of her own inner strength and determination? Lovely!

But, from what I remember of MLP fandom (or at least, how it was back then) not many people liked the episode or the character as much as I did. Part of it was how, unfortunately, Zephyr was given a crush on Fluttershy's friend, Rainbow Dash, and it was really unpleasant and even sort of creepy, with him hitting on her all the time and assuming she must be in love with him and "playing hard to get" despite her obvious distate and even discomfort, with the implication that at some point he even convinced his parents they were going to become a couple. Another is that some male adult fans (you've probably heard of Bronies, right?) felt Zephyr was meant to be a caricature of a stereotype people assumed they themselves automatically fell in.

I don't think things got any better when a later episode implied Zephyr was back to his fickle ways and to putting appearances over substance... personally, I chose to ignore that or at least think it was just a little relapse and he'd say "wait a minute, what am I doing?" and go back to his newly matured self soon after, lol.

Anyway, I always felt I little sad I could never find any Zephyr/Fluttershy incest fics. Or, at least, any platonic hurt/comfort fics for them. The sheer potential there... sigh! I do remember some good incest fanworks starring Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, literal royalty and technically sun/moon goddesses with an angsty backstory... and it's not even like there's the kind of age gap between Fluttershy and Zephyr that could squick even most incest shippers out. Fluttershy and the other main characters are generally assumed to be in their early to late twenty during the course of the series, and Zephyr has to be at least college-aged or a little older by the time we meet him, so... but yeah, it probably just comes down to the fandom not liking Zephyr much, in the end.

Ah, well. I hope I at least made someone else see why they're shippable to me here!

Btw, here's a gallery with some images of them! Just because cute ponies.

https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Zephyr_Breeze/Gallery

That does sound like a very realistic storyline between siblings. It sounds really sweet, and I love the dynamic between their contrasting personalities. It's too bad there's not more content for them!

[theworldvsyoshiko]

Presenting the graduating class of 5507:

This is a big one, and it's gonna really hurt. This doesn't just represent the core of the colony's fighting ability, but the kids who handled a lot of the day-to-day work. Also it's going to break Yoshiko's heart, because every single one of these were under 13 when they showed up, so she adopted them all. I mean, you can adopt people over 13, but that's kinda the cutoff point I set for now. Anyway, yeah, two sons and three daughters ready to head out into the world.

Also? Not a single missing limb among them. Stein's missing a finger and a toe, but that barely counts.

Stein, despite being paralyzed when he first showed up, missing a chunk of his childhood as a result, and needing genetic modification before he was even safe to keep around, has become basically the adult in the room when Yoshiko's not around. He's great with a gun and just about single-handedly responsible for taming and controlling all of the colony's war animals. As many animals as that is, and as few robots as we have (more on that later), he's probably a bigger help in a fight than Yoshiko herself. He has 102 kills.

Who's gonna train our huge pile of war animals once he leaves? Good fucking question. Literally might have to eat some of them.

Also Yoshiko bit his toe so hard that it bled once, so that was fun. Thanks to his weird appearance, it's rare for him to have many friends in the colony, but I'm sure as hell gonna miss him.

Wester has been here since she was 4 years old. She might be the graduate who's lived here the longest? Which I guess might explain why she's close with almost everybody. She blew up a mech cluster with a synthetic tornado that one time. She's solid with a gun, the best artist around, and just generally competent or better at most things. Oh, and she and Manny did basically all the gardening, so that'll be fun to lose.

Thanks to the overlap of her artistic development with the colony's peak rabbit population, she made a lot of sculptures depicting people sterilizing rabbits. And rabbits getting eaten by predators. And rabbits getting shot by the colony's enemies. I think that keeping dozens of free-roaming rabbits around when you have small kids is maybe a bad idea.

Manny has only been here since she was 10, and upon turning 13 she decided that she's a pacifist. Fortunately, she's good at basically everything that isn't combat or mining, and you know what? Having a really good doctor waiting back at the base, who's almost guaranteed to not have a fresh bullet wound, has proven pretty handy after a lot of firefights.

The whole 'adoption counts people as Kin rather than Sons/Daughters' thing struck here, in that the game recognizes that Manny and Cisneros have some kind of familial relationship, but doesn't consider it close enough to prevent romance. So those two are dating.

Tiger is, it must be noted, ugly as fuck.

You'd think this would be a bigger deal than it is. Not only is most of the colony willing to overlook this, but she did a lot of research, which meant a lot of time sitting by Yoshiko and chatting, so they've usually been pretty close. She's also a gun-obsessed weirdo, so Yoshiko's trend of adoring small violent children continues.

Tiger's probably the third-best combatant in the colony after Yoshiko and Stein, and her accomplishments include: once snapped and did about half of the drugs in the storeroom all at once, walked away addicted to a couple of things, and spent the next year or so fucking miserable.

Cisneros has, for whatever reason, been Yoshiko's best friend pretty much since the day he arrived. She adores her weird blue cat son. Whereas he's like the one person in this list who isn't a national-level expert in multiple fields of endeavor, and he's not very good in a fight, so I will miss him the least.

Bye, kids. I'll miss you. (Except Cisneros.)

[fazedlight]

For the fandom ask game, 24 & 25 for Kara, Lena and Alex. Love your stories btw, your characterizations also feel so raw and real to me

24. What's your favourite thing about [character]?

Kara's endless hope and optimism, even in the face of some terrible things she's suffered. I love how she's always seeking to do the right thing even when it's hard, how she can find joy in life even through all the pain. She's trying to balance very different facets of herself, and I think that's a very relatable struggle.

Perhaps it sounds odd given what I just said about Kara, but I love Lena's willingness to delve into the moral greys and work on a practical level to try to make the world a better place. That doesn't always come out in the best of ways (eg Non Nocere) - but it's easy to sink so far into not knowing what's right that it becomes paralyzing, and she never lets that happen.

I love Alex's bravery (she's not a super, she's a human who regularly throws herself in harm's way) and her utter dedication to her family (to her sister, to her partners, to her child). Also the realness of her coming out scene and arc, which is literally why I started watching the show. ("What a well-written queer character! This show won't hurt me!" Famous last words.)

25. What's your least favourite thing [character] said or did?

My least favorite moment for Kara is actually when she forgives Lena in 5x19 (or yells at Lena earlier in 5x19), because of the implication that this was a simple case where Kara was right and Lena was wrong. That was basically the culmination of the narrative shift that happened in It's A Super Life to get rid of all the complexity of the Rift, and both scenes are like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Least favorite thing Lena did... I think it might actually be threatening Russell's life to get the coin from Andrea, leaving her to the wolves with Leviathan, knowing that Andrea had done it to save her father's life. A lot of Lena's other bad actions seem driven by trauma in a compelling way to me (I can see why "brainwashing the world to be nice" would have appeal to a traumatized techie!!) but I think there was a lot wrong with the ending of Confidence Women.

The fight that Alex has with Kara when Esme is kidnapped felt very weird to me. Alex's characterization probably suffered the most in the show overall, honestly, but that scene in particular bugged me.

Overall........ I think the writers wrote themselves into a corner (or were possibly dealing with conflicting direction from the showrunners), and characterization seemed to suffer for basically everyone at times because of it.

The thing about inconsistent writing is that it gives me the room to find the best version of those characters. Not flawless versions, but versions where their intentions are genuine and their own flaws serve as their foils. That's what I try to write.

Thanks for the ask!! And especially, thank you for the comment about my characterizations ❤️

ask game

[mediaevalmusereads]

Sitting Pretty: the View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body. By Rebekah Taussig. Harper Collins, 2020.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: memoir

Series: N/A

Summary: A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most.

Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.

Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: ableism

While I have some grasp on the basics of disability advocacy, I thought it would be beneficial to learn more during disability pride month. This book was available at the library, so I figured it would be a good place to start.

Taussig's memoir is a very good introduction to the basics of understanding broad disability studies concepts while also narrating vulnerable moments of the author's life. I really liked how the focus wasn't so much on Taussig's body (though it was a huge part of the story), but on how society is organized around ableism. We don't so much get scene after scene of Taussig struggling, but we do get very clear and evocative memories of Taussig watching films, dreaming of jobs, and navigating health insurance which are all designed to exclude disabled people. It's also a good critique of a number of related things such as American work culture, beauty and advertising, the concept of womanhood, etc. In that, this book is an excellent example about how to talk about disability and ableism without exclusively focusing on the body.

That's not to say the body is unimportant. Taussig has plenty of stories about managing pain, rolling down stairs or grassy hills, etc. But Taussig is also very careful to demonstrate that it's not the body that needs fixing - it's our imagination about how the world should work. Because after all, most (if not all) of us will become disabled at some point - that's just a consequence of having a body, and society benefits if we can care for everyone.

There are some limitations to this book, however, which Taussig (to her credit) points out. Taussig is disabled, but she is also cis, straight, middle class, and white, which means she has access to certain types of privilege and her stories will likely resonate with a specific audience. But I think I'd rather have an author be honest about their privilege and tell their own story (as opposed to trying to represent all disabled people) than try to have them position themselves on an intersectional identity that isn't theirs.

There's also a lot of humor in here that will read ad Millenial, but fortunately, it's not overwhelming. Toussig is very sincere, and even if the humor isn't to your taste, it doesn't take over the book.

TL;DR: Sitting Pretty is a brilliant memoir and introduction to the concepts behind disabled studies, placing focus on how society is structured around ableism while also advocating for change that will benefit all.

[extrasfromthevoid]

Oracle Trance -- Caught in The Moirai's Threads

I haven’t talked a lot about Milo’s power of clairvoyance yet, which is as shame because it’s such an integral part of her character! So many of her choices and so much of her personality are informed by this power, for better or worse

So.

Milo has foreseen the return of The Shredder since she was a literal infant. And as a literal infant, Milo couldn’t exactly articulate what it was about her “dreams” that distressed her so much. She woke up crying a lot, which her birth parents hated greatly because to an outside perspective, it seemed like she cried for no reason.

Those visions got graphic. As in, “experience the brutal deaths of yourself, your loved ones, and the entire world” levels of graphic. Her visions are primarily visual and tactile (you know how sometimes if you get hurt in a dream, you not only feel it in the dream but you get this weird phantom feeling where you got hurt when you wake up ? It’s basically that). When Milo was young, the content of the visions were poorly defined. Anything but the MAIN subject of the vision would be hazy shapes and blobs of color. This changes as she grows older and grows more in tune with her power.

The way it works is that Milo can perceive the unwoven threads of time and chance. Each thread represents a possible outcome and is made up of hundreds of thousands of variables. The aesthetic for time that I'm going for is--obviously--that of woven fabric.

The past is the pattern that's already been woven.

The present is what is currently being added to the overall fabric.

The future is the threads that have yet to be added and incorporated.

For her part, Milo can only see the unwoven threads.

Since there's so many loose threads and possibilities, it's easy for Milo to get "snagged" in them and have to view these futures continuously until she untangles her consciousness from these endless possible futures. This is what a waking vision (or an oracle trance) ultimately is. While in this state, if people ask Milo questions pertaining to the future, the threads with the answers to those questions become magnetized to her (like static, really), and only serves to entangle her further and make it harder and more difficult for Milo to separate her consciousness from her power. In fact, it would be insanely easy for Milo to get permanently stuck in this state because the threads of possibility she gets entangled in are unbreakable, so the only way out is to untangle herself (and anyone who's ever worked with thread or yarn knows how easily a Gordian Knot can form when you least want it).

What's more, being in a waking vision/oracle trance is not unlike having sleep paralysis. She's still somewhat conscious, her visions projecting themselves to her on her surroundings, but her thoughts outside her visions are sluggish--unable to fully divorce the visions from reality as she would normally--and her body is fully paralyzed.

(Eternity trapped in a waking vision is an unfortunate fate that many oracles have fallen prey to as in most cases, the people around them would value access to their power over them as people.)

The best way to deal with waking visions is for Milo to be left alone with minimal stimulation, so she can untangle herself in peace. The process can still take a while depending on how tangled she is, but it usually takes at least two days.

Milo gets her visions when she sleeps, though they don't happen every time she sleeps. She generally can sense when a vision is coming, especially if it's going to be very intense (those ones are proceeded with what Milo has dubbed "prelude migraines"). She doesn't have much control over what her visions show her, but the things that she thinks of most can influence them. And since Milo thinks a lot about The Shredder's return and keeping her family safe, these things feature frequently.

Being exposed to abrupt stimulus during these visions is what triggers a waking vision/oracle trance.

(Her brothers learned that the hard way when they were young. After experiencing one of Milo's waking visions for the first time, they collectively became pretty protective of her when they know she's having visions now that they are aware of just how vulnerable she is during this time)

ALSO

I've finally decided on what Milo's true origins (i.e. pre-Draxum origins) are! I've mostly been defaulting to my crossover origins, but I figured one out that is no crossover required!

(I'm still keeping Milo's universe DC adjacent because I have some very specific funny references I want to include)

So. Where did Milo come from? Why does she have such a frankly OP/meta power from birth?

Well...what race of people do we know of from the TMNT universe that collectively have mystical time powers and mysterious origins?

Time Masters, babyyy~~