#like regardless of moral stance

[icryyoumercy]

i think, at some point, those books need to address the subject of same-sex relations, not in a ... moral? way, but

there's so much blackmail and secrecy and such, rife for exploitation and intrigue and upsetting everything. and all it'd take to fix it is the emperor and the archprelate going 'actually, we do not give a fuck, and if anyone is trying to blackmail you, inform such-and-such representative of your political or clerical entity', and then set up trustworthy people to report to

and since things like women's rights and worker's rights already require there being a way to report violations, they'd not even need to set up a network for reporting things anonymously

[gingerbreadmonsters]

polite and gentle reminder that it is perfectly okay to not say anything about any particular subject, because moralising about events and people that are not real on the internet does not in fact make you a defender of the good and righteous, but instead just makes you and the people around you miserable when everybody inevitably has to hash out the same argument again and again to no avail

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

ribbon, m | jjk

pairing(s): jungkook x reader

summary: Jeon Jungkook asks you what you would do to him if he was naked, blindfolded, and tied to a chair. He really is asking for it, isn't he?

warnings: rated M (18+) – JK is insolent bc he's secretly nervous smh; reader is unafraid to challenge him; smut (fem reader, he's obv naked, blindfolded, and tied to a chair, hand appreciation (?) spit kink, photography during sex, use of safe word, m-receiving oral, edging, f-masturbation); non-idol!AU; switches between reader's POV and JK's POV

--

“I’ve been wondering – do you ask me these questions because you’re bored, voyeuristic, or propositioning me?”

“W… What?”

“Hm? I’m allowed to ask that, aren’t I? Or can only you ask the questions?”

-

Truth to be told, you already had a good guess. It was just more fun to put someone on the spot. Strange that, even with the certain, ahem, reputation you had, people still took the time to misconstrue. It was tiring. Not entertaining in the slightest. Well, being entitled and self-serving was human nature. You didn’t mind it, as long as one owned up to their shamelessness.

Which never happened.

One could hope.

Regardless, you were willing to entertain when you felt like it. However, you refused to be a performance monkey. Even that practice was becoming obsolete as people realized the inhumanity of it all. If only the same could be applied to openly sexually active femme fatales. Sigh. For this reason, you avoided dating, both because it was exhausting and because we all die alone. Mhm. And, due to your rigid stance against romance, you of course kept finding yourself in long-term relationships. The universe never ceased with its paradoxes. With age came a rare lull. You figured that surely now was the time to be alone. Thus, the universe put Jeon Jungkook in your path, who did everything except for leaving you alone.

Ah.

The universe and its great paradoxes.

You were well aware of his fascination with your freak. He was green to it, too. It was the off-hand questions trying to catch you off guard paired the attempts at producing shock factor to a seasoned veteran that were the dead giveaway. Not that things weren’t moving forward as they normally did. A drag racer was slower than how you and him were progressing. Eh, you always believed time was a finite resource. So, you let him lead you along while skirting the edges of what if. Mostly to test his persistence. Alright, it was pretty fun for you as well. But the next evolution couldn’t quite continue without discussion.

Even nymphomaniacs could have morals.

Sometimes.

You watched his thoughts play out on his face. He was stuck in the mental battle of societal expectations, self-respect, and the truth. You wondered which would win.

“I… Just bored. That’s all,” he mumbled.

Hm. Societal expectations won. To be expected. Someday he would work up to the truth on the first try. He was one of those men with a pretty face, an arm sleeve of tattoos, and few reservations. But one of them was still sex, because sex was an undefined creature that he was still attempting to domesticate to that fantastical mold that media tended to favor. False idols attracted fanatics and fanatics generated payola. The most profitable subscription service was the lies that bound society.

It was what it was.

You weren’t surprised or disappointed by it. Didn’t hold it against him either. You leaned against the sofa cushions, facing him. With a smile. His jumpiness was quite cute. The tip of his tongue danced over his lower lip in involuntary nervousness. He had a tiny mole underneath his mouth, right at the center, that you were mildly obsessed with and hadn’t told him yet. Large black-brown eyes that shattered the tough image he was trying to aspire to but you weren’t going to tell him that. His style was big, baggy, and dark. Today was no exception. Black t-shirt, black track pants, gray beanie. Didn’t even dress up for the occasion of trying to bang you in his basement.

Well, trying to get you to bang him in his basement, actually.

You preferred it this way. It was authentic. You proceeded to question him. Just because you knew why he said what he said didn’t mean you had to accept it. You were trying to get to know him, after all.

“Is that so? Just bored, so you wanna get tied up?”

-

Actually, his reason was that he was horny. Which was probably obvious, but wasn’t something Jeon Jungkook felt like confirming. He learned for the start that she was not the subtle type. She did not seem to mind making the first move, so much so that Jungkook hadn’t realized she had until she had him backed in a corner that one time. It was a refreshing change. However, he had made the mistake of putting up an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude in attempt to match her confidence when he very much did give a fuck. He gave a lot of fucks. To be more precise, he was trying to get fucked. And now trying to make her think it was her idea.

It was going…

Well.

Ish.

He knew from their first meeting that she was endgame. He didn’t do anything about it, because that would have gotten him labeled as a creep. Jeon Jungkook had flaws, but he was not a creep. He wasn’t her target at the time either, so. That was that. Over the years as he learned more about her, he was even more convinced that she was it for him. She was clever, resourceful, and unafraid to be the villain in someone’s story if it meant doing what was right. Sometimes you have to be a little bad to do a lot of good, she once said. It stuck with him. He used to think that his one true love would have to be his career. Film school was not cheap either. Money was required for existing, sadly. A person would, therefore, always come second. But, right now, seeing the way that her sleek black turtleneck and those tapered slacks draped over her body as she sat beside him on his black leather sofa, knowing that she was gently chastising him with her teasing smile, and, hell, even knowing that she in no way fell for his bait – there was no one else. There would never be anyone else. He just knew.

Whether it worked out or not, uh, remained to be seen.

Outlook was currently bleak.

“Why are you into that stuff, anyway?”

She leaned her head against the back of her hand with her elbow on the back of the sofa. “I’m not so much into it as it is my very nature.” The tip of her tongue grazed the edge of her teeth. He wanted her to bite him. He could also listen to her talk all day. But he would prefer the biting first. “Personal lore aside, everyone has things they are passionate about. Such as you and your mini movie theater down here.”

She was referring to the room they were in now, with the projector and sofas. The basement allowed him to enjoy the surround sound without disturbing his neighbors. There were a couple folding chairs leaning against the far wall for extra seating when he felt like hosting a karaoke night. He was actually very interested in her personal lore but maybe it was too much childhood trauma dump for this sexually charged moment. She knew time and place like that.

“People will talk behind your back if you like sex that much,” he pointed out.

Not for the first time, it seemed. “They talk behind your back even if you don’t like sex that much,” she chuckled, the oscillating blue-and-purple mood lighting making her eyes gleam. “For instance, I know for a fact that people speculate about your sexual prowess all the time. I’ve heard stuff.”

Jungkook doubted that. People possibly couldn’t be that unhinged. “Like what?”

She mused. “Like how you have a huge dick and are super dominant in bed.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Uh… huh…”

She smiled at him.

The same way a lioness would smile at a desert hare.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be thought of in such a… nice… way. It would be an ego boost if she hadn’t made it sound so objectifying. There was something off about it. Like looking into a mirror and seeing a blemish he didn’t remember having. He watched her eyes rather than looking into them. They had a distinct, sharp shape that reminded him of his favorite female characters in video games. She leaned a little closer. She always wore very nice perfume. Her natural scent was better, though. Tasting skin on tongue and breathing in at the same time, feeling her breath scatter at his touch, now that was perfection.

She ticked her head. “You didn’t answer my question.”

He realized he was slouching and straightened. He was most certainly not leaning forward in eagerness. Or anything like that. Nope. “You didn’t answer mine either.”

“I answer your hypotheticals every day. Humor me.”

Yeah, and didn’t offer to test any of them. He did his best to not feel bitter about it. He felt bitter about it anyway. “I said I was just bored.” Her waist-to-ass ratio was accentuated by her sitting position. Unreal.

She either didn’t notice his wandering eyes or didn’t mind it. “They say the first thought you have is the thought you have been conditioned to have.” Her hand was resting on her thigh. Didn’t move. She had said earlier the glittering reflective dark blue color she was wearing was from a Star Wars nail polish collection. It made the points of her almond manicure glisten in the low lights. “True feelings take a little more time to process.”

His eyes traveled up.

He wondered if she had ever thought about chilling the fuck out.

“What if you were the one being tied up?” he asked shadowed eyes.

She frowned slightly. “Now that sounds boring. For me, personally.” She stuck out the tip of her tongue before adding, “Hate that.”

He leaned onto his knees. “Oh, but you’re ready to do it to someone else?”

Her eyes slid downward to track his movement. “In my defense, you asked,” she said softly. Dangerously. “There’s no need to stress for compatibility. It’s either there or not.”

A pause.

In all honesty, Jungkook had first started asking the vulgar questions to see if he could throw her off guard. Then it became fascinating how unbothered she was by it. At some point, he couldn’t really help it anymore because he had become suddenly aware that she was aware of her effect on him. She had begun to notice how acutely he was listening to her answers. How he always had an involuntary reaction to her standing close to him. One time, he had felt the tips of her fingernails grazing over his lower back and visibly shivered. She had paused. Given him this look. He had held it but didn’t say anything. They were amongst other people. Must have been an accident. The next time, she did it intentionally. He held himself together better this time, but still returned the same knowing stare.

It became a silent game they played, just the two if them.

He asked the question of if she ever considered being on the receiving end of the power dynamic. She always rejected. He knew by now. He was only asking to stall for time. It was a dumb question, because nothing was a front with her. He liked that. He liked that she didn’t try to control anyone around her but rather had complete control of who she was. Didn’t try to convince anyone to change their opinion of her even though Jungkook hated it when he heard other people call her a slut. They used to be his friends but he stopped talking to them. He didn’t want to deal with that shit. He could get new friends.

He tilted his head at her.

She mimicked him, intrigued.

“So, you’re all talk and no walk?”

-

Damn, Jeon Jungkook was really trying to push your buttons today. You had to admire the audacity. Or maybe he was just horny. Nah, let him have the gumption. You hard let him get pretty close already, to test the waters of your compatibility, and you were feeling pretty confident about it. In conclusion, very successful. But nothing as intense as what he was suggesting. Pushing for, really. The best course of action was to talk about logistics and follow up some other time. That wasn’t really the way you or he rolled, though.

“What’s your safe word?” you asked plainly.

Jungkook looked confused. “Safe word?” he echoed.

You nodded. “Mhm. You know what that is, don’t you?”

His dark eyes shifted. “Uh. Yeah. Of course.” He frowned. You waited. “Stop?”

You almost laughed out loud. Almost. “Try something more obscure,” you coaxed. “Sometimes we say stop out of habit but not because we mean it.”

Jungkook was giving you this look. Fiercely protective with an even split of jealousy. “Oh, so you do this often, huh?” A little accusatory.

You blinked slowly.

Gave the time to let his own words sink into his ears. Then you said, “I’m fine walking out of here and pretending you never existed. I’m really good at playing the ignoring game.”

He got the hint. Winced and looked away. There was a bit too much pride to apologize for his rude remark. You could tell he sort of wanted to, yet the seconds marched on. The silence extended. Well. As long as he got the hint that you weren’t tolerating that shit.

“S… Sorry,” Jungkook mumbled under his breath.

You stilled a bit, wondering if you heard correctly. “Apology accepted.” You decided not to hold it against him since he proved you wrong. “The safe word is not just for you. It’s for me, too, so I can alert you that you’re asking for something I’m not willing to do. So, technically, it’s for us.”

Us.

That seemed to reignite his interest. “There’s stuff you’re not willing to do?” Of course that was what he was curious about.

You half-smiled. “Mhm. Such as heavy physical abuse. Blood play. Also, I’m not into cages. Those types of things aren’t for me.”

His eyes widened. “O… Oh.”

You ticked your head teasingly. “Disappointed?”

His eyes darted away. His deep voice became small. “Kinda scared… What even is…” He quickly cleared his throat. “I mean, okay. Yeah. I understand.”

You didn’t fill the silence. You let him think about it. Giving him an easy out if he wanted it. To be honest, this wasn’t your plan for tonight. Maybe some making out, but you didn’t walk in the door thinking about blindfolding Jeon Jungkook, tying him up, and having your way with him. Bit of an excessive lead-in. Hm. Suited him, though. You would have worn something less boring if this was your plan for seduction. Turtleneck and slacks weren’t exactly screaming I-am-going-to-fuck-your-brains-out.

“Yanggaeng.”

You broke out of your thought bubble. “Sweet bean jelly?”

Jungkook shrugged. “I was thinking about food.”

You liked that. “Mmm. You have rope? Fabric. Preferably all-natural.”

He shook his head. “Uh… I have some leftover ribbon from wrapping Christmas presents?”

You considered it.

“Eh, that’ll work.”

-

The tight turtleneck and tailored slacks looked even better when she stood up. Her sensual figure was made imposing by the cut of the fabrics. Either she was very good or very lucky at selecting clothing. He could clearly see the enticing body lines while at the same time seeing nothing at all. Even her shadow looked good. He felt a bit like a potato next to her. Best not to think about it too much. He changed the mood lighting to red. For ambiance. She let him know what she needed. He told her to stay and wait. A spool of dark cranberry velvet ribbon, a pair of scissors, and one folding chair later, she tucked her hands in her pockets and tilted her head at him.

“Blindfold?”

Jungkook went off in search of a silk sleeping mask. Close enough, right?

“Ah, smart.” She nodded. “Okay, strip.”

He stared at her. “Uh.”

She looked back at him, unbothered.

The silence extended.

“You weren’t serious about that?” she finally asked.

Calmly, as if she was asking for clarification of his lunch order. Awkward. He bit back his tongue. He looked from the line up of collected objects on his basement coffee table and then back at her. Instead of looking expectant, she looked curious. They hadn’t seen each other fully naked yet. Just mostly. And touched. But that was different.

“What about you?”

She glanced down. Then back up. “In due time.” There she went with that lioness smile again. “It’ll be a temporary embarrassment.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” he shot back instantly and then regretted it. But she didn’t taunt him. Just continued standing there. He touched the seat of the folding chair. “It’s kinda cold.”

She looked around. “You have linens down here? A hand towel in the bathroom?”

“There’s some on the bar cart back there.”

This was happening. Really happening. It was sinking in now. All the more reason to not think about it. He yanked his t-shirt off as she searched the bar cart for the spoken towels. He plucked his beanie off too, and realized how flat and unappealing his hair must look. He had not planned this, obviously. Quickly, he made his way to the bathroom by the stairs. Yup. His reflection was not it. It took some water and aggressive pushing back to fix his hair. Wet dog was a better look than compressed.

She seemed a little perplexed when he re-entered the room. There was a plush white towel on the seat of the chair now. She was holding another one in her hands. She immediately looked over to him as he approached. Made zero comment about his shiftlessness.

Rude.

“You’re wet.”

He snatched the spare towel from her hand. “Turn around.”

She blinked slowly. “Why?”

He thwacked the edge of the towel against her hip. She looked down, acknowledging the action, but didn’t react much. Raised her head with a slight tilt. He tried not to blush. Believed he had succeeded with the combined force of sheer willpower and a hearty dose of delusion. He glared.

“I’m going to see everything and you won’t get to see my reaction,” she reminded him.

He clutched the pearly white towel quite intensely. “So what?”

She smiled. In that way. “You can use your safe word if you want.”

He clenched his jaw.

“Turn. Around.”

She searched his face for a second. Then, she did as he asked, facing the other way so her back was to him. Damn. Nice ass. Not the first time he thought that. He must be crazy. She had given him the option to drop it all and go back to just the usual hot-and-heavy-almost-there. He stared at the back of her head. Her hair was twisted upwards, trapped in a claw clip. The covered nape of her neck made his blood run hot. He pressed his lips together before slapping the towel over his shoulder and reaching into his pocket, pulling his phone out and setting it on the coffee table. Then he took off his pants and boxer briefs.

He picked up the sleeping mask.

Sat down, draping the towel over his crotch before turning off the lights for himself behind black silk.

“Okay.”

Now would be a good time to get out of his head.

Sadly, that was not how life worked. And so Jungkook was forced to endure the revelation that he was not Daredevil, sigh. His hearing did not suddenly become more sensitive due to the absence of sight. Fuck. Hadn’t been bitten by a radioactive spider recently either. Damn. He heard nothing but the hum of the wine fridge. He tried to listen for any movement – rustling clothes, a change in breathing, even a single dust bunny shivering, but there was nothing but a looming sense of what-the-fuck-am-I-doing.

A fingertip touched his cheek.

He almost flung himself off the chair. He would have lost his chastity towel in the process though, so instead he clutched it and jerked his head, realizing partway that it was probably a bad idea. He might startle her with his sudden movement. He froze.

Her voice floated down, dreamlike and airy.

“Was I not supposed to turn around?”

“I… I wasn’t expecting…” Which was a dumb thing to say. Duh, she was supposed to turn around.

“Jumpy like a bunny.,” she purred.

His breath caught in his throat.

Her fingertip had only left for a second but it was back again, tracing his cheekbone. Then he felt the other three follow in a cascading caress. His skin tingled. Her fingers danced down, cradling his jaw. His body felt strange. It felt like his blood was burning in his veins. She gently guided his head back to face forward, cupping his chin in the base of her soft palm. He could smell her hand lotion. Herbal and warm with a hint of yuzu. The pad of her thumb touched his lower lip.

Then her lips were by his ear.

He felt her breath stroke his earrings.

“Can you see anything?” she softly asked.

He almost choked.  Somehow, he held it together. At least, he thought he did. “Fuck no.”

She tipped his head back. He realized he had instinctively closed his eyes under the sleeping mask anyway. He didn’t try to check if he could see but he heard her say, “I’d like for it to be nice and snug. That fine with you?”

He gave her the classic, “Whatever.”

That made her stifle a chuckle at least. Her hand let go of his chin. He let out the breath that he didn’t know he had been holding. He felt her adjust the plastic slider against the elastic so it was a little tighter and added alight pressure. Then he felt her wrist lift his chin and then her warm hand slid down his neck, fanning over his chest. He gasped and then immediately shut his mouth. Her other hand touched his forehead and tipped his head back once more.

Her lips brushed against the edge of his.

“Ready to get tied up?”

No, Jungkook was not ready. His heart was beating in his throat and cutting off all his air. His blood was on fire. What was scaring him was not what was happening but his reaction to it. The epitome of desire was too physical. It was freaking him out. Her name escaped his lips. He did not like the way it sounded to his ears. Hopefully she didn’t catch any of the nuance.

“Mhm? What’s wrong?” Her breath mixed with his breath.

He sucked in air. “You know what you’re doing, right?”

She kissed him.

He didn’t expect that at all. If it wasn’t for the damn chair, he would have tumbled to the ground. It was only a press of lips to lips, lasting for perhaps one very long second. Her lips were very soft. Plush. Fun to kiss, he had always thought to himself. And then she pulled away with a satisfied sigh.

“I know what I’m doing. Do you remember the safe word?”

He heard her pick up the scissors.

-

“I’m not going to need the safe word.”

You rolled your eyes. He couldn’t see it, thankfully. You could only control yourself for so long. You stood behind him, holding the velvet ribbon and scissors. “What’s the safe word?” you repeated, more sternly this time.

“Yanggaeng.” Jungkook scoffed like a bratty kid that wasn’t getting his way. If he didn’t look so good naked and if you didn’t have the patience, you would have called this off by now. “You’re not gonna get all crazy on me, are you?”

Was it your imagination, or did he sound a little bit scared?

This probably wasn’t the time to bring up snuff films. “Good thing you have the safe word,” you remarked, crouching down and unraveling the ribbon. The cranberry-colored ribbon had weight and a sleek pile. It was the high-quality velvet. The price was still on the paper spool. Damn. His family must have gotten some nice gifts. You snipped off a decent length and called out to him. “Bring your hands back here.”

He hesitated for a second. You waited. His shoulders shifted and he crossed his wrists behind the folding chair. The muscles of his arms stood out, one bare and the other accented by dark, colorful, swirling tattoos from hand to shoulder.

You did smile.

What? His obedience was cute.

But you took a moment to readjust so his hands were side by side instead of crossed. You also turned his wrists inward so the pressure points wouldn’t be stressed. He would probably twist and move around eventually but you preferred to start off like this. You made sure there was some distance between his hands before you made a loop and began wrapping around both wrists.

“How do I know that you would even listen if I said the safe word?”

“I’m not going to gag you,” you replied a matter-of-factly. After a few wraps, you turned the ends perpendicular to the loops and crossed them before beginning to weave them parallel to his extended arms. “You can yap however much you want.”

“Yeah, but are you gonna listen?”

You paused before making the knot. “You don’t think I will?”

“I dunno. What if you go beastmode or something?”

Ah. You brushed aside your initial hurt feelings once you realized he wasn’t personally attacking your character. “If I could go beastmode, I would find a way to make money off it, not use it on you when you’re tied up like a Christmas present.” You tied a square knot. Fuck it. And added a bow to finish it off. You saw him test his restraints.

“… You do know what you’re doing, huh?”

“I keep telling you that and you keep not believing me.” You unraveled another long length and snipped it off.

Jungkook heard it and flinched. “What are you doing now?”

You were about to cut another one to match but you stopped. “I’m going to tie your ankles to the legs of the chair.”

“O… Oh.”

“Unless you don’t want me to.”

“I… It’s whatever.”

You felt a muscle in your cheek twitch. “Do you want to stop?”

He shrugged as much as he could. “Up to you. You’re in charge, right?”

You had not known Jungkook on a personal level for very long but you had enough intimate moments to know when he was being a cocky lil shit. It was mostly a bluff of false confidence to hide his nervousness. But it was annoying. He was basically low-key making fun of you. Well, not you specifically but BDSM in general. Probably unintentionally and out of ignorance, which was why you hadn’t brought down the axe yet. You licked your teeth, thinking.

He called your name.

In the same way he did before, when you had been holding his chin and asking if he was ready to be tied up. Low. Breathless. Fleeting, as if he didn’t want you to really hear it. You softened slightly at that. You cut the last length and let him hear you put the scissors and ribbon back onto the coffee table. Your misgivings would probably resolve themselves. You trusted him that much, at least. Whether or not that was a mistake would soon be known. Still, you had to teach him a lesson. You couldn’t let him think you were going to tolerate these comments forever. Then you got an idea. An awful idea.

You got a wonderful, awful idea.

You smiled the entire time as you bound his ankles to the legs of the chair.

-

“You scared?”

“Not really.”

This was fine. Everything was fine. Jungkook was not scared. One, because he totally wouldn’t be intimidated by a girl. Ever. Yup. Not him. And, two, because she had assured him that she was not going to go crazy on him and she totally wouldn’t lie. Right. So. He would be fine. His limbs were getting a bit cold now but his chest felt hot, as if someone was pointing a heater on his ribs. Cooked, if you will. He breathed in deeply yet quietly, trying to relieve the undefinable tension. She was behind him because he heard the click of her claw clip. Must be readjusting her hair. Haha. He was worrying over nothing. It wasn’t like she had whips and chains in her purse.

He heard her breathe in.

He was about to quip, are you nervous, but then he felt her hands close in around his forearms.

Her fingernails skimmed over his skin and dragged down.

He stiffened at the rising tingling sensation. It bloomed from his arms up to his shoulders, crawling down his pecs and into the pit of his stomach. His breath caught in his throat. Did time stop or was it due to the fact that he couldn’t see? Her warm touch closed in the cold backs of his hands. The binding around his wrists was secure but allowed her to turn his palms outward. Her lips touched the pads of his fingers.

She kissed his hands.

Never in a million years did he think she was going to kiss his hands. He was bound to a chair, blindfolded, naked, and the one isolated sensation he could feel was her lips traveling over the lines of his palms. His fingertips. Her breath trailing after. He could hear the delicate sound drifting up from below. He felt her fingers cup his, caressing his knuckles, and shivers slid up and down his body, diffusing the heat from his chest to his limbs. It was weirdly intimate. More intimate than sticking his dick in someone, which seemed fucking impossible, but it was. He didn’t know how to react. His entire body was frozen.

His breathing went shallow.

Her tongue slid out and curled around his right index finger.

Warm. Wet. Agile. His legs were spread open, locked in place by the binds. The towel was still draped over his crotch. He felt it shift when his dick twitched as her tongue licked his hands. There was almost no sound. Saliva dripped down his fingers. He suddenly felt her warm mouth closing in around two of them. She must be low on the ground to do that since his elbows weren’t raised at all. Jungkook bit back what was surely to be an embarrassing sound.

His fingers were halfway in her mouth when she said, “You can make noise, you know.”

Somehow, she was able to enunciate while sucking. His cock twitched again. “W-What are you talking about?” He only stuttered because he had not realized what little breath he had. “You haven’t… Haven’t done anything yet.” His racing heartbeat was choking him again.

She exhaled, low and slow.

His fingers slid out of her mouth with a wet plop. Then into the warmth went the fingers of his left hand, her tongue snaking in between, back and forth. Her pointed fingernails dug into the backs of his hands, almost pulling him. The persistent tingling danced all over his skin. He sucked in a breath. His hands were let go and then it was only her hot mouth traveling all over his fingers and palms. She hummed and the vibration coursed through his entire body. It was foreign and sensual and mind-numbing. She didn’t say anything but she didn’t have to. He kept thinking about how good it would feel to wrap his wet, slippery hands around his growing erection and yet he couldn’t, trapped in her circling tongue.

He shuddered.

His right thumb was pressed against something hard and cold.

It lasted for maybe a millisecond. His brows knitted together in confusion. Then he felt her tongue slide up his right forearm, dripping saliva. Soaking the velvet. He couldn’t feel her hands anymore. The trail of kisses traveled up his arm and to his shoulder. He leaned into it, wanting more.

“Hm. I think I found a nice place to sit,” she whispered.

He would have replied with a snappy comeback but then she started kissing his right ear, melting away his thoughts. Lightly biting. Sucking. Toying with his earrings, and he heard the zipper of her pants unravel. This was familiar territory. He let himself bask in the attention, letting out a satisfied sigh. Then he heard it.

The sound of a camera shutter.

For a moment, he thought he imagined it. He was so focused on the sensations on his right ear that he wasn’t paying attention to the left. He turned his head slightly, puzzled. Her warmth shifted. Circling. He was about to ask if she had heard it too, but then he felt her knee slide between his legs, stopping just so. He became highly aware that she was right in front of him. He moved his head to face the direction of her breath, tilting upwards. He couldn’t see but it was obvious. Her fingers laced into his now mostly dry hair and she yanked. The pain was momentary.

Click.

“Woah!”

 His hands clasped instinctively. He was quickly cognizant of his compromising position. His throat exposed, the towel barely clinging to his erection, dangerously low, and it occurred to him that she was holding his head with her left hand. He heard the sound of the camera shutter again. There was no mistaking it now. Panic shot through his ribs.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Her voice was eerily calm.

“Guess.”

Click.

Her hand turned and the base of her palm pressed against the top of the blindfold.

“Are you taking pictures of me?” he gasped, feeling his face flush hot.

She didn’t answer. She did not answer. He pulled against the velvet ribbon but his ankles and wrists were going nowhere. Her knee on the seat of the chair prevented him from moving it. He would have to throw his weight to one side to break out of her grasp but then she might be injured at the same time. His mind reeled. Click.

“Stop squirming,” she finally said.

“Stop –?” He did not know why he was hiss-whispering and yet he didn’t want to yell in her face. “I didn’t agree to this!”

“What’s wrong with it?” Click. “You take selfies all the time.”

His cheeks were on fire. “That’s… This isn’t the same at all!” He writhed, arching his back. “You can’t… Don’t… Please!”

All of a sudden he felt her chest press against his. Or, more accurately, her breasts. Still clothed, apparently, because he felt the smoothness of the turtleneck fabric and her bra underneath. He stopped raising the volume of his voice. Her face was close to his. He was breathing very rapidly and very shallow.

“What was that?” she murmured.

His head felt hot. His pulse roared in his ears.

“D… Don’t…”

“Just the last part,” she prompted, sweet like poison.

Confusion ate through the tension. “Uh…” He racked his brain. “Please?”

“Hm.”

Click.

Jungkook opened his mouth to protest, but then his lover whispered, “That wasn’t the safe word.”

The safe word.

He felt the edge of the cell phone touch his collarbone.

“Y-Yanggaeng,” he gasped.

She immediately pulled back and lifted the sleeping mask.

He blinked hard even through the red mood lighting wasn’t bright at all. Hurriedly shook his head. Panting. The tension eased down his limbs, melting away. He looked up. She was right there. Her left hand was on his shoulder now, bracing herself. In her right was his cell phone. The back, showing his phone case with a print of black marble with white veining. She turned it around wordlessly.

Jungkook saw his face.

Barely. The front camera was on. The front camera was on. He frowned, confused. Huh? He glanced down at the preview of recently taken photos and it was merely a black circle. He looked up, not quite understanding. She was looking down at him with an undefinable expression.

“Eh?”

She tapped the gallery and showed him the photos. All black screens. She swiped through them until she got to the most recent photo he took – an image of falling snow in the city. It was clear that she did not actually take a photo of him. Not a single one. He tilted his head. She switched back to the camera app and turned the phone around again, bracing it against her chest before he heard the camera shutter sound again. She had used her right thumb to press the button. All of the photos were when the lens was pressed to her covered chest.

“I’m not going to need the safe word,” she echoed hauntingly.

His eyes widened.

She raised an eyebrow.

Oh. “O…Oh.” He felt his cheeks warm again.

“Using the safe word is not just for extreme pain,” she said quietly. Her expression reflected mild disappointment. “I’m not fucking around, Jungkook. The safe word is not a joke.”

“Y… Yeah.” He looked down and then immediately couldn’t focus upon seeing her naked legs. “Yeah. I get it. Sorry.” He realized he should not have made light of something that was now proven to be very important. He looked back up, hesitantly. She seemed to relax due to his reaction. Even half-smiled. Forgiven, for now. “When did you swipe my phone?”

“When I put the scissors down.”

He smirked. “Sneaky.”

She chuckled. “Surprised you didn’t notice me unlocking it with your thumb print.”

He frowned slightly. “I felt it but I wasn’t sure what that was.” He narrowed his eyes. “I was a little distracted.”

Her shadowed eyes sparkled. “I think you liked it more than you let on.” She straddled his thighs, leaning her arms around his shoulders. The towel on his crotch was barely holding on. She didn’t look down though. Just stared into his eyes. “But I had to teach you a lesson.”

“Nuh uh.” He made a face. “You scared the shit outta me.”

Her amusement was subtle like a cat. “That would have been a nasty situation.”

“You know what I mean.”

He could stare into her eyes forever.

He probably should have been madder but she was right to begin with. Plus, it was hard to care when he could feel the weight of her naked thighs on his thighs. It was hard to think when he could almost feel their bodies pressed together with little air between them.

“You can put more weight on me.”

She didn’t take the bait. “I’m good.” Her tongue slid out and traced the edge of her lips.

His eyes followed. He sucked in a breath. Glanced back up.

She regarded him curiously.

“Kiss me.”

She didn’t move. Picturesque in the shadows. Imprinted into his memory.

“Please kiss me,” he breathed, low with want.

She tilted her head and kissed him.

Pulled her body closer and he moaned into her mouth. The towel bunched up against his hard length. He felt the warm dip between her legs. So close and yet so far. She kissed him deeply, the tip of her tongue against his lip, and he craned his head forward, driven by desire. Her tongue slid inside. He sucked on it, tight. His heartbeat against his ribs. Heat rising. Intensifying.

She broke the kiss, tearing his breath apart.

He half-opened his eyes. Her lips were glossy. Gleaming in the dark.

“Hey.”

Her eyes shifted under her lashes. Pupils slightly dilated. “Hm?”

“Take a selfie.”

Bewilderment. “Right now?” She frowned a bit. “My phone is over there.”

His voice was shaking a little. “With mine.”

She pulled back her right hand. The screen was dark. She still looked perplexed but made to get off his lap.

He immediately protested. “No.”

She turned the phone around. His lock screen was his Doberman who was blissfully asleep upstairs. “I need your fingerprint.”

“Use the PIN.”

She swiped the screen with raised eyebrows. Before she could ask, he gave her the answer.

“It’s your birth date.”

Her eyes flickered to him.

“What?” He shrugged as best he could. “I have to remember it somehow.”

She looked like she wanted to say something. Didn’t. Instead, she typed it in. The last open application was already loaded. It was still on the front camera. She raised off his thighs, holding onto his right shoulder with her left hand.

“Uh. Wait. The towel.”

She paused. Looked down. Back up. “What about it?”

He pouted. “Move it.”

Something flitted across her gaze. But she didn’t ask. She angled her hips and lifted the white towel from his lap gently. Upwards, so the edges had clearance before she tossed it aside. He glanced down, just in case. He wasn’t exactly hard. Not completely limp either. He was very aroused. He could feel pre-cum leaking onto the towel under him. His eyes went back to her face. For a split second, they shared a gaze. He couldn’t quite work out her expression. She had touched him before. Sucked him when he was fully hard. But never really seen him completely naked and not hard.

Every guy was self-conscious about that stuff.

She lowered back down and slid up higher. Higher, so the top of her crotch was against his abdomen. He inhaled sharply. She reached around and cupped his head, pressing it to her chest. He almost squeaked. Her thighs pressed against his hips. He wished she was completely naked.

What? Guys thought about that stuff too!

“Only my face, right?”

“Don’t get any of me,” he mumbled to her tits. “I don’t need any pics of myself.”

“You take a lot of pics of yourself. I’ve seen your Instagram,” she chuckled and then he heard the camera shutter.

“I deleted that,” he grumbled as she let go of his head and turned the screen. He could barely make her out but the highlighted details were exquisite. The red light and deep black shadows cast her pretty face with a vampiric glow. She had said she wasn’t into blood play but Jungkook was pretty sure he would let her suck his blood.

“Satisfied?”

His mouth was open. He closed it. “Uh. Yeah.”

She smiled. “You wanna continue?”

It did not occur to him that he could stop all this right now. “What? Duh.” He wiggled in place. “I haven’t even cum yet!”

Her smile grew. “Oh?”

“Hey! You gotta hold up your side of the deal,” he complained, stressed that she wasn’t going to let him bust a nut like this. “Come on.”

She was really serving Cheshire cat now. It might have been the lighting.

“Then it’s lights out for you.”

And she pulled the sleeping mask down, leaving him in the dark.

-

There was no plan. There never was when it came to Jeon Jungkook. You just knew you would end up in some shit whenever you stepped into his place. Like tying him naked to a chair and making out with him while he was blindfolded. You loved the feeling of dragging your nails over his skin. He slipped into the darkness much more freely this time, accepting anything you did. You hadn’t removed your turtleneck or undergarments yet. It added to the ambiance. He could feel the shape of your body but not your skin and it was driving him insane. His breath caught. His body went tense.

You dragged your nails down his chest and followed it with your tongue, slithering down his legs.

His gasps were slowly turning into whines.

You pressed your hand against his hard abdomen.

You lowered your head and drenched his cock with your spit. He wasn’t hard and yet he moaned to the ceiling as you swallowed him, guiding him down your throat with your tongue. You didn’t need to use your hands. You toyed with his thigh, spreading your fingers out over muscle and tapping your manicure against his skin. Moved your head back and forth. He grew harder and harder in your mouth. You kept it soft and excessively wet, sucking out the air at the back of your throat.

His moan rocked through the chair.

You worked him to full hardness rather quickly before pulling off.

“Fuck, what…?”

“Surely you didn’t think it was going to happen right away,” you said with your tongue against his balls. You held his wet dick up and out of the way, drawing one of his balls into your mouth and swirling your tongue. His whole body went stiff. You stroked the underside of his shaft at the same time.

“C-Careful.”

You held it delicately with your teeth and said, “Sensitive?”

He made a sharp sucking sound with his cheek. “A-Ah…”

You eased, pulsing, testing the limit. Licking at the same time. Jungkook made an odd moan-yelp.

“I dunno why, the biting kinda feels good…”

You changed sides, working him with your tongue first. Took him in your mouth, sucking back and forth. Tugging a little at the same time. His erection became hot. You slid your hand up and down, keeping him hard as you chewed lightly on one of his balls.

“Feels tingly…” he murmured, more to himself than you.

You let go and slid your tongue below his balls. Pinched the skin in between your teeth and placed a little more pressure there. His breathless gasp quickly turned into a moan as you sucked while jacking him off at the same time, using your own saliva as lube.

“A-ah, fuck, I’m gonna…”

You released your teeth and licked up his balls, up the length, releasing his cock milliseconds before you crammed it down your throat. His thighs snapped against the seat of the chair. He swore, or maybe that was a prayer, but you were busy planting your hands onto his thighs and sucking him off. You took him deep so he could feel your throat close in, over and over again, keeping a steady pace while building his orgasm. It was easier using gravity to your advantage. You had to spread your knees and hold your torso up so you didn’t hit your chest into anything, but that was easy to adjust to. You slid your tongue along the underside with each descent, hearing his moan drop into a hiss.

“Gonna cum, fuck–”

You pressed your lips into the base of his cock.

You felt his hips flinch and cum shoot into the back of your mouth. It flooded into your tongue, blanketing over the throbbing head of his cock, and Jungkook groaned, his collarbones standing out from the strain. Shoulders and chest tense. His thighs were rock hard in your hands. You felt him twitch. You didn’t move. The wave of orgasm shot up and rolled down, down. Slowly, he relaxed.

You swallowed, savoring it.

He shuddered.

Soft, grazing, lazy. Barely any pressure. You rocked your head up and down, licking up any excess liquid. Your turtleneck was becoming a little too warm. But then that meant your mouth would have to let go of Jungkook’s cock. And he was still hard.

So, that wasn’t happening.

You moved your hands from his thighs.

“Holy…” He panted, struggling to breathe. “Fuck, that feels good… Aaah…”

You drew your knees together. If he was paying attention then he would have heard you, but he was too busy basking the high of the afterglow. Or your mouth was too distracting. Both were possible. You drew closer. Took him a little deeper. Closed your eyes. Time slipped away. You forgot your own heartbeat, becoming one with the rhythm you commanded. Curling tongue. Excessively wet. A tight pocket in the darkness. Licking the lower base as your throat pulsed around the swollen head, and you heard his moan vibrate to the walls, the sound spreading and then falling, drenching you in his wanton want.

He came again.

You didn’t stop.

In fact, you reached between your legs to join him.

“Are you…? O-Oh, fuck. I can hear it…”

You spread your knees and slid two fingers into your pussy, letting it make a loud, wet sucking sound as you pulled out. It was more fun than pleasurable, really. The real pleasure was letting him listen to you fingering yourself while you continued sucking him off. You placed a hand on the seat of the chair to brace yourself, increasing the speed and saliva. It was noisy and obscene, the repeated sticky separation sounds, and you kept going, getting closer, your back tingling, blood burning, closer, tucking your fingers in between your upper folds instead, rubbing your clit, feeling electricity crawl up your abdomen, closer.

You pinched your clit and moaned around his cock.

Jungkook threw his head back and groaned, his hips rising into your face.

You focused only on the head. He orgasmed with a hiss and an intelligible moan, and you tucked him all the way in the back of your throat. Thankfully you didn’t choke. The volume wasn’t as much as the first one. You locked your limbs and felt your own orgasm seep into your bones, setting your nerves on fire in heated blood. Your grip on the chair tightened, unwilling to collapse under the pressure. Wave after rolling wave, scalding you with ebbing ecstasy, and you endured it while licking him clean, feeling reborn. Proud of the session.

Pretty good if you could say so yourself.

You finally removed your mouth, wiping your chin with the back of your hand. You stood up, somewhat shakily, and righted yourself before plucking off the blindfold. You tossed it to the ground. Jungkook’s eyes were still closed. His black hair was damp with sweat. His chest, too, shone with a thin sheen of perspiration.

He panted, “Kiss me.”

“Do you want me to untie–”

“Fuckin’ kiss me now.”

-

She slid onto his aching, trembling thigh. Her lips felt like heaven in the hellfire, gentle against his racing pulse, pressing against his greedy mouth over and over. He could taste a hint of himself in her saliva. He felt the slick lips of her pussy on his upper thigh and he hissed between breathless breaths, “Rub on me, ugh, fuck, yes,” and she curled her fingers into his sweaty hair, pulling him to her. Tugging. Ah. Sweet, delicious pain.

He forgot he was tied up, really. It was just part of him now.

“Take it off,” he grumbled, realizing she was still wearing her turtleneck. It was a nice fabric but he wanted her naked. “How the fuck… How are you not hot in that?”

“I was busy sucking your dick,” she laughed, and he opened his eyes to see her peeling it off her body, crossing her arms. Pulling up and back to reveal her torso. He had seen it a few times already and every time he marveled. She tugged it off her head. It messed up her claw clip, but she looked better that way. More beautiful in chaos. She tossed the clothing aside and unclicked the front clasp of her bra.

Jungkook was convinced bras were made by the devil, but he couldn’t deny the magic of a front-clasp bra opening the gateway to heaven.

“Like what you see?”

He stared at her. She looked amused.

“Put them in my face right now.”

There was a certain rapport when it came to power dynamics. He didn’t know anything about that. Maybe he would get better at it. She laughed and lifted herself, dropping the bra to the ground, half-standing with one knee on the chair, and scooped up her perfect breasts to present those delicious-looking nipples to his face. He didn’t even care that he couldn’t use his hands. Ugh, they were just so perfectly soft and supple. She tasted so good. Was it creepy to think her skin tasted good? He didn’t care. She rubbed her breasts against his cheeks as he sucked, licked, buried his face into them like an excited puppy.

“I think we are losing the plot here,” she joked.

“Don’t talk to me,” Jungkook sighed, self-asphyxiating with her tits.

“I should be taking them away from you if I was really being dominant.”

He unstuck himself and planted his chin in her cleavage, staring up at her.

She looked down, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

He could have offered a witty comeback or even put on his best puppy eyes to convince her otherwise, but instead he stared into her eyes in stunned silence. His limbs were burning, now not from arousal but longing. Maybe also soreness. But mostly longing to hold her. The puddle between his legs was also alarming. His sweat was becoming cold as the seconds marched on.

“Don’t go.”

She tilted her head. “Did you think I was going to walk off and leave you tied to the chair?”

“What?” He frowned. “You’d never do that, right?”

She blinked at him.

“Right?”

“Maybe when you have more practice,” she chuckled. “What did you mean by, don’t go?”

The red mood lighting made her ethereal. “Don’t go home. Stay here with me.”

A pause. “In your house?”

“Yeah?” The way she said it made him question it too. “Uh, yeah?”

She sucked in a breath while pressing her tits against his face. “Huh, I dunno… That’s usually how women get murdered.”

“Hey!” He wiggled in place, or at least as much as he could. “I let you tie me up. You should trust me by now!”

She made a thinking expression. He would be much angrier if her soft breasts weren’t caressing his cheeks. “Mmm, okay. As long as I get to tie you up before we sleep.”

His eyes went wide. “What?!”

“I’ll even put a bow on your head. You would look really cute.”

“You can’t–”

She laughed. “I’m joking. I wouldn’t do that. It’s dangerous.” She slid down his body and pecked him on the lips. “Let’s get you outta these ties.” She was about to say something else but then stopped. Confusion fluttered over her features. Her eyes cast downwards. He felt his cheeks flush warmly.

“Uh.”

“Why are you hard?”

“No reason.”

Those shadowed eyes drifted back up. She gave him a slow, knowing nod. “Noted.” She got up to undo the velvet ribbon ties.

“Don’t get any ideas,” he called out.

“I don’t,” she said from behind him, loosening the knot before rubbing his forearms. “You give them to me.”

Oh shit.

He did.

And would continue to.

--

masterpost

[fairuzfan]

I have concern that I may still be technically zionist despite claiming to be pro-palestine. This is because I knew very little about Palestine when October 7th happened, so in the time since I have been reluctant to have a stance on a two-state or one-Palestinian-state solution. I know now that almost all of Isreal is stolen land and recognize Isreal only exists due to colonialism, it took me a long time to learn that but I know it now. Before I knew that, I knew that regardless of the prior history that in current day Palestine is being subjected to a genocide. However, I struggle with politics and therefore struggle with understanding how a one-Palestinian-state could be achieved and have concern about what would happen to any genuinely innocent people who live in Isreal. To be clear, Isreal as a whole is guilty and I just have concern about what will happen to the portion of people in Isreal who are just as horrified as the rest of the world at what their government is doing. I do not personally know any Palestinians, so I have not known who to talk to about this especially since I do not want to overstep in any way. Theres more context I could provide but I wont because this is roughly the gist of where I am currently at when it comes to my concerns about whether or not I am still zionist. Do you have any reccomendations as to what I can do about my concerns? I am not sure whether or not I am overstepping right now by asking you this, but I do not know any other Palestians on a personal level that I can go to.

hey thanks for sending this in. i think we all have zionist biases that we have to unlearn, even i catch myself falling for it sometimes. so it's not necessarily a moral failing if you're trying to undo the zionism you've been taught. thanks for trying to undo it!

i do want to correct you a bit thought, in that *all* of israel is stolen land because israel is a settler colonial society. until it is relabeled as "Palestine" it can't not be stolen land.

I guess my advice is that you read scholarship and perspectives on palestinian thought and heritage. i can't tell you what a free palestine will look like but i can tell you what i imagine it to be. but what i can tell you is that the state of israel is fully intent on erasing all traces of palestinian life no matter what.

i guess i can tell you why "two state solutions" don't really work because there is no.... prevention of settlement building in the west bank and they'll never really promote *not* settling in the west bank. like i really cannot imagine a world where there aren't settlers on palestinian land no matter the case. and that's even not allowing palestinians the right of return to their homes and expecting them to give up what they dedicated their lives to. many palestinians in the west bank and gaza are themselves refugees because they were displaced in '48. so no matter what, palestinians will always get the short end of the stick and told to "just deal with it."

plus, why are we concerned with the supposed future danger towards israelis when the current, very real danger towards palestinians exists? shouldn't we prioritize actual events over hypothetical ones? why should we concern ourselves with the future when for palestinians its not a guarantee? i have no idea what's going to happen to gaza, for example.... shouldn't we prioritize that gaza lives on today?

i think i would question why you think israelis are inherently in danger in a one state solution? like do you assume that palestinians will all universally commit violence on all israelis? is it because you believe that hamas wants to kill every single israeli jew no matter what? if so, i think that's where your problem lies — in the assumption that peace can only be achieved through segregation just in a lighter form (because the state of israel relies on segregation as a principal of its existence as a jewish state). what about the palestinians who fear living side by side with the same people who raped, tortured, and murdered them for 75 years, or advocated for their deaths? aren't they inherently in more danger?

i mean palestinians have consistently been painted as the villains for more than 75 years. like in every aspect. i think to really truly be antizionist you need to prioritize palestinian concerns and worries over israeli ones because of how.... unwilling much of the world is to even consider them.

approaching zionism from an idea of an inequality structure is also necessary — rather than assuming its a one off system, we examine it as a perpetuation of multiple types of systems of inequality embedded into one. i recommend the institute for the critical study of zionism (click) for more information on this. There's also this book by Ismail Zayid written in the 80's (click) about the longtime violence the ideology of zionism has done to multiple communities, not just palestinians.

Here's a great reading list by palipunk about different aspects of palestinian thought and culture (click). i suggest looking through them to help decolonize our way of thought.

i might add on to this later if i think of something else to say.

[communistkenobi]

I'm curious how you stomach going thru Tom Cruise's entire filmography when he's such a massive piece of shit. Like I feel like I'd just be thinking about all the women in films he has costarred in and abused beyond reason the entire time.....

I’m going to step very slowly into a minefield so please bear with me:

I don’t find that approach to art particularly helpful or interesting most of the time, and even if you do (which I don’t begrudge you for) I don’t think anyone has a principled stance on the matter, which would prohibit you from watching any film ever made, because the production of film under the current economic and social conditions of the world is itself unjust. Perhaps this is a lazy cop-out - if the moving image is evil then all actions vis a vis said moving image are equally damnable and therefore equally permissible. However, everyone carves out exceptions for what they can stomach (MY favourite celebrity would never do that) or cannot stomach (see: depp, jkr), myself included. And that’s not even getting into the actual issues of the content of the art itself. iirc Tony Gilroy scabbed during the writers strike to finish the Andor S2 script and I still watch it and enjoy it! I am also glad they fired Gina Carrano from the Mandalorian for her transphobia and white supremacy meltdown on twitter, and her character on that show is permanently ruined for me now because of it. I will not be able to enjoy anything involving Noah Schnapp as a direct result of his Zionist views. And so on.

An anecdote I always liked that I heard from a prof is his explanation of what a social position is: once a music band reaches sufficient fame, one of the members will inevitably sexually assault someone. So this might sound overly cavalier, but I don’t care to litigate the moral character of Tom Cruise or figure out exactly what he did or did not do (I’m not familiar with the abuse allegations you mentioned), nor do I care to do that with most celebrities, because that would mean accepting the assumption that doing so will give you an answer as to whether you should continue enjoying their work. I don’t generally find this assumption helpful for how I interact with art, nor does it give me the answer I want - which is always, inevitably, no I should not enjoy this, because accruing that much wealth and fame is unjust regardless of who they are or how hard they worked or their talents as an artist or etc., and this injustice structurally produces abuse (#MeToo is a response to this structure). Like the fact that celebrities exist as a social position is itself a problem lol. 

Now does this mean you can engage in celebrity worship, free of any guilt? Again I don’t know if this is a productive question, or if the answers it gives you will be helpful. I find it generally distasteful, but I likewise engage in celebrity parasociality - I watch Tom Cruise press interviews! I enjoy hearing his little stunt anecdotes and it’s not just because they’re interesting, I find him charming and fun to listen to. And we all had a great time when Pedro Pascal was posting the word socialism on twitter. The examples are infinite.

And maybe this is all just motivated reasoning (I don’t want to consider myself a bad person, etc) to let myself off the hook, but it would be effectively the same critique as like, consuming the MCU despite its deep ties to the US military or what have you. Which again, I have engaged in this argument on this blog, and will almost certainly engage in it again! I will mock anyone who still likes Harry Potter on both moral grounds (JKR is abominable) and aesthetic ones (you have dogshit taste). I am also not principled in this regard. You can call me a hypocrite and I’ll agree with you. But I find a lot of movies ideologically despicable (see: Top Gun) or made by awful people (see: Kubrick) and still really enjoy them. This is not a contradiction for me because I (generally) do not operate under the assumption that my engagement with art first requires me to figure out if the artists are good people or not.

And a lot this is adjacent to the point you’re making, and is a strain of discourse I’m anticipating in this response, so maybe this all sounds off topic or overly defensive, but this leads into the broader discussions surrounding the politics of like, ‘moral consumption’ and using the quality of the moral character of an artistic object or artist as a guide for what you should buy into. your mileage will ultimately vary, including my own. and personally I’m really enjoying Mr Tom Cruise!

[collectivephilosopher]

Arcane and Human Rights

(it’s like really really long, way too long for my own good)

Why I think the issue between Piltover and Zaun isn’t political differences–hear me out both of you–

I think I figured out why this entire Piltover vs Zaun thing is driving me insane.

Listen, I think Pugs4Thugs’ video Arcane Was Always Centrist is a very good analysis that addresses a lot of political issues in Arcane. But it made me realize how some see the political issue as Left wing vs Right wing and I think this is the wrong direction to see it.

The issue between Piltover and Zaun has always been and will make sense if it were seen from the lens of HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION.

Before we start I want to make some things clear.

I’m not a westerner therefore I do not hold any political stance nor political ideologies. Left wings, right wings, whatever. We do not have that kind of concept. I never cared for political parties either since they all ended up the same anyways so I usually picked a candidate based on the individual. 

We do however have a history of heavy human rights violation cases. Until today a lot of people including me are still affected by the aftermath to various degrees. And wouldn’t you know it lmao it’s about to be repeated it seems.

Human rights is a universal fundamental right that one has as a human. Human rights should be the moral basis of every human.

If you can't agree then scroll away because I'm not convincing you.

I’m using the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) by the UN as the basis of my statements. Again Human rights is a universal truth which holds above political and international law, the UDHR just formalizes it (if you see me writing 'Articles' I'm referring to articles in UDHR).

“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”

(In short do not fucking argue with me with “it’s fiction” and “the UN doesn’t exist in Arcane” argument)

With that out of the way. I never understood the argument of “people complain about Arcane S2 because it doesn’t align with their politics” (as in political ideologies) because to me while the problem between Piltover and Zaun involves politic, the main issue has always been the HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION that Piltover did to Zaun. And human rights are never up for debate.

What differ human rights violations and crimes? The main difference is the perpetrator. A Crime is done by an individual or a group who violates the law made by the government/institution while human rights violation CAN ONLY BE DONE by government/institution.

“Violations occur when a Government fails in its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. Often a violation of one of these rights is linked to a violation of other rights.”

–International Bill of Human Rights

“It was considered a major human rights violation because the shooting by the armed forces at the time was not born from their personal autonomy, from under, but based on the policy, from upside. So the military soldiers, the police, the intelligence underneath is implementing policies or or political choices from the ruling government at the time. Which was controlled by the commander. So it is not a crime. It can be called a crime as far as that is concerned about the taking of life or the use of sharp firearms that causes the loss of life, sure it can be called crimes as in criminal incidents or crime but it is not normal crime. Not a crime because of–sergeant A, sergeant B or colonel A, colonel B–for example disliked the victim then they have personal motive whether it is grudge or economic affairs, etc. Or other criminal motives like robbery and so on and so forth, there is no connection in that. so it’s only the connection between two big categories; the state power and the public–in this case were represented by the student movement.”

“The state's accountability for violating its obligations (to the international human rights law) is to ensure that those who commit the act are brought to justice directly. Through the proper judicial process, of course. For example, the person who shoots directly, the person who orders the shooting directly, the commander who knows or has reasons to know that the shooting was carried out or he fails to prevent it even though he knows, or when he fails and he knows but cannot prevent it, he does not bring the perpetrator to justice. So the accountability of the command will be pursued until the person most responsible for the brutal shooting.”

Usman Hamid – 71. Dokumenter Tragedi Mei 1998 - Sudah 21 Tahun, Lalu Apa? ( translated to English)

"Human rights violation is when human rights is not the norm."

Remember this because it’s very important.

(everytime I say ‘Piltover’ I mean the council, the enforcer, and everything that builds the state. I will use ‘Piltovian’ for the civilians)

With this knowledge we can safely say what Piltover did to Zaun was human rights violation because SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION IS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION.

(oh they rhymed)

What Piltover did is 100% wrong. Whatever Jinx, Silco, or whoever that did crimes in Zaun did will never be worse than what Piltover did because what they did was crimes not human rights violation. Not saying that it’s morally justified but morality is a grey subject human rights is more black and white.

To help you understand it, let me give you this example.

If Mr. John killed his neighbour and he was then imprisoned for it. This is a crime, not a human rights violation. It’s violating the law. Now if Mr. John killed his neighbour and was NOT imprisoned because of, say, lack of the law upholding it. Then it became human rights violation because the lawlessness of the state has allowed Mr. John to get away with murder. They may not encourage it but they have enabled and failed to hold it justice due to the lack of law.

A. Piltover

Piltover’s Violation of Human Rights doesn’t just stem from neglect but also exploitation. We know from Vander and Silco’s history that shit has been bad before the failed rebellion/massacre at the bridge. We know from Silco’s dialogue with the chembaron how the grey has been there since they were young. We know Viktor’s illness is caused by the grey when he was a kid.

The Grey is a factory smog/waste dump to Zaun without proper filtering. Who owned these factories? It has been there since before the chembaron rises, it has been there before Silco took over the Lanes. The air quality has been bad since Vi and Jinx were kids. The show refused to show it but we can safely assume Zaun is where all the dirty work happened. 

It could be that there are two types of this gas. One is from the mines that formed from the explosion during back when the city was still called Osha Va’ Zaun (from league lore) and the other is pure factory smog (From league lore it was also stated the mines were owned by Piltover). I’m only going to encapsulate this within Arcane since I might lose a lot of details if I include Lol in this.

And honestly the Grey part is a bit disjointed. I have found a very good analysis discussing Piltover’s exploitation in Zaun (encapsulated within season 1). Read here.

The point is, Piltover actively exploited Zaun and neglected the Zaunite. Both of these are human rights violations.

Article 23 – Right to Work in Favorable Conditions & Fair Wages

Article 25 – Right to an Adequate Standard of Living

The show also shows the inequality and discrimination happening between Piltover and Zaun. 

Stillwater is a prison located in Zaun territory. Every single person we see ever going to Stillwater as a prisoner is a Zaunite. Vi, Sevika, the Jinxers, firelights, the Chembaron goons, Isha, Jinx (was that stillwater also?). We can also see that these cells have no bed, no furniture, it’s not up to standard living conditions. The warden also beat Vi up daily to the point he can’t even count himself. When Jayce was held in a cell, the cell had a bed, table, and window. 

Article 5 – Freedom from torture and inhumane treatment

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

→ The warden beating Vi daily clearly violates this.

Article 25 – Right to an adequate standard of living

You can say it’s just holding cell, he was not convicted yet which leads me to the next issue.

Unfair trial. Despite having so many people go to jail, the only trial we ever saw was with Jayce. Every single Zaunites who were captured went straight up to Jail. They were not given the opportunity to defend themselves. Hell, Vi went to Stillwater for 7 years for no charges at all.

Article 10 – Right to a fair trial

“Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.”

Article 9 – Freedom from arbitrary detention

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”

The word “Trencher” is clearly used as a slur to Zaunites. It was used by Marcus once (an agent of the state). You can say he’s a bad apple but the fact that he can use a discriminatory term and was not held accountable for it means the use of the word was not biden by the law therefore making the law maker responsible.

Article 7 – Equality before the law and protection against discriminatio → The fact that Marcus, a state agent, used "Trencher" as a slur without consequence suggests that Zaunites do not receive equal protection under the law. If the law does not prohibit such discrimination, the lawmakers are complicit.

SAY IT WITH ME KIDS.

B. The Enforcers

This section overlaps with the previous one with some specific addition.

The enforcers in Episode 1 were shown doing a massacre on revolutionaries on the bridge (the arcane wiki uses the word revolutionaries) during an uprising. This is clearly a violation of human rights. Since the league wiki uses the word uprising, we don’t know if it started

peacefully or not. Vander and Silco were clearly armed but we were not shown which side attacked first. However that’s probably not the point of that scene. The point is that it was the peak of the violence happening because of tension between the two regions.

But it was clear that even so, the power gap between the enforcers and the protesters was clearly big. First, the enforcers have full body armor while the rebels are wearing normal clothes. Second, in ep1, we see an enforcer shot twice at the silhouette of a man. Once knocked the man down, twice when the man was still on the ground, point blank.

Article 3 – Right to Life, Liberty, and Security of Person → Even if it was an uprising, executing unarmed or incapacitated individuals (as shown with the enforcer shooting a man twice, including when he was already down) is an extrajudicial killing, violating this right (he could just arrest the man).

Article 20(1) – Right to Peaceful Assembly (conditionally) → If the uprising began peacefully and the enforcers escalated it into a massacre, then this right was violated. However, if it was an armed rebellion, this article is less applicable.

In episode 2 the enforcers aggressively interrogate the people of Zaun near the arcade. The man spat on the officer’s shoe and was thrown through the arcade’s window. They then start searching the kids without warrant. In episode 3, again the enforcers searched the kids’ bedroom without warrant.

Article 5 – Freedom from Torture and Inhumane Treatment → Throwing a man through a window for spitting is excessive force and cruel treatment, which violates this article.

Article 9 – Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile → The enforcers detained and assaulted Zaunites without legal justification, making it an arbitrary punishment.

Article 12 – Right to Privacy → Searching the kids without a warrant or reasonable suspicion violates their right to privacy and protection from arbitrary interference.

C. Zaunites, their crimes, and comparison to Piltover

C.1. Silco

I’m gonna start with Silco.

Silco, you can argue whether he’s a criminal or human rights violator. It depends on how you look at his place in the state. 

Legally, he’s not the law maker. He has no legal power over Zaun. With this we can argue he’s just a drug lord. His Shimmer empire is a criminal group that has enough money to bend the enforcer. He also exploits Zaunites to maintain power by violence and fear (“exploding his enemies” -Jinx) and money.

But we also can say that he was technically the leader of Zaun. If this is how we look at it then yes, he violates human rights. He flooded the market with Shimmer, encouraging dependency on an addictive substance (right to health), he uses Deckard as a human experiment for shimmer. He had allowed Zaunites to live in poverty and to a not up to standard living condition.

Article 3 – Right to Life, Liberty, and Security of Person

Article 5 – Freedom from Torture and Inhumane Treatment

Article 23 – Right to Work in Favorable Conditions & Fair Wages

Article 25 – Right to an Adequate Standard of Living

If we treat him as Zaun’s de facto leader, then he has a duty to uphold human rights, which he failed. 

However, the reality of the show shows that Zaun is ultimately still under Piltover’s rule, so the highest responsibility for these violations shifts to Piltover, not Silco. He and others I will discuss here obviously have moral and personal responsibilities but we’re talking about human rights. 

Since Piltover legally governs Zaun, the systemic issues—poverty, lack of regulation on Shimmer, and poor living conditions—are ultimately Piltover’s responsibility. Silco exploits these conditions, but he did not create them. He has no legal responsibility to fix these situations.

Zaun’s suffering stems from Piltover’s neglect and exploitation. Silco filled the power vacuum created by the neglect. His power exists only because of Piltover's actions/inaction. The root of the human rights violations still lies with Piltover, as they created the conditions that made Silco's rule necessary

I’m not saying Silco is going to be a great leader. If the deal for Zaun independence was ever through, I don’t think Zaun will magically have no issue. Silco is more focused on concepts instead of the actual humans. If he became the leader of Zaun legally, he would likely focus on the bigger picture. He certainly understands these concepts and what a nation needs to be independent. His deal with Jayce is proof that he genuinely wants Zaun to be a better place. However he’s someone who sees Zaun as what it could be aka the future, not the present (except for Jinx).

For example when he told Jinx, “the sons and daughters of Zaun deserve better than their (Piltover’s) runoff.”

He’s right. they do. But the sons and daughters of Zaun are also suffering from his shimmer. He doesn’t care what it takes as long as he obtained that better future. To him, it’s fine if the present children are suffering from Shimmer because he sees it as necessary for the future. The question is, until when? 

Even if Zaun became independent, they will still have to rise from ashes and blood (ha). At that point, Silco would bear full responsibility for its human rights issues. This is not saying he suddenly became gullible but he will be responsible. He has the responsibility to solve these issues. And unfortunately seeing how focused he is on the outline, the people on the lower side of the Zaun as a society will likely be neglected. To put it simply, Silco will likely focus on opening the door to opportunities while neglecting the people who do not have the ability to take said opportunities.

C.2. Jinx

Jinx Jinx, my baby blue. If you can’t tell by now, she’s my favorite character lmao. I promise not to be biased about her.

Jinx is the monster Piltover created. She’s one of the victims of human rights violations done by Piltover who grew up stronger than Piltover and in return hunted them back.

Unlike Silco, Jinx’s actions are more distinct to one another. Silco works in the bigger picture while Jinx works more on individual crimes.

C.2.1. Firelights

I will not talk much about them except the fact that on both times they clashed against each other, the firelights attacked first. The first time, Jinx was guarding a cargo when they attacked said cargo. The second time they just straight up attacked her with seemingly no reason (we know the reason but Jinx probably doesn’t). Obviously they have very different ideologies. The firelights use non lethal bombs for most of their attacks while Jinx just straight up kills them. Not saying Jinx never attacked first (probably, idk), the point is that  they are nemesis. Both swing their weapons. and for the both time the firelights ambushed Jinx, we can argue it’s self defense (and these are the rare times this argument can be made for Jinx lmao).

C.2.2. Ekko

Aside from the firelights stuff, we see Jinx and Ekko fighting again at the bridge. Honestly this is clearly a personal duel so no comment on that.

C.2.3. The Enforcers

Jinx’s massacre of the enforcers stems from pure hatred rather than a calculated act of rebellion—though the two overlap. The hatred is certainly more prominent than the rebellion. But we can tell that what Jinx did, despite coming from personal hatred, certainly has a reason. The reason being that the enforcers have been abusing Zaun, brutalizing Zaun. And Jinx is a part of Zaun. The enforcers have been abusing her. And if they have not ever since Silco took over then we can say past abuse. She’s bringing Zaun’s hell up to Piltover. To “Show them all” like Silco said. So with this we can say she's an Extremist insurgent (violent rebel fueled by hatred).

C.2.4. The Kidnapping of Vi, Caitlyn, and Silco

This is straight up just that lmao, kidnapping. A Crime. No comment on that.

C.2.5. Fishbone-ing the Council

Jinx doesn’t know the council was there having a meeting. She just shot the building, the symbol of Piltover. Her attack on the Council can be interpreted in three ways:

a. Terrorism → If she intended to cause chaos and fear, especially if civilians could be harmed.

b. Insurrection/Rebellion → If she saw the tower as a symbol of oppression and was attacking it as part of a broader resistance.

c. Accidental Assassination → If she didn’t know the council was inside but still destroyed a major government site, it’s still an act of war/terrorism, but without direct intent to kill leadership.

Jinx’s action fell mostly on terrorism. She sees the council as the symbol of her suffering and shoots them out of hatred with the promise to make Piltover’s life a living hell (even though season 2 dropped her motivation).

C.2.6. The Grey -> I’m gonna discuss this later in its own special section.

And despite all this, Jinx wouldn’t have done all of her crimes had Piltover not exploited and neglected Zaun (except for the actual personal ones like the kidnapping I suppose). Jinx wouldn’t hate the enforcers with burning passion had the enforcers not killed her parents and gotten away with it.

Jinx is not a hero. That much is obvious. She is a victim turned monster–she empathizes with other victims of the same oppression, a broken person who responded to oppression with extreme, chaotic violence. But she would never have existed without attrocities.

Piltover failed her, so she burned them to the ground. And if we’re talking about who is most responsible, it’s still Piltover.

C.3. Zaunites

Most of them are criminals. Vi, Powder, Mylo, and Claggor went to rob an apartment. Vander is an accomplice for hiding his kids’ crimes (and a past rebel, he has killed people). The Lanes is the black market area of the undercity created by The Last Drop for smuggling operations. The Jinxers is a rebellion group using violence against enforcers. We all know why they did the things they did. Because of Piltover’s oppression. The kids rob the apartment for survival (aside from Vi wanting to prove herself), Vander and Silco lead a rebellion because of Piltover’s oppression, The people of the Lanes, the chembarons, other Zaunites, resort to smuggling and illicit activities to survive.

Jinxers retaliate with violence is a testament of how your average Zaunites would do what Jinx did if they have the strength and the power to do so.

My point is that no matter what crimes Zaunites did, it’ll never be worse than the Human Rights Violation that Piltover has done.

D. jayce

D.1. His deal with Silco

Honestly it’s arguable whether Silco will give up a Zaunite if it were not Jinx but aside from that, this deal is heavily disproportionate. 

These are Silco’s demands:

a. Free trade routes

He wants the trade routes between Piltover and Zaun to be free. No blockage, No nothing. This is necessary for resource trades.

b. Blanket Amnesty

He wants what has happened between Piltover and Zaun to just be forgiven and the two moved on. Meaning what the enforcers have done, what the council has done, what Jinx has done, what Silco has done, etc etc be dropped and they move on focusing on their own nations.

c. Unrestricted access to the Hexgate

This ties back to the free trade routes. In that day and age, international trade mostly uses the Hexgate so if Zaun wanted to heal their economy, they would need hexgate for trades. Yes, it was Piltover’s facility.

d. Sovereignty

Silco wished for Zaun to be able to have complete authority over themselves. In this case with him as the highest owner of the authority. I mean, Silco was already the informal leader of Zaun so might as well.

Now these are Jayce’s demands:

a. Stop the production of Shimmer

Ouch for Zaun’s economy, they will have to find other goods for funding but at the same time Silco immediately agreed to it so I assume this has been his plan from the very start. He’s not planning on keeping Shimmer in an independent Zaun.

b. Return the gemstone

The gemstone was supposedly used as a weapon against Piltover because obviously Zaun currently have no military nor enough resources to defend themselves had Piltover invaded (doesn’t mean they’re completely helpless but still). I think Silco just kinda has to trust Jayce as a person who wants peace.

c. Give up jinx

This is diabolical. Jinx is a person. An individual. Terrible person as she is, her life is still immeasurable. I think that even if Jayce asked for someone else, even if Silco would not bat an eye on said person, it would still be a diabolical demand. Imagine a nation standing on the top of a person’s body.

This shows how Jayce/Piltover has not fully learned that this, all of this, is Piltover’s fault. Sure he said to the council he realized he’s not fit to lead Zaun showing his growth, but he still feels like he’s allowed to demand someone’s life as if he’s entitled to it.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand what Jayce is doing here. He’s trying to strip Zaun out of their power from the one he thinks is the least powerful to the most powerful one.

Shimmer→ He thinks Shimmer is weaker than hextech which is truly used combat wise but shimmer is also entangled in deeper parts of Zaun like medicine, economy, etc etc.

Hextech gemstone →this is self explanatory. He knows the gemstone if it falls into the wrong hands with the right knowledge can cause catastrophe.

Jinx → because he thought Jinx is some kind of Silco’s supersoldier.

But still, Silco here is asking for the bare minimum of requirements for a nation in which with this condition he is confident enough to lead without the risk of them crashing to the ground seconds after they took off. If we want to play the fair unfair game, what should have happened was Piltover fixing THE DAMN PROBLEM. in fact, THEY OWED ZAUN for all the Human violation they did towards Zaunite. All Silco was asking was literally to be LEFT ALONE.

D.2. Jayce and the Shimmer factory

The entire thing with Jayce storming a Shimmer factory and killing Renni’s son is another human rights issue because he never accounted for that after the incident.

Article 6 – Right to Recognition Before the Law → Jayce never reported the incident or took responsibility for the killing. By covering it up, he avoided accountability while continuing to operate as a political leader. You can say he was about to resign but he didn’t anyways at the end. He never told anyone about what Renni said and Zaun has to suffer because of that.

That being said the responsibility also falls upon the enforcers present. And since the enforcers were indeed shown to be present, therefore:

Article 7 – Equality Before the Law → If a Zaunite killed a Piltover child, they’d immediately face consequences. But Jayce, a high-ranking Piltover official, faces nothing because he never reports his crime. The law applies differently based on social status.

Article 10 – Right to a Fair Trial → Jayce avoids any legal consequences. There’s no investigation, no trial, and no justice for the child’s death.

E. The Grey

E.1. The Kiramman and the Grey

The Kiramman, ah the Kiramman. Anywhere I try to find where they get their wealth from, I found mostly nothing specific. The most I can find is that they’re renowned in trade and shipping and they invest in hextech. Of course this is a part of the show’s bias to show us clearly where exactly the council got their money from but I digress.

If we assume the Kiramman got their money from independent business then we can assume they got their wealth from factories, y’know? located in Zaun. The arcane wiki describes her as an “entrepreneur”.

She made the giant ventilation system that I can barely call ventilation since It encapsulate the grey into a chamber instead of directing it out to open air like a normal vent. It’s a waste containment which also does not work as functioning waste containment because they just left it there, unprocessed. From the map of the vent we can literally see the grey goes nowhere.

Cassandra (the Kiramman house) controlled the Kiramman key, which unlocked the Grey’s containment chamber. It also accessed the Kiramman archive. Instead of solving the problem, she controlled the solution then held it hostage. Honestly? it doesn’t even matter where she got her wealth from. Since she’s a councilor, then she’s also part of the government. She’s responsible for everything that happened down in Zaun and gullible for the exploitation done by the councilor. Again, she’s the law maker. She enables this to happen.

Article 25 – Right to a Standard of Living → The Kiramman family holds control over a vital environmental system that directly impacts Zaunites’ health. Instead of properly disposing of the Grey, they store it in a chamber, preventing full relief from pollution.

Article 3 – Right to Life, Liberty, and Security -> If the Kirammans control the vent and the key, they control the air quality in Zaun. This means they can allow or withhold relief at will, effectively holding Zaunites' health hostage.

Article 8 – Right to Legal Remedy → If Zaun has no legal power to challenge this system, it reinforces the systemic lack of justice for them.

Like I said earlier there might be two types of grey. The one formed from explosions in the mines and the one formed by factory waste. Since the first one was unconfirmed in Arcane I’ll mainly use the second definition (since it was confirmed by Smeech and the Kiramman archive).

E.2. Caitlyn and the Grey

No guys, I do not care if you still like caitlyn for all her “flaws.” you can love her, I don’t care, it's subjective. It just drives me viscerally insane to see people defending her actions.

So, I’m gonna make myself clear. I am writing this with the assumption that yes, physics does exist. I do not want to hear the “Arcane is fantasy therefore gas doesn't spread” argument. If you don’t want to acknowledge that then just walk away.

So Caitlyn here comes down as an enforcer in S2. She came down to Zaun as the state apparatus. Therefore once she went into that mission to find Jinx, she came down as part of the legal government.

The same applied to Vi btw.

The difference is that Caitlyn is the leader of this mission while Vi is her subordinate. She comes up with the idea to use the grey. She read the Kiramman archive about the effect of grey to human.We were shown the diagram of what it does to each individual human organ. And yet Caitlyn still weaponized it.

“She used it on criminals only!”

My ass. Almost every Zaunite can be classified as criminals.

"She used it at Chembarons only!"

She used it not just at Chembarons, but also at the Chembarons’ underlings. Have we forgotten that the people working in Silco’s Shimmer factory are children? Who to say these people don't also work for the other Chembarons?

Remember that the fact that children have to work in Silco's factory is also because of the poverty Piltover has caused in Zaun. Also, Chembarons, lord crimes as they were, only cared for money as they were, still a part of a marginalized group. The people Piltover oppressed.

That aside–

What is the purpose of using the grey? Really, what is it for? Gas weaponry is mostly used for crowd control. Like tear gas–like the writer wants us so badly to believe how the grey works. What’s the benefit of using substances like tear gas if you want to ambush a criminal base? It’ll literally just alert them of the enforcers’ presence. And I was right since Jinx was alerted before the enforcers, scratch that, before the visual of the grey even entered the screen.

They have guns, Just use the damn guns. If they’re trying to cover themselves then use a smoke screen like normal people. If they’re not confident enough to go on the mission without the grey then MAYBE HAVE MORE THAN 5 PEOPLE IN THE MISSION.

Again it is the show’s bias to say, “oh it doesn’t affect civilians” and deliberately remove that one scene from the trailer where Jinxers entered the Firelights hideout coughing. Don’t tell me “well it was deleted for a reason!” because the scene was already rendered which means it passed through the meticulous process from storyboard, animating, painting, finalization, etc etc. Also, we were shown the grey on: the street in the hellfire montage, the grey in the Vyx with last drop in the background, meaning the place must have been at or near a crowd populated place, the grey at the arcade, no where near any chembaron place, just a place Jinx knew.

The scene in S2E3 when Jinx confronted Vi about the grey, Vi replied with “we used the grey to clear the street, to keep people safe.”

So like… civilians then? you used the grey to clear the street from civilians so that if casualties happen, civilians will be out of the bullet line?

So I will say it time and time again, civilians will be affected by the grey and I refused to turn off my brain for that one glaring fact. It is beyond my suspension of disbelief especially since they use the same grey to pit Caitlyn and Jinx against each other.

Article 5 – Freedom from Torture or Inhumane Treatment → She weaponized a toxic substance against Zaunites, knowing its harmful effects. Even if targeted at criminals, chemical weapons violate human dignity and could harm unintended victims.

Article 7 – Equality Before the Law → The use of Grey specifically in Zaun suggests a discriminatory approach to law enforcement. Piltover doesn’t use chemical weapons against its own criminals, only against Zaunites.

Article 25 – Right to Health and Well-being → The deliberate use of an environmental hazard in a city already suffering from pollution further endangers the health of Zaun’s population, particularly children and the poor, who have no protection from its effects.

Article 3 – Right to Life, Liberty, and Security → Using a chemical weapon without regard for bystanders disregards the safety of anyone in the area, including those who are already victims of oppression.

E.3. Jinx and the grey incident

So Jinx rerouted the vent to shoot the grey back topside. Now it’s not very clear what this means. The show is framing it as Jinx attacking Piltover street as tit-for-tat. You hurt me, I hurt you back.

Now If the airflow is currently blowing into Zaun (blowing out the grey) then shouldn’t Jinx rerouting the vent sucked back the grey in? But from how it was framed, it seems like Jinx just rerouted the inside of the vent and it doesn’t really affect the grey on Zaun’s street. But still, if you logically think about it, the vent would be cleared from the grey. Jinx’s action even though she did it out of hatred, still benefitted Zaun.

Now Jinx’s terrorism towards Piltovian seems different than her action bombing the council tower in S1. In the battle, she uses “our” and snarls at Vi’s use of “we”. So she’s setting clear boundaries that she’s acting on behalf of “us”. As in, “Vi, you did not just betray me, you betrayed us, Zaun.” Jinx said, “poisoning our air?” from how it stated, clearly she was referring to Zaun as a whole, not just the Chembarons (Because Jinx doesn’t really associate herself as a Chembaron so she must have been talking as Zaun as a collective).

Jinx also said, “weird the kind of thing people believe when you choke them out?” This shows Jinx’s collective empathy towards her community. It honestly made me believe that Jinx wasn’t just doing this on behalf of her name and for her own hatred. She’s killing two birds with one stone. Get the grey out, and send a message to Piltover to not mess with Zaun.

Obviously the show very explicitly shows Jinx’s grey victim while showing none from Zaun. Again this is biased because we know both civilians are definitely affected. The show just chose not to tell Zaun’s part of the story.

Jinx shooting the Grey back at Piltover and Piltovian was the most extreme escalation of her war against them. But does that make her worse than Caitlyn? No. Even if Jinx’s action is (arguably) morally worse since she deliberately shot the grey topside indiscriminately as an act of terrorism, the most gullible one is still Caitlyn because she released the grey in the first place. Because without Caitlyn’s initial use of the Grey, Jinx would never have retaliated.

Jinx’s crime was reactionary—violent, extreme and unjustified, yes, but still a response to systemic oppression.

If Piltovian wanted to protest about the attack, go protest at the enforcer or the council.

BUT DON’T WORRY, I am indiscriminate. The ones most responsible for this is STILL THE COUNCIL. They are definitely responsible. If they know Caitlyn’s plan to use the grey and did nothing to stop it, then they are gullible. If not then Caitlyn is the most gullible BUT the biggest responsibility still falls on the council. If the council sees nothing wrong with it then the council is the most gullible. Cailtyn walked out of that entire grey incident without repercussion so we can assume the council probably approved it. Again, Violation of human rights.

Article 8 – Right to Legal Remedy → If Zaun has no legal power to challenge this system, it reinforces the systemic lack of justice for them.

F. The Martial Law

Maybe not too much on this (although everytime I say not too much it ended up being half pages long so...). But Caitlyn put “the city” under martial law under Ambessa’s suggestion until Jinx was captured. And by city, she means just Zaun because we saw nothing different in Piltover while we see enforcer checkpoints all over Zaun.

Article 1 & 2 – Freedom and Equality, No Discrimination → Martial law was enforced only in Zaun, while Piltover remained unaffected. Targeting one population under the guise of city-wide law enforcement is discrimination.

At this point she’s a COMMANDER. Assuming this means she held the highest position, then she’s responsible for all the things that happened under her watch.

Now about the checkpoints. We see enforcers are clearly there, checking bags, controlling the movement, so it was definitely under the enforcer force. 

Article 12 – Freedom from Arbitrary Interference → The enforcers controlled movement with checkpoints, violating the right to privacy and freedom of movement.

Rictus, Ambessa’s right hand, enacted violence on one of the Jinxer based on his hair color. The enforcers DID NOTHING to stop this even though the operation was under the enforcer’s supposed watch.

Caitlyn questions Ambessa about Rictus’ instigating violence at the checkpoint BUT she dropped it afterwards. She told Ambessa that she wasn’t the one encouraging violence and yet she does not object. Again, she’s the commander, the one with power. It is her responsibility to DISCOURAGE it. She said “arrest requires cause” and “why is peace always the justification for violence?” AND YET SHE LETS IT HAPPEN. The next time we saw the Jinxer, HE WAS ARRESTED and by Caitlyn’s own words: WITHOUT CAUSE. The Jinxer was shown to be interrogated, brutally at that. Is all of this happening under her nose without her knowing? HOW?? SHE’S THE COMMANDER. YOU CAN’T MAKE SOMEONE HOLD THE HIGHEST POSITION AND HAVE HER KNOW NOTHING. IS THERE NO ENFORCER GUARDS OUTSIDE THE INTERROGATION ROOM OR SOMETHING???

Which means she KNOWS she UNDERSTOOD that it is wrong and yet she did it anyways. She allowed it to happen.

Article 3 – Right to Life, Liberty, and Security → The Jinxer was arrested without cause and later interrogated brutally. This was under Caitlyn’s authority as the highest-ranking enforcer.

Article 5 – No Torture or Inhuman Treatment → The Jinxer was beaten during interrogation, an act of state-sponsored violence that Caitlyn allowed.

Article 7 – Equality Before the Law → Rictus violently attacked a Jinxer based on hair color, and no enforcers intervened. Meanwhile, Zaunites faced arrests without due process.

Article 10 & 11 – Fair Trial & Presumption of Innocence → The Jinxer was assumed guilty, arrested without a trial, and beaten during interrogation.

“It aligns with her character!”

I know and I truly don’t care if you still like her, we’re speaking about human rights today, later about the writing.

At the rally. Rictus again shown to be the one leading the arrest. But about a dozen enforcers were behind him. SO DON’T TELL ME CAITLYN HAS NO IDEA. HOW IS THE ENFORCERS ALLOWED TO GO ON AN ARREST IF NOT PER CAITLYN’S ORDER??? HOW??? 

And if Caitlyn knew about the arrest at the rally, then she must have known about the interrogation itself BECAUSE HOW ELSE WOULD AMBESSA KNOWS WHERE TO ATTACK?

If you want to tell me it was all Ambessa’s doing, Ambessa was the one telling enforcers around and the enforcers just ate it behind Caitlyn’s back THEN SHOW ME. Show me Caitlyn having a revelation that she has been fooled behind her back, that Ambessa has been operating the enforcers behind Caitlyn’s back.

BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED, WAS IT?

Vi said, “she oinked poison in your ear and you just ate it.”

Honestly Vi, you don’t really know that. But hey, Caitlyn did confirm with “I know!” Which means Ambessa just influenced her and not snuffing enforcers behind her back.

Article 9 – No Arbitrary Arrest or Detention → Approved mass arrests during the rally without legal justification.Article

19 & 20 – Freedom of Expression & Peaceful Assembly → The rally was violently suppressed, violating the right to protest.

BTW, CAITLYN KEPT THE WARDEN THAT SHE KNEW HAS BEATEN VI UP COUNTLESS TIMES.

She knew this guy is a human rights violator and yet she kept him. I know the argument is probably that was not her focus at the moment, but that doesn’t mean she’s not responsible and arguably gullible for it.

Article 28 – Right to Social Order Protecting These Rights → Caitlyn had the highest power to stop these violations but did nothing. She knew it was wrong, admitted it, yet still allowed it to happen.

She may not have actively ordered every abuse, but by maintaining her position, keeping abusive enforcers, and allowing mass arrests/torture under her command, she is directly responsible.

So now you may ask. Why am I talking about all this? Am I like, A PURIST? Do I just want to see happy stuff happening on screen? Do I want every issue to be black and white?

(Now listen here– I've said this in the beginning and I will remind you again, human rights violation is most definitely wrong. Unlike Jinx’s actions which can paint a shade of gray, you can never reason for it because the one responsible is the state itself. NO ONE can hold it accountable. No matter how much water you add, It will always comes out black)

Well kids, all of this analysis about human rights issues is actually just that, analysis about human rights issues in Arcane. I’m not complaining that much about the writing except maybe the biases I caught along the way.

That being said NOW I’m gonna complain about this one damn scene. Because it suggest that Jinx and Caitlyn were on equal term in case of attrocity.

SHUT UPPPPPPP. WDYM “OUR” CRIMES??? OH, I’M SORRY—

Caitlyn, I think you are mistaken. You yourself have not done any “crime” wanna know why? Because you’re behaving in the name of the state. It’s not a crime, Caity, don’t worry. Isn’t it fun? Being able to do all this violence without being held accountable because you’re only behaving in the name of the state? YES CAITY, THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION.

YOU ARE, IN FACT, NOT EQUAL WITH JINX. If you were EQUAL you WOULD NOT be outside the damn cell with Jinx inside.

YOU GIVING HER A “CHANCE”??? CAITY YOU ARE WORSE THAN HER. THE WORST JINX HAS DONE WAS INDISCRIMINATE TERRORISM, YOU VIOLATED HUMAN RIGHTS.

And don’t worry because Jinx KNOWS what she has done. Season 1 made it very clear that Jinx understands what kind of person she has become. The question is, Caitlyn: DO YOU??

I’m sorry, I try my best to reinforce calm and leveled discussion regarding Arcane BUT I HAVE MY LIMIT–

The only “crime” Caitlyn has ever acknowledged was for “listening to Ambessa.” Entschuldigung but no one ever told you to use the grey on Zaun.

Yes, Ambessa manipulates the situation in S2 but let’s be real, Renni’s attack on Jayce at the memorial was long awaited. 

Going back to Caitlyn, the second time Ambessa manipulated the situation is during S2E3. She lied about Amara being killed by two assassin Zaunites. Piltover ate it up, no question, no investigation (even though Caitlyn is supposedly a detective).

Caitlyn is clearly not competent for the position. Or at least not yet. She was given that position to her, she has not earned it herself. And guess what? The second she held the reign, she abused it and she never faced any repercussions for it. No, losing an eye is not a consequence of her action towards Zaun. Maybe the consequence of listening to Ambessa but she has not done anything for Zaun. She still lives in her cushy mansion and the ending chose to show her having a comfortable life with Vi instead of showing how she’s trying to redeem herself. She gets to walk away with it.

Caitlyn wasn’t just a soldier following orders—she was the commander of the enforcers. She had the highest authority in the force, which means she was responsible for every action taken under her command. Unlike lower-ranking enforcers, who might claim they were "just doing their job," Caitlyn had decision-making power and used it to enforce oppressive and violent policies.

Caitlyn is both a product of the system and a willing participant in it. She is not just complicit—she was responsible. And yet, unlike Jinx, she never faced judgment. She walked free, while the people of Zaun suffered under the system she upheld.

NO MATTER what Jinx does, what Silco does, what ANY of the Zaunite does. It will NEVER be WORSE than what PILTOVER does. A crime is an act of wrongdoing, but a human rights violation is a failure of a system meant to protect people.

“Arcane is a tragedy!”

yes. yes it is.

[enemywasp]

Alright so someone on tiktok sent me a link to a compiled list of arguments against proshippers and so I wanted to put a sort of brief response of my own thoughts of each point.

Long post warning!

"Proshippers are non-offending minor attracted people in a fresh paint of coat"

What a start, am I right? Okay so first off this is a huge generalisation, not every proshipper engages with or is even comfortable with anything that sexualises fictional children, or ships them with adults. And of those that do ship adult/minor ships, it doesn't always mean they're attracted to the character themselves or gains any sexual pleasure from that.

They then went on to say that although they might be non-offending, they still fantasise about and romanticise children- in the case of proshippers by creating art and stories. And I am not personally educated enough on how people's minds works to go in depth here, but I do know a lot of pedophilic thoughts can be intrusive and unwanted. And I would much rather people engage in this and deal with their thoughts through fiction where no actual children are harmed, than actually go touch a real child or engage is any form of CSEM.

“People can draw and ship whatever they want!”

Here they went on to say that surely to ship and create content you must justify these things in some capacity regardless of them being fictional. And immediately I'd argue, the justification it that they're fictional. And that sometimes you want to read about things you'd never approve of in real life, it's a natural curiosity. And again, regardless of what the dark content is I would take someone engaging in fiction over harming a real person any day.

They compared this to alt-right groups and dark humour justifying racism and transphobia, etc. And whilst I think something we should always be aware of in fiction is stereotypes and how we may be representing people. Youtube videos like this are usually a type of propaganda that AIM to change people's mindsets and turn them against groups. Whereas fiction tells a story, some may have meanings and connections to real life, be a political piece, etc. Not everything is that serious and has a clear distinction from reality.

Think for example, reading/watching about murder and gore. More on that in a second.

"Fiction doesn't affect reality!"

I'm going to be honest I rolled my eyes at this as their main example was slenderman. If you don't know about that, those girls were schizophrenic. Anything could of set off and caused delusions, it just so happened to be fiction. Those girls needed help- not to just read purer content. They also basically brought up propaganda again, which is again deliberate and designed to warp peoples perceptions. Its based of lying and spreading misinformation and passing it as facts. The only thing I strongly believe can be directly harmful is stereotypes if not handled with care. But I think that's something for anyone who writes and consumes content should be aware of regardless of their stances.

Again here they implied that all proshippers are peodophiles. And that they normalise abuse of children. I'd also like to point out that most proshippers I've interacted with online have age boundaries to avoid interacting with minors depending on how graphic or sexual their content is.

"What do you think all stories about murder should stop existing?"

Here they basically argued that killing in media isn't the same as its not romanticised or condoned. YA Novels disagree- mafia stories being the most immediate example to spring to mind. Furthermore, morally grey villains. One of my favourite films is Mr Right. It's about a hitman killing people. Anna kendrick falls in love with him and its framed as a romantic comedy. Funny how its only fanfiction that's criticised like this? I actually have more thoughts on this if anyones interested.

Again they bring up kids not knowing adults pursuing children is wrong, and I'm questioning why children this young are unsupervised on the Internet. How young were you when you were allowed to watch anything with graphic blood or violence? This content isn't made for kids! Especially not anyone so young they can't seperate fiction from reality as most sites have a specific age you have to be to join. And I'm sorry to say it, but on websites and social media where adults can interact with kids, anything can be used to groom kids. (The real thing you should be mad about here is how there's no websites aimed just for children and safe spaces on the Internet anymore cause it can't be monetised as easily)

"Artists are allowed to draw and write about dark people"

They basically said, yes but it's not the same as promoting. Writing something under a romantic light and not saying "Don't do at home!" Isn't promoting. No ones encouraging these things in real life. Or rather, if they are its not because they're a proshipper but rather who they are as a person and their intentions.

The trans example they used is very extreme and honestly something I agree with a little more, fiction can definitely be used as an excuse to say and act out hateful and discriminatory things. Whilst I do think it's something we should discuss and unpack more, I'm not certain of my view on how I would fix this without risking silencing people talking about their experiences.

"Its not my responsibility to look after other people, just block me and the tags"

Here they threw all kinds of accusations. And says that we're making traumatised people jump through hoops to avoid getting retraumatised. I hate this argument, you know people have actual triggers they may not be able to avoid in real life? The world can't bend around you. And I am very sorry if any content online is traumatising to you, but someone could also be traumatised by a certain breed of dog and not want to see it. Should no one post dogs online ever again? A bald man reminds you of an abusive ex? Bald men get off the Internet! You see how this thing can just keep escalating? The tags and warnings are important because they're the best you can get. You can't control the world to protect everyone from everything ever. No ones forcing you to interact, and if you're on any algorithm based content that will encourage that content on your for your page more.

The only thing I think we should take from this is the reminder that warnings and tags are always important.

"You only care about censoring creativity"

Here they defend themselves that oh wouldn't you want freaks out the community! Which again immediately makes me lose respect for you, if you're just going to brand us all as freaks as an argument and generalize us.

No comment on that first line when you can easily argue antishipper do the same.

"Proshippers are not remotely innocent of targeted harrasement" Neither are antis. There's people who take things too far both sides and I'm not going to defend either for that.

"Real kids get assaulted and all you care about is censoring people online!"

Here they shout "oh I can care about both!" But what I don't think they realise is censorship can make it difficult for kids and to learn about how to speak up and to look for signs, or to speak up about their experiences. How do you plan on removing the topic from the Internet whilst also letting victims speak up? And people may want to write fiction based off their experiences. Who are you to go through it and proclaim what is too far, what romanticises it too much? More on this later.

"Antis are reducing my trauma"

They compared this to saying "date rape victims are reducing my trauma because they weren't taken advantage of in the same way as me" which is a disgusting parallel?? Date rape is still rape. Someone writing about something isn't the same as it happening. Although it can be used as harrasment, grooming, etc if directly addressed to you or being constantly sent to you, written about you. But the content existing in general? No.

"I'm coping"

Compared it to self harm, and such. Poetry and diaries are also used to write about your experiences and unpack trauma. Some of which may write it in an unrealistically positive light cause that's how they want to unpack it or explain those thoughts. And yes these things get posted online.

I can't imagine a single therapist or professional psychiatrist of any kind disapproving of creative writing because, again, it's much better than any alternatives of doing real harm to yourself or people around you. Although I do agree that if something is traumatising for you to read about and just upsets you further, be aware of your own boundaries but not everyone is the same so how are you going to police people's own thoughts and emotions.

Also I can't remember who or where as it was years ago now, but I have heard of people who actually realised they were being groomed or abused and just how bad it was through reading about it in a fanfic and seeing it in an outside perspective.

They also say to do it in private, but doesn't everyone on the Internet now have an understanding of finding a community and looking out for eachother and sharing experiences?

"There's more nuance here than just calling proshippers peodophiles"

Here they say no matter what it still comes down to whether it's ever okay to sexualise minors in certain contexts. And again, not every proshipper does this or is even comfortable with engaging in this kind of content. And further, no one is sexualising real minors in this context.

"I'm a proshipper and a minor tho!"

I'd agree minors should be wary of the spaces they're in but proship spaces aren't always necessarily sexual, graphic or 18+. Saying they're being groomed feels like you're watering down that term. I was a proshipper at age 13, I didn't interact with anyone online about it though, I didn't even know that was the term. I just came to the conclusion that it's just fiction all on my own. Minors aren't idiots.

At then end they talk about their own experience being groomed and I'm obviously not going to nitpick or criticise their experiences. I will point out that one person being bad and taking advantage of you and using content to do so doesn't mean everyone is like that. I am sorry to anyone who has been taken advantage of by someone who claims they're a proshipper though. There are people who have turned out to be horrible on both sides.

I am ill and it's late but I want to get this up sooner rather than later so please ask for clarification on anything. I'm always up for a discussion on this topic as I do believe some of these points do have merits at times and that this whole topic is not black and white

[bird-inacage]

The Heart Killers EP4: Kantbison as "Partners in Crime"

At this point in the story, Kant and Bison are effectively standing on opposite sides. Their whole side quest to punish Babe's bullies and teacher felt like foreshadowing - an example of how well these two can work together when they are on the same team. More importantly, how much their values align when in pursuit of the same objective.

A strict moral compass underlies Bison and Fadel's work. They only target 'the bad guys' - those who deserve what's coming to them. So it's deeply ingrained in Bison's psyche to fight for injustice. When he notices Babe's bruises, his brain immediately deduces foul play and is compelled to help Kant find the perpetrator, regardless of his own growing suspicions around Kant's integrity.

Kant doesn't mean to act with ill intent but is willing to do unethical things where necessary in order to achieve a goal. Spiking Bison's drink was a particularly dicey move. We know this is all in aid of protecting his brother but Bison doesn't. So when Kant declares, "I only cared about my brother at first, but my boyfriend's right. If I let you go, you're only going to do it to other children" it demonstrates that firstly, Kant supports the stance of doing the just thing, and secondly that he agrees with following Bison's example because they align in their values.

To Bison, seeing first-hand that they respect the same moral code, one that Kant is willing to put into action, earns his respect. "I might not trust you 100% but i have to admit... What you did today totally rocks." A man who is willing to expose a paedophile and save other potential victims, can't be all that bad can he? A man who has a conscience, who has deemed his own history of stealing cars as something he's not proud of, is not one of the 'bad guys' surely?

Now, why is this important? Well, once they have exposed their respective positions, acknowledging that they can actually work alongside each other will enable them to overcome this fact. They've established that precedence here. We're getting a glimpse into what could come after the fallout.

You can keep tabs on bird-inacage’s BL meta directory for my other long-form posts around The Heart Killers, which I’ll be updating in real time as the show airs.

[marimayscarlett]

At this point, I have given up on Till. He clearly doesn't care about his image and how he's viewed regardless of the situation, so why should I care?

He's been a lost cause for many years now, and his Dubai/Russian friends will never stop enabling him for as long as he's around them, and that's simply not going to end.

My only concern is that he's further hurting the band as a business and the band as a family...but...that is between them 6. We can only observe and hope for the best outcome.

Hi 👋🏼

Till's behavior has stirred up quite a bit of dust - whether it’s with the Row Zero situation, his stay in Dubai, or now his visit to Mar-a-Lago. And that brings us to the heart of the matter.

This man is 62, an adult, in full control of his senses and his time. Logically speaking, he can, of course, do whatever he wants. But once an action is taken, there will inevitably be a reaction - that's how the world works. I think what many people find unsettling can be boiled down to a few things:

1. Till has undeniably changed a lot over the past decade. He has surrounded himself with a certain entourage, spends time in Russia, Dubai, and now the U.S. If he wants that, fine, but when compared to his public persona in earlier years, there really is a striking discrepancy.

2. The message his actions send in the eyes of others. Trump is a highly controversial figure, with views and actions that, while shared by many (otherwise, he wouldn’t be president again), conflict with values one would hope Till does not have, whether regarding foreigners or women (both areas where Trump has made his stance very clear with some infamous quotes) in the past. Of course, visiting someone's estate doesn’t necessarily mean one admires them, but at the same time, it raises the question: Would I go there if I really don't like Trump? Probably not. Because some things you can't separate. The history of this estate and Trump is so intertwined and recent - it's not like it's a historical sight with a 500 year history in the past, so with some distance to today.

3. Till has just come out of a massive scandal - one that still resonates deeply here in Germany and weighs heavily on many fans who stood by the band. I think a lot of those fans had the expectation that he would "pull himself together," that he would be aware of how his public actions are perceived.

Of course, we, as fans who disapprove of his behavior in Dubai and now in the U.S., are doing something similar to those who judged him in 2023: we’re imposing our moral compass on him because our values differ greatly from what we see in his actions. And because we hope that some part of the Till we once knew still remains.

I've let go of this. To me, it seems like he doesn’t care how he comes across, doesn’t care about the band's image. And I find that disappointing.

[vilecemetery]

shadow and bone fans are captivated by the church scene in season 1 of the show, fixated by the weight of inej’s choice—sacrificing her faith and committing an act of violence in a place meant for solace and sanctity, all in a desperate bid to save kaz’s life. it resonates deeply with them, who appear to be enthralled by the agonizing dilemma she faces, torn between her unwavering principles and the fierce loyalty that drives her to such drastic measures, and they are even more enthralled by her choice to save her true love. however, few fans seem to talk about how inej, a victim of human trafficking who was kidnapped from her home by slavers, seemed somewhat at ease with kidnapping a girl from her home for money. no one talks about inej having no moral conflict about selling a girl to a merchant who wanted use of her skills. no one points out the hypocrisy of inej wanting to hunt down slavers after practically doing the same thing as them.

unrelatively, (not) inej is suli and her community (who leigh bardugo undeniably based on romani people and culture) are travellers, who do not stay in one place for a long time but follow old routes. their nomadism is both a reflection of their current cultural identity and a response to external forces that have marginalized them, such as persecution and hostility.

ravka may have grand, impressive churches, but the suli don’t have a fixed location of worship. their faith is obtained in saint stories, possibly some kind of rituals or traditions, and their moral values. while inej might respect churches as a symbolism of religious belief, her understanding of faith is likely derived from the same cultural notions. her relationship with her saints is personal and intimate; she believes they can hear her prayers regardless of her physical surroundings. she has had to kill people to survive in the barrel and killing someone in a church would not have more meaning to her then killing someone in the street. dunyasha falls off the church of barter when she dies but this does not seem especially significant to inej.

in the books, inej is religious but at the same time clever and logical. she isn’t blindly devoted to her faith, she understands that she had to do terrible things to survive in the barrel and is competent at her job. however something she does not ever waver on is human exploitation. she cares profoundly about people and is committed to bringing justice, and she seeks to protect those who suffer similar exploitations as she did.

in the show, she is blindly religious and at times, a mindless devotee. she is far more morally upright then a 16 year old girl in that situation would be able to be. nevertheless, her outlook on kidnapping and exploiting others seems to be quite flexible.

this phenomenon extends beyond inej’s character alone; it reflects a broader trend within the shadow and bone adaptation where critical aspects of various characters are altered or misplaced, leading to a dilution of their original significance. character traits are either largely exaggerated or diminished, leading to a compete loss of meaning in storytelling. by focusing primarily on inej’s faith while neglecting her strong stance against human trafficking—an issue that resonates deeply with her personal history—the adaptation presents a one-dimensional portrayal that fails to capture the essence of who she is meant to be. show fans are enamored with this new interpretation of inej, without fully recognizing the significant alterations made to her core values and beliefs, thereby overlooking critical themes present in bardugo’s original work.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/766871732008206336/just-saw-tags-on-a-post-that-said-yeah-i-hate?source=share

I like how "that's literally what proshipping is" changes every time someone says they don't undertsand or prefer not to use the word.

I've seen it defined as being in favour of other people shipping stuff (regardless of if you think they should be allowed to post that online or not)

as being against fandom harassment (regardless of views on censorship or morality)

as taking a stance against antis (no matter what that stance actually is)

as being against censorship more broadly (and having nothing to do with beliefs about morality or online harassment)

And of course there are the doofuses, from both sides, who insist that it has something to do with what you ship or don't ship or what you are comfortable seeing on your Tumblr dash.

In reality is a more specific convergence of all of the above ideologies/beliefs/goal (except the doofus one) within a specific social scene. It's at once a school of thought, a subculture, and a social (and sometimes political) movement.

But you guys are not doing yourselves any favors when you reduce it to one tiny part like "thinks online bullying is bad" or "thinks criminalizing fiction is dangerous" and then go crying in people's inboxes about how it's bad that you have ideological allies outside of your subculture.

--

Your first mistake is thinking that most people using that word see it as a subculture.

[theniftycat]

How to stay sane when history keeps happening

I don't think it's stopping any time soon, guys. It's okay if you're confused, upset, angry, apathetic etc. You are allowed to feel anything. Your internal life is fully yours.

Don't feel like you're obliged to explain yourself to anyone. You are just one person. Your social life isn't political. Don't speak if you don't want to. Don't speak if you feel it could hurt you. Don't speak if you're not sure. Don't speak if speaking makes you feel uneasy.

Remember that responsibility is proportionate to power. If you hold no tangible political power, you share no guilt, no responsibility. It applies to public figures too. Unless you did the deed, you aren't responsible for it.

The only person you can demand to take a moral stance is yourself. Everybody else is responsible for it only before themselves.

Remember that you can't know the whole truth, the fog of war is a real thing. Confusion is normal to feel, remember that everybody else is confused too.

Keeping that in mind, find some source you can address yourself to. No need to trust anyone completely, just find someone whose coverage is easy for you to digest.

Try not to lose the social connections that are important to you, especially, in real life. Social connections are the biggest source of happiness and security. If you disagree with someone, remember that each one of you could be wrong and probably is at least partially wrong. Confusion is normal. Try avoiding the topic if the person is really important to you. Don't ruin relationships with those dearest to you, they will help you irl regardless of politics.

Don't feel obliged to keep up with the news. If the news upset you, you not knowing them won't make the world a worse place.

Don't hold yourself responsible for other people's opinions. Everybody answers for themselves. Being wrong is something people do.

Remember what is normal. Keep normalcy in mind. Remember what healthy conversations are like, remember what peace is like. Remember what freedom is like. One day, everything will need to be rebuilt. And you'll be there to do it.

Your job is to keep yourself who you are in normal times. You needn't be destroyed or made miserable. Keep yourself healthy if you can. Remember that there are good things that are worth striving for.

Most of this advice came from Ekaterina Schulmann and it kept me sane for the last year and a half.

[iilmunchkiin]

This is in response to the anon's ask about Clover and Martlet's relationship as well as the two sides of the same coin. Explaining this in few words is going to be quite the task as there's so much to talk about when it comes to the Clover and Martlet's relationship, so I'll keep as to the point as possible.

First and foremost from the moment they meet Martlet becomes Clover's morality chain, and depending on their actions prior or after this meeting, will show other aspects of how they see each other. No other monster has this kind of affect on Clover. Likewise Clover's actions will determine how she sees humans, and what stance she should take in regards to Clover.

Clover's actions always spur Martlet into action regardless of the route. It's worth mentioning Martlet is established as being lazy, which she admits herself, but Clover's presence causes her to break out of this completely. Genocide shows her being a lot more proactive when it comes to dealing with Clover, and the other routes shows her making the extra effort to keep Clover safe, simply because this is what she feels is right. Likewise Martlet is shown to be the only monster to have some kind of influence on Clover, considering Clover will always choose her over Flowey.

In Neutral, Martlet is the sole monster that Clover cannot bring themselves to kill/refuses to kill, and all of it is completely unprompted. Likewise Martlet will also refuse to kill Clover despite their misdeeds however big or small. Even if you genuinely try to fight Martlet on Neutral, it will always end with Clover sparing her unprompted. Even on an aborted genocide route, where Clover can quite literally kill every monster they encounter including the likes of Ceroba and Starlo. They cannot bring themselves to kill Martlet, and Martlet despite seeing how dangerous Clover is, still refuses to kill them, which leads to Martlet offering to look after Clover, and Clover always accepting her offer. Plus when Martlet is killed by Flowey, Clover is so enraged they retaliate by trying to kill Flowey, and like with Clover sparing Martlet, it's completely unprompted, the player has no influence in Clover's decision to do this. To top all of this of, do Neutral enough times, and Flowey reveals to you, that Martlet convincing Clover to stay with her is a foregone conclusion without intervention. Essentially no what Clover does in Neutral, no matter who they kill, no matter what lies or manipulative tactics Flowey uses to try and control Clover, it will always end with Martlet offering to look after Clover, and Clover always choosing to stay with Martlet.

The Genocide route, is the only route were Clover and Martlet are both willing to kill the other. Not only that, during this route, Martlet is shown to be the only monster that Clover respects, and is also the only monster they spare unprompted, as well as listen to when they speak. Furthermore she's also the only monster that Clover goes out of their way to find a justifiable reason to kill, they do this for no other monster but her, which even Martlet makes a remark on. Both of them are fighting for literally the same thing, Justice for their kind, for the Injustice that was done to them. Something also very interesting about this fight that was pointed out elsewhere, both Clover and Martlet use yellow themed attacks. Martlet is also the only monster that Clover reveals their name to in Genocide.

Martlet stays by Clover's side accompanying them on three separate occasions on Pacifist with just the two of them. Four if you include the flawed Pacifist ending. The most out of any monster that Clover encounters. During these moments they get to see sides of Clover that the other characters don't really see. Likewise Clover gets to sides to her character that's different from what she usually shows others.

No matter how far gone Clover is, Martlet can always sense the good in them, when other monsters scorn them. Likewise regardless of how Clover sees monsters, as long as they don't go full vengeance they will always ultimately end up seeing Martlet in a positive light, and be drawn to her.

Martlet only tells Clover about the Syringe and the fact the she was planning to kill them using it when she senses the dark aura within them. It's also heavily implied until she came clean to them, Clover was completely oblivious to this fact, which would also imply they trusted her enough to where they didn't suspect her to be a danger to their life. It's also worth mentioning that Martlet is aware of what kind of individual Clover is even if she's not their to witness their actions, and Clover will always trust her to some capacity regardless of how their first encounter goes.

There's other stuff, but these points are some of the major ones.

[nothorses]

May I ask why you think Biden stepping down and Kamala being the candidate to be 'good news'? I'm still voting for whoever the Democratic candidate is ofc, but I worry this move threw away the average swingvoter who may have been swayed towards voting blue. I don't see how anyone who may have been okay voting for Biden by virtue of him being an old white dude is gonna be as nice towards a brown woman. I mean, people were too sexist for Hillary, the most milquetoast white woman imaginable. I'd really like to hear your perspective.

Biden has been polling like shit for months, and basically fucking everyone has been calling for him to step out of the race for a while now. It's been the opinion of political experts that he doesn't have much of a shot in this election for a variety of reasons. The vast majority of his own base is incredibly dissatisfied with his stance on Palestine (an understatement), and numbers have been reflecting that he was going to be running against some truly miserable odds because of that.

It is genuinely the best option for him to step out of the race. Literally just about anyone else has a much better shot at winning than Biden did. Kamala included! There was a press conference a while back where someone actually asked him if he'd step down if Kamala polled better, and he said he wouldn't. Which is extremely worrying, because it demonstrates that he may have been prioritizing his own personal ego over the importance of keeping Republicans out of office this election.

I don't like Biden, and I really didn't like his odds in this race. Nobody else did, either. The fact that Obama came out and said Biden needs to step down is indication enough that this happened because the situation is really that dire; you have to remember that Democrats are all about Doing Things By The Book, especially in the last 8-ish years when it's been useful for them to be Rule Followers in contrast to the tantrum-throwing chaos machines that Republicans have been. If there was even a sliver of hope for Biden to stay in the race after being chosen in the sad sham that the primaries were this election cycle, they would have kept pushing just to stay within the bounds of convention.

I was ready to push for Biden regardless, because keeping Republicans out of office is priority #1. But I've been saying for a while now that he needs to drop out (just... not on Tumblr, where the dominant conversation is "does voting for a flawed political pawn make you personally responsible for everything they ever do, or should we abstain and let the fascists hijack our government and kickstart several new genocides for the sake of personal moral purity" and I don't think that kind of nuance would be well-received).

I use my grandparents as a litmus test in a lot of this stuff, because they are very much the Typical Liberal Democrats, and their opinions on these things tend to fall in line with the majority of voting Democrats. They absolutely loved Biden in 2020, long before he was chosen as the candidate. They don't anymore. Seeing them lose any and all enthusiasm for voting for this corpse of a man was evidence enough to me that we needed someone else. Ideally someone people can get excited about, because I think folks have mostly lost the perspective we had in 2020 when Trump's nightmarish presidency was fresh in everyone's minds, and served as motivation enough to get to the fucking polls- regardless of who the Dem pick actually was.

From what I understand, Kamala is actually polling better than anyone else right now. I have my fears about voters' racism and misogyny too, but if she's doing well in the polls, I wonder if maybe there's some other factors counteracting that. She's also got name recognition, and the general impression of Being Qualified (because she's been VP already, like Biden was), and Being Likeable (because she comes with the general positive associations of the largely successful Biden presidency, without any baggage of perceived responsibility that Biden himself carries- like Biden did with Obama). She's been flying under the radar while still reaping the benefits of positive associations, and people know who she is. That feels like a good combination, but I don't know enough, and I haven't read enough into it to make any decently educated guesses.

That said, I don't really know as much about who the other potential candidates might be, either. I've heard Pete Buttigieg's name tossed around, but nobody liked his ass back in 2020 and idk if that's actually changed at all. I just know that every politically-knowledgeable/politically-active leftist whose opinion I've heard on the topic has been citing Biden dropping out as the literal only hope for a non-Republican to win this election, and I'm really fucking excited to see that come to fruition. I just hope the Dems pick someone who really does have a good shot.

As a sidenote, I also really hope this marks a shift in how they make decisions, too. It's become increasingly obvious how out-of-touch Democrats are with their voters, and Biden 2024 was just the latest and greatest indicator of exactly how bad that's gotten. The fact that the party has been able to make such an unconventional decision in response to what their voters actually want gives me a little bit of hope that we might be able to influence more change with them going forward than we have been.

[milkfordragons]

Hey Milk, care to share your thoughts on Hannibal's fragmentation (that you mentioned on a recent post)?

Hannibal's Fragments: Stripping Away the Fantasies Hannibal is undeniably brilliant. His mind is not only sharp but deeply attuned to human nature, shaped by his expertise in psychiatry and undoubtedly many other disciplines. Yet, despite this vast knowledge, he remains profoundly disconnected from humanity, not due to a lack of understanding, but an unwillingness to relate.

What makes Hannibal fascinating is not just his refinement, power, creativity, or skill (a bit of a 'Mary Sue') but rather the paradox of his grandeur and his delusion. He is, at his core, yet another lost soul, a man so convinced by his self-constructed reality that he mistakes his illusions for truth. His belief that Francis Dolarhyde was sane tells us a lot; Hannibal operates within a world of his own making, where his notions of logic and sanity exist in a vacuum. His composure and intelligence mask a deep, pervasive madness.

Hannibal’s belief in god is particularly revealing. For someone of his intellectual caliber, it is unexpected, yet it betrays a mind prone to magical thinking. He does not simply believe in god; he believes in a cosmic justification for his actions, an order in which his deeds are rendered insignificant against a grander divine scheme. His philosophy of 'Becoming' is not about authenticity or self-actualization but a rigid, destructive process dictated solely by his own standards. He elevates himself above others with an air of gentleness, disguised as politeness, yet beneath it lies a profound hypocrisy. His moral framework is inconsistent, shifting to accommodate his desires and impulses rather than any genuine stance.

Nowhere is his delusion more apparent than in his narrative about Mischa. He tells himself he killed her as an act of forgiveness. Absolving her for making him 'betray himself.' This alone is an unhinged rationale: blaming a child, the object of his love, for the very act of loving her. And yet, even this is a fabrication. In reality, he consumed her in a moment of trauma and horror, later weaving an intricate mythology around the event to lend it artistic and poetic meaning and also put him in a position of control (when he was just a boy). This same pattern repeats with Will; when he plots to consume him, it is not just an act of brutality but an elaborate fantasy meant to rationalize the irrational.

Hannibal presents himself as a man driven by curiosity, yet his curiosity is perilous, endangering lives, including those of children like Abigail. The truth is that he is desperate. Desperate for meaning, for sensation, for something to fill the abyss within him. He surrounds himself with beauty, art, and intellect, yet it is all ornamental, a facade to conceal the void. No well-adjusted person, regardless of psychopathy, compulsively destroys for the sake of curiosity. His actions are not merely devoid of empathy; they are compulsive acts of chaos, even at the risk of his own destruction. Time and again, he flirts with discovery, playing with fire in ways that cannot be dismissed as simple indifference. A true nihilist would not gamble their life so recklessly, but Hannibal does, because on some level, he is courting annihilation.

His cannibalism, too, is inherently self-destructive. A doctor would be acutely aware of the biological dangers of consuming human flesh, yet he persists. It is unlikely that every victim was free of disease; the risks are far greater than those posed by consuming animals. He claims to cherish life, that he 'lives in the moment' because any moment could be his last...but this is yet another fantasy, a way to disguise his suicidal tendencies. He does not care for his own survival or well-being. The fractured parts of himself that recognize this truth have been repressed, their agony polished into something elegant and controlled.

This veneer begins to crack in Italy, where even Bedelia, who has played along with his illusions, grows unsettled by his recklessness. And later, his surrender to the FBI, fully aware of the overwhelming likelihood of a death sentence, reveals an almost performative nihilism. He does not merely throw himself into the fire; he does so with theatricality, refusing an insanity plea that could have spared him, demanding a retrial where execution is all but certain.

Hannibal has lived most of his life in a state of psychotic emptiness, so profound that he compulsively filled it with knowledge, beauty, art, and murder. He was never devoid of feeling; on the contrary, he felt deeply: grief, hunger, longing. But these emotions were raw and unprocessed, channeled into a grotesque aestheticization of suffering. He refused to be a vigilante, for that would render him too ordinary, so he concocted his own arbitrary code: punishing 'rudeness' as a justification for his acts. But this was never about justice. To Hannibal, anything that offends his sensibilities is an affront that must be consumed, conquered. His cannibalism is an assertion of dominance, a man who once felt utterly powerless now reasserting control by ingesting that which he finds intolerable.

Except for Will. Will is the anomaly, the one force Hannibal cannot assimilate. He represents the hunger Hannibal has carried all his life, an insatiable craving behind a locked door deep within him, waiting for the right key. And Will is that key. It is no wonder that Hannibal becomes obsessed, that his need for Will spirals into compulsion. Will’s presence destabilizes him, triggers his deepest fears, and dismantles the careful identity he has curated. The loss of control terrifies him, and in response, he lashes out...seeking to kill Will, to hurt him, because Will makes him feel like he is dying. It is not a metaphorical death alone, but a visceral, bodily response, the unraveling of trauma, the collapse of an identity built to protect himself from the truth.

This is why the fall, whether viewed literally or metaphorically, is not just Will’s decision but a mutual act. Hannibal has been courting death throughout season three, leaving countless hints in the script and visuals. He knows what Will intends and does not resist because he, too, needs to die. When he tells Will, 'This is all I ever wanted for you, Will...for both of us,' he is not just referring to the act of killing together; he is speaking of their mutual surrender, the dissolution of the selves they have so painstakingly constructed. He longed for union, for an obliteration of boundaries, and only love and its destructive, consuming force, was capable of stripping him bare, of revealing the truth he spent a lifetime disguising. Hannibal Lecter may have fooled the world into believing he was in control, but in the end, it was love that dismantled his illusions and laid him bare.

[just-a-bean-babes]

Not to engage in controversy, but let me defend my anti Edwin/Cat King stance for a moment.

Let me cut y’all off and say that I think the Cat King’s deal is an excellent plot point. It falls perfectly into classic fairy tale patterns; mess with a powerful being’s domain and receive a cunty little riddle on how to get out of your new life destabilizing curse. It’s wonderful, it’s fascinating, it has a distinctly Neil Gaiman spin despite him not writing the show, I love it.

However, that does not make it a cool moral premise to begin any sort of relationship with. There is an explicitly demonstrated power imbalance; the Cat King is shown to have powers way beyond Edwin, and is using his power to put him in danger. His offer to remove the curse if Edwin fucks him, then, is not an offer that could be truly consented to.

Even though we see that the Cat King cares for Edwin in many ways. Even though we know that Edwin is physically attracted to the Cat King. The offer is nonetheless made in a quid-pro-quo, tit-for-tat manner (sleep with me and you’ll get that promotion, your grades will improve, I’ll make a recommendation for you). Regardless of the presence of attraction or care on either side in any case like this, it is still exploitative because true, reliable consent cannot be given in the presence of coercive power imbalance.

Let me be clear again, I love the presence of this dynamic in the show. It adds enormous complexity to the Cat King’s character and to Edwin’s journey with his sexuality. It makes the offer all the more interesting as we learn about the Cat King’s care for Edwin’s well being. It makes it satisfying and offers an insight into Edwin when he gives the Cat King the accurate cat count in Port Townsend, even though he’s attracted to him and genuinely intrigued by his offer.

Narratively it is excellent. Morally it is still an exploitative relationship founded on power imbalance. This is something that could be worked through, if they so decided to! And I would be on board in that case (though my PayneLand heart would shatter). But it is something that would need to be worked through, and as of yet has not been.

TLDR; Cat King, it’s neat that you care about Edwin and that Edwin’s attracted to you, but the options “fuck me, or you and your friends will probably die while you try to complete an extremely difficult and tedious (though possible) task” is not a healthy starting point in a relationship.