#i’m on mobile and i’m never on mobile

[neon-sunsets]

okay. let’s talk about jayce’s monologue, since people are calling him ableist.

for context, not that it matters: I have a significant mobility disability and a progressive chronic illness which, even when managed, can kill me. I’m not in exactly the same boat as viktor since my disease isn’t terminal, but I’ve had very similar experiences to him. this shapes my perception of him and of this storyline.

this is the monologue:

You’ve always wanted to cure what you thought were weaknesses. Your leg. Your disease. But you were never broken, Viktor. There’s beauty in imperfections. They made you what you are. An inseparable piece of everything I admired about you.

first, it should be noted that “what you thought were weaknesses” is not the same thing as “things that are good.” jayce is not saying that viktor’s disease is or was a good thing. what he is saying is that he admired (loved) everything that viktor was, which included the things viktor thought made him a burden or a problem. remember also that jayce almost doomed the world because he couldn’t let viktor die; he would never imply that viktor dying was a good thing.

the next question, then, is whether viktor sees himself as a burden or not. I think it’s implied that he does — it’s certainly not unrealistic to think that viktor might have come to view himself, or at least his disease, as a burden and a flaw. disabled people often view ourselves that way either because of internalized ableism or because society constantly tells us that we’re burdens and that our bodies are abnormal and wrong. viktor displays behaviors that indicate internalized ableism, including hiding the fact that he’s coughing up blood from jayce the first few times it happens and generally refusing to be in the public eye in a way that is self-effacing and not just him being private. yes, he says in act 1 of season 1 that he believes in himself, but he does also call himself a cripple in a dismissive way in that same scene; also, he doesn’t have the disease at that point. arguably the entire scene where he runs despite clearly being in pain is an example of his internalized ableism, but that’s another post.

more evidence for viktor’s perception of himself being negative is that he clearly has a sense that he doesn’t deserve to be loved (specifically by jayce, but maybe also in general). we see this when he asks jayce why he’s still persisting in saving him. we see this with his generally self-effacing behavior. we see this with the fact that in all of season 1, the only person he allows to touch him is jayce, and that the only person he actively touches in the entire show is jayce. viktor is reserved and not good with his emotions, which is a huge part of his arc this season. all of these behaviors point to him having a negative self-perception.

I think it’s important to really consider how jayce perceives viktor and how viktor perceives himself. I don’t think this season handled everything perfectly, but I think they handled this very well. viktor has been written with a fullness and complexity that most disabled characters don’t ever get. him being morally grey doesn’t mean he’s “problematic” or “bad representation.” obviously I’m only one disabled person, but I really love jayce and viktor and I think their story is beautifully written.

[hanafubukki]

Imagine getting angry at Fellow for his comments? At first you could handle it: you’re used to the insults, the breaking of facades, threats to your life, but what really ticked you off? When he told you that you would never understand being poor and living off the graces of others. Now that? Had you ticked off.

But what can you do? You and the other three were slowly becoming puppets and even if you did get free of this spell, you wouldn’t be able to take Fellow or his puppets down.

Then adding on the fact of breaking the spell…Professor Crewel did say that True Love Kiss is a tried and true method…and your boyfriend is right there.

It can’t hurt, now can it?

You use what mobility you have left to lean in, Lilia curious about your actions.

You hear Fellow make snide comments about love birds and to enjoy it while you two still can only to let out a raspy exclamation when the spell suddenly disintegrates from both of you.

Lilia broke out in laughter, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because I’m wiser and I actually listen to my professors,” you point at the fox behind you, “Now honey, make that one regret his words please.”

With a kiss to your cheek and a wink, Lilia faces Fellow Honest, “Gladly, Dearest.”

You ended up giving Lilia multiple kisses whenever the spells struck him and Fellow Honest learned first hand why Lilia was a feared Phantom General in his youth.

[oriley42]

Serious question but no need to answer if you don’t want to

I see a lot of talk about Amber’s portrayal being sexist in the show, but I’m not quite sure why? To me her motives always seemed really well-defined (high pressure = “I’m only worthy when I’m successful”) so she puts on this sharky mask with a feminine facade so she is feminine enough to get a certain amount of approval but never shows how much she cares (which could be used against her but also could be used to undermine her “oh you’re too soft”). I thought the show did an excellent job of showing a mask for her

But a lot of people talk about 00s sexism and how it impacts her characterization. The sexism… Is it that she gets called a cutthroat bitch? Or how her story revolves around a man after she leaves House’s team? Is it the fridging?

Any of those could be it I guess but it just sounds like you and others are talking about something a little more fundamental to her personhood so I thought I’d ask if I’m missing anything.

Very interesting question! I think you're getting at exactly the trickiness of the issue, which is that sexism always operates systemically. It's not that any key aspect of Amber's character "is" misogynist, it's that every aspect of her character is automatically filtered through a lens of sexism.

In today's world where "bitch" has been very de-clawed, turned into a more casual and way less gendered insult that's used without cruel intention in queer slang, I think it's hard to understand just how violent the term was--and was meant to be--in the aughts. House in canon is not calling Amber a bitch in a cute, almost self-deprecating, friendly way (though I think it's valid to re-write it that way in fic to defuse the term!). He is calling her a bitch to contain and belittle and dehumanize her. We see the term mobilized this way against Cuddy in 5 to 9 as well: calling a woman a bitch was an extremely powerful rhetorical tool to turn any dangerously competent, brilliant, threateningly accomplished woman back into a harmless, debased, controllable object. So, "CB" reflects how easily the fact that Amber is the "female House" gets turned against her--it doesn't mean she's an eccentric genius like him, it means she's an evil copycat who needs to be put down. And this kind of structural logic applies to her whole characterization--it doesn't matter that House does it all more frequently and worse, if she does it, it's unacceptable because she's a woman. (There are parallels here with how racism means that when Foreman acts like House, he also gets the axe instead of the narrative bending over backwards to make what he did alright.) That's why she was fired, after all!

And her death. Woof. Classic case of killing a woman for man-pain. Everything supposedly about her death is actually about how her violent destruction can be used to fuel Wilson and House's character arcs. The narrative is occasionally conscious of this, for example, Wilson saying "none of you even liked Amber" is an almost metatextual reminder of how cruelly she was disenfranchised in every way (including the sexism of her trying to "defect" to the men's team early on, having no female friends, because unlike House who has so many people orbiting him, she is truly alone). Comparing her death to Kutner's is instructive: Kutner gets a whole episode that's about characters desperately trying to know him better. They trace their relationships towards him. Amber, on the other hand, is nearly absent from her own death. The characters trace away from her and towards the way male characters feel (Wilson's loss, House's guilt). Amber becomes just an imagined figure of House's guilt. Even her ghost is not her own. (Though I think many fans do a more feminist read and reclaim the way she haunts the narrative--but imho that would be a negotiated if not fully oppositional reading, to use Stuart Hall's decoding/encoding terms.)

One easy way to see that gendered difference is in how the show refers to these characters after death. Kutner is always "Kutner," never just "House's dead fellow" or rarely "our dead colleague." Amber is often referred to as "Wilson's dead girlfriend." Kutner is his own person, Amber rhetorically gets reduced to an object belonging to a man.

In conclusion: sexism operates structurally, which can make it hard to identify! And one of the funny effects of contemporary fandom doing so much good work to un-fridge women and give marginalized female characters richer personalities and more chances to grow is that canon's intended message of sexism gets obscured. Which, is awesome? Keep up the good work! Let's make misogyny unintelligible 🎉

[strawberri-draws]

Silly entry for day 3 of potsnpicksweek (Dinner/Modern AU/Gift)!

[evasive-anon]

Let Danny’s Parents Be Criminals

I hate the reveal gone wrong trope in the dpxdc fandom because we know Jack and Maddie end up supporting Danny and Dani in the end. His parents have some major flaws but wanting to torture their actual child isn’t one. What they are guilty of is going way too hard on any plan they cook up without thinking of the consequences.

If I were writing a dpxdc fic and I wanted Danny in adoptable status I’d just have Jack and Maddie in jail on charges of domestic terrorism after they killed off GIW agents and destroyed the GIW’s bases. They realized their ghost kids were in potential danger and went at the government the same way they went at ghosts, guns blazing and with reckless driving.

They end up in federal prison and they Vlad wins custody cause he’s rich and there is your runaway Danny plot starter.

[stark-lord]

Side B

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

I just want to remind everyone that Wallace is canonically the worse one to sleep in the same bed with.

Scott can be a bad roommate in every other aspect but GUYS Wallace is the one that canonically snores and kicks in his sleep.

Scott sleeps like a princess with his back against the sheet lying perfectly straight (and also taking all the covers) and Wallace sleeps semi-on-his-side and apparently just fucking punting Scott in the leg every so often (not to mention he talked in his sleep too) and I don’t know why this is important to me but it is.

Because when people draw them cuddling in their sleep it’s always Wallace being normal and Scott turning and snoring and shit but you’re missing out on sleepy-cuddly Wallace turning and snoring on Scott. Let that cringe-fail 25 year old be annoying. Istg.

I’m talking to the Mobillace people too btw. Not that I’ve seen anyone draw them cuddling in bed (which is a CRIME btw. Draw that. For me.) but like imagine how funny it would be: Mobile stays the night for the first time and the hot-weirdo is a bed-menace, snoring and kicking and tossing and turning and suction cupping for warmth and Mobile is like “I want him to be my boyfriend” THATS FUNNY! LIKE-

[short666bread]

@maki-nsi TT wah sorry I’m incompetent and deleted your ask by mistake, but thank you so sm for the nice words re: my various iterations of these guys!!! I’m glad the different-ness is good and that my art feels friendly and comforting ;; anyways here’s the doodle I did based on your doodle :,)

[bumpscosity]

considering I’ve never done pixel art before and roblox starving artists is underdeveloped at best and "undo button doesn't work so you have to erase half your drawing" at worst I think these look pretty good

[kaijuno]

TMI but my periods are usually like. 3 days and painless. But this fuckin month. Oh my GOD. I have thrown up 4 times this morning because my cramps are so bad. I can barely walk because my back hurts. I’m currently typing this from my bathtub because it hurts too much to get out of it what the FUCK

[jewishbarbies]

people love to clutch their pearls when i ask for sources and refuse to take a “trust me, bro” anon’s word for it, as if that refusal somehow proves my opinion on the subject one way or another, instead of just taking it for what it is - a random person on the internet making sure what they’re being told by another random person on the internet is accurate before jumping to conclusions and choosing to form an educated opinion instead. I know it’s not very common practice anymore these days, but how you react will either encourage or discourage fact checking behavior and you need to be careful which one you’re causing.

[becausebuckley]

hold you close | buddie | explicit | 1.3k

after a scary experience on shift, buck and eddie just need to be close to each other. for 911 kinktober day 11: post-near death experience!

That feeling, however, that gaping emptiness, had followed Buck throughout the last dregs of their shift. He knows Eddie felt it too, could tell by just one look at those haunted eyes.

It’s no surprise, then, that Buck doesn’t even have to finish his sentence. All he has to say is please and Eddie is right there with him, crowding him against the door and licking into his mouth in a searing kiss.

Eddie gets it, Buck’s need to be close to him right now. He feels it too.

read the full fic on ao3 here!

[spid3r-trans]

hi !! i came from ao3 and as a drabble request maybe you can do hobie meeting miles’ friends (e.g. ganke or maybe some ocs)

love ur work 🫶🏽

Miles spends most of his weekends with Hobie.

And lunch periods.

And patrols after school.

And evenings.

And– well, you get the point.

Still, despite the easy way they fell into each other’s lives, Miles’ worlds remain mostly separate.

His parents have met Hobie, that’s at least one secret Miles no longer has to keep. He brings Hobie to most of his family’s parties as a plus one, and his mother always sets an extra place at the dinner table for him – Miles doesn’t even have to ask anymore. But it’s more than that.

Hobie himself is his own world to Miles.

There’s home, and then there’s Hobie. There’s hero work, and there’s Hobie. There’s school, and still, there’s Hobie.

In all of the challenges Miles must face, through the dangers that each day brings, and despite all of the lies and alibis he has to create— Hobie is there. Tethering him to the things that really matter, to the person he really is.

But when Hobie comes crashing in through his dorm window, words collide.

Miles’ friends at school have known something is up. Especially Ganke, who sees his roommate even less than usual. For the most part, Ganke assumes it’s spider-related extracurricular activities— but he’s pretty sure fighting crime doesn’t make you smile at your phone and kick your feet.

Or sneak out of the dorms after hours.

Or doodle hearts on everything.

Or— well, you get the point.

Regardless of the telltale signs, he’s busy with his own interests. If Miles has something he wants to tell him, Ganke knows he’ll say it when he’s ready.

That’s how he thought it would play out, anyway.

Ganke is used to the window of their dorm room being open. Miles is in and out, constantly. Which, really, could be worse. He’d rather have Spider-Man as a roommate than half the other kids at this school— only it’s not the Spider-Man he’s expecting that swings in.

Hobie’s boots land heavily on the hardwood flooring, making Ganke cringe. The kids in the dorm room below already hate them, and this has surely guaranteed that another passive aggressive note will be slipped under the door in the near future. Ganke shakes his head, he can deal with that at another time, he has more pressing matters at hand.

The boy in front of him seems restless— agitated— but not dangerous. His head snaps as he looks around, the lenses of his mask narrowed as he searches for... something.

Ganke doesn’t exactly have training for a situation like this. He stays standing near the outskirts of the room, unsure.

“Uh, can I help yo-”

“I’m looking for Miles.”

Ganke has to blink several times to maintain his composure. The silence does nothing to curb Hobie’s distress.

“Sorry, sorry. I just wasn’t expecting the accent. Wow. You are super cool though.”

The lenses of the mask stay narrowed. Hobie knows Ganke. He recognizes him from pictures and stories that Miles tells about their antics, so he knows Ganke is aware of Miles’ alter ego— he’s just not grasping the urgency of the situation.

“Listen, alright?” Hobie says, not bothering to hide the slight edge that cuts through his voice, “Miles went out last night to fight a bad guy — a really bad guy — and no one’s been able to get ‘hold of him since. He should be here. Do you know where he is?”

Ganke shrugs slightly, trying to feign apathy.

“I don’t really keep track. I’m not really his ‘guy in the chair,’ y’know?”

It’s not his finest moment. He can tell Hobie is frowning even with the mask obscuring his face.

Ganke has to physically place himself between Hobie and the door to stop him from storming out. He might not be Miles’ “guy in the chair,” but letting a superhero from another dimension walk through the halls of their private school seems like a really bad idea— especially when said superhero seems amped up enough to go through hell and back for Miles. It doesn’t really seem like a good headspace to be thinking through any decisions.

“He’s fine, okay?” Ganke tells him, “he was here this morning!”

Hobie stills, waiting for him to elaborate.

“I think he’s got class,” Ganke explains, eyes darting to the clock on the wall, “he should be coming back soon if you…want to…wait.”

He can’t really take back the words once he’s said them, but he has no idea how he’s going to keep the protective vigilante distracted until Miles gets back. Hobie seems skeptical, he hesitates, and Ganke thinks that he won’t even take him up on the offer— and then he sighs, pulling off his mask and relenting.

Before Ganke can stop himself, the words are out of his mouth.

“How are you even cooler under your mask?” He asks. It must’ve been the right thing to say, since despite his worry, Hobie cracks a smile.

“I was this cool the whole time.”

—

Every part of Miles is sore. All he wants to do is lay down and never think about bad guys or biochemistry or both ever again.

He thinks he did okay on the test, passed it at least, but he could’ve done better if he had slept at all or could hold his pencil without his bruised knuckles aching. To say he’d gotten a little beaten up was an understatement. He can’t even message his friends to complain about it because his phone snapped clean in half during the fight. God, his parents are going to kill him.

He turns the key to his dorm, pushing it open, but stopping dead in his tracks at the scene in front of him.

Ganke is sitting on the top bunk— it’s Miles’ bed but it’s not that unusual for him to be up there. What is unusual is that Hobie is sitting beside him, perched on the metal bed rail with a video game controller clutched in his hands— tapping away while Ganke cheers him on loudly.

Miles puts his bag on the ground, kicking the door closed behind him.

“So, uh, what’s going on here?”

The game is immediately forgotten, Hobie discarding the controller as he drops down in a fluid motion to put his arms around Miles.

“I told you he’d be back, see?” Ganke says, peering down at them with a smile that’s a little too smug.

Hobie pulls back from Miles, one of his hands finding Miles’ cheek as he inspects him for visible injuries.

“I’m good, I’m good, I promise.” Miles lets out a breathless laugh, before a realization hits him. “Did you cross dimensions just to check on me?”

“You haven’t been answering messages from anyone.” Hobie says pointedly.

“I know, my phone broke when-”

Ganke leans forward, interrupting the moment.

“Miles, you didn’t tell me the person you’re dating is so cool! I can’t believe you didn’t bring him around sooner!”

Neither of them can hide the red that colors their cheeks.

“Yeah, well,” Miles shrugs, “I guess he is pretty cool.”

[sopuu]

champion jesse has been rotating in my head for WEEKS i can finally get this out

also extra info and slight tweaks to the story under the cut!

- jesskas is a thing in this. obviously hfkdj what else did you expect from me

- romeo’s projecting a lot and wants jesse to see his friends the way he sees xara and fred

- lukas joins the main group (he punched romeo right after he teleported jesse away and romeo got pissed) and sorta takes jesse’s place as a reluctant leader

- the hug that happens when jesse and lukas reunite in ep5 is now in ep3 after the prison fight, roles reversed

- olivia and axel replace the ocelots, becoming the dead enders or whatever team name you chose at the start of s1 (to remind jesse of the time before they had any fame)

there’s a bit more lore to this but it’s gotta wait a bit cause it’ll spoil the animatic i’m working on :)

[kaxtwenty]

Wait a second…

-The Earthlings are the ones oppressed by the people in space instead of the other way around-

-Transfer of political power is handled through sports-like duels between Mobile Suits-

-Romance is a major focus-

G GUNDAM IS THAT YOU?!

[bisexual-kelsier]

Love Is Stored in the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

On Lizzie & Ripred

The newest take I’m seeing right now, both in the TUC tags and on my “controversial TUC takes” post, is that Lizzie’s relationship with Ripred is unfounded and that the inclusion of it “robbed” us of a softer moment between Gregor and Ripred. I disagree with this take so much that I decided to write an entire essay about my thoughts on the subject. The most common argument I see against Lizzie is that she received Ripred’s affection, as well as his tragic backstory, after being present for a very short period of time, while Gregor has known Ripred for months. At a surface level, this may seem counterintuitive, but when we dig deeper into the characters and their behaviors, motivations, and allegiances, the thematic significance of Lizzie’s role in the story becomes apparent.

First and foremost, let’s take a look at Gregor. I love this kid so much, but I do believe that the core of this argument hinges on his more subtle flaws as a character. Consider this: the entirety of The Underland Chronicles is narrated from Gregor’s point-of-view. What does this mean for our perception of the story? We receive only the context that Gregor has, and we only receive the details that Gregor notices and finds important. Across the series, his understanding of the Underland and its denizens expands, grows, and solidifies. He is twelve by Code of Claw and very much still learning and growing, but some of beliefs have settled by this point.

This is where Ripred comes in. Gregor has more or less made up his mind about Ripred by the end of Curse of the Warmbloods. He wants to lead the Gnawers and will achieve that goal by any means necessary. He’s an ally, but probably not a friend, grumpy and abrasive and untouchable. Definitely not worthy of sympathy, because he can take care of himself. In short, Gregor doesn’t see Ripred as a multidimensional person, as someone with emotions outside of anger and self-importance.

In direct opposition, we have Lizzie. Upon first glance, she might seem inconsequential until Code of Claw, because her character arc is quiet and mostly happens off-screen. She’s anxious about almost everything, and the Underland puts her through a lot of trauma in the earlier books without having ever set foot down there. It took her dad from her when she was only four years old, and when he returned years later, he was ill and severely traumatized. His absence and then his inability to work meant that she grew up in poverty, spending a large portion of her childhood food insecure and without a stable home life. Similarly, the Underland suddenly took Gregor, who by that point had undertaken a parental role in the household, and Boots away on more than one occasion. These traumas were then compounded on in Curse of the Warmbloods, first when her family’s apartment was swarmed by rats and then when Grace, the stable parent and breadwinner, contracted the plague and was unable to return home.

Lizzie’s role in both Marks of Secret and Code of Claw directly opposes the effect that Gregor—and by direct extension, we as readers—expects this trauma to have on her. Lizzie is afraid of almost everything, and the Underland has harmed her directly in the past. She should approach it with fear, maybe even hostility, like Gregor does in portions of the book. Lizzie is not Gregor, though, and her key trait as a character is that she is able to see the world as a whole through different eyes. So she chooses kindness, instead.

This is where the excerpt above comes in. Lizzie has never met Ripred personally at this point, and she really only knows anything about him from Gregor’s stories—which almost certainly don’t paint Ripred in the kindest light. Lizzie sees beyond the surface of these stories, though, and considers Ripred as an entire person, with depth and emotions. What she sees between the lines is up for individual interpretation. Maybe she latches onto Ripred’s insistence that Gregor learn echolocation, a skill that might save her brother’s life. She does pester Gregor about practicing. Maybe she sees pieces of Gregor reflected in those stories about Ripred. A rager who doesn’t quite fit in where he’s from or where he’s fighting for, who can be stubborn and short-tempered and quick to hide his vulnerabilities from the people he considers himself responsible for. Maybe she sees pieces of herself reflected in those stories. Maybe, as someone who has lost pieces of her family, who has only one friend, who has likely eaten less than her share so that others could be full, she finds it easy to spot the humanity, for lack of a better word, in Ripred, like light through the crack under a locked door.

Whatever her reasons—and maybe there are no reasons beyond “he’s a person, too”—Lizzie goes out of her way to treat Ripred with kindness before she ever meets him. She sends some of her own food with Gregor so that Ripred doesn’t have to go completely hungry. She makes sure Gregor knows to share that plate of oatmeal raisin cookies with Ripred. Where Gregor rarely shows any gratefulness for his help and, in fact, rarely views him through a lens unclouded by a deeply ingrained bias against Gnawers, Lizzie is kind. Ripred notices.

This is not a matter of Ripred suddenly opening up to Lizzie for little reason after bonding with Gregor across the entire series. Ripred treats Lizzie differently because she acted differently. Their relationship is not built only on Lizzie’s similarities to Silksharp, but on a history of compassion and respect. It isn’t shoehorned in, it’s a necessary relationship that supports the central themes of The Underland Chronicles—violence, war, and colonialism are cyclical, but the refusal to continue living life based on the biases of the past can break that cycle and bring about a brighter future for everyone.