#but there's also something to be said about the men in these situations

[soleilapproves]

Nanami is in love with his best friend who saves him from a creepy woman. Honestly, I’m not sure what the plot is. I just wrote this because I was procrastinating my chem assignment.

Notes: reader referred to as wife

main masterlist

Nanami Kento didn’t know when he fell in love with you. Maybe it was when you giggled and pulled him out of the house to jump around in the rain with you. Or was it when you fell asleep on his shoulder after a long workday?

He didn’t know that you found so much solace in him. 

His breathing was shallow as he watched you prance around your shared kitchen, singing a generic pop song about… love, was it? Or heartache. He didn’t know or care; all he knew was that you were wearing his shirt like it belonged to you- like he didn’t spend his hard-earned money to buy something for work, and you just plucked it out of the laundry room like it had your name on it.

He half expected you to be all bashful once you turned around and saw him, but no, you just pointed the whisk you used to mix your pancake batter at him and began lip-syncing the song's lyrics to him. He scoffed as he walked around the kitchen island and held on to your waist. Your singing slowed down as his grip tightened on you.

“What? You were hogging up the space in front of the coffee machine. Don’t stop on my account,” Nanami nonchalantly said as he dragged you away from the coffee station. Bewildered, you went back to singing again, facing away from him as you looked for cinnamon in the spice cabinet. 

Nanami bit the inside of his cheek as he noticed your ears looked redder than usual.

It all felt oddly domestic. Your work shoes were strewn by the door, he was comfortable with his hair being disheveled, your unapologetically tone-deaf singing, and of course, the fact that you were making breakfast for him unprompted. 

‘I could live like this forever,’ the blond thought. Of course, minus the whole best-friends-who-live-together-and-aren’t-in-a-romantic-relationship situation.

But was confessing to you a good idea? What if you both broke up and never wanted to see each other again? What would happen to your living arrangement then? He can’t handle not seeing you for a day. It would be horrible for his sanity. 

But then again, you both have been friends for so long that it only felt natural to be with each other all the time.

He ignored his heart, screaming at him to confess to you. The man was clearly too far gone; if he spent another day in your presence, he would surely go mad. In love and in vain.

He ignored his thoughts when he saw you accidentally pick up his cup and place your lips exactly where his were a few seconds ago. You scrunched your nose, and it took everything in him not to kiss it. “Dear God, this is bitter. I’m sorry, Ken, but I will never enjoy your tastes in food.” 

Ken

He could hear you say that all day, all night, and in his dreams. Fuck, weren’t you a magnetic being?

He ignored his heart while brushing his teeth later that night. He put his hand on his chest and rubbed it when he saw your toothpaste next to his. Yours was pink, and his was blue. A silly little cliche among most couples. He looked at the shower shelf in the bathroom- you used the same body wash as him because you said men’s shower gels smelled better. He simply complied and brought you a few bottles because it gave him the illusion that you had slept in his bed. 

The two of you were polar opposites. He preferred a quiet night in, while you’d take advantage of your weekends and go out with friends. You hated cooking while he cooked elaborate recipes for fun. You were very outdoorsy while he preferred to use his treadmill.

There were so many differences, but you both complemented one another so well. So much that it confused mutual friends. People often asked why you both weren't a couple instead of if you were one.

He would also ignore his heart when it thrilled him to see men walk away from you as soon as he was in your space, hands naturally sitting on your waist while you whined about being single. ‘I’m right here!’ he wanted to scream. ‘Look at me!’

But his heart reached its wits end when you pretended to be his wife to protect him from an uncomfortably touchy woman.

Nanami is a simple man; he gets excited when he hears about food. Especially when it has to do with trying new dishes. So it was only natural that he dragged you to a global food festival in the city. It was pleasantly warm in the outdoor space for a cold winter night, thanks to all the cooking going on in the stands. You were a little overstimulated by all the smells, but the excitement on Nanami’s face was well worth the temporary discomfort. By now, you both had traveled to France, Turkey, and India via flavors alone.

The bar at the food stand you both were eating was getting increasingly crowded by the second, so it was only natural that there would be some unintentional physical contact with strangers. Nanami wrapped his arm around you to prevent the old man beside you from rubbing all his nauseating cologne over you. You ignored the way your body fit right next to his. And dare you say- like a puzzle piece with the silhouette of your breasts pressing up right beneath his pecs. 

You both decided to share a bowl of spicy noodle soup, but you couldn’t handle the prickly taste of peppers on your tongue. “I’m gonna grab something sweet. You want anything?” 

Nanami missed your warmth as you climbed out of the booth’s eating bench. “I’m alright, I’ll wait for you.” 

You also needed a few minutes away from him so your body could catch a break. The rush of adrenaline you’d get when he’d touch you was unlike any other.

He didn’t touch his noodle soup in your absence. It felt tasteless to him without you pressed up next to him. 

He continued his wallowing while staring at the bowl of soup until he felt someone slide in next to him. Excited, he turned around only to be met with a stranger. “Oh my, I really want to try the spicy noodle soup, but I’m scared it’ll be too painful.” 

“I’m sure the owner can give you a sample, and this seat is taken, so I’m gonna have to ask you to move to another place.” 

The insistent woman placed her manicured hand on his bicep, and Nananmi’s posture stiffened. “Oh, come on, I’ll just take a sip from you- I mean, your bowl, and I’ll be out of your hair.” 

This was turning into sexual harassment, and he was about to pull out his sanitizer spray to put her in her place until he heard a familiar voice. “Hey, lady! Leave him alone.” He let out a breath of relief when you arrived, ice cream in hand. 

“I can do whatever I want; it’s a free country,” she sulked.

“So can he, and he asked you to leave him alone,” you argued back. 

“Who even are you?”

“His wife.” Nanami’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. By now, the people at the booth had turned towards the three of you to observe the spectacle. Before the creep could counter your answer or ask you for proof, the booth’s owner spoke up. “Hey, you buyin’ or not? I have customers waitin’ who actually wanna eat!” 

The lady quickly tucked her tail between her legs and briskly walked out of the area. Never to be seen again. “Fucking hell, some people really need to learn about consent. You okay?” Nanami wanted to reply to you, but no words came out of his mouth. 

You had basically declared to the world that you were his wife. Well, not the world, but all eight people in the booth (excluding you two) believed that you were his wife! It probably meant nothing to them, but to him it was like you had hung the stars in the sky. 

“Ken?” 

Ugh, you said it again. 

“Yeah, I’m alright.” His eyes simply couldn’t look away from your spice-swollen lips. If you’re his pretend wife, then it’s okay for him to kiss you, right? 

He mentally slapped himself at that thought. If he was going to kiss you then it was going to be the real deal.

—

Honestly, I like it when reader protects the character. Like yes, come here, my 6’4 baby girl, I’ll beat that person up for you.

[gildeddlily]

season 2 started off beautifully. I was ecstatic at the end of episode three, for the simple reason that it had the same spirit as season 1. Vi feeling like she made a mistake so big trying to reach Powder instead of seeing Jinx and the danger she represented that the only way to fix that for her was to join her oppressors. Caitlyn destroying all the progress she'd made, unlearning what she'd been taught about Zaun by being with zaunites like Vi, the moment one of them killed her mother, and embracing her roots we can say, talking of bad blood and "I thought you were different"- showing that the internalised racism was always there ready to resurface the moment it had an excuse to. Caitlyn saying that her mother being killed by a teenager who's never dealt with her trauma and mental illness is the same thing as Vi's parents being killed by members of a military institution, disregarding everything she knew about the pain and abuse Vi went through because of the Enforcers. a "men get abused too" situation, in which one ignores the social and historical background of that type of violence to feel less sorry about it. they were perfectly well written, because they are things we see everyday. my father taught me as a child that black people crossing the Mediterranean to look for work in Italy were a good thing, and now that he's had problems at work with one he's started saying the opposite. a gay man I knew laughed at trans folks and said they made things worse for us, ridiculing them in the company of straight people to feel less threatened. (not the exact same thing as what happened to Vi, but you get what I mean).

those are real things, and Arcane has always been good at showing real things.

later on, episode seven, Jayce fell down. he landed in the deepest hole of Zaun, broke his leg, was forced to wear a brace to walk, suffered and had to claw his way back to the surface, to Piltover, in a strange metaphor of Viktor's journey and life (saw a post talking even more beautifully about this, will put the link here if I find it again), and once he met Viktor again, he told him his illness, his legs, he, were beautiful. not despite everything. because of it. and now he can understand him a little more. now he says "your imperfections are beautiful" and we can believe him, because he's not speaking from the perspective of a man trying to convince his friend to stop harming others. he's a man trying to make his partner see that he still loves him, now that he's finally understood him after years of trying to reach the truth and always being stopped by something, and that he understands him enough to know why he's harming others, and that he cares for him enough to think that he will be able to understand why it's wrong. it's Viktor accepting the inevitability of being seen by someone who went to hell and back to reach him.

those were fucking beautiful arcs. they were.

and then?

Vi saw Caitlyn become what she'd always said she wouldn't become, and there were no repercussions. Catelyn got to walk away and live all the same. she lost an eye to Ambessa, but it was no punishment for what she'd done. how many people did she harm? how many people did her actions have repercussions on? Vi shouted at her once, and then it was like it had never happened- which is still real, I guess. it happens everyday. but I didn't see any wish to make us see how that was wrong. I don't want to be told "this is wrong", I'm old enough and smart enough to understand this, but I also think I can see the difference between trying to show deeper meanings and not wanting to deal with difficult plot lines.

and Zaun? it was sad. pathetic. years of abuse were what, forgotten and then vanished in thin air because there was a common enemy? that, sadly, isn't real. it isn't. years or oppression can't be forgotten so easily, not by the oppressed, for one "glorious" fight. it's lazy. what started as a good depiction of reality turned into an american wet dream of big fights and sad sacrifice scenes and epic love stories that cross any difficulty, and economic and social difference. don't you dare say something against Caitlyn and Vi's ending, they went through all that, they deserve nice things. they do. many other people did. no one cared about them tho.

so.

epic failure. good soundtracks tho.

[streets-in-paradise]

Field of Practice - Maximus Decimus Meridius x (Fem)Reader

Gladiator (2000) Oneshot

Warnings: captive man x kind captor lady ( reader is the daughter of Proximo, backstory explanation for this would be provided if i ever write a continuation). Charge me for use of the " good kidnapper, bad kidnapper" trope here, in correlation with a grumpy dad-sunshine daughter dynamic.

Summary: Intrigued by the most mysterious among the freshly arrived gladiators, you appeal to unconventional measures to endorse his worth to your father. Your every attempt to get closer to him fails, untill his protectiveness emerges with a grim reminder of his past.

Tags: @wildsaltair

Notes: At this point I don't give a fuck If this makes sense because this took me three days to write, so if it's cringe so be it. Those about to clown salute you 🤡

Glossary: Pa - Informal contraction I made up from the latin word pater, meaning father.

Testings for the newcoming gladiators were their oportunity to prove their worth, but Maximus had no one to impress. He couldn't care less about the situation and acted precisely as such when his time came, amusing the trainer of the school in charge of leading the excercise. His attitude had certainly annoyed the master, but he proceeded with cautious patience, perhaps suspecting something greater could be hidding underneath.

Proximo wasn't the onlyone getting that impression, and a small part of the audience echoed it. As soon as he was released from the evaluative instance, Maximus found the sight of your bright smile observing the situation from afar. Reaching only once his attention exposed your presence, it was curious for him to see the sweetness in your face contrasting with the harshness of the enviroment. The general turned slave had also noticed you dressed in roman fashion: blue tunic and a modest palla.

Like a glimpse of the world he left behind, you didn't belong there. He observed you, radiant of cheer, saluting the teacher before the next fight would take place, and in that precise moment the master put his small cosmos in order.

" GET BACK INSIDE! This is no place for you to strut."

Far from being disencouraged, you protested the command with playfull mischievouness.

" Gladiatorial fights may be manly territory, but some of the most intense fanatics are often women. Being ignored only makes us scream louder in the crowd: everytime you bring new men I can tell who will become the most popular. Call it feminine intuition, but it's never wrong. "

Giving a few temptative steps closer with the same playfull attitude, you delivered a conclussion before your interlocutor could get angrier.

" Was i wrong about Haken? When I meet him, I said he looked like the Hercules of the germanians and that is precisely what he brings to the arena. When he fights, I see Thor wearing his magical belt of strenght just like in those stories he tells. "

Praise made the teacher smile very differently from the dry amusement Maximus obtained for his challenging attitude. That was the pridefull smirk of a man sweet talked by a beautifull girl. One calling him by his name, acknowledging him as a man.

The mocking comeback of Proximo cutted you off before he could express any kind of grattitude, or you could deepen the compliment.

" You were wrong about gettting a leopard cub, now I'll have to raise the little bastard AND IT MAY TAKE A YEAR TO MAKE A PROFIT !!! TWO, IF I MAKE HIM MATE! "

" Surely faster than it will take for those giraffes you got." You mocked him in return. " You won't have to worry, I will take care of the baby."

From that point, it was clear the argument was going to pause the activities.

" I CAN'T LET YOU DO IT!! I know you are going to approach it as a ' raise him with love' activity and then RUIN THE BLOODY THING FOR FIGHTING!! "

Despite he made fun of you with the same irony and cynism he directed towards the gladiators, it was clear you were close because no master of that sort and in that situation would have been found arguing or reasoning with a slave.

However, your entusiasm proved you had no fear for ignoring the scolding.

" Love seeker and useless for fighting ... WE SHOULD NAME HIM PARIS!! After all, Paris wears a leaopard fur when Menelaus spots him for their fight. "

Suddenly remembering that giving him a hug in front of the new slaves wasn't a good idea, you lovefully adressed him instead.

" Pa, you are the best!! "

Amused of the altercate yet somewhat shocked by the reveal, Maximus ended up doing the unthinkable because your irruption had distracted him. He wasn't thinking right when the words came up from his mouth, voice slightly dry from the prolonged silence.

" Have you read The Iliad?"

That wasn't precisely what he wanted to ask, but it was wiser than wondering out loud if you were trully the daughter of his short tempered owner.

You giggled for him before the response, unaware of the feat you had just accomplished.

" Of course! Not all of us are savages ... and trojan war epics are the only reading material you find in every corner of the empire because the emperors justify themselves on it to the foreign people they submit. "

Sweet, but not foolish or naive, you were proving yourself to him and Maximus refused to fall for it. Regardless of his initial dissaprobal, your father didn't miss the oportunity you left served for him.

" Spaniard is a deserter of the legions and that is all we know about him ... What can you tell me? "

The mere idea that you could do any kind of correct guess on him caused a cocky smirk on the gladiator, as if he challenged you knowing you would never make it.

You raised your eyebrows with amusement, shrug one shoulder, and observed him in silence for an instant before pronouncing a verdict.

" He didn't desert out of cowardice, he has the glance of a man that has seen enough, that wanders lost and has abandoned life way before stumbling with captivity ... But there is a timid light in his eyes. A sparkle, not strong enough yet. When the flame will shine once more, he will burn down everything in his way."

For the first time since he spotted you, he found himself trully impressed. Your accustom to hopeless men must had given you a talent to read them, distunguishing them apart from the desperation of those who still craved life.

" ... I need him to stand up before me if you want me to get more specific."

Proximo gave the order and he had to raise up again to present himself for one more examination he didn't want to pass.

" imponent physique, but not threatening. He doesn't look sculped by the gods, this is the hard work of a man. A mysterious man, and empty void that could be anyone. Whoever his fanatics want him to be a replacement of, whatever hole in their lives they need to fill following his fights. Others may think of unveiling the mystery, many women would love the challenge. He could be a soldier, he could be a farmer, the protective escort of a merchant ... Who knows? But he feels approachable and he is handsome. Of softer facial features than your typical gladiator, but manly without question. "

You were pacing in circles arround him, slowly and attentively as your observations were. Despite you didn't do it with any lustfull implications, Maximus despised to be examinated as a luxury item. That was exactly what you were trying to achieve: convincing your father that he wasn't worthless waste fitting for sacrifice.

" I am not your champion, save your flattery for him. It means nothing to me. "

" Not my fault if you are blind to your worth for the crowd. " You simply stated, sweetly behind his back before reaching the full turn back to his front. " When it comes to the female side of it, our northen god over here is popular among married women but maidens find him frightening. He resembles the big-sized barbarian up to ravage them in roman cautionary tales … You, Spaniard? What I have in front is a mysterious rebel of raw virile beauty irresistibly dangerous, but never menacing."

Tension in the environment kept increasing as your speech became slightly more daring.

" Strong arms that would hold you without crushing you, soft looking lips and a manly beard … Young women will adore you, parents will accuse you of corrupting the virgins. "

" And I will be the first If you don't stop praising his virtues. " Proximo interrumpted you, warning both with his choleric expression but you in particular on speech. " ... That is exactly why people form wrong assumptions of you! In every village we step, they whisper you are an easy girl. "

You turned back to face him, evidently angered by the reproach.

" I AM A SINGLE WOMAN SURROUNDED BY SWEATY GLADIATORS ... What do you think they would expect? What i do matters very little, I am guilty by association. I learned to live with that because I am very much proud of my father despite of being the useless daughter he discovered in old age, that he can't even directly inherit his business to. "

Maximus looked at the side in search for his nubian savior, verifying if he was amused as he was with that attempt of manipulation tactic. They shared silent smirks under the impossibility of laughing.

Used as he probably was, the father didn't fall for it.

" DON'T COME AT ME WITH THAT! "

" My behavior is irreproachable: If I give your men my honest encouragement, it's never of the physical kind. If the corrupt minded women commenting I am a whore knew me for real, they will think I am a fool instead. "

Eyes back on the gladiator, you approached him friendly as matter of proving your point.

" You are safe with me, Spaniard. My admiration begins and ends in words, ask Haken if you don't trust me yet ... Only one more thing I may ask from you, and that would be knowing your name. At least in the limits of my father's home, I like to adress our gladiators by their names. "

He smiled for you, but no more words came out from him. You understood the message implicit on his silence.

" I guess I haven't earned it yet. Very well, so I will, eventually ... with some hard work and perseverance. I'm sure we will have enough time for it. "

It didn't take much longer for him to discover just how much perseverant you could be. In that place of pain and death, you would come to the men like light filtering through a crack. Asking them about their past lives, their stories, easing their fears, or bringing a last moment of peace for the less skilled ones that knew themselves about to die. He could tell you weren't raised in that cruel environment and approached it with the lessons of your different experience.

Why, despite complaining about it, your father didn't establish a harsher control stopping you from sneaking among the gladiators? He understood watching your effect in them. Doomed men would adquire a last glimpse from their lost sense of worth, resembling that strange mix between a powerless slave and a pridefull hero a gladiator was supposed to be. Broken by the life on the school, by the lead of your father, you would pick the pieces of those men and get them on their feet so they would give a spectacle worth to watch. From your part, the intention felt genuine. If you realized that was the one use your father found for you, that wasn't the motivation of your approach.

Maximus, or Spaniard, like you knew him as, observed every interaction in silence. When you questioned him about the fresh damage on his shoulder, he ignored the concern. Never seeking for your attention, he wanted to make you understand he would rather be ignored. Lost in his own tragedy, he accomplished it untill from the less expected of places something evoked it to him.

The scribe had begged for salvation at your feet. Careless for staining your nice tunic without the palla, you sat next to him and in desperate attempts of comforting him, you plotted a way of helping his case.

" We can make you my teacher!! Pa allways says that someday we will go to Rome. The new emperor is known for being a fanatic of gladiators, so we may have a chance soon if he lifts the prohibition. My problem is that the rudimentary bits of culture I have adquired are not enough for the capital … but you can change that. "

The frightened man smiled as he followed you in silence.

" With your help, when the time will come, I'll resemble a refined lady and maybe I will find a wealthy husband. If I present it to my father like an investment, not a matter of sparing your life, maybe he won't even get mad about it! The nature of his business makes it hard for me to find prospects, … I need all the help i can get."

You chuckled to your own self deprecating joke before deepening it.

" As you can see, I am a disaster. All I do well here is to make a sad man smile, but that is not enough if I want to really impress my father."

As if his will had been taken over by some vengefull entithy, Spaniard abandoned his letharge with loud, dark sounding laughter.

" See? He is laughing! Although I would like to know why. "

The casual mention of the man that ruined his life, a possible chance to get revenge presented to him and the irony that you represented in that context. Word by word, all the aspects of yourself you were mannifesting to the scribe would have been a delight for that bastard. He didn't know you for real, but it made him fear for you in advance.

With a sinister semblance, he informed you.

" If you ever step in Rome, Commodus will never let you go. "

Misunderstanding his words, heat raised on your face to the thought of finding your previous praise on him retributed.

" Ohh, Spaniard … That is adorable!! Very unrealistic, but I deeply appreciate your comfort. Specially because it comes from you. "

You gave a peck in the air on his direction, playfully blowing a kiss. He didn't reacted to it, not at least like you expected.

" That was not comfort, it was a warning. Stay away from that bastard. You analized me in order to discover which kind of unwanted attention from female admirors would follow me, I returned the favor. "

For the first time since your meeting, he was trully responding to you and you could only encourage him with entusiastical curiosity.

" And what can you tell of me? This is exciting, nobody tried it before. Certainly I can't understand what made you look at the daughter of the owner of a gladiator school in some distant provincial hell and conclude ' Sure, she would charm the emperor' "

The scared man of words shared a few nervous chuckles with you and only then you were reminded of his presence.

" ... I will plead your case later and come back with the answer … Would you let me have a moment with Spaniard? He is kind of shy and I am afraid he may stop talking to me if there are witnesses. "

He obbeyed your ask, not before thanking you one last time then reaching enough distance to abandon the conversation.

Still sitting carelessly with his back against a wall, the spaniard awaited for whatever would be the next step of your plan.

Taking off the leather ligaments keeping your hair in a tail, you moved your head so it would fall nicely and wildly. Then, you stood up and walked on his direction trying to feel as pretty as you could, as if he would be the buyer you needed to impress.

" Go ahead, be my measure of worth, … what do you have for me? Which one is the crowd were I should seek for a husband? "

You gave a slow twirl, allowing him to observe you from every angle and the reverse parody made him laugh.

" I can tell you have became your father's cheer to compensate the fear that you can't be his pride. I am almost sure he must be proud of you anyways, but you don't feel it in yourself. Since you can't find a husband, you have made of the slaves he trades with your field of practice. In your rehearsals, you turn worthless flesh into pridefull fighters. He knows it, so he ultimately allows it because it's good for business. He breaks the men untill they face they have became slaves, and you make them feel like men again in time for them to die when they are told to, but giving honorable performances. "

You smile had faded and you looked down, comfronted with an unconfortable truth. You could have given up, if it wouldn't be for the follow up of his grim commentary.

" And last, but definitely not least: you are beautifull. "

Your sparkle was back, surprised as you were with his statement.

" You think? "

He didn't intend to encourage you, what he had for you was more like brutal honesty coming from his frustrating position than actual praise.

" That scribe didn't have a girl as pretty as you worrying for him in his whole life and you must know it … And the germanian? Wrapped arround your finger, he smiled like a fool when you called him a god. On the outside world you have it hard, but here you are Helen of Troy watching the slaughter from the high tower. We are a cursed parody for the Age of Heroes and you are the missing piece in the recreated act. Any roman fanatic of gladiator fights would find that fascinating."

You colapsed next to him, sharing the surface of the same wall as support for your back.

" Very insightfull, even poetic ... but that is not enough. You pointed at the emperor, you spoke as if you knew him. There has to be something else you aren't telling me."

He realized of his emotionally driven mistake and quickly corrected it.

" I've heard rumours, that happens often in the army. They say his father was deeply ashamed of him. He failed at making him proud because he is cruel and whimsical, but desperately craves for validation. He wants to feel loved, among all things, and you are someone capable of finding beauty in the ugliest of places. You would charm him so fast, you wouldn't realize of your mistake in time. He would keep you captive, making you do for him what you do for those men ... A sword in your father's throat, and if you refuse he will make the head roll at your feet."

At that point you sensed he couldn't be talking of you: it felt too specific and personal. Whatever your talk with the scribe had awakened in him was taken as facade to deal with something he carried inside, a wound from his past.

" ... They made you hold the sword against the throat of an innocent and you refused to give the lethal blow .... That's why you deserted!! "

He let you have the partially wrong guess with a brief smile of comfirmation, because in that way he could at least satisfy your curiosity for him without revealing anything relevant.

Of course, he didn't consider that would only increase the already growing admiration you had for him.

" You are an honorable man ... YOU ARE A HERO!! I knew it!! I knew it from the first moment I saw you!! "

Despite he saw it coming, he didn't stop you from curling against him. It was the very first act of warm human contact he received since his friend of the road had healed his wounds, so he closed his eyes and pretended to not be enjoying of it until a lovely sigh from you got him staring back at you.

" ... What was that? "

He asked more playfully than angryly, trying to understand what he could have possibly done to cause it.

" Forget Rome and those boring rich men. Do you want to know what I think now, Spaniard? If I ever marry, I want my husband to be just like you."

You followed the confession with a chaste peck on his right cheek, but unfortunately got caught in the action by the arrival of his closest acquaintance there.

" Juba! " You sweetly saluted him, releasing the man beside you without leaving him before excusing yourself. " Your performance was excellent, ... did I forgot to mention it? You will do great in the arena, we are expectant about you. "

The terrible acting you pulled convinced no one.

" You are here for him, we all know that. "

" I can't play favorites, but he looked like he needed a hug. Have you seen the mess in his shoulder? And he wouldn't let me call a healer! " You complained with him once you were back on your feet. " Stubborn man is your fellow. "

You shared a few chuckles of agreement on an observation that was mutual, untill another irruption coming from behind him changed the course of the situation.

" There she is, ... the backstabber! Already seeking to try the softer arms of the spaniard? "

Haken was looking at you in mockfully played offense, as if he resented you would be siding with his competence. Despite it was certain that your interest in the spaniard was quite different from the playfull compliment exchanges you had with your friend, you didn't want to make him feel bad about it.

" What I said doesn't apply to me. I am not scared of you, that was for the girls in the crowd who have no idea that your huge chest is the casket for the big jewel that is your heart. "

The occurence was so intricate that he simply bursted into laughter looking at you smiling with innocence at the end of the phrase.

" Then I suppose you won't get frightened if I do this ... "

Without any more warnings, he easily picked you up from the ground in parodic representation of the insidious roman misconception you mentioned before. Your cheerfull screaming caught the attention of more bystander gladiators, circunstantial audience for the comedy.

Maximus abstained himself from entering the game in the role of your savior, the closeness you had briefly shared was enough for one day.

[mouthpoisons]

im still here and im still mad and feel like supplementing the stuff i said by talking about one of my favourite shows of all time, black sails. it's a show that markets itself as a prequel to fucking treasure island, and it has several beautifully handled examples of ''messy'' queer people and various flavours of Actual queerplatonicism/soulmateship, and i want to parade them around in service of saying Get Fucked to That Man a little more.

like i seriously feel like its my messy-nebulous-identity-queer-man oligation to hammer it in that he is gaslighting everyone, and that what he's trying to make you give up and just accept that he Apparently wrote genuinely exists in incredible capacities in infinitely better more big-brained pieces of media. the jayvik narrative was just straight up ''they want eachother but they have to battle the comphet demons first''. the queerplatonic/soulmate characters you deserve are out there (and by extension in this scenario, actual nuanced pieces of media about ostracised people revolting against their oppressors). lemme put you on.

black sails includes:

captain james flint, a former british navy officer, who was exiled from england because he's outed having slept with a nobleman called thomas hamilton. thomas's wife miranda was in on it the whole time, there's definitely a sense of loss and grief coming from her surrounding the situation but she remains fully supportive of them both, and she loves them both dearly. thomas is thrown into a psyche ward offscreen and flint and miranda flee england to the caribbean, where james becomes a seething vengeful pirate captain and miranda tries her best to make a comfortable home and a life for herself in exile. these two characters are deeply in love with eachother and the exact nature of their love is never spelled out to us. they are intimate with eachother, they fully have sex on screen, however they make a point of making it feel stilted and awkward with james just kinda lying there. miranda will later go on to desperately pursue a pastor who starts frequently visiting her for tea and company.

the way this show beautifully frames the relationship between these two characters honest to fucking god made me land on the reading that james is gay specifically, not bi

my reading of them is that they are a secret third thing, they are some form of queerplatonic partners who are bound together by their grief and the loss of their shared romantic partner. that james, who has gone back to burying his attraction to men under a million layers of shame, is only comfortable having sex with miranda, because shes the only person who fully knows who he is and loves him unconditionally. and in turn for a while she's only comfortable having sex with him, eventhough the relationship leaves her unfulfilled. a piece of fiction being able to ilicit that reading from me, that the man i just described isnt into women but has this relationship with one anyway, is fully fucking insane but they managed it flawlessly. a lot of people share my opinion and a lot of others see the situation as a doomed bi polycule, james as a bisexual man, and him and miranda just straight up being eacothers trauma-bound situationship, etc. which is an equally valid reading. it really could go either way

jack rackham and anne bonny From Real Life are also portrayed in this show, and they are set up as longtime sexual/romantic partners, practically joined at the hip, before shenanigans ensue and anne has her first ever non-hetero sex with a sex worker called max, which leads her to eventually figure out shes a lesbian, and her and max are endgame. i cant quite remember the jack/anne backstory off the top of my head but it goes something along the lines of; anne was the young teenage wife of an extremely abusive husband, and one day jack found himself in their tavern, and he kills the husband and runs away with anne. hes the only compassionate love shes ever known and her arc is built around her realising that shes unintentionally been in jacks shadow this whole time, and that she barely has any idea who she is outside of being his partner.

her lesbian acceptance arc includes her trying desperately to cling onto the initial state of her love for jack by inviting him to a threeway, and it very literally reads as ''i need my boyfriend here for comfort so i dont get scared doing the lesbian sex that actually makes me feel something''.

eventually however, anne comes to accept that she simply loves jack in a different way now, and jack, who loves her more than anything, wants her to be her own person, and is fully supportive of her, is willing to ''let her go''. anne has an amazing scene where she tells him ''i cant be your wife, jack, but we'll be partners until they put us in the fucking ground.'' and when anne uses that word, partners, in that context, you know exactly what she means. they remain intimate with eachother for the rest of the show, they are still eachothers best friends, eachothers soulmates, theyre 2 sides of the same coin, they kiss on the mouth like twice after this revelation for gods sake, but it's extremely clear that what she means by that is she's no longer his sexual/romantic partner. they're a secret third thing now. they are partners in the way That Man tried to retroactively convince you jayvik are.

this is just 2 examples, but ive left out the big one. if i analysed the actual main ''are they like brothers/do they have crushes on eachother/are they soulmates/are they queerplatonic/whatever the hell else is going on here'' relationship the 2 main characters have, id be here a while, and i kind of wanna leave them (and the incredible madi who joins them in their madness later in the story) under wraps incase ive managed to advertise the show to you. theyre amazing and tragic and beautiful and theyre best experienced firsthand. i promise you the authorial intent of portraying a close relationship between 2 men that defies clear-cut labels and explanations is crystal fucking clear in black sails, and it's not just a full ass Gay Guys With Comphet narrative that was word-of-god rolled back on at the last moment. the writers even went on record explaining that they specifically wanted to do a secret third thing with them. i wouldnt know where to dig it up again, but when these guys say it, you believe it. they are Not talking out their asses and they dont think youre stupid.

if you wanna watch a story about vilified downtrodden people who plan to revolt against an imperialist regime, which actually handles that setup amazingly and with proper tact and complexity, that's full of beautiful messy characters and relationships, which ends in a way that's earth shatteringly devastating, but in a way that makes perfect sense and leaves you depressed forever but satisfied, and is 50 billion times better than what arcane turned itself into in that horseshit second season, try black sails. this unabashedly revolutionary anti-imperialist tragedy will continue to surprise you in the best way and i genuinely think that if youre malding over arcane fumbling literally fucking every topic it touched, this should be your next stop. you deserve good food. this is the kind of shit arcane wishes it was.

also another point that i couldnt really fit in anywhere else; they turned fucking long john silver into one of The Most Fictional Characters Of All Time. this show is treasure island fanfiction and they managed to turn the original text into a dubious sequel, and i cant even begin to explain what i mean by that, but john might actually be an entirely new genre of guy now and it's fucking incredible what they did with him specifically. hes fictional character squared. im obsessed with him and they make that feel like a deep unforgivable violation of his privacy. go and experience that man's Narrative

and lastly a big ass disclaimer: the first season is the worst one and you have to go into it with the context that this was originally developed as a Historical Drama For Bros, and it has the vibe of a game of thrones ripoff until the creators are given due control from s2 onwards. theres uh. a lot of Cringe in season 1, i wont lie. the women and wlw characters have some very stupid male-gazey characterisation, theres an extremely uncomfortable arc where a woman is repeatedly sexually assaulted, theres some shock-valuey depictions of slavery, but i promise when the creators are allowed the chance to lock in, they lock the fuck in. they make something amazing out of every topic that's treated in a weird shallow way in the first season and you can tell when they start putting their entire backs into it

someone even did a ''what couldve been'' amv if you dont mind more potential spoilers via out of context visuals

[gender-alchemy]

There’s a thing I’d like to point out that I talked to my girlfriend about recently involving transandrophobia (or whatever u wanna call it, the stuff that specifically affects transmen by a significant margin). So first off I think it’s important to point out that transphobia is something ALL trans folks experience, and is something we should be fighting together, rather than infighting. Additionally, transmisogyny is always something to look out for and I want it to be clear that transmen 100% are capable of and DO perpetuate transmisogyny, often without even realizing it.

That said I wanted to talk about the things that are unique* to transmen so y’all who deny transandrophobia understand that there is, in fact, some trans things that transmasculine folks experience.

*this is not entirely accurate, as there are things here that affect intersex and transfems to some extent at all. Unique in this sense would be more like “primarily affecting”

Infantilization

Now this isn’t something that is exclusive to transmen, there are absolutely situations in which transwomen are infantilized, but the degree in which transmen are infantilized is honestly insane. This whole “uwu soft boi” thing that has plagued the transmasc community is a huge marker of it. It’s not a problem to be feminine or cutesy as a transman, but it is to constantly treat all transmen like that whether they want to be or not.

“Confused little girl”

This one honestly is top of the list for examples of transandrophobia by cis and trans people alike. It also tends to damage nonbinary or transmasculine folks even harder as often we don’t conform to gender stereotypes and binary which leads to being accused of appropriating transness. This needs to stop. If you want an example of this being used, literally every transphobic bill regarding healthcare mentions the “removal of perfectly healthy breasts” amongst other things that treat us like we aren’t aware of what we want simply because we were born female.

“ROGD” or the idea that trans friends are peer pressuring us

So this one is complicated. This is not something that is always unique to transmen. I had to chat with my gf for a bit about this to get her experience as a trans woman to understand exactly what causes this.

In a nutshell, we talked about how when you’re younger, AFAB folks tend to form really close circles in comparison to AMAB folks, especially in high school. What happens then is (as we know, us queer folks tend to travel in flocks lol) when one person in the group comes out as trans, in many cases, others do too. This is where people see a group of once female identifying folks suddenly “turn trans” and they “must be pressuring each other!” Which consistently dismisses their identities and often leads to these trans men being denied the ability to transition without intense scrutiny.

Other issues that are incredibly fucked up

Alright so I’m just gonna rapid fire a few other things to drive my point home, this post is pretty long.

- Forced pregnancies in order to detransition AFAB folks

- Mourning of transmens bodies (ex. “What do you mean you want top surgery your breasts are so nice!”)

[phantom-of-notre-dame]

.

[mad-hunts]

i know no one necessarily asked for this information, BUT yes, barton did do masks with marcy while she was still around and also... yes, he might've looked a little bit like this self-care garfield while doing it. and honestly, he still puts on masks sometimes. so here's a little advice for y'all... if your muse is trying to talk to barton about anything that might possibly trouble him / make him angry — they might wanna do it while barton's doing his thing here, because it is pretty much a FACT that he can not be in a bad mood while he's like this LOL

[unproduciblesmackdown]

billions also comedy gold presenting winston as a scapegoat for abuse culture fans when it's like but hey it can't be actual scapegoating if you Enjoy It or consider it Justified or experience Reassurance from Its Opportunity For A Group Cohesion Substitute For A Cohesion Based On An Inherent Equal Degree Of Belonging, The Absence Of Which Allows For, Encourages, Reinforces, & Rewards Scapegoating

it can't be Bullying if someone's Weird or you Just Don't Personally Like Them or Nobody's Actually Stopping You, Maybe At Least If They Don't See Too Much Of It, Maybe Others Are Supporting It

it can't be Abuse if you're just doing things Normally or are Following Rules or Aren't Feeling Malicious And Aren't Getting Divine Revelations Otherwise and probably it's just that a lot of abnormal people are being whiny &/or unfair &/or the Real malicious ones. kinda just like how that scapegoat is the real person ruining everything and really just forcing you to treat them like this

[calamitydaze]

long tag ramble below u have been warned

[thinkingthingsthrough]

she really is the bravest soldier bc i don’t know how someone could a. release something so vulnerable and then b. go sing in front of thousands that same evening

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

I was following these two masculinity accs that I thought were different from others I had come across, but then they spouted a lot of the same nonsense that others have already said.

[twilve]

i loooove being a little bit slutty all the time even tho im so so so so celibate rn

[scientia-rex]

When I was in ninth grade I wanted to challenge what I saw as a very stupid dress code policy (not being allowed to wear spikes regardless of the size or sharpness of the spikes). My dad said to me, “What is your objective?”

He said it over and over. I contemplated that. I wanted to change an unfair dress code. What did I stand to gain? What did I stand to lose? If what I really wanted was to change the dress code, what would be my most effective potential approach? (He also gave me Discourses on the Fall of Rome by Titus Livius, Machiavelli’s magnum opus. Of course he’d already given me The Prince, Five Rings, and The Art of War.)

I ultimately printed out that phrase, coated it in Mod Podge, and clipped it to my bathroom mirror so I would look at it and think about it every day.

What is your objective?

Forget about how you feel. Ask yourself, what do you want to see happen? And then ask, how can you make it happen? Who needs to agree with you? Who has the power to implement this change? What are the points where you have leverage over them? If you use that leverage now, will you impair your ability to use it in the future? Getting what you want is about effectiveness. It is not about being an alpha or a sigma or whatever other bullshit the men’s right whiners are on about now. You won’t find any MRA talking points in Musashi, because they are not relevant.

I had no clear leverage on the dress code issue. My parents were not on the PTA; neither were any of my friend’s parents who liked me. The teachers did not care about this. Ultimately I just wore what I wanted, my patent leather collar from Hot Topic with large but flattened spikes, and I had guessed correctly—the teachers also did not care enough to discipline me.

I often see people on tumblr, mostly the very young, flail around in discourse. They don’t have an objective. They don’t know what they want to achieve, and they have never thought about strategizing and interpersonal effectiveness. No one can get everything they want by being an asshole. You must be able to work with other people, and that includes smiling when you hate them.

Read Machiavelli. Start with The Prince, but then move on to Discourses. Read Musashi’s Five Rings. Read The Art of War. They’re classics for a reason. They can’t cover all situations, but they can do more for how you think about strategizing than anything you’re getting in middle school and high school curricula.

Don’t vote third party unless you can tell me not only what your objective is but also why this action stands a meaningful chance of accomplishing it. Otherwise, back up and approach your strategy from a new angle. I don’t care how angry you are with Biden right now. He knows about it, and he is both trying to do something and not doing enough. I care about what will happen to millions of people if we have another Trump presidency. Look up Ross Perot, and learn from our past. Find your objective. If it is to stop the genocide in Palestine now, call your elected representatives now. They don’t care about emails; they care about phone calls, because they live in the past. I know this because I shadowed a lobbyist, because knowing how power works is critical to using it.

How do you think I have gotten two clinics to start including gender care in their planning?

Start small. Chip away. Keep working. Find your leverage; figure out how and when to effectively use it. Choose your battles, so that you can concentrate on the battle at hand instead of wasting your resources in many directions. Learn from the accumulated wisdom of people who spent their lives learning by doing, by making mistakes, by watching the mistakes of their enemies.

Don’t be a dickhead. Be smarter than I was at 14. Ask yourself: what is your objective?

[queenrinacat]

I work in emergency medicine, and I can tell you that a sense of doom is something we take extremely seriously. A sudden, overwhelming feeling of doom is a symptom of an imminent heart attack. When I worked 911 on an ambulance and a patient reported feeling like the world was about to end, or like they were going to die, even without any other symptoms? We rushed them to the hospital as fast as we possibly could.

I'm saying this from a place of genuine care: if you are seeing ghosts or shadows or having nightmares... and sageing, eggshells, Crystal's, and psychics arent cutting it..

Please.. please... check for things like gas leaks, water damage, vermin. I'm not saying your house isnt haunted, I'm just saying that carbon monoxide poisoning looks a LOT like being haunted.

[mad-hunts]

👄 + Scarecrow

there's a pause from barton, or THE DOLLMAKER, as he was currently dressed in all of the garb appropriate to his namesake upon being asked about the complicated case that was jonathan crane. a displeased hum left his lips then as if the act of just mentioning him was bothersome to him — and truthfully, gauging by what he said next, it might have very well been, ❝ ugh. you can't tell because i'm wearing my mask, but i'm rolling my eyes right now. if i tell you how i feel about him, then will you finally leave me alone? i'm busy, you know, ❞ barton's voice was very matter-of-fact as he spoke, though it was raised a degree, like he wanted to make sure whoever this was who was asking him this would hear him. he leaned forward towards them with his hands gripping the autopsy table in front of himself.

❝ i think he squandered his potential the moment he decided to pursue the very unreachable goal that is conquering his own fears, and so, i don't know whether i want to grimace at him every single time i see him or simply avoid him. because fear is something that is engrained in us, and without it, we'd all likely be dead. so by pursuing a way to find out how to remove this very necessary thing we have for survival... it makes him look like he's incredibly ignorant because it's something that doesn't need to be conquered, in my opinion, and so he isn't exactly using his 'smarts' effectively. which is why i consider him a waste of potential; he's just going to keep on running in circles for eternity trying to find a way to get rid of it. but what do i know, i'm not a psychologist like he is. ❞

there's an important distinction there as barton referred to him as a psychologist in the present tense rather than the past tense. barton's mask suddenly creased in the furrow between his brows as if he were getting annoyed, ❝ i also think he's an uppity asshole who acts like he's a lot more important than he actually is, but i have to say... and don't tell him i said this because the last thing i need is for him to think we're suddenly friends; i do somewhat respect him at the same time. he does seem like a really intelligent man, but like i said; if he'd just ditch the whole ' i have to conquer my own fear ' thing, he would so much better off. i suppose he has been kind of drifting away from that in recent times, though, but not nearly enough. he is also someone who likes experimenting on people and exploiting their fears because he likes to feel as if he's being taken seriously and like he's big, powerful. so it was out of insecurity that he started making his toxin at all. or, at least, that's how i see it. ❞

barton shrugged his shoulders slightly and turned around to have his back pressed against the table. whether this was on purpose or not was unclear, but he could've been doing it to hide his reaction to what he was going to talk about next, ❝ i think he himself still has some beef with me over the incident me and him had in arkham. which is fine, of course, i don't really care. but it has been a while since i took that needle and thread to his lips because he really does have the widest smile. and it makes me physically want to squirm whenever i see it because i just... want to fix it. it's too wide, you know. i suppose it's probably likely he remains hung up over it to this day because i didn't use anesthesia, ❞ barton flipped his whole body around then, a bit of a twisted snort leaving his lips. ❝ but where are you going to get that in arkham? they don't even let us see the dentist half the time, so you know. i had to improvise. but anyway, does that answer your question? ❞

[inwinterhell]

As a female athlete myself, I just want to quickly appreciate how George R.R Martin writes his women who fight. It’s never, “she wanted to be a warrior so she worked harder than everyone and eventually she could beat all the boys.” He actually gives his characters strengths and weaknesses—as well as cultural ties to fighting— and he makes these traits enhance the already existing plot lines these characters follow. The mental game is also always just as important, if not more, than the physical game, which I’ve found is true in sports and probably much more true in actual life-threatening situations.

Arya is a small child. She’s nine, she’s skinny; she would probably never excel at being a knight, so instead she learns a different type of fighting. She’ll never overpower anyone, but she can be quick and sneaky and use her left hand which most people don’t know how to fight against. Also, I would argue that Syrio’s teachings about “looking with your eyes” were far more important to her than the physical part of water dancing. Most of the time she isn’t using her skills to directly fight people, but to run away, to spy on people, to catch food and survive. Syrio is her friend, Needle is Jon Snow’s smile, etc. Arya learning how to use her stature to her advantage is part of a greater connection to her identity and the people who helped her.

Brienne is stronger than most men, but she faces constant misogyny because of that (which is all too realistic). She constantly faces internal battles with her own self-image and harassment wherever she goes. She gets taught to use men’s pride and anger to her advantage:

“Old Ser Goodwin was long in his grave, yet she could hear him whispering in her ear. Men will always underestimate you, he said, and their pride will make them want to vanquish you quickly, lest it be said that a woman tried them sorely. Let them spend their strength in furious attacks, whilst you conserve your own. Wait and watch, girl, wait and watch (AFFC Brienne 7)”

Finally, “no chance, and no choice” is her most memorable line for a reason. It’s not her martial prowess that makes her a great character; it’s her bravery and honor.

Cultural ties are also so important to the reasons many women in the series fight. Asha is Balon’s last remaining child when all her brothers are dead and gone. Of course she knows how to fight and sail. Her tension with Theon is less about her showing off and more about her proving how much she actually knows her people while he doesn’t (of course that isn’t Theon’s fault but that’s a whole other post). The Mormont women learned to fight because they historically had to fight off invaders; the Sand snakes’ skills show their connection to Oberyn, etc.

Anyway I just love how George uses fighting to enhance his characters’ personalities and not define them. None of them are physically or mentally infallible, and none are exempt from misogyny. They just learned to do something that empowers and protects them despite society’s expectations. George’s writing of women is definitely not perfect, but this is something I really appreciate.