#cause if it wasn't that means that these people are ignoring an obvious cry for help

[fussystreetlight]

(Remaking this post cause I realized I didn't want to reblog from these kinds of people even when I'm reacting to them but I think some context is necessary).

It's always dispiriting to see things like this. And to see, imo, obvious nonsense get so much attention, more attention than fanartists that are not only talented but genuinely kind.

And I know I could ignore this and that I'm giving it more attention. But for my own peace of mind I wanted to add some important amendments :

Be as weird as you want about Skully. Yana Toboso and the TWST developers want you to (so you'll spend money but still...)

If you're a weirdo the game was made for you. Enjoy it however you want.

The game and developers are weird about their own characters (they knew what they were doing especially with the Union Birthday card groovies).

He's a bunch of pixels programmed to be set at an semi-arbitrary number that was chosen cause it made sense for the story, not because he's supposed to represent a person. It's like sleeping with an inflatable doll that was only made a year ago. It's a doll, how long it's been in existence doesn't matter. A very obvious not real character is not comparable to or representative of a person.

Again, he's not real, his "age" doesn't matter because he's an object, and fiction is not a 1:1 reflection of reality. If someone likes him it doesn't mean they'll prey on an actual teen. The chances of there being a correlation are really small. People who assume it does and try to stop people from liking a character; that says more about you than what liking Skully says about the person who likes him. It's like someone finding a chip that looks like a person and then someone else eats it. You're not going to call that person a cannibal and assume they want to eat people, this is the same thing. It's not comparable to a sexual predator. Seriously, why are y'all obsessed with predators, why is it always on your mind? Y'all keep bringing them up in situations that had nothing to do with them, making things about them and seeing them everywhere, and assuming everyone you meet that isn't a clone of you is one. Why is this always the first place your mind goes to? If y'all saw someone reacting the same way about murderers you'd realize they need some help so why are y'all so lacking in self-awareness?

The fact that people were simping for him before his "age reveal" and after it should have driven home the fact that it's simply that people like how this object looks and is programmed to behave, not how long it's been manufactured. Also his voice actor is an adult, so it's more like an adult acting like a younger person, i.e. this is more like a form of age play between consenting adults than a sign that people want to prey on teens (of course if antis looked at things that way then they'd have to face the realization that they are not the valiant heroes they think they are so they won't).

This attitude is what kills fandoms and makes creators not want their stuff to leave their country. It wouldn't surprise me if TWST one day shuts down because of all these antis.

And considering every anti I've come across liked something that does the very same things they claim to hate, are made by people who support the fiction they claim to hate, or like the very things that they claim to hate, I just can't make myself believe they really care about morals or being good people. At this point I genuinely believe antis are either just looking for attention or need professional help but are unwilling to admit it. Or they want to hurt people. But really, why this unhealthy obsession with sexual predators and finding them?? Especially when the people and organizations whose job it is to find actual predators have asked them to stop reporting this stuff because it doesn't count. The line should be drawn when real giving beings are getting hurt. No one is getting hurt by this no matter how much antis like to roleplay victims. Let people have their harmless innocent fun.

[bugsmunched]

In the realm of romantic literature, it would be much appreciated if you could write Wolverine x Reader.

A tragic, angsty with a dash of spirited debate leading to an unforeseen outpouring of sentiments, tinged with a hint of mature themes. (18+)

[Dread not if such narratives are not within your repertoire.]

To put matters into more simplistic terms :

Wolverine/Logan Howlett x Reader. Angsty arguments turns rather bittersweet with an unexpected confession of feelings.

I hope this is sufficient!

"Lose You" - Logan Howlett x GN! Reader

WC: 2,485

Tw: Swearing, angst, yelling, Logan is a grumpy guy, mentions of sex, alluding to sex, broken glass

Requests are open!!

Three days. It has been three days since Logan had spoken to you, three long days since he even looked in your direction beyond a simple glance. You believed he was determined to ignore your existence for the rest of your life, and so did he. The manor was big enough for him to avoid you completely, except for the occasional glance exchange in the halls. His gaze was…cold…and distant. Nothing like it had been before. He seemed to hate you, and you began to hate yourself.

That inner loathing turned into an outwardly unpleasant mood, turning you into one of the more unpleasant mutants to interact with in the manor. After a couple extra days had passed, it has been a week since you talked to anyone beyond a short and angry conversation. Everyone in the manor knew what was happening, students and professors alike, but no one could do anything but watch the train wreck from a distance.

Soon enough it has been two weeks since Logan had talked to you, and you were fed up with him. Every time you even thought of him, you were overcome with an anger so strong it made you burst into tears and collapse to the ground. So, you did your best not to think about him, pushing him from your brain until he was just a distant memory.

One month. Your anger has turned into wallowing in pity and more self loathing. You couldn't believe that someone who you were once so close to would just abandon you completely like that. You locked yourself in your room most of your days, barely eating, barely sleeping. When you did sleep, the sleep was plagued with terrible nightmares. In the past, Logan would've been to your room in an instant to care for you after a nightmare, but recently there'd been nothing. He moved rooms to the other side of the manor, another means of avoiding you.

You woke up quickly, drenched in sweat, chest rising and falling rapidly from hyperventilating. Another nightmare has plagued your sleep, and there was no one there to soothe you. You wanted nothing more than to wrap your arms around Logan's neck and bury your face in his chest as he held you. But, he wasn't there, and the lack of his presence caused you to break down. Your entire body shook as you let out quiet, broken sobs.

You held your pillow close to your chest, the soft fabric of the case soaking up your warm, salty tears. You were like that for a few hours, until the sun rose, filtering through your blinds. Your face was red and puffy from crying for so long, eyes dry and in pain. You sighed softly and slipped out of bed, peeking your head out of your door. It was still pretty early, so not many people would be awake yet, so it was relatively safe to sneak to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

You quietly made your way to the kitchen, slipping in to grab a glass of water before you stopped in your tracks. Logan was sat at the table, glass of whiskey in hand. It was obvious that he had been up for a while himself. Since this was your first time truly seeing him in a month, you felt your heart getting caught in your throat.

“L-Logan?” You muttered out loud before you could stop yourself.

He froze, his muscles tensing as he placed the glass of whiskey back down on the table. He didn't turn to meet your gaze, but he wasn't trying to up and leave, not yet anyway.

“Look at me Logan, please. “ You whispered with a broken whimper, your voice was pathetic. You couldn't believe how desperate you sounded - or how desperate you truly were.

“Get out of here, bub. “ Logan grumbled, not casting a glance in your direction.

Something about his tone set something off inside of you as you crossed your arms, voice shifting from whimpering and begging to annoyed. “ What, am I not allowed to grab a glass of water anymore? Oh I'm so sorry your highness,” you bowed, your voice laced with a mocking tone, “ I didn't realize what you said fucking goes. “

Logan tensed more at your tone and harsh words, hand gripping the glass with so much force you were surprised it wasn't breaking under the pressure. “Shut up. “ He grumbled, not quite a growl.

You walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass, filling it with water. When you were looking away, you could feel his piercing hot gaze on your skin. You spun around, glass of water shaking a little in your hand. “What the hell is your problem Logan?”

Silence filled your ears, which only made you more irritated.

“I asked you a fucking question, or are you suddenly too high and mighty to talk to someone commoner like me?” You sneered, watching as he gripped the glass tighter, it began to crack.

“Shut up. “ He growled, his breathing uneven and nostrils flaring.

“I don't think I will, because you've been a real dick recently, Wolvy. “

And with that mocking nickname, the glass shattered in his hand, pieces of glass sticking into his skin. You jumped a little bit, watching as he didn't even flinch, his hand just closing around the shards of glass.

A part of you grew very concerned for the gruff man, but you were still overcome with some anger and resentment towards him for having had the guts to ignore you for a whole month.

“Ooo the big scary wolverine can shatter a glass, you're not special. “ You sneered, taking a sip of your water.

Suddenly, without any warning, Logan was standing up, pushing you flush against the counter, hands on either side of you, caging you in. You dropped the glass you were holding out of shock, it fell to the floor and shattered, glass shards surrounding the two of you.

His breathing was ragged and unsteady, his eyes narrowed with anger. “Don't you know when to shut your mouth?” He growled, looking down at you.

“Don't you know when you're being a dick? Get your hands off of me, Logan. “

He huffed and took a step back, avoiding the shards of glass carefully, the shards in his hand slowly falling out as he healed. He stared at you, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. He looked at you like he hated you, like he loathed you entirely. His gaze made you want to shrink and run away, but you stood strong, meeting his gaze.

“Why are you being such a brat?” He huffed, picking the glass out of his hand before sliding both of his hands into his pockets.

“Why am I being such a- Oh my God. Seriously? Seriously Logan?! You dare to have the gall to call me a brat when you have been nothing but a total douche recently?! Oh my God. “ You said, giving a soft laugh, surprised at his words. You shook your head in disbelief.

“I have not been a total-”

“Don't even try to finish that sentence, dickwad. Because news flash, you've been a complete asshole! You've been avoiding me ever since that last mission! Fuck, you even switched rooms just so you could be as far away from me as possible. Every time you look at me, you look at me like I'm the worst person in the world. And I…and I didn't even get an explanation. “ You started yelling, before your voice began to crack as you choked back tears. You were deeply wounded by his actions, especially by the fact that you never even got an explanation as to why he completely abandoned you.

His gaze softened slightly, his brows letting up as concern began to lace his features. It hadn't even dawned on him that his actions had been harming you like this, driving you to brink of insanity.

“What, now you got nothing to say?” You muttered, crossing your arms as your eyes began to water. You could feel tears threatening to spill over the threshold. Your chest was rising and falling harshly due to your uneven breathing.

“ I'm sorry. “ He muttered, so quietly that you could barely even hear him at first.

“A sorry ain't going to fix this, asshole.” You huffed, turning your head away from him, your bottom lip beginning to quiver.

“I never wanted to hurt you. I just…I'm mad at you. “

“You're mad at me?! Why on earth would you be mad at me?!” You cried out in disbelief.

“Because you almost got yourself killed!” He yelled back, the loud sound causing you to close your eyes right as you flinched, tears finally spilling past the threshold, falling down your face.

He saw the tears roll down your face and gave a heavy sigh. Now he had done it. “That…that last mission…you completely drained yourself and left yourself open to be attacked…I don't understand why you would do that.. “

“Why would you even care if I got killed? With the way you've been acting, I thought you hated me. “ You spat, your voice shaky as you held back sobs.

“I can't hate you. Nothing in the world could make me hate you. “ He spoke weakly. His voice began cracking, he could feel tears swelling in his own eyes. But he swallowed them back, not wanting to upset you further.

“Wha-” you began, before he cut you off.

“I didn't mean for it to go this far. But…when I almost lost you, I realized that … you deserve someone who can protect you better than I. I almost failed you. So I drove a wedge between us. “ He sighed, placing his head in his hands for a moment.

“Lose me? Logan, what do you mean?”

“ You can't technically lose something that you never had, but I wanted- no I needed- you to be mine.”

“Logan…” You whispered as you looked at him once again, eyes wet with tears. “You always had me. I was never going to belong to anyone else.”

You took a step forward, reaching out a hand tentatively. “I was protecting you…because I couldn't bear the thought of losing you…”

“You can't lose me…” He took a step closer as well, hand intertwining with yours.

“You don't know that for sure…” You stepped closer, your bodies now inches apart.

“I would rather die than live in a world where you're not by my side. “ He placed a hand on your hip, pulling you flush against his chest.

“That's stupid…” You buried your face in his chest, sniffling softly.

“People do stupid things for the ones they love. “

You pulled your face away from his chest and looked up at him in disbelief. “ You shouldn't love me. “

“Why the hell not?”

“Because…”

“Sweetheart, nothing you say could change how I feel about you. Simply put, you are my world. I revolve around you, day and night, and without you I feel like I'm suffocating. You are my oxygen, you are my source of life. “ He muttered softly, looking down at you.

“If I'm so vital to your survival…why did you avoid me for so long?”

“I don't deserve you. “

“And I deserve you?”

“Sweetheart, you deserve the absolute world. If the grumpy, old, gruff man is who you want, then it's the grumpy, old, gruff man you'll get. But is that who you want?” Logan asked as he tilted his head gently to the side, his eyes watering.

“You're the one I want, Lo, but are you sure that I'm the one you want? Because -”

Logan dipped down and captured your lips in a soft kiss, hand resting on your cheek. You were surprised, but quickly melted into it, leaning against him as you kissed him back gently. He was holding you so delicately, like he thought you were going to break if he touched you wrong.

After a moment, he pulled away from the kiss, “You're the one I need. “

You gave a weak smile, burying your face in his chest once again. “‘M sorry for being so terrible to you..” you sniffled gently.

He lifted your chin so you were staring into his eyes. “ I don't want to hear your apology, sweetheart. You did nothing wrong. “ He smiled gently down at you.

“But I was awful…how can I make it up to you?”

“Promise me that no matter what…you'll put yourself before me? That you'll never sacrifice yourself for anyone. I won't be able to survive without you. “

You thought for a moment about all the implications of making that promise, but his eyes were staring into you with so much sincerity, that you knew you had to promise. “ I promise, Logan. “

He sighed with relief and pulled you closer, pulling you into another soft kiss. You noticed more this kiss, how coarse his lips felt against your own, but they felt wonderful. They felt like they were molded specifically to fit perfectly against your own.

Slowly, the kiss became more passionate as the dam of emotions came undone. Both of you became more desperate to never stop kissing the other, your hand sliding under his shirt slightly, resting against his abs.

He paused and pulled away, swallowing hard. “ Sweetheart, I think we have to calm down here…otherwise I think I'll take it too far. “

“ What if I want you to take it too far?”

“Sweetheart, you can't say shit like that…”

“ I mean it, Logan. “

“Don't get me wrong…I need you, darling, but it's probably just a heat of the moment thing and I don't want you to regr-”

You cut him off with a kiss, pulling his head down by placing a hand on the back of his neck. You could taste the whiskey on his lips. You pulled away after a moment. “ Sorry, I just really needed you to shut up. “ You said softly, placing a hand on his chest and rubbing gently. “ I promise you I won't regret it, Lo. “

He pulled your hand off his chest gently. “ Trust me sweetheart, I desire you more than anything else, but I'm also…slightly drunk. And I want there to be no chance of forgetting what I'm going to do to you. But I promise you…tonight, come to my room, and I will ravage this…delicious body. “ He said softly as he pulled you close, pressing his hard on against you for a moment, causing you to gasp.

He let go of your hips and pulled away, a smirk evident on his face. “ See you tonight sweetheart, alright? “

“O- okay Logan…” you managed to get out, face a bright red from a moment earlier as he walked out of the kitchen, leaving you to clean up the shards of glass on the floor, your stomach doing flips.

Tonight was going to be one hell of a night.

[beezlebubs-art]

(DO NOT HARRAS THIS PERSON, JUST IGNORE THEM. ALSO GARTIC PHONE THING WASN'T THEM)

Piacere, space, whatever you go by, you said you wouldn't mention anyone from this, or at least that was what the deal was, I hope you were told about it. We'd not mention you, as long as you wouldn't mention us. But you did, so a new callout post with new points, people defending you don't really do a good job. TLDR: they blame everything on mental health, takes little fault for hurting people because of said mental issues, vents to people decently younger than them constantly, and they demand boundaries, but get extremely upset when anyone asks for them to do so for them.

NOTE I didn't directly see any of this, I'm doing this to defend my friends because, no offense, they are kinda letting themselves get walked all over. If anything is wrong please tell me. Do not harass anyone in this situation, no one deserves it.

First up a recap on the first situation with a new moral because talking to your friend made it more obvious what the issue was, you blaming mental health. My friends silver and JJ banned someone from wheezle's easel for in their mind being toxic, the other mods including piacere and their friends didn't feel the person was that bad, but instead of voicing that they went on a rant at how they were never listened to. Even when given an opportunity to unban the person piacere went on about not being listened to while actively ignoring their attempts at giving them an input. They caused my friends to have anxiety attacks and cry, yes they apologized, but only after saying my friends were horrible people. I don't know how you go from that to sorry in a few days and mean that apology. Proof under this, and another situation and perspectives of other people on them.

Now for the new situation i heard of, they were in my friend's server, velon's, and they'd do their constant venting. They were asked to not mention suicide so often and got really upset. More stuff must have happened because like, everyone there says how they would make them super stressed out with how often they'd beg for attention and do things like make sex jokes with people who were uncomfortable with it. Here's people's opinions on it and also i'd check out Typhoonclade's post on them here for more opinions.

Generally they'd vent everywhere around like 16-18 year olds as an almost 20 year old. they'd constantly cry about not getting attention while they got a lot of attention from at least half the active members in our server. And also a lot of weird sexual stuff that granted is hearsay to me but tbhI don't care anymore, there's no way two unrelated people have similar stories. Here's some other stuff of them being mean about people and attention seek-y I have.

Piacere, you won't read this tbh, but just get off the internet, its clear you can't handle it, and you hurt people, for everyone's good, please just get offline. I know real life sucks for you, you'd say it a lot man, but its not an excuse to hurt people who aren't doing anything to you. Just, idk what you should do, other than leave the wider internet.

[glassartpeasants]

Killer angst drabble cause why not

gn!reader

~~~

You knew how much Kid meant to him. It was obvious from the start of the relationship. Anywhere Kid went, Killer was right behind him. They were best friends since childhood so who were you to try and split them apart? But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

There's been countless times where Killer has ditched you for Kid. He wouldn't even notify you that he wouldn't show up, he'd just stand you up. You tried to explain to Killer that it hurt your feelings and if he could at least let you know that he wouldn't show up. It lead to a huge fight. Words were said, tears were shed and it ended up with you two breaking up for a week or two.

You tried to ignore the heartbreak cause you didn't want to make the crew uncomfortable. Hell you even talked to some people about leaving the Kid Pirates. After all, Killer was the reason you joined. So now that you two weren't a thing anymore, there was no reason to be on the Victoria Punk. The tension was too thick for you.

Yet the moment you had gotten ready to pack your bags, Killer approached you. He promised he'd do better and that you did mean something to him. You believed him the first two months but then he slowly started going back to how it was. Which left you to where you are now, watching the stars with your bag in you lap as you sit on the railing.

"The city lights look inviting doesn't it? It's a pretty city and island. Maybe I can stay here until a ship shows up to take me home." Your heart burned at the thought of never hearing Killer's voice again. Even if you didn't want to admit it, a small part of you had been ready to leave since the huge fight. Knowing you'd always be in second, third, and fourth place for Killer. You'd never be his first priority, no matter what happens.

"Not even a competition, and you still won Eustass Kid." Whispering to yourself, your aware of the tears slowly falling down your face. A sad little laugh leaves your lips as you wipe the tears away.

"Your crying." Jumping from the sudden noise, you snap you head around and see your soon to be ex.

"Yeah. I guess I am." A seconds silence fell over the two if you.

"What's wrong?"

"Just settling on my final decision." Even without seeing his face, you knew he was puzzled.

"Which is?" Taking a deep breath, you respond.

"That I'm breaking up with you." Killer’s body tensed at your words. The glassy look in your eyes had him realizing that this wasn't a joke or prank.

"I'm sorry Killer, I knew that Kid was super important to you when we got together and I thought I could handle you spending almost all your time with Kid. Unfortunately I've realized that I cant." Your lips tremble as you try to gently smile.

"I don't want you to lose a friendship you've had since childhood just cause of me." You feel the Victoria Punk start to move away from the island.

"S-Shit (Y/N) I'm sorry. I know I've been ditching you and that I promised that I stopped and you have every right to be mad-"

"I'm not mad. At least not anymore."

"But you should be! You should be mad! I made you a promise and I broke it after saying I'd change. Why aren't you yelling at me?! Why aren't you mad that I lied to you?!"

"Because I love you." Killer could feel his heart beating fast as the weight of his actions finally hit him. He tried to speak yet nothing came out.

"And that's why I have to go. Life is about living and learning. And we simply learned that we weren't meant to be. But that's okay, you'll finally someone who works out better for you." You start to put on your bag to get ready to jump off the ship and onto the dock the Victoria Punk was moving away from. Killer grabs your hand and pulls himself closer to you.

"I don't want someone else, I want you. You and only you. Give me another chance please (Y/N)." Facing Killer and his mask, you press a kiss to where his lips would be. Tears flow down your face knowing that's the last kiss you'd ever give him.

"I better see your name in the newspaper often." Slipping tour hand away from his quickly, you whisper one last thing before jumping on the very last edge of the dock.

"Goodbye Massacre Soilder Killer. I love you." You land on the dock and watch the Victoria Punk sail past the dock. And you watch with a heavy heart as Killer starts running to the end of the ship to catch you while screaming to stop the ship.

He looked at you and screamed your name as he sailed farther and farther away, watching you wave him goodbye with tears in your eyes.

[writingdevil]

Shimmer [Hermittober24 Day Seven]

(Prompt List created by @collierose1 )

False has no idea how this happened,but she somehow managed to find a village that was entirely mind-controlled.

The knight-turned-wandering-warrior had simply seen this village on her map,and decided that she needed a break from travelling,and people had said that it was a quiet and calm settlement-no trouble ever goes on there,not even a tragic murder.

So,for False,a fighter that had been dealing with criminals and evil sorcerers for the past few months,it seemed like the perfect place to relax.

But upon entering the town,it immediately became clear that this was not a normal town.

For instance,as soon as False walked in and explored the town,she found that everyone looked happy and were smiling.The smiles never looked forced though-it wasn't as if people were secretly crying and their faces refused to break.No,the people here just genuinely looked happy and friendly.

But that may be on account of the magic taking ahold of them all.

When False first arrived,a nice lady had come up and greeted her,intrigued by her entire appearance, from the sword to the wings,and began to toss dozens of questions at her,but False couldn't focus on anything other than the shimmer around her face.

The woman's face looked untroubled and calm,as a light pink shimmer floated around her face,giving her eyes a pink shine every now and then.It wasn't immediately obvious to the untrained eye,but if there is one thing False is,is trained.

So she remained calm and pretended to play along, and over the last few days,realised that everyone had been bewitched.

But the most baffling thing was-other than this mysterious shimmer,nothing else seemed to be amiss.It just looked like a really happy village.

People would go about their day and talk to others, and people did experience emotions other than happiness.Once,False watched as one guy accidentally bumped into another man,causing the other to drop the sack of potatoes he had been carrying.

The man had been rightfully annoyed,snapping at the guy and gesturing to the rolling potatoes on the ground.

But then a second later,he froze,eyes blank and distant,as if he was trying to remember something deep in his mind.Then False saw that shimmer in his eyes again,and then he blinked,smiled,and silently began to pick up the potatoes,the other guy immediately offering his assistance.

Yeah,False didn't like this.

She tried investigating every inch and every person in the village,but the culprit didn't appear to actually live with the other residents.

But that didn't mean that the other residents knew nothing.

False had,originally,been under the impression that the magical shimmer had simply been mind controlling the town,to keep them away from something.That was always the way it went whenever False had been sent on missions as a knight.

People don't cast spells and make threats to attract attention-they do it because they're selfish and think that they deserve to have things go their way. False has taken down many of these assholes.

But she'll admit that this one was weird.

She woke up to a piercing scream in the middle of the night.Her eyes weren't even fully open before she was grabbing her sword and flying out the door of the Inn she was staying out.

She raced towards the commotion,a house with multiple people crowding around it,hushed and worried whispers that only fuelled False's panic.

But before she could even shout for people to move,a man burst out of the house,face flushed and with tears slowly falling down his face,dripping past the huge smile he wore.False was inclined to ignore the smile on account of the magic,but she froze at what was in the man's arms-a newborn baby.

That's what the screaming was-his wife in labour. False sighed,her entire body relaxing,her sword almost slipping from her grip,once she realised that there was no immediate danger to fight.

But as people began to congratulate and coo over the baby,the man began to walk past the crowd around him,smiling and nodding at everyone he passed,until he started to walk into the forest with a merry grin on his face.

Instantly,that alertness returned,and she twisted her head,hoping to catch anyone's attention as she asked,"Where is he taking the baby?"

"To the witch."

False turned to face the voice,finding a little girl no older than ten staring up at her innocently.She pointed in the direction the man had walked and said,"He's gone to see the witch in the woods."

~The next day~

False didn't get a chance to follow the man that night-too many people kept coming up to her to talk about the child,and then she was forced to see the mother,and at that point False felt too awkward to leave.But then half an hour later,everyone was excitedly whispering again as the man returned-and False saw that same shimmer on the baby's face.

Today,she was going to face the witch.

She gripped the hilt of her sword with a relaxed confidence as she marched through the forest, determined to free this village from whatever magic was imprisoning them.

False has taken down many magic wielders-she couldn't say a lot of them were easy,but she always came out on top,no matter the opponent.

This time would be no different.

She knew she was on the right path when an overwhelmingly sweet scent invaded her nose,and she just scrunched up her face and marched deeper.

For a witch that was bewitching a village,they didn't care to hide themselves very much,as she found the cottage almost ten minutes later-a small, homely little building in light pink,with flowers trailing up the walls of the house,and if False wasn't certain that a sinister witch lived in there,she almost would've called it welcoming.

"Well,here we go,"she whispered,taking a deep breath in,and walked up the porch.She glanced down at the stone porch,bright butterflies painted on the ground.Or real butterflies,for all she knew.

She raised her fist,mentally preparing for a blast of magic to hit her,before the door flung open.

"'Ello!"

A woman beamed up at False,who was too stunned to speak as she stared in surprise and bafflement.

This was the witch?The woman only went up to False's shoulders,and was smiling up at her as if she were a close friend.She wore a deep pink cardigan,and False could see small satchels all tied along her hips-probably ingredients for potions and spells.

The witch had curly brown hair,which was mostly contained within her hat,the signature pointy witch hat,but interestingly,this was had a light pink frill along the edges,with a bright red flower hanging off the the tip.

"Um,hello?My name is False-"

"Oh hello False!You can call me Stress.Come in, come in!"

Before False knew it,the witch had floated her body into the cottage,which was a mess of books and boxes.She tried to remain absolutely still as Stress sat her down at a kitchen table,and heard a light hum as cups and spoons floated around the kitchen.

"I'll make us some tea.Oh,what a lovely surprise this is!"

"Um,sorry-I'm actually here to talk about-"

"Do you take sugar in your tea?"

"Yes-but that's not why-"

"Here you go!"

In a matter of seconds,there was a steaming cup of tea placed in front of her that False was definitely not drinking,and Stress had settled across from her,brown eyes bright with giddiness as she gazed at her

"I haven't seen you before.Are you new in town?"

"Just passing through."Stress made a,'oooh' sound at that,eying her sword as she asked,"Are you a knight?Are you on a mission?"

"Yes-no!I was a knight-"

"Oh,why'd you quit?"Enough of this.

"I'm sorry,"False said,raising her voice and lightly slamming her hand on the table "but I am here because you are holding an entire village under a spell."

Silence.

Stress's bright smile vanished all at once,and she clutched her hat in fright,panic flashing in her eyes,before she laughed nervously."Spell?I-I'm not casting a spell on anyone-"

"A man with a baby visited you last night.Someone from the village told me.Besides,your entire aesthetic kinda gives it away,what with the pink hue of your magic and all."

Stress glanced away,quickly gulping about half her cup and avoiding eye contact,gazing out of the window instead.

"This whole village is under some sort of spell of yours,but I cannot,for the life of me,understand what you are actually doing to these people,so can you please explain it to me,before I do something that I really don't want to do."

Stress just blankly stared out at the garden for a few seconds,and False tightened her hold on her weapon,before watching in surprise as Stress sighed,her shoulders dropping as a melancholic aura surrounded her-a shocking shift from her bubbly attitude a mere moment ago.

"I'm not harming them,I swear.I just-wanted them to be happy.Happy about me."

"What do you mean?"False asked,her hand suddenly sliding off her sword and giving Stress her full attention.

Stress refused to look at her,instead fiddling with a loose string on her sleeve."Everything used to be fine and dandy up until two months ago.Everyone knew that I was a witch,but they never seemed to have an issue with it.In fact,a lot of times,people would come up and ask for potions from me in broad daylight.Everything was good."

"So what happened?"

Stress bit her lip before replying,"What happened was,a kid got injured.A lot of children played in the forest,and there would always be at least four knocks a day,begging to make a scrape or bruise go away.But this time,some boy had slipped and hit his head on a rock.There was so much blood,and his friends were all crying and I couldn't just leave him like that."

She stopped fiddling with her sleeve,placing her hands around her cup,staring down at it grimly."I healed him,but I couldn't make the scar go away. His body wouldn't be strong enough to handle the magic,but I didn't think it would be an issue.I personally walked the kid back home,not relaxing until I knew he was safe.I explained to the mother what happened,and that he was fine but needed to be more careful,and-"

She stopped,and False tilted her head in curiosity. "Then what happened?"

Stress took a shaky breath in,her brown eyes turning glassy,as she whispered,"They blamed me. The mum started screaming,accusing me of attacking her son and making that scar.She called me a monster,a beast-just insult after insult until the entire village was watching what was happening,and no one intervened."

"Not even when the woman began waving a knife at me."False's brows raised at that,but she couldn't say she was surprised.She's also had a handful of people be reluctant to talk to her,all because of the wings on her back.

"You have to understand,I-I didn't want to use my magic on her,but I had no choice!She was trying to kill me and nobody was helping me so I just-made her happy with me."

False chuckled in disbelief,"Wait,so that's actually what the magic is doing?Making everyone be happy?"

"Happy with me,"Stress corrected "They're still the same people,but now they just never have a bad thing to say about me-and when I did it to one person,suddenly all this fear was gripping me and I thought,'I need to make sure that nobody has a reason to hurt me.I need them all to like me so that they don't kill me,' So I used my magic on the whole town,and now everything is fine!"

Stress forced a big,reassuring smile on her face as she looked at False again,who was just all kinds of shocked.

On one hand,she truly felt for this witch.She was only trying to live her life,and genuinely seemed like a nice person,and she hated that her kindness had been twisted against her,turning it into something rotten and horrible.Just from the warm welcome False had received from her,she knew in her heart that Stress wasn't a wicked sorceress.

But on the other hand-

False sighed "What happened to you was awful. They shouldn't of treated you that way,and someone definitely should've stepped in to help. But I can't let you keep these people under your spell.It's not right."

Panic flashed in Stress's eyes,and all of False's training told her that she was about to use that shimmer on her,but she forced herself to remain in her seat.This witch clearly didn't want to hurt others.

"B-But what if they hurt me again?What if I let them all go and they just get angrier?They'll run me out!"

"They won't."

"How do you know that?!"

"Because I'm going to make sure of it."

Stress froze,and to be honest,False was surprised at herself as well,but she wasn't backing down."I'll make sure that nobody gives you trouble."

"...Why?"

False glanced down,feeling her face heat up in embarrassment."You asked why I quit being a knight. It's because I felt like I wasn't doing enough. Sure,I was one of the King's most skilled fighters, but I was always busy protecting the King, that I never thought to think about what happens to the people that don't have somebody to protect them, to stand up for them when they can't themselves. Or feel like they need to take drastic measures."

Finally,False looked up,and found that Stress was gazing at her in awe,and False could see that same shimmer in her very eyes.

"You want to stay with me?"

"Sure,"she tried to be nonchalant about it,but the intensity of the witch's stare made it hard,"besides, it's been getting boring lately,and you seem fun.So, what do you say?"

The next day,the shimmer had completely vanished from the villagers eyes,and nobody bothered False's best friend ever again after that.

[miniar]

Sometimes it doesn't matter if it's corruption...

This is a post about politics using a recent Icelandic example.

A company that was granted licenses to operate in Iceland promised to capture and bind CO2 from the atmosphere, to fight global warming. This company's now bankrupt and shut down. Their proposed methods involved sinking large amounts of woodchips to the bottom of the ocean. There's right now (June 2024) a mountain of woodchip sitting on the docks of an Icelandic town and a number of Icelandic scientists saying "that wasn't ever going to fucking work!"

By all accounts, the whole thing looks like a scam, walks like a scam, and quacks like a scam....

So what gives? How'd that company get to operate here? How'd they get all the licenses and shit? How'd it get to go this far before everything shut down? Why'd no one notice?

And who benefited?

Well.... the minister that led the way to getting this company all it's permits in order... is a lawyer. Her specially is Icelandic business law. The other members of parliament that joined her were equally less versed in any of the scientific fields that study chemistry, physics, meteorology, or anything else related to the study of climate change.

And none of the people involved in driving this decision conferred with any scientist on the matter.

In short, the decision was made with people who weren't qualified to judge the viability of the methodology who also chose not to ask anyone qualified to look at the viability either.

And this is incredibly common, at least in Iceland, but obviously in a lot of places.

Those of us with special or vested interest in a subject, or expansive education of knowledge on a subject, especially if we're talking specific scientific fields, will frequently notice politicians speak with obvious ignorance on those subjects. They'll still speak with authority, as though they are qualified, but their complete lack of qualification is extremely obvious to everyone who has any reasonable qualifications on the topic.

Worse still... often their lack of overall scientific literacy is terrifyingly obvious.

And yet these people, in these positions, don't just lack the humility to admit that they're not the most informed on literally every topic ever, they're Expected to.

It's seen as a negative thing for a politician to state that they'll be listening to the experts on the matter.

So, back to my example.

Some people are crying corruption right now, though there's as of yet no evidence to support that, but the thing is... there doesn't have to be.

If none of the politicians nor their friends or family benefited in any way... If every politician involved in making this happen was entirely sincere and one hundred percent honest...

... that means their hubris, their lack of deferring to experts, their lack of knowledge, education, understanding, their overall lack of qualifications required to making a truly informed decision on the matter.... meant they got scammed.

And the damage that does affects ALL of us.

Our politicians don't need to be "corrupt" to cause harm. They don't even have to be "evil" to cause harm.

They just have to be unqualified and incompetent and most of us live in systems that encourage that.

We deserve better.

[ruth-writes]

What's My Age Again?: Chapter 7

Jamie

Content warnings: child abuse/ neglect

This chapter was a bit experimental and wasn't in my original draft. It felt necessary but I'm not sure if I executed it exactly the way I had it envisioned, so I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts

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

For as long as I can remember, Alex and I would spend most of our time outside. When I started going to kindergarten, we had school in the same building, so he’d take me to the playground after it was out. We’d spend hours on the swings or in the sandbox, getting dirt under our little fingernails.

I remember one afternoon Alex had built three towers in the time I’d gotten a single bucket of sand to half-heartedly keep its shape. Like most playgrounds, there were bullies, and one of them kicked over my sand house. I immediately started wailing.

“Hey!” Alex yelled at the kid. “What are you doing?”

I don’t remember what the kid answered exactly. Probably something like ‘it sucked anyway’. What I do remember is Alex marching over to the bully’s mom and informing her, “Excuse me, ma’am, but your kid just destroyed my brother’s sandcastle, and he’s pretty upset.” Alex always used to address adults as ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am’. He said if you were polite, they’d be more likely to help you.

The woman looked at Alex with a kind of amused, condescending expression he often got from adults. “Oh, I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Well, my brother’s crying,” Alex stated firmly. “I think your kid should apologize to him.”

The mom laughed. “Aren’t you sweet, looking out for your brother! Listen, my son is five. Kids his age just act out sometimes. Why don’t you go play somewhere else if he’s bothering you?”

Alex always knew when something was a lost cause, so he left her and came back to get me. I’d stopped crying, but now my face was full of snot that I’d wiped at with my hand. I remember because when Alex grabbed it, he said, “Ew, Jamie, your hand’s all sticky. Come on, let’s go wash it.”

As we were leaving, the mom called out to us. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” Alex replied like it was obvious.

She looked concerned now. “You’re here alone? Do you live far?”

Alex tightened his grip on my hand. “Ma’am, I can’t tell you that. You’re a stranger.” He turned on his heel and walked off.

Conversations like that happened a lot when Alex and I were out. I never understood what the problem was. I wasn’t alone, I had Alex.

Alex had me clean my hands at a drinking fountain, then led me to a picnic table where I probably colored while he did his homework. I don’t remember what time we did end up going home that day, but it was probably around seven, which was around the time our stomachs would start grumbling so loudly we couldn’t ignore them anymore. Alex would tell me to go upstairs while he crept towards the kitchen, and I’d sit on my bed silent as a mouse, listening in fear. Some nights, nothing would happen and Alex would be fine. Other nights, I’d hear screaming and the sound of things or people being hit. Those nights, Alex would go to the bathroom before he came with the food, emerging with a bandage or new clothes, and always smiling as though nothing was wrong.

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

The first time John hit me, I was in fifth grade. Things were always harder when Alex and I were in different schools. We had to take the bus, which meant we weren’t always home at the same time. That was why later, Alex made sure to get his license and a job the moment he turned sixteen.

That day, John was supposed to be at work when I got home. I couldn’t hear anything in the house, so I to make myself a snack. I vividly it being cold pasta from the day before, because I lost control of the bowl while getting it out of the fridge. The crashing sound it made as it hit the floor will forever be burned into my brain, along with John’s steps coming closer. I didn’t even run, just stood there like an idiot.

Alex found me crying silently in my room. I’d never seen him look so angry before. As he wordlessly cleaned my wounds, I asked, “What’s the worst he’s ever done to you?” I was terrified of his answer, but I needed to know.

Alex only said, with a voice that he was obviously using a lot of effort to keep under control, “You know. You were there.”

He was both right and wrong at the same time. I was there, but I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I knew that there were times we’d have to go to the doctor. I remembered the cast he’d had to keep on his arm for a while. But until that day, some part of my brain had refused to connect the dots.

“I’ll never let this happen to you again,” Alex promised. It was the first of many promises he wouldn’t be able to keep.

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

My brain blocked out the reality of Alex leaving in a similar way when he first told me. It only clicked when started packing, and from then on, I hated him for it. I hated him more than I’d ever hated Mom and Dad. I’d never expected anything from them, but Alex was my parent. He’s always been there, every time I got hurt or was struggling with my homework late at night.

“Look, this isn’t gonna be forever,” he tried to assure me as he neatly stacked his books in a box tetris-style. “I’m gonna figure this out. Maybe I can find a place, and then you can move in with me.”

“Maybe,” I repeated. I knew it was just talk he was telling himself so he wouldn’t have to admit the truth: He was abandoning me. “Why does it have to be so far?” I asked for the millionth time.

“I got a scholarship,” he replied, also for the millionth time.

“Did you even apply to in-state schools?”

He stopped. I’d never asked that before, and his silence was answer enough.

I felt the hot tears running down my cheeks. “Please don’t leave me alone.”

He didn’t come over to reassure me. He looked at me sorrowfully and said, “I’m sorry, Jamie. I have to do this.”

“What you have to do is not abandon me,” I yelled. “But fine. If you’re gonna be a selfish asshole, then I never want to see you again. I hate you.”

I’d gone to my room and slammed the door shut, crawling under the covers and blocking him on my phone. He’d pleaded with me over the next few days, but I’d already started pretending he wasn’t there.

After he was gone, I went into his room. It wasn’t even that empty, because he’d only taken a few essentials. I’d lived in that room for the following grueling months. How could I not? It was the only safety I had left.

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

Now I was standing in a sea of boxes again, wondering what I’d done for Alex to start resenting me. He’d tried to be normal the morning after our fight, but there was an uneasiness in the air, and we still hadn’t had the promised talk. What we did finally have was an apartment. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, all cramped into a tiny floorplan. We’d spent all day setting up furniture, and now I was hungry.

“Alex?” I called, walking over to his room. The door was cracked, so I pushed it open. “Can we-” I stopped at the sight that greeted me. Alex had clearly been crying, but he wiped away his tears in breakneck speed when he saw me. Before I could blink, he was giving me his regular smile as though nothing was wrong.

“What’s up? You hungry?”

I stared at him, my brain short-circuiting. Alex never cried. It just didn’t happen. Yet here he was, clearing just highly skilled at erasing the evidence. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah!” he assured, getting up. “Just a little stressed. How do you feel about pasta?”

Instead of moving aside when he walked towards the doorway, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. He gave a surprised laugh before hugging me back.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked. That was what he always said to me.

“Jamie, I’m fine. Really,” he said gently.

I looked at him. He did seem okay, but I knew now that that didn’t mean anything. “Do you talk to Aaliyah?” I asked curiously.

He seemed surprised. “Yeah, sometimes,” he admitted, then quickly added, “But nothing personal about you. I promise.”

A wave of guilt spread through me, making me want to hang my head in shame. How could I have been so selfish? “No, it’s okay. I’m sorry, okay? You can tell her anything you want.”

“Really? Are you sure?” he asked uncertainly.

I nodded rigorously. “I just want you to be happy. Do whatever makes you happy.”

He stared at me for a few seconds, then hugged me with so much strength I had trouble breathing. It only ended when my stomach growled, making us both laugh.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

[mordekaykt]

I can't believe this shit again, but here we go, after seeing recent insane, vapid takes on Becca Butcher's sexual assault and some serious consideration about whether it is worth to finally post this draft sitting around for 3 days and cause a potential shitstorm, I opted for yes. So let's see why Becca having been raped isn't unrealistic/her lying and that Homelander is very much someone with proclivity to commit sexual assault.

My target here is mostly those in the fandom who, even though condemning and clearly disagreeing with the horrible things Homelander does, AND at the same time acknowledge his trauma and the role of his upbringing, somehow ignore and deny that he's a rapist. I love this character and am blown away by Starr's portraying him and feel sorry and for what he's been through since day one of his birth, and understand that he's a result of his environment and inhumane treatment by Vought, a victim of the company himself. And while finding the chance slim, I'm also hoping for some kind of redemption for Homelander at least in the way that he recognizes his crimes and errors, and whatever his punishment will be, it's not just going to end up in a big circlejerk over his deserved downfall and the show watchers' joy over him suffering even more.

The fact that the alpha sigma whatever male shitheads don't believe she was raped isn't even surprising so this post is clearly not meant for them. That would be like trying to explain poetry to a a bag of trash, and if anyone dares come up with the unsubstantiated and proven false, MRA-perpetuated "but evil wahmmen lie about rape often" I'm not even going to bother to engage, since a man is more likely to be raped by another than falsely accused by a woman. Resources on this issue at the bottom of this post.

And if any of you're thinking why I am making this into a big deal because this is just a TV show, well these beliefs and attitudes don't just exist for fiction, they persist in real life, against real rape survivors. But the biggest takeaway for many of you from this is gonna be crying about how toxic and mean this fandom is because someone called you out for your garbage takes anyways.

Particularly are some insane and absurd reasoning that I've seen around here, such as 1)Homelander isn't a rapist because that's unlike him, he exerts power over people in ways other than rape) 2)Why didn't Becca tell Butcher, who would have believed her?

Your reasons and arguments as to why Becca wasn't raped are vapid and can be debunked in a second after watching the necessary scenes. You can like a character all you want, but it's very tiresome and immature how him committing rape is downright rejected and dismissed not to hurt one's worldview. Apart from the fact that Becca explicitly says she was raped, you ignore a major contributor factor, namely that Homelander is a misogynist. It's laughable having to spell this out, but it's glaringly obvious from multiple scenes.

In season 2 episode 5 during the scene where Billy is about to rescue Becca from the Vought facility, but she doesn't bring Ryan and refuses to escape, SHE ALSO VERY CLEARLY TELLS SHE WAS RAPED, explaining to Billy why she didn't disclose her assault.

"He raped me and when I found out I got pregnant, I didn’t come to you. I didn’t come to you because I was scared, cause I knew you that you’d chase after him and you would seek revenge and that wouldn't be good for anyone." She says this word from word, and it's the same conversation where she says Billy was always one bad day away from bludgeoning someone to death in a parking lot. How could you catch onto that part but ignore what I highlighted now?

In season one, after Butcher storms out of the supe collateral damage survivor group, he tells Hughie what happened to Becca. He says that a security camera recorded Becca sitting on the same bench him and Hughie are sitting now, for three hours and she didn't move a muscle, after she left Vought Tower and Homelander (can't attach more screenshots because of the 30 per post limit).

This in itself is already suspicious, but let's say she just committed adultery and is regretful, sitting there reflecting on it, sure. In season one, there is room for some ambiguity (even though from this information alone - sitting there barely moving for hours - one should suspect this truly wasn't a consensual encounter. Obviously, when you only focus on how much you hate Butcher and view everything coming from his as lie and manipulation, you miss the details) since everything we know about what happened to Becca were from Billy and - during the season finale confrontation - Homelander's recollections and words. Season two makes it very clear what happened, at least for people with functional brain cells.

The way so many people dismiss and doubt rape survivors because they aren't perfect victims (not having physical injuries, they willingly stayed alone with the accused rapist - an attitude regarding Becca I see often, dumbfucks saying that she went to the conference room with Homelander on her own, she didn't look hurt , and the Homelander "doesn't come across as a rapist/it's just not in character for him") is vomit inducing.

Billy Butcher is very far from a good man, yes - he is also abusive, violent, manipulative and treats people around him horribly to achieve his goals - and the show going with the Becca fleeing him after a one night stand with Homelander version could have worked, totally, if they decided to go down that route. But their encounter was very clearly not consensual, regardless how hard is it to accept.

Your argument that Homelander being a rapist is OOC because mommy milk fetish and whatnot, completely ignores that Homelander is a massive misogynist, and it clearly manifests. He mocks women, denigrates women all the time. And there are a bunch of examples for this.

When, in S01E05 Stillwell (she is a groomer that's absolutely true) dares not babysit him and takes her son to the doctor he comes with the "strong single mom" which is very typical jab for putting down women.

Moms who raise their children on their own are routinely diminished and made fun of, whereas the same cannot be found for single fathers. It is a misogynistic attitude stemming from viewing the woman as someone who failed to secure herself the father of her child, putting all the blame on her and nothing on the absent father (who might even be deceased in certain circumstances, not just deadbeat). When you write in Google "hatred single mom misogyny" the bloody related searches look like this:

He tries to have Starlight put on a sexualized dance for his birthday, in season 3 to objectify and undermine her, he forces her into a fake pretend relationship, then to anger both her and Hughie he talks about her (“is she a good fuck?”) like a piece of meat he is bargaining about, as if she wasn’t even there as a human being.

In season 1 episode 7 when he confronts the Seven, showing the pictures of Hughie and the Boys and accuses Starlight of being a traitor who’s cooperating with the boys, he mocks her sexual assault by Deep; “I know that you want to make this whole Deep thing an All the single ladies’ moment – power, right?”. His posture and tone clearly indicate he means power in this context as women’s power to call out and have their rapists and abusers face consequences, power as in women’s empowerment altogether – and how ridiculous he finds the whole concept. This shows how lowly he thinks about women’s issues and agencies.

More on the Deep, Homelander brings him back in S03E02 to hurt and distress Starlight, HE DELIBERATELY REINTRODUCES THE MAN INTO THE TEAM WHO ORALLY RAPED HER. He tries to gaslight and use her faith against her very obvious fury (“Doesn’t Christ tell us to turn the other cheek?”) to minimize and dismiss Starlight’s trauma and objection to her rapist’s presence.

He wants to harvest Maeve's eggs (which might not be sexual but is reproductive exploitation - but yeah, a man who'd do this to a woman without consent is definitely not rapey right?), and the passive aggressive touching-almost-kissing her in S01E03 at A-Train's race are signs of a man who is unhealthily jealous and obsessive over his intimate partners (signs of an abuser). Maeve is visibly uncomfortable, tries to brush it off with a grin and refusal to indulge in the topic of their breakup.

Now, this is personal, but I’m sure way too many women can relate to situations when you tried to prevent being hurt at the hands of a violent, emotionally unstable man by a smile and appearing meek and harmless.

And another very important detail the implications of which I'm sure 99% of the viewers miss (unless you've been with a physically abusive partner), is how quick he is to engage in intimate partner violence: and there are two major instances of this during his relationship with Stormfront. After he burns down his trailer when she leaves him for hours as he's waiting for her in the trailer, with the bouquet of flowers, she arrives back and descends onto film set piece he's standing on and tries to explain herself. He reaches for her neck, and doesn't yet strangle her, but the hand and the implication are a clear sign of how he is absolutely ready to act physically violent towards his partner after a single confrontation, just because she was gone for a few hours and didn't tell him where she was.

In another scene, once again following Stormfront being absent, Homelander is standing in her apartment with his back facing her (you can see the scaffolding in this scene after they wrecked the apartment during sex in E05).

"Remember when you said you don't break easily?" He doesn't engage physically, but his posture and words are very much threatening. He is a man who has absolutely zero qualms in using physical intimidation against his partners. He is violent and ready to cause harm to anyone, of course, since he can do whatever the fuck he wants, and his intimate partners aren't an exception.

And an important fact here for real life: a man who puts his hands around your neck to threaten and intimidate is very much likely to kill you next - actually 750% more likely.

An abusive man being a rapist is anything but a rare occurrence. And delving further into his behavior with Becca, it's very far from him trying to pretend that he is a part of some fantasy of an all-American happy family. The fact that some of you go awww at him basically using his son and Becca's love for her child to force her to participate in some kind of nonexistent, loving family scenarios while she is clearly, visible uncomfortable through it all (the breakfast with pancakes scene has it all), is painfully ignorant and shows clear lack of empathy for a mother who has to play nice with the man who ruined her entire life without an ounce of regret. When he is with Ryan and Becca, he further abuses her through the child. He is deliberately trying to alienate him from his mother, turning his against her and undermine Becca's maternal role, which culminates in him and Stormfront taking Ryan away. But he's so cute and babygirl for roleplaying as if he's actually part of a family, right?

"But but Becca was so mean for hiding Ryan and preventing him from experiencing life by having him live in a fake, shut off facility! Homelander just told his son the truth which he deserved to know!" You shitheads missed the part wherein Vogelbaum said she had to sign and NDA and never tell about this to anyone in exchange for Vought providing her with safety during the gestation and birth? You think Vought would have allowed her to take The Homelander's son and live casually like civilians? It was in their interest to keep Ryan, the first natural born supe hidden first and foremost from his father, so they might have a chance at using him as contingency against his father if needed - this is referred to by Butcher in S02E08 during his conversation with Stand Edgar, when Billy was bargaining with him. And Becca had every fucking reason to want to stay hidden and off radar and never want to meet her rapist again.

And while Homelander invades her home where she was basically banished after what he'd done to her, Becca must stand there and hold her mouth shut because she wants to protect her child who is way too young and naive to recognize the patterns his rapist father is utilizing, let alone understand what rape is. In S02E02, after dropping Ryan off at piano practice and she races to talk to Dr. Park, she is enraged, distressed and on the verge of crying, demanding an explanation. She begs to be relocated to safety; she was promised how “I would never have to see him again”. He pleads with the man on the phone, “You have to protect us.”

And when she has to endure her rapist’s presence, she is obviously very uncomfortable with his presence, that much is clear from her body language (SE2E02 when Homelander walks past her after she calls Ryan inside to do his math homework, he brushes her arm, and she flinches away). A screenshot doesn't do this justice but re-watching merely this scene will show you what I mean, on Prime Video at 00:06:52.

You say it's likely she was walking on eggshells around Billy back when they were together (which can be), but you are blind to her actually walking on eggshells and being extremely uncomfortable in Homelander's company?

After Homelander pushes Ryan off the roof she straight out says "you don't get to say that [call himself the father] after what you did to me!" He doesn't deny nor tries to challenge her accusation, he simply responds by saying all he did was give her a son, before he grabs her to intimidate her physically.

And after watching Becca being so tormented, scared and anxious about this man, some of you have the galaxy brain take of “uhm akshuelly, he can’t be a rapist, that’s so unlike him, duh.”

There is a strong correlation between men being rapists and holding misogynistic beliefs. It's a part of rape culture. Just like victim blaming, what you are also doing if you think she couldn't have been raped because she wasn't physically injured, Homelander just "doesn't give off rapist vibes" and so on.

Because the fact is that this man has everything going on - childhood trauma, exposure to violence, stunted emotional development, entitlement, misogynistic attitudes - for him that make it believable and 100% in character for him to rape.

A South-African study involving incarcerated rapists meant to examine perspectives and reasoning behind rape found that

a combination of emotional, social and cognitive adversities have been implicated in deviant behavior (e.g., antisocial behavior and an impaired ability to be accountable for actions) and sexual offenses (Ward and Beech, 2006). Adverse outcomes are shaped by the individual’s social, cultural, physical and interpersonal environment which has an impact on their emotional state, ability to act appropriately, to control emotions, perceptions of reality and modeling memories related to socially acceptable behavior (Ward and Beech, 2006). An important social/environmental factor that shapes emotional and cognitive states in adulthood is childhood trauma exposure (Carr et al., 2013). Men exposed to severe childhood trauma, e.g., abuse, neglect, community violence exposure and adverse parenting styles, are more likely than non-exposed men to develop depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, anxiety disorders, poor cognitive functioning and impaired learning (Gunnar and Vazquez, 2001; Bilbo and Schwarz, 2012; Scoglio et al., 2021). They are also more likely to display violent, antisocial behavior and to become chronic perpetrators of rape (Fox et al., 2015; Piotrowska et al., 2015; Moffitt, 2018). Victimized children also often have more violence supportive attitudes especially when exposed to domestic violence as children along with widespread societal exposure and acceptance of violence against women (Debowska et al., 2021). Social and contextual factors encouraging male entitlement, hyper-masculinity, toxic masculinity and unequal gender norms are other key factors that drive rape perpetration (Maneta et al., 2017; Selepe et al., 2020). Hyper-masculinity and toxic masculinity are associated with insecurities, hypersensitivity, distrust toward women and satisfaction obtained from controlling and dominating women (Malamuth et al., 1996). Rape perpetrators often describe rape as a way to exert power, dominance and control over women and use it indirectly as a tool to conceal insecurities (Selepe et al., 2020). Linked to this, male entitlement, where men believe that they have total control over women and their bodies, influences them to perpetrate sexual violence (Selepe et al., 2020). One study reported that male perpetrators believe that as men, they are entitled to sex with their female partners regardless of their consent, especially if they are married (Adinkrah, 2011).

If you are pondering on "Why didn't she tell?", you are a extremely ignorant and lacking emotional intelligence. You have no idea what it feels to be sexually assaulted, that much is clear. It's not as easy as just going and talking about it, even to someone you love and trust, because of the shame and humiliation the victim feels and how much they blame themselves for what happened. Sometimes, even the victims themselves doubt whether what happened to them was actually rape.

• According to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual Violence and Assault , there are many reasons why victims may choose not to report to law enforcement or tell anyone about what happened to him/her. From the reasons listed by them, the ones that apply in the context of Becca are concern for not being believed, fear of the attackers getting back at him/her, embarrassment or shame, fear of being blamed.

• A lack of education on consent and misconceptions about sexual violence can make it difficult for someone to identify when an assault or rape is taking place. Research by the End Violence Against Women (Evaw) coalition shows that widespread confusion over rape and its consequences is prevalent. According to Evaw research, 33% of people in Britain think it is not usually rape if a woman is pressed into having sex but there is no physical violence. One in 10 people are not sure or think it is usually not rape to “have sex with a woman who is asleep or too drunk to consent”. Research by the sexual health charity the Family Planning Association has shown that only 47% of people think it is acceptable to withdraw consent if they are already naked.

• Research suggests that it can take years – sometimes decades – for some survivors to realise or accept that their experience amounts to sexual assault or rape. Psychologists refer to this as “unacknowledged rape” or “unacknowledged assault”. One study on the subject from the US estimates a staggering 60% of female university students have experienced unacknowledged rape. Other studies have determined that between 30% and 88% of all sexual assaults go unacknowledged by survivors.

On false rape accusations by Rape Crisis Scotland:

An extensive study into rape case attrition undertaken by Kelly et al in 2005 concluded that the rate of false allegations stood at 3%.

A study produced by the Crown Prosecution Service in England & Wales in March 2013 revealed that over a 17-month period between January 2011 and May 2012 – when all false allegation cases were referred to the DPP – there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape, but only

35 for making false allegations of rape.

In Scotland, rape and attempted rape have the lowest conviction rate of any crime type. However an acquittal does not mean that the allegation was false, it means that the jury did not consider that the Crown had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

Weiser’s 2017 overview and analysis of the false report literature highlighted that studies applying rigorous and correct methodologies ‘consistently find that the false report rate is estimated to be between 2% and 10%’.

Channel 4’s 2018 fact check reinforced the fact that false allegations of rape are rare, concluding that ‘Men are more likely to be raped than be falsely accused of rape’.

A separate fact check conducted the same year by Full fact concluded that as a figure for the number of reported rapes based on false allegations: ‘Evidence from England and Wales suggests that 3-4% is a reasonable estimate.’

[deripmaver]

I'm so happy to find another Casca Apostle hater™. Like it's so weird to find people who think it'll give Casca more narrative agency when it means she'd work for Griffith of all people. Not only that but it's part of this annoying trend where people ignore the fact that Casca is a good person. Casca was able to admit Guts was right to warn Griffith about that burning fort after the timeskip, didn't let Corkus kill him, wished that they could work together without fighting all the time and told Guts that Griffith needed him. If Casca can be that respectful to someone she hated then why in the hell would anyone expect her to sacrifice someone she loves??? She wouldn't do that, especially now that she doesn't idolize Griffith anymore. Even in Golden Age Judeau noticed Casca soften up to the point where she wasn't willing to sacrifice everyone for Griffith anymore and during the Eclipse Casca is not only angrier about this betrayal than Guts (which isn't much lol) but she tries to stop Judeau from sacrificing himself for her. She loves people too much to put them through anything like the Eclipse and she always has.

YESSSSS ANON EXACTLY!!!!! it just does not fit with anything in casca's character up to now. the thought of her sacrificing anyone, and condemning them to the same fate as the hawks, which we know she feels immense survivors guilt about*, would be completely ooc.

i want to hear more from casca's POV about her feelings on her lack of agency as elaine, and now as griffith's captive in falconia, and i do think that reclaiming her agency is hugely important, but doing so by becoming an apostle???

also yeah afaik our understanding of apostles is that their powers are granted by the god hand, of which griffith is a part of, and since she can't even think of the eclipse without going completely catatonic the idea that she'd willingly work with griffith even just to get powers is....... insane. and so sick lol. what kind of rape apologist do u have to be to think that's a positive outcome for her? someone did point out to me that because she's branded, and because miura kind of made up the rules as he went along, maybe she could be granted apostle powers without needing to sacrifice someone through a weird magic loophole LOL but of course that's complete speculation

but yeah i hate the apostle casca theory so much LOL ty for being sane anon

*it's not called survivor's guilt obviously but so far in canon thinking of judeau's death caused a severe ptsd flashback, and in 372 she started crying when the falconia knights reminded her of the band of the hawk, so her feeling distress when remembering her fallen comrades is pretty obvious

[weezeryuri]

the followup ask wasn't me but otherwise yep, right person! "privacy"? the privacy of posting about me for a year straight, on a public account, on a public site, surrounded by peers? on the account MY friend was ~mutuals~ with you on, where he had to see you shittalking me on his dash weekly? the privacy of misinterpreting every thing i said to you so you can hide your (justifiably) hurt feelings behind "Actually ableism is the fault of all of this!"? the privacy of painting me as an ableist, as your Gross Icky Pr*ship Ex Friend, trying to get everyone to pity you, be on your side, because "it was an ugly friend breakup" won't justify the extent of your feelings (IT WOULD), in your head? THE PRIVACY OF DECRYING ME AS AN "INCEST SHIPPER" (NOT EVEN TRUE)???? i wasn't even looking at your blog in the first place, i heard secondhand, that's how ignorant and obvious your comments were. your words and Ideas about someone (that you Literally Are publically crying out) don't exist in a vacuum, they MEAN something, and other people will hear them. or did you care about decrying your Beloved Exfriend, Older [Sister] Figure as this and that hurtful thing and the impact of it as much as you cared about the friendship i was struggling and reaching out a hand (that i never Needed or Expected you to reply to) to maintain and let live and, I Dunno, Not let you be isolated in an echo chamber of your own anxiety forever? the attempted friendship that you valued less than venting on tumblr all day long? that you valued as much as listening to your two remaining friends that were trying to help you? but have fun believing me checking in on you for months on end, encouraging you when you Were capable of saying anything, waiting for you no matter what, trying to involve you in our lives so you weren't permanantly stuck in 2021 alone and unloved and unheard, and sending you paragraph after paragraph of apology and clarification to clean up the mess i made... was just ableism. i hope you enjoy never thinking about it, never rereading what i said, and pinning every shitty thing i did on Must be cause i'm oppressed, and living without the nuance you claim to use. i hope you enjoy crying about it publically to people you only talk to indirectly, to people who will never get to know you directly, because you've made your stance on any closeness or attempts at it deathly clear. i hope you keep whining that i'm only "ableist", and i hope nobody truly hears you, like it has been for the last year. rot in your own refusal to change

Jesus Christ man you do realize you said some horrendous and ableist shit to me (i still have screencaps before you go calling me a lying piece of shit) and have actively gone out of my way to block you and anyone who interacts with you on here.

you took advantage of my sadness at a very vulnerable time and used that to fight with me over shipping discourse because i dared to imply i’m scared of a group directly connected to my groomers

you need to fucking get your shit together because the way you’re acting is pathetic and the shit you did was horrible and you have no right to decide what and what isn’t ableist. of course it isn’t ableist to you. nobody ever gives a shit unless we’re directly being called useless cripples.

grow the fuck up and leave my life entirely. you did not try to involve me in your lives, you messaged me at 3 am telling me all my problems were my fault such as using cases of my chronic fatigue to paint me as lazy and careless. and then said you didn’t like me since 2020.

i GRIEVED our friendship. you hurt me over the dumbest shit when i was at our most vulnerable when i thought i could trust you. it was performative at best and actively hateful at the worst. you used words from a private vent blog to make me feel like shit

“wow cripple you didn’t suck up your fatigue and talk to me? you must hate me so much and want us all dead and think I’m a predator and and and etc etc”

this is my blog and i can post about whatever the fuck i want. i never mentioned your name or where to find you. please go the fuck away because now i can just confirm this is an act of purposeful malice and it hurts. i trusted you so much.

[unitedbydevils]

A dressing room leakier than Old Trafford's roof: why fans must ignore the nonsense

Another day of drama for Manchester United. Another day of ridiculous media coverage because guess which club has the biggest news pull.. that's right, it's the (temporarily not so) mighty reds.

Unity is needed to fix our poor form, but I think an inquisition is needed to root out the leakers because it's boring. Years of shit being passed out from Carrington like it's a paper note in a classroom. Grow up.

Does Erik Ten Hag have favourites? Perhaps. Does this mean you should down tools? Absolutely not. The attitude here forgets several things:

You are an asset in of yourself. If you give up, other teams notice. This will lessen your value for a sale.

It also reduces your personal growth as a player. 6 months of not trying might have been the period where you level up your skill set and playstyle.

Football is a game of small margins. Anything less than your best could be the difference between a salvaged point and a painful defeat.

The rumoured leakers are obvious: Sancho, Maguire, McTominay, and maybe Donny Van de Beek (I doubt this last one). Henderson was also rumoured to be leaking before, as was Eric Bailly. Disgruntled players are the obvious suspects, and normally it's correct.

Roy Keane, seen here on Sky Sports, has the right take: players are failing to take responsibility for their poor performances, and are giving up too easily. Could ETH make better subs or quicker tactical changes? Sure. But it's his second season, having finished 3rd, won the League Cup, and reached the FA Cup final, all with Weghorst up front for crying out loud. Give the man a chance, believe in his plans. We can't keep cycling through managers. United will just be a graveyard for talent and a money pit.

The latest 'leak' or drama is about David De Gea's departure. People have short memories. He was a good goalkeeper, and kept United alive for many shitty seasons, but his last few years saw his shot stopping - the star attribute - fall off in terms of stats and success. This is an issue. Onana is a solid replacement for the keeping metrics, but with great feet to help play out from the back.

Our current form isn't derived from Onana playing badly. It's derived from an injured Varane showing the gulf of skill between him and Lindelof, and how important Varane is to getting the best out of Lissandro Martinez. Hence the need for Kim Min Jae in the summer.

Beyond that, Eriksen starting games at 31 with a heart condition. What the fuck. Casemiro looks overweight and slow and needs to be eased in to the season. Last year he played more games in the season than he EVER did at Madrid. Ever. They're playing though because Mount, Amrabat, Mainoo are all injured. All three would be playing if they were fit. They might all feature tomorrow versus Burnley, and they'll make a huge difference going forward.

The media is to blame as much as the players though. The Daily Mail published an article about Onana dropping his car keys. How is that journalism? The same goes for Samuel Luckhurst, seen above. There's a lot of stirring the pot to cause drama, to generate clicks.

The reality is that people shouldn't be taking the Manchester Evening News (M.E.N) seriously because they're clickbait these days. The death of local/regional news; clamouring for clicks and views rather than offering actual substance and building loyalty and respect.

United are in a rough spot, and perhaps this poor start means we fail to make the top 4 this season, but if - in the grand scheme of things - Ten Hag gets United playing the way he wants to then so be it. I want us fixed, and I'm willing to back this manager to get it done. If everyone was pulling the same way, trying, and it just wasn't working then fair dos, Erik might not be the man, but no. He hasn't had his preferred first XI. He hasn't had players properly trying. He's had issues with leaks, player insubordination, scandals off the field, and the takeover farse.

There are better managers, but I guarantee they cannot be arsed with United and the Glazers. Lets get behind Ten Hag, back his authority, lose the dregs and crybabies, and see what we can achieve with a committed squad of battlers and ballers. Up the reds.

[poolboyservice]

ngl US schools need to actually fucking learn about disabled people

Keep note that it has been a few years since I've been to a school that isn't online, and (I hope) things have probably changed since then.  Along with this, this is from my personal experience and only my experience in a few schools I've been in, coming from the state of Florida, so it could be different for you or anyone else. So do take this with a bit of salt.  This isn't really a PSA as it's more of just a rant, but I just want this off my chest. 

Having said that, let's start. Also FYI I made this post on a different site, but I am putting this on here to maybe bring awareness on what I went through and/or bring light to others that may be going through this.

To put simply, TL/DR: Schools (especially the students and.. certain counselors) don't give a flying fuck about if you're disabled, if you don't have a cane, walking chair, crutches, or don't exhibit the most stereotypical form of a person with a disability: you will get mistreated. If you want more specifications, read below

In the amount of years I've been in school before 2020, almost every year actually sucked. Don't get it twisted, I love somewhat most of my teachers from that time, and one bus driver was pretty cool, but aside that, being at school actually sucked. I was disregarded of my emotions, and if I were acknowledged, I would either be belittled or treated with a form of "I'm actually so annoyed by your existence but I'm gonna pretend I'm not because you're a child and I don't wanna get in trouble". In cases I weren't treated like a idiotic drama queen, it was either my teachers/bus driver, or someone who tried to implements rules so I could actually focus and be okay, only to have it backfired because of everyone else.

By everyone else, I mean: bus drivers allowing violence and verbal abuse (not even kidding with that ngl), counsellors being belittling, insulting, and ignoring quite obvious issues, being dragged by quite a few teachers despite my willingness to walk by myself, ignorance of my disability/disabilities (hearing impairment and possible undiagnosed ADHD), lack of awareness of my quite obvious deteriorating mental health and rise in suicidal thoughts, and, obviously, semi-almost every employee's disregard and/or even prejudice to disabled people, specifically neurodivergent, hearing impaired people, and/or like the two in general.

An interesting example and pattern I've noticed are the students. Of course, kids are kids, and they probably don't give a shit, but in terms of disabled folk, they really didn't give a shit. Almost every single day, I and probably a few others had to endure a day of constant noise, unsolicited touching, insults, harassment, constant overstimulation, and even abuse in some instances. Hell, I remember one day (around the last year I was in IRL school) I actually snapped and had a mental breakdown on the bus, I was hitting myself, screaming, crying, you name it, I was most likely doing it. All because of the students. Despite them being told multiple times there are people who are very sensitive and need special treatment, they didn't listen at all, they never did.

As much as I was a bit sad for having to stay home in 2020 as I really liked my 3rd and 5th grade teachers (one of them bcz ngl she's one the reasons I'm still here and alive), I am beyond fucking glad that I didn't stay a year longer, because while I had some good memories, it was honestly kind of a nightmare, which led me to bottling up my emotions and pretending I wasn't hearing impaired for the sake of others, this obviously caused a lot of insecurities forming because of it.

(apologies for weird formatting, I'm not exactly used to writing big paragraphs on this website)

[golbrocklovely]

Hey, so I just want to give my own two cents regarding his reaction to this. It's not exactly the same situation but I genuinely do feel like Colby and I kind of have a similar personality when it comes to things like this in regards to like, how we handle potentially emotional situations or crises so here we go:

I had a breast cancer scare when I was 20, so almost ten years ago. In the end, it didn't end up being cancer but it did take me about two weeks to find out for sure and I had a very similar reaction at least to that part. I felt this overwhelming sense of peace about the whole situation, I was mentally ready to hear doctors tell me I had cancer. I was extremely calm. So calm that my dad thought I wasn't taking it seriously and had to be pulled aside by my mother to tell him to cool his attitude around me because it wasn't helping the situation. It wasn't a denial thing, I was fully aware of what was happening but it was very much a similar idea of 'I can either drown myself in this reality or accept that this is (or in my case, might be) my reality and work from there.'

I will say, this type of reaction typically comes from people who are a little more stunted emotionally - and I fully admit that I kind of am - and does sometimes involve putting up a front so people don't worry about you but it's also not the completely negative/red flag a lot of people seem to view it as. I've had many friends/family over the years tell me that I'm the best person to have around during a crisis strictly because that's my reaction to events like that. It doesn't mean we don't feel things, we do. We just push it down until we feel we're in a spot to allow ourselves to feel it.

I would wager he is probably kinda disturbed by the whole situation behind the scenes or even on his own when he's alone at night. When I had my biopsy to collect samples so they could determine if it was in fact cancer, that bitch of a bruise turned every color imaginable and I cried every night while changing the bandage cause it was so damn ugly for a while but I never showed that part of myself to people, they didn't need to see it. Again, positives and negatives to having that type of personality I suppose, and again, this is just me assuming he has a similar personality to me when it comes to this but that was my (totally not the same) experience and the reaction I had to it.

first off, i just wanted to thank you for sharing your story. and also, i'm so happy to hear that it wasn't cancer in the end.

as for colby, i do agree with you that i think you and him are similar in this vain. in the past colby has mentioned (and it's been obvious as someone who's been a fan of him for so long) that he is a bit… emotionally stunted. colby himself also said during the livestream last night "either i could cry and be upset about this, or i can be proactive about it." my dad was very similar when he was first diagnosed. he took it better than my mother did. he was just like "okay… what's the next step?" and he remained positive pretty much the whole time during his first battle with it.

and personally, i can understand wanting to remain calm and logical about all of this. take it one day at a time, accept that this is just how things are now, and move forward with the best plan. to be honest, i'm totally okay and happy to some extent that he is so positive about this. bc it does fill me with hope that if he truly believes he's gonna be okay, then he really is gonna be okay.

my fear is that a) he's ignoring his emotions or b) god forbid if it were to get worse, he's not gonna know how to handle it bc he never handled this first time. i think both things can be true - you can be proactive and logical, and you can be upset and cry. emotions will demand to be felt in one way or another, regardless of if you want them to be or not. and i get it, i think rn especially he just wants to reassure fans and make sure we're alright (which is fucking insane to me bc…. it's his health, it's not like this is immediately affecting us). and i'm happy he cares enough about us to want to make sure we're okay. but i hope he knows that if he does feel like shit, or needs time away bc he's emotional, that is 1000% valid. no one would fault him for feeling that way. it's not weak to feel scared or sad.

and if he wants to do that all behind closed doors, of course. i get that. i don't expect him to cry on camera or anything. i just want him to know that it's okay if he's upset about all of this. he's allowed to be.

i just want him to be okay. and if okay looks like crying and being upset some days, then that's what it is. if it looks likes being super positive and uplifting, then let it be that. or let it be both.

[runningracingdancingchasing]

The sensation of falling, bouncing, and then a palpable pressure that nonetheless didn't hurt her. And yet Rapunzel's hair wouldn't unwrap and let her out. That could only mean one thing: she was caught in a precarious position, and lowering the shield of her hair would be detrimental to her survival.

What was she surviving right now?

With a burst of energy, she threw her hair outward, effectively pushing whatever it was off of her, and as the dust cleared, she finally managed to look around.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

The entire building was rubble, and there were screams and the sounds of blasts everywhere. The sky, once filled with fireworks, now just looked like it was on fire. Everywhere she looked, there were dead and dying mutants. Rapunzel stood in shock, feeling sick to her stomach.

Another scream, and every instinct told her, I have to help them!

Nausea gone - or at least shoved aside for now - she took off at a sprint, dodging huge chunks of twisted metal and concrete and ignoring how uncomfortable it was to run in heels to get to the nearest person, living or dead. She didn't know this one, but it was a girl, still in her teens. Still alive. Without thinking, she pressed her hands to the most obvious wound, and her hair lit up. She poured her healing light into the girl, and just as she heard that all-too-familiar mechanical voice of a sentinel declaring that it detected a mutant, the majority of her hair came alive once more and acted as a shield against the blast. Even so, the percussive force shoved her and the girl aside, and distracted her too much to keep healing.

Still, the girl got up.

"Get to the gardens!"

She didn't know who'd said it, but she grabbed the girl's hand in one of hers and her hair in the other and ran.

Moments ticked by in a blur. The Danger Room had never been like this, never so many sentinels, so enormous. Never an entire nation of people under attack. This was outright genocide. By some miracle, they made it to what seemed to be a safe spot among panicked group of mutants. They were only there a moment when a familiar cloud of purple appeared out of nowhere. Kurt, Rogue and Magneto burst onto the scene, hitting the ground hard. And Kurt didn't get back up.

With a gasp of horror, Rapunzel ran to him, having to shove her way through the terrified crowed. By the time she reached him, both Rogue and Remy were on the scene.

"Alive," Remy diagnosed, and suddenly Rapunzel was crying. She wiped hot tears from her eyes so she could see what she was doing.

"Give him here," she instructed. "I'll make sure he's standing."

"Rapunzel?" Remy recognized, surprised.

"Yeah, hi," Rapunzel responded, smiling bitterly through her tears. "Wish this was a happier reunion. We'll catch up later."

And then Magneto was giving orders, and the two more experienced X-Men were springing to action, off to save the Morlocks. Or as many as they could.

She couldn't worry about that, now. She had to focus on Kurt.

There was only so much healing she could do at a time. Only so much energy she could give. So she would have to be conservative in her healing efforts for now. She could fix everyone up better, later, but for now, the order of business was to take care of the worst of Kurt's wounds, ones that would drag him right back down, and let his natural healing handle the rest.

She closed her eyes and ears to the chaos and panic around them, and focused on the problem at hand. The problem she wanted to solve. The problem she wanted to give her all to, but knew she couldn't.

Rapunzel wasn't a religious person, not by a long shot, but she knew Kurt was, and so, as she began to focus her energy, she let up a silent prayer to the God he so staunchly believed in. Please, God, save his life! Don't take him from me so soon after giving him back!

Just as she had with the teen, she poured her healing light into him, bringing him back to functional health. It was so hard to ignore bruises and cuts that she knew would cause him pain, but at least there was no more internal bleeding or broken bones.

There hadn't been time to find Remy. Not even time to think, or to realize what was happening until it was too late. By the time Kurt realized an explosion had rocked the building, he was already laying dazed among the rubble, tuxedo completely ruined, his ears ringing and his head throbbing.

With a pained groan he pushed himself up into a kneeling position and looked around, assessing the situation. He could tell one thing instantly: They were under attack.

Standing despite the pain in his skull, Kurt took off at a run toward the sound of screaming. He didn't have time to think. All his brain could do now was urge him to find survivors and help them. And offer a brief prayer.

He could hear someone calling out, to get to the gardens, but the voice was cut off all too quickly. He rounded a corner, and there he saw Rogue and Magneto. Battered, but alive, thank God. But he saw it, too... looming like a terrible stormcloud. The most enormous sentinel Kurt had ever seen. And it was firing right at the two mutants.

Without hesitation, Kurt leaped for them both to teleport away. But they hadn't vanished before a terrible heat shot through Kurt's body.

He was out cold before they had even finished teleporting.

[casspurrjoybell-24]

Sugar Punch - Chapter 3

*Warning Adult Content*

Theodore Banks

Come Monday, I had managed to avoid the football team and the football captain, Eric, until the last bell rung out and I bumped into him in the hallway.

"Hey shrimp, where do you think you're going?" Eric smirked at me, sending cold chills down my body as he grabbed hold of me and pushed me roughly into the lockers.

I had put so much effort into avoiding him and his group of friends and all for what?

At this rate I was going to be late for the gym and I knew from Maddox saying so, he didn't like people to show up late.

"C-Come on Eric..." I tried to reason with him but he was getting into my face.

Suddenly he spat on my face and then let go of me and started laughing with all the other guys that were with him, then he shot me one last look, his eyes filled with hate before I felt his fist connect with my jaw.

Eric had punched me in a spot I was used to but it didn't mean it didn't hurt any less than the other times, it felt like he broke my jaw as I cradled my face in my hands, sinking down the lockers as I look up to him, my hands shaking.

"Fucking creep, stay the fuck out of my way next time, fag," he spat before he walked off with his friends.

I ignored the looks of other students as I shakenly rose to my feet, wanting to just go home and cry like I usually did and try and forget how much I hated my life but I promised myself I wouldn't do that anymore.

A big part of me didn't want to let Maddox down either, not when he was willing to help me.

Grabbing my back-pack from the floor, I started walking to where my bike was and then ride home, my jaw aching as where Eric hit me had made my ear start to ring as I got halfway towards my house.

Once I made it home, I knew I wouldn't see my parents until late tonight as they always worked late, even on weekends, so I quickly ran up the stairs and grabbed the gym bag Maddox had given me.

I was excited he gave me stuff, I wouldn't know what to get if I went shopping by myself, luckily, he gave me free clothes and a brand-new gym bag, which looked expensive, so I'll try to cherish it and only use it for the gym.

Not bothering to leave a note, I lock the front door and go to the bus stop, it was only a twenty-minute trip into town and a five-minute walk from the bus to the gym, so I knew I wasn't going to be late.

I had saw my reflection in the window once I sat down and winced once I saw just how obvious it was that someone hit me, as a bruise was forming around the red mark Eric's fist caused on my jaw.

Eric wasn't always like that, when we were twelve, we were friends, we used to hang out all the time and play games but now that he's popular and captain of the football team, his attitude got worse, to the point where he started bullying me with his new football friends.

He turned into a dick-head, plain and simple, for what reason I don't care, there was no way I would consider being friends with him, not when he's made my life a living hell, making it impossible to relax and make friends in school.

Once I get off the bus, it takes no time to reach the gym and once inside I notice that there are more people than last time working out and every single machine and all I could think of was how serious these people are, for it to be completely full like this.

I notice Rick up ahead and smile politely once he sees me, making him grin before his eyes go to my jaw, then his face dropped and his eyes grew hard as he waved me over to him.

I knew he had saw my jaw, his eyes made it obvious so I wanted to avoid whatever was coming as much as possible, I didn't want anyone to know what was going on at school, it would only make me feel even more pathetic than I already felt.

"H-Hey Rick," I said, coming up to the front desk, gripping my bag tightly in my hands as his eyes focus more harder on my jaw.

"Kid," he grunted out, looking at me like he wants to say something about my face.

"Mads just finished, you can head on down."

I swallow hard and nod my head, avoiding his eyes as I kept my head down and made my way towards the bottom stairs, leading to the basement, where I know Maddox will be.

Did it really look that bad?

Eric did hit me hard but usually it only took a few hours before a bruise started to show.

I guess today isn't my day... I should've just stayed home and waited for the bruise to go away before I came back here.

I didn't want anyone seeing me like this and feel sorry for me, especially not someone I admired and wanted to be more like.

Opening the doors to the basement gym, I instantly saw Maddox shirtless and hitting a punching bag with his hands wrapped in white tape, with earphones over his ears and in his own world.

All I could think of when I looked at him was how amazing he looked, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, just from looking at him you would know he did this for a living, everything looked beautiful in the way he moved.

I had never thought a man was beautiful before until now, I wasn't sure how to think about it other than accept that some people are just that and that it wasn't that weird for a guy to call another guy beautiful.

Coming further into the room, Maddox had noticed me and stopped hitting the punching bag, I smiled at him and he nodded to me as he wiped his forehead coaxed in sweat before taking the earbuds from his ears.

"H-Hi," I said shyly, trying not to stare at his naked chest too long.

"Hey, you're early," he said, coming up to me, his eyes on mine before they shift to my jaw.

I swallowed hard and froze once he reached out and grabbed my jaw, making me wince as the pain was still very real, like Eric had just hit me all over again.

"How'd this happen?" he asked, a frown on his face as he looked it over.

"It looks fresh."

"Just a s-simple misunderstanding," I laughed nervously, feeling the back of my neck grow warm at how close he was.

I knew from the look on his face that he didn't believe me, and I knew my excuse was so pathetic that nobody would believe me, not if they saw my nose wrapped up and bruises over my arms and legs.

"Come on, you need it ice it, it looks painful," he said, as I followed behind him with my head down as he walked to his office.

I sat down on a free chair and watched him go into a mini fridge and take out an ice pack, he then grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around the ice pack and then came over to me and then gently pressed it against my jaw.

Maddox sighs out as he kept his hand over the icepack on my jaw, looking at me as I avoided his intense gaze.

"So, what kind of misunderstanding gets you a fist to the jaw?"

I shifted in my seat as I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it, especially not to Maddox, who I really didn't want to feel pathetic around, not when he was teaching me how to fight.

"It was my fault," I said, biting the inside of my cheek.

"Really, it doesn't hurt." I add, taking over for him by holding the icepack to my jaw.

Maddox didn't ask anything else as he sighed out and left his office, I watched him walk down to the lockers and grab a black t-shirt from inside and then put it over his head, then he walked back to me, his eyes on mine before I looked away and stared at my feet nervously.

Why... do I get the feeling he wants to not train me now?

I'm too much trouble, nobody wants to have this kind of baggage in their life, which I would understand if he told me he didn't want to train me anymore, this wasn't exactly how I thought my day would go, so I wouldn't be surprised if he told me to leave.

"Hold out your hand," Maddox said, making me jump slightly and so as he said.

He drops two pills in my hand and then hands me a bottle of water.

"Pain relief, take those before we start," he said, before heading back into the gym room, leaving me sat on the chair in his office in confusion.

He... wasn't kicking me out?

I stare at the pills in my hand before I put them in my mouth and swallowed them, taking a sip of the water he gave me, then I get up and go where Maddox was standing, near two mats laid out on the floor next to the large ring in the middle of the room.

"Let's start with some burpees, then we'll do some squats," he says, standing on the mat as I nodded my head and mirrored him, putting the icepack down on the bench next to the mats.

"Follow me the best you can, ask me any questions you have or else I'll go over it after our first set," he says, looking me in the eye as I nodded my head, starting to get nervous as I have never done this before.

"Let's start with stretches."

I copied Maddox the best I could, I knew the moment we finished doing squats with sidekicks that I was severely out of shape, so much that I was struggling to catch my breath just from kicking my leg in the air.

How did he do this every easy was so crazy to me, I could only do six at a time before I needed a drink of water just to stop myself from passing out.

Maddox slowed down and helped me with my form with each workout he taught me, eventually I got better at it despite my whole body aching from my body not being used to moving in such strange directions and ways.

"You did well," Maddox says as I sunk to the map, breathing heavily.

"I-I can't even move," I wince out, making Maddox grin and hand me a bottle of water, which I took greedily, then sat up and devoured the cool liquid.

My time was almost up, and I knew after today it was going to be hard to walk just from how much my legs felt like jelly but as I looked over at Maddox, I saw that he looked the same as usual and was unaffected by our workout.

It was impressive to see him not even break a sweat, while I was sweating through my eyeballs.

It made me want to push myself harder.

"You'll get used to it, we just need to work on your stamina," he says, sitting down on the bench near my mat as he looked at me.

"Ugh," is all I could say before I drank the rest of my water, not wanting to think about anything else right now, not when everything hurt.

"We've all been there, trust me when I say it does get better," he says as I smile sheepishly at him and nod my head.

"W-Well I should probably go.," I said, trying to get up, wincing as my feet hurt.

"Let me help you," Maddox laughs out as I felt his strong hand wrap around mine and pull me up, without so much as a blink I was on my feet, feeling dizzy as I looked at him standing in front of me, looking at me in the eyes.

"Sit down before you go, I'll get you another drink," he says as he helps me to the bench and he went off to grab me another bottle of water from the water box near the ring.

Despite looking pathetic and feeling like I had just been crushed by a bus, I was proud of myself for not giving up.

Maddox was patient with me and didn't push me beyond my limits, which I was so happy for because I was sure I'd want to give up if he made me do things, I wasn't ready for.

"Here," he says, handing me another bottle and sat next to me on the bench.

I was starting to get used to being around Maddox, where at first, I felt nervous being around someone so famous but the more I trained with him, the more I saw how easy he was to talk to and be around, unlike how some people describe famous athletes.

"Did you drive here?" he suddenly asks me, making look at him.

"I took the bus."

Maddox went into his short pockets and grabbed his smartphone out and looked at the time, I saw that our hour was up and I should probably go catch my bus before I missed it.

"Um, speaking of I should hurry before I miss my bus," I say, standing up.

Maddox didn't say anything and watched me from the bench, until I bended down and grabbed my gym bag, I heard him stand up and close the locker behind him.

"Give me a minute and I'll drop you off," he says, as I stopped and turned around to look at him, confused and not sure I heard him.

He wanted to drive me... home?

I watched as he went down to his office and then grabbed his own gym bag and then put on a black hoodie, I recognised from a match he wore on TV before a fight.

"Alright let's go, my car's out back so we'll take the back way," he says, as I followed behind him, as he left no room for argument.

I followed behind him quietly through another exit I hadn't recognised before, it led straight to the underground car park, under where the gym was, as Maddox led the way, I looked around nervously and wondered if this was a good idea.

I knew he wouldn't hurt me or attack me but because of Eric I had hated going to places like this, I always avoided them, especially places I know he likes to jump me at.

Maddox stopped at a red convertible I recognised as I looked at the front of the car, seeing it as an Audi Spyder, a car that was probably worth thousands of dollars, did he even trust someone he didn't know inside a car like this?

Getting inside, Maddox starts the car and sends me a look once he looks over at me just standing there.

"Do I need to show you how to open a door, Theo?" he jokes as I felt my neck grow hot.

I fumble with his door handle and get inside, feeling weird I'm sitting in an expensive car with the famous kickboxer Maddox Zane right now and this isn't a dream.

"Seatbelt," he says, as I closed the door and backed out of the parking spot.

I looked over to Maddox as I clicked the seatbelt around me and wondered why he was being so nice to me, I knew it might have something to do with the bruise on my jaw and my busted nose but that couldn't be all, right?

He didn't know me, he didn't have to give a damn about me but I think he did... or maybe he's just being nice.

I decided to just think he's being nice, not looking too much into it as I sit back and try and relax, as my heart beats fast in my chest, nervous just by sitting next to him again.

He's just being nice... that's all this is, nothing more. 

[spinariosthorn]

Why is Tsukasa so...well, Tsukasa?

In fact, it kinda admires me that Tsukasa is so careless and happy even tho everyone treats him pretty much like shit

No matter what, he seems to be in such irrepressible high spirits, you can not even imagine him being scared or crying. And I actually am inclined to think that there is no problem with his unshakable joy. Maybe he is just like that, “just because”. Just cause it’s fun and he feels comfortable in this constant state of merriment. Just because he wants to.

What I’m saying is that not everyone has to be severely traumatised to be like that. As Sakura said, if he's enjoying himself, it's fine. If he likes being like that, then it's fine.

That kind of constant cheerfulness and happiness might be considered abnormal, but what do we call normal anyway?

It’s always what is comfortable for the majority. And an unconcerned child with unusual ideas who pays no attention to anyone's opinion in order to get what he wants with malicious grin is uncomfortable. So I am not sure if we should call him crazy and call his cheerfulness wrong simply because he ignores everything bad that's said and done to him, trying to live a joyful life and fulfil his dreams.

While we're on the subject of insanity, the elements of it that Tsukasa clearly shows may be related to his creative nature.

Current empirical research suggests that the most important mental trait found in both geniuses and madmen is what is known as cognitive disinhibition - the inability to filter out and throw useless things, pictures or ideas from the mind. It is this trait that contributes to delusional thinking and mental confusion, but it also makes creative minds more fertile.

A huge number of creative personalities walk on the edge of normality and insanity. Because for them, the flurry of impulses and ideas they draw from their state is a treasure trove of all creativity, without which they cannot imagine their existence.

Sources: «What Neuroscience Says About The Link Between Creativity And Madness»,  Fastcompany;  «If You Think You’re a Genius, You’re Crazy», Nautil.us

As a ghost Tsukasa are not restricted or limited in action and ways, so he implements his ideas in a possibly very creative way, but his initial aim is to create, to create something good, to make wishes come true and to bring happiness through his art.

But on the other hand, things may not be so simple and happy. We don’t know much about Tsukasa’s past but it’s kinda obvious it wasn’t too good.

I mean, for start with, 4-year-old kid who is willing to sacrifice his life for his brother’s sake, while thinking this brother hates him and is happier without him, is definitely a traumatised kid.

Then who knows how many accidents or disturbing unpleasant stories happened to him in the Red House. I mean, lots of people came there in hoped to make their wishes come true, and according to Teru, they all died. Who knows how many things those innocent children's ears heard. Who knows how many deaths and tears he saw in that house.

Then he had to listen to the hatespeech and threats from Kou, even though Tsukasa didn't even know what he had done wrong. And then also he found out that Amane would kill him.

By the way, remember how he reacted? He laughed too, looking absolutely happy. He's been reacting like that to every stressful situation ever since.

And at school, finally? The situation with Amane's wounds is very suspicious. And I have a couple of questions for Tsuchigomori-sensei. If he saw that Amane has so many wounds and problems, wouldn't it be logical to find his twin and see what's going on with him? Or even ask him? That would have been a huge clue!

Why wasn't there a word about Tsukasa in the flashback? Why is there no mention of Tsukasa's past at all in the whole manga? Did he have any friends? How about his grades? Was he abused too? Or was he safe and sound?

Why didn't Tsuchigomori care about Tsukasa? Maybe Tsuchigomori didn't even know Tsukasa existed? Maybe Tsukasa didn't go to Kamome Academy at all? Why didn't he go then? Maybe he was chronically ill? Or beaten up even more than Amane, so he couldn't even come to school?

I just think Tsuchigomori is smart enough to know that it's not just one twin you have to worry about, but both of them. However for now it all looks like Tsukasa didn't exist at all.

It might be that his life wasn’t so easy and this constant laughing, smiling, spreading a good cheer might be just protective reaction. Why the need for grief, envy, anger, sadness, shame? They only make life harder, so why not just laugh and convince yourself that everything is great, everything is fine, and you're happy with everything? I think this is how he got rid of the unpleasant feelings and emotions he was feeling and now he just won’t stop smiling at any misery or insult he meets. But most importantly, I believe he really, genuinely thinks he is happy and has a great time. I mean, he is not like “I'm going to show everyone a fake happy image and then I’ll sink in an ocean of tears and sadness", he really thinks things are better than ever.

Anyway, we can’t be sure in anything unless the official manga proves it.