#i like tumblr because it;s so removed from my personal life that it feels really like a place i dont have to be anything for anyone

[eclarinet]

same soup... different day

[nekropsii]

ALPHA TROLLS RANKED BY HOW WRONG THE FANDOM AT LARGE IS ABOUT THEM:

This is a personal challenge, based entirely on my own experience and perspective, and also ranked from Most to Least Correct. I was bored, and thought this might be fun.

Putting this under a cut, because it's long as hell.

MEULIN LEIJON

People get her mostly correct, from what I’ve seen… Most of the time, fan content of Meulin is absolutely recognizable as Meulin, but her pride in her deafness + joy of learning new ways to interact with the world through/due to her disability is always removed, and I do not often see people tackle the Toxic Positivity aspect of her character. That seems less like character assassination, though, and more like a combination of people not actually playing through the Openbounds, people not being able to fathom disabled people (especially those who gained a disability later in life rather than being born disabled) being happy, and general fandom distaste for the idea of touching anything uncomfortable, especially when that uncomfortable topic is highly mundane, normalized, and potentially applicable to them or their loved ones. Meulin’s toxic positivity was, of course, commentary on Tumblr’s ecosystem at the time, so… It was much harder to touch back then.

ARANEA SERKET

People tend to get her general, broad strokes personality right, but unfortunately she gets treated pretty roughly for the crime of Being A Serket. People refuse to understand her motivations, and she often gets demonized for what she was doing around/during [S] Game Over, even though that was something she’d gotten pushed to and also was cool as fuck to watch. God forbid a woman do anything.

DAMARA MEGIDO

People are right about the racism, 100%. It is completely despicable, hard to look at, and extremely blatant. She does, however, have character outside of that. No, it isn’t “whore”, it’s more like “angry, dysfunctional abuse victim”, and she’s genuinely a very interesting and tragic character. But, again, people are right about the racism, so she gets to be placed way up here.

MEENAH PEIXES

She is such a chaotic little bastard. I love her. I really do. Please understand that she genuinely does not understand the concept of consequences. This girl didn’t have a Lusus, she didn’t have parents, it was functionally illegal to tell her “No, you can’t do that.” That would fuck up literally anyone’s moral compass. That’s not me hand waving away all the fucked up and bad shit she’s done, we all know what she did, but people tend to forget this aspect of her character and it pains me deeply, because it is a very genuinely interesting concept that I want to see more of. She’s capable of regret, we’ve seen her feel it, I just don’t think foresight is her forte. No one raised her to consider consequences, or help her experience them in a healthy way, because nobody raised her period.

Also, her ass is not butch, she is the girliest girl in the entire comic. She is about hot pink and glitter and kiss marks and unicorns and cute little puns and you will respect that. She is not masculine. Her ass is not masculine nor is she butch. Let her be her hyper-feminine self.

LATULA PYROPE

Please for the love of god there is more to her character than “Gamer Girl” and “Mituna’s Girlfriend”. You are falling for her fucking ruse. Please. Please. Please recognize that her entire character is about internalized misogyny, and being forced to overcompensate for misogyny in gaming circles as a gamer who happens to be a woman. Please. I’m begging.

KURLOZ MAKARA

His character is not that deep, it’s mostly just a string of events he is mysteriously, inexplicably involved with. The Makaras are extremely Function Over Form- their characters practically do not exist, they're mostly just plot devices that exist to push the story along. I'm sorry to Makara fans. You just invented a guy in your mind and decided he was real. He is also not that soft, though, and his relationships with both Meulin AND Mituna are not healthy. Hard to stop people from ascribing cutesy squishy lovey dynamics to random men who happened to have looked at each other once, though. Some people truly haven't graduated from 2012.

HORUSS ZAHHAK

I am begging people to consider that maybe the biggest issue here is not that he is “Bad Otherkin/Therian Representation” and is in fact maybe the fact that Hussie was actually making fun of Systems when he was writing Horuss. Because Horuss is canonically a system. He uses the word system. He uses the word switching. He uses the word host. He literally talks about his Plurality at length in extremely upfront, plain terms. I don’t know how him being “Bad Otherkin Representation” was and still is the main discourse about him. It makes me insane. That is a commentary that truly writes itself. Talk about having your priorities out of wack, honestly...

PORRIM MARYAM

No, she is not a MRA, she’s just a regular feminist who happens to live on a different planet with different politics and social hierarchies from Our Real World Earth’s USA. Whatever argument you’re about to pull out of your ass to say that she sucks is bad. She already explained what she meant by that, in more detail, very clearly, and she was right. Half the time she’s literally just giving you factual information about what Beforus was like, and literal plot synopses. She isn’t saying anything insane. She’s literally normal. I don’t know why people cannot handle or process this. Porrim has not ever said anything controversial. If you disagree with this you’re either misconstruing her on purpose or you fell for Kankri’s bait, and that’s just fucking sad at that point.

Also, she’s more than a sex object, and her tits are not huge. Honestly, half the shit she was saying was just “I am more than my sex life”, and so many people took that and made her main character trait her sex life. Just pathetic.

RUFIOH NITRAM

This man is a fucking war criminal and I will stop at nothing until he is behind bars for his crimes against Damara. Raging misogynist. Total fucking cunt. Just the worst. If I talk any more about this, this part will be 1,000 paragraphs long. But also, I’m begging people to recognize his relationship with disability, too. He was similar to Meulin in the sense that he didn’t mind his disability, and his biggest gripe with it was the way that Horuss tried to “fix” it… Which is an interesting way to expand upon how Beforus’s culling system is not only very explicitly ableist, but mimicking real world systemic ableism. I also want people to recognize that Hussie is actively having a conversation about the reclamation of slurs with Rufioh’s character, and how not letting people reclaim such language is doing nothing but giving the word power against them while stripping away their own personal agency. Rufioh’s a complicated guy, and he’s interesting and also the worst, and I am really tired of how he gets watered down to nothing but “Pretty Boy Victim Of His Inexplicably Psycho Ex”.

MITUNA CAPTOR

Holy Fucking Shit, You Guys Are Ableist.

KANKRI VANTAS

To this day I see people saying he was just Hussie making fun of SJWs. To this day. To this day people think Hussie was trying to make Every Tumblr Leftist look bad, and that he hates them Because They Are Leftists. When will people recognize him as a bootlicker to the oppressive class and the violently bigoted. When will people recognize that. When will people recognize that this is more of a commentary on the legitimate real flaws of Tumblr’s politics at the time. When. When.

When will people stop portraying him as a lovey-dovey Catholic Whore. I’m going to stab my fucking eyes out and then kill everyone in this building. Me when it's based and cool to ship an aroace character with a sexual predator. I GUESS.

CRONUS AMPORA

I say this with every ounce of sincerity I can possibly muster as a person: What the literal actual fuck.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I saw somewhere (here on Tumblr but I don't remember from who) that the creator of Dreamtale apparently wanted Driller to become canon at some point. And, I gotta say, I don't think that relationship would be healthy for Killer.

Here's my thing, Dream is very focused on helping his brother and getting his brother back. And Killer is a paranoid fucker who for very good reason thinks everyone is out to use him.

How would Dream ever be able to convince Killer that he isn't using him to get closer to Nightmare? How would he ever convince him that his kindness and affection don't have ulterior motives?

With Color it's a lot easier because Color isn't really affiliated with Nightmare in any way. Like, I don't think he'd leave him to die if he found him injured somewhere, but I also don't think he'd be going out of his way to try and help him. And definitely not as publicly as Dream does.

Like, how could Killer ever truly feel safe in that relationship? And that's without considering the fact that power corrupted Nightmare, but he started as Dream's twin. Meaning that Dream theoretically has just as much capacity to become corrupted as Nightmare did. And he's powerful (of course, Color himself isn't weak, but, again, his powers are further removed from Nightmare's), would Killer wanna risk ending up trapped simply under a different apple twin? I mean, maybe, he doesn't exactly have that many self preservation instincts. But would he be truly happy with that choice?

I also don’t think it’d help Dream either. Dream is constantly on the move, keeping ahead of Nightmare, trying to keep that last golden apple safe. He cannot provide the stability Killer needs because everyone else is always pulling him in different directions and his duty as the Guardian of Positivity would understandably be placed above Killer. It is important.

Color isn’t exactly known for staying in one spot either, but he is consistent and committed to Killer in a way Dream simply cannot afford to do. Not at the cost of everyone else, Dream has a lot of responsibility, or at least he may feel he does. I wouldn’t doubt he struggles to maintain a “work” and personal life balance, whereas Color does not have this type of responsibility to the Multiverse.

The only responsibility Color has to anyone or anything except Killer is the six human souls. Aka six dead children he has absorbed and will spend the rest of his life taking care of, alongside Killer. This will be a terribly exhausting thing and huge responsibility, and Color understands that, but he’s willing and able to take the commitment. And he has friends to support and help him.

Would Dream be able to handle it or understand when Killer is cued or triggered? Would he be able to understand when he refuses to eat, or manipulates, or acts out, when killer tests and pokes and prods at him. Would he be able to understand willing vs conditioned submission, would he be able to understand dissociation and fawn responses.

Would he rely on his empathy abilities far too much when doing so won’t get him nowhere with Stage 2, and could potentially have effects on Nightmare’s own emotional conditioning of Killer.

Would he be able to understand how killer can be a threat to himself or others—his desensitization and comfort with violence and self mutilatation. Whenever Chara starts whispering and Killer starts feeling watched, judged.

A sense of impending doom if he doesn’t do what Chara wants. A sense that it’ll all be Reset if he doesn’t keep up the Deal, and none of this will matter in the end.

Would he be able to understand the pure intensely of Stage 1’s emotions—which could lead to self destructive breakdowns when he feels like he doesn’t deserve kindness or happiness or safety or even the right to exist.

Stage 4’s inclination towards self destruction at any sign or fear of being restricted from fulfilling the Deal, any sign of failure—which while inevitably happen because Dream cannot allow Killer to go around killing people.

Would Dream be able to understand why Stage 4 will feel it has to—wants to—die if it can’t kill people or destroy worlds—because that wouldn’t make sense to anyone, but that’s what it looks like from the outside.

Stage 4 wouldn’t explain what’s going on internally—it would think Dream should already understand if he’s a handler, or that it is unimportant that he understands if hes not a handler—so long as it’s done.

Would Dream be able to accept Killer as he is without feeling the need to look for something “good” in him all the time. He’s afraid of Killer when he’s in Stage 2—even him going to touch him caused Dream to get scared.

Killer has hurt Dream before, and doesn’t feel remorse and I’m sure Dream can sense that—but he keeps looking for something “positive” and “good” in Killer.

Color doesn’t really care if Killer is good or not, he doesn’t need him to be—and he didn’t need to sense any positive emotion from Killer to tell he needed help or is capable of change or is secretly a “good person” deep down.

Killer asked for help, he asked to be saved, and so Color is helping and saving. He expressed a desire for change, a want to get and be better—but more importantly, that he wanted out.

And of course, Killer will think Dream is trying to use him to get to Nightmare. Stage 2 always does think of himself as something for others to use—a tool, a weapon, a resource.

But whereas Color can easily argue back that he really doesn’t gain any benefit from helping Killer besides a friend and a feeling of happiness/purpose, Dream will always have a benefit from trying to save Killer.

Save Nightmare, find out more about Nightmare, use Killer against Nightmare, take Killer off the field and away from Nightmare’s grasp so he cant be used as a weapon against the Multiverse. These are all noble goals that anyone would understandably have, but to Killer—it’s still using him.

Color is in position to uniquely challenge Killer’s worldview and the time and resources needed to dedicate to him. Dream has a lot more going on, a war to win. A brother to save. People to protect. The poor man will be running himself into the ground taking on more than he can handle.

{ @stellocchia }

[demodraws0606]

Why I am a die-hard believer that Whit is the mastermind

You know I was going to make an entire structured theory thread about it but Tumblr decided to be a little bitch and remove all my writing so I'll just kinda throw a messy list of evidence here.

Notice how Veronika's summary of Forever Dead is suspiciously similar to the secret dialogue

Notice how the main character's gender is pointed out

It's also interesting how the mysterious dialogue in the beginning who seems to be related to the hidden text (the idea of not being able to remember anymore link those two) seem to often mention the fact that they're grieving the loss of someone.

That someone most likely being Mai who seems to have suffered a tragic fate due to Teruko, which can explain the mastermind's hatred of her.

Guess who's character is linked with grief ?

(I know this is most likely about his mother but there is nothing contradicting the fact that he could be idolizing multiple dead people)

Wow it's interesting how these secret texts about Mai seem to be really idolizing her.

We can also add how the person who wrote the note to Xavier is very clearly the mastermind and how Whit's tool is a Stationery (it's spelled Stationary but i believe its a typo) which is commonly known as writing and other office materials.

Which includes paper, pens, ink, highlighters and other tools for writing

It's even made worse by the fact that the note seems to be written by a specific type of blue pen that we haven't seen anywhere in the series.

And even worse is that Charles, who knows Whit's handwriting, couldn't point out the writing is his as he couldn't access the scene of the crime due to his trauma therefore he couldn't see the note's handwriting.

It's really really interesting how the hidden text points out how they can predict everyone's behavior in a killing game and Whit's intuition is highlighted three times in this game.

Another suspicious thing is how the mastermind of the game talks about how they basically can predict anything that can happen. It's almost like how Whit jokingly predicted Arei's death.

Along with how Whit is the only one who has directly talked to the audience (him showing the papers) or how he's nudged the killing game into more interesting directions/avoided it from going off the rails.

Other exemples would be him defending Teruko/Charles in the first trial, him not revealing David's secret until the last minute (as well as the note that suspiciously pointed to Eden), him not trying to help with the fight in episode 4, him insisting that Charles and Teruko talk about their family life (aka nudging them to talk about their backstory which would entertain the audience) and other stuff i don't feel like adding.

It's also important add that Mono-TV and Whit also have similar personalities. They both don't take anything seriously and make constant jokes about the killing games, Mono-TV and Whit also act constantly incompetent and like they're a lot dumber than they actually are.

Another thing is that it's interesting how Whit opens up about his secret so easily, even though almost everyone's secrets are something they're at least flustered about and at worst completely ashamed by. If he was the mastermind, it would make sense that his secret wouldn't be anything that could ruin his character and that he could just admit easily.

Also another point, the mastermind character talks about a time when they cared so much about people and how it hurt them so much when they died. Which you can see that caring nature shine through a lot with Whit as it's possible that Whit's personnality is not actually a lie but more so a reflection of how he used to be before he went through all this alledged horrible stuff.

We can also note how the mastermind has to be one of the students and how there is an extreme likelyhood that Mono-TV saying it isn't bait because it's not actually told to the students but to us. Why would Mono-TV tell it to us and not to the students if it was a lie meant to make the game more interesting, wouldn't it be more entertaining to reveal to the students of a fake mastermind among them to get them to kill one another more easily. It's why I have no doubt someone in this class has to be the mastermind behind it.

Mono-TV also seems to not have any contact with the person controlling him which would make sense if it was someone in the killing game as they would have a hard time communicating without being caught.

(It's a stretch but it would make more sense if Mono-TV didn't know if the mastermind was one of them as if the mastermind was behind the scenes there would be no reason why it wouldn't interact with Mono-TV, although take this with a grain of salt as he could be lying)

And just really there aren't a lot of other options for the mastermind that would be compelling unless they introduce a mysterious new character.

It could be the mysterious red haired girl but everything hints towards her being dead or hurt and it being the cause for the killing game rather than her being the one behind it. There is some decent evidence that it could be her but I genuinely don't think so considering it again feels a little too obvious and doesn't work with how the story/secrets present her.

(It's just not very compelling to make your ONE mystery character the mastermind and again it would be weird considering Mono-TV telling the audience the mastermind is in cast doesn't make sense logically as he would have no reason to try and trick the audience)

Not a lot of characters in this cast can be really put into the mastermind category as they are either too obvious (teruko, veronika) or too farfetched (eden, hu etc...).

I honestly am a die hard believer that Whit is the mastermind however what's interesting to me is not If Whit is the mastermind but more so the Why ?

Which honestly might be a question for another time...

But yeah this is why I 95 pourcent believe Whit is the mastermind

If anyone has anything more to add I would be really interesting in seeing what other people have in terms of evidence.

[yuusishi]

Hi hii !! :3 May I request Ace, Deuce, and Idia hcs with an s/o that has a lot pf pillows on their bed? Like 12 pillows and one really soft comfortable blanket?

Bonus if their bed is an absolute mess 🫶🫶

. . . CLOUDS IN THE DORM !!

pairings : Ace Trappola , Deuce Spade , Idia Shroud x gn!reader (sep.)

genre : fluff , can be read as platonic

cws/tws : none

a/n : I HATE TUMBLR QUEUE

Ace Trappola !!

He sneaks out/finds excuses to go to your dorm often to a. spend time with you and b. your bed.

Aren't you supposed to also be a broke college student like him? How can you afford so much high quality bedding and pillows?

Hell, he even thinks that your pillows might even be the same quality of those in Pomefiore, specifically Vil's.

Whenever he comes by your dorm he'd greet you then immediately run to your room and crash on your bed, especially after a long day like exams or Professor Trein's tests.

Your bed is messy enough from you not wanting to fix it just yet and Ace is there to mess it up even further. Not tossing pillows type of messy, but somehow the pillows that were originally below the headboard ended up either on the floor or on the foot of the bed.

Which leads to you either putting the pillows back yourself or scolding Ace to do it himself. 50% chance that he'd do the latter though.

He likes that your bed smells like you, not in the creepy way, but after a while he thinks of you as a person he'd like to have around him for the rest of his life so naturally he finds your scent comforting in a way.

He has like 12 pillows surrounding him the entire time he's laying there.

Most of the time when he and the other first years hang out in your dorm, all of you stay in your room since 2 out of 5 of them are laying on the bed without a care in the world (aka Ace and probably Epel).

Deuce Spade !!

A slightly more respectful version of the Ace portion, still crashes in your dorm after a long day, though. At least he bothers to remove his shoes before entering the dorm.

Honestly Deuce won't immediately just body slam himself into the bed, even when both of you have gotten really close already.

He'd calmly sit down first then just crawl into the bed, maybe even put on the blanket if he feels like it.

The type to hug one of your pillows because of how soft it is, he kinda looks like he's suffocating it in his sleep though...

I feel like he'd still end up messing up the bed in the times he falls asleep (which is often) because he gives off the energy of someone who'd move around a lot in his sleep.

Evil warm pillow enjoyer, the warmer your pillows the eepier he gets.

If the first years are over, he'd just sit on the floor then lean on the side of the bed, occasionally he either sits on one of your pillows or unconsciously holding one.

Idia Shroud !!

Oh my god he's in heaven.

His routine (after class) is usually just "play games, sleep on bed", his bed is a 7/10 at best. Pillows are average, the saving grace is that hanging phone holder he has placed on his headboard.

But sometimes he comes by your dorm to hang out and play games, most of the time in your room to sit with you on your heaven-sent bed with the softest bedding and comfiest pillows he's ever felt.

Sometimes he falls asleep because of how comfortable he is there and gets embarrassed when he wakes up laying down with the blanket on and 3 pillows surrounding his sides.

When those situations happen he doesn't know if he should get up and apologize for falling asleep or stay there and just enjoy the moment.

He doesn't really mind the messy bed actually considering his own room is pretty much a mess as well. But sometimes he'd help you fix up your bed to just do something nice.

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Hello! :] I saw your post recently regarding the pervasive feeling of shame in newer fans re: Danganronpa, and it really resonated. I wanted to offer my two cents as a fandom old/armchair fandom archeologist that's hopefully a little heartening:

I remember back in 2012/2013 when Danganronpa was beloved, during the height of the SomethingAwful TL days. It was a genuinely fun time to be into things, especially as people were getting excited for an EN release, something that I do think the fandom deserves a little credit in making happen. I was there for the UDG release, DR3 anime, and the lead-up to v3's release, and unfortunately, I think the fact that all three of those entries were in some ways polarizing effectively memory-holed a lot of people into believing Danganronpa was never "good" to begin with, which makes it a lot easier to pick out its flaws and give it a bit of a weird reputation now.

(As a tangent, but some more context that might help: Danganronpa also got really big on my neck of the woods in Tumblr during one of the big Homestuck hiatuses. Back in the day there was a lot of fandom crossover, which I don't really think is the case nowadays, but I think for people that were either in both fandoms and had negative experiences, or people outside who disliked either/or, they've been inextricably linked together as part of a particular "time" in Tumblr/internet history that isn't remembered fondly. So, I have a theory that a lot of secondhand Danganronpa disdain comes from misplaced disdain for the other Big Thing at the time.

This also overlapped with the tail end of the big SuperWhoLock era to my memory, which is usually much more focused on which discussing Tumblr history. Which is a shame, because I feel like this particular transitional era of Tumblr "fandom" history has been underdiscussed because of it!

None of this is excusing some of the things I've seen said about DR fans and the ways people have been iced out for liking it, but I find trying to understand the factors at play always helps my mind figure out how to process these things.)

However: time moves on. This isn't permanent. Having gone back and re-experienced the whole series some 5+ years removed, I was able to find joy in parts of the series that, while I was in the thick of a shift in fandom attitude, didn't appreciate as much as I think I should have. I didn't absolutely love everything, but I had so much fun, it almost felt like I was experiencing things again for the first time.

I want to believe the same thing will happen as we get some time removed, as people get nostalgic for things and get older and understand that you can love something flawed, criticize it, and not feel shame for it. I always welcome fresh faces discovering something for the first time, but I think that some day, a lot of older fans can come back and embrace it as well. Sometimes you need time and life and a few extra years on you. I'm living proof of it! :P

Of course, this is just one person's perspective from one slice of the fandom. But I remain hopeful. There really is nothing else quite like Danganronpa for me, warts and all. You don't have to post this publicly or anything if you don't want to, but I wanted to offer a little hope to go with your thoughts. :') and I hope you have a great day!

Oh man, I really really appreciate this message. I am really interested in the perspective of fans who have been here for so long, and I always feel a little out of my depth talking about old (read: 2018 and before) DR fandom because despite seeing a Lot of it in my blog-diving, I still wasn't there. It's genuinely wonderful to hear that it was beloved like that, even if only fully for the first two installments.

I HAVE noticed a weird amount of homestuck/dr crossover in my searches, so that totally makes sense! Hell, my first exposure to DR on tumblr was a homestuck blog I followed back in 2017/2018ish (for the artstyle, I haven't read homestuck) that also posted a lot about Kazuichi. That's super cool!

While I feel like today, there is at least a little bit of fondness (even if it is a little ironic) for superwholock days, I see very little talk of homestuck. And when I do, it is usually with the same flavour of "Wow that fandom was so crazy" as old-DR.

I think there is usually this reactionary retrospective on site-wide popular fandoms to some degree after they start to wane in size. I saw it when I was in the TMA fandom. That thing was a monster, and over all I felt more stressed there than I ever feel now with DR. And after it ended, and really even During those last few episodes, you could feel a level of distaste for the piece of media growing. Although it never really reached critical mass like DR.

Maybe its even more apparent with something like Steven Universe- when it was actively coming out there was so much disdain for it (from some people) and for the fandom. I was there, on the sidelines, but I saw it all and it wasn't fun. But after its finale and a couple years of silence, people now seem to have come around and realized, whoa, so much about all that discourse was way overblown. I feel like a couple years ago there could still have been this sense of "cringe" posting about steven universe, while today its a lot more neutral.

Of course, it's kind of weird to compare DR and SU, and the nature of outside of fandom perspectives on them is not the same. The level of disdain for people posting SU never reached the point of DR either. But if it's anything to go by, I feel like there is hope eventually for people to stop having an immediate knee-jerk reaction to it. To look back and realize, "hey, that was actually pretty good," or "I didn't really appreciate this the first time." Or even just "It's fine actually to have nuanced take on this piece of media I don't like that concludes with them still liking it." I feel like we already got a mini-version of that in 2020, but since that's when I joined I can't speak too much on it.

Small tangent aside, I really appreciate this. I also hope people can come back around to it, or at least appreciate that it made them or other people happy at the time c:

[holly-fixation]

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

Does personal lore mean it has to be about me?? I'm gonna assume yes?? I can't tell what this question wants. My personal lore is that I hated reading for most of my life. I mean more than 80% of my life. Ironic, I know. It's still incredibly difficult for me to pick up a book and just read! Somehow this did not transfer to fanfic. It's one of the few things I can read without getting fatigue.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairing

Let's stick with good old Zack and Sephiroth for this one. I head Canon Zack is very good at brushing Sephiroth's hair. HOWEVER, in the wing AUs where Sephiroth's wing appears while he's still sane, Zack is garbage at preening. It takes too long! It's not intentional that he gets impatient and less and less careful. This has lead to tearing multiple chunks of feathers from brushing too fast.

The biggest problem is accidentally ripping a feather out from its root. Sephiroth's instincts kick in and he suddenly attacks the offender, no matter who it is. He only injures Zack once before having enough control to stop himself. Zack never holds it against him. It becomes a quiet night of the two being close until Sephiroth no longer feels overwhelming guilt for what he's done.

Sorry, got a little carried away. A well known bit of personal lore: everything I write becomes angst.

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

Hojo is incredibly interesting. Yes the man is a complete sociopath, but I cannot deny the steps to his madness and how it grew throughout the game and fascinating to me.

I really don't have many unpopular opinions (at least not with the Tumblr crowd). Ships though? Different story.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

So in The Last Straw, I came up with this completely bullshit idea: a child with a significantly higher concentration of Jenova cells cannot absorb any nutrients except meat based protein (or the lab made equivalent). This is based off the fact that Jenova in that world survives on the lifestreams of planets, and if you look at a food chain and think of the planet as one more link, Her species is Always a predator.

I realize now, after writing all of this, that the question does ask for backstory. Woops.

Anyway, I was trying to BS a name for this condition. Then I found the significantly less severe condition of malabsorption. On a surface level, it's a condition where the body does not absorb nutrients/absorb them properly. So because this was so different than anything else I've researched, it sticks out.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

The blond landed on the vehicle and Strife swiftly removed the blade. Every second they wasted on this transition meant more firepower on the truck. Cloud grabbed the handlebars with his left hand and the Buster Sword with his right. Together they swept through Shinra's ground forces, men knocked off their vehicles and onto the unforgiving pavement.

🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

@altocat - always kind and let's me steal her ideas

@prismaticpichu - a font of kindness who always has a Fluffy idea cooking. Great when I need some joy.

@winter-doggo - his art always makes me smile. And he still leaves great comments on my fics despite my sudden lack of online interaction.

And you! Yes you, @shadowbanshee , because you're one of the only people that's left me asks like the ones I see for everyone else I follow. I still see likes for the "CC Sephiroth finds CCTV footage of Lucrecia" from December!

I'm not saying there aren't others. I just don't want this post to be any bigger lol. Know if I didn't mention you, I still appreciate you!

[love-bokumono-fics]

Fresh Crops! November 20 - November 26, 2023

This week's newest fics and chapter updates for Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons on AO3!

The Princess and the Carpenter - by SymphonicFantasia; WIP, 10/50, 1.4k

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandoms: Magical Melody, Save the Homeland, Hero of Leaf Valley Relationship: Dia/Kurt | Hayato; Characters: Dia, Kurt Summary: They weren't so different from one another although others may not think so. Just because she was a "princess" didn't mean that the carpenter didn't belong with her. It just took a bit of chiseling to see who they really were deep down. And even then, they would only show those halves to one another.

Star Spangled Bandanna - by SymphonicFantasia; WIP, 35/100, 3.5k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Categories: F/M, Gen Fandoms: Save the Homeland, Hero of Leaf Valley, Magical Melody Relationships: Katie/Joe | Shin, Amanda | Tina/Joe | Shin; Characters: Joe, Tina, Katie, Kurt Additional Tags: Character Study, Minor Character Death, Found Family Summary: He was the more outgoing brother. He made a statement that way. Even if the statement was simply saying he liked to fish.

Vol.1: The Egg Thief - by dicelady20; WIP, 19/20, 75k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence; Category: F/M Fandoms: Dragon Ball GT/Z, Friends of Mineral Town Characters: Trunks Briefs, Claire the Farmer Additional Tags: Harvest Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Romance, Slow Burn, Martial Arts, Cussing, Crossover, Healing, city vibes, dark scenes, POV Multiple, POV Third Person Limited, Mild Gore, Supernatural Elements, First Meetings, story of seasons, Alternative Perspective, Don't copy to another website, Don't Have to Know Canon, To Be Continued Summary: Claire and Trunks are from two different worlds, both literally and metaphorically. Dragons, fairies, and nightmares (oh my!)? As their two worlds collide, what could possibly go wrong?

The Scientist and his Farmer - by Daryls_Favourite; WIP, 9/?, 9.7k

Rating: Not Rated; Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings; Category: F/M Fandoms: A Wonderful Life Relationship: Daryl/reader; Characters: Daryl, Rock, Muffy | Molly, Marlin | Matthew, Forgotten valley villagers, Reader Summary: You have been living in forgotten valley for a little under a year. Winter is underway and you need to keep your farm afloat whilst also trying to court a suitable spouse.

Only In My Imagination - by Perversions; Complete, 1/1, 2.4k

Rating: Explicit; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: M/M Fandoms: Pioneers of Olive Town Relationships: Clemens/Eiji; Characters: Clemens, Male Farmer Additional Tags: **NOTE: Some tags have been removed to remain Safe For Tumblr. Please see AO3 for full tag list** Imagination, Fantasy Sex, Unrequited Love, Unrequited Crush, Sex Toys, Eiji's got it bad, there's not enough fics for this fandom is there, Overstimulation, Dirty Talk, Clothed Sex, Naked Male Clothed Male, Making Love

Here You Come Again - by SeasonSuite; WIP, 17/?, 67k

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandoms: Trio of Towns Relationships: Female Farmer/Wayne, Minor or Background Relationship(s); Characters: Farmer, Wayne, Frank, Lisette, Ford, Ludus, Trio of Towns ensemble Additional Tags: Crushes, Falling In Love, Love, farming, Fluff, dolly parton references, Friends to Lovers, cowboy aesthetic, idiots to lovers, Day At The Beach, Flowers, Romance, My First Fanfic, Bonding, Feelings, Humor, Slow Build, Did I Mention Fluff, Angst Summary: On the first day of her new life, June meets a handsome, smooth-talking postman. Caught between his seemingly earnest words and his philandering reputation, she writes him off as bad news. Over the year, as June struggles to build her new farm, Wayne proves her wrong—then right—then wrong again. or, Westown's charming postman is known for being perfect, and he's usually happy to play the part. But when a new farmer tries to get to know the real him, Wayne learns that to be loved, he has to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.

Muffy’s Cucumber time - by Thefallen1986; Complete, 1/1, <1k

Rating: Explicit; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Fandoms: A Wonderful Life, HM DS Character: Muffy | Molly Additional Tags: **NOTE: Some tags have been removed to remain Safe for Tumblr. Please see AO3 for full tag list.** Food Kink, Food Sex, Improvised Sex Toys, Sexual Fantasy Summary: Muffy has some fun with the farmers latest crop.

[aotopmha]

My blog turned 8 years old today!

My activity on Tumblr started as an anon on @momtaku 's blog somewhere during the Uprising arc of Attack on Titan.

I was inspired to start a blog because I've always loved talking about/criticising media, I really started to enjoy the insight of a number of the content creators for the series and along with this interest, the series itself showed up at the right time and right place for me, being about themes I care about and having flaws that I found interesting, too.

At that time AoT didn't have the issues I ended up having with it (despite of which I still have a soft spot for it), but it ended up being a very important, even a somewhat formative series for me although I technically wasn't at a formative age anymore because it served as a proxy for me to develop my voice as someone who likes criticism.

Despite my issues with the story, I think there were moments and points where it was very moving and powerful and none of the issues that showed up later removed that for me.

If it wasn't for AoT, I would've never sought out certain perspectives, never met certain people or sought out certain pieces of media.

I only recently, about 7-8 years after finding AoT found a story that I simply *care* about this much, even if I think some other series do what AoT does better.

Above all AoT made me care deeply to the point I wrote 1000s and 1000s of words about it across 8+ years.

And so here I am 8 years later.

The same yet older and wiser and different. I'd argue much more patient and much more open-minded. Maybe a better writer.

And probably not even 10% of that growth was because of AoT, but I certainly feel it at least played a part and that is very rare for a piece of media for me.

Very few pieces of media I've consumed in life have prepetuated change in me personally, but I will eternally remember them and I think even if my relationship with them may change or maybe some outside influence might change my perspective of them (it's entirely possible Hajime Isayama might end up being a complete asshole for whatever reason instead of just making a few jokes that cross some lines or having a 9-10 year old tweet or blog post saying dumb shit that contradicts his own series), the good in them will stay with me forever.

But the most important detail of all in this is that I mostly had fun. My current issues with fandom don't extend to specific series, but rather the general internet space.

The nature of a lot of recent discussion in fandom just isn't that interesting for me.

Tribalistic competition between communities of series, equating depiction to approval, removing feelings from media disscussion, fear of depicting loss or failure, criticising characters for acting human at all – all of these discussion trends remove why I like media in the first place and make it all pretty uninteresting to me.

People are complicated and not always right and the conflict arising from being a person is what keeps me coming back to media.

That's the art I look for because that's what makes me care and draws me in.

Hey, if you like that kind of discussion, more power to you! But I just don't find it engaging or substantial.

I consume media mainly to think about various topics I find interesting, to think about life and feelings.

Sometimes a simple series with simple ideas is nice to chill to once in a while, but I often lose interest in those kinds of series because they remain simple and thus become repetitive in a very specific way.

And during these 8 years, this perspective is also something that I slowly refined. My basic beliefs as a human being haven't changed for a long time, but the nuances and specifics have. These years simply helped me define them better – what I believe in and what I look for.

And here's to many more years of analysis and thank you to everyone who likes my stuff!

[rennyji]

America, lets go to new heights...

On Super Tuesday 2024, Trump won. With Nikki Haley, I saw an America like the 1979 Spider-woman series On Disney+ i.e. people being part of the process or workings of American government. In the clip in the Twitter link (video uploaded to that site/as unable on Tumblr), Jessica Drew(Spider-woman & a reporter), her co-reporter, and her young nephew, are invited to go see a secret government base, to see the progress that the government is making with time travel. ( I know. Very Sci-Fi, but still...) Imagine if a regular American felt part of the workings of government. Wouldn't that make people feel valued/involved, and give them a sense of pride and accomplishment, through the achievements of their country's best and brightest representatives/scientists?

This is the link ( Tumblr has issue with embedding videos in posts, so I'm including this link with the clip I'm referring to. Because, again, its Tumblr, you might need to copy/paste link to your browser, if in case you can't just click it)

https://x.com/RennyJi/status/1765245684159017260?s=20

I posted the previous thought on Twitter because I really wish America would be transparent & inclusive of citizens, in decisions/progress, like with the inclusion of a teenager and two reporters, in the 1979 Spider-Woman cartoon.

I feel at the time of The Brady Bunch, like in the 60's and 70's, people felt pride in America, from a sense of belonging, in the workings of the country. Since then, the country's government and citizens, seems to be lanes apart/estranged.

But Nikki Haley lost the GOP primaries. She gave her speech, stating she's ending her campaign. I cannot imagine the grief, in losing over something she firmly believed could be achieved. I say "believe firmly" because she was out/about daily/all day. But while Trump spent most of his time in court cases, though Nikki Haley did campaign, regrettably, the message was predominantly: "ending chaos, Trump is chaos, let's return to normalcy." More of the feeling "was female empowerment" (which is great), but the feeling with Trump is "we're going to come back with a vengeance", which is incorrectly summed up, under the words "dictator & retribution." What Donald Trump means by "vengeance" is in terms of the ferocity in which he will assure success, in bringing back America, to some form of glory.

In my weird, surreal "SITUATION," during times, where fortunate people evolved with normal evolution of accomplishments, from news channels to White House Positions, like Nikki Haley herself,

I had a suspicion, my writing or my speech, in my house was heard.

I felt if I talked aloud in the dining room of my old house, people would "hear" my ideas, in the same way I'm now thinking, people are "reading" my ideas, as I'm writing, probably to myself.

In 2016, to an invisible crowd, I said Trump is the best option. I said aloud in my dining room, if he can find the best quality material, the best workers, the best lawyers (quality all around), he'll find the best way to Make America Great Again. And now, against all odds, facing-I think-91 criminal charges, Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination. One thing is for sure: Trump is a fighter and fighters do come back with a spirit of vengeance.

It's always through trial/error, with crazy things like talking to myself in my own house, that I find a cause/effect relation, between things like what's said/what could be heard.

When it comes to Trump and Biden, what pissed me off, personally, was that the most powerful men in the country, couldn't end my situation. Is it because it has some root with government/military?! I mean mind mind reading? Takes intelligence gathering to whole new levels.

-And doing it to me for around 16 years, while making me think I'm crazy.

Overturning Roe v. Wade, regarding Abortion, doesn't affect my life. Removing green jobs for coal jobs, doesn't affect me.

The Presidents help American prisoners in Russia. They help Israel. From Obama, to Trump, to Biden...I just don't get why no one helps me.

In Nikki Haley, I saw compassion/heart/spirit. Selfish though it is, after 16 years of confinement, with no life, no social contact, I thought maybe she could make a difference "for me."

Isn't what makes America great, the idea that even one American life is valuable?! Why don't I matter? I was born and raised in New York. Renny George is my actual name...what's the issue?!

Trump just came off as a guy who'll side with the powerful, big handed/tall/strong military men, probably doing "this" to "me."

But my issues aside,

at the stage we're in now, where its between Trump and Biden,

The choice is so obvious. You have to elect Trump. Only Trump makes sense.

Why?!

When people say: respect the flag, honor the military, it's a level of indoctrination. People need to be taught these things. But Donald Trump? People naturally gravitate towards him. His message doesn't get into specifics, but his inner fire is felt by America. He wants to come back with a vengeance.-Revenge for all the catastrophe and disruption in The States, though people read into it as something to spite other human beings.

On his aspiration on being a dictator "just day 1/the 1st day"? You can't misconstrue that or distort that. He didn't say "I'm going to be a dictator." What he means is "on day 1, I'm going to get to work, and, with utmost urgency, enact change, regardless of how lazy Congress is."

Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, all agree: country is on fire. I think during critical times, the Office of the Presidency has inherent elevated privileges.

I would always say, in my SITUATION, that I achieve the fruits of optimism, by taking the route of pessimism. I assume the worst, so nothing surprises me, which gives peace.

Likewise, perhaps the next President needs to be strong & decisive, like a dictator, to achieve the "fruits" of democracy, rather than harping on the "word": democracy. This is already happening, first, before America, in El Salvador. A dictator took charge in chaotic El Salvador, by name of Nayib Bukeles. He stopped crime by enforcing strict changes quickly, without remorse. And now his country's citizens are enjoying what's like democracy, or the fruits of democracy.

With all those gravitating to Trump, there is growing unity within the country. Maybe in this one small way, it's not bad that people don't care on what/how it's going to be done. People just want a guy who "gets the job "DONE." People want a guy that "JUST DOES IT." They're too preoccupied with their lives, and basically want to hire someone else, to clear their grievances/problems.

What could unity within a country do? What could minding our own business for a period accomplish, by not getting involved internationally? What could getting our own house in order do for our capability towards helping other nations, down the road? Green energy/jobs is the way to go. But in these urgent times, what if we did use gas, and drill in Alaska? But "simultaneously," it is imperative that you "actively" find renewable energy sources. Our lives may not depend on it, but the lives of our children and grandchildren will. We owe it to them, like a parent who sets up a house/education for their child's future. Today's America, needs to pave the way for tomorrow's citizens and green card holders.

While taking the time to get our house in order through Donald Trump, we need to follow Kevin McCarthy's advice about rebuild, restore, renew. But also definitely "retribution" in the sense of the fire that fuels us, in the sense of getting revenge against "THE TIMES" we're in, and rising from it.

Our houses need to stop using cheap materials like sheet rock, when the British use bricks. Heating costs/air conditioning costs need to come down. If electric cars are the way to go, we need rebates or vouchers or exchange programs that are government funded with for our current cars. (Like in Back to the Future II, where everyone gets a free Car HOVER conversion, in the spirit of modernization). We need an exchange program for dryers/washing machines. We need to better the United States Postal Service, as everyone knows they're unreliable and slow. We need to modernize infrastructure, in terms of homes, workplaces, and government buildings/attractions.

To Trump's credit, his speech on Super Tuesday was humble, good spirited, and...civil?-I felt in that moment, that I could talk to the guy, unlike the retard doctors, police, family, and orchestrators of my situation, who just spew nonsensical & random/mechanical one liners, in response/and oblivious to everything you tell them.)

Trump even did a little dance and made a couple of jokes.

There was one snide remark on COVID being the China virus. It risks retaliation against East Asians. Maybe it is a virus like SARs, rooted in China, if I remember correctly. Regardless, spend less time criticizing/pointing fingers, "just settle down and "solve the problem" ", as they say in the space program and movies about the space program. From solving one problem, jump to solving the next problem.

Yes, both Biden and Trump are old. But it's one of those quality vs quantity type of things. In terms of quantity, yes, both are similar in age. But quality? Trump's old age is a sign of an energetic, focused, willful, frontal cortex in his brain. Biden fumbles and stammers and looks like he's forced into pushing through, for another four years. He should Rest and relax and Gain satisfaction from time as Senator, Vice President, and now President. Biden? You've done it all. You're in your 80's-Play with your grandchildren.

Something that can be learned from Trump, these is a time to move/think fast/strategize vs. going about saying "feel good" speeches, shaking hands, holding babies. He didn't campaign. He put people in powerful positions, lawyers here/there, went to the right meetings/places; strategy. Maybe the times are urgent enough, to just acting quickly and strategically.

In the Bible, there is the story of the Tower of Babel.

The story has some conflicting messages. But one things certain: when people come together, speak 1 language, talk/listen/understand each other, work together, they can use building technologies from 2-3000 years ago, to build a tower, reaching the heavens/maybe even space.

-------

To step away from Trump for a moment:

(SIDENOTE: Why the tower was destroyed, and people scattered, and one language split into many? It would've hindered spiritual growth by having too much too early. People need to learn the value of working together and the value of learning from differences. Like the mind readers/mind controllers w/the fMRI's and brain mapping, people were trying to be a god, without mastering human decency and mental strength. We'd have been like stereotypical Reptilian aliens, who act on instinct and impulse, constantly seeking physical strength/power, instead of growing heart and having a conscience.)

-------

To get back to Trump:

Congress is divided. Everyone's trying to get their way by having side issues put into a package, advertising the dominant issue. Because of the side issues raising controversy, the dominant issue even gets cancelled/ignored. Under Trump alone, the Republican Party is united. Instead of stop gaps with pay and vacations, Congress might actually get something done under Trump's guidance. He can unite the country, and help us reach the sky, so that we'll at least be among the stars.

There are instances where I find myself just thinking and thinking. When I was in school and in a circle of endless pondering, a stimulant like coffee, gave me focus/tunnel vision of sorts, to break out of the loop and ACT not think. Trump seems to have mastered the art of ACTION, and if it's between him and Biden, electing Trump is obvious. We already have Biden's report card. There are areas he failed. Let's give Trump a chance to get an "A" in politics.

[goblinprincesss]

What’s Up Next For You In October? #pick a picture reading 🎃

Hey everyone! This is my first reading I’ll be posting on Tumblr yay! This was supposed to be put out earlier but my grandmother just had open heart surgery which has deeply impacted my family. There may be messages for you in more than 1 pile, so follow your intuition and pick which image(s) you feel most drawn to to :)

If you enjoy this reading please like, comment, reblog, share, and follow for more! This is also my first time giving a reading to people other than my family and friends, so be nice💀

⚠️DISCLAIMERS AND TRIGGER WARNING⚠️ Readings are for entertainment purposes only. Readings do not serve as a replacement for proper medical advice. Please remember that nothing is set in stone, and I am solely sharing what I think/feel based off of the energies I’m picking up at the current time of this reading. Keep in mind as well that this is a general reading, take what resonates and leave what doesn't! There is possibly triggering/mature content in this reading so proceed with caution, and take care of yourself<3 All images are from Pinterest.

Alright here are your choices:

Piles from top to bottom, left to right: 1, 2, 3

PILE 1 *trigger warning: mentions of dysfunctional families*

This month is going to be about giving your energy back to yourself and the areas in life that you may have been neglecting. You're definitely someone who has needed to prove your worth or constantly defend yourself which is SUPER DRAINING. I feel like because of this you've become consumed by what could happen in the future that you barley have time for yourself/self care. Eating comfort foods, going for a walk, doing hair/skin care, doing simple things that don't require a ton of planning, getting in touch with people if you've been putting it off could help to bring you back down from that constant place of anxiety/stress. It's also really important that you balance your personal time and your work life! That's not to say don't work hard but don't pile on things if you know it's unreasonable to manage and will interfere with time for yourself and loved ones. You're capable of many great things so don't discredit yourself or your life's work! I think it's great that you're able to stand up for yourself but remember that not every battle is worth fighting, and if you're always in a defensive place you could end up being stuck/not able to move forward, or trying to start something with someone else (i.e. arguing for the sake of arguing, while it can be fun it's not helpful AT ALL💀). Pay attention to how you feel, if a situation is getting out of hand or making you uncomfortable, walk away. This may feel like defeat or like you're letting people walk over you but respecting your boundaries and knowing your limits is the biggest win. If you are dealing with a mother figure (doesn't have to be a mother necessarily) and are having a difficult time, my heart goes out to you. Families are so complicated but like I said before: know your limits and remove yourself from the situation. You cannot control someone's behaviour and if their behaviour is harming you, reconsider how much time you spend with them. Ok, I know this seemed like a kinda sad reading, but!! This is just a time to re balance and get back in touch with what's important to you. Periods of reflection can be scary because we have to confront traumas but figuring out how to move past them will help you to feel so much more at peace with yourself. You have come very far in life and I'm extremely proud of you. I hope you have an amazing October and I wish you all the best. Oracle cards I pulled for advice: New Moon In Aries- It's time to take action South Node- Don't let your past hold you back Full Moon In Capricorn- The end of a tough cycle is approaching New Moon In Cancer- You and your loved ones are safe Channeled songs: Solita by Kali Uchis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWq9JCxnIA4 SANA SANA by Nathy Peluso- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pICv0qQIbeY

Pile 2 *trigger warning: mentions of substance abuse*

This month is going to be about revealing all that is hidden and changing unhealthy patterns. You may struggle with low self esteem which keeps the real you hidden from other people, lead you to abuse substances, or addictions of other sorts. I feel like naturally you're quite introverted so you also might have difficultly trusting people. If you're dealing with the misuse of substances please reach out to a healthcare professional and know that there's nothing to be ashamed of! We all handle issues differently. It's also important that you remember that you have to trust yourself before you can trust others. If you're feeling fragile, you should ground yourself by spending time in nature or maybe working out to make your body stronger. Make sure to eat foods that will nurture your body, and when facing decisions make the choice that will benefit your future self (i.e. instead of watching TV, you could do some cleaning around the house). Your body could also be trying to right itself/cleanse itself so don't be surprised if you start feeling under the weather; keep drinking water and eating foods such as oranges to help you combat this. I feel like you know in your heart what's right but you just need a little nudge in the right direction. If you're having very vivid dreams pay attention to them and decipher what they could mean, and listen to what your body is telling you. It might be helpful to go to therapy to work through your problems other than possible addictions. You don't have to fix anything or everything- changes just have to be made and that's completely normal. Towards the end of the month you'll be more at peace and have more of a sense of who you are and where you want to go from here on out. Small habits can make big differences, you'll be surprised at the changes that will happen when you modify your habits! And there's nothing wrong with having fun but make sure you do so in a responsible way and surround yourself with people who care about your well being. Don't be afraid of how awesome you are and how even MORE awesome you can be. I wish you all the best! Oracle cards I pulled for advice: South Node- Don't let your past hold you back Full Moon In Gemini- The answers you need are coming Waxing Moon- The energy is gaining momentum Full Moon In Scorpio- It's time to release negativity Waning Moon- What do you need to release? Channeled songs: Get Free by Lana Del Rey- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axRMZqUNVEw Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQetemT1sWc

PILE 3

This month is going to be about major positive shifts and travel! I think this pile has had enough of their stifling environment and you could've had a huge realization that you need change NOW and you're the only one that can make that happen. You might be moving to a new country or somewhere completely different from where you've been living (some of you could still be living in the town/city of you were born in). Some of you may even be taking a vacation to somewhere that has the total opposite climate to where you're living, which will be super energizing. Whether you're moving to a new place or taking a trip, you'll encounter many adventures and you'll make connections with people that will last a life time. I also think that these experiences will help you realize what you want to do with your life. As well, spending time with these people will bring you opportunities to explore your career options and could possibly help land you your dream job! Out of all of these piles, I feel like you're the most ready to make big life decisions, and you realize that not taking the reigns of your life will get you nowhere. You are so DETERMINED to make things work! Some of you may be single parents, care takers, or social activists, and this makes me believe that it's not just about things being good for you but also helping others because you understand the importance of family and community. Adventuring and learning new things nurture your soul so if you've been meaning to pick up a new hobby or wanting to discover new hiking trails, now's the perfect time! Honestly, if you've felt as if 2022 has been one of the worst years ever, October is DEFINITELY a turning point. This pile has given my such a surge of energy like I can feel the excitement coursing through my whole body. You are 100% ready to start this new chapter in your life. I'm wishing you all the best! Oracle cards I pulled for advice: Full Moon In Aquarius- Show the world the real you Waxing Crescent Moon-Have faith in your dreams New Moon In Taurus-Prosperity Lies Ahead New Moon In Sagittarius- Luck is on your side Channeled songs: Barracuda by Heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeMvMNpvB5M Midnight Sky by Miley Cyrus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2XDhfOjkVs

[sunfoxfic]

i feel like my main problem with ml salt is that its (for lack of a better word)...sort of a weird, malicious reading of characters?

like marinette being a little unhinged or not being able to tell whats going on with adrien´s personal life means shes a shallow stalker whos an abuse apologist rather than just a gag or a simple conflict for story purpouses.

or adrien being oblivious or goofing off during battles means that hes simply pretending not to notice or being a careless fool who doesn´t care about the well being of others.

and alya´s enthusiasm for marinette means shes peer-pressuring her and not being able to write perfect journalism at 14 makes her deceitful or a misinformist.

i could go on and on. (the amount of heat for luka in wishmaker/ephemeral while it was just conflict to get the narrative moving along baffles me.)

(sorry if this is poorly phrased).

No you're absolutely right. Salt to me has become synonymous with this stubbornness to let characters grow. There's differing definitions of salt — "over critical character bashing" seems to be the main one, but the issue with that definition is that it's kinda predicated on the idea that salters know what they're doing. And a lot of them do! That's why tags like "Marinette salt" are maintained, because salters use that as a way to label their own content. But a lot of salt is just straight-up unaware, and that's where the definition gets dicey. (I also see people tagging, like, "Gabriel salt" for criticism against his character, which also deteriorates the definition. Is it overly critical to criticize a terrorist and child abuser?)

I'm not gonna go on too much about Luka salt because that's the one salt that really gets me riled, which is because it's just so fucking pervasive. There's no solid "community" that I know of, aside from moderated salt-free fandom zones (so mostly Discord servers) that's free of Luka salt and Adrien salt. I know I made a couple posts today about not assuming the worst of Lukanette stans, but there is a pretty sizeable community of Lukanette stans who are Adrien salters. And then more and more the mainstream ML analysis community on Tumblr is anti-Luka, which is ridiculous to me. (I should make a more proper post deconstructing Luka salt, but jsdfa. This is not the space.)

But you're right. Salt fics generally take caricatures of characters at their worst moments and blow those way out of proportion, and then salters straight-out reject canon when it gives them evidence of the opposite. Alya is a pushy friend in the NY Special and Mr. Pigeon 72, so everything she does in Hack-San trying to convince Marinette not to give her the Ladybug, and everything she did in Optigami trying to clean up the mess, and everything she did in Sapotis where she kept Marinette out of it — that doesn't mean anything. At best, it's out of sight and out of mind of these salters; at worst it's out of character. Same for Marinette and Adrien and Luka; same for all of the characters who get heat.

Then there's the issue of Felix and, in particular, Lila, where they're actually presented as villainous, but many people either take that villainy to an extreme (in Lila's case, often falling back on sexist stereotypes) and refuse interpretations of her where they have more depth. I think in some ways that has to do with people's resistance to the sentiFelix theory after Gabriel Agreste aired: they didn't want a version of him where he had depth. They wanted the flat caricature of a villain we were presented in Felix, and anything more than that was bullshit.

(We now have more information available about Felix, obviously, and I'd currently classify him as a sympathetic villain more than anything. Very much villainous after everything he's done, but for reasons that make sense, with logic you can track. Removing the apparent context of why he does what he does, to me, is salt; it's a refusal to engage with what is presented in good faith.)

So yeah. If I had to define salt as anything, it would be exactly what you describe: A bad faith reading of the characters. If they do something bad, they are bad, and there is no way they can get better. Often this comes hand in hand with a bad faith interpretation of the writers, which means that salters refuse to acknowledge that the writers could write the characters to be better. This is why so many salty fics are built on the premise of "here's what Miraculous Ladybug would be if it were actually a good TV show."

(Spoiler alert: I doubt that the best, most-non-salty fanwriter in the world could write a decent rewrite of ML into a fic. This has nothing to do with the fact that the show doesn't need to be rewritten — there are absolutely parts that could be rewritten, or more specifically expanded. I would love to see a rewrite of specific episodes — Chat Blanc and Ephemeral come to mind, Mega Leech, Rocketear. But the format of ML does not lend itself to fiction — if you want to write ML in prose, you need to completely change the way it's told.)

[seesgood]

can we very gently talk about call out posts / culture really quick?  not in a judgmental way, but in like a: i just want to pose a thought and explain why i’m never going to buy into it and why i wish it would become less of a trend instead of more of one? and i’ll add the  disclaimer  here: i totally get not wanting certain people around you for various reasons, that is all your prerogative. that’s your comfort level. but in emphasizing “your blog should be a safe space” we’re kind’ve losing sight of the fact that the rpc should also be a safe space, and as much as your comfort and safety matter, so do other people’s. and not just the person who hurt you, but the third parties and other mutuals and 99.9% of people who are not at all involved in any way in whatever happened. so, anyway here goes, read it or don’t, we all have different opinions or reasons, i just want to be heard:

people are allowed to change.  think back to who you were last year. two years ago. think about the stuff you said when you were seventeen, or twenty-one, or hell whatever age you were. current-you would probably cringe at the kind of stuff past-you had to say. because you grew. you learned. you had life experiences. in hindsight you have the freedom to be like “oof yeah that was not the best version of myself right there damn i don’t want to be like that again.” the growing trend of ‘here’s a 10+ page google doc complete with out of context screenshots that sometimes date back to like 2017 or earlier’ makes this kind of change impossible. because right there, you’ve just frozen a person in time, probably not at their best, removed any and all amounts of context, and put it on the internet and let other people judge it for themselves. 

so that leads into another point that i want to just kinda present to the community at large: the act of documenting behaviors and storing them for months / years at a time, in itself creates a super unsafe environment, not just for you, your friends, the people who have hurt you --- but also for anyone else that isn’t at all involved in whatever happened. like, for example, i like to think that i’m a pretty nice person. i actively try to be a nice person. am i sometimes not having the best day? have people definitely caught me in bad moments? oh hell yeah. but am i, as someone who tries really hard to be nice and welcoming, constantly thinking through every message i send to someone knowing that a) i could have a reputation that makes them read into context that isn’t there and that could contribute to them misinterpreting words i meant in a different way, b) very aware that every post i make, ask i send, message i send can at any moment be screenshotted and posted and taken out of context and either serve as someone’s only opinion of me or pile on to someone’s existing opinion of me? yeah. so in my experience, and based on people i’ve talked to, we now have this thing where you can be surface-friends wtih a lot of people, but if you want to survive in the tumblr rpc you should really only have 2-3 people that you really trust that you can actually talk about shit with. 

and lately i’ve been seeing a resurgence of posts on my dash about like “bring back xyz in the rpc” or “the reason the rpc is like this is because of xyz” and i both agree and disagree with a lot of this, but primarily i think the reason the rpc is Off lately is because everyone and their cousin has a DNI, which is --- again --- your decision and i understand and respect that, but while you know the context of every name on that DNI, other people don’t. and to be honest: other people don’t really care and honestly maybe they shouldn’t care. --- and don’t get me wrong, your friends should care if someone has hurt you. that’s important. but joe billy bob who just wants to write their character with yours is going to read through your rules, they’re going to see “do not interact with me if you follow with or interact with these people you’ve never heard of and if you want me to tell you why just message me” (which no one is ever going to do, i’m sorry to say). and say, joe billy bob also followed that other person because they were like ‘omg this blog looks cool’ --- now joe billy bob, who just wants to write cool plots, is suddenly the middle-man in some type of drama that they do not understand, and maybe they’re able to remove themselves from the situation, but even then it’s still in the back of your mind. 

this is getting long. it’ll be longer, but let’s take a brief break for me to remind you that in some cases, it’s definitely good to give your mutuals and friends a heads up when someone has done something really, really bad. like, remember x amount of years ago when some dude was like ‘i’m gonna make up a new person and say they died by suicide as a social experiment’ or ‘hey this person actively tries to force very triggering plots about abuse / rape / incest onto people and has been doing so for years and does not seem to change their ways no matter how many people try to educate them’ that’s shit people should probably know about. and it’s also okay ( in my opinion ) for your friends to be able to message you like ‘hey i saw you’re writing with x and i just wanted to let you know i had this experience with them’ if that’s something they feel comfortable doing. and if they are comfortable with you still having the autonomy to make your own decision regarding the person. 

i’ll be honest, for a second: i’ve been part of friendships and groups that have turned really toxic for one reason or another. a handful of times. there are probably people out there that are like “yeah this chick is really fake and manipulative and etc, i was friends with her back in 2019″ which, okay. yeah. i’ve definitely done shit and said shit that was not the most representative of who i want to be and who i want to become, and you probably have to. because we are human beings and we are a product of our social groups and the community around us. and you shouldn’t be chained to a version of you that isn’t you anymore. people change. they grow. you don’t have to like them, but you should respect that sometimes people don’t mesh, and that doesn’t mean any of them are bad people, it just means the experience was bad. 

a few additional notes i would like to make but i’ve already gone on way too long:

90% of the callout posts that i’ve seen and the DNI’s that i’ve seen can, in my opinion, be classified as a friend group thing. you were friends with x, x did something, now y and z aren’t friends with x anymore. pain is a very, very real thing and people hurting you should never be minimized, but at some point i just want you to remember that not every friendship is going to end happily, but both you and the other party should be allowed to move on and grow better, healthier friendships after. rehashing Friend Group Gone Wrong instances removes that ability for not only person x, but also person y and z.

you putting out a callout says just as much ( maybe more ) about you than it does about the other person. which sucks. because i’d like to think we all have great intentions, and i’m not saying that you should swallow your pain, but it might not be the kind of thing that impacts the community at large, and maybe you should try to find a better way of working through it with a trusted friend(s)

i’m going to be very real and very blunt on this one: literally no one cares. i say that with love. i’m good friends with people who have each other on their DNI’s. establish a baseline of respect and ‘i’m not going to say anything to them about you and vice versa because there’s no need for me to do so’ and move on. but seriously. no one cares. most outside people read callout posts because they like being in the know about the drama, not because they actually care. 

person a and person b who are mentioned in the DNI / callout aren’t the only ones who are going to be affected. your friends, your mutuals, your writing partners are now all put in a weird spot where you have to pick sides on an issue you know nothing about and shouldn’t have to know anything about. you’re asking people to choose sides on an issue they cannot fully understand, and that’s not fair to them or to you. and it drives great people away. and then we all lose out on having more awesome people in the rpc.

you’re entitled to your safe space, but this is a public platform and you are also responsible for maintaining your safe space. you shouldn’t put it entirely on other people to do that for you. you can block, blacklist, make up funny names for, or spitefully erase from your many anything and anyone that you wish. but you shouldn’t make your friends do it for you.

there’s always an inherent power imbalance when any kind of drama occurs between those who have more followers / friends / connections and those who do not. and the smaller blog is always going to suffer a little bit more because they don’t have people blindly coming to their defense. 

bad moments, bad experiences, bad decisions DO NOT equal bad people. 

allow people to make up their own mind about something or someone

anywho, if you read through this whole thing i think i owe you financial compensation. but also thank you for reading / listening / considering. even if you rolled your eyes through the whole thing like “stfu lia” that’s fine. i’m just presenting an alternative thought. i’d like to once again state: i’m not judging you if you’ve made a callout/DNI or if you’re on a callout/DNI. like i literally don’t care. and frankly, in my opinion, i shouldn’t have to. because i, and you, and your friends, and your mutuals, and your non-mutuals should be allowed the space to make up their own opinion and mind on something or someone without being told that there will be consequences if they don’t agree with you. set boundaries. communicate in healthy ways. you don’t have to forgive the people who have hurt or wronged you, but you also don’t get to decide that their actions make up 100% of who they are as a person, or decide that that is the only side of that person people should get to see. 

[traincat]

I’ve been trying to piece together a few things from your Twitter and Tumblr posts alike and still can’t make heads or tales of things, so would you mind helping out a FF & spideytorch noob? 1) what is currently happening with Johnny in the comics? (I’ve fallen head over heels for this guy, largely all your doing) 2) when’s the last time he and Peter have interacted, canon wise? (And do you think upcoming interactions are likely?) 3) your thoughts on if they’ll have him come out in the near future? (has that ‘biggest change to the fantastic four’ teaser come to pass yet?) Love all your content, thank you!

I'd say no problem but then I started thinking about this current run again and got a headache. But yes, I can do that to save you from reading it, because it is very largely not good.

So I don't think it's unfair to just flat out say the current Fantastic Four run is not very good, largely due to writer Dan Slott's efforts. Slott was previously on Amazing Spider-Man for 10 years, to mixed opinions, but a large portion of Spider-Man fandom, myself included, blames him near singlehandedly for the decline in quality of Spider-Man books over those ten years. I will say, in the interest of fairness, that Slott as a writer has an incredible fondness for the Spider-Man/Human Torch relationship, and that a lot of the recent teamups and interactions between them have been written or co-written by him. So it's all not all negative here. But in general, I personally find Slott's more recent comics (the last seven-ish years especially) to be badly plotted out, messily characterized disasters that feature characters written with all the emotion of a cardboard cutout. That's me putting it nicely.

To explain this fully, you have to understand the position Fantastic Four comics were in from the years 2015 through 2018, both in the fictional 616 universe and in the real publishing world. Following the 2015 Secret Wars event (great if you want some Johnny angst in the background of your plot), the Fantastic Four were disbanded -- Reed, Sue, and their many biological and found family children were presumed dead but in reality were remaking the multiverse, unable, for a reason that was never clearly defined, to reach home. Ben and Johnny were left on Earth. They had an unspecified falling out, likely due to Reed and Sue's absence, and went their separate ways -- Ben joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and went to space. Johnny was featured on both Inhumans and Avengers books. What's notable about this period is that it's the first time since 1961 that there was no Fantastic Four book being published by Marvel. Now the real world reason behind this is both complicated and extremely petty: Marvel really wanted the Fantastic Four film rights. Marvel denied this explanation at the time, stating that the reason was sales motivated, but it was a thoroughly flimsy excuse and Jonathan Hickman, writer of 2015's Secret Wars and overseer of the current X-Men plot, gave an interview saying the decision was film rights motivated. This decision kept the Fantastic Four books off the shelves for three years, up until the Disney-Fox merger, which secured the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights for Disney's Marvel Studios. Marvel then announced that the Fantastic Four book would be returning. So that's a little bit of background as to the precarious place the Fantastic Four currently occupy in the Marvel universe -- it's worth noting that this year is their 60th anniversary, and Marvel has done very little for it. Compare this to the X-Men, whose film rights Marvel also obtained during the Disney-Fox merger, and whose books are currently dominating the publishing lineup. The Fantastic Four definitely occupy an unpopular position, one Marvel themselves is at least partially responsible for forcing them into.

But to move back into the actual content of the book -- the readjustment period Slott wrote reintroducing the Fantastic Four into the Marvel universe can be described as clumsy, at best. It's never fully explained why Reed, Sue, and the kids couldn't return to Earth, something that was explored in Chip Zdarsky's 2017 Marvel Two-in-One, which featured Ben, Johnny, and Doom on a multiversal roadtrip to try and find their family and which I on the whole recommend, despite it having an awkward ending due to being cut short by Slott's announced Fantastic Four main title.

(Marvel Two-in-One 2017 #4)

Instead, the Fantastic Four return to a Marvel universe a little different than how they left it, with the Baxter Building -- formerly the offices of Parker Industries, the company Doc Ock started in Peter's body during Superior Spider-Man that Peter inherited after his defeat and then lost spectacularly when he trashed his own company to fight nazis (good for him) -- occupied by a different fantastic foursome in a plot that goes nowhere and does nothing. This is somewhat emblematic of the early days of Slott's run -- he introduces ideas that fail to go anywhere, including Johnny's rekindled relationship with his other best friend and former college roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot, who he was seen being very cuddly with in the early issues.

(FF 2018 #1) A small group of Fantastic Four fans have argued for a while that if Marvel was to have Johnny come out, a relationship with Wyatt would feel very natural -- they're already close, with Wyatt being an important Fantastic Four supporting character since the '60s. I have some further analysis here on the conspiracy theory that Johnny and Wyatt were supposed to be in relationship at the beginning of this run but that that plot was, for whatever reason, nixed. I don't know that I entirely believe this theory, for the record -- but I do think the pieces line up remarkably well.

Anyway, that didn't/hasn't yet happened, obviously. Slott instead for the most part put Johnny on the back burner for the beginning of his run, up until the Spyre arc, which I have reason to believe is the main story he pitched that he credits with securing him the Fantastic Four title. The Spyre arc suggests that the Fantastic Four's failed space exploration during which they got their powers wasn't just to beat the commies to the moon, as Lee and Kirby envisioned (simpler days), but to reach a specific planet outside of our galaxy. When the team sets out to conquer this mission, they arrive at the planet, but are quickly captured. The planet, they find out, operates like a soulmate AU -- everyone has a fated person that they are matched to via a gold armband. Reed and Sue are soulmates (and Ben is confined to an underground subterranean with the other monsters, because this is a Fantastic Four comic) while it's discovered! Shocker! That Johnny is actually the soulmate of the one the planet's inhabitants, a winged woman named Sky, with the suggestion that this is both why Johnny's previous relationships have never worked and why he loves space exploration -- he was just trying to get to his Soulmate TM.

(FF 2018 #15) "What's going on here? Where are my clothes?" As you can see, this didn't start off super great, with Johnny being separated from his family, stripped naked, and put in Sky's bed with a soulmate armband slapped on him. Did I mention they're only removable if your soulmate takes it off for you? And that Sky has consistently refused despite Johnny asking her to? Yeah. It's bad. (I think it's important to note Johnny's long history as a victim of assault plays into this narrative, whether or not Slott is personally holding that in mind while writing, which I don't believe he is. cw in the linked post for discussions of sexual assault.) There's an additional issue here in that Slott has a history of problematic writing regarding women of color, featuring characters he's created to act as love interests being oversexualized, infantilized, villainized, or some mix of all three, with two examples of this phenomena being Cindy Moon and Lian Tang, both of whom he introduced in quick succession in Amazing Spider-Man. Slott certainly didn't have to write Sky as manipulative or controlling towards Johnny, but that's what he chose to do, and that factors into the bigger picture of unfortunate themes in his writing.

Sky returns to Earth with the Fantastic Four despite Johnny appearing unenthused about the idea and initially generally reluctant to interact with her. Apparently they went on a few dates after this and kind of made up. I don't know because I stopped reading for about ten issues in there but I feel confident I missed very little. It's hard to talk about the Sky plot without referencing Johnny's previous interactions with a character named Lyja, a Skrull whose relationship to Johnny I have a long breakdown of here. It's doubly hard, because Lyja actually showed back up in Fantastic Four during this plot. Lyja's modus operandi has remained consistent throughout almost all of her appearances, which I guess makes sense, because she literally has no storylines that do not involve her being obsessed with Johnny, and this recent story isn't any different: Lyja shows up, Lyja disguises herself as another woman in Johnny's life to get close to Johnny, Lyja gets caught and claims it was all fine because she did it for love. This time she disguised herself as Sky.

(FF 2018 #32) Not gonna lie, kind of proud of him for this one. That's one of my problems with Slott -- very occasionally, he busts out good moments, only to undermine them with the rest of his narrative.

In the same issue, Alicia Masters, the first woman Lyja impersonated in order to get close to Johnny, uses her supervillain stepfather's radioactive clay to control Lyja's mind and send her back to space, and I do think she utilized girl power when she did this. Johnny, left reeling after Lyja's latest attempts to trick him into a relationship, ends this issue by sleeping with Victorious, Dr. Doom's right hand woman.

I know she pegged him. I know it. This scene was a little controversial in Johnny fandom, because a lot of people viewed it as Johnny cheating on Sky and thought that that action was out of character for Johnny. I'm personally of a little different opinion, which is that regardless of whether or not you view Johnny and Sky in a committed enough relationship that Johnny's tryst would count as infidelity when all Johnny and Sky are bound by are magic plot soulmate bracelets, I think Lyja's involvement changes things significantly when it comes to Johnny's characterization. All of Johnny's "playboy" periods, if we can call them that, coincide directly with Lyja having been in and then left his life again, which I think makes a certain amount of sense -- it's Johnny trying to wrest control back after a situation where he had none. None of this is explicitly canon, I have to note, but sometimes in comics you have to do the work yourself. So I think this is a case of something being accidentally extremely in character that Slott accidentally stumbled into because he had these love triangles in mind, not because he put a lot of thought into it.

Speaking of love triangles! Johnny sleeping with Victorious gets more complicated when Dr. Doom announces his intent to marry Victorious -- not because he has any romantic interest in her (this engagement caused a lot of uproar in Fantastic Four because Victorious had been previously referred to as being like Doom's adopted daughter) but in order to install her as Latverian regent in his absence. I'm not going to lie, I love a political wedding. Victorious, for some reason, thinks Doom will be deeply upset that she slept with some closeted blond twink and the member of the Fantastic Four he views least as an enemy and more as an annoyance. Johnny, who Sky is currently not talking to because she "felt" him sleeping with Victorious through their magic plot soulmate bracelets, also feels nervous about Doom finding out about this, which I guess is slightly more valid. Anyway, for some completely ridiculous reason, Victorious decides the best time to tell Doom about this little indiscretion is when they're standing at the altar, which coincidentally the Fantastic Four are also standing at, because Doom asked Reed to be his best man in a not at all homoerotic little setup involving midnight swordfighting and Reed slipping Doom's emerald ring onto his own finger. Sorry to sidetrack into DoomReed territory here but it's just like. It's just a lot.

(FF 2018 #33) Also, Ben walked the bride down the aisle. :,) Look at his gigantic hand.

Anyway then Doom decides he's going to kill everyone in a completely reasonable and not at all overblown reaction to Johnny and Zora having what was most likely both disappointing for Zora and weepy for Johnny sex. And that brings us up to where Fantastic Four comics left us yesterday -- in answer to your "big change" question, that's most likely coming up in the next issue, so it hasn't come to pass yet.

Having gotten all that out of the way -- the last time Johnny and Peter interacted canon-wise was in the recent Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four, at the end of the Empyre event:

It was cute! Slott does right good interactions between them. This is possibly the Stockholm Syndrome talking. I don't know if more interactions are likely imminent -- the Empyre event was fairly recent. On the other hand, Slott does like writing interactions between them. So I'd give it about a 50/50 shot. I was skimming the letter page in the latest issue and someone wrote in asking if Peter was likely to appear in the pages of Fantastic Four again any time soon, so there is definitely a demand.

As for Johnny coming out -- I don't know. It's not a call I feel comfortable making at this moment, which I guess means I wouldn't bet money on it. I'd like to say yes, especially because I think Slott set up, whether that was his intention or more likely not, several good places in his run where Johnny could have come out. The beginning, when he's implied to be living with Wyatt again and where he and Wyatt are paralleled against Ben and Alicia. Ben's bachelor party, where Johnny laments not finding the right person -- specifically person and not woman -- and where Ben tells him to "be brave, Johnny Storm." And the soulmate planet plot, where I think could have had a very different and much better ending if Johnny had told Sky that she couldn't be his romantic soulmate, because he knows he wants to be with a man. But those are just places that I think would have made good opportunities for a coming out story. Instead, Johnny's been involved (dubiously) with three different women over the space of the last 10 issues, which is more heterosexuality at one time than he's been confronted with in the last 60 years. So my thoughts are still that it's going to happen eventually, but quite possibly not anytime soon.

Hope that helps! And that my incredibly long answer about what's currently going on with Johnny in comics sheds some light on things!

[the-ghost-king]

the term malewife isn’t a very nice term to use...

A man who acts as a wife and is inferior to his #girlboss girlfriend.

Person A: I just got myself a malewife. He's gonna clean my kitchen and watch me download custom content for the sims.

Person B: Sweet! You must be such a girlboss

^^urban dictionary. It’s just confirming to the sexist stereotypes that perceive and expectation of what a wife should act like. It’s quite harmful

It's a parallel to girlboss which is conformity to the sexism within corporate America:

"it becomes inescapably clear that when women center their worldview around their own office hustle, it just re-creates the power structures built by men, but with women conveniently on top. In the void left after the end of the corporate feminist vision of the future, this reckoning opens space to imagine success that doesn’t involve acing performance reviews or getting the most out of your interns." (here)

The word girlboss comes from a book quite literally called #girlboss, in parallel to the negative aspects of this book people eventually rebranded the term "malewife" to parallel it (malewife was originally an nsfw type thing)

In the malewife/girlboss "system" it's essentially the swapping of the problematic aspects, expectations, and socialization of men and women within a relationship

"Girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep" was a meme started to pick on the idea that women should become men and enforce the sexism within corporate society, and I'm sure it was a jab at the book the word came from as well.... "Manipulate, mansplain, malewife" was created to parallel the original meme

So yeah, the whole concept is mocking sexism within corporations and and modern relationships and showing how ridiculous it is. Girlboss mocks the idea of 2014 (largely) white feminism within America.

In example the original meme (created on Twitter) is intended to make mockery of Karen-types:

On January 12th, 2021, Tumblr user missnumber1111 posted, "today’s agenda: gaslight gatekeep and most importantly girlboss," garnering over 43,500 notes in a month (shown below). On that day, Twitter user @CUPlDL0VE posted, "my agenda is gaslight gatekeep and #girlboss," the first instance of the phrase on Twitter.

And a day later on January 13, 2021 Tumblr user a-m-e-t-h-y-s-t-r-o-s-e reblogged the post along with a photoshopped image of "Live, Laugh, Love" wall art instead reading, "Gaslight every moment, Gatekeep every day, Girlboss beyond words" (shown below). On January 18th, the image was reposted to Twitter for the first time.

Malewife doesn't hold those same implications however... The term malewife which is now being used to parallel girlboss achieves it's origins from p*rn, now I'm not an nsfw blog or someone who blatantly discusses nsfw concepts on my blog so I'm not getting super into it but there's a few places it comes from: femdom, bdsm, and feminization kinks... All of which have a connection to queerness in their own right but I don't feel comfortable going into the complexities of that with so many younger people following me.

On February 15th, Tumblr user @relelvance posted, "Manipulate, mansplain, malewife" as a male-themed opposite to "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss," garnering over 27,000 notes in four days. The post was screenshotted and reuploaded by Twitter user @nortoncampbell on the same day, garnering over 14,200 likes and 2,800 retweets in the same span of time (shown below).

Urban dictionary's explaination of "malewife" is not only harsher than what malewife was intended to mean, but also removes the context of origin from the word- making it something new, different, and erasing the history of who originally used this word.

Because of Malewifes origins vs Girlboss origins, malewife is a less problematic term than girlboss and is more "affectionate" because the term malewife and it's use (up until recently) involved the man acknowledging that he wanted to be the "wife" in his relationship. There's a variety of reasons someone might do this, but it can generally be summed up as a mixture of personality and also personal wants.

I do think it's important to also note that although these words are being "glamorized slightly" they're still intended and being used in a memeing manner, but they're also used to quickly denote arbitrary traits in an individual and categorize those traits...

Although there's lots of conversations to be had for a variety of reasons about the origin and use of the word "girlboss" in relation to sexism, up until recently the world "malewife" was something claimed by men, something men wanted to be called, and something that men who used the term wanted to reference them.

Malewife is about "stepping-up" to "take on" "female" social roles, and it's something that at least some women would be happy to see in society:

"...We have been told that we can have it all, but so far we have noticed that it is extremely hard work having it all, because you still have to do everything that your mother did but now you have to do everything your father did as well. Except that your father had your mother waiting at home with a gin and tonic and his slippers when he came home from work, and you have the washing up and the shopping and a few screaming brats as well as a bloke with his feet up on the sofa watching the football... " (via. Victoria Mary Clarke)

And I don't think that she's wrong at all. Women are still expected to do so much more than men in society without equal reward.

Malewife exists as a a sort of fantasy removed from the truth of society. It's an idea that a husband can be waiting at home to care for his wife, and in this instance it benefits the woman- unlike Clarke's situation above, the woman comes home from a long day and is able to relax without the pressures of society and her life.

Where housewife is a word that holds its origins in forced subservience, malewife is a term that is showcasing men "picking up the torch" in regards to housework- where housewife is socially forced, and girlboss is reversed social compliance, malewife is the rejection of social expectations.

Malewife is about men finding a place in their life's and relationships to make themselves more than a paycheck. To say "I can be emotionally there for my spouse, I can clean a toilet, and drive kids to school, and I don't treat my spouses wants as something expendable". In a society in which men are often demeaned, mocked, and scorned for picking up socially female roles (say hello to misogyny and gendered contamination!)

The Urban dictionary definition, is not only too harsh- but not the way in which the word is intending to be used, because that's ignoring the origins of this word, and the fact that men had a choice in becoming malewifes where women didn't have that choice. It should read more like:

Person A: Ah yeah, I have a malewife waiting for me, he's going to clean my kitchen because I've had a hard day at work and need a break, and then he's going to watch me download custom content for the Sims because I enjoy the game so much and it helps me take a break from life!

Women's wants were often ignored in favor of men's wants, so by the malewife saying he's going to watch his spouse play the Sims, he's really saying "I care about her interests" and by him picking up the kitchen cleaning after she's had a stressful day he's saying "I have a lower stress job so I can handle that for her and make her life a little easier" (because malewife doesn't mean he doesn't have a job).

In a society in which a man's worth is tied to his ability to bring home money and be emotionally distant, malewife is the rejection of this norm. Malewifes are going to be there for their spouse, they're going to step up and take on traditionally women's roles and they're doing it because they want to, because they like it, and because dividing chores into pink vs blue is wrong.

I also want to say, you can't flip a word around and say it does "this" because that's not how it works... Men and women are forcibly socialized in very different ways, the two binaries have very different treatment, and expectations within societies social constructs. If you could flip the forms of oppression that men vs women face (because yes, the patriarchy oppresses men) then you could also flip the forms of violence faced by trans masculine people vs trans feminine people- but that doesn't work either, because women will always be oppressed in the most public way to "make an example of them" while the patriarchy expects anyone who is male to "keep his mouth shut and fall in line". (I know that's worded poorly, but I've just written at least a couple hundred words and my brain is a bit fried already from various other things today- basically anyone perceived female or male will be treated in a certain way as a result of others perception of them)

Anyhow, all this isn't to say that the term "malewife" is inherently free of any form of flaw ever... Malewife is a newly mainstream word, it wasn't popularized until February 15 of 2021... So?? 5 days ago?? The origins of malewife and the social implications of malewife combined with the history of the word, don't make the word bad or impressive and it's not "upholding the ideals of a housewife" but instead a word which provides men freedom from male social expectations.

Can the word malewife come to be a word which enforces expected female social behavior? Yeah it absolutely can become a word to mean that, erase the history from the word, and give it to someone who doesn't know the history of the word, and someone who doesn't have an intimate understanding of gender theory, and you've got a recipe for hundreds more asks like the one you've sent me...

I can't find a single positive reason to use the word girlboss in an empowering way, but I can find more reasons to use the word malewife in an empowering way than not to do so.

So at the very least if all you come away from this with is that I don't personally use the word malewife to uphold female social expectations in a relationship but instead I use this word to provide space for guys to be allowed to be feminine, soft, caring, emotionally present, and worth more than their monetary value, then I guess that's okay.

[science-hoes]

Warming Up - Jimmy Woo x Reader Smut

Jimmy Woo x Reader Smut (18+ only)

Words: 2k+

A/N: I have done it. I wrote the first (based on my searches) Jimmy Woo smut for tumblr. I love this man so much. He needs to be appreciated. Anyway, this is a really cheesy scenario but I neeeed the *spicy* content. I’ll probably write more Jimmy Woo x Reader because this man has taken over my life. Also this was my celebration post for 1k followers 🥳

Warnings: SMUT (18+), unprotected sex, cheesy scenario, language

You had been in cold weather before, but it had never been this cold. Fuck. It was painful to walk back to the resting quarters as the slight breeze chilled your bones. Monitoring the town of Westview was stressful, but oh how you envied the seemingly perfect weather that Wanda was generating. And as if on cue, it started to rain. It wasn’t cold enough to form sleet, but it sure was cold enough to quicken your pace. Maybe Wanda could control the weather out here too, to piss off everyone who was surveilling her.

Your walk to the resting quarters was much longer than you would have liked it to be. By the time you reached the temporary building, your body was soaked from head to toe. You entered the resting quarters with your teeth chattering and arms folded across your chest. Just as you were about to enter your section, you bumped into a sturdy figure that grabbed onto you to stop you from falling backwards.

“Hey, Y/N.” Your coworker, Agent Jimmy Woo, greeted. He awkwardly let go of you once he realized he was still cradling your body against his to stop you from stumbling backwards.

You looked up to him, your hair plastered to your forehead from the rain. “Hey.” Was all you managed to say in between shivers.

Jimmy tilted his head slightly. “It’s raining cats and dogs out there. Looks like you weren’t cut out for the cold weather.” He noted, but still flashing his charming smile.

You smiled in return, damn his smile was contagious. “I g-guess not.” Your teeth shattered involuntarily.

Jimmy looked up and down the hallway to check for other agents. “You don’t look so well, Y/N. Why don’t you come on to my room and I’ll get you all warmed up.” He said.

You raised an eyebrow, assuming his offer was meant to be suggestive. “You’ll get me warmed up?” You repeated.

Jimmy’s eyes widened and he began shaking his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I just- I have hot chocolate in my room.” He rambled.

You smiled and nodded. “Oh, okay.” You said.

Jimmy began to walk down the hall. “It’s this way.” He said, making sure you were okay to walk.

You followed him to the end of the hallway until he scanned his badge at the final door on the left. The door slid open, and you slipped inside his room after him.

Jimmy walked over to his kitchenette and began pulling ingredients from a cabinet. You sat down on one of the chairs in his room, shivering still. Your clothes were still ice cold even with the warm heat blasting from the air vent. You tried to reach for a blanket that was on the chair opposite to you, but as you did, you lost your coordination and fell to the floor with a painful thud.

“I’m sorry.” You immediately said as you tried to lift yourself from the ground.

But before you could open your eyes, Jimmy was already by your side, gently lifting you into his surprisingly strong arms. “Y/N, you’re not okay.” He said worriedly before placing you on his standard twin sized bed.

“I’m fine, I’m just a little cold.” You tried to play off.

Jimmy began to remove your wet jacket from your body before working at your soaked shoes and socks. “You have to get out of these clothes.” He explained.

Your eyes widened slightly as his hands brushed against your hips and slipped under your shirt. “Trust me, I was a Boy Scout. You’ve got mild hypothermia, but it can turn really bad really quick.” He said, but looked to you for permission to keep going.

You nodded, and he pulled your shirt off. You helped carefully lower your pants down, leaving you only in a bra and panties. You could tell, even in the dim light, that he was blushing heavily. “I-I’ll let you do the rest.” He said.

You slipped under the covers before discarding your undergarments onto the floor as well. Jimmy grabbed the blanket you attempted to reach earlier and placed it on top of the covers. You were still trembling pitifully, and it hurt Jimmy to see you like that.

“I’m still s-so cold.” You whimpered.

Jimmy shifted uncomfortably on his feet for a moment before pulling off his FBI jacket. “You need body heat. I can’t give you anything too warm yet or it’ll hurt you.” He explained.

You watched as he looked away from you as he slid under the covers to press against your body. He wrapped his muscular arms around you, pulling your head to his chest. Immediately, your hands found his arms. The sensation of your frigid skin against his was too strong. You needed more of it. You quickly untucked his buttoned up shirt and snaked your hands under to find more exposed skin. Your arms burned as they began to increase in temperature again.

At first Jimmy sucked his abdomen in, trying to hide from your freezing touch, but he soon responded by wrapping his legs around yours. “Geez, Y/N, you’re really cold.” He hissed.

You rolled your eyes, “Yeah, I think we est-t-tablished that.” You chattered.

Jimmy let go of you for a moment, and you made a small whimper that broke his heart. “No, no, I was just gonna take off my shirt. It’ll give you more heat.” He explained.

And hell you weren’t gonna argue with that. He broke the knot in his tie and slid it off his neck before making quick work of his shirt buttons. It only took a short second for him to toss his shirt aside, giving you a quick glimpse of his toned upper body. Goddamn, you wouldn’t have guessed he was so cut from that bulky jacket he always wears. He wrapped his arms around your frail body again, this time defrosting your skin. But you let out an unholy moan as your breasts brushed against the coarse hair dusted on his chest.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at the sound, but connected the dots as to what happened. “I-I’m sorry.” He stammered, not knowing how to respond.

You huffed a laugh and shook your head. “No, I’m sorry. T-that was out of line for me.” You responded, the embarrassment helping your face heat up.

Jimmy shook his head. “No, it was fine. I mean, it wasn’t a bad thing, it was good. But not in like a creepy way, like a…a normal human response w-“ He rambled.

You cut him off by pressing a chilly kiss against his soft lips. He didn’t move at first, afraid of what to do next. After a rush of confidence, he ran his hand up your neck, anchoring his fingers in your hair, and deepened the kiss. You shifted, pulling him on top of you. But as you did, his chest rubbed against yours again, and you let out another involuntary moan into his mouth. This time Jimmy chuckled and kissed his way down your neck.

“Is this okay?” He asked. “I shouldn’t be taking advantage of a hypothermic person.”

You giggled and shook your head. “No, this is only helping. Trust me.” You responded, feeling heat spreading to all ends of your body.

And that was enough reassurance. Jimmy’s hands delicately traced the sides of your waist as he kissed down to your chest, stopping at particularly sensitive areas to gently suck the skin and leave a pink mark. His nose brushed against the valley between your breasts and placed a sweet kiss there before licking a path up to one of your nipples. He swirled his tongue in lazy circles, taking his time with you.

The sensation of his burning tongue slipping against your icy bud drew a whimper from your chest. Jimmy heard your fussing and reached one of his hands up to your other breast. His fingers twisted the nipple there while simultaneously gripping the other one with his teeth. You gripped the sheets on his bed, twisting them in frustration, and bucked your hips into his chest.

“Jimmy…” You moaned, wanting him to keep caressing your breasts but also keep moving down your body.

Jimmy hummed in response, looking up to you with those sweet brown eyes. “What do you want, baby doll?” He whispered against your skin.

You blushed at his old-fashioned nickname for you but tried to refocus your attention on your body’s demands. “I need you inside me.” You replied.

Jimmy gripped your hips tightly before searing a trail of kisses down your stomach. “Can I taste you first? I’ve wanted to do this so long.” He pleaded.

Your walls involuntarily clenched at his request. You nodded, “Please.” You granted.

Jimmy grabbed your thighs and tossed them over his broad shoulders. He didn’t waste any time teasing you or pressing kisses along the inside of your legs. He licked a long and deep stripe against your pussy, drawing a desperate scream from your throat. He moaned at the amount of slick that he swallowed down.

Without hesitation he delved his tongue into you, sucking with the perfect amount of pressure. You secured your fingers in his black locks, tugging when his tongue snaked deeper into your pussy. He reached up with his thumb and rubbed circles on top of your sweet spot. You weren’t sure if it was the cold or the fact that you had been dreaming of this moment for weeks, but you were quickly approaching your first orgasm of the night.

“J-jimmy, I’m gonna come.” You panted, tightening your thighs around his neck.

“Don’t hold back on me, baby doll.” He mumbled against your folds.

And that nickname pushed you over the edge. Your walls throbbed and waves of electricity shot through your body. Jimmy continued to lap up your juices as you rode out your orgasm on his tongue. You were suddenly very aware of your panting and placed a hand on your chest to feel your pounding heart. Jimmy kissed up your body again, worshipping every patch of skin he could get his lips on.

“Was that okay?” He asked innocently.

You huffed a laugh and met his lips with yours. You could taste yourself in his mouth. “That was…amazing.” You answered. “But I still need your dick inside me.”

Jimmy chuckled against your lips and guided your hands down his firm chest to the waistband of his khaki pants. You could feel his packed bulge against your hands as you whipped the belt from his waist and undid his pants. He kicked them off as you pulled his briefs down, his cock springing free. You took it in your hand, swirling the precum around the tip. Jimmy moaned deeply against your ear, his breath tickling your skin.

You adjusted your hips and swiped the tip of his cock through your folds. Jimmy grabbed your thighs and pulled you closer to him.

“Are you ready?” He asked cautiously.

“Yeah.” You breathed.

Jimmy slowly pressed against your entrance. It probably wasn’t the best idea to start fucking without stretching you out, but that was a problem for tomorrow. You hissed as your walls began to stretch. After what seemed like an eternity, he bottomed out inside of you and you whimpered from the sting. Jimmy leaned down against your body again and pressed kisses against your flushed cheeks.

“Shh, sweetheart. It’s okay. Just breathe.” He whispered.

His gentle words made you smile and you reached up to hold his face in your hands. He flashed that charming smile again, and you couldn’t help but kiss it off his face. “I can keep going.” You mumbled against his lips.

Without moving away from you, Jimmy slowly pulled out, leaving you empty. You were worried that he was going to just torture you before he slammed back into you with full force. You screamed into his mouth and dug your nails into his shoulders.

“Come on, baby doll, I know you can take it.” He whispered, catching your mouth with his.

He pounded his hips into yours at a brutally fast pace, guiding your legs to wrap around his waist. You held onto him for dear life as his cock buried itself into you over and over again. You felt that same build up of heat in your pussy with each snap of your hips. You buried your face in his neck, moaning and panting.

“Jimmy…” You whimpered as your orgasm neared.

Jimmy felt your walls begin to tighten and he quickened his already brisk pace. “Come for me, sweetheart.” He encouraged.

After a few more thrusts, your body let go and your vision went black from the overwhelming sensation. Your pussy throbbed around his cock, but he didn’t let off. He wanted to make sure you came again before he would let himself go. And with your final scream, Jimmy let out a moan in tandem with yours as his cum spilled inside you. The pulsating of his cock was just enough stimulation to help you finish out your own orgasm.

Jimmy collapsed on top of you, and you wrapped your arms around him. For a moment, all you could hear were the staggering breaths heaving from your chests. After a minute of silence, Jimmy looked back up to you, sheepishly this time.

“Are you still cold?” He asked with a joking smile.

You giggled and kissed him gently. “If I say yes, can we do that again?” You teased.

Jimmy laughed and pressed his forehead against yours. “Baby doll, we can do this any time you want.”

A/N: Lmk if you want to be added to my Jimmy Woo x Reader taglist :)