#i mean maybe i should just talk to them and tell them what theyve been saying has made me not want to tell them

[chiisana-lion]

hm

[mr-ribbit]

gonna rant again bc im seeing a lot of trans women on my dash having to carry the heavy lifting to argue for their basic respect and a lot of other queer people who want to ??? get mad about that apparently. for the record as usual: im tme, im not speaking for anyone besides myself and my perspectives, but I am trying to reach out to fellow tme people to level with y'all from inside the house.

i thought we all got past the 'calling people gendered terms when theyve asked you to stop' thing in like. 2012. i swear we were allllll on board with not calling women dude anymore, nerfing sir and ma'am, neutralizing collective terms for groups, and all of that was like, during the onceler era. that's how we got off-putting shit like folx into the mix - remember???? why are we here again.

to those who I've seen claiming that they REALLY genuinely don't want to offend anyone, and that theyre trying to understand the dude thing, and they don't want to be seen as transmisogynistic when they aren't: ok. let's talk about it. step one, stop sending that really loaded anon to a trans woman you don't know, and close that in-group hatepost with 100 replies from people name-dropping trans bloggers they don't like. try to open your mind and assume for the duration of this post that I am not cynically trying manipulate thousands of tumblr users into making Bro the next big swear word, but a fellow queer human being who thinks you're all being pretty intentionally obtuse about an upsetting trend in our community

to be clear: this post is about the issue of trans women being called bro, dude, man, etc., particularly in recent tumblr discourse about transmisogyny, and the backlash they face if they get upset about it. this is also maybe moreso about the shitty ass excuses I see tme people make for why they supposedly can't stop doing this.

so let's go through some of the things I've been seeing people say they don't understand, supposedly in earnest, about this issue

"I DIDNT USE DUDE AS A MASCULINE TERM. I CALL EVERYONE BRO. MAN IS A GENDER NEUTRAL TERM"

I'm not actually going to exhaust my list of reasons why dude/bro/man are not strictly neutral, but you should be pretty aware that all words have context. Dude might be seen as neutral in many contexts, sure, but 'woman who is frequently called a man by others' is a situation where the context adds extra meaning to your words, just like calling someone "sweetie" might be neutral in some cases, but if you've got the context of knowing that's your coworker who's half your age, it's a bit less neutral. If you're not capable of reading that context and being tasteful about when you say dude, then you need to at least be ready to respond gracefully when someone asks you to stop. This is the part I'd rather focus on.

"BUT I DIDNT MEAN IT THAT WAY. IM NOT TRANSPHOBIC"

I think you should consider broadening your perspective *beyond* your intention behind the word. people may already understand that you meant the word neutrally and therefore didn't have transmisogynistic intent, but that's not really the entire scope of what people are saying. if that's your only concern, you're just trying to clear your record, not actually listen to what they're saying.

there are lots of words people don't enjoy being called, and in most cases, when they say 'pls don't call me that', people respect that and move on. even if the word isn't a slur, if it hurts someone's feelings, we all as a society have agreed that it's pretty shitty to keep calling them that. if your friend asked you not to call them 'buddy' anymore because their dead grandparent called them that, or something equivalently personal, you'd probably respect that instead of telling them 'but I call everyone buddy!!' right? even if you didn't really understand why it bothered them so much?

there is a prominent tendency for trans women to be denied this privilege, and when they ask not to be called dude or bro, people don't seem to respect this request as much as they would in other situations. when I accidentally use a gendered word and someone tells me they don't like it, I try to respond with something like "my bad, I didn't mean it as misgendering but I can see you were still bothered by it, so I'll try not to keep saying it. sorry!" and most people are willing to accept that. when trans women ask people this favor, a lot of people get VERY defensive, and treat the request as inane or unfair, instead of just apologizing and moving on. this is why people are upset when this happens, and it's why people are calling your actions transmisogynistic

also like you might not be doing this, but a lot of people DO use dude and bro in an intentionally gendered way to make trans women uncomfortable. it's a power play bigots use to talk down to them or otherwise maliciously harass them. do you know what arguments they use to defend that behavior when called out on it? 'oh I call everyone that' 'dude is gender neutral calm down' 'dont overreact its just a word'. by acting like this, youre all just giving credence to those same arguments.

"WELL THEY SHOULDNT GET SO MAD AT ME WHEN I DIDNT MEAN ANY HARM"

they can get as mad as they want!! also, are you sure they're 'mad'? or are they just expressing their feelings about a negative topic to you, and it makes you feel bad, so you have to make them out to be unreasonably emotional? how do you think they should have phrased 'dont call me that' to better spare *your* feelings?

also like, in most cases, these women do not knowww you. if your main response to someone saying you disrespected them is to say "I didnt mean it that way, I meant it in a friendly neutral way", well that's NOT YOUR FRIEND! she has no idea what your opinions are or what you think of her!!! she has no reason to assume you only upset her in a friendly way and not a bad unfriendly way! but she did get upset, and she did the one thing she can do which is *tell you what upset her* and your response is to say "well actually you shouldn't be upset at all"??????

and another thing:

it's not just the issue of using the word 'dude', it's because you're coming off extremely dismissive of women who have asked you to stop doing something that harms them, and because your argument is basically that they just shouldn't be so bothered by it. or that they're stupid, irrational, or otherwise crazy for telling you that it bothered them at all, just because you Technically used a gender neutral word according to Your Rules. be honest, does that seem fair? If people were calling you something that bothered you enough to ask them to stop, and they responded like this, how would it make you feel?

focusing solely on your intent and what the words mean when you use them is the same thing as saying "just get over it". no woman should need to Prove to you that 'dude' is gendered for you to care about what she's saying. the fact that you're asking people to do that sucks and makes you look bad, which is why people are arguing with you and calling you a misogynist.

especially those of you who are only doing this with trans women who are actively arguing with. you're wielding misgendering as a cudgel and we can all see it, grow up please.

[goldenpinof]

yooo i totally get where youre coming from wrt feeling like the only person who gives a shit enough to critique these kinds of little things about dnp. it definitely shows that they don't really care for the details, which personally i don't mind w things like the websites (maybe that's just bc i don't have an eye for graphic design!) but when it comes to details that imo make a significantly lesser experience as a viewer and fan, it really can feel really unprofessional on their end.

it's interesting because, on one hand, that's a little bit their charm, sorta scrappy OG youtubers who haven't really changed their formula much but continue to create CoNtEnT because they have an established community who enjoys what they do. but then on the other hand, they often allow that attitude to seep into things like operating their business, overlooking details in editing, weirdness with just about all of the managements theyve been under, the general tone-deafness of cheerfully announcing there will be more us and uk shows and completely brushing over the call for them to at least MENTION the rest of the world that isn't europe or the us.... also i think so often about how garbage their bday livestreams were in terms of production, that would be so unacceptable from literally anyone other than dnp, but because it's them they get away with it lmao. (and yes ultimately those streams were for a good cause and they succeeded in the fundraising, but that can't be an excuse for low quality.)

their unprofessionalism is like a double-edged sword in a way, like i genuinely find them difficult to recommend to other people, not necessarily because i think my friends wouldn't like their sense of humor, but because there ARE creators out there who have similar origins and have done similar things and have improved quality production alongside their growth. and again, i do not necessarily mind scrappiness, but it feels like it's at odds with the amount of money they make and the type of productions they are trying to do with things like the tour. and that's the other thing, they are FULLY CAPABLE of having consistently good production quality to all of their shit, not just the big tours. they just choose not to, and whether or not that's for the sake of image or being control freaks or they really do not care, it ends up making a worse experience for their audience imo.

(but like. im also of the mindset that dan should have done stand-up shows in dingy bars for $10 instead of wad so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

"control freaks"

for the last 2 years i question this statement almost every day. because if they were control freaks, none of this bullshit with promo materials existed.

and it's not about design itself. it's about typos and just wrong names of the venues. my main question is: WHY is it so hard to make things right? because realistically, it's not hard at all.

especially when people are telling you and asking you to fix it. like, how fucking stubborn you should be to brush it off. your work is your public image. and i'm sorry, but it looks like shit. it's so unprofessional, it's painful to look at. and i'm not even talking about videos. i'm talking specifically about danandphiltour.com and promo materials. editing of their videos is a different problem.

production-wise: this time, i have to say that i don't really care. but i get what you mean. there are youtubers who invested in this. dnp didn't. because they don't care, because it works how it is right now.

in conclusion: our loyalty is at fault. if we cared about work details a little bit more and were more serious, maybe, just maybe, we could level up all these things. but it seems like no one cases, and i'm tired of fighting this battle for years. i'm gonna take the L eventually. but the tour got on the way, unfortunately.

[stealingyourbones]

Your asks are back! Im prolly gonna send a few tomorrow bc its late and i have many idea but an idea that Wont Let Me Go:

Danny gets caught by his parents. They dissect him and jazz is the one to free him, but he has to go. Now. But where does he go?

Gotham. The drs fenton went there once and caused enough chaos to be banned from the city or else risk arkham. Its the one place they might not find him.

Danielle goes with him. Maybe shed hunkered down in gotham for a bit, maybe shes passing by amity when sht hits the fan. Either way, its her and danny. They figure it wont be too hard to get by. Break into an empty apartment and hide out there until they get caught, couldnt be too hard, right?

Too bad the building they go for is the one jason stays in, as a civillian, and hes got every apartment on his floor so that the risk of a neighbor seeing him as hood is minimal. Jason has to figure out how these kids got into the apartment and who is making them spy on red hood.

He does this by giving them the one thing kids in need cant afford to turn down- free meals. He invites them over to cook and teaches them how, both to see what hes dealing with and give them those skills once theyre out of whatever situation theyre in.

This goes on for a while before jason had the horrifying realization.

Hes turing into Bruce. Two kids in need with black hair and blue eyes who tense up when vigilantes are brought up? Hes never going to live this down. Probably frantically texts dick(?) About how hes turing into bruce and then doesnt elaborate

Unbeknowst to him, theyve secretly been "treating" him by acting as filters/replacing some of his extoplasm so he can be sure of his control over his feelings. This doesnt necessarily make him 100% calm all of the time, he still gets angry pretty easily, but. Jason gets control of himself back.

As they get closer they start being significantly more domestic. Somehow nobody has crashed jasons apartment while theyre there (they dip invisibly) and jasons relationship with bruce has improved as he no longer has to worry about pit rage taking over. Hes trying to figure out how to break the news to bruce that hes a grandfather even though he hasnt officially adopted them yet.

Dani, on the other side of town, is gossiping with a cool girl at the library named barbara about how shes been trying to figure out how to tell her neighbor that Hes Her Dad Now.

(Danny doesnt call him dad. He cant, anymore. But theyre still family)

Jason decides to introduce the topic of them meeting bruce (because 1. even though its still rocky their relationship has improved and 2. He wants it to be on his terms) and dani bursts out with the "I have a GRANDPA???????" and from there on commits to calling jason her dad and bruce (unmet) her grandpa.

Bruce meets them first and is just. In awe. He has grandchildren. His emotional constipation vs his absolute adoration of the fact hes a GRANDPARENT fight fight fight.

When danny and dani eventually meet everyone theyre all like oh sick bruce picked up a duo this time nice to meet you. And they absolutely cannot comprehend it when bruce and jason walk in and dani goes to jason first. Nobody expected jason to take on bruces adoption tendencies but they should have.

(Also fun hc i couldnt work in naturally but i do fully stand by- the ectoplasm in dannys body does affect his injuries somewhat, meaning he heals naturally very quickly from most ghost fights. Why?

It heales based on emotional healing.

He doesnt really care all too much about the average cut from one of his rogues and they heal within the day, but a hit from valerie takes a few weeks.

The first injury his parents ever gave him still hurts.

He can barely move and cant talk for the first few weeks with jason. Only once he starts feeling safe with him do the cuts start coming back together.)

The casualness of “hi so glad your asks came back” [drops at least 1k worth of fucking stellar content that’s basically a fic] is just making me truly awestruck. God I’ve missed seeing y’all’s neat ideas.

I dont have any words that I can say that could describe just how wonderful this is so I’ll write a lil addition to it instead because I am in love with this sm.

Jason’s point of view when he’s slowly getting better and isnt afraid to meet his family because of the pit rage, has he explained that’s the reason he distanced himself? Do the bats just think that this is simply Jason finally getting the courage to reach out? Do they know that the Pit rage is stopping Jason and do they try to help him by using alternative means of communication? How much do they help and understand.

When Jason experiences his first injury. How much does it hurt? Valerie shoots him with an ectogun. How much is this man in pain for and does he have to fight pit rage inside him to not lash out and attack her after being injured?

And how does his core react to his new kids. This I NEED to know

[polyamorousmood]

If youre having jealousy but its something youve already consented to, and you know its something you just need to work on internally, is that something you should still talk about with your partner? I dont want them to feel anxious about my feelings, but admittedly i am having a hard time and while i think i can figure it out on my own, im afraid im not hiding it well enough, and if theyve noticed then maybe should we talk about it?

I am of the opinion you should tell your partner pretty much everything you're feeling, even if you're capable of handling it on your own.*

Especially if you think they notice something off, you telling them what it is, and that you're handling it, will likely actually be very reassuring to your partner. Because then they know the scope of the problem, they're at much lower risk of their anxiety going "actually, they Just Hate Me Now😣".

However, those asterisks are pretty important caveats. Below the cut to save space

*

not every relationship is capable of handling these discussions. If you have a partner that tends to take a minor thing and run 🏃‍♀️💨with it until they've convinced themselves they're unlovable actually, it may not be worth it. If you have a partner that isn't the best at being supportive/helping you through things ("well, you said it was okay, so I expect you to figure it out"), it may not be worth it. Etc.

They should know you're feeling something. That does not necessarily mean mentioning it Every Single Time or going into great detail.

It does require the understanding from your partner that not everything you mention is necessarily a "them problem", and that sometimes you just need to clear the air 🎐, bounce ideas off them💡, vent🤬, or whatever.

There may be one or two things your partner cannot handle hearing for whatever reason. You should do your best to respect that, after having a talk about them not being in a place they can hear that.

And then because of the type of person I am, even my asterisks have footnotes🥴:

If this is a such problem to where you don't feel like you can casually mention something minor🤏, I personally would start making exit plans or have a serious discussion with your partner about how their behavior is impacting your ability to be emotionally intimate and work as a team with them.

This is what I mean by casually mentioning something. You should generally be able to say "yeah, X caused me problems I wasn't expecting. Nothing I can't handle, just, if I seem touchy about it, please be patient with me" and get a sympathetic response, maybe even a suggestion on something that might help. If its already been discussed you should generally be able to check in with them and give a "it was better/worse than usually this time (so that's nice)/(but I'm okay)". Again, depending on what it is you're jealous about, it might be too much if you do this every time⏲️, but you should at least be able to occasionally or if there's a significant change

If you don't have this understanding, start building it 👷‍♂️🔨! Start saying "I don't expect you to do anything about this, but" and "I just need to vent, and then I really don't think it'll be a problem, but" and "I'm not blaming you at all, in fact I'm 99% certain this is just a Me Problem, but". This has helped me LOADS.

You SHOULD have a talk about it first. Either they can say "I really can't handle you complaining about [thing]" or if its something you noticed, you can say "it seems like its really hard on you when I bring up [thing], do I need to start finding another way to handle that?" Reasons for this include: 📃making sure you're on the same page wrt how much its bothering them, making sure the efforts you're making for them aren't taken for granted, making sure they aren't more bothered by you not saying anything, it may become such a problem for you that you have to mention it and you should be clear on that from the beginning, and many more!

Good luck out there, and happy relationships!! 💙💖🖤

[tianhai03]

Can you stop being such a cunt, tranny. "I have a job and barely any free time anymore. who are you to tell me what to do. go learn some manners before you say anything under my art again" You sell prints, when you didn't pay the artist for the characters or their time, and want to talk, bitch. maybe stop selling other people's characters, and acting like a beggar, constantly giving out your inprnt store. Tell you what, since you value your time so much I value Capcom's time, and am reporting your inprnt account. Shut the fuck up, you stupid, degenerate loser. Your art sucks.

wow, it's my first time being called a slur! isnt that a big accomplishment. thanks for wasting your time coming all the way to here from twitter just to hide behind anon and say vile shit to me. why didnt you just comment on my tweet? you couldve saved a couple of minutes doing that. or is someone too scared to say shit to me directly to my face?

as for the inprnt thing, i never begged anyone to buy my stuff. i literally started selling my prints because people have been asking it for years, and ive stated MULTIPLE TIMES that no one should feel obligated to buy anything from me because its not my main income and its just a side extra thing i do. PEOPLE WANTED PRINTS OF MY ART, THEY ASKED FOR IT FOR LITERAL YEARS, AND IM JUST GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANT. if youve ever seen me beg people to buy my art please let me know because i sure as fuck dont remember doing it. the only reason why i post my inprnt stuff so often is because the site has sitewide sales often, and if i have a way to let people pay less for my art if they want to im going to give them exactly that.

i know selling stuff with other people's IPs isnt exactly legal, its a big grey area that has no 100% rights or wrongs. but im not actively harming anyone just because i made art of a character and sold it online. the big companies arent losing any money because of me, you can always take the money youre paying for my prints and just buy official merch. i dont care. im going to repeat myself again and tell you that im only selling prints FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WANT IT AND CAN AFFORD IT. IF YOU DONT WANT IT THEN ITS NOT FOR YOU.

if you think selling fanart is so wrong, think back to all the times youve seen a voice actor for a show or a video game commissioning artists to draw the characters they voice. according to your logic, even though theyve spend their own time and effort on a crucial part of the character, theyre still not allowed to commission stuff of that character because they dont own the rights to them. does that mean youre going to report them too? are you gonna go to capcom and tell them "HEY MR. NICK COMMISSIONED SOMEONE TO DRAW A BUNCH OF RESIDENT EVIL CHARACTERS FOR HIS STREAMS AND HE DIDNT PAY BACK THE ENTIRE RE TEAM FOR THEIR TIME AND EFFORT MAKING THE GAME. THE ONLY THING HE DID IS VOICE LEON YOU GUYS NEED TO STOP HIM"? of course not, you'll look like a fucking idiot. i might not own the characters either, but ive spent my own time and the drawing skills ive developed over the past decade to draw those prints. i own the rights to my drawings and i should be allowed to do anything i want with them as long as im not harming anyone.

clearly you cant stand me or anything i do but youre still following me for some reason. please for the love of god block me right now, leave me alone and live your own life. you'll be happier that way. and also stop being transphobic its literally 2023.

[thesugarhole]

sanrio?? hello??

violin* and obsessed with money???? since when??? i mean. alright. i can give the violin to him AND cherry but its like, very barely there violin??

me to the sanrio ceo: "berry is violin" shut up if youve seen the stuff kuromi circa 2006 used to do youd hurl

also i dont think wallet status has ever been mentioned about these guys... in any media/franchise. they live in an abandoned looking mansion for the halloween aesthetic, not because of money. i can believe 'obsessed with money' but not 'poor'

hoping its either just google mistranslations or some recent developments ive been blissfully unaware of

>cinnamon

>her

its mistranslations. also this is personal headcanoning time based on how often the confusion happens but man you cant do this to cinnamon notorious trans man icon cinnamon. if he doesnt mind it then ill mind it for him djkhfdksj 'cherry is competitive and selfish' is correct btw this has always been her description. well maybe not competitive but definitely selfish. iirc it was always around "berry is stubborn cherry is selfish and theyre both tsundere" genuinely dont know where violin came from its gotta be a mistranslation on the nuisanse/stubborn aspect. i also dunno where 'weakness is strong-willed girls' came from, it might be talking about his friendship with cherry and how he might given in easier to what she tells him (at least i choose to think so) so i got no comment on it

all the pronouns being mismatched is so funny man come on shjfhdgfdsjvfdsjv is this profile using some sort of neutral language that left google confused as hell?

i. uh? should i be worried about espresso?

this ones... correct? espresso is more of a culture savant than a celebrity.... anyway berry if you kick him out there will be no one there to make you the food you love

nope! its magic and mirror manipulation. pranking is their hobby and favorite pass time but their magic is not limited to just the -its joke- context (sorry to once again quote the worst season ever of OMM, but they both tried to help out bakus family by making a photo of food they had emit scent, so the family would have an easier time eating plain rice. no jokering no jestering no clowning no malicious behavior whatsoever).

i remember being mentioned in older descriptions that berry had some potion making proficiency but they havent focused in that in years so who cares now amirite. i dont remember if cherry had any sort of distinction like this, theyve always overfocused on her crush on espresso :pensive:

"what about cherry"

"who? oh idk write smth about espresso again"

(hobbies include PRANKS, attempting to make friends (a general trait) making music (2018 rankings), having ballroom parties (cinnamon trip!! by oster project) and watching sentai/magical girl anime (onegai my melody). berrys particular hobby is to mess with cinnamon, cherrys particular hobby is to go after espresso. i guess.) (but again most of these are old one offs, and currently unfocused aspects of theirs so. whatever)

also i really would like to know the plans about the alt designs for them that are technically their true form and always show in their shadows and (sometimes?) in mirror reflections. it hasnt been completely dropped but, its never been hard defined either so idk. i guess i feel a bit bummed that its also been attempted to be forgotten to time because (to me feel at least) it feels very obviously based on the episode kuromi turned herself into a human and it could be something they were trying to establish to devil inspired characters back then.

thanks for coming to the lloromannic autism hour its nice to think about something else other than current personal events sometimes

*censorship

[stiffyck]

please do share babygirl thoughts and fake scenarios from brain of yours

right. so.

LL!scar, right? During the entire time of Last life, scar is just trying to make friends. He's so lonely. and it starts getting to him. he so desperately wants friends cause he's a social person- he starts getting more unhinged, not understanding. Why won't anyone talk to him? Why does no one want to team up? What is he doing wrong???

And it slowly gets worse- Scar thinks so lowly of himself he's not sure why he's even been invited there in the first place. (that is if this is supposed to be just a game for the hermits. maybe theyve been "taken" there without their permission, but I think if they went voluntarily, thinking its just a silly roleplay game- that would be even more devastating.)

So when they get back on hermitcraft, Scar genuinely thinks no one likes him and wants to be friends. He doesn't know why people bother trying to talk to him. He knows they just need soething from him.

Scar just starts isolating himself, trying to not be a bother, trying to stay out of everyone's way.

And the hermits notice! Of course they do! But they think he just needs time to himself. I think Mumbo would start worrying first.

He'd tell Grian that they should check up on scar and they should talk.

And they'd go to Scar, trying to talk to him. Trying to cheer him up maybe. And Scar, thinking they just want something from him, tries to hold it together because why? Why are they still being so mean? he left them alone for so long! Why would they try to manipulate him again?

And at some point he just asks them what do they want. Both Grian and Mumbo are confused. Scar has a breakdown, asking them why are they so mean? why wont they just leave him alone? Grian and Mumbo comfort him and try to explain that they love him and that they like hanging out and that they dont need anything from him. And they apologize for last life, not realising how much it affected him.

And maybe Scar still doesnt entirely believe them, but he'll get there. and Grian and Mumbo will prove it to him time and time again.

until double life.

[aemiron-main]

im full of hot takes today and im subjecting you guys to them sorry not sorry <3

god i need to finish the gay mike analysis. and also i should be finished that one big anon ask response about how the idea that mike being gay takes more time to wrap up in s5 than mike being any other sexuality would isn’t true and how the opposite is actually true and how the buildup for gay mike has been there the entire time, theyve been telling this story the ENTIRE TIME and how gay mike immediately recontextualizes both the mike-el scenes in a platonic light (something that WAS intended because theres no reason for the familial parallels to exist except to parallel mike and el’s relationship to platonic ones and indicate that it’s always been platonic. like they literally have their first kiss after talking about being brother and sister. we are shown mr clarke at the snow ball specifically, somebody who thinks that El is mike’s cousin. it’s not that milkvan is equivalent to incest its that the duffers have been beating us with a ‘mike was never attracted to el and their bond has always been platonic’ stick since s1) AND recontextualizes the byler scenes in a possibly romantic light. 

  Mike being gay doesn’t need any extra longwinded explanation and flashback to every mike-el scene because it immediately recontexualizes them in one swoop. if mike isnt gay/was ever attracted to el, then they have to go back and pinpoint when he stopped being attracted to her and explain why it happened and explain the familial parallels and what on earth those were supposed to indicate. maybe if people weren’t so hung up on comparing mike to will and using will as the blueprint for gay men and their experiences and invalidating mikes experiences and sexuality due to will’s experiences, they could see that. they could see that this storyline has been built the ENTIRE TIME and so doesnt need any longwinded explanation in s5. but alas. anyway i  have more to say: 

like idk about you but imo ‘mike is gay and was never attracted to el’ literally aligns with and is backed up by the story we’ve been seeing this entire time and  is way easier to explain compared to having to explain ‘so yeah we thought that the direct brother-sister comparison and the parallels and comparisons of el to nancy and the parallels of mike to el’s father figures would be a great way to demonstrate romantic attraction and telling a story of falling out of love with someone and those parallels were meant to just uh. idk. show attraction because everyone’s attracted to their family right? that’s the best way to demonstrate attraction and isnt weird at all right?’ literally the ONLY feasible explanation is that the familial parallels represent a platonic bond from the start. like again i don’t think that milkvan is like incest or that that was the intention. i think the intention was to demonstrate a platonic bond via those parallels. but if mike WAS ever attracted to el, than what IS the purpose of those parallels if not a platonic bond? there isnt one, because mike was never attracted to el. 

  like the thing is, it cant even just be brushed away by ‘oh its about mike being paralleled to brenner and hopper bc hes another male figure in her life trying to define her’ because while that is true, its not the whole reason because it ignores the fact that el is also paralleled CONSTANTLY to mike’s sister and to HIS family. the familial parallels go both ways. el’s paralleled to mike’s sister repeatedly. even just through the milkvan/stancy parallels and even outside of that. and like i’ve talked about before, we can conclude that the ‘pretty’ scene is 100% not mean to indicate attraction, REGARDLESS of whether or not you think mike was ever attracted to el, that scene 100% does not hold up as proof of attraction because it’s framed alongside the scene of mike agreeing that NANCY is ‘pretty’. thinking someone is pretty does not equal attraction esp not in ST and if you think that it does then you think that mike is attracted to his sister. like sorry sure try and pull other evidence even though imo none of it holds up, but that piece/scene was 100% not meant to indicate romantic attraction in any way. thinking someone is pretty CAN indicate attraction it can be PART of it but doesnt automatically indicate attraction, especially not when it’s literally paralleled to a platonic, familial bond (mike and nancy) and also LITERALLY  PARALLELED TO ELLIOT AND E.T??? 

 so yeah anyway if mike is gay, the duffers have to explain:

 1.) that mike never romantically loved or was attracted to el (something that has already been demonstrated in the show from the start via the familial parallels, mike’s reactions to her affection, how he initiates affection less and less and becomes more uncomfortable with receiving it as el starts to look more and more stereotypically ‘feminine’ and a million other things im gonna talk abt in my big writeup if people have been paying attention throughout the show). this is also addressed in one foul swoop by gay mike bc if mike was never attracted to/loved any girls 

 2.) that mike did love will from the beginning and is attracted to him (something that’s also already been demonstrated in the show and im gonna talk about HOW its been demonstrated when i finish that big anon ask response but esp through things like the early el-will parallels w her being mistaken for him and also how there’s something between el and mike representing will in ALL OF THEIR CORE ROMANTIC SCENES INCLUDING THAT FIRST KISS like i mentioned in this post and how we DO see mike being attracted to men outside of will, such as eddie, but NEVER see him being attracted to any girls outside of el and again isnt even attracted to el herself so ‘attracted to girls outside of el’ isnt even true bc he wasnt attracted to el) 

 but if mike is bi/was ever attracted to el (and also the idea that ‘mike is bi but just was never attracted to el but is to other girls’ is a nice headcanon like go ham but imo theres nothing in canon to back that up like he literally never shows attraction to other girls and instead shows outright repulsion towards them), the duffers have to explain:

 1.) all of their familial parallels and what those were meant to indicate if not meant to indicate a platonic bond/lack of attraction from the start. why the fuck did they include such an absolutely ridiculous number of them AND parallel them to MULITPLE different types of familial figures (father, brother, sister, cousin etc)? what was the reason? 

2.) when and why exactly mike fell out of love with el and what it is about el he doesnt like

3.) when and why mike fell into love with will (again gay mike addresses this and when he fell out of love with el in one foul swoop because he was ALWAYS in love with will but NEVER in love with el)

4.) why, if el was doing something mike didnt like/made him not attracted to her anymore, didn’t he try and communicate with her and resolve things?

5.) why the scene at the end of s3 with mike looking confused and disgusted and wondering ‘what’s wrong with me’ exists in addition to all of the other scenes of mike not being attracted to el or any other girls. these scenes dont make any damn sense if mike was ever attracted to girls and if he was never attracted to girls he was never attracted to el so yet again gay mike hits two birds with one stone. 

6.) why mike couldn’t tell el he loved her to her face

7.) how theyre going to resolve the now-created tension between mike and el because mike fell out of love due to something about HER specifically which is going to be more upsetting to el than el finding out that all of this difficulty in their relationship was NEVER ABOUT her or HER FAULT but instead was because mike is gay

 8.) how they’re going to resolve the now-created tension of el and will being pitted against eachother and compared because there’s something about EL that mike doesn’t like and that he thinks is better about will as a person. and sure again that happens irl and mike wouldnt be a bad person for it but a.) this is a show with characters who have themes and arcs and dynamics b.) it doesnt align with el and will’s themes arcs and dynamics or a satisfying end for them and c.) it makes everything take longer to explain so if people are complaining that gay mike would take too long then i hope they have some other wildcard idea in mind for his sexuality because bi mike takes at least twice as long to resolve. 

9.) why mike’s sexuality has been framed around a lack of attraction to women like in addition to him SHOWING the lack of attraction, his sexuality and the way its presented is also framed around that lack of attraction 10.) why the word ‘women’ just magically jumped onto the board behind mike when he was talking about ‘bullshit media propaganda’. thats sure a silly thing to happen to a guy who’s attracted to women! i hate it when my tv show set pieces just jump around of their own volition! especially on a show where the sets are usually deeply intricate and have proven meanings and foreshadowing, but i guess when it came to this scene, it was just a silly little mistake! duffers gotta explain how that happened if mike isn’t gay!  11.) literally a billion other things that im going to go in-depth about in that big anon ask reponse related to this exact topic

 so uh. yeah. the ‘they’d have to go back and explain gay mike and re-explain all those scenes and there’s no time for that’ argument doesn’t hold up at all because that’s actually what would have to happen if mike WASN’T gay. 

 like this is just the tip of the iceberg on this topic i have that whole writeup response to an anon ask about this to finish. but whether you agree with gay mike or not, my point is that the “omg it would take too long and be hard to explain’ argument holds zero water. sorry not sorry! 

[truehappinessissonear]

"hello nice to meet you" goes bonkers over this song

So first of all starting off with the obvious new greg

Plot reason to explain a new actor! He literally became a new person- Rebecca perceives him way differently than she did before

This Greg is cuter I'd say, because she sees him as less mean

Similarly, Rebecca's transformation comes in the evolution of her hair, which I've talked about before

Considering the show is from her POV it makes sense as to why shes the same actor, sure she changed, yes she acknowledges she changed, but deep down she still perceives herself in a similar way, because those bad things of her past will remain in her mind, she can forgive others but not herself

WHICH! i will come back to later

The first place they go to is the pretzel shop- the first example that shes becoming her own person and doing something that makes her happy

This shows Greg that she has gotten better- however as established in a later episode, the pretzel shop isn't her "dream" so while it makes her happy, its not her full true self. This matches with the fact shes really happy to see Greg however the guilt of her Marco incident weighs her down- she enjoys the pretzel shop but shes still not achieving her dream

Rebecca is stunned to find Greg so different- he was a bitter guy who, despite going back to her a lot, found it hard to forgive She needs reassurance that he's ready to forgive- she doesn't THINK he should forgive especially considering Marco

The song starts because Rebecca doesn't feel like this is reality- while the songs are usually her escape from reality this isn;t the same, she can't believe this is reality

Greg says at the start he wants to start over, however Rebecca's mind is telling her that they can't truly start over fully. Thats why she starts off with "You've been inside of me" as she can't disconnect their past from them Then he responds with "You broke my heart" obviously not something he holds against anymore, but I see it as Greg telling her that he cared. We see in the song "I hate everything but you" he has a really unconventional way of saying I love you. Greg can come off as uncaring so he wanted to reassure her But back to Rebecca's starting line, she uses sex to cope a lot of the time, to cope with the fact that shes debating about the Marco thing she cracks a joke like that

They then say "I've spent many years processing my anger, wouldn't know what to say to the person I knew, but its nice to meet you" They acknowledge the fact that they are the same people but they can see in eachother that they've grown- maybe suggesting to eachother they're proud of the others growth

Then the sets come in

They aren't real, they don't look real

The characters acknowledge them. A lot of Rebecca songs the sets are very IN the song but the fact they are obvious sets continues the fact that Rebecca doesn't see this as real- she can't believe it

"Oh maam your baguette!" ,,,hear me out on this one guys Basically they're only kinda talking about their issues with eachother, only one off sentences but they'd rather make jokes and act like nothing happened Obviously,, this isn't the best as seen later but this is what Rebecca WANTS to happen She doesn't want to say the Marco thing because she likes Greg, she wants to act like nothing happened So they can make jokes but the song has the general theme of "ypu did this to me!!" covered with a joke, cus Rebecca wishes something as big as that could be jokes about

Greg agreeing with him being toxic and rebecca agreeing that she was a bitch <3 theyve grown so much my sillies

"Yeah she kinda was" They're not going to make excuses for eachothers past actions, they just forgive

Which is the entire thing of the song

Don't ignore but forgive

Also the screen ratio changes from average film to tv (tv being,,, rebeccas real life) once again suggesting that feeling of not real

"I mean is anyone we meet really that new to us, we're all the same species that grew in a uterus" so true line Every human is some way is connected adn connections are important We all came from the same place so #worldpeace whatevs

"You seem really cool" they're so dorky I love them. Plus his little spin is so much like the "I gave u a uti" song, this time she gives into his silly goofiness tho! cus love

"if you have a message for my doppelganger, I'm happy to pass it along as a favour" Making it clear to eachother that talking and setting boundaries is important and that they do want to let the other vent out past emotions, however they won't take it as personal as they aren't the same people as they were 2 years prior

However, Rebecca knows she has to tell the truth about his dad so she tries to bring the conversation back to seriousness with "Tell him its sad that he had to hide" Then Greg responds with a jokey line, shutting her down However, unlike old Rebecca she wants to let people know how truly sorry she is so she immediately says "Tell him I'm sorry" she wants the conversation to be serious for a second And Greg realises that, so he goes along with it. Showing how unlike before he's ready to face his emotions

The camera also changes back to normal during that line cus thats when it gets real,,,

THEN.

They just take a second

To smile at eachother

No singing

No speaking

Just a simple smile

Then a cute walk back to where they started at the start of the song, Rebecca seeing the smile realised he did mean it, he does love her AHH

ok.

next

Ok why isn't one on youtube

Theres a song right before this next one where they sing "I mean is anyone we meet really that new to us, we're all the same species that grew in a uterus. A kiss is a kiss, a face is a face, so what if we met in another time and another place"

After Rebecca tells him about the Marco thing- she thinks its over

However, he meant what he said

He meant that he wanted to start over

He truly forgives her, so he reconfirms it They know that they're good together- it truly was just "right person wrong time" and they realise this, their faults are faults but they're still a person, just like the other

NOW.

the reprise.

"she can forgive others but not herself"

this is represented in her dislike/ignorance of the child she donated her egg to

She says shes getting better but her hatred for herself is now put into this baby- which she sees as a small version of herself

Babies as commonly known as "pure" yet Rebecca's thoughts on herself taint Hebby's image

Though this song starts off with her introducing herself- cus shes ignored this baby for so long

You know Darryl calling the baby Hebecca probably did not help her

But Rebecca introduces herself because this is her acknowledging the baby isn't her

"Your kind of me" Still- she does feel like her mental health issues will impact this baby, shes worried shes made a mistake and itll grow up to have as poor of a life as she did

And she knows the baby is in good hands, so she knows the issues won't come from family trauma, but she assumes it would come from her. She doesn't want to even acknowledge what she sees as a mistake

Considering the fact the baby was born as she as getting arrested (knowing Rebecca's reliance on "signs) her view is,,, probably ruined by that too

"Since your both the future and kinda a mirror, I'll tell you right know that life doesn't get clearer" But she realised her best chance at letting Hebby have a good life was to give the baby advice- to ensure her future would be good. Plus, she wishes she got the advice, as she searched for her life to suddenly "make sense"

"All I can say is have fun in the grave" Still- Rebecca is a pessimist despite her trying to hide it in optimism. So she lets herself slip into a more morbid thought in front of the child

Then at the end, she emphasises "It's nice to meet you" because Hebby is her own person- a person that Rebecca should have a connection to as she grows up

[angelhairpastawithherbs]

this is going to be very different from stuff i say usually but as someone who actually went through this and knows how others have talked about it, but i need to talk about the energy situation in south and east texas even though nobody seems to care warning for natural disasters some medical things and death

centerpoint is based in houston although they provide services in several states and large areas, they supply electrical power and natural gas and some other things i think, but essentially they are the coke for electricity because of their monopoly on the market both in the city its based but also down into galveston on the coast and more east to our state border and theyve had lots of problems most notably in the freeze a few years prior

enter hurricane beryl, which is currently just categorized as being a level one though there is some debate on whether it should be upgraded to a higher level

it seems like this is gonna be a changing point, although for better or for worse is still unclear

last sunday is when it finally hit and to be fair it was worse than originally thought it would be, although that is no excuse for what followed and how a multimillion dollar company is trying to act

two million people over the course of the week after have been dealing and likely still are dealing with no electricity, no communication and no idea when their power is coming back, think about that for a minute, over two million in nearly one hundred degree heat and no air conditioning or fans and more importantly no communication and no ability to plan because of this company

if they had given actual real dates or some kind of general estimate then it would have been okay but instead their site was under maintenance for two entire days after, then when it was finally back up their outage map was so inaccurate people started using their apps for whataburger and chicfila because it was a more accurate look at where power was and gave them better estimates than the official map, and then on top of that their outage report was turned off so people couldnt even tell them areas that had been affected

but instead whoever was in charge decided it would be a better idea to have a truck come out to survery the area prolonging the outages for days and have literally thousands of linemen, some from other states sit and wait for entire days and not give them any direction even though in most areas powerlines werent even damaged and just needed a new transformer or something that would only take a day or two at most to fix if not maybe a few hours

instead now a full week after there are still people who are dealing without power around two hundred thousand i believe, but when you look at the numbers i want you to remember its not the actual people but instead the accounts people have meaning it could be twice as many in reality still affected without any clue when it will come back

official statements were also vague and did not give any real information but were only realeased so it seemed like theyre on top of things when in reality centerpoint in this case did everything that you could possibly imagine wrong and worse while millions of people suffered at the hands of their bumbling idiotic greed for money and little intention to act like a real company and have not only left homes without any power but also hospitals and caused the death of many individuals plus countless injuries myself included from fainting and heat exhaustion neither of which i have ever had the misfortune of dealing with before yet have because of this company

news outlets havent said anything worthwile either, not talking about how people are literally dying because of the heat and the failure of centerpoint but instead theres countless articles talking about how silly and quirky using the whataburger map is to track outages because the official thing is so bad, focusing on distracting folks who are currently oblivious to that actual situation so our beloved corporation is protected and preventing anyone who wasnt affected to learn in detail what actually happened because theyre fully aware that if what happened ever reached outside this half of texas there is no chance in hell theyd get away with it

the whitehouse also has done absolutely nothing as there is currently not any basic aid being sent out nor any statement released at least not in ways that are noticable, extreme temperature warnings are the biggest thing issued which wasnt helpful although currently our governor has actually gotten his head out from his ass finally stating investigations should be made into the company and theres talk of lawsuits so i guess stay tuned if theres a petition i will say so and please sign it but at this point i have little hope after decades of this same exact cycle

there is something else to say though

i know that it might seem trivial in comparison to other things going on but i need repeat i need you to understand this situation is still serious and genuinely a crisis and this is not effort to distract from anything going on but just another thing you should care about because at the moment it feels like nobody actually cares and there are still people in need of help but arent getting it because of the government and the corporation trying as hard as possible to ignore whats happening and please look out for lawsuits or gofundmes of things against them and support if possible because this entire situation is horrible again there are things going on that are worse but this is something you need to also pay attention to if not because of the damage actually done then because it could happen to you too

[t4tdanvis]

This ask is your sign to talk about any of your aus (please do)

😼 you dont know how much i LOVE talking about my aus

i have like 10000000000000000 different aus but i will choose one of them to talk about rn. one i dont think ive talked about much on tumblr?? ive talked about it a LOT in the aphverse server im in so shout out to yall for putting up with me /j

this au is also probably the au that made me extremely obsessed with vylad. not my fault hes just so fucking attractive 😔

so anyways. dante and gene both get kidnapped by a "medical research" company (which is a front for like. human experimentation). later they find out that garte is the ceo of that company and bc hes friends with dante and gene's dad (shittiest dads in the world gotta stick together /j) their dad basically just handed them over to be experimented on

so anyways they have wings now!! dante has black wings and gene has white wings. also the experiments messed with the colors of their hair. here is a very quick sketch of what they look like now

dante is 22-ish and gene is 24-ish whenever they escape the lab (they were both there for 4 years). vylad is the one who helps them escape (however dante ends up getting separated from them and runs off. dw hes fine he finds travis, garroth, and laurance)

uh... i should probably explain the setting. and then we will talk about my bbg vylad 😁

so this takes place in the future obviously. its a dystopian future where uhhh basically a while (30-40 years) ago a bunch of countries went to war and completely destroyed most of the landscape of the world and killed off a LOT of the population and now the world is sorta trying to rebuild itself back up. the place where the story mainly takes place is o'khasis city, which garte is the governor of. its one of the (relatively) safest places for many many miles, and traveling across whats basically a desert filled with random people out there doing anything to survive is dangerous.

ur also just not allowed to leave the city without permission (and u have to have a very good reason to leave). this is for a lot of reasons including how dangerous is outside and also bc they want everyone to stay there so they have enough people to keep everything running smoothly

anyways. vylad. hes got a lot of lore. oh god

so first of all. vylad, zane, and garroth all have the very unfortunate luck of being the kids of garte. when gartes kids were 5, 6, and 7 respectively, he began working on a mind control drug that would basically make anyone who took it do whatever he said. at first, it didnt work super well, and he spent many years getting his scientists to perfect it. before he could fully perfect it, vylad ran away when they were 11, so they were never fully under mind control. zane and garroth, however, were put under full mind control and have been ever since (you do have to keep taking the drug about once every 24 hours or the effects will start to wear off, but garte can just tell them "take one of these a day" and theyll have to).

vylad knows about what garte is doing but doesnt have any evidence, and the side effects of the drug mean that his brain just sorta fucks itself over (giving him headaches, making his limbs not move properly, causing him to black out) whenever garte tells him to do anything (this is because the drug was very much a prototype and it permanently fucked up his brain)

when vylad ran away, about five days after he escaped he sorta just passed out in an alleyway on the edge of town. that happened to be the alleyway that sasha, gene, and zenix were currently staying in - sasha manages to convince gene and zenix to Maybe Not Kill This Random Kid and vylad wakes up after like 18 hours and is like "what thje fuck happended"

anyways, sasha, gene, zenix, and vylad quickly become a team, although vylad is the only one who goes and sneaks out of town randomly every few days (hes going to garte's company's lab to see if theyve created a cure for the mind control drug, because theyre trying to create a cure as a backup just in case anything goes wrong)

gene is technically not a runaway, they still mostly live at home with dante and maria. their dad isnt really in their life at all, until he randomly shows up when theyre like 20 and suddenly dante and gene mysteriously disappear a couple days later

vylad immediately knows what happened, but unfortunately the section of the lab where he knows theyre keeping gene and dante is super high security. if he gets caught, theres literally no hope for anyone because garte will just put him under the mind control drug forever. so it takes four entire years for him to rescue gene and dante

thankfully, garte didnt have them put the two under the mind control drug, since he needs all of it for zane and garroth. which makes vylad's job a little easier lol

oh yeah also remember when i said that dante gets found by travis, garroth, and laurance? yeah. garroth is 100% under mind control (which does give you bright green, glowing eyes, but he hides that with contacts) and is being forced by garte to spy on his friends. and whenever she, travis, and laurance find dante, she reports back to garte that one of the escaped experiments has been found, and so garte tells him to go find gene as well.

i need to actually write this bc this is something i actually wanna write instead of just rotate around in my brain forever HDFHDGGHDGHDF so im not gonna tell u all the plot. L for u ig /j

oh also vylad and zenix are very good friends. the best of friends. just guys being dudes. a couple of pals. just some buddies who send each other romantic letters when theyre apart and also kiss each other. just super close friends :)

also sasha has a pet snake and zenix has two pet rats (xe uses xeir rats to carry letters to vylad) :>

[startledbirb]

..

[angelguk]

OMg angst thoughts for jock couple...one of them (probably oc) most likely got stood up for a date bc jk has trainings so oc goes on a spiral thinking abt what if theyre just in this relationship cos its comfortable for them and like theyve known each other the longest and maybe theyre dating bc of some twisted ver of stockholm syndrome n oc gets all 😔😔💔😡 and starts ignoring jk for some time

i have been mulling over this for awhile (i think you also sent a follow-up angst ending but lets set the scene first shall we)

pairing: jock!jk and oc 

warnings: angst, poor communication, oc being insecure and jk being clueless (and kind of an asshole)

soundtrack: antidote by gas dapperton 

(titled — bite the hand that feeds the heart)

You’ve tapped your phone on roughly ten times now, narrowed eyes staring at the time with each lighting of your screen. Every minute that ticks by sinks deep into your heart, clawing something open there, ribs struggling to keep your feelings contained. But you can feel them swelling at the brim of your gaze, eyes blinking harsh under the subdued tawny glow of streetlights. You kick you shoes against the ground to speed up time, pressing your back into the hard brick wall behind you, searching for some sense of support. Even with your mindless excursions, the time still drags on, shifting from ten to fifteen to thirty idle minutes waiting for your lover. 

He turns the corner the second you decide to give up and go home.

“Hey!” Jeongguk’s hair dances in the night wind, delicate curls lifting gracefully. “Sorry–sorry! Coach kept us late for a team meeting and then Yoonoh wanted to borrow my notes and then I found out I had an essay due which I had no ide–”

“It’s okay.” You cut him off with an iciness, kicking yourself off the wall, your dark sweater coddling your frame. Autumn was seeping in, once vibrant green trees falling into hues amber and gold. This was your favourite season, the slow quiet onset of winter warming your heart. But that feeling is absent now, your face sent in a scowl as you trudge towards the nearest convenience store, eyes focused on the bright white luminescence of it not bothering to check if Jeongguk is following you.

You can’t see it but he’s staring at the back of your head strangely, lips twisting down with concern. 

When he grabs your arm, easily linking it with his, you nearly shrug him off. 

“Hey,” Jeongguk tries, tone ginger. “I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to be late, but today was he–”

“You could have texted.”

“I–I I know, I just for–”

“It’s fine, Jeongguk,” you snap, finally giving into the urge to shove him away. “It’s fine. You just keep doing this and I hate it.”

You steady walk forward is interrupted by him yanking you back, twisting you around to face him.

“Doing what? Is it my fault that I’m busy all the time?”

“No,” you spit. “I understand that. But you keep thinking I’m just gonna be around waiting for you forever, Jeongguk and that’s not fair!”

The sigh that drifts from his lips irks you. Like you’re the inconvenience to him when all you’ve done is rearrange your world to fit him at the centre. 

“God what is your issue? I’m late a couple times and suddenly I’m the villain?” His eyes are hard, jaw set like this has been stuck in his throat for a while and the words are ecstatic to be let out. 

“Literally fuck off,” it’s there already, the edge you’ve been slipping on since this all started. At first it was a quiet worry, mulling at the back of your head, but lately, ever since Chayoung opened her big fat mouth it’s grown louder. Insistent to be heard, demanding to break this gentle thing in your hands. “You’re being a dickhead right now.” 

“Me?” Jeongguk huffs. “You’re the one complaining about something useless.”

“Useless? My time is useless to you?” 

You see it flash in the honey of his eyes, quick enough that you might have missed it had you blinked. “What the hell is this about?” Jeongguk whispers. He’s reaching out for you, hands looking for an anchor. “Why are you so cryptic all the time? Why can’t you just tell me what the problem is?”

Maybe he’s right, because you’re not being honest here. But admitting it to him means admitting it to yourself and you’re too afraid to do that. Too afraid to lose the most precious thing to you, to your heart. 

“Cryptic? If you even fucking listened to me for one sec–”

“I do!” Jeongguk returns, eyes narrow. “You just say things and never mean them.”

That gets you, heart stopping dead in your chest. You suddenly wish you could take it all back; the kiss on the rooftop of his apartment, the nights you spent in his bed learning the taste of him, the murmurs of love you’d left on his skin. Because did they mean anything? Did you even truly love him?

That question burns in your head, splits your heart right open, bleeding through the cracks of your ribs. 

“You should go home,” you finally murmur. Jeongguk blanches, doe eyes wide. 

“What–what? Y/N what the hell are you talking about?”

“Go home,” you repeat, twisting your head away. You can’t look at him cause if you do you’ll cry and you don’t want Jeongguk to see you like that. He grabs your shoulder, you rip his hand away. “Go home, Jeongguk! I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

For second there’s a moment of silence, you take it and start walking forward, up the to convenience store.  A whisper in your head tells you he’ll follow, force you to talk to him, share the secrets mauling your heart. But then you hear the scrap of his sneakers against the pavement, fading away instead of drawing close. You walk until you’re at the top of the hill, frame illuminated by the stores bright lights. You look back then, hoping he’s still there. Your gaze finds an empty road instead, copper leaves skipping through the breeze. He’s gone, left you alone to drown in this, like the louder voice in your head knew he would.

[actualbird]

Oh god!

I really love the poly headcanons they are so sweet.... (or don't but that's part of it and i think the tot boys+MC deserve all the love the world has to give).

But, liking it or not, our 4 beloved boys are kinda complicated (that's what makes them perfect). Plus I never thought about how people get in poly relationships. So i was thinking, how do you think they all get into a polyrelationship together?

(I really have no idea of how that would happen)

hi, two anons!! im glad you guys liked my nxx team polycule stuff!! i'll answer these in one go, my "headcanon" (in quotes because i think this kinda turned into a character analysis/minific of sorts HAHA) being what first anon asked, How They Get Together.

heads up, wc of this is 1.9k words long so buckle up for a bit of a read jfsjdfkjbf

because first anon, youre right!!! the boys are stupendously complicated which i love so so much but canon has also shown us clearly that each of the boys' quirks and habits and tendencies causes a lot of (mostly played for laughs) friction. the bickering, the backhanded insults, the "im the best one here" preening contests. theyre all SOOOO RIDICULOUS and it is hilarious but yep! the boys r complex!! and that means this beautiful ship, imo, has a lot of phases to get to the actual romantic relationship bit.

how they get together, in my opinion, starts because of mc.

not in the sense that she matchmakes them all, but like.

phase 1 of the nxx team polycule is this:

through being in love with her (which we all know the boys 100% are), each of the boys come to terms with their own flaws and weaknesses. it's very apparent to me in all the story thus far that these boys are flawed as hell, it's very compelling but even more compelling to me is how all of them also do intense mental gymnastics to Not Confront Those Flaws. like, marius is a dickbag always teasing and toeing the line of insincerity, vyn is a controlling mf who always tries to sway situations to his benefit, artem is so repressed to the point that he has genuine trouble with emotions, luke is a self sacrificial bastard and also a huge hypocrite about how no, actually, hes the only one that should be hiding his pain and being dishonest, no dishonesty from other people!! in the beginning of the story, all the boys have their flaws and seem to have just kinda...not addressed how those flaws are harming them and the people around them.

and then mc rolls around and they all fall in love with her. and she sees those flaws and she doesnt let them slide. she challenges the boys in her own ways to see another side of the situation, to acknowledge what theyre doing. she doesnt want to get rid of flaws, thats impossible and also not cool. she just has this beautiful hope for like, all of humanity, that goodness can prevail with the right work. so when she sees her beloved nxx boys, she believes that for them as well.

which leads to phase 2 of the nxx team polycule:

the boys, more aware of themselves, become more aware of each other.

they werent Unaware of the others of course. it's just that they didnt like...truly connect on a personal level just yet. they saw the other teammembers with their emotional armor and flaws and saw a wall that wasnt worth looking past.

but after mc makes them realize that hey, flaws arent the end of the world actually, it's alright and the person behind them may just be worth it, the boys like. end up understanding the others. A LOT OF THIS BIT IS UNINTENTIONAL, ON THEIR PARTS KJDSBFS. like they stumble into understanding each other by accident, they didnt plan it, but over the course of nxx investigations, it's inevitable that they end up seeing the depths of the others. i delve into this a little bit in my fanfic "filler eps of the lost gold" where the boys are just going thru their actions and then trip over another boy's fears or desires and through that, gain a deeper understanding mutually.

and with understanding, sometimes, comes trust.

phase 3 of the nxx team polycule goes like this:

everybody in this team, whether they like it or not, whether they know it or not, has a heart that wants to give love so desperately.

marius lives in a world full of snakes so he cant have his heart on his sleeve for his own protection. vyn wants to be seen as perfect and the heart is inherently messy so he holds it back. artem for a very very long time was focused on work and success and achievement that he neglected his heart. and luke has been giving love all his life in a sense but in a way thats hidden.

all these tendencies that are brought upon their life circumstances results in this: they want to love honestly but they havent been able to do this

until mc. and all of them want to push back whatever fears or patterns their life has instilled in them because they see her and see somebody so unwaveringly good that all their hearts begin giving love to her to make her happy and to make themselves happy as well.

but heres the thing. the boys dont just see mc. by this point, they have connected and understood and come to trust each other as well, and the consequence of that is that They Can See Each Other Now Too, Truly.

and heres the thing. all of the boys are unwaveringly good as well.

one by one, each of the boys realize that what they feel for the other boys in the team starts to...change. yeah theyre all friends, they pick on each other a lot of the time, but the bedrock of the relationship is solid and strong now. but when marius is with luke, marius sees a light inside of luke so bright that he seems unaware that he gives off. when artem is with vyn, artem sees a goodness inside of vyn that hesitates to make itself obvious and known because vyn is scared of getting hurt thanks to it. all of them see the other and their goodness and, unbidden, their hearts want to give love to each other as well.

and because theyre all a bit stupid in their own way theyre like, huh, weird! wonder why this feeling is so familiar! and yet i cant seem to name it...and then they all independently compare these feeling with the feelings they have for mc, a feeling they do know the name of, and theyre like.

WAIT.

THESE FEELINGS ARE...VERY BASICALLY EXACTLY WHAT I FEEL FOR MC.

which only means one thing: theyve fallen in love with everybody else

marius: //goes to his studio to Think and sees that a bunch of his recent art actually had little crumbs of these feelings already, etched into the brushstrokes and scenes. has an emotional crisis about it

vyn: //records a 1 hour long entry in his audio diary to examine and gain control of his feelings but by the end of the hour all he knows is that he wants to hold these people and be held by them

artem: //quite literally just bluescreens, artem.exe has stopped working, sits at his study and slowly, slowly, thunks his head down onto his desk, valiantly trying to ignore the fast pulse of his heart

luke: //manically vents about it to peanut who, by virtue of being a bird, doesnt get it. just keeps talking at peanut to get a grasp of it all and then lies down on the floor, overwhelmed

mc, sitting in her apartment watching some netflix: ...why do i inexplicably feel as if something very, very important has just happened?

phase 4 of the nxx team polycule is basically:

pining: extreme difficulty level

because pining is already hard when ur pining for one person. what more for an additional 3 more people. and those additional 3 more people are pining back.

and all these boys are SOOOO OBVIOUS with their romantic feelings, in their own special way. the way they show their affection to mc starts to bleed into their interactions with the others and everybody can CLEARLY SEE WHAT IS GOING ON, LOL, but also all the boys are too chickenshit to confront it, because if they confront it, what will even happen??? being in love with each other, all of them, thats going to be such a complicated fucking relationship, holy shit. it's 2030, yeah, being a polyamorous group relationship isnt completely unheard of, but sue them, theyre scared.

but mc (who i forgot to mention already knows of the boys' romantic feelings for her, shes just hasnt made a move yet on any of them because SHES IN LOVE WITH ALL OF THEM AS WELL and shes been trying to figure out how the hell to make that work, she cant bear to choose just one of them, she'd be heartbroken over leaving the rest of them behind) sees that the nxx investigation team is now all pining for each other FULLY and she kinda wants to laugh when she realizes whats going on because like, what are the chances? that this would happen? that they all found each other and their feelings fell into just the right place for nobody to be left behind?

theyre all scared, she can tell. and she is as well, she wont lie.

but shes always had a belief that goodness can prevail with the right work.

and love is one of the greatest goods out there.

phase 5 of the nxx team polycule:

It's Time For Communication, Baby!!!!!

the exact scenes of how this happens is a bit vague to me. it could go two ways: mc going to each of the boys independently to talk about feelings, hers about everybodys and his about everybodys as well. OR they have a fucking meeting about it all together and artem literally schedules it in his google calendar, or something.

either way, they like, actually talk about this. starts casual, maybe over a chill date, maybe over dinner at a nice restaurant, maybe over a walk in the park as the sun is starting to set. but where ever it happens, the end result is the same: a heart is laid out bare and it is taken in gentle, grateful hands.

marius: OKAY, NOW THAT THE FEELINGS ARE OUT OF THE WAY, CAN I PLEASE KISS ONE OR ALL OF YOU, PLEASE, IVE BEEN WANTING TO KISS U GUYS FOR FOREVER

vyn, laughing fondly: has anybody ever told you patience is a virtue? we quite literally just talked it all out.

marius: //needy whining noises

artem, embarrassed: ive...never kissed anybody before

luke, embarrassed but trying to play it Cool: ....same here

mc: kissing is great, you two will love it!

marius: awesome, awesome, so is ANYBODY going to give me a go ahead or WHAT????

phase 6 of the nxx team polycule:

i dont want to say it's happily ever after, once they all get together. thats not really realistic.

they all have their quirks and tendencies and habits. and those will inevitable clash against each other. theyll have their arguments, theyll get upset, theyll sulk and be angry, sometimes. but also...

theyll see each other smile and feel like their love shining so brightly. theyll reach out for another's hand and be held in such a way that makes them think that their heart is in a safe place. theyll love each other and theyll put in the work to continue loving each other. because goodness will prevail.

and they all see each other as the most good people in the world.

so whatever happens, theyll get through it together.

[creweemmaeec11]

My favourite prompts:

A list of my favourite prompts that I’ve posted in the past, all curated into a huge list just for you guys!

1

Finally, the day has come. The villain is thought to be dead. The hero has won.

Until suddenly the hero learns the villain left them EVERYTHING in their will. Made them the owner and operator of all their illegal business.

Obviously, the hero plans to shut everything down immediately. But they quickly realize just how many people the villain employed… how many family’s they fed…

2

“You kissed me,”

“I did… and?”

“What-!? What do you mean and!?,”

“What more do you want?”

“An explanation would be a good start!”

“…or I could just do it again…”

*other person turns bright red,*

“Or… or that, I suppose,”

3

“What the hell are you doing here!?”

“I think the better question would be what in the hell are you wearing,” the villain replied, amusement clear on their face, like they were struggling to keep from laughing.

“What- it’s-” the hero blushed, remembering what they were wearing, “their pajamas! What are you-!”

“Oh my god…” the villain replied, like they were struggling to come to terms with what they were seeing, “the hero of the city not only own, but wears a onesie,”

“Excuse me!” The hero snapped in defence, “They’re comfortable!”

“They? You have more??”

4

“I gotta say hero,” The villain mused as they casually moved toward the cell bars, “I’ve been called many things in my life: monster, villain, outcast, loser, scoundrel,” they tilted their head, examining the hero before them, “but ‘our last hope?’” *clicks tongue* “that’s a first,”

5

You live in a world where anyone born with superpowers must become a super hero. It doesn’t matter what the power is, or how small it is, it is mandatory. It was deemed that having anyone with superpowers work alongside regular people was “unsafe” and “unfair.” Every year, dozens of superhero’s with powers useless for fighting are killed. You’ve managed to make it this long with nobody finding out you have a superpower. But how much longer can you hide in plain sight?

6

The city’s villain mysteriously disappears and hasnt been seen in a week. The people are celebrating, but the hero is worried. What if the villain is planning something big? Determined to stop whatever evil plan is brewing, the hero tracks the villain down, but they dont find what they expected. Instead of evil plotting, the villain:

-Has been taking care of a sick pet -Come down with the flu -Been helping arrange a friends wedding -Found out they were pregnant -Is getting married themselves -Mourning the death of a loved one -Has adopted a young pet and been occupied taking care of them -Has been helping one of their lackeys who’s in a desperate situation -Has been feeding the homeless and offering blankets

7

You’re the most wanted villain by all highest ranking authorities, but all the heros “just can’t seem to catch you” (they always let you get away) because all your crimes are things like stealing expensive medication and then donating it to hospitals, robbing toy stores and donating to orphanages, robbing banks and giving to charity, robbing grocery stores and feeding the homeless, ect

8

A hero/villain with the power to materialize their own tattoos. Got a wrench tattoo? Now you’ve got a wrench. Got a tattoo of wings? A bomb? A get away car? Well…

Dragon tattoos have always been popular, havent they?

9

Write about a genius inventor villain who, while watching the news, learns about a sick child in hospital doctors arnt sure they can cure. The villain realizes something theyve invented could cure the child. Now the hard part is convincing them to let the villain help.

10

The villain starts to notice the hero is feeling more down the usual, so they start leaving the hero little notes to cheer them up. All is going well until the hero figures out who is sending them.

11

In a world of magic users where everyone is divided into the 6 eye colours, and the colour of your eyes represents what your powers are. Each colour has an elemental power, can talk to a certain type of creature(Invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals), and has 3 other powers. For example, blue eyes control water, can commune with fish, etc. Everyone in the world has either red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple eyes. Except for you, you were born with black eyes. Everyone is afraid of what your powers will be, but they should be more worried about the kind of creatures you can talk to…

12

A hero and a villain (and maybe their sidekicks, up to you) trapped in a haunted house or haunted location.  

-One is scared so the other comforts them. They are both scared but trying to act like they aren’t. -One doesn’t believe in ghosts, and the other has the power to communicate with them or see them. -Ghosts aren’t real, but one continues to try and freak the other out, who claims they aren’t scared. -Ghost wingman. I need’ d say no more -One gets possessed, so the other has to do the whole ‘kiss to break a curse’ thing to bring them out of it. -The classic Person A thinks ghosts aren’t real so they prank Person B to scare them. Then shit gets real, but person B doesn’t believe person A, thinking its just another prank.

13

“I trusted you! You promised!”

“I kept my promise! I got you your results! Don’t question my methods from a top that high moral horse or yours, especially when the only reason you made a deal with me in the first place was because you were too much of a coward to do what needed to be done!”

14

The local wildfire has been growing out of control, forcing the city to have to evacuate. Suddenly, the villain with water powers shows up to lend a hand to fire fighters.

15

“Tell me hero,” the villain spoke, chains jangling from where they hung on the villains wrists as they walked up to the bars of the jail cell, “If you wanted to skip a press conference, could you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re sisters getting married, but your needed for a big event at the hero academy that day. Would you be allowed to attend the wedding? What about if your brother stole a pack of gum. Could you let it slide? Not would you, but could you?”

The hero paused. Could they? They had responsibilities! They had commitments to the city, and to the serving of justice!

The villain laughed at the heros silence, “I may be in jail, but you’re more chained then I’ll ever be,”

16

“So tell me,” the villain drawled, dragging a finger across the heros skin, making them shiver, “what changed your mind?”

17

Hero discovers the villain has a day job. It isnt at all what they expected. (Day care, animal shelter, etc)

18

“What are you going to do if you beat me, and suddenly the city dosent need a hero? What are you going to do if you get hurt and can no longer fight, and the city forgets about you just like all the heros before you? Who will you be when your legacy crumbles under the weight of all those who follow? Will you take up knitting?”

The hero stared unblinking and frozen as the villain took a step forward.

“Sure, your a hero. But what are you without that?”

The villain took another step forward.

“Your nothing, heroism is all you have. That pathetic title you curl up to every night. But without it?” They looked the hero up and down, “Absolutely nothing…”

19

A villain retires from villainy and gets plastic surgery (or simply never showed their face) so they can live a normal life without being recognized. While living their new life, they bump into the hero, and the two start falling for eachother. But the villain is terrified of the hero finding out the truth

20

The hero slammed their front door as quickly as they could, eyes wide, heart pounding.

The villain. The villain was outside their door.

“Well that was rude,”

21

A hero with magic powers, in a world where magic is unheard of. They have always kept their powers a secret, fearing they would be shunned, or tested on. They never use their powers in battle.

One day, while practicing their magic alone in the woods, the villain appears out of nowhere. 

Before the hero can explain, the villain asks, “you have powers too?”

22

A hero dies. Or at least, they think they do. The next thing they know they wake up at their own funeral. And the only person there? Is the villain.

23

“The worst part, is you had the nerve to call it love”