#i feel like it wouldn't be hard to implement

[whmp]

hey, it's me! i'm still alive, somehow, though just barely. this semester has been pretty tough so far and will probably remain that way until spring. despite this, i managed to add some fun new features. : ) ALSO i promise 100000% that if you sent me an ask i WILL answer it. i will. anyway, look at all those cool things! -> a system for cuts, bruises, tattoos, wounds and other decorations your whumpee's skin is an empty canvas. whether you fill it with scars and wounds or cutesy band aids is up to you!

the way this is set up is kind of like a bunch of stickers. so for example, if you decide to hurt the lil' guy with something sharp, he'll get a "stab wound" sticker in the spot you decided to target. over time, that sticker will change over to a "stab scar" one. it's a very flexible way to do things, but it still needs some work and a couple big changes, since it's very unfriendly to low-end computers. in terms of visuals though, it should look exactly the same as the decal-based "decorations" for your whumpee that you see above!

- a better way of getting that dude on camera the camera system is now a lot more immersive and will fit the story. the awkward developer cam that could clip into walls is no more.

you can drag around the view and zoom in and out by scrolling. as you progress, you'll get access to even more ways to invade your whumpee's privacy. : )

-> new ways to get horny in the last devlog post (around 1000 years ago) i said that you won't see any "horny accessories" in the upcoming updates. that was a complete lie, sorry! here's a preview of some cool new horns you can give to your whumpee.

the neat part is that the horns are customizable - other than just choosing the shape, you can modify their size and color gradient. -> other stuff + story i've made plenty of changes and additions to the back end. most of it is not flashy or super significant - most of the time and energy i could dedicate to the project went right into fueling the violent, bloody conflict between me and custom shader code. i've also made some updates to how time is simulated and fixed a bunch of bugs. there is now a sound system too! i'll look for some copyright-free sfx and music before the next update. oh, and there's some lore too!

i've been experimenting with different ways of delivering the main storyline. heavily stylized cutscene-like sequences were very fun to do! not sure if i'll stick with this style though. either way, i have the general outline of something that resembles a plot. >: ) that's it for now! again, sorry for the irregular update schedule. i've been following the "no progress for a long time, then one night you have all the energy and inspiration in the world and you zone the fuck out for an unhealthy amount of time just working on your thing then until realize that you're going to be asleep within the next 40 seconds" development strategy - hopefully, my brain will kindly allow me to switch to a more comfortable workflow. :' ) taglist below: (let me know if you want to be added OR LET ME KNOW IF I FORGOT TO ADD YOU IM SO SORRY) @whumpinthepot @andithewhumper @pigeonwhumps @monarchthefirst @scp-1296 @whumpedydump @screenys-whump-corner @whumpshaped @bloodsweatandpotato @burning-and-remembering @thealmightyconeoftruth @whimpity-whumpity @catnykit @vietbluecoeur @rainythealias @cardboardarsonist @snakebites-and-ink @lthrboy @woo-lu-woo @wingsofadragonsstuff @wecoffphm @bayvel @pics-and-fanfics @dokidokisadness @generic-whumperz @lambetjenasus @aarika-merrill @hayaneakabane @moons-cozy-corner @brittaunfiltered09 @rule-masochism @reverie1234 @oddsconvert @wh-wh-whumpified @currentlyinthesprial @cupcakes-and-pain @heavenlyden @whumpsday @likeadeadbattery @stay-on-topic1 @cyborg0109 @kawhump @astrowhump

[wildflowercryptid]

i just realized that if i get awl for steam, i could try seeing if it's possible to free my kids from het-locked romances. 👀✨️

[sheoh]

Who in Ateez Is Most Gentle In Bed? 

Gentle  

San

Yeosang 

Jongho 

Seonghwa 

Mingi 

Hongjoong 

Yunho 

Wooyoung 

Rough

I truly believe San would be the most gentle lover. He would never want to hurt you EVER. especially during sex. I feel like even if you asked him to be a little rough with you he’d be VERY hesitant, or at least a little awkward as he attempted to regulate exactly how much strength you could take. you'd have to really communicate with him about it because he knows his strength could possibly really hurt you. Sometimes when you are making out he’d be a little forward or rough (the kind to push you up against the wall but protect your head and neck the entire time) he’d always take extra care to not inflict any pain on you. When kissing, San likes to put his hand over your throat, but he never implements a significant amount of strength. It kinda sits there teasing you, leaving you wanting more. he would find it cute if you did it to him but a little rougher (to show him how you actually wanted it) and ultimately wouldn't go through with it tbh lol. he likes the idea of exerting power over you but is extremely gentle in his way of doing it. When you're riding him and he’s close to cumming, he’d debate losing control, flipping you right on your back and fucking you hard and fast just to please himself (which he might just do if the atmosphere is right) but he always puts your pleasure and comfort over his own. if he notices that you're enjoying yourself, he will likely just squeeze your ass, praise you for doing so well between open-mouthed moans and roll his eyes back while you milk his cock slow and steady. 

Yeosang is naturally a very gentle person. I feel like that wouldn’t change much even with his partner. He’d acknowledge that sex doesn’t always have to be slow and gentle and take into consideration your wants as his partner. when you reach a certain point in the relationship he'd almost expect to start fucking baselessly for pleasure rather than to have a deeper connection—ofc he would never directly bring this up, and if it didn't happen he would think he was doing something wrong. He’d find himself slowly being more rough with you to see the reaction it draws out. Things like pushing your hips all the way down while you’re riding him and holding them there for a few seconds too long. Unlike San, who has sex in an intimate, gentle, and loving way most of the time, Yeosang feels that pleasurable sex is both gentle and rough and desires both sides. Whatever you’re comfortable with, so is he—but it’ll take some time for him to open up sexually and be rough with you for the sake of his own needs. His “rough side” is pretty low-key. He isn’t too freaky but I can see him being into things that exert his strength and masculinity. Like lifting you up and down on his cock while standing or you on your knees in front of him, in pretty lingerie giving him head. I can definitely see him grabbing your hair and guiding your head back and forth on his dick. 

Jongho is very aware of how strong he is and what he can do to you. He’s not necessarily overly rough or overly gentle with you. But he’s definitely not afraid to play fight with you and show you who's the stronger one. I believe Jongho is just a gentle person in general. His strength is very fixed so whether he’s angered or reaching his climax inside you, it’s rare for him to “lose control” or be rough on accident. I don’t think he likes hurting you in any way during sex, he might even be opposed to it. He would consider it if you asked him but as far as feeling pleasure from it-- isn’t necessarily his thing. If you got off on it, he’d be more into the fact that you are. Wrapping his hand around your throat during your high, and forcefully holding your hands behind your back as he gave you back shots are things he’d try but I just think he likes the idea of gentle loving sex more. The reason he’s under Yeosang, despite not really being into it as much, is because he could seriously fuck you senseless if he wanted. He has the control to give you exactly what you want, and well.

Just like San, Seonghwa is very gentle towards his lover. But unlike San, he’s down and very open to the freaky stuff. If you want to do it, so does he. I don’t see him ever being purposely rough with you unless you directly asked him and he knew you’d return the same energy. Even when he’s at his climax about to cum, a whimpering mess on top of you, he’d find himself holding back a bit. Putting in the effort to pleasure you without expecting you to do it in return. gripping the sheets instead of your hair as you suck him off (unless ofc you wanted him to). I can see him holding back your hair while you give him head, staring down so intently at your lips as they wrapped around his cock. The type to touch your body like it was made of glass, but fuck and eat you out like you are anything but. Seonghwa is a very gentle person too but he likes being able to be rough with you and try new things sexually. 

Mingi is kind of laid back when it comes to the physical and sexual side of a relationship. Things like caressing your thigh, kissing your neck, or just touching you all the time is his love language and aren’t always meant to be sexual. Which is why it’s sometimes hard to tell when he’s horny or just harmlessly flirting. Those kisses and touches come naturally during sex with him because it is nothing new. But of course, when he’s more aroused he tends to be unconsciously rougher—kissing you passionately instead of lazily, tightening his grip on your waist harder and harder as you grind on his erection—and being overly gentle with you after he realizes what he was doing. Mingi is seriously a gentle giant but when he’s comfortable enough, being playful or in the moment, he can sometimes forget how much strength he has and how easily he can break you. I don't think he likes being rough but it does happen whether he intends or not. I can't see him going as far as to choke you or use sex toys. rather something low-key like biting you or completely slam-dunking you onto the bed in attempts to impress you. He doesn't like you being overly rough with him either. like hair pulling or scratching his back so hard you leave marks because he is a princess after all.

Hongjoong isn't exactly rough or gentle–somewhere in between. He does like exerting dominance during sex though, which may lead to him being more bossy or rough. but naturally, he’s pretty sensual and wants you both to be relaxed and comfortable. When experimenting sexually with him, which happens quite often, he tends to talk you through it and ask how he's doing. If you want it rougher he’ll go rougher, but if it's too much for you he’ll stop immediately, ask if you’re ok, and take a mental note. Communication is key with him, you have to tell him what you want and he'll do whatever pleases you. I don't think Hongjoong particularly likes or even considers receiving/giving pain during sex, but he is sometimes (accidentally) a little rough. When he pushes your legs open a little too harshly to go down on you or is about to cum and begins franticly pounding into you from his once steady pace. he is a bit confused as to why you wanted him to do it more, but he actually lowkey likes it. he finds himself liking the feeling of you doing exactly what he says. sitting down and opening your mouth for his cock exactly when he tells you. Again, this dominance can lead to him being rougher with you but it's not on purpose...i don't think

Yunho has a lot of layers in a relationship. His more sensual side is particularly special because it’s something you rarely see. I don’t think Yunho is overly gentle but I do think he's aware of his size and strength enough to never accidentally use it during an intimate time like sex. In moments when he thinks you’d like it a bit rougher, he’d play along. I think he might even enjoy being rough with you and the power he has doing it. Using his body to pin you down on the bed, using his strength to stop you from getting off his lap bc he wants you to stay longer, using his significantly larger hands to pin them above your head as he kisses you. Yunho is possessive and takes that out on you in bed especially. Yunho sees sex as mainly something to fulfill pleasure, so jealous sex, sex after being away from each other for a while, and sex after a fancy dinner date when you're all dressed up–are things that really get him going and more rough and needy for you. When you tell him to go rougher he’d do it without hesitation. Tell him to choke you and he’d flash a smirk down at you before wrapping his large hands over your throat and squeezing. He’d continue to be rough with you unless you say otherwise but he knows your limits and is very careful not to go too far. 

Last but not least our sadist Wooyoung. He’s not gentle in bed. He loves when you’re rough with him and acts rough with you in return. He loves fucking you so hard and fast from the back and slapping your ass as you moan out his name. He likes when you yell and whine to him about something stupid he did just so he can apologize by giving you the sloppiest head of your life. Pull his hair, tell him to wrap his hands around your throat and he’ll get off on watching you and seeing just how much you can take before you "admit defeat". for toys and kinky objects I can see him wanting to try them if you like or dislike them. The only time I see him being gentle in particular is when eating you out, he would be gentle and sensual, trying to tease you and make you beg him to go faster and harder—ofc he he won’t do it. but this doesn’t always happen, he’ll often moan into sloppy wet kisses on your cunt, move his fingers quickly in and out of you, grip your thighs so hard to keep you still it leaves marks. He’d sometimes kiss you gently and slowly when the kiss isn’t really leading to anything. If you got him a gift for his birthday, he’d thank you with the sweetest, slowest, most gentle kiss. You feel so much when he kisses you like this because it doesn’t happen often.

[girlyassumes]

"Do THIS if you're not seeing any movement"

No. Don't do another technique (unless you really want to). Why? Because there is always movement.

If you've already made your assumption, movement is already happening, whether you can see it or not. The only reason it wouldn't be happening is if you made a new assumption that goes against the assumption you already made. Even when you're feeling sad or doubtful, you are still guaranteed to get your manifestation.

Just because you aren't seeing movement doesn't mean you're doing something wrong and nothing's happening at all. So, it's not necessary to implement a new - or another - technique.

If you feel like you're having a hard time getting into or keeping yourself in the state of mind where you have what you want, then doing another technique might help. But is it necessary? Absolutely not. Don’t pressure yourself.

I know it can feel hard, but try to avoid checking for movement. Instead, tell yourself that movement is already happening (because it is) and that you already have the things you wanted. That reassurance helps.

[anxiouswriter0]

who is it? | poly!marauders + lily

↳wc: 3k

↳pairing: poly!marauders+lily x reader (james potter, remus lupin, sirius black, lily evans x reader)

↳Warning/Tags: War, memory of the past resurfaces, Lily cries, betrayal, confusion and guilt, not reviewed.

↳Note: I remember that I had this draft since Nov 2024. Since it’s been a while since I last wrote (due to a massive creative block that is slowly fading), I wanted to finish it. I wanted to start with something different and try not to be so repetitive with certain things, even though it’s hard for me haha. Also, I’m implementing some things like content warnings, which I might still need to work on. Maybe I should accept some suggestions because my creativity is slipping away again…

a/n: I felt inspired by those who write about the polyamorous relationship between the Marauders, including Lily or another character. (I became a fan of it, in addition to liking the Harry Potter books/movies), and sorry if it's short.

═════════★゜・。。・゜☆゜・。。・゜★゜・。。・゜☆═════════

The war was at its peak in the magical world, and the few remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix had taken refuge in the Black house. Among them were James Potter and Lily Evans, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, along with other members like Hestia Jones and the young Metamorphmagus Nymphadora Tonks. The Weasley family was also present, including their son Harry Potter and his closest friends, Hermione Granger and, of course, Ron Weasley.

The atmosphere was filled with tension as the members of the Order of the Phoenix prepared plans for their next confrontation.

At that moment, Harry was with Ron and Hermione exploring the house, as they were new there, and Harry had offered to give them a tour. As they went upstairs, Sirius warned them about the enchanted portrait of the Black family matriarch, who would insult and curse anyone who dared to pass by. However, he also told them to be cautious of his house-elf, Kreacher, as he was an unpleasant creature. (Or rather, Sirius was the only one who thought that way). Harry and his friends began their little adventure exploring the surroundings of the Black house, but what intrigued them the most—or rather, intrigued Ron the most—was Sirius's room. Although Harry wouldn't blame him, he was also intrigued to know what else Sirius was hiding in his room, since only on a few occasions had he entered there under the supervision of only Sirius.

Which was quite strange. Harry, always curious and mischievous, used to inspect every corner of the house without anything stopping him. However, every time he tried to enter Sirius's room, something happened. He always appeared at his side with any excuse to stop him. It wasn't just a one-time occurrence; it would happen every time someone else—be it Remus, James, or even Lily—tried to get in to make sure there were no curses or simply to inspect the place. And, although it was all supposed to be for security, Harry couldn't help feeling there was something else going on. Something that had nothing to do with dark magic or wards, but rather a secret hanging in the air. He wasn't the only one who felt it. His relatives seemed to notice it too, although no one said anything out loud. And that only fueled his curiosity further. It wasn't just a one-time occurrence; it happened every time someone else—be it Remus, James, or even Lily—tried to get in to make sure there were no curses or simply to inspect the place. And even though it was all supposed to be for safety, Harry couldn't help but feel there was something more. Something that had nothing to do with dark magic or wards, but rather a secret hanging in the air.

But he wasn't the only one. I feel like the others were hiding something from him, even though no one said anything. And that only fueled his curiosity.

What were they hiding?

The door to their room was in front of them, and upon entering quietly, they discovered it was a mess. Sirius had told him that he had enchanted the place so that nothing could move, basically a very powerful sticking charm. The room was filled with Gryffindor banners, the bed was messy, and the books were turned into a pile of pebbles, which Hermione instinctively picked up to examine. The place, though chaotic, had a cozy atmosphere and perfectly reflected Sirius's rebellious personality. Another thing that earned Sirius a scolding from Lily at the time was not only having banners and photos of motorbikes but also pictures of Muggle girls in bikinis stuck up there.

Harry was investigating the room, observing every detail with curiosity (except for the pictures of girls). He stopped in front of the Gryffindor banner hanging on the wall. The colorful emblem sharply contrasted with the rest of the house, reflecting Sirius's clear mockery of his family, who had belonged to Slytherin. Harry smiled as he imagined Sirius, young and rebellious, hanging the banner with a defiant grin, enjoying the small victory in his battle against his family's expectations. As they continued exploring, Hermione had picked up a book near Sirius’s bed, but she noticed a box sticking out from under the bed. It looked dusty and somewhat neglected. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she grabbed it, while Ron diverted his gaze from certain photos, looking towards Hermione.

"Hey, what do you have there?" Ron asked, getting closer. This caught Harry's attention as he saw his friends with a box.

"What is that?" Harry asked, curious.

"No idea, it was down there. It must belong to your parents," Hermione explained, handing the box to Harry. He took it without a word and placed it on Sirius's bed. He tried to open it, which he managed to do with a bit of effort. Inside, he found photos and... letters that, based on the handwriting and names, were from his parents.

"Harry, that’s from your parents! Don’t invade their privacy!" Hermione scolded, noticing Harry’s actions. Harry didn’t pay much attention to her words, as he saw the same curious look in her eyes.

Harry sat on the bed, prompting both Hermione and Ron to imitate the gesture. The first photos showed James, Remus, and Sirius together. It was clear they were old; their youthful features and carefree smiles. As they looked through more pictures, they began to notice the presence of his mother, Lily. There were pictures of the four of them together, sharing happy moments. But as they continued, Harry's joy shifted to curiosity when he noticed the presence of another person in some of the photos.

Among the images, there were intimate and family moments: kisses, hugs, and laughter. The presence of this person, unknown to Harry until now, intrigued him deeply. Finally, in one of the photos, Ron took one that left him not only puzzled but also confused.

"Harry, look at this," Ron said, handing him the photo. What he saw left him just as bewildered as his friend. It was the image of that person holding a baby Harry in their arms. Even the moving pictures showed them holding baby Harry, gazing at the camera with an expression of... tenderness and... love.

Who was she? Harry wondered. Why couldn't he remember her? Why hadn't his parents ever mentioned her?

After the meeting, Harry called his family to the living room for a private gathering. The fact that the Weasleys were still there didn’t make him uncomfortable, but he preferred this matter to be between them. At that moment, everyone sat in complete silence, confused by Harry’s unusual behavior.

“Harry, sweetheart, is everything okay?” Lily asked with her maternal voice.

Harry let out a sigh and slammed all the photographs onto the table. Everyone stared, shocked. Lily’s face went pale, and she covered her mouth, while Sirius shifted uncomfortably, looking away. Remus and James let out a long sigh.

“Harry…” Remus murmured, trying to keep his voice steady, “Where did you get these photos?” he asked.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Harry replied in a trembling voice. At that, Remus shot him a stern look, noticing how Sirius seemed to shrink into the sofa.

“Who is she? Why didn’t you tell me there was someone else?” Harry demanded.

“I thought you had thrown them away,” Remus murmured, glancing at Sirius.

“I thought I had hidden them well,” Sirius muttered, not meeting his gaze.

No one responded to Harry’s sudden questions. Then, James, his father, picked up one of the photographs and looked at it with sadness. The image showed Remus, Sirius, Lily, and James together, with baby Harry in the center. Lily was lifting Harry’s small hand so he could wave at the camera, but there was also someone else there, holding him gently and pinching his cheek in a loving manner. This person was right in the middle of Sirius, Lily, and Harry, all gazing at the camera with love.

James and Lily leaned closer to the photo, their faces filled with nostalgia and sorrow.

“Can I know who they were?” Harry asked again, this time looking at his father, James. He ran his thumb over the photo, more specifically over the joyful individual in the picture.

“It’s (y/n) (l/n)… they were an important part... of our lives,” James said in a choked voice. Lily nodded slowly.

“They were someone we loved deeply, Harry,” Lily said, gazing at him with a mixture of tenderness and sadness. “They were everything to us,” she murmured quietly at the end.

“What happened?” Harry asked, his voice full of curiosity and concern. James looked at Harry, then turned his gaze to Lily. She, with a solemn expression, nodded slowly, signaling that she was ready to continue.

Lily took a deep breath, preparing to reveal more details. She glanced at Remus and Sirius, both of whom were holding a photo of (y/n) in their hands.

“What happened was... hard to accept,” she said. “They left after a fight we had. We thought they’d come back, and indeed, they did. But what they did upon returning deeply shocked us.”

“,you left without thinking about the consequences! Do you know how dangerous it is out there? Your actions put our safety and Harry's at risk. Don’t you understand that?” Sirius shouted furiously. You had left the safety of the house despite all the warnings. The decision had been impulsive, driven by your worry and frustration, but in the middle of the war, it was an extremely dangerous action.

“Of course, I’m aware of all the risks, Sirius, but do you think I could stay here knowing that the most important people in my life are out there risking their lives?” exclaimed, their voice filled with desperation and pain.

“We completely understand how you feel, but please, you need to understand that what you did was extremely dangerous. You not only risked your life, but also Harry's life, the secret of our house's location,” Lily said desperately. “What do you think would have happened if we hadn’t gotten there in time?” she added, her voice mixed with anguish and concern.

“We’re under a lot of pressure, and what you did didn’t help. All of this is for your safety, for Harry’s, for ours. Leaving the house in the middle of this chaos is not the solution,” Remus said, disappointment in his voice.

“I was just trying to help,” (y/n) said, their voice trembling. “You’re all out there putting your lives at risk while I’m here hiding, doing nothing—damn it, do you think I don’t fear the thought that you might never come back?”

“We know, darling, and we appreciate everything you do for us. But please, don’t put yourself in danger like this... okay? We’ll always come back to you and Harry,” James said softly.

“And what if you don’t?” said, furrowing their brow and looking at him. “What if you don’t come back? What if one of you gets seriously hurt, or worse...” They hiccupped in the middle of their outburst. No one said anything. (y/n) looked around, and no one spoke… no one looked at them.

(y/n) frowned and scrunched their nose, their frustration and pain evident. Without saying another word, they turned and left the room, heading toward the room they shared.

Lily closed her eyes, the sadness clearly visible as the memory faded. “It was... a difficult night, one where emotions took control and caused more damage than we expected. They just wanted to help, but in that moment, the stress of going on missions and not knowing anything about you, about both of you, not even whether we would come back or not, was so overwhelming... we didn’t know how to handle it,” Lily said, leaving the room in a brief silence.

“That was the night everything happened. We decided to wait a little to let our emotions calm down. Without saying a word, we went to our rooms to sleep,” Remus continued, still not daring to forget that moment. When everyone calmed down, no one said anything to avoid fueling the small flame still burning within them. But that flame almost went out when, upon entering their rooms, they saw (y/n) sleeping, wrapped in blankets, with traces of tears still falling onto the pillow as they slept. That image broke his heart—having made someone cry who only tried to help, even if it meant giving their life for it.

“I remember waking up with a feeling of unease, like something wasn’t right... and indeed, something had happened...” he continued, his voice tinged with nostalgia and sadness.

“(y/n) was gone,” he said quietly.

Remus remembered how fear flooded his being when he opened his eyes and realized that wasn’t by his side on the large bed where they all slept. He thought maybe they were in the bathroom or the kitchen, but something inside him told him that wasn’t the case.

Desperate, he woke Sirius, who was sleeping beside him. Sirius, noticing the concern on Remus's face, quickly looked at the empty side of the bed where (y/n) usually slept and began searching for them with his eyes across the room.

Feeling more and more uneasy, Remus quickly got up and headed out of the room. Meanwhile, Sirius shook James and Lily awake.

“Lily! James! (y/n) isn’t here!” Sirius exclaimed, standing up and rushing to join Remus.

“What?!” Lily exclaimed, panic in her voice. Both James and Lily immediately stood up, their concern growing as they searched the house. They checked room after room, even Lily searched in baby Harry’s room, knowing (y/n) loved to be there at night, but nothing. She couldn’t find that figure she cherished seeing in the middle of the night.

“We quickly deduced that they had left the house, so Sirius and I decided to go look for them,” Remus remembered. “Meanwhile, James and Lily would stay in case they came back, but Lily didn’t want us to go.”

“No, no, please, Remus, we can’t leave now. It’s too dangerous,” Lily said, worry clearly reflected on her face. “We must stay here, all of us, in case they return. We’ll be notified immediately if anyone sees them out there.”

However, the discussions led to no concrete resolution. Anxiety and fear prevailed as they tried to coordinate an appropriate response. It was in the midst of that confusion that an unexpected sound broke the silence—the sound of someone appearing outside the house. The group looked out the window. There, in the dim light, stood (y/n), motionless.

It was a moment of relief when they saw (y/n), nearly everyone rushing toward the door, but something told them to stay.

Then... it was when...

“We saw them raise their wand,” Remus said. “Before we could do anything, explosions started going off in the house. The situation became chaotic quickly.”

The spell they cast caused a violent explosion on the house’s facade. The walls vibrated with the force of the impact, and a blast shattered several windows, sending sharp glass fragments flying around.

“We saw how (y/n) was causing destruction,” Remus continued. “Desperate, we tried to defend ourselves. Lily, instinctively, went to find you to protect you, while James tried to coordinate with Sirius and me.”

The urgency of the situation forced Sirius and Remus to prepare to defend themselves, wands in hand, though their hearts ached deeply, knowing that the cause of all this was someone they had once loved. Lily, her heart pounding, held Harry tightly, determined to keep him safe. James, filled with anguish, tried to coordinate with Sirius and Remus to ensure a quick evacuation.

With a heavy heart and an overwhelming sense of sorrow, they all stood together, watching what had once been their home. That house, their refuge, where they had shared so many memories, so much laughter and so many secrets, was now crumbling before their eyes. Amid the destruction, a figure emerged from the ruins, and they recognized them instantly. Standing there, wand raised, their face was marked with a mixture of desperation and fury. But before they could utter a single word, the group… simply vanished, leaving them behind, alone.

They reappeared not far from the scene, ensuring that baby Harry wouldn’t be affected by the residual magic. Even from that distance, they could hear the terrifying sounds of their home being destroyed—the splintering of wood, the deafening crash of walls collapsing, and the fierce roar of flames devouring everything in their path.

Lily, clutching Harry in her arms, felt the crushing weight of loss. Not just the loss of a home, but something far more painful—the loss of someone who had once meant everything to them.

As she recalled that night, Lily felt her heart shatter all over again. To love someone, only to watch them betray everything they had once shared, was a wound that ran deeper than any she had ever known. Her tears fell freely, soaking her face, her hands trembling as she tried in vain to wipe them away.

Harry watched in silence, noticing the pain on his mother's face and the tension that filled the room. To him, it was baffling how a single argument had triggered a chain of events that had nearly ended in a massacre. He didn’t fully understand the extent of the conflict, but he could feel the weight of sadness and regret lingering in the air. His eyes shone with a mix of confusion and sorrow as he watched Remus and Sirius holding the photographs where they all appeared together.

Despite the pain, Harry couldn’t deny how important (y/n) had been to them. Even though he didn’t remember them clearly, he felt a connection, as if, in some way, their presence had once been significant in his life. The love and grief etched into his parents’ faces gave him a deeper understanding of the bond they had shared.

He longed to understand what had driven someone so important in their lives to make choices that led to such devastation. A pang of guilt struck him for unearthing a memory his family had tried to bury, yet at the same time, he yearned to have (y/n) in front of him—to hear from their own lips the reasons behind their actions and to find answers that could make sense of the rift and the pain that had torn his family apart.

But where… where were you?

[hallwayheart]

honestly sims 4 just feels like it's running a marathon desperate to implement all these unique features that the previous games had Because EA is so hungry for money & ts4 is it's ever-lasting cash cow. that ea either fails to realise (or doesnt care..) that what we really want is just a life simulator...yes its cool and fun to have werewolves, vampires, fairies, etc. but girl my sim cant push a baby in a stroller. girl my sims cant have physical disabilities. girl my sims cant be representative of EVERY real life group of people & EVERY long-living culture. they cant even go grocery shopping.

yes these are all different aspects of life Some clearly more important to implement than others But they're all real, and i just sit and think to myself that EA doesn't want to make a life simulator game At all they want to make a twisted version of sims 2 & 3 because whoever is sat at the table of EA looked at the success of sims 2 and sims 3 and Saw the wacky charm, the innuendos and the popularity of it among younger people and just...did not age with their audience. They went down this weird, cartoonised, PG route Like their advertising is so goofy, quirky, weird. the game itself has such a strange utopian feel to it that it's almost dystopian but not in the ts2, uncanny valley, Dead end street of gothic suburbia and 'something is off here' vibe It went THE OTHER direction where it just has this dead, brainless feel to it. like there's no substance. Like dead mobile games. and the thing is it genuinely wouldn't be hard for EA to do a full 180 and say okay we hear you, then take more time to focus on each pack, re-fresh other packs, make quality of life improvements to existing gameplay features and bug features but yeah Money money money. the desperate, capitalistic approach EA takes to making this game is the most real thing about it.

[delawaredetroit]

Based on what you said about them, do you dislike endeavor and bakugo? Or do you like them but your very critical of them? I don't mind either way just wanna know which category you fall into

It's more nuanced than that. Characters aren't real people, so whether I would like them interpersonally doesn't matter much. The factors I would consider in deciding whether I like a character are (1) what is the purpose of this character in the narrative, (2) how I feel about the tropes wrapped up in that character, (3) how effectively the story implements that character, and (4) how does that character affect other themes and character arcs and fit into the narrative as a whole.

Would I like Bakugou or Endeavor interpersonally? The answer is obviously no, but I would never want to be friends with a Touya or Toga either. In the context of BNHA, there is no need to be as critical of Touya or Toga because they were more effective characters.

(1) The Purpose of Bakugou and Endeavor

To understand this, I have to start with the function of Izuku and Shouto's arcs. Izuku's story starts as a wish fulfillment, escapist fantasy of an ostracized kid being given the power to become a great hero with the personal backing of the number one hero. Shouto is a foil to Izuku whose character arc is meant to mirror Izuku's own. From this perspective, the Hellish Todoroki Family is intended to be the escapist fantasy of a kid from an abusive household getting to see his abuser acknowledge the harm he caused and attempt to atone with no expectation of forgiveness.

So Bakugou is the bully that enforced that ostracization of Izuku and Endeavor is Shouto's abuser. For the wish fulfillment of Izuku and Shouto to be complete, both should atone for their actions.

Endeavor and Bakugou also function as foils for All Might and Izuku in their roles as heroes. All Might and Izuku valued saving, self-sacrifice, and uplifting others while Endeavor and Bakugou represented a heroism that prized victory, physical strength, and self-preservation above everything else. Endeavor also parallels Bakugo in that he is cautionary tale of what he could become if Bakugou refused the call of character development.

(2) How I feel about the purpose and tropes wrapped up in the character

I'm not opposed to Bakugou or Endeavor going through atonement arcs on principle. I don't even disagree with the Endeavor atonement as wish fulfillment aspect. Look, coming from someone whose childhood wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows, that scene where Endeavor apologizes to Natsuo and tells him that he can be a good person while never forgiving him really hits.

Shounen rivals are a staple of the genre, so there were going to be characters that fulfilled a similar rival role for Izuku and All Might or this wouldn't be a shounen. They've both got the hothead loud rival trope going on, which I personally dislike, but it isn't an inherent flaw.

(3) How effectively the story implements that character

This is where Endeavor and Bakugou start to fall apart. Bakugou was used less effectively of the two of them, so let's start with Endeavor.

Endeavor

The manga leaned a little too hard into the one dimensional evil of Endeavor in Act One. In particular, there was a huge difference in the characterization of Endeavor the hero between Act One and and Act Two. In retrospect, Act Two Endeavor's arc wasn't bad if it's considered in a vacuum. There was something fresh about him having to reconcile Enji and Endeavor and realize that he could never fix what he broke. It was interesting to see him moving from entitlement to eventually taking responsibility while not expecting anything in return from his family. The fact that Touya ended Endeavor the Number One Hero also works well.

The narrative didn't seem to know what to do with Endeavor for most of Act Three. Horikoshi either needed to make him be less useless or give him worse injuries so there would be an excuse for him to be so irrelevant. As comical as Endeavor versus All for One was, it was a bad narrative choice. It looked like Enji chose Endeavor over his family once again, and the parallel between Endeavor and All for One was already obvious without that fight.

Bakugou

The main issue with Bakugou in Act One was the framing. Bakugou was insufferable early on, but that was the point. His flaws needed to be demonstrated so he could grow past them. The issue was the narrative going out of its way to justify Bakugou even when the growth was miniscule or he was acting in a way that contradicted the themes of the story. (In Act Three, Endeavor also gets these insufferable kids' gloves)

Act Two was promising. Other than the Interim Bakugou problem, it looked like he was reflecting on his actions and incorporating saving into his heroism. It was clearly building towards something.

Act Three was when I began to dislike Bakugou as a character. His arc largely revolved around comparing himself as a hero to Izuku and his atonement arc, but he made minimal progress in actually understanding Izuku. He still spent much of early Act Three mocking Izuku's choices as a hero. They still didn't talk normally after the apology. He made no attempt to understand how Izuku's approach to villains changed after the first war arc. He killed his villain with no second thoughts in the arc about saving villains.

(4) How does that character affect other themes and character arcs and fit into the narrative as a whole.

This is where I begin to loathe both of them.

The main problem is that Horikoshi's atonement arcs reek of insecurity. He feels the need to justify their existence constantly, which means we get too much of the atoner's perspective and not enough of the perspective of the people these atonement are directed towards in the first place. This is a problem because these atonement arcs were introduced as part of the escapist fantasy of Izuku and Shouto's character arcs. If Izuku and Shouto have to be made smaller for the atonement to function, then these arcs failed in their purpose.

Endeavor was less egregious on this in that every member of the Hellish Todoroki Family was given the space to express their grievances to some extent. His sons were able to openly hate him without being chastised by the narrative. He lost prestige and the role of the hero Endeavor by the end of the manga. The problem was that his atonement took over what was supposed to be the clash of Touya and Shouto. Rei and Shouto were the focus of this plotline when Endeavor was introduced, but Endeavor's wallowing ended up consuming the depth of everyone else by the final arc.

The narrative seems to bend itself into pretzels to justify Bakugou. After Deku versus Kacchan Part 2, Izuku just isn't allowed to have thoughts about Bakugou. If the narrative refuses to even acknowledge the specifics of Bakugou's wrongdoing, what is he even atoning for? If Bakugou's transgressions are minimized, then Izuku loses a lot of the depth to his character given the importance of origin to this manga. Izuku isn't even allowed to have thoughts about the apology. I don't care if Izuku decides to accept that apology. He just needed to have thoughts about it.

Not to mention, the fact that Bakugou and Izuku were not allowed to fight after the apology was part of what ruined Izuku's character in the later part of Act Three. Bakugou and Izuku were obviously on opposite sides of whether to save villains. With Bakugou in the picture and the narrative wanting to be done with Bakugou and Izuku's conflict, Izuku could not act outside of the box for most of his final fight with Shigaraki - in a fight where he was supposed to redefine heroism for the next generation.

Tl;dr: I don't inherently dislike the original goal of what Horikoshi was trying to do with Endeavor and Bakugou. I don't like how their arcs were implemented, especially in Act Three. Their most grievous sin as characters is how their atonement minimized the arcs of their victims. Even though Endeavor's actions caused more harm, Bakugou's character arc was significantly worse in how it undermined other characters and overall themes of the manga.

[justnatoka]

Detective chronicles

David x GN! Reader

A/n: Not gonna lie, I'm an absolute sucker for those kinds of fics where the characters find out that one of them has been secretly in a relationship the whole time with the reader. So of course I've been doing a lot of thinking about how could I implement this with the boys, given that they do everything together and also have their vampire mental link and stuff. This is what I came up with.

Word count: 2.4k

Warning: this is really stupid and extremely unserious

Summary: There's something going on with David. Paul's not sure what it is, but he's determined to find out, roping in Marko and Dwayne as accomplices into his investigative shenanigans.

Something was wrong with David.

Or at least Paul thought so, but he also couldn't be sure it wasn't just the copious amount of weed making him imagine things.

David has been acting different lately. He has been going off on his own more than he used to, sometimes even without telling the boys. More than once in the recent days did they notice that he was just gone one second while they were hanging out on the boardwalk. Paul even caught him sneaking out of the cave one night when they were lounging around. And when he got back, he would be smiling to himself, quickly changing his expression back to neutral before the others realized that he was doing it.

But Paul noticed, yes he did. Many people have written him off as an airhead who's so high all the time he wouldn't even know if fish started falling out of the sky. In reality, he was surprisingly perceptive, even if he usually chose the least appropriate moments to voice his findings.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Marko asked.

He has been watching Paul watching David for a while. Their leader was sitting at the other side of the cave, wrapped up deep in his thoughts. He would have usually barked at Paul for staring by now, and he felt like the fact that he didn't was another sign that he was right.

"Something's fishy," he replied, eyes narrowed, face scrunched up from thinking so hard about this.

Marko peered at David.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you notice anything weird about him?"

Marko glanced at David again.

"I don't know man. Should I?"

At that moment David suddenly stood up, and marched out of the cave without a word. Paul let out a long, wondering hum.

"He's been doing that a lot. And he's always doing these faces when he comes back."

"What faces?" Marko asked, growing more doubtful by the second.

"I don't know man, but it's creepy! He's smiling and shit."

"It's not like he doesn't smile at all," Marko countered, now seriously skeptical of his friend's sanity.

Paul threw his hands in the air in frustration. "But not like this! It looks like he just ripped someone's spine out and enjoyed every second of it," he shuddered.

"I mean that sounds like a good time," Marko grinned.

"I noticed it too," Dwayne chimed up, and they both turned their heads to him.

"Ha, you see?!" Paul hollered, a vindictive little smirk on his face.

"So what do you think is going on, Paulie?" Marko inquired, suddenly growing curious.

He was deep in thought for a second before offering, "Do you think he's going feeding without us?"

Marko looked positively appalled. "He wouldn't dare."

"Do you have a better idea?"

They didn't. The idea that David would go off to have fun killing humans without them was disturbing to think about. It was also really insulting. Weren't they brothers, partners in crime? Why would he just leave them behind like that?

"There's only one thing to do," Paul started, feeling extremely important with all the attention turned to him. "We're gonna catch him red handed."

Marko snorted. "Literally."

Dwayne wasn't sure about this plan.

Of course, he's been wondering about what was going on with David as well. He has been acting out of character, not by much, but enough that it was noticeable. He was clearly hiding something, and that in and of itself was strange. They shared everything, knew everything about each other. They were a team, a family, a pack, they didn't keep secrets.

Or at least he thought they didn't.

But even though he wanted to know, he wasn't sure that this was the right way to go about it.

Currently, they were following David on the boardwalk, weaving through the crowd, bringing more attention to themselves than they should. All thanks to those stupid disguises.

Paul insisted that this would work, that David wouldn't notice them if they wore them, and Marko was fast to agree. The two idiots. The hat and sunglasses were one thing, but where the hell they found the fake mustaches, Dwayne had no idea. Paul presented these items to them before they left the cave, saying that he 'did some research' and that 'every cool detective used these in the movies'. Dwayne had no idea what movies Paul talked about, but he was sure it wouldn't work. When he was offered to try them on, he refused.

And he was right. Here he was, trailing after the terror twins, watching them make a fool of themselves. They were getting suspicious looks, people were pointing and whispering behind their backs, some even snickering. Even among the varied and colorful crowd of the boardwalk, they stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a miracle that David hadn't noticed them yet.

"What's wrong, dude? Not feeling the thrill of the chase?" Marko turned to him, sensing his apprehension.

"This is not a chase, this is a joke."

"Hey!" Paul protested. "Are you making fun of my detective skills?"

Dwayne sighed, knowing that this situation was quickly going sideways. If he didn't appease Paul now, he will have to listen to him complaining all night.

"No, but you attract too much attention wearing that stupid costume. And there's no way David wouldn't recognize you if he saw you."

Paul looked himself over. Aside from the disguises covering his face, he was wearing his usual outfit, and there was nothing he could do about his long hair spilling out from under his hat.

All the while, Marko was looking through the crowd, only now noticing how many eyes were trained on them. He snapped his teeth at a pair of teenage girls, and they quickly hurried along, leaving him snickering under his fake mustache.

"Then what do you want us to do, man?" Paul asked Dwayne.

"First of all, ditch the costume," he said, ignoring Paul's grumbling. "Then we can continue following David."

"Speaking of David," Marko chimed up, "where did he go?"

Looking around, they realized that they lost him. While they were busy quarreling, the crowd swallowed him up without a trace. No matter how much they searched, they couldn't spot that familiar beach blond mullet anywhere.

Paul just facepalmed. Hard.

After the catastrophic failure that was their first attempt to find out where David was disappearing to, the boys decided to go back to the cave and find a new strategy. While they were discussing what to do next, they suddenly heard the telltale crunch of gravel outside. The next second, David walked in, a now somewhat familiar little smile on his face that quickly melted when he realized they were staring at him.

"What?"

"What's up, man? Where've you been?" Dwayne asked casually, being the most level headed at the moment among the three of them.

"Evening stroll," he replied without hesitation.

"Seen anything interesting?" Paul quipped up.

David narrowed his eyes, looking at them for a moment before replying a simple "No."

"Did you feed?" Marko asked, earning a few warning glances from the others.

A teasing smirk appeared on David's face. "What are you my mother?"

Marko quickly shut up. David took this as his que that the conversation was over and made his way to his chair, plopping down and lighting a cigarette. As he went, the others shared a quick glance, communicating without words that this was their chance to try something else.

They reached out with their minds, carefully digging into David's, feeling around tentatively in the hopes of finding something, anything that might give them a clue. It wasn't long until they crashed into a wall. There was a block preventing them from burying further.

They stared at each other, stunned.

"Did he just-?"

"He did."

"What the fuck?"

They didn't want to believe it. It was one thing that he was hiding things from them verbally. It was a whole another that he cut them off from a part of his mind. Their mental connection was something sacred, and the fact that he was shutting them out felt like a betrayal.

Having no other option, they decided to try and follow him again on foot. The next night, not long after David departed from the cave, they gave chase – this time without the disguises. Funnily enough, even though they were a group of vampires and all, they blended in with the crowd a lot easier when they didn't try so hard to hide themselves.

They've successfully tailed him through the boardwalk, keeping a safe distance, stepping into shadows when necessary. They were getting close to the key to the mystery, they could feel it. When David finally stopped, they quickly hid behind a vendor's stall, peering out to see what he was doing.

Their eyes almost fell out of their heads.

There you stood, this pretty thing with twinkling eyes and a gorgeous smile, leaning against the counter of the colorful stand selling all kinds of sweets. Your whole face lit up when you saw David. You greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, and the look he gave you in return was nothing short of enamored.

There was a crack. That's when Dwayne noticed that he was gripping the back wall of their hiding place so hard it snapped the wood.

It was all downhill from there.

The boys felt themselves fill up with jealousy as they watched you burst out laughing at something David said, your whole body radiating joy, and David was laughing with you. Marko almost choked at how lovesick his expression was. Your hand came up to play with your hair while listening to him talk, drinking in his every word. At that moment, you were the most attractive person they've ever seen. Even from where they stood, the boys could clearly see the attraction between you two, they could feel it.

They were so focused on you, they only noticed the cotton candy in David's hand when he took some and fed it to you, and you were giggling, snapping at his fingers playfully. Then you did the same and when the boys saw David, I-don't-like-my-food-sweet David, eat cotton candy from your hand, they about lost their shit.

Marko almost jumped up and ran over to shake him and ask him who he is and where the real David was. It was only thanks to Dwayne's sharp reflexes that they avoided that disaster. His other hand was slapped over Paul's mouth to prevent him from shrieking.

Marko turned around to look at him with wild eyes.

"What do we do, man? What the fuck is going on?"

"That's so not fair! Why is it always him who gets the hottest babes?" Paul whined, somewhat muffled under Dwayne's palm.

"Everyone calm down," Dwayne started, even though he himself was everything but calm. Seeing their leader be putty in someone's hands shook him to his core.

"I can't watch this anymore! It's too cheesy and sweet and I want to be him so bad!" Paul cried, vehemently shaking his head.

"Let's go back home for now," Dwayne suggested. "Then we can find out what to do."

"And we can question him," Marko added, already flexing his fingers like he was ready for a fight. Dwayne had little doubt that he was. Paul was nodding enthusiastically.

They waited up all night for David. He returned about an hour before the first rays of sunlight peaked over the horizon. He was smiling to himself that stupid little smile that they now knew wasn't due to bloodlust, it was because he was hopelessly in love.

He immediately noticed the boys waiting for him, his expression turning back into his natural one.

"What's going on?" he ran his gaze over them as all three stared at him in silence.

Paul pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"You know, that's really not cool, Davey."

"Not cool, man, not cool," Marko parroted, shaking his head like a disappointed parent.

Even Dwayne let out a sigh that was definitely longer than it should have been.

David looked at them skeptically.

"What's gotten into you lot?"

"What's gotten into us? What's gotten into you? We're dying of jealousy, dude!" Paul screeched. "Hiding such a babe from us. We thought better of you, man."

Marko was nodding along, humming.

Dwayne let out another sigh.

David scoffed. "You guys are ridiculous."

"You know what's ridiculous? You melting into your seat as your sweetheart feeds you candy. Now that's ridiculous!" Marko countered, and David's ears turned red.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he deflected, trying to walk away, but Dwayne's heavy hand on his shoulder stopped him. There was no escape.

"We saw it with our own two eyes, right boys?" Marko continued, the other two nodding along.

"You were practically purring when they batted their eyelashes at you!" Paul joined the teasing, now having a shit eating grin stretched across his face.

"We didn't think you were such a big softie, dude," Marko added fuel to the fire.

"Are you gonna bark if they call you good boy?" Paul cackled.

David was sending them death stares, which weren't very effective with his face growing more red by the second.

"Didn't know you could turn this shade," he heard from behind him, the smile evident in Dwayne's voice.

He groaned. "Not you too."

Dwayne just chuckled, then in a calmer voice asked,

"Why did you hide this from us?"

The other two paused their hollering at that.

David stared at them for a second before he replied, "Didn't want you guys to scare them off."

"Bullshit," Paul waved. "If you didn't scare them off all on your own, I think we would be just fine."

And that was that. The tension further dissolved as Marko and Dwayne snickered, and even David's mouth turned upward into a small smirk. They were still brothers, it took more than a nice piece of ass – cause of course later they all agreed that you indeed had a really nice ass – to turn them against each other.

David knew that now he had no choice but to introduce you to the boys. He also knew that they would tease him relentlessly about how tooth-rottingly sweet he was with you. They would not let him live down what they witnessed that night. But there was nothing he could do about that, he was really hopelessly in love with you.

Tags: @stinkydove @pandemoniavenus @000-colby @lunarwhitewolf7 @notalwaysa @binightowl @darlingnikkisixxxx @skrimblo-blumpkgo @wpdarlingpan @gibzzsworld @thelostboysforeva @vxncevis @thelostsimp @sireanmagne @acotar-lover @unwhollywater @fanofgunsnroses

Leave a comment on this post if you want to be added to my taglist!

[luigilore]

hiii omg i have a request i think <3 how do you think lu would handle a girl w low libido due to antidepressants?? like maybe she feels really truly very guilty about it but she’s fine w having sex like once a month? and ofc he wants her but he cares about her comfort more and is fine w it as well? i’d love to read about him reassuring her and making her feel so loved and appreciated the way she is! but yeah there’d be things they’d probably implement that would work for both. like maybe he touches himself w her next to him so they get to connect like that too? and they’d definitely spend a lot of time physically together, just not always having sex. thanks!!! <333

hii babe <3 sorry it took a bit to get to this but i relate to this sm bc my anti depressants also fw my sex drive sooo bad lol but honestly think lu would be great overall with your depression, he'd be so understanding and patient... i think he'd do a lot of research about mental health, anti-depressants, intimacy etc bc it makes him feel more proactive

u feel bad esp bc u know he doesn't like watching porn and u used to have such an active sex life so it's hard sometimes.... once you're even abt to have sex and lu can tell ur so not into it and stops and that gets you.... but it really wouldn't phase him. and he would hate to see you insecure or upset about it, will hold you when you're teary eyed and tired, murmuring sweet nothings and reminding you of your own kind words you've said to him when he was struggling with his spondy

i feel like his chronic pain could give him a lot of empathy and insight towards stuff like this esp bc he might've struggled with intimacy issues too. he'd rub your back and reminding u of everything you told him when he went through a particularly bad flare up a while ago that affected basically every aspect of his life... he reminds u that his biggest concern is you feeling okay.. feeling happy… not how often you guys have sex

omg yeah i could def see that like just variations of close intimate contact that maybe are a little unconventional, i feel like he would love to kiss! and just lay skin to skin with you, rubbing you shoulder, holding you close against him...

[bennie-jerry]

People who say that abortion is needed because of the fact that rape victims exist, I feel are missing a MAJOR point in their arguments. And before you start blowing off on me, at least be willing to hear my perspective here.

I don't think it's a problem of abortion being easily accessible. I think it's a problem of rapists not having consequences.

1 in 3 women globally are sexually assaulted. Thus, the concept of a woman/girl becoming pregnant against her will unfortunately doesn't sound out of the norm at all. And regardless of the statistical reasons that women TRULY get abortions for, let's think about another aspect here.

If rape is such a common thing (which it is unfortunately) and women keep aborting the children they’re getting as a result of being raped, doesn’t that mean we should put MUCH more pressure to condemn and stop the rape endemic—which is why these specific sets of victims would hypothetically be getting abortions in the FIRST place? We’re only treating the SYMPTOMS here and not looking at the actual CANCER that keeps spreading.

If you guys put as much pressure on our justice systems as much as you push for abortion, it would probably gain more a productive response in the long run. Because I think we can all agree that we just want forced pregnancy to be stopped as much as possible.

Abortion is a rapist’s dream because then there’s a chance that if they do get you pregnant, that you’d be supported (if not pressured) to then erase the evidence of what he did to you.

If we're really gonna be saying that the circumstances a child is born into should dictate whether or not it should continue to develop, then I'm very sure a large percentage of us would not even be here today if that logic were to actually be implemented. If you look back in your family history enough, someone must've either gotten raped or put into a hard situation.

We need to crack on these corrupt justice systems that don't punish rapists accordingly, not have the children pay for the sins of the father.

I definitely don't like the way how conservatism handles abortion in some cases (because I feel besides making hospitals, there's still not much that's being improved), but I most certainly do not agree with the notion that the circumstances in which a child is made should dictate it's right to live. If that were true, I wouldn't be alive to make this post.

If rape is something you are so concerned about (as am I), then why aren't we banging on the doors of these justice systems instead of the doors of these clinics?

I'm pretty sure that if women are doing something as a result of a bigger problem, shouldn't we address the BIGGER problem then?

[lost-in-fiction-like-ur-mom]

Does the End Justify the Means?

CX-2 (Clone Assassin) x Reader

Summary- CX-2 never planned on forming a relationship, but once he did he had to protect it. Even if it meant killing hundreds to keep you away from Hemlock.

A/N- SPOILERS FOR THE BAD BATCH FINALE. I feel like people forget that deep down, CX-2 is still a clone being forced to serve the Empire. Maybe I'm delusional though!!! MENTIONS OF BURNS AND TORTURE!!

Word Count- 5,253

"You know, CX-2. There was once a time where I considered scrapping you. The very cloning program that made you..." Hemlock started. "You were hard to control. My methods had little effect on you. Considering you had little to live for, well that didn't help."

CX-2 stood, arms crossed behind his back. He listened intently, staring at the grey border of the wall.

"You were too, hmm. Rebellious should I say?" He walked slow circles around CX-2, studying him. "That was until I found your little secret out." Hemlock laughed at his own wit. "Who knew a medic trainee would have an Assassin Clone falling so hard!" He seemed to think the situation was hilarious.

Silent, CX-2 contemplated killing Hemlock where he stood. It wasn't possible though, he was smarter than that. He probably had a weapon on his beloved as they spoke. Perhaps Scorch was with her now...

He didn't want to think about it, so he didn't. Opting to stare back at the wall again.

"Truly, I created you better than that. The problem with you clones is your loyalty. It would typically disgust me. Though, unlucky for you, this all plays out in my favor." CX-2 swallowed hard at his words.

There were not many things that scared CX-2, but the thought of Hemlock hurting you consumed him. Striking him with a never ending fear.

"You will bring me Omega. Unless, you want an accident to happen. That would be tragic, wouldn't it?" The man asked, taunting the clone. All while fiddling with his gloved hand.

For the first time in many minutes, CX-2 spoke. "I will retrieve the girl."

"Good, I do not doubt your abilities." Hemlock stepped closer, right in The Assassins face. "Dire consequences are at stake..."

CX-2 made sure his next stop was Pabu.

CX-2 had no intentions of forming any friendships, especially not a relationship. You, however, came natural to him. In one of Hemlock's attempts to have complete control over CX-2, a burn was implemented on his waist. He remembers the day vividly, as it was the first time he'd met you.

You were only on Tantiss because of your mother. She worked for the Empire as a medic, a famous doctor of some sort. While you never had the knack for the medical field, you enjoyed helping people. It was in your blood after all.

CX-2 was taken to a special room for clones of high status. You were there by sheer accident. A mishap guided you to his side.

"Uhm, hello sir." You introduced yourself. "I'll be your medic today. What's your name?" You asked, a little nervous to be assessing a clone by yourself. He wore black armor, head still covered. You'd never seen that style before, maybe he was new?

CX-2 just stared up at you, a hard gaze. Out of fear, you started to breathe a little heavier. He could have killed you there and no one would have batted an eye.

"Sir, is something the matter?" You pressed on, trying to mask yourself with professionalism.

He continued to stare, eventually pointing at the chart In your hands.

"Of course, uh. CT-4340?"

CX-2 didn't say a word, just tilted his head. You looked at him with doe eyes. "Are you CT-4340?" you hesitated.

"My code is CX-2." He commanded out, a modulated voice appearing.

You almost jumped at the sound. "I uh, seem to have the wrong chart. I am so sorry, I should get a higher official-"

Under his helmet, CX-2 resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His shoulder dropped, annoyed. This caused his side to jolt. The pain of the burn on him was strong, but he withheld any reaction.

You, on the other hand, seemed to notice the very small twitch his waist gave out. "Where are you hurt?" You asked, the words now flowing with a motive in mind.

CX-2 instinctively started unbuckling his chest piece. You flushed slightly, ashamed you couldn't be more serious in the situation. "Do you need help?" His head rose quickly, falling after looking at you for a second. He didn't respond, just continued to take his upper armor off.

Guess not...

The second you saw his skin, you suppressed a gasp. It looked gruesome, like something had repeatedly been burning him. With a deep breath, you shoved down any lasting fear.

Getting to work, you prepared bacta and bandages.

He was still, almost too still. You'd seen plenty of procedures and medics fixing up clones. There had been wincing, complaining, and fidgeting on lesser injuries. You would have expected tears and need of an anesthetic for any other man. But he was still...

You prayed you didn't hurt him more than he already was. You knew your hands were clumsy with inexperience. If you did, he made no effort to tell you nor pull away.

From then on you saw each other more and more. While your mother made sure you got plenty of experience working on clones, you were extremely busy. Never getting a second to actually talk to CX-2. A particular encounter with a clone in the hangar would change this.

You were helping a trooper with a broken arm- Simply wrapping it to prevent further injury. You crouched down, examining the break.

CX-2 was just passing by, heading to see what his next mission was. He barely took note that a soldier under his command broke an arm. Why would he? Clones die everyday, including ones under CX-2.

He did however take note of you. He recognized you immediately. He surprised himself, why would he care about some medic? He'd never remembered the ones that had worked on him in the past.

At this, he stared at you. He took in your silhouette, something deep down told him to bask in your every feature. So, he did.

Of course you felt the beaming eyes of CX-2. It made you nervous. Was there something on your face? Did you make him mad? It distracted you.

"Ow!" The clone exclaimed in pain, face screwing. He yanked his arm up. It was an accident, you were sure. A response to the pain you caused unintentionally. CX-2 didn't seem to think this when he saw the clone raise his arm to hit you.

It all happened so fast, you didn't have time to lean back or even register what was happening. The next thing you knew was that the unidentified clone was on his back. CX-2 stood over him, a vibroblade at his neck and foot on his chest.

Falling onto your butt, you gasped and regained some sense. "CX-2...."

He slowly turned around to face you. The two of you looked at each other. His hand still expertly rested centimeters from killing the clone.

Adrenaline pumping, you spoke. "it's okay. It was an accident."

He pushed the clone back with his foot, hand raising. With the vibroblade still wielded, he stormed to you. Your heart pumped viciously, though not in fear. If he was going to really hurt you, he would have let the clone hit you.

No, your heart thumped in your ears in anticipation.

He grabbed you by the forearm with his free hand, careful of the blade. He yanked you up, off of your position on the cold floor.

You briefly noticed eyes around the hangar now in your direction. You grew nervous, only at their judgmental looks.

The quickness of it all made your head spin. You stepped out, trying not to fall. His hand still gripped your arm, he stood unmoving. He let you catch your balance, just watching you.

"Excuse me, what is going on here?" A vice admiral questioned, appearing from your left.

CX-2's modulated voice said your name. It was harsh and cold, but you somehow knew it wasn't directed at you. "She is my medic."

"And? What gives you the right to attack a clone for no reason?" The admiral demanded.

CX-2 didn't like being questioned. Before you could get a single word in, CX-2 pulled you with him as he turned to leave the hangar.

"Wha-" You decided not to protest, the man was on some kind of mission. One he had made for himself the second he saw a threat to you.

He guided you two through the complex halls and levels of the lab. You were beyond lost, but he seemed to know where he was going. After a few minutes of paced walking, you stopped him.

"CX-2, where are we going? I don't want to risk getting reprimanded by the admiral." You were cautious, the smallest of complaints could get you reassigned. Tantiss was not for the faint of heart.

"You won't." He would make sure of that. He continued to walk, this time a little slower.

Finally, you found some familiarity in the halls. You noticed he was leading you to the very room you met in. The examining room for special operatives.

He pulled you into the room, making sure the door shut behind him.

"Examine me." He demanded.

You were dumbfounded, "Excuse me?"

CX-2 actually rolled his eyes this time, even when you couldn't see them. In response to your confusion, he removed his left arm's armor.

A gash that went from the top of his shoulder to before his elbow was present. "CX-2..." Your sadden voice spoke.

You didn't actually have clearance to be in that room, nor the supplies. But you worked nevertheless.

"Please, sit." You asked. He followed your instructions immediately, sitting up on the exam bed.

Just as the day you met, you retrieved bacta and med patches. You coated the wound in extra bacta, then prepared the gauze wrap.

"So," You held his arm up gently, starting to wrap it. "How did you get this? Was it your latest mission?" Your hands carefully worked, moving under his arm.

"No." Was all you heard.

"Oh, how did it happen?" You asked, trying to make conversation.

His skin twitched as a subconscious response when you smoothed over it.

"Better if you don't know." He kept his eyes on the wall ahead of him. "Sorry I asked..." You really were. He said nothing.

After a few more moments, you made sure the wrap was steady in place. "I think you're done!" You smiled at him. He dropped his arm at his side.

After, he promptly nodded, but gave little indication on what to do next.

You looked around, feeling a little awkward.

"So... What division are you from?" You tried to ease the tension.

"Project Assassin." He said, being short.

"I haven't heard of that, wha-" He inturpted you. "Tell me about you."

You blinked. You'd only seen this man a dozen times, many of those in passing. Even so, a shot of nerves flowed in you each time. There was something special about him. It was like your heart knew something your brain didn't. You weren't a child though, you knew 'love' was something of fairy tales. That there must be a perfectly rational reason you were feeling this way around him.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

Though, if that were true, why did you sit up next to him and tell him everything?

From that day on, the only medic he allowed to work on him was you. The number of visits varied, depending on how evil Hemlock was feeling. CX-2 tried to hide the backstories from you as much as possible, sometimes even ignoring your questions.

Though, late at night, when he'd sneak into your room, he'd tell you the truth. At first he would listen. Anything you'd tell him, you had his full attention. Then, right before you fell asleep, he'd whisper his secrets.

He'd whisper them to the only person he ever trusted, you. Then, it was your turn to listen.

You cried for him, the pains he had went through. He was the perfect clone in your eyes. The only problem was how stubborn he was, no matter how hard Hemlock tried- you were still the only one who could persuade him.

Despite his grunts of protest, you'd just hold CX-2 some nights. Using your fingers to rake through his hair, cradling his head. You tried you best to give him the comfort he had never experienced before.

Everything was going so well. You would continue your training, he would continue his missions, and at night, you would talk and he would listen. You would spoil him with affections under the nights bask.

Of course, all good things must come to an end.

The day Hemlock found out about you was the worst day of CX-2's life.

CX-2 was called in for a meeting about his next mission, something he was used to. He only received orders from the highest of officials, so seeing Hemlock or Scorch was common.

"I have... a special mission of some sort. One I cannot risk incompletion of." Hemlock began.

CX-2 stood upright, ready for instructions.

"Now, despite what we have tried to instill into you- I do not want you to listen to any other orders. I think this particular mission requires your mindset." His words didn't effect CX-2, he'd heard worse.

"One of your fellow operative has been captured. Alive. I will not accept him risking our organization."

"My orders?" CX-2 asked.

"Find and neutralize him." CX-2 nodded at his words.

"You have 48 hours to kill him." Hemlock walked up to CX-2, arms folded behind his back. "If you fail, that...medic... you are so fond of? She will reap the consequences of what you sow."

It was impossible to cover up the way CX-2 breath hitched. If he didn't have a helmet on, Hemlock would see his eyebrows scrunch in anger.

"Yes, that's right. I know about her." Hemlock said, his voice mocking. "Oh, don't fret my little assassin. She will remain unharmed, that is... unless you fail your duty..."

"I trust you will locate him and rid the republic of any information?" Hemlock taunted.

"Yes sir."

How? How did Hemlock find out about you? He was so careful... He immediately headed to your quarters. Damned everyone else, he pushed through crowds and odd stares.

He banged on the door, fist closed. If you hadn't opened in the next 10 seconds, he'd shoot the door down.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." You 'tsked.'

"Oh, CX-2." You breathed out once you opened the door. Unsure if he was there for pleasantries or business.

He shoved his way past you, pressing the button to close the door shut.

"Wha-" He stormed around your rooms, it was quick considering there were only two. A bedroom and bathroom.

He held his blaster up as he checked every crevice of the room. His eyes glanced back at you quickly to make sure you were still there and alive.

"CX-2." You raised your voice. His head shot your way. "What's happened? You're scaring me..."

He paced up to you, removing his helmet as he walked. "He knows about us." Was all he managed out, throwing his helmet to the floor in favor of grabbing your cheeks gently.

Your face dropped, heart pounding in your ears. "How? I don't understand!" You started to breathe heavily.

"I just had to make sure you were safe." His gloved hands felt cool on your hot skin.

Your mind wandered, what would they do?

"I have to leave now." He said, dropping his hands. "No, wait. You can't just drop that bomb and leave!" You had so many questions, and you didn't want to be left alone freighted.

"I do not have time, if I don't complete my mission he will kill you." Your blood ran cold. "I am so sorry I brought you into this. I should have never stepped between you and that clone." He readied himself to exit the room, turning and putting his helmet back on.

"CX-2!" His shoulders dropped, he stood silent. You walked around to face him.

He let you reach your hands up and lift his helmet off. "I'm not upset at you. I only want more time..."

"I can't."

"I know." At your last words, you pulled him down by the collar of his blacks. Now level, you kiss him. Scared it would be your last.

The few seconds your lips touched felt like an eternity. All the time you needed with him...

Eventually, he pulled away. "I-"

"I know... please be safe..." You asked only one thing of him.

He nodded, placing his helmet back on snug. He then walked out your door, your thoughts consumed with wishes of his safety.

CX-2 would fulfill his mission, killing the compromised Operative. Though, that was only the first time he'd have to leave your grasp to keep you alive...

CX-2 reminded himself why he was currently headed to Pabu. 'Dire consequences are at stake' echoed in his mind.

He would capture Omega. He had no care for the innocent people he might have to kill. In his eyes, all of his actions were justified in the name of your well-being.

He never told you of his endeavors, now being sent on more gruesome missions than ever. He knew you'd be disappointed in him, but he also knew he had to always protect you. No matter the cost.

While expertly leading a fleet of soldiers, the only thing that let CX-2 think straight was you. He filled his mind with memories of your laughter. Of the times you begged him to choose a real name, even when he protested. When you first touched, when you first kissed.

He worried for you until the second he had Omega tied up on his ship.

Even after, he was anticipating his reunion with you. He had the girl, he had what Hemlock wanted. He could see you again.

And he did... Hemlock was consumed with his experiments and testing on Omega. So much he that didn't bother CX-2 for a few days. Oh, it was bliss.

The time you shared reminded you of before anyone knew you were together. You both still had your duties as clone and medic, but spent any free time with each other.

You laid in your bed, a glance at the clock scolded you for being up so late. You paid little mind to it, just enjoying the feeling of CX-2's arms around you.

With your head now buried in his chest, you let your hands wander. Slipping under the top portion of his blacks. He used to shiver reluctantly when you felt his skin, now it seemed like second nature.

You loved tracing his scars, the texture consuming you. While they were painful memories, they were treated with love and tenderness. He looked at his scars and thought of you, how you took care of him so nicely and delicately. Not Hemlock.

A light flickered from his panel brace. The one that rested on your nightstand. It lit up the room, and CX-2 immediately reached for it. he pulled away from you, but was careful to keep a connection with his leg still feeling you.

"I have to go." He said, standing to put his arm and chest armor back on.

While he was always quick and determined when hearing from Hemlock or Scorch, he was frantic here.

"Did something happen?"

"Nothing, do not stress. I love you." He gave you a quick kiss on the lips, and an affectionate rub of your thigh before putting his helmet on and leaving.

You sighed and leaned back when the door closed again. This was slowly becoming the new normal for you. You still savored every spare second you had together...

Just as you rolled over to fall asleep, the door opened. "Did you forg-" You jumped up, almost hitting your head on the baseboard of the bed. It was Scorch.

"Come with me. Now." He grabbed your arm and pulled you rough out of bed.

"Excu-"

"You are under arrest until further assessment." He forcefully put you in handcuffs.

You tried to resist, but put up no real fight in comparison to the trained clone. He grew tired of you and stunned you with his blaster.

You fell unconscious.

"You activated me?" CX-2 asked over Comms, like he would in any other situation.

"It seems we have another problem with our favorite girl." Hemlock said.

Omega...

"You see, she has managed to escape with the other children. Did I mention she also freed the zillo beast?"

CX-2 listened intently, not moving a muscle.

"You have been the only operative capable of capturing Omega thus far. I will see that you will find her again. Before she finds some way to leave the planet." CX-2 could hear the frustration in Hemlocks voice. It made him flicker a smile.

"Affirmative."

"Oh, and as a little motivater, I think it would serve you well to know your medic is currently held up in a cell." Hemlock went radio silent, leaving CX-2 to head to the exposed section of the base. The hole the Zillo beast left, and the way Force 99 was headed.

Your head throbbed, vision a little blurry. Raising your head from the cold of the floor, you noticed you were in a cell.

The room spun around before you sat up. Your whole body ached. Not to mention the confusion you were feeling.

Looking around, you saw other prisoners lining the walls. You knew exactly where you were. The hall where all the traitors and experimental clones were kept.

Were they going to experiment on you too? Was CX-2 okay? Did something happen to him that made Hemlock finally get you?

The building shook with a loud boom, it did nothing to help your nerves. It sounded like some kind of cannon went off.

"You okay?" A clone asked in the cell across from you.

"I don't know..."

With the effort and passion of a man whose entire reason for living was at risk, CX-2 and the other Clone Assasins were able to capture the rouge clones.

With his blaster barred in his hands, CX-2 guarded the three prisoners. He was occupied with the thought of what The Empire was doing to you.

You must have been so scared in a cell... He knew you didn't like small spaces. With his new fury, he closed his fist, doing yet another round of the platform they were on.

Boredom was unable to strike you, anxieties kept you busy. Your mind ran wild with the possibilities of CX-2. For a moment you questioned if he had just abandoned you as a whole, but quickly shunned yourself for bringing it up.

CX-2 loved you, and wouldn't dare leave you to rot.

"Look!" A clone yelled out, just as you saw a small girl and a storm trooper running by.

What were they doing?

They crept around the corner, swiftly blasting and taking out 2 storm troopers in the process. The girl got to work on the main computer that operated the cells.

"Hey kid, whats going on?" Someone asked.

"We're breaking you out."

Seconds later, your cell door opened. You slowly walked out, unsure what to do. What would CX-2 do in a situation like this? He'd probably tell you to keep your head down and blend in. Stay out of trouble, 'for his sake.'

You did just that, creeping out of the cell and hiding within the groups of clones.

Apparently, the 'storm trooper' was a clone, so was the girl. They were on a mission to free their three brothers, recruiting clones as they did so.

Was this the big mission CX-2 was called to? To capture the people they were here to rescue?

"We've checked all the cells, they aren't here."

You knew where they probably were... The training room. The very room that tortured and left your beloved marked. You didn't dare say a word. As much as you hated Hemlock and his 'methods,' worse things would happen if CX-2 failed his mission...

"Well... they could be in the training room." Damn, another clone had though the same as you.

They decided to head there, a few turning for an easier escape.

What should you do? Warn CX-2? You weren't raised as a soldier, you had no training. No fighting experience. You knew how to save and help, not attack and kill.

A small hand was rested on your arm, the girl from earlier. "Hi, I'm Omega."

You looked down to her. "I know it's kind of scary, but we have to fight for what's right.." If only she knew your true intentions...

"You're right... i'll come with you..." All you wanted was to find CX-2.

So, you did. Following them to the training room, they planned an attack from the lower circle.. You, however, had a new idea. To come in through the main balcony. The one that led directly to Force 99.

You managed to sneak away and climb the steps that brought you to the main doors.

"Hey, you! Are you supposed to be here?" A trooper stopped you.

"Yes sir," You gave him your chain code, "I am a medic. Hemlock has requested my services in the Training room." You lied, faking a confidence you never had.

"I never heard about Hemlock ever needing a medic in the training room..."

"Well if you want to ask him, while the Zillo beast is one the loose, he has new prisoners, and while his top experiment is lost- Be my guest. I just don't think he'd be very happy with you questioning his methods." You crossed your arms behind your back, something you'd seen CX-2 do many times.

"Fine." He moved out of your way, letting you head to your destination.

You walked to the door, ready to put your mother's clearance codes in. With a steam they opened, leaving you to witness a terrible sight.

The 3 captured clones were out, fighting. You got there in time to see the big clone burst out of the glass, tackling a special operative.

With the sound of the door, the man with a bandana looked your way. Along with CX-2, who rose swiftly upon seeing you. You distracted him long enough for the clone without a hand to blast him in his side.

You gasped as you watched CX-2 fall in your direction.

With an electrospear in his hand, the bandana man stepped to him. He only managed to zap him once before you ran in.

"No!" Your scream pierced out, you threw yourself onto CX-2. Using your body to cover his.

You didn't care if you died then and there, at least you'd die in CX-2's arms. You'd at least die together...

"No, don't!" You squeezed your eyes shut, prepared for a shock that never came. You felt a weak hand raise from under you to grip your clothes.

Tears streamed down your face violently. Pattering on CX-2's armor.

"You do realize the crimes he has committed..." The man panted out, he was also wounded.

"Please, it was for me... It was all for me..." You sobbed out. "Hemlock threatened my life..." You buried your head in his neck, holding him tightly.

"Hunter, no. We should kill them both now." The handless man spoke.

The man you assumed to be Hunter didn't have time to respond.

"I swear we wont follow you... Hemlock is probably on his way to his private ship... I swear..." Your words were muffled but they understood well enough.

"We are wasting time, lets go." Hunter commanded, the two of them left.

You gave out a whimper, "CX-2... Please... Stay with me." You pried his helmet off. He was in a rough state.

His eyes struggled to focus on one thing, but he still tried to find your face. "It'll be okay, just let me grab a med pack." You went to pull away, but he gripped you tighter.

"Let me.. hold," He coughed, "You.."

"You are not going to die on me. You wouldn't do that to me, would you?" You tried to joke. He shook his head, 'no.'

"Then let me do my job, and help you." He still held you tightly. "Please... you deserve to live..." He let you go.

It was only half a minute, you grabbed a medics kit that was nearby and began patching him up.

Making quick work of taking his armor and blacks off. It reminded you of the first time you'd done this to him. A very similar wound on his waist.

You forced him a pill, and squeezed out as much bacta as you could from its packet.

"Can you roll over for me, baby?" You asked, helping him get on his side.

He complied as much as he could, and you were able to patch up his other side.

"Okay, this will hold you over. I know the closest procedure room, a droid can give you a proper examination." You helped him stand, an arm under his own to keep his balance.

"You'll be okay, we'll be okay..." You whispered praises and words of affirmation to him. The walk was extremely painful for him, you could tell he was hiding most of it from you.

Lucky for both of you, a droid was able to identify where the blast was and give him a proper cleaning of the wound.

He was still woozy, but forced himself to stand. "We have to go. Tarkin is on his way.." CX-2 strained out. He was stubborn and refused any medication that would cloud his mind.

"W-where? Your ship?" You were scared, not just for CX-2, but your futures as well.

He pressed a few buttons on his panel brace as you picked up his helmet.

"Turn left." He instructed you all the way to his ship, even with the pain starting to blur his vision.

The two of you somehow managed to make it to his ship, you opened the door with his panel brace and sat him in the co-pilot's seat.

You clicked away, starting the ship up. Though, you did need some guidance from him.

You had never flown a ship before, but knew you had to take the risk to save CX-2. It was wobbly, but you raised the ship and let Auto-Pilot blast you into hyperspace. It had a set of coordinates in, ones you didn't know the location of.

A groan made you turn to your lovers direction, you were at his side immediately. Crouching down you spoke, "Hey, its okay... We're far away. You can take the pain medication, its just us two."

He peaked open an eye to look at you, his face barred disappointment in himself. Almost like he was a lesser man if he took the meds.

"Take them. If not for yourself, for me." You pulled them from your pocket. He did take them, minutes later he felt the relief.

You took another look at his wound, it was stable for now. You figured that he would need a cleaning and new bandages in a few hours. Hopefully his medkit was fully equipped on his ship. If it was, you'd be able to last many days without needing to land.

You stood, pulling his head to your breast. "Shhh, rest now. We are both safe."

He truly did feel safe in your arms, like he didn't have to always be on guard. A huge change from his normal. One he'd hoped he could live out with you for the rest of his life...

A/N- Thank you so much for reading! I got a little carried away with this one... I just had to get this idea written down!!!

Tags-(lmk if you want to be tagged as well!) @thethreeeyed-raven @knight-of-flowerss @dangraccoon

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEREAD: WAKFU, THE GREAT WAVE [TOME 2, Chapters 1-6]

Wow it sure has been a while and a mental health episode and a cancellation and a blocking 20 people and a failed attempt at translating a book (I WILL! I PROMISE! AFTER I WRITE MY COURSE PAPER) since my last post huh.

...Oh well. It's a good thing I waited because we got some nice info I can share here.

And yes, I skipped chapters 1 and 2 of this tome. I am here mostly for julith and crepinjurgens, not Tot's wild ride.

All I can say about chapter 3 is that I think Julith's ressurection was probably not a perfect one. I think she might just be a mindless puppet. It doesn't feel... normal, that she should stop like this; while my commentary on chapter 4 stops at my surprise for the new nickname for 'Salar. It's nice to finally have an official one, hehe.

Now to the meat and potatoes of this blog.

The fucking gasp I gusped reading this. Sorry I mean sorry I mean sorry I mean. "my little salesman" hes so... It's unbearable how he is. It's genuinely so hard. I wish I had commentary on what exactly this makes me feel, but you needed to be inside my head all those months ago to fully get it. He's calling the 600yo guy that pretends to be his dad his little salesman. If I was joris i'd just take us both out...

I'm still waiting for the long awaited long predicted Joris Jurgen crashout, chat. btw I love how the translators didn't even bother with any onamatopoeia or quirky text. Like Sure. Everyone in the world knows what bonfll and hé mean.

Joris... kill them. and be reincarnated as a lotus flower.

I will be the first to say that it'll be sad if Tot forgot the ecaflip reincarnation lore of his own franchise. but for now im choosing to read this as just cute banter.

Cutie patootie...

For a while I hoped that maybe we'd finally see and example of a k0--mortal character we knew reincarnating and ngl, I really hope this is like... some sort of a next life for Lilotte? All that reincarnation lore just not to implement it for angst purposes feels like a waste.

It's probably not lilotte even in spirit, but a man can dream jdlgdlg.

Honestly.... im mostly screenshotting this here bc I feel like this is a nice screenshot to ref from. sjgdkljfg

I wish I had more to say but they're so nice... And also, I wonder if they saw this ouginak. Shouldn't they be freaking tf out too? Unless, as always Tot Forgot. Oh well.

Big fan of Joris being haunted

Also a big fan of Kerubim being haunted

Inside me are two wolves. One of them thinks using orphan mistreatment as a plot point is extremely cliche. Another wolf thinks Joris's love might turn all these orphans into post-waven's military supersolders which would make my jokes about him being "training and conscripting orphans" level of evil literally real.

It would be so awesome. It would be so cool.

To my knowledge, this is the first time Joris's surname is dropped in Wakfu.

I feel a bit bad for thinking this, but Joris saving the orphans is still a bit cliche. I hope it goes somewhere more interesting later. Like him imparting some insane beliefs onto those kids.

IVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT joris wouldn't want to be called master outside of work. I think he prefers just "Joris" when it comes to kids and housekeepers.

I love his impulsive idealism. Genuinely. he WOULD pick up random orphans and be like "you live with me now".

This also confirms to me that crepinjurgens are rich as hell. Though we already kinda knew that.

SHE LOOKS SO SMUG hjghskjdghsdg... While Joris is still the cutest ever.

I love to see happiness vaporate from his eyes.

also ATCHAM AND KERUBIM ATCHAM AND KERUBIM worried worried atcham and kerubim. <33 HEART.

...

Sorry I didn't have any in-depth commentary. I'm not sorry for my absence of translation struggles though sgjfgd. I've been very unhappy in this fandom, and had a very unhealthy relationship with it, so I've been working to change that. I wish I could say more about what I meaan exactly, but it's quite boring honestly. Then there's the fact that modern Krosmoz kinda sucks ass (yet all the people who concentrate on it sucking ass are mostly unbearable and annoying despite being objectively right).

If you're still here, and consider me a friend or a mutual, thank you for sticking around. Even if just for this blog! You don't have to follow my personal accounts to be my friend or mutual.

[arrowlantern]

I feel like the reverse is also possible in the sense that Kyle automatically makes the most beautiful art within Connor's presence for he is a muse whose beauty he wouldn't be able to paint even if he had a hundred lifetimes while Connor is like "I wonder if he thinks we are friends"

the way ik exactly what post of mine this is referring to and i forgot. to answer. I AM SO SORRY ANON. anyways i think about this a lot. because 2 me… kyle has a very specific set of flirting techniques and tendencies that he uses on women his age. like there’s the before and the After of getting his lantern ring but the gist of it stays relatively the same.

compared to connor, who is generally unaware of his own attractiveness. kyle is a pretty boy and he *knows* this!!! i imagine his time during college before meeting alex was spent as a floater. not sticking with 1 specific friend group, chatting up lots of ppl, and enacting his evil flirting schemes. i loveee to imagine he pulls totally corny lines and stupid stereotypical scenarios… “oh no i dropped my sketchbook :((( would u mind grabbing it for me :3” and then Bam! trap is set

green lantern v2 #51

the issue with kyle ++ dating is that he isn’t the total sweetheart he portrays himself as, and definitely isn’t responsible enough to maintain a long term relationship. we see this with alex a lot, how he genuinely cares for her, but implements his dummy little puppy dog eyes and pushes important conversations aside .

he likes to have fun!!! and there is nothing wrong with that, however he does come to learn that moderation and communication r very important. especially when he gains his super powers 🙂‍↕️

back to connor now! kyle likes him a LOT. and i don’t even just mean in a hypothetical shipping romance scenario, we have lots of concrete proof that kyle is able to shed his more macho showboating protective mannerisms. this is rlly meaningful bc kyle fights with like. Every other male hero his age that he encounters on a regular basis

green arrow v2 #104 // excerpt from a sherwood forest letter abt the issue

the point of all this yap, is that as comfortable as kyle is with connor, i still think he’d have hang ups with his own sexuality. we see this in their next cross-over arc, the infamous hard travelling heroes sequel. kyle opens up to connor a ton, and this scares him. he’s used to kinda joking around and keeping his feelings + grief to himself. but something about the way connor comes across as so genuine, both in care and interest in kyle as a person — make it a lot easier to talk.

green lantern v3 #76 + 77 // green arrow v2 #110

and yeah kyle kind of. immediately goes on 2 sabotage this in the next issues, but connor listens!!! like this is the most important part, because connor could’ve just brushed him off or got mad. kyle can be an aggravating personality to deal with on the long term. so yeah anon like you said, connor is doing all this with zero ulterior motive — and solely because he considers kyle a Very good friend 🥳

green lantern v3 #77

ALRIGHT! finally. the point i was trying to achieve abt kyle rayner flirting with men methods. i do not believe he is as successful or as skilled, and i think he’d fuck up even *asking* connor if he could paint him close up. but even without any specifically canonized romantic feelings toward kyle as a person, connor always shows him so much kindness and compassion.

tl:dr — kyle rayner professional fumbler of men he is extremely attached to // but connor usually manages to reel him back in .

[stillness-in-green]

Sorry if this question rubs you the wrong way, but wouldn't going out of their way to try to help villains to the absolute extreme that you propose be a bit suicidal? I feel like trying to talk no jutsu criminals like Moonfish who's a serial killing canibal, or Muscular who doesn't have any actual reason for commiting violence against others other than he enjoys it, would end up getting people hurt or worse.

Idk, maybe my perception is skewed because my country has problems with the justice system being too lenient with criminals, but then striking hard against honest folk.

Like, let's say heroes try to talk to Muscular about his feelings and stuff, and he just beats them to death. So should they arrest him and take him to jail now, or should they respond "understandable, have a nice day" and let him carry on with his rampage and try to talk no jutsu him the next day?

I’ve had enough exchanges with you, rvg, to assume you don’t mean it this way, but I gotta say, this is an incredibly fallacious way to frame the “talk to Villains” discussion.  I wrote two responses to this, first a characteristically long and rambly response which you and anyone else who’s interested are free to read below the cut.  The second response is much shorter and is here above the cut, if only for those readers who think it’s a waste of time to try and give a sincere answer to what reads like deliberate reductiveness—though again, I don’t think that’s your intent.

Here is my model version of how Heroes should engage with Villains:

Step One: Heroes should put in a basic, good faith effort to defuse and de-escalate every Villain encounter they have with the tools and knowledge they have available; the ideal result is that the Villain will choose on their own to stop presenting a danger to the public.      

Step Two: If that is not feasible for some reason, or if it is ineffective, then the Heroes should make all possible efforts to arrest the Villain with the minimal possible harm.      

Step Three: If there is an immediate threat to the lives of bystanders and there is absolutely no way the Heroes can come up with to stop the Villain non-lethally, then there should, afterwards, be an investigation into the death of the Villain and all Heroes who were involved should have to face questions about their role in the situation and their decision to use lethal force.  Measures should then be implemented to help prevent the situation from arising again in the future.  A Hero killing someone should by default be treated as a punishable failure, not a victory.

That’s it!  That’s all there is to it!  Try talking first, then try arresting, and if killing is truly the only way, be ready to explain why.  That step-by-step should be the standard, and if there are going to be deviations from it, they should be exceptionally well-justified by both the characters and the narrative.  If that’s not the standard, then I think it’s a key thing we need to see the protagonists confronting and changing.

Hero Society is obviously in the not-the-standard camp: most of the Heroes spend most of the series jumping straight to Step Two, totally skipping Step One; there are then multiple instances of Step Three being botched completely, with non-lethal tactics being discarded or ignored and lethal force being accepted without question or resistance.  By the end of the series, a tiny handful of Heroes are now hesitantly attempting what should have been their very first go-to, Step One, but their prior reliance on Steps Two and Three make the Villains much more resistant than they might have otherwise been, which reenforces the push towards lethal force in a society that will still not enforce any consequences for it.

This would all be more forgivable if not for the way BNHA positions its Heroes, as lawful defenders of the status quo in a basically modern version of Japan—i.e. they’re cops but the story either doesn’t want to saddle them with the responsibilities real cops would have or else Horikoshi has some alarming views that treat said responsibilities as bothersome administrative red tape.

Therein is my fundamental complaint: BNHA makes the choice to frame its Heroes as being basically specialized police but then disregards or attempts to minimize how that framing colors the Heroes actions’ and decisions, especially with regard to the Villains.  My thoughts on what the Heroes “should” be doing are nothing more than taking that framing (Heroes = cops) to its logical conclusion and asking the story to treat the Heroes accordingly.

Below the jump, find the longer version of this answer, which contains more picking apart of the ask’s premise, more references to the canon and to real life, and an extended discussion about the non-Hero institutions in BNHA that are in some way responsible for Villains and what Heroes’ obligations are re: those institutions.  It is, in other words, the version of this answer that’s 4000 words long instead of 500.  Reminder that it was the version of this answer that was written first, so pardon any recycled phrasing or reiterated rhetoric.

I’ll just start by re-pasting the question…

What I think is that there is a lot of air between “beating up Villains while being more concerned about the news camera catching your good side than you are about talking to the human being you’re pummeling” and “trying to talk to the Villain but just shrugging and letting them carry on if it doesn’t work”.

A perennial response Villain fans get when they talk about this is an exasperated, even outraged, “What, so you’re saying Deku should just let Shigaraki kill him or innocent people?!”  And like, no, that’s not what we’re saying at all, and it’s a really reductive, bad faith characterization of the argument.  So I want to talk first about what Villain fans are saying, and then I’ll circle back to your question about trying to talk no jutsu the really bad news Villains and what Heroes should do if that talk no jutsu fails.

First things first, and to get it out of the way, not all Villains are on the level of Muscular or Moonfish.  For the vast majority of the series, the numeric bulk of Villains are just street criminals.  It would not be a life or death struggle for Kamui Woods and Mount Lady to try and talk down a purse snatcher together.  There is so much room for positive change in how Heroes engage with street-level Villains that just gets glossed over entirely when people want to spin-kick the argument all the way to S-class threats like post-surgery Shigaraki.

Note how handily and briskly Hawks deals with the nudist flasher guy when he’s walking around town with Endeavor—he doesn’t even glance in his direction.  Would it have been so impossibly hard to use his feathers to pin the guy’s coat back together and then cheerfully ask him why he went and did a thing like that?

So just keep that in mind, first of all: for the vast majority of what a Hero does day-to-day, especially the powerful ones who are way up near the top of the rankings, there are options available to them beyond ���immediately resort to extreme violence” or “give the Villain a thumbs-up and walk away, whistling to cover the sound of civilian screams.”

But okay, how about with the more dangerous Villains?  Well, the point still stands: multiple heroic characters throughout the manga show themselves to be entirely capable of carrying on a conversation—be it with the Villains or with Hero allies—while fighting.  Mirio is able to temporarily keep ShigAFO talking and distracted by simply asking him a few basic questions; he and Nighteye both are able to get at least some answers out of Overhaul(!) just by asking about his intentions. Ochaco and Toga have coherent conversation every single time they fight.  Hawks and Twice have a whole argument while fighting.  As soon as Shouto can be bothered to talk to Dabi, Dabi’s eager to spill his whole backstory to him.

Shigaraki in particular comes off as desperate to share his grievances practically every time Heroes encounter him, and that only stops being true at the very end—and even there, it might be less true if that green twit fighting him could have been arsed to just fucking ask him, “Hey, last time we fought, when we were in the same headspace, I saw an image of you crying with a dog.  What was up with that?”  Deku doesn’t have to stand there with his hands in the air while asking!  As all the examples cited demonstrate, Heroes are more than able to fight and talk at the same time.  So why don’t they try to make that talk a little more actually useful?

What I’m saying is simply that I would like it if less of that conversation were dedicated to Heroes giving moralizing sermons about how bad and unforgiveable Villains are and a lot more of it were dedicated to Heroes just asking why the Villains are doing what they’re doing, and letting the conversation go from there, fighting defensively and keeping the Villain focused on them as much as they’re capable of doing.  We see the results in the series when Heroes bother trying this—think Deku’s results with Gentle Criminal or Ochaco’s with Toga—so it’s damning that they don’t try it more often.

The likely explanation is that professional heroism as a matter of practice and culture does not tend to bother with de-escalation tactics; after all, while you’re standing there trying to talk to the bank robber, some other Hero could easily be coming in for the take-down, and then they get all the credit and glory and not least the pay.  The whole system is geared towards rewarding fast, uncompromising takedowns, ignoring the possibility of more peaceful, productive resolutions in favor of stopping the Public Disturbance as quickly as possible, because it’s more important to stop random civilians feeling inconvenienced than it is to maybe try addressing a Villain’s issues so they stand down themselves and are less likely to become hardened criminals.

Heck, even Deku really only gets anywhere with Gentle because his first instinct—shutting down the fight right away with a Smash—gets him rebounded off an air trampoline with enough force to knock him back nearly a neighborhood block.  The defensive, evasive nature of Gentle’s power means it’s difficult to hit him directly, and Gentle’s personality was such that he kept talking while Deku was figuring out how to beat him.  That talking was really what gave Deku enough insight to trigger his empathy, so he started returning the conversation in ways that he never did against e.g. Stain, AFO, or in his first fight with Muscular.  He didn’t lead by asking why Gentle was invading his school, though; he just ordered him repeatedly to stop.

Heroes and, in turn, the kids, just don’t default to trying to talk to the Villains.  We see that they can, they’re just not trained to, so it becomes a tactic of last resort, or of distraction, or, finally, as being the result of moments of connection that make them incapable of continuing to ignore the Villains’ humanity.  But when it’s a last resort like that, when they don’t bother asking questions until after the Villains have been pushed past the point of wanting to engage, everything gets so much harder and more dangerous.

Look at Shigaraki and Toga.  When Deku and Ochaco initially encounter them, the kids’ first response is basically just revulsion and terror.  And like, okay, they’re students, newly fledged Hero Course trainees.  They shouldn’t have been facing real life Villains for another two years, at least!  So it’s not surprising that they don’t know what to do and don’t react in the most empathetic manner possible.  I’m not blaming them for that.  But I do want to ask what would have happened if their classes and the Hero culture were more focused on attempting dialogue with Villains.

All Might at USJ writes Shigaraki off as a faker with no real beliefs, and Deku at the mall calls him an incomprehensible cipher, but what if either of them had instead asked Tomura why he was there and what he wanted, then asked follow-up questions from there?  How much earlier might they have found out that Shigaraki had some tragedy in his past that he blamed All Might for not saving him from?  What might finding that out early on have led them to change about how they approached Shigaraki in subsequent encounters?

If Ochaco and Tsuyu had asked Toga why she attacked people, then followed up on whatever answer Toga gave about liking blood with some questions about consent, how much sooner might they have found out that Toga spent her whole life feeling ostracized and repressed because she was convinced by the adults around her that people finding out she craved blood would make her a freak in their eyes?  How might they have engaged with her differently if they realized her parents had been verbally abusing her since she was three years old?

But we also don’t have to stop with U.A. types!  Toga went on the run at only 15—how many times did she have had close scrapes with arrest before the training camp attack?  How many other opportunities were there for someone to talk her down before she made it to the League?  Heck, even all the way to the end, if the green twit hadn’t just insisted on antagonizing Toga one last time for the road—as if he’d learned nothing at all since the mall scene!—how much more easily might Ochaco have been able to engage with her?  Maybe if Toga hadn’t set her mind to embracing Villainy because Deku functionally became yet another person calling her a freak, Ochaco could have gotten to the breakthrough point before Toga stabbed her in the gut?

I’ve been talking about the more sympathetic Villains here so far, but all this goes for the rest of them, too.  Sure, Moonfish is a cannibal serial killer now, but was he always?  Or was there a time when he was just like Toga, a teenager wrestling with quirk-driven hungers who was abused and ostracized for them?  I’ve thought, from time to time, about the idea of a League ageswap AU, where Moonfish is that scared but defiant teenager who’s been pushed over the edge and done something violent, but is not yet past saving.  Conversely, it’s all too easy for me to imagine a Toga who was never captured and never shown any compassion growing into an adult who fully embraced her vampire serial killer reputation and “deviant” hungers to become just as much an alleged monster as Canon Moonfish.

How about Muscular?  Was he always a violent sadist?  Was it impossible that he could have grown up to be anything else?  Could that taste for violence ever have found an outlet other than murder?  Could he have gotten into underground fighting, like Rappa?  Could he have become a Hero like Mirko, always hungry for a better challenge than she’s getting?  Quite frankly, even if Imasuji Gouto was a violent little bully who killed neighborhood pets as a child, he still deserved some kind of intervention—psychological counseling, medication, more acceptable outlets, etc.

How many Villains would HeroAca!Japan be spared if the people in power were more focused on intervention and rehabilitation at every stage of a Villain’s life and career?  Why do Heroes think it’s helpful or necessary to tell everyone in earshot their personal opinion about the unforgivability of their opponents?  Why is it such a problem for some readers when Villain fans point out that a lot of issues could be sidestepped entirely, and the HeroAca world considerably bettered, if the Hero Industry were less focused on showy grandstanding violence, less terrified of the optics of being anything other than maximally harsh on Villains?

That all said, that’s the nuance of what I want when I say I want more talk no jutsu.  But let’s go back to your question—what should Heroes do when they run into Villains who can’t be talked down?

Say that all the interventions and counseling programs have failed, and someone—some mother’s son, some father’s daughter—has grown up to become a Villain.  And not just any Villain, but a really dangerous one.  What do?

Well, I do still want to see Heroes try to talk first, unless they have some reason to believe talking won’t work, like knowledge that knowing that efforts in that direction have already been made and documented in previous encounters between law enforcement and the Villain in question.  There’s also some flex here based on how capable of dragging out an encounter the Heroes on-scene are, and how much danger any bystanders would be in—I would want more effort from someone who can hold their own for long periods like Deku than e.g. Manual.  But like, anyone can yell a few basic questions about motivations to see what sort of response they get.

But say our Hero is up against someone like Muscular, who just laughs off questions like that.  What to do then?

Then arrest him.

Seriously, this is not that complicated.  I’m not asking some run-of-the-mill Hero to get their arms ripped off trying to give battle therapy to Muscular!  But I do want Muscular to get therapy, or at least be offered it, once he’s no longer presenting an immediate threat and those conversations can happen in a safe environment.  And if he doesn’t accept it,[1] I still want him to be treated as humanely as reasonably possible in prison, with the therapy option always on the table if he ever wants to try it.  I also want his prison term (even if it’s for life) to not involve methods of punishment that are considered by the United Nations to constitute torture, like Tartarus’s apparent extended solitary confinement.

1: Perhaps because he would rather rip his own arms off than talk about his feelings or waste any more time getting analyzed by shrinks than he already has; pick your poison based on why and for how long you think he’s been killing people.

I truly do not have any problems, ethically speaking, with Heroes arresting dangerous Villains.  My problem has always been that Hero Society is comprehensively awful in how it treats those who don’t fit neatly into society’s little boxes.  Their social support networks are full of holes, their law enforcement is financially disincentivized from attempting de-escalation, their judicial process is completely invisible, and their prisons are concrete holes that only serve to make people worse, as we can see clearly in the case of people like poor Ending—already unstable when he was first arrested by Endeavor, but so blatantly suicidal when his sentence is up that the literal first thing he does after release is to investigate Endeavor’s personal life so as to find a way to goad Endeavor into killing him.

Now, sure, Heroes are not responsible for prison policies and practices; those are under a completely different part of the criminal justice umbrella.  Nor is it up to them to determine how e.g. financial aid programs or family services work.  But I want Heroes to be better in the ways that they—personally and professionally—can be, and I want them to be cognizant of the flaws in the system they uphold.  I want them to have some basic intellectual curiosity about the Villains they fight—why they turned out like they did, if they can be helped, and what’s going to become of them after the Hero hands them off to the police.

Like, what is All Might’s opinion on Tartarus?  He spent 30+ years fighting for the society that maintains it—does he think or care at all about the fact that some extremely damaged, abused people wind up in there after he gets done beating them up?  And if he doesn’t, what does that say about him?  What would Ochaco have done if Toga had lived and said she’d rather Ochaco kill her than let her go to prison forever?  Does Shouto think now about the family situation of every Villain he fights, or did his ability to care about “some mother’s son” begin and end with his mother’s son?

Obviously, Heroes stop Villains all the time; I’m not asking them to do deep dives into the history and treatment of each and every one.  I just want them to ask the questions they can while the Villain is in front of them, and to care about the state of both the systems that produce Villains and the ones tasked with their care.  I think that when handing people over to state custody, Heroes have a responsibility to be meaningfully confident that the state won’t abuse that custodianship.  If they aren’t—if they truly don’t give a shit about what happens to Villains once the police van door swings closed—then in my view they’re no different than any professional who shirks their duty.

So many people insist that the kids—that Heroes in general—have no duty to care about the Villains, but to me, this view comes off as wildly ignorant about the wide variety of jobs in the real world that do, in fact, confer a duty of care.

If…

…a teacher sees a child with unexplained bruises but doesn’t bother to do their due diligence as a mandatory reporter—

…a prison guard leaves a handcuffed inmate alone in a room with a fellow warden wearing brass knuckles—

…a medic doesn’t speak up when a flight attendant asks if there’s a doctor on the plane—

…a bartender just keeps on serving someone who’s obviously intoxicated and then lets them stumble out the door to the parking lot—

—then they are shirking their duty.  There is no shortage out there of examples of this sort of responsibility, one that you can be held legally responsible for, one that you choose to accept when you sign up for the job.

Heroes are not Samaritans doing the work out of the goodness of their hearts; they’re not vigilantes just trying to keep their own patch safe.  They’re government employees, crucial members of the lawful system they represent.  They have to care—not personally, not individually, but on a professional, structural level, they have to care about the people they fight because the system has to care about those people.  And if the system doesn’t care, the system has to be changed.

I'm segueing here into real life stuff, so let me note as a disclaimer that what follows is based on my cultural familiarity with American policies, as well as periodic research into that of other nations. I don't know what country you live in, rvg, so I can hardly speak to its crime-and-punishment situation. This is all a lefty American's opinion on what reading she has done about American, Japanese, and, in the case of this particular post, Scandinavian criminal justice systems.

That said: in real life, de-escalation works.  One of the things you’ll often see talked about in police reform/abolishment circles is that the police are, quite frankly, doing too much work.  Or, more specifically, they’re doing the wrong kind of work, work for which their training has not prepared them and which other groups would be far better suited to handle.

Here’s an article on offering a campus police force de-escalation training and the resulting 26-36% drop in injuries suffered by both civilians and officers; it also talks about how de-escalation tactics are used by SWAT teams but regarded with suspicion by patrol officers, with this quote being particularly telling: “[Special operations] officers were taught to use time, distance and cover to their advantage.  For patrol officers, time was viewed as 'The more time you give a suspect, the more danger you're in.'”  De-escalation is not the usual training patrol officers get, so it runs against their gut feeling, despite its proven effectiveness—compare this to BNHA’s repeated focus on speed in shutting down altercations.

Here’s an article on the results of a test run of a program in Denver, Colorado, in which police officers were completely removed from response teams to 911 calls about situations considered low risk (drug abuse, trespassing, welfare checks, etc); instead, teams of mental health specialists and paramedics were dispatched.  Reports of nonviolent crime dropped 34% over the course of the time the program ran, and the direct financial cost of the response was four times lower than sending police.

The classic dramatic image of this sort of thing is the hostage situation—and when I looked into it, numerous articles said that containment and negotiation tactics have over a 94% chance of resolving hostage crises without fatalities!

The common element in this sort of thing is refraining from showboating displays of force, loud assertions of power and authority, arguments, moralizing, threats, and so forth.  Far more effective is listening, active attempts to communicate and understand, not throwing one's weight around and not rising to aggression even when provoked.

Meanwhile, on the carceral side of things, restorative justice leads to greater satisfaction from both victims and perpetrators, more feeling that they were listened to and respected, and increased belief that justice was served.  While the evidence on its impact on recidivism is mixed, it certainly doesn’t seem to be less effective than traditional retributive justice, and may well be considerably more effective if combined with programs that focus more specifically on lessening recidivism than restorative justice alone (research is ongoing).

This article on how “cushy” Scandinavian prisons are far more effective at reducing recidivism than their much harsher, bleaker American counterparts argues that a crucial factor in reducing recidivism is minimizing the amount of resentment criminals bear towards the system.  When perpetrators can point at unjust or disproportionate punishments, cruel treatment by wardens, rejection by society, etc, it’s much easier to stew on resentment, to turn nastier themselves, to blame outside factors.  Conversely, when life inside prison is made as much like life outside prison as possible with the key difference being the crucial deprivation of freedom, that resentment is defanged, leading to more more self-reflection and willingness to accept responsibility. And again, it works: Norway is a world leader, with their recidivism rate being a mere 20% compared to the U.S.’s nearly 77%.

The studies and the evidence for this stuff is out there, it’s just fighting this huge, ugly uphill battle against people who care far, far more about inflicting punishment than they do actually improving outcomes.  And so much of that is based on cultural values—what people believe, what values they’re taught. That's where pop culture comes in.

That last article I linked above talks about the efforts made in the U.S. to turn prisons into a for-profit industry, and how demonizing criminals to encourage maximum sentences helps that effort; here’s another on how U.S. police departments rehabilitated the popular image of the police in the early part of the 1900s as bumbling fools or a corrupt gang by consulting on the writing of police procedurals, most crucially starting with Dragnet in 1951, but continuing even today.  Here’s one on a growing concern in Japan about the relationship fostered between TV studios and police when police permission and cooperation is required for filming those popular reality TV police documentary programs.

Mass media and pop culture informs this stuff.  True, Horikoshi is not having to get his work cleared by a police PR department to publish it, but you can see from the above how the police have used and do use mass media to polish up their image; they see it as an effective tool to use because it is.  And the closer to our reality a work of fiction is, the more obviously it resembles the world around us, the more it seems to purport to moral instructiveness, the more true that becomes.  That’s why I criticize BNHA much more harshly than any number of other manga or anime I follow where Good Guys Kill Bad Guys all the time and no one thinks twice about it: because those series aren’t parading the Good Guys out as Japanese citizens working with Japanese police under Japanese law to maintain the rosy image of the Japanese status quo.

I’m long past the point where I’m just rambling, so I’ll wind it down here by pointing out this: Horikoshi also thought that things in his world needed to change.  As much as I loathe BNHA’s endgame and think much of its epilogue is trite shoulder-patting pablum that fails to meaningfully address the setting’s real problems, multiple aspects of Hero Society were at least nominally challenged and subsequently changed: citizen inaction, the dominance of professional heroics as a career path, the diminishment of non-Hero careers, quirk-based discrimination.  As a direct result of the main characters’ efforts to address places where the old system was failing people, the incident rate of Villains is decreasing.

The fact that these changes are made provides in itself the evidence that they needed to be made. I think they need to go further still: my number one greivance with the epilogue is that we've seen all these changes aimed at reducing the numbers of Villains that arise in the first place, and that's nice and all, but we don't see any evidence that the Villains that do arise are treated any differently than they ever were, not even the common purse snatchers, much less the serial killers, the cannibals, and the terrorists.

So, should Heroes have to get themselves nearly killed trying to reform a Villain?  Ideally no, but that assumes a world where Heroes are working in concert with a bunch of other people who are also dedicated to preventing, reforming, or rehabilitating Villains.  If none of that other personnel infrastructure exists, then, well, to paraphrase Nedzu, someone has to take the first step.  Why shouldn’t it be the combat-trained professionals with shounen battle stamina who also happen to be the main characters?

[let-roman-bite-someone]

i know i've said this before but i'm so tired of people acting like Patton is the general embodiment of morality. as if he is the personification of the legal justice system and everything he does must be good and fair™.

folks, Patton is Thomas's morality. remember what Virgil said in the Q&A episode?

this applies to all of the sides. every single one of them.

Remus wouldn't be the same for everyone, different people have different types of intrusive thoughts. Logan wouldn't be the same for everyone, different people have had different levels of education, different forms of intelligence and different applications of logic.

but the funny thing is, i never see people criticize the other sides for being too representative of their title. they don't reprimand Virgil for making Thomas anxious because that's his job. they don't bash Roman for being a perfectionist. but for some reason, people expect Patton to be a saint who does no wrong.

it's emphasized so clearly in multiple episodes that the sides are the result of Thomas's upbringing specifically. Patton is simply the moral code that Thomas's parents and on a larger scale, society, had taught him.

“Patton was so accepting of Virgil but he couldn't accept Remus or Janus!”

yeah. because it's easier to deal with anxiety than it is to deal with intrusive thoughts. don't get me wrong, anxiety is definitely a serious issue. but Thomas's anxiety never went directly against his morals, if anything, Virgil's perspective aligned very much with Patton's. being anxious about say embarrassing yourself in public or not getting your work done in time is not as morally concerning as having thoughts about murdering your brother.

but Thomas, like many of us, grew up with no one to tell him what intrusive thoughts are or how to deal with them. when Patton was chastising Thomas for having these thoughts, that's just Thomas beating himself up over something he can't control.

the same goes for Janus. Patton had a hard time accepting Janus because Thomas had learned to always be selfless since when he was younger, and Janus was challenging that point of view. when Patton was pushing Thomas to be selfless, that's just Thomas pushing himself and feeling guilty at the thought of focusing on his own needs.

i feel like people think that Patton is actually Thomas's father figure or something. i understand if he reminds you of someone toxic in your life and it can be uncomfortable to watch. but while it's good to relate to the media you are consuming, it's also important to view things in context.

Patton is not a person, he's not an individual who has the freewill to do what he wants. he is only Thomas's morality and what his morals are heavily depends on what Thomas was taught and how he was raised.

Patton cannot control the morals that Thomas had learned. he can only try to implement them in Thomas's life and unless Thomas himself decides to unlearn some of the unhealthy ideals that he has internalized, Patton cannot go against his nature. he can only do what he has been programmed to do, with the knowledge that he has.

[dandelionjade]

So, like I get that, there's definitely been way more leaks for this episode, and that's frustrating for them. I get that they worked really hard on the episodes, and this one is definitely giving the vibe of being a fun surprise for the players. However, they brought this one themselves, and for me, it came of a bit funny for them to be asking this (at least they're being nice about it).

Like they really sat there and were all mysterious and vague about this episode. They really hyped it up, so people were going to go digging for spoilers. This is made a lot worse by the lack of content in the game. Yes, there's goc/rag, arena/coliseum, building cards, and affinity stories; however, that's not a lot when you really start breaking it down.

Goc/rag: Not every guild participates in those, and not every server has active goc maps (I'm sure you can think of a couple -_-). As someone who does like those, even I have to admit they can get repetitive over time.

Arena/coliseum: You only get 5 free tries at arena and have to be in the top 100 in the arena to participate in coliseum. This means that once again, a very limited amount of things to do and only for certain players mostly in bigger, more active guilds. Also, really only for non-solley, story focused players.

Card building is slow, especially if ftp and not in a bigger and more active guild. Also, most people I know don't like squad arranging all that much and find it quite tedious and boring.

Affinity stories have the downside of taking forever to grind. I mena, there are only 4 ways to raise affinity, and they're all pretty slow.

Solving cases also can take a while once you start really getting up there since card building is so slow. Plus, not really much to it other than build cards and squad arrangements. You can't even dictate where your little guys hit.

Ok, so what all that highlights is that there's a huge lack of content in the game, especially for those not in a big guild (which even if you are in a bigger guild you kinda have to hope you're in a server that is active and doesn'tjust like sitting on stuff in goc). As someone in bigger guilds on different servers, I don't even find that fair. There's just not enough to do. Which I feel like leads to more people being bored and going looking for spoilers. If there was more to do, people wouldn't go looking as much.

Here's a list of things they could add that what give people more to do between episodes

Card stories: I can't believe they haven't added this already. It would make them so much more money, and they wouldn't even have to make them long. (It would be so much harder to save dias if they added this)

More mini games like the rhythm game. They keep advertising the game having these, so they might as well add them.

A bit more customization. Once again, it was advertised, so might as well add it. It doesn't even have to be the guys or the pc. It could be a little cat creature. That would be so cute getting to dress up a little cat creature and show it off.

Add more collectible cat stickers. We need more cat stickers anyway.

Give more control to the players for what their cards do when solving cases.

Ok, that's just a few ideas that could greatly solve their issues. Plus, you know it would help keep players around longer if even a couple of these were implemented. I quite enjoy this game; I want to see it stick around for a while and succeed.