#god fucking forbid i admit what i don't know and that i looked stuff up to learn. which i did on purpose.

[crimeronan]

grown ass woman and you didn't even know Rhodesia? Please pray some Paradox Interactive games like eu4 or hoi4. look it up. Please this is depressing if even weird smart girls don't know basic history

hey guys. get a load of this fucking moron.

[lowkeyrobin]

MCYT with a reader who would literally get into a fist fight for them?? Literally, if someone even looks at them wrong reader will throw hands. It's literally that meme (Random person) "GET YO FUCKING DOG BITCH" (MCYT) "it don't bite" "YES IT FUCKIN DO-" I'm sorry I'm feeling silly 😔

OH MY FUCKING GOD I LOVE THIS PROMPT AND THE REFERENCE TO THIS MEME LMFAOOO OH MY LORD BSHWJRHEJJAJW ; very vine oriented so I apologize. you threw me into a loop referencing that

MCYT ; "anytime, anywhere, I'd beat a bitches ass for you"

includes ; tommyinnit, ranboo, badlinu, nihachu, slimecicle, quackity, & foolish gamers

warnings ; language, talk of blood/injuries, physical fighting, vine cringe because I got very carried away and you can tell

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

he was one of those kids in high school that made light offensive jokes but would never fight anyone over anything, he's not a violent person at all other than in his jokes

but God forbid some random person look at you two weird in public, you're on their ass

you're more offended that they were judging Tommy at all, you couldn't care that they were judging you

"sorry, do you have a problem?" You squint your eyes at the person, "me and my boyfriend are just trying to shop and you keep following us around and staring, like, can I help you?"

just a teenage Karen

yall do take it outside when the motherfucker follows you out and begins to record you

you beat this fuckers ass to a PULP

Tommy's just holding the few bags of stuff you'd purchased staring down, jaw on the fucking floor like "Oh my God wtf do I do"

he had the vlog camera on so he kinda got it all on video before he pulled you away from the person

yall sprinted the hell away bc the security guards were running towards yall 😭😭

#neveridentified

#the person admitted guilt anyways and said they were planning to hurt you so no point in trying to track yall down for self defense

#i barely know the law shush

RANBOO

they just kind of accepted that you were like this

"I do not endorse violence unless you are y/n. I can't make them un-violent. I have tried, they're a vicious guard dog now"

hurricane Katrina? more like hurricane tortilla when you enter the building

yk the free style dance teacher vine? that'll be ranboo out in public and someone will stare at them all weird and you'll glare back

"walk away, walk away" you mumble, watching the person hurrily walk away as they see you like glaring daggers into their skull

your dynamic is the one vine that's like "Oh can I have a sip of your water?" and "It's not water or vodka, it's vinegar" "bitch what"

then you'll go make angsty edge lord posts to the one bojack horseman audio "I'm not a violent dog" and insert a clip of you beating the shit out of someone in high school

FREDDIE BADLINU

you post the "look at all those chickens" vine on your Twitter everytime you see a hate comment made for one of you

you love instigating fights w people online it's the funniest fucking thing

if you don't know how to reply to some dumbass edgelord response you'll just spam the guacamole vine until they shut up

"wait, why does y/n have so many soaps?"

"MIND YOUR FUCKIN BUISNESS DAVID"

Freddie's response to your violence is usually the saxophone seal vine. he genuinely laughs everytime he sees you fighting w someone online

sometimes you'll stream it while you wait for a response and while you're fighting online trolls who've been brainwashed by Twitter

"You're gay?!?!?!?11??11"

insert the "ms keisha dead" vine and the battle is over idk what to say

fight fire with fire I guess

NIKI NIHACHU

she hates yet loves that you'd fight ppl for her

oh, someone treated her wrong? you'll be trending on Twitter for fighting the person

#y/u/n will literally be at number 1 for a week

people edit the fight too

she appreciates it though, even though she doesn't exactly like to promote violence, she'll accept it from you

"Oh, don't worry about them, they're just a little... nervous around people sometimes"

"nervous? girl that mf is SNARLING at me"

you'll see a post that's like "me when someone tries to start shit w my s/o" and reply with the "hahaha I do that" vine

when I tell you she CACKLES reading online fights with people 😭🙏

CHARLIE SLIMECICLE

"get the F off my yard!" proceeds to have to drag you away from situations where someone's actin a little funny in a /neg way

he genuinely thinks you fighting people for him is funny

he'll tell the stories on stream and to his friends like "dude they fucked this guy up, I honestly feel bad for laughing"

honestly most the time it's people victimizing themselves

like that one meme where the lady very obviously and fakely falls over that bench on LIVE TELEVISION.

he's your biggest supporter

he's the old guy from that one vine of the kid singing "Oh wait a minute mister postman" and he does the whole ass high note

"here's y/n fighting someone for idk what because they're talking to the police 😋"

you're a problem at this point

QUACKITY

you've physically fought so many wild racists for him it's crazy

he'll gladly cheer you on

"AHHHH COME GET YO DOG BRO HELP"

"Oh it don't bite"

you proceed to bite the bitch

online fights are usually responded w the purple teletubby twerking meme

"L don't be a weak ass racist pussy next time"

you fight Logan Paul for some reason??? Twitter drama mostly

don't worry quackitys there to watch

17-3 don't worry... ehehehrhahahha

when he tells you that you need to stop instigating fights you send him the "They ask you how you are but you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine" meme BAHDNHAHA

FOOLISH GAMERS

"YOU KNOW WHAT DUDE? IM OUTTA HERE" vine in a nutshell with you two. I can't explain this but it makes sense I swear

"whatd you do to your eyebrows?" meme except its "Whyd you fight that person!?" "I don't really know!"

Twitter fights are like "and they were roommates!" "ohmygodtheywereroomates" I swear to fucking god

you love instigating shit with Twitter trolls

when you stand up for him/reply to edgelord haters for him he replies with the "country boy I love youuuuuuu" vine

"GIVE ME YOUR FUCKIN MONEY!" vine with the law and order intro is literallt how physical fights go

let's just say some stalker edgelords tracked you guys down at the streamer awards...

HE AND PUNZ GENUINLEY CHEER YOU ON

here you go trending on Twitter again

[oneatlatime]

The Tales of Ba Sing Se PART 2

The Tale of Zuko

Maybe I should make a Zuko's Stupid Faces post.

Zuko and Iroh's whole dynamic in one frame.

This girl is cute. Total girl next door type. She does have fairly horrible taste in men, but she's also very cute.

I just want to take a minute to point out a VERY important distinction. Zuko is not going out on a date. Zuko is not taking a girl out on a date. A girl is taking Zuko out on a date. She's got that arm in a death grip. Not only is that a clever reversal of the usual hetero dynamic, but I'm convinced it's the only way Zuko would ever get any action, so it's also in character.

I know Zuko's social skills are non-existent, but apart from the blow up at the waiter he is actually trying. He's failing, but I have to give him points for trying.

The way this girl's voice actress says "You juggled" made my ears very happy. And the beleaguered "yes. I juggled." is equally good.

Zuko! Tell her you did sword stuff! That's something you can actually do!

It gives me hope that someone so steeped in the most toxic parts of the Fire Nation, for so long, can STILL be so bad at lying, but it would certainly be a handy skill right about now.

I take it back. This girl does have good taste in men. Zuko's such a softie when it counts. He still sucks at being normal, but he just risked his identity because the girl he didn't even plan to go out with was a little bit sad.

This girl is the best.

Ha! He kissed her back! He Did! I saw that!

I take back what I took back. Zuko's evil again. He made my new favourite girl droop.

I love that Iroh's waiting up for him while making it look like he isn't waiting up for him. How many times on their ship, when Zuko was out Blue Spiriting, do you think Iroh found a reason to be randomly sat on the deck at 3 am?

Character development baby! Can you really call yourself loyal to the fire nation if you admit to having a good time on a date with an Earth Kingdom girl?

The Tale of Momo

Pretty.

That was a FILTHY bait and switch. For one shining moment, I had Appa back.

They should take that to June.

Not Appa.

Also not Appa.

I did not have 'Momo gets gaslit' on my Avatar Bingo card. Nor did I have 'interspecies animal friendship angst.'

Are these cat things the raccoons of the Avatar universe? Or the squirrels? Urban scroungers?

I love the idea that this guy just grabs the closest squirrel, sticks a hat on it, and expects it to dance. He got lucky with Momo.

I thought they were taking the animals to the pound, but this is very much a butcher. Which means that in Ba Sing Se, they eat varmint. Stay away from the hot dog carts.

That's very effective Simglish.

Thank god for thumbs.

Aw they're friends! This has Aristocats vibes, when O'Malley and the girl cat are getting together near the end.

And one final Fuck You, because god forbid Momo's tale ends on a happy note.

I'm guessing that's an Appa print, but couldn't it also be a platypus bear?

Something about the cats standing vigil over Momo's grief gets to me.

Final thoughts

I'll go through each of these stories individually, but first some general comments.

Last episode was kind of intense, and definitely ended on a downer (not that this one didn't), so it was a good call to at least start this episode off on something a bit gentler.

I was really impressed with the soundtrack throughout. Apart from the Tale of Momo where it's the animal noises that are front and centre, the music is doing a lot of work in every story, the strings especially. The strings are doing emotional work, plot stuff, and even humour. Seriously, next time you rewatch this episode, pay attention to the strings. These shorts are actually very light on dialogue (apart from Sokka's), but they don't feel that way because the music is doing the talking.

I'm assuming that this all took place over three days at least, since Iroh, Zuko, and Momo's tales seem to end on different evenings. So I don't think calling this episode 'day in the life' is accurate. My bad. It also occurs to me that this kind of episode format would be a great way of showing time has passed. If they had had an episode like this in the Northern Water Tribe - after Katara beat the crap out of Poophead but before the Fire Nation attacked - I would have liked the pacing of the whole finale arc better.

On to the stories!

The Tale of Toph and Katara

It might be because I didn't understand what this episode was doing yet, but this one didn't do much for me. It was good to see Toph have a moment of self-doubt, but I never would have assumed, based on her previous behaviour, that her appearance was her proverbial weak spot. Katara did a really good job at building her back up, and she was delightfully (and appropriately) understated for once. When she's reassuring Aang of something (especially in Season 1) Katara tends to got from 0 to 60 very quickly, so it was nice to see her be reassuring in a quiet, non-steamrolling way. Is this Katara character development? Apart from the fact that Toph quite literally got her eyeballs sanded, nothing much in this episode stuck out to me. Except those bitchy voices. Those were like knives in my brain.

The Tale of Iroh

So many questions! Is Lu Ten buried in Ba Sing Se? How is that grave not defaced yet? How did Iroh get a copy of his son's picture? They lost everything at the North Pole, right? Did he ask the people who got him their passports for a picture of his son too? Does Zuko know/remember that it's his cousin's birthday? If so, why isn't he there offering Iroh the world's most awkward hug? Given the fact that Iroh spent the whole day helping people, including a very misguided youth, and given that Iroh says something along the lines of "if only I could have helped you [his son]" does this imply that Lu Ten was going through a crisis at the time of his death? Was he misguided like the wannabe mugger? Is Zuko not the first Fire Nation Prince that Iroh has had to guide through an identity/existential crisis? Is Zuko going to be the first time Iroh succeeds at guiding a Fire Nation prince through an identity/existential crisis? Does Iroh live in perpetual fear of failing Zuko the way he seems to believe he failed his son? Am I reading too much into this?

To be quite honest, this story would have hit me harder if I had remembered going into it that Iroh had a son. Lu Ten takes being a textual ghost to a whole new level. Also the 'In honor of Mako' text confused me. And worried me a little.

The Tale of Aang

I liked this one! Aang can't help Appa at the moment, but he can help all the Appa stand ins who aren't fortunate enough to have an Aang to help them. Aang is a nice little boy! Of course he'd free a bunch of animals without thinking about the consequences and the epic pile of platypus bear dung he's just landed the zookeeper in with the Dai Li. I liked the animal designs. I liked the earthbending. I liked the Siamese cat representation. I loved cabbage man. I think that, if Appa could have known, he would have approved. I also think that I'm once again reading too much into this. it was nominally a fun fluff piece elaborating on a established emotional conflict (Appa missing), which gave it just enough weight to be slightly more than a fluff piece.

The Tale of Sokka

I am entirely serious when I say that 'poetry bouncer' is my favourite joke so far in the WHOLE show. I love absurdity played entirely earnestly. It's fridge funny too. The longer I contemplate the implications, the funnier it gets. What past event required a poetry bouncer be introduced? He's not there to protect the students or the teacher; he's here to reinforce the structure of the Haiku by force. Was he hired by the concept of Haiku? Is Haiku taken so seriously in Ba Sing Se that he's needed to break up cat fights between students? There is a rich well of haiku-related hijinks just hinted at by his presence, and I want to know more.

Sokka is so often his own worst enemy that it makes sense that he's taken out by his own hubris. That fortune teller lady was absolutely a crook, but she did one hell of an accurate cold read on Sokka.

The Tale of Zuko

Credits tell me that the girl's name is Jin. I would like to congratulate the creators of Avatar for managing to illustrate romantic interest so palpably without resorting to heart eyes and steam whistle noises. Nothing wrong with those; I'm just impressed by how much of Jin's interest in Zuko you can feel. Also, she'd better be more than a single episode character, because I need more of this sweetheart. She's a real contender for displacing Toph as my favourite girl in the cast.

To be fair to Zuko, he did make Jin droop (UNFORGIVABLE), but it was also the right call. He can't date her honestly. It IS complicated. And I don't think any Earth Kingdom girl (worth dating) would knowingly go out with Fire Nation royalty. Jin wanted Lee the Tea Boy. Try as he might, Zuko can't stop being Zuko. I would argue that he shouldn't stop being Zuko. His flashback mom told him not to forget who he was, so I'd also argue that the narrative doesn't want Zuko to stop being Zuko either. I guess it's a case of right girl, wrong time. It looks like she's cool with him being a firebender, but firebending and being the Fire Lord's son are not the same magnitude of hurdle to dating. Maybe when the war's over they can hook up again.

The Tale of Momo

I think this qualifies as cruelty to the audience. I got the impression that this story was crafted borderline maliciously, to make the viewers suffer angst dump after angst dump.

I liked seeing things from Momo's perspective. I loved the animal noises, which really got across a shocking amount of emotion. Those, combined with body language, were as effective as any spoken script. These cartoon people really know how to use their medium.

It absolutely kills me that Momo is missing Appa, and since he doesn't understand human speech, he can't even be comforted by knowing that his humans are actively looking for him. If you've ever seen one of your pets missing another of your pets in real life, you know there's nothing worse than the helplessness that comes with not being able to explain or magically summon their friend back from the kennel, or the vet, or the dead. All you can do is give them hugs. I'm glad that Momo got a street cat support group at the end of the episode, but the animal grief at the beginning was hard to get through. It's sweet to have confirmation that Momo sees Appa as family, but surely they could have showed that to us in a way that doesn't make me need to hug the stuffing out of my own pets?

Final Final Thoughts for real this time

This episode wrings you out a little. Fully a third of the stories are about Appa, despite him not being there. At least half are about missing someone who isn't there. At least half are bittersweet.

I liked this episode format. I hope they use it again next season. Only Toph and Katara's tale felt too short to me. The rest did such a good job at drawing me in, that when I went back to check timestamps I was surprised by how short these stories are.

I'm going to go eat too much chocolate.

[saeist]

there was a faint tapping on his window late at night again, interrupting nagi's rare late night thoughts of missing his own home back in kanagawa. nagi sighs and walks over to his window to open it a bit to let you in.

“you look like shit” was the first thing you say upon entering his dorm room late at night. nagi rolls his eyes and closes the window. “hello to you too i guess” he mumbles. nagi watches you drop your bag on the foot of his bed

“what brings you here today?” he asks, eyes watching you maneuver your way around HIS dorm room like it was yours. to be fair, his dorm was basically your dorm now too.��

nagi recalls every little thing you left in here whenever you decide to crash at his place just like your spare toothbrush in his bathroom, your fluffy slippers hidden in the depths of his closet. (god forbid reo ever finds that or else nagi will never hear the end of it), your unkept notes just lying there on his desks and drawers and many more

“i’m always here” you smiled lazily, finally settling in on your side of his bed. nagi simply hums and crawls inside his duvet. pulling them just below his nose where half of his face is covered. 

you take a peek at his lying figure. he was staring up at the ceiling and not playing on his phone for once in his life. usually, he’d be yapping about how the reo forced him to run five laps around the field that day or how his team in the game sucks literal ass but tonight, he was too quiet for your liking.

obviously it bothered you quite a bit. he was your best friend after all 

“you okay?” you ask. breaking the quiet tension in the room. it took a while for nagi to respond. “... i guess” he answered quietly. you sit up and watch him beside you silently. 

you observe how his breathing was shallow almost as if he’s calming himself down. you opted on just keeping him company without saying anything. one of the very few activities you two do together. 

not like he’d admit it out loud but nagi does like having you around. you don’t suck the energy out of him unlike the rest of the world that basically drain him for no apparent reason.

but that goes out the window when you hear quiet sniffles. you scoot closer next to him, hovering over his lying state. “sei?” you call. nagi clears his throat and mutters a quick “what?”

“are you really okay?” you ask the question once more. there’s no point of lying to you now. nagi was always there for you when you need someone to talk to and now here you were, returning the favor.

“.. i'm not sure” he confessed. sitting up so he could look at you with puffy eyes. it was rare for him to open up his emotions to someone. he thinks you might be the second person who has seen him this vulnerable. the other being reo.

your heart aches at the sight of him like this. he was usually the laid back person in the room, the ‘i don’t give a single fuck’ type of person but everyone has their limits.

after a few minutes of silence, nagi speaks up. “i just feel a little overwhelmed recently” he opens up, scratching his ear as a nervous habit. 

“things have been pretty overwhelming during practices sometimes.. i don't know, i really don't know..” nagi rambles, brows furrowing in annoyance just thinking about everything

you don’t say anything as you let him continue rant about his own misfortunes for the past few weeks. it’s all you could offer. by the time he finishes, he was panting. his shoulders tense as ever and it looks like he won’t be sleeping anytime soon.

nagi's eyes snap open when you wrap your arms around him. he barely noticed you creeping closer when he was going off about everything. hesitantly, he hugs back. his long limbs circling around your frame. 

nagi catches a whiff of your hair that smelled faintly like mint, just like his own shampoo. even if it was just for a second, he got distracted that you do in fact use his stuff in the bathroom. strangely enough he feels the weight on his shoulders slowly lift just by a simple gesture from you. his mind going blank the longer you hold him. 

you are warm. the exact opposite of nagi. to nagi, you make him feel like he's okay. maybe that’s why he liked being around you. maybe that’s why he lets you stay over at his dorm room at any given time. maybe you bring a sense of home to him that nagi yearns for

you are nagi's safe space and tonight is the night he realizes that. 

another rewrite from one of my old blogs :p

[tatachin]

A Record and A Question | Identity V (第五人格）

Greetings to the esteemed fan base. I am the newest victim of IDV propaganda, finally enticed by the sheer ridiculousness of the Composer's gameplay, sent to me by an old time friend who's been playing this game for as long as I have known them. Granted, I did start a good two weeks prior writing this post however with recent events, it has come to my attention that I Must inquire the following:

Is it just me, or does Frederick constantly get targeted first?

I have no fucking clue on where to begin with this. I admit quite shamelessly that I am a coward and very new to the PvP game scene, previously only religiously playing otome games and then mmorpgs (PvE type). Henceforth I chose to solely play as a decoder (after taking a liking to the Composer's play style) FOOLISH THINKING, that I could avoid confrontation with the Hunters. AND YET, as you can probably deduce from my question, I am CONSTANTLY targeted first.

Does the man have sweet juicy ass that attracts hunters in general? Are Composers just so rare to find that hunters can't help but to HAVE to chase the one guy with the tuning fork that speeds him away?

I quote this conversation yesterday, with my dearest friend who got me into this mess in the first place, AD VERBATIM,

"Friend: Fast paced transitioning like Emil's and Charles' are mostly used to dodge hit last second/to mind games in more complicated maps because they can pass through certain obstacles

:Yours are

:Fancy speedup

:LOOK HE'S A DECODER HES NOT SUPPOSED TO CONTAIN HUNTER OKAY

:HES JUST NOT BUILT FOR THAT

:THAT'S JUST YOU!!!!!!

Me> aND YET

>GESTURES AT MY 176 SECONDS CONTAINING

>fOUR cIPHERS

>NONE OF THEM WAS MINE BECAUSE I IMMEDIATELY GOT HUNTED DOWN BY THE MOTHERFUCKER OF A HUNTER

>I AM LEVELING UP THE WRONG SKILLTREE AS AN EARLY GAMER MAN WHAT THE FUCK

Friend: HAHAHAHAHHA

: Picks support

: Levels up on attack"

My dearest friend, grits teeth, has been unabashedly laughing at me for the sheer misfortune of attracting all the hunters in the world. You may laugh as well, fellow netizen.

Not every single match of course, I would've known that the world was dead set on killing me off first in that way but No. Maybe a 7/10 matches, I'd get targeted first. Maybe twice or thrice I'd get the doki dokis and nyoom away in time, God forbid if I get tracked down then on the small chance I'd still successfully kite for a while and then get the fuck away from the hunter. Or maybe, just maybe, for that peaceful few matches, I can decode. In. Peace. But nooooooooo, next match they'll DEFINITELY come back with Vengeance.

And so, as you can see, I am truly in a pickle. Please send help.

For clarification, as some of you may think "awww this newbie's throwing a fit over skill issues"

First and foremost,

Yes I am. I will admit it.

2. No, I do not vault over stuff for no reason anymore (yes I used to, as Gardener in the first 3 or 4 days before I got Composer, sue me)

3. I don't constantly miss combos (I know 3 misses will alert, collectively and not consecutively), so I'm definitely sure that's not the issue, I am pretty consistent with my combos usually reaching 100+ on lvl 2 IF I ever get a peaceful time ciphering away from the hunter/them having another unfortunate soul to harass.

4. I'm... Well. I'd like to think I'm a decent player as a Composer as I do have some mastery over his kit. It's to the point that I have 100% deduction on Frederick as I have played him religiously for these two weeks and yes, of course clearing the escape using tuning fork missions were one of those that got quickly cleared due to the sheer frequency of me getting hunted.

THUS AND THEREFORE I REQUEST OF THEE, AN ANSWER.

IS COMPOSER HOT SHIT FOR FIRST GRABS OR IS IT TRULY!!!! TRULY JUST ME.

Fellow Composer mains please reply, I am in dire need of validation.

Your truly,

A 2 week old Composer main, fresh off a match where I contained Fool's Gold for 3 ciphers in the circus map, got chaired, then saved by Embalmer, then the man gave up when I speeded away and he chased Embalmer in the seats while I, trying to realize my Norton x Frederick delusions, ran back to decode the last cipher machine right next to them.

(Eventually someone else completed the last cipher and along with the rest of the crew we made our merry little way to the gate, Fool's Gold randomly throwing his silly little pickaxe around while we left behind a graffiti mess and the poor fellow as we escaped. A bittersweet victory indeed.)

[foxlightwitch]

"Traitor! How could you do this?!"

I sit on a pile of ruble and look down at him. Captain Steel, the nigh invulnerable leader of the team, can barely move as his muscles refuse to respond to his will. There is a medical term for this disease, but what do I know. I'm no doctor.

"I know, right," I say with a chuckle. "I always wanted to help people. Who could have expected I would turn. But it was surprisingly easy, once I admitted to myself that the people I was helping were not the people I should be helping."

"What do you mean?"

"You really want to know? You never bothered to listen to me, when I worked for the Organisation. I bet you never even went through my file. I was just a handy first aid kit you'd take on missions and stuff it in the locker when you were done."

"So you decided to take revenge, is that it?"

"Revenge?" I say incredulously. "Do you think there is something that you did that would make me seek revenge?"

"I don't know, assholes like you always blubber about how everyone wronged you."

"You still have your sense of humour," I laugh. "But no, I'm not petty enough for that."

"Then what? Was it money? Did they just buy you?"

"Bingo."

"Well that's just pathetic."

"Maybe it is. But as you may know, everyone needs to eat. When I was with you, I couldn't even afford to live in the compound. Not on the alms I got as payment. And of course I couldn't get a job elsewhere."

"Why?"

"Look at me, monologuing like a proper villain."

The fight is over. The heroes team is down and cops scattered when they saw the situation. My new friends are loading spoils into a van or mopping up heroes, who could still be a threat.

"OK, I'll indulge you. It's not like you're going anywhere.

"You know I never finished elementary school? Some learning disability, the doctor said. My brain didn't keep new information very well, but everyone just thought I was stupid. Medication cost an arm and a leg, so I had to go without it. I started working when I was maybe ten. Odd jobs for scraps. My mom died a few years later. Cancer. It was before my powers fully manifested. Now I could heal her just like this."

I snap my fingers.

"Well boo-fucking-hoo. You're not the only one with rough childhood."

"Isn't that right. Maybe someone should do something about it then, no? Give poor kids some fighting chance. Well I got mine, with my powers. I tried to help people. I healed them for a fraction of what regular treatment cost. And you know what they did? They put me in prison. Something about practicing without licence and undermining the economy. God forbid affordable healthcare for the poor. Anyway, that's where the Organisation came in. No education, no experience, ex-felon... I was a bargain. At the time they didn't know I could give cancer as well as treat it. But I could eliminate rejection of cyber-augmentics, make everyone survive the experimental treatments to make new heroes, heal rich sponsors and of course keep you lot alive, when things went south on a mission. All for minimum wage, no benefits and no thanks. I mean I didn't need to worry about dental, but when the city decided to close the homeless shelter, where I was staying, I decided that enough is enough."

The Captain doesn't respond. Maybe he can't anymore.

"Oi, Lifeline!" someone from the van calls my handle. "Come on, we're done here!"

"Seems like my cue to leave," I say as I get up from my concrete throne.

"Wait!"

His speech slurred, his breathing shallow.

"Don't leave me like this."

"Why shouldn't I? You're valuable, the Organisation will pay for whatever treatment you'll need. And even if they don't, you have enough money to afford it yourself. You might never walk again, but at least you'll have time to think about our little conversation."

"Please!"

I crouch and gently touch his back.

"This is the last time I help you. If I see you again as Captain Steel, I won't hold back. And I can do much worse than this."

With a moment of concentration, I unblock the neurotransmitter receptors of his peripheral nerves. Or something like that. I'm no doctor.

You are a superhero who joined a team for pay and benefits. However, the pay is minimum wage since you have no education and they made it so you are blackballed in the civilian world so you can’t work there either. So imagine their surprise when you joined the villain’s team.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Honestly, ever since the writers admitted that RWBY cheated with the Staff, I’m just wondering if they’re going to go all the way and break it’s no resurrection rule as well? Are they going to bring back Penny a third time or god forbid, Pyrrha? I can only imagine the mental gymnastics people would make. Salem wants to bring back her loved one? That’s wrong and she should be punished. RWBY do it? Oh it’s totally fine.

I really really hope they wouldn't pull that crap but fuck I don't trust the writers to do anything right these days. I mean they really made sure to kill kill kill Penny this time around and I would like to think they wouldn't be dumb enough to put Penny through more pain, and gosh Pyrrha....she's been gone for so long it would feel weird to have her come back suddenly....Look I normally don't mind doing weird stuff to bring characters back from the dead, this show makes me pray they let the dead rest in piece because I know that poor soul will be done so dirty by the show.

I could see the show try and give Ozpin his own body again so Oscar doesn't have to merge to Ozpin and maybe just maybe they could make that work but that's about the only thing I could maybe see working as a cheat because Oscar....he doesn't deserve to lose himself completely like this in a 'death' so to speak that no one would really know he even died or what happened to the Oscar they knew. (I mean the family he left behind when he ran off from home). But even so I feel like the writers would manage to screw that one up as well.

[arielmagicesi]

Hi, sorry. So I am new to the st/efvater world, and I've only read one of her books (raven boys), and like I see you posting stuff about her a lot, but only like little bits and pieces, and I feel like I'm missing something and don't understand what's going on cause I'm not really in the fandom; I've just read one book, and don't really know anything about her. I'm sorry, this is rambling mess, but if you could enlighten me a little bit I would appreciate it.

OK I took a while to respond and I’m gonna try to be objective and polite but there isn’t a whole lot of objective politeness in this soul of mine, but I will try.

Maggie St/efvater (I only spell it that way so it doesn’t show up in her tag and annoy people, I’ll just call her Maggie for the rest of this post) is this fairly popular YA author, and she wrote the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, the Scorpio Races, and the Raven Cycle. Her writing is very good (I have some bones to pick about it as a writer but mostly it’s pretty good) and the Raven Cycle in particular has gained a big fandom because it’s an excellent series. I guess you would know cause you’ve read TRB- the concept is unique, it has cool magic stuff, there’s fascinating character concepts, and the teenagers do a lot of realistic teenager stuff like being annoying and cursing and either doing their homework or not, etc. And if I haven’t made it abundantly clear with my posts, a lot of us in the fandom fell in love with the main characters for many reasons, but especially because they represent parts of ourselves that aren’t often represented. Abuse victims who don’t react in a Good Abuse Victim way, poor teenagers who scrape and claw to get out of their shitty towns, mentally ill kids who have ugly unpleasant symptoms, girls who are feminists but whose feminism is a little messy because they grow up in a terrible small town, etc.

Unfortunately, the development of the Raven Cycle fandom online, like the development of ANY goddamn fandom on the accursed Internet, led to some gross pockets of fandom. In the second book, an abusive character called Ka/vinsky shows up, and some heavy subtext suggests that he’s gay and into one of the main characters, Ronan. He’s absolutely awful and monstrous to Ronan and the others, but you know how fandom is, they started shipping it and being like “Ka/vinsky’s just a misunderstood cinnamon roll uwu” and generally being the worst about it. Additionally, some parts of fandom started hating on the two lower-class characters, Adam and Blue, for not always being sweet and nice about the class privilege of all their wealthy friends, and for reacting "badly” to literal abuse and sexism.  so the fandom is a mess, yeah

In the second and third books, also, (spoiler alert I guess? I mean if you follow my blog you can’t avoid knowing this haha) it’s suggested and then made all but direct canon, that Ronan is gay and has a crush on Adam. So, like, everyone shipped it because they’re a great ship and it was pretty obvious it was gonna be made canon in book four.

But Maggie interacts a lot with the fandom online, and obviously the clashing of fandom issues like this with any author would lead to some mess, but the way she treated it was....... terrible. She would make jokes about Ronan being Gansey’s “dog” and things like that. She milked the whole “writing a gay character” thing for all it was worth, and would never really say “hey, Adam and Ronan are a romantic thing” but would hint at it constantly, which, if you don’t know, is agonizing to watch when you’re desperate for any representation of your identity. She eventually said “I realize you guys are used to being baited, so don’t worry, the ‘other kiss’ will be between the people you hope it’ll be between” or something like that. And she would talk about Ronan being gay, but never address whether Adam was bi, and god forbid those words were used in the books. In the fourth book, although they do actually kiss and presumably get together, they don’t talk about it, and they never use the words “gay” or “bisexual.” Her excuse was that she’s writing for a world without labels. Leaving aside that that’s bullshit and a straight* woman doesn’t get to say that when we are out here in a homophobic world and saying our labels out loud is a sign of pride, she actually didn’t write a world without labels. The aforementioned Ka/vinsky is constantly using homophobic slurs to describe Ronan, boys at the private school make homophobic jokes, Adam’s dad makes lowkey homophobic remarks, etc. So labels are OK if they’re nasty and negative and used against you, but you’re never allowed to say who you are out loud.

When she gets called out on this whole mess- or a number of other things**- her response is to block people, tell people “if you are hostile one more time you’ll be blocked,” to reply to private posts by teenagers, to sic her army of clueless fans on young LGBT mentally ill readers, to claim that she’s being bullied and attacked, to make vague posts talking about “callout culture” and how it’s mature to avoid “discourse,” etc. I talked a while back about how I’ve made several fully thought-out posts critiquing her, but when I sent her a polite ask about her next book, she replied linking me to one of my own joke posts about “hating” her, making it clear that she apparently has me down on some sort of list of haters or something. And at least she responded privately, so that her other fans didn’t attack me, which has happened to other younger fans before.

She claims to be an ally, but she only really wants the ally points. She’ll talk your ear off about how brave she is for “writing an on-page queer relationship” as a straight woman, but when actual queer teenagers critique her for the way she writes it, she throws a fit and absolutely refuses to listen. She doesn’t want to do the work.

Additionally, she is writing a follow-up series called “the dreamer trilogy” which she drops constant hints about on her social media. It will center on Ronan (naturally, because she’s admitted Ronan is her self-insert and has butchered his character development for the sake of giving him a life identical to hers and fulfilling her fantasies of driving fast cars 24/7 and being an asshole with no consequences) and she’s making it increasingly obvious that none of the other characters we all fell in love with will feature at all. And basically any plotllines we enjoyed, she scraps (often out of spite?), and any plotlines we hate, she makes sure to write tons about (I’m talking about the magical artifact community. No one cares. We started reading for the house of psychics and Glendower and Gwenllian, not the fucking Greenmantles and their haunted doll babies or whatever).

The fandom obviously responded with like “ooh! more Pynch!” because like, fandoms like ships, but ALSO BECAUSE some of us are goddamn LGBT teenagers who are starving for representation and we want to see that “on page queer relationship” she brags about. And yet, at every opportunity, she makes remarks like, “This won’t be a romance. It won’t be the cuddle trilogy. It won’t have relationship drama, that doesn’t interest me. It won’t be fanservice. It won’t be lovey dovey, it won’t be cute, etc.” No, I don’t want fanservice or drama or the cuddle trilogy. But given her history, when Maggie says shit like that, I get worried, as someone who’s been baited a thousand times before. Doesn’t anyone see how awful it is to dangle representation like this? To say “ooh, look, someone who has the same identity as you? Juuuust kidding I’m not writing about it?” She can’t just say what we want to hear, which is “Adam will be there. I’ll say the word gay. I’ll say the word bisexual. Their relationship will be treated as real as Blue and Gansey’s or as any other relationship I write. Not the main focus of the plot, but THERE.” Because she’s not GOING to do any of those things, because writing actual gay relationships makes her uncomfortable. But she can’t say that or she’ll lose her sales.

And when she says all this bullshit about “I won’t write a romance” she gets so much FUCKING praise from her straight readers who think she’s the sun and fucking stars because their shit brand of feminism thinks all romances are equal and romance is insipid drivel and that a feminist book, apparently, is one token white girl who has a pink switchblade being sort-of in the background of a bunch of rich boys fucking around. I’m not saying I didn’t like that very book and that I don’t love that girl and her switchblade, but Maggie has to actually LEARN and IMPROVE and not go backwards. If she wants all this credit for gay representation, she has to actually write gay representation. And if not, I’m not congratulating her for “not writing relationship drama!!!!” because all that says to me is “yuck, I’m not writing gay stuff.” She says “relationship drama doesn’t interest me” and yet she wrote pages upon pages of Blue’s mother making out with a hit man. Relationship drama sure does seem to interest her. This isn’t her taking a Stand against romance, it’s her finding a way to make homophobia seem cool and progressive.

So yeah. That’s why she pisses me off.

*I know I know, “she’s never said her sexuality! How can you call her straight?” On the off chance she’s bisexual (she’s married to a man with kids), that doesn’t excuse her homophobic bullshit. She’s acting like an asshole straight person so yeah I’m gonna call her straight.

**Here are some other problems she’s been called out for and her bullshit reactions:

-Blue is basically the only female character and has no female friends or anything. Maggie says “well none of them had friends!” OK so why isn’t there another girl in the group? Why is her family the only other women who have page time besides villains and other relatives of main characters?

-Gansey gives Adam a lot of grief for not being fond of Gansey’s wealth, but Adam never makes Gansey apologize for blaming Adam for the abuse he endured? Maggie doesn’t have a comment on this, I don’t think.

-In book four, Ronan and Adam make racist jokes at the expense of the One (1) character of color, Henry Cheng. Maggie didn’t address this outright because “spoilers” but made a post about it saying that it wasn’t meant to be a racist joke, it was a throwback to some random joke from book one, and any good reader would know that.

-Blue isn’t a very intersectional feminist, which is fine, but it’s never really addressed, apparently because “all the characters are damn fools!” Who never get any character development except for Adam whose development essentially consists of “I stopped being prejudiced against the rich!” (and lots of other personal things but still)

Yeah, that’s about all I can think of. This didn’t end up being very neutral but I have class in 10 minutes and yeah this is hella long I just wanted to get it all out. I hope I don’t get shit for this, but you know what, anons? Go ahead, send me stuff saying I’m a nasty bitch and should stay away from fandom for criticizing poor Maggie. I don’t even care.

OH AND THEBROKENBREAKINGSEAS: THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION. I know I answered in a horrifically mean tone but that ISN’T directed towards you, you were just asking! Don’t take my words at face value, I’m super biased. If you’re interested, you can go read Maggie’s blog and Twitter account, or other fans’ essays on this, etc. I’m glad you asked! And thanks for still following me after all this stuff haha. I’m normally... nicer? I think? Thanks again.