#me not having money was ofc another factor

[gulaabjamoon]

can someone send me 5k to buy new clothes

[verycharismaticdragon]

Okay, I promised a writeup of Luo Binghe voter fraud meme, and as Luo Binghe is currently in the finals of the poll this happened on, I figure now's a good time.

So! It all started when Luo Binghe, our beloved half-demon child, was submitted to @/hybrid-battle tournament - or rather, as it was called at the time, @half-being-battle. He won his first poll easily enough, but round 2 was a close battle where he and his opponent, Shantae from eponymous game, took the lead from one another a few times.

In the last ~12 hours, Binghe was losing slightly after a popular blog rb'd the poll with a call to vote for Shantae. However, SVSSS fandom caught this in time and passed the poll around some more. The poll ended with Luo Binghe winning with 51% of votes - or, as simple calculation will reveal, 14 votes lead.

We breathed out a collective sigh of relief, but too soon - as half a day later, someone sent this ask:

(x)

Initially the pollrunner wasn't intending to do anything about it, but then someone suggested a teamup option, and the poll for the option was made (x). It was rb'd by some SVSSS fans with the general sentiment of 'free our boy he did nothing wrong', but didn't gain real traction until:

@gaywarcriminals reblogged it with a small rant in Binghe's defense

@piosplayhouse rb'd said rant with addition of the image from vol.3 cover, of Shen Qingqiu holding Luo Binghe's hand, edited to look like SQQ is the one saying the text above.

This version of the post was circulated in fandom overnight, leading to 'Luo Binghe moves on alone' option winning by a large margin - and, ofc, to the birth of "Luo Binghe voter fraud" meme.

Though aside from this particular post being funny, there was another factor contributing to the meme catching on: how damn in-character it all was. The following sentiments were all repeated more than once in the post's notes:

Luo Binghe getting accused of crimes he didn't commit? Omg just like in canon!

Shen Yuan would absolutely buy bots to get his most beloved blorbo to win an internet poll.

It's just Luo Binghe's protagonist halo!

All of which made the situation fucking hilarious.

Then, the next day, tumblr user verycharismaticdragon (whoever they might be 😉) made some fanart about it, which possibly aided the spread of the meme too.

Also, SVSSS fandom surprised the mod with our chillness 😅

(x)

Since then, Binghe has been going strong in that poll - and now, he's in the finals! So make sure to vote for him; as we all know now, the real voter fraud is the friends we made along the way. And I do recommend checking Luo Binghe's tag on the poll for some fun propaganda we've been making, including a family tree by Pio and some more art by yours truly <3

But wait! There was also another layer to the voter fraud iceberg. The tl;dr:

At about the same time Luo Binghe vs Shantae ended, Hua Cheng was losing in round 1 of @/the-ghost-bracket, with something like 39% of votes to his name. In a desperate move, I linked his poll under my bingqiu voter fraud art, which gave him a boost to get close to a tie, but didnt flip the poll. The next day, I was explaining the LBH voter fraud meme to my friends, and mentioned Hua Cheng's poll too - which was when inspiration struck me, resulting in...

this post. [ID: art of Xie Lian with a wooden board which reads "Puqi shrine accepting donations in the form of votes for Hua Cheng in the ghost bracket", captioned "please help dianxia, he doesn't have the money for voter fraud"] Which gave the poll enough visibility for Hua Cheng to win with over 62% of votes in the end. (The link in the post is currently changed to round 2 poll, which HC was also initially losing. Srsly besties we gotta follow the tourneys to get our babygirls to win!)

So: LBH voter fraud meme had even helped little bro Huahua out.

And thats about it! Since then, the scum villain fandom has been joking about voter fraud on all of our polls 😂

(Aaaand the last reminder to vote Bingbing in the finals. His opponent has been gaining lately and I think we shouldn't leave it to the protagonist halo this time.)

[transmutationisms]

(If you're alrght with another poorly articulated question from an obnoxious high schooler) Do you have thoughts on academics and their position in a labor framework? I know some grad students and have never been quite sure where they fit because they don't always work with "capital" in a traditional sense. Professors are odd to me because they are under university contract, but rather than get paid by the university they often get their own funding from the government. Or graduate sudents, who are often unionized, but I know a paleontology student who studies shark fossils who says he doesnt really consider what he does "making surplus value."

ok well that last person is simply confused lol. graduate students exist because the university profits from having us; it is a capitalist institution. most directly we usually work as teaching assistants or research assistants (or else pay tuition) and more indirectly, graduate programs get funding and university support because their existence contributes to a university's rankings, prestige factor, &c, which is to say its (perceived) profitability. plenty of us study things that don't produce much directly lucrative research, but this does not mean the university keeps us around for shits and giggles or some kind of laudatory interest in knowledge for its own sake. it is a capitalist institution and acts in the financial interest of its owners / beneficiaries.

anyway wrt faculty members, they are also employed by the university because it profits from them (or hopes to, anyway). i think many people get confused by tenureship; tenure is indeed fairly cushy as far as employment contracts go, but it is is still an employment contract, and most faculty are not actually tenured anyway. academics are a classic example of the 'professional-managerial class', which is not a marxian term but is a useful one for identifying those 'upper-middle class' members differentiated by their professional qualifications and status; the prestige and perceived utility of academic knowledge production is partially what makes academics an attractive target for a lot of government and NGO funding. state funding of academic research ofc has numerous functions but, and not to put too fine a point on it, a capitalist state also invests money in things because it is hoping for some kind of return on investment, eg in the form of directly profitable inventions, soft power, &c.

there are distinctions here between different academic employment statuses. an adjunct or contingent hire is paid by the university solely to teach, making their labourer status fairly straightforward. with tenured or tenure-track positions, yes there may also be money coming from outside; however, this doesn't negate the fact that the university is trying to profit from its faculty (else it wouldn't hire them). the professional-managerial class has certain characteristics of both proletariat and bourgeoisie, and there is some variation between academics as a very select few do attain the kind of household name status that can turn them into basically a personal brand. again though: the university wants to extract value from the work (both teaching and research) of academics it hires, and so do outside sources of funding for research projects. knowledge production should not be mystified or abstracted in ways that obfuscate the financial interests of involved parties; though it attains a prestige that few other commodities do, this is still a process that is embedded within the overall operating logics of capitalism.

an additional consideration wrt internal academic class politics is that many faculty use graduate students, postdocs, and even undergrads to perform or assist with their research. these arrangements vary in structure (and between disciplines) but in general, this does mean that many academics produce papers, books, &c that depend upon the labour of many people and rarely compensate these people equally to themselves. this can take the form of a more overtly employer-employee relationship between a professor and their underlings (for example, some labs are run this way) or it can be the case that it's another party (a publisher, say) who is reaping most of the surplus value squeezed from grad / undergrad / postdoc labour. in any case it is important to keep in mind that professors can and often do take on employer (ie, small capitalist) roles in relation to other employees of the university, even though the professors themselves are there because the university and other institutions pay them and profit from their labour.

i hope this is a useful start; obviously there is lots else to be said about the economics of the university and knowledge production as a capitalist process. in general when you are trying to think through this my advice would be not to let the presentation of the university as some kind of cerebral place of enlightenment confuse a materialist analysis of the flows of capital. plenty of workers and capitalists deal with commodities that are immaterial in the sense that 'knowledge' is, or are imbued with similar social meaning and value; the university deals with knowledge production but this does not make it any less an employer (ie, a capitalist institution) than any other institution operating in a capitalist context.

[istherewifiinhell]

okayyyy also. tagged by @joelletwo for 5 topics i could talk about for an hour with no prep.

now. two things. 1. i have infernal podcast dude energy and could say a lot about nothing. weird trait to have if u dont like talking to people? hard to say. 2. GESTURES AT BLOG. im ALREADY. talking at length abt my beloved shit. so im just ruling out turtles, alien robots, trek, etcetcetc all the shit thats been a main blog topic for the last past. 4 years?

I'm gonna say.... western voice actors? not that i could really. Give a lecture so much as. I'm way more familiar with them that than I am live action actors. And I'm kinda just CONSTANTLY like. Oh you know so and so from every cartoon youve ever fucking seen? And FEEL a real. gap. with people when they dont have a same reference point. probably like how ppl feel with me when i dont know their acting guys jhadbgjfga. Like u can name 5 VAs from ur childhood cartoons/animated movies right? And personal interest like, hey btw u know like the entire cast of tng was in disneys gargoyles? U know keith david can SING? And diego luna? Hey you know about Canadian actors who are in all the dubs and video games and yeah cheap shit? You know Scott McNeil right? You know Ian James Corlett? You know. THE IAN. of being Ian. Hello. is this thing still on?

I really like and care about the topics of education, children's rights and pedagogy? Not academically so much as, personal interest. What seeing very clearly that there was a lot of arbitrary rules that involved things like. The Government. and Systems. as a child does to a motherfucker I guess? I'm always INTERESTED in a discussion about it, is how i mean I guess. Like focuses of multiple intelligence and "applied knowledge" (and short comings there of). I mean long and short of it. Kids are full human beings and until u can grapple with that their feelings and opinions um. Actually matter. I hate you? jdhbgjhdb. And Naturally the world being good for kids has the prerequisite of it not sucking ass for adults too....

UHhhh guh. User design/civil engineering? You'll hear it from me until the day I die, crushed under the tires of a ford f1 giga truck with the LED 20million watt bulbs. PROTECTED BIKE LANES. for the love of god. I just know a lot of designers I guess and like engineering, conceptually. But like, u know that famous bridge everyone crashes into. If theres 80million warning signs and people are still crashing... maybe theres. other factors. Or you know ofc like, traffic planning, vehicle accidents, structural disasters. A lot of them are not just. Things happening. Tragedies. There's politics there. Usually a lot of Money stuff. and structural racism. The real reason your fridge is full is that there's a bunch of half empty condiment jars hiding all your forgotten left overs. And widening the roads isnt gonna do shit for traffic.

Jackass entry: Themes and motifs of anyyytthing ive watched with another person or saw, and like they also know it. I realllly like, visual theming and narrative shorthands. Anything that breaks like, maybe people in this setting dont have the same customs, but their gonna do something so you the audience can recognize it. Non literal/accurate use of colour and lighting, for mood and clarity. Breaking the physical shape and scale of things so they can appear and be readable on screen. COSTUMING COSTUMING COSTUMING. A well styled character can do soooo much for your understanding of a work, especially with large casts, and a poorly styled one can take me right out. Well. anyway. yes i love animation u all knew that.

uhhhhh Thatgamecompany/giantsquids studio. im giving myself a free space. lol technically I DO. blog about this. the music. at least. BUT beloved. games. Me and everyone else I guess. Hey speaking of u know its laura bailey and troy baker as the voices in the pathless? And you know how a lot of the games have themes of coming into being/growing/rebirth. And LOTS of environmentalism. And implied cultural world building, and wordless stories. and beautiful metaphor rich otherworldly visuals. and gameplay styles that really connect with the emotional story their going for. and ofc, the music. oh the leit motifs. well. there u go. sword of the sea when?

tagginggg. uh did anyone get @deadgrantaires or @army-of-bee-assassins yet? anyone elseeee who wants to regale me with things they knowww about. id love to know.

[shadowqueenjude]

The Bastard of Doranelle: Lorcan's origin story @alice-bad-thoughts @yoddhasblog you two got me thinking so ofc i started writing shit lol. ima write more tmrw but this is the first part.

Over 500 years ago There was an infant dropped on the streets. Unfortunately, it was far from an unusual circumstance. Whores often gave birth to children they could not afford to have removed and did not want. Babies were abandoned in this area all the time, so often that people had started calling the place the Baby Tomb. The babies dropped there typically suffered one of three fates: either they died of starvation within a day or two, they were taken and eaten by desperately starving Fae, or a rare third option: they were picked up by somebody to take care of. A girl was watching the Baby Tomb as a young woman in a shawl deposited an infant at the Baby Tomb. A human: those were rare here in Doranelle, and often considered lower-class. It would make sense if she was a whore. It didn’t make the girl any less angry. That was a helpless infant. How could these people just leave them to die? Maria clenched her hands into fists. Her story was a little bit different. She’d had loving parents until last year when they’d both been executed for treason. They had worked for the Queen of the Fae and had apparently turned their back on her. So, the bitch had had them put down and all of their wealth stripped. That had left Maria an orphan just past her 14th birthday. Gone was the lavish lifestyle she had been gifted by her wealthy family. Gone were the parents who had showered her with love and affection. Most people expected that given her privileged birth, Maria would wither on the streets. But those people who believed that failed to consider several important factors: 1. Maria’s noble birth meant that she had strong Fae lineage built for surviving tough conditions.

2. Maria had played rough with males long before she had been forced onto the streets.

3. Her family had kept a small amount of money safe from the queen of the Fae’s clutches. Which meant that her parents had anticipated something like this happening. It wasn’t enough to buy a house or anything, but it would keep her alive for a few years before she figured out how to get a job while avoiding the tag of the “daughter of the traitor.” As soon as the woman left, Maria approached the infant. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her before she scooped the baby up into her arms and peered at his face. The baby was very skinny; most likely he was born prematurely, and the mother was probably not very healthy either. But his night-black eyes were bright and he already had a dusting of dark hair on his head. After a brief visit to the Black Market to acquire baby food, Maria carried the baby over to her little den, where she knew her friends would be waiting for her. As close to friends as you could get when you were all fighting for your survival, anyway. Symphony rolled her eyes as Maria approached. “What a surprise. Maria has picked up another stray.”

“Lay off her, Symph,” Neeraj said. Maria had a surge of gratefulness for Neeraj’s interference. Symphony was an acquired taste, very prickly and irritating at times, and she and Maria often clashed. Maria knew Symphony found Maria’s soft heart insufferable, and Maria felt the same about Symphony’s cold heart. “Really, you’re defending her, Neeraj? Remember that wild dog Maria tried to feed? And now she’s brought home an infant? How long will we survive, do you reckon? A few days?” “I’m not asking you to do shit, Phony,” Maria snapped, her nickname for her whenever Maria thought she was being rude. “I’ll take care of him myself.” “And waste our resources-“ “I’ll remind you, Phony, that most of it is either my inheritance money or money I earned through hard work-” “You mean stealing?” Symphony sneered. Maria ignored her, going on, “So you should be grateful I’m helping you guys out. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.” She saluted Symphony and Neeraj, walking past Vlain and Petro’s sleeping bodies as she passed.  She found her blanket and nestled into it, peering at the child again. She lifted the baby bottle she had gotten along with the food and placed it in the cherub’s mouth. Within a couple of minutes, the baby had consumed the entire bottle of food. Stunned, Maria placed the empty baby bottle on her other side, fully prepared to fall asleep. The baby reached forward with a tiny hand and grabbed one of her fingers. Maria gently tried to slide away, but found that the child had an almighty grip. Laughing, Maria pried the fingers off, staring at the child. “You’re a little fierce one, aren’t you? I think I’ll name you Lorcan,” Maria cooed at the infant. She could’ve sworn the little face smiled at her words. “You’re going to be like the little brother I never had, once you’re a little older. I always wanted siblings, you know,” Maria said. She was fully aware that she probably looked crazy talking to a baby, but she didn’t care. “We’re going to be the best sibling duo ever. You can even take my last name. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? The troublemakers, Maria and Lorcan Salvaterre.”

[cartoon-buffoon]

Doing this because I can't sleep and no one will probably see it but: late night post about one of my favorite characters, SKITZO! I find him so silly and love him!!! He's a fucking awful demon and he's in hell for a reason, being a depraved freak, yet he's still a comfort character of mine. Oh and yeah I ofc don't condone his actions yet I still like him as a horror character, I feel like that should go without saying.

Screenshots from "Spare a dime" where Skitzo tries to get money and does a silly little dance to try and get it from a rich ostrich. Look at him being a goofball and putting on a show (he kills that ostrich literally 5 second later lmao).

Interestingly enough Skitzo shows an interest in money which I guess considering he's from hell and works for Idolatry makes sense. However this was before his cartoons were burnt and he got sent down there where he then presumably met Idolatry. I guess greed is also another trait of his? Granted he's fucking insane and ONLY does things for his own amusement and pleasure or because he's angry, yet it's still weird on why he would want money? Eh, he's just crazy I suppose

From "Too Hot to Handle" where Skitzo "works" (killed everyone else) at a fire department leading him to have to go save LD. He technically does save LD but ya know, it's not a Skitzo animation without that dog dying. Anyways: Skitzo himself in this episode puts on a little fire fighters hat and uses an axe as compared to a knife, I think his knife is iconic yet seeing him be a murderous psycho while wearing that hat and brandishing an axe is adorable to me. He also looks so cute when he's sleeping, the little skull exhales make me just wanna pet him while he snoozes despite the fact that he'd rip my arm off.

Screenshot from "Birds of a Feather" where Skitzo communes with nature and tries to befriend a bird. This animation has one of the few moments demonstrating his less crazy side and actual affinity for other—non anthropomorphic—animals. This animation has Skitzo not only enjoying the birds presence but also goofing around with it, it's only when the bird turns it's back on him does Skitzo get annoyed. Skitzo proceeds to murder the bird after it disregards his petting as well and as seen in the second ever animation it seems he dislikes and can't physically handle rejection and because of it he lashes out violently. Back to the image itself however: LOOK AT HIM!!! HE EEPING!!! I find him so cute when he's sleeping and just at peace not hurting anyone (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠).

Skitzo's origins are a mystery and I'd love to one day just compile as much info there is about him in one place (either by digging through the animations and the YT descriptions or the little bits and pieces we get from Comick's illustrations) as his villain wiki page doesn't do him justice. I find him so interesting as despite his weirdness and downright psychotic nature, he doesn't exactly mean to be murderous 24/7? There's certain things that specifically tick him off sending him into a frenzy and it seems like there's moments where he wants nothing more than to sleep, eat, or mess around. Don't get me wrong, he is still inherently an evil entity that got rightfully sent down to hell, yet as his name implies he's obviously not okay in the head and there's certain factors that contribute to his nature. The most I can compare him to is Nny from Johnny The Homicidal maniac, like yeah they are both fucked up mentally and are sadistic crazy killers, yet there's moments where they don't exactly want to be and certain things specifically trigger violent, crazed, outbursts and episodes. Skitzo is in no way comparable to Nny and his reasons for what he does aren't fueled by an innate distaste for people nor a cosmic curse placed upon him to kill, Skitzo does what he does because he finds it funny, still it's the only real thing that comes to my mind in terms of characters he's similar to (in one specific way). When I say I think about this character a lot I mean it as you can see, THIS IS SUCH A WEIRD HYPERFIXATION TO HAVE BUT ITS JUST AUGHHH!!!! I LOVE THE CRAZY MURDER BEAR! I physically can't describe how much I wanna ramble on about him (⁠-⁠_⁠-⁠;⁠).

(final note/warning: all the screencaps are from the Skitzo animations on YT created by Comick. Skitzo himself is her creation and all credit goes to her for all the images in this rant. Wanna put a disclaimer as well if you watch the animations yourself, warning!: loud noises + flashing lights + gore + disturbing imagery is a KEY part of each of the Skitzo animations. Reminder he's a horror character and does bad things)

[welcome-to-oslov]

Alright, sorry to be your ask box penpal this week, but I'm just such an Oslov superfan & binge reading so I have too many thoughts to share 😂.

Last ones: I'm Brazilian but have lived in America half my life (15 years). Just got home to visit São Paulo and it's helping me understand Gersha and the other not-evil-but-complicit characters better. As you may know, we have extreme inequality in Brazilian society. São Paulo's an amazing city with tons of upper social class & rich powerful people. However our lifestyle as upper class people is dependent on there being a huge class of poor people locked out of opportunity with no choice but to learn deference and work as low-paid servants. For example, a live-in nanny who cares for children of well-off families like a second mother, while her own children go without mothering far away. Young people from the impoverished northeast brought to the big cities for "opportunity" that are really just exploitative domestic labor.

Many of us know this feels wrong... yet so many of my class hate politicians whose policies haved lifted many out of poverty - and suddenly the price of maids double and poor kids can get into the excellent universities only WE'd been able to attend. This felt like a threat to our very existence. Many of us performatively talk about social justice & how it's wrong that only WE have power & opportunity, but the few of our peers who actually do something about it do feel threatening.

Of course thankfully we don't have this institionalized crazy kettle boy system, and mistreated maids drivers etc can easily quit & find another shitty job no problem. But, those who are really trapped are a mistreated son or daughter children of an upper class family. Every well-off family has someone who holds all the money & power: a father, uncle, or grandfather. As upper class kids we are supported by our families till ~25 because even it's not possible to launch your young adult life without family money; due to social divisions, you can't go out & get a teen/college kid job like in America, your friends all live at home too you can't really go move with them, the best university is going to be in your home city, and even good entry-level grad jobs at corporations don't really start paying enough till you're older since they figure you're paying your dues while your family patriarch supports you. If that patriarch is or was abusing you, you wouldn't have many clear ways out.

So how does a guy or girl in a bad situation get out? You get married young (20, 21, 22, etc.). Once you're married you're considered an adult: your wealthy family buys you two a starter condo, jobs might give you a raise, etc. You can divorce later, but getting that spouse gives you protection & distance & resources. Ofc easier for a girl to take this route, but a guy too could get a rich daddy's girl he knows at their nice school to marry him & insist her father set them up with young married life if his family drags their feet (though generally even an abusive patriarch would play ball here & realize he's been beat, otherwise he looks bad socially). I've seen this scenario play out with a couple of friends.

Which... basically is Tilrey's escape. He realizes he has an opportunity in Gersha & he goes for it, out of desperation to escape, genuine relief at finding someone nice he can live with & be his ally as he breaks free, etc 😢🙏

(Speaking of Tilrey & Brazil, what do you think of my casting suggestion post?! Hahahaha :) I have such a crush, but c'mon, he's gorgeous!)

I'm here for your thoughts any time! And I know very little about Brazil, so that's a fascinating comparison! Especially the parts about family structure and how young upper-class people might need to marry to establish their independence. That reminds me of 18th- and 19th-century Europe, which was a big influence on Oslov because I've read a ton of novels from that period. Extreme inequality was a factor there, too, and patronage was the main way of advancing in society, which increases both corruption and the power of family elders. There are a lot of stories about people (always women) being trafficked and forced into sex work, but then turning that into a source of power because of their sheer beauty. Of course we have widening inequality in the U.S. too, and connections seem more and more important, and many people are resistant to any form of redistribution. So I wonder if we're headed in the same direction, which scares me. Especially since there are tech billionaires who would definitely justify that as "meritocracy."

He is totally gorgeous! :)

[wanderrlust0]

T-T

also my bf is being weird again….!!!! everyy time i hang out with snow (which has been a month or two apart) he gets weird with me again!!! he acts cold and short with me and its always like the next day. he swears im gonna cheat or not want him anymore, no matter how much i tell him that i wont and that i love him too much to think about wanting to leave him. like, i feel secure in our relationship and theres only a few things that could make me feel like its not. when he gets all anxious like this about us i feel like its bc he just doesnt feel fully secure with the relationship.. even tho weve been together for 4.5YeaRs. hes also had way more dreams than he should be having of me breaking up or leaving him. bc of his anxiety and fear of being cheated!!! like he gets upset bc they feel real in his dream and then he thinks what if its trueee. i feel like thats not fair to me in a way bc im not doing anything bad behind his back or seeking out someone else to make me happy. i also think maybe him feeling insecure with himself plays a factor into it. like maybe he feels like no one wants to stay with him or i dont love him anymore and he doesnt feel good about himself and then ends up suffering in his thoughts alone and becomes a hermit crab. i didnt mention anything to his mood yesterday bc i didnt wanna pester him with more to think about and i wont be able to see him in person for like a wk. i just wanted to seem fine..but maybe ill say something today. yesterday when i was contemplating on talking about it, i was going to be like howve you been, are you okay, do you still love me. mostly the do you still love me question bc seriously. so im also thinking that he saw snows bday post on ig since theyre not private and saw how they posted my card&drawing i did for them and ofc that made him feel a type of way. like, why is she making good art for someone else. i did it bc they didnt even want me to buy a gift for them or treat them or anything. they suggested to make something bc they like to display art in their room from other friends who have given them art. like the two people who i met the other day, they both create digital art of people. but thats why i made that drawing. aaand im planning on painting something for my other friend for her xmas gift. so i dont see giving my art as like a romantic gesture or anything, its just another way to give a personalized gift and it saves money lol. like, i just wanna shout “you have nothing to worry about!” i mean they were literally gushing to me about a guy they started seeing and they went on their first date yesterday and texted me about it and im just replying like im their hypewoman. i feel like this whole thing is making it feel like his worst nightmare and it shouldnt beeeee

edit: 12.14 / alright so i asked him “do you still love me?” and he says, “well yeah, nothing has happened yet to make me think otherwise” ………YET….. YET?!? like why are you beingggg like thiss to meee

[sofoulandfairaday]

Please can you tell us about:

Madame Lestrange

Rigel Lestrange

Glory and Gore

And the marriage counselling one (the premise of this already has me in a chokehold)

This is very very long so I will put it under the cut. Thank you for the ask!

Ch.11 - Madame Lestrange Contrary to popular belief, Bellatrix Black was thrilled with her wedding day: the food was perfect, the music was perfect, the groom was perfect. In the whole history of weddings, there had never been one more perfect than hers. Or 1972. Bella & Rod's ridiculously expensive wedding day and all of its shenanigans, including but not limited to: a mopey and very drunk Rabastan losing his virginity, Bellatrix and Andromeda's last conversation, the Dark Lord's failure to RSVP and the trouble it caused, and (ofc) the wedding night *wink wink*

Ch.26 - Rigel Lestrange 1975. A very sad one, quite gory too and definitely not for the faint-hearted, but also one of my favourites to write because I've always been fascinated with Bellatrix's missed motherhood. (All my readers know what I think of TCC by now, and anyway, this story takes place from 1969 to 1981, so no Delphi). The day of her miscarriage.

Ch.39 - Glory and Gore 1979. Still unwritten. The story of the third time the Potters defied Lord Voldemort. It's basically a long battle sequence with a special focus on Barty, Severus and Rabastan (Alastor Moody is horrified with this new generation of Death Eaters). By reading Regulus' journals, Bellatrix realizes that the gold cup her Master entrusted her is a Horcrux. When he later summons her, she chooses not to tell him that she knows (Bellamort moment, idk if smutty or not yet). Rodolphus visits his mistress (who is NOT AT ALL a shameless self-insert, nooooo) to make amends for stuff he did previously; they make peace, but it's pretty clear that they are not going to last.

The Lestranges go to couples therapy A comedy; still unwritten but fully outlined.

Ch.1: The explosion 1996. The Lestranges are having yet another Earth-shattering row that just so happens to blow up almost half of Malfoy Manor. Narcissa and Lucius threaten to notify the Auror Department of their whereabouts unless they agree to go to therapy. They recommend a Diagon Alley marriage counsellor who worked wonders for them: she's discreet, will keep quiet for money and has a strong stomach. Bonus: they show up either Polyjuiced or with some other shitty disguise and are immediately found out.

Ch.2: Mr and Mrs Lestrange's marital problems General bickering in their second session, we get a look at the therapist's notes. They are the worst patients ever, but she takes them on as her personal project. Both of them hate her but they really don't want to end up in Azkaban again. Rabastan finds out they are going to therapy and immediately he tries to hijack their third session. He is quickly put in his place.

«Roood» Rabastan practically sang, plopping down onto the couch, right between the couple. «Bella. You didn't tell me the lady was a hottie». He winked at [insert name]. She did not look impressed. «Rabastan, I presume». «Oh, you guys! You talked about me! Wait», his tone darkening in mock horror, «did they do it in a weird way? While discussing their sex problems?» Rodolphus looked ready to murder him on the spot. [he proceeds to basically sexually harass her and cause a disruption to their therapy session] «I do, Rabastan. I do. I find you utterly fascinating» she said, staring at him over her glasses. «In your opinion, on a scale from one to ten, how much do you use sex and alcohol to numb the pain of an unfulfilling life, completely devoid of ambition and genuine connection?»

Ch.3: The Lord Voldemort Factor The Lestranges are absent from one meeting or another.

«It's important that you try to be present for these appointments without too much rescheduling, Bellatrix. It shows that you are making an effort for each other, that you care about the other person's time». «The only thing I care about is my Master's time!» «See? She always does this! She's flaky». «Who are you calling flaky?!» «We agreed there would be no name-calling». Bellatrix shot him a triumphant look. «And we also agreed there would be commitment».

Lord Voldemort inquires after them and finds out (either from a terrified Lucius or from a still butthurt Rabastan) where they are. He decides he has to see for himself. Our dear therapist is terrified, but then again his disguise is the worst one yet. Truly laughable. Voldemort has her cancel all her appointments for the day so that they can have a longer session (he desperately wants to be included). It's not like she can refuse.

«It would be my professional opinion that you try and find a balance, an arrangement that works for all parties. Something to satisfy Mr Lestrange’s frustration, Mrs Lestrange’s exhibitionist behaviour, and Mr... Um... the Dark Lord's need to be the centre of attention». «We murder Rodolphus?» «It would be my professional opinion», she straightened her spine, «That you have a threesome».

Ch.4: Yet another satisfied client I'm still not sure whether I want them to divorce or not lmao. What I do know is that there will be a plot twist. Let's just leave it at that.

[tavtarnish]

So I was looking at soap's wiki page and it says that he visited his cousin in the SAS many times and also tried to join under aged a few times, right? Well it doesn't say why, tho. And any normal person would assume that he wanted to join so bad because of his cousin. But im not normal so I got to thinking.well even if he did join just because of that cousin, that doesn't explain why whe tried to join early. Multiple times. So obviously there is atleast another factor in this situation. And we've all established his thing for hating himself, just a bit, and he's definitely not a straight man. And well homosexual and military down exactly sound like a the most delicious martini. And I'm not exactly caught up on Scotland's ally status, nor have I found much info about his family. So what if this was his way of self punishment for being a gay man?

But, El, what if he didn't realize his sexuality until aftet he joined? Or his family was supportive? An excellent question. If it wasn't that maybe it was because he had no direction in life. Perhaps he felt lost. Academics maybe weren't his strong suit, or he burnt out at somepoint, so college (university?) Wasn't an option. Maybe his parents said either higher education or a job, right?(yes I'm heavily projecting onto this poor man, I'm sorry but you also can't stop me) In today's day and age it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a job without a college degree. And jobs like that can always be unstable or underpaid or overworked, understaffed, unnecessarily dangerous, and a multitude of other things. But the military? Well you know what you're signing up for, you really only have to do as your told and no more, and you can do alot of good. Plus he already has a cousin in there.

Or maybe its as simple as his family has/had money issued and the military gives good pay?

Also apparently I left a comment on the latest chapter of I.S.B.T.P.K.F.T.S and I don't remember lol. Also I promise the next part of my favorite moments is coming out. I've been very busy lately. Sorry for the long ask

I've had SO many thoughts about Soap joining the military ESPECIALLY the fact he tried to join at 16 but was refused. You are allowed to join the military at 16 with parental consent, so I've come to the conclusion that his parents wouldn't like the fact that he wanted to be in the military - this tracks considering many Scots who see them self separate from Brits aren't typically the biggest fans of joining UK collective things like the military (this is coming from my Irish bg so it could be different).

As to why he wanted to join, I think there are multiple reasons, but if his queerness is a reason I would think its less to do with punishing himself (though sometimes it may feel like a punishment being around Ghost when Soap wants him so badly) and more to do with him possibly avoiding telling his family. Scotland as a whole recently is quite up there in ally status but that 1) doesn't reflect how the 2000's/2010's were 2) doesn't mean everyone is an ally ofc. Anyway, the MacTavishes aren't homophobic in any regard but that doesn't mean Soap knows that or isn't scared (either bc he's never seen his family react to queer people irl or, if he has, he'll think he'll be an exception).

Other causes likely are due to his school career: he was a footballer, but I don't think he ever tried to go pro, and in ISBTPKFTS the backstory I've given him wouldn't allow him to (W.C status and home life). And you make a great point with burnout - if we're sticking to real rules of the army, he wouldn't be able to be medicated or have lesson plan adjustments for his ADHD if he's diagnosed (i think I read that somewhere) so he's either not diagnosed or he never had accommodations so burnout is very likely. Uni, of course, would seem like a horrible thing for him, even if he was like many ppl who go to uni for the experience or bc of the job market.

But the idea that his parents expecting him to get a job or go to uni is very real (dw I'm also projecting here) and the monotonous work/life balance sounded like hell. Knowing his cousin's life in the army definitely planted the seed, and I think (in the fic at least) he'd visit his cousin to get some free time away from home but it ends up convincing him of what he wanted to do with his life. Like you said, you know what you sign up for with the army. He probably didn't expect the RSD to follow him especially if he isn't diagnosed, or if he's not very clued up on that part of his ADHD,hence why he can't rationalise his own feelings when they start to overwhelm him

Also dont be sorry and there's no rush I love that you even want to make those posts in the first place!! Thank you

[littlemissidontcare]

He is 40 and aging out of his looks which is his main selling factor, and his career is not having the boom he was hoping for. // ofc he's gonna look older than before, he's not 20/30 anymore but he looks hot af for his age. And saying he's not having the boom he was hoping for... this year he's been praised left and right for his performances in P&T and Fresh, he's an Emmy nominee, he's still getting recognition and nominations for these roles, he has two A24 movies coming up. The way articles talk about A Different man makes me think that this movie could give him an Oscar nom. Not to mention that Dumb money looks like a blockbuster so in a way or another people will talk about him as well. About Sharper idk, but I have high expectations about his performance since after this role A24 decided to make him the executive producer of ADM. Last but not least he's gonna be in Thunderbolts, hopefully with a bigger role. We can talk all we want about the fact that Bucky deserves better and Sebastian could do more than what they give to him, but still it's a huge franchise that will put him again in the spotlight, so...

[um-talia]

Rating The Moon Signs

omg I’ve seen many people do this and I love talking shit so imma piggy back off of em. (This is based off of my personal experiences ofc 🕺🏽)

🐑 Aries Moon : So the people I’ve met with this placement were giving very much attention whores. Like I don’t understand as to why y’all feel the need to be so impulsive but it’s kinda hot ngl. My Aries Mars rocks with y’all heavy but can we chill with the 5 second tantrums ?? 👩🏽‍🦯 but I love y’all passion don’t get me wrong. These natives who I met online were usually the hot headed trollers or the ones who would repeat the same jokes to roast people 💀💀 My Rating: 6.5, do better ❤️

🐑 Taurus Moon : All the Taurus Moons I know do drugs heavily and just involve themselves in deadpan humor. Y’all so pretty with a hint of funny looking tho. Just stroke their egos for a good 2 days and show some sort of consistency and then they’ll wanna fuck fasho. omg and please tell me why y’all get so bland outta nowhere, the type to stay on the phone and just enjoy your presence. My Rating : 8, imma give u neck kisses

🐑 Gemini Moon : Another well known druggy in my life. Imma just need y’all to get it together and FIGURE IT OUT. Too much is going on in y’all minds and it’s such a beautiful yet annoying thing. I noticed people with this placement depend on others to just make the decision for them but then they disregard the decision that they asked for. The true definition of scatterbrained but y’all cute as shit and I understand why y’all depend on weed now. They’re the type to ask questions about “Determinism Vs. Free Will” outta nowhere 🤦🏽‍♀️ My Rating : 5.2, im usually the erratic one stop stealing my role 😔

🐑 Cancer Moon : I don’t know many cancer moons but the ones that I have came in contact with were kinda cringey. Their humor was really ruthless to the point where they could get scrutinized for any joke, like they mainly joked for the shock factor. They weren’t into drugs ): but they were very loving when they needed to be. My advice is try and read the room love ! My Rating : 6.4, semi good foreplay

🐑 Leo Moon : Omg this isnt a cute placement because usually I get in arguments with people with this placement. y’all are cute ig? I sense a lot of fake appraisal from this sign just to be accepted but if you rub them the wrong way or call them out on something, it’s done for you. like at this point should i intentionally bruise y’all egos?? My Rating: 3.6, gg

🐑 Virgo Moon : I’ve fell in love with every man that had this placement 🧎🏽‍♀️. And the women? Y’all remind me of my mom like 🥺. I love how y’all pay attention to detail and y’all minds remind me of like office cabinets !! Y’all keep files and receipts which is beautiful for talking shit and exposing enemies !!! I knew one virgo moon and he genuinely enjoyed watching history videos in his free time like that’s so hot ??? Very well rounded individuals and can literally talk about anything 🏄🏽‍♀️ My Rating: 9.2, y’all break my heart tho :(

🐑 Libra Moon : See this is a tricky placement because it’s such a neutral placement for me and all the other placements effects it so here’s how imma break it down. If you have water/air in the big 3 with this placement its giving very much pushover. Like the people I’ve met with that combo are really good at like seeing different perspectives but they’re kinda bad at setting boundaries with people so they’re viewed as fake. But the earth/fire with libra moon is kinda 🥴, great conversationalist and really down with anything. But y’all are pretty :D My Rating: 7.5/10, inconsistent passive aggression

🐑 Scorpio Moon: First off, I want to say that I love us :) . But let’s not act like we’re some uncommunicative bitches. Like I get it, you need an outlet to express your feelings and it can be from drugs, art, to pyromania, who tf knows? Most of the Scorpio moons I know cry about being sad and wanting dick. I do too !! Sorry about your mom being emotionally unavailable or judgmental. Get a therapist or a boyfriend who just listens that can serve you some above average dick. Oh and y’all pretty on some intimidation shit 🙈 My Rating: 9.9/10, P.S. ur still in your emo phase

🐑 Sagittarius Moon: ummmm, this is kinda awkward because my sister had this placement and she’s so sensitive 🧎🏽‍♀️. Like from the men I’ve seen with this placement they’re always hopping onto the next thing to entertain them, similar traits with Aries Moon but like a slight more pretentious. All the sag moons ik are like really into underground “designer” brands (ik it’s a contradiction but iykyk). All I have to say is, you’re okay? and stop being so selfish like ): My Rating: 4/10, ur not the next socrates

🐑 Capricorn Moon: Beautiful Bodies. But y’all are kinda mean 😔. I appreciate the bluntness and how y’all say what comes to y’all mind. Y’all love bidding (dc slang for roasting) and can really fry somebody up. y’all tend to be really emotionally independent and i admire that but at the same time do you need a hug??? really good friends but broke majority of the time because they spent their money on drugs or off brand shoes. My Rating: 8/10, u make my heart giggle

🐑 Aquarius Moon: I’ve mainly met these people online fr and they’re the ones who keep dishing out memes without missing. Whenever I come in contact with one they flirt like there’s no tomorrow but then lose interest because their standards are 📈. They usually use humor/memes to showcase their emotions which is cute until the memes become gorey or wild as hell. Have problems with communicating but they’re good people to talk to on the surface level for me. My Rating: 6/10, get off tiktok and develop a personality (im kiddinggg)

Pisces Moon: y’all remind me of symphonies, who keeps playing y’all? haven’t met many but the ones I’ve met are the type to cry in History because they lost track ): . I wanna nurture y’all just gimme the chance . The aesthetics y’all have fluctuates from grunge to fairy core and I love the fluidity. btw stop stealing my music taste and let’s hotbox🧎🏽‍♀️ My Rating: 8/10, make a song about fairy tales idk girl

Thanks for reading this shit post 🤍🪴

[oceanbaby888]

hello! i have a question about the nn transit! my chart is weird and once again i have the signs of the nn opposite the houses. so taurus nn in 8th and scorpio sn in 2th. sooooo confusing! do you maybe have any idea what i should be focusing on? 😳

Hey! Ooo this is an interesting one (buts it’s not weird though)! I would love to try to answer this!

So with SN vs NN ofc it’s what we’re familiar with vs. what we need to build in our life. In this case I would also say the SN is also the point that tells us what we could be more talented in vs. NN what we need to master. So I’m gonna break it down by placement and these are the things you may want to be aware of.

In this case having a 2H Scorpio SN means one could be more talented (2H: talents) in how to invest money, how to use other’s resources well, and being private about their financial matters. With that out the way, this placement also speaks of one could be more talented with matters other people would shy away from (like the occult, sex work, mortuary work as examples) that may not bother the native. The native could also be quite private about their values yet hold them in extremely high regard. Usually Scorpio holds something in high regard because of the emotional factor behind it, and may not appreciate when others try to downplay their values. Another is the fact their values have a very spiritual factor to it, and may not like to divulge because they may feel others may not understand the origins of why they value what they value. When it comes to stability, it’s quite interesting as the sense of stability has to feel more spiritual than physical. If the native’s factors of stability (like a job for ex) doesn’t spiritually align to them whether they need it or not, it may bother them until they destroy it and find another resource. This also may apply to their values and sense of self worth. So that’s something to be more aware of during this Taurus/Scorpio transit.

Which brings me to the 8H Taurus NN transit. There may be more of a focus on what brings you stability on the more material front, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the native during this transit becomes more possessive of their money and resources or at least more aware of where their resources go and to who. Could be changes to your perspective about materialism or even physical changes in income. With that being said, I read that 8H is the house that talks about being morally clean and truthful. So just make sure with the income you’re making or the way you’re gaining isn’t insidious. Also, the native during this transit may be more concerned about their sensuality rather than spirituality. Meaning, what can they glean from living on Earth? From what can we see? It’s almost as this placement represents “seeing is believing.” This transit is also about not resisting change. Some things need to change for better to come. There’s a cliche saying “don’t fix what’s not broken” yet with this transit if something is changing, think about why and what was the foundation built on?

I hope that helps with the remaining months of this transit! I had to think on this one I won’t lie but I hoped it answered your question!

-Claude 🌻🦋

[nerdzzone]

The Aftermath

Summary: Dealing with the fall out of their first night together isn’t easy for Whitney Taylor or Chris Evans, but given the complicated results of their frivolous activities, it isn’t something they can avoid forever.

Chris Evans x OFC

Part One: Luckless Romance

Note: I was originally going to leave Luckless Romance as a one shot, but I had some requests for a part two. I had it all planned out in my head anyway so I figured I’d write it up to explain more of where our two lovely character’s heads were at!

Please let me know your thoughts! Or if there’s any other parts of their story that you’d like to hear about!

_____

When Chris woke up, the first thing he noticed was the throbbing in his head.

The second thing he noticed was the warm body curled into his side.

His initial reaction to that sensation was confusion, but as the events of the night before quickly came back to him, he was filled with an unignorable sense of dread.

He'd fucked up.

He'd spent a year burying his feelings for her to protect their friendship and all it took was a few drinks and flirtatious remarks for him to risk it all. He cared for her, there was no doubt about that, but he knew she didn't feel the same way. Clearly, she was at least attracted to him, but he'd hazard a guess that her loneliness was the driving factor in why she'd chosen to indulge in the activities they'd partaken in a few hours earlier. She’d had no luck in the dating scene, so she'd settled for him and now, when she woke up, she'd break his heart.

She didn't want him.

She didn't want the life that he could offer.

She'd made it clear that she found the world of Hollywood exhausting when she'd talked about her discontent with living in L.A. and that was a world he couldn't escape from. Plus, his fans had given her a hard enough time when she was just a close friend. If she was to become something more, they would tear her apart. He didn't want that for her and he knew that she didn't want that kind of hassle in her life either.

But he couldn't stand to hear her say it. He never did well with rejection and rejection from this woman - who he knew was absolutely perfect for him - was more than he could handle.

So, after carefully extracting himself from her grasp without waking her, he left.

He felt sleezy and awful not even saying goodbye, but he needed to quiet the noise in his brain before he could face her and he figured she would probably appreciate his absence. He knew firsthand how awkward it was to let down a one night stand the morning after so, really, he was sparing her just as much as he was protecting himself.

The heat outside was stifling already and made Chris realize just how desperate he was for something to quench his thirst. They'd drunk more than he normally did and he was feeling the effects. Perhaps that was why his mind was so fuzzy and unable to process what had happened, but he figured it was a safe bet that he could pin that on his anxiety.

And there were only two people who had much luck soothing him when his mind started racing: his mother and his brother.

He knew his mother would be disappointed in him if he told her what happened. He'd poured his heart out to her several times about the confliction he felt with his feelings for Whitney, he dreaded to think what she would say about him finally doing something about those feelings in such a reckless way and he was definitely too hungover to deal with her reaction to how he'd handled things that morning.

So, that left Scott.

Pulling out his phone, he glanced at the time and cringed. It wasn't even six thirty yet and with it being a Sunday there was a good chance that Scott was in a worse post-inebriated state than he was, but he took a chance and hit 'call'.

It took a few rings, but eventually Scott answered, his voice still groggy from sleep.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Scott," Chris greeted him as he crossed the street. He needed to flag down a cab to get home, but figured the quiet park across from Whitney's apartment was a better place for this conversation. No extra ears listening in. "I fucked up."

"Chris, it's not even seven o'clock in the morning. How badly could you have fucked anything up this early?"

He sounded tired and Chris felt bad, but he needed someone to talk to.

"I slept with Whitney."

There was a moment of silence before Scott let out a cheer.

"Finally!" He practically squealed, but then he paused as he took in what Chris had said. "Wait, how did you fuck up? Did you not use your best moves?"

"What? No, nothing like that," Chris' brow furrowed in annoyance. "I fucked up by sleeping with her at all. She's one of my best friends, Scott, and now that's ruined. It’ll never be the same, if she even wants anything to do with me now."

"Did she not seem happy about it? What did she say when you left?"

"Nothing," Chris admitted. "I left this morning before she woke up."

There was a moment of silence as Scott processed his brother's words.

"Okay, I'm starting to see where you fucked up. You shouldn't have done that."

"No, I fucked up by sleeping with her!"

Chris' tone was snappy and uncalled for, but his headache was getting worse by the minute and he was feeling exasperated enough without Scott's judgment.

"Alright, alright, calm down," Scott sighed. "If you want my honest opinion, I think you're overreacting. You two have always had a 'will they won't they' vibe about you. She's clearly just as interested in you as you are in her."

"Why 'clearly'?" Chris questioned. "She's never acted like she sees me as more than a friend."

"Uh, yes, she has. She blushes and giggles like a schoolgirl every time you compliment her, she practically drools at the sight of you and listens with hearts in her eyes whenever you talk. She's got it just as bad as you do."

"Don't do that," Chris groaned. "Don't put ideas in my head that aren't true."

"It is true. I wouldn't lie to you about that," Scott insisted. "I think this is just your anxiety talking. Go back to her place before she wakes up, hear what she has to say and go from there. She might surprise you."

"I'll think about it," Chris lied, knowing already that he couldn't face going back. "Thanks for answering. I'll let you get back to bed."

"Don't mention it," Scott assured him. "I know you're stressed now, but I'm happy for you. It's about time the two of you came to your senses."

Chris smiled despite his disbelief in what Scott had said. He laughed it off and said his goodbyes before walking towards the nearest road to catch a cab.

He saw Whitney's message a few hours later, but he ignored it. He needed to get his head straight and steel himself for however she chose to let him down before he would be ready to talk to her.

It took days for him to get to the point of acceptance, but she never messaged him again. So, working on the assumption that she was relieved by his silence or didn't care enough to demand any explanations, he got on a plane and headed back to Massachusetts with plans to spend the next few months drowning his sorrows and pushing her from his mind.

-

Three Weeks Later

My period was late.

For the last ten years of my life, my period had arrived with impressive reliability and now, a few weeks after having unprotected sex, my period was late.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. There was no doubt in my mind that I was pregnant.

"It's not that easy to get pregnant," Hannah insisted as we sat in my living room, counting down the minutes until the pregnancy test would be ready. "A lot of people who actually want to get pregnant have to try for months before it happens. It seems super unlikely that you'd get pregnant from a random one night stand."

"Yeah, but it does happen to plenty of women," I pointed out. "And knowing my luck, I would get knocked up by a man who then flees the state without another word."

Hannah winced as I paced in front of her.

"Still haven't heard anything, then?"

"Nope, nothing," I sighed. "I haven't reached out again, but he made himself pretty clear by leaving before I woke up and then ignoring my text."

"I just don't get it. He was so obviously into you. I would have bet money that you two would live happily ever after."

"You did bet money," I reminded her. "I'm still waiting for that thousand dollars you promised me."

"You didn't accept!" She smiled. "I owe you nothing!"

While I didn't really expect her to pay me, I was going to argue the point, but the timer we'd set for the test went off and snapped our focus back to the task at hand.

"Oh god," I groaned. "You read it. I can't deal with this."

Hannah nodded and carefully picked up the little stick before looking up at me with a grin.

"It's negative!"

I felt a wave of relief, but it was quickly replaced with doubt. I felt like I was pregnant. My period was late for the first time in years, I'd had sex without a condom and I was nauseous and my boobs hurt. It seemed too good to be true that it was all some kind of coincidence.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Hannah smiled. "There's two lines!"

Her words hit me like a truck as my stomach dropped.

"Hannah, two lines means positive."

"No, it doesn't," she insisted, reaching for the box. The fall of the smile on her face told me all I needed to know before she even spoke again. "Shit. Sorry, babe. You're pregnant."

I let out a groan as I flopped onto the couch next to her.

"This is a nightmare."

"Shall I get my shotgun?"

I raised an eyebrow at my friend.

"What?"

"For a shotgun wedding?"

I laughed at that suggestion, but shook my head.

"No, I don't want him to be forced into anything."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "It doesn't really seem real yet."

"Are you going to tell him?"

I looked down at my still flat stomach and nodded my head.

"Yeah, I'll have to. I know it's still new, but I want to keep it so he'll have to know," I sighed. "If he even answers my calls."

"He will," she assured me. "Or we'll fly out to Boston and you can tell him after I kick his ass."

The image that statement conjured in my mind pulled another laugh from my lips as I felt an overwhelming wave of appreciation for my friend. I knew that no matter what, she was in my corner and that was a comforting thought even in the midst of all the uncertainty that was swirling around me.

"Thanks, Hannah," I smiled. "I really appreciate all your support."

"Of course," she reached out to squeeze my shoulder. "Are you going to call him now?"

"No, I think I'll do it later," I informed her. "I want to wrap my head around it a little bit first."

"That's probably sensible," she agreed as a grin slid onto her face. "Wow, you're gonna have a baby, Whit. I know it's scary, but that's really cool."

"Cool isn't the word that I'd use. Try absolutely terrifying."

My earlier smile was still on my face despite my bleak words as I thought about what she'd said. It was somewhat good news. Definitely worrying, especially given my situation with Chris, but I'd always wanted to have kids so it would have been a lie for me to say that I wasn't at least a little bit intrigued by the idea.

-

When Hannah left my house, about an hour after we read the test, I planned on taking some time to fully comprehend the news before I shared it with Chris. However, almost as soon as I closed the door behind my friend, I remembered the time difference. Chris was three hours ahead of me which meant that even though it was only five o'clock for me, it was already eight o'clock where he was.

I felt the anxiety bubbling in my stomach as soon as I came to that realization because I knew that if I wanted to call him that day, I had to do it right away and if I didn’t call him soon, I was worried I’d lose the nerve.

I took a deep breath and went straight for my phone, dialing his number before I could change my mind, but I was crushed when he didn't answer. I waited a few minutes and then tried again, but still, there was no answer and I let out a growl of frustration as I frantically typed out a text.

Hey. Call me as soon as you can. It's important.

I paced around my apartment, the reality of the situation starting to creep in now that he, once again, seemed to be rejecting me. 

I didn't want to tell him news like this over the phone, but I'd seen the paparazzi pictures of him arriving at the airport in Boston so I knew that I had no other choice. However, if he wasn't even going to answer my calls, I'd have to get the news to him another way. My mind immediately started racing with all the possible ways I might have to break the news to him as the panic of potentially having to do this alone started to rise.

But luckily, all those concerns were irrelevant when my phone lit up with Chris' name on the screen.

"Hey," I answered quickly before he had the chance to change his mind and hang up. "Thanks for calling."

There was a moment of silence before he replied.

"Sure," he kept his tone cool and steady, but there was an underlying tension. "What's up?"

The sound of his voice brought tears to my eyes. This was it. This was the make or break moment and I felt my palms start to sweat as it hit me just how devastated I'd be if it didn't go well.

"I, uh, I don’t really want to tell you this over the phone, but I guess I don’t really have much choice," I started. "I got some news today that you have a right to know."

It seemed obvious to me what I would be hinting at considering our current situation and the silence that followed my words led me to believe that he had a pretty good idea what I was going to say. When he stayed quiet, wordlessly waiting for me to continue, I took a deep breath and dove in.

“I’m pregnant.”

I hadn't thought much about how I was going to tell him, but I figured there was probably a better way than blurting it out that bluntly. I cringed slightly at my harsh delivery as his silence was almost immediately broken and he started spluttering and stuttering, stumbling over his words until he managed to blurt out one clear sentence.

"Is it mine?"

A burst of anger flashed through me at such a suggestion.

"Yes! Oh my God, Chris, of course it's yours!" I insisted. "How many people do you think I've slept with in the last month?"

Maybe he thinks you're a slut, the voice in my head taunted me. Maybe that's why he left without a word.

That thought was enough to get the tears flowing and, when Chris didn’t answer my question, I let out a sob. I covered my mouth to hopefully stifle the sound, but I knew he heard it loud and clear.

"Shit, Whitney," he sighed. "That was a dumb thing to say. You just caught me off guard."

"Well, how do you think I feel?" I hissed. "I'm scared, Chris. What are we going to do?"

This time there was no hesitation before he answered.

"I'll get the first flight out tomorrow morning," he informed me. "We can talk about it then."

"Okay," I sniffled. "I'm sorry."

"No need to be sorry," he assured me. "It's just as much my fault as it is yours."

My emotions were overwhelming me by that point and I stayed quiet, knowing I'd fall apart if I opened my mouth to speak, but Chris didn't let the silence last too long this time.

"Are you, uh, are you gonna keep it?" He asked, sounding heartbreakingly similar to a small child asking his parents if he could keep the stray dog he'd brought home. "It's your call, but I'm behind you one hundred percent."

"I am going to keep it," I told him quietly. "But you only have to be as involved as you want to be."

"I want to be very involved," Chris answered quickly before letting out a sharp laugh. "Fuck, I'm gonna be a dad."

The sound of more laughter floated through the phone after that realization, but I couldn't tell if it was giddy or hysterical.

"You are," I agreed, feeling some relief from his reaction despite how complicated I knew things would be. "But we can talk about it all when you're here. If you really don't mind coming back."

"Not at all, this is important." He assured me. "I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll text you with the details as soon as I know."

"Okay, thank you."

He insisted that I didn't need to thank him before we quickly wrapped up the conversation.

There was a lot to say and a lot to discuss, but it wasn’t something to be talked about it over the phone. We needed to discuss it in person once we'd both had time to understand exactly what it meant.

And we needed to figure out what the hell we were going to do about us.

-

I thought having almost twenty-four hours to compose my thoughts would make things easier, but as I waited for Chris to get to my apartment I still had a lot of questions and concerns

But I had decided one thing for certain: we were better off as friends.

When we were friends, he didn't ignore my calls. When we were friends, he didn't run out of my apartment without saying goodbye. When we were friends, he hadn't broken my heart because I never gave him the chance. I was frustrated by his behaviour since the night we spent together and it made me angry. When I thought about it too hard, it made my blood boil and I wanted to tear a strip off of him for making me feel so used. When we were friends, I'd never felt more than a hint of annoyance towards him.

So, the only solution as far as I could see, was for us to stay just friends.

That would prevent any more heightened emotions and if we didn't do it that way, I would end up resentful and bitter. I didn't have much experience with children, but even I knew that those feelings would create a very toxic relationship for raising a child.

Which is why, as soon as he stepped into my apartment, I was on the defensive.

"I think we both know that we're better off as friends," I blurted out before the door was even shut behind him. "What happened was a mistake and now we just have to find a way to work together as friends."

Chris looked surprised, which I found surprising, but he recovered quickly and nodded his head. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't bittersweet. I didn't have the energy to argue with him, but part of me was definitely hoping that he'd put up a bit more of a fight.

"Yeah, I think you're right," he agreed after a moment of thought before changing the subject. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," I shrugged. "A bit nauseous and very emotional, but nothing I can't handle so far."

"Good, that's good," Chris smiled. "Have you been to a doctor yet?"

"No, not yet. I have an appointment tomorrow."

"Can I-" Chris paused to clear his throat, looking nervous. "Can I come?"

I felt my heart flutter at the thought of him caring enough to want to come to a doctor's appointment, but I shut those feelings down as fast as they popped up. He cared for the baby, not for me.

"Sure," I nodded. "But it won't be very interesting. I think it's mostly just checking all my basic information so they can keep track and probably some blood tests and vitamin recommendations."

"Doesn't matter," Chris insisted. "I want to be there for it all. We're in this together."

Those words brought more tears to my eyes, but I blinked them back and looked away. In a move that I wasn’t expecting, Chris noticed immediately and took the few steps needed to put him right in front of me.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

His hands settled on my arms and the way he rubbed them would have been soothing if it didn't break my heart. How could this supportive, comforting man in front of me right now be the same man who slept with me and then never called me?

"I'm just overwhelmed," I choked out. "We really fucked up, Chris. How could we be so stupid?"

"I don't know," Chris sighed. "It was a dumb mistake, but we can make the most of it. We can do this."

"I know, I know," I took a deep, shaky breath to try and pull myself together. "It's just a lot to take in and I don't think it's really hit me yet."

"It is a lot," he agreed. "Here, let's go sit down."

I let him lead me over to the couch and then flopped down on it. He sat next to me, but we stayed quiet, neither of us really knowing what to say. After a few moments of tense silence, Chris finally spoke.

"I know this might be asking a lot," he started, the hesitation in his voice making me nervous. "But would you consider moving to Massachusetts?"

It wasn't an unexpected request. I knew Chris was happier there and considered it his home and I had told him how tired I was getting of living in Los Angeles. It was probably the better place for raising a child as well. I'd heard plenty of stories about Chris' childhood and it was pretty idyllic - full of experiences that children growing up in a big city like L.A. didn't often get.

However, it meant that I would have to leave my entire support system behind. All my friends and my family would be here and I would be completely alone except for Chris - who I wasn't even in a relationship with - and a child - who was hardly going to be able to provide much emotional support.

It seemed like the best option for everyone involved except for me and I wasn't sure that was a sacrifice that I was selfless enough to make.

I realized how long his words had been hanging in the air between us as I got lost in my thoughts and my head fell into my hands with a groan.

"I don't think I'm cut out for this," I whined, tears filling my eyes again as I felt a strange mix of emotions There was plenty of regret and with that came guilt because this poor child deserved a mother that didn't dread it's existence. "I'm not mom material, Chris. I don't have the instincts."

"It's all still fresh," he reminded me. "The instinct isn't instant. But I didn't mean to upset you, if you don't want to move to Massachusetts then we'll figure it out."

"No, no, it makes the most sense," I sniffled, lifting my head to look back up at Chris. "It's just scary. I don't want to leave my family and friends and I'll have to move soon if I'm going to so I can find a doctor, it's a lot to think about right now."

"It is, but I can ask Carly about a doctor. My family will support you one hundred percent."

I forced a weak smile, but I felt more nerves bubbling in my stomach.

"Have you told them?" I asked. "Does your mom hate me? I hope she doesn't think I'm trying to take advantage of you."

"No way!" Chris insisted with a chuckle. "She gave me a very stern lecture about being responsible, but I've talked about you enough for her to know you're not some crazed fan looking for a payout."

"That's good." I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew he was incredibly close with his mother and I didn't want her to think badly of me. "I haven't told anyone yet, except Hannah."

"Downey's gonna kill me, isn't he?"

He shot me a sheepish look as he spoke, but I shook my head.

"Nah, I think he'll be thrilled. He loves babies and he's been teasing me about us getting together since the night we met," I informed him, watching his face for a reaction to that statement. There wasn't any. "He'll probably have a bet to cash in on as soon as I tell him the news."

"Well, that's reassuring," Chris smiled. "I think we'll have enough people who'll be mad at us..."

He was clearly referring to his fans and I cringed.

"What are you going to do about that?"

He shrugged.

"What do you want me to do?"

I took a moment to think before I answered him.

"I don't want you to publicly deny that the baby is yours," I warned him, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to bear hearing that even if I knew that he really had no doubts. "But I don't care if you don't make a big announcement. We can just let people draw their own conclusions."

"Making a statement might be better. It would stop the rumours from getting out of hand. There'd be an uproar, but it would eventually die down," he pointed out. "I'll talk to my team and let you know, but you should probably make all your social media private whatever we decide."

I didn't use social media much and I definitely never posted pictures of Chris, but even so I'd felt the wrath of his fans more than once after we were spotted out together so I knew how they could be.

I nodded in response to his instructions and another silence settled between us.

My mind was racing with questions that I wanted to ask. I wanted to know why he'd left, why he hadn't called, why he'd even slept with me if he really didn't see me that way. Part of me even wanted to cry and plead with him to give me a chance, to let me show him that I was good enough to be more than a friend, but I knew I couldn't handle the rejection. Whatever his explanation would be, it wouldn't change the situation and with everything else we had to deal with, I didn't have the strength for more heartbreak too.

-

When Chris left almost an hour later, we had a firm plan in place.

I would try to get out of my lease - or Chris would pay whatever fee I was charged for breaking my contract - and I would move to Massachusetts by the end of the summer to stay with him. I'd argued that point at first, but his reasoning made sense. He would be in and out once they started filming the last two Avengers movies so I would have the place to myself a lot, but when he was home he'd be able to help with the baby. After the first year, when the newborn phase was done, I would get my own place and we'd work out an official custody agreement.

He promised to come to as many doctor's appointments as he could and offered to pay for absolutely everything that I needed. I assured him that wouldn't be necessary, but I appreciated that he was already committed. Many men probably would have run for the hills in our situation or, at the very least, demanded a paternity test before they made any promises, but Chris was enthusiastic and supportive and I couldn't ask for anything more.

Well, I wanted to ask for something more. I wanted us to be together - I wanted us to be making plans to be a family, not to be co-parents - but I knew that wasn't what he wanted and I was determined to accept that. I needed to focus on counting my blessings and being grateful for what I did get out of our relationship instead of focusing on what was missing and unobtainable.

Even if it broke my heart and hurt me more than the loss of any other romantic relationship I'd ever had, I was going to make the most of it for the sake of our child. It didn't ask to be born into such a messy situation and it's safety and security were quickly becoming the most important things in my life despite the fact that it was hardly more than a bundle of cells at that point.

And as that thought hit me, I realized that maybe I wasn't as lacking when it came to maternal instincts as I had thought.

-

@maggotzombie @moonlacebeam @mizzzpink @zaylaugh @flowery-mess @flowerjewels @njrronaldo7 @hockeychick10 @partypoison00 @theladybiers @sidepieces @firoozehmoon @patzammit @sparkledfirecracker

[crystal-witchiness]

***Okay so I found this in my notes from May 2021 as a reaction to the scenes in the beginning of Endgame when Captain Marvel first brings Tony and Nebula back to Earth, when they first get off the ship, and when Tony yells at Steve a few scenes later when he looks like ‘Death Warmed Over’ in his robe and i thought I’d share -

Every time someone argues with me about my ABSOLUTE 100% belief that Steve and Tony had romantic feelings for each other, I’ll just show them this scene. “And I needed YOU.” He didn’t say “You guys” or “Your help.” Tony looked at Steve with so much pain in his eyes and said, “I needed y o u.” And Steve is just as broken watching Tony. This isn’t the first time this has happened between them. They had MANY scenes like this in Civil War (but I like to pretend that movie didn’t happen cause ‘ow blow a hole in my ship why dontcha?’) I mean technically I could submit that whole movie as evidence of their feelings but there are too many negative emotions wrapped up in it and it hurts. This movie is the first time they’ve seen each other since Civil War and when Tony first gets off the ship he basically falls into Steve’s arms. First of all, Steve fricking S P R I N T S when he sees Tony getting off the ship, then Tony sighs in relief and lets Steve take his weight. AND IMMEDIATELY begins unloading his grief about losing Peter cause he knew Steve would understand and comfort him. You can SEE s e e when Pepper runs up that (Ofc Tony does another sigh of relief that the snap didn’t take her (which I wish it did sorry Pepper your character stopped being interesting in the 2nd Iron Man)) Tony has to pull himself off of Steve and pretend to have it more together than he does because Pepper immediately begins crying and Tony has to comfort her. But Steve doesn’t leave his side. Tony cradling Pepper but he’s turning his body so that Steve can cradle him and ugh. Honestly I would have accepted a polyamorous relationship. Tony NEEDED someone to be the leader. THATS LITERALLY WHAT PEPPER WAS TALKING ABOUT. Tony NEVER rests because he always thinks he has to be the one to do everything, EXCEPT for when Steve’s around. Steve is the Captain and even though they bump heads (a lot, awww couples’ squabbles) Tony ALWAYS defers to Steve when it’s important. And Steve? Steve HAS to be a leader, to be helpful, in a healthy way because he couldn’t be that for most of his life in the past. He was a scrawny defenseless guy who always had to depend on Bucky. So to be able to take care of this group of wonderful people who are so powerful and yet STILL NEED STEVE? It’s who he his. It’s who Tony is too but he doesn’t WANT to be that way, he does it because he has to. He does it when no one else can or he doesn’t want to lose anyone else. This scene right now is Tony feeling helpless and so he lashes out at the easiest person, Steve. Steve is their leader and has saved them many times. Tony saw that picture of Peter and couldn’t handle his own feelings of helplessness so he lashed out to bring down the next ‘leader figure’ of the group. Steve and Tony have always been the parents of the Avengers. Steve is the most dad-est dad ever to dad. Meanwhile, Tony invites everyone to live with him while feeding them, clothing them (armor and civilian clothes) and making sure they have top of the line protection. HE LITERALLY EVEN SAYS THIS IN AGE OF ULTRON. SUCH a mom. So he wanted to make Steve feel his pain because Steve made a promise that they would lose together and Steve wasn’t there on that moon. And OF COURSE Tony knows that Steve was on earth fighting his own battle against Thanos but he wasn’t WITH Tony. And they are always stronger together than apart. (Civil War kinda proved this too) Tony sees Steve’s absence as the reason they lost, because ‘if only they’d been together’ ‘maybe we could have won if we’d only been together.’

ALSO DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON TONY LITERALLY GIVING STEVE A REPRESENTATION OF HIS HEART. I know he did it out of anger and to make a point but he took away this piece of him, that he made SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE HE FELT VULNERABLE WITHOUT THE ARC, and gave it to Steve. Once again shedding that responsibility and giving it to Steve. Because even with the residual anger over Civil War, Tony trusts Steve. He says otherwise in this moment out of anger but that “vision” he talks about here? He literally watches Steve die (YEAH THATS RIGHT I SAID STEVE. Not PEPPER, NOT RHODEY, NOT ANY OF THE OTHER AVENGERS.) Wanda showed him his worst fear in Age of Ultron and it was the death of the Avengers, but he didn’t see THEM die. Everyone else, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, and Clint were already dead. Tony watched STEVE die and it was STEVE saying that Tony could’ve saved them that spurred him into creating Ultron. He was so scared of losing them and letting Steve down (and letting him die) that he wanted to wrap the whole world in armor to protect him. And he tries to do it again in this scene. He means it to be spiteful but he gives Steve his armor and tells him to hide from Thanos. WHICH IS ANOTHER THING UGH. Tony doesn’t know that out of all of the people who fought Thanos in Wakanda that day, Steve was the one who engaged in hand-to-hand combat with him. Everyone else had armor and suits, weapons, etc. Steve has his serum strength and he u s e d it. It didn’t help for very long but he used his BARE HANDS to fight an alien-monster wielding 5/6 of ALL POWERFUL infinity stones, and ofc he was never going to win, but even Thanos looked at Steve in incredulity at his bravery and resolve. A human (a super charged one at that but still a human) fought him with his bare hands and wasn’t going to stop. (Steve proved this again at the end of Endgame when he’s the last one standing against Thanos and his entire army and just tightens the strap on his broken shield, (and most likely broken arm, based on the flinch/hiss) and readies himself to fight alone. Steve also gave Wanda time to destroy the mind stone (unfortunately, that didn’t mean anything in the end)

AND YET Tony doesn’t know any of this. He doesn’t know how hard Steve fought, just like Tony did on Titan, to stop Thanos. And I REALLY wish we had seen Tony’s reaction to Steve standing up to Thanos at the end of Endgame OR EVEN WIELDING MJOLNIR, but anyways.

Back to the basics. Boss level stuff most people don’t remember or think about- Tony’s dad very unhealthily IDOLIZED Steve. He canonically compared everything Tony did to Steve. So Tony grew up idolizing this man that he also despised because it fueled his father’s abuse of him. Tony shows this anger in the first Avengers. When they have their argument on the quinjet. “Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” He even says something about how Steve didn’t live up to his father’s hype (I don’t remember Tony’s exact words but that’s the gist) And ofc Steve says Tony’s nothing without his armor. But then they go on the prove each other wrong multiple times, but mainly in their last moments in the MCU. Steve proves it by standing alone against an ENTIRE alien army and later by picking up mjolnir. And Tony? Tony is that ONE factor in a million that Stephen sees. Tony, a beautifully pure human-being, with no powers or serums to help, takes on the powers of the stones. KNOWING it would kill him. He had proof. It nearly killed Thanos and Bruce and they were hulking (pun intended) beings with super strength and all that.

Tony and Steve were always set up to be spoils to one another and that makes them perfect together. They balance each other out. Pepper was a boss b****, no doubt, and I loved their relationship in the first two Iron Man movies, but as their characters grew and Tony’s personality was intrinsically changed through trauma- Pepper was no longer right for him. She was good for him, no doubt, but Tony couldn’t relax with her as he did with Steve. Tony could trust Steve to take over and everything could be fine. Pepper was like that for Stark Industries but not in other ways. Tony always saw himself as Pepper’s protector. I will 100% give her props for telling Tony that he’d never rest until he tried Scott’s time travel theory, but other than that she wasn’t particularly supportive of Iron. Man. What Pepper never seemed to understand, and what Steve didn’t understand when he FIRST met Tony, is that Tony and Iron Man are synonymous. Their is no ‘man outside the suit.’ Tony Stark is Iron Man and Iron Man is Tony Stark. Steve was placed into an already created persona of Captain America. Steve didn’t create Captain America even though that’s who he was. He was literally MADE for the role. Tony on the other hand, MADE Iron Man. He was the one who built the first suit - dying in a cave in Afghanistan. He was the one who took responsibility for Obadiah and his father’s actions and became a superhero to save the countries that were affected by Stark tech. Steve may have volunteered to be a superhero because he felt like he had no one other choice but Tony DIDN’T HAVE TO. He had fame, money, power, ALL OF IT. He could’ve EASILY hidden his company’s dark underside once he found out. But instead, Tony was like “Hey um so my company has done some bad things and instead of delegating aid through my money and power, I’m going to personally handle this with a titanium alloy suit and technology that I helped create in a cave while being held captive by a terrorist cell.”

Where was I going with this? OH YEAH.

I will believe in TonyxSteve (Stony) for the rest of my life and I will use fanfiction to fill the void of their deaths. Basically, if I lost anyone in the word vomit above, what I’m trying to say is that- Steve and Tony completed each other. They provided something the other needed. Tony needed stability and protection. He needed to feel like he could let go. Steve needed an anchor in the present. Someone lively and opinionated, SOMEONE ADVENTUROUS AND FUNNY, who Steve could smile with and protect. But also. Steve trusted Tony to be a leader as much as Tony trusted him. They had their ups and downs. Trauma and the Accords didn’t help their relationship at all, but should’ve been it for each other. And I honestly believe they would have t h r i v e d.

.

.

.

Honestly I applaud anyone who made it this far. I don’t know where this all came from but I will not apologize✌🏻

I rest my case your honor.

[yeojaa]

I agree and disagree on some points about streaming, esp bcs I studied IPR Law extensively. It is futile to argue about the morality aspect imo, bcs at the end of the day its illegal. So if someone streams n it gets taken down, HYBE is well within their rights to do so. People can be hypocritical at times when trying to defend illegal streaming, bcs at the end of the day the legal basis that is used to take down streams is the same one that protects all other creators from having their work stolen. For example when accs get reported for plagiarism - the basis for that is rooted from the same law. Without these means of protection creatives wouldnt be able to make a living out of their work. However I do understand about that not all people can afford bts content - it is expensive. Even when u do have the money it is often times wiser to keep it. It also feels silly since streams get taken down but clips get distributed almost immediately after. They also can’t take down everything cause people circulating these clips/pics/gifs/etc and talking about it is ultimately what makes bts’s career - its promotion. So like, when u rather not spend money but there are readily available links, ofc ppl are gonna watch- illegal or not. Morals be damned, ppl do things bcs they can. Just to be clear I’m not at all critisizing u for streaming bcs ultimately I understand, but I’m also saying that this is inherently a complex issue. Even in the legal field, the handling of these infringements is not at all black and white. I myself advocate for other alternatives, like going dutch with friends, if u can. In a perfect world we would all have money to spend on anything we want. But this world is far from perfect. Again im not at all coming for u, frankly as far as im concerned u can do whatever you want. Im just sending this as food for thought and to put things into perspective.

as much as i appreciate you coming into my inbox to give your opinion on streaming, it really wasn't warranted. i don't think i've disagreed that streaming muster broke the law. the whole point here - which, frankly, i think you've missed - is that just because something is illegal doesn't mean it makes the person who did it a reprehensible scrounge (as the original anon put it). sure, there are criminal laws that protect people, that keep, y'know, killers at bay. murderers behind bars. etc. but there are also laws that have been put into place to protect the 1% and to capitalise on the wealth disparity. not all laws are made equal. hello, the war on drugs and incarceration of bipoc?

so studying the law is all well and good and having an opinion on things is, fine, go ahead. i've been in law for the past five years, too. but the topic right now is about whether my streaming of muster, and hundreds of people's subsequent watching of same, made us bad people. the answer? no. (and this point, dear friends, is not up for debate.)

in case you'd like some food for thought:

someone pointed out that the muster tickets were priced based on the conversion from USD. while i've not done the research to check if this is true, if it is, that's a huge deciding factor on whether people can afford things. sure, for countries where their currency does well against the american dollar (euro, gbp), this isn't a problem. but for others? sorry capitalism has a chokehold on us and we'd like to escape it.

not all army are adults with jobs. some are teenagers, preteens, whatever. they may not have money or they may not be in a position to ask for it from their parents/guardians. but if they have the option to watch something from a group they really enjoy, they shouldn't? because oof! sucks for you, kiddos, but y'all are broke and stinky. that's unfair and classist.

comparing streaming of bts content to other creators having their work stolen is so... odd. because bts is not just another creator. bts is a huge group worth millions of dollars. they are signed with big hit (or whatever, hybe, idk) that's worth billions. do you think any one of us army that streamed muster would try to steal from an independent/small creator or business? do you really equate <1000 people watching a stream that generated over $100mil in revenue as the equivalent to stealing from an artist?

by the same logic above, gifs shouldn't exist. clips of performances shouldn't exist (outside of those prepared specifically by BH or their affiliates). scans and photo card pieces shouldn't exist. only the people who can afford things (which are not cheap, by any means) should be able to enjoy them and everyone else can kick dirt. again, divisive.

how do you think bts became popular? i mean, yes, they're wonderful and great and the boys deserve all the recognition in the world. but did they do it all, purely through their own advertisement and content? i mean, sure. but how was that shared with the community? probably because of people like me, people like the incredible gif and clip makers, editors, etc. on this site. personally speaking, if i hadn't seen all the clips and gifs i had when i first got into bts, i probably wouldn't have fallen so deeply into this goddamn bangtan hole. but i did. and now i've spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to support them. this sort of community sharing is what keeps demand high and helps people get into bts.

anyway, those are just a handful of points i really think you and other people need to consider, as well. at the end of the day, you can have whatever opinion you want. will i respect it? maybe, if you present it like this. i don't and won't agree with a lot of what you've said but here ya go.