#in my country is SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE to become legal

[error-523scintilla]

Also add how so many of them bring diseases and, because they’re scare to look for healthcare, bring back many that were either rare or eradicated in your country. And it would stop happening if we just… offered them medical help.

illegal immigrants have to live in unsanitary living states as they deal with higher poverty rates and lower wages (if they can get a job), which helps spread diseases quicker. If we could make it easier for them to settle and have work permits and housing help that would just stop happening.

[witchinatree]

magnus protocol episode 26 ramble

the academic victim era continues. i like putting my lil personal bits at the beginning of these i think it humanizes me

ok. i have to pause mid intro song. i just hit my bowl of snap pea crisps and spilled them everywhere and i'm going to tweak

3 of them fell on the floor.. but they're kinda expensive so we don't get to have them very often.. is it worth it..

i ate them i don't care

this has become more about me than the episode i'm gonna unpause it now

we're so back

celia at work core!! she dgaf!!!

MEET HELEN. pls don't be a tory in this universe pls pls pls pls. i didn't fw human helen at all i am less excited than i was about basira but also basira was one of my all time favs forever

hiii aliceeee <333

magnusing is so me tbh if you think about it

so does alice's voice have a slight hint of that effect they use for chester and norris to anyone else or.. like she sounds computer-y and i don't know if it's just the microphone or something real

"take protection" "jesus christ!" "LIKE A BIG KNIFE OR SOMETHING" CRYING. see my mind didn't go there sam so what's up with that sam huh sam

the hell does celia have in her workbag wtf. queen what. it's the trauma "are you sure that thing is legal?" LMFAOOOOOO

ok i don't like you saying nauseas because i'm on TWO medications that make me nauseas and i just ate pls don't be gross

DAMN. i was gonna be like JARED? HOPWORTH? but it's jared 'smith.' gerard jared is kind of like michael

P.E. teachers creep me out but probably because the only one my high school has ever officially had got fired my freshman year for spanking girls in the locker room and they never actually replaced him they just had various sports coaches take over

yea this is freaking me out already i don't like it

oh that's so sad the dad fucking died poor kid omg

wtf was he possessed by the soul of cross country. what is the horror here. ohh running for his life ok thanks

oh so the horror isn't mr jared it's what happens to him i guess. sorry man i shouldn't have called you creepy

this is just how my friends describe morning cross country practice

yeah so i was right to quit cross country in 5th grade then!!! running IS the horror!!!!

NOT THE TAPE RECORDER WTFFFFF IS THIS ERROR. ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN ARCHIVIST.............................................................................................................................................................................................

AT A LOSS AT A LOSS AT A LOSS AT AT AT. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

we were right guyss it's an archivist...

IT SAID ARCHIVIST ALICE YES LOCK IN QUEEN LOCK IN SHE'S SOOOOOOOO HEHEHE SHE'S SO SMART I'M IN LOVE WITH U

yes alice connect those dots!!! connect them babe!!!!! i'm scared though to be honest with you

SHE DOESN'T THINK SHE KNOWS DUMBASS. PLEASE LISTEN TO HER OR I'M WRITING ANOTHER HATE POST ABOUT YOU. oh thank you sam i don't hate you

HOW I WOULD'VE EXPECTED HOW I WOULD'VE EXPECTED hey helen

has celia shut down. oh my god she sounds really scared. probably because helen tried to eat her in another universe.

CELIA'S SO SCARED HONEYYYYYYY. wait now she's bringing up the magnus institute LMAOO

bloody big basement lmao it's where they keep the bodies

at least 20 years? it burned down 20 years ago? who's reaching out after it burned what

HELEN'S LAUGH MADE ME JUMP LMFAOOOOO HELP

SAM MEETING JACK???? SAM MEETING JACK??????? THEY'RE SO CUTE WTF OMG ur baby's a tory HAHA

celia you are being watched honeyyy you are you need to connect some dots. alice style. obsessed with her.

calling her baby goblin after that baby episode that celia was mentioned by name in hello. hello.

ok sam let's go no longer being as selfish thanks sam.

awe that's adorable i actually think he's been really nice lately holy shit.

LMAOOO WHY DID WE GET AN AUDIBLE KISS ON EPISODE 26 I THOUGHT THEY DIDN'T LIKE THOSE

[david-talks-sw]

Kinda embarrassing that people demonize the jedi (yknow, the ultimate good guys) by falling for in universe propaganda...like how do you miss the point by that much?

Y'know... that's not even the weirdest thing to me. I already shared my thoughts about why some fans might just be biased against the Jedi from the get-go and how the Prequels not being centered on the Jedi may have contributed to that bias.

But I've seen the argument be made on Instagram that

"Bail Organa kidnapped Leia".

And like... y'know, I'm sure he and the Naberries never signed any legal documents... but is this really the hill to die on?

Bail is arguably THE most morally pure character in all of Star Wars and you're gonna burn him on this technicality? Really?! "Sure, he's hiding a girl who isn't his own from space Satan, but he didn't fill out the proper forms so fuck him"?

What's next?

Luke is guilty of animal cruelty for mutilating a Wampa without a hunting license and a license to carry a lightsaber?

Leia should be jailed because she choked Jabba but NOT in self-defense?

Wait, I got it. Chewie owes his son years of child support for being an absentee father.

But let's look past this franchise. How about Marvel:

You could argue "Spider-Man is a friggin' bully, he's always berating his opponents, making jokes at their expense, and most of them usually break out and cause more death and damage simply to take revenge, and if we wanna get technical, that's all on his head."

"Falcon is morally reprehensible for killing these guys in a foreign country, without a badge or any sort of legality. He should serve multiple life sentences."

"Captain America is some kind of war criminal for stabbing this dude in the back, even though he clearly gave up and just wanted to live."

Disney: "Mufasa is a tyrant who specifically discriminates against and hunts down a poorer class/species because *gasp* they're hungry and don't meet his standards of civilization. What an asshole, amirite?"

Naruto: "Itachi Uchiha is an ego-driven psycho who murdered his whole clan, (a clan who had been slandered and discriminated against by a fascist government, and literally segregated to one single neighborhood) then inflicted MASSIVE psychological and emotional damage on his brother, aged 11, who went on to waste his teen years on a fruitless quest for revenge because Itachi was too much of a coward to finish the job."

Dragon Ball: "The Z warriors are responsible for every earthling suffering from an onslaught of PTSD (because you can't tell me that everybody being slaughtered by [insert villain here], seeing heaven, settling into heaven and waking up in a crater alongside everybody you saw die before you, over and over for decades, won't leave a mark)."

Hell, you could argue "the Powerpuff Girls are child soldiers."

These are all very uncharitable views, stated in very bad faith.

And we know this because the narrative never portrays these points as problems. So we're not meant to see these characters this way.

You know why? Because it's fiction.

In the specific case of Star Wars, it's a fairy tale in space, it's mythology reinvented. The more detailed real-world logic you apply to it, the further away you get from the point.

It's meant to make you feel emotions and ponder on themes, first and foremost.

If you're wondering about how many taxes Han Solo needs to pay every year and to how many planetary governments, then either the film isn't doing its job right, or you're missing the point.

Hell, it's not just "missing" the point in some of these cases, it's seeing it and fucking Tokyo Drifting around the point until it becomes a speck in your rear-view mirror.

[doberbutts]

This conversation makes me more and more wishing I lived in a country where protective items were legal - not even pepper spray is legal here. We mostly have blade crimes, I live in a rough area, thus far my big, protective dog has been enough to ward people off but I wish there was more legal options. If a dog (on its own accord, not ordered to) bites someone to defend the owner here, it’s a real hazy area legally, however but generally looked at better than if you had spray or a weapon. Sorry not much to add, venting a little, a very interesting conversation to read

I know people from other countries look at Americans as gun-obsessed and mock us for it, but this is the conversation I see brought up every time there is an honest discussion of why an American may need to carry a weapon for their own protection. Unfortunately living in a high crime area where there is a lot of violent crime is common enough that people need the reassurance of having something in their pocket or strapped to their hip that will help them out of a tough situation. Cops are useless even moreso than usual in these areas and politicians don't care unless they can use these areas as talking points for debates. So it is up to us to defend ourselves from harm.

I bought my first weapon and attended self defense classes to learn how to use it when I moved out, because I moved into a higher crime area (only place with rent I could afford at 18) and I was walking home after class or work often very late at night (11pm-3am) and several of my classmates who lived nearby had been attacked doing the same thing. Being visibly queer, ambiguously gendered, blatantly young and black, hauling expensive art supplies everywhere I went, I knew there was a target on my back and I was not willing to become a statistic.

I was followed. I was confronted. The last couple months of my time at my first apartment someone tried to break in through my fire escape almost nightly, which is why I moved and immediately got a doberman and some roommates. But it's also why I armed myself and made sure I did my best to learn what to do in a fight.

I saw this post that was like "Americans buy guns saying they need protection and I wonder how they'll pay for the hospital when they accidentally injure themselves" and it bothered me so much. The Americans that need to arm themselves for protection aren't the ones at fault for our backwardsass healthcare system. If anything they're also the ones who the healthcare system fucks over the worst. Self-inflicted gun-related injuries are preventable with gun safety but some asshole killing or raping you in the street is a reality for our most marginalized populations and we deserve the ability to protect ourselves from this.

[vro0ms-evil-twin]

how's switzerland in regards to trans people and/or poc? asking for a friend

Switzerland is a traditional right wing country, with a rising far right ideology especially in the youth like everywhere else. Our majority party is a right wing party. They are super duper fucking anti immigration racists. It's extremely hard to emigrate here, extremely hard to find a job when you're not Swiss, and extremely hard to become Swiss. The easiest way is by far to marry a Swiss.

Something you have to understand about European racism though is that it's less about your skin color (although yes very much about your skin color) and more about being an immigrant in the first place, where you come from, and especially how much money you have. A black American with an american passport will get by better at least on the institutional level than a black person from any African country. Islamophobia is widespread and rampant, and your supermarket cashier isn't allowed to wear her headscarf at work but we are oh so happy about Saudi princes living in our hotels, hiding their money in our banks, and buying our watches. Poor white eastern Europeans are treated worse here than rich POCs.

Now how life is for POCs and queer people also depends immensely on where you live, granted that there's a level of racism and queerphobia everywhere anyway. Urban areas are way way chiller than rural areas, obviously. (Once my train had an issue and I had to change trains in a small town's station about 30 minutes away from the capital. I went down the stairs to change platforms and the entire length of the underground tunnel I had to walk through was painted with a gigantic DEATH TO LGBT graffiti). The Swiss Germans are by far more right wing than the French speaking Swiss and Italian speaking Swiss although the Ticinesi are also very anti immigration, because it's the poorer area of Switzerland and they get a lot of Italians immigrants. But of course you'll still get by easier in Swiss german second most expensive city in the world Zürich than in Sion, despite Sion being the French speaking largest city of the mountainous canton of Valais.

There are discrimination laws in place but they are barely enforced. You can change your gender but there's no nonbinary option. POCs get killed by the police here as well (justice for Mike, Lamin, Nzoy, Hervé, we don't forget). A large proportion of the population is still opposed to same sex adoption although it is legal. I just read this morning that a law we voted on in 2021 and that makes it illegal to hide your face in public and was purposefully created against muslim women wearing the burqa will start being enforced next year. Surrogacy is illegal so if no one in your relationship has a uterus you can't have biological children. Every time they ask the population about their acceptance of queer people the numbers go down, especially in young people. We vote on making it even harder to emigrate it about once every two years and the results are always very very close. The president of the majority right wing party called urban leftists "parasites" during his national day speech. The other day, one of our seven ministers publically declared that he was more in favour of Trump than Harris. Only half of the population got entirely vaccinated against covid. 40% never even got the first dose.

What I mean is, things might be marginally better here or there, but there's nowhere that's great right now. We all have to fight to make where we are better.

[deer0skullz]

i’m going to have a conversation with my mum about transitioning tomorrow (hopefully)

i had planned to move out but that’s not happening now so i’m living with her for the time being and i don’t want to delay my transition any further or have to hide it

i am like 99.9999999% sure she won’t react like, violently or anything because she already knows i’m trans she just kind of ignores it. but i don’t know if she’s going to “agree with it”. she’ll probably pull a “well you’re an adult now/ it’s your body, but don’t expect me to be happy about it 🙄” like she’s done before

worst case scenario is she gets genuinely mad. best case is she’s actually accepting and supportive. medium case is she continues to ignore it. it would be very funny if i started showing up with a full beard and she was like “ah yes, my beautiful daughter”

i’m basically just going to tell her straight up that my mental health is in shambles and she can either accept she has a son or deal with a dead daughter lol

other than that i am excited that transition is becoming more of a possibility. first step will be legally changing my name. i guess i also need to legally change my gender, idk how that happens but ill figure it out ig.

i would have loved to save myself a lot of money by actually using the free healthcare we supposedly have in this country but unfortunately the one (1) NHS gender clinic in Northern Ireland decided to stop taking new patients and has a waitlist of years (plural) so fuck that

my go to rn is genderGP. not like, crazy expensive ig and apparently they are the preferred private service in NI. we get free prescriptions here so i don’t think ill actually have to pay for the HRT itself? just their services to get the prescription. idk, if someone has gone through them, especially if you’re from NI, please lmk if it was a good experience

im not planning anything for surgeries rn lol. i am probably going to get top but have a few reservations, and im very meh about bottom surgery. HRT has always been my main goal so if i can get that underway i think ill be grand

[shadowmaat]

not immune to propaganda

It's always fascinating when someone says, for example, "I don't hate the Jedi because of Sith propaganda, I hate them because-" and then everything they say is basically Sith propaganda with maybe some Anakinstanism thrown in.

Look, no one is trying to say the Jedi were perfect, but while they had some flaws, they were still the good guys and accomplished a lot of good things.

I think one of the bigger issues people complain about (the Jedi being insular/disconnected from the larger universe) is less to do with hubris and more to do with political hamstringing in the wake of the Ruusan Reformation.

My admittedly imperfect understanding is that there are a lot of times when the Jedi want to help, but they have to go to the Senate first to get permission to do so. If they don't get permission they can't help (or at least not openly). The Senate has, primarily, always looked out for their own best interests. If helping a planet in distress doesn't have a political or monetary advantage, they aren't going to agree to the "expense" of sending Jedi out to help.

It isn't that the Jedi don't care or that they prefer the "safety" of the Temple, it's that they are legally forbidden from interfering. You want someone to blame for Jedi "indifference" to suffering, look to the Senate. Even before Palps was in charge it was a bad situation.

Could the Jedi have tried to fight it and get the laws changed? Probably. Would it have worked? Impossible to know, but I lean towards it not only not working, but making things worse. You just KNOW the more corrupt Senators would be grandstanding to the public about how "dangerous" the Jedi are and that their efforts to gain more autonomy would be a "threat" to the Republican way of life, etc.

"Why don't they just leave if they don't like it?" Well, why don't Americans who live in red states just leave? Why don't people in war-torn countries just leave? Maybe because it's a little more complicated than just packing a bag and walking away. Especially since in the Jedi's case the Republic would probably consider it an act of war.

I'm also tired of folks trotting out how Jedi "indoctrinate" children into their way of life. Like, yes, they do teach kids about the Jedi path and how to control their powers and to use them for good. Is that a bad thing? Would you claim that medical schools "indoctrinate" students into saving others and not causing them harm? C'mon.

It would probably help if we had stories about kids who grew up in the Temple and then headed off into the world without becoming Jedi. There's the various service corps, but those could still be considered under the Jedi umbrella. Anyway, just because we haven't heard stories about them doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Why does everything need to be filtered through a lens of negativity? Why do some folks always need to assume the worst about everything and everyone? That's hypothetical, BTW; I don't need to read a bunch of salty replies about how terrible the world is and all the bad things that have happened and are continuing to happen. That isn't the point.

Maybe the Jedi were getting fucked over long before the war ever started. Maybe they were doing the best they could with what they had. Maybe that wasn't enough to save themselves or the rest of the galaxy.

Stop believing the worst out of everyone when there is no evidence to support it.

[cookingwithroxy]

You know, I had thought I'd turned messages off because of getting bullshit from people trying to hide their positions, but apparently it had become unswitched. I've fixed that now so I can properly do this:

To which I have to respond with:

If there are 11 million people as of 2022 who did not enter the country legaly and as such do not have appropriate documentation?

Then that is almost as many people as live in my FUCKING STATE OF ILLINOIS.

That you do not consider this to be an issue does not mean it is not an issue. And more, that you see someone saying 'we should send undocumented (as in, non-citizens) people who entered the country illegally back to their home countries' as the same as murdering them? Is markedly worrisome.

And yes, it is in fact a crime to cross national borders without proper documentation.

From just on a purely technical level, our immigration courts are absolutely FLOODED with a backlog of cases of people needing to GET documentation, the issues of housing people who cannot legally get jobs, of making sure they don't starve.

In Chicago alone, dealing with the migrant crisis is costing the city something around 300 million dollars a year!

Do I believe Trump and his people will do their best by these people? Of course I fucking don't! But I don't assume they want to exterminate them, let alone YOU.

But I do know you'll pretend that all of this doesn't exist, because admitting that these problems ARE problems would undermine your paranoid fascistic fantasies.

We’re going to hear a lot of stupid bullshit over the next few days/months/years about how Harris/the Democrats failed to win over men, or young people, or uneducated voters, or those worried about the economy, or whatever….but the truth is this: this country hates women and minorities; its citizens understand fuck all about the economy; and the people are incredibly susceptible to outright lies, scams and fascist values

[call-me-amanda]

BTS as Lawyers

10 facts plus read the smuts on

Wattpad or Spirit

⚠️Warnings:

Min Yoongi as Milen York

He’s like a demon (lawyer) of contracts keeping souls (deeds) in a piece of paper

Always wears the whole suit, unless he’s already at his office, sitting in his leather chair and completely concentrated on his job

Is not the type of making many trips a year, but when he does his phone dies and he just charge it when he comes back home (which means two or three months living like a ghost)

He is known for being coldblooded, dealing with his rivals as it was an actual war (and he never lost, not even once)

The firm has his surname, indeed it became famous ‘cause he is the face of the justice

His bank account hide millions, still he ain’t the kind of man whose spends too much, saving for what he really needs, or, at the end of some good season, an amount end up being donated for charity

Many basketball players are on the list of his loyal clients, hiring him not only to take care of their properties, but to go out to chat and drink some scotch in a private club

Has a collection of exclusive basket balls (he goes at each game and, of course, he is always wearing his best grey suit)

The associates fear him. He can be very demanding, pushing them far hard an ordinary human could normally handle. However, when someone catches his attention, he is capable of teaching everything he knows for his special pupil

Sex is one of his last concerns. A lawyer known by name commonly attracts self-serving women, so is kinda easy chose who and when he’s gonna fuck

Kim Namjoon as Kristopher Nandes

He’s the type of lawyer that pursue many black cards and doesn’t stay a single week in one place, traveling around the world and building an empire by making rich and famous clients

Speaks four languages and is finishing his russian classes. This made him a true polyglot (that’s the definition of a sexy brain)

Loves to say legal brocade in some discussions. He knows what every article of international law says and can dictate it backwards (please, don’t try him)

Reads two or three books per month, always bringing one pocket version with him anywhere he goes (has an incredible collection of classics at home, with separate sections for his personal lawyer books)

He’s a writer. His truly dream was to be a word wide celebrity, with his masterpieces published in every country with a billion copys sold out

Far from dumb, he knows a few tricks to arouse women. It’s a one night stand, but is the best of their lives (most girls are models and brunettes, but sometimes they might be the fiancée of one of his clients, so let’s keep it on the low)

His suit is evermore clean, has an expensive watch on the wrist and not a cheap glasses on his face though. Wherever he goes people notice him and take word by word that leaves his mouth as a holy prophecy

People respect him. On the court, no one can with him. The judge gets impressed easily by his features. He has an argument for everything (again, don’t test him)

The papers he cares are all handwritten. Prints are only for contracts, beyond that he prefers to waste ink in some stunning clever words

He is a great son, supporting his family from far away. Here and there he sends an envelope with dollar bills. His little brother admire him and wishes to become just like the cool older bro

Jung Hoseok as John Hoffman

For being well married with a beautiful and succeeded judge since he graduated he is really satisfied with his romantic life pushing away anyone who don’t respect that

Feels guilty when his clients don’t win and try to comfort them the best way he can (depending on the client, they go to a bar drown their sorrows with dignity)

It doesn’t matter the extension of work, he gives his blood, sweat and tears for the cause

Hates working on divorce when it has a child involved (he and his wife are trying to have a baby and it gets so blue when he thinks about like “what if it was my son’s situation? poor him! no one deserve that”)

Eats a lot of healthy food and makes exercises before going to work every morning as a strict routine

With a busy schedule he ain’t got no choice but to wait until the very end of the day to give attention for his wife and does whatever he waited so long for (when he’s incapable of finishing the work at the firm, he does home office)

Everybody loves him. For being so gentle on the way he talks, the way he solve problems and for act politely with his colleagues. Even his boss toast in his name

He is almost getting a promotion, but he still doesn’t know yet. Probably he’ll go out for a dinner with his wife and they gonna order some red wine and have a big lobster to celebrate

A growth man shouldn’t fear ties, but he does. The allegations are: “this devilish thing could hang me some day” and “there’s no way I’m gonna cosplay some random clown wearing a white butterfly tie with red circles as if I was a character of Stephen King’s book”

He never leaves without his black suitcase. The funny thing is that the outside is filled with stickers about his profession. His car keys too have a golden libra symbol key chain, which means he’s very proud of his career

Kim Taehyung as Killian Tennant

He has his own office in Chicago, works all by himself, but sometimes he receives help of his lawyer friends (when it comes to be civil cases, which are not his specialty)

Likes a little too much of role playing a detective in his cases, searching and discovering secrets that might ruin someone’s reputation

Doesn’t wear common suit, preferring brown tones waistcoats of the best cotton around the world (he has a particular taste of clothing, it has to be exposed)

The more difficult the job is, the more he’s into it (sorta obsessed for improving his logical skills and showing to his ego he’s the greatest)

Once in a while he hires interns and all of them think he went insane, never ever coming back to work for him again (insane may be overstatement, eccentric fits better)

His so pure and fights so hard for justice that blindly believes in any client, even though the accusations against them are really severe

He is fearless, visiting his clients at dirty and stinky jails. He also makes a lot of enemies, most of them are penalty’s dissatisfied families and a bunch of police officers that rather be sleeping at job’s time than answering the lawyer’s routine questions about prisoners cares

Released many doomed outta prison, saving countless innocents lives and bringing back happiness for their families (you should consider him a real life hero)

Has a huge mansion with a magnificent view of the city and a lot of muscle cars, including Mustangs and others preciousness

He is a natural teaser and both, girls and boys (mostly are small women), suffer of his extravagant blinks and insistent invitations for a tour on the city in one of his cars

Jeon Jungkook as Jean Jacobs

When he ain’t at the office he’s probably at the gym. Working out is how he relax putting away the bunch of problems that aren’t his

Likes to stay only with his socks during the work because he walks a lot when he’s talking on the phone and his shoes hurt him

Wakes up, eats, works out, takes a cold bath, gets ready, leaves for the office, makes new clients, drives home, takes a hot shower and sleeps

It has a rival firm that steal sportsmen by offering crazy contracts and he is pissed of with a woman in specific. She stole half of his clients and now she’ll deal with the consequences

He’s workaholic. Has no hobbies besides taking care of his big body. Thinks about clients, money, papers and pens (seldom craves for a small girl in his strong arms)

Adores to listen to loud music. His brain gets faster and he can focus easily turning the reading process kinda fun

His few friends drag him to nightclubs. A ruthless headache beat him up at every party he goes (almost as if he was allergic to amusement)

Tinny drinks during the day heals him. He overcame a drinking vicious, or at least decreased the number of bottles

Wrath is his ultimate enemy. There ain’t much to get on his nerves, but once he gets angry you better get down ‘cause things are gonna be thrown

Wants to move to Miami and gets tanned on the beach. That’s why he barely breathe and just does his stressful job

Kim Seokjin as Kaleo Sueji

Park Jimin as Paul Jinx

[musashi]

getting into ace attorney in 2021 was so fucking weird because literally it was like

franziska von karma: forsakes her childhood long before the age of 13 in the pursuit of her life's greatest passion, is constantly undermined by her peers for being not only a woman but also a child, is given no accolades by anyone for being a child prodigy the likes of which has not since been matched in the aa canon, develops an incredibly strong bond with her probably-adopted-brother that is shattered near immediately as the two of them become academic rivals and he leaves her alone in germany, practices law all alone for 5 years and does this so effectively she goes undefeated for her entire legal career, literally has to carry a weapon around with her at all times because it is the only way she can get her peers to respect her & take her seriously, crafts her entire image around a facade of "strong competent businesswoman" even down to her WARDROBE (high heels, waistcoats and frills, expensive jewelry, massive sleeves & cuffs, literally a lizard puffing its neck frills up, a bird ruffling its feathers to scare off predators), learns AT AGE SEVENTEEN that her beloved father murdered not one but two men, learns that he was the monster in the shadows all along, the thing her baby brother who she loved so much would wake up in choking tears about, learns her father's career has ended and he is on death row, loses the most important person in her life, loses the second most important person in her life barely three months later, leaves her practice in her home country to investigate the disappearance and find answers and seek vengeance all alone in a foreign country, loses her 5-year win streak to the person who effectively killed both of the people she loves most, is constantly compared to her murderous father and reminded by the "heroes" of the story that he is dead and will never come back, watches her brother return with no fucking remorse as to what he did to her, he then proceeds to insult her and call her selfish while she can barely speak from the grief, she finally has a case she can win and is SHOT OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE and forced into surgery, by the way this is the second time she has been a victim of gun violence and the first time she was 13, gets to watch her jackass brother win the case that she deserved to win, shattering her nemesis's win record, said nemesis has the fucking nerve to smile and cheer at his loss in front of her, literally runs away in full mental breakdown mode and shatters into fucking tears AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL because even from a meta perspective she REFUSED to let her feelings be felt or the facade to crumble until the final, FINAL hour

me: holy fucking shit... what an amazing character. does anyone want to talk with me about how incredibly deep and well-written she is?

frandom: we do!

me: yay! okay, so--

frandom: ISN'T IT FUCKED UP HOW HER DAD ABUSED HER

me: wait, i don't remember--

frandom: SHE ACTS THE WAY SHE DOES BECAUSE HER DAD ABUSED HER

me: that's interesting, but i think--

frandom: CHILD ABUSE IS MORE RELATABLE TO ME THAN ANY OF THAT AND I ONLY LIKE CHARACTERS WHEN I CAN STAPLE MY FACE ONTO THEM. I WILL NOT EXAMINE THIS

me: i. ok

frandom: WE'RE CANCELLING YOU ON TWITTER BTW

i just... people strip SO much depth from franziska von karma under the guys of "WHAT IF HER DAD ABUSED HER" and it's so fucking sad... she is such a complex character... i was able to talk about strictly canon-based analysis on her for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT because she is just THAT DEEP and still people feel the need to tack the child abuse headcanon on and even attribute other nuances of her character to it when they're way deeper in canon. i know i have said it before but i really think like a solid 86% of the people who harp about manfred von karma being an abusive father are just really bad at media analysis, understand that miles and fran are deep, and want to join the discussion despite not being able to parse that complexity. it just makes me sad man. you dont have to make stuff up. or talk at all. listen to what others say! they might teach you how to analyze media urself!

[queenk00k]

red wine lips part 1 // rafe cameron

Warnings: alcohol, drug use, sexual content 

Word count: 2000

PART 2 NOW UPLOADED 

PART 3 NOW UPLOADED

FINAL PART NOW UPLOADED

fic idea from my ship with rafe from @socialwriter

moodboard idea from @harrysbbby

You were going to be late.

Correction: You and Rafe Cameron were going to be late, and it’s all his fault for hosting a party the night before, in what you assumed was an effort to impress you (which, by the way, didn’t work) and you were pissed.

You had overslept and Rafe, having been preoccupied with multiple bags, hadn’t slept at all.

“Rafe!” You yell. “We’re going to be late, and I will not have you turning up to this thing in anything less than a suit. Get dressed and hurry the fuck up!” You hop across the first-floor landing, pulling your heels on as you made a beeline for Rafe’s bedroom.

Not bothering to knock (when had you two had any manners towards each other anyway?), you push open the heavy wooden door to see Rafe bent over his dresser, half dressed in navy suit pants and an open white shirt. He’s surreptitiously cutting the last of the night’s supply into neat lines with his black AMEX card, tapping his foot absentmindedly.

“Keeping the party going, are we?” You ask, folding your arms across your satin clad chest.

Rafe doesn’t reply immediately. Instead, he finishes what he was doing before you interrupted, snorting his line and wiping his nose as he turns around.

He smirks. “Looking good, Y/N. That dress would look better off you though.”

You roll your eyes. “Firstly, keep it in your pants, and secondly, you better not be thinking about bringing coke to the tour. We’re being classy today, Cameron,” you say, using the nickname only reserved for when you were annoyed at your long-time friend.

Rafe chuckles and starts buttoning his shirt, stepping towards you as his brows furrow in concentration. “I’ll behave.”

You look up at him incredulously.

“Promise,” he says. “I’ll just get drunk today. That’s what wine tastings are for, right?”

You figured him being drunk was the best-case scenario. At least you could guarantee the absence of Pogues – no fighting today.

“I’ll take it. Come on, we need to go. Our driver’s outside.”

You turn to leave, but Rafe grabs your wrist suddenly, holding you back. “Wait, wait.” Rafe’s blue eyes stare down at you intensely and, you’re ashamed to admit, you think they’re actually quite pretty. “I do really think you look nice today. Red’s your colour.”

There’s a brief pause as you wait for the usual sexual remark, but a beat passes without one and you’re pleasantly surprised.

“Thanks, Rafe,” you reply with a smile as you head out the door, but before you fully leave you pop your head back through the frame.

“Oh, and Rafe?”

“Mm?”

“Wear a red tie.” You wink before turning on your heel, swooping the dress behind you as you make your way downstairs.

There’s excited chatter amongst your group as your driver pulls up to the iron gates of the most prestigious winery in the Outer Banks and you gaze out the window at the vines spread out across the field.

The car comes to a stop and Rafe jumps out before you, impressing you by taking your hand and helping you step out of the vehicle onto the gravelled road. You look up at him and think to yourself how handsome he looks and, not to mention, how good you both look together in red.

You and Rafe first met as kids, when you were both left at the country club’s “kidZone” whilst your mums sipped champagne and got uncomfortably close to men who weren’t their husbands. Since then, your families were always close and you and Rafe became good friends, bonded by your love of two things: money and having a good time.

There was underlying sexual tension between the two of you since you were old enough to wear a bra and Rafe was old enough to notice, but neither of you had ever acted on it.

Sometimes the fun was left in the unknown, the untouched possibilities, the lingering gazes and suggestive comments.

“Like what you see?” Rafe teases, snapping you out of your reflective state.

You chuckle. “What if I do?” You walk away without giving Rafe a chance to reply, feeling his wandering eyes burn a hole in your back as you make sure to swing your hips in a way you know will have him distracted for the rest of the day.

Like you said – sometimes all the fun was in the chase.

Maybe this time he could catch you.

_______________________________________________________________

“So this one here is our flagship viognier – it’s a full bodied white wine, and because it’s been aged in oak like our chardonnay, it’s a very rich taste and you’ll be able to taste notes of vanilla,” the sommelier explains as he pours an annoyingly small amount of wine into your glass before moving onto Rafe’s next to you.

You notice he’s gone light on the wine as he’s serving to your group, clearly uncomfortable with the raucous group of barely legal 21-year-olds.

Rafe swirls the wine around his glass and says “how much for a bottle?”

You scoff. “You haven’t even tasted it yet. See if you like it first.”

“Don’t be so bossy, Y/N,” he replies before downing the wine in one gulp, much to the horror of your sommelier.

You quickly follow suit, taking a bit longer to savour the taste of the wine before you swallow completely. You actually enjoy this wine stuff, taking the time to learn about different types of grapes before you organised this trip for you, Rafe, Topper, Kelce and your group of girlfriends from college. You notice Rafe watching you as you tip your head back, his blue eyes following the curve of your neck, his jaw clenching as you swallow.

No prizes for guessing what he’s thinking about you swallowing instead.

After a few more glasses as you make your way down to the final bottle of wine, you feel yourself getting dizzier and your friends are speaking louder and louder until Rafe finds it necessary to bring his lips to your ear every time he wants to speak to you.

“You know, you and I….we could have some fun together,” Rafe says as he trails a finger up your thigh.

You slap his hand and move it off you, bringing your gaze to his face which is tantalizing close to yours, willing yourself not to bring your gaze to his lips which are stained ever so slightly with red.

“You said you were going to behave, Cameron,” you remind him, raising your eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

“What, I can’t treat my princess to something I know she’s been waiting for all these years?” Rafe looks at you expectantly. 

“Your princess?”

“You been cosying up to anyone else today?” Rafe points out, fingering the collar of his suit jacket that’s been draped over your bare shoulders at some point in the afternoon.

Fuck, he’s right.

“…I was cold,” you say, witty replies be damned.

“Mmhm.”

You stare at each other for a beat, before Rafe spins in his seat (almost toppling off) and faces the bar.

“How much is a bottle of the merlot?” He asks the sommelier.

You see the guy purse his lips.

“It’s our most expensive bottle.”

Rafe scoffs. “Weird price. How much is it?”

The sommelier furrows his brows and looks around the room, his gaze falling upon Topper and Kelce who were talking animatedly, their ties hanging loose around their necks.

“Where are your parents? Maybe you should wait for them to get here and they could pick something out for you?”

Oh boy, you think. Not difficult for you to predict how Rafe was going to react to that comment.

True to form, Rafe pushes back from the table and stands up, his jaw clenched and his large frame towering over the server, who at least has the common sense to look intimidated.

“Do you know who I am, bro?”

“Don’t answer that,” you warn him with a wave of your hand. “Better to just let him tell you.”

You had seen Rafe on power trips like this in the past when his influence has been questioned. It proves troublesome when whoever he’s talking to just isn’t having it, but usually you find it pretty hot.

Rafe places his hands on the counter and leans over to look the server in the eyes.

You do him a favour by holding his tie back, so it doesn’t take a dip in the cabernet sauvignon.

“I’m Rafe Cameron. Do you know who my father is? Yeah,” Rafe says as the sommelier gulps, “Ward Cameron. We basically own this island. Do you own an island?”

The server shakes his head in defeat.

“I didn’t think so,” Rafe says, standing up straight again and shooting you a brief smirk as you take your hand off his tie.

You figure he’s grateful.

“Now, my group and I here would like 10 bottles.”

The sommelier clears his throat before replying. “Of course, sir, which 10 bottles would you like?”

Rafe chuckles as he flashes his AMEX. “Oh no, you misunderstand. I want 10 bottles of every single wine you have.”

Your painted lips curl into a smile.

It was going to be a good afternoon.

_______________________________________________________________

Before you know it, you’re sitting next to Rafe at a table in the courtyard, your leg moving dangerously closer to his, his eyes grazing over your chest intermittently.

Topper is telling a story about his ex-girlfriend Sarah, who he insists he’s “completely over” (yeah right) and you’re barely listening, your eyes glazed over as you bring the crystal glass to your lips absentmindedly.

Hard to concentrate on anything when Rafe Cameron’s hand is inching closer up your thigh, pulling the satin fabric up with it until your leg is almost completely exposed to the cool afternoon air.

You’re thankful for two things.

One, the fact that you had the foresight to shave that morning.

And two, the biological blessing that was your ability to hide how completely and utterly turned on you are in that moment.

You start squirming in your seat, clearing your throat as you become increasingly aware of how flushed your cheeks feel, warmth pooling in your belly as you swallow thickly and turn to Rafe.

He looks at you expectantly and in a daring move, presses his lips to your neck softly.

Completely out of character for Rafe, it’s almost sweet and doesn’t do your state any favours as you squeeze your thighs together, wetness already starting to spread to your underwear.

Goddamnit, you think. You look up at Rafe through your long eyelashes, and bring your lips to his ear to whisper “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Rafe looks at you excitedly, and you figure it wouldn’t hurt (too much) to drag out the inevitable just that bit longer.

“Do not even think about following me,” you say as you stand up, praying your arousal hasn’t started to show on your dress. You picked a good day to wear satin, for goodness sake.

Rafe looks hurt as you walk into the ladies’ bathroom, not doubting that he will follow your wishes. He may be a sexual deviant but he’s not one to cross boundaries, especially yours.

You brace yourself on the porcelain sink, breathing heavily as you look at yourself in the mirror. You look frazzled and flushed, all because of Rafe.

You have an idea, and smirk to yourself as you prepare to leave.

You make your way out of the bathroom, walking slowly back to the group, stopping where only Rafe can see you.

You don’t have to wait long for Rafe to look up and catch your eye. It gives you some sort of satisfaction to see his face change from confusion to shock, and you know you’ve got him hooked.

You’re holding your red lace thong in your hand, winking as you stuff it discreetly into your clutch. You’ve never seen Rafe look so impressed.

Game on.

_______________________________________________________________ 

tag list my beautiful bbys: @letsgofullkook​ @stargazingstarkey​ @hoeforpankow​ @harrysbbby​ @ptersparkers​ @socialwriter​ @thatjohnd​ @ssjiara​ @jjsmentalpolaroids​ @bailspogue​ @jjmaybankx​ @jjtheangel​ @jjmeybank​ @drewstarkey​ @obx-direction-sos​ @sortagaysortahigh​ @pixelated-pogues​ @jjmbanks​ @ims0golden​ @obbx-tings​ @honeyycheek​ @softstarkey​ 

please let me know your thoughts and if you’d like a part 2!! (planning on it)

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

Okay but why does the fandom always give harry like a magical bag that he can pull his galleons out of???? Like straight from the bank

Bruh if they have magical portal bags and boxes what the fuck is the point of messenger owls

Well, this is fanon we’re talking about here. Fanon is a strange place in which fans can make up whatever they want: the good, the bad, and the ugly. If we start asking fandom questions like this we’ll be here all day.

Such as, why in fandom are the goblins always peculiarly helpful and knowledgeable about wizarding nobility?

Many stories begin with Harry stumbling into Gringotts before he’s supposed to with Hagrid going, “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” The goblins then go, “There’s a lad, here, let’s do a blood test and we’ll show you’re the heir of Morgan le Fey, Merlin, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, the Earl of Sandwich, and Jesus Christ Superstar”. They then give Harry his mystical rings as Lord of the House of Everything and a seat in the Wizengamot as an eleven year old. Harry may even take shelter in Gryffindor while Dumbledore stamps his feet somewhere because his “Harry Potter is Ruining My Schemes” senses are tingling.

The goblins are a barely tolerated foreign peoples who have been to war with wizards multiple times and are treated as well as they are solely because they have the entire country’s money held hostage. They’re a) not going to interfere in wizard politics unless it’s a huge benefit to them b) why would they even know any of this stuff at any point.

But back to your question.

I think the answer is a few things for why people want Harry to have such a tool.

One, Harry has a similar item in canon: the mokeskin pouch Hagrid gives him. There he can seemingly store anything (with some very large limit) and only he can retrieve it. Extrapolating from that, and given what we know about magic, it seems reasonable that it would be able to directly access Gringotts and Harry could just pull whatever money he needed out in such a way only he could retrieve it. 

In a sense, this is what credit is. The Wizarding World, in part due to being a very archaic society that pays no attention to muggle heathens, seemingly has no concept of credit. You go to a store, then you pay right then and there in gold. Maybe, if you’re Lucius Malfoy, a store might accept a delay in payment because they know you’re good for it. I expect thought that this is a rare thing, only available to those who are super wealthy with everyone knowing it, and not a service really offered by Gringotts (who would be sort of a natural credit vouching company in the Wizarding World).

So, in a world without credit, how do you buy something that costs a thousand galleons? Is the wizard actually expected to carry one thousand galleons on his person? Can galleons even legally be transfigured to a smaller size or is this tampering with currency? And that’s just begging to get robbed.

One reasonable answer is a modified mokeskin pouch that goes straight to the bank.

I think fandom likes to give this to Harry because it feels like such a cool idea, it’s so much more efficient than visiting the bank every day, and it allows our cooler version of Harry to make very expensive purchases right away. 

To defend fandom, our own world is full of strange inefficiencies and advances in some areas of the world but not others. More, I can think of reasons owls would not immediately become obsolete.

These pouches could have been invented by the goblins and they’re not sharing secrets. They could be hideously expensive and time consuming to make, meaning it’s just not worth it to get one for every household that connects to every possible store/other house hold in existence. It might not really be possible to connect them directly to the floo network (to be able to send letters back and forth), to do so might make them somehow insecure. There’s also the fact that even being connected to the floo network is not inexpensive, so how do you connect it to some random house? What if you only want to send a letter to a house once? What if someone sends you a package, or vice versa, that the other party isn’t expecting?

Given the above, there are cases where owls/a postal system make a lot of sense. There’s also the fact that for those that do own owls they tend to be very attached to them and to see them abruptly go out of use would probably be very devestating.

Point being, there’s a lot of reasons such a tool might only exist for Gringotts and might only be available to someone absurdly wealthy (i.e. Harry). 

Now, do I think their use in fanfiction is generally silly? Given that their only purpose seems to be to get Harry to buy the super expensive cauldron that the storekeeper can then ooh and ah over how smart and mature Harry is, yes, yes I do.

[eryiss]

Ship: Freed x Laxus

Rating: Teen

Prompt: Late Nights, Early Mornings.

Summary: Long distant relationships are difficult, made worse when it's between two men in different colleges. But Freed and Laxus will make it worse, and if secret phone calls late in the night are what's needed then that's what they'll do.

Notes: This was day three for my admissions to Fraxus Week. It's hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus, who you should check out for more Fraxus content.

Links: Event Masterlist ||| Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction

Four Ways to See the Dawn

Year: 1982

Location: Washington DC, USA

"Hey."

"Hey."

Laxus murmured the word, quietly fiddling with the cord to the phone as he glanced at the sleeping man in the other bed. The stranger seemed to be sleeping soundly, snoring without a care in the world, and so Laxus felt pretty confident that he had privacy. So long as he didn't make too much noise, he could speak without being overheard.

Good, this was going to work.

It wasn't ideal. It was nearing two AM, and Laxus had found himself fighting sleep as he'd waited for his roommate to pass out. The guy was apparently something of a party animal, and he was fully taking advantage of the many frat parties, drinking nights and mixers that filled the first weeks of college. Laxus had avoided them all – they were all too loud and rowdy for him – but he understood the appeal. He couldn't be angry that the man was so unpredictable; Bickslow would hardly know that he was stopping Laxus from his phone call with Freed, after all.

Freed didn't have the same problem. His college, which was half way across the country, didn't have roommates to worry about. He'd promised that he'd be waiting by the phone for him whenever he was ready to call, and he'd answered the moment Laxus had rung.

"You sound tired," Laxus teased. "Didn't wake ya, did I?"

"No, but it was close," Freed chuckled, and the sound was incredible. "I missed hearing your voice."

"Me too."

They'd promised themselves that, for the first two weeks, they wouldn't talk. College was a big thing, and they couldn't fuck it up, so decided they need to fully submerge themselves in college culture instead of becoming shut-ins who only spoke to one another. It was the right thing to do, they both knew it, but Laxus had been missing Freed's presence every day, and no amount of taster classes, tours around campus, and bottles of tequila would remove that.

Freed had always been there. They'd grown up on the same street, played on the same sports teams, and attended the same house parties. Jokes had been made that they were attached at the hip, and that they might as well be inseparable with how much time they spent together.

Laxus had to smirk at those jokes. If only they knew.

It had happened quite randomly, really. Laxus had broken his leg in the last year of high school, and he'd had to sit out on the final game in their baseball tournament. Freed had ended up hitting the home run that won their team the game, and had been rightly commended. Laxus had stumbled into the locker room on his crutches when everyone was left so he could congratulate the man in private. Freed had clearly noticed that Laxus was more melancholy that joyful, and forced Laxus to admit it felt shitty to miss the final game of his high-school career, even if they did win.

Freed had waited for a moment, thinking of what to say. Then, with his thigh resting against Laxus' non-broken leg, he quietly whispered 'I won it for you, you know. Not for the team.' The words were packed with years' worth of friendship and passion, and they were forever imprinted on Laxus' mind.

He'd kissed the man without thinking. Freed had kissed him back.

What followed was a summer of making out, going to the romantic spots around Magnolia under the pretence they were still just friends, and, on the last night before they left for college, they'd slept together for the first time. It had all been incredible.

But the summer had to end, and they could hardly keep going as they had. Magnolia was small, and their friendship was known well enough there for nobody to question how much time they were spending together. Now they lived in different states, a long and expensive train ride away from each other. The making out and the dates and the sex would have to stop, because it didn't make senses for it to continue. All they had left was quiet phone calls late at night where nobody could overhear them talking.

It wasn't perfect, but it was enough for now.

"You, erm, you done many classes yet?" Laxus asked, cringing at the awful question.

"No, they start on Monday," Freed answered, and shifted slightly. Laxus idly wondered if he were in his bed or not. Freed looked good in bed, curled up in a dressing gown with a book. If Laxus was there, he'd content himself by running his hand through his hair. "You?"

"A few taster things, just tryin' to find out what I wanna major in, y'know," Laxus all but scuffed his feet. He hadn't expected this to be this awkward. "Guess you don't have that problem."

"No," Freed agreed. He was training to by a surgeon, Laxus was at college mainly because he didn't know what else to do with his life. "How's your roommate?"

"He's good. A little weird but seems harmless," Laxus glanced at the sleeping man, who was stretched over his bed and drooling. "Seems to be out at parties most nights, so maybe I'll be able to call ya earlier in the night. Not force ya to stay up so late."

"It's worth it," Freed said without missing a beat. "I've missed you, Laxus."

"I missed you too," Laxus whispered.

Neither man spoke for a moment, and Laxus wished he knew what to say. He wished he had a ridiculous story of his fun, interesting college life that he could use to break that layer of awkwardness and entertain Freed with. But he'd done nothing; college was much less interesting than he had been led to believe. He couldn't think of a thing to say, and the electric humming of the phone was getting on his nerves.

Freed must have felt the same way, as Laxus could hear him fidgeting across the phone. Laxus wished he could just pull the man into his arms, as he often had in their quiet nights alone over the summer. But he couldn't. For months, he couldn't.

"It's gonna get easier, ain't it?" Laxus asked. "Doin' this?"

"It will," Freed said, and he sounded sure. "It'll take some time, but it will."

"Fuckin' better," Laxus mumbled more to himself than to Freed.

"It will," Freed repeated. "And thanksgiving is only a few months away, and we'll be able to see each other then."

"Guess so," Laxus nodded, trying to feel encouraged. "You still doing thanksgiving with me and Gramps?"

"If he'll still have me."

"He will," Laxus replied immediately, and then forced a smile onto his face. "And I promise it'll be more successful than last year."

"More successful? Is that possible?" Freed asked sarcastically, and Laxus chuckled.

"You saying that me and Gramps getting into a screaming match, the turkey ending up in the cat's litter tray, the two of us getting covered in cranberry sauce, and the neighbours making a noise complaint wasn't successful?" Laxus scoffed, smiling as he remembered the night the previous year.

He also remembered how, just before Freed drove back to his own home, he'd confessed that it was one of the most enjoyable thanksgiving's he'd had.

"You seem to not realise that, with long hair, pureed cranberries really have a lot of space to hide in," Freed chuckled. "A problem you don't seem to face."

"I'll aim for your face this year then," Laxus grinned.

"That's all I ask," Freed was grinning too, Laxus could hear it in his voice.

The situation wasn't immediately remedied, but they found themselves talking about the ridiculous shared moments they'd endured in Magnolia, and Laxus felt the awkwardness seeping away minute by minute. It was nowhere near as good as driving to the mountains, lying on his car's roof with Freed curled against him, but damn if it wasn't the best couple of hours he'd spent since arriving in Washington.

He didn't remember falling asleep, but he did remember waking up sometime later in the morning. The phone was clutched against his chest, the line dead, and the sunlight was fluttering under the curtains. He smiled privately, and closed his eyes, phone in hand.

---

"Freed, you okay? It's four in the mornin'?

"Hey. You're awake. Hi."

Laxus forced his eyes open, groggy and sleep deprived. He blinked a few times, sitting up. The ringing of the phone he'd just answered seemed to still be blaring in his mind, and the overly loud, inelegant words that his boyfriend had just near yelled into his ears made Laxus wince. It was nearly four thirty in the morning. Why the hell was Freed awake?

"Course I'm awake, phone's fucking loud," He complained, sitting up and leaning against the wall. "Why're you awake?"

"Ever and Mirajane," Freed said, as if that answered anything. Laxus waited a moment before he realised that was all Freed felt he needed to say.

"What about them?"

"I told them that it was my birthday tomorrow – or, well, it's today now, isn't it. But it was tomorrow when I told them. Well, technically it was yesterday when I told them, but in the context of me telling them about my birthday, my birthday was tomorrow, which is now today," Freed spewed the mess of words out, and Laxus could hear him frowning. "They said I needed to go out drinking. They wanted to take me out for my first legal drink."

"Yer turning nineteen, not twenty-one," Laxus deadpanned, though smirked.

"Oh yes, so I am," Freed was frowning. "I broke the law many times tonight then."

"Sounds like it," Laxus chuckled. "You only just gettin' in? It's pretty late. Or early, I guess."

"No, we left the club at about one. We've been in the dorms for a few hours, Cana knows someone who can get us beer cheap, so we kept going. Someone made me brownies, but I wasn't allowed to eat them because apparently they had pot in them, so Mirajane slapped the guy and said she'd report him to campus security because we only found out when Jet and Droy started talking about the walls having a face," Freed laughed heartily, and Laxus smiled, imagining the man's expression as he did so. "Why do people always put weed into brownies? It's so overdone. Why do you never hear of a pot carrot cake or banana loaf?"

"Brownies are easy to make, I guess," Laxus grinned.

This was uncharted territory for Laxus. Freed wasn't exactly a total rule follower, but his parents were strict and so alcohol was something he'd never risked. Laxus had always wondered what a drunk Freed would be like. Apparently, he rambled and was happy. It was a nice side of him to hear.

"You think brownies are harder than a banana cake? You know nothing about baking," Freed laughed at him, and Laxus smirked. "Do I have time to bake a pot filled gateau, do you think? It might make mother's book club interesting at last."

"Don't spike your ma with drugs Freed," Laxus instructed, and Freed laughed.

"Yes, it sounds bad put like that," Freed agreed. He was quiet for a moment, and Laxus heard the sound of something hitting the floor. Perhaps one of his boots, given the clunk. Laxus had become something of an expert at figuring out what Freed was doing by the sounds he made. "It'd serve them right. Rather see you than them."

"Come on Freed," Laxus sighed. "They're your parents, they wanna see you."

"Well they didn't on parents' weekend, or at thanksgiving, so why now?" Freed huffed, fabric shifting now. He was probably getting into bed. "They're taking me to dinner, and I saw the place. It's got five stars, Laxus. That means it'll be stifled and pretentious. They won't know what to say to me, so we'll just eat in silence and we'll all want it to end because we know we don't have anything in common and they're only coming because it'll look bad if they don't," Laxus wished he could deny the claim, but he knew Freed's parents and that was probably true. "Would've rather gotten the train to Washington so I could see you."

"Shouldn't I be coming to yours?" Laxus asked, trying to change the subject to something less maudlin. "It's your birthday."

"You saw my campus when you drove us home," Freed dismissed, and Laxus supposed he had. They'd driven back to Magnolia together for some time alone, as Laxus passed Freed's college on the drive back. "It's my turn to see your place. Your classrooms, your student lounge," He paused, and was clearly smirking when he spoke again. "Your bed."

"My bed, huh?" Laxus smirked. "What were you gonna-"

Laxus would have continued, but an airborne pillow slammed into his face. It took his sleep-lagged brain a moment to understand what had happened, and he slowly looked towards his glaring, very much awake roommate. He probably should have realised that the phone would have woken them both up, not just Laxus.

They looked at each other for a moment, Bickslow unblinking. Laxus wanted to speak, but no words came, and Bickslow was the one to fill the silence.

"Look, you know I'm cool with you two being together. Probably been to more of the marches than either of you two, so be as gay as you wanna be," Bickslow's voice was croaky and hoarse. "But don't phone fuck when I'm in the room. It's just bad manners."

"We weren't gonna-" Laxus cut himself off. He couldn't be sure of his words, so instead he said a guilty, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Bickslow shrugged. "Just give me my pillow back and we'll call it even."

Laxus did as he was told, and Bickslow took it, hooked it around his head so it covered his ears, and turned to lie facing the wall. It was as close to privacy they could get in the small room without either of them leaving, and Laxus appreciated the action. When he spoke again, his voice was more of a gentle whisper.

"You should probably get to sleep," He instructed, and grinned when he heard a yawn overpowering his words. "Make sure you drink water before you crash, okay? And don't bother with yer classes, you'll either still be drunk or too hungover to take anything in."

"Yes, I suppose I will be," Freed agreed. "I'll call you once my parents leave."

"Okay," Laxus nodded. "Happy birthday, baby."

"Thank you," Freed said softly. "Goodnight. Love you."

"Love you too."

Laxus hung up the phone, curled himself back under his covers and closed his eyes. Just as he was about to sleep, he heard the grinning words of his roommate as he said, 'you two are so damn cute.' Laxus' retort of 'fuck you' was only slightly less threatening because of the smile he couldn't shake, and the yawn he couldn't hold back.

---

"Don't talk, I need to say something."

"Laxus? What's wrong?"

Laxus was jittery. He'd been jittery all day. He'd had nervous energy throughout the night, and it kept waking him up and he did whatever he could to get to sleep but nothing had worked, and he'd found himself stressed, awake and jittery. He couldn't stop moving. Couldn't stop bouncing his leg or taping his fingers or flexing his arms because he needed to do something with this energy, but he didn't know what.

At six AM, after a night of awful, interrupted sleep, he'd decided enough was enough. He'd changed into running gear, pulled out his Walkman and stormed from his dorm room. He'd ran for however long, and yet the jitteriness didn't go. If anything, it made things worse.

Calling Freed had been a last resort.

He hadn't returned to campus yet, instead finding a phone booth to climb into. It had started to rain as he'd run, and he was dripping wet as he rang Freed's number. The cold and the wet were the last things on his mind. He just needed to get on the call with Freed, just needed to hear that thing's would be okay and that he was making a big deal out of nothing. Freed was a smart guy, and he wouldn't bullshit Laxus about important things. No; Freed would make things okay.

"Dad's court case was moved forward," Laxus spluttered before he could stop himself.

It was supposed to be in the autumn. It was supposed to be months away. That would give Laxus time to prepare himself, to know what he was going to say. To get out of his own head so that he could focus on taking the bastard to jail. It was not supposed to be next damn week!

Laxus was a character witness. In the trial itself, he wasn't all that important, but he knew that the media would love to know what he thought about his father. Ivan was a well-known businessman, and his scandal had been national news. He'd made many enemies over his years working, and people were relishing in his downfall. Everyone wanted to hear how not only was Ivan a bad businessman, but a bad father too. Laxus wasn't ready for the attention, he wasn't ready for anything.

Freed took a moment to think before he replied.

"Where are you?" He asked. "Are you in your dorm? I can hear the rain."

"Erm, no," Laxus shook his head, looking around. "I'm near a park. Not sure where."

"Right," Freed murmured. "What do you need me to do?"

"I need," Laxus faltered.

He needed to be told that everything was okay. That the court case would just be a single day in his life, and he could get past it and move on. He needed to hear Freed saying that he would get past this, and that his life would return to normal. He needed to see Freed's warm smile, the one he seemed to show only to Laxus. He needed…

"It's nothing. Sorry if I woke you."

"Go back to your dorm, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"What?"

"The trains start running early. I can probably be at yours by ten," Freed mused aloud. "I want you to go back and try to sleep. You mentioned that Bickslow has hypnosis tapes he uses to sleep, borrow one."

"Freed, you don't need to come here," Laxus tried to argue, though he didn't want to. "You don't have the money."

"I'll find it," Freed dismissed. "The next train leaves at seven, I believe. I'll be on it."

"Freed."

"Laxus."

Anyone who thought that Laxus was the more stubborn one out of the two of them clearly didn't know Freed.

"You really don't need to come," Laxus whispered, the rain pounding on the small box he sheltered in. "I'll be fine."

"You deserve to be better than fine, Laxus," Freed whispered back.

Silence hung on the line, and at that moment Laxus' world only persisted of the small phonebooth, the rain clattering down on it, and the man on the other end of the phone. He closed his eyes, clenched them shut, and tried to focus on the soft sound of Freed's breathing. Freed was coming. He was coming to make things better. As much as Laxus wanted to protest more, because Freed couldn't afford it and he was going to miss his classes, he just wanted his boyfriend in his arms. He just wanted him there.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a shaking sob.

"Of course," Freed assured him. "Go back to your room and sleep, I'll be there soon."

Laxus did indeed return to his room. He showered off the rainwater, ignored Bickslow's questions as to what happened, and curled up into bed. The white noise tape that Bickslow gave him cleared his mind, and as he assured himself that the clump of blanket he was clinging to would soon be replaced with Freed, he felt everything become just a little more manageable.

---

Sun hit Laxus' face, a gentle warmth that woke him up. He smiled as it happened.

A roadside motel was hardly the most comfortable place to wake up, but Laxus couldn't think of anywhere better to be at that time. No amount of bitter coffee, cramped showers, awful breakfasts, and itchy sheets would stop that. Not when he was waking up with Freed in his arms.

It was Freed's graduation day, the final nail in the coffin of their shared college experiences. Once today had finished, there would be no more dorm rooms, no more phone calls, no more long distance. They just needed to get through the ceremony, and they would be free to spend as much time as they wanted together, without the looming dread of being split apart by the oncoming semester that had previously seemed ever present.

It was over. They were done with college and free to love each other fully and wholly.

They'd found an apartment they could afford. They'd gotten an odd look when their realter had seen two men wanting to live in a cramped, one bedroom apartment, but they didn't care. Three years split apart was over, and they felt they deserved their own place no matter what other people thought about it. They'd more than paid their dues in being apart; they were owed time, and a home, together.

It worked out well. Freed's career meant he needed to continue studying, and he'd found placement in a hospital on a partial scholarship in New York. Laxus, over his time in college, had decided sports journalism was where his passion lay, and he'd been shortlisted for multiple internships in the city. It was all perfect.

Speaking of perfect, Freed made a small mewling sound as he woke.

"Mornin'," Laxus smiled.

"Morning," Freed croaked. He leant up and pressed his lips against Laxus', resting against his body. "You're awake early."

"Excited to see you get yer degree," Laxus shrugged.

"Excited to see me leaving the dorms, more like," Freed chuckled, resting his head against Laxus' chest.

"Can you blame me?" Laxus asked as he ran a hand down Freed's side and kissed his crown.

"Not at all," Freed hummed, contentedly.

Laxus hummed, watching as the new morning sun filled the room. Flashes of a future where this would be his every morning, where Freed would always fall asleep in his arms and wake up beside him. Freed would be his, and he would be Freed's, as they were always supposed to be.

Their love story was quiet, made up of fleeting moments and late-night phone calls. Not the stuff of fairy tales, but, for them, perfect.

[kafkaoftherubble]

Bro, why are your answers so sibei emo?

But also, wow, your answers are so polished, it's obvious that someone has really put you through these sorts of questions as practice, huh? Whoever that person is must be quite the YYDS, 呵呵。

Q13 - good one! I'm glad I have one dude who's going to commit all intellectual property crimes and another who's going to steal from the rich. I honestly don't really know what crime to commit if it were up to me.

What I could think of for now is quite lame, I think?

Maybe I'll steal all scientific journals and nonfiction books in the world and distribute them for free, but that's kinda a type of intellectual property crime already.

I'd love to engineer expensive, elaborative cons to fool billionaires, politicians, etc. and then distribute the rewards to the people they harm! Imma be the Great Pretender! Laurent please find a way to let me shine! But that's basically what you're doing already...

Maybe I'll just study in academia and pursue whatever knowledge I like without ever paying a single fee.

I'll run to be the Prime Minister as an atheist non-Malay who's not heteronormative. It's not a legal crime, but does it matter in this country? If I'm shitty enough maybe I'll lead a coup and forcibly become PM.

I really don't have any cool crimes to commit after all. Or rather, any answer I can come up with is always contextual, and I don't even know if what I want to do is criminal or not.

Q18 - that was my answer!

Q20 - That's the true premise of Hellbound, in a nutshell, man.

Is hell also just "a place you will suffer?" Cause' that's a pretty wide place. It's this place, too, from time to time, because brutha don't we suffer from time to time?

Maybe it doesn't matter where this objective hell is supposed to be. It's a shitty place to live for lotsa people, then it automatically fails its residents, and is therefore due for a reform.

Q22: I will very likely not kill someone else to save you—and might even choose to save that stranger over you (provided I wasn't going to kill this stranger out of self-defense; if it's the latter, I may relish in the chance. Homicide is still not my answer for Q13 because I won't deliberately seek it out).

But you already know that, right?

I think it also depends on who's on track to die, and whose death is gonna be more problematic to the people who survive them. The question didn't say we can't ask the thoughts and opinions of that stranger, right?

Q23 - Emo ass motherfucker. One day when I become a stand-up comedian, I'll embellish your stories and make up shit about you for my materials so you'll be fucking remembered... as a clown.

Q25 - If the Devil is the same character as the popular depiction of him, I can already tell you his answer is gonna be, "Fucking duh? I don't deserve to be in here, you dumbass."

For The Dark Ask Game (I expect an essay from you):

13, 18 (I am sure you will choose the same damn organ I chose, 😏), 20, 22, 23, 25

13: I would turn into Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, give to the poor. If I don't have to worry about any kind of consequence (legal punishment, death, etc.) nothing could stop me.

18: UTERUS. I'm never going to make a fucking baby, bitch. Get over it or get out.

20: If hell is a place that punishes people for not following a specific religion, then yes I'm going there. But honestly, if anything like hell exists it would be beyond human understanding. So I have no idea. Maybe we all go to hell.

22: It depends. Someone's dying regardless, so I'm not really concerned morally speaking (fucked either way, ahahahaha), but: what would the person I love want me to do? Have they accepted their death, or do they want to keep living? Would they feel guilty about sending someone else to their death? If I have their life in my hands, the least I can do is honor their choices.

23: Ah, I would rather die peacefully! What's the point in having everyone cry over your death if you're not there to see it? Just because no one remembers it doesn't mean I had no positive impact. Maybe I'm not as sad about this because I already live my life relatively unremembered, so I'm used to it.

25: I would ask if there's anyone in hell who he doesn't think deserves to be there. I'm just curious if the devil himself agrees with the sorting, or if he even cares.

[antiterf]

I genuinely don't know what I should do, living in the UK as trans is becoming more and more of a death sentence. What am I supposed to do apart from suffering and dying in a week or three years? Nothing will change, I won't get on hormones or even be able to get a doctor to look over me for why my entire body hurts and why I can't run or walk anymore when I could just four years back. Nobody takes me seriously in this fucking country, and I'll just become another number on a statistic.

I feel this on so many fucking levels as a God damn trans and disabled American. I'm not even in the UK but I honestly do relate.

Something I've always genuinely considered is moving to another country Canada. If it truly got bad to a point where I couldn't possibly transition or live with my disability in this country.

I know it sounds expensive, but dear god, I genuinely think that moving to another country is both cheaper and easier than dealing with this countries healthcare system.

I know this isn't about cost for you, but you can possibly have options, even if they sound crazy. Hell, you can try and find organizations that fight for you in these cases.

Be annoying, be a nuisance, start shit, or what people who actually care when I do this like to call it, be some sort of self activist.

Make your doctors write down why they aren't taking tests. Make them give you referrals to doctors that may actually be able to help when they tell you that you seem fine (the "seem fine" can also be with recording your every day a symptoms). And actually switch doctors if you know they aren't treating you correctly.

With the wait time in the UK... I'm sorry, I genuinely don't know how to cope with that. All I can say is that it may be long, but death is infinite. If you need to put more effort into taking care of yourself and Can do that during the wait time, please do so. I know it seems impossible, but please try to keep yourself going.

And I'll try to keep signing petitions and donating to help with legal action over there, along with using the little influence I have to bring that shit to light. Its not much, but I'll try to make things better.

And I've considered suicide before too, but I also considered that if I can keep one transgender person alive and out of that stat, it might as well be me. That basically, I could do a lot more for others along with me if I was alive. We may be completely different in our thought processes with that, but if not, I hope it helps.

[engagemy-others]

Ok yay I'm glad! In that case I very much want to know more about the bros before Wylan showed up bc I love their fuckt up dysfunctional dynamic please give me a meta I will pay you in waffles. Were they ever in touch after being separated for a few years? How did they cope with seeing each other and living together again once Jordie turned 18 and got custody of Kaz? How did Jordie deal with his baby brother having become... well, Kaz? I want ANGST.

(Unrelated sidenote about Jewish Rietvelds and Jesper coming over not noticing: since there's a lot of Jewish influence in the way the Grisha are written, I feel it only makes sense for Nina to also be Jewish, and for Jesper to be half-Jewish. And he still doesn't notice).

OKAY so I have... only had minor thoughts about this? But now that I'm thinking about it, I think yeah they wouldn't have been in complete contact. They would maybe have seen each other a few times a year? Probably on holidays. Not *their* holidays, mind. Christian holidays that Christians have forced on everyone and that the western calendar seems to revolve around (esp in majorly Christian countries... but enough of my annoyance of the matter). And with each meeting, Jordie would probably see more and more of the Kaz he used to know--the sweet, morally upright nine-year old--disappear. He'd watch the hardness set in place. The anger, the rage, the morally-waywardness, the rebellion. And it would kill Jordie. And thus would push him to get custody of Kaz *immediately* after he is legally eligible.

But by then, of course, the Kaz he knew is completely gone, replaced by this new Kaz. The Kaz who convinced some foster parents to have a name change. The Kaz who has gotten himself in with some gambling den--god even knows *how*, or even what he's doing there, but Jordie knows it isn't right, that's for sure.

And they don't... cope. Not at first. And thats how Kaz gets himself into stupider shit, and falls off that stupid roof.

And they don't have the money to get that broken leg properly treated. Which, of course, drives Kaz further into crime, solidifying his role in the Dregs. If they can't pay for this, when would they run out of stuff to pay for *Jordie's* medical expenses? Because those were numerous.

So it's just this mess of Jordie trying to take care of Kaz, like the brother he's supposed to be, and Kaz just trying to take care of Jordie, bc fuck it, who else is going to, Jordie doesn't take proper care of *himself* half of the time.

Jordie's just hurt, and he mourns the brother he used to have, but he tries his damndest to accept the new version of his brother. He tries to understand. Tries to do everything right. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But he's trying. So hard. What else can he do?

(also YES i love jewish nina, love that, she'd probably be very in step with her religion. also tangent but since i base a lot of modern inej's ethnicity and culture n stuff off of my partner... tamil inej who is devout in her own way to hinduism. also more black jewish representation!!! so yes. Aditi should be (or should have been :(( jewish). Matthias is recovering from the horrors of growing up catholic, like me lmaooo) (ALSO DINA GET OVER HERE ADD MORE TO WHAT U FEEL ABOUT JEWISH NINA BC I LOVE THE CONCEPT AND AM FRUSTRATED I DID NOT THINK OF THIS BEFORE)