#it's human. he's human. and he's complex.
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So for all of you who think nothing matters:
We have a local, I guess I'll call it an events complex. It's where concerts and the fair go. It's owned by the city.
When Trump started the whole ICE thing, our commissioner sent a letter to the local representatives, telling them they could use it as a detention center for illegal immigrants. Our event center. Where the 4H kids show their fuckin' lambs.
"The fuck you will" was the resounding reply.
So, when I talk about coalition-building, and working with people you do not agree with or maybe even like, this is what I'm talking about. There was an immediate and vocal show of disapproval, from all sides. We all contacted people we knew would dislike this, REGARDLESS OF HOW THEY FELT ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE. The meeting was packed with people yelling at the commissioners. Of all political stripes. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Prairie Populist, Independent.
Some were, of course, the tumblr-style arguments about inherent humanity, but--I think more compellingly if you're actually trying to put the pressure on--there were questions of, 'How are we gonna get paid?" "Are you aware of how, as the only event center for more than two hours, much fuckin money this brings into the community? ANd that immigrants of all types make up less than 2% of the population of the entire state?(my argument), "Do we trust the government to pay us?", "Isn't there a fuckin' empty prison in [town about an hour from here]? Are you just being a kiss-ass?' (offered up by a man I know to be very conservative indeed. BUT HE DID NOT WANT OUR SPACE USED FOR THIS) and, an argument that was so good I was infuriated I didn't come up with it, "DO you think the bank is gonna want to be known as the sponsor of "National bank Detention Center?" (Which caught on and the bank had to offer up a letter saying how they hoped the commissioners would use the event center as intended.)
They folded. A letter came out a few days ago from the manager of the event center, saying it was decided that the events center would rescind the offer, as "more acceptable alternatives could be found." They blinked.
That's the thing. All that happened is that a bunch of people got mad an went to ONE TWO HOUR MEETING. It changed everything.
SHOW. UP.
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as somebody who was a teenager when it was happening, it’s downright astonishing to hear “nobody knows why we did that.”
it was a colossally unpopular war even at the time, because everyone knew why we did that. it was for the same reason we always invade a less developed country on imaginary charges: we wanted their natural resources.
it was right after 9/11, people wanted action, and it looked like a great excuse. but as it dragged on, it started to become obvious to most americans that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and there were no secret Al-Qaeda military complexes, and the war in Iraq was just throwing people’s lives away on both sides for no actual reason other than going after the oil.
while protests were still happening about the war itself, then there were leaks about the human rights abuses at guantanamo bay prison: indefinite detention without trial, torture, humiliation, and suspicious deaths. the patriot act was introduced to justify government surveillance of emails and phone conversations without a warrant.
lots of people were pissed off, and loud about it. there were still plenty of “real american patriots” eating “freedom fries” this week because the french criticized the war, or whatever, but at the time there was a massive cultural backlash. this is the atmosphere where green day released american idiot and 21 guns, and there was an entire nine inch nails album (that i was really really into, in the way an 18 year old gets into nin for the first time).
W was already polarizing: some people found him “folksy” while others just thought he was a idiot, and unpresidential. whole books were published compiling the times he misspoke in embarrassing ways: “is your children learning?” “as a single mother, i know how hard it is to put food on your family,” “they misunderestimated me,” and other slips of the tongue. a president was supposed to have dignity, dammit!
not to put too fine a point on it, but i think everything i just described actually is why we aren’t talking about it all the time, to refer back to the op. looking back at it now, it’s easy for it to seem almost nostalgic: really? we were worried about that? a little routine middle eastern destabilization and unauthorized surveillance, conducted by a guy who wanted to call himself “the decider” and have a big Mission Accomplished banner for his aircraft carrier? that’s it?
that would be a mistake, though. we should be talking about it. this is already long-winded enough and i don’t think i need to overexplain. suffice it to say that if the pot started bubbling when reagan was elected, W is when we should have known to jump out.
I missed most of the Iraq war due to being a baby, but every time I read about it I start wondering why we aren’t all talking about it all of the time
#us politics#political history#iraq war#9/11#ew rae don’t tag things from when you were 18 ‘history’#tldr we’re completely desensitized as a culture to anything a Republican president does at this point#there will always be people who support it because they heard the justification from the last guy#young people don’t have the context for what normal is#and older people are exhausted of fighting the same fight over and over while it just gets worse every time#what’s the answer? idk but I think education is part of it. posts like this are important#less impressive name drops but rise against and anti-flag have some of my favorite angry political 00s music. very nostalgic for me now#someday i will use my tumblr to post my own ideas
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Nerd gojo x nerd reader! Headcanons
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Nerd!Gojo x Nerd!You Headcanons
♡ Gojo Satoru, the prodigy. The guy who solves complex math problems in his head like it’s a simple 2+2. If someone ask him how, he’ll just smirk and say, “Just run your mind faster.” As if that makes sense.
♡ Gojo, the last-minute genius. He does his assignments at the last possible second but still gets a perfect score. People have accused him of using black magic. He doesn’t deny it.
♡ Gojo, the overanalyzer. Someone calls him a know it all as a joke, and next thing they know, they’re stuck listening to a 30-minute breakdown of why intelligence is subjective and how human perception affects knowledge.
♡ Gojo, the human stopwatch. He calculates the exact time people take to do the most random things:
Shoko takes exactly 3.2 seconds to process a joke before laughing.
Suguru sniffs his food for 2.6 seconds before deciding if it’s poisoned.
His teacher blinks an average of 18 times per minute when lecturing.
♡ Gojo, the walking encyclopedia. He acts like he knows everything psychology, physics, chemistry, math. Whether he actually does or not is debatable, but he’ll never admit he’s wrong.
♡ Gojo, the fact machine. He drops random trivia constantly, just to flex. “Did you know honey never spoils?” “Gojo, no one cares.”
♡ Gojo, the exam escape artist. He drags Suguru out to do something totally unproductive before exams, but somehow still tops the class while Suguru barely passes. Suguru has stopped questioning it.
♡ Gojo, the romance skeptic. Laughs in the face of love at first sight, listing the exact probability of it happening.
♡ Gojo, the worst date ever. He once explained The Art of War on a date. The girl left before dessert. He still doesn’t know why.
♡ Gojo, the secret romance reader. He totally didn’t get caught reading a romance novel in the library. And he totally didn’t like it.
Then, there’s you.
♡ You, the transfer student. No expression. No reaction. The class went dead silent when you walked in, as if even breathing would be too loud. The teacher praised you, and you just nodded like it didn’t matter.
♡ You, Gojo’s accidental rival. Sitting next to him was a nightmare. He asked the most stupid questions, and you ignored all of them. He assumed you were just an edgy wannabe. That made him laugh.
♡ You, the real threat. When exam results came out, Gojo was shook. For the first time, he wasn’t the top scorer. You were. And your reaction? A shrug. No smile, no satisfaction. That’s when you became interesting.
♡ Gojo, the forced study partner. He forced the teacher to make you his partner. You weren’t amused.
“Why do I need to do practicals if I already know the answer?” you questioned
“To see if it’s true or not, dummy.” He grinned, waiting for your response.
“If it’s in the book, it’s already true.” He had never wanted to strangle someone and marry them at the same time before.
♡ Gojo, the doomed fool. No one ever entertained his nerdy ramblings, but you? You matched his energy. When you started debating him on his own topics, he knew he was done for.
♡ Gojo, the AI skeptic. He swears you talk like a robot.
“That’s not an effective method.”
“This is scientifically incorrect.”
“Are you a government experiment?”
♡ Gojo, the challenge seeker. He constantly challenged you to competitions. You refused every time. “Not interested in unnecessary drama.” That hurt his soul.
♡ Gojo, the frustrated observer. He needed to see a crack in your facade. Anything. He studied your every move, trying to prove you weren’t an AI.
♡ Gojo, the mimic. He caught you muttering the pi table to regain focus. He immediately adopted the technique.
♡ Gojo, the sore winner. If he scored higher than you, he wasn’t happy he was annoyed. What’s the point if you don’t even care?
♡ Gojo, the reluctant believer. He told you about his hobbies with way too much excitement. You told him about yours, but your blank expression made him question if you were lying.
♡ Gojo, the paranoid calculator. He tried analyzing your movements, but everything about you was too precise. It freaked him out.
♡ Gojo, the not-so-subtle spy. Since you lived next to Suguru, he used that as an excuse to observe you. Every time he saw you, you were either studying or staring out the window like a lifeless statue. You caught him multiple times. Instead of yelling, you just stared at him. It was terrifying.
♡ Gojo, the insecure nerd. He nervously brought up Dungeons & Dragons, expecting you to be clueless. Instead, you knew everything. He had never felt average before.
♡ Gojo, the desk menace. He constantly poked you during class, hoping for any reaction. You just stared at him, unblinking, until he became flustered and left.
♡ Gojo, the insane conversationalist. He told you the wildest theories, and you listened like it was just another casual conversation. It drove him insane.
It took me 4 days to think of a gojo nerd scenerio 😭
And you GUYS HAVE TO REQUEST DO IT
Part 2 will be here
@naomigojo
#jujutsu kaisen#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jujustu kaisen fluff#jujustu gojo#jujutsu kaisen smaus#gojo satoru#gojo satoru x reader#gojo x reader#jjk gojo#jujutsu gojo#sexy nerd#nerd#gojo nerd#jjk fanfic#gojo x yn#gojo satoru x yn#gojo satoru x you#gojo x you#nerd stories#love story#jjk fluff#jujustu fluff#series#anime#manga#anime and manga#geto suguru#geto suguru x reader#suguru geto#shoko ieiri
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When anyone says the planet is overpopulated, look them dead in the eye and ask them “Okay, so what do we do about it?”
They will hedge, squirm, prevaricate, but don’t let them weasel out of it.
Maybe they’ll land on “I don’t know! It’s a huge complex issue that might not have a solution!” Which is fair, imo.
But usually what happens is they suggest things that don’t impact them. “People should have less kids.” Ask: which people? How are you enforcing that?
Nine times out of ten, it becomes “Well, those people have too many kids.” Often, it’s the poor, or a particular race, or just generally the Global South. Conveniently, not the speaker’s family, race, or class.
This is the path Neo-Malthusian arguments follow. While I was talking about Douglass Tallamy, who advocates for this, I think this is deeply relevant to the cuts we’re seeing in the US government.
Generally, you can’t just say out loud “It’s morally right to kill all (insert class/race here) people.” They don’t like saying that directly. But pulling USAID, cancelling food and medicine projects for communities who need it? Well that conveniently takes care of the problem, doesn’t it? Same goes for revoking universal healthcare. If you can’t afford to see a doctor, then you might as well die. Same goes for medical research. If Black maternal mortality is high, that’s not a problem. It’s a convenient one-in, one-out! It’s not a coincidence that “effective altruist” Elon is leading this attempted-culling while producing as many “master race” children as he can.
I think most people who read writers like Tallamy don’t think twice about this, never reflecting on why it’s so fucked up. It’s worth taking the time to self-reflect on how we discuss things like this.
TLDR: if people start using ecological terms to describe human populations, it’s vital we push back. Scientific terms are often used to make unjust policy appear neutral
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I 100% agree that canon Sally made choices against Percy’s best interest at times but I don’t necessarily think Gabe was one of them.
Let me explain, we do know that Sally knew about Poseidon and camp, there’s a very really possibility that she also knew about the prophecy to an extent. As in, she must have known her son would be in a crazy amount of danger just for being born. We know from the text that Poseidon waited until the last moment he could before claiming Percy, until his powers essentially revealed to the whole camp who he was. That’s how dangerous it was for him to be found out.
I really don’t think Percy should have been raised at camp, that fact that he had a well-meaning, loving mother is one of the biggest things that set him apart from Luke.
I do think she should have sent him to camp earlier than she did but not years earlier like maybe you were suggesting. I also agree that it was an inherently selfish decision to keep him close. She certainly didn’t do him any favors by sending him away to boarding school after boarding school where he was always the new kid, always harassed, and even physically punished by the teachers in one of them (staff of Hermes).
She was in an impossible situation and she made choices purely out of survival not stability or safety cause they had neither. But this way he wouldn’t be outright killed. But Percy is a child and he needs both, so he grows up with low self esteem, neglected, abused emotionally and physically, and without a single friend in the world with how often he changes schools. He can’t talk to his mother either because she’s a little in denial and when Percy asks hard questions she gets emotional, and he feels guilty when he upsets his mom so he stops asking altogether.
(I do believe that she went into the relationship with Gabe with her eyes open and maybe that made it harder for her to admit to herself that she was stuck, that the man she was sure she could face down near damn swallowed her whole, because she chose this, of course in her mind she was still in control but I digress. )
I think as soon as Grover and Chiron were in the picture she should have told him. Instead she told Grover not to do anything. There was a fury at the school, he was found out and attacked, why was he still there for an entire semester after the incident?
We know they didn’t tell her about the fury because we know she didn’t know. Chiron mishandled that big time because it was at that point that it became evident that whatever scent Gabe was hiding wasn’t working. Him following her wishes to the point of keeping Percy at school after an attack from a kindly one without even informing his mother of what happened is actually crazy. Hades found him and sent him a fury to his school. Right under chirons nose. Percy was serving detention with her late into the night sometimes. They should have called Sally and taken Percy to camp together. Instead he was gaslit by everyone to the point of questioning his sanity. Ran away form Grover when they met the fates and Grover still refused to say a word. Didn’t say anything to his mom because why would he at this point, who would even believe him?. Not to mention the very traumatic introduction to the demigod life by watching his mother die right in front of him.
I just think about all the individual choices that Sally, Grover, and Chiron made that led to that night on half blood hill and I think how much it didn’t need to happen.
All three of them failed him.
Sally Jackson choice safety over stability in terms of how she'd take care of her child. Both her and Percy faced years abuse by the hands of one man. Does this make her a good mother who was in over her head or an unprepared one making an impulsive decision?
You found the one hot take even I haven’t dared say aloud yet, because I think it may just be my most unpopular opinion in this fandom. One thing everyone in this fandom seems to agree on is the “universal truth” that Sally Jackson is the best mother in the history of fictional mothers. So, here’s my hot take:
Sally Jackson is not that perfect mother the fandom pretends she is.
Sally during the series? Presented as a loving and good mother. But to get to that point? Pre-series Sally is not written as a good mom; she’s written as a plot-device with the things the author needs to happen in mind and not the motivation of a good mother who prioritizes her child’s happiness and safety in mind.
And I’ll back that claim up with three ways in which Sally has failed Percy as a mother. Not just once, but repeatedly, for years.
But before we get into that, I’d like to switch what you said first. Sally Jackson chose stability over safety. Sally chose the stability of keeping her child at her side over said child’s safety. She made an inherently selfish decision that was not with her child’s best interest and overall safety in mind.
Now, the first - and most obvious one - is Smelly Gabe.
And before I can elaborate on that, I need to clarify one very important thing here, before anyone goes “don’t blame the victim!” on me: Sally Jackson is not a victim; she’s a fictional character. Fictional characters can be written as victims, but they are not autonomous people who make their own choices; their choices are very deliberately made by their author for them. And I want to look at the choices that went into writing her this way, writing her story this way.
Real abuse victims get stuck in abusive relationships for a variety of reasons and they don’t get out of them for equally various reasons. Most of the time, it’s something like “he was so sweet and kind at first, but by the time he showed his real face, it was too late” (and, as a note to that; Percy describes Gabe as having been nice to them for a total of thirty seconds before showing his real face. Now while that is, of course, and exaggeration, it still goes to say that Gabe was pretty much upfront about what kind of person he was).
I’ve never heard one start with “he was the most disgusting, grossest man I could possibly find”. Sally Jackson chose this man. Not just in the way one picks a partner. She went out there and chose the stinkiest, grossest man.
It was a deliberate choice on Riordan’s part to have Sally choose an abusive relationship over sending her son away for his own safety. And this decision did not keep Percy safe; Percy Jackson was abused in his own home, by a horribly stinking man, for six years of his life. That’s not keeping your child safe.
The choice was not made to keep Percy safe; the choice was made to keep Percy with Sally. It was inherently selfishly motivated; she didn’t want to send him away, she wanted to keep him with her.
Sally loves Percy, she loves him dearly and fiercely, I’m not arguing that. But that love led to her not wanting to let go of him. And sometimes, parenting means making tough choices, sometimes loving someone means you have to make a tough decision.
In this case, the “tough decision” is presented as Sally bravely putting up with six years of abuse at Gabe’s hand. That’s the narrative chosen by the author.
But the actual “tough decision” would have been to send Percy to Camp Half-Blood, where he would have been safe. That’s the tough choice a mother would have had to make to keep her child safe.
That’s the tough choice the parents of most of the year-rounders have made. Mister Beauregard sent his daughter all the way from Paris to New York to give her this safety. The distance alone guaranteeing he wouldn’t see her for years potentially - because flying between New York and Paris is not necessarily easily affordable for everyone. Sally’s option was to send Percy to a camp that’s literally one and a half hours away. She could have still seen him, he could have easily visited her.
But her solution was to mask Percy’s scent by marrying a stinking, gross, abusive man.
Let me just stretch once more: Sally’s choice did not keep Percy safe. Sally’s choice made their home unsafe. It brought the danger and pain into their home. It may have moderately protected Percy from monsters - until The Lightning Thief kicked in - but it did not keep Percy actually safe, because it put him into a different kind of danger and through a different kind of pain.
For six years. And, this is where the “not a real person but a fictional character” thing comes up again, because this isn’t a woman where one choice leads to a date with a man which leads to a relationship which leads to abuse that she doesn’t know how to get out of anymore. She is a fictional character whose journey was set out to end with her being in an abusive relationship.
And we also don’t know why she didn’t get out of it. She’s not a real person, we don’t know if she was so scared of Gabe that she didn’t know how to leave, if her lack of a support system is what led to her not leaving him, or if it was the motivation of not giving up Percy. The real, actual reason is that Riordan wanted to keep her in there and keep Percy out of the loop until he was twelve and The Lightning Thief could happen. Because she was able of getting rid of him as soon as the truth unravelled and Percy met camp.
And I’d like to use the way she did that to drive back home just how bad Gabe was, just how bad the situation Sally and Percy were in for six years, really was.
She murders him. She flat-out murders him. Both, her and Percy, together. This twelve-year old child who we meet and get to know as kind and not... not a murder-child, is ready to kill a man. That’s how badly Gabe abused them; both of these kind people chose murder to get rid of him.
And it’s just something I’ve never gotten over. Riordan really made the decision that his protagonist’s mom would rather get them both into an abusive home than give Percy up to camp. That was his decision; there could have been other ways. One thing that would have made this seem less like a deliberate choice would have, for example, been Sally not knowing about camp.
If she was a desperate mother, who saw no other options? That’d have made the situation different too. But we know Sally knew about camp. She knew there was a place she could send her son where he would be safe from the monsters, but she decided against that, she decided that she wanted to keep him close, at any costs - and the cost was six years of abuse.
I do not think that this decision should be framed as a heroic sacrifice, because the fact that she knew of an actually safe solution and decided against it was inherently selfish. She did not put up with six years of abuse for selfless reasons because there was “no other way”; there was, she knew that, but the author didn’t want her to take that.
Sometimes, the sacrifice is letting go of your child. And, as mentioned before, she wouldn’t have let go of him for good - camp is in the same bloody city as she is living. Literally one and a half hours away from her.
Now on to the other two ways in which I think Sally Jackson failed Percy.
For one, the lies about his father. Now, real people who are left by their partner with a baby, they can pick whatever to tell their kids whenever. But, again, this is a fictional character and the author makes the decision for her. And this, again, was a decision made solely based on the end result; Riordan needed Percy to not be in the know by the time The Lightning Thief came around, even though from a character-perspective, telling Percy the truth earlier would have been the logical and right decision.
If your kid is a demigod who is attracting real actual monsters with his scent alone? Percy started really attracting monsters when he was six years old and for the next six years, Sally didn’t disclose the truth to him; not about monsters, not about his father, not about the fact that Percy may have powers.
Percy attracted so many monsters that it led to Sally getting married to Gabe. That’s how badly he attracted monsters. Which also implies that Percy must have seen monsters. We get to see in The Lightning Thief just how much Percy thinks he’s going crazy with the things he sees. And that’s been going on for six years too - six years and in those, his scent only got stronger.
This, again, isn’t just one decision she made. This is a decision she made every single day over and over again. The decision not to tell Percy about his father, the powers, the simple reassurance that he’s not going insane, that monsters are real. This was Percy’s reality and it would obviously only become more and more of an issue the older Percy got, but every single day, she chose not to tell him, to let him believe not just a lie but also steadily that he was going crazy.
And it’d have gone a long way if he had just known. Even with Gabe in their life, even if she hadn’t made the choice to send him to camp at age six, it’d have helped him so much to know the truth and be prepared for this life.
Because this wasn’t just an issue of “the guy left me, I don’t want to talk about it with my kid”, this was inherently about, once more, Percy’s safety. Knowing what to watch out for, knowing the thing you should watch out for is actually real, are huge factors in Percy’s safety. Having him as well-prepared as possible.
She knew his father was Poseidon. It’s not even that she had sex with some dude, not knowing who he was. She knew he was Poseidon. She knew what Percy’s parentage was, she must have observed the slow development of Percy’s powers over the years.
But again, she chose to leave him in the dark about it. He could have been well-prepared by age twelve. Read up everything on Poseidon, experimented with potential powers he may have, understanding why the fishes in the aquarium are talking to him and that he is not actually hearing voices, learning.
But that’s not useful for the author; Riordan wants an unprepared Percy who can be used to introduce this world to the reader.
The choice to not tell Percy the truth about his father and about being a demigod was made deliberately and, again, not in Percy’s best interest. And in this case, there really is no other interpretation left aside from “the author needs it to happen this way” - with Gabe, there is the legitimate argument that she may have been at one point just an abused woman stuck in a relationship with no out because we don’t know enough to know what her motivation and situation were exactly - but there is... no benefit at all in lying to Percy about this, no reason for it.
The moment he first started being in actual life-threatening danger because monsters came after him, it became a pressing matter to tell him what monsters are, that they are real and why they are after him and to prepare him for it.
Which brings me to the third instance.
She never prepared him - even just in a mortal manner. Even if we let the first two - the marriage to Gabe and the lies about his father - stand as they are, Sally could have done something very simple to prepare Percy for his life and to help keeping him safe.
Self-defense classes. Judo. Martial arts. Sword-fighting classes. Whatever.
Many parents teach their kids these kind of things from a young age. Parents whose kids aren’t in constant danger of being attacked by monsters. One of your first parental instincts should be to teach your kid to be safe; to protect themselves. Give him the means to fight back.
So, that’s it. That’s the three very vital and important instances in which I think Sally failed Percy as a mother; not just once, but repeatedly, for years.
Instead of sending him to a safe place where he could learn about his heritage and learn control of his powers as well as learning how to fight the monsters after his life, she chose to marry an abusive, smelly man whose scent would mask Percy’s. Probably. Hopefully. But it didn’t really, not all the time. As shown by The Lightning Thief and monsters coming after Percy. And Percy starts to think he’s crazy, because at no point did she tell him about the monsters, and at no point does he really know how to fight for his life, because at no point did she put the means to defend himself into his hands.
No. No, I do not think that those are the decisions a good mother would make. Those are decisions the author made because he knew the starting point of his story and he knew where Percy’s character needed to be for that.
The thing that’s glossed over are the choices Riordan implicitly made Sally make. To get to this point for Percy, at age 12, he had to make Sally repeatedly act against Percy’s best interests and deliberately not tell Percy the truth or teach him way to stay safe. So he masks those choices by putting on a framework that’s meant to make you only look at her suffering and the outcome, not the choices that led to it. That was Riordan’s choice and he framed it in a way that the fandom ate up and celebrates, when... neither Sally, nor Riordan, had do to that. There was another option on the table and, if Riordan had sat down and thought hard, I’m pretty sure there would have been more options.
The bottom line, what Sally’s parenting comes down to in the end, is that she and Percy got stuck with an abusive man for six years, because she didn’t want to send him to an actual safe place, she spent six years essentially gaslighting Percy about the things he hears/sees by not telling him the monsters are actually real and she repeatedly left him in unnecessary danger by not giving him the means to defend himself in any way whatsoever. And those are not signs of good parenting, not in my book.
But it’s just so much easier to ignore all of that and pretend that blue candy and trips to Montauk are the end all be all and that Sally’s fierce love for her son is the most defining trait of parenting. I know that. Most of the time, I’m right there with you - I love fanon!Sally, I love to pretend she’s the best mom ever and never did anything wrong, because I know the decisions are inherently made by Riordan and are a by-product; I know he wants her to be a good mother, I know throughout the series, he writes her as a good and loving mother.
But if I have to be honest and if I look at the whole text, including the implications of their past, canon!Sally isn’t that good of a mother.
#I also think a part of it is Percy absolutely refusing to blame her for anything cause she’s all he has#and he doesn’t want to unpack some of the damage that she caused#because then he’ll have to come to terms with the fact that his mom made choices that knowingly hurt him regardless of the situation#this could have been a great arc about kids idolizing their parents and coming to terms with the fact that their human too#but ahh that implies that riordan is capable of complex storylines#sally jackson#Percy Jackson#tlt#pjo
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It's finally launch day for my new book! The City That Would Eat the World, book one of the More Gods Than Stars Trilogy, is out now on Amazon and Audible! More Gods Than Stars is socialist sword and sorcery progression fantasy starring a pair of wandering lady adventurers, set on a gas giant's habitable moon, featuring a mimic-based ecosystem, uncounted millions of gods ranging from ones for individual teakettles to gods of entire cities, a ridiculously complex magic-based economy in the vein of Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, anime-inspired fight scenes, a trans deuteragonist (and plenty of other queer characters), a pseudomedieval megastructure arcology spreading uncontrollably across the landscape, and last but definitely not least, the god of counting flagstones.
"An incredibly imaginative adventure through the corrupt underbelly of a world-devouring and ever-expanding city and its gods-blessed inhabitants. Magical engineering, economics, divine blessings and human corruption combine into an adventure through a truly original setting."
Cameron Johnston, Author of Age of Tyranny & The Maleficent Seven
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/1957846c456213033d0084cc8b8839a2/c9d83388e16de052-42/s640x960/0030b265f61f04d162e3321aba9f7a6be6ea7c5b.jpg)
Art by Lukas Ketner, Cover Design by Virginia McClain
Thea is a washed-up mimic exterminator who expected more out of life, not some hero from stories. Aven is an impulsive wandering adventurer whose personal goddess is constantly getting her into trouble. Neither of them have the slightest interest in getting involved in world-shaking historical events. History doesn’t care what they want, unfortunately, and it’s fallen right into their laps in the shape of a godslaying weapon from a fallen civilization. Thrown together out of chance, Thea and Aven will have to learn to work together if they want to survive their pursuers. Because if they fail, and the weapon falls into the wrong hands? The results won’t be pretty. No one’s going to be using it on some random street corner goddess, teakettle god, or any of the other countless teeming millions of divinities on Ishveos. No, there’s one target that sits above all others. Cambrias, Whose Watch Never Ends. Cambrias, whose power has given rise to Cambrias’ Wall, the greatest city in the known multiverse- a city that has already covered much of a continent, and is strip mining entire mountain ranges for space and building material. A city that threatens to spread across the entire surface of Ishveos. And there’s no shortage of folks willing to kill Thea and Aven in order to stop the Wall, no matter the consequences.
I'm incredibly proud of this one- I spent years on the research behind its world, reading literally dozens of books on architecture, economics, leftist political theory, and theology. Though, for all that I genuinely tried to say something important with The City That Would Eat the World, I also did my best to keep it a fun, high-octane fantasy adventure- and I'm pretty dang confident I succeeded on that latter part. It draws heavily in inspiration from Terry Pratchett, China Mieville, and Max Gladstone; as well as the classic sword and sorcery adventure stories like Jirel of Joiry, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and their ilk. More Gods Than Stars is set in the same multiverse as my other books, the magic school series Mage Errant and the standalone epidemiological fantasy novel The Wrack, but you don't need to have read either of them to read this, or vice versa.
"The City That Would Eat The World is easily one of the most impressive books I've ever read. Not only has Bierce conjured up a hell of an adventure from page one, but he's also crafted a strange and gritty world with stunning depth, jammed it full of fantastic characters, then topped it all off with an explosive ending. The next book can't come soon enough."
Kyle Kirrin, author of The Ripple System
#progression fantasy#fantasy novels#New books#fantasy#More Gods Than Stars#mage errant#Yes Aven has antlers and Thea fights with a big tuning fork
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Ask Compilation: Gorp, Questionable Child Rearing, Progressive elves and some campaign lore!
As always, I apologize if your ask isn't here/ hasn't been replied to, it is unfortunately impossible for me to answer to every question I get to the extend I would like to. Occasionally I also just don't have a very interesting answer to offer ���� and I try to avoid spamming people's feeds! But thank you so much to everyone who interacts with my stories, characters, art, and is curious about my thought process and writing! The response is frankly just as overwhelming as it is deeply appreciated, and every word of encouragement or message about how I inspired you to draw or write more of your own stories makes my day.
DU drow and Gortash had what I would describe as a "Toxic Friendship". They got along well enough, had little friend dinner-dates, drank together, superficially shared their woes in ways that benefited no one, and DU drow ultimately had a great deal of respect for Gortash - except you would have never known that by the way he treated him.
DU drow belittled, harassed, and even destroyed Gortash's property on whim alone. Every compliment was back-handed and every display of friendship was somehow sarcastic. Gortash let everything slide right off his back for reasons I like leaving obscured. Here's a particularly intense write-up I did about their relationship a long time ago that still stands. I think it serves really well to illustrate how intense DU drow could still be about his friendships.
PFFTT, I don't know why that would be a female-child only thing, but maybe that's just a colloquialism?
DU drow actually talks pretty similarly to children as he does to adults! He just doesn't set the same expectations on them. Children don't ask stupid questions because the world is still new to them, nor do their respond reasonably to everything, they also don't understand some big words or complex ideas depending on how you present it to them - he understands this and adjusts accordingly. But otherwise his tone would be the same, even with his his own child. He's that guy who's good with kids on the basis of treating them as to-be adults rather than.. Well, just a child.
The Astarion assessment is fair, LOL.
[MORE UNDER THE CUT]
(Surface) elven kind strikes me as fairly gender-indifferent overall! And while I enjoy theorizing about how their culture has shifted over the years from exposure to "urban life", for both better and worse, I like to think this is an aspect that has remained mostly unchanged, even for elves who may have had a really mixed-up upbringing from living in a city as diverse as Baldur's Gate.
I believe Astarion (and by extension Shadowheart and DU drow) are fully aware that they read as their respective genders and that for other races, such as humans, that means something; but for them that is a different custom that doesn't really apply outside of pronouns and reproductive expectations. So, I actually believe that Astarion would be pretty indifferent to life as a woman save for occasionally missing having a dick for the obvious reasons (only to then shift back and lament the opposite, probably).
ALL THE TIME!
But I know that you meant to ask if I will ever draw it.
VERY LIKELY THAT I WILL.
As a side note, thank you for showing interest and excitement for male-on-male sex that isn't just anal, LOL.
CW for the obvious, though nothing too descriptive or awful.
I understand if people disagree as a knee-jerk reaction, but I would say that Astarion's character demonstrates a shocking amount of self-control and emotional regulation. I went into this more in detail in an older post, but basically: the guy always brings himself down from his own outbursts, is exceptionally good at reading the room, is extremely forgiving and pragmatic, and knows when to send the jokes outside and respond to vulnerability in kind. I stand by this as more than a headcanon; it's in his actual writing and dialogue.
All that to say, I don't think Astarion would ever lay a violent hand on his own children. I also don't HC him as having endured corporal punishment as a child, hence not really having that instilled in his mind as a possible example to draw from.
I could see DU drow implementing physical punishments that he doesn't consider to be actually painful, like pulling, pinching, or squeezing a child while you reprehend them; things a parent might do because they think it's harmless. Astarion would probably be the one to say he's not really achieving anything - so it would likely be short-lived.
I DO think they would both be okay with setting up their children to pretty arduous physical labor, though, both as punishment and just in general to toughen them up. You could argue there's a way to do this that is reasonable, but they would prooobably push that line into dubious territory.
Buddy, WHO said low fat, what do you think the meat and taters that he's eating is swimming in!
But back to your question, he can enjoy a sweet treat every once in a while! He just far, far prefers savory. Personally, I think the guy would go crazy for a panettone. Or a big sugar-powdered crepe with some berries.
I kind of flew through the Circus in DU drow's playthrough because I was SO excited to get to Baldur's gate. They were only there long enough for DU drow to make Astarion mildly pissed off during the dryad's weird love quiz.
I also somehow missed Lucretious and never got the Dribbles quest - probably for the best.
Becoming a big ol' squid seems like a deal-breaker for his character in-game - so, same thing applies here. He'd let him down gently but potentially want a friendship for as long as DU drow is still himself.
... Buuuut it would never come to that; DU drow would most likely end his life pretty swiftly if he were to turn into a mindflayer, so Astarion wouldn't have much to worry about 😬
Alas, she pretty much never crosses his mind since he has no recollection of the type of relationship they had prior to DU drow's amnesia.
Or at least she won't as long as nothing weird ever happens that potentially jogs his memory 😇
Hello! I also love the escorts, but due to both DU Drow's and Astarion's respective attitudes towards drow and that kind of activity they didn't really hire his services. I do like to think him and his sister had a lot to gossip about as soon as they turned their backs, though, LOL.
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Yay, thank you for tagging me, @wewringmagicfromtheordinary I love these so much!
Last song: This one...
youtube
Love this beautiful human so much.
Favourite colour: Black
Last book: The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune. Very fun read. Loved the characters. Climax scene made me sob like a little kid who thinks they're lost in the grocery store.
Last show: Finally gave in to peer pressure from my cousins to watch Breaking Bad. Just started season 3. I get the hype.
Sweet, savory, or spicy: Yum.
Relationship: Married to my sweet Caleb. Still can't quite believe he asked me sometimes.
Last thing I googled: "Tom Hiddleston birthday", because I was afraid I'd missed it. (I didn't, it's today, happy birthday, Tom.)
Current obsession: Thomas Hardy's instinctive understanding of complex psychological concepts, and how he was able to express them in his novels.
Looking forward to: Going to see Hamilton live next week!!!!!
Open tags today, because my social anxiety is absolutely raging, and I don't really feel like battling it. But yeah, y'all know I'd love to see what you're up to, so consider yourself invited!
thank you @slashsleuth for the tag 😁 i havent done a little game in a long time
last song: fruit roll ups by waterparks
fav color: purple 💜😈💟🪻
last book: the absinthe underground by jamie pacton (it was ok)
last movie: wicked
last tv show: abbott elementary
sweet/savory/spicy: sweet usually
relationship status: single 😊
last thing i googled: the absinthe underground (needed the author lmao) before that it was turbulent waterparks chords
current obsession: ive been watching a lottt of jet lag lately!!! super fun travel show!!
looking forward to: signed parx print coming in the mail today 🫶🏼
tagging: @bergoozter @trashworldblog @outer-space-face @22psyduck :-)
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Hwang In ho (The Front Man) Dating HC’s
- In ho has a mysterious aura about him
- Wherever he goes, he brings an air of confidence and a mysterious sense of purpose, that you’re still trying to figure out
- In ho keeps his past guarded from even you and is hesitant to open up to you about it
- In ho keeps you wanting to know more about him as time goes on
- In ho is very secretive keeping his private life under wraps and only allows you in when he trusts you
- In ho keeps your relationship a secret and doesn’t want anyone to know about you just in case a revolt were to happen within the games and they would come after you to get at him
- In ho arranges clandestine meetings to ensure your relationship is hidden
- In ho has a soft spot for you despite his cold and calculating personality
- He is willing to do anything to protect you, even if it means harming others
- In ho is highly intelligent and loves having deep conversations with you
- You can talk with him for hours about anything and everything
- He'd engage you in discussions about strategy, human nature, and the philosophy behind the games, appreciating your insights and opinions
- In ho spoils you with lavish gifts and designer clothes
- He uses his resources to get you anything that you desire
- In ho has you on a pedestal and would do anything for you
- These gifts would be a mix of practical items and sentimental tokens that remind you of your unique bond
- In ho is emotionally complex
- He struggles with his own demons and moral dilemmas, and you'd often find yourself being his confidant, helping him navigate the darkness within himself
- In ho is fiercely jealous and possessive, not tolerating any attention that you receive from others
- His protective nature could sometimes border on controlling, making it clear that you belong to him
- In ho is very passionate in private leading to steamy make out sessions, late night rendezvous in his room, and stolen glances from across the room
- He cherishes intimate moments, holding you close and expressing his love through gentle touches and tender gestures
#lilmarshie#in ho squid game#squid games imagine#squid games x reader#yandere squid game#squid game headcanons#squid game x y/n#squid games#in ho x you#in ho x y/n#in ho imagine#in ho x reader#hwang in ho#in ho#squid game imagine#squid game
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Sorry for the Cain rant. I didn’t realize he was my favorite until you put him in this position 😭🙏🏾 Noooooooooo. I feel so bad for Cain. He dosent know. Ragathas blaming Cain for their suffering but the fact is that he’s an ai. To him, players showed up and haven’t been able to leave, so he TRIED. Made accommodations like the rooms, and the adventures. He’s oblivious but that’s bc he isn’t human, imagine being stuck with something you can’t fully understand. Zooble said it herself, Cain can do much worst but dosent bc He likes them. He wants them to love his adventures and have fun. He tries for them despite everything. It’s far from perfect and he’s flawed. But he tries. So I feel so bad for him bc waking up to everyone corrupted . After he tried so hard.
caine's my second favorite so while he's not going to go through pomni levels of trauma here he Is going to be beaten to the ground and shot at
what i find fascinating about caine is that he's put in a situation where he's Doomed to fail . he can try as much as he wants but he will always fall short . and it's just out of his control .
he's meant to be entertaining players with fun games , not play therapist to a bunch of traumatized adults with complex problems . he's not Meant to deeply analyze human emotions and problems — it's just not in his neural network . he has not been trained to do that . he said it himself ; making adventures is the only thing he's good at .
and i'll say this , he's not bad at making adventures ! they are juvenile , yes , but i feel like they are intended for a player putting on the headset for a short amount of time . everyone aren't a fan of them ( i like to think ragatha likes the adventures to an extent , though ) because they're jaded adults that are in the game for More Than A Day and are slowly being broken apart by the monotony of the circus . and that's something he cannot grasp .
so yeah . silly guy (: i have a lot planned for him here and it'll be fun (:
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warning im a yapper
hello ummm just wanted to say!!! i really like the dynamic you give fresh and nightmare/color with the whole “cat who goes to different houses to get fed twice” thing. nightmare and his weird cat that he has probably locked in a basement a few times. color and this guy he picked off the road because he looks weird and decided he can solve this mess. fresh does not have any strong personal feelings towards either of them.
i very much so like the comic thing where nightmare and ccino were talking about fresh and ccino thought he was a kitten cat,,, no he is not but he acts like one. “he keeps crawling on my lap” that is a grown man get him away!!!! he has a dog cage i think that he is put in sometimes for naughty behavior. he doesn’t really care because he’s allowed his gameboy though. do you think nightmare ever sprays him with water when he does something bad. and this is like a grown adult. what
maybe i just like the trope of dehumanization (bonus if with someone who’s weirdly chill with it like fresh) but whatever,,, your art!!!! it gives me life!!! i very much enjoy the pixely type style and how freak you draw fresh. he’s a fucking creature he is. something is wrong with that guy. and i love him soooo much. so creature. he’s the kind of guy to do that thing where you walk on all fours up the stairs.
AND the way you characterize him is!!!! so good!!!!!!!!! he is so fucked up and weird and terrible and manipulative!!!!!!! he takes advantage of others’ empathy and feelings because he has very little of it himself and whenever he does feel it he does not like it!!!!!!! he looks at a guy with a savior complex and goes yeah i can mentally fuck him up for the next seven months to get something cool i want. he’s just actually terrible and i love him for that.
i also!!! don’t know too much about CB but i feel that fresh’s dynamic with them (him?? i forgor) is very interesting from what i have seen!!!!!! and their shimeji is very cute i still need to download it but i like it a lot :3
OKAY UHHH BYE!!!!! I LIKE UR ART A LOT…… HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!!!! 10/10 fresh posting on your blog love him a lot he is my wife (he feels nothing towards me)
THANK YOU!!! I see you mass reblog things sometimes it makes me giggle :-]
I yammer back...
Glad you like the dynamics haha X] Fresh having very little personal feelings about people is fun and interesting to me. As someone who has trouble connecting and low empathy, its nice to depict someone like me. [Guy interacting with people who are a Lot more invested than he is ghghg]
Fresh would only accept being put in the cage because he can teleport out. Anything like that is only for the Aesthetic, which I think Nightmare would still be down for. Shove that thang into some awful little crate, as a treat. [Honestly I think Fresh would like to get in some nice dog crate with a blankie. Small hide / den thing to nap in :-]]
ALSOOOO dehumanization and freak who doesn't mind is my favorite dynamic <333. Fresh doesn't mind because... he isn't a monster? or a human? And he doesn't have a human/monster centric view of the world. Being seen as a human/monster isn't in anyway important to him, because he doesn't seen it as better/worse. He is the way he is, why does it matter?
Its like, I don't think a cat has very strong opinions on the fact it isn't a man. I also think Fresh is incredibly self-centered and when he's on a high point, sees himself as above humans/monsters. Of course he's not seen as human, he's Fresh! he's a sick-nasty parasite! way cooler. [annnddd way cooler that he gets to eat dog-treats. heck yeah!!]
Also I drew up a little thing with CB and Fresh. Its ahh, I like them a lot I just get nervous speaking about them because its suuuch a oc & canon are besttties that it makes me feel a bit cringe... I also get nervous because CB and Fresh have a very, toxic?? friendship.
Fresh is very possessive and strange about it, because this is his Only friend and he has very dysregulated emotions. Not being able to feel positive emotions often makes it so when he does, he gets very odd about it. So its a lot of... trying to keep CB to himself, at the detriment to CB's goals and ambitions. [CB is trying to track his family down, and Fresh uh. knows. where they are. and is not telling him :-)]
I dunno I think Fresh being genuinely friends with someone but also an awful person about it is like, sorely missing from the fandom landscape. He's a bad person but bad people can still form meaningful relationships and!!! I think that should be explored :-]
[They do eventually get somewhere more healthy. As in, Fresh's whole Thing is revealed, a lot of shinanigans happen, CB lives with his family and Fresh and CB reconnect and become friends again, just with like. Fresh trying actively to do "good person things" to make sure CB's family doesn't shoo him off [I ADOREEE good actions for morally ambiguous reasons!!!], and CB with the understanding that his best friend is Kinda a Freak.]
#Fresh#fresh sans#fresh!sans#cb#cb sans#cb!sans#fresh & cb#fresh & nightmare#<-mention#utmv#undertale multiverse#puppydraws#puppy barks#puppyyips#wickjump
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Thanks for your response! I just want to clarify a few points.
Why should he grieve Salo’s death?
A year passed between acts 1 and 2, and even if Salo didn’t join Viktor’s commune right away, I think he was there for a couple of months. And leaving didn’t seem like an option (I’ll get back to that). If Viktor truly saw the commune members as people worthy of respect, it’s only natural to assume he would’ve formed some kind of bond with them — especially as their leader, living alongside them all that time. Or did he deliberately keep his distance, never engaging, while they unquestioningly existed around him? That’s a rhetorical question — canon doesn’t answer it, and I don’t expect you to either. But if that’s the implication, it only makes things more unsettling.
Now, about leaving not being an option — based on Salo’s unusual behaviour, I’d argue that Viktor’s healing process altered more than just people’s bodies. It also changed their personalities. That’s why, IMO, none of them ever had a choice to leave after the transformation. And that’s the point I’ve been making — both here and in my original post. Viktor never saw the commune members as individuals. But not in a “they’re my lab rats” way. More like a “they’re my fish and I gladly take care of the fish tank” way.
Nope, you are definitely wrong.
I think the key misunderstanding here is the idea that having good intentions and being a control freak consumed by fear and delusion are mutually exclusive. They’re not. I never said that Viktor consciously thought this way. His fears are simply his blind spot. Yes, he genuinely wants to help people, but he also fails to recognise his deeper motivations.
That’s why he ends up not just healing them, but altering their appearances, possibly their personalities, and making them entirely dependent on him. Whether or not he meant to, he severed them from their past lives and gave them new ones, all based on his vision of what’s good, while seeing no issue with it. Sure, in his mind, he’s pursuing a goal that is undeniably noble: making the world a better place. But that exact mindset, coupled with his failure to recognise his blind spots, is what leads to the final battle. That’s what makes Viktor’s symbiosis with Hexcore so dangerous.
That said, none of that makes him an evil mastermind bent on ruling the world. He’s a flawed human who makes mistakes, and he just happened to wield a power that could reshape human souls. I think Viktor is a great example of how even the best and most genuine intentions can end up causing a lot of harm.
The theory that he was mind-controlled by Arcane is interesting and valid, and I agree that Arcane played a role in his changes. But I don’t think that’s the whole story. Viktor was always a complex character with both good and bad traits, and I believe Arcane’s corruption did no more than amplify some of them while dulling others. I don’t see why the fear of losing control would be OOC for him. People can fall into extremes, and Viktor’s extreme (regardless of his connection to Arcane) was the belief that peace could only be achieved by eliminating any potential source of conflict in people — including their literal free will — and imposing that belief on everybody around. Personally, I like to view his arc as his response to the trauma of dying in the bombing rather than his possession by Arcane. But that’s just me.
Oh, that is interesting. Did suddenly "the end justify the means" or becomes murder a great deed, if the right character is killed?
And I feel like I should address this as well. First, with all due respect, I’d appreciate it if we could avoid passive-aggressive language. Second, no, I never said Jayce did a great thing by killing Salo (though one could argue that by then, Salo was already dead — overtaken by Viktor — and was essentially just a robot).
What I did say is that I was surprised by how people reacted as if Jayce had destroyed something pure and sacred when he killed Viktor, because I found the commune suspicious from the start and assumed Jayce had a deeper insight into what was really going on. And as we saw later, Jayce did see the commune as the lifeless constructs Viktor was turning them into. But remember, except for Salo, Jayce didn’t touch any other commune member. His goal was to prevent the world from becoming the nightmare he saw in the parallel reality — in other words, to stop Viktor. And stopping Viktor was exactly what he did.
Viktor’s commune always gave off creepy vibes, but for me, the path it was taking became crystal clear at the start of ep6. That first scene basically spells out the extent of Viktor’s corruption and how far his actions and mindset are from any kind of altruism.
Think about it: Viktor sees Jayce kill Salo through Salo’s eyes. He’s connected to Salo but doesn’t even try to comfort him, verbally or mentally, or ease his pain with magic in his final moments. He just stands there, watching. Waiting for Salo to die, staring at Jayce. The only time he flinches is when Jayce lunges forward, and Salo dies abruptly — his vision cuts to black.
And look at Viktor's face when it happens. That’s not horror. That’s not astonishment. That’s not grief. It’s… mild annoyance, I'd say?
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/7d481edbc5a5ecc1ae897899f5671221/b540ef23cac560c5-a9/s540x810/9728fec2a4cea0817be3cc46ac8189a93a77c37b.jpg)
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/17cde02857750a70ed8a1a3e9ad821a2/b540ef23cac560c5-6d/s540x810/00dcedf59e3c56b584c3d04a36f13160f45084b9.jpg)
Like, ugh. Jayce didn’t get it. He didn’t appreciate my work. And now he’s also destroyed one of my puppets. Sounds pretty frustrating, doesn't it, Viktor?
Then Sky says, “poor Salo”, and Viktor? Immediately pivots to, “That’s not Jayce. It’s another will at work within him”. And a moment later, he’s fascinated by the Anomaly. Salo’s gone, and no one spares him an extra thought.
And that’s the thing about Viktor’s commune — it was never about the people who joined it. It was never about understanding them, helping them, or connecting with them. It was all about Viktor’s desperate need to be in control, about his refusal to confront suffering, pain, and all the messy, complicated parts of being human. From the very beginning, it was about Viktor going, “well, the end justifies the means”, but there’s nothing kind or humanistic about that philosophy, because it always comes at the expense of people’s lives. The end never justifies the means.
And honestly, I was surprised to see how many people were mad at Jayce for blasting Viktor at the end of that episode. In my opinion, by then, it was quite clear that Viktor didn’t care much about his Arcane-modified toys. He wasn’t even pretending he did. Salo wasn’t a person to him. None of them were. They were just tools, stepping stones for his glorious evolution.
And all of that was right there in the first scene of ep6.
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In the Armory
Pairings: Titus x Mira
Author's note: 18+ Based off a prompt I got sent last night and I couldn't rest until I got it written. Set a few weeks after Return of the Ork
Warnings: Sexual content. Oral sex. Semi-public sex.
Description: Mira dresses as a chapter serf to help Titus out of his armor, and things get a little hot and heavy.
Tagging: @beckyninja @yanagikou @flunkyofmalcador @finchly-tintinnabulation @kit-williams @justanothermemestrider @theemeraldwings @wormiusdebilius @74rn @severalpossiblemusiks @vspin @blukitty40k @nereidof40k @katesfoxhole @samaelzdraws @askrobouteguilliman40k If anyone would like to be tagged in future fics, please let me know :)
If you're interested in reading any of my earlier fics, please check out my pinned post.
Mira tried to keep an eye on the readouts and reports being sent in from the Guard troops scattered across the surface of Andrin Prime, but when the transmission came in that Titus’ Rhino APC was inbound from the front, her heart sped up a bit.
After two Thunderhawks had been put out of commission by Votann anti-aircraft weaponry, Captain Acheran had moved his command post from the strike cruiser down to the surface of the planet, commandeering an entire wing of the governor’s palace. The Ultramarine chapter serfs had set to work quickly converting the space to a base suitable for their space marine masters. Quarters for the Astartes, hangars for their armored vehicles, and arming cubicles had been set up for use by the Ultramarines second company.
Titus and his squad had been absent from the base for just over three weeks, moving from battle to battle along the front line, rooting Votann troops out of the mountains. After receiving the word in the command center that they were returning, she keyed the command to relay the message to the Ultramarine serfs. She logged the order for armor maintenance for Brother Chairon and Sergeant Gadriel, but didn’t execute the order for Titus.
Handing monitoring duty over to a corporal, Mira headed to her quarters. She stripped out of her armor and uniform, down to her bra and underwear. Rummaging through the locker where she kept her spare uniforms, she found the item she’d procured over a week before from the Ultramarine complex; the robe of a Ulramarine chapter serf.
Raising the robe over her head, she let the material slither down over her body. When she’d first taken the robe, she’d expected it to be rough, coarse material, but instead it was wonderfully soft as she pulled it down. She cinched the robe at her waist with a rope belt, and reached up to undo her ponytail, letting her hair fall down around her shoulders.
She started to head for the door, then stopped, considering what she had in mind. Reaching a decision, she hiked up the hem of the robe and slid her panties off her hips, letting them fall to the floor and stepping out of them. Grinning to herself, she raised the hood of the robe and set off for the Ultramarines complex, head low and hands joined together in the wide sleeves of the robe.
***
The space marine armoring bays were large recessed cubicles set into the wall along the walkway that overlooked the Ultramarine’s vehicle hangar. An archway led into each one, open to the flurry of activity outside as serfs and techpriests bustled to and fro. Mira knelt in the cubicle she knew Titus had been assigned to, using a long taper to light the dozens of candles set along the rear wall. She murmured a quick prayer of forgiveness to the Emperor for not knowing the proper rites, and straightened as she heard the heavy thud of Titus’ power armor boots entering the room.
Titus stepped to the center of the room, between the large powered racks that allowed baseline humans to lift the heavy ceramite plates of space marine armor. He raised his right arm and Mira kept her head lowered as she stepped forward to begin working at the seals of his gauntlet. She’d only seen this process performed by a serf briefly in passing, but Emperor knew she’d seen Titus remove his armor for her often enough to understand the basics.
She worked at the seals of Titus’ gauntlet until it detached from the elbow couter and slid it off his forearm. She grunted a bit as she took the weight of the gauntlet, and Titus’ hand shot forward to close around her arm.
“...Mira?” he asked as she raised her hooded head to meet his gaze. “What are you doing here?”
“My lord needs assistance with his armor,” she said, teasingly demure. She slid free from his grasp and placed the guantlet on the armor rack, then moved to his other side, the hem of the robe swishing about her feet. She took his wrist and raised his other gauntlet, giving him a sly grin. “Shall I continue.”
Swallowing, Titus glanced back furtively to the open entrance of the room. Looking back at her, he nodded.
She set to work on his other gauntlet, breaking the seals and sliding it off to put on the rack next to it’s partner. He helped her undo his shoulder pauldrons and placed them on the rack himself, since they were far too heavy for her, then let her remove his rerebraces.
Mira undid the shielded connections of the power armor’s backpack, and Titus placed it aside. Bringing a step stool over, she stepped up so she was level with his face. She slowly ran her hands along his chestplate, feeling the smooth ceramite beneneath her fingers broken by the occasional divot or chip from past battles. The teasing smile was back on her face as she held his gaze, reaching to detach the clamps joining the breastplate and backplate. He held it in place as she removed all the connections, then set both on the armor rack.
Stepping down, she removed the plate covering his groin, sucking in a breath as she saw him bulging against the skintight body glove. She ran a hand over the outline of his shaft.
“Oh my lord,” she breathed, drawing out the title as she looked up at him. “Do you need more assistance?”
“Yes,” he choked out, looking down at her.
She reached up, delicately disengaging the connections between the body glove and his interface ports one by one. Each time she released a connection, Titus let out a low sigh as the interface needles withdrew from his body. She ran her hands over his body each time she disengaged one of the ports, moving around him to make sure to get the ones on his arms and back.
Once all the connections were free, he helped her part the fastening of the body glove, shrugging out of the sleeves to let them hang from his waist as the material came away from his upper body. In front of him, she paused in opening the glove to palm him through the material, letting her fingers ride over it, then squeezing him.
“Have something here for me, my lord?” she teased him before sliding the fastener down the last few inches and reaching inside to drag out his erect cock.
With Titus’ height she only had to bend slightly at her waist to reach his lap, and she locked eyes with him as she leaned down, stroking his cock gently. Lowering her eyes to his shaft, she stuck her tongue out to slowly lick around the head. Gently kissing the tip, she dropped the subservient serf tone she’d been using.
“Do you want this, Titus?” she asked, pumping the shaft of his cock with her hand as her tongue flicked out again to tease at the head. A bead of pre-cum leaked from the end and she swiped her tongue around it to gather it into her mouth, moaning quietly as she tasted him.
“Yes, Mira...yes. Please,” he groaned.
She smiled at his pleading tone as her lips engulfed him and she began to suck.
“Oh, Mira,” he moaned above her.
She bobbed shallowly past the head of his cock and back up again. Sucking hard, she popped off the tip and then back down, over and over, letting the pre-cum mingled with her spit overflow her mouth to soak down his shaft. She started pumping with her hand, stroking up and down as her tongue swirled around his tip.
She froze as a voice rang out from the room’s open entryway, hand still on his shaft, the head bulging against her cheek.
“Brother Titus, are you finished with your armor?” She recognized the voice of Gadriel, Titus’ sergeant, as he strode into the room, his own armor removed and clad in the simple robe the Ultramarines favored. She popped off of Titus’ cock and raised her hood to shield her face, but her hand was still his erect shaft as Gadriel circled Titus and saw the two of them.
“Ah, my apologies Brother,” the sergeant said. “It has been several weeks in battle. I did not realize you were seeking relief with your serf.”
Mira didn’t catch Titus’ response, distracted by the flow of pre-cum from the head of his cock as it twitched and jumped in her hand. She tried to hide her smile in the folds of her hood.
“I will meet you later, Brother,” Gadriel said, bowing his head to Titus and stepping out of the room.
Once she was sure the sergeant was gone, Mira threw the hood back and smiled up at Titus.
“Are you enjoying your serf’s relief, Titus?” she giggled as she resumed stroking with her hand. “It felt like you got a little thrill from getting caught too.”
Titus moaned as she stroked him, closing his eyes as her hand increased its pace.
“Did you like getting caught with your ‘serf’s’ hand around your cock, Titus?” she asked breathlessly as she bent at her waist again to take him back into her mouth before he could answer. She bobbed her head on him, moaning around his shaft as his head prodded at the back of her throat.
Reaching down with her other hand, she gathered the hem of her robe and drew it up. She reached her hand underneath to feel her bare pussy, running her fingers over her clit as she continued to pleasure Titus. Hearing him moan above her, she thrust two fingers inside herself, moaning around his length.
The room echoed with with their mingled moans as Mira bobbed over Titus, her hand working between her thighs. She sensed his breathing growing heavier, his cock swelling in her mouth.
“You’re getting close, Titus,” she murmured, popping him out of her mouth and stroking him against her lips. “Y-yes, Mira,” he gasped. “Please don’t stop!”
She moaned around him in encouragement, bucking her hips and grinding the heel of her hand against her clit as she thrust her fingers inside her pussy. She went back down on him, whimpering around his length as her own orgasm built. Her hand stroked up and down his shaft, moving in time with her lips locked tightly around him.
She slowed the stroking of her hand around him as his whole body grew tense, and then Titus was stiffening as his cock pulsed between her lips.
“Mira!” he gasped, thrusting through her pumping hand and into her mouth.
She moaned around him at the first taste of his cum entering her mouth, pleasure pooling between her legs and then bursting out as she came against her hand. As her orgasm hit, Titus’ cock continued to pulse. She suckled and stroked, allowing his spurting cum to fill her mouth.
As they both came down from their orgasms, Mira straightened, reaching up to her mouth wipe her lips with the back of her hand. She swallowed, and then smiled up Titus, her other hand still gently stroking his cock.
“If this is the treatment I’d get as your serf, I think I may need to join the chapter.”
***
Gadriel paused as he walked toward his quarters. A serf had bowed to him as he passed by, and for a moment he could have sword the man was Titus’ armoring serf.
He frowned in confusion. Didn’t I just leave Titus with his serf in the armory? he thought.
#warhammer 40k#titus x mira#demetrian titus#lieutenant mira#40k smut#ultramarines#stupid sexy space marines#thirsthammer#my writing
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Something in the rain
Gojo x reader, academic rivals
Word count: 2.2k
Authors note: Based on this request! Not proofread
In a bustling street corner of Tokyo, a young woman named Y/N sat at a small, weathered café, sipping her hot matcha latte. Her eyes were fixed on the pedestrians passing by, each one a story waiting to unfold. She had always loved people-watching, finding comfort in the anonymity and predictability of the city life. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted from the next-door bakery, mixing with the aroma of sizzling yakisoba from the food cart across the street. A soft breeze played with her hair, hinting at the approaching spring.
Y/N was an ambitious academic, her nose always buried in a book or her laptop. Her field of expertise was the psychology of human relationships, specifically the complex dance of attraction and repulsion that often existed between rivals. Little did she know that the very subject of her latest paper would soon walk into her life in the form of Gojo Satoru, a fellow scholar and her new neighbor.
Their first encounter was less than ideal. Gojo, with his piercing blue eyes and unruly white hair, sailed through the café door like he owned the place. His tall, lanky frame was a stark contrast to the cozy, intimate setting, and his arrogant demeanor was palpable. He scanned the room, his gaze lingering on Y/N for a brief second before dismissing her and claiming the table next to hers. She felt a twinge of annoyance at his presumptuousness but tried to focus on her work.
As she typed away on her laptop, the sound of his voice grew louder. He was speaking to the barista, a young girl who looked visibly intimidated by his overbearing presence. He was arguing about the specific temperature at which his coffee should be served, his voice carrying an undertone of condescension. Y/N couldn't help but roll her eyes and sigh, her fingers pausing mid-sentence. She had always found it fascinating how certain people could command a room without even trying.
Their eyes met again as he settled into his chair, and she felt a strange mix of irritation and intrigue. He took a sip of his coffee, grimacing at the taste before slamming it down on the table. She couldn't resist the urge to smirk at his dramatic display. "Your coffee not to your liking?" she quipped, her voice a sweet blend of curiosity and sarcasm.
Gojo looked up, his eyes narrowing at her. "It's lukewarm," he grumbled, not bothering to hide his disdain.
Y/N couldn't help but laugh lightly. "Maybe you should've specified that when you ordered?" she suggested, her voice teasing.
Gojo's eyes flashed with something akin to surprise before a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Maybe I should've," he conceded, his voice smooth as silk. "But where's the fun in that?"
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Their rivalry began in earnest at a local academic symposium, where both had been invited to present their research. Y/N had spent weeks preparing a paper on the psychological underpinnings of rivalry and its effect on collaboration. Gojo, on the other hand, was known for his cutting-edge work on the cognitive patterns of the elite. As they took the stage, the tension between them was palpable, a silent challenge that electrified the air.
Their presentations were flawless, meticulously crafted to showcase their intellect and prowess in their respective fields. As they stepped down from the podium, the room buzzed with anticipation for the Q&A session. The first question directed at Y/N was about the potential for growth within a competitive framework, and she delivered a well-reasoned response. Her eyes flicked over to Gojo as she emphasized the need for mutual respect and understanding.
Next, Gojo was asked a question about the limitations of his research. Without missing a beat, he acknowledged the criticisms and presented a compelling rebuttal that had the audience nodding in agreement. Yet, as he spoke, his gaze remained on Y/N, a silent challenge in his eyes. When it was her turn to ask a question, she stood and approached the microphone, her heart racing. She knew this was the moment to establish her dominance.
"Your work on cognitive patterns is fascinating, Gojo-san," she began, her tone cool and composed. "However, I can't help but wonder if there's not a darker side to such intense focus on individual superiority. Does it not risk stifling creativity and collaboration?"
Gojo leaned back in his chair, his smirk widening into a full-fledged smile. "Ah, Y/N-san," he drawled, using her surname in a deliberate power play. "Always eager to dissect the human psyche, aren't we?" He took a moment to gather his thoughts before delivering his response with the grace of a seasoned debater. "While I appreciate your concern for the collective, my research suggests that true innovation often arises from a clash of ideas between equally matched adversaries. The drive to outperform can be a catalyst for growth."
The crowd murmured, clearly torn between the two academics' differing viewpoints. Y/N felt a spark of frustration but knew she had to keep her cool. She took a deep breath and stepped up to the podium once more. "And what of the emotional toll such a cutthroat environment can take?" she asked, her voice steady. "How does that affect the individuals involved?"
Gojo's smile didn't waver. "Emotions are merely data points in the grand scheme of things," he said dismissively. "They can be managed, just like any other aspect of the human condition."
Y/N felt a surge of indignation at his cold analysis of human feelings. She knew firsthand the pain that could come from academic rivalry, having sacrificed much of her personal life for her career. "Data points?" she echoed, her voice rising slightly. "You're speaking as if people are nothing but numbers on a page!"
The room grew quiet, the tension thickening. Gojo's smile remained, but there was a glint in his eye that suggested he was enjoying the intellectual sparring as much as she was. "Aren't we all just complex algorithms, Y/N-san?" he countered, leaning forward in his chair. "Our emotions, our choices, all of it can be broken down and understood if we're willing to look closely enough."
Y/N's eyes narrowed. "And what happens when those algorithms malfunction? When the desire to win overpowers the pursuit of knowledge?" she shot back.
Gojo's smile grew into a full-blown grin, revealing a set of perfectly straight teeth. "Ah, but that's the beauty of it," he said, his voice low and mesmerizing. "It's when we're pushed to our limits that we discover what we're truly capable of. Without challenge, we stagnate."
Their verbal sparring continued, with each point met with a counterpoint and each question answered sharply and insightfully. The audience watched on, captivated by their dynamic. As the session came to an end, the thunderous applause was a clear indication that they had stolen the show.
After the symposium, they found themselves unable to avoid each other. Their paths crossed in libraries, at academic socials, and even in the quiet corners of the university where they often sought solace. With each encounter, the rivalry grew stronger, their banter more heated, and the lines between professional competition and personal attraction began to blur.
One rainy afternoon, Y/N stumbled into Gojo's office, seeking refuge from the storm. She was soaked to the bone, her hair plastered against her face, and her glasses foggy with condensation. Without looking up from his paperwork, Gojo gestured to a chair across from his desk. "Take a seat," he said curtly. "You're dripping everywhere."
Y/N complied, shivering slightly as the cold air of his office hit her damp clothes. She watched as he neatly arranged his notes, his hands precise and methodical. "Thanks," she mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper.
Gojo looked up, his expression unreadable. "For what?"
Y/N took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "For not letting me drown in my own pride," she replied, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.
Gojo's eyes flicked up to meet hers, a glimmer of amusement in his gaze. "You're quite welcome," he said, his tone dry. He paused in his work, his eyes lingering on her. "But don't get too comfortable. I don't tolerate distractions for long."
Y/N leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, I'll be quick," she said, her voice a little steadier now. "I just wanted to thank you for not letting me embarrass myself at the symposium. I know we disagree, but I respect your work."
Gojo studied her for a moment before his gaze softened slightly. "Your paper was intriguing," he admitted, his tone less confrontational. "It's not often someone challenges me in such a... compelling way."
The air between them shifted, the tension of their rivalry giving way to something more nuanced. Y/N felt a warmth spread through her chest. "I didn't mean to challenge you," she said. "I just wanted to understand."
Gojo leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. "Understanding is the key to all things, isn't it?" he mused. "But sometimes, it's the journey to that understanding that reveals more than the destination."
The rain pattered against the window, casting a soft glow into the room. Y/N felt a strange sense of peace in the middle of their usual battleground. "What's your story, Gojo-san?" she asked, the formality of their rivalry slipping away.
He raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise flashing across his face. "My story?" He paused, considering his words. "It's a tale of ambition, much like yours, I suspect."
Y/N nodded, curiosity piqued. "You're right, I am ambitious," she admitted. "But what drives yours? What makes you so... intense?"
Gojo leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking beneath him. "Intense?" He repeated the word as if tasting it. "I suppose it's the pursuit of the untouchable. The thrill of unlocking the human mind's secrets before they're lost to time." His eyes took on a distant look, reflecting a passion that burned brighter than the neon lights outside.
"But that's not all of it, is it?" Y/N pressed, her voice gentle. She had a knack for drawing people out of their shells, for finding the humanity beneath the intellectual armor.
He sighed, his gaze returning to hers. "No, it's not." For the first time since their rivalry had begun, Gojo's guard slipped. "My family... they've always been the most brilliant minds in the academic world. The pressure to live up to their legacy is immense. It's like I'm fighting against the very fabric of who I am, trying to carve my own path while carrying the weight of their expectations."
Y/N felt a pang of empathy. She knew all too well the burden of living up to the shadows of greatness. "That's a heavy load to bear," she said softly. "But you're doing it. You're making a name for yourself."
Gojo's gaze remained fixed on hers, a flicker of vulnerability in his eyes. "It's never enough," he murmured. "There's always someone ready to knock me down, to prove that I'm not as great as everyone seems to think."
Y/N leaned forward, her own burdens momentarily forgotten. "You don't have to prove anything to anyone," she said firmly. "Your work speaks for itself. You're brilliant, Gojo-san."
He gave a wry smile. "And you're not so bad yourself, Y/N-san."
The rain had slowed to a gentle patter, and the room was filled with the sweet sound of silence. They sat there, neither one willing to be the first to break the spell. The air was thick with something new, something unspoken as if their rivalry had been a dance and they had just discovered a shared rhythm.
Gojo took a deep breath and stood, walking over to the small bookshelf by the window. He pulled out a book titled "The Psychology of Rivalry and Its Impact on Human Behavior." Y/N's heart skipped a beat as she realized it was one of her earlier works. "You've read this?" she asked her voice a mix of surprise and pride.
He nodded, turning the pages idly. "I have," he said. "Your theories are... intriguing. But I have to admit, I never thought I'd see you in the flesh."
Y/N felt a blush creep up her neck. "You've read my work?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even.
Gojo nodded, his eyes never leaving the book. "I have a... keen interest in understanding my adversaries," he said, his tone teasing. "And you, Y/N-san, are quite the formidable adversary."
Y/N couldn't help but laugh at that. "Is that what you call it?" she teased. "Adversaries who share an umbrella and discuss philosophy in the rain?"
Gojo looked up from the book, a hint of a blush coloring his cheeks. "Well, when you put it that way..." He trailed off, his gaze lingering on her. "Perhaps we're not as different as we thought."
The rain had almost stopped, leaving a gentle hush in the air. Y/N stood, feeling the weight of their conversation settle in her chest. "Maybe we're not," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Maybe we're just two people who found themselves on the same stormy path."
Gojo looked up, his eyes searching hers. "Perhaps we should walk that path together," he suggested, a tentative note in his voice. "Collaborate, instead of compete."
Y/N's heart skipped a beat. The idea of joining forces with Gojo was both thrilling and terrifying. "I... I think that could be interesting," she said, her voice wavering slightly.
©jamal127 ✧ all rights served. || 2025 (≖ᴗ≖✿)
@gojobiggestslut
#nehi fics🌸#gojo x you#gojo satoru#jjk gojo#gojo x reader#jujutsu gojo#jujutsu kaisen#satoru gojo x reader#jjk satoru#jujutsu satoru#academic rivals#enemies to lovers#if you squint#or rather the start of love#lol#gojo smut#jjk#blue eyed king#okay bye <3#sorry
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Pls the thing with Jamil from your Yuu being wary of scarabia post and why he kept Yuu around like that. Elaborate I’m begging you it’s too interesting of a dynamic before and after. I can pay you in my adoration keep it up here!
🍓Okay so I really haven't touched twst in a long time, but this idea continues to haunt me. I think about it so frequently, and I've been into twst again because of Malleus statue, so I decided to revisit this concept. It's more of a big long ramble, but I do hope you like it <3
TW: Manipulation; Creepy behavior; Power imbalance; This IS written with implied romance (but it's pretty fucked up and toxic); Possessive behaviors; unedited
Info: Jamil x Reader; Angst
Disclaimer: Jamil is an incredibly complex character with very contradictory actions throughout the whole of book four. This is my take on his character, and it may not align with how you view him. It's important to note that the only canon interpretation of his character is what is in-game and official depictions.
Post referenced
Jamil is very aware of you far before you're aware of him. He makes it his job to know who to avoid, and you're very high up on that list. You have a reputation that he's pretty certain you're not fully aware of, and trouble seems to follow you wherever you go. It's not really something he wants to have to deal with.
For whatever reason, though, he does end up bringing you back to Scarabia. In part, this is almost a power play on his part. You make him have a sense of power he doesn't really have with anyone else around NRC, even as vice housewarden. You rely on him, and your naivety is something addicting to someone who craves power. Not to mention he also considers that you could help him sell his story much better.
Kalim abusing the magicless, helpless human from another world would only make his case for upheaval all the better amongst his dorm members. So to start it's all part of his plan, a means of stroking his ego.
However, the issue comes in when he makes a genuine connection with you. You are kind, generous, and understanding with no real ulterior motives -- a genuineness he hasn't really experienced before. Of course, he doesn't actually open up to you much. He keeps you pretty distant, despite how he does his best to play up that warm and welcoming persona. But he does give you crumbs of his real struggle, shrouded in manipulation.
He finds himself... attached. Jealous of any time you spend with Kalim, wanting to keep your attention on him, and desperate to sell the idea of Kalim as a monster to you more than others. It's an odd feeling for Jamil, who doesn't usually care for more than surface-level appearances and feelings. It's just another addition to his ultimate overblot, and he's quite terrifying when he does finally blot.
One of the very first things he does is isolate you from your "friends" (if you can count the tweels and Azul as friends at this point), making sure your attention is on him. He wants you to worship him, he wants that reliance that he craved so much in the time you spent together, he wants to feel powerful. Next to you, he feels so very powerful.
I don't even believe he would do anything violent or too cruel, mostly just worshiping and demanding attention and praise. It's not much different from what you normally go through, though a little less blatantly violent and aggressive. That's what makes it so awful to you, though.
Before everyone else was just blatantly being... evil. Jamil manipulated, lied, extorted, and so much more. You liked Jamil, you genuinely thought he wanted to be friends with you and meant well. He reveals otherwise in your time (sort of) alone with him, and it really shakes you up. It would shake anyone up.
What's worse is you don't have time to process all that terror and anger and betrayal. Everything happens in such quick succession, one moment you're being kidnapped and the next there's a grand celebration. It's all too much for your brain to process, and it only gets the chance to do so when Ace and Deuce -- your safe space -- come to get you.
Your reaction, on the surface, seems incredibly dramatic. Collapsing and sobbing until your throat is so raw you can't make noise, but after the trauma you've endured, it's wholly reasonable. Jamil falls into the former way of thinking, believing you're just being overdramatic and theatrical. You'd been through many overblots at this point, with much more powerful sorcerers... this reaction is a bit much...
After all's said and done, though, Jamil doesn't spare you much thought. Of course, there is a lingering sense of... something. Not quite guilt, not quite regret, just an ache that he doesn't have the time or energy to address himself. He's far too busy dealing with his own reputation and wellbeing to bother you.
Your sobs, though, they keep him up at night. He has dreams where he hears them tear through the silence, and they continue to ring in his ears long after he's woken up. He isn't sure why it's bothering him so much, it really shouldn't, but it does. It's a constant nag at his conscience, just a bug that he swats away when he doesn't want to think about it.
He doesn't have to confront it until he comes face to face with you during VDC auditions. The genuine terror on your face when he looks at you, like he might overblot then and there again, it's sobering. He'd seen that look a million times on his parents faces, horror as they face punishment from the Asim's. It's not a face he'd imagined he would be the cause of -- not a face he wanted to be the cause of.
It hits him hard in that moment just how... evil he was. He knew he was bad. He's fully aware he's selfish and the stunt he pulled was something unspeakable in a lot of ways. Yet, he never thought he would have to deal with someone looking at him like that, someone thinking of him the same way he thinks of his captors.
It's just his luck that he can't avoid you, ending up on the official VDC team and literally living in your space. It's not just you, either, both Ace and Deuce seem to hate his guts with a passion. Grim voices that anger all the time, and Kalim doesn't help the tension with his guilty puppy demeanor. You do end up forgiving Kalim, thanks to Kalim finally making an active effort by himself for once. Jamil won't lie and say it doesn't make him a little jealous, but he also fully understands he doesn't deserve your forgiveness.
He doesn't push or pull, he just allows you to do what you will. It's not his place to push or pull, you are the only person who can decide what you need. He won't apologize unless you seem to want him to by seeking him out, he won't ask for forgiveness unless you seem willing to give it to him. He just allows you to be, which is quite honestly the best reaction you've gotten from any former overblotees.
He, of course, ends up confessing this all to his sister. Heavily edited and censored, for her own wellbeing. Najma tells him he's a moron, but encourages him to make amends with you, or at least try to let you know he's sorry. Without him knowing, she even talks to you about it a bit when you visit the Scalding Sands. There is a notable shift in your comfortability around him after it, though he doesn't know why this is.
He does eventually get the chance to talk to you, though you have to approach him. It's a quiet night when it happens, and he just couldn't sleep and the warm air in the dorm was making his skin far too hot, so he takes a walk and ends up outside of your dorm. His guilt led him there like an idiot, a rare show of vulnerability.
You, who also couldn't sleep, saw him out there and invited him despite better judgment. He accepts, despite his own better judgment, and finally, you talk. He expects anger and hatred, but of course, you cannot manage that even against him. You are understanding and gentle, even with the way you tremble as you speak. He gets to apologize, genuinely, for scaring you and doing the things he did. Explains that he, at some point, was genuine about his friendliness with you. That he did like having you around, but all of that means nothing with what's already happened.
Whether or not you two fix things and are able to be friends is up to you, but you do both get closure.
#bunni's treats 🧁#x reader#twst#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland x reader#twst x reader#jamil x reader#twst jamil#jamil viper x reader#jamil viper#twisted wonderland jamil
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im gonna try to give the short version here so let's see how i do lol
in regards to his relationship with katniss: gale hawthorne is not good. he guilt trips her a lot and never truly listens to what she says to him. he's insecure and makes her feel bad for a lot of shit that she shld not feel bad about. i DO, however, think he does care about her and her family. katniss told him to look after her mom and prim when she went into both games, and that's exactly what he did.
in regards to the bomb: all he did was have the idea. him and beetee designed the bomb as a last resort and not to be used on children. he did not deploy the bomb. he did not know prim would be there.
in regards to him as a character: he has not done anything wrong in terms of what side he stands in the war. he's also a child (him and katniss are like a yr or so apart in age if i rmb correctly) so his impulsivity and wanting to make change in the world makes sense.
tl;dr, gale hawthorne is a complex character who is simply a product of his environment that he grew up in. yes, he has his flaws (just like katniss, peeta, finnick, johanna, haymitch, effie, etc. etc.) because he is a human. im not saying you would do the exact same things he did, but im sure if you were in the same situation he was (lol we're about to be if it keeps going the way it does), you would do similar things to protect yourself and those who you care about.
edit: realizing i never tagged @rafeysbabydoll for her to see all this LOL soz
click cute - 1
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his phone
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her phone
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e4155ca6afae9ff3cbbad0d34c05d82b/768fc6cd1cc04582-c7/s1280x1920/115be40c569622efa1c20d6a3cf193ac9fcc5235.jpg)
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oh my god the fucking HOOPS i had to go through to get this done. normally this would be where i put the tags but i'm doing that in the comments because tumblr is gonna make me kms
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