#just got way too angry in character

[iamfabiloz]

have a little idea of a drabble if that’s ok!

just. some squirreljessy fluff. maybe squirrelflight has had a fight with bramblestar, so jessy comforts her and then they decide to run away together?

this is such an old ask WAA when i was doing writing rqs in 2022 (i am no longer but) this one is for u anon *looks up at the sky* i started this almost 2 years ago and its not rlly done but I am all out of steam and am in no way a real writer so i just gave up this is what i got cw bad (i do not feel this vehemently abt anything here sorry i just got rlly into character LOL

“Run away with me, Squirrelflight.” 

Jessy’s meow was level, calm, as if the words she had just uttered were completely ordinary and not life-changing in the slightest.

Squirrelflight sputtered, choking on the mouse she had just settled down to eat. 

“W-what?” 

The deputy was now acutely aware of the deafening silence all around her, occasionally broken by the occasional squawk of a bird or creak of a branch. 

Unnerved, Squirrelflight suddenly wished for the comforting babble of her clanmates to fill the air, draining the tension from the too-quiet woods. But she knew none would come, the area they were in was a little more than a 10-minute walk from camp after all.

 It was just the two of them. 

The dark ginger molly suddenly shifted uncomfortably as the air seemed to get heavier, the little patch of forest they were in seemingly more enclosed and less spacious by the minute. It was as if the whole territory was as shocked by Jessy’s words as Squirrelflight was. 

The deputy’s partner had wheedled Squirrelflight for a moment alone all day, much to Bramblestar's chagrin. Squirrelflight’s former mate kept making up excuses for her to ignore Jessy’s request, sending Squirrelflight on errand after errand as if she were nothing but a misbehaving apprentice!

It made Squirrelflight’s claws itch and pelt prickle with frustration and she so longed to fire back at the brown tabby tom’s nonsensical demands, but she held her tongue, just this once. She wanted to meet with Jessy without being interrupted or hounded about undone checklists, thank you very much. 

So she trudged along the obstacle course Bramblestar had purposefully set for her, completing task after task (which included elder den management, tick-removal, border re-marking, herb stockpiling, and fresh-kill charting) until she was finally finished with a good enough portion to be excused for personal time. 

 Squirrelflight had quietly slipped away with a mouse in maw to meet her mate at their favorite spot in the territory: an old crooked oak tree with gnarled roots and a gaping hole beneath it big enough to house two full-grown cats. Squirrelflight had squeezed in, waiting for Jessy to meet her there. 

She momentarily relived the burst of affection she’d felt when she’d seen the brown she-cat pad closer to her location.

Whatever Squirrelflight has been expecting Jessy to say, it had certainly not been this. 

“You heard me.” The brown kittypet snapped, leaning in closer to meet Squirrelflight’s bewildered green gaze. 

“We can’t be happy here, love. Not with him around. Run away with me, Squirrelflight.” 

Squirrelflight gulped down the rest of her mouse, the prey dropping into her belly like a cold stone. 

“I- he… I know Bramblestar can be a bit… difficult.” 

“A bit is an understatement.” Jessy unsheathed her claws with a growl. 

“The guy’s a total asshole, Squirrelflight. We both know it.” 

Squirrelflight flattened her ears. 

Damn. She’s right. 

“I know, Jessy.” Squirrelflight sighed. “I know that better than any cat. But…” 

Jessy frowned. 

“But what? You’ve dealt with enough of his bullshit for a lifetime! I’ve only been here for a season and he’s already driving me crazy! I don’t know how you put up with it for so long.”

Jessy lashed her tail, her claws kneading at the ground impatiently. Squirrelflight placed her white paw on the she-cat’s shoulder, gazing at her with a silent plea. The molly’s amber gaze softened for a heartbeat, melting into the warm honeyed kindness that Squirrelflight had fallen for, before hardening back into the stern amber the deputy also admired. 

“Please try to understand, Jessy. I can’t just pick up and leave my clan out of the blue. I have responsibilities here.” 

An image of a lithe brown and white tabby flashed in Squirrelflight’s head, along with an elderly pale ginger molly and two younger toms. 

Leafpool, Sandstorm, Lionblaze, Jayfeather. 

Another vision crowded Squirrelflight’s mind, one of ThunderClan cats, big and small, hunting, patrolling, sharing tongues, and laughing as a group. 

My family and my clanmates are both so precious to me. Oh how could I be so cruel as to leave them? 

Squirrelflight closed her eyes, trying to choke back her rising distress at the thought of abandoning them all for her own desires. 

They need me. It would be selfish to just walk out when I’ve dedicated my whole life to them. 

“Are you thinking about your kin?” Jessy’s voice softened, her usual fire dimming. 

Squirrelflight nodded, blinking. “And my clanmates. Oh, Jessy, I can’t. I couldn’t. How could I leave them all?” 

Jessy looked away, her gaze darkening. 

“Squirrel…” Jesse’s maw slowly closed. 

Squirrelflight felt a rush of panic.

“It’s not that I don’t love you, it’s just-“

“Your duty. I know, I know.“ Jessy leaned over and brushed her muzzle against the deputy’s cheek.

“I just wish it could be easy.” 

 “I know Jessy, me too.” Squirrelflight sucked in a breath. “No matter what I think of Bramblestar, my clan always comes first.”

“But what about you?” Jessy burst out, bristling. 

“Why should you continue dealing with that whiny bastard just for the sake of another cat’s wellbeing? Gah- what about your own?” 

Jessy’s teeth grinded and she let out an irritated hiss. Squirrelflight was pressed against her side in an instant, curling her bushy tail over her companion’s back as an attempt to soothe her nerves. 

Jessy took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her maw, the tension in her frame slowly softening. The brown molly sagged against the deputy’s side, her face pressing against Squirrelflight’s thick-furred shoulder. 

“Feel better?” Squirrelflight offered, giving one of Jessy’s ears a quick lick. 

“Mmrgh… no.” Jessy grunted, lifting her head, her expression twisting into a deep frown. 

“I love you so much, Squirrelflight. You know that right? So it’s absolutely infuriating to watch that rotten pile of manure treat you like a kitten who’s wet behind the ears and not the capable pillar of ThunderClan I know you are.” 

Squirrelflight felt a deep purr rumble in her chest, words unable to express how thankful she was for her companions' support. 

“Oh Jessy, I love you too. I’ll have to consider it for a bit though. I hope you understand.” 

“Of course.” Jessy meowed, padding forward to affectionately bump foreheads with her. 

“Hey, I know I said a lot of shit alright, but this is your decision. I won’t force you to do anything, and whatever you decide, I’ll be fine. Don’t pay any mind to my emotional blubbering, this is about you and what you're comfortable with. I can handle that fuzz-brained idiot myself, I was just concerned about how he affects you. I know it’s a huge thing to consider, with you having folks here and all and it’s reasonable to have doubts. Just know I’ll be with you through thick and thin, Squirrelflight.” 

Jessy pulled away, a twinkle in her amber eyes.

“No matter what.” 

“Thank you Jessy.” Squirrelflight grinned, suddenly feeling a rush of energy she hadn’t felt since she was a young cat. 

“Now… I think I’d like to have a little chat with Bramblestar. I didn’t appreciate how he made me his errand cat today.

[megacarapa]

i found this post and had to make it with them immediately

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

[autisticrosewilson]

So do you guys actually think that Jason's entire story, relationship to the others, and philosophy amounts to him being a rebellious teen who wants his dad's attention? Like are you 100% serious? I thought you were joking about that but too many of you are saying it with your whole chest.

And what the fuck is this "Bruce antagonizing Jason is fanon!" Shit I've been seeing? You guys are aware that a parent can love their kid and still be a shit parent right? I know you guys don't want to fathom the thought that maybe your blorbo might also occasionally have to face responsibility for consistently endangering children but let's not start being delusional now.

Bruce does love his kids, that doesn't mean that he hasn't hurt them. And I'd also argue that for the most part he feels in the right for it, and he's said multiple times that he believes it's for their own good, so you can't even argue that he's sorry about it. It's okay for you guys to admit that your PERSONAL INTERPRETATION of the character wouldn't do that but don't sit here and pretend that it's not a facet of the source.

[romantichopelessly]

one thing I’ll never get about Pynch fan works is how they constantly interpret Ronan as insecure/wary around Adam. not that it isn’t a fun thing to play with, but one thing that makes me crazy about Pynch in particular is that Ronan is unabashed about how he feels about Adam once he accepts it.

Like he’s showing up at Adam’s apartment to sleep on the floor by his bed. He’s staring at Adam whenever he can, and sometimes doesn’t even stop when Adam looks back. He gives Adam obvious gifts. He pays for Adam’s rent, knowing that Adam will probably figure it out eventually. He holds Adam’s hand for a few beats too long when Adam lets him.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF THE NORMANDY SUMMIT

Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Primarch Adrien Victus, Dalatrass Linron, and Urdnot Wrex With: Comm. Specialist Samantha Traynor Commander, you need to keep Cerberus at bay- I can't overstate what a victory a treaty between the Turians and the Krogan would be for the Alliance. We need all the help we can get... Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

[crimescrimson]

Ada Wong & Leon S. Kennedy: The History [ Resident Evil 4 (2023) ]

[arolesbianism]

Eternal gales isat au except Bloom is the one looping and she never fucking escapes due to the curse of being 9 years old. Oh and also the middle aged woman actively sabotaging her at every step of the way ig

[unnonexistence]

idk if there's anything in stories i get more petty about than poorly-written "main character shows up to a new place and meets everyone" character introduction scenes

[stuworbutwithchipmunks]

I know ppl couldn't care less about the humans in the cgi movies but Zoe and Dr. Rubin were both hilarious characters and the more i rewatch the movies the more i think about that.

[fictionadventurer]

Well, now I know why Jo was crying.

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

anyway another eyetrees secret

on the subject of names i like vs names that are mine

icarus actually falls into the second category. except gravity falls (show fandom both i have no idea) turned it a bit sour

still a good name though

[jacksintention]

I'm thinking again on the fact that so often comments, criticism and readings on Jack dwell a lot on how he is barely human/a person/doesn't have a personality at the point of the story and, while I somewhat understand these points, I find them so lacking. I find them... ableist? I'm always doubtful to use the word here because I'm not sure if it's applied in this kind (mental health) of context, but something like that. And I find them extremely simplistic.

However, honestly, a big part of the reason for these readings being so popular is that the manga itself words it that way. But that's one of the problems I find in the manga. When I say P.andora Hear.ts is very good but unfortunately it is very manga-like at times, besides the 2000s homojokes and the like, I'm usually thinking about things like this. I feel like often characters and situations that are (potentially) very intricate instead of getting insightful deep overviews often get screwed by the writing itself, which falls into very manga tropes a lot in a bad way (not that every manga has to fall into them, or that every manga trope has to be bad or written badly).

I don't know... For instance, I'd argue R.askolnikov's capacity for love in Cr.ime and Punishmen.t is debatable, but it's never treated as if it made him less of a person, a human being or made him not have a personality. I'd say not even Svidrigailo.v, who is as much a Bad Guy™ as a character can be, gets that treatment by the writing. I'd say that even him or Mikol.ka are written as fully fleshed human beings with their intricate internal lives and feelings. Svidrig.ailov's last scene with D.unya is fascinating for both characters and spins the whole dynamic and makes you question the entire narrative and veracity of not only those two characters, but brings to mind several other conversations among different characters and throws light (and doubt!) on the main plot between R.askolnikov and Porf.iry.

In similar situations, Jack's humanity, personhood and personality are debated, doubted and even full on accepted as vanished. No one reads Crim.e and Punishmen.t and comes to the same conclusions about Raskolni.kov, Svidrig.ailov, Sony.a or Razu.mikhin. The writing doesn't allow it. The writing doesn't allow you to forget that humanity is diverse and multifaceted, that it can be sad and cruel and loving and monstrous, even all at the same time, or that a person may struggle with feeling at all; and one is still a person.

[junonreactor]

yeah i have to drop art of prophecy it is just not doing anything for me

[emily-mooon]

I feel mad >:(

[orcelito]

Fixing my dialog up

Blurgh