#from one hypocrite to another

[accultant]

Of course they take his hands when he offers them, it's hardly a question ( but they appreciate it anyway ). When he lets go, they hold their own hands instead, loosely lacing their fingers together in front of them while they wait for him to go on. The worry is going to kill them before he finally gets around to it, they're sure, but he starts again after a few more moments.

It's... bizarre watching him explain so clearly now. It's what they wanted, yes, but not exactly what they thought they would get. It's another thing they're adjusting to - actually talking with Puck. They spoke in the temple, yes, ( not enough ), but they had long since stopped discussing things like feelings and conflict. Not so candidly. Now, with this Puck, it's something Iago must relearn. Both of them, they suppose.

What he says first makes them freeze, their nerves immediately pulled taunt to attention. Threatened. That word scared them. They conjured ideas of a fight, a threat met with violence, with blood, all in the name of protecting Iago. It wouldn't be the first time. They should've figured there would be no last time. Ormor left? He's gone? Gone? The six-feet-under kind of gone? Or maybe Puck discarded him in the river nearby? Stuffed him into a chest? Was it quick? Painful? Did he suffer-

When he makes his clarification, their train of thought is halted. They have a brief realization, one of disgust that their first thought was something so horrible, and their second concern was what he did with the body. Old habits die hard. Or lessened, at least. Redirected.

Their hands are held together tightly now. Too tight, but they're sure they'd find them sparking if they lessened their restraint as they comprehend what he's telling them. They've done this before. With more bloodshed from Puck and more passivity on Iago's part, but it's the same dance. Protection and jealousy - so easily confused when they're all the other has ever had. He must still understand that, somehow, even after all he's lost, if this is still happening.

It would be easy to let it wash over them. So easy. A sigh, a roll of the eyes, a day or two of irritation, then letting this be a thing of the past. All else pushed to the back of their mind, into a pile with whatever else they've grown used to ignoring. Again, the dance is old. They know how they would - how they should react. It was so easy, so tempting to be cold sometimes.

But Puck is trying. He's trying to be better by letting Ormor leave alive in the first place, but mostly by acknowledging what he's done, why he's done it. So, it's unfortunate that Iago's version of trying, of being better than they were, is to do literally anything other than tell him it's okay, they forgive him, and move on. They would forgive him, of course they would, but for now -

"You-" they start, unsure of where they were even planning to go from there. It's their turn to pace now, take a few steps away with their back turned, looking at their hands. Oh, no, yes, they are twitching quite a bit now. But how could they not when- They whirl back towards him, fists clenched at their sides. "You demanded him to leave? You? You, who is always looking after everyone in this camp, who is always accepting, always forgiving, always so understanding- but this is when you draw the line? Everyone has their limits, I know, I genuinely, genuinely admire your patience, Puck, it marvels me. But for it to break over this? Jealousy? You claim you're no leader here, but this is a decision you feel you can make? All in the name of protecting me? I'm the exception here and I don't even get a say in the matter."

Their hands are starting to burn, making them flinch. They shove them in their pockets and start pacing again, "Protecting me from someone who hasn't done a thing, might I add. He's been nothing but pleasant. Kind. Everything that you would've liked in anyone else but because I'm involved- You were right, Puck. I am angry. I don't want to be, I really don't. I understand. I would love to just shut up and move on but..." They finally unclench their hands to gesture where they have trouble articulating their feelings. The candle on their desk flashes with a purple light as that familiar sting in the air starts building and they clasp their hands together again to try to quell it.

"You can't do this anymore. I can't... I want to... I'm trying..." They press their fists to their eyes, frustrated at how hard it is to find their words for something so simple. "I am so bad at being around other people, Puck. Making connections. Friends. It is so hard. Ormor is someone I... someone I liked. It was getting easier in his company. I was getting better. I'm trying to be better. This is not helping."

he's still not used to freely looking into someone's eyes. it comes so naturally with iago, but it startles him every time. always gives him a brief second of panic where his gaze darts away before he remembers. this time, it bounces around the tent, almost trying to avoid iago, before giving up. the comfort their eyes provide is hard to resist.

the handkerchief is sweet. a bit useless at the moment as fresh tears well up in his eyes again, but sweet nonetheless. they manage to make him laugh, face leaning into the touch of their cool palm. ❝ sorry, ❞ he mumbles about the snot.

delicately, he reaches out in an invitation to hold their hands, if they'd like. he doesn't touch, waiting for them to take the offer or not on their own. if they allow him, he gives their hands a quick, gentle squeeze. it helps him calm down.

❝ i am almost entirely certain that you will be angry with me, unfortunately. i would be concerned if you weren't. just ⸻ warning you now. ❞ puck pulls his hands back to himself, wipes at his eyes one last time. takes a deep breath as he tries to think of where to begin.

tell them the truth. don't mince words like you try to do in your own head. they deserve to know how ugly you are. they already know that.

puck looks them in the eye again. ❝ i felt threatened by ormor, so i threatened him first. i had thought i was protecting you, but i wasn't. i was being selfish, and it led to him leaving the camp because i demanded that he did. i don't think he intends to come back . . . ❞ his eyebrows furrow. i'm missing something- oh, ❝ ⸻ i did not attack him, to be clear. but i almost did. i know that doesn't make it any better. i'm sorry. i know you like him. ❞ that's the reason why.

❝ i was ⸻ ❞ face red, he averts his gaze again, tail thumping against the ground in irritation. or embarrassment. ❝ i was jealous. ❞

[rhysie]

a hard pill to swallow ... rhys not telling feyre during her pregnancy is not as ooc as u think it is

[gothteddiesdotcom]

I think that part of what like. kills me about the whole media literacy and critical thinking aspect of enjoying media these days is that people refuse to like. contextualize that

A. Bad media can still hold significant meaning to people

B. Media made for a demographic you aren’t apart of is not inherently bad media

C. Media made for and consumed by the opposite demographic is not inherently shallow or flawed nor is it above criticism for its media tropes either.

[hsslilly-blog]

source

[birthofvcnus]

im not really a fan of GOT7 either, so i didn't know what was going on with bambam, so I checked it out and?? someone reach out to him?? why isn't his company doing anything??

and if I'm being completely honest, seeing him post that scares the shit out of me in itself, but remembering he's also 27? hope he's getting the support he needs :(

apparently his company doesn’t care because they’ve been overworking him for months despite him showing clear signs of burnout/depression? like they allowed it to get that bad at this point and that’s insane. i don’t want to be making comparisons when it comes to mental health because it’s disrespectful to everyone involved, but like we’ve seen this exact pattern before. we’ve seen where it can lead. why is no one helping him. like he’s at a point where he feels depressed enough to imply he won’t be alive in 2025?????? that’s in four months. it’s clear something bad is brewing and he needs all the help he support he can get, and most importantly of all he needs REST. if his company doesn’t understand nor respect that then they should be boycotted

edit: apparently, according to what he seems to have been saying on social media, his label won’t allow him to see his family, which i can’t believe is even legal. he needs to get out of there as soon as possible and/or sue them because this is. beyond dehumanizing

[fiona-fififi]

...

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

Love when idly wondering how to tie in the Kingmaker plot to my own worldstate turns into 'oh I'm about to give Zell the MOST intense heartbreak imaginable.'

[lurxof--thxmaw]

Is it true you float to make yourself look taller 👀

The Lady rolls her eyes, shaking her head. To be fair, she did float quite often, but not for a reason as silly as this － she needs to look after her legs! They can't be strained too much, and the Maw is such a large place... she had spent years walking around the submarine, she deserves to be cut some slack after so many years.

"There is no need for me to do such a thing. I was graced with excellent genes." The growth sprout she had as a kid did make her much taller than all her peers. Even in her youth she had been tall, yet the Maw seemed to have accentuated this aspect of hers among... other things. She leans forward ever so slightly, towering over the smaller Guest. "One should be grateful of what they are given, no? Regardless of how... favorable their attributes are."

[r3dblccd]

Every time I see something about people hating on Sa.kura it's just so heartbreaking

[optiwashere]

How do you feel about other people making fan art or fanfic about your oc Asheera? Like interacting with other Tavs or writing their own scenes?

Art? Please do! If anyone ever wants to they can. I'd love to know what an artist is making, and I'd love to see it before it's out for the rest of the world so I can offer early praise as well as suggestions or corrections, but please go ahead!

I expect people to credit artists, so I would expect another artist to credit Asheera as my OC and link to my stuff. That's basically all I expect.

Right now I can't commission anything (holidays go brrr) so please don't solicit for them 💜 Also, I have a lil blurb on my AO3 profile that covers the things that people have blanket permission on! It's never come up, but I made it years ago so I think I'll add onto it now...

I really appreciate the love and interest in Asheera if anyone felt compelled to write fic with her in it, that's really flattering! I really do mean that. Like, I wanna express that up front. Super flattering and I'm honored. I love everyone (mutuals, followers, drivebys, anons, all y'all) that pours love out for her and asks questions about her. I really do! But there is a line.

This is the condensed version of what I've spent the better part of an hour writing.

In advance, you don't really have to do this but for people that don't know — it's considered common courtesy in fanfic circles to ask about using other people's OCs in fanfiction.

Also: this is about fanfiction specifically, not the fun asks that come in, and it isn't a permission thing. I can't stop people from writing about her. I also can't stop how I know I will react, emotionally.

I would be very wary of why people would want to use her in fic and, if it was on AO3, why they felt the need to publish it. My immediate answer to a total stranger doing that is: I would probably be demotivated and depressed by it.

Please don't do it if you respect me as a person. This is for me as much as it is for you. Trust me.

Asheera isn't a self-insert, but I am very emotionally attached to her. She has projections of my transition and experience with transition in her. I would be extremely uncomfortable/borderline depressed to see her depicted in ways that don't conform to what I think of her. I also don't know what "interacting with other Tavs" really means without hard specifics. I do mean literally word-by-word on that.

I'm not pretending that this is a moral high ground or a logical stance. It's all an emotional reaction. I've had experience with my OCs being written in strangers' fics and it never ends well. It's made me possessive and controlling and I recognize that. I also recognize that it is not anyone else's job to monitor my emotions or feelings, so take my word at face value here.

This isn't even touching on the part where I'm actively writing for Asheera, have lots of unused ideas that I wouldn't want to see someone else write, and the clusterfuck it can create on tumblr/AO3 if someone assumes a one-time pass equals free reign to fanfiction.

Please respect my wishes 💜

[bisexualamy]

i keep seeing "i've read fanfic better than some published novels!" passed around again and like. i'm sure you have. they're still two different mediums though and comparing them is not as descriptive as you're implying.

it's like saying "i've seen movies with better writing than some published novels!" i'm sure you have, but that doesn't really say anything about published novels though. they're two different mediums with two different sets of conventions trying to achieve, to some degree, two different things. just because fanfic and novels are two longform written mediums doesn't mean they're the same medium.

[clickbeetle]

for people who have played fangans: which one is your favorite? because truthfully i’ve never been into them, but since i’m making one myself, i would feel better seeing someone else’s.

(also i had a dream that i played one and it was very good. maybe that’s a sign that i’ll enjoy it)

[lord-squiggletits]

Ahhhhh I really didn't imagine it, I still dislike Barber's way of writing Orion/Optimus just as much as I did on the first reading and all it took was rereading a few screencaps from one specific scene.

Literally I don't know which part annoys me more: Jetfire existing in the background solely to go "ORION PAX FUCKING SUCKS AND IS A HYPOCRITE", Orion being written like an edgy asshole who hates everyone, or Soundwave talking like an unhinged terrorist and the narrative expecting me to see Orion as the hypocrite for using violence to arrest terrorists.

Soundwave is seriously like "You have no proof we assassinated the Senate, but if we did assassinate the Senate it would've been justified, but also totally trust us bro, just because we could've hypothetically murdered the entire reigning government doesn't mean that we're violent bro come on just bc we assassinated-- I mean could have hypothetically had the means and cause to kill like a hundred people doesn't mean we were gonna kill anyone else, come on bro why are you calling us violent just bc we think some murder is okay" while Jetfire is in the background like "WOW ORION I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE WILLING TO BE VIOLENT IN RESPONSE TO OTHER PEOPLE BEING VIOLENT. YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN SIDE'S FLAWS EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE LITERALLY DOING AN INVESTIGATION TO DECIDE WHETHER ONE OF YOUR COPS COMMITTED AN UNJUSTIFIED KILLING OR NOT. YOU HAVE DONE LITERALLY NOTHING TO TRY AND FIGHT THE CORRUPTION IN SOCIETY." (Jetfire had no way of knowing about OP and crew fighting the Senate's schemes in Shadowplay and Elegant Chaos, but as a reader it's very frustrating seeing Orion getting lambasted as never having done anything to fight society's corruption when he literally did, and by the time he was even working for Zeta Megatron was already evil and had the whole Senate assassinated.)

Like ughhhh oh my god I could have maybe enjoyed this story under a better writer but as it's written it's some "yet you participate in society, curious" levels of political commentary where at least one character seemingly only exists in the scene to shit on OP (something that happens a lot in Barber's works, like with Pyra Magna and Slide) and where OP is framed as a hypocritical asshole for a reaction that's very understandable given the context.

And also it's weird because Barber wants so badly for you to read Orion as some sort of hypocrite for being against terrorist activities but being willing to employ violence himself to arrest terrorists, yet... it turns out the big twist of the story is that the Decepticons WERE smuggling weapons and Soundwave DID lie to Orion (even if it was unintentionally), thus vindicating Orion's entire distrustful attitude? Like, it seems as if it was supposed to be an ACAB story showing how evil the police are for killing people and how Orion (as a cop) is evil for being a cop that uses violence on behalf of the state. Except uh. Then Barber wrote a plot where the Decepticons literally were smuggling weapons all along (and this is alongside lore from Megatron: Origin where we as the readers know for a fact the Decepticons/Starscream killed the Senate) so.... Like, it just seems to me that if Barber wanted to write an ACAB story about how the state monopoly on violence is bad, he probably shouldn't have written the Decepticons as actually being terrorists who literally did lie about smuggling weapons?

I feel like a better way to write an ACAB/anti-state-monopoly-on-violence would've been to like, explore the way that states take advantage of catastrophe/using scapegoat political movements to gather more power to themselves and justify removing citizens' rights with "it's an emergency, we're taking away your freedoms to protect everyone." Like, maybe Zeta passes some law saying that officers can search citizens without a warrant, which he justifies with the fact that Decepticon terrorism is so rampant that officers need immediate permission to conduct raids/searches. Except this is obviously a problem because people have a right to privacy, and probably the cops are super overzealous and end up arresting innocent people without cause (like idk, maybe just being friends with someone who is sympathetic to the Decepticons gets someone landed in jail? Maybe Jetfire gets arrested bc he's critical of the state and has hung out with Decepticon sympathizers before). So then Orion has an actual "are we the baddies?" moment where he wants to stop the bad people, but he realizes that his side are infringing on people's citizens and justifying police brutality for the sake of a nebulous "greater good," and that even though he and his cops were given greater power to supposedly "protect citizens," in practice they're actually doing great harm to citizens by invading their privacy, creating a surveillance state, and imprisoning people without just cause? Basically "we were given this power to stop terrorists from hurting civilians, but now we're hurting civilians too so are we actually doing any good?" Because that way Orion and his cops would ACTUALLY be in the wrong and their state monopoly on violence would be an actually widespread institutional thing where they're clearly being allowed to do bad things just because they're cops. Not just Orion investigating one singular police killing.

But with the story written as "Orion suspected the Decepticons of murdering the Senate (he's correct about this) but still investigated one of his officers to see if he committed a wrongful murder (literally him paying attention to his own side's wrongdoings, Jetfire), and it turns out the Decepticons WERE smuggling weapons and doing terrorism (Orion was correct about this)" it's just.......... like, Orion may not be morally correct, but his hunches/investigations about the suspected criminal activity were literally correct. AND HE WAS WILLING TO DO THIS INVESTIGATION IN THE FIRST PLACE. But for some reason he's still framed as if he's an asshole for this? Even though this is a point in the pre-war lore where Megatron won't back down from violence and has lost his way from his original pure intentions, so it's not like Orion can just go "let's put down our weapons and be friends and mutually trust each other to not stab each other in the back."

It just feels as if Barber's intentions to write an ACAB story where Orion is framed as being too judgmental and quick to be violent don't line up with the actual events of the story. The story is desperately trying to call Orion a hypocrite, but he really just seems as if he's reacting understandably to the events that are happening around him, so there's a real dissonance here where I don't understand why the ACAB story had the cops be right about the Decepticons committing terrorism, and I'm also supposed to see Orion as an asshole for correctly not trusting the Decepticons???

[astro-b-o-y-d]

One of those ‘non-x fans; pick something that happens in the show’ but it’s about Color Show and the options are 'pick which of these writing choices pissed you off the most’

[thesmokinpossum]

when an almost 30 years old guy who currently live with a 19 years old girl tell me that he doesn’t want to live with a 46 years old guy and mention the age gap as the reason 

[todayisafridaynight]

huh...wuh..accidentally hit daigo with the bpd beam (unintended projection is scary) in sumn im writing but now im thinking daigo could totally have it chairman daigo is better at managing it but 2006 daigo is already doing bad whats another thing on the pile hes got the risky behaviour he's got the impulsiveness maybe the unstable relationships (im reaching i think)..maybe im just smarter than everyone and right and awesome wow..

(i rambled sorry) (my bad) (headcanons are so fun for me sorry)

you come into my house and proclaim yourself smarter than me when it comes to daigo dojima i will make your execution quick and painless

unfortunately you're right in this one instance cause i dont know a licka anything about BPD so i'll SIMPLY have to take your word on it. whats another trouble for the boy yk