#but that’s a rant for another time really

[kermdoeswriting]

That's a new one

Danny could only let out a loud annoyed groan as he heard the clacking of footsteps in the corridor. Beside him, he could hear his advisor CW snort, amused by what was to come alongside Danny's pain and annoyance.

The only way for his floor to even be making a sound was if he was being graced with a human.

It wasn't often that his realm received living visitors, but the ones that usually did enter and that had managed to survive the walk to his domain always had wishes to ask of him.

And they were always human. Never anything interesting or new.

Which was annoying since humans were usually extremely demanding. As well as stubborn in their beliefs.

He would know. He is one on his days off.

They also usually had the same kind of wish.

A wish that they always were so stubborn to believe will work because they had the strength to make it through the underground to ask for it.

A wish that also had genuinely never worked. Not even once since it started!

Damn you Hades for granting the first request to begin with the one time he was on vacation.

The wish to revive a dead loved one and to make it back together to the living.

Most times, Danny would just grant the request without another thought beyond it being under the same rules as the first time, but this idea continuing through the decades was just getting annoying.

The subtle knocking on the throne room door made him sigh again as he waved his hand to allow entry.

"Look," Danny drawled, pinching his nose and not looking up at the visitor who was now in the room facing him.

"If you're about to go on some rant about how you walked all this way, I really really don't care. Just take whatever loved one you came for and walk away."

Whoever had come didn't even respond beyond a shakily taken gasp, and thats when Danny finally ended up looking towards them.

The man in front of him was really cute. He looked up at Danny, wide-eyed, blue eyes filled with some mix of wonder and curiosity.

Whatever hero get-up he was wearing looked ripped and torn to shreds, but somehow, the man was missing any and all cuts and bruises that should have been there.

If Danny was being honest, the guy reminded him of one of those wet cats who looked betrayed after being forced into taking a bath.

Eventually, after a long moment of staring at each other, the guy spoke.

"Um actually-" The man had the audacity to look bashfully towards the throne room floor before returning his gaze to Danny and continuing.

"I kind of came here to see if I could walk you out of the Underworld..?"

Huh

Thats a new one.

_________________________________________

Or basically

Danny is extremely used to people mistakenly entering his realm to pull a Eurydice and Orpheus trick (Hades made an exception ONE TIME during his temporary reign-), he just wasn't expecting someone to come with the intention to get him out of the underworld.

[xiaq]

Story time: Amazon can go fuck itself, and other genteel thoughts.

Good evening. I’m angry.

Up until now, I’ve purchased the majority of items I can’t thrift from Amazon because it’s easy and cost-effective, despite the moral qualms I have about the company. Previously, support was simple. If an item was damaged or a package didn’t arrive, you hopped on chat/the phone, provided proof, and they gave you a refund or return label.

But some shitstain from on high has introduced a new “incident report” process when something goes wrong. You submit your details, you wait 72 hours, and then they give you a refund. This would also be fine. If it fucking worked. But I have, at this point, irrefutable evidence that this is not actually how the process is intended to work. It’s meant to drive you so far up the wall that you either die from a stress-induced heart attack, or rage quit, and they get to keep your money.

In the last several months, I’ve had to submit three incident reports for damaged and undelivered items (I’m also encountering a lot more issues with item delivery, but that’s a different story).

ALL THREE TIMES, the process has taken weeks rather than days because ALL THREE TIMES they conveniently “had no record” of multiple incident reports I submitted despite the fact that I had confirmation emails each and every time.

Now, I’m a petty bitch, so even though the hours I was spending checking in, waiting on hold on the phone, being passed from agent to agent, was not worth the $10 and $20 refunds I was trying to get them to honor, I wasn’t going to give up. This last time, though. Oh they really tried.

So. My item isn’t delivered. I submit an incident report on the 12th and get my confirmation email of the submission on the 12th. I haven’t heard back by the 14th so I call and check. Shockingly, they have no record of my report. I submit another one, get another confirmation email. I call back the next day to check they received it. They have not. I beg them to let me forward the confirmation emails I have. I ask what else I can do different. They tell me to submit a new report and hang up on me. I submit another report. I receive another confirmation email. I call the next day. Can you guess? They have no record of it. This time, I ask for them to stay on the line with me while I submit a new report and confirm it’s been received. He confirms receipt and promises I will receive a response by the 21st. I record this conversation because I have a suspicion.

Hello. It is the 21st. Have I received a response? No. I call back. THIS ASSHOLE, who I’m pretty sure is reading this shit from a script, says, (are you ready for this) “There’s no record of an incident report, you’ll need to submit one.” I insist that I had confirmation in writing and verbally. She insists it does not exist.

So I tell her. I now have four confirmation emails. I have a recording of an Amazon support person with their credentials assuring me with the product number stated, that they’ve received my report. I also have been recording this conversation. And if she cannot assist me, I will be posting those emails and both recordings to every social media platform I have, filing a BBB complaint, and checking with my lawyer to see what options I have for legal action (do I have a lawyer? Of course not. But she doesn’t know that).

Immediately, she is backpedaling. “Oh, let me check again, maybe I missed it.” Less than 30 seconds later she’s back on the line. “I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding, I do have your report here. I will process a refund now.” Shocking. I am shocked.

IT SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS MUCH EFFORT TO GET A COMPANY TO HONOR THEIR PROMISED LEVEL OF SUPPORT.

Jesus Christ.

B and I will be finding different local places to purchase items we tend to buy via Amazon now, because I have every intention of ending our Prime membership. It looks like between Costco and Target we should be covered.

Anyway. No point to this except to rant. Thanks for reading if you got this far. I’m going to go lay under the weight of my dog and try to get my heart rate down.

[luwritesstuff]

Breaking Point

Spencer Reid x reader

notes: angst/arguing followed by fluff/comfort, gn!reader, no use of y/n

wc: 884

Every relationship had their weakness, the one thing that tested how strong two people really were together. You and Spencer found out months into dating that your relationship's pressure point was exhaustion. It hit you both after two back to back cases across the country in one week, a friend’s wedding on Saturday, and a dinner with your parents on Sunday. By the next week, the two of you were stretched thin.

For you, the exhaustion made you irritable. Things you usually had patience for were getting under your skin and turning you into, quite frankly, an asshole. Spencer somehow had the most patience in the world and this only pissed you off more. Why wasn't he annoyed that your neighbors kept taking up two parking spots? Why was he so calm when you lost power for 12 hours?

As much as you ranted, Spencer listened. He made it a point to be a good boyfriend even on your worst days. This didn't mean that the exhaustion didn't get to him too. Spencer’s lack of sleep brought out his insecurities. The more irritable you got, the more worried Spencer became that he was the one annoying you.

On a normal week, you had more control over your emotions. You were thoughtful about how you spoke to Spencer and you were able to let the small stuff roll off your back. But this week wasn't a normal week and you couldn't stop the anger that kept slipping out of you around every corner. Spencer’s solution was to give you space, but deep down, you didn't want to be alone. Not even on your worst day did you want Spencer not to be curled up on your couch with you.

And how could Spencer say no to you? He wasn't evil, if you asked him to stay, he'd stay. Even if you had a permanent scowl on your face and didn't offer any conversation.

“Spencer!” You groaned, fighting the urge to stomp your foot like a child. “Why do you keep putting your wet towel on top of mine? There's another hook behind the door and every time I go to use my towel, it's wet!” You brought the towel out to Spencer and threw it onto the couch. Before he could finish his apology, you were continuing, “It just drives me crazy, honey. It makes me cold getting out of the shower and-”

“If you hate having me around so much, then why am I even here?” Spencer cut you off, raising his voice in a way you'd never heard directed at you before. Anyone who didn't know Spencer well would see his words as anger, but you knew Spencer well and you could feel the hurt and insecurity seeping out through his voice.

You both froze, staring at each other in silence while you replayed his words in your head. After a beat, your shoulders sagged and you moved to sit on the opposite end of the couch from him. “Shit,” you sighed and grabbed the towel to start folding it, “I'm being mean, I'm sorry. I do want you here,” you promised and looked over to find Spencer staring at his lap.

“It's fine if you don't, just… tell me that. I don't want to keep pissing you off and making things worse,” his voice was calmer now and your heart ached. Spencer, the light of your life, felt unappreciated and unloved, because of you.

You reached out to take both of Spencer’s hands into your own and gave them a squeeze. “Hey, I want you here. I love you,” you emphasized, “having you here helps and I'm sorry I haven't been showing it. This week was just… you know how it was. And my parents just get under my skin, but I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I'm sorry, sweetheart.” Spencer couldn't hold any anger towards you if he tried and the thought made you want to cry. Your Spencer, that you were cold and bitter to, still held your hands tightly and pulled you to his chest after your apology.

“I'm sorry I put my wet towel on top of yours. I know you like having a warm towel after your shower,” he said softly and kissed the top of your head, “and I'm sorry I raised my voice at you.”

You sniffled and shook your head against Spencer’s chest. “No, don't apologize for that. You should've raised your voice at me sooner, I was being a brat,” your voice was muffled by Spencer’s shirt but he took every word in, rubbing your back as you spoke.

After you'd both calmed down, Spencer took you to bed where you both slept a solid three hours. You woke up feeling lighter than you had all week and Spencer felt relieved to have you back to your usual self. “There you are, my beautiful love,” he whispered and brushed your hair from your face.

“You're one of a kind, Spence. Let's not overdo ourselves like that anymore. Next weekend, we’re taking both days off and we’re not seeing anyone but each other,” you promised and rolled over until you were straddling Spencer’s hips. His thumbs traced shapes into your hips and he agreed eagerly by pulling you down into a kiss.

[volatilebrat4103]

Vi x Reader Head canons

This is the first time I have ever written HC's so I really hope it doesn't suck too badly

Request: may I request vi x nerdybutch!reader headcanons pls? (reader is super into Sci fi and fantasy genres)

(Feedback is appreciated - good or bad)

When Caitlyn suggested Vi meet a close friend of hers from another high-class family Vi was having none of it, but after way to much begging from Cait she caved although extremely wary of you and your status. She arranged for you all to meet at the last drop to make Vi feel more comfortable

Vi had already painted a bad picture of you before you even met, firstly you being late to the meet up, making snarky comments to Cait about ‘Pilties think they are too good to be on time’ and such

She had expected some stuck up snobby rich girl too prim and proper to walk through the doors of the surprisingly empty bar instead you leave her gobsmacked

Instead of a snob that she’d want to smack, she found herself a blushing mess when you walked in being the complete opposite, instead a tall handsome woman with short slicked back hair adorning a men’s academy uniform, who didn’t believe nor care about status or norms

She spent the whole day lost in your presence as you ramble on about some cool book you found about ancient lore as well as a few novels

After that day she would visit you everyday where she would sit for hours on end listening to you ramble on about all the newest novels your parents had bought for you.  Half of the time she wouldn’t even register what you were saying as she would stare lovingly enjoying the sound of your voice and your presence (you being her eye candy was a bonus)

The two of you grew closer quickly, Vi often staying the night where she would fall asleep to your voice reading out both of your favourite novel, more often then not wrapped up in your strong arms.

One day whilst you were ranting about a crappy ending to a story you were reading when Vi surged forward to kiss you leaving you stunned – ‘you’re cute when you rambling’ , After that day the two of you made it official

You would often ask Vi to tell you stories from the undercity, cuddled up to her as she runs hands through your short locks

She absolutely loves having your arms around her no matter where you are

Even though she is already feared for her reputation it gets worse with you and she finds it hard to comprehend how her cute, nerdy girlfriend is her scary dog privilege

You are both very, VERY protective over each other

You both pay attention to detail with one another.  Hear her talking about a cool jacket it’s hers by the end of the day.  If she sees you looking at something for even a minute consider it yours.  Mention how you always wanted to have a certain pastry for your birthday, done, she will make a plan and go to the ends of runeterra to get it.

You are surprisingly more stubborn than her and sometimes it causes fights between the two of you

Once you cool off from a fight and take time to reflect on it, you get her an apology gift (usually a sweet treat and flowers) and profusely apologise which more often than not leads to some ‘private time’ to properly express your regrets *wink wink*

Lets face it…she is a total bottom which surprises everyone till they see you

If she is having a bad day she will crawl into bed with you for you to read to her and play with her hair. If it’s a really bad day she will ensure she has skin to skin contact, you voice soothing her worries away.

Everyone always complains about the two of you being sappy, with her being a total flirt she always leaves you a flustered mess

She loves stealing your clothes, jackets, shirts anything as long as it smells like you

She gets annoyed with you having an abundance of books and work laying scattered all over your room and house, always tripping over said books or projects for school.  So being whipped, you use your technical skills to build shelving and storage for your stuff, and Vi being the pervert she is watched you and how your sweaty body moved around and your muscles flexed when working.

You let Vi design a tattoo for you and even get small matching ones

she was always curious to see you wearing tight and exposing clothes (Seeing as your nerdy ass is only seen in baggy clothes or your academy uniform) so one day she pulls out the puppy dog eyes and gets you into one of her tank tops which has her drooling.  From that day forward she began to change your wardrobe.

Although she is an absolute bottom…she is a total munch and you absolutely love having her on her knees for you

You are both extremely kinky which did initially surprise her as you seem so innocent

You genuinely laugh at her bad jokes, some might not like her humour, but she is perfect to you

She is a huge softie even though she is rough and tough (and will definitely knock you to next week) she also loves how you are so gentle and patient with her

 She loves teaching you about the undercity and taking you sight seeing

She is shocked how you always say the undercity is beautiful and how you explain every little detail you love about it, it makes her fall more inlove with you

She is your personal chef, even taking the time to teach you how to cook

When you get stuck on an assignment or project she is always there to calm you down, taking the time out of her day to help you solve it.  Her intelligence is one of the many things you love about her and absolutely hate when people assume she is stupid

Your family take some time to accept Vi thinking that she is just using you and the family, but once they realise she isn’t she becomes one of you with your parents always eager to have her over

Touch and words of affermaiton are both of your love languages

You always help her shave the side of her hair when it gets too long, your were nervous at first but she always reassures you

you design a necklace for her in honour of Jinx/Powder and she never takes it off

you learnt very quickly into your relationship how to read her and know exactly what she needs, whether it be needing comfort after a long day or a sweet treat whilst she is on her period you just knew what she needed

when she gets into fights you always give her a lecture but clean her up and make sure she is okay. Very seldom does she give you the same treatment (and teases you mocking your lectures)

Further into your relationship she would complain about the 'library' of books and collectables you have gotten saying its too much yes if you there was one you wanted she wouldn't hesitate to get it for you

She is the jealous type and hates how oblivious you are to people flirting with you

[stilessflannel]

hii! i hope you’re open to read rn :)

i was hoping i could get a small blurb/one-shot for a book!percy x apollo’s kid!reader where both of them have been pining for each other for a long while and there is somehow an angry love confession (you can decide how to bring that into it, but i don’t really want a third person triggering it—so basically no love triangle). i’m okay with angst being in it. i also kinda want it to be fluffy :D

anyway, thank you in advance for writing it :))

guys i’ve never asked someone out and the only time a guy has asked me out i ran away from him 💀 so bear with me on this one

being asked to train percy jackson in archery was a task put upon you by chiron, the centaur (?) blissfully unaware of the crush you and percy had been harbouring on each other. yet the adoration you had for the boy didn’t stop your nerves when he just wasn’t getting it right.

“you’re aiming towards the ground jackson. do you wanna give them a sore toe or rip out their larynx?”

“bit brutal?” percy muttered, aiming for the target again, and missing horrifically “maybe archery just isn’t for me. why are you wasting your time here?”

“you just need to take your time and practice. besides, i trust chiron. he knows what would be best for you and he reckons you should have a go at archery.”

percy sighs before taking another shot at the target. the arrow sails through the air beautifully, the top catching the golden sun, before soaring past the board and impaling the wooden board, provoking a groan from you.

“perce-“

“don’t tell me that i’m stupid and i can’t, i know i am!” he snaps back, posture crumpling, “i can’t do anything”

“don’t say that percy… you’re fantastic. you’re normally so amazing-“

“you think i’m amazing?”

“yes you’re amazing at everything you do. you’re so talented and hard working and…” you trail off at the look the raven hair boy gives you. the raven hair boy your heart bursted at every time you saw, and suddenly the words started spilling out of your mouth.

“i love your stupid rants and the way you care for your friends. i love your commitment to your training and i love the way you appreciate camp. i love everything about you perseus… i just love you.”

time seems to catch up to you and you press your lips shut. the training arena seems quieter than it has ever been before. holding eye contact becomes too much for you and you look away, biting your lip. for a moment percy doesn’t do anything and you curse whatever god possessed you to say that.

all of a sudden percy is beside you and wrapping his arms around your figure, holding your chin and moving your face to face him.

“i’ve always loved you too angel. even when you drag me out to learn archery”

[factual-fantasy]

I've just finished reading your response for the first time,

First off, thank you very much for the GIF and Video, as well as the explanations. I can definitely work with this.

I've downloaded and installed FireAlpaca for myself so I can start comparing what I'm seeing vs what is supposed to happen.

Immediately, Something stood out as weird to me: You're selecting multiple tools at once. That's... not supposed to happen. I tried it myself, Opened like 20 tabs and just started throwing colours at each canvas. This doesn't happen for me At all.

So I'm gonna give you some more instructions. (Tl:Dr for the instructions at the bottom, just above my little rant)

Backing Up your Brushes

FIRST let's make sure you don't lose all of your beloved brushes. from what I'm about to suggest.

in FA, I want you to go to Help > Open Config Folder

That will lead to a folder that, for me, looks like this

Keep in mind that it could look different for you, I have a fresh install with no cool special brushes. (also I can't draw to save my life)

Now simply Ctrl+A (select all) and copy it to another folder. go to like... Documents or Downloads or something, Make a folder called "Brushes Backup" and Paste all of it in there.

Alright, now to the actual thing I want you to do.

2. and 3. Uninstall and Reinstall FireAlpaca

There is some weird glitch I cannot Reproduce. So Just Reinstall FireAlpaca. this is the reason I wanted you to back up your brushes. Deleting the program and reinstalling will nuke all of the settings you use, so by copying the Config folder, you can easily reinstate your settings.

4. Testing

After you have reinstalled the program, I want you to open it, and mess around for however long you think it will take to trigger the glitch. (which sounded like only a few minutes) and see if something happens.

If not: Great!

If yes: You might want to reach out to https://firealpaca.com/report/ and fill out a bug report, and tell them that you have no way of reproducing the bug. (although I really think reinstalling will work)

5. Reinstating your brushes

Now, after you've made sure that FireAlpaca works, only then do I want you to Open the config folder again and put your brushes back. (simply close FireAlpaca after you've opened the folder, delete everything that's in it, and then copy everything from your "Backup Folder" into the config folder. )

6. Testing Part 2: Electric boogaloo

Then if you re-open FireAlpaca I want you to once again mess around a little and pay attention. Because the Bug might come back.

If it DOES come back, It might be one of your settings/brushes that is causing it. Which in that case I unfortunately have to suggest starting over with your brushes.

To recap: I'm asking you to:

Back up your brushes

Uninstall FireAlpaca

Reinstall FireAlpaca

Test to see if the weirdness is gone

Restore your brushes

Test to see if the weirdness is still gone

--- Rant Below ---

I have no clue what's happening to your program. This looks like some bug in the code that just causes FA to say "Nope" and stop responding to the side bar.

This acutally reminds me of a bug I've been encountering in Unity where the program refuses to open one of the UI pages in the Program's settings, which just completely shuts me out of the settings for one of the input libraries. Funnily enough it actually printed an error in my console, and the error was thrown so incredibly deep into compiled code that I was pretty sure I was reading Unity Source Code at that point.

I still don't know what's happening. Luckily I have Other People to interact with that settings page for me.

(This ask is in response to this post)

So once again I took sometime to test all this out, but unfortunately it didn't take me very long to come back with bad news.

So this is exactly what I did in this order:

I went to my config folder and copied everything into a new folder I created in my Documents tab. Then I went to my settings > apps > FireAlpaca and uninstalled. I then went to the official website and reinstalled it.

I opened up what should have been a fresh FireAlpaca and found this,

The red numbers are brushes that I have adjusted/used. And the "Fire roller (multiple colors)" and "twisted ribbon" are brushes that didn't come with FireAlpaca by default. I downloaded them afterwards from their little brush shop. For some reason FireAplaca remembered my brushes..

And of course, FireAlpaca was still breaking in the way that I've described in your last ask.

So I thought "Okay, I don't care if I lose my brushes and settings. I just want FireAlpaca to work." So I deleted that copied folder from Documents that I made, I unpinned FireAlpaca from my taskbar and deleted the desktop shortcut too just to he extra safe I guess..? Then I went to settings > apps > FireAlpaca and hit uninstall. Then went back to the website, reinstalled the latest version and wouldn't you know it,

All the exact same brushes, in the same order with the same settings. And FireAlpaca continued to break the same way.

So now I'm wondering if I did something wrong.. why does FireAlpaca keep remembering my settings? Did I do the uninstall process wrong? I wondered if that cache thing might be holding data or something? I've heard about that before. But with the help of a friend recently I cleared my Google Chrome and Laptop's caches. And FireAplaca didn't change at all and I didn't lose any of my settings. So that cant help me here..

I wonder if somehow my pen could be a problem? I've dropped it on the hard floor 100s of times. Could it be contributing? And what did I do wrong in this process for FireAlpaca to remember all my brush settings?

If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it <:(( Please and thank you very much 🙏🙏🙏

[mask131]

This is about Neil Gaiman's work - this is NOT about the rape accusations, but it is about the aftermath of them. I wanted to make a post for some times now about works you could read that were similar to Gaiman's works if you wanted to go see something akin to his fictional world without directly supporting him. Which would have been a VERY easy post since Gaiman kept listing everywhere the works that influenced directly or indirectly his own novels and creations. But I realized other people were already doing this, so I just thought "Heh, let's not bother with this".

And then I randomly stumbled upon this post which is trending on Tumblr. And this post got me a little mad. Because while I do agree that several of the facts in there should be more well-known and more talked about... I also think this post is quite unfair in its depiction of how Gaiman acted towards his inspirations.

People are currently screaming that Neil Gaiman plagiarized stuff by "taking huge inspiration from things and not crediting people". Except... he did credit people. It's just that his fans never bothered to go look for what inspired him. I was there back in the old days - so I saw exactly how it went. Don't start telling me Neil Gaiman purposefully stayed "silent" about the works that inspired him - I clearly saw how people were just apathetic. Myself when I compiled lists and made posts about all the works that preceeded Neil Gaiman or that he explained were his inspirations for things, people didn't bother and had no interest... but when I made a list of Gaiman's work suddenly everybody reblogged. Whether Gaiman plagiarized or not is not the thing I want to talk about today - but I want to HEAVILY criticize the way people are saying "Neil Gaiman never said he took X from X" when in fact, he did, and people were just too lazy to do their research. (Or, if you take the "Gaiman is a villain " angle, Gaiman counted on the fact people would not bother to read the original books and he won his bet!)

I am deeply sorry for this rant but it is a little trigger for me, since I have been studying and exploring the "chain" of inspirations and rewritings throughout literature and the fantasy genre (half for university work, half for personal hobby), and I have seen people literaly ignore all the bibliographies given to them under titles like "If you want to read more of the sort". [For example the original post talks about how Martin was very honest about how he took inspiration from Druon's book series. Fair. But nobody is talking about how he indeed kind of "plagiarized" Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. A lot of people don't know about this series, despite said series having literaly almost all of ASoIaF's supernatural - in fact, the reason Martin seems to be under-using his own supernatural creations, like the White Walkers, is precisely because they don't come from his mind and they are just a copy of Williams' Norns and he seems to not really know what to do with them. But that's a talk for another day.]

EDIT: I realized the post got very long, so all my personal objections and my argumentative points against the post I linked above will be under a cut. And if you want a conclusion to my long rant below the cut, it is this one: You can shit all you want about Gaiman, but at least get your facts right. It is not because someone turns out to be a bad person that you must feel the need to blast cultural misinformation. Heck, I will directly compare it to how the entire Internet wished and wanted Rowling to have "plagiarized" Gaiman's Books of Magic, because of their similarities, only for Gaiman himself to point out, no, it was not plagiarism, it was just a set of similarities and coincidences due to both works coming from a same British culture with a specific background in children literature and fantasy works. It just happened that people didn't know anything outside of Harry Potter and Gaiman's works and so assumed it was the only two pieces of a much vaster puzzle...

Yes, Neil Gaiman is very derivative. Yes he is very imitative. But he never hid it? He always said he was, he always pointed out the works that influenced him, he always listed the stuff that he based his own works upon - down to sometimes helping these works come out of obscurity when they were too forgotten (like the Lud-in-mist novel?). People are doing a "surprised Pikachu face" today but... he never hid his derivatiness. In fact it was a certain part of the "charm" people found in his work back in the days. He never hid anything, it's just that a lot of people didn't want to see it or didn't care about it...

Gaiman posted an entire page on his blog for American Gods (back in the early days of Internet, he had a blog to follow his writing process for American Gods, weeks after week, you can still find it somewhere) listing the three dozen of books that inspired him/that he took elements from/that he learned stuff from. People can accuse him of having plagiarized Zelazny's work in American Gods because of one scene - Wednesday having Shadow drive into the "Backstage", which is a rewrite of the "driving to Amber" scene from The Nine Princes of Amber. But the accusation of "plagiarism" becomes a bit muddled when you know that A) Gaiman has been screaming for years about how the main source of inspiration for American Gods were all of Zelazny's mythological works and B) He literaly dedicated American Gods to Zelazny, first page you open.

When does an homage becomes too much? When is plagiarism allowed? Is taking after public domain a bad thing? What are the moral consequences of your work overshadowing your source of inspiration? These are questions I am not wanting to answer today and this post isn't about them - plus things are even more complex when you remember Gaiman was one of the most fervent defensers and advocates of fanfiction, reacting positively to it and encouraging people to do it a lot ; as well as one of the main celebrities on Tumblr to warn people to NOT send him fanfics so that it wouldn't cause legal troubles of potential plagiarism.

Anyway, my actual angry rant is below.

I/ Tanith Lee and Sandman

The post that got me angry starts with Tanith Lee. I do agree that it is a shame Tanith Lee is not more talked about and didn't receive as much fame as she deserved. I do agree that Neil Gaiman's work was heavily inspired by Tanith Lee's writing. I do agree Gaiman's work overshadowed Lee's own (for a long time I didn't know she was the first one to do a vampiric Snow-White twist, before Gaiman's own). However I have to recuse the idea that Sandman is a rip-off of Tales from Flat-Earth.

It doesn't help that the person who made this original claim clearly doesn't know very much about either Lee's Flat-Earth or Gaiman's Sandman (with easy to debunk claims like how "Delusion" is one of Gaiman's Endless - no, the character does not exist). For example the poster rightfully compares how the top-dogs of the supernatural pantheon of Lee's Flat-Earth are the Masters of Night, Death and Delirium, wth the Master of Night's physical appearance echoing Dream of the Endless' appearance... However the comparison stops there, unlike what the poster tries to claim, because the Master of Night is a demon who rules over hatred, fear, curses and malevolence first and foremost - and is this world's equivalent of Satan/Iblis - and is not a personification of dreams, imaginations and sleep like Morpheus. Also, unlike what the OP claims, the Demon Princes are not like the Endless, "eternal entities beyond gods" - on the contrary, it is shown by book one the Demon Princes CAN be killed, and that there are gods who are a distinct species far above the Demons.

It is also incomplete to try to claim that having Dream and Death be siblings is a "proof" of Tanith Lee plagiarism... Because Gaiman is very explicit in his narrative of how Dream and Death are transpositions of the Thanatos & Hypnos/Thanatos & Morpheus twinship present in Greco-Roman mythology (Ovid's "Gates of Horn and Ivory" are literaly there in the first issues). Plus, since we do have the original manuscripts and the proposition draft Gaiman sent to DC (it is in the bonus of collected editions and in companion books), we know Gaiman originally had just three Endless in mind, Death, Dream (who was a reshape of DC's Sandman super-hero), and Destiny (who pre-existed in DC's universe), Delirium only coming far later.

That being said, I am feeling very sad for Tanith Lee through the testimony of her friend - how, again, she had trouble becoming a recognized author despite her work being very influential and frequently talked about for the fantasy genre (all the fantasy manuals and guides and encyclopedias of France list her among the authors to be read), and I do feel her distate for Neil Gaiman's work vampirizing hers is very justified. But to jump into saying Sandman is a copy-paste or a full on rip-off of Flat-Earth is unfair and very limiting. Flat-Earth was one of the inspirations of Sandman, but it doesn't own "everything" to it.

Plus, the OP also gets very angry at how Gaiman "never" talked about Tanith Lee and ... you know how I got to learn about Tanith Lee, and how I got encouraged to read her? Through Gaiman's Tumblr blog, where he regularly listed her as part of the authors that inspired him/the fantasy authors he enjoyed/the authors he encouraged others to read. I saw her appear like five different times on his Tumblr, and without him I probably wouldn't have started getting curous about her. So he did talk about her and he did present her as one of his inspirations and favorite authors... At least on Tumblr, and for several years.

II/ Coraline and Thief of Always

The comments mention Coraline and the Thief of Always as possibly being another "plagiarism" of Gaiman... I remember when Neil Gaiman was asked on his Tumblr about how similar Thief of Always and Coraline were, and he simply answered with the fact he and Barker had a similar thought process and came up with akin works though very different in the results.

You could say it is a form of copy or plagiarism (though Gaiman at least did an effort to make Coraline the almost opposite of Thief of Always in several ways). But I will have to point out that that Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker know each other, and that it has been reported, talked about and evoked a lot of times how they hanged in the same circles, with the same people, and exchanged thoughts, and talked about their mutual creations. We know Gaiman talked of the early Sandman issues when they were created with Alan Moore and Clive Barker, while Moore talked of his creation of From Hell. We also know that a part of the Sandman's universe was indirectly created by Barker - as Gaiman explained the idea for naming Desire's domain "The Threshold" came from a story Clive Barker had planned but never wrote, exploring the puns "threshold" could offer.

To my knowledge Clive Barker never claimed that Gaiman plagiarized him or stole from him with Coraline? But I might be wrong.

III/Other details

The comment about the "Lovecraft and Doyle" comparison is clearly taken out of context, because it was literaly about a story which WAS a literal Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu fanfiction, "A Study in Emerald". The commenter seems to think this comment applied to Gaiman's entire work? No it does not.

I don't know anything about the Lenny Henry situation, I will have to look for this.

[genderqueerdykes]

I recently saw a post comparing the progress pride flag to the american one, essentially saying it was gaudy and over representative so all the symbols were just noise.

Like listen, I get that statement of the OG pride flag "encompasses all" but I feel it just completely missed the point of what it stood for.

Is it that bad that our trans and intersex peers wish to be seen? Is it that bad that we show respect to our BIPOC peers and remember they are among us especially when frontline queer voices and representation in media is overwhelmingly white?

Like idk maybe I'm overreacting but as someone part of those communities the progress pride flag shows it made me want to scream. Is it too much to want to be seen when queer people have and will turn a blind eye to us?

I'm NOT saying this flag needs to be everywhere. It'd be nice but it's unrealistic but hell, with the amount of stupid infighting and dangerous ideologies spreading within the queer community, it sure is a sight for sore eyes when I see it.

We're still here, we're still queer, and you cannot separate us from that.

Sorry for the rant I think I'm just tired of people getting hung up on "inclusivity politics" as if acknowleding people existing is some great pain and we're "ruining" their pride flag.

you're 100% right in pointing this out and i'm tired of this behavior. thank you so much for taking the time to send this ask, because this is something i'm actually also very deeply bothered by.

i've seen that post too and i've tried to figure it out and i just can't parse what the hell kind of point they're trying to make. that post makes no sense they thought they made a point and they didn't. just because the design is visually complex doesn't make it like the flag of the United States. there's chevrons on the left hand side of the flag and stripes on the right- that doesn't make it a copy of or homage to or some kind of subliminal messaging that calls back to the flag of the USA. this website has some of the lamest conspiracy theories i've ever seen that are just cooked up to make other people feel like shit.

some people are so hateful and bitter that they view inclusion as a bad thing. i'm calling it for what it is. some people are so goddamn miserable and up their own asses that they literally HATE it when people are included into what they think are their little cliques and groups. some people see like, any attempt from another group of people to be inclusive and inviting as an insult and an attack because they're just "pandering" or sucking up to us or trying to look progressive or whatever. like people will write this shit off every time no matter how good the intentions are. i'm sorry that you're being forcefully made aware that trans and intersex people and queers of color need a platform to speak on and a community to stay in, but you're the one causing a problem here if that bothers you. i'm sorry that people of color in specific need to feel safe in queer spaces, but you're the reason that we don't.

first of all, as an intersex trans person of color, i literally teared up the first time i saw the version of the progress pride flag that included the intersex pride flag. like. that's literally the FIRST TIME IN QUEER HISTORY THAT WE'VE SEEN WIDESPREAD USAGE OF THE INTERSEX FLAG!!!!!!!! THAT'S FUCKING HUGE. THIS IS SO FUCKING IMPORTANT FOR US! we NEED that visibility on such a grand fucking scale!!! we NEED TO BE SEEN LIKE THAT. i don't really care if jaded bitter assholes are like "it's pandering" "its ugly" fuck OFF it's NOT! i don't care how disconnected from your feelings you are, but the first time i saw an intersex flag in PUBLIC, i cried. it was on a progress pride flag. i was in an airport. and then i saw another in a grocery store. and then i started seeing them all over town.

second of all, i am so sick of queer people focusing on aesthetics over function. this attitude has gotten out of hand and honestly it feels like its a lot of white queers who don't understand how important flags are for representation and signaling safety and solidarity and how they're not just a bunch of pretty colors to look at. each part has meaning. this is just the "tooth paste gay flag" discourse bullshit all over again. the stone cold truth is that some people literally fucking HATE it when they see people they don't like gain visibility. these are people who fucking hate intersex and trans people and queer people of color and are so fucking angry that we're daring to occupy space, and making their precious flag 'gaudy' and 'ugly'. also white queers love to bitch about how the brown and black stripes are "UGLY", do i really have to say anything here?

the philadelphia pride flag is a flag made by queers of color living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a historically largely black city, to be explicitly inclusive of black, brown and all queers of color. black queers in philly were the first ones to add black and brown stripes to the traditional rainbow flag. the creator of the progress pride flag took notes from this and decided to honor that and carry it over, as they felt leaving out those stripes would be a slap in the face. and they're right, it would be a slap in the face- it IS a slap in the face! the philly pride flag wasn't made so what white and racist queers can sit here and bitch about how it's "pandering" or "trying to include too many people". this shit was made by and for people of color. this behavior is so fucking disrespectful and racist

stop fucking fighting over flags. queer flags aren't here to be "aesthetic" or "pretty"- they're here to serve a purpose. to give people a banner to unite under to find community, love, partnership, friendship, safety, and a space to talk and organize. it's so that you can easily recognize that someone else is part of the same family as you. it's not there to be pretty, it's there to be visually striking, and to instantly convey a message. the progress pride flag WORKS because it contains several pride flags and grabs your attention. maybe you're intersex but have never seen other pride flags before. maybe you've never seen the intersex flag before but have seen the trans and rainbow flags before. it will convey the same message, but now with a greater message which is to explicitly say "we want to include everyone".

if you don't like the progress pride flag:

it was not made for you, and you don't have to use it.

thanks for taking the time to send this i really appreciate your thoughts. people have got to stop manufacturing discourse because they want to sound smart. i have no way to put it other than some people literally just cannot form or articulate a point. and that's fine. that's okay. but some will still try anyway and the argument just falls flat. if you encounter talk like that where they don't really have a lot of ground to dislike it other than personal opinion, it's all hot air and has nothing to do with the matter at hand, but rather, their feelings.

[indieyuugure]

Hiii! Im doing a essay about ROTTMNT and TMNT do you have any ideas whatt ill do?

lol 😂 oh dear this seems a tad urgent.

Hm, well personally I would consider covering the both positive and accurate homeschooler representation in TMNT. It’s often overlooked but is really actually incredibly good and a deeper topic than maybe like art style.

A lot of media paints homeschoolers extremely inaccurately and often negatively. I can’t tell you how many times the “homeschooled” character’s in media are 2D friendless plain toast people with personalities that are literally just that they don’t go to school and it’s so incredibly insulting! But TMNT doesn’t do this!

I’ll tell you, as a homeschooler myself and having met NUMEROUS others, homeschoolers are wild, they’re full of personality and big dreams, often they have no interest in attending “normal school” and are usually better educated, they’re best friends with their siblings and very close with their parents, and actually tend to have more meaningful and lasting friendships than other kids.

All of these things is the TMNT is and it makes me so happy to have good representation that’s not loud and preaching but just subtly there because THAT’S HOW IT IS.

There are exceptions to everything I just listed—I can think of one person for just about every exception—but TMNT does a fantastic job of explaining in a lowkey way that homeschoolers aren’t aliens from another planet, they’re kids just like everyone else.

So anyway 😅 now that I’ve written my own rant, hopefully you’ll find that useful at all.

Other good topics could be the franchise’s themes of acceptance and learning to see beyond an outer appearance which as a show targeted towards children is a very good thing to learn (seriously children are the judgiest little things).

Another could be the franchise’s history from gritty young adult comics to colorful children’s cartoons.

You could also do something with the shows portrayal of positive familial relationships since most television often depicts siblings as annoying irritants and parents as unfeeling dictators, and while those are aspects of family life, they never show the positive things like unconditional love, and loyalty and understanding and very deep togetherness.

Hopefully any of this is useful, I’d recommend maybe asking a few other people for ideas (if you haven’t already) so you can get a wider selection of view points and of course more ideas 👍

[galaxymacbeth]

John can’t really help himself.

It’s well written and she took the time to highlight the area they were in. He didn’t know Urzikstan was known for its cuisine before being taken over. Maybe next time they were there, he could convince Farah—

“Cap.”

He looked up. His boys stood in the doorway of his office, each wearing an expression of curiosity and smugness on Simon’s part.

“Boys,” John said, turning his chair to face them and not the article, “need me?”

“It’s almost dinner, Cap,” Kyle said. Sweet Kyle who always made sure the team ate together, “hadn’t seen you all day.”

“Just busy,” John pushed himself to stand and rounded his desk, “let’s eat.”

Each of them eyed him as he moved past them and down the hall. Simon chuckled, nudging the sergeants to follow, and closed the door behind him. He knew what John had been reading. Again. For the third time since Monday. It was Tuesday.

The mess was barren, given that dinner didn’t actually start for another ten minutes, but the cooks were always kind enough to let them eat before anyone else.

“What’re ye up tae,” Soap asked when they sat down.

“Paperwork,” John said. Simon smirked again but didn’t say anything.

“Heard from Alex,” Kyle interrupted, “said they were...strategizing.”

“Back to Farah, then?” Soap grumbled but John’s body began to vibrate.

He should know better.

But he can’t fucking help himself.

To no one’s surprise, Laswell had them on a plane two weeks later. Ghost grinned through the briefing and the gear up. He grinned through the “John, a minute?” as he corralled the sergeants to the gym for a last minute sparring session he was sure the captain would join them for.

John, however, was not grinning.

“I’m a grown fucking adult, Kate,” he growled at the laptop. Kate stared at him.

“You’re a man. And she’s pretty, I’ll give her that. Stay. Away.”

“Last I checked,” John stood to his full height even if she couldn’t stand in front of him to be intimidated, “I head this task force and I don’t take orders from you.”

“We head this task force together, John. And if I tell you to stay far away from a news reporter, then you will.” Kate crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him again.

“I have no interest in talking to her again.” Kate rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure. Keep it that way, then. Farah needs your full attention.”

John slammed the laptop shut before he could say something stupid and wrestled it into his arms. As he left the room, his phone vibrated.

S In the gym sparring

Yeah. John could use some sparring.

Once in Urzikstan, they were whisked into a tent with Farah and Alex. John was unconsciously grateful for the distraction. They stood there for hours, discussing the best way to get intel and what to do with it. It was Soap nodding off that finally ended Farah’s fiery ranting.

“Go, go sleep,” she said with a hand on Soap’s shoulder. He barely nodded at her as Ghost led him away by the vest to their tent. Kyle rubbed at his face, grimacing at his gloves for a moment, before turning to the captain.

“Sleep, sir?”

“Just a bit longer here,” John shook his head, “be there in a little.”

Kyle nodded, slapping a hand against his back as he shuffled out after Ghost and Soap. Alex mumbled something to Farah and, with a kiss to her head, he followed after them.

“She is not here,” Farah said as John flicked through the papers strewn over the table.

“Who?”

She chuckled and nodded, “your trouble maker. She left last night for Iran.”

John sighed, but didn’t reply. Was the tightness in his chest because he was glad not to have to run into her? It had to be. It needed to be.

“I am making dinner tonight,” Farah continued, “she was right about our food.”

“Good, I’ve been wanting to try it,” John mused, “read somewhere it was good.”

Farah laughed this time and pat his shoulder in dismissal.

The mission was a relative success. Intel was obtained and Ghost handled the informant it came from. All in all, it was a pleasant experience.

Too pleasant.

The showers that the ULF had left much to be desired, but John wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He took the most lukewarm shower of his life and pulled on a fresh pair of military issued cargo pants and green shirt. His socks were not fresh, however, and he tried not to think about it when he put them back on and shoved his feet into boots.

The debrief with Farah and Kate would be quick and then he could relax. For the however many hours before Nik would pick them up to shuttle them off to their next mission.

John stepped into the shipping container turned command center to hear Farah and Kate arguing.

“I told you to keep her away from them.”

“I am not her keeper, I have an army to command,” Farah slammed a hand on the table, “revoke her passport if she’s that important.”

“Who told her they would be there?”

John cocked his head and leaned against the wall to listen.

“Are you accusing me of something?”

“It’s incredibly convenient, Farah, you must admit.”

John cleaned his throat and Farah lifted her head to look back at him. Kate’s face soured even further on the screen but she sat up.

“Let’s start.”

“Don’t stop on my account,” John shrugged.

“We got the intel, have you received it?” Farah cracked her neck and waved a hand at the laptop.

John held back a scoff at the two and let the debrief continue. Farah’s shoulders never relaxed and Kate kept eyeing John when she thought he wasn’t looking. Neither of the women mentioned the terse words shared before his arrival and the meeting ended with a short “behave” directed at no one in particular.

John finally scoffed once the laptop was shut and Farah let out a strangled cry.

“Well, that was fun,” a chuckle came from the far end of the container and John’s face paled at it.

“I am glad you think so,” Farah hissed.

“Oh, c’mon, Farah, the woman can be terrifying, but trying to keep me from doing my job?” She smoothed a hand over the PRESS patch on the front her tac vest. “Kate Laswell has another thing coming.”

“You’re supposed to be in Iran,” John finally chokes out. The tightness in his chest loosens and he almost wants to scream at his heart for racing behind his ribs.

“Certain sources alerted me of a...possible story in Urzikstan,” she shrugged, “something about a Russian PMC.”

John growled deep in his chest and turned to Farah. She looked less than happy to see the American too, but her shoulders relaxed and she stood up.

Did no one else understand how dangerous it was for her to be here? National security aside, John had seen how ‘well’ she handled hostage situations and she couldn’t shoot to save her life (literally).

“You told her?”

“Farah isn’t my source, John.”

“Then who is?”

She smirked at him but there was a solid knock on the side of the container before Alex and Ghost stepped in. Their intel was ready to be acted on.

“Just a few words on what’s happening,” she had her tiny notebook and pen in hand and the gratuitous smirk on her face had morphed into a curious frown.

“A recon mission,” Ghost said, “for intel.”

She scribbled each word down and looked back up, waiting for more. Her lashes blinked and John was forced to steel his resolve. Soap’s puppy dog eyes were hard enough to ignore; hers were god damn impossible. He turned his head away from her and saw the glee in Ghost’s eyes. Farah let out a sigh and gave her a carefully crafted quote about collecting evidence of sabotaging of civilian water supply.

With a snap of her notebook, the journalist smiled again. “I’ll be getting out of your hair, now.”

But certainly not out of his mind.

She pranced from the container and Alex tipped his head out to make sure she was gone before he and Ghost laid into their next mission.

dividers by @/cafekitsune

oh, would you look at that. it consumed me.

[fairyspheres]

i saw that dragon age veilguard hasn't sold well (in the official statement, they specifically said that 1.5 million copies had 'reached players' so it must have sold even worse than that which. yikes) and while i'm quite gutted about that, ea and bioware also only have themselves to blame for it.

they let ten entire years pass between inquisition - a game that, for the most part, dragon age fans generally really like, at least for the lore - and veilguard. in those years, we saw them make andromeda, anthem, and heard reports of them trying to make the-then new dragon age game live service. thankfully we didn't get a live service dragon age game in the end, but a lot of the original writers were dropped, and i think that shows with the quality of the writing in veilguard.

i've never played dragon age for the gameplay, in any of the games. i despise the gameplay in origins - it's clunky and horrible and the deep roads makes me want to let the darkspawn win. but i love the story, which is why i endure the deep roads and the fade. the same in da2, which is probably my favourite of the entire series, even with the repeating dungeons (actually i love the repeating dungeons. i like knowing where things are), and the same in inquisition with the companions who feel like real people (cassandra pentaghast my beloved).

veilguard... the cuts show in the writing quality. the best character was emmrich (and assan and manfred) and from what i've heard he also had the best romance. which is another thing that suffered greatly - the romances (other than emmrich's). in a game series known for its romances, to the point where bioware was marketing the game as the most romantic as the series, how have they managed to mess it up that badly? cullen and solas' romances were late game additions in inquisition, and they're some of the best in the entire series, so it can't be an issue of time constraints.

rook's dialogue choices were essentially just different flavours of pleasant. do you want to be cheerful, lesser purple-hawke, or stoic? there's no real choice to be had throughout most of the game. even the choice between minrathous and treviso has little impact beyond what merchants might be available and a couple of later game choices. compared to earlier games, where you could let an entire village be overrun by corpses, or let fenris be taken back by danarius, the lack of choice is rather stark in comparison. the only real choices come at the very end of the game.

AND speaking of choices - the entire series has been about how all our previous choices have always mattered, about how we can always carry them over and use them to influence the world. so it was very much a slap in the face when not only could we not use the dragon age keep or import any choice beyond who we romanced in inquisition and what we wanted to do with solas, but the fact that by the end of veilguard, everything we did from origins to inquisition was all for nothing. bioware's choice to do that to varric was a kick in the teeth to long-term fans. oh, we got a little reference to the hero of ferelden in weisshaupt, how nice. pity they didn't tell us whether they're still alive or not. a shame we don't know hawke's fate.

so no, i'm not surprised that the game did so poorly in sales. i'm disappointed, but i'm not surprised because as i said, it's their own fault. i said back in november that they might not have another chance to make things right, and i hate that i might've been right about that.

this turned into an unintentional rant about all my grievances with the game.

[straw-hat-nakama-22]

Yet another WIP.

This one takes place when Sanji has been with Zeff for a year.

An undercover marine comes into the Baratie and recognizes Zeff immediately. He sees Sanji and assumes he's his kid.

He corners Sanji and says that he knows about Zeff and that if Sanji doesn't help him out, he'll turn Zeff in to his higher ups.

He's there following a ship of child traffickers who docked at the Baratie. They've had their eye on Sanji.

Every time this Marine tries to follow them to their base, they lose him at the last minute. So he asks Sanji to let them take him and gives him a small transponder snail to contact him with the base's location.

Sanji doesn't have much of a choice so he goes asking with it.

Zeff finds out he's missing almost as soon as the other ship departs and is kicking himself for not keeping a closer eye on the kid. They weigh anchor and start to follow when Mr. Marine tries to leverage Zeff's past against him so he doesn't overtake the slavers.

Zeff refuses but the other ship is fast and the Baratie wasn't built for speed. It takes four days to catch up to them.

They expect to find huddled masses, terrified and hurting, but instead, Sanji is standing over a bunch of unconscious bodies with ten or twelve kids hiding behind him.

Sanji takes the lead in helping the other kids and getting them fed something that won't hurt their stomachs. He swears that they're safe there, going as far as yelling at Patti to prove that even the biggest guy in the ship hadn't ever hurt him, even when Sanji insulted him.

And Sanji is ticked. He goes on a little rant about how that was the most pathetic excuse for a dungeon he'd ever seen. The cells were wooden and they used rope for restraints and where were the cuffs you morons!?

All of which make the chefs pretty concerned.

Mr. Marine promises to get the kids somewhere safe and to report that red leg Zeff really was dead. This is the first time they find out about Sanji's deal with the guy. Zeff makes sure to tell him that the only reason he's leaving with his skull intact is because Sanji would notice a body in the water.

Hurt comfort while Sanji deals with nightmares and general jumpiness from the bad memories the whole thing brought up.

[bwat5-blog]

A Rant: Dear Stupid People- Bonus content

**spoilers for arcane**

“Arcane really had Vi abandon her sister so she could fuck an Enforcer in a jail cell who was guilty of atrocities worse than Marcus ever committed”

…………………………………………….…………………………………………….…………………………………………….…………………………………………….

Just saw the earth-shattering insight above regarding Caitlyn and Vi’s scene in the comments of another post. Setting aside the idiocy of claiming Vi “abandoned” Jinx, what more caught my eye was the statement that what Caitlyn did was worse than this man here. The mustachioed menace himself.

MARCUS:

So I don’t have a ton of time at the moment to really pick this apart so let’s keep it short and sweet shall we?!

Marcus:

1. Complicit in the betrayal and murder of Sheriff Grayson

2. Complicit in murder of Benzo

3. Knowingly Complicit in abduction and murder of Vander and by extension the deaths of Mylo and Claggor

4. Kidnaps and imprisons a fifteen year old girl in the worst prison they have without trial or cause where she undergoes at the very least continuous physical assault if not worse

5. Knowingly Complicit in Silco’s crimes and covers for him, allowing the unleashing of Shimmer into the world as well as covering up who knows how many deaths and how much illegal activity

6. Pins the deaths of the six enforcers and destruction of the building on the firelights

7. Tries to kill Ekko and Caitlyn to protect Silco’s criminal enterprise

8. If we really wanna get deep, had Marcus not done what he did, its possible Silco never would have gotten a shot at Vander, which means Powder doesn’t become Jinx, which means she and Caitlyn’s history doesn’t happen, which means no martial law commander. So…….

SUMMARY: Complicit in countless murders including that of his seeming mentor and friend. Uses his position as the most powerful law enforcement officer in Piltover to knowingly and intentionally block all efforts to investigate Silco’s wrong doing. Plays major role in allowing the unleashing of Shimmer despite the harmful effects playing out in front of him. Abducts a child and leaves her in an adult prison to suffer for years. And does so in full and complete possession of his faculties out of fear. Not to mention that he quite intentionally made a deal with Silco even if he wasn’t expecting Grayson’s death.

Caitlyn:

1. Uses a non-lethal “strategic to a pinpoint”(courtesy of Amanda Overton) tool to clear the streets and take down Shimmer and the Chem-Barons while also hunting Jinx

2. Tries to shoot Jinx while Isha is in the way during clear manic/ptsd driven episode

3. Hits Vi with rifle stock

4. Accepts position of commander under martial law all given willingly by people in charge

5. Institutes Martial Law in Zaun where she has full authority to do so

6. Insists on lawful arrests and challenges unnecessary violence

7. Unknowingly complicit in Ambessa’s brutality and experimentation by allowing herself to trust in and be manipulated by Ambessa

SUMMARY: Goes on a fully sanctioned mission using non-lethal violence preventing tools. Risks a child’s life for revenge and hurts Vi in worst moment. Allows herself to be manipulated during period using authority willingly and fully given to her and the person she trusted hurt people in secret.

Yep. Those are comparable. I see what you mean. And before anyone starts with “she gassed a whole city and killed kids!” No. No she didn’t. And I know that. Because I’ve seen the show. And you can’t provide a shred of proof to back it up. So. Caitlyn did worse than Marcus?

[polyamorousmood]

Hey! I’m so sorry if you don’t respond to asks like this but I was wondering if I could get a little advice?

I’ve been with my boyfriend for nearly 8 months now and I went into it making it clear that I was poly and he knew that (hes monogamous) and we’ve been talking about compromises around being a poly relationship. He keeps on sort of swinging between being okay with it and then getting sort of self conscious. The way he sees it is that if he was to date someone outside of me then I’d need to date someone else so it’s fair but if I was to date someone outside of him that we both weren’t dating then he’d be anxious about me leaving him.

I’m not trying to invalidate how he feels because I understand how terrifying something like this can be and I get that a lot of this stems from being cheated on in a previous relationship and that he is quite an anxious/ self conscious person. I just don’t know how to help him see that I love him and even if Ryan Reynolds himself stared dating me I wouldn’t leave him because he feels like my forever partner you know? God this turned into a rant I’m sorry

This is a late response, and I've answered similar questions before, so I recommend checking those out for further reading📚 (especially this one), but there are a few key🔑 points I want to emphasize for you specifically

Start taking time apart now. Regular time ⌚where you are unavailable (and out of the house). This will be common if you get another partner, and it is only one more thing for your boyfriend's brain to go "this is different than usual, they're pulling away, this is a problem, AAAAAAA" if its not normal. Its made much easier if you being unavailable sometimes is normal. Take a cooking class or become a regular at the library or something.

You will never be able to completely assure him you won't leave. This is one of those things that's a bitch to hear, but its true. And would be true even if you were monogamous. Your boyfriend probably needs to do some independent work on that (I really like this worksheet📃✍️, done slowly). That doesn't mean you shouldn't reassure him you're in this for the long haul! That doesn't mean you shouldn't still help! Just that you cannot 100% solve the problem, no matter how committed you are.

Don't let him waffle forever. This is so much easier said than done. And you should allow him some space to sort this out, because it is a lot for most people! But you made this clear from the beginning, and if you wake up one day and suddenly you've been dating him exclusively for 4 years and he's still not sure... something went wrong. Express to him that - while you understand his concerns - it does still hurt to be in limbo, or that he'd doubt your love so much, or whatever else about it is hard for you. Its a tricky balance⚖️ to strike, but you can and should be able to express your feelings while respecting his.

"The way he sees it is that if he was to date someone outside of me then I’d need to date someone else so it’s fair" do you feel this way?? If not, tell him to cut it out with putting extra restrictions on it lol

Best of luck, my friend. 🍀 You can do this!! And so can your boyfriend!

[tippexdeluxe]

I don’t think younger me would be as opposed to current me as I think he would be. Like younger me was supporting furries and had such a ‘live and let live’ attitude that I’ve tried to uphold today that I think he would meet current me and think ‘yeah. That’s fair enough’.

And I like that thought a lot more than ‘young me would be disgusted by current me’ like yeah you’re growing but the idea that young me wouldn’t really understand but also wouldn’t mind is one I like. Young me would’ve worn a skort (and did) without a thought to it. Young me wore a dress one time like yeah going ‘oh I use they/them, she/her and he/him’ would be confusing but like understandable. Probably just a ‘that’s weird but okay you aren’t hurting anyone so I don’t care’

Just a thought really. Young me was chill in a world where nobody around me was.

[fatedroses]

And some days, I just wish you wouldn't look at me at all.