#but yeah I genuinely don't like people like this

[alchemistc]

Tommy has a bad date and goes to visit Abby at her loft, only shocker, Abby left months ago and The Himbo is staring at him from the other side of the door.

He tips his chin. Raises an eyebrow. Scans down, back up, just in time to meet the kids eyes.

"U - uh hi?"

He gets it immediately. What would have drawn Abby in despite the age difference, despite the knowledge that all her friends and family were gonna give her shit, despite -

Well. He's fucking adorable, for a start. Bright bright blues eyes that look like maybe they're always a little wet, the foundation for a really great muscle base, even though he clearly hasn't figured out how to balance cardio and weight lifting, pink full lips, an adorably puppy-dog slash to his face, legs for fucking days. God. Yeah okay. Tommy'd been younger than Abby too but not this young.

"Is Abby home?"

Something strange crosses his face. Confusion, upset, maybe some genuine pain. He shakes his head, opens his mouth. Snaps it shut. Tommy's had a shitty night and honestly for a second he thinks making the look on this kids face go away for a few minutes would fix him.

"Patricia?" Tommy asks, because maybe at least Pat will be lucid enough to sit and with him and mope to the tune of whatever's on Hallmark.

The kid swallows, brows knitting together. "She uh. She passed. A - a few months ago now."

Tommy has to dig his nails into his palms to keep himself from being rude as hell. Sure, things with Abby hadn't ended great but Christ he'd loved Patricia. She could have at least sent him a fucking pigeon. Smoke signals. Something. It's not this kids fault though.

"And Abby ...?"

This kid doesn't know him from Adam. He'd have every right to kick Tommy off the welcome mat and shut the door. Something sad and vulnerable crosses his face. "Are you Tommy?"

Tommy's brow jumps. His posture shifts. "Cross my heart I'm not here to steal her back from you." He doesn't know what Abby's told people. He'd promised he wouldn't do what he'd done to her to another person and left it at that. They'd been together for years and Tommy honestly doesn't know if she'd go the bitter route and tell everyone, or if she'd be ashamed and hide it.

The kid laughs, watches Tommy's fingers make an x over his left pec. The face falls after a moment. "I - uh - I actually don't think she's coming back," he says, choked up just a bit, rising inflection on the end of his sentence. The wet eyes look a little watery now. "S -she went to find herself after her mom died and I don't think - I don't think I'm gonna be a part of whatever she finds."

Yeah. Fixing him will definitely make Tommy forget how terrible his date with Frank had been.

"Can I buy you a drink, kid?"

He blinks. Swallows. Does a piss poor job of hiding the way he's feeling, and Tommy wishes he remembered how to be so open. "Evan. Buck. I - Evan Buckley."

Tommy nods. Grins. "Kind of a mouthful. You mind if I just call you Evan?"

Something passes across his face. He takes a step back. "Uh - if you're serious, I would - that'd be - I just have to grab my wallet?"

Tommy shrugs. He'd offered to pay, but it's entirely possible he still gets carded at bars. "I've got time."

Evan opens the door wider. Gestures him in. Tommy passes the threshold and takes in the space. It looks fucking exactly the same. Evan hasn't made a mark on this place at all.

Tommy's got no room to resent Abby, but if he did...

Evan reappears in record time. He's changed his shirt.

Tommy is absolutely not going to read into that.

"You like craft beer, Evan?"

Evan pulls a face, and Tommy laughs, letting himself be ushered right back out the door. His keyring, Tommy notices, only has a house key and a car key.

Tommy slaps him on the back. "Fine, I won't subject you to my refined palette. I know a place that has a PB&J special."

Evan's stride is fucking ridiculous, as he keeps an easy pace with Tommy down the hall. He turns his face, his body, fully into the space Tommy occupies. Tommy's just waiting for him to trip over his own goddamn legs. "W-what uh - what's a PB&J?"

He already looks brighter than he had five minutes ago.

If Tommy were a shittier person, he'd spend the night trying to to get straight into his pants.

"Pabst and a shot of Jameson?"

He blinks. "Oh. Hey, that's clever. Sorry, when I bartended all the drinks were either in Spanish or some hokey touristy lingo. I mean I memorized like a thousand drinks but no one ever ordered them."

He's honest to god pouting as he says it. Tommy wants to bite that bottom lip.

He babbles all the way down the elevator, across the parking garage to Tommy's truck. Doesn't even pretend to make a fuss about driving separately. Tommy's a virtual fucking stranger and Evan just hops right in the passenger side and asks him about his license plate.

"No shit? I'm at the 118!" Evan says, and Tommy forces himself not to make the joke about stranger danger he'd been planning. That's an awful coincidence, unless it's not. Maybe a few drinks in he'll feel a little less tight lipped about the Abby of it all. Maybe this kid will do just as good a job of patching Tommy's night as Tommy plans to patch his.

He barely stops to breathe the short drive to the bar, and Tommy can already tell he's in way over his fucking head.

After he drops him off, tucks him into bed if he needs it, he's pretty sure he's gonna have some choice words for Abby.

Until then, he's gonna spend the next few hours doing everything he possibly can to keep the sad look off his face.

[nientedal]

#this is genuinely a terribly concerning issue #like #there's this lady my mom works with who voted trump #and she said she never paid much attention to the news and such before #and now she's hearing all these horrible things about him/the republican plan #and she's like '...oh no' #UH YEAH 'OH NO' #and she's not a hateful person she just literally had no idea#and i think a LOT of trump supporters are in that same boat #it's partially their fault for being ignorant #but it's also the media and our society's fault for purposely trying to keep people in the dark too #us politics #2024 election

This would also explain why so many of them get so shocked and upset when their friends and family don't want to talk to them anymore. Honestly, there's a chance one of my coworkers might have voted for him, if not for a few conversations he and I had on the topic over the past couple years. I was able to relay some information he found pretty surprising.

After the election, when I got back to work, we were talking about everything and he was like, "Yeah, I voted for Kamala. Like, I don't really agree with everything she says, but...Trump just SUCKS. As a person. He's terrible and I don't want him representing us. My dad said the same thing."

I don't understand how there aren't more conservatives in my coworker's boat. People who are like, okay, this one isn't great either, but at least she isn't a total douchebag. But at the same time, I know there are SO many people who are just...fully checked out. Which is I guess why we get so many text messages and stuff - they're trying to reach the checked-out voters, the people who don't know what the fuck is going on. A lot of people don't KNOW he's a total douchebag.

I'm gonna put this part in bold: This is why I sincerely believe we need to implement a rule that says if you meet such-and-such criteria of entertainment celebrity, you don't get to run for President. This is a major part of why Reagan won in the 80s, and it was how I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump was going to win back in 2016, before he even made it to the primaries. The news treated him like a serious candidate and that was literally all it took. I understand the logic behind "anyone can run," but...that is logic from a different time. Psychologically, entertainment celebrities have an insurmountable advantage - and the screenshot up there is exactly why. The people who are checked out completely would be more evenly-distributed (or would refrain from voting) if they didn't recognize either name. But they recognized Trump's name, they connected it to their idea of him as "successful" in their heads. And so he got their vote.

I don't know. It's just such a mess.

the lesson I'm taking away from this election is not that the Democrats need to become more left wing or more right wing but moreso that they need to find a way to cater their rhetoric towards people who genuinly have no idea what is going on. the target audience for every speech and political appearance should be someone who doesn't know what the three branches of government are because they were drawing a Cool S during high school civics

[tealvenetianmask]

If You Act Like You Don't Need Support, People Believe You: Blitz's "Bulletproof" Act

We know pretty well by now how Blitz's outer shell looks and why he built it. He's carrying a whole cargo load of trauma, and he doesn't want to get hurt anymore. So he puts his natural resilience and charisma front and center and channels all negative emotions into being an asshole. No one gets in.

I think we often fall into seeing Blitz's mask as all negative. But one thing I took away from Ghostfuckers though is how much the people in his life actually find security and comfort in that same shell.

Millie:

Based on her backstory, who can blame her? The final sign that made Millie trust/respect Blitz enough to agree to his job offer?

I can blame this partly on imp culture (valuing toughness), but also, Millie says "you're fucking weird," and I think that comes down to how Blitz doesn't look angry or scared even for a moment. He keeps the smile. The charm. "Unbothered."

When M&M give each other most of their attention (understandable), Blitz just pushes his way past their boundaries anyway, seeming to make a game out of it. We see in Ghostfuckers that his jealousy of M&M, his fear that they don't really care for him . . . that becomes part of his trauma reel. But his friends have no way of knowing that.

When he's on a solo mission in Wee-a-boo-boo, Blitz tells Millie in no uncertain terms that he's got this.

So yeah, Millie's truly never seen him SERIOUSLY upset before, even if WE'VE seen him screaming into the abyss (Truth Seekers) and crying himself to sleep (Ozzie's).

Luckily, Millie has the capacity to adjust and offer the support that Blitz needs.

Loona:

I think Loona gets comfort too from Blitz's outer shell. This time, it's not so much that Blitz never shows her that his feelings are hurt. But that he bounces back quickly. That he always ends up fine.

And at an even farther extreme, Loona can literally throw Blitz across the room and have him doting on her again later that day.

There's comfort, especially when you're someone with a temper, in knowing that there's someone who you can't really hurt, who will stick by you no matter how you behave.

But again, in the Ghostfuckers trauma reel, we get a clip that shows us that's not true either.

Like Millie, when Loona sees Blitz at a true emotional low (this time, his guard is lowered by alcohol . . . and perceived rejection from Stolas), she's able to adjust and be supportive.

Stolas:

Was fairly careless with Blitz's emotions in Season 1, until he saw some vulnerability in Ozzie's and immediately started rethinking his approach.

We often talk about Blitz not realizing that Stolas is vulnerable, but the opposite is also true.

I'm thinking about the flirtatious classism, the teasing, the initial idea that the book deal would be fun and sexy. I think it stems, at least in part, from the idea that Blitz is amazing, that his spirit is kind of unbreakable.

Which again, is not true. His optimism and resilience are wonderful, but he can be hurt (intentional reference to Blitz realizing the same about Stolas).

After the debacle that is Ozzie's, after Stolas sees Blitz in pain from the treatment he received and unable to believe that Stolas's romantic interest in him is genuine, he understands much more. He immediately starts trying to undo the deal, and later in that process, there's this beautiful line . . .

"It's not enough to get through the walls you've conjured up to live."

Stolas isn't there yet by any stretch, in terms of understanding Blitz fully, but even while hurt, there's a part of him that wants to understand, that knows that Blitz is hurting under his mask.

Moxxie:

Ahaha. I bet you thought Stolas would be the twist ending of this meta. NOPE. It's Moxxie. He's the only person close to Blitz who hasn't even begun to adjust to seeing Blitz be vulnerable yet.

Not to psychoanalyze the poor guy, but. His daddy issues are off the fucking charts. Not in a sexual way (though who knows). In a sad way.

Moxxie was raised to follow authority, and the consequence for not doing so was death. Crimson made it very clear. And that's horrible, obviously, but also, there's a certain level of comfort in having everything decided for you.

In having someone who's "got this" in charge. Cult survivors often recall feeling this way.

And I'm not saying Moxxie wasn't incredibly relieved to be rid of Crimson or that he was happy under his control in any way.

But he likes that Blitz is confident, unbothered, and takes care of his team.

I'm done looking for exact lines and screenshots because I have a dinner to get to, but Moxxie does ask in his Truth Seekers hallucination why Blitz pushes his friends away. But he never gets a clear answer, never sees beyond the symbolic mask that Blitz wears there.

And in Unhappy Campers and in Ghostfuckers, we really see him crumble without Blitz's confident leadership. Millie, letting Moxxie take charge and having her own needs that have to be met . . . isn't really enough.

And this is a problem.

Moxx needs to learn some confidence because the unshakeable Blitz he follows . . . doesn't really exist. So I'm interested in seeing how this develops in upcoming seasons.

[lost-romantique]

Stolas has always been "Single"...

One thing I've noticed people say that genuinely disturb me is when they think Stolas should learn how to be single...

Guys, Stolas has been "single" his entire fucking life.

On paper, he may have been "married".

But Stolas was married to a partner that treated him like shit, and forced him to live a life constrained from being his gay ass self.

People are treating the relationship he had with Blitz as them being in an actual romantic relationship, but as Blitz stated...

To Blitz, he and Stolas were never in an actual romantic relationship because let's face it, it's true.

Blitz simply operated under the terms that Stolas had set for them in their full moon romps.

Remember guys....

This man is an emotionally-inept dumbass, who automatically assumes the worse. Of course, he's not going to see any of Stolas’s invites as anything other than Stolas just wanting him for his body.

Is it right? No, of course not.

But this is Blitz, and I'm not expecting a man who has been suppressing every single major emotion and traumatic event in his life for 15 years (prior to GF) to pick up any of the hints Stolas was dropping. He's a dumbass.

So yes, Stolas has never been in an actual relationship, and I don't think he needs to learn how to be "single" when he's been single his entire fucking life.

The man doesn't need to learn to be happy alone when he's always been alone!

"You wanna know what I want? I want to know what it's like, to not be alone. I want to be someone's someone. I want to feel wanted. But like, in a romantic way, like I'm standing out in the rain at a train station and someone is shouting: “Harriet! Don’t get on that train, it’s going to London and I cannot be without you!”"

"I just... want someone to care if I stay or go. I want someone to want... me! To want to see me. To hold me. To look at me and think "You're the only one I want!" [sheds tears] "I desire to hold you and talk to you, and never let you feel so...""

So yeah, I really don't think Stolas needs to learn to be happy alone. He knows what it's like to be alone, he's always been alone.

~~~~~~~~~~

And you know what I want?

Maybe I just want, this sad gay 🦉 to give this equally as sad and lonely pan 🦎 another chance...

Because, you know, even though he's an emotionally-inept dumbass and a motherfucker...

He's charismatic and charming...

He's good at fighting...

He's protective...

He knows how to have fun...

He's got the most beautiful smile...

He's hot as fuck...

And I also heard...

He's got a pretty cool family.

[sturniolowhore]

Not Now

Pairing: dom!chris x fem!reader

Summary: You and Chris are together, but it doesn't really feel like it. Sure you two spend time together, and yeah you guys do sexual things with each other, but every time you do, it feels off. Like you guys aren't connecting as well as you could be.

Warnings: cursing, and angst

a/n: Based on this ask. I don't want anyone to copy my work or use it as "inspiration." Dividers by @issysh3ll. 01

As you start getting ready to see Chris, your boyfriend that you've been seeing for a few months now, your phone starts to ring. You pick up your phone to see Chris calling. You pick up the phone, even though you hate calling people. You preferred to text, and he did too. You both knew that about each other.

"Hey Chris whats up?" You say, putting the call on speaker and applying blush to your face.

"Hey baby, you coming over?" He says, and you hear shuffling on the other side. You get chills at the nickname. It always felt off when he called you baby.

"Yeah, I'm getting ready now." You say, putting down the blush and picking up your tube of mascara.

"Okay, can't wait to see you. Love you." He says. You grimace as he talks.

"Love you too." You say, sounding genuine. You didn't mean to sound like that, so sweet, just to trick him.

"Bye baby." He says, hanging up. You continue to get ready, changing your clothes and putting your shoes on. You grab your keys, purse, and a light coat since it was a bit cold outside, and you leave the house. You get into your car and start to drive to his place.

When you get there, you open the door with the key Chris gave you and you go to his room. You find him layed out on the bed scrolling on his phone. You hated when he would just lay there, not even paying you any attention.

"Chris?" You call his name, but no response. You go over to him and snatch his phone out of his hand.

"Hey!" He says, throwing his hands in the air, "What was that for?" He gets up off the bed, now towering over you. You stare up at him. He knew you hated when he was on his phone like that. You hate it when he's lazy. But something about him now was just not like him at all.

He was mad. For something so silly. But he didn't care. It was a way for him to get all of his feelings off his chest. He knew you were acting different. He felt it. He didn't feel good enough for you, but he was still with you because he loves you. His feelings were genuine, and he didn't want to get his heart broken.

You stare into his eyes, looking for that sweet look that you always saw in them, but it was gone. It was replaced by hurt and anger. That sweet look always gave you comfort, but now that it was gone, you felt alone with someone you didn't even know.

"Chris, we really need to talk." You tell him.

"Yeah, seems like we really do, considering you just snatched my phone from me. You never do that, even if you hate the way I was just scrolling. Are you mad at me?" He said.

"You know what? Yeah I am mad at you. You just piss me the fuck off and just stop with the pet names, okay?"

"Okay, what has been going on with you? You love the pet names." He says, looking confused.

"Yeah I used to, but not anymore." You tell him.

"What the fuck does that mean?" He yells. He had never raised his voice at you, or anyone really. You look at him with a shocked expression.

"Fuck you." You says and you walk away, slamming his door. He wonders why you looked so hurt, when it hits him. Your ex was really mean and loud. He would always boss you around and control you. You was never aloud to go see your friends or even family, and when you did, his toxic ex would scream at you for it. One day, you decided to end things with him, but he wouldn't let you leave. He would always stalk you, and try and talk to you, until Chris saved you. Chris promised you that he would never yell at you the way he did.

At this realization, he goes to find you sitting down in the living room. There are tears in your eyes, threatening to spill. As you see him enter the room, the tears fall from your eyes, dripping down your face.

"Hey.. I'm so sorry I didn't mean to raise my voice at you." He starts, "It's just that I don't know why you want me to stop with the pet names. Do you find them corny or something?" He asks you.

"Chris, it's not about the pet names. I feel like we have been acting more as friends then as a couple. We could be doing so much better in our relationship, but we aren't." You explain, the tears still rolling down your face.

"So, is this it? Are you breaking up with me? You don't get to blame this all on me. You've been acting like a real bitch lately." He asks, his voice quavering.

"I mean.. yeah I guess it is. You promised that you wouldn't be like him, Chris. You promised. How could you not keep it? How could you say that?" You say, sobbing in between words. You get up off the couch, and run out the door. You hear Chris call your name, but you don't care. You get inside your car and start driving home.

🏷️: @brookheartsmatt @slutf4rmatt @charlottee3 @strnilolover

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Fully prepared for this to be a minority position but I am deeply emotionally invested in Paul and Chani not getting back together in Dune Messiah. Not just because I love angst and tragedy (I do) but because I don't think there's a way to do it without undermining the narrative and character arcs that Dune Part Two executed so well.

Paul and Chani's relationship in the Villeneuve films exists on a totally different foundation from what's in the books. It's a political love story and you simply cannot separate out the politics from the romance. Their connection starts with the politics and the love is built on top of that.

It's not just that they happen to fall in love while fighting together in an anti-colonial guerrilla war; that is why she falls in love with him. Because he is willing to take the same risks as her in fighting for her people's liberation. Not by trying to impose himself as a leader (at first) but side by side with her as comrades and equals. Let me fight beside you. That's all I'm asking. He is quite literally willing to put his body on the line for a struggle that's been with her all her life, that she cannot escape, but that he could walk away from if he chose. And in fact he proves himself to be an asset and not a liability in this struggle and they start winning. And yeah that shit's romantic as fuck!! Kudos to whoever on the writing team was like actually direct action solidarity is sexy af because they were right and they should say it! There clearly is some attraction or at least interest in Paul on Chani's part from fairly early on, but it's only after he's proven his political worth, in battle, that she allows herself to trust him on a personal level enough to begin a romantic relationship with him. (And it's only after Paul takes off the Atreides ring, the symbol of the fact that he came there to rule over her, that the narrative permits him to advance to this point.) They could have been comrades but not lovers, but never the other way around, because there's no other version of Paul that this Chani would have fallen in love with.

It's important that they meet in circumstances where Paul has no structural power over her. Chani never would have trusted the Paul who stood in the colonial palace and pledged to "honor" Stilgar by offering him hospitality on his own fucking planet. Because she would have known, just as Stilgar did, that such an offer of fellowship, no matter how genuine and well-intentioned, is not made on equal terms. It's only once Paul has been forcibly separated from his colonial privilege that they have even a chance to approach each other as human beings. (And, in a sort of dark irony, that violence becomes a bridge that connects them. That Paul is driven not by abstract power games among the Great Houses but by real grief and anger over the violent death of people he loves at the hands of the Harkonnens must surely be something Chani understands. And it builds a level of trust and empathy between them, that she doesn't have to explain the stakes of what they're fighting for. He knows it in his bones.)

It's not a coincidence that all their explicitly romantic moments are shot through with politics. Their first kiss is wrapped up in a conversation about what it means to be Fremen and I would very much like to be equal to you. (Yes, he's flirting his ass off with that line, but I do think he is sincere.) Their single post-coital scene has I'm no messiah, I'm a fedaykin of Sietch Tabr--not just a commitment to her people and her home but to her specific form of political struggle in which he is joining her. Throughout their whole relationship, the personal and the political are so interwoven as to be indistinguishable from one another.

This kind of commingling of emotional commitment to a person with political commitment to a culture/people/cause could have very easily slid into something tokenizing or fetishistic, but the writing manages to avoid that by sticking very strongly to a couple of guardrails. One, Chani is not some passive prize to be won, but an active agent of her own liberation, whether Paul is in the picture or not. She is the Fremen liberation struggle within the political allegory of the film; she is its voice and embodiment from the moment we meet her. On a character level, she is doing her thing and it's up to Paul to either follow or get out of the way. Even though we know he is afraid of her dying, he never once suggests she leave the front lines of armed struggle (can you imagine?) because that struggle is such a fundamental part of who she is and what he loves about her.

Two--and this one is important for what comes next--the narrative never trivializes the political side of their relationship in favor of the romantic. The second Paul reaches for any kind of power over the Fremen, over Chani, the trust between them is broken and the romance cannot continue. She might still love him as a person--you don't just turn that off--but she cannot be in love with him as the Lisan al-Gaib, fulfillment of a false prophecy she hates; as the Duke of Arrakis, her colonial overlord; or as the Emperor of the Known Universe, overlord of her overlord. As soon as he pulls that shit he is just another colonizer and she's done with him.

And like, kudos to the narrative for being absolutely uncompromising on that point! That's what makes both the political allegory and the personal tragedy hit so hard! Paul, bro, you fucked that one up good and now you are Experiencing a Consequence! I LOVE that in the end, love isn't enough. All the love in the world isn't enough to keep Chani from walking out at the end of the film, because the foundation that love is built on is broken and cannot be repaired.

(I do believe that by the time he is declaring himself Emperor, Paul thinks he has no choice, that this is the only way to save the people he loves from any number of worse fates. But that, too, is a betrayal, of a kind I don't think Paul fully understands. Because either you think the Fremen are capable of governing their own planet or you don't. Deciding unilaterally that having a "friendly" imperialist in power is the best you can hope for is a profound denial of the agency of the people Paul claims to be doing this in the name of. It's either paternalism or despair, and neither are acceptable modes of thinking for a serious revolutionary. Chani would tell you as much.)

The thing with making a bold writing choice like that is that...you cannot then walk it back in the next film with Chani choosing to forgive Paul or coming around to seeing the world his way and understanding that yes it's politically unsavory and he's manipulating the people he said he was in solidarity with but this was the only way! If you do that then the whole framework of what the first two films are trying to say about power and imperialism and resistance and solidarity collapses into incoherence. On a thematic level Dune Messiah is all about the consequences of Paul taking power the way he did and these are the consequences.

And on a character level...I just don't see any way to come back from such a deep betrayal. Even if some part of Chani still loves him. Even if she's pregnant with his child(ren). (We have like, zero information about how movie Chani feels about family and pregnancy and childrearing that would indicate that she would care one bit about her children's biological father being involved in their lives when he is otherwise busy being a space dictator.)

There are several categories of scenarios I can think of to get Paul and Chani interacting again (she goes back to him as a spy/assassin; she's brought back to the palace under some sort of duress, "for her safety" or even as a political prisoner) but none of them involve them being genuinely together as a couple. I could also see them not interacting at all for most of Dune Messiah. What I cannot see is any scenario in which she genuinely forgives him or ever fucking trusts him again. That shit is over and there's no getting it back.

[often-daydreaming]

Last Night

"Heard you've been making trouble in Star City."

"We finally get an hour together and you wanna talk about Green Arrow's delusional rants?" Jazz almost sounded offended but there was a small smile on her face as she takes a sip of her drink and Jason is just grinning as he recounts everything Roy shared.

"He's worried you're gonna overthrow the local gangs at the rate you're going."

"Oh, come on." She huffs genuinely amused. "I was only defending myself."

"I know but you should see some of the theories he's cooked up. The latest one Roy told me about is something about you being an Amazon."

And they share a laugh over it as they continue to catch up over a few burgers and some drinks.

This was nice.

Simple.

It was nearly perfect even.

Jason would never openly admit it. He'd never take the chance out of fear of someone, somewhere using it against him but Jazz had been one of the best things to walk into his life.

She was strong.

So sure of herself and just as kind.

It's why he did everything he could to get her out of Gotham.

She was too kind for Arkham.

Too good for his kind of life.

The monsters in there would twist her into something unimaginable if she stayed and Jason was way too attached by then to let her become another Harley Quinn.

Central would have been better but he could trust his contacts in Star City.

Roy would look out for her when he couldn't and he could enjoy these handful of quiet moments where they were just an ordinary couple on a date.

"I can handle mister narcissist. Out of the two of us you're the one who should be worried about."

"Ah, I'm fine."

Which was a lie. Gotham was even worse than usual lately.

"Yeah, until some idiot gets lucky."

Carefully brushing their hands together she runs her fingers over where the latest stitching were. It wasn't bad but he wasn't healing like he used to, the usual after effects of the pit were losing their effect so he'd lied and said he was in a car accident.

"You're changing the subject Jazz. What's going on with you?"

He watches her get up and walk over to the corner of the restaurant to put on some music, the old jukebox playing an even older song.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just... tired of holding it all in." She looks over her shoulder with a smile. "Maybe you're a bad influence on me."

"Who. Me?"

He gets up to join her when she holds out her hand.

"You were always a bad influence on me."

"I've got a feeling you've had a bad girl hiding inside you long before we ever met."

"Maybe. I've made a lot of bad decisions. Dated the wrong men. Trusted the wrong people but it's what led me here."

They slowly dance for a while until they hear the bartender calling out. "Hey you! No dancing." He jerks his thumb to a sign behind him saying the same thing along with this is not a dancefloor and green floods his vision before Jazz is pulling him away.

"I guess it's time to call it a night."

"Maybe we can try a different bar tomorrow?"

She sounds so hopeful and he wants to say yes. He wants nothing more than to just stay here in this moment with her but he can't. Not yet.

"I'd love to but I've gotta head back soon."

"Another one of those mysterious secret missions you can't tell me about?"

"You know it."

"You know if you ever need my help."

"Nah." He can't pull her into his messed up world. He won't. "It's just our usual family drama."

Bruce was going off the rails again. Dick was angry and everyone else was scrambling like usual to keep everything running.

It'd all be sorted out in a couple of weeks at most. Either way this was going to be his last mission.

He grabs his bag getting ready to leave when he feels a tug on his sleeve and Jazz is pulling him back into a kiss. It's the perfect way to end their night together.

Too perfect.

As they go their separate ways already planning their next date Jazz let's him go one last time not knowing that tonight would be the last night she'd ever see him again.

After Jason made it back to Gotham her texts went unanswered.

Phone calls were ignored.

Watching the news made it seem like everything that could go wrong was currently going wrong in Gotham so after two weeks of nothing but silence Jazz was in the middle of getting ready to book the first flight she could find when she suddenly felt a cold breeze drift through her apartment and between one second and the next Danny is floating there. He's floating there next to an exhausted Roy who drops down onto one of her couches looking utterly defeated.

Roy, Jason's best friend who is dressed up like Arsenal and they both look like they've just gone through hell. Their gear is busted and ripped with dried blood everywhere and she's just about to ask what's wrong, what happened, where's Jason when everything simply stops.

There's a thousand and one questions running through her mind until she notices the Red Hood's shattered helmet in Danny's hands and every little thing she's tried to ignore until now clicks into place.

It's been a while but I wanted to do something today and saw a short on YouTube that inspired this. It could either be the aftermath of Gotham War or Jason vs the Penguin but whatever you feel like could have caused it ends up so much worse.

[woofs-silly-ships]

"ace in the hole" is old slang used to mean a hidden advantage. Ace being used to mean asexual is only within the past 15-20 years.

I think with that particular line, Viv meant it in the old slang, forgot the younger gen asexuals call themselves ace, and pretended that's what she meant all along. (I'm 99% sure Viv never pays attention to the TQIA+ side, so that's why she ignores and excludes us)

Rosie calling Al her hidden advantage makes far more sense, especially with these new leaks.

Anyway, I don't think Viv should have bothered making an aroace character. She is obviously very into shipping culture and is definitely stepping away from any aromantic Alastor ideas. We'll probably have to say goodbye to his asexuality as well. Hazbin and HB are very LGB only kind of shows.

Oh my god. OH MY GOD

welp. There goes my remaining positive thoughts on that line.

And that also means Al didn’t just not know what asexual meant, he genuinely was like “Rosie wtf- can you not-“ AND THEN VIV PROBABLY TWISTED IT TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE SHE HAD DECENT REPRESENTATION-

that last part is genuinely how I feel about the whole canon hellaverse tho, but even that’s debatable when you look at how stereotyped the gay and pan characters specifically are (the gay characters are all dramatic and horny/sex obsessed, and the pan characters are all also horny to an even more extreme degree (except Bee for some reason, I need to rescue her and Tex from this freaking show istg 😭)). I think Viv wants to be an ally of some kind but is just failing miserably

Yeah but if Alastor ever gets a canon partner or is no longer asexual I will be down pounding my head against the kitchen floor (/ref [never missing the chance for a will wood reference]) before writing a 50 page essay on how stupid that decision is /hj… only half joking.

But like yeah. Viv, we get it, you like shipping. But you can live without shipping just one character but having free rein of most others. It’s not that hard.

[curiousoh-randomfandoms]

I hate to dogpile but yeah. The point of fandom isn't to create product, you can potentially go to work for that. (And thus capitalism has no place in fandom except in the way that it effects the community members IRL that makes it difficult to fandom how they want to. Because real life interferes unfortunately with creating art despite how necessary it is to live.)

And I say this as someone who's had a 4 year period where I literally was too physically disabled to create art the way that I had.

I found another way because I had to. To freaking survive this hellscape. Making stuff was literally the only way that I held on.

And same deal when I was freaking out of my house trying to hustle and be able to afford the basics around 16-20 hours a day, more than 5 days a week. I was engaging (obviously not as much) because it was necessary to my survival at the time. I needed art and community and just a break from trying to get by.

It's about the art. Sharing the work is about community building. There literally wouldn't be any reason to share the work, in fandom without the community. You would just keep it to yourself. You can't make bank on other's IPs and because of that True Fandom isn't and can't be commercialized.

It is 100% that beautiful horrible desire for connection and understanding and community that drives you to share the work. I was writing stories by myself for around 5 years before I had anyone who actually was willing to read it. That didn't mean I wasn't trying. I was in fandom before internet, before finding that connection was easy. I was in a fandom of like 3 people pre-internet. Because that's how many people I knew were into the thing. Obv. in internet times that number got a lot bigger.

But yeah it's about sharing your weird little brain worms and infecting others and being like, isn't this insane and wonderful and horrible.

Genuinely A.I. has no place in fandom. You might consider that ableist as hell. But I am a working artist who's had chronic pain of around 30 years so I don't give a fuck about that. It is ableist. A.I. generation is literally ableist. It's built on the labor of disabled folks.

The majority of working artists I happen to know (And I know I lot because I travel for work and engage in that community building. There are people who I met the first time I was attempting to sell my art who wanted to sell art who I have now met at events trying their dreams.) are disabled in some way. Literally like 90% of them.

I have friends who have M.S., POTS, arthritis bad enough they have those poor hands that are just stuck, ND, mental health problems, vision issues and wheelchairs etc. And the main victims of the A.I. crap, the work that they stole without compensation are those artists.

Trying to monetize art is an act of desperation. Yeah it can certainly be about ego but the majority of artists are not financially comfortable with family trusts to fall back on. The majority of artists I know and have met, started trying to make money with the crap they made in their spare time because they literally couldn't afford to live. And other avenues make them potentially too rich that they don't qualify for the medical help required to allow them to keep living in the level of health most possible, yet that richness cannot afford the maintenance to keep them alive with their conditions.

I am so sick of this A.I. Tech Bro argument that it's somehow ableist to expect art made by humans. To want human expression to be the primary art in the world.

And yeah I had friends who had been living a financially free life where they could afford to maintain their conditions and were actually doing insane things like beginning to have savings, that literally could no longer in a Post A.I. generation mainstreaming world.

I don't fault folks for using A.I. as assistive tools for things like grammar, or potentially translation although both of those have been such a wonderful community building cornerstone of fandom... and we really should not be seeking perfection in our art that's just for us, that's made out of love, out of need to express ourselves etc. Because I get that it is hella hard to find wonderful folks that want to translate out of love or beta because they see the potential in your work and just want to make it sing. And as is often the case, even more in this terminally online world. The act of creation is solitary at first. It takes a while to build some community.

But man, I absolute hate to see the individuality scraped out of stuff. To see people stagnate because their work isn't changing with them because they are no longer the primary architects of that work. We are ever changing and it is beautiful. It is amazing the way that my work changed when I was physically unable to work the way I could. It literally made my work so much better, I explored stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise. And it will continue to enrich my work for the rest of my life.

And A.I. just middle of the roads you. It doesn't keep your little idiosynchronisies and lexicon that's a beautiful microcosm of all of the beautiful people who you've loved and left the mark on. It doesn't understand the iconography of the media you've consumed that it then colored by your experience, color sense and cultural background. By the time period you happened to have lived. It just removes you.

And fandom, as all the best community building is... it's about who you are, what you do and who you love.... who you hate even. How you move or cannot move in this world. It's about yearning even maybe and the passion to do a thing even though it does not benefit you outside of this weird little community. And the benefits are simply being known. Sharing a little piece of yourself while you consume and love and encourage others who are sharing a little bit of themselves too.

My point is that it is about love. And as of yet, there isn't a computer that can do that right, yet.

just saw a fanfic on ao3 have a dedication for chatgpt... that section is meant for your horny perverted mutual who proofread your work, you violated sacred law and you will be torn apart and laid bare btw

[kirain]

Finally doing a Gale-mance this playthrough (I've done Shadowheart and Karlach and had to gently turn Gale down both times) and while I initially mildly turned off by his grand gestures and flowery prose, it's rapidly growing on me because he's just so... earnest? Like yeah, he's theatrical but its all genuine. (And after reading your meta I've become suspicious that Big Grand Gestures are all he knows because what's a small, sentimental gesture to a goddess? I didn't go with the Astral Sex scene because I wouldn't have been able to handle it but now I'm glad I did for narrative reasons too.)

I'm happy for you! Many of my friends have also fallen down the X companion to Gale pipeline, but they didn't regret it. 😆

I also didn't choose the astral sex scene, but as an asexual, it doesn't bother me. I know a lot of people are 50/50 on it, but I think it's just another beautiful expression of love. The good news is I don't think it impacts Gale's decisions. You can try it and still tell him you prefer him as a man, and he'll be grateful.

Gale is theatrical, but you're right—it's what became expected of him. He was in a constant state of trying to impress a goddess. It's honestly heartbreaking, because I have a feeling he wouldn't have explored such grand gestures if not for Mystra, who according to both the game and D&D lore loves unconventional sex involving the Weave. I can't even imagine being under that kind of pressure.

Personally, I also found Gale's sex scenes to be painfully telling, because he doesn't make it about what he wants. Like you said, he's earnest. It might be his last night alive, but he focuses solely on your pleasure. He does all the work, he offers different methods, and he conjures a bed for your comfort. While he certainly is seeking support and doesn't want to be alone, he wants to spend what little time he has left making the one he loves happy.

He's also one of the few companions who will fully embrace your ilithid form, admire you for your sacrifice, and actively search for a cure and magical means to feed/protect you. He sets boundaries (like not allowing you to cheat on him), but you becoming a squid isn't one of them.

That's why I think Gale is one of the most loyal and devoted companions in the entire game, second perhaps only to Minthara, if you play as the Dark Urge. They're both very ride or die, but Gale is a soft, wholesome romantic who proves his love in everything he says and does.

Plus he cooks and has a cat. You can't go wrong. 😉

[braghis]

Out of the many things i don't like this much about the PJo books, there are actually three things that REALLY annoy me the most:

- RR's potrayal of femininity: almost all the female leads have the "NotLikeOtherGirls" complex and the genuine feminine girls are 1) a traitor (Silena), 2) a damsel in distress (Calypso) and 3) a mean AlphaB*tch™️ (Drew). Nothing wrong obviously with not liking classical girly things BUT being feminine ISN'T the same as being weak or stupid. A woman can be feminine AND strong. These things can totally coexist and i don't get why some people seem to fail to understand that.

- Riordan's apparent hate of common features. He really gave Piper and Hazel light eyes despite them being poc and tried to justify it by saying they have them because of their powers???? So i guess it's just an unfortunate coincidence that neither Pluto or Aphrodite have these eyes in the first place. And of course it's totally normal that ESTELLE apparently has Poseidon's sea green eyes despite her father being Paul Blofis. AND it's another complete coincidence that almost all his attractive and popolar characters have light eyes and/or hair while all the "outcasts" have common traits. Suuuuree it is.

- When the books' narrative (and honestly the fandom) tries to suggest that every single thing Nico did in the story was actually to impress Percy and nothing more. This annoys me to hell and back. Yeah he had a crush on him; Percy was his hero and Nico idolized him a lot, BUT so did Annabeth with Luke. AND why not starting with Leo, who got little crushes on every pretty girl he met before ending up with Calypso, a cheek he kinda killed himself for. But why don't i see the same attitued with them? Ohh i know why.....they are straights (or at least in straight relationships) so they are allowed to have goals, interests, A PERSONALITY outside their sexuality and love life. Gay people apparently not. A queer dude's life simply needs to revolve around a straight one, you know? That's truly one of the worst queer tropes ever.

[sebaztianlovesgeek]

Exactly, a while ago I made a meme post about Resident Evil 4 remake mods (in fact its the most popular post on my account) and it was basically about how a lot of the mods put Leon (the male mc) in sexy outfits while they put Ashley (the female mc) into silly outfits that weren't revealing at all

I made that meme for 2 reasons, first was because I actually think Leon is attractive, I didn't think that him having a tramp stamp or wearing a thong was funny, I found him genuinely attractive, the second was because I was making fun at how people will scream for equality between men and women (which I agree with) but when a female video game character is found attractive by men, those men are shamed and told they're perverts. Meanwhile if a male character is found attractive (even then as a man who's attracted to men I've been treated like a weirdo by straight women who do the exact same thing and find male video game characters attractive) its perfectly fine apparently

People misunderstood my meme and it was clear that some of the people reblogging and commenting were proving my point, I got comments such as "Yeah well I saw a few mods where Ashley and Ada were sexualised and it was soooo bad" how is it bad? The mods do the exact same to Leon, Luis and Krauser, but when it's done to Ashley and Ada (who are both adults) apparently then its bad?

I also got a few comments about how the people making these mods were "fighting the patriarchy"... I really don't see how making a video game mod and putting an attractive male character in a thong fights the patriarchy, I really don't, I thought fighting the patriarchy was standing up to sexism but whatever

I really don't see a big deal with equally having fanservice-y mods for both male and female characters, people argue that its "objectifying women", first of all you're doing it to the male character too, second of all they're fictional characters, they're basically already objects, as long as real women (and men) are not being objectified I literally don't care, we're all human and humans often feel sexual attraction, even to fictional game characters,

Also, something I've found creepy among the whole "lets stop the sexualising women by sexualising men" crowd is that a lot of their arguments are similar to those that were targeted at me when I came out about my experience as a male CSA victim, here is an example:

"Men sexualise women all the time, why can't we do the same to them?" = "You deserved it, men sexually abuse women and girls all the time, its time they got payback" (something that was actually said to me once)

And other such things, and frankly it really creeps me out, I don't mind male characters being put into sexy outfits and other such things (I actually enjoy it as I said before I am attracted to men), but I'm sick of people only doing it as a joke and getting upset when the same is done to female characters despite their need for "equality"

trying to fight against the sexualization of women by sexualizing men doesn't work. when people make mods for video games where they turn the women into bimbos is because they have genuinely lust for them, but when people make mods to give cloud strife a tramp stamp is because they think it's funny. dungeon meshi senshi panty shots aren't fan service, they're jokes. they're trying to make a joke about how funny it is that they are showing this man's panties

worst is that putting a traditional macho hero in bikinis and giving them things that are traditionally associated with women isn't just a joke, it's a transmisogynistic joke. you're pointing at cloud strife with a tramp stamp and laughing at how funny it is that a man has one of these

[yeahspider]

STEP FIVE : THE ARRIVAL

a/n- um jeongin 👀 would yall be mad if i made this a poly fic ? i double bias hyunjin and jeongin so its just in my nature to give the mc tension with both of them . but can you really blame me for wanting everyone to kiss ? but n e ways we’ll deal with that later . thx for the love ! seriously it makes me smile and encourages me to write more . enjoy this chapter beloveds ! <3

series masterlist

You couldn't get out of the car any faster upon arrival. Jumping out of Jeongin's lap and immediately stretching your legs. The rest of the car ride had been pretty chill despite Minho's dark declaration. With laughter pouring more than shots. The car had been filled with good energy. Until you hear puking sounds coming from the driver's side of the car. Rushing over you see Han spilling his guts into the grass.

"Oh I am so drunk," he says after laughing. Minho rushed to his aide and swooped him to the nearest restroom. Stating he was helping him get cleaned up. Which just left You, Jeongin, Changbin, and your best friend standing in the front of the car. Not wanting to thirdwheel. You suggested splitting up and checking the grounds before the real fun begins. CHangbin jumps at the idea, grabbing your friend's hand and rushing off.

Jeongin just smiled as he gestured for you to follow him. You didn't mind hanging with him until the rest of the group showed up. His presence calmed your nerves that were fried from being so tense all day. With him, it felt like you took a deep breath. In and Out. Without it feeling like you were gasping for air. You followed him over to a smaller campfire with the SKZ symbols engraved on the logs surrounding it.

Sensing your confusion Jeongin clarified for you. "We've been coming to this specific campaign set up for so long people just consider it ours. The other will now meet us here. He was allowed to circle the campfire and pick a log to sit on. Before pulling out a flask and handing it to you. Feeling like you were over the taste of tequila for the night you denied it.

"I promise it tastes good just try it." He urged with a blinding smile. Why was it so hard to say no to these boys. Opening your mouth and tilting your head back this pour was a lot smoother than before. Not a drop spilled. The taste on your tongue was heavenly, embarrassed yourself when you let out a moan.

"Good right? Hyunjin made some for us last night and it was so good I felt you had to share." The mentioning of his name causes you to choke slightly. Jeogin laughed as he patted your back.

"So you really do have a crush on him. Seungmin owes me 20 bucks."

Your eyes widened as the words left his lips. How does he know? How does Seungmin know? Who else knows? Was he making fun of you? Thoughts ran rampant as you fought the urge to run. Fought the urge to defend yourself. But something in his eyes told you he had no malicious intent. So you stayed silent and refused to give your truth up.

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me. I'm just waiting for you two to kiss already. Crushing on each other for years but both are too shy to make a move. It's classic Hyunjin, but maybe I underestimated you."

You were genuinely at a loss for words. None of what he was saying was making sense. Maybe he was drunker than what you initially thought. Or maybe you were. Nothing was clear. Nothing was solid.

"I see the way you look at him. Just waiting for him to pounce. I see the effort you put in tonight. It'll pay off. You look beautiful, Hyunjin won't be able to take his eyes off of you. It's like when you stare at the sun you're blinded to everything else. Light being all you can see" Jeogin was dangerously close to your face. It was like he was sending you a mental message. Begging you to read between the lines of his words. But it just left you more confused. All you knew was that in this moment with him your heart was fluttering. Yeah, you were pretty drunk. His lips inched closer to yours. You wanted him to kiss you so bad. You could see the want in his eyes, you were sure it was reflected in his eyes. Instead of his lips on yours, they grazed your ear.

"I'll help you get him." He said against your ear, peppering a light kiss on it. And leaving you more flustered than ever. Before you could ask him what he meant you hear a shout from behind your shoulder. A newly renewed, but still very drunk Hancomes running in your direction. Everyone else trailing behind him. Plopping himself in your lap and making himself comfortable. You allow him, not wanting to upset the boy who clearly just wanted some affection. Plus his attention was flattering. The group sends smiles your way as they gather around. Everyone was here but Hyunjin. Your heart ached. Did he change his mind after finding out you were here. Your mood immediately plummeted. This whole night can't be for nothing. You worked so hard planning it. Even getting it back on track every time it slowed or veered off course.

"Man, the parking here is terrible. It's almost like we should've come earlier." you hear a voice say behind you. Followed by a groan. A groan you recognized, Turning your head you lock eyes at the sole reason you stepped outside your house tonight. Hwang Hyunjin in all his glory. And he was walking towards you. If there wasn't a Han Jisung in your lap, you for sure would've bolted by now. With a comforting hand on your back, Jeongin whispered mere I got you. And with that, it was time to put the final steps of your plan into action.

[trainsinanime]

Is there a specific scientific term for what I'll call "harm construction", meaning "thinking of ways that something harms someone in order to condemn it"? There must be, right? I see it all the time and it's not new. Let me give some examples in random order.

One of the first cases where I really remember it was at least a decade ago, an online article by a British newspaper, about how an online store had put a pole dancing pole in their toys section. A bit of an embarrassing mistake but nothing more.

However, that article provided several quotes from a British couple who said they were very worried, because their kid could have seen that. It seems pretty clear that their kid did not, in fact, actually see it, but the newspaper treated their concern as if it was a genuine thing to worry about. It was utterly ridiculous.

A more recent example is a call-out ask I received a few months ago and, of course, immediately deleted, but it's still been living rent-free in my head since then, because it was so horribly bad. I'll not repeat the exact wording, but they were annoyed that their victim blog (which I don't follow and haven't for years, if ever, and they don't follow me) was annoying and sometimes said mean things. They very ineptly tried to explain that this might have been part of the reasons why someone else, completely unrelated, sent out hate messages to yet another person. That was the harm that was so big that it supposedly justified a targeted harassment campaign. (If you're the person who wrote that call-out ask, please rethink your life. You were only increasing the hate in the world, not making anything better. I suspect the sender wasn't anyone who actually follows me, but just in case).

The biggest and most prominent example of harm construction right now is of course all about trans people, bathrooms and school sports. Conservatives and TERFs alike need a reason to oppose the existence of trans people beyond "I personally find them weird", because saying that out loud gets them correctly branded as bigots. How do you turn "let's be really mean to a marginalised group" into a progressive cause? By saying that the existence of this group causes harm. The problem with that is that trans people existing does not actually cause any harm, it's literally fine.

So in an effort to construct harm after all, they have searched far and wide for something that trans people could even theoretically damage, and the only things they managed to come up with are "there might be someone with unexpected genitals behind that bathroom stall door" and "the sanctity of gender-segregated sports". If it weren't for their cultural and political power then it would almost be funny how little potential harm they managed to find and how much they have to amplify it. They're just another couple in the newspaper worried that their kid might potentially see a website.

If you look for it, harm construction is everywhere, because we all sort of agree on a surface level that dividing people into "normal, acceptable" and "weird, must be punished" isn't nice, but the instinct to punish people for being "weird" is still alive and well and many people refuse to question it.

At a completely different end, anytime someone uses the word "normalisation" about a fanfic on Ao3, that's another example. We all know making blorbos do weird things doesn't actually hurt anybody (assuming proper tagging and so on), but we still want to punish people who do it wrong. So we construct harm, by arguing that seeing something on Ao3 might "normalise" the thing and make it more likely that someone will do it in real life.

These examples are very different, at very different ends of almost all scales of power and cultural influence and meaning, but the core idea is always the same. So, yeah. There must be a better term for this.

[physics-of-one-piece]

Okay, I wanna get sth off my chest.

It's about Discord, and why I can't join any OP fandom Discord (yet). I will one day. For now, I think I'd be a bit overwhelmed if I do join.

First thing I want all my mutuals, followers and everyone to know is that everyone here is amazing. Genuinely. You all are awesome.

I can't join Discord for OP fandom yet because of the bad experiences in another Discord in another fandom. They weren't FULL BLOWN bad experiences, but damn, did they make me annoyed.

In short, my friends from that fandom watch One Piece. And they were great and supportive, and we have a thread for One Piece in that Discord server for ourselves. Those friends did not spoil anything for me.

And then I got to Dressrosa, and I typed a lot about Doflamingo cus I loved him more and more.

But my friends... They hate him. Okay, that's fine, I can ignore that. Surely if I respect that they hate him, they can respect that I like him?

(the answer to them for that was no)

They were like "just wait till you see Law's backstory with him, you'll hate him then" etc etc. And that was fine, okay.

Saw Dressrosa Takeover, saw Law's backstory. I mean, yeah, that shit is dark, but what do you expect? It's Doflamingo.

They wanted me to hate him. And after that, after I didn't hate him, but liked him even more, with every damn time I wrote something I consider awesome from Doflamingo, they switched to insulting the character I like.

I never go insulting characters they like, but god they kept doing it for Doflamingo. I got tired of it and just stopped talking about One Piece overall with them. Even with fics I wrote in the "writing thread" they nitpicked them, said "that wouldn't work like that, etc etc" and just... Killing the fun of it? Like... What the fuck.

I want to make clear, these were individuals. Other people were cool with it and ENCOURAGED it.

And of course every time I go "I love Doffy" these individuals come up with an insult for him. So yeah, I dipped. They couldn't respect my like for a character and not be at least considerate enough not to talk shit about him. At first, fine, but it started getting overbearing and fckn annoying. Like, a lot.

I hate plenty OP characters but I would never, EVER think of if I see someone enjoy that character of bashing that character, little less on their thread/Discord/tumblr blog. It would NEVER even cross my mind. Why the hell would I want to do that to someone? Hell, I'd ENCOURAGE them to continue enjoying what they enjoy. Bcs if a character makes you happy, and makes it fun, then why tf would I ever try to ruin that for someone?

It just makes me sick how these individuals (who I still consider friends, I don't think they genuinely meant it to come off as them trying to police me or anything, they said it was getting annoying but like he's one of my fav characters of course I'll talk about him a lot that's what you do with favourite characters they don't go on a rant if I rave about Luffy or Law or Cora) were actively commenting how I shouldn't like this character like it would make me like him less?

Sorry I like interesting, evil, demonic character with an iconic laugh and who is one of the top five antagonists in the most popular manga and was in Top 20 characters in the popularity poll? Like... Wtf.

Anyway, yeah... That's the reason I made this blog (there were 100% other reasons like being a nerd and calculating One Piece things 🤣). I needed a safe space to simp over Doflamingo, the Donquixote Family, Dressrosa and everything. And I'm genuinely so happy to have met fellow Doffy fans on here.

You all are great. Thank you for making this a safe space for me and for enjoying and encouraging my Doffy insanity, and for writing and drawing such amazing fics and art of Doffy and everyone else from Dressrosa.

I feel weightless on this blog, free to enjoy the Heavenly Demon and simp for him and discuss him as much as I want with everyone giving their thoughts and encouraging it.

I'm FREE.

I'll join those Discords one day. Thank you all for keeping the invites open.

[euniexenoblade]

I'm terribly sorry for the anon ask. This is going to be long, and rambling, and probably quite rude to send to someone. Feel free to just trash this. I needed to scream and cry somewhere because I don't know what to do.

I saw your post about polyam people in monogamous relationships and it broke me. I'm a trans girl dating another trans girl 1 year older than me. She's the only reason I'm still alive. I was highly suicidal and depressed and miserable because I was forced to be closeted even though I knew who I was.

The whole act made me miserable. I felt like such a wretched thing, both for the idea of being trans girl and dysphoria as a whole. I felt unlovable, because no-one ever really loved me for who I was. I thought I was equivalent to some sort of drifting piece of disgusting flotsam, waiting to sink and drown forever. Improve the world by my disappearance.

She was the first person to love me, genuinely. To hold me close and tell me I was worth it. Worth loving, worth caring for. Eventually I began to believe it too. She dragged me out of my cocoon and made me love life and love her.

She's the single thing I love most in this world, but I'm also polyam, and have recently begun to love other people romantically as well. Originally, when I got into a relationship with her, she told me she was polyam too, but later corrected herself as exclusively and highly strictly monogamous.

And I feel trapped in here. She mostly only talks to me now to play out sexual scenarios where I'm the Dom, phone sex, ERP, things of that sort. I've talked to her about it and she just breaks down so I've stopped trying to talk about the subject.

I've also done my best to keep myself the perfect model monogamous person for her. But it hurts. It hurts to love so deeply and not be able to do anything about it. I feel broken, like I'm making excuses for wanting to cheat on my supposed one true love or something.

I know this isn't healthy, but I don't know what to do. I'm afraid that if I break up with her, she'll break down so hard and spiral so far down she won't be able to come back up, and that I'll go back to that miserable flotsam state without someone around me (Which I know is yet another fault about me. Something I should be able to endure that I can't).

I guess I'm here to ask if you have any advice. Sorry for sending this again. Thanks for reading.

If she breaks down when you break up, that is not your fault. I know that doesn't make it feel any better, but it is not you're fault. No one is guaranteed you, they must earn you.

I'm sorry this is happening. That's so fucked. It must really, really, really eating away at you. My first thought is you need to get her to talk. No shutting down. She presented herself as poly when you first hooked up, and yeah she's allowed to rescind that but it completely changed what you were lead the relationship would be. You need to drop the things you said to me to her, she needs to understand this. And, where it goes is important.

Usually I'd just say "break up," but this person is so very important to you and you love her so much. So I think there needs to be discussion and understanding. But, ultimately, if you want to be poly and she isn't supportive of that, then you gotta break up.

I hope that your coming days are full of love and joy.