#i feel like not participating is more respectful than participating while actively being against it

[whatever-dude]

Truly my last post on this topic, but I wanted to talk about this tweet.

This is what I think some of you are missing. He didn't want to participate, ok fine, that's his right, but he shouldn't have been allowed to play. I think it would have been more damaging for the lgbtq+ community to have an anti-gay, anti-trans person participate in pride night when they are anti-pride, than it was for the anti-gay, anti-trans person to masquerade as a supporter. He shouldn't have been allowed to play, no question about it, and he shouldn't hide behind his religion, but at the end of the day, he has the right to refuse to participate.

I dont believe in religion, for many reasons. How easily and quickly it is used as a scapegoat for one, and how much hatred and violence can be, and is, done in the name of it. But here's the thing, even though I do not personally believe in religion, I respect those that do. I don't go to churches or any places of worship, I don't bow my head or participate in prayer, I dont claim religion as a reasoning for anything. I dont participate in it, but I dont disrespect it or those that do. I simply mind my business. I dont go to places of worship and tell these people that religion is bad, I dont tell people, in person or online (unless they're shoving it down my throat and using it as an excuse for why I can't get an abortion), that religion is bad. I just simply don't interact with them when it comes to religion.

A less serious comparison: I dont like shrimp, but I dont hate people who do. I just simply do not eat shrimp. Im not going to tell you not to buy, order, cook, or eat it, im just not going to buy, order, cook, or eat it. I dont care that you like shrimp, im not gonna be upset or mad or cause a scene. Its is simply a food that i do not want to eat.

I seriously hope this makes it easier for yall to grasp what im saying. Like im not trying to defend anyone here, im just trying to lay the situation out. There are always going to be people who are anti-gay, so the focus can't be on eliminating them (cause that's never gonna happen and you are going to burn out so quickly) the focus has to be on making them people who say, "I dont like xyz but I dont care that you do," rather than people who say, "I dont like xyz so you can't either."

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

Cassian went on a rampage because his mother was forced to do hard labour which caused her death but then he treated Nesta the exact same way in ACOSF. He was punishing her. He treated her like a servant and physically and emotionally exhausted her for the sole purpose of punishment.

Cassian seems to put women into two categories; women who are "good"—good typically meaning they think the sun shines out of his and Rhysand's asses, are generally more docile or pliable—these women deserve his respect and protection. (For example, while characters like Mor and Feyre are strong women, there are instances where we see them back down against Rhysand so they aren't "too" strong that they set off his ego). And then women who are "bad"—generally meaning they don't worship the ground he and Rhysand walk on, are not as docile or pliable—these women deserve to be treated like his mom was. This is definitely not a thing he's conscious of, I would say it doesn't even exist in his subconscious, but it's there and it's very clear in how he acts.

Based on his actions and how he treats women, how he defines "good" women or "bad" women seems to be based on how agreeable and androcentric they are and Nesta doesn't check those boxes so she must be broken/punished. There is evidence all throughout ACOSF that he's not happy with her being who she is, she isn't good enough, until she breaks down and becomes what he wants and quite literally accepts her fate.

He talks a big game about not wanting women to be oppressed, particularly with the Illyrian women, but he actively upholds misogynistic standards and ideals, including the Illyrian women, and participates in misogynistic behaviour and violence against women.

These actions directly correlate to his relationship with Nesta. He consistently shows that he doesn't even like her. He is sexually attracted to her and we see from their very first meeting he sees her as some sort of conquest, prey to be tamed, and his empathy is completely switched off when it comes to her. He shows more romantic affections towards the IC and Feyre than his own mate, who he pursued in the first place against her wishes. For example, he views Mor with love and affection but looks at Nesta with lustful eyes only. When she is emaciated all he thinks about is how hot her boobs are and her tiny waist, he never says he loves her, he is never affectionate or gentle with her, he never makes love to her only uses her body to get off, he didn't even correct her when she spoke about feeling unworthy of him. The one time he looked at her in some sort of loving way was when their bond snapped into place and even that just seems to be about possession and the fact that she has finally broken for him.

[horrorshow]

Can you talk about why you think blocking and moving on is a bad thing? I thought it was a way to curate your space and avoid drama

idk maybe i'm too idealistic but fandom is a much more friendlier, welcoming, supportive, creative, engaging, active, diverse and interesting space when it's treated like a community where people are encouraged to participate and talk about their interests and where there's space for niche or more unpopular opinions without these people having to worry about being blocked and feel unwelcome by the majority of the fandom they are in. i can't stand how blocking everyone you disagree with has become the first thing to do.

you say its 'to curate your experience'. but blocking people does not only curate YOUR experience. you're also forcefully curating other users' experiences. and not for the better.

people say 'i will block you for literally anything' and then those same people wonder why engagement is down, why no one sends asks, why no one reblogs, why rarely anyone talks in the tags anymore and why this place feels so dead and boring and quiet. i wonder why!!!!

people treat real people as annoying ads they can dispose of at their whim. but that's not how a fandom or a site like tumblr works. (besides, if you really care about people curating their own experience you wouldn't block people. you can filter and blacklist and never see them again while still granting them the same freedom instead of actively making their experience worse.)

you say its to avoid drama. but seeing a post you dont agree with is not 'drama'. and blocking is not solving anything except for you personally. fandom was more fun when we remembered that every user is a real person you share a space with, and probably some mutuals as well, so you find a way to live with each other. starting with a restraining order seems a bit excessive and is not contributing to anything. it's not that hard to be respectful and tolerate others and acknowledge people have different opinions and interests and still co-exist in peace. its not that hard to be nice to people and try to find common ground with them and interact with the stuff you DO like. you do this in every aspect of your real life, so why not online?

i hear you say: 'but that requires WORK and i don't NEED to do any of that bc i can just block them'.

yeah, you can try to create your own bubble and only hang out with like minded people but you wont EVER fully achieve that (no matter how much you block, social media WILL keep feeding you posts you disagree with bc it makes them money). social media WILL pressure you into an 'us vs. them' mentality where you constantly feel like everything online is a threat or an argument you have to win and where being mean and unnuanced gives you the most notes and where you don't even see, let alone be able to treat, other users as people anymore bc you don't interact with them anymore other than to block or fight them. that's not how i want it to be online. it's not fun to me. and maybe i'm a pessimist but i think it will eventually be the death of online fandom and sites like tumblr. look at the state of twitter right now. DOES blocking give you a better experience in the long run? i doubt that it does. overall, i think it makes people even less tolerable and more vulnerable to hate and fear mongering, and social media an even more hostile place.

it's everything i hate about social media and everything i want to fight against and WILL fight against. i won't pretend my meager contribution will change anything, but i LIKE to just scroll past posts i don't vibe with and not see every argument online as a personal offense. it keeps me curious. most posts aren't that bad when you know the person behind it. i mean, you do you, i'm not gonna say what you should or shouldn't do bc that's up to you, but i recommend it: free yourself of the block button and bring back supportive user communities based on a shared love for the same thing and focus on what you have in common with people, just like you would do in real life. save the block button for the rotten apples who DO keep trying to pick fights and exclude others.

(which is, now that i think about it, probably the main difference: most people see the block button as a neutral way to prevent worse. but. that's only the case on an individual level. and treating everything online as an individual choice to which there are no further consequences, especially if they happen on a larger scale, is already a loss.)

[weirdkpopgirl]

All I Need | Renjun Imagine #6

Title: All I Need

Genre: Fluff, kinda angsty

Warnings: mentions of mental health, vague mentions of anxiety, a little suggestive, making out

Word Count: 531

Author's Note: This was a request from an anon, and technically my request box is closed. However, I thought the idea they gave was cute and thought it wouldn't hurt to write a little something for Renjun. I feel like I don't write enough stories where the reader is comforting the member, rather than vice versa. And I know Renjun won't see this (thank God), but I truly believe he deserves the world and I sincerely hope he's getting the rest he needs for his physical and mental health. I hope those who are also struggling are taking care of themselves too. Thank you for reading ^ ^

P.S. I have quite a few things I'm working on writing-wise so please look forward to my future works!

𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪

When you noticed Renjun’s declining mental health and encouraged him to take a break, you didn’t think he’d actually listen to your advice. You were aware of the concerns and disheartenment that came after the company’s announcement about him not participating in upcoming activities. Despite your boyfriend’s evident disappointment over not performing with his members, you were grateful for his decision to prioritize his well-being.

Shortly after the announcement was made, you headed over to his dorm in hopes of lifting his spirits. When a physically and emotionally exhausted Renjun opened the door to you holding a Moomin plushie and a grocery bag of ingredients for hot pot, he never felt more loved. Not a second was wasted before he was pulling you into a tight embrace.

“Thank you for being here with me,” he murmured, prompting a small smile to grace your lips.

Returning his hug, you rested your chin on his shoulder. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

For the first time in a while, the two of you enjoyed a quiet evening where you ate good food and caught up on your lives. After dinner, Renjun pulled you into his room for some much-needed cuddles. Nestled in his bed, you let him be the small spoon as he shared what had been troubling him lately.

“I wish I could take all your pain away,” you said quietly, subconsciously tracing the contours of his face.

The boy’s eyes glimmered with appreciation, and he relaxed under your touch. “Even if you could, I wouldn’t let you.”

Your lips parted to rebut his words but were stopped by a warm pair of lips pressing against yours. With widened eyes, you saw Renjun’s endearing expression after he pulled away. 

“You’re all I need,” he whispered, before leaning in once more.

Admittedly, you thought the second kiss would be the last for the night. But Renjun didn’t stop this time, catching you a little off guard. Even though after a year of dating, intimacy had not been extensively explored in your relationship. Mainly because the both of you had boundaries and wanted to respect them, but this…this kiss seemed to stretch on and on, and you didn’t hate it.

His lips moved slowly against yours, as his fingers traced feather-light patterns along your jawline. With gentle pressure, he tilted your chin upward for a better angle to deepen the kiss. Eventually, you stopped letting your thoughts distract you and gradually allowed yourself to surrender to the moment. Your hands found their way to his back, pulling him closer as you kissed back in hopes of conveying all the comfort you wanted to give him. 

It was enticing, losing yourself in this shared intimacy. Then when you finally parted for air, you noticed the glisten of tears in Renjun’s eyes.

“I love you,” he whispered against your lips, “so very much.”

You smiled, feeling your eyes get glossy as well. “I love you too, Jun.”

He embraced you once more, holding you closer than ever. It was at this moment when you silently promised to stay by Renjun’s side forever. 

If you were all he needed, then you were willing to give everything.

𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚༝༚𓆩⟡𓆪

previous masterlist -> current masterlist

[morganaseren]

Snippet Sunday

Tagged by: @blackjackkent Sorry this took so long!

Tagging: @illusivesoul, @writer86, @noeldressari, @this-is-something-idk-what, and @jellydishes No pressure if you don't want to participate of course!

Pairing: Leliana/Niamh Cousland

Rating: Teen

AU: We'll Lose Their Grip in Waters Dark

Note: Brief NSFW content will be under the cut.

-----

Niamh had always been a light sleeper.

Strictly regimented days within the Circle had long conditioned her to the... unique displeasure one would receive from the Templars were she and her fellow mages ever caught sleeping too deeply past the dawn. Granted, the surface beneath her was far warmer than the cold, coarse sheets she had grown used to. Her brows furrowed at that before she forced away the thick veil of slumber surrounding her.

She woke slowly to find herself in a soft bed curled up against Leliana’s side. The other woman's arm had cradled itself around Niamh's back sometime in the middle of the night while a hand rested itself against her hip—not with the sense of entitlement or possessiveness she had known of the Templars who desired her time and more than a little of her attention. Rather, Leliana's touch always brought thoughts of comfort and a silent reassurance.

Of course, as a mage, Niamh was more than capable of protecting herself, and Leliana had always made it abundantly clear that she had a wealthy respect and acknowledgement of her abilities. In Orlais, however, and beneath the Chantry's seat of power no less, it was better to err on the side of caution than risk displaying her magic too forwardly even were it in defense of herself. Thus, it wasn't uncommon for Leliana to step in on her behalf, and there were few who would dare test their mettle against Divine Justinia's Left Hand—the formidable shadow behind the Sunburst Throne.

And Niamh supposed it was futile of her to deny the burst of thrill she felt in those moments when she saw Leliana so fully in her element. Even beneath the dark cowl of her uniform, there was little hiding the malevolent danger lurking within the depths of those glacial blue eyes if met under the right provocation.

The other woman was a dagger's edge enrobed in silk.

Shifting her thighs together, Niamh looked up slowly to see her lover was still asleep, cheek resting against the pillows as her chest rose and fell in even intervals. Somewhat disappointed, and perhaps reluctant to greet the day herself, Niamh soon laid her head back down. With a seeming abundance of time on her hands, however, her mind set itself to wandering. As such, she found her fingers idly exploring the gentle lines of Leliana's stomach—testament to the physical work required to maintain herself in her profession.

Although not a warrior like the Seeker or the abundance of guards the Divine kept within her company, Leliana's skill with both bow and blade afforded her a strength that couldn't be underestimated. Such qualities combined with her overall agility led her to being able to outmaneuver far larger and physically-imposing opponents. That was reflected well in the collection of muscles in the woman's otherwise lithe frame.

"Good morning, Mon Amour."

Niamh looked up with a jolt to see sleepy blue eyes regarding her with an equally drowsy smile.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I... yes," Niamh managed to squeak out with some measure of embarrassment and more than a little bit of guilt for having woken her lover, but Leliana merely seemed pleased to have her in her arms.

"Très bien." Leliana's smile slowly transitioned into a very satisfied smirk then, causing Niamh's mind to momentarily draw blank at the sight. "I would not have let you rest so soon last night had I known I'd leave you so wanting come morning..."

Niamh could feel the way her face began to immediately flush with heat at her lover's amorous words, and her blush only intensified as she recalled last night's activities.

-----

She remembered the way her hands had braced themselves atop Leliana's shoulders while the other woman reclined herself against the piles of pillows at the headboard. Bare as they both were, it was difficult not to feel the warmth of Leliana's body so close to her own. However, Niamh also recalled the feeling of supple leather along Leliana's hips as her knees brushed against them while attempting to seat herself fully down into her lover's lap.

It was a somewhat trying exercise if only for the fact that it was new for them together.

As charismatic as Leliana was, Niamh was certain she'd had her fair share of partners prior to meeting her along with the experience to go along with such encounters, especially in a place so hedonistic as Val Royeaux.

Still, Niamh had worried she was taking too long.

As such, there were instances where she wanted to hurry the pace, but Leliana was nothing if not observant. She'd stop Niamh every time with a firm grip on her waist—keeping her in place—if she felt she was pushing herself too hard or too fast. While there was no disguising the clear desire in her lover's eyes, Leliana was content to let Niamh take her time and adjust to the size of the length inside her. The latter was certainly made easier with each murmured praise that spilled from Leliana's lips.

Thus, with each slow rocking motion, Niamh had achieved her goal, and she couldn't help but tip her head back with a low moan when she had finally taken all of Leliana. Her mind filled with hazy pleasure, and Leliana's words were a gratifying buzz in her ears as calloused hands ran themselves slowly up and down her sides. Almost unconsciously, she tried to rise herself up again to recapture that initial jolt of pleasure, but Leliana easily kept her seated atop her lap. Niamh was putty in her hands as she was drawn forward into a kiss.

"Slowly, Mon Ciel Étoilée," she purred against her lips. "We have all night after all..."

-----

"I hope you weren't waiting too long for me to wake." Leliana raised her head enough to press a long kiss to the crown of her head.

"No, no," Niamh assured, gently clearing her throat as if the sole action would be enough to rid her of more pleasantly-distracting memories. "I only woke up a few minutes ago myself."

"Wonderful. Well then. Shall we get ready for the day, or..." Her gaze then drifted down to Niamh's lips, and from such a close distance, she could see how the bright blue sapphire of Leliana's eyes darkened with sudden, building interest. "May I interest you in anything else while we're here?"

Niamh racked her mind for their itinerary of the day, and she was able to recall a piece of parchment on Leliana's desk that had been encoded with the necessary details—a brief, precise language that Leliana had taught her with implicit trust. "I... don't believe we're needed until much later?"

He lover's grin widened then, and Niamh felt the press of a hand against her hip. While it was a minor struggle with the sheets still twined around them, Leliana had soon expertly rolled her beneath her, reversing their position while looming over her with a wicked smile of promise that sent her heart racing.

"Then allow me the pleasure of spoiling you for the remainder of the morning..."

[laugtherhyena]

And here's the last of my character opinion charts. A simpler yet simultaneously pretty fucked up one, y'all see what i mean.

Once again, check out the cast post to know who is who in this chart if you're not familiar with the 1st round cast.

As a devoted follower of Rher, John is the only one out of the cast who actively participates in the festival, Aka: kills the other contestants, both intentionally and from the get-go. He's there to appease his god and if carnage is what Rher wants of him he will do it, this is exactly why most of his chart is composed by the indifference status. John is there to win, these people are competion, so he won't hold back in shooting their brains out because that's what they're meant to be doing in termina.

He really sees the festival as a hunt of sorts and so views the majority of the other contestants the same as he views the animals he is used to hunting down; He doesn't dislike or have some form of vendetta against them, but he harbors no feelings for them either and won't feel anything when taking away their lives. But the thing about John is that he's not running around yelling and screaming about how he's going to kill everyone and win, oh no no, He is incredibly calm and polite regardless of the situation. He will hold normal conversation with some and in a few hours he will chase and shoot someone multiple times in the forest, in both of these situations his mood and form of speech will remain largely the same. Unsettling is a great word to describe him! Contestants who are none the wiser may mistake his cordialness as being a sign of him being trustworthy and end up with a gun aimed at their back sooner rather than later.

That being said, there are some characters spared from his immediate hit list, those are the ones that he deems "promising" so he keeps them out of his gun's aim because he wants to see what they'll do through the festival. This however does not mean he would hesitate or feel bad about killing them if it came down to that, he would even feel much if Matyas died and he is the person he likes the most out of the whole cast. Death is just a part of termina, it's gonna happen sooner or later when 14 need to become 1. However if they moonschorched John would be absolutely ecstatic because he sees moonscorching as a blessing from Rher, revealing one's true nature and rebirthing them into a higher purpose in existence. This view is why John himself feels great when it happens to him, as he genuinely believes the Direwolf is the peak or his existence or something of the sort.

Anyways, why does he like Matyas so much? Well Mr.Jezek has been plagued by visions of the termina festival and other of Rher's crazy doings for years now and when John discovered that he becomes instantly enamored by him because it took him so much work to get a single vision from Rher but this guy gets them constantly? Absolutely amazing! He'll encourage Matyas to go on and on about his visions and subsequently the paintings he's made based off of them while feeding into Matyas's delusions that he is special and a prophet of some kind chosen by god himself, Matyas then goes on to ask about Rher to John because prior to termina he had never gotten awnsers of why he had these visions or who was behind them since he was just shunned for it and treated as a freak. They make each other worse while enjoying one another's company ❤️

Next up we have Kit who John has an almost friendship with, they're both outcasts of sorts for one reason or another and i imagine sometimes they chat during the night at John's little campsite in the forest. While Kit isn't a Rher cultist, John respects his dedication/devotion to Gro-goroth because he wishes he could have dedicated more of his own life to worshipping a god, he also hopes Kit will be able to see "Rher's grand design" when it comes to the termina festival just like he does.

On the intrigue raning we have Amos because of the violent outburst he has at the start of the festival where he kills several cherubs and decrepit preists in the orphanage. John saw this and thought he was an incredibly promising contestant only to be imediately dissapointment when Amos calmed down and revealed himself to be a kind and caring man. still, John hopes Amos will "return to his senses" and let himself free in the festival since he was doing so well at the start :( I think he skeaks up on him sometimes to tell him this sorta shit, hopefully Amos won't pay much mind to his ramblings.

Meanwhile he is intrigued by Damian out of the vet's curiosity regarding the moonscorches, Damian sees them almost as animals of sorts and wants to study them even if his main goal is to leave termina. John appreciates his intrigued over what he considers to be "Rher's blessings" and is curious to see what Damian thinks of them and if he will allow Rher to "bless" him as well later down the line.

Lastly we have Catherine who is an odd one out here being the only contestant who John dislikes outright. That's because the side of the war Catherine was a part of is the one that fought against the army his friends were drafted to, while she wasn't the one who pulled the trigger on them (she's not even a soldier) he despises anyone even remotely affiliated with the Bremen army and if not stopped he will go out of his way to murder her via snapping her neck with his bare hands after almost suffocating her so she can have a slow and painful death in comparison to the bullet to the head he deploys on his other targets, a revenge of sorts for his fallen friends.

[dearestspirit]

domestic

-> yelan x gn!reader

-> fluff, established relationship

-> wc: 1003

-> note: while i love mysterious and charming yelan i'm also in love with the idea of like. soft, domestic yelan so here's a take on that!!

living in liyue, you were bound to hear the whisperings of a mysterious woman employed at the ministry sooner rather than later. there was an allure to them; a desire to participate in the baseless rumors of who she could be. or at the very least, the eagerness to hear tale after tale of her constantly changing identity. it's as if she was shrouded in a thick fog, out of sight of the whole population. no one really knew who she was or what she looked like. of course, that didn't make her immune to being a topic of conversation. even just casually walking through the markets at night would open yourself up to hearing hushed discussions.

you couldn't stop yourself from tuning in with a smirk. because you knew better than all their chatter.

because you knew that later that night, when yelan came home from chasing down some sort of lead for information, she'd be coming home to you.

her work life was cryptic even to you, but you knew in your case it was more for your safety than to be secretive. you had the vague idea that she often got wrapped up with not the best sorts of people, so you never pushed her to divulge. you respected that she wanted to keep her personal life- you- away from that. sometimes, though, you did sit at home worried for her. there'd been multiple times she would get caught in a rabbit hole of work. yelan had always reassured you that she avoided physical combat whenever she could, and that you didn't need to concern yourself with if she’d make it home.

she always would.

she told you this with your cheek cradled in her palm, thumb caressing your skin. you cherish the memory, holding it in your heart with a great amount of love.

still, you find yourself holding in a breath until you hear the door click closed and the familiar tap of her heels. there's an audible sigh of relief when she settles down next to you on the couch, leaning into your side with her chin on your shoulder. part of you is still so unused to her being affectionate, but once she had really opened up to you, she was always so close to you. whether it be a hand on your arm, holding you, or her body pressed to yours, she was always there in some way. especially in the privacy of the home you shared.

this was common; her colliding into you as soon as she sees you.

"you're quite warm," yelan mumbles, nuzzling her nose into your neck. "did you eat?"

"i should be the one asking you that, you've been gone a while," you nudge her, earning you a pointed yet playful glare. "i was waiting for you."

"mm, that's no good." her eyes are fluttering closed, and you're sure her activities throughout the day must've exhausted her.

"stay there," you tell her, hands on her arms to steady her against the couch so she wouldn't fall forwards in her sleepy state. "don't fall asleep, i'll bring our food out here."

you pad into the kitchen, the cold tile making you hiss. hurriedly, you ladle some soup into two bowls, making sure yelan gets the spicier version you'd made. the warmth of the bowls brings you some comfort, taking quick steps back to be by yelan's side. while her eyes are open, she's rubbing at them, clearly feeling bleary.

"as soon as you eat we can head to bed, okay?" you leave a quick peck on her forehead, placing the bowls down onto the table and taking a seat.

you watch as she takes hold of her spoon, though she's interrupted by a yawn. without words, she looks over to you with somewhat of a puppy dog look. glancing at her bowl, then you, then her bowl again.

"what, you want me to feed you?" you ask after swallowing a mouthful of soup.

there’s a drowsy grin on her face, nodding determinedly. you held back a roll of your eyes, unable to resist her cute nature. with fingers holding her chin and thumb under her lip, you carefully take hold of her spoon with your other hand.

"it's a bit hot, so careful," you whisper, taking a moment to blow on the spoonful of soup. pressing the silverware into her mouth, you smile as she chews. "good, good."

the two of you carry on this way for a while. as you feed her a bite and she takes her time to chew, you take a bite of your own soup, finding rhythm in the motions. for a second you think to yourself how grateful you are yelan is so dazed– otherwise, you think she'd be able to hear the way your heart is beating like mad. the domesticity of the scene really touched you. when you had first met yelan, you never thought you'd end up here, hand feeding her (the thought of telling the yelan back then that you two would end up like this makes you chuckle) a meal you made for you both. there's something sweet there, knowing you've gained her trust and that she feels safe enough to let her guard down around you.

it takes her quite a bit of time to actually finish eating, but as soon as yelan does she's tugging on your sleeve to lead you to bed. honestly, you're surprised she can even coherently walk to the bedroom. without changing or anything, she's immediately diving into the blankets to burrow into them. you shake your head, endeared. you decide to follow her lead, lifting up the linens and crawling in next to her. there's instantly arms wrapped around you, curling you closer to her front. nestling her head under your chin, you can feel the way her breath hits your skin, shivering at the sensation.

"love you," she mutters, making you feel the way her lips move.

"i love you too, yelan."

[0mega-x]

What place do nations take in their government and in relation to their people ?

I don't know if the canon has ever talked about it. I imagine it is similar to the role of the British royal family in the UK. I can only see it as such if they're not supposed to have power over their leaders.

They are technically not political power, they're supposed to be apolitical. They are a symbolic body, but unlike the BRF in the UK, you can't ever get rid of them, so in every country's history they would probably have a set role defined by the government or the people.

Nations can't disobey leaders, and while they are mostly expected to not expose their ideas, they kind of can't go against any leaders either.

Back in history, they may have had more political power. Maybe it was accepted for them to directly influence their leader, and even hold power if they are incapacitated. But gradually (or brutally, in Russia and France's cases), they lost it. People hold their experiences to a certain level of respect, but they want their nation to be apolitical. However, leaders will call on their nations' past experiences and therefore their opinions to make some decisions.

For the government, a nation is a sign of the vitality of their country. The nation is fine ? So is the country, then ! What ? Nuances ? Where ? A leader can withhold information from their nations because they know it would spark opposition with them, leader to some being taken by surprise by others mentioning state secrets they weren't aware of.

(But then, what would be the use of royalty in a world where the nation holds that role already? Idk)

How would the Nation be as a public figure ?

Depending on the government (tho every single one will do so), the nation's life is controlled to a certain point and protected. A government wouldn't want to see their nation in a controversy. So in terms of private life, a government could go from letting them be "wild" (in their relationships e.g.) to forbid them from doing anything. See it as companies and KPOP idols. Some companies will let the idols be as long as they don't get caught, others will outright kick the idol out of a group for getting caught in rumours or a relationship.

On the topics of relationships, let's take England and Portugal for example (Porteng shipper here, hii). I feel like though it's obvious to many that their relationship exists, the government doesn't want people talking about it too much out of fear it can impact foreign relations. Therefore, it will sometimes cover up rumours about, let's say, England and Portugal being caught on a date. I can see British tabloids completely talking about something else (maybe diverting the attention to the royal family) to avoid the subject.

Now for the people. People would mostly hold their nations to a higher standard than anyone else. It's hard to picture how long your country would have been alive, after all. You'd think they'd be all-wise, then you'd strip them of their humanity, their feelings, without even realising it. They know that in the eyes of many, they're only a perfect figure that everyone looks up to. Which is why relationships can also be hard. Also, imagine being followed by noisy people on the street. Stressful.

So what would nations do in their free time?

Sports or cultural activities. Sounds cliché, I know.

With their ancientness, they would be considered a useful source for historians and even linguists. They often get questions from those about their experiences or what they remember of a language. Maybe they even participate in language conservation, because they remember it and how it sounds. They can recreate the way the old form of a language was pronounced for linguists.

They practise sports. I imagine for the sporty ones if their country is hosting the Olympic Games they will definitely appear in the videos [cues in Francis fencing for Paris 2024]

Oooh, also just visit each other and all. Maybe they get pensions from their government each month. In that case, they're usually allowed to visit others.

[letterstonamjoon]

Equality

What do you think is gender equality?

Is it when women can do what men do?

“Globally, 20% contracts were from women-led companies, but they only contributed 1% revenue”. Yesterday, I participated in the opening of a women focus initiative of a large consumer manufacturing corporation. The reason is that most women's businesses are small and medium sized. So, is it fair to push businesses into women's hands and make them grow? If it were me, would I want to start my own business and become the owner of a large enterprise with several thousand employees? Or would I rather satisfy with the small size?

When I was a child, I always wanted to do the things boys do. One time, in a movie, there was a line about a character who looked like a boy: "Ah, that person urinates sitting down, so that's a woman." So from then on, I always urinated standing up when taking a shower, as if to prove that girls can urinate standing up too.

I read many stories about how disadvantageous it was to be a woman that during a period of my youth, I also thought the same thing. Such as bleeding once a month which was very tiring, pregnancy caused changes in the body and weakened health, and wives had many obligations in life, like managing the house, children, domestic and foreign affairs of both parties. I once wished that I was born as a boy.

I have a younger brother. Being born only 14 months after me, my younger brother is somehow like an older brother, the one who took my place in getting married and giving birth to grandchildren for my parents while I was still adventurous when I was young. In my generation, the ideology of favoring boys over girls is still very strong. Luckily, we are loved and treated fairly by our parents. In fact, because of our personality differences, I can even create more space for myself to live and experience the way I wanted.

The more I experience, the more I feel that being a woman is a privilege, not a disadvantage. Actually, I think whatever gender we are born into will have its own interesting experiences. I think the important thing is how we receive events, whether actively or passively. I wanted my child to be born, and enjoyed the days when the little creature grew up inside me with excitement and love. My gay friend also wants to be a parent, but it's not as easy as me finding a sperm. I don't want to worry about domestic or foreign affairs, so I did not get married to avoid the headache.

People are tired of having to follow social conventions, that being a woman has to be this or that. There is a saying in our place: "Women are good at country work and responsible for housework". If they practice according to that saying and feel happy, it's good. But if they feel unhappy because they have to be recognized as good women, then aren't they making themselves miserable? There is no guarantee that what everyone does is right. And if you know that's not right, then it's okay to go against the majority.

For some reason, I feel uncomfortable every time I hear about or have to attend a women's association, such as a women's entrepreneur association, or even receive flowers on International Women's Day. That discriminatory thinking itself has created inequality.

Back to the story of female entrepreneurs at the beginning. Have you ever thought why the 4 largest entertainment companies in Korea are in the hands of men? Why are men often better at business than women? In what fields are women often successful?

I think It's better to stop thinking about gender and just focus on respecting and supporting each individual to achieve their goals.

In your opinion, what is the measure of success for each gender (in their own minds)?

[notaplaceofhonour]

If you believe in the dignity and freedom of Palestinians, what do you believe they should do? Even if the average Israeli is not an active member of the IDF, they are still displacing Palestinians. They are still living in a state that exists because of colonization- they are still a settler. How do you peace-and-diplomacy your way into convincing a state whose mission is to displace and settle until there is no land left for the Indigenous peoples into simply not doing that? Do you think that's what the people of Haiti did? Do you think the Indigenous nations of Canada, to this day, still fights for land rights because they weren't good enough at peaceful negotiations with their colonizers?

I feel like I don’t need to have the definitive answer for how to solve a longstanding geopolitical conflict with multiple conflicting factions that thousands of people who know a lot more than me and are better equipped to solve have not been able to do since long before I was born in order to defend the idea that “Holocaust 2” and “killing & raping unarmed noncombatants” should be off the table. That’s the baseline. Bare minimum. If you can’t even clear the hurdle of “rape is unacceptable”, there is no conversation for us to have, and you shouldn’t be let around children.

I’m not going to participate in this song and dance where anytime anyone says killing & raping unarmed people is unacceptable , people like you throw your hands up and say “Well what else were they supposed to do? Not rape and murder people?”

Because yeah! Exactly! Don’t rape and murder people. Baseline. You don’t have to have an answer to know that isn’t it.

I’m not going to accept this false framework where you act like the only two options are being “nice” & “respectable” or suicide bombing & blowing up schools & synagogues.

I’m also not going to accept the false framework of acting like somehow brutality against noncombatants “just works” or is more effective than actually fighting the people with guns. If that were true, Hamas would’ve already won, because they’ve been doing that for a while, and things are only getting worse.

So I’m not going to play that game.

I’m going to point this out: You are arguing that Jews forfeit their right to live when they occupy the land of Israel-Palestine because that makes them “colonizers”. But the Jewish Diaspora comes from the land of Israel—Jews are also indigenous—so if they’re colonizers even there, there’s not going to be anywhere in the world where they wouldn’t also be “colonizers”—and by your argument, that means you believe they forfeit their right to live anywhere they settle.

Which means you’re just advocating for anyone to be able to kill Jews wherever they go. The logical end of your argument is just genocide.

[horizon-verizon]

Inspired by other ask: What positive quality people see in Aegon II? What do you think makes people love/like/feel anything positive about him?

@daenerysthefirst 

The heft of the love or sympathy for Aegon II mostly comes from:

a) the belief that men should continue to inherit power over women in a patriarchal society; Rhaenyra is not as much of a human being with flaws as Aegon to them

b) the idea that the patriarchal rules in of themselves, more often than not, should be followed for the continuance of order and stability (too much work to actually do something and uproot this sort of thing even in smaller, inspirational ways)

c) When considering what makes a man a good ruler, and how he respects the autonomy and boundaries of women specifically, doesn't factor into his how good or bad he is as a leader. Yes, it does to some (me for example) but I mean as a social pattern and idea. Think of how people praised Jaehaerys for years and are ignorant of how his treatment of his daughters, sister, and wife doesn't concern them so much. And yes, he was good at some practical aspects of ruling and was better at self-preservation….that also became his patriarchal selfishness in his decisions to assimilate body and mind to use Andal suppression of female leadership for his own ends.

d) fandoms and people consuming TV nowadays -- as this article hints at -- do not view women as autonomous, thinking and feeling humans as men; so they grant men much more lenience and less scrutiny for their questionable, evil, or problematic actions. Especially once they show the sort of helpless frustration or show a different image of themselves and their abilities than what is apparent. sometimes that includes them failing at the male-assigned/traditionally associated social "duties" and behaviors (examples: controlling the flow of cash within the household not by directly going through a budget but by giving direction and/or providing those funds OR holding onto power and trying to present manliness while doing it but showing vulnerability and frustration privately [so only the viewers see how pathetic they "really" are]) and being vulnerable to a person who could do those things better or ahead of them in some way.

That writer pointed out the linguistic infantilizing/feminizing of male characters who "fail" at achieving and/or presenting the ability to achieve/obtain impressive positions, images, resources, etc., i.e., the "girl failures" and "baby girls", and the teenage-girlification" of some male characters of Succession in the viewers seeing and "relating" to their emotional pain... sometimes just because they happen to actually express that emotional pain or frustration with recognizably teenage girl items and/or behaviors to "self-soothe".

The Senex Amans and the Connection b/t The Spectacle of Comedy and Drama & Patriarchy

Kinda reminds me actually of the senex amans character of Latin literature and adopted into medieval/early modern literature, how this jealous old man, sometimes a pervert, is supposed to have begun as a comedic character in Greek & Roman comedy. This character is defined by his pathetic lack of control over his own sexual desires or is both "impotent" for being cuckolded/thinking he won't be/that he has the ability to prevent it by isolating his wife. Trying to present himself as having some real control only to have it slip from him until it's too late (the seducer or wife's using blind spots against him or just plain opportunity). In other words, he tries to regain some of the masculinity he lost by getting old through his possessing her. As the old man can/not be expected to ever really participate in knightly/military activities younger men can in the "high" literature that these sorts of medieval texts parody or refer to in "cruder" language and wordplay. Being a knight or showing traits associated with aristocratic knighthood and chivalry was the pinnacle of masculinity even for those who are not aristocrats.

The plays and other texts usually had the younger girl being either kidnapped/seduced away by a more powerful/younger man or voluntarily entering an extramarital affair with a young man. The same texts would also expose and center that lack of restraint/how absurd it is to think a man could expect a woman to stay faithful to his old, wrinkly self (sometimes with the other implication that women, in general, could ever restrain themselves since women are the descendants of the seductive and mentally weak Eve) for the audience to laugh at and mock.

Alongside that, there was another idea/observation that a woman can't be totally blamed or should rebuke and reviled at all for not being faithful (usually a take or comment made by women). Her husband is just physically unattractive to her (his age) and she's bound to him until death, thus her looking elsewhere for a male, one she c/would actually choose if he were both wealthier and accessible-- if she weren't arranged by others into the marriage after years of social isolation. And there would be people in the crowd thinking so, too, medieval people are still a diverse thinking group of people.

But even this idea was still sometimes twisted into making the unfaithful young girl childish & irresponsibly unable to restrain her desires to fulfill her marital duties. Because women were already expected to reserve their sexual activities to their husbands even after death in some circumstances AND masculinity is no longer totally available to old men as it once was AND most of the poltical+economic power is still in his hands (thus the panic at being found out with another man).

The narrative's concern focused on the plight of the old man even as he's being portrayed as pathetic for his attempt at moving out of his own limits or not taking the implications of his age seriously enough in his pursuit of masculinity. Because masculinity is/as always much more valued than a young girl's sexuality/feminity.

The tension of competing masculinities within the context of marriage (which is meant to "seal" in resources and human behaviors) is made funny when the old man's masculinity is constantly negated while also naturalized. He has to find sexual enjoyment somewhere, his wife is desirable, and he must "protect" her, but it is a foregone ending. And what makes this a comedy is it's usually "back to the order" ending with the wife never being found out and the husband being none the wiser despite the hijinks OR coming into a nonunderstanding with her older tyrannically impotent husband to be faithful...but not really.

Diverging -> Comedy = "happy" ending; ends with a new/intact marriage or (re)union of some kind

Tragedy = sad ending; danger looming/an existential crisis ending in death, separation, dissolution of social bonds, or soul-crushing loss

Both of the genres' action comes from the flaws in an institution and/or MCs and ironic juxtapositions to create emphasis.

What does this have to do with Aegon, Though?

The senex amans means nothing without the social context of patriarchy and the exculpation of male foolishness. And Aegon's passivity is the element of demasculinization that I think he was also trying to win back in his attack against Rhaenyra. I write about that last part HERE (and no, I despise him--and not in a fun way like Aemond--so if it looks like I'm defending him, I'm not. I'm saying what I think HE feels.)

Aegon himself is a failure of any sort of leader because:

a) he never tries to be one, partially because he thinks it's already owed to him

b) every time he actually attempts ruling or winning at any confrontation, he either fucks it up for himself, has someone else do it for him because he himself can't bc he already fucked up before (having a betrayer cut Rhaenyra's breast and Sunfyre eats her instead of a battle) or cannot restrain that self-defeating anger (think him going into battle at Rook's Rest)...meanwhile they are blind to/choose to be blind to his decision to have "sex" w/12 yr olds, the years of Rhaenyra never haven been hateful towards him (in a text that hates her, this would be noted by Gyldayn, or Alicent would have at least spread and emphasized it to him and the court during his formative years). "Girl failure", "baby girl" "king".

But some viewers feel for him anyway bc:

a) the misogyny I already listed above in the first section

b) they feel Viserys should have loved him like he loved Rhaenyra and that he deserves that love and attention more than her by virtue of the fact that he is a man/his first male child and "true" heir that Viserys had been seeking

c) in HotD, he pleads with Alicent about how he doesn't want to be what they're pushing him to be when she finds him after he raped Dyana, which in some people's minds makes up for his rape (the evil person showed vulnerability so he deserves sympathy).

It is his comparatively larger passiveness and lack of ambition to Rhaenyra, Aemond, and even Daeron which makes his active decisions and actions seem like they don't matter. His canon patheticness and HotD vulnerability combined appear as if he were less responsible for his own actions than others are. It makes him seem a more passive player in his own life and people latch on to that.

He does not actually do anything in his youth (in the original story) worth mentioning and so the reporters/writers of F&B care to make note of him. They only take note of his drinking, crossness, and "fondling" servant women so it's set up how bad of a leader this guy would be. This is his defining trait!

Aemond does more in his youth by his claiming of Vhagar, the eye incident, his training with Criston, etc. Rhaenyra's life, we get from the moment she's born and we see/hear much more from her than Aegon with his life and marriage to Helaena. Even later, when he gets burned for the first time, he's put out of the story for a while for Aemond and Daeron to come back into the focus of the plot's action. So he appears like a person who is just here to enjoy his privileges and whatever comes his way like he's maybe carefree until his mother comes along to drag him into a war. (Untrue, but more on that later.)

The lack of really a deeper and wider scope of his interactions with Otto, Alicent, Helaena, and Aemond after episode 7 works to make the ones we do see the only ones that "matter" to pin down the relationship dynamics and how Aegon sees himself, but because we get nothing of his treatment or relationship with Helaena and how he justifies being away from his children. Little character development except for the most passionate moments or pathetic moments equals real characterization when you're deprived of a look into the character's "everyday" persona.

It's then easier to see him as more of a victim and a sincere "baby girl" when we see him almost cry at Alicent's castigation in episode 6....yes even as one remembers that he's naked from his just-rape of a much more helpless young servant girl. Right above the bed where she was raped.

HotD really incentivizes the idea of his lack of real accountability when we get nothing else about his interactions with Helaena or his kids, or how he preys on those servants. We don't get to see Aegon by himself or what he chooses to do when no one is there to use their authority against him aside from encouraging his nephews to bully his brother and calling his brother a twat. We see Aegon and all the characters, really having highly intense moments and not the moments of buildup or setup to them, so we are harder-pressed to trace the development, not those high, intense moments of culmination. Aegon thus, gets an easier pass because we don't really see him at his "rest" stage nor the transition into and out of that stage.

d) Otto pushes him around to comport himself at Laena's funeral and not embarrass him and his efforts at presenting him as a dignified heir candidate, totally leaving out any sort of desire to find out why he acts the way he does. And Otto does not seem to care much for any of his grandkids (even with Helaena, he's condescending, not actually engaged with her....yet no one ever mentions this, hmmm) beyond his plans for them.

And Alicent, as her fans and nonfans say, has herself been sexualized and sexually abused before and during her marriage to Viserys into not being able to emotionally connect with her kids as much as if she hadn't been for this same man's ambitions. Aside from Aegon just being insufferable, their relationship is further strained and she's impatient and crosses some boundaries with him because of that strain and history. Because she sees him as making all her own suffering seem worthless/pointless. So the sympathy for her also translates to sympathy for his having to deal/not deal with that, which would be fine...except for what else we know of him.

From Otto's disinterest/abuse, Viserys' comparative disinterest, and Alicent's desperate abuse, some fans feel that he's a victim for being pushed towards the throne through a lie and illusion of danger (the "promise of a young man's life 'wasted' ") after a lifetime of emotional neglect and exploitation -- that Rhaenyra would kill him, Alicent, and the rest of them if he didn't take the throne.

Or if they actually think that either Daemon or Rhaenyra would inevitably target him if he hadn't come into power and opposed them--that Alicent "had a point".

Either way, they also feel bad for him being pushed into a dangerous position without actually ever wanting or pursuing it. That because he didn't want it, he didn't deserve the burns, deaths, and year-long convalescence, that comes from his entering the war at all.

While yes, our parents and those who raise us are far likelier to pass on their habits to their charges (worsening the character their kids build later by letting them get away with stuff), that person is never just a wooden board receiving hit after hit. They have a brain and the ability to observe, think, feel, and compare. Aegon (book and show) simply chooses not to pursue anything beyond himself.

*EDIT this one paragraph* (12/5/23): He didn't want kingship at first (and I am sorta amending some statements of the past but also not) but he always wanted power comes with the removal of accountability and he comes to see kingship as the only his mode towards that anyway. Both in the book and show. To reiterate, he wants to be treated as if he's a big deal and comes to see kingship as the only way to be treated as the biggest deal...without having to cater to anyone else's needs or perform altruist policies bc this is the antithesis of what he wants. He thus ignores others' boundaries. And this circle of abuse further makes him lend more of that helpless image. Think Roderick Usher of the The Fall of the House of Usher tv show.

This is where I could see why people would feel bad for him...but he is a rapist both in the show and book and even if you were abused/raped, it doesn't stop your act of rape from being rape and it doesn't stop the internal patriarchal entitlement to rape from existing and being self-evident in the rape. His raping also gets ignored because some think that his "fondling" of women is not "serious" or never happened.

Or if they believe it "serious" and have happened, it doesn't occur to them that Aegon would rape someone because they assume that he has a higher moral code than he actually does...because they feel that Viserys ignoring him/near "motherlessness" somehow automatically makes him a victim.

If one is a victim, one cannot criticize their evil or questionable actions and thus cannot confront and acknowledge their wrongdoing, and victims automatically know to not victimize, therefore he couldn't have victimized anyone.....

e) Many people have been abused by those who are supposed to care for them or have felt completely powerless and trapped in familial cycles of trauma....so they feel they see themselves in Aegon more than in Rhaenyra, who actively finds partners in Harwin, Daemon, Laena, and maybe even Laenor, built her own family, and has more of Viserys' attention and regard. However, Rhaenyra also has traumas, Viserys also disables her from accruing power where it most matters, and has had to face Alicent's censure and targeted attacks for years, whether in book or show and would have felt helplessness in being a woman, lost her mother to at a very young age. Her abuse and traumas do not matter because she tries to fight back or she does so by going directly against the traditional mores of womanhood that create those foundations of abuse and emotional neglect she is rejecting in the first place.

Because they can't relate to her (or think so) and she is not suffering like how they want her to, Rhaenyra's resistance becomes a flaw rather than something to admire. HotD Alicent's suffering is much more appealing and Book!+show!Alicent's internalized misogyny doesn't really challenge them to look beyond their/her own suffering from patriarchy, so sometimes it feels like they are actually participating in denying patriarchy. Aegon, like show!Alicent, is a more passive but seemingly helpless victim of his demasculinization. Perfect vs imperfect victimhood, it's also described pretty concisely and perfectly by la-pheacienne HERE. And the blackqveen talks about the projection of suffering HERE.

[navree]

I like your take on Daenaera but I still don't have much thoughts on the aegon and jaehaera thing. To me if she lived I just think Aegon will keep a marriage only in name with her. He respect her as Queen but won't have much emotional connection with her. Cuz based on canon: it's very doubtful that she can actually have the concept of consent when she was cognitively 4 when she was 8. Neither did she show much ability to bond with people after the dance (aegon did tho). That's even a hard thing for me to ship compared to Aegon and Daenaera's 7 year old gap

Yeah, that's also been what trips me up on Jaehaera sometimes, which is that the way she's coded is meant to hint to a pretty severe developmental delay that does signify a bigger developmental disability. I'm pretty sure that was just there on Martin's part to make sure people didn't get attached to Jaehaera or her relationships with people like Aegon before killing her off (since I think he was doing a bit of backfilling, since Daenaera and Aegon III as the couple who produced children and reigned together was set in stone before he got into the minutia of the Dance and created the twins and then had to figure out a way to end the Dance concretely), especially considering how sloppily it's handled compared to disabilities like Tyrion's dwarfism and Bran's paralysis in the main series, though that may be because those are physical disabilities rather than mental. And Jaehaera being half her age mentally is something to note, four is incredibly differently, cognitively and developmentally, from eight, especially when Aegon was already older than her by three years, and would have impeded their connection in the short amount of time they had.

But I do also want to note that, because F&B is vague by design and Jaehaera died young and pretty early in Aegon's reign, we don't actually know if her issues were going to be permanent and severe. Jaehaera went through a lot in the Dance, beyond all the deaths of her family members and living through two armed invasions of KL, which is always gonna be scary for a kid, we really can't overstate how traumatic Blood and Cheese would have been for her. She's, like, six, and men break into her home to commit various acts of violence against her grandmother, her mother, her siblings, and her. It's not just that Jaehaera saw her own twin, someone she's never lived her life without, be beheaded by intruders, which would be incredibly traumatic in and of itself, or saw her mother and grandmother both in a state of emotional collapse that would be very distressing for a child, Blood and Cheese also threaten her specifically. At six years old, grown men tell Jaehaera that they are going to rape her unless her mom picks which of her brother's is going to die. In a time and place where she has no space or tools to process all the incredible traumas of that night, or having to later deal with Helaena's breakdown and not even being able to have the comfort of her mother, and likely very little comfort from her father who is first actively participating in a wara nd then later has a long convalescence following Rook's Rest, of course Jaehaera was going to regress. Aenys went back to acting like an infant after the trauma of just learning about his mother's death at age three, it's entirely reasonable Jaehaera went through something similar. The brain is a funny thing, and how trauma affects it is also a funny thing.

I do thing that Jaehaera was neurodivergent, while the severity of her mental condition seems to have only been noted during/after the Dance, even as a kid she's noted as not having expressed emotions the way you typically see from children, and I think that's generally seen as an early indicator of autism by the medical community today. So I'd feel comfortable headcanoning Jaehaera as autistic, likely more severe on the spectrum than Helaena is coded as being in the show, and I know that a lot of people do headcanon her that same way. So in my view, I'd attribute Jaehaera's mental state as a trauma response to the horrors she had to go through at such an early age, and if she had lived longer than the age of ten, it's entirely possible she would have improved and healed.

And with respect to the Aegon/Jaehaera/Daenaera throuple AU that's at the heart of this for me, I'd follow it on those lines, and that's part of what I talked about when discussing how Jaehaera and Daenaera would forge a connection first. Jaehaera's mental issues come not just from her neurodivergency but from her trauma and her inability to deal with that, so having her socialize with someone who, while she too has known grief and strife, has not been through anywhere near the same crucible as Jaehaera, is helpful developmentally. Bonding with Daenaera, and especially Daenaera because of her known traits of being sweet and bright and easy to get along with, would go a long way to helping Jaehaera in a world where mental health counseling and therapy and psychiatry aren't a thing. And that in turn can help lead her to bond with Aegon, who clearly wanted to connect with people but also had a boat load of issues, and as they grow older it turns into something more romantic, along with the romantic feelings springing up with Aegon and Daenaera and Jaehaera and Daenaera too. I'd have Jaehaera certainly be autistic, as mentioned, likely blunt and unaware of social cues and perhaps with a tendency to put her foot in her mouth or fail to follow social norms as a result, since she's described as "sweet and simple" in the text. That's kinda one of the things at the heart of this AU, that the Dance left a lot of young children lonely and lacking in connection that they desperately need, and how those children might grow and develop and blossom if they find that connection, in spite of the sins and rivalries of their parents (the Greens v Blacks, obviously, but also the mistreatment of the Velaryons on both sides and those loyalty switches).

But I'm also glad you like my Daenaera take anon! She's pookie to me, sometimes characters just speak to you without you even knowing why, and she's definitely like that for me, and I'm glad people enjoy the vibes I'm trying to bring.

[saint-bestial]

@ygoc-week - Day 6

(sooo i know free day is tomorrow's prompt but i didn't really have anything for today's. so i'm gonna do free day today and AU tomorrow if that's ok ;-;)

doing a general lore dump today!! i love rambling about Sylvester, so i thought it'd be fun to talk about a bunch of stuff i couldn't fit elsewhere. i need a bit of a break since i've been drawing nonstop all week. this isn't exhaustive by any means but i know for a fact it'll get long. Sylvester has been in development for like 2 years now and it shows.

i tried to organize everything in rough categories under the cut:

As a Signer Dragon:

like the rest of the Signer Dragons, Sylvester was created by the Crimson Dragon to serve it and the Signers. he participated in the Signer Wars of the past, fighting Earthbound Immortals by air and sea.

his main ability was producing electricity. the orange markings that ran down the sides of his body and tail gave off devastating electric shocks. additionally, he could fire great bolts of lightning from his mouth. he had a high degree of control over the strength of his electricity, but he could overwhelm his natural resistance and injure himself if not careful.

at first, Sylvester served faithfully like the other dragons. but he soon grew resentful of the cycle of war. his only purpose was to serve the Signers, fight, and then lie in wait until the next Signers were born thousands of years later. he desired more out of his life than simply being used as a weapon.

the Earthbound Immortals, feeding off his negative emotions, approached him with a deal. if he agreed to turn on the Crimson Dragon and help them defeat it, its death would break the cycle of war, thus freeing him from servitude. of course, this would mean sacrificing humanity's existence, but he valued humans very little. he was apathetic at best toward them. so he agreed.

when the Signer War 5,000 years prior to 5Ds began, Sylvester turned on his fellow dragons as planned. he received additional power from the Earthbound Immortals, making him even harder to stop. he mortally wounded Life Stream Dragon and facilitated Ancient Fairy Dragon's capture by Uru. it took both Stardust and Black Rose Dragon to finally subdue him, but a final burst of energy allowed him to break free.

actively dying, Sylvester soared toward the Crimson Dragon to engage with it directly. discharging at full power, he flew into its body as a last ditch effort. he was incinerated instantly by the sacred flames. ultimately, the plan failed and the Signers won the war once again.

Relationship to the other Signer Dragons:

Sylvester's mind may have long forgotten his feud with his brethren, but his soul has not. he feels an ancient anger rising in him if they're summoned in a duel against him. in turn, they become similarly aggressive.

he is capable of understanding Signer Dragon speech during duels, and can respond in dragon tongue. this is done unconsciously, the language is embedded so deeply in him that he can't speak in it at will.

Identity and Body:

Sylvester identifies as nonhuman. he comes to strongly believe he deserves dignity regardless of his species, and that he shouldn't need to act human to be respected.

he has a complicated relationship with the body he inhabits. he frequently suffers from phantom limbs and the sensation of being suffocated, crushed, or otherwise attacked by his own skin. most of the scars on his forearms come from him gouging/biting at his skin during episodes where he can't recognize his own body.

despite all the grief his human body gives him, Sylvester refuses to give it up. it's what allowed him to meet Kiryu and experience a taste of a real life. he wouldn't change anything even though he's been through so much pain.

his attachment to his Signer Dragon self is really weird. he doesn't directly remember anything he did, he only knows what others have told him about himself. and while he wishes he could remember, at the same time he's glad he can't. because if he remembered it would change him. he would become someone else. and deep down he doesn't want that, he wants to be who he is now and free himself from all the expectations and preconceptions heaped onto him. and that's the real reason the Dark Signers can't bring him back to his full dragon form.

he can and does talk when he has to, but it's not his preferred method of communicating. his voice is low and rough sounding.

due to being a duel spirit, the process of becoming a Dark Signer produced strange effects on his body. he gained longer, sharper teeth, which he kept even after proper resurrection. notably, he would temporarily grow scales, fins, or even small extra limbs for brief periods of time. they would simply disintegrate, though. despite not needing to eat, he became constantly hungry for raw meat and fish.

after being revived after the Dark Signer arc, he would sometimes experience digestive issues after eating non-meat foods. the issue comes and goes, tending to occur more often in periods of high stress.

if Sylvester's soul were to be removed or partly removed from his body, his eyes would change from orange with a soft glow to blue. the host body has blue eyes, which are overwritten when Sylvester is inside.

On Death:

Sylvester has died three times. Once as a dragon, again as a human, and lastly as a Dark Signer. he's terrified of dying again because he's afraid of being brought back. there's always some god deciding he isn't done.

mostly, though, he fears being separated from Kiryu. he even briefly researches complete fusion at some point, an act that would ensure they can never be apart from each other even in death. ultimately, he decides against this. (this process would combine them into a single consciousness to create an entirely new self, it wouldn't be like a judai and yubel thing)

Care:

he prefers to shower or bathe at least once a day. being dirty just makes the body more unbearable to be in than it already is. he's pretty good about his personal hygiene.

prone to getting depressed if he hasn't been near the ocean in a while. becomes a big problem when he lives permanently in Satisfaction Town. when Sylvester starts getting apathetic and laying around the house, Kiryu knows he should schedule a beach trip soon.

he enjoys physical activity like climbing, running on all fours, etc. he needs enrichment or else he'll get bored.

likes to have small, dark, enclosed spaces to hide. closets are typically best for this.

needs things to chew on

Affection and Intimacy:

after Sylvester and Kiryu become a thing, Sylvester is very physically affectionate toward him at least in private. he's like a cat, rubbing his face on him and laying all over him. a really big cat.

he nibbles too, but he's careful with his fangs.

he reeeally likes to lay on top of Kiryu while Kiryu talks to him and pets him. one of the most effective ways to get him to relax.

Sylvester also likes to show his affection in more practical ways like doing favors and such. care is kind of a big thing for him. he'll brush out Kiryu's hair and help him wash it once it starts getting long. bc good god Kiryu doesn't take care of it and it gets so bad.

doesn't really care for PDA. he's too anxious in public settings to focus on it.

Stuff he likes:

cats!!! he loves cats!!! he likes to collect cat-related objects!!! he's been carrying around an old cat plush he found since he was a kid!!!

speaking of which. he loves plushies. so much. there are so many on the bed.

anything to do with the ocean. fish, birds, water, beaches, anything. he also really loves to eat fish.

there is a part of him that will crave violence always. hey man you can't shove a giant predatory creature into a human body and expect him to not want to do predatory creature things. if someone is an ass to Kiryu he will look at him with sad puppy eyes like Can I Maul Them.

his animals :) besides all the stray cats that hang out he ends up getting some chickens and even a horse. the horse's name is Tempest and he's a black and white paint horse. eventually he gets himself a fish tank too.

DRAGONS

Dueling:

to Sylvester dueling is more like a mechanism for survival than a fun hobby. he learned how to do it in Satellite because it was a way to avoid a physical altercation in some situations. he prefers to win as quickly as possible.

his first deck before he got his current one was composed of dragon cards.

in terms of skill, he's about equal to Kiryu. they've both won and lost duels against each other.

Sylvester's salvaged dragon card slowly heals post Crash Town arc. it appears less decayed visually until fully recovering and gaining a new effect. it is distinctly different from how he looked as a Signer Dragon, combining its design with new elements. it represents Sylvester making peace with himself and his place in the world.

[depraved-perfumer]

unpopular opinion coming up:

every US election period, a bunch of libs come out of the woodwork to tell us that if we don’t vote blue, if we don’t approve of the democratic candidate, then the horrific consequences of republican policies and leadership are on us.

What this is, is basically telling the de facto most powerful voting base in the world that its principles don’t matter, its desires don’t matter, because there are more important things to worry about than the ongoing deterioration of the us' relations with the rest of the world, the massive failures in internal policy, or the ongoing genocide happening with our government's knowledge, collusion and funding.

i would like to remind this crowd that before the biden presidency, we did not have a complete destabilisation of europe's geopolitical landscape with the war in Ukraine. we did not have an openly adversarial relationship with two other superpowers. we did not get weekly articles in our feed regarding nuclear war bunkers and the safest places to live in, in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.

But even so, let’s say you don’t give a shit about the possibility of world war, because of course you don’t, you are American, and for you war is something that happens abroad, and your home is not what is threatened. Our legacy for these past four years is an absolute failure of a pandemic response, an even bigger failure in safekeeping reproductive rights, a total ongoing disaster at the US border, zero progress on gun control, ZERO real progress on environmental protection, an increasingly polarized, illiterate and impoverished society and a complete defeat against inflation. As if those things aren’t enough for me to not want to vote for this candidate, we are, once again, active participants (through our taxpayer dollars) in the genocide and starvation of an entire population by the only active apartheid regime in the world. this is beyond the idea of voting for a “lesser evil”, or a cost-benefit analysis (though to me, anything that avoids nuclear conflict is a benefit at this point). This is about how much your principles can take, as a human being. Mine are exhausted, and cannot go any further in support of these shameless warhawks out of fear for the alternative. They brought out Joe Biden for a second term. With record low approval rates and nothing to offer except lies and promises that he has already proven are AIR, and that his only concern is his weapon manufacturing funders and friends. Obama came out yesterday in a fundraiser and said this:

The kind of callous, imperialistic “realism” that seems so self-evident to Obama and his ilk disgusts me to the core. A president doesn’t have the luxury of making a humane decision, says the guy who used to be the most powerful man in the world, quivering in fear against the genocidal settler government that the US has funded fabulously and with abandon throughout these past months. There are other priorities, you see. What’s a few more thousands of starved and brutalized Arabs? None of us are innocent after all. We’ve been at this for a while. We all benefit from this “security” in the west, don’t we? I feel nothing but shame for my adopted country, and only have respect for those who stand against this obscenity. All that said, I’m done. Bring me a better candidate or wrap it the fuck up.

[historyherstory]

I love your story! What's your take on Speirs' personality and particular brand of leadership? From the scenes he's been in, you write him very well and seem to have a solid grasp on his behavior. (Also it's funny that more often than not Eleanor walks away from her interactions with him feeling nettled or annoyed; he's one of the few we've seen that can genuinely prick her composure.)

oooh, this is a good question. In general, I think one of the things that characterizes my understanding of his nature is that he isn't interested in compromising, he's not interested in "playing nice" (so to speak - if there's a fast way to say something that might step on someone's toes, so be it - consider the toes crushed) as he is in being efficient. He's very task oriented and is notoriously not easy to distract (on D-Day he had the opportunity to synch up with other paratroopers who had gathered and were taking action against German armor and guns, but he remained focused on the goal that they had been given prior to boarding the planes). In my eyes, we have a bit of the Band of Brothers' characterisation as a bit of a nihilist (when he's speaking with Blithe comes to mind) but also, he's never going to ask someone to do something he himself wouldn't do (often resulting in him participating in dangerous activity that wasn't necessarily required of him). This comes up in Holland and I am very excited to be slowly meandering towards that point. He also definitely had his favorites - people who knew him seem divided (some liked, or if not liked, quite respected him. others outright admit they struggled working with him) so I think that probably says a lot about his nature...

He definitely leaves Eleanor with ruffled feathers! She can get one up on Nix because Nix's game is verbal sparring. Speirs doesn't care if she tries to take a pound of flesh with her tongue, as long as she's doing what he wants (often, moving to a position of comparatively more security) she can snark off as much as she pleases and he's not particularly provoked. Her inability to really needle him in that way is leaving her a bit wrong-footed. (She'll find her stride though. While Ron does get to claim the upper hand for now..it doesn't last forever!)

[fantasyinvader]

I was thinking more about the French Connection…not the movie. I feel like each of the three hero routes of Houses exemplifies some part of the ideals of the French Revolution. That the game is saying that these things weren’t bad, but the means the revolution went about trying to establish them (i.e. The Reign of Terror) were. The fact that the revolution’s motto, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, fell into disuse during Napoleon’s reign also seems to be a part of it if Edelgard is supposed to represent him.

Liberty is Silver Snow, where Byleth chooses to fight Edelgard and their title is “Commander of the Resistence Army.” Byleth’s forces are the rebels here, the ones opposing Edelgard’s regime and it’s intent to conquer Fodlan. The fact former Black Eagles students refuse to fall into line with Edelgard, leaving their families behind while the Imperial nobility comes to heel, some of them even fighting against Edelgard during the timeskip, serves to tie them to this ideal. They choose this, just like Byleth does if the player doesn't decide for them.

Azure Moon represents Equality, that everyone is equal under the law. Think about it, we have the people of Duscur being punished because of what TWSITD did for Edelgard, we have Dimitri on the run after being imprisoned and nearly executed after being framed for the death of his uncle, and Edelgard just makes claims about people to justify her actions without any actual evidence to back it up. But not only that, look at Dimitri’s solo ending.

“After his coronation, Dimitri spent his life reforming and ruling justly over Fódlan. He focused particularly on improving living situations for orphans and improving foreign relations. He was known for listening intently to the voices of all, and for instituting a new form of government in which the people were free to be active participants. He lived for his people and alongside them, and was thusly dubbed the Savior King.”

Dimitri makes it so everyone, even the commoners, have a voice in his government through his reforms, not just the people who support him.

Verdant Wind is left with Fraternity. Claude wants to bring people together, so people will stop viewing others as “outsiders.” He’s thinking of this on a global scale, even having Almyra learn trade rather than conquest in order to facilitate this. Not only that though, he comes to realize that Rhea and the Church he originally were against were not the problem. It would be hard for him not to feel a connection to Rhea and her experiences, leading Claude to fight the guy who genocided her entire race.

But if you think about this then, Hopes seems to be each class falling short of their respective ideal. Shez and the Eagles can fight for Edelgard knowing full well she’s seeking conquest and is oppressing the commoners, but they don’t care about liberty as they’re just a merc. There’s no opportunity for them to defect and do what’s right. Dimitri defeats Edelgard and TWSITD, but goes on to punish an Empire that was used by them even after their defeat. Claude becomes his own antithesis, the one who does what Nemesis and his ancestor couldn’t do and in doing so gives multiple countries reason to hate him…but isn’t planning any sort of Zero Requiem. Each route is worse than their Houses counterpart.

And of course, despite all of her honeyed words Edelgard, embodies none of these ideals. Her talk about freeing humanity hides she’s conquering Fodlan to centralize all power on herself. Can’t be equality when she’s the one hurling out accusations that have no basis in the real world, as per word of God the setting was written to support Silver Snow’s story, and only giving power to those she deems fit. And fraternity is out of the question considering, you know, racism and her working to crush anyone who doesn’t agree with her.

This is not to say that each route only has one of these ideals. Ferdinand’s paralogue hints his father is being prosecuted not for the crimes he did commit but by ones he didn’t. Dimitri does improve foreign relations, and fighting against Edelgard is fighting oppression all around. Rather, one stands out more than the others depending on the route despite Silver Snow, Azure Moon and Verdant Wind all leading to a better future.