#i messed up the sign though!

[funakounasoul]

Just some Strawpage sketch requests I took over on Bluesky. Requests are closed, but who knows when I'll open them again~

(the last one was through bsky itself. The person didn't mind being public!)

[eatingsomegreeneggos]

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH OMG 🥺💗💗

[dxxtruction]

"Louis acting like a pimp to Armand" And what is a pimp exactly? Quickly. And, oh so sexual trauma survivors can't engage in kink now without it being all about that? Pet names? They can't be submissive anymore? Consensually? Sexually healthy? Be serious. I'd hardly say there's much power difference between them during all this anyway, except that Louis is freer than Armand and it's been putting a strain on their relationship. Louis wants more from Armand, and less of this 'being his past' for them both, and so helping Armand with this could fix that. It's healthy to want to help your partners get out of a rough patch?

I mean, the whole exchange was very clearly set up as a "I want to help you" after such a great moment of vulnerability Louis feels just how much Armand is desperate for it. Louis called Armand so they could work out a plan together.

And the bit with the umbrella was Louis' way of asking 'are you willing to listen to me?' and Armand said yes by unfolding it. Louis goes on and explains, Armand is allowed to argue against it, but Louis makes his point. And then he gives Armand a way to make his own choice in it too. Armand's already decided 'I want you, more than anything else in the world', but Louis still asks after if he's sure of his choice, and with a name, Arun, that is the one of his fullest agency, running the point home. Honoring the situation Armand calls Louis Maitre - as a way of being like 'I'll do as you've said then'. To make this work he's going to have to give Louis some of the control, yes. But it's the first time such a role is ever established, and it was his choice to do it. So so what if they do it in a very suggestive way? They can't like doing that? I think it's them having fun.

I struggle to find how Louis is being overly domineering here when really he's giving and offering Armand the most agency he's ever had. Same with finding it manipulative. The manipulation was more earlier in the episode I think, when he was stringing him along, giving mixed signals. He's no longer toying with him like that. Louis might be pushing Armand, leading him on to make a decision, but he doesn't mean bad by it.

But back to this pimp thing. I find it frankly offensive that this is where people are going with this. I get it, but to run with it being the case is, on many levels, wrong.

Louis told us episode 1 this was the only sustainable line of work to support his family and keep their standing, at the time. It was never his choice to be doing this either but his blackness allowed no other options. He did what he did so his family could stay in that house and maintain all their same comforts. It gave him privileges most black men didn't have at the time that he wanted to maintain and even have more of. Anyway, it doesn't and had never defined him the way 'being good at running things' had. And in that case he just likes having that kind of control where he can get it, which makes sense.

The world is what placed that kind of role onto him of what he was allowed to be able to run, not himself. And on that he actually treated the sex workers he employed well and respected them enough to give them more opportunity.** He recognizes they don't have much in the way of options either.

Louis employed sex workers, yes, but he didn't subject them to abuse, (like how Armand was)*. He didn't oversee things in a way that would go against their consent (see; episode 1 again)**. Sometimes a job is just a job. And Sex work is work.

Armand's particular past with sexual abuses may strike a particular cord with Louis, given all that, but the very last thing either is thinking is that Louis' pimping Armand out here. This is merely their decision as companions, and had nothing to do with adding another line in a laundry list of selling Armands body out to people at the command of someone else. Armand rescinds some of his control to Louis' wishes, because he wants him, and he trusts him, that's all.

If you aren't allowing Armand that choice, and are doubtful it's fully his, you're putting him right back in the box of being defined by his abuses. Putting him back into that space where he isn't given any agency over what he does. (Which is exactly opposite of what the intent of this scene is for)*.

*: (edit) added for clarity.

**: (strike through) numerous people are saying I'm misremembering these points so disregard it. (Thought he was siding with Bricks, it was the other way around). (Technically one aspect of those opportunities were for getting around the law). I don't have a perfect memory, it happens. Let's not get mad about it. Doesn't change much of the point which is that Louis, now, Louis then, was always considering more about the running things and for stated purposes. So I guess I'd say he may only have respected the SWers enough sometimes for what allowed him to do that, and there are moments he certainly expressed remorse over the fact, but he has a great deal higher respect for Armand that is genuine. It's incomparable. Please read my added notes in the tags, it should address most other concerns.

[moeblob]

I love Chris so much you guys.

[rhys-ravenfeather]

When your ship are technically on opposite sides, but they're both still incredibly messed up in their own ways:

[skyward-floored]

Adding to the list of things I’m happy about, so far my silly botw dark link au could still pretty well work even with totk

[tw33k-tucker]

@everythingwasnormalhere / @everythingisnormalhere I FINALLY DREW MOSS, IM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG, I HOPE YOU LIKE IT !! :)

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Feanor’s Legit Family Issues

Look, i’m not saying that Feanor was a swell guy to be around (especially his step mom and half sibs) (with the only exception being nerdanel and his sons of course (good dad and husband feanor for the win))

But if i, and only i, had been the only child whose parents were divorced and father remaried in the entirety of the country, AFTER my mom died in childbirth(specifically mine), and then chooses to not come back to me, specifically bc of the gods in order to let my dad remarry a woman who’s been mooning after my dad since before my mom died, and to have all that essentially be thrown in my face constantly bc people gossip and rumors spread,

I too would have an enormous inferiority complex and be ready to throw hands at any given second, whether it be at my father, his family, or the gods themselves.

Let Feanor be angry and frustrated with his family situation, bc it’s a legit mess and no one should have expected for him to just “deal with it” when he was a kid when this all went down and no one had any idea what to do.

(Ps, friendly reminder that they didn’t have therapists at the time and were essentially only just starting to really create a stable civilization, so no one would know how to deal with this situation, especially since it’s literally one of a kind, and it looks like the finwe fam was not that good at communicating)

[savage-rhi]

💀

[kiwibirb1]

Okay I just found out that the signs in ASL for coffee and make out are pretty similar. >:] Sasha bout to embarrese herself in front of her girls oooooooh

[rexcaliburechoes]

diamant, the horrors chamber, and why he’s just so fun to mess with // the diamant-sertation series

i’d talked a little about this before on twitter about diamant angst and if i’m doing alright (i’m fine just biochemistry major go brrrr) and i just remembered this:

and i wanted to think about this for a little bit. i’m going to try and not retread old ground, but that’s kind of impossible if i want to break him in a realistic way.

but i was mostly thinking about how easy it is to destabilise him. i might be woobifying him too much, but i swear, i’ve been through this rigamarole before with a variety of characters. i’ve hurt characters over and over and over again, testing their limits, watching them bend and potentially break, and diamant has keeled over the fastest. it’s kind of funny in a bit of a twisted way.

but i mean it: why does he bend to easily compared to others?

i think it’s because he Refuses to experience The Horrors, and so when something encroaches on that tenuously stretched self control, he simply cannot deal with anything new, so he shuts down. you’d think he’d have a fight response to new stressors (he is of brodia; if you can’t fight, then what kind of brodian are you?) but i think he’s gone past that point. he’s dealing with enough already as it is, just One More Thing just will set him off. he’s tired, overwhelmed, and bottles everything up because He Should Be Able To Deal With It.

there’s definitely an allegory of being undiagnosed neurodivergent in here somewhere but we don’t have time to unpack all that.

but since diamant is so easily burnt out (which, haha, funny fire trauma go brr), he’s just an easy target to picking at all of his weaknesses and flaws. diamonds have very predictable cutting planes, and if manage to hit one just right, the entire crystal will shatter.

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

Love how the only thing standing between me and finishing this fic is my stubborn refusal to let Mario have sign language

[wurm-food]

New Miku is hereeeee! 🐱✨

[thursdayg1rl]

i WILL have waist length hair by next year . no matter what

[rabbitindisguise]

Oh hm. I was doing a lot of photography stuff because I thought it was helping my mental health but I think it might have been making it worse?

I think the whole topic has become a ball of stress because I'm like, stressed over the idea that I won't have an income if this SSI thing doesn't work out and it's like . . . I dunno funneling into the idea I have to get good at something or else. It's not actually because I'm having fun at this point.

[noxtivagus]

hflaksdjflsdkhf