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roses-and-revolutions · 7 months ago

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The people of Gotham both fear and revere The Signal. As they do the rest of the Batfam but for Signal it's a bit different.

For starters, he's the only daytime hero. The other Bats usually only come out at night when the city is quieter. And while it's far from asleep, they prioritize stopping the numerous crimes that occur in the shadows. Civilian interactions far and few. Most pictures of them online seemed more like cryptid sightings than heroes soaring through Gotham skies.

The Signal on the other hand was the people's Bat. They got to see him soar through the sky, or ride his bike in all his golden glory. He gave autographs, took photos, and joined them on their daily commutes. He was a regular at mom-and-pop shops, made sure the troubled kids made it to school, and checked in on the sick and elderly. And while he did work with them when necessary, he mostly liked to fuck with the police, like a true Gothamite would.

All in all, he was the sweet sunshine that Gotham needed. He was far more human than the others. Not that he was human, oh heck no! NONE of the bats were human! But it felt that way. Until you were reminded that he was INDEED a Bat.

The way he merged and appeared out of the shadows despite his bright yellow suit, and moved without a sound. He knew about people and things before they happened. And had an intelligence that was absolutely terrifying when thought about. And the way he took care of crimes?

The Signal is cold, borderline brutal, and efficient (with commentary that leaves you agape and a chill down your spine) when dealing with criminals. It was always jarring to witness the sudden change from Gotham's sunshine boy to stone-cold Bat, and back again. It almost gave you whiplash to realize that this was the vigilante that you were talking to about your puppies a few moments ago. And it really instilled the Fear™ that that bats were known for.

The other Bats were terrifying, shadowy demons that moved through the night. Stopping crime in the darkness. Gotham knew and appreciated this. But the Signal? He was the bright light at the end of the tunnel and the warmth of the brilliant sun. But he was also...

'Gotham's Darkest Angel'

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kurthummeldeservesbetter · 2 months ago

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tbh I don’t think therapy would have fixed Jayce and Viktor lmao. maybe would have softened their self-destructive tendencies but there’s no fixing that co-dependent relationship. Heimerdinger Mel and Sky are told “yeah, I can help treat their individual depressions but nothing is gonna reduce their co-dependency. I’m pretty sure separating them makes it a lot worse for not only them but much worse for everyone else. for everyone’s safety I suggest they’re not allowed to be more than a buildings length away from each other and even that is pushing it.” That therapist then quits on the spot cause now they’ve literally seen everything.

It’s like that scene in Brooklyn nine nine where all the physiatrists are observing and talking with Gina but instead it’s a whole crew of therapists and neurologists and physiologists trying to find out how these two men literally mind-melded together. They go to couples therapy but it’s literally just individual therapy held together because why tf not it’s the only way to get them to go.

#in therapy like well Viktor doesn’t sleep well and I think it’s because he keeps dreaming about that time when he was 12 and got sick #the therapist is like well does Viktor tell you this and Viktor is like no I didn’t tell him that recently but that is why I can’t sleep #this is how their therapy is paid for btw that team dealing with them is getting research papers and grants and funding #their award winning paper is about codependency and the end of the world and shit #one therapist suggests they spend a few days apart and the next time they come back talk about it #and all those two can do is just info dump to each other about random shit they did and thought about while they were apart #they didn’t even do the same things but for some reason complete each others sentences #the therapist is like how did you know????? and they’re like well it’s so obvious what he did while I was away #and it’s just science and science and science #that therapists just quits and leaves Piltover #gets tf away from those two #arcane #arcane spoilers #viktor arcane #jayce talis #jayvik #jayce was like well last time I was separated from Viktor he almost died and the second time I teamed up with a random girl and killed a ki #Viktor is like no way last time we were separated I experimented on myself with runes shimmer and the hexcore #AU sky doesn’t die btw #and they’re just like lmao oops too bad you weren’t there you probably would have stopped me #honestly they should have been exiled with the caveat they have to go together #these two get handcuffed together and their only problem is that it’s now harder to work in the lab

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dykedvonte · 3 months ago

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You ever just see a Mouthwashing take that makes you want to bang your head into a wall? I literally just saw someone claim Curly couldn't have been emotionally abused by Jimmy before the crash because he was in a higher position of power than Jimmy.

-Shrimp Anon

The mouthwashing fandom has shown me that people genuinely do believe that certain types of abuse are not as detrimental as other types especially when they deem those immune/resistant, ergo, believing one is objectively worse no matter how it affects the person nor the intersections of power, history and dynamics at play.

Get ready cause this is a yap session:

Cause like it's heavily implied that Curly and Jimmy's friendship was toxic and abusive, pointedly in the direction of how Jimmy uses Curly's belief/comfort in him. Curly wasn't forced to enable Jimmy but he was emotional and mentally on edge around him in almost every scene in some way. Mental and emotional abuse are not contingent on what positions you have at work. Yeah, he's Jimmy's boss but he was Jimmy's friend first and it's like getting into Psych discussion to talk about how social power tends to overshadow any perceived organizational power in the human mind. People are concerned about their jobs ofc but they tend to hang onto and put more value/investment into their personal relationships, hence why there tends to be laws and restrictions around mixing the two.

I always see the sentiments that "Curly is a grown ass man", "Curly is bigger than Jimmy", "Curly is Jimmy's boss", "He just needed a backbone" as criticisms of Curly and while I do agree that on the surface level all of these to be true and viable ways Curly could've taken more control of the situation, I often look at the parallels of Anya and Curly as victims of Jimmy pre/post crash.

The way Jimmy talks to Anya post crash is how he talked to Curly in the pre-crash segments. It's hard to pin-point mainly because we know he hates and wants nothing to do with Anya compared to his contrary but similarly handled obsessions with Curly. It's a weird sort of "honey-moon" effect of abuse Jimmy does in terms of emotional and mental victimization. He is always horrid to Anya, always talking down or questioning her abilities and thoughts in a situation, this of course includes the harassment and assault. However, he has a moment of attempted gentleness/conditioning when he question her about the mouthwash when she's contemplating drinking it at the table. The key difference is he has no personal investment in Jimmy outside wanting nothing to do with him, meaning there is no sort of romanticized version of him that he can condition her off of. He knows this, hence, why he always reverts to trying to make her to scared to oppose him.

This sort of give and take of "kindness" doesn't work on her because she knows he is just doing it to take more from her than whatever he could possibly give but it reflects even the "softer" scenes between him and Curly where he always rewords or rephrases Curly's sentiments and concerns to sound more shallow. He is feigning a deeper understanding by reworking Curly's emotions into something bad and needing to be hidden. Everything is laced with envy and resentment, an outburst just around the corner, I mean he even slams the table in the birthday party scene, a tactic in emotional manipulation to set the victim on edge and cloud their ability to respond. Even if Curly knows Jimmy won't get physical in that moment, the physical actions is intended to make him back down in the confrontation in case it does. This is something that is just not person specific. It ingrains itself into how you interact with the world and life and it shows in major and minor ways with Curly.

Post-crash, the abusive nature is more in tandem to the physical victimization Anya went through and the stripping of voice and autonomy we see take place. Like the parasite in HFIM, Jimmy speaks for Curly most of the time and puts words in his mouth, similarly to how he takes Anya's plans as his own. He very commonly, with the both of them mind you, supplements the worst aspects of himself into them; pettiness, selfishness, lack of understanding... And tries to cover himself with their best qualities; kindness, planning, initiative, etc...

These parallel are just to say that positional power has little to do with if a person can be abused and how it can even be flipped to further the abuse. There is no doubt that Curly could've picked up on Jimmy's envy of his position hence another reason he never confronted him as a Captain but as a friend as doing so would immediately put Jimmy in a space to be confrontational/combative.

I think the disdain some people have when they talk about the heavily implied if not implicitly stated emotional/mental abuse Curly experienced being Jimmy's friend is when treating it as an excuse to why he didn't do more. I can understand that completely because it is not an excuse to why he didn't do more but is a very real reason people in his position in these scenarios can experience whether in the context of a work or social environment. However, I also think the way people talk about it really does demonstrate a bigger problem when talking about abuse when somehow who is/was abused is either part of the issue or enabled it.

Harkening back to the sentiments about Curly's inaction regarding Jimmy, I think the exact phrases I used/have seen show how there is an inherent belief that it is easier to overpower the effects of emotional/mental abuse that go in tandem with the perception of Curly as someone who should be able to. There is not an age you suddenly stop being susceptible to abuse nor a set point or low where you realize how it has affected you. You don't suddenly know to stand up or put a face on to face your abuser nor admit that you inadvertently enabled them to subjugate someone else to the same treatment. Maybe it's my psych brain but their is this growing belief that direct action is somehow easy or always the best method with the game shows you instances where it is not always the case. In real life that rings true too. He should have done more, but it's not impossible to see why he struggled to find a way or didn't even if it makes us mad.

It's not easy to suddenly gain a "back-bone". You don't immediately want to resort to aggression, especially if it mirrors the type you were a victim to. You don't want to believe you allowed yourself to be treated this bad, let it get that bad or allowed something bad to happen to someone else. It is easy to be in denial, to retreat to your thoughts or make excuses to avoid the painful truth. It's frustrating but in a way we know is relatable. It why we both hate and love Curly for it. We know we'd be better, we think we'd be better, we like to think we wouldn't falter in the same ways but it's always easier to say that from the outside looking in. It's easy to see what he was doing wrong because we are seeing it, not him, but the game really does make you picture what you would do if this was your raw reality and it's why this debate about Curly seems so never ending/contradictory. We can all say what we'd do but bottom line is that's much different when you're in the moment with all the emotions and human feelings attached.

I personally think Mouthwashing tackles the themes of rape culture, enabling, toxic masculinity, types of abuse and patriarchy in ways that are meant to deconstruct the typical straightforward views we mostly have of these concepts and how little subtilities of them are just as, if not more, detrimental than the overt/obvious parts. The game deals with the idea of little details and bigger picture in a way to show that sometimes the bigger picture is not the issue but the little details that make it up. It's why I have a personal dislike of depictions of Jimmy as the typical horrible person who would of course do something like this because the game is about noticing the little warning signs, the foreshadowing and foresight.

It's why I dislike the typical discussion of "bro code" and "boys will be boys" for the game because the game makes a point to avoid the standard depictions of such. It is about the type of men who still enable despite not condoning, agreeing or even perpetuating harmful beliefs because they can't see the little details or the ways it seeps into their everyday. The severity is not obvious to them as it was not obvious to Curly, Swansea or even Daisuke the way it was to a woman like Anya. There are little details about Jimmy that should ring alarms but if you are too naive like Daisuke, too distant like Swansea or too conditioned like Curly, they are just off markers.

There is 100% more constructive/concise ways to say "Curly was a victim of Jimmy's abuse on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario" while also critiquing on the side of "Curly still had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain that he failed to do due to biases and stigma's he failed to surpass" without the weird condemnation people give him about should've knowing better than to let himself be manipulated by a person he considered a close, if not family/best-friend and had his own reasons to trust initially. Also stop being weird about victims of abuse in general with this fandom, like sorry not everyone has a like social epiphany the moment someone's nasty to them. People are treating it like you immediately know when you are in a toxic relationship immediately or comprehend when a person is actively dangerous and either it's your fault for not knowing how to leave/cut them off or you deserve it. Like the hypocrisy of people believing how certain fans treat the story reflect their irl views but not their own is crazy.

End statement is: I honestly don't even know man, I've been writing this too long and just like no man on that ship was perfect or really helped Anya when it mattered and I feel like pitting them against each other in discussion on who did the least or most or how it was justified sucks cause in the end Anya always did the most and best thing for herself.

#i also think it is because mouthwashing is first and foremost a game about rape culture and the patriarchy especially in work spaces #regarding women and centering conversation around Curly a man rubs people wrong because it does overshadow that commentary #but it still mixes other topics into its initial theming and message on how abuse conditions you to accept certain things that are harmful #and how getting used to a culture/enviornment does not mean you are happy healthy or most importantly safe in it. I personally like to #explore those aspects where it mixes all the themes so we can discuss the ways you have to watch out for things because there is a differen #in the idea Curly enabled Jimmy just because they were bros and because he was an example of another man afraid to step out from what #is a still oppressive system that does try to punish those who act against it even if they fall in the category of those who would benefit #from it as Jimmy and PE 100% represent that sort of misogynistic system where men that would be “good” are altered until they follow line #in a way both on the personal and professional level as PE is the corporate lock out and Jimmy represents the social and its just the issue #that the discussion of it sounds like “in defense of men” when I am more so trying to discuss how it is much deeper than men being scared t #upset other men but complacency is rewarded by not becoming another person subjugated hence as all the moments Curly does try to do #something we can tie it back to how Jimmy reacts and a possible penality from PE where we now need to address the ways to combat those #two concepts so we dont get cases like Curly or Daisuke or Swansea where male avoidance of the issue is considered neutral or even good.#i think most of this boils down the perfect victim mentality to where if someone who underwent or is being abused is not a perfect example #or accpetible type than their abuse can not be considered a valid or substantial reason for effects on their behavior compounded with the #fact that Anya's abuse at the hands of Jimmy is a systematic issue that Curly is a part of even if unwillingly and was more physically #violating and topical cause sometimes i have to remind myself that all media is still critiqued through the lens of the culture it came out #in cause i do think about what if this game came out inlike 2014 like the conversations would be sooooooo different could you imagine it?#but back the before statement Curly isn't perfect but I feel like boiling it down if hes a good person or man is not the point of the game #but more so good people can still be part of the problem and the idea of condemning a person for one act creates a false sense of #rightouesness and justice that does not aid the victim and in fact aids the abusers in escaping blame for their mulitple behaviors as we se #how the men on the ship tend to blame Jimmy for just one act against them including himself while there is a plethora of things Anya is #concerned about with Jimmy #and its not that Curly just made one mistake with Jimmy but more so we consider his actions more damning because he didn't stop Jimmy #instead of focusing on the fact Jimmy did what he did regardless of Curly and the consequence because we already know he's bad n maladjuste #which is problem in the conversation where the individuals are blamed but the system and perputrator are overlooked in a sense of acceptiab #complacency as we know how they are and the lack of tangibility to personally affect them on a larger scale like I should just make a post #on like cutting out the face when it comes it confronting systems of oppression rather than tag talking but just ask me to clarify if #you want that like im jus trying to say we avoid talking about Jimmy and PE so much cause it is obvious what they do wrong that we make #the initial and inherent problem out to be one aspect someone in this case Curly does and the the constraints they use to force actions

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notsogoodangel · 1 month ago

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I'm just saying that there's no heterosexual explanation for AJ, as the Champion, having a twink actually running Parkour Civilization.

#angel's art #parkour civilization #parkour yaoi #seawatt #evil champion #ajthebold #seawatt gaming #parkciv #I made this as propaganda because like I'm not joking what is the explanation of why AJ would have someone else control parkciv #but this is partially fueled by that OOC ParkCiv actors actually going against in their parkour AND AJ AND SEAWATT?? love them #absolutely insane funny and committed to the bit #anyway they have fucked because I said so #like are you telling me Seawatt wouldn't fuck someone for power?#if you say no I don't believe you #that man knows is pretty enough to pull it off #seaj #parkour champion #also I purposely made Egyptian-inspired and AJ Roman-inspired for reasons #which should be obvious if you know history #but also AU #because yeah me and a friend made a future AU with them and have a whole dynamic about it #it's great #hopefully they make that tumblr post

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xxplastic-cubexx · 3 months ago

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If you were to like redesign Magneto's classic outfit in a way that both suits the character and your own tastes, how would you redesign it?

uhhhh errrmmmmm i dont know i really couldnt improve upon perfection but i have still tried for you my friend !!!

#xmen #xmen comics #magneto #erik lehnsherr #max eisenhardt #erik magnus lensherr #like ig fc erik there too but only if you squint Generally Speaking this aint about him #snap sketches #i thought this was gonna be a quick thing but then As I Do i sat and thought about it for too long #and for what. my end result isn't that different from the beginning !! tragic .#out of these i think. it MAY be obvious i like the far right one #once i remembered I Do In Fact love megaman i locked in cause everytime i draw Classic Magneto all i think of is megaman #cant even make a magnetman joke that mfer already exists and he from my FAVORITE classic megaman title tyvm #anyway. should i explain my reasoning now. man i guess i can try #i couldnt tho is the thing- at least for the first set i really was just ickin around and seeing what i Might like #evidently it was nothing LMAO i told yall i cant improve perfection ... so i just. Smash Bros'd his classic look #With some tearing on the cape cause i said so ............#at most- with the furthermost right bit- i just wanted to emphasize a feeling of 'power' hence the chunkier boots + gloves #with the first look i tried that angle with showing some arm skin buuuuttt i dont like it ...#i think the sleeveless look really only works if the outfit's black idk i cant explain it #overall the first design i tried just feels too sleek for my liking if i wanted to go for a 'power' approach #i like the 'M' i did with the legs at least. i really wanted to incorporate an M in case it wasnt clear but alas ...#tbh i might steal the boots/gloves/underwear design from myself when i draw classic magneto regularly. SHRUG we'll see #as for now i am very sleepy and i have class in the morning and i want to do some work Before Class #very cool but very sad i dont have my third class today :( its my fave class :( at least i get more time to work #and the more work i get done the more time i get to draw the sillies !!! epic ...#anyways. good night everyone !!!!!!! talk to yall tomorrow ..... probably ... or later ig technically... i should sleep earlier <- wont

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homielander · 2 years ago

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shiv's motivations for voting to pass the gojo deal are so layered and i don't think they should be dismissed in favour of any one interpretation. shiv desperately grabbed on to a lifeline for her relationship with tom. shiv was the deciding vote and she couldn't bear to hold the crown only for a moment just to place it atop her brother's head. shiv knew she would have more influence as wife of CEO rather than sister of CEO. shiv absolutely hated seeing kendall crystallize into logan before her eyes, especially when he made roman bleed ("and if we did kill him we get to go to bed") -- succession has always been about siblings so of course she tried to free her brothers before her child. shiv still thinks she can raise her child with all the material benefits of being the daughter of waystar CEO while doing better by her, whatever that means. and all of those things are true

#shiv roy #succession #succession spoilers #ok i'm sleeping #wait i know i just assumed tomshiv baby is a girl but like. i'm right #also i have seen many people say shiv did it purely out of spite and i will say #i don't think they would have had dialogue about shiv saying she's tired and they should all rest #or panned to shiv looking at roman's face fresh with blood #or shown shiv tearing up over her conversation with tom at the beginning of the episode #or had her say 'i cannot stomach you' which has pretty obvious connotations even in the context of succ #or had shiv make up her mind precisely when kendall said the andrew dodds confession was a lie #if her motives weren't meant to be read as ambiguous. they would not have put those things in there without reason #shiv leaving the room may have been impulsive spite but what came after was more complicated #it's also not even wholly altruistic it's just cold admittance that they don't have It. she thinks she does #and i'm not sure why the sentiment that they can't take it but she can surprises anyone #she's literally always seen herself as the exception

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freetobeafcknriot · 6 months ago

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╰┈ ‘‘You murdered OUR BROTHER—!’’

ft. Allison & Klaus Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, season two episode four (2024).

#allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #tua #the umbrella academy #ben hargreeves #<- because of obvious reasons #34 #346 #36 #46 #dante albidone #eden cupid #ciel edits #<- like i said! eden and then emmy's allison regarding the jennifer incident make me cry and young klaus and allison here are gonna haunt m #forever now THIS WAS WHAT THE MINIMUM STANDARD THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT for s4. look at them.#head in my hands ben was so loved and much as i love justin look at ethan and remember how YOUNG he was too

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uncanny-tranny · 11 months ago

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I've talked before about how the way people treat suicide can be unintentionally devastating to the suicidal person, but I don't think I really ever said how to avoid that.

Speaking about suicide in how selfish it "is" ("think about how you'll transfer your pain to your loved ones!") might seem like a way to put logical sense into the suicidal person, but, honestly? It runs the risk of massively increasing their shame and guilt about being suicidal. Suicide is not inherently a revenge fantasy or a way to "get back" at someone's loved ones, so when the suicidal person is treated like a criminal of a "crime" they haven't even committed yet, you can imagine how unhelpful that can become.

Instead, if you want to point out how cherished your person is, frame their relationships as something they can keep fostering.

"Your cat will miss you :(!!!!" becomes "you and your cat seem close, right? I'm sure it's beautiful having a close friend like that!" and maybe include ways that they and their cat are close and meaningful to each other, tailored to that relationship.

That's only one example, but when you shift the focus away from why that person should repent and feel guilty for being suicidal, you can instead focus on why they would live for that reason. See how you can frame that as a positive? Whatever is keeping that person tethered should never be used as a bludgeon, I think, because then you're taking away why they're living, the positivity of why they are here. Whatever they are here for should be remembered often and honoured.

#mental health #mental health advocacy #mental health support #suicide #suicide tw #(after this i'm going to rant about being told the unhelpful narrative i included above)#when i was younger the thing i was told the most was that suicide would only transfer my pain to others...#...and is that true? maybe. was it helpful? no.#why was that unhelpful?#because i started using that as yet ANOTHER reason to feel guilty and to lash out against myself...#...because that didn't magic away my suicidality like it 'should have'...#...and that was ~obvious~ proof i didn't care enough about my loved ones to keep them out of harms way...#...and it can be really hard not to do that (give advice like that) because if you're not the suocidal person...#...you have the luxury of thinking without the burden they are labouring under...#...you can see 'logically' and make assumptions about what the other person 'needs'#it's just frustrating because i know that people like this want to help but i worry about *how* they are helping...#...in the sense that i want their efforts to actually help their person and bring them closer

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welcometogrouchland · 13 days ago

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I'm going to be so real I do not understand tim & steph shippers who feel that Steph dating Tim again would save her character. You can make an argument that giving Tim a more compelling love interest would be beneficial for him! And you can at least make an argument that the fujo mischaracterization of Steph would stop. However she'd still, inevitably, be treated as a prop character/extension for someone more popular 😭 it also wouldn't make her appear in more books! Tim doesn't have many frequent appearances at the moment either! You can just say you like the couple and want them back together without acting like you have some kind of moral stance

#ramblings of a lunatic #dc comics #dc #NOT character tagging. for reasons j feel are obvious #honestly i shouldn't even be posting this here I'm responding more to twitter sentiments but they'd cook me on there if i posted this #anyway sometimes i think ppl (again the twt ppl specifically. tumblr timsteph fans mostly normal) are doing that thing-#-where you get so deep into a hyper online discourse cycle that you end up reproducing mainstream sentiments from scratch #''let men date women!'' this is what some of you sound like when talking about timsteph to me /j #there's a lot to critique about how Tim's been written since canonizing his bisexuality!#personally I've noticed (and seen other ppl notice to) that some writers seem unaware that tim is bi #not in the sense of making him straight but in the sense that they seem to think he's gay bc none of his relationships w women-#-are acknowledged as having been. relationships #or if they are there's an idea that tim was using them to 'hide from his true self' or something #genuinely problematic sentiment!#i also don't really find the ''he should cheat on bernard!'' jokes funny #like lets bffr Tim's cheating was NEVER acknowledged as cheating he was seen as a good all-american boy #so like. bringing that trait back and acknowledging it as cheating ONLY after he comes out as bi? i get it- ironic homophobia but-#-i really don't like it!#anyway. close your eyes and focus on the daminika like the rest of us /j #or the stephcass jason dancing image which will live in my head and heart forever despite arguably being ooc as well <3 #bc it's funny <3 and at least I'm self aware <3 #also much MUCH more importantly DC POWER SPECIAL EXTREMELY GOOD GO READ IT FOR DUKE #and jace but i haven't read future state yet bc i tried and got. extremely bored 😞 sorry jace you seem really cool #but he's great in the story dynamjc duo with duke. loved it love them want more #special was sold out at my comic shop tho so i couldn't grab a copy. might hit the other shop in town today to see #BOOST THE NUMBERS WE NEED A POWER COMPANY ONGOING GANG #anyway yeah. tim & steph thoughts. you can just say you like them you don't have to do all that

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purplecatghostposts · 3 months ago

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I think one of the many reasons of why I love the episode Emotion so much is because with added context of Félix’s backstory, he’s doing exactly what he would’ve wanted someone to do for him.

Félix learned his father was abusive and controlling very early on due to his actions and never actually hiding it from him, unlike Adrien with Gabriel or Kagami with Tomoe, who are still struggling with their parents controlling their lives in a very literal sense. Kagami and Adrien might get frustrated and/or rebel against their parents at certain points, but at this point in the story, neither have quite gotten to the point where they realize that their parents are outright abusive due to emotional manipulation, so when Félix gets rid of their parents, they’re both very distressed and angry with him.

Félix however? Félix had probably wanted his father gone for a long time. There’s a good chance he often wished someone could get rid of him for him, as his ring barred him from doing it himself, or that his father would simply disappear forever. So even if that ship has long since sailed given his father is dead now, Félix sees Adrien with his father and Kagami with her mother and immediately jumps to, “I always wished I could be free of my father, I should do the same for them, they probably want that too.”

Which. Doesn’t go over so well. Both still want to try to fix their relationship with their respective parent. Even if we see how badly that goes in Pretension, with Tomoe both literally and figuratively trying to strip Kagami of her freedom, that choice is ultimately up to them.

If the situation were reversed however? If Félix was the one still stuck with his father and someone snapped his father and 99% of the world away just so they could be together and safe and happy, there’s a good chance he’s seeing this as a dream come true, or at the very least, is extremely touched by the gesture.

(Anyways happy birthday to my favorite episode in the show)

#This was WAYYY back in my drafts #But I remembered it and now I’m posting it for Emotion’s birthday #Happy Emotion Day! I had to post SOMETHING for obvious reasons #miraculous ladybug #felix graham de vanily #felix fathom #adrien agreste #kagami tsurugi #abuse #ml emotion #SB Speaks #uhhhhh what else should I tag #(also if you want a fic kinda like the last part I described go check out Ninadove on AO3)#just in case I’m gonna tag #child abuse #for this post. because Colt Gabriel and Tomoe SUCK

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greenerteacups · 30 days ago

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What do you think of jkr as a writer? I for one has always felt like she didn’t treat her female characters well. It felt strange, being critical of her when she was god queen of the earth, and also being 10

I think most of the problems in her books can be chalked up to genre hopping. Books 1-3 are perfectly good and serviceable children's books — great children's books, even! They have compelling, relatable characters and juicy mystery plots. They have problems, sure, but for the first three books someone's ever written — especially someone with little or no background in creative writing — they're really fucking good. So: there's her flowers.

The last four books pivot sharply into much more emotionally complicated and sociopolitically loaded territory, because they're describing a war. And it's hard to write children's books about war. I would venture you can't really do it, at least without dramatically misrepresenting what war is! And so Rowling makes the executive decision somewhere during the writing of Book 4 that she's not going to flinch away from that, she's going to go for dramatic realism, and she kills Cedric Diggory to let us know. People had died in Harry Potter before, of course — Quirrell gets sent to the fucking shadow realm, for example. But children haven't. (It also gives parents who are reading these books with their children a warning shot: shit is about to get significantly more real, think twice before you buy the next one of these for your 10-year-old.) After that, Rowling starts leaning much more into dramatic realism, and the fast-paced mystery-novel plotting of the first few books is replaced by a slow, simmering political conflict that unfurls over the course of about a million words.

The problem — besides the fact that she's picking one of the hardest things to write about, like, in all of literature, war is really insanely complicated and emotionally intense and hard to portray well — is that she's now trying to use characters, plot points, and technologies she developed for a children's series to enact a sprawling war drama among teenagers and adults. So Hermione, who was a reasonably precocious snobby eleven-year-old, becomes this sort of encyclopedic all-knowing savant of the wizarding world, who somehow remains functional and mostly even-headed despite her identity being the chief target of a prolifically murderous terrorist group. Draco Malfoy, a schoolyard bully whose primary tools included 1. namecalling and 2. telling teacher, JOINS said terrorist group (and admittedly does react reasonably, i.e., has a total crashout and takes to sobbing in a girls' bathroom whenever he gets a free minute). Dumbledore, who starts out as "whimsical friendly winky-wink trustworthy grandfather type", ends up being Magical Winston Churchill in a violent game of spycraft and espionage, eventually revealing he's only been keeping Harry at all these seven years because he wants to KILL him! And like, maybe really good technical writing could smooth out these transitions and make the first-order dramatic choices seem more natural, but Rowling is like, a Fine Writer, technically speaking. meaning she's reasonably consistent in characterization, her plotting is well-paced and believable, she has a clear authorial voice, and her prose is readable. personally, that's not enough to get me to buy into some of the changes that happen in the later books, and because she stuffs these things so full with new elements every installment, a lot of stuff ends up getting glossed over.

And like, I still love the books. I think they're wonderful, and they taught me how to read. but i can say that and also say that Rowling probably did herself a disservice by trying to write four giant war novels as sequels to her first three mystery children's books.

#i have this running theory that debut fantasy writers shoot themselves in the feet by trying to be tolkien #i.e. assuming because they're writing fantasy they have to write about war #but he wrote that because that was what he liked reading! it was what he thought a mythological epic should be #at the time LOTR was a WEIRD pitch for a book #fantasy was much more small-scale adventure like Lewis's Narnia books (which also end in a giant battle but like)#(it's not really the same thing. narnia doesn't run on realpolitik)#(it's Narnia)#I'd compare it to swiss family robinson and treasure island and the adventure stories of Jules Verne #then tolkien comes along and is like. WHAM. Bitch I Put Elves In The Somme #and everyone was like ??? HOT DAMN #but the thing is. once you've seen Elves In The Somme. and it's THAT good. the Hot Damn effect wears off some #so all these fantasy authors start writing vaguely medieval war stories because that's what Tolkien did! and they love him!#but the difference between mimicry and inspiration is your willingness to depart from the source #there are a lot of other plots out there! hundreds! thousands even!!#harry potter books you didn't need to do this! harry potter you could have just been cool mysteries!#but i dunno maybe people started talking about her as the next tolkien and she got scared of disappointing them #and like having said all that. considering the obvious anxiety of influence and the genre hop and the rough technical spots.#the harry potter books are REMARKABLY good.#what you have in them is an author's first attempt at longform serial storytelling EVER #and it's ambitious as hell and it has a billion characters and you know what? she mostly pulls it off!#we rag on it for being messy at the edges because It Is and I wouldn't be writing fanfic if I didn't have some qualms #or at least areas I think could bear more explaining. but there are Reasons it went that way

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nostalgia-tblr · 15 days ago

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okay, so the thing with wishing we could kudos every chapter of a fic.

i get it, we all want to hit the little like button more than once, it's the easiest way to express our approval/enjoyment/gratitude. i am going to address this to a generic 'you' (hello Y/N!) and assume that 'you' has either never posted fic to ao3 or hasn't posted both oneshots and multichapter works.

hits, kudos, comments, bookmarks. every marker of popularity (which many will interpret as quality) on ao3 is inadvertantly weighted in favour of works with more chapters. no, not longer necessarily, but with more chapters. go and sort a few fandoms by any of those stats and you'll probably be able to spot this trend in action right away.

oneshots are only at the top of a tag (by the default date sorting) once, and even if you re-read it you can only leave one kudos on it.

a multichapter can stay near the top of the update-sorted results for months if you time your chapter drops right, and of course every time someone comes back for the next chapter that's another hit, and being seen more it is more likely to end up with more kudos. you can still only leave one per work, though, which limits the effects to some extent. multichapter works still tend to overall outperform oneshots on stats, and the longer they are the more likely that becomes, but you'll still usually see a couple of oneshots on the first page if you sort that list by kudos.

and a lot of people (percentage unknown) do sort by kudos (or some other stat) and works at the top of 'by kudos' will thus attract more readers and more kudos. so there's an incentive to get as many kudos as you can on your fic, and if cutting it up into 250 chapters will help... well it already does, and that's had an effect whether writers will admit to dragging fics out a bit on purpose or not, but imagine if that effect were to become orders of magnitude more intense.

even if you personally prefer longer fics cut into fairly short chapters, you probably don't want to get your 150k epic in chapters of only a 100-300 words, do you? you don't want the oneshot writers to just give up when every page, no matter how they're sorted, is full of 5000-chapter works to the point that readers now riot when asked to read a whole 2000 words in one go. your fave author is now feeling insecure because chapter 12 didn't get as many kudos as the last one did.

and this is why ao3 will never let you leave kudos on every chapter. they're aware that the site already incentivises chaptering works and doing that more than you otherwise might. so you're just going to have to learn to put an emoji heart in the comment box.

#tldr; some of those '100k word novels' would not even be 100k novels if this wasn't already having an obvious effect on search results #and you want to *increase* that effect?#i see the op later added that this might help longfic writers get more attention. GIRL WHAT.#what the fuck is constantly at the top of every page in your fandom(s)?!#a oneshot has - ahem - one shot at getting any attention and then they vanish into the depths of time.#oh yeah and that's ANOTHER reason we have those shitty 'oneshot collection' works now!#they've seen other people stay at the top of the page forever and now they want a bite of that update pie too!#'chapter' 387/? coming soon!#look longfic writers i am SORRY that there's a stat where you too only get one of it per work but like... come the fuck on???#(yeah i know often multichapters do badly in 'kudos ratio' but that's not even an actual thing ao3 tracks for you. we made it up.)#(to torment ourselves further? idk but if they ever start showing us The Ratio i'm deleting everything.)#i know this post makes me seem like a bitch but i am a bitch so i can't say it's not an accurate impression of me.#damn i should have split it into 50 posts or so shouldn't i?

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katyspersonal · 18 days ago

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To be honest I don't really want mutuals who instantly assume I commented in bad faith to act "condescending" when I was nothing but light-hearted in disagreeing about a point in the post about one of the characters and agreed with everything else. 🤔 Especially not when I apparently pissed them off so much it made them post TWO (passive-aggressive) posts on the topic of disagreement afterwards instead of.... actual discussion? At least if I assume someone is being mean on purpose I ask them about it

#/vent #I softblocked them tbh #I mean apparently they think ill of me and thing I disagreed on is something they're passionate about #so I probably stepped on a landmine anyway and from my experience these can't be fixed #also it strongly reminded me of subparzero #they got hostile upon assuming I commented in bad faith for literally no reason #and then said I baited them for conflict over disagreeing at one djura point #and told me to go hang out with other neurodivergent folks instead #likewise entirely ignoring obvious signs of support and otherwise loving the post #so yeah having this bad memory resurface just. dealt massive mental damage.#I just don't now what's in such people's heads #I said I should stop vagueblogging about negative interactions lol #but honestly this made my blood pressure jump super high #needed almost an hour to calm down and type this #mostly because I'd think a *mutual* would not assume I am just here to trash on them #especially when there was no reason to!!!#at this rate I don't even actually want to know what in my comment was 'condescending'#either language barrier or autistic barrier the answer is always the same #something I physically can't fix so its whatever

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aw-shizz-here-we-go-again · 9 months ago

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•|| Seally Cute ||• (Mermay 2024)

Prompt 3: Seally Cute

Featuring: Geno, Goth, and Reaper!

Ship(s): Afterdeath.

Summary: Playtime with the kiddo! <3

Warnings: Blood from a hunt

Credits: Leviathantale and the Mermay Bingo I'm using are both by @skumhuu!

Read tags for notes.

"Dad? Dad??? Daddy!"

Geno woke up to a small, high-pitched voice yelling in his ear. He let out a tired grunt, then rolled over on his side as his tail gently swatted the other person away.

He smiled as he heard them let out a playful squeak, and he was almost immediately bombarded by a small body barreling into him. He yawned, then blinked blearily at the mischievous attacker as he rubbed his eyesockets. "Oh? What's up, my little clamshell?"

The young selkie in front of Geno puffed out their cheeks, flipping their black-and-white seal tail back and forth as they responded. "Mama's out huntin', and 'm boreddd! I wanna do sumthin'! Sumthin' else then jus' sleepin'!"

"You could practice walking, you know." Geno suggested, raising a bonebrow up at the child. He sat up and stretched, slight popping his bones as he did so. "You still haven't even tried taking your seal skin off yet, Goth."

Goth grumbled something under his breath, glowering down at the iceberg they were both on. ". . ."

Geno tilted his head to the side, wrapping his arms around his kid and hugging him close. "What was that? Is there something wrong?"

"...'s scary." Goth muttered quietly, burying his face into his father's chest. "A-an' I did try. Couldn't do it though..."

"Oh, Gothy," Geno squeezed Goth a little tighter in his embrace, wrapping Goth's tail around his own as he kissed the top of Goth's head. "It's alright, we'll figure something else out then."

"Swimmin'?" Goth asked hopefully, gazing up at Geno with big shiny eyelights. There was no mistaking it, the kid really knew what he was doing when he chose to pull the puppy eyes on his dad.

Geno sighed, giving Goth a defeated look. He didn't even attempt to resist, knowing that he would cave quickly anyways. "Okay okay, let's go swimming."

"Yay!" Goth wiggled his way out of Geno's grip, then proceeded to nudge and tug Geno towards the edge of the iceberg where the water was. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

Geno chuckled, relenting as he playfully shoved Goth into the icy sea before hopping in to join his kid. "Rather eager, aren't we?"

"You never lemme go swimmin' without ya, so duh!" Goth pouted, swishing his tail as he drifted around Geno in a lazy circle. He then sped up, swimming around Geno in faster loops. "C'monnn! Let's play tag or something!"

"Oho, you want to challenge me?" Geno asked in amusement, raising a bonebrow as Goth nodded in response. "Well then, let the games begin..."

Reaper was returning back home from... doing whatever he was doing while he was out, most likely hunting due to the blood on his teeth, and he surfaced to get a breath of air just in time to see a certain small selkie fling themselves out of the water to do a flip.

What the heck?

Diving back under the water, Reaper sped up towards the main iceberg that he and his family called home. As he approached, he could see the love of his life- ahem, Geno, ahem -and their child swimming around in circles, seemingly sportively goading each other on.

As Reaper watched, Geno suddenly thrashed his tail as he shot up towards the surface of the water, erupting from the sea and doing a double flip before he came crashing back down.

The leviathan let out a small, quiet laugh at the smug look that Geno shot at Goth, and at the pouty look that Goth had returned back at Geno.

Then Reaper had an idea. A smirk crossed his face as he dove down, deeper and deeper below his family. Once he was down deep enough to not be noticed if he shifted, he activated his leviathan form as he circled around in the icy cold depths, staring up at the two selkies above him.

He then silently and slowly swam up behind Geno, his now massive size absolutely dwarfing his mate. He watched as Goth noticed him, and he saw how the child's eyelights grew as big as saucers as his presence registered in Goth's mind.

Reaper held a finger up to his mouth, gesturing for Goth to stay quiet. He drifted ever so slightly closer to Geno, who seemed mildly confused by Goth's reaction since he hadn't realized that Reaper was behind him yet.

"Hello, darling~"

Reaper purred out an amused giggle as Geno yelped in shock, and he backed up a little bit as the selkie whirled around to face him.

"You-! Seriously, Reaper?! Ugh..." Geno groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nosebone in annoyance, glaring at Reaper in half-hearted anger. "I swear, you are so immature."

"Oh, my dearly sweet beloved, I'm so wounded by your insults!" Reaper whined pitifully, shrinking down into his normal form before dramatically leaning against Geno while holding his hand up to his forehead.

Geno grumbled something under his breath and pushed Reaper off, then narrowed his eyesocket at Goth, who had started giggling. He then sighed in exasperation and threw up his hands. "Both of you! Both of you are so immature! But at least Goth has the excuse of actually being a child."

He swam back up to Reaper and poked the leviathan in the chest, swishing his tail in mild irritation. "But you don't have any excuse!"

"B-but... Geno-senpai, it's just my personality!" Reaper blinked innocently at Geno, intertwining his orca tail with Geno's seal tail.

Geno rolled his eyelight and groaned again, pulling his tail away from Reaper and gently swatting Reaper over the head. "Don't even get started with that! Enough is enough."

Reaper sighed in mock defeat, backing away from Geno to give his love some space. "Alright, alright, if you insist."

Geno hesitated, then swam back over to Reaper to give him a soft, brief kiss before letting go again. "Love you, starfish~"

Before Reaper could sputter out a flustered reply, they both suddenly heard snoring coming from behind them. A quick glance revealed that Goth had fallen asleep, and Geno let out an amused snort. "I suppose playing around tuckered him out. We should be getting back to our iceberg anyways."

"I- uh- uhm, yeah! Mhm!" Reaper replied quickly, still blushing from the kiss. He rapidly flicked his tail and scooped Goth up in his arms, carrying the child as he started swimming to the homeberg. "Let's go!"

Geno followed suit, letting himself be half dragged in the current that Reaper's tail made since he was tired.

"You know, you should really wash up. You still have blood all over your teeth." Geno said with a small yawn, tilting Reaper's head with his hands on Reaper's chin so that he could see the orca's face better.

"Aw, what? Too shy to clean it off for me~?" Reaper purred teasingly, then hesitated and averted his gaze in shame almost immediately afterwards. "...Oh, yeah, right-- nevermind. Uh, forget I said that. Sorry."

Geno winced slightly, shivering not from the cold of the iceberg but rather from the reminder. ". . ."

Reaper shrank in on himself a bit, tears suddenly pricking his eyesockets "I'm sorry, okay? I- I really just can't help it... I'm sorry..."

Geno was quiet for a long moment, then he pulled Reaper into a hug. "It'll... it'll be okay. Just... let's not tell Goth, okay? I'd rather not scare him..."

"Okay..." Reaper muttered back, nuzzling into Geno's embrace. By the True Leviathans, he felt awful, but it wouldn't be an easy fix.

After all, it was his nature.

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