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aprillikesthings · 10 months ago

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I am still a little obsessed with this

I had an idea for a Catradora fic like a year ago and ugggh I'd need to rewatch the whole show to do it any justice and I dunno if I have the patience

Anyway have some barely-edited info-dumping I did last March in a tiny discord server for a completely different cartoon ship*:

The other night when I couldn't sleep it occurred to me that there could/should be a very realistic fic out there of catra and adora, after the events of the last season, having a very passionate but over-dramatic relationship for a couple of years, then breaking up and getting back together multiple times before one or both of them decides Actually, we have to break up, for real, we are slowly killing each other over this; and one of them moves away and they both get therapy of some kind and both try dating other people but it just isn't working out (I can absolutely see Adora in a relationship that's perfectly fine and healthy but also boring as fuck, and her just thinking: huh, I guess normal people are supposed to feel like this? but it just feels like it's missing something, but the thing it's missing might just be a lot of arguing and crying and make-up sex, so like, I should just. stop missing that. probably. And Catra ending up in a bunch of short-term things where all of them end with either the other person going dude you are in love with someone else and I can tell or her feeling guilty and breaking it off bc the other person is obviously more into her than vice-versa)

And anyway after like ten years or something they see each other but one or both is still dating someone else and it's like ha ha our younger days were SOMETHING ELSE weren't they, oh did you get therapy oh good me too, I'm glad you're doing well, nice to bump into you :) but they're both internally screaming because yeah those feelings are Still There, fuck fuck fuck

The current partner of whichever of them dumps them bc "you're still in love with your ex" but neither of them say why the dump happened and the dumped one doesn't say anything to the other, which means they hear about it through the grapevine, and their heart goes YOOOOO and their brain goes "I thought we were actually done with this and being Good about it fuck fuck fuck" and theyre both :) still normal to each other :) all the time :)

PINING I love pining hhh lol

But yeah there's, I dunno. A party? with a lot of people? maybe they each have one (1) drink, not even enough to impair them, and the next thing you know they're making out in a closet or something somewhere, and then one or both of them is crying hysterically, and after a lot of talking they're like, I want to try again. But as actual adults who've had time to grow up and have a lot of therapy. So they do, and it's good, and all their friends are like Oh thank god you two are both the stupidest motherfuckers on earth.

Halfway through the first post I realized I am half re-writing one of my fave Sherlock fics but putting it on top of She-Ra characters and adapting it to spop's plot but it'S JUST A GOOD STORy and honestly how it would actually happen

Because they were SO YOUNG in the show and neither of them had ever seen a healthy relationship modeled, ever, by anyone; and they're both heavily traumatized on top of it. And love isn't always be enough to deal with all of that. It's just not.

Me: this would make a good romance novel if we could file off the serial numbers

Also me: it's only interesting to me because it's THESE CHARACTERS like how the fuck would you include the backstory lolol

My dumb brain is like, "look I know spop ended three years ago and also, this is obviously the kind of story that AN ACTUAL ADULT writes, generally speaking; so nobody would read it, but what if you spent a year writing this"

But also half the plot feels like it's lifted from The Speed of Objects in Motion by holyfant (linked above) which is still, easily, one of my top-two Sherlock fics of all time, bc it's just so painfully realistic--they do end up together again at the end, but there's a lot off off-again/on-again and arguing and then a few years they're not together in the meantime

Anyway, re: spop: Fate and destiny are great but real happily ever afters would be so hard with everything that lead up to the end of the series

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>:( at myself for being like "oh it would take a year to write this" bc if I had actually done it I would be done by now pfffffft

(*Amedot)

#april writes #ehhhh I am not fandom-tagging this

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testudoaubrei-blog · 4 years ago

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Content note for discussions of eternal damnation, and all sorts of other shit that will trigger a lot of folks with religious trauma.

Before I get started I might as well explain where I’m coming from - unlike a lot of She-Ra fans, and a lot of queer people, I don’t have much religious trauma, or any, maybe (okay there were a number of years I was convinced I was going to hell, but that happens to everyone, right?). I was raised a liberal Christian by liberal Christian parents in the Episcopal Church, where most of my memories are overwhelmingly positive. Fuck, growing up in the 90’s, Chuch was probably the only place outside my home I didn’t have homophobia spewed at me. Because it was the 90’s and it was a fucking hellscape of bigotry where 5 year olds knew enough to taunt each other with homophobic slurs and the adults didn’t know enough to realize how fucked up that was. Anyway. This is my experience, but it is an atypical one, and I know it. Quite frankly I know that my experience of Christianity has very little at all to do with what most people experienced, or what people generally mean when they talk about Christianity as a cultural force in America today. So if you were raised Christian and you don’t recognize your theology here, congrats, neither do I, but these ideas and cultural forces are huge and powerful and dominant. And it’s this dominant Christian narrative that I’m referring to in this post. As well as, you know, a children’s cartoon about lesbian rainbow princesses. So here it goes. This is going to get batshit.

"All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God." - John Calvin

“We’re all just a bunch of wooly guys” - Noelle Stevenson

This is a post triggered by a single scene, and a single line. It’s one of the most fucked-up scenes in She-Ra, toward the end of Save the Cat. Catra, turned into a puppet by Prime, struggles with her chip, desperately trying to gain control of herself, so lost and scared and vulnerable that she flings aside her own death wish and her pride and tearfully begs Adora to rescue her. Adora reaches out , about to grab her, and then Prime takes control back, pronounces ‘disappointing’ and activates the kill switch that pitches Catra off the platform and to her death (and seriously, she dies here, guys - also Adora breaks both her legs in the fall). But before he does, he dismisses Catra with one of his most chilling lines. “Some creatures are meant only for destruction.”

And that’s when everyone watching probably had their heart broken a little bit, but some of the viewers raised in or around Christianity watching the same scene probably whispered ‘holy shit’ to themselves. Because Prime’s line - which works as a chilling and callous dismissal of Catra - is also an allusion to a passage from the Bible. In fact, it’s from one of the most fucked up passages in a book with more than its share of fucked up passages. It’s from Romans 9:22, and I’m going to quote several previous verses to give the context of the passage (if not the entire Epistle, which is more about who needs to abide by Jewish dietary restrictions but was used to construct a systematic theology in the centuries afterwards because people decided it was Eternal Truth).

19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

The context of the allusion supports the context in the show. Prime is dismissing Catra - serial betrayer, liar, failed conqueror, former bloody-handed warlord - as worthless, as having always been worthless and fit only to be destroyed. He is speaking from a divine and authoritative perspective (because he really does think he’s God, more of this in my TL/DR Horde Prime thing). Prime is echoing not only his own haughty dismissal of Catra, and Shadow Weaver’s view of her, but also perhaps the viewer’s harshest assessment of her, and her own worst fears about herself. Catra was bad from the start, doomed to destroy and to be destroyed. A malformed pot, cracked in firing, destined to be shattered against a wall and have her shards classified by some future archaeologist 2,000 years later. And all that’s bad enough.

But the full historical and theological context of this passage shows the real depth of Noelle Stevenson’s passion and thought and care when writing this show. Noelle was raised in Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christianity. To my knowledge, he has never specified what sect or denomination, but in interviews and her memoir Noelle has shown a particular concern for questions that this passage raises, and a particular loathing for the strains of Protestant theology that take this passage and run with it - that is to say, Calvinism. So while I’m not sure if Noelle was raised as a conservative, Calvinist Presbyterian, his preoccupation with these questions mean that it’s time to talk about Calvinism.

It would be unfair, perhaps, to say that Calvinism is a systematic theology built entirely upon the Epistles of Romans and Galatians, but only -just- (and here my Catholic readers in particular will chuckle to themselves and lovingly stroke their favorite passage of the Epistle of James). The core of Calvinist Doctrine is often expressed by the very Dutch acronym TULIP:

Total Depravity - people are wholly evil, and incapable of good action or even willing good thoughts or deeds

Unconditional Election - God chooses some people to save because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, not because they did anything to deserve, trigger or accept it

Limited Atonement - Jesus died only to save the people God chose to save, not the rest of us bastards

Irresistible Grace - God chooses some people to be saved - if you didn’t want to be saved, too bad, God said so.

Perseverance of the Saints - People often forget this one and assume it’s ‘predestination’ but it’s actually this - basically, once saved by God, always saved, and if it looks like someone falls out of grace, they were never saved to begin with. Well that’s all sealed up tight I guess.

Reading through these, predestination isn’t a single doctrine in Calvinism but the entire theological underpinnings of it together with humanity’s utter powerlessness before sin. Basically God has all agency, humanity has none. Calvinism (and a lot of early modern Protestantism) is obsessed with questions of how God saves people (grace alone, AKA Sola Fides) and who God saves (the people god elects and only the people God elects, and fuck everyone else).

It’s apparent that Noelle was really taken by these questions, and repelled by the answers he heard. He’s alluded to having a tattoo refuting the Gospel passage about Sheep and Goats being sorted at the end times, affirming instead that ‘we’re all just a bunch of wooly guys’ (you can see this goat tattoo in some of his self-portraits in comics, etc). He’s also mentioned that rejecting and subverting destiny is a huge part of everything he writes as a particular rejection of the idea that some individual people are 'chosen' by God or that God has a plan for any of us. You can see that -so clearly- in Adora’s arc, where Adora embraces and then rejects destiny time and again and finally learns to live life for herself.

But for Catra, we’re much more concerned about the most negative aspect of this - the idea that some people are vessels meant for destruction. And that’s something else that Noelle is preoccupied with. In her memoir in the section about leaving the church and becoming a humanistic atheist, there is a drawing of a pot and the question ‘Am I a vessel prepared for destruction?’ Obviously this was on Noelle’s mind (And this is before he came out to himself as queer!).

To look at how this question plays out in Catra’s entire arc, let’s first talk about how ideas of damnation and salvation actually play out in society. And for that I’m going to plug one of my favorite books, Gin Lun’s Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction (if you can tell by now, I am a fucking blast at parties). Lun tells the long and very interesting story about, how ideas of hell and who went there changed during the Early American Republic. One of the interesting developments that she talks about is how while at first people who were repelled by Calvinism started moving toward a doctrine of universal salvation (no on goes to hell, at least not forever*), eventually they decided that hell was fine as long as only the right kind of people went there. Mostly The Other - non-Christian foreigners, Catholics, Atheists, people who were sinners in ways that were not just bad but weird and violated Victorian ideas of respectability. Really, Hell became a way of othering people, and arguably that’s how it survives today, especially as a way to other queer people (but expanding this is slated for my Montero rant). Now while a lot of people were consciously rejecting Calvinist predestination, they were still drawing the distinction between the Elect (good, saved, worthwhile) and the everyone else (bad, damned, worthless). I would argue that secularized ideas of this survive to this day even among non-Christian spaces in our society - we like to draw lines between those who Elect, and those who aren’t.

And that’s what brings us back to Catra. Because Catra’s entire arc is a refutation of the idea that some people are worthless and irredeemable, either by nature, nurture or their own actions. Catra’s actions strain the conventions of who is sympathetic in a Kid’s cartoon - I’ve half joked that she’s Walter White as a cat girl, and it’s only half a joke. She’s cruel, self-deluded, she spends 4 seasons refusing to take responsibility for anything she does and until Season 5 she just about always chooses the thing that does the most damage to herself and others. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, the show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Catra is morally culpable in every step of her descent into evil (except maybe her break with reality just before she pulls the lever). The way that Catra personally betrays everyone around her, the way she strips herself of all of her better qualities and most of what makes her human, hell even her costume changes would signal in any other show that she’s irredeemable.

It’s tempting to see this as Noelle’s version of being edgy - pushing the boundaries of what a sympathetic character is, throwing out antiheroics in favor of just making the villain a protagonist. Noelle isn’t quite Alex ‘I am in the business of traumatizing children’ Hirsch, who seems to have viewed his job as pushing the bounds of what you could show on the Disney Channel (I saw Gravity Falls as an adult and a bunch of that shit lives rent free in my nightmares forever), but Noelle has his own dark side, mostly thematically. The show’s willingness to deal with abuse, and messed up religious themes, and volatile, passionate, not particularly healthy relationships feels pretty daring. I’m not joking when I gleefully recommend this show to friends as ‘a couple from a Mountain Goats Song fights for four seasons in a cartoon intended for 9 year olds’. Noelle is in his own way pushing the boundaries of what a kids show can do. If you read Noelle’s other works like Nimona, you see an argument for Noelle being at least a bit edgy. Nimona is also angry, gleefully destructive, violent and spiteful - not unlike Catra. Given that it was a 2010s webcomic and not a kids show, Nimona is a good deal worse than Catra in some ways - Catra doesn’t kill people on screen, while Nimona laughs about it (that was just like, a webcomic thing - one of the fan favorite characters in my personal favorite, Narbonic, was a fucking sociopath, and the heroes were all amoral mad scientists, except for the superintelligent gerbil**). But unlike Nimona, whose fate is left open ended, Catra is redeemed.

And that is weird. We’ve had redemption arcs, but generally not of characters with -so- much vile stuff in their history. Going back to the comparison between her and Azula, many other shows, like Avatar, would have made Catra a semi-sympathetic villain who has a sob-story in their origin but who is beyond redemption, and in so doing would articulate a kind of psychologized Calvinism where some people are too traumatized to ever be fully and truly human. I’d argue this is the problem with Azula as a character - she’s a fun villain, but she doesn’t have moral agency, and the ultimate message of her arc - that she’s a broken person destined only to hurt people - is actually pretty fucked up. And that’s the origin story of so many serial killers and psycopaths that populate so many TV shows and movies. Beyond ‘hurt people hurt people’ they have nothing to teach us except perhaps that trauma makes you a monster and that the only possible response to people doing bad things is to cut them out of your life and out of our society (and that’s why we have prisons, right?)

And so Catra’s redemption and the depths from which she claws herself back goes back to Noelle’s desire to prove that no person is a vessel ‘fitted for destruction.’ Catra goes about as far down the path of evil as we’ve ever seen a protagonist in a kids show go, and she still has the capacity for good. Importantly, she is not subject to total depravity - she is capable of a good act, if only one at first. Catra is the one who begins her own redemption (unlike in Calvinism, where grace is unearned and even unwelcomed) - because she wants something better than what she has, even if its too late, because she realizes that she never wanted any of this anyway, because she wants to do one good thing once in her life even if it kills her.

The very extremity of Catra’s descent into villainy serves to underline the point that Noelle is trying to make - that no one can be written off completely, that everyone is capable of change, and that no human being is garbage, no matter how twisted they’ve become. Meanwhile her ability to set her own redemption in motion is a powerful statement of human agency, and healing, and a refutation of Calvinism’s idea that we are powerless before sin or pop cultural tropes about us being powerful before the traumas of our upbringing. Catra’s arc, then, is a kind of anti-Calvinist theological statement - about the nature of people and the nature of goodness.

Now, there is a darker side to this that Noelle has only hinted at, but which is suggested by other characters on the show. Because while Catra’s redemption shows that people are capable of change, even when they’ve done horrible things, been fucked up and fucked themselves up, it also illustrates the things people do to themselves that make change hard. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, two of the most sinister parts of her descent into villainy are her self-dehumanization (crushing her own compassion and desire to do good) and her rewriting of her own history in her speech and memory to make her own actions seem justified (which we see with her insistence that Adora left her, eliding Adora’s offers to have Catra join her, or her even more clearly false insistence that Entrapta had betrayed them). In Catra, these processes keep her going down the path of evil, and allow her to nearly destroy herself and everyone else. But we can see the same processes at work in two much darker figures - Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime. These are both rants for another day, but the completeness of Shadow Weaver’s narcissistic self-justification and cultivated callousness and the even more complete narcissism of Prime’s god complex cut both characters off from everyone around them. Perhaps, in a theoretical sense, they are still redeemable, but for narrative purposes they might as well be damned.

This willingness to show a case where someone -isn’t- redeemed actually serves to make Catra’s redemption more believable, especially since Noelle and the writers draw the distinction between how Catra and SW/Prime can relate to reality and other people, not how broken they are by their trauma (unlike Zuko and Azula, who are differentiated by How Fucked Uolp They Are). Redemption is there, it’s an option, we can always do what is right, but someone people will choose not to, in part because doing the right thing involves opening ourselves to the world and others, and thus being vulnerable. Noelle mentions this offhandedly in an interview after Season 1 with the She-Ra Progressive of Power podcast - “I sometimes think that shades of grey, sympathetic villains are part of the escapist fantasy of shows like this.” Because in the real world, some people are just bastards, a point that was particularly clear in 2017. Prime and Shadow Weaver admit this reality, while Catra makes a philosophical point that even the bastards can change their ways (at least in theory).

*An idea first proposed in the second century by Origen, who’s a trip and a fucking half by himself, and an idea that becomes the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which protestants vehemently denied!

**Speaking of favorite Noelle tropes

#she ra horde prime #she ra #she ra catra #she ra spoilers #redemption arcs #toxic religion

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soranis-sunshadow · 4 years ago

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Entrapta deserved better

My posts are usually either detailed analysis or memes and shitposts.

I’ve re-watched the show and this will be an angry rant…

With every viewing of the show, Entrapta’s arc makes me progressively angrier because I empathize with her so much.

She is introduced to the show as being a reclusive scientist, known throughout the Maker’s guild for her genius. Even her staff is weary of her. She spends all her time alone with her robot friends in her lab within her isolated castle.

The alliance interacts with her with the explicit purpose of recruiting her into their war effort. They want her for her ability to build weapons for them. That’s as deep as the relationship goes this far.

Entrapta has no stakes in the war, the Horde hadn’t attacked Dryl. She joins them because she wants to be their friend; she wants to help them in the only way she knows how, using her technological prowess to their benefit. Due to her isolation (and her being autistic), Entratpa struggles to understand interpersonal dynamics. Human interaction is a skill she has had little practical experience with. She understands the concepts, the rules of the game, so to speak, but she has seen it in play only as a third party rarely ever practicing it herself.

She’s invited to the Princess prom due to her princes status but she’s an outsider there too. No “friendly” princess seeks her out to hang out with her as a friend would. The only person who does so is Catra, and she does it for her own reasons…

With Glimmer abducted, the alliance mounts a half-baked rescue operation. Everything Entrapta did in this episode had a purpose, it looked like she kept getting distracted when in actuality, she was studying horde tech, rescuing Seahawk and furthering their mission and she had no time to explain herself (it also occurs to me that Entrapta might not explain herself because no one asked and no one ever understands her reasoning anyway) The princesses try to control her because she’s being “difficult”. They don’t care why she’s being difficult, they want her to conform.

Once they rescued Glimmer, they don’t even come back to check if Entrapta’s actually dead, or to get her remains and put them to rest respectfully. They allready have the princess they came for.

Entrapta is all alone with her new robot friend Emily in the Frightzone vents, expecting that she’d get rescued because “no princess left behind” but rescue never actually comes.

Catra uses this new abandonment to convince her to switch sides. Entrapta didn’t jump ship because of her tech hyperfixation, she switched sides because Catra used her skill at pinpointing someone’s weak-spot and poking at it.

Catra may not have been Shadow Weaver’s favorite ward (she was her scapegoat and punching bag, the poor girl) but she did learn from her and repeatedly put those skills to “good” use.

Once they find out she’s alive, the alliance wants to rescue her but she’s made new friends in the Horde and she think that they understand her fascination with science, friends that actually interact with her directly. She actually feels included here and as such, she’s not eager to return to the alliance’s side.

Entrapta befriends Catra and Scorpia but even in this trio, she is the third wheel. Catra is focused on herself, her ascension in The Horde and on her missing Adora. Scorpia is focused on Catra and on pinning for her.

Once Entrapta and Hordak start growing closer together, Catra stops talking to her. Perhaps she was hurt because Entrapta “broke her promise” to not go in Hordak’s sanctum, perhaps she was envious of her closeness to the Horde leader, or perhaps both, either way, the friendship is broken from Catra’s side. Entrapta still sees her as a friend and fights Hordak over the decision to send her to Beast Island. Despite his grouchiness, he considers her request and grants it.

As recompense for saving her life, Catra backstabs Entrapta when she tried to stop Catra from triggering a potentially world ending event and then sends her to the fate Entrapta saved her from: exile on Beast Island.

When faced with the choice between Catra and Entrapta, Scorpia choses Catra. Hordak is lied to so he doesn’t know to look for her, he believed she used him and is heartbroken about it.

You can actually pinpoint the moment his little heart breaks in this scene:

Even so, he spends most of season 4 wanting to face her; he’d rather see her as an enemy than not see her at all.

After Catra proves herself a bad friend, (after months) Scorpia finally decides to rescue Entrapta and goes looking for help, deserting to the alliance. She has this little realization:

Adora is the only person that actually wants to go right away and rescue her. Bow wants to rescue her because they need her tech savvy and Glimmer says that they can rescue her after the war or something… (the Island she’s on is a death trap, she might not live that long for all they know)

she said this

then this

She knows that this is a time sensitive issue but she wants to put it off despite the urgency, if that doesn’t sound like friendship to you, then what does? *sarcasm intensifies*

Contrast this with how the villain of the show reacted to the news of her being sent to Beast Island:

On Beast Island Bow gives her a longwinded speech about how she’s supposed to work harder at friendship. I know he’s projecting his own issues here but it still makes me so damn angry. Entrapta’s trying; she’s trying so hard, no one ever tries back! No one makes the effort to understand her (except that one clone but we’re not talking about him), she has to conform to their expectations, the reverse is never applicable.

Anyway, stuff happens and Glimmer is abducted again, by Horde Prime this time.

Then that whole “Lauch” episode happened. Entrapta is distrusted by the alliance more than Scorpia is. She is seen and cold and interested only in tech, she has to explain and redeem herself in their eyes after they treat her like rubbish. They don’t connect the fact that helping them with tech is how she shows her friendship.

It’s the only thing she thinks she’s worth to them. She wants to be accepted by them so badly.

Entrapta gets emotional over rescuing Glimmer!

The person who when faced with the same prospect, said she’d do it later…

Even Catra’s apology to Entrapta for trying to kill her is a blank “I’m sorry”. Pls say what exactly you are sorry for Catra. Entrapta deserves that much. Bow received a better apology for far less of an offense.

All she ever does in the show is work towards furthering someone else’s goals, her own are always a second thought. As @cruelfeline pointed out, even a small scene with her discussing what happened with Hordak, her reaction to it and the gang focusing on Entrapta’s troubles for ONCE , even if it’s just offering her emotional support, would have meant so much.

Why is the show trying to tell me that Entrapta should work on being a better friend?

That's a terrible message!

She doesn't need to work harder on her friends, she NEEDS BETTER FRIENDS.

So many of us ND people end up being third wheels at best and we blame that on ourselves, we internalize the reasoning that our friendship fail because we’re weird and we’re not doing it right. That we’re the ones that have to try harder to be understood and that our concerns should come second. That is a terrible thing to internalize, we are blaming ourselves constantly because we try to understand others and they never try to understand us back.

With age, I’ve grown out of trying and being different so that other people would like me. They’d end up liking the mask I project, not me anyway. I’ve found people that understand me and that like me for who I am, but only after I’ve stopped trying to be “better” for others to accept me. With being honestly “weird” with those around me, I’ve been accepted far more than for trying to fit in. And I’ve realized that people that shun my otherness are not worth the effort to try and befriend in the first pace .

That is what young autistics need to hear, not “git gud” at friendship. You are not wrong, you are not defective or broken, you are you and you’re beautiful just the way you are. If other people don’t see that, then the failing is theirs. Don’t change, just look for people that see you.

#Entrapta #SPOP discourse #rant on how society expects autistics to conform to normality

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princessofgayskull · 4 years ago

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our secret moments, in your crowded room

a catradora drabble, with some glow on the side.

summary: Adora contemplates the before and after of the war when Catra pulls her into a closet from some alone time.

Adora never really let herself think about what would come after war was over. It wasn’t like she wasn’t aware that other people did; Glimmer and Bow had bucket lists of places to see, legendary people they wanted to meet, exotic meals they’d only heard tales of that they wanted to try when they weren’t checking bow tension or practicing purple arrays that had to be flawless on the battlefield. But for her best friends, as for most of the Princess Alliance, it was a “when” the war was over. Adora carried the mantle of She Ra and the debilitating guilt and anxiety that came with the responsibility (and served to exasperate her own), so it was always an “if” the war was over. If the Rebellion had one won it. If the grand sacrifice to come at the end wasn’t at Adora’s own hands.

In the rarer quiet moments they were all spared Adora would try to reach past the if for the when. She would close her eyes and picture the beginning after the end. Never could her mind form a full image. A pain would surround her heart and then that pain would spread as if it were an infection throughout her entire body, begging her to stop picturing a life she might not even get to see. A pain Adora couldn’t put a name to until Entrapta established that communication line on Mara’s ship and the first voice she heard was Catra’s, calling out her name like it was a shot in the dark.

Adora never thought about the end of the war, the after the war, what would come after her destiny was finally fulfilled and she could rest. Because she couldn’t just keep making promises she couldn’t keep only to have them shatter. One after the other.

And so when the “after” does come, and Catra is pulling her gently by the hand into a broom closet, Adora isn’t thinking either. Her thoughts that go around in circles can’t do the end of the war justice: the healing of Etheria, the chains of magic broken, the girl she loved for so many more years than she hasn’t waking up in the same bed, purring when she opens her eyes and Adora is right there. Adora tries to focus on where she is right now, her brain broken by the strength and intensity that Catra uses to push her against the wall, her mismatched irises glowing even in the dark. Her knee comes between Adora’s legs, the sound of her claws retracting hits Adora’s ears as Catra’s hands fly into her hair and Adora finishes what she’s started when she caresses Catra’s jaw and meets her lips.

They’re in a broom closet in the kitchen of Bright Moon’s castle disturbing dust as they move together, Catra’s lips exploring Adora’s jaw like uncharted territory she intends to claim. They’ve been caught in these secret moments before, and somewhere in the back of Adora’s melting mind she knows this is not a safe hiding place.

She laughs, “We’re gonna get caught, Catra.”

“I don’t care,” murmurs Catra against her neck, her purring vibrating through Adora’s whole body, “I have you all to myself. Sparkles and Arrow Boy can have you back when I’m done with you.”

It’s hard to argue with her. It’s really hard to argue with her when they haven’t had time together to be alone in six days (what? Adora wasn’t counting, what are you talking about?) and Adora wants this just as badly as Catra does. She wants to indulge this selfishness, wants to have the normalcy of making out with her girlfriend in a closet, the thrill of sneaking around electrifying every touch.

They’ve got places to be; post war meetings, the council for rebuilding Etheria, Perfuma’s yoga class. But Adora has been the planet’s and the princess’ responsible hero for way too long with way too little reward. And right now, she doesn’t want to worry about the hickeys she’s going to be hiding from curious, authoritative eyes later on. This is Adora’s after, and right now she wants to hear Catra say in that breathless voice that she’s actually a really good kisser. She wants to kiss her girlfriend until they’re out of breath and drunk off each other.

So she does.

“So then my dad and I were thinking about going up to Mystacor, but just for the weekend, since I am the queen and all.”

“Well, you guys do deserve some time off. You and your dad have been working harder than almost anyone in Bright Moon. I think you should go Glimmer.”

“Aww, thanks Bow. I appreciate you saying that.”

Adora’s eyes fly open, her intense concentration broken by the sound of the other half of the Best Friend Squad entering the kitchen. She sees Catra’s ears perk up, then flatten in annoyance as she realizes why Adora has stopped kissing her. Claws sliding down from the bottom of Adora’s skull to underneath her chin, Catra lets out an inaudible sigh as she breaks away from Adora, her nose twitching.

It’s everything Adora can do to stay completely still. Catra’s lips on hers, her fingers exploring her toned torso, have undone her and with her girlfriend’s chest still pressed against hers, those warrior instincts and a soldier’s composure have long left Adora to fend for herself. Her gaze flies to the left of her and then to the right; the wall Catra has her pushed up against is lined with brooms and mops and Adora’s elbow is inches away next to a slanted mop handle.

Catra runs her knuckles under her nose. Adora sucks in a breath. They just have to make it a few minutes, Bow and Glimmer usually move along as long as they’re not alerted to any- BANG!

The mop hits the floor.

“What was that?”

Throwing her head back, Catra makes a face that has a counter argument on Adora’s tongue immediately- seriously, she didn’t even move! And maybe if Catra’s whole body wasn’t up against hers Adora would be able to control the way she was shaking- but she keeps herself silent. Somehow. They don’t let go of each other.

“Is that- did you make a really tiny bow and arrow set and you’ve just been carrying it around?” they hear Glimmer ask Bow and Catra stifles a snicker.

“Well, now that we’re not at war anymore I don’t need to carry my actual bow and quiver around, so, yeah. Fortune favors the prepared.”

“Uh, it’s fortune favors the brave, Bow.”

“It is?”

The familiar sound of Glimmer’s hands forming an array hits Adora’s ears. “Let’s just open the door.”

Catra and Adora exchange a panicked look, knowing that for this to look innocent they have to abandon this position in the next three seconds, but in the dark Adora’s not sure how- and where- to move away from her girlfriend. They’re tangled limbs and popped collars and messy hair, and there’s no way to fix that in the dwindling seconds. Again, Adora’s elbow hits something in her effort to at least try, and before she can think the word slips from her mouth, “Ow!”

“Uh, Adora is that you?”

A weighted pause passes before,

“No.”

It’s not like Adora meant to say anything. In hindsight it’s nothing but clear that the smart move would’ve been to force her lips together and pray Bow and Glimmer walked away. But in her unraveled state Adora is not one for thinking through her actions, or her words, and that’s one hundred percent on Catra for reducing her to this condition.

“Did you seriously just say ‘no?’” Catra, nose wiggling, mouths at her with wide eyes. The irritation and disbelief is obvious, readable even in the low light. Adora rolls her eyes because they were going to get caught anyway and she did try to warn Catra of that very fact before her girlfriend started doing amazing things with her tongue.

“What’re you doing in there, Adora?” Bow prods again.

“Uh…” Adora tries to summon some depth in her voice in hopes what she’s saying will be more believable, “I’m uh, I’m looking for stuff to clean with? I made a mess back in my room when I was… making my bed?”

Catra sends her a look, swatting the back of Adora’s with her tail. Adora, against all odds, swallows the giggle rising in her throat. Disheveled and disgruntled, this is the cutest state Adora’s seen her girlfriend since the mission on Krytis.

“Making your bed?” Glimmer repeats back, her disbelief made obvious by her tone. “Since when do you have to make your bed Adora? It’s like, a cot and a pillow!”

“Is Catra in there with you?”

Knowing Bow would as that next, Adora is prepared this time around. “Nope! It’s just me!”

“Then why is the door closed?”

“I uh, I just like it that way!”

There. That had to be convincing, right? Except when Adora looks down to turn the tables on Catra, smugness written in her expression, Catra’s hands are falling from Adora’s hips and she’s sucking in a bracing breath. Tears form in the corner of her eyes as Catra brings her hands to cover her mouth.

Oh no, is all Adora can think.

“Achoo!”

The sound of Catra’s “completely normal sneeze” fills up the tiny broom closet they’ve squeezed themselves into and if it hadn’t completely blown their cover Adora would’ve sworn the sight of her girlfriend in that second sent her slipping farther into love. She lets herself laugh- under her breath- even when Catra’s tail starts wapping her again.

The door flies open and suddenly they way they’re still pressed together is illuminated in the light of Bow and Glimmer’s newfound righteous attitude. “Busted!” Glimmer practically sings.

“Yeah, yeah,” Catra brushes her off, her hand coming up Adora’s back, “you caught us. You happy now?”

“More like confused.” started Bow.

“Why are you guys in this closet?” finished Glimmer.

“I dunno, it just happened.” Adora smiled, placing her chin on top of Catra’s head, taking guilty pleasure in the way her ears brushed against her cheeks.

“Okay,”

“Wait,” Glimmer throws Adora a glare, “aren’t you supposed to be meeting with Scorpia and Huntara about the deconstruction of the Fright Zone right now, Adora?”

“Yeah, and Catra, isn’t Perfuma’s yoga class happening right now?” asked Bow.

“We just wanted a break,” Catra groaned. Adora nodded in agreement, running her fingers against the low of Catra’s back. Although Bow and Glimmer had no qualms (and complete success) in ruining their moment, Adora’s train of thought was fuzzy and far away. The warmth in her chest- and on it, too- kept Adora back in the seconds before when it was just them, and it was just the feeling and not the thinking. No, she didn’t have any animosity towards her friends but she was, in the back of her mind, willing them to postpone their teasing for another time.

“And maybe something else?” Glimmer didn’t hold back in her unabashed hinting and Catra turned a clawed finger on her in the blink of an eye.

“If you say anything about us ditching, to anyone so help me Sparkles, and I will tell all of your dads what I caught you and Rainbow up to during the intermission of DT’s last one-actor garbage play!”

Pride and love lapped at Adora’s heart, and as she hugged her girlfriend closer she added “I bet Castaspella would also love to hear all about it, too.”

“Okay,” Bow was a blushing mess as he threw his hands up, “ that’s enough with the threats!”

“You told Adora, Catra?” Glimmer’s jaw dropped in betrayal.

“Yeah, duh.”

“There was a lot of detail,” Adora snickered against Catra’s head.

“You know what,” Glimmer’s hands formed into fists and those fists were glowing pink before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “maybe we should just leave them alone, Bow.”

“I’m starting to think that’s for the best.” the archer sighed in defeat.

“But you better be at the post war council meeting tonight! Both of you! And Adora!” Glimmer stopped herself from storming away, turning on her heel to add one more thing.

“Yes?” Adora paused, waiting for the next part of Glimmer’s demand.

“Wear a concealer that actually matches the color of your neck this time.”

“Ha ha-” Catra started to tease, only for her nose to betray her again, “Achoo!”

“Still the cutest sneeze in the world-”

“Get out, Bow!”

Catra didn’t even wait for him to do as she’d asked. Taking this frustrating situation into her own hands, Adora’s girlfriend reached out and slammed the door in their retreating faces, leaving them in the dark once more. Alone, and together, once more. Those glowing irises met up with Adora’s as Catra cradled her face, and just like that Adora let go of any thought or feeling that wasn’t Catra. As long as she made sure to make nice with Bow and Glimmer later, she saw no fault in justifying drawing this secret moment out just a little longer.

“Next time, I’ll make sure to have Melog.” Catra whispered into the crook of her neck.

“Uh,” Adora scoffed with the widest smile on her face, “Melog is not gonna stop you from sneezing.”

Catra’s turned her head up to glare at her, “Then pick a better closet, moron!”

“You picked this closet!”

“Ughhh, shut up, Adora!” sighing, Catra threw her head back and though she knew she might be pushing it, Adora couldn’t resist it.

“You wanna make me? I mean, unless we need to leave because the dust in here is making you sneeze-” but Adora didn’t finish her offer. Her sentence was caught off by the sudden presence of Catra’s lips back on hers and Adora sighed, leaning into the kiss in full.

Before the war ended, these were the moments Adora’s imagination was so far from being able to conjure. This, the taste of Catra’s lips and the feel of her tongue, was not the sweetness of victory Adora pictured when she tried to force herself beyond her own mental barriers. In some capacity, she wondered as Catra’s hand traveled back up her neck and into her hair, that if she had known back in the before, that this was after, if she would’ve come so close to giving up if Catra had not pulled her back up and out of the darkness before it could completely consume her.

There was no telling how the before would’ve changed if Adora had been granted more glimpses of the after. It was pointless to waste this moment lost in those thoughts when Adora could lose herself in this embrace of love and trust and intimacy. All these feelings that had taught Adora why people started wars in the first place, and why they fought so hard to win them. So that they could have an after just like this one.

Adora could not go back and change the way she’d fought in the past, but she could fight to keep what she had now. And between the demands of She Ra and rebuilding and the need for her to be in ten places at once, Adora’s number one priority was right here in her arms.

Lifting Catra’s chin up with her finger, Adora pulled away from her and smiled. “Hey,” she whispered, “I love you.”

“Hmm, dummy,” Catra returned her expression, so much warmth and love in her eyes. Adora never wanted to let go. “I love you, too.”

reblogs > likes

#catradora #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #spoilers #catra x adora #adora #catra #see! i *can* write short things!#my writing #i'll do another part of this if you guys want-with melog #and from catra's pov #also if you want i'll put it on ao3 #reblogs > likes #spop spoilers

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johannas-motivational-insults · 4 years ago

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So I don’t mean this argumentatively, I’m just genuinely confused & would like to understand this. I also struggle with empathy & take things very literally, so that could be part of why I’m not understanding. But where is Catra shown to be empathetic or compassionate? I understand that her abuse informs a lot of her actions and that’s why she is impulsive, lies, and manipulates others in the earlier seasons- they’re survival tactics that she got from SW + growing up in the Horde.

But I didn’t notice her going out of her way for others unless it could also benefit her in some way. I’ve also seen people say that she died in the process of sending Glimmer to Adora, & therefore deserves redemption because she made the ultimate sacrifice, only to then be saved and effectively made to work on her behavior and become a better person. And that would be all well & good, except we don’t really see her working on her behavior, except in the scene where she’s telling Adora that she’s working on her anger, and in the scene where she asks her to stay. I’m also not sure that she actually died, though I have heard a lot of people saying that. And I get that it’s called a redemption arc for a reason, & that the implication is that she will continue to work on her behavior and be better, but I just don’t know that we saw enough of that in the show.

So the thing with Catra is that a lot of this is pretty subtle. And as I said in the other ask that I assume you’re referring to with this, she’s often driven by a mix of selfish and unselfish motives. You’re correct that a lot of the times she does things for other people could also be seen as selfish moves because there’s something in it for her too, but that’s not always true and even when it is it doesn’t mean that that empathy or care for other people isn’t there.

Some examples of times when she shows empathy/care for others while also helping herself:

Gives Adora the sword so she and Glimmer can escape in 1x09, which is a kindness to Adora but also allows Catra to keep her job and her power (even if it breaks her heart to give up on bringing Adora back)

Warns Entrapta to stay out of Hordak’s sanctum and chases Entrapta down when she defies her in 2x03, which seems to be a mix of not wanting to deal with an angry Hordak herself and protecting a rather oblivious Entrapta from getting into trouble

(Note that in both of these examples she does this in a rather brusque or mean way, hiding her concern, but the subtext is there if you watch closely)

However, there are also many instances where Catra helps other people despite there not only being nothing in it for her, but when it’s actually against her own interests. Here’s the ones I can think of off the top of my head (but I’m sure there’s more):

Lies about Adora’s whereabouts and then her identity as She-Ra early in season 1 to protect her from the Horde, even after she’s promoted to Force Captain, which is dangerous not only to her career but to her life and limb

Tries to comfort her abuser Shadow Weaver when she sees her in distress in 1x04 and 1x10, the former instance right after Shadow Weaver gears up to attack her and "drag the truth” from her mind (anyone less empathetic would run away or even gloat)

Brings Shadow Weaver her old badge in 2x06 as a final favor when SW is about to be shipped away for good, despite it possibly being something that could get her in trouble and there being nothing in it for her (and in fact if she’s as selfish and callous as some say she’d deny SW this closure out of spite)

Turns down Scorpia’s offer to break her out of prison in 3x01, which seems to be entirely for Scorpia’s benefit as Catra has nothing to lose at this point (people just don’t see the compassion in this because she drives Scorpia away in a mean way to ensure she actually leaves)

Doesn’t tell Hordak that Scorpia “broke the recordings” that were inside Emily in 4x06, lies and says there was nothing, which turns Hordak’s anger on her instead of Scorpia (this perhaps is also motivated by guilt over how she just yelled at Scorpia and said awful things to her -- like I said, Catra is complicated -- but alleviating her guilt doesn’t help her situation at all so that’s borderline)

If you want, there’s a whole tweet thread of instances of Catra showing care and empathy for others. Some of these are weaker than others and the list may not be complete, but they’re all there for your consideration.

In addition to the things she does for other people, a lot of this is in her body language. If you really watch Catra, you can see that being cruel does not come naturally to her and she feels conflicted about a lot of her choices (or is straight up haunted by them, like her nightmare about betraying Entrapta in 4x03). Likewise, you often see her expression soften when she sees someone in distress. There are so many examples, it’s something baked into her character and it’s evident throughout the show, even when she’s at her lowest. But I think people often miss these moments because she usually shoves that initial reaction down and reacts in a way that on paper just makes her look like a cruel villain. For instance, she has a particularly guilt-stricken moment in 4x12 when Kyle calls her out for treating her old squad badly before she reacts by shoving that guilt down and reasserting her power, as that’s the only thing protecting her.

You have to understand that Catra was taught both implicitly and explicitly that compassion and vulnerability are weaknesses. And throughout the show, oftentimes when she does open up or do something for someone else it results in her being hurt/betrayed. Shadow Weaver in 2x06 and Double Trouble in 4x13 teach her that trusting people and allowing them in is dangerous and only ends in pain and devastation (and with Shadow Weaver, it teaches her the same lesson about showing mercy). When she spirals into her homocidal/suicidal breakdown starting in 3x03 it’s because she finds out Shadow Weaver left her to join the rebellion, just like Adora, and that Bright Moon is now harboring her abuser (as she understands it). Thing is, that all happens just as she’s starting to open up to and actually befriend Scorpia, and even though Scorpia isn’t the one who hurt her it still reinforces that pattern that vulnerability and kindness comes before a horrible, life-shattering event. Because of all this, she hides the empathy and kindness intrinsic to her actual character under layers of power and cruelty to protect her broken heart from being hurt again and protect herself from getting removed from power, because that’s the only thing keeping her from becoming someone’s abuse victim again after so many years suffering under Shadow Weaver’s heel.

I totally hear you about wishing there was a bit more to Catra’s redemption arc, but much like the rest of her emotional arc a lot of it is implicit. I’m very glad they added that one moment where she talks about working on her anger as well as her mini arc with Perfuma in 5x10 that culminated in Perfuma’s speech about learning to be vulnerable so you can be happy. But there’s lots of smaller moments buried in the season too, where we see her conflicted and struggling with these impulses of protecting herself vs. opening up or showing kindness. I mean, her half of 5x06 was basically about that too, though that’s only the beginning of this journey. Having Melog around was great too because they not only mirror her emotions for the audience to see but also help her process said emotions. Basically, the redemption is a process for her and a lot of it is not super explicit but in the end I think we have all we need to understand who Catra really is and that she wants to do better and is going to continue to in the future.

Really, Catra’s redemption arc is not so much about making up for what she did (which I and many others wish there was more of but oh well) as it is about rediscovering her true self and honoring that, learning to be vulnerable and kind again. In the end, her willingness to open herself up to potential rejection and loss and her kindness and love motivating her to help Adora get to the Heart and complete her mission are what ended up saving the universe, and that was a very intentional choice by the creators. Catra’s journey is not about coming back to Adora, it’s about coming back to herself, and I think that’s beautiful.

#spop #she-ra #she ra #catra #catrademption #redemption arc #catradora #abuse survivor psychology #asks #anon

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invisible-pink-toast · 2 years ago

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🥀🍎 angst time!!! ⚡️but mayhaps ending with something less angsty...?

Thank you!!

🥀 favorite angst quote from a published work

for angst i think i’ll have to go back to my first fanfic on ao3 - Starstruck

Adora took a breath to steady herself before talking but Catra cuts her off before she can start.

‘Don’t.’

‘Catra-‘

‘No. We’re not supposed to talk about it.’

Adora turned her head to look at her. Catra’s hands are clenched around her arms, the claws starting to dig in. Adora reached out and gently places her own hand over her friends’. Catra started and looked down, loosening her grip on her arms. She looked up at Adora, eyes wide and vulnerable.

Adora squeezed her hand. ‘The team’s not supposed to talk about stuff like that. But Catra, I’m not the team. You know you can trust me, I’m always going to be here for you.’ Their eyes are still locked, Catra hanging on her every word. ‘Just talk to me,’ she whispered. And that breaks Catra’s trance.

She sat up suddenly, eyes hard. ‘What do you want me to say, Adora? Huh? You want a tear felt confession? You wanna wrap this all up so you can go back to bed? I don’t need to talk about it!’

🍎 favorite angst quote from a wip

this is from my ‘sad tangled au’ that i’ve mentioned before, which is now called “miles to go before i sleep”

‘Does it hurt? When someone’s hung from the neck?’ Rapunzel asks.

‘I-’ Arianna falters. ‘I assume so.’

Rapunzel turns to her, eyes wide. ‘But it’s over quickly?’

Arianna’s troubled. With the question or the answer or with her, Rapunzel can’t tell. But she needs to know. ‘It… can take a few minutes.’ Arianna says eventually.

Rapunzel turns back to the fire. Death by hanging, death by stabbing, death by turning to dust. Everything was agonising and drawn out.

‘His death wasn’t quick.’ She whispers, tears sliding down her face.

‘Whose death?’ Arianna asks.

It’s silent, Rapunzel can’t get any words out, feeling choked by her grief. But someone has already put the pieces together.

‘Your Eugene.’ Says a deep voice behind her.

⚡️ wild card: dealer's choice of quote from a completed work

for “less angsty” i’m gonna have to go with my favourite - Would You Be So Kind

But then her rambling is finally cut off, and every thought Marinette’s ever had flies right out of her head - because Chloé steps forwards, agonisingly close, and whispers, ‘Can I kiss you?’

Marinette’s heart skips in surprise, barely able to believe she just heard that, but absolutely sure of what she wants. Words fail her but she manages a nod in confirmation.

So Chloé leans in, her expression desperate and wanting and reckless, cups Marinette’s cheek in her hand and presses their lips together.

And Marinette is helpless, her stomach swooping, her heart pounding and she’s pretty sure she might’ve just burst into flames because Chloé Bourgeois is kissing her. Like, really kissing her. It’s a little messy and uncoordinated and just perfect. It’s all Marinette can do to close her eyes and kiss her back. Chloé makes a small sound of delight at the feeling, and Marinette clutches Chloé’s wrist because she needs something to ground her when she can’t tell if she feels like she’s falling or flying.

Chloé pulls back slightly, close enough that Marinette can feel her breath on her lips, and when Marinette’s eyes open, half-lidded and blinking, Chloé’s incredulous, overjoyed face is the only thing she sees.

‘I love you too.’ Chloé breathes. ‘Of course I love you too, Mari, I am so in love with you.’

Ask game

#thanks!#my fics #ask game

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ericamzdm · 4 years ago

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S1E1 and Emotional Abuse

Apparently my feelings do expand beyond five screenshots.

So! I’m going to take the Catra/Adora segments from the first ten minutes of SheRa apart, with a focus on Adora. It’s going to be dry, and it’s going to be talking about emotional manipulation and abuse at length, so please feel free to stop reading if that’s not something you want to deal with.

Frankly, the Adora/Catra content in S1E1 makes my skin crawl on a re-watch. It’s not that I don’t like the characters - I’m actually quite fond of both of them! But this episode is extremely on the nose about what it’s means to be raised in an abusive environment, and how easy it is to perpetrate abuse when it permeates your sense of what is normal and how things work.

Before we get into the episode itself, a definition. (I did say this was going to be dry)

Abuse is:

Intentional - Accidents aren’t abuse. (although abusers will lie about intent)

Harmful/Controlling (to/of the victim) - harm/control is the primary mechanism abusers use to obtain their goal, rather than an incidental effect.

Beneficial (to the abuser) - Abuse is perpetrated to get the abuser something, even if just a ‘thrill of power’.

If it doesn’t hit all three, it may be bad, and it may make the perpetrator a jackass, but it’s almost certainly not abuse.

The first relevant scene is where Catra is late to class (sorry, “evaluation”). Adora’s “Where’s Catra/*scoffs* Not again/She’ll be here, I promise” is, in itself, fairly benign, but already shows that Adora’s concern for Catra veers into controlling territory. Who is she, to make promises on Catra’s behalf?

Catra eventually does show up, and we get a lengthy ‘playful banter’ sequence that almost reassures you that their relationship is reasonably normal and healthy. They have in-jokes! And laugh! And give/take jabs in good faith!

And then Shadow Weaver shows up. And this happens.

Just to be very clear here. Adora physically dragged a visibly uncomfortable Catra into an encounter with someone who we shortly learn (and Adora is fully aware) is her abuser.

BREAKING FOR A PSA: The above ALONE makes her a fundamentally unsafe person for an abuse victim/survivor to be around. I have cut people from my life for this kind of thing. DON’T FORCE PEOPLE INTO UNWANTED INTERACTIONS. IT IS SUPER UNCOOL.[/PSA]

*coughs* We now return you to an overwrought analysis of a Y7 cartoon...

Let’s review that definition of abuse!

Is Shadow Weaver acting with intent to cause harm as a way to benefit herself?

It sure seems like it! The intent and harm are self-evident. The benefit is a little harder to grasp - but ‘thrill of power’/intimidation would cover it.

Conclusion: Shadow Weaver is abusive. Also, the sky is blue!

Now, the more interesting question: Is Adora acting with intent to cause harm as a way to benefit herself?

...and (While the PSA holds) the answer is probably no. While the interaction wasn’t an accident, it’s pretty clear that the way it played out, and the harm caused, were not Adora’s intent. This wasn’t, strictly speaking, abusive.

It was, however, negligence and intentional ignorance that borders on abuse. Catra clearly knew how this was going to roll. Adora doesn’t exactly seem shocked by Shadow Weaver’s actions. So what the heck did she think she was doing?

The bright, happy explanation: Adora wanted her friend to be rewarded for her good work! She was being kind and selfless! She believes that Shadow Weaver is ultimately fair and rewards merit, because she’s just too intrinsically good to imagine a world that works any other way!

The ...less bright and happy explanation: Adora wants/needs Catra to be fairly rewarded, not for Catra’s benefit (“I thought you didn’t care about that!” is a refrain that will come up), but for her own. Adora needs to believe that the Horde/SW are as meritocratic as they claim to be, because if they are not, then her own accomplishments are meaningless favouritism; and to accept that would be an unrecoverable blow to her ego. So, into the line of fire Catra goes!

Catra rolls over, Shadow Weaver turns to exit and we get ...ugh, this.

A visibly distressed throughout Catra pulls herself together enough to manage a half-hearted ‘It’s Fine’ shrug at Adora’s Questioning Look. Adora blithely accepts the shrug with that smile (”Oh good, everything is okay!”).

This time, the disregard for Catra’s emotional state does slip over that border into abusive/manipulative territory. Adora is seeking (intent) reassurance/absolution (benefit) that requires Catra to bury/sublimate her own distress(Harm). The smile is the clincher - it’s what makes it clear that, from Adora’s perspective, this was the desired/expected response. Now Adora can run after Shadow Weaver guilt-free, looking for her Good Girl Cookies!

Not going to cover the hallway sequence in depth; will just note that it is itself a laundry list of abuse and abuse flags. Shadow Weaver is just all around awful, really.

A friendly reminder that this next Catra/Adora scene starts with Catra being happy for Adora! Tickled pink! Adora is going up in the world! They need to celebrate!

The upset comes when Catra is informed that, not only is she not getting an equitable reward to Adora, despite equal performance (It’s fine. She doesn’t care. she does She knows that was never going to happen.), but that she’s not getting any reward at all. And yeah, that’s upsetting! It’s grossly unfair, even by Shadow Weaver standards (we are led to infer). “What is her problem with [Catra]?”

(Unsurprisingly, neither of them recognize ‘separate the victim from their support structure’ as the blatant abuse tactic that it is, rather than anything they could have had a hope of influencing.)

And Adora comes up with this. This right here.

This is well over the line into manipulative/abusive - Adora is blaming Catra (harm) with the implicit goal (intent) of avoiding addressing the fundamentally unfair nature of the situation (benefit).

As above - Adora’s self-worth hinges on the rewards she receives being ‘valid’. If she accepts that they aren’t - that her success is a product of favouritism (or, you know, victim grooming) - it would shatter her.

But this defence mechanisms is actively harmful to Catra; it prevents Adora from acknowledging Catra’s treatment as unfair/abusive. Rewards in the Horde must be fair; if Catra is not being rewarded, it must be because of something that Catra has chosen to do/not do, just like Shadow Weaver said.

(The Just World hypothesis is a heck of a thing.)

Oh, hey, we’ve got the first instance of Catra being genuinely mean. It just took Adora victim blaming her.

So, is this abuse? Let’s see.

The harm is easy - Adora is upset at being called a people pleaser.

The intent - Well. Catra is clearly aware that this will upset Adora, but is upsetting Adora her goal? And...I don’t think it is, really. Catra’s intent - her desire - is to have Adora admit she enjoys and seeks validation. That she is, in fact, a people pleaser.

And this is basic Hierarchy of Needs stuff? It’s like wanting someone to admit that they enjoy food and shelter. Of course she does! Everyone does! Adora’s denial here is low-key bonkers, and speaks to her dysfunctions around love and validation.

So what we have is: “Catra wants (intent) Adora to admit she benefits from the validation she receives, and thus acknowledge Catra’s lack of validation as hurtful (benefit)”. This isn’t abuse, because the harm is incidental. The upset Adora experiences isn’t necessary (and is in fact interfering with the goal).

All Adora had to do to defuse this was say “Yes, I do like being rewarded. It sucks and is unfair that you weren’t.”

Instead. Well.

We get this. A classic sorry-not-sorry.

Adora wants (intent) Catra to stop being upset and forgive her (benefit), so implies that Catra’s upset is invalid(harm) [she can’t be angry over not getting something she didn’t want].

Adora tries(intent) to guilt-trip(harm) Catra for having had other emotions, so that she will go back to being happy for Adora(benefit).

And it’s only when that doesn’t work that she breaks out the skiff key.

Getting someone an extravagant gift (”love-bombing”) isn’t abusive in itself, but it can absolutely be part of an abusive cycle. Adora has decided that, instead of assessing her own behaviour to identify and address the valid reasons Catra is angry, she’s just going to do something reckless and extravagant to temporarily please her. It’s selfish and manipulative, and doesn’t solve anything. All those hurts are still there, and are inevitably going to boil over again, even if Plot didn’t interfere.

And, just. All of this. All of this stuff coming from Adora is super, super unhealthy. A lot of it is textbook emotional abuse. And I know where she gets it from! Shadow Weaver is her model for a Reasonable Authority Figure! It’s a wonder she’s not worse.

But, I find it ... not a little distressing that people can apparently go back and watch this episode and go (depending on anti status) either “LOL Catra so terrible.” or “Oh boy, what a beautiful, romantic relationship.” Because. Yergh.

You want to know one of the things that makes emotional abuse so awful? No one sees it. Adora isn’t yelling or hitting or being angry, so it’s not possible that she’s hurting Catra every time she trivializes her feelings with a smile, or smirks and blames Catra for her own hurt. Why, Adora is sad when she demands Catra’s preformative joy! Clearly Adora needs that validation more than Catra deserves ownership over her own feelings!

No, it’s clearly Catra who’s at fault, because she’s the ANGRY one. She’s the one hissing and yelling and running away and pushing back about all this hurt that clearly never happened, because hasn’t Adora always been so wonderful and calm? If Catra was right, why can’t she be ~rational~ about it? She’s must be just crazy, bad, selfish, abusive.

And...can we just not? Can we just, for once, take a miss on looking at a fictional character who is being explicitly emotionally abused and blaming them because they aren’t reacting like a perfect pristine angel, and are at fault for not Calmly Discussing their way out of an abusive situation? Please? Just for this ten minute segment?

#abuse #emotional abuse #emotional manipulation #spop #adora #catra #shadow weaver #I have so many feelings #look this stuff is upsetting #i don't know how they got away with including it in a kids cartoon #this is as done as its going to get #i should go work on something soothing for a while

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universallywriting · 4 years ago

Note

If you’re still up for the fic game, surprise me with a not-su ship you like! Star crossed lovers, poorly timed confession.

from the following prompt list: https://universallywriting.tumblr.com/post/641505013940846593/fanfiction-trope-mash-up

how about some human au catadora to fill up the break?

also if there are any shera fans out there - what the hell do people call Shadowweaver in human AUs?

----------------------

“Oh I’m not going to the Air Force Academy,” Adora says, her elegant spoon of fancy soup halfway to her lips. “I’m going to California State, with Catra. We both got in.”

She slurps off of expensive silver like nothing is wrong, and all Catra can do is gawk. Adora’s adoptive mom and sister seem half-surprised at that - It’s clearly news to them too. Big news. That Adora has decided to drop in the middle of a dinner party that's supposed to end the feud between their families.

Angella doesn’t look happy about it, but there’s a line between her eyebrows that tells Catra it’s mostly just concern. Glimmer already looks delighted at the idea.

Cata's eyes slowly slide to her own adoptive mother. Shadowweaver’s jaw is a hard line, and the tension follows up to the rest of her face. Her teeth are bared, her nose wrinkled like an angry predator, and Catra fights every instinct she has to cower.

“You’re going to throw away your future, Adora?”

Adora snorts like she doesn’t even know what’s wrong, and looks at Shadowweaver like the idea of getting hit for talking back doesn't even cross her mind. “Yeah? I mean, I’m not throwing away my future. I’ve just had enough military school to be done with military school.”

Shadowweaver laughs and when Catra looks to Angella and Glimmer she can see discomfort growing there too. Black painted nails curl over her heart as she continues, “Angella and I both spent thousands of dollars on your education and you’re not even going to finish? What are your plans, Adora?”

Even Adora can feel it now. She giggles nervously, “I'm... going in undeclared?”

She might as well have dropped a bomb in the center of the table. Angella and Glimmer and Shadowweaver are all on their feet, screaming at one another what is and isn’t acceptable for Adora's suddenly much less promising career.

Catra sticks around just long enough to hear Shadowweaver cry, “Adora can’t waste her life helping a failure like Catra!” before she slinks away from the table. She's sure it'll only get worse from there.

It’s easy enough to sneak upstairs in the Brightmoon mansion, and barely any more trouble to sneak out a window. Tacky roofing sticks to her red pantsuit, and she’s sure Shadowweaver will lose her shit over that. She blocks that out for now, trying to calm down.

She barely gets her heart steady before Adora climbs out beside her. “So. That went way worse then expected.”

She barks out a laugh. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m your idiot.” Her shoulder bumps lightly against Catra’s. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Catra stared at her. “Adora, that’s all for you! You’re everybody’s favorite! You’re the one who could lose everything! What are you thinking?”

She grins. “I’m thinking about not going to military school. Aaaand..." Adora lovingly pinches her cheek. "I'm thinking about how much fun college will be when I don't have to hide I have the hottest girlfriend in the world."

There’s a lump in her throat, a burning in her eyes. She swallows both and gently smacks Adora's hand away. Catra has rough plans for the future. They're simple plans - go in undeclared, take a bunch of classes, and then get her degree in whatever comes easiest. From there it's just finding a job that pays the bills.

Her eyes burn again anyway. "Adora, I'm not... Shadowweaver's right. I'm a fuck up. You're good at everything and if you choose me I'm just going to drag you down to my level."

“If I do whatever they tell me to do it won’t be my life,” she whispers. “Who cares if we have boring jobs? I don't have to be special forever."

She rolls her eyes. "You want to live a boring life?"

Adora laughs, and it's so pretty for a moment Catra can't think of anything else. The taller girl nudges her again and says, "Like any life with you could ever be boring."

“Idiot,” she says again, but the distance between them closes in a kiss.

#Anonymous #shera #catadora #fic #spop #not su

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meg-noel-art · 4 years ago

Note

Why do you believe that Catra never got over her what you called "obsessive and selfish love" for Adora? Because I didn't see that.

-gestures vaguely to all of the show-

Okay, you know what, let’s get into this. Because I’m honestly tired of it all. First let’s start with this: In popular media, is there a common theme of erotic subtext between rivals? Uh, yeah. Hell yeah. Tension between two people looking to one up each other that can be read as romantic or sexual? Oh absolutely. So, let’s, for the sake of argument assume that was the type of dynamic that Noelle and Co. were going for all along, as they’ve stated. Because they weren’t the first to play with this dynamic and they won’t the last.

So again, tension and subtext between rivals that escalates into passion or eventually real love? Yes.

On the other hand: betrayal, emotional manipulation, physical maiming and injury and outright seeking the utter demise and failure of you ‘rival’ because they made you sad by making a better choice than you did? That doesn’t equate to love.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s approach Catra’s motivations as all based around this deep love she has for Adora, which I will argue through this post is more of as passionate and selfish obsession than actual love. (And honestly, that’s a super cool character motivation, but pretending that it’s an epic love story is gross and I hate it.)

So, let’s return to Season 1

One of the first real battles we see Catra and Adora in takes place at the end of the season. This comes after ‘The Promise’ wherein Adora tries again to get Catra to come with her, but Catra doubles down on her desire to spite Adora for hurting her and leaving her, by being as nasty as she possibly can and putting Adora in just as much emotional pain. Here, she not only fights Adora, but cuts her down to her deepest insecurities. Catra knows Adora and she knows how desperately she wants to be a hero. It’s an aspect of Adora that Catra has always disliked because it made her feel lesser. In order to fully cripple her rival here, Catra tugs at the strings she knows will hurt the most.

“You will fail them (you failed me)”, “You’re friends will hate you (Just like I do)” “You will never be the hero you want to be (I will be the reason you can’t)”. If you want to talk about subtext in this scene, Catra’s unhealthy and obsessive desire to be the only thing Adora needs/wants/thinks about is literally all over the place. If you want to argue that she’s saying all of this because she’s hurting, then it’s literally the cruelest possible way she could say it. And the show doesn’t bother selling us on the fact that Catra is in pain here, it just hammers home the idea of how badly she wants Adora to fail so she can feel that pain too.

In no universe, would I call that treatment of someone love.

Next up, this moment in Season 2:

I remember everyone losing their minds over this scene, and again, arguing a sexual tension between rivals, then yes, that makes sense. But in the context of this entire episode and the ones leading up to this point? This statement from Catra is disgusting. And it gets worse.

In the next scene, we see Catra literally planning to use Adora as her own personal weapon (an aspect I find personally icky when considering the struggle Adora has with destiny/her own autonomy at the end of Season 4 being use by Light Hope as a weapon. Catra literally has the same idea.)

And moreso than that, Catra won’t just use her as a weapon. She will use Adora to cut down anyone else who has ever cared about her or shown her affection. It’s a new level of jealousy/possession that is touched on even moreso as the series goes on. But what’s crazy to me is that it seems to have developed from Season 1. In the Battle of Bright Moon, Adora could only fail them. Now, however much later this is, Catra wants her to hurt them too. Adora will hurt, her friends will hurt. Everyone will hurt like Catra does. Because she’s possessive of Adora’s affection. It makes her feel like she has meaning. Which is an entire other can of worms about Catra’s motivations and character, but we’re gonna move ahead to season 3.

This is a fascinating moment to me. At this point, Catra has essentially flunked out of the Horde, but she’s NEVER been more determined to prove herself to Hordak, to SW, to Adora, to everyone. But here, Scorpia points out how truly happy she is when Adora isn’t even in the damn picture anymore. The poisonous environment of the Horde is gone, Catra is claiming respect for her abilities and personality. Adora has nothing to do with it and she’s happy.

And then:

Look, I am remise to sound like a total asshole, but the entire show is pointing this out for me through even it’s dialogue. Catra’s pain and hate and obsession returns when Adora mentions that their shared abuser Shadow Weaver has chosen her yet again. Suddenly, nothing matters. None of Scorpia’s kind words, or the achievments she made in the Waste. All that matters, is beating Adora. Hurting her. Being better and more loved than her.

Honesty, at this point I’m losing the thread of ‘love’ entirely. Now it just feels like a total mission for vengeance. But, once again, okay, let’s argue she’s really just angry and wants Adora’s love back. So what does she do to get it?

She opens the Portal to hurt Adora. As Adora screams don’t, begs her not to, tells her what it will do to their world, Catra does it anyway. Because Adora must hurt. She broke Catra’s heart and Catra must break it back. That’s how love works, I guess.

Once again, if the show was working on selling me on Catra’s motivations being sympathetic and fueled by love all along. It is failing.

Now, let’s talk about the Portal world that it takes them into. What everyone called their “perfect universe”.

So we have this moment, where Adora gets to the heart of the issue and asks Catra about her real pain. Catra avoids it, once again. Yes, of course she’s wanted this, they both always have. I suppose at this moment you could argue her true motivations come through, but it also just emboldens my point that Catra is not growing. She’s not gaining any character development. If she did just always want Adora by her side, this scene shows us that Adora has moved past these Horde induced childhood dreams they have. She has seen a bigger world and a bigger issue and Catra is still holding onto the hope that they will keep this promise to always have each others backs.

Which, is an ironic thing to hold onto considering Catra was the first to break this promise, by not going with Adora when the time was right. And yet she believes Adora is the one who owes her the apology. Now, this would be great set up for an arc about Catra coming to terms with the fact that she is the problem and Season 4 seemed ready to set that up but then... didn’t.

This line in particular has always stuck with me because it broke their relationship entirely for me. At this point, Catra could apologize all she wanted in a possible redemption arc, but the damage was done. She admitted a pain so deep that it would change her and Adora’s relationship forever. Her hurt ran so deep that she would rather die, see everything end, than see Adora find happiness outside of her.

I could stop this post here and honestly, my point would have been made. But we’ve got more to go.

I was so excited after the moment. After an entire season of snapping under the weight of her own choices. It is the image of Scorpia, who loved her unconditionally, who tells Catra that she is the problem and she always has been.

At this point, I was ready. Catra had hit rock bottom, there was nowhere to go but up. She would approach her pain and figure out who she wanted to be as a person. She would team up with the Rebellion because she knew it was the right thing to do, she would atone for her mistakes. By the end maybe she would go on her own adventure to find herself?

And.... No?

She doesn’t.

Season 5 rolls around and suddenly she is right back where she started, scrambling up the ladder for power and respect. It sure doesn’t work for Horde Prime, putting her in real danger. She even gets a few moments to connect with Glimmer (maybe apologize for the Portal...no... oh okay.)

In fact, she saves Glimmer! But.... why does she do it? Certainly not for Glimmer’s sake, a character who has been stated by the crew to be literally her narrative foil, her other half. But...

Like...? At this point I don’t even know what the show is going for anymore, it’s a fucking mess. You could even argue that up to this point, Catra HAS been manipulating Glimmer to trust her so that she could in turn save Adora. Which is all kinds of fucked up, as we see in the conversation with the BFS squad that Glimmer WANTS to save Catra, and trusts her.

And then this memory that incited Catra’s desire to save Adora was:

I could have just answered with this screenshot and saved myself an hour. You wanna argue love? Fine.

Then Catra has NEVER let go of her frankly concerning obsession with Adora’s attention and affection and that is no more clear that this memory where she also physically assaults her and steps on her, and Adora goes crawling after her trying to comfort her.

Oh? Are you, Catra? Well that’s cool. You are allowed to be sorry. But that doesn’t mean Adora owes you literally anything at this point. No one is ever obligated to accept any apology no matter how heartfelt it might be.

At the end of the day, this love story their trying to sell me on is so twisted I can hardly stand to watch the final season. Because it’s never worked out!! Adora immediatedly forgives every moment I’ve listed in this post and more. Catra never apologizes to someone who deserved it most, Scorpia.

And more than that, Catra never grows into who she should have become as a character. She is stuffed into an OTP the show wanted from the beginning but failed for 5 seasons to make convincing or compelling.

Also Adora has such a huge heart she deserves someone who would treat her better than Catra could. Catra can’t. Catra can’t even treat herself right.

Like... Yeah. I don’t even know what to say anymore. Hope this answered your question.

Obsessive, possessive....Gross. I’m tired. C/A won at the end of the day I guess, but at what cost?

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aprillikesthings · 3 months ago

Text

BUT WAIT I HAVE MORE THOUGHTS (yes some of this was in the tags but I wanted to talk about them more)

So like, looking at the last few episodes of s3 from an outside-the-story/writing/narrative perspective, the point of the "perfect reality" was to remind us of what Catra (and also Adora to some extent) really wants, before making it feel even further away.

And like a lot of people: I remember, the first time I saw those episodes, asking myself "why the fuck would opening a portal do that" and yeah the in-show answer is "because weird magic/technology stuff" and that's about it.

BUT ALSO

In the episode where Catra throws the switch, it's the last in a run of terrible decisions; she just keeps escalating and making shit worse in part because she's in complete panic mode.

And my own unhinged/horny feelings about CorruptedByThePortal!Catra aside, I get why the corruption happened. (I mean, aside from *waves hand* magic.)

Because the portal was like ":) ha ha I know what you really want :)" and then Catra tries so hard to keep her grip on it, but of course it's breaking into pieces and disappearing because it's not real, and it's Adora pointing that out to her repeatedly and forcing her to acknowledge it, and Catra hates her for it. From Catra's POV, Adora is rejecting her again, by refusing to play along and pretend things are still "perfect" just a little longer.

We, the audience, can obviously see that's not what's happening. But one of the things I love about this show is that I can see why Catra would feel the way she does.

Like, that's what often breaks my heart about so much of Catra's arc: that from Catra's perspective, she feels like she's stuck in this spot where she loves Adora, but Adora keeps rejecting her and/or making her life worse, and so she's frozen into this untenable situation of desperately wanting Adora and hating her fucking guts at the same time.

And Catra's been trying to (metaphorically) cut off bits of herself for a while at that point: her affection and care for others, any desire she might have for love or friendship or kindness. Those things have repeatedly hurt her, so she keeps trying to get rid of them.

The things Catra says to Adora while corrupted are obviously untrue, and she knows that! "If you hadn't gotten captured, your sword wouldn't have opened the portal." Girly you're the one who captured her!

But Catra still cannot bring herself to face how badly she's fucked things up. She blames Adora instead.

And that's what breaks Catra into pieces and corrupts her—the fact that her self-image is just so shattered, like her cognitive dissonance has taken physical form.

And Adora has a guilty martyr thing going on, so for like the first, what, minute and a half* she just lets Catra treat her like shit. She already sorta blames herself--like if only she'd tried harder she could've convinced Catra to change sides. But eventually her brain catches up and she goes "wait wtf" and she fights back and tells Catra she's wrong.

"And you? You made your choice. Now live with it!"

(And then Adora punches her. Which, tbh, she 100% deserved.)

Anyway it takes another season and change for Catra to be able to even start to face up to the fact that she herself is most of the reason she's alone.

(*lol I've watched that bit so often you'd think I'd know but I'm always distracted. I already admitted I'm unhinged and horny about it. Anyway I, uh, rewatched it just to know for sure and it's almost exactly 1:30 before Adora starts fighting back)

(Help help I can’t shut up about She-Ra)

This is just now occurring to me and I feel silly but

Okay so the last couple episodes of s3, when they’re in the “perfect reality,” and for that first bit before it all (literally) all falls apart, Catra and Adora are affectionate and constantly touching

And like, from a storytelling standpoint I get why they did that??

It’s the halfway point of the whole show, and the two of them have become more and more antagonistic (and they’re going to spend an entire season not even interacting), and Catra’s just done pretty much the worst thing she does in the whole show (and is a vicious little shit even in that episode once she’s forced to acknowledge what’s happening)

But still, they took an episode to remind us: yeah that is. Not what either of them actually WANT.

(No, obviously Adora doesn’t want to rejoin the Horde, that’s not what I’m saying lol)

But what they want is to be together!!!

#spop #meta #my posts #the portal #portal catra #jfc I hope any of this makes sense #lol I know damn well that someone has to have said the same things #like five years ago #eh

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riceccakes · 4 years ago

Text

for @savethewaffle (we won’t talk about the prompt you sent me in my inbox😅)

She planned everything, down to the pencil she would use to write notes during the orientation. It was the only way Adora could maintain her stress, the only way to ease her anxiety, and while it helped, the pit in her stomach only grew heavier as she neared the university.

No amount of mechanical pencils could calm her down now.

She studied the orientation agenda, prepared her answers for all the “Get To Know You” questions, Adora even knew what she would order in the university cafeteria. So, how could she have forgotten to look at the school map?

After stepping foot on the campus center, Adora looked left and right, noting the millions of signs saying all the same things: “This way.” This way to what? How could there be so many arrows? Which signs was she supposed to follow? How was everyone else not as stressed as she was?

Adora checked the time, orientation check in would start soon. Coming early was out of habit, needing to maintain her schedule and follow her checklist bullet point for bullet point. Now, it was a blessing because the extra time would be used understanding where the hell she was going.

Her heart rate was increasing, if she didn’t move, Adora knew she would explode. She let her feet guide her, walking down the concrete path until it rounded a corner. Ahead of her were a group of girls. Their relaxed expressions and comfortable laughter let Adora know these girls were older than her. She looked at the time again, she wanted to be one of the first people on the check in line; she needed to know where to go.

Mustering up all the courage in her system, Adora walked up to the girls just as they finished laughing again. Each one of them turned their heads towards her, a silence fell over them.

“Um, hi, I’m Adora,” she began, losing focus as she eyed one of the girl’s biceps, “do any of you know where to go for orientation?”

They exchanged looks, a particularly mischievous smile grew on the girl in the center. She was much shorter than her friends. Adora’s breath caught in her throat, did all girls have smiles that pretty? She saw the girl’s tail waving behind her.

“Yeah, Huntara, she needs her Orientation ID number, right?”

“You’re absolutely right, Catra, that’s all she’ll need.”

Orientation ID number? Did Adora miss an email? How could Adora have forgotten so much? She didn’t know her Orientation ID number, she didn’t even know she had one.

“Oh, I, uh,” Adora felt her tongue dry up. Catra draped a piece of her hair behind her shoulder, how could something so simple be so beautiful? “I don’t, um, I don’t think I know my Orientation ID number? I must have missed something or It....”

Huntara and Catra bursted into another fit of laughter while their other friend rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry about them, they always mess with the freshmen on Orientation day.”

“Oh, you’re no fun, Scorpia,” Catra stepped forward, putting a hand on Adora’s wrist. She whispered, “I would’ve kept this up if that weren’t the cutest reaction from a freshman we’ve seen.”

Catra’s hand left her skin but her tail wrapped around her fingers for just a second before she stood again with her friends, “If you go through these doors, follow the hallway all the way down and take a right, you’ll see a table with a big Orientation sign, check in there.”

Adora stood there for a second, staring at this group of girls, at their smiles (warm, strong, alluring), at their eyes (friendly, powerful, mysterious), at their demeanors (welcoming, dashing, confident, self-assured, Catra, Catra, Catra). Suddenly, Adora realized her mouth was hanging open.

Catra laughed again, her head falling back. Adora didn’t even know she walked closer to them until she felt Catra’s touch again, blessing her shoulder, “Go on, dummy. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” Adora felt her squeeze her shoulder lightly, why did her arm feel like jelly now?

Had Adora completely lost her mind? Before she could even say goodbye, the outside campus turned into concrete walls covered by posters and sign up sheets and Adora desperately wanted to get one final look at Catra. She looked down at her feet, they were clumsily moving, one in front of the other, following the directions Catra gave her.

Catra; The velvet sound of her voice echoed in Adora’s mind, the way Catra’s head fell back when she was laughing played over and over. The universe must’ve loved Catra, as it had sent a perfect gust of wind to blow through her cascading hair. The tingling sensation in her arm hadn’t gone away, but what even was this tingling sensation?

“Your name?”

“Huh?” Adora looked down at the table in front of her, Adora looked at the woman sitting with a clipboard and glasses resting on her nose. “Oh, sorry, uh, I’m Adora,” the woman continued to stare at her and Adora’s felt her tongue dry up, “Grayskull. Adora Grayskul?”

The woman checked her in, gave her a name tag, and a university tote bag before sending her through the double doors on the left. Adora found an empty table and started looking through the tote bag. Some pens, a pair of university sunglasses, and the upcoming semester’s directory. Adora had to do a double take, wholeheartedly believing Catra was on the cover in a cheerleader’s uniform. Upon second glance, the girl looked nothing like Catra.

What was going on? Why couldn’t she think straight, why could Adora only think of Catra?

And why did Adora keep breaking her pencil lead? All during the orientation, Adora would be ready to write down whatever the speaker said but slowly found her mind wandering back to the little fang that hung outside Catra’s mouth when she wasn’t smiling or laughing or doing anything for the matter. She thought about her jelly arm, how even after Catra’s been gone, the lingering sense of her touch etched itself into her skin. How could one encounter, especially as short as theirs, short circuit Adora’s brain?

The pit in her stomach was no longer from anxiety but rather, the pit in her stomach grew out of aching to be near Catra again. Just thinking of Catra’s tail lingering on her fingertips, of her soft hands on Adora’s skin, of the way her eyes captivated Adora beyond compare; it made the pit heavier and heavier and Adora couldn’t bear to carry the weight, so why couldn’t she stop thinking? She imagined getting to be the one whose hand touched Catra, watch her fingers gently flow through her hair and twirl a piece in hopeless spirals until it fell out of her hand. Could she hug Catra? Just a quick embrace? Could she bury her head in the crook of Catra’s neck and take a deep breath of her scent she wished she knew? (All three girls smelled wonderful, as much as Adora didn’t want to admit she had been taking deeper breaths the closer she was to them.) Could she hold Catra’s hand, let their fingers intertwine, have Catra show her around campus and bring them to the back corner of the library where no one could see them and push her up against the books and--

What was Adora doing? Half the orientation had gone by and all she had written down was the date and a few scattered lines from when her pencil point broke. This needed to stop, but how? Perhaps, seeing Catra again would help. Maybe it would stop her brain from grinding its gears and she could get her final taste and then get a grip. Even if just to see her for a moment, in passing, in a glance; her daydreams were too much for her to handle.

Paranoia wasn’t the right word, was Adora having delusions? Some sort of foolish fantasy that made her think Catra was around every corner, behind every open book, sitting in every chair of the classrooms they visited on the campus tour? Her heart rushed everytime she thought she saw Catra, any time she thought she heard that angelic laugh, and everytime she learned it wasn’t that godforsaken girl, her heart twitched and panged and fingers desperately wanted to find the girl for just one touch; couldn’t they make it even?

She wasn’t even sure how she answered the small group questions, she couldn’t even remember the other students’ names. She wished she could, it felt incredibly rude not to, but Adora was far too occupied with how Catra would look next to her in pictures. Too much, Adora thought, too fast, let’s scratch that. Instead, she thought of Catra in front of a camera, that smize being the perfect picture to capture, how that one look could say the million words Adora needed to clear in her head. None of her thoughts formed sentences, everything was hazy, she was too entranced with Catra’s whole entire being to even try and sort out what was going on.

It had been a few hours since she ate breakfast, maybe all she needed was food. She was thankful for the lunch time, grabbing every boxed lunch that looked good to her and found a seat in the corner. It faced away from the general crowd, her mind needed to rest, it needed to refuel; eating the Italian sandwich, chicken nuggets, burger, slice of pizza, cookies, chips, salad, grapes, and four juice boxes would help, right? It would be enough food to last her the rest of the day, through the night, hopefully through the rest of her existence because if this didn’t stop her from thinking about how beautiful Catra was, nothing would.

“Hey, Adora.”

Mid bite on her burger, Adora stopped and looked up. She blinked and blinked and blinked until Catra’s eyebrows furrowed and her face frowned. Was it really her, was she not dreaming?

“How do you....”

Catra’s head twitched in confusion, “You told me earlier? And,” she pointed to the nametag on her shirt and Adora thought she would pass out right there. “Okay, dummy, why don’t we put this down,” Catra said, taking Adora’s arms and helped place the burger back down on its tin foil and taking a seat next to her. “Do you always eat this much?”

“I,” Adora just finished the third juice box, how was her throat dry? “I’m just hungry.”

Catra snorted, crossing her arms, “Clearly.”

Adora stared at her, her memories hadn’t done justice. Did she even actually look at Catra the first time they met or did Catra just get more beautiful in the few hours they were apart? Adora couldn’t breathe, her face felt hot, her hands were clammy, hell, even in her tee shirt and leggings, Adora felt like she was in a sauna with no way out. Catra stayed with her arms crossed, surveying the cafeteria around her, effortlessly looking like she had walked out of a fashion magazine. Was she even real? No one else in the cafe joined them, and Catra and her friends looked like Greek goddesses, could she be dreaming? What if she was still in bed, curled up in a little ball, drooling on her pillow while her mind decided to be a big asshole and make her think her cause of death would be heart failure from meeting the prettiest girl on Etheria.

What a jerk her brain would be.

But, another student passed the table, saying hi to Catra before walking out the door. Catra only waved, bringing her eyes back to Adora and smiling, “You gonna keep staring? Maybe I should charge you if you’re gonna stare at me like that.”

“What? I,” Adora tried to break the eye contact but she was drawn in, far too deep to return to reality.

Catra exuded confidence, like she didn’t give a single fuck about what anyone would think of her. In that moment, Adora decided this was why she was fawning over the girl. Adora had never been the confident type, she never walked into a room like she owned it. It was something she’d wanted since she was a little girl, to be looked at and think, “She knows what she’s doing.” It was why she planned for hours, days, weeks for this Orientation that would only last a couple more hours and still, she failed at following through with her hopes. Catra wouldn’t have, Adora thought, Catra couldn’t.

Catra laughed, leaning forward and pulling her phone from her back pocket. She cleared her throat, placing her hand out. Adora stared at it and almost gave Catra her own hand but was thankfully stopped when Catra passed her phone over. Adora found hers and put it in Catra’s hand, watched as she typed and snickered and took a picture of herself before giving it back. She looked at her own phone and gestured to use it, Adora shook her head and wiped her hands, putting in her contact info.

She passed the phone across the table, Catra frowned and Adora thought she was about to die and that wasn’t what Catra had wanted.

“No picture?”

“Oh! I, well,” Adora tried to push a piece of hair behind her ear but there was no such piece to do so; her ponytail was perfectly kept and there were no loose strands. What was she doing? She looked like a complete fool in front of Etheria’s most beautiful person, what kind of first impression was that? Adora gulped, wishing she could start this day over and prepare herself to be an idiot. “I’m not the best with photos.”

Catra waved her off, pointing her phone towards Adora. She scooted some of the food further up the table and leaned back, smiling as she brought her phone back down. She showed Adora the picture, it was awful and embarrassing and Adora wished she could erase it but Catra’s smile was bigger than she’d seen it earlier and it was everything Adora had wanted to see for hours.

“Gosh, you’re such a dork,” Catra laughed, locking her phone. “Good for pictures, though.” She got up, pushed in her chair, leaned over and placed her hand on the side of Adora’s chair, “Text me, okay? I’ll give you the real tour of campus, I’ll even pay for lunch.”

As Catra turned around to leave, her tail lingered on Adora’s hands in her lap before she disappeared through the doors and out of the building. Adora stared at the doorway, suddenly understanding why honeydew and mint would be her new favorite scent.

Catra was beautiful, Catra was breathtaking, Catra was everything Adora wanted and fuck, did she want to kiss her.

#savethewaffle #catradora #college au #catra #adora #gay panic #spop #i love my friends #so happy i met you #laila i hope youre almost done with your fic #i literally love this so much #ricewrites

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sevens-evan · 4 years ago

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41 or 13 (in case it hits too close to ghost hunters au 😅)

there actually is no ghost/person in ghost hunters au, only person/person and ghost/ghost, but i’m going with costars au anyway bc i’m vibing with it harder rn

“Cut!” Glimmer shouts. Adora sighs deeply and rolls away from Catra, sitting up and kicking her legs out of the bed. She feels the mattress shift beneath her as Catra does the same on the other side. They don’t look at each other.

“What is up with you two?” Glimmer says as she approaches, slipping between cameramen and guys holding boom microphones. “This is garbage.” Adora winces, but doesn’t try to argue. It’s true. She and Catra are barely making eye contact, let alone selling the idea that they’ve been in love for years.

“Nothing’s up, Sparkles,” Catra says from the other side of the bed. Unable to resist any longer, Adora glances over at her. Catra has her arms crossed, her jaw set, and Adora recognizes the posture. She’s seen it a thousand times since they were little kids: Catra is repressing something. Holding something in. Usually, it’s anger, but today...

“That’s obviously not true,” Glimmer says. “What is going on with you two? Did you fight again?” That couldn’t be further from the truth. But Adora isn’t super excited about telling her director that she accidentally slept with her costar, so she keeps her mouth shut.

It really had been an accident. Not a mistake, at least not for Adora, but an accident. They’d been a little drunk at Adora’s place, and they’d started talking about the old days, growing up together, the years they’d spent angry with each other in high school, and then suddenly they were making out on the couch, and what was Adora supposed to do? She’s been in love with Catra her whole life. She couldn’t say no.

And now Catra won’t even look at her, even for work. They’ve never let their personal shit get in the way of their jobs before. Catra must really, really regret it, if she’s breaking that unspoken rule.

“Okay, you know what?” Glimmer says, after neither Catra nor Adora say anything for several moments. “We’re gonna take fifteen. You two are gonna go find somewhere to talk, and when you come back, you’re gonna have this shit sorted out. Got it?” Adora nods, her face burning with shame. Glimmer walks away, shouting at the crew to take a break, and Adora glances over at Catra.

“My trailer?” she asks quietly. Catra nods without looking at Adora. Adora’s heart sinks even further in her chest, but she gets to her feet, walking off the main set and away into the mess of trailers in the parking lot. She can feel Catra right behind her, a half step behind and slightly to the left.

Adora holds the door of her trailer open for Catra. Catra still doesn’t look at her as she climbs inside. Adora follows, closing the door behind her, and turns to find Catra leaning against the counter across from the couch, eyes down.

“Hey,” Adora whispers.

“Hey.” Catra raises her eyes, but they settle somewhere off to Adora’s left. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Adora echoes. “For what?” Catra shrugs.

“I’m being unprofessional,” she says. “I’ll stop.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Adora sighs. “I’m worried about you. You’re—can you please look at me?” Catra says nothing, but her eyes drag over, settling on Adora’s. There’s a look on her face that Adora doesn’t quite recognize, but it looks painful. “Did I hurt you somehow?” Adora asks. “You’re upset, and I—I know we didn’t exactly mean to—do what we did, but—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Adora,” Catra says. “Don’t worry about it, okay? We made a mistake, and I’m being unprofessional. I’ll get over it, and things will go back to normal.” Her tone is...cold. Adora feels even more like she fucked up, now.

A mistake.

“Right,” Adora says. “If you’re sure.” If you’re sure you don’t want me.

“I’m sure,” Catra says. “Let’s go get Sparkles off our backs.”

“Okay,” Adora whispers. “I’m gonna take a little break, though. I’ll be right out.”

“Sounds good.” Catra pushes off the counter and walks past Adora, back down the stairs and out of the trailer.

Adora sits down on the couch and buries her face in her hands.

#catradora #catra #adora #spop #my fics #fic: catradora #not my fave thing i've written but #soul-of-spades #answered

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youarejesting · 4 years ago

Text

Temptation KTH X Reader

[Masterlist] Pairing: CamBoy!Taehyung x CamGirl!Reader Beta: N/A Genre: Romance, Angst, Fluff, NSFW, Smut Rating: 18+ Words: 3.7k Request: @pars-ley

Summary: You sign up for the world’s newest and sexiest Late-night Television program called ‘Temptation’. Where you are competing with nine other Cam workers to win One Million dollars. The catch? You can’t cum?

Warnings: Oral f & m recieving, Doms & Subs, Orgasm denial, Penetrative sex, Handjobs, Fingering, Vouyerism, Exhibitionism, Bratty, Daddy Kink, Impregnation Kink, Auralism (sexy sounds moans etc...), Orgy, Dirty talk, Group sessions.

You were a cam girl, but you had been recruited with the best of the best to participate in an elimination game show. Basically, you were not allowed to come, which didn’t include private masturbation unless you were with a housemate in the previous half-hour. The winner would win one million dollars.

There were a few catches, you were each given a phone that would give you commands on things you had to do with other contestants. You had permission to do anything to anyone if the phone told you so. So if you were told to give a blow job you could, but the male was not allowed to finish. Equally so if you were told one of the males could eat you out, you weren’t allowed to finish.

With a sigh, you sat in front of the camera and began talking about the first day while rewatching the footage. You were told to react as if it was happening and relay the thought you had in the moment. “right here I thought ‘oh it is going to be easy’,” I signed up to Temptation and I am going to win. I have to win, I am planning on paying out my family's mortgage and perhaps buying myself a home something permanent.”

You took a moment to pause and thought “it wasn’t the easiest growing up poor, I have a good job now and a good apartment but I don’t spend money on myself until my family are in a better position”

You met the other contestants and you could pick out which ones would go first, the ones who had no resolve. There were four doms and you knew you could get them in seconds. Everyone was dressed normally and you each took the time to greet one another.

This would be the easiest money you ever made. Everyone introduced themselves and their highlight cam videos appeared on the screen and you paled. Suga, RM, J-Hope, Honey, Jimin, lovelymi, Jungkook, EatJin. Names you hoped would “Hello, my name is V, I have been in the cam industry for about seven years, I do partner and solo videos, I am a switch.” His voice was so deep and it stirred something in you.

His videos started playing and he was grunting and fucking a girl. Him talking dirty while he used his hand, he was big and looked honestly amazing. He was holding a girl’s hair as he bucked into her mouth. All while looking and sounding so freaking sexy

“This be harder than I thought” you laughed “he is handsome and his voice is truly amazing, from a purely sexual point of view he is attractive”

“But what will his personality be like? That's the question. Things can make you excited but if he opens his mouth and is a jerk well that excitement plummets.

“Hey guys, My cam name is Baby, I have been in the cam business for a long time I can’t even remember, I am a submissive, I have done partnered and solo cam video” Your videos began playing, you were thankful for the quality of your videos and editing things looked desirable and left you wanting more. You acting like a brat and being punished. You acting submissive calling your cam partner Daddy.

This last one had the dom’s in the room squirming and you knew you had some power over them.

“I joined the cam industry because I was interested, I got to have pleasure in the privacy of my own house and get paid. I use a fake name and I entertain clients with videos. I choose what I do in the video if I don’t like it. I'm sorry, I choose who can watch me. If someone is acting rude or threatening I can kick them out the website and my setup at home is protected so common creeps cannot find me. The people I film with are people I trust and also work in the business”

You shrugged raising your hands up “I mean what can I say it all sounds like a great deal, orgasms and money what else do you want”

You smiled and the Host spoke over the PA, “Please check out your new rooms and your attire which has been carefully selected in your size. Relax and freshen up dinner will be served shortly.”

You stood up and looked innocently at the doms. “What should I wear for dinner mummy and Daddies?”

The four doms Suga, Jhope, Honey, and Jin looked at you with firm eyes. “Would you like me to dress you, baby?” Honey asked

“Wear something pretty?” Jin said his voice firm as he walked off, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his dress shirt as he walked down the hall.

“Wear something to impress daddy?” Jhope grinned and you went off to your room, looking through the cupboards and you thought the others would go for blatantly sexy but you actually snuck into Jin’s room while he was in the shower and stole his dress shirt and left, you made sure to wear a pretty set of white lace underwear but you didn’t put on shoes and you let your hair down and put on natural-looking makeup.

The shirt dwarfed you and you didn’t do up all the buttons at the top or bottom. Everyone walked out to dinner and you grinned. All the guys were either just in pants or in suits except Jimin and Jungkook who were in harness’. LovelyMi was wearing lingerie, big heels, and full hair and makeup. Honey wore leather and big shoes stepping out. You yawned pretending you woke up your hands unseen in the big sleeves.

“Is that my shirt?” Jin asked

“Daddy's shirt smelled so good?” Jin stirred, you bit back a smile and everyone started eating dinner and you reached for something and V made a small groan as the shirt fell open revealing your breast. You sat back down and grinned when Suga’s phone chimed.

“One of your well-known skills is Tongue technology, pick one girl and eat her out.” He said with a laugh.

“Suga, genius. The only two things you need to know” he shrugged looking at the floor. “Enough said”

He walked down the table and pushed your chair back. You looked up at him innocently. “Daddy is going to eat this pussy, is that okay my sweet baby?” Suga caressed your cheek, you did like praise.

“I want a different daddy” You huffed pulling off your underwear and throwing them at Jin. Suga pressed his tongue to his cheek, looking visibly pissed that you were questioning his authority knowing you were playing as the rules stated if you didn’t want to participate you would use the safe word.

“Spread your legs, brat” this was a command and your legs fell apart. He placed them on the arms of the dinner chair and V looked down swallowing hard trying not to look but you commanded his attention.

“What a pretty little pussy, for such a bratty girl” Suga smirked, wasting no time, you picked up your drink and drank it slowly thinking about the dinner. After the initial surprise, you knew you would be fine he wouldn’t get you to finish but he was so close.

Another phone went off and Jimin read aloud his instructions to give RM a blow job. You continued eating dinner zoning out completely you were pretty skilled at keeping yourself from cumming. What surprised you was when Jimin came it was the first night, but the boy had an oral fixation and that coupled with an audience and the moans around the room, he came while deepthroating RM.

You were sad to see him leave but you were thankful the orders for the night were complete.

“Suga has tongue technology all right but, there is one sure-fire way to put me on edge and that is with a deep voice. I cannot stand V’s voice it is way too sexy”

It had been a long first week, you had been drawn to the edge by Honey and had given a blow job to Jhope who held himself together with swears and shaky breath. You were all sitting in the pool at the end of the week and LovelyMi was eliminated. The fans had voted her out.

The next week saw Jungkook eliminated. Honey had him tied up and he couldn’t hold back. There was no voting elimination but there was a challenge. You had to answer sex facts to earn points. Some of the questions were how many times can a woman orgasm. You won and the hosts Adora and Pdogg asked how many times you had successfully finished.

“Eleven,” You said, “I could have kept going but I took a break and ended up falling asleep.”

“I am impressed?” RM grinned, he had got the next answer right and the two of you got to draw from the hat some cards.

“Hell yeah, I got a free finish card” You grinned

“I got an extended order time card” RM laughed and you both high fived and headed back to continue playing the game.

After a few games such as the fastest to dress in their role-play costume, you all picked what door you wanted and you laughed when you were dressed as a businessman, you laughed at the array of costumes but V was the winner having won wearing a nurses dress. Another game was won by Jin and it was called ‘whose lips are these?’ You each took turns being blindfolded and you were kissed by the others.

For you, Jin’s lips were the easiest to identify, followed by Honey’s and you just knew when a large hand took your waist and your heart sparked that it was V. Three out of six wasn’t too bad.

“They always guessed when it was me, do I kiss a certain way or weirdly?” You touched your lips confused and mumbled in an afterthought “I thought I kissed really well.”

You stepped up to V your heart racing nervously and you slipped your hand into his hair pulling his hair firmly and he groaned making you lick your lips. You kissed him and he kissed back his tongue entering your mouth and you pulled away watching him sigh in relief.

“I got every one of them wrong except her, there was something about how soft her lips were, and the way she tasted like strawberries it was kind of delicious.” V spoke his cheeks red “I want to kiss her again”

Jhope won a game of sex bingo where you had to mark off what you had done but the catch was there as like a hundred different things. Where you looked through your cam videos and marked off what was in each of them. Honey and Suga didn’t have a single card. V had a free from elimination card and Jin had a kink assisted order. Jhope won a group order card.

“Some would say, I am well versed in sex, and they would be right!” JHope laughed, clapping his hands. “I enjoy trying new things and well I have preferences but I can at least say I have tried it”

That week was fun, you had filed away the free finish card for when you needed it and hoped like hell you wouldn’t need it. RM used the time extend card for his order to fuck Honey but accidentally eliminated himself and Honey simultaneously.

Eliminations came along and Suga was the next to be voted out. There were four of you left. You and three males, this was going to become quite difficult. You were sitting on the couch watching movies with Jin when you got an order.

“Give a blow job to the nearest contestant” You smirked and sank to the floor unzipping Jin’s pants and you hit accept on the phone and got to work you had a time limit and you weren’t going to lose one million dollars because of a six-minute timer.

You used everything called him Daddy made all the right sounds and gave him all the right looks but he didn’t come. The timer rang and he grinned tucking himself away and you rested your head on his thigh. “Please daddy.”

“She is dangerous, I almost didn’t want to stop but I am here for the money, she isn’t playing around” Jin sighed “I can still hear her saying those words in my head and I want more than anything to continue our session.”

You noticed V in the kitchen with a piece of orange in his mouth, eyes wide he had seen everything and you blushed.

“That was the hottest thing I had ever seen, she really wanted to win and I am just thankful that it wasn’t an order for me” He shivered running his hand over his jaw. “I wouldn’t have made it, and I don’t know if I would try”

He looked at his hands ringing them out before looking up “She is my opponent and I will do my best to win against her!”

Jin had used a kink assisted and you were given headphones filled with V’s moans while Honey had given him a handjob last week.

“She either really likes V or she likes deep moans that is good to know?” He snickered “I think she is in love with V the two are smitten”

You bit your lip and turned to the camera’s “Oh this is playing dirty.” You hissed Jin was skilled with his fingers, he apparently played guitar and some piano but no matter how much he rubbed your G spot and clit at the same time. You weren’t going to come, even if V sounded sinful in your ears.

“There is nothing I want more than to win, but I almost didn’t think I was going to make it. Have you heard him, growling and moaning” You blushed burying your face in your hands “He is the only one who can make me lose this game”

You looked up and leaned back on the couch throwing one leg over the other. “So now we are all preparing for war”

Amongst all the sex, you and V grew close, the two of you Swam in the pool and played games, when you weren’t talking you were having deep conversations and at one point you even stayed up late chatting until he leaned in pressing his lips to yours. You couldn’t help but kiss him back with similar vigor.

“Baby” Jhope called and showed you the screen of his phone reading out loud. “Jhope ten minutes with Baby everything except penetrative sex”

“Okay?” You nodded

“And I am calling the group card” he grinned

You were surrounded by all three men and they quickly discussed what they should do. JHope grinned, telling Jin to return the favor for the earlier blow job and V looked disappointed.

“I know why he chose me, I am called EatJin for a reason.” Jin explained seriously “these lips can devour women… and a good steak”

“Was I disappointed that JHope asked Jin-hyung to eat her out?” V scoffed a few times “me? never”

He got up out of his chair as he took his microphone off and walked away with a dark tone “What would ever give you that impression”

The next elimination saw JHope leave. And it was you and the two handsome young men, you understood why they weren’t voted out.

You had an amazing evening watching V give a rather enthusiastic Blow Job to Jin who came with a loud cry.

Now it was just you and V.

“Am I scared?” You laughed at the question, touching your mouth in thought. “Why because it’s just the two of us now”

“It’s her who should be scared?” V looked proud as he held an intense gaze.

“I do this for a living, why would I be scared?”

You tried to bluff unsuccessfully “I’m bloody terrified, Have you seen him he is handsome as hell and I know he will be the end of me”

“My biggest fear is not being able to stop. She is magnificent, we have gotten to know each other so much over the four weeks and she is cheeky and charming and sweet and I truly believe I love her.”

He licked his lips “it started out that I thought she was my type but it became that she was my everything”

When you woke its first day with just the two of you and he smiled over breakfast. “The house feels lonely without everyone doesn’t it?”

“The house feels too big and too cold” you mumbled.

You spent the week together which would be fast-forwarded on the week's episode.

“Today is the last day the challenge is going to be extreme,” he said, “you think you're ready for it?”

“Yeah, I think I am ready, what about you?”

“I think I am more nervous I wish we were on even grounds your free finish card has me worried”

“What I am about to do is either incredibly stupid or incredibly stupid” you buried your face in your hands.

“I would like to use my free finish card” you pulled the card out from the back of your phone. “You better be worth it?”

V’s mouth fell open in shock and you looked at him feeling a little mischievous.

“She is going to give up her free finish now so we fight an even and fair match tomorrow.” He said biting his lip “I love her, and I am not going to waste this moment I am going to rock her world”

You followed him to his bedroom. He held your hand the entire way and you grinned as he pressed you to the door. Kissing you hard and moaning into your mouth. He slipped his hand up your little skirt and plunged his fingers down the front of your underwear.

He didn’t let up and he was kissing and sucking at your neck before he moved you to the bed and buried himself between your legs he moaned the whole time and he was torturing you.

His tongue working magic on your clit and his long fingers curling up inside you. It wasn’t long before your legs began to tremble and you gripped the sheets as all the sexual tension that had been building up finally released causing your back to arch off the bed.

You shivered watching him lean back onto his heels and lick his fingers and palm with a soft moan. “You are delicious”

“I have made a mistake” you whispered quietly.

It was the big day you were both dressed immaculately and this was the moment of truth Adora and Pdogg watched from the sidelines beside the three judges.

“Now the rules are simple the first to cum loses the winner gets a million dollars”

“It is kind of weird knowing the finale is just the two of us having sex until someone finishes but hey who am I to judge. I am one of the people doing it”

You both went to the bed, there were cameras everywhere including inside you, that was a fun appointment. Even though it was a tiny little silicone camera on a fine cord, they were able to move the camera around by a remote so it was always in the correct position you would admit it was nerve-racking to have it inside you. V looked at you sitting on the bed with a nervous grin and you both hugged whispering under your breath.

“Are you as nervous as I am?” You whispered

“Yeah, I didn’t expect I would be having sex on late-night television”

“Yeah I agree”

“Do you think that after this, we could watch a movie or get something to eat?”

“I would love too” you breathed

Everything began and you were underneath V and he was working hard and a timer went off every ten minutes to switch positions so that you each got different stimulation and such.

You almost lost it while he fucked you from behind, you were clenching around him tightly trying to make him finish. He was grunting and growling.

Your mind was spinning and you whispered to yourself don’t come hoping you could convince yourself to hang in a little longer.

You switched positions sinking onto him and straddling his waist his hands held your hips and he bucked up into you.

“Let’s give our two contestants their first hints,” Pdogg grinned, the two hosts taking envelopes.

“V has an impregnation kink” Adora read the card aloud

“Oh yeah, daddy? you want to fill me up, you placed his hands on your lower abdomen and pressed back on him so he could feel himself through your stomach. “You want me all nice and full, huh?”

He groaned loudly and you clenched around him biting your lip. “Baby has a sound kink her preference is deep voices but she enjoys moans growls and pants. She has sensitive ears.”

V sat up putting his mouth to your ear and began, talking to you making obscene sounds in your ears and he flipped you over after hearing the belly and grabbed your hips thrusting hard.

His speed was dangerous for both of you, “Come on” he growled and you felt everything crash over you, your body practically convulsing from the power that had built up.

He came after you and it was warm. The footage from inside of you was very explicit watching him finish inside of you. You laughed, slapping his arm, you fought dirty.

“I gave up on trying to hold back if I didn’t give one hundred percent neither of us would finish. I had to get dangerously close in order to push her over the edge” He pumped his hands in the air.

“But I did it!” He cheered. “I won!”

“And there you have it V is the winner of the sexiest game of the year Temptation.” Adora cheered.

“Think you have what it takes to go online to our page to see behind the scenes footage as well as applications for next years big game”

“V, tell us what you are planning to do with one million dollars”

“First of all I am going to split it with Baby, and maybe take her on a date”

If you enjoyed this story don’t forget to Like | Share so others can enjoy it too. PLease see my [Masterlist] for more of my work.

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fanficgenerator112 · 4 years ago

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Chapter 2

Catra’s POV

I look up at Adora and frown. “Hey, why are you crying?” I stand up and cup her cheek. “A-are you mad at me?”

“No, no I could never be mad at you. I just, wish you had come to me sooner. I know talking through all of this is hard for you, it is for me too, but I’ll always love you. No matter your choice.” Adora looks at me defeated. Despite her tear filled eyes she looks beautiful.

“What do you mean? A-are you breaking up with me? Adora I can’t lose you! Not again..” She takes my hands and smiles sadly. I look away, hating the way she’s looking at me.

“You heard what Perfuma said. We’re not compatible. We’re too similar.”

“She never said that. She said we-we need to talk. That’s all.” I pull her into my chest. “Adora I will never leave you, I lost you once. Never again. We just need-”

“To be open with each other.” She sighs and kisses my chest. I look down at her and kiss her hairline knowing that no one is around us. “I love you, I always will but...” She takes a deep breath, “We need someone else,”

“We?”

“Yes, we. I love you and I’m not losing you but we don’t ‘complete’ each other,” She makes air quotations and stands up straight. “Look at Perfuma and Scorpia, Scorpia is strong and protective of Perfuma but whenever Scorpia’s strength gets out of hand Perfuma is there to calm her down from a panic attack. And Glimmer and Bow, Glimmer is always jumping into things and Bow is there to keep her steady.”

“We’re both impulsive and act on our feelings. We need some one to ground us..”

“A third..” She smiles shyly. “Perfuma and I were throwing around that idea but we didn’t know how you would react. I know how possessive you can be.”

I stay silent for a second tossing the idea around in my head. I never wanted to share Adora when we were kids but sharing someone with her and that person being for both of us. That might not be a bad idea. Someone to look after us when we’re too tired to do it ourselves. A kind, caring, and gentle person. The complete opposite of us.

“I agree but, we decide together. Ok?” I finally speak up just as Adora starts to get worried. “It’s a decision we have equal say in. And no jumping in and scaring the person ok? We have to let them choose us too.”

“I completely agree.” Adora pecks me on the lips and smiles. “We’ll talk more tonight but for now they’re starting the actual meeting and we need to be there.”

“Psh whatever. They just need She-Ra there. Big scary 8 foot tall blonde lady to the rescue.” I take her hand and start walking back to the war room.

“You need to give yourself more credit. You were always better than me at figuring out strategies. Even Octavia was impressed with you.”

I giggle softly and blush. “I forgot about her. I wonder what she’s doing, I wonder what all of the horde soldiers are doing now.” I look toward the Fright Zone a small frown forming on my face.

“I’m sure we’ll find them one of these days.” Adora gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.

We walk back into the room and see the newly reappointed King Micah sitting at the head of the table with Sparkles next to him and Arrow Bow next to her.

“Ah, finally!” The king stood up when we entered. Adora and I on the opposite side of the king and Sparkles smiles at me. I shyly return the gesture. She really doesn’t need to pretend to me my friend anymore. “Now we can begin. So, with the defeat of Horde Prime being almost a month in the past I think all of us have had time to rest and recharge and we should get started on rebuilding Etheria.”

“Starting with Brightmoon!” Sparkles buts into her dad’s speech, nothing new there but all the princesses start arguing.

“We should start with the woods! They took the biggest hits!”

“What about Mystacor? The Sorcerers tore that place apart when they were chipped!”

“Um what about Salineas? The Horde totally destroyed my kingdom and I would like as much help as possible putting it back together.”

“QUIET!” Everyone looks at King Micah and sits back down. “We need to asses the damage and figure out the best plan of action. We have to approach this in a way that makes the most sense for all of Etheria. I agree that Salineas has suffered the most due to it being controlled even before Horde Prime arrived.”

“And what about all the rouge clones here and across the galaxy?” I cross my arms and lean forward. “We’re going to have to figure out whether or not one if them is going to try to rise to power like Prime, or if they’re as harmless as Wrong Hordak.”

Adora nods and chips in. “We also need to figure out what supplies are needed in the raided villages and how we can get them what they need.” She looks towards Mermista. “I wholeheartedly believe that Salineas took the biggest fall seeing as it was destroyed before Prime arrived-”

“Yeah, by your girlfriend.” I shrink in my seat as Mermista glares towards me. “We’re gonna need all the help we can get rebuilding it.”

“Hey back off of Catra okay? She has helped the Rebellion more than most since she joined. She even saved the universe from the releasing of the heart.” Perfuma pipes up to defend me. “She has paid for her past actions and is living with the consequences.”

“Paid how exactly?! She waltzes around here like she owns Brightmoon and no one bats an eye! She hasn’t done anything. We should just-”

“I get it!” I interrupt her feeling everyones eyes on me. I shrink back into my seat. “I haven’t done anything to gain your trust, nor do I deserve it.”

“Catra,” Sparkles starts to protest.

“No it’s true, saving you and saving Adora are small good deeds compared to the damage I did while with the Horde. I don’t deserve your forgiveness but I will work hard until I do.” I take a deep breath and turn to Mermista. “Starting with helping you plan how to best rebuild Salineas.” I smile softly, “It’s the least I can do.”

Mermista scoffs but sits back down. “It’s a start I guess.” Her boyfriend, Sea Bird I think is what Adora called him, grabs her hand and kisses it.

“Now that that’s dealt with we should begin planning,” King Micah turns on the hologram table and highlights different points on the map. “These are the areas that were most effected by the Horde. I suggest we begin in Salineas and work our way west ending in Brightmoon seeing as we suffered the least amount of damage here.”

“We should avoid the Fright Zone until Scorpia decides what she needs help with seeing as it’s her kingdom.” Perfuma looks fondly at Scorpia.

“Oh, yeah of course. I’m not quite sure what running a kingdom takes but I’ll do my best!” Scorpia grins at everyone and I give her a reassuring smirk.

“I agree. Scorpia needs to come into her own as a leader,” Sparkles smiles at her, “And we will be here to help you as you learn.”

“Aww thanks guys! You are the best friends ever!”

I look down at the table and notice how many villages were under Horde control. I recognize most of the names as ones I helped conquer. A chill runs down my back as I think about how many people lost loved ones like I almost lost Adora.

“Hey, you ok?” Adora takes my hand gently squeezing it.

“No, I just,” I take a deep breath. “I caused so much heartache and terror to all the people of Etheria, I don’t think they’re going to like the idea of a ex Horde soldier helping fix their towns.”

“Hey, whatever happens we go through it together. You’re not alone anymore Catra.” Adora kisses my cheek and half the princesses ‘aww’ at us.

“Hey! Mind your own business,” I blush bright red, my tail puffing out. I see Arrow Boy out of the corner of my eye getting that look on his face. “Bow I swear to God if you call me cute one more time I will claw your eyes out!” I extend my claws for emphasis.

“I’m going to ignore that threat because you just called me my name and not ‘Arrow Boy’!” He smile widely and rushes over to pull me into a hug.

“Ah! Let. Go!” I try and push his hands off me. “Adora a little help here!”

Adora just giggles and joins the hug followed by Sparkles.

“No! No! Quit it Sparkles!” I scowl ignoring the warm feeling in my heart. All the princesses are laughing but not in a mean way like Sh-, like she did. They look like they love us. It’s probably just for the three dummies but I can’t stop the small smile that rises to my face.

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A/N

1550 Words

Wow that was a long chapter. Do you guys prefer them long or would you prefer shorter? Comment and let me know! Next chapter will be Adora’s POV so stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading Lovelies!

<3 M.

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