#he's in medical just to contextualize and what not

[the-witchhunter]

TO CLARIFY ON WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY GHOST CORES BEING NOT CANON

This distinction takes authorial intent into consideration. What are we as an audience supposed to take away from the scene.

This image is the inspiration behind the fanon of ghost cores, but contextually the intent is not for us to take away the existence of ghost cores. The fact that it’s inspired by this image retroactively make it canon? Not really.

And not to be “Donte cite the deep magic to me” I was around when cores as a thing appeared in phandom, someone came up with them years after the show. It’s actually a relatively recent phenomenon for people to interpret this as proof as opposed to the inspiration

Is this a statement on the quality of ghost cores as a thing? No, I like ghost cores.

This is a statement about whether ghost cores exist in the show as presented and that’s a no

Of course we could death of the author this in which case all interpretations are canon, but that muddies the water when actually discussing canon

This comes down to, who do you give credit to? who actually came up with the idea? The writers or the fans? In this case, the fans. They took an image and misused medical jargon and made actual lore around it. That’s really cool and fans should be given credit

We’re just Wes Weston-ing ourselves

This is the inspiration behind Wes, fandom saw this gave him a name from the line “who’s Wes?” It’s highly unlikely you’d interpret this as a person named Wes Weston if you only watched the show, but he’s so prominent in fandom a lot of people forget he’s not canon.

So

Strictly speaking, are ghost cores canon? No. The fans came up with them and stop giving Butch Fartman credit for the cool stuff fans came up with

[maaarine]

The Heteronormativity Theory of Low Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men

"Since the birth of the twins, Denise felt a great sense of loss after leaving her previously rewarding job, James’ work increased in duration to compensate for the shift in income, and Denise’s identity as a mother superseded any sense of herself as a partner or lover.

She lost desire for sex and for James completely and perceived his requests for sex as intrusive; they were yet another demand placed upon her following a full day of devoting herself to her two demanding children who slept no longer than 4-h intervals through the night, even now at 22 months old.

James withdrew from childcare and household chores and activities, in part due to exhaustion following his 14-h work days and in part to “punish” Denise for withholding sex from him.

She resented him for expecting that she would be the sole caretaker for their children, and lost attraction for him as he increasingly retreated to online gaming late at night after the twins were asleep.

(…)

And yet, as they went to leave the end of their first session with the therapist, James turned to the provider and asked, point-blank, whether she thought that “the female Viagra” could help solve their woes.

This case study is one example of the issues plaguing perceptions of low sexual desire in women partnered with men.

That is, while James and Denise’s situation seems an obvious example of contextually-determined low desire, James ascribed the problem to a biological dysfunction in Denise’s body.

The idea that low desire rests in the individual reflects an essentialist view of sexuality that has been advanced by the medical field for decades and cogently critiqued. As such, James’ reaction is not particularly surprising or uncommon.

(…)

But why have essentialist, medicalized views of sexuality come to monopolize how people understand low sexual desire?

One argument is neoliberal—that locating the problem of low desire in individuals’ bodies has high financial stakes.

Naming low desire as an individualized biological dysfunction creates a demand for biological (i.e., medical) solutions; thus, pharmaceutical companies stand to gain by selling a “treatment.”

(…)

It reflects what has become a suspiciously common pattern in women’s relationships with men more broadly, where a woman’s sexual desire disappears and/or becomes “too low” and then is deemed a dysfunction within the woman.

This pattern is suspicious because the numbers of women reporting low desire are so high that they might be modal, if not ordinary; and, they are certainly too high to reflect individual pathologies within individual women’s bodies.

It is also suspicious because many women who report low sexual desire describe considerably similar interpersonal problems with their men partners.

Thus, while low desire is likely not an individual problem within Denise’ body, the issues and inequities it results from are also likely not an individual problem within James or the interpersonal dynamics of James’ and Denise’s specific relationship.

Instead, we turn to a structural level explanation: gender norms, following other foundational work.

(…)

Desire is often situated as low because of its relative status to a partner’s level of desire.

Interestingly, however, this is not a gender-neutral process and the bound is often set with the man partner as reference point.

Accordingly, when a woman experiences lower desire than a man partner, her desire is often labeled low.

In the converse situation, however, men are still the referent: in the case of a man reporting lower desire than a woman partner, the woman’s desire is labeled too high (e.g., they are labeled insatiable or “sluts” in negative ways), rather than the man’s desire being labeled too low.

This highlights the gendered subjectivity inherent to conceptualizations of low desire, where low desire is most often seen as residing not just in bodies, but in women’s bodies relative to men’s desires.

(…)

In Prediction 2.1, heteronormativity’s inequitable casting of women into a caregiver-mother role to men partners contributes to the women’s lower desire.

While heteronormativity slots women into nurturant caregiving roles in general, this caregiving is also directed at men partners specifically.

Nurturance—warm, loving, and caring treatment—is a critical aspect of long-term and/or successful relationships, but one inequitably shared between women and men in relationships with each other.

Heteronormative asymmetries in caregiving can matter not only because they are inequitable, but because they translate into dependencies that contravene contemporary norms of relational interdependence.

Interdependent relationships involve a mutual ethic of care, with partners supporting each other simultaneously or sequentially, akin to a something like a mix of equals, friends, and sexual partners.

The gender inequities inherent to heteronormative framings of complementarity violate norms of relational interdependence, transforming expectations of a partner–partner relationship into something closer to one that is caregiver-dependent or mother–child.

Women end up doing many of the same things for their men partners as mothers do for their children, e.g., reminding them of chores, organizing social events (or playdates), buying clothes, ensuring there is food for snacks and meals and that these are made available.

Additionally, women often take on tasks for their husbands or other men partners that were originally performed by the men’s mothers, perhaps an implicitly-held leftover from more historical understandings of marriage.

(…)

In Prediction 3.1, the heteronormative push for women to focus on their appearance, especially during and in reference to sexual activity, contributes to their low desire.

Heteronormativity focuses on women’s sexual appearance over their pleasure, socializing women to be sexy rather than sexual.

It positions women as sexual objects for men partners, and women’s bodies as offerings gifted to men for sex as part of a relationship contract.

This can result in sexual objectification.

The internalization of this objectification—sexual self-objectification—means that women’s desire is often contingent upon whether they think they are desirable.

(…)

Penetrative intercourse is painted as the only version of “real sex” within heteronormativity, but women have a low likelihood of experiencing orgasm (a highly pleasurable experience) with penetrative intercourse.

Heteronormativity means that, though women may want to be sexual, even with men partners, they are often taught that they can’t be in the ways that are more likely to feel pleasurable for them.

This ongoing separation between experiences of desire and sexual pleasure may dampen desire because it is not reinforced or followed up by sexual activity that actually leads to sexual pleasure.

In Prediction 4.3, seeing sex as a duty to perform with men will contribute to lower desire in women.

Some women have sex they want, and some women have sex that their men partners want and that the women are open to.

But a number of women (and almost no men) have reported in a nationally representative survey that they engaged with sex because it was part of their job, a duty or obligation of being married, which is a heteronormative hallmark.

“Duty sex” is not very sexy, and people—including men—report losing sexual interest in this situation, as occurred in our case study above.

(…)

Moreover, that low desire is seen as a medical and health issue could make for a circular association between it and chronic stress.

Women come to know their desire as “too low” and report feeling like failures as women and partners, making for an iatrogenic source of chronic stress.

Locating the “problem” of low desire in women’s bodies and minds ultimately places the responsibility for it on women, arguably a form of gaslighting when the problem exists outside women and will not be fixed with individual effort.

This can exacerbate women’s stress, by placing yet another responsibility on their shoulders but one that is impossible: to fix their desire problem by fixing themselves, when they are not the problem."

[seeker-of-stories19]

Jaime & Khaji Da Headcannons

- Khaji makes a habit of naturally and even subconsciously adjusting Jaime’s body to make it more adaptive, it takes a lot of arguments and reminders for Khaji to stop giving him extra limbs and eventually they compromise on night vision and sometimes fangs/claws

- Khaji still secretly does it at night to pull Jamie’s blankets back up when he insists on sleeping in bed because he will kick them off if he gets hot

- Jaime only wears his Gotham law hoodie at home because he’s worried Khaji will destroy it and it’s his biggest comfort item

- There’s definitely an element of horror in having his body invaded in such a traumatic way, but oftentimes the thing that freaks Jaime out more is that it feels so right. He can’t remember and doesn’t want to imagine what his life would be like without Khaji Da

- Jaime routinely spaces out while talking to Khaji and literally won’t respond to his family. It freaks Bianca out a bit but Milagro and Rudy love messing with Jaime and totally take advantage of it to scare him

- Although one time Rudy jumps on him from behind and scares him so bad he gets electrocuted again, even though Khaji knows he’s not a threat they think Rudy deserves it for making Jaime scared

- After that they stick to hiding his stuff when he’s spaced out communicating with Khaji

- Jaime goes to ridiculously extreme lengths to hide the extent of his trauma because he’s terrified of having to explain what Victoria and Carapax did to him

- Eventually his family starts picking up on it and accommodating him without him asking about it, not coming up behind him, letting sit closest to the exits, not making him wear ties or anything tight around his neck

- It gets to the point where Jaime slowly starts venturing out of his room after panic attacks and nightmares, so he isn’t alone and his family learns that the best way to support him is just looking out for him and not asking about it

- Although there are definitely moments when weird things trigger Jaime and it makes them wonder why having stuff touch his neck causes him to lock himself in his room for hours or blast off to sit on top of a building somewhere

- Khaji is the only one who knows what really happened to Jaime on the island and they’re very protective as a result

- Jaime will absolutely have a breakdown if Khaji takes more than two seconds to answer him because he’s terrified of losing that connection again

- The longer they’re bonded the more Khaji learns about human emotions and experiences, eventually they’re able to contextualize the horror Jaime feels over their bonding and feel guilt for causing him pain. They still don’t understand it in truly human way but they know they hurt him a lot physically and mentally which goes against their purpose

- Jaime spends so much time and energy looking for clothes that won’t show off the bumps along his spine, definitely has to wear stiffer fabric than he likes so it lays somewhat normally

- There’s definitely a period where he tries sticking kinesiology tape over Khaji to try and make the shape less obvious because it’s too hot to wear long sleeves and they burn it off immediately

- Finally after months Milagro points out that if people ask he can just tell them it’s a back brace or some type of medical equipment which makes him feel very stupid for not thinking of it sooner

- He has a lot of scar tissue around where Khaji latched onto his spine even with the advanced healing because of the trauma it put on his body. He also has jagged scars all over his back and shoulders with some stretching down his arms and legs from the electricity since Khaji didn’t have enough resources at the time to heal him fully

- Definitely at least one occurrence where he scares a stranger half to death walking to his car at night because his eyes are glowing yellow

- Jaime saying we instead of I when talking about things, “We’re so tired” and “Gracias we appreciate it”

- Khaji is incredibly attached to Jaime as well, having bonded more intensely to him than any previous host and like Jaime they’re also terrified of being separated, although they know it is an inevitable part of their reality

- Jaime’s family being so confused by what a symbiotic relationship is and definitely asking some invasive questions on accident

- Jaime is sort of permanently torn between horror and affection toward Khaji, a constant tug of war between the violation of being forced to share his body and not truly have control over his body and choices and the fact that their connection feels undeniably right, the understanding on a level he doubts any other human being can comprehend experiencing

- But even on the bad days he doesn’t blame Khaji, they were simply doing what they were programmed to without any understanding of the pain or trauma it would cause

- And he knows they understand it better now and regret ever causing Jaime damage

- Clothes never stop being a problem, he ends up putting all the basics in an Amazon list and reordering a cheap wardrobe every couple months

- On nights he goes to events with Jenny or other nicer things he just prays he won’t transform and accidentally destroy his one suit

- Even though he can never convince Khaji to stop burning his clothes they always protect the necklace he wears of his fathers

- No matter how long they’re bonded Jaime still answers Khaji out loud sometimes, when he’s at home it just leads to some confusion and teasing but he gets some nasty looks in public for mumbling nonsense to himself or talking over people in conversations

- Clicking/chirping sounds when he’s happy

A/N I totally didn’t expect to get this many likes so thank you, maybe I need to do headcannons more often! Anyways please feel free to add to these in reblogs if you have any more ideas and use any of these that inspire you in your own stories! But if you do tag me or send me AO3 links so I can see!!!!!

[dathen]

Normally you’d know that any character that hurts a cat goes on my shitlist to never return, but the Griffin testing the invisibility experiment on one has so many tiny character details that it honestly fascinates me.

The flaw that undermines Griffin the most is that he is practically incapable of parsing simple cause and effect, and that he never manages to think ahead.

When he’s experimenting on the cat and it makes a lot of noise, he doesn’t comprehend that it’s because it’s in pain, because he then immediately uses that process on himself and is shocked at how agonizing it is. He’s no Sydney Atherton out to torture and kill a cat for his own sick amusement, he’s not even Jack Seward insisting that vivisection is necessary because it’s medically useful—he’s just seeing if his process works on a living creature immediately before using it on himself. He didn’t even realize he’d hurt the cat until he was in the throes of agony.

And then a more down-to-earth detail that re-emphasizes this: the cat was hungry, so he gave it some milk. He tried to give it more milk later when it was upset, only to find all his food was gone. Not only does it paint more of the picture of what a stripped-bare life he lived, this unfurnished room stuffed with scientific apparatus and a bed he rarely uses—but how he can’t even piece together “give the cat the last of my food = I now have no food left.”

This contextualizes SO MUCH of his behavior up to this point, both the comical and the grim. Steals from his father without thinking about what his father will do without the money. Commits a burglary and immediately tells his landlady he can pay her now, is surprised when they suspect him of the burglary. Escapes arrest by stripping and then is left starving and naked without shelter. It’s a domino effect that not only chauses chaos and pain wherever he goes, but is a constant source of his own suffering.

[eggroll-sama]

THINGS THAT REMIND ME OF THE LI

This is purely self-indulgent and just based on stuff that makes me go, “it’s them!” when it’s unrelated to them. But here you go and hope you like it. To make it sound more accurate, I replaced the nouns to fit Touchstarved cast.

AIS

Tyler Durban and Edward Norton from the FIGHT CLUB— “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?” “Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer,” “Only after you’ve lost everything you’re free to do anything.” “We are the same person.”

The song, ‘I Remember You’ from ADVENTURE TIME— “I can feel myself slipping away, I can’t remember what it made me say, but I remember that I saw you frown, I swear it wasn’t me…And I need to save you, but who's going to save me? Please forgive me for whatever I do, when I don’t remember you.”

The punk from FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF. I can just see Ais at a police station, giving advice to a pretty stranger, and end up making out with them.

This scene (warning: graphic violence and gore) from ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. It’s just so Ais and Princess-coded

VENOM, enough said.

KURAS

The murder-mystery film, THE DA VINCI CODE. I feel like Kuras would love the movie if it existed in his world since it’s canon that he likes trashy murder mysteries.

The song, ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished’ from WICKED— “[MC] where are you? Already dead, or bleeding? One more disaster I can add to my Generous supply…No good deed goes unpunished. No act of charity goes unresented. No good deed goes unpunished. That’s my new creed.”

GONE WITH THE WIND— “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” This line was controversial when released in 1939 because swear words weren’t normalized. I feel like Kuras, like this movie, rarely swears but when he does, the whole room goes silent and you know shit’s about to go down. Also according to the RSS radial chart, Kuras has low empathy plus maxed out strength high wisdom, damn at some point that man might legit not give a damn-

MAQUIA: WHEN THE PROMISED FLOWER BLOOMS— “you smell weird, you smell like the sun;” “If you fall in love, you will truly become alone.” Contextually the line is about how an immortal should never get too close with mortals because they'll one day they’ll die, and it fits Kuras a lot.

HUNTER X HUNTER 2011—“[MC] you are light. Sometimes, you shine so brightly, I must look away. But even so, is it still ok to stay by your side?” I love the idea of an angel heavily associated with the sun (Prometheus, likes sunny days, radiates heat), finds someone that is the light of their life.

ONE PIECE— “I have seen the future of this country. And it is destruction. As long as [the Senobium] remains here, this country can never be cured, because even if medical technology progresses, even if [alchemical] research continues… there is no cure for stupidity.”

OPPENHEIMER. After I watched the movie all I could think about was Kuras doing the blank eye stare at the end of the movie.

LEANDER

Goob from MEET THE ROBINSONS (he’s literally just child Leander in the modern world ;o;)

Michael Scott from THE OFFICE— “I wanna be married and have 100 kids so I can have 100 friends and no one can say no to being my friend,” “it’s not about the horniness, it’s about the loneliness”

The painting, Death of Sardanapalus, by Eugene Delacroix. King Sardanapalus palace is besieged by enemies and he decides to commit suicide after he learns of the army’s defeat, but not before ordering his men to destroy all his favorite possessions- wives, horses, pages, and dogs. He’d rather his valuables all be destroyed than his enemies own them. King Sardanapulus selfishness is humane, but the extremity’s he would go to keep what is his is monstrous.

GASTON from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST— Gaston and Leander both have similar vibes. They’re both trusted and well-liked by most people, viewed as heroes, are human but are monsters on the inside, overconfident, attractive, has a possessive streak, hangs out in bars, nice singing voice. The main difference is that Gaston doesn’t try to act like a nice guy like Leander Fake ahhh

The song ‘Burn’ from HAMILTON— “Do you know what [Vere] said when we saw your first letter arrive? [He] said, be careful with that one, love, he will do what it takes to survive…Do you know what [Kuras] said when [he] read what you’d done? [He] said, you’ve married an Icarus, he has flown too close to the sun.”

Michael Corleone from the GODFATHER.

Sampo from HONKAI STAR RAIL— I barely know anything about Honkai Starrail, but I was going to an anime goods store with my friend and one look at him made me think of Leander. My friend gave me a run down that he betrays you for money and runs away and unironically I could see Leander throwing us under the bus.

VERE

This scene from the movie, MALENA. Vere is heavily desired by men and women alike, but his flirty and fickle personality is just a front to protect himself. And he hates how people see him as a pretty face or someone who needs saving from the Senobium. Tbh Malena herself just reminds me of Vere’s problem of how being pretty is a double edged sword. People see you’re pretty, so they feel threatened or idealize you. You feel extremely lonely bc people are distracted by your beauty and won’t try to understand you intimately. So you either own it and be alone OR assimilate and have friends. Vere is the former.

Madonna-Whore Complex. This article explains it pretty well, “The Madonna Whore Complex (MWC) is a psychological complex often perpetuated by heterosexual, cisgender males which places women into two categories the “Madonna, a woman who is pure, virtuous, and nurturing, or a “Whore,” a woman who is deemed as overly sexual, manipulating, and promiscuous. The dichotomy of MWC creates a rigidity that limits women’s sexual expression, agency, and freedom by defining their sexuality into one of two categories.” Vere is the latter.

Ymir from ATTACK ON TITAN. Both of them were self-proclaimed deity, was caught lying (presumably), and paid for it. Their personalities are similar too except Vere masks himself through innuendos.

The song, ‘The Red Means I Love You’ by Madds Buckley— “The red on my face is matching you. And goodness, you're bleeding, what a wonderful feeling. You're down and you're pleading, my head is just reeling. The red means I love you. Tasting your blood means I love you.” (I can’t see Vere becoming a yandere because he’s already deranged)

MHIN

Another line from ONE PIECE —“Someday I will become too much of a burden. Someday you’ll betray me and cast me aside.”

SHUTTER ISLAND— “What would be worse, to live as a monster or die as a good [person]?” Mhin hates monsters ironically since they are one, and I could see them nearing the time limit where their curse becomes permanent and decides that maybe it’s better to die with their humanity than live forever as a monster.

The Beast from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. I already said this in another post but like IMAGINE THE AU. AHHHHHH

Felix from LAST LEGACY but more depressed.

Disclaimer: we don’t know much about Sen or Elyon yet so I don’t have much.

ELYON

THE GREAT GATSBY— “…can't you see who this guy is, with his house and his parties and his fancy clothes? He is just a front, a gangster, to get his claws into respectable folk…(to Elyon) We're all different from you. You see, we were born different. It's in our blood. And nothing that you do or say or steal... or dream up can ever change that.”

SEN

Unfortunately I don’t have any for Sen. Her design reminds me of Frankenstein’s creature tho.

BONUS:

MC

This scene from SHAPE OF WATER. MC falls in love with a monster and trying to save them from danger. MC knows that they are also an outsider, a monster. Being with the LI’s feels like they were finally accepted for who they are, regardless of their curse, so they can’t abandon them— “When they looks at me…the way they looks at me, they don’t know what I lack. How I am incomplete...and now I can either save them or let them die.” I think this quote can also be interpreted as the players choosing a route, essentially dooming the other players if we don’t choose them.

Famous line from 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU— “but mostly I hate how I don’t hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” The fact that us as players will keep coming back to them, replaying their routes even though they killed us, and obsessing over them. Yes they suck but we still love them.

This quote from Green Mile— “ I’m tired…I'm tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with.” I think this quote really emphasizes how touch-starved MC is, and how alone they feel from being betrayed by people they cared about in the past (also sparrow name drop ^-^)

[junicult]

i was looking through my masterlist and saw my new husband harvey post & inspo struck. hence, this.

contains ; fluff. sm fluff. new husband!harvey. fem!farmer. drabble. this might be kinda niche??😭😭 looking through harvey’s baby book <3

the boxes, once piled all throughout your previously vacant living room, now limited after the many hours spent working through them. you chose to take a chunk of your day off for this, helping him with the unpacking as he would’ve for you.

although you were leaving one chore for another, there was something so refreshing in the way you sorted through his old stuff, casually making comments about each item before placing it where you deemed fit.

you eventually got to one of the heavier boxes, filled with medical books you didn’t bother to open. just placing them beside you for him to move later.

towards the bottom were books you ended up recognizing from your own childhood, gushing short comments about how the nostalgia made your heart warm, and how you couldn’t wait to pass them onto your own children (which definitely didn’t go ignored by your husband.)

you reached for one that was unrecognizable to you, wide with a wrinkled spine and a puffy, plain cover. “what’s this?” you mumble absentmindedly, cracking it open to peek at the front page.

“hm?” he hums across the room, distracted with his own box.

the distressed corners of the open page, small bubble letters in text that instantly gave you the clue you needed, along with the neat writing of “harvey” underneath.

you gasp at the realization, a little too exaggerated in the way your lips pull to a pout and a loud, “aww,” whines from your throat.

“what?” he jumps, a frantic pinch in his eyebrows as he turns to face you.

you quickly open to the next page, where immediately, you melt.

there’s multiple photographs, the first one of a baby with thin, brown hair that’s hardly a month old. he’s being held in someone’s arms, someone you immediately recognize as your husband’s mother.

“it’s your baby book!” you chirp, leaning in to look at the photo with the softest eyes and the subtlest lip quiver.

the next photo underneath continues to be another baby photo, seemed to be taken the same day as the last, where he’s being held by his father. the sentimental aspect makes your heart ache.

“oh, i haven’t seen that in years.” harvey chuckles, now standing over you.

“aww, you look so cute. look at your little hands,” you gush, scanning the contents of each photo like it was your job.

you whine again when you flip to the next page. the photograph is of harvey, around age two at this point with short, messy brown hair. he’s got a shy smile on his face, cheeks red and due to the pumpkins in the background and the clothes he’s wearing, it’s clear it’s around autumn.

“i think that was my first time at a pumpkin patch.” he contextualizes, to which you let out another enamored squeal.

you don’t even pay attention to him taking a seat next to you, so captivated with the little book in your hands.

you continue to scan each photo, even a few that carry a small caption underneath. several candids of him at home, some at what you can only infer is an airport—wide shots of him standing next to large planes with an eager grin, or even just him sleeping on the couch that his mom or dad took purely for the sake of how silly it was.

he sits beside you, only a little interested with the photos, but more focused on how you react with each one.

the way your eyes crinkle each time you sweetly sigh. you’ve propped your feet on the coffee table, resting the book on your bent knees while flipping through each page, making sure not to skip a single one.

and each time you find a particularly sentimental photo, you look at him for the backstory that lies behind it.

you flip to a picture where he’s grinning wide at the camera, around age seven or eight. there’s a large gap between his teeth, and the context is clear in the way he’s holding up the missing tooth with his thumb and forefinger for the camera to see.

this is the first picture where he’s wearing glasses, similar to the ones he still adorned even 25 years later.

“harvey,” you drawl, tone pitched an octave higher as you still carry the same whine. “this is so sweet, why haven’t you ever shown me this?”

“i would’ve if i knew i still had it,” he explains, looking from you to the book.

he can’t even remember when he last thought of it. maybe the last time he actually spent this much time sifting through it was when he was in college, so to be sitting here with the woman he married only days ago, well, it did something to him.

the soft whimpers you’d let out looking at an old photo of him posing with armfuls of his favorite miniature planes.

how you giggled when you stumbled on a photo he remembers being vividly embarrassed about, teasing him for such while his cheeks grow red and you eagerly beg for the backstory, in which he won’t tell you, so you end up saying, “fine, i’ll just have to call your mom and ask about it later.”

and it feels like his whole world is falling into place when you lean in to get a closer look, whispering a quiet, “god, i want one, i want a little you.”

[warsofasoiaf]

What's the tea on Sheila Fitzpatrick? Haven't gotten around to any of her work yet

Sheila Fitzpatrick is one of the prominent historians of the "revisionist" school of the Soviet Union, which emerged as a response to the "totalitarian" or "traditionalist" school that was prominent earlier, such as Robert Conquest. Fitzpatrick's most notable contributions to history come from the perspective of the lower classes of the Soviet Union, that the Soviet Union was not a singular ideological monolith driven from the top-down and that it had to respond to social forces within its own nation. In many ways, it's actually a welcome revision from the 1950's era of Soviet historiography, and the scholarship produced has increased the overall level of historical understanding.

For herself, Sheila Fitzpatrick is perhaps most notable for her "people's history" of the Soviet Union, one divorced from ideology and focused mostly on social mobility and the experiences of the peasantry and line workers. Perhaps most controversially (and what I was referencing in the earlier post), is that Fitzpatrick contends that the Great Purge and Stalinism was an albeit brutal form of democratic revolution, due to the people that were able to move into the places of those purged and experience social advancement. Stalin secured a way of public buy-in through a newly-empowered cadre of middle-class individuals to achieve legitimacy for his government and secure popular buy-in.

Now, of course, to outside observers, this is nonsense. Murdering people and distributing their stuff to other people is not a viable method of securing popular buy-in or achieving democracy. But because the purged were "class enemies," Fitzpatrick identifies them as "bourgeoise" and "executives," somehow this confers the action a form of legitimacy not seen in other historical or scholarly analysis - it was okay to exterminate them because others were able to benefit, conferring the idea that the people being purged were inherently less worthy than the people who benefitted. Similarly, Fitzpatrick, who took great pains to minimize the effect of ideology within the Soviet Union, is singularly unable to answer the question of why these targets were deemed acceptable in the first place - though ideology provides a very clear outline as to why such "class enemies" would be exterminated. Since such scholarship would be seen as antithetical to the revisionist school, however, it had to be discarded, which undermines the authenticity and accuracy of historical scholarship.

What bothers me about Fitzpatrick is that this is not considered a fringe belief of an otherwise respectable historian, but that this is considered a valid interpretation of a period of history with implications delivered further into the present. To Fitzpatrick's scholarship, it's *okay* to murder undesirables provided that they're the correct undesirables (a big problem given the rise in the justification of violence toward groups deemed to be subhuman - just look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Now, this is hardly unusual from a Marxist perspective - Orthodox Marxism depends on the categorical extermination of undesirables to achieve its desired societal utopia, but Fitzpatrick is no tankie and is in fact, quite critical of Stalin, otherwise, but has to find ways to mitigate his atrocities so he's not relegated as a monster.

This has been the case for a lot of contemporary historical scholarship with the Soviet Union. There's a significant number of false equivalencies in Soviet scholarship, such as the Great Purges or Khrushchev's forcible medication of dissidents with McCarthyism, in order to mute criticism of the Soviet Union and reject the notion of it as a censorious and ideologically-driven state. Contextually speaking, a lot of history scholars came to prominence as members of the New Left, whose anti-Vietnam War activism sought to portray the Soviet Union as a defensive, anti-imperialist, and progressive power despite all evidence to the contrary, and has similarly translated into hostility against new scholarship that brings sharper criticism of the Soviet Union into the fore. This was the case with Haynes and Klehr, whose translations of the VENONA cipher decrypts and exposure of the CPUSA's role in Soviet espionage was met with abject vituperation from the leaders of history departments - specifically and explicitly because it serves to provide evidence that undermines their core, tribal thesis. Such hostility to new scholarship, particularly that which is based in evidence instead of interpretation, is nothing short of a failure in history departments in their core mission.

Thanks for the question, Hex.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[ot3]

ok im on my lunchbreak its time for me to tell you guys how i would fix one piece.

anything pre them getting into the grand line i really was not paying enough attention to have fixes for. whatever its fine. they introduced all the characters thats what it was supposed to do

alabasta arc: does a decent job of introducing the concept of the warlords and the fact that they Fucking Suck and that the world government gives violent criminals insane amounts of leeway to ruin everything else. also includes luffy getting his ass thoroughly whupped for the first time which was critical. so overall it did it's job but i think it could have benefited from doubling down on the politics stuff. vivi being this future head of state who introduces luffy into the messy political elements of life on the grand line that he'll need to learn to navigate in his journey to become the pirate king was. kiiinda there. but that's what the backbone of that arc should be for it to be the most effective imo. we needed more POLITICS in this SHONEN BATTLE ANIME!!!

skypeia: sitting through this arc was torture. but we can fix it. first of all: this ones gotta be robin-centric. ancient ruins, displaced people trying to recover the remnants of their lost civilization, archeologist character from an island that got wiped off the map by the government. all of the pieces are there. the ohara backstory should have started trickling in at this point in bits in pieces. robin should have been working to help the shandorians and her own backstory should have been used to contextualize that decision, but you could have easily held back enough for water 7 and enies lobby to still hit

water 7 and enies lobby: this was all pretty solid

thriller bark: like i said earlier i think we need to double down on the subjugation and unpersoning committed by the bad guys vs the striving for freedom and humanity of the good guys and i think we need to do it with focus on chopper. make hogback and moria the same character. here we have a guy who was like a legendary medical professional who has turned his knowledge of medicine into something evil that he uses to strip people of their humanity with the full backing of the world government. then you have chopper who Isn't a human and whose attempt to navigate the human world as something deemed monstrous lead him towards medicine and helping people and healing them. perfect foil situation happening literally right there. all the pieces are here you just have to commit

honestly i think at the end of the day 'all of the pieces are here you just have to commit" is my main takeaway from one piece

[captainofthetidesbreath]

With the end of 3.07: Tempest directly saying that Weepe isn't who he says he is, I've been wondering... does Imelda actually know? And has she known this entire time?

Bear in mind I'm on the public release schedule, so I don't know what happens or is learned in 3.09: Baron, which I suspect is a Weepe and Kozma episode given the icon and title.

It isn't the first time that Weepe is suggested not to really be "Moc Weepe". The appendices for 1.12: Coda (the episode where he kills Atticus) has a prescription for the use of Weepe's medical kit addressed to a redacted name.

Imelda knows more than she should about Weepe's Fold condition and what his daily treatment is. There's plenty of ways she could have known it—especially under the consideration that the Trust has a rather strict panopticon vibe going on—but it occurs to me that one of those ways is if she... somehow read his full unredacted medical file. The Mothers maintain a strict Mother-patient confidentiality (2.12: Lazaretto), but I don't know how secure the lazaretto actually is or how difficult it actually would be to illicitly acquire a file.

I also think about how often it's brought up in 2.13: Inside that Imelda doesn't know who or what she's dealing with here, how she knows something that she shouldn't, and how certain she is about what are absolutely unknowns to Spahr, who is working with direct observation.

There are a bunch of other suspicious comments, but I don't really have anything to contextualize them with in the moment, they've just got a Suspicious Vibe that I can't really articulate what's wrong, so I'm going to have to hold off on talking about those for now. But I'm looking at all of this stuff from Inside and just thinking about how OFTEN it is said that Imelda doesn't know who she's dealing with and, now, it makes me ask.... what if she does? What if she knows EXACTLY who she's dealing with here?

[uchiwife]

Ok guys, I need to talk to you about something!

Last year or so I had an idea for a time-travel fic with Kakasaku as the main pairing. I think this will sound familiar to some if you are or were on the Kakasaku discord because at the time I shared snippets and little teasers about this fic.

⇩

This is the first time I've written for this pairing. Although I adore them and consume a lot of Kakasaku fics, I've never written for them. Those who know my work will know that I write mainly Itasaku, Shisaku and occasionally Sasusaku.

The project is still in progress, albeit on hold, however, as I don't know when I'll be able to release this story, I first wanted to contextualize the idea and tell you a bit about it quickly and thus see if it's worth continuing to work on this fic in the future.

I was hoping to get some feedback, to see how the idea might be received. Although we writers write primarily for ourselves, I still find it interesting to have the opinion of my readers or future readers. If they like the idea, it's obvious that working on the story is all the more motivating, you know? And since it's my first time writing Kakasaku, I'm feeling a bit nervous.

So here's the general idea :

«  Kakashi and Sakura found themselves back in their younger selves for some reason. The Kakashi and Sakura of the future are in an established relationship so imagine their horror when they realize where they are.

To keep up appearances, Sakura plays Sasuke's fangirls (albeit a little more moderately) and Kakashi scowls and rolls his eyes at every "sasuke-kun, you're soooo sTrOnG. Sasuke-kun is so cuuuuute, isn't he kakashi-sEnsEi?" and he's like "adorable." but with a deadpan face, you know? It just amuses Sakura to be able to annoy Kakashi because in their future lives, he likes to annoy her and miss a few of his medical appointments so it's a kind of payback.

And of course there's the fact that they won't have their daily routines as long as they're stuck in their current bodies. Well, especially for Sakura, because although Kakashi is a notorious pervert and a kinky person, doing anything while she looks like a 12-year-old is off-limits to him, and what's even more frustrating is that of course he still loves her since it's Sakura's mind that's in her 12-year-old body. But to be honest, Sakura agrees that she's just as frustrated, and can't see herself engaging in lewd activities in her pre-teen body.

And what's worse, she's experiencing her first period for the second time. Much to Kakashi's amusement.🐺🌸 »

To conclude, here are two questions I was asked about this fic and my answer:

Q: “But of course they slip every now and then? Like hand holding. Or Kakashi putting a hand around her waist out of reflex. Or not patting her head but her cheek (for being *so cheeky*) and it raises some brows.”

⤷

A: “Oh totally! And when he realizes it, he's panicked, like: "Minor, minor, illegal. Off limits. Prison. 12 years. take your hand off." and Sakura's kind of annoyed that she can't have her good-night kiss. Especially since she's living with her parents at 12. Sometimes Sakura even forgets the "sensei" when she addresses kakashi, which frankly, coming from Sasuke, would be fine in the sense that he's so casual, but Sakura? Sweet, rule-abiding Sakura? Naaah. Especially if she calls him "Kashi"”

Q: “Would they try to change things you think!?”

⤷

A: “Well, at first, I think they'll be trying to find a way back home. They're so confused about being here, they think it's a bad idea. Not to mention that it's really no fun for Sakura to be a 12-year-old when her man could be arrested and thrown in jail if they're caught while he's having one of those slips. Like touching her in a very familiar and intimate way that goes beyond the teacher/student relationship.

You also have to bear in mind that they are in a period of peace in their own timeline. After fighting, suffering and losing comrades and friends, in the 4GNW, they've earned a well-deserved peace.

But if they get stuck for a while, I think Sakura will come up with the idea. Kakashi will be much more cautious. It's not that he's completely reticent, but he's been through so much that he fears the changes they might make could lead to results far worse than those of their original timeline.

So Sakura would have to warm him up to the idea, but ultimately I think he knows it might be worth the risk if it means avoiding tragic events. When you know so much about the future, it's dangerous, but knowing what's going to happen and letting it happen is perhaps worse. Some things are inevitable, some deaths too, and Sakura will probably blame herself. Kakashi will have more perspective on the situation. But they'll be relying on each other; all the while trying to make their relationship work; which is going to be complicated given the age that currently separates them. But knowing Sakura and her fierce love for her loved ones, she won't let Kakashi run away or question their relationship. After all, it's not their timeline. And they'll find a way to get back together.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

The authors exude bias when they qualify by saying the network “cannot independently verify” a claim. The phrase is used only once in the article:

The IDF claims Hamas operates out of hospitals, calling it a violation of “the strict prohibition under international law against using medical facilities as shields for military operations.” Hamas denies using hospitals as cover. CNN cannot independently verify either claim.

Lest the “either claim” language fool anyone, such qualifications are designed to cast doubt on allegations, which in this case come from Israel, not denials.

But this is so misleading because it doesn’t matter if CNN can independently verify it or not. Israel has produced abundant evidence for its claim, evidence which has been corroborated by independent witnesses and foreign intelligence agencies. How many times does Israel have to produce drone footage showing, in detail, the exact location of terrorist tunnels underneath hospitals? How many videos does the IDF have to release, or Hamas to release itself, showing Hamas fighters using hospital grounds? How many weapons does Israel have to pull out of MRI machines and incubators? What is the standard of evidence CNN requires?

Compare this to some the claims authors do not qualify by stating they could not independently verify. For one, the casualty figures. The network even cites the “Ministry of Health in Gaza” for the claim that “[a] prominent doctor and his daughter, a human rights lawyer, as well as an international football referee” were among those killed during a 24-hour period. But given that Hamas has been caught labeling its own terrorist fighters as “journalists,” or that multiple UNRWA “teachers” were caught participating in Hamas’s atrocities of October 7, was CNN able to “independently verify” these descriptions and numbers?

If CNN is unable to verify, why doesn’t it engage in some journalism and investigate? Why must Israel’s well-documented allegations be “verified,” but allegations against Israel are allowed to escape such scrutiny?

Impartial Journalism?

What might help explain the double standard is the existence of a conflict of interest for one of the authors. The first name listed in the byline is Al Za’anoun, who is identified alongside the other two authors as “CNN.” But CNN hasn’t been Al Za’anoun’s only gig during the current war. He has also been working for WAFA, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority.

The same PA that openly seeks to co-opt journalism for propaganda.

It would be like CNN hiring a reporter from the Iranian regime’s PressTV to cover the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Just last year, PA president Mahmoud Abbas’s representative to a conference of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) told the crowd: “In the eyes of His Honor the president, you are the homeland’s soldiers defending the Palestinian national narrative against the Zionist narrative.” Sure enough, the PJS went on to declare that “the top priority of the Palestinian journalist is loyalty to all the Martyrs, loyalty to our people’s just cause.”

The threat of intimidation isn’t imaginary. Nor is the fact that a journalist also works for a foreign outlet any protection. Several years ago, Associated Press reportedly fired a Palestinian cameraman “at the request of Palestinian police who objected to his support for a fellow journalist” that the PA had jailed. A year later, PA forces beat two Washington Post journalists.

If one of CNN’s journalists depends on keeping an interested party, the PA, satisfied with his reporting, how can readers trust they are receiving accurate, contextualized information? How can CNN assure its audience that Al-Za’anoun’s work on behalf of the PA does not taint his work for CNN?

Bonus: Bad CNN Habits Return

CNN’s bad habit of uncritically airing Hamas casualty figures, without mentioning that the figures come from Hamas, is not the only recurring issue.

The outlet is also, once again, laundering Hamas propaganda under the guise of a “humanitarian organization.” As CAMERA documented in October, the network attributed casualty figures to an “aid organization” called “Save the Children.” But, upon a minimal investigation, it became clear that Save the Children was just repeating figures it got from Hamas.

This time, the network used an organization called “Medical Aid for Palestinians” (MAP) for the claim that, “As of February 14, only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning.”

But based on MAP’s statement that CNN links to, the organization isn’t in a position to know this directly. The statement begins with the words, “Reports from the inside…” and does not indicate anywhere that it has firsthand knowledge of the situation. Instead, based on CNN’s own reporting from a day earlier, the figure appears to come from a Hamas spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra: “Only 11 out of 36 hospitals are even partially functioning inside the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra said last week.”

Yes, the network omitted the Hamas affiliation of the “Ministry of Health” in that article, too.

[susandsnell]

for the character asks - 2 for sue snell and 4 for armand!

thanks so much nixe dear!!! hope your day was good!!

Character Ask Game!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character? - Sue Snell

It's so hard to pick one thing I love the most about her, so I'll pick the fact that she published her own book about the events of the prom, My Name is Susan Snell. There's so much to be said in horror fiction (and, more broadly, gothic fiction) about the role of the archivist, the narrator, the messenger; the survivor who acted as witness, who brings us the tale, and how their agenda and emotional realities colour the way they tell it.

Sue is, for all intents and purposes, the Final Girl of Carrie while also being the unwitting instigator of the latter reaching Killer status. As a bully, she was her monster's monster, partaking in the incident that would precipitate Carrie's descent into villainy. But crueler still, it's her attempts to atone and go from stepsister to fairy godmother that set the final tragedy in motion. In any version, the compassion and regret Sue feels turns to love and an ironclad will to do right by Carrie -- but no good deed goes unpunished. Sue is put through nine circles of hell. Everyone she knows except her immediate family -- her teachers, her boyfriend, her soulmate, her friends both current and former -- are dead, and she was powerless to stop it. In the 76 movie, she's left as we leave many final girls - screaming, howling spectres of the trauma they've absorbed. In the musical and the book, she's the scapegoat interrogated by police and committee, forced to identify Carrie's body before given proper medical help.

And the existence of the book turns so much of that on its head. She's taking back the narrative into her own hands to communicate the truth of what happened, to reinterrogate her own experience and to honour the memory of her dead, not as heroes or villains, but as humans. She willingly plunges back into hell itself and then brings that hell to the public eye, to communicate the truth, and hopefully, gain peace and closure through disclosure. (And maybe help some other tragic telepaths along the way, we don't know and that sequel is not canon to me.) Less than 10 years after the fact, Sue is the messenger on her own behalf and on the behalf of all those who aren't there, admitting her sins and contextualizing those of others. I know the excerpts from the book say she will be "thinking until she dies", because there's no leaving what happens to her behind, but as messenger, she doesn't simply evoke the memory of the prom, she shapes the status it will hold in the public's consciousness. Sue's nightmare is compounded by the fact that her greatest suffering is in the hands of the public to judge and understand as they will, but through her telling, she is grabbing it back and giving it the shape and status that only one who lived it can; she is the witness to the horrors demanding in turn that the world be her witness. It's in the title: My Name Is Susan Snell. (A parallel to all that's made of knowing Carrie's name?) A whole, complete person with her own voice, and not the villain or victim you'd have her be.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? - The Vampire Armand

Oh, here's a fun one! I'm actually working on a top-secret AMC!verse crossover with a friend (can't give away much, but it's with Tanz Der Vampire), but I will talk about other possible media I'd like to see him in. Honestly, the gremlin would do just about great in most psychosexual horrors you put him in; the biggest no-brainer for me would be that he'd absolutely rock it as a Cenobite in the Hellraiser universe, since we know that even if he never wanted the leadership role in the coven/cult, he does manage solidly well for centuries, adaptive-yet-stagnant as he is. He would probably take great enjoyment in the entire mindfuckery-aspect of corrupting someone, reshaping their will, and exploring the intersections of agony and desire in the process; it might even be something that would benefit him in a twisted way, given that it normalizes what the crux of his suffering is with respect to the ways his relationship to pleasure and trauma are so tightly intertwined. (I also think Armand could totally, easily Saltburn someone, but I don't think he'd keep the same ending; there's no way he'd want to be alone in a big house like that!)

On a completely different note, I think he'd do well in a Moulin Rouge or Sucker Punch style backstage drama films or stage musicals (hell, even Phantom of the Opera?), especially since Sucker Punch involves a lot of reality-bending and the director's cut directly has seduction to accepting one's death as a comfort. He's a theatre kid and a snippy, exacting director at that. I'd love to just watch him occasionally throw around his breathtaking elder-vampire powers when push comes to shove with the drama and tension and potential patrons/investors, but not half as much as I want to watch him get overly invested in micromanaging stage productions of increasingly questionable quality. Put Armand in The Producers or Something Rotten. I want to hear his Andrew Lloyd Webber takes.

Or -- just throw him into Derry Girls. I think if anyone could outwit him to his defeat and then befriend the guy, thus kickstarting the world's most bizarre redemption (?) arc, it'd be them.

Thanks so much for this! <3

[spider-xan]

August 19:

Jack Sheppard himself couldn't get free from the strait-waistcoat that keeps him restrained, and he's chained to the wall in the padded room. His cries are at times awful, but the silences that follow are more deadly still, for he means murder in every turn and movement.

August 20:

The case of Renfield grows even more interesting. He has now so far quieted that there are spells of cessation from his passion. For the first week after his attack he was perpetually violent. Then one night, just as the moon rose, he grew quiet, and kept murmuring to himself: "Now I can wait; now I can wait." The attendant came to tell me, so I ran down at once to have a look at him. He was still in the strait-waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused look had gone from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading—I might almost say, "cringing"—softness.

Even on a first read, the fact that Seward restrains Renfield with a straitjacket and chains in an isolated padded room is a horrific act of medical and psychiatric abuse that cannot be handwaved as the Victorians just doing their best with the knowledge they had at the time bc such restraints had already been known to be dangerous and inhumane for decades - Lincoln Asylum abandoned straitjackets in 1829 after a patient suffocated to death while wearing one overnight unsupervised - but Renfield going quiet as his eyes soften while restrained and what it really means compared to Seward's assumptions do get re-contextualized on a second reading due to a single line later in the story, and honestly, can you blame him for looking to Dracula for salvation?

If you have read the novel before, you know which line it is, but for first-time readers, I've hidden it behind a cut due to MAJOR SPOILERS, plus warnings for medical and psychiatric trauma:

October 3:

Suddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless stare. This was continued for a few moments; then it softened into a glad surprise, and from the lips came a sigh of relief. He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said:— "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait-waistcoat. [...]"

[swearingcactus]

BOLD the FACTS

RULES: BOLD what applies to your OC I was tagged by @elvenbeard tysm! here's some little v lore before i hide in the bushes again 🏃‍♀️💨 and him being so touched people want to know MORE about him

⭕❌⭕ PERSONAL ⭕❌⭕

Little V grew up dirt poor as a Heywood kid who never joined the Valentinos. But he was smart enough to get himself by (even if he cuts it close sometimes!) Technically he's pretty well off after becoming the go-to merc guy that fixers call, but old habits die hard and he often forgets he could afford the bigger treats. He was also sickly when he was a kid due to his ganic lungs being bad and Night City's air being dogshit. But then he got himself synth lungs and was fit as a fiddle all the way until Johnny happened and now he's back in square 1. I once wrote a fic about his history with his cybernetics that doubles as a little snippet of him throughout the years !

Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed >> was arrested multiple times and actually went to prison for a bit for some crimes he couldn't wiggle out of and had to pull in party favors and bribe the guards to hotfix the system and get himself out faster than he's supposed to serve. the minor crimes record stuck though.

⭕❌⭕ FAMILY ⭕❌⭕

His nice "everyone helped each other in the streets" story he told River was code for leeching off the soft-hearted joytoys and two-bit thieves who plays hot potato with children just like him. He was either abandoned in the hospital once he was born, or his parents were dumb teens who got themselves killed, or he was dropped off in the middle of a crowded street--the detail's kinda fuzzy and he doesn't bother to try and clear it up. His birth certificate most likely just listed some random generated name the hospital got before handing him to the nearest person willing to have him, so he never bothered to identify himself with his surname.

Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

⭕❌⭕ TRAITS AND TENDENCIES ⭕❌⭕

Little V loves friendly quips, sometimes borderline into being a quick-tongued smartass (especially more so if he wants to annoy someone to death). he's always eager to listen to people's experiences and expand his horizons! that said, at the end of the day if it comes down to it, he'll always put himself first. he believes it's better off that he does things alone because of that, especially to minimize the chance of hurting others in the process.

♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual >> he tends to have a hard time sitting still but is otherwise calm in demeanor. ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual >> he tries to see other's POV and keeps his head down and mouth shut just to avoid prolonging time spent with people he disagree with. he won't sit still and take shit if it gets personal though. ♦ leader / follower / in-between >>he's not too happy that being the top dog means taking over the afterlife in the don't fear the reaper ending and would rather give the role back to Rogue, both because he knows she loves the place and treats it right; and because he can admit he sucks on making choices when they involve other people. ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / in-between / unknown ♦ faithful / unfaithful / in-between / unknown >> i headcanon that the whole dating both kerry and panam thing is consensual from all parties in a "this is my boyfriend v, and this is v's boyfriend kerry" thing; but he knows it isn't the real exclusive experience.

⭕❌⭕ BELIEFS ⭕❌⭕

I actually wrote a fic about his 'faith' so yes this works as ANOTHER fic plug. tl;dr-- he believes there's a higher power, somewhat, but just chalks it up to Death incarnate... and death's pretty fucking final. He also thinks ghost/spirits only exist in a manner of living on as memories/legacies. He loves aliens and thinks werewolves are totally real though, just to balance it out. Also used to like T-Bug's fun shakespeare-esque philosophies, makes for good convo starters.

Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

⭕❌⭕ SEXUALITY AND ROMANCE ⭕❌⭕

little v's relationship with sex is pretty grim. He used to think he'll have more time to find actual love and something more than quick fucks when he's made it to the big leagues... but then the whole relic business started and now he can't waste time to fuck much less to properly find love. still, if presented with the chance, he's never going to say no. AND he likes to think he managed a little slice of real romance here and there, with his big feelings with Panam and his mutual crush with Kerry... even if both won't last and he eventually broke it off. his actual one true love is Night City, which really, nobody can compete with :/

Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

⭕❌⭕ ABILITIES ⭕❌⭕

he quickly learned that his smaller stature gets him in tight places and if he could hack cameras and klep things without alerting any system in said places, people would pay him, and pay him well. sometimes his MO doesn't work out in his favor and he has to fight his way out; which sucks since he's HORRIBLE at aiming with a gun and would have to resort to close-ranged stabs with a knife or his mantis blades... but more often than not his stealth and quickhacks saves the day. he can read but he's not a reader. and he has no idea what could be considered art, much to Johnny's chagrin.

Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor/ none Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

⭕❌⭕ HABITS ⭕❌⭕

it's not that he doesn't like drinking or partying, it's just that he thinks you should do a job sober, and you never know when the next job's gonna pop out. getting a snack doesn't count though. actually it should be encouraged. he needs the energy and all, right? and besides, quickhacks make him hungry! two fishball sticks please.

Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober >> he'll always order a drink at a bar, but he likes the taste of ice cold NiCola after a hard day at work more than he does a beer, sue him. Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker >> only smokes for Johnny. he had a bad experience with his ganic lungs to ever condone smoking Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess >> uses stims and other combat drugs if shit hits the fan; and is generous with his use of Bounce Back and MaxDoc instead of visiting the nearest ripper. he tries not to think about the possibility he might be too reliant on them Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / binge eater >> street food enthusiast ganggg Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic >> he hustles to buy the pricy things he want/needs and then it's "why do I need more stuff, I like the things I have now." Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

PHEW that was a long one. thank you for reading about him if you managed to get all the way here! no pressure tagging @bunwithantlers @killyourrdarlingss @glitchinginthegarden @mail-me-a-snail and anyone who'd like to!

[elvenbeard]

BOLD the FACTS

RULES: BOLD what applies to your OC I was tagged by @wraithsoutlaws @pinkyjulien @chevvy-yates and @wistereia thank you so much!! :D

▞ ▟ PERSONAL ▙ ▚

Vince's life was always a rollercoaster and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. He went from Charter Hill's rooftops to Kabuki's back alleys, from Arasaka's Counterintel department to a landfill... and then back to the top of Night City's seedy underworld and beyond. His parents probably didn't imagine he'd use his several-thousand-eddies-a-month education to one day run the city's most infamous bar and criminal hangout... and be fucking good at the job!

Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty

Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable

Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other

Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other

Criminal Record*: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed

*but nothing has come of it so far because he either makes sure the records "disappear" or no one would dare to do something about the smaller stuff

▞ ▟ FAMILY ▙ ▚

An only child of two people that should have never become parents, Vince never had the healtiest rolemodels when it comes to family and marriage.

Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children*

Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased

Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / disowned** / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

*he is actually very good with children and he never fully excluded the idea from his life, a "maybe one day" scenario... but he's smart enough to know that with his current job and situation having kids would be the worst move imaginable - mostly for the hypothetical kids

**his father died when he was 13, and he has no idea what became of his mother, but they haven't been in contact for 7+ years and counting by 2077

▞ ▟ TRAITS & TENDENCIES ▙ ▚

One thing Vince learned from a young age is that showing your true emotions and intentions will get you nowhere but into trouble. His cold, calculating, corporate mask has become his protective armor that he only drops around people he'd trust with his life, that he knows will not use his vulnerability to their advantage. None of his behavior is an act - he is the bold and self-confident bastard the world has turned him into while he always fought to never fully lose his humanity.

♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between

♦ disorganized / organized / in-between

♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between

♦ calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual

♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual

♦ patient / impatient / in-between

♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual

♦ leader / follower / in-between

♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between

♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between

♦ traditional / modern / in-between

♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between

♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown

♦ loyal / disloyal / in-between / unknown

♦ faithful / unfaithful / in-between / unknown

(a lot here is "in-between" or "highly contextual" because he's always a bit torn between what he wants to show to others and what he wants. he's a professional killing machine and netrunner, but also an adrenaline junkie that sometimes dashes headfirst into a gig without properly thinking it through)

▞ ▟ BELIEFS ▙ ▚

There are no gods, but with a universe so vast it's unlikely that there's no other life out there - just no Techno-Necromants and the likes please...

Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic

Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious

Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

(Not really mentioned here but it fits the category: Vince does belief in fate to a certain degree, even though it goes against his usually rather logical approach to things. There were just too many coincidences in his life - happy and unlucky alike - for him to not believe in some kind of red string leading him somewhere. And that idea of "somewhere", a goal he's led to, whatever it may be, is what kept him going through his darkest moments.)

▞ ▟ SEXUALITY & ROMANCE ▙ ▚

When he was younger, Vince really struggled with his sexuality, negatively impacted by dysphoria. Later on sex almost became some kind of mechanical stress relief that he first had to connect an emotional aspect to, but that made it even better. He crushes hard and fast, but he doesn't love easily.

Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual

Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless

Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious

Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious

Potential Sexual Partners*: male / female / agender / other / none / all

Potential Romantic Partners*: male / female / agender / other / none / all

*Vince had exactly one girlfriend once when they were both teenagers. And both agreed that nope, the other is not what they want after a very shortlived yet eye-opening relationship xD

▞ ▟ ABILITIES ▙ ▚

Excellent schooling and his training at Arasaka paid off. Yet, while he is alright with guns, he still prefers to remain in the background and shadows.

Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor/ none

Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

▞ ▟ HABITS ▙ ▚

Smoking is disgusting, Vince tried it but cannot see the appeal. Alcohol he actually doesn't mind, but it makes him very sick very quickly due to a genetic predisposition. During his last year with Arasaka he developed a drug addiction to cope with increasing stress and a traumatic incident. While he's going through phases of being completely clean for a few months at a time, it is a continuous battle and he's relapsed here and there.

Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober

Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker

Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict

Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed* / frequently / to excess

Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes** / frequently / binge eater

Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic***

Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

*most of it Relic-related

**more out of convenience or if things get stressful; he doesn't really like junk food or most street food that much

***he's not completely irresponsible with his money, but fashion, tech, and cars are biiiig weaknesses and all come with a certain price tag

▞ ▟ ▉ ▙ ▚ ▞ ▟ ▉ ▙ ▚▞ ▟ ▉ ▙ ▚▞ ▟ ▉ ▙ ▚▞ ▟ ▉ ▙ ▚

Thanks for reading, I know this was a very long one, but I really love these types of tag games and cannot stop myself from writing xD

Also played around a bit with some more colorful formatting (cause I love particularly what @pinkyjulien always does for his posts in terms of formatting *__* not sure yet if I'll keep it up exactly like this, but it was a fun exercise nonetheless! :D)

I'm tagging @cherryrockpops @peaches-n-screem @imaginarycyberpunk2023 @seeker-of-truth @dani-the-goblin @rindemption @brujebutch @swearingcactus @humberg aaaaaand you if you're reading this. Completely without pressure as always ofc!

Again, thanks for reading!

[qqueenofhades]

Thank you for the time and care you put into your politics and history posts! They're a big part of what I love about Tumblr: it's a place that can introduce me to new ideas and perspectives, and give me enough of a roadmap to them that I feel equipped to go learn more on my own when the subject really grabs me. It's a fantastic thing that you're doing for the world, genuinely a service for the rest of us!

That said, I do have a small request, that you're of course welcome to choose to ignore if you'd rather; your posts are a gift freely given and I'm not here to make demands as if you owe us more. But, I'd like to ask you to reconsider using the term sociopath to describe public figures. It's a contemporary diagnosis applied to a hugely stigmatized misunderstood mental illness, and the people living with it and trying to recover/improve themselves face enormous stigma and personal struggle. To apply it casually to Trump as a way to easily encapsulate his uniquely horrible behavior contributed to that stigma in a direct way. Please consider learning a bit more about what someone diagnosed with APD today goes through, what the internal experience of that struggle is like, or at the very least just choosing a descriptor that isn't medicalized to talk about public figures whose evils go way beyond the scope of a personality disorder.

Again, thank you for what you give us all, it really is so valuable!

Thanks for your kind words, and for your request. I do always try to honestly consider these things when they are brought up to me, as I do understand (obviously) that something I casually dash off can have an unintended effect to the people who read it later or are unfamiliar with what I mean. And, of course, as someone with mental illnesses of different sorts, I am aware of all that stigma and don't intend to casually contribute to it.

That said, I do think Trump obviously, clinically exhibits traits of both psycho/sociopathy and narcissistic personality disorder (just reading the introductions to both those Wiki articles will make you go "yeah, uh, sounds like Trump.") So while I'm willing to use a different word than sociopath if it would help get my point across, it's not the case that I'm just arbitrarily picking a serious mental illness to use in a derogatory way; I'm commenting on something that I think actually reflects and indeed, contextualizes his behavior in an important way. There are certainly people who struggle with these disorders and make good-faith efforts to fix them. Trump is not one of those people. And while yes, he has many, many issues that go way beyond the scope of a personality disorder, they certainly contribute to his pattern of behavior, and I don't think it's wrong or incorrect to point that out. However, I will attempt to make the distinction clear if it should later arise.

Thanks! I hope this makes sense to you.