#i honest to god have no idea how women do this stuff

[limpbizkitmutual]

I need to stop shaving parts of my body just to see what it feels like because I regret it instantly every time. I feel so naked

[deepseawave]

obsessed w the tags on ur last reblog

Omgg, thank you haha, it was a quality post so I just had to appreciate it in full force 😂❤️

Can‘t believe someone would actually enjoy my yapping :,D

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Okay Alder so I thought of this while studying and I must share (and concentrate, dammit). Anyway I started randomly thinking about TOA but with one of the female goddesses, because I feel like it could be a really interesting exploration of feminism and the lack of autonomy for women and stuff, and I was like "Well which goddess would it be?" and then I was like HERA.

Hear me out. So like idk why exactly it happens, maybe Zeus just got fed up with the fights or something, but anyway Hera is forcibly removed from Olympus and stripped of her powers, turned mortal, etc. She meets Meg, who I feel like she would honestly like a lot, despite being a demigod. I can see her trying to teach Meg manners and how to be a lady and Meg just being like "Nope. I must pursue my destiny of being a chaos gremlin." I would still have her at least try Percy's apartment, because while of course he would tell her to fuck off, I think Sally would have some sympathy and I think they could have a really interesting conversation woman-to-woman, especially as survivors of abusive marriages.

I'm going back and forth between Hera being a middle-aged mortal (because I doesn't really matter to her what she looks like), but I think it would also be really interesting if she was a teenager, because teenage girls have far less power than grown women, and it would be really interesting to have her be the same age as many of Zeus' victims.

Anyway thought?

OKAY. SO. THIS IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING I'VE TALKED ABOUT WITH CHRONIC ON DISCORD. A WHILE AGO.

the main difference is that we were discussing how ToA would go if Apollo was joined by Hera in punishment, and by god it was a god-tier idea. spoiler: the moment they figure out what is going on, they immediately turn on the other and blame them XD

CUE THE FORCED STEPMOTHER-STEPSON "THIS IS OUR GET-ALONG ROADTRIP" ACTION!!!!!!

and even in this version, I do agree that this would be a excellent opportunity to really dig into woman's struggles in today's day and age, and even compare/contrast them with the ancient world's! because let's face it, there were pros and cons in both times. tho i'd say we have more pros nowadays, but that ALSO depends on where you live and all that. very complex but also not if you really try :3

BUT. your mention of Hera & Meg bonding REALLY made me excited because Chronic and I have talked about this too! This would be SUUUUCH an interesting dynamic!! Hera could help boost Meg's self-esteem, not only just helping her feel comfortable in her body when she's wearing more "fancy" clothes (because those are the clothes usually forced onto her by Nero, so Hera helping her essentially "reclaim" them for herself can be Female Empowerment whoop whoop!), but also just by gaining more confidence in herself.

On the flip side, I feel like Meg would be a GREAT person to get Hera to "loosen up" per say. You can't convince me Hera was Stone-Cold her whole life. nuh-uh. and you bet I think Meg could draw that old Hera out from that mask.

not to mention that Hera knows Demeter quite well. that would be an very interesting conversation between her and Meg, especially since Hera may be a bit unsure what to say since Meg was left to suffer under the thumb of an abusive emperor for years without her mother ever knowing. I think Hera might struggle with balancing making Demeter look good (perchance this be an opportunity to dig into Hera's toxic idea of "perfect families"? making them look good even when you really shouldn't?) and being honest with Meg. Even though Hera is a crafty goddess, I don't think she'd be very comfortable with straight-up lying about her family- she values that bond far too much.

Chronic and I discussed this AU as if Hera was in a middle-aged mortal body, mostly so we had that aunt-niece bond with Meg, and stepmom-stepson one with Apollo, but also because of our thoughts on "what would Hera consider to be undesirable in a mortal form?", much like how Apollo was horrified to be in a normal teenage boy body. So we thought "wrinkles, probably. don't even need that many, just a few would probably make her freak out." because she is a god, and is def NOT used to normal things like wrinkles lol there were other ideas too i just can't think of them at the moment lol

I can see teenage Hera working for an AU where it's just her and Meg, or even with Apollo still! It would be extremely funny if at some point, Apollo just turns around on Hera and says, deadpan, "Okay, Mom." to a literal sixteen year old.

not. not to mention. how The Burning Maze could go. explore that Juno-Jason relationship/dynamic. Chronic once suggested that Hera could get seriously injured saving Jason, so there's food for thought >:3

also. can you imagine the Triumvirate's panic when they realize they don't just got one ex-god to deal with. they got two now, and it's the fucking Queen of Olympus herself.

boys i'd start running if i were you mwhahahaahah!!

[yuri-is-online]

hi, i'm not the same anon but i would like to hear more about the fyuuture kid au 👉👈 especially about riddle!!

hello new friend, you picked someone who is having a real bad time in this au (ﾟωﾟ；)

I am going to give some general information about Yutu and then move on to some Riddle specific stuff.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, general au explanation can be found here, and the posts can be found on my masterlist under the series section.

General Yutu Facts

"Yutu" is supposed to be a fake name fyuuture kid is using to help hide his identity, but I am open to suggestions on that. Originally he didn't remember his name and Crowley picked it out for him, but I like the idea of "Yuu two" being a nickname he had in both your world and Twisted Wonderland and picked as his alias to honor his parent. Yutu really admires Yuu, he has nothing but empathy for your situation and respect for your strength, and while he certainly fought with you from time to time (some Yutus more than others) he wants to be like you.

That desire was very much cemented when he heard about how you won against the overblot phantoms. Yutu's unique magic changes depending on who his dad is, but all Yutus have extensive experience in combat magic and have fought a lot of monsters. Including overblot phantoms, same as you. His fights didn't go as well though... he's extremely afraid of the Great Seven's phantoms and has regular nightmares about them.

Back to the names... I didn't have names picked out for every version of Yutu, but Riddle does happen to have been one of them. His real name was supposed to be March, yes like the march hare but if I'm honest I was more thinking about the saying "in like a lion out a lamb" because I thought that described Riddle's temper pretty well.

The other ones I picked out I still like are Merrin (I swear I found it on a list of mountain themed names??? But it means sea born or pearl of the sea), Laurie (yes like little women, his unique magic was supposed to something to do with painting), and Roland (I have an unironic love for French peerage ok please do not judge me).

Some of the Yutus were meant to have older siblings who stayed behind in Twisted Wonderland (Riddle! Yutu wasn't one of them), but that was very much an idea I didn't develop extensively since it was more left over from Fire Emblem Awakening. I wanted there to be a Lucina type older sibling character who was very protective of Yutu and wanting a future where he gets to stay in Twisted Wonderland and they get to be a happy family. But again I didn't cook this idea extensively so idk how to feel about keeping it as a part of the ayuu.

Anyway on to the Riddle specific stuff ¬‿¬

So that bit about Yutu's real name coming from a description from Riddle's temper: I like to leave what Yutu looks like up to the reader, but Riddle! Yutu if nothing else took two things from his father, his (lack of) height and his temper. His facial expressions when pouting and angry are eerily similar, and they both have a strong affinity for fire. Riddle! Yutu is a lot like Riddle Tsum now that I think about it? Very high energy and likes to jump around all over the place, but determined to be at least somewhat dignified.

Since traveling back in time Yutu has been "studying" with Grim to try and get his flames hot enough to burn blue to flex on his dad and to bond with the monster. He usually just ends up watching him though, the mental image he had of Grim vs what the little guy is actually like is really wild.

Back to the temper, unlike Riddle Yutu wasn't home schooled so he got into a lot of trouble for losing it on other students. He had a chip on his shoulder about not having a dad, having a parent with amnesia, and especially about being short oh god he is so spiteful about that. He got sent to detention a lot, and shamefully it made him fight with Yuu a lot too. Not that he hates Yuu, he was just very emotional and not always the easiest to deal with. His last few interactions with Yuu before they died were very strained, and he is filled with remorse for a bunch of stupid things he said.

When he gets to the point where he has to admit to Yuu who he is there is going to be a lot of crying and begging for forgiveness. He was a stupid, angry kid who just wanted to know who he was and didn't feel like he belonged lashing out at the one person who he knew wanting nothing but the best for him. He doesn't really feel the need to ask for forgiveness from his dad (yet)... by the time Yutu was isekaid into Twisted Wonderland Riddle had been corrupted by his overblot phantom and was wrecking the Queendom of Roses so he never really met the real Riddle until he traveled back in time.

He also got compared to Riddle a lot, Yutu isn't stupid by any means but because of all that time spent in detention he is a bit behind on the fundamentals. Not to mention all Riddle has done up to this point is practice magic and Yutu only just found out it was real so of course there was going to be a skill gap! But still, he's Riddle's son and Riddle was a very memorable student for Crewel, so Yutu was guaranteed to hear some comparisons. It didn't help the daddy issues though...

Speaking of Yutu's time at NRC, he did get placed into Heartslabyul by the Dark Mirror and he does know all 810 rules of the Queen's rules. He's not as obsessed with them as Riddle is but he still knows what he's supposed to do and tries to be on his best behavior. He was not interested in being dorm leader and wanted to instead focus on the things Yuu always encouraged him to do, like controlling his temper and getting good grades.

I sort of like the idea of his unique magic being the ability to grow/shrink because in the book Rule 42 of the Queen of Hearts says “All persons more than a mile high to leave the court" and I like the idea of him trying to use his spell to get out of arguments with his dad.

Riddle has no idea that Yutu hates him... at first. This is partially because Yutu is usually very polite to him and partially because he is utterly unaware of how much people are afraid of him in general, but he starts to pick up on it when he tries to interact with Yuu. He wants to have a private tea party with just Yuu? Well Yutu immediately starts acting like this is somehow scandalous and calls him out on his feelings in front of the prefect and he wants to lose it so badly- Yuu agrees anyway and Riddle immediately gets unreasonably smug while Yutu pouts. Take that sucker! He's going to study with the prefect all alone and since it's Riddle you know you really are just going to study.

I don't think Riddle really considers Yutu a rival for Yuu's romantic attention, partially because he isn't fully aware of what it is he feels for Yuu, but even if he was. Riddle knows that Yuu sees Yutu as someone under their care similar to Grim, they actually talk to him about it quite a bit and he has no issue with that. He is actually sort of grateful for Yutu's existence since it has given him an excuse to talk to Yuu more and let them know how he respects them.

Yutu's academic struggles are something that actually bring him closer to Riddle ironically enough. Riddle has created study guides for Yuu and Grim before, he has no problem doing that for Yutu and inviting himself over to give instructions.

"Did you not get a lot of help from your parents?" Riddle sounds nervous, and he should it's an invasive question to ask. Yutu wants to be angry, but when he looks at Riddle, he just feels sad. "Not that it is any of my business really but well. I just noticed you never really talk about them, even to Yuu."

"My dad wasn't really around." He forces himself to look at Riddle when he says it, but it doesn't make him feel any better. If anything it makes Yutu feel worse, he knows about as much about Riddle as Riddle knows about him now that he's forced to look at him. "And my other parent... they tried really hard. But I wasn't always willing to accept it."

"I can't say I understand what that would be like." Riddle looks like he is trying to and that should be what he wants, right? "My mother home schooled me so it's hard for me to understand that someone's parents wouldn't be a constant figure in their schooling."

"You were home schooled?"

Yutu didn't know anything about his grandmother, it didn't even really occur to him that he had one and once he learns about her... well it certainly makes things make a lot more sense. He doesn't want to meet her, but he is curious about what she thought about his parent. What would she think about him? Does he even want to know?

My last concrete thought is that Yutu doesn't really get the whole horse girl thing. He is sort of afraid of horses actually, but I can see him maybe wanting to ride with Riddle once their relationship gets a bit better just to do something with him.

I like the idea of Riddle! Yutu being very into baseball for some reason and there's no way he's going to convince his dad to do that with him ha. Well not in this timeline anyway, I can see good timeline Riddle doing a bunch of research on baseball so he can talk to his kid about it. And showing up to all his matches to scream in support of his kid instead of at the coaches. He is breaking the cycle we love to see it.

[darklink82]

Netflix Devil May Cry review

I've taken a break from the overall discourse and replayed Devil May Cry 3 to get the bad taste out of my mouth and I've come to a realization, there are aspects of this show that could have been used to make a great Devil May Cry story...for Nero.

(Breathes in)

The Terrible Shit.

God there is so much stuff in this show that was flatly terrible to include from the outset and I'm gonna need to clear that out from discussion to move forward so...here goes.

The deliberate and blatant allegories for the Iraq War and immigration were terrible ideas and it's pretty clear that they were written by someone who was trying to be "neutral" on immigration and superficially against the Iraq War...let me explain

Immigration

The show presents the idea that many of the demons in the demon world are weak humanoids who can barely breathe the air there due to "pollution" of some kind. It also posits that all demons are descended from humans who were trapped in the demon world thousands of years ago so they are practically just cute monster people being oppressed by Mundus and the ugly and monstrous demons who are also seemingly also descended from humans too...I guess. Anyway, to get into the allegory issues, this presents an explicit scenario where some pitiable "demons" try to escape into earth for a better life and some monstrous "demons" try to sneak into earth, seemingly just to kill and maim people...I can't be the only one here who sees how fucked this is as an allegory right. To top it all off there is a scene where the barrier between the human world and the demon world is taken down and it results in a near apocalyptic massacre, which would be fine in a story that just about fighting demons but this is also a story where demons are mutants trying to escape to a better life so the allegory also becomes "open borders will result in white genocide". It's a bad allegory done badly and I couldn't stop thinking about how bad it is. ONTO THE NEXT TERRIBLE ALLEGORY

Operation Iraqi Demonic Makaian Freedom

So beyond the terrible immigration allegory they also threw in some War on Terror comparisons too....yippee. It is never subtle about this, the first episode has the president of the United States get briefed on Terrorist Demons while he complains that the last guy only had to complain about Saddam, There is a scene where the US military engages in mass murder of innocent demonic men, women, and children with machine guns and portable crematoriums, and it ends with the US military invading the demon world, killing everyone indiscriminately, and establishing private resource mining operations to the tune of American Idiot by Green Day.... and I have to be honest, it feels like all of that was justify having a scene where the US military does atrocities to the tune of American Idiot rather than to make any kind of coherent statement about anything. U.S. Military Bad may be a correct statement but what does any of this have to do with Devil May Cry?

The Bad Shit.

Dante feels like a MacGuffin in this story. He does get some of the better fight scenes but he is also constantly getting knocked out and tied up somewhere 4 times in this 8 episode season. This leaves him separated from the rest of the plot and he mostly just has cool action scenes, but little character development or connections to the themes that the story is (poorly) exploring. I also hate to sound like one of the usual suspects but he shows Quicksilver level speed early on in the story but Lady keeps being able to get the drop on him over and over and over to the point that it's just stupid.

The White Rabbit is a fun and well acted villain who is genuinely unique as far as Devil May Cry antagonists go...until he is revealed to be a human with the most bog standard "I am an ally/member of [DISCRIMINATED GROUP] but I was victimized and driven insane by the actions of [DISCRIMINATING GROUP] so now I will kill them all no matter how many [DISCRIMINATED GROUP] I have to kill along the way" type villains. He even gets a massive power boost and becomes a generic hulk monster. There was so much potential with him but he just ends up boring and standard.

They turned Lady into an IDF Soldier...I don't want her to get a redemption arc, I want Dante to knock her out and leave her in a crematorium truck for the rest of the next season.

Changing all the magic into "quantum physics" is boring as all hell. And it isn't even humans trying to use science to explain demonic magic, the demons explicitly say it's quantum physics as well. The games always had some magitek around but it was never explained and mostly just added to the mystique of the locations, making it explicit science ruins that. It's also just boring on its own, makes everything feel less special.

The CGI demons were distracting, they contrasted way too much from the admittedly excellent 2D animation for me to stop noticing it.

I personally found the decision to make all the "innocent" demons into humans with weird bits and all the "evil" demons into monstrous creatures offensive and cowardly for what should be obvious reasons. The only "monstrous" demon that has redeeming qualities is the one that can shape shift into a human.

They overstuff the ending of the season in such a way that I can't see a good and coherent season 2 that can juggle ALL of the plot threads that they create at the last minute. We have:

The US military invading Hell and doing war crimes

Arius and the Oroborous company strip mining hell, likely connecting to Lucia's (whitewashed) cameo in episode one

Vergil either working for Mundus willingly or being brainwashed and creating demonic ISIS

Dante needing to escape DARKCOM's custody and acquire Ebony and Ivory

Lady's redemption arc

Dante and Vergil's rivalry

It's just gonna be a mess.

Nitpicks and fan rage

The demons get offended when their homeworld is called hell or the demon world. Instead they call it Makai....which is Japanese for Demon World. That's just lazy.

Agni & Rudra are objectively worse than they are in the games, being just generic dumb monsters wielding swords rather than being cordial sentient swords wielding bodies.

I don't mind cursing but holy shit does Lady curse too much in this show, to a very distracting degree.

If Dante ever gets serious in this show then I only hear Nero. Sorry, Johnny Yong Bosch is just too iconic for me not to hear it.

Vergil says that he is the storm and then he approaches all over them.....we get that Bury the Light is a fucking magnificent theme but that was fucking ridiculous.

The licensed soundtrack was honestly distracting at times but that's gonna be hot or miss for people.

The Good Shit

The IDEA of there being a larger number of good or benign demons in the demon world is actually an interesting one, and the idea that many would want to go to earth so that they could escape the oppression that they experience in the demon world is something worthy of exploring in Devil May Cry. I can even see an argument that Sparda sealing off the realms did effectively prevent many demons from "waking up to justice" the same way he did. There is even plenty of support for benign and friendly demons in the games and 2007 anime. Cerberus, Agni & Rudri, and arguably Nevan from Devil May Cry 3 are fairly cordial and honorable, they just oppose Dante because it's their duty and willingly join up with him after they are defeated. Brad from the 2007 Anime was summoned to bring his monstrous master into the world but changed his ways after experiencing both love for another as well as the joy and freedom of life on earth. Modeus was a student of Sparda who chose to become a pacifist, seemingly having been on earth long enough to gain preferences about strawberry sundaes. And then there are Trish and Lucia, one only needing a single act of kindness from Dante to completely turn on Mundus and the other being a full demon raised by humans. My main issue with the way the show handled is that it reeks of cowardice and "shitty magneto writing"

The 2D animation is genuinely great giving us fun visuals and great action scenes.

The first few episodes had a lot of fun and energy to them but the severe vibe changes in Episode 5 are gonna make or break the series for a lot of people.

Episode 6 was honestly pretty good even though it felt somewhat out of place in the story, serving primarily to compare and contrast Lady and the White Rabbit's back stories until they finally collide in tragedy. Its biggest drawbacks are that it doesn't feel like a proper part of the show while also being the primary source that confirms that Lady is indeed party to war crimes. They started gunning down civilians before the portal even opened.

Theoretical alternative show that would have fucking rocked

If you already have Johnny Yong Bosch you should at least look into having him play the character he already plays and Nero would have actually been a really good character for some of this plot...as long as they got rid of the overt Americanization of the story.

Nero is a part demon orphan who was raised by a loving, human, foster family who lost his foster parents to a demon attack. This and other demon related tragedies eventually result in him embracing his demonic side so that he can use that power to protect his family and others. During the events of Devil May Cry 4 he learns that the local Sparda worshiping cult has been transforming humans into demonic hybrids and that he is related to Sparda by blood somehow. After taking down the corrupt church and accepting his demonic power he settles down as a demon hunter and eventually becomes a foster father to a group of children who were orphaned during the events of Devil May Cry 4.

The White Rabbit is a human orphan who was rejected by his human foster family before finding his way into the demon world before being adopted a kind family of weaker demons. The loss of his adopted sister to the cruelty and harshness of the demon realm inspires him to find a way to bring his foster family and other weaker demons to the human realm where they can be safe. However, an organized group of human demon hunters slaughter everyone he was trying to save, leading him to inject himself with demon blood and make an alliance with demon lords for revenge against them, regardless of how many of those he once tried to save will die in the process.

The parallels are RIGHT FUCKING THERE Come On.

By primarily replacing Lady and Dante with Nero you could focus the story on a single person's journey and reactions to everything going on, especially if you are going to stick to an 8 episode format. Instead of retreading DMC 3 they could create a more original story and show how Nero resolves problems without Dante or Vergil around. (you can also have him stop the mass murder in episode 5 cause that was gratuitous and just...not something I wanted to see in a Devil May cry show)

Anyway, way too long rant over. Have fun.

[suncchaser]

its because jegulus shippers actually talk about the deep seated issues of the books, While people who hate jegulus typically act like jk rolling did a good job at writing a bigotry allegory. Like that women is a legit nazi, you think she would be able to write an anti bigotry allegory? Like she had a happy slave troupe. and with Remus, she pushed the "Gay men are giving Aids to little boys" idea. And I never see you actual talk about that stuff. All You ever talk about is " how can y'all erase lily like this" and "You are actual terrible if you try to re write regulus because jk did such a good job at writing a fascist and bigotry allegory boo hoo." honest to god it gives very white women. And my biggest issue with you is that you have told people to go actual read the texts. As if the texts are not full of her bigotry ideas baked into that world.

at least with jegulus shippers they are like "Yeah no her shit sucks, don't go read that."

I am cackling at this whole ask. You cannot be serious…

First things first, when did Jegulus shippers EVER discuss the deep seated issues with the books? To discuss the deep seated issues with the books (and there is many), you need to have read them first which… 90% of your fandom, that became fans through fanfiction, has never done. So, let’s not use that argument.

Secondly, like I have actually said before, the books do indeed have many issues BUT the way Death Eaters were portrayed is not one of those issues. The Death Eaters as a concept is simple, straightforward and there isn’t much to dissect there. There were pure-blood supremacists. It’s so simple. YOU want it to be deeper and problematic because you want to give wittle Reggie boo a redemption arc.

Also, and I am being very blunt when I say this, your side of the fandom routinely weaponises JKR’s vile behaviour to justify their collective delusion and it’s very fucking weird. And it’s very weird that you act like fans who give a fuck about canon are JKR apologists when these are people that have been in the fandom for DECADES and who have been more openly critical about JK’s bigotry and hateful behaviour rather than only mentioning to distance themselves from outside criticism or to justify their shallow, idiotic interpretations of characters like you people do. SIT DOWN.

Also, if it sucks so much, why are you in a fandom dedicated to her characters, her world building? That’s the hypocrisy I always talk about…

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Noticed something about zutarians: for people who claim to be "THE femist ship" they spend too much time praising Zuko for doing chores, being empathetic, supporting women and other stuff he didn't really do in canon all that much.

Like, feminists would consider these a basic level that any normal person, man or woman, should do for their own's sake without any praise. Oohing and aahing "look, he spends time with his own child!", "oh, you washed the dishes, my hero!", "where would I have been if you didn't do the laundry, my knight in shining armor, you really are a savior!" is... very sexist, actually! And zutarians do just that. It’s not enough for them to write him doing chores, they have to emphasize this, compare him to Aang/Sokka/anyone else who of course doesn’t do chores (because no one except Katara and Zuko ever does anything chorelike in these fics it seems), or just outright praise him for that.

Of course, zutara never was a feminist ship, so my observation doesn't add anything new. I understand that zutara kinda fits "female gaze" or whatever, though, it's a women's dream about a perfect partner, which is totally fine by itself – it just has nothing to do with Zuko (and, dare I say, Katara – I doubt she would be so ecstatic about a guy doing "women's chores", she is used to dividing the work around camp and takes it for granted). And that's why I cannot read even relatively harmless zutara fluff – it very often is very focused on this exact subject. I like Zuko for who he is and the truth is 1) he's flawed even after his redemption and 2) a huge part of how he sees himself is his prince title. Nothing of it matches zutara fantasy of a male housewife, so they have a whole other character named Zuko to fit into their imagination land, and I just have no interest in that.

I'm still impressed by that one fic (not in English) where Fantara was 100% sure that Fanfic-Firelord-Zuko will never ever "force any hapless woman" to take care of his newborn daughter (as opposed to her awful, awful husband, Fanfic-Aang who can't even feed his son, who's still eating only breast milk, for several days while Fantara decided to be away). Sure, girl, he's a fucking ruler, he has a whole country to think about, tons of very important shit to do every single day, a full palace of servants, of course he will always personally change diapers, no doubt. I bet he'll even do all the breastfeeding by himself, since his wife died at childbirth and forcing other women is out of the question.

I'm bitter now, and maybe taking it too far but what if – just "what if" – there are very few people who actually ship Katara and Zuko? Because it seems that most content creators in zutara fandom actually ship their two OCs who are very loosely based on these two characters (but don't I dare tell it to their faces, haha, they are under impression that their image of Zuko and Katara is somehow the only correct one).

Just one little disagreement: Zutara doesn't fit the Female Gaze because there's no such thing in the first place. There's not a single trope, way to direct a scene, or romance formula that universally appeals to women, and the same thing can appeal to different women for radically different reasons.

"Male Gaze" and "Female Gaze" were supposed to be a way to point out sexism (and sometimes straight up abuse) in film-making, but it honest God became some bullshit gender-essentialism nonsense REALLY fast. We gotta let that "That is for boys, this is for girls" mentality die.

Aang does chores with Katara. That is completely irrelevant to me shipping Kataang. Aang is not sexist. That doesn't even reach my top 50 reasons to love him as a character. Aang does a lot of things that don't match the idea I was raised to have of a "manly man" and I could not give less of fuck about it. It doesn't bother me, but doesn't particularly appeal to me either.

But for lots of people that is HUGE and some of the main reasons why they love his character and his romance with Katara. And notice I said people, not women.

I like plenty of enemies-to-lovers ships - I don't relate to a single meta/analysis I've ever seen of "Why women like bad boys/enemies to lovers/redeemed villains so much." It all rang hollow to me. But to plenty of women it hits the nail right on the head.

Hell, 50 Shades of Grey is a "romance/erotica" full of accidental misogyny, abuse-apologism, and slut-shaming yet the fanbase is 90% women from all kinds of demographics, and the main thing they praise about these goddamn books/movies is that it did NOT make them feel like they should be ashamed of wanting to have kinky sex with a hot guy.

The Female Gaze isn't real.

[nerdragenewvegas]

Thinking a lot today about how despite my insane thirst for Joshua Graham, looking at him logically for 35 seconds made me realise that my years in the Mormon church were effectively years in a cult and how projection seems to change how people experience Honest Hearts a lot.

Like there's a huge subsect of people who credit the character with reconnecting them with their faith and I mean hey if that's a positive life change for you that gives you grounding, cool. But I really struggle to kind of understand that perspective of in to be honest because the point of the arc (at least to me) is that Joshua was using faith to project his own feelings and traumas and bias in a way that allowed him to somewhat avoid blame or responsibility in the event he learns he's wrong - he even admits this much depending on your ending.

First time around he did this with the Legion taking that place of a "higher power" once he was out on his own and seperated from the accountability that the other New Canaanites gave him, and when we meet him, he's doing the same thing with his Faith. And believe me when I tell you that scapegoating like this is so common in Mormonism that it's actually hard to clock once you've been in for a while, and Joshua is so good at romanticising what he's doing that we spend a lot of the DLC willing to believe him until he's about to actually do a genocide for real and we realise what's happening here.

This happens a lot in Mormonism with things like LGBTQ+ and gender stuff, where nice things like the Plan of Salvation (which can genuinely be quite reassuing and warm in a spiritual sense) are co-opted to justify homophobia and transphobia and misogyny. "I, personally, don't have an issue with trans people at all! But the plan of salvation is so clear about our bodies and how we need to respect gods choices in our design!" - despite the Plan of Salvation saying nothing about gender identity or expression and honestly kind of validating the idea that transitioning etc is also part of gods plan for some people. "I love lots of gay people and so does the church, but the word of God is clear that temple marriage is for men and women only." That kind of thing. "The whitelegs are gods children, too, but the bible is clear about how we handle those who would seek to harm this Zion we've built! I don't enjoy murder, but it's what God wants, it's a chore."

Realising this and then looking at times in my life where I saw this happen in the Mormon Church is what took me from "gently deconstructing and still believing some of it" to "I was brainwashed and in a fucking cult." So i always kind of struggle to see how anyone can get "I should seek God again" from this, but at the same time? I think that's the best part about Honest Hearts and a lot of Fallout NV in general: it forces you to learn not about yourself than anything else in the actual game. It's such a wonderful game when it comes to getting players to self reflect - maybe this is why it's so known for being the "omg I'm trans now" game.

What a special fucking game, huh?

[my-pjo-stuff]

Given the opportunity to write Luke's redemption arc, how would you do it?

Frankly said, I wouldn't.

I, in my honest opinion, think that Luke's type of character in a story is someone that should not get a "redemption" arc in the classical sense. And that getting one actually hurts them in their narrative.

Now, hear me out. At this point, I think we all know for a fact how horrid the gods and CHB are. Genuienly that's an unsalvagable system in its current form. Luke as a character directly goes against it, his whole personality and identity within the PJO story is quite literally built upon these two simple facts.

My issue with him getting a redemption arc in the classical sense (and also how it happened in the books) is the fact that it fundamentally damages these core parts of his characters. Due to the fact that our heroes- and this the good side- are on the side that fights FOR this inherently harmful system means that Luke would have to switch to them (aka, The Good Side") for his redemption arc. And even if you do what the books did- aka, "This side may suck but the other is worse" it would still mean that Luke somewhat embraces the Gods' as the lesser evil. Which frankly said, just isn't in-character for him if you ask me.

The reason why I personally enjoy Luke and the TA so much is because at the core, they are surprisingly realistic. This may sound hard- but revolutions and overthrows of unjust and evil systems are always incredibly bloody. And you will always see some degree of atrocity from both sides. I mean...we have accounts of lynch mobs of innocent women and children in the French Revolution which is the most famous revolution in the Western world and generally seen as good and justified. The American War of Independence was equally as justified and also saw a lot of dead English ppl. WW2 in my opinion is one of the few wars where there was a clear good guy side, and yk what the Allies did? Killed a few millions of innocent German women, children and old people in their mass bombings. And I am not even getting into the atom bombs debacle.

Now, am I saying those things are somehow justified because they were done by the good guys? No. Hell no. Those are crimes and should be treated and recognized as such. But that doesn't mean that the Good Guys in that conflict suddenly aren't good anymore. The reason I brought this example up is because I want to explain that in these sorts of fights, fucked up shit is just bound to happen no matter what you do.

Luke definitely did bad stuff, and he no doubt is the antagonist of the books, but his ways were still ultimately understandable and also..well, realistic. He wasn't a villain who went around killing for fun, he was a military general in a war where he was on the backfoot for most the time. And as such he employed what he could and sacrificed if he had to.

That's why I think giving him a "redemption" arc like the books did was a bad idea, as it takes this inherent moral greyness and realism present in him and turns it into the classical villain that needs to be redeemed.

But to get back to your question- if I had to write Luke's arc for the books, instead of a redemption arc I would lean into this aspect. A lot of the OG PJO books are really just formulaic road trips while fighting monsters for the gang, so if I could I would cut some of the monster encounters Percy and co. have to instead give it to Luke and his side. To actually explore what it means to live under a harmful system, and the way it affects people.

That way we could teach kids that there isn't always a "right" or "wrong". We could even turn it into bit of a cautionary tale- that people can be brought to their extremes by these systems. And that's just another reason to avoid them. Yes, it's a middle school book series- but middle schoolers aren't dumb. And they deserve good books and arcs too.

Kronos, for all that's worth, could be shown to be the type of person who takes advantage of these kinds of revolutions for his own gains. Instead of Luke, I'd make Kronos the primary villain of PJO while he remains the primary antagonist. (Antagonist doesn't equal evil after all).

The end of TLO would remain the relative same, but Luke would come in to overcome Kronos. Not due to realizing he did smth wrong or due to main emotional appeal. But due to recognizing that Kronos himself has become a threat to the ideal Luke fights for and having decided to put an end to it. The fight would then be given over to Percy, who sets out for actual changes in negotiations with the gods he managed to enter due to the leverage Luke managed to get them. And with changes I don't mean the half-assed promise we got in canon instantly broken in TLH, I mean actual change.

Luke would not have a redemption arc due to constantly having been shown as someone who isn't evil, thus not needing any sort of "redemption". The TA and him still would have been the main antagonists, but the story would have shown them as morally grey and complex instead of just "villains with no or a cursory sad backstory." And Percy alongside the other MCs still would have had their victory by actually achieving good changes. While also getting more depth, as they would have come to the slow understanding over the course of the story instead of all that just stuffed into TLO.

[ace-turned-confused]

doing some pondering about self acceptance on this sunny autumn day.

you don’t realise how harsh it is to grow up as the fat kid until you’re no longer a kid. combine this with undiagnosed autism and it’s kinda detrimental.

having to buy clothes in the women’s section at age 12 because nothing “child size” fits. not being athletic in the slightest and being so grossly aware that everyone else can run, jump and swim, faster, better and easier than you. opting to change in a toilet stall rather than the open section of the school bathroom because everyone else is skinny and discussing their first training bra and how wide their thigh gap is.

never feeling girly enough to enjoy girly things because that stuff is for the skinny and dainty and cutesy, not those of us who had our first stretch marks before our first periods. so i never cared about my hair, my skin, doing my nails or makeup. never publicly got into fashion or boys or anything else that’s stereotypically girly, because none of that was created for bigger builds anyway.

the high school i went to had no uniform, and i used to sweat my ass off in summer because i was too ashamed to wear a dress. i had a button up shirt phase for a couple of winters because that’s the only thing that would fit and keep me warm. i never even shared anything about my own hobbies to my own family, because god forbid i be perceived like that.

it took me until last year, age 22, to finally accept myself and slowly start to embrace myself, and it’s a combination of things, really, that’s lead to this. my frontal lobe is nearly fully developed, i’m growing up and mentally maturing, i’m learning how to live life and enjoy things for myself. i’m discovering what it’s like to enjoy all those things i never gave myself access to.

i ask my hair dresser for advice about my natural curls and leave my hair down more that tying it up. i’m trying to avoid biting my nails to let them grow out so i can ask a friend to help me paint them. i have lite facials done within my autistic limits. i enjoy clothes shopping more now, because i’m not telling myself “only skinny people can wear that”. if someone compliments what i’m wearing, i don’t automatically assume it’s fake.

i get excited about new ideas i have for sewing projects, because i can make the same clothes as in shops, but better quality and for my size. i can be imaginative and design something flattering and stylish, rather than oversized florals and 2010 animal print and motivational quotes.

i still have, and might always have, a lot of anxiety around wearing new and different clothes to my standard pants and tshirt, but i’m finding ways to overcome this. i don’t ask my mother for her outdated opinion and i go out on the town with friends where nobody actually gives a fuck how you look.

i might never wear makeup because i find it too overstimulating, but i feel like one day i could try.

i read romance novels and write mostly porn because it’s fun and it’s freeing and it teaches you so much about yourself. i talk loudly and publicly about sex and kink with my best friend because we’re honest with each other and never yuck each other’s yum. i’m not appalled or frightened at the idea of going on a date or finding a partner, because turns out i actually do hope for love and connection and intimacy.

i no longer tell myself “i’m not creative enough”. nobody else is going to create the things i want, so i may as well do it myself.

[wooziorgans]

About hoshi: this is such a spat on your face when you realize that women in korea are still fighting tooth and nail for their rights. and yet these men actively choosing to collab happened. And i know hybe has lots of power, but at this point of their career svt must have a lot to say about what they do too, they always worked on their stuff from scratch, are rich af, so don't say that hybe forced them... After today, as a women, with friends from Palestine i unstanned hoshi

if I remember from nana tour,,,, I think seungkwan said something about “svt doesn’t have to work on something if they don’t want to”,,? So I am hoping that this decision was made to collab with djk before anyone was aware of anything,,, and by the time they realized it was too late to pull out of the collab.

because im gonna be totally honest, i have no idea how the kpop industry works from the inside but i know how the American music industry works and pulling out of a collab is a MASSIVE no. with djks history of being super shady towards ppl he’s collaborated with,,,, it’s super risky to pull out Now when the album is so close to release.

I understand that it’s realistically,,, not an option. they could just redo the title track without him, sure, but it’s a very risky move to make. And im sure royalties have already been paid to djk so,,, that’s another very very complicated thing that has to be dealt with.

im just,,, super fucking disappointed in hoshi. there was absolutely no need for him to double down on the collab when (with how chronically online a few members are,,,, some of them have to have seen) carats are so against it. they Must know. but again,,,,, kpop industry level censorship is god awful for any idol to speak up about a situation like this. if they can’t actively speak up about anything (gay rights, Palestine, women’s rights) they’re definitely not allowed to bash someone they collaborate with.

but this was a conscious decision both svt and hybe made so im,,,, idk. i think i sometimes live in a little bubble of ignorance about specific women’s rights issues because ive been living as a man for most of my life. so i don’t really understand the gravity of how bad things are,,, especially in Korea,, but i cannot imagine having a sister and a mother (like hoshi) and doubling down on a collab with someone who actively hates women the way djk does. the more i think about it,,, the more horrific it is.

as much as I would hope for svt to say something,,, anything,,, i know they can’t without god awful repercussions on the group. and they most likely won’t explicitly say anything. but they absolutely do not need to over promote this collab.

the most i expect from them is to say silent on it. that’s really all we can expect because of how things are in the music industry. this would be an industry wide blow to woozis career as a producer if he said anything,,, especially against someone as big as djk,,, whether djk is a good person or not. realistically,,, it would completely sabotage svts chances of collaborating with anyone in the western music industry and it would almost entirely ruin their credibility.

the more i think about this,,, especially as someone who knows how things work in depth in the American music industry,,, the more complicated it gets.

but there is absolutely no excuse for hoshi doubling down on the collab. that’s absolutely horrific.

[offbeat-manga-ships]

this is a weird sort of thing to say but i am like. so deeply appreciative your blog isn't mostly m/m stuff. bc like you i don't have a lot of interest in m/m (for me though this is mostly because i love women So Much my brain sort of shuts off if the story doesn't have women in it, i basically never enjoy a story that lacks women) and a lot of other blogs or accounts i've seen of this time tend to skew heavily with yaoi works bc. well a lot more yaoi works get the "freedom" to be "grosser", messier, less saccharine bc people are a lot more cagey about what girls get to do in fiction across the board..... i really really am so grateful you've got so many recommendations for series that are more to my taste in general and tend to feature a lot of messy and interesting women! not to say that's like Why You Do It, but it's a really refreshing thing since almost every time I go to hunt something fucky down it's m/m. the sheer volume of m/m overwhelms other series but you're bringing those ones into view and i've found a lot of really interesting series thanks to how you run things around here so thank you so much......

ANON!!!! IT'S A SUCH A PLEASURE TO RECEIVE A MESSAGE LIKE THIS!!! because i don't know if you guys know, and to be honest i don't remember if i deleted that part to make it easier to read or not, but i'm pretty sure that in the first iterations of my pinned post i went a little bit into why M/M is not my thing. i am exactly in the same boat of having ALWAYS been more into female characters than everyone around me. my mother has always teased me for it, my friends have always had varying degrees of "huh that's curious" to "weeell i don't care. how about that male character instead?" i was the person defending sansa stark and loving cersei lannister. i was lowkey in love with sharpay while pretending i didn't care about her, my favorite character from percy jackson was and still is annabeth chase, i loved sakura haruno and rukia kuchiki the most, i fucking HATED when anyone said anything bad about leia organa in star wars and it just became a pattern throughout my life that i would come to fiercly love female characters.

i mentioned before how i started watching shoujo when i got the 12 yo version of Being Serious about anime, but i also need to give credit to getting female friends in middle school and even more in high school with whom i talked about romance manga (some also real BL enthusiasts, but they still read some of what i read. honestly, i think it always came a surprise to them how much i liked some stuff the anime fans in general tended to turn their nose up to). 

and i literally won't ever forget when my friend gabrielle showed me the pride and prejudice movie in 9th grade i think and i honest to god had no idea i could love something so overtly aimed at women that much. like, sure i've been casually watching cartoons aimed at girls (if you didn't have cable tv, you watched the cartoons open tv made available to you in the saturday mornings. and yeah i watched and enjoyed totally spies and powerpuff girls and thought kim possible was really cool, but my bread and butter was still ben 10, naruto, jake long, static shock etc. it wasn't just me in the house though. every relative i had at that point from mom to aunties to grandma and cousins: all of them women. we had plenty of girl movies and all of us got together to watch melodramatic soap operas in the evening).

but anyway my point is that i really opened up my personal media consumption after feeling such love for this "chick lit" movie (which of course is actually a great and important piece of western literature which became one of my favorite books not only because i'm still in love with lizzy bennet to this day but also because it's so SO DAMN FUNNY. i laugh out every time i re-read it.) i started watching romantic comedies, i watched series like pretty little liars and whatever seemed to have a bunch of girls in the cover lol and yes, i started reading even more romance manga. even with my 12 yo shoujo watching, i still wasn't fully into those shows. i really liked some of the protagonists (much love to misaki ayuzawa, nanami momozono, haruhi fujioka and risa koizumi but i also could not be fully into whatever was transpiring between such cool girls and those guys LOL). but it was because of the influence of my girl friends and exchanging ideas about what manga to read that i fully found my place in smaller niche romance manga with odd couples and interesting women. 

and it's not like i'm not capable of enjoying media with a lot of guys in it, so i'm a little bit different from you in that regard. i have plenty of favorite male characters and one of my favorite movies ever is master and commander: the far side of the world and that has not a single woman in sight except in one picture and one 5 second shot 💀 obviously, it's not my only favorite movie (they're mostly dominated by women too). as a bi person, of course some men catch my eye once in a while and it's true that sometimes (though it's rare) it's a m/m couple that gets my main attention in a random piece of media. and that's because i'm not like a person with any agenda. i'm fully and wholeheartedly following my instincts (basically a somewhat lighter version of you. my brain also kinda shuts off when it's all the same old Men At The Forefront business and i have to work towards trying to care lol) and it just so happens that i think girls are fucking cool. i don't know if i've said that already, but the main reason i decided to stick with tumblr even though i didn't initially get the appeal of it was because i could find a lot of lesbians here LOL and true, some of them were fujoshi but a lot of them honest to god liked female characters and saw their appeal as i saw them.

and just to wrap this up, i want to clarify that me clearly having an involuntary preference for female characters was not one of the reasons i laid down on that other post when i said why i wasn't as drawn to m/m but it was basically just because i was trying to list reasons that had to do with what m/m had to offer me and not just what it lacks. i sincerely try to approach any story with an open mind and an open heart and i have done that many times even though i realized soon enough that seeing those trope-filled romantic scenarios between manga boys is just really not for me. if you're curious about the type of m/m i like, it's basically the unexpected kind in random non-lgbt media with (probably) tortured men in it and a severe lack of women and it always has been. which is why going after specific m/m media doesn't appeal to me as much (though i can still enjoy it. i really really loved watching the interview with the vampire show for example and even though i didn't like louis/lestat — as i hadn't liked then watching the movie years ago —, i still loved the characters and enjoy a few other m/m pair possibilities).

i'm sorry i went on this whole thing with this many words, but i just want to say, not only do i see you anon, i am you!!! if this blog is for anyone, you are at around the top of the list of people i wished to reach and knowing i could help and connect with someone else who feels the same way i do is such a warm and priceless gift. i understand your frustrations of female characters being more limited very well. not only because i love them, but i abhor any injustice since i was 3 apples tall and that has bothered me since the first signs of the development of my critical thinking skills. but ultimately i also can't help but love manga and i want to find the gems and celebrate varied, complex, weird or even toxic female characters and their messy relationships as much as i can.

[enthusedbambi-jjba-au]

monster au fun facts (OOC)

diavolo keeps having to try to prevent doppio from summoning any more demons

Thanks to the monster hunter's guild, italy doesn't really have prominent lycanthrope packs.

I'm sure someone could figure out how to make a drug out of moondust and im sure it's very likely to fucking kill you

ghiaccio is mildly allergic to himself, at least according to melone

squalo can't swim in his land form

tiziano makes accessories out of his own moulted and preened feathers. this is actually a sphinx tradition!

melone never met his father but was raised with constant reminder that whoever he was, he was pretty horrible, and growing up in that 'shadow' made him swear to himself he'd never turn out like his father. this is why melone acts sort of 'fatherly' towards babyface and often avoids actually even touching most women

i dont know if pesci actually knows hes undead assuming we go with idea 2 about him. he does kinda black out every full moon but nobody including himself addresses this. he knows well and good that prosciutto is undead but he assumes he himself is a normal human and that the Necromancy Doses that prosciutto uses for their form upkeep is just a Magic thing he doesn't Understand

Prosciutto literally has no beef with illuso illuso just keeps calling him a fucking bitch for having the nerve to zombify himself when illuso didn't really have a choice in becoming a ghost

illuso appears if you say his name 3 times in a mirror but says he does this by choice.

melone is immediately drawn to the sound of his own name (as in 'melone', not his real name) but conversely implies this is involuntary

my two ideas with cioccolata (hang on give me a few seconds for the rage to pass) and secco were 1. cioccolata is his own frankensteinian creation and experiments with other cryptians, secco is a werewolf and 2. suggested by others, secco is the frankensteinian creation but honest to god he still gives me werewolf vibes.

Ghiaccio always curls up to sleep and everyone who has seen him do this wonders about his spinal health

i cant tell whats the funniest way to go with gelato and sorbet: 1. Gelato is human, Sorbet is nonhuman (perhaps was once human). Gelato is insane and just a monsterfucker because of course he is. 2. sorbet is a human, gelato is a fucked up monster thing. unfortunately, sorbet is into that. 3. werewolf vampire romance. 4. gelato is a demon yet his stand is still angeleyes and sorbet still calls him angelface. 5. gelato is a turned being of some kind and sorbet is the one who turned him and gelato voluntarily let him do this because he thought it was hot

i had a thought that Limbo (my OC) could work at libeccios as like. a waitress and thats why (other than her being with narancia) she's super close with the bucci gang

squalo knows nothing of capitalism and relies completely upon tiziano

babyface glitches when going up against giorno

Fugo might have magical lineage, but it's been surpressed

Pesci knows a lot about the other members of la squadra due to Beach Boy's ability; in the monster au, rather than just hooking hearts and stuff, Beach Boy also just goes right for the soul and hooks the aura. unlike mista pesci knows well and good that hes surrounded by nonhumans but like what do you want him to do about it

animals are pretty much naturally alarmed by Formaggio's presence. ghiaccio tends to fluff up when Formaggio is too close to him.

prosciutto's eyes don't follow movement but he can still see

gelato is afraid of seagulls, chickens and most fowlbirds. this isnt monster au specific i dont know why but i imagine gelato is STUPIDLY fearless but when a seagull comes after his sandwich or a bird starts strutting towards him a little too fast he starts screaming and grabs a knife

regardless of what he is, gelato bites without warning whenever he gets the impulse

Narancia isn't too careful with hiding his formshifting from Mista but as long as he doesn't take a lupine form mista just assumes narancias weird like that

The bucci gang 'have' a 'cat' that's named narancia. it's actually just narancia in a cat form that he takes when he wants to seek physical affection or just be a weirdo, but mista doesn't know that

squalo knows how to write but can't spell or read. so he doesnt actually know how to write he just knows how to copy the letters.

narancia WILL tear up the couch if you leave him alone too long

along with turning blood into metal objects, in monster au, metallica also works the other way, allowing risotto to turn iron into blood. he eats a very iron-heavy diet to get his fix of blood without needing to directly drink it.

i also had the idea that he can drink your blood through your aura

melone and ghiaccio possibly have known each other for a really long time, and assuming ghiaccio is a turned ailuranthrope, melone might have known him before he was Turned and helped console him after the Incident.

bruising is common in physiological shifters like narancia, ghiaccio and limbo. Narancia, unlike the other two, though, is in semi-complete control of the way his cells assemble, so he's able to un-bruise himself, though the spot is usually still a bit sore. since he's been able to formshift most of his life, he's used to it, and doesn't really react beyond his weird 'teething habits.

with limbo and ghiaccio, they're more unfortunate, and often look bruised upon shifting back from theriomorph. most zooanthropes have 'morph hangovers' when a night is particularly bad, but they often learn to cope with it and carry on with their normal lives regardless.

MANY cryptians experience moon hangovers after the full moon.

though many aquabound maricrypt don't have lungs, maricrypt like sirens are able to take in air for the sole function of mimicking human speech.

selkies retain human vocal chords in seal form, and can seaspeak as well, but have a "seal" accent

most seafolk are sleek and pretty (in their water forms, at least) and that's why many seafolk are mistakenly thought to be all-female, because a lot of the males look twinkish or have "breasts" (breast-like organs which serve non-breast-like functions, usually).

limbo and narancia developed a stupid ass greeting of barking at each other in human form. they blame this on the adhd. they also blame the fact that the barks are REALLY convincing on the adhd.

honestly soft machine arc is just fucking disrespectful

squalo used to sleep with his eyes open until tiziano got too freaked out by it

[nevermore-ocs]

Dravakin with a chubby fem reader maybe pls?

-Lemme start this full out, completely transparent and honest: Dravakin LOVES himself a big, plus-sized and chubby woman.

-He prefers it over anyone thinner, cause pushing it too far like that, to him, can just make a person appear unhealthy and too weak to go on. Having that certain agenda on women nowadays is something that he particularly loathes about the modern world.

-Being bigger will always be beautiful to him, and his love should never be ashamed of that, he'd happily go on for hours onto hours about just how effortlessly capable you are to felling a literal vampiric God-King simply by being.

-Proud and confident but not an asshole about it, Dravakin adores to show you off to the denizens of his domain, walking through the streets of Bludhaven, he holds out a bent arm for you to rest your hand on his bicep and grasp onto him for as long as you wish, always referring to you in the most painfully obvious in love tone he can muster as his wife/his mate whenever addressing you to someone, his, and his alone to have and hold and cherish till eternity itself is extinguished.

-Absolutely being betrothed to a king does result in being lavishly spoiled on a regular basis. However, it is, rather hilariously easy that noticeable portion of his gift giving to you consists of dresses that are, a couple sizes smaller than what you're used to, or if they are the correct size, they also show off more than you're used to as well - an exposed back, a deep v cut over the chest area, sheer sides.

-"You know, Drav, you can just like, ask me to wear smaller stuff if you're gonna keep sneaking stuff in like this, you dork-", "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what you're talking about, my light-"

-The main reason, although, why he does gestures like that is because you deserve to feel beautiful, and gorgeous, as wondrously breath-taking as he always sees you. The last thing that he ever wants you to do is feel like you have to change yourself to fit the standards of other people who don't matter.

-Are you content with the size that you are? Then he will be your biggest fan in your corner that will be searing the heavens themselves with how much he'll be belting out. Do you want to lose weight? Then by all means, you have a personal coach in the shape of him, but he wants you to do it for you if that's what you wish, not for anyone else, not for your family, and certainly not for him, cause to him you're already perfect.

[deusexlachina]

Cheesage Exocolonist Age 11: Ruin Valentine's Day as soon as it is invented by blorboing so hard that it becomes existentially horrifying

In which Sol tells Tangent about her other lives for free candy and uses fashion to save people's lives before they are in danger.

Age 11 is kicked off by Marz inventing Valentine's day for free candy - you have to pick your Best Friend. Normally, I would do something sensible, like weigh all the different options to see how to maximize Friendship points and choose the Best Friend most optimal for my run. Unfortunately, Tangent is my blorbo and my shameless favouritism cannot be suppressed.

This is the first time I've picked Tangent after completing a run, so I only just now discovered this rather unsettling wormhole dialogue: when she asks for a reason you should be friends (Tangent being one of the harder characters to befriend, you do need a reason!), Sol can tell Tangent about the timeline where they were married.

Obviously this ruins your friendship completely, and...wait, she thinks it's cool? She gives friendship points?

"Grow old together" is a bit of a stretch - in the timeline Sol is referring to, my first playthrough, the marriage dissolved quickly because Tangent can never keep a relationship going with anyone, and also because Tangent lost her brother, had a supervillain phase and burnt out in like her twenties. (God forbid trans women do anything). Canonically, future memories aren't 100% reliable, but this still feels like burying the lede.

Despite this being one of the weirdest dialogues in the game, which is a very high bar, this is one of very few options where you can be completely honest about your other lives without being diagnosed as Delusional. (The twins are both very open-minded).

I really like the wormhole dialogues, because they start out awesome but the more of them you pick, the more you realize just how horrifying this whole situation is. This poor kid just trying to deal with having numerous other lives and no idea what to do with them with PTSD from stuff that hasn't even happened yet. They just get more and more detached from the world around them the more they loop. And they keep looping forever.

Marzipan gives me -2 Friendship for picking Tangent instead of her. But I like to think the penalty is really for ruining Valentine's Day by being 11 and reminiscing about married life/the only life Sol ever lived organically. I mean, she doesn't mention that. But would you? Really, this was a suboptimal choice, but I want to share some neat Easter eggs along the way.

Most of the year proceeds as usual, by which I mean neglecting my studies in favour of deckbuilding. I get Marz's friendship high enough for her to give me her jacket. Unfortunately, because she's my coworker, she knows how much money I have and, seeing I have more than 50 kudos in the bank, she will instead sell me the jacket. I take the L; it's fair for ruining Valentine's Day.

Besides that, the jacket is crucial. Tammy's dad Tonin is living on borrowed time - late this year, he will be killed in a manticore attack. I could go out and save him just in the nick of time. But that would be traumatic for him and poor Tammy. More importantly, it would give me more cards [bad]. Another route is persuading him to stay home, but, having neglected my education, my persuasion is at 0. Fortunately, I have Marz's jacket, which makes me cool enough to persuade him to babysit instead. Tonin joins his daughter in being saved without any idea of the danger they were in.

A couple months later, I save Hal. This is the first time I've saved someone and gotten recognition for it. This is a sign that these mortals will eventually bow to me as their ruler.

[lxve-and-lxght]

funny honey

pairing: thomas shelby/ reader

warnings: afab! reader, jazz, booze, murder, all that fun stuff. eventual smut perhaps?? slow burn?? mean! tommy.

a/n: hyperfixating on chicago and peaky blinders at the same time. also this is not proofread so i'm sorry for any mistakes.

pt. 1

the long night that followed your arrest at the garrison, could ONLY be described as tedious. inspector campbell was nothing but a ruffian with a badge. no better than tommy, but unlike tommy, inspector campbell really did have no fucking manners. you were a heathen whore in his eyes despite the fact you were a married, working, woman. wasn't that enough? of course it wasn't.

you'd spent the night being interrogated by campbell.

"i've already told you, i don't know," you said to the inspector and sergeant moss, a man who'd been on the peaky blinders payroll for quite some time now if you were remembering his face correctly. "i must've blacked out, i don't remember a thing."

"so you don't remember taking a bloody gun into the garrison tonight?" sergeant moss asked, an eyebrow quirked at you.

"i have no idea what you're talking about..." you were stonewalling them. what did it matter if your sister and bastard husband were dead? it's not like they had money or power, just a poor couple of suckers who'd gotten the kinder end of the deal in your opinion, truthfully you would have much rather been dead than stuck here listening to these fucks debate your innocence and whether or not you were as good in a bed as you were on stage.

after enough time had passed and campbell could say he at least tried to pull a confession out of you it was the wee hours of the morning and you were taken back to a cold, grey holding cell till the bus could take you to a women's jail, apparently only god knew how long that was going to take. so you lied on the hard, uneven, concrete and waited.

did you really have to shoot them? yes. when you found them together in the hotel bed that the money you earned paid for, you saw white. your sister was a dummy for thinking charlie was smart enough to avoid getting caught and charlie was just the same for assuming that of her.

all that time busting your ass, working as many shows as you could, travelling all throughout europe with them. how many times had they done it? how many times had he kissed you after he'd had your own fucking sister in his mouth? stupid son of bitch, you thought. how you ended up with such scum you'd never know.

"l/n! time to go." you sat up from the ground and saw sergeant moss standing with john shelby through the bars. your brow furrowed. moss opened the cell door and gestured you up.

"ya'd better move if you wanna make it to the garrison before tommy leaves." john said. you stood up and walked to him, he had a coat to cover up your show dress. "christ, you're freezing." your dress was covered in whatever dirty muck had been on the floor and your stockings were torn from the brawl that transpired at your arrest. " go on." john nodded.

you walked a couple feet away, peaking over your shoulder to watch moss and john share a sly handshake. john withdrew first and approached you, putting his arm over your shoulder. the two of you didn't speak till you were out of the jailhouse and settled into the motorcar.

"be honest, john, i'm fucked aren't i?" you said quietly, eyes darting to his.

"agh hell, don't ask me, y/n. i'm just the driver." he chuckled, blowing smoke out the window. "but we both know tommy prefers you to that bastard inspector. you make us money."

"great," you sighed, arms crossed in disdain. "now i owe the shelby's a debt."

"that you do, love." john laughed.

when the car finally stopped in front of the garrison john didn't waste anytime pushing you out to the curb.

"he's still in there." john called out as he pulled the car away. you bit down on your tongue in frustration and then stepped inside the pub. it was still so early, it must've only been harry and tommy in there.

you didn't even have to ask after him, the second you were passed the threshold, the private room's door opened and thomas stood waiting for you. he didn't say anything. just nodded his head, telling you to step inside.

"mr. shelby--"

"stop." tommy spoke finally, putting a hand up to silence you. "what'ddya say to him?"

"... nothing." you said, "i blacked out, i don't know what happened." thomas choked on his cigarette when he chuckled.

"and that's what you've told him? that you don't remember?" you nodded. a little blown away that he was laughing in your face about the situation.

"mr. shelby, i can't go back to him," you said firmly, talking about campbell, "he'll string me up or he'll make me a whore. i refuse to do either, so cut him up or cut me."

"ya want me to cut you?" he asked, taking a seat at the table.

"it's not about what i want, it's about what i don't want, and i don't want that pathetic excuse for an officer to have any say in my future."

"well sweetheart, you've managed to create a cluster fuck of problems for me in a matter of a night, i've already lost one of my showgirls because you seem to have a fuckin' temper and now i have to find someone to pin her and your husband's murders on."

"why?" you scoffed. "what good would that do you? or me for that matter? they already think i did it."

"that's cause you did do it." thomas said snidely, taking a sip of whiskey. "and i can't afford to have harry looking for new acts while i'm trying to conquer london. he needs to mind the pub and you need to mind the crowds of men that come here to gawk 'atcha."

you bit down on your tongue again.

"do we have an understanding?" he asked. you sat with it for second, thomas was offering to get you off the hook for damn near free, it was too good to be true.

"i'm not working for free." you countered.

"course you're not, you're working to dig yourself and me out of the hole you've put us in."

"three shows a week." you said. yeah beggars couldn't be choosers, but that didn't mean you had to starve and sleep on the streets especially because if there was one person who could get you the fuck out of this mess, it was thomas shelby. his eyes narrowed at your half-assed attempt to negotiate, like he was at least pretending to think it over.

"five shows a week, you get three hundred and i keep your bonny ass out of the jailhouse." he said finally. you sighed and sat down to shake his hand. tommy put his cigarette out and shook your hand. "you better get ready." he said. you nodded going to leave till he spoke again. "and i'd take a bath, love, you've got a show tonight and not even the soldiers will want to touch you smelling like that."

you scoffed. what a fucker.