#i only post this so people who are just as desperate as me get to read it a little earlier

[mickyschumacher]

[I THINK HE KNOWS!]

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: a fake and curated date in italy on valentine's day is no one's idea of fun except a publicist’s. but all it does it take a walk around monza to know the difference between what's real and what's fake.

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: fluff, poor humour, fake dating trope, reader is a graduate uni student, lando being a dream boyfriend, kinda suggestive at the end, mentions of horrible fans and privacy invaded, me knowing nothing about italy let alone lombardy at the end as well.

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: lando norris x fem!reader

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 3.3k

𝐀/𝐍: third fic of my series! i really loved writing this one! fake dating is always such a hit or miss to write about but in this case, it was a lot easier. hope you enjoyed it!♡︎ // as usual, poorly proofread

𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐡��𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 | 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

Life’s a funny thing really. Full of mistakes leaving you wondering how you ever got there.  

And as you sat on a bench, looking over at the view of Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy, with ‘hidden’ paparazzi down the street, you began wondering the exact same thing.  

“How long do you think they’ll be here?” You queried, turning your body to face Lando.  

Lando tilted his head, resting his cheek in his hand as he leaned on the top of the bench. His blue eyes briefly raked over you and then where the paparazzi hid. He looked over at his watch. “Give or take twenty minutes. They’ll probably be hungry for actual food soon.”  

You withheld your sigh. How did you get here? Time sure had flown as seven months ago you were just a graduating university student with loan after loan on her shoulders. The very student who still decided to have a sweet treat after handing in her assignment and headed to your favourite cafe. The very student who bumped into Lando Norris and had her bracelet snag on the sleeve of his jacket, landing you in a compromising position as you tried to take it out.  

The very student who woke up the next day with her entire privacy invaded as ‘fans’ hunted you online and seemingly decided not only were you Lando’s girlfriend but the ‘perfect match’. 

That was you.  

Mere hours later, you had Lando’s publicist and underlings knocking at your door with a comprehensive contract and a promise to pay your student loans and pay you. You didn’t think it would last this long. Three months tops... surely. 

So, you signed it. A contract declaring that you were fake dating Lando Norris.  

They said it would help Lando’s image. And help it did. Lando had never looked better to his sponsors. Apparently dating a university graduate makes you look more polished and mature, enough to at least secure a dozen contracts. Most fans seemed to love you. Even the driver’s had taken a liking to you.  

But to you, Lando, and a handful of selectively picked people, this was all fake.  

Every decision was carefully made. The matching jewellery, what he said, what you posted, where you met, the hugs, the arms around the waist, the staring, the kisses... 

And six months later, here you were. On a curated date with the Lando Norris at Lake Como on Valentine’s Day – the third day of your trip. You had both compromised, agreeing to each make a list of things so do in Lombardy, two of which had to be a couple’s activity for the sake of it.  

You had completed most of both of your lists. A visit to Teatro Alla Scala, an opera theatre (your idea, obviously). A guided tour Villa Del Balbianello because Lando needed to see some more real-life scenes of Star Wars (mostly ended up taking photos of you the entire time). An agreed night out from the both of you to Navigli to consume ‘local food.’  

Lando, who desperately wanted to have walk around Lake Como, was sorely disappointed when he spotted the paparazzi hiding around the corner. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, watching your fingers trail the cracks in the wooden bench.  

“It’s okay,” you assured. “It’ll be over soon anyways.” 

Lando knew you were talking about the paparazzi. But he couldn’t help but think about your relationship with him.  

That day at the cafe... the only reason people thought you two were in a relationship wasn’t just because you were barely a centimetre apart trying to remove your bracelet but in all the photos people had captured, Lando was staring at you like it was love at first sight.  

And before he knew it, everything had gone down. The fans, his publicist, the media... it was a shitshow. And then you showed up two days later having signed a contract to be his fake girlfriend.  

Lando hated it. Fuck, he hated it so much. He hated that he dragged you into this. He hated that every moment with you was planned. And he especially hated that he couldn’t like you openly. Not with you thinking it was fake.  

Lando looked down back at his watch. He sighed, leg beginning to shake out of impatience. 

You raised a brow. Naturally, you put a hand on his arm. “Lando... is everything okay?” 

Lando flickered his eyes to your hand and back to your face. He moved his arm from your grasp, grabbing your hand instead. “Come on. We’re leaving,” he stated.  

Your eyes widened as he stood up, bringing you up with him. “W-What? Lan–we’re supposed to leave in thirty minutes,” you murmured quietly, leaving only him to hear your voice.  

“I don’t care,” he started, increasing his walking pace. “Whatever you do... just hold on to me, okay?” 

You furrowed your brows. “Lando, what are-” 

Abruptly Lando paused in his steps. He turned to you, blue eyes staring hard back at you. “Do you trust me?” 

“I–” 

“Do you trust me? Yes, or no?” He repeated softly. 

You gulped nervously, unable to look away from him. “Yes.” 

A look of relief washed over his face as he nodded. “Good. Then hold on. And don’t let go.” 

“Lando, I still don’t get what you–MEAN!” You yelped as Lando began running in no particular direction. You tightened your grasp on his hand while your legs struggled to catch up to him. The problems of having an athlete boyfriend.  

The wind felt serene. The sun was oddly warm despite it being the winter season. It was as though spring was trying to come a little early. All the early architecture you had seen on the way here was beginning to blur into one uniform colour. You weren’t sure where you were going or why but all you knew was that you were going way too fast.  

“Lando! I swear to God, if you get us killed–” 

“You said you trusted me,” Lando yelled back, cautiously looking over his shoulder. He could see the paparazzi struggling to follow the both of you.  

You panted, pushing your legs to keep up. “I do! Breaking into a sprint all of a sudden with no idea in mind, however, begs a slightly different answer.” 

Lando couldn’t help but laugh over the air and God, did you love it. You had heard of people saying that a laugh could so like music to one’s ears. You never understood it. It was a laugh. A reaction. How could it be musical? But in that moment, you understood. It wasn’t just the laugh. It required the context, the smile, the thought... and only then did it become an orchestrated musical masterpiece.  

Another yelp left your mouth as Lando pulled you to the side, situating yourselves in an empty shaded alleyway. You rested your back as comfortably as you could against the stone while Lando stood in front of you, hand still wrapped around yours.  

You both waited quietly. Turning your head slightly, you could see a small flock of black clothed paparazzi walk by, all ushering and yelling, mystified to how you both had disappeared.  

“Okay,” you swallowed hard, turning back to Lando. “I think they’re...” You seem to have lost your ability to speak as you found Lando staring at you. It had been a common occurrence within the past few months and it never got any easier. “They’re gone,” you confirmed, chest heaving.  

“You should probably start joining me on my workouts,” he mumbled, eyes flickering over you again, absorbing the sight of the thin sheet of sweat across your skin.  

You narrowed your eyes, moving your hand from his grasp to hit him with the side of your bag. A groan fell from his lips. “Ow!” He yelled, making you clasp a hand over his mouth. Your head darted to the side, checking whether anyone heard him.  

“What was that for?” He queried after you removed your hand from his mouth.  

“For being an asshole. And for making me run. Which reminds me... why did you make us run?” You queried with a more than unhappy tone.  

Lando grinned. “We still have one thing on your list to do.” 

You furrowed your brows. “I didn’t add anything else.” 

Lando’s hand rummaged through the pocket of his shorts, taking out a familiar piece of paper – the very one you had written all your activities on. And right at the bottom was an activity you thought you tore off.  

Your eyes widened, hand darting out to grab the piece of paper but Lando was too quick. “Nuh-uh,” he tutted, holding the paper close to him. “I’m getting this framed.” 

You skin burned at his words. You clearly remembered what you wrote.  

Walk the Monza track with Lando (and preferably some gelato). 

“I was supposed to take that off,” you mumbled.  

Lando frowned. “You don’t want to do it? Or did you not want to do it with me?” 

You blinked blankly at Lando. “Are you stupid? Did you read the same thing I did? Obviously with you. I just... we’ll probably get mobbed so it’s a stupid idea.” 

Lando understood what you meant. Visiting in Italy for two days now had proven to be incredibly difficult with a fan asking for a photo every other minute. He was appreciative that you were so understanding but he felt awful. 

“Yeah... I mean it would be crazy if you had a boyfriend who could rent out the entire track for a couple of hours,” Lando yawned, stretching his arms nonchalantly.  

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see your mouth fall open. “Lando... you didn’t.” 

Lando rolled his eyes, grabbing your hand once again. “I did. Now come on. We’re going to be late!”  

━━━━━━━━━━━ 

You blinked blankly once you arrived to the empty Monza track. You had preoccupied yourself in the car ride here, pointing out all the interesting things you were seeing as Lando drove to the track. You were going to fall asleep if you hadn’t arrived there any earlier. But now that you were... you didn’t think your eyes could get any wider.  

“Is that a...” You turned to Lando with twinkling eyes.  

“Just go pick your flavour,” he narrowed his eyes.  

A squeal fell from your lips and before you knew it, you were hugging Lando tightly. You could feel his arms wrap around your waist, happily accepting your hug. “Thank you,” you murmured next to his ear.  

Lando smiled calmly despite his heart beat pounding in his ears. He was sure he could stay like this forever if he could. “You’re welcome. I... It’s so much less than what you deserve, but it’s all I could think to do given the... circumstances.”  

You stared at the pavement of the track heavily, Lando’s words swirling around your head. Right... the circumstances. You cleared your throat, pulling away from him even though you could’ve sworn you felt him tighten his grasp momentarily.  

“Come on. Pick your flavour or I’m just going to get you all chocolate,” you called out, waking over to the gelato cart he had hired. 

Lando sighed, briefly making a disgusted expression. He followed after you with a small smile. Despite the wind, he could still smell you on him.  

You greeted the cart owner, excitedly eyeing all the gelato flavours. There were so many to choose from... how were you ever going to pick? “Can I get...” 

“She’ll get mango, chocolate, raspberry, and lemon in a cup,” Lando finished, hovering behind you.  

You gaped, snapping your head to Lando. “How did you know?” 

“Better question is,” Lando started, resting his mouth right above your shoulder and near your ear, “why wouldn’t I?” 

You shivered at his words, cheeks burning at the small grin playing on his lips. “I’m not sharing any of mine,” you muttered, moving your eyes to the gelato.  

Lando pouted teasingly. “Please,” he sung, tilting his head so you could see him blink his eyes rapidly. 

You gulped, taking a step away before you succumbed to his wishes. “I think I’m going to throw up.” 

Lando gasped. “So rude!” 

You chuckled taking the cup of gelato while thanking the owner. Lando narrowed his eyes at you, ordering his own combination of pistachio, melon, and orange.  

You made a face at his cup as he walked towards you. “There is something so wrong with you.” 

Lando rolled his eyes, nudging you forwards to the entrance of the track. “Just be quiet and walk.” 

━━━━━━━━━━━ 

You and Lando walked comfortably at your own pace around the track, eating your gelato while he explained parts of the track or its history.  

“I’m not gonna lie,” you started, finishing your spoonful of raspberry, “Curva Parabolica makes me feel sick. Every time it came on the TV, I thought I was going to throw up.” 

Lando raised a brow, resting his spoon in his cup. “I thought you didn’t watch them?” 

It was always Lando’s assumption you didn’t watch the races. Even when you came to them, if there was a camera, you’d flash a smile, otherwise there was no other reason to be there. You were at the podiums because you had to be, not because you wanted to be. 

You snorted, looking at him incredulously. “Of course, I watch them. Why wouldn’t I? You’re freaking racing! I’m always so proud of you, no matter where or how you finish. You don’t see me next your mum and dad, cheering you on at the end of the race?” 

Of course he did. You were the first person he would look for at a race. And if you weren’t there, he’d look at the camera in hopes you were watching. And all this time... you had been.  

Lando’s mouth dried. “I just thought...” 

You looked at his face and you could read his mind. “You thought it was fake.” 

He blinked, regret washing over his face. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it,” he apologised.  

You took a spoonful of your mango gelato and eyeing his mournful expression. “It’s okay. If there’s one thing you should know, my proudness and happiness for you isn’t fake. Even if this whole thing is.” 

And there it was again. The bitter reminder that this entire relationship was fake. That perhaps the only real thing in your relationship was how you met.  

But this was real. 

This – the track, the gelato, the conversation – this was real.  

Lando sucked in a sharp breath, moving his eyes to the rest of the track as he ate large soon of his melon gelato. He exhaled slowly, trying to remember where he was once again. “Okay... pop quiz! Who was Variante Ascari named after?” 

You cleared your throat, pulling on a thoughtful expression. “Um Al.. Alberto Ascari? The Italian driver, right?” 

“Thank God someone’s been paying attention,” he joked as you neared the named turn.  

You rolled your eyes. “I should thank Fewtrell for that one. Remember that stream he made us join?” 

“Yeah,” Lando laughed softly, all the memories hitting him at once. It was really sweet of Max actually. It was a time when some ‘fans’ were being particularly awful to you. Saying you were using Lando for fame because you barely knew anything about the sport.  

Max then created a poorly made quiz about Formula 1 and got you and Lando to join. Max and Lando pretended not to know much so you were all in the same boat. And any time the right answer was mention, Lando would occasionally squeeze your leg to give you a clue. The stream was flooded with some of the kindest comments, telling you to ignore everyone else and just focus on your health and your relationship with Lando.  

It was one of the moments where you realised how good of a friend Max was. Lando was lucky to have someone who cared for him that much.  

Lando looked down at his cup and let out a dramatic sigh. 

You didn’t even need to bat an eye towards. “I told you I'm not sharing,” you reminded, quickening your pace.  

It didn’t take long for him to catch up. “Please, please. I can see you have like two spoons of mango and lemon. Come on. Sharing is caring.” 

“No–Lando! Stop following me!”  

All of a sudden, you and Lando were running again. But this time, you weren’t worried about some paparazzi or the destination. It was just you and Lando.  

“No offense, but you are not outrunning me,” Lando called out from behind you, running with what you were pretty sure was a smug grin. 

You huffed, trying to push your legs further but you could feel him hovering. You came to an abrupt halt. “You’re right. I can’t outrun you,” you smiled, turning to him. “But I can out-eat you.” 

Lando’s grin dropped as you combined the two flavours of gelato and plopped them in your mouth. He stood there, dumbfounded while you happily ate the rest.  

You replicated his smug grin from earlier and poked your tongue out. “All finished. Sorry,” you shrugged with no sound of an apology hidden in your voice.  

Lando swallowed hard, eyes fixated on your mouth. A step closer to you, his body was pressed on yours. His hand travelled up your neck, the other hand resting on your waist to pull you closer.  

You inhaled slowly, hairs on your body standing straight. You tried meeting his eyes but all you could see was him focus on your lips. Instinctively, your hand fell to his arm around your waist, fastening yourself to him.  

“I... I think I can still taste it,” he said, voice hoarse and dry. He wasn’t sure if he could even recognise himself. 

“Lando... I–we're not on the clock,” you whispered, unwilling to untangle yourself from his grasp.  

“I don’t care.” 

In the blink of an eye, Lando’s lips were smashed against yours and fuck, his lips were soft and pillowy as usual. Your stomach churned upon feeling Lando pushing you closer to him, if that were possible. His fingers were cold against your skin, creeping under the hem of your shirt to rub tingling circles onto your skin.  

A breathy gasp fell from your lips while goosebumps littered your skin. Lando took advantage of this, groaning against your lips as he darted his tongue to explore your mouth. He could feel himself press into you, rubbing his hard-on against you.  

You think now would be an appropriate time to self-implode. You had all the signs. Burning skin, dizziness, and the lost ability to breathe. 

Lando almost buckled under your touch as your fingers scoured his taut torso, lingering dangerously close to his v-line. 

“Holy fuck,” he gasped, pulling away to rest his forehead on yours. His hands had found themselves holding yours, preventing you from undoing him any further. His chest heaved, rising up and down while he stared at your swollen lips and moved his eyes to meet yours.  

“I want this to be real,” he pleaded, moving your hand to his face. “Please.” 

“Lando,” you started but he didn’t want to hear it.  

He shook his head. “I think I’m falling in love with you. I think I have been since we first met,” he sighed out, collecting himself. “I don’t want to do this when it’s fake. I want to be with you because what I feel is real. Because you drive me crazy and I can’t imagine a future without you.” 

You blinked, feeling his hand trail over yours as you caressed his face. Your heart raced loudly in your ears. How were you supposed to respond to that? “I...” 

“Please say something. Anything,” he begged, blue eyes heavily staring down at you. 

“As long as you promise to walk with me on every track. Oh, and get me gelato.” 

Lando let out the biggest sigh of relief, almost collapsing against your hand. His head dipped down, pressing his lips against you once again, taking you into a long kiss. He sighed, pulling away.  

His arms fell around your waist as he grinned at you. “I promise.” 

© 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐘𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑 

[ahermitinverted]

I am tired of liberals finding this post and yelling at me for getting Trump elected. I will attempt to put my thoughts together concisely.

First point: there is some mythmaking that Kamala did everything she could to win and the American public failed her and the Democrats. This is an inaccurate recasting of history. From the very beginning, Harris's internal polling showed that she was losing this election. You can come up with whatever excuses you want for why that is, but the point stands that she had a losing strategy that she knowingly committed to.

This USA Today article references the Pod Save America Podcast where Kamala's staff talks about this:

Second point: there is mythmaking that she simply had no winning strategy that she could find other than courting Republicans, because she was already too far left to get elected. This is inaccurate and we can see what voters wanted to vote for. I'm not going to go over every example, but I will point to a representative one. I don't think it's controversial to say that a major reason that Kamala lost Michigan is because of her hardline stance on supporting Israel's genocide of the Palestinians. Her strategy was to send Bill Clinton to yell at them to fall in line. Yet those voters didn't abandon Democrats for the Right because we still saw them vote for Rashida Talib. If Democrats wanted more people to vote for them, they could have met the voting base on the matters that they were asking for.

Here's an interesting article from some indie progressive new outlet that goes over some more progressive wins that got the votes that Kamala failed to find:

Third and most irritatingly, people are still mythologizing that third party voters voting for Jill Stein or whoever should have fallen in line and just voted for Democrats to stop Trump. I will acknowledge that it is absurd to demand that random people behave more Machiavellian than the literal politicians to mitigate harm, but that's a conversation for another time. We need to remember that Kamala didn't lose narrowly; she lost everything. She lost every relevant battleground state, and these losses were not due to third party voters.

Michigan: Lost by 80,103 votes. Jill Stein only got 44,607. Even if you give her Cornel West's votes, that's only another 6,664.

Wisconsin: Lost by 29.397 votes. Jill Stein and Cornel West only "stole" 15,028.

Nevada: Lost by 46,008 votes. No one voted Stein or West, but "None of the above" only got 19,625.

Arizona: Lost by 187,382 votes. Stein got 18,319.

Georgia: Lost by 115,100 votes. Stein found 18,229.

Pennsylvania: Lost by 120,266 votes. Stein got 24,538.

These are all states that Biden was able to win in 2020. I need people to understand that Kamala lost this election and it wasn't even close. The Green Party didn't steal it from her. Non-Voting Progressives didn't fail her. She lost so badly that they can't even convincingly run the normal "progressives abandoned us" playbook. They abandoned their own base and traded it for a handful of Liz Cheneys.

My issue with Liberal Electoralism is a desperate belief in the power of the individual voter. I get the impulse to think 'what could WE have done differently,' but ultimately it's not on 'us.' Democrats did not want to win this election, so it is silly to blame the people who pointed out the reasons they were going to lose as it happens.

So yeah I stand by my position. Go donate burritos to unhoused folks. It will do more good than yelling at people for not voting for Kamala. Mostly because the people that you're yelling at probably did still vote 'strategically' for Kamala and still saw her eat shit. Democrats aren't going to save you.

In conclusion vote if you want to. I don't care. But remember that the situation we are in was chosen by the power structures and not by the people who are criticizing them.

[deadhands69]

Cute When You Stutter

loser!Shigaraki x gn/afab Reader

prev ◁ part 3 ▷ next

[series masterlist]

The photos you posted with Shigaraki were pretty popular among your friends, most of whom were absolutely surprised at the news of you having a boyfriend (especially the people who recognized him from the news.) Among the notifications you received, one message from an old friend stands out:

you’re bringing him to my party tonight, right?

Honestly, you forgot about the party until now. It’s too late to bail though, you've said you'd be there multiple times by now. 

Back to your screen, there are already five likes on the comment and a handful of responses all indicating they want to meet your new guy.

I don’t know, you respond, he’s probably busy

Thinking that will end the conversation, you go about your day.

Checking your phone a few hours later, you find that your comment only sparked more discussion from people who your ex has already gotten to. Statements like he’d leave you alone at a valentine’s party and i heard this was fake flood your screen.

A fleeting thought tells you to drop it. Go on with your life and ignore anyone who questions you. None of it needs to be their business. 

Given that that’s not gone well for you with anything to do with your ex, you abandon that sort of thinking and push further. You’ll have to bring Shigaraki by eventually if you’re continuing this, might as well rip off the bandaid and get it over with today. 

You pause at Tomura’s door, remembering that the last time you saw him he was running from your room after cumming in his pants. Please don’t be more awkward than usual you repeat to yourself. Knocking briefly, you enter unceremoniously. He abandons his game, pulling the cat ear headset onto his neck. This is a massive departure from his usual response of grumbling at you for invading his privacy.

Cutting straight to the point, you ask if he’ll continue the dating charade in person. Noting that you’ll absolutely make it worth his while.

“All this for that guy?” he asks, wrinkling his nose at the thought.

“No! Not really? It’s just,” your voice is shaking in frustration, “I know he’ll tell everyone and I don’t want my friends to pity me or be weird about it.” 

“So, it’s not even about him. It’s about your old friends.”

“Exactly,” your voice sounds as desperate as you feel and you know he can sense that, “you don’t even have to stay for very long. And I’ll-”

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” he says so casually that you’re not sure he fully understands what he agreed to.

“Thank you!” you exclaim, “it’s tonight. Leave at 8?”

“Okay,” he pulls his headset back on and returns to his game. As you leave, you barely hear him mumble under his breath, “if they still listen to what he says, I think you deserve better friends. No one here would ever do that.” 

Stumbling out the door of your bedroom, you realize with the amount of effort you put into looking presentable, you’re running slightly late. Shigaraki is waiting for you in the living room, having cleaned up surprisingly well. His hair is freshly washed, clothes clean, and whatever soap/deodorant combo he used smells amazing. For a moment, you forget why the two of you are going to this party together in the first place and begin to actually look forward to the evening. Giddy, even. You take a moment to remind yourself that this is the same guy who awkwardly huffs your laundry detergent because it smells like you, plays dating sims on full volume, and gets hard if you so much as glance in his direction. There’s no need to be nervous.

When you arrive, the party is already packed. Having expected a more quiet evening with maybe a few games or conversations, you’re a bit shocked to walk in and immediately see your ex trying to chug champagne from a beer bong.

“I should have warned you he’d be here,” one of your friends ushers the two of you into another room. “It’s just, you get it,” she pleads.

No, you don’t get it but you’ll keep the peace.

“Yeah, whatever,” you grumble, pouring sweet sparkling wine from a sticky bottle into two plastic cups. 

“Cheers!” you say, sloshing your drink into Tomura’s. Even in a room full of people you know, you find yourself preferring to spend time with him. You have to admit he’s growing on you.

After an hour of small talk and dragging around your awkward arm candy, Shigaraki excuses himself to find a restroom. Now’s as good a time as any to refill your cup for what you're guessing is either the fourth or seventh time so you head to the kitchen. Your asshole ex misses absolutely no time in cornering you.

“You look nice tonight,” he says, arms caging you into the counter. Without a verbal response, you glare at him before ducking under his arm and walking away, champagne bottle in hand. He yells after you, “come on, that guy? He probably fucks his fist every night crying over you.”

You know he does, the two of you share a wall. And it’s cute, that’s part of why you like him. Wait…what? You’ll come back to that thought later. Heading to find Tomura in a rush, you collide with him in the hallway. Maybe it’s the dizzying amount of drinks you’ve already had but he looks so kissable. And you did say you’d make tonight worth his while.

Pulling him into the nearest door you see, you find yourself in the bathroom. Perfect. 

He still has the deer in the headlights look on his face as you lock the door behind you. You set the bottle of champagne on the counter, pressing him into the corner between the door and wall. He whimpers at your touch.

Dragging your lips over his, you whisper “I thought you’d be used to me by now.” You kiss him slowly, drawing it out. He hums as you lightly suck his bottom lip between your teeth. “I mean, it’s not the first time I’ve touched you.” His mouth cracks open, letting you slide your tongue over his. “And I know what you do every night, the walls are thin. I hear it when you moan my name.”

He blushes at the thought, wanting to be ashamed but he can't. Not with the way your sweet lips linger on his.

Your hand trails down the front of his thin shirt, past the hem, and to his growing erection. Tracing the outline of him, you reach to unbutton his pants.  Hand hovering over the zipper, you glance back at his face. He’s practically crying at your touch.

“P-please,” he quietly pleads.

It’s the furthest you’ve ever been with him and he hasn’t cum instantly and run away which is progress. Unzipping his pants and pulling the length of him out of his underwear, it’s prettier than you expected. He’s rock hard already, grinding himself into your hand. You wrap your fingers around his dick, stroking him slowly while you resume kissing him. Your mouth moves over his jaw and down his neck as he throws his head back, panting. His hands are fists at his side, trying hard not to touch anything.

“Fuck,” he whines, breathlessly. You suck his neck harder, bringing your free hand to massage his tip. 

Immediately, he throws his clenched hands around your shoulders. He groans, covering your hands in pearly white that drips between your fingers. You hum in amusement. How many times have you made him cum without ever getting to see it? He whimpers in overstimulation as you run your hands over him a few more times to get the last few drops out.

Crimson eyes follow you through the room as you move to wash your hands. 

“I- uhm, thanks,” he mumbles, struggling to pull his pants over his still hard dick. You smirk at him, while making yourself presentable again.

“Awe, fuck,” you mutter to your phone. In the four minutes you were in here with him, all hell seems to have broken loose outside. The few texts from your friends make you cringe.

your ex is out here

hes sad

you should give him another chance! he says hes really sorry

hes hotter than your new boyfriend anyways

“Ugghhh,” you grumble, taking a massive swig off the champagne bottle you nearly forgot on the bathroom counter. They know he cheated on you and they know how you felt about it, yet you're still having to deal with this.

“What, what’s going on?” Tomura asks, tailing you as you shove open the door and stumble into the hallway. You’re not really sure why, but you show him your phone.

“Oh,” he mouths, eyebrows raised. “Do you want to go?” he asks tentatively as you chug what’s left of the champagne.

As you enter the living room, one of your friends approaches, begging you to talk to him. Through double vision, you watch as your ex’s girlfriend rushes out the door, crying. She doesn’t deserve this, you decide, and neither do you. You sway slightly as you turn to Tomura who’s standing awkwardly by your side. 

And, the rest of the night is black. 

You don’t remember anything after that.

next - series masterlist - bnha masterlist

taglist: @shigarakislaughter @kalulakunundrum

[fionacle]

Hanan asked me to write a post about her suffering so that people might donate. @hananfamily7

read her post here

Vetted by @gazavetters, #152 on their verified list ✅

Vetted by @90-ghost here ✅

For the past 16 months, she and her family have been struggling to get healthy food and medicine for not only her and her husband, but their sick child and comatose elderly mother who almost died from anemia. Prices have risen over tenfold in gaza so they can’t access healthy food to prevent such sicknesses. Just a bag of flour is $300, and that’s mostly what they’ve been eating.

After the ceasefire, donations declined significantly, people likely thinking they don’t need them anymore, but nothing could be further than the truth. They’ve starved and frozen, only to return to their beloved home and find it a pile of rubble. Even if the bombs didn’t take their lives, they took so much more.

Their campaign has only raised $14,100 USD of their $30,000 goal

She and her husband are not used to asking for help, before the genocide hit them they’d graduated college and worked decent jobs, like Hanan was a child psychologist, but now donations are their only source of income, so they’ve been unable to get even the most basic necessities.

Now they even face the threat of Trump, who has vowed to help Israel wipe out Palestine.

They desperately need any help they can get, so they can continue to survive, and eventually escape Gaza to safety. No one of us can stop this genocide, but donating can at least save her family. I personally wasn’t able to donate, as I don’t even have a credit card, so they NEED other people to care.

The donations they’ve gotten have thankfully kept them fed and helped buy some other necessities, but they continue to need help affording these.

Share, reblog, repost, whatever to get it to someone who can donate, and hopefully donate yourself. They need it.

Their GoFundMe is https://gofund.me/b905b50e

And their PayPal is https://bit.ly/3C9TPFi

[jeonscatalyst]

https://www.tumblr.com/jeonscatalyst/775269752065114112/httpsxcomjjkgailerystatus1889108652562506096?source=share

But the way #their confidence was on cloud nine after ep 3 of AYS? May you won't believe or maybe you would as I'm assuming you have seen all those essays pitying Jikookers saying that "It's not jkkrs fault that the company led them to believe something which is not true, which isn't there. I don't fault the jikookers, they just got manipulated by the company" like the same Tkkrs who do daily coke rants About jkk and jkkrs and how much they hate them were pitying jkkrs after ep3. Like boy I'm never forgetting that confidence 😂 the way they were soo sure jimin was going to third wheel. Mind you they said that if jungkook couldn't keep taehyung off of his mind in NYC imagine what he'd do if taehyung is in the show (they said this after nyc as well as after ep 3).

No but the only thing jm didn't do way participate in water gun 🔫 game because he had motion sickness and even in that game jungkook's focus was more on jimin because he wanted jimin to join so he was just spraying water on jm. But the way their coke rants came back as soon as ep4 was aired LMAOOO like i remember ppl posting those 14 freakin pages of why the show is scripted and how taekook are being oppressed by the company lol. #They wanted jimin to third wheel soo bad as if he's not known for having the best RS with every single member of BTS.

Remind me again what was the outrage for behind the scenes? As far as i remember the armys were saying the company is portraying taehyung as a villain because they added "why are you coming" as subtitles for jk even tho he didn't say anything but that was their humour. And did we find out jm having sleepover at jk's during behind the scenes? Anything more we find out during behind the scenes?

Loooool anon!

You just reminded me of all the chaos that unfolded after the first few episodes of AYS. I remember everything they said, especially after Episode 3. The same tkkrs who initially hated the idea of the show claiming it was scripted and that Jungkook had been forced into it, suddenly changed their tune, saying they actually enjoyed it and looked forward to new episodes.

The truth is, even some Jikookers had mixed feelings about the first few episodes. When Jimin and Jungkook mentioned that they hadn’t kept in touch much, and then in Episode 3, when Jimin was still sick and couldn’t be as active as Taekook, some Jikookers were uncertain about how things were playing out. Tkkrs noticed this hesitation and used it to mock Jikookers, calling them gullible for believing in “fanservice” while they declared themselves victorious based on a single part of the first day in Jeju. They celebrated too early, forgetting that it’s not over until it’s over.

By Episode 4, their narrative shifted again. The joy they felt in Episode 3, watching Jungkook and Taehyung jump around together while Jimin, who was sick, couldn’t join…was short-lived. Suddenly, Tae was the one looking like the third wheel, a role they desperately wanted Jimin to fill. After laughing at Jimin in Episode 3, claiming Jungkook didn’t even care to invite him to the pool (conveniently ignoring Jungkook spraying Jimin with water, trying to get him to play), they had to watch Jungkook not ask Taehyung to join other activities with him and Jimin. They mocked Jimin for having motion sickness and claimed that Jungkook didn’t care that he was sick, only to watch Jungkook not even lift his head from his food he was eating while Tae painfully complained about his neck hurting at the sushi restaurant…so much so that Jimin was the one who turned to give him a neck massage. Jungkook? He stayed focused on his food. (This ofcourse doesn’t mean Jungkook didn’t care about Tae. People with brains understand this but tkkrs, no they twist everything and wouldn’t mind potraying jk as an asshole if it means proving Jikook isn’t real)

Episode 4 felt like sweet Jikook karma. It was as if the universe saw all the mocking and insults aimed at Jimin and turned the tables. Everything tkkrs wanted Jungkook to do to Jimin ended up being Tae’s reality. On top of that, Tae spent most of his time with his head buried in his phone. At first, tkkrs claimed his presence made the show more interesting, but we all saw him spend the rest of Jeju either on his phone, going to bed early, staying by himself, or leaving to meet other people…basically not really adding much to the show tbh while Jimin and Jungkook did everything together.

One of the funniest parts to me, a part I still laugh about everytime I think about it is, tkkrs saying that Jungkook didn’t care to ask Jimin to eat when they first arrived in Jeju, making a big deal about how he ate with Tae instead. They even edited screenshots to make it seem like Jungkook was seated closer to Tae than Jimin. But then, in the behind the scenes, we found out that Jungkook did ask Jimin why he wasn’t eating (a part that was conveniently cut from the official footage). And the reason Jimin wasn’t eating? He had spent the night with Jungkook before Jeju, and Jungkook had cooked maguksu for them which Jimin had three servings of.

So, anon, you ask what the outrage was about after the behind-the-scenes footage? Imagine being a tkkr who spent weeks twisting every scene to fit a false narrative only to later discover that while you were busy making edits about Jungkook “not caring” about Jimin, the reality was that Jungkook and Jimin spent the night together not Jungkook and Taehyung. Imagine thinking that your beliefs about Taekook being a couple had been validated because of seating positions while your arch enemies (jokers) had been put to shame on their own ship’s show, only to learn that Taehyung only found out about Jungkook’s (who is supposedly his boyfriend) trip from a group chat and insisted on joining. Or believing that Jungkook didn’t care if Jimin ate…only to find out that not only did he ask, but he had also spent the night with him after flying back from the U.S, while Tae was nowhere near him. Wouldn’t you be mad too anon?😂💀

The behind-the-scenes footage shattered their illusions. It revealed details they hadn’t expected. Jimin and Jungkook barely paying attention to Tae at certain points, Tae looking over it and ready to go home, and every Jikook moment playing out exactly the way we’ve always known their dynamic to be. Tkkrs had convinced themselves that Jungkook only pays attention to Taehyung in a room, yet they watched Jimin and Jungkook create inside joke after inside joke, leaving Taehyung visibly lost. That was a hard pill to swallow.

They claim the company and Jimin tried to portray Taehyung as a guest (wasn’t he a guest?). Notice how they conveniently ignore the fact that Jungkook also called Taehyung a guest multiple times and even laughed when Jimin joked about it. They won’t mention that because admitting it would mean acknowledging that Jungkook was in on it too which will make him a bad boyfriend in their books and they ofcourse don’t want anything but the perfect most caring and attentive boyfriend for Tae else the ship doesn’t hit as much. Jungkook can only be an asshole to Jimin as that will prove to them that Jikook isn’t real. This is a logic they don’t want to apply to their own ship so they skip mentioning Jk’s contribution in the said “portrayal” not because they care about jk and don’t want him to come off mean but because they don’t want to shatter their own fantasies.

Today, tkkrs claim AYS “debunked” Jikook, yet they still haven’t stopped crying about it. They desperately deny everything we saw with our own eyes. They deny that Taehyung was disconnected from Jikook and half the time looked like he didn’t want to be there, they deny that he was a indeed guest (this isn’t an insult. Don’t know why they think calling him a guest, which he was..is) who only learned about the trip through a group chat, and that AYS showed the stark difference in dynamics between Taekook and Jikook. Not that this was ever a competition…because Taekook has never held a candle to Jikook in my books…but the contrast was undeniable.

At the end of the day, AYS only validated what we’ve always known and not because it “proved” Jikook is real but because everything about it confirmed our understanding of their bond. We got to see what we had only heard about for years. We saw their natural dynamic unfold in real-time. And that’s what infuriates tkkrs the most. That’s why they call the show scripted. That’s why they call Jungkook a liar when he says those were the best trips he’s ever had.

They’re not mad because AYS disproved Jikook. If they really believed it did they would love the show. They’re mad because it proved them wrong.

[iminyourwallsbabe]

Yk what I feel like I haven't yapped about CaitVi enough and that's a disservice to my fellow sapphics so this word vomit is for you girl kissers out there

Okay so it goes without saying that CaitVi is kind of divisive. Some people love it 100%, some people think it could've worked better under different circumstances, and some people outright hate it, all viewpoints I understand. I'm the type of person who appreciates it for what it is.

I think the first thing I wanna touch on is the idea that their ending was supposed to be a happy one. I don't think it was. Honestly, I think it was more of a pause than anything. You weren't supposed to go "oh yay good for them", you were supposed to wonder what happens now. The end gives us, and the characters, an opportunity to just get our shit together and move on. So much just happened, there was little time to really, deeply think about it all. I'd like to think that they did work their shit out post-canon. However, I can see why people would think they wouldn't have.

I'm gonna go reverse chronological here. So one of the more glaring issues is whether or not Caitlyn switching sides was authentic and came from a place of genuine understanding of her mistakes. In my opinion, not quite. She was getting there but it would take the final battle for it to really set it. I said this in another post, but when she's sitting there before Ambessa, gun to the back of her head and knife in her side, she looks terrified. Obviously that shit is scary but it's more than that. Caitlyn is more afraid of dying than ever before, because if she died then, that would mean she had no way to fix what she had done. It was setting in just how badly she fucked up and now the entire world is at stake, and what can she do? Nothing. Think back to season 1 when her biggest gripe was not being allowed to do anything substantial or important. It's this again, just more extreme. She wanted to help people then, now she needs to and she can't.

And I think that's what she needed. She has never really been on the receiving end of the consequences of her actions. Not until then. As we've seen in the early parts of season 2, it weighs on her heavy when she thinks she's made a grave error. That's why she even started acting up in the first place. She's willing to abandon all of her morals and growth for the sake of remedying what she thinks she did. So with that in mind, I can imagine when she goes back to Vi, she feels the same if not worse because this time, what happened was actually her fault.

But now we need to talk about Vi and her place in all of this. One of many people's complaints is that Vi folds so easily when it comes to Caitlyn. And you're right, she folds like a fucking napkin but that's not just "oh I'm in love so I'm gonna do whatever for my girlfriend", it's more than that and has nothing to do with Caitlyn specifically. First of all, she has been stuck in Stillwater since she was a teen and hasn't seen the light of day in 7 years. MIND YOU, when she went to jail she was separated from her sister, who at that moment was her only living family member. OH YEAH DID WE FORGET THAT HER ENTIRE FAMILY DIED IN FRONT OF HER THAT SAME NIGHT? It is not a surprise to me at all that she clung to Caitlyn like saran wrap. That tends to happen when you're that fucking lonely. I'm of the belief that it could've been any other woman in the world instead of Caitlyn and she still would've acted the same. I also think that's part of the reason she joined the enforcers. Vi probably thought she was going to lose Caitlyn if she didn't. That doesn't really have anything to do with Caitlyn, that's an internal thing. Again though, are we really surprised that she'd get that desperate? But wait! There's more. After she does join and she tries to call Caitlyn out when she's done too much, it goes very wrong. It's at this point that some people wonder why she didn't just go back to Ekko instead of acting like she was all she had left. I need y'all to be so fr, you think Ekko would've been cool with that? And don't say "oh but he's so forgiving to Jinx" or something, that's just not true. He knows she's dangerous to the people of Zaun and can't personally allow that in his space or his life. It doesn't make it hurt any less but he's very clearly not having that shit. The same would've happened with Vi. She would've came back, he would've been like "I love you but FUCK NAH", and season 2 would've been exactly the same. She would've had to do some serious convincing.

But I say that to say that realistically, Caitlyn was all she had. She couldn't go back home after doing what she did, she definitely couldn't go to Jinx, everybody else is dead, that was it for her. Now we're in the glorious crash out era. I think there's something to be said about the glimpses of Caitlyn we get in that sequence. Those were hallucinations, going off of the fact that Jinx has her own and that more than likely, they share some of the same underlying mental illnesses. Breaking up with Caitlyn like that probably set it off. The straw was starting to break the camel's back. I also think it's interesting how Caitlyn left Vi similarly to how Vi (technically)left Jinx and that's when these issues start. I think it was a good way of showing that Caitlyn was right in a misguided sort of way. It is her blood in her veins. She is not that far off from Jinx, and they both can sit there and go "oh yeah she's crazy" all they want but Vi and Caitlyn were both one or two crash outs away from being like her. If anything, you can argue they kind of got there. Both of their ways of dealing with their pain involved hurting people. Caitlyn with her military dictatorship and attempted mass murder, Vi with her pit fighting, it's not at all the same in severity but conceptually... yeah, all of y'all are of fucked up.

You know I sometimes made jokes about how Caitlyn looks like Vi's mom and kind of acts like Jinx/Powder and how Freud would've had a field day with that but that's not exactly what's happening. I mean the mom thing is still a little sus but like I said before, they both have Jinx tendencies. If anything, Vi sees a reflection of herself in Caitlyn, because one of the big differences between the three of them is that what Vi and Caitlyn do is controlled. Caitlyn enacts violence through military means and generally gets permission to do the things that she does. Vi fights in a pit, that's the time and place for that. Jinx kind of does whatever she wants, except for when her mind/body makes decisions for her. She goes into panic mode and she shoots something, it's almost a natural instinct. If it's not that, it's kind of just "I felt like it". Also, their fears are coming from slightly different places and manifest in different ways. Jinx doesn't trust anyone to stick around, so she tests them and pushes them away. Vi doesn't trust anyone to stick around so she does whatever she can to keep them with her. Caitlyn doesn't trust herself to keep the people she loves around, so she becomes overly protective of them. Are we seeing what I'm saying here? It's like a hall of mirrors with these three but we're not here to talk about their relationship to Jinx, we're here to talk about them.

With this in mind, let's talk about the Fantastic CaitVi Coping and Communication Skills!!!! So the first thing they do when they join sides again is just be freaky as fuck. Like you think Vi spitting on her was a necessary part of the plan? Hell nah! Like honestly you could shoot a hole through the sexual tension between them good lord. Some people argue that the sex scene was unnecessary but looking at how they were acting before that? I'm not surprised that it went the way it did. Jokes aside though, seriously, the fact that they hadn't really addressed what happened properly and just went straight to pound town is so painfully on brand for both of them. Neither of them are good at addressing their issues. Post breakup, Vi became an emo alcoholic and Caitlyn became a whole ass dictator, I don't think they were gonna sit down and talk about their feelings. And honestly, I don't think that closure mattered nearly as much to them as it does to us as the audience. They have bigger issues, yk, like the glorious evolution and all that. Do I think that's necessarily a good thing? No. Do I think it's in character? Very. Anyway, this is why Vi is like "Cait, I don't fucking care" when she tries to begin saying anything about what she did when they were apart. She doesn't fucking care. Not at all. That's not what's important to her in that moment. It's also interesting that the first thing Caitlyn tries to apologize for is for sleeping with another woman, not trying to kill a whole bunch of her people. Notice how she went for the small thing first? She doesn't want to think about the other stuff. Neither of them do. And so they do what they do best and found a totally unhealthy distraction. In this case, it's ✂️🧁.

I think as a fandom we put too much emphasis on what's healthy in a show full of the most insane people I've ever seen. Trying to find a perfectly healthy relationship in this show is like trying to find a super niche website from 2003. You could probably do it but oh my fucking god would it take you a while. And y'all don't have nearly this much to say about Jayvik even though bro was like "ppl from the undercity are dangerous!!!" right to Viktor's face. Not to mention all the other issues they got going on. Jayce straight up killed a child with Hextech, like let's be fr. They're not all sunshine and rainbows and if we're going to criticize CaitVi the way that we do, we gotta have the same energy for Jayvik.

Anyway, I say all that to say that it's hard to focus on what the most therapist approved decision for your relationship is in these conditions and it doesn't make a ship any worse because of that.

I also don't like the idea that it's too unhealthy to be functional. It has the potential to get better and it's implied by the ending that it does, or at least starts to. Think about it like this, if two people on opposite sides of the political spectrum are friends, what do you assume is actually happening there? One party has to be compromising on their beliefs. There's no other way. If you cared so strongly about something, it'd be hard to keep company that opposes it. It's like that with CaitVi. They were on two different sides of a war and Caitlyn had to shift what she believed in order to even befriend Vi let alone be her lover. That whole "oh ur all the same" bit had to go. If anything, it makes me believe that end of season 2 CaitVi is actually healthier than season 1 CaitVi on a fundamental level. Caitlyn's view of Zaunites by the end of season 1 is attached to Vi. Vi was one of the good ones, Vi proved that there was some hope for those people, Vi was an exception. This is why she got so mad in season 2 when Vi tried to tell her she was bugging out. That's why she says "it's her blood in your veins" with so much vitriol. She gets indirectly victimized by a Zaunite, who has already been established as an extremist, and all of a sudden everybody down there is bad again. If you care about them at all you're bad too. At the end of season 2, Caitlyn is amused when she notices that Jinx is still alive. If that doesn't say anything about how much she's developed I don't know what does. Even if she doesn't like her, she doesn't have that same blind hatred anymore and that's the part we have to pay attention to. She's gotten to a point where she thinks even Jinx should have the opportunity to have a second chance. I'd rather date that than Caitlyn "wait you don't have parents?" Kiramman.

That's basically it, shout out to the writers for actually knowing how classism/racism/all the isms tbh actually work and what it looks like to change your beliefs as a a beneficiary of those systems, goodnight

[hhhecates]

# — pairings: xiao x gn!reader

# — characters: gender neutral reader, xiao

# — summary: takes place during the 2.7 quest Perilous Trail. What if you manage to dive after him and get the both of you out of the chasm? What if you're tired of him constantly treating himself like he's expendable?

# — warnings: angst, mentions of xiao's past, xiao's suicidal tendencies ofc, xiao cries (yes this is totally a warning)

# — tags: hurt/comfort (?), canon compliant, drabble, emotional

# — notes: this is quite an old work, and to be honest for a long time I wasn't even sure I ever wanted to post my writings and drawings on tumblr again. After much deliberation I've decided to come back. I really love xiao and that never once waned in the years I've been absent from tumblr. I understand that his character now has lost a lot of popularity, but still, I wish for the people who love him like me to be able to enjoy new fanfics, giggle over fanarts and maybe even gather together to share hcs and just have fun. I hope this ficlet finds you well.

They call his name and suddenly his eyes snap open, from gentle surrender to frenzied searching. From the acquiesce that comes with the knowledge that his duty has been performed until the last of his breaths, to the wretched way that last breath catches in his throat and seemingly sets him ablaze.

Staring back at him is a gaze as dark as the abyss that threatens to swallow him whole, equal part unyielding and volatile, equal part selfish and selfless.

"What do you think you're doing? Why- why are you still here?" his voice, a tiny, mangled thing, rips from his throat in an ungraceful, desperate way that's unbecoming of him.

"What do you think? To get us out of here of course. I have a plan!" They shout, the determination in their words almost makes Xiao recoil, bile rises in his throat.

"So did I, that's why I used the last of my strength to teleport all of you out of here, or so I thought." his tone, usually poised and sedate, tempered by thousands of years of torment and endurance, now instead teeters on something much more raw. If they weren't falling to their death, maybe they'd wince at the indignation that seeps into his words like gangrene spreading in his bloodstream.

"I wasn't planning on leaving you behind from the beginning, even if you didn't care for making it out alive from the very beginning."

Something in Xiao, frail and precarious, already hanging in an equilibrium of desperation and reverence, snaps, his throat burns when he shouts, gritty and soiled, like blood stubbornly staining his fingetips and clinging to his nails.

"This... This was the only way!"

"NO, STOP IT." They rebuke him. There's an unfiltered sort of rage in their voice, one that drops all pretense of reason. It makes him stop and begs for attention.

"I HATE IT. The way you look around, wondering who you have to die for today, everyday. That you believe you are nothing more than testament to purpose. Like it's your duty to let this purpose take you apart and dismember you." selfish acrimony wavers, until it is extinguished, and all that remains in its ashes, is grief.

"You gave yourself up so easily."

"I GAVE EVERYTHING-" Xiao howls disjointedly, so incredibly vulnerable, so terribly human.

"EXACTLY. And you still don't believe you deserve anything more than damnation for that. Still don't reach your hand out for fear it will stain my own with shame and make me collateral damage of who you think you've become."

"I can't save you." Xiao slurs, lips sticking together, like his mouth is sealed with cotton. It sounds like a confession. How ironic it is really, when Xiao pleads, a God, the Conqueror of Demons kneels before the altar of a human and pleads for something that frightfully resembles forgiveness.

"You are right, you are not my salvation.

I am.

Nobody is going to save me, make me believe that there's something more to me than rotten effort and spiteful thoughts.

I am salvation, and so are you." They look at him like there's triumph in crashing when they should be soaring.

"You are salvation.

Even if I can't convince you of it.

I can't call your name in a kinder way and expect you to recognize it as yours. But I refuse to let you believe that you're nothing more than perdition." They reach out their hand, willing for the gesture to seem expectant, when they all too well know that the tremble in their fingers spells imploration.

They see it, the way his pupils narrow in hesitation.

They don't see it, but they know it, he's turned away, hair obscuring his face, Xiao cries.

They wonder if it's the first time it happens, if tears obstinately made their way down his face when an evil god made a weapon out of him, if something akin to relief diluted in salt gathered in his eyes when Morax freed him from his enslavement, if regard towards his fallen companions could be expressed in silent tears as he roamed the quietude of Guili Plains at night. Then they remember, the way he told them that tears are nothing but an insult to a Yaksha's duty.

Xiao reaches for their hand they wonder if it's presumptuous to think that Xiao cries for them or for himself.

Header credits to kiochisato

[heretherebedork]

I just learned that in the novel, faifa and yotha are actually twins - same face, same height, same built, just different personalities, and it made me wonder how faifa took yothagun's relationship. I'm not saying faifa was jealous or that he likes gun that way but i feel like if i were faifa, i'd be so annoyed cuz why tf is my twin brother who repels anyone that comes near him gets to be in a loving relationship FIRST with MY close friend when i'm the one with the likable (borderline pushover) personality? I feel like it adds so much more depth to his 'loneliness' whenever he sees yothagun, esp with the knowledge that their mom did prefer yotha over him.

I could definitely see them being identical twins adding to it even more. Especially since everyone choose Yotha in the end. His own mother, who took him with her in the divorce, admits that she loved Yotha so much that she didn't take him because she feared she would love him too much to keep in contact with the rest of the family post-divorce! Come on.

This poor man deserves so much better than he got and I cannot wait until he gets it,. He deserves to be loved and cared for and for someone to look out for him the way he looks out for the rest of the world and sacrifices himself constantly.

Faifa has pushed himself so hard to always be the one to sacrifice and he is so similar to Gun in that way, the sunshine of the world only his sunshine is one that he started doing to protect himself.

That face. He tried so hard to get everyone to forgive and love his mother but his mother forgets he's allergic to milk despite the fact that she took care of him! He was just plain sent back to his father as a young adult and then found out it was because the stepfamily he was raised with was moving overseas and just... leaving him behind!

But he still fights for his brothers to love his mother because he's so damn desperate to be loved, because he needs everyone to be peaceful even when he deserves to be angry, to be pissed, to scream that he deserves to be loved too... I mean, this man literally had to argue with Yotha that he was the more loved one and to imagine that if they were identical twins, the same face staring back at him but knowing that face was more loved? I cannot even imagine.

Also, borderline pushover? Anon. Anon. Faifa has made himself into a rug. He has pushed himself over for the world to trample on and offered to clean the mud off their shoes because all he wants is to be loved and he sees the only way to be loved is to be useful and so he will be useful, he will be everything and anything as long as people don't leave him except they always, always do.

Faifa has walls but those walls are around his anger and his hurt and his loneliness instead of his joy or his love. He shares his love so thoroughly that he leaves nothing for himself and walls off the parts of him that need to be loved the most.

[the-far-bright-center]

Further thoughts on film-Anakin vs. TCW Anakin....

(Anyone who really dislikes TCW, turn away now, this post is probably not for you!)

I've already covered most of this territory in previous posts, so some of this might be a bit of a rehash. But it's been on my mind again lately. I will preface this by saying that I truly understand why some fans aren't into TCW Anakin and I don't mean to suggest that anyone *has* to LIKE him or be totally happy with that version of the character. (While personally I adore the Skyguy persona, even I have major issues with how TCW writes his dialogue, at times.)

However. Sometimes I feel like certain Anakin fans are attached to an idea of the character that is not quite…expansive enough to factor in all his various facets. People forget that Anakin was first portrayed not only by the Original Trilogy actors (James Earl Jones, David Prowse, and Sebastian Shaw), but also by Jake Lloyd in TPM. TCW Anakin has a great deal of TPM’s little Ani in him, and I personally don’t mind that at all. Don't get me wrong, Hayden’s performance in AotC and RotS is iconic. I adore it and I will always staunchly defend his Anakin, who remains my own personal favourite. However, I think some fans mistakenly have this idea that film-Anakin is nothing but a perpetual sad-boi who is openly crying all the time. It’s simply not the case. It may come across that way since we mainly see him at pivotal moments in AotC and RotS -- these are huge turning points in his arc, when all his intense emotions boil over and spill out. But a) he is not like this every moment of the day, and b) he is not supposed to be a static character. Anakin changes greatly between AotC and RotS, that’s kind of the point. He grows in capability and confidence (with regards to his own abilities as well as his interpersonal relationships), and in his Force powers, too. It’s like people forget that Anakin Skywalker is CANONICALLY an extremely powerful Force user as well as a highly competent starpilot and capable and charismatic general in the Clone Wars. The RotS novelisation even portrays him as such. That famous quote about how he is the best there ever was and he knows it. Also that observation Mace makes that Anakin walks and moves and has a 'presence’ like the Holonet hero he is. And indeed, the fact Anakin is known as 'The Hero With No Fear’ shows that he has a very dashing 'persona’ that he is known for publicly but which merely masks the inner turmoil he’s experiencing. We see more of that inner turmoil in the films simply because, as the viewers, we are there to observe his private moments with Padme, who is one of the few people he actually expresses his emotional struggles *to*. Traditionally-masculine heroes are supposed to be stoic (not overly emotional) and self-sufficient (not needing to rely on anyone other than themselves). Ironically, this is what the *Jedi* want him to be. And Anakin’s tragedy is that he’s struggling to fit into the Old Order’s mold and adhere to it….when in reality it’s not what he needs. He needs the space and permission to openly feel and express his intense emotions before they overwhelm him. Likewise, he is repeatedly shown to desperately need the presence of his loved ones around him in order to hold onto the best parts of himself. A male character being portrayed as *needing* others at all in the first place is the very first sign that he’s not just some male power fantasy.

All in all, the idea that TCW Anakin is solely reduced to a macho ideal is not accurate. I still see him very similarly to film-Anakin: as a commentary on how attempting to mold a loving young boy into an obedient slave Jedi weapon of war will ultimately backfire when that young man is eventually consumed and enslaved once more by the very darkness he was fighting. While the literal shedding of his tears may not be shown on-screen during the TCW series, the intensity of his emotion is. The desperation he feels to hold onto his loved ones at all costs absolutely comes across. And, like film-Anakin, I would argue that TCW Anakin is portrayed, not as aspirational, but as a pathetic figure. (‘Pathetic’ as in the word pathos.) The sheer amount of times he is tortured and tormented on screen, shown to have various flaws and vulnerabilities, and the amount of times the audience is repeatedly reminded that he will eventually meet a tragic fate, all attest to that. The point of the Clone Wars series is to illustrate the famous line that Yoda speaks in the Original Trilogy: 'Wars not make one great.’

[xuyaak]

I’ve been rereading mtmte and lost light for about a week or so already, and now Im on issue 21, the last issue of the tyrest arc. and holy fucking shit i wanna talk about pharma

remember the space bridge to cybertopia? the one that tyrest had found inside one of the titans? the portal which only allowed in guys clean of sins? basically the reason why tyrest wanted to kill all of the constructed cold guys??

remember what happened to pharma? he tried to escape through the portal, didn’t succeed and when rung, skids and first aid found him there, he was just kinda… sitting there, leaning on the force field that blocked his passage. then he started teasing first aid and we all know the consequences, yeah.

then rung explains that rather than people without sins, space bridge allows to pass people who are at peace with themselves, which in that context meant something like having a clean conscience (rung couldnt have made it through the space bridge btw, while skids did)

and yeah, that was the moment that kinda changed my altitude towards pharma. i thought that his conscience gave him carte blanche (because hes special and exceptional) on all those murders and he didn’t consider himself guilty, and yet, the fact that he didn’t get behind the barrier kinda makes me suggest that somewhere behind his huuuge ego and maniacal passion there is a tiny little part of him that actually regrets that things have gone the way they did.

And, if it was legit, he would probably feel bad about his patients from delphi, the feeling of guilt would be like a mosquito constantly buzzing near his audio receivers. He cant come back, he cant redeem himself, so he decides to make it worse? Become desperate out of guilt and go mad? idk, im bad at psychology

so uhhh yeah thank you if you stayed with me on this one. if you disagree with me, dont be afraid to express yourself, the inly reason why i decided to post this online is because i want to hear what other people can say on the matter

[lemotmo]

Celebrate good times 🎉🎉🎉

Q. Surprise surprise everyone spiralled for no reason. But I'm super curious to know what you thought of the interview?

A. Actually many of us weren't spiralling at all because we understood there wasn't anything he was really going to be able to say regarding Buddie. And surprise, surprise he said nothing. It was actually a very good interview overall (Eddie is Jesus for the win!) I spent the last several days reading quite a bit of Jeff's previous work and he's very good at what he does so I wasn't worried at all about this interview. Listen I was already 100% certain that Buddie was happening and his non answer to the Buddie question only furthered my belief. Every other answer he gave was well thought out and perfectly articulated until he got to the Buddie question. And because he couldn't say anything he just threw out a bunch of words that when jumbled together gave the illusion of an answer when he really didn't answer the question at all. He was clearly desperately trying to not say anything he wasn't supposed to and it was hilarious.

Look it's easy to say that everything we're seeing now is because the show is finally on a network that understands how to promote their shows. And actually wants to promote the show. But the pr focus is very intentionally, and noticeably, Buddie centric. The Family Feud episode, all the Ryan and Oliver interviews, the Ryan photoshoots, Oliver playing in the NBA all-star game, the pop culture jeopardy question (I need people to understand how big that actually is), the New Years Instagram post, it's all Buddie focused. They are getting very close to hard launch territory. So while you can say some of it may genuinely be the result of moving to a network who not only understood what they had, but actively embraced the idea of it, that doesn't account for how singularly focused on them the pr has been. No one else on the show is coming close to getting that much attention from the network. I cannot stress that enough. The majority, including the journalists who cover the show, all believe this is going the same direction. We wouldn't all be seeing it or reading it incorrectly. The network, the show, and Ryan and Oliver all know what people think is coming and I do believe at this point if it wasn't happening they would say it outright. It is not difficult to say something like 'they love each other and have an incredible bond and are absolutely family. We will continue to focus on them and the unit they have created together but it will be in a platonic manner'. That's just not hard to say. And I believe at this point, given the fact that the majority are now anticipating the show pairing them off together, that they would have absolutely stopped the speculation. I've already said I believe they're coming this season but I actually believe it's happening sooner than I even thought. I won't be surprised if we know by 8x13. Does that mean they're officially a couple by then? Not necessarily, but I wouldn't be surprised if we know by then. I don't think ABC has any intention of dragging this out very long. There's too much focus. It's been building for 7 years and I think the network is looking forward to capitalizing on the popularity.

Thank you Nonny!

Yes to all of this. I've already posted extensively about the interview so I won't be doing it here anymore. But essentially, Buddie is coming and I agree with Ali that we will get confirmation sooner than later where the story is going.

Like Ali said though, I don't think they'll be together by 8x13. But I do think they'll both be aware of their feelings and then the whole pining, longing and 'will they won't they' era will begin, just like Oliver wanted. 😋 They'll probably take this story to its natural conclusion towards the end of the season.

It's odd just how sure I am about this. The me from a few years ago could only dream of fandom times like these. 🤗

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[tutanchanup]

HOW WOULD VLAD III. DRACULEA BE AS A VAMPIRE?

(look how he still has his wedding ring but it's on his right hand as - from what I learned - in medieval times you'd actually wear it like that! Also did you notice the scars on his wrists from shackles of Corvinus' prison? Eek! 😊)

This question is inevitable. Whether we like it or not, the name of Vlad Draculea has been inseparably linked to that of the literary vampire. But we can at least look at how would the real Dracula, Vlad III Țepeș, voivode of Wallachia, look like in this role.

~•~•~

So, I've decided to listen to you and give you my opinion about Vlad as a vampire (I am honoured that someone wants to hear that, thank you 🥰, I'll answer the call of my people!). It became quite long, so I broke it down to several parts:

First, we'll look what the curse of vampirism would do to a psyche of an average human, and then we compare it to Vlad, who was formed by his mediaeval upbringing (in some future post I'll also discuss that in detail, so if you're interested in that, look ahead 😄). In part 2 (in a future post), I'll look at how he would physically look like - what fashion would he use (you'll be surprised!), his physical behaviour, and what impression would his presence make upon you. And in part 3 we'll look at his personality and the reasoning behind his actions. And, if someone would be actually interested, I am willing to make part 4 where I'd tell you what depictions of Dracula in media that I've seen so far I feel are closest to this and why 😉.

Disclaimer: as I have yet to talk to Vlad Draculea myself (just kidding, I actually have him locked in my closet, bwahaha!), please note that this is all MY OPINION. Feel free to tell me to shove it up my ar*e. But since this opinion is based upon at least some reasoning, please give your reasoning as well 😉.

Should you listen to me or not? Find out here.

~°~°~

So now, when we're done with the formalities, let's finally get into the big question itself:

How would Vlad III. Draculea deal with a curse of vampirism?

Prepare your tea, as this will be long 😄

Since there are many versions of vampiric curses in media, we'll look only at the two most common aspects: immortality and the need to drink human! blood (a.k.a kill humans, no bloodbags or vegan alternatives this time)

Let's see first what would such a curse do to a psyche of a regular human.

There are several huge pressures which could lead to a gradual break down of the former self, eventually opening the possibility to become a sadistic monster (of course everyone is different and would take it differently, but let's now look at the average human).

1. The Constant Need to Kill

The curse forces the vampire to regularly take human lives, gradually normalizing killing. This loss of respect for human life would eventually lead to dehumanization and a loss of empathy.

2. Isolation and Loneliness

An immortal would always end up forever alone, without family, friends, or a true community. Even when they would talk to humans, that would painfully remind them what they've lost since they are not human themselves anymore. This isolation would lead to hopelessness and despair, slowly eroding their psyche. If there would be other vampires, then they could pact with them, but since those would be under the pressure of the curse as well, it wouldn't be a cheerful company, instead making you face every time what have you yourself become, accelerating your loss of humanity.

3. Guilt and Desperation

Every decision about life and death would carry heavy consequences. When you take life once, you can never take it back. And the more power you have, the more catastrophic are the consequences of your failures. Also everyone makes mistakes, but in an immortal life you'd eventually accumulate a huge number of them. This overwhelming weight of guilt could lead one to distance oneself from their conscience, and that could result in sadism.

But what if this curse has happened to Vlad III. Draculea,

the medieval voivode from the 15th century, who's name is irrevocably linked with vampirism thanks to that unfortunate novel of Bram's?

We have to take in mind that he already was a voivode. A role that was always destined to him thanks to his royal blood, and which he was being prepared to carry since childhood

(yes, he was not the firstborn, but given the high turnover of voivodes on the throne, there was a big chance someone would use him to make him a pretender one day anyway. When you were born with a claim to the throne in your blood, you usually became a leader, or you were murdered by those in power who were afraid that you might use that claim of yours one day. It wasn't a choice)

And here comes the big surprise, as you can see:

The role of a voivode already carried exactly the same psychological pressures as the vampiric curse!

Don't believe me? Let's have a look!

1. The Constant Need to Kill

As a voivode, you also had the role of a judge and also a war commander (voivode comes from the Slavic word voj (army) vode (leader)). So the taking of human lifes would be inevitable, even if you didn't take it by your own hands. It was your responsibility to carry out laws and reign justice. In mediaeval times, the punishment for many crimes were deadly. So you already had to cope with that responsibility that you're the one deciding over people's fate. There was really no other choice, too - if you'd decide not to implement punishments according to the law, your own people would be angry at you, as they would see you as someone not upholding the law. And if you'd be too merciful, you'd be seen as weak, which would lead to your downfall and decapitation at the hands of you rivals (no, they wouldn't let you live and become a threat one day)

2. Isolation and Loneliness

The role of a monarch is a lonely one. You're alone in your position. You're the sole leader of the nation and everyone counts on you, which means that you have access to some nice luxury, but you're also cut off from real human connection, because noone will see you as their equal (in their eyes, you're above). Yes, you might eventually be given a wife, but that's an arranged marriage. And what sense is there in falling madly in love when you never know when you'll be called into battle (where you'd be expected to lead at the front), or when will your rivals finally succeed in planting their dagger into your back? I'm not saying that you never could love, but you'd be very careful with that, since if your enemies would see that you actually love someone, they would exploit that new weakness of yours immediately. Your view on love would be the same as that of the immortal vampire - they would know that it can never last forever because their sweetheart will die. You as a monarch know that it won't last forever because YOU'll probably die.

3. Guilt and Desperation

When your every ruling decides the fate of your nation, the consequences of your failures will be massive as well - for example when you make a bad decision and that leads to an Ottoman Invasion, your country will be pillaged, your men cut into pieces, woman raped and children taken into slavery.

So as you can see, for Vlad Draculea, the pressures of vampiric curse would be nothing new. For him, it would only be the continuation of his voivodeship, only in different clothes. And he knew how to cope with them before, so he would also know how to cope with them now. Because in real life he didn't descend into becoming a sadistic monster (#don't believe mediaeval propaganda)

If you're interested in the specific coping mechanisms based in mediaeval psyche that he used to be able to fulfill his role as a voivode, I am preparing a separate post about that, and I promise you you'll be fascinated. And it actually could help you deal with modern problems as well. It certainly did help me massively 😉. I'll link the post here as well when it's done eventually.

So out of all people, it would be the famous Dracula himself, who would keep most of his humanity intact!

...which is quite ironic when you look at how in almost every traditional portrayal he's a sadistic monster. Yes, the curse could do that to a regular human. But paradoxically not to Vlad III Draculea himself.

Would Draculea descend into a self-deprecating existence, hiding away from human sight in shame like most vampires do?

I would not count on it. Not because he was a voivode, but because he was Vlad Draculea.

Look, even if he might hate what he have become (as becomming a blood sucking immortal would probably go against his christian values), if anything, Draculea has never before let anything define him as a victim.

When the ottomans tortured him as a child, he didn't become a "poor tortured boy". He used it to make himself stronger and became a warrior. And that's why the Ottomans never managed to break him, as opposed to others.

Same would happen now - he wouldn't let the curse make him into "a poor cursed monster". He would be still a "voivode who happened to be under the curse of vampirism, ah well, what can you do, at least now I've got more weapons in my arsenal, nice!"

I am not saying that perhaps he would not disagree with the course, no, I think he even might be angry that this happened to him, the same way as he was justifiably angry when the ottomans tortured him. He might even spend a long time trying to find a cure for the curse. Because he was a man who wanted to always be in control (which makes sense when you look at his childhood, where he as a prisoner had no control at all), and if he was cursed against his will, or if the curse made him do things he didn't want to do, he would try his best to get rid of it (like he tried to get rid of the ottomans).

But in the meantime he would use it as best he could for his own purpose, like he still used an ottoman kilij for fighting, even though he hated the ottomans - because they trained him with the kilij and he wasn't a hateful fool to just throw it away the moment he got free from their captivity. He was pragmatic, he knew that after years of training he will always be better at fighting with kilij than with other swords (and also in some ways the curved sabre IS better than a straight sword, as we can see that it later took over. So Draculea would see that advantage as well).

Yeah, if you want to define Vlad in one single word, it would be: "pragmatic"

He had never let himself be overwhelmed with blind hatred - look how he withdrew his men from the night attack near Târgoviște, EVEN THOUGH he was this close to killing the sultan! But he withdrew his men instead because he knew that they would suffer horrible losses if he didn't withdraw in the right time.

But I also don't mean that he would let himself go and then try to excuse his behaviour like "ah, it's okay for me to murder you all, because you see, I am a vampire, I have no other choice" IF HE ACTUALLY HAD OTHER CHOICES AVAILABLE. He'd still feel obliged to use his power responsibly, as he did when he had power as a voivode.

So, when we take into account all this, we can see that he would probably never descend into crouching in the shadows (if that wasn't a part of some strategic plan of course), trying to hide away from the world so that noone may look at him and see the monster he became.

No, he would still have his honour and pride. He would never 'talk as a low vampire'. He would always talk as a voivode. But he would use his vampiric aspects when it would suit him strategically - for example he would smile exposing his teeth when purposedly trying to scare someone (as pictured).

So the final verdict is:

Vlad would never be a vampire. Vlad would be a voivode who also happens to be a vampire.

[the-stove-is-divorced]

Truly the grief for shows with 20+ eps a season is so indescribable, not everything needs to be 8-10 eps with 45+ min each episode!

And honestly, so true? Agree heavily here. I love the drama of the scene (mostly), Cecil v. Mark, ex. Mark thinking Cecil would outright try to kill him, b/c Mark's prob seeing the Nolan in Cecil, who takes the rejection of obedience into outright violence (presumably?). But still! Lacking! This would hit harder if there was more built up to Mark's trust in Cecil, any mentor-like advice, or paralleled Nolan in Cecil as it did Mark! But, Mark's difficulty in vocalizing his own morality, like you mention, just kinda leaves me a little confused on this whole conflict between them. It retracts from scenes with Oliver, too, it retracts the drama of A LOT, if it just leaves same outright squinting at the screen, 'cause the very foundation, what Mark knows and thinks is right, isn't exactly solid and established.

Like, why doesn't Mark vocalize the importance the HELPING people? Some classic spidey "great power, great responsibility", why is my guy going through the motions, and clearly STILL struggling? I feel like s1 does make some point to highlight Mark does want to help people, or trying to prod at his idea of what helping people means, even if it ends up going terribly wrong. Him failing to rescue a dying woman, him roped into fighting Machine Head, does prod at his ideas of what his job can/doesn't mean, but it feels like they never dive back into that properly? Which is strange, 'cause that's another potential Eve, Mark tie-in, as Eve realizes she can't do everything yet, Mark tries to figure out what he can do. Then they're both learning! Even supporting each other while pushing character growth! But it seems his only goal posts are Don't Be Dad (somehow? vaguely? no sub-goals, here), and Punch Bad Guy...? It's so strange.

Rewatching clips of s1's Mark vs Nolan fight rn, and Mark's weirdly unspecific morality is even weirder? He was trying to save ppl in that battle, desperately, no? I would think post-Nolan fight, he'd want to work real hard in gaining public trust again, and getting real emotional when ANY civilians die. Nolan outright tells him it's his fault ppl died, and Mark, later, learns Nolan is dead ass serious (pun intended lol) about replacing him, why wouldn't that message sink in further? Make him try to saving people first, over fight? Why not show Mark struggling with taking out the bad guy to stop threat, OR saving people whole the threat lingers, unable to choose a higher priority or outright choosing the wrong one, ultimately taking any mistake as proof the s1 fight was his fault.

Truly, some good ol' flashbacks into Guardian dynamics would be so thrilling, because yeah, it seems they were all in good terms! I also just want it so bad. How dare you gimme bootleg Justice League and then don't give me the dynamics. Outright entertainment robbery. YES TEAM DYNAMICS MY BELOVED FOR REAL. The deprivation of small, but so TELLING character moments make me so ill, because it's SO NEEEDED!!! Same brain waves, because the outright visual communication of these characters is NEEDED and would make me so ill in a good way. The budget issue limiting this show will never NOT drive me insane because Amazon HAS THE MONEY FOR SURE, but refuses to make this show something that, even if the writing isn't exactly fantastic, the FIGHTS could be legendary, if not playful. Also WHY did all of them go fr????? That's such a stupid decision? Especially if limiting it down further could have more character moments, even if small visual cues the show lacks!

I feel I violently check out when it comes to romantic focused media to not fully click this trope is so persistent and so ODD? Like HELLO? That's such a backhanded gift at best, inpersonal and one-sided, and outright cruel if I really wanna go there 'cause like you said, you don't know them. Even making a JOKE out of what's supposed to be a meal meaning gift is crazy??? Like this is fiction, a gift is GREAT way to demonstrate intentionally who these characters are and their relationship to each other. Don't remember the episode or if you're there already, but Justice League has an episode where Wonder Woman + Batman get Superman a bday gift before plot happens, (tho it's strange tbh, in the comics WW's gift is actually Batman's? But they switch it for the show if I'm not mistaken???) and GREAT moment!

Kate and Immortal piss me off so bad but we've already discussed why, like this girl isn't a character istg, EXPLORE HER DAMMIT, but seriously! We got a secret identity plotline BRIEFLY before dropping it and then just straight up functioning on how it's not a thing at all like hello????? Can this have any consequences or impact, even if it's people just look the other way? Which is so odd when it's a common staple for the hero genre, too, but I suppose they don't want to explore it? Perhaps too much of a staple to be interesting for them?

AND TRULY i am so tired of mark getting kicked around, bro, what the heck? Do something before the eleventh hour? But characters being genre savvy would be so funny, imagine somebody just pretends to be hurt to get Mark to actually focus lol.

THE ROGUE GALLERY IS SO SAD AND IT MAKES ME SO UPSET. How we get a bootleg JL and no actually good rogue gallery????? CRAZY WORK. Like part of the WHOLE FUN of superhero media is the villains, like, batman villains are crazy interesting or always just entertaining to SOMEONE, poison ivy, harley quin, penguin, etc, which usually reflect back on batman's character in some way if ya wanna dig into it, or just enjoy a good villain! Instead... it's just sad and empty. Currently foaming at the mouth for ANY super villain to be a mark parallel (like a former villain sidekick trying to step out the shadows of their mentor), or straight up used to be Nolan's nemesis and just tries to keep it up with Mark, insisting they're the same for example IDK. Villains are also good at establishing the world!!

ALSO SO TRUE? I don't think it's ever been actually acknowledged??? Ever?? Why doesn't he explore being mixed raced???? My guy is mixed race AND half human, there is SOMETHING to say here. ALSO SO FUCKING TRUE? WHY CAN'T OLIVER AND MARK BOND ABOUT BEING HYBRIDS? ABOUT HOW OLIVER CAN'T PASS AS EASILY?? My guy can't even go to school 'cause he grows up too fast, like can we talk about this??? Can Oliver be a person??? That could put some conflict / added conflict in the relationship?? Can Mark think about what it's like be HALF ALIEN? Can this mf have some unique oddness because of being a hybrid, I BEG. This is why the lack of self introspection in the desert makes me utterly insane. IT WAS RIGHT THERE.

Also you're telling me we got demons, billion dollar teleporters, cursed family lines, aliens, but nothing to instantly make Oliver look human so he can walk around? Easy way for Mark to feel indebted to Cecil, or Oliver trusting Cecil, something???

Cecil is so fucking interesting because he truly must be Like This. Which is even funnier because you'd think he'd be easier to guess with a focus on his, like, trajectory but no???? At least to me. I am squinting, personally. One would think you'd want needed allies close by and endeared to you, control 'em better, but Mark threatens, and he threatens back even harder, like I GET WHY but also DAMN. Instant escalation. Never threaten this mf, he'd take you AND himself out. It's also funny because like Oliver kills and Mark struggles articulating why it's bad, but also Cecil is presumably A-OK with killing (now) but only when he says so (assumingly). Like, don't kill because we could use them, isn't a because it's bad :( argument???

So, I'd imagine if he had to tackle training/mentoring Mark and Oliver it'd be a challenges in the opposite direction. Like No, Oliver you can't kill them ALL. Yes, Mark you DO have to kill sometimes. I'd kill to know what that looks like. Does Oliver get a whole team dedicated to training him, and Cecil check-ins?

But back to his side of things, I just wanna shake him furiously. Like, you point out, you're telling him to stand down WHY inducing pain AND beating him the fuck up like HELLO? You did not make Mark seem dangerous, now YOU look unhinged in dangerous in a desperate power grab/for control. You're basically tazing someone and telling them to calm down LMAO. Which also like did you try calling them off or is this legit an error here? Which yes, yes, characters can make wrong decisions or have flaws and ruin things despite their best intentions, paved roads and all that, but also it so funny if you tilt your head. Cecil why. I get it yes, but also Cecil, no, Cecil no.

Also exactly, when it's TOO vague I just stare the doc. There's no jumping point to push it's anything goes and how hard do I want to overthink it?

While I'm not too familiar with the DCU- your batfam meta posts are intiguing- so in transfering some of the broader strokes from them- I think you tackling a 'Mark isn't Nolan's biological son' fic would be fascinating. Sort of a step to the side of the 'what if Mark never got his powers' fic that sometimes pop up in the fandom

OOOOOO chewing on this currently, hm, the much a distinct flavor of exactly what you’re talking about, but the potential for more family drama depending on WHO knows. Does Mark know?? Is he waiting every day only to be crushed? Does he confused non-Debbie features with Nolan’s? I suppose I’m not the most enthusiastic about non-power AUs, but I think there’s something very fun to explore about Mark having to settle with, if he knows all his life, he will never have powers? I think the trajectory of his dreams will obviously shift, I can see him still having that distinct fatherly idolization, but perhaps embraces being useful to the GDA? Cecil’s number one intern—only intern—curtesy of nepotism, ha! There is something tickling me about Mark taking the Robin Route/Role for the Teen Team in terms of having no powers, just insane skills, BUT there’s something way more delicious about intern Mark when s1e01 happens and Mark tries snooping around to find out the truth about what happened to his Dad.

I wonder if, with Mark having a whole another father, if they’re more or less distant relationship, depending on WHEN Nolan entered Mark’s life? Like if Debbie met Nolan later for this, or just for fun, they dated once, separated (Mark being born during then), then they happened to stumble into each others lives again and Mark’s already been born, anywhere from tween to teenager so there’s a gap in how close they are. I feel like one important aspect of the whole Family Drama is how close they’re supposed to be, a functional, loving family turned upside down? So I wonder what more distance does. I wonder how Nolan copes when his family is entirely human and he can’t project onto Mark.

I love thinking about these, omg.

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I cannot wait for this Stan to reconnect with his Ford.

I still haven't figured out HOW exactly they'll meet yet, but I do think that Ford would ATTACH himself to Stanley and talk his ears off forever when they eventually get comfortable :] and Stanley would listen because HOLY SHIT, THAT'S HIS BRO HE HASN'T SEEN FOR 40-ISH YEARS, HE MISSED HIS VOICE. Nonstop certified Yapper & Listener relationship <3

Stanley looks dead faced because of his ingrained poker face, but he's thouroughly enjoying it, even if sometimes he has no idea what the fuck Ford is saying. He never interrupts him though, since he knows people usually ignore or interrupt him mid-talk already. So sometimes Stan gets stuck in awkward situations where he has to leave or do stuff, but also doesn't have it in his heart to stop Ford and extract himself out of a (one-sided) conversation.

[pinkdoozyxoxo]

Somebody shared my work on a few manga sites, so now that one person has ruined it for the rest of us. The link for this chapter is no longer activ. When the time comes for the next chapter, I'll translate it, but not share it. Let me start by saying, if I see one more person posting pictures from my work on here again, I won't be translating any more HiraKagi content. Once again, while we wait for the amazing team that works on this manga to release their chapter, feel free to read my fan translation. Just click the link, but please don't save or share any of the pages :)

[exopelagic]

i said i wouldn’t do it this time but it’s 3am and mods asleep. boy